I know we are all a bit sensitive about Man City at the moment, but they have an amazing team, an amazing manager, all made possible by essentially unlimited resources.

The other thing I often hear in defence of City is that certainly recently they haven't spent much more money than the other big clubs in England. Firstly that ignores the colossal wages and agent fees they spend (Haaland is on £900k per week) and more importantly the basis for that argument assumes that the figures City submit are the truth - which almost certainly they aren't considering Mancini was being paid over half his wage 'off the books' he won't have been the only one

Does this result make Madrid bottle jobs?

City’s first choice front 3 currently is Grealish/Bernardo/Haaland…..their back ups are Mahrez/Foden/Alvarez. The back ups could probably still win them the league and could still probably all get to start in 99% of teams.

The midfield 3 is different, first choice is unbelievable quality Rodri/Gundogan/De Bruyne….but the back up 3 are pretty weak, it’s Phillips and some youngsters. Keeping those 3 fit all season has been crucial. When Pep rests any of them he often bring in Alvarez to play with Haaland in a 4-4-2 because he doesn’t have the depth in CM

I absolutely despise city and all they stand for.
What a remarkable achievement it would have been beating them to the title.
Alas not to be but look at what they have just done to the champions league holders.
The Premier league obviously think they have a good case to have levied all these charges against them so what the *%^@ is the delay???
Sour grapes but I would just love it if they are proven guilty of all the charges.
Love to see how Pep wriggles out of that!
Surely no smoke without fire.

Coventry v Luton in the play off final for a place in the Prem. Must be a very long time since either of those were in the top flight. I always like to see 'new' teams in the Prem, Burnley and Sheff Utd coming up didn't satisfy that need!

Norton-Cuffy, our young RB played for Coventry and ex-Arsenal player Ben Sheaf also plays for them. I hope they come up because it would be great to loan them Norton-Cuffy again but in the Prem. He's made 41 appearances in the championship this year for Rotherham and then Coventry - playing more as a right-wing back for Coventry - good experience for him

It isn't mentioned because PL football is the biggest product for both Sky and BT and their entire business models are built on its popularity. The allegations against City bring the integrity of the entire competition into question and if found to be true it means Sky and BT have been selling a fraud. The greatest league in the world. The most competitive league in the world. The emperor has no clothes and those profiting from it aren't going to say a thing.

Mate, have a look at the world we live in. Politicians cheat lie and deceive, police bend rules, crime is rampant, churches have and continue to cover up for pedos, using performance enhancing drugs is everywhere in sport, with every message and telephone call you ask is this real or a fraudster, every league in Europe has cheating clubs, the level of actually bribing referees is unknown: do you think the City issue will just join the list that we are powerless to do anything about. I do. Will the broadcasters even mention any of these issues in a meaningful way; NO.

What could you personally do: Will you stop supporting Arsenal because they are in a contaminated league? I share your concerns but really the world is f....d.

Go Coventry!

Make that 100 to 1

We didn’t show what we can do vs City, Arteta was criticised for not changing things up and still persisting with the same tactics and high press. Well Real Madrid just did the opposite, they sat deep let City have the ball and they got totally dominated and picked off.

Yes this City side won’t beat their own 100 points record but for me they are a more complete side than they’ve had before. They can still kill you with 1000 passes, but now they have a cyborg up top who they can go long ball to, they’re also stronger at set-pieces in both boxes and much less vulnerable defensively since Pep went with essentially 4 CB across his back 4. I don’t think I saw Walker or Akanji in the final 3rd or on the overlap at all.

I often used to debate with Man U fans which was the greater achievement, the unbeaten season or the treble. One thing I used to say is which will be done again soonest in England? We might be about to find out this season

As much as I hate to admit it I would swap the invincibles season for a treble.

Actually I think I would swap it for just 1 champions league.

City are going to stroll that final. They are becoming tiresome

Arsenal Ladies Under 19 team playing at the FIFA Youth Cup today against FC Zürich, so the 5th time this season that the 2 Clubs have played each other.

There's a live stream here ---> https://www.red.sport/en-int/playerpage/1610470

K.O is 8:20 London time, so in 1 hour.

So refreshing to see the youth teams playing with the game as the center-point, rather than all the trappings of "professional footballer" getting in the way of 11 players trying to put the ball in the net more times than their opponents.

Sad news yesterday from " someone in the know" ...

Looks like Granit Xhaka is definitely gone to the Werkself from Bayer.

His Goal is to go back to FC Basel to play a farewell season or two, and then get into coaching, so running down his career with a long contract in Germany in the Bundesliga is the perfect option for him.

Sad to see him go, but sadder that it's only this season that we have seen what a superb footballer he is, and that he tainted his legacy at The Arsenal.

He didn’t taint his legacy. He was a decent player but with major limitations. He forged a decent career at Arsenal in the end and it was nice to see Arteta managed to get a tune out of him in his final and best season for us.

From listening to him it sounds like he had a great and pragmatic relationship with the manager who has agreed to sell him for personal issues not relating to football.

Feels like a nice way to part company to be honest. No acrimony

Pep ahead of the curve tactically yet again. What is most depressing about them isn't how good their midfield and attack are, but how utterly smothering their defense is becoming.

They've been so good in the last few months they've hardly needed to get into top gear.

I can't remember a side absolutely walking the latter rounds of CL like City are this year. 17 goals scored vs 3 conceded.

Sort of like the Pete Sampras of football.

Alex Ferguson is on record as saying the unbeaten season was the stand out achievement of the Premier League era.

This from Johnathan Liew in The Guardian


"And so one of the world’s richest states spends years trying to hire the world’s greatest coach, succeeds, and then gives him literally everything he needs. Every other club in the world, with the exception of Paris Saint-Germain, has to operate within the constraints of finance or fortune. Every other club in the world has flaws or problem areas that they can’t address right now, but hope to at some point in the future. Guardiola, by contrast, gets the staff he wants, the players he wants when he wants them, gets their replacements ahead of schedule."

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... eal-madrid

City are undeniably a fantastic team but maybe the media should stop with the superlatives until the outcome of the 100+ FFP charges levied against them.

They may well be innocent and exonerated, in which case the PL are going to look like a right bunch of plonkers for even thinking the charges would stick. If they are guilty of mass FFP rule breaks then their legacy will be forever tainted by the fact that they cheated to get where they are and they should be stripped of titles and kicked out of the league.

I think I would as well, but that won't stop me debating it with Man U fans. What I wouldn't give for a Champions League trophy

Agreed- it feels like such a black and white moment, guilty or not guilty. cheats or not. For me it is the biggest thing to hit the premier league

Well that’s very humble of him but I was in Paris in 2006 for that final and I bet many of the fans who went and are still haunted by that loss would swap it in a heartbeat. Unfortunately the champions league is the pinnacle of all club football achievement. We really haven’t made much of a dent in that competition either. It’s really the elephant in the room for Arsenal really as we have a fine domestic record really.

That’s pretty much it.

His key players renew their contracts instantly by being offered so much money so it’s a stable squad largely. Plus Haaland is on what 875k a week or something. Just wages out of scope for nearly every other club bar united. I mean they battered Madrid 5-1 yet we are bottlers. Largely you just can’t compete

Agreed. Great to see what he can do this season, unfairly tainted by most fans, and unfairly treated by a lot of referees who base their decisions on perception not reality. The worst call Xhaka received was actually a yellow card for his first foul when the ref at the time pointed to 3 places on the pitch on the basis it was his 3rd foul.

In the system Arteta wants to play and the target we want to reach (Prem champions and CL champions) he has limitations but it doesn't make him a bad player, but you can see he's a little bit fish out of water in the penalty area despite his best goalscoring season. We need a player with similar attributes to Gundogan. I think Bellingham is the right skillset as well - but obviously he won't come to us for a lot of reasons

Also I think Ferguson said that when being interviewed about Wenger's legacy in the game where he had very much mellowed and was quite kind - he didn't just offer it up. I'm surprised he said it because there is no chance he swaps that treble for an unbeaten season

You're right.
Last year Real Madrid lost KO legs to PSG and City last year and seemed to come back from the dead a couple of times
in 20/21 Chelsea lost KO legs and squeezed past most teams by a single goal after two legs
In 19/20 Bayern were good, beat Chelsea 7-1, Barca 8-2, Lyon 3-0 and won the final v PSG 1-0. These were one legged QF and SF due to covid
in 18/19 Liverpool needed that miraculous come-back from 3-0 down to beat Barca

It isn't supposed to be this easy and one-sided

City are already 23 unbeaten. They will eventually beat the 49 games on this current trajectory. They also stand a more than decent chance of going unbeaten at some point. Only once they have made a total mockery of the so called competitiveness of the PL will people even start to have the conversation at the higher levels. It's F1 now. Utd get Qatar in all probability, Newcastle have the Saudi money. What's the point? We knew this but I think we've only really felt it so acutely as we've found ourselves on the receiving end this season. Liverpool fans were saying this a while back and we just laughed at them etc. It's such b%*&s%*^, it really is.

It’s just absurd now. They spent 500 million more than every other team except united in the last 10 years. They’ve won the last 5 league cups before this season because they have a Huge squad.

I think you are right you have an invincible season on the horizon too. At that point really the realisation of what happened will set in.

They’ve disputed all charges now

https://www.londonworld.com/sport/footb ... ks-4148358

I'm always amazed how those who defend City use examples of other teams spending lots of money. They use the 'but what about when Man U dominated the league and were the richest club' - or 'We've spent less than club X/Y in the last 3-4 seasons.'

How can they fail to see the difference between Man U legally cashing in on merchandise, sponsorship, huge stadium, the success of the team to grow a global brand that made them the richest club in the world and able to afford these expensive players - through gritted teeth all through their excellent on and off field work. They still had to work within the realms of reality of not being able to spend more than they earned.

People also focus far too heavily on transfers in and out to judge how much a team spends. We spend over £100m less per season on wages than City. Haaland transfer fee used in those figures is £52m, but the reality is the guy is paid £900k per week, his agent got £25m and his dad got £25m, all in the transfer is a £250-300m commitment. City have been able to spend millions on the stadium, training facility, feeder clubs and all other things that actually fall outside the FFP rules which gives them a massive advantage to attract the best talent as well.

City defence is that the lawyer is an Arsenal fan, maybe we should choose the same line of attack and ask why so many referees are from greater manchester

Saka and Ødegaard nominated for player of the season

Saka, Ødegaard and Martinelli nominated for Young player of the season

Haaland also nominated for both so should win both then

Arteta nominated for manager of the season

Never understood how some players who are simply not young get on the young player of the year list - Ødegaard is 24

Rambo signs a new contract

More “faffing around” next season

Ramsdale has signed a new contract to take him to 2028 with the option of a further year

Contracts expiring next year are:
Saka, Saliba, Jorginho, Xhaka, Elneny, Holding - The club have Saka deal all but done, working on Saliba, Jorginho and Elneny will be allow to run to the end and I expect Xhaka and Holding sold

Contracts expiring in 2025
Ødegaard, Partey, Ramsdale, Tomiyasu, Turner. Ramsdale is just done, Ødegaard next to be done. The others will have 2 years left on their deal this summer so decisions need to be made one way or another.

Everyone else has at least 3 years or more left on their deals this summer.

Secure the best talent, move on players who still have value if they're not good enough, too old or their time with us is done.

Look at the age of the squad - Partey and Xhaka are the only older players in the starting 11 so make a big push this summer to replace them (Rice + Caicedo)

It all sounds pretty much like the club have a clear plan

Not just the CL , our European record in all competitions is very poor and needs addressing , lost too many finals