It doesn't really make any difference whether I'm happy about it or not, I'm just pointing out the facts about our UEFA ranking.
UEFA's ranking which you know, is absolutely useless. England are ranked what 6th I believe, or 4th by FIFA, who cares? It means f--k all. I doubt any Arsenal fan at this moment, cares about being placed 6th in Europe by UEFA. Heck, any honest fan will also admit that the following teams are better than us: Barca, Bayern, Madrid, United, City, Chelsea, Juventus. That's at least 7 teams alone. I'd even say we are behind Athletico Madrid.
I'd be careful using that stat. As you probably know the Uefa ranking is based on a 5 year period. As that game tonight proved and on the bookies betting lists Arsenal are not the 6th best team in Europe right now. That 6th palce ranking is a reward for being consistent rather than excellent There Uefa coefficient for the Last 3 seasons is: 2010/11: 13th 2011/12: 11th 2012/13: 13th currently If anyone is interested full details are on Bert's excellent website: http://kassiesa.home.xs4all.nl/bert/uefa/data/method4/tcoef2013.html
Yep, around 18 points will get 20-25th this season but the ranking will probs still be 6th as teams on the up like PSG and Dortmund are starting from a long way back!
AC Milan vs Barcelona tonight, should be a decent watch. Clearly, Milan are not the team they once were, but they have found some form in recent weeks.
Good start to this game, shame about Barca's away kit though. It's kinda spoiling my enjoyment of this game. A truly horrible kit.
The only way I've been able to make sense of that kit is some guy from the Qatar Foundation saying to the designer "make it look like a sunset in the Qatari desert".
We could a learn a thing or two watching this game. Milan are clearly an inferior team to Barca, just like we are to Bayern. But, Milan are defending as a team and are keeping themselves in the game. It's called organisation, shame Wenger and co have not heard about such a concept.
It reminds me of our games against Barca. We looked like we had planned to pressure them high up, but it was more like our forwards making a few tentative runs at their defenders (when they started a play) and then giving them plenty of space once it got over that phase. Milan are just sticking at them all the time leaving them very little room.
Cesc taken off. Forgot he was even playing. Come back, Cesc!!! We would build our entire team around you.