- Jan 27, 2011
- 12,560
- 43,103
More -
Hold tight - the guru himself has awoken......... SA_Gunner:
- They have the edge on us for sure, last season and the upcoming one, better manager and two World class strikers. I think we will probably finish behind them but I don't see a huge gulf in class, maybe by a few points like last season.
- Collectively we have better defenders , they have better attackers, the midfield is fairly even. World class attackers will win you games though which is why they finished above us and might do again depending on how Jesus works out. Better manager as well which helps.
- Think Sp**s signings are perfect for their squad, and they’ll add another couple I think. But also, I think Conte > Tuchel. Tuchel hasn’t done anything in the PL.
- I'd be gutted if Sp**s got Richarlison. Find it really strange that they seem to be the only side in for him.
- Not sure I agree, for me Sp**s signings are being overrated on here. Solid signings, nothing more. Chelsea also schooled Sp**s in every game last season. Sp**s didn't even score vs them in 4 games. Chelsea vs Sp**s in Matchday 2 will tell us a bit about where both teams are.
- SA_Gunner - I'll believe Conte is a title contender when I see them play something more than just counter attacks next season. As it stands... their mid block, counter attacking football will not win you the league, because that works well for mid table and lower sides who do not have to come out at all. Sp**s need to press higher up the pitch for starters, and they have the players to do that. Problem is... they arent willing to push their lines up because that opens them up to be countered. To Conte's credit, he has Sp**s pressing more once teams cross into their half, so he is adaptable to latest trends.
- Damn I rate Richarlison highly.. Lenglet is **** though, maybe a back 3 can hide his ****ness idk
- Yeah, right, they are spanking 60M on Richarlison to warm the bench. Kulusevski hasnt shown anything to be an indisputed starter. And I am really petrified by this defense...
- Sp**s got CL and borrowed a **** ton of money out for this window and the best deal they got was Bissouma. They’ve been bent over by Everton who somehow got £60M for a guy who’s never scored more than 11 goals in the PL all while they are begging for money because of FFP. If Arsenal got CL and that’s our window I’d throw up.
- Conte is a piece of **** but brilliant manager, his biggest weakness however is picking the right players in the market loads of players he bought at Juve Chelsea or Inter have bombed. Perisic unfortunately will most likely be great for them, Bissouma too, Richarlison however I'm sure will manage to clash with Conte. If he manages to make Lenglet look serviceable again he deserves Manager of the Year. OnlyOne is right for a team that's in the CL their transfer business is unimpressive. Will mean little overall however because while we always look less than the total sum of our parts under Arteta Conte manages to extract great return out of nonsense players like Young Moses Giaccherini Höjbjerg etc.
I have a few observations:
- If they think Richarlison is a fair-weather player then good luck with Gabriel Jesus, the striker that prefers to play wide because of the pressure.
- Imagine saying Bissouma is over-rated when he bossed Arsenal's (and our) midfield on multiple occasions. If anyone is over-rated it's Partey and Xhaka.
- How can their defenders be better than ours despite us conceding 8 fewer goals than them all season (which included us sacking a manager mid season)? Even more so when we apparently have a 'meh' midfielders and defenders compared to them.
- Conte-ball is less well equipped to win league titles than legoball according to SA Gunner despite us winning more games by 2+ goals in the second half of the season and having a better record against the top 3 sides.
- I won't even bother with the debt thing again because clearly none of them are old enough to have a mortgage.
- The Spurs team from the end of the season was far superior to theirs. The only reason they hung in there was a nice run of games against Chelsea,, Utd and West Ham where everything went in their favour. Around those they got slapped by us, Newcastle, Brighton and Palace and lost 1-0 at Southampton. It took Conte until March to really mould the team into his image so that 2 point gap is a fallacy.
I get wanting to be optimistic and hoping you can overtake your rivals but I've never been more confident of us being better than them in the present and near future. If Conte even stays here for just 2 more years aligned with our new financial power (and Ambramovich leaving Chelsea) I think we'll be seen as the top team in London at that time.