- Mikel Arteta and the benefit of having a complete clear out
- Liverpool show signs of the “dip” syndrome, which Arsenal have overcome
By Tony Attwood
As I have often pointed out before, the media are never happier than when they are moaning, and despite Arsenal being top of the league, negatives are found, such as “can they win either if Viktor Gyokeres’ numbers do not drastically improve?”
One might also ask, can Arsenal win the league if Liverpool win every single match they play from now on? It’s just a way of making up stories to fill space. Which is why I do the comparison between one season and another after a set number of games because it shows not only how Arsenal are doing but also how Arsenal are doing in comparison to other clubs. After all, Arsenal could have their best season ever in terms of points, but still not win the league if Liverpool or some other club also had their best season ever, which turned out to be an even better season.
And the fact is that even though Arsenal are top of the league, they are actually one point behind where they were after seven games last season and two points behind where they were after seven games in 2021. Which of course makes the point that as much depends on the performance of other teams at the top as it does on Arsenal.
Of course, there is only so much one can do during the interlull with the results so far, so it is not surprising that some of the media turn to looking at the transfers of the summer and how they have done so far. In a sense, that is fair enough – the clubs spent absolute fortunes this summer, and we all like to see who got the best deals. But players are generally signed on four-year contracts (unless it is Chelsea playing games with the regulations), and as we know from history, some expensive players can take a while to settle in.
The Daily Mail has done a piece on this sort of issue, which rates Liverpool’s signing of Hugo Ekitike for £79m as the deal of the summer, not least because he scored in their first three games. But that nomination does hide the fact that after seven games, Liverpool have the tenth worst defence in the league, having conceded three times as many goals so far as Arsenal.
In second place, they put Nick Woltemade, who moved from Stuttgart to Newcastle and scored three goals in four games. But I think part of the reason for that nomination is the normal poor form of forwards signed by Newcastle. He scored in his opening three league games at home, which is a nice record to have, except it doesn’t really do much for the club’s overall league position. Newcastle are currently 11th in the league, and actually below Manchester United (a factor that now seems to be the standard measure for how well or badly a supposedly big club is doing). Arsenal have conceded two goals fewer and scored eight goals more than Newcastle so far.
Now, to be fair to the newspaper, they do then bring in two Arsenal players in third and fourth positions in this chart…. and indeed have another in sixth place which really does make the point of how worthwhile Arsenal’s gigantic summer splurge is turning out to be.
Martin Zubimendi is in fact, placed third in their chart, Eberechie Eze comes in fourth, and just for good measure Viktor Gyokeres comes in sixth.
Obviously, this is just one newspaper putting a list together, and really the most remarkable thing about it is that it is a newspaper praising Arsenal rather than criticising the club and its players. We get sentences such as “Watching Martin Zubimendi play football feels a real treat,” which are simply unheard of. Their summary is that he “casually glides through games and yet still dominates his opponent,” and one can only gasp at the fact that this is in a newspaper.
Of course this is just one newspaper changing its tune, and there’s nothing too much in that – except that we have lived for years on a diet of media criticism of Arsenal – one thinks back to comments at the end of the unbeaten season in which pundits were prone to comment that the season wasn’t really unbeaten because in April of that season Arsenal lost to Manchester United and Chelosea in a space of four days. And that is true – although the key point is that the former was in the FA Cup and the latter in the Champions League. They also tended to fail to mention that Arsenal finished 30 points (yes thirty points) in the league above Liverpool who came fourth.
But such is the way of things. For the moment, Arsenal are top and Manchester City, Chelsea and Manchester United aren’t even in the top four.
