Thursday, October 11th, 2012 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. 800,000 visits last month
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Making the Arsenal
This year last year by Stuart Higgins
In this article, I would like to have a look at the top teams from last season and compare the results and standings for this season. I know this has been covered a couple of times before now and this is not to take away from the others but I have been compiling data for a while now and have used a more detailed format covering more teams.
My idea for this actually came about last season when five games into the season, we were 7 points down compared to the previous season and pretty much every other blog / site was claiming disaster at Arsenal because of this 7 points down compared to 5 games into the previous season.
The trouble was, these articles all overlooked the fact that we had just played Newcastle, Man Utd and Liverpool yet 5 games in the season before, we had only played Liverpool out of the so called top sides. If they had looked at the result for the same fixtures and compared them, we were only 1 point down on the previous season.
Don’t get me wrong, I would have preferred a better start to last season but in all truth, things were not as bad as made out to be. We lost away to Man U in 10/11 and 11/12, we drew to Newcastle in both and I have compared West Ham to Swansea based on their finishing positions (West Ham 20th in Premier League for 10/11, Swansea 3rd in Championship for 10/11).
In the case of relegated / promoted teams for last season, I have used the result from the alternative fixture based on the following:-
|
Finishing Positions 11/12 Season |
|||
|
Championship |
Premiership |
||
|
Reading |
1st |
18th |
Bolton |
|
Southampton |
2nd |
19th |
Blackburn |
|
West Ham |
3rd |
20th |
Wolves |
So first let’s take a look at the team by team figures, starting with the current champions:-
| Man City | |||||||
|
Last Season |
This Season |
||||||
| Blackburn |
H |
3-0 |
3 |
Southampton |
H |
3-2 |
3 |
| Liverpool |
A |
1-1 |
1 |
Liverpool |
A |
2-2 |
1 |
| QPR |
H |
3-2 |
3 |
QPR |
H |
3-1 |
3 |
| Stoke |
A |
1-1 |
1 |
Stoke |
A |
1-1 |
1 |
| Arsenal |
H |
1-0 |
3 |
Arsenal |
H |
1-1 |
1 |
| Fulham |
A |
2-2 |
1 |
Fulham |
A |
1-2 |
3 |
| Sunderland |
H |
3-3 |
1 |
Sunderland |
H |
3-0 |
3 |
|
TOTAL POINTS |
13 |
TOTAL POINTS |
15 |
Man City have seen an improvement on last year on both points and a +2 goal difference so overall we can say an improvement there.
Moving on to the red side of Manchester we see a 1 point drop based on the equivalent games last year dropping 3 at Everton and picking up 2 at Liverpool.
| Man Utd | |||||||
|
Last Season |
This Season |
||||||
| Everton |
A |
0-1 |
3 |
Everton |
1-0 |
A |
0 |
| Fulham |
H |
1-0 |
3 |
Fulham |
3-2 |
H |
3 |
| Blackburn |
A |
0-2 |
3 |
Southampton |
2-3 |
A |
3 |
| Wigan |
H |
5-0 |
3 |
Wigan |
4-2 |
H |
3 |
| Liverpool |
A |
1-1 |
1 |
Liverpool |
1-2 |
A |
3 |
| Tottenham |
H |
3-0 |
3 |
Tottenham |
2-3 |
H |
0 |
| Newcastle |
A |
3-0 |
0 |
Newcastle |
0-3 |
A |
3 |
|
TOTAL POINTS |
16 |
TOTAL POINTS |
15 |
Now on to Arsenal, we see a slight drop in points when looking at the equivalent fixtures. This season to last we are 2 points less.
| Arsenal | |||||||
|
Last Season |
This Season |
||||||
| Sunderland |
H |
2-1 |
3 |
Sunderland |
H |
0-0 |
1 |
| Stoke |
A |
1-1 |
1 |
Stoke |
A |
0-0 |
1 |
| Liverpool |
A |
1-2 |
3 |
Liverpool |
A |
2-0 |
3 |
| Blackburn |
H |
7-1 |
3 |
Blackburn |
H |
6-1 |
3 |
| Man City |
A |
1-0 |
0 |
Man City |
A |
1-1 |
1 |
| Chelsea |
H |
0-0 |
1 |
Chelsea |
H |
1-2 |
0 |
| West Ham |
A |
0-3 |
3 |
West Ham |
A |
1-3 |
3 |
|
TOTAL POINTS |
14 |
TOTAL POINTS |
12 |
Moving on to Spurs, this year sees the same drop in points for them but that may be expected to a degree as they had a good start and were going to win the league last season but ended up changing their minds.
| Tottenham | ||||||||
|
Last Season |
This Season |
|||||||
|
Newcastle |
A |
2-2 |
1 |
Newcastle |
A |
2-1 |
0 |
|
|
West Brom |
H |
1-0 |
3 |
West Brom |
H |
1-1 |
1 |
|
|
Norwich |
H |
1-2 |
0 |
Norwich |
H |
1-1 |
1 |
|
|
Bolton |
A |
1-4 |
3 |
Bolton |
A |
1-3 |
3 |
|
|
QPR |
H |
3-1 |
3 |
QPR |
H |
2-1 |
3 |
|
|
Man Utd |
A |
2-3 |
3 |
Man Utd |
A |
2-3 |
3 |
|
|
Aston Villa |
H |
2-0 |
3 |
Aston Villa |
H |
2-0 |
3 |
|
|
TOTAL POINTS |
16 |
TOTAL POINTS |
14 |
|||||
Newcastle also had a real good start to last season but this season is a real disappointing 7 points down which is a shame as I personally like Pardew for what he has achieved on limited budgets and would have him as national coach over any other in England, downside is I find he moans a lot. Anyway, here is Newcastle:-
| Newcastle | |||||||
|
Last Season |
This Season |
||||||
| Tottenham |
H |
2-2 |
1 |
Tottenham |
A |
2-1 |
3 |
| Chelsea |
A |
0-2 |
3 |
Chelsea |
H |
0-2 |
0 |
| Aston Villa |
H |
2-1 |
3 |
Aston Villa |
H |
1-1 |
1 |
| Everton |
A |
3-1 |
0 |
Everton |
A |
2-2 |
1 |
| Norwich |
H |
1-0 |
3 |
Norwich |
H |
1-0 |
3 |
| Bolton |
A |
0-2 |
3 |
Bolton |
A |
2-2 |
1 |
| Man Utd |
H |
3-0 |
3 |
Man Utd |
H |
0-3 |
0 |
|
TOTAL POINTS |
16 |
TOTAL POINTS |
9 |
Our South London rivals show that although money can’t buy you love, it can eventually buy you some points. I suppose only time will tell how long it buys you points before having to go out and spend it all again.
| Chelsea | |||||||
|
Last Season |
This Season |
||||||
| Wigan |
A |
1-1 |
1 |
Wigan |
A |
0-2 |
3 |
| Bolton |
H |
3-0 |
3 |
Bolton |
H |
4-2 |
3 |
| Newcastle |
H |
0-2 |
0 |
Newcastle |
H |
2-0 |
3 |
| QPR |
A |
1-0 |
0 |
QPR |
A |
0-0 |
1 |
| Stoke |
A |
0-0 |
1 |
Stoke |
A |
1-0 |
3 |
| Arsenal |
A |
0-0 |
1 |
Arsenal |
A |
1-2 |
3 |
| Norwich |
H |
2-1 |
3 |
Norwich |
H |
4-1 |
3 |
|
TOTAL POINTS |
9 |
TOTAL POINTS |
19 |
Everton, another well respected team have seen a little improvement for this season. Everton are a team who receive little praise but have made continuous impressive achievements on a real shoe-string budget.
| Everton | |||||||
|
Last Season |
This Season |
||||||
|
Man Utd |
H |
0-1 |
0 |
Man Utd |
H |
1-0 |
3 |
|
Aston Villa |
A |
1-1 |
1 |
Aston Villa |
A |
1-3 |
3 |
|
West Brom |
A |
0-1 |
3 |
West Brom |
A |
2-0 |
0 |
|
Newcastle |
A |
3-1 |
3 |
Newcastle |
A |
2-2 |
1 |
|
Swansea |
H |
0-2 |
3 |
Swansea |
H |
0-3 |
3 |
|
Blackburn |
H |
1-1 |
1 |
Blackburn |
H |
3-1 |
3 |
|
Wigan |
A |
1-1 |
1 |
Wigan |
A |
2-2 |
1 |
|
TOTAL POINTS |
12 |
TOTAL POINTS |
14 |
And finally, Liverpool. They had an awful start last season, much worse than Arsenal (but if you were reading the papers last year you wouldn’t know it). Their poor start was matched only by Chelsea, the difference between the two being Chelsea have seen an improvement whereas Liverpool have further declined. One wonders how long they can hang on to their past glories to be taken seriously.
| Liverpool | |||||||
|
Last Season |
This Season |
||||||
|
West Brom |
A |
0-2 |
3 |
West Brom |
A |
3-0 |
0 |
|
Man City |
H |
1-1 |
1 |
Man City |
H |
2-2 |
1 |
|
Arsenal |
H |
1-2 |
0 |
Arsenal |
H |
0-2 |
0 |
|
Sunderland |
A |
1-0 |
0 |
Sunderland |
A |
1-1 |
1 |
|
Man Utd |
H |
1-1 |
1 |
Man Utd |
H |
1-2 |
0 |
|
Norwich |
A |
0-3 |
3 |
Norwich |
A |
2-5 |
3 |
|
Stoke |
H |
0-0 |
1 |
Stoke |
H |
0-0 |
1 |
|
TOTAL POINTS |
9 |
TOTAL POINTS |
6 |
One should also take into account who has played more of the top teams and combine this with the difference in points from this year / last year.
| Team |
No of top 8 teams |
+/- Points this year / Last Year |
| Chelsea |
2 |
10 |
| Man City |
2 |
2 |
| Everton |
2 |
2 |
| Man Utd |
4 |
-1 |
| Arsenal |
3 |
-2 |
| Tottenham |
2 |
-2 |
| Liverpool |
3 |
-3 |
| Newcastle |
4 |
-7 |
So overall the big hitters are Chelsea who have seen the best improvement whilst the rest of the league slowly catches up with the rest of us, the closest match to the Chelsea 10 point increase being the Newcastle 7 point drop.
Chelsea are still unbeaten this season and going strong whilst Arsenal are 2 points down on our ‘worst ever season’. I think it is fair to say Liverpool are well and truly on the decline but I wonder if this will get picked up by the media.