theHotHead wrote:EliteKiller wrote:UFGN wrote:I can't believe what I'm reading
Apparently we were as good as City and only lacked a leader
Most severe case of Gooner Goggles I've ever seen.
That's probably because you can't read .....
"over the last six years with the exception of last season when frankly City moved a mile ahead we had a squad as good or better than anyone else in the EPL " .... remember before 2017/18 every pundit, player, manager and a whole load of fans had us nailed on as contenders ... now suddenly you're saying that all that time we were rubbish? is that right?
Just to show you that you really are truly clueless .... here are the total points gained over those five years 2012 - 2017
Chelsea - 388
City - 387
Arsenal - 373
Spurs - 361
Utd - 358
Liverpool - 343
OK, I'm going to bite. Firstly, Man U didn't get fewer points than us because they had a worse squad, it was because they under-performed and their managers have been a bit crackers.
Now for the absolute piss taking comment - that Arsenal had the second best squad in the league behind Man City, for the past 5 years, the easiest way to work out if that is true is by asking the question, how many Arsenal players would get in other so-called top teams teams and vice versa. So I will list all of the main players in the last 5 seasons, the players that had 10 or more league appearances, for the clubs in question:
Arsenal:Shezza, Diaby, Sagna, Merts, Vermaelen, Kos, Rosicky, Arteta, Podolski, Wilshere, A Santos, Giroud, Walcott, Oxo, Ramsey, Monreal, Cazorla, Coquelin, Arshavin, Mannone, Jenkinson, Gervinho, Gibbs, Ozil, Flamini, Fabianski, Sanogo, Bendtner, Gnabry, Sanchez, Chambers, Welbeck, Bellerin, Gabriel, J Campbell, Cech, Xhaka. (37 players)
Man U:De Gea, Rafael, Evra, Jones, Ferdinand, Evans, Valencia, Rooney, Giggs, Smalling, Vidic, Carrick, Young, Welbeck, RVP, Cleverly, Kagawa, Mata, Fellaini, Januzaj, Shaw, Rojo, Di Maria, Falcao, Blind, Herrera, McNair, Depay, Martial, Schneiderlin, Schweinsteiger, Lingard, Darmian, Rashford, Bailly, Pogba, Ibrahimovic, Mkhi. (38 players)
Chelsea:Torres, Mata, Oscar, Cech, Ramires, Hazard, Ivanovic, Luiz, A Cole, Lampard, Azpilicueta, Cahill, Moses, Mikel, Bertrand, Terry, Ba, Schurrle, Willian, Eto'o, Matic, Salah, Fabregas, Courtois, Costa, Begovic, Zouma, B Rahman, Pedro, Alonso, Kante, (31 players)
Liverpool:G Johnson, J Enrique, Agger, Suarez, Gerrard, Coutinho, Henderson, Sturridge, Downing, Lucas, Carragher, J Allen, Reina, Borini, Suso, Sterling, Shelvey, Skrtel, A Wisdom, K Toure, M Sakho, A Cissokho, Mignolet, Flanagan, Lovren, Moreno, J Manquillo, Lallana, Can, Balotelli, Markovic, Clyne, Milner, Benteke, Firmino, Ibe, Karius, Wijnaldum, Klavan, Mane, Origi, Matip (42 players)
Spurs:Walker, Vertonghen, Bale, Lennon, Defoe, Lloris, Dembele, Adebayor, Caulker, Sandro, Siggurdsson, Parker, Naughton, Gallas, Freidel, Assou-Ekotto, Huddlestone, Rose, Kaboul, Chiriches, Paulinho, Soldado, Holtby, Capoue, A Townsend, Dawson, Chadli, Eriksen, Bentaleb, Fazio, Dier, Mason, Lamela, Kane, Alderweireld, Son, Alli, B Davies, Wanyama (39 players)
Now, thats your lot. What we need to do next is identify how many from each list would strengthen squads. To remove arguments if a players was at any time considered a top player and they move clubs they must still be counted as top players or good enough to strengthen any squad. Average players are NOT to be counted. So with that said, my numbers (subjective I know) look like this:
ArsenalTop players - 8. Squad players - 11
Man UTop players - 15. Squad players - 11
ChelseaTop players - 17. Squad players - 5
LiverpoolTop players - 11. Squad players - 4
SpursTop players - 9. Squad players - 5
My numbers show Arsenal were nowhere near having the next best squad after Man City !!