This Arsenal squad could win Premier League title…

This Arsenal squad could win Premier League title…

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Arsenal’s squad could win title
Frankie says ‘Fans who claim that the grass isn’t greener etc can seriously go and do one because I’m talking for a lot of Arsenal fans here when I say I would take 7th place for a few years if we change manager and put some fresh ideas into the team and build towards something new.’

I’m a fan who has also had enough of the never-ending repetitiveness that is Wenger’s Arsenal. But my question to Frankie is why would a new manager need time away from the top six? I think the post-Ferguson years at United have scared Arsenal fans into thinking that what must follow must be even worse for things to then get better, but that really isn’t the case.

The crucial difference between United 13 and Arsenal 17 are the quality of the squads. Ours is better, though admittedly Sanchez is already playing like a bloke who knows he’ll be off very soon. Even still, without him and with a couple of other additions to the squad, we should be in a position to challenge again next year.

So whoever walked in wouldn’t have to worry about a couple of years outside of the top spots in my opinion. The squad should be capable already, although the mental toughness of some of them would need to be worked on!

What I’m saying is, a new manager can imprint his fresh ideas straight away without sacrificing success. It may not always work, but it’s not a given that we have to spend time away from the top of the table in order for things to be achieved. At Chelsea, Conte is proving just how quick an impact you can have at a club. In fact, should he win the league, that will be two years on the trot where a manager has won the title in his first season with a club.

We shouldn’t be scared of the future. In fact, I’d likely be more excited for a new season under a new manager because at least it might not be quite as predictable.
Joe, AFC, East Sussex

All we’re missing is a title race
It’s been with great interest and entertainment that I’ve watched the reactions to results over the last couple of months. In particular with the big six. With the clear exception of Chelsea, it seems each week someone new is in crisis and someone has entered a new dawn; only for the music to stop, new children to clamber astride the fading horses and the whole Merry-go-Round to start all over again.

A few weeks a go Tottenham were crashing out of the Champions League and it was ‘Fraudiola’ and his ageing, soulless City side who were ready to implode while Arsenal and Liverpool sat pretty just a few points off top. A few short matches later and, if this morning’s Mailbox is anything to go by, Klopp is the real fraud, Wenger needs to find residence on a new planet and the respective teams might as well reschedule Thursday evenings Charades nights next season because it’ll be cold and blustery trips to Donetsk instead. Meanwhile Spurs are second and Guardiola’s new band of exciting youngsters are up to third. Oh and then there’s the Man Utd unbeaten sixth place thing.

Week in and week out, new crisis and new salvation. Any of these teams could do anything any given week and the implications reverberate around the frantic and panicked support as performances are dissected and immediate answers try to be found. It’s almost like this is what happens when you put six good managers in charge of six good teams, give them all high expectations and then try to cram them into four Champions League places. Unless I’m mistaken, 4 ÷ 6 makes 0.66 and that’s essentially what we have, six 0.66 teams all trying to be a complete whole (how’s that for Scouse maths). Now even Everton seem to be throwing their hat in the ring (what’s 4 ÷ 7?)

Oh, and it’s absolutely brilliant! As a neutral I was a naysayer at the start of this season. Too much money, the soul is gone etc etc, but like any drug worth its weight in gold the PL has sucked me back in with its ridiculous but irresistible drama. And it’s not just at the top. It seems all the relegation candidates have had a collective “Oh Shit!” moment and decided to trigger their great escapes about eight weeks too early (except Big Sam and Palace of course but that just makes it more entertaining). Throw last season’s Champions into that mix and it’s just great stuff all round.

Now if only Chelsea would collapse and give us a proper title race.
Owen (sorry to all the fans of these clubs who actually have to deal with the weekly stress…who am I kidding, I’m not sorry at all) Davidson

Jose is right
Having watched in recent weeks…

Mikhitarian score when a yard offside and have it stand (scorpion)
Ibra score when a yard offside and have it stand (against West Ham)
Rojo lunge in two footed and get away with it
Rojo lunge in two footed and get away with it
Yesterday, Mata lunge in two footed and get away with it

and given that everyone else isn’t allowed to score when a yard offside and we have seen Xhaka and Hendricks get reds for similar two-footers…

Then I can only agree with Joe when he says that the same rules don’t apply to him.

I just can’t understand why he is complaining about it. If this ‘Jose alternative rulebook” is applied for here on out, I fully expect United to come second this season and walk the league by 10 points next year.
Johnno

No red for Mata and…
– I said Leicester were in trouble, doubt I am the only one. Whilst you must feel for Claudio Ranieri, surely you don’t feel bad for Jamie Vardy?

– Not a red card for Mata. Yes, a bad tackle, yes not totally in control, but not dangerous to the opponent. Plus, it’s Juan Mata, he’s not that sort of player.

– That goal from Man U’s #22 (I can’t spell his surname). Great pace, but the defending was terrible. If Huth had done that for my Saturday morning team he’d be buying all the pints in the pub afterwards, terrible.

– What’s up with Jose and Martial? Seems a shame. I think Rashford is just regressing to the mean a little bit, but he should learn a lot this season working day in, day out with Zlatan, who is a true pro. For Martial, after the whole AM9/AM11 nonsense he just seems to have his head in the wrong place. Maybe his divorce (he’s still dead young) is an issue – I hope he gets the personal support so he can achieve his potential in his career. I do think he needs to be more decisive, I don’t think he could fit in at Everton, for example, he needs to be number 1, and wouldn’t fit in if behind a Lukaku and Barkley in terms of team importance.

– My mate had a fiver on Leicester to go down at the start of the season. Was only 16-1. WE should have known!

– Jesus saves… Good goals, but I think City missed a trick not introducing Aguero earlier. Swansea defended really well, and both of Jesus’ goals were from second balls in the box, they needed to be more direct. Aguero does that like Costa, he occupies players and space in the box. Jesus doesn’t do that yet.

– Similarly, City took too many touches when in good positions, chief amongst them Silva when clean through and dawdled on the ball. Need to be quicker. So many blocked shots from Swansea would back this up.

– Swansea looked so well drilled. For all the stick G Nev gets, maybe you need to fail to learn. Paul Clement looks like he has learnt from Derby and is now drilling his players in how to position themselves as a starter for ten, and then building from that. Very impressive. Just like Marco Silva. Are they the future v Big Sam and Pards etc…

– I love the guy, you thought he was French. It always shocks me when Clement starts speaking with his Southern accent, too.
Matt, EFC, London

Leicester: Offensively second best…
..this is the phrase I found crossing my mind more than once whilst watching Leicester’s performance on Sunday.

That’s right: OFFENSIVELY bad.

Like…degrading the competition through a shameful lack of effort and fight, sort of bad.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d love Man Utd to win by a three-goal margin every week (ahhh, one can dream), but against this level of performance it almost feels illegitimate. Can a fall from grace so startling be blamed on the departure of just one player (N’Golo Kante)? From the comfort of 354th place last season, I cheered on Leicester’s improbable triumph as much as any fair-minded opponent can do. However, it seems that a lot of the players who demonstrated great tenacity in closing out that championship have lost any semblence of appetite now that the romance is over. What are the football odds on them going down?
Richard MUFC – Long time reader, first time contributer etc etc

Man United on the march
Yes, ManUtd are still sixth in the league. However, a comparison of the league table from 2 months back makes interesting reading.

Following is the points gap between United and other teams:

On 4th December, 2016
Chelsea:13
Arsenal:10
Liverpool:9
Man City:9
Spurs:6

On 5th February, 2017
Chelsea: 14
Spurs: 5
Man City:4
Arsenal: 2
Liverpool: 1

We’ve made up huge ground of all teams except Chelsea. However, if not for all the frustrating draws, it could have been so much better. Frustrating but encouraging at the same time !!

Onwards and upwards. GGMU !!
Pranav

Keg Baridi’s weekend thoughts
Seeing Liverfool lose 2-0 to Hull City warmed my cockles, and I’m embarrassed to admit that I did wet myself because of excitement.

Man City scoring a late winner was an annoyance we didn’t want heading into the Leicester match. However, I’m glad that for once my gloating over our rivals’ struggles didn’t come back to bite me in the a$$ as we won 3-0.

I do feel for Leicester and it would be a bloody shame if they were relegated a season after winning the Holy Grail. But it would be damn funny to see Jamie Vardy dropped to his level.

When John Terry says that former players don’t need to finish their coaching badges, it shows you the culture of entitlement that is pervasive in the PFM world. In fact, ordinary folk who’ve never been in football and have completed these courses ought to be given more opportunities because it is well proven that being a good player doesn’t translate into a good manager. Or football boss as ably demonstrated by Marco van Basten saying the offside rule should be scrapped.

Finally, can the FA do us all a favor and hand over the EPL Title to Chelsea. It’s getting increasingly frustrating to watch their slow and steady march to the title. Frankly, I’m very >:( that they keep winning while pi**ing on the heads of their top-six rivals.

Speaking of top six, now that the title is done and dusted. all that remains is for the also-ran pecking order to be established. Seeing that we’re two points off the top four, it’s time for United to kick on from here and go on a mazy six-game winning streak and establish themselves in the top four. Here’s my final six:

Chelsea
Tottenham
Man City
Man United
Arsenal
Liverpool

Have a good week.
The name’s Keg…Keg Bond, Nairobi

We thought you were different, Jurgen
Here’s the thing, Jurgen.

As a Liverpool fan of nine years, this is not new for me. I’ve seen worse teams (Hodgson) and even bitter heartbreaks (08/09, 13/14). We are used to failure, and I’m sort of made my peace with it. I don’t really have any huge expectations from the club and I live with a glimmer of hope and an occasional “what if”, like the first three months of this season.

But it’s different, with you. We were on the verge of anonymity in August 2015..,our most iconic player just left us, we had a malfunctioning, unappealing head coach, the transfers were just not working and the club as a whole was just stagnant. Oct 8th, 2015 you arrived on Merseyside and we are big news again. You just catapulted us to being relevant again without slipping into the obscurity of the Premier League mid-table (even though we finished 8th last season). I want you to succeed.. as a coach in general and with Liverpool in particular. I want you to be happy and lead us to glory or at least have a plan for it.

So, when you, on whom we have pinned all of our hopes on, make basic selection mistakes and are being out-thought by the likes of David Moyes, Swansea and Hull City, week in and week out, it hurts, more than it should. When you’re being stubborn and play the same formation against every team and keep picking Can over Wijanldum, refuse to buy a CB and/or a left back or even a winger in the Jan transfer window, it’s just mind boggling. I’m far less qualified to tell you how to do your job, but do something, Jurgen..,quick.

We were challenging for title exactly one month ago and now we are one point ahead of sixth place. One more year out of Champions League places isn’t going to help anyone. 14 more games this season, enough with the sh**-show, let’s not screw it up even more. Show us what you really are.
Abhinav, LFC, Chicago

Lay off Klopp…
Football fans in over-reaction shocker.

As a Liverpool fan, I’m frustrated at how dire our 2017 has been. But at the same time I accept teams have terrible runs of form. What really annoys me is the bandwagon that everybody jumps on at the first available opportunity saying it’s the end of the world, Klopp is rubbish, players haven’t got a clue etc etc yawn yawn.

We waited ages for a manager like Klopp – get off his and the teams back. As sure as the sun will rise tomorrow, Liverpool will find their form again soon. And everybody will be creaming their pants to say how great the team is again. And that will annoy me too!

Despite everything, Liverpool are still actually above Un*ted in the table, in case you hadn’t noticed, so it’s not all bad. For now, anyway.

It’s not wrong to be frustrated. But keep the faith and stop overreacting to everything, the lot of you.

As a quick aside, Didi Hamann and his annoying points per game comments this weekend: he should remember Klopp has overseen less than half of the games Rodgers did. What a tool and his negative comments help nobody, and only serve to fan flames that shouldn’t be there.
Jay, LFC (if we get battered by Spurs at the weekend, I’m never watching football again)

Silva gave me the horn…and then the hump
Bloody typical – I write in to Friday’s mailbox heaping praise on Marco Silva, and then they go and beat us 2-0 on Saturday.

Title race all but over for us (and the rest of the pack really). Time to push for a Champions league spot and strengthen in the Summer.

Can all the knee-jerk #Kloppout brigade wind their necks in too, please. Cheers.
Lee (Niasse scored – that’s more embarassing than the loss), LFC

Thoughts from a City fan
A few thoughts from the weekend, I’ll keep it short as I’m sure there will be many tear-stained mails this morning from certain clubs’ fans.

Gabriel Jesus! What a guy. The most exciting City signing since Aguero. The hype built around this kid as we had to wait to actually see him play. By heck! It was worth that wait. He has given the whole squad a lift. Only concern now is for Kelechi.

Andy Hinchcliffe should do way more comms on sky. Love his delivery and demenor.

Eden Hazard, WOW! I’m gonna say it, goal of the season. The way he dropped Le Coq was brilliant.

Lukaku, wonderful performance, it was always gonna happen as I took out my fantasy team.

Has Allardyce lost his powers now that he has been found out? It seems like maybe he doesn’t command respect from the players anymore. Or maybe squad selection at Palace is done by who can offer his the nicest brown envelopes. Hope they don’t go down as I’ve always thought I’d support Palace if I was from London.

If Marco Silva can keep Hull up, then he is manager of the season it is that simple. They were lost before he came. What a fine job he is doing. Also it would make Merson look a proper weapon.
DANNY B – MCFC! (Accidently revealed my surname last time. oops!)

Stoke…you have been done
What the Stoke fans saw of Berahino in his thirty minutes against the Baggies is it. He touched the ball three times. How do I know? Because that’s how many times he was booed.

He never has been an impact player so no point in having come off the bench. He won’t head a ball and he is not fast. He is now your problem. And if Stoke decides to elect a UKIP MP, well quite frankly this is the sort of player you deserve. Done? You have been.
Ben the Baggie

Here’s Peter G…
* Before we bury Arsenal for the season, let’s praise Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who besides being one of only two English players in the league to have all the letters of his first name also in his last name (the other is Lee Cattermole), was excellent for the Gunners against Chelsea. Intelligence as well as skill, some very good 1 v 1 defense, plenty of effort. Bravo to Matt Stead for singling him out in 16 Conclusions .If a new manager comes along, I hope someone shows him this match on DVR.

* Speaking of praise, there’s Marvelous Marco of Hull City AFC, who looks like a Verdi tenor about to sing something very intense about vendetta and amor. Sure, they rode their luck a bit against Liverpool, but Silva started five players of five different nationalities who a few weeks ago played for five different teams in five different countries. And getting Oumar Niasse on the scoresheet is definitely worth a couple of OMGs, plus a WTF and an LOL or two. This guy’s good.

* What is it with football managers? Eddie Howe tried three at the back against Chelsea, and it bombed. So for a difficult match at Goodison Park he tried it again, and it bombed worse. It’s very early days for Tyrone Mings, just coming back after an endless layoff, and he isn’t ready at this level yet. But Josh King seems right on the cusp of a breakthrough. (Of course, I said this earlier in the season too.)

* Boy, do I love this West Bromwich Albion side. Led by an inspired Nacer Chadli (and if Google is correct, this is the only place that phrase appears on the Internet), they tore into Stoke in the first half, and could easily have had three or four. Then they defended superbly to see out the game, always looking dangerous on the counter. James Morrison was brilliant, and Salomón Rondón had a second half that even Bob the Baggie might have been happy with.

* To paraphrase an old Woody Allen line, the bad news for all of us here at the palace is that Mike Dean has gone minimalist. This is the second game in a row where he’s seemed uninterested in lecturing, gesticulating, strutting, or gurning. “Where is Lee Mason this week?” just doesn’t have the same appeal. As for the match at the Etihad, Swansea sat back the first half, attacked the second half, just as Middlesbrough had done, and almost got the same result. Man City can’t play West Ham every week.
Peter G, Pennsylvania, USA (Peak Jack Rodwell, wasn’t it?)

And here’s Ed…
* Writing this on Sunday night because I’m off work on Monday, and this is how much I like you all.

* I was at a soft play on Saturday afternoon, then went to see Richard Herring on Saturday night. I’d recommend the latter more strongly, but the former gave me a good cover for looking a bit shellshocked.

* Crystal Palace are f###ed. I know I say it every week, more as a running joke than a catchphrase, and I know Ant doesn’t like it. However, surely he and everyone else knows understands why I say it.

* Well done to Sunderland for giving themselves a lifeline, and reaping the rewards of their generous hosts. For Palace, it’s an opportunity missed to escape the relegation zone and look up the table.

* The Eagles are the gift that keeps on giving – got an unwanted streak or drought to get rid of? Why not pitch up against Crystal Palace. Sunderland – timid, fragile, vulnerable Sunderland – scored the same number of goals in the first half at Selhurst Park as they had in their previous nine games combined. Jack Rodwell finally got the monkey off his back, starting a Sunderland game and finishing on the winning side at the 38th time of asking. Everyone sees this against their team, but there are a hell of a lot of these moments, it’s like Palace have a variation on Cityitis, as Joe Royle called it.

*Barry Glendenning made the point on the Guardian’s Football Weekly Extra that the Sam Allardyce managing Crystal Palace is different to the one who managed Sunderland, because of the England job, and it’s hard to disagree. The theory was that Allardyce, up to and including his Sunderland tenure, had a chip on his shoulder about how many teams he’d dragged out of mires and still he wasn’t going to get a top job. Then, the FA gave him his dream job, managing England, and he blew it. He’s back in football, but there’s no unfulfilled ambitions left to drive him, and without that, he appears to be less effective somehow.

* Things were ugly at Selhurst Park – a fan got on the field at half time to confront Damien Delaney, and there were sustained chants of “you’re not fit to wear the shirt”, from supporters who have been praised many times in the previous three seasons for the atmosphere they created.

Now, however, we’ve got our manager telling the BBC he “saw fear strike the players” and that “the lads find it difficult to play [at Selhurst Park] at the moment”. This annoys me more than it should, but mostly because it apportions blame to two groups of people, while absolving entirely someone else.

It’s not rocket surgery. The players should not have “fear” to play in front of their own fans – the same fans whose praises they were singing on Tuesday down in Bournemouth; On Saturday, they sh@t the bed and attracted the ire of supporters. It’s not even, as Allardyce suggested after the game, that fans didn’t get “value for money” – the real problem was that a lot of people didn’t believe the players gave a toss about the game, the result or their own performances. Pashun is a cliched concept but in its most basic form, the least you can expect of players is that they give a sh!t about how well they do their jobs.

* If you’re ever going to find a silver lining, it’s got to be a cloudy day (Kacey Musgraves is amazing). The solace from such an atrocious performance is that we are still only two points behind 15th. Of course, as it’s Palace, the longer we go on with the possibility of survival – starting with Middlesbrough in our next game, the more depressingly inevitable (and inevitably depressing) our eventual relegation will become.
Ed Quoththeraven