Arsenal

it's been a long 22 years, hopefully we dont have to wait another 20 year before the next one.
no we can focus on the champs league.

I dont know if I mentioned this story before.
When I went to watch arsenal in 2010, my partner at the time bought a pair of pink arsenal slippers at the shop at the stadium. 
After we got back, she said they sucked and she was going to throw them away. 
I said you can't do that. I took them and put them in the bottom of my drawer, and I said the next time we win the league, I will get them out and wear them for that day. 
After 16 long years, this morning I took them out and ceremonially slipped my feet in. What a feeling. 

https://youtu.be/rlW4mzzmoes

Get this in you today, class from the Arsenal

City fan appeared in kitchen as I was making a cup of tea. "Morning David" was greeted with a grunt and a quick scarper away.

Brilliant 

Final day magic required; Eze to get a guard of honour on return to Selhurst Park. Spurs to lose and get relegated as West Ham click against Leeds.

Still not sure how I feel about this 
Half of me want St Totts day on day 1 next year, but the the other half would miss the derbies!

Yeah would also miss the NLD but I'm sure the TV gods would make sure it still happened in one of the cups.

yeah, perhaps, but an FA cup derby aint the same as the league home and away.

Arteta becomes the first former premier league player to win it as manager.
Also in a rare group who has won the FA Cup as both captain and manager at the same club.

F*cking get in! 22 years for us all and worth every minute now. Last time we won it I was down the Backbencher during the season with a a few of you and now I'm in Melbourne, wherever you are I hope you enjoy this moment because WE ARE CHAMPIONS

What is this derby nonsense
I wanna see these chumps get relegated
That'd be the ultimate season

Agree, send them down - we'll get them in the Cup to continue the NLD

good to see some of you are not as conflicted as I am.

Love this. 

Cried watching that.  So special they got Arsene for it.  He has to be part of the parade surely.

Just back from a few at the pub.

Wow. What a day. A special day. 22 long years. Back on top of English football where we belong. They fully deserve this.

I was shaking at work when the final whistle went in the City game. Always said Bournemouth was the one.

Monday morning will be special. Get to watch 90 minutes in peace and then the trophy lift.

I hope everyone on here has also had an amazing Wednesday wherever you all are.

Let's do the double.

COYG.

0.

From a Liverpool fan, well done. I think it’s good for football that a team who has pushed back against the kneejerk hiring and firing of managers has won the league, and while it was ugly at times it’s hard to say you don’t deserve it after the last few years. 

Don’t ask me to ever repeat this level of graciousness. Don’t tell my dad. Might even delete this later lol. But yeah, fair play and enjoy the celebrations. 

I think it’s so much more special for us to win the league against Guardiola as opposed to the season after he’s left. If that happened it would be used to diminish it and everyone would say “Arteta could never beat Guardiola”.

Speaking of Guardiola, huge respect to the guy. He’s a legend. And the “come on you irons call” was brilliant.

It feels like this could be the beginning of an era if Arteta plays his cards right. Liverpool are poor and City could well dip without Guardiola. It should also make us more competitive when trying to sign talent. Until now it’s always felt as though we were one tier beneath Munich, Madrid, PSG, City etc in terms of how attractive a destination we were for the top players.

I think all the near misses and heartbreaks make it all the more special. We've been through a lot to get here. Feel like it just feels different than if you won every season.

What a crazy day. Barely any work got done. Played tennis after work then picked up a bottle of champagne on the way home and downed the whole fucking thing. I'm not even really a drinker and certainly hadn't had champagne since my wedding 5 years ago. 

Alright then, what we doing with the squad for next season?
To me, defence and keeper are all set. Possibly a new back-up keeper but I'd probably be happy with Kepa to stay on, it's a tough role to fill and despite his faults you can't do all that much better for a no.2.
We are set at CB with our two world class starters, and in Mosquera, Hincapie, White and Calafiori we have enough to bolster for injuries. 
I like White, and despite the injuries and possibility of him going, I would keep. He can play CB and is a good no.2 to Timber.
All set at LB, I see an almighty battle next season between Hincapie and Calafiori for the starting spot, they are both very very good imo. Haven't even mentioned MLS there. 
Speaking of, his great displays in midfield of late has me thinking why buy in that area. He legit took Zubimendi's spot when he got tired, Rice is world class, and we have Merino returning from injury, who I think is fantastic. Would let Norgaard go on this basis, not needed I think. 
Up front, I think Madueke gets a pass and would keep. He's new to the team but made some important contributions, and gave us a spark at times when we were flat. Although he had injuries and didn't always play the house down, I think he did fulfil his brief of helping us not collapse when Saka was injured. And now we have Dowman popping up in that spot who looks bloody exciting. 
In the no.10 role I expect Eze to improve for us next year, and Odegaard to hopefully be fitter, so no change there for me. 
Up front, Gyokeres really came on and ended up with decent stats for the year. I expect more next year. I would retain Havertz as back-up, and he's also versatile to cover for injuries, or play different roles in "horses for courses" situations. 
On the left, Trossard is valuable, I'd keep. Shown value as a starter, and always contributes off the bench. But this is the spot where I think we go big, and offload Martinelli. I love him but he's not quite become what I thought he would a cupla years ago. Would love the PSG fella but he may not be able to be bought, so perhaps someone else. But that's the spot for me. 
So that leaves the sale of Jesus whose time has come, and also leaves us in a pickle with Nwaneri, whose loan move does not seem to have been too successful. Perhaps some cash could be got for him? Or give him another loan spell to see if he can develop? Not sure.
But all in all, I see a couple of necessary sales, and only one big purchase, to improve this team. Great position to be in. 

I think one of MLS or Nwaneri is sold, Norgaard & Jesus are gone, and one of Trossard or Martinelli (but probably Martinelli). That funds a baller LW, an up and coming RB and striker (we need 3, let's be honest). That back up RB buys White a season to show his availability before we take a better informed decision. We still technically have Kiwior, Hein, Nelson, and Viera on the books too, would expect they're all converted to sales or released.

too early to be discussing next season's squad, we still have a second trophy to win!

but it's easy to pick who stays
Raya, Saliba, Gabriel, Caliafiori, Mosquera, Odegaard, Rice, Eze, Saka, Havertz, Gyokeres, Trossard, MLS, Madueke, Dowman.

I think Nwaneri gets loaned out rather than being sold.
Martinelli likely to be sold, along with Jesus,
One of Zubimendi or Noorgard will likely go, one hasnt had a loty of tiom,e and the other has been surpassed MLS.

Kiwior has already gone I believe brumbys, signed permanently last week

There's a cautionary tail for us looking at how Liverpool spent their money after winning the title. We're all wanting some ceiling raising recruitment (probably a long term replacement to Troassard on the left being the highest priority) to really help us push on, but at the same time getting major buys wrong can still send us backwards. Liverpool spent 400 million on forwards and with 1 game to go sit 26 points and 4 places worse than last season.

They lost some key players going in, and were left with some ageing ones, their buys were necessary
Our squad remains largely the same, can only try improve round the edges without changing a core team largely in their prime

Players that I would sell are Martinelli, Norgaard, Kepa. Ben White stays on account of his versatility.

As an aside, the value of a top goalkeeper really can’t be ignored. Raya is just incredible and Almunia, Fab, Sczc etc just weren’t near his level. I remember when we signed Cech someone made the comment (maybe Mourinho?) that a top goalkeeper is worth around 15 points a season. I was dubious at the time but I’ve come round to the argument.

Captain Black finally achieved it. Well done.ref the Captain Scarlett reference.

Tip of the hat to our new sporting director, done a great job in his first season
https://www.football365.com/news/ranking-andrea-berta-decisions-arsenal-sporting-director

First day back at work since Wednesday. I had Wednesday and Thursday off to go to the Waterboys concert in Wellington which was excellent in case you were wondering.
My morning started watching the Bournemouth v City game. I celebrated as loudly as I have for any Arsenal goal when Kroupi scored. I also swore as much when Haaland got the late equaliser. The cheering then began whilst my bemused partner looked at me and said "It's just a game" My rather stern response was "You just don't get it". Don't worry, we're still talking.
We then stopped in Shannon on the way to Welly less than an hour after the end of the game and some random woman who looked like a farmer's wife in her late 50's came up to me and said "It's a great day for the Arsenal" in reference to the Arsenal beanie I was wearing.
We stopped at Lifestyle Sports in Tawa to pick up the new All Whites shirt to take to Vancouver and by this time I was wearing my Arsenal tracksuit top. This prompted one of the staff to ask me if I was happy to have finally won the title after so long. He got the two big thumbs up.
Cruising down Featherston St in Welly on the way to our hotel, I spotted a smart looking businessman proudly wearing an Arsenal scarf.
Thursday was spent still buzzing and looking at all the celebration stuff on social media.
Back to work today and my colleagues had all decorated my desk with Arsenal logos and Champions pictures which was a really nice touch.
Footy shirt Friday attire today is the current home shirt with Rice 41 on the back, bruised banana socks and Arsenal stadium tour lanyard.
COYG!!

Brilliant stuff.
Am up in Auckland for a few days from tomorrow and the Auckland Gooners group are organising to watch the Palace game at Sky City to celebrate lifting the trophy together so will probably join for that. Also watched the League Cup final with them as I was there over that weekend.

Now that it's won what are the moments that stick out for you guys? Big ones being the win over Newcastle turning 0-1 into 2-1 in injury time which seemed really pivotal at the time. The Eze signing snatching him from Spurs when it looked like our squad was already fully just made us seem more serious to me and then him scoring 5 goals against Spurs. The Dowman goal is probably the most iconic moment at the Emirates now.
The one I keep replaying in my head over and over is the Raya save at West Ham last week. It was one of those moments that seemed to go in slow motion like time stood still as the guy went though and you could see the title disappearing in front of you and then preparing for all the shit that was about to come through to your phone etc. 

So many memorable Raya saves this season, every one season defining!
That and the absolute fear caused to every team in the league with our set pieces, they lost some impact late in the season but the fact that noone could stop complaining about them was very satisfying. 

The mental gymnastics and goalpost shifting when England win a "boring" first game at the World Cup 1-0 with the goal coming from a corner or Kane penalty will be fun. 

As weird as it might be the loss to City. We played so much better than we had been, and we have the now iconic clip of Rice saying it's not done.

Article ranking all signings under Arteta. 
Shows the strength of our transfer activity since he came in, with Edu then Berta both doing fantastically well. Pretty much top notch from rankings 1 - 21 imo
https://www.football365.com/news/feature-sterling-bottom-two-declan-rice-third-mikel-arteta-arsenal-signings-ranked