The League Cup: where Arsenal usually get it wrong, and why they won't this time
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By Bulldog Drummond
Arsenal and corners is now the talking point of the media. The Guardian is even doing a cartoon on it.
But of course it is not the only thing about Arsenal or about football that can be talked about by the chattering classes. Yet they don’t always take up the opportunity. The fact that PGMO keeps the media in its vice-like grip and won’t allow any discussion about PGMO is itself worthy of debate. As is the decline and fall of Manchester City despite the multiple billions ploughed into the club. Yet of such matters we don’t hear that much.
But some of the media is awakening to the notion that the Super League is back on the table under a new name – the Unify League. And of course, history has played into the organisers’ hands since the world has seen how inept Uefa and Fifa are at arranging matches. Likewise, the inability of the Miami Hard Rock Stadium to allow people in, in an orderly manner, shows just how inept football administration can be. And they didn’t even have the excuse of it not having happened before.
It’s no good being surprised each time something goes wrong. It always goes wrong.
Then of course we have the issue of the World Cup, given to one of the most appallingly undemocratic, indeed anti-democratic and utterly sexist countries in the world. Really, media promotions of Fifa and Uefa competitions ought to be a criminal offence.
There can be no doubt that Uefa has abused its position of market dominance as the European Court of Justice agreed, making it quite clear that the rules that Uefa used to block Super League were self-evidently against EU law.
The rules have to be “transparent, objective, non-discriminatory and proportionate” which clearly they were not. Quite possibly they still are not, but another court case should in due course sort that out.
However such re-evaluations will be not worth very much if the organisations running football continue to be totally unable to run events without rioting as a backdrop. And indeed the question that arises is, why should organisations from the FA to Uefa and Fifa continue to have the right to put on big shows when their past records show they are almost congenitally unable to do so safely?
Of course we know there won’t be any problems at Arsenal on Wednesday night – it is many a long year since there has been any problem inside the ground in Highbury.
The current round of chitchat tells us that Riccardo Calafiori could return against Palace, despite missing the draw against Everton with a knee injury. To plagiarise Bob Dylan, “he’s not there yet but he’s getting there”. The two long-term injuries are of course out for the long term. Takehiro Tomiyasu might return in January, while Ben White won’t be back until March.
Palace have Mathues Franca definitely out and Joel Ward; Adam Wharton are doubts.
The first time Arsenal played Crystal Palace was in the FA Cup in 1934., Arsenal won 7-0. Overall there have been 57 games between the two, but Palace have only win six, to Arsenal’s 33. However, a look at recent results reveals something a little curious. For in the last ten games between the clubs, all of which have been in the Premier League, Arsenal have only won five – which is obviously 50%. Overall Arsenal have actually won 60%.
So what happened was that in October 2018 something changed. For in the eight games between October 2018 and September 2022, Arsenal won just one. Five games were drawn and Palace won two. It was an extraordinary turnaround across four seasons. In fact from 28 Octber 2018 to 14 January 2021 Arsenal played Palace five times and didn’t win any of those matches.
And even though Arsenal bounced back in May 2021, since then Arsenal have drawn with Palce in north London and then lost 3-0 on 4 April 2022 at the Palace ground.
In fact Palace have just completed 11 consecutive seasons in the Premier League and in every one of those seasons except one, Palace have conceded more goals than they scored. At the moment that record looks like continuing, And yet as I noted above, “In the eight games between October 2018 and September 2022, Arsenal won just one.”
One might even say it is a bit of a funny old game. A bit of an odd phrase, I know, but it might catch on.
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The League Cup: where Arsenal usually get it wrong, and why they won't this time
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