Well, the Premier League title was pretty much wrapped up yesterday as Liverpool failed to beat mediocre opposition, this time Man City. Man Ure triumphed over Blackburn, widening the gap to seven points at the top with twelve games to play. Again, for those of you who are new to how this works, getting hot at the end of the season means nothing in European football unless the teams above you in the table start dropping points. It’s not impossible for Chelski, ‘Pool, or Villa to hit a fine run of form going down the stretch (although it could be claimed that ‘Pool and Villa have wrung their fair share of luck from the season already), and it’s not impossible for Man Ure to drop some points; however, it is highly unlikely that these two events will coincide, and more unlikely that the heating and cooling would be extreme enough to close the sizable difference. If you want proof, I humbly offer you to look at the history of the Premier League…

And since this space would not be complete without a pop at the team languishing in fifth, Arse Whinger once again blames the opposition for not making it easy for his team to score. Because that’s an unwritten rule that few seem to know about: when you play away, you are morally obligated to feature an open, attacking side so the home team (who has more resources and better players) can shred you for the delight of the fans. (?)

What I find particularly amusing about this latest whining is the fact that, having watched the highlights, Ars*nal had ample opportunity to open the scoring. As the cliche’ goes, goals change matches. Perhaps if his goal-shy team managed to take one of their chances, Arse would see the opponents trying to get a goal back. But you can’t expect relegation-threatened teams to obligingly expose themselves, and furthermore, aren’t the teams in first, second, third, and fourth also facing these negative teams?

While I’m sure deluded fans would make a case for Ars*nal exceptionalism when it comes to tactics, they’d be flat wrong. How many 1-0 scorelines has Man Ure racked up against stodgy defenses? I agree that it’s not pretty to behold, but I would also be quick to point out that it’s the inevitable result of the rich clubs getting richer while the rest fall away. If managers don’t want to see bunker mentalities, then maybe something ought to be done about the top handful of teams hogging all the talent.

Or in other words, the other fifteen or sixteen teams in the league owe the top four nothing.

Current Mood: Ho hum |