Wolverhamton v Arsenal; and the team that gives Southampton hope

 

 

 

• Arsenal glide through despite the warnings and demands
• An interview on Radio 5 about “North London Forever”

So we are playing at 3pm on a Saturday – which seems a very curious time, and I’m pretty sure that won’t catch on.

But still let;s do the usual comparison.

 

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
2	Arsenal	22	12	8	2	43	21	22	44
17	Wolverhampton Wanderers	22	4	4	14	32	51	-19	16

 

So overall Arsenal have won three times as many games as Wolverhampton, drawn twice as many as Wolverhampton, and Wolverhampton have lost seven times as many games as Arsenal – and all this in the league this season.  And as a bonus, Wolverhampton have let in almost two and a half times as many goals as Arsenal meaning that Arsenal have a goal difference almost three times the size of Wolverhampton’s.

And so with that pleasing news, let us move on to the home and away mix…

 

Pos	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
18	Wolverhampton Wanderers home	10	2	1	7	14	23	-9	7
4	Arsenal away	11	5	4	2	21	12	9	19

 

So even allowing for Arsenal’s extra away game, Arsenal have won more than twice as many away games this season as Wolverhampton have won at home.  On the basis of the above table, above Arsenal should win 1-2. 

But we always do need to look at the last six games to see what is going on, of late.  And here,  in order to offer a fulsome educational set of data, I think some details beyond that of the two protagonists tomorrow should be included.

So for a start, Arsenal have slipped a little behind Nottingham Forest in the last six games, but are running alongside Liverpool.  Arsenal need to be working on transferring draws into wins to ensure the tree dwellers don’t sneak up into third place overall.

 

But as we look at the lower reaches, life does become more amusing.  In the last six games Arsenal have gained double the number of points of Wolverhampton, while they have also scored almost twice as many goals and conceded just over half the number of goals let in by Wolverhampton.   And yes I know there is a lot of “almost” and “just over” but it still makes the point.

Although even more to the point there is the case of the Tiny Totts from round the bend.  Still being talked up by the media they are now in 18th place over the last six games, so our tales of their decline were not exaggerated, after all.  Indeed from here on I think Tottenham ought to be known as the team that can give Southampton hope.

So let us consider in a little more depth, the form of the “Wolves” as they like to be known.   And for this, I think, a look at the last ten games is always helpful as it can give a bit more perspective than just considering the last six.

In their last ten league games Wolverhampton have lost seven, drawn one and won two.   But perhaps of even more interest than that, is who they actually managed to beat.   They beat Leicester City (currently 19th in the league) and Manchester United (currently 13th).   And if that sounds strange, the beating of ManU, we should remember that the mighty journalistic favourites have themselves only won two of their last nine league games.  So perhaps too much delirium over that result was somewhat over the top.

In this run of matches from 30 November onward, Wolverhampton have conceded 25 goals, although perhaps we should add that interestingly, aside from the wins over Leicester City and Manchester U, they did also manage a draw against the mighty Tottenham Hots.

So I think we can conclude that Wolverhampton if they are travelling in any direction, that direction is down.  They did have a period of four matches in October and November of which two were wins and two were draws, but these matches were against clubs going nowhere particularly fast, and so perhaps do not tell us as much as we might imagine.

More anon.