Oh and the final group stage gameweek where everyone plays at the same time will be mad.
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Oh and the final group stage gameweek where everyone plays at the same time will be mad.
The problem is that there is no jeopardy with the matches and that no one really knows what will be enough to see them through whether that’s in the top 8 or the play off ties.
I’m sure once the knockouts commence there will be a better feel to it but this league format is pretty dull.
Yeah I do agree.
I assume the play-offs can't have country protection.
That'll be fun to see I guess but god it's a hard slog to get there.
There is some jeopardy because if you don't finish top 8 there's two extra qualifying games to play and we really need to avoid that
Juventus 1-0 Citeh, Vlahovic. :lol:
Dortmund 0-1 Barcelona, Raphinha.
Dortmund 1-1 Barcelona, Guirassy pelanty.
2-0 Juve, McKennie. :lol:
Dortmund 1-2 Barcelona, Ferran Torres.
Dortmund 2-2 Barcelona, Guirassy with his second!
Mark Ogden: "Man City fans trying to leave the Juventus Stadium have just been told over loudspeaker that they have to stay until they're allowed out. Brutal"
:haha:
Dortmund 2-3 Barcelona in the end, Ferran Torres with his second.
Hopefully 20 years with parole for good (but not by Manchester standards) behaviour.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaqiri Is Boss
Who would leave during a 2-0 anyway?Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaqiri Is Boss
People who have last trains that go anywhere but Manchester.Quote:
Originally Posted by McNamara That Ghost...
Looking like Paisley era Liverpool. Remember tables like that, back when it was real.
City could be knocked out if they lose at PSG next. :lol:
What a disaster of a season they’re having and it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving bunch.
Mercenaries can't be trusted. Seems there has been a subtle change in reffing, things you would never see are now being seen. Maybe the authorities have decided the fan backlash is bad for business.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
Or maybe the underlying thesis about the authorities was wrong.Quote:
Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
Are you genuinely suggesting the football authorities aren't corrupt to the core? Not even you could go that far surely?Quote:
Originally Posted by Letters
Years ago someone said to me that in a sport with that much money sloshing around there had to be corruption. And that conversation took place over 25 years ago, before the money became truly insane. So yes, it is hard to believe that there's no corruption. I mean, the World Cup has just been awarded to Saudi Arabia. But...is there any great conspiracy to prevent Arsenal from winning a title? I call bullshit on that. It is certainly more plausible that there's more of a pro-City policy, fuelled by money changing hands behind the scenes. And earlier in the season I was coming to that view. But now with City having dropped off a cliff that is harder to believe. I think mostly the standard of officiating is really poor. To me that explains a lot of what we see. You can make an anti-Arsenal narrative fit by cherry picking incidents but the fans of every club believe their club is uniquely maligned.Quote:
Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
Where did I say there's some great conspiracy to prevent Arsenal winning the title? No, I haven't looked back at the thread, but I'd be genuinely amazed if I said that, and therefore amazed that you have pinpointed me saying that. Do me a favour and quote it will you, and if I said it then I take it back. Never said there's a conspiracy against Arsenal. Plenty of teams get fucked over by the obviously, 100% corrupt officials. What I have always said is the gambling markets in Asia fund the corruption. Can't prove it, but it makes sense given the horrific association between football and the gambling gangsters. I've also said there is definitely a huge amount of bias enjoyed by the gypos over the last few years, this can hardly be disputed. But now it seems that has ended and I was wondering why. Something better must have come along.Quote:
Originally Posted by Letters
As for speculating if organisation like FIFA, UEFA and the PL are corrupt - what's the point of that? You don't need to debate the obvious and SOME of the evidence is out there already. Creatures like Sepp Blatter? Mike Dean? Gary Neville? Come on. Do we need to discuss the finer details of every last obvious thing? We just assume we'll get wet if we go out in the rain, right? We don't need a full scientific workup each and every time.
After the City game you said "it's not anti-Arsenal, it's pro-City". And that's a narrative I did buy in to at the time. They have enough money to throw around to influence things behind the scenes.Quote:
Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
But I don't really see how you affect results as much as some are claiming, we were an injury time goal away from a win there, I don't really see how you plan that for betting markets or anyone else. There are such fine lines in football it's very hard to reliably engineer a result. And if it was all pro-City then...what, it suddenly stopped? Why? I'd suggest it's more likely that it actually wasn't all as pro-City as I supposed. If it is then they're doing a pretty rubbish job of late.
Monaco 1-0 Villa is a result from earlier. Looked like they used up all their energy against us. :rose:
Atalanta 5-0 Sturm Graz in the other earlier one.
Benfica 2-1 Barca at the moment. :lol:
Benfica 3-1 Barca. :haha:
Pavlidis hat-trick.
Liverpool 1-0 Lille, Salah.
1-1 now but Lille are down to 10 men.
2-1 Liverpool in fact, Elliott deflected pubber.
Benfica 4-2 Barcelona. :wacko:
Benfica 4-3 Barcelona. :lol:
Benfica 4-4 Barcelona, Garcia.
Mad game.
Liverpool win 2-1, that's 7/7 in the CL
And ofc they're also clear at the top of the PL
Still, what a rubbish team, eh? :rolleyes:
Benfica 4-5 Barcelona, Raphinha.
Barca should have conceded a pel!
Benfica 4-5 Barcelona, FT.
Benfica were completely done over there.
You’re welcome to be a supporter of them, I doubt you’d be missed by other Arsenal fans :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Mac76
Bayer Leverkusen went through the Bundesliga season unbeaten and almost through their entire season unbeaten and yet aside from Florian Wirtz this isn’t a side of particularly good players let alone great.
Still though I’ll keep trying to see the clearly quality player Gakpo is just for you chief :haha:
You mean the Gakpo who's got 6 goals and an assist in his last 12 PL appearances, yes keep thinking he's no good, that's fine :haha:Quote:
Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn
Martinelli and Gakpo have both scored six goals this season in the league, we are frequently critical of Martinelli and what he produces for Arsenal.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mac76
I don’t think Gakpo is “no good” I just unlike you don’t think he’s anything special. My argument from the outset and what continues to be the case is that Salah aside I don’t think Liverpool are any better than us in attack when you compare players like for like. We’ve been poor this season both in results and performances, which is partly down to injury and partly down to the fact that we play a system that feels to me to restrict our creativity.
My argument is you take Trossard, Martinelli, Havertz, Saka and even a fully fit Jesus and compare it with Gakpo, Nunez, Jota, Diaz and Salah…Salah is the one that I think can be said is better than any of our attacking players. We are better than them in midfield, defence and I’d argue now that Raya is a better keeper than Allison. There’s no question now that they are having a very good season, I’m not so surprised with Europe as they have historically been the best English side in Europe. In the league ? Well they’ve done well but they were also doing well last season (they’d only lost one league game before they played us in February) the difference mainly is that City fell apart and we haven’t been able to sustain any kind of run to put pressure on them.
I don’t think they are a particularly great side no but they’ve been getting results something we haven’t
Wish we had signed Raphinha that summer we were linked with him.
They're just getting lucky ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Mac76
There's a difference between 'this season' and the last 12 games, which is just over half the season - clearly Slot has begun to bring the best out of him, plus giving him more playing time in recognition of what he brings (he was mainly on the bench for the first eight games or so and he's now starting every game)Quote:
Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn
I'd be very interested to see what Slot woud do with our team though even he could do nothing about the anti-Arsenal referee bias and injuries I suppose
That’s sophistry I’m afraid, regardless of when the goals were scored they both have six league goals each this seasonQuote:
Originally Posted by Mac76
As for Slot, I suspect he’d do at Arsenal what he’s doing at Liverpool which is to stick rigidly to the formula that’s been left for him. He tried to inject his own style earlier in the season and Liverpool were playing languidly and it’s ultimately what caused them to lose at home to Forest. As I’ve said many times, a winner like Klopp must be sick as a dog that someone else is going to win the title with his team.
No it isn't, it points to the fact that he has scored more goals than Martinelli over a shorter period of time - Martinelli's performance in the last 12 games is 4 - so Gakpo, now he is getting regular game time, is outperforming MartinelliQuote:
Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn