As we're unlikely to see terraces again at football, this is the virtual equivalent where you can chat to your hearts content about all football matters and, obviously, Arsenal in particular. This forum encourages all Gooners to visit and contribute so please keep it respectful, clean and topical.
The minute they bloated it by letting in teams finishing as low as 4th and dragging that boring fucking group stage out over 3 months it was doomed. Nothing beats knockout football but that doesn't start until late February and even then there are few memorable last 16 games as its usually top vs second and more predictable results. The FA Cup has the winning formula which is why its such a shame teams neglect the competition - you get Liverpool v Everton right at the start, but also Doncaster v Rochdale - no seedings, no stupid rules about not playing teams from the same area etc. Open draw, straight knockout
The CL will never go that way because the greedy bastards that run it and the greedy owners who fill it demand their guaranteed £30m from the group stage and six game prize money, sponsorship deals etc. Imagine if you went with Barcelona v Real Madrid right at the start, but had one of the smaller teams like Qarabag getting some lucky draws and getting through to the QFs. Would make the thing 100 times better but isn't ever going to happen, so we're stuck with predictable drawn out groups and a boring round of 16. Only the QFs onwards become interesting and we'll never get to that stage again under Shit for Brains anyway
Spot on Steve O. European football used to provide fantastic nights even before Christmas, in the first and second rounds.
Can anyone remember the last truly scintillating group match???? Liverpool vs Olympiakos (??) is the only one I can remember in the entire Champions League era.
It's all about money now. Don't worry if the format is ultra boring, everyone's getting rich so fans can fuck right off.
The minute they bloated it by letting in teams finishing as low as 4th and dragging that boring fucking group stage out over 3 months it was doomed. Nothing beats knockout football but that doesn't start until late February and even then there are few memorable last 16 games as its usually top vs second and more predictable results. The FA Cup has the winning formula which is why its such a shame teams neglect the competition - you get Liverpool v Everton right at the start, but also Doncaster v Rochdale - no seedings, no stupid rules about not playing teams from the same area etc. Open draw, straight knockout
The CL will never go that way because the greedy bastards that run it and the greedy owners who fill it demand their guaranteed £30m from the group stage and six game prize money, sponsorship deals etc. Imagine if you went with Barcelona v Real Madrid right at the start, but had one of the smaller teams like Qarabag getting some lucky draws and getting through to the QFs. Would make the thing 100 times better but isn't ever going to happen, so we're stuck with predictable drawn out groups and a boring round of 16. Only the QFs onwards become interesting and we'll never get to that stage again under Shit for Brains anyway
Completely agree mate.
Money rules unfortunately and now the money men are now making the rules.
The minute they bloated it by letting in teams finishing as low as 4th and dragging that boring fucking group stage out over 3 months it was doomed. Nothing beats knockout football but that doesn't start until late February and even then there are few memorable last 16 games as its usually top vs second and more predictable results. The FA Cup has the winning formula which is why its such a shame teams neglect the competition - you get Liverpool v Everton right at the start, but also Doncaster v Rochdale - no seedings, no stupid rules about not playing teams from the same area etc. Open draw, straight knockout
The CL will never go that way because the greedy bastards that run it and the greedy owners who fill it demand their guaranteed £30m from the group stage and six game prize money, sponsorship deals etc. Imagine if you went with Barcelona v Real Madrid right at the start, but had one of the smaller teams like Qarabag getting some lucky draws and getting through to the QFs. Would make the thing 100 times better but isn't ever going to happen, so we're stuck with predictable drawn out groups and a boring round of 16. Only the QFs onwards become interesting and we'll never get to that stage again under Shit for Brains anyway
Spot on Steve O. European football used to provide fantastic nights even before Christmas, in the first and second rounds.
Can anyone remember the last truly scintillating group match???? Liverpool vs Olympiakos (??) is the only one I can remember in the entire Champions League era.
It's all about money now. Don't worry if the format is ultra boring, everyone's getting rich so fans can fuck right off.
Very true that there have been very few mate. The whole thing has pretty much become a formality.
And when you look at the world cup draw (both the qualifies and the tournament itself), its gone the same way in that.
Seedings kill the competition and as a result pretty much kill the interest.
Other than one of two surprises where a good side fails to perform (Dortmund in the CL, Italy in the WC) you can pretty much predict who's going through and who isnt with 90% accuracy. For supposed elite competitions this is ridiculous.
The minute they bloated it by letting in teams finishing as low as 4th and dragging that boring fucking group stage out over 3 months it was doomed. Nothing beats knockout football but that doesn't start until late February and even then there are few memorable last 16 games as its usually top vs second and more predictable results. The FA Cup has the winning formula which is why its such a shame teams neglect the competition - you get Liverpool v Everton right at the start, but also Doncaster v Rochdale - no seedings, no stupid rules about not playing teams from the same area etc. Open draw, straight knockout
The CL will never go that way because the greedy bastards that run it and the greedy owners who fill it demand their guaranteed £30m from the group stage and six game prize money, sponsorship deals etc. Imagine if you went with Barcelona v Real Madrid right at the start, but had one of the smaller teams like Qarabag getting some lucky draws and getting through to the QFs. Would make the thing 100 times better but isn't ever going to happen, so we're stuck with predictable drawn out groups and a boring round of 16. Only the QFs onwards become interesting and we'll never get to that stage again under Shit for Brains anyway
Spot on Steve O. European football used to provide fantastic nights even before Christmas, in the first and second rounds.
Can anyone remember the last truly scintillating group match???? Liverpool vs Olympiakos (??) is the only one I can remember in the entire Champions League era.
It's all about money now. Don't worry if the format is ultra boring, everyone's getting rich so fans can fuck right off.
Arsenal 2 Napoli 0
Mertesacker, koscielny Ramsey and giroud were good
Ozil was superb
The minute they bloated it by letting in teams finishing as low as 4th and dragging that boring fucking group stage out over 3 months it was doomed. Nothing beats knockout football but that doesn't start until late February and even then there are few memorable last 16 games as its usually top vs second and more predictable results. The FA Cup has the winning formula which is why its such a shame teams neglect the competition - you get Liverpool v Everton right at the start, but also Doncaster v Rochdale - no seedings, no stupid rules about not playing teams from the same area etc. Open draw, straight knockout
The CL will never go that way because the greedy bastards that run it and the greedy owners who fill it demand their guaranteed £30m from the group stage and six game prize money, sponsorship deals etc. Imagine if you went with Barcelona v Real Madrid right at the start, but had one of the smaller teams like Qarabag getting some lucky draws and getting through to the QFs. Would make the thing 100 times better but isn't ever going to happen, so we're stuck with predictable drawn out groups and a boring round of 16. Only the QFs onwards become interesting and we'll never get to that stage again under Shit for Brains anyway
Spot on Steve O. European football used to provide fantastic nights even before Christmas, in the first and second rounds.
Can anyone remember the last truly scintillating group match???? Liverpool vs Olympiakos (??) is the only one I can remember in the entire Champions League era.
It's all about money now. Don't worry if the format is ultra boring, everyone's getting rich so fans can fuck right off.
Very true that there have been very few mate. The whole thing has pretty much become a formality.
And when you look at the world cup draw (both the qualifies and the tournament itself), its gone the same way in that.
Seedings kill the competition and as a result pretty much kill the interest.
Other than one of two surprises where a good side fails to perform (Dortmund in the CL, Italy in the WC) you can pretty much predict who's going through and who isnt with 90% accuracy. For supposed elite competitions this is ridiculous.
I don't think it's a surprise that Dortmund are out the champions league
I always thought they would finish 3rd in that group
The only surprise is that they were not one of the 4 best third placed teams therefore going into the last four unseeded
For all the bolox about trips to Albania
I had them as potential final opponents
Because of athletico falling out( which I was surprised by) that has now moved down to a semi
I hate to say it but I don't think we are good enough to win the Europa League. It depends who we draw but defensively we are a mess and all the English teams who qualified in the Champions League have good defensive apart from Liverpool but offensively they have Salah who looks the best signing of the summer by quite some way.
I hate to say it but I don't think we are good enough to win the Europa League.
We are good enough (just) but Wenger is not good enough to setup the team and coach it to be good enough defensively to win it, he has never won a European trophy, even when he was in his 'pomp' 15 years ago, what chance has he got now when he is clearly 10 years over the hill?, Wenger's level is winning domestic cups, that is all he is capable of these days, that is good enough for Stan Kroenke.
These two c**ts have ruined the club, I hope they both have a nasty accident..
I hate to say it but I don't think we are good enough to win the Europa League.
We are good enough (just) but Wenger is not good enough to setup the team and coach it to be good enough defensively to win it, he has never won a European trophy, even when he was in his 'pomp' 15 years ago, what chance has he got now when he is clearly 10 years over the hill?, Wenger's level is winning domestic cups, that is all he is capable of these days, that is good enough for Stan Kroenke.
These two c**ts have ruined the club, I hope they both have a nasty accident..
I agree with the original post, we really ain't good enough defensively to win the EL. You only have to look at yesterdays performance for that.
The minute they bloated it by letting in teams finishing as low as 4th and dragging that boring fucking group stage out over 3 months it was doomed. Nothing beats knockout football but that doesn't start until late February and even then there are few memorable last 16 games as its usually top vs second and more predictable results. The FA Cup has the winning formula which is why its such a shame teams neglect the competition - you get Liverpool v Everton right at the start, but also Doncaster v Rochdale - no seedings, no stupid rules about not playing teams from the same area etc. Open draw, straight knockout
The CL will never go that way because the greedy bastards that run it and the greedy owners who fill it demand their guaranteed £30m from the group stage and six game prize money, sponsorship deals etc. Imagine if you went with Barcelona v Real Madrid right at the start, but had one of the smaller teams like Qarabag getting some lucky draws and getting through to the QFs. Would make the thing 100 times better but isn't ever going to happen, so we're stuck with predictable drawn out groups and a boring round of 16. Only the QFs onwards become interesting and we'll never get to that stage again under Shit for Brains anyway
Spot on Steve O. European football used to provide fantastic nights even before Christmas, in the first and second rounds.
Can anyone remember the last truly scintillating group match???? Liverpool vs Olympiakos (??) is the only one I can remember in the entire Champions League era.
It's all about money now. Don't worry if the format is ultra boring, everyone's getting rich so fans can fuck right off.
Very true that there have been very few mate. The whole thing has pretty much become a formality.
And when you look at the world cup draw (both the qualifies and the tournament itself), its gone the same way in that.
Seedings kill the competition and as a result pretty much kill the interest.
Other than one of two surprises where a good side fails to perform (Dortmund in the CL, Italy in the WC) you can pretty much predict who's going through and who isnt with 90% accuracy. For supposed elite competitions this is ridiculous.
I don't think it's a surprise that Dortmund are out the champions league
I always thought they would finish 3rd in that group
The only surprise is that they were not one of the 4 best third placed teams therefore going into the last four unseeded
For all the bolox about trips to Albania
I had them as potential final opponents
Because of athletico falling out( which I was surprised by) that has now moved down to a semi
Nothing worse than moving down to a semi to kill the mood