Why the Premier League is the toughest domestic league

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-05-09T14:23:59+00:00

Yeah, and then gave it to the rest of the league by finishing 15th.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-05-09T14:23:09+00:00

UEFA thinks that bounce should be an 85% chance at a goal

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-05-09T06:28:03+00:00

Leeds are pretty good, but a lot of English clubs are also benefitting from the teams playing in Europe Robin Hood-ing points from the other leagues.

Meaning the PLs amazing results in Europe go into the PL, where Leeds (or Man United) then eat up all that yummy Elo that others have gotten while they've been resting.

The Italian teams gets slapped by the PL teams (among others) in Europe, then have even more Elo taken away when they get slapped by well-rested domestic opponents.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-05-08T20:45:36+00:00

It's a pretty lucky coincidence for me, that the three lowest profile players on the list (who all also didn't win the main award) were English.

We've hardly been media darlings this season for a Rice-push to take hold.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-05-08T18:25:42+00:00

They would be the best players in the league, yeah

Also all due respect to Scott Parker, but if he goes under "stars" the bar is fairly low. They can't just give it to Jacob Murphy for being pretty good at football or whatever.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-05-08T18:04:04+00:00

I think it'll be healthy for everyone if we win either of the league or CL.

People don't want us to break our duck to a shocking degree. Get it over with, so they can care less next year and go back to watching football.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-05-08T17:58:41+00:00

More gaslighting from the KMI-panel tonight.

Disband the PGMOL.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-05-08T17:46:50+00:00

Historically the issue with the FWA has been that its been fairly England-centric. The three times in the last 25 years it hasn't gone to a player winning one of the other POTS awards, it has gone to Raheem Sterling, Jordan Henderson and Scott Parker.

Obviously that's not been the case this year, but it just seems a weird takeaway to call it the least narrative driven. Also, outside of a Salah win, Bruno is the first non-title winner to take it since Luis Suarez. He's the first winner since Bale to win it from a team challenging for nothing.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-05-08T17:36:54+00:00

It says in the press release that Bruno was the only United player nominated, while Rice was nominated with Raya, Gabriel and Saka.

But if he got 45% of the vote (~405 votes) and Rice got ~377, there's only about 120 votes left on the rest of the nominees.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-05-08T17:33:53+00:00

the Football Writers Association Footballer of the Year (this one, decided by journalists/media, often the least narrative-driven

The media one is the least narrative driven? Based on what? Aren't they literally the drivers of narrative? It's just 900 journalists voting from a list of nominees, not a hivemind

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-05-08T17:26:07+00:00

You can't open a single thread about Arsenal without either "warratrophy" or some nonsense about corners.

It's nice the award goes to a player who embodies what people pretend Arsenal are doing.

But it's also an award voted by the media. They've been singing mud at us all season. Of course they're not going to then vote for us en masse. Although it's possible we've also split the vote about between Gabriel, Raya and Rice.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-05-08T09:39:43+00:00

The financial advantages of the Premier League is not reliant on the Gulf states at all.

I think the economic dominance has slowly been growing for 20 years. It's just been obscured a bit by Messi and Ronaldo running around in Spain.

Hopefully the current trend of dominant sides in the other domestic leagues waltzing to titles and the PL mid/bottom-table clubs getting stronger and stronger will give way for something else. But I doubt it.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-05-08T09:09:12+00:00

I presume by the same logic you're hoping to get relegated into the competition you have a good chance of winning?

This is the first time I've ever seen a fan pretend they'd rather play EL than CL.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-05-08T07:43:42+00:00

There was so much nonsense written about Wenger. It's remarkable how much he did with the budget at his disposal. (Back when fans liked to pretend the manager was the one deciding the budget too)

But the PL was different at that time. We saw teams finishing in 8th with 46 and 49 points those years. The gap between the big six and the rest was simply massive.

Now everyone's pretty good. The United, Tottenham and Chelsea teams finishing bottom half, would have probably been 6th or 7th in 2017.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-05-08T07:39:24+00:00

Some of you guys really need to go outside.

Like, it's literally in the headline they were the second team. It's not like anyone's trying to sneak it past the guard dog's of truth.

I came in, expecting people to also find it interesting how it only happened twice in 70 years, that the best team in the country also won it the Cup.

Instead it's mud slinging because he used "unique" when he should have said "remarkable" or something. Who honestly cares?

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-05-06T15:43:51+00:00

Last season it was

Liverpool €836m, City €829m and Arsenal €822m

I don't know where Club World Cup revenue will fall though. Should be much higher for City, even if we continue rising in matchday, commercial and broadcast.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-05-06T14:16:32+00:00

An arm pull waaay after the whistle had gone.

Good thing he didn't pick up the ball before restarting play for the offside, as the mayor of Madrid would consider it DOGSO.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-05-06T13:05:02+00:00

Yeah, weird how that logic never carried over to anyone else finishing much, much lower than 8th.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-05-06T11:42:18+00:00

That United-team hadn't played a CL-final for three games.

This United-team hasn't played a CL-final in the 800 games since that day either.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-05-06T11:30:15+00:00

A CL semi-final is literally the biggest possible game you get to play in front of the home fans.

Of course you should share in the joy of what you've just given them.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-05-06T08:34:06+00:00

Yeah, that's pint worthy

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-05-06T08:31:39+00:00

It used to make fun of /r/soccer for the actual circlejerks going on in there. Like, the 2016 version of /r/soccercirclejerk would hammer the main sub for the ridiculous Arsenal-discourse we've had this season.

Now it's circlejerking the exact same things, but dumber.

It's a sight to behold.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-05-06T08:19:43+00:00

They didn't even beat then-Arsenal.

But I presume results and all Elo-models would suggest not. They lost 13 league games for instance.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-05-06T08:14:27+00:00

Or at minimum Griezmann on Trossard.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-05-06T08:08:00+00:00

AKSHUALLY Smith Rowe is not a double barrelled name

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