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yawn

My Dad's filming them tomorrow morning.

I shall be leaving Highbury ASAP to avoid the usual streets lined with hangers on effect of the typical victory parade.

Matthew

Truly impressive.

Can someone explain this to me please?

Many thanks Alex.

I am not a follower you see. I find the whole penomenon a bit bizarre.

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I am not a follower you see. I find the whole penomenon a bit bizarre.

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Mmmmmm ...... the ball's the wrong shape

David

To me, great sides are those that win doubles and trebles.

As big an achievement as it is to go through the season unbeaten, they still won only one trophy.

The Arsenal sides that have won the double, they deserve to be remembered as great teams.

To me the greatest side is the Manchester United Treble winning side of 1999.

p.s. before somebody gets the wrong idea, I don't support Man Utd.

Great team or not, its a nice one for the record books. Doubles get boring after a while.

The problem with the Champions League these days is that you may have to beat 2 teams from your own league to win it. The right royal mess Chelsea made of 2 legs against Monaco makes going out to them very annoying.

Wenger proved yet again yesterday that he has one severe chink in his tactical armour - teams, especially good teams, that play 4-5-1 against us can be our undoing. There must be a plan B for these occasions.

J.N.
My thoughts exactly

Why cannot threads associated with this minority "sport" have a warning in the thread title.

Derek

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Originally posted by Nick Lees:
Van Nostrilhair

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Like that, like that a lot.

Any other suggestions?

Mike

Congradulations Arsenal, this was a fantastic achievement, and It is undoubtedly a great team. They did have some luck, but very few teams win things without at least some luck. All the better that a team playing attractive attacking football is being so successful. This has been the case since the Liverpool domination of the 80's where they just tended to stifle the opposition.


However just to put it into context (and have a dig as a United supporter )

1999/2000 - Man United got 91 points, Arsenal 90
1999/2000 - Man United won league by 18 points, Arsenal by 11
1999/2000 - Man United scored 97 goals, Arsenal 73.
1999/2000 - Man United won 28 Games , Arsenal 26

This was the year after they won the Treble. They also won the league 2000/2001.

So be careful with the 'Best Team Ever' claims, which I have heard from several Quarters despite Nicks comments to the contary. Liverpool also heve a few claims for this crown.

On a more historical note:
The Prestons side of 1888 whilst only having to go unbeaton 22 games did win 18 of those, averaged 3.5 goals a game, and also won the cup without conceding a goal!

The problem with using things they actually won and points totals and the like is that the ManYoo treble winning side was clearly far from even their best. I think instead one has to just watch them play and pick a favourite and on that basis this years Arsenal side is the best English team I've ever seen.

My top 3 would be:

1. This year's Arsenal.

2. The 93/94 Double Winning Man Utd side with Kanchelskis, Cantona, Ince, Keane, Schmeichel. You can also make a case for Parker, Pallister, Bruce and Irwin being the best back 4 United have had under Fergie.

3. The Liverpool side the first year Barnes and Beardsley came (88/89?)

Matthew

As someone who supports neither time I would have to say:

a) the Man Utd teams mentioned come nowhere near the previously acknowledged great teams of past times with the exception of perhaps the 91-93 team which, if it weren't for the foreigner rule, would have probably done far better in Europe too.

b) the Utd. treble team was good but not great. What they had above all was self-belief amd really the European win was the tail end of a good team as the last five years have shown with Fergie making exactly the mistake of Busby and showing loyalty to players instead of the brutal clear-headedness needed to stay at the top.

c) Arsenals' achievement is a great one for the record books but, in reality, the Premiership is now not really a level playing field in any sense and, as many commentators have observed, this season has been the poorest one so far. I would personally give greater respect to people like Doncaster Rovers whose achievement is probably more remarkable in the modern age and those managers in the lower divisions who keep their teams afloat with squads of 20 or less.

d) Talking about luck etc. is fair enough but that applies to all who win trophies. Arsenal have not actually been that great for most of this season as many of their more objective fans will concede. They have not put in a single 90 minute performance which is why they failed in all competitions against teams alleged to be lesser but who gave their all throughout.

So, a great achievement worthy of respect? Yes. A great team? A resounding "No".

Mike,

I agree about many of our performances this season. At least we played the best football I've yet seen in England's top division at the beginning of last season.