Palace look like they’ve snatched catastrophe from the jaws of mediocrity there - 2 days before the start of the season.
#crystanbul, though. Thanks Tony - that was some righteous shit.
Hey there! City fellow checking in. ducks They “chose me”, after a fashion; I was in Russia a few years back, and the ex-pat friend I found turned out to be a passionate Man City fan, from before they suddenly came into rather a lot of cash. He helped teach me a little about the game, and we would’ve eventually went to a Zenit game if I’d not skipped town a bit sooner than I’d planned. I saw then that I’d a) like to get into football a bit more and b) I needed a team. Well, I had a friend, and he had a team–so I got his blessing for that to be my team too. 
That said… I’m still pretty green. Still learning–it took me several years of getting into things, watching a Euro Cup here, an MLS game there for it all to get crystallized by the '14 World Cup. And so here I am, ready to learn and be 'umble as I support City in the Premier and Champions Leagues!
(Also, I have a soft spot in my heart for AFC Wimbledon, down in League Two, thanks to John Green supporting them via YouTube and FIFA 2014, so there’s that.)
Even though they trailed in the tables for something like 36 weeks last season, there was always sort of an inevitability about City’s trophy. Suarez notwithstanding, City always looked to have the best personnel to me. I saw them in Pittsburgh last month and they seem to have quality depth as well. It’s apparently pretty rare for PL clubs to win back to back and they’re gonna struggle a little with the FFP sanctions but it wouldn’t surprise me to see them win it again.
And all in all, they’re not an unlikable bunch, either. Though their fans singing “We’re going to buy all your players” to Southampton last year was both a little arrogant and inaccurate.
Especially since they have gotten rid of ol’ Mario.
But its sad that the money is buying titles.
Not really, United won 2-in-a-row twice, and also 3-in-a-row twice. It also took a last minite goal int the last minute of the season to stop a 3rd 3-in-a-row.
Chelsea also won the league back to back in 2004/5 and 2005/6.
Care to bring me up to speed on the FFP thing? I’ve heard it mentioned on a few podcasts, but would like to better understand it.
UEFA has what they call “Financial Fair Play” that has a number of requirements regarding expenditures vs. revenue, number of “home grown” players, and the like.
City (along with a few other big sides) have been skirting the rules, and have already been sanctioned for the upcoming CL season. I think they lost a few roster spots. They also have a dearth of “home grown” players, which some claim led to their rather suspicious “self-loan” of Frank Lampard from NYFC.
A very thorough rundown on Wiki: UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations - Wikipedia
Also, any team with Samir Nasri on it can’t be called “not an unlikable bunch”.
Although I did really enjoy watching Bacary Sagna - it will be touch to watch him sit on the bench all season.
Swansea City beat Man United 2-1. New relegation favourites perhaps?
Yes, I forgot that even the French national team didn’t want him tainting their roster.
Excellent play from the Swans. They may be this year’s Southampton, the best of the rest. And on that note, an encouraging effort from the Saints at Liverpool today. They don’t look like a club that will be going down.
Well all the title contenders got the full three points this weekend (sorry, United fans…) if perhaps not all convincingly (cough Arsenal cough).
First serious tests upcoming - ManCity/Liverpool next Monday and Arsenal at Everton after a trip to Turkey.
Chelsea continue their pre-season warmups against Leicester at home.
Well, it’s good that we won our first home opener in five years.
Crystal Palace can be very hard to play; they play very defensively and exploit opportunities, and do so successfully. Witness their ability to crawl from the cellar to 11th as observed last year in half a season. However, I had hoped for something more decisive for the Gunners.
Terrific possession for Arsenal, 76% v. 24% and 9 corners 3. Gunners were in control all game, excepting that bad defensive moment, which lead to the opposition goal. However, we did not create as many clear opportunities—14 shots (6 on target) versus 4 (3 on target) for Crystal Palace—as that much possession would suggest. Sanchez was very good, but still finding his place. Sanogo has talent, but isn’t tremendously experienced at finding dangerous positions against a tight defense. Giroud was much better in that role when he came up as a sub.
Ramsey was fantastic. Cazorla’s crosses and corners were nowhere near as good as usual, a problem exacerbated by Crystal Palace’s greater height, especially without Mertesacker. Opening day jitters for him too, I guess.
The bad: we gave up possession in the attacking third way too much and too easily; our guys looked a bit nervous throughout, especially given our recent past poor performance with opening matches. We needed more pace, confidence, and aggression in getting the ball forward. I think that will come, especially when we get Özil back and Sanchez grows more comfortable with the new situation.
Defensively, we more mostly good, except what led to the goal against: poor positioning against a set piece, in particular lack of coverage at the far post which would have easily stopped the goal. Koscielny was terrific overall, although one could argue he should have marked Hangeland far better when the goal was scored. His equalizer made amends. Gibbs looks to be out for a week or two with a hamstring issue.
Some commentators said losing a point was harsh to Crystal Palace, but that’s utter rubbish. They Eagles created next to nothing in attacking Arsenal, and only showed strength in stopping Arsenal’s passing game, which we executed unusually poorly to begin with (thus flattering Crystal Palace). Somehow the media always find the cloud in the silver lining when it comes to Arsenal. But credit where credit is due, the Eagles did well in preventing Arsenal from playing with our usual fluidity.
I think with opening nerves out of the way, Arsenal will perform better than critics suggest. We need to find more depth in the back line; I really hope Wenger has something up his sleeve, because right now there’s reason to be worried. Our midfield is mighty in attacking and creating, but another world-class holding midfielder would be great. Icing on the cake would be one more striker to give more depth to attacking options, but Walcott is due back any day, so really defensive issues concern me the most.
I look forward to getting our Germans back! We definitely missed Özil and Mertesacker.
I promise I won’t post quite so much after every Arsenal match. And you could read too much into the opening game, anyway.
Manchester United will be back, I promise. Van Gaal: “[Our confidence] will be smashed because of this.” I doubt it will be smashed for long. But no one really thinks ManU will mount a serious title challenge.
Fàbregas played brilliantly for Chelsea today, very creative and in control of their chances. Maybe he really has found the right place for his brilliance to shine again! Pity he didn’t just stay at Arsenal, but we’re doing well with creative midfielders as it is.
Tomorrow: Champions League!
Oh, it won’t bother me if you do! I agree with just about everything you wrote, other than you were far too kind to Cazorla - that may have been the worst performance from him I’ve seen since he came in.
I’m very worried about the lack of defensive cover. Are Monreal and Chambers going to be the CBs for the CL qualifier? Ignasi Miquel? Eek.
I’m watching that match recorded now, and I haven’t seen anything yet to deter me from thinking Chelsea will win the league this season. Early days, early days…
Question for English fans: Does anybody really care about the Europa League, UEFA cup, et al? I compare it to college basketball in the US, where there is a 64 team tournament to pick a champion, and then another tournament for the non-qualifiers to, um, pick the 65th best team, and then yet another couple tournaments for the also-also-rans… I guess somebody must be watching these, but I’ve never met a fan who got even slightly excited about them. Is it the same deal for these lesser Euro-tournaments, or do people take them seriously?
Prob fair to say that the majority of fans don’t go crazy about the Europa league, although there is respectable enthusiasm. You have to appreciate, though, that most fans are telly clappers, where going to the game doesn’t hold much resonance or value.
For those who do go to the game, a European road trip is a big deal, a highpoint of the season. Although these fans are relatively few in number, they are the lifeblood of a club (more so in cultural and opinion-forming terms, than economic, these days), so they carry a lot of weight.
So to dismiss the Europa league from afar is perhaps understandable - closer up it’s less credible to do so - it places the viewpoint of telly-clappers above that of the match-going fan and that can never be right.
ETA - a telly = a television. A telly clapper = someone who watches football matches exclusively on television and claps when they are happy.
Well, if depends. For Chelsea (though they won it a couple of years ago), Man City etc having to play in the Europa League is a come down, as these teams want to compete in and win the European Cup. But for teams like Fulham who reached the final a few years ago, any. European football is a big bonus.
Well, it looks like Liverpool has exchanged one asshole striker for another.
Looking to fill the hole left by Suarez’s departure, they have now apparently signed Mario Balotelli.
Balotelli clearly has loads of talent, and he scored 30 goals in 54 games for A.C. Milan, which is precisely the sort of production that Liverpool would like to get from Suarez’s replacement.
He is an incredible hothead on and off the field, though. Brendan Rogers has something of a reputation for being able to deal with these sorts of egomaniac personalities, but he’ll have to stay right on his toes if he wants to keep things running smoothly with Balotelli on the team.
For some reason, Balotelli seems slightly less reprehensible to me than Suárez. Not sure if that makes sense. Maybe it’s just because Mario never bit anyone in the World Cup. (Biting’s not his way. He’s not particularly known for egregious violence towards other players.)
In other news, West Brom’s signings, especially having just picked up Samaras from F.C. Celtic, make me think they do not belong on the likely-relegation list.
Still waiting for Wenger to pick up a couple more players to provide depth we’re lacking on defense (and another holding midfielder, please.) So many rumors, a persist one being about Sami Khedira. We shall see.
His stomp on the head of Scott Parker a couple of years back, for which he was suspended four games, did not look particularly good. It wasn’t quite bad enough that you could say with certainty that it was intentional, but at absolute best it was reckless.
Anyway, it appears that there are going to be a bunch of behavior clauses in his contract, so hopefully that will prevent some of the stupid, disruptive stuff that he’s been prone to in the past.
If he behaves himself, and plays up to his considerable ability, he will an absolute steal at £16 million. You’ve got to wonder, though, why Milan were so eager (even desperate) to get rid of a player of his talent, a guy who scored 30 goals in 54 games, for such a relatively low transfer fee.
Oh, yeah. I kinda forgot about that. How about: “mostly” not known for violence towards other players…
I doubt it will prevent anything, and is only there to give Liverpool an easy way out.
I’ve been wondering that myself.
ETA: An article from BBC comparing the two.