General Premier League Thread 2023-24 Mod Note in op 27/6/23 And 21/05/24

I think the thing that Todd (or whoever he has in charge) really underestimated is just how hard it is to identify who is going to go from highly rated young player to superstar.

Think about all the players over the years who were hyped up to be the next Ronaldo, the next Zidane, the next Henry so on. And then think about where the vast majority of those players ended up.

They tried to pick up as many of the highly rate players in the age bracket as they could but that's was always gonna lump them with some duds statically.

Then you look at some of the players signed and you'd have to question how much info they actually had on them before moving on them.

Delighted to see a club like Chelsea get it so wrong I have to say.

Arsenal are a fantastic team and I don't think Arteta gets enough credit for what he's done at the club. Weren't they something like 8th in the league when he took over? He's transformed the squad, got them playing excellent football, is challenging City in the title race for the 2nd year in a row. But you never really hear Arteta being talked about as one of the top managers in the league. Arsenal's faith in him after some difficult early seasons is certainly paying off now.

If he wins a league I think he could be compared to a Klopp needs to do a lot more to be compared to Pep though

Jackson's getting a lot of stick but I thought he was one of Chelsea's bright spots yesterday, yes the finishing leaves a lot to be desired but his all around play, especially in the 1st half, was pretty good.

Before Chelsea conceded the 2nd and the heads dropped, he was running the channels, holding the ball up and bringing others into play well.

His goalscoring has been erratic but I would be encouraged by the sheer amount of chances he gets. Similar to Nunez.

He looks a better prospect for me than Hojlund who is a similar age and was bought for more than twice as much.

I don't think titles or cups are the sole basis of a managers ability considering it's a team game with a lot of staff in the background. However, a big competition win would immediately place him on Klopp level but as regard to Pep, he can't really be compared with anyone given the unlimited funds at his disposal. While maybe not as charismatic and frank as Klopp, Arteta is quite likeable and has a good image which always helps in this.

Raya, White, Gabriel, Saliba, Kiwior, Rice, Odegaard, Havertz, Saka, Trossard, Martinelli have all been available for over 90% of PL games this season. That's extremely close to first choice 11. Some of those players are 100%.

Zinchenko, Jorginho, and a few more are all above 82% too. Jesus is 76% and he is one of the players cited as unavailable a lot.

It's actually really similar to Klopp in terms of building the team from where it was. Spent good money but spent it on players in the first XI and supplemented with youth. Moneyball-esqe signings such as Odegaard and Zinchenko.

He's got them in a great position now to win the league and I think he might just do it.

Might come across as biased but if you were to swap Højlund in for Jackson, Højlund would put more in the net. Jackson just doesn't look a striker in any way and he gets a lot more service in front of goal than Højlund at utd.

Hojlund seems very static to me. Now maybe that's because he knows Rashford, Garnacho, Antony etc aren't very likely to pass to him so he tries to stay around the centre of the box to pounce on loose balls from the keeper/defenders but Jackson seems more involved in the actual game.

Is there any logic to it being the way that Arsenal play that has helped them stay injury free? A few of these players will have done less mileage than Arteta on the side-line. I have always thought that the Liverpool approach was a real high-octane hell-for-leather approach that's only going to encourage or exacerbate injuries. I saw Odegaard last night and his work seemed effortless, and never forced. I know Saliba got injured last season, but I cannot recall what happened. Also, Arsenal were in a false position for a lot of the season because they hadn't faced Man City until February. The double losses there (consecutive losses 11&12 to City) were very costly. There has been a 9 point swing in the results between these sides this season from last. I think Arsenal should win all their remaining games and it might, just might, be enough.

While Arsenal have definitely been luckier than some clubs this year, I think a bit of revisionism is going on.

At the start of this year Partey, Jesus, Timber and maybe even Tomiyasu were all considered 1st choice.

Only Partey's 5th league start of the year yesterday, Timber only has 1, Jesus has missed a good few games and Tomiyasu's 1st league start since Dec 2nd was yesterday too (he had started 6 games in a row before he went down and seemed to be winning the battle over Ben White).

Possibly, but Arsenal have only won 1 domestic cup game in the last 2 seasons. There's actually a bad record in cups overall in the last 4 seasons, so there is an easier schedule there especially in January time.

Arsenal played 3 games in January this season. Liverpool played 7. Instead, Arsenal went to Dubai for a mid-season break and came back refreshed and played like a new team. They had 1 win in 5 in the league before the break. They won 8 in a row after it.

Scheduling plays a part. Not as many games moved to midweeks and having to play league games on the European breaks etc. Arsenal benefitted there. Lose the cups early, win in the league instead.