By Tony Attwood
It is truly difficult, if not utterly impossible, to say something positive about today’s football. Except of course that it confirms the validity of the blip theory that we developed here. Although I guess “theory” is far too grand a word for it, for all the Blip Theory says is that if a club is on a good run and has one defeat it is likely to have another.
Arsenal as we have just seen have had a blip and three-quarters or maybe more. And I guess to be fair, if at the start of the season we had been told that after 32 games the table would look like this…
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal | 32 | 21 | 7 | 4 | 62 | 24 | 38 | 70 |
| 2 | Manchester City | 30 | 18 | 7 | 5 | 60 | 28 | 32 | 61 |
| 3 | Manchester United | 31 | 15 | 10 | 6 | 56 | 43 | 13 | 55 |
| 4 | Aston Villa | 31 | 16 | 6 | 9 | 42 | 37 | 5 | 54 |
… we would for the most part have been delighted, saying things such as “I’ll have that.”
But how can we have had a run of results in which, after 14 games without a defeat, we have lost three in the last four to Manchester City, Southampton and AFC Bournemouth
I guess that those of us old enough to remember and have been at the Unbeaten Season were somehow thinking that this could be done again, not least because, through much of that season, journalists and their pals were sneering at Arsenal and saying it wouldn’t last.
We didn’t have any blips in that season, at least not in league games that ended in defeats. But now we have just had three defeats and four, and although that still doesn’t mean the ManCs will catch us even if they win their two games in hand, it feels like they are there snapping at our heels.
And of course the fact that they have got away with just sitting on the 100+ charges of match fixing through spending money they should not have done, it just seems to feel that we are never going to win againsts them.
Now of course, if you read my regular ravings on this site, you’ll know how much I enjoy laughing at Tottenham, simply because they seem to be a club with such a superiority complex when they are in fact such an inferior club. What is it they have? Two league titles and about eight FA Cups – something like that, which really is not very impressive when compared with 13 league titles and 14 FA Cups for Arsenal.
But still it hurts, what is happening at the moment, because the journalists will be saying that this is what they predicted all the way through, even though they didn’t. And the fact that the club is still top of the league, and still in the Champions League.
Yet what is so worrying is this wretched “blip” business – the prediction we made that can apply to all clubs and which now applies to Arsenal, that after doing so well in terms of winning matches, a bunch of draws and defeats come along at once.
Now of course, if both Arsenal and Man City win all their matches left this season, Arsenal still win the League and the Mancs won’t, but that is a logical answer. Losing at home to Bournemouth is not logical at all. And my response is not logical – it is totally emotional.
We can still win the league…. it is just these wretched emotions that get in the way. They (emotions) are what make humans the dominant species on the planet, but my goodness, they can get in the way.
But is there something else?
Well, actually yes, because three times this season ManC have lost not just one game, but two in a row. In fact, when we come to look at this, we find that despite the emphasis given by the media to ManCs challenge against Arsenal, they are even more prone to blips than Arsenal this season.
In fact, a very quick look at the ManC results this season shows us no less than five blips in the course of the campaign..
| Date | Match | Result | Score | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Aug 2025 | Manchester City v Tottenham Hotspur | L | 0-2 | Premier League |
| 31 Aug 2025 | Brighton and Hove Albion v Manchester City | L | 2-1 | Premier League |
| 22 Nov 2025 | Newcastle United v Manchester City | L | 2-1 | Premier League |
| 25 Nov 2025 | Manchester City v Bayer Leverkusen | L | 0-2 | Champions League |
| 01 Jan 2026 | Sunderland v Manchester City | D | 0-0 | Premier League |
| 04 Jan 2026 | Manchester City v Chelsea | D | 1-1 | Premier League |
| 07 Jan 2026 | Manchester City v Brighton and Hove Albion | D | 1-1 | Premier League |
| 17 Jan 2026 | Manchester United v Manchester City | L | 2-0 | Premier League |
| 20 Jan 2026 | FK Bodo Glimt v Manchester City | L | 3-1 | Champions League |
| 11 Mar 2026 | Real Madrid v Manchester City | L | 3-0 | Champions League |
| 14 Mar 2026 | West Ham United v Manchester City | D | 1-1 | Premier League |
| 17 Mar 2026 | Manchester City v Real Madrid | L | 1-2 | Champions League |
So while I am upset about what happened this afternoon, it may not be quite as awful as it has felt since that final whistle went. Other clubs get dips just as much as Arsenal does.
