By Tony Attwood
If you have a long memory you may remember the time when journalist Amy Lawrence went on the attack against Arsenal in 2016 for only having two players who scored in double figures in the season before.
It was an outrageous misuse of statistics because it turned out that only five clubs managed to have two players scoring in double figures that season.
Fortunately for them (because we are always watching) no journalists are making such silly comments at the moment. And there’s a good reason for that because with 10 games still to go Arsenal now have three players in double figures when it comes to scoring. Ms Lawrence remains quiet on the subject it seems.
And to be clear in what follows we are only talking about league matches.
| Player | Games | Sub | Goals | Pens | Yellows |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gabriel Martinelli | 27 | 1 | 13 | 3 | |
| Bukayo Saka | 28 | 0 | 12 | 2 | 5 |
| Martin Odegaard | 27 | 0 | 10 | 4 |
Incidentally, the last time Palace scored two goals in a match was last year when Palace beat Bournemouth 0-2. The last time they scored three was 20 August 2022. But just to make sure Arsenal went further and scored four.
Now in the olden days the pundits would say that London teams could not win the league because the players became too soft with all the high living that London offers. Then the story was that London teams could not win the league because there were so many London derbies that ended in draws, the clubs lost points against their more ruthless neighbours from the north.
It was all mindless jibberish of course, but that is what the media often has to offer – mostly because in other subject areas the facts and figures don’t coincide with the media’s prejudice.
London clubs have won the league seven times this century compared with 15 wins for the Liverpool / Manchester conurbation. So yes London lags behind but I think most of the blame can be put on the wayward nature of Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United who are hardly doing their bit to help.
Anyway, here is the official list of players scoring 10+ in league games this season
| Pos | Player | Club | Goals | Players/team |
| 1. | Erling Haaland | 28 | 1 | |
| 2. | Harry Kane | 21 | 1 | |
| 3. | Ivan Toney | 16 | 1 | |
| 4. | Marcus Rashford | 14 | 1 | |
| 5. | Gabriel Martinelli | 13 | 3 | |
| 6. | Bukayo Saka | 12 | 3 | |
| 7. | Miguel Almirón | 11 | 1 | |
| 7. | Aleksandar Mitrovic | 11 | 1 | |
| 7. | Rodrigo | 11 | 1 | |
| 7. | Mohamed Salah | 11 | 1 | |
| 11. | Martin Ødegaard | 10 | 3 |
So another semi-skimmed myth of lazy journalists is punctured. And while we are at it we can have a look at Arsenal against London teams this season – just in case anyone fancies rolling out that myth as well. This table shows wins throughout – except for one draw. The London games left are against Chelsea away, and West Ham at home.
| Date | Match | Result | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 05 Aug 2022 | Crystal Palace v Arsenal | W | 0-2 |
| 27 Aug 2022 | Arsenal v Fulham | W | 2-1 |
| 18 Sep 2022 | Brentford v Arsenal | W | 0-3 |
| 01 Oct 2022 | Arsenal v Tottenham Hotspur | W | 3-1 |
| 06 Nov 2022 | Chelsea v Arsenal | W | 0-1 |
| 26 Dec 2022 | Arsenal v West Ham United | W | 3-1 |
| 15 Jan 2023 | Tottenham Hotspur v Arsenal | W | 0-2 |
| 11 Feb 2023 | Arsenal v Brentford | D | 1-1 |
| 12 Mar 2023 | Fulham v Arsenal | W | 0-3 |
| 19 Mar 2023 | Arsenal v Crystal Palace | W | 2-0 |
And of course we all know just how much this team is an improvement on the Arsenal teams of recent years. 69 points from 28 games is certainly a major step forward on what has been happening of late as this team shows… (Figures from 11v11)
| Season | Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | Arsenal | 28 | 22 | 3 | 3 | 65 | 26 | 39 | 69 |
| 2021/22 | Arsenal | 28 | 17 | 3 | 8 | 44 | 31 | 13 | 54 |
| 2020/21 | Arsenal | 28 | 12 | 5 | 11 | 37 | 29 | 8 | 41 |
| 2019/20 | Arsenal | 28 | 9 | 13 | 6 | 40 | 36 | 4 | 40 |
| 2018/19 | Arsenal | 28 | 17 | 5 | 6 | 60 | 38 | 22 | 56 |
So the rebuild from the lowpoint of 2019/20 is ongoing. 40 points that season by this stage, then 41, then 54 and now 69. Where will it end?
But is this season an easier league for Arsenal to win, because it’s a season in which other teams aren’t shining? That I am sure is a question going through journalistic minds as they look for other ways to knock Arsenal.
And the answer is no. Here is the record of the top club at the 28 game mark across five seasons. And you might notice that although there was one standout team in this period – Liverpool – who had reached 79 points after 28 games, Arsenal have scored more goals thus far than Liverpool did that season.
So looking at the recent seasons Arsenal are not the all-time best club at this stage of the campaign, but they are jogging along at the same level as other eventual league winners.
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Arsenal | 28 | 22 | 3 | 3 | 66 | 26 | 40 | 69 |
| 2022 | Manchester City | 28 | 22 | 3 | 3 | 68 | 18 | 50 | 69 |
| 2021 | Manchester City | 28 | 20 | 5 | 3 | 56 | 19 | 37 | 65 |
| 2020 | Liverpool | 28 | 26 | 1 | 1 | 64 | 20 | 44 | 79 |
| 2019 | Liverpool | 28 | 21 | 6 | 1 | 64 | 15 | 49 | 69 |
One other interesting point is that as the table stands there is a significant difference between Arsenal and Manchester City on the one hand, and other contenders in terms of goals scored. This table is organised in terms of the number of goals scored.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Manchester City | 27 | 19 | 4 | 4 | 67 | 25 | 42 | 61 |
| 1 | Arsenal | 28 | 22 | 3 | 3 | 66 | 26 | 40 | 69 |
| 4 | Tottenham Hotspur | 28 | 15 | 4 | 9 | 52 | 40 | 12 | 49 |
| 6 | Liverpool | 26 | 12 | 6 | 8 | 47 | 29 | 18 | 42 |
| 7 | Brighton and Hove Albion | 25 | 12 | 6 | 7 | 46 | 31 | 15 | 42 |
| 8 | Brentford | 27 | 10 | 12 | 5 | 43 | 34 | 9 | 42 |
| 3 | Manchester United | 26 | 15 | 5 | 6 | 41 | 35 | 6 | 50 |
| 5 | Newcastle United | 26 | 12 | 11 | 3 | 39 | 19 | 20 | 47 |
So overall, whatever journalists might want to say, Arsenal seems to be doing rather well this season.
The crap never stops…now you’ve got pieces telling us Manure will get Saka and Odegaard if the Qataris buy the club. Reminds me of all the promises made by the bosses of Barcelona and Real year after year and I guess Collymore has been lavishly paid to start spreading the lies and promises of the Qataris so help their purchase of the club.
Yeah sure…Arsenal will consider selling these 2 players and go along – or any other – …. we’d better enjoy them before we get relegated next season.
We have a fourth, actually …
Fo Balogun (“Balogoal” for the Stade de Reims fans) has scored … 16, including goals against Marseilles, Monaco, PSG, Rennes, Nantes; in other words all the French teams who had made it to a European cup
Nice video on the club site about his 7 months in Reims. The boy’s maturity is very impressive. Will Still, Reims’s Anglo-Belgian manager looks like a very shrewd, tongue-in-cheek fellow too … no wonder he got the very best out of our lad.
@Le Gall,
Yeah, Balogun looks the real deal. Good for him and for Arsenal. No idea how his contract looks, I hope a few more years so there is no hurry to pack the squad. On the other hand, he is young andcounts as homegrown, and next year, the way it looks we’ll have CL games, so we need a larger squad.
Definitely a better headache for the Arsenal backoffice to have then having to negotiate 50 or 100 million for a striker…
Considering the other PL clubs, I think Arsenal are ahead of the curve of the competition in integrating young players and creating a competitive squad for the next 5 to 10 years.
It’s good to be an Arsenal fan !
And it’s 17, actually, Chris … Obviously, I have difficulty adjusting to the idea that he’s likely to end up with 20+ goals. I think I know the kid well, I believed in him, but not that many players can boast such a tally, and certainly not at such a young age, in a mid-table team, and in a country whose language you’re obviously at pain to get the knack of (I only write this because Still himself winds up the kid about it).
As for his future, I don’t know, I try not to think too much about it, tbh, because I have second thoughts (understatement) about the way Hale End wonderkids are dealt with at the moment, so that I’m not as convinced as you are about the integration of young players unde Arteta/Edu …
But I hope you’re right and I’m wrong, I really, really do, and we’ll have the answer soon enough anyway, when not only Fo, but also Charlie Patino, and Norton-Cuffy, are back to London
In the meantime, as you say, it’s such a good time to be an Arsenal fan that I don’t want to dwell upon this too much. The results are one thing, but it’s the quality that is jaw-dropping – the goals, the team moves, the otherworldly inspirations of some, the togetherness, the presence in our team of such an extra-ordinary (literally) character as Zinchenko, etc. etc. Ever since the KO of the second half of our pre-season game against Nürnberg, I don’t think there was one single half when our boys didn’t fill with joy the heart of this old fan. What a season.
@LeGall,
The Academy can only bring young players into contention. From then on, whether they are the next Saka or not depends on so many factors out of the club’s control : family, agent, stamina, psychological elements, luck, health, position played, PR, marketing, origin, etc. Imagine the next Saka appears from the Academy this sommer. Does Arsenal play with two right wingers ? Will this next wonderkid agree to wait be it only 1 year to get integrated step by step when his agent or his parents come with offers of millions from any english club or european club with promises of trophies and money galore.
The variables are enormous and for every Saka there are hundreds who don’t make it all the way up, a few dozens may make decent living out of football, the rest will have to find some other profession. But frankly, when I see the number of ex Academy players having a serious chance at making football their profession and being good at it, it seems to me that number is higher then before and higher then many other english clubs. And I can only talk about what I read, what I see on TV, but it seems to me Arsenal are handling or trying to handle placing their players on loan in a far more professionnal and human way then other teams for whom it just looks like farming out a collection of bodies.
And yes, having fun watching Arsenal is something I had forgotten to get used to !
On the London Derby front, we shouldn’t forget, our record would have been 100% had we not been screwed by the ineptitude of the VAR officials.
Yes Mikey, we are 8 points clear but we should be 10 points clear! And then I even don’t want to mention the Southampton travesty of refereeing…..
Mikey and Walter,
In that vein, I’m trying to guess the referee assignment for the City match. Could have massive effect on the race.
Tony , we beat Crystal Palace 4-1 .
And it will auger well for this team if one of our players get 20 goals or more this season. A midfield player scoring 10 goals is always a bonus . And I bet that both Jesus and Traussad will get 10 each !
Up the Gunners !