In isolation, a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford is rarely a bad result. Arsenal came from behind to pick up a point against Manchester United on Monday, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s equaliser awarded by VAR after the linesman’s flag had appeared to deny him.
However, Monday’s stalemate was yet another away game against a fellow big-six side that Arsenal failed to win. And their overall record in such matches does not make for good reading.
Let’s start with a positive, shall we? In their last 24 Premier League away games against United, Manchester City, Tottenham, Chelsea and Liverpool, the north Londoners have scored 26 goals – which, as the eagle-eyed among you will note, is an average of more than one per game. Finding the net isn’t usually a problem for Arsenal, even in the most difficult Premier League matches.
Yet despite that, the Gunners have not taken all three points at Anfield, Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge, the Etihad Stadium or any of Tottenham’s home grounds in their last 24 attempts – a run which stretches back to a 2-0 victory over Manchester City in 2015. That game was so long ago that Martin Demichelis, Fernando, Stevan Jovetic and Frank Lampard were all in the hosts’ matchday squad.
As you might have guessed, the Gunners have conceded an awful lot of goals in those fixtures. And when we say an awful lot, we mean an awful lot: their backline has been breached on 54 occasions, which averages out at 2.25 per match.
Still, every cloud has a silver lining. If you squint really hard, you’ll realise that Arsenal can end their away day hoodoo against the Big Six when they visit Stamford Bridge in January. Arsenal fans will cast their minds back to a 5-3 triumph over Andre Villas-Boas’ Chelsea back in October 2011, when they tore apart an exciting but open home side led by an inexperienced coach who'd only recently returned to the club as manager.
There’s one slight issue, though, and it goes by the catchy name of ‘the aggregate score in the seven Premier League games in west London between the two sides since then’ – 18-4, in case you were wondering. Don’t get your hopes up, lads.
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