A Beautiful Thread for the Beautiful Game

That's a completely different situation. At Arsenal, the drive to get rid of Wenger was brewing for years before it started to break headlines, and even then, it took several years before people were really aware of it enough for it to become a meme and so on. Klopp is doing great, in comparison.

Last season was Arsenal's worst ever under Wenger, when they, for the first time, failed the bare minimum requirement of a club that makes its season tickets so expensive and talks about growing into a challenger and one of the big clubs of Europe, and that's qualifying for the Champions League. Arsenal failed to reach even that, yet the response of the club was to give an extension to the manager, despite everything, and go through a transfer window making a profit once again. I don't mind a profit, but it's not a good look when you claim you're growing as a club and had an absolute disaster of a season.

Also, the Liverpool game saw an Arsenal performance where the players didn't look quite sure what sport they were playing; at times you could've thought that the Arsenal players were participating in some sort of synchronised jogging exercise, and Liverpool just happened to be playing football on the same pitch at the same time.

On top of that, the manager had left the club's record signing on the bench and started an out-of-form attacker instead, even though another, better striker was also on the bench, and started two full-backs at centre-back, and shoehorned a player who was trying to leave the club into the formation in a position that's not his best, and made room for that player by putting another player in the wrong position. I said at the time that I thought Wenger lost that game on purpose, on the basis of that team selection, and I still think that's the case, even though I can't understand what he was trying to achieve by that loss.

The departure of Oxlade-Chamberlain and a couple of other unhappy/unneeded players has seemed to lift the mood at Arsenal a bit, though. Maybe the fact that certain key players stayed has also helped.

Arsenal 2 - 0 Bournemouth at half time. Welbeck scored the first, heading in a cross from Kolasinac. The second was assisted by Welbeck and scored by Lacazette.

This looks like a completely different team from the one that player against Liverpool, probably because the players are concentrating on their job and maybe even enjoying it again, instead of worrying about the transfer business.

It's a good decision by the Premier League to end the transfer window before the season begins, starting next season.

For me, Kolasinac has been the best player in this game so far. His defensive work is good, and his attacking contribution is excellent. It makes the decision by Wenger to play him as a centre-back until now even more baffling, when he must have shown in training - and, obviously, last season at Schalke - how good of a left-back he is. Bellerin also looks better than before, now that he's back in his position.

The only complaints I have about Arsenal's set-up for this game are that Monreal is still starting at centre-back - I'd prefer a real centre-back, like Mertesacker - and that Welbeck is still ahead of Walcott and Giroud. Fair enough, he's having a good game so far, with a goal and an assist, but it just feels that Arsenal could do with a target man in a game like this.

Lacazette is playing instead of Alexis, who was injured during his time with Chile and needed a rest. He's playing in Alexis' position, when one would've expected that Welbeck would be there and Lacazette in front. It doesn't make a whole lot of difference in the end, though, considering how fluid Arsenal's attackers are. Özil is often the most advanced of the three, to good effect.

Cech
Koscielny Mustafi Monreal
Bellerin Ramsey Xhaka Kolasinac
Özil Lacazette
Welbeck

FULL TIME: Arsenal 3 - 0 Bournemouth. The final goal was scored by Welbeck, from a Ramsey assist. That's 2 goals and 1 assist for Welbeck, which is as good as a hat trick.

Of course, as an Arsenal fans you can never have nice things: Coquelin came on for Ramsey, played some of the best football we've seen from him for maybe a year or more, and was injured while just running for the ball, not even during tackle or anything. It's the sort of injury that doesn't look like much, but he just walked into the tunnel straight away, so I expect it'll keep him out for months, exacerbating Arsenal's injury crisis. This might open a way for Wilshere to get back in squad rotation, so I hope he won't get injured, as well.

This was a good game for Arsenal, and it took away some of the foul mood from the Liverpool game. More than anything, though, I think this is a demonstration of the effect that the mood of a team can have on their performance. This was nothing special from Arsenal, but until now they've been especially poor for the start of the season and basically all of last season. I think it suggests that some of the players causing discord have either left or decided that they'll settle for what they have until January.

edited 9th Sep '17 8:57:47 AM by BestOf

EPL shortening the transfer window only puts an early stop on new signings that English clubs can bring in for themselves. Unless other European leagues adopt a similar practice, non-English clubs could still freely pursue EPL players for an additional 2 or 3 weeks (no differently than Chinese clubs buying European players in February), which could give EPL players who are either attracting interest from another club (Coutinho) or are simply unhappy at their current club (Sanchez) significantly greater leverage to force a move elsewhere so long as they feel like it, putting their EPL club at a disadvantage that could also leave them unable to bring in suitable replacements until January.

If that new rule were already in effect this summer, Arsenal would already be far worse off than they actually are at present.

edited 9th Sep '17 1:25:01 PM by SeanMurrayI

Real Madrid 1 - 1 Levante

Without Ronaldo, Madrid loses a lot of offensive. Then there's the (well-deserved) sanction to Marcelo and Benzema's injury. Dear God, they're not going to survive the UCL group phase this way...

Arsenal left their outgoing business late to the window, but since only a few of the players that left late (Campbell and Perez) went abroad, it wouldn't have made that much of a difference. Gibbs and/or Oxlade-Chamberlain and/or Jenkinson might have stayed at the club, but since the clubs that wanted them were closing business on the PL deadline day, anyway, chances are, they would've loaned/bought those players then. (Or are we assuming that those deals just wouldn't have happened at all if those clubs were compelled to finish their business several weeks earlier, but still with the same deadline as other English clubs?)

Lacazette and Kolasinac were signed early into the transfer window, and no one else arrived at Arsenal. Some of the departures also happened early (Asano, for instance), and most of them went abroad, where windows would've been open, even if the PL had made this change for this season already.

I'm not sure how having the window close later in other countries helps outgoing players. If anything, since it's harder to get a replacement, you'd expect there to be fewer players leaving after the window in England has closed. Arsenal would have told Sanchez that he can't go because Arsenal can't replace him - which actually happened, anyway, except that in this case, the transfer window wasn't the reason the replacement couldn't be signed.

I'm also not sure if Arsenal would be worse off if they had kept Perez and Campbell. Registering those players would've been tough, but there probably would've been some kind of solution. (For instance, leave Akpom and one of Macey/Iliev out of the registered squad, and that's counting Cazorla as registered - which, in real life, he isn't.)

I think it's quite likely that other European leagues will also adopt the earlier end for the transfer window soon - perhaps as soon as next summer, even. There will still be some discrepancy between the time the window closes between countries, as there is already, but I don't think it's likely to become worse, or stay that way for long. Almost everyone supports the idea that the window should close before the season opens.

But, again, they were active in the window for the exact same period of time as anybody else. It didn't matter who Arsenal or any EPL clubs were dealing with or receiving other offers from at any time, the very fact that they were in position to sign more players of their own (and/or have enough squad depth to afford some late departures at their own asking price) is something they can leverage when they head into transfer negotiations, especially when other competitive clubs show interest in their own high profile players.

EPL clubs refusing transfer offers on those grounds are in an obviously weaker position—not stronger. Being unable to leverage a replacement of any kind (either bought on the market or brought up from the existing squad) while one's own players are still available on the market is a clear disadvantage, and refusing transfer offers strictly on those grounds in these potential new circumstances would be such a transparent sign of desperation by the club (opposed to strength) that anybody else still in a position to buy new players could easily try and exploit, especially if one's own players could be keen on moving elsewhere.

There are a lot of unique and different factors at play in every individual transfer saga, so something like this can become less of an issue in one potential move than it could be in another, but generally speaking, it doesn't put England's biggest and most competitive clubs in the best of places. And don't forget this new rule taking effect immediately after a World Cup, no less, so the EPL could certainly stand face some heavy consequences for this, indeed.

I can understand the reasons for shortening the transfer window, but the fact that this is neither a blanket ruling across the board from UEFA or a joint measure across all the top European leagues or their respective administrative bodies does raise honest questions. This could easily prove to be a futile, pointless effort made by the EPL. If it's simply up to everybody else to change their own practices, then nobody else actually has reason to change anything.

edited 10th Sep '17 12:27:20 AM by SeanMurrayI

L1 already said they'd follow, along with the Bundesliga. Which leaves about four teams in the world that can afford buying players from the EPL - Real, Barcelona, Juventus and AC Milan. The others have no reason to care about players in the EPL as they are overpriced - if the fee is interesting, it means that the player isn't wanted anyway, and in the other case, then you are better off buying a player of similar quality from another league for a lesser amount of €£$.

Only La Liga hasn't said anything, since it is too busy whining at the unfairness of not being rich enough anymore to be protected from the kind of low blows Barcelona and Madrid have practiced for decades.

I shouldn't take any of that too seriously until we actually see them take real action. This is the transfer market we're looking at here. Talk of intent in any kind of story pertaining to it is always pretty cheap and difficult to find meaningful—even when there is possibly some substance behind a report—and until something actually happens, every bit of the story can be subject to change... or even vanish entirely.

edited 10th Sep '17 11:49:33 AM by SeanMurrayI

'Cautiously optimistic' might be one of the better approaches in regards to the transfer season and these sort of talks, anyway.

Vitória SC 1-0 Boavista

I wasn't at home, so, I didn't watch the match, but the goal was scored by Sebastián Rincón (son of Freddy as I had said a couple of pages ago), who was assisted by Raphinha. Highlights here.

This win will come in handy for the team's morale, since we're gonna face Braga at their stadium next week, and they lost today (2-0) at the other Vitória's stadium (Vitória FC, aka Vitória de Setúbal). Looks like the Minho Derby will be more heated than usual (and that's saying a lot), since we only have 1 more point than them and both teams need to win more points fast.

EDIT: Next match for us is in the Europa League this week, at home, against Red Bull Salzburg (while Braga will face Hoffenheim at the latter's stadium).

edited 10th Sep '17 7:56:02 PM by Quag15

Unbeknownst to me, last night Alexi Lalas apparently fired up American soccer fans during Fox Sports coverage of an MLS fans or something because this is all everybody here seemingly has on their minds right now.

Stuff like this has ALWAYS been his "schtick"◊ and people usually—USUALLY—mock him for it (or, at least, don't take him too seriously). The only occasions he's ever appeared "sane", Stephen Colbert was already doing his "job" for him.

CL's first matches ended just now. Let's take a look:

In group A: Manchester United 3-0 Basel (goals here, with Fellaini being pretty much MOTM), Benfica lost 1-2 at home against CSKA Moscow (goals here), in a match that was both embarassing for the former and controversial (involving handballs) - Spanish ref and all that...

Group B: PSG destroyed Celtic's home with 5 goals (here), while Bayern Munich won 3-0 against a 10-men Anderlecht (goals here).

Group C: Roma and Atlético Madrid had a goalless draw (Saul Niguez missed this, somehow), while Chelsea annihilated Qarabag by 6-0 (goals here) in what was the latter's debut in the CL final stage. That Zappacosta goal is freaking amazing.

Group D: Barcelona categorically won 3-0 against Juventus here) - it doesn't help that Juventus has some key players injured -, while Sporting won 3-2 at Olympiakos' place (goals here).

This was the match that I watched. Sporting was winning 3-0 for most of the second half against Olympiakos, but Felipe Pardo still scored a brace in the final minutes of the match. Olympiakos' defence was a shambles in the first half, though, and Sporting could have scored at least 6 or 7 goals (they hit the post 2 twice and the bar twice).

edited 12th Sep '17 2:40:35 PM by Quag15

The difference between top teams and low-tier ones have become a bit ridiculous.

More CL:

Group E: Maribor drew 1-1 at home with Spartak Moscow (goals here) in a match that was filled with non-stop attacking football, and Liverpool drew 2-2 with Sevilla (goals here and a missed penalty by Firmino). Klopp could use a better CB.

Group F: Feyenoord's return to the Champions after some... 15 years, iirc, didn't go well. In fact, it went horribly, as Manchester City won 4-0 (goals here). It's the heaviest home defeat ever suffered by Feyenoord in all European comps. Shakhtar Donetsk won 2-1 against Napoli (goals here). Napoli's goal was a penalty, and Shakhtar are generally a team that cannot be underestimated.

Group G: Tottenham won 3-1 against Dortmund (goals here, plus a disallowed goal by Aubameyang and a second yellow for Vertonghen), in a match that had very poor refereeing (that Auba goal probably should have been validated), while Real Madrid comfortably won 3-0 against APOEL (goals here, two by Ronaldo and one by Ramos).

Group H: Porto suffered a slightly humiliating defeat at home against Besiktas (1-3, goals here), while Red Bull Leipzig drew 1-1 with Monaco (goals here).

Poor tactics, great counter-attacking goals by Besiktas, and lack of a consistent attacking strategy led to Porto's defeat.

edited 13th Sep '17 2:28:58 PM by Quag15

Arsenal will play Köln tomorrow, away, in the Europa League. I watched the pre-match interview with Wenger and Giroud. There were questions about whether Arsenal are good enough to challenge for the Europa League trophy, and both Giroud and Wenger said a couple of times that it's only the first game and too soon to be talking about winning the competition - but Giroud did eventually say that he thinks Arsenal are strong enough to do it.

I have mixed emotions about that. It would be pretty ugly to say you're out of it before even the first game is done, and of course it's good to have confidence. The suggestion that Arsenal have anywhere near the quality and resources it would take to win that competition is a bit far-fetched, though, and does reek of overconfidence. Qualifying from this group won't be easy, and I definitely wouldn't say that Arsenal are favourites against Köln, even at home, let alone away.

I predict a 2-1 loss for Arsenal. The squad will be heavily rotated, and while there's still some quality in the team, there will also be a number of players trying to get used to first-team football, so it will be tough to get the game going.

The line-up should be something like:

Ospina
Debuchy - Chambers - Holding - Kolasinac
Elneny Wilshere
Walcott Iwobi Welbeck
Giroud

I think Arsenal are going to go back to 4-2-3-1 soon; it's a much more natural formation for them than 3-4-2-1, and if you look at the stats, Arsenal's defense hasn't actually improved since the change of formation last season. As Wenger suggested at the time, the change of formation was mostly a way to get the players mentally focused on something else than the anxiety from their poor form, and that's what got the results, more than anything to do with the formation, itself. It still makes sense to keep 3-at-the-back as an option, and I think it will be used against tougher opponents, but I think Arsenal will probably go back to their more natural style for most games pretty early in this season.

I also think back-4 is likely tomorrow because Bellerin will need a rest pretty soon, and the most natural alternative for him is Debuchy, who isn't a wing-back.

Coquelin is injured for at least 3 weeks. That's a big blow to Arsenal's chances in this game and other games where Wenger will have wanted to rotate the squad. He would've definitely been a starter in this game.

Dortmund had two disallowed goals for fuzzy offside calls.

Actually, the whistle was already blown before the ball was struck in the net during the first incident midway through the first half, but I wasn't sure from the replay if the player who was in the offside position actually played the ball, even though he had made an attempt to. If Arsenal's opening goal in May's FA Cup Final showed any kind of precedent, play possibly should have been allowed to continue, and the goal that would have immediately resulted should have been given.

That second incident, though, is a much bigger and more plainly obvious mistake.

edited 13th Sep '17 2:40:58 PM by SeanMurrayI

There are truly batshit starting premises for commercial advertisements featuring soccer players and then there's this...

I just realised that tonight's game is actually at the Emirates, not in Köln. Since it's a home game, I'll adjust my prediction a bit: 2-1 for Arsenal. I think Köln will beat Arsenal in Germany, but when Arsenal are at home, they should be good enough to win the game, if the players are motivated.

Some Europa League matches have ended already:

Group A: Villareal won 3-1 against Astana (goals by Sansone, Shomko, Bakambu and Cheryshev, while Slavia Praha won 1-0 against Maccabi Tel-Aviv (goal by Tomas Necid).

Group B: Dynamo Kyiv won 3-1 against Skënderbeu, with the Albanian team scoring first (goals by Gjergji Muzaka, Sydorchuk, Junior Moraes and a penalty by Mbokani, while Young Boys drew 1-1 at home with Partizan (goals by Jankovic and Fassnacht).

Group C: Instanbul Basaksehir had a goalless draw at home with Ludogorets Razgrad, while Braga managed to win 2-1 in Germany at Hoffenheim's stadium. Hoffenheim scored first - Wagner - but Braga recovered quite well, with a goal just before half-time by João Teixeira and Dyego Sousa.

Group D: Rijeka lost at home 1-2 against AEK Athens (goals by Petros Mantalos, Elez and Christodoulopoulos, while Milan destroyed Austria Wien by 5-1 at Austria (goals here, including a hat-trick by André Silva).

Group E: Atalanta categorically won 3-0 against Everton (goals here), while Apollon Limassol manage to equalize at the last minute against Lyon (goals by Depay and Adrian Sardinero.

Group F: Copenhagen - Lokomotiv Moscow and Fastav Zlín - Sheriff Tiraspol both ended with goalless draws.

In ten minutes, more matches will be on the way, including Vitória vs Red Bull Salzburg (I hope we at least get a draw), Arsenal vs Köln, Lazio vs Vitesse or Hertha Berlin vs Athletic Bilbao.

EDIT: Well, looks like there's fighting at the Emirates. I think there were also some Köln supporters without tickets trying to enter/storm the stadium.

edited 14th Sep '17 12:01:31 PM by Quag15

Yeah, I'm seeing stuff about Köln fans trying to break into the Emirates because they couldn't get tickets. I get that this is the biggest game they've had in a long while, and it was pretty cool how they filled streets in London, but this is going to hurt their reputation if it's true that they've broken stuff.

The minimum tickets allocation for away fans in the Europa League is 5%, and apparently Arsenal have decided to give them the minimum amount. That means under 3 000 tickets for Köln fans, when about 20 000 have arrived in London for the game. Why did so many people travel when they must have known there's little to no chance of getting a ticket? Or rather, if they came to watch the game, why are they at the stadium without tickets? Shouldn't they be looking for alternative places to watch? (You know, pubs.)

The game's been delayed by an hour for security reasons. I hope everyone who broke gates or other stuff, or threw bottles, were recorded on CCTV and will be caught. It's not cool to endanger others just to get to a game, no matter how big a game it is.

A very low ticket allocation for away fans is pretty shitty, though. I wish the minimum would be raised considerably. Of course, clubs can probably still decide if they want to sell more than that, but the demand from Arsenal fans for tickets is already huge and the waiting list for season tickets is something ridiculous like 10+ years, so it's understandable that Arsenal would be reluctant to sell Köln fans more than the designated minimum number of tickets.

EDIT: I forgot to comment on the team announcement. It's a return to 4-2-3-1, as I predicted, but the lineup isn't entirely what I thought it would be:

Ospina
Bellerin Mertesacker Holding Monreal
Ainsley Maitland-Niles Elneny
Walcott Iwobi Alexis
Giroud

I would've thought that Kolasinac and Debuchy would play, but Wenger has chosen to play Bellerin and Monreal instead. Both of them could've done with a rest. Wilshere is on the bench, when I thought he'd be starting; he's still looking for full match fitness, clearly. He'd be ahead of Maitland-Niles otherwise. Alexis played part of the previous game, but he didn't start because he was recovering from injury. Apparently he's fit to start now, but I would've expected him to be rested ahead to the weekend game against Chelsea.

edited 14th Sep '17 12:50:31 PM by BestOf

I'm picturing in my head thousands of amped-up Köln supporters crowding London pubs near the Emirates and imagining the more frequent pup regulars who already go there to see Arsenal play having no issues at all with German mobs taking over their usual sanctuaries.

Well, you can't rush through the gates and expect that to be OK. If you can't get a ticket, make alternative arrangements. I wouldn't expect that I'm in the minority suggesting this - if I was going to a game but couldn't get a ticket, I wouldn't try to break down the gates. Am I the one who's weird about this?

Köln are 1-0 ahead through essentially an Ospina own goal. He had run for a ball way outside his box and then, instead of trying to clear it, passed it straight to a Köln player, who passed it to Cordoba, who took a long shot at the empty goal and put it in. I know that won't go on the record as an own goal by Ospina because he didn't get the last touch, but that's basically what it was. If he had backheeled the ball into his goal instead of what he did, it would have been exactly as embarrassing.

Arsenal have created a couple of half-chances, but not much. The players' body language looks very similar to the pre-season games in Australia: they're definitely treating this as a friendly. That's even more shameful than the Ospina own goal.

Apart from Arsenal's match, the other matches have ended. Let's take a look:

Group L: The favourites to go through won convingly. Zenit destroyed Vardar 5-0 at the latter's stadium (goals by Kokorin, Kokorin again, Dzyuba, Ivanovic and Rigoni), while Real Sociedad defeated Rosenborg by 4-0 (goals by Llorente, Zurutuza, (own goal by) Skjelvik and Llorente again).

Group K: Lots of goals here. Lazio won a hard-fought battle at Vitesse by 3-2 (goals here), while Nice categorically won 5-1 at Zulte Waregem's place (goals by Alessane Plea, Plea again, Dante, Aaron Leya, Saint-Maximin and Balotelli).

Group J: Hertha Berlin and Athletic Bilbao had a goalless draw, while Östersund continues to surprise. The small Swedish side won 2-0 at Zorya Luhansk's stadium (goals by Ghoddos and Alhaji Gero).

Group G: Steaua Bucharest (aka FCSB) won 3-0 against Viktoria Plzen (goals by Budescu (penalty), Budescu (no penalty here) and Alibec, while Hapoel Be'er Sheva won 2-1 against Lugano (goals by Einbinder, Shir Tzedek (penalty) and an own goal by the same Tzedek).

Group H: Crvena Zvezda (aka Red Star Belgrade) drew 1-1 with BATE Borisov (goals by Radonjic and Signevich).

Group I: Marseille won 1-0 against Konyaspor (goal by Adil Rami), while here...

Vitória SC 1-1 Red Bull Salzburg

We attacked for most of our first half, with our goal being scored by Pedro Henrique (aka Pedrão) after a free-kick cross by Hurtado. However, RB's Valon Berisha equalized near the end of the first half.

Our second half was poor by comparison, with the team mostly sitting back from the 70' onward, and holding out against them and wasting lots of counter-attacking opportunities (and RB's players blocking a fair few attempts of ours). The ref didn't have the best of performances, in a game that had lots of fouls and probably ought have had a penalty for each side (against us due to a foul by one of our defenders, against them due to the lower part of the arm of one of their players touching the ball).

This game could have been better or worse. Douglas was great with his key defenses (including a free-kick by Berisha), while Konan was pretty poor, failing a lot of passes that ruined our attacks or counter-attacks. My minimal hopes were that of a draw, so, I'll take it.

Two bits of trivia in this match: someone forgot to turn off the sprinklers during the match at one point; also, this was the first match in European football history where the starting XI's on both teams only had players whose nationalities are outside of Europe.

In a few days, it's the Minho rivalry. We're going to Braga (who, as I've written above, won 2-1 at Hoffenheim's stadium - it's their first win ever on German soil), and it's going to be a really intense match (but then again, most, if not all, matches between us and them are pretty heated).

edited 14th Sep '17 2:58:57 PM by Quag15

Arsenal 3 - 1 Köln. After the break, the team looked much more serious, taking firm control of the game and shifting the focus from midfield ball possession to passes in the attacking third.

The first goal (for Arsenal - I've already discussed Köln's goal above) was by Kolasinac, and it was a beautiful volley.

The second goal was scored by Alexis. He had the ball on his flank and decided to cut in, tricking the defender to move the other way. Then he had another defender in front of him, so he cut inside some more, also tracking the ball back a bit to win some space at the expense of his shooting position. Then he shot anyway, with a very accurate curved ball that looked like it was going out but didn't actually even touch the post on its way to the inside of the side of the net.

The third goal was by Bellerin. Wilshere was on his way to reach a horizontal pass that would've given him a decent chance to shoot at goal, but he stepped over the ball instead, leaving the shooting to Walcott. That shot was saved, but the ball was rolling in the box when Bellerin got to it before anyone else, slotting it in.

Obviously, the main headline about this game will be the damage that Köln fans might have done when they fought the stewards and police to get first to the stadium, and then from the home seats, where they had managed to get tickets, to the away area. Other than that, it's a useful win for Arsenal in what one would expect to be the toughest of the three home games in their group in the Europa League this year. I was also very happy to see Wilshere on the pitch again, after such a long absence.

Aside from Ospina's demonstration that he's not good enough for a Premier League club anymore, the main negative, as an Arsenal fan, was how poorly Walcott played. He got 19 goals in all competitions last season, yet there's a pretty general consensus, or so it seems, that he should've been sold in the summer. He's not helping himself at all when he doesn't take his opportunity from a rare start. In particular, his problem here was that he was offside very often. If your main asset as a forward is your pace, you absolutely must make sure that when you run to a long ball, you're not starting offside. If you allow the opposition to play you offside - or, even worse, if you wander offside yourself during the build-up - you're negating your main advantage as a pacy forward. His crossing was actually pretty good, when he got in position to do it, and that just makes it more frustrating that he wasted so many opportunities.

I wasn't trying to voice any disagreement. I just thought it amusing to picture hoards of foreign fans traveling to London and settling on watching a match at a pub (especially in light of all this other trouble they caused), when it obviously would have been a lot easier (and cheaper and safer) if they had just gone out to some place closer to home back in Germany.

You're definitely right that they would've caused less trouble if they had stayed home. There were interviews of Arsenal fans who usually go with the family telling reporters that they don't feel safe coming, as well as people leaving the delayed game at half time to make the last trains home. Arsenal are still criticised for the fans who left at half time (to catch the very last trains). Maybe that's to be expected.

Honestly, the best way to deal with this would be to increase the ticket allocation, but that only makes sense if everyone does it at the same time. I know that people will say that Arsenal should've made sure to prepare for Köln fans who think it's such a big game, but Köln and Arsenal are the same tier of European clubs, so I don't know what the problem is.

edited 15th Sep '17 5:19:37 PM by BestOf

German hooligans were a big issue back in the day, let's hope they don't become one again after they seemed to have solved that problem.