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By Bulldog Drummond
The moment most of us will remember about Sevilla, and the one which we really have to start with, was the Emirates Cup game against Sevilla, in which Arsenal won 6-0, with Gabriel Jesus opening up his account as they say, and actually doing rather well. And just because it was rather good here it is – from 30 July 2022.
There was also an earlier Emirates Cup game on 30 July 2017 in which Sevilla beat Arsenal 1-2 – although Arsenal still won the Emirates Cup because they had scored more goals on the day before.
The Guardian’s report for that match was rather amusing, saying, “The positives for Arsenal? Lacazette scored, [it was his first game] and Oxlade-Chamberlain was a force of nature on both wings. The negatives? None, it’s pre-season.”
But that was then and this is, well, not then, and so we have to take into account the current league table in the Champions League.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | RC Lens | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| 2 | Arsenal | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| 3 | Sevilla | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 |
| 4 | PSV Eindhoven | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | -4 | 1 |
Sevilla’s two games as we can see have ended in draws, a 1–1 result against Lens followed by a 2-2 away draw against PSV Eindhoven.
Sevilla are currently 13th in the Spanish league, in which they have played six home games, winning two, drawing two, and thus obviously losing two. Curiously their away form is better with three wins and one defeat away from home. Overall the goal tally is 14 goals for and 13 against.
They are the only team between Rayo Vallecano in 7th, and bottom of the league Almeria to have a positive goal difference, although that is only +1. In nine games they have scored 14 and conceded 13.
That gives them a goal per game average of 1.56 goals for and 1.44 against.
Arsenal like Sevilla have played nine domestic league games but have scored 18, conceding 8, giving a goal per game rate of 2.00 and 0.89 against. Advantage Arsenal therefore.
Six of Sevilla’s nine games this season have been at home, with two wins two draws and two defeats. Their last three games have been a 1-0 away defeat to Barcelona, a 2-2 home draw with Rayo Vallencano and a 1-1 home draw with Real Madrid.
In terms of goal-scoring ability Sevilla are pretty much mid-table. And despite that decent result against Real Madrid, Arsenal are favourites at 5/6 to win, while Sevilla are 16/5 for a victory.
Arsenal have only played Sevilla twice before in competitive matches, in the Champions League in 2007/8 group stages. Arsenal won 3-0 in the first leg at home but then lost 3-1 in the away leg, thus just going through thanks to that away goal. You can see a video of that game here.
More anon…
