Arsenal v Southampton: where the two teams have been of late

 

 

 

• This is what we are up against; or is football turning upside down?
• Where has all this abuse against Arsenal come from?

By Bulldog Drummond

Looking at the Arsenal home games and Southampton away games this season we see a huge difference for Southampton are having real problems away from home so far in the league.  True it is only three games played away but the measure of their difficulty is shown when we expand the review to look at the full table and find that overall they have only gained one point so far in six games.  They are in fact at the foot of the table alongside Wolverhampton, in Southampton’s case scoring three and conceding 12.   Here is the home and away comparison for this season.

 

 

Leicester, Ipswich and Southampton came up last season and now sit 17th, 15th and 19th in the Premier League respectively.  Now we are seeing the gap between the Championship and the Premier League widening, in the sense that promoted teams from the former are liable to be relegated from the latter the following season more regularly than say ten years ago.

What seems to have happened is a sense of financial realism has gripped many promoted clubs so that instead of gambling everything by buying new players once they achieve promotion, in the hope of staying up, they keep more of the Championship title winning team, when playing in the Premier League, and accept relegation as a strong possibility.   Although that doesn’t allow the clubs to get settled in the higher league, it can help the club avoid accumulating massive debts which a prolonged period in the Championship will not allow them to pay off.

Although Southampton have established themselves as a regular in the Premier League this century, they have also had two seasons in League 1 and seven seasons in the Championship across these 24 years.  And indeed back in the 1950s they spent quite a bit of time in Division 3 (South).

Part of the problem must be that although St Mary’s is written up as the biggest football stadium on the south coast, the capacity is still only 32,384, compared with 60,704 for Arsenal.  Furthermore, Southampton’s ground does not have a sponsor, I believe because of fan pressure in this regard, which if so is very noble, but obviously means a lower income than might otherwise be received.

Southampton’s two victories this season have both come in the League Cup.   First there was a 3-5 away win against Cardiff, and then a 5-6 away win on penalties against Everton, after a 1-1 draw (which really doesn’t reflect that well on Everton!)

They have also drawn against Ipswich at home – Ipswich of course also being promoted last season but otherwise, it has been doom and gloom.

Moving on, of the 106 games played between the two sides since the opening match in 1927 (which Arsenal won), 53 have been won by Arsenal – which is of course exactly 50%.  30 have been draws and Southampton have won 23. (22%).

However in the last ten league games between the two, Arsenal have only won four of the matches.   Mind you, Southampton have won only two, and hence four have been draws.  The last game between the two was a 3-3 draw at Arsenal stadium in April 2023.

I think the conclusion to draw is that Southampton are used to their fate as being either a team that goes up and down, or one that manages to hold on in the fight against relegation.  And let us not forget that in two seasons not so long ago (2015/16 and 2016/17) they competed in the Europa.  But since the start of 2022/23 they have had four managers, which really is a bit over the top, and rarely a recipe for success.