Tuesday, September 25th, 2012 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. 800,000 visits last month
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Making the Arsenal
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By Walter Broeckx
The season is still very young and so it is difficult to predict what can happen for the rest of the season. But there is something that is interesting when we look at last season and this season.
| Table on 18.09.2011 | Full | |||||||||
| P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pt | |||
| 1 | Manchester United | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 21 | 4 | +17 | 15 | |
| 2 | Manchester City | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 17 | 5 | +12 | 13 | |
| 3 | Chelsea | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 6 | +2 | 10 | |
| 4 | Newcastle United | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 2 | +2 | 9 | |
| 5 | Stoke City | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 5 | -2 | 8 | |
| 6 | Aston Villa | 5 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 6 | 4 | +2 | 7 | |
| 6 | Everton | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 4 | +2 | 7 | |
| 8 | Liverpool | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 7 | -1 | 7 | |
| 9 | Queens Park Rangers | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | -2 | 7 | |
| 9 | Wolverhampton Wndrs | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | -2 | 7 | |
| 11 | Tottenham Hotspur | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 8 | -1 | 6 | |
| 12 | Sunderland | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 4 | +2 | 5 | |
| 13 | Norwich City | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 7 | -2 | 5 | |
| 14 | Swansea City | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 5 | -2 | 5 | |
| 15 | Wigan Athletic | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 7 | -3 | 5 | |
| 16 | Blackburn Rovers | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 10 | -3 | 4 | |
| 17 | Arsenal | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 14 | -8 | 4 | |
| 18 | Fulham | 5 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 7 | -3 | 3 | |
| 19 | Bolton Wanderers | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 13 | -5 | 3 | |
| 20 | West Bromwich Albion | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 8 | -5 | 3 |
This is where we found ourselves after 5 games in the last season. Cesc gone, Nasri gone, a terrible beating at Old Trafford, losing 4-3 to Blackburn (with a little help from the ref but still). Only 1 win and 1 draw in 5 games. Position 17 was the unfamiliar league position we found ourselves in.
11 points behind the then league leaders Manchester United and 9 points behind the later champion Manchester City. Arsenal had the worst goal difference of all teams in the PL.
And look at our goal difference. 6 goals scored but 14 goals against. I don’t want to bring him up all the time but the presence of RVP wasn’t helping that much in fact at that time. We all know that the new players that came in late in the transfer window transformed the team and once they started working together we went from place 17 to 3rd place at the end of the season. Still an achievement that is the biggest of them all and if we wouldn’t have played a few months with no right or left back we would have finished with more points.
And if we take a look at the league table now after 5 games we see this
| Latest Table | Full | |||||||||
| P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pt | |||
| 1 | Chelsea | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 2 | +7 | 13 | |
| 2 | Manchester United | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 6 | +6 | 12 | |
| 3 | Everton | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 5 | +4 | 10 | |
| 4 | West Bromwich Albion | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 4 | +3 | 10 | |
| 5 | Arsenal | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 9 | 2 | +7 | 9 | |
| 6 | Fulham | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 12 | 7 | +5 | 9 | |
| 7 | Manchester City | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 10 | 7 | +3 | 9 | |
| 8 | Tottenham Hotspur | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 6 | +2 | 8 | |
| 9 | West Ham United | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 4 | +1 | 8 | |
| 10 | Newcastle United | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 8 | |
| 11 | Swansea City | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 7 | +3 | 7 | |
| 12 | Sunderland | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 4 | |
| 13 | Stoke City | 5 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 5 | -1 | 4 | |
| 14 | Aston Villa | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 9 | -4 | 4 | |
| 15 | Wigan Athletic | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 10 | -5 | 4 | |
| 16 | Southampton | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 15 | -6 | 3 | |
| 17 | Norwich City | 5 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 8 | -6 | 3 | |
| 18 | Liverpool | 5 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 10 | -6 | 2 | |
| 19 | Queens Park Rangers | 5 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 11 | -8 | 2 | |
| 20 | Reading | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 9 | -5 | 1 |
Now we are standing in 5th position just behind Everton and West Bromwich Albion. And well, those are teams, with all respect, that will fall back in a few weeks time. We all know each season we have a few teams that start brightly and then fade away. I think Everton might be the Newcastle of last season. And West Bromwich Albion might be the Aston Villa of last season. Aston Villa that only got themselves in safety one day before the end of the season.
But what is more important is that Arsenal is now in 5th place and with the same number of points as Manchester City, one of the favourites for the title. And we are 3 points behind Manchester United, who are diving out a penalty a game on average. Chelsea is also contesting the award for getting most penalties in the season and are on top of the league. But up to now they have only played (with all respect) smaller teams.
As for Arsenal we have already gone to Liverpool, Manchester City and one of our most difficult away games at Stoke. That is 3 difficult away games in those 5 games. We might well agree that Liverpool might not be the most difficult place to go for the moment but you still have to beat them at home. Granted Manchester United did the same thing but they also got a little help from the friends from the PGMOL and diving around to win penalties and refs falling for it.
So we are close up with the rest of the title contenders and last season we were out of the title race. You know the old saying: you can’t win the title in the first games, but you can lose it. Last season this was the case but now we are close to the contenders and this is what you should do in the first 10 games: make sure you stay in touching distance.
One of the most pleasing things is the goals. Last season with RVP remember we scored 6 goals in the first 5 games. And this time we scored 9 goals without him. Scoring goals has become more of a team thing for the moment where all the players can score goals. This also makes it more difficult to stop us. When they focus on let us say stopping Podolski, they could open up for Gervinho or any other player.
But the biggest difference is to be found in the goals conceded. 2 goals conceded in the first 5 games. And again if you look at the away games with tough places to go this is remarkable. And up to now the goals we did concede look down to real errors. If Szczesny hadn’t been injured against Southampton he wouldn’t have dropped the ball like he did. I think we all know that because this was a mistake we haven’t seen him make before. In that respect the City goal was a bit more disappointing to concede. But that is only 1 real goal we got against us in 5 PL games.
And if we look back at the first table of last season we then had conceded 14 goals in 5 games. That is now 12 goals less conceded compared to last season. I think it is safe to say that it looks as if the whole team has a much better defensive shape compared to last season. The only team with the same defensive record in conceding goals is Chelsea. And they are our next opponents. Will we see a goalless draw next week?
And more importantly for Arsenal this will mean that apart from Manchester United we will have played all the other top teams (or what should be top teams) in the first 6 games. If we can find ourselves in touching distance after those games it is up to us to get a good run going till the end of December.
Oh and a win against Chelsea would mean that we are one point behind the current league leaders. I don’t know about you but for me this season has the word “competitive” written all over it when I think of Arsenal. Our Gunners will battle and will fight, that is something that the first 5 games have shown us.