Leeds v Arsenal: what recent results tell us about tomorrow’s game…

By Bulldog Drummond

Previously…

• Leeds v Arsenal: the tackles, fouls, yellow cards. Time for Leeds to wake up.
• Leeds United v Arsenal, the form guide, home and away

So as we consider the game tomorrow against Leeds we can have a look at recent results.  Here’s the league table for the last six games…

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Manchester City	6	6	0	0	18	3	15	18
2	Liverpool	6	6	0	0	17	2	15	18
3	Aston Villa	6	4	0	2	9	5	4	12
4	Chelsea	6	3	2	1	12	8	4	11
5	Tottenham Hots	6	3	1	2	7	5	2	10
6	Manchester Utd	6	3	1	2	7	9	-2	10
7	Arsenal	6	3	0	3	10	9	1	9
8	Leicester City	6	2	2	2	12	10	2	8
9	Wolverhampton Wands	6	2	2	2	2	2	0	8
10	Brentford	6	2	2	2	9	10	-1	8
11	Burnley	6	1	4	1	7	6	1	7
12	Crystal Palace	6	1	2	3	9	10	-1	5
13	West Ham United	6	1	2	3	5	8	-3	5
14	Norwich City	6	1	2	3	3	8	-5	5
15	Newcastle United	6	1	2	3	6	13	-7	5
16	Leeds United	6	1	2	3	6	14	-8	5

We have slipped down to seventh when only the last six games are included, but Leeds are in a much worse position than we are, over the last six.

But if we consider the last ten games however an interesting change is seen…  Leeds position is much the same but we are fourth in the league, exactly where we are for the whole season to date.

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Manchester City	10	9	0	1	26	6	20	27
2	Liverpool	10	8	1	1	31	7	24	25
3	Chelsea	10	6	3	1	24	9	15	21
4	Arsenal	10	6	1	3	18	12	6	19
5	West Ham United	10	5	2	3	14	11	3	17
6	Tottenham Hots	10	5	1	4	13	14	-1	16
7	Leicester city	10	4	3	3	20	17	3	15
8	Wolverhampton Wands	10	4	3	3	8	8	0	15
9	Manchester United	10	4	2	4	13	19	-6	14
10	Crystal Palace	10	3	4	3	16	13	3	13
11	Southampton	10	3	4	3	11	16	-5	13
12	Aston Villa	10	4	0	6	13	16	-3	12
13	Brentford	10	3	2	5	13	17	-4	11
14	Burnley	10	1	7	2	11	12	-1	10
15	Leeds United	10	2	4	4	10	18	-8	10

Both tables should give us quite a bit of hope for the fact is that the horrible start we had with players unavailable, but no chance of any postponement for us (unlike the way clubs are being treated now) is not being repeated overall, and we are doing ok.  Of course, the seventh position over the last six games is not ideal, and are due to three defeats within four games, but we have picked ourselves up and are now once more winning.

And indeed most importantly we’ve got the defence sorted.  Just a few weeks ago we let in nine goals in four games but now it is no goals conceded in the last two.  Also we have just scored five goals in two games, whereas previously it took us four games to get five goals.

In contrast, we can see that Leeds position over the last ten games is much the same as Leeds position over the last six, and indeed pretty much Leeds position over the whole season of 17 games.  They have, in short, not had a couple of poor runs Arsenal have had – the first due to the illness crisis at the same time as introducing a completely new defence, the second when we were unsettled by Lierpool’s sudden change of tactics, and the lost our nerve against Manchester United.

Of course, we should not have been so easily unsettled, but it happened.  And now we are recovering.

If we look at the last ten games of Leeds United in the league what we see is a club struggling against much of the opposition.

Date	Match	Res	Score	Competition
16 Oct 2021	Southampton v Leeds United	L	1-0	Premier League
23 Oct 2021	Leeds United v Wolverhampton Wands	D	1-1	Premier League
31 Oct 2021	Norwich City v Leeds United	W	1-2	Premier League
7 Nov 2021	Leeds United v Leicester City	D	1-1	Premier League
21 Nov 2021	Tottenham Hots v Leeds United	L	2-1	Premier League
27 Nov 2021	Brighton and Hove v Leeds United	D	0-0	Premier League
30 Nov 2021	Leeds United v Crystal Palace	W	1-0	Premier League
5 Dec 2021	Leeds United v Brentford	D	2-2	Premier League
11 Dec 2021	Chelsea v Leeds United	L	3-2	Premier League
14 Dec 2021	Manchester City v Leeds United	L	7-0	Premier League

This emphasises the fact that both in the last-six analysis, and the last-ten analysis, our goalscoring far exceeds that of Leeds.  Across the last ten games, our goal difference is 14 better than Leeds.  Across the last six, our goal difference is nine better.

Also we might note that Leeds’ three victories thus far in the league have come against, Watford, Norwich and Crystal Palace and each by just one goal.  The league table shows us the calibre of that opposition…

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
11	Crystal Palace	17	4	8	5	24	24	0	20
12	Brentford	16	5	5	6	21	22	-1	20
13	Brighton and Hove Albion	16	4	8	4	14	17	-3	20
14	Everton	17	5	4	8	21	29	-8	19
15	Southampton	17	3	8	6	16	26	-10	17
16	Leeds United	17	3	7	7	17	32	-15	16
17	Watford	16	4	1	11	21	31	-10	13
18	Burnley	15	1	8	6	14	21	-7	11
19	Newcastle United	17	1	7	9	18	37	-19	10
20	Norwich City	17	2	4	11	8	34	-26	10

Thus all three victories are against teams in the lower part of the league; clubs placed 11th, 17th and 20th.

So although it is true we are away, and our away form is much poorer than our home form, this should not be a moment for suspecting this will all go wrong.