Arsenal is showing significant signs of improvement compared to the start of the season and it is pleasurable to all of us.
The Gunners have hit top form in recent weeks and the win against Leicester City yesterday showed we are making progress.
However, even clubs that have won league titles have areas they need to improve on.
The Gunners have scored goals, kept some out, pressed well and it appears like we don’t have any real weaknesses right now. How true is that?
For me, I want to see more goals off the bench.
We haven’t scored many goals in our matches so far, but we will get to that stage.
However, I think getting goals from players who come off the bench will help us win more points.
Alexandre Lacazette proved this point perfectly when he came on against Crystal Palace to help us earn a point.
If we can get players who can come off the bench to score winning goals late in games, we have a better chance of winning every game we play.
There is a lot more we could do better, including scoring more goals from set-pieces, but I’d love to hear what you think this team can do to become even better.
Great win. Top four now looks there for the taking, if results continue in this vein. Please keep Xhaka out of the equation. Fingers crossed.
I’ve been thinking the same recently! Please for the love of God do NOT put Xhaka back in this current squad.
What kind of football do you people always watch? won’t argue with you people but I will sincerely tell you that you should know the status of xhaka in our team and stop talking like you really don’t know the role of xhaka…and I will repeat this my friend when xhaka will come back It won’t take him an hour to be in our 1st eleven☝️… Players make mistake look partey and sambi both made mistake at Crystal which took us in a hot 🔥 situation and like everyone was saying terminate the contract of partey he don’t Know what is doing 🥺 Which kind of fun will even talk like that when he really know the role of our players in our club?This players are ours and are the one making Arsenal better we should stop having negative talks on them but give them encouragement to make them be more than better and be a real fun… my Xhaka is included I remember him and miss him everyday because the last time I saw him in the pitch he really gave me joy and happiness👏
A big thumb up. I sincerely share your view.
Totalt agree!! 👍
Falcon, all due respect to your opinions but my view is that Xhaka is the emporersnew clothes and mangers believe that they can’t do without him but it’s a delusion. The future starts with him out of the first eleven however horrible it may sound. Arsenal need better. Unfortunately due to African’s Nations Arsenal will be short of numbers so expect to see him back but will be very negative about the outcomes. This guy has had six years to prove himself, meanwhile the club’s direction has been a downward spiral.
Falcon, I totally disagree with your incredible take on slow coach and static Xhaka. I have seen ocean going liners turn quicker!
It has been a real pleasure seeing some actual mobility and pace in midfieled with no one taking “half an hour” todecide to pass the ball since his merciful, though unfortunate injury. If he NEVER AGAIN WEARS OUR SHIRT IT WILL STILL BE FAR TOO SOON.
I pray he is sold asap once fit again, lest he once more slows our passing and pace down to his usual telegraphed snailpace!
The team is clearly firmly on the up now and the very LAST thing we need is this statuesque snail and hothead back in our team.
dito
Partey and Elneny will not be available by January I hope Xhaka is back early by December
I am not looking forwards to December at all, xhaka in midfield fills me with fear. The guy is useless and a liability. Cant tackle, cant run, cant win an aerial duel, cant carry the ball, truly out of his depth in the prem.
God forbid Xhaka ever wears our shirt again ! I hope he is SOLD by JANUARY. I would prefer tonight, were it possible!
jon fox Dreams are free .
We need more goals from open play. That has been Arteta’s struggle since joining Arsenal. Until he can fix the team to do it consistently, we can forget trophies and top 4.
True G4l, Arsenal are currently one special signing away from being a serious top four threat, however consistency and the other teams taking points from each other will give us some chance. A lot depends on the strikers including Pepe stepping up and Odegaard also earning his keep.
We need a tall, strong, agile and quick target man type striker. Then, we’re good to go…IJS
Saka is not clinical enough we need more goals from him and midfield in general saka could of had 2 goals yesterday he needs to be more selfish, we need more goals from the strikers as well.
We actually made an awful start, but I guessed that happened because everybody was still in holiday mood
We should’ve got better results against Brentford, Brighton and Palace, yet we made unexpected results against Spurs, Villa and Leicester
Let’s stick to the top six finish target
I couldn’t agree more. Manutd with THAT squad is due to bounce back, even with Ole at the wheel.
Finishing in the top 6 + bringing back st Totteringham’s day would be a treat.
The lads might overachieve and surprise us all with a top 4 finish but looking at the squads, we should be happy to finish 5th or 6th.
West Ham are also consistent, so we can only hope they run out of gas next year. Man United used Cavani again, therefore I predict they’ll get some good results to make top 4 competition even harder
Believe the current project, crop of players is improving each day as they come out.
Am hopeful something admirable is building inside the Emirates.
If you think about it the less influence Arteta has on the pitch, the better the football…much like Ole, who finally had to bow to some well-reasoned pressure and select a starting 11 with both his most senior forwards up top, then step back a bit and simply let them do what they do best…as a result, they played a far more assured brand of football at both ends of the pitch…not to mention, both Cavani and Ronaldo scored
sometimes it’s the over analyzation that stifles the creative juices of your best players…when we’ve performed well it’s largely because we’ve removed many of the negative influences that were attributed directly to our manager:
(1) unlike Leno, Ramsdale hasn’t been forced into playing out from the back, this has allowed us to be far more effective from a transitional sense and has drastically eliminated needless turnovers in our own zone
(2) Xhaka hasn’t been available so Arteta can’t continue to deploy a far more negative brand of football with him as the centerpiece figure
(3) ESR has become far more direct with the ball at his feet now that Ode isn’t being shoehorned into the starting 11…when Ode is in the lineup play is directed far too often towards his side of the pitch, which tends to slow down play and limits ESR’s ability to influence the game
(4) Arteta’s backup choice for LB, Nuno, has become a revelation, even though there’s no doubt Tierney would be playing if he were healthy…it’s clear that Arteta prefers the far more static movement of Tierney, to his and our detriment, whereas Nuno is considerably more adventurous with the ball at his feet or when we’re countering with pace…if Arteta was actually in favour of our LB taking these sorts of chances, I’m sure some of us wouldn’t be complaining about Tierney’s regression in the attacking zone
(5) much in the same vein as my previous comment, several of our players have resisted the temptation to be overtly static with their respective movement, thereby making us a far more difficult proposition to defend…there’s been numerous occasions in our last two affairs where players have shown up in places that we just haven’t seen since MA’s arrival…it really makes me wonder how our micromanager might have addressed these rather anomalous occurrences had we lost the past two encounters
furthermore, as soon as Arteta injects himself on the game, like immediately after we went up by 2, then all of a sudden we have 11 men behind the ball and were inviting pressure, much of the positive momentum we’ve earned is lost…I get it though, as it’s not uncommon for inexperienced managers to find it difficult to strike a balance between imposing themselves on the their respective squads and allowing their players to have the requisite freedom so they can best express their individual and collective creativity
Credit for writing a wall of text with assumption and biases view just to discredit arteta contributions. Here’s a real quote of arteta about the palace game.
“I think we put the handbrake on a little bit. We started to defend something. We were not moving fluently enough and taking the right decisions, playing forward more and being more ambitious to score the second goal in that moment.”
Doesn’t look like a coach who injected himself in the game to make his team defend.
Leno wasn’t forced to play from the back more the Ramsdale is. He just didn’t have the skills to make those medium and lojg long passes so it was just short passes for him.
ESR problem has never been odeggard but his inconsistency and lack of energy management with come with this youth. He played badly both as a sole number 10 and when on the wings.
Nothing to say about xhaka and Tierney is indeed becoming a one trick pony which is really annoying.
👍
Lol… Thumbs up Ackshay, people will say whatever they have to say just to discredit the manager
of course you have every right to express your opinion, but I would say that if the lesson to be learned by our manager, as per the quote he offered up following the Palace match, was that he shouldn’t be so conservative in his tactical approach, explain why he once again instructed his players to adopt a more defensive posture in the first-half, once we had scored a second goal
it’s certainly not a revelatory statement to suggest that he has deployed negative tactics far too often, which is why I expressed my concerns about this very obvious fact…furthermore, if you look closely at those aspects of our gameplay where we’ve actually progressed, it’s in those areas where the micromanaging and tactical naivety of our manager were once a serious stumbling block
Excellent comments, Akshay. I think Arteta WAS an overcautious manager, but has learned that it just doesn’t work.
He has though, as RVL stated, learned often by accident. Xhaka and Tierney however will unfortunately walk straight back in, I’m sure of that, and with a fast, pressing team , as we see with Odegaard, even one sluggish player such as Xhaka throws the balance off. Xhaka left a struggling, negative side where he was one of our better players. He returns to a dynamic, pressing side and he just (as Odegaard unless he speeds up) doesn’t fit.
Tierney imo is one dimensional. Great as he was, teams know about him now and he’s frustrated and a shadow of the player he was.
Tavares hasn’t surprised all of us. I’ve been yelling for him to start for months. Raw but huge potential.
I think the great recruitment – intelligent, attack-minded guys who understand and think for themselves, have made unnecessary for Arteta to tinker now. Previously he was dealing with players who couldn’t think on their feet, and neither could Arteta! So it was a mess.
Arteta now understands (albeit by accident) which side his bread is buttered, and IS trying to encourage a more attacking philosophy. I think he is a very good theoritical coach, but has a long way to go as an in-game manager.
So in summary, Arsenal’s poor form at the start of the season was down to Arteta being clueless. But now that Arsenal haven’t lost in seven PL matches and nine overall, it’s because circumstances have forced clueless Arteta to be less influential.
Have a got that right?
first of all, I never used the term clueless in my description of our manager, so that was you imposing yourself into my commentary(how ironic considering)…my statement was rather flattering towards those players, some of his choosing and some not so much, who have had a positive influence on our gameplay…fact remains, I feel that we’ve always had enough skill to perform above the levels in which we have, so a logical conclusion was drawn, that our manager has actually held us back at times due to his predominantly negative and naïve tactics…for those with perspective, recency bias will never factor heavily in their assessment of a particular situation
That crap you wrote there is as true as the story of Jack and the beanstalk.. Know when to eat humble pie..
…
those 3 little dots says it all…you want to be me little reboot Mark
1.) Ramsdale has absolutely been instructed to play out from the back! Are you blind? The difference between him and Leno is that he knows when to put his foot through it when there are no options and can hit a man at distance so doesn’t need to go short as often.
Also considering your original opinion on Ramsdale your point seems even odder “absolutely ridiculous pursuit…I don’t give a flying, you know what, that he was on the English National squad, as that was a fairly bang average group of Keepers anyways…this is not the time to reach again for another homegrown player, as it’s clear this is a rather underwhelming period, historically speaking, for English born keepers, except maybe Henderson…how hard is it to target individuals who exhibit those particular characteristics we most covet in a Keeper, based on our overriding tactical philosophy…just another indicator that there’s no definitive/cohesive plan at the present moment, thus the reason why we gave away you know who”
2.) Could be an argument here but Xhaka started and played well in the performance v Spurs so pretty harsh. He was also absent for both draws with Palace/Brighton.
3.) Not sure you can state that. If anything it would be the fact Pepe was dropped for Laca and as a result ESR is playing on the wing with Laca through the centre. Ode was replaced by Sambi in case you missed that.
4.) Arteta’s signing Nuno you mean. All the back line/gk bar Tierney in the last 7 league games were Arteta signings. Tierney being the one you seem to have a problem with. They have the 2nd best record defensive record in the league since they all signed and started playing together. Only 7 games thus far but clearly a great start. In your defence Nuno was a signing that was apparently pushed mostly by Edu, the rest were Arteta rulings though. Ramsdale vs Neto, White, Gabriel and Tomi vs Emerson. Sambi too. Partey we always wanted but that is kind of obvious, he was an established player with a release clause.
5.) Not sure how to address this apparently when players do what you want on the pitch it’s despite Arteta when they do what you don’t want it’s because of Arteta. How convenient that is.
Fair play Angus you seem very angry in your posts when fans don’t toe your Arteta line .
My suggestion would be to take a chill pill buddy and stop being so defensive .
I saw your post to me on the ramsdale article and would suggest the same as I’ve said above .
take a breath, through your nose, my little mouth-breather Angus…your retort started out so full of hot takes, then as per usual it petered out quite quickly…by the end I couldn’t quite tell if you were actually coming over to my way of thinking or fundamentally opposed to everything that was on offer…of course, it hardly matters until you’re able to properly collect your thoughts, tone down the emotionality of your all-too-common rants, then learn how to synthesize your views into a coherent post…once that has occurred I will gladly address your response on a point-by-point basis…until then take care
Angus
Your irritation is understandable given the way the manager is being misrepresented and derided by some people.
The counter-points are quite clear and well-reasoned.
As is customary, given that you have challenged those who have made it their mission to discredit Arteta you can expect to receive snide, condescending retorts.
I totally agree with Martin, players coming from the bench should be able to put the game into sleep. But not give any hope from the opponent that they might salvage the game. Goals goals win matches. Thank you 🙏 Arsenal for the win last night. Keep the momentum going.
Arsenal squad needs to be playing for a good duration of time and for long… and the needs to stop attracting pressure from opponent and giving out pressure. This season if we look out those game we lost, they played well for good 20 minutes or 30 minutes, they only exceed that only in villa game. If Arteta do not work on that, team that are clinical and have patience to suck that pressure will rip Arsenal team off later on. We still have so many game to still play for, also they should try and get a very good defensive midfielder in January to replace partey that is going for Afcon. It really sad Pepe cannot continue from the top form of last season into this season…!!
🤝🤝🤝 There’s a huge issue of fitness and it’s worrisome. Arsenal can’t play a high press, high tempo or even a full defensive game for 90mins. They always look done an as if they are going to fall by 55-65 mins.
Almost 2 years since Arteta’s first 2 games when Arsenal started games with high intensity press style only to fizzle out in the 2nd half. Arteta made a note to fix. Yet, lack of game fitness persists or even worse.
Is it a training style issue, diet issue or lifestyle issue. Whatever it is, needs to fixed asap
No teams, OG, can maintain a high press for 90 minutes. Even Liverpool and City take their feet off the pedal during games, because it’s physicallt impossible to play at that pace throughout. But what they do is press in 5-10 minute bursts thoughout the game, which means patches of downtime are short and less noticable than our current habit of going berserk for the first 30, then for 10 at the start and 10 at the end of the second. We need to play in more, but shorter bursts. Whilst I admit that we aren’t fit enough and thus don’t press for enough total time in a game, bear in mind that this is new to us. You don’t build up the stamina necessary for what is the most demanding tactic in football overnight. It’s a slow process, and month by month those pressing periods will get longer.
Lokanga is improving / acclimatsing quickly which is good, but Arsenal still need better midfield flexibility & depth. Xhaka & AMN can be replaced with better players for the long run. Also Laca & Auba are doing well now, but age-wise their clocks are ticking and the younger strikers in the squad are a long way from good enough, so new quality young strikers will be needed too.
A little bit more consistency and clinicality of forwards and I will be happy. Seeing Marty coming on more often would be a bonus but right now sensible not to disturb the winning combo. This 11 in my opinion has become our strongest and if Nuno polishes his defensive play a bit more, we could get a real quality side. Maybe a tall, quick number 10 would help Marty, Eddie or Flo flourish in a 2 up top as all three are reasonably quick… our strikers are firing now hopefully but there is a mismatch of attributes like a slow strong but short Laca and a quick but tall Auba. A logical next step might be a tall strong forward to play Laca’s role and one of our three young strikers to take up the mantle from Auba.
What more do I want to see?. Consistency.
It’s early days, the signs are looking good but I never want to see the kind of Mentality we had in the palace game, to me that game was a 2point loss, I know we will make mistakes but it should be against bigger teams not teams like palace especially when we were already in control.
I hope we keep our back 5 fit, they are the key to our success this season, with them it’s looking difficult to score against us.
And wow we now score from set piece, something we don’t normally do, that’s credited to the coaches
Well said, Adajim! Consistency/more midfield goals. Very happy with the set-piece goals though.
I’m enjoying the moment – Spuds spanked, Vieira masterclass and our impressive win! I saw comments on twitter saying we (relegation contenders) are now level with title contenders (Utd) 😄
Things are looking rosy!
Concur with Adajim and Sue.
It is ONLY the consistency that stops me from giving the thumbs up to Arteta.
I was told that nine games unbeaten is consistency – but if one looks at those games… there is no actual consistency!!!
MA and his squad have shown us how good they can actually be (and how bad of course) and I believe that by Christmas, they will have the consistency that all top teams have.
If not, the doubts will still be there.
It is going to take time to develop the kind of consistency that I think everyone would like to see.
This is a young squad with a lot of developing to do so some fluctuations in performance will have to be expected
Well done lads, great consistency starting to show.
No reason or excuse for us to not finish in the top 4 now.
I’m not fooled by this. We need to be playing at this level consistently. Leicester is the first half decent team we have beat this season. I’m not unhappy but also not happy at the same time
Look around you Shortboy. NOBODY is consistent this season. Everyone is playing well one week, poorly the next. Everyone is beating and then losing to everyone else. That’s why we are equal fifth. That’s why we are 3 points behind City, 5 behind Liverpool, both of whom are imperious in Europe. And they don’t have a “rookie” manager. They don’t have the youngest team in the league. They don’t have SIX new players in their first team.
I don’t think xakha will come back straight into the first 11, I think it’s an end of his career at arsenal considering that non of our players expt Ramsey and van perse came back to their feet after that long injuries.
Eduardo, Wilshire, Riscky, Diaby, Denilison, cazorla all struggled to get back to their forms. Currently we have martineli and Leno struggling as well.
what i want to see from this squad are the following
1 – Consistency – team performances yoyo from game to game, Spurs – Palace
2 – take our 20 mins blitz and make it 45.
These are steps that will come in time hopefully as the squad matures.
I really like teh way we have tried to play in the opening 20-30 minutes in games, there is what seems to be a style and way we play, this has been lacking in MA’s reign for me.
It’s small steps but above the results, the team performance have massively improved.
One thing is certain for me is that Tavares as to stay in the team ,that spot should be his to lose now and Tierney shouldn’t expect to come straight back in .
And please Arteta keep Odegaard away from this squad ,offers practical nothing and gives the ball away time after time .
Tierney and Xhaka will walk straight back into the team, and we both know it, DK.
Arteta may be learning some things, but he’s still got a long way to go.
And I think we both see Odegaard getting his starting spot back very very soon. I like him, but not for this type of football, not at this critical moment in our development.
I think the main thing is maintaining the pressure they have shown they’re capable of exerting on teams for longer during matches and then carrying that through into every game. If we can do that, we will be top 4 no problem.
Aside from that, I think we need a big signing up front ASAP. Auba is getting on – as good as he’s been recently I still don’t think he’s the same quality as he was two years ago – and Laca is likely leaving, as well as Eddie, potentially.
Overall the team has transformed over the past couple of months and did look really promising. Now i think Arteta and Edu have made their platform on which they can build a very strong squad. Kudos to them! They lost me with the Xhaka contract, but have won me back with these recent performances – tavares, Sambi, white, ramsdale and Tomi (none of whom I would have predicted going into the transfer window) all look to be excellent signings that can take us up a level from last season. Not expecting perfection in every game now, but the progress is clear.
Agreed. Laca, Eddie, Mo, Kola, Matteo & Dino are near all certain to leave this summer due to contracts or loan obligations.
I could possibly see Leno and Pepe being sold this summer also as both wont want to be on the bench, Aaron is the no1 now & will be for the forseeable. Pepe just hasnt worked out in the EPL, we need to cut our losses and get what we can for him, even take installments with a high value of possible.
The biggest concern is Willaim Saliba and what we intend to do with him because this kid is a beast and imo would be a great addition to our squad next season alongside White & Gabriel, especially if we get back into Europe either Europa or UCL. Plus have no money to spend on CBs for the next few years as we have McGinn and a few other youngsters coming through the Academy.
Partey & Elneny are gone in Jan to ACON we need another body or 2 in the middle as Xhaka will only be back from a bad injury and we dont know how that will go.
Zakoria from M Gladbach in Germany is out of contract in the summer, 24 years of age and is a monster of a man, would be with his Swiss team mate & Captain in Xhaka. Azeez may also be ready come the summer from his loan also to replace Elnenys place in the squad. We could get him for nothing basically if we are smart.
Patino will be in the squad next season, the kid is a magician on the ball. Our next little Cesc Fabregas.
Our future looks very bright even when all the host of players leave. If we go by the signings we made in the summer then we all should be excited especially if we manage to get back into the top4 this season.
Some good points Sean, money coming in from the sales of Leno, Pepe and Nketian and hopefully it will be used wisely to create better attacking options. At least to give Saka and ESR room to briethe.
Nketiah will only bring in a fee in Jan, same as Kola,Laca, Elneny and Matteo. All will wall on a free imo. Only Fees we will fetch is at least £20m+ For Leno and about £30m if we are lucky for Pepe but with that we could sign replacements. Matteo will also get us roughly £13m, Dino £4m
Wages off the bill is a big bonus to sign new players. (AVG WEEKLY)
Laca – £180k+
Leno – £70k+
Nketiah – £20k+
Kola – £100k (came on a free)
Elneny – £50k+
Matteo – £30k+ (cheap signing)
Total – roughly £450k a week saved.
Means Bolugun gets to take Eddie’s spot. Azeez takes Elnenys. Saliba Returns and we need to sign an attacker. Martinelli can take Pepes position but Laca needs replaced & can be but I’d like to keep him if I was honest, he settles the attacks in ways others cant.
Arthur Okonkwo can step in Lenos position, kid also has a bright future, Saves us a fortune to replacing Bernt.
Again if we get into Europe could maybe be a few young top stars sprinkled into the squad as we would have the funds.
2021/2022 – at least in Europe 🙏
Squad; (Will need a big squad)
GK – Ramsdale / Okonkwo
RB – Tomiyasu / Soares? NEW?
CB – Gab / White / Saliba / Holding
LB – Taveres / Teirney
CDM – Partey / Zakoria / Azeez
CM – Lokonga / Xhaka / AMN
AM – SmithRowe / Ødegaard / Patino
RW – Saka / (Pepe replacement)
LW – Auba / Martinelli
CF – New CF / Bolugun
Chambers, Mari, Soares & Holding are all up for debate to stay or go!
Ok I’m gonna hold my hands up and say I might of jumped the gun this season on my opinion on Artedu. I liked his post match analysis where he said that there is still room for a lot of improvement. Which is great for the cynical supporters (like me) that still see glaring weaknesses in our play.
There are moments this season when it has been a joy to watch especially when we have the 20 – 25 minute bursts where we take the game to the opponent.
But I still have my reservations on the way we absorb pressure. I always feel that if we concede one and the game begins to get tighter the flood gates will open. And if we lose, confidence will be low for the following game.
As many have said ‘Consistency’ but for me it has to be maintaining our pressure play for at least 40 minutes and to be more clinical in front of goal.
If they can do that then I will be more than happy😁
Have to admit I was one of artetas biggest critics but the last few games they have played well,
And summer signings have being brilliant,
But I still say we didn’t need odegarrd if we had went out and spent the money on say a 23 year old striker who could hold onto the ball and also score goals we would have got top 4….
What more do i want to see? Competing with the top 4 teams, not getting absolutely mullered by Liverpool and City and consistency in our performances. Arteta also has to take some praise for the things he has done right but he also has to learn to be pro active rather than reactive, a problem i had with wenger in his last few years. If Arteta can realise quicker that certain things are not working, quicker than he has so far, he stands a chance. The top 4 managers dont let things fester, they act and 90% of the time, what they do is correct. That is something he has to aquire. He has been in the job coming upto 2 years and from now the learning stops and the doing starts.
Hats off again. Player had energy and were attacking and direct, Arteta had the boys prepared and tactics spot on.
Would like to see consistency, we still drop off in the 2nd half. It’s a win, and movin’ on up, so smile and give proper credit.
Positives
*Aubameyang wasn’t scared of the ball and actually held play for the first time in a while. He didn’t lose the ball as often as he does and there’s more room to be better.
*The team looks more confident and less stifled. Expressing themselves, but caution and awareness of their present situation on the pitch should be employed.
*Saka & ESR being straight playing direct runners who don’t lose the ball as often makes a lot of difference. Saka can get a killer instinct in front of Goal.
*White & Gabriel forming a good partnership. Need to cut out the unnecessary or late back passes to the GK.
Negatives
*Light bench. From the XI yesterday, Bar Leno, KT, Mari, maybe Cedric and Xhaka for lack of better, who can manage to keep some of the standard of the XI, and Marty that can up the tempo. It’s a dangerous way to live.
*Poor fitness. The team appears too leggy and like leisure footballers a lot of time due to poor fitness. Got away with it yesterday, lucky to get a draw against Palace. It’s needs to be addressed
*Chances and goals. Arsenal needs to improve the chances from open play and shoot more. Goals wins games.
This is our first good run of form since winning FA Cup. What do i want to see? It’s already been mentioned. The thing we’ve been lacking for many years now. Some consistency! And given we only play once a week that should be easier to achieve. There’s a long ways to go and I feel like ppl are acting like we are already at the finish line. Even if Arteta does finish in a good place this season he will need to get this squad ready to compete in Europe again, in addition to EPL matches. That means squad management skills will need to get better. Because they were awful last season. I know I’m spoiling the good mood, but i cant look at the big pictures with giant blinders.
logical and well-reasoned assessment RSH…Cheers
Continue to perform well, pick up points and don’t let one off game set backs get to us in the League and see where that takes us
Get to the final of the Carabao Cup and who knows maybe win it
Represent the Club’s proud tradition in the FA Cup better than last season
Continue to develop for a real tilt at the top 4 or even title next season, to that end I would like to see Eddie get a good run in the team whilst Auba is at AFCON, Auba is not the future, Eddie could be part of it
I am not getting carried away yet about reaching the top 4.
We have already lost to two of the teams in the current top five, and I think we will need to get to another level to reach a Champions League spot.
I think this season, to get into the Europa League would be a good achievement!
However, unless we buy a “consistent” goal-scorer and another really good defensive midfielder, I fear the Europa Conference League place might have to be our prize….. (and nobody wants that).
We do have a good draw on paper in the EFL cup, so we should get to the Semi Finals. That is when I think we will find out how far we have come from the dark days of August, especially if we get Spurs as an opponent giving us a great chance to reach another Wembley final!!!
Fingers crossed!