Premier League | Stoke City vs Arsenal | 19/08/2017 | 17:30 BST (16:30 UTC) | BT Sport

[alexisales]

Arséne had to stay. The whole stadium move was his project. The captain goes down with the ship. Would Mourinho have done it is neither here nor there. And let's not pretend which is what you're doing that we were impoverished. We had the fourth highest wage bill in England, amongst the top ten in Europe and therefore the world. That is a position teams would kill to be in. This myth and that's all it is should be dead by now rather than continually perpetuated.

We elected to spend 650m and all the interest that accumulated on bricks and mortar rather than buying twenty players in the Hazard price bracket with change left over. We choose investment off the pitch rather than on it but it was investment and it was money. Plain and simple. Fact.

Nobody is getting carried away with United or Mourinho. But on an Arsenal forum I expect to be able to debate why when I feel we have the best squad in the league and possibly the second or third best squad in Europe that we are so far behind when it matters. And to look at someone who has dominated football and ask "what is he doing that we aren't" should be encouraged rather than asking mods to ban a person.

we have nowhere near the best squad in the league lol. We have too many sub standard or average players to be considered one of the best.

 

[carlito'sway]

Spent the morning feeling rather disheartened and subdued and I had no idea why, then I remembered that I care about football - probably too much - and remembered what happened yesterday, and it dawned on me... I hate Wenger.

p.s.

Don't bother replying to this post, I won't be coming back to this thread.

The state of this post..... Some folks really need to get some perspective in life and reassess their priorities. To hate someone that you barely know, hasn't hurt or done anything to you personally and is simply unfathomable to me. I can't stand Jose Mourinho, but would ever cross my mind to say or write that I hate him.

 

[carlito'sway]

Arséne had to stay. The whole stadium move was his project. The captain goes down with the ship. Would Mourinho have done it is neither here nor there. And let's not pretend which is what you're doing that we were impoverished. We had the fourth highest wage bill in England, amongst the top ten in Europe and therefore the world. That is a position teams would kill to be in. This myth and that's all it is should be dead by now rather than continually perpetuated.

We elected to spend 650m and all the interest that accumulated on bricks and mortar rather than buying twenty players in the Hazard price bracket with change left over. We choose investment off the pitch rather than on it but it was investment and it was money. Plain and simple. Fact.

Nobody is getting carried away with United or Mourinho. But on an Arsenal forum I expect to be able to debate why when I feel we have the best squad in the league and possibly the second or third best squad in Europe that we are so far behind when it matters. And to look at someone who has dominated football and ask "what is he doing that we aren't" should be encouraged rather than asking mods to ban a person.

Mate, I have seen more lucid posters from you. Come on. As others already wrote, we don't have the best squad in the league or the second in Europe. Our current one is barely scratching the top 4 in the EPL.

 

[Makingtrax]

Arséne had to stay. The whole stadium move was his project. The captain goes down with the ship. Would Mourinho have done it is neither here nor there. And let's not pretend which is what you're doing that we were impoverished. We had the fourth highest wage bill in England, amongst the top ten in Europe and therefore the world. That is a position teams would kill to be in. This myth and that's all it is should be dead by now rather than continually perpetuated.

We elected to spend 650m and all the interest that accumulated on bricks and mortar rather than buying twenty players in the Hazard price bracket with change left over. We choose investment off the pitch rather than on it but it was investment and it was money. Plain and simple. Fact.

Nobody is getting carried away with United or Mourinho. But on an Arsenal forum I expect to be able to debate why when I feel we have the best squad in the league and possibly the second or third best squad in Europe that we are so far behind when it matters. And to look at someone who has dominated football and ask "what is he doing that we aren't" should be encouraged rather than asking mods to ban a person.

Best squad in the league? Not even close in my book, by quality, by money, or by experience.

 

[bingobob]

Really? You think we have the best squad in the league and second or third squad in Europe?

We have the numbers, but quality wise we're a joke in most positions.

Genuinely yes. You only need to look at the Community Shield to see the depth of our squad. We have three left backs ranging from very good to good that can be called upon. I don't think Real Madrid have a decent back up to Marcello never mind a third choice decent back up. But then that is depth to the extreme and even then we fail to use it to our advantage.

 

[Makingtrax]

Mate, I have seen more lucid posters from you. Come on. As others already wrote, we don't have the best squad in the league or the second in Europe. Our current one is barely scratching the top 4 in the EPL.

I reckon a lot of our posters think we have the best squad in the league and therefore ought to be winning the title . . . . and there lies the problem.

No wonder people get so p*ssed when we lose. Coming in the top four and winning one of the two major domestic trophies 3 times in the last four years is very good. (alright we were one point of fourth this year).

We're never going to be league and CL champions until we can spend a sh*t load more of money. People still don't get it.

 

[billyf]

I wasn't able to watch the game yesterday so tell me this. We played that 5 at the back **** again, didn't we?

P.S. Stoke seem to have some quality players up front.

 

[alexisales]

Genuinely yes. You only need to look at the Community Shield to see the depth of our squad. We have three left backs ranging from very good to good that can be called upon. I don't think Real Madrid have a decent back up to Marcello never mind a third choice decent back up. But then that is depth to the extreme and even then we fail to use it to our advantage.

look at our cm options right now even with everyone fit it doesn't look like a top midfield ready to compete with city, utd, barca madrid e.t.c, we can barely compete with ****ing everton these days.

 

[Furious]

I watched Napoli for a bit yesterday and the difference between them and us in the 1st phase of play and build up is incredible. I didn't see their CM's Hamsik or Zielinski beyond their striker when building up from the back. Instead their play was organized until they reached the final third.

Either our players are ****ing * or our manager has no clue about tactics.

 

[Preacher]

Please don't keep posting this propaganda sh*t all year again. Surely it's enough that the officials are against us.

How does it help? There's a load of people with anger issues on here and you wind them and stay calm.

I don't care what you think.

 

[Furious]

Genuinely yes. You only need to look at the Community Shield to see the depth of our squad. We have three left backs ranging from very good to good that can be called upon. I don't think Real Madrid have a decent back up to Marcello never mind a third choice decent back up. But then that is depth to the extreme and even then we fail to use it to our advantage.

They have just bought Theo Hernandez from their rivals Atletico, hugely talented guy to backup Marcelo.

Still I'd much rather have 11 world class players with good talented backups like Real than us with 33 feckin players.

 

[bingobob]

Mate, I have seen more lucid posters from you. Come on. As others already wrote, we don't have the best squad in the league or the second in Europe. Our current one is barely scratching the top 4 in the EPL.

You don't have to agree. But simply the vast majority of our players would be starting for other teams. We've the first choice RB from the French national team for the 2014 world cup sitting picking dingle berries from his butt hole when he'd be starting for 50% of the teams in the league.

When our first choice striker goes down we can call upon a French international and two English internationals or Lukas Perez. Again what other team in the league has that depth?

So I don't think that it's even a stretch to say a team that has a German world cup winning defender sitting on the bench has the best squad in the league. Starting Xi that's a different question and answer all together.

 

[alexisales]

I watched Napoli for a bit yesterday and the difference between them and us in the 1st phase of play and build up is incredible. I didn't see their CM's Hamsik or Zielinski beyond their striker when building up from the back. Instead their play was organized until they reached the final third.

Either our players are ****ing * or our manager has no clue about tactics.

he's a tactical dinosaur, I can't believe he still gets away with being so far behind the curve.

 

[Makingtrax]

I don't care what you think.

I realise that, but what do you get out of it?

 

[bingobob]

They have just bought Theo Hernandez from their rivals Atletico, hugely talented guy to backup Marcelo.

Still I'd much rather have 11 world class players with good talented backups like Real than us with 33 feckin players.

Agreed 100%. Doesn't change that I believe overall our squad is the best in the league. But starting Xi then only in the top four. And the fact we fail to use both the squad and starting Xi to maximum potential.

 

[David_Smith]

We'll be looking better once we get our first choice defenders back, and when Alexis returns. We dominated possession and the chances and that can only be a good thing, despite defensive frailties.

 

[Makingtrax]

They have just bought Theo Hernandez from their rivals Atletico, hugely talented guy to backup Marcelo.

Still I'd much rather have 11 world class players with good talented backups like Real than us with 33 feckin players.

Totally agree but many of our players like Gibbs, Walcott, Jenko etc have been with us a long time, since the days before we could afford the finished article.

Buying young with potential maybe a cheap way of getting good players but what if they don't achieve that potential and flatter to deceive like Ox and Ramsey. Even people on here think they're the bees knees.

Nobody wants to buy them ffs. Football's moved on and with TV money most clubs can afford better from abroad. Sad state of affairs.

 

[Makingtrax]

Agreed 100%. Doesn't change that I believe overall our squad is the best in the league. But starting Xi then only in the top four. And the fact we fail to use both the squad and starting Xi to maximum potential.

Can't be serious. Used to rate you as a poster

 

[Furious]

Agreed 100%. Doesn't change that I believe overall our squad is the best in the league. But starting Xi then only in the top four. And the fact we fail to use both the squad and starting Xi to maximum potential.

I disagree. I think our starting 11 is as good as any in the league, but we fail in other areas, consistency, tactically, squad players, injuries etc.

Guys like wilshere, santi, chambers, debuchy, campbell, gibbs, jenks walcott, and even feckin bramall who we signed for no absolutely no reason are useless squad players. Don't see why you rate the squad, as I said we have the numbers, but lack quality.

 

[Kwaku]

This is not a good result and after last weeks game pretty much confirms that this team has

I reckon a lot of our posters think we have the best squad in the league and therefore ought to be winning the title . . . . and there lies the problem.

No wonder people get so p*ssed when we lose. Coming in the top four and winning one of the two major domestic trophies 3 times in the last four years is very good. (alright we were one point of fourth this year).

We're never going to be league and CL champions until we can spend a sh*t load more of money. People still don't get it.

I agree with this. People need to understand that Arsenal's main goal is not to win the Premier League, but to be "competitive". Finishing in the top four and winning a domestic trophy is a fantastic season in the clubs eyes.

Fans getting upset have high expectations from the club for some reasons, when the club has blatantly showed everybody for years that they aren't prepared to spend money with the likes of City, United and to an extent Chelsea.