Has this season really been an improvement? I'm talking in the grand scheme of things, the overall context of the past 8 years. This season has been an improvement from last in terms of us challenging, though the challenge is over, and we find ourselves once again looking to grab 4th spot. Just like previous in which we challenged, our challenge has once again bottled and collapsed when it came to crunch time, so in that sense, it's really the same old story of 1 step forward, and 2 steps backward. As I said, at the end of the day, it's the same old story of challenging for 4th again, from title challengers, to 4th place challengers, I don't see how anyone can look at that as an improvement in the overall picture. Time for change, we've seen this story so many times before, how much more do we have to take?
Really depressing times right now, from genuine title challengers, to having to duke it for 4th spot again, I don't even know how the **** many of us fans are meant to be up for that, that game against Everton is now a 6 pointer for 4th spot, pathetic really. A big shame on Wenger, if he has any balls he'd ****ing leave the club.
Compared to recent seasons we probably haven't improved, however, I know it happens every year but injuries have hurt us once again and had Theo, Ox, Pod or Rambo (amongst others) stayed healthy I'm sure we'd be in a much better position than we currently find ourselves in. That said, there were two massive cock ups by Wenger, failure to buy a proper striker last Summer was hard to accept then to fail to bring in a striker in January even though he knew Giroud was dying on his feet and Theo was done for the season was unforgivable and this is why we are in a dog fight for 4th instead of challenging....
I have said many times we have not improved being in the semifinals of the FA Cup is not really a improvement and like the poster before thank God SAF retired. In the beginning of the season we played nobody that's why we were top now we have played somebody's it the same old **** groundhog Day after a while you get bored we all love our club some of us are fans some of us are supporters just because we vent thing different don't mean we don't care. To tell you the truth we are only a big team by name not actions!
Our back 4 have been more stabile, when our manager hasn't failed them with **** tactics and game plan. (is it half of the season goals conceded from only 3 games?) Other than that, no. We may still win the FA Cup though, because other teams didn't bother with it that much.
Our thin title hopes ended today with a handful of games to go. In the last couple of seasons we've been out of the running within the first handful of games! I think we will win the fa cup and looking at our remaining fixtures I think we will get a higher points total than last year in the league. Add our improved back 4 and defending as a team, plus the addition of ozil and I'd say we have clearly improved on the last couple of seasons and have our best team since a string of players we had built our team around ****ed off. Not the best team since our last trophy but we do finally look like we are moving in the right direction despite some disappointments along the way.
Is the FA Cup such a certainty ? Does anything think a Wigan side will be scared who before tonight had won 7 from 8 leagure games plus a quarter final game at Man City ? I may be turning into a miserable pessamist but I'd sat we're far from shoo ins....
Favs yes, but favs get turned over every day. I think if we don't get something against City next week all the pressure will be on us for the cup semi, Wigan can relax and play and as we know the crowd turn against Arsenal quickly at times....
We still have enough to beat Wigan. If we turn up it won't be that difficult but they can't be underestimated. Ramsey and Kos should be back by then. As well as Ozil?
Wenger on March 14th said Ozil could be out 3-6 weeks, if it's 3 weeks, then he should be back by the Wigan game which would be 4 weeks from the date Wenger said 3 weeks. Hopefully he is fit by then.
Back to the Op, yes we have improved but we've also had some shoddy moments recently. At the beginning of the season we looked like we could win the thing but then came the injuries and the depth killed us. However if we do win the cup I don't think anyone can say we haven't improved. Plus with the signing of Ozil we know AW can pull off the big money signings. The question of if we can win the title next season depends on whether AW, or a new manager if he leaves, will spend the required funds to take the squad to the next level.
It's not all bad yet. If Everton catch us and then Wenger leaves, then we'll have reason to be depressed
I don't know is Ozil really better than Cesc Fabregas is Podolski better than Samir Nasri is Johnny bravo better than RVP ,Eduardo, or Adebayor. Yes Ramsey got better Walcott got better. Our center backs have improved. Is Arteta better than what we had before? I would rather Song stayed and we got a proper defensive midfielder. I'll take Cazorla over Arshavin, but for every Gervinho there an Bendtner a Park a Santos!!
People keep saying we have improved I can't remember us finishing in 5th so right now we have not don't fool yourself I don't even think the squad has improved!
Arsenal has improved, while City spent another £100m this summer, and United spent £70m and Spurs £110m and Chelsea £50m, Arsenal were title challengers until yesterday night. Despite Wenger just buying one player, who is still adjusting to the league.
I'd wait until the end of the season before making any rash statements. However there are a few facts we can examine: We're going to be scrapping for 4th (it seems) even though we had a better start to this season than the last. So no real improvement there. We're in the semis of the FA cup which is some encouragement. It will mean nothing if we don't win though, so reserving judgement on that one. We seem to have gone backwards in terms of our abilities to beat the top sides although our record against them was never anything special. Our defensive record seems to have improved, although we're still prone to lapses. Our injury situation is horrendous and highlights some kind of training regime failure, which has been the same for as long as I can remember. All in all, the end of the season is the time for judgments however it seems there's little discernible progress being made this season at the moment which is a worry.
We have improved as a team but not in a competitive sense. Our defence has improved, we are more consistent and have a better squad with good cover. But as Gent pointed out, the cause of a lot of this is the Manager and his "tactics". While other managers adapt to different oppositions, he remains static. We've seen both Maureen and Brenda adapt their teams to negate our team and get a result.
We have a better midfield (in terms of depth) and a more settled defence. However we still lack quality upfront and have a stubborn manager who seems to make little to NO effort in regards to addressing the teams problems.
