By Bulldog Drummond
24 February 2022 was one of those games I doubt I’ll ever forget. I’ve never heard so much noise in the Arsenal stadium – and come to that outside. Maybe this season’s win rivals it, but the eruption when Arsenal scored the winner was astounding.
The media had been full of how a win for Wolverhampton (which they thought to be perfectly likely) would take them above Arsenal as the table before the game read…
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | West Ham United | 26 | 12 | 6 | 8 | 45 | 34 | 11 | 42 |
| 6 | Arsenal | 23 | 13 | 3 | 7 | 36 | 26 | 10 | 42 |
| 7 | Wolverhampton Wanderers | 24 | 12 | 4 | 8 | 23 | 18 | 5 | 40 |
and that is a reminder of how far Arsenal have risen this season and how far Wolverhampton have fallen. A win for WW would have put them in fifth last time around. Wolverhampton had scored after Gabriel made a slip and Hwang scored. After that they had one chance, and cocked it up, so they retreated into defence.
By the end the stats showed Arsenal had 26 attempts to Wolverhampton’s six – but it felt like the gap was larger. And indeed the difference most of us felt was shown in subsequent matches as the season ended….
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | Arsenal | 38 | 22 | 3 | 13 | 61 | 48 | 13 | 69 |
| 6 | Manchester United | 38 | 16 | 10 | 12 | 57 | 57 | 0 | 58 |
| 7 | West Ham United | 38 | 16 | 8 | 14 | 60 | 51 | 9 | 56 |
| 8 | Leicester City | 38 | 14 | 10 | 14 | 62 | 59 | 3 | 52 |
| 9 | Brighton and Hove Albion | 38 | 12 | 15 | 11 | 42 | 44 | -2 | 51 |
| 10 | Wolverhampton Wanderers | 38 | 15 | 6 | 17 | 38 | 43 | -5 | 51 |
All talk of Wolverhampton’s challenge for a European spot has long since gone as has media chitchat about them “leapfrogging” Arsenal – the difference after the final accounting was 18 points in Arsenal’s favour. And of course that decline has continued into this season. It just shows what these journalists know, for all their protestations of inside information.
Although to be fair this is Wolverhampton’s third run in the Premier League and overall their most successful. Having been as low as the fourth division in 1987/88 they made their first appearance in the Premier in 2003/4 – and came bottom of the league.
The next promotion was 2008/9 and this time they lasted three years in the premier league The third return was in 2018/19 and this is their fifth season, although the financial collapse noted before could make a return harder.
Across the years in the Premier League the two clubs have met 16 times, and Arsenal have won 10 (62.5%). Wolverhampton have won three. The current accumulative goal difference is +16 to Arsenal (29 goals to 13).
Going back further we’ve won 60 of the games, they have won 32 and 28 have been drawn giving Arsenal a win ratio of exactly 50% to their 27%.
Anyway, with them heading firmly south in terms of the league they have taken the normal route and brought in a new manager Julen Lopetegui. He is perhaps best known as a manager for his time at Real Madrid in 2018. His first match was a 4-2 defeat to Atletico Madrid on 15 August. He lasted until 28 October when his team were beaten 5-1 by Barcelona. He had managed just 14 games.
After that he went to Sevilla in 2019 and won the Europa league with them but in October this year after losing five of the first eight games of this season he was sacked Wolverhampton offered him a job, and he turned it down, but when approached a second time he accepted the post.
This season they have only two wins – both are against the other teams near the bottom: Southampton and Nottingham Forest. So maybe the problem is with the club, not the manager.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 | Southampton | 14 | 3 | 3 | 8 | 12 | 24 | -12 | 12 |
| 19 | Wolverhampton Wanderers | 14 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 8 | 22 | -14 | 10 |
| 20 | Nottingham Forest | 14 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 10 | 30 | -20 | 10 |
Apart from being the lowest scorers in the league (they have scored 23 goals fewer than Arsenal), they also have the strange record of failing to score in any game after the 56th minute. According to the BBC their “shot conversion rate of 4.8% is also the worst in the top flight.”
And here is a final nice little snippet, again from the BBC, “Gabriel Jesus has gone five league appearances without a goal but he has scored five times in four starts against Wolves.”
Chatting shite….it was only a few seasons ago Arsenal was everyone’s beating stick. There was a revolt from the fans and managers head wanted on a plate.
All clubs go through a patch….this is ours and we will regroup and survive the season and come again.
George that’s a very interesting comment. “There was a revolt from the fans…” for example. Yes it is true some fans wanted Arteta removed, but if, before writing to Untold Arsenal, you had taken maybe five minutes to read Untold Arsenal you would have seen that this was not the case here.
Indeed if you had paused for maybe three seconds to read our masthead “supporting the club, the manager and the team, you would perhaps have realised that this was not us. Had you actually gone just a little further with some research before writing you would have seen that we were the people who celebrated Arteta’s amazing turn around of the club in which for the last two thirds of 2020/21 Arsenal were second in the league, and for 2021/22 for the last 92% of the season Arsenal were third.
All of which overthrows the theory of “all teams go through a patch” in relation to Arsenal under Arteta. As indeed does the earlier articles this week about Wolverhampton.
I am happy to publish your comment because it does say far more about you than about Untold Arsenal, although I rather doubt that it reflects the views of the broadrer support who probably know a bit more about doing background reading before calling an article “chatting shite” (whatever that actually means).
George Berry Afro ,
…and here’s one more Arsenal supporter not calling for any manager’s head on a plate and never have done so. I suspect there are many like myself who loyally stick by Arsenal , and are not numbered by twitter etc. , so never even considered when the media saw a hundred or so ‘entitled’ protestors and declared ALL Arsenal supporters are in revolt . You’ll have seen this scenario : the cameras are there and its declared “Disgruntled Gooners in revolt , then we get a close up view of half a dozen fans shouting . If you cared to look in the other direction theres virtually no one around . This is no vast crowd but nothing more than a media fuelled so called ravening mob , the same as you can read about any teams fans , sensationalism and false bad news sells , good news doesnt .To substantiate this weve all seen misleading headlines where ALL are unhappy but never once has anyone asked me Ive supported this team probably longer than youve been alive and while I dont agree with everything I read on Untold Arsenal I do concede these guys use logic and reasoning and a shedload of statistics are always presented . Something the naysayers almost never do .
NORTH LONDON FOREVER
Come on boys let’s get that 5pt gap!!! COYG
Any idea what is wrong with Xhaka?