The English Football Thread

[NikkiCFC 8,529]

50 points half season. On a track to 100. 

[Laylabelle 9,754]

16 minutes ago, Gundalf said:

City still to play Arsenal twice tho. 

Problem is City are so unpredictable...I dont think it'll be tough for them..its the confidence atm more then anything. That and been top more or less the whole way so far.

[Gundalf 806]

I wanna apologize for this post in advance. I really dont wanna mock the quoted people here, tbh I have done enough posts where I claimed things that turned out to be wrong so please dont take it as an offense, but I just wanna show a few past assessments about Arteta and Arsenal:

On 18/10/2020 at 19:32, ZaynChelsea said:

Stop it with Arteta. They can play it out at the back but that‘s it. There is nothing about Arsenal that scares me and Arteta is just too much hype. Brutally overrated.

On 28/08/2021 at 16:21, Tomo said:

Yeah the excuses for Arteta are bizzare, it's like people are buying into the idea of him that was painted when he first got the job.

He's totally in over his head.

On 23/04/2022 at 18:18, Blue Armour said:

Anyway. As long as they keep holding on to Arteta and stay away from better managers, that's a positive I guess.

On 28/08/2021 at 14:38, Pizy said:

If they sack Arteta and give a proper manager a couple of windows to rebuild the defense they could be pushing in the 4th-5th range. But they’d still be years away from challenging the big 4.

I think Arsenals success this season just shows that we shouldnt judge too early about a team, about a coach, about an approach to manage things. Arsenals season should give us hope about Chelsea and Potter. 

Edited January 22, 2023 by Gundalf

[Pizy 19,381]

5 minutes ago, Gundalf said:

I wanna apologize for this post in advance. I really dont wanna mock the quoted people here, tbh I have done enough posts where I claimed things that turned out to be wrong so please dont take it as an offense, but I just wanna show a few past assessments about Arteta and Arsenal:

I think Arsenals success this season just shows that we shouldnt judge too early about a team, about a coach, about an approach to manage things. Arsenals season should give us hope about Chelsea and Potter. 

Tbf, even huge swathes of their own supporters thought he was in over his head and he did indeed look clueless early on. Nobody, even the most hardcore Gooner’s, could’ve foreseen them taking a leap from bang average to title favorites within the span of a few months.

[NikkiCFC 8,529]

On 21/03/2021 at 18:11, NikkiCFC said:

Arse beat LC away, Spurs at home and now this comeback, all against our opponents. Thanks. Overall they play good footy. Ironically, UTD is 2nd on table but Arteta may do better job in the long run. 

Well, not all of us. 

[NikkiCFC 8,529]

On 18/07/2020 at 22:34, DDA said:

I've been saying Arteta is the real deal from the moment he took charge.

👍

[Blue Armour 4,759]

58 minutes ago, Pizy said:

Tbf, even huge swathes of their own supporters thought he was in over his head and he did indeed look clueless early on. Nobody, even the most hardcore Gooner’s, could’ve foreseen them taking a leap from bang average to title favorites within the span of a few months.

Ironically it was Mourinho who called it very early on, when they were in really terrible form. You could say Pep was biased to his former assistant, but even he was genuine with his appraisal.

[Tomo 21,754]

12 hours ago, Gundalf said:

I wanna apologize for this post in advance. I really dont wanna mock the quoted people here, tbh I have done enough posts where I claimed things that turned out to be wrong so please dont take it as an offense, but I just wanna show a few past assessments about Arteta and Arsenal:

I think Arsenals success this season just shows that we shouldnt judge too early about a team, about a coach, about an approach to manage things. Arsenals season should give us hope about Chelsea and Potter. 

Yes unfortuently Arteta has found/stumbled across a way to make Arsenal competitive but there is a hell of a lot rewritting of history when it comes to his first couple of years, even accounting for the cup win.

[OneMoSalah 9,123]

3 hours ago, Tomo said:

Yes unfortuently Arteta has found/stumbled across a way to make Arsenal competitive but there is a hell of a lot rewritting of history when it comes to his first couple of years, even accounting for the cup win.

I think at the time there was a lot of fallout from how awful they were starting to look under Emery and some of the signings he had made were busts. Not to mention I think its easy to forget that Wenger really had done a good job over the years without going crazy in the market whilst also losing his key players. Granted he maybe stayed too long but I think like the United position when Fergie left, it was always going to take maybe 2 or 3 different coaches or at least considerable time to get things right. 

No doubt Arsenals football wasn’t incredibly great in that first 12 or 18 months or so with Arteta too as a lot of it was death by possession but they had an identity of sorts. I think the development of certain young players have added a bit more spark and even from the amazon documentary you can see Arteta is clearly very demanding and set a lot of standards which I think as well with the likes of that, the pennies dropped with a lot of the players now plus the addition of guys like Zinchenko and Jesus who have won a lot will help. Even Xhaka seems a totally different player and everyone thought he was done there. 

What impressed me most about them in the game v United was that they still kept playing at a high level believing they would go on and win, where as in the past they would probably have crumbled and capitulated. They look pretty nailed on to go and become champions I would say. 

Edited January 23, 2023 by OneMoSalah

[Tomo 21,754]

1 minute ago, OneMoSalah said:

No doubt Arsenals football wasn’t incredibly great in that first 12 or 18 months or so with Arteta too as a lot of it was death by possession but they had an identity of sorts. I think the development of certain young players have added a bit more spark and even from the amazon documentary you can see Arteta is clearly very demanding and set a lot of standards which I think as well with the likes of that, the pennies dropped with a lot of the players now plus the addition of guys like Zinchenko and Jesus who have won a lot will help. Even Xhaka seems a totally different player and everyone thought he was done there. 

That's the thing, they didn't, in his first 18 months they played like Pulis' Stoke and all their metrics were genuinely midtable stuff.

Saka aside (and even he was often played out of position in defense) he wasn't even playing the youngsters until Willian/Auba/Luiz breaking Covid protocol before the game against us forced his hand, Martinelli and Smith Rowe were ignored all year while Saliba was loaned out.

I confess what Arsenal are doing caught me by surprise but there was nothing in that period I was quoted and before to suggest this was coming, absolutely nothing.

[Vegetable 830]

So, Artreta and Arsenal are suddenly top stuff, confirmed and sealed? I am more than happy that it's not City nor Pool at the too, but c'mon, Arsenal is doing good and suddenly they are considered absolute pro top after years of being midtable and there's a ton of "i told you so", and every time we hit the rough the rough patch we are suddenly shit team. Let Arsenal win the league, perform top 4 next season and do something in Europe and then it's time to judge how well their "process" (potentially still smarter and more quality than ours) fared. 

[Laylabelle 9,754]

23 minutes ago, OneMoSalah said:

I think at the time there was a lot of fallout from how awful they were starting to look under Emery and some of the signings he had made were busts. Not to mention I think its easy to forget that Wenger really had done a good job over the years without going crazy in the market whilst also losing his key players. Granted he maybe stayed too long but I think like the United position when Fergie left, it was always going to take maybe 2 or 3 different coaches or at least considerable time to get things right. 

No doubt Arsenals football wasn’t incredibly great in that first 12 or 18 months or so with Arteta too as a lot of it was death by possession but they had an identity of sorts. I think the development of certain young players have added a bit more spark and even from the amazon documentary you can see Arteta is clearly very demanding and set a lot of standards which I think as well with the likes of that, the pennies dropped with a lot of the players now plus the addition of guys like Zinchenko and Jesus who have won a lot will help. Even Xhaka seems a totally different player and everyone thought he was done there. 

What impressed me most about them in the game v United was that they still kept playing at a high level believing they would go on and win, where as in the past they would probably have crumbled and capitulated. They look pretty nailed on to go and become champions I would say. 

That's it. A lot of the games this season that they've won which is 17 atm when they have gone behind or level they have kept going and going and pushing for that win. Whereas before like you say they'd stopped playing. It's their speed and flow that is impressive. Know been lucky with injuries but losing Jesus was down to have a effect and it hadn't soo...Good on them! 

[OneMoSalah 9,123]

1 hour ago, Tomo said:

That's the thing, they didn't, in his first 18 months they played like Pulis' Stoke and all their metrics were genuinely midtable stuff.

Saka aside (and even he was often played out of position in defense) he wasn't even playing the youngsters until Willian/Auba/Luiz breaking Covid protocol before the game against us forced his hand, Martinelli and Smith Rowe were ignored all year while Saliba was loaned out.

I confess what Arsenal are doing caught me by surprise but there was nothing in that period I was quoted and before to suggest this was coming, absolutely nothing.

They were pretty stale to watch for a huge stretch aye but you could see (or I certainly felt from watching some of their games) that they at least had some patterns of play for building up and would say it was early doors but there was some sort of identity. I think their mentality also shifted though and they had to start gearing up towards doing the dirty parts of the game which Arsenal sides have never been particularly good at since the early 2000s.

Although in comparison to now, they look a totally different team. Everything just looks right.

As you’ve said he’s gotten rid of the older guys and gone with youngsters, which I think has helped but even off the pitch, I think they identified how badly they’d recruited over the years too and changed that. Even the Arsenal squad when Arteta first came in compared to now. Its been a radical shift of personnel.

I think if they go on to win the league now next season will be even more interesting and a bigger challenge for him to go again. Barring City in the last however long, the defending champions have always gone and fucked it the next year.

[Gundalf 806]

2 hours ago, Tomo said:

I confess what Arsenal are doing caught me by surprise but there was nothing in that period I was quoted and before to suggest this was coming, absolutely nothing.

Ofc not, I was the same. But this alone should give us hope that Potter will get it right in the end. Its possible. 

[OneMoSalah 9,123]

Frank sacked by Everton.

[Special Juan 28,871]

And Everton still haven't announced, what a rotten club they are

[NikkiCFC 8,529]

United:Newcastle final is good for us. Increase our chances for European football next season. That EL place won't be taken by Cup but with league position. 

[Vesper 31,181]

Everton are closing in on appointment of Sean Dyche as new head coach to replace Frank Lampard  #EFC Discussions at final stages, details now being sorted on the contract valid until June 2025.

 

 

[Vesper 31,181]

On 25/01/2023 at 22:00, NikkiCFC said:

United:Newcastle final is good for us. Increase our chances for European football next season. That EL place won't be taken by Cup but with league position. 

I am all in for the Europa league spot

it still generates a lot of cash and it gives us a decent shot at winning another major trophy next season (I have zero shame about winning it, it is not easy at all)

and winning it is auto CL

[Laylabelle 9,754]

5 hours ago, Vesper said:

I am all in for the Europa league spot

it still generates a lot of cash and it gives us a decent shot at winning another major trophy next season (I have zero shame about winning it, it is not easy at all)

and winning it is auto CL

Nahhh you still gotta play games and win against other teams who are in the same competition as you..and cause some aren't the usual lot makes it harder...