We did Leicester a favour or two by knocking them out of the FA Cup and letting them score a last minute winner at the Lane in the PL.
There's certainly something to be said about the fact that the last 2 PL champions had no European commitments that year, yes.
Fair comment, perhaps all PL teams should drop all cups and focus on winning the PL. That would cut out all the excuses.
I think that what supporters want and what the actual clubs want and remember are different. We as supporters want to see our captain holding up a shiny trophy at any point in the season, however the club wants the highest possible league finish and a share of the champions league riches. We as a club are in particular need (with the new stadium in mind) to finish as high in the league as we can and ideally that means top 4 - which is still a massive over achievement for us considering we are 6th in terms of turnover and player wages. Yes as a fan I want to win one of the cups, but I disagree that no one remembers who finished 2nd 3rd and 4th these days as the champions league is a constant reminder. If at the start of last season you had asked the Arsenal club heirarchy (and probably even the fans) what their priorities for the season were, then winning the FA Cup would have been lower than winning the league, finishing top 4 and getting beyond the last 16 of the ECL,
The League Cup for me has always been a bloody nuisance. If I remember correctly it was started during the Alan Hardaker era who was always more interested in competing with the FA than football overall IMO. What does it do and what does it mean? First of all it dilutes the potency of the FA Cup and while none of us have much time for the present FA and that's been so for many years, the FA Cup is more important then that having huge tradition far more than the Premier League for example. The league cup offers nothing that the FA Cup did not already provide and was the beginning of the dilution of the potency of the FA Cup which has culminated in it's present day status playing a poor second fiddle to the European competitions which are far more to do about money for the elite clubs than any great benefit to football as a whole. OK we are supporters of one of those elite clubs but let's not forget that football is the peoples game and the FA Cup supports that notion by being open to ALL teams to take part. Not only do I not want want us to win the League Cup I want to see it disappear, it's just a fabricated piece of committee born irrelevance. The FA Cup needs to be rescued and put back to where it belongs as the worlds greatest football cup competition open to all English and Welsh football clubs , however humble.
From here on in we should play our under 17's in it. Other clubs might follow suit and eventually it might become an under 17's tournament, basically making it disappear from the senior calendar. If the under 17's were to win it, it would be quite an achievement for them.
Actually one of PL + : 1. All domestic trophies 2. A UEFA trophy would be far more possible as the domestic/UEFA fixture conflicts would be gone (one would be sacrificed for the other) . Oh wait a moment, hasn't the Spurs manager this season effectively stated he is doing #2 ...
And that the very next season that they do have UEFA fixtures, the defence of their PL title appears to plummet like a peregrine falcon with a bag of cement tied to its back.
It appears you didn't actually read my post, so here it is again... Not really when you take into account how the majority of Premier League teams field weakened sides in the FA Cup these days, so the only teams that tend to give it their all after the quarter finals are either teams that have secured their aims for the season (be it European football, promotion, or avoiding relegation) or have ballsed up to the point they may as well focus on the cup to try and put a positive spin on an otherwise damp squib of a season. Is it any wonder Arsenal keep winning it? It's not like they've had anything else to focus on for a decade.
Wouldn't say that, did you see the team they fielded against Norwich the other night? In fact most top Prem sides fielded a weakened team, the only difference was that ours (or our defence I should say) ended up costing us, while Arsenal needed extra time and City needed penalties to go through. They only care about the competition once they're in the final, prior to reaching the final it's more or less a chance to field squad members/ youngsters.
I think it definitely helps. There's less fatigue and also less chances of picking up injuries when you're not playing your strongest team in the Prem and then in Europe. Essentially one game a week (with the odd domestic cup game here and there) allows much better focus and preparation. If it wasn't for the fact we somewhat need the money from European football to help foot the new stadium bill, I'd kind of like to see how we'd fare without Europe for a season. Conte's already been bitching about congested fixtures this season, funny how it wasn't a case last year when they had no European distraction. Leicester also struggled to remain competitive in the Prem due to their debut season in the CL, mind you they're struggling to remain competitive again this season
It's almost as if they'd ballsed up their seasons so badly they needed something to put a positive spin on their failures elsewhere, which their easily-distracted fans fall for every single time...
Is he confirmed to be out? I know the Spurs twitter said he picked up a minor hammy strain against Pool but I haven't seen them say he'll actually miss out. He's had near enough a week to recover, is that long enough for just a strain? What's the usual time out for that sort of injury?
