Football fans around the world woke up yesterday to the not-so-shocking news that the Court of Arbitration for Sport have given Manchester City a big big let off and they are no longer going to be banned in Europe for two years! Surprise surprise! Had it been Arsenal facing that two-year ban though, it would have been increased to four!
The news reported today on Sky Sports that City have been let off from the suspension first given to by “UEFA’s club financial control body” (CFCB) in February for “serious breaches” of club licensing and financial fair play regulations”. This has just made Arsenal’s chances of reaching European football even harder, although I think we did a pretty good job of that ourselves given our last two results against Leicester and Tottenham! But had decisions and results gone our way in both games, then things would have looked just a little bit different right now!
We may just have to accept mid table as our new home for the end of this rather appalling season. With three games to go and nine points the maximum left for us to gain, why can’t we finish the season off with a flourish? There’s only a matter of the three games being with the current Champions Liverpool as our next opponents and relegation fighters Aston Villa and Watford still to come, so what’s all the fuss about?
What are our actual chances of getting the whole nine points when Villa and Watford need it more, so to speak? If we were to produce a miracle and win all three of our remaining games, then we would have to hope that all five teams above us lose all three of their games left for us to get third or fourth place. Get praying Gooners!
We might even have a chance if we finish mid table to get into European football, by winning the FA Cup, having to get past City in the Semi-finals first though, it has been done before and I have no doubt we can do it again, given that we love Wembley and if we play a lot better than we did against City at the Etihad and against Spurs yesterday. If only we could cut out all of the silly mistakes we tend to make then we might just be able to get our hands on a trophy for the fourth time in 6 years!
Stranger things have happened hey Gooners?
Shenel Osman
The better you guys lower your expectations from this team the better it is for your health. My humble advice
This set of player’s have been disappointing they had a better chance last year and did nothing
The only positive I saw this season is the rise of saka and martineli
I never taught I will one day see an arsenal team so devoid of passion and quality..
It’s always a case of “what if?” With Arsenal. The facts though are clear. Arsenal have fallen so far from being an elite team that the Emirates is now nothing more than a fantastic looking stadium, which is home to some of the most error prone, laboured and boring football you will witness in the EPL. Yes, we need to accept Arsenal are a mid table team with no right expect European football as a given every season. In fact, European football may well be a thing if the past for some time to come? This club is not ambitious any more. It tries to be as ambitious as it can, based on a set yearly budget that is not able to compete with the top 40% of the current EPL. That obviously includes some of the so called “lesser” teams we have always considered were not worthy of finishing above us? Well, maybe now is the time for a reality check? Arsenal are not club they once were. Maybe we won’t be for another 30 years? Leeds were once great. As were Nottingham Forrest!! Maybe, just maybe we are already set in motion for a future in a lower league? Maybe we all need to be more realistic?!
Correct, this group of no-hopers are turning us into the next Coventry. We might even slip to League Two like them if we’re really unlucky. Most likely it’ll be league one Wolves-style.
My view is that it is a mistake to worry overmuch about what THIS season may bring and that we should, if we are perceptive and wise, be far more concerned about NEXT season and the future. This season was a disaster UNTIL Arteta was invited to manage us, which to my mind he has done brilliantly. When in years to come we reflect on THIS season we will see with the hindsight we will then have, that the OVERWHELMING best thing that has happened to our club for years – apart from that blessed day that CALAMITY Gazidis took his smarmy incompetence elsewhere – was when Arteta took over . With the only other true professional football person in the regime, Edu, at his side, we are set for a far better time than some realise.
Of course we still have the ongoing major handicap of Kroenke but I am a firm believer that Covid 19 will force him to sell our club within two years to a proper human being, ie one who actually gives a damn!
It is about time that the many dimwits on this ite began to see what a diamond we have in Arteta . When I read juvenile comments from the usual hot headed suspects on here who call him a mere unproven coach with no pedigee, I feel sick with shame that SOME(and it is only some, thankfully) fellow Gooner are so short sighted and plain unintelligent as to not see how much things have already changed for the better. Arteta has got two huge calls right; the rightful and necessary ostracisingof big head Guendouzi AND the isolation of fraud Ozil. Both have been given real chance, as was good policy and both have let him and the club down bigtime. Consequently, as the professional he is, he has taken firm and correct action and put his stamp on the club that HE and HE ALONE is the boss and will do things his way. No more Wenger favouritism and no more Emery muddled thinking and constant shape tinkering.
YES, OF COURSE ALL SENSIBLE FANS ALSO KNOW THAT ARTETA STILL HAS TO PICK PLAYERS WHO WILL NEVER , NOT IN A MILLION YEARS, BE ARSENAL STANDARD.
None of those players are or were his fault but were inherited and he is stuck with them until he and Edu can clear them out. Easier said than done with this darned disease around but it WILL be accomplished in time, I have NO doubt at all. In the meantime, mature and knowing Gooners among us should be hopeful and leave hot headed despair to the juvenile greenhorns among us.
I fear much of that will be wishful thinking, Jon.
I agree that Arteta needs time. Those who want him out or question him are seriously unreasonable. However, He is the coach of an Arsenal side that are far from the squad that Wenger assembled in his dominant years of flare, goals and tippy-tappy football.
No one in this article is suggesting Arteta should go though. Everything related to Arsenal (European football) is now in question and will rely on other teams slipping up. Once again, it is not in our hands. Last year was a similar scenario around this stage of the season. We relied on others to make mistakes. This club is going backwards as others advance. When the club are extending contracts to the likes of Luiz, Mustafi and Xhaka, it becomes more obvious that Arteta will no doubt be working with a similar squad next season, does it not? I know his hands may be tied. He still has my full support (as does the team). I don’t have to like it though and my opinions will not change until we get what we were told we would get when The Emirates was in the process of being planned. A “team that will compete with the best”.
For now, European football looks like it will slip away from us next season. Unless, by some miracle we do qualify, we will sigh with relief once again. This should not be the case. The club are not showing ambition and it is sending out all the wrong signals. Other clubs smell blood and know that Arsenal; are there for the taking. No one fears Arsenal. Why should they?
GunneRay, I concur with much of your thrust but do believe you are underestimating the effect of a top coach and a shrewd man like Edu alongside him. Already It is likely that Saliba and Mari will be first choice at CB next season and that alone will be a huge improvement from the clowns that were foisted on Arteta. He has already vastly improved both Mustafi and Xhaka, though neither are good enough, even now. There are a host of young, talented and HUNGRY players either in or about to be in that first choice eleven and that is hugely positive.
I do believe we will bring in a PROPER DM after a famine in that position going all the way back to Gilberto(our last one of top quality). I envisage next season being far better for us and I remind you that I am perhaps the most arch realist on this site and never, not even once, will fool myself with irrational hopes based on nothing but fan bias and blind optimism.
All my thoughts are properly evalued before being written, as is my lifelong habit as a professional writer. So my glass is at least half full, rather than yours, which though not that much different in reality, could be viewed as half empty.
Actually, Jon i am just a realist stating the obvious facts. The facts are true and in no way bias or skewed. My comments are purely based on what has been and what is. I am not questioning Arteta also. I would praise him in fact. However, when you analyse our results and final league positions over the last 5 years, you quickly realise the obvious truth. However, I like any other Arsenal fan want to believe things will be better next year. I hope they will. But we have been here before and I will believe it when I see it. Things need to change and I do not see extending Luiz’ contract as a convincing move to improving the team for example! I didn’t realise my points came across as “a glass half empty”. If they do, it is not intended. Like I said, I am a realist stating fact.
Totally agree with you jon
What he now needs to do is make his mark with the type of signings he wants in the team.
if we can actually lure those in without having any european football to play next season, it could actually work out in our favour.
We just have to look at the Leicester side that won the league, they only had domestic football to play that season.
If we have to sell players like Laca, Guendouzi, bellerin etc for him get players in that will and can play the way he wants us to play then so be it.
Results may not have gone our way recently but what he has done with this bunch has been amazing, what could he do with HIS players ?
Hear Hear!