Football 2013-2014

[eFestivals]

Exactly! And it applies to Arsenal every single season.

it applies to every team except the winning team every season.

FFS.

The injuries excuse is rolled out at this time every season.

and yet every season Arsenal *DO* have greater injuries to their bigger players than the other teams at the top, whilst also having the most threadbare squad.

It might be the yearly excuse as regular as clockwork but it's also a factually true excuse.

I'd love to hear your silence if Rooney and RVP were out for the season every season.

[mrtourette]

Neil are you an Arsenal fan or are you just anti-Man Utd?

[eFestivals]

Neil are you an Arsenal fan or are you just anti-Man Utd?

I'm anti-stupidity.

It's hardly ground-breaking to state that any team below the winning team is a weaker team than the winning team, is it?

If Arsenal are so weak they need slagging off for it, why stop at Arsenal and only Arsenal? There's another 18 teams to name, most much weaker than Arsenal.

Edited March 26, 2014 by eFestivals

[DomDom1984]

You're incredibly anti-United. If you just admitted that, that'd be good.

[eFestivals]

You're incredibly anti-United. If you just admitted that, that'd be good.

Hang on, hang on.

Utd aren't my fav team, and it's always fun winding up Utd fans who often have no sense of humour at all about their team. But that's naff all of anything of what i'm doing here.

A Utd fan decided to have a pop at Arsenal, on the most stupidly ridiculous basis it's possible to do so with (as I keep on pointing out). Exactly the same thing can be said about 19 teams in any season.

So ask yourself why that utd fan having that pop at Arsenal on the most ridiculous basis when their own team is far far weaker.

Edited March 26, 2014 by eFestivals

[DomDom1984]

You think that was an overnight judgement based on one discussion or something? You're always desperate to stick the boot into Man United on here. That's what you do more than anything on this thread.

The rest of your post is just deflection from that. It is absolutely impossible to have a discussion with you that even remotely involves Man United.

[The Nal]

it applies to every team except the winning team every season.

FFS.

Nope. Liverpool won't win the league (I don't think). But no one is going to say they're weak or they bottled it or they need a leader. Gerrard has been fantastic.

John Terry. Leader.

Vincent Kompany. Leader.

Arsenal. Conceded 6 against Chelsea, 5 against Liverpool and 6 against City. People predicted Arsenals fall from the top at Christmas. Im not "having a pop". Im talking facts and public opinion, including a growing number of Arsenal fans.

[pink_triangle]

Its not entirely clear to me, depending on who you listen to they are either evil dictators or generous benefactors. My understanding is that its the loan option. They claim that they can get it to a self sustaining level, which is part of the reason they want to change the name - which doesn't hold water with most fans.

[pink_triangle]

they can win every game remaining and still lose it. It's crap to say they're favourites.

I'd say they're 3rd favourites of the 3, cos while they can finish above Chelsea that would require them to beat Chelsea, and Chelsea are masters are playing for a draw.

Plus of course it's very unlikely that Liverpool will keep on winning, even if they happen to beat both City and Chelsea. Like Chelsea did a week or so back, Liverpool are likely to slip up against a team they should on-paper beat.

[kaosmark2]

and yet every season Arsenal *DO* have greater injuries to their bigger players than the other teams at the top, whilst also having the most threadbare squad.

[kaosmark2]

Hang on, hang on.

Utd aren't my fav team, and it's always fun winding up Utd fans who often have no sense of humour at all about their team. But that's naff all of anything of what i'm doing here.

A Utd fan decided to have a pop at Arsenal, on the most stupidly ridiculous basis it's possible to do so with (as I keep on pointing out). Exactly the same thing can be said about 19 teams in any season.

So ask yourself why that utd fan having that pop at Arsenal on the most ridiculous basis when their own team is far far weaker.

[The Nal]

Anyone see this lad!?

Edited March 26, 2014 by The Nal

[eFestivals]

Nope. Liverpool won't win the league (I don't think). But no one is going to say they're weak or they bottled it or they need a leader.

Are Everton weaker than Arsenal? Yes they arew, the league doesn't lie.

Rather than spout what you have there, why not say why you're not saying that Everton are weaker than "weak" Arsenal?

Because the facts prove that Everton *ARE* weaker than Arsenal. Is that cos they've bottled it too, and don't have a leader?

Did you know that Utd have been weak this season because Rooney had a hair transplant? It's a fact you know. Their league position and his hair transplant proves it.

That's how much sense you're making. "Bottling it" means not good enough. "lack of leadership" means "not good enough". Anywhere 2nd or lower means "not good enough".

You can call "not good enough" "weak" or "bottled it" or "need a leader" if you want, but if you do it applies more-so to every team below Arsenal than it does to Arsenal.

Which is why it's fucking stupid.

John Terry. Leader.

Vincent Kompany. Leader.

Ryan Shawcross: leader.

Rio: leader

Rooney, even: leader

So why are those teams with "leaders" weaker than "leaderless" Arsenal?

Arsenal. Conceded 6 against Chelsea, 5 against Liverpool and 6 against City. People predicted Arsenals fall from the top at Christmas. Im not "having a pop". Im talking facts and public opinion, including a growing number of Arsenal fans.

And even more people predicted that Arsenal wouldn't win it long before xmas, even when they were going well.

Last season prior to xmas people were predicting them as a spent force, only for them to put in the best 2nd half of all teams. Oh, and the year before.

Much more wrong than any Arsenal prediction were all the predict5ions of Utd to come storming thru in the 2nd half of the season.

All you're really saying here bis that people make predictions, some which are right and others wrong. That's nothing new to the world of football. As I regularly say, it's the one thing where EVERYONE is wrong (even the perfect fergie, as 7th shows).

And just for balance, Utd bottled it when City won it in 2012.

yep, because they were "weak" and "leaderless", just as City were last season when they couldn't be lead to win the league thus showing themselves as weaker than Utd.

Next up you'll be telling me that the tories are the nasty party, the pope is Catholic and bears shit in the woods. I'll be equally unimpressed with your depth of knowledge about those things.

Every year?! Come off it.

RVP has missed a load of games this season. And hes injured again now for the next month at least! Top scorer and best player last season. Vidic is always injured, Scholes missed 18 months, Fletcher missed 2 years, Valencia broke his ankle, Rio's back was fucked etc etc. All teams have them.

all teams have them, but not all teams have such unbalanced squads.

Go back a few months and people were going on about how weak Liverpool were and it would show if either S or S was out of the team.

Rocket science eh? Putting people into space more accurately than any football prediction ever.

Edited March 26, 2014 by eFestivals

[eFestivals]

Arsenal's midfield depth is better than City's, certainly in terms of quality. If you have Arteta/Ramsey/Wilshere/Santi/Ozil as the first 5, then you've got Podolski/Rosicky/Flamini/Walcott/Ox

now look at how many of those have been available in any week.

For this season, some weeks they've not been able to field five of the players you name.

[thetime]

Yes they arew, the league doesn't lie.

[eFestivals]

Come on Neil, even when people like myself or strummer who dislike Man U say something vaguely positive about them you have a pop. You reference their problems/failures when they're completely irrelevant to the discussion a lot.

care to tell me what is sensible - apart from it being a statement of the bleedin' obvious - in saying that Arsenal are weaker than City, Chelsea and Liverpool?

[eFestivals]

Changing the tune? I thought sometimes the league does lie?

when someone is saying "Arsenal are weak" and using their results against clearly better sides as their rationale for that, then no tune has been changed.

Arsenal are weak, Man Utd are weaker still. That's not a pop at Utd, it's a statement of fact (statement of the bleedin' obvious) no different to Nal's.

Get over it, or accept that Nal is wasting his breath with pointless words - it's pathetic to want it in your favour from all angles.

Edited March 26, 2014 by eFestivals

[kaosmark2]

care to tell me what is sensible - apart from it being a statement of the bleedin' obvious - in saying that Arsenal are weaker than City, Chelsea and Liverpool?

[the_hedge]

Arsenel should have won the league about 3/4 years ago. It was common knowledge they need a goalkeeper, a centre back and a leader in the middle at that time. He ignored it and they lost the league. They still need 2 out of those 3 positions today. They needed to sign a backup striker in the window but he failed to do that and look what has happened. Their only signing in the window (another midfielder I believe) was signed injured and you wonder why they have bad injuries. It's not bad luck when you have so many injuries every year. It's either down to the type of players he buys, the training methods or that fact they get bullied and kicked.

Arsene Wenger has too many blind spots imo.

[eFestivals]

Arsenel should have won the league about 3/4 years ago. It was common knowledge they need a goalkeeper, a centre back and a leader in the middle at that time. He ignored it and they lost the league. They still need 2 out of those 3 positions today. They needed to sign a backup striker in the window but he failed to do that and look what has happened. Their only signing in the window (another midfielder I believe) was signed injured and you wonder why they have bad injuries. It's not bad luck when you have so many injuries every year. It's either down to the type of players he buys, the training methods or that fact they get bullied and kicked.

Arsene Wenger has too many blind spots imo.

so what you're saying is Arsenal haven't been good enough to win the league.

You could have saved yourself typing that you know.

linky

[the_hedge]

I get where The Nal is coming from. Arsenal are not weak when it comes to ability they are weak when the going gets tough, when you need a leader to take hold of the game. In that sense they are weaker than a lot of clubs. Stoke lose more games than Arsenal because they are weaker when it comes to ability but they have more mental strength and better leaders than Arsenal. Arsenal should have won the league at least once in the last 5 years, the team has been good enough but they are leaderless when it starts going pear shaped, they can't dig out a win enough times like United have done so many times under Ferguson.

[eFestivals]

Arsenal are not weak when it comes to ability they are weak when the going gets tough

and yet the last two seasons show that as utter bullshit.

If what Nal said applied in the way he means it, Arsenal could not have come storming thru to still make top 4 - and play at a stronger rate than even last season's champions were managing.

This is why I'm laughing at Nal's statement. It's not factually true, as well as being a statement of the bleedin' obvious for their finishing position.

Edited March 26, 2014 by eFestivals

[eFestivals]

Arsenal should have won the league at least once in the last 5 years, the team has been good enough

And yet it hasn't been good enough, has it?

Otherwise they'd have won the league.

The strongest team wins. All others are weak in comparison.

[The Nal]

Arsenal are like a snooker player who constantly goes for a 147, one of the few capable of doing it, but keeps missing the blue.

[the_hedge]

And yet it hasn't been good enough, has it?

Otherwise they'd have won the league.

The strongest team wins. All others are weak in comparison.