Some could have viewed this Sunday as another ‘What If’. by Dan Smith
They no doubt don’t think it’s a coincidence that we suddenly showed up once the title race was mathematically decided.
A connection can be made; that for the second season running we scored 5 on the final day once there was zero jeopardy.
A section of our fanbase will understandably look at Man City’s dropped points this week and rule we never sent them to the Amex or Brentford under any pressure.
Yet, we got all summer to judge. We have had weeks to beat ourselves up.
This weekend was about putting an arm round the shoulder of a young squad, putting a comfort blanket over broken hearts, putting a plaster over a wound, making the Emirates a safe place, an arena to escape from disappointments.
It was time to block out unwanted noise, to rise above the hate.
As predicted, the majority inside the stadium stayed for the traditional end of campaign lap of honour. A few months ago, thousands of these spectators would have envisaged this afternoon being a crucial one in our history. Some certainly sold their tickets, asking for a price on the assumption this would be a historic day. Worse, some folks paid that asking price!
In the stands some would have debated is ‘bottled’ too harsh a word. Our mentality is a concern to others, while some will worry we will never be in a position again where we were top of the League for 93 percent of the campaign.
All that can wait.
This was about respect, saying good effort.
Gooners applauded Gunners, who likewise applauded back.
Both deserved recognition for their improvements in the last year. Individual talent has improved, the team now have an identity (something I haven’t always said under the current regime) and of course Champions League Football is back after a 6-year absence.
The atmosphere at the venue has been the best since it was built.
Arteta looked emotional at full time. He’s struggled to hide his disappointment in the last few weeks, but put his feelings to one side to show pride at the relationships he’s helped build.
That was one of his targets when he first took over, the Spaniard wanted to build a bond with all parties.
Who would have thought that Granit Xhaka would ever be one of the crowds’ focal points as he walked round the field with his peers?
His boss played his role in that.
It was also the first response our manager got out of the team since Man City won at Goodison.
In a week where the 41-year-old said we needed to ‘heal’ this was the first step in the process.
When Arsene Wenger said farewell, some so called ‘fans’ didn’t have the decency to stay and acknowledge the most successful manager we have ever had.
Worse they boasted about it on social media. YouTubers who channel grew based on verbally abusing the most successful boss in our history putting count of views over decorum.
In general, that’s toxicity no longer exists.
Sure, there are still fan channels built on ‘who can shout the loudest and say the most swear words’ but in general most notice what’s happened this season.
Mentally dealing with April and May was too big a hurdle.
My loyalty though has never been built on trophies won.
My commitment is pride in the badge, an honour to wear the shirt.
Arsenal trying to be the best they can be.
They did that in 2022/23.
They deserved to take their bow, to pay themselves on the back, to walk away with heads held high.
Dan
Video – Alfie and Rob are back for the summer transfer window
Here is their first analysis of the summer, where Alfie and Rob discuss and predict every single possible Arsenal incoming and outgoing this summer, including fees and potential destinations for outgoings.
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Good post Dan. It has to be said, the krankies are running this club totally different to what we all expected, which is helping all as well. Our owners, dare i say it, want success.
Josh must get the credit for that.after the failed SL,he apologized and said that he’ll do everything to repair the relationship between the club and fans.he also pledged to make us more competitive.interestingly,there was a surgery last week in the Athletic for the Arsenal fans.one question was are KSE the right owners for Arsenal going forward.the results were quite closed but it was only a yes or no ,many fans fans commented that they would have loved a maybe option.
A massive turn around with the club since the SL fiasco Si but give them credit. They have and are splashing the wonga!!!!!!!
This is the team of the future, thank you for pushing this far. Go home get some rest and be proud of yourselves. Surely you gave some folks some scares and sleepless nights, they might deny it but you stand the ground. Thank you Arsenal football club.
How many Arsenal supporters have had to buy new televisions, because of the damage done by thrown objects over the past few weeks?
Vale Brian Charles Booth 1956 Australian Olympic Hockey player and St George, NSW and Australian Cricket captain. An elegant middle order batsman and complete gentleman.
Ozzie ?? Care to explain to we non Aussies, WHAT is the unexplained connection between these two unrelated thoughts, in your post?
jon, just to take an opportunity to inform JA people interested in cricket of the passing of Brian Booth an exAustralian Test Captain. He attended my Mum’s church. I apologize if inappropriate.
Good overall season.
Let’s look forward now, what would you consider success and progress next season?
Top 4 with a trophy? Winning the league? Just top 4 would be a year of no improvement.
Anything less will be unacceptable.
Not sure why we do not appreciate ourselves enough. It was “we failed to get Mudryk”, we got Trossard and that was better. We achieved beyond all expectations.
Now it’s Edu will cost us Rice or Caicedo. But truth is, other than Mbappe and maybe Jude, there’s a backup plan for anyone. And we’ve proven capable of finding it. This is a process, let’s back it.
I think most fans did not want the club to over pay for Mudryk. The press maybe made more of it but Trossard was well received and still is. I don’t think many fans were crying over the loss of Mudryk, not at that price.
Winning the EPL and getting to the champions league semi final at least
Extremely proud of this club from top to bottom since we started this rebuild. I don’t care what anyone says not 1 person at the start of August predicted we would lead the table for 93% of the season. Yes we did throw it away but that comes down to lack of experince, youth and I’d say alot of Nerves.
Next season especially with this year’s exp and being back In the champions league we will push on for title sooner rather than later with a few new arrivals in the summer to add to the project. Next season I will predict we will be challenging as we will spend the money required to do so as we now know what is needed.
Now the dust has settled I am looking forward to next season and il be honest when is the last time we confidently felt like this heading into a new campaign? Hasn’t been in a whole these positive emotions
Love this club ❤️🔥
OT: Fabrizio Romano said Arsenal sent their scout to watch Matheus Franca, an AM in Brazil. Maybe he will be one of our false-nines or CFs, if we manage to sign him
A complete midfielder in my opinion, likes to come deep and carries the ball well, tireless worker, a bit like Sanchez
Have you been watching his games? Good to hear about his abilities
Yes I have watch Franca, but have only recently learned of our intrest.
Overall a good season but again a collapse at an important stage ,(would have said bottled but I know it might offend some fans) .
Next season will be very hard to replicate what we saw this year as the other big teams won’t have the seasons we have seen this time around ,I just hope Arteta and edu don’t waste transfer funds on the wrong players because if they don’t get it right then we will be back to square one .
This is me asking
Am I right to think top 5 could qualify for CL next season ?
What gives you that thought, DAN?
I read it somewhere as the format is changing
I’m worried that if 5th was enough to qualify for the CL would the Koronke’s lessen their ambitions ?
If any team outside the top 4 wins the EL, then 4 plus one qualify. Otherwise only top 4 play CL football. No other permutation.
The season after, it all changes again.
Dan you must have noticed I predicted a 6 :0 drubbing of the Wolves and it was only deny by Eddie deciding against it as he refused to score the sitter.
The inverted left back formation took the campaign by storm if only the season was shorter.
But Arsenal has made a massive stride foward, surely the mentality has to be given priority before we starts the next campaign.
Gunsmoke – I’ve just heard that Declan Rice spoke with Thomas Tuchel today about a possible move to Bayern Munich. This is according to SKY.
That’s not good if it is true.
I would say that’s great news ,100 million +on a 24 year old English midfielder who as done nothing to command that fee ,waste of money IMO ,and I hope we don’t touch him even at half that price .
We need some pace and athleticism in that midfield ,just my IMO OFC
ha ha ha Dan kit strikes again ! You’re funny man.
He’s definitely not worth £100 m but he’d be worthwhile at a reasonable price.
At least you have a different take on DR to most others and it’s good to be a free thinker.
So you agree with me regarding he’s not worth 100 million but then say “Dan kit strikes again” ,I’m curious what that sentence means ,just trying to understand as a free thinker where someone who puts in 3 ha ha’s is coming from regarding that nonsense.
my reply to you is further down the page, just in case you didn’t see it..
Bayern Munich, rarely stuff up a transfer. They have been serious contenders ever since I can remember. Don’t be a smug know all. If they believe Rice is worth it. Think again.
Honestly I have mix feelings on such reports , yes I would like him at Arsenal at a good price,
He would provide excellent cover for our back four and by extension solidify the defense.
But he is not worth more than £75 Mills in my opinion, but because he’s British for political/ PR reasons , beyond £90 Mills is where I begin to lose intrest.
He is not a game changer like a Bellingham, Casemiro or Partey.
G – I’m totally with you, but what do you think will happen ? He’d do well with us but all this big money is ridiculous. Bottom line though is who can we get who will do the business for us. It’s a conundrum. Funny thing is until I started coming to ths site, I didn’t put as much thought and effort into trying to calculate the hows and whys of recruitment. I just used to sit back and wait to see what happens. If a player was bought then so be it, but now all this discussion just leads to everyone going round in circles wondering what will be. It’s funny really.
@Evgunner
There is a statement from Lee Dixon where,
He says he believes Arsenal has zero interest in Declan Rice, and he went on to say , he’s used as a Smoke screen to get a clear shot at Caicedo.
I think the gaffer knows exactly who he wants , he’s not known to show is hands , if he’s not interested we won’t know until its crunch time.
Think I have a fair idea who the gaffer wants, read below
Vlohovic – Striker
Lacottelli- Defensive midfielder
Raphinha- Winger
Zubimendi- Defensive midfielder
Cancelo – Wingback
Gundogan Midfielder
Now here is my interesting take that you may find funny, In my opinion Declan Rice maybe interested in joining Arsenal than the gaffer wants to sign him.
Now Edu may very well feel pressured to sign him purely under political/,PR reasons.
But I always look forward to the transfer window to sure up our squad,
Wenger use to return injury players that were out for months saying they are like a new signings to fans frustration..
G – that’s interesting news. Do you think Lee Dixon speaks with Arteta ? To be honest Lee shouldn’t be letting this information be known if it is true, because it spoils MA’s scheme. It’s amazing that these pundits give away secrets like that.
Well it will make us look silly that we’ve been going on about Declan so much, if it turns out to be true. The best outcome will be that there is more money in the pot to buy cheaper good players. They just better be good ones. Thanks for letting me know, so I’ll just not mention Rice again.
by the way did you see my post to you about my thoughts on PEPE ?
It’s on the thread about your list of outgoings and incomings, It’s the second message to you following on.
@Evgunner
Thanks for bringing this posting to my attention..
Just like you, I know somewhere there is a good playe in Pepe, he may not be as smart as a Tossard, but his sheer talent is frightening.
Nicolas Pepe in my opinion was grossly mismanaged, and I will tell you why.
The minute we discovered he was struggling to find his feet abnormally long we should have immediately loaned him to a bottom half or newly promoted club.
We should loan him with a clause that guarantees him an abundance of playing time.
One such clause could be, he should be played in every premier league games once he’s not injured, failure to do so would result in a £50 000 fine paid to Arsenal for every game missed and he’s not injured.
Now one could argue what club would agree to such a deal, but if one looks at it logically what newly promoted club would not jump to sign a £72 Mill premier league player on loan.
That would have certainly afforded him to get his feet properly wet in the domestic league.
Regarding Ferran Torres
You had ask why Arsenal should not sign him and what I knew,
The former Citizens player is a good player, but he’s guilty of repeatedly caught ball watching, offers absolutely nothing defensively.
And as it relates to Ilkay Gundogan.
He has a remarkable understanding of how Pep Guardiola wants to play.
His understanding of the modern game is not normal.
Xhaka too has master that art, Ilkay Gundogan is to Pep Guardiola what Xhaka is to Arteta, many armchairs manager struggles to understand this simple craft.
I went 5-1 lol
Dan I just look back and realize you had made a bold prediction, of 5 : 1
Having read this posting I can see how you came up with this prediction like myself
As I stated on your prediction page, Arsenal had to win convincingly to restore some sort of respectability to the ending of the campaign.
Nonsense ? I don’t get your drift. Everyone knows £100 m for anyone isn’t a sensible fee. Also £300k a week for any player is just ridiculous. Everyone knows this, but it’s just a stupid game these clubs play. Money money money. More money than sense. Good for the young guys who can make a great living out of it, because at one time there was not even any welcoming space in football in this country for guys like Saka for example. I knew and played with so many very good players who didn’t ever believe they had a chance of being a professional in this country, so didn’t try. Times have changed so good luck to Saka and anyone else who can make a fortune out of footy. With regard to the sentence “DK strikes again”, I’ve seen some of the dialogue that goes on here and it can be quite entertaining.
@Evgunner
There is a statement from Lee Dixon where,
He says he believes Arsenal has zero interest in Declan Rice, and he went on to say , he’s used as a Smoke screen to get a clear shot at Caicedo.
I think the gaffer knows exactly who he wants , he’s not known to show is hands , if he’s not interested we won’t know until its crunch time.
Think I have a fair idea who the gaffer wants, read below
Vlohovic – Striker
Lacottelli- Defensive midfielder
Raphinha- Winger
Zubimendi- Defensive midfielder
Cancelo – Wingback
Gundogan Midfielder
Now here is my interesting take that you may find funny, In my opinion Declan Rice maybe interested in joining Arsenal than the gaffer wants to sign him.
Now Edu may very well feel pressured to sign him purely under political/,PR reasons.
But I always look forward to the transfer window to sure up our squad,
Wenger use to return injury players that were out for months saying they are like a new signings to fans frustration..
Remember when Alex Ferguson pushed and broke the Man Utd team on his final season. So that he could win the EPL one last time. But at what price? He bought players for the short term and never prepared the club for his departure. That’s the difference between him and Arsene Wenger. The stark contrast of Arsenal pre-Wenger and post-Wenger is unrivalled in modern football. For me, Arteta did perfectly well to squeeze the players for maximum performance without endangering their motivation and health for next season. All things got its limitations. This season, we went against probably the greatest team ever in EPL history, the rough tackles, defensive blocks, the bias media, rival fans, anti Arsenal pundits, the referee, the VAR and god knows what else. Still we stationed ourselves well at the end to strike better next season. Just look at Toilet Bowl club now. Any club except Man City will exchange positions with us without blinking.