Wednesday at 7.30: Brighton v Arsenal. How the clubs are doing of late

 

 

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By Tony Attwood

So after our one week off, in which for once Arsenal did not have to play two games in seven days, we are back to the old routine. Having played a league game on Sunday, we are now into a league game on Wednesday.   I’ve not looked up the records to see if there has ever been a season like this with two games a week over so many weeks, and I am not sure there has.   And it certainly feels different.

This forthcoming game is on TNT if you can’t get there, and kick off is at 7.30pm at the Amex Stadium.  Which, in case you are going for the first time, is not actually in Brighton or even Hove, despite the club’s name.   But it is in fact in Falmer, which by chance (and really of no significance) is where I studied for three years after leaving school.  Hence, I have a vague idea of where it is.

So what of Brighton and Hove of late?  Here’s the last six games table that I regularly quote at this point, and I’m going a little bit beyond the positioning of the two clubs playing each other this time, as it does seem to me to contain a point or two of interest…

 

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Man City	6	5	1	0	12	4	+8	16
2	Man Utd	6	5	1	0	12	6	+6	16
3	Arsenal	6	4	2	0	16	5	+11	14
12	Brighton	6	2	1	3	6	6	0	7
19	Newcastle	6	1	0	5	8	15	-7	3
20	Tottenham	6	0	2	4	7	14	-7	2

 

Arsenal, as we can see, are unbeaten in the last six but sitting only third in the table.   Brighton are just below halfway with more defeats than wins and ten fewer goals scored than Arsenal.   And then moving onwards, then down the foot of the table we have two well-known names – Newcastle United and, in bottom position, the somewhat poorly named Tottenham Hotspur.   

And I do find that Tottenham’s position interesting in that I am not sure it has been mentioned much in the media that here we are seeing a team that has the worst current record in the Premier League.   Although maybe it does get mentioned, and I missed it.

Of course, to be fair, Tottenham do not have the worst record in terms of scoring and conceding goals in the last six games, but their goal difference over that run at -7 is pretty poor.

But back to Brighton, whom we play tomorrow – they too are struggling with the goals, as only Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest and Wolverhampton Wands are doing worse in terms of putting the ball in the net in the last half dozen.

We have in the past, from time to time, also noted the table based on the last ten games, and looking at that table, we have Arsenal second behind ManC, with Brighton in tenth and Tottenham once again at the foot of the table.  So no excuses concerning either tomorrow’s opposition or the noisy neighbours can be set out.  Brighton are mid-table, Tottenham are bottom, and Arsenal are very close to the top.

Arsenal are unbeaten in the last six leaguegames, and have one defeat in the last 14 league games.  Brighton however, have only two wins in the last eight league games – these being in the last two matches played, where they have beaten Brentford away (0-2) and Nottingham Forest at home (2-1).   But the run before those two games of three draws and three defeats has certainly affected their league position.

 

Taking into account home and away games, we have a much closer match where Arsenal have a better record in every metric (points, wins, goals scored, goals conceded), but only just, and we have to take into account that Arsenal have played one more awaygame than Brighton have played at home.

 

This final table does suggest it might be a little trickier than earlier data suggests, although that “last six games” table does bring some extra hope in that view.

More thoughts on the game, later today.