These are Arsenal’s results against the “Big Six” last season,
Arsenal 3-1 Liverpool
Arsenal 5-0 Chelsea
Arsenal 1-0 Manchester City
Arsenal 2-2 Spurs
Arsenal 3-1 Manchester United
Liverpool 1-1 Arsenal
Chelsea 2-2 Arsenal
Manchester City 0-0 Arsenal
Spurs 2-3 Arsenal
Manchester United 0-1 Arsenal
If you look at these results, you’d commend our Gunners for not losing to any traditional Big 6 side. Not losing in these big games showed the level to which Arteta’s team has risen.
As brilliant as they were, they missed out on the league title by 2 points and it was very fine margins thatcost them the title.
Going into next season, the Gunners need to be perfect and thus need to do some things differently, with Lyon boss Pierre Sage, whose team lost 2-0 to Arsenal over the weekend, touching on one of the things that Mikel Arteta and his team need to do better.
According to Sage, Arsenal ought to make it their mission to win the big games if they’re to finally outwit Manchester City and taste PL glory.
Sage said: “Last year was a big challenge because the two teams had a good run, but City made the difference at the end.
“It’s similar to City and Liverpool before. It’s a league where the teams are very close to each other.
“You have to be very consistent, and you have to win the biggest games against your opponents.”
Beating the big boys isn’t an effortless task, but that’s what champions do — Arsenal will need to go to every game like a final to not just avoid defeat but aim to win. Pundits like Paul Scholes have accused the Gunners of playing for a draw (referring to the 0-0 draw against Manchester City in the PL run-in). I guess next season is a wonderful chance to prove them wrong.
If Arsenal could, last season, avoid defeat against the big boys, they will surely have the courage to beat them all this new season. Quality additions, such as the signing of Riccardo Calafiori, Mikel Merino, and a dynamic winger (or top striker), could help.
If we hadn’t dropped 4 points against the Big Boys we would have won last years title, can Arteta take Arsenal to even bigger success this season?
Daniel O
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If you ask me for the same results against big 6, I’d take it with both hands. Those results against big 6 should win you the league anyday. But Arsenal need to be more ruthless at home. I come to think of Aston Villa, Fulham at home, that for me was it. We should look to always collect maximum at home
Westham also
West ham was the worst as it was overall a dominant game for us and it looked like west ham did us over. Fulham was a bad performance full stop and that happens.
Villa was in the middle.
Agree 100% AV and Fulham were the disappointment and reason for no title, not the results vs. Top 6
Arsenal certainly improved a lot upon their traditionally poor results record against the other members of the so-called “Big 6”. Some of us oldies can remember only too well (even though we try to forget) the awful record that Wenger’s latter sides had against members of that club – really humiliating, almost game in and out.
Basically, Arsenal “just” needs to improve even more, across the board, from their fine overall performance last season. Easy peasy then.
An article here a couple of days ago compared their points performance to the “average” and it was, of course, somewhat better. However, the article failed to acknowledge that in City we are not facing “the average”. No team having won what they have domestically in the space of a few seasons can be called that.
Arsenal needs a consistent level of “above average” performances in 2024-25. It won’t be 100% of course (that really would be “the” record), but it’s the team that makes the fewest slip-ups overall that will prevail come May. Hopefully, that’s Arsenal.
Absolutely Bertie. While those old loses back in the day were painful, it does show how important it is to get those three points against lesser opponents. To a casual observer looking at those losses in isolation would likely bring a reaction of disbelief after we still finished 2nd – 4th every season (unlike any of the Big 6 clubs we lost to). Tends to support the idea that it’s the whole season that counts not just the “big” games.
I can’t believe this article is blaming loss of the title on not doing better by having only 6 wins and 4 draws against the big boys. Do the names Fulham, West Ham, and Aston Villa ring a bell. To win the title we must 1) win all those games which we are supposed to win against lesser opponents and 2) at least hold our own against the ones which are at or close to our level. We did #2 but did not do #1.
Quite – and hope that City drop a few points unexpectedly as well.