Tag Archives: She Wore A Yellow Ribbon

Arsenal drop to 9th in UEFA ranking’s (but it makes no difference)

The latest UEFA rankings have come out this afternoon and Arsenal have dropped to 9th place, being leap frogged by both Atletico Madrid and Valencia.

It is the first time that Arsenal, under Arsene Wenger, have dropped out of the top 8. ‘CATASTROPHE’ is what all the doom mongers are shouting. But in reality, it is not.

With Manchester United and Valencia unlikely to qualify for next years Champions League, Arsenal’s real position is 7th. With Porto on their way out and AC Milan not only out but sitting 11th in Serie A, Arsenal will not have a problem.

A few thoughts however come to mind. With PSG and Dortmund rising, Arsenal need a big season sooner rather than later where they reach the semi-finals. Or a few seasons of consistently getting into the quarter finals. Failure to do so would see Arsenal in the second seed of teams.

Is being in the second seed a problem though? If all league’s finished now, the second pot of the Champions league next season would look like:

Schalke
Dortmund
PSG
Juventus
Shakhtar
Basel
Zenith
Manchester City

Not exactly ‘easy’. Meanwhile, you could drop out of the top 8 and draw Benfica or Porto. Porto/Benfica, or Dortmund/PSG/Juventus?

Yes, being top seeds is favourable, but considering the strength in depth in European football this season, it does not make a massive difference.

You only have to look at some statistics from this years competition to see how little difference it makes:

Of the 16 teams who qualified for the knock out stages, 6 came from Pot 1, 4 from Pot 2, 6 from Pot 3.
Just 5 of the 8 top seeded teams won their group
The split in the QF was 5 from the top seed pot, 3 not

Like Atletico have shown this year, and Dortmund in previous years, if you are good enough ,you will progress, no matter who you play.

The second noticeable aspect is with regards to the Europa League. Benfica have leapfrogged Arsenal in the rankings. This despite being knocked out of the Champions League. Arsenal made the knock out stages, and played Bayern Munich.

Benfica got knocked out, and have since gained points by playing PAOK, Tottenham and AZ Alkmaar. In UEFA’s attempt to encourage teams to take the Europa League seriously (by offering a high number of coefficient points for the next years Champions League) they have created a scenario where failure is rewarded. Benfica get to play easier teams, and have extra games (Europa League has 5 knock out rounds v CL’s 4) by virtue of being failures in the Champions League. Surely for it to be fair, those sides knocked out in the Champions League should receive no more coefficient points?

Finally, when looking through the list, you notice how insignificant the furore is made on twitter about Arsenal’s drop to 9th;

AC Milan – 11th
Inter Milan – 13th
Juventus – 17th
Ajax – 30th
Liverpool – 32nd

These are massive sides.

So we are down to 9th. Not only does it make little difference to next years Champions League draw, being potentially in the 2nd pot makes little difference in future draw.s

Keenos
Follow @KeenosAFC

Nothing to fear from Wigan

10 Replies

It’s only bloody Wigan.

OK, I might be setting myself up for a fall here, but are we really so worried about playing Wigan? They are a Championship side with Championship players. We are 4th in the Premier League.

Put another way, had we just drawn them in the League Cup, we would be expecting us to put out our reserve side, and still get a victory. So despite us having up to 11 injuries, we should still have the players on the pitch to combat whatever they have to throw at us.

A potential line up of Fabianski, Sagna, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Arteta, Ramsey, Kallstrom, Gnabry, Giroud, Cazorla should be more than enough. A side littered with international’s. A side littered with quality. And what do Wigan have? Not much.

Yes, we might be in a spot of poor form, with just 2 wins in 9 games, but Wigan’s form is not much better. 2 wins in 6. They will also have one eye on ensuring a play off place and a return to the Premier League.

Wigan should be no problem. I do not understand the fear that is being generated with Arsenal fans. It’s only Wigan. Yes, if we were playing them at rugby, I would be concerned, but we are not, it’s football. This is our game.

Arsenal fans are deeply scared with the history of cup defeats. This is the fear which is in the fans mind this weekend. From Cardiff to Walsall, Ipswich to West Ham, Luton to Wrexham, Bradford to Blackburn, we are littered with being giant killed.

But this is Wigan. The odds dictate that, in a one off game, we will lose eventually. Before the Blackburn defeat, we had never lost under Arsene Wenger to a team in a league below us. Odds dictated that the run would end eventually, and it did. The odds are now in our favour. Wigan should not be a problem.

Tomorrow, wake up with a smile on your face. Do a few star jumps to get the blood circulating. Get down the boozer of your choice. Have a couple of bevies. Get yourself down Wembley and cheer the team to victory.

Keenos

Follow @KeenosAFC

Time for all fans of The Arsenal to unite behind the team.

5 Replies

Right, firstly my own views on the manager have been damming over the last few years, for that all I can say is I say things how i see them but the other regular writers on here and the guest writers have had other views on Le Leader so hopefully we at Shewore.com have produced blogs which cover everyone’s views. On speaking with everyone involved in the SheWore Twitter, Facebook and blog there was only one thing to do this week and that was to put the petty bantering we have aside and all just hope and pray we can beat the might of Wigan. So as such we are asking everyone else to get into the spirit as well including those who love Le Leader, those who hate him, those who hate the current largest shareholder and his puppet CEO and those that erm are related to them or getting the odd freebie (I know who you are) .

Now I know Le Leader has in the past treated the worlds oldest and greatest cup competition as 3rd priority in any season but this season is different, even the most ardent lover of our current boss will admit this year the FACUP means more than ever for his future. Personally right now I don’t care if he stay’s or goes all I care about is seeing THE ARSENAL win something, it’s been too long, too many people have spent too much money watching us fail over the last few years and it’s time it stopped and those going Saturday can help.

No other London club would be able to sell as many tickets for a game. We are and always will be the biggest club in London, both trophy wise and supporters wise. In fact only Man Utd and Liverpool could even come close to getting as many fans to any game but it’s not just about bums on seats we need to raise the roof Saturday, drown out all 10 of the Wigan fans (did you come by minibus) and let the players privileged enough to wear the famous Red n White know that we are behind them.

Yes I’m aware some of the players in the current squad are not firing on all cylinders, some are not the most gifted and of course we are missing some with injury but that doesn’t matter. George Graham’s side won the CWC final in 1994 which set out with a bit of bite and not to concede. That team had a passion and discipline we can’t rely on recently so again it’s down to us to back, support and encourage the players. I’m never pissed off when we lose as long as the players put everything into the game, let them feel our passion in the hope it rubs off on them.

Now I know I might not have the most positive reputation, mainly due to thinking the club can do better for us fans and have a better manager/owner/CEO and spend more on players etc but let me assure everyone I LOVE THE FACUP. My earliest memories as child were watching the 78/79/80 finals in the front room with my Grandad. When it came to naming this blog, which has been running since 2007 there was only one choice, our Wembley song. My first Semi-final was in 1991 as a young 18yr old and this Saturday I will be sharing the journey there and back again with my mate who I met at work that year. The love for The Arsenal will always keep us in contact even if our lives take us in different directions.

I guess the point of this blog is simple, we all love The Arsenal and we all want us to win. We all have mates that we only ever see at games and we have all met people from many different walks of life that has improved us as people, The Arsenal does a lot for our lives. The banter and debate that happens across all social media should be just that, the bad feeling that seems to split us on so many levels is only because we all love the same thing. So let’s put an end to it for Saturday and hopefully the rest of this season. Have a great day everyone going, nod at the many yellow ribbons you will see, shout and scream your heads off and can we all please go FORWARDS, VICTORIA CONCORDIA CRESCIT.

What did she wear ???

GC.

Picture from www.thecannonisheavy.com