Arsenal was very unlucky with the fixtures last season and deserve a change of fortune

The first three games of last season were not good for Arsenal, in fact, they were really dealt a tough hand and it was always on the cards that they would struggle.

Remember, the three opening defeats were against Brentford, Man City and Chelsea.

Brentford had just been promoted, they were at home and in a new stadium, the atmosphere was always going to be electric and outside one or two teams, most would have ended up losing that opening game. All the stars were aligned for the Bees that evening.

Losing to Man City and Chelsea is nothing to be ashamed of, City were hot favourites for the title and Chelsea was expected to challenge them and it should be noted that Liverpool did not win a single game against the top four teams last season and yet for some reason it was disastrous that Arsenal lost to the Blues and Citizens.

Now, let’s imagine that our opening three games were against say, Norwich, Aston Villa and at home to Tottenham, imagine the start we would have got then and the momentum that would have been built.

Getting fortunate with the opening three fixtures is imperative, we were not last season and that affected us big time. We need to get off to a good start to our next campaign and that starts with getting a break when the new fixtures are decided.

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46 Comments

  1. lol what a load of nonsense.

    We had a fair fixture list, no cup competitions during business end and also postponed game for no reason.

    Arteta is the problem not the fixture list nor the ref.

  2. Comparing Arsenal to Liverpool what a joke.

    One lost championship by one point and one finshed 5th with humiliating deafeats.

    No company there.

    I suggest you get off thr gummy berry juice.

  3. We deserved everything we got. I still see that after Wenger we have become worse but that is not necessarily a criticism for Arteta or Emery. I just see Wenger finishing in top 4 every season he left because he had better coaches of Man Utd and Spurs to compete with and last season Wenger wouldnt have allowed top 4 to slip. Even Lampard finished top 4.

  4. “Losing to Man City and Chelsea is nothing to be ashamed of”

    Yes for as long as we are content being a mid table club.

    1. here here.

      Too many fans including club are happy to be just taking part.

      Well congratulations on your participation bage.

  5. If you want to win something, stop giving silly excuses!

    We lost to mid-table teams and so we lost our 4th or even 3rd place to CL!

  6. Now this excuses have gotten to fixtures with the opponents??
    Like let them give us team we can easily win against them. if that’s fair to us, how’s that fair to them.
    Many of you just can’t stop with excuses.
    If we can’t cope with it , let get back to the championship them.
    After all we are rebuilding, so we won’t have to face more difficult opponents.
    Wolves had the same point as us at the start of the season. They lost their manager, had less budget, yet I didn’t see or hear them moan of anything like this.

  7. So it’s now accepted that we will lose to city and Chelsea so that’s ok and as Brentford we’re promoted that’s also ok as no team bar 2 would also lose there. No problem all is forgiven.

    Instead of complaining just sign the players we need and have a real go at 4th. Money is no object when it comes to the rams yet we have to take it slow at Arsenal.

    1. Yep … man utd in for de jong and Nunez .. Arsenal desperate to pay nketiah way over the odds for his shockingly limited services … we had it easy last season given close competitors underperformed or were overwhelmed with European fixtures …

      1. Exactly. I like Nunez wish we’d signed him he’s awesome. Could offer him 5 year contract but put a clause in if we don’t make top 4 then we sell him for what we signed him for to a team that qualifies for CL. At least it would give us an incentive to get top 4

    2. Everyone starts with zero points at the start of the season and has to play each opposition team home and away. At the end of the season the table does not lie!
      Action not excuses required.

  8. Right to some extent,hopefully we get lucky with our first 3 fixtures to help impact our mental positively.my pick will be bournemouth(H/A),Brighton(H) and newcastle(H).

  9. I always think it is good to play good teams early. When we are at our best and City is as well we are likely to lose. So why not get that game out of the way? So that when we are in a rhythm we can play against teams we are more likely to beat?

    Also, we always get most of our business done late in the summer so our new players are more likely to be well integrated after 5-10 games.

  10. Every teams has those fixtures, blame the club for failure to properly prepare. The fixtures was announced months before transfer windows closed.
    It’s all gibberish, no one is buying it, obviously we have more stronger team atm but if we fail to add at least a cm or striker before our first game of the season, it might be a repeat of last season.
    Am yet to see a proper cf in the list of realistic transfer targets we are link with,

  11. we can even lose to norwich, watord and leeds if we play with the same kind of zeal and mentality. take it or leave it but our aura and winning mentality during our first 3 matches respectively was very poor.
    remember when we lost to mancity in January and united in December, imovp we were the better side…just unlucky and a little bit of stupidity from our defenders cost us but then we knew the players really wanted to win that match (especially the one with city). we have the youngest squad yet we are beating teams with loads of world class players. our matches against burnley, palace and brigton ended at a stalemate yet again we lost to this same palace and brighton….why? its because they are more experienced and better than our players at that moment… don’t quote me wrong I really love the idea of having young kids in the squad but then we really need to spice it up with experienced players who young ones can look up to. look at liverpool for example. vvd add a lot of authority and this kind of vibe that makes liverpool win some matches. milner too was retained for another year because of the respect
    and leadership charisma he posses. we dont have those kind of stuff and it’s annoying. we need players that can motivate others both on and off the pitch. about us not making top 4 I remembered vividly from articles that I read around april ending .to quote MA, he said “the top 4 is ours to lose” and we did it. we lost a golden opportunity. so please fellow gooner, let’s stop crying over spilt.

  12. Blaming the fixture list eh?

    Why not blame
    1. No identifiable style of play
    2. Negative football philosophy
    3. Static positioning and indirect play
    4. Poor substitutions
    5. Poor man management

    Easy to blame external factors, but it takes honesty for self reflection and admitting ones own failures.

    It’s not all Arteta’s fault, but pretending his horrid man management and Arteta-ball doesn’t deserve blame is burying one’s head in the sand.

    1. No Durand

      It has to be the fixtures fault, the pitches condition, the referee, the press, the 🌚 moons cycles, the Russians, quantum particles but never the coach, team or owner!!

      You should know this by now.

      Is it any wonder we are where we are!?

      #laughable

  13. We have some young top players. We also have some bog standard also ran players. There is no way whatsoever to win or challenge for the EPL without 11 top first team players. Actually more for European competition. If we don’t get the strikers and midfield players we need we will be also rans again…. guaranteed. No doubt whatsoever. Reality will always overtake supporter’s imagination and delusions. We need at least 4 quality players and William Saliba…..at the moment we have none. Remember the Four Tops, ‘It’s the same old song’. Time goes very quickly.

  14. Martin speaks pure common sense. Those who ignore or even choose to underrate the advantage of having momentum, knew little about how human nature and, inparticular, fooball teams confidence works. It las long wbeen widely accepted by knowledgeable fans and journos right across the whole world of sport, in most sports , not only football, that momentum, by getting away to a good start, is of MASSIVE IMPORTANCE.

    WELL SAID THEN MARTIN AND SHAME ON THE FOOLISHISHNESS OF THOSE WHO FAIL TO SEE HE IS PROFOUNDLY RIGHT!

    1. Jon, Britney Spears famous song is ‘Toxic’
      There is no doubt in my mind you are a true, long time, Arsenal supporter, no doubt. But you seem to have a need to deride others on these threads for some strange reason. We are all fundamentally equal and there are many valid opinions. They are all only opinions and beliefs, and quite naturally differ. That is good.

        1. Ah rolling out that old chestnut eh ,if it isn’t one pathetic excuse there’s always plenty more i see

      1. And Arsenal could not beat Crystal Palace, Brighton, Southampton and Newcastle in the run home. Imagine if Arsenal had started the season with them, where would the momentum have been?

      1. And what were those subtle complexities that only you and John were able to grasp?

        Please share!?

  15. This season was very similar to Emery’s first, favourites to finish 4th but blew it by a point. Bad luck has nothing to do with it just a lack of consistency and losing to teams like Crystal Palace, Everton, Southampton and Newcastle. For most of the season we only had one competition to deal with i e. the EPL, so no excuses imo, we were just not good enough!!

  16. Give Man City and Liverpool the same fixtures you gave Arsenal, they’ll still Excel. Stop searching for flimpy excuses

  17. there was a time when we were known as “lucky arsenal”,but, according to some folks on here we are “unlucky arsenal”.everybody plays each other twice,right, thats the way it always has been and, always will be.excuses are being published on here day in,day out. i cannot believe some people, who, i have always looked up to on this site are actually part of the excuse making machine, how sad we have become.arsenal are a club of excuses, always have been, bad referring decisions,VAR ,and now unfair fixture lists, naughty computer, how dare you give the arsenal “tough” games at the beginning of the season. surely,mr.computer, you know we are the arsenal, and, we,deserve better.if you continue to throw us up these “tough” fixtures in the future, then, i will have a right mind to disassemble you and turn you into a garden ornament !!.

    1. Looser mentality permeated very deep. Programmed to find excuses for why we don’t succeed anymore.

      We should ask West Ham if we can buy there anthem ‘I’m for ever blowing bubbles’ of them since we are used to the dreams fading and dying with fortune always hiding.

      Yes the fixtures can be kinder or meaner depending on how you approach it but come on! It’s what you bring to the party and not when it is or whose house it is at!

    2. 👍👍ger burke and AOT, how the mighty have fallen. If Arsenal will not address the real underlying reasons for lack of success and look to excuses, there is no chance of improvement.

  18. just imagine how all of you hypocrites would have reacted if things had happened in reverse and Spuds fans were trying to rollout the same line of supposed logic, after shitting the bed in such an epic fashion…give your collective heads a good shake

  19. This seasons end of the season calapse was nothing at all too do with the rediculous statement that the fixtures were against us. It was to do with poor planning, poor decisions, poor tactics, lack of guidance when needed, really poor judgement, the players, the manager and the fact we bottled it more than once on the run in. Losing to Brighton, Southampton and C Palace was a massive wake up call for anyone that cared to see, our manager was useless when help was needed. How can any sane person try and blame fixtures? We play everyone twice, home and away. We got lucky if anything, playing Chelsea days after two punishing cup defeats, we got lucky with the fact we played utd when they were at their height of disarray and we got lucky playing Wet spam plum in the middle of their most important two legged European tie in years. It was rank bad management that we failed to get 4th, it was nailed on and we blew it.

  20. Bad luck with fixtures????????????????????? I”ve heard some excuses…..but this!

  21. So many pots and so few that refuse to see the truth that momentum in sport is of PRIME importance and the reason for this general wilful refusal is plainly because so many are intent on their anti MA agenda.
    THAT IS THE DISMAL TRUTH!

    1. There is no doubt that momentum is important and I certainly agree that for so many everything is twisted to an anti-Arteta agenda. This generally means that some important issues are lost in these types of debates.
      For a number of years Arsenal have started the season inadequately prepared. There have often been uncertainties about the futures of several players, late transfers, starting the season with injured players etc. Last season there were players unavailable due to COVID.
      If we address some of these fundamental issues we have a better chance of starting the season well and developing momentum.

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