In Europe it is getting rather tight, but Arsenal are now the team in form

 

 

By Tony Attwood

So now we can make a little more sense of the Champions League mash-up by seeing a table of the top 12, all of whom have now played five games out of the eight in this phase of the competition.  Arsenal’s remaining fixtures are against Monaco, Dinamo Zagreb and Girona (they are each marked in bold in the table below).

 

Team
1  Liverpool 5 5 0 0 12 1 +11 15
2  Inter Milan 5 4 1 0 7 0 +7 13
3  Barcelona 5 4 0 1 18 5 +13 12
4  Borussia Dortmund 5 4 0 1 16 6 +10 12
5  Atalanta 5 3 2 0 11 1 +10 11
6  Bayer Leverkusen 5 3 1 1 11 5 +6 10
7  Arsenal 5 3 1 1 8 2 +6 10
8  Monaco 5 3 1 1 12 7 +5 10
9  Aston Villa 5 3 1 1 6 1 +5 10
10  Sporting Lisbon 5 3 1 1 10 7 +3 10
11 Brest 5 3 1 1 9 6 +3 10
12  Lille 5 3 1 1 7 5 +2 10
23 Dinamo Zagreb 5 2 1 2 10 15 -5 7
30 Girona 5 1 0 4 4 9 -5 3

 

The top eight in the league get seeded draws in the first knockout round after these eight preliminary games, and clubs nine to 16 play an extra knockout round to see who qualifies for the first knockout round proper alongside the top eight – and those clubs are seeded.   If you see what I mean!  Clubs 17 to 24 go into the knock outs unseeded.  Clubs 25 to 36 go home.

It’s really good when the rules of these competitions are so clear and straightforward.

Anyway, the way things are going Arsenal should easily win the games against Dinamo Zagreb and Girona, but the Monaco game which is at home on 11 December is the tougher fixture.  Monaco sit second in the French League, 

A couple of other interesting positions in the 36 team table are Paris St Germain in 25th, Real Madrid in 24th and Manchester City in 17th.     PSG in particular are being really odd.   They are six points clear at the top of the French league above Monaco,  (as is now quite probably ordained in an amendment to the constitution of the 5th Republic), but they have not had the best of times in Europe.

As the BBC pointed out, PSG “have had more shots on goal than their opponents in each of their games – and 58 in total – but have only three goals to show for it.”    Their problem is, as a commentator on Radio 5 put it, “They need 20 chances to score one goal. The other team sneezes and they score.”

So PSG’s new focus on youth and its abandonment of the Galaticos era, is keeping them at the top of the domestic league but not doing the business in Europe.

Thus as things stand it is looking like three of the four English teams will go through – but as for the fourth (ManC) they are starting to give the concept of a “wobble” a more dodgy image.   True, they are still second in the Premier League and indeed still three points ahead of Chelsea and Arsenal, but Arsenal, after their horrific set of away fixtures are getting close.

 

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Liverpool 12 10 1 1 24 8 16 31
2 Manchester City 12 7 2 3 22 17 5 23
3 Chelsea 12 6 4 2 23 14 9 22
4 Arsenal 12 6 4 2 21 12 9 22
5 Brighton and Hove Albion 12 6 4 2 21 16 5 22
6 Tottenham Hotspur 12 6 1 5 27 13 14 19

 

One of the interesting things in this table is that Tottenham Ho are top of the league when it comes to goal scoring, and second in the league when it comes to goal difference.  But when we look at defences, Manchester City have a defence that is performing at exactly the same level as that of such mighty clubs as Fulham, AFC Bournemouth, Everton and Crystal Palace.

Which is rather interesting since Crystal Palace are 19th in the League (although I am not quite sure that I have heard that commented upon on radio or TV, where the committed Mancunians in the media are finding it hard to get their “professional commentator” descriptions together.)

Arsenal as we have noted of course have slipped back compared with their position in the last two seasons but are above where they were three seasons ago.

What is interesting however is that despite disruptions to the defence the goals conceded total is only one more than 2022 and only two more than last season.  Not quite the disaster the media has portrayed.

Anyway, whatever they say, Arsenal’s solidity now seems to be returning…

 

Pos Team/year P W D L F A GD Pts
4 Arsenal 2024 12 6 4 2 21 12 9 22
3 Arsenal 2023 12 8 3 1 26 10 16 27
1 Arsenal 2022 12 10 1 1 30 11 19 31
5 Arsenal 2021 12 6 2 4 13 17 -4 20

 

… and judging by what happened this week in Europe that attack of Arsenal’s is now ready to make up the deficit in goals compared with the last two campaigns – although we are still way ahead of the opening 12 matches in 2021.

 

2 Replies to “In Europe it is getting rather tight, but Arsenal are now the team in form”

  1. To me one thing was telling Tuesdays night. leading 0-2, they were still going for goals. Then with 0-3 at half time, they did not retreat. Yes, Sporting suddenly came at them like a strong gale but they wheatered it and then went back on the offensive. last season, and seasons before, we’d see Arsenal way more cautious after taking such a lead. At least this is how I remember it. There, in the CL, they just went on and on and on. I hope they bring back that mentality to the PL. Full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes.

  2. We’ve had some good results lately but I am unwilling to say that we are the in form team until we’ve put together a few more wins. Not to say that we’ve been lucky or anything but rather I am suspicious of pernicious referees and bad luck.

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