- Arsenal not yet right, Newcastle under threat, Tottenham H change their name
- Buying a new forward might have made things better, but there’s no guarantee
By Tony Attwood
As you will of course know, in the next round of the Champions League Arsenal will play PSV home and away. PSV are currently second in the Dutch league having scored 71 goals in 23 games, conceding 26, while winning 16 matches, drawing four, and losing just three games so far.
That goal total looks pretty impressive after 23 games especially when compared with Arsenal’s 51 goals from 26 games. However, we might note that Arsenal have conceded three fewer than PSV – which is not bad considering the relative strengths of the two leagues.
Indeed, we might further console ourselves with the notion that PSV is in the Dutch league and that is not as strong as the Champions League. However all will not be plain sailing for if Arsenal do get through that round, they then will almost certainly play Real Madrid home and away.
Now Real Madrid are second in Spain after 25 games and their record can be compared more directly with that of Arslenal. Indeed the encouraging point is that the two clubs are in similar positions.
| Club | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Arsenal | 26 | 15 | 8 | 3 | 51 | 23 | +28 | 53 |
| 2 | Real Madrid | 25 | 16 | 6 | 3 | 54 | 23 | +31 | 54 |
What is particularly interesting here is that the goals scored have been similar for both clubs, and the key difference between the two clubs is that Arsenal have journalists and fans who are decrying the manager for not signing a striker, while Real Mad don’t. This then of course gives Real Madrid a significant psychological advantage.
Should Arsenal get through that round then they will play the winners of the group containing PSG, Liverpool, Club Brugge and Aston Villa.
PSG obviously we know all about, and they are doing their usual thing in the totally unbalanced French League, the sort of League Manchester City’s owners have looked at and thought “that’s the way to do it”.
The one thing we can say as we note that PSG have 59 points, however, is that the French league is rather like the Premier League this season. The top team (PSG) have 59 points and Marseille in second place have 46: 13 points difference In England the figures are 64 points and 53 points for the top two: 11 points difference.
Meanwhile the media will, of course, continue its remourceless Anti-Arteta campaign, arguing that he has failed the club by not buying a centre forward. He could of course have gone out and bought another one, and left him in the reserves until needed, but then I am not sure the man he bought would be that good. It would after all be a man who was happy to go into the reserves.
The problem we have is that what is said in and on the media defines the conversations around football; supporters tend to follow the lead of the critics. Conversations that buzz around the part of the Arsenal Stadium in which I have my seat are rarely those of the media – they concern the ineptitude or bias of the referee, the nasty tactics of the opposition and occasionally the problems facing Arsenal.
As I am sure you will have noticed the activities of the referees are however never mentioned by the media, which is thus totally out of step with the way many fans see the games. Effectively we are told what is a suitable topic of conversation and what is not and asked too accept that.
Indeed one of the rather interesting topics that we never seem to have discussed is that of just how helpful scoring lots of goals is. The notion is that Arsenal need a goal-scorer. But then what?
It is a point that I have made before but I do think it is worth contemplating again – the second highest scoring team in the Premier League after 26 games is… Tottenham Hotspur. So do we really need to be scoring more goals to be like Tottenham?
Hopefully not since Tottenham are currently 12th in the League. But then if we don’t want to score more goals like Tottenham Hots, what is wanted?
Here’s another point. The top net-spending team in the Premier League over the last five seasons is Chelsea spending £678m. Second is Machester United spending £602m. Should Arsenal really in a race to overtake those two clubs, each of which has been less successful than Arsenal in recent years?
In answer to that I am sometimes told, Arsenal need to score goals like Liverpool do. So let’s have a look.
- In 2022/23 Liverpool scored 75 goals, and Arsenal scored 88
- In 2023/24 Liverpool scored 86 goals and Arsenal scored 91
- In 2024/25 Liverpool have scored 64 and Arsenal have scored 51.
So after two seasons of being in Arsenal’s shadows in terms of goals Liverpool have overtaken us.. This is because up to 15 January (the last date for which this analysis is available) Arsenal have had 20 injuries which have resulted in a player missing one game or more. Liverpool have had 12. Quite simply if Liverpool had had 20 such injuries and Arsenal just 12 the two clubs’ positions in the table would be reversed.
And since top players will not happily sit by doing nothing waiting for another player to be injured, it is impossible to buy enough players to cover every eventuality and keep them all happy if the injuries don’t come along.
