- Promotion to and relegation from the Premier League has changed beyond recognition
- A recognition of the effect of injuries and Arsenal’s brilliant response
By Tony Attwood
The headline is typical: Leandro Trossard double secures victory for Arsenal at 10-man Ipswich It makes it sound as if the fact that Ipswich were playing with ten men was the reason Arsenal won, whereas in fact Arsenal were 2-0 up when the Ipswich player was sent off. Plus the point that should have been made is that Ipswich were already heading for an obvious defeat, and so there was not even the slightest excuse for the foul that led to the sending off. But for journos such points are mere details, so that wasn’t said.
Now I particularly mention this because it is this sort of constant negativity about Arsenal that we see all the time as it inevitably encourages those who support other teams to see Arsenal as some sort of ceaselessly cheating club, with endlessly whining supporters. A club that only gets anywhere through being unfair.
This then suggests that actually Arsenal are not very good and urgently need to bring in new players – a notion that then leads to criticism of the manager for not buying them, and indeed the players we have for not being good enough.
Such views can of course be overcome by facts but the media generally don’t give us the facts, so here are one or two that might help in case you are challenged by anyone over such issues. For example in answering a challenge about Arsenal not really being that good.
To answer that you could consider not just the last one or two seasons but the last 100 games played by teams that have been in the Premier League. Now that is not something you normally see but it is a table that is available and here’s the top of that league, plus a few more for interest.
For clarity, I should add that the table only includes Premier League games and not cup matches.
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal | 100 | 64 | 23 | 13 | 216 | 91 | +125 | 215 |
| 2 | Manchester C | 100 | 66 | 17 | 17 | 221 | 100 | +121 | 215 |
| 3 | Liverpool | 100 | 64 | 23 | 13 | 215 | 107 | +108 | 215 |
| 4 | Aston Villa | 100 | 52 | 21 | 27 | 173 | 143 | +30 | 177 |
| 7 | Manchester U | 100 | 46 | 19 | 35 | 140 | 132 | +8 | 157 |
| 8 | Tottenham Ho | 100 | 44 | 14 | 42 | 185 | 163 | +22 | 146 |
| 9 | Chelsea | 100 | 39 | 28 | 33 | 158 | 140 | +18 | 145 |
What is interestinig is that we have three teams all on exactly the same number of pomts, but with Arsenal on top due to the goal difference. Now it is of course quite true that over the last 100 games Manchester City have scored more goals than Arsenal – five more goals in fact – which raises the question, should Arsenal be disrupting the way the club has been playing just because one team has scored a grand total of five more goals than Arsenal in past two-and-two-thirds seasons? It seems rather odd when such a move could in fact disrupt the whole set-up of the team.
Mind you we have also seen calls for Arteta to be sacked so maybe that is not so weird after all.
There is also another factor that is worth noting, in that in the last 100 games Arsenal have had the best defence in the Premier League – the only club in the league to have conceded under 100 goals in the last 100 games.
Of course, the table does hide some things as well – such as the poverty of Tottenham’s performance this season. But then again it does go to emphasise just how much of a collapse Tottenham have had of late.
So to summarise this situation, Arsenal are within two goals of having scored the most league goals in the past 100 games, and have done this while having the best defence in the league in the last 100 games. And that of course raises two questions, why then has Arsenal not won the league, and the aforementioned, do we need a new striker?
The answer of course is the vast array of injuries Arsenal have suffered to key players this season – not least to the two top goal-scorers in the side. So perhaps one could also add, Arsenal have been the best team in the league over the last 100 games in spite of a) these injuries and b) the team in second place having spent more than anyone else, ever, in recent seasons.
Which leads to one little PS – those legal cases against ManC have still not yet been settled. The word I have heard (which of course cannot be verified so is not of the same stature as the list of who has scored the most goals) is that ManC have suggested that if they are found guilty of anything they will go to court and drain the Premier League of all its money. Maybe so, maybe not. But if not, then why is it taking so long to reach a conclusion on any of the offences of which ManC have been accused?
Regarding Manchester City , Did anyone think that it would end up any differently ? Financially they have held the whip hand from the very beginning.
I wss surprised for the Ipswich sending off as seen it many times and never had a sending off for it. But the Ipswich fans were booing Saka for “pretending” to be hurt.
Tony
“Now I particularly mention this because it is this sort of constant negativity about Arsenal that we see all the time as it inevitably encourages those who support other teams to see Arsenal as some sort of ceaselessly cheating club, with endlessly whining supporters. A club that only gets anywhere through being unfair.”
Just the norm Tony.
I noticed a couple of negative comments during the match that made no sense at all. One by Gary Mowbry on MOTD, and one by TNT’s Darren Fletcher. I was going to mention them at the time but couldn’t be arsed in the end, but as you’ve brought up this endless negativity that we face, I may as well put it up because it just supports what you are saying.
Firstly regarding Saka’s penalty, or more accurately regarding Arsenals penalties in general this season. Following Saka’s miss we had this from MOTD’s Gary Mowbry:
“Arsenal, as a team, have not been great from the spot this season”
Haven’t they?
For a start, prior to that penalty we had only been awarded 3 penalties in total all season. 2 in the premier League and 1 in the Champions League. Now that ridiculously low number would of been worthy of mention, but of course not a word. So, what happened with those 3 penalties that wasn’t so great then?
All taken by Saka ALL SCORED.
I know it isn’t much in itself, it’s more about the ‘narrative’ of which Tony speaks.
Arsenal haven’t been great at penalties this season is just wrong. It’s a LIE. So why did he say it?
-Is he just so bad at his job he actually hasn’t got a clue about our penalty stats this season?
-Is it just a reflex action to say something negative about Arsenal?
-Does he actually believe that simply because the endless negativity has seeped into his subconscious, which leads him to believe Arsenal must be crap at penalties because they are crap at everything?.
-Is he under instruction to say something negative about Arsenal no matter the validity?
Either way it is disgracefully incompetent commentary.
Then we have Darren Fletcher on TNT Sport who said a few things that were just plain wrong.
He starts with “Arsenal have been absolutely magnificent” which is true. But he still had to find the negative angle. He went on:
“I just wonder as well, the bigger picture, what this means to Arsenal, as a club, because the one thing they have struggled to do is win the big games, when it matters. You think about how close they’ve come to winning the Premier League but they’ve always found a fixture that’s ended up seeing Manchester City finish above them”
Well, the first thing to say is that every single game ‘matters’ when going for the title. But that isn’t really what he is saying is it? The inference is that we ‘bottle’ it in the ‘big games’. But do we? Unless of course what he is suggesting is that losing one match to Villa in an entire half of a season is bottling it? It cost us 3 of just 5 points we dropped from NY’s day to the final final day of the season. That is not bottling it in the big games. Man City dropped 6 points over the same period. Did they ‘bottle it’?
He went on:
“This season they’ve lost too many games”.
Well, true enough, but that is a catch all isn’t it, because any team that doesn’t win the league has obviously lost ‘too many games’ or more accurately in our case this season, ‘drawn too many games’.
And he finishes with:
“They’ve not won a trophy for a while”.
Well, if 4 years is a while fine, but honestly hardly a catastrophe, and the reality is we’ve won 4 FA Cups, and been PL runners up 3 times in 11 seasons, numbers many a club would die for.
Anyway, just for Fletchers sake, this is our record in those ‘Big Games’, or against the ‘Big Six’ if you prefer, over the last 3 seasons:
From 25 matches we have won 14 and lost just 3. We have scored 49, let in 32 for a GD of +17 achieving 50 points
Our closest rival is Man City, who from their 24 matches have won 11 and lost 6. For those numerically challenged that’s twice as many. They scored 46 and let in 32 for a GD of + 14, achieving 40 points. That’s 10 less.
Obviously it gets progressively worse for the rest with Liverpool on 37 points, Man Utd 24, Spurs 23 and Chelsea a pathetic 19.
I think all that suggests we are not only pretty good when it comes to the ‘Big games’, but we are actually the best.
I would also suggest that visits to Wembley for Finals, Semi Finals and Community Shield are ‘Big Games’, and as such I think winning 12 of our last 13 visits would add weight to the notion we are actually pretty good in those ‘big Games’ wouldn’t you?
The negative agenda, or narrative, whatever you want to call it, is always there.