I'd you think Arteta is the right man for the job then you deserve whatever grief this club brings your way. Again, for the thousandth time, the bedwetters were correct, all our fears have proved to not be unfounded. Where does the club go from here?
What was the point of keeping Butler- Oyedeji on the bench against the Hammers?! This kid (aged 22) must be really crap if that cripple, Sterling is preferred to him, surely? Or rather, Arteta in his infinite wisdom, thought that one of the worst players ever seen at Arsenal, Sterling could do a job? Why? All Sterling does whenever he appears is run around to no effect, pass when he should shoot and vice versa. He can't run, can't do anything but trip over himself and keep giving away stupid fouls which eats up more time. Inspired substitution once again, but Arteta said he "trained well in the week!!!" Unacceptable.
Mr Serge has no answer either, the Arteta groupie. Whose fault was it that he shod 4 attacking players in the summer and bought Calafiori and Merino to "replace" them?!
Can't be arsed even watching them anymore, the club clearly don't give a fuck about wining just getting CL every year. If they gave a toss we would have at least two world class forwards, until that issue is addressed there's no point watching a team thats not even remotely trying to compete properly. It's like a boxer fighting every week with one hand tied behind their back...useless
Whilst watching the Leicester and West ham games I found myself thinking if some magic miracle occurred and we did win the title this year it would’ve felt pretty fraudulent
We’ve been iffy all season. You want to get over the line feeling like the best team in the land, not stagger over the line as the least disappointing team which we were threatening to do
City collapsed badly. Chelsea are poor. Newcastle are meh. Utd and spurs are banter. Liverpool have been good but for us to come above them would’ve required a pretty shameful collapse as well
So if we had won it would be an ‘ugly’ title unlike the last two seasons where we were legit great but sadly just not quite enough
It’s a bit like when wenger supporters would point to our second placed finish in the Leicester title season as some kind of indicator of progress from us when in reality we got a low 70s points total which was a bog standard 4th placed expected tally and only came second because ALL the big teams were trash that year
I want to feel like we’ve earned the title not blagged it. No hope left of that since the turn of the year when we have been as turgid and tepid as ever for the most part
An article from today’s Times Newspaper. Is this the club testing the waters on selling a key player?
GARY JACOB
Could Arsenal sell William Saliba to shed ‘nearly men’ tag?
Philippe Coutinho’s exit was a catalyst for Liverpool’s first title in 30 years. With Mikel Arteta’s side set to come up short again, they may have to try something similar
Gary Jacob
Monday February 24 2025, 8.00pm, The Times
Only last week Arsenal still believed that they could end their 21-year wait to lift the Premier League trophy. Instead they have been left with the gut-wrenching feeling of being the nearly men for a third straight season.
Wider issues were highlighted by Saturday’s 1-0 home defeat by West Ham United which have left some fans contemplating whether they are actually further away from taking the final step. They spent 248 days at the top of the table in 2022-23 before paying for William Saliba’s injury in the run-in. This time they have rarely found their groove; they have yet to win more than three straight league matches or top the table.
No can dispute the job done by Mikel Arteta to turn around the club since taking charge in December 2019 and he is on course to achieve their highest top-flight finishes over three seasons since between 2003 and 2005. Arsenal also remain in the Champions League, but have been placed on the trickier side of the draw, which includes Real Madrid and Liverpool.
Yet while he would never admit it until the Premier League title is mathematically out of Arsenal’s hands, Arteta must already be thinking about next season’s challenge.
Selling the defender Saliba, in whom Real Madrid have shown interest, could pay for a new elite striker and left winger
Appointing a sporting director is Arsenal’s most pressing problem on a pile that includes reinforcing three starting positions with elite players, securing long-term contracts for stars, learning lessons from disciplinary and injury records, and tweaking tactics to cope better with low blocks and become less reliant on set pieces.
Arteta has said the next step is having 24 fit outfield players whom he can rotate. That would mean landing an elite striker and a left winger alongside the midfielder Martín Zubimendi, from Real Sociedad, and Joan García, the Espanyol goalkeeper, for a combined outlay that could easily exceed £200million. They will also try again to sign Sverre Nypan, an 18-year-old Rosenborg midfielder in whom there was interest shown in January.
Is that a sum the club would be prepared to spend? When Arsenal published their financial accounts last week they showed the importance of the Champions League and growing commercial and match-day income. They recorded an overall loss of £17.7million but are estimated to have made about £75million from the expanded league phase of the Champions League this season.
The club, whose target is to become self-sustaining in the long term, could well point to the drastic cuts happening at Manchester United to show the consequences of making poor financial decisions.
Fans may question whether transfer funds will depend on player sales, which seemed to be a factor last summer. Arsenal’s net spend was £20million, suggesting they had money in their back pocket for a big deal.
However if they must sell to buy, Arteta will not be able to recoup as much as hoped from his fringe players. Kieran Tierney will leave on a free transfer, Gabriel Jesus and Takehiro Tomiyasu are both sidelined until the end of the year and Oleksandr Zinchenko will command only a modest fee. Arsenal, who will probably offload Fábio Vieira, Nuno Tavares and Albert Sambi Lokonga, are yet to sell to a club in Saudi Arabia. Of course, sales reduce the squad size too.
For a few years Arsenal have wondered if they would have to sell an established player to help fund purchases, as Liverpool did when selling Philippe Coutinho for up to £146million in January 2018, using the funds to bring in Virgil van Dijk for £75million and Alisson for £64.6million. This season Liverpool have benefited from Van Dijk and Alisson’s experiences of winning the title in 2020.
If the answer is yes, would Gabriel Martinelli be the obvious candidate or will they face a more drastic decision, should Gabriel or Saliba not extend their contracts which expire in 2027? Saliba has been tracked by Real Madrid, whose recent transfer policy has shifted to targeting free agents, including Antonio Rüdiger and Kylian Mbappé — and perhaps soon Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Arsenal spent a club record £100million (plus £5million in bonuses) on Declan Rice, left, in July 2023, while there was no fee involved for bringing in loan-signing Raheem Sterling last summer
Arteta has rotated players more this season with the emergence of Ethan Nwaneri, the midfielder, and Myles Lewis-Skelly, converted to a left back. Max Dowman, a 15-year-old attacking midfielder, has been on the same conveyor belt from the academy and will have a greater role from next season.
Arteta has said that Arsenal must explore using a multi-club model as it will give him a bigger pool of players, alluding to the models at Chelsea and Manchester City. “Many other clubs have 45 players in their list. We don’t have that size at the moment,” Arteta said. “The ideal is to have a pool of players, some to play here, some to loan, some to develop, some to give you profit.”
Arsenal also need to tie down Bukayo Saka to a new contract beyond 2027. His and other new deals will increase a wage bill that has jumped to £328million, which is still only the fifth-highest in the Premier League for 2023-2024.
It is therefore imperative for Arsenal to quickly conclude their process of naming a sporting director to replace Edu, who surprisingly left the club in November. Any external appointment may not be in place before the summer and risks upsetting the apple cart. Arteta seems to favour Jason Ayto, who has taken on the duties since Edu resigned, perhaps because it keeps the status quo in which he has greater power in recruitment, similar to a traditional manager rather than a head coach.
Ayto has been at the club since 2014, first working as a scout before being given greater responsibility by Edu in 2020. He speaks Portuguese and helped Edu to construct a scouting network that focused on using data to identify and filter players.
Could there be a new role for Per Mertesacker, the academy manager and former Arsenal centre back, since Edu was good at the schmoozing part of the job?
One reason for Arsenal’s resurgence under Arteta was striking early signings in the summer of 2022 to rebuild after Tottenham Hotspur pipped them to Champions League qualification. Arteta has started work on persuading Zubimendi to join, making Arsenal confident of signing him for at least £51million from Real Sociedad this summer.
Arteta knows there will be another opportunity to win that elusive Premier League title next season. City, in the midst of a rebuild, are no longer viewed as champions-in-waiting. They are also awaiting the outcome of their 130 charges for alleged breaches of financial rules. Will Liverpool be as dominant if they lose one or more of their out-of-contract stars?
Arsenal need to execute their transfer business in a better way than in the past two transfer windows and make a statement to their supporters that they can mount a challenge that ends in silverware.
Selling Saliba would send the wrong message about our ambitions ( it is clearly not a statement that we can win trophies!). it wouldn’t convince me that we’re ready to sustain a serious title challenge. What would? Addressing the rigidity in our attacking play, bringing in a proven world class striker ( not potential), and adding real depth and competition in the creative and wide positions. Last summer’s missteps ultimately cost us, and I won’t even get into January (that still hurts!). If we truly want to compete for the biggest trophies, the rebuild needs to start now, with clear and decisive moves in the market come the summer.
We shouldn’t sell one of our best players. Saliba is more crucial to us than Coutinho was to Liverpool. If the club is briefing this reporter about a possible sale, it’s another costly own goal. It signals desperation and undervalues the player, giving clubs like Real Madrid even more leverage.
"Selling the defender Saliba, in whom Real Madrid have shown interest, could pay for a new elite striker and left winger"
It should be #8 we sell. I'm not sure if any big team would want him but in case there is a team willing to pay well, we should absolutely do it.
Give Nwaneri the AM position and bring Isak here. Probably Zubimendi is happening regardless, so Isak, Zubi + a winger and a backup keeper is what we should be doing in the summer.
Looks like the fanbase is divided again and a considerable percentage of the gooner community range from extremely skeptical to outright opposition of Arteta.
He is on the downhill phase, like I wrote months ago.
People understand that Artea has a significant chunk of the blame given his extensive power behind the scenes.
Appreciate the kind personal words CG. having spent all his time at Arsenal defending him, I now harbour serious doubts as to his ability to let us play less rigidly. He has us in a straitjacket of tactical rigidity and we are very boring and its hard to watch. That is in stark conrast to two seasons ago when we were great entertainers. He seems to have turned into Wenger in reverse. AW cared little about getting proper defenders in , after the inherited Graham back four grew old.
MA seems set against letting creative players play, with the single exception of Saka and has an antipathy to buying proper strikers , preferring middling utility players and a daft obsession with inverted players which is, to my mind, harming our freedom to play. I can now see MA approaching his endgame as our manager, something I thought I would never say. But I SAY IT NOW!!
I agree with you in parts but never compare the great man with this fraud. The invincibles defense were non of Graham defenders. Lauren, Kolo Toure, Sol Campbell and Ashley Cole. He also has a champions league record with a makeshift defence of Emmanuel Ebuoe, Toure, senders, and flamini. He has his faults and many as well but most of them were after he was forced to use academy players because of the stadium loan repayment and being forced to sell certain star players every season. After the repayments, he was already over the moon with the thrill of discovering young talents, his love for them made him lose his way. He was too neck deep in love with them that he would no buy anyone that will block their part even when it was obvious that such could hurt the fortunes of the club. He did win trophies with them but not the biggest trophies. His biggest achievement of the latter seasons was the Emirates.
I was hoping for a Bills v Lions Super Bowl. After so much promise the playoffs didn’t go the way I was hoping at all. If not the above two then I was hoping to see either the Ravens or the Vikings make it.
As things stand, the most points Arsenal can achieve is 89. That would account for them winning their last 12 games in succession, including a win at Anfield three games from the end of the campaign.
Liverpool could reach the same total in nine matches' time - which is against Arsenal in that fixture on May 10!
Given that is highly unlikely that we will win all those games, then Liverpool can wrap up the title well before we go there - to form a guard of honour!
Appreciate the kind personal words CG. having spent all his time at Arsenal defending him, I now harbour serious doubts as to his ability to let us play less rigidly. He has us in a straitjacket of tactical rigidity and we are very boring and its hard to watch. That is in stark conrast to two seasons ago when we were great entertainers. He seems to have turned into Wenger in reverse. AW cared little about getting proper defenders in , after the inherited Graham back four grew old.
MA seems set against letting creative players play, with the single exception of Saka and has an antipathy to buying proper strikers , preferring middling utility players and a daft obsession with inverted players which is, to my mind, harming our freedom to play. I can now see MA approaching his endgame as our manager, something I thought I would never say. But I SAY IT NOW!!
Pedro “They will break next year. Trust me. All their players leaving. Salah is going to hold back so he doesn’t get hurt. Trent is dreaming of spain. VVD gone. Don’t worry. Arteta will be there to pounce. We are going to have Sesko, Zubi, Williams , Isak and Cuhna!
Liverpool and city will have no one.
It’s Arsenal’s season. Next season. For sure. Trust me bro.
Wenger said he’d take 2nd place for 20 years and top 4 is a trophy and the supporters ate it up.
The supporters have been brainwashed to think like this so it wouldn’t surprise me if Arteta gets renewed again and fans sing his name for years because of the journey he took us on
what I say is this - IF it had been a given that we win all our matches (which we won‘t) I would still fancy us to win the league as I still believe that pool is going to drop points in 3, 4 games (newcastle, everton, us at home, chelsea, fulham, brighton away - likely 3 of those 6).
what‘s going to happen is we won‘t win our next 3 games, pool probably drop points against newcastle but it won‘t matter and they will win the league
Pool lost ONE game this season, how will they drop enough for us to finish top of them? Be grateful that Forrest beat them otherwise we have the invincible v2.
I am not protecting Arteta let explain this to you as you misunderstood me, I know it's artetas Squad however as it stands with 90 percent of our forwards out what manager is going to catch pool with this current squad ?
Not with no forwards no,as it showed, you said we are not catching them with this manager so show me a manager that can catch them with the squad the way it is now.
Go on tell me ?
Or are you just going to turn the question around again ?
I'd you think Arteta is the right man for the job then you deserve whatever grief this club brings your way. Again, for the thousandth time, the bedwetters were correct, all our fears have proved to not be unfounded. Where does the club go from here?
What was the point of keeping Butler- Oyedeji on the bench against the Hammers?! This kid (aged 22) must be really crap if that cripple, Sterling is preferred to him, surely? Or rather, Arteta in his infinite wisdom, thought that one of the worst players ever seen at Arsenal, Sterling could do a job? Why? All Sterling does whenever he appears is run around to no effect, pass when he should shoot and vice versa. He can't run, can't do anything but trip over himself and keep giving away stupid fouls which eats up more time. Inspired substitution once again, but Arteta said he "trained well in the week!!!" Unacceptable.
Mr Serge has no answer either, the Arteta groupie. Whose fault was it that he shod 4 attacking players in the summer and bought Calafiori and Merino to "replace" them?!
Can't be arsed even watching them anymore, the club clearly don't give a fuck about wining just getting CL every year. If they gave a toss we would have at least two world class forwards, until that issue is addressed there's no point watching a team thats not even remotely trying to compete properly. It's like a boxer fighting every week with one hand tied behind their back...useless
Didn’t realise there was a new post.
@Pedro, is it possible to move my post on the article and the comments to your new post? Let’s have a mature and balanced discourse.
Thanks.
Whilst watching the Leicester and West ham games I found myself thinking if some magic miracle occurred and we did win the title this year it would’ve felt pretty fraudulent
We’ve been iffy all season. You want to get over the line feeling like the best team in the land, not stagger over the line as the least disappointing team which we were threatening to do
City collapsed badly. Chelsea are poor. Newcastle are meh. Utd and spurs are banter. Liverpool have been good but for us to come above them would’ve required a pretty shameful collapse as well
So if we had won it would be an ‘ugly’ title unlike the last two seasons where we were legit great but sadly just not quite enough
It’s a bit like when wenger supporters would point to our second placed finish in the Leicester title season as some kind of indicator of progress from us when in reality we got a low 70s points total which was a bog standard 4th placed expected tally and only came second because ALL the big teams were trash that year
I want to feel like we’ve earned the title not blagged it. No hope left of that since the turn of the year when we have been as turgid and tepid as ever for the most part
This is the bargaining stage
An article from today’s Times Newspaper. Is this the club testing the waters on selling a key player?
GARY JACOB
Could Arsenal sell William Saliba to shed ‘nearly men’ tag?
Philippe Coutinho’s exit was a catalyst for Liverpool’s first title in 30 years. With Mikel Arteta’s side set to come up short again, they may have to try something similar
Gary Jacob
Monday February 24 2025, 8.00pm, The Times
Only last week Arsenal still believed that they could end their 21-year wait to lift the Premier League trophy. Instead they have been left with the gut-wrenching feeling of being the nearly men for a third straight season.
Wider issues were highlighted by Saturday’s 1-0 home defeat by West Ham United which have left some fans contemplating whether they are actually further away from taking the final step. They spent 248 days at the top of the table in 2022-23 before paying for William Saliba’s injury in the run-in. This time they have rarely found their groove; they have yet to win more than three straight league matches or top the table.
No can dispute the job done by Mikel Arteta to turn around the club since taking charge in December 2019 and he is on course to achieve their highest top-flight finishes over three seasons since between 2003 and 2005. Arsenal also remain in the Champions League, but have been placed on the trickier side of the draw, which includes Real Madrid and Liverpool.
Yet while he would never admit it until the Premier League title is mathematically out of Arsenal’s hands, Arteta must already be thinking about next season’s challenge.
Selling the defender Saliba, in whom Real Madrid have shown interest, could pay for a new elite striker and left winger
Appointing a sporting director is Arsenal’s most pressing problem on a pile that includes reinforcing three starting positions with elite players, securing long-term contracts for stars, learning lessons from disciplinary and injury records, and tweaking tactics to cope better with low blocks and become less reliant on set pieces.
Arteta has said the next step is having 24 fit outfield players whom he can rotate. That would mean landing an elite striker and a left winger alongside the midfielder Martín Zubimendi, from Real Sociedad, and Joan García, the Espanyol goalkeeper, for a combined outlay that could easily exceed £200million. They will also try again to sign Sverre Nypan, an 18-year-old Rosenborg midfielder in whom there was interest shown in January.
Is that a sum the club would be prepared to spend? When Arsenal published their financial accounts last week they showed the importance of the Champions League and growing commercial and match-day income. They recorded an overall loss of £17.7million but are estimated to have made about £75million from the expanded league phase of the Champions League this season.
The club, whose target is to become self-sustaining in the long term, could well point to the drastic cuts happening at Manchester United to show the consequences of making poor financial decisions.
Fans may question whether transfer funds will depend on player sales, which seemed to be a factor last summer. Arsenal’s net spend was £20million, suggesting they had money in their back pocket for a big deal.
However if they must sell to buy, Arteta will not be able to recoup as much as hoped from his fringe players. Kieran Tierney will leave on a free transfer, Gabriel Jesus and Takehiro Tomiyasu are both sidelined until the end of the year and Oleksandr Zinchenko will command only a modest fee. Arsenal, who will probably offload Fábio Vieira, Nuno Tavares and Albert Sambi Lokonga, are yet to sell to a club in Saudi Arabia. Of course, sales reduce the squad size too.
For a few years Arsenal have wondered if they would have to sell an established player to help fund purchases, as Liverpool did when selling Philippe Coutinho for up to £146million in January 2018, using the funds to bring in Virgil van Dijk for £75million and Alisson for £64.6million. This season Liverpool have benefited from Van Dijk and Alisson’s experiences of winning the title in 2020.
If the answer is yes, would Gabriel Martinelli be the obvious candidate or will they face a more drastic decision, should Gabriel or Saliba not extend their contracts which expire in 2027? Saliba has been tracked by Real Madrid, whose recent transfer policy has shifted to targeting free agents, including Antonio Rüdiger and Kylian Mbappé — and perhaps soon Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Arsenal spent a club record £100million (plus £5million in bonuses) on Declan Rice, left, in July 2023, while there was no fee involved for bringing in loan-signing Raheem Sterling last summer
Arteta has rotated players more this season with the emergence of Ethan Nwaneri, the midfielder, and Myles Lewis-Skelly, converted to a left back. Max Dowman, a 15-year-old attacking midfielder, has been on the same conveyor belt from the academy and will have a greater role from next season.
Arteta has said that Arsenal must explore using a multi-club model as it will give him a bigger pool of players, alluding to the models at Chelsea and Manchester City. “Many other clubs have 45 players in their list. We don’t have that size at the moment,” Arteta said. “The ideal is to have a pool of players, some to play here, some to loan, some to develop, some to give you profit.”
Arsenal also need to tie down Bukayo Saka to a new contract beyond 2027. His and other new deals will increase a wage bill that has jumped to £328million, which is still only the fifth-highest in the Premier League for 2023-2024.
It is therefore imperative for Arsenal to quickly conclude their process of naming a sporting director to replace Edu, who surprisingly left the club in November. Any external appointment may not be in place before the summer and risks upsetting the apple cart. Arteta seems to favour Jason Ayto, who has taken on the duties since Edu resigned, perhaps because it keeps the status quo in which he has greater power in recruitment, similar to a traditional manager rather than a head coach.
Ayto has been at the club since 2014, first working as a scout before being given greater responsibility by Edu in 2020. He speaks Portuguese and helped Edu to construct a scouting network that focused on using data to identify and filter players.
Could there be a new role for Per Mertesacker, the academy manager and former Arsenal centre back, since Edu was good at the schmoozing part of the job?
One reason for Arsenal’s resurgence under Arteta was striking early signings in the summer of 2022 to rebuild after Tottenham Hotspur pipped them to Champions League qualification. Arteta has started work on persuading Zubimendi to join, making Arsenal confident of signing him for at least £51million from Real Sociedad this summer.
Arteta knows there will be another opportunity to win that elusive Premier League title next season. City, in the midst of a rebuild, are no longer viewed as champions-in-waiting. They are also awaiting the outcome of their 130 charges for alleged breaches of financial rules. Will Liverpool be as dominant if they lose one or more of their out-of-contract stars?
Arsenal need to execute their transfer business in a better way than in the past two transfer windows and make a statement to their supporters that they can mount a challenge that ends in silverware.
Selling Saliba would send the wrong message about our ambitions ( it is clearly not a statement that we can win trophies!). it wouldn’t convince me that we’re ready to sustain a serious title challenge. What would? Addressing the rigidity in our attacking play, bringing in a proven world class striker ( not potential), and adding real depth and competition in the creative and wide positions. Last summer’s missteps ultimately cost us, and I won’t even get into January (that still hurts!). If we truly want to compete for the biggest trophies, the rebuild needs to start now, with clear and decisive moves in the market come the summer.
We shouldn’t sell one of our best players. Saliba is more crucial to us than Coutinho was to Liverpool. If the club is briefing this reporter about a possible sale, it’s another costly own goal. It signals desperation and undervalues the player, giving clubs like Real Madrid even more leverage.
Whoever wrote that article must be on some sort of retainer and its now confirmed Saliba is gone.
You can take this to the bank
"Selling the defender Saliba, in whom Real Madrid have shown interest, could pay for a new elite striker and left winger"
It should be #8 we sell. I'm not sure if any big team would want him but in case there is a team willing to pay well, we should absolutely do it.
Give Nwaneri the AM position and bring Isak here. Probably Zubimendi is happening regardless, so Isak, Zubi + a winger and a backup keeper is what we should be doing in the summer.
Is Odegaard an #8? Some people here value him at over 100M and it would be easier to replace him than Saliba.
The fanboys are still in denial phase, im waiting to see their anger phase.The real fans are already at the acceptance phase.
Looks like the fanbase is divided again and a considerable percentage of the gooner community range from extremely skeptical to outright opposition of Arteta.
He is on the downhill phase, like I wrote months ago.
People understand that Artea has a significant chunk of the blame given his extensive power behind the scenes.
The knives are being sharpened, as we speak.
Appreciate the kind personal words CG. having spent all his time at Arsenal defending him, I now harbour serious doubts as to his ability to let us play less rigidly. He has us in a straitjacket of tactical rigidity and we are very boring and its hard to watch. That is in stark conrast to two seasons ago when we were great entertainers. He seems to have turned into Wenger in reverse. AW cared little about getting proper defenders in , after the inherited Graham back four grew old.
MA seems set against letting creative players play, with the single exception of Saka and has an antipathy to buying proper strikers , preferring middling utility players and a daft obsession with inverted players which is, to my mind, harming our freedom to play. I can now see MA approaching his endgame as our manager, something I thought I would never say. But I SAY IT NOW!!
I agree with you in parts but never compare the great man with this fraud. The invincibles defense were non of Graham defenders. Lauren, Kolo Toure, Sol Campbell and Ashley Cole. He also has a champions league record with a makeshift defence of Emmanuel Ebuoe, Toure, senders, and flamini. He has his faults and many as well but most of them were after he was forced to use academy players because of the stadium loan repayment and being forced to sell certain star players every season. After the repayments, he was already over the moon with the thrill of discovering young talents, his love for them made him lose his way. He was too neck deep in love with them that he would no buy anyone that will block their part even when it was obvious that such could hurt the fortunes of the club. He did win trophies with them but not the biggest trophies. His biggest achievement of the latter seasons was the Emirates.
What has arteta achieved?
spot on just say it
At least one of my teams have done well recently the Philadelphia eagles and maybe Arsenal can learn a thing or two from them.
I don't care for the Chiefs or Philly, but I would rather Philly, can't stand them Chiefs
F Mahomes
I was hoping for a Bills v Lions Super Bowl. After so much promise the playoffs didn’t go the way I was hoping at all. If not the above two then I was hoping to see either the Ravens or the Vikings make it.
hoping for a brock purdy show next year :)
You’re not understanding me
You’re making excuses for Arteta.
This is his failure.
Not for me to find a managers to fix his fuck ups.
I don’t care who can with this squad. This isn’t some other managers squad. No other manager would have built such an unbalanced squad.
Welcome back. I doubt you remember this now but way back when you posted your recipe for tikka masala, I wrote it down and still make it to this day.
That’s a great Tikka. It’s definitely in my rotation
As things stand, the most points Arsenal can achieve is 89. That would account for them winning their last 12 games in succession, including a win at Anfield three games from the end of the campaign.
Liverpool could reach the same total in nine matches' time - which is against Arsenal in that fixture on May 10!
Given that is highly unlikely that we will win all those games, then Liverpool can wrap up the title well before we go there - to form a guard of honour!
Make it stop!!
Just read this now.
So depressing.
When we play Liverpool, we may be the ones giving them a guard of honor at Anfield.
I'll recommend that Pedro be in that line to pay obeisance to the champions, no one has talked more smack about Liverpool, than Pedro.
Arteta should just excuse saka on such occasion
Pedro admitted he got that wrong and once you do that, the issue is closed for me.
Not a good look kicking the man while he’s down.
Too much gloating here for my taste anyway.
Arteta fucked up, that’s clear , but we are still in the CL and stranger things have happened .
I wish I had your confidence, Tom. But what I see is struggling to get past PSV then getting humiliated by Real Madrid for the whole world to see.
Still won't be enough for this fanbase to call for Arteta's sacking, unfortunately.
He is fond of playing fate. It’s gon be a worse verdict, should Liverpool add the UCL to their collection.
Liverpool winning, kills the excuses on here for the past 4 years.
Appreciate the kind personal words CG. having spent all his time at Arsenal defending him, I now harbour serious doubts as to his ability to let us play less rigidly. He has us in a straitjacket of tactical rigidity and we are very boring and its hard to watch. That is in stark conrast to two seasons ago when we were great entertainers. He seems to have turned into Wenger in reverse. AW cared little about getting proper defenders in , after the inherited Graham back four grew old.
MA seems set against letting creative players play, with the single exception of Saka and has an antipathy to buying proper strikers , preferring middling utility players and a daft obsession with inverted players which is, to my mind, harming our freedom to play. I can now see MA approaching his endgame as our manager, something I thought I would never say. But I SAY IT NOW!!
Pedro “They will break next year. Trust me. All their players leaving. Salah is going to hold back so he doesn’t get hurt. Trent is dreaming of spain. VVD gone. Don’t worry. Arteta will be there to pounce. We are going to have Sesko, Zubi, Williams , Isak and Cuhna!
Liverpool and city will have no one.
It’s Arsenal’s season. Next season. For sure. Trust me bro.
I believe if we had maintained last season's squad we'd be more competitive than what we currently have.
Arteta has taken us as far as he can and I tip my hat to him considering he's a novice.
We need to start thinking about the next step or we'll be stuck in success purgatory.
Wenger said he’d take 2nd place for 20 years and top 4 is a trophy and the supporters ate it up.
The supporters have been brainwashed to think like this so it wouldn’t surprise me if Arteta gets renewed again and fans sing his name for years because of the journey he took us on
Youre so fucking boring
So is Arteta
🤣🤣
Hi guys, let be positive.
Newcastle beat Liverpool and we beat Forest-8 points back
We win our match in hand - 5 points back.
We beat Liverpool at Anfield - 3 points back
In Arteta we trust!
Title is still on.
Any fantasist can write a lot of things that will not happen, to fool themselves sinto thinking we still have a title chance. As you have just done.
I was being facetious
It’s ok that we can’t beat west ham at home. Thats a one off
Oh sorry, more like a 3 or 4 off. But still….
my problem isn‘t that pool won‘t drop 8 points - still believe they will. I can‘t see us winning all or just dropping points once …
Delusion kills, man
I have written I don‘t believe it?
what I say is this - IF it had been a given that we win all our matches (which we won‘t) I would still fancy us to win the league as I still believe that pool is going to drop points in 3, 4 games (newcastle, everton, us at home, chelsea, fulham, brighton away - likely 3 of those 6).
what‘s going to happen is we won‘t win our next 3 games, pool probably drop points against newcastle but it won‘t matter and they will win the league
Pool lost ONE game this season, how will they drop enough for us to finish top of them? Be grateful that Forrest beat them otherwise we have the invincible v2.
Delusional
We aren’t catching them. Not with this manager
What manager can catch them with this squad Joe enlighten us with your epic wisdom!
We haven’t been that close to them no matter what squad Arteta has had this season.
I am not protecting Arteta let explain this to you as you misunderstood me, I know it's artetas Squad however as it stands with 90 percent of our forwards out what manager is going to catch pool with this current squad ?
Enlighten me
Whose squad is it Serge. Enlighten us.
With this squad , we should have easily dispatched West Ham at home. Yes or no.
Not with no forwards no,as it showed, you said we are not catching them with this manager so show me a manager that can catch them with the squad the way it is now.
Go on tell me ?
Or are you just going to turn the question around again ?