I think Chelsea, Man City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Man Utd & Everton will all finish above us. That's been my opinion since the summer and it hasn't changed.
Which is why Lee Mason is currently back at referee's school writing "I will not send off England players" 100 times.
Taking the whole Full Kit ****er thing to another level: please log in to view this image Captain's armband? Really? Maybe the C stands for something else?
I'll stick this here, as it concerns both sides involved in this game, but does anyone else find it a bit stupid that Galatasaray and Besiktas are due to play in North London one day apart? Seems an unnecessary conflict in the schedule and one that could easily be avoided.
On Ade, the only thing worse than his performance was his haircut, and they were both ****e. Soldado can flit in and out of games sometimes but always seems to press and work hard, Ade doesn't even seem to want to do that. People are saying that Eriksen won't play well in an AVB/Pochettino system but earlier on in Pochettino's tenure he was quoted as saying that the new training was reminding him of the style of Ajax, and he was excellent there. I'm not too worried about him long-term. I felt a bit sorry for Lamela because he seems to be working hard (unlike Ade!) but its not all going for him. For the goal he cocked up the clearance and should maybe have been marking Ozil at the top of the box instead of doubling on Sanchez too, but I doubt he's had to work this hard defensively before so he won't get everything right yet. I was more annoyed that their goal came from a deflection and a hilarious miskick from Welbeck really, a very scrappy goal to concede after so much defensive hard work. I'd like to see Stambouli in midfield because I feel he will be able to move the ball quicker and more effectively than some of the other options. Overall I was happy with the game though. If we'd been a little snappier in our buildup play at times we could have won it. The negative comparisons the pundits were making with Pochettino's Southampton in terms of style, particularly pressing, are a bit harsh too I feel. Judge how he is changing or implementing his style at Spurs after half a season (or more) please, not after a handful of games. The Southampton game is going to be big I feel. If we lose it then I think we're in for a hell of a ride from the media, not to mention that they are doing far, far better than everyone expected so far this year so it'll be a tricky game. I hope Pochettino is up to this test, which will be bigger for him personally than the NLD in my opinion.
According to a journalist on the Sunday Supplement Arsenal's wage bill for the season is expected to be around £180-190mill. That might be double ours! The journalist in question was an Arsenal fan and keen to act like it was a positive as their new stadium and sponsorships mean they can afford to pay so much but with the way that we've been criticised for wasting money you have to question how they can spend so much and still have such little depth in areas of their squad.
Well kronke,or wharever his name is,has just helped himself to £3 million according to bbc sport,last week
"According to a journalist on the Sunday Supplement Arsenal's wage bill for the season is expected to be around £180-190mill. That might be double ours!" Time will tell on that (though Levy has done well on this for the 2011-13 seasons) . "The journalist in question was an Arsenal fan and keen to act like it was a positive as their new stadium and sponsorships mean they can afford to pay so much but with the way that we've been criticised for wasting money you have to question how they can spend so much and still have such little depth in areas of their squad." This is all about ROI. You could say the extra 50m+ they have spent on wages wrt Spurs has prevented them losing their CL slot for at least 3 separate seasons. But the problem is that if their annual CL forays only earn that much, then they are effectlvely paddling upstream fast just to keep still. This is the issue that Usmanov bemoaned not long ago (effectively the limit of their aspirations) .
PNP A few seasons ago we played Besiktas away and were in their bars the night before,gala were on tele playing a CL game and the Besiktas fans with us were all right behind Gala. It seemed that both clubs unite in their hatred of fenerbache!
Fair point but it's £90-100mill more before you even take into account their transfer spend. I'm sure they'd add sponsorships and ticket sales into the calculation but it doesn't look like good business to spend so much just to get knocked out in the second round of the CL every season.
One of the few times I've seen eye to eye with just about all the Arsenal fans is about their transfer window. They go and buy an excellent player at a good price in Sanchez, and leave themselves with six defenders and one past it DM who was never a world beater? It boggles the mind. Chelsea and City were always going to be favorites, but if Arsenal had signed exactly the defenders we did they could push them at least: a solid attacking fullback, a Mertesacker type, an excellent, versatile young Porto player, and a good ball playing DM.
I'm back! Panic over guys, the king has returned Managed to just get back from my holiday in time to watch the game, was a very hard earned point. The defence and keeper were fantastic, Kaboul especially, he put in a performance reminiscent of his 11-12 season form, really hope he can continue like that and put the injuries and poor form behind him. Ade was dreadful, amazed he wasn't subbed for Soldado at about 55-60 mins. Arsenal in fairness deserved a goal for their attacking display but it's hard to take knowing that had Lamela not ****ed up that clearance, we likely could've held out for a win. Thought Mason done well on his league debut, was good to see him play, some of my best mates know him really well as they went school with him so it was nice seeing a local lad get his chance, I'm not surprised at how well he done too, Mason's always been a talented lad but has suffered with injuries plus the fact his position was stacked with more established players. Though out of interest, I noticed the bench didn't have Stambouli, Paulinho AND Dembele, anyone know why? Was it Poch's choice or were there any injuries? Found it odd not having at least one of those on the bench. And finally, what a joke Michael Oliver was, roughly 3 of our 6 yellows weren't fails and the booking for Chadli was the biggest farce I've seen in ages. Since when was the "cupping the hand to the ear" celebration deemed a bookable offence? 95% of derby games involve that celebration (see Gerrard on the same day!), it's goes with the nature of a derby.
"Fair point but it's £90-100mill more before you even take into account their transfer spend. I'm sure they'd add sponsorships and ticket sales into the calculation but it doesn't look like good business to spend so much just to get knocked out in the second round of the CL every season." Indeed. What their board should really be asking is why saving their CL slot goes down to the last game of the PL season to a team like Spurs (who have far lower revenues and spending) at least one season in three over the past decade. The Goons must be seriously under-achieving (we won't entertain the other possibility lest it cause mass hysteria elsewhere ) .
So many players do it though and don't get booked, there needs to be a level of consistency. Gerrard done it the same day and got nothing and there've been countless times where a player has deliberately celebrated with some form of gesture in front of opposition which causes a reaction. Booking Chadli for that shows how pathetic the game has become.
Pochettino said Dembele had a knock, not sure about Stambouli. I thought Bentaleb was a good choice, to be honest, we needed a mobile player out there as players tired. To be honest, the stars just aligned for their goal. Lamela fluffed the clearance, a harmless shot deflected into the path of Welbeck who made such a mess of it he didn't even make contact so it could fall to Chamberlain who still almost missed. I guess it's the kind of luck you can get from spending so long attackin, it's just so frustrating that Welbeck was such a donkey he couldn't even manage to slice it harmlessly wide I find it strange that the focus on the first goal was the pass to Flamini despite Eriksen being about 10 meters away when the pass was played. He didn't have a great game but it was excellent closing down from Eriksen. Infact the media's reaction has been to give us very little credit at all, the bullet points on the BBC match article are all about Arsenal.
