Fun fact: Since Pep notoriously called Spurs “the Harry Kane team”, he has lost to them five times in matches where Kane didn’t play!
Also, from Wikipedia (at least recently):
Japhet Mazambi Tanganga (born 31 March 1999) is a professional footballer who plays as a defender for Tottenham Hotspur in the English Premier League. He has two children named Jack Grealish and Raheem Sterling.
You cant spell Arsenal without arse. Everyone needs to go with that club.
As someone that started watching soccer in the early 2000s with Henry, Vieira, Campbell, Bergkamp, etc; I’ve had a fondness for Arsenal. Even towards the 2010s when they weren’t as successful they played some very attractive soccer with quick and intricate passing. I don’t know if I’d say their current state is a shame because it’s not like it was outside their control, but it does feel odd that they’ve fallen so far.
Agreed. I was always a fan of Arsene Wenger and was sad to see him go. Im also never sure what they are doing in the transfer market.
I’ve been an Arsenal fan since around 2005-06 so I’ve been watching the decline very closely. There isn’t just one reason for the collapse, but it certainly didn’t help that they tried numerous “quick fix” solutions that ended up with unplayable players on wages that make them impossible to move. Even now I think they’d like to move Aubameyang or Lacazette if they could but it’s just not possible. They are trying to give Willian away one year after giving him a 3-year deal. I have little faith in the current talent evaluators at the club.
They do finally seem to be focused on younger players that might make a good core in the future (Saka, Emile Smith-Rowe, Ben White, Kieren Tierney) but I’ve become more and more convinced that Arteta doesn’t really know what he’s doing in the sense that he knows the system he wants to play but has no ideas how to adapt his style to a team that isn’t nearly as good as Man City were when he coached there.
The idea that the side he put out on Sunday could press Chelsea and get a result that way was ludicrous. I have no idea why he didn’t match up with a back 3, sit back and defend, and hope to use the pace of Saka, Pepe, and Martinelli to hit Chelsea on the break. Instead they got cut open time and time again as the “press” did nothing and Tierney was routinely trying to defend against two attackers (while poor Pablo Mari tried to deal with Lukaku) - and still Arteta changed nothing about the system through the entire match.
Its cool to be able to watch the Barrow v Aston Villa match on ESPN+. They have been in my FM games for years and its fun to see them play at home. It looks like their stadium is out in the middle of nowhere.
Christiano Ronaldo going back to Man United. Did not see THAT coming…
He’ll guarantee 25 league goals. Maybe he can blast United back to the Premier League title. They don’t have a great midfield compared to Man City and Chelsea but the forward line of Ronaldo, Sancho, Rashford, Cavani, Martial (if he regains form) is terrifying for defenders.
I don’t understand the CR7 signing. They just spent big to get Sancho and they already have Rashford. From a business perspective sure.
If he takes PKs over from Bruno Fernandes. I doubt it otherwise, but he might surprise me.
He’ll be competing with Cavani/Greenwood at the 9 spot I believe. He’s not too much of a winger anymore.
Man U’s stock went up 8% after this signing.
Financially its a great signing. They are going to sell millions of CR7 shirts worldwide.
A nice slate of games tomorrow starting with Man City v Arsenal at 430 PDT then Liverpool v Chelsea at 930 PDT on NBC.
So, after a long time of La Liga being the best league in the world, the EPL has pretty definitively taken the crown back (they probably have the top 3 teams in the world?). Who’s second now? I kinda think it might be the Bundesliga, which has been the worst of the big 4 the entire time I’ve followed soccer.
Arsenal lose 5-1 and are outshot 25-1. Arteta seems lost. He should be fired ASAP. It played out like one of my FM matches.
Brentford 5 points out of three matches. I think they will be quite happy with their results so far. Ive enjoyed the two matches Ive seen. I think I will join Rick Wakeman in becoming a Brentford fan.
It was, of course, 5-0 not 5-1. And Arsenal are now solidly at the foot of the table, with 0 wins and a -9 GD after 3 games. Oh and their captain got a straight red (again!) and they played a back-three with three defenders who probably shouldn’t even be with the club, and a right-wing-back that definitely shouldn’t be with the club.
Arteta likely won’t be fired until his pointless and overmatched team loses to Spurs on Sep 26. And even then if he manages to get wins against both Norwich and Burnley (unlikely, tbh) he may still hold on, because the Kroenkes don’t really seem to care anymore.
At least the club largely signed younger players this summer so perhaps the next manager can kick-start this rebuilding project by getting the players to actually give a fuck.
And yes, Brentford and Leeds are my two “watch whenever I can” teams right now.
Tottenham are so snake-bitten. Tanganga picked up one of the dumbest second yellows ever, they gave up a goal on a handball and CPs new signing from Celtic scores after 10 seconds on the pitch.
Six games going on, all at halftime. One goal in all of them - of course it’s by CR7.