By Tony Attwood
So let’s have a look at the first five for this coming season and see what sort of results we might expect.
- 17 August: Arsenal v Wolverhampton Wands
- 24 August: Aston Villa v Arsenal
- 31 August: Arsenal v Brighton & Hove
- 15 September: Tottenham v Arsenal
- 22 September: Manchester City v Arsenal
Last summer Arsenal played six major pre-season games, some going to penalties either because there was a draw, or just because they went to penalties for no particular reason. The last match was the Community Shield game, previously known as the Charity Shield until the FA was found guilty of not keeping proper – or indeed any – records of which charities benefitted and by how much. The media seemed to think that breaking the law in this way was ok, and have continued to talk of the FA as a viable body to run football.
So there were six games. Arsenal won two, drew three and lost one to Manchester United. The only other member of the Premier League Arsenal played was Manchester City in the Community Shield. That was a draw with Arsenal winning on penalties.
| Date (2023) | Game | Location |
| July 13 | Nurnberg 1-1 Arsenal | Nuremberg |
| July 20 (19 in US) | MLS All-Stars 0-5 Arsenal | Washington |
| July 22 | Arsenal 0)-2 Manchester United | New York |
| July 27 | Arsenal 5-3 Barcelona | Los Angeles |
| August 2 | Arsenal 1-1Monaco | London |
| August 6 | Arsenal 1-1 Manchester City | Wembley, Middx |
So two wins, three draws and a defeat as noted.
So far this season (and here as above, leaving aside the first match which had few if any regular first-teamers in the side), The subsequent games have resulted in one win (beating Manchester United), one draw (with Bournemouth) and one defeat to Liverpool
July 25: Arsenal 1-1 Bournemouth
July 28: Arsenal 2-1 Man Utd
August 1: Arsenal 1-2 Liverpool
Of course, one can’t make direct comparisons but in a rough and ready way we can say that it’s pretty much the same as last time around.
At the start of the season, Arsenal won four and drew one of the first five league games.
Last season the opening five fixtures were as below. The final column shows where the team ended up at the end of the season…
| Date | Game | Res | Score | Opp place |
| 12 Aug 2023 | Arsenal v Nottingham Forest | W | 2-1 | 17 |
| 21 Aug 2023 | Crystal Palace v Arsenal | W | 0-1 | 10 |
| 26 Aug 2023 | Arsenal v Fulham | D | 2-2 | 13 |
| 03 Sep 2023 | Arsenal v Manchester United | W | 3-1 | 8 |
| 17 Sep 2023 | Everton v Arsenal | W | 0-1 | 15 |
As we can see none of these teams Arsenal played in the opening five games did very well through the season and it would not be unfair to say that was a fairly reasonable start for Arsenal, handed out by the league. And although after five games last season Arsenal’s league position was fourth, that was only on goals scored.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manchester City | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 3 | 11 | 15 |
| 2 | Tottenham Hotspur | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 13 | 5 | 8 | 13 |
| 3 | Liverpool | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 12 | 4 | 8 | 13 |
| 4 | Arsenal | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 4 | 5 | 13 |
So let’s have a look at the first five for this coming season and see what sort of results we might expect.
- 17 August: Arsenal v Wolverhampton Wands
- 24 August: Aston Villa v Arsenal
- 31 August: Arsenal v Brighton & Hove
- 15 September: Tottenham v Arsenal
- 22 September: Manchester City v Arsenal
That is to say matches against the clubs that finished first, fourth, fifth, 11th and 14th last season. That looks a lot tougher than starting against Forest, Palace, Fulham, Manchester U, and Everton which as we have seen were the opening games last season.
Last season the results in the same games were
- Beat Wolverhampton at home 2-1
- Lost to Aston Villa away 1-0
- Beat Brighton and Hove away 0-3
- Beat Tottenham away 2-3
- Drew with Mancheseter City away 0-0
So matching last season’s results would have given Arsenal 10 points from five games as opposed to 13 points that we actually got at the start of last season. Ten points would have put us around sixth position at that time.
But what will the media make of this? Will they point out that playing three of our opening five games against top five teams is quite a tough call, and certainly harder than last year?
No of course not. It will be Arsenal panic, Arsenal suffer from lack of summer signings, Calls for Arteta to go, Arsenal dithering in transfer window catches the club out.
But in fact, all that we will be seeing are the same results as the year before, which overall was considered something of a triumph.
I think it is worthwhile being prepared by noting that even if Arsenal gets the same results as they did in the five corresponding games last season, it will be considered a disaster. It won’t be a disaster of course, but when has reality ever been part of reporting?
And our genius fans will swallow it whole.