There were three English teams in Champions League action last night and all three picked up impressive wins. Good for the co-efficient, terrible for Mediawatch.<\/p>\n
We can\u2019t even pretend the reaction to Arsenal beating Atletico Madrid 4-0 is overblown, can we? They absolutely did display their Champions League credentials, and there is nothing we can do about it.<\/p>\n
Luckily, there is still some nonsense out there. There somehow always is.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Does that make me crazy?<\/p>\n
Mediawatch feels slightly bad now for having a pop at The Sun for an oh-so-topical reference to the Crazy Gang when discussing Manchester United yesterday<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n At least there it was just a throwaway line, albeit just mortifyingly out of date to those of us who know that the best and most topical references are obviously 30-year-old Simpsons quotes or lyrics from songs that to our horror we\u2019ve just checked and discovered came out nearly 20 f*cking years ago. But definitely not 40-year-old football ones, is the point here.<\/p>\n A point that must now be reiterated because over at the Daily Telegraph<\/strong> Jason Burt has taken that Crazy Gang line and really, really, really run with it after Arsenal produced a thumping 4-0 Champions League win over Atletico Madrid<\/strong><\/a> that obviously simply screams mid-to-late 1980s Wimbledon. They were always up to that sort of thing, those wacky maniacs.<\/p>\n \u2018Crazy Gang\u2019 blow Atletico away to put Arsenal in Champions League dreamland<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n We\u2019ll leave it to Football Cliches to decide whether anyone can truly ever be in \u2018Champions League dreamland\u2019 three games into the low-intensity league phase. It\u2019s the Crazy Gang we\u2019re interested in.<\/p>\n Set-pieces, long throws, a big old No 9 banging them in from close-range and now cold showers. Mikel Arteta is turning Arsenal into a kind of blue-chip, luxury version of the Crazy Gang.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Is he, though? Is he doing that?<\/p>\n Not that Wimbledon ever played like this or achieved this kind of top-class result as Arsenal made the kind of statement performance that will resonate across Europe.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n That\u2019ll be a \u2018no\u2019, then.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s all about you<\/p>\n A fun game for us all to play. Let\u2019s start with this headline from the Mirror.<\/strong><\/p>\n Diego Simeone aims thinly-veiled dig at Liverpool after Arsenal humbling<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n And now your challenge. Which clever sausage can guess how many times Simeone mentions Liverpool in his thinly-veiled dig?<\/p>\n Oh. You all got it right. We thought that might be harder.<\/p>\n By the intro, Simeone\u2019s thinly-veiled dig has become a \u2018slight dig\u2019 and finally, by the time his actual quote is revealed, a statement of the bleeding obvious.<\/p>\n For what Simeone has done, and this really is disgraceful, is say the Arsenal team that just thrashed his Atletico Madrid 4-0 are the best team they\u2019ve faced so far this season<\/strong><\/a>. And who else have Atleti faced this season? That\u2019s right, Liverpool. Who beat them 3-2 via one of what were at the time their trademark late winners. Very weird for Simeone to think the team that beat his team 4-0 is better than the team that needed an injury-time winner to beat them 3-2. Definitely something sus there.<\/p>\n For full transparency, the wildly out of control Simeone has also with this shocking comment aimed subtle and thinly-veiled digs at: Espanyol, Elche, Alaves, Villarreal, Real Mallorca, Rayo Vallecano, Real Madrid, Eintracht Frankfurt, Celta Vigo and Osasuna.<\/p>\n\n
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