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

[I Hate Hleb]

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 longer.

Yes. Yes it was.

[highburyJD]

if coming 3rd is akin to having your legs broken you should give up supporting a football team now
otherwise you will definitely be suffering years and years of unbelievably savage torture

[QuartzGooner]

I think the whole 'arry for England and his trial interupted them. Its not as simple as we have better players although there isnt much between the 2 sets of players, there was a lot of outside of football problems for sp*rs at the wrong time of the season . . . . .

Agree.

[highburyJD]

amazing how unwilling you lot are to listen to 'excuses' from the red side of London
but Spud/Chelsk strawscrabbling is manna from heaven

[flash gunner]

amazing how unwilling you lot are to listen to 'excuses' from the red side of London
but Spud/Chelsk strawscrabbling is manna from heaven

Its because we want more than excuses every season

[highburyJD]

we all want more than excuses
this year was disappointing in many ways - at least last season we challenged
never looked like winning anything at all this time round
but the reality is 3rd is a decent finish, an improvement on last season

well done to the squad and manager after a long hard season is in order

[GranadaJoe]

The question implies that it was a surprise that we finished above the Scum, but I don't think it was.

Other than the obvious (we are the Arsenal and they are the Scum, ergo we finish above them) I think that they have been overrated throughout the season. Even when the press were creaming themselves over how fantastic 'Arry's boys were we were outscoring them. They always flatter to deceive and did so again this year. Augie's point about 'Arry cocking it up is spot on. He decided to change tactics and rotate his squad a bit and it all went tits up, and after that the 'people's choice' couldn't get his team sorted again. The players lost confidence and so did the fans. Most other managers would have been facing 'Crisis!?!' headlines but not the tax-dodger.

As some of the brilliant St.Totteringham's Day posts showed, a very average AFC, with big injury problems and an atrocious start to the season still finished above them. They must be distraught.

It'll be interesting to see what happens in the close season. They relied a lot on Adebayor but can't afford his wages and Barca need an attacking left-back and some players will be reluctant to join them before they get through the CL qualifiers (if they get that far).

[g88ner]

I think the whole 'arry for England and his trial interupted them. Its not as simple as we have better players although there isnt much between the 2 sets of players, there was a lot of outside of football problems for sp*rs at the wrong time of the season . . . . .

Agree.

Sp*rs definitely had off-field disruptions, but perhaps we had more on-field disruptions?

Yeah, it was poorly managed by the club, but losing Wilshere, Cesc and Nasri on the eve of the new season amounted to ripping the creative guts out of our midfield. Only Arteta really filled the void, and lets be honest, he's not as creative as any of those 3.

It's like Sp*rs losing Modric, Bale and Van der Vaart at the same time and replacing them with Gervinho, Benayoun and Arteta. I'm not sure they would have coped. But equally, maybe we would have imploded if Wenger was linked with France or England. Who knows.

I'm not trying to make excuses because I think, like Sp*rs and Chelsea, they're largely self inflicted BUT I do think our problems were just as valid as those of our rivals.

[Rosie_titters]

times are changing, City finished above United for the first time in years, Everton finished above Liverpool for the 2nd time in about 25 years
and although we beat Tottenham in to 3rd - this is the 2nd time in last 3 or 4 years where we held them off...

it's only a matter of time, before they finish ahead of us

[LeftfootlegendGooner]

Because Barton went mental and Ben foster went sick for the first time this season

[SteveO 35]

Even the most miserable sods on here, and I feel that I am in a reasonable position to judge ( ), can't just dismiss finishing 3rd as "we got lucky". Sorry but over 38 games it is not about luck

Is finishing 19 points behind a very mediocre United team good enough - no
Is losing 4-0 to an even more mediocre AC Milan acceptable - no
Is the club's transfer policy and the handling of the Summer transfer window acceptable - no
Is our wage bill acceptable - no

But - over 38 games what we had was still better than what Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs had, and that is not down to luck. I don't buy all this bollocks about Redknapp's potential departure unsettling them - cobblers - they faced a tough run of games when they were supposed title contenders and fucked it up

We finished above them because collectively we were better from the manager down to the players. Not great but better than them

[LDB]

The only thing that puts us (barely) ahead is that we have the best centre forward in world football and they had lazybayor.

If we lose RvP and dont radically restructure our team then they will shoot ahead of us sadly.

[SteveO 35]

The only thing that puts us (barely) ahead is that we have the best centre forward in world football and they had lazybayor.

If we lose RvP and dont radically restructure our team then they will shoot ahead of us sadly.

Not banking on Park coming good after his 12 month adaption period, and the Camel roaring up the scoring charts after his year off then ?

[frankbutcher]

We finished above Spurs because we are better than them. They also do bottling better than we do.

[highburyJD]

If we lose RvP and dont radically restructure our team then they will shoot ahead of us sadly.

I would imagine Sperz will be restructuring their team whether they like it or not...