English Football [1st - 5th May 2010] **spoilers**

FrankJH said:
Not many gave Utd a chance against Arsenal or Chelsea about 6 games back (me included), - I guess one could still say we dont stand a chance, but to sell the best player in the world and still only lose the EPL by two points effectively is still a pretty decent result .... even in a relatively average season

(on merit injuries havent been that different between the teams)
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Who didnt give Utd much of a chance 6 games back? Arsenal have always been extreme outsiders to win the league. It has never been in their hands to win the league with both Utd and Chelski only able to throw their lead away.

I dont think anyone has had a good season. Its not like you sold your best players and didnt buy anyone. You still spent £20m plus didnt you in transfer market?

Plus I dont think your injuries have been as bad as Arsenals. Our main striker RVP played just 18 games this season when we all thought it was going to be his year to shine. Both Rooney and Berb played 43 and 42 games.

And Fabregas only got in 35 games. Too be honest I think our main starting midfield only managed about 34 games each on average. Not that great seeing as we played about 50 games.

Both defences struggled with injuries but Utd had the cover there. Arsenal didnt. We were even playing our 3rd goalie during some games
 
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Glad that spurs got 4th place, I would much rather that than the possible repercussions of Man City being able to offer players champions league football.
 
Gutted I really wanted city to get in and buy up the world. It will slow city down by a year or so now.

Spurs CL run will probably last about as long as Evertons and will cost them a fortune in players now and see their league form suffer next year.
 
bloodline76 said:
Who didnt give Utd much of a chance 6 games back? Arsenal have always been extreme outsiders to win the league. It has never been in their hands to win the league with both Utd and Chelski only able to throw their lead away.
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a lot of people on here and pundits alike where saying Arsenal had the easiest run in (while being within a point or two of the lead at the time)

bloodline76 said:
I dont think anyone has had a good season. Its not like you sold your best players and didnt buy anyone. You still spent £20m plus didnt you in transfer market?
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Dont think you can really compare the quality of Ronaldo to Valencia - however good the latter has been this season (and how much better he could become)


bloodline76 said:
Plus I dont think your injuries have been as bad as Arsenals. Our main striker RVP played just 18 games this season when we all thought it was going to be his year to shine. Both Rooney and Berb played 43 and 42 games.
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We had a makeshift back 5 for a whole run of games - using mid fielders as central defenders / full backs for a long stretch

I think Utd had 15 defenders / goalies out injured at one time or something close to that - no comparison at all to having one player out (even if he is the major source of goals)


bloodline76 said:
And Fabregas only got in 35 games. Too be honest I think our main starting midfield only managed about 34 games each on average. Not that great seeing as we played about 50 games.

Both defences struggled with injuries but Utd had the cover there. Arsenal didnt. We were even playing our 3rd goalie during some games
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VDS (28), Vidic (32), Rio (20), OShea (19), Rafael (16), Neville (27)

Only Evra has been available for every game in the back 5 - remember all of the above where out for over a month or so at the same time, so no we didnt have the cover!!!

goalie cover....Foster 13 appearances - PIG - 14, so either way our 3rd goalie has played a significant amount of games too
 
All the top teams have had players out for a significant period of time so I don't think that can really be a factor. We've had Essien, Bosingwa and Carvalho pretty much out for the whole season. Ivanovic, Zhirkov, Cech and Cole all out for 4 weeks +, Drogba, Kalou, Mikel away for 4 weeks for ACN, Ballack and Deco intermittently injured. In terms of injuries all the top teams have suffered, Man utd and Chelsea have coped better purely due to the fact we have significantly better squad depth in comparison to Arsenal and Liverpool.
 
Arsenal and Chelsea have both had big players out for long periods (Rvp, Fabregas and Essien, Drogba). If Man Utd would have lost Rooney for 5 months akin to RvP or Essien then they would have struggled hugely. There was a period where he was literally winning them game after game and everybody else was playing very ordinary (bar Evra)

Would be interesting to see how many goals this season that Rooney was involved in, I know that before RvP got injured he had a pretty large part to play in nearly all of Arsenal's goals. When he got injured, Arsenal's season ended.
 
Individual players , I never said they hadnt - but not 80% of the back 5 (and most of their subs) for about 5 - 6 weeks!!!

If you dont have a striker - then you can always pray to find a lucky goal from someone else , personaly think its completely different not having majority of your defence for that long (as you are even more likely to concede) there by even making a draw difficult - as most attacks actually start from the back
 
Don't worry I accept that losing your whole defence is rubbish, but for one, you're lucky to have had Ferdinand injured as it's stopped him ruining everything! ;)

I don't know how the injuries situation weighs up, I just know that Fabregas has been injured a lot, RvP has missed the season and they are by far Arsenal's best players and that does matter. Arsenal had to radically alter their entire game plan not just for a few weeks, but for the entire season. Which sucks, when the old game plan seemed to be working extremely well
 
FrankJH said:
a lot of people on here and pundits alike where saying Arsenal had the easiest run in (while being within a point or two of the lead at the time)
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Yep until we lost Fabregas and a few others ie Gallas, Vermaelen and Song who was out for a few games...we did have the easiest run in compared to Utd and Chelski.

jakeke said:
When he got injured, Arsenal's season ended.
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Disagree...our season ended when we got thumped by Barca in the CL...for some odd reason after that game we never looked the same..again injuries played a major part but not using that as an excuse as we should have never never dropped 6 pts against Blackburn and Wigan.

Anyhow hope we can beat Fulham...unfortunately i can see either a draw or a loss considering our form over the past few games.
 
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Arsenal looked an entirely different team as soon as he got injured, much before the Barca game, you could tell a couple of games after RvP left that there was a massive gap up front and there was nobody there to fill it, even Bendtner couldn't as he was injured for 2+ months himself

Arsenal's run-in became much more difficult when the 6 best (and most important) players in the team all got mid-long term injuries.
 
jakeke said:
Arsenal looked an entirely different team as soon as he got injured, much before the Barca game, you could tell a couple of games after RvP left that there was a massive gap up front and there was nobody there to fill it, even Bendtner couldn't as he was injured for 2+ months himself

Arsenal's run-in became much more difficult when the 6 best (and most important) players in the team all got mid-long term injuries.
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True but even with RVP gone i still think we managed to do well ie stay in the title race pretty much up till the Barca game. He was a big loss thats for sure but the biggest loss was losing Gallas, Fab, Vermaelen for the season and Song for a few games.

Saying that i hope that next season most of our important players ie Fab, Gallas and RVP stay fit...but i think Wenger needs to bring some experienced players to cover if any of those get injured...mind you not really sure if RVP or Gallas or worst still Fabregas will stick around.
 
People talk of a mad spending spree this summer but I'd be happy with one or two players and a guarantee that Fabregas, RvP, Gallas and Song play at least 30 league games each. Obviously that's a fantasy that will never happen though.
 
jakeke said:
People talk of a mad spending spree this summer but I'd be happy with one or two players and a guarantee that Fabregas, RvP, Gallas and Song play at least 30 league games each. Obviously that's a fantasy that will never happen though.
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Well as long as they dont suffer season ending injuries then i dont really mind them being out for a few games BUT we need to get some decent backup players in case they are injured and are out for a period of time. With Fabregas we had Ramsey as backup but due to his leg break...who knows if hes ever going to be as good as he was meant to be ie i just hope he doesnt end up being like Edu, whos a former shell of himself now.

Saying that a decent goalkeeper would be a good signing for a start.
 
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