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I’ve never bought an authentic kit before.
I do like to run in the replica kits that I’ve bought, but they often aren’t the most comfortable / breathable.
I assume the authentic kits are the same as what the players play in? But then they are bloody expensive.
Can’t wait for the day people realise how much a Havertz, Rice, Ødegaard midfield cooks.
I was all ok with seeing Spurs getting investigated for dodgy transfers before I remembered Raul Sanllehi exists…
There’s Raul and then there’s Paratici.
It’s like comparing Blackburn to City
He possibly enriched himself and his own buddies, on Arsenal’s dime, and was sacked by the club as a result.
Slightly different.
I think the difference there is Raul’s dodginess benefitted himself, not the club. And we sacked him for it
Good morning to everyone except the international window I will not miss you
As a Brazilian gunner, imagine how I am feeling
Just imagine a reality where we convinced Gundogan to give us a year or two
I’m dying for some PL action, thank God we’re going to have some interesting fixtures this weekend
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Our goalkeeper admitted to not being able to concentrate for a full 90
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Our fullback says defending isn’t his strongest point
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Our striker says scoring goals isn’t his strongest point.
Maybe some PR training needed?
*backup keeper
More like our fans need to realise when they’re falling for click bait in the interlull.
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Ozil was a one man deep block siege weapon. Knew when to keep it ticking over and when to take the risk
https://twitter.com/_23Football/status/1727328685118886289?t=hkD7glnxT3u83BGbG_qwOQ&s=19
Goals win titles. Please see full article before responding.
https://www.cannonstats.com/p/does-defense-really-win-championships
Think it’s easier to optimize for a great defense. Scoring is so hard and dependent upon secondary variables that you can’t build a strategy around it. The best way is just to have great attackers and let them loose. Even Pep has admitted to how much his success has been built around having great forwards.
Defending is easier than attacking, I agree there.
I think it has some good points but I’d be wary of taking his result from the regression without question. Linearity may be the way to go but I’d be cautious of it not capturing the issue with stat padding in certain games and not capturing the idea that defences will lead to fewer dropped points (particularly against rivals). Indeed, more I think about it, the more I think linearity may be a poor model. I also feel like using City (who is something of an outlier across the whole PL) may lead to some issues, and the initial opening paragraphs are overly simplistic. Point is, algorithms will always give you an output, doesn’t mean the algorithm is suitable. I’m not disputing the result (I generally don’t put too much stock in any ‘truism’), and think it raises valid points, but wouldn’t say it is a clear slam dunk. I think it may also be worth exploring the points taken to win the league and seeing how that effects things, i.e. if points taken < threshold then better defence is preferable, above then better attack, that kind of thing.
Goals win games and allow to be a top 4 team.
Defense wins titles.
I have read the full article by the way… I think it’s a very good idea but you need to run more numbers imo, and integrate more variables.
Taking the total of goals scored and total of goals conceded and then generate the expected points on average doesnt seem to predict much. According to that model, Chelsea in 04/05 should have had 74 points. But they didnt, they reached 95 points, breaking the record at the time. Best-ever attack is ManCity (but it’s 106, not 108 like in the article), they were supposed to reach 89 points according to the model, but they reached 100.
I think what that demonstrates is that there is more than just total of goals to consider if you want to know if attack or defense is more important to win a title.
Imo the hypothesis that needs to be tested is two-fold (and we would have to define the metrics to test it, but it has to go further than goals scored vs goals conceded):
- The first condition is that good teams need to play possession football and a certain degree of attacking football, in order to compete at the top of the table.
- Once the first condition is fulfilled, defense (in a broader sense than just goals conceded: solidity off the ball, pressing, control, etc.) is the difference to win titles.
It’s relative.
Goals win titles as long as you don’t concede 40+ goals like we did last season
We could have won the title with 5 extra goals if they came at the right time. Goals do win you titles. It’s just typical of good teams to actually have good defences too.
Also could have won by conceding 3 fewer goals.
We also could’ve won with 5 less goals if they came at the right time by that logic lol
Prediction: This day won’t end without a Havertz hate comment or post
It feels like fucking ages since I had the privilege of watching Mikel Arteta’s tricky reds, I cannot wait until Saturday. Can’t see Jesus starting though, would be nice for him to get some minutes off the bench.
Off to my first Arsenal women’s game tonight, under the lights - should be good!
Bruv what an endinggggg
How are our ladies coming up with so many late winners this season lol
Atletico and Arsenal are 2 similar sized clubs yet the way Atletico is spoken about in such respectful and appreciative manner compared to Arsenal.
The manager is more confrontational, the football is probably worse, the players are shittier, yet they speak so glowingly about Atletico
They’ve won the league twice in the past 10 seasons and have been in the Champions League every year, we haven’t won our league in 2 decades and just spent 6 years outside the Champions League. 20 years ago, Arsenal were a top 5 club in the world and Atletico were in the Spanish 2nd division.
We just need to start winning trophies regularly again and the conversation will change quickly.
I’d argue we’re a bigger club both by fanbase and historical acheivements although as we’re both the third most succesful club in our league that latter one may be a bit harsh on them.
To be fair Atletico get a lot of sympathy for fighting the historically state backed Real/Barca duopoly and having to share a city with Real too, while we are by far the biggest club in London, the most succesful club in the south and have at various points been the richest/flashest club in the country and arguably briefly the planet.
Have we ever been richest or flashiest? Member Boro had ravanelli as the highest paid player in the league in the 90s and then paid Merson more than bergkamp while they were in the sodding championship to steal him from us 😂
Have we ever been richest or flashiest?
Our nickname used to be ‘the Bank of England Club’, the Queen and Queen mother supported us allegedly because of the possibly non sporting attributes of the Compton brothers and especially Denis the original Brylcreem Boy bothof whom managed to be world class footballers and cricketers.
Our initial successes were basically down to our owner deciding to move us to a richer part of london, build the best looking, most modern stadium and use the subsequent cash to buy the best manager and players in the league. Herbert Chapman was brought to us (a club wiht no senior league trophies) form Huddersfield where he was two titles into the first club to win three titles in a row. That’s Blackburn nicking Alex Ferguson levels of of flashy upstarts.
Chapman revolutionised football from formations to shirt numbers and floodlights and our system was copied globally, along with our shirt colours. From the mid 30’s to the late 50’s we were definitely the biggest or arguably the biggest thing in football.
We’ve not got there since, although there was a brief period of prime wenger where we probably played the most beautiful football on earth.
Top answer
Not sure where you are getting you sentiments from, but I’m pretty sure Atleti are viewed as the “villains of football” in Spanish football spaces.
There is appreciation for it as its backed by their 2 title wins in the recent, in their recent one being with full drama of the Luis Suarez situation. But the only team so far to break the duopoly between Barca and Real Madrid, so that’s also why they have their support.
I don’t rate Simeone anymore, the guy has been the most overrated manager in the past 5 years. His work from 2011 until they won the EL in 2018 was incredible but he has not impressed me at all. The season he won a title he nearly bottled a massive lead to a very average Real Madrid and Barca team, he just scraped it after throwing away a huge advantage and taking it to the wire when it didn’t need to. He’s not reached a semi in years in UCL even though I think there is a weaker pool of teams compared to the 2 times they made the final before. He’s failed to achieve the potential of so many players who are talented such as Felix, Lemar, spent over 100m for Costa and Vitolo.
Poch is more overrated
Ange is more overrated
United will be banned from the CL if Nice qualify for it.
The only scenario where Nice qualify and instead get banned is if man utd finish higher in the prem than Nice do in ligue 1
Nice are currently 2nd whilst man u are 6th.
Red Bull literally managed to convince UEFA that Red Bull didn’t actually run Red Bull Leipzig and Red Bull Salzburg, the Ineos minority stake in Man U is not even going to register.
What about Man City and Girona? And isn’t Liverpool and AC Milan have the same owners to some level?
Wont happen, you have both Red Bull clubs in Salzburg and Leipzig playing in the UCL every season. I think UEFA will buckle and allow stuff like this to happen.
