By Bulldog Drummond
The interesting stat we haven’t covered yet is the last six games table, which really is a good indicator of form and player psychology. Thanks to The Fishy for this one…
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manchester United | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 2 | 6 | 14 |
| 2 | Manchester City | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 15 | 7 | 8 | 12 |
| 3 | Liverpool | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 3 | 5 | 12 |
| 4 | Arsenal | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 12 | 9 | 3 | 11 |
| 5 | Chelsea | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 11 |
| 6 | West Bromwich Albion | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 4 | 5 | 10 |
| 7 | West Ham United | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 13 | 11 | 2 | 10 |
| 8 | Leeds United | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 10 |
| 9 | Newcastle United | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 8 | 9 | -1 | 9 |
| 10 | Tottenham Hots | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 10 | 2 | 8 |
| 11 | Leicester City | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 11 | 10 | 1 | 7 |
| 12 | Brighton and Hove | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 6 | 1 | 7 |
| 13 | Everton | 6 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 7 | -2 | 6 |
| 14 | Southampton | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 13 | -5 | 6 |
| 15 | Crystal Palace | 6 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 9 | -5 | 6 |
| 16 | Aston Villa | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 7 | -2 | 5 |
| 17 | Wolverhampton Wands | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 9 | -4 | 5 |
| 18 | Burnley | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 12 | -5 | 5 |
| 19 | Fulham | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 10 | -7 | 3 |
| 20 | Sheffield United | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 14 | -12 | 3 |
This table really does give a firm indication of where we are at the moment, although the home and away comparison itself is also of interest. Here that one is again in case you missed it…
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | Arsenal home | 15 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 18 | 18 | 0 | 21 |
| 15 | Fulham away | 15 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 15 | 18 | -3 | 16 |
Basically we are so far ahead in terms of the last six games, and given the strength of that performance in foreign parts, our confidence should be very high, with no tentative feelings at all, so I suspect that the last six is probably a better guide than the home and away for the whole season, although all data is worth considering, in my view.
We come in to this game on a high after our tremendous performance on Thursday. The team then was
Leno
Chambers Holding Pablo Mari Xhaka
Thomas Ceballos
Saka Smith-Rowe Pepe
Lacazette
So the question is, how many of those players come in and play again, and how many drop out.
Sports Mole this time around opt to take out Chambers, Thomas, Saka, Smith Rowe and Pepe, leaving them with
Leno;
Bellerin, Holding, Mari, Xhaka;
Partey, Elneny;
Willian, Ceballos, Martinelli;
Lacazette
The Standard takes the alternative route and thinks that since Saka, Smith Rowe and Pepe did so well in foreign parts they ought to be able to do quite well in Islington as well.
Leno;
Bellerin, Holding, Mari, Cedric;
Partey, Xhaka;
Saka, Smith Rowe, Pepe;
Lacazette.
Sky who are broadcasting the game won’t do a team prediction, as ever, but they suggest a 1-1 draw which would be disappointing.
Sports Keeda do the honour of giving players first and last names
Bernd Leno,
Hector Bellerin, Rob Holding, Gabriel Magalhaes, Granit Xhaka,
Thomas Partey, Dani Ceballos,
Nicolas Pepe, Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli,
Alexandre Lacazette
Who Scored have
Bernd Leno,
Bellerin, Holding, Gabriel, Xhaka,
Thomas, Ceballos,
Willian, Smith Rowe, Saka
Alexandre Lacazette
They are the site of course that does the ratings of players and interestingly both teams have exactly the same player ratings at 6.7. They have also picked up an interesting fact saying that “Fulham have been drawing at half time and losing at full time in their last 4 matches” in the Premier League.”
There is also, to my eye, something very strange going on with the WhoScored ratings. For example Lookman is rated higher than Lacazette, Anguissa is rated higher than Saka, and Robinson is rated higher than Ceballos.
It might also be that they are editing out score predictions that they don’t like, as at the moment I looked there were none of the normal 15-0 scorelines, and a single solitary 2-0 to Arsenal showing on their site.
Seemingly everyone else’s predictions are just slight variations on those above, so I think one of those, or a combination of those is going to be the lineup. In effect the question is, does the manager think that the players used in Prague will give on a high after that result, and able to give of their best, or are they too knackered to be able to play again.
We shall see rather shortly. 2-0 would be fine by me. Can’t score four every game. Can we?
The proof that something is seriously wrong with football refereeing and reporting
- How even a serious science magazine has used fake data on football
- Someone is trying to fake football stats – and doing it rather well,
- Crowdless stadia stats reveal fallacy of PGMO claims
- Proving unconscious bias by referees
- How clubs manipulate referees through their tactics
- Referees are not 98% accurate but only 75% accurate
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Who is this “Thomas” who was left out by Sports Mole to be replaced by Partey, one wonders! Has Michael come out of retirement to warm us with memories of 1989 perhaps 😉
Honestly to me, Arteta should leave this his discovered strongest big match win starting team of this season he played to amazingly beat Slavia Prague 0-4 at away in this season’s ELC QF match to qualify for the semifinal match against Villarreal.
But not ring any unnecessary changes to that power team that knock out Slavia Prague. So that he will leave the strong team to continue forging understandings among themselves together and grow better and better in match playing win strength after their PL home matches against Fulham today and Everton on Friday which the Gunners are expected to win.
And if this strong team does beat these two above teams convincingly, Arteta should be convinced too it’s his strongest starting team of the season he has discovered after experimenting with some team selections that didn’t work or half worked.
And I am advising Arteta not to be worrying of his Arsenal team overdependece on Saka and ESR who have been unrelenting in their quality game playing in the team taking Arsenal forward. In every big PL and Europe big teams, there are always those quality players in the teams the coaches are depending on to influence winning games and competitions for their clubs. And on this wise, Saka and ESR shouldn’t constitute an exemptions to this norm. But continue to be played when fit of course, encouraged, praised and helped to improved on their current game playing quality for Arsenal.
This is my Arsenal submission that I am submitting this morning. But my last night Arsenal submission that I submitted was a little bit faulty. Which I will guide against repeating same again without my first making sure what I am submitting is correct. Thanks.
Ryan;
Bellerin, Holding, Gabriel, Xhaka;
Elneny, Ceballos;
Saka, Smith Rowe, Martinelli;
Lacazette.
Substitutes: Leno, Cedric, Chambers, Pablo Mari, Partey, Willian, Pepe, Nelson, Nketiah.
what a stupid game we follow. Something has to be done about the offside rule…and Wenger’s suggestion won’t change it. The problem is that the VAR people pick a random time and claim that that was when the ball left the foot of the passing player. That tenth of a second accounts for the 1 cm that Saka was offside.
Yes, Mr Tony Attwood. Good afternoon to you Sir. And to the rest of us Gooners as well. 33 minutes into the match, Arsenal are to score before I come on to the UA site for the 2nd time today.
But is it because of the 5 changes that Arteta has done to his last starting XI team he started away to Slavia Prague that is responsible for Arsenal not scoring any goals so far in this Fulham match at 33 minutes into the match or what’s the problem? But I wouldn’t know for sure anyway if it is.
For, there is still time in this match for the 5 changes Arteta has introduced into his last Starting XI team to play this match and come good in the match to help win the match for Arsenal before the final whistle is blew to end the match.
Besides, I can’t fault Arteta for his ringing the 5 changes to his starting team at home to play Fulham today. This is because Arteta has appeared he wants to give rest time to some Gunners who battled very hard against SP last Thursday night in the ELC QF 2nd leg match. And gives game playing time to some Gunners such as Martinelli and Elneny who have not been getting it to prove their metel for Arsenal in this match.
So therefore, Arteta action taken in this match is in order.
Not a penalty
Arsenal have got to cleverly beat the offside trap cleverly setup against them in this match by the PGMO’s VAR personnel and Fulham players to stop Arsenal from scoring in the match.
Bayern Munchen had cleverly used the offside trap to stop Mbappe from scoring against them at PSG in their UCL QF return leg match.
Here is a direct quote from the Premier League’s website:
“ VAR can be used to overturn a subjective decision if a “clear and obvious error” has been identified.”
Now tell me how well that rule is applied by officials.
The Fulham player took off as from a gymnastics springboard and then twisted around like a cat falling from a branch of a tree. The player’s hang time should have been a clear indication to the people sleeping at football headquarters that it was a simulation.
On another point, it was good to see that the boys didn’t hang their heads and played to the very end to snatch a point. 4th place is out of reach but 6th isn’t and it also shows that they are playing for a position on the team next year.
Announcement at 10.30 on european super league.
This should be interesting, Arsenal confirmed they are the founders of the new ESL
Surely any involvement in such a breakaway organization with the consequences described by FIFA and UEFA would nullify the employment contract of every player in th the participating clubs?
Great show by young Martinelli today BTW.
Been an Arsenal supporter all my life, but I can’t get behind this Super League. We can’t even get into the top 4, yet the club’s higher-ups think “we”, sorry, I mean “they”, deserve to be in amongst the elite teams without having to get there via performances by the team on the pitch. I’ve always liked how Arsenal did things, but I can’t support this. Does that make me not a supporter now?
@ Vinnie
I recall similar reactions when the Premier League started…..and for similar reasons.