The Official Football Thread

[Azuma Denton]

Respect to Ramsey for his non celebration gesture.
And salute for the standing ovation of the home crowds to salute their former player.

Anyway 7 points clear.

[germanturkey]

wooo. prediction correct. spuds and united draw!

[KiraYamatoFan]

David Moyes is a c**t getting it all wrong with team selections and subsitutions again. Even worse, he has a strong bias towards English players even though they are total crap like the rest of Britain in football at this time.

Just sack the w**ker already and sell half of the British contingent who represent what's wrong with football in Britain. Replace all of them with foreigners, I don't care if we end up like Chelsea, City or Arsenal with a very low ratio of English players. United are a global brand now, not just some random British club.

[germanturkey]

all the main threat drop points except chelski. good weekend for arsenal.

[Irenicus]

Originally Posted by germanturkey

all the main threat drop points except chelski. good weekend for arsenal.

Not quite. The other Manchester got their win over Swansea.

I just hope we crush them at the Etihad when the time comes.

[Bri]

I never would have guessed at the start of season that Arsenal and Liverpool would the teams to challenge the refurbished squads of Chelsea and City.

[Kokukirin]

Originally Posted by Bri

I never would have guessed at the start of season that Arsenal and Liverpool would the teams to challenge the refurbished squads of Chelsea and City.

For a neutral this is by far the best EPL season of the last decade. Very competitive and full of surprises.

I believe Liverpool will slow down in second half of the season. Their squad is not good enough to consistently win over the weaker teams. I still can't decide whether Arsenal is just in superb form or finally playing to their potential, but whichever it is I really hope they keep this up.

[Azuma Denton]

Arsenal match on December:
4 Hull City (H)
8 Everton (H)
11 Napoli (A)
14 Man City (A)
23 Chelsea (H)
26 West Ham (A)
29 Newcastle (A)

Napoli - Man City - Chelsea
I hope that Wenger play his card right.
Both three match is very crucial...

[germanturkey]

as long as we don't get crushed against napoli, we'll be through to the next stages. i'm confident we can beat city, but chelski is another beast.

[monsta666]

Originally Posted by germanturkey

as long as we don't get crushed against napoli, we'll be through to the next stages. i'm confident we can beat city, but chelski is another beast.

Man City at the Etihad? That is a big ask especially when you think they destroyed Man United and Tottenham there. If it were an away match what you said could be true because Man City's away form has been much more suspect.

[germanturkey]

city's defense still has problems. as long as Kompany is out, i have faith we can win there. we crushed them in the preseason (yeah, preseason..) and with their current tactic of letting Nasri run free and neglect defensive duties, there'll be oodles of space to exploit in the midfield. man for man in the midfield, we straight up outclass them. their major threats come as Toure, Negredo, and Aguero, and i have more than enough faith in Kos and BFG, along with Arteta and Flamini, to shackle them down. as long as we have our finishing boots on, i think it should be our game.

beating united and spuds isn't saying much either. united has been woefully average this season and spuds are impotent. to be fair, we should have at least drew, if not won, against united. we were a touch away from the near post to pulling level and again from taking the lead, not to mention we were missing BFG too.

[oompa loompa]

Originally Posted by germanturkey

city's defense still has problems. as long as Kompany is out, i have faith we can win there. we crushed them in the preseason (yeah, preseason..) and with their current tactic of letting Nasri run free and neglect defensive duties, there'll be oodles of space to exploit in the midfield. man for man in the midfield, we straight up outclass them. their major threats come as Toure, Negredo, and Aguero, and i have more than enough faith in Kos and BFG, along with Arteta and Flamini, to shackle them down. as long as we have our finishing boots on, i think it should be our game.

beating united and spuds isn't saying much either. united has been woefully average this season and spuds are impotent. to be fair, we should have at least drew, if not won, against united. we were a touch away from the near post to pulling level and again from taking the lead, not to mention we were missing BFG too.

(Note, I'm a gooner through and through) ;

First and foremost, I want to point out that we haven't really been crushing teams. If I remember the stats from the excellent www.arseblog.com, Schezny has made the most 'decisive' saves in the EPL, I think its 8 or some ridiculous number like that. By 'decisive' I mean saves when we were either 1-0 or 2-1 up. We have been getting results, but I only feel that we've really started hitting form in the last 2 games vs marseille and cardiff.

Some interesting stats:

-Szczezny has the highest save to shot % in the league
-Only 1 goal let in all november
-Ramsey has the most tackles in the premier league
-Ozil topping the EPL assists chart, no surprises there though

Now,

The same argument can be said about chelsea. Man for man, as of right now at least, our first 11 matches up quite well to theirs. They haven't completely sorted out their defence, and at the moment I think bac, kos, BFG, and gibbs is a damn solid back 4, especially with flamini or arteta. In midfield, (if they play lampard, like the usually do for big games), I would take ramsey + arteta/flamini over ramires + lampard. Attacking mid I think chelsea will take it, especially if the big 3 (oscar, hazard, mata) all play, though having said that we have some damn damn good attacking midfield options. ATM, I would take giroud over any of the strikers they have. Its at home, there is no reason we can't win. Except of course the murinhou factor. That sly fucker. Mark my words, there will be mind games galore before the match.


OTOH.. city at home? I think we have little to no chance of winning. We'll be lucky if we get away with a draw. Their full strength team is better or as good as ours throughout the pitch, and to put things in perspective, they have score more goals at home than we have altogether in the premier league, and we're the second highest in the league AFAIK.

Really speaking, its not at all about those matches. We must, must, get at least 4/6 points from the next to matches vs hull and everton, realistically all 6.

[Bri]

Originally Posted by Kokukirin

For a neutral this is by far the best EPL season of the last decade. Very competitive and full of surprises.

I believe Liverpool will slow down in second half of the season. Their squad is not good enough to consistently win over the weaker teams. I still can't decide whether Arsenal is just in superb form or finally playing to their potential, but whichever it is I really hope they keep this up.

I agree, it's quite fun to watch. It's hard to predict how the second part of the season will develop. The January transfer window could have a major impact, same as the knockout stages of the Champions league. Any team eliminated early could have an advantage in terms of injuries and resting key players. I think Liverpool has benefited from not playing in Europe.

I'm not sure about Arsenal either. They play the best football in the league at the moment and form a solid collective. Still, their squad pretty heavily relies on midfield dominance. Individual quality at the back and front is decent at best.

[oompa loompa]

Originally Posted by Bri

\

I'm not sure about Arsenal either. They play the best football in the league at the moment and form a solid collective. Still, their squad pretty heavily relies on midfield dominance. Individual quality at the back and front is decent at best.

I disagree, perhaps their front is only decent, but the defense has been excellent. only 1 goal in november, and no team has been able to score more than one goal against them for the last, what, 23 matches? Not only the first 4, they're fairly strong in depth, if a little light. vermaelan, monreal are experienced internationals for top european teams, and gibbs is going to be a future england starter.

[Bri]

Originally Posted by oompa loompa

I disagree, perhaps their front is only decent, but the defense has been excellent. only 1 goal in november, and no team has been able to score more than one goal against them for the last, what, 23 matches? Not only the first 4, they're fairly strong in depth, if a little light. vermaelan, monreal are experienced internationals for top european teams, and gibbs is going to be a future england starter.

Defense has been great but is that due to the back line or a collective effort of the whole team? A good midfield can easily shield not so great defenders as Barcelona has proven many times. Short of Sagna I don't see any exceptional players at the back when compared to other top teams.

[germanturkey]

flamini and arteta do wonders to keep the defense safe. another routine win. could have easily been 4 or 5 nothing.

i think it'll be hilarious if Real buy Suarez in january. United lose again, city coast, and chelski fight for their win.

[Elo the Blue]

Originally Posted by Bri

Defense has been great but is that due to the back line or a collective effort of the whole team? A good midfield can easily shield not so great defenders as Barcelona has proven many times. Short of Sagna I don't see any exceptional players at the back when compared to other top teams.

You may not think of them as exceptional players but Sagna hasn't even been the best player along the back four. That's definitely been between Mertesacker and Koscielny. The defense has been rock solid going back to last year even when the mid-field didn't have the riches it does now. Flamini has shone as holding mid-fielder and Ramsey routinely tracks back, but the CBs have been the key, along with Gibbs being steady.

[KiraYamatoFan]

The more it goes, the more I believe Moyes should commit seppuku or expect an egg in the face from an angry spectator at Old Trafford.

Useless Scottish c**t!

[Azuma Denton]

Another easy win for Arsenal.
How many years since I excited to see the line up of our bench??

[risingstar3110]

Not an expert on football, but if only Arsenal could had added Suarez to their current line-up, they seriously could be CL contender. You know a striker who can dribble, create, score and do godly hattrick+1 like how he did today.

It like he just did an individual show case for January transfer. Goal from 40 yards? Checked. Incredible skills and preciseness to volley on set piece? Checked. Composure and dribble skills through 4 players to score? Checked. Could bend the shot and score from free-kicks? Not the first time, or even second time this season

I means he is topping goal scorers ahead of the rest despite started 5 games later than anyone else. Just ridiculous


PS: of course the elephant in the room now is Moyes and United. But Everton is a strong team, and little wonder if they can keep up to top 4 by the end of the season. What MU have to worry is against Newcastle next (without Rooney?), a team who will either get rolled over and conceded 4.... or turn to giant killer and took 3 points from pretty much anyone in the league (bar Asernal and City on-form)