Arsenal v Manchester United home and away, past and present

 

• Arsenal v Manchester United: 10 videos from the history of the fixture…
• Arsenal v Man Utd. How the ref has behaved so far, and the teams fouled the most
• Arsenal v Man U. More tackles, fewer fouls, more possession. Arsenal on the up.
• Arsenal v Manchester United, and the wild ways of referees and yellow cards

By Bulldog Drummond

Manchester United are one of a small number of teams that have beaten Arsenal more than the reverse: Arsenal have won 87 games against them but lost 101.   However across the last ten games the results have taken a different direction for Arsenal have won five, three have been draws and two defeats.  And interestingly in the last four games between the two clubs the home side has scored three.  Two of the games have ended 3-1 and two have ended 3-2, including the last game between the two, at Arsenal stadium in January this year.

Indeed the last home defeat for Arsenal against Manchester United was on 2 December 2017 when United won 1-3.

However we should also not forget that last season Manchester United did end up third in the league, although scoring 30 goals fewer than Arsenal (but conceding exactly the same number as Arsenal did.

So now it is time to look at the total shots, shots on targets and fouls against the teams; as ever figures are per game.

 

	Shots pg	Shots on target pg	Fouls against pg
Arsenal	16	7	10
Manchester United	18.3	6	10

 

So Arsenal are getting fewer shots at goal but slightly more on target per game

But what about for the whole of last season?

 

	Shots pg	Shots on target pg	Fouls against pg
Arsenal	15.6	5.4	11..4
Manchester United	15.6	5.7	7.8

 

The main difference we see is that this season so far both Arsenal Manchester United are getting fewer shots, and fewer shots on target.  But while fouls against Manchester United have declined considerably at the same time they are going up for Arsenal.

In fact of the big seven clubs there is a significant disparity between the way each club is fouled.   There is no single standard reason why Manchester United are fouled less than other clubs, unless the referees feel that when their players go down clutching an ankle they are making it up more often than players of other clubs.

 

Team	Fouled pg
Chelsea	12.2
Arsenal	11.4
Newcastle	10.5
Manchester City	10.1
Tottenham	9.3
Liverpool	8.4
Manchester United	7.8

 

But we are getting a clearer picture of the way the league is developing this season, and that will become clearer still once the weekend’s games are all done and dusted.  Just as we have got a clearer picture of the way the media is dealing with Arsenal (back to being primarily hostile) and referees (continuing the theme of “nothing to see here”).

However overall things are not too bad.  True Arsenal are not shooting away at the top of the league as they did last season (until beaten by Manchester United, but then continuing as if nothing had happened), but the fact that the commentaries are moving into the whacky zone shows that as much as they try the media don’t have any real dirt to dig up.

For example, consider this from the BBC:

• Arsenal are unbeaten in their last 22 home Premier League matches against United teams (W19, D3), facing Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield and West Ham in that run without losing.

On a somewhat more serious note we are reminded that “Manchester United have won six of their last seven Premier League games.”   And also that the club has not lost their opening two away games in the league since 1973/4 – when they were relegated.

However I think these historical comparisons are pushing it a bit.   I don’t think such concepts will be playing on the mind of their players or the manager any more than the fact that “Manchester United have won on only one of their last 10 top-flight visits to London (D3, L6), a 2-1 victory at Fulham last November.”

No, more than anything else, if Arsenal supporters can realise that the negative comments about Havertz are promoted by the media in order to show that Arsenal don’t know what they were doing, and are spurred on by the constant anti-Arsenal agenda of the media, we’ll be all right.   The fact that similar campaigns against Bergkamp and Henry upon their arrivals were shown to be utter tripe, shows tell us all we need to know.

Up next, the team.