Arsenal fans are ‘setting themselves up for disappointment’ after a ‘kind’ start to the season

Arsenal fans are getting too excited, too early. Plus, a Liverpool fan has mixed thoughts on Man City, the joy of unfamiliarity and lots more…

Get your mails in to theeditor@football365.com…

Arsenal fans are setting themselves up for a fall…
Just wanted to jump in and mark DaraghJohn’s homework. Your notes were wrong mate – United are in the Europa League, not the conference.

That aside, I’ve read your email and, to quote our wise leader, don’t accept the premise.

John mentions he’s never heard of United’s opponents, well ditto for me and Arsenal’s opponents. A quick Google tells me that they’re the current champions of Norway, so I’ll happily confess this is down to my ignorance of Norwegian football.

Now, Arsenal won 3-0 at home to those giants of the European game and United made harder work over in Cyprus, but I’d hardly call them the first team to be a bit sluggish in the first half of an away game in Europe, and they won’t be the last. Stop getting carried away!

From what I’ve seen, Arsenal have looked really good this season, and good for them. That said, they really do have to be. This is Arteta’s third full season, he’s been backed heavily, its his squad now. If it isn’t clicking now, then when?

He’s criticising United as being patchwork… well yes, they are, that’s true. But you can’t change the past and they are where they are. Arsenal had to make some painful financial decisions letting the likes of Aubamayang go too… Ten Hag’s “project” is only a few weeks old. The only way it could be in the same position as Arteta’s is if Arteta royally ballsed his up. He hasn’t, so good for him.

Ten Hag is stuck with a patchwork squad for now, but they did decent work clearing out some of the dregs this summer, with hopefully more to come this summer. We can’t change the past, but only learn from it, and I think (or maybe hope) United have learned from theirs. For me, the acid test is whether they renew de Gea’s contract – love him though I do, he’s pretty limited and the wrong fit for Ten Hag. They should let him go on a free at the end of the season, rather than “preserve his value” by exercising their option for another year or worse, give him an extended deal (seriously, even if he took a pay cut, you could get better value at a quarter of the cost).

Now finally, I know Arsenal fans are giddy that they’re top of the table. But they are (checks notes) 8 games into the league – we’re still in “does the table really mean anything” territory, for goodness sake. Case in point, do we really think Liverpool (currently 9th) are in a tussell with the seven teams within one point of them just to finish in the top half of the table? Of course not; they’ve just had a sluggish start.

Arsenal have had a good start, and good for them. Liverpool’s sluggish start is probably enough to realistically rule them out for the title (long season and all that, so maybe not, but based on how imperious City look, 10 point gap already, etc). But let’s be honest, of their 8 games, Arsenal were outright favourites in six of their wins. They were favourites against United too, and lost. The only really testing game that you might use as a benchmark that they won was against Tottenham, which is great for Arsenal.

But the way Arsenal fans are talking…Christ almighty! Eight games in, eight! Out of 38! With a kind draw so far! For the love of god, tone it down – you’re setting yourselves up for disappointment…

At the same stage last year Chelsea were top, the year before? Leicester (one point ahead of Spurs). So, yeah… maybe hold fire on getting that 2022-23 league champions tattoo for now…
Andy (MUFC)

Mixed feelings on Man City…
As a Liverpool supporter I have mixed feelings about the current Man City team.  On one hand I am absolutely enjoying watching them this season, and have done so for a few seasons now.  If some people criticise them for being boring (pre this season anyway) then I don’t understand that viewpoint.  Football is played in many ways and City’s way is ridiculously effective.  On the other hand I am beginning to dislike City.  For the last few seasons I have enjoyed our monumental battles with them and grew to respect them for the way they just got on with winning games like we did, and handled the pressure.  It’s one thing to have a talented squad and manager, but more impressive when they can also dig deep and show character to keep winning.  Now though, whilst we have lost the high standards set, for whatever reasons, City have gone out and basically got better by signing not only the best striker on the planet at the moment, but their squad looks stronger than ever.  They will basically be untouchable this season, and for a few more yet.  Our ‘rivalry’ (not really a rivalry) seems to be over, hopefully we will return to challenge them, but who knows.

Lot’s of talk about their finances also get talked about a lot.  When it is mentioned that Erling Haaland is earning over £800k a week, you know the £51m they paid to sign him is no-where near the true total cost.  With respect to City fans, your club isn’t as popular, with as huge a global fan base as the likes of Liverpool or Man Utd, so it is no question, despite their protests that their finances are completely doped.  This kind of thing has been around football for almost as long as the sport has existed, the likes of Blackburn, Chelsea etc have been financially juiced up in the last 20-30 years.  The extent of Man Citys may be on another level to anything that has come before.

In comparison to Haalands wages, our big summer signing Darwin Nunez is most likely only earning the UK National Minimum Wage based of goal bonuses and appearance bonuses!

Regards
Kevin (not looking forward to the game against Arsenal.  Will be entertaining, just not sure in the right way for us)

An open letter to City fans…
Dear Manchester City fans,

Would it kill you to admit that your club cheated, even a little bit, in order to get to where they are now?

If I, as a rival fan, can accept that Guardiola is a genius and that Haaland is a sensation, why are seemingly so few of you willing to accept that neither would be anywhere near your club were it not for the 2008 takeover and the enormous outlay needed to buy a place at the top table?

I know it, you know it, we all know it!

Like Chelsea before you (to a lesser extent) and probably Newcastle in the near-future, you needed to spend a fuck-tonne to reach this point, which renders you now little more than FC Sportswashing. Doping, be it financial or physical, is still doping. Or in other words, cheating! Your club’s achievements will always feel hollow to the wider public. Not that I expect any of you to give a shiny shite about that.

I won’t even get into the ethics of the ownership and the fishy dealings involved in the entire ‘City Group’ operation.

Have a lovely weekend!
Lee, not at all bitter!

UEFA charges…
Dear Editor

In regards to Mark Meadowcrofts incorrect point 4. “It’s totally obvious they’re cooking the books” and “Der Spiegel proved it.” It really isn’t – as UEFA will ruefully testify – and no they did not. If they had, this conversation wouldn’t be happening.

Emails published by Der Spiegel AFTER the CAS ruling proved City were guilty of the main charge UEFA accused them of. City had a sponsorship deal with Etihad and were paid £99m. Only £8m was coming from Etihad itself. The other £91m was from ADUG who were laundering it through Etihad. Who are ADUG? The Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment owned by…*insert drum roll here*…Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the owner of City.

The main charge UEFA leveled against City was that they had disguised cash from their owner Sheikh Mansour. If the payment from ADUG didn’t violate the rules then they would have sent it directly to the club. ADUG sent money to Etihad so they could pay it to City making it look like it came from the airline AKA disguising cash. UEFA were right to charge City and CAS should not have overturned the two year Champions League ban plain and simple.

These emails were not revealed prior to the ruling so the fact UEFA (who also cleared PSG of similar charges without a real explanation) and CAS have decided to ignore this new information shows how corrupt both organisations are and that they never had any intention to punish City or PSG in a way that would actually damage either club. If City had to serve a 2 year CL ban Pep would most likely have left the club and there would have been no Haaland signing either thus changing the current footballing landscape drastically.

What makes this even worse is that the charges against City were from things they were doing from 2012-2014 so we can imagine what kind of corruption they have been up to in the years since then where they have won 4 league titles, 6 domestic cups and have spent over £1 billion on players much of it mostly likely using “disguised cash”.

UEFA and CAS have made it very clear, clubs owned by Middle Eastern dictators can do whatever they want without punishment.
William, Leicester

Moving posts…
Some great goalpost moving from William of Leicester in today’s mailbox.

WoL: – Is it impossible for these fans to enjoy the success and admit they are not particularly enamoured with the owners?

City fan 1: I am absolutely no fan of the Abu Dhabi regime

City fan 2: I am not particularly enamoured with the owners

City fan 3: I also have significant reservations regarding the owner’s association with the Abu Dhabi/UAE human rights records, and other rules and restrictions in place.

WoL – thank you for all proving me right. None of you could just say “yeah our owners are scum””

Some textbook classic bad faith debating, but we have the receipts with the internet. You are a troll and I claim my five pounds.
Andy D, Manchester. MCFC

To William of Leicester, and his righteous followers.

I am the collective unconscious of all Man City fans(five), and I definitely speak on behalf of all of them without any doubt whatsoever for sure yes sir.

To begin, thank you so so so much for breaking the evil spell that has been cast over us with your wise humbling words.

Finally we can assuage years of terrible guilt and seek to undo the myriad grave injustices that we have revelled in. We will carry each trophy to it’s rightful home on all fours(please let us know where this is), and the players, once they have been stripped of any reward or memory will be portioned out to deserving teams only. As I write, the Etihad is being swallowed in to the ground, and the derelict land of Bradford Colliery returning.

Legions of former Man City fans(five) are keenly awaiting your blessing of a new team for them to follow – a pure untainted team of angels we hope where evil cannot hope to dwell, such is our mistrust of our own poor weak judgement.

A bucket of water has been thrown on Sheikh Mansour and Mubarak, and I’m sure little dogs are already defiantly barking at the oily black puddles left behind.

Oh gracious, all seeing, perfect William, your work is done, what will you do now?

Idiot

Lots of love,
David

Friday Mailbox reaction…
Arsenal fan here. I like that the mailbox put the mail from Maw and William right after each other. The mail from William I think is exactly what Maw was talking about. Why does William want us to direct our anger at the fans who can’t do anything about what happened. Why should Newcastle fans for example, stop supporting their club because of the regime that bought their club. What could or should they have done about that?
If at all you are angry, why not direct your anger at the relevant authorities who allowed this to happen (in this case, Premier League, UEFA and/or the British government)?

For me football is a hobby and probably thats all it will ever be so I like to apply this to my everyday world. I work for an amazing European startup that is revolutionising the old ways things were done in our industry. We are funded majorly by the Qatari government. Should I also resign because this is where our money comes from?

This is not a political platform so I won’t turn it into that. But as someone who comes from a country that is a member of OPEC, I’ll just tell you to do some more research before you post things you don’t fully understand online.
Damola Bremen

The joy of unfamiliarity
Just a brief musing on European football. I can’t be the only football fan who loves watching European teams from outside the Premier League play. When you follow a team in a particular league, you also end up following the league itself. You end up knowing a lot about the various dramas, melodramas, and narratives surrounding teams and players you don’t even support. I find this to be tedious, and I don’t really look out for the results of English teams in Europe, at least in the early stages. Watching non-English teams on the other hand feels almost like being a kid again: knowing a little bit about some of the players and teams but being unaware of all the secondary noise. Isco is playing for Sevilla? Emre Can is at Dortmund? How and when did Club Brugge become so good? Good fun! Even the big European teams offer a similar experience. Vinicius Junior is surely a household name now, but wasn’t he sort of plucked from relative obscurity? And was his improvement from two or three years ago expected?

This kind of unfamiliarity is part of what makes European (and to some extent, International) football so enticing. I’m well past the days where foreign teams seemed “exotic” to me, but if familiarity breeds contempt, unfamiliarity might breed a certain form of excitement. I wonder how much the European Super League masterminds appreciate this fact. Watching the same big European clubs constantly playing each other in the standard league format doesn’t have the same magic. I’m convinced in the long run a lot of people would lose interest. Without unfamiliarity, without that feeling of what might have been and what could be, that “what if” factor, football is less exciting. Or maybe I’m just a sentimental idealist who doesn’t understand what everyone else gets out of football. I’m sure someone will let me know in The Vuukle.
André E

About CR7…
“Everything that has a beginning has an end Neo” – Agent Smith

I’ve always admired Cristiano Ronaldo because he worked on constantly improving and modifying his game to become one of the best players we’ve seen.
I’ve always admired Messi but his innate talent levels have always seemed a lot higher. The fact the Ronaldo could match or beat Messi in the goal scoring stats year on year was a triumph of will over talent.

Ronaldo’s game got more and more pared back to being a goal scorer while Messis has always been about his creative instincts combined with his goal scoring. Which brings us to today. Ronaldos game was always about his acceleration and speed, and as he’s aged he’s lost the capability to burst forward. This is more pronounced in the premier league where the game is exceedingly fast paced.

It’s sad to see him struggle to score. For his own good he should forgo his huge salary and move back to Portugal, bringing his career full circle.
Ryan B

City/Arsenal stuff
Marcus (AFC, Cheltenham) Bergkamp did indeed miss a penalty in what was a replay which wasn’t even necessary if the officials in the first game actually knew the laws of the game, you see Roy Keane scored an absolute screamer which was incorrectly ruled out for offside against Giggs right over on the left side of the field.

City fans I’m sorry but no amount of putting your fingers in your ears shouting out we’re all jealous will detract from the fact you are an irrelevance, you are a rich Arabs plaything, a sport washed construct without soul, so if you wish to, enjoy your bloody money trophies but don’t try to hide from the fact that in reality you are a small Stockport club who allowed a despot to take over your club in exchange for glory. Teams like Liverpool, United & Arsenal will always be better than you no matter how many cups you win, this is because they are clubs with history, with massive fanbases and more importantly not owned by journalist murdering scum. To coin a phrase from a Bertie – I hope this helps.
Paul Murphy, Manchester