So, the 2024/25 season is officially over. This is how our season ended up: League finish: 2nd Points accrued: 74 Goals Scored: 69 Goals Conceded: 34 Games won: 20 Games drawn: 14 Games lost: 4 FA Cup: Lost to Manchester United - 3rd round League Cup: Lost 4-0 on aggregate to Newcastle United - Semi Finals Champions League: Lost 3-1 on aggregate to Paris Saint-Germain - Semi Finals Highlight of the season: Has to be beating Real Madrid home and away in the Champions League. I actually think we could have won it had we reinforced our attack. Seems like a massive opportunity wasted. Player of the season: Jurrien Timber. Performing at the level he did off the back of an ACL injury was insane. Tremendous footballer and has gone under the radar at just how good he's been for us. Disappointment of the season: Where do you start...lots of contenders, but probably Odegaard for me. Really thought he would continue his fine form from the last two seasons, but he was genuinely horrific for most of the season after he came back from injury. Arteta's refusal to drop him was infuriating because he was stinking up the pitch so many times, yet he seemed to get a free pass every week. Surprise of the season: Myles Lewis-Skelly. What an unreal debut season from the 18 year old. A midfielder by trade, had to play LB due to injuries to the others, and never looked out of place. Took everything in his stride and became a hugely important player for us. His ability to ride contact, accelerate with the ball, use his body intelligently and bypass the press, whilst also being able to retain possession under pressure, outstanding. Manager rating: 5 - squad management wasn't great at times, tactics were too one-dimensional and we got sussed out (14 draws would show this), league form plummeting was a disgrace, couldn't win a single trophy and didn't strengthen our attack. Wasn't impressed at all with Arteta this season. It'd be interesting to see how you all viewed this season. On the surface, finishing 2nd, reaching a League Cup semi-final and Champions League semi-final might seem like a respectable campaign especially with the issues we'd suffered this season. Frankly, how we finished runners-up when we didn't have a single player that scored double figures in the league is insane. Not sure if that says more about us or about our competitors. Nonetheless, there is a wider context to all this and things within our control that could have resulted in tangible success. From my perspective, it's been extremely disappointing that we couldn't build on last season. We did suffer a lot of injuries and we had some bizarre red cards (at times) and decisions go against us at times, but to be fair, I'm sure there are other clubs who will feel the same. And whilst the injuries we suffered were a hammer blow, there were things we could have done to mitigate against them. We didn't do it. We had two transfer windows to address the glaringly obvious issues in attack and the club decided to gamble. The gamble, as expected, didn't work. And it's been another season which has come and gone that we haven't won any silverware whatsoever. Liverpool usurped us in the league and took it by storm. And even though we 'only' finished 10 points behind them in the end, I think we all knew they had won it months back. And it's a huge, huge shame that, not only did we not win it - like many expected - but that we didn't even really challenge them. The League Cup exit to Newcastle was what it was - they are a very good side, so getting KO'd by the eventual winners of the competition is no disgrace - but the way we performed was. Losing 4-0 on aggregate is shocking and it's a huge blemish on the club, considering we could have had a great chance of winning it. The early exit out of the FA Cup was utterly embarrassing though. Man Utd KO'd us on penalties when they had 10 men for 60 minutes and when we were gifted a penalty to win in normal time, which Odegaard completely fluffed up. This was another competition we could have gone far in and won, yet didn't give ourselves the opportunity to do. I've got numerous gripes with Arteta, which are pretty well-documented, but his inability to juggle multiple competitions at once presents a serious concern to me. He's not shown that he can rotate or trust his squad enough and relies too much on the same players which results in them getting burnt out/injured. Verdict: I said at the end of last season that we needed to win a trophy this year. We have failed on that front. I think Arteta would have little room to complain if the club said to him 'thanks for getting us back here, but we need to go in a different direction now in order to win trophies'. But that's not gonna happen. I think he has one more season and if he goes trophyless yet again, large swathes of fans will turn against him. We cannot have another season like this. And we need to hit the ground running next season, which means a far, far better transfer window than whatever that nonsense was last Summer. Arteta also needs to do some serious introspection about whether what he's doing platforms our players in the best way.
5/10? With similar ‘games missed’ injury stats, Guardiola and Klopp did worse than we have done this season. When that many players get injured you write the season off and forget about it. Could have been worse, we could have been in the Europa like Liverpool bottomed out into a year or two ago. Klopp and Guardiola certainly did get anywhere NEAR a CL semi when they had their big injury seasons, that’s for sure.
In fairness, Liverpool suffered a lot of injuries last season, yet finished 3rd and won the League Cup. But this isn't about them, this is about us. Regarding my 5/10 rating, I've given my rationale for why. Recruitment wasn't good enough and although that's not all on him - it was on Edu, Garlick, Lewis and Ayto too - Arteta is well-documented to have a significant say regarding transfers. He wanted to bring in Merino and Calafiori, despite people at the club having reservations, and got his wishes. Merino hasn't been great in his natural position, but has proven to be useful as an emergency striker option. Which is exactly what happened to Havertz - wasn't good for the primary position we bought him, yet was serviceable elsewhere. So we didn't learn our lesson from this transfer and hasn't added value in the position we initially bought him for. I'm not a fan of our style of play and feel it inhibits our attacking players a lot. This is the first time in 100 years we didn't have a single player to score double digits in the league. I also don't like this horseshoe/U-shape football we play where we rely on wing play and fullbacks to create our chances, and don't utilise the middle of the pitch more. It's no coincidence that we drew 14 times in the league. It was too easy to stifle us. With regards to injuries, in some instances, we were unfortunate, but there were other instances where we could have mitigated against it with having proper squad management and squad utilisation. Ultimately, it's the club and Arteta who consciously chose to not strengthen our attack the last two years which resulted in us facing the issues that we did. I also think Nwaneri should have been used more when Odegaard was injured. And even when Odegaard came back, he was poor for a while yet still started every game. He only began to sub him off/put him on the bench when it was too late. As I said in the OP, Arteta has not shown any evidence that he can juggle multiple competitions at once. We habitually get knocked out of the cups relatively early on (bar this season), but even with our CL run, we deliberately took our foot off the gas in the league and dropped loads of points in an unprofessional way. He needs to demonstrate he can manage the squad cross multiple competitions and he hasn't been able to do this. Finally, I think it's quite alarming that since building this squad in the last 5 years, he's still not been able to pick up some trophies along the way. His ability to cross the finishing line is still under review. So yes, whilst you may think I'm being harsh, overall, I haven't been impressed and don't believe he warrants more than a 5 - possibly a 6 at best - out of 10.
I would probably rank the Season as a 5 as well. But we were unlucky both through Injuries and refereeing decisions. Soo many Red Cards - so many weird refereeing decisions. Calling Odegaard horrific was a bit unfair. The guy missed three months came straight back into the side - ands never really looked 100%. I've been told be a Physio friend his Ankle Injury can take up to 24 months to fully feel normal again. He was no doubt overplayed post surgery. Arteta didn't do alot wrong this Season IMO. But sometimes **** happens.
But this kinda proves my point about Arteta's squad management and why I gave him such a low rating. If Odegaard wasn't fully 100% and needed more time to heal, Arteta should not have been playing him week in, week out, especially when we had a perfectly able and hungry young player in Ethan who could have filled in for him. I still maintain that Odegaard, for me, was one of the worst midfielders in the league this season. I'm not saying it's entirely his fault, but I can only base it off what I've seen and none of us know for sure whether he was fully fit or not. But if he wasn't fit, it's really poor management from the manager to play him regardless.
There were times when I questioned Arteta's teams selections for sure but.. the Injury list he had to deal with was insane. From Odegaard, Jesus, Tomiyasu, White, Zinchenko, Calafiori early in the Season to a post Christmas loss of Saka, Havertz, Jorginho, Gabriel. How do you manage a squad that's falling apart? - these are the injuries we know of there were I'm sure plenty of games where players were on the pitch carrying issues. From the outside we can say 'why didn't he play so and so' but we don't know the physical state of said player.
Absolutely not. Even at 60% Odegaard was one of the better midfielders in the League this Season. He just was nowhere near his best.
As I said, we were unlucky with some injuries, but other injuries people could see from a mile off because players were playing a lot of football and weren't being rotated or subbed off slightly earlier. For example, Calafiori had a terrible injury record before we signed him, hence why the club hierarchy were hesitant on him, yet Arteta pushed him for him despite being fully aware of his history. Likewise with Jesus. Likewise with Tomiyasu. If we'd not messed about last Summer, or in January, I still believe we could have won something this season. The Champions League semi-final exit will be a huge regret because I don't know when we'll get a better chance to win it again after this. It was a huge opportunity and an attacking signing or two, rather than putting Merino up front, would have altered the dynamics of those PSG games. I will die on the hill that the club - including Arteta himself - messed up with their decisions both on and off the pitch. But also, one of the points I raised - about Arteta's ability to juggle multiple competitions - is something that has been a concern for his entire tenure, it's not something that's based purely on this season. I'm just not convinced his style of football is 'winning' football or football that maximises the potential of the players we have (even if we are disjointed in some areas).
Sorry, but I couldn't disagree more. He was absolutely rubbish and should not have been playing as frequently as he was. He had some good games here or there, but for the most part, he severely underperformed and was one of the worst CAMs in the league. If he has another season like this again, he needs to be shown the door.
Not really true though seeing as the games Trossard or Merino played as a 10 we had FAR more problems breaking teams down. If it wasn't for Gabriel and set Pieces during that period we wouldn't have scored any goals at all.
We didn't have the squad to rotate the numbers just weren't there and we have no idea what the physical state was of the players on the bench. I'm sure he didn't get it 100% right all the time but we don't know the reality. I'm sure the likes of Odegaard needed this Summer break pretty badly.
Trossard and Merino were poor there too, I agree. That doesn't mean Odegaard was good, though. He was the only CAM we had in our squad and we had no-one who could fill in there apart from possibly Nwaneri. If we had another player, or someone who was comfortable/versatile enough to play in that position (i.e. quality and the correct profile within our squad depth), I'm confident they would have performed far better than what Odegaard showed and would have kept him out the team. It also would have given him more time to recover and less pressure for him to be back in the side. Odegaard had set a pretty high bar in 22/23 and 23/24. 24/25 was a terrible season for him IMO.
Look, I can only judge things based on what I've seen/from what's been said and yes, we didn't have the squad to rotate - but we should have. And that's the point I'm trying to make. He's been here long enough to have had a squad he wants in his image, so if we were lacking numbers/short in some areas, a big factor in that is Arteta himself. From the information that's available to us, combined with my own opinion on things, I can only conclude that Arteta did an average job this past season. And average isn't going to win us titles.
PSG unreal team. BUT good stat here. Only in six matches this season did PSG have a lower xG than their opponents. Three of those six were against us. Ipso facto we’re the true champions of Europe.
24/25 injury report has been released. The trend continues. Ever since the reports started getting released (20/21 season), the title challengers always end up in the order of least games missed through injury to most. Every single time. No anomalies. 100% perfect correlation. Whoever has the fewest injuries wins the league. And there are even more patterns to observe too. Having less than injuries than your challengers means you win the league. Every. Single. Time. But also, anytime a team has a freak year of very few injuries (City 22-23), then that team ALSO does very well in the CL too. The biggest overachievers of 'dealing' with injuries were Liverpool 21/22 (who managed to get 92pts in the league coming 2nd AND to the CL final even with a lot of injuries). But they lost the title to City because CIty had fewer injuries. For Arsenal specific context, our injury level this year was 51% higher than last year and 40% higher than 22/23. Bored of all the pundits who say that injuries are just an excuse and that other teams 'deal with them'. Objectively, no other top team in the prem has ever dealt with them since these injury reports started being released. If you get more injuries than your title rivals, you are not winning the league. Simple as that. **** worrying about signings so much and start worrying about keeping our players available for more games than Liverpool's and City's.
