We are playing the best football whole season and can probably play better. For a club like Arsenal, this is far from a successful season, im just amazed to hear anyone say this. I strongly believe we still have mental issues in the squad and once we are free from this, we will see the REAL Arsenal emerge, the Arsenal that Wenger has invisioned. Of course Wenger is disappointed at the way we have progressed but he's keeping patient. More positivily I do see a change in the team. The younger players coming through are already showing good quality and a winning mentality at such a young age.
A 'brilliant' season is winning the league or CL. Drop the money excuse - we spend more than most - and have more money to spend if we wanted to. Wenger brought in 9 players this summer and spent £60+m. The stadium actually gives us a boost financially, because the increased gate receipts are more than the debt repayments. To give you some context: - this is likely to be our worst defensive season since 1994 and could be the worst since 1983 - we took our biggest beating in our PL history - we took our biggest beating in our CL history - we've already lost 9 matches - only 2005/6 was worse since 1994. Lose 2 more and we will be as bad as 2005/6 - We were out of every single trophy in by the middle of March - If we continue at our current rate we'll get 71 points - slight improvement on last year but then worst since 2006/7. We'll have to up our game and even if we won all of them left we'd be short of our last 'good' season in 2007/8 - we lost our 2 best players To describe this season as brilliant is just way over the top.
i dont really believe we can compete with the likes of man city or manu for the title or the cl thats a bit far fetched imo. We definitely had a bad start but we've made a great recovery. In terms of transfers we made the greatest profit amongst all epl clubs. Ok i take it back not a brilliant season but i am going to say taking everything into perspective it is a great season. The points we attained and number of losses is a reflection at the growing level of competitiveness in the epl as reflected by the fact we're stilli in with a chacne of finishing third and despite our biggest loss in the cl we lost by a solitary goal. Our two best players wanted to leave and in this game player power rules all. Biggest pl loss was a one off and i maintain it was mainly down to injuries and we had'nt completed our summer recruitment.
Cb, I disagree in the strongest terms that it is 'far fetched' for us to win the league or CL. We won it before competing against Utd's money. We got to CL final competing against Madrid's, Barca's money - and were within a whisker of winning it. We've gone backwards in the last few years, for many reasons (discussed at length on these boards), but to accept our run of seasons where we choke at vital times as a sign that it is far fetched to win the league or CL is not right. We need to change mentality and approach at the club - some of which we are showing signs of doing - but I assure you we can win.
well i guess we'll have to agree to disagree with respect to what constitutes a successful season but the way i look at it winning the cl or pl is a bonus. We might be capable of it but we will always be the underdogs. I dont expect us to win the pl or cl but if we do i'll obviously be ecstatic. At any rate i'm optimistic as far as next season is concerned whether we get pod or not or whether we have rvp (hope we do) or not. I wont expect to win the pl but expect us to certianly be challeging for a top four spot.
Fine - we can disagree. My view of the minimum achievement that can be classed as a success is top 4 plus a trophy. Anything else is failure. Varying levels of expectation tend to explain the varying views of the club and personnel. I can see if top 4 is classed as success then you'd be happy enough.
exactly...although we're both arsenal supporters so i do hope your criteria for success is met (though i dont expect it to happen!)
we didn't lose our two best players. we lost our best player and nasri. v. persie was always our second best player, and is now our clear best. as you can see from nasri's domination of the league at man city... (on the bench) he was great wasn't he....
Debatable - last year Nasri was great in the first half and RVP in the second. Going into the season Nasri and Fab, if not the two best, were certainly two of our major stars. Anyway, whether it's our best and 3rd best, or best and 5th best (!), the argument on Nasri v RVP is irrelevant to the overall point.
Bale is average so that wouldnt matter. And yes they were terrible because they are terrible. Their early season lucky run ended a long time ago
Im in another thread where someone doesn't rate Mata, and now i have someone else who thinks Bale is average. Who do you rate in the league?
I bet Nasri regrets becoming a bench-warmer at City. He was a star at Arsenal, now he has a manager who has no confidence in him, no patience for his inconsistent form, and no loyalty to him as a player.
Yea, I found both those comments a bit ridiculous too. Mata and Bale are both excellent and both would get into the Arsenal team.
This In truth they went on a great run but they are flat track bullies, when they had some tough away games to play they were always going to come unstuck. The battering Arsenal and United gave them really has affected them and it's no surprise they are winless away from home in 2012 - not including Watford as Watford battered them and should have drawn.
Ive been sat here wondering what Hatem Is A Geordie has been up to. I get it now. All this talk of us getting fourth , and even third (as someone said) is hard to comprehend. 5th at a push imo, but who knows. Its been a crazy season.
