Kevin De Bruyne:
Assists - 20
Goals - 13
Trophies - 2
UCL quarter final.
Thierry Henry:
Assists - 20
Goals - 24
Trophies - 2
Europe until mid-March.
Bruno Fernandes:
Assists - 20
Goals - 8
Trophies - 0
Out of all competitions by 11th January.
"Player of the Year"
Leicester: Deducted 6 points due to financial breaches.
Sheffield Wed: Deducted 18 points due to financial breaches.
West Brom: Deducted 2 points due to financial breaches.
Everton: 8 points deduction due to financial breaches.
Forest: 4 point deduction for financial breaches.
Chelsea: €31m fine and suspended transfer ban over 2 years for 74 breaches of financial FairPlay.
City: Yet to be charged for 115 breaches of financial FairPlay.
A total of 189 charges in the fa cup final but it’s Arsenal everyone wants to see fail and say are ruining the game with our set piece play. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Mocking a side that’s gone unbeaten in the Champions League, brushed past Bayern and Atlético, sitting on top of the EPL since last year isn’t banter.
It’s what failure and frustration sounds like because your teams couldn’t deliver anything close. Proud to be an Arsenal fan.
Arteta was asked by @JamesOlley about people taking what Arsenal have achieved (UCL qualification 3 times in a row) for granted: “What I love as well about where we are is that there is no satisfaction about it.
“You haven't asked me any questions. 'Congratulations, you're going to be in the Champions League next year'. Now it's like we take it for granted.
“I'm assuming for the next 20 years of this club. You're going to be taking for granted this, that you are fighting for titles in April. And to finish, that's okay. But it's difficult to do it and I do value a lot what the players are doing, that's for sure.”
🚨Guillem Balague has said it perfectly… absolutely spot on.
Two things bother me about the narrative building around Arsenal.
First, we're told constantly that the Premier League is the most competitive league in the world. Fine. So what does it mean to be consistently fighting for the title in that environment? You can't celebrate the league's brutal competitiveness and then dismiss sustained title challenges as not good enough. Pick one.
Second, and in my opinion this matters more, failure in elite sport is not losing. Luis Enrique said it. Many others have said versions of it. Failure is not trying again. It's accepting the ceiling. It's going through the motions. Arteta has never done that. Every setback has been fuel for the next attempt.
The problem is social media runs on binary outcomes. Win or fail. Hero or fraud. No room for nuance. No room for the manager who rebuilt a club into genuine title contenders and is still hungry for more.
Simeone has been at Atlético for over a decade. Two league titles, two Champions League finals. Still no European Cup. Nobody serious calls that failure. They call it one of the great managerial tenures in modern football. And I'm convinced that given 14 years like Simeone, Mikel will win more leagues than him.
Arteta may or may not win the league this year. He may not lift the Champions League this year or next. But as long as he keeps pushing, keeps trying, keeps competing at this level, failure isn't what this is.
Find another name for it.
the non-reaction to Burn doing the same thing Martinelli did.
the praise for “Set Piece Kings”, Liverpool.
the Man City officiating last night.
Are people starting to wake up yet?