Less than 24 hours after the heartbreak of Budapest, Declan Rice was already looking ahead.
Speaking during Arsenal’s Premier League trophy parade, Rice delivered a rallying cry to supporters, saying: “Next year, we’re coming back for more. Lock in… or get locked out,” as reported by The Guardian.
For a player who had just experienced the pain of losing a Champions League Final on penalties, it would have been easy to focus on what Arsenal had missed out on.
Instead, he chose to focus on what comes next.
And perhaps that’s exactly the mentality Arsenal need.
The Journey Is Still Moving Forward
It is impossible to ignore the disappointment of losing the biggest match in club football. Arsenal came within touching distance of making history before PSG eventually prevailed in the penalty shootout.
But football doesn’t exist in isolation.
This wasn’t a team crashing out in the group stages. This wasn’t a side making up the numbers in Europe.
This was a Premier League-winning Arsenal team reaching the Champions League Final after years of steady progress under Mikel Arteta.
The trajectory is difficult to ignore.
Quarter Final.
Semi Final.
Final.
Every season Arsenal have taken another step forward on the European stage.
Supporters understandably feel the pain of coming so close, but there is also a strong argument that this experience could be invaluable moving forward.
Many of Europe’s greatest teams suffered setbacks before eventually lifting the trophy. Learning how to handle the pressure of the latter stages is often part of the journey.
Why Rice’s Words Matter
What impressed me most about Rice’s comments was not the confidence.
It was the belief.
He wasn’t speaking like a player satisfied with reaching a final. He wasn’t talking like someone content with winning one Premier League title.
He sounded like a player who believes Arsenal belong at the very top of European football.
That belief appeared to be shared by the supporters lining the streets of North London for Sunday’s parade.
Despite the disappointment of Budapest, hundreds of thousands of Gooners turned out to celebrate the club’s first league title in 22 years. The atmosphere was one of pride rather than despair.
Perhaps that says everything about where Arsenal are as a football club right now.
The standards have risen.
The expectations have risen.
And so has the belief.
Nobody wanted Saturday night to end the way it did. But if Arsenal can turn the pain of defeat into motivation, then Rice may be right to issue his warning already.
Quarter Final.
Semi Final.
Final.
The next step really is obvious.
Do you agree, Gooners? Is this Arsenal team destined to go one step further in Europe next season?
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Instead of players who command extravagant prices, we should go after ones BEFORE their valuations skyrocket. So no Morgan Rogers or Julian Alvarez etc.
Christos Tzolis, 24. 51 matches, 22 goals, 29 assists. LW but can play anywhere.
Mika Godts 20 years old, 44 matches, 17 goals, 15 assists. LW.
Arda Guler, 21 years old. 51 matches, 6 goals, 14 assists. CAM but played out of position as CM. Don’t know if he’s affordable but if he is (Real is buying back Nico Paz)
These 3 are one of the most creative players in European leagues. First 2 are definitely most attainable. This season was Mika Godts breakthrough, but Tzolis has had 3 strong seasons already. Not in top flight, but he scored 22 and assisted 29 in a league where Igor Thiago scored 29, and he’s settled quite well at Brentford.
I’m so in support of this. They all come with low values and low risk and they work out, the club will make a lot of money from their sale.
With the 800m in the coffer and Arteta’s ruthlessness to bolstering the squad (minuses and pluses), hegemonic dominance of both domestic and continental leagues is possible.
800million
lol
The club made £766m this season, so it’s just short of that 800.
Thank you Herr Drier! I think FIFA will pay clubs for the participating players so that gap to 800m will be filled as almost all Arsenal players are there in the WC 26.
Ambachew, clubs do indeed recieve money for their players playing in international tournaments.
What you think we have 800 million to spend
No one has said we will spend 800 million, just that there is 800m in the coffers.
He was implying that we had 800 to spend
That’s how you read his post. I didn’t read it like that.
Should make it clear though that even with rules loosening, we can’t spend that sort of money.
Ask Newcastle fans about the rules.
Chelsea tried splurging round the rules using amortising, but they seem to have run out of wriggle room. Sadly.
Or not sadly.
It is important for us fans to keep reminding each other our first team is pretty much settled now, most likely we will bolster the backup squad a bit this window, left wing, right back.
Superstars like earning oodles of money, and won’t come without being promised it. They might not even fancy English weather and the rough n tumble of the Premiership football.
And even if superstar skills might be welcome, as disruptive characters around the club I don’t think that’s a route we should venture down. Absolutely no way I would consider Mbappe for example.
DK,
Our spending power has obviously increased with that mammoth money.
We went undefeated in the UCL – that is an achievement by itself.
We lost the game on pens – we faced them and gave them a torrid time, last year they spanked Milan 5-0, it was never easy to beat Mikel’s Arsenal in the UCL.
Proud of Mikel and the lads, coming second is not a bad thing provided we learn and grow and win it next year.
We played the final with a make shift RB against 2 of the best wide players in Europe right now KK and BB. Moresca is a CB, playing him out of position we all knew something would happen and it did.
We did not lose in a bad way, so lets leave it there, proud of the lads, there are more important things in life, football is just a game. Love and respect
The Shoba Reality Show,
We had only 25% of possession and you say we gave them a torrid time, priceless, absolutely priceless. 🤦♂️🤷♂️
We didn’t make it was for them.
Derek
i agree we didn’t give them a torrid time offensively and at times i thought we could have been on the front foot a bit more. last 15 of normal time i thought we pushed up further but was always apprehensive about being caught out on the break.
them having 75% of possession looks terrible on paper but overall they caused us little concern imo. bar a mis tackle and pen being awarded we dealt with arguably the best front 3 in the world pretty decent.
everyone knew we would set up like this and anyone who thought we would go toe to toe with this team misunderstood how bad it could have been if we did. inter done that last year and looked what happened to them
i thought after seeing off there best players who were subbed off we could have gone after them a bit more . hind sight if a great thing.
the boys done me proud and in the end without my AFC hat on the best team won but and with the ifs and whys if we did nicked another goal and went 2 up as we did have the chances but wrong decision making by us everyone would have said 25% possession but what a game plan that was. fine margins and a spot kick away from glory
we are in it again next season so we have a chance again to right the wrongs and as dec said… its not done…
onwards and upwards
Good afternoon alanball08,
I totally agree with a lot of what you say, it would have been suicidal to have gone toe to toe with them. But there were periods in the game where their threat was diluted regards the substitutions they made.
And regards you’re comment that we can have another go next season, while I’m with you on that. There’s no guarantee that we’ll get the chance again. This is why it feels like such a big opportunity wasted.
Derek, I don’t agree it will be suicidal because they are also afraid of us because they didn’t know what they would get if they also went full attack. The first time they committed men fully forward we exploited the gap behind them and we scored without losing our shape.
Had we continued the way started and the way we played after their penalty the story would have been different. How we believed we could curtail them from 6 minutes to the end is delusional. We couldn’t even do against team with less attacking prowess as psg. I’m proud of the boys nonetheless.
There was a lot of tactical analysis before the game that the way we could get into scoring positions against PSG was to (a) draw their world class midfield out so we could exploit the gap behind, and (b) try to get set pieces at their end. Which is what we tried to do.
It’s all good in theory. But PSG also knew that was what we’d need to do, given we couldn’t really go man-on-man with them.
We had to blunt their attackers, then send it back up the middle rather than playing wide, because PSG’s wide players and fullbacks like Hakimi are just a level higher than our wide players at the moment. They are also much better at holding the ball and passing than we are right now. We’re better off the ball, but that of course leaves us where we ended up, defending and hoping for a counter opportunity.
So actually making it happen wasn’t really as easy as imagining how to do it. If we had tried to play a more open, attacking game, there’s little doubt we would have lost badly in regular time.
You’re picking on a single word of his “torrid” as the basis of your entire reply. Everything shoba is saying is correct and yet you prefer to make him feel little (or yourself bigger) by using one word to try and discredit him.
You are the one who is priceless.
Eamon12,
I’m not trying to make Shoba feel little at all. If a team that has 25% of possession and it be said they gave PSG a torrid time, I stand by my comment. Priceless, absolutely priceless.
Like it or not, Arsenal are not pleasing on the eye and haven’t been for some time now. And you may be happy with that, I’m not and just like it’s you’re right to like what you see, it’s my right to say I don’t like what I see.
Yes we won the league, but in truth we fell over the line if we’re honest. I hope that now having won the league, Arteta will feel more able to start playing the football they played back in the season of 2022/2023. The defense back then was good, so why Arteta felt the need to be so pragmatic is anyone’s guess.
For me the problem Arsenal had late in that season was, losing Saliba, and his cover was Holding. That says it all really.
28 %
And 1 shot on target in 120 minutes
Real torrid that .
you still hanging around trying to blind side people with cheap snips
and they only mustered 1 goal from a penalty in that time , unless i missed something
How is that snide he made a silly comment I replied .
Yet here you are hanging around every post I make 😂
you stand out like a sore thumb so its hard to miss your post
all responses are done in jest but you put your self up be shot at after many seasons of blasting the fluffy people as you called them
so you get what you sow
onwards and upwards
sorry :
“Reap what you sow”
its nothing personal… you know that and just good light hearted banter
but if you want me to avoid your comments then just say so
onwards and upwards
Fluffy people !
You do you bud ,you seem to have a hard on for me ,if that floats your boat carry on .
I’ll post what I want regardless,if that upsets you then all the better (which it obviously does )
👍
If it upsets me…. how amusing you are… Imagine the scenes in your head right now. Our club and our manager have lifted the exact trophy you confidently declared, on multiple occasions, was impossible. You must be swimming laps in a cesspit of confusion while your old takes sink to the bottom.
As for the hard-on for you… don’t flatter yourself. When DK comes to mind, “erectile dysfunction” arrives shortly afterwards — both famous for failing to rise to the occasion. Still, as I always say, DK: onwards and upwards. It’s a nice slogan, even if you’ve yet to master either part.
But the scoreboard showed 1-1 after 120+ minutes of game time
Maybe you would have liked a 5-0 drubbing like last year or the “golden” Wenger years.
derek
we didnt fall over the line, we won it by 7 clear points. the table never lies and the best team always win the league where as cup games you need a tad bit of luck to win it
i dont think there is one Arsenal fan that would disagree with you with we are not pretty on the eye.
jeff steling this morning gave a great quote . only a mum would love an ugly baby… and we are but we honestly dont care and we love the baby because it has giving back a feeling that we have been missing for 22 years.
right now as we are savouring the moment . next year we need to be better on the eye but let me ask a question to you and everyone here
if we were to play as we have in parts of this season and defiantly at the end of the season and we go on to win the title again and maybe go one step further and lift the champions league would we accept it?
onwards and upwards
Haha
Calm down son
Derek, we did what was necessary to win the title fair and square and did not fall over the line. Could things have been better, of course, and I’m still waiting for another invincible side. I would rather have the results we had this season than those of 2022/2023 or any other non-title season regardless of anything else. Another big factor in not getting over the line in 2022/2023 was Jesus not coming back to form after his horrific injury in the WC. Unfortunately, Saliba may have another back problem currently of unknown severity.
Your allowed to say whatever you like mate of course, but as is Sobha. And your reply to him made it look like he shouldn’t have.
I actually agree with you arsenal weren’t pleasing on the eye no one who watched the games can deny that. I think some people are misinterpreting that to mean you aren’t happy we won the league. I also agree with sobha except use of torrid as it has the same meaning to me as it did to you , but a different meaning to him. But I would have replied to that in a different tone that’s all.
You seem like a reasonable bloke by your response and a smart one.
No hard feelings mate (not that we care :P).
Eamon,
Thanks for you’re response, and I do acknowledge I could have worded my response a bit better.👍
We did give them a torrid time? With that 75% possession what did they create? They had to rely on there best player being smart with our weakest link to get a spot kick. Other than that the best attacking team in the world looked blunt. Had Mikel been braver and thrown on Merino and Dowman instead of Gyokores and Madueke i think we would be celebrating a double.
Liam Gallagher,
You’re definition of a torrid time and mine are totally different it would seem.
Not exactly torrid, Derek but neither did PSG maul us. You appear to have got out of bed on the wrong side today tbh from reading your various posts.
What exactly does fall over the line mean to you? Winning on the final day of the season on goal difference or by a single point – that’s what falling over the line means for to me not winning by 7 points
Evening SueP,
I didn’t get out of bed the wrong side, I’m just a miserable git😂.
My fall over the line remark was meant to be more along the line of our less than impressive performances in those final games, I don’t think anyone can really argue a case against that.
And just a question to you’re goodself, what do you find wrong with my other various posts. Go easy on me now!. 🤦♂️😂
Yes you are. It’s been a long season and one that brought with it a QF in the FACup, a loss in the final of the Carabao Cup, a loss in a penalty shootout and the glory of winning the league.
You and others can dissect the CL match until you’re blue in the face but what will you have proved? Ken1945 was right. It came down to missing a penalty after every other method of sorting out the winner had failed. So did the 75% possession help PSG? No it didn’t.
Here’s silly SueP, as happy as Larry that through all the nail biting drama of the last 9 months, Arsenal came away with as much as it has. See above. The club has no history in Europe and yet we came within a gnat’s knacker of beating the reigning European champions. It wasn’t a drubbing or an embarrassment to the badge. Arsenal have had a fantastic season and why am I feeling that some sections can’t exist without finding fault. Look at the joy of the hordes of Arsenal supporters at the parade. That’s how I feel. That’s why I want to carry on feeling for a bit longer Derek, and not to feel deflated.
Torrid to some people can mean not making it easy, being aggressive in duels, in their face physical etc….
To others like Derek it’s the opposite. It’s outplaying them with the ball opening then up with passes etc.
Both are correct.
It’s safe to say we frustrated them to choose a better word…
And it nearly worked. Only not as we conceded.
What Derek believes is then we should have played a bit more open and have a solid plan to create good opportunities. We tried but did not execute, and that’s down to the competition as it is us. Against other teams in league our bench made the difference. Even our set pieces weren’t effective nor did we get a lot of them. The manager will be planning a few more creative players next season . At the moment it’s objective complete as we won the league.
On another day we could have knicked another goal, gabi scored his pen, mosquera not make the foul..
Very fine margins.
Agree 100%SRS.
They couldn’t score goal through open play and it was our mistake that have them the CL title.
All, this BS about how much possession they had and yet, when AW was manager, he was pilloried for the self same thing.
Did anyone really expect anything else from some of our fans – wrong first eleven, wrong substitutions, wrong penalty takers, wrong tactics and the latest one… fell over the line, when winning the PL by seven points!!
It took just a few days for the Arteta knockers to come out again, after having to swallow humble pie after we won said PL title – the unity was as insincere as the credit given to Mikel Arteta.
Lols
Really surprised this coming from you Ken. It seems there is an itch from some section of fans to go after Arteta critics after winning the league (as if they have been wrong all these past years) and are looking for any tiny excuse to do so.
Can you really say in good conscience Arsenal were valiant in that final? And how does winning the league have anything to do with our performance in CL final? What is the relationship?
And before the likes of Allenball misinterpret my words purposely I don’t care about the final I have already forgotten it and my mind is all in the World Cup right now.
Please spell the name correctly
I am a world cup winner and legend
🤭
HH, having watched nearly every game that our club has played this season, I’m amazed that anyone would think we would play differently in the CL final.
We all know the style of play that won us the PL and where our undoubted strength lies, it’s our defence.
Of course I expected us to play to our strengths against a team that we were told we had no real chance to beat.
That’s where the link between our performance in the final and our PL style of play was so easy to predict, as it’s what we are brilliant at doing and we nullified PSG’s ability to score from open play during 120 plus minutes – that was a valiant effort in my book.
As soon as the game was over, we had posts saying all that I typed out in my penultimate paragraph – check it out HH it’s there for all to read.
The same goes for my last paragraph as well and to read that we “fell over the line” when winning the PL, was just as insulting as Pardew saying there should be an asterisk against our name on the trophy.
Was it said that city130 “fell over the line” when they claimed the title by just two points and five points against us, when we actually won the PL by seven points? Of course it wasn’t!!
I+Was I itching to go after those Arteta critics?
I didn’t have to go after them, as they soon showed their true feelings and it was as certain as night follows day that they would.
To your credit, you haven’t done that until now, when querying if we made a valiant effort – one penalty was the difference and, perhaps, one penalty decision that went against us was another?!
You are very wrong to say ‘until now’ because my personal view on knockout games is reaching the final is the hard work or the achievement and the final is always 50/50.
I don’t hold anything against the boys because the CL finals always tend to favor those who have won it before I don’t know why. Maybe we will have better luck when we meet non winners like us.
But still those who say we didn’t give it our all and that we didn’t really go for it how are they wrong?
The teams which reach the finals are equal we can’t play the underdog card again unless we also accept we reached the finals by beating weaker opponents and PSG were too good for us to handle.
Before Alanball08 misinterpret my words I happen to believe the former.
Ken1945,
My falling over the line remark wasn’t meant by the amount of points we won the League by. It meant the less than impressive performances in the last couple of months of the season especially.
In times past, certainly under Wenger we would win the League with a bit of style. On this occasion we didn’t, and that’s what my falling over the line comment was eluding to, nothing more.
Availability is ability. Off load players who regularly get injured such as
On point
Had Timber not been injured and just returning for the final, we would have seen out the 1 – 0 lead that we had.
We were not destined to do the double this year, but we ha d a good season.
Hopefully, we can sign some great attacking players and strengthen our team more, and go ahead to the UCL next year.
Cala, could not play, Saliba carrying an injury, Rice, Zubi, Kai, Saka, Gyoal, Gabriel played into the ground.
Sufferball 101, fine margins, set piece fc will not do it next year as our guys are going to be completely shot by the end of the world flop.
Unless there is a change in personal, and proper rest and recovery over the 38, not breasting players in practice, not going full blast in all comps, bringing in at least 3-4 players with fresh legs, my estimation is Arteta will have a season like Slot did this year.
Thank goodness the team got it over the line.
Thank you Michelle, you always write positive about Arsenal. Many Thanks!
I agree, think “ there is also a strong argument that this experience could be invaluable moving forward.
Many of Europe’s greatest teams suffered setbacks before eventually lifting the trophy. Learning how to handle the pressure of the latter stages is often part of the journey” is absolutely spot on. Just making the final and taking it to distance can have built more belief.
I don’t think Champions League is a Holy Grail to pursue anyway, cup knock outs are too random to be as value a prize as the Premiership. How often to pre tournament favourites in ECL and World Cups end up winners?
I would be more than happy winning no cups and no doubles, just Prem titles. If you offered me right now the next two Prem titles and zero cups to go with them, I’d take it.
Rivals are in turmoil esp EPL ones. Stability matters to win titles. Will Bayern continue with Kompany? I doubt. Will Mourinho lift up Madrid spirit? I doubt. After trophyless consecutive seasons will Atletico stick with Simeone? I doubt. I believe in the Kroenkes and Arteta more than ever.
EPL we’ll be fine, we have the depth and talent. We’ll definitely be a contender again given the state of the competition as you say.
As for the CL, we will be contenders again there too. PSG haven’t changed their lineup in a year and won’t much next year either, so will still be among the favourites.
They’ve been our nemesis in the CL for 2 years running now. So whatever we do with incomings and outgoings, we need to assemble a squad capable of going toe to toe with them in the semis or final next year. Which 100% means top level additions in attack, especially in wide areas.
No. Totally disagree with all this “ assemble a squad capable of going toe to toe with PSG in the semis or final next year. Which 100% means top level additions in attack” gibberish. Gibberish.
1. We could win the CL next year without even meeting PSG.
2. We could meet them and knock them out with exactly what we have today. We nearly did.
3. We could do the “ Which 100% means top level additions” stuff and not even make another final let alone win it – don’t you think Real, Barca, Man City, Liverpool etc haven’t already tried the “ Which 100% means top level additions” business in recent seasons, and it guaranteed them nothing.
Forget the CL, it’s just a bonus if it happens., we need to focus on the Prem, it’s a far bigger prize.
Look how Liverpool messed up from their title triumph – you want Isak and Wurzl type signings? It sounds like you do.
We have a difficult job defending this title. It’s 2 seasons since Man City have won PL, 9 since Chelsea won it – and look how much they spend in that time – 13 seasons for Manchester Utd. Liverpool have only won two in 34 seasons of it! It’s hard to win. It’s a tough league. We have NEVER defended a PL title, last time defended top league title was 92 years ago. That’s the main focus for next season, forget the Champions League, and don’t for a moment start thinking retaining this PL title will be anything other than very difficult and thwart with jeopardy. You all hear?
Haha, let’s take a breath?
I agree with you about the EPL. I don’t mean to suggest that it’s going to be a cakewalk at all. We don’t know how other teams will perform next season, but we DO know we’ll still be one of the best, with probably the deepest squad. We’re losing G Jesus, so we’ll already need either a technical forward like him or, if we want to have other options, a more clinical attacker. These same attacking additions that will strengthen us for the EPL are going to be the same ones that will help us in the CL against PSG too.
If we don’t add more options in attack, we will be forced to play much the same game as this year. Which PSG have now beaten us 3 times at in semis and a final in the last 2 years (albeit closely).
Yes, we COULD beat PSG with what we have. But we are not any better than them – if you were to take players from the current squads to make a best 11, if you’re honest you will likely end up with 4 from Arsenal and 7 from PSG. So we don’t really have any option other than playing relatively negative football and hoping for the best on the breaks. It’s just about giving us game options and increasing the odds in our favour. Not sure why you’d be so against that?
As for Isak and Wirtz, what happened there wouldn’t automatically happen with us if we bought a 3rd striker and a left winger, obviously. Our recruitment would be different.
I will add – yes, you’re right that we may not meet PSG in the CL next year and I don’t actually mean it’s just about PSG, though I see how my response sounded that way. Regardless, it’s not lunacy to suggest that our attack needs strengthening, no matter who we come up against. It could be City or United or Liverpool. We could easily have lost a few games in the league this year where we didn’t perform well, even against low level competition you’ll remember, because we struggled with players out of form or overtired. We played 63 games. We will play top teams in all competitions, and different options to change up the approach to beat different opponents will be a strength, not a weakness.