Why pre-season friendlies are no indicator of how well your club will do

Everyone loves pre-season, after the long summer drought with no club football. But how much does it actually matter? The football is poor, the players are slow, and not all of the new signings are in place yet.

The games take place all over the world and it is far from a close predictor of what will actually happen in the forthcoming season. It simply does not matter if your team performs or not, as much as it might feel otherwise.

Here are just five from the very many examples of teams whose pre-season performances were no guide to how their actual season went.

No-one would have expected the West Ham United team of 1985-86 to be as good as they were, putting together an authentic title challenge, second with one game to go but just ending up in third. West Ham have never had such a good league season in their history.

It was certainly not on the cards in the summer of 1985. West Ham, after all, had finished 16th the previous season. They were poor in their friendlies, losing 4-2 at Wimbledon, 2-1 at Crystal Palace and 3-1 at Leyton Orient.

That form continued into the season as West Ham one just one of their first seven matches, before it all started to click.

Having just won the Premier League for the first time in 1992-93, expectations were high for Manchester United going into the next season, especially when they signed Roy Keane for £3.75million, then an English record signing. But things did not go quite to plan.

They lost 2-0 to Arsenal first up and then drew with Kaizer Chiefs in South Africa. They lost again to Benfica, and after scraping past Celtic and Brondby, they lost again to Celtic before it all got underway. The omens were bad, but the season was very good, as United stormed to a historic double.

Newcastle United had just been relegated to the Championship, following the failed stewardship of Alan Shearer, when Chris Hughton took over as caretaker. Pre-season was far from perfect, after three solid wins Newcastle then famously lost 6-1 away at Leyton Orient.

Frustrating draws with Leeds United and Dundee United followed and it felt as if the roof might cave in on Newcastle. But Hughton admirably steadied the ship, got the players back onside and they stormed to the Championship title, winning it with 102 points, returning to the Premier League at the first time of asking.

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When Louis Van Gaal took over as Manchester United manager in 2014 he was on top of the world. He had just guided the Netherlands to the World Cup semi-final, knocking out Spain along the way, and when he took over at United he looked perfect for the job.

His team were brilliant in pre-season, winning all six of their friendlies. They were beating serious teams, too. First they saw off Roma and Internazionale. Then they beat Real Madrid 3-1 in front of 109,000 people, then the Liverpool team who had just almost won the Premier League title, by the same scoreline. When they finished with a 2-1 win over Valencia at Old Trafford, they looked set for a strong start to the Premier League season.

But their first three games, against Swansea City, Sunderland and Burnley, brought them only two points, and things did not get much better from there.

Who can forget the great Arsenal summer of 2015? They signed Petr Cech, finally adding the world class goalkeeper that they had lacked for a decade as well as a crucial dressing room presence. He, surely, was to be the final piece of the Arsenal jigsaw, allowing them to build on their second straight FA Cup win and finally lead the team back to the top of the Premier League.

When they went into pre-season they made short work of a Singapore XI, beating them 4-0, and then Everton 3-0. Arsenal then won the Emirates Cup, beating Lyon 6-0 and Wolfsburg 1-0. Confidence was high, especially when Arsenal recorded a rare 1-0 win over Chelsea in the Community Shield.

So did it last? No. Arsenal lost their first game at home to West Ham United and never really threatened from there.