General Premier League Thread 2022-23 - mod note in OP 12/03/23

bucketybuck

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120622495#Comment_120622495

Because when the pressure was on they lost against teams they should always be beating.

You can either handle the pressure or you can't. People don't shout "Bottle" because the cheats beat them to the title, they shout it because when the pressure was on Arsenal started dropping points to teams they always should be beating.

Sand

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120622503#Comment_120622503

Champions have always lost against teams they should always be beating. That's what makes it a contest. Arsenal's "bottlers" has 81 points. They could finish on 84. That would have them equal United in 93, finish ahead of United in 96 and 97, beat Arsenal in 98, beat treble winners United in 99, beat United again in 2001, 2003 and 2011, LCFC in 2016. They've outperformed teams that have won PL titles. But Abu Dhabi's City has redefined how good you need to be to win a PL title. You have to finish ahead of them. And that takes 90+ points.

I get it, its fun to mock Arsenal fans. But lets not lose sight of the bigger picture. All PL clubs are locked into a cage fight with Abu Dhabi City.

bucketybuck

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120622575#Comment_120622575

Nobody gives a single **** about what the points total is. It doesn't matter and has never mattered. People talk about the points totals of Fergies teams and neglect to mention that he didn't even try to win every game or maximise points totals, it was his publicly stated, recorded and planned intention to just be in touching distance of the title when squeaky bum time came around.

Thats why Arsenal are bottlers. They were in touching distance and couldn't do it. Doesn't matter if it was 70 points, 80 points or 120 points. they had it in their hands at the bitter end and couldn't close it out.

I don't blame them. City are cheating **** and Cheque book Pep will get little respect from me, his cheating has made it almost impossible for others to compete.

But if a sprinter is ahead of the doping cheat in the last ten meters and then trips over his own shoelaces I reserve the right to think that he left the race behind him, no matter how juiced up the guy chasing him was.

L'prof

Arsenal never had a chance but they bottled it? Seriously??? United finished 6th, spent almost £250m to get up to 4th and have somehow overachieved???

This thread should be locked away until next season gets up and running. People have seriously lost it

mobydopy

Gary Neville’s prediction that City will win the league by 10 points is looking pretty spot on

DellyBelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120622921#Comment_120622921

They have the best players/squad and should be winning it by 10 points every season...also helps they have the best Manager by miles in charge to knit those players into a great team

pjohnson

Awoniyi timed his purple patch to absolute perfection to secure Forest another year!

nullzero

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120622017#Comment_120622017

They may as well hand the next two titles to City as well at this rate.

"This season on Sky Sports, the battle for second place".

Drumpot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120622612#Comment_120622612

Arsenal had 75 points after 30 games which is a remarkable points tally. Whatever about winning the league, 90 points was quite doable.

And you are right that champions can take foot off the pedals, particularly if they are far ahead. There was one season United had the league pretty much wrapped up by end of March and switched off for remainder. The points tally is a load of meaningless nonsense. I couldn’t even tell you the season United had their highest points cause it doesn’t matter.

In Arsenals last 8 league games, when they have had no other competitions draining their players, they have

P 8

W 2

D 3

L 3

Up to this point they had only dropped points in 6 games all season. So they dropped 13 points in 8 games after dropping the exact same amount for 29 league games before that.

That’s nothing to do with what City are or are not doing. Yes city cheat and are getting massive points tallies. That’s making it harder to win the league, but it doesn’t explain why arsenals form went off a cliff at the most important part of the season. And it’s not like they were dropping all the points against teams in amazing form either.

Im disappointed with Arsenal, not gloating , I wanted them to win the league. But a spade is a spade, they totally fell to pieces as the pressure and expectations rose. Any other part of the season and they’d of wiped the floor with most of the teams they dropped points to but that’s part of what separates champions from champions elect.

Squeaky bum time of season is not for the faint hearted.

SteM

Went from 6th to 4th after spending ~€235m. Hardly ground breaking stuff.

United finished 6th, spent almost £250m to get up to 4th and have somehow overachieved???

It's almost like people are making up numbers to support their argument.

Drumpot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120623174#Comment_120623174

I don’t care what people think of United or ETH and I don’t care that he’s not in some nomination list. But there has been some serious sh*te he’s had to deal with at United, not least the club being sold (contract extensions stalling , bringing in players, plans for next season) and Ronaldo being replaced by Weghorst.

But he’s done well working at a club owned by the cast of police academy. What good is spending a billion, if it’s wasted on the wrong players for the wrong reasons with the wrong people making decisions on who to sign that end up being the opposite of what a manger needs and a mish mash disjointed squad.

Newcastle and city, for the horrible , abominations they are, have spent well because their owners have a vision and a plan.

United have been run by a chancer, Woodward , who ran it on soundbites, but even said at one stage “on field success does not affect our profits” or something to that affect. The owners don’t know what they are doing, it was only SAF that saved the club from disaster as I can only imagine what would have happened had he retired after their leveraged buy out. The club would of collapsed under their incompetency.

In any sport, if you go into battle against an organised foe, who is desperate to win and you are like “well it doesn’t really matter if I lose” you have already lost. That’s what a lot of non United fans don’t get. The headline spending has been undermined by a mismanaged, disjointed, visionless and unmotivated administration who suffered no loss for Uniteds failings.

No amount of spending can make up for that. Doesn’t mean anybody should feel sympathy for United or any manager at the club, but every manager United has had, has had work within a dysfunctional system that made their jobs much harder then they should of been.

The glazers have broken the mould, United has been a unique outlier, proving that you can spend a fortune and still win nothing. United haven’t just not won a league or champions league in that time (which they probably should have given money spent) but they haven’t even seriously properly challanged at all.

The abject failure of the club to win little in 11 years, with the spending they have done looks actually harder to achieve. I think if they threw in a random , a proper barstool manager fan, they couldn’t have wasted Uniteds budget , picked the wrong managers and failed to make any infrastructure changes to improve things , much worse then Woodward/glazers did.

theoneeyedman

What's the chances of City's success ultimately being their downfall in the champions league. We've seen lots of examples of teams in uncompetitive domestic Leagues being unable to get it on for big one off games, for example Juventus, Bayern, even Man U back in the day, and one could argue Leinster yesterday. Teams get used to winning easy, don't see or react to weaknesses, and are found out on the big day.

Inter are probably not strong enough to expose City, nonetheless....

Drumpot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120623260#Comment_120623260

I was making a similar point on the United forum that it would probably benefit United (going into fa cup final) more having to win their final league game to clinch top 4.

I think there can be definitely something to that but I fear that inters lack of experience in getting to finals sort of cancels that out. The pressure of the treble may make city a bit shaky but Inter aren’t even Italys strongest team so it does feel like we are all clutching at straws here.

Somebody made a really good point that this has been the perfect season for city with a World Cup in the middle of the season. It’s perfect for a team with a big , strong squad who can rotate without loss. The lack of injuries in city squad tells that story.

So id be betting on cheat code city finally getting their rewards for getting around the rules.

If you want a laugh , have a read of some of the comments on below piece “can anyone stop Pep Guardiolas premier league winners”.

The top rated comment is:

“When someone finally sanctions them properly for cheating. Everyone knows it.”

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/65651173

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120623174#Comment_120623174

Did they go from 6th to 4th or did Chelsea and Liverpool just go to sht.

It's great to believe in the feel good stories like Brighton and Villa but the truth is the quality of this seasons EPL has been brutal.

Drumpot

Some Interesting permutations for European spots.

Liverpool , Brighton and Villa are the probable Europa League qualifiers (as FA cup final European spot, along with league cup final , makes 3 spots for Europa in league). If West Ham win Europa conference, that’s 4 teams in Europa next season.

If spurs match Brentford’s result they end up in the Europa conference. Sacking conte worked out well. From challanging to top 4 to that in a few weeks, Ouch…

SlickRic

The reality is thar until Pep leaves, there is very little hope for anyone.

You can't have a genius coach financial dopers, who've created a perfect environment because of that doping and expect anything else.

Arsenal were perfect for half a season essentially - couldn't do it.

Liverpool were perfect for 2 seasons - got a title.

The transfer window is about Liverpool, Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal and Newcastle and how they can get top 4. Anything else from any of them is an unexpected bonus.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120623387#Comment_120623387

Conte made his own position untenable in fairness.

Drumpot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120623407#Comment_120623407

He did, but even at that they were still in top 4 contention when he was manager!

theoneeyedman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120623414#Comment_120623414

That team are not among the 4 best four teams in the league.

IncognitoMan

There seems to be a lot more noise (at least on social media) this time about City.

Suppose it is the very likely reality that they will win the Treble and the fact they have 5 from 6 in the league, but people seem to be getting sick of watching them clean up when everyone knows the dirty little secret.

Which is positive - the more noise the harder it is for the PL to ignore.

We are at a stage where there are only 2 outcomes for the PL now imo -

1 - They correctly punish City and re-establish some kind of sporting integrity back into the league

2 - They concede they are powerless to stop billionaires doing what they want with the clubs. Their financial rules mean nothing.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120623422#Comment_120623422

Nothing will happen. Punishing City would mean admitting the Premier League is not squeaky clean.

When there is tis much money involved I tend to believe that the most corrupt leagues are the ones with the least scandals.

nullzero

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120623422#Comment_120623422

Ultimately it will come down to fans protesting against the regime at City for anything to happen.

The Premier League as a product is being devalued by City but it will only hit home properly when fans protest against it, similarly to how people revolted against the Super League, which I would imagine is the intention of City's owners, devalue the Premier League to the point where they can really push the Super League idea again.

Drumpot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120623418#Comment_120623418

I agree and yet a failing conte still had them up there!!!

Mr.Crinklewood

Celebrations are in full flow..

https://streamable.com/z74bhi

https://twitter.com/FBAwayDays/status/1660040997718355970/mediaViewer?currentTweet=1660040997718355970&currentTweetUser=FBAwayDays

Drumpot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120623442#Comment_120623442

Exactly and now United may be owned by quatar, the football authorities have destroyed any chance the league had of remaining a legitimate competition independent of corruption.

In many regards we a more be more angry with the FA , fifa , uefa and the premier league , then the individual clubs.

nullzero

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120623498#Comment_120623498

The extra 7000 seats they're looking to add will be full in no time.

giveitholly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120623498#Comment_120623498

They have more charges against them than fans

POKERKING

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120623552#Comment_120623552

Games been sold out for months. Usually one of the first to sell out(last home game of the season). Its been really difficult to get home city league tickets this season.

TitianGerm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120623572#Comment_120623572

You wouldn't think it was sold out looking at the TV coverage. Given the way City operate I wouldn't be surprised if the owner is buying all the unsold tickets so they can claim the game always a sellout 😂

nullzero

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120623572#Comment_120623572

A completely unjustified reputation then?

I do suppose it's hard for City fans to get too excited about winning the league these days mind, the dispair of four decades of being a yo yo club was all washed away some time ago and not contemplated all that much now that the title is essentially guaranteed every season bar an anomalous campaign from the odd pretender here and there.