Refs aside, it really wasn't a good performance by either side. Man U were very fortunate to go ahead on a set piece. Arsenal (toothlessly, with lots of side- and back-passing) dominated possession especially in the second half but had an utter lack of cutting edge in the final third. A 0-0 draw would have been a fairer result. Though the win takes United to 5th and may be important for them at the end of the season, it's really not that black a mark for Arsenal. Still top of the league, and a league campaign is a marathon, not a sprint. If you said at the beginning of the week that Arsenal would win 2 and lose 1 out of Liverpool-Dortmund-United, I bet you most Arsenal fans would have taken it.
The other interesting thing is that all the leading contenders at the moment, with the exception of Liverpool (who aren't involved), will all be advancing to the next stage of their European competitions. Tottenham lead their Europa League group comfortably, and in the Champions League the only side that looks in any sort of danger is Arsenal, but they're actually leading that group and it's more likely either Napoli or Dortmund will miss out. City, United, Chelsea and Tottenham will all start favourites in their Capital One Cup quarter final ties next month, then of course they'll all have the F.A Cup to contend. I think United/Chelsea/City probably have the best depth of the lot, and Arsenal joins that group if they can get their injured back and playing. Liverpool will probably benefit from only having the two competitions to contend, which is fortunate as their roster doesn't go nearly as deep as some of the other sides.
I take issue with the part I bolded there. You're clearly a bit deluded about this group. Napoli just got the shit kicked out of them by Juventus 3-0 (Pogba's goal was a stunner and Pirlo's free kick was also awesome) in their Serie A match yesterday and Marseille are absolutely hopeless (partially due to their goalie Mandanda, who is in Almunia form at the moment), having lost all 4 CL matches they have played - even Andre Ayew cannot save that team. Arsenal already have 3 wins in that group and have now played both games against Dortmund. Arsenal's next CL match is at home to Marseille - I think Gnabry may feature, due to his pace and Zelalem may be on the bench, having just returned from injury. If (not a big if there either) Arsenal win that match, it's on to the 2nd round due to it being impossible for a team to not qualify with 4 wins in the group stage. I'm also pretty sure Arsenal will get at least a draw at Napoli. Make no mistake: the F.A. Cup is not a priority for Wenger, the Premier League is, so I expect an under-strength Arsenal to go out in the 5th round or quarter-finals. Tottenham are hopeless. They lost at home yesterday to Newcastle, a team with a poor away record, although, to his credit, Krul was fucking amazing in the Newcastle goal - that triple-save was amazing. Tottenham barely beat Sherriff in their Europa league match last Thursday - £100m bought them one extra goal over an Eastern European team no-one has heard of. Oh, and Tottenham were AT HOME also. Pathetic. Arsenal only lose to very good teams (Bayern, Dortmund) and atrocious refereeing (Taylor for the Villa game) at home. Also, Spurs can't buy a goal from open play at the moment - they're Liverpool from 2 years ago the way they hit the woodwork or shoot wide. I'd favour Kevin Nolan to be doing his chicken-dance as he knocks Spurs flying out of the Capital One Cup. As for the others, Stoke will be difficult to beat at the Britannia and Shawcross and Huth may well maim some of Manchester United's players, and Sunderland did just beat Manchester City this past weekend at home - I think Poyet may be turning a corner with his team, since they put up a dogged defensive performance, something they have failed at a lot previously. Fletcher is also starting to look sharp for them again - Sunderland will give Chelsea a big fight and the Mackems will turn up in their droves to support their team. Also, Sunderland knocked out Southampton in the previous round - Southampton have been playing some excellent football this season, so that was no easy achievement.
You clearly missed the unbolded part after. Or the part before where I said they'd advance. Realistically, the key clash will be Arsenal's away fixture at Napoli. It's quite possible both teams, along with Dortmund, will end up on 12 points each, and it will come down to goal difference. Considering 12 points may not be enough for a team to progress to the next round, that makes this group far more difficult than any other the others in the competition. United, for example, would easily top their group if they get to 12. City are already safe, and they only have 9 points. Although, if Arsenal didn't progress ahead of Napoli you'd have to be a little worried, considering they did get flogged by Juventus, as you mentioned, who are languishing behind European powerhouses Copenhagen FC and Galatasary in the Champions League. Interesting your points about Tottenham. They've gained a lot of points from Solado converting penalties, but their game against Newcastle was probably one of their better in terms of chances created from open play. AVB picked a more attack-oriented side to previous clashes. They're obviously struggling for goals at the moment, but to completely rule them out so early is a bit ridiculous. I'd be surprised if Sunderland weren't relegated. They're just fortunate City struggle at the Stadium of Light for whatever reason.
Sorry, I did miss that. Yesterday was an angry day. It might come down to the final match in Arsenal's group because I think Dortmund will win against Napoli - Dortmund are one of the best teams in Europe while Napoli are inconsistent and Dortmund are at home, where they are extremely difficult to beat - they had a 62 match unbeaten run at home in European competition before Arsenal beat them last time out. It's a question of how many goals Dortmund can score - if Napoli defend firm and only concede one or two, Arsenal might finish top of the group if they can thrash at least 4 past Marseille at the Emirates Stadium (due to Dortmund winning 3-1 in the prior fixture against Marseille at the Westfalenstadion). I think UEFA may also take prior results as well as goal difference into account when deciding who qualifies from a group, which would mean if Arsenal lose 1-0 against Napoli at San Paolo, Arsenal would finish ahead of Napoli due to Arsenal winning 2-0 at Emirates. I would say 12 points in Manchester United's group would be tough - Leverkusen are no soft touches and have two good goalkeepers in Palop (!) and Bernd Leno as well as other good players like Derdiyok, Kießling, Bender, Rolfes, Sam and Castro. Also, Leverkusen have won their two previous matches at home in the Champions league this season. I think Juventus won't qualify from their group - they'd need to beat Copenhagen at home (that one is easy enough) and beat Galatasaray away (very difficult if you aren't Real Madrid) - they've had too many draws to progress in my opinion. Galatasaray should get 2nd in that group - they have a good team who were unfortunate in their match against Real Madrid on Match Day 1 and Mancini should be able to get them defending better in the next match against RM. As for Spurs, their strikers all seem to be in crap form from open play (Soldado), left to sit on the bench (Defoe) or want to leave and thus a liability (Adebayor - big surprise there, since he is a world-class cunt). Spurs have made a massive mistake in selling Bale with no-one even close to being able to replace him as a creator and scorer of goals (as an Arsenal fan, I was thrilled to see the back of him and for Spurs' inevitable struggle). I simply don't see where their goals will come from. Soldado, throughout his career, has scored many of his goals from set pieces (headers from corners and free-kicks in particular back when he was the focal point of Valencia's attack). Defoe is very capable of scoring from open play but AVB seems to prefer Soldado, due to Soldado making more of an effort to bring team-mates into play while Defoe is much more selfish with the ball. Kane is still quite inexperienced (he wasn't that good at Norwich last season either) and probably won't get much game time unless Soldado or Defoe get injured. Their midfield has to contribute more - Sigurdsson and Holtby have simply not done enough, Lamela and Chadli are both a bit raw, Sandro is not known for goal-scoring often and I'm honestly not sure about Paulinho - he seems to be sound defensively and in his passing, but not sure about his goal-scoring ability. Huddlestone was a goal threat, with sound long-range shooting abilities, but was sold off to Hull. I don't see any consistent goal-scorers in Spurs' defence either. In short, Spurs are in desperate need of at least one striker and need to get rid of Adebayor A.S.A.P. and Townsend needs to start converting more of his chances - he can score very good goals (e.g. debut stunner for England).
Messi who? This Ibra-CR7 duel was incredible. What a terrible draw cause both those men deserve to be in Rio.
Outstanding battle. Other than the high quality of Ronaldo's finishes, the thing that impressed me was the three passes that set him up. All were top notch.
Sorry about the annoying Portuguese commentary (just mute it) but it's an obligatory video... So, thanks for the points and the comedy, Artur Boruc!
So that was a good 2-0 win or Arsenal last night at home to Marseille, who will be out of Europe before Christmas, having lost all 5 of their CL games that they've played. I was surprised at how well Marseille resisted, pressing Arsenal's defence high up the pitch for much of the match and not really allowing Arsenal's passing game to shine. The early goal was excellent from Wilshere - he looked more energetic in this match than he has done for weeks. Flamini had an OK match, Rosicky played well and supplied some good passes, but Giroud was clearly tired and needs a rest - Podolski cannot come back soon enough in my opinion. As for NB23 and his antics, it's time for the club to tear up his contract. He can't even play for us at the moment, being busy sitting in jail and court. He was going to leave at the end of the season anyway - rather just pay him off now and be done with him. I did laugh at Chelsea's result and I was surprised that Porto got just 1 point from their home match against Austria Wien. I was really pleased for Ajax that they beat FC Messi-Less 2-1. No Messi, no win Barcelona. Fuck you.
Chelsea go through the group stages anyway, despite that loss. That's 2 poor performances against Basel now. United absolutely dominated Leverkusen away overnight. Rooney was immense with 4 assists. It was easily their best performance under Moyes, and even more impressive considering they did it without RVP. They haven't lost a fixture out of their past 11 now. They'll top the table regardless how they fare in their last match. Juventus scored a crucial win, and have a tough fixture away at Galatasary to finish off. The Arsenal/Dortmund/Napoli group is definitely the most interesting going into the final round. Arsenal and Dortmund should advance due to their goal difference, which it ultimately could be decided on.
Aaron Ramsey just can't stop scoring. And again. I keep waiting for the regression but it doesn't seem to be coming. Also, brilliant strike by Wilshere off the crossbar - he seems to be finding his shooting form. Özil with two assists to quiet some of the morons who call him "invisible" - hey retards, his entire game is finding space off the ball. I do think City are in the title hunt this year though. I've seen some stats that indicate they have a higher "good shot" differential (i.e., shots from scoring positions in front of the goal, on target) than any club in the Premier League. You'd expect their quality to come out sooner or later. I think they'll start gaining ground pretty quickly. But if Arsenal keep taking the three points off the poorer sides, they can build up a decent lead and let City do the chasing.
Yes, this past weekend was a great one to be an Arsenal supporter. but some credit must go to Cardiff, who played well for large stretches of the match (Theophile-Catherine and Mutch in particular) and pegged Arsenal back. It was two excellent balls into the box (the first 2 goals) and one fantastic touch from Ramsey that put the match beyond Cardiff. Once Flamini scored, Cardiff had no way back. Whittingham on Cardiff's left side seemed to have a very quiet match, possibly due to continuous attacks from Sagna, who seems to be on his way back to peak form, aside from almost giving Mertesacker concussion. I had to laugh at the Spuds playing Manchester United. Both teams were awful for large stretches (both defences looked creaky apart from Dawson for Spurs and Smalling for United and the attacking players, aside from Rooney, looked insipid) and, of course, Manchester United's dodgy penalty gave them the draw. Unfortunately for Arsenal, City and Chelski both won. I laughed when Lovren attempted to cripple Ramires and only conceded a free kick for it. Obviously the ref had seen Ramires' blatant cheating (against WBA most recently) and ignored him. Fuck Ramires, Young, Suarez* and the other divers I may have forgotten. I didn't see the West Ham vs. Fulham match but Fulham looked defensively all over the place and Jol was dismissed either today or yesterday and Meulensteen is now in charge. I did laugh a lot at Skrtel's comedy own goal against Hull. Oops. *Suarez isn't diving as much, so he is at least improving, unlike the other 2 who flop over at the sight of an opposition player.
I've actually come around on Suarez. I used to really dislike him due to the diving, biting, cheating, and that flabbergasted expression whenever the refs noticed. But he seems to have toned that down, and he is immensely talented. I wonder how much longer Liverpool can hang on to him. I think it's one big transfer away from somebody having the funds to go for him.
Yes, like I said at the foot of my post, he has started doing less of all the nonsense he was previously associated with doing. I reckon he'll end up at Real Madrid in a swap for Benzema in the summer after the World Cup. I don't think he'll stay in England.
As a Liverpool fan, its been great to see. Even being biased, it was infuriating to watch Suarez dive, especially when he's so skilled and could have created better chances staying on his feet. And there is just no defense for the biting incident, though I did take his side against Evra cause Evra is an absolute twat. But he seems like a good enough guy who just got caught up in the heat of the moment too often. After the "will he, wont he" saga over the summer, he seems to have responded well to the support from the club and its fans and really plays well with Sturridge. They are a joy to watch. Sturridge's injury is brutal, on top of an inexcusable loss to Hull. Rodgers needs to stop fucking with the lineup and leaving players like Coutinho (I know he was hurt from the Merseyside derby, but he's been held out at times with others that makes you scratch your head) out until the 70th minute, its insanity. HUGE stretch coming up. Need to get 3 at home against Norwich, West Ham, and Cardiff, hopefully snag a point at White Hall Lane so they can buffer going into the stretch against Man City and Chelsea right before the New Year.
You must have been quite pleased with Suarez yesterday then. Poor Norwich, he fucks them over badly every year. I totally agree with you on Evra, who is indeed a massive cunt - there was a rumour that he'd be moving back to Monaco, a move which, I hope, materialises. West Ham are suffering badly at the moment - 3 points over Fulham (incidentally Jol's last match at Fulham as manager) doesn't paper over the cracks with a 1-0 away loss on Tuesday to Crystal Palace (who are now managed by that cunty, hateful troll Tony Pulis). I hope Big Sam can hang on until January and then he HAS TO sign a striker from somewhere - even with Andy Carroll returning at some point, and Carlton Cole's return to Upton Park, they need to find the net on a more consistent basis. I had to laugh at Manchester United losing at home to Everton - I'm not sure what Roberto Martinez has done to that team, or if he is just a radically better manager than Moyes, but he has Everton playing at a really high level lately and, like Arsenal, defensively resilient. MUFC need to buy midfielders in the transfer window - I don't see Cleverley or Anderson as being good enough for them to last the remainder of the season based on their pretty poor performances thus far. Carrick is their only decent midfielder now and he's out until January but it would be wise of them to obtain more options. It seems a bit silly them now needing midfielders when they got rid of two excellent ones (Ravel Morrison and Paul Pogba). Tottenham very nearly lost to Fulham at Craven Cottage but ended up winning 1-2 - I think Fulham will have to go out and spend significantly in all areas to stay up in the Premier League. I think that's at least 5 consecutive losses for them now (including those under Jol)? It's been said on some podcasts that Fulham have too many lazy players (the on-loan Taraabt, Bryan Ruiz, Berbatov) and not enough hard workers - I think the bigger issue is that their midfield has no creativity whatsoever. Scott Parker is defensively sound but won't create any goals for you. They've lacked a real midfield creator since they sold Dembele to Spurs. Arsenal played well enough to win against Hull but barely got out of 2nd gear. Bendtner in particular worked his ass off up front, chasing down everything and harrassing defenders. As much as I dislike him for what he has done in the past, especially his off-the-field nonsense involving locked swimming pools, if he keeps performing on the pitch like he did last night, there's no reason not to offer him a contract extension. Flamini, Monreal, Ramsey and Jenkinson were also excellent (by a long way this was Jenkinson's best match of the season thus far), but I thought Rosicky and Koscielny were poor - Rosicky's passing and movement, usually his two strongest assets, seemed to let him down last night. Koscielny seemed to have difficulty in clearing the ball well and slipped Szczesny a terrible back-pass that almost resulted in a goal for Hull. I thought Hull played quite well for spells in the game (the 15 minutes before half-time and some other stages in the second half) and they look like a team who can stay up - they have an experienced goalkeeper in McGregor and some decent players in Livermore and Huddlestone (it galls me to say that about former Spuds) in the middle of the park as well as Sagbo up front and Brady (a bit divey for me but a good player nonetheless), Almohamedy, Chester (who looked good apart from Bendtner's goal) and Alex Bruce at the back.
At least Martinez tries to win and will actually give it a go. Moyes' M.O. at Everton was to always play for the draw, making defensive substitutions and getting 10 men behind the ball. You can't manage a big club with that alone. I thought Arsenal bossed the early going without trying especially hard. Bendtner had one appalling touch that would have been a free goal, but generally worked hard. It feels like his mind wants to do things his feet aren't quite able to. The casualness caught up with them in the second half and Hull was able to get some time in Arsenal's end. Szczesny had his first distribution fuck-up of the season. Özil man of the match for me - consistently created chances and wreaked havoc with Hull's defense, created one goal and calmly finished another. As a club, it's hard not to like Crystal Palace. Live eagle mascot? Cheerleaders? Truly America's team.
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/final-draw/draw.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/final-draw/draw.html</a> Spoiler Group A: Brazil, Croatia, Mexico, Cameroon Group B: Spain, Netherlands, Chile, Australia Group C: Colombia, Greece, Cote d'Ivoire, Japan Group D: Uruguay, Costa Rica, England, Italy Group E: Switzerland, Ecuador, France, Honduras Group F: Argentina, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Iran, Nigeria Group G: Germany, Portugal, Ghana, USA Group H: Belgium, Algeria, Russia, Korea Republic We're fucked, Australia's fucked, England's maybe fucked, France falls dick-first into the knockouts.
Not really. Portugal may have one of the best players in the world, but they almost didn't qualify. Ghana aren't that good. Australia, on the other hand... I think the Poms can advance too.