- Where has all this abuse against Arsenal come from?
- “Arsenal behind Chelsea and Tottenham” How a once decent publication slipped into the gutter
By Tony Attwood
“This is what we’re up against” is a regular bleat from the Guardian in articles in which they bemoan the state of Britain, censorship, legal action, and the media.
It rails against what it sees as “Teams of lawyers from the rich and powerful trying to stop us publishing stories they don’t want you to see,” and “Lobby groups with opaque funding who are determined to undermine facts about the climate emergency and other established science.”
And after going through a few other cases ends with “Bad actors spreading disinformation online to undermine democracy.” (If you are interested in a debate on this point, this is a good place to start).
But of course such “bad actors” take no notice of a little blog like Untold even if we have been around for over 16 years – which in internet terms is rather good, in my view.
Yet it did strike me that “Bad Actors” is what we could call the people who are constantly acting to stop anything being said about the way the media covers football in general, and indeed refereeing in the Premier League as well.
And it was with such tales running around my head that I saw an article in the Sun of all places which had the headline “How £32million Mikel Merino will revolutionise Arsenal midfield and give Declan Rice new lease of life in different role.”
It was published two days ago and actually is quite positive about Arsenal, which was a surprise, and written by Jordan Davies
Quite rightly the article notes that Arsenal have lost two key players: Odegaard, who of course we all know about, and “£32m summer arrival Mikel Merino – breaking a bone in his shoulder in his very first training session at London Colney in late August.”
The website then goes on to describe Merino as “one of Europe’s most feared duel monsters, the Spanish midfielder was sidelined after losing a collision with new teammate Gabriel,” and yes I can certainly imagine that anyone would suffer if experiencing a collision with Gabriel.
So of course Arsenal have been using Partey and Jorginho, which is not what was intended, and have been doing that in games against Tottenham and Manchester City. But we may well now see him in full flood, as it were, for the game at the weekend.
And that made me think a bit more about just where the club is at the moment. We know there is all the negativity going on, and virtually no one is picking up on the fact that Arsenal can play a full possession game, or alternatively let the opposition have the possession and wait for the breakaway…
But where are we now compared to this moment in past seasons?
| Year | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | Arsenal 2024 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 12 | 5 | 7 | 14 |
| 5 | Arsenal 2023 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 11 | 6 | 5 | 14 |
| 1 | Arsenal 2022 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 14 | 7 | 7 | 15 |
| 10 | Arsenal 2021 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 10 | -5 | 9 |
| 11 | Arsenal 2020 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 7 | 1 | 9 |
.
Now I think there is some interesting information in this little chart. First, we are around about the level of the last two years – there has been no slipping back although the fixtures have been fairly challenging with games against Aston Villa, Tottenham Hots and ManC.
Compared to last season we have the same number of points at this stage but are two goals better off. And although we were a point ahead in 2022, the goal difference was just the same.
So yes I would say we are really in good shape. But there is another point that struck me while putting this little selection of league tables together, and that is who was top of the league in 2020. Unless you have one of those memories that holds all this information forever, you might struggle to work it out.
For the team that was top after six games in 2020 is now a team that is flirting with relegation – which rather makes the point that just rising to the top is not enough – obviously, there needs to be a coherent strategy for staying there.
Indeed being in the lower reaches of the league is not a clever trick at the moment since we are now in the era where the three teams that come up in the summer from the Championship generally look ready-made to go back down – and thus provide a cushion for other struggling teams who are long-established in the Premier League.
So here it is, the top ten of the Premier League after six games in the 2020/1 season.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liverpool | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 5 | 12 | 18 |
| 2 | Manchester City | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 24 | 6 | 18 | 13 |
| 3 | Leicester City | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 11 |
| 4 | Arsenal | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 11 | 10 | 1 | 11 |
| 5 | West Ham United | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 7 | 1 | 11 |
| 6 | AFC Bournemouth | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 11 | 10 | 1 | 10 |
| 7 | Tottenham Hotspur | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 8 | 4 | 8 |
| 8 | Manchester United | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 6 | 2 | 8 |
| 9 | Burnley | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 7 | 1 | 8 |
| 10 | Sheffield United | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 6 | 1 | 8 |
As you can see that top ten includes the likes of Burnley, Sheffield United, Leicester, and West Ham – and that was just three years ago. Which should remind us all that the trick is not just to get up near the top, but to build a team and a management structure that keeps the team there. That is the preliminary: stability near the top, and that is what Arsenal has achieved. Three teams in that top ten have since been relegated, although Leicester has just managed to come up again..
Which just shows: it is not about getting up to the top. It really is about staying there.
