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2025/26 UEFA Champions League

Arsenal trying to join the "Big Table" yet failed miserably again, instead of trying to take on the best in the world by playing football and having a go they fall back to 'default mode" and play like Stoke City on steroids - they are the best anti-football team in the world for sure.
FFS if thats the best they can offer they will always be a second rate team they will never be as big as Liverpool, or Man Utd and not even close to Man City115 :LOL: well done PSG now to get Enrique to Liverpool 🤞
 
450 arrests across France as people thinking trashing your city and acting violently is a great way to celebrate your win.
 
Kevin Keegan71 said:
Arsenal trying to join the "Big Table" yet failed miserably again, instead of trying to take on the best in the world by playing football and having a go they fall back to 'default mode" and play like Stoke City on steroids - they are the best anti-football team in the world for sure.
FFS if thats the best they can offer they will always be a second rate team they will never be as big as Liverpool, or Man Utd and not even close to Man City115 :LOL: well done PSG now to get Enrique to Liverpool 🤞
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That's a terrible post on the reading of modern elite football.

So Arsenal aren’t as good as PSG, but that doesn’t make them wholly inferior. They’re just . . . different.

They excel in other areas, the less eyecatching ones. And just as Mikel Arteta would yearn to have some of PSG’s talents at his disposal, so the same would be true of Luis Enrique.

Arsenal under Mikel Arteta have built an absolute juggernaut, but their strength lies in structural discipline, territorial dominance, and out-of-possession asphyxiation. They might lack that singular, world-shattering superstar attacker who can create a goal out of thin air, but they compensate with a collective defensive floor that is arguably the highest in Europe.

PSG is a collection of high-amplitude lightning bolts, Arsenal is a relentless, suffocating high-pressure system. One strikes you down in a flash, the other slowly denies you oxygen until you collapse.

But if everyone played like PSG football would be like AFL....Boring as fuck!!

If every team adopted that ultra-individualistic, end-to-end, "you attack, we attack" chaotic style, the sport would lose the very thing that makes it magical – scarcity and tension.

When a game turns into a relentless, transition-heavy track meet – much like the constant end-to-end kicking and high-scoring nature of AFL....

Then goals start to lose their emotional weight. If a match finishes 5-4 every single week because nobody bothers to control the space, a goal stops being a "religious experience" and just becomes a statistic.
 
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Football us life said:
That's a terrible post on the reading of modern elite football.
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mate thats your opinion we all like the fact the game can be played several different ways but I look at it another way and to a certain degree Declan Rice eluded to it in a post game interview he said they could not go toe to toe with PSG or else they would get hammered as most teams do - my argument is thats fine if you are an inferior team you have to set up to not get hammered but Arsenal proclaim to want to be among the elites thats Liverpool, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern, Man City etc I could not see any of these teams playing like Arsenal at all they would definitely have a go at them. Its Arteta who instigates this siege mentality - I'll wage a bet right here that Arsenal will not win the EPL next season nor will they get anywhere near the champions league final to me this season its a one off - various reasons Liverpool spluttered and were largely disappointing City also wernt at it, Utd still not there and in the champions league Arsenal led a charmed life certainly in the latter stages - I honestly think its a one off just my opinion ;)
 
Kevin Keegan71 said:
mate thats your opinion we all like the fact the game can be played several different ways but I look at it another way and to a certain degree Declan Rice eluded to it in a post game interview he said they could not go toe to toe with PSG or else they would get hammered as most teams do - my argument is thats fine if you are an inferior team you have to set up to not get hammered but Arsenal proclaim to want to be among the elites thats Liverpool, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern, Man City etc I could not see any of these teams playing like Arsenal at all they would definitely have a go at them. Its Arteta who instigates this siege mentality - I'll wage a bet right here that Arsenal will not win the EPL next season nor will they get anywhere near the champions league final to me this season its a one off - various reasons Liverpool spluttered and were largely disappointing City also wernt at it, Utd still not there and in the champions league Arsenal led a charmed life certainly in the latter stages - I honestly think its a one off just my opinion ;)
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This post exemplifies the elitist "beautiful game" fallacy. KK claims that true elite clubs never compromise their style and would always "have a go," dismissively labeling Arsenal’s structural pragmatism as a sign of an inferior team. Writing off Arsenal’s rise as a temporary fluke aided by underperforming rivals, predicting a swift decline.

However, this entirely ignores reality. The true elites like Real Madrid and Liverpool constantly deploy defensive pragmatism to win trophies. Adaptability isn't a weakness, it is the ultimate hallmark of elite football. Refusing to play suicidally isn't inferior it is how champions are made.

Also, the "anti-football" whine is almost always wrapped in a massive layer of elitism. It usually comes from fans of clubs who think they have a divine right to see a beautifully open, aesthetic game where the opponent politely rolls over and lets them play. Or the "intellectual" punditry class. The ones who sit in a studio with a touch-screen monitor, wearing a sharp suit, looking down their noses at a team that just grinded out a 1-0 win like they’ve committed a crime against humanity.

But honestly, the people who harp on about it miss the entire point of the sport.....

To say defensive, structural, or aggressive football is "anti-football" implies that the sport is only supposed to be about one thing....attacking. But football is a game of territory, space, and psychology.

Football is a competitive sport not a theatrical performance!

A manager's job is to win and not entertaining the neutrals
 
The hate Arteta’s Arsenal gets is the ultimate backhanded compliment. Nobody wastes this much energy hating a team that is irrelevant.....

People hate Arsenal right now because they are incredibly disruptive. They don't play the role of the "entertaining, fragile Arsenal" that the rest of the Premier League grew comfortable beating up on for the last decade!

Arteta didn't build a team to win the "Neutral's Choice Award." He built a team designed to survive the grueling, physical, tactical warfare of the Premier League and onwards to compete against the elite of European football!

They were a penalty kick or two away from beating one of the most potent and aesthetically pleasing teams in recent European Champions League history.

I love watching PSG.... they're a heady fusion of Pep Guardiola’s strict structural spacing and the vibrant, unpredictable spirit of high-level street football.

I alsp think that they're on the cusp of becoming one of the great European club sides.

For Arsenal to compete with them at this level shows that Arteta's philosophy can work too...
 
Parking the bus
Holding out attack after attack
Not even 30% possession
Hold out 13odd corners
In the big picture the attacker PSG had a bad day in front of goal
They sure did deserve losing by 2pens for it would have been injustice winning that way and glad for the games sake !
All and good admiring mourinho style game plan but to talk it up like it’s a arteta science of the modern times is a bit OTT imo.
As mentioned the epl main teams spluttered this season and they still just got over the line with just 2 play if I recall correct.
Let’s see how well they can back it up.
 
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