Is Arsenal's biggest problem that they aren't wearing Liverpool shirts?
The champions keep winning and keep being called unwatchable. I think the shirt is doing more of the judging than the football.
- 77Manchester City's league goals, the only side to outscore Arsenal
- 25set-piece goals, penalties excluded, the most in the division
- 19league clean sheets, the most in the division
- six pointsArsenal's lead at the top after beating Hull
Arsenal beat Hull 1-0 on Saturday, Martin Odegaard settling it, and went six points clear at the top. I could feel the groan from here: another narrow win, another afternoon for the people who think these champions are a chore.
Pundit Jamie O'Hara is the critic I hear most. In October, on Sky Sports, he called manager Mikel Arteta's side the "worst to watch" and "unbearable"; after the 1-0 win at Liverpool he said they should be "banned" from television.
I like a fight about football, so I took the charge seriously. I put the champions next to Ferguson's 1999 United, Dalglish's 1988 Liverpool and Fagan's 1984 Liverpool, and asked whether the problem is the football or the shirt.
What is really being asked
The headline bundles two questions. The first is whether Arsenal's title football really was short of goals and drama by the standards of famous champions. The second is whether they are judged more harshly than an English champion with a similar record and a red shirt.
I compare league seasons only, because cup nights are where legends get made and league seasons are where habits show. The seasons ran to 38, 40 and 42 matches, so I think in rates, not raw totals.
Numbers cannot tell me whether anybody enjoyed a match. They can tell me whether the charge survives contact with the scorelines.
Who holds the levers
| Who | What they hold | The number |
|---|---|---|
| Mikel Arteta, Arsenal manager | The style. A side built on control can choose to open up; I think this one mostly chose not to, and it won the league. | 28.5 expected goals conceded in 2025-26, the lowest in the league |
| The broadcasters and their pundits | The first draft of the reputation. A clip of a pundit calling the champions unwatchable travels faster than a season's worth of results. | 24 October 2026 the date of the Sky Sports clip |
| Supporters on both sides | The volume. A champion that keeps winning gives its critics a fresh stage every weekend, and its fans a fresh reason to answer back. | fifth in a row Arsenal's league win against Hull, after the defeat at Brighton |
The case that O'Hara is right about the football
I know the feeling he means. Arsenal get ahead, take the air out of the match and wait for a corner.
Winning is the prize. It is not the whole show.
He has the scorelines, and it stings to admit it: only nine of Arsenal's 38 league games had four goals or more, while United in 1999 and Liverpool in 1988 had fourteen each.
The wins were tight too. Fourteen of their 26 league wins came by a single goal, more than half, a higher share than either of those famous sides managed, and I felt every one of those nervy finishes in the numbers.
And the goals leaned on dead balls, 25 of them, penalties aside. I admire the coaching; I just do not leap out of my seat for it, and even the corner record depends on who is counting.
Arteta's answer to the critics was blunt: "We've scored some beautiful goals but the value is exactly the same." He is right about the value. The complaint is about the experience, which is a different question.
Against the real entertainers the gap is plain. United scored 80 league goals in 1999 and Dalglish's Liverpool 87 in 1988, in leagues that scored fewer goals per match than Arsenal's did, so relative to their leagues I make both well clear of Arsenal.
Dalglish's side also shows that security and entertainment were never a trade-off. They began the season 29 league games unbeaten, John Aldridge scored 26 league goals, and they conceded only 24 in the league.
That is the benchmark that hurts Arsenal most for me. The excuse that a champion has to be careful stops working once you have seen one that was careful and thrilling at once.
And this was not a low-scoring league. At 2.75 goals per match it was the highest-scoring of the four seasons I looked at, which makes Arsenal's tight margins stand out more, not less.
O'Hara is right about the feeling, and I will not pretend otherwise.
Goals per match across the whole league
- 2025-26 Premier League2.75
- 1983-84 First Division2.71
- 1998-99 Premier League2.52
- 1987-88 First Division2.5
The case that the shirt is doing the judging
Now the part that gets under my skin. Arsenal scored 71 league goals, and only Manchester City, with 77, scored more. That is not a side that could not find the net.
The shirt changes what we choose to remember.
Put them beside Fagan's Liverpool and the picture changes. Liverpool won the 1983-84 league with 73 goals from 42 games in a division scoring 2.71 a match, and relative to their own league I make Arsenal's scoring a little higher than that.
At the back there is not much in it either. Arsenal conceded 27; Fagan's champions let in 32, and I do not hear anyone calling that defence dull.
That Liverpool side won the league, the European Cup and the League Cup, and I can see why they are loved for it. They also won only two of their last eight league games, and wrapped up the title with a goalless draw at Notts County.
They lost 4-0 at Coventry, a match with a half-time row in which, in blogger Steven Pye's telling, "Teacups and punches were thrown". Liverpool captain Graeme Souness said: "By our own standards we didn't deserve to win the title again." Then: "But by everybody else's standards, we did."
I have never heard that team called the most boring champions ever. It is remembered as a winner, with striker Ian Rush's 47 goals in all competitions for the highlight reel. I think time has been kind to that side.
The great entertainers had dull afternoons too. Dalglish's 1987-88 side drew 0-0 three times in the league, and once the title was safe they drew 1-1 in three of their last four games. I rarely hear those draws mentioned; I hear about their attacking football all the time.
Ferguson's United had their league fireworks, including an 8-1 win at Nottingham Forest, and they took the title on the final day by beating Tottenham. That side deserves its legend, and the numbers still say they won plenty the hard way.
They also drew 13 league games and won ten of their 22 by a single goal. The Guardian's Jamie Jackson called them "masters of harum-scarum wins in defining matches", and most of those defining matches were not in the league.
So I separate the treble legend from the 38-game title campaign O'Hara is really comparing. On that ground United were the better attack, but not the different species the treble legend suggests.
I think Arsenal are getting a harsher hearing than a Liverpool side with a similar record ever got.
League goals conceded by four champions
- Liverpool 1987-8824
- Arsenal 2025-2627
- Liverpool 1983-8432
- Man Utd 1998-9937
What the headline leaves out
Control is a style, not a crime
I can prefer a John Barnes dribble for Liverpool to a Gabriel Magalhaes header for Arsenal without pretending the header did not count. Arsenal kept clean sheets in half their league games; I would call that controlled, which is a fair criticism of a spectacle, not a verdict that nobody should watch.
The comparison has limits I cannot remove
Both Liverpool sides played before the back-pass rule arrived in 1992, so a goalkeeper could pick up a deliberate pass and kill a game. Pitches, balls, substitutes and VAR have changed too, and I use these numbers to compare output, not to measure beauty.
This season is too young to settle it
Arsenal have dropped points only once in the league so far, in a 3-0 defeat at Brighton in September. I love a good start as much as anyone, but ten games is a snapshot, and I will not let it decide this either way.
What survives scrutiny
| Claim | Evidence | Finding |
|---|---|---|
| Arsenal could not score goals | 71 Arsenal's league goals, 2025-26 | False. Only one side scored more in a high-scoring league season. |
| Arsenal relied on set pieces | 25 set-piece goals, penalties excluded, the most in the division | True, and the club counts a corner record on top. |
| The old Liverpool champions were all-out entertainers | 73 Liverpool's league goals, 1983-84 | Only half true. Dalglish's side was; Fagan's scored at a rate close to Arsenal's. |
| The corner total is settled | 19 Arsenal's own count | Not proven. Three published counts, three different totals, each called a record. |
Arsenal's corner goals in 2025-26, by who is counting
- Arsenal's own count19
- Yahoo Sports report18
- Flashscore, a game to play17
Three routes from here
Narrow wins, a hardening label
If Arsenal keep winning by a goal and leaning on corners, the 'boring' tag sticks for this generation, however many trophies come with it. That only changes when the results stop.
The attack opens up
If more of the goals start coming from open play and the four-goal games return, the reputation shifts quickly. Pundits follow the clips, and clips follow the goals.
Time does the editing
If this side wins again and the club keeps winning after it, I expect the narrow wins to be forgotten and the titles remembered, the way they were for Fagan's team. That takes years, not weeks.
This argument will not end with me. Every narrow win will bring another clip and another round of who is boring, and I think that is part of the fun of being champions.
So the next time they grind out a 1-0, I will groan, and then I will look at the table.
Sources: UK Channel: O'Hara on the Liverpool win (accessed 8 November 2026), Sky Sports: O'Hara brands champions the 'worst to watch' (accessed 8 November 2026), Wikipedia: 2025-26 Premier League (accessed 8 November 2026), Wikipedia: 1998-99 Manchester United season (accessed 8 November 2026), Wikipedia: 1987-88 Liverpool season (accessed 8 November 2026), Wikipedia: 1983-84 Liverpool season (accessed 8 November 2026), Wikipedia: 1998-99 FA Premier League (accessed 8 November 2026), Wikipedia: 1987-88 Football League (accessed 8 November 2026), Wikipedia: 1983-84 Football League (accessed 8 November 2026), Manchester United 1999 Treble Archive (accessed 8 November 2026), Arsenal: 27 great stats from the 25/26 season (accessed 8 November 2026), Flashscore: Arsenal's title in numbers (accessed 8 November 2026), BBC Sport: Arsenal 1-0 Hull City (accessed 8 November 2026), Arsenal: match report v Hull City (accessed 8 November 2026), The Guardian: Manchester United 1998-99 compared (accessed 8 November 2026), The Guardian: Liverpool's 1984 treble (accessed 8 November 2026), Wikipedia: Back-pass rule (accessed 8 November 2026), Yahoo Sports: Arteta on the set-piece narrative (accessed 8 November 2026). Evidence as of . The analysis and the verdict are Adrian Dane's own.