Wolves v Arsenal: the interesting twist that others don’t want to repeat

 

• Wolverhampton v Arsenal: Wolves are NOT bottom of the “last six” league.
• How are Arsenal doing compared to recent years; and what is possible?

By Tony Attwood

Now here’s a thought: in the last six games Wolverhampton do not have the worst points tally in the league, for that level of mass underachievement is held by the might Tottenham with two pints.  Sorry, two points.  It just looks like they play after having two pints.

Now I fully admit I would like Arsenal’s last six games to have been better.  Although we can note that following the defeat to Manu, Arsenal’s results have been five wins and a draw as the table below shows.

 

Date	Game	Res	Score	Competition
28 Jan 2026	Arsenal v FC Kairat Almaty	W	3-2	Champions League
31 Jan 2026	Leeds United v Arsenal	W	0-4	Premier League
03 Feb 2026	Arsenal v Chelsea	W	1-0	League Cup
07 Feb 2026	Arsenal v Sunderland	W	3-0	Premier League
12 Feb 2026	Brentford v Arsenal	D	1-1	Premier League
15 Feb 2026	Arsenal v Wigan Athletic	W	4-0	FA Cup

 

So no need for lots of panic just yet, although I rather suspect that if any of the journalists see the above table, they will be making the most of it.   For they can prove anything with statistics, and they usually do.   But if you are concenred just remember that in their last six matches Arsenal have scored 17 and conceded three.   That’s something to contemplate ahead of tomorrow’s game.

But of course, we have to consider how Arsenal have done historically in terms of playing Wolverhampton W’s.

In fact Arsenal have won 67, drawn 28 and lost 32 against Wolverhampton.  In other words, the majority of the games have been won by Arsenal.

 

What is strange is that although the results are very lopsided, the fact is that only once has Arsenal gone above scoring two goals in a single match.

Meanwhile, the Sun “newspaper” (I use the word in its lightest form) is running the story that football supporters across the galaxy (or at least in the street outside the Sun’s offices in The Shard) are up in arms because they allege that the draw for the FA Cup is fixed! 

Their “evidence”, is that this season Arsenal have been drawn against Portsmouth, Wigan Athletic and now are apparently away to Mansfield Town on 7 March, although the date may be changed at the whim of TV companies.

In fact, and indeed one might say inevitably, the silly billy newspaper writers have got this back to front.   For the match fixing has actually been in the past – a past which has meant that since 1909, when Mansfield first entered the FA Cup, both they and Arsenal have been in the competition each year it has been played, and yet this is only the second time they have ever been drawn against each other.  If anything sounds like match fixing it is surely this keeping of the two clubs apart.

In fact, the only time the clubs played each other in the FA Cup or indeed any other competitions, was on 26 January 1929, in the FA Cup.    The game was at Highbury, and I can report that Arsenal won 2-0 although I wasn’t there.

And don’t let anyone tell you that this was because Mansfield Town are a lower league team and always get knocked out of cup competitions.   In 1976/77 they were promoted to the second tier, and so in 1977/78, they entered the FA Cup in the third round, just as Arsenal did.  The clubs didn’t play each other, but they might have done.

Thus if Arsenal getting three lower league teams in a row in the competition is match fixing, then so is Arsenal not getting lower league clubs in other seasons.  I await a set of facts and figures from those currently alleging fixing, in relation to earlier seasons.

Of course, the Sun could also try and find out the last time a club scored four goals in two consecutive rounds of the FA Cup, as Arsenal have done this season.  And, I am sure they will be presenting all the facts to the Met Police, who will be conducting full and detailed enquiries into why newspapers waste everyone’s time with such tales.