Hi fellow Gunners, I personally can’t wait for the season to start. by Ishan
I am very optimistic for this new season with the signings we have made. We should thoroughly expect Jesus and Zinchenko to hit the ground running, and I am sure Vieira will come up to speed soon (he has big boots to fill with that surname and I hope we Gooners go easy on him at least in his first season!)
Last season we had a paper thin squad that, especially in the second half of the season, and that cost us the top four. I think Edu and Arteta are cognizant of this and IMO are creating two different teams for PL and EL.
Below is my expected line up, assuming PL is priority in terms of finishing top 4 as a basic criterion along with potentially finishing top 3. This will help rotate the squad nicely and everyone will get decent gametime, barring any major injuries. Not sure how our line up would look like in the FA cup and League cup, but my take is PL/FA will be same team & EL/Carabao will be same team.
| Premier Lge | ||||
| Jesus | ||||
| Martinelli | Odegaard | Saka | ||
| Xhaka | Partey | |||
| Tierney | Gabriel | white | Tomi | |
| Ramsdale |
| Europa Lge | ||||
| Nketiah | ||||
| ESR | Viera | Marquinhos | ||
| Xhaka | Lokonga | |||
| Zinchenko | Saliba | holding | Soares | |
| Turner |
Also, I believe one of the main reasons we lost out on top 4 is the mentality in big games. I was sure we were missing out on top 4 when we lost to Crystal Palace. It was clear that 11 Patrick Vieiras were playing against us, even though on paper we were better in terms of talent, as they were fighting tooth and nail. They made life difficult for us and our boys just wilted under the pressure of expectations.
Somehow, we seem to perform well when expectations are low or none at all. This season Arteta and the team management has to really work on mental conditioning of the players, otherwise huge outlays on players will go down the drain, even if it requires hiring somebody as mental conditioning coach or Arteta taking this role on himself.
On the whole let’s be optimistic and trust the process. Onwards and upwards.
Ishan Srivastava (I am from India and I am a hardcore Arsenal fan since 1999)
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