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By Tony Attwood
With Arsenal top of the league and the media’s favourites languishing a bit behind, it is not surprising that we have seen suggestions in the media that the level of entertainment in matches is down. This will undoubtedly be followed by a view that the number of people going to games and watching on TV is down, and of course, the fault is all Arsenal’s.
Although it is true, there might also be a mention of the goalless draw between Wolverhampton and Newcastle. That was the 17th goalless draw of the season, which is more goalless draws than we had in the whole 2024/25 season, although things are still not as bad as they were in 1998/9 when 13% of games ended up goalless.
The last goalless draw against ManU whom we play tomorrow, was back in January 2021. And concerning goalless draws, Arsenal and Manchester United are pretty much average.
Now I mention this because although Arsenal have had two goalless draws this season, they are memorable because they have occurred in the last five games – at home to Liverpool on 8 January and away to Nottingham Forest on 17 January. And I wonder, is this how teams are now going to take on Arsenal for the rest of the season?
As things stand, Arsenal are not too different from the table toppers in recent times at this stage in the past couple of seasons…
| Team | Pl | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal 2026 | 22 | 15 | 5 | 2 | 40 | 14 | 26 | 50 |
| 1 | Liverpool 2025 | 22 | 16 | 5 | 1 | 54 | 21 | 33 | 53 |
| 1 | Liverpool 2024 | 22 | 15 | 6 | 1 | 51 | 19 | 32 | 51 |
The one big difference, of course, is the number of goals scored by the top team at this point . And that could suggest that Arsenal this season are a worse team than the recent Liverpool sides, but it could also be noted how the already low levels of goals against by this stage in recent years have been reduced even further.
In terms of goal difference, the top two have goal differences of +26 and +24, while the third, fourth and fifth placed team in the league have goal differences of just +8, +4 and +6.
Yet by the end of last season, the third and fourth placed teams had goal differences of +45 and +35. Back in 2023/24 the top two each had goal differences of +62, and in 2022/23 the goal differences at the end of the season were +61 and +45 for the top two.
In fact, 2023/24 was the supreme goal-scoring season, with more goals in the top league than any time since the 1960s. But on the other hand, this season is still running higher than two-thirds of the seasons since the Premier League was initiated.
So we have not gone back to the Jose Mourinho era when goals per game dropped to its lowest level. But what the league table does show is just two teams getting their goals for and against ratio where everyone wuold like it to be. Here is the current table arranged in Goal Difference order
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal | 22 | 15 | 5 | 2 | 40 | 14 | 26 | 50 |
| 2 | Manchester City | 22 | 13 | 4 | 5 | 45 | 21 | 24 | 43 |
| 6 | Chelsea | 22 | 9 | 7 | 6 | 36 | 24 | 12 | 34 |
| 3 | Aston Villa | 22 | 13 | 4 | 5 | 33 | 25 | 8 | 43 |
Now compare with the end of last season
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liverpool | 38 | 25 | 9 | 4 | 86 | 41 | 45 | 84 |
| 2 | Arsenal | 38 | 20 | 14 | 4 | 69 | 34 | 35 | 74 |
| 3 | Manchester City | 38 | 21 | 8 | 9 | 72 | 44 | 28 | 71 |
| 4 | Chelsea | 38 | 20 | 9 | 9 | 64 | 43 | 21 | 69 |
In fact what we are back to is the 2023/24 appearance for goal difference, when the top two (ManC and Arsenal) each had a GD of +62.
Yet goal difference is often something is ignored when writers take up the current theme of suggesting football is changing.
What is actually happening is that teams further down the league are putting all their energies into improving their defences. And to overcome this, teams at the top of the league are ensuring that when they do get free kicks and corners against the all-out-defensive teams, they are making much more use of them than before. Hence the arrival of the “set piece specialists.”
As a result, we find that Arsenal have scored 19 goals from corners this season with a pattern of movement that we have all got used to seeing this season.
And yet even though this happens game after game, it seems that defenders, who don’t mark the individual players but take a position in a line closer to the corner flag from which the ball is delivered, are visibly unnerved by this run of players who start off behind them. There is always the temptation of the defenders to turn and look and see where this mass movement has got to, rather than watching the ball come across from the corner, and this is as much part of Arsenal’s tactics as anything else. As a result, more goals are being scored from corners than at any time in the last 15 years. But of course, eventually defences will learn how to counter this. So the question now is, do Arsenal have an alternative up their sleeves?
If so, we are still waiting to see it.
