Here we are, the final game of the Premier League 2018/19 season has arrived, and with it the sad realization that we are nearing it’s inevitable end (in Baku) and then a football-less summer with a perpetual supply of transfer gossip beckons. But before all that excitement…
Good day one and all.
Arsenal is at Burnley this afternoon hoping to end what has been a campaign full of highs and lows with their heads held high.
They go into this fixture having failed to win their previous four league games (D1, L3) which all but ended their top-four challenge. However, all is not lost as the Europa League provide an alternative route into next season’s Champions League, after cruising past Valencia on Thursday night to book a spot in the final in Baku on the 29th May where they will meet London rivals Chelsea, who secured their top-four place already.
Meanwhile, Sean Dyche’s side will be happy to have secured their top-flight status for another season after a terrible start to their campaign. They won just two of their first 15 league games but an impressive run between Christmas and February made all the difference in their turnaround. However, they’re winless in their last three games (D1, L2) and will be hoping to sign-off in front of the Turf Moor faithful in style.
Now, the Clarets are often referred to as “plucky” but there’s nothing valiant about them. They’re a cheating, cynical, time wasting and nasty bunch who loves taking chunks out of their opponents. We can only hope that Mike Dean, who Shotta revealed to be “the firmest and most resolute referee this season”[1], does himself justice and keep a handle on the game, because with the crucial game in Baku on the horizon the last thing we need is for our players returning to London having left bits of themselves behind at Turf Moor. If I may add, with this the season of goodbyes and the final round of league fixtures without VAR, I hope we bid farewell to our dear friend Mike too and may he land on his feet.
In the pre-match presser Unai Emery said he’ll look closer to the game at changes from the side that did duty in Spain, but he also said he expect Burnley to be “very tough”. Which does not say much but I do hope we at least see an attacking and motivated approach, because there is a permutation that if United win and we finish 6th on the log, with Watford doing the unthinkable in the FA Cup finals, our holidays could be cut short… and we can’t have that! So here’s hoping there’s no Europa hangover and we record our tenth straight win over the Clarets.
Oh boy! The curtain draws on this Premier League campaign. Smell it. Drink it in. Remember it. Because it will only be next August before we experience it again.
[1] uniteforvar.com/?p=2000
@LaboGoon
***
Positively Arsenal 
everton lead 2-1 at spurs
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Looks like thats it for City.
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now spurs are level 2-2
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Aubameyang misses a sitter, how many times have we said that this season, despite all the goals he scores.
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That would have been the golden boot…
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Peter Crouch on for Burnley,
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liverpoool 2-0 up, Mane again, which mean he, salah, aguero and Aubameyang all on 22 goals for the season,
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seemingly if more than one player is level as top scorer then it comes down to minutes per goal
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if the others dont score, Aubas got it.
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now saying it will be shared.
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I see Barnes was let off that push off the ball on guendouzi as already on yellow, then goes and scores. Wonder what would happen to one of ours
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city have won the title
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City have won it.
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Mills I would not be surprised if they change the rules if Aubameyang was to win it
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PEA fires over the bar
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utd lost 2-0 so Arsenal finish above them
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LCFC v CFC the only game to finish goalless
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we just fucked up a great chance with a poor pass
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Eddie..og?
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3-1, Eddie is claiming it but it may be an OG
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City won it as many here said that they were going to last August. The only danger to them coming from the PGMO but the generous support of a sovereign wealth fund can help to offset the Mike Riley handicap.
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Thats it. Well done City. Arsenal should have been bloody third, but we will see next year. A watershed summer awaits as does Buku. COYG!
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FT: Burnley 1-3 Arsenal
Aubameyang x2 and Nketiah with our goals, Barnes got theirs, we finish 5th, 1pt off 4th and 2pts off 3rd, a league season that could have be oh so much more,
Think Aubameyang wins the Golden Boot even though he is level with others, but he has best goals per minute ratio.
Roll on the Europa League final, a win there and its been a very good season, lose and its been little to shout home about.
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if watford win the FA Cup final, then man utd would have to play EL qualifiers, starting July 25th.
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thankfully Liverpool’s cheating and diving did not get them the ultimate reward of winning the BPL, would have been a disgrace if the PGMOL Game Managers antics had won them the title
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Well done lads. Any away win welcome these days and Burnley no doubt made it tough.
Hope it was an Nketiah goal not og.
And…let’s try not to think what might have been with better results in recent weeks. (wouldn’t surprise me if reffing picked up a bit once we were out of top 4 running)
After having to ‘support’ City in league, now got to switch to supporting Liverpool in Champions league. Urgggh.
Anyway, excited for our final
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Ed, they signed out with an offside goal as last of season though. So fitting.
Must have hit 15 or so if stats floating around month or so back were correct
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we scored one goal less, conceded the same 51, but got 7pts more than last season, the same 70pts and goal difference we finish this season with would have actually seen us still finish in 6th last season
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I hope the 3rd goal remains given as an Nketiah goal, it would be his first BPL goal of his career.
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Duncan Alexander
Verified account @oilysailor
54m54 minutes ago
The last three times a PL team has been top on Christmas Day and not won the league:
Liverpool 08-09
Liverpool 13-14
Liverpool 18-19
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Nice to sign off with an away win. I’m trying to resist the ‘what might have beens’ and accept the ‘what it is’. I choose to remain optimistic that we can build on the good points of this season.
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thankfully we still have one game left to make this a good season, if we win the EL final it will have been a good season, as any season you win a trophy and qualify for the CL is a good season, if we don’t win the final then this season will have been as bad a season as the last one was. Really hope we make it a good season.
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Orbinho
@Orbinho
3h3 hours ago
Konstantinos Mavropanos coming off during the first half means that Unai Emery has broken the Premier League record for substitutions before the second half begins with 28 (Watford 27 in 2006-07)
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Nice last day in the league season, and congratulations PEA. But serious work still to be done.
An amusing end of season for Utd, wonder of they are regretting rushed, pressurised decisions?
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Lets hope the Zubbizareta links were bollocks ey.
Marseille have spent a lot by French football standards and look to be all over place. Getting torn to shreds late on vs Lyon. no european football next year
on cue : tv mentioning him, saying he is under fire and may not be here (Marseille) next season
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I will have to watch the game again before I do the report. So hold your horses.
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I see Emery says Arsenal will likely go to Baku on the Saturday before the Final, and prepare out there for 3 or 4 days
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If it’s Zubizaretta Rich, that would lead them open to reports of Raul cronyism.
Really hope they are, as they have said, doing everything to get this appointment right.
All I read is Edu now, but you never know
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“Really hope they are, as they have said, doing everything to get this appointment right”
I hope so too!
Checks the record from the past 18 months. Notes the silence of the Sports Communications lambs regarding Raul Sanlehhi for the bulk of that period. Underlines the note from Ozil’s agent with yet another masterful example of top top top Sports Communications but worries again: why is one of the world’s the top footballers having to brief against certain people at his own football club!!! Not above anyone’s pay grade to make this simple and easy observation: Unless you are one of those merchant bankers who was paid to pump out the Ozil and Ramsey can’t play together meme.
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Clarification:
Ozil’s agent just blew some of Raul’s planned Sports Communications for the Summer out of the water.
The Gunner’s agent didn’t mince about and has targeted his artillery right atop of Raul’s hole.
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Mandy,
I’d be worried if Zubizaretta had been seriously considered, as it really looks to have gone poorly at Marseille, but, who knows, could have been pure paper talk.
Their signings/ team building intriguing to me because the logic looks quite sound : strong, tough, big spine, with 2-3 creative players up top.
It sounds a very decent, if conservative and not too imaginative, plan, and I’ve been drawn towards that sort of thinking myself plenty over years. Luis Gustavo certainly a name I’ve thought of as a possibility for us, and i reckon many would have thought Strootman a good bet.
Anyway, has failed badly. Not watched them enough to know why. Sense the chemistry is just wrong or something.
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we scored one goal less this season than last season, but had the best conversation rate since records began in the BPL in 96
Orbinho
@Orbinho
2h2 hours ago
Arsenal scored with 21.5% of their attempts this season – the best conversion rate of any team in a single season in the Premier League since Opta began analysing the competition in 1996.
*excludes blocked shots
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Ed ^, what that mean is that we have less shots on goal than previous years?
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Gianluca Rocchi is ref for Europa final. Very familiar face so am guessing he has been operating at CL/ International level for a few years now.
He did the Utd Barca game recently (where Smalling got away with smash on Messi, and things became difficult late on as diving increased a lot)
Also was our ref for away leg at Atletico last season.
Noticed something interesting when having quick check on him : despite being one of Italy’s best, number of games he does in Serie A each year is normally around 16 (highest 18). How does that compare to how many our busiest ones do?
I read years back that Italy had, in response to scandals, set out to increase number of refs- to the level it was stated initially the new PGMOL would have- and limit amount any one ref could do. Wouldn’t surprise me if they also have a cap- maybe 3 or 4- on amount any ref can do with a team in a season. All common sense measures.
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There we go, lowest in our top ten refs is 24 games. Highest is Taylor with 32.
Gigantic difference. The influence- good or bad- one of our top refs can have on a season is nearly double that in Italy.
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Maximum in Bundesliga was 17 this year, in Italy 18. Maximum in any of the other big four leagues i looked at is 22, ie lower than lowest in our top 10 used.
They all have similar ideas, presumably with the same rationale behind it, of a sensible way to do things. As with our decision to go it alone with use of VAR- no pitch side checks- we seem to see it in a unique way.
Why do we/Riley feel the need for such specialism in the league? It’s not about our refs being better than elsewhere in Europe, or at least Uefa/Fifa really don’t think so
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It’s about the grittish refs not being southern woofers or foreign pansies?
I hope that the above is not offensive to anybody but such ludicrous speculation is where we’ll all end up if we ignore the financials when discussing the collapse in the standard of English referees.
Who pays the wages of these self declared professionals who act like no other body in their profession? It is actually same people telling their listeners “the Arsenal don’t like it up em”?
Not.
Even.
Subtle.
The only bottlers in Arsenaldom are the Billy Big Blaggers who don’t have the footballs to call it like everyone can see it.
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the Transfer Window opens this Thursday
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Transfer window-that’s all we need, lots of overhyped, hysterical,agenda driven reporting to look forward to, and then we can all slag off Stan/ Emery or maybe even still wengers fault when we don’t sign Mbappe.
Know we need and will no doubt buy some players, but it all gets too much some times. Just hope some part of next season involves blooding a few youngsters, of course we do t see training but some give the distinct impression they may be close to ready
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