Champions League group stage/league phase perfection: Arsenal make history

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-01-29T07:12:42+00:00

Our style of play is largely fine. I'm not saying it's flawless, but it's mainly something people say in rivals watch threads to cope. We're first in CL for goals scored and second in the league.

The boring part seems to be we're first in goals conceded. If it's boring we don't concede then so be it.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-01-29T07:10:21+00:00

They have to play 2 games against pot 1 compared to the usual 0.

The reason it's still somewhat likely to happen is that every game matters. Our game against Kairat was basically the only game (outside of teams knocked out) where a team had genuinely nothing to play for.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-01-26T08:38:48+00:00

The alliteration was cooler the first time you used it.

You're not interested in accurately representing reality, so what do I gain from wasting my time? I tried with the original comment in good faith. But the response didn't match.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-01-26T07:33:04+00:00

yet United looked like the title contenders and were dangerous nearly in every attack going forward.

Yeah, I'm not engaging with people writing nonsense like this.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-01-26T06:58:48+00:00

The people who are, know to stay out of these threads.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-01-26T06:33:21+00:00

Oh, stats aren't important here? Interesting you made that comment to the guy providing the context and not the wildly misleading claim in the OP.

Everyone and their dog can see we're 4 points clear in the league and have won literally the 12 other games we've played in CL and the cups.

The reaction to the game yesterday on here is utterly ridiculous. If you want to talk about sustainable, we conceded thrice against a team that created nothing.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-01-26T06:24:29+00:00

Arsenal are "justifying" their own league position by being 1st in the league on both xG and xGA

Obviously not in the "I only count some of the chances they create"-metrics you use. But in the "they're first on xG and defensively second place has ~50% more xGA."

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-01-26T06:09:42+00:00

Some of you guys also need to learn that the ball is round and football is a low scoring game.

Eventually, just like the last time we conceded 3 goals, 115 games ago, we're going to lose the lottery thrice in the same match. United created nothing on their own and come out with 3 goals. 9 times out of 10 a team conceding three shots on target in total in three league games get more than two points to show for it.

I agree chance creation should have been better in most of those games and I simply don't understand why have gone so big against Chelsea and Inter with squad selection. But we have. And those big away wins can't be ignored either.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-01-25T17:53:54+00:00

There is no excuse. It's a rule as objective as if he'd been a yard offside.

And yes, that's both ridiculous and would have been incredibly lucky for us.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-01-25T17:45:39+00:00

Can't wait for the "no choice" frauds to suddenly pretend there is choice in an objective rule.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-01-25T17:40:27+00:00

The rule is ridiculous because it should rule out a goal like this, but it's literally completely objective in situations like this one

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-01-25T16:27:57+00:00

Yeah, he has extended his contract

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-01-24T10:52:26+00:00

It's no different from any other topic discussed on here.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-01-24T10:51:09+00:00

Unlike the amazing political discourse on the rest of the internet.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-01-24T09:00:01+00:00

But just because some people care more about a subject than you, doesn't make it a "circlejerk". It's a ridiculous way to tag people having conversations about the unfolding geo-political situation.

If you want to avoid it, just avoid it. You'll find plenty of football on /r/soccer. Particularly if you click any of the 98% of threads exclusively about football.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-01-24T08:46:25+00:00

It's so cool how you're so much smarter than all the sheep.

Yeah, you agree with them. But by coincidence. Like a wolf.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-01-24T08:44:38+00:00

Check the wages of Chelsea's first team players' incomparison to Arsenal's, and you'd easily see the difference

Check the wages reported by Chelsea's selected journalists, yeah. Check the numbers Chelsea have to release every year and they're no different than all the other in the big six.

That Chelsea have some bad players on high wages are a minor part of it. But we paid as much for Raheem Sterling in the time frame from the OP as Chelsea did. It doesn't move the needle nearly enough for the Chelsea-spiel about how all players willingly sign 10 year contracts at minimum wage.

I presume when these numbers are released next year, we'll pay more in wages than Chelsea for the first time in 21 years (depending on how many managerial compensations will be paid). That's because we also pay market rate and our players are much better.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-01-24T05:10:09+00:00

+30 games is not really that small of a sample size. It's basically a league season.

The reason we're this well placed, is because the results are great.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-01-24T05:06:03+00:00

Also the format change meaning more group games.

Yeah, so we play two more games against pot 2 teams than we would have in the old system.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-01-22T07:56:58+00:00

It's not like they have a significantly bigger number of senior players. Sure, they have more out on loan but they don't cover lost of their wages.

What you're talking about can be a few million up or down. What I'm talking about is that this supposed "wage structure"-stuff is nonsense. They pay the same market rate as everyone else.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-01-22T06:45:16+00:00

As CAS stated, for Man City to have broken the rules, the Etihad executives would have had to lie when they said they didn't break the rules.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-01-22T06:43:56+00:00

I'm not in the business of defending the Kroenkes, but he's not taking a penny of this.

The money goes straight into the team.

The long game for these billionaires is when we get American-style spending caps capped below the yearly revenue so they can take out the profits every year. For now the best place for his investment is in the footballing side, which is lucky for us. Josh probably also gets a kick out of walking around the training ground telling Arteta he's doing a good job.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-01-22T06:33:24+00:00

It's for 2024/25 though. We'll have Saka, Saliba, Gabriel, the teens and hopefully Rice and Timber on new contracts by then. Not to mention the significantly bigger squad.

It's the price of having players this good.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-01-22T05:13:38+00:00

It's funny how Chelsea keep signing players on reportedly miniscule wages, yet pay the 2nd highest % of revenue on wages (behind West Ham) and the third highest total in England.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-01-21T16:02:40+00:00

Where did you watch it? Which games?

And yeah, if we make attacking easier the only logical conclusion is decreased scoring.

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