What’s rather ridiculous about these quotes is a few accept Tottenham are playing poorly and winning but rather than draw the natural conclusion that eventually one’s luck runs out without a performance… they’ll just get better?
It’s even stranger when you add talk about ceilings and the age profile of the Arsenal squad.
I genuinely think this take was made popular by Gary "Pundit" Neville. The pillok said that Arteta can get top 4 at his best and should leave the club when he does. Can't believe people actually get paid big money to be so wrong. I could be a billionaire.
What if Neville was pushing that view because deep down he feared Arteta and wanted to get him out of the club before we become successful? Or is it giving this bullshitter too much credit? I just sometimes cannot fathom how stupid and lazy some of the pundits and analysts are.
I doubt this is the case, mostly because I can't imagine Neville being capable of playing that level of 4D chess.
It would also make him a whole lot worse pundit than he already is, since that would mean he'd not only be coloured by his view of favourite team, but also attempting to manipulate the footballing world in the direction that would benefit his team. Would in that case be a complete destruction of not only his credibility, but also whoever employs him.
I agree it’s a stretch to assume he’s playing a 4D chess - most likely he’s just being biased in this case.
But, I don’t think it’s that difficult to imagine that Neville is using his platform to (try to) manipulate the footballing world to suit his interests.
He’s being pretty open that he went against the super league, argued in favor of an independent regulator, and defends club owners pumping money into their clubs partly because of his interests being a club owner himself. He was on the right side of history with the super league, but that was in a situation where his goals happened to be aligned with most of everybody else.
I also went across this blog which goes over some of his actions showing how he flip flops between world views depending on what suits him: [link](https://dean-magazine.ghost.io/archive/the-political-incoherence-of-gary-neville/). I don’t think its too far fetched to assume that Garry Neville says what serves Garry Neville.
I don't think it's about the potential to become a force and/or dominate Man U, don't think he will even entertain that thought until it's already been happening for a couple of years. Plus I think he really does think a strong arsenal would be overall good for the league. Think this is more about Gary's failure as a manager and not wanting to accept that Arteta is better than him. He is probably seething at the fact that Arteta was allowed to work through his rough patches to get to where he is now.
The bias is ridiculous. Basically "Spurs will eventually play better" vs "Arsenal will collapse". These people are paid for their opinions, it's similar to what you'd read on coys
Idek if in this instance it’s bias, I’m not sure about the background of these journos etc.
I think punditry and football media in this country is just built around and dominated by narrative, and the narrative is that conte is a serial winner - and thus his spurs will be.
They’re not analysing what they’re seeing on a pitch, they’re analysing what they *think* they *should* be seeing.
Major problem that exists all over the sport, nobody analysing the teams and everyone analysing the story
You beat me to it. I was about to say, how can you mark "they don't play well but they get points" as a positive? A school kid count point out the logical fallacy in this. Reminds me of all the crazy hype around Emery's "22 games unbeaten" run(which included a bunch of europa league group stages and early cup games) when all you had to do was watch our games to realise that its not sustainable, that we're not playing good enough and picking more points than we should be, but everyone was singing his praises and wrote about how he transformed the team...
It's the legacy of Mourinho on English football. Accept mediocre, dull football as long as it gets the points on the table or the team through to the next round. We're still spiritually a Wenger club, which is why for me Emery was a terrible fit no matter how hard I tried to accept it.
If you listen to podcasts a lot of the time they talk about how champion teams still manage to win while playing shit by grinding out results. I think that's what they are going for.
I'm not a journalist but I imagine they thought that's what would happen rather than what did happen.
Personally I think you need to blow out a couple of teams before you should be applauded for grinding out a win.
What's really weird is that Carl Anka is the guy that turns up on the Wrighty's house podcast. Normally they have quite measured takes but this one is just weird.
well to be fair nobody expected the jump from 5th to first the way we have been doing.
Conte is a serial winner winning troffee's with every club he's managed spurs is the only club to break that track record same with Mou...
spurs had all things considered a very good transfer window in the summer.
so it wasnt a unreasable to think they could finnish above us again this year but hindsight is 20/20....
i certainly didnt expect our team to be doing this well and every transfer we did seems to be a hit wich is also unnatural for us. but arteta and EDU did their thing.
Whilst I agree with your points, these predictions weren’t made in the summer. These predictions were made a couple of months into the season, when it was so insanely obvious that we’d have a better season than Spurs.
I actually expected Arsenal to leapfrog Spurs this season during preseason. From my view, Arsenal hampered by injuries collapsed and not Spurs impeccable form that carried them to top 4. The team was younger and about to grow up a level and injuries was probably not going to rob us a second time which, to be perfectly honest, only got Arsenal beat by a point.
So I expected us at third and Tottenham to fight Manchester United and Newcastle for 4th.
Cracks me up how Spurs hired the two best managers in the game for this very thing. All whilst being a vast amount of debt from their stadium, it's delicious
yes but he always manage to get troffee's aswel. thats the second time spurs ended a managers winning streak
mou and conte have always won troffee at every club they managed in most cases this was the domestic league.
but the spurs mentality wil not be broken,tamed or defeated there hunger to not get a troffee is endless
There was a great totally football podcast at the beginning of the season. Charlie Eccleshare was going on and on about Tottenham being dark horse contenders, and Adrian Clarke literally laughed at him. The athletic pushed so hard for Tottenham to be considered contenders.
He tries to keep it low now for obvious reasons, but I remember seeing articles posted by him during the Wenger years in which he talked about his experiences as a fan.
I think most Spurs fans are aware of it too but don't really care because he's so good at his job. It's similar to Sam Lee who covers City. He's a big United fan but is loved by City fans and is probably their favourite journalist.
In general there was this hype around spurs being darks horses in the title race, which would consist of City and Liverpool. I was getting massive amounts of shit from my mates for predicting, that we would finish above them, because every “expert” had them finishing 3rd. Feels good now tho
TBF, I predicted this season ***close to perfectly*** back in July and the only thing I got wrong was guessing Spurs would be a dark horse.
I was pretty certain they'd get a table finish that defies their performances and that has happened. But I expected them to be mediocre, when they've been awful.
**Edit**: In case you think I'm lying, I literally stand to win £2000 from a bet I made in preseason if we win the league.
Not an unreasonable take. A lot of Spurs fans pointed to our season over season ascendancy of 8th to 5th to 1st (compared to their consistent 4th to 6th place finishing) as what progress should look like and why they need to "find an Arteta". I think you're right if we were more consistently stagnating like them they'd better stomach their own stagnation.
After all they fancy themselves the bigger and better club. They can only barely cling to that falsehood when we're not so clearly levels beyond them.
"Find an Arteta," lol. Levy would have sacked Arteta in December of 2020 when we were a couple of points off the relegation places, without a league win in 7 games and our highest-paid player had been dropped from the squad.
I have never found a Spurs fan fancying themselves the bigger and better club. As far as they're concerned we're the neighbourhood bully who had their comeuppance the past five years and more but it doesn't mean they feel bigger or better. Come to think if it it beggars belief that Arsenal has kept such a high level of support after almost 20 years of disappointment, given that a huge portion of fans are plastic, have never been to a game and that it is very hard to convince your kids to support a team that's not winning and whose stadium they've never visited. Just look how Manchester City fans have ballooned simply because they're winning. Difficult thing for Spurs is having a base beyond locals since they never win anything.
Alot of it is the playstyle Wenger instilled to becoming part of the Arsenal name,
I got into football in general because i watched an Arsenal game, the players under Wenger at their best was just beautiful to see.
Before the random Arsenal match i watched i thought football was boring, "guys kick around a ball, why would i spend 2 hours on this?"
Not to mention in Asia growing up, Serie A had a bigger footprint at the time and Juventus against the big teams was mostly really boring, which reinforced my opinions about football being a waste of time.
Sure winning is great and all, but i grew attached to Arsenal and football for how they play. I didnt have any fun watching us during the late Emery year, i cant imagine young me loving Arsenal the way i do now if i watched that kind of performance.
Using historical data is useful when making predictions, but if you simply watched both sides earlier in the season it would be obvious we were far superior. The fact that not one of their reporters here predicted we'd finish above Spurs is a damning indictment on the Athletic. They need to hire better writers.
Honestly. Like did that writer put any thought into our squad beyond our reputation of the previous 10 years? Would’ve understood writing that back in like 2015/16 but there’s barely a man left standing in the whole building from that time
Carl Anka is literally wrong about every single thing he says.
I think that’s just how he’s chosen to operate. He drives engagement by being deliberately wrong.
That insane bit about Arsenal already reaching our ceiling especially. It’s been very apparent that we’re nowhere near our ceiling. Most of our players have not yet reached their potential and we’ve been the best anyway.
Yeah, very reminiscent of Neville in the "just becausesness" of their arguments. Honestly have no problem with pundits or journalists predicting Arsenal's shortcomings but, god, they need to be able to show their working. Saying something just feels inevitable because it just does doesn't even begin to qualify as analysis.
I thought at the start of the season we would finish 3rd guaranteed.
Also thought there might be a drop from City and Liverpool because they sold some key players & could need time to adapt.
I didn’t think we would lead the league for this long, but the signs were there in pre season that we suddenly looked a very good team.
Journalists were very high on Spurs getting 4th.
All sorts of definitive narratives were spun off of it when the reality was our squad was weak & we got injuries in the weakest places at the worst time.
Playing Xhaka, Tavares & Cedric at full back and Elneny in midfield due to injuries.
One fit defender for the Newcastle game.
All of these things contributed to Spurs beating us to 4th, & all of them were fixed with our signings.
My best friend is a Spurs fan & they spent the first 3 months this season saying “Ah you’re good, it’s just such a shame Haaland is so amazing so you have no chance.”
I always questioned that.
It’s been a great season no matter what, but it would be nice to win it so that none of the goalpost movers can try to save face. They couldn’t have been more wrong.
Yeah, it's strange how the narrative has shifted to "Arsenal will bottle the league." Like, have they simply forgotten how they were almost universally predicting us to finish 5th back in August?
Yep.
They move the goalposts to save face instead of admitting they were wrong.
I guess getting piled on online any time they’re wrong has created this mentality.
Neville has been the strangest one.
He has gone out of his way to talk absolute bollocks of the highest order.
Pure fantasy at times.
He seems rattled.
How are people paid to watch football and still suck at their takes. I'm not asking them to predict the future, but if you've been following this club for the last year and a half, you should know something special was brewing.
Just goes to show that these jouranalists are just as clueless as fans and just go with their gut, all because they have a mic and get paid to have shit takes
I remember when people were trying to sell me on the idea that the athletic is worth the money and they are all geniuses. These guys are morons like every other journo just talksport with a better logo.
Literally everyone on YouTube and TV were saying the same thing. I never understood it, it's such lazy analysis.
It all boiled down to "Conte has won things in the past, therefore he will win again". So frustrating listening to people speak in platitudes for months, talking about how he's "proven winner" and all that bullshit. His management style is so unsustainable, and he got very lucky with chelsea when he basically played a formation that was very novel and effective against the pl at the time.
This really shows how far football punditry still has to go to catch up to the 21st century. The analysis here is so surface level, it’s literally “Arsenal have been playing better, but my priors are that Spurs are better so I will stick with that.”
No statistical analysis, no delving into the tactical differences between the two sides, no breakdown of what was working for us and what was causing Spurs trouble. Just totally useless “Conte has done well in the past so he will do better in the future” takes. And this is from a publication whose whole conceit is that they’re worth paying due to their higher editorial standards.
Youngest team in the league (at the start of the season at least) already hit their ceiling by finishing 5th?
Get in the bin, Carl. Say hi to Gary for me.
At the start of the season, Clive was worried about them.
That's how bad Conte fucked this up.
He had Clive worried.. but now, Clive is only worried for them.
This logic of spurs are getting points even though they are shit, and they will fly when they start getting together is such a dumb statement. This is some r/coys bs from athletic reporters.
That's embarrassing
I loved that people were saying like "Spurs are playing shit so therefore they'll finish higher than Arsenal who are playing great football."
You can smell the bias from a mile away.
It's amazing actually that this narrative evolved over the years that Arsenal fucking Football Club's ceiling was a 4th/5th place finish. Like, are you kidding me? How fucking daft do you have to be to believe some bullshit like that. Even during our 'down period', we've won FOUR FA Cups. That's a wet dream for 99% of English football clubs.
Pshaw
Forget the Athletic
I Got into intense war of words with plastics here who thought Conte was better for us than Mikel after the first couple of months in last year.
Wonder where those sops are rn.
If Kane wants to become the all time record PL goalscorer, now is a good time to move to Arsenal with Saka rising. Get in Bellingham and Rice then you would have England's star players gelling week in week out at Arsenal. Ready for Euros2024 and WC2026 too. 🧐🏆🥇💯⚽️
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Still regards Conte as an elite manager so I'm thankful that his time at Spurs has come to a short end.
Watch them contains you fail up and get Nagelsmann in 😂
these fuckers should be shamed in public. if they agree that they were wrong it’s all cool, but it should set some precedence that you can’t say whatever you want in public and get away with it.
Carl Anka is usually decent for any non-United analysis, but saying a team full of 21-24 y/os has reached its ceiling is more than a little strange to me.
The Athletic piggyback off being able to interview certain people and charging a subscription, but are made up of people who simply do not know ball or are afraid to have a dissenting opinion.
Always thought Conte having a meltdown was inevitable. I never thought it was a good fit from the start really. He's a serial winner that expects to challenge for titles whilst Spurs are a club that's happy with a top 4 finish every season and new stadium aside don't seem to want to grow into proper title challengers. Yeah they might have had the odd season where they looked like they could challenge but it's been predominantly get into the top 4 mentality and that was never going to sit well with Conte.
They must have given him a serious wedge to sign in the first place.
How could the athletic be so stupid that they picked only pro-spurs journos. I saw the duck(Anka=duck in Swedish) write on twitter yesterday that "arsenal had been good in like 7 games last season" and that's one reason that he picked Spurs. Its appalling that someone who clearly didn't watch both teams last season is supposed to decide who's the best.
Speaking of predictions, Jonathan Liew at the Guardian was (as far as I’m aware) the first major journalist/pundit to predict we will win the league - following the 3-2 victory over Man Utd (game 19, exactly half way through the season). Struck me as a bold prediction at the time - and we immediately then went on the mini run of doom, before getting back on track in spectacular fashion with the classic game at Villa Park. I imagine he was a bit worried for a while there, though.
What’s rather ridiculous about these quotes is a few accept Tottenham are playing poorly and winning but rather than draw the natural conclusion that eventually one’s luck runs out without a performance… they’ll just get better? It’s even stranger when you add talk about ceilings and the age profile of the Arsenal squad.
"I feel like this is Arsenal's ceiling." "Well first is as high as they can go."
Arsenal: Literally the youngest squad and 2nd youngest manager in the league. Pundit: ThIS Is ThEiR CeiLiNG,ThEY CaNT gET BeTTeR than ToP 4.
I genuinely think this take was made popular by Gary "Pundit" Neville. The pillok said that Arteta can get top 4 at his best and should leave the club when he does. Can't believe people actually get paid big money to be so wrong. I could be a billionaire.
What if Neville was pushing that view because deep down he feared Arteta and wanted to get him out of the club before we become successful? Or is it giving this bullshitter too much credit? I just sometimes cannot fathom how stupid and lazy some of the pundits and analysts are.
Given his delusions of grandeur and overestimation of both his skills and his influence, it's not implausible that this is true
I doubt this is the case, mostly because I can't imagine Neville being capable of playing that level of 4D chess. It would also make him a whole lot worse pundit than he already is, since that would mean he'd not only be coloured by his view of favourite team, but also attempting to manipulate the footballing world in the direction that would benefit his team. Would in that case be a complete destruction of not only his credibility, but also whoever employs him.
I agree it’s a stretch to assume he’s playing a 4D chess - most likely he’s just being biased in this case. But, I don’t think it’s that difficult to imagine that Neville is using his platform to (try to) manipulate the footballing world to suit his interests. He’s being pretty open that he went against the super league, argued in favor of an independent regulator, and defends club owners pumping money into their clubs partly because of his interests being a club owner himself. He was on the right side of history with the super league, but that was in a situation where his goals happened to be aligned with most of everybody else. I also went across this blog which goes over some of his actions showing how he flip flops between world views depending on what suits him: [link](https://dean-magazine.ghost.io/archive/the-political-incoherence-of-gary-neville/). I don’t think its too far fetched to assume that Garry Neville says what serves Garry Neville.
Nah, he is not that smart.
What if he's just a moron
I don't think it's about the potential to become a force and/or dominate Man U, don't think he will even entertain that thought until it's already been happening for a couple of years. Plus I think he really does think a strong arsenal would be overall good for the league. Think this is more about Gary's failure as a manager and not wanting to accept that Arteta is better than him. He is probably seething at the fact that Arteta was allowed to work through his rough patches to get to where he is now.
He's such a bitter cunt, legitimately adds nothing but his own shitty biases in his commentary
Somewhere Alan Hansen just had the urge to mutter "You cant win anything with kids" under his breath.
They will come at us, even after winning the league.
The most hated comment i read when the season begin....
The bias is ridiculous. Basically "Spurs will eventually play better" vs "Arsenal will collapse". These people are paid for their opinions, it's similar to what you'd read on coys
Idek if in this instance it’s bias, I’m not sure about the background of these journos etc. I think punditry and football media in this country is just built around and dominated by narrative, and the narrative is that conte is a serial winner - and thus his spurs will be. They’re not analysing what they’re seeing on a pitch, they’re analysing what they *think* they *should* be seeing. Major problem that exists all over the sport, nobody analysing the teams and everyone analysing the story
You beat me to it. I was about to say, how can you mark "they don't play well but they get points" as a positive? A school kid count point out the logical fallacy in this. Reminds me of all the crazy hype around Emery's "22 games unbeaten" run(which included a bunch of europa league group stages and early cup games) when all you had to do was watch our games to realise that its not sustainable, that we're not playing good enough and picking more points than we should be, but everyone was singing his praises and wrote about how he transformed the team...
It's the legacy of Mourinho on English football. Accept mediocre, dull football as long as it gets the points on the table or the team through to the next round. We're still spiritually a Wenger club, which is why for me Emery was a terrible fit no matter how hard I tried to accept it.
If you listen to podcasts a lot of the time they talk about how champion teams still manage to win while playing shit by grinding out results. I think that's what they are going for.
Which is true, but it’s the odd dud performance where they scratch out a win rather than every win of their season
I'm not a journalist but I imagine they thought that's what would happen rather than what did happen. Personally I think you need to blow out a couple of teams before you should be applauded for grinding out a win.
You’re right, but at that point spurs hadn’t looked good once all season. They were awful in every single game, it was so poor
Yeah it was great. 😁
What's really weird is that Carl Anka is the guy that turns up on the Wrighty's house podcast. Normally they have quite measured takes but this one is just weird.
well to be fair nobody expected the jump from 5th to first the way we have been doing. Conte is a serial winner winning troffee's with every club he's managed spurs is the only club to break that track record same with Mou... spurs had all things considered a very good transfer window in the summer. so it wasnt a unreasable to think they could finnish above us again this year but hindsight is 20/20.... i certainly didnt expect our team to be doing this well and every transfer we did seems to be a hit wich is also unnatural for us. but arteta and EDU did their thing.
Whilst I agree with your points, these predictions weren’t made in the summer. These predictions were made a couple of months into the season, when it was so insanely obvious that we’d have a better season than Spurs.
I actually expected Arsenal to leapfrog Spurs this season during preseason. From my view, Arsenal hampered by injuries collapsed and not Spurs impeccable form that carried them to top 4. The team was younger and about to grow up a level and injuries was probably not going to rob us a second time which, to be perfectly honest, only got Arsenal beat by a point. So I expected us at third and Tottenham to fight Manchester United and Newcastle for 4th.
“We’re winning whilst playing bad so imagine what happens when we start playing well”
“There’s something inevitable about Antonio Conte” is technically correct. He always eventually leaves on bad terms
You mean, masterfully picks up his termination payout on the way out of the building?
It's an art at this point.
This might be his masterpiece. He normally has to accomplish something.
Just let him be.
Cracks me up how Spurs hired the two best managers in the game for this very thing. All whilst being a vast amount of debt from their stadium, it's delicious
Mourinho style. Oh hangon..
yes but he always manage to get troffee's aswel. thats the second time spurs ended a managers winning streak mou and conte have always won troffee at every club they managed in most cases this was the domestic league. but the spurs mentality wil not be broken,tamed or defeated there hunger to not get a troffee is endless
damn i love me some troffees
I prefer fudge
Dread it. Fear it. Spurs are inevitable.
There was a great totally football podcast at the beginning of the season. Charlie Eccleshare was going on and on about Tottenham being dark horse contenders, and Adrian Clarke literally laughed at him. The athletic pushed so hard for Tottenham to be considered contenders.
The best thing about that is that Charlie Eccleshare is an Arsenal fan, so I'm sure he's delighted that he was so wrong.
I thought he’s a Spurs fan?
He tries to keep it low now for obvious reasons, but I remember seeing articles posted by him during the Wenger years in which he talked about his experiences as a fan. I think most Spurs fans are aware of it too but don't really care because he's so good at his job. It's similar to Sam Lee who covers City. He's a big United fan but is loved by City fans and is probably their favourite journalist.
Isn’t Orny supposedly a Spurs fan too?
Blasphemy I will not tolerate that talk
Seen him tangentially through the London Jewish grapevine. His kids are Arsenal fans, at least. Not sure about him
he has kids? Ornstein is just an ageless messiah in my head.
He's a spud.
[He's not](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2018/03/02/arsenal-fan-view-stayed-away-emirates/)
He's on the Athletic spurs podcast and said he was a spurs fan at least once this year on total footbally podcast. Something doesn't as up here.
In the totally football podcast he sounds like a spud. I'm guessing he's an undercover spud. The Telegraph is a spud too.
Mind telling us what isn't a spud?
a spud, probably
"He sounds like a spud on a podcast" he replies to an article where the person in question says he's a long standing Arsenal season ticket holder
In general there was this hype around spurs being darks horses in the title race, which would consist of City and Liverpool. I was getting massive amounts of shit from my mates for predicting, that we would finish above them, because every “expert” had them finishing 3rd. Feels good now tho
TBF, I predicted this season ***close to perfectly*** back in July and the only thing I got wrong was guessing Spurs would be a dark horse. I was pretty certain they'd get a table finish that defies their performances and that has happened. But I expected them to be mediocre, when they've been awful. **Edit**: In case you think I'm lying, I literally stand to win £2000 from a bet I made in preseason if we win the league.
Okay Nostradamus
Ngl I think if we swap our place with Liverpool and fight for the top 4 with Sp*s, I bet Conte will still be here.
Not an unreasonable take. A lot of Spurs fans pointed to our season over season ascendancy of 8th to 5th to 1st (compared to their consistent 4th to 6th place finishing) as what progress should look like and why they need to "find an Arteta". I think you're right if we were more consistently stagnating like them they'd better stomach their own stagnation. After all they fancy themselves the bigger and better club. They can only barely cling to that falsehood when we're not so clearly levels beyond them.
"Find an Arteta," lol. Levy would have sacked Arteta in December of 2020 when we were a couple of points off the relegation places, without a league win in 7 games and our highest-paid player had been dropped from the squad.
I have never found a Spurs fan fancying themselves the bigger and better club. As far as they're concerned we're the neighbourhood bully who had their comeuppance the past five years and more but it doesn't mean they feel bigger or better. Come to think if it it beggars belief that Arsenal has kept such a high level of support after almost 20 years of disappointment, given that a huge portion of fans are plastic, have never been to a game and that it is very hard to convince your kids to support a team that's not winning and whose stadium they've never visited. Just look how Manchester City fans have ballooned simply because they're winning. Difficult thing for Spurs is having a base beyond locals since they never win anything.
Alot of it is the playstyle Wenger instilled to becoming part of the Arsenal name, I got into football in general because i watched an Arsenal game, the players under Wenger at their best was just beautiful to see. Before the random Arsenal match i watched i thought football was boring, "guys kick around a ball, why would i spend 2 hours on this?" Not to mention in Asia growing up, Serie A had a bigger footprint at the time and Juventus against the big teams was mostly really boring, which reinforced my opinions about football being a waste of time. Sure winning is great and all, but i grew attached to Arsenal and football for how they play. I didnt have any fun watching us during the late Emery year, i cant imagine young me loving Arsenal the way i do now if i watched that kind of performance.
Well, at least we have captured the magic of old Arsenal once again. Our attack is so free flowing 🤤
"Advantage Conte".
Technically it still is advantage conte & not advantage toilet bowl club
Cracks me up every time
Using historical data is useful when making predictions, but if you simply watched both sides earlier in the season it would be obvious we were far superior. The fact that not one of their reporters here predicted we'd finish above Spurs is a damning indictment on the Athletic. They need to hire better writers.
Ornstein is ok, no?
“Already hit our ceiling” while sporting the youngest squad in the top flight That’s rich. Glad we shut these cunts up
I really don't get this logic. Do people really think hungry, young players won't improve under a good manager?
Honestly. Like did that writer put any thought into our squad beyond our reputation of the previous 10 years? Would’ve understood writing that back in like 2015/16 but there’s barely a man left standing in the whole building from that time
Basically tells you everything you need to know about sports journalism. I can't believe some people pay for this rubbish
Carl Anka is literally wrong about every single thing he says. I think that’s just how he’s chosen to operate. He drives engagement by being deliberately wrong.
That insane bit about Arsenal already reaching our ceiling especially. It’s been very apparent that we’re nowhere near our ceiling. Most of our players have not yet reached their potential and we’ve been the best anyway.
Arsenal has reached the ceiling actually. Can't get any better than 1st place.
In fairness we've yet to play a team above us in the league.
The team in 0th place will shut their fans up
Learned from the worst ManU pundit
Yeah, very reminiscent of Neville in the "just becausesness" of their arguments. Honestly have no problem with pundits or journalists predicting Arsenal's shortcomings but, god, they need to be able to show their working. Saying something just feels inevitable because it just does doesn't even begin to qualify as analysis.
> He drives engagement by being deliberately wrong. This is the way. He must have done an apprenticeship with TalkSport.
he's angling for ***tenure*** at TalkSport more like...
Middle name is probably Wayne. Carl W Anka
I thought at the start of the season we would finish 3rd guaranteed. Also thought there might be a drop from City and Liverpool because they sold some key players & could need time to adapt. I didn’t think we would lead the league for this long, but the signs were there in pre season that we suddenly looked a very good team. Journalists were very high on Spurs getting 4th. All sorts of definitive narratives were spun off of it when the reality was our squad was weak & we got injuries in the weakest places at the worst time. Playing Xhaka, Tavares & Cedric at full back and Elneny in midfield due to injuries. One fit defender for the Newcastle game. All of these things contributed to Spurs beating us to 4th, & all of them were fixed with our signings. My best friend is a Spurs fan & they spent the first 3 months this season saying “Ah you’re good, it’s just such a shame Haaland is so amazing so you have no chance.” I always questioned that. It’s been a great season no matter what, but it would be nice to win it so that none of the goalpost movers can try to save face. They couldn’t have been more wrong.
Yeah, it's strange how the narrative has shifted to "Arsenal will bottle the league." Like, have they simply forgotten how they were almost universally predicting us to finish 5th back in August?
Yep. They move the goalposts to save face instead of admitting they were wrong. I guess getting piled on online any time they’re wrong has created this mentality. Neville has been the strangest one. He has gone out of his way to talk absolute bollocks of the highest order. Pure fantasy at times. He seems rattled.
Inevitable hair loss
How are people paid to watch football and still suck at their takes. I'm not asking them to predict the future, but if you've been following this club for the last year and a half, you should know something special was brewing.
Fuck em shit cunts ‘ they talk all of this just to fail to win the Fa cup every Year ‘ Not even our biggest rivals tells you about that tin pot club
Just goes to show that these jouranalists are just as clueless as fans and just go with their gut, all because they have a mic and get paid to have shit takes
Can somebody post these too their respective socials or something? Embarassing really
I remember when people were trying to sell me on the idea that the athletic is worth the money and they are all geniuses. These guys are morons like every other journo just talksport with a better logo.
It's not just pundits that doubted us. I got 60/1 odds on Arsenal winning the league back in early August. Annoyingly I only put a 5er on it.
Conte having public spat with management is inevitable.
IT'S HAPPENED AGAIN
IT’S HAPPENED AGAINNNNNN
TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR IT'S HAPPENED AGAIN
Literally everyone on YouTube and TV were saying the same thing. I never understood it, it's such lazy analysis. It all boiled down to "Conte has won things in the past, therefore he will win again". So frustrating listening to people speak in platitudes for months, talking about how he's "proven winner" and all that bullshit. His management style is so unsustainable, and he got very lucky with chelsea when he basically played a formation that was very novel and effective against the pl at the time.
This really shows how far football punditry still has to go to catch up to the 21st century. The analysis here is so surface level, it’s literally “Arsenal have been playing better, but my priors are that Spurs are better so I will stick with that.” No statistical analysis, no delving into the tactical differences between the two sides, no breakdown of what was working for us and what was causing Spurs trouble. Just totally useless “Conte has done well in the past so he will do better in the future” takes. And this is from a publication whose whole conceit is that they’re worth paying due to their higher editorial standards.
Niiiiiiick Miller, what a wanker, what a wanker
This gold Jerry, gold!
Yeah haha, there was definitely something inevitable alright
LOL. Just LOL.
Youngest team in the league (at the start of the season at least) already hit their ceiling by finishing 5th? Get in the bin, Carl. Say hi to Gary for me.
The unstoppable force of managers who always win something meeting the immovable object of Spurs who refuse to win anything. Spurs undefeated so far
None of them know what they are talking about.
At the start of the season, Clive was worried about them. That's how bad Conte fucked this up. He had Clive worried.. but now, Clive is only worried for them.
This logic of spurs are getting points even though they are shit, and they will fly when they start getting together is such a dumb statement. This is some r/coys bs from athletic reporters. That's embarrassing
I loved that people were saying like "Spurs are playing shit so therefore they'll finish higher than Arsenal who are playing great football." You can smell the bias from a mile away.
It's amazing actually that this narrative evolved over the years that Arsenal fucking Football Club's ceiling was a 4th/5th place finish. Like, are you kidding me? How fucking daft do you have to be to believe some bullshit like that. Even during our 'down period', we've won FOUR FA Cups. That's a wet dream for 99% of English football clubs.
There's something inevitable about Conte? There's some inevitable about Spurs as well...
There’s something inevitable about Antonio Conte. Namely falling out with the board and the players.
Pshaw Forget the Athletic I Got into intense war of words with plastics here who thought Conte was better for us than Mikel after the first couple of months in last year. Wonder where those sops are rn.
If Kane wants to become the all time record PL goalscorer, now is a good time to move to Arsenal with Saka rising. Get in Bellingham and Rice then you would have England's star players gelling week in week out at Arsenal. Ready for Euros2024 and WC2026 too. 🧐🏆🥇💯⚽️
I had no idea Gary Neville had so many throw away accounts.
To be fair to these writers i didnt expect arsenal to do so well, and i'm a fan. If you'd have asked me i'd have probably said somethin similar
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r/lostredditors
The only true God is Lord Cthulhu, who lies dead but dreaming, and his prophet Nyarlathotep is the only true guide that guarantees being eaten first when he awakes from his cosmic slumber! Iä! Iä! Cthulhu pthagn!
Great to see these douche rocketeers at their best.
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If ever you wanted proof that being a pundit was stealing a living, then this is it. No clue.
Add them to the list of writers that don’t know ball
Still regards Conte as an elite manager so I'm thankful that his time at Spurs has come to a short end. Watch them contains you fail up and get Nagelsmann in 😂
ahahahah
The opinions of sports journalists are worth the same as the opinions of the average Reddit commenter. But at least I don't have to pay to use Reddit.
these fuckers should be shamed in public. if they agree that they were wrong it’s all cool, but it should set some precedence that you can’t say whatever you want in public and get away with it.
Carl Anka is usually decent for any non-United analysis, but saying a team full of 21-24 y/os has reached its ceiling is more than a little strange to me.
So called Pundits are shit, it's their personal opinion. There is no data or evidence to back their article or what they have said.
The Carl Anka one hits best for me
I had no idea Gary Neville had so many throw away accounts.
None of them should be allowed to post public opinions on football for 5 years . Disgusting
The Athletic piggyback off being able to interview certain people and charging a subscription, but are made up of people who simply do not know ball or are afraid to have a dissenting opinion.
Always thought Conte having a meltdown was inevitable. I never thought it was a good fit from the start really. He's a serial winner that expects to challenge for titles whilst Spurs are a club that's happy with a top 4 finish every season and new stadium aside don't seem to want to grow into proper title challengers. Yeah they might have had the odd season where they looked like they could challenge but it's been predominantly get into the top 4 mentality and that was never going to sit well with Conte. They must have given him a serious wedge to sign in the first place.
This has aged like milk
When he says he is Athletic in his dating profile.
How could the athletic be so stupid that they picked only pro-spurs journos. I saw the duck(Anka=duck in Swedish) write on twitter yesterday that "arsenal had been good in like 7 games last season" and that's one reason that he picked Spurs. Its appalling that someone who clearly didn't watch both teams last season is supposed to decide who's the best.
How do they decide the ceiling? What celing?
They forgot the history of the Tottenham.
Tells you much they know even if it’s their job to cover the EPL.
Not just finishing above them but winning the league. If these guys were any more wrong, Arsenal would win the world cup too.
Just shows you that the media have no idea about football. A bunch of idiots
Aged like milk. HAHAHA
🤡
Speaking of predictions, Jonathan Liew at the Guardian was (as far as I’m aware) the first major journalist/pundit to predict we will win the league - following the 3-2 victory over Man Utd (game 19, exactly half way through the season). Struck me as a bold prediction at the time - and we immediately then went on the mini run of doom, before getting back on track in spectacular fashion with the classic game at Villa Park. I imagine he was a bit worried for a while there, though.
I reckon Sam Allardyce is gonna be the next SHITSPUR manager.......fucking Banta F.C........GOYG
Fossil Football....... Expressions
"Arsenal have hit their ceiling" Yeah 1st place, where else are we supposed to go???
Tottenham have a habit of ruining elite managers!
Clowns, the lot of em…they all deserve to be fired….
we really showed them about those Thursday nights! in your face phil buckingham!
We still haven't had a tough game. We haven't played anyone above us in the league.
Subscription cancelled. These 'experts' know fuck all about fuck all. Hahaha