I’m not super-knowledgeable about European football leagues, but sometimes I check out the standings and such on Yahoo out of curiosity.
Today, I saw this. Arsenal has 24 wins, 10 draws, and no losses.
Great googley-moogley – how often do Premier league teams go undefeated through 34 games? Can some football-savvy Dopers put the accomplishments of this Arsenal team in perspective. Is this a big deal, or no? How many games left are there?
From www.guinnessworldrecords.com:
Of course, a true undefeated run includes cup matches, European fixtures, etc. And Arsenal lost to Man Utd in the FA cup earlier this month.
It’s a big deal. Arsenal have already broken the record, surpassing Leeds and Liverpool’s 29-game unbeaten starts to a season in the '70s and '80s. In the modern era, nobody has come close to an entire season unbeaten (currently 38 games, so 4 games to go). Nottingham Forest managed 42 consecutive unbeaten league games in the '70s, but that run spanned two seasons.
I don’t want to sow discord or undermine Arsenal’s wonderful feat but I think it is only fair to point out that, whilst Arsenal’s run has indeed been impressive, it is really just a matter of how you want to look at it.
For example, in the 1993/94 season Manchester United lost only 4 games all season. In the 1998/99 season they lost only 3 games. Likewise, the following season, 1999/00 they also lost only 3 games.
And Arsenal themselves lost only 3 games when they won the title in the 2001/02 season
So what is impressive about Arsenal’s run is merely the fact that it happens to have been a run. The idea of winning nearly all your games in a season though is not all that special. If they lose a couple of their remaining games then this season hasn’t necessarily been all that special. It’s just the fact that they happen to have won all their games in a row rather than having the odd loss here and there.
I’m not putting down the achievement, just putting it into perspective. People get all impressed with records but is there that much difference between winning all your games in a row and winning the same number of games but not in a row (losing a couple along the way)?
Ah this is the 1998/99 season not the link above.
Of course, Arsene Wenger said two seasons ago that he thought they could go undefeated in the Premiership that year, and they lost to Everton a week later…
Celtic have almost gone undefeated in the Scottish Premier League this year. First loss of the season last week.
Celtic’s defeat was in their first match after they secured the title, so it’s not surprising that they took their foot off the pedal. It will be interesting to see whether Arsenal do the same.