On a quiet day here’s my thoughts on the team of the season
Alisson
Alexander-Arnold, van Dijk, Rudiger, Cancelo
Saka, Rice, De Bruyne
Salah, Mané, Son

With honourable mentions to Ramsdale, Robertson, Bowen, Gallagher, Ronaldo, Foden.

There are some other players who have been very good but haven’t played enough games to be considered

Player of the year: Salah (even though by his standards he’s been quiet for the last 2 months)
Young player of the year: Saka
Flop of the season: Lukaku….closely followed by Grealish (both based a lot on price tag and expectation) and for someone who has a big reputation already who was consistently woeful this season a strong mention for Maguire!

I think all PL Refs are pre-qualified to serve as VAR Refs. Pays well too, I bet. Why wouldn't he?

I've often wondered why the VAR studios are at Stockley Park in West London. There are no PL Refs from London and only 1 or 2 from South of Brum. The vast majority of PL Refs are from the North. In the interest of efficiency, it'd make more sense to for the VAR base to be next to Old Trafford or Anfield - that'd mean walking or cycling distance for a fair few VAR Refs.

And easier for taking immediate instructions from their bosses...

Beth Meeeeeeeead.

BBC 2

Yeah, may as well just put it in the home dug outs there too.

Finished 3-0. Need Chelsea Women to drop points against Manchester United and us to beat West Ham to win the league.

Casemiro is another classic defensive midfielder who manages to escape bookings with alarming regularity. Every top team seems to have one.

High drama in Madrid. Thought they were dead and buried. Great watch.

City go up a goal midway 2nd half, seemed over, then RM score 2....drama.

If Chelsea lost then I assume that if Arsenal drew then Arsenal would win on goal difference. All a bit unlikely though.

Remarkable collapse. It will be impressive if City manage to get out of this hole.

What is it with Man City in the champions league? They can be the best team, clear favourites, even play well but somehow they find a way to get knocked out when it really matters.
Spurs, Lyon, Chelsea in the final, 4 minutes to survive with a 2 goal lead tonight v Madrid.
They’re not out yet but they choke in this competition too often

You’re right. Arsenal have the better goal difference so if Chelsea are beaten by Manchester United and we draw with West Ham, Arsenal will win the league. As you suggest it all looks a bit unlikely.

For me to want a Manchester United side of any description to avoid defeat is pretty damn rare. But their Women’s team meeting with Chelsea on Sunday is certainly one such case.

Somewhat like PSG aren’t they?

I can feel the pain of the City players. 2 up with only minutes to play, and they eventually lose. The defence must be kicking themselves for switching off during this time, not once, but twice. And that wasn't a penalty. He got the ball first. Guess RM is like Utd in EPL, they get the calls they want.

If you’re right, I hope Real Madrid get all the calls they need to win the final.

Bloody Liverpool. We’ll literally never hear the sodding end of it in England if they win the lot.

I'm sure City will get Haaland this summer but right now they must be regretting not going all out for Kane and spending £100m on a player they didn't really need in Grealish. In the past 3-4 years City have actually been very good in the transfer market, not so many expensive mistakes that littered the earlier years of their new money, but Grealish looks a tad wasteful and a player who thrives as being the go to man in a smaller team (possibly similar to Zaha in some respects)

Cracking stat I read this morning

Of Guardiola's 11 Champions League eliminations, EIGHT have seen decisive periods that were sudden collapses/flurries of goals conceded

2010 - 2 in 13 minutes
2014 - 3 in 18
2015 - 3 in 17
2017 - 2 in 8
2018- 3 in 19
2019- 2 in 3
2020- 2 in 8
2022- 3 in 6

The Athletic have done a piece on Arsenal captaincy and how when Aubameyang was captain it was Xhaka that the players looked to, it was Bellerin who was the players rep at the PFA and it was Leno who fulfilled many of the 'admin' tasks usually handled by captains. To be fair I've only seen the headlines and not read the full article and who knows what is really the truth but it does lead on to the captaincy for next year. All our 3 in midfield are captains for their country. My vote goes to Ødegaard. I think Xhaka naturally leads anyway and he is doing just fine without the armband

City has so many chances to kill the game.

A two goal lead away from home in a second leg in these games is really very vulnerable.

Apparently Man U earned 77m euros from the champions league this season. They scraped through the group stage and got knocked out at the first KO round. That is a huge amount of money that we are playing for for this 4th place. I think we earned about 30m euros for making the Europa league final recently. The jump up is a lot

122m euros approx for Liverpool if they win it, 118m euros for getting to the final

2002 Vintage Bobby
https://www.facebook.com/watch?v=363264635758894

What a gem he was. Sublime skills, vision and movement. My favourite Arsenal player.

They’re all standing half the time anyway.

I don’t feel their pain at all. They checked in to the good ship petrosmeg, have unlimited dollars to spend on players and couldn’t hold a 2 goal lead with minutes remaining. Lol

And I think RM may have a better chance of turning over Liverpool which would be a double bonus.

Aubameyang is a child who just wants to enjoy life .... Arteta over-rated his maturity in making him Captain

As great as Liverpool is playing and as bad as Leeds is playing, I'm far more concerned about us beating Leeds than Liverpool beating spurs.

I don't feel their pain either. Bollocks to them.

Exactly. How tantilising to see Ancelotti chomping down on a cigar again if he wins the CL final.

Absolute scenes at Ibrox. Rangers Frankfurt Europa final. Brilliant for Rangers. They’re celebrating as if they’ve won it though, which as we know is a heinous crime…

West Ham knocked out tonight, perhaps their players were knackered after Moyes decided to play most of his first choice against us in the league (and we beat them anyway) - very strange squad management for their biggest game in years.

West Ham's league position is such that they are battling for Europa or Europa conference league they ad such a tiny, tiny chance of still making CL via their league when they played us. Surely they had to go for broke to win the Europa, especially when you consider some of the very big names that have been in the latter stages of Europa recently, with all due respect to the final 4 this year, it was quite weak in comparison to the previous 4-5 years

Rangers have beaten Dortmund (2nd in the Bundesliga) in an earlier round and Leipzig (5th in the Bundesliga) in the semi-final tonight. Frankfurt are 11th in the Bundesliga. What’s the betting they balls it up against the weakest German side they’ve faced in this season’s Europa League?

Cresswell was sent off after 20 minutes when the tie was very much in the balance. That changed it completely. Moyes has done an absolutely brilliant job since he came back to West Ham.

Moyes was red carded as well for what looked like kicking a ball away, then saying something mouthy of sorts.

Tories routed in the London councils, *%^@*** good job.

Rest of the country should hang its head.

One can understand why Moyes when in full strength against Arsenal. It's a home game, Arsenal have been a bit wobbly, and he doesn't want to fall too far behind United in the race for 6th (sadly what transpired). He doesn't want to put all his eggs in one basket, especially when needing to go and win away in Germany.

A really tough call.

If next year we find ourselves in the same position, I would not be happy if Arteta played a weak team against Westham and gifted them the game. Obviously others will embrace such tactics.

I'm not denying that Moyes has done a brilliant job but he got this one wrong.

Arteta has signed a new contract until 2025