You have your opinion and are entitled to it, but you can not rule out, with such disregard, a team which has finished in the top 4 consistently, and has every chance. After all, if Man City lose Silva for a season, they would most likely stumble and finish 3rd, so nothing can be taken for granted. However I firmly believe that Podolski will be a success in the Premier League, that Oxlade-Chamberlain will play a strong part this season, and Wilshere will return this Autumn...of course, their title threat is dependent on whether RVP stays!
you gave your reasons for why you feel arsenal are contenders and that's fine but these reasons are actually very flimsy. they finished about 20 points off the pace - you can't suddenly make that gap up with one, fairly average signing, cos podolski is not a great player by any means! hard working certainly and he does have talent - you don't play for germany as many times as he has without any, but he is not close to being a world class player. i think you'll do well to find one person on here who genuinely believes arsenal will even challenge for the title (by this, i mean be in the mix in the final couple of weeks), let alone win the league next season.
I wouldn't rule Arsenal out of winning the league in the same way I wouldn't rule Satan out of skating to work - possible but unlikely
well quite, you can't even rule norwich out of winning the league completely, but it won't happen! not seen the odds but i'd guess arsenal are their trademark 12-1 for the title? i'd happily give odds of 66-1
Overall I am pretty happy although September might be a little tricky in places. Hopefully we can get something at Fulham and hopefully get our customary home win against QPR. The run in is not so bad either, assuming we are playing well enough to keep away from the bottom three. BUT poor, poor Southampton - welcome back guys
Don't get me wrong, there's no way Arsenal will win the league next season. But Premier League a much better standard than the Bundesliga? On what grounds would that be based on? I think they are extremely, extremely similar in quality, and that Podolski is an excellent signing. As for Norwich's fixtures, I can't believe we've got Man City on the last day, but other than that it's an alright run-in. Really pissed off that we've got Southampton on a Tuesday night though; I love going down to St. Mary's, but it looks like it isn't to be!
There are one or two good teams in the Budesliga but no team can really maintain any sort of consistency. In te Champions League the only team that tends to do well is Bayern Munich and an example of a player coming over from the Bundesliga to the Premier League and not doing well is Mertesaker. Good player but needs to improve for the Premier League. Don't get me wrong the Bundesliga is good, just not quite as good as the Premier League, La Liga and Seria A.
See in terms of average quality and strength in depth over the whole league, I'd (an this is purely personal opinion) put it in this order: Premier League Serie A/Bundesliga La Liga There is some utter tripe at the bottom of La Liga which would struggle in the Championship imo...
Fair argument There are one or two teams that have 'done a Leeds' in La Liga. Villarreal and Osasuna, both fighting for a Champions League place then getting relegated. It's also a bit of an SPL in that Barcelona and Real Madrid are the top two and the rest are miles behind. So on a rethink I agree with you.
The only thing about Villareal being relegated that I would say is that this is a MASSIVE deal in Spain. It is a huge shock. This is the equivalent of Liverpool getting relegated, getting on for the level or River Plate. In terms of actual financials, they're similar to Villa/Newcastle. Both these latter two flirted with/have been relegated, but while it was a surprise for both of them, it wasn't seen in quite the same light
Villareal getting relegated was definitely a shock, they had some good players. Don't watch/check results in La Liga too often so I don't know how or why it happened but I can see why it was a huge shock.
can't agree with that!! villarreal were consistently a second/third tier spanish team for the vast majority of their history. they are a provincial club with a small stadium. it is only in the past 10 years that they have had any success whatsoever! they are a club who have punched massively above their weight. yes, it was a shock as they are so well run - not because of how big they are. to compare them to river plate is ludicrous. that was like man united getting relegated - villarreal is like bolton or blackburn getting relegated last season. i could be wrong but i'm pretty sure they'd never even been in the top flight until about 2002!
I appreciate that this is your opinion and that's fair enough. But La Liga, in terms of strength in depth is surely the strongest in Europe? Last season, they had 2/4 teams in the semi-finals of the Champions League (Barca and Real Madrid) and, more importantly, 3/4 teams in the semi-finals of the Europa League (Valencia, Athletico Madrid and Athletic Bilbao (who destroyed Man Utd. in the Quarter Finals)). The fact that Villareal got relegated in itself also goes to show how strong the rest of the league is. Besides, even if the worst 3 or 4 teams in the division were to struggle in the Championship, you could have said the same for the bottom teams in the Premier League last season. La Liga's the strongest for me, then the Premier League, followed by the Bundesliga and then Serie A.
Shame it's when Barton is serving his ban. His rematch with Bradders will be more action packed than Haye vs Chisora !
