Gooooood morning! I’m a bit late to the party today, football is exhausting sometimes, so is writing, tweeting and, podcasting. If I were on Facebook pre-2010, I’d have a text status update that said ‘Humph’ because that’s the sort of attention seeker I am. Talk about first world problems, right?
Arsenal finished the season by absolutely spanking a shocking, shocking Everton side. The scoreline wasn’t flattering, but the goal haul did maybe take the edge off our goalscoring issues this season – but let’s not gloss over the truth.
I’ll be using this incredz article for info.
Without those 5 peachy goals, we’d have finished 8th for goals scored behind United and West Ham. That fact doesn’t distract from the reality of our season, 4th was largely lost for two reasons, the main one being that we didn’t score enough.
I know I am all over the place with xG, but again, but here is my reiteration of when I will use it:
xG + eye test + context
The eye test is that we need a big boy upfront, and the above table is the context.
Our expected goals has us top 4. What is the context for us not matching our xG? We played half a season with a striker in massive decline, we spent the next chunk of the season with a striker that couldn’t score goals, then we finished with a 22 year that started 8 games and hauled in the most goals of all our strikers this season in the Premier League.
Then add the context that we had the 4th most shots in the league and were ranked 12th for conversion. Again, we have a young team and shooting accuracy under pressure is generally a skill that develops with age. Don’t believe me? Look at the top 20 scorers in the league late season and tell me how many are 24 or under. Not many. Look at Robin Van Persie goal stats at Arsenal, he only scored 15 or more goals 3 times in 8 seasons, despite making more than 30 appearances 6 of those seasons. That was with a squad with seasoned vets, in a league that was far, far weaker than the one we live in now.
Now look at the top open play chance creators in the league.
How many of those guys are 23 or under? How about 25 and under? The youngest players in that illustrious list outside our boys are 27 years old. Why does that matter? Because it tells you our kids will get better and we’re on the right path with regards to creativity.
Then we land on this list. Someone was digging me out on Youtube that they had listened to a podcaster debunk the myth of age being a factor when judging a season. Let’s knock that on the head right now because if that’s your view, it is a dross one, that wouldn’t stand up to scrutiny at any level, with anyone who works in football.
Let’s talk about why we are going young.
Firstly, there are two ways to build a super club:
- Spend outrageous amounts of money – City / Chelsea
- Grow a team of young players with a top coach – Liverpool
Even though City are a gross club, but they have a sustainable approach to the game. They have one style of football. They buy young players at the top of their game. They don’t cycle through a new coach each year, because stability is cheaper and better for success. Boom and bust managerial appointments might be seen less and less at big clubs, particularly with Chelsea moving on from Roman. It’s expensive and with each new manager you have a new list of players they want and coaches they don’t have. City are well run, one of the best, it’s just unfair they can do it with a states wealth funding a smart model
Arsenal don’t have an option on #1.
We could have a crack at buying a load of 27-year-olds that look like Champions League players, but by the time a project makes a big tournament, they have to rebuild anyway because those 27-year-olds are 30.
Big clubs want to move to sustainable models with their football operations, you want to be able to get to the top, then sustain it without mega cash outlays. You also want to make sure that when you do get to the top, you have young enough players to have a Liverpool like spell of success.
We have to take a longer route to the top. Our strategy is a simple one: Buy the best U23 players in every position or bring them through the academy, give them the best coaching possible, keep them at the club by progressing on the pitch, then when you make Champions League, your 23 yrs olds are 25/26 ready to bang and compete for years like Liverpool and Man City.
We are at year one of that project. You can say Arteta has been here 2.5 years, you can say he’s on borrowed time, but the truth is he’s here on year one and the graph above shows you how young we are in comparison to the teams doing the business right now.
Age is a factor. Yes, it’s our choice, but I’ve explained why it’s the only choice. Our young players experienced a lot of new things this season. Firstly, playing with each other, this is a new team in which 5 new players ended up being first-teamers. They had never experienced actually competing and the pressure that came with it. They had never experienced MEGA attention, some didn’t deal well with it… youtube, Twitter, Instagram follower counts blowing up, media expectations, fan expectations, international call-ups, new sponsorships. If you don’t think these things have more adverse impacts on younger people, honestly, you have no clue what you are talking about and you should step out of the conversation.
The final rip from this article is this nugget.
‘Arteta made just 63 line-up changes over the course of the Premier League season – the fewest of any manager.’
Lots of people are looking at the Spurs signings as the key difference between 4th and 5th, that is the defining narrative. But that assumes some things: that there was a player we could have definitely signed that was a difference-makers long-term and we passed on them.
Arteta is the greediest manager in the league, if there was a chance to do something big, he would have. We bid for the most expensive striker in Europe, that is proof intent was there if the talent was.
For me though, the biggest miss of the season was squad management.
Could William Saliba have been a better option than what we had? Could he have stepped into right back?
Could AMN have been treated better and made our 2nd choice right back?
Could we have been better about rotation with players like Tierney, Partey, and Tomiyasu?
Could we have found more goals if we’d given Eddie games from September?
The answer to all those questions is unknown, but I’m inclined to believe that they are all better bets than suggesting Wout Weughorst was a January transfer miss.
The things we messed up this season were not abstract notions of silver bullet players, they were sitting on our payroll and we totally botched the mix.
I say totally, like we didn’t win 22 games (4 short of what we did in our Invincible season), and rack up 69 points. We can all talk about what didn’t happen, but however you cut it, we missed out on a 4th place by 2 points that would have been good enough for 3rd the last two seasons. Spurs spent £70m in January and invested £20m in Antonio Conte… they also had the two deadliest strikers in the league, 28 and 29, who started 35 and 37 games, respectively… a feat that will likely never happen again, certainly not with CL next season, because they are both injury-prone and Champions League games in the early stages require big players. They also ended the season with Own Goal as their 3rd highest goalscorer, they were very, very lucky.
Spurs are a matter for another day, but their fans are in for a rude awakening, especially if Mbappe hires Conte this summer.
I would take where we are in our journey over what they are about the endure next season.
We have the most exciting project in Europe.
We have the most united fanbase we’ve ever had in the post-Highbury era.
Our path forward has never been clearer.
If we get this summer right, we are going right the way back to the top, so mark it on your calendar now.
Ok, now listen to our end of season podcast. It gets a bit spicy, Johnny and Matt were a bit sad, but I perked them up. Enjoy, thank you for being with us all season, we have PLENTY more to talk about this summer. Big Love xxx
Hello
2
3
4
5th…fitting.
TA6
Arsenal need a top coach for option 2 to materialise. Is Arteta that guy? next season will tell us for sure.
Nice post Pedro. What gets me excited is the fact that nearly all arsenal journos and bloggers etc who go to the emirates and away days say they have never seen this level of unity and support from the fans since highbury. It’s easy to get down on Mikel and the project- there is plenty of meat there if you want to make that argument. But that argument exists on social media only. Gone are the days of Wenger getting harassed outside of Stoke’s ground and the toxicity of the Emirates. That is step 1 to any worthwhile project and… Read more »
Over to Mik and Edu to get us the reenforcements we need, to shift on the deadwood and returning loan players, and to win over big Willy Saliba. Fingers crossed
Hopefully Arteta will continue to grow and learn as well. He is certainly hasn’t escaped this season without some question marks – particularly with squad rotation and his game plan against Spurs. He’s going to need to learn how to squeeze more out of the lemon next year.
With the World Cup being played in the fall of this year, I’m intrigued to see how teams cope with the schedule crunch/pile up. Instead of going 2 weeks between match days in Europe, teams will be playing back to back weeks in Europe competitions, and I imagine the Carabao Cup will be played the weeks there isn’t a European match. We could have a stretch where we go Saturday-Thursday-Sunday-Thursday-Sunday-Tuesday/Wednesday-Saturday. That ends up being 7 matches in 21 days. Either we end up playing our youngsters way more, or we really need to build up the squad even more than… Read more »
Just looked, and the Group Stage matches for the European competitions will be finished before the World Cup starts. Those are some high intensity matches to be going back to back. There’s a possibility that one of City/Liverpool/Chelsea/Spuds could have a stretch where they played Barca-Arsenal/Man U/West Ham/Another of the 3 English Champions League Teams/Dortmund/Some combo of English Team in Europe in a 2 week period. That would be draining.
I mean to piggyback off of Pete…Spuds could go Real Madrid/Arsenal/Dortmund/City in 2 weeks. Are Son and Kane…or anyone for that matter…staying at 100% for that?
Now its all about what we do in the transfer window. Pleasant surprises?
Interesting read , I agree with you mostly that stats don’t lie, my disappointment this seasons was that we lost too many games as compared to draws. We lost over 10 games and drew less than 5. Its shows our maturity in games sometimes and these are things you get over time. I was happy we weren’t bullied into buying anyone in the January window just so that it will make some fans happy. I agree we should have handled the ANM situation better but it’s all part of the learning process for Edu and Arteta. What they should do… Read more »
It would be interesting to see what percentage of Odegaard’s 66 created chances are from the 5 yard pass out to saka who then cuts inside and has a shot…reasonably high i would imagine as his big chance creation is a meagre 6 for the whole season.
Have to say xhaka and Odegaard are the masters at the simple 5 to 10 yard pass out to the flank, very intelligent play as it will always increase their possession stats and in Odegaard’s case increase his chance creation stats…
The failure for top 4 was largely poor squad management. We really missed AMN and Chambers. If MA can bring in necessary reinforcements, then top4 will be a given
Pedro, why are you still pretending that the loan market doesn’t exist? Taking a striker on loan was a no-brainer, it’s not a big financial outlay given that often the loaning club only pays part of the player’s wages and any loan fee is usually minimal. Certainly any cost would have been recouped many times over if we’d have scored just one or two goals in critical games. And I’m not sure that what constitutes a ‘chance created’ if Bruno Fernandes was ten clear of everyone else by that measure. Like you said, the eye test is important too, Fernandes… Read more »
My main concern is if we don’t make top 4 next season I feel some of our best players will be tempted to leave. That’s why this season was such a disappointment. So Pedro is right in the kids will improve but will they still be with Arsenal? I have my doubts as the others will all improve especially with the ability to attract better players due to champions league.
I don’t see much unity in the fanbase, more a worrying acceptance of mediocrity has seeped into the ground
The youri tielemans rumours are heating up get the lad in he is very good
In a nutshell, the Club is heading in the right direction, it’s the only sensible way for Arsenal to go, patience. pays off. Talk of any other option is either idle chatter or wilful sabotage.
Pierre “It would be interesting to see what percentage of Odegaard’s 66 created chances are from the 5 yard pass out to saka who then cuts inside and has a shot…reasonably high i would imagine as his big chance creation is a meagre 6 for the whole season.Have to say xhaka and Odegaard are the masters at the simple 5 to 10 yard pass out to the flank, very intelligent play as it will always increase their possession stats and in Odegaard’s case increase his chance creation stats…” Pierre do you not see the irony in you ragging on Ode… Read more »
Still the same PR from Pedro, about our arrogant manager who acts like he’s at city and rejects using what he has at his disposal. That is and will be his undoing. Also, still looking at spuds while we have a culture of mediocrity growing further than before in our club is negligent. No one knows where they can go from here, we only know when rhe shit got tough, they did what was necessary while our manager moaned and acted like a spoiled brat, not taking responsibility for missing out on top 4. But yeah, they don’t know what… Read more »
Good post Pedro!
Excellent post. Intrigued by your predictions for Spurs fate next season, hope you are right!
It would be a statement of intent if we could get Tielemans done early. Not my favourite candidate for the MF position but if the price is really 25M then it’s better bang for the buck than any other player with PL experience we could bring in.
“We have the most exciting project in Europe”
Debatable statement, but I can see your thoughts.
I know it’s a bit early and things change but
Tielemans
Wijnaldum
Jesus
Nunez
Hickey
Plus there are few bargains out there on frees and cause of relegations. Sprinkle that with young, hungry talents. Would that be enough to move the needle?
Talks of Arsene getting a statue soon. Whatever some fans think. I’d like to see it. Shame it will probably get vandalised on day one.
And remember Aouar is supposedly available for 15 Mill…
Fred “Pierre do you not see the irony in you ragging on Ode for the exact same things that Ozil used to do to fluff up his “chance creation” stats despite having piss poor big chances created stats? Probably not.” Maybe you can’t see the irony of your comment, in that we have paid off Ozil , probably costing 15/20 mil , spent 35 mil on Odegaard who , as you say, plays exactly the same way as ozil played in the latter days of his Arsenal career. So , why waste 50 mil in total to, as you say… Read more »
Of course there is always Eriksen who if he uses his brain will sign for a top 6 side and become
the top playmaker in the division next season..
He may decide to remain loyal to brentford , who gave him a chance after his collapse , which is very commendable but not a great career decision.
‘Year 1’ 😜
This project is in year 1 and I’m still 21 mate 😁
We took the right approach in recruiting young players. Our Trajectory is obviously to a higher level. The unknown thing and the deciding factor is whether Arteta is good enough to coach these players to the level we want to get to. And I don’t buy the narrative that we couldn’t do anything in January though. We could have bought in B. Guimaraes and he is as good as the CM we are targeting this summer in Tielemans. Had we gotten him and a loan striker And it might have been the push we needed to get over the line… Read more »
I would take Aouar if Xhaka left as a backup and rotation option to Tielemans. We would get to a really good level with Tielemans/Aouar Partey/Sambi/Elneny would be an awesome combo of CMs.
Is there hope that we can sign Gnabry? He would be a ridiculous signing. That level of player would get our players excited. He can play from the left, from the right and occasionally fron the center. Our attack would be ridiculous if we manage to sign someone like him..A top winger in his prime. I don’t know how Bayern are losing Lewandowski and the Gnabry on top of that though. Looks like their frugal approach to wages might be costing them.
Has Aouar had a good season?
He’s here on year one… absolutely stunning statement. I see the summer of spin commences. Disregarding the first 2.5 years is just shocking really. And again with the age stuff keep in mind that under the two seasons of Emery it was 26 then 25 in his final season compared to 24 under Mikel so I dunno how it’s enough to save one and not the other.
Pierre I’m not saying Ode and Ozil is the same. They’re also heading in totally different directions career wise, does Ozil even play football anymore? Ozil was always critized for fluffing his numbers in the later seasons for us, while actually not creating many good chances at all, you defended that to the death, but when someone else does it you can’t stop harping on about it, it’s just funny. Ode also does more team work than Ozil ever did. Having said that I wanted Nkunku or Fekir, players that has pace and dribbling through the middle and score goals.… Read more »
My main problem with Ode is that he has almost permanently benched ESR. Both are good players in different ways and both lack a bit of consistency. But I don’t think Ode deserves to be a starter in a huge majority of games over ESR and because esr has been benched so hard his form took a hit
China
Yeah, he should have seen more playing time at CAM.
I mean I know he’s fragile so I wouldn’t want him playing every game but there was no reason why he couldn’t have got some of Odes minutes this season. Gives us another dimension than Ode, something we could have used when not scoring any goals for long stretches.
China1 May 24, 2022 01:24:29 Has Aouar had a good season? He has had an okay season. 8 goals and 4 assists..But the most important stat is he has played well over 40 games. It seems like the big transfer moves didn’t happen and he has knuckled down to play better at where he is at. I would love it if we could get him. I wouldn’t take him as the only starter because he is a volatile player. But if an offer for Xhaka came in, I would sell and bring in Aouar. Tielemans/Aouar would be fantastic. We would… Read more »
China1 “My main problem with Ode is that he has almost permanently benched ESR. Both are good players in different ways and both lack a bit of consistency. But I don’t think Ode deserves to be a starter in a huge majority of games over ESR and because esr has been benched so hard his form took a hit” This too is my main issue with Odegaard at the minute, him benching ESR. I was really looking forward to seeing more of ESR this season after his decent season last year. When we were linked with a permanent transfer for… Read more »
I was hoping it would be ESR + Odegaard not one or the other.
Clearly Arteta isn’t the loyal type hahahaha. Seeing as ESR single-handedly saved his job the first time around. He’s the reason why Arteta was still an Arsenal manager who then go and bought his replacement in Odegaard.
Klopp called his football heavy metal = ESR
He called Wenger’s football an Orchestra = Odegaard
It’s a matter of flavor.
Habesha
I see that el Neny signed a new contract. We will obviously buy a starting CM. Unless lokonga goes out on loan one would think that means Xhaka becomes surplus and can be sold. I wouldn’t mind us rolling the dice on a creative deep lying player like Aouar as long as the price is low and not at the expense of buying an athletic and well rounded CM for the first 11.
But I agree with you that Partey Tielemans Aouar Lokonga is absolutely a nice roster for those deep lying CM positions
this article was the functional equivalent of putting a cherry on top of a shit sundae…as anyone with half a brain can attest, there’s an astronomical difference between physically watching a game and someone describing the very same affair, from a statistical capacity, without you ever having laid eyes on it…how else could one possibly explain how I could watch the exact same matches as the analytics folks, yet somehow my perception doesn’t align whatsoever with your interpretation of the stats they provided…for example, somehow I just can’t fathom the statistical “findings” that state unequivocally that Ode was more “productive”,… Read more »
BigperMay 23, 2022 22:30:15
I don’t see much unity in the fanbase, more a worrying acceptance of mediocrity has seeped into the ground
—————-
lol
Vieira the question I’m yet to see an answer to is what is the criteria for a ‘chance created’ stat to get a +1 If it’s something very arbitrary like a successful pass to someone in the box then it’s not particularly accurate as that could just as well be a pass to a winger on the far side of the box with 3 defenders between him and the goal (ie not a chance). If there can be transparency on what these stats genuinely mean it will be easier to tell whether they carry any serious value. I don’t remember… Read more »
Nice one Pedro, halfway through the pod. While there is no disagreements over the direction taht club has chosen to take this season, but i have my doubts if Arteta is the man to take us forward. Whatever you have listed as lacunas in his management has been time and again repeated endlessly here by many much earlier when yiu refused to hear anything against Arteta. Your assumption taht anyone who talks against Arteta has an agenda is reductive. It’s our opinion and in some cases have been proved right. So iam still unclear as to what is Artetas style… Read more »
One more thing, a club should have a strategy and all other recruitments should be about implementing taht startegy. A well run club is about that and not allowing the coach or.manager to set the strategy and then scratching your head when the strategy is not giving your returns. We did the opiate during Wengers reign and we payed the price by ticking him too long to see if te strategy works. AFC should have a club startegy that is not dependant on managers and should be bold enough to change managers who can work on implementing the same. Hope… Read more »
China, the stats game is a sketchy racket, especially now that the analytics folk have permeated every aspect of American, and now European, sports…it’s clear that this isn’t a stat that discriminates between what might be construed as a pass of some discernable quality or a two foot pass to an open Saka, who then made his way to the box and attempted a shot on goal…in the NHL they’ve started to discern between a primary and a secondary assist, when a goal is scored, so it only makes sense that some sort of equivalent differing measure could be employed… Read more »
offensive focus
After all the talk of a rebuild, it is pretty disappointing for me that Odegaard and Ben White are considered to be building blocks of an XI. Like Gabriel the CB, Odegaard is a decent player. Ben White is bloody fcuking average though
TRVL
We are living now in a world that has coined the phrase “Alternative truths” and that is what Pedro is dishing out at the moment. What Arteta presents doesn’t pass the eye test nor the table test and numbers test that matters test. Therefore in the age of disinformation and misinformation you will be presented with half truths skewed statistics all with only one intent, to push your agenda and proof a loosing cause as the only way forward.
Someone on the blog stated it very appropriately, the AFBs are lining up at the Kool aid stand.
Ironically I love Ramsdale and think he’s a lot better than Leno. We may never get to know if he’s top notch until the defence and midfield get sorted though.However, there is no reason in the world why we pay 30 million for Ramsdale. You’ll have to kill Wenger to make him pay top dollars for a keeper that’s been relegated twice when Onana was available for less than 10 million. Paying 30 million for Ramsdale is a good example of the novices we have running us. Ditto, 50 million for White. In an ideal world you’ll bid 10 mil… Read more »
I think the problem with these stats is that the statistical parameters are being set by statisticians not necessarily well reasoned football fans The definition of things like a chance, xG, xGA and progressive passing etc are all being dragged down with arbitrary measurements and criteria when you could put 3 football fans in the same room looking at the same incident and they all might land at a different conclusion about what they’ve just seen. All these stats are just vaguely indicative of a point and anyone who reads the world into them without using the eye test alongside… Read more »
A ball is smashed across the face of the goal very quickly. A poor quality striker lunges for it with their weaker foot and gets a toe on it and makes contact from just in front of the penalty spot Was that a chance? The ball was really fast. That’s hard to get perfect contact on. He also had to use his wrong foot. We’re there any defenders between the striker and the goal? What’s the position of the goalkeeper? Would an elite striker be expected to score this? This player is not elite. Was it a chance, or a… Read more »
From the Ten Hag interview on MUTV: “Players always dictate the way of play, I will than line up my players so that I can get the best out of them.” Ten Hag then said he now has started year 1 of his project. MBappe stayed with PSG because of the footballing project. For Ten Hag the project started now this is year 1 of his project. Whenever MA mentioned the word project in interviews that was his year 1 and not the BS of year 1 starts after 2.5 years because the project during MA’s first 2.5 years was… Read more »
Cheers Killroy…btw I’ve been using the phrase Kool-Aid crew since last the winter window before last, so ironically it just might have been me you were actually referencing…of course, that matters not, but what does matter infinitely more is that we don’t fall victim to another club-initiated PR ruse, like the stadium one that was meant to take us to the promise land, as that would be an incredibly difficult pill to swallow for a fanbase who’s already jaded and rather divided…Cheers
If Arteta has anything about him, he will use Thomas Tuchel’s dismissive words as motivation to ram them straight back down his throat, but just as Wenger meekly surrendered to Mourinho in 2014, Arteta will prove Tuchel right. Arteta’s Arsenal are beige, bland, unexciting, uninspiring, safe football that demands very little of the more creative players. We are like a tyre stuck in mud, going nowhere fast, and the appointment of Arteta in the first place is an insult and a slap in the face for any Arsenal fan with higher ambitions. City are currently on 8 titles, in ten… Read more »
ESR has much higher goals ceiling than the anonymous cowering introverted unproductive Odegard. Don’t think ESR will hang around much longer given snub. He will be playing for actual trophies at elsewhere.
Don’t be surprised if team Saka ends up at LFC or MC in next 12months as well.
No one with real eyes has any faith in project Arteta. They have seen enough.
Kilroy/Vieira Your posts are a pleasure to read and factual with no bar lowering.
Pedro on the other hand comes from the lowest bar possible full of bravado BS.
Sadly no freebies for relating the truth as it is, but plenty for the bravado BS.
What a funny world we live in as more Walter Mitty’s are born by the day who seem to gravitate to Le Grove to spout pure Arteta bollocks as we’d say in the easy end back in the day.
Time for a break me thinks.
East*
You’re not the only one, Tony, Arsenal have been on an unscheduled noncompetitive break for well over a decade, if they can’t be bothered why should fans continue to invest emotion when it is constantly abused.
Josh Kroenke obviously has an extremely low threshold for what he considers ‘exciting’.
Well Tony you wanted Ten Hag and Overmars in the EPL, well Ten Hag is here just at the wrong club. We will see how he handles United and the EPL and in a few months we will see how he is backed in the TW and then by September we should have an idea if we over achieved this season with 5th. Both us and United have EL, they have more money and obviously not a rookie manager. Since he is also starting a project and year 1 started for him today at the presser we will compare the… Read more »
HerbsArmyMay 24, 2022 07:15:27
You’re not the only one, Tony, Arsenal have been on an unscheduled noncompetitive break for well over a decade, if they can’t be bothered why should fans continue to invest emotion when it is constantly abused.
Josh Kroenke obviously has an extremely low threshold for what he considers ‘exciting
Got to agree with this we have been nowhere for actually more than 10 years we stopped being competitive 2 seasons before selling rvp
Selling him was the final nail in the coffin
The kronkes have made our club vanilla
Kronkes out
If I was managing Odegaard, the question i would ask him is , why do we only see your full range of skills and ability when the team are a couple of goals ahead… To me , it appears that a heavy load is lifted off his shoulders whenever we are a couple of goals in front. We see a player who plays beautifully one and 2 touch football, we see a player who is not afraid to try delicare flicks and tricks, we see a player who demands the ball, we see a player who takes risks with the… Read more »
Ok, great. Looking forward to next season. If Marquinoz comes he can play the europa games.
We must improve AMN and he can be a utility man and a substitute for tiring players in PL games
he has to accept this and I believe he has matured as a character in Italy..
Habesha GoonerMay 24, 2022 00:56:50 We took the right approach in recruiting young players. Our Trajectory is obviously to a higher level. The unknown thing and the deciding factor is whether Arteta is good enough to coach these players to the level we want to get to. We are already at the required level, which is Europa League spot. This is as good as it gets under Kroenkes. Fans seem over the moon with such level of success, so as far as Stan / Josh are concerned, this was super successful season. Mediocrity has been celebrated. I mean, the crowd… Read more »
I don’t get it the kronkes are worth billions
Why buy an institution like Arsenal and do mediocre things when others buy shed clubs (at the time ) like Chelsea city and now Newcastle and do absolute wonders with them
Newcastle in 3 season will be above us pushing for honours
Mr Serge
Remember those “Second Half of the Season” stats from 20/21, much used to show us Arteta’s progress?
Well, here’s the “Second Half of the Season” table for 21/22. We’re ALREADY behind Newcastle.
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/premier-league/formtabelle/wettbewerb/GB1?saison_id=2021&min=20&max=38
“Why buy an institution like Arsenal and do mediocre things”
Easy
Arsenal makes $$ with minimal effort.
Liverpool makes $$$$ but with great effort.
Chelsea makes -$$$$$$ but gives the owner bragging rights (and likely to do some washing)
City is a national PR project
Ditto Newcastle
Man United – makes lots of $$$$, the bosses work hard but still a dud.
Is our fanbase so united? Every Arsenal fan I talk to is either arteta in or out or on the fence.
And here is the season minus the first 3 games https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/premier-league/formtabelle/wettbewerb/GB1?saison_id=2021&min=4&max=38 Covid at the start of the season was unfortunate but if we are being honest, the team went into the season unprepared , especially if you look at our pre season results and performances. Without covid, we would probably have lost to chelsea and city anyway, and Brentford away with an unprepared team would prove to be a difficult game. If Arteta is to learn anything from last season , it is to get the tactics and system and a first 11 sorted and ready for the first game… Read more »
” I say totally, like we didn’t win 22 games (4 short of what we did in our Invincible season), and rack up 69 points.”
4 short of what we did in our Invincible season.
Come on bruh?
We always start the season shit like we are not ready for the tempo or something
I say this a lot but changing Arteta means we have to get it right when hiring a progressive manager to drag us up from our bootstraps our board have no clue who is out there I garantee this
Sir chips ?? Vinai ?? Josh ??? All football novices
Where are the Arsenal legends to advice these guys ??
Other clubs have them front and centre where are ours ??
Nowhere as the kronkes do not want to be told the way
Lol MB I smiled at that stat too
We won 4 fewer games than the invincibles*.
Take out that magnifying glass for the fine print
Fine print: *but lost 13 more.
”We have the most exciting project in Europe”
Lol good one, really good one.
Also we have a squad packed with 3/4 exciting youngsters and an array of very average players.
Kinda crazy. In 38 games we only drew 3. We either won or lost basically every match. Even with no additional wins (which we should expect) just drawing a handful of the worst defeats and we’d be tied 3rd right now. One of the interesting things about this team is that we tend to either be good or bad and are not often in the middle. A very large percent of the defeats we terrible defeats. Either batterings against good teams or embarrassing results against poor teams Meanwhile we won some games you might not have really expected us to.… Read more »
The weird thing about the age of the squad being an excuse is it wasn’t for wenger. Wenger was hung drawn and quartered on this site for not winning things with project youth 1.0. And that project youth always made the knockout stages of the CL each year, got top 4 or higher in the league and played some wonderful football.
But this project youth is acceptable as an excuse
You nailed it Pedro. We didn’t score enough goals and didnt buy a striker in Jan. It cost us dearly. In my view he has to get CL next season or the youngsters might leave. There is no long term project its all BS. Whether we have the resources to buy and challenge is another matter.
Pierre
Would you start new season with Eddie leading the line?
Dissenter would.
Nketiah is 22 years old and again people talk about him like he’s a 17 year old puppy.
He’s either good enough to be first choice stater at striker at 22 yo or he isn’t.
None of this potential talk.
So Arteta is in his first year at Arsenal then really.
Lots of angles and takes to give him plenty of seasons ahead to “achieve”.
HerbsArmy
If Arteta has anything about him, he will use Thomas Tuchel’s dismissive words as motivation to ram them straight back down his throat, but just as Wenger meekly surrendered to Mourinho in 2014, Arteta will prove Tuchel right.
—
Did you expect Arsenal to compete for the league under Arteta?
Let me tell you for free now. Arsenal is not getting top 4 next season if Arteta is the manager. No matter who we buy in the transfer window.
Don’t understand the longing for Tielemans tbh.
He’s rated really for what he can produce at times in the final third but I’ve seen him described on here as very juicy for deep lying CM.
I wouldn’t see him as an enforcer or absolute controller of a midfield.
”Long term project” It’s 2022 and some seem to think modern day footballers are interested in some long term thing. Players and managers are playing and coaching rival teams now. Most in the game with ambition will leave at the first offer of a bigger wage and a realistic chance of winning silverware even if they don’t get as much game time i.e.Grealish to City. I hope we focus more on getting more ready made players and not some more whom we’d need to give another 2 years to acclimatize and all that wishy washy stuff. Not like our current… Read more »
A 5th place of course better that 8th place. A4th place would have been even better. Season 22/23 will be different without doubt all clubs will be looking to recruit and yes improve. Until we know what names are lined up as incomings we haven’t a clue how teams will line up but in truth at Arsenal for me it’s pretty clear that the nucleus of next seasons team is already in place and yes there will be a couple if incomings in terms of starting 11 but I suspect that others will be cheaper younger players who will be… Read more »
Also not really sold on Tielemans, looks a really soft touch anytime i see him, plus he’d be in the middle with Xhaka and Odegaard seeings as Partey is imjured half the time and that would be such a soft spine through the middle
Batistuta
“Looks a really soft touch anytime i see him”
Exactly the vibes I get from him as well when he isn’t up in the final third doing his cute things.
Terraloon
“Xhaka. Vastly underrated. Sometimes you just don’t appreciate what you have got till it’s gone.”
Like Champions League qualification through league placing.
Off topic, but what the fcuk happened to Heat last night?
Bati How many times have you seen Tielemans though? He isn’t a soft touch at all. He is more of an offensive CM than a defensive one, sure. But he isn’t poor defensively either. Kulusevski who you didn’t rate at all just smashed the league too. You are very harsh on players. Anyway, there are rumors from the athletic that we are in for a Left sided center back apparently. I would be very annoyed at Arteta if any center half comes in from now on. He is blind if he can’t see the potential in Saliba. And we need… Read more »
“Gone are the days of Wenger getting harassed outside of Stoke’s ground”
Dani Venga,
Well that’s not particularly true.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/arsenal-news-mikel-arteta-fans-24815856
The above incident happened outside the Emirates last August when we lost to Chelsea. In reality, the mood in the stadium is only as good as the most recent batch of results.
Saliba does not want to play for Arteta and probably Arteta does not want Saliba in his team. OM are ready to make an offer for Saliba with Mr Clean himself likely to send the fax.
Wenger and Fergie, two dictators whose empires have decayed. But still have their dedicated idolaters.
IAT Robbie “In reality, the mood in the stadium is only as good as the most recent batch of results.” Yeah like all football fans. We know how thin the ice is with this we back Arteta malarkey. Pedro stated at least three times this season just gone that Arteta was in a death spiral and of course is seen as one of Arteta’s main cheerleaders. The ones showing undying love for Arteta at this time will be just as quick to get the knives out for Arteta if it goes pear-shaped as those that are not as enthused by… Read more »
Arsenal emailed yesterday announcing their new season ticket rates. The new prices include
a 4% increase . The rates are of course based on what we pay to see games in Europa Cup and not Champions League.
Considering that prices have not been increased for several years and the discounts during
the pandemic I think that the club is fair.
No doubt the critics of Arsenal and the Board will have different opinions, but most of these
people do not go to the Emirates.