By Bulldog Drummond
Traditionally Premier League clubs don’t put out their first team squad to play in the league cup, as they did in days of yor, so working out what is going to happen in tomorrow’s game is going to be somewhat difficult.
There having been no draws in the Premier League thus far, the table is looking a little odd at present – we simply have a group of teams with six points, some with three and some with none. And nothing in between. Here’s the top of the league
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leicester City | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 6 |
| 2 | Everton | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 6 |
| 3 | Arsenal | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 6 |
| 4 | Liverpool | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 6 |
| 5 | Crystal Palace | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
What we don’t know of course is just how weakened a team each manager will put out. Not a full strength XI of course, but under 23s, or first teamers not getting games at the moment. Maybe the latter, with a smattering of the former. After all it does no one any good if Arsenal put out a group of young players while Leicester give us members of the first team squad, and they overrun the lads.
Plus this is Leicester, the home of the curious statistics that we turned up last season – those strange figures relating to tackles, fouls and cards which then suddenly changed part way through the season after we’d published those stats.
It is going to be easier to track these this season, since now, following last season’s revelations (although that is not to say there is a direct cause and effect) the Premier League figures include all three statistics, making it much easier to compare clubs.
However it is too early after just a couple of games to give a fulsome analysis, but just this simple table shows the difference in styles of the two clubs.
| Rank | Club | Tackles | Tackle success | Fouls | Yellow cards |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7. | Leicester City | 30 | 53% | 12 | 2 |
| 16. | Arsenal | 20 | 50% | 11 | 2 |
Leicester however are nowhere near the top as the full tackles table thus far shows…
| Rank | Club | Number of tackles |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Leeds United | 56 |
| 2. | Everton | 40 |
| 3. | Crystal Palace | 39 |
| 4. | Wolverhampton Wanderers | 39 |
| 5. | Southampton | 36 |
| 6. | Chelsea | 33 |
| 7. | Leicester City | 30 |
| 8. | Fulham | 29 |
| 9. | Liverpool | 27 |
| 10. | Brighton and Hove Albion | 25 |
| 11. | Sheffield United | 25 |
| 12. | West Bromwich Albion | 25 |
| 13. | West Ham United | 24 |
| 14. | Newcastle United | 23 |
| 15. | Manchester City | 22 |
| 16. | Arsenal | 20 |
| 17. | Tottenham Hotspur | 17 |
| 18. | Manchester United | 14 |
| 19. | Burnley | 12 |
| 20. | Aston Villa | 5 |
Now as we know last season Leicester were way out on their own in terms of the number of tackles with 742 tackles all season to Arsenal’s 584 – and obviously we are going to have to wait to see how this pans out this season. Also we will be looking at the tackles to fouls to yellow cards ratio.
Moving on we can also look at Leicester and Arsenal in the FA Cup and League Cup. As the table below shows we have played them twice in the league cup, once in 1974 and once in 1991.
Each time the games started with a 1-1 draw, but then in the first game Leicester won 2-1 while in the 1991 edition Arsenal won 2-0.
| Date | Game | Res | Score | Competition |
| 18 Feb 1922 | Arsenal v Leicester City | W | 3-0 | FA Cup |
| 26 Jan 1935 | Leicester City v Arsenal | W | 0-1 | FA Cup |
| 06 Mar 1971 | Leicester City v Arsenal | D | 0-0 | FA Cup |
| 15 Mar 1971 | Arsenal v Leicester City | W | 1-0 | FA Cup |
| 13 Jan 1973 | Arsenal v Leicester City | D | 2-2 | FA Cup |
| 17 Jan 1973 | Leicester City v Arsenal | W | 1-2 | FA Cup |
| 10 Sep 1974 | Arsenal v Leicester City | D | 1-1 | League Cup |
| 18 Sep 1974 | Leicester City v Arsenal | L | 2-1 | League Cup |
| 14 Dec 1974 | Arsenal v Leicester City | D | 0-0 | League Division One |
| 15 Feb 1975 | Arsenal v Leicester City | D | 0-0 | FA Cup |
| 19 Feb 1975 | Leicester City v Arsenal | D | 1-1 | FA Cup |
| 24 Feb 1975 | Leicester City v Arsenal | W | 0-1 | FA Cup |
| 25 Sep 1991 | Leicester City v Arsenal | D | 1-1 | League Cup |
| 08 Oct 1991 | Arsenal v Leicester City | W | 2-0 | League Cup |
| 09 Jan 2000 | Arsenal v Leicester City | D | 0-0 | FA Cup |
| 19 Jan 2000 | Leicester City v Arsenal | L | 0-0 | FA Cup |
Interestingly there are only two Leicester wins in that whole table of 16 games.
There have been six occasions in which the clubs have been drawn together in the FA Cup. On five occasions Arsenal have gone through, and once (the most recent game in 2000) when we lost. Four of the FA Cup games went to replays. In 1975 the game went to two replays.
I suspect much will depend on how much the manager of each team sees this game as important as opposed to a game to give the youngsters a chance. My guess would be that it will be more a back-up player game rather than a youngsters game.
We shall see.
- Video of the recent game for Arsenal’s youngsters, ahead of the Leicester match
- There is a crisis in football and PL adopts different rules from Europe
- Fifa starts to implode, and the strange case of lack of UK interest in events
Gunners for life
Is this game being broadcast? On which channel or broadcaster?
The game is on https://carabaocup.live/
It costs £10 for the game, and the quality is very good. Infinitely superior to Now TV. No tech problems at all.