Maybe we don’t have to reach for five reasons Arsenal will not win the title when there is only one. And Man City don’t sign duds.
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Succinct
Harry Kane is f***ing brilliant.
That is all.
Toby Hudson
The real reason Arsenal won’t win the Premier League
I don’t read Dave Tickner’s banterific offerings anymore but his headline on reasons why Arsenal won’t win the league really boils down to one point – Man City will get more points than them. That’s it. Of the three teams in the race they are the only team where it’s not in their hands, but that could change.
City’s next two league games are Liverpool and Arsenal. Here’s how it goes:
Liverpool win, Arsenal win. Maybe Arsenal’s best hope. Liverpool can’t keep getting drop balls in their own area so fancy us to drop points. Everton away is usually worth one point only, OT twice plus a European adventure. An unbeaten league run seems fantastical. City focus on the Champions League.
Liverpool win, Arsenal lose. Arsenal out of it? Would there be enough games to make up a five-point deficit?
Liverpool lose. Arsenal win. Liverpool out of it. Can Arsenal go all the way? Shit, they’ve accidentally beaten Porto and they have to play a midweek game.
Liverpool lose, Arsenal lose. City Champions. No one thought anything else would happen. Ennui sets in. We realise that we can drink at the non-league football and can walk home. This is better isn’t it? Real football. What it’s all about. Let the school kids have the Premier League on their TwitTwok. Ooh is that a Coldplay reissue on yellow vinyl? I should get crocs to match. Why are there Girona shirts at the supermarket? Oh F365 is now a sub-reddit.
Alex, South London
What if Arsenal went out of Europe though?
So given Arsenal seem to be scoring five goals minimum per game, and are pretty much consistent title challengers now along with City & Liverpool who have two fantastic managers, you only have to give credit to Arteta, and he’s gotten more points than the season he has managed before, so it’s improving a lot for Arsenal and people forget how young their team is too.
Saliba, Martinelli and Saka are all 22 years old (Crazy when you think about it), Odegaard & Rice are 25, Havertz is 24, its a team which hasn’t reached its peak. The only player you could argue has peaked is Rice, but I think everyone else will improve in that team.
Now the question is, would Arsenal crashing out of Europe benefit or hinger their title challenge? Yes they obviously want to stay in the UCL as long as possible, but surely they have a much better chance in winning the title? Perhaps it won’t make too much a difference given City’s squad is just crazy good, they won the Treble last year so will City being in Europe until the final affect their domestic title challenge?
Highly doubt it, and given City players fitness levels are so good, their key players just don’t seem to get injured. KDB is the only exception but partly because he’s one of the oldest in the team and been around in Pep’s team for 7-8 years.
I personally think Liverpool will win it though, the luck and know how just seems to be on their side, and truth be told Klopp deserves another title. He has similarities to Ferguson, but Arteta will win a title eventually I think, but would say he needs to win it by 2026, 22 years without a title is too big amount of a time for a club like Arsenal. But how great is it that there is a 3 horse title race, question is who is going to drop out of it first?
Oh, and a quick one on United, realise the bench was terrible against City so maybe Ten Hag didn’t have too much choice, but taking off Evans for someone who has never played for the club in a Manchester Derby was f**king dumb either way. I saw a stat and only 3 players this season have avoided an injury (Fernandes, Dalot & Garnacho).
Is that really normal? Does this show the professionalism of the squad is just so poor they can’t even improve their own fitness levels to match the coaching from Ten Haag and his staff? I think it’s a bit of both from what it seems, crap style of coaching and just some players being comfy given they know they will play either way. I mean when Steve McClaren is still part of your backroom staff, it’s safe to assume there is some clown like behavior in the squad with some players not taking the coaches seriously at all.
Rami, Dubai
READ: Man Utd cannot sleep on biggest manager appointment since 2013 in hardest summer
A tiresome Top Gear analogy
Let’s say it’s a Sunday night in 2009, and the three leading Premier League teams of today are each represented by a shabby second-hand performance car.
The producer of Top Gear has instructed the “classic trio” to buy one each and race them from, I don’t know, Bilbao to Timbuktu in order to prove something pointless. Like, say, who’s going to win the Premier League in 15 years’ time.
Clarkson goes for the Arsenal equivalent. Obvious flaws, obvious power-related advantages. If they win, the narrative will be about performance, excitement, self-confidence, and a return to the romance of days gone by. If they don’t, the jokes will write themselves. Fans scream at them, sometimes in support and sometimes in anger, and they scream back.
May goes with Liverpool. Built on solid foundations, but often strangely under the radar. Capable of the strongest performances of any of them, but right now quite delicate and need to be handled carefully, with slow but steady performances being acceptable. Winning would be seen in terms of old-school traditions and as a way to honour a cult legend.
Hammond is Man City. The straightforward, performance-related choice. Proven reliable a thousand times over the years. On paper they can and will demolish you; they’re strong and there’s no need to think too hard about why. A safe bet. But if something breaks, anything could happen, and the other two are out to prove that the obvious choice doesn’t always win.
Who are you going for?
Jack (And do you think Hiddink can save Chelsea’s season, and has Benitez really been “rattled”?), Llanelli
Man City don’t sign duds
Is this Lewis’ first season watching football?? All City signings look poor in their first season, bar Haaland, who is the exception which proves the rule.
Every player Pep signs needs to be reprogrammed. That generally takes a year to get the correct OS as the rest of the team. They don’t sign duds.
Weldoninhio, BAC
Ch-ch-changes
Seeing as everyone else writes in on City, I thought I’d break a habit on my writing in about other clubs. Dave from Manchester thinks that it seems increasingly unlikely that INEOS will persist with Ten Hag, well, considering that Liverpool, Barcelona and Bayern Munich will ALSO be looking for managers (having already started their processes, I would have thought) who the hell is going to rock up at United?
AND considering the inevitably underwhelming nature of the appointment, just how long will it be before he’s under pressure? This is all subjective of course but I get the distinct feeling that Ratty will be seduced by the ‘glamour’ of the likes of Zidane who, I suspect, is actually not ‘all that’.
My mum could have won what they did with that team if she decided to rip her gaze away from the telly and The Real Housewives of Cheshire and go and manage Real Madrid, instead. It’s entirely possible that, in that scenario (not the one involving my mum, the other one), Ten Hag stays.
Elsewhere, as I’m at work, I’ll have to keep this short.
Tom, look again, your letter says far more about you than it does about City and to Paul McDevitt, for me, City’s transfer business was well crafted because Pep is, yet again, in the process of changing how City play and ball carriers are now the way forward (see what I did there..? Never mind). Gvardiol is a glorious player and at only 21 years old, he’s the future of the City defence. His tackling and passing is right on the money, just need to polish his positional play so he doesn’t get caught out, as he’s not the fastest of players…
We can already see the improvement of Kovacic and Nunes, since the start of the season, both gaining in confidence and whereas I’d have been somewhat irritated if either had been in the team (what IS that AI generated drone thinking of, playing them?), I’m not of that opinion now. In fact, I can see Nunes being moulded into another wide player as that lad can really hold the ball whilst running.
Doku? Needs to learn how to make that final ball because he’s not cutting the mustard, atm. For me, I’d rather have Grealish there, any day of the week. Still, Doku is still only 21 himself, he’s got the time. We miss Gundogan, though, I’ll give you that, I mean, who wouldn’t?
Even City aren’t completely infallible.
Happy Mothers Day
Levenshulme Blue, Manchester 19
…Some interesting counting from Adidasmufc in the mailbox. Not sure how you can claim ETH “had only ONE of HIS signings on the field” when there are three right there on the pitch – Onana, Evans & Casemiro. And he decided to leave another three of his signings on the bench – Antony, Eriksen and *Bayındır – plus the loaned in Amrabat.
Maybe you are claiming that these ETH signings were forced upon him. Even if that is the case, Antony was very much an ETH signing and he didn’t start him, so hardly works as a defence either way.
Maybe ETH just isn’t very good with any type of signings?
Andy D. Manchester. MCFC (*i know you can’t play two keepers at the same time, unless you are Stuart Pearce)
What do people want in a commentator?
With last week’s critiques of Peter Drury and Jon Champion in mind, here’s a question for the Mailbox: what do you look for in a lead football commentator?
Champion and Drury are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Champion is relaxed and restrained, while Drury is intense and flamboyant. I happen to like them both quite a bit, although Drury is best in smaller doses.
The comment by Steve (Los Angeles) that Champion is elitist is interesting. I wonder if British and American fans see commentators differently. On this side of the pond we’re used to enthusiastic, down-to-earth commentary, and maybe Champion’s very English wry-and-dry style doesn’t necessarily suit American audiences.
In any case, what do you look for in a lead commentator, and who are your likes/dislikes?
Peter G, Pennsylvania, USA (Stephen Warnock is an outstanding co-commentator)
