- Arsenal v Villa: It’s that ref that Arsenal should never have to face again
- Arsenal v Aston Villa: the utterly unexpected tactics
- Some very good reasons why Arsenal will beat Villa on Sunday
By Bulldog Drummond
Arsenal have just one injury, which puts the club bottom of the injury table alongside Fulham who are also on one. Aston Villa on the other hand have seven injuries
Chelsea are on 13, at the top of the league. Incidentally, the owners of Chelsea have just sold some of their assets to another company that is also owned by the same people who own Chelsea. The club are using the money from that sale to reduce their FFP losses and bring them back to within the financial regulations! That is something that we’ll be doing a bit of investigating; it seems a rather simple way to get out of FFP problems. If it works, then I presume all clubs will simply set up a second company to sit there and get them out of any financial black holes.
Moving on, Arsenal have the edge on matches with Aston Villa historically, but only just, with 87 Arsenal wins against 70 defeats and 45 draws. The games date back to 1904 with Woolwich Arsenal winning the first-ever match between the two clubs.
Arsenal had been on a winning streak of four wins in a row against Villa but this was ended by the defeat on 9 December last year. This was the start of Arsenal’s seasonal dip in which Arsenal lost three, drew one and won just one in a run of five; a run which ended with the 5-0 defeat of Crystal Palace in January.
But perhaps we should note one particular element in Aston Villa’s season we don’t always comment upon: the club’s defence. Villa have conceded over twice as many league goals as Arsenal this season. Indeed Villa have conceded as many goals as Tottenham this season, which given the poverty of the Tottenham defence, takes some doing!
And since we don’t often publish it, here is what the league table would look like if it were set out in terms of goals conceded. Arsenal of course would still be top, although amazingly Everton would be fourth, just one goal behind Manchester City. That is weird!
Here’s what the top of the table would look like if in fact it were based on goals against.
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Arsenal | 31 | 22 | 5 | 4 | 75 | 24 | 51 | 71 |
| 3 | Liverpool | 31 | 21 | 8 | 2 | 72 | 30 | 42 | 71 |
| 1 | Manchester City | 32 | 22 | 7 | 3 | 74 | 31 | 43 | 73 |
| 16 | Everton | 31 | 9 | 8 | 14 | 32 | 42 | -10 | 27 |
| 7 | Manchester United | 31 | 15 | 4 | 12 | 45 | 46 | -1 | 49 |
| 4 | Aston Villa | 32 | 18 | 6 | 8 | 66 | 49 | 17 | 60 |
| 5 | Tottenham Hotspur | 32 | 18 | 6 | 8 | 65 | 49 | 16 | 60 |
It also makes the point concerning just how far ahead of the pack defensively, the top clubs are. Tottenham and Aston Villa have the sixth-best defences in the league, and yet they have let in twice as many goals as Arsenal.
Arsenal have in fact also scored twice as many goals as four clubs in the League, but overall that level of difference is much less than the difference in goals conceded. Which in turn makes the point of the route the top clubs have taken to secure their place at the top has fundamentally to concede fewer goals.
Of course this is not the first time Arsenal have had the best defence in the league, and indeed in 1998/99 Arsenal conceded just 17 goals in the league.
In fac. “1-0 to the Arsenal” and even “Boring, boring Arsenal” became popular chants at Highbury during the George Graham days, which saw the Gunners win two league titles and several cups.
Arsene Wenger of course was known for his flamboyant attacking formats with Bergkap, Henry and the like, but he also kept the famous defensive line up including the likes of David Seaman, Lee Dixon, Tony Adams, Martin Keown and Nigel Winterburn, which he inherited on coming to the club. Also still at the club and acting as back-ups was Steve Bould, coming in when needed.
But there is a difference between the famous team of that era and now. For in the 1998/9 season in which Arsenal conceded just 17 goals, and had 22 clean sheets, they also only scored 59 goals. That compares with 75 goals this season with seven games left. If Arsenal keep scoring at the same rate as so far this season the final tally could be 92 goals.
Wenger of course built his first title winning team primarily around hat he found at the club, and did not turn the whole side upside down and inside out at once, not least because there was considerable antagonism toward having a foreign manager at the club. But once he had given Arsenal their first title since 1991, no one really cared about how he did it. He had brought back success.
So there was little comment the following season (1998/9) when Arsenal came second, as the number of goals declined even further to 59. Although thankfully it never got down as far as 40 goals scored in 1992/3 under George Graham, when Arsenal won the Cup and League Cup Double.
As for today, five more goals and Arsenal will have doubled the league goal tally of that season.
