What a strange season it is « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade

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By Walter Broeckx

What a strange season we are seeing this time around.  In fact when you take a look at the league after the same number of games compared to now you can see a few surprising things.

Let us start at the top. I will give you first the current league table and then the one from one year ago.

United were on top last season and they are also on top now. Last season they couldn’t keep it up to the end so let’s hope they do the same again this year.

1	Manchester United	30		18	9	3	64	30		+34	63
1	Manchester United	30		21	3	6	70	24		+46	66

A first thing we can see is that in their first 30 games MU couldn’t win as many games as last season. Last season they won 21 of their first 30 and now only 18. They also scored less goals but on the other hand conceded many more goals.  But when you are top of the league these things are not a real matter for concern. For the moment I would say.

Let us move on to the team in second place. Arsenal that is.

2	Arsenal	29		17	7	5	59	29			+30	58
3	Arsenal	29		19	4	6	69	32			+37	61

Last season we were in third place. We also have 3 points less, just like United. And just like United we managed to win more games then and also had scored more goals. In fact the only difference, and this could come as a surprise is the fact that we actually conceded fewer goals so far.

Move on to Man City

4	Manchester City	30		15	8	7	45	27			+18	53
5	Manchester City	29		14	11	4	55	37			+18	53

Now we have Manchester City in fourth place and in terms of their position in the table this is better than last year when they were fifth after 29 games. And they are one of the few teams in the top of the EPL that have managed to get as many points this season as last season.  And also their goal difference the same.

Let us take a look at the team that just overtook Man City on sunday

3	Chelsea	28		16	6	7	53	24			+29	54
2	Chelsea	28		19	4	5	65	26			+39	61

And then you see a huge difference. A negative difference.  Last season they were in second place and now only in 3rd – and that only because of the win on Sunday.  And they have fewer points compared to last season. And also their goal difference has gone down drastically.  Their win ratio has gone down big time.  It all has gone down a bit over there one could say.

Let us move to 5^th place and this concludes the teams that are in the running for a CL place one could say.

5	Tottenham Hotspur	29		13	10	6	41	34			+7	49
4	Tottenham Hotspur	29		15	7	7	53	28			+25	52

Our neighbours from North London are currently 5^th and this is one place below their fourth place last year.  And just like the other teams in the top and who are fighting for a CL place they have 3 points less. But we have to admit that their goal difference is much better compared to last year. Yet they are a place down and with Chelsea beating Man City there is a bit of a gap between them and the couple of teams scrapping over 3rd and 4th place.

So all the teams in the top 5 have fewer points compared to last season apart from Manchester City who have the same amount of points. All the teams have won fewer games compared to last season apart from Manchester City who have won one more game.

To see this all a bit in perspective and to understand why this trend of the top teams not getting as much points as last season we have to look at the bottom of the league.

9	Sunderland	29		9	11	9	33	35			-2	38
10	Stoke City	30		11	4	15	36	38			-2	37
11	Newcastle United	30		9	9	12	44	45			-1	36
12	Fulham	30		7	14	9	33	33			0	35
13	Blackburn Rovers	30		9	6	15	39	51			-12	33
14	Aston Villa	30		8	9	13	37	51			-14	33
15	Blackpool	30		9	6	15	45	60			-15	33
16	West Bromwich Albion	30		8	9	13	41	56			-15	33
17	West Ham United	30		7	11	12	36	49			-13	32
18	Wolverhampton Wndrs	30		9	5	16	35	49			-14	32
19	Birmingham City	29		6	13	10	28	41			-13	31
20	Wigan Athletic	30		6	12	12	29	51			-22	30

And the most surprising thing is that last year around this was almost the points won by the teams fighting against relegation AT THE END OF THE SEASON!

So when we see the teams at the top struggling to get more points (they actually get fewer points) we see the teams of the bottom win many more games and points.  And in fact the team actually in 12^th place (Fulham) is only standing 3 points away from dropping in the relegation zone. And even Sunderland who have a 6 point gap with the team in 18^th place must keep an eye at the teams below them. Because losing 2 games could bring you right in the relegation zone.

The league is also very compact if you look at the bottom teams. And all teams do have something to fight for.  And this makes it more difficult to win a game. Which we have seen lately and not just by Arsenal. But other teams like Tottenham could not win their game at home against a team fighting for survival.

So the loss of the top teams is the gain of the lower placed teams.  There are no easy games to play for the moment. All the bottom teams are capable of winning any game, even against teams fighting for the title. We have found this out the hard way but also the other top teams have discovered this during the season.

So we are in to a very exciting end of the season. Be it at the top or at the bottom… a lot to fight for and this goes for any team in the league. Will we have the first champion with hardly 80 points this season? Will we have a team going down with 40 points behind their name? It all is possible.

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