Arsenal v Chelsea Match Reaction

[Kano]

I find it very difficult to follow what you are trying to say. The quality of the league does not remain relative. In 2 of the past 3 completed seasons, we have had Manure (2012/13) and the Chavs (2014/15) pretty much ran away with the league. Why? Because they were significantly better than anyone else - in terms of results. In each of these seasons, with the exception of 2013/14, when Liverpool gatecrashed the party, the same teams finished top 4.

This season 2 of those teams have imploded, and the other has lost its focus. Surely its obvious that Arsenal, not having been affected by the factors that have caused problems for the usual top 3 or 4 teams, should be taking advantage? I simply cannot see why an admittedly poor league this year should prevent this - in fact even if we had no reason to expect to move on from last season, we should be doing better than we are with our traditional competitors dropping ponts. What you are saying is completely counter-intuitive.

And I have pointed out why we should not be staying still, we should have upped our game. 3 established world class players vs none in previous seasons mean we should be taking points that we have failed to take in previous seasons...and (given Citeh's dropped points) we should be well clear. There may be a case for Leicester being closer than the rest given their astonishing season - but to be 3 points behind them at this stage, with no clear water between us and Citeh has to count as under achievement, for me.

Of course it remains relative - because we're in it. You're implying in those campaigns that both teams raced away not to be seen early on - from memory that didn't happen when Utd won the title. So we're talking about one case here, Chelsea last season, which is hardly a pattern. That just reinforces my point.

What factors have affected City? This idea of sacking is ridiculous when you are talking about a man so experienced, someone who saw out his time at Madrid under even more intense pressure. Their team is made up of the usual mercenaries we all have in our teams, no players for life. They aren't worried about stability of management because they all move around like rats themselves. No excuses for City at all, if we're not supposed to be immune from them. We have remained as we have in previous seasons while the rest have dropped off. Well, only Chelsea in reality. Liverpool were junk last season, as were Utd (in comparative terms). You also have to the take into consideration the approach of everyone we are playing - something vastly overlooked when talking about your own team. Which is why I keep mentioning that their is a level of organisational parity in football now and mostly technique wins through. Which is why Aguero or Alexis, Vardy or Kane stand out as making the clearest differences.

There has been a vast decline in the quality of football in this country that has been going on for years. At the same time the organisational level of teams has improved, so it isn't enough to roll out the list of high class players in each time and expect that to be enough. Last season we had Ozil and Alexis, so three world class players haven't appeared in this team suddenly. We added Cech and as such, we've seen a relative improvement compared to last season given our position and point increase (I think).

The best will rise to the top, as we can see when you look at the table, but the gap is not apparent as it once was. This season was waiting to happen and it will continue, so this expectation that we will rise above it makes no sense. If the general standard of play has declined - a couple of weekends viewing of TV matches would confirm that - then how can a team that has hardly changed expect to improve so dramatically and stand so clearly above the averageness? Buy and improve each season was the old mantra wasn't it? So Wenger fuck up in the summer by not buying? Of course but that's another discussion. Maureen did it by bringing in 3 key players and the effect was instant. City spend habitually but have yet to find the right man that fits their club that can make them a consistent outfit to win the PL, per Utd or Chelsea.