Always so many diff ways of judging how ‘strong’ a league is. Could say look how strong the prem is. has 1 team in the CL semi 2 teams in the Europa semi (who aren’t even top half prem) and 1 team in the conference semi No doubting the bottom 3 are very weak no no doubting arsenal aren’t quite as good as they were last year However could also argue that actually the overall strength is greater because the teams from 6th-12th are actually much stronger than they usually are and much harder to beat. Thats why there is much less of a gap between the teams.
Last season villa were 4th, spurs 5th and Chelsea 6th. The fa cup was won by man utd so they took the final europa spot from thr league. We won the league cup. This season 3rd goes to 1st. 2nd stays 2nd 1st goes to 3rd or 4th 7th goes to 4th and wins league cup. 4th may be anywhere from 3rd to 7th. 6th may stay 6th 5th drops to 16th which is obscene. Also 9th drops to 17th It's mad how tight it is but money talks There's so.much money spent it'd be a shock and prem club doesn't win the conference. The fact only been won once in three tournaments is poor. Villa lost on pens in the qf last year. In the europa no english club has won it for 5 years. What does that say? In the cl 3 or the past 6 have been won by english sides. If anything this season seems a bit bizarre. The sides in the europa are so bad they have utterly given up in the league and are actually focused on the europa and not on top 4. Chelsea can win the conference in their sleep and have been doing that. There's 2 half decent sides in the other semi final so the final might be slightly more competitive. Next season 1-5 champions league 6th = europa Fa cup =? City, forest, villa will pass the spot down but palace could take thst spot. Utd and spurs in 14th and 16th might do to europa. (My money is on bilbao) Chelsea win the conference - europa. If palace in the cup and there are 3 qualifiers for the europa league then there will be no conference place i think.
You have to remember this is the first year that CL teams haven’t dropped into Europa and Europa teams dropped into conference so those comps are essentially weaker now as well
Interestingly as Arsenal are still to secure a top 5 place. The PL could have SEVEN teams in the CL next season. 1-5 CL winners EL winners of course for that to happen, Arsenal would need to win the CL and finish 6th or 7th (they can't be lower anymore) And Spurs or ManU win the EL.
I'm going to bet against utd v bilbao. I think spurs will ultimately flop but they seem to play better away from the negativity at whl. I think ultimately they both will have to **** house it. Frankfurt had so many chances in the last 15mins but never hit the target. Anyway, arsenal will finish 2nd, they are going to be all piss and vinegar while they are strutting about. Psg could wallop that out of them or Arsenal could break psg bu getting past thst initial press. When arteta's "little biatches" are strutting thsy look great. It's when it gets a little tough that the whinging and snide crap comes out of them and they become captain black and the mysterons
Well this game was more nervy than it should have been. Captain wins it for us one week and Vice Captain the next. Happy days.
