Maybe a two point gap doesn’t sound that much to overcome, but we should remember that the season that finished a few weeks ago was Arsenal’s best in terms of goals scored, best in terms of not letting the opposition score, best in terms of goal difference and best in terms of points.
Of course it wasn’t the best in terms of winning the league, but to show just how far standards have gone up, here is a list of Arsenal’s best seasons in the league since the league went over to a 38 game season.
Season P W D L F A GD Pts Pos
2023–24 38 28 5 5 91 29 62 89 2
2001–02 38 26 9 3 79 36 43 87 1
2022–23 38 26 6 6 88 43 45 84 2
2004–05 38 25 8 5 87 36 51 83 2
1990-91 38 24 13 1 74 18 56 83* 1
2002–03 38 23 9 6 85 42 43 78
And just to be complete in terms of historical matters we should note the asterisk in 1990-91 wherein two points were deducted from Arsenal’s total.
If you are of a certain vintage you will recall that on 20 October 1990, Arsenal travelled to Old Trafford for a league match with Manchester United, which they won 1–0. However according to reports the match was interrupted by what the media all joined in as calling “a 21-player brawl” but which most of the time when such things happened in that era was known as “a bit of argy bargy”.
This however involved Arsenal and so resulted in Arsenal being deducted two points and their opponents Manchester United one point. Both clubs were fined £50,000.
Now I include that chart today since we have naturally looked a number of times at the top of the table last season, and how the top three pulled away from the rest. This last season just ended saw the top three (Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool) gain 262 points. That certainly wasn’t the highest number of points gained by the top three – I suspect that was the 267 in 2018/19. And it was quite a way above the 228 points gained by the top three in the “Year of the Brawl” (1990/91).
These top three totals can be compared with 248 points for the top three achieved in 2022/23. The year before that was similar to this one just gone in terms of the points of the top three (259 points), but all three were a leap above 2020/21 where the top three gained 229 points.
By way of comparison, in the Unbeaten Season of Arsenal, the top three gained 244 points. So yes the top three are tending to get more points each season, but it is not a linear growth. However, it is making it even harder for teams outside the top three to push their way into the top three, which makes Arsenal’s rise from 2021 to 2024 all the more remarkable.
Season P W D L F A GD Pts
8 Arsenal 2021 38 18 7 13 55 39 16 61
2 Arsenal 2024 38 28 5 5 91 29 62 89
But to balance the pulling away at the top of the league, there has been something of a falling away by the clubs at the foot of the table. This past season the bottom three gained 66 points between them and the three teams promoted in 2023 went back down in 2024.
This 66 points compares with the 90 points gained by Leicester City, Leeds United and Southampton in going down in 2023. Or indeed the 80 points gained by Burnley, Watford and Norwich who went down in 2022. In short, the bottom three were pretty awful last season.
Such figures suggest that the Premier League is becoming less competitive with the divide between the top and bottom clubs becoming greater, which does mean that the proud boasts we used to hear about how the Premier League was the most competitive in the world are getting harder to justify.
At the foot of the league teams with around 37 points normally don’t go down. Between seven and nine wins with a fair scattering of draws is enough to do it – which when said like that seems a fairly modest target.
But at the top clubs are looking for at least 28 wins in the season, and sometimes more.
Overall the figures we have been looking at in recent reviews suggest that what Arsenal need to do to overtake Manchester City is …
Score one more goal every six games. That would give Arsenal six more goals in the season which would make it 97 goals in the season compared to Manchster City’s 96.
Get one fewer yellow card every three games. That would give Arsenal 12 fewer yellow cards and so 50 compared to Manchester City’s 52. last season.
Turn two defeats into draws, to equal the number of points of Manchester City, last season.
Maybe put that way it doesn’t sound too difficult, and yet…
Season P W D L F A Pts Pos
2023–24 38 28 5 5 91 29 89 2nd
2022–23 38 26 6 6 88 43 84 2nd
2004–05 38 25 8 5 87 36 83 2nd
2002–03 38 23 9 6 85 42 78 2nd
2001–02 38 26 9 3 79 36 87 1st
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