BRIGHTON DEFEAT WAS DEPRESSING, BUT LET’S LOOK AT THE BIG PICTURE AT ARSENAL – by Moggy
Arsenal’s disappointing loss to Brighton has led to a feeling that the team simply can’t handle the pressure of a title race. However, I believe that the gloom and doom surrounding the club is a bit overblown. Yes, it was a disappointing game, but they still finished second in the Premier League, which is a huge improvement from last year.
It is important to remember that this is still a young team that is still learning and growing. They have a lot of potential, and I think they will be even better next season. Arteta has done a good job of building a young, talented squad, and I believe he deserves to be given more time to see his project through.
That being said, there are some areas where Arsenal can improve. One area of concern is the lack of a natural goalscorer up front. Jesus is a good player, but he is not a prolific scorer. Arsenal need someone who can hold the ball up and bring others into play. If they can add a player like that, I think they will be a real force in the Premier League next season.
Another area where Arsenal can improve is their squad depth. They have a good starting XI, but they lack quality depth in some areas. This was evident in the game against Brighton, when Arsenal were forced to make several changes due to injuries. If Arsenal can add some quality depth to their squad, they will be better equipped to deal with injuries and suspensions next season.
The absolute key areas that Arteta must concentrate on is our midfield, and with the constant rumours about Declan Rice and Moises Caicedo, and numerous other top class central performers, we can just about confidently predict that we will be having a very exciting summer transfer window ahead.
Also, although at the beginning of the season most Gooners thought that Saliba and Gabriel were likely to be the strongest defensive pairing in the League, our defensive record is telling us the exact opposite is true, especially when either of them were out injured and we had to rely on the adequate but uninspring duo of Holding and Kiwior, so it is a must that Arteta concentrates on our back line as well.
But overall, I believe that Arsenal are on the right track. They have a young, talented squad with a lot of potential. With a few key additions, I think they can be a real challenge to Man City in the Premier League next season.
This is a Guest post from Moggy who has his own Arsenal website, TheArsenalBlog.com
Video – Mikel Arteta explains what went wrong against Brighton “Individually we were below par”
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Few lasses here as well
Haha
Good point. We do have an equality policy on here. Let’s change it to come on gooners?
Yes Arsenal must move from strength to strength, and with the release of up to eight players
Surely the spine must be strengthen first, Dusan Vlohovic as the new striker to lead the line and provides competition to Jesus.
Caicedo should be bought to stabilize the midfield and help take the game to the opposition.
In comes should be the powerful Tapsoba to sure up the defense and provide competition for Saliba if he remain.
Three more players should be added to reinforce midfield, full backs and wing
Gunsmoke, please make sure you see my post to you on the “squad depth” page.
Not too be negative but we won’t have a season so high up the table again under Mikel arteta .is just not arsenal standard his player management skills is not good .his just avarage period nothing special .would love see him leaving with xhaka . would be a perfect transfer window too start with
So taking the youngest squad in the league, with hardly any squad depth and key injuries, to within touching distance of the league, and Arteta is just an average manager?
Year on year improvement, and an FA Cup as well, yet we should move on from him?
CL football for the first time in 6 years, and we can still finish with our most points talley in the league for a whopping 19 years!
How is any of this possible with an average manager?
I agree. He’s doing a great job. It’s not perfect, but even Guardiola’s Man City slipped up a couple of times this season and they are widely regarded as the best team in the world right now, so to be next best to them is really not that bad. Also Arsenal have plenty of areas in which to strengthen, whereas Man City are probably at the peak already.
I honestly think we have overachieved
Think the gaffer is a victim of his success.
MR. MARSHALL think that’s a little harsh.
But I understand your frustration and to add to that there is a story from Crystal Palace former chairman Simmon Jordan that he don’t think Arsenal will ever win the league under Arteta.
He claims the gaffer lost it on the brink of victory.
So your opinion will gather traction it seems.
But some may say who’s Simmon Jordan and that he cant run a corner shop on Sao Paulo streets.
His man Management maybe locking but we should remember he’s still learning on the job,
Don’t you think it might be a little unfair to expect him to demonstrate the management skills like a Wenger?
Think one thing coming out of all this is that he may need a steady and season hand alongside him in the dugout for the upcoming campaign.
Sorry in response to MR ARSENAL
Arsenal have done very well this season though it was disheartening how we lost to Brighton at home.
The disparity between our first eleven and the second team is a gulf that must be bridged next season. The lack of adequate rotation must have been responsible for the end-of-season collapse.
The first-team players need players that will challenge their positions next season, some of them became too comfortable in their position.
Pep knows how to keep his players on their toes. In his team, nobody except a few is guaranteed a starting position. That is the template we must adopt to compete with Man City.
Whatever happens, this team has been impressive this season and long may it continue. COYG
I agree that we need someone who can hold the ball up and bring others into play, but not necessarily a prolific goal-scorer
If Arsenal can have someone to win the ball in our front-line, I bet our small attackers will have more chances to score
Fabrizio Romano just said that Arsenal are waiting for West Ham’s final price tag for Declan Rice, so it could be a good sign for our rejuvenation project. If West Ham want more than £80m for Rice, hopefully we will move to the next target quickly
We bottled it again. Leading the league for the vast majority of the season and we right at the end. It’s so deflating..
It seems like a pattern. We did the same last season when going for Top 4, in the last 8 games we started to let the pressure get the best of us. This needs to change.
But looking at the bigger picture we did fine, i never imagined we would be where we have ended up at the start of the season.
But it hurts how we bottled it still..
We are not guaranteed to get better next year at all. The big battle will be to keep at the level we managed to get too and improve on that. That is far from a given. A lot of lessons have to be learnt and a lot of mistakes put right.
Before the start of the season, most sensible, realistic Arsenal fans would have been satisfied with finishing second to arguably the best Club side on the planet.However we have no divine right to “get better” and unless we recruit wisely we are unlikely to do so.The trouble is, the likes of Chelsea, Newcastle, Man Utd and Liverpool will invest to improve, and next season I can see Liverpool in particular being a real force in the Land again.The injuries to Saliba and Tomi have impacted on our disappointing end to the season and while I agree with the defensive frailties mentioned by Moggy, he failed to highlight the role played by Zinchenko when it comes to being culpable for goals conceded.If Arteta rolls out the same inverted LB tactic next season we will continue to leak goals as Zinchenko simply cannot defend.That said,our failure to catch Man City can be attributed to two factors one of which is their unique centre forward.The other is all round ability of their first choice midfield three of KDB, Rodri and last but not least, Gundegan.To me this is where City are superior to other teams including Arsenal.For most of the season Odegaard and Partey have been excellent but they need some quality support who must be athletical and energetic.Caicedo and Rice fit the bill and let’s hope we can bring in at least one of them next season.
This is a bitter sweet season yes we did well if you look where we were for the last 5 or so seasons but the manner in which we let it slip again cannot be ignored. Arteta need to realise that we cannot play every game with practically the same 11 and using the same game plan next season we playing champions league we going to encounter teams that are superior to us in skill, tactics and experience so against strong opposition let’s tweak the tactics play counter attacking football as an example, be defensive ect it will also make the squad a better all round unit and individually make them more versatile. In my humble opinion I feel the players are burned out exhausted. Have a look at the average minutes each of our players played compared to City and keep in mind they still in the Champions league
Chelsea, Man U and Liverpool all under performed and I’m sure at least 2 of them will be better next season.
On the other hand, many on here agree that we over performed. Now we didn’t expect to have a shot at the title but the fact remains is that we did and we blew it.
If you look objectively at our whole season it looks like this….we had a smashing 1st half, 2nd half then performances dropped alot but we still picked up points for a while followed by finally our points in games matching our performances.
Competition from top teams will be more than this season + we’ll have UCL + let’s hope we aren’t as pathetic in the FA Cup next season. MA needs to seriously learn to rotate and keep the whole squad match fit. Also needs to move on a lot of his failed signings/extensions and get in proper players.
They won’t get better. It’s quite simple,,, it won’t get better until they strengthen the entire squad. Arteta needs to grow some testicles. I was all for Arteta from day one of his appointment to Arsenal. All of this nonsense of Arteta having PET FAVOURITES has to come to a stop. He most probably inherited that from Wenger,,, because Wenger in the end proved to be a very soft touch. This club needs to bring in class players,,,, at the same time, they to release at least 9 players. You can’t keep putting the same players out on loan if there’s no intention of ever retaining them. Edu has had a massive wake up call served to him. It’s all very well jumping up with joy that we are in the Champions League,,,,,, but,,,, and there’s a major but,,, Based on UEFA rankings, Arsenal are likely to be in POT THREE in the seeding system for the Champions League draw. 6 years of no Champions League football has dropped Arsenal in the European club rankings. Unless Arsenal buy class players, Arsenal will be eliminated back into the Europa League before they can finish singing the Champions League anthem. And no one in the right mind should believe the nonsense and shite coming out of David Ornstein’s mouth. That puppet is paid by the Arsenal hierarchy to spread rumours of possible signings. That’s his job. The same goes with Charles Watts. Charles Watts will never give you his true honest opinion. If he did,, he would would never get an invite to Arteta’s press conferences. It’s not rocket science to work that all out. The problem with Arsenal Football Club is,,, the class they once had was all left at Highbury Stadium
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We didn’t bottle anything. It’s not leadership or mental strength. It’s money. That’s the difference. City have two entire first teams who could win the league. We only have one, because we don’t have such oil money to splash. Laporte comes in for them – Holding comes in for us. Mahrez comes in for them – Vieira comes in for us. Foden comes in for them – Smith Rowe with no game time comes in for us. If they had to bring in actual backup players the way we did, they would drop points. That’s Fact.
@Dhoni,,, please make up your mind. You say Manchester City have 2 teams to win a Premier League title,,,, do you know how stupid that comment was
A myth that has been allowed to persist for too long. Can you name the 2 teams and then see if the second team can truly win the league.
Last season we lost a CL place, this season we made sure that that didn’t happen again, we so much made sure of it that we almost won the crown. Maybe next season we continue to make sure of a title challenge so much so that we win it with a few games to go. Continuing our upward trajectory
We could but it will be more difficult to achieve. We need to get our transfer right and Arteta must keep an open mind in the window. There should not be a player in the squad that cannot be improved on if the opportunity presents in the market. He must bin any form of emotional attachment to any player.