- At last at last. Uefa defeated, St Tots Day is here
- Football supporters are being manipulated by the very people who should be supporting them
By Tony Attwood
So it is Arsenal v Real Madrid tomorrow – and wouldn’t you know it, it is on Amazon Prime – which is fine if you have that subscription, but a bit of a rip-off if you don’t subscribe month by month and just want that game. But then sometimes “money doesn’t talk it swears” as the great man once wrote.
But if you don’t subscribe there is bound to be a commentary on one of the radio stations that carries football. Or maybe your local pub has Amazon TV – although maybe not. I can’t see any highlights listed, so maybe Amazon are keeping it all to themselves, which might be good for commercial reasons, but doesn’t really endear me to the company. Still, Arsenal.com ought to come up with something.
Of course, we are all used to Real Madrid being at the top of the league in Spain, but in fact they are currently second, four points behind Barcelona, with both clubs having played 30 games. Three points behind Real Madrid are Atletico Madrid.
There is an interesting disparity in goals scored in that division however. Barcelona (who as far as I know are still as bankrupt as ever) have scored 83 goals in their 30 games while Real Madrid have knocked in 63.
Arsenal however have only scored 56 goals in 31. Real Mad have lost 0-4 to Barcelona at home, 2-1 to Atletic Bilbao away, 1-0 to Espanyol away, 2-1 to Real Betis away, and then in their last match they lost 1-2 at home to Valencia.
Valencia are 15th in the league at the moment, just three places above relegation. And that was only the eighth match out of 30 that they have won this season.
Now this result has caused quite a lot of anguish in the Madridian ranks with the comment that the club “seem to be close to conceding every time their opponent looks to take a corner.” It seems they also don’t appear to be very good at defending against tall players, either. In fact they have let in 10 goals from corners this season alone (Arsenal please take note). Which compares with three last season. And apparently Real Mad are also pretty prone to the occasional cross into the box.
This is all a bit odd since Real Mad. won the league last season by ten points scoring fractionally under 2.3 goals a game. This season it has dropped to 2.1 a game. That is helpful – but then if we note that Arsenal are on 1.8 goals a game scored, not as helpful as we might like.
So there is nothing to be taken for granted in this game – although we might note that last season Ancelotti was heavily criticised for winning the league without a striker. Playing without a striker? Whoever would do that?
And they have two players who have scored league goals in double figures. Kylian Mbappé has k nocked in 22 in the league and Vinícius Júnior 11. Arsenal’s top scorers are Havertz 15 and Saka 10.
So all of that sounds pretty positive for Real Mad but there are criticisms galore with that old favourite that the manager keeps making stupid mistakes. One commentary (and this is completely unedited) reads “Late substitutions, bad build-ups, bad defense, no intensity, lack of ideas, wastage of resources, gaping holes across the pitch, set pieces: these are just some of the problems Real Madrid have been dealing with all season.”
Yep life is tough when you are top of the league and need something to write about. But it isn’t all bad because we are told that “Kylian Mbappé and Jude Bellingham have been sparing Ancelotti’s blushes ever since they remembered how good they are.”
Real Mad came seventh in the new-formula Champions League. While Arsenal won six, drew one and lost one (goals 16-3) Real Madrid came 11th, winning five and losing three. Their goals were 20 for and 12 against.
But here is the thing that gives us the most hope… Since the start of March Real Madrid have played six games. They have drawn one, won four, lost one. But that one single defeat was in the last match, and comments from supporters showed a certain amount of dismay mostly because they are generally only winning by the odd goal. In fact, in the last nine games they have only won once by more than one goal, and that was a 2-0 win over Girona.
So let’s not give up hope just yet.
