It was going to happen at some point. This is the consequence of what happens when you focus on maintaining where you are, rather than attempting to show improvements. Until the whole mentality at the club changes, we will end up sliding down the table at the expense of teams who show ambition and believe in themselves.
The only saving grace is that when we are eventually managed by someone with ambition and competence we already have the essentials in place to be f****n' top drawer. It baffles me still that there are those of the opinion that what we are achieving now, with what we have available to us, is impressive and that it might drop off when AW leaves as if he's holding this 'thing' together. I look at the league, CL and our general play and it all just screams 'underachievement'. Yes, we're better than almost every club in England... But f*** me, we damn well should be with our money, players, stadium, location... And we damn well should be doing a darn sight more than we are currently. We've been shackled by AW for too long like a circus tiger. We need to unleash the beast that is Arsenal FC and let it chew up every other motherf****n club around.
The reality is everyone except us have made the drop out of the top four at some point and we are the only club to have maintained that level. The idea that we'd be better off in Liverpools shoes is just ridiculous. Yes I'd expect City to be favourites next season, yes I think Chelsea will get back into the top four, and yes Spurs, Liverpool and Utd are decent teams, but I don't for a second think we will be the team to drop from the CL places. And why you guys are acting like it's an inevitability is beyond me.
Others may improve, but City will be the ones that will change significantly under Pep and become the number 1 team, something the Premiership is missing at the moment. Although we will struggle to challenge next season, we won't be knocked out the top 4. Wenger has that spot in lockdown.
Lot of your fans suffer from a severe case of Stockholm Syndrome when it comes to Wenger.. He's a dinosaur of a by-gone era.
What makes you so sure of that, perhaps you are just at the level of your players/team? If you do have the essentials to be top drawer Wenger got them for you
So Barca won 7-0 tonight, four for Suarez, three for Messi. We are in for an almighty hammering, if we carry on playing like we are.
I've watched them a few times on sky this season and offensively they can be absolutely devastating, there front three can all make something themselves and one of them always seems to pop up and finish a move off when the other runs out of steam. All three are real predators. We are going to concede goals in both games so we better have our shooting boots on and be rapid on the counter if we want to avoid being completely turned over.
It's the greatest front line I have ever seen. The understanding between them is unreal, no defence can stop that over two legs.
Only way to challenge them is to have an effective offensive, as containing them over two legs is unlikely. We will most certainly have to up it big time. We won't get many chances, especially at Barca, so our forwards will have to be clinical. Problem is, none of our forwards aren't on great form.
'Our forwards' (Giroud, Welbeck and Walcott) in the same sentence as the word 'clinical' brings matrix-style glitches to my vision...
To be honest, Sanchez, Giroud and Walcott are a good combined force when they are working on form. I think our team are capable of producing special performances, we certainly have the players for it. Who knows, if Walcott is on inspired form, he could do it. He's done it before against Barca and he's due for a outstanding performance.
Fantastic strike...not as good as his comment afterwards though..."I saw the keeper kept coming off his line so I was always gonna try it"
