Arsenal Thread - 2022/23

[mrbelfry]

Im hoping the difference between us and Leicester or Liverpool is that we won't lose any of our key players over the summer. Leicester lost the likes of Kante, Mahrez wanted to leave and wanted to join us, Drinkwater eventually left etc. At Liverpool, Suarez left, Sturridge became a sicknote, Gerrard was on his last legs, Sterling then eventually left.

Hopefully we keep the core group together, many of whom like Saliba, Martinelli and Saka are 21/22 and guys like Odegaard, Jesus and Zinchenko and some others are only on the 24-26 range.

We also obviously need to get our recruitment right in the summer as well of course.

I think you'll keep your best players for a season or two but I'd worry you'll fall into the Tottenham trap of thinking you can't improve on the first team and just buy squad filler. But for me I'm telling the Arsenal fans I know that there is still time for City to screw up and they've all but conceded. It felt like the team did that on Wednesday night.

Compare that to City v United in 2012. City were in a comparable situation to Arsenal. Just an FA Cup win in recent memory and battling it out at the top of the league. City were at home but absolutely needed to win after being well behind United. We killed them that night with our attitude and balls.

Arsenal are top of the league on merit but you lacked the conviction necessary to be yourselves. You're currently top but you've settled for second place with plenty of games left. Fight us man

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

Not to my shite eyesight he didn’t!

FOC!

 

[Saddleworth2]

Yeah, I get that mate. I've actually seen it creep into our play slightly, in big games in particular, I'm thinking at Anfield was the other main example. I think it's partly a pressure thing from our position, but also because at Anfield and the Etihad in particular, we have a real mental block about playing there, and I think suffer from PTSD. It strikes me as desperation almost to get a result, but also frustration at not playing well.

I'm hoping it's something with a bit of team maturity we grow out off, because more than anything, I think it puts us off our own game acting like that to be honest.

Yeah completely agree. You can’t be free flowing if the game is being stopped every two minutes. I watched you rip the dippers a new one in the first half at Anfield so you absolutely have the talent to do it. You have a young team and it will go one of two ways. Either you let the football do the talking or start to act like the other red shirts. Entitled, arrogant and nasty. Arteta has a big role in ensuring it’s the former. Hope he has the character to do it.

 

[BringBackSwales]

FOC!

I know you are but I still like you

 

[paulchapo]

Ffs!

No ffs about it. His new team is getting pasted so I'm not expecting him to be high fiving people or looking happy, not that he ever did anyway. He took a slow walk.past the South stand and got lots of applause and some "Once a blue always a blue chants." He just blanked everyone. If he did acknowledge us I must have blinked and missed it.

 

[domalino]

If you want to know what the mindset of the Arsenal team is like…


Giannis Antetokounmpo (famous NBA player) went viral this week after his side got knocked out of the playoffs early, he gave a long answer about how a season isn’t a failure just because you don’t end up winning the title.


And Gabriel just posted it on his instagram story.


So I think we can say they believe the title is completely gone.

 

[KentBlue]

So I think we can say they believe the title is completely gone.

So would I in their position.

 

[GaudinoMotors]

You feeling alright, mate?

Haha - must have been identity theft!!

 

[Ghostofmerlin]

We may stumble with a draw somewhere. Maybe Sunday. But Newcastle is going to thump Arsenal and put the nail in the coffin.

 

[Shaggy]

Goes back further. All of Wenger's comments, the racist abuse of adebayor, Clichy, nasri, sanga, viera, the top 4, the league cup wow the list goes on...

All this talk about the invincibles being better than us as well. If we finish on more points than them and they match the invincibles points tally we can put that old chestnut to bed finally

All this rubbish about the invincibles, they cheated Portsmouth out of a win with a blatant dive by Pires who later apologised to Dejan Stefanovich Cheating diver apologises . Arsenal got done in the league cup, FA cup and Europe.

The only invincibles are Preston North End, won top flight without losing a game and the FA cup, during that FA cup run they did not concede a goal.

 

[paulchapo]

It took Liverpool a few seasons to turn into title contenders. The run they had up to the Champions league final in 2018 gave them some belief to push City hard the season after. Think this will happen with Arsenal, if you have champions league football you can recruit from a higher level pool of players, I’d expect Arsenal to keep this momentum going next year. As for bottling it, Arsenal currently have points on the board which is far more important than games in hand. Would be typical City to go and draw against Fulham after Wednesday’s result. There’s still a lot of football to play and anything can happen.

Spot on summary this. If they recruit well in the summer they'll still be up there challenging next season. Zinchenko and Jesus were good additions but they've surprised me at how well they've done. They lifted their mentality and will to win, but they were mainly second choice here and we saw why at the Emirates and on Wednesday. Like Pep and Arteta off the field on the field it was the masters and the apprentices. I also think this is Arsenal's wobble moment. They didn't really have one after we beat them they recovered well, theirs started at Anfield and has continued.

As for us again I agree. On paper the next three games should be wins but football is played on the grass not paper. Fulham are a good side and West Ham and Leeds are still fighting relegation worries. Worryingly West Ham.are hitting a bit of form and were unlucky against Liverpool. Everton away will be a bearpit and we all know how tough playing Brighton and Brentford is. If we win our next three games and Arsenal drop points hopefully it's as good as done. Here's hoping.

 

[Shaggy]

Well I hope we finish 5th.

Hi Newman why 5th ?

 

[danielwood5]

What a fucking weapon. Love that their narrative has become "well how can we compete with City?" rather than looking at the absolute bottle job from their team. Embarrassing, I thought Arsenal fans were a bit better than this.

What would ever give you that idea? They've been vocal over entitled gobshites for decades now in the main. Have you ever met a humble cockney gooner?

 

[wolviedinho]

I think you'll keep your best players for a season or two but I'd worry you'll fall into the Tottenham trap of thinking you can't improve on the first team and just buy squad filler. But for me I'm telling the Arsenal fans I know that there is still time for City to screw up and they've all but conceded. It felt like the team did that on Wednesday night.

Compare that to City v United in 2012. City were in a comparable situation to Arsenal. Just an FA Cup win in recent memory and battling it out at the top of the league. City were at home but absolutely needed to win after being well behind United. We killed them that night with our attitude and balls.

Arsenal are top of the league on merit but you lacked the conviction necessary to be yourselves. You're currently top but you've settled for second place with plenty of games left. Fight us man

Mate they gave up on Wednesday. Not being cocky, the league ain’t won until I see the blue ribbons but the leaders tapped out.

 

[paulchapo]

What would ever give you that idea? They've been vocal over entitled gobshites for decades now in the main. Have you ever met a humble cockney gooner?

I spoke to a couple while waiting to get on the bus into town after the game. Youngish lads they were full of praise for us and said we were the best side they've ever seen and we totally outclassed them. I was stunned and thanked them. It was a refreshing change. A lot of the shite is spouted online by foreign fans who've never been to a game in their lives. Some of their older fans brought up on success like the rags and dippers never thought it would end so they are incredibly bitter. This could happen with our younger fanbase now if we hit a rocky patch but I hope not.

 

[danielwood5]

How do we think this current City team is looking compared to the past incarnations of Pep's teams?

It's difficult to say yet as, and I mean this in the best possible way, we're still a team in transition. It's just that most teams transition over an entire season but we've done it in half. Maybe the World Cup helped in that respect but it's hard to say, normally we'd have been playing flat out over Christmas but this year Pep had a month to think about how to change things about. Having said that we've only looked our very best over the last couple of months or so.
This is probably the most balanced team we've had under Pep though and we seem to have finally worked out how to play with Haaland and he's adapted to the rest of the team too. Next season will be the interesting one as we may have to replace Gundogan and Bernardo who are really important players for us. We may even pick up a full back or two which will change things again.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

No ffs about it. His new team is getting pasted so I'm not expecting him to be high fiving people or looking happy, not that he ever did anyway. He took a slow walk.past the South stand and got lots of applause and some "Once a blue always a blue chants." He just blanked everyone. If he did acknowledge us I must have blinked and missed it.

I clearly saw him acknowledge the fans’ applause as he turned from the SS to CB, so you are getting worked up about him not doing something that he actually did.

 

[fulabeer]

How does Paddy get these things done so quickly!

 

[paulchapo]

I clearly saw him acknowledge the fans’ applause as he turned from the SS to CB, so you are getting worked up about him not doing something that he actually did.

I'm not getting worked up at all he's left and we've moved on. I was however miffed he didn't appear to acknowledge the generous ovation he was getting. If he did as you say acknowledge the fans fair enough, subject closed.

 

[GunnerGer]

I think you'll keep your best players for a season or two but I'd worry you'll fall into the Tottenham trap of thinking you can't improve on the first team and just buy squad filler. But for me I'm telling the Arsenal fans I know that there is still time for City to screw up and they've all but conceded. It felt like the team did that on Wednesday night.

Compare that to City v United in 2012. City were in a comparable situation to Arsenal. Just an FA Cup win in recent memory and battling it out at the top of the league. City were at home but absolutely needed to win after being well behind United. We killed them that night with our attitude and balls.

Arsenal are top of the league on merit but you lacked the conviction necessary to be yourselves. You're currently top but you've settled for second place with plenty of games left. Fight us man

Forget the title, even just for pride and so the season doesn't spiral and for momentum into the summer I still want to win every game of football we play mate, don't worry about that. Chances are it won't be enough for the title but you keep going until the end anyway.

The crowd will stay with the players regardless, as long as they shake this off and keep giving their all. Chelsea at home might be a good game for us next, not because they are having a hard time, but because it's a London derby and it might help jolt everyone.

We defo need the players to show balls, and just return to what they were doing in the first half of the season. Unfortunately, our balls seem to retract at certain moments. I'm hoping they drop again for the next game!