EPL 2022/23

[topcat(The most tip top)]

1 hour ago, throbber said:

I don’t think it’s over for Gerrard yet and he still did well at Rangers considering how bad they were when he took over. He’ll probably get a couple championship gigs before he is completely finished with imo.

Lampards record is awful, i think the Chelsea team have too many new additions and it’s too late in the season for an interim manager to make much of a difference though tbf.

it's entirely possible that people who do a job for a while will get better at it. And there's a steady supply of vacancies

However if you've been a big time player then it's going to take some patience to put up with being a small time manager for long enough for that to happen

[Miguel Sanchez]

I misread that and thought Adam Sandler was Leicester boss at one point.

[DukDukGoose]

4 hours ago, bobbydazzler said:

ridiculous how good KDB is. the best premier league midfielder ever for me.

Prime Vieira miles ahead for me.

[Barry Ferguson's Hat]

Patrick Viera was an absolute cart-hourse. He's not even the best Viera to have played for Arsenal. 

[Molotov]

4 hours ago, accies1874 said:

It'll be interesting to see if Arsenal look at this season as an opportunity missed or the start of something special. 

Of course they will.

Arteta and the club PR machine will point to improvements but it’s a massive opportunity missed. 

I just hope that TV cameras have been following this arse collapse. 

Look at last 4 games alone:

They also drew 1-1 away at Southampton. 

You can’t win titles losing valuable points home and away to the bottom club Southampton.

Also losing away at the worst Everton side I’ve ever seen. 

Home draw against Brentford?

Come on that’s shocking results given the gulf in quality.

[velo army]

The Lampard Effect is an interesting one. It's essentially the halo effect (where people presume that attractive people are also nicer/more competent than they are based purely on their attractiveness) where club owners assume that Lampard will be a good manager because he was a great player, but in spite of all the evidence of his managerial career thus far. 

Just looking at that list of managers, it's quite the eye-opener that half the teams in that league changed managers this season.

[accies1874]

13 minutes ago, Molotov said:

Of course they will.

Arteta and the club PR machine will point to improvements but it’s a massive opportunity missed. 

I just hope that TV cameras have been following this arse collapse. 

Look at last 4 games alone:

They also drew 1-1 away at Southampton. 

You can’t win titles losing valuable points home and away to the bottom club Southampton.

Also losing away at the worst Everton side I’ve ever seen. 

Home draw against Brentford?

Come on that’s shocking results given the gulf in quality.

Yes I've followed their results this season too. My point was wondering if they're ahead of schedule this season or are having a one-off challenge like Liverpool in 2014. If it's the latter then they'll continue to look back on this season with regret, but if they come back even stronger then this will just be seen as the start.

[PauloPerth]

I don’t think many would have tipped Arsenal to be title contenders at the start of the season.  So from that point of view, a second place would be great progress and something to build on.

But the fact that they were so far ahead and look to have collapsed at the crunch time of the season is going to play on their minds.
 

It’s the same issue with them as it has been for the past 15+ years.  Play great football as they sweep aside diddies, but come up short in the big matches and occasions.  They’ve only won once against a fellow top four team, with Newcastle away still to come. 
 

It could be looked at a season to build on, but on the other hand it’s not going to be as poor/ inconsistent a top six again next year surely.  Newcastle and Man Utd will strengthen, Liverpool are unlikely to be as inconsistent again, City aren’t going away, and for all Chelsea’s issues if they get the right manager in they could get back amongst it.

[topcat(The most tip top)]

48 minutes ago, velo army said:

The Lampard Effect is an interesting one. It's essentially the halo effect (where people presume that attractive people are also nicer/more competent than they are based purely on their attractiveness) where club owners assume that Lampard will be a good manager because he was a great player, but in spite of all the evidence of his managerial career thus far. 

Just looking at that list of managers, it's quite the eye-opener that half the teams in that league changed managers this season.

Most of the managers on that list had solid rather than spectacular playing careers

In fact if you look at all the people that made the top 3 for the Balon D'Or in the '90s there's a conspicuous absence of players who were destined for great careers as managers 

Although Zinedine Zidane has done OK for himself so maybe it is possible to be good at both if you go bald early


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballon_d'Or#Winners

Edited April 27, 2023 by topcat(The most tip top)

[eez-eh]

1 hour ago, Molotov said:

Of course they will.

Arteta and the club PR machine will point to improvements but it’s a massive opportunity missed. 

I just hope that TV cameras have been following this arse collapse. 

Look at last 4 games alone:

They also drew 1-1 away at Southampton. 

You can’t win titles losing valuable points home and away to the bottom club Southampton.

Also losing away at the worst Everton side I’ve ever seen. 

Home draw against Brentford?

Come on that’s shocking results given the gulf in quality.

This might be a good point if Man City hadn’t also dropped points to Everton and Brentford this season. Nottingham Forest too.

Even teams that win titles drop points unexpectedly along the way. It’s nonsense to pick out a result or two in isolation over the course of a 38 game season. They just aren’t as good as Man City.

[RandomGuy.]

6 hours ago, RandomGuy. said:

A shame Chelsea cant get relegated too.

This might not actually be too ridiculous having looked at it.

10pts of relegation and have Man City, Newcastle, Arsenal and Man Utd in their final 6 games. Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest wedged in the middle. 

6 hours ago, accies1874 said:

The issue is that City have pretty much been underperforming in the league this season

Theory i held was they were willing to have a poor season this year going all in on Haaland trying to figure out the best way to use him.

Worrying for everyone else they seem to have managed to stroll to the title even while doing that.

[Bairnardo]

It has to be a missed opportunity for Arsenal. Offer them a near run thing and a second place finish at the start of the season and sure, it looks a good result, but the circumstances as they have unfolded.... They only have themselves to blame for not being in a position where they could afford to lose lastnight. 

 

[topcat(The most tip top)]

25 minutes ago, eez-eh said:

This might be a good point if Man City hadn’t also dropped points to Everton and Brentford this season. Nottingham Forest too.

Even teams that win titles drop points unexpectedly along the way. It’s nonsense to pick out a result or two in isolation over the course of a 38 game season. They just aren’t as good as Man City.

Indeed

City have dropped 20 points all season, Arsenal have dropped 24. Six of those 24 were against city only 18 were against the rest of the league

If anything Arsenal have been ever so slightly more efficient in that kind of game.

 

 

[Molotov]

It’s clear there are differences of opinion but I personally believe it was a missed opportunity for Arsenal to capitalise on City’s slip ups given where they both were at the turn of the year. 

No one on here disputes Man City have the strongest squad and the tougher mentality but Arsenal have certainly gone from genuine contenders to likely runners up. 

The form in the last month or so has hit Arsenal really hard. 

Its not over but it would be incredible if  City were not to go on and win the league. 

The fact City lost games to inferior opponents should have been a catalyst for Arsenal to capitalise. 

I was hoping it would go to the last day at top and bottom but it’s looking more likely the relegation scrap will be as intriguing as the top flight in Scotland. 

I’m still hopeful of a 4 way shootout up here for bottom spot on last day. 

 

[captainkev]

The big danger ahead for Arsenal is that after failing to take advantage of an undeniably golden opportunity to win the league this season, how long will they be able to keep their brightest talents? Saka, Ødegaard, Martinelli and Saliba have all come on leaps and bounds this season, but they're all at a good age for big sides in Europe to invest in. How long do they stay at Arsenal if City continue to dominate, as looks ominously likely?

Barcelona then City and their new wealth had a big hand in dismantling Wenger's late 2000s/early 2010s side. Now there's the looming shadow of Newcastle who are already challenging for the Champion's League spots, and haven't even begun to seriously flex their financial muscle yet. 

Edited April 27, 2023 by captainkev

[DukDukGoose]

4 hours ago, PauloPerth said:

I don’t think many would have tipped Arsenal to be title contenders at the start of the season.  So from that point of view, a second place would be great progress and something to build on.

But the fact that they were so far ahead and look to have collapsed at the crunch time of the season is going to play on their minds.
 

It’s the same issue with them as it has been for the past 15+ years.  Play great football as they sweep aside diddies, but come up short in the big matches and occasions.  They’ve only won once against a fellow top four team, with Newcastle away still to come. 
 

It could be looked at a season to build on, but on the other hand it’s not going to be as poor/ inconsistent a top six again next year surely.  Newcastle and Man Utd will strengthen, Liverpool are unlikely to be as inconsistent again, City aren’t going away, and for all Chelsea’s issues if they get the right manager in they could get back amongst it.

Tbf, the top four haschanged several times this season. 

They've had a brilliant season. Unfortunately for them, they're up against a ridiculously good team, with a great manager that was expensively assembled.

[Empty It]

Lampard will get the Sevco job when Micky Beale inevitably gets punted in the summer.

[MazzyStar]

7 hours ago, throbber said:

I don’t think it’s over for Gerrard yet and he still did well at Rangers

He won 1 trophy in 3 seasons, and if 19/20 had been completed he’d have been sacked without winning any.  

[throbber]

15 minutes ago, MazzyStar said:

He won 1 trophy in 3 seasons, and if 19/20 had been completed he’d have been sacked without winning any.  

He was the manager who stopped Celtic winning 10 Iar and his team went the season undefeated. Also a good run in Europe and a lot of the team he built went on to the Europa league final in 22. I’m not saying it was an outstanding success but I’d argue he did well there compared to when he took over and is argue that his managerial career isn’t over because of a bad spell at villa.

[accies1874]

4 hours ago, RandomGuy. said:

Theory i held was they were willing to have a poor season this year going all in on Haaland trying to figure out the best way to use him.

Worrying for everyone else they seem to have managed to stroll to the title even while doing that.

Yeah I completely agree. There was a lot of chat about Haaland making them worse - I probably indulged in some of it - but pretty much everyone was thinking too much in the short-term. He's 22 and signed a five-year contract for a team that it tends to take at least a year to properly bed into.