- VAR is not the question of the day: there is something much, much bigger
- Tottenham have reason to be concerned about how supporters behaviour is seen overseas
By Sir Hardly Anyone
And so we reach the end of the season, sadly with most of us pretty sure that Arsenal won’t make it to first place, because although the club might well win this final game, Manchester City will do the same and so take the league.
The one bit of cheery news is that not only are Manchester City fighting 115 claims of breaking the financial fair play laws, they are also now facing another set of challenges over transfers between related clubs. But we will come back to that once the season is over, and as we continue to consider the outcome of the Manchester City case – which will have reverberations no matter who wins.
So back to Everton. Here are the basic facts…
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Arsenal | 37 | 27 | 5 | 5 | 89 | 28 | 61 | 86 |
| 15 | Everton | 37 | 13 | 9 | 15 | 39 | 49 | -10 | 40 |
| 11 | Everton XD | 37 | 48 |
The final line shows the number of points and position that Everton would hold if they had not been docked eight points for naughty things. They would move up a whole four places in the league.
So with or without such a reclaim, they are a fairly long way behind Arsenal and perhaps most amazingly a staggering 71 goals on the goal difference chart. They have scored fewer than half of the goals Arsenal scored and conceded 75% more than Arsenal have. Which is by and large not very clever.
The home and away table shows
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | Arsenal home | 18 | 14 | 2 | 2 | 46 | 15 | 31 | 44 |
| 17 | Everton away | 18 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 17 | 31 | -14 | 20 |
The Everton figure above does not take any account of the eight point discount.
This is however one of the most lopsided comparisons we have ever seen, with Arsenal more than double the number of points ahead of Everton, Arsenal more than double the number of goals scored than Everton and Arsenal with under half the goals conceded as Everton, when throughout we compare Arsenal at home and Everton away.
There really is not much there to suggest anything other than an Arsenal win, but still, let’s check on the last six away matches.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | Arsenal away | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 16 | 4 | +12 | 15 |
| 16 | Tottenham away | 6 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 14 | -7 | 4 |
| 17 | Brighton away | 6 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 10 | -7 | 3 |
| 18 | Everton away | 6 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 13 | -9 | 3 |
Apart from the fact that Everton haven’t won any of their last six games, it is interesting to see just how far Tottenham have sunk. Indeed it is worth noting this when contemplating that Tottenham fans turned on their own team for the last match of the season, when it was pretty clear that given their recent form Tottenham were not going to get anywhere.
Over the last six games Arsenal have a goal difference 21 better than Everton, who have in fact only scored one goal away from home in the last six.
But we must take a spot of care with these figures because in their recent games overall (ie home and away) Everton have turned things around…
Between 23 December and 2 April Everton did not win a single one of their 13 league games. Then they had a run from 2 April onward in which playing eight games they won five, drew two and lost one. The one defeat however was by 6-0. The phrase “Jekyll and Hyde” comes to mind. Although we should bear in mind that in their last five games, four have been at home. The one away game was a 1-1 draw with the mighty Luton Town.
In fact the last time they won an away game was 16 December when they beat the even mightier Burnley 0-2.
But just in case you think all this separation of home and away gives a misleading picture here’s the league table for the two teams on Sunday, including both home and away results…
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Arsenal | 37 | 27 | 5 | 5 | 89 | 28 | 61 | 86 |
| 15 | Everton | 37 | 13 | 9 | 15 | 39 | 49 | -10 | 40 |
Brentford, Nottingham Forest and the three relegated teams have all done worse than Everton and if those points hadn’t been removed they would be on 48 points around half way down the league. But still, they escaped relegation.
More tomorrow.
