UEFA Champions League Final Man City v Inter Milan ** spoilers ** [Saturday 10th June 2023 @ 8pm]

adam cool dude said:
The last 5 out of 6 Champions League finals have had English teams, two of them have been all English finals and three of them English winners. Am I wrong to say that the total dominance financially of the Premier League has made the Champions League almost a second rate competition and it is at huge risk of truly becoming second tier to the premier league?
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Potentially. But a lot of this stuff is cyclical, we need a longer timeframe to truly know i think..

en.wikipedia.org

List of European Cup and UEFA Champions League finals - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

There's a period there for 5 years where we didn't have anyone in the final, pretty recently too.
 
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I'm not sure I'd say Arsenal bottled it. They were on for 100 points at the halfway stage, as basically everything had gone perfectly for them. That was clearly never sustainable - they had a few key injuries, lost a bit of momentum, and stumbled. They were never going to maintain their form from the first half season, and the question was simply whether they could cling on for long enough.
 
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Is "stumbled" the new "bottled" now? :D every team had key injuries.
Haven't Arsenal been in pole position the longest (and not won) in 4 out of 5 top 5 PL stints? Ironically the only reason their tails were up in feb was because Spurs beat Man City.
 
postbox said:
Is "stumbled" the new "bottled" now? :D every team had key injuries.
Haven't Arsenal been in pole position the longest (and not won) in 4 out of 5 top 5 PL stints? Ironically the only reason their tails were up in feb was because Spurs beat Man City.
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Not really. By that logic Liverpool bottled the league in the first three months of it. Teams' form fluctuates.
 
manic111 said:
I'm not sure I'd say Arsenal bottled it. They were on for 100 points at the halfway stage, as basically everything had gone perfectly for them. That was clearly never sustainable - they had a few key injuries, lost a bit of momentum, and stumbled. They were never going to maintain their form from the first half season, and the question was simply whether they could cling on for long enough.
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They didn't need to maintain their form, they just needed to not bottle it. They got 50 pts in the first half of the season and 34 in the second... If they did the first half like the second half they would have barely scraped 4th place. Yes they over-performed in the first half but they fell apart towards the end of the season. Thus they bottled it.

Not sure why people are so bothered that they bottled it. They over-performed based on pre-season expectations but every man and his dog said the title was Arsenals up until a few months ago when they fell apart.

Either there is no such thing as a bottle or Arsenal bottled it this season.
 
fez said:
They didn't need to maintain their form, they just needed to not bottle it. They got 50 pts in the first half of the season and 34 in the second... If they did the first half like the second half they would have barely scraped 4th place. Yes they over-performed in the first half but they fell apart towards the end of the season. Thus they bottled it.

Not sure why people are so bothered that they bottled it. They over-performed based on pre-season expectations but every man and his dog said the title was Arsenals up until a few months ago when they fell apart.

Either there is no such thing as a bottle or Arsenal bottled it this season.
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It is because Arsenal and North London teams are renowned for "bottling". Man Utd bottled the league in 11/12 and there is no shame in admitting that.
 
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