Starting the season at home doesn’t actually help Arsenal
Countering a popular North London conspiracy theory
The fixtures for the 2009-10 season are released on Wednesday and the luck of the draw can have a significant impact on a team’s fortunes.
Cynical? Well take the example of Stoke, who faced the Big Four seven times in their opening 22 fixtures last season. By the end of that period they were in the relegation zone with 21 points but it mean that they had 15 successive games against tiring, less intimidating teams before facing Arsenal on the final day. They took 24 points from those games, guaranteeing safety with two games to spare and rendering a 4-1 loss at the Emirates irrelevant.
There’s a popular conspiracy theory among Tottenham fans that the fixture generators favour Arsenal and neglect them, which is backed up by the fact the Gunners have started 13 of their 17 Premier League campaigns at home, while Spurs have kicked off just four of theirs at White Hart Lane.
Those figures suggest that they have a case, although they don’t take into account that Arsenal actually fare better when they start on the road. Arsenal’s average final league position in Premier League seasons that they’ve kicked off at home is 4th (4.31th to be precise!) whereas two of their three titles came in the four campaigns that began away from home, while they finished second in the other two.
It’s also interesting to note that starting away from home hasn’t done Spurs too much harm either. Each of their six best Premier League campaigns have got underway on the road while they have never finished higher than 9th when kicking off at White Hart Lane. The averages back this up - their average finish when starting at home is 11th compared to 9th (well, 9.15th if you’re being picky) when away.
So Spurs fan shouldn’t bother complaining if Arsenal are the North London side randomly chosen (?) to start at home for the fifth year running.
Tags: Arsenal, Average League Position, Big Four, Conspiracy Theory, Counter Argument, Emirates Stadium, Fixtures, Football, Opening Day, Premier League, Spurs, Statistics, Stoke, Tottenham, Trends, White Hart Lane
Posted: June 15th, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | 
2 Responses to “Starting the season at home doesn’t actually help Arsenal”
By Gordon Thompson on Jun 15, 2009 | Reply
Arsenal are away to West Ham first game this season..
By THFC4LIFE on Jun 16, 2009 | Reply
Its not randomly chosen as such. Every team is paired off with another side that they cannot play Home on the same day as (i.e.2 local teams). The teams do not necessarily have to be in the same division. The very fact that Arsenal & Spurs are so close & have such opposite fixtures would imply that they are paired off together on the fixture computer. Your point is a valid one tho, altho it still makes little sense for either side why we always seem to start the season in the same way. It is only 1 game tho & the season lasts a long time.