From William Marshall : Why?
You weren’t so far off, Leicester showed Arsenal and every possession side what they are sadly lacking…….speed of execution and lack of fear.
Where Arsenal, City & Man Utd delay on reaching the final third because of fear of losing possession, Leicester don’t hesitate to put the ball forward or across. It also helps that they have players forward in anticipation of this.
QED. You’d think, but try telling that to the Arsenal players.
11 v 11 Arsenal would not have won that game.
They’re still a flawed, flaky side, huffing and puffing their way through a season that should be a stroll.
I’m a fan of the Alternative premier league table which is a par based system and is a great post-match euphoria/despair anitidote.
Current Standings:
Leicester -7
Spurs – 11
Arsenal -13
Man City -15
Southampton -20
Man Utd -21
West Ham -22
Liverpool -24
Some info from the RAWK forum where it is posted
There are nine relevant scenarios
1. Win at home (par)
2. Draw at home (-2 on par)
3. Lose at home (-3 on par)
4. Win against easy teams away (par)
5. Draw against easy teams away (-2 on par)
6. Lose against easy teams away (-3 on par)
7. Win against tough teams away (+2 on Par)
8. Draw against tough teams away (par)
9. Lose against tough teams away (-1 on par)
(DanA)
For those of you who are new to the APLT, or those who need a reminder of the model, the APLT makes an assumption that in order to win the league title, a team needs to win 90 points for the season.
This can be achieved by winning all home matches, the seven ‘easiest’ away matches (the three promoted teams and the 14th-17th ranked teams from the previous season) and draw the 12 remaining away matches. I refer to these as the ‘par results’. As in golf, par will be achieved more often than not, but sometimes points are dropped or gained in relation to par. (prof)
http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=322215.0
From Phil Brune
Hi Myles,
A couple points on last weekend’s game:
1) The Vardy pen: I saw it as a question of two angles. Vardy was running straight at Monreal, and then he pushed the ball to the side at say a 30-degree angle. If he wants to play the ball, he would FOLLOW the ball’s trajectory at the angle he played it. Instead, he keeps running straight, over Monreal’s out-stretched leg. I think that makes it a ‘coming together’, or whatever you Brits call it.
1a) Mahrez skinned Monreal so badly on the one, the foot he expected to be there was mostly gone, and so he dove.
2) Kante was splendid, for the ground he covers mentally, as well as physically. I’d put part of Ramsey’s clunker – and make no mistake, a clunker it surely was – down to being mostly man-marked by Kante. Speaking of Ramsey, Schmeichel was aided in beating him to the long ball by the ghost of Shawcross.
3) Agree that Alexis was off, too. He got run down from behind on a dribble, and his movements didn’t seem to generate as much speed/separation, or precision, as usual.
4) On Vardy downward header that Cech saved, in the buildup Ozil watched Albrighton run right by him.
5) Centerback Morgan was remarkable. He covered all kinds of ground, and made numerous massive blocks.
Good game all told.
From Richard Q :the best is yet to come (I hope!)
Bad news is Arsenal are still playing below average and are still struggling to score (41 in 26 league games isn’t exactly ‘vintage’ Arsenal), perfectly evidenced by their difficulty in breaking down Leicester just this weekend
Tthey were ‘lucky’ in the sense that they were playing 10 men for nearly half the match, which was the only reason they managed to score as many as two. I think this is what you meant by lucky.
Cannot stand how slowly the game transitions if it goes through/anywhere near Ramsey. He’s no natural replacement for Cazorla (although I do think the one-footed Wilshere can be).
Good news is that Arsenal won’t struggle to score forever, and will should start to play better as we go through the run in.
Can’t see how they can play much worse (wasn’t impressed by either of their last two wins).
Arsenal are in the mix and, contrary to belief, I don’t think they’re actually too bad at this time of year, Wenger has previously managed good runs of form when it matters.
I certainly don’t see the same upward potential for Spurs or Leicester.
Do I see Spurs maintaining this form until the end of the season? No.
I change my mind almost hourly about who’s going to lift the title. I wish it’s Arsenal who do, but I’m still not entirely convinced. I just know they should from here, and that’s what will probably piss me off the most.
How do I support Wenger if Ranieri lifts the title??