ARSENAL V SPURS ULTIMATE STAT ATTACK

Hello

Welcome to this weeks Ultimate Stat Attack

This week a comparison of the recent fortunes of Arsenal and Spurs.

1. Spurs stuck to their policy of not selling their best players at any price. Arsenal sold their best player and captian, and then one of their most promising young players STAT

2. Spurs are 5 points ahead of Arsenal with a game in hand STAT

3. RVP has scored exactly 47% of Arsenals league goals this season. No other player in the league has such a high goals to team scoring ratio, with the exeption of Ba. Arsenal are statistically the definition of a 'one man team'. STAT

3.5 Indeed, without RVP, Spurs would have scored approximately 50% more goals than Arsenal so far this season. So statistically, RVP equates to roughly half of the value of the entire Arsenal team, compared to Spurs STAT

4. We often hear from Arsenal fans about how prudent Arsenal are in terms of spending. As opposed to Spurs who spend so much apparently. I decided to put this conventional wisdom to the test. Here is the Arsenal side that played against Wigan, compared to the Spurs first 11

Per Mertesacker 8.7
Thomas Vermaelen 10 (final signing fee of 12 million Euros plus)
Laurent Koscielny 8.45
Andre Santos 6
Mikel Arteta 10
Theo Walcott 12
Ramsey 4.8
Song 1
RVP 2.75
Gervinho 10.8 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gervinho
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74.5 m

Brad - Nil
Walker - £4.5m
Kaboul - £7.5m
King - Nil
Benny AE - £3.5m
Lennon - £1m
Modric - £16.5m
Parker - £5m
Bale - £8m
Rafa VDV - £8m
Adebayour - Nil
_____
Total: £54m (4 m more than Torres ) (Hatip Prof. Chronic)

The 'cheaper' Arsenal side is 20.5 m (38%) more expensive than 'big spending' Spurs STAT

N.B Sharp posters will note I didn't include the first team regular and most expensive Russian player in history STAT

Please consider the following too.

Chamberlain 12 m

Arshavin 16 m +

Squillaci 6.5 m

Chamakh 10 m

5. Sharp posters will equally note I didn't included wages

As of September 2011, Arsenals wage bill had spiralled to 124.4 million (Guardian, Sept 2011). A 12.4% increase on the previous year Spurs have no such issue because of the strictly enforced wage cap, which may or may not be increased for Modric, but not to a level Arsenal players currently earn.

In 2008, Arsenal were spending roughly twice as Spurs on wages STAT

So much for big spending Spurs and prudent Arsenal

6. Debt

Net debt Arsenal - 136 m

Net debt Tottenham - 65 m STAT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/may/19/football-club-accounts-debt

7. Depending on the source, Arsene Wenger is either the highest or second highest paid manager in the league, with a yearly package worth over 6.6 million Euros. You don't always pay for what you get it seems STAT

8. Back to the football, Spurs have won 3/4 last league North London Derbys STAT

Conclusion: Statistically, financially and on the field, Spurs are vastly superior to Arsenal