- Why the media’s view of the foundations of Arteta’s success is as wrong as ever
- Arsenal v Chelsea – The Women’s Continental Cup Final preview 2023
By Bulldog Drummond
Obviously our main concern today was what the other clubs around Arsenal did after our 3-2 win over Bournemouth. The amusing piece of news thereafter was of course the defeat of Manchester United by 7-0 and of course the defeat of Tottenham.
That loss leaves Tottenham having lost three times as many games as Arsenal this season. But never mind, they do have beer that is pumped up from underneath and a stadium that can house American football, so I am sure everything is ok.
The Arsenal and Manchester City defences are now equal – each having let in 25 goals, and getting to that point must have been quite a journey for Arsenal. At this rate Arsenal will concede 37 goals this season – the best since 1998/99, at the height of the Wenger Empire.
But perhaps much more interesting is that Arsenal, at the current rate, are in line to score 86 goals this season. Only once did a Wenger team get more than that and that was just one more, in 2004/5.
Looking down the table, quite a long way down in terms of points in fact, there is Tottenham Hots in fourth, 18 points and a GD of 24 behind Arsenal. And that Tottenham is the team that all the media pundits said would finish above Arsenal this season.
One other little point is the collapse of Manchester United, leaving them 14 points and a GD of 25 behind Arsenal. But still, they are above Tottenham so maybe that will give them some comfort. Here’s the table tonight…
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal | 26 | 20 | 3 | 3 | 59 | 25 | 34 | 63 |
| 2 | Manchester City | 26 | 18 | 4 | 4 | 66 | 25 | 41 | 58 |
| 3 | Manchester United | 25 | 15 | 4 | 6 | 41 | 32 | 9 | 49 |
| 4 | Tottenham Hotspur | 26 | 14 | 3 | 9 | 46 | 36 | 10 | 45 |
| 5 | Liverpool | 25 | 12 | 6 | 7 | 44 | 28 | 16 | 42 |
| 6 | Newcastle United | 24 | 10 | 11 | 3 | 35 | 17 | 18 | 41 |
But let us move on and have a look at the teams in form. And it is a shame that these broadcasting and scribbling johnnies who work in the media can’t be arsed to look at the form tables as they would have seen that Manchester United is not quite as much the team in form as the Machester United propaganda likes to suggest.
However, statistics is only for nerds and mindless opinion from the journos down the Toppled Bollard public house is much more to their liking, so I am sure they don’t mind.
Looking at the top six table after the games on Sunday we find that Arsenal are in third, but the three teams in those top positions all have the same recent record, of won four, drawn one, lost one. Arsenal have actually scored one more than Liverpool and Manchester City (and that despite Liverpool’s victory on Sunday) but have let in a couple more than Manchester C.
Still Tottenham have almost caught up with Brentford in the last six, so they are doing ok really, even if they are 18 points behind the league leaders. And here’s a thought… if Liverpool win their game in hand Tottenham will be out of the top four – which is a bit of a shock after all that stuff that was said in the pre-season build up.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liverpool | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 13 | 3 | 10 | 13 |
| 2 | Manchester City | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 13 | 5 | 8 | 13 |
| 3 | Arsenal | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 14 | 8 | 6 | 13 |
| 4 | Brentford | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 10 | 3 | 7 | 12 |
| 5 | Tottenham Ho | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 12 |
| 6 | Brighton & H | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 11 | 4 | 7 | 11 |
Of course the last ten games table gives us a clearer picture of the recent trend, and here Arsenal are third, just two points achieved fewer than Manchester City. And oh, Tottenham are not in the top six, across the last ten matches, which reveals quite a decline on their part. Still it couldn’t happen to a more deserving club. Could it?
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manchester City | 10 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 22 | 9 | 13 | 22 |
| 2 | Brentford | 10 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 18 | 8 | 10 | 20 |
| 3 | Arsenal | 10 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 19 | 11 | 8 | 20 |
| 4 | Fulham | 10 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 5 | 7 | 20 |
| 5 | Manchester Utd | 10 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 18 | 15 | 3 | 20 |
| 6 | Brighton & Hove | 10 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 21 | 12 | 9 | 17 |
And we can see a little hint of what is happening to Manchester United with their mega defeat today – they have in recent games been slipping somewhat.
So we can see, across the last six and last ten games Arsenal have been slipping up slightly, but even so …
How lovely it is reading all that, thank you Tony.
I’ve been surfing around, having a little read about all things Arsenal, and by and large it’s pretty positive, but some people are getting their knickers in a twist over the the fact we scored a minute over the indicated 6 minutes of added on time. And just to make it clear, it was a minute over as the ball hit the back of the net on 96 minutes and 59 seconds, and not the 98th or 99th minutes as some have tried to claim, as that was the time on the clock after the re start when the ref blew for time.
As anybody who reads my posts will know I love a stat. More accurately I love facts. As such I thought I’d have a look and see exactly if and why another minute should of been added on.
First thing I needed to know was what is time added on for, and basically it’s for time lost to injuries (hence the old phrase of ‘injury time’ and time wasting. No shocks there of course.
Firstly injuries.
Well that’s simple.13 seconds in to the 6 minutes of added time Smith went down ‘injured’ and it caused a 52 second delay.
Now time wasting.
Well this is a bit trickier because there is a very slight aspect of subjectivity involved. These are the events that happened during the added on time, and the respective time allowed for them.
2 goal kicks.
I couldn’t find an allotted time for this anywhere, even though there must be one. As such I’m not going to add any, despite the fact the 2 goal kicks took a total of 45 seconds out of the game. Personally I don’t think that’s excessive anyway, given the time it takes to retrieve the ball, place the ball and take the kick. I’ve not really got a problem with that.
1 throw in.
Now this is the one with some subjectivity. I’ve found 2 different versions. One is hard and fast and says it is the same as a keeper can hold the ball. 6 seconds. But another version I found said 6 seconds, BUT depending on events up to 15 seconds can be allowed. The Brentford throw took 25 seconds. So at least 10 seconds taken out of the game.
So strictly by the rules, and ignoring the 2 goal kicks, a minimum of an extra 62 seconds should of been added to the minimum of 6 minutes originally indicated.
Now I’m no Einstein but I make that a very legitimate 7 Minutes and 2 seconds to be played, at the very least, meaning our boy Reiss scored a comfortable 3 seconds within the minimum required duration of the match.
I hope that clears it up for you Mr Keys!!!
@Nitram,
I was watching a bein stream with the Dick Keyes and must say that I found him rather muted. He kept complaining Arsenal should have been awarded penalties, as a matter of fact 3 of them. He did not complain about the added time on air, at least not while I was watching.
As for the added time, the referee did manage it correctly. This needs to be said.
@ Nitram
You’ll never get anywhere in football “journalism” if you start bothering with stuff like facts 🙂
This from footLo:
Keys and fellow beIN SPORTS presenter Andy Gray discussed the game on the Qatari broadcaster and posed a question about the amount of time played in the game with only six added on. “I’ve no problem with this one because that’s a dramatic way to win a football match, I would ask about the time of the goal as Bournemouth will with 97 minutes played,” Keys said.
“Ninety-six minutes were shown, you can see that in the top corner, we are just approaching the 98th minute when Nelson unloaded that,” Gray added. “I think Bournemouth will have reason to say where did you find that time,” Keys responded.
I’ve also read some Man City sites and they are fuming about the time, and believe it or not the favours we are receiving, especially from VAR!
Apparently it’s a fix because the FA want a London Club to win it because they’ve all had enough of City and we are now the ‘blue eyed boys’.
Favours from VAR !!! Are they serious? Apparently they are.
And you are right, the ref did okay with the added time. Did exactly what he should of done.
I must say that I cannot recall the last time a VAR decision came out in our favour, not to mention things that should have gone to VAR but didn’t for reasons unknown. We have had all of the recent VAR reviews go against us apart from a few offside ones, not forgetting the Brentford ‘forgot to draw the lines’ fiasco.
If VAR had done its job properly the opening nine second Bournemouth goal would have been disallowed as two of their players were already a few yards inside the Arsenal half as the kick off was taken.
City’s run in is basically a doddle. Their toughest game is away to Brighton and uhome to us, though history would say it’s a home banker.
Our run in has away games at City Liverpool and Newcastle plus Chelsea at home.
City are still logically favourites
Stan….
Man City also have to play Liverpool & Chelsea.
And Brentford away on the last day. Always a tricky fixture.
Tottenham will be anxiously looking over their shoulders.
To me VAR needs to be manned by referees from another league on a rotational basis, to ensure that the English refs learn what is actually meant by the rules of football. Won’t it be great to have the German refs for 1 week, the French, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, etc and see the effect that has on the amount of decisions against defenders. Quite something to envisage so lets petition UEFA with this to take bias out of the refereeing in the major football leagues of Europe.
@ Dawie
I agree , and think all the European leagues are rich enough to pool the referees from every country and control them under one organisation . Then allocate games across the leagues , yes a bit of travelling involved , but it would stop clubs especially in England having the same referee 4 or 5 times .
It would be no different to how the European cups are refereed .