Weekend Football – 36 – Another defining week?

[paul powers tash]

Gday Chelsea1967.I’m pleased Sterling managed to find the back of the net.His second goal was a vintage City goal 🙂

I’m probably on my own here ? But I don’t attach any blame to Frank at all,for the shitshow at Chelsea It’s all down to Boelhy for me.Before he sacked Potter he should of had a replacement lined up imho.(Frank has got a pretty poor record no doubt.He shouldn’t of been even asked imho)

Why didn’t Boehly get Poch in straight away with 10-12 games left of the season for him and his staff to set pattern of play and evaluate who he’d keep and who he’d let go?

For him to come in next season the process starts again.He’ll be under pressure if he doesn’t get Chelsea out of the blocks straight away.

I read a piece in one of the broadsheets last week (Henry Winter I think?) saying Chelsea have got three translators at training between thirty five pros.Absolute carnage if you ask me.

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[Luckydestiny]

Paul, haven’t a clue why you would think you are on your own in blaming boehly for chelseas failure this season, its bloody obvious it’s down to boehly and new ownership.

That we got even worse under lamps is a testament to how poor a manager he is but again boehly was the one who decided to downgrade our manager twice in one season.

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[sean the sailor]

Have to say gundogan has being an unreal servant to city. Absolutely top class midfielder.

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[Nike19]

Frustrating first half. In majority, I just see Brighton trying to nullify the gunners. Considering they were thumped badly last Monday, that’s not a surprise.

It’s up to Arsenal to step it up and make it happen. Otherwise, if the score stays like this, Man City effectively are 1 win away from clinching 3 in a row.

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[Mikus LFC]

Arsenal have won 9 points out of a possible 21 points from the last 7 league games at the business end of the season.

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[Luckydestiny]

Well that’s the title done and dusted. Fair play to arsenal because no one else pushed city.

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[Nike19]

Yep all over and Champagne for a certain blue team in Manchester.

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[Bluemoon]

Congratulations City, well and truly deserved.⚽️👍

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[Editor]

Arsenal massive bottlers again under Arteta. Shameful how they’ve collapsed these last few weeks and with no other competition to distract them. The problem with having now done that twice (last season with top 4) is that it starts to become an expectation, a habit. Just as winning can be a habit, so can falling at the final hurdle. It will need some strong characters to shake that out of the team now.

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[Luckydestiny]

Ed, what you have just described as bottling 2 seasons in a row is actually missing out on top 4 one season then missing out on title. That’s progress imo and I am pretty sure you would defend ten hag in same situation.

Personally I can’t criticise arsenal when only city have bettered them.

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[Editor]

It’s always a difficult one that Lucky. I think there are two camps. Those that think you can’t be bottlers if you overachieved against expectations and those that think you very much can. I’m very much in the latter category. Take my own team. Nobody had us to finish in the top 4 this season. Despite that, we’d be massive bottlers if we fail to get it now because of the lead we’d have thrown away. IMO you can very much overachieve against initial expectations AND be massive bottlers. Leicester another great example. They had a couple of seasons where they spent a ridiculous amount of time in the top 4 spots only to collapse at the final moments.

That Arsenal will thrown away two 2 goal leads against Liverpool and West Ham, drew at home to the bottom side in the league (almost losing) and got battered by Brighton at home is unforgivable for a top 4 side, never mind one fighting for the title. They should be praised for their progress while also being torn apart for their subsequent collapse. Both can be true imo.

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[CM]

Arsenal have done well to last this long.

They are a few players short to get over the line. Similar to what Liverpool were years ago before the arrival of Van Dijk and Alison.

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[Luckydestiny]

Ed, Brighton smashed them today but of all the other points dropped in run in only the draws to Southampton and West ham really let them down imo and while it looks bad I won’t personally look at it as bottling just due to different perspective.

It’s like a marathon runner leading for 80% of the race getting over taken in last stretch by the stronger more experienced runner. Its not bottling its more the strength of competition and the cream rising to the top.

I also think Arteta deserves huge credit, if Poch gets us playing as consistently well as arteta got arsenal playing I would be very happy.

Hope stevo is OK he disappeared after arsenal’s form fell off 😆 maybe he and banjo have done a Thelma and Louise finally, they been teasing it for years 🤣

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[Mikus LFC]

In terms of the stats, league games won, lost & drawn, and goals for and against, Arsenal have tracked close to Liverpool did in 2013/14 and it does feel like a similar season for them. They’ve arguably conceded too many goals to be title winners, though they were never really expected to compete for the title this season and very very rarely do you see a team go from 5th to 1st in one season.

So on one hand, an undoubted big improvement on last season. At the same time, Arsenal have had Arteta in place now for nearly four years and spent quite a lot over the last few seasons. Compare to Rodgers at Liverpool who got Liverpool competing for the league with a not huge outlay in just 2 years whereas it’s taken Arsenal nearly 4 years and a greater outlay to get to the same point.

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[Editor]

I don’t agree with the marathon thing tbh. Arsenal had this in their hands and weren’t “overtaken by the better runner” so to speak. They imploded in games which should have been in the bag. They were awful against City. Fine, City can do that to anyone. But they were in a position where that City game needn’t have mattered. Potential champions don’t throw away two 2 goal leads on the bounce, concede 3 against the worst side in the league at home, almost losing and get torn apart by Brighton at home (themselves fresh off a 5-1 home humbling against Everton). It’s a well done on the progress from me but they won’t escape criticism from me for that collapse. I’m seeing lots of Arsenal fans saying the same tbh.

If I could modify the marathon analogy to oneI feel better reflects the race than your “the better runner overtook them” I’d say Arsenal were the runner who led for 80% of the race with just the home straight remaining and City nowhere in sight only to trip over his own laces 4 times before stumbling over the line in 2nd place despite many having tipped him to not even be top 5.

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[Luckydestiny]

Mikus, don’t really matter what hand you are looking at imo, improvement is improvement and it can’t be discredited.

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[Mikus LFC]

Lucky, it can’t, but as I say, compared to others, he’s taken longer to get there and spent quite a bit and they are still some way off the title.

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[Luckydestiny]

“Potential champions don’t throw away two 2 goal leads on the bounce”

That’s meaningless Ed, potential champions I mean, they weren’t good enough end of, why do you demand they should have been and criticise them for falling away at the last stretch? They just weren’t good enough…but still levels above the other 18 teams so again I struggle to find motivation to criticise them when at their lowest point they are still looking down at our teams.

And re the marathon analogy, consider how pep has rotated well right from the start and ensured as many key players are in peak condition for the games that matter and the difference in quality of the squad. Arsenal have had to be at full pelt all season to have their lead as long as they did, in this analogy they didn’t trip they SLOWED DOWN through physical and mental exhaustion and the stronger more experienced runner was able to accelerate.

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[Luckydestiny]

Mikus, pep and klopp raised the bar in my opinion. Takes a lot more points to be champions now with city doing what they have consistently for last 6 years. You think Rogers would have even got close enough to be considered a bottler against pep? I don’t.

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[Editor]

Mental exhaustion?! 😆. They’ve only been playing PL games for a while now. All the other teams around them have been competing on multiple fronts. They’ve had a massive advantage on that front.

I don’t for a minute demand they be good enough to win the league. That run of results I mentioned was nothing to do with them being tired or not good enough. Their performances until that point are evidence of that. As I said, I can praise them for getting that far while also having a go at their collapse. Safe to say we’ll not agree on this one Lucky 🙂

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