By Tony Attwood
- Arsenal prepare for the Champions League: is the club improving?
- Arsenal in the Champions League tomorrow: so far it is looking rather fine
Last season after eight games, Liverpool, who you might recall won the league in that campaign, had conceded three goals and scored 15. This season after the same number of games, by chance Arsenal have exactly the same goals tally of 15-3 despite having two fewer points than Liverpool at that stage, having drawn, rather than won one of their games.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liverpool 2024 | 8 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 15 | 3 | 12 | 21 |
| 1 | Arsenal 2025 | 8 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 15 | 3 | 12 | 19 |
For Arsenal this has been a year of decline in terms of goal scoring, although only slightly, as the club has scored one goal fewer than last season, aqnd also a decline in defence, having conceded two goals more. And I mention this because although the current run of ten wins and one defeat in the games so far in all competitions, this is not the very best Arsenal team we’ve seen recently, except in defence.
And the point of that statement is that there is no guarantee that Arsenal win just sail on winning game after game. For if you wish to find a negative to go with the situation, so far Arsenal have not scored more than two goals in any game since the fourth match of the season against Forest (who for reasons that cannot be explained had a very odd manager). Indeed, as Arteta recently said, “In modern football, the margins and the results you see … it’s one goal most of the time.”
As for Atletico Madrid in the past 15 days they have only played one competitive match – a league game in which they drew aaway to Celta Vigo on 5 October, with their schedule being affected by internationals as much as Arsenal’s.
Since winning the league in Spain in 2021, they have come third in the league three times and once fourth, so a real consistency there. In the Champions League they have gone out once in the group stages, once in the round of 16, and twice in the quarter finals – so they are clearly experienced in the Champions League matches, but not expected to reach the semi-finals..
And it is I think worth looking back to last season’s group stages where they not only won six games, as Arsenal did, but actually scored four more goals. Where they were let down was in defence, conceding 12 to Arsenal’s three in the round of eight games.
| P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liverpool | 8 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 17 | 5 | +12 | 21 |
| 2 | Barcelona | 8 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 28 | 13 | +15 | 19 |
| 3 | Arsenal | 8 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 16 | 3 | +13 | 19 |
| 4 | Inter Milan | 8 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 1 | +10 | 19 |
| 5 | Atletico Madrid | 8 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 20 | 12 | +8 | 18 |
| 6 | Bayer Leverkusen | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 15 | 7 | +8 | 16 |
| 7 | Lille | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 17 | 10 | +7 | 16 |
| 8 | Aston Villa | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 13 | 6 | +7 | 16 |
It is perhaps also interesting to note how at this stage a year ago Aston Villa seemed to be on an upward curve, being one of the top eight teams in Europe. They finished the Premier League season in sixth place but are now 11th in the League and are playing in the Europa League. But perhaps most interestingly of all, after qualifying last season, they failed to win any of their five opening games this season.
These sorts of results show that the “dips” of which we have spoken in relation to Arsenal (as the cause of coming second rather than winning the league in recent years) is not just an Arsenal phenomenon, but can affect many clubs that challenge for the top.
Indeed, it is hard to imagine that Liverpool who won the league last season and were so highly praised for that achievement in the media, have just lost four consecutive matches – to Crystal Palace, Galatassary, Chelsea and Manchester United with a goal difference across those four games of 3 scored, seven conceded. A glitch in the season that could be even worse than those affecting Arsenal in recent years.
Arsenal’s success in coming second for each of the three previous seasons shows that such blips in form can be overcome, but Liverpool’s record last season suggests that to win a competition, there really can’t be any such series of losses and draws. And this of course, applies as much to the Champions League opening round as anything else.
Arsenal’s results so far in the competition have been very satisfactory – a 0-2 away win against Athletic Bilbao and a home win by a similar score against Olympiakos (a match you might recall that the media had us tipped to lose because of a couple of previous defeats to that club – ignoring the regular wins that we have achieved along the way.
We should be ok this evening, but nothing can be taken for granted.
