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Originally Posted by Stezagud
I think you could be reading too much into it, for example if you look back to last season Utd beat all 3 of Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal at OT and got 2 away draws, only losing at Stamford Bridge. That would be a good record and yet that year we were nowhere near Chelsea in the league (due to dropping points vs the lesser sides) and went out in the CL group stages!
This season the younger players are more adept at breaking down teams who come only to defend, and this is taking the pressure off the bigger matches.
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you do have a point steza, but referring to a dif season is a whole dif mix, I think. For instance, when ManU got those positive results, were they still playing in CL or were they able to concentrate exclusively on EPL and fight for 2nd spot? How about the other teams they beat ... were they still fighting in CL or did they have only EPL to worry about?
If you ask me, compoaring two dif season won't take us anywhere as there are two many variables and unknowns to take care of, although on paper it looks like a straightforward comparison.
I could give it a try though
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Pool under rafa seems to be focusing on CL mostly and the same could be said about Arsenal last year - all in all, both teams didn't have EPl title in mind once Chelski ran away in the points and all they cared about was CL and within first 4 in EPL, at least until they were still in the CL, that is.
Also, Pool last year were pretty bad in Europe - their worst under Rafa - although they did very well in EPL - their best EPL record under Rafa, I think - but all in all the team seemed to have a CL hangover and left the CL thru the back door early on (for me, reason #1 for their pretty good EPL ranking).
Above all, however, Arsenal plain and simple focused on CL and almost missed the train for this year's CL because of that. They did do great in Europe but it has to be noted that Wenger forgot about his flair-loaded football and after close to 10 years finally "changed" his entire approach to the team's tactics in Europe - they were much more defensive, much more patient, their game was more mature so to speak ... this however was not the Arsenal in EPL where they were still the good old Gunners of Wenger's dreams of open-space football, which with the young players on that squad was often an easy target for the opponent - hence their average not to say bad EPL season last year.
Chelski themselves had a pretty average CL last year too - I think their worst performance in the competition under the guidance of the special one (not sure about the stats, though).
So, all in all, it really depends on what was the form of those other teams - Pool, Arsenal, CHelski - when ManU got those good results vs them.
This year, both Pool and Chelski are performing very well in CL and EPL (this is true for Pool in the second half of the season). Arsenal were also good in the group stages but for some reason - too many injuries maybe - their season fell apart after the Christmass break in the CL. When they beat ManU, I thinkthey were still in their "good period" though.
As for why ManU went out of CL so early but did very well in EPL, I am not sure how they performed, but I think they picked up their form in the second part of the season and made up for their errors earlier in the EPL ... of course, they were already out of CL by that time ... however, again, I am not sure how much of a "proof' is their good record vs the other big teams in the EPL as all of those had a subpar season for their standards, especially in Europe (apart from Arsenal, who however were plain bad in EPL).
Told ya - too many variable and unknowns, too many IFs ... best is to keep it within the frame of the current season, me thinks, because that's what's relevant here
