By Bulldog Drummond
So we play ManU tomorrow, and then again in the FA Cup third round. Elsewhere given their current form ManC have a dodgy home tie with Salford. Liverpool are at home to Accrington, Chelsea at home to Morecambe, Tottenham away to Tamworth, Newcastle at home to Bromley, Nottingham Forest at home to Luton. Does anyone see a pattern here?
But of course it just goes on like this, so all we can do is keep paying and watching. And certainly in “welcoming” ManU tomorrow (and I use the word “welcoming” in its footballing sense) we are playing a team that is even below Tottenham in the table – although only by one point. Here’s a selective bit of the top of the table. Arsenal and Chelsea are of course equal on all measures.
**2**
**Arsenal**
**13**
**7**
**4**
**2**
**26**
**14**
**12**
**25**
3
Chelsea
13
7
4
2
26
14
12
25
5
Manchester City
13
7
2
4
22
19
3
23
7
Tottenham Hotspur
13
6
2
5
28
14
14
20
**9**
**Manchester United**
**13**
**5**
**4**
**4**
**17**
**13**
**4**
**19**
Last season at this time Arsenal were on 30 points, so five more than now, but had only scored one more goal than this season’s team, while Manchester United were on 24 and Tottenham Hots on 26. So there has been a general dropping back although Chelsa have recovered – they were on 16 at this stage a year ago.
The last six games table has Arsenal in ninth but Manchester United in third, which doesn’t make such good reading, And indeed ManU have indeed picked up of late, being unbeaten in their last seven games in all competitions (although these seven include two Europa League matches and a League Cup game.
**But just as we have found something very odd** indeed about Arsenal’s fixtures this season, with the club getting away games against most of the top sides one after another, so we looked at Manchester United fixture list, just to see…. And just take a look at their complete fixture list for these last seven games…
30 Oct
**Manchester United** v Leicester
W
5-2
League Cup
3 Nov
**Manchester United** v Chelsea
D
1-1
Premier League
7 Nov
**Manchester United** v PAOK
W
2-0
Europa League
10 Nov
**Manchester United** v Leicester
W
3-0
Premier League
24 Nov
Ipswich Town v Manchester U
D
1-1
Premier League
28 Nov
**Manchester United** v FK Bodo
W
3-2
Europa League
1 Dec
**Manchester United** v Everton
W
4-0
Premier League
And I promise you that listing has not been fixed by me, and nothing has been omitted. There are seven games in that list and SIX OF THEM were at Very Old Trafford (well at least Very Old is how it looked to me last time I was there.)
Which might well mean that the last six table isn’t quite as helpful as it might normally be, and what we really have to do is take a look at ManU’s away form. Here is Arsenal at home and ManU away this season – as we can see there is a huge difference in form between the two sides.
3
**Arsenal home**
6
4
2
0
15
6
9
14
13
Manchester United away
6
1
3
2
6
5
1
6
In fact ManU’s one away win in the league was a 3-0 victory against the mighty Southampton. And that away win at Southampton might well have been helped by the fact that Southampton’s home record is won nil drawn one and lost six. A sequence so poor that even ManU could win there. The goal difference figures above (15-6 for Arsenal, 6-5 for Manchester United shows us what has been going on.
But of course, all teams can turn things around and Arsenal will know that no assumptions can be made. But a continuation of the form that has given Arsenal 13 goals in the last three matches, will not go amiss along with not letting anything slip through the defence.
For although Arsenal are nine points behind Liverpool, Arsenal and Liverpool have scored the same number of goals. It is the goals against which has made all the difference – 14 against Arsenal, only eight conceded by Liverpool.
Certainly looking at the table above and seeing that ManU have actually conceded fewer goals away than Arsenal at home suggests they will keep things very tight. But even so the shock of having to travel to ANOTHER GROUND – and indeed that being the ground of a club doing rather well, could well be far too much for them.
(Incidentally, I wouldn’t bank on media commentators noting that ManU has just played six of the last seven games at home. I mean, that’s a statistic, and we all know that football supporters are far too thick to be able to comprehend any statistics.).
Meanwhile, on the Arsenal History site we are continuing our review of Herbert Chapman, as next summer will be the 100th anniversary of his arrival at Arsenal. The latest piece is [Chapman, the player who moved from club to club to club…](https://blog.woolwicharsenal.co.uk/archives/27298) There’s an index to the whole series on that page as well, so you can go back to the start if you’ve missed it thus far.