Premier League 2012/2013: Race for the Top-4

[Floating]

I must say this season has gone by quicker than any in recent memory.

Glad it's over though, and ended on an extreme high. Let's hope we do some amazing business in the summer, have a great preseason, and really push on and challenge next year.

 

[Hunta]

Definitely has Floating, I can remember the Stoke and Liverpool away games like they were played yesterday. I'm buzzing at the minute, hope we improve the squad in the summer and mount a challenge next season.

 

[blaze_of_glory]

Yeah I was also just thinking earlier how quick the season seemed to go. In a way it seems like it was just something that needed to get done in order for the team to continue being rebuilt.

 

[GDeep™]

Got a ****ing hangover, head is thumping.

 

[alboots101]

What a week that was, had to wait untill Wed. Morning to watch the Arsenal beat the cup winners and yesterday I hat to sit with two liverpool fans, a Newcastle Utd fan and two manu fans, thankfully my dad and the owner of the the t.v. were goons.....average age in our little gathering was seventyfuckingsix, with me being the youngest at fifty.

Needs to be said, "forever in our shadow".

 

[Floating]

Arsenal have gained more points than last season, conceded fewer goals and scored just two fewer in the league. Instead, goals were shared about efficiently and Arsenal were the only club for which four different players (Giroud, Podolski, Santi Cazorla and Theo Walcott) reached double figures in the league.

One of the most interesting statistics from Arsenal's season is that in their last 16 games they took 39 points. That total is higher than in the last 16 games during their 'Invincibles' season of 2003/4. That is a mightily impressive achievement for Wenger, who seemed to be a dead man walking at the Emirates before Christmas.

F*cking brilliant, that.

 

[xinu]

And now can we bury the nonesense often spouted in media and here that Arsène Wenger cannot motivate the players!

Really positive end to season and team showed in last 10 games that they can hold their nerve and get a result. They fully deserved their celebrations because it was some come back to get top 4. Liked how Theo seems to have stepped up to the plate and talks like a leader now. It might not be the best side we have had but Wenger is right they do seem to be fully committed and play for each other. Its a solid foundation to build on.

 

[squallkid]

I'm sorry but the only people who are allowed to snicker at us celebrating 4th are the teams who finished above us and their fans.

Everybody else? Get a grip.

If Newcastle had equalized and Sp**s finished 4th they would be having an open top bus parade through London

I've heard Liverpool fans snickering and all.

The cheek of that lot, Liverpool fans of all people.

The team who spent 35 million pounds this summer, finished 7th, below Everton and twelve points behind us.

That is embarassing, not the fact that we finished fourth when everyone had already written our eulogy and said it was curtains for us.

Even at our lowest we are still a damned sight better than Sp**s and Liverpool and it is good to see. So they can laugh and make jokes all they want, we are the ones sitting pretty in fourth.

 

[Revolution]

Yeah, nothing wrong with the 'celebrations'. Perhaps there is something wrong with fourth gaining entry to a supposed prestigious European tournament.

If anything this brought closure to an awful season. Maybe the relief of that was too hard to contain. And it was predictable because the cycle is still in place, unless Arsène does something about the squad.

 

[Cudareli]

Yeah, nothing wrong with the 'celebrations'. Perhaps there is something wrong with fourth gaining entry to a supposed prestigious European tournament.

If anything this brought closure to an awful season. Maybe the relief of that was too hard to contain. And it was predictable because the cycle is still in place, unless Arsène does something about the squad.

Not quiet sure how there is something wrong with this, when almost every season that we have finished 4th, we've pushed onto the final stages of the tournament.

If you think that's an issue, then how about rearranging the tournament to the league winners from the leagues that have a realistic shot of challenging. Make it a 4 team tournament that contains the league winners from Italy, England, Spain and Germany.

What a stupid comment. The top 4 make it from England because over the years, anyone in that top 4 has been good enough to challenge for the Champions League in the following season.

 

[GunnerBP]

Yeah, nothing wrong with the 'celebrations'. Perhaps there is something wrong with fourth gaining entry to a supposed prestigious European tournament.

If anything this brought closure to an awful season. Maybe the relief of that was too hard to contain. And it was predictable because the cycle is still in place, unless Arsène does something about the squad.

Not quiet sure how there is something wrong with this, when almost every season that we have finished 4th, we've pushed onto the final stages of the tournament.

If you think that's an issue, then how about rearranging the tournament to the league winners from the leagues that have a realistic shot of challenging. Make it a 4 team tournament that contains the league winners from Italy, England, Spain and Germany.

What a stupid comment. The top 4 make it from England because over the years, anyone in that top 4 has been good enough to challenge for the Champions League in the following season.

Yeah, Chelsea came in fifth place last season and they won the Champions League.

 

[fabo]

The players were relieved to finish ahead of Sp**s/get CL - no harm. Celebrations were a tad cringeworthy but Sp**s would be sticking it to us if they achieved 4th. That big ape Freund hopping round the dugout.

Wenger's still one of the world's best but we really need to push on this Summer. I want to see us compete better with the top sides(at least stay amongst the title race for a while, doubt we can win it after one Summer window...no chance imo) AND WIN A CUP. We have to win a cup next season.

 

[Anzac]

Arsenal have gained more points than last season, conceded fewer goals and scored just two fewer in the league. Instead, goals were shared about efficiently and Arsenal were the only club for which four different players (Giroud, Podolski, Santi Cazorla and Theo Walcott) reached double figures in the league.

One of the most interesting statistics from Arsenal's season is that in their last 16 games they took 39 points. That total is higher than in the last 16 games during their 'Invincibles' season of 2003/4. That is a mightily impressive achievement for Wenger, who seemed to be a dead man walking at the Emirates before Christmas.

F*cking brilliant, that.

And entirely irrelevant unless we played the same quality opposition regarding where they finished in the league.

 

[Revolution]

Not quiet sure how there is something wrong with this, when almost every season that we have finished 4th, we've pushed onto the final stages of the tournament.

If you think that's an issue, then how about rearranging the tournament to the league winners from the leagues that have a realistic shot of challenging. Make it a 4 team tournament that contains the league winners from Italy, England, Spain and Germany.

What do you mean push on? Arsenal have been in the competition what -- 16 years, and have only reached the final once. Do you think that is progress? OK, the last few draws haven't been kind; the second legs have been damage limitation, but unless there is serious reinvestment in the squad, they will always succumb to the first good opposition. So you can understand why people are furious with Arsenal qualifying -- the cycle is still in place.

Limiting the competition to league winners will lose television interest, so UEFA will never do that. But it is right to to question the etymology of the 'Champions' League. It was called that for a reason. And as Wenger said in 1997 "...four or five years ago it would have been difficult to imagine runners-up in the European Cup." When you open up the competition to third and fourth placed teams, you kill off direct European competition, as you saw with the Cup Winners' Cup. And people deride the UEFA Cup.

Personally, they should bring back the CWC; if folk want Arsenal to win trophies again, they would probably fight as hard to win the FA Cup than finish fourth, if the latter hypothetically offered UEFA Cup football.

Yeah, Chelsea came in fifth place last season and they won the Champions League.

They gave up on the league after beating Barcelona. Their cup win last year, flukey and undeserved as it was, proved it was just a cup at the end of the day. They finished second in the league when they entered it, as did United when they won the treble. So nothing really undeserved on the qualifying stakes.

 

[Azeem Khaja]

Arsenal have gained more points than last season, conceded fewer goals and scored just two fewer in the league. Instead, goals were shared about efficiently and Arsenal were the only club for which four different players (Giroud, Podolski, Santi Cazorla and Theo Walcott) reached double figures in the league.

One of the most interesting statistics from Arsenal's season is that in their last 16 games they took 39 points. That total is higher than in the last 16 games during their 'Invincibles' season of 2003/4. That is a mightily impressive achievement for Wenger, who seemed to be a dead man walking at the Emirates before Christmas.

F*cking brilliant, that.

And entirely irrelevant unless we played the same quality opposition regarding where they finished in the league.

To be fair, bottom half of PL have become extremely competitive and do cause more problems to the top 5 than they did in early 2000. Didn't do any research on it, simply a memory recall coming close to midnight :shock:

 

[future heroes]

And entirely irrelevant unless we played the same quality opposition regarding where they finished in the league.

Since there are 20 teams in the league, we play against 16 out of 19 teams in the last 16 league games of the season.

In 2003/04, we played Everton (17th), Middlesbrough (11th), and Aston Villa (6th) in the three games that preceded our last 16 league fixtures.
In 2012/13, we played Southampton (14th), Manchester City (2nd), and Chelsea (3rd) in the three games that preceded our last 16 league fixtures.

I hear your objection and thus extrapolate the discussion to contain the matches above as well - in other words the whole second half of the respective league seasons:

In 2003/04 we had W13 D6 L0 = an average of 2.37 points/game
In 2012/13 we had W12 D4 L3 = an average of 2.11 points/game

 

[jerome2158]

What do you mean push on? Arsenal have been in the competition what -- 16 years, and have only reached the final once. Do you think that is progress? OK, the last few draws haven't been kind; the second legs have been damage limitation, but unless there is serious reinvestment in the squad, they will always succumb to the first good opposition. So you can understand why people are furious with Arsenal qualifying -- the cycle is still in place.

True draws haven't been kind, but we haven't helped ourselves in the group stage too much recently. It's our own fault there. And it's also true that 1 final appearance in 16 years is pathetic for a club like us. 16 years and yet we've only been to the semis twice, and lost the only final we've been in.

Look at how Chelsea perform in the cup. That's generally admirable. They've been in it 10 years running. In that time:

6 semi-final appearances
2 final appearances, with 1 win


It's definitely great being in the CL, but I want to see us genuinely challenge for it. Even in 09 when we made the semis, we were blown away. Otherwise what's the point? We might as well be in the Europa league trying to win it than coasting along losing in the Champions League.

 

[Chappers]

What do you mean push on? Arsenal have been in the competition what -- 16 years, and have only reached the final once. Do you think that is progress? OK, the last few draws haven't been kind; the second legs have been damage limitation, but unless there is serious reinvestment in the squad, they will always succumb to the first good opposition. So you can understand why people are furious with Arsenal qualifying -- the cycle is still in place.

True draws haven't been kind, but we haven't helped ourselves in the group stage too much recently. It's our own fault there. And it's also true that 1 final appearance in 16 years is pathetic for a club like us. 16 years and yet we've only been to the semis twice, and lost the only final we've been in.

Look at how Chelsea perform in the cup. That's generally admirable. They've been in it 10 years running. In that time:

6 semi-final appearances
2 final appearances, with 1 win


It's definitely great being in the CL, but I want to see us genuinely challenge for it. Even in 09 when we made the semis, we were blown away. Otherwise what's the point? We might as well be in the Europa league trying to win it than coasting along losing in the Champions League.

You know how important CL-qualification is to this club. We've relied on the income from the CL to stay afloat and we have managed that. Let's see us push on now but deep down you're well aware of how crucial all of those 16 years in the competition have been for the club especially post-Emirates.

Why compare us to a Chelsea side which has spent 500m in transfer fees alone while our team has been a constant case of lose 1-2 core players rinse and repeat in the last 8 years. You underestimate the difficulty of winning the CL. Mancs have won it 2 times in 27 years under Fergie and they have had a better squad than us in most of them and according to 99% a better manager. Since we went to the final in our last season at Highbury (and we over-achieved massively) we have had an inexperienced squad of players who weren't mentally ready to go all the way and we lost the few players who we had given playing time just as they were about to become reliable every summer.

There are too many who disregard the difficulties we have faced losing key players. Number one priority always is to keep a squad intact because you never know how long it will take for a signing to integrate into a new team especially if he needs to replace the contribution made by the likes of Henry, Vieira, Cesc or RVP.

 

[Sydney Gooner]

True draws haven't been kind, but we haven't helped ourselves in the group stage too much recently. It's our own fault there. And it's also true that 1 final appearance in 16 years is pathetic for a club like us. 16 years and yet we've only been to the semis twice, and lost the only final we've been in.

Look at how Chelsea perform in the cup. That's generally admirable. They've been in it 10 years running. In that time:

6 semi-final appearances
2 final appearances, with 1 win


It's definitely great being in the CL, but I want to see us genuinely challenge for it. Even in 09 when we made the semis, we were blown away. Otherwise what's the point? We might as well be in the Europa league trying to win it than coasting along losing in the Champions League.

Please don't ever compare us to that filth. The Russian criminal only ever bought the toy for Champions League "glory" spending close to £1.5 billion in the process in transfer fees and wages. So their performances are not particularly special.

I do agree with what your saying though. In my opinion a club of our size should be to be in the quarter final stage every season as the minimum target.

 

[Salieri]

Picture on last post of that page is hilarious:

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.glory-glory.co.uk/showthread.php?37-Let-s-NOT-Laugh-At-Arsenal/page221" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.glory-glory.co.uk/showthread ... al/page221</a>" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And the two pics on this one are funny but bitter:

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.glory-glory.co.uk/showthread.php?37-Let-s-NOT-Laugh-At-Arsenal/page222" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.glory-glory.co.uk/showthread ... al/page222</a>