That London stadium has got to be the worst stadium in the premier league for atmosphere.
It does cut it, name another manager that has taken a title winning side and then spent a billion quid on it ?
Every manager that has gone to Bayern has done the same as Pep. They actually done more as they won the Champions league with Bayern.
Barcelona are 50/50 for the league every year had won it the season before Pep came in along with the Spanish cups.
Then the emergence of the best player to ever play the game being in his pomp for the duration.
No doubt he’s a great manager but he’s had the ideal jobs.
As I’ve said he needs to go to a Spurs or a Lazio and take them to a league title in 5 years for me.
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Yernited awful, can see the manager gone by Jan.
Julian Ward the former Liverpool DOF is going in as United DOF next week.
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Put it this way, if Pep had managed Arsenal last year we'd be champions so I do think he's the best manager. How much better than Klopp (the 2nd best manager in the PL and 3rd best in the world after Ancelotti) who knows.
We were truly terrible today. Worst I’ve seen since Sheffield Wednesday away in the cup. Didn’t do the basics well enough. Let them bully us which is what they do but you have to be able to match it. They’re like 1990s Wimbledon but it works for them and fair play.
Wilson needs to go. Almiron too. Burn was terrible and a massive downgrade from Livramento even though Tino isn’t even left footed. A terrible performance all round.
This season Dominic Solanke has scored more goals from open play than Erling Haaland!
That didn’t take long
What a ball by Trent.
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Arsenal should be a couple up here but not clinical. That's being said I'd take a draw. We should have had a pen awarded against us so I'm wary of that being evened up.
Game will be won on the right flanks. Salah-Zinchenko is a mismatch and Saka will have Gomes on toast.
Ref will find a way to send off Havertz - I feel it coming. Was never a yellow in the 1st place but now they'll try to rile him.
Feel bad for Tsimikas - total freak injury
Trent being Trent …
z
Draw about right, I'd have taken that before kick off.
Good weekend for Manchester City!
The odegaard handball was honestly here with one of the worst decisions I’ve seen.
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Liverpool dropping 4 points in the last 2 games from dominant positions - they won’t win the league unless they start putting away their chances, and another 2 bad injuries to add to a long list doesn’t help. Of course VAR always favours Liverpool so no need to mention any of the decisions today.
After all the BS I was disappointed with Arsenal. Klopp would swap Endo for Rice in a heartbeat, but none of the others would get in his squad. Saka was humiliated by a third choice left back FFS.
If Man City start playing better they could win the league, but the same could be said of any of the top 5 teams to be fair. Nobody seems to want it at the moment.
Not sure what game you watched regarding 'dominant position' today but the stats were very even and only Arsenal were going to win in the last 10 mins. BBC match stats attached.
And only Rice getting in the Liverpool squad, give me a break.
Only Salah, Van Dijk and Alisson get in that Arsenal 1st XI for me.
Tight game but Liverpool left it behind them, Trent has to score and the penalty was stonewall, I can’t understand how that wasn’t given.
City will be happiest with that but congrats to arsenal being top at Christmas.
I agree the penalty non-decision was bewildering.
The Trent chance came about because Zinchenko (who was an absolute liability all game) slipped and slid into Odegaard which released Salah. Players were slipping about all over the place in the 2nd half.
Arsenal were the better footballing side - Liverpool were playing long balls to bypass the Arsenal midfield triangle as they weren't able to compete there but could compete against Zinchenko on the Liverpool right flank.
Eh ? Liverpool didn’t play a single long ball in the game.
Do you actually know what a long ball is ?
Actually doesn’t matter can’t be bothered even entertaining you.
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Do you know what a long ball is Ryan ?
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Yep it's horrendous, and a horrible experience for away fans. You get the stage area for concerts between the two away fans sections, and there's absoluely no atmoshphere at all as a result. Then after the game you're forced on a 45 minute march around the ring road to get back to the station. I vowed never to go again, bloody horrible day out.
If you're saying Liverpool didn't play a long ball all game then you must have a definition that differs to me.
Humour me, what does a long ball mean to you?
The statistics platform Sofascore shows Liverpool attempted 46 long balls and we're successful with 18. Arsenal were 53 and 20, respectively.
It's a fact (if you watched the game) Liverpool targeted Zinchenko using Trent's incredible passing range from long distance, aiming to get Salah 1v1 as much as possible. Watch your goal and look where Trent - who was awarded the assist - launched the ball from.
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Last edited by jon8oy; 24th December 2023 at 01:50.
With Liverpools last 2 games they should really be a couple of points clear,I don’t actually think they’ve been playing that well,unable to finish.
Unless that changes I can’t see them winning the league.
Man City will be licking there lips ,knowing they are still in it and not kicking a ball for a week.
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I think realistically City will look at Arsenal as being their main challengers. Liverpool are there also but they'll lose Salah for 4 or 5 games soon and without him they are a top 6 side. So that 1-1 yesterday is only a good result if City win at Anfield and Anfield is a very difficult place to get a result at.
City still favourites for the league as they still have Arsenal to come to the Etihad and will probably win that game.
But for Arsenal, re away games that have the highest probability of defeat, there's only City and Spurs left.
City still have to go to Anfield, Spurs and Newcastle.
Sure will be an interesting season
I can't quite believe that we've managed to keep pace, with all of the long term injuries and suspensions that we've had to contend with. Yesterday. for example, we had a completely makeshift defence and still managed to hang on for three points.
If we're still there or thereabouts come the end of January then I think we'll be a force in the second half of the season. Very annoying that we were by far the better side in a couple of the recent defeats (including the Villa game) - the table could have looked quite different now.
I think because the leaders have far fewer points than is usual. Arsenal are top with 40 points from 18 games, 2.2 points per match which over 38 games is 84 points.
Over the past few seasons that would be nowhere near enough points to win the league - at least another 10 points would be required (apart from 2020/2021) or another 5 points by this stage of the season which would mean Spurs would have been 9 points behind at this stage in a 'normal' season - a far tougher ask.
I know City 'only' got 89 points last season but once they'd won the league they rotated their team and so ended up losing some games they'd ordinarily have won with a full side
Last edited by ryanb741; 24th December 2023 at 12:44.
https://x.com/paddypower/status/1738...665107608?s=20
Paddy Power have nailed it again .
Caution. A bit of swearing
Arsenal on track to beat City's 5 trophies in a season;
- Charity Shield
- Top of the League at Xmas Trophy
- 'Won-in-last-minute-against-Luton' trophy
- 1st place in CL group trophy
- 'Beat Man City finally' trophy
- St Totteringham's day trophy for finishing above Spurs*
*in progress
In truth Ryan i was hoping he might have had some positives when taking the job but in truth his PSG record should have sobered me up. Todays performance was pathetic and i feel sorry for any supporter that wasted good money making that trip the team had nothing no shape,no discipline, no nothing and Sterling should giving his wages to a decent charity.
I FEEL LIKE I'M DIAGONALLY PARKED IN A PARALLEL UNIVERSE