Arsenal: Decline against big clubs alters in cup context

Arsenal have worsened extensively against the top six clubs during Arsene Wenger’s tenure. But while their struggles in the Premier League have been extensive and widely publicised, in a cup context, something changes.

Arsenal are notoriously poor against the top six sides. Because of a number of factors, including the defensive naivety of the team, which is exposed by better players, to the mental fragilities that are routinely exploited whenever a smidge of persecution or difficulty seems to come their way, the Gunners have never been able to deliver when it matters most.

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Many have rightly chosen to pin that on Arsene Wenger. After all, not only is he the manager of the team, but he is perhaps the most powerful and influential manager in world football, boasting a detailed and extensive impact on every acute aspect of the club, from the menu at the canteen to the tactics on the pitch. And the stats, for Wenger and the club, do not read prettily.

In this brilliant piece of analysis by Sky Sports, it is shown the extent of Arsenal’s downfall against the big teams. This year, they have played eight Premier League games against the five other top six teams — Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs. In those eight games, they have amassed just six points, which is 25% of the maximum number of points available.

The article also shows a downward trend of Arsenal’s results against the respective top six of that given season throughout Wenger’s tenure. For instance, in the last 10 seasons, including this current one in which there are still two games to go against both Manchester clubs, they have recorded just 110 points against the top-six sides of that given year. In the first ten years, that same figure was 161 points.

And that is all true and worrying and has been debated, discussed and bemoaned ad nauseam. But in recent years, in the cup competitions, the same painfully desperate trend has been utterly reversed.

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In the last five years, including this current season, in the two domestic cups — the FA Cup and the League Cup, now known as the Carabao Cup –, Arsenal have faced top-six opposition from that respective season on ten occasions. They have lost only one, which was to Chelsea in the fourth round of the League Cup in 2013/14 in which both teams played much-weakened sides.

They have won seven of the other nine games were won in normal time, and one, last year’s semi-final against Manchester City, was won in extra-time. The only draw came this season, in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final against Chelsea. Arsenal won the second leg 2-1 thanks to a second-half Granit Xhaka goal.

The point in all this is that for all of Arsenal’s struggles against top-six teams in the Premier League, and they have been great, in the cup competitions, the same cannot be said. In fact, the very opposite is true: they have excelled when the competition has been at its highest.

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So perhaps, when they come to face arguably the best team in the Premier League era, that cup expertise may just come into play. Let’s hope so, anyway, because if their league form shows up, it could be an ugly 90 minutes indeed.