Why beating the Little 14 is more important than beating the rest of the Big 6

7 Replies to “Why beating the Little 14 is more important than beating the rest of the Big 6”

1. i wouldn’t go as far as to say it’s unimportant because when you are fighting for the same positions, the matches between the big 6 become massive considered what’s at stakes and allow the team lot of breathing space if we manage to pickup decent result against big 5/6 oppositions. to dismiss that notion as unimportant is somehow kind of undermines our own team and if this young Gunners what to evolve into greater height they have to somehow stamp their authority onto the big 5/6 rivals. and it’s humiliating when our big club sometime get his butt kicked by the little 14 clubs

2. The “big six” is a figment of the media’s imagination. We play 19 other teams each season. If we lost every game against the other five of the “big six” we’d drop 30 points. If we won every other game, we’d collect 84 points over the season.

   That would have been enough to see us in the top 3 every year for the last ten years and been enough for one premier league title. The media make up stories to suit an agenda and that agenda certainly isn’t about showing Arsenal in a good light.

   What matters is how we do against the “big 20”, not just against a small minority of them.

3. If and only if clubs always beat the clubs they should beat then matches against clubs you wouldn’t expect to beat would be important. But in practice that doesn’t happen, certainly not this season. Every game is worth three points regardless of the opposition, whoever wins most games comes out on top, there are no extra points for beating better teams. Maybe the City v Liverpool game is a season decider this time around. But if it is its only because of City losing to Spurs when everyone still had them down as title winners. Its not just journalist who like simplistic analysis, plenty of fans make similar comments.

4. The obvious point, however, is that in addition to the 3 point which we would hope to get against all 19 opponents, there is significance in being able to deprive the opponents of their potential 3 points. Thus a win against a top team does have added importance.

   The converse is true for teams fighting relegation, epitomised in Burnley v Everton this week. I don’t suppose that either club cares what happens in matches involving teams near the top of the table.

   The plus 3 is the same in any match; it’s the minus 3 which may count for more!

5. Tony

   “Today’s kick around story in the media is that Arsenal are in a dire position because we have a terrible record against the other members of the traditional “big six” (which is today Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, and Manchester United). And this is the reason why Arsenal are (according to the critics) unlikely to make it into the top four come the end of the season”.

   Well, Part One of that statement is true. Part Two most definitely isn’t. If it was we wouldn’t be where we are would we ? 5th, on level points with Spurs and with a game in hand.

   When I do my predictions my system never has us doing great against the ‘big six’ yet even with Chelsea, Spurs and Man Utd left to play I still have us to finish level on points with Spurs.

   ARSENAL

   H Brighton 13th = 3 pts
   A South’ton 12th = 3 pt
   A Chelsea 3rd = 0 pts
   H Man Utd 7th = 3 pts
   A West Ham 6th = 1 pt
   H Leeds 16th = 3 pts
   A Tottenham 4th = 0 pts
   A Newcastle 15th = 3 pts
   H Everton 17th = 3 pts

   Total = 54 pts 19 pts = 73 POINTS

   TOTTENHAM

   A A.Villa 11th = 3 pt
   H Brighton 13th = 3 pts
   A Brentford 14th = 3 pts
   H Leicester 10th = 1 pts
   A Liverpool 2nd = 0 pts
   H Arsenal 5th = 3 pts
   H Burnley 19th = 3 pts
   A Norwich 20th = 3 pts

   Total = 54 pts + 19 pts = 73 POINTS

   As you can see I have us to lose against both Chelsea and Spurs, which I think is likely, and even dropping 2 points at West Ham. The one big team I have us to get a result against is Man utd at home. Now given they are currently languishing down in 7th place, and given their current level of performance, I am reasonably confident we can beat them at home.

   Obviously with the system I implement for my predictions we do have to ‘put away’ all the others from the ‘Little 14’, but that’s what we have been doing. Why should that suddenly change? And if it doesn’t we are still in a great position to come 4th.

   But as I said prior to the Crystal Palace game, which I predicted a draw for, and it was always going to be extremely tough, any defeat there was going to mean that all of a sudden we are the worst team in Europe.

   So as much as doing better against the traditional ‘Big Six’ would give us more latitude against the ‘Little 14’ it is not a problem as long as we put the ‘Little’ones away.

   Plus of course with my system, we have an ‘ace in the hole’ because any sort of result at the Toilet Bowl swings things massively in our favour.

6. EPL consists of four mini-leagues:

   Top 3: Fighting for a championship

   Next 5: Fighting for Euro spots

   Mid-table: 8 teams happy to stay in EPL

   Bottom 4: Fighting for relegation

7. You’ll have to revise your predictions sir