By Bulldog Drummond
As we await kickoff, here’s a little extra reading on the match…
Last season Arsenal had several bad runs in the league.
Everyone knows about the opening three league games, because for months the media focussed on little else when Arsenal were mentioned. Then we had three defeats in four games in November / December.
The January poor run was primarily FA Cup and League Cup, but the four defeats in five games was totally a league affair in March / April, and the two consecutive defeats in May stopped us getting into the Champions League.
But what we haven’t fully considered is whether other clubs also find themselves in this sort of situation – getting several runs of bad results.
In the early part of last season Leicester went through a spell where they had just two wins in nine – away to Norwich in the League and Millwall in the League Cup.
Then again from the last match in October through to December, it was just two wins in nine in all competitions. Indeed if we just look at their league matches they had two runs of five games without a win.
Arsenal at their worst had two runs of three consecutive league games in which all were lost. And it is obvious that any club with ambitions for top places needs to be able to stop this happening – to take a defeat when it comes and then immediately respond with a win. In short, not to let a defeat become a series of defeats.
So that must be the aim, which takes us on to how we have done against Leicester in the past. And this has a curious twist.
Arsenal started playing Leicester in the league in 1895 when Leicester had just been relegated to Division II. Arsenal won only two games out of the first dozen between the teams. But then at the turn of the century things started to pick up a bit.
After the first four games in the 20th century, with two with the home side winning each time, Woolwich Arsenal got their act together. Across the next 14 games, Leicester didn’t win a single match.
There was then a series of eight games in which six were draws, the last of which was 6-6, which I think was the Arsenal game with the most goals. And then the fun started. Between 20 September 1930 and 15 March 1960 Arsenal and Leicester played each other 23 times – all in the league save one in the FA Cup. Arsenal won 15, Leicester won once. Among Arsenal’s victories was a 2-7 away win in 1931, an 8-2 home win in 1932, and an 8-0 home win in 1934.
Moving to more recent times the last half dozen have seen four wins to us.
| Date | Match | Re | Score | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Jul 2020 | Arsenal v Leicester City | D | 1-1 | Premier League |
| 23 Sep 2020 | Leicester City v Arsenal | W | 0-2 | League Cup |
| 25 Oct 2020 | Arsenal v Leicester City | L | 0-1 | Premier League |
| 28 Feb 2021 | Leicester City v Arsenal | W | 1-3 | Premier League |
| 30 Oct 2021 | Leicester City v Arsenal | W | 0-2 | Premier League |
| 13 Mar 2022 | Arsenal v Leicester City | W | 2-0 | Premier League |
And so we move on to the managers. Each joined their respective clubs in 2019, although Rodgers joined early that years.
| Manager | From | P | W | D | L | Win % | Trophies |
| Brenden Rodgers | 26 February 2019 | 169 | 81 | 37 | 51 | 47.92 | FA Cup 2021 |
| Mikel Arteta | 22 December 2019 | 131 | 71 | 22 | 38 | 54.20 | FA Cup 2020 |
In managerial terms I am sure we got the best deal.
What a goal ! And the build-up in the box was just splendid.
How lovely to see Vardy making an assist for us…. ;=))
Fantastic football. It looks like Wengerball to me.
Well done VAR official Mike Dean for not letting Vardy con the ref into getting a penalty.
@Mick,
it sure is one of the sweetest halves I’ve seen for years and years : Vardy making an assist for Arsenal and being denied a penalty…
But, what I don’t get is this : if he fell and it was not penalty, that means he tried to trick the referee and it should be a yellow, should it not ?
And just now, on replay one can see it was a clear penalty on Jesus.
The afternoon keeps being very nice indeed. manure losing to brentford 4-0 after 35 minutes….
2 Games in esp the current game against brentford, Lisandro Martinez looking bad, Arsenal dodged a bullet big time, definitely does not seem worth the money Arsenal was willing to pay for him but time will tell.
Tony is going to love the stats :
Arsenal, 8 tackles, 15 fouls, 1 yellow
Leicester, 11 tackles, 9 fouls, 1 yellow
@Chris…I agree…How did Vardy not get a yellow for that display in our box?
Great match, great performance. Jesus will get the headlines but Martinelli for me the most outstanding player on the pitch. What a workrate, what a great desire. His goal was typical for his performance. Winning the ball near the halfway line, then playing it forward and what a sweet shot with his left foot. Completely deserved this goal and it killed the match. The way the whole team is running and fighting for every ball is impressive. Long may it continue.
Well, a fun stat to look at :
Jesus Gabriel : 2 games, 2 braces
Erling Haaland : 2 games, 1 brace
Help me with one question guys : when was the last time Arsenal had a Nr 9 like we’ve got now ?
The Arsenal performance was very good, unlike Darren England’s. Why are PL referees so poor?
@Chris. Jesus has the same stats as Haaland. 2 games, 1 brace. How this will develop is going to be very exciting.
What I don’t get is this allowing players to kick others with no foul given or the commentator that say it was just a slight trip like Martin on our guys. I marvel that the ref allows so much niggly stuff to take place while not doing their jobs. Makes me think PIGMOB has given instructions to allow the ‘ruff’ stuff in games….