Six examples that prove pre-season results mean absolutely nothing after Arsenal woe

Sorry Arsenal fans, your hopes of retaining the Premier League for the first time in your history are over because your team dared to lose a pre-season friendly.

That is the somewhat misplaced hysteria that has accompanied Arsenal’s 3-1 defeat to Betis on Wednesday. Might as well not bother even playing the Premier League matches.

The importance of pre-season has seemingly grown in recent times. Perhaps it is the social media need for constant content but it seems more and more pundits are choosing to ignore that pre-season friendlies are glorified training exercises and instead suggesting they are somehow reflective of what is to come.

Well sorry [insert tabloid newspaper here], here are six examples to show pre-season friendlies mean precisely nothing.

Tottenham – 2008-09

Winning seven of eight pre-season friendlies – culminating in 3-0 and 5-0 wins over Borussia Dortmund and Roma – raised the optimism level of Spurs fans and yet the Premier League season could hardly have started worse.

Juande Ramos’ Spurs lost six of the opening eight, drawing the two others, and by the fourth gameweek were bottom of the Premier League. Their fixtures had hardly been that tough either.

Defeats to Middlesbrough, Sunderland, Aston Villa, Portsmouth, Hull and Stoke came while Spurs also lost Dimitar Berbatov to Manchester United.

The worst start for Tottenham in a Premier League season saw Ramos given the chop in October with Harry Redknapp taking over. The team recovered somewhat but still finished eighth and out of the European spots.

Liverpool – 2019-20

Klopp’s Liverpool began their 2019 pre-season with a 6-0 smashing of nearby neighbours Tranmere Rovers but the club failed to win just as many pre-season games as they did win that year.

A US tour saw them fail to win a game, losing two of them and even when they returned to UK shores, it was met with a 3-0 defeat by Napoli in Edinburgh.

They then lost the Community Shield to City but the dodgy stat could hardly have been less representative of what was to come.

Liverpool won 26 of their opening 27 games, drawing the outlier, and would cruise to the title. They won it in round 31 which remains the earliest a team has won it.

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Arsenal – 2025-26

If you want a single match to reflect just how untrustworthy pre-season is, may we present to you: 31 July 2025 – Arsenal 0-1 Tottenham Hotspur.

The North London rivals met 6,000 miles away from their normal home to face each other in Hong Kong. On that day, Pape Matar Sarr scored the only goal to give Spurs the win and set the Thomas Frank era up for success. Right?

The fortune of both sides since that friendly meeting could hardly have been different. Arsenal won their first Premier League title in 20 years while Spurs came very close to dropping out entirely.

It’s a good reason why Arsenal fans should not take the Betis defeat too hard and also why Spurs fans should not read too much into their 2-1 win over Chelsea.

Manchester City – 2018-19

Was two defeats in three pre-season friendlies the first sign that the wheels were falling off the Pep Guardiola Manchester City machine? No, of course they weren’t.

City spent their 2018 summer in the United States, competing in the International Champions Cup, but lost their opening match to Borussia Dortmund in Chicago and then 2-1 to Liverpool at the most recent World Cup final venue.

Guardiola’s team ended their pre-season with a 3-2 win over Bayern Munich before, typically, going on to absolutely batter the Premier League.

They beat Arsenal on the opening day before smashing Huddersfield 6-1. It took until December for them to lose a game. City won a domestic treble which is three trophies for every pre-season match they won.

Norwich City – 2021-22

Unreliable pre-season results aren’t just for the teams at the top end either.

Norwich City won all but one of their pre-season matches following their return to the Premier League, leading to some confidence that the Canaries could survive in the division.

Losing an aggregate of 8-0 in the first two matches quickly put that notion to bed.

Those pre-season wins were all fans had to cheer about until November when Norwich finally got a victory on the board against Brentford. Back-to-back victories came, followed by another long wait for the next.

A 5-0 thumping to Tottenham on the final day of the season capped off a miserable campaign which saw the Norfolk side relegated in last place.

Sunderland – 2016–17

Beacon of optimism David Moyes may have been saying in August that his Sunderland team were relegation candidates but he at least allowed the fans to dream somewhat with an unbeaten run in pre-season.

Sunderland defeated Harrogate 3-0 before beating Rotherham 2-1. A tour of France followed, including wins over Stade Nyonnais and Dijon, and the Black Cats capped off their preparations with encouraging draws against Montpellier and Borussia Dortmund.

There was at least some hope then that Sunderland fans did not have another season of circling the drain to endure. That part at least came true, but only because Sunderland never really circled, more fell straight into the drain.

They lost all but one of their opening six and picked up just two wins in the whole of the second half of the season. Down they went in 20th.