The Title Race 2022/23

[Chris in London]

I'm disappointed in you on this occasion. Several times you've had me thumbing the dictionary looking up big posh words you've written that I'd never heard of and i must say I've been impressed. It's education i never got at school so thanks, mate. However, i think you meant mettle, not metal. Scousers have heavy metal, we have solid mettle.

No, he’s using metal as a metaphor, not a noun. “Their mettle resolve” would be a tautology.

I hate telling him he’s right, but this time he is.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

A lot of talk about how Arsenal's mentality changed and how our former players would have added to the fear of being chased down, but Pep really deserves a mention too, with the subtle mind games over the last number of weeks.

I've mentioned this a couple of times, in this run of wins, he shifted to almost dismissing the early part of the season. Talking about how players are so much more focused at the end when they know each game is a 'final' and wins are more important, where as they were a bit 'relaxed' before.

Sure, it spurs on our players then, and lets them put previous dropped points behind them. But imagine also being Arsenal, having raced ahead and hardly dropped anything in the first part of the season, effectively being told it doesn't matter and the real battle is now.

With hindsight, it looks like a number of factors (including what you have identified) conspired to cause Arsenal’s implosion, but it wasn’t inevitable - and I wouldn’t have had any complaints if we’d amassed over 90 points and been pipped to the title, as they would have deserved it.

What was never in doubt however, for me at least, is that we would go on a run and seriously challenge Arsenal, which would bring its own pressure to bear upon them. I found people using the first half of the season as a counterpoint to this view in the early part of this calendar year to be bizarre, as if no lesson has been garnered from the run-in to the last few seasons, 2020/21 apart, when we took our foot off the gas after securing the title.

Even in 2017/18, after the title was won, we kept going relentlessly (Huddersfield home apart) as history beckoned.

Pep has a magical way of getting the job done in extremis, including the foregoing 2020/21 season when we looked toast in early December and went on a 21 game winning run. Obviously there’s the 14 games at the end of the 2018/19 campaign, and last season too. All incredible feats of team sport.

Tactically, Pep is incredible, as is the way he improves players, but his motivational skills are as much as asset. He knows what to do to deliver the goods in the league better than any manager in English football history, as the foregoing title wins, individually and collectively suitably demonstrate.

 

[JTFactsPlz]

No, he’s using metal as a metaphor, not a noun. “Their mettle resolve” would be a tautology.

I hate telling him he’s right, but this time he is.

It's a typo. He meant "mentsl" -- their "mental resolve".

 

[the blue panther]

No one should ever take Arsenal seriously ever again.
They lasted longer than expected, but they fall away EVERY fuckin' season - it's just that this year, all of the usual suspects - Chelsea, Scouse and Spurs - were so poor. One or more of them will be back in the frame next season, along with Newcastle and, probably, the scum.
Arsenal have fallen away as usual and missed their big chance.
The "race" is over.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

I'm disappointed in you on this occasion. Several times you've had me thumbing the dictionary looking up big posh words you've written that I'd never heard of and i must say I've been impressed. It's education i never got at school so thanks, mate. However, i think you meant mettle, not metal. Scousers have heavy metal, we have solid mettle.

Meant to post ‘mental’ not ‘metal‘ (or mettle’!).

Unlike Pep, I’m not perfect…

 

[Chris in London]

It's a typo. He meant "mentsl" -- their "mental resolve".

Apparently he was wrong after all.

I feel better now.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

No, he’s using metal as a metaphor, not a noun. “Their mettle resolve” would be a tautology.

I hate telling him he’s right, but this time he is.

I regret to say, @JTFactsPlz is correct, and you are wrong MLF x

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

Apparently he was wrong after all.

I feel better now.

I’m obliged.

 

[BlueMoonRisin’]

Meant to post ‘mental’ not ‘metal‘ (or mettle’!).

Unlike Pep, I’m not perfect…

I'll let you off. Your still our very own Susie Dent of Bluemoon though; )

 

[Coatigan]

Meant to post ‘mental’ not ‘metal‘ (or mettle’!).

Unlike Pep, I’m not perfect…

Pep: 'there is no perfect'.