And breathe! Thank God that is over is all I can say! Although I am still not over it!
So, my fellow Gooners the dust has finally settled on the football season and what a season it was!
I mean it still hasn’t sunk in that we capitulated and gave the title to Manchester City. I think it’s fair to say that it’s been long enough for me to sit and mull over a season that had so much potential, yet failed to deliver and now although it still hurts, I can finally bring myself to write something about it.
I guess the only positive thing is that the season has ended and we can strengthen our squad even more where we need to, as today marks the first day of the official opening of the transfer window. Although I will be surprised if we get ALL of our targets!
So, here we go for how I view our season…
Had we won the league there wouldn’t be this chat and uproar about us “bottling” things. But I can’t help that feel we did actually bottle things.
What team is top of the league for the majority of the season and then capitulates with six/seven games to go? That is absurd and no matter what angle you look at it from it doesn’t make it any easier.
People are saying we exceeded expectations and yes, maybe we did after how recent seasons have gone, but for a club of our calibre, we should not be happy with just getting top four and qualifying for the Champions League!
We should be utterly ashamed of ourselves for giving up at the end of the season and practically handing the title to City. We shouldn’t lay down and accept they were the better team because “we are the youngest team in the league and it was a big ask for us to go all the way” or that they “had strength in depth”. Yes, they did, but you know you need a team of A and B players to compete on all trophy fronts, and Arsenal going into the season didn’t have the team to start with to go all the way.
So I am sorry, but these are all poor excuses, and I do not accept any of them!
The way we lost it, I still cannot get my head around it either. And given the way Manchester City had ended the season, with a loss and a draw, had we won the games we drew and lost, we would have won the league. You could argue City may not have lost or drew their last two games if we had won ours, but we should not have drawn the games we did, and we should not have thrown the leads away in the manner we did either!
Winning the Premier League is no easy feat, yet City have managed to win it five times in six years, and we haven’t even managed it once in 20 years.
Martin Odegaard said: ‘I’ve tried not to see so much of that stuff there, because it still stings,’ ‘I try not to think too much about it. Even though we delivered a very good season for a long time, I am left with a sour feeling.’
This season was definitely one where there were ups and downs and twists and turns, but in the end Arsenal did bottle it, and we did fall just short of a title that has eluded us for 20 years.
And the fact that this has been the closest we have come and, in my opinion, will come again for a long time. You cannot deny other teams around us won’t have stronger teams and fight next season. It hurts even more as I do not see us fighting for the title next season let alone getting top four. But of course, I love being proved wrong so I hope I am!
All in all, I cannot even begin to understand how or why we lost the title at the end, but I know for a fact I do not want to see the same thing happen again. All we can do is hope that Arsenal come back even stronger next season where, once we are at the top if we are, we DO NOT bottle it and capitulate when it really matters!
This hurt will not go away for a while I think because it will always be a case of “what if” and “how did we lose it” and constant head shaking when I think of it. But we have to move on, and we will do that by getting some strong and experienced players into our ranks and starting the season as we finished the last, by battering anything and everything that comes our way in order to finally become champions of England after 20+ years!
Heres hoping hey Gooners? Rant over! 😊
Shenel Osman
@sh3n3l_
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Absolutely Right! I have supported the Gunners since before George Graham was manager and I was postman to David Rocastle.
I am fed up with hearing how we should be glad to be 2nd…and how Champions League Football is so great an achievement.
When you are so many points ahead, and end up 2nd by 5 points, it is bottling it…period.
This is the second year in a row we have done this, it is not good enough….It is the same issue we had under Wenger…pretty Football, but no ‘intestinal fortitude’. Unless we embrace our mistakes, and improve…nothing will improve
We were all disappointed.
But what’s the solution at the moment? Get rid of Arteta and then will have to rebuild once again?
Let’s see how we get on this coming season.
I feel like we are making some progress each season. Lets see how we do this season.
I’m ashamed of the 8-2, 15-3, 6-0s , bottling to LC, bottling it to Barca. Losing the title does it hurt? Yes, it does! We have not won the title since 2004 and were never interested to win it since then. Were we supposed to win the title in 2023?
Real Madrid just signed Joselu and Chelsea are appoaching Nicolas Jaskson, despite having Broja/ Datro-Fofana
All UCL semi-finalists had a dominant CF in their starting line-ups and Man City became a treble winner after signing Haaland. Conte also always rely on that CF type, such as Vucinic, Costa, Lukaku and Kane
If Arteta and Edu still refuse to sign that kind of CF this summer, it’d be a pure hubris to me. Arteta’s system isn’t stable enough to play as Man City did last season, so he shouldn’t rely solely on our diminutive CFs
Gai, we are pretty much fine with our attackers and we can only get a tall and big CF for plan B not as our main strategy.
Its so unfortunate that Toney has been suspended as I really believe he could have helped us with our plan B….I could even buy back Giroud for this role and not go out to buy an expensive big striker, there isn’t a lot of great big strikers anyway and I like that we are after Kai Havertz as he is a bit taller and can work as plan B.
Yes, I bet Real Madrid signed Joselu as their super-sub
Havertz is tall, but I doubt his hold-up play. I don’t think Arteta would use him as a false-nine
Maybe Arsenal plan to see how Balogun would fare in that aspect first, before looking for a new CF
Havertz best time at Chelsea or Germany was when he was played as 8 or 10 on the right side of midfield.his worse time was as false 9 or 9 so I doubt that’s where he would play.MA has said that he wants to increase the depth in quality.next season we could play at least 60 games,something which will demand for rotation, that’s when Havertz comes in plus his size will come handy (6″3).also Havertz had to play under 3 different managers,each asking to play a different role,his best period was under Tuchel who played him behind the 3 forwards.
I thought Havertz played the false nine role well when Tuchel managed Chelsea?
@GAI,you are right but not at first, it’s only when Chelsea CFs couldn’t score goals that he was moved there.
Squad depth is a major factor but not always decisive. Liverpool managed to win the league with a weaker squad than City, but only once. Leicester of course won the league with a weak squad when they were out of Europe and playing fewer games. Its not about having the strongest squad so much as having a squad that is strong enough to maintain a level of performance for the entire season. Arsenal didn’t have that and paid for it. Given the extra demands of the champions league I’m not sure they will have it next season either.
I’m more worried about now.
We need a new manager who ain’t gonna keep buying over priced Chelsea cast off’s. Kiss next Season good bye already we ain’t winning Jack because Arteta will not get what we need
Why don’t you wait and see who we sell and who we buy before embarking on that kind of negativity ?
Well said – can’t stand the unjustified pessimism.
SueP which other club would be so magnanimous to drop 12m for Jorginho with 6months left on his deal and still going back to pay over 60m for Havertz. What does Chelsea have over us that we are bent on helping them but buying their cast off.
All our Frontline outscored him last season and yet we think he would improve us. Was he even in our plan before Rmadrid pulled out of his deal with Chelsea.
Is he even better than Pepe.
I don’t know
Has he been signed?
Agree, I am shamed we have such negative so-called fans following Arsenal, take the rough with the smooth, sh.t happens, we didn’t win the title, yes it hurts but we move on and forward. What about the positives we have had an unbeaten season, seven FA Cup wins under one manager, winning the league at WHL, Man Utd, and Liverpool in living memory, the double twice, but no we have the half-empty fans spouting we bottled it, we are not good enough, boo, hoo, hoo, if you can’t handle the ups and downs of following Arsenal, then leave it to the fans who can deal with it
Of course it’s a disappointing end to the season and we can’t be happy with 2nd having been 1st for so long.
But why can’t you just be happy to say ‘we f***ed it’ or ‘we crumbled’? The problem people have with the term ‘bottled it’ is that it suggests a lack of courage, and I agree with those people that’s not a fair accusation to make against this team.
The team was knackered. The players maybe wanted it too much and weren’t as calm and methodical in their play as earlier in the season – but to say they bottled it is madness. The players don’t deserve to have that nonsense thrown at them.
I would say what cost us most was two things – not having cover (that Arteta trusted to do the job) for Saka, who looked well and truly spent towards the end of the season (look how much we benefited when Trossard came in to give Martinelli a break) – and the other thing, weirdly, was getting go of Soares in the summer (and then unfortunately losing Tomiyasu too). If we had a right-back we could have moved White in to cover for Saliba instead of Holding, and Gabriel & White is a much more solid partnership. But this is easy to say with the benefit of hindsight.
knackered playing one game a wk? not buying it. City won 3 competitions meaning playing more than once a wk
Plus there were games where Arteta through his stubborness made the wrong subs or started games with Fábio Vieira over better options. A portion of the blame for coming 2nd falls on Arteta’s head
And had a bigger squad, Mahrez scores a hattrick in the semi-final in the FA Cup, then he is benched for the final, we don’t have that depth or luxury of spending sak loads of money, a lot of the time it was twice a week, if Arsenal offends you, then take something else up
That’s what I love, positive reactions and a sense that tells people, we move on, we learn and we get better
We came 2nd and we need a new manager! Wow wow wow!
A new manager didn’t help spuds, Chelski, Southampton, Leeds and other clubs getting a new manager didn’t help.
Yes we bottled it due to our lack of mental strength, there was a time coming to the business end of the campaign where I could actually smells the big jug.
The big one got away by us been just one player short, had we gotten Caicedo in January or a remarkable defender in the mold of Tapsoba to call that big mug would have been sporting red and white ribbons.
But we must return in the next campaign with blood in our eyes.
No one knows what would have happened even if we could have gotten Caicedo and another CB. It’s all speculation.
Looking at the bigger picture I think it was our lack of mental strength that let us down again. The whole team crumbled and Arteta couldn’t galvanise them.
But we will see what next season has in store for us..
Goonster as much as I hate to admit it, you are spot on.
Shenel.There’s no reason at all for you to feel ashamed on behalf of a football team, least of all one so universally predictable as Arsenal. It wasn’t your fault that we choked, and you should by now have completely detached yourself from that disaster and moved on.
It happened! It’s over! Good stuff coming up!!🍦
Mr Jax, think you are responsible for inviting the response to Shenel from Jon fox below.
Completely mistaken, Gunsmoke.
My thoughts are entirely my own, as always, and nothing others say ever have any influence whatsoever on my own thoughts . Sometimes I may agree or disagree with others, but NEVER does any other post INFLUENCE my own thoughts.
I am always and entirely my own man, so I trust you are now clear about that and will not make such a wrong comment ever again
I have always felt sorry for people who are clearly way of of touch with all sensible reality. The writer of this piece is a prime example of someone for whose outlook on life and on our club, I FEEL DEEPLY SORRY.
Confirmed pessimists, who see no joy not cause for optimism in what is their own obsession, are troubled people
I resolve never to . share their negative outloook, not that there is any chanceof that, as I AM, ABOVE ALL ELSE, A REALIST.
Realists can EASILY see the many good years ahead for our own obsessions with our club.
A club, by the way, that IF we were to ask each and every squad member, individually, what they TRULY thought about this sad article , I can guarantee ALL players would see this piece as totally ridiculous.
Optimism is good, backwards looking pessimism and esp without ANY realistic reason to be, is silly beyond words. SIGH!!
Of course there are some fans who will say that it was humiliating the way we threw away the title, maybe the biggest humiliation since the PL was formed.
No other team that led the pack for the number of weeks that we did, then folded, has ever ended up not winning the damn thing – but it happened and we move on.
However, unlike AW’s last season (or two if you like) there are real positives to recognise.
1. The fans are completely behind the manager at The Emirates.
2. The Emirates is now, at long last, our 12th man.
3. The players are as one with the fans.
4. The manager is ensuring that our younger players are signing contracts that allow future planning (Saliba apart at present).
5. Since last summer’s transfer window, the signings have made sense and have strengthened the squad – no matter what club we signed them from.
6. The owner is fully backing the club and there seems to be no let up with the avaliable funds (Rice?) to recruit top players.
7. We will strengthen this window, so it doesn’t matter what clubs who finished below us do, they will still be playing catch up with us.
8. Players want to join the club and are are openly, or indirectly, stating so.
9. Results against fellow London clubs, without doubt, laid to rest who rules said city – a great psychological advantage for the upcoming season.
10. CL football – not only the prestige, but also the financial clout that will give us.
AW was so right when he said qualification for this tournament was the single most important thing to achieve every season.
So, yes, the humiliation still hurts, but there are so many positives to take away from finishing second and Mikel Arteta, after a dismal beginning, will be key to carrying on what he has started.
Only city (and ourselves) stopped it being the complete turnaround in fortunes and I expect that to be rectified this coming season.
Ken1945 – Very well said, but on top of that I would like to believe the gaffer had learned a great deal in the process.
He certainly has Gunsmoke and that’s why some of us have changed our opinions of him.
Strangely, I kept asking for consistency abd, up until those last few games, we had it in bundles.
So that consistency is the key to unlock city’s dominance on the field of play.
Excellent post KEN, FULL OF REALISM !
And showing such worldly wise maturity of outlook, in stark contrast to the article writer.
Pull yourself together! Life’s hard, watching arsenal come second in the league is easy!
When all is said and done, the downfall was mainly due to injuries, tiredness and a lack of squad depth. I know there were times when we failed to focus and concentrate but again, that is down to many factors. Inexperience was still a factor.
I would suggest though that if we manage to bring in our main targets this summer, there will be no excuses for throwing away a good season next year. It cannot and must not happen again! NO EXCUSES AND HEADS MUST ROLE!
For now it’s best to put it behind us and support the club next year with even more enthusiasm and belief!!
Yes it was disappointing to concede the league to Man City
They won the treble- fantastic achievement- but for large parts of the season they were second best in the league
So having got over said disappointment and annoyance that we tripped up, there was so much to be proud of as well.
Arteta has a steely determination in his outlook but also a supportive side to him which others could not feel when I recall the posts 2 years ago.
There was so much to rebuild especially as it seemed to me, that an element in the squad were top trumps in their eyes. I’m not talking about Ozil the player, but Ozil the divisive force on social media as a prime example of what Arsenal had to expunge. Senior players thinking they were more important than the club. Ferguson did the same. Pep doesn’t expect his authority to be questioned but Arteta has been called out for being ruthless or having his favourites or not trusting players and being a cheque book manager happy to let players to stay at home etc etc.
To reiterate, I was disappointed but haven’t we as a club come on since his arrival and enjoy it while it all lasts
SueP Spot on he sports this steely determination, stubborn as a mule, extremely passionate, my experience points it out to me thousands of miles away.
He will succeed one day , I just hope it’s at Arsenal.
We messed up in the season before the last one by not finishing in the top four, but the following season we go and come second by a distance, you have to look at all angles not just the failure, there was also a lot of success along the way and moving forward we have at least much potential. We have one of the youngest teams in the league and when they start to mature together you have to feel that there will be a positive outcome. CL will be good for them they will come up against a lot of top qualities this will be great for learning purposes, harnessing their skills, toughening up, and mental sharpness, we’re only just on the rise
We didn’t ‘ bottle ‘ it, over the whole season Man City got more points than us…in previous seasons different teams top the table , are you saying that every team that finishes 2nd has ‘ bottled it ‘.
Many of the critics are simply displaying unnecessary arrogance, pessimism or negativity.
It is quite appropriate to be disappointed the way the season ended and I suspect that most fans will feel that way.
However, the repeated references to ‘bottling’ and expressions of ‘shame’ are problematic when one considers the context of the PL outcome.
When you consider the progress the team has made over the last few years many of the criticisms and negative expressions are difficult to justify. They probably reflect a tendency to catastrophize amongst some contributors to the site.
Read only the headline. Didn’t bother to read the article. The author may be ashamed, but I am certainly not. I am proud of this team. I look forward to see this beautiful football team back in action next season.
I’m ashamed to see people don’t know what it takes to be successful. Our hardship has become a sense of victimhood for certain fans. Nobody is entitled to win the league. Only hard work, honesty and humility can propel this club to the summit. Nobody gave Arsenal a chance. Young inexperienced squad and lack of squad depth. Everyone knew that and braced for it. And the very two reasons why Arsenal stumbled at the end. And now we complained like little girls. Financially, Arsenal is a puppy in a den of wolves. Even in life, we have to sacrifice something to gain something else. Shall we ignore the fake fans who desperately act like football critic so that the club can continue its journey upwards?