2023-2024 EPL Season

[Scandale du Jour]

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

Guardiola is basically the epitome of someone 'born on third base'.

 

[maclean]

Anyone know when KdB is expected back?

 

[spintheblackcircle]

I'm genuinely surprised there hasn't been more negative press on the "777" partners in England. Everything I've seen about them (including reports from fans of other clubs that 777 own) is that they are extremely shady at best.

Everton is lucky to just get dinged 10 pts, their current owners are as dodgy as 777

 

[Savant]

Anyone know when KdB is expected back?

According to my Man City supporting friend, “January”

 

[maclean]

According to my Man City supporting friend, “January”

That would be right on schedule for them to run the table

 

[Savant]

That would be right on schedule for them to run the table

It’s all fun and games until KDB is healthy and City go on a 10-20 game win streak. Said this last year and most of the Arsenal fans did not believe me.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

It’s all fun and games until KDB is healthy and City go on a 10-20 game win streak.

They still need to play Spurs away!

 

[Savant]

They still need to play Spurs away!

This is a factually correct statement

 

[maclean]

It’s all fun and games until KDB is healthy and City go on a 10-20 game win streak. Said this last year and most of the Arsenal fans did not believe me.

That's reductive.

At any rate, will be much more fun this year with so many teams in the race. Surely not a "weak year"

 

[Blender]

Guardiola is basically the epitome of someone 'born on third base'.

He's only ever managed top teams and has never really had to ever manage with resource limitations.

 

[Savant]

That's reductive.

At any rate, will be much more fun this year with so many teams in the race. Surely not a "weak year"

This year definitely more competitive than last year. Arsenal rightfully the favorites after their big summer, but it’s a weird year. City missing KDB for half the year is a really big factor here. LFC better than last year but they are still in transition (albeit being ahead of schedule). Newcastle probably rounds out the four best teams in my opinion right now? I don’t even think Utd is “worse” I just think the teams around them have gotten better

 

[Evilo]

It’s all fun and games until KDB is healthy and City go on a 10-20 game win streak. Said this last year and most of the Arsenal fans did not believe me.

It's really Arsenal who blew it up rather then City who beat everyone.
The Saliba injury killed them.

 

[Savant]

It's really Arsenal who blew it up rather then City who beat everyone.
The Saliba injury killed them.

I don’t buy that. Yeah the Saliba injury was bad for them, but you need to be able to withstand injuries. And with the run that City went on healthy Saliba doesn’t exactly guarantee Arsenal a title either. When LFC won their title in 19-20 they played Adrian at keeper in around 10 games. That was a much bigger loss.

 

[maclean]

It's really Arsenal who blew it up rather then City who beat everyone.
The Saliba injury killed them.

I agree, the Saliba injury completely hobbled us.

City trampling the competition? Also a major factor.

At the risk of sounding sacrilegious, it's almost as if sport, like life, is a complex system of innumerable variables that cannot be reduced to a single aspect.

 

[IU Hawks fan]

This year definitely more competitive than last year. Arsenal rightfully the favorites after their big summer, but it’s a weird year. City missing KDB for half the year is a really big factor here. LFC better than last year but they are still in transition (albeit being ahead of schedule). Newcastle probably rounds out the four best teams in my opinion right now? I don’t even think Utd is “worse” I just think the teams around them have gotten better

City are still the betting favorites.

 

[spintheblackcircle]

This year definitely more competitive than last year. Arsenal rightfully the favorites after their big summer

City is always the favorite.

 

[Savant]

City are still the betting favorites.

Which says more about Arsenal than it does about City. Doesn’t mean the sharps are right. If you can get odds on Arsenal, you probably should call your bookie

City is always the favorite.

Which again says more about City than it does Arsenal. With KDB missing half the season and Arsenal spending like a quarter billion this summer, Arsenal should have been anointed the favorites months ago.

 

[spintheblackcircle]

It's really Arsenal who blew it up rather then City who beat everyone.
The Saliba injury killed them.

In the 10 matches right after the injury, Arsenal won 7, drew 2 and lost 1. It wasn't the injury that did it.

Also, when they lost 3 of their last 6 to give up the title, they scored a total of 1 goal in those 3 matches. I would say the forwards would be why they lost out given their lack of goals.

 

[LOGiK]

So did the pickem for 2023-24 get wiped out from the world or what?

 

[luiginb]

He's only ever managed top teams and has never really had to ever manage with resource limitations.

View attachment 778569

There's a reason he's only managed at top teams. Although I do blame him for this "play out from the back style" that's all the rage now and it's beautiful when good teams do it but when you watch the cup squads of Lazio and Genoa do it like I did last night you just want to claw your eyes out in frustration.

 

[KJS14]

In the 10 matches right after the injury, Arsenal won 7, drew 2 and lost 1. It wasn't the injury that did it.

Also, when they lost 3 of their last 6 to give up the title, they scored a total of 1 goal in those 3 matches. I would say the forwards would be why they lost out given their lack of goals.

What fixtures are you including? In the league they finished the season with 5 wins, 3 draws, and 3 losses after Saliba's injury. They conceded 42% of their total goals against for the season in the 11 games (29% of season) after Saliba's injury.

Absolutely crazy that people here think losing arguably the best CB in the league (definitely top 5) had little impact on our season.

Edit: another stat - they dropped 15 points the whole season before Saliba's injury in mid-March. They dropped 15 points in those 11 games after it.

 

[spintheblackcircle]

What fixtures are you including? In the league they finished the season with 5 wins, 3 draws, and 3 losses after Saliba's injury. They conceded 42% of their total goals against for the season in the 11 games (29% of season) after Saliba's injury.

Absolutely crazy that people here think losing arguably the best CB in the league (definitely top 5) had little impact on our season.

Edit: another stat - they dropped 15 points the whole season before Saliba's injury in mid-March. They dropped 15 points in those 11 games after it.

You're right, I counted from the wrong dates. My mistake, they did concede much more and they also only scored 23% of their goals in 29% of those games and had to play teams that finished 1st/4th/5th/6th in those matches. They had to play good teams at the end,

But dropping 5 points to the last place and 16th place club cannot be excused by 1 player being out.

 

[KJS14]

You're right, I counted from the wrong dates. My mistake, they did concede much more and they also only scored 23% of their goals in 29% of those games and had to play teams that finished 1st/4th/5th/6th in those matches. They had to play good teams at the end,

But dropping 5 points to the last place and 16th place club cannot be excused by 1 player being out.

Yeah, they shouldn't have dropped points to Southhampton, Forest, and West Ham even without Saliba. There were individual errors in those games that Saliba doesn't fix, but there is a pretty clear dividing moment in their season, which is the Saliba injury. His injury isn't the only factor, but it was a huge one.

 

[spintheblackcircle]

I know it's a longer time frame, but Spurs were 11-3-8 when Bentancur blew his knee out last year. They were 6-7-3 following the injury.

Bentancur was a top 10 MF last year.