Arsenal is struggling to end this season in a European place. We are basically paying the price for making a poor start to this campaign.
We have had to change managers to save our season, and Mikel Arteta is now looking like the manager that we should have named when Arsene Wenger left us.
The Spaniard has improved our team greatly since he became our manager, but there is still so much to do before we can end this season in a European place.
Time is running out for us and the games come at us so fast, I fear that we might not enter a European competition next season through the league table.
Like I have written before, it won’t be the end of the world if we end this season outside the European place, especially if we have placed ourselves in a position to have a better season the next time out.
Here a few things I think we can do differently ahead of next season if we miss out on Europe.
Sort our summer business early
We need to sort out our summer transfer business as quick as possible when the transfer window reopens, this way, Mikel Arteta will know the players he is working with and start working with them early.
Target a fast start
We need to start next season as we mean to go on. Starting with an unbeaten or winning run in our first ten games would give us the momentum to attack the rest of the season.
Prioritise making the top four/title challenge
We need to forget about winning the FA Cup, Carabao Cup and target a title challenge or at least finishing the campaign in the top four.
The other cup competitions do nothing but give your players injuries and increase the number of games that you have to play.
An article from Ime
A ttitle challange you feeling alright?.has the sun got to you pr something 😂
If we don’t make Europe, what we need to do is consolidate the good players we have , get whatever improvements we can , and start developing a style and a routine. We need to identify as something. In my view, arteta is already moving in that direction , and I think that’s the right thing to do. Building a style helps with the transfer market.In building a style , you build combinations in the team , where you have players who might not be great on there own, but are world class when put in a pair with some other person. From that stage , we weed out those who don’t fit any combinations or tactical requirements in the team. They don’t really have to be players without skill , they just can’t fit. The window, is then for creating better combinations (that is , if there’s a combination that looks promising , but one or more of the players in that combination can’t pull off 100 percent what’s asked of him), and looking for gap fillers. Players that are not brought in to make someone else better, but simply because on their own, they make the entire team better. This could be in the shape of a reliable bench option, or a starter who makes it worth it to break the cohesion of the team.
My only comments on targeting a fast start and winning run to add momentum is fine if the fixture list is at least reasonably favourable. Playing Liverpool and ManC on the opening couple of weekends might put that cunning plan to bed.
I think what your saying is right, we would need to prioritise efficiently. Target a top 4 finish use the cups for our youngsters. Wenger did this for years but everyone forgets. We won it 3 years in a row because we actually targeted it for “silverware” to stop the we don’t win things brigade talking. We can sign players still, we are a big club still. The best thing that happened to Liverpool in my opinion is not qualifying for Europe. It allowed them to focus on one thing thats top 4. Look where they are now, we can do the same.