Caporegime
- Joined
- 18 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 33,188
Because it's boring, it's the way of the world now.
Not winning many games against the top 4 in the past 4-5 years becomes winning none in the minds of the hyperbolic masses... then we win one game and OMG< it's changed, we're brilliant again.... even though you know we won a single game against the top four while in 5th place.
We beat Liverpool when Liverpool were having a great season and finished above us... we were in 1st place when we won that game.
I don't see a result as a single result, I see it as part of the season, part of the season in which our record against the top half is abysmal. For Arsenal to compete for the title we need to pretty much win half our games against the top four with a generally very good record against the rest of the table. Being further down the table than usual(before our customary awful Feb/March btw), having a worse record than normal against 5th-10th.... but winning a game against the top four... woo-freaking-hoo.
Worse season than usual but because of one win I should randomly suddenly believe something changed. It of course had nothing to do with City being crap... nope, it was all Arsenal. Arsenal who counter attacked over and over while creating almost nothing, constant misplaced passes and running directly into the defenders.
Even Wenger has seemingly said we were lucky with the penalty decision, I can see why it was given but it was soft as anything. The freekick we scored from... I don't know any more, 99% of Sanchez going down is diving, it looked enthusiastic but I don't know if he dived for that one or not, only saw it from the blind side.
We've played 12 games against the current top half now, we've won 4. We won against the top 4 last year, any given game you might win or lose, we could have beaten Chelsea, it happens. But people go from believing this nonsense idea that we never win against the top 4 to thinking it's impossible then when we win one of those games everyone acts like magically everything is fixed. We're 5th, we've been worse than last season throughout the season, of course we're going to win a few big games, we have every year, it's about consistency, attitude, how we played, how we do for the rest of the season.
If, and it's a monumental if, we managed to win several big games on the trot that would be an entirely different matter. But when we beat Liverpool last year did we have a fantastic year, nope.
After 22 games last year we had 51 points, after 22 games this year we have 39 and are 4 places lower.... but we beat a City who played very poorly, with a dodgy penalty... so it was a brilliant result?
Next year lets lose 30 games... but beat the top 4 in every single game... woo. 12 points worse off, but we won a single game... I'm over the freaking moon. If we stayed 12 points worse off last year we would have finished 6th, we've having a very poor year and one result doesn't change that.
EDIT:- after 22 games last year we had won 16, drawn 3, lost 3. This year we have won 11, drawn 6, lost 5. We ended up 4th last year from 1st at this point in the season. We're 5th now and if we have a crap Feb/March... we're boned. With 16 games to go to match last season's points haul we need 40 more points or we need something like 13 wins, 1 draws and 2 losses, chances of that... none.
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