Arsenal lead way in “tough Premier League season”

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Well that was an interesting bank holiday weekend.

Even with Man City’s last minute equaliser, it is “advantage Arsenal” in what is turning out to be a tough Premier League season.

Whilst many of our detractors are going with the line that the quality in the league is “poor” this season because a team will likely win the league with low-to-mid 80 points, the truth is actually the opposite.

When teams win the league with 95+ points and relegated sides are not even reaching 30 points, then that is a poor league. It shows that the gap between the best and the worst is huge. And often it is not a case of the top teams being brilliant, but more of the bottom being poor.

In the last two years, the teams finishing 18th have got 25 and 26 points respectively. You have to go back to Newcastle United in 2015/16 for the last time a side got relegated with more than 35 points. This season the 18th place team, West Ham, already have 36 with 3 games still to go.

This season we will likely see a side relegated with 40+ points. It will be the first time a side has gone down with 40+ since, ironically, West Ham in 2002-03.

The strength in depth of English teams is also shown in Europe.

Of the 8 semi-finalists, 4 are from England. You would be surprised if 3 did not make the final (and it would have been 4 if Aston Villa and Notts Forest did not get drawn together), and it could be a clean sweep for English clubs. Last season English clubs won 2 out of 3.

Notts Forest, in a relegation battle, are favourites to win the Europa League. If they do, it will be the 2nd season in a row that a team battling to stay in the Premier League has lifted Europe’s 2nd competition. It is arguably now easier to qualify for the Champions League through playing in the Europa League than it is playing in the Premier League.

The fact is the Premier League has huge strength in depth. Every side is filled with internationals and top players and there are no real easy games – especially against that congested mid-table.

As Man City showed yesterday, you can not go away to an Everton and expect to pick up 3-points. they are a team that probably would easily finish top 6 in any other league in Europe. Both City and Arsenal have dropped many points against those mid-table teams this season.

And that does not mean City and Arsenal are not good teams. They are. Amongst the best in England. It just shows how good the likes of Sunderland, Bournemouth, Everton and Fulham are.

Whilst the likes of Bayern Munich and PSG can massively rotate throughout the season due to the vast difference in resources and quality throughout the league, top Premier League teams can not do that.

Arsenal or City could not put out a team of 50% “2nd string” against, for example, Notts Forest at home, and expect to win. But PSG and Bayern Munich can expect to do just that against Le Harve or Union Berlin. And it is not because their 2nd strings are better than the Premier League sides – infact Arsenal and City’s 2nd XI would be wipe the floor with PSG and Bayern’s – but it is because those teams lower down in the Premier League are a lot better than what German and France have.

I always laugh when I hear fans state “the league is poor” to try and bring down the achievement of Arsenal. If it is that poor, then why are the Champions, Liverpool, 4th having spent over £400m? Why are the “World Champions” Chelsea 9th? Why are “worlds richest club” Newcastle in 13th? And why are Tottenham in a relegation battle for the second season in a row?

If the league was as poor as fans of these clubs are trying to make out, then even playing average they would still be up there in the top 6. Instead, by playing 20% under par they find themselves in dissaray.

We may or may not win the league. We may or may not win tonight. But no one can tell me that the Premier League is not the toughest league in world football and that fact makes winning the Champions League even harder for English teams.

UTA.

Keenos

The “cheaters” FA Cup final

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It is quite ironic that the two biggest cheats i the history of English football will face each other in the FA Cup final.

Manchester City with their 115 charges, or is it now 130? The case concluded in December 2024, yet here we still are nearly 18 months on and still no result.

The conspiracy theorist in me actually thinks it is our fault the case has not be concluded. I think the Premier League hoped we would run away with the league and they could deduct Man City 40 points without it affecting the title race.

As for Chelsea, I have lost count of how many times the have been sanctioned since Ronan Abramovich took over.

From breaching financial rules, illegally tapping up players, illegally signing children, illegal payments to agents, and more in between. There latest case was “only” 74 charges against them.

So here we have the FA Cup final. Two teams who had nearly 200 charges combined hanging over their heads. The see cheaters never prosper? Well in football they do.

I wonder how much airtime Sky, BBC, ITV, TBT, etc will spend talking about the charges both clubs have faced in the run up? Likely none. They’ll be rolling out one of the Gallagher’s and a Hollywood actor to romanticise about their clubs recent achievements.

Meanwhile, Arsenal are the “most hated club in England”. The one everyone wants to fail. Every other teams cup final. The one TV companies are trying to make opponents into legends of the game for derailing us. The ones ruining the game for scoring goals from set pieces.

We might not have won the title for 20 years, but at least we are trying to do it the right way. And not a sports-washing or money laundering project for a corrupt billionaire.

Keenos

Where have the 1,000 missing Crystal Palace tickets gone?

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I am on 52 credits.

Over a decade of going home and away, although in recent years it has been a little less than normal.

I have never missed out on a ticket for Crystal Palace ticket before, and when the sales phases were announced by the club that they would start at 60, then drop to 55, before going to 50, I was confident I would get a ticket.

West Ham away, with 3,001 away tickets allocated, went to 30+.  For Palace we were allocated 2,687 tickets. Just 314 difference. So it was to my horror when the club announced after the 55+ sale that “only an extremely limited number of restricted view tickets available for this game.”

I spent yesterday evening looking into this, and checking out X accounts of those in the know. The only conclusion from everyone was that around 40% of away tickets had been held back by the club. Over 1,000.

Now it is usual for tickets to be held back and given to players, coaches, support staff and sponsors. It was never normally an issue, although the last few years the amount held back seems to have increased.

By 10.01 this morning, by the time the website had woken up, all remaining tickets were gone. I had been logged on since 9.30.

So around 1,000 tickets will not go to away fans like me who have followed the club loyally through some very dark days. Been to your Stoke’s, Swansea’s, Sunderland’s and Cologne’s. Thousands spent, arriving home in the early hours of a Monday morning with work a quick nap away.

Instead, we will see more tickets going to friends and family of players, and plenty held back for sponsors.

We will get a cousin of William Saliba from Paris who has never been to an Arsenal get game a ticket. Some Instagram tart who doesn’t care about football, just footballers, who a player gives tickets to because he is trying to get in her knickers. Someone who works for whichever dodgy betting or crypto company we are currently partnered with getting tickets, and probably selling them on for huge profits, and so on.

I have no issue missing out on tickets if those getting them have been to more games, have got more credits. But to lose out because the club have decided to hold back 40% to appease those who have not done their time leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

Especially when you consider over the last couple of years the club have gone on the attack against the away fans.

First they got rid of the away scheme. Then they introduced disruptive ticket collections. All under the guise of that tickets were being used by the right fans, the fans that were going week in, week out.

On the tele against Palace, the TV cameras will zoom into your kids. This will be celebrated by the club like it was against Bournemouth a few years ago. But these young kids would not have been to enough games to have the 55+ credits, so how have they got a brief? Through a sponsor? Through a player? Or just gifted by the club.

It just is not right.

And what is most annoying is I will go again next season. Do my time. My travels. And it will happen again. Non-regular fans will queue jump just because they work for a company that has a box. Distant cousins and family members will get tickets despite never having been to a game. And all the while the club will continue their attack on the normal away fan.

The final point is “where were you when we were shit”.

My biggest frustration right now is fans only complaining about tickets now that we are doing well again. They were no where to be seen in those dark days. And once those days come back again, which they will, these players families, those sponsors, the drips with their Club Level season ticket that they got 3 years ago will disappear. They will find another hobby. Meanwhile I will still be there. Hoping for us to have good times again, with the knowledge that when they arrive I will be screwed over again.

Thanks Arsenal.

Keenos