Today’s match versus Burnley brings back reminiscences of the second match I ever attended at Highbury in the 1968-69 season. My first match two week’s earlier on 1st February had resulted in a one all draw with Nottingham Forest and I was already sufficiently smitten that my mother had already given up the ghost of opposing me being present at my new spiritual home to see Arsenal v Burnley on 15th February 1969. I had no clue as to where Burnley was situated but I had already become the sort of obsessive to have memorised the names of all the stadia in Division One, as it was in those days. Turf Moor, had to me, conjured up some romantic Brontë-esque vision of a un-tamed, northern, brooding landscape of desolation and fog. My Highbury was more akin to the setting of Jane Austen’s novel, Emma: elegant, urbane and charming. In fact, if you remove the word ‘romantic’ from my above preconception it wasn’t completely wide of the mark, as outlined so well by Bathgooner’s excellent match preview for today’s fixture! That day, the ‘foreign’ members of the Arsenal team came from north of the border (and even Bob Wilson being Scottish seemed a bit of a stretch to me at the time) and I don’t recall much more about the game other than I was by now completely and utterly in love with every team member having witnessed my first Arsenal win of two goals to nil with both goals coming from a blue and white besocked Bobby Gould.
To be honest, I had to look up who the goalscorer was on the day although two things I do remember were that Burnley’s star player, Ralph Coates, seemed to me to be old enough to be my grandfather and that I also recall feeling rather perturbed about Arsenal’s blue and white socks being part of our kit in contrast to our beloved red and white. Little did I realise that this would be a gentle precursor of future worse kit horrors to come.
So, fast forwarding to Burnley versus Arsenal 2021, would there be repeat of 2-0 to the Arsenal, as predicted by Martin Keown prior to the match as well as Bathgooner’s suggested punt on the ‘holic pound in his match report? With five changes made from our defeat of Leicester, with rotation necessary due to four difficult games looming in the next nine days who would have predicted Chambers being slotted in at right back? Xhaka’s presence on the first team sheet seems to be made in indelible ink, and has been under the previous three managers irrespective as to what the fixture list throws up, but more on him later. Before the game started, I jotted down that Kevin Friend would be the VAR adjudicator – unfortunately, a sign of the times as VAR seems to play as big a role in the settling of matches these days as the sides playing. Just as I was celebrating the first five minutes at not conceding an early goal as we have been wont to do, we went one better as Willian drove through the centre of midfield, sending a pass out wide to Aubameyang on the left who with a couple of step overs shot low into the left hand corner squeezing the ball under Pope, the Burnley keeper. Early dominant possession and pressure from Arsenal had resulted in an unusually early goal for a change. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of that – for obvious reasons it would turn out!
Arsenal continued to dominate but their common ailment of profligacy in front of goal continued; Aubameyang had two chances one of which was blocked with the other one finding the side netting before presenting Saka with a glorious opportunity that one would normally bet on him taking. Unfortunately, the ball seemed to arrive on Saka’s weaker right foot and he was unable to take advantage. Ominously, it felt like an opportunity lost as Arsenal failed to convert their clear dominance into goals. Partey also shot over the bar after being lined up by Odegaard on 28 minutes. With ten minutes to go in the first half, Arsenal were comfortably in charge and with Burnley showing little or no threat, the inevitable happened with Arsenal’s common predilection towards self destruction. With Arsenal playing out from the back with Burnley pressing, Leno passed the ball out to Xhaka who often displays a penchant for playing risky balls across the box. On this occasion, his attempted pass to David Luiz struck Chris Woods’ hip diverting the ball past Leno for an undeserved Burnley equaliser. Judging by Chris Wood’s reaction, Burnley couldn’t believe their luck. So, that was the end of any prediction or repeat of a two nil win to the Arsenal. It was hard not to believe that we wouldn’t pay the price for the error and while it might be easy to point the finger of blame at Xhaka, Leno was also guilty of not clearing the ball and there seems to be too many Arsenal players capable of making regularly unforced and costly errors. For Xhaka, you could read Cedric. Or Luiz? Or?
With the momentum lost, Arsenal struggled to make an impact early in the second half and were now looking bereft of any creativity. In the 62nd minute, the lightweight Odegaard was replaced by Lacazette, and in the 66th minute a further change was made with Pepe replacing Willian. However, the real impact substitute would turn out to be Pieters, coming on in the 63rd minute for Burnley’s Taylor, who would be involved in the most significant and dramatic deciding factors of the game, two of them involving the hapless Pepe. The first incident involved Pepe twisting and turning in the box with the ball bouncing up to hit Pieters’ arm on two occasions. The first claim for a penalty looked dubious but the second was a clear case with Pieters extending his arm to deflect the ball away. Even Peter Walton, BT Sport’s former referee commentator and no friend of Arsenal, could not explain away VAR’s and Kevin Friend’s decision of ‘no penalty’. Insult was almost added to injury when Pieters let fly from 30 yards resulting in a sensational tip over the bar by Leno. Burnley had started to play. With 10 minutes to go, Pepe managed to miss a ‘sitter’ resulting from a low cross from Tierney in the box; the sort of spurned chance designed to make his transfer fee seem ever more ludicrous. Pepe was involved in the next controversial incident when his shot hit the omnipresent arm of Pieters yet again. The referee was quick with his decision: a red card and a penalty but VAR was quick to reverse it. No wonder I jotted down Kevin Friend’s name at the start of the match as VAR picked up yet another Man of the Match award! It was probably a correct decision in this instance but I am in no mood to side with it! After Spurs’ ludicrous escape of a penalty against Fulham earlier in the week, that’s two points gained for Spurs and two lost for Arsenal due to VAR lottery decisions which does not make for a happy weekend.
Unfortunately, as is too often the case, Arsenal did not show sufficient urgency until it was too late and there was to be no happy ending with Ceballos hitting the post after a game of pin ball in the box in the dying minutes. As we have witnessed all too often with this side, Arsenal threw their opportunity for three points well and truly away and, on this occasion, there was no Bobby Gould with his blue and white socks to rescue them.
Bodrum Goonerness,
Lovely to see you here and that’s a fine and fair report!
I was at that 1969 game too but can’t remember much about it .We were reminiscing with Bob about Bobby Gould recently. They were great friends and he was the sort of wholehearted trier you sometimes wish we could field upfront .
I’ve laid out my opinion of the villain of the piece already but the goal was sooooo unnecessary and Leno must take considerable blame too . Kevin was no Friend of ours, more a fiend and to not even ask Marriner to look at the handball was bizarre. We learnt it was because of ‘ proximity’ , the suggestion being that the Premier League and PGMOL are making it up as they go along . Two important points dropped and it was hard to identify anyone who earned more than a 6.5 today . Even Tierney and Saka were below par . Let’s hope we don’t descend from farce to Greek tragedy on Thursday !
Cheers, BG.
Fine and fair report indeed, and much appreciated. What I found the most disheartening was Arsenal being completely outplayed in the second half. The score could have been just about anything which is an indicator that we never had the confidence to take the game by the scruff of the neck after the disappointment of conceding in those circumstances. Others have said “that is just who we are now” which is hard to deny but after the hope generated by our win against Leicester is especially hard to take. Here’s hoping this roller coaster takes a quick upturn when we alight on Grecian shores.
A very swift and excellent report, BG. I too felt that the superb early start was somewhat difficult to ‘compute’ as it isn’t an experience we are used to this season. Yet we took a grip of the game and as has been too common this season, spurned some excellent chances. Having deserved to be OFS, Leno and Xhaka conspired to bring a team that deserved to be dead and buried back into the game. I too blame Leno more than Xhaka (the fool). Just because Xhaka called for it with a man thundering in behind him, Leno isn’t compelled to pass it to him in a difficult position!
It was like the first half vs Wolves all over again except that there was a positive – we weren’t reduced to 10 men. I was quite optimistic at HT because we had carved Burnley open several times in the first half but I didn’t expect such a lackadaisical second half. Where was the urgency? We had had this team on the rack for 30 minutes of the first half but in the second there was no urgency, no drive and little penetration until added time. In truth there was a point where we made Burnley look like a football team and Leno made two key saves before our ‘too little, too late’ flurry. I kept waiting for our fresher legs (in theory) to show but apart from the final 4 -5 minutes we were second to every loose ball and second best for effort.
Substitutions were too late and motivation for the second half at HT was underwhelming. Mikel needs to pull his socks up if he wants his team to play in Europe next season.
Not impressive.
Good to see you putting pen to paper, or more realistically, fingers to keyboard, again, BG. As others have said, an excellent and fair report of a game that was certainly two points not just dropped but thrown down a well with a lump of cement chained to them.
Incidentally, the outfield player with the second-most errors leading to goals in the Premier League since 2016-17 after Xhaka is indeed Cedric with five. So a good call on your part, there.
On the finger-pointing for the Burnley goal, Leno plays that ball to Xhaka on the edge of the box, facing him and being closed down a lot. Xhaka usually sweeps it out first time to a full- or centre-back out wide at an angle of 135 degrees. Today Xhaka took a poor first touch and then had to pass square from inside the penalty area to reach David Luiz. No adjustment and poor awareness of where Wood was. If Xhaka had been quicker thinking (yes, I know…), he would have just knocked the ball back to Leno to belt it upfield
Cheers BG.
I must admit, that was probably the most deflated ones have felt after any game this season. We had entered a period of 5 games in 14 days, and this should have been by far the easiest of the five. We played in spells for the first half, but were generally incredibly wasteful. For the first half, Burnley were not in the game. However, let’s not forget that we were only one up arguably because of a goal keeping error.
Then, the equaliser. What a complete and utter hotter show. I’m all for playing out from the back, but only if you have the players. You’re not going to ask the owner of a slightly dodgy Ford Escort to take it to the track and expect them to win a Grand Prix? I’ve watched their goal numerous times now and taken on board the comments above. In my humble opinion, that goal is 95% down to Xhaka. The plan is to play from three back. He should have been in a position far earlier on in that sequence of play to receive the ball but his lack of intent when it comes to playing the ball forward prevented it. The ball finds its way back to Leno and Xhaka clearly moves towards him, calling for the ball. At this stage, he has 3 Arsenal options to his left. He can pick any one of them. But no. One crap touch, followed by a touch of Xhaka’s legendary decision making and we go in to the break level.
Our performance in the second half was dour, turgid and lacklustre. It was as uninspiring in a must win game that I can ever remember. There was no drive and no enthusiasm. Burnley for the vast majority of the half were the better side. Yes, we were totally robbed by VAR. I will often defend officials against some of the wild hysteria directed at them. But I can’t for the life of me see how that wasn’t a penalty. The fact that VAR reviewed it and also felt it wasn’t a penalty is just beyond me. Then we had a frantic final few minutes, but in all honesty, that was about 40 minutes too late. We end up with only a point from an incredibly disappointing afternoon
A very poor day at the office for those on the pitch, but for me, the manager also has to take his share of the blame. We had virtually a full squad to pick from, he selects that side and he decides on team tactics. He is also responsible for making sure that those selected are sufficiently on board with the plans and are motivated enough to put in a performance. In my opinion, he failed miserably in that department. We sit 10th in the league and we are 10th for a reason. We remain consistently inconsistent. We have very little drive from midfield. On days like these, we have very little drive from anywhere.
As I said above, we have 4 tough games left in March. The outcome of these will go a long way to defining our season. I just hope we put in a performance that is immeasurably better than the one served up yesterday.
One final point that basically summed up our whole day. The Laca scream when he was fouled?????? How embarrassing was that?? From the screams, my first thoughts were, is he ever going to play again? It sounded career ending. How pleasing it was to see him up and jogging into the box less than a minute later having required zero treatment. Truly a miracle cure and surely total relief for all of us????
A season characterised by an inability to convert gilt edged chances and self-inflict bullet wounds to either foot continues. All three points have been there for the taking in every game except L’pool away and Villa home. The table could have looked so very much different. It was no huge surprise that yesterday’s bullet was shot by the only remaining Marx brother. But the misses at the other end were the real reason two points slipped away.
Thanks BG, enjoyed the report far
more than the game.
I must admit that I too put the
goal down to Xhaka but just like
the Wolves game it should have
been 3-0 by then.
On we go and let’s hope that’s the
end of the March madness.
oh, I hadn’t read BtM’s post –
great minds and all that 😄
Excellent review Bodrum Gooneress. You combine the historical perspective from your own excellent memories with a sharp and balanced analysis of the game yesterday. Great job.
Some very good posts all sharing the sense of exasperation. I was accused ( I think) of being unfair to Xhaka yesterday in the post match drinks but watching MOTD I agree with Steve . If you play out from the back which we did under Wenger ( how often did you see Vieira take the ball on the edge of our area and did you ever see him lose it ? ) you must expect to receive the ball in tight situations. Xhaka had options like touching it back to Leno in extremis . For a comparison watch Auba’s first goal at Wembley in the semi and how Ceballos dealt with a similar situation. I cannot beat Btm’s description’ the last surviving Marx brother’ . While he stays in our team we are always likely to implode
I pressed a little early apologies.
Jonathan Northcroft in the Sunday Times sums up the situation by saying that with three viable options Xhaka chose to try to chip the tallest player on the field with his wrong foot in his own area – and got the ball to hip height . That is how chronically bad a decision that was
A fine report Bodrum Gooneress !
Not easy to write about such a let down with any degree of perspective. The Xhaka mistake was just the latest in a long line of costly and unnecessary errors. The “last remaining Marx brother” ? I’m not sure – at least they were funny.
One question – is that old Burnley programme usually pinned on your Bodrum wall ?
Thought so … 😏
Having seen the goal again I agree that Xhaka was predominantly at fault for it but still cannot fully exonerate Leno for his pass to Xhaka as he had a clear view of how play was developing. Fair enough, Xhaka had three options on his left had he struck the ball first time but Leno must know how left footed he is and how slow-of-decision he is to boot.
As to TTG’s comparison with Vieira @13, I am afraid your memory on this occasion is gilded. I distinctly remember PV4 being dispossessed as he pissed around on the edge of our box (trying to dribble past an opponent) which led directly to a goal for the opposition which I think was Chelsea (it may have been the first leg of the CL QF which we should have won).
I remember the Vieira’s foolishness more than the opponent as I recall consoling an extremely distressed young bathlet with the words, “You have to accept that a player who so frequently mesmerises his opponents elsewhere on the pitch is going to think he can do it in your own box too but if it fails there it has greater consequences!”
On this occasion perhaps the comment can be rephrased to apply to playing out from the back in general, as Ian Wright accepts on match of the day or indeed to apply to the individual responsible on this occasion as:
“You have to accept that a player who so frequently makes a stupid error elsewhere on the pitch is going to think he can do it in your own box too but if he goofs up there it has greater consequences!”
Some excellent posts above from the usual suspects, but OM nails the critical point for me: we should have been 3-0 up by the time Xhaka made his gaffe.
Our chance conversion rate this season (ie, share of shots at goal that scored) is 8.4% (35 goals from 418 shots); tenth best in the PL. In the past, we have habitually been in the 15-20% range. In the previous two seasons, we led the league (56 goals from 235 shots, or 23.8% and 73 from 348, or 21.0%, respectively), thanks, no doubt, to Auba’s proficiency in front of goal.
Is an ex-Academy fest at The Hawthorns with Bartley, Maitland-Niles, Willock and Hayden on the pitch and Ajayi on the bench.
Bath,
You make your point very well , my memory is clearly rose-tinted and noone other Mrs TTG is perfect even PV4 . The thing that occurred to me is that it is sad to compare Vieira with Xhaka and singularly inappropriate , but I started it!
We must move on to Athens while the Totts , ranked below us in Europe have been accommodated with a home leg before the NLD.
Watched the ex-Academy fest
Ned. In all honesty there wasn’t
a player on the pitch, including
ours, that I’d like to sign.
To be fair it was tense nervy
stuff.
Watching Fulham hand Klopp’s
men their asses now, first half
anyway.
Excellent report BG! Hope to see you more of these in the coming days.
Xhaka did a Xhaka. I always expect him to make mistakes like that at least once every 3 matches. There isn’t much left to be said about him. I understand the qualities that make Mikel play him match in and match out, but I am sure he is also looking at the possibility of not having to rely on him at all in the next season. Until then, we splutter along …
As Ned pointed out our conversation rate this season has been mediocre, a drop for last couple of seasons when Auba was at the career peak of his efficiency. My complain about Mikel is while we are chasing games we aren’t often aggressive enough and we don’t make our attacking unpredictable enough. The neat structured organization of our game is an excellent aspect Arteta has been able to institute — and if not for the solo acts of comic ineptitude we would have conceded much less goals by now — but against oppositions like Burnley while needing to score goals he will also need to learn to let his hair down (figuratively speaking of course, that hair can never be let down) and just go full throttle at them. Ødegaard, Auba, Saka, Laca, Pépé on the pitch and tell the boys show your stuff, this is only Burnley.
Also, playing two holding midfielders against a hoodball team is ultra conservative. Especially when neither of them can do a fast passing triangle. Ceballos and Pépé should have been brought in 20 minutes earlier and have Ceballos play next to Ødegaard and not close to Xhaka.
It’s probably the hardest part for such a thoughtful young manager like Mikel to master, the game needs to strike a balance between structure and spontaneity. He needs to channel a bit more of the inner Arsene in matches like this …
Fulham nick the three points and
have given themselves a decent
chance at staying up.
One way traffic second half but
Liverpool can’t buy a PL goal just
now. Glad I resisted the urge to
make Salah my fantasy league
captain this week 😄
Burnley four points off relegation. Each one gifted by Xhaka. What a guy.
Great point Btm. Apparently there was quite a lot of pushback on social media yesterday from Granit’s fans . Rather like Ozil’s fans who sprang up ( anyone seen how awful Ozil has been in Turkey so far?)
Strange to see ManUre getting an early penalty
No one has an opinion on the Laca death scream????
I am honestly shocked and amazed that anyone would even contemplate attempting to make any comparisons between Xhaka and Vieira? They should not even me mentioned in the same breath. I dread to think what Paddy would have done to Xhaka had he been playing alongside him???
If only we could find another Vieira now? That would solve a bucket load of problems.
Steve
That’s my fault and I was trying to point out that we did have a player who would take the ball off the keeper and not cock up. Bath then pointed out ( quite correctly ) that Patrick was not blameless in that regard but you should know that I of all people would not mention the two players in the same breath . We dearly hope Partey might be the player to bring back memories of Paddy but he only lasted 80 minutes yesterday and his fitness levels seem to be challenged by Premier League football. He shows huge promises in flashes but so far that is all it is
Come, come, TTG. Ozil has the same number of goals and assists for Fenerbahce as he had for us this season, but he has played seven games more for the Turkish club.
Steve T — you and all the others in the biased English media going on and on about Laca’s screaming: we don’t know how painful he exactly felt at that moment and if he felt scared of suffering a big injury. But once he got up he made no big deal about it. In his this new 9 and half role he takes absolute bartering from opposition players, is rarely protected by referees, and yet never simulates or dives or brandishes imaginary cards or keeps yapping at the referee etc.
Laca as a player has more character and integrity than all of the loved “stalwarts” of English football: Kane, Sterling, Vardy etc. He and Auba are two of the most honest strikers in the league with integrity and respect for the game that the perennial cheating brigade of much of English football nowadays would do better to emulate.
I wish you spent as much of your time talking about the brutality that our 19 years old Saka is subjected to every match as you did talking about Laca’s scream.
Benteke brinca, say the Spanish language announcers. Benteke jumps.
1-1 breaking Sp@@s balloon just before halftime. 👍🏼
Evening Doc. I’ve been to busy today to even look at what the media were saying. I have no idea what he went through. However, the fact that he was up and running after no more than 30 seconds with no treatment needed would tend to suggest that there was a very little wrong with him? Just my opinion of course and happy to be corrected by those far more learned than me on the subject. Personally, I thought it was both false, and embarrassing.
You are right to highlight the darlings of the English media. Sadly, as I’ve said hundreds of times now, the game is littered with players prepared to cheat and simulate all sorts. I work for an organisation whet honesty and integrity are non negotiable. Sadly, those aren’t two qualities that I see too often in the modern game. Perhaps my point was that had that been an opponent, then there are numerous people in this establishment that would have wanted the perpetrator hung drawn and quartered. When it’s one of our own, it’s almost as if it didn’t happen? For he, it just put the icing on the top of a dreadful team performance.
These results don’t put us in a very positive light going into the NLD. Both Arsenal and Spurs concede shortly before halftime to go into the break 1-1 but only one of the two clubs comes out in the second half and takes the initiative from the opposition, and that club is not Arsenal. ☹️
bt8@31: Mourinho seems to have got Bale firing on all cylinders again just in time for the NLD. There is no English club Bale has scored more goals against than us — five in nine games. Given Kane also like scoring against us, eleven goals in 13 games, it doesn’t bode well.
* points at Xhaka *
Tough day yesterday. Still sore now.
Don’t worry, LVC. You are still in with a shout.
Make that Steve T stop shouting
at me please🙏
But I like that Dr F, he can treat
me any time 😉
Statistically speaking, what is the poorest ever effort at defending a league title? How close are Liverpool to doing even poorer?
To answer that question in a meaningful way I would not use the criteria used in this article which compares the champions’ points total in their title winning season to their points total the following season.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.squawka.com/en/liverpool-bad-champions-roy-keane-worst-in-premier-league-history/%3famp
Rather, I would compare their points total the following season to the points total of that year’s champions.
Bt8
I think back in the depths of time there will be champions who defended their titles poorly. Leicester weren’t very good in 2016/7 as I recall, they sacked Ranieri and Ipswich had a poor title defence in the sixties.
The fascinating thing to me is that a team set this extraordinary home record for undefeated games and then lose six in a row including to Burnley , Brighton and Fulham , Home advantage is a very different concept this season without crowds .
Cheers BG. Congratulations on a cracking debut. There is a well-earned drink on the bar for you.
Also I missed the bar after Baff’s preview but wanted to say that was a really good piece too. An excellent pair of posts that deserved a better result.
I’m blaming Xhaka for their goal. Because it was his fault. TTG and I are were considering setting up a hotline for those affected by his performances. But we would need too many volunteers to man the phones.
I only saw the last 25 mins as I had a very busy weekend so I’ll just note that both the ref and VAR failed to give us a stonewall penalty. VAR did not even recommend he looked at it again. Awful. Yet, despite some gloom about our performance, we had plenty of good chances to score a second- we failed to do so and that is frustrating but in the long winter period at the end of last year we created so little that I don’t really see how anyone can question our current trajectory. I thought Arteta got his post game comments spot on, refusing to shirk responsibility whilst acknowledging bad luck.
All in all it was a very disappointing day, especially as I thought we might we well up for making amends for the last Burnley game. Instead Xhaka made it two for two. Grrrrr.
Steve @ 24
I thought the scream was over-the-top. But, as the Doc pointed out, he may have been in more pain than we thought. Certainly it was no worse than a lot of the less vocal play acting that goes on every week. Neither was it particularly unusual to hear a player making a loud scream. And it was far better than some of the disgraceful challenges players make which would be far more embarrassing to me if our players went in for them. The BBC singling Laca out for a smug highlight says more about them than anyone else.
If it was a player on another team I’d think he was a bit of a tit and then move on. (There was a Newcastle lad who did one against us recently and I don’t even remember who it was.) Since it is Laca I’m not gonna start spitting feathers of indignation everywhere. It was a minor incident with no bearing on the game.
I think Arteta is absolutely right to be complimentary of Burnley and their style and not to claim some sort of superiority based on aesthetics. There are many ways to be successful at football.
But I am not manager of Arsenal and have no responsibility either to say the right things or persuade my players that they can whinge all they want about Burnley’s tactics once they have taken the three points, but until then they have to respect them and find a way to overcome them.
So, in my opinion, they are a bloody awful team to watch. They remind me of a school team made up of all the kids who are furthest along in puberty. Chosen for their height and bulk, with skill at football as an afterthought, clogging their way around the pitch as a short-sighted geography teacher with no cards in his pockets ‘referees’ in a way such that if they draw blood you might, perhaps, get a free kick.
We really have to do better next year. I hate not getting a result against them.
GSD,
Nice to have you in the bar . I took a little bit of stick for moaning about Xhaka continually ( which I don’t….really) on Saturday but the person who moaned at me hadn’t seen the game I believe . The more I watch that mistake the worse it looks to me .
I hate Burnley too and the press liking for Dyche is similar to that for Fat Sam. They must like large thugs in the media, possibly they feel threatened by them . Your point about the scream Re the recent situation against us was the Newcastle lad who got ESR sent off until the tackle was looked at. Nothing was said about that at the time but it definitely influenced the ref . I expected the screens to come around the boy while the vet shot him!
bt8@39: In the Premier League era, the worst title defence, using your criterion, was Leicester City, who the following season got only 54.3% of the 81 points with which they won the title in 2015-16.
The two next worse were Chelsea with 57.5% following their 2014-15 title win and Blackburn Rovers with 68.5% following their 1994-95 title.
In raw points, both Leicester and Chelsea got 37 fewer points and Blackburn 28.
The average is for title winners to get 89.6% of their title-winning season’s points the following season, which translates into just over 9 points, which both show how difficult a title defence is and how narrow the margins can be.
The five best title defences are all Man U, who the following season improved on their points tally to win the title in 1992-93 1996-97, 1998-99, 2007-08 BS 2010-11.
If Liverpool gets 10 points or fewer from their last 10 games, they will have made the worst-ever Premier League title defence under bt8’s criterion. Eleven (out of 30 available) are need to lift them above Leicester in the ranking, 14 above Chelsea and 25 above Blackburn.
Andrew at Arseblog posted a deeply felt and generously remembered eulogy to his father who had just passed away. Made me tear up … my dad is exactly that age now.
The season of Ipswich’s fall from the peak that TTG recalls was 1962-63, much disrupted by the prolonged cold weather in early 1963 — the Big Freeze, which I am sure several denizens of this fine establishment will recall. Ipswich amassed 62.5% of the points with which they had won the old Division One title the previous season but fell to 17th, only four points off relegation (two points for a win in those days, of course). They only ensured their top-flight status in their penultimate game. Remarkably both the League Cup winner, Birmingham City, and the FA Cup winner, Manchester United, were below them in the table and escaped relegation by two and three points respectively. Man City and Leyton Orient went down that year.
Dr F.@47: That is a heartfelt and moving tribute by arseblogger to his father. There can be good lives, but there are no good deaths. May Terry Mangan rest in peace, and his family find solace.
Great research Ned.
Ipswich came up and won the league the season after the S***s double but were the classic one season wonder especially as their manager , Alf Ramsey left to manage England( I wonder what happened to him) . It was a wonderful story in its time, a bigger surprise than Leicester in 2016. I’d love us to finish above Liverpool but so pitiful has been their defence that at least the screeching from the Scousers has been silenced . They were unbearable last summer
It is a sobering thought that eight of the teams in Division One in 1962-63 are no longer top-flight clubs, and that will be eleven — half the division — if the three currently in the relegation spots stay there. You cannot take elite status for granted.
Sheffield United is an odd one in the annals of the one-and-done title-defences. Runners up in 1896-97, Champions in 1897-98 (their only title), then a plunge to 16th (in an 18-team division; they escaped relegation by four points, but did win the FA Cup for the first time) with 69% of their title-winning points tally, then runners-up again the following season, 1899-1900.
Re: Ned @46. Very interesting figures. Unless their losing streak extends considerably longer then it looks like Liverpool are likely to do better than Ipswich, Leicester and Chelsea but not as well as Blackburn among the handful of poorest title defences? More or less?
unfortunately Ipswich hung around
and had a good side in the 70s.
We signed Mariner and Talbot.
And just in case there are any doubts about Kroenke being a total douche canoe…
https://www.thedailybeast.com/stan-kroenke-wins-legal-battle-over-lake-access-with-nicola-valley-fish-and-game-club
ecg. Good to see you and thanks for posting the article.
And thanks even more for introducing me to the term ‘douche canoe’. Brilliant.
I told you all long ago that he’s not our sort of person!
There is increasing speculation that the African billionaire Dangote is likely to try to buy Arsenal from KSE this summer . Stan has never sold any of his ‘franchises ‘ ( for that is what we are to him ) but the prospective losses over the next eighteen months might cause him to reconsider if the offer was big enough . And if Arsenal , the biggest club in one of the world’s most important cities is in play it might flush out other bids. Generally if you have something you wish to sell you want more than one buyer interested to create a market.
Stan saw Arsenal very much as a ‘ cash cow’ in the early days of building his stock in Arsenal . Wenger was not ( generally ) spending heavily and was achieving Champions League every season and we had a sizeable chunk of cash . That’s all altered now with Covid and the failure to get CL football .
I’ve no great knowledge of Dangote. ( in fact I’ve none other than he is reckoned to be the richest man in Africa ). It would be hypocritical to accept someone like him as owner without serious scrutiny and due diligence by the Premier League will no doubt throw up any concerns but an owner with more obvious charm and engagement and who sees the club from a fan’s perspective might make a nice change . Ideally we need Jeff Bezos to become a Gooner and we could then thumb our noses at anyone!
Agnelli saying that the new CL
format is nearly agreed, apparently
36 teams split into four groups to
play for 16 KO phase places.
His other idea of no transfers between
big clubs seems totally nonsensical.
Overnight delivery of world class signings to the Emirates doorstep could be a plus.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/mar/08/andrea-agnelli-champions-league-reforms-premier-league
sorry, forgot the link. anyway,
the general idea is a 2/3 – 1/3
split between domestic and
european football which would
mean a reduced PL to 18 clubs
in all likelihood.
OM. If Agnelli wants 36 clubs and 10 group stage games it must mean groups of 6 clubs each rather than the current groups of 4 clubs. If it hasn’t been agreed yet, and the Premier League wants to keep more games, as I am pretty sure it does want, that could leave the compromise solution of 35 clubs arranged in 7 groups of 5 clubs each, playing 8 group stage games rather than the current 6 games. Gradual not revolutionary change. What would Robespierre think?
TTG: Dangote started out trading commodities such as sugar, salt and flour, still mainstays of his business empire which has spread far across Africa from its Nigerian roots, but he made his fortune in cement, having acquired a state-owned cement factory in the 1990s when Nigeria was still under military rule and for which he got some cheap international financing to expand. The relationship between the military and early-era Dangote and his grandfather, a successful merchant himself, has always been a bit opaque. It may have been nothing more than the need to acquire the import and other licences a young entrepreneur would have needed to make his business successful in a statist economy run by generals. Perhaps one of the Nigerian ‘holics could shed some light on it.
Today Dangote is no more political than any richest man in the country would be. One must assume he has developed good relationships with government’s across Africa as he has expanded his empire. For those who have a pecking order in such things, he has made his money being an industrialist rather than a property developer, even if one of the things he makes is sugar and the sugary drinks it goes into.
However, he is by general accounts a true lover of football and has long been said to support The Arsenal. This is not the first time he has been mentioned as a possible buyer of the club.
Here is some background on how Dangote got his money:
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/100615/how-aliko-dangote-became-richest-african.asp.
Is this a good time for the Kroenkes to sell?
If the expanded CL format comes about, I would assume that we would get back into CL football via the back door. I also assume it would be a lucrative competition for the clubs. Otherwise, it would not deter the top clubs from breaking away to form their own super league.
It looks as if Premier League crowds will be back in stadiums next season so that revenue stream will resume, and the Kroenkes are already sophisticated owners of the digital media rights emanating from their franchises.
Having taken the pandemic financial hit, why miss out on the bounce-back, especially as it does not appear that the Kroenkes are forced sellers at this point?
Every asset has its price, of course. If the club was on the market, I am sure there would be more than one suitor and it would still be seen as sufficient a trophy asset to command a premium price. Whether that would yield a new owner who would see things from the fans’ perspective is another matter.
French reports say that Jordan Amavi, the ex-Aston Villa left-back we are reportedly interested in signing on a free in the summer, is on the point of signing a new three-year contract with Marseille.
https://le10sport.com/football/mercato/exclu-mercato-om-retournement-de-situation-pour-amavi-540297
Ned,
Have you seen my email to you ?
You are an excellent source of useful information and you’ve given me a significant insight into Dangote . The re-emergence of the Champions League proposals ( Poohpoohed by Simon Jordan this morning ) underlines the potential value of Arsenal. We are not a top six side at the moment ( although I believe we will be soon ) but our co-efficient is very high as a result of years of consistent qualification for the CL and its knockout stages , another reason to be thankful to Arsene Wenger who only missed out twice and that by a relatively small margin .
It doesn’t appear likely that Kroenke is minded to sell given the fact he has stuck it out during the pandemic . It would take a silly bid by Dangote to persuade him ( Bezos is dragging his feet 😀) If he did put in a silly bud it might suggest that he wants to own Arsenal for more than financial reasons . Kroenke would appear to take a more hard-nosed view
Beware the scheming Portugee
Unsuspecting SZCZ
So Piers Morgan has got the sack. I’m not getting involved with the Harry and Meghan thing, but this is why many Arsenal fans are cheering tonight. I’m sure most of you know this.
Why do Arsenal fans hate Piers Morgan
bt8,
I didn’t read the CL thing properly, it seems the idea is a league of 36 teams with 10 randomly drawn games in the league and then the top 16 to knockout. I guess the other 20 will go to a consolation competition (iwannacash cup?).
No idea how credible that idea or report is though.
Actually, I like that format better than the current one though of course whatever format is chosen the rich clubs will dominate the later stages.
There is a lot we don’t yet know about the planned revamp ad expansion of the CL.
The biggest one is what the qualification criteria will be to get into the 36-strong league stage that will replace the 32-club group stage. The current format has an extensive qualifying phase to whittle down more than 50 teams to the six that join the 26 that qualify directly from the group stage by dint of league position in the big six leagues or had won the previous season’s CL or Europa League. How will the revamped CL decide its 36? Expanded ‘automatic’ qualification to accommodate more big clubs? Expanded qualification phase? Something completely new, eg, the 36 clubs with the highest UEFA coefficients?
How will the ‘Swiss model’ for the league stage work in practice? The model has been around for a century as an alternative to round-robins and straight knock-outs. It is widely used in chess and is based on the idea that as a participant progresses through the rounds they are paired against opponents with similar records in the tournament.
Chess has two systems for doing that, known as the Dutch and Monrad systems. Both rank participants on points scored in the tournament to date and then on seedings, and use that as the base for the pairings in the following round.
The Dutch system splits participants into groups after each round based on points scored and the pairings for the next round made within that group based on seedings (in a six club group it would be 1v4, 2v5 and 3v6). The Monrad system is a straight ranking from one to 36 on points scored with seeding as a tie-breaker. If UEFA uses that, each club would basically next play the club below them.
However, under both systems adjustments would be made to accommodate other rules, such as you can’t play the same opponent more than once and, in chess, you have to have as many games playing black as you do as white (home and away fixtures in football). UEFA might also keep the rule that clubs from the same country can’t play each other at this stage. Thus, as the tournament progresses, the parings get increasingly complex. It is usually done algorithmically.
Both systems would mean some big-name games in the early rounds, which TV would like. There will also need to be a draw after every round to generate the next set of pairings. TV will like that, too. However, how much notice will clubs (and fans) get that they are off to Baku next?
I can see there being a lot of furrowed eyebrows over the pairings in the final rounds when qualification for the knockout phase is in the balance unless the rules for making the pairings for each round are crystal clear.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>