Arsenal 2023/24

Season is on the line on Thursday no doubt. If we go out it'll be three on the bounce without a win and feel absolutely no different to the past two Aprils where our season has fallen apart.

If we win it will galvanize the group tenfold and give us confidence we can fight till the end in the title race.

This week is probably the biggest test for Arteta! Must win against Bayern for a chance in CL, must win against Wolves to keep any chancve of the league alive!

Doubt you will beat Chelsea, Spurs and Utd

theprof

Only good thing that came out of that weekend was Liverpool losing as well.
5 to go, need City to draw a couple of times, but we need to win every one of them.

Some former players had a better day. Xhaka scored a screamer as he won the Bundesliga (cue the memes about leaving Arsenal and winning leagues immediately etc) and even Maitland-Niles of all people scored the winner in the 16th(!) minute of injury time for Lyon.

I love seeing Xhaka and leverkusen smash it this season. 120 years since they last won the league. Just incredible.  

I did not think they had ever won the league

kwlap

I love seeing Xhaka and leverkusen smash it this season. 120 years since they last won the league. Just incredible.  

First and only league title.

Speaking of one team leagues, not a good look for English football if City go 6 in 7 and become the first team to go four in a row in England. 

Buffon II

First and only league title.

Speaking of one team leagues, not a good look for English football if City go 6 in 7 and become the first team to go four in a row in England. 

it has been incredibly tight this year though, anyone of 3 could still technically take the league. Although it does look very much like City's to lose now.

Given the charges hanging over city the 6/7 and 4 in a row feats have massive astrixes next to them. While they play incredible football and have amazing players, given they’ve assembled their squad outside the rules the rest of the team follows it does make you wonder what the point is. Because for all the fines and point deductions that may happen, they’re now firmly established at the top of it won’t be possible for others to do the same anytime soon.

I was worried Liverpool and Arsenal might choke. Not a fan of City but I can't see them drop too many more points.

Arsenal have deserved something this year. Liverpool does what they do best, implode towards the end. Shame it'll end with just the league cup for Klopp.

City's dominance is not good for English football.

brumbys

Given the charges hanging over city the 6/7 and 4 in a row feats have massive astrixes next to them. While they play incredible football and have amazing players, given they’ve assembled their squad outside the rules the rest of the team follows it does make you wonder what the point is. Because for all the fines and point deductions that may happen, they’re now firmly established at the top of it won’t be possible for others to do the same anytime soon.

This is a really good point. Assuming City are guilty of breaching the fair pay rules, then their super squad ahs been assembled unfairly. They've spent more than they were allowed for successive seasons which invalidates any of their achievements because the squad they have breaks the rules.

Sure they play great football and it would seem to be a super squad, it's just not allowed to be played in any league. It's essentailly like playing any of the football management games with the cheats/editor enabled.

Buffon II

First and only league title.

Speaking of one team leagues, not a good look for English football if City go 6 in 7 and become the first team to go four in a row in England. 

They are an oil state with an unlimited budget who have probably assembled their squad outside of the rules. It's simply not possible to compete with them. I don't think it's quite the same as some other leagues that have always been one or two team leagues.

It’s terrible for the PL, at least when it was bouncing around United, Chelsea, Arsenal it felt like there was competition. That said United had built a similar level of dominance under Ferguson but have struggled to recover since he left. I wonder if City might experience the same post Pep, especially if they’re on a tighter leash with spending. Erling aside their recent signings of Doku, Gvardiol, Kovacic, and Akanji haven’t been excessive “best in the world” types.

ajc28

Buffon II

First and only league title.

Speaking of one team leagues, not a good look for English football if City go 6 in 7 and become the first team to go four in a row in England. 

They are an oil state with an unlimited budget who have probably assembled their squad outside of the rules. It's simply not possible to compete with them. I don't think it's quite the same as some other leagues that have always been one or two team leagues.

Feels the biggest game in a long time.  Get through and it could be the boost we need to get back on track in the league too. If we lose I fear we just totally collapse like last season and lose in the weekend aswell to effectively go out of everything in the same week like we so often used to.

Tight first half. Thought martenlli could have put us a head on the end of a slick team move. 

Gabi is giving me heart attacks today. I think he’s got the yips. 

Ffs

Recently Saka has looked like half of his form from earlier in the season. I wonder if he is jaded from all the games he’s played for club and country. 

kwlap

Recently Saka has looked like half of his form from earlier in the season. I wonder if he is jaded from all the games he’s played for club and country. 

Same happened close to the end of last season, Saka was wasted after all his game time. If there is one thing that annoys me abbout Arteta's management is that he doesnt appear to be able to manage workloads that well - especially for Saka. He has rotated Martinelli well with Trossard and co and seems to be doing the same with his full backs, but for whatever reason he seems content to play saka every game - this could be player driven too.

What a shark way to go out. Barely threw a punch.

Entirely predictable and inevitable outcome but it's still devastating. We look out of gas just like last season and I fear we roll over in the weekend too and then it's all over.

We looked absolutely wrecked around the 60 minute mark before they scored. Couldn’t believe how leggy we were. Hopefully minimal training between now and Saturday.

City out so all in for the league for them too.
One positive - turns out my Bein subscription was up for renewal tomorrow so have been able to cancel without paying for another month as not watched anything other than Arsenal CL games. Will see if there's a free trial or something to watch the final.

I am not like that

brumbys

We looked absolutely wrecked around the 60 minute mark before they scored. Couldn’t believe how leggy we were. Hopefully minimal training between now and Saturday.

Missed the game but the reports sound like the team is physically shattered. Arteta needs to work on rotating but seems unlikely with Chelsea and spurs coming up.

Glad City doing another treble is off the cards. Hoping United win the FA Cup final to ensure Ten Hag gets more time, they’re a shambles under him. 5 more to go, could finish on 89 points…that would still be progress on last year.

Trossard is having a Ljungerg 02 like impact.

Very open game at the end of the first half. Wish we could take control a bit more. 

3-0, we are on a rampage here!

make that 4 -0 

and that's 5-0, 
things have gone wrong for Chelsea when White scores a brace!

Isn't it great to smash those pack of cods.

what a second half! just shifted up through the gears nicely and Chelsea couldnt touch use. 
Do have to say that Gabriel is looking very tired out there these days. Not sure how, but hope he can get some rest. 

Also, Timber played a game for the U23 team the other day. We might see him in before the end of the season. I am still very excited my him. 

Good day to be a Gooner when you batter them 5-0, and the day before Timber scores a screamer on his first competitive minutes for the U21’s. 

Big game this weekend to end our final intense run. After that it’s a week between games until the end.

4 wins and we might just about do something special.

Great for our GD. We're all set up for that should we be level with anyone at the end. 

Massive result.  Really big to win these last two games after the Villa loss and CL exit. Looked like we might be playing into Narrative FC like last season so was huge to get back on track and make a statement. All we can do is win our games and make other teams have to win it.  It may not fully be in our own hands but I've always preferred points on the board to games in hand. You still have to actually win the game in hand and the points gap can only add pressure to those games. 

As an aside, watched the first half live before work then most of the second half on the train.  Always a bit awkward trying to hold in goal celebrations on the train!

And how often does Trossard score the first goal or equaliser? Clutch player. Just when we're needing someone to Freddie 2002 us to the end. 

Totally agree re points on board vs games in hand. We relied on the latter last season and didn’t go too well.

It’s a fairly straight forward run in for city unfortunately but hoping exhaustion takes over.

Trossard has found form irrespective of who plays at LB or left 8. Martinelli doesn’t look the same without Xhaka or Zinchenko. Partey also unlocked a new dimension in midfield for us, forgot what he can do.

The G/D stats are interesting, we now have the highest G/D record in the PL era apparently. Assuming we’ll only add to it in the coming weeks. Raya has also locked in Golden Gloves too, only Pickford can equalise with him. While you can argue Raya hasn’t faced much competition this season with Alisson and Ederson spending time on the treatment table, he is average 1 clean sheet for 2 starts which is quite impressive.

Still yet to hear about Everton tickets, crossing bloody everything I snag one. As lovely as it would be for us to rub it in United’s noses, I think winning it at home on the final day would be the cherry on the top of the fan relationship with this squad.