By Bulldog Drummond
- Newcastle v Arsenal: the influence this referee will have on the game
- Is the notion there is something wrong with refereeing, a conspiracy theory?
The latest report on the injuries at Arsenal is that we have a real problem in central defence. When asked yesterday which central defenders are fit, the manager said, “That’s a good question, we will probably know more tomorrow,” with “tomorrow” being of course today – the day of the match.
He also more or less admitted that there isn’t anyone else who can play in the game who has experience at that position.
This is of course particularly troubling given that virtually all of Arsenal’s transfer spending last summer was on the defence. Indeed most commentators put Arsenal down as the highest spending club in Europe last summer showing the table as
- Arsenal – €165.6 million
- Manchester United – €140 million
- Manchester City – €127.5 million
- Chelsea – €120 million
- RB Leipzig – €107.6 million
Untold has often argued that spending money doesn’t guarantee improvements on the pitch and when it does the cost per point can be quite large.
Manchester City (€127.5m spent) are currently top on 90 points. Last season at this point they were top on 83 points, so they have improved by seven points.
Chelsea (€120m spent) are now third on 70 points. Last season at this stage they were fourth on 64 points – going up six points
Tottenham are fourth with €86.31m spent. I should add that if ever I quote a Tottenham figure there is always an argument about it. All I can say is that the figure comes from TransferMarkt.
Arsenal (€165.6m spent) are fifth on 66 points. Last season we were ninth at this moment on 55 points – so that is an 11 point improvement.
Manchester United (€140m spent) are sixth on 58 points. Last season they had 71 points after 37 games as they have played now.
All of which means we can begin to see how much each point’s improvement has cost.
| Club | Amount spent | Points rise | Cost per point rise |
| Arsenal | €165.6m | 11 | €15.05m |
| Chelsea | €120m | 5 | €20m |
| Manchester City | €127.5m | 7 | €18.2m |
| Tottenham Hots | €86.31m | 9 | €9.59m |
| Manchester United | €140m | -13 | * |
*Manchester United have spent €10.8m for each point lost
So Tottenham achieved the most by spending just €9.59m per point gained this season. Arsenal were the second most effective, it costing €15.05m per point gained. Then come Manchester City and finally the least cost-effective dealings came from Chelsea at €20m per point.
Arsenal however have had the largest points rise with two games to go – we are 11 points better off than this time last season. Manchester United, as so often, remain in a world of their own, having spent the second-largest amount last summer only to achieve a 13 points decline.
On the basis of the table at the moment the average rise of clubs (excluding of course Manchester United) between one season and the next is around eight points for the top four. This of course can’t go on forever, and I’ll take a look at the rise and fall in the number of points clubs at the top get in another article, but at the moment this is how it goes.
To keep this up, given the figures above the top clubs need to spend over €140 each summer just to stay in touch with the competition. That also is probably unsustainable.
Here’s the table, this morning.
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manchester City | 37 | 28 | 6 | 3 | 96 | 24 | 72 | 90 |
| 2 | Liverpool | 36 | 26 | 8 | 2 | 89 | 24 | 65 | 86 |
| 3 | Chelsea | 36 | 20 | 10 | 6 | 73 | 31 | 42 | 70 |
| 4 | Tottenham Hotspur | 37 | 21 | 5 | 11 | 64 | 40 | 24 | 68 |
| 5 | Arsenal | 36 | 21 | 3 | 12 | 56 | 45 | 11 | 66 |
Meanwhile TBR is suggesting that “Arsenal could sell Gabriel Magalhaes this summer” and “that the Gunners are warming to the idea of letting him leave in the upcoming window.” Fortunately, as we know, between 97% and 99% of these stories turn out to be untrue.
Newcastle are currently 14th in the league and it is worth noting that in their four years since leaving the Championship and graduating to the Premier League they have finished 10th, 12th and 13th twice. Of course, having taken money from a country with no human rights, they will be expecting to do better from now on.
They can’t finish lower than 15th, and they could just finish ninth, although for that to happen a lot of other results would all have to go in their favour.
I believe that the spending we’ve done last summer was smart and the players were mostly up to the job.
But, we ‘bought’ ourselves a new defensive unit, not two. We lost Tierney, Tomy and White to injuries and the results can be seen in some of the losses as the replacements were not as good, or most probably not “as good as a functionning unit” and at the time thy came in did not have acquired the experience of the injured players.
What Arsenal definitely will need is another summer or two in adding new players to build squad depth, the more so that european games are going to take their toll on bodies and result in further injuries. Sure some of the youngsters coming from the youth squads will start to appera but they will take a year or two at least to reach necessary potential.
Ah, the Gabriel rumour/work of fiction, well he’s under contract until 2025 therefore it would have to be an amazing offer to even tempt Arsenal to think about selling him even for a microsecond.
But he’s not going and that’s the end of that so let’s move on as there’s plenty of other crackpot rumours out there that we can laugh about, and I do enjoy a good laugh…