Arsenal v Leeds (who have had 27 managers so far this century)

By Bulldog Drummond

• Arsenal v Leeds: two teams travelling in utterly different directions
• The simple trick that will take Arsenal racing up the league next season

Arsenal have the third-best home record in the league this season – here are the top clubs for home matches only.  Manchester United have the same number of home points but have played two more home games than we have.

Home games only

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Liverpool	17	14	3	0	45	7	38	45
2	Manchester City	17	13	2	2	50	13	37	41
3	Arsenal	17	11	2	4	28	15	13	35
4	Manchester United	19	10	5	4	32	22	10	35
5	Tottenham Hotspur	17	11	1	5	34	19	15	34
6	West Ham United	18	9	4	5	31	24	7	31
7	Chelsea	16	8	5	3	32	18	14	29

This means when we come to compare Arsenal at home with Leeds away ahead of tomorrow’s game we can see a distinct Arsenal advantage...

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
3	Arsenal home	17	11	2	4	28	15	13	35
13	Leeds United away	17	4	5	8	20	38	-18	17

From 11 December to 10 March Leeds went on a terrible run of away games in the league

Date	Game	Result	Score
11 Dec 2021	Chelsea v Leeds United	L	3-2
14 Dec 2021	Manchester City v Leeds United	L	7-0
16 Jan 2022	West Ham United v Leeds United	W	2-3
09 Feb 2022	Aston Villa v Leeds United	D	3-3
12 Feb 2022	Everton v Leeds United	L	3-0
23 Feb 2022	Liverpool v Leeds United	L	6-0
05 Mar 2022	Leicester City v Leeds United	L	1-0

Not just one win in seven but also a terribly large number of goals conceded: 25 in seven games.

Since then however, they have picked up, with victories over Norwich, Wolverhampton, and Watford and draws with Southampton and Palace.   So the last six games have yielded three wins, two draws and one defeat (to Man City). 

But of course, these are for the most part games against lower-level teams.  True, I know that as things stand Palace are 12th, and we lost to them, but Leeds have not for the most part been playing teams from the top six.

Except as it turns out in their last match where they had Manchester City at home and lost 0-4.

That result left Leeds very close to the drop zone despite their recent improvements…

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
16	Burnley	34	7	13	14	31	46	-15	34
17	Leeds United	34	8	10	16	38	72	-34	34
18	Everton	33	9	5	19	35	55	-20	32
19	Watford	34	6	4	24	32	69	-37	22
20	Norwich City	34	5	6	23	22	71	-49	21

With there being a six-point gap between Burnley and the club above them – Southampton – this really is the group seeking to avoid relegation, which is why Leeds will be fighting all the way in this game.

However, with 72 goals conceded in 34 games (2.12 a game) they have the worst defence in the league.  Last season after 38 games the worst defence (West Bromwich) conceded 76, so this season with four games to go, we could have two teams concede even more goals.

So Leeds really have taken a tumble compared with last season – and indeed if we look at the final table for last season we can see just how much things have changed

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
7	Tottenham Hotspur	38	18	8	12	68	45	23	62
8	Arsenal	38	18	7	13	55	39	16	61
9	Leeds United	38	18	5	15	62	54	8	59
10	Everton	38	17	8	13	47	48	-1	59

Tottenham and Arsenal have moved up from their 7th and 8th positions, while Leeds and Everton are fighting out the last relegation position with Burnley this season.  Indeed this shows why consistency of management is so helpful.   If the club keeps changing managers all the time, it is as easier to slip to the bottom than it is to rise to the top.

Leeds have had no less than 27 managers this century, 16 of whom have managed more than ten games.  Here is the list of the most recent collection starting with Milanic who joined in September 2014 and ending with Jesse Marsch who joined in February this year.

	P	W	D	L	F	A	Win%	PPG
Darko Milanič	6	0	3	3	4	8	0.00	0.50
Neil Redfearn	33	11	7	15	36	44	33.34	1.25
Uwe Rösler	12	2	6	4	11	16	16.67	1.00
Steve Evans	38	14	12	12	44	45	36.84	1.37
Garry Monk	53	25	11	17	69	55	47.17	1.63
Thomas Christiansen	33	15	5	13	50	38	45.45	1.51
Paul Heckingbottom	16	4	4	8	18	27	25.00	1.00
Marcelo Bielsa	170	80	33	57	224	155	47.10	1.81
Jesse Marsch	8	3	2	3	9	12	37.50	1.37

The point here is that in terms of win percentage Marcelo Bielsa was the second best out of that group and in fact the sixth-best manager (who has stayed for over 10 games) that Leeds have ever had in terms of win percentage.

In fact Bielsa was the most successful manager (who lasted over 10 games) ever at Leeds in terms of points per game.   And they sacked him, replacing him with someone with a worse record.

It’s a funny ol’ game.