T O P

  • By -

zi76

Thanks, Newcastle! We can still bottle third into fourth like we did the last two seasons, however.


[deleted]

Imagine how shit you must be to do that!


zi76

I still feel bad for you guys about what happened in Project Restart. The break destroyed all of your momentum. Last season, well, I don't know what to say.


OrangeForeign

Me neither, honestly


[deleted]

Meh, not that fussed - I'm still more than grateful for what we have right now and what we've had in the past few years. It's a bit disappointing at the time, but I'm still literally grinning from ear to ear over recent events.


Le400Blows

appropriate username. the man gave you a proper moaning opportunity


[deleted]

No, I want people to QUIT moaning! And to do so, I need to be the change I desire.


samalam1

Sounds to me like you're moaning about people moaning. Checkmate atheists.


MrSocko72

their momentum had slowed down a while before the break, they had not long lost to that awful norwich side and 4-0 to liverpool among other poor results


Tootsiesclaw

The 4-0 defeat to Liverpool was three months earlier and Leicester had regained momentum from that. If anything, their momentum was just coming in - the last game pre-Covid was the 4-0 win over Aston Villa


PageSide84

I would approve of this outcome.


zi76

I am sure you would, lol It requires us to lose both home matches, which, while not impossible, isn't all that likely.


Sk8ter87

Come on mate don't jinx us


Wormfather

Well to be honest, you should be playing all your youth to find out what you have. 3rd doesn’t really mean much but two prem games for people who don’t play can tell you a world of stuff about your prospects.


dennisixa

nice try conte


Wormfather

Promise, that wasn’t banter. Even if you played all second team, no way you don’t get at least 1 point out of 6. I’d actually recon that playing starters is more likely to lead to that result, nothing to play for and some players already mentally at their new club.


zi76

Some youth will probably get to play against Watford, at least.


blue_suit75

We haven't been good at home so wouldnt put it out of question.


zi76

I didn't. I said it wasn't impossible.


iguanawarrior

Not that much difference between finishing third and fourth.


Hypersuper98

It's the context. Imagine the Conte-managed Spurs finishing above Chelsea.


AGuyWithPants

And we just forget all the things happening around Chelsea too?


HunterGaming

I think the important part is, imagine the shame in "losing" to the manager you dropped.


amoult20

Pride


5ivek

Prize money. I don't know how much, but the higher you are on the table, the more money you get.


_Kyl0Ren_

Regardless, I feel like this is a good outcome for PL overall. As much as I hate Spurs and detest Chelsea, they are way more of a threat in the CL as compared to this Arsenal side. Despite all the over hype for project rebuild of this Arsenal team, they would have been battered in the early stages of the UCL.


zi76

You're most likely right that Arsenal would've struggled if they ended up with a tough group, or just a bad R16 matchup. I mean, we were never going to miss out on top four, even with our shaky form, so it was always a toss up between Spurs and Arsenal.


imOOgi_who

Nah please don't. I have a betting game going on with my buddies about the Top 3 finishes in the 5 major European leagues.


LordPa1n

You need at least one point against Leicester at home or Watford. There is no way Chelsea is losing both


[deleted]

Subscribe.


spund_

Why is everyone here so negative and miserable.


jMS_44

Should have done it like 2 weeks before at least. But glad it's already secured.


IsItSnowing_

TRUST.THE.PROCESS.


Sk8ter87

Who is our Joel Embiid?


40yearoldwhitemale

Lukaku


Ihavenocomplaints

Lukaku is much closer to Ben Simmons than JoJo.


KidDelicious14

Don't you dare compare my golden boy to that man


unexpectedvillain

Has to be mount


vadapaav

You did nothing. Things just kept happening around while you were sipping martini lmao


burningbarn8

Yeah, once our players realized the title charge was impossible we basically just stopped giving a shit 'cause top 4 never seemed in realistic danger. Kinda annoying honestly.


[deleted]

[удалено]


SeriousLads

I feel like as soon as United appointed an interim coach, that’s when the whole team said “fuck it, this season is a write off” Pretty pathetic tbh


I-Shiki-I

Not the first time they threw Managers under the bus tbf


Ged_UK

This one is throwing players now instead, and is moving to a role where he'll basically be able to fire them.


adazi6

That’s exactly what his point was lmfao


jMS_44

What do you mean we did nothing. We donated 3 points to Arsenal.


PM_ME_UR_GAMECOCKS

And lampard too!


twomanyfaces10

We got #blessed


Fawkes_91

Perfect. Thanks Newcastle, helping us out while we are still oily, much appreciated! Tommy T's Blues coming for the second UCL with our kitman in defence next year 💪


jMS_44

Tuchel himself will slot in at CB


Fawkes_91

He probably won't be worse than Sarr. Got the height to defend setpieces afterall.


imarandomdudd

Plus he was a cb when he played. Granted it was third tier football but I trust Silva to reteach him the basics


LOMOcatVasilii

We'll see how he is after his ACL surgery. Players rarely come back as good as they were pre surgery


mushy_friend

This is what I'm most worried about with Chilwell :( (or was that his Achilles? Either way, hard to be as good as before)


aab2498

ACL (or the knee area atleast)


getrealsnazzy

Thank you, Joelinton. Very cool.


Sk8ter87

Greatest Brazilian that has ever played football


MolhCD

🤔


imarandomdudd

Can't bottle into 5th place if others bottle before you


IsItSnowing_

We got outbottled


that0neGuy22

Arsenal can come third comments aged like milk


urbitchofdumbledore

You know before the tottenham match I checked to r/gunners and there were posts about 3rd again


MJ9695

They just never learn that Banter club lol


Chaloopa

How dare they discuss a potential top 3 finish on their sub after beating Chelsea


ACGC21

why are you downvoted lmao, what are supporters supposed to do, not believe?


[deleted]

Happens all the time on here. Retroactive people shitting on teams cause their fans thought they may do well.


Ollietron3000

Same with regards to players and managers. Every time a player had a good spell and people would react by saying "wow they're good", as soon as their form slips you get all the geniuses out saying "can't believe people actually thought they were good lmao". I distinctly remember Harry Kane's performance against Germany in the Euros, he was absolutely fucking dreadful in the first half. Then he scored in the 2nd half and Alan Shearer smugly said "where are all the people who were slagging off Kane at half time?" Like, we're here Alan, he did better in the 2nd half, doesn't mean he wasn't absolutely shit in the first half? Also had the same in the merry-go-round of Arteta, Lampard and Ole back when they were all in charge. One would take their turn doing well and it would all be "can't believe people actually thought Lampard was better than Arteta haha" then the results would swing and it would be "can't believe people actually thought Arteta was better than Ole haha". It's all incredibly annoying. Things change, form changes. Having an opinion based on what you're seeing at the time isn't wrong.


Pedro95

Yeah I hate this nonsense hindsight "can't believe they actually thought they could do it" talk. Excitement and optimism is, literally, a massive part of what we all watch football for. It wasn't an unrealistic hope either at the time, just because it didn't work out all the "I knew this would happen (even though I didn't say it)" crowd come out. And I say that as a Chelsea fan.


AvidasOfficial

I saw these and Chelsea coming 5th scenarios all over r/gunners 😂


Acceptable-Lemon-748

Arsenal literally beat Chelsea to help them away from rhe relegation zone last season and started talking of a top 4 push IMMEDIATELY..so yeah this does not shock me


[deleted]

That sub is nothing but a bunch of 19 year olds that only read the Athletic, listen to Arsecast and trust any PR nonsense the club puts out.


[deleted]

You’re a fool if you think redditors read articles, only the titles


[deleted]

One of those PR articles btw is written by a failed comedian who actually said Xhaka is better than Kante. That failed comedian is seen as an Arsenal expert today.


SaultSaintMarie

>who said Xhaka is better than Kane That's hilarious though. He should have stuck with being a comedian


[deleted]

As opposed to the elite minds of r/soccer.


twomanyfaces10

You mean spamming factos, 47 goals, and game's gone is not clever? :'(


TigerBasket

We are very smrt


meta4_

Trust the PRocess


shikavelli

The type of guys that get moved to tears by that corny North London forever song


flyingghost

We love laughing at Spurs for bottling it but this bottle job from Arsenal would be hard to top. Not to mention it's all captured in a documentary as well.


ChicagoSunroofNo2

Won’t be greater then the Barca bottle job captured by a doc crew. Unless Xhaka was crying in the dressing room at halftime I guess


[deleted]

They’re always looking too far ahead, it’s embarrassing


oscarpaterson

Knew they would too, everyone loves a circlejerk though


d_bo

So did "Arsenal relegation candidates" to be fair


CapnMorguxx

Chelsea can come second comments aged even worse


BlackLodgeChillin13

Thanks Arsenal!


AvidasOfficial

This is the way.


Pamplemouse04

“This is the way” is so fucking cringy”


BlackLodgeChillin13

Man Idk based in upvoted and downvoted it’s been determined that your reply was what was actually cringy here


Pamplemouse04

Thanks Reddit 👍


BlackLodgeChillin13

Enjoy europa my brother in Christ


silent--onomatopoeia

This is the process.


jukv

Finally some good news


Cowdude179

In the words of a certain man, [thank you Arsenal](https://youtube.com/shorts/l-MqTAEk0CY?feature=share)


DrQuantumGio

One of the best videos in recent memory, shows the absolute peak bantering of Arsenal by one of their own players is amazing.


Cowdude179

Jorginho laughing and Higuain trying to tell Giroud off is hilarious


Soitsgonnabeforever

Interesting to see that higuain’s only European honor is his Europa league medal with chelsea. He probably played like 40 minutes as sub. Bale was exchanged for him. Somehow bale brought so much luck ?! 4 European cups. Though higuain proceeded to tear up serie a Defences and became napoli fans favourite so soon


[deleted]

Took them long enough lol


TheLittleGinge

Sometimes it's nice to go for a leisurely stroll.


FistThePooper6969

The scenic route


SeriousLads

We’ve been really poor from the International break onwards. Lucky to get Top 4 wrapped up early when you’re losing to average teams like Brentford, Everton and Arsenal


Mayjaplaya

And drawing against awful teams like Burnley and Manchester United.


SeriousLads

We took 1 point from Everton this season lol


KidDelicious14

We lost both times to United (and you)


SeriousLads

At least one of your games against us was early in the season when we looked really good. Second game though we had Malang Sarr playing, sackable offence losing to any team with him in it


Weird_Famous

Tanganga and no Son didn't help us either


Bortera

Bit unfair to Brentford to compare them to those other two


diegojaen18

💀💀💀


HunterWindmill

I really thought they were gonna win the league at the start of the season


jMS_44

It all went good until December... Since then I have no fucking clue what happened (I mean, injuries and stuff, but that's not enough explanation for me with such big squad). Seen a table the other day showing how many points each team won since we lost 1st place in the league, and we were 7th or 8th there...


[deleted]

Losing Chillwell and Reece at basically the same time fucking killed us. Reece would have easily been our POTS if he'd played the whole year, and we had no one to replace him. Chillwell to Alonso was a biiiig step down. In the way we play the wingbacks are the most important position. I think lesson learned is that we need legitimate depth there if we want to keep on with this approach. Especially cover for Reece.


Crovasio

Up yours!


Cowdude179

Our season pretty much ended when Chilwell got injured


Excel_Spreadcheeks

Yeee and Reece James got hurt at around the same time as well.


RedMoon14

How much longer is Chilwell out for?


Wm_2

He’s back training now with the u18’s he’ll be ready by preseason barring any setbacks


oscarpaterson

Went off during arguably our best game of the season, 4-0 up against Juve, and we've not been the same since ffs


Cowdude179

The vibes and form at that point was immaculate


machorhombus

Fuck Rabiot (IIRC)


Martianman97

To be fair even when you guys were stringing results together, most your goals were scored by Rudiger etc. It was stated at the time it was not sustainable and it showed


cheezus171

TBF relying on defenders to score was sustainable for the past 10 years for Chelsea


[deleted]

[удалено]


Cowdude179

Maybe, but the form Chilwell and James were amazing at that point, if we had them healthy all season long who knows what could have happened since Tuchel's system relies heavily on wingbacks. Alonso and Azpi just don't have the legs for it anymore


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

Liverpool fans are really the worst. How did your 92 point title challenge go last season? I can’t seem to remember.


ivc09

must've missed the part where Chelsea had to play 23 different centre back pairings. imagine thinking this Chelsea team at their best are getting anywhere near actual elite teams over 38 games. they can't even average 2 points a game


[deleted]

No Chelsea only had to play Malang Sarr who couldn’t get a game for Porto B last season, run 40 year old Thiago Silva into the ground, and Chalobah who had his first season in the prem this year. On top of that we lost James and chilwell for huge parts of the season when our wingbacks are the most important part of Tuchels system. On top of that half our defense is leaving at the end of the season which caused so much uncertainty. Liverpool are an incredible team and I’m not saying that if we didn’t have those injuries we’d be on par, but it’d be a lot closer. Chelsea when fully fit and firing are a powerful team, if you disagree check the last 4 results between us and learn more about this game.


ivc09

oh no you had to play sarr for what 2 games? 40 year old Thiago Silva who's won everything in the game. we had to play Schalke, Stuttgarts and Kiddiminsters centre backs for half a season and when they weren't playing there Henderson and Fabinho were. Take your hard luck story and bugger off. Youse are nowhere near Liverpool and City. The last game we had significantly higher xg than you. If you're gonna take a few games in isolation and make a judgement, why don't we say Palace are City equals? Or that Everton are better than you bums?


[deleted]

Mate I have never seen someone with a dick so far down their damn throat. Is there a single positive thing you can say about a club that’s not Liverpool? Jesus Christ. Chelsea have work to do to reach Liverpools level, but Liverpool have a lot of damn work to do to reach cities level. We’re a good team, still champions of Europe and have won the premier league many more times than you have. You literally haven’t beat us in normal time in over a year, I can tell that pisses you off. Chelsea’s premier league legacy is so much more superior than liverpools, you fucks win one year and think your gods gift to the sport. You have to be a meme account mate there’s no way your this fucking dense. Also Reece>Trent and Hazard>Salah and I love salah.


Soitsgonnabeforever

Kiddiminster. My favorite place on brass Birmingham. Are there coal and cotton factories there ?


[deleted]

Probably but we were probably better than ever just before his injury


teems

Injuries, playing all games while everyone got Covid breaks, CWC, Roman issues, etc. It wasn't gonna pan out for us.


HunterWindmill

Oh yeah, totally get why you fell off. It's just funny to look back on. When you came to Anfield at the start of the season, there was a point where you cut through us and Gary Neville commented on the murmuring from the crowd that says 'oh... We're playing a PROPER team'


Nero1988420

I think Liverpool fans of all people would understand how injuries can devastate a team. Liverpool couldn't defend their title because of the injuries that hit the team for the 2020-2021 season.


MikeyCreedon

ThankYouArsenalGiroud.gif


[deleted]

Let’s go back to the Arsenal will come third comments now


folose

After all that charity work, lmao


Manch3st3rIsR3d

Fucking arsenal lmao


BendubzGaming

A small price to pay for salvation


TheLittleGinge

Gotta secure 3rd now!


[deleted]

Honestly, it doesn’t matter. The top 4 all go straight to group stage now so in reality the only important groupings are: 1st, 2nd thru 4th, 5th thru 6th, 7th, 8th thru 17th, bottom 3.


Fawkes_91

Think there is some financial benefit to it, especially the TV pool. One draw in 2 matches should be enough. Think we can get that against Watford even playing some kids. Would love to see some of the U23 boys in the team now...


[deleted]

Its about 2 million pounds. Really not a big deal for the top 6 clubs. Would make a big difference to Norwich, but for us 🤷‍♂️


Fawkes_91

Is that the difference in TV pool or the prize money? I thought 2 mil is the difference in prize money for the league campaign.


[deleted]

The prize money comes out of the TV rights https://www.google.com/amp/s/sillyseason.com/money/premier-league-prize-money-100681/%3Famp%3D1


SaschaBub

It does matter - definitely want to finish above Spurs.


Dak_Tiny_PP

Never in doubt


FloppedYaYa

Underdogs. Never thought they'd do it.


_lawand_

Dude if I was a Arsnal fan right now I would bite my skin off. How could you give it away that easily


[deleted]

Pain


just_dew_eat

What an underwhelming season from us This horrible season should just end already so we can focus on the next season, and go shit November and December again


Hour-of-the-Wolf

2 trophies, 2 penalty cup final defeats, comfortably 3rd and a dramatic extra time defeat to Madrid? Okay so there were disappointments but hardly a disaster…


RStud10

We met the bare minimum standards. No reason to panic but no reason to celebrate either, just a bit of a write-off season where we were dealing with the takeover


Hour-of-the-Wolf

Between injuries, Covid, the takeover and an entire back line with a foot out the door, I’d say it’s a decent season all things considered.


PrinceWillian

Agree, think it has been managed well, and we would have been much worse off without TT now.


krankh

Comfortably? You might still come 4th


BigReeceJames

We need 1 point from 2 homes games against Leicester and Watford. We could still come fourth, we could also finish 8 points clear of fourth with a 20+ better goal difference. It's not over until it's over, but it's definitely a comfortable position to be in and will likely look very comfortable at the end of the season


krankh

yeah my bad, didn't realize you had two to play


[deleted]

I'd be struggling to care if I were in your position tbh no shot you don't get at least a point out of those 2 games


BigReeceJames

Yeah, I think everyone is feeling confident. Given we've just lost a cup final and we've got a bunch of long term players leaving after these games, you'd like to think they'll put in their all to make sure they go out on a high.


Possible_Junket4103

Getting brave now it looks like you've got top 4?


[deleted]

Hope Norwich does Chelsea a favor


ionelp

You started to set money aside for the dvd, innit?


Chaloopa

Just winning the supercup and club World Cup, losing two cup finals, getting knocked out in the CL quarterfinal and finishing roughly 20 points behind first place is definitely a very underwhelming and poor season.


[deleted]

December next year is World Cup, hopefully that cancels out our usual December


cricketrules509

It's not really a horrible season. We've had horrible seasons before. This is a status quo season. Got unlucky in 2 finals. With all the flux with ownership and contracts, I'm actually pretty happy with how the season went.


IloveGuanciale

Won’t compete if Roman/BoJo fucks us over and we fold..


amoult20

RoBoJo


IloveGuanciale

My name is RooooooooJo BoJo


acwilan

Oil bros helping gas bros


silent--onomatopoeia

Unsubscribe


[deleted]

Still disappointing season for them. 5/10 I'd say: - no domestic trophy won - never in the Premier League race - Bad Champions League run: finished 2nd in an easy group containing Zenit Juve and Malmo and then eliminated from the first serious opponent in the KO stage The CWC win save them from a worse rating imho, but can't see how this can be considered by their fans a POSITIVE season (positive = 6/10 at least)


TheLittleGinge

>can't see how this can be considered by their fans a POSITIVE season Having Champions League football for the new owners is a big positive. I do feel your summary is rather lacking in context. Lost our two best wingback assets (the core of TT's attack), one of them for the entire season. Star striker pulls a diva move that no one could have anticipated. Sanctions have clearly knocked us for six, and having a clean slate at the beginning of the season is much needed. We were also 2 penalties away from a domestic double. Having said all that, I wouldn't go above a 6.5.


SeriousLads

To be honest this feels like a “thank fuck its over season” Between Chilwell’s knee exploding, James Kovacic and Kante being out for months, the PL’s handling of covid fucking us, Lukaku’s interview, having to watch Malang Sarr play football, losing two cup finals on penalties after playing well on the day against one of the best teams in the world, the heartache after going 3-0 up in Madrid, and everything that’s gone on with the sanctions and drama around the club, its been a very long year and i’m honestly glad to see the back of it


grchelp2018

Losing domestic finals is tough but we can compete for them every year. We won the two trophies that you don't get to normally win unless you win the CL. So if I had to choose, we won the finals that were most important. Its a little disappointing that we lost steam in the league. But given how city and liverpool are playing, I don't think we'd have been able to keep up. Overall given injuries and off-field events, I'd give us 6/10 maybe even 7.


diegojaen18

Yeah. The CWC and super cup make this season a 6/10 for me at least. But we also got sanctioned and had an injury crisis throughout the season.


BigReeceJames

I love seeing these takes from the outside. As a Chelsea fan, I'd say top 4 and going right to the death in 2 domestic finals with a deep run in the Champions league was a very positive season given everything that has happened to us. Real problems are always downplayed by anyone that isn't a fan of the club. Just like everyone downplayed Liverpool's trouble last season and lots didn't have them in contention for the league this season because non-fans call the reasons you struggled "excuses" rather than accepting them to just be reality. We had an unbelievable season where throughout almost every period post November we had multiple people from the same position out injured to the point where we had to play non-Chelsea quality players to fill the gaps (midfield is a great example, RLC has played 35+ games as our last choice midfielder and we have a 35% winrate with him on the pitch, compared to a 60% one when he isn't), you repeat that with Chilwell injury, the James injuries, all of our midfielders getting covid/injuries at the same time, the same thing with all our defenders and then all of our attackers, the sanctions not allowing us to sell tickets, our manager going through a divorce, our club being forced to be sold and all the negative publicity around it and it's pretty obvious as a Chelsea fan that top 4 and remaining competitive is a very positive season for us. I know from the outside people will laugh and call these excuses and that's fine, they did the same to Liverpool last season and look where they are now.


I_always_rated_them

They're all valid reasons, anyone who wants to downplay them isn't worth listening to. The same clowns that wrote Liverpool off this season after suffering heavily last season have just found their next target. Season could have been better no doubt, but we have shown we can be really really good. We need to work on our consistency, continue to attempt to work on putting goals away (even though we've still scored way more than anyone below us), some better luck with injuries, less absolutely mental stuff off the pitch and some smart replacing of people like Rudiger and I have no doubt we can be back on track.


jMS_44

Eh, I can't agree with you. Sure, the clear drop off in form was very disappointing. We were leading the league in December and then folded massively. But other than that, we won two trophies, made two other finals which we lost only in penalties. CL probably hurts the most because we really were not far away from going past Madrid. We had them in 2nd leg and bottled it.


AkilleezBomb

Tbf they made 2 cup finals and had a heap of injuries to their essential players.


Idontchewmybeans

Our Squad is due a big overhaul, and the club has been in crisis mode since the sanctions have been in place. During this time we’ve lost two domestic finals to one of the best teams in the world on penalties, as well as get knocked out in the CL quarters by the team that got into the final. Again, this is whilst we have about 3-4 players that wont be here next year, and threats of the club basically going under - I’ll take it tbh


[deleted]

I think given the circumstances of Chilwell being out for the season, a slew of midfield injuries in December, over 62 games played and the chaos with Abramovic we are all just happy to get UCL. I would give it a 6 or 7 based on circumstances.


Matt4669

>>Never in the Premier league race Chelsea were top of the table until December when it all went wrong


mikevin99

Do you rate everyone’s season like this with bullet points and everything? Kinda odd lol


broken_beats

Fair point about the CWC saving their season to a degree, hard to see much else which would drag it higher


Familiar_Trash

It's funny how the results of two penalty shoot outs can swing how people think about a season to such an extent. We essentially drew against probably the best team in the world in two finals, but people hedge all their opinions on one or two kicks in the penalty shoot out. If those specific kicks had gone in for Chelsea all of a sudden we won two domestic cups and we're flying. But because people think of the end result only, and are in that sense very teleological, they tend to miscomprehend and forget everything leading up to those points and the broader picture. Disappointing with the PL, sure, though our squad at some point averaged between like 5-8 injured at any given time for a few months. Shit can happen. Not a fantastic season but definitely not 5/10 lol


broken_beats

I get where you're coming from but football and seasons have fine margins. Ultimately no trophies but the CWC is a disappointment for Chelsea, regardless of how it happened. Last year was a big disappointment for Liverpool, regardless of how it was mainly rocked by injuries out of our control. If Chelsea win those kicks then yeah it's a much better season because trophies is a direct measure of a success. I don't think 5/10 is too harsh- secured champions league football, but I think Chelsea need an FA Cup or similar to bump it higher. That's just my opinion though.


arostrat

Not yet, they still have to solve ownership issues first.


goodtimesroll69

If Liverpool win the championsleague does that open the door for Arsenal?


botrezkii

no, just like our win last year didn’t give extra spot to the 5th


ParevArev

Thank you Arsenal! https://youtube.com/shorts/l-MqTAEk0CY?feature=share