Arsenal Thread | 2025/26

Gorbachev said:
Rodri could have thrived in the 90s and 00s and still been world class and in demand by any team.

He has the stature and physical qualities, the technique and intelligence to play in any era.

Keane was a great player and a fantastic leader of men. One of the great captains, however, I am unconvinced his style would last two minutes in the modern game. He was the perfect 90s midfielder.

Vieira was class but he lacks Rodri's creative output.

Many forget Rodri was good for 10-15 goals and 10 assists a season. How many players do you know that can play DM and dictate play to an elite level as well as get 20/25 goal contributions a season.

That's why he won a Ballon d'Or.
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He doesnt get the recognition in this country because he plays for Man City him at the red tops would have been ip there like a god
 
bridgeno1 said:
What if you lost Stones, Dias, Gvardiol and O'Reilly at the same time? Then as they come back you lost Haaland, Foden, Cherki and Marmoush at the same time.

That's pretty much what Arsenal have faced so far this season.
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Lmao no it isn't. It's been about 3 or 4 games FFS.

City's long term injury list all season has been and continues to be Stones, Ait Nouri, Rodri, Kovacic and Marmoush.

I enjoy this sort of interaction with Arsenal fans because you can detect that they're already panicking about the chance of throwing away the lead (which reveals they think it's a racing certainty) and want to get their excuses in early. It's still early in the season, just wait and see how it looks with 8 games to go.

If Arsenal need to wait for a season where everything goes perfectly in their favour they're never winning the league again.
 
GunnerGer said:
Given Arsenal have finished 2nd in the league the last few years, and are on course to finish in the top 2 again, the players probably see the project already equal to any project out there.

Of course, you can always argue a case for City, but you don't really rate any of the players anyway so wouldn't want them, that's fair enough.

But Liverpool being 7th, 10 points behind, manager under real pressure, 2 best players aging and half way out the door, I'm not sure I'm looking over there thinking I want to jump ship just now.

And you can rule out Chelsea, because they've basically become a project in themselves of trying to buy top emerging talent on reasonable wages with high incentives, they don't really buy established top players on big money any more.

Spain? Are current Real or Barca better? We beat Real home and away last season, City just beat Real.in their own ground, Chelsea hammered Barca a couple of weeks back.

Go to a 1 club dominated league like Bayern in Germany or PSG in France? Maybe in a few years of they get to Kane's age and are desperate for trophies.
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You’ve gone 5 full seasons having won nothing. I’m sorry but for a supposed big club that is just embarrassing.

I do question the mentality of your players and if they are true winners
 
bridgeno1 said:
What if you lost Stones, Dias, Gvardiol and O'Reilly at the same time? Then as they come back you lost Haaland, Foden, Cherki and Marmoush at the same time.

That's pretty much what Arsenal have faced so far this season.
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Like we've never won the league with injuries. Your going on like your the only club to ever have to fight hard to win the league or get a big injury list!
 
Danny Tiatto said:
You’ve gone 5 full seasons having won nothing. I’m sorry but for a supposed big club that is just embarrassing.

I do question the mentality of your players and if they are true winners
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It's not great, but you need to look at the bigger picture. Where were Arsenal just a few years ago? We were a big club in name only, we certainly weren't acting like 1. A total disconnect between fans, players, managers & owners. Had slipped out the top 4 for a good few years, hadn't been in the Champions League for several years. We were basically Utd of a couple of years ago, a bunch of overpaid, underachieving players with no real direction as a team, no culture as a club. City & Liverpool with the 2 best managers in the world, miles ahead of us, regularly beating us, often humiliating us. Those days are very fresh in our memories.

Now we are competing for the league, finishing runners up the last 3 times, & leading this season. We made the quarter final, then semi finals of the Champions League, & are now 6 wins from 6 & leading the group stage this season. Of course, you want to translate that to trophies, & we need to do that. But why would you want to rip that it up now when you are closer than ever?

TonyColemansbagofapples said:
It’s not just the not winning, it’s the amount spent and the style of play.
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You mean spending roughly the same amount as our top 6 peers & being 2nd top scorers in the league?
 
Christ, the mental gymnastics of your average Tarquin is fuckin' amazing.

It's also amazing how much they, dips and rags fans all act like one another, online and offline.

I don't care that the deluded bellsniffs post on here, but it's genuinely beyond belief some of the drivel they come out with. I hope they do bottle it cause we'll never hear the fucking end of it if they do win. Only reason the dippers have shut it is cause their form has gone off a cliff.
 
GunnerGer said:
It's not great, but you need to look at the bigger picture. Where were Arsenal just a few years ago? We were a big club in name only, we certainly weren't acting like 1. A total disconnect between fans, players, managers & owners. Had slipped out the top 4 for a good few years, hadn't been in the Champions League for several years. We were basically Utd of a couple of years ago, a bunch of overpaid, underachieving players with no real direction as a team, no culture as a club. City & Liverpool with the 2 best managers in the world, miles ahead of us, regularly beating us, often humiliating us. Those days are very fresh in our memories.

Now we are competing for the league, finishing runners up the last 3 times, & leading this season. We made the quarter final, then semi finals of the Champions League, & are now 6 wins from 6 & leading the group stage this season. Of course, you want to translate that to trophies, & we need to do that. But why would you want to rip that it up now when you are closer than ever?



You mean spending roughly the same amount as our top 6 peers & being 2nd top scorers in the league?
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Because 5 years is an awful long time in football and to have not won a single thing in that time is criminal. You've not even played in a final ffs.

Yet you have a large sections of your fanbase that will defend your manager even if he goes another 5 years having not won a trophy.

Even the dippers weren’t as attached to Klopp as some of you lot are to Arteta and at least he delivered.
 
GunnerGer said:
It's not great, but you need to look at the bigger picture. Where were Arsenal just a few years ago? We were a big club in name only, we certainly weren't acting like 1. A total disconnect between fans, players, managers & owners. Had slipped out the top 4 for a good few years, hadn't been in the Champions League for several years. We were basically Utd of a couple of years ago, a bunch of overpaid, underachieving players with no real direction as a team, no culture as a club. City & Liverpool with the 2 best managers in the world, miles ahead of us, regularly beating us, often humiliating us. Those days are very fresh in our memories.

Now we are competing for the league, finishing runners up the last 3 times, & leading this season. We made the quarter final, then semi finals of the Champions League, & are now 6 wins from 6 & leading the group stage this season. Of course, you want to translate that to trophies, & we need to do that. But why would you want to rip that it up now when you are closer than ever?



You mean spending roughly the same amount as our top 6 peers & being 2nd top scorers in the league?
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Oh do fuck off, you’ve spent an absolute fortune & we were told if you do that anyone can do it.

Start acting like a big club instead of making excuses, Pep doesn’t allow them. Khaldoon said the most important thing they needed to change at City was the attitude & drop the ‘typical city’ tag.
 
GunnerGer said:
It's not great, but you need to look at the bigger picture. Where were Arsenal just a few years ago? We were a big club in name only, we certainly weren't acting like 1. A total disconnect between fans, players, managers & owners. Had slipped out the top 4 for a good few years, hadn't been in the Champions League for several years. We were basically Utd of a couple of years ago, a bunch of overpaid, underachieving players with no real direction as a team, no culture as a club. City & Liverpool with the 2 best managers in the world, miles ahead of us, regularly beating us, often humiliating us. Those days are very fresh in our memories.

Now we are competing for the league, finishing runners up the last 3 times, & leading this season. We made the quarter final, then semi finals of the Champions League, & are now 6 wins from 6 & leading the group stage this season. Of course, you want to translate that to trophies, & we need to do that. But why would you want to rip that it up now when you are closer than ever?



You mean spending roughly the same amount as our top 6 peers & being 2nd top scorers in the league?
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We haven't spent anywhere nearly as much as you, plus we have recouped so, so much in sales.
 
bridgeno1 said:
Vieira and Keane above Rodri IMHO. Or at least level. And above anyone, untouchable on his own is Ngolo Kante who was a cheat code for having the equivalent of 12 players on the pitch.

And I know this is a City forum but LOL at having Fernandinho above Rice, Petit and Essien!
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Let's not go into Rodri, Viera and Keane comparisons here. All three are some of the greatest MFs to ever played the game. For me as a City supporter, I will always rate Rodri higher than the other two.

Let's discuss Ferna for a change. It's not long ago we were wondering how do we replace him. We believed that no one can replicate what he has done for us (in comes Rodders and prove all the fears were misplaced). He came to City from Shaktar and let go his bonuses so that the deal went through smoothly. Pundits here in England were speculating and dismissing him citing his age (he was 30 when he joined) and his positional clash with Yaya (both box to box no. 8s). He came here and proved them wrong in his very first season. His adaptation from a box crashing no.8 to a one man defensive shield has not been replicated since. He was so good in the defensive midfield that for the first time Yaya got the license to go forward without a worry and we all know what he did in that 15-16 season in terms of goal contributions. After Pellegrini left and Pep came, Pep continued to trust him as his defensive midfield lynchpin at a ripe old age of 32. He was a crucial member of the centurions 17-18 season but his best was yet to come. In the 18-19 season, when KDB was injured for practically the whole season and David Silva distracted due to his commitments with his newborn son, he and Bernardo took up the midfield mettle and guided City to the best ever domestic season played by an English team. He was the 2nd best City player that season behind Bernardo. The guy was a machine, never injured, always committed to the cause with a brilliant technical ability and brain. His trophies haul and the part he played in those triumphs easily elevate him above Rice, Petit and Essien. But he was much more than the trophies he won with us. He is criminally underrated by our rivals but we have seen Ferna dominate the midfield battle day in day out for a long long time.
 
Danny Tiatto said:
Because 5 years is an awful long time in football and to have not won a single thing in that time is criminal. You've not even played in a final ffs.

Yet you have a large sections of your fanbase that will defend your manager even if he goes another 5 years having not won a trophy.

Even the dippers weren’t as attached to Klopp as some of you lot are to Arteta and at least he delivered.
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Listen, i'm not fundamentally disagreeing, we need to start winning stuff, but i think it's more the point that by having a team that actually good, competing near the top of the table and in latter stages of Champions League, is more sustainable to competing for trophies, & the big trophies especially, long term, than say the Arsenal of 5-10 years ago, or Utd just now, of winning the occasional FA Cup in otherwise fairly miserable seasons.

cheekybids said:
Oh do fuck off, you’ve spent an absolute fortune & we were told if you do that anyone can do it.

Start acting like a big club instead of making excuses, Pep doesn’t allow them. Khaldoon said the most important thing they needed to change at City was the attitude & drop the ‘typical city’ tag.
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We have spent a fortune, but so has everyone else?

TonyColemansbagofapples said:
We haven't spent anywhere nearly as much as you,
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In the last 5 years, i'm afraid you have.

TonyColemansbagofapples said:
plus we have recouped so, so much in sales.
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Totally agree with that. We are poor sellers, partly because a lot of what we had was aging, overpaid and generally shite. Much easier to sell when you have good players to sell in the first place.
 
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GunnerGer said:
Listen, i'm not fundamentally disagreeing, we need to start winning stuff, but i think it's more the point that by having a team that actually good, competing near the top of the table and in latter stages of Champions League, is more sustainable to competing for trophies, & the big trophies especially, long term, than say the Arsenal of 5-10 years ago, or Utd just now, of winning the occasional FA Cup in otherwise fairly miserable seasons.



We have spent a fortune, but so has everyone else?



In the last 5 years, i'm afraid you have.



Totally agree with that. We are poor sellers, partly because a lot of what we had was aging, overpaid and generally shite. Much easier to sell when you have good players to sell in the first place.
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Under Arsene, at times you played some the best football ever seen in the EPL. Maybe its the effect of agent Webb, but I don't remember, the diving, time wasting and thuggery being part of Arsene mantra.
 
VOOMER said:
Under Arsene, at times you played some the best football ever seen in the EPL. Maybe its the effect of agent Webb, but I don't remember, the diving, time wasting and thuggery being part of Arsene mantra.
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Our best teams where not too far off this 1 in construction, tall, physical, athletic, pacey. Guys like Vieira, Petit, Gilberto, Keown, Bergkamp even could all put it about if they needed to, & 'play the game' like was being done to them.

The main difference i see is in terms of flair, they had Bergkamp & Henry up front, we've got no-one anywhere near that class.
 
GunnerGer said:
Not sure if this link will work.

www.transfermarkt.co.uk

Premier League - Transfer income and expenditures

This statistic shows, which clubs of the Premier League in the seasons 21/22 to 25/26 had the highest transfer expenditures and/or transfer incomes.
www.transfermarkt.co.uk www.transfermarkt.co.uk
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As I pointed out, look at our income during that time. The difference being we have won shed loads and you have won the square root of fuck all.
Bottlers.
 
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