Arsenal : Surprising teams that cost them the title

Another Frustrating season for Arsenal,so much promise but petered out

So the 2010-2011 season has now officially come to a close and its time to do a postmortem on the Arsenal season. We have all read many articles,bogs,news items and even forums that speak of the various reasons for yet another trophy-less season. They range from lack of character to being bottlers, psyche problems, attitude problems,home form, chokers, referee decisions, Carling cup hangover and many many more. There has also been a breakdown of these and multiple articles of how the referees have cost us the title.

Now the common theory going around in the media and among fans is that Arsenal cannot handle the physical sides and can be bullied and thats has come to the fore again after Blackburn took a point at the Emirates while Stoke and Bolton beat us. With all three results coming in recent weeks, it would seem that this argument is true. But here is something interesting, here are the results from games against the 4 most physical teams that Arsenal have said to have a problem playing against over the last 5 seasons:Stoke City

Away- 3-1 Loss= 0 pointsHome- 1-0 Win= 3 points

Blackburn

Away- 1-2 Win= 3 pointsHome- 0-0 Draw= 1 point

Bolton

Away- 2-1 Loss= 0 pointsHome- 4-1 Win= 3 points

Birmingham

Away- 3-0 Win= 3 pointsHome- 2-1 Win= 3 points

So we had 5 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses from those 8 games, a total of 16 points from a possible 24. To put this into perspective, eventual league winners, Manchester United only picked up 18 points from these same 8 fixtures. Hardly proof enough to say Arsenal struggles against and can’t handle physical teams.

Now lets handle the other side, ‘Arsenal can’t beat top teams,direct competitors’

Manchester United

Away- 1-0 Loss= 0 pointsHome- 1-0 Win= 3 points

Chelsea

Away- 2-0 Loss= 0 pointsHome- 3-1 Draw= 3 points

Manchester City

Away- 0-3 Win= 3 pointsHome- 0-0 Draw= 1 point

So Arsenal picked up 10 points from these 6 games (18 total available). Comparing that with United 10 points,, Chelsea 9 points and Manchester City 5 points, we can see that this argument didn’t hold any truth either as Arsenal topped this mini mleague on goal difference over United.

So where did Arsenal have the most problem? At 3 of the most unexpected teams at the start of the season, namely Newcastle United, West Brom and *shudder* Tottenham Hotspur *shudder*

Here is the record against thee 3 teams.

Newcastle United

Away- 4-4 Draw= 1 pointHome- 0-1 Loss= 0 points

West Brom

Away- 2-2 Draw= 1 pointHome- 2-3 Loss= 0 points

Tottenham

Away- 3-3 Draw= 1 pointHome- 2-3 Loss= 0 points

A quicker look at these shows, that Arsenal were 2-0 up at half time at home to spurs, before losing that, 3-1 ahead away at the same team before drawing that game too. Had one shot on goal by Newcastle at the Emirates to lose that one and lost a 4 goal lead to Newcastle away to throw away 2 more points there and all respect to West Brom, we really should be beating these teams if we realistically want to be champions.

So in these 6 games, Arsenal picked up 3 points from a maximum 18, dropping a mammoth 15 points. United won the title by 9 points, with Arsenal a further 3 behind Chelsea and Manchester City, in 2nd and 3rd respectively, but tied on points.

Had Arsenal held onto those leads and converted those into wins and picked up those 15 points, they would have been 3 clear of United at the top. THIS is where Arsenal lost the title this season, to teams you least expected us to drop this many points to at the start of the season.

That being said, i do agree that the Carling Cup loss had a major influence on the team, you could see that something broke that day, the belief we can win and take any team on just ended. And subsequent exits from the Champion’s League (to am embarrassing referee call) and the FA Cup within a couple of weeks of that, really mentally killed this team. And this is why Wenger has spoken of the team being naive and having a lack of experience in his last 10 interviews, and why we my go to add just this in the summer, but thats a discussion for another day, and another blog entry.

For now, Arsenal finish the season in 4th, with a point total which was just 1 point more than their lowest ever total under Wenger, back in the 2005-2006 season and the players have to look forward to a short summer and an early start to pre-season, as the impending Champion’s league qualifiers have to be played in order to book our place in the Champion’s League group stages.