Early Analysis - Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool & Man Utd

Fixtures:
1. Man Utd
2. Chelsea
3. Arsenal - how we can be top when we had to play AWAY at Old Trafford GOD knows
4. Liverpool

Squad:
1. Chelsea
2. Man Utd
3. Liverpool
4. Arsenal - though we are very close to moving up this list as our young guns improve

Manager:
1. Benitez
2. Mourinho
3. Wenger
4. SAF - controversial I know but he seems to have lost his magic touch a bit - still top class though

Playing to there potential:
1. Man Utd
2. Chelsea
3. Arsenal
4. Liverpool

Obvious really.....

Fixtures:
1. Man Utd
2. Chelsea
3. Arsenal
4. Liverpool
Squad:
1. Chelsea
2. Liverpool
3. Man Utd
4. Arsenal

Manager:
1. Mourinho
2. Benitez
3. Wenger
=-Ferguson

Playing to there potential:
1. United
2. Arsenal
3. Liverpool
4. Chelsea

I think we'll surprise a few people this season.

The next big game we have is V Liverpool - if we win that then we will be WELL up the table and also may well have eliminated Liverpool from the title race.

And we still have Clichy to come back in the squad - our first team is beginning to look real class and when RVPs morale is high he's a monster

Ferguson - 4th?

This is the Premiership were talking about, yes?

SAF WAs the best for about ten years but hes like 64 now isn't he?

To be honest - all four are equal IMO - being honest I couldn't divide them

Tweedledum wrote:actually saints is even more biased!

Typical Arsenal - if someone doesn't hold up them, their squad and their manager as absolutely brilliant and unquestionably world class then they get accused of bias.


It couldn't possibly because Arsenal fans are so used to their team being praised for every pass over 5 yards and because every single goal is declared 'unbelievable', could it?

No, it must be that they genuinely are the best side in the league (as they claimed when they finished second 3 seasons ago) and that anyone who doesn't think so is just biased. It couldn't actually be because anyone honestly believes them to be no better than the 4th best side. Of course.

We'll see won't we Saints.

I had no qualms about you placing us fourth, it was about the fact that you declared our games to have been the easiest of the four so far - ManUtd away from home makes me beleive that you were wrong.

Man Utd have had the easiest games this season - what can be easier than playing a poor Arsenal side at home

I have to agree we have had the easiest fixtures.

Fulham home, Charlton away, Watford away, Spurs home, Arsenal home, Reading away, Newcastle home.

I'm disapointed we've dropped 5 points to be honest.

Bear in mind that I wrote the list as most others had - interpreting it to mean who'd had the best performances in their fixtures so far.

1 difficult away fixture for Arsenal vs. 3 difficult away fixtures for Liverpool (Everton, Chelsea and Bolton - doubt L'Arse will get much from their equivalent games this season) and Arsenal have had both Charlton and Sheffield United already. Man U have played Tottenham too - a better side than any of the Premiership teams that your lot have faced already., barring that one fixture at Old Trafford.

I'm not convinced. Arsenal have had pretty easy fixtures but haven't made that much of them. New stadium has no atmosphere (partly because it's about a mile from the edge of the pitch to the start of the stand) and I don't see it being anything like as productive as Highbury has been for your team in recent years. No better than 4th is my prediction.

The fixtures thing is nonsense to be honest.

You can drop points v anyone and beat anyone.
You can have watford at home 10 games in a row you will not win all 10.
It's about points. arsenal drew with some no nothing team, liverpool lost two games they should be winning also drew with sheff utd. i would be annoyed with a home draw to villa.
The fixtures have been easier for man utd, but the other teams have dropped points in games they should win anyhow.

@ saints

They played a horribly off form Spurs side though.

Spurs have been terrible until the weekend game.

We had to play Man City - who were being heralded by most on here as 'a team really pushing for a UEFA spot' and we also had to play Villa who IMO could be this seasons Spurs

Our hardest games in order -

Arsenal at home
Reading away
Spurs at home
Watford away
Charlton away
Newcastle at home
Fulham at home

Arsenal's hardest fixtures in order -

Man United away
Man City away
Aston Villa at home
Charlton away
M'Boro at home
Sheffield United at home

Tweedledum wrote:@ saints

They played a horribly off form Spurs side though.

Spurs have been terrible until the weekend game.

Spurs were good against Man U and arguably deserved something from the game. Did you watch it, or are you going purely on Spurs early-season form in general?

We had to play Man City - who were being heralded by most on here as 'a team really pushing for a UEFA spot' and we also had to play Villa who IMO could be this seasons Spurs

Reading will finish above Man City. You got to play Sheffield at home already, which should be the easiest fixture of the season.

Spurs played well but does that not say a lot about the quality of football that Man Utd were producing?

Reading could well finish above Man City - we will see - its only five games in though and I can tell you now that Man City have far greater squad depth than Reading - if Sidwell were to get injured, Reading would be done for.

We got to play Sheffield, yes.

Fantastic - not sure if it'll be our easiest game though - on paper maybe but Sheffield put two brick walls in front of their goal - it'll be far easier when a teams comes to us and doesn't do that (Fulham most probably)

Tweedledum wrote:Spurs played well but does that not say a lot about the quality of football that Man Utd were producing?

Perhaps.

Reading could well finish above Man City - we will see - its only five games in though and I can tell you now that Man City have far greater squad depth than Reading - if Sidwell were to get injured, Reading would be done for.

I'm not so sure. Sidwell is their main man, sure, but their style will cause many people problems. Maybe they won't finish above City but I reckon they'll be harder to beat than City.

We got to play Sheffield, yes.

Fantastic - not sure if it'll be our easiest game though - on paper maybe but Sheffield put two brick walls in front of their goal - it'll be far easier when a teams comes to us and doesn't do that (Fulham most probably)

Hardly a brick wall when two of your goals came from a sliced clearance/own goal and on the third the marking just didn't exist. This is simply an untrue representation of how Sheffield played...

I said TWO brick walls

Did you watch the game?

when was the last time Benitez won the premiership? I really don't think he's as good a manager as everyone makes out. For Liverpool anyway, apart from the Champions League run two seasons ago, he hasn't been much more impressive than Houllier.

Johnny_thunde_R wrote:when was the last time Benitez won the premiership?

You might as well ask when was the last time that Mourinho, Wenger or Ferguson won La Liga

Johnny_thunde_R

you remind me of 606

apart from the fact that neither has managed in la liga

Benitez's liverpool hasn't been that good in the league but they won the CL and Benitez also won the UEFA Cup and La Liga back to back with Valencia

last year in the league we had a bad start but we were one of the best teams for the rest of it

He was good in La Liga i'm not disputing that. But in EPL his record isn't great. I believe Houllier once finished second which beats Benitez.

SAF won the UEFA cup with Aberdeen!

If we're talking about previous clubs Ferguson and Mourinho have better records.

On the basis that Houiller got 2nd place once in 6 seasons in charge I think it's a bit early to compare the two to be honest. And as much as I hate to admit it Chelsea have raised the bar in terms of points totals. Man U have got enough points in the last 2 seasons to have won the prem in most pre-Abramovich years I would think.

Which team you support Johnny_thunde_R?

Johnny_thunde_R wrote:when was the last time Benitez won the premiership? I really don't think he's as good a manager as everyone makes out. For Liverpool anyway, apart from the Champions League run two seasons ago, he hasn't been much more impressive than Houllier.

you are right johnny... lets forget the record points total he achieved in the premiership for liverpool last year.. also lets forget all the broken defensive records... and while we are discounting the CL win lets also not include the Fa cup win last year.... hell we may as well throw in the 2 la liga titles and uefa cup as well he got for valencia...

so you are right... just what has rafa achieved in these past 5 years

COTR wrote:

Johnny_thunde_R wrote:when was the last time Benitez won the premiership? I really don't think he's as good a manager as everyone makes out. For Liverpool anyway, apart from the Champions League run two seasons ago, he hasn't been much more impressive than Houllier.

you are right johnny... lets forget the record points total he achieved in the premiership for liverpool last year.. also lets forget all the broken defensive records... and while we are discounting the CL win lets also not include the Fa cup win last year.... hell we may as well throw in the 2 la liga titles and uefa cup as well he got for valencia...

so you are right... just what has rafa achieved in these past 5 years

I am sure you thought houllier was the shit in 2001 aswell

Even with record points he still couldn't finish ahead of the 'past it' Alex Ferguson. He's alright I just don't think he's made enough of a difference at Liverpool to be classed ahead of Ferguson, Wenger and Mourihno.

Johnny_thunde_R wrote:Even with record points he still couldn't finish ahead of the 'past it' Alex Ferguson. He's alright I just don't think he's made enough of a difference at Liverpool to be classed ahead of Ferguson, Wenger and Mourihno.

so what you are then saying is that wenger, jose and fergie could all have done a better job at liverpool than rafa has done so far with the shambles he inherited from houllier

the picture is not as black and white as you paint it johnny... try engaging your brain a bit more mate