It’s so sad that we are faltering now when our biggest rival is seemingly out of the picture.
Our biggest rival in the last two campaigns are currently on a horrendous run of form. Man City’s recent loss in the Manchester derby was perhaps the one that would’ve hurt the most in recent weeks due to how hard they threw the game away. Two goals conceded in the final two minutes of stoppage time ensured they could not see out the one nil lead they took in the first half. That loss was their eight in the last eleven matches, which they followed up with defeat away at Villa, to make it 9 out of 12, with only one win to their name in that run and that has seen them lose ground on both the UCL and Premier League summits.
This very long downfall, being long due, has left me as a gooner, pretty disheartened. Man City in the two previous seasons where we chased the title was a very big rival to us. Not only were they better overall, they were ruthlessly efficient with more experience and title winning know-how. I see a lot of comments about Arne Slot working wonders at Liverpool, but believe me, it would’ve been a different story if that old version of City was firing this season.
The previous version of the Citizens are the only reason we haven’t won the title in the last two seasons, and we might view it as being unlucky that when they’re seemingly getting out of the picture, we ourselves are faltering as well. It’s a really hard pill to swallow considering the heartbreak we went through at their hands recently. We should be making the most of this opportunity and we simply failed to do so.
And the consequences of it is us now facing the prospect of a newcomer like Arne Slot or Enzo Maresca winning the League before Arteta!
BENJAMIN KENNETH.
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Wow, I’ve been waiting for somebody to say something about this but it was an avoided topic until now. It will be a real heartbreak for me if maresca or slot wins the league this season with everything we went through at man city’s the past two seasons. This season should have our season but unfortunately as things are presently with injuries to key players, red cards and bad luck, we will require a miracle to win the league.
LP has also finished close runner up to City115 in multiple fairly recent seasons. They have also won the league and look to be in the driver’s seat for this one. We can improve on finishing second the same as they have.
Arsenal just can’t keep the pace even when Manchester City are falling apart looks like Liverpool and Chelsea are the main contenders for the title
This season will be a success if we lift one trophy it’s badly needed to take the pressure off the players.
Rather despondent article when we are still in contention for the Title despite Liverpool’s apparent dominance.I am a great believer in good fortune levelling out by the end of the season, and having watched Liverpool in numerous matches, they have undoubtedly enjoyed the run of the green in many matches not only on the pitch but in the absence of opponents key players for one reason or another.The Spurs match was an example where the home side were without no fewer than 5 first team picks .Liverpool are a very good side who have based their success on athleticism and drive in midfield allied to a hard running front three.Possession does not appear to be their mantra as they are not averse to going long and direct ,tactics which we rarely use unfortunately.Hope springs eternal as they say and I for one feel it’s far too soon to be writing off our chances.
@Grandad, my heart says to go with you, but my head……..
I think the gap is too wide to be made up through good luck and all that. Liverpool are playing very well and they don’t look like letting go any time soon.
I think the best we can achieve is dislodge Chelsea and reclaim our “usual” no. 2. The title is gone
👍
You could argue that Arsenal themselves are the reason we haven’t won the league on either of the last two occasions. We were in the ascendency and dropped points at vital times during the run-in. City were just more consistent when they needed to be.
Unfortunately, City have timed their downfall just as Liverpool and Chelsea are clicking and now we face a fight to finish in the top 4 let alone win the league.
What does City115’s decline have to do with how we are doing this season and our ability to win the title? We win the title if we get better results than any other club over the 38 game season whether it is City115, LP, or Southampton.
We became too obsessed with getting tactically better than only City and forgot there’s another 1.5 dozen teams to deal with. While we’ve done well with that uni-focus of ours, the likes of Fulham and Everton turned us inside out and even Chelsea stole a march upon us ….
Exactly. Most times we focus on City forgetting that there are other teams figuring out how to get to the same target 🎯 ; trophy 🏆.
However, be it Premier League, Champions league, FA or Carabao Cup, we mustn’t go empty this season.
It is not true that “we” (if by we you mean Arsenal) became obsessed with getting tactically better than City.
Reminiscent of 2015/16 when we couldn’t capitalise on the weaknesses of our major challengers to the throne and allowed an “unknown” Leicester City to have a once-in-a-lifetime PL title gift-wrapped
That season Arsenal just needed to strengthen a couple of positions to be able to win the league. But they brought in only Peter Cezh for a paltry £10m believing that an additional 10 points from a “world class” keeper was all that they needed to be champions .
The rest, as they say, is history.
We remember that season quite differently. I remember Arsenal being the only club to beat Leicester twice and taking 3 more points off of them than any of the other “Big Six” clubs that season. The “weaknesses” of our major challengers to the throne were shown simply in not doing as well as Leicester and Arsenal that season.
I found it absolutely incredible and annoying that even when we managed to finish 2nd after only winning a “3rd or 4th place trophy” for so many consecutive seasons that the detractors still managed to not give Arsenal its due with every argument in the book including that the other big clubs just had some kind of freaky terrible luck just as Leicester had a miracle season.
In hindsight, clubs always only need to strengthen the right positions in order to finish higher in the table including from 2nd to 1st or for that matter from 18th to 17th.
P.S. Thanks to Newcastle for that wonderful last day of the season.
agreed, two season waiting for even the smallest wobble from Man C that did not come
then out of nowhere Man C wheels completely fall off and feels like Arsenal have missed that opportunity
i look back on;
1) the 3 red cards early in the campaign cost us 5 points alone
2) injury has decimated our defence but Odegaard missing for 10 games never going to be sustainable
3) nil all at home to Everton
the last one can happen, no team wins every game
also no one saw Liverpool being actually better without Klopp, and Chelsea form is just bonkers
it does feel like PL 2024/25 was the one that got away, but what crazy sense of entitlement i must have to expect nothing less than the title in toughest league in the world
“off with Arteta’s head now!”
Typical Arsenal I am afraid. Why we expect anything other, is fantasy.
Arsenal has no need to ‘take advantage’ while City continues to drop points (eg today another two down the drain). We just keep doing what we’ve already been doing.
KDB appears to be only a shadow of the player he has been. The team is really suffering from the absence of Rodri. As we’ve unfortunately seen so many times injuries can devastate any club at any time.
Good ole Fulham as well Jax
Yeh Sue I caught the end of that on Prime. We’re on it tomorrow
Marco Silva really has done a good job. It’s a real joy to watch Alex playing so well and enjoying life.
City won 4 consecutive PLs and the team is tired . Arsenal fought very close in the last two years & you can see that effect on the team similar to city ( but to lesser extent) . Arsenal should have strengthened /freshned up the attack after 2 years of close run. It is very hard for the same set of players to repeat the performance 3 consecutive years.