why did Citeh and Arsenal finish ahead of ManUre and Sperz?

[Red Member]

We finished 1 pt ahead of the Spuds.Can anyone tell us the difference between the two clubs wage bills?

there are some good politicans responses on this thread but you are not answering the question

[SteveO 35]

I think that having more points helped us to finish above Spurs, and that Man City's goal difference was a bit of an advantage for them

so is that down to the players or the manager ?
your comment admits that we were obviously better than Spurs, you are nearly there, you just have to say why.

Mate, unlike some people I can actually give credit where its due. The league table after 38 games doesn't lie - we were better than them, just, and everyone involved (manager, coaching staff, players) deserve the credit. Yes our wage bill is massive compared to theirs, but we also don't pay the same wages to top players that Chelsea do, so it works both ways.

But - we're still also 19 points worse than Man United and with this being a pretty modest United side (by your own admission), that isn't great either

[Red Member]

fair enough and yes the hard work should start now.
3rd place is base camp, now onwards to the summit!

[Sutch]

We finished third because of how poor Spurs, Chelsea, Newcastle and to a lesser extent Liverpool were. Spurs had several shit results starting with the defeat to us, and looking at those games on paper with the squad they have they should have accumalted many more points than they did, although the same could be said for us.

I'm sick of hearing this same excuse from the AKBs every year. All we hear is "Wenger turned the season around" etc. well who the fuck was it who put us in the chasm in the first fucking place? Who's fault was it that we lost a world class player and a good player in the summer and failed to replace them? Or how about in January our only first team signing was a 34 year-old veteran who we relied on to scrape past Leeds and Sunderland? Or how about how we had overrated clowns like Song, Arshavin and Rosicky (for the first half of the season) marauding around the pitch proving how shit they really are? Or how about how because of the inevitable injuries which are never prepared for yet are funnily enough trotted out as an excuse every year, we lost every full back we had and were forced to play a 20 year-old midfielder at right back and then lost him to injury as well? That's just a few of the many things Wenger has allowed to happen at this club.

It's like a house that has been for decades and still is one of the most respected houses in the world, that internally is falling apart and being held up by a few proper architectural masterpieces and several pieces of rotten wood while the owner runs around trashing the house and telling everyone how the roof is not caving in, and having sheep hang on to his lies like his words are sacred.

[highburyJD]

ManShitty only got the same amount of points as ManUre
their wage bill is WAAAY higher

yes our wage bill is also higher than 5per2
(not sure that can stay the case if they wanna keep Greedybarndoor, Modric and Bale)
and we finished ahead of them as we should...

the 'birdy' bit was outstripping Chelski as well

[Henry Norris 1913]

Lets not forget the Muamba incident gave us a huge advantage. Them still being in the FA cup helped too.

how? I don't accept that Muamba statement at all
he wasn't a Sperz player, in fact he's far better known to the Arsenal playing and coaching staff...
we were hurt at the start of the season by having vital CL play-off between Liverpool and ManUre games (insane scheduling that would never have happened in any Latin league)
Chelski, 5per2, Liverpool and Arsenal all had issues
some unlucky, some self inflicted, some where contingency planning could have been better
in the end we dealt with ours far better than our rivals

and deserve credit for that

what is with the annoying nicknames, you write like a youtube commenter, stop it already!

and obviously scum having a player almost die on their pitch will weigh down their players, it totally disrupted them, how can you even deny it? I'm not by any means saying we were lucky.

[augie]

Combination of reasons why we finished above some of the teams -

1. the chavs imploded......big time. We have seen a few times in the past that if they dont like the manager then they down tools and abramovich will always take their side and sack the manager. For the record I still believe that it was the wrong decision but in the short term it worked for them although by that stage it was too late to get top 4 so they concentrated on the cups.

2. the twitcher and wenger are on a par tactically............in other words they are both crap They hit the skids as soon as the tax dodger started chopping his starting team and their formation plus their backs ups were weak and that hadnt got enough experience on how to steady the ship when they waddled. We will never know how big of an effect the "twitcher is leaving to manage engerland" thing had on them as a squad - a lot of players dont deal well with the unknown and having to prove themselves all over again to another manager. Surely it is no coincidence that they fell apart as badly as they did ?

3. RVP - the man carried this team, on his own for 3/4 of the season and kept us in contention. The difference in confidence it gives a team when they know that they have a top quality striker ahead of them to finish almost every chance he gets cannot be overstated.
The experience that arteta and mertesacker brought to the team also shouldnt be underestimated - I know the german isnt well regarded by many but all the reports coming out of the club spoke about the positive and calming effect having these two players had in the dressing room

All the above were key factors imo

[Red Member]

Good points augie.

so basically the players that WENGER bought got us to 3rd place.

[highburyJD]

and obviously scum having a player almost die on their pitch will weigh down their players, it totally disrupted them, how can you even deny it? I'm not by any means saying we were lucky.

I've been on a pitch where the ref collapsed (had a stroke)
I felt sorry for him but was disappointed the game didn't finish

only difference is some of them knew Muamba - well some of our players did too...

[donaldo]

Good points augie.

so basically the players that WENGER bought got us to 3rd place.

Yes Gervinho Park Santos and Mertesacker certainly did

[Henry Norris 1913]

it's like a drunk driver runs over your son, he breaks both his legs and he suffers from internal bleeding. He quickly takes him to the hospital and after some operations he lives. the doctor praises the man who drove drunk and ran over your son for "saving his life". Your fucking astounded by the doctors short sightedness and take the driver to court where he is sentenced to a 4 year ban. Much to red members annoyance.

[I Hate Hleb]

I've added an extra option to your rather slanted poll JD.

[flash gunner]

it's like a drunk driver runs over your son, he breaks both his legs and he suffers from internal bleeding. He quickly takes him to the hospital and after some operations he lives. the father praises the man who drove drunk and ran over his son for "saving his life". whereas the less short sighted court system would find the driver guilty of DUI and arrest him.

but the manager was the one who took us to the brink. Its like a murderer giving his victim the kiss of life and being praised for doing so when they pull through

Look at page 1 Cough Cough

[Henry Norris 1913]

it's like a drunk driver runs over your son, he breaks both his legs and he suffers from internal bleeding. He quickly takes him to the hospital and after some operations he lives. the father praises the man who drove drunk and ran over his son for "saving his life". whereas the less short sighted court system would find the driver guilty of DUI and arrest him.

but the manager was the one who took us to the brink. Its like a murderer giving his victim the kiss of life and being praised for doing so when they pull through

Look at page 1 Cough Cough

mine was better.

[flash gunner]

it's like a drunk driver runs over your son, he breaks both his legs and he suffers from internal bleeding. He quickly takes him to the hospital and after some operations he lives. the father praises the man who drove drunk and ran over his son for "saving his life". whereas the less short sighted court system would find the driver guilty of DUI and arrest him.

but the manager was the one who took us to the brink. Its like a murderer giving his victim the kiss of life and being praised for doing so when they pull through

Look at page 1 Cough Cough

mine was better.

Fair enough