It has just been announced that our F.a cup semi-final with Reading will take place on Saturday the 18th of April at 5.20 p.m. This will also mean that our Premier League game against Sunderland at The Emirates has been re-scheduled for a midweek date on Wednesday the 20th of May, at the usual 7:45 p.m kick off time for midweek fixtures.
In other news, according to Sport Witness, our win against Monaco on Tuesday night will have a bearing on our seeding for any European competition next season. What I don't understand is, why there is no mention in the article about the seeding changes from next season, whereby the league winners and holders will be in the top seed. Therefore, the article doesn't really make much sense, but the reason I wanted to highlight this is the fact that this really shows our poor European performance over the last few seasons, and even if the seeding system was not changing , then we would not be a top seed anyway. Here's the crooks of the article;
The 0-2 victory puts us back in 8th position ahead of Porto, who temporarily moved ahead of us us to their victory last week. It is important that we remain in 8th position as this puts us among the top seeded teams, and theoretically have an easier path into the latter stages of the competition, but as we have seen the last few seasons, that doesn't seem to be the case with Arsenal.
Porto may well over take Arsenal, however as they have progressed into the quarter finals of the competition. If they were to overtake us then our best hope would be that one of the teams placed ahead of us in the seeding would not qualify for next seasons competition through their domestic league (providing, of course, that we qualify ourselves). Looking at the other teams in their Leagues only Shalke are the only team in danger of failing to qualify as they remain in 5th position, but only 3 points off Bayer Leverkusen in 4th.
It seems pointless to me to worry about who will or will not qualify and what seed we will be in the competition, firstly we have to qualify and secondly, we should be aiming to match the bigger clubs in Europe, and if we want to do well in this competition we will have to play the at some point anyway. Besides, who knows we could even make it easier on ourselves by knocking one of the bigger teams out at the group stage. I mean, what do we really have to lose when it comes to Europe anyway? Not being the best losers in Europe? I can handle that.
What do you think, should we care about our European seeding? Is the new seeding system good for the competition, and more importantly will it really impact on us? Let me know in the comments.
Subjectively, Cosmic Kid.
The 0-2 victory puts us back in 8th position ahead of Porto, who temporarily moved ahead of us us to their victory last week. It is important that we remain in 8th position as this puts us among the top seeded teams, and theoretically have an easier path into the latter stages of the competition, but as we have seen the last few seasons, that doesn't seem to be the case with Arsenal.
Porto may well over take Arsenal, however as they have progressed into the quarter finals of the competition. If they were to overtake us then our best hope would be that one of the teams placed ahead of us in the seeding would not qualify for next seasons competition through their domestic league (providing, of course, that we qualify ourselves). Looking at the other teams in their Leagues only Shalke are the only team in danger of failing to qualify as they remain in 5th position, but only 3 points off Bayer Leverkusen in 4th.
It seems pointless to me to worry about who will or will not qualify and what seed we will be in the competition, firstly we have to qualify and secondly, we should be aiming to match the bigger clubs in Europe, and if we want to do well in this competition we will have to play the at some point anyway. Besides, who knows we could even make it easier on ourselves by knocking one of the bigger teams out at the group stage. I mean, what do we really have to lose when it comes to Europe anyway? Not being the best losers in Europe? I can handle that.
What do you think, should we care about our European seeding? Is the new seeding system good for the competition, and more importantly will it really impact on us? Let me know in the comments.
Subjectively, Cosmic Kid.
Wenger insists he'd be complaining about the away goal rule, even if we hadn't just gone out because of it. Really? So if we'd been the benefactors, he expects us to believe he'd still be saying the same? The most ridiculous thing about it all is that, if the game had gone into extra time instead, he'd now be complaining about how drained the players were. He is, of course, right that the game has changed since the rule was introduced, but he rather conveniently forgets that, however much the game changes, the same rule still applies to both teams. Here's an idea Arsene - how about trying not to let the tie get to the point where away goals even come into it? Let's see you draw on the wealth of experience you like to remind us about and no more embarrassing, contradictory comments about how naive you and the players are.
ReplyDeleteHere is my point;
DeleteWe are NOT entitled to win anything, nor is any other EPL or CL team,
There is NO team who is vastly superior to any other team in the EPL or CL, and therefore unbeatable,
Upsets and disappointments are a fundamental and unavoidable part of life, including Football,
We, like other great teams, can struggle against poor referee decisions, serious rotational injuries, bad days at the office (off days),
Our psychological strength and self-confidence moves like a tide, in and out, depending on many of the above elements,
Our fans can make or break us and especially our away fans who consistently are our 12th man,
We are a well-run Club and have been cited by UEFA as an example of how clubs should be run financially and administratively,
Success comes in cycles and the cycle seems to be swinging our way, despite setbacks like our CL exit,
Everything depends on achieving team balance, harmony and chemistry and if Arsene is a master of anything, he is a master of that combination,
We have the right mix of players, youth, experience and confidence to achieve success and glory, the stronger we are in support of our Club, the stronger that success will be.
Wenger, our players, our trophies, the Emirates, the aaa, our supporters, our lives and possessions are simply loaned to us for a very short time in the scheme of things and we NEED to appreciate what we have before it is taken back or the cycle swings again. For my part, I am here for the roller-coaster ride that is the Arsenal, and as they say it is the journey, not the destination that is important.
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