Do you want Arsenal to win the league?

[Arniepie]

26 minutes ago, ZonkoVille77 said:

With a London club now also suffering because of the cheats there might be a bit more momentum around wanting to see the Cheats suffer and have their titles stripped from them. Prob never happen but some momentum from the capital can only be a good thing. 

I try to stay away from footy phone ins,but when I do catch them,there is little mention of why city have become so utterly dominant 

[skend04]

For me Arsenal, like us and Man Utd, are more deserving of the title because none of us have cheated when finishing second to City. It's absolutely ridiculous that this is still ongoing when they've already been found guilty of breaking the rules and gotten off on a technicality. 

[Arniepie]

2 minutes ago, BeefStroganoff said:

I cannot believe anyone would defend Guardiola. He knows exactly what he is doing and who for.

Football is awash with corruption 

It has been for years.

[Arniepie]

9 hours ago, an tha said:

Are any of the clubs mentioned as having high manager turnovers (chelsea aside) any less succesful than Man City domestically?

 

No - not really.

 

Bayern dominate in Germany, PSG beat all the shite in their league and Barcelona are still up there as always with the other super power there Real Madrid.

 

Guardiola is of course a very good manager but he isn't doing anything special at Man City compared to the other clubs with massive advantages across continent and of course he has done fuck all yet with Man City in the Eurooean Cup.

 

He has never had a job where he isn't managing with a massive advantage over rest of league. Of course it can be argued he gets top jobs because he is very good - but he has never had to prove himself and work through the ranks so to speak and work against the odds from day one.

Not every manager does.

Kenny never worked his way up through the leagues,but that doesn't take away his phenomenal achievements.

[ZonkoVille77]

24 minutes ago, Arniepie said:

Football is awash with corruption 

It has been for years.

 

Correct. Nobody will ever convince me that the refs in the PL are not corrupt or on the take. 100% convinced of it. 

[Manny]

They bottled it, no doubt - but I think it's kind of understandable. I don't really think "bottle" is something that's entirely innate to people (although some of it is definitely character defined), it's something that's earned through experience and scars - and a head to head with the sportswashing project is a pretty unique and bruising experience. They'll be better equipped for it next season, no doubt - whether they'll be able to capitalise on as many circumstances aligning in their favour to get into that position again is another question.

[aws]

10 hours ago, Barrington Womble said:

They were found guilty weren't they? And punished. And all the emails are in the public domain, the fact they were able to avoid further uefa sanction because they were time barred is uefa's fuck up, but surely he is fully aware and therefor compliant with their methods, because the information is there to see. 

Worse than that - his line in public is that City were cleared of cheating when he knows full well that the time bar stopped the proceedings. 

[Pete]

Part of me feels a little sorry for Arsenal as we know how they are feeling right now.  You pretty much have to have a perfect season to beat the cheats.   Another part of me is laughing my head off though at the Anyone but Liverpool comments we've had for the last few years.  Hurt's doesn't it Arsenal. 

Just hope we get our shit sorted in the summer and come back with vengeance next season.  Be nice to win another title in my 50th year on this green & blue ball. 

[Scott_M]

Anfield 2-2 after being 2-0 up.

WHU 2-2 after being 2-0 up.

Southampton 3-3. Salvaged a late draw against the side rock bottom. 
Brighton 0-3 pulled apart by a side 21 points beneath them. 
 

In a title run in, especially against the machine like Man City, they are games you absolutely have to win. 

[JohnnyH]

Absolutely delighted that Arsenal have fallen off a cliff.  It was easily predictable that they would, but until it happens you're never sure.  I now wouldn't be at all surprised if Forest beat Arsenal on Saturday and City win it with 3 games to spare. I just couldn't have dealt with Arsenal fans had they won.  They'd have been peak insufferable.  Even more than normal.  Now City win it and absolutely no one gives a shiny shite.  And everyone has to admit that it was only Liverpool that gave them any type of a challenge, and were the only ones preventing a 6 in a row.  I also hope City beat United in the Cup final.  Let them have their double.  Who cares?

[TheRedMachine]

1 hour ago, Pete said:

Part of me feels a little sorry for Arsenal as we know how they are feeling right now.  You pretty much have to have a perfect season to beat the cheats.   Another part of me is laughing my head off though at the Anyone but Liverpool comments we've had for the last few years.  Hurt's doesn't it Arsenal. 

Just hope we get our shit sorted in the summer and come back with vengeance next season.  Be nice to win another title in my 50th year on this green & blue ball. 

Feeling sorry for Arsenal? No. Na. Nope. Have a word with yourself. 

[VladimirIlyich]

It was inevitable. Another empty title for the Abu Dhabi Globetrotters. Let's hope The Guardian and some other journos push the cheating agenda a bit more.

[No2]

Arsenal fans got off fairly lightly, they only truly believed after they beat Bournemouth and that belief was extinguished at West Ham within 6 weeks. 

[Code]

Arsenal have not bottled it, they have overachieved. 
 

They were never going to win the league. 

[an tha]

3 hours ago, JohnnyH said:

Absolutely delighted that Arsenal have fallen off a cliff.  It was easily predictable that they would, but until it happens you're never sure.  I now wouldn't be at all surprised if Forest beat Arsenal on Saturday and City win it with 3 games to spare. I just couldn't have dealt with Arsenal fans had they won.  They'd have been peak insufferable.  Even more than normal.  Now City win it and absolutely no one gives a shiny shite.  And everyone has to admit that it was only Liverpool that gave them any type of a challenge, and were the only ones preventing a 6 in a row.  I also hope City beat United in the Cup final.  Let them have their double.  Who cares?

Exactly.

 

All Man City's titles mean nothing and nobody gives a toss.

 

Had Arsenal won it, it would matter, it would be a big deal and it would hurt.

 

 

[johnsusername]

Does any football fan care that City are champions? Seems to me the only ones who are interested are the media - who are basically talking to each other because nobody else is listening. Apart from a handful of journos, the big ones (BBC, Sky etc) are just living in denial, ignoring the elephant in the room, scared to acknowledge the ridiculousness of the situation otherwise the gravy train be derailed and the money dry up. 

[an tha]

8 minutes ago, johnsusername said:

Does any football fan care that City are champions? Seems to me the only ones who are interested are the media - who are basically talking to each other because nobody else is listening. Apart from a handful of journos, the big ones (BBC, Sky etc) are just living in denial, ignoring the elephant in the room, scared to acknowledge the ridiculousness of the situation otherwise the gravy train be derailed and the money dry up. 

Probably only Man Utd fans and local ones at that as outside Manchester nobody really supports City and nobody cares about them.

 

That will change of course as they keep winning and they start to develop a fanbase all over the land and then they will start to face the sort of stuff us and Man Utd do - as people have to deal with them at school at work, in the ale house etc...Will take a few years yet and i am sure it is a process that has started - but for now they are irrelevant to most people regardless of how good they are.

[El Rojo]

30 minutes ago, johnsusername said:

Does any football fan care that City are champions? Seems to me the only ones who are interested are the media - who are basically talking to each other because nobody else is listening. Apart from a handful of journos, the big ones (BBC, Sky etc) are just living in denial, ignoring the elephant in the room, scared to acknowledge the ridiculousness of the situation otherwise the gravy train be derailed and the money dry up. 

 

In fairness, there are a lot more references to City's ownership and the spoiling of the game in the media this year than in previous years. 

 

Us being competitive facilitated their cheating. 

 

I still wouldn't hold out much hope on anything being done, especially with Newcastle potentially now becoming similar in the coming years. 

[Scott_M]

47 minutes ago, Code said:

Arsenal have not bottled it, they have overachieved. 
 

They were never going to win the league. 

I’m torn on whether I think they’ve bottled it or not.
 

I completely take you’re point here - nobody expected it and they have overachieved.

 

However, they were also 1st virtually all season. They dropped points from being 2-0 and cruising in away games, salvaged a late draw against the side rock bottom and got absolutely bumholed against the side they are going toe-to-toe with. 

 

They had warnings against Everton, Brentford, Villa and Bournemouth but IMO, they were too busy smelling themselves that they didn’t heed the warnings and thought they were on a gentle stroll towards the title. 

Their reactions to going 2-0 up at Anfield and WHU tells you all you need to know, IMO. Thought they should take the piss & showboat instead of going for the throat. As soon as us and WHU made a fight of it, they wilted. 
 

I’ll be interested to see how they do next season. It doesn’t look like they’ll lose anybody major (in the way we lost Suarez or Alonso) so they should be able to build. However, they largely flew under the radar before the World Cup and their form has dipped once teams started taking them more seriously.
 

Unbelievably, they’ve only taken a handful of points more than us since the World Cup, we’ve played a game less and are nowhere near the levels we have been. 
 

I think when the pressure was on, they were over confident and as City ramped and ramped it up, they cracked. 

 

[TD_LFC]

1 hour ago, Code said:

Arsenal have not bottled it, they have overachieved. 
 

They were never going to win the league. 

 

Surely you have to reassess the situation not just determine something at the start and not revisit it.

 

It's possible for both 'Arsenal weren't tipped to do this well' and they 'bottled it from the lead they were in' to both be true.

[Scott_M]

41 minutes ago, TD_LFC said:

 

Surely you have to reassess the situation not just determine something at the start and not revisit it.

 

It's possible for both 'Arsenal weren't tipped to do this well' and they 'bottled it from the lead they were in' to both be true.

Agree. 
 

Obviously we can say we had a similar scenario under Rodger’s (ie over achieved and dropped the ball), although the need result will be the same (ie 2nd), the way we the respective sides got into their positions is very different.

 

We were bouncing between 1st and 6th all season, we got better as the season went on and likely were as surprised as anybody of where we were with 5/6 games left. 

 

I wouldn’t say we bottled the Chelsea match. The cruelest of cruel blows did us. They were in our half twice all match and scored both times. Chelsea drew their next game at home to Norwich, if they’d had won that, all 3 teams would have gone into the last day with a chance of winning it. 

I realise we weren’t in pole position after that, we did bottle it at Palace. 10 mins left against the side 16th or so, absolutely cruising at 3-0 and then not to win the game is unforgivable. Like Arsenal, we gift wrapped City the title. 
 

Arsenal were more or less exclusively top from the 3rd or 4th game until the last couple of weeks. Undoubtedly they’ve punched above their weight, they’ve also shit the bed when they needed to remain focused. 

[Barrington Womble]

16 hours ago, Arniepie said:

I'm just not sure how much culpability can be laid at his door?

I'm not defending what they have done but surely the real cheats are the owners?

When he walks,do you honestly think they are going to struggle to get another manager in,even with the stench hanging over them?

Well he has guilt be association. For sure the owners are guilty, but it'd be the equivalent of being Tom Hagan in the Godfather. He might not do the killing, but he plays his part. 

[aws]

35 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

Well he has guilt be association. For sure the owners are guilty, but it'd be the equivalent of being Tom Hagan in the Godfather. He might not do the killing, but he plays his part. 

An outrageous slur. 

[Anubis]

 

 

[Pete]

12 minutes ago, Anubis said:

 

 

Hahaha.  Cocky bastards.