- What do you do when you invest half a billion pounds in players and it goes wrong
- Why do Arsenal always do so badly away from home under this referee?
By Tony Attwood
It is so easy to get drawn into the notion of this being a record-breaking season, and from there, to start looking around for other records to be broken. To try and get a grip on all this, in the table below I have included the last five seasons after ten games and then at the foot, the position after ten games the last time Arsenal won the league.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal today | 10 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 18 | 3 | 15 | 25 |
| 5 | Arsenal 2024 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 17 | 11 | 6 | 18 |
| 2 | Arsenal 2023 | 10 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 23 | 8 | 15 | 24 |
| 1 | Arsenal 2022 | 10 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 24 | 10 | 14 | 27 |
| 6 | Arsenal 2021 | 10 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 12 | 13 | -1 | 17 |
| 1 | Arsenal 2003 | 10 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 19 | 8 | 11 | 24 |
So as w can see, Arsenal are currently better off by one point than in the Unbeaten Season, but two points worse off than in 2022/3 when Arsenal came second and seven points better off than last season when we also came second. Which once again reminds us of the basic fact:
If Arsenal wins the league, it depends as much on how other teams do as on how Arsenal does. It is a bit like the statistics that journalists choose to quote. Currently we are told how many years it is since Arsenal last won the league, because that seems to journalists to be a way of noting Arsenal’s failure. They don’t often talk about which three teams have won the league the most times (Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal in case you didn’t know) nor how many times Tottenham have won the league (twice, the same as Preston North End, Derby County, Burnley and Portsmouth.)
The fact is, all sorts of games can be played with statistics, like saying that Arsenal’s record number of consecutive wins is actually 14. At the moment, the club is on nine points. The season the club hit 14, it came second – which reminds us again, picking the club after a great run comes to an end, can be harder than achieving the run in the first place.
Although we can, of course, all celebrate the current league table, which shows Arsenal seven points above the second club, despite having scored two fewer goals than in 2023 and 2022 by this stage in the campaign. But to be fair, we must also say that Bournemouth have a game in hand.
But there again, to be clear, my point is not that the forward line needs to sharpen up (although I am sure it will do when we can start bringing on Martinelli, Havertz and Odegaard once again) but rather that each season is different. And not just at the top of the league.
Last seeason the club in 18th got 25 points and so obviously went down. In 2024 it was 26 points (Luton). . In 2023 it was Leicester again with 34 points. In 2022 Burnley went down with 35 points. Thus top and bottom the numbers vary from season to season, thus stressing the fact that the difference between the top and bottom teams year on year varies enormously – and that how many points is needed to win the league or avoid relegation depends on the level of competition.
The most points gained in a PL season is 100 or 2.63 points a game, while Arsenal are currently on 2.5 points a game. So to beat that record Arsenal are going to have to keep their run going a bit longer. Here’s the comparison with then and now…
| Club / year | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
| 1 | Manchester City 2017 | 10 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 35 | 6 | 29 | 28 |
| 1 | Arsenal 2026 | 10 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 18 | 3 | 15 | 25 |
So, for now, we must conclude that Arsenal are NOT on track to get the all-time record number of points – at least not in terms of comparing the situation with the record holder after ten games. But there are still 28 games to go! And if we really do want to have a bit of a smile, we can always consider the review of our local rivals of late, where we have seen such headlines as “Tottenham’s confused mess of a team exposed in what was described as an “oddly shapeless game of football,”
But perhaps what is a bit worrying for the status of the “Premier League” is that a club that is a “confused method” can actually be in fourth position, and thus might qualify again for the Champions League next season. But I am sure the journalist who wrote that can explain.
Good morning Tony
Following yesterdays Manc win over The Cherries ( my new ‘local team’) we now sit 6 points ahead of them with a +15 GD compared to their +12
So it’s all looking rather splendid.
And lets not forget we have still to see anything of Havertz or of course Jesus. Very little of Madueke. Odegaard has been absent for a good part of the season. That’s not to mention both Sake and Martinelli have been side-lined for not insignificant periods.
This may go some way to explain why our numbers in the ‘for’ column are not quite as high as we may of hoped for, or expected. Once we start to see these absentees return on a more consistent basis I fully expect our offensive play to start producing a much better return.
Talking of injuries, and ‘ahem’…..excuses:
“Tottenham’s confused mess of a team exposed in what was described as an “oddly shapeless game of football,”
Oddly shapeless??? According to my brother and Farther in laws, who are both Spurs fans, it was the worst performance they had EVER seen from a Spurs team, and as you can imagine that has some pretty stiff competition. The fact they had 3 shots, 1 on target for an xG of 0.11 suggests they may have a point. Chelsea had 15/9 for an xG of 3.69.
As I said a couple of weeks ago, aside from Tottenham’s admittedly brilliant performance at the Etihad, they had been very poor. I think everyone with any knowledge of football could see that. Yet despite that, prior to Sundays match at home to Chelsea, so desperate are some of these journalists to constantly ‘big up’ Tottenham no matter what, this is what we got from one particularly visually challenged hack in the Sun.:
“Standing room only in Tottenham’s physio suite…..which just goes to show what a job Thomas Frank is doing in North London”
Really?
Apparently the problems they are having are nothing to do with the coach or the players. It’s either the fault of having so many injuries (and there was I thinking that was no excuse?). Or the fault of the ‘Home’, fans who apparently make the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which oddly enough still hasn’t attracted a sponsor, “…feel too much like a tourist attraction”. Though why a tourist would want to waste his money watching that lot he doesn’t explain!
Oh, happy days. Long may it last.
COYG’s