Doing the double

This week our statistician looks at Arsenal's record of beating teams twice in a season.

For the second season in a row, Arsenal have done the double over West Bromwich Albion - beating them home and away in the Premier League.

They are the third team Arsenal have completed the league double over during 2012/13 - following West Ham (3-1 and 5-1) and Reading (5-2 and 4-1) - and it's the 121st time the Gunners have achieved the feat in Premier League history.

Prior to this campaign Arsenal beat an average of 5.9 teams both home and away per season, and the Gunners could record a maximum of six doubles this term if they see off Queens Park Rangers, Wigan Athletic and Newcastle in the final three games of the season.

Last season Arsène Wenger's men beat four different teams home and away in the Premier League: Aston Villa, Sunderland, Everton and West Brom.

In fact the Gunners have beaten the Baggies home and away on four occasions (from the West Midlanders' seven seasons in the Premier League) but it's Everton and Manchester City over whom Arsenal have done the double most often - eight times each.

That accounts for half of the 16 seasons City have been in the league, and 38 per cent (8/21) of Everton's Premier League campaigns.

Of the 44 teams Arsenal have faced in Premier League history, the Gunners have recorded at least one double over 38 of them. The six to escape were Burnley, Swindon Town, Bradford City, Swansea City, Sheffield United and QPR.

QPR could be expunged from that particular list if Arsenal win at Loftus Road on May 4, but it's worth noting that Rangers are the only team to face Arsenal in at least five Premier League seasons without losing both fixtures in the same term.

Since the league was established in 1992/93, Arsenal have always beaten at least three different teams home and away - the Club record for the most doubles in a season is 10, from 2004/05.

That is also an all-time record for the Club in all-league football, joint with the 1930/31 season, though there were only 22 teams in the division back then.

In each of Arsenal's 13 title-winning seasons they racked up at least four doubles.

The last time Arsenal didn't do the double over any teams in the league was way back in 1923/24, when the Gunners finished 19th in the First Division.

On the other side of the coin, Arsenal have only been beaten home and away by the same team in the same season on 21 occasions, and just 10 times in the past 16 years.

The only side to do it so far in 2012/13 are Chelsea, who are one of just three different teams to beat Arsenal home and away in the past 10 years (the others being Manchester United and West Ham United).

Man United have in fact done it four times so far, the same number as Liverpool, who were the last side to do it to Arsenal during a championship-winning campaign. In 1997/98 Liverpool won 1-0 at Highbury in November, then 4-0 at Anfield in May, though the Gunners had already wrapped up the title by then, and had an FA Cup Final to prepare for.

Prior to that Derby County beat Arsenal twice during the 1988/89 title success.

Since Arsène Wenger took over in 1996/97 the Gunners haven't been beaten home and away by more than two different teams in the same season, and in seven of his seasons in charge no teams at all recorded a double over the Gunners.

Since Arsenal were promoted to the top flight in 1919, the highest number of doubles suffered in a season was seven, way back in 1923/24, and there haven't been more than four in a season since 1975/76.

Not surprisingly, most of the teams against which Arsenal earn maximum points in a season finish in the bottom half of the table.

Since the league was reduced to 20 teams in 1995/96, 73 per cent of Arsenal's 107 doubles have come against sides that finished 11th or lower, and the average finishing position of those 107 teams was 13.4.

From those 17 seasons since 1995, the Gunners beat the bottom-placed team home and away 11 times, and 30 of the doubles (28 per cent) were recorded against sides that finished in the relegation zone.

Last season was the first time since 1993/94 that Arsenal didn't do the double over any of the relegated sides.

In fact the average finishing position of the four teams that the Gunners beat home and away last term was 11.5 – a higher average league placing than any of the previous 11 years, suggesting that it was the lower ranked teams, rather than the higher placed sides, that Arsenal dropped more points than usual against.

Eight times since 1995/96 Arsenal have completed the double over other teams that finished in the top four, including once beating the eventual champions home and away. That was in 2006/07 when the Gunners beat Manchester United 1-0 at Old Trafford before a 2-1 home win against them in January.

All stats correct as at April 10, 2013