Have You Stopped Laughing Yet? - OTT

What a shit evening.

 

Big game choker Ancelotti close to yet another failure.

Madrid is getting overrun in midfield

 

Looked incredibly suspicious, didn't it? The way he angled his body on the initial shot and then his pathetic attempts to save the ball...definitely one of the more dubious 'howlers' I can remember.

 

Bale just using pure athleticism for that goal.

 

Ha ha ha

 

Delighted for Bale.

 

Oh my.

 

Well done to the sheep shagga'

 

seems like a bad idea for all parties involved. unless barça completely changes its style of football.

 

Transfer embargo is no problem if he brings his juice guy.

As for Ozil's fitness being a major factor in Arsenal's decline, I call bullshit.

2 bigger factors in Arsenals decline:
the calendar - proven over years to be their achilles heal.
strength of schedule - no shit they did better earlier in the season, when they played nobody.

 

As for the Bale vs. Neymar thread.
Bale wins.

 

I'm not saying Arsenal don't deserve to be near the top. But them winning the league was always a dream. There was no chance they'd have kept the pace they set off at with their easier schedule. It isn't just a matter of at the halfway point either. If Arse get an easy start and get a run, their confidence soars, they are a confidence team. Once things stop going their way, it all tends to fall apart. When they were clear at the top, I never thought they'd win, I was always wondering whether they'd hang on to 4th spot.

 

It's not a myth though jitty.

Both @nicephoras and myself had exactly the same argument with you a few months back when Arsenal were on top but both of us were certain that Arsenal would fall apart and kept going back to Arsenal's form per the calendar year.

Arsenal have struggled for years to make any kind of impact away from home at any of the big teams and this year was no exception. Add the fact that all Wenger teams are form teams, and they all struggle the moment the form bubble breaks.

 

You could also make the case that Ramsey's 'form of his life' stint put them in an artificially high position. He was never going to keep that form up and once his goals disappeared Arsenal struggled. Few take into account these 'purple patches' when assessing the overall form of a team.

 

It all comes down to their injuries and not thinking long term. Almost like a sprint vs a marathon. Had they had all the key players in Ramsey, and Ozil fit in the right times, it would have been different. Regardless, they need a world class talent, a leader in there, preferrably in midfield, and a center back.

 

The "collapse" began before the fully midfield injury crisis hit - Ozil was available for the Liverpool debacle, and he was around for the Citeh 6-3 as well. You're also blithely ignoring in the fixture discussion that Arsenal had played its toughest opponents at home early in the season, rather than away. Arsenal's away form to big clubs has been dreadful, and so it proved - huge losses to Chelsea, Liverpool and Everton and then a loss to United; all in the second half.
I have also had exactly the same point about the "2013 calendar" argument - it aggregated the easier half of Arsenal's fixtures - the toughest fixture last season was in theory the game against United, who were already champions and played half-asleep (the draw with West Brom, the loss to us) and where Arsenal only got a point because of a clearly offside goal.

Also, the "injury crisis" has come to mean Ramsey being out - you can't call Wilshere being injured a crisis since he's always hurt. But Ramsey's form in the first half of this season has been considerably beyond anything he has done before, so the arguments that Arsenal lost a "world class player" ring very hollow. And, I should mention that for all the claims of Ramsey's greatness and how good Ozil is, Arsenal have basically had two very good performances against top teams all season - at home against Liverpool (for whom Suarez had just returned) and the Napoli 2-0, and that's it. (The victory over Dortmund owed more to Mikhtaryan's inability to finish - it was completely against the run of play.)

Which also feeds further into the argument I've been making all season - Arsenal have been consistently good against weak opposition because there's been limited squad turnover, coaching stability and cohesion - which all other clubs in the top 7 (excluding Liverpool) lack. Arsenal has a good system, players who understand it well and more talent than any opposition below the top 4 (other than United), thus the excellent results. So Arsenal have actually been very consistent this season - dreadful against top opposition, excellent against weaker sides. Until the loss to Stoke in March, Villa, Soton and West Brom were the only sides not in the top 5 (+United) to take points off you - that's one loss and two draws. So when you had to play more games against the top 5 away, your challenge fell off - that was entirely predictable. The real reason your title challenge got as far as it did is the inconsistent state of the other title challengers, all of whom had new coaches and struggled against weaker opposition.

As for Caley being wrong, it's relatively simple - Arsenal have a huge disparity in results against top opposition at home and away, which he didn't account for. In the second half you've played Everton, Chelsea and Liverpool away. You took 0 points from those games (and were minus 13 in goal differential I believe), whereas you took 5 points from those same fixtures at home.

 

tl;dr

i luv pie.