Time for some home truths

[redgunamo]

As discussed before. The wonderful football post Dubai was played out with guys who are all still here, Partey aside.

The football we played this season was a choice, not a necessity. Although Arteta will tell you it was a choice borne out of necessity.

Suitable for some situations but not for others. Doing it every week, in every game, is a mistake. And no question it cost us points.

Definitely a choice. And a brilliant one, it won us the league after 22 years!

[Peter]

It won us the title.

Look, I don't want to side track this thread with a discussion about the relative merits of counter-factual history {we can do that in private} but imagine if I told you that had we played peter-ball not MA-ball last season, 80% of our 1-0 wins would have become 3/4-0 and the other 20% would have been 1-1, would you take it?

More goals, more sexiness, fewer points, one fewer trophy.

Your call.

I admit I know **** all about football. But suddenly everyone's an expert. It's like all those armchair general ****wits who say that Haig is a butcher and they could have won the western front better than him. No you ****ing couldn't, you morons. You know nothing about what was going on. Blackadder IV was a comedy, not a documentary.

I'll leave the football bit to MA. I'll stick to shouting "Skin 'im, B" and "Kick 'im, Gabby" at the screen.

Of course I would take the title.

But I reject the premise. And the evidence is Sat in front of you, post Dubai.

You know why we didnt win the title that year? Because pre Dubai we played game management crap and took 40 points from our first 20 games.

The year before we were far too loose and open but with a smaller and inferior squad we still hit 85 points. Exactly the same as this season.

The choices you present deliver an obvious answer. But I reject the choices.

[Peter]

Definitely a choice. And a brilliant one, it won us the league after 22 years!

Great. So now we take the next step.

We play like champions and we hunt down that champions league.

[redgunamo]

Great. So now we take the next step.

We play like champions and we hunt down that champions league.

I don't actually disagree, but we ARE champions and I would have been perfectly happy to take home the trophy last Saturday night as well.

[WES]

What is NSG? Oh, and finest French cheese? If you like goat, that must include Sainte-Maure de Touraine.

Nuit St Georges, GG, my favourite Burgundy village.

Morbier, Tomme aux Fleurs and Bleu d?Auvergne

From a quite wonderful fromagerie in Villiers

[redgunamo]

And I'm sure MA would say that time after Dubai we played the best attacking football I'd pretty much ever seen from us. Yet we won sweet FA.

Last season, we won the title.

Which do you want?

Well, quite. The nonsense seems to stem from the idea that to solve a problem we have, in fact, just solved, we need to do more of the things we were doing some time ago, things that didn't actually solve the problem.

Damn, silly idea.

[Herbert Augustus Chapman]

I don't actually disagree, but we ARE champions and I would have been perfectly happy to take home the trophy last Saturday night as well.

I'd like to retain the Title for the first time since before the War.

[Peter]

I don't actually disagree, but we ARE champions and I would have been perfectly happy to take home the trophy last Saturday night as well.

Of course. But the worst thing we can do right now is assume that we can perform like that next year and win the league.

This is where Arteta's ferocious obsessive side comes in handy. He is going to want more. He is going to demand better.

So am I

[Peter]

Well, quite. The nonsense seems to stem from the idea that to solve a problem we have, in fact, just solved, we need to do more of the things we were doing some time ago, things that didn't actually solve the problem.

Damn, silly idea.

Not do more of them, just do them better and with better players. We got the better players....

Of course the problem was actually City and we didnt solve it- they did.

[redgunamo]

Of course. But the worst thing we can do right now is assume that we can perform like that next year and win the league.

This is where Arteta's ferocious obsessive side comes in handy. He is going to want more. He is going to demand better.

So am I

I could remind you that you've been saying that for years. But I won't

Anyway, nobody is assuming that! Except perhaps you and Bunnell.

[redgunamo]

Not do more of them, just do them better and with better players. We got the better players....

Of course the problem was actually City and we didnt solve it- they did.

Yes, that's league football. That's how it works!

To misquote Chico Marx, "We only won because we finished first."

That'll do.

[redgunamo]

Does Nwaneri get a medal? He was part of the squad, played a few times.

Yes, he does. Standard forty medals for the club to hand out at their discretion with more available on request.

As you say, with six appearances, he would ordinarily qualify in any case.

[Peter]

Yes, that's league football. That's how it works!

To misquote Chico Marx, "We only won because we finished first."

That'll do.

That'll do- that's the sentiment of a club who wins the league every 22 years. And a club that hasn't retained a title in almost a century.

No, it wont do! As Wenger said, football drives you mad because your job is to pursue perfection in a sport built around chaos and imperfection.

That's our task. Same as always- to do better next season.

[Peter]

I could remind you that you've been saying that for years. But I won't

Anyway, nobody is assuming that! Except perhaps you and Bunnell.

I'm going to say it for the rest of my life. It is the focus of every competitive sport.

Oh ****, we are so good it is going to be very difficult to find ways to improve. We had better get started straight away.

As Don Henley said, sometimes success can be every bit as disconcerting as failure. Of course, he wasn't talking about his solo career.

[Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult]

Of course I would take the title.

But I reject the premise. And the evidence is Sat in front of you, post Dubai.

You know why we didnt win the title that year? Because pre Dubai we played game management crap and took 40 points from our first 20 games.

The year before we were far too loose and open but with a smaller and inferior squad we still hit 85 points. Exactly the same as this season.

The choices you present deliver an obvious answer. But I reject the choices.

You and I have different memories, p. {And I do defer to your greater understanding of the game. I just like players with cannons on their tits.}

I thought we tried a whole new MF with Dec and Kai and it didn't really work. Then we bought back Wigwam, moved Dec into the GX spot and played Kai up top and started banging them in.

You say it's game management crap. I remember a different formation.