Football season 2022 - 2023

@Ravvie
I’d have to agree about the FA Cup - always magic. I’d certainly rather have a Manchester derby than a Merseyside one!!
It also helps to be going into the final on a winning streak against your neighbours!
Hope it is a great game

Well with 14 FA Cups we thought we’d give someone a chance.

Very generous. Kind of Citeh to beat your team to let this happen. Hopefully, we can get revenge for you.

Yeah I hope you beat them. I’ve no love for them whatsoever and hope that one day their £10,000 p/h KC Lord Pannick runs out of road and this cheating case catches up with them.

1 Like

I’m sure that the KC leading the investigation will be completely objective and impartial, just like all other Arsenal supporters.

Wasn’t he the KC advising Boris Johnson in the party-gate scandal? Maybe a pattern there.

1 Like

Thanks Ravvie, I am back home now rather tired & emotional after a pretty tense day. Ironically the terrace houses that you experienced back in 1975 are still exactly the same.

1 Like

Thanks MDS, it was the typical game of two halves; we were totally dominant in the first half and if it wasn’t for VAR we could have been two or three up but we were then under the cosh in the second half with a Coventry now fully awake after not knowing how to play us in the first half. We almost nicked in the last minute or so of extra time but VAR quite correctly spotted the handball in the lead up. Penalties are a really harsh way to miss out on the promotion after such a tough, lengthy season but because we came out on the right side for once I am just grateful. Next season will undoubtedly be tough but I am just glad that we get a seat at the big table.

1 Like

I hadn’t realised it was until now, how very funny. Yes perhaps a similar strategy is at play just deny, deny, deny in the face of overwhelming evidence and hope it all goes away.

Thought Lord Pannick was a Beano character.

Big day at the bottom of the PL who will go down?

I’ll let you know at 6.30pm. :rofl:

Going down, going down, going down…………

Bit torn this weekend. Luon were our nemesis in the National League but the story of going from EPL to NL and back again is fairly irresistible on the surface, although digging underneath that brings a fair amount of darkness and odd decision making. Equally the quiet rise of Robins as a very good English manager is worth talking about even if we did play them off the pitch for an hour in the FA Cup. So, happy to see Luon make it but can only hope Coventry come again next season.

Ditto today. Our game against Stockport at the start of last season was a shocker. Two teams with highly rated coaches and stuff clearly needing to be fixed. A few weeks later their coach had gone and both teams were set up for a late surge of some drama after key January signings changed the landscape. Our subsequent battering of them in the league allied to the wonderful Trophy semi game confirmed to me that we were the better team but they had the better squad at that point. Pretty much like us and Notts County this season. They had the better team on paper. Better squad won.

It was hard to argue with Stockport’s promotion and genuinely interesting to watch them transform a poor start into a fantastic first season back in the EFL. Luon and Stockport offer my team a strong suggestion of what the future might look like. On the other hand huge congratulations to Carlisle United. A hideously unfashionable part of the world and ditto their team. They have the ability to be a Championship team and it would be great for that part of the world if they could build on today and do exactly that in the near future.

The team versus squad issue is essentially what decided the EPL this year. The unpleasant banter on here about Arsenal’s so-called implosion/bottling from fans of teams which aren’t going to get anywhere near that level any time soon hides the reality that Arteta has challenged a culture; built a team and will hopefully next build a squad. It guarantees nothing but being competitive given the ludicrous quantities of money involved but it’s going to be interesting to watch.

As @Bobthebuilder has rightly observed, if you’d asked their fans at the start of the season if they could finish second they’d have been pleased to make top four. It’s easy to highlight individual errors or games but it wholly misses the point in terms of measured progress.

Last season (well the season before last now) my team finished off with three games consisting of a loss which meant we missed out on automatic promotion; losing in the FA Trophy Final and then losing a classic play off semi to Grimsby. The doom mongers saw three consecutive defeats. Some recognised that if you’d told us at the start of the season that our last three games of the season would be to win the title; win a cup and get to a play off final via an absolute classic match then we’d have laughed regardless of the ultimate outcome. Those games included a stupid unnecessary penalty concession; a defensive mess at Wembley and a play off semi involving seemingly no defending at all in 120 minutes. Some fans vilified those players. Two have since left. Ben Tozer - well he just lifted the title trophy.

A season later things often look far different than you’d imagine.

So, the not so Mighty Whites slide back down into The Championship, which was entirely predictable.

Too many players who didn’t take onboard the significance of pulling on that Leeds jersey, and what it’s supposed to represent.

Sad, but it paves the way for a widespread clearout, and a complete reset.

Maybe, if I renew my Leeds membership, I might once again be able to get hold of tickets to treat my grandkids to the Elland Road atmosphere, so there’s always an upside.

M.O.T.

6 Likes

Sorry to see the Foxes go down. They’ve contributed hugely to the PL in recent years. They’ve been poor this season so can’t really complain but I still have my doubts about the wisdom of appointing Smith with the task of keeping them up.

I suspect Leicester will be the most competitive of the three relegated clubs in the Championship next season but for that they need to make some changes before the 23/24 season begins, starting with manager/coach.

3 Likes

After the Everton-Bournemouth game (they were all live on TV here), Jordan Pickford joined Rebecca Lowe and her crew for a pitchside interview. He was nursing his injured digit, and Rebecca innocently asked him to, ahem, “show America the finger.” Sadly, he displayed way more maturity than would have been possible for me in the circumstances.

4 Likes

I think that some of those changes may be out of their hands; if I have heard correctly then a large number of players are out of contract in the summer.

Congrats @bhoyo with your lot winning the league this year. Deserved, for consistency if nothing else. Enjoy a wee nip or three. If Ange gets the Spurs job, I suspect he’ll be “lucky” by avoiding the inevitable collapse next year. :wink::joy:
Cheers!

Watching Arsenal demolish a Wolves team with nothing to play for and who put up little fight yesterday was entertaining but that was all what was exceptional where the attending fans and the scenes after the final whistle when Mikel and the team came out to thank them.

I was at a Match 4 years ago against Man City who had three days before battered us 3-0 in the Carabao Cup final the match hadn’t really started and we where 3-0 again it was -6 degrees and another snow blizzard was heading towards the Emirates so I and quite a few thousand supporters walked out we had to cue up at the exits whilst the stewards opened the doors.

I spoked to a guy in his 70’s who had been going to the Arsenal his whole life who swore never to return to the ground all the time that French **** was in charge. Fights where braking out inside the Emirates between the Wenger in Wenger out factions.

Yesterday I saw a fanbase inside the ground and on line from around the world united and looking forward to next season. Though the fans of other teams notably Spurs, Man U and Chelsea who where actually sh****** themselves at the thought of an Arsenal team being back at the top will laugh and cover up another season of mediocrity by telling anyone who will listen that we bottled it and apart from the one or two fan cams a rival supporter will probably post the rest of the Arsenal fanbase we ALL know the truth.

You forgot to mention your sky awards. How could you? Did they parade them yesterday or are they gonna wait for the open top bud parade?

Atb

Kk

1 Like