Five Premier League tables that expose Arsenal and a failed title challenge

We like a good table here at Football365, so much so that we developed a whole load of Premier League tables that you only get here.

We particularly like a good table that illustrates just how Arsenal have cocked up this season, standing as they now do fully 15 points behind Liverpool and in danger of finishing third in a two-horse race. Or seventh.

Mikel Arteta might have tried to denigrate Liverpool’s title, but that just exposes him as a bizarre man.

Luckily for once, there are quite a few, starting with this: The second-half table.

Now it’s important to note – and we really do need to give Arsenal their flowers here – that they top the first-half table for the season. Nobody is better in the first 45 minutes than Arsenal. Whoop-de-doo.

But then this happens in the second half:

As you can see, Arsenal are worse than Chelsea and pretty much exactly as good as Crystal Palace in the second half of games. And crucially a full 24 points worse than Liverpool.

We can speculate about whether this is tactics, a lack of quality on the bench or just some awful David Brent-style nonsense from Mikel Arteta at half-time, but the table is pretty stark: Arsenal are much, much worse after the break.

Which leads us neatly here:

They were at it again on Saturday against Bournemouth. It’s awful careless. A team with ambitions to win the actual Premier League title should not be in the same ballpark as Tottenham when it comes to any statistics, but particularly not this one.

Right at the bottom of that table, by the way, are Newcastle. They have thrown away just seven points from winning positions.

The Premier League table of points gained from losing positions is similarly damning; their record of only going behind in 10 games is the best in the Premier League and showcases their defensive solidity. But then to only pick up 12 points from those 10 games shows that their second-half drop-off has been damaging.

The Premier League table that only shows results against the current top half shows where a lot of those points have been dropped:

Much has been made of Arsenal not losing to fellow Big Six teams, but that’s rather pointless if you are going to lose to Bournemouth twice and drop points against Brentford, Brighton and Aston Villa.

Last year’s table against top-half opposition shows that Arsenal picked up 34 points against top-half sides, and scored a whole gaggle more goals. Something has clearly gone awry this season.

The answer is usually that Arsenal need a striker, but the Big Chances created table suggests that it’s not a matter of Arsenal squandering chances; they are just not creating them as often as Liverpool.

That’s a big old gap that could only be partially breached by buying a new goalscorer.

But we’re certain that a new goalscorer could help when it comes to open play goals. We’re used to seeing the Gunners way behind Liverpool on certain metrics but to be behind Tottenham too is almost unforgivable. There’s only one Set-Piece FC.