You can hardly call it an anomaly, then. If they are doing the same thing other teams are doing, then why is it an anomaly? I think you just unpacked their succ

You can hardly call it an anomaly, then. If they are doing the same thing other teams are doing, then why is it an anomaly? I think you just unpacked their success fairly well for a single sentence. I could just say "Get better players, play hard". But saying we can't learn anything is just false, considering there are teams that aren't doing these things and are successful, and teams that aren't and are not successful. Crystal Palace lacks any sort of pace or attacking threat, despite having a number of skilled, creative players. Manchester United have arguably better players, but are tactically limiting them by insisting on possession based football (or at least were until about 2 months ago) rather than a counterattacking approach. Clearly if it was obvious, all teams would be successful, no? Saying we can't unpack their success is the Big Sam school of football tactics, it's all just instinct and good ol' English grit and longballing, nothing else to say.