by Bulldog Drummond
As we all know, the season started so well including a nice win against Fulham in the League, as Arsenal meandered through three different competitions winning the first five games.
| Date | Game | Res | Score | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 Aug 2020 | Arsenal v Liverpool | W | 5-4* | Community Shield |
| 8 Sep 2020 | Ipswich Town v Arsenal | W | 1-2 | Football League Trophy |
| 12 Sep 2020 | Fulham v Arsenal | W | 0-3 | Premier League |
| 19 Sep 2020 | Arsenal v West Ham United | W | 2-1 | Premier League |
| 23 Sep 2020 | Leicester City v Arsenal | W | 0-2 | League Cup |
The Football League Trophy, in case you’ve missed it, is a competition in which Premier League under 21s play Football League club first teams, at the league club grounds.
Anyway, only two were league games of those first five, but we won them, and even when we then lost to Liverpool! in the league we still won three more in a row, although again from a mix of competitions.
But then the defeats started to mingle more frequently with the wins until we played 10 games in all competitions in December and only won four of them. Woe, woe and thrice woe, twice.
And in reality it ain’t been that much better of late when looked at in these terms, across the last six games
| Date | Game | Res | Score | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Mar 2021 | Arsenal v Olympiakos | L | 0-1 | Europa League |
| 21 Mar 2021 | West Ham United v Arsenal | D | 3-3 | Premier League |
| 3 Apr 2021 | Arsenal v Liverpool | L | 0-3 | Premier League |
| 8 Apr 2021 | Arsenal v Slavia Praha | D | 1-1 | Europa League |
| 11 Apr 2021 | Sheffield United v Arsenal | W | 0-3 | Premier League |
| 15 Apr 2021 | Slavia Praha v Arsenal | W | 0-4 | Europa League |
Two wins in the last six? Hardly the thing to get us excited, especially as one was against the bottom club and one against a European team owned by a Chinese corporation that has started to be wound up by the Chinese state.
And what does this tell us? That even for fairly logical supporters who make an effort to look at the facts, supporting a club is an emotional not a rational thing. The fact is, today it FEELS good.
I suppose that is what annoys me so much: the media trying to pretend that in their ceaseless knocking of Arsenal they are being rational, when in fact they are not. And nor are those of us who stay loyal.
Yes, I know Untold has broken with its desire always to support the manager, over the issue of Arteta and discipline. There’s nothing wrong with disciplining players when they step out of line, but the Wenger model of “not seeing” transgressions, and saying that with a smile, always struck us as the best way forward – and besides it was a way of laughing at the media as much as anything.
Still, I do like the way Mr Arteta flies out of camera shot before the interviewer has even finished saying “Thank you” at the end of the interview. And of course we want Arsenal to win.
So what of tomorrow – the return game with Fulham? Here’s the home/away table.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | Arsenal home | 15 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 18 | 18 | 0 | 21 |
| 15 | Fulham away | 15 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 15 | 18 | -3 | 16 |
Yes Arsenal are better at home than Fulham are away this season, but only by three goals and only by turning three draws into wins. Mind you it was only the other day Untold was pointing out that five draws turned into wins would have taken us into the top four. But we never said we were logical.
The key point however, is surely, attitude. Fulham’s last six games in the League show us
| Date | Game | Res | Score | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 04 Mar 2021 | Fulham v Tottenham Hotspur | L | 0-1 | Premier League |
| 07 Mar 2021 | Liverpool v Fulham | W | 0-1 | Premier League |
| 13 Mar 2021 | Fulham v Manchester City | L | 0-3 | Premier League |
| 19 Mar 2021 | Fulham v Leeds United | L | 1-2 | Premier League |
| 04 Apr 2021 | Aston Villa v Fulham | L | 3-1 | Premier League |
| 09 Apr 2021 | Fulham v Wolverhampton Wanderers | L | 0-1 | Premier League |
A rather remarkable win over Liverpool away – but Liverpool are still doing well away – we had to play them at home where we have not been so good.
Indeed that is the only thing seemingly standing in our way tomorrow. We are playing at home.
More anon.
Arsenal v Fulham: the history in videos
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- Someone is trying to fake football stats – and doing it rather well,
- Crowdless stadia stats reveal fallacy of PGMO claims
- Proving unconscious bias by referees
- How clubs manipulate referees through their tactics
- Referees are not 98% accurate but only 75% accurate
The Arsenal video collection: free
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