- Supposing you wanted to fix a match, what could you do?
- Arsenal v Chelsea; and which teams have had the most managers in the PL era?
By Tony Attwood
Of the major tournaments that both Arsenal and Chelsea have competed in, Arsenal have regularly been the winners. Arsenal have won the 1st division or Premier League 14 times and indeed the FA Cup 14 times, while Chelsea have won six league titles and eight FA Cups. Only when we get down to the League Cup do we find that Chelsea come out better, having captured that five times to Arsenal’s twice.
But perhaps that is slightly balanced by the fact that they have only picked up the Community Shield four times while Arsenal have grabbed it no less than 18 times.
However in Europe they really have gone much further than Arsenal with the Champions League twice, the Cup Winners Cup twice, and the Europa League twice – obviously far exceeding Arsenal. So Arsenal do the domestics, and Chelsea find their way around Europe.
But which ever way we look at the domestic competitions Arsenal get one over on Chelsea. Arsenal have won 71 of the league games between the two (40% while Chelsea have just won 54 (30%). Similarly in the FA Cup Arsenal have won 10 matches to Chelsea’s five.
If we look at the league matches, and look at the last ten years we find Chelsea have won the league once, they have come in third twice, 4th three times, and then 5th, 6th and 12th once.
The last ten years for Arsenal reveals one title, three seconds, three 5th place finishes, a 6th and two 8th. So one title for each club in the last decade. But last season did show something of a falling off for Chelsea…
| Club | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal | 38 | 26 | 7 | 5 | 71 | 27 | +44 | 85 |
| 10 | Chelsea | 38 | 14 | 10 | 14 | 58 | 52 | +6 | 52 |
Chelsea appear to have brought in 18 players, and sold or otherwise got rid of 21 players – although I may have miscounted along the way – that does seem rather a lot and my numbers numbers come from totaling up the lists on Transfer Markt. Either way that seems a bit over the top.
If we do it by money, the Chelsea arrivals this summer are calculated at costing 406 million euros, while those leaving permanently or going on loan had a value of 493 million euros. So what this looks like overall is a total change around of a team and a half. Who knows how well they can play together, or indeed if they are ever intended to play together?
Now of course if we look at the table above and see that Chelsea ended up 33 points and a 38 goal difference behind Arsenal one can understand to some extend the fact that Chelsea needed to get rid of almost everyone and buy a new team. Except that experience shows that it can take more than half a dozen practice matches at the start of the season for players to gel with each other.
And certainly in recent seasons Chelsea have explored ways of using the transfer market that others have never touched before. Goodness knows how the supporters have had time to get a new chant for each and every player they are finding on the pitch. But they do make use of their partnerships with LA Galaxy, PSV Eindhoven, Vietesse and RC Strasbourg Alsace.
But on the other hand they are right up there with Arsenal at the top of the league this season… the two teams each have six points from two straight wins, along with Hull City and Manchester City.
|
Club
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
3
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
7
|
2
|
5
|
9
|
|
|
3
|
2
|
1
|
0
|
3
|
0
|
3
|
7
|
|
|
2
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
4
|
0
|
4
|
6
|
|
|
2
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
7
|
5
|
2
|
6
|
Which points to the one weakness in the Chelsea side – the defense as we have noticed before. Beating Fulham 3-2 and Brighton 4-3 sounds like fun, but probably gives the defense coach heart attacks.
So there we have a complete turn around for Chelsea in terms of their team, and what we might call a wild-west approach to the game. And I guess 4-3 as a result is a lot more exciting than 1-0, so it can’t be knocked.
The last three games between he two teams at Stamford Bridge have ended as draws, but the three games at the Bridge before that ended up as Arsenal victories… 1-0 to Arsenal in 2001, 4-2 and 1-0 in 2022. In fact if we take the last seven games at the Bridge between the two clubs the total score is 12 goals to Arsenal and eight to Chelsea.
In fact in the seven games between the two since May 2023, Arsenal have scored a total of 15 goals while Chelsea have scored seven, which again seems to be somewhat encouraging.
Chelsea of course were dissatisfied with coming mid table last season, hence the rebuilding of the entire team. Whether they have had time really to get themselves together since then I guess we shall see in the match itself.
