Today’s tale from history: 5 February 1931: Leicester City 2 Arsenal 7
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By Sir Hardly Anyone
After months of resourceless attacks on Arsenal it is rather pleasing to see a few other teams getting a bit of a media beating. “Antonio Conte delivers scathing review of Tottenham’s transfer mistakes” says the Guardian
Meanwile the Telegraph offers “Middlesbrough dump Manchester United out of FA Cup after epic shootout, adding to Ralf Rangnick’s misery“. The Mail is also chiming in with Fabio Paratici is feeling the heat at Tottenham after January window woes… with “Antonio Conte frustrated with Daniel Levy who controls the club’s transfer budget”
Well, we have been trying to explore the revolution at Arsenal, showing why Arsenal has been doing what it has been doing, and exploring the view that contrary to popular (media-led) belief, it is working. The club has been dramatically reducing its costs and avoiding hefty fees to agents etc, while building a solid team of young players. And although the last two league games have been disappointing the last six games table shows a happier picture.
And this time we’re showing not only the current position in the league for the last six league games but on the far right the current league position and the difference (*) between the two. The more positive that number the better in terms of upturn in results. A club with a negative number in the last column is having a slide.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | League pos | Diff* | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manchester City | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 15 | 5 | 10 | 16 | 1 | 0 |
| 2 | Arsenal | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 15 | 3 | 12 | 13 | 6 | +4 |
| 3 | Wolverhampton Wands | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 13 | 8 | +5 |
| 4 | Liverpool | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 13 | 7 | 6 | 11 | 2 | -2 |
| 5 | Manchester United | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 10 | 6 | 4 | 11 | 4 | -1 |
| 6 | Tottenham Hotspur | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 10 | 7 | 3 | 11 | 7 | +1 |
| 7 | Brighton and Hove | 6 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 10 | 9 | +2 |
| 8 | West Ham United | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 13 | 10 | 3 | 9 | 5 | -3 |
| 9 | Chelsea | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 9 | 3 | -6 |
| 10 | Southampton | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 12 | 10 | 2 | 9 | 12 | +2 |
Leicester City and Aston Villa who were tipped by pundits to have a good season are on the slide currently not even in the top ten for the last six games.
The biggest rises are Arsenal and Wolverhampton while the biggest slippage is recorded by Chelsea. The highest goal difference in the last six games is recorded by Arsenal. The top scoring teams in the last six league games are Arsenal and Manchester City. The best defensive teams in the last six games are Brighton and Arsenal (3 goals conceded)
Now of course we do know, and indeed have discussed before, that Arsenal have had a very hard time of it this season against other members of the traditional big six and that is our problem which must be overcome. But even so it is still nice to see some positive news from recent games. Most goals scored and least goals conceded in the last six matches.
While none of the media has been picking up on this improvement, many have been overjoyed with headlines such as “Arsenal have THREE TIMES more red cards than goals in 2022 as horror January continues with Carabao Cup KO vs Liverpool” from the Sun.
What they forget to say is that in the league Arsenal have only had two red cards all season (same as the adored Manchester City). Funny that. Mind you the Sun does like to give us the big important stories. Such as Wayne Rooney banned from going out alone by wife Coleen as he gets chaperone.
Anyway, there is another story going around which looks rather interesting and that suggests we might have a slightly different lineup for the rest of the season (although some are saying this revolution will be held back until next season.
Ramsdale
Tomiyasu, Gabriel, White, Tierney
Xhaka, Partey
Smith Rowe, Odegaard, Saka
Martinelli
So maybe not while Lacazette and Nketiah are still on the books, but you never know – we could see it for part of a game, taking off Laca on the hour maybe…
But let’s be fair to the Daily Mirror, whose five-a-day tales of doom at Arsenal have been running unrelentingly for a couple of years now.
They have taken the data gathered by ESPN in its regular article “How VAR decisions have affected every Premier League club.” and as a result calculate that Arsenal would have 37 points without VAR instead of the current 36.
They also suggest that Manchester United would lose a point if VAR did not exist and so would have 37 points also. That then gives a league table of
- Manchester City – 56 points (actual position: 1st, 57 points)
- Liverpool – 49 points (actual position: 2nd, 48 points)
- Chelsea – 47 points (actual position: 3rd, 47 points)
- Arsenal – 37 points (actual position: 6th, 36 points)
- Manchester United – 37 points (actual position: 4th, 38 points)
- West Ham – 37 points (actual position: 5th, 37 points)
- Tottenham – 35 points (actual position: 7th, 36 points)
Oh what jolly japes these journo chappies like to indulge in, what?
Funny thing ManU….suddendly it is acceptable to criticize VAR…
By the way, ain’t going to be the year ManU come any closer to Arsenal’s record in the FA Cup.
And I read no scathig comment in the Guardian about the incompetence of Rangnick.
However I read about a probable 6 year trophy drought (unless they win UEFA)….so when it is not Arsenal, the FA Cup is a trophy
During this ManU drought Arsenal have won 2 FA cups, but then it is not a trophy…
Well a little bit of Schadenfreude does feel good from time to time….
Football is a white collar game. Arsenal is an elite snob/Etonian institution. All these VAR incidents against Arsenal are blue collar revenge.
@Max,
Maybe you need to start looking at the history of Arsenal before you state stuff like you are some kind of (Oxford-MIT-I-know-it-all) expert…
I guess you believe City, Spurs, WestHam and ManU are poor workers/blue-collar clubs ?
Better wake up – ALL football clubs all are just playthings of the rich or the wannabe rich and nothing else.
As for VAR incidents, Untold has shown time and again that the organisation refereeing the PL is totally incompetent, biased and arrogant, and because it is accountable to no one, this incompetence reaches galactical summits and screws up game after game, result after result via referee bias. Whiteor blue collar, if you are incompetent you ought not to have the job.
Thanks for your enlightened and constructive comment.
To some degree I agree with Max. Many journos and other clubs’ supporters, too, really resented Arsenal under Arsene Wenger and are still slinging arrows our way because of the way we played and the classy way that Arsene comported himself.
Various Newcastle United sites were celebrating the anniversary of the 4-4 draw.
Interestingly, so were premierleague dot com. None of the sites mention the part played in proceedings by Mr. Dowd.
Mr Dowd awarded 2 penalties, one of which was dubious, the other being blatantly a wrong decision. Just to make sure, he sent Diaby off for not being happy at being repeatedly assaulted by Barton and disallowed a fifth Arsenal goal by Van Perdue. Despite all his efforts on their behalf, Newcastle could only manage a draw.
Financial doping in action – PSG have dropped the following players from their CL squad. They have too many players.
Wijnaldum
Herrera
Bernat
Draxler
Nice “work” if you can get it.
@John L, Seismic,
I remember that game and an agression, I think on Diaby ?, that by miracle did not end up with him in the hospial. Said agression was not sanctionned the way it should have been. And from that moment on, you could see, sense, smell that Arsenal were scared for their lives. The body language, the whole way they behaved was changed. And there were a lot of young guns on the field that day.