- Football is getting very dark and is pricing itself out of the reach of many fans
- Arsenal and Tottenham, last season and this season. Is the gap closing?
By Bulldog Drummond
Overall Manchester City’s results against Arsenal, have been rather good. In fact Arsenal have won 100 of the games, 45 have been drawn and 65 won by Manchester City
Which sounds ok except for the fact that between 5 November 2017 and 26 April 2023 the clubs played each other 16 times and Arsenal won just one of those – the FA Cup match on 18 July 2000, which we won 2-0.
Otherwise, whether it was the FA Cup, the League Cup or the League, Manchester City won.
However, the last two games do give us a trifle amount of hope. For on 6 August last year Arsenal drew 1-1 with Manchester City in the Community Shield (which you might recall used to be called the Charity Shield, but the FA were banned from calling it that, and fined, and forced to apologise after it was discovered that they had no proper records of their charity donations as a result of the game played each year).
That draw was concluded with Arsenal winning 4-1 on penalties.
Then following that up on 8 October 2023 Arsenal beat Manchester City in the league 1-0 Martinelli scored in the 86th minute to wild rejoicing. I recall it rather well; I was there and couldn’t speak for a week. So after eight consecutive defeats we have had two wins.
But it has taken Arsenal a long time to get there. Our previous two wins against Manchester C were 23 April 2017, 2-1 in the FA Cup and then 18 July 2020 also in the cup, that one 2-0.
So Manchester City have kept on, well, being Manchester City and whether they have broken the rules of the Premier League or not we are still waiting to find out. If the finding is that they have I suspect that the club’s supporters might do a little bit of talking about suing the league, demanding a recount and putting in appeals. If the finding is they havne’t they will be laughing all the way to where ever it is they choose to laugh. Oil well?
And we should not forget that the UAE has within it the Ministry of Possibilities, so I think we should take it that indeed everything is possible. But we shall have to wait.
We do of course go into the game one point above them. But in terms of home and away as we have noted before, they have the advantage despite Arsenal being the team with the best away record this season and Manchester City only third in the league table calculated just on home games
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | Manchester City home | 14 | 10 | 4 | 0 | 34 | 12 | 22 | 34 |
| 1 | Arsenal away | 14 | 9 | 2 | 3 | 34 | 11 | 23 | 29 |
So it looks like we are up against it on all fronts. Even if we compare Manchester City’s last six games at home against Arsenal’s last six away, we can’t find an advantage to Arsenal…
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manchester City home | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 12 | 3 | +9 | 16 |
| 3 | Arsenal away | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 21 | 4 | +17 | 13 |
… except that goal scoring. Arsenal are used to scoring away and keeping a solid defence while Manchester City look a little less secure in attack at home averaging just two goals a game to Arsenal’s 3.5
Normally I don’t turn to the Premier League injury table with any thought of hope, since Arsenal tend to have an average to above-average level and Manchester City seem to avoid injuries.
But in fact things have changed. Here’s the table; the number before the club name showing the number of injuries according to the EPL Injury Table
- 4: Arsenal
- 5: Brighton and Hove Albion
- 5: Wolverhampton Wanderers
- 6: Aston Villa
- 6: Burnley
- 6: Manchester City
- 6: Nottingham Forest
- 8: Brentford
- 8: Crystal Palace
- 8: Fulham
- 9: Liverpool
- 9: Manchester United
- 9 Newcastle United
- 9: Sheffield United
- 12: Chelsea
- 13: Luton Town
Arsenal’s men down are Timber (of course), who is recovering but not ready to be part of the squad, Martinelli who may be recovered by now, Gabriel who has Achilles pains, and Saka who may or may not be recovered.
David Raya is also listed by Premier League Injuries as not being available to face his parent club, when I looked on 29th March, which makes me think maybe we should be using another source for this information. Although maybe they have changed that by now.
