That is of course according to everyone other than fans of Arsenal.
Barcelona sit top of the Spanish equivalent of the Scottish Premier League with 62 points, their nearest rival is Real Madrid who are on 57 points. In third place is Valencia on 47 points. Yep, just like the Scottish PL, the La Liga is a two horse race.
They have scored 71 goals, Real Madrid 53 goals. Ronaldo and Messi are the league’s top scorers so far, both with 24 goals and David Villa is next on 15 goals.
We sit second in the English Premiership which in most peoples opinion is the hardest league in the world to play in, the best league to play in and that’s why so many players move to England and for the money of course but the Premier League is not just a two-horse race every season, not anymore and right now there are five teams still in with a chance of winning it and we are one of them.
The highest goal scoring side in the PL is Manchester United with 57 goals and we sit second on 56 – ok, we may not be scoring as many goals as the Barca’s and Real Madrid’s but I’ll ask you this:
Discounting Barcelona and Real Madrid,
Does La Liga have teams with great goal keepers?
Does it consist of teams with great defenders and defensive units?
Does it have teams with top managers who can get the best out of their side each game?
Would Messi and Villa score quite so freely during this current PL campaign?
I don’t think the answer is yes to any of the above and that’s why it’s easy for them to score so freely in La Liga, I bet even Nikki B could score regularly in Spain 😉
Barcelona may be able to boast the best defence in La Liga but in my opinion but they don’t come up against really solid defences week in week out as we do here in the Premier League.
The pundits can sit and admire Barcelona from afar suggesting that they are so good they won’t keep on missing chances against us, they also need to realise that we missed a few good chances that night too, just as we do so often in the domestic league but one day those chances will start going in.
I hope we show that on March 8th 2011 in Camp Nou. Then every tiny minded football commentator will have to stand up and eat a huge chunk of humble pie and give credit where it’s due!
My, that would hurt them wouldn’t it…….
I want to play for Arsenal, they are better than us.......
Don’t forget, we’ve been playing well away from home this season, I’d even take a 4-4 draw 😉
Have a good day all……
morning…
Morning ricolicious, and everybody else of course,
Hope your all in great mood this morning, its absolutly Hissing down here hope its better where you are. Good post again rico,you dont have to convince us rico we know how good we are, and as far as the rest who gives a fcuk. Well no game today, so as the news stated yesterday the biggest game of the weekend is Utd v Crawley, well i never Shrek against bugs looks like gardening in the rain then, what a load of crap, Arsenal youth must be playing somwhere that has to be more interesting, just watching the Barca game again, its half time and i’m waiting for the second half to start, i may just keep playing the second half all day, fcuking luv it ha ha
Morning Steve, it’s hissing down here too, horrid…
I’m going for a Crawley shock today when red nose plays the under 16’s and gets thrashed 🙂
That would make my weekend rico
And mine Steve, i’d laugh my socks off for the week 🙂
Love this 🙂
JACK WILSHERE begged his Arsenal skipper Cesc Fabregas to ask Lionel Messi to swap shirts with the midfield whizkid.
Wilshere, who starred in Wednesday’s Champions League 2-1 win over Barcelona, was too frightened to approach the Argentine maestro at full-time.
Fabregas posted on his team-mate’s Twitter feed: “Can’t believe I had to get Messi’s shirt for u. U were so scared. You were MOTM so next time please ask urself!”
Morning all, do u still wake up with a smile I sure did.
I even sing ten nil to the Arsenal, in my head of course 😀
Your ahead of your time rico, superb
Sing it out loud Stef makes you feel even better
Hi Stef, for sure i am still smiling……
I may have whispered it or sang with a yawn 🙂
Theo’s folks have split up….. 🙁
didn’t know your retweets turn up in comments, look at your rico
rsd ??? you mean the retweet earlier…..
About Arselona :P, some of our players say that Barsa were tired in the second half or after the hour mark.
B52, Nasri and maybe some1 else too.
Point is Arsenal play in a more challenging league where u play for 90 minutes and more with full intensity(or at least try too) as in the first 15th, maybe that’s why they(Arsenal players) need to be more fit.
Are EPL teams is the new Germany from 70s when they beat the teams physique off course today’s tempo is faster then then.
So it’s seems EPL will still dominate Europe quite sometime.
Rico, Theo has split up with his girlfriend? Or something else?
Theo’s parents Stef, thay have spilt up…
Sorry to hear about Theo,
Cesc could be a helping hand, his parents split when he was still at Barca, and he showed he had spirit by coming here, Wenger helped him, and Cesc has never forgotten that. So if you cast your eyes over these Blogs Theo, were thinking of you son.
Nice comment Steve….
Morning guys.
Top class entry young Rico.
In answer to one of your questions, I don’t think Messi would survive in a league filled with Stoke, Blackburn et al. Skill wise, he would own the league but managers like Pulis would tell his players to give him a “welcome to the league” tackle every time he was on the ball.
Oh and to answer your first question. Yes.
Hi Will, thanks – i don’t think they would survive either, what was the first question?
I know, its in the heading 😉
New roundabout plans in Romford for 2013…..there’s Frank Lampards new job!!!
Oh morning all!!
Yes it was and I think my thoughts on our taking of chances is well documented.
Morning Rocastle – poor old Frank 😉
Will, I know, surely one day they have to start taking all the chances, i hope its 8th march…
Go Merse, Go Merse 🙂
We can not continue to create 15-20 chances a game and score 2.
We can’t, but one day they will go in – i’m not so confident that anything will change within the so called second string though…
hiya guys..just a quick one i have to go be a daddy for the day 😉
interest post..
its very true but like you say they missed just as many as us and we did actually out shoot them
we had 7 shots on target they had 5
we both had 3 shots off
we had 4 corners they had 1
and for all there possession they only had something like 25% of it in our third we had close to 40 in their third..
as long as we play the same in the nou camp and restrict them to denilsons we’ll outscore them again..
enjoy your day my good ppl…il catch you all later hopefully and come on crawley.. 😉
I have said it before and I say it again, we need a clinical striker. I know we are scoring more than a lot of sides but we could have that Barca aura is we are scoring on average 3 a game.
Barry Hearn…
‘Arsenal are one of the best teams in the world but we are the beat team in Leyton’
🙂
The most difficult thing is in creatin chances, something we are uually quite good at! In van persie we have a clinical finisher, in Arshavin we have a clinical finisher, same applies to Nasri, Theo etc.
WE will score at the camp nou, the key will be the defence, not attack IMO. And koscielny played brilliantly on wednesday and there ought to be a lot of haters eating aload of humble pie, but I doubt it.
I saw it, have to give him A for humour but as long as we don’t do an Ipswich, we should be fine.
I loved it Will when their manager said he was off to look at our VT from the barca game to learn something – but thought he’d be frightened….
we’ll bury them easy tomorrow…
Didn’t we say that about Leeds and Ipswich?
I don’t think I did though Will 😉
Just watching Dowd get a decision spot on, booking a chav for diving – i recall Van Bronk getting a red for falling over in the box against the dippers i think….
we still won and it was the little ref with ginger hair who sent him off….
Hi Dexter
I think we’ll do it, the match has a draw written all over it… I hope we can get the away goal very early on though… then we can hit them on the break….
Paul Durkin i think it was…
Dexter, they are not clinical.
How many chances to we create to how many are on target to how many we score?
I keep believing it will happen one day….
When it does all slip into gear, one team is going to get battered.
Barca Will….
I hope so Rico but I am not jinxing it.
What will be will be out there and there is nothing we can do about it… its out of our hands….
True but I am superstitious.
I guess you won’t be watching the away fixture then Will? Mind you, I hope you don’t spend it where you did for the home tie…
According to the CL stats we were the most clinical team in respect of shits per goal.
And thats a fact dude! 😀
Every striker has a purple patch where they score almost every game, but it doesnt last. Torres is quite clinical at times, but he hasnt shown it for most of this season.
I think Theo has it in him to be clinical, same with van Persie.
Haha! Thats shots per goal! WE were bottom of the pile for shits per goal!
Will, will you be sat croosed legged, fingered eyed etc in a darkened room hoping we prevail?
Dexter – it doesn’t seem that way though, we miss so many….
and in the PL we are worse…
‘shits per goal’ 😆 😆
rico
Phil dowd showed he isnt averse to making a good decision on he chav dive. Pity he wasnt so good for us vs Toon.
Dexter, I may not even watch the game, that is how bad I am.
Rico, I hope not as well.
If we dint create chances I would be worried about tha. That is the hardes thing to do, in football. We could score more and vs Wolves we shouldve had a few more for sure.
Will mate. Thats some heavy duty shit man! I am terrible if I have to watch a game on TV.
Dexter – not just wolves….. if we converted half of our missed chances we would be clear at the top by now….
Yeah Dexter, I am not talking CL, I am talking PL. We need to convert half the chances we create. We would have won the league by now.
chavs and everton 0-0 extra time….
didn’t realise that i thought it was a replay….
good, no replay for us either then…
Let’s look forward people, never look back, no regrets and all that! The ost important game is the next one dont you know! 😉
We need a good showing against Leyton.
We just need a win mate and no injuries. That will do for me. Being a few goals up and able to rest a few would b nice though!
forgot – this is already a replay, what a chump i am…
dexter – it still frustrates though….
You stay frustrated then rico! You’ll only give yourself indigestion or something!
van persie’s got something like 11 goals in 8 matches or something this calender year. Thats not too shabby.
won’t give me any ilnesses thats for sure, just we can do better – wenger always says he wants the team to improve, well that is one way they can… by being more clinical in front of goal….
where do you normally blog dexter??
Dont really blog anywhere TBH. Dip in and out, if Im home. Got a killa hangover today so Im stoppin in! Why you ask?
I read quite a few though
No real reason, just me being nosy 🙂
Arsenal were very solidarity, had an excellent match, although the match could have been resolved in first half. Much has been said and I will not add much more. Perhaps no one has said, but the scores of the four games, the advantage of playing at home and was almost zero in any of the games, one of the teams share the lead for the 2nd game. My opinion of AW that Barcelona is still the favorite but I believe we can be in the next phase.
La Liga is more level than the Premier League. Indeed, there are two clubs that dominate the last 10 years, although in the last 25 years, Valencia, La Coruña, Bilbao, Rela Sociedade … have been champions. The big differences are: the Champions League (where Barca and Real are always present and will usually far away), sports broadcasting rights (the money getting transferred to these two clubs are much higher), merchandising, number of fans, rivalry historical and regional levels, etc.. In the Premiership, I think if Abramovitc has not appeared, Chelsea would be equivalent to the WH, just as the Citizens would not be where they are. For I reckon that Liverpool and Spurs are two sleeping giants. It remains to MU and Arsenal are two giants, who have enjoyed the Champions League. Without foreign investment (and it happens by the notoriety of league media …) maybe if I had in recent years and future, a duel-MU Arsenal in the English League. I think that is what Arsenal have more fans in London, followed by Totenham and Chlesea, but a long distance (and many from the latest hits). In this “club” of 6 (Arsenal, MU, MC, Totenham, Liverpool and Chelsea) supporter for their strength, I think only Everton, Villa, Newcastle and Leeds, if they could join with foreign investment.
Finally, a championship “mixed”, I think that on average, eight teams would be English and 12 Spanish. Next post, I can explain why.
I’m afraid of the Orient …
Haha, fair do’s.
And the ip address Dexter 😉
Hi Joaquim,
Good comment as usual, you say you are concerned about Orient, why?
1-1 at the chavs – last minute of extra time…
Penalties 🙂 Come on Toffees
Ha, nice one Baines.
I think IOrient will b up for it tomorrow, probably a good thing we are away from home. should mean the players are well up for it.
Could see a few changes tomorrow, not too many though i hope.. Will be Diabys last one out won’t it, is he fit again yet??
Come on Everton.
JT, where are you, you have to take one ……
CASHLY COLE 🙂 🙂
Chavs knocked out 🙂 🙂
Nice.
Could the mancs now join them, could this be like the CC run??
norwich 1-0 down…
The chavs season just gets better and better.
Are the spuds still in this cup ?
seems not….
Ha! I thought you were bein ironic rico! They are having their best season by miles and old twitchy is a genius.
Did anybody notice how Barca were so confident of beating us, that they couldn’t be bothered to do their homework on us. Any team in England from the top to the bottom who do their homwork, have noticed that if we have a weakness its the highball over the top,they pack their defences and play a big guy up front and that has caught us many times. But Barca never did that, they tried to play through us at every opportunity. I expect a few hoofs tomorow though.
Yet have not been in contention to win a single thing all season.
Ha ha Dexter, i was actually being serious 😉
I don’t think they will even get 4th place in the PL, they’ll be too wrapped up in the CL…
Steve, th LO boss has said they will do the dirty rough (fair) stuff if needed…. 🙁
Worst case scenario this season, the Spuds win the CL.
We have a few that can be tough, if thats the case rico.Depends who he fields.
They won’t win that Will i am sure, i think they will get very close but i can’t see them winning it…
i think 6/8 changes tomorrow steve, don’t want to see that many but i think wenger will be thinking about stoke and the cc final….
The spuds will go out against Milan. Even tho AC are quite literally shit.
Orient are afraid of the consequences of the WH move after the olimpic Games… it must show something. However, we have 2 more important games next week. At he end of the season, we must compare the matches playing.
Yes, chelsea is knock outand now, the TV broadcast Birmigham. No chances for SW.
Fist worst case: a London team, except Arsenal, reach the final in Wembley.
I can see a lot of changes too rico. We play sunday and tuesday dont we?
A few need a breather and some of the fringe playersneed some game time.
I’m hoping to see Chamakh back upfront and in attack!
Henri has scored the equaliser for Norwich
You think Milan will get a result at SHL then Dexter, i hope so…. especially after all the comments in the week
Yep Milan to win 2-1 rico.
I am looking forward to seeing lansbury in the Arsenal 1st team next season. Really impressed with the lad.
JM, i agree the CC Final and Barca are important but I love the FA Cup and hope AW plays a side that can a win, i believe we need to play each game as it comes and take it seriously, winning breeds winning….
I worry about Chamakh Dexter, he’s recently said he’s struggling with the PL and is exhausted….
Don’t get me on Henri Lansbury, I love him….. I think he will spell the end of Denilson….
We need to keep winning. Every game you wins makes winning the next game a little easier.
Chamakh will be fine, he will get used to the rigours of the Premier league alright.
Next season we’ll have Lansbury, Ramsey, Wilshere and hopefully FRimpong in the 1st team squad. That could well push one or 2 out.
Spot on Will
Dexter – don’t foret we have Coquelin to come back too, he is having a great season on loan and in midfield – and Bartley…
I only worry for Chamakh this season, once he gets used to the vast pace he settle well, we can’t forget he was thrown in at the deep end because of injuries and did himself real proud….
Things are heading in the right direction, thats for sure….
I honestly think we will have the deepest and most feared midfield in the PL next season.
I can see Cesc staying as well.
I havent forgot about Coquelin rico, or bartley! 😀 Coquelin can play right back too, which will make him even more useful. With bartley coming back we will have strength in depth in every position.
Agree with both your points there Will.
We have listed the midfield before but of we just do the first team squad.
Cesc
Nasri
AA
Song
Jack
Ramsey
Diaby.
Its sure looking pretty good…..
Seeing as you have all left me alone, i’m off for dinner…..
Had to watch it rico,
Even in a game like this the ref is still iffy
Ah, Steve – just emailed you…
you watching the mancs?? I am…
Had to,still hoping
I am watching the mancs match a bit.
Rico, Sorry about useless question earlier on i didn’t ‘his’.
—“Finally, a championship “mixed”, I think that on average, eight teams would be English and 12 Spanish. Next post, I can explain why.
I’m afraid of the Orient … “—
Joaquim, I can’t see the Spanish teams dominating No way in hell. Maybe Barsa and Real will be top 4 but the others really?
that would have been better than shreks o/h kick, what a shame steve…..
they have played with great heart though
Well they did not deserve that….
if they had a proper striker steve, they would have won that game….
mme… bit like us 😉
Hope our games not as tight
The mancs just proved they have cack behind their first team, we have some fantastic players coming through…
i honestly believe that a side with denislon and nikki b in it will still be enough to go through…. nikki is spouting on about sorting his future out in the summer, well tommorrow i am sure he will start, if he can’t do it against LO, then he hasn’t got it imho….
I actually wish diaby was available…
The future looks Rosey i must admit, and we hav’nt hat to spend Millions. I bet Romans got the hump
My mate has just txt me,( a man u fan) he said you can have Bepe on a free, i said no thanks you keep him,
I bet he is well cheesed off – and don’t we love it… when you think about the money they spent to get that shower of rubbish…
and we… well, hardly nothing and we are ready for the next ten yesr with afew tweaks here and there…
would you want many of that manc side steve, let alone bepe…
i thought their new keeper had one heck of a long kick on him….
Imagine spending 50 mill a fortnight or so ago, and still not a goal in sight. and i thought we did well with Adebayor at least he got his own back
Thats me done for the day – off to pay full attention to dance for Comic Relief – check out Russell Kane, just so so good……
Night all, catch up tomorrow…
Night Steve…
Ah, like Torres – I’d be furious Steve, i’d just rather we paid 10M for another CH…. Only to replace Squilli in the pecking order….
I bet he dosn’t end up as No1 though rico, they will spend i think,
Nte nte
I read that Drogba and Anelka are on the clear out list in the summer so you could be right steve….
Def off now night night …..
monrning – new one up