- Tottenham still above Arsenal in the league (if you count it this way)
- Referee bias is absolutely proven, but no one wants to investigate
By Tony Attwood
There is a bit of chatter at the moment about this being the worst Tottenham team or the worst ManU side in the club’s history, along with the usual retaliatory headlines in the Telegraph such as “Ange Postecoglou snaps at BBC reporter after Spurs’ latest defensive implosion and” “The worst team maybe in Manchester United’s history” – that being said by Amorim – although like most things coming out of Manchester, it isn’t actually true.
The worst ManU side I can remember and the worst TinyTotts side both appeared just a couple of season apart in the 1970s:
| SEASON | Pos | Club | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1973–74 | 21 | Man U | 42 | 10 | 12 | 20 | 38 | 48 | 32 |
| 1976-77 | 22 | Tottenham H | 42 | 12 | 9 | 21 | 48 | 72 | 33 |
… and yes it is possible that either club (or indeed both) could sink to the levels of their respective worse years – but really it does seem rather unlikely with 16 games to go, but we can always enjoy it as the story unfolds. The current positioning of the troubled two, compared with the top two is…
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liverpool | 21 | 15 | 5 | 1 | 50 | 20 | 30 | 50 |
| 2 | Arsenal | 22 | 12 | 8 | 2 | 43 | 21 | 22 | 44 |
| 13 | Manchester United | 22 | 7 | 5 | 10 | 27 | 32 | -5 | 26 |
| 14 | West Ham United | 22 | 7 | 5 | 10 | 27 | 43 | -16 | 26 |
| 15 | Tottenham Hotspur | 22 | 7 | 3 | 12 | 45 | 35 | 10 | 24 |
And it is worth remembering that on 1 December Tottenham were 7th and Man U were 9th. and both were still, (just six weeks ago) being talked up as top six finishers – something that seems a little more unlikely now. Indeed the thought for each must be that they could end up finishing the season below West Ham United and Everton (the latter having the second worst defence in the entire division). Sadly (in terms of our amusement) I can’t see either of them going down however.
Still at least we can see Tottenham having a proper function – which is to stop the media ceaselessly moaning about Arsenal. Meanwhile for Arsenal Women there was an emphatic 5-0 win over Crystal Palace leaving Arsenal second in the table although still seven points behind Chelsea. What was particularly interesting here was the possession figure – it was 76% in Arsenal’s favour.
And the “attempts” figure suggests it was an interesting game too, with 15 off target for Arsenal and 8 on target against two off target for Palace and one on target.
Meanwhile, there is no sign of any player actually joining Arsenal despite months of speculation from the media. There’s not much point going through all the names because we know that anything from 97% to 100% of the rumours will turn out to be untrue but will be useful to the journalists who will then blame the next game Arsenal don’t win to be due to the club’s “failure to sign X” even though the attempt to sign him was nothing more than a rumour anyway.
However, we do have some news on possible return dates for injury players as supplied by Premier injuries.
- Fit again: William Saliba
- Fit again: Riccardo Calafiori
- 2 February: Ethan Nwaneri
- 2 February: Takehiro Tomiyasu
- 2 February: Ben White
- 29 March: Bukayo Saka
- 22 November: Gabriel Jesus
So by 2 February which is when Arsenal play Manchester City we could have five of those seven back with us – although given the way this season is going that does not mean that there will not be any more men down by then.
In the PL Injuries table Arsenal are registering seven, which is fewer than Bournemouth, Brighton, Chelsea and Tottenham. Now we have to remember that under Arsene Wenger it was constantly said that the reason Arsenal had so many injuries was because of Wenger’s insane training sessions, and given the way the media like to recirculate old tales (as it doesn’t cost any money to do so) that one could come back again (ignoring of course the four clubs that have more injuries that Arsenal.
There is however another important point to be noted about injuries that is often missed and that is once a player has an injury he is replaced either by a player who has not been playing regularly at the top level, or by a player who is moved out of position to cover for the injured man. In both cases this temporary fix can itself lead to another injury as players are being asked to play in a way they are not used to.
Last month the BBC did a “days lost through injury table” for the season thus far and found Brighton at the top with 638 days lost through injury, Ipswich with 530, Tottenham on 408, and Arsenal on 406. At the foot of the table was West Ham with 141. Quite how WHAM have done this I don’t know, but it would be worth finding out.
