Thank God it’s over by Ben Dungate
This has been one of the most disillusioning seasons in living memory as an Arsenal supporter. From 8 points clear with 10 games left to play, to Man City being crowned champions with 2 games to spare. Coming second to Man City is absolutely not a disgrace, and we should be able to celebrate what the team has achieved this season but we can’t even be granted that.
Arteta has demonstrated he is a gifted coach but equally has demonstrated he is severely limited as a manager. He has no plan B. The inverted Zinchenko tactic hasn’t worked for 10 games and it has made our fiery and emotional Ukrainian look bad. Arteta’s squad usage is so poor. He insists on playing Fabio Vieira who is not yet good enough to play at this level, whilst ESR and Tierney, 2 of our most influential players last season, sit on the bench game after game again.
Leandro Trossard is hugely overrated. He is just OK, no more. Gabriel Jesus is useless as a main striker, and has aptly shown why Pep used him as a winger, and preferred to not play with a main striker than use Jesus there because it amounts to the same thing; he is never in the box and rarely in a position to score. For all his effort and technical ability he falls woefully short as a central striker. We were playing better with Eddie Nketiah up front! Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka, and our captain Martin Odegaard deserve better after the seasons they have had.
It’s not being able to celebrate finishing as runners-up I find the most infuriating aspect of this season. As fans we have been robbed due to the nature of this total capitulation. An entire season ruined by 5 games. That’s all it took. And I am not including the loss to City because we can never expect to win that head-to-head. However, in my opinion it wasn’t any league game that cost us this season, it was going out of the Europa League.
Not only did we go out of that competition and leave us with just the league to play for, which is a huge disadvantage, because it that did was increase the pressure on every game, but it was also the match in which William Saliba injured his back. We won the next 2 league games after going out of Europe but then came the back-to-back draws and it was downhill from there. Even then, a draw at Anfield is a good result, but we couldn’t celebrate that either, because we were hammered for most of the game and lucky to get out with a point.
I can’t find any excitement for next season, because I have grave concerns we will once again be in danger in falling out of the Top 4. Liverpool will be a force once more and probably be the closest challengers to City, Man Utd will recruit and be challenging again, and Newcastle will undoubtedly be in contention as well. Meanwhile Edu and Arteta have not given me any hope that they have the vision or conviction to sign the players we need. They can’t find a bargain and won’t pay top dollar for the best so we are left with scraps no one else wants.
I will never again go against my instincts and support Mikel Arteta. I hated him as a player and do not understand where his affiliation with Arsenal has come from. He was a mediocre stop-gap signing from Everton because we couldn’t hold on to our best players, and for some reason now he is an Arsenal man through and through.
Maybe he will prove me wrong in time, and I hope he does, but I doubt it.
Ben
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