- Football in chaos: so no change there
- The Premier League’s two giant problems: bullying of youngsters and making huge losses
By Tony Attwood
On the home page of the Daily Telegraph’s football coverage (which is the page you can read without any subscription) there are 18 headlines leading to stories – that you will need a subscription to read (although to be fair most of them turn up on other, free-to-read, websites as well.
At a quick count, I think six of those stories are about Tottenham, or at the very least mention Tottenham in the headline. That is 33% give or take a fraction. And you might recall that Tottenham are this morning 17th in the league – so not actually in the relegation zone, but just a couple of points above it.
In comparison, there is one headline about Arsenal: Arteta, Arsenal’s raft of England withdrawals and echoes of Ferguson
If one goes to the article, it starts, “Manager will be happy to see key players return early from national teams as club fight on three fronts going into the business end of the season.” And yes, I like that, because the more players who don’t go to internationals, the fewer chances there are of
a) reckless players from other international squads injuring our men
b) the England manager playing one of our players knowing he is carrying an injury, but handing the problem of repairing the subsequent damage back to Arsenal
c) players being forced into playing positions which have nothing to do with the way they play at Arsenal, and which can take them a few days or even weeks to get out of their system upon their return
d) players getting exhausted from jetting around the world, learning different tactics, playing games, flying back and then having just a day or two to readjust to proper club football.
But this time, we started with the good news that Saka and Rice came back early for assessments by Arsenal and was followeld by Noni Madueke, who returned to their clubs after sustaining knocks against Uruguay. So a lot of flying around the world for no special reason (I trust England paid for that, not Arsenal) and then a return home. All rather silly.
Which means that we can start the week by looking forward rather than gnawing on fingernails with worry.
And to get an idea of just how dangerous being called up for England is, consider this report on Eze from Wiki. “In May 2021, Eze was called up to the senior England squad for the first time, as part of Gareth Southgate’s 33-man provisional squad for UEFA Euro 2020, but on the same day was injured during a training session.”
Anyway, we can now move on in a positive way, knowing that the next Arsenal match is not until Saturday, when we have the FA Cup quarter final against Southampton, who are currently sixth in the Championship, 17 points behind the leaders.
We will come back to this in more detail as we approach the game, but in case you need some hearty news he are the comparative league positions of the two clubs as they stand at the moment.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal (PL) | 31 | 21 | 7 | 3 | 61 | 22 | 39 | 70 |
| 6 | Southampton (Ch) | 39 | 17 | 12 | 10 | 63 | 48 | 15 | 63 |
So Arsenal have played eight fewer league games, but won four more than Southampton. Southampton have scored two more goals than Arsenal, but they have also let in 26 more, giving Arsenal not only a seven-point lead but also a 24-goal better GD.
And meanwhile, that does leave me a little space to contemplate the noisy neighbours. Untold has long suggested that changing managers rarely brings quick success to a club, and we might recall that Arteta, now seen as something of a star by many of us who support Arsnal (although not of course by the medaia) took Arsenal to two 8th place finishes, before bringing us to 5th, and then the run of three second place ends of season, before the curfrent campaign.
Tottenham Hotspur, of course, do things their own way and sacked their latest manager after 44 games to bring in the ex-Brighton man De Zerbi. I think this is on the basis that if they appoint enough managers in a season by sheer chance one of them might win a few games for the club.
I would say we wished him well, but that wouldn’t be true. But I can say we wish him all the success that his recent (multiple) predecessors have had at the club. And I wonder, has anyone at Tottenham Ho thought that maybe it is not the manager who is at fault, but actually it’s the club itself. I might try contemplating that further…
