The Arsenal Thread XXII

Bigger clubs no, a better sentence would either be the more resourceful sides or better sides in europe.

Also don't think your football has been that amazing this season, even in your run, it's simply that the rest of the league have been playing atrociously.

Leeds are a bigger club than Chelsea

Disappointed I'll miss all the games today (though I'll see 70 mins of Wolves vs Ipswich). Reading boss Steve Clarke has said he wants to emulate Wenger and be at Reading for "many years". Those poor fans....

I hate semis being played at Wembley. It's not too bad as both clubs are near & around that area, but they'll be facing a Midlands or Merseyside team that'll have to spend much longer traveling.

Tbf, the same is true for Chelsea. They ran away with the league as early as March because the top four have been playing atrociously..

Well yeah they weren't that great last season either.

You are dreaming Leeds used to be a good team but they don't play in Europe I'll be surprised if young fans outside of the UK even know who they are.

Reading haven't won in their last six I believe, so if they manage it today people everywhere will lose their heads. I can't see anything other than a comfortable Arsenal win, probably 2-0 or 3-0, especially with Nathan Ake and Kwesi Appiah cup-tied for Reading.

Chalobah and Mackie are both available, which offers them some hope at least.

Mackie, in particular, is a bulldog centre-forward. He's not the quickest forward but works tirelessly to exploit the space between the full-back and the centre-half.

We play in Europe, the SkyBet Championship is a European league.

I don't base being a 'bigger club' on how many fans we have in Asia. Chelsea are only more successful due to the oil money, the won 1 league prior to 2004, and that was in the mid 50s. Credit where it's due to Abramovich for putting £500million of his own money into that club.

Abramovich actually looked to buy Leeds before buying Chelsea. He chose Chelsea because he wanted to live in London.

Can you imagine he bought Spurs instead

Wouldn't that have been tragic

A lot of people (i.e. united fans) seem to underestimate the pull that Wenger being manager has on young players (especially ones playing in France where he is effectively a footballing God). Considering Lacazette hasn't been linked with any of the BIG clubs in Europe, I don't think it's unreasonable to say it's definitely a feasible transfer

Quite sad to see a poor top 4 for the past two seasons. I expect them to improve over the next season though.. perhaps the one after next we'll see more British clubs in the QF/SF of the CL too.

Just hope, speaking from a British perspective, that Arsenal and United can maintain and carry this form in to next season.

Bigger clubs no, a better sentence would either be the more resourceful sides or better sides in europe.

Also don't think your football has been that amazing this season, even in your run, it's simply that the rest of the league have been playing atrociously.

While i do think Arsenal need to replace some of the players at the back that are getting on a bit (Arteta for example) am i the only one here who thinks people are too obsessed with buying new players. Last season you lost to 4 crappy teams but finished 7 points behind.. you did'nt lose because you lacked a team that could win. This season your 10 points behind (assume Chelsea wins game in hand) but once again you've got losses to Southampton, Stoke and Swansea. Even allowing for results against the top 6, Chelsea only have an additional loss to Newcastle.

My point is that people need to worry less about who they can buy this summer (the teams working fine) and more about not losing to poverty teams. Indeed i personally wonder if the top 4 have lost so many because they spend so much each summer, not allowing a team to gel and work instinctually because they know how each other plays like the back of their hand.

He's surely too obvious though looking at Arsenal's transfer history.

Wenger would have gone for him last season if he wanted him. He wouldn't have needed to wait a season. That's not what Wenger does.

Arsenal have the best record in the league against teams in the bottom half (a.k.a "poverty teams").

We've not been good enough against 6-10 opposition, but Chelsea haven't killed it either against those team, drew to Southampton twice, lost to Tottenham, but they beat Stoke and Swansea twice, who are our bogey team.

We have to focus on tightening up our performances against the 6-10 teams for sure, but it's the head to heads against the rest of the top 4 that has cost us every season. Drawing and losing at home when the other team is just containing (i.e. United, City last season, City this season even). That's where we've lost the title, and for those games you need a hero, a world class player to stand out and win you the game.

Also, kind of bs logic to assume Chelsea will win their game in hand when it's against third in the league and one of the form teams