Remarkable Arsenal statistics somehow worthy of top four

Sack the manager, sack the players, sack the board and sack the owners. Four calls made over the past few weeks that have never been louder. So why are Arsenal, by the Premier League’s standards, in such good 2021 form?

Good form? Remarkably and almost unfathomably, yes.

The determined 1-0 win away at Chelsea in the Premier League – Thomas Tuchel’s second defeat since taking charge – offers the perfect moment for reflection since the last time the two sides met on Boxing Day.

A 3-1 victory brought an eight-game winless run to an end, simultaneously acting as the beginning of the end for Frank Lampard. It kick-started a seven game stretch without defeat for Arsenal, who at the time managed to claw their way out of a relegation battle and into the dizzying heights of ninth.

Remarkable Arsenal statistics somehow worthy of top four and show there is something for Mikel Arteta to build on next season

Two damaging defeats littered with individual errors followed in the midlands which were then the start of a nine-game run with just three victories. All the improvements evaporated as soon as they took form. The underlying metrics were there, but Arsenal were losing their cutting edge and leaking needless goals.

Now, with three wins on the bounce Arsenal have recorded 41 points since Boxing Day, the third most in the league during that time. Excuse me, what? Furthermore, the 38 goals scored is the joint-fourth most, and the 20 conceded is the joint-fourth best. Over the last 25 league matches Arsenal and Chelsea have accrued the same number of points.

The league doesn’t start in Christmas. Obviously. Arsenal are exactly where they deserve to be. No VAR grumblings or refereeing injustices, that happens to everyone and complaining about it is pointless and meritless.

In a bizarre way, this statistic is reminiscent of the start of last campaign, where Arsenal moved up to third with a win over Bournemouth after eight games despite the standard of football under Unai Emery being unsustainable. The league position masked over the reality.

With this instance, the form Arsenal have been on should see them sit in third, were it not for the self-inflicted points deduction they handed themselves in the eight matches prior to Boxing Day. The form doesn’t reflect in the table, the opposite way to last season.

How much of a reflection that is on the league as a whole and Arsenal is key, though. In the five matches that followed beating Tottenham, Arteta’s men were poor. The football on show and the imbalance within the side on visual alone, is not worthy of being third in the Premier League table.