Will we win the Premier League

[Percy McCarthy]

Or as Jonathan Liew put it graciously in his column, 'Aston Villa, lol, give me a break'. That's nice.

He predicted 9th for us in the Guardian pre-season podcast.

[Monty]

Or as Jonathan Liew put it graciously in his column, 'Aston Villa, lol, give me a break'. That's nice.

He predicted 9th for us in the Guardian pre-season podcast.

Rather incredibly he says his first team is Spurs and his second team is Arsenal:

https://thesetpieces.com/interviews/vox-in-the-box-jonathan-liew/

Which is odd!

[Meanwood Villa]

Or as Jonathan Liew put it graciously in his column, 'Aston Villa, lol, give me a break'. That's nice.

He predicted 9th for us in the Guardian pre-season podcast.

Rather incredibly he says his first team is Spurs and his second team is Arsenal:

https://thesetpieces.com/interviews/vox-in-the-box-jonathan-liew/

Which is odd!

North London forever!

[paul_e]

Or as Jonathan Liew put it graciously in his column, 'Aston Villa, lol, give me a break'. That's nice.

He predicted 9th for us in the Guardian pre-season podcast.

Rather incredibly he says his first team is Spurs and his second team is Arsenal:

https://thesetpieces.com/interviews/vox-in-the-box-jonathan-liew/

Which is odd!

It should be odd but it's not particularly surprising, he's always come across to me as someone who fills the "what if you made an AI football fan" niche. All of the knowledge of the game and loads of fancy words to talk about it but no soul or real understanding of what football means to most fans.

[Monty]

Or as Jonathan Liew put it graciously in his column, 'Aston Villa, lol, give me a break'. That's nice.

He predicted 9th for us in the Guardian pre-season podcast.

Rather incredibly he says his first team is Spurs and his second team is Arsenal:

https://thesetpieces.com/interviews/vox-in-the-box-jonathan-liew/

Which is odd!

It should be odd but it's not particularly surprising, he's always come across to me as someone who fills the "what if you made an AI football fan" niche. All of the knowledge of the game and loads of fancy words to talk about it but no soul or real understanding of what football means to most fans.

See, this is unfair I think. He's written really well about the way the game is being taken away from normal people, being mined for content and all of that. Which makes these occasional lapses into the entitled megaclub fan all the more frustrating.

[algy]

If we won it then it would be nowhere near as big a shock as Leicester.

No, of course not.  But there's only them and Blackburn since 19929/3 season that've won the league but don't belong to a very exclusive set of clubs ... and Blackburn had the Jack Walker money* at that point.


* obligatory point that Jack Walker was a Blackburn supporter who made his fortune in Blackburn, so IMO was entirely justified in spending a huge wadge of money on the club he and a good proportion of his employees supported. He's quite different from say Abramovic or Mansour who no way would've been idolising Dennis Wise or Nicky Weaver when they were knee high to a grasshopper.

[paul_e]

Or as Jonathan Liew put it graciously in his column, 'Aston Villa, lol, give me a break'. That's nice.

He predicted 9th for us in the Guardian pre-season podcast.

Rather incredibly he says his first team is Spurs and his second team is Arsenal:

https://thesetpieces.com/interviews/vox-in-the-box-jonathan-liew/

Which is odd!

It should be odd but it's not particularly surprising, he's always come across to me as someone who fills the "what if you made an AI football fan" niche. All of the knowledge of the game and loads of fancy words to talk about it but no soul or real understanding of what football means to most fans.

See, this is unfair I think. He's written really well about the way the game is being taken away from normal people, being mined for content and all of that. Which makes these occasional lapses into the entitled megaclub fan all the more frustrating.

I'll bow to you on that because I don't read any of their stuff anymore but every time I see articles linked from him or Wilson they give the air either only giving a fuck about 6 clubs or not really understanding that being a football fan involves, at times, being irrational and being hypocritical. Ronay annoys me less but he doesn't seem to do so much football anymore and does have a habit of trying to be a bit too clever at times.

[Garyth]

As you (Drummond) wrote, we've kept improving season on season since Emery came in, to the point where if we're honest this season a good proportion of our supporters would be disappointed if we didn't make the Champions League now.  That's a huge leap in a short space of time since we had Gerrard in charge.

When you take a moment to think about it, it is truely wild how quickly champions league expectations have been normalised for us.

I genuinely now think that the only way I'd accept failing to finish in CL places (from where we are now) would be if we won the Europa League - and even then there'd have to be some pretty good mitigating circumstances.

[paul_e]

As you (Drummond) wrote, we've kept improving season on season since Emery came in, to the point where if we're honest this season a good proportion of our supporters would be disappointed if we didn't make the Champions League now.  That's a huge leap in a short space of time since we had Gerrard in charge.

When you take a moment to think about it, it is truely wild how quickly champions league expectations have been normalised for us.

I genuinely now think that the only way I'd accept failing to finish in CL places (from where we are now) would be if we won the Europa League - and even then there'd have to be some pretty good mitigating circumstances.

Is that increased expectations or just being 10 points clear of 5th after 22 games though? I'd be disappointed because it'll mean we've had a really shit last 16 games not because I think we're entitled to it. It would mean Brentford/Chelsea/Man U/Newcastle gaining more than half a point on us every round of games which, in reality given their own performances, would mean us losing 8 or 9 of those games.

[eye digress]

I think he was joking.

At Villa's expense, though.

Like I'm not offended or anything. I just found it quite strange to have a pointless swipe at an underdog.

He's usually very complimentary about us. I assume it was meant to be self-deprecating, along the lines of "the outcome that seems least likely may well be most probable", but written in such a way that the unassuming Gooner would just walk on by...

Edit: in other words, he is jokily describing the sense of entitlement among Gooners that many on here rail against.

[eye digress]

Or as Jonathan Liew put it graciously in his column, 'Aston Villa, lol, give me a break'. That's nice.

He predicted 9th for us in the Guardian pre-season podcast.

Rather incredibly he says his first team is Spurs and his second team is Arsenal:

https://thesetpieces.com/interviews/vox-in-the-box-jonathan-liew/

Which is odd!

It should be odd but it's not particularly surprising, he's always come across to me as someone who fills the "what if you made an AI football fan" niche. All of the knowledge of the game and loads of fancy words to talk about it but no soul or real understanding of what football means to most fans.

Read his write up of the Bayern win and, if I recall, the Preston game last year. Great writing and insight, and a lot of respect for the Villa and understanding of our potential.

[Monty]

Yeah I don't think he dislikes us particularly or anything. I'm sure if we were top he'd be doing loving write-ups of the miracle, whatever Wilson thought about it. I just think we've gone from fashionable-to-like to fashionable-to-dismiss, as the discourse tornado howls round faster than we can keep up with.

[Sexual Ealing]

^^Is the Bayern one where he describes Rogers as a 'spinning machete of a player' (or similar)? Great line, that.

[eamonn]

When he did go see us play at Preston, Liew was more interested in the pies he could stuff his face with..

[eye digress]

^^Is the Bayern one where he describes Rogers as a 'spinning machete of a player' (or similar)? Great line, that.

It really was!

If I recall, the thrust of that article was that we should be more ambitious and the best is yet to come.