UEFA Champions and Europa League 2015/16 Thread

[Dolphin Ziggler]

First topic message reminder :

It begins for the English today as West Ham face FC Lusitans in front of a sold out Upton Park this evening. The team will be a bit mixed. Randolph, O'Brien, Tomkins, Burke, Page. Jarvis, Oxford, Poyet, Amalfitano. Zarate, Sakho.

[socal1976]

Please anyone but barca!!!!!!!

[Guest]

The problem with Moyes is that he got rid of Man Utd back room staff and brought in his own team right from the very beginning and that's where he lost it.  He also appeared overawed and appeared clueless when things started going wrong.  He took an ordinary Man Utd side that had somehow won the Premiership through the magic of Sir Alex Fergusson, into the abyss and they finished seventh.  Moyes record against the top managers was woeful and he continued that woeful record at Man Utd ... a bit like Wengers dreadful record against Mourinho ... Moyes has a similar record against all the top managers.

At least LVG has a big enough character not to be overawed by the job and he is big enough to move mountains - but he does things his way.  Defence first, midfield then last strikers.  He wants to play safe football so that he doesn't die of a heart attack.  He has brought Man Utd back into the game as regards the premiership but his focus is on working from the back and getting players that are "versatile".  He has been extremely profligate with money spent but he has no fear in hiring and firing in quick succession in order to recoup money back from players he finds he can't work with.

Personally I think there is a "Rooney issue" - ever since he got his massive pay rise to £300,000 a week he hasn't been the same player - he seems slower in body and thought and a little less inventive.  Maybe it is time to cut his wages drastically or show him the door, and bring in a younger faster player.

If LVG goes Ryan Giggs will be the next appointed manager ... but I fear he will end up like Garry Monk ... sacked after a poor spell in which his lack of managerial experience prevents him from knowing how to get out of a hole.

Ps Congratulations to both Arsenal & Chelsea for qualifying to the next round.

[Duty281]

Arsenal were brilliant last night, with Ozil absolutely sublime. If they maintain that level of performance, they will easily win the Premier League this season. And remember Liverpool in 04/05? That must be a good omen...

[Duty281]

Personally I think there is a "Rooney issue" - ever since he got his massive pay rise to £300,000 a week he hasn't been the same player - he seems slower in body and thought and a little less inventive.  Maybe it is time to cut his wages drastically or show him the door, and bring in a younger faster player.

How on earth will that happen? Rooney is on a £300,000 a week contract until sometime in 2019. Why would he move, when no other club would be stupid enough to pay him such an extraordinary sum?

[Guest]

Arsenal were brilliant last night, with Ozil absolutely sublime. If they maintain that level of performance, they will easily win the Premier League this season...

Well done, you beat a woeful Greek side. It's nothing to really shout about.

If Arsenal maintain that level of inconsistency in performance, you mean, then they won't win anything. This Arsenal side is nothing special, as Olympiacos showed at the Emirates or how West Brom beat them two weeks ago or how Norwich nearly beat them last week. Giroud banged his first hat-trick, again, it's about time, given the service providers behind him.

[Duty281]

Arsenal were brilliant last night, with Ozil absolutely sublime. If they maintain that level of performance, they will easily win the Premier League this season...

Well done, you beat a woeful Greek side. It's nothing to really shout about.

If Arsenal maintain that level of inconsistency in performance, you mean, then they won't win anything. This Arsenal side is nothing special, as Olympiacos showed at the Emirates or how West Brom beat them two weeks ago or how Norwich nearly beat them last week. Giroud banged his first hat-trick, again, it's about time, given the service providers behind him.

No, I didn't beat a woeful Greek side, because I don't play for the Arsenal football team. And if you're delving into popular parlance, I'm not a supporter of Arsenal, either.

This Arsenal side is, indeed, nothing special - compared to what Arsenal were like when I was growing up, terming them 'ordinary' would be kind - but neither is the league they are playing in. And Arsenal will only get stronger as the season carries on.

[socal1976]

Duty is hardly an arsenal fan although he might be a theo fan. Playing on the road at Olympiacos with all the players they had out and winning by three goals is a strong result. I think this is our most realistic chance to win the league in quite sometime. Two years ago we lead most of the year but never felt that we were the equal of city or Chelsea but this year I don't fear any team in the league and feel the squad matches up well with anyone in the prem.

You sound like a butthurt United fan upset by the fact that your team is a giant 250 million pound sack of turd and that Arsenal have two major trophies in the last two years so you maybe need to stop recycling the they never win anything line

[socal1976]

ps enjoy your Thursday night road trips to whatever country Borat is from

[Dolphin Ziggler]

He's a West Brom fan.

Regardless, I think Duty is well aware that Arsenal's problem isn't their ceiling of performance, it's their consistency.

[socal1976]

Compared to almost every other team in the league they have been pretty consistent that is why they are second in the table. I mean if you want to tar someone with that brush there are plenty of big clubs that have been as inconsistent or worse. You could say that about any of them this season, why pick out Arsenal to knock and Giroud on a night the guy scores a hat trick and Arsenal make a great escape? You could say the same about lfc, man city, Spurs etc this season. So it comes off as a pretty stupid and bitter comment to come in after a very good result that many did not pick to single them out for that. And to in particular to take a ru at the guy who just scored a champions league hat trick

[Guest]

The 'great escape' was in the 02/03 season, by none other than, the greatest footballing side in the world, Newcastle United. Lost the first three champions league group games & still managed to qualify, a feat, that remains unmatched, in champions league history. Nice attempt by Arsene & Olivier in particular

[socal1976]

The 'great escape' was in the 02/03 season, by none other than, the greatest footballing side in the world, Newcastle United. Lost the first three champions league group games & still managed to qualify, a feat, that remains unmatched, in champions league history. Nice attempt by Arsene & Olivier in particular

Lol John that was a great Newcastle side bags of goals if my alcohol infested memory serves me right. Crazy as it sounds I thought of you after Giroud scored his third that is how much your passionate love affair with the Frenchmen has impacted us all

[Dolphin Ziggler]

Compared to almost every other team in the league they have been pretty consistent that is why they are second in the table. I mean if you want to tar someone with that brush there are plenty of big clubs that have been as inconsistent or worse. You could say that about any of them this season, why pick out Arsenal to knock and Giroud on a night the guy scores a hat trick and Arsenal make a great escape? You could say the same about lfc, man city,  Spurs etc this season.  So it comes off as a pretty stupid and bitter comment to come in after a very good result that many did not pick to single them out for that. And to in particular to take a ru at the guy who just scored a champions league hat trick

Consistency is relative to context and standards. Arsenal would be more consistent than 15 other teams if they finished 5th, but I doubt we'd praise their consistency.

You'd have to be either oblivious or purposefully ignoring the fact that Arsenal haven't shown enough consistency to win the Premier League or the Champions League in the past 10 years to think that a comment about Arsenal's floor and ceiling was just about this year. So it comes across as overly defensive to rally against any negative comment about Arsenal just because you won a game you should win. Great escape? Thank god you see it like that because other people would look at awful results against two teams you should put away with ease and consider this another example of Arsenal not having the bottle to win a tough group

[GSC]

I mean if they drew every game they'd be the most consistent team in the league

But they wouldnt be first.

[socal1976]

Compared to almost every other team in the league they have been pretty consistent that is why they are second in the table. I mean if you want to tar someone with that brush there are plenty of big clubs that have been as inconsistent or worse. You could say that about any of them this season, why pick out Arsenal to knock and Giroud on a night the guy scores a hat trick and Arsenal make a great escape? You could say the same about lfc, man city,  Spurs etc this season.  So it comes off as a pretty stupid and bitter comment to come in after a very good result that many did not pick to single them out for that. And to in particular to take a ru at the guy who just scored a champions league hat trick

Consistency is relative to context and standards. Arsenal would be more consistent than 15 other teams if they finished 5th, but I doubt we'd praise their consistency.

You'd have to be either oblivious or purposefully ignoring the fact that Arsenal haven't shown enough consistency to win the Premier League or the Champions League in the past 10 years to think that a comment about Arsenal's floor and ceiling was just about this year. So it comes across as overly defensive to rally against any negative comment about Arsenal just because you won a game you should win. Great escape? Thank god you see it like that because other people would look at awful results against two teams you should put away with ease and consider this another example of Arsenal not having the bottle to win a tough group

Again they don't have to AC Milan of the blooming late 80s to win the league do they? Your analogy about being more consistent then 15 teams is silly, ok right now they are more consistent then 18 other sides and if they improve and perform consistently better than 19 sides they are the champions. Every team this season has been up and down, including every single contender. You guys just never get tired of the Arsenal don't have bottle to win and snide condescension. Were they expected to win a group with Munich one of the two best teams in Europe?

Again the point is sure they have been inconsistent so has everyone else this year but this is a good result Olym. on the road has been a traditionally difficult place to play for anyone and with 7 first team players out to win by three goals hardly deserves the criticism you people are making. I don't know a trophy each of the last two years is starting look like consistently damn good to me

[GSC]

Consistent =/= good godammit.

[socal1976]

GSC I don't disagree with your post you can be consistently crappy like Chelsea has been this year, your consistent but crap. Or like Arsenal you can be a bit inconsistent and be a good side. So I am not really disputing you. What gets me ticked off is when Arsenal gets singled out and it's claimed they lack bottle to win after a very good result and advancing. You wouldn't hear it about any other club right after this performance. Nobody said squat negative about Chelsea or city after they made it through. And both those sides are looking up at the gunners in the table.

[Dolphin Ziggler]

You are not getting the point and I cannot think anything but you are doing it on purpose.

[compelling and rich]

jeez been off here but knew arsenal fans would be all over here after one result. just wait untill the draw when you'll get knocked out. you came second in a group that even united would have come second in!!

last season was monaco!! remind me how those giants of european football are doing this season

[Guest]

jeez been off here but knew arsenal fans would be all over here after one result. just wait untill the draw when you'll get knocked out. you came second in a group that even united would have come second in!!

last season was monaco!! remind me how those giants of european football are doing this season

united can't score goals, so i don't know how you came to that conclusion, that you would of came second in that group.

as for monaco, that's cos they lost anthony martial, geoffrey kondogbia, aymen abdennour, layvin kurzawa, yannick ferreira carrasco & lucas ocampos this past summer.

[compelling and rich]

woeful greek side you said, cska are better than that team and they came last. uniteds groups wasnt hard but the teams in it were of a better quality than Olympiacos

[Duty281]

jeez been off here but knew arsenal fans would be all over here after one result. just wait untill the draw when you'll get knocked out. you came second in a group that even united would have come second in!!

last season was monaco!! remind me how those giants of european football are doing this season

Um...there's only been one Arsenal fan posting on here since the win over Olympiakos...and he sounds relatively calm.

[Dolphin Ziggler]

Calm but insane. A cold blooded killer sounds calm too.

United flopped out of an easier group though.

[GSC]

jeez been off here but knew arsenal fans would be all over here after one result. just wait untill the draw when you'll get knocked out. you came second in a group that even united would have come second in!!

last season was monaco!! remind me how those giants of european football are doing this season

United couldnt come 2nd in a group that had the Dutch champions as the top seed.

[compelling and rich]

Calm but insane. A cold blooded killer sounds calm too.

United flopped out of an easier group though.

for arsenal to win the group it was tougher, to come second (qualify) it was easier. greek champions or dutch champions. theres only one better team out of them. same with russian teams being better than Croatian teams

[socal1976]

Calm but insane. A cold blooded killer sounds calm too.

United flopped out of an easier group though.

Wow nothing I posted deserves that kind of analogy, sure glad I checked in with 101 fever on my business trip in Seoul to read that one. You need to relax do you come on hear to have people agree with you? Or to argue about football? I don't agree with you if it gets you that unhinged lets just agree to disagree

[compelling and rich]

jeez been off here but knew arsenal fans would be all over here after one result. just wait untill the draw when you'll get knocked out. you came second in a group that even united would have come second in!!

last season was monaco!! remind me how those giants of european football are doing this season

[Guest]

Lol barcelona

[Guest]

It's a terrible draw for the competition. Two of benfica / atletico / Psv / zenit will be in the QF's. Also gent vs Wolfsburg lol. How many times do we have to watch Chelsea vs PSG. Also Bayern vs juventus in the second round ain't great, that's a Qf at least tie.

[Dolphin Ziggler]

Calm but insane. A cold blooded killer sounds calm too.

United flopped out of an easier group though.

Wow nothing I posted deserves that kind of analogy, sure glad I checked in with 101 fever on my business trip in Seoul to read that one. You need to relax do you come on hear to have people agree with you? Or to argue about football? I don't agree with you if it gets you that unhinged lets just agree to disagree

That's so incredibly sensitive and sums up your inability to take a debate.

[Duty281]

Come on Arsenal, come on Arsenal...

Those Catalan foes had to cheat in 2011 to get the better of Arsenal, revenge will be delicious. I'm backing Arsenal to do the lot this season - the whole fu**ing lot - like United in '99.

To dream the impossible dream,
To fight the unbeatable foe,
To bear with unbearable sorrow,
To run where the brave dare not go.

To right the unrightable wrong,
To be better far than you are,
To try when your arms are too weary,
To reach the unreachable star.

Now bring me my money of burning gold, bring me my bookmaker of desire.

[Guest]

Some incredibly weak matchups, along with some difficult, hard to call ties. Will lead to quite a few one sided QF's, for sure. The competition has lost its edge with the domination of Barca & Bayern anyway.

[compelling and rich]

bayern and chelsea can feel hard done by, two very tough teams for winning your group, and do think the draw hasnt been that great for games in the quarters and semis. the likes of city should really be looking to push on this year. this year you could get to the semis without playing a decent side

[GSC]

Well Arsenals recovery was fun while it lasted. City should fancy their chances of the quarters

[Guest]

Man City will hope for Dynamo Kiev, followed by Wolfsburg or the winner of Benfica/Zenit in the QF's, then find themselves in the semi-final.

[President Trump]

Spurs vs Fiorentina again in the Europa

[Guest]

Manchester United vs Midtjylland ( welcome to Thursday nights)
Tottenham vs Fiorentina
Liverpool vs Augsburg

[President Trump]

Liverpool vs Augsburg

[socal1976]

Well somehow new our misdeeds would be properly rewarded with Barca. Don't want to be fatalistic but can't see how we win this tie with Barca.

[GSC]

I guess Messi, Neymar, Suarez could all join Benzemas blackmailing ring

[Duty281]

Sit deep, soak up the attack, counter with Walcott/Oxlade, finish with Giroud, job's a good'un.

Barcelona are almost as overrated as that Argentine that plays up front (almost!); I don't envisage Arsenal having too many problems. This is a weaker Barcelona team than 2011 (and a stronger Arsenal one) and Arsenal would have triumphed four years ago, had it not been for a disgraceful refereeing decision.

[Dolphin Ziggler]

City finally handed a chance. 

Just can't see Arsenal doing it. Real Madrid aren't a vintage Real, but Barca made them victims. Without the prophet.

[Guest]

UEFA XI of the group stages

Trapp, Alaba, Thiago Silva, Godin, Barzagli, Sterling, Kums, Willian, Cristiano Ronaldo, Hulk & Thomas Muller

[Fernando]

[Fernando]

PSG 1-0 Chelsea - Zlatan Ibrahimovic

[Holymiky]

PSG 1-1 Chelsea - John Obi Mikel!

[Guest]

PSG 2-1 Chelsea - Edinson Cavani

[Duty281]

Not a disaster for Chelsea, but still an incredibly uphill road for them to get into the quarter-finals.

[Holymiky]

Not a disaster for Chelsea, but still an incredibly uphill road for them to get into the quarter-finals.

It will be tough for us sure, definitely do-able though. That away goal helps us a lot but ultimately if PSG get one at the Bridge, its back to evens really.

[Guest]

Probably shows PSG's limitations really, they've won, but they didn't impress & still don't look like potential Cup winners. They should be putting the team 12th in the Prem out of reach, but they haven't.

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