I read it as being exactly the opposite.

Just looked in Wiki which says:


The clubs receive two points for a win, one point for a draw, and no points for a defeat in games of the main stages of the Champions League and the Europa League. Results determined after extra-time are included in this method, however results determined after penalty shoot-outs are not (the result is considered a draw).

In today’s mail

On Day 12 of the "Royals step back slightly from waving duties" we present our 16 page pullout guide to why we think Meghan's a bitch

ᵀᵘʳⁿ ᵗᵒ ᵖᵍ³⁴ ᵗᵒ ˡᵉᵃʳⁿ ʰᵒʷ ᴬᵘˢᵗʳᵃˡᶦᵃ ᶦˢ ᵇᵘʳⁿᶦⁿᵍ ᵗᵒ ᵗʰᵉ ᶠᵘᶜᵏᶦⁿᵍ ᵍʳᵒᵘⁿᵈ ᵃⁿᵈ ᵗʰᵉ ʷᵒʳˡᵈ ᶦˢ ⁿᵉˣᵗ

Wow.

So many questions.

Inter seem to be creating a team of ex prem players, Lukaku, sanchez, Ashley Young, keen on Eriksen.
I forgot Wolves, I’d make them harder than most of the foreign teams for us.
Also given the ranking points and the money it’s important that we make it back in to the Europa League at least again, so we can’t sack off the league and go for broke to win it. We need a top 6 team to win the carabao cup and Fa cup so European places go down to 7th in the league.....then we’ve got to get 7th!

Liverpool could break the 49 unbeaten run before they have chance to do an unbeaten season. I think, but can’t be sure that their away trip to Man City is either their 49th or 50th game. Hope Coty beat them to extinguish both records

What sometimes happens is teams lose the games they should win. I think that may happen with Liverpool.They will be geared up and ready to go when they play Man City. When they are focused on a match these days they aren't losing. How many have they lost in all competitions? 2 or 3 at the most I think? I haven't looked it up. But its very, very few. That is a more amazing stat.

So, I think it may be an away game where its nil nil late and they other team gets a goal from them pressing or even a goal down early that goes late into the game and they get countered. As we know ourselves, the pressure not to lose becomes a weight around your neck. But with Liverpool having not even drawn but one match, even a draw late in the game may not be good enough.

Ahhh ... the phrase " a little knowledge is a dangerous thing " springs to mind here Townsville Boy

In the early 70's I worked in an exhaust system outfit in Sydney , when the only car to have genuine twin exhausts was a GTHO Falcon ... so every other petrolhead with a V8 wanted the same ; Monaros , Valiants , GT Falcons , Firebirds , Camaros .

We fabricated the twin systems then fully GAS welded them .... and never once did we take a fuel tank out to do it .

.... and to further your education .... a full fuel tank is a far less dangerous than a half full / empty fuel tank .

Under emery we let the opposition have an average of 17 shots per match, under Ljungberg this improved slightly to 14 shots per game.....under Arteta this is down to 10 shots per game which is the 5th best in the league.
Obviously a small sample size but it includes two of the better teams in the league.

Arteta is clearly making improvements in the team, and it’s noticeable in defence first. I’ve certainly been impressed by the changes in the first 4 games

Did you notice the phrase leaky fuel hose. Obviously not. You got a bit carried away listing all the classic cars. Did your school reports say 'Peter's attention to detail is lacking. He might be suitable for a role as CB in an Arsenal team.'

Well you can thank your lucky stars you never got one Rich ...... my brother had one what a horror show , everything went wrong and was maxi expensive to repair .

I can see from your replies ; your heart is in the right spot so I wont be ragging you about your ref bias in the future . Carry on

Is the transfer window open? It is so quiet on this front. Not just at Arsenal, but everywhere.

Is Kabasele that bad?
https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2020/01/13/s ... -who-arte/

Indeed I did see the "leaky hose " Gaz .....but being as it is a " needs a bit of work sort of buy " the boat didn't have a fuel tank or fuel line so that wasn't an issue .

I only played rugby union at school and being vertically challenged at 5 ' 9" centre half for Arsenal is out of the question .

After we play Burnley on Feb 2, there is a mini winter break and we don’t play another game in any competition until Newcastle at home on Feb 16.

I played but I was a terrible player. More like Gervinho than Messi.

Barnet Sunday League for me, although at my school the bloke who was the sports master (or whatever his job title was) knew a scout from Tottenham. He told me he’d advised the Tottenham scout I was worth looking at. I’ve no evidence that it was him or one of his colleagues as I never discussed it with the sports master. But there was a game we had against another school where there was some bloke watching from the sidelines. Very out of the ordinary.

That day I had a nightmare and nothing I tried came off. If it was someone from Tottenham, unsurprisingly I never got invited for a trial. I played so badly that day I didn’t want to speak to the sports master about it, and he never mentioned it, as I must have made him look a prat if he had got a Tottenham scout to come along.

So I was never compared to Glenn Hoddle at the Tottenham youth academy.

Only one weekend off. Is there an international break?

Yes I would. My brother was saying I shouldn’t but my dad, also a lifelong Arsenal fan, said of course I should. There have been lots of Arsenal fans who played for Tottenham and vice versa. Don’t forget, scouting as well as support was probably more localised back then so Arsenal and Tottenham’s scouts would have covered similar or the same areas, thus assessing fans of both clubs. Same goes for Liverpool and Everton, the Manchester clubs and countless others.

Was the scout Dickie Moss?
He was still working for them up until around 2010
really nice bloke (for someone connected to "that" club)

I went 1 worse than you B, I did actually sign for them....was in the same group as Carl Hoddle
Was released at u15

I played left wing or inside left as a youth, school and Sussex County League. I had my moments, but overall it would be accurate to describe me as fairly rubbish. Loved it always, even though I realised quite early on that I wasn't going to make it as a pro.

Not sure to be honest. So long ago I can barely remember the sports master’s name. Regarding your other post, I remember you saying before that you were once on Tottenham’s books.

Midfield, hence the Glenn Hoddle comment earlier. He’d have looked average in comparison to me.

That was a joke, in case anyone thinks my last sentence was serious.

I always played football with my mates but my school only played rugby, so I didn’t play much organised football until my mid-20s. By then I’d been watching the Arse for most of my life; I knew exactly what I should be doing, but I couldn’t bloody do it. Bizarrely, my rugby experiences – always in the scrum, mostly as a prop – equipped me pretty well for a role as an old-fashioned (even for those days) centre forward. I was utterly devoid of talent and slow as lipstick - but I was quite big, pretty fit and though I say it myself, fearless. Physicality was my only asset but I scored a hatful of goals for the teams I played for.

However when I played at a better level, I was quickly found out. I came up against decent centre halves who were just as physical, just as fearless and either kicked me where it hurt or ran rings around me. Some did both; they were the worst! I took the hint.

Carl Hoddle played for Barnet didn't he?

Glenn was playing for the Chavs when Barnet were drawn to play them in the Cup. I think it was the first and only time the two brothers played against each other. TV interviewed the parents about the special occasion. I remember it because Ma & Pa Hoddle admitted they wouldn't be attending as they'd already booked a holiday in Yarmouth with friends!

Played from age 6-19. There was one season where my uncle coached the team and had this idea to play me as a ball-playing sweeper (I modeled my game that season after Philippe Albert, if anyone remembers him), but mostly I was played as a winger, which was what every unimaginative coach did with undersized players who were quick and had good technique.

Always thought I had my best games as a central midfielder as I found it pretty easy to navigate those tight spaces (trying to come up with a comparable, probably an extremely one-footed Cazorla but with better hair). However, the coach we had for most of those years had a penchant for playing big guys in the middle. His son was a staple in central midfield; big as a house, he made Xhaka look like Usain Bolt and couldn’t control a ball to save his life, but there he was.

Scored four goals in my very first competitive game as a 7 year old, and that was probably when my career peaked.

Ain't that the truth! I played right wing to a decent level until my mid-teens when everyone else got better and I didn't. Rather handily I also developed a dodgy knee so can obviously blame that for not having the stellar international career I should have had.

I did play in goal one time for my prep-school team. The school was so bad at sports I think I'm right that they hadn't won at anything in over 5 years. Anyway I was playing up-front and had a great first half. Scored a hat-trick, hit both posts and was running defenders for fun. At half time (4-1 up) the sports master said we were too good and put me in goal for the second half. I made a couple of reasonably decent saves but didn't have much to do until late on when I let a soft shot in straight through my legs. Oops. Anyway we won 4-2 and were lauded in assembly the next morning and after that I wanted to play in every team available.

Here's a pic of the wonderful Paul Davis today in 1984.

Maybe the Ferdinand brothers played against each other, but not sure.

If you are an athlete who has tried different sports, you pick up certain things from previous sports to learn the new one. What I found about football is that, its similar to ice hockey the closest. Constantly going back and forth from attack to defense. Same with basketball. They share a lot of similarities. Also, endurance is a huge factor.

Also, like baseball and pool, you look at the ball when striking it, not at the target. Basketball is the opposite, you look at the net, same with American football, you look at the target.

Barcelona is one of those rare teams that will fire a coach when they are first place.

Apparently he’s already been in contact with Stan, sent him an email to say his money is tied up but if he forwards his bank details he send funds immediately.

Only claim to fame was creating 4 of the 5 goals Ian Allinson scored one Sunday morning, clearly the scouts signed up the wrong one.

Hodd when you were at Spurs did they have a young striker Jimmy B? He played at b international level for England late 80s early 90s I believe.

Reading Alan Smith's (self-written) autobiography at the moment. Tells the story of how George Graham blanked Paul Davis for 18 months around 1992 because of a row over Arsenal's style of play. I guess we were route 1 to Wrighty then so Davis didn't see much of the ball. He certainly didn't see much of it during those 18 months. Such a shame. A really class player. Thankfully George brought him back in time for the 93 Cup Finals and Copenhagen in 94, but Davis is still to this day upset about losing 18 months of his career. George wouldn't play him, but wouldn't sell him either. George was not a man to be crossed clearly.

I love that we are being linked several defensive choices but I want us to get some deals done. It's mid month. Man Utd and Chelsea look close to getting deals over the next day or so if it hasn't already happened.

I played for Islington as a kid but my secondary school (Woodberry Down) was more rugby than football. Later on in teens and 20's I played for Eton Manor in the Essex Senior League. Decent standard.

Yeah it’s a sort of staggered winter break, half the teams play one weekend and rest the next and the other half do the opposite. So 2 weeks between games for each team.
The interesting bit will be who you play after your two week rest and of you play any team after they’ve had 2 weeks rest and you’ve had only 1. Some managers have probably got their moans lined up already

When I was younger all I did was play sport, I was the complete stereotype who got in from school and went straight back out to kick a ball about with mates until I was called in for dinner, then back out again until it was so dark you really had to give up.

Football with school and youth teams until I was 16, loved playing rugby union at school as well, gave that up at 16 when my 5ft 10”, 11 stone frame at fly half became a brutal target for the boys who just kept on growing. Eventually I ditched both to concentrate on swimming as I was much better at that, commonwealth, European and Olympic trials but never made the team that went to the games.

Football I was always central midfield on the left side of an adventurous 4-2-4 formation. We used to beat teams 20 or 30-0, fun at the time but not really a football education for anyone involved. I do recall constant battles with the same team from age 12-16, always tight games, and it felt like proper football because the scores would be 1-1 in U12’s but full size pitches rather than the ridiculous 15-3 score lines that were common place.

My best memory was playing in the equivalent of the county fa cup final for U12’s and they played the game at Yeovil Town FC’s ground (where I grew up) it is a big date in the town’s calendar and we got over 1000 people to watch and Yeovil Town’s first team were the ball boys for the game. I always wore number 8, we were drawn in the away team dressing room and I realised that as Arsenal had beaten Yeovil Town 3-1 earlier that season I got to sit in the very same seat as Arsenal’s number 8 at the time, Ian Wright - he scored his hat trick that day! Wrighty was my absolute hero as a 12 year old - probably still is now. Anyway we lost the game 2-1 to one of the most controversial penalty decisions ever.....bloody ref!!

Played a fair bit at uni but it was more the social side I enjoyed then, fitness dwindled a bit so I started playing as a striker then. Then I scaled back to work 5 or 7 a side for fun and fitness.....but after an Achilles’ tendon rupture and doing my ACL on the same leg I struggle to get much football in now.
Now I’ve got a 1 year old son who I’ve already taught to kick a football as he learnt to walk!