How this team is the best ...

Grande

team we've ever had: Comparizon of results against the top teams at home and abroad earlier years.

2006/07:
(Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Roma, Milan)-----W-D-L: 4-1-5
2005/06:
(Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Villareal)---------------: 3-4-2
2004/05:
(Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Lyon, Milan)------------: 4-3-5
1999/2000 (runaway season):
(Arsenal, Liverpool, Leeds, Lazio, Palmeiras,
Vasco da Gama, Fiorentina, Valencia, Real Madrid)----: 7-4-5
1998/99 (treble!):
(Arsenal, Chelsea, Leeds, Barca, Bayern, Inter, Juve)-: 6-12-1 !
1967/68 (Best/Law/Charlton):
(Shitty, Liverpool, Leeds, Real Madrid, Benfica)-------: 5-1-3 !!
1956/57 (The Babes):
(Tottenham, Preston, Blackpool, Dortmund,
Athletic Bilbao, Real Madrid)-------------------------: 4-5-3

And now for this years results so far:
(Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Rome, Lyon) ------------: 9-2-0 !!!

And the goal differances:

Best-Law-Charlton 15-12
The Treble 28-23
This year 20-4 !

That is some amazing record agains top competition. Analysis, please!

pillory

Something is wrong here.

20le_Solskjaer

Brilliant. keep this up and we'll win the double!

Ixion

Comparing results against Roma & Lyon (this) to Barca, Bayern, & Juve etc (Treble) isn't exactly a fair comparison. I think the Treble side only losing once to that line-up of sides you've listed for 98/99 is a more impressive record to be honest.

Although that said our record this season has been amazing.

Frosty

Statistics reveal as much as they conceal.

Dippersripper

This team won't be considered better than the 99 team unless it wins the Treble .

Cold_Boy

true.

A1Dan

Maybe not in terms of "folk-lore", but if we were to win the premier league and champions league this year, I know I'd have to think hard about which team was better, as would many others, I reckon.

BahamaRed

I think this is the best squad we've ever had. And they're still so young. In the coming years they'll be untouchable.

Mainoldo

We've played Roma and Arsenal more than twice!

pillory

There's one game missing, a 1-1 draw (the GD should be 21-5). My guess is the pointless group stage draw in Rome.

Simon Adebesi

Also, can Liverpool really be called a "top team"?

I may need to consult my dictionary about the word top. If it means team battling it out until the last day of the season for 4th spot year after year then I have obviously been using it incorrectly in sentences for years.

Kleberson

should be 10-3-0 we played roma 4 times and arse in the fa cup

goal difference i got 21-5

Grande

The Arse Cup game is in. I didn't count the draw in Rome, as they didn't field a top team (neither did we).

Grande

That's what the dippers say about the league table by the end of each season.

Grande

I can't see why. Runaway runner-up twice in a row in Serie A doesn't stand back for Inter and Juve at that time. They missed Totti, but Inter had a half injured Ronaldo - and gave us a lot more trouble than the romans mustered this time around.

It should also be safe to say that the quality of Englands 2nd, 3rd and 4th team is markedly higher in 08 than it was in 99.

This is not to say The Treble is at all touchable this year. It was a magical feat. But what I dare say, is that this team/squad - as compared to the rest of the world - might be the strongest we've ever seen.

Scoring 20 and letting in 4 in 11 matches against arguably World Top 15 clubs - I don't think it's done that often.

Ixion

You think Roma of today compares to Juve of 99? Juve had gotten to the Champions League final the 3 previous years (and the UEFA Cup final the year before that) before we knocked them out. They were the best side in Europe, Roma aren't even close. And being runners-up in Serie A doesn't mean much the last couple of years after the corruption scandal and the consequences of that, Serie A was the standard back then and knocking out Juve & Inter was a much better achievement than beating Roma this season.

As for the 2nd/3rd/4th place teams in the Premiership, well that is debateable too. the Arsenal team of 99 were class and had won the Double the year before, that Arsenal side were better than the current lot. And well, Liverpool are shite this season.

Gazza

I remember in the first half of the first leg against Juve in 1999 they outplayed us at Old Trafford. We were quite lucky that night. And their team at the time had Zidane and Davids at their peak, and Deschamps, Conte and Di Livio too. That makes the comeback in Turin all the more incredible. Totally different to the Roma legs, although the performance in Rome was pretty impressive in itself.

Grande

I won't argue that this is a bigger acheivement for a team, by no means.

What I say, and which is something different, is that it indicates more quality in the team. And the opponents are comparable.

You can't say Juve was better back then cause they showed it in Europe and Arsenal was better back then cause they showed it at home.

Fact is, this season we've met the CL winners from 05, finalists from 06 and 07 and semifinalists from 03, 05, 06, 07 and 08. It doesn't get much tougher than that.

Chris H

We've got three, possibly four games remaining against the top sides. Personally I'll wait until after we've played those before I'd say "best", but it is quite a record we've amassed this season against the top clubs.

Now if we could just beat fecking City...

Grande

They're just too massive for us.

Still, what remains is that we've been in another league for the top games compared to the last couple of years.

If I'm to come out with an opinion, it's two-fold.

1) Carlos Queiroz. A long time now I've hated the way I'm convinced he's advocated 4-5-1/4-3-3 particularly for these games. In my opinion, it hasn't worked, and it hasn't looked good either. Now it works! We scrape wins (1-0 at Anfield) or we dominate brilliantly (3-0 vs L'pool, 4-0 vs A'nal at OT). This might have something to do with ...

2) Carlos Queiroz. After a period of getting in just the wrong players for SAF type of football (Veron, DD, Kleberson, Miller, Smith), we are now consistently getting in just the right players for Queiroz type of football (Ronnie, Roon, Carrick, Nani, Anderson ...). Expensive young players with ball controll, passing ability and a footballing brain. Not unlike Veron ... It seems to me we are now choosing players to fit into a style of play that we are going more whole heartedly for, and which is more Barcelona than Tommy Docherty. Of course, Carlos is too inexperienced a team builder and man manager to pull this of without ...

3) Alex Ferguson. He has always been brilliant to take inn good people and use their ideas. Now he's found someone to fulfill his ambition of being solid also in Europe, and he makes it work once again. Sign of a genius.

Chorley1974

You raise a good point.

Raven_Blade

I think its very difficult to say this is the best team we've ever had. There have been so many great players. But it is easy to say this is the best squad we have ever had. The quality of players in every position in unlike anything ive ever experienced.

RedKaos

We lost 2-2 to Arsenal?