“Arsenal behind Chelsea and Tottenham” How a once decent ...

By Tony Attwood

“Arsenal are one of seven top-flight London clubs in 2024-25, and have often finished behind Chelsea and Tottenham in recent seasons.”   

So started an article in the Athletic re-published on the New York Times webpages.

It was a surprising statement for me to read (even if for no one else) because a) it didn’t feel right and b) there was nothing defining the statement “recent seasons”.  And that was odd given the fact that until recently the Ahtletic has striven to provide in-depth information and analysis with figures.   So what would make the Athletic drop to the level of Football.London or other publications that publish unproven without regard for the facts?

To answer this I started by checking the factors.   

First are Arsenal one of seven top flight clubs?  Well, yes I think that’s obvious.  Sell-out crowds at every match despite ever rising prices, and pushing the multi-billionaires for the title in each of the last two seasons.  Plus of course quite history – 14 FA Cup victories – more than anyone else.  Seven FA Cup wins this century, more than anyone else.  13 league titles, behind only Manchester United and Liverpool. 

And that is before we get to more consecutive seasons in the top division than anyone else… Runners-up two years running. That’s more than “top seven”.

And what about this have “often finished behind Chelsea and Tottenham in recent seasons.”   It is a funny thing to put in an article title.  In the last ten years Chelsea have had 11 managers, Tottenham nine.  Arsenal have had four.  Is that what puts them behind the others – that Arsenal don’t sack a manager a month?

Then why “the last 10 years?”   Why not five years?  Why not three?    When the number like this seems slightly odd it is usually because journalist is trying  desperately to find a way to knock the subject of the article, and is struggling to find a statistic.  So, I really did go checking.

In the last three years Arsenal have finished above Tottenham each time and above Chelsea two out of three.  That’s 5-1 to Arsenal which is not “Arsenal have often finished behind Chelsea and Tottenham in recent seasons,” but the opposite.  “In recent seasons Chelsea and Tottenham have found it impossible to keep up with Arsenal” is a bit more like it.   Or “Arsenal have clearly dominated London football in recent years.” 

Indeed Chelsea have only got more points than Arsenal achieved last season, once in the last 18 years.  Is that Arsenal slipping behind???????

And what of Tottenham – well according to my checking (which I must admit was done at speed) Tottenham have never even once got to the points total that Arsenal got last season.  So we are not talking about odd quirks here, we are talking about all time records.

But what if we take the last ten years as “recent”, then yes Tottenham have ended up above Arsenal five times, and Arsenal have the honour five times. (That’s equal – I thought I would mention this as the NYT / Atheltic people seem a bit dodgy on counting).   

Only one fraction of the lead of this story is true – and that is measuring Arsenal and Chelsea over the last nine years it is indeed 6-3 to Chelsea, because this includes Chelsea’s free spending Russian period.

But really for the phrase “in recent seasons” to make sense not specifying the time span is just plain misleading, and has no one ever thought that ten yearas is rather a long time in football.    

The only conclusion one can reasonably come to is that the author either of his own volition or due to the prodding of his/her editor, decided to do a knocking Arsenal piece.

But why?

Well, basically because thta is what the media is doing wholesale at the moment.   It might be malicious, it might be deliberate or it might (and I suspect this is the real truth) just be utterly lazy journalism pure and simple.  Whatever it is, it is one of the three – and we are getting it all the time.

And it has an implication, because out of this constant knocking of Arsenal comes the notion that although Arsenal are getting a rough deal from the PGMO men, it is deserved, beauase in reality Arsenal is a second rate team.   They should, according to the commentators, have bought a centre forward last season instead of blowing the entire transfer budget on Havertz.  They were wrong, the journalists were right, and so now we have to prove it by showing (!) that Arsenal have slipped right behind Tottenham and Chelsea!!!!!

Arsenal might talk big, but really, they aren’t.  They might creep up to Chelsea or Tottenham’s level, but not for long because really Arsenal are second rate. 

And why are they saying this?   Well, their thought is that if we can talk about this set of made-up nonsense, that takes the pundits mind off Chelsea’s financial doings and ludicrous player deals, and Tottenham’s penchant for sacking managers.  Let’s knock Arsenal because, well, that stops people talking about what is really happening with Chelsea and Tottenham.

Shame on you Athletic.  I thought you were better than that – but clearly I was wrong.  But I won’t forget.