Morning all..
Well technically we took it till the whistle of our penultimate game in the Premier League before having nothing else to play for, even tho the title race seemed over weeks ago.
As much as Manchester City’s run in has been relentless, ours has spluttered. Please note im giving zero credit to Man City here and never will until the 115 charges are dealt with.
Its hard to tell what exactly went wrong for us, the injuries, the young squad, the lack of depth, Arteta himself or, indeed as mentioned, the pressure a financially doped up fully fit Man City squad that kept racking up the Ws. The truth is its a big mix of them all and that just makes it harder to solve….
Man City needed “only” 85 points to win the league. Arsenal would potentially have needed 95. That would have been the 5th or 6th highest Premier League points total in history.
This season has been massive steps forwards on the pitch. Not one pundit or journalist predicted us coming 2nd, and very few predicted top 4.
As crazy as it sounds, a good few predicted Tottenham to finish above us. After Tottenham had their best start to a season in 59 years, many pundits were expecting them to fight City for the title.
The mass pile on so they can try and pull some credibility back with a lame “told you so” is baffling. That and of course we create hits now like we sold newspapers before the digital age…We make the headlines like no other club.
A video of Gary Neville back in January predicted what would happen.
He said that Manchester City would jump ahead of Arsenal with a victory at the Etihad. And then once in-front they would keep winning and Arsenal would struggle to keep up. He predicted back then that City would eventually finish 10 points ahead of us.
In the discussion, he made it clear that Arsenal would be powerless. And that City would go on a relentless run. So why does he say we bottled it when what he predicted would happen? And had previously said it would all be down to City.
The rest of the Premier League, the TV companies, the pundits and journalists should actually thank us.
Without us performing so well for 75% of the season, would’ve been over in the middle of April and would have been a complete bore fest (laughing at Tottenham and Chelsea aside).
I am proud of what the team did. We have a very likeable hardworking talented bunch, many of which are nowhere near peaking. Our best 11 will give anyone a game, but lose 2 or 3 and we drop off, massively.
Never has a transfer window been so pivotal.
Arteta and Edu firstly have to get the selling right to boost the transfer kitty and secondly Josh and Stan have to decide if they really want a squad to challange for the next few years in the prem and in the Champions League. Although it probably does not really matter what we spend. Manchester City can always spend more.
This season has been very profitable for the club. Record gate receipts, record numbers of club members, record high attendances, and record kit sales by Adidas, with them renewing and increasing the money for there never ending conveyor belt of merchandise.
For over a decade I’ve been saying if the owners invest in the playing side the income will increase, hopefully they have clocked onto this now.
Lastly Arteta/Edu can’t make any mistakes this summer, we haven’t got unlimited funds.
We dont need any fillers or players who maybe stars in 2 or 3 years time. With Xhaka looking likely to be the only starting 11 player leaving this summer we will need 3-4 players who would be ready to play in the 1st XI on the opening day of next season (note: that does not mean we need to sign 3-4 players that will 100% start. We need a squad of 17-18 players who can all play on any given Saturday without seeing a drop off in the player they are replacing).
I hope everyone looks back fondly on this season, the ground rocking, the away stands bouncing and the hope and expectations in us being back…
And we are back baby, this is just the start….
Up The Arsenal.
Gav
PS: Just wanted to say that it was a disgrace that Nottingham Forsest stewards would not allow Arsenal players to come over and thank the away supporters who travel up and down the country throughout the season – Keenos.
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 