- Pre-match predictions often avoid key issues. But why is this?
- From Arsenal’s 20 a season man through to youngsters who have to wait exactly the right amount of time
By Tony Attwood
Viktor Gyökeres is now the fourth-highest scorer in the Premier League this season. Arsenal are the top-scoring team in the Premier League this season (although ManC do have two games in hand). I thought anyone who said Gyökeres was rubbish, and exactly the wrong man to be bought by Arsenal, would like to know, as the media seem to have forgotten their outpouring against him when he was signed.
And so tomorrow we have Atlético Madrid again. The latest we have on them is that they are now at the bottom of the top four, who invariably pull away from the rest in Spain.
Further down this article is the Spanish league table with the current Arsenal figures set into the final line for ease of comparison. As you can see, Arsenal have played one more game than Atletico Madrid but have conceded 11 goals fewer and have a 20-goal better goal difference with 13 more points achieved.
Now, we have often noticed how much less competitive the Spanish league at the top when compared with the Premier League, and this is easy to see when we look at the difference in the number of points between the top club and the club in fourth, as Atletico is. In Spain, the difference between first and fourth is 25 points. In England, the difference between first and fourth is 18 points. In 2023/24 it was 23 points.
This has been the trend in the Premier League in recent years as well, of course, as the League in England has moved away from the old tendency of no one being really sure who might win the league at the start of each season to the Spanish, French and German model, where most of the time everyone knows who is going to win the league befopre the season starts.
Of course, that would be nice if it were Arsenal, but really, it does take a lot of the fun out of football.Since we can already say that in 2026/27 the winners in Spain will be Barcelona, in Germany it will be Bayern Munich, in France it will be PSG, in Russia it will be Zenit Saint Petersburg, and so on.
Of course, sometimes there is a surprise (as with Russia last season, where Krasnodar won the league for the very first time) but these tend to be one-offs with the normal process resumed in the following season.
Of course, Arsenal’s wait for another title since the last title in 2004, when Arsenal did not lose a single game through the entire season, has been much longer than we ever imagined. At first, that was caused by the funds being diverted into paying off the debts incurred for building the stadium (although in that interlude, we have won the FA Cup five times). But the last five years without a trophy have been a pain, although mitigated by coming second mostly to a club that surely one day will get it come uppance for breaking over 100 Premier League financial rules.
But back to the present. Here is the Spanish league table with Arsenal’s position added at the foot. I have also included Valencia as since the first leg Atletico have played one game and that was a 0-2 away win against that team. Valencia sit 12 in the current table in Spain So we might take it that this was not a major test for Arsenal’s opponents this week.
|
Club
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
34
|
29
|
1
|
4
|
89
|
31
|
58
|
88
|
|
|
34
|
24
|
5
|
5
|
70
|
31
|
39
|
77
|
|
|
34
|
21
|
5
|
8
|
64
|
39
|
25
|
68
|
|
|
34
|
19
|
6
|
9
|
58
|
37
|
21
|
63
|
|
|
34
|
10
|
9
|
15
|
37
|
50
|
-13
|
39
|
|
|
35
|
23
|
7
|
5
|
67
|
26
|
41
|
76
|
Of course, the big difference is the strength in depth of the two leagues, but even so I think this gives an idea of where Arsenal have got to.
On the injury front the Standard tells us that Kai Havertz sat out at the Emirates at the weekend, but Mikel Arteta is hopeful both Havertz and Saka will be able to face Atletico. As for Timber, Arteta said that Timber was doing some on-pitch training but is not yet ready for a game. There is also hope that Merino might return as a sub before the season is finished – although that might be slightly risky, and of course depends on whether anything is still up for grabs as the last match is played.
Manchester City are playing Everton (who are 11th in the league) tonight at 8pm and then have games against Brentford (7th in the league) and Crystal Palace (15th in the league). I am not hopeful that any of them can do us a favour, but still, you never know, so all fingers are crossed.
