Man City v Arsenal: against the other top clubs
One of the ways to look forward to the Manchester City v Arsenal game is to consider the way the two clubs have played against other members of the Big Seven (the old big six plus Newcastle United).
Results from these games used to be run regularly by the media, but now Arsenal are doing rather well, they have stopped. Instead the journos are suggesting the players Arsenal are about to sign, without a slightest thought concerning how many places there are in the 25 man squad, and how many of them are reserved for home grown players (See Arsenal’s 25 man squad – is it already full?)
Anyway here is Arsenal’s record for this season against the rest of the Big 7…
| Date | Match | Res | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 Sep 2022 | Manchester United v Arsenal | L | 3-1 |
| 1 Oct 2022 | Arsenal v Tottenham Hotspur | W | 3-1 |
| 9 Oct 2022 | Arsenal v Liverpool | W | 3-2 |
| 6 Nov 2022 | Chelsea v Arsenal | W | 0-1 |
| 3 Jan 2023 | Arsenal v Newcastle United | D | 0-0 |
| 15 Jan 2023 | Tottenham Hotspur v Arsenal | W | 0-2 |
| 22 Jan 2023 | Arsenal v Manchester United | W | 3-2 |
So that is seven games played by Arsenal with five wins, and one draw, plus one defeat – and please do note that in this set of calculations I am only taking into account league games.
As for goals Arsenal have scored 13 and conceded eight. So what about Manchester City…
| Date | Match | Res | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Aug 2022 | Newcastle United v Manchester City | D | 3-3 |
| 2 Oct 2022 | Manchester City v Manchester United | W | 6-3 |
| 16 Oct 2022 | Liverpool v Manchester City | L | 1-0 |
| 5 Jan 2023 | Chelsea v Manchester City | W | 0-1 |
| 14 Jan 2023 | Manchester United v Manchester City | L | 2-1 |
| 19 Jan 2023 | Manchester City v Tottenham Hotspur | W | 4-2 |
Manchester City have had the easier run so far with just six games, gaining three wins, one draw and two defeats. They have scored 15 and conceded 11.
Adding this together we’d get
| Club | P | W | D | L | F | A | PPG |
| Arsenal | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 13 | 8 | 2.29 |
| Manchester City | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 15 | 11 | 1.67 |
Very surprisingly, it is in the games between the Big Seven clubs that Arsenal come out better. On this basis we might just win this match, although a 2-2 draw also looks possible!
There is also an interesting point here about the goal difference – Arsenal’s is +5, and Mancheseter City is +4. It really is that close.
In the full league table Arsenal and Manchester City are marching firmly ahead in terms of goals score and goal difference, as well as number of points.
In terms of goals scored across the whole season it is Mancheseter City at the top with 53 and Arsenal in second place with 45. In terms of goal difference it is 33 to City and 29 to Arsenal.
But let us move on and round up this segment with a look at one of our favourites: the last six game table.
If you are a regular reader here you’ll know why I find this so important, but please forgive me if I point this out to newer readers.
Last season the media went into a tizzy, (or meltdown depending on your willingness to compare a set of football results with the collapse of a nuclear power station’s cooling system and the death of vast numbers of people), over the issue of Arsenal losing the first three games. There were calls for Arteta’s head, and ceaseless horror stories about the end of civilisation.
After Arsenal lost 5-0 to Machester City on 28 August 2021 the Mirror ran, Gunners slump to 67-year low . Or“Arsenal players look broken … after shambolic display as the Mirror said in another article, or What channel is Man City vs Arsenal on? as the Irish Mirror put it.
What was interesting was that these same journalists who then revelled in the league table after three games were the ones who had refused to look at the last 24 games of the previous season in which Arsenal were second. What’s more, as last season continued it became clear that Arsenal were playing at a consistency which, but for those three initial games would have seen them come in third. And Untold took it that there was every liklihood that this improvement would continue into this season. So while everyone else was predicting Arsenal to come in fifth again this season, we predicted third. I think we will all be wrong, but if so we’ll be less wrong than everyone else.
Here’s the current last six games table, showing just the top three.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 14 | 5 | 9 | 16 |
| 2 | Brentford | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 11 | 4 | 7 | 14 |
| 3 | Manchester City | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 13 | 6 | 7 | 13 |
In case you are interested, Tottenham are 12th.
Details of our recent articles and our series can be found on the home page
Off topic – half time at Borehamwood and one nil to the Arsenal. A fantastic strike from Fruda Maanum. We have been the much better team so far, the vast majority of the play in the Villa half. It would have been 2-0 but for a world class save by the Villa keeper.
A debut for Sabrina D’Angelo in goal and Saliba’s chant has already been
adopted for her. So far she hasn’t had any tricky saves to make but has coped perfectly with everything she has had to do.
That was a comfortable win, made less emphatic by some poor offside calls from the linesperson in the second half. At one point there were three consecutive incorrect decisions.
Pelova already looks like she will be a handful during the run-in. She also has a lot of physicality about her game that may prove to be important.
Final score was Srsenal 3 Aston Villa 0. Two from Maanum and the third from Foord.
We now have a semi final against Man City on 8 Feb. Hopefully to be followed by a final probably against Chelsea.
Seismic,
The whole refereeing team were as good as chocolate fireguards. I was on the Rast stand where the lino in the second half was and he was rarely in the right position. The crowd wete giving him a hard time.
I thought that.
With the main camera on half way it is difficult to judge offsides on ‘through balls’, but so many times I just thought, ‘that looks nowhere near offside’. Just instinct you know, years of watching from that angle. But you just think, I must be wrong?
Hearing you say he/she was rarely in line to make a good call doesn’t surprise me at all.
Still, decent performance and a good, well deserved result.