Its entitlement. Italy had bigger deals than England until the PL formed. Italian soccer was “better” until the big money came in and the 08 recession crushed a bunch of clubs.
A little over a decade ago Milan had Ronaldinho, Kaka, Beckham, Thiago Silva, Pato etc.
It does a really good job of why I think Graham Potter should be at the top of Spurs list
The thing about Arsenal is, they always try to walk it in!
While that’s not entirely wrong, it’s a weird thing to say during Covid ball season when Juve have the same underlying numbers as the last 10 years and might not even be in the CL next year. Chelsea were poor for large stretches and might win the CL. PSG might not win the league. Dortmund might not make the CL. Liverpool might not make the CL. City weren’t good until December.
It’s the weirdest year ever, and drawing the same conclusions we would in a “normal” year shouldn’t be a thing.
I never said anything close to “Arsenal are as good of a team as the genuine CL contenders” or anything, I said “hey, they had a ~12 game stretch with good stats and results.” To make that a thing for next year, they still need Auba to score ~12 more league goals than this year, sign a LB, sign at least 1 CM and 1 AM, and cut out all the silly reds/pens they gave up, which are probably mostly statistical noise.
Yes, in like, early February there wasn’t much difference in form between those three teams. Do you want to go look at the results for those 3 teams around that time? Or are we just ignoring that calendars and time exist? Liverpool had also lost 6 in a row at home, an all time record for their club.
Like, I don’t know why you always do this. We’ve been discussing football on the same forums for almost 15 years! Do you actually think overall I think Arsenal are better than a Pool team that just went 98 points/CL, then league title? Or, when I say something explicitly about a specific sample, I might be referring to that specific sample?
Argument’s about nothing really.
Many teams have suffered much bigger swings during a weird lockdown season than normal eg City, Pool, Utd, Arse. That’s not surprising, especially when you consider how it’s affected the balance between home and away results:
What should be green is now blue.
It’s been a bizarre season but final league standings are a fair reflection of overall performance.
Arteta has nowhere to hide from the slump in form after things picked up. Picking weird starting XIs and asking players to play unfamiliar positions in systems they aren’t really good enough to be able to adapt to in game time is asking for trouble. Yes he’s been dogged by a high number of individual blunders but that’s a small part of the story.
He was spoiled by having City’s players to work with and has failed to adopt a simpler way of playing for Arse. Sending out Pepe as a false 9 (still our best player on the night) in such a critical match was a horrible idea when he had Martinelli available, and he’s still overthinking things. Players reaching promising positions but unable to find a pass in the penalty area because no one is where they expect them to be is Arteta’s fault.
They’re a pretty fair reflection of this season, but I would say this season will be the least predictive of the future ever. The home/away stuff and injuries being main reasons.
Palace has been utterly dreadful and have gotten multiple results getting outshot by 20+. They had the worst shot differential in the pyramid at one point.
Brighton are actually good.
Leicester are way worse than last year. They were very unlucky to not get top 4 last year, but now probably will this year.
I’d agree with everything bar the last line. Arsenal don’t transition quickly enough to get in the area enough right now. Arteta is clearly smart, but his lineups and overall game management could use work. Thats perhaps where an assistant with some more experience could really help.
Pepe wasn’t a false 9, ESR was. Pepe played as the furthest player forward for us and Lille with success previously.
This guy gets it
I think what surprised me this season was seeing Liverpool blow up with crybaby starstruck assholes while City bonded and gave their all once it was released that all is not well in this season.
And came to realise that our man Edouard is actually quite average for a footballer having watched more football this season than most, true its being judged on this season alone but to my defence that’s all that mattered to us CelticFC fans, 2021 was it and that’s when it mattered the most.
Our club & directors have been the luckiest of luck boxes for 9 effen years and not had to worry realistically about a challenge for so long that once 1 came up they flapped.
Sell the fucking lot…
…
Is that the cheating Lady of turin daring to say “Unfair” lol typical 
Dominic Who?
Cricket’s 
hahaha south hampton
I can’t believe you’re not watching The Queen of the South take a beating, sad 
i’m american so i only watch the Big Money leagues
omg lester how are you letting this happen
Yes, no doubt… Was feeling shitty today with my club and vented a little to much about other clubs. 
I was doing the same about CelticFC but have now come to realise that Marty been right from the start about the board.
Listening to the podcasts today too about the new season tickets being sent out set me off. I mean any half decent Plc company that had a chance to show all the games on a PTV/PPV channel across the world has shown me their lack of insight.
Sorry about that Fidget
Thought she was involved with Newcastle (and Paedo Windsor)?
Wouldn’t blame any of the forwards for their form. The ones who haven’t got hurt have played so, so much football the last 3 years. Every game for pool thr last 3 years has been huge. Other teams have meaningless games, Salah and Mane just haven’t been able to be rested. They’ve out on huge miles.
That’s part of it, but unless you have an edge like Bayern it’s hard to be the best 3 years in a row. Even the best City and Barca teams of late look absolutely gassed after 2 years of fighting for 3+ trophies a season.
Both Pool and Arsenal have ACON screwing them up next year as well. You lose Mane/Salah, we lose Pepe, Auba, Partey.
