A Beautiful Thread for the Beautiful Game

Also fun fact: The first Indian to play for a team in the top division of a European league in 1936 was Mohammed Salim. His team... was Celtic. Yes, the Scottish one.

That, I did not know. I don't support Celtic or Rangers or anyone in the Scottish league, but... I did not know.

Also, Spurs have begun cleaning house after selling Kyle Naughton to Swansea City. Two right-backs is enough for any team, and Naughton became surplus to requirements when DeAndre Yedlin came from Seattle. Again, still waiting for that striker, Tina.

Paulino Alcantara is Filipino, and was one of the record goalscorers of Barcelona. He is the first Filipino and Asian to play in Europe.

In the Capital One Cup,

Liverpool 1-1 Chelsea

Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 Sheffield United

Liverpool may have equalised from a penalty, but Chelsea's rather fearsome home record means Chelsea fans can book their Wembley tickets (as they must've already done). Spurs, happily, gave no away goals and got the win, but a one goal advantage (an Andros Townsend penalty) is not good, and Sheffield have been giant killers in cups this season despite being a League One side, and their fans will be fully supportive of their attempt to make it a dream run to the final. I hope we can get to the final, after which... well, anything can happen.

In other news, the internet exploded after Real Madrid gave a contract to 16-year-old Norwegian wunderkind Martin Ødegaard, worth about £80,000 a week, and that's not a typo.

If I had that money, I would buy so much whisky.

Alex Thomson returns to the topic of Rangers FC: Does Dave King deserve a second chance at Rangers?

It looks like "the People" may have found a savior to rescue Ibrox and their shithouse club from the clutches of Mike Ashley and the Sports Direct...unfortunately, that individual is Dave King, a convicted tax cheat described by a South African judge as "a glib and shameless liar". That makes three in a row!

As Johnny Cash might have said: You can run on for a long time, run on for a long time, sooner or later God's gonna cut you down...

I heard King's trying to force an EGM to oust the current board and remove Ashley's influence. However they don't have much funding options beyond taking Ashley's current loan offer, and even if the EGM succeeds, there's a chance Ashley will demand to call his loans in.

In addition, I hear their goalkeeper is being investigated for gambling

edited 22nd Jan '15 4:47:21 PM by KoBB

So I hear today is the day the Arsenal makes a decision about Joel Campbell? News places over here are slow and stupid due to one of the most retarded "political corruption scandals" going on and nothing on him comes about

Also poor Navas. He didn't do as good and now he will likely be a lot less interested with his performance.

edited 23rd Jan '15 2:16:12 PM by Aszur

So, I just watched Manchester United's goalless draw against Cambridge. It wasn't a very good game but the difference in ranking between the teams - in contrast to the almost nonexistent apparent difference in quality - made for some interesting watching.

I won't deny it - I laughed a bit. I just couldn't help it - I just couldn't stop thinking about how any of the Manchester United players could easily pay the entire Cambridge team's wages for a year without making a noticeable dent in their personal finances. On the day, though, you could barely tell which team was supposed to be mostly established stars and national team starters and which was people who are probably a relegation away from having to get a part-time job.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that Arsenal can also do the exact same thing and for the neutrals it's equally amusing to today's spectacle (or lack thereof).

Fair play to Cambridge, though - they did play fairly well. I looked them up and it seems they're struggling to stay in League 2 but hopefully they'll be able to maintain today's form and perhaps fight for promotion next season.

In the FA Cup,

Tottenham Hotspur 1-2 Leicester City

1-0 up into halftime, and looking to cruise into the next round, if not exactly comfortably. But we managed to concede two goals in the last 7-8 minutes and go from 1-0 up to losing 2-1. And I thought Manchester United was in a bad situation. -crying-

If its any consolation, Chelsea and Manchester City lost too, Chelsea to Bradford City and Man City to Middlesbrough, both by two goals - City 2-0 and Chelsea 4-2.

Spurs 1 - Leicester City 2

I wouldn't say today's game was disappointing at all. I, for one, am frankly embarrassed to be a Spurs fan today for losing so pathetically to the Foxes. I actually thought that we would have gotten our act together after the last few matches, and we were in the lead with Townsend's first-half goal. But our defense and forwards became so damn lazy that I just want to come to each of their houses and slap them in their faces.

In order to see who was remotely tolerable, let's start by highlighting the ones who weren't. Fazio (yes, Poch had the balls to start that clown again) was awful, Adebayor was awful, Soldado was awful, Lamela was lame, Paulinho was awful, Dembele was awful, Chiriches was awful, Vorm was awful, Townsend was... not awful but rested on his laurels after scoring that goal. The only one who was anywhere close to decent was Christian Eriksen and I feel really sorry for him for having to work with a pair of pathetically lazy and overpaid strikers.

And I thought our loss to Crystal Palace was humiliating. Foxes are surely going straight back down to the Championship and to crash out of the FA Cup to that team is an absolute disgrace. Each and every player and coach in our team should be ashamed of themselves for such an awful game. Sometimes, I wonder why I haven't donated my Spurs shirt... (deep breath, chugs a bottle of lager)

Fair play to Blackburn, Bradford City, Middlesborough, Fulham, and Cambridge United though. A horrible day for Premier League clubs today, but you gotta love having lower league teams being able to move to the next round or earn a replay.

I am absolutely disgusted by our lack of effort though... should've been in the Round of 16.

edited 24th Jan '15 10:01:14 AM by sanfranman91

So, at the one game this season I can actually get to Tynecastle to watch the Famous...and we lose 3-2 to a better Falkirk side and end our unbeaten league run. Oh, how all occasions do inform against me.

Started off brilliantly with an ace goal from Zeefuik in the second minute, then a stupid penalty given up later, which made us afraid to challenge for the ball all game. They scored another decent-ish goal, we equalized, and then a stupid stupid stupid mistake from Gomis cost us another. Awful performance.

Standard of referee and linespeople was utter shit as usual - we should have had a penalty and Zeefuik was booked for celebrating with our fans but Falkirk players got away with the same.

We've really suffered having that game against Rangers being called off - out of practice, out of shape. Needs sorted pronto.

Still - can't dwell on it. Just need to grab the next game by the horns and pump Alloa as a show of force. We've got a thirteen point lead we can spend in a run of bad form if we have to - but I'd really rather not. The League wrapped up as early as possible should still be the goal.

Full credit to Falkirk for an excellent performance away. Crowd at Tynie was bloody dreadful though. Tried to get "Oh When the Hearts" going in the Roseburn, bunch of part-timers look at me like I've got two heads.

edited 24th Jan '15 9:58:37 AM by Achaemenid

Vitória Guimarães 2-2 Gil Vicente

We nearly lost (and probably would've deserve it, since we were inefficient throughout most of the match) against the team in the last place. We only managed to score our goals at the 79 and 90+2 minutes (the last one through a penalty, which is not the greatest way to achieve points).

We'll remain in the fourth place for this week.

Right.

So.

Arsenal have a great chance to retain the FA Cup this season, as Chelsea, Manchester City, Tottenham, Southampton, Everton, and Swansea are out - most to lower-league opposition. Manchester United, Liverpool, and Sunderland failed to win games they really should be winning with their reserves, so now they'll have to go through replays, clogging up their already busy schedules.

When Arsenal wasted a 3-0 lead at home against Anderlecht (still embarrassed about that) fans of other clubs - especially Chelsea - mocked Arsenal relentlessly. Even Chelsea's official Twitter account got in on it, commenting on their 3-0 lead against Schalke as "a dangerous scoreline in the Champions League", in obvious reference to Arsenal's earlier failure to retain such a lead. In return I'd like to take this opportunity to point out that Chelsea just lost a home game that they were leading by two goals against a team two league tiers and 49 places below them. There are probably players in Chelsea's youth academy that earn in a month more than the entire Bradford City team makes in a year.

If I may:

In other news: Villarreal have announced that the transfer of Gabriel Paulista, an uncapped Brazilian centre-back, to Arsenal has been completed - well, pending permission from the FA. Arsenal will probably be able to make a solid case for Paulista, who would surely be a starting centre-back in almost any national team other than Brazil. (Brazil have great depth in that position at the moment.)

Paulista's statistics in this season's La Liga are comparable to those of Arsenal's established centre-backs Koscielny and Mertesacker - in tackles and interceptions he ranks between them, surpassing Mertesacker but not quite reaching Koscielny. I haven't watched La Liga this season but from what I've read about Paulista it seems he's among the best centre-backs in the league so far this season.

The transfer fee is said to be something like £13 million. In addition to money Arsenal have also given them Joel Campbell, on loan for the rest of the season. It's a little bit worrying that Arsenal have now loaned out 3 forwards while Gnabry and Welbeck are still recovering and Walcott isn't starting regularly yet but these loans are obviously good for the players, as they had little hope of regular playing time at Arsenal and competition for starts up front is only going to get tighter now, with Welbeck almost recovered and Walcott and Özil re-emerging and Cazorla also in top form. (He's not a forward but he often takes a spot from a left-sided forward.)

Tomorrow Arsenal will have to be professional against Brighton. Failure to capitalise on the opportunity gained from having so many top clubs out so early in the Cup would constitute a disaster, especially as Arsenal don't look likely to win anything else this season. (Well, there's always the Champions League - Arsenal will probably go through Monaco and once you're that close to the Final anything can happen.)

Here's the line-up I'd use:

Szczesny
Bellerin-Chambers-Mertesacker-Monreal
Coquelin-Ramsey
Walcott-Özil-Rosicky
Giroud

Szczesny needs a game to prove that he's able to challenge Ospina, but even if he performs well (and he must) I'll still expect Ospina to keep starting in the league. Szczesny, for now, should be the Cup goalkeeper.

Resting Koscielny now would be good, as he hasn't been able to have a proper recovery from his ankle problem and it'll just keep coming back if he doesn't rest. I'd love to rest Mertesacker, as well, but there aren't many options for rotation so he'll just have to keep going. Gibbs is also recovering and though he'll almost certainly be available I'd start with Monreal to protect Gibbs. It doesn't hurt that Monreal has been playing very well at left-back but if anything that makes me want to rotate more, so that both players could stay in form and rested. For now, though, resting Gibbs sounds like a prudent decision.

Ramsey hasn't reached his form from last season so instead of resting him I'd give him a game where he should have a chance to shine. Flamini will be a good option on the bench, and though it might be nice to use him to rotate Coquelin I think it's better to give the youngster games so that he can continue to develop and gain confidence. Flamini is a veteran and generally he's reliable even if he's out of the starting line-up for a while.

Özil needs to start a game and an easier one (on paper) would be great so that he can take his time settling in into the game. I predict that he'll be largely out of the game for most of the first half but in the second half he'll do something great and really come back into the squad. Starting Özil would necessitate Cazorla's transition back into the left. He's been great in the #10 position and he might not perform quite as well on the left. That's where he'll probably be for large parts of the remainder of the season, though. Since this is a cup game and an opportunity to rest players I'd start with Rosicky on the left. That way Cazorla can come in from the bench if necessary.

Walcott's situation is similar to Özil's - he's just coming back from a long injury and although he's already been on the bench for some games now he hasn't been ready to start, and when he's played he's been rusty. If he starts a cup game as part of a solid line-up he should be able to find his form, and this is a great opportunity for that. Oxlade-Chamberlain apparently has some sort of minor injury that might keep him out. I'd rest him even if he was fit - he's played well but it's been a while now since he's been rotated out of a game so let's do it now. Alexis has played almost every game of the season so far and desperately needs to rest, even though he probably doesn't agree. I'd leave him out of the squad completely. It's a cup game - he can take it.

This would have been a good opportunity to start Sanogo, Podolski, or Campbell at centre-forward but since they've been loaned out I would've liked to see Welbeck instead. He'd injured and still at least a week from recovery, though, so there'll be no rest for Giroud. If at some point in the game Giroud needs to come off for another forward I'd consider moving Walcott up front, with Rosicky or Ramsey on the right and Cazorla on the left or in the middle.

This has been a very entertaining and surprising round in the FA Cup but I want Arsenal to put an end to it by securing a solid result that they certainly should be able to produce. Maybe 2-0 or 3-1 or something along those lines.

Interesting strategies, Best Of. I would replace Szczesny with Ospina and maybe Bellerin with Gibbs, but the rest of the line-up looks solid. It would be important for Arsenal to see what happened to Spurs, Chelsea and City today so they know how not to play against Brighton. They've been in a solid run of form with their new coach Chris Hughton, however, so I don't think this will be anywhere close to easy for the Gunners. With the way things are going, I think a replay might be in the cards... 1-1?

Still, I can't imagine Arsenal would be too ashamed if they do go out against the Seagulls. At least Arsenal strikes me as a club that won't embarrass their fans by putting up a disgraceful performance against a relegation-threatened side. Yeah... I'm still bitter about Leicester humiliating us in our own house. (grabs a new can of lager)

edited 24th Jan '15 4:40:19 PM by sanfranman91

I'm still reading up on Gabriel Paulista and just now I found out that "Paulista" simply refers to someone from Sao Paulo (which makes me wonder why it was ever included in his name in any of the articles I saw). Apparently he prefers to be called Gabriel, so that's what I'll call him from now on.

Another this I'm seeing just now is that his interception rate apparently is better than that of any current Arsenal defender (although one must remember that there's also a gap in the quality of opposition they face). Gabriel is also better at headers than Koscielny. This will be a major asset in games where Arsenal can expect to face a large number of crosses.

I don't expect the Brighton game to be easy but once Arsenal get going and score a goal (assuming they're not left behind by then) a solid, professional performance should carry them through. In recent games Arsenal have usually been able to win (even against Manchester City last week) with a less than ideal line-up and now that games haven't been as frequent as they were over the Christmas period Arsenal should be well trained and well rested, with options to rotate for tactical and other reasons. As long as nobody takes the result for granted it should be a fairly routine game. Should. Arsenal, of course, are entirely capable of losing an "easy" game when they're not up for it so it's absolutely vital to be focused.

Bumping this 'cause my previous post is fairly old by now.

I didn't get my line-up prediction exactly right.

Szczesny gets the start, just as I thought he should. Mertesacker is rested instead of Koscielny. Gibbs is back, so Monreal returns to the centre-back position he's learning and Chambers plays on the right, as Bellerin is rested.

Coquelin gets a rest, as well, so Flamini starts instead - sensible rotation. Rosicky, Özil, Walcott, and Ramsey all start in attacking midfield. Giroud is the centre-forward.

About 20 minutes in and Arsenal already have two goals, from exactly the two players I most wanted to score today: Walcott and Özil. Brighton look shocked and afraid, with no confidence. As a consequence Arsenal have had the ball for most of the game and if this goes on there's no reason Arsenal shouldn't score a few more before the first half ends. Brighton must find the willpower and belief to fight their way back into the game.

I'm going to go all-out on my stupid habit of tempting fate by pointing out that based on yesterday's result a 2-0 lead is a dangerous situation for a club near the top of the Premier League when they're playing lower-league opposition in the FA Cup.

If that taunt bites me in the ass I'll be the first to admit that 1: I deserve it and 2: it was worth it.

EDIT: And now a handball that should've been a penalty ignored by the referee. He probably doesn't want the game to be over yet but he has to give a penalty when it's that clear. I suppose it's better for the game to not have too big a goal difference going into the break.

edited 25th Jan '15 8:43:40 AM by BestOf

In the FA Cup though, during the EIGHT seasons between the 2005 and 2014 FA Cup wins, all of the teams that eliminated Arsenal were Premier League teams. The only exception was Blackburn in 2013. If you want to make the Crystal Palace-Southampton parallel (still in the EPL but ranked far from Arsenal), then that's only Bolton, Stoke, and Blackburn (they were still in the EPL). So 7 of 8 were against EPL teams, of the 7, 3 of them were "lower teams". I may not remember correctly though, as I was about to post this somewhere else yesterday (but I didn't post it), and I won't be double-checking the numbers now. LOL

edited 25th Jan '15 8:53:13 AM by entropy13

My comment on the apparent danger of a 2-0 lead for a big club in the FA Cup was a reference to Chelsea wasting their 2-0 lead at home in yesterday's game against a team lower even than Brighton. At the same time I was also mirroring the Tweet by Chelsea's official Twitter account where they mocked Arsenal for wasting a 3-goal lead in the Champions League earlier in the season - I mentioned this in an earlier post here.

To be honest, despite the recent FA Cup results, I'm almost certain this game is basically over. Arsenal would have to completely lose interest in this game for Brighton to find a way back. Arsenal sometimes do that but I don't see it happening now. The FA Cup is too important this season and the results from this round so far will ensure that the players know what can happen if they get complacent.

UPDATE: Brighton managed a goal which I originally missed because one of my cats decided that just then was a great moment to throw up on the rug and make me clean it instead of watching the game. I saw a replay of it just now, though. Soon after the goal there was a blatant dive by a Brighton player that went unpunished - but at least there wasn't a silly penalty so I suppose it wasn't as bad as it could've been. Still, should've been a yellow card for diving.

After Brighton looked for a while like they might catch up Arsenal capped a wonderful counter-attack by scoring. Rosicky fooled everyone by pretending to pass one way and going the other instead. Giroud clipped the ball back for Rosicky to volley in. Rosicky now has a goal and an assist so he's my candidate for Man of the Match so far. Still about half an hour to go, though.

UPDATE: Walcott and Giroud off, Alexis and Akpom on. Glad to see Akpom get some minutes but I don't understand why Wenger would put Alexis on when the game seems won. Alexis should not have been in the squad at all - he needs to rest. Getting him injured in the last 20 minutes of a cup tie would be very disappointing.

UPDATE: Great play by Brighton's midfield to crate a chance from what looked like nothing. Well done by their forward, as well: 2-3 now. Still 15 minutes to go. This game just became more interesting than I wanted it to be.

UPDATE: Özil off at 79 minutes for Coquelin. Makes sense: you want to protect a lead and with Flamini and Coquelin at the centre of midfield and Ramsey hovering just ahead of them you've got the midfield well and truly clogged. Only overly enthusiastic full backs surging forward can now create gaps through which Brighton can create attacks. There are of course set pieces, which will be more dangerous now that Giroud isn't on anymore.

Brighton's players seem fairly certain that they can tug and kick at Alexis as much as they like with little chance of the referee caring. There was one foul called (but not carded) and since then Alexis seems to have players literally holding on to him every time he gets the ball.

UPDATE: Chambers has the ball cynically shot at his hand from so close there's simply no time for him to get his hand out of the way. Then again he never should've had his arms spread out even slightly. Fortunately the referee seems to remember the more blatant handball he didn't give in the first half, and Chambers goes unpunished.

FULL TIME: Brighton 2 - 3 Arsenal. Good performance overall from both teams, though I must criticise Ramsey and Akpom for wasting some late chances. The latter made some futile attempts to dribble through well-placed defenders even though forwards in better positions would've been available. Of course that sort of thing happens when you're young and just getting your first minutes in the first-team.

Only 4 yellow cards given to Brighton (and none to Arsenal). Another referee might've given each team a penalty for the handballs and maybe 3 or 4 more yellow cards to Brighton for late kicks on Arsenal strikers and for tugging at Arsenal players' shirts at every opportunity. Still, not too bad for an English referee.

It was an entertaining game. As I said before I would've preferred to have some players rested but Wenger knows best, I suppose.

Szczesny didn't manage a single save. He's obviously short of confidence, and a game like this where you basically face one shot every 30 minutes or so may not be the best way to restore confidence. I didn't happen to be looking too closely at either of Brighton's goals so I can't really say if Szczesny should've stopped them but it's worrying that he seems to have declined so much. I had hoped that Ospina would drive him to improve by offering competition. Instead it seems Szczesny will have to maybe play in the reserves for a while to reach a mental state where he'll be challenging for a first-team spot again.

edited 25th Jan '15 10:05:17 AM by BestOf

Celtic fans buy newspaper advert saying Rangers are a new club.

Aye, that's what to do. Deliberately wind-up a bunch of volatile cretins ahead of one of the most fraught and emotional football fixtures of the decade, with a giant A4 page of truly tragic mock-serious patter. Zoomers.

You can see the advert here.◊

That is what you believe, right? That the Rangers that exist now are not the same as the old Rangers?

@Best Of: Is there a rule in the English FA that only players from countries ranked above 70 in FIFA ratings are allowed to play for English teams in the higher divisions?

EDIT: basically, is this true?

But those from outside of the EU need to have played 75 per cent of competitive matches for their national team before being accepted as an outstanding talent that would benefit English football. And their national team must be ranked in the top 70 in the world.

It's from the Daily Mail, whose veracity is suspect.

edited 25th Jan '15 8:45:47 PM by arcanephoenix

Where did you read this? I looked at the ranking and know at least four players from countries ranked below 70: Brad Jones from Australia, Winston Reid from New Zealand, Marouane Chamakh from Morocco, Victor Wanyama from Kenya - there's probably more.

The work permit thing is basically designed to prevent English clubs from buying foreign squad players when they could instead be training them in their own academies. Clubs are only allowed to buy foreign players if the player in question is an "exceptional talent".

There are some conventions about ways a player would be considered as such automatically - I think it's if the transfer fee is well over £10 million or so, or if the player is usually in their national team's starting line-up. This latter, of course, is quite unfair to players who are very good but still not as good as those established in their national team. For instance, Brazil's centre-backs at the moment include Thiago Silva and Dante, with David Luiz also available. A player who can't quite find a way into that squad might still be better than the centre-backs of Russia or Chile, for instance, but those from the "smaller" countries would have an advantage applying for a work permit.

The exception to this is that players from the EU don't need work permits. The EU forbids member countries from imposing restrictions on the movement of labour so a footballer transferring from one EU country to another with an EU passport can't be held back by any sort of regulation that doesn't apply to players from the target country. This, of course, gives European players a massive advantage when moving into Premier League clubs.

edited 26th Jan '15 3:17:31 AM by BestOf

Yeah, I've always thought that the fact that the rules don't apply to players in the EU makes them quite unfair (and rather useless?). But this thing with players only from top 70? I've never heard about that before.

Also, I like this "exceptional talent"-rule. Not arbitrary at all.

Yeah, but I don't take out fucking newspaper advertisements about it.

The FA presumably would like to also restrict transfers within the EU but they'd be taken to court in the EU over it and they'd lose. Thus EU players basically get a free pass on a technicality.