Pity that both Pool and Sprs have such walkover groups. Can't see Napoli troubling Pool and Bayern have been pretty s**t lately. In any case, Sprs are nearly guaranteed qualification in their group.

There's such a big gulf these days you can be guaranteed Group A to E top 2 teams is almost certain to qualify. Boring

BWoolley wrote:

Pity that both Pool and Sprs have such walkover groups. Can't see Napoli troubling Pool and Bayern have been pretty s**t lately. In any case, Sprs are nearly guaranteed qualification in their group.

Napoli came within inches of kicking Liverpool out last season, same points and GD only the number of goals scored were the reason they went through. This ridiculous hype around Liverpool is to be expected by the rabid English media not by Arsenal fans

We also played Napoli though - they were pretty poor.

If there is any team that is hyped it’s Napoli. The Spurs of Italy, haven’t won anything meaningful in years and were shit v us last season.

Yeah they were piss poor against us but good enough to push PSG and Liverpool until the last minutes plus finished 2nd comfortably in the league. I'd say thats overall a better indicator of quality than two games out of 50

I think they're a terrific side too. They just lack that star power a little bit after selling so many players in recent years. A decent comparison would be Atletico before Simone took over.

Well, we'll find out soon enough but it's not enough to use the Group Stage as benchmark for quality, plenty of teams that have started their campaigns slow end up going a fair distance in knockout tournaments. Plus - while you're right that Napoli finished comfortably second in the Serie A - they also finished well behind the eventual winners. Meanwhile, if we're talking about Liverpool being lucky in the group stages then they were arguably equally unlucky to not win the Premier League - not that I agree with either assertion, I just don't see how you can hold one view without the other.

Let's not forget the Invincible's lost two and drew one of their first three CL games before registering the greatest win I have ever seen.