Arsenal were emphatically not their best selves in a damaging 1-0 reverse away to Newcastle United to start the tenth weekend of the Premier League season. Defending champions Manchester City slipped up at the opposite end of the country a few hours later, but Liverpool came from behind to defeat Brighton, opening up a cushion at the Premier League summit.
A yawning seven points separate Arsenal and Arne Slot’s pace setters. Ten games into the campaign – more than a quarter of the season gone – this has proven to be an almighty gap to close.
In the three decades of Premier League football, only one side has ever trailed the league leaders by more than seven points after ten games and gone on to lift the title. Blackburn Rovers overhauled an eight-point chasm to Newcastle United 30 years ago during the 1994/95 campaig
Newcastle, who had been promoted one year after Blackburn, soon fell away as Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United emerged as their main title challengers. Had United been able to defeat West Ham on the final day of the campaign, Blackburn’s turnaround would have been in vain as the nervy newbies lost away to Liverpool on the same dramatic afternoon.
Blackburn, however, had 32 matches to overturn their eight-point deficit. Arsenal only have 28 top-flight fixtures to claw back seven points.
Since the division was reduced to 20 teams in 1995, no champion has ever fallen this far behind after ten games. Both Manchester United (2002/03)
The unprecedented demands of Premier League champions makes Arsenal’s title charge even more unlikely. Seven of the last eight clubs to finish at the summit of England’s top flight have accrued at least 89 points, thereby dropping 25 points or fewer.
The capital club have already lost nine points in ten games and so can only afford to drop 16 over their remaining 28 matches.
When faced with these damaging statistics, Arteta flatly rebuffed any title discussions. “I understand that,” the Arsenal boss huffed, “but after eight, nine, ten games last year we didn’t [discuss the title] and we are not going to be talking about it now.”
That may be for the best, given the worrying figures that are churned up by Arsenal’s slow st Manchester United have officially confirmed Ruben Amorim as Erik ten Hag’s successor
- Amorim has faced off against three Premier League clubs in career
- Former club Sporting beat both Arsenal and Tottenham in same season
Ruben Amorim has been officially confirmed as Erik ten Hag’s successor in Manchester, but the Sporting CP boss will not assume the role until the November international break.
Amorim’s Premier League ascent arrives following some excellent work in the Portuguese capital which saw him inherit a situation of considerable dysfunction and quickly evolve Sporting into the best team in the land. He’s highly regarded and already well-decorated, but he’s been handed a poisoned chalice at Old Trafford which has seen some of the sport’s brightest minds succumb.
Excluding a forgettable loan spell in Qatar at the end of his playing days, 39-year-old Amorim has spent the entirety of his football career in Portugal. However, thanks to Sporting’s continental ventures under his reign, the Premier League is a division he’s previously come into contact with.
Amorim faced three Premier League clubs during his time with Sporting, here’s a rundown of his record against each ahead of his arrival on English shores.
Sporting were Primeira Liga holders entering the 2021/22 campaign and gunning for an improvement in the Champions League having last progressed into the knockout stages of the competition in 2009.
Amorim’s side advanced from a hotly-contested Group B in second place at Borussia Dortmund’s expense, but were dealt the short straw in the round of 16 as they were paired against a Manchester City side still hunting their first Champions League crown.
City beat Paris Saint-Germain and all their superstars to the top spot in Group A before ending their last 16 duel with Sporting 58 minutes into the two-legged affair. The Cityzens completely overwhelmed Amorim’s side in Lisbon, with goals from Riyad Mahrez, Phil Foden, Raheem Sterling, and a Bernardo Silva brace thrusting City into a 5-0 lead before the hour mark.
Sterling’s strike proved to be the last of the tie as the two sides played out a pretty dull 0-0 stalemate in Manchester three weeks later.
