Two woeful performances in a row. All three losses to Palace, Brighton and Southampton were also dreadful. It's not like we're losing when we shouldn't like against City. We've been completely outplayed five times in nine games. Pff.
What a joke. Ship out the likes of Saliba, Mavroponos, Guendouzi and Aubameyang - bring NOBODY in and surprise surprise we get a few injuries and the whole ****ing Season implodes. Xhaka bottles every high pressure game for us. He needs to go. Elneny as well the guy is trash!
Two massive games and we conclusively proved we can't handle the pressure. Injuries haven't helped but that is no excuse. With a paper thin squad, there is no chance on earth we were ever going to be able to compete for higher honours so I'll see you all next season on Thursday night. At the very least we have managed to get European football which many thought was beyond us at the start of the season but we've blown a huge chance to progress in our development. Less money and no CL football isn't a great drawcard when you're trying to attract top talent.
2 clean sheets in 15 games too. Next season crunch time. No excuse not to have a proper squad. Top 4 needs to happen. And to go far in europa.
the thing that worries me is already seeing the positive comments like "this team will learn from this" "its been a good season no matter what" "arsenal are on the up" I hate seeing that sort of thing; the only thing this season proves is - that we cannot finish in a champions league place despite playing one game a week - that Arteta still has not met the expectations as manager of this club. - that we cannot handle pressure.
Meh. We got good players last year without even Europa. It's the money more than the CL appeal. At least we've got Europa. Hickey, Saliba, Marquinhos, a CM and a striker or two needed.
I hasn't been a total disaster of a season but it has been massively disappointing given the current circumstances we found ourselves in. And will we realistically be able to achieve this or better next season? Raises massive doubts about Arteta's ability to prepare the team for crunch games (can't remember us winning one single game when the pressure was REALLY on). Its easy to win when nothing is expected, which is why we find ourselves where we do. Next season we won't be so fortunate
I said if we can’t win tonight, we don’t deserve to be in the CL and unfortunately that is the case. This was a moment for us to really lay down a marker and show we are on the right track. Now all the question marks and worries about Arsenal and remain. 5th at the start of the season would have been OK, but from the position we put ourselves in? It feels awful. All that hard work just thrown away for the sake of nothing.
Abysmal tonight Didn't deserve anything from that game at all Clear that this team isn't ready or deserves Champions League football
All we needed was to beat Newcastle and Everton - Arteta ****ed it. Sure Gabriel, White and Tomiyasu weren't fully fit. But you have to be able to win these games.
without going too far, I could legitimately see Arteta pulling an Ole next season (which is funny to say because Ole at least took United to the CL during his reign). I can see us having a very poor start to the season and being unable to handle the expectations (which will surely be top 4 next season)
Spot on. And if we were to sneak into the CL, we wouldn't last past the group stage. The league season has a way of seeding the teams based on their consistency and ability to perform when it matters. We're about where we should be. Whether that is a good or bad thing is a topic for another day.
Gut wrenching end to the season, but will be good to see this team in Europe again next year. We still need to strengthen in the summer. Let's see what we can do in the window and go again. COYG
Honestly - I've been banging this Drum for YEARS (and I feel bad bringing it up as he's a lovely bloke) .. But Elneny is ****ing TRASH. Players like Denilson, Benayoun, Gervinho, Santos, Pascal Cyan .... all better than Elneny I don't care how hard he works, if you need a goal he is not the guy to have on the pitch because as soon as you press him he ALWAYS passes backwards. The guy needs soo much time to make a forward pass. If he leaves Arsenal for another EPL Club I guarantee he flops. Simply not good enough for this league - let alone playing at a Club like Arsenal.
Prior to this little bad run, they (the fans and pundits) were saying Elneny was the second coming of Pirlo. I didn't get it at the time, and I'm not convinced by him now. We played a few demotivated sides and he looked okay, I guess? To me, this bottle job falls on Arteta more than anything. He has failed when it mattered most.
if I were to place the blame on one thing it would be lack of recruitment in January. It was a gamble, but a gamble that massively backfired. time will tell if the players bounce back from this, could see this go either way.
Not here to rub the salt in the wounds but one observation I will make as I haven't watched you play in such a high pressure game with so much at stake for quite a while: You have zero leaders on the pitch. Half your senior players want to leave, the other half aren't good enough, but none of them is vocal and commanding out on the pitch. Newcastle were fantastically well organised and fought tooth and nail in every phase. And at the centre of it all was a modest £15m signing called Dan Burn, bellowing instructions and orchestrating the entire backline for them. You do not have anyone remotely like that, so when the pressure is on, you're a disorganised mess.
In retrospect, we were fortunate in a lot of the games we played. Haven't looked convincing in a while, and you're right, when Xhaka is the closest thing you have to a leader, you have no leaders. I think a lot of better players being out hasn't helped either, i.e. Tierney and Partey.
You've definitely missed them, Tierney especially who I really rate. But I don't think either of them have those leadership qualities either. It must be worrying that the captain's armband gets passed around your team like an unexploded bomb.
