Arsenal make the short trip across London to face QPR this evening, and while researching on the internet ahead of the game I found this interesting quote from the QPR midfielder Matt Phillips.
He said on the official Rangers website: “Arsenal play a style of football where they keep the ball and make you work hard chasing it.
“But we’re at home and I believe we can beat anyone at Loftus Road. If we play our game, I think we can get three points to help us climb the table.
“It’s important that we build on our home form this season. We’ve been good at home so far, but we have to continue that now.
“Loftus Road has been a bit of a fortress for us this year. And our away performances are beginning to improve, too. Hopefully we can start picking up more points on the road.”
So obviously having read that, I was getting a bit concerned for tonights match, so I decided to check for the results from Loftus Road. Now I seriously think that Phillips should be sued for misrepresenting the facts!
Arsenal beat QPR 2-1 on Boxing Day (remember Giroud getting sent off?) and since that day QPR have played five games at Loftus Road. They started off with two draws against Palace and Swansea. They then lost 0-3 to Sheffield United in the FA Cup, followed by a 0-2 defeat to Man United and then Southampton despatched them 1-0.
So that makes five games with just one goal scored, how does Matt Phillips make that into a fortress this year?
There is a slightly worrying stat I found, which is that the Gunners have only won once in 6 Premier League visits to QPR, and also that we haven’t won two away games in a row all season. In fact after every away win we have lost the next one! Surely that can’t happen again at “fortress Loftus Road”?