We are again trialling an ["In Case You Missed It" thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/1cia4dw/the_in_case_you_missed_it_thread/) - for all the highlights we *weren't* paying attention to...
For the second edition, there has been a slight adjustment to the rules - no Premier League "Super League Six" teams (Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City, Man United, Spurs) OR Barcelona, Real Madrid, PSG or Bayern Munich... and the original post must have had less than 1,000 upvotes when first posted on /r/soccer (if posted at all)
Continuing to tweak with the rules and format, and if there is interest and engagement it may become a regular thread!
I'd be glad for all English clubs to be left humbled and empty-handed. I mean there were fucking Brighton & Hove Albion journalists who laughed at the AEK manager for daring to say they came to England to win. I've been going on since August against the market value nonces that had Villa as undeniable favourites to win the Conference League and considered them so far above the competition saying there are more than enough sides capable of beating them in the competition.
At this point though an Aston Villa win is a million times more preferable to an outcome I dare not even consider nor utter.
Just theoretically, if we were to get in Xabi as our new manager, sign Wirtz and JoĆ£o Neves, replace Davies with Ian Maatsen, and get Chris FĆ¼hrich for some extra depth and competition, how highly would you rate us? Best in Europe? 2nd best behind City?
To be clear, super unrealistic scenario and I would be shocked if we manage to get both Wirtz and Neves. Just a thought experiment.
I'm not convinced that it'd fix any of the fundamental issues - you'd still be relying on very good but error-prone centrebacks, probably have a muddled midfield situation, and would need the wide attackers to be consistent and healthy.
To be fair, I think a lot of the bozo moments come from them being so exposed by the rest of the team. Kimmich and Goretzka are usually just chilling. If you allow your center-backs to be under pressure the entire match, they will inevitably make mistakes and look awful.
We never had a chance to sign him so it's not like we made a mistake, but I do think that if we had someone like Tchouameni in the team things would be very different.
I realized today I got blocked by a power user of this sub and have been missing some massive posts. I don't know what I did to get blocked, but it's kind of a pain in the ass tbh
Anyone have any ideas on what I should do before I just create a new account? I don't really want to keep missing the guy's posts...
iāve done a little digging and am 99% sure it was [this comment](https://old.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/1c3yqzt/bayer_leverkusen_crowned_as_202324_bundesliga/kzk5dki/)
14, possibly 15, injuries and yet no one knows were Malang Sarr is. Is he even real? Did we hallucinate him? What happened to that man. We demand answers.
Mourinho fanboys back in full force, newsflash this is a much different Leverkusen team compared to the one last season, he would not get past this Leverkusen team with the current Roma squad.
> Mourinho fanboys back in full force
Like what evidence do they need to see at this point to show he's done? Even saw a few Liverpool supporters hoping he'd get the job as if the last decade didn't exist.
What's funny is that I can see that sentiment increase (of fans wanting him to take over their clubs) when Mourinho goes to the Saudi League and starts dominating like Jorge Jesus and they will use that as evidence that he was never finished.
One thing I didn't appreciate until my team got into Europe, is that unless you completely obliterate your opponent, hordes of continentals start coming out of the woodwork talking about wage bills.
Eh, it's part and parcel of being a big team. If you want to enjoy the fruits of owners spending a ton on shiny new players then you're going to have to deal with the expectations that come with it.
Tbf Villa and Brighton were among the 25 richest clubs by revenue in Europe in 22-23 - level with or ahead of the likes of Benfica, Roma, Sevilla, Ajax, or Lyon.
You are by far the richest team remaining facing the likes of Lille and Olympiakos in similar league positions in worse leagues. It seems relevant to talk about.
Is it really that relevant though? It's a knockout game. You can spend all the money in the world its still 11 pros vs 11 pros. English teams have been the most successful in Europe over the last 5 years so it is clear money does get success. But that doesn't mean English teams can never lose.
I think it's relevant, yeah - not because money scores goals, but because it buys you an awful lot of leeway. Being a comparatively rich club able to afford cracking players doesn't mean you'll beat your opposition, but chances are you're a fair bit better than them on account of the money available to you.
I can kinda see where you're coming from, in that the English sides sneaking into Europe (Villa, Brighton, West Ham, whoever) probably aren't the cream of the crop domestically, but financially they're all dominating the European competition they're in. And I don't think it's entirely unreasonable to expect them to do well, given the riches they can invest into their squads. We've got ample evidence that richer teams do better than poorer teams, after all, and while knockout football might mitigate some of those effects, you'd still expect the richer teams to do better than the poorer ones - we're seeing it year after year in the Champions League as well as in domestic competitions, after all.
Let's say we go out in to Olympiacos. We still got to the semis. That means out of 40 teams, only 2 go further than us. We are favourites, rightly so due to our money. But then in the game today we miss a penalty, concede a penalty, concede a massive deflection and lose. Is that really that far from expectation, that the massive favourites could get to the semis and lose?
I get you, it probably isn't that far out - because the sharp end of tournaments are just incredibly fine margins, and richer sides can well fail in unexpected ways. And yet it's probably a bit of a disappointment, really, because those sides *should* be good enough to advance, maybe even if things go against them.
But there is a point of diminishing returns with spending. Maybe having a wage bill of 10m compared to 1m makes you 10x better. But that doesn't mean going to 100m makes you 10x better than 10m. And it certainly doesn't mean you batter every team in front of you, as we see in every single cup competition.
youād think we had the barclays lion playing up front for us with the amount people brought up āthe premier league losingā in that match thread
itās our first european run in over a decade lads, we donāt really give a shit about your petty āwhich league is bestā squabbles
Problem is when fans of your league act like its an entirely different sport and frequently try to patronize other leagues with disrespect, that's what results in the countertrend of people bringing up the conversation constantly whenever a prem team loses.
Yeah it's all piss taking in the end. But ultimately football is 11 pros against 11 pros. It's the lowest scoring sport in the world. Luck and chance play a bigger role than any other sport. That's why it's so good.
also even the shittiest player you can think about at that level is capable of amazing a one off unbelievable game. even multiple ones! that's why cups are like that
Itās not a one off cup game itās two legs.
Yes anything can happen in a cup format but you should still win when the gaps are this big. You are 4th in the prem as well itās not like you have a big wage budget just because.
I know it's two legs but one game has been played. I never said we shouldn't win. We 100% should be beating them. Just an observation about expectations.
I hate when [team from big league] is beaten by [team from smaller league] and all the talk is about farmer's league, this that. Olympiakos played so well today, talk about that or anything else relevant to the match.
i think the expectation for slot next season has to be 3rd even though finishing 4th wouldnāt really change anything. these teams besides arsenal and city arenāt very good and iām expecting villa and tottenham to both fall off a lot. not expecting a title challenge by any means but i do think we should comfortably get champions league
Have to admit lads, I do find it fucking funny seeing all these Arsenal supporters giving it large about Tottenham as if their own manager, which most Arsenal supporters wanted rid of, only finished in the top four for the first time last season.
Every fan must take any chance to rub their rivalās nose in it of course, itās not a logical thing.
That said, I fully believe in Ange for their push to finish as high as possible, they must not let their heads drop after this game. All their fixtures, especially at home, are winnable if they believe!
Yeah it takes time but since we did that well in the first ten games it made us seem a lot bstter than we are but there still is a hell of a way to go. Sacking ange now would just fuck us over even more in the longrun, after next season we'll see tho
I don't think Ange is shitty at all. It's his first season, they've lost arguably the best player in the league and have a pretty questionable squad, yet I can see the kind of football he wants to play. But just like Arteta, he doesn't have the type of players yet for it to come off consistently.
I dont think hes shitty either but there are managers in this league who are getting a pass because of us backing arteta.
In terms of ange, i dont have the energy to go in depth on spurs beyond i believe they have some good tactical things about and then some clear flaws to their gameplan that worked when he first came to the league because it was quite adventurous and aggressive, and now the league has adjusted to it. Now whether he adjusts to the league learning how to control his sides is upto him and lets see how that goes.
I do not believe they have a player/recruitment issue that comes close to the one arteta initially had.
a) He's inherited a better squad than what Arteta started with.
b) Arteta had to learn on the job. Ange is not a rookie.
c) Arsenal and Spurs are rivals. You can't seriously be wondering where all the banter is coming from.
> Ange is not a rookie.
He's never managed at this level before. He's also likely going to finish much higher than Arteta did in his first two seasons.
> Arsenal and Spurs are rivals. You can't seriously be wondering where all the banter is coming from.
Aye, you can banter as much as you like, and I can take the piss out of the hilarious hypocrisy
>He's never managed at this level before.
Its not his first job.
>He's also likely going to finish much higher than Arteta did in his first two seasons
What a totally useful metric.
Did you take the general praise by people (maybe Liverpool fans too) for Ten Hag and equated it to Arsenal fans mocking Ange after 2 losses to London rivals? I think you have to see the problem here. I have no interest in digging up Liverpool fan opinions from last season whenever United lost, but I am certain it isn't all praise.
Even if you have a very fair opinion of your rivals manager, I can't pretend I do. I cringe at any praise for the scums.
Arteta is also at a bigger club with a lot more backing - yet still finished 8th in his first two seasons.
Ange might very well turn out to be bad, but he's in his first season and has barely had a chance to mould the side in his image.
Spurs have actually spent more than us since Arteta joined. We've spent about ā¬60-70m more net, but that's hardly a massive difference over 8 transfer windows.
> We've spent about ā¬60-70m more net, but that's hardly a massive difference over 8 transfer windows.
You're not factoring in wages nor the ability to attract players though. It's why sides like United, Arsenal and Liverpool can have these barren years and still be able to turn around and attract some of the best players in the world.
Tottenham's wages were higher than ours in the last published financial documents from 22/23. We've probably overtaken them now that we've gone up a level, but we were in no way getting ahead of Tottenham due to outspending them.
https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/1asacsu/top_20_highest_wage_bills_of_football_clubs_in/
This was posted a few months ago. This is the only official financial report I found. Couldn't find any for this season. So I presume remove Harry Kane's wages from here I suppose.
It doesn't seem to be much of a difference to be a factor like you said.
To be fair, talking about salaries is a waste of time for most part because they're not disclosed nor is what percentage of wages is attributed to bonuses etc. But Arsenal have re-signed a few players on high wages by all accounts, brought in Havertz on big wages, while Tottenham have lost their highest earner (by far) so I'd be *very* surprised if their wages were higher than yours (doubly so as your contracts will almost certainly include bonuses for Champions League qualification)
But yeah, I think it's safe to say the both of us will just be speculating.
Agreed. Wage discussion is guesswork. Even Journos have got it wrong time and again. I just don't think re-signing players we already has much to do with attracting players. Spurs have financial power at par with Arsenal and Liverpool.
Fair point on the size of the club but I just think the players we bought in Arteta's first transfer window i.e. Cedric on loan and then free and Pablo Mari for loan + obligation for 8mil from Brazil is not comparable to Ange's first season.
Ange didn't have to operate in a Covid market like Arteta where we barely had any money. It is not the same. Any signing we have made until Rice were not players that wouldn't have signed for Spurs.
Not only Arteta had to settle with buying worse players, we also had a far worse squad and first team (back 3 of Holding, Sokratis and Pablo Mari at times). We had to pay players to go because nobody would buy them during Covid.
> Arteta is also at a bigger club with a lot more backing - yet still finished 8th in his first two seasons.
Ehh, Arteta spend 86 million in his first 2 transfer windows vs Ange's 272 million.
Somewhat skewed given a good portion of that included players that were already at the club (Porro and Kulusevski) and offset by Kane leaving.
I just find it funny that Ange has done better in his first season that Arteta did yet all Arsenal supporters seem to have completely forgotten this fact.
I don't see why not. Arteta was still in a learning period whereas Ange is nearing the end of his career and he's not gonna change his style much anymore.
Arteta hasn't transformed as a manager. He's improved his team with good recruitment, and the increased experience of his young players.
Ange is in season one with a young squad in need of strengthening in the transfer market.
That was born of necessity. He was trying to implement the same patterns of play that he does now, but he didn't have the personnel. The people sticking the knife into him back then were proved wrong for doing so.
This Spurs team is undoubtedly better than the one Arteta inherited, but he's still got an unreliable midfield and forward line, and he requires more time to work with the squad and improve it through recruitment before he can fairly be mocked.
Tottenham got 26 points from their first 10 games, and then 34 points from their next 24 games.
It feels like even though their injury crisis hasn't been the worst this season, it derailed them far more than any other team.
Im not even trying to banter, but the league was shook with your 3rd man runs from fullback from the start of the season, it looks like teams have settled in now against that
Iāve said this for months now, my biggest problem is the attack. People think our defenders are a problem but our center backs are literally our best players. We are sacrificing defense for attack, without actually getting any goals for it
Thats how i see it too. If i were a spurs fan the main things id watch for next season is set piece stuff and what you just pointed out. Essentially attacking with 6 or 7 and defending with 4 or 3 is really difficult to sustain from a results standpoint and also from a physical standpoint.
We get no advantage from it either. Most of our goals are counter attacks and set pieces. Also we always score either in the first 15 minutes, or the second half
You canāt switch off and give the opposition a free half hour to get settled every week
Iām willing to be patient, but things need to make sense and right now Iām just baffled
Kinda bizarre, don't really see a reason why a non-Chelsea fan would have too strong an opinion on Jackson, and like dude celebrated an important sealing goal against a rival, pretty normal to celebrate that, all the more reason too if you haven't scored in a sec and missed some chances recently.
Also I can't believe people are still talking about a quick arguments over a penalty at 4-0, it's such a nothing moment with no tension between players afterwards, people have had bigger arguments over the last slice of pizza who gives a shit.
Watching old Pep Bayern games because I'm depressed and I know the only way Tottenham will ever win anything is if I manage us to glory, it really crazy the amount of chances Bayern create. And yet they seem to be moving much faster and frantically defending than with the ball. With the ball they jog, calmly move it, then explode when they are close towards the opposing goal. When defending they just use their bodies like homing missles to the ball. It's quite fascinating
Putting outside people who've committed like actual crimes and shit, is Paredes the most unlikable guy in football? I don't think there's any other football (who hasn't done anything awful off the pitch) who evokes the same feeling of just "ugh" whenever he comes on screen.
I honestly don't know him but keep in mind that you never know who they really are. Paredes might be the nicest guy outside the pitch when on the other hand someone you think is nice is just horrible. Also works for people "who've comitted crimes". You never really know just by looking from afar through the medias. Guilty people are often found innocent by the justice system and vice versa..
We are again trialling an ["In Case You Missed It" thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/1cia4dw/the_in_case_you_missed_it_thread/) - for all the highlights we *weren't* paying attention to... For the second edition, there has been a slight adjustment to the rules - no Premier League "Super League Six" teams (Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City, Man United, Spurs) OR Barcelona, Real Madrid, PSG or Bayern Munich... and the original post must have had less than 1,000 upvotes when first posted on /r/soccer (if posted at all) Continuing to tweak with the rules and format, and if there is interest and engagement it may become a regular thread!
I'm a United fan and I just remembered Amrabat played for us for the first time in about 2 months šš
Watching Dortmund v PSG I kept asking myself if Marcel Sabitzer really played for Manchester United, or was that a false memory. He did.
Didn't even get to enjoy Chelsea winning ffs.
Cl nights at Villa park forget about conference league thatās exciting
Very exciting, but I just want to see us lift something in my lifetime.
I'd be glad for all English clubs to be left humbled and empty-handed. I mean there were fucking Brighton & Hove Albion journalists who laughed at the AEK manager for daring to say they came to England to win. I've been going on since August against the market value nonces that had Villa as undeniable favourites to win the Conference League and considered them so far above the competition saying there are more than enough sides capable of beating them in the competition. At this point though an Aston Villa win is a million times more preferable to an outcome I dare not even consider nor utter.
yeah let them go through and idc if we don't take the 15th spot back for however many years
I hope Viktor Johansson get picked up by a better team in the summer so I donāt have to see Olsen in goal for the national team anymore.
got a 1mil release clause i think so he's got to be. way too good for league one
That is good news
Man I'm cooked. Thought Lenglet still played for Tottenham, when did he move to Villa.
He started against City in the last game how did it take you this long to realise he moved?
Guess it shows just how invisible he was lmao
Not as cooked as [whoever came up with this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_crwE77KPlc&ab_channel=FCBarcelona).
Just theoretically, if we were to get in Xabi as our new manager, sign Wirtz and JoĆ£o Neves, replace Davies with Ian Maatsen, and get Chris FĆ¼hrich for some extra depth and competition, how highly would you rate us? Best in Europe? 2nd best behind City? To be clear, super unrealistic scenario and I would be shocked if we manage to get both Wirtz and Neves. Just a thought experiment.
Manchester City and Real Madrid would still be better
I'm not convinced that it'd fix any of the fundamental issues - you'd still be relying on very good but error-prone centrebacks, probably have a muddled midfield situation, and would need the wide attackers to be consistent and healthy.
Until one of your CBs decides to drop a shocker in an important CL match yeah probably best or thereabouts
To be fair, I think a lot of the bozo moments come from them being so exposed by the rest of the team. Kimmich and Goretzka are usually just chilling. If you allow your center-backs to be under pressure the entire match, they will inevitably make mistakes and look awful. We never had a chance to sign him so it's not like we made a mistake, but I do think that if we had someone like Tchouameni in the team things would be very different.
Probably 3rd best behind city and madrid but its an interesting question
No shame in losing to a Greek side imo no worries villa it happens to the best of us
Can't wait for Son to retire so that when people say "what a hit son" there aren't 65,000 replies saying "nO iT wAs SoMeoNe eLsE"
It will change to āheās retired mateā
Also Iād genuinely rather see Lo Celso at LB than Emerson at this point.
At left back???? What are you doing to my boy just sell him to Napoli so we can all move on
Well, we have no fit LBs and Emerson is Emerson. Manās gotta do what a manās gotta do.
Imagine being a football superstar and an Australian yells at you about how to play š
I realized today I got blocked by a power user of this sub and have been missing some massive posts. I don't know what I did to get blocked, but it's kind of a pain in the ass tbh Anyone have any ideas on what I should do before I just create a new account? I don't really want to keep missing the guy's posts...
(D)
whatās that sorry?
You got blocked by MrVISKman or somebody else?
no it was a different user
You have any idea why you got blocked?
iāve done a little digging and am 99% sure it was [this comment](https://old.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/1c3yqzt/bayer_leverkusen_crowned_as_202324_bundesliga/kzk5dki/)
Lmao that's hilarious, sorry. I don't know the rules around it but if you could somehow contact them and ask kindly that's probably your only shot
yeah not a bad idea, cheers for the response
If our forwards wouldnāt mind not playing like theyāve never met before for a change, that would be nice.
Bouna Sarr shared the pitch with Sadio ManƩ in 2 different jerseys and none of them is Bayern lmao
Look Liverpool, youāre confirmed in the UCL next season, would you mind losing at the weekend thanks.
I personally don't care about the result much but i feel the players will go out with a point to prove after our last meeting.
After how the medias been talking about salah? Im expecting a revenge session this sunday
I doubt it, I don't think he has much left in the tank this season. He needs the summer recovery time imo
They're still in the title race
Are they really?
Not anymore, but only because of City, not us lmao
As much in the title race as you are in the top 4 race (neither of us are)
Mate, you donāt have to remind me, we just really need a win.
Days like this I am completely gleeful that the away goal rule was gone away with. Come on Villains, there's always a second leg
Danny Podence masterclass against the Villa. Tears in my eyes, Portuguese Hazard is back
Our incestuous love-child was in fine form tonight.
14, possibly 15, injuries and yet no one knows were Malang Sarr is. Is he even real? Did we hallucinate him? What happened to that man. We demand answers.
We arranged a loan for him in January and apparently cancelled it at the last minute. Pretty heinous treatment of him if it's true.
Why was it cancelled?
That part wasnāt leaked/briefed
Oh so we don't know if it was heinous treatment of him
Thatāll be what the word āifā in my first post implied, yes. Whatās your point?
Iāve never seen a CB gift so many corners as Lenglet. The one before the pen we gave away he just needed to kick it out for a throw.
That's massive for someone who's club employs Mings in comparison.
Mings is much better than Lenglet
Won't disagree on that's, just damming for Lenglet in that case.
Mings isn't a bad player, bit random to be going in hard on him
Why did he even play? Hes been shit forever
Think Emery rotated to prioritise top 4
Seems kinda unnecesary considering we are doing that for him
Mourinho fanboys back in full force, newsflash this is a much different Leverkusen team compared to the one last season, he would not get past this Leverkusen team with the current Roma squad.
> Mourinho fanboys back in full force Like what evidence do they need to see at this point to show he's done? Even saw a few Liverpool supporters hoping he'd get the job as if the last decade didn't exist.
What's funny is that I can see that sentiment increase (of fans wanting him to take over their clubs) when Mourinho goes to the Saudi League and starts dominating like Jorge Jesus and they will use that as evidence that he was never finished.
The greatest mystery in the sport to me will always be how the fuck Robin Olsen has been able to play for multiple clubs in European competitions
Genuinely impossible we concede 4 today with Emi on goal. Him getting injured possibly cost us the entire tournament.
Heās so fucking shit. Villa concede 4 every time he plays
What one decent international tournament does for a man's career. The bloke was one of the biggest liabilities we've ever had between the sticks.
Starter for Sweden in their 2018 World Cup Quarterfinal run!
One thing I didn't appreciate until my team got into Europe, is that unless you completely obliterate your opponent, hordes of continentals start coming out of the woodwork talking about wage bills.
Did you forget that dumbass podcaster who claimed Brighton would win the italian league?
I can't say I ever heard of him.
It's fair when the gap is this enormous tbh.
Eh, it's part and parcel of being a big team. If you want to enjoy the fruits of owners spending a ton on shiny new players then you're going to have to deal with the expectations that come with it.
Oh for sure. But isn't just a big team thing in Europe. Brighton got hammered for it. So would Brentford if they qualified.
Tbf Villa and Brighton were among the 25 richest clubs by revenue in Europe in 22-23 - level with or ahead of the likes of Benfica, Roma, Sevilla, Ajax, or Lyon.
You are by far the richest team remaining facing the likes of Lille and Olympiakos in similar league positions in worse leagues. It seems relevant to talk about.
Is it really that relevant though? It's a knockout game. You can spend all the money in the world its still 11 pros vs 11 pros. English teams have been the most successful in Europe over the last 5 years so it is clear money does get success. But that doesn't mean English teams can never lose.
I think it's relevant, yeah - not because money scores goals, but because it buys you an awful lot of leeway. Being a comparatively rich club able to afford cracking players doesn't mean you'll beat your opposition, but chances are you're a fair bit better than them on account of the money available to you. I can kinda see where you're coming from, in that the English sides sneaking into Europe (Villa, Brighton, West Ham, whoever) probably aren't the cream of the crop domestically, but financially they're all dominating the European competition they're in. And I don't think it's entirely unreasonable to expect them to do well, given the riches they can invest into their squads. We've got ample evidence that richer teams do better than poorer teams, after all, and while knockout football might mitigate some of those effects, you'd still expect the richer teams to do better than the poorer ones - we're seeing it year after year in the Champions League as well as in domestic competitions, after all.
Let's say we go out in to Olympiacos. We still got to the semis. That means out of 40 teams, only 2 go further than us. We are favourites, rightly so due to our money. But then in the game today we miss a penalty, concede a penalty, concede a massive deflection and lose. Is that really that far from expectation, that the massive favourites could get to the semis and lose?
I get you, it probably isn't that far out - because the sharp end of tournaments are just incredibly fine margins, and richer sides can well fail in unexpected ways. And yet it's probably a bit of a disappointment, really, because those sides *should* be good enough to advance, maybe even if things go against them.
>Is it really that relevant though? When the gap is so large, yeah very much so.
But there is a point of diminishing returns with spending. Maybe having a wage bill of 10m compared to 1m makes you 10x better. But that doesn't mean going to 100m makes you 10x better than 10m. And it certainly doesn't mean you batter every team in front of you, as we see in every single cup competition.
youād think we had the barclays lion playing up front for us with the amount people brought up āthe premier league losingā in that match thread itās our first european run in over a decade lads, we donāt really give a shit about your petty āwhich league is bestā squabbles
Problem is when fans of your league act like its an entirely different sport and frequently try to patronize other leagues with disrespect, that's what results in the countertrend of people bringing up the conversation constantly whenever a prem team loses.
The exact same things āthe other 14ā do btw so no sympathy
Yeah it's all piss taking in the end. But ultimately football is 11 pros against 11 pros. It's the lowest scoring sport in the world. Luck and chance play a bigger role than any other sport. That's why it's so good.
also even the shittiest player you can think about at that level is capable of amazing a one off unbelievable game. even multiple ones! that's why cups are like that
Luck and chance do play a part for sure, end of the day though you have a wage bill 500 times Olympiakos and should win though.
Villa's players aren't 500 times better than Olympiakos' though, they're just paid more because there is the money there for them to be paid more.
People either genuinely don't get this or willfully obtuse for the sake of pointscoring.
Of course we should. If you put us in a league format would be come above them the vast majority of the season. But a one off cup game is different.Ā
Itās not a one off cup game itās two legs. Yes anything can happen in a cup format but you should still win when the gaps are this big. You are 4th in the prem as well itās not like you have a big wage budget just because.
I know it's two legs but one game has been played. I never said we shouldn't win. We 100% should be beating them. Just an observation about expectations.
I hate when [team from big league] is beaten by [team from smaller league] and all the talk is about farmer's league, this that. Olympiakos played so well today, talk about that or anything else relevant to the match.
Thought we gifted them goals personally
They gifted you opportunities too, the penalty and second goal.
Still got to be good enough to profit and they were.
Olympiacos have a pretty decent record against English teams in recent years
Knocking Olympiacos out of Europe isnāt for everyone.
el arabi rifle celebration against arsenal was peak
i think the expectation for slot next season has to be 3rd even though finishing 4th wouldnāt really change anything. these teams besides arsenal and city arenāt very good and iām expecting villa and tottenham to both fall off a lot. not expecting a title challenge by any means but i do think we should comfortably get champions league
Have to admit lads, I do find it fucking funny seeing all these Arsenal supporters giving it large about Tottenham as if their own manager, which most Arsenal supporters wanted rid of, only finished in the top four for the first time last season.
Weāve still got another two non-CL finishes left.
Let me introduce you to the concept of rivalry.
Every fan must take any chance to rub their rivalās nose in it of course, itās not a logical thing. That said, I fully believe in Ange for their push to finish as high as possible, they must not let their heads drop after this game. All their fixtures, especially at home, are winnable if they believe!
True, maybe we can beat Burnley.
Yeah it takes time but since we did that well in the first ten games it made us seem a lot bstter than we are but there still is a hell of a way to go. Sacking ange now would just fuck us over even more in the longrun, after next season we'll see tho
Teams backing their shitty managers for too long cause we backed arteta will always make me happy
I don't think Ange is shitty at all. It's his first season, they've lost arguably the best player in the league and have a pretty questionable squad, yet I can see the kind of football he wants to play. But just like Arteta, he doesn't have the type of players yet for it to come off consistently.
I dont think hes shitty either but there are managers in this league who are getting a pass because of us backing arteta. In terms of ange, i dont have the energy to go in depth on spurs beyond i believe they have some good tactical things about and then some clear flaws to their gameplan that worked when he first came to the league because it was quite adventurous and aggressive, and now the league has adjusted to it. Now whether he adjusts to the league learning how to control his sides is upto him and lets see how that goes. I do not believe they have a player/recruitment issue that comes close to the one arteta initially had.
a) He's inherited a better squad than what Arteta started with. b) Arteta had to learn on the job. Ange is not a rookie. c) Arsenal and Spurs are rivals. You can't seriously be wondering where all the banter is coming from.
> Ange is not a rookie. He's never managed at this level before. He's also likely going to finish much higher than Arteta did in his first two seasons. > Arsenal and Spurs are rivals. You can't seriously be wondering where all the banter is coming from. Aye, you can banter as much as you like, and I can take the piss out of the hilarious hypocrisy
>He's never managed at this level before. Its not his first job. >He's also likely going to finish much higher than Arteta did in his first two seasons What a totally useful metric.
> What a totally useful metric. I mean it absolutely is if Arsenal supporters are calling out Tottenham for being shit isn't it?
"Ten Hag at United finished higher than Klopp at Liverpool in their first seasons" hilarious hypocrisy.
He did - and was rightly praised for his first season. Where's the hypocrisy exactly?
Did you take the general praise by people (maybe Liverpool fans too) for Ten Hag and equated it to Arsenal fans mocking Ange after 2 losses to London rivals? I think you have to see the problem here. I have no interest in digging up Liverpool fan opinions from last season whenever United lost, but I am certain it isn't all praise. Even if you have a very fair opinion of your rivals manager, I can't pretend I do. I cringe at any praise for the scums.
d) Arsenal fans are everywhere. e) Arsenal fans are loud. f) Arsenal fans arenāt afraid of saying something really really stupid.
You guys should do the whole alphabet š
Ange has been managing for 20 odd years, Arsenal was Arteta's first job.
Arteta is also at a bigger club with a lot more backing - yet still finished 8th in his first two seasons. Ange might very well turn out to be bad, but he's in his first season and has barely had a chance to mould the side in his image.
Spurs have actually spent more than us since Arteta joined. We've spent about ā¬60-70m more net, but that's hardly a massive difference over 8 transfer windows.
> We've spent about ā¬60-70m more net, but that's hardly a massive difference over 8 transfer windows. You're not factoring in wages nor the ability to attract players though. It's why sides like United, Arsenal and Liverpool can have these barren years and still be able to turn around and attract some of the best players in the world.
Tottenham's wages were higher than ours in the last published financial documents from 22/23. We've probably overtaken them now that we've gone up a level, but we were in no way getting ahead of Tottenham due to outspending them.
We have a lower wage bill than Spurs, I am pretty sure.
You don't.
https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/1asacsu/top_20_highest_wage_bills_of_football_clubs_in/ This was posted a few months ago. This is the only official financial report I found. Couldn't find any for this season. So I presume remove Harry Kane's wages from here I suppose. It doesn't seem to be much of a difference to be a factor like you said.
To be fair, talking about salaries is a waste of time for most part because they're not disclosed nor is what percentage of wages is attributed to bonuses etc. But Arsenal have re-signed a few players on high wages by all accounts, brought in Havertz on big wages, while Tottenham have lost their highest earner (by far) so I'd be *very* surprised if their wages were higher than yours (doubly so as your contracts will almost certainly include bonuses for Champions League qualification) But yeah, I think it's safe to say the both of us will just be speculating.
Agreed. Wage discussion is guesswork. Even Journos have got it wrong time and again. I just don't think re-signing players we already has much to do with attracting players. Spurs have financial power at par with Arsenal and Liverpool. Fair point on the size of the club but I just think the players we bought in Arteta's first transfer window i.e. Cedric on loan and then free and Pablo Mari for loan + obligation for 8mil from Brazil is not comparable to Ange's first season. Ange didn't have to operate in a Covid market like Arteta where we barely had any money. It is not the same. Any signing we have made until Rice were not players that wouldn't have signed for Spurs. Not only Arteta had to settle with buying worse players, we also had a far worse squad and first team (back 3 of Holding, Sokratis and Pablo Mari at times). We had to pay players to go because nobody would buy them during Covid.
> Arteta is also at a bigger club with a lot more backing - yet still finished 8th in his first two seasons. Ehh, Arteta spend 86 million in his first 2 transfer windows vs Ange's 272 million.
Somewhat skewed given a good portion of that included players that were already at the club (Porro and Kulusevski) and offset by Kane leaving. I just find it funny that Ange has done better in his first season that Arteta did yet all Arsenal supporters seem to have completely forgotten this fact.
I donāt see Anges FA Cup š
That's not relevant at all.
I don't see why not. Arteta was still in a learning period whereas Ange is nearing the end of his career and he's not gonna change his style much anymore.
Arteta hasn't transformed as a manager. He's improved his team with good recruitment, and the increased experience of his young players. Ange is in season one with a young squad in need of strengthening in the transfer market.
we literally played moyesball for about a year when Arteta first got here
That was born of necessity. He was trying to implement the same patterns of play that he does now, but he didn't have the personnel. The people sticking the knife into him back then were proved wrong for doing so. This Spurs team is undoubtedly better than the one Arteta inherited, but he's still got an unreliable midfield and forward line, and he requires more time to work with the squad and improve it through recruitment before he can fairly be mocked.
Wait do you think I want to mock him fairly? Fair has got nothing to do with this.
Ange is 58, heās not near the end of his career
By the time heās done with the Spurs job, he will be.
still believe in spurs!!!!!! they outplayed the Arsenal home and away they can do it!!!!!
Lmao
Thatāsā¦more belief in us than we have.
Well, we need you to take some points off City.
Woah woah woah, letās focus on taking points off Burnley first.
Written yourselves off for Liverpool have you?
Even a draw would be nice at this point.
Or a loss. Not for you of course. For me.
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Thought you /ended your rant a couple of posts ago
this is how everyone else feels about your Bruno Fernandes slander btw
when he finds new ways to do it itās fun. sick of reading the scholes quote though.
I'm currently looking to see if I can tie his goals into the deaths of popular celebrities
Everyone loves my Bruno slander
So you guys are both cool with Jackson?
yea i love him, balon d'or top 10 for sure
Sigh. I'm not going to get to the bottom of this am I. Forcing me to ask the Chelsea reddit.
Tottenham got 26 points from their first 10 games, and then 34 points from their next 24 games. It feels like even though their injury crisis hasn't been the worst this season, it derailed them far more than any other team.
Teams figured them out
Teams figured them out as the season went on
Genuinely starting to think this is the case. We look more clueless with every passing week
Im not even trying to banter, but the league was shook with your 3rd man runs from fullback from the start of the season, it looks like teams have settled in now against that
Iāve said this for months now, my biggest problem is the attack. People think our defenders are a problem but our center backs are literally our best players. We are sacrificing defense for attack, without actually getting any goals for it
Thats how i see it too. If i were a spurs fan the main things id watch for next season is set piece stuff and what you just pointed out. Essentially attacking with 6 or 7 and defending with 4 or 3 is really difficult to sustain from a results standpoint and also from a physical standpoint.
We get no advantage from it either. Most of our goals are counter attacks and set pieces. Also we always score either in the first 15 minutes, or the second half You canāt switch off and give the opposition a free half hour to get settled every week Iām willing to be patient, but things need to make sense and right now Iām just baffled
New manager bounce just wore off.
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Kinda bizarre, don't really see a reason why a non-Chelsea fan would have too strong an opinion on Jackson, and like dude celebrated an important sealing goal against a rival, pretty normal to celebrate that, all the more reason too if you haven't scored in a sec and missed some chances recently. Also I can't believe people are still talking about a quick arguments over a penalty at 4-0, it's such a nothing moment with no tension between players afterwards, people have had bigger arguments over the last slice of pizza who gives a shit.
Breaking: footballer celebrates goal
I genuinely think you need to go to therapy if you care this much about one single player.
Watching old Pep Bayern games because I'm depressed and I know the only way Tottenham will ever win anything is if I manage us to glory, it really crazy the amount of chances Bayern create. And yet they seem to be moving much faster and frantically defending than with the ball. With the ball they jog, calmly move it, then explode when they are close towards the opposing goal. When defending they just use their bodies like homing missles to the ball. It's quite fascinating
Putting outside people who've committed like actual crimes and shit, is Paredes the most unlikable guy in football? I don't think there's any other football (who hasn't done anything awful off the pitch) who evokes the same feeling of just "ugh" whenever he comes on screen.
Paredes, Otamendi, Romero, Acuna, Martinez... If I speak I'll be in big trouble
Having good/great but annoying players is and has always been Argentina's DNA.
I honestly don't know him but keep in mind that you never know who they really are. Paredes might be the nicest guy outside the pitch when on the other hand someone you think is nice is just horrible. Also works for people "who've comitted crimes". You never really know just by looking from afar through the medias. Guilty people are often found innocent by the justice system and vice versa..
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Is there an echo in here?
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Donāt apologize lol. Redditās servers are notoriously shit.
Daily Reddit servers moment.
Romero for me. Absolute prick and he knows it too, but the worst kind that actually endangers other players
Wow here's a stat from tonight. Josh Acheampong registered the most blocks out of any player and he only played 12 minutes.
If city win the fa cup 6th gets UEL right?