I always want the tiny totts to lose every game they play but I can see it would probably be better for Arsenal if Man U don’t get the CL qualification as they are in a bad place financially and it would really help them..

I don't want Spurs anywhere near the Champions League.

Personally, I find it hard to connect with the idea that Arsenal’s failure to win a trophy is more down to Arteta than factors outside of his control. That’s not to absolve him completely but I think he’s clearly demonstrated that he has what it takes to build a competitive team at the highest level. Maybe that last step, the one which takes you over the line isn’t for him to take but maybe it’s the Club who have to pay that big transfer fee or get the negotiaton over the line….

That is a real worry. Last summer seemed a strange change of direction though from the previous years. Last summer was a net spend of £10m. We need to keep our noses clean for the PSR rules but we're not really sailing that close tot he wind as some other clubs are. The previous seasons we were well over £100m net spend - maybe 3 years in a row. Just when we needed the final push it didn't come.

2 possible explanations
1) The Kronke's did put a halt on spending and as you mentioned above felt like they'd now given Arteta a team to be secure CL qualifiers and the extra outlay for the trophy didn't (for a business) make sense, plus they maybe felt Arteta had enough at his disposal to get us over the line without needing to spend more
2) the willingness to spend was there but there was a reluctance to push to silly prices or move to other targets if the main ones weren't available. If you believe what some very well connected people say there were serious bids for other players that didn't come - we even went for Garcia the gk on the final few days for £20m+. The loan signings of Neto and Sterling would also give weight to this theory

I’ve never known a season like this one. Everything seemed stacked against us from the very moment Rice was sent off for kicking the ball away. Injuries all over the shop, Crazy refereeing decisions costing us points, missing so many chances that would win games. Sometimes you just need to hold your hands up and say it wasn’t going to be our year.

The minor mistakes made seem largely connected to recruitment and a little squad management. Maybe overplaying certain players a little, unnecessarily loaning out Fabio Vieira, recruiting 2 players who right now wouldn’t get in our strongest 11 probably.

Think the manager needs help to bring in 2 outright ruthless killers in the final third who can take teams apart. He will need the clubs help with this. I don’t really see any signs of obvious mismanagement

Agreed, and it would seem pretty silly to not fully test the theory, give Arteta all the tools he needs and see if he can do it. Get a top class striker, get a top class winger. He has shown he can coach players, coach a winning system and make players better, give him what should be the final piece of the puzzle. I can't think of many serious trophy winning teams that don't have at least 1 stand out forward. In the league we're up against City and Liverpool who each have a player who regularly scores 25-30 league goals a season, they are outstanding, but the actual coaching and system the team is playing to win isn't any better than ours, it can't be, the elite level player is the difference maker.

The cup exits to Newcastle (the home leg at least), Man U, and PSG - each of them with a huge dollop of frustration that we created a huge number of chances, much better chances than our opponents and didn't score, they took their chances, sometimes it happens but you'd struggle to find too many games from any team this season where the quality of chances vs the goals scored was quite so lop sided.

Its a really tough one. But my view is Amorim is a better manager than Ange. Ange won't change, and spurs under him will get the odd brilliant result from some barnstorming football but they'll also falter. They are also nowhere near ready for CL - albeit if they get there I fully expect them to beat a top team at home at some point and everyone will go crazy and then they'll get knocked out pretty early and their league form will suffer and they'll finish maybe 8th at best.

Man U's finances are in the pits. We had to turn our team around with some pretty conservative financial work - certainly comparative to what Man U would/should be able to do. Man U really should be up the top challenging, I want to keep them down for as long as possible.

There is a compromise to be had when it comes to spending. Essentially the more you spend on wages, agents, transfer fees etc, the more you are gambling with the club's future. In the context of FFP, if you then get unlucky/underperform for whatever reasons, then you'll end up with huge overspend relative to revenue.

Chelsea have got around this by cheating and selling their own assets to themselves - there's a limit to how long you can do this for.

Manu are in huge debt - mitigated by their enormous revenues from things like merchandise/commercial revenues.

Villa are screwed - their wage bill is about the same as their revenues.

City have just cheated and probably continue to cheat FFP, by ploughing money indirectly into their revenues.

Liverpool and Spurs haven't cheated and aren't as financially screwed as many of the above, although Spurs are going to struggle with falling revenues and servicing their debt.

So if Arsenal choose to compete spending wise with the cheats like City and Chelsea - then they would be irresponsibly gambling with the club's future imho, as if you have a bad season, drop out of CL and then have a wage bill that is bigger than your total revenue, you are totally stuffed and could spiral into a vicious cycle of doom.

The fans calling for more and more spending and not appreciated the wider implications of spending unsustainably and recklessly are idiots. They should be venting their frustration and anger at the PL for allowing the likes of Chelsea and City to cheat, cheat and cheat - if you try to match their spending, then your club may well end up like a Sunderland or Bolton.

It was quite clear last summer the spend was restricted for FFP & finances (we’d posted a pre tax loss)

So if you have sold some players and have the option of spending the whole 72 million budget on one striker (they aren’t cheap) or 2 players who will beef up the squad generally in other positions what do you do. It’s not an easy decision I can understand why they decided to kick things down the road a bit signing forwards.

I knew it was Djurgarden - mainly because I'll always remember Supermac inexplicably playing a few games for them in 1979, when he was still an Arsenal player.

I mean, I thought so. But at this point Icarus has got so close to the sun he’s cracked out the deck chair and enjoying the balmy surface, mojito in hand. Football was no match for big finance. FIFA realised the billions to be made but football governance was barely equipped to deal with football issues let alone the world’s financial chicanery.

Agreed. I don't know about some fans. How on earth do they work out that we are entitled to win the league and or CL? Arteta has taken us from midtable mediocrity to being genuine contenders. I don't see this seasons as a failure at all. We've gone slightly backwards in the EPL (and we know exactly what the problems are) but we've really grown up in CL. I'm extremely confident that we'll be contenders again. Thank goodness we are not Real Madrid or PSG whose fans are as enttitled as *&% and happy that their team buys its way to success regardless of any notion of fairness. Guaranteed success is not sport.

To be honest I won't be paying any attention but I'll also be holding my nose and hoping that United lose. I'm not convinced about Anorim but they do look more likely to turn things around than Spurs and are just a bigger club.

Quite, it's like the rest of life! Seriously, does everyone see their life as a failure if they haven't won the most elite competitions in their area of expertise/skill? If I'm not best chef, manager, nurse, policeman in the country, am I a failure? This ignorance and entitlement is embarrassing.

The media don't help, as they stir and sometimes call 4th in the PL an achievement for one club but not for another.

If you listen to these idiots, then you end up in a cycle of sacking your manager every year and a vicious spiral of decline like Manu/Spurs.

These idiots can stick it. 2nd in the PL is a big achievement, particularly given our resources are way smaller than some of the other big clubs, and a semi in the CL is a big achievement too. Be proud.

How can you honestly suggest sacking our manager because he hasnt won the champions league. We’ve never won it since it was founded in the 50s !

This guy is held to a higher standard than those before him. We should have fired wenger after the Chelsea defeat with the wayne bridge winner. George should have gone after Benfica that would have saved us a couple of trophies.

Social media means everyone is a critique of everyone's else imperfections -- but not their own. Zero accountability and zero self-reflection.

Guillem Balague

"Six years away from the Champions League. Second season in a row in the competition that defines the biggest teams and careers, and reaching semis
If you don't see Arsenal's progression is because you don't want to
Seven regulars return, 4/5 new starters and back to be one of the best teams in Europe
That's what I see Arteta is doing with his team"

He's Spanish so might have a soft spot for Arteta but I think if you wade past the hyperbole click bait headlines from those pundits we know too well there are more balanced views out there

Arteta seems held to a higher standard by everyone full stop, on every metric.

Yep.

Or Ange gets the sack and they get a decent replacement who buys well in the summer and takes Spurs to the final. No thanks, I can live with Man Utd getting CL as they are worse than Spurs and will take a lot more time to build.

I think it’s worse for Utd as a club to miss champions league, with the money situation and the squad churn needed and the size of club.

Who I’d prefer to win this i don’t know. Probably spurs tbh as I see Utd as more of the threat long term and I don’t think spurs will do anything. They surely won’t sack Ange if they get into the UCL. There’s more chance if they don’t make it.

Postacoglu
"If its so easy to get to a final, why doesn't everyone who finishes in the top 3 do it"

How can no self respecting journalist let that comment slide at the time without responding - "because they played Real Madrid and PSG not Bodo/Glimt....."

Funny how this Arteta quote hasn’t been given the headline treatment. No way to twist these words to make him look bad though is there

I'm not sure I agree that Spurs would build a title challenging (or at least Arsenal challenging) side quicker than Man U.
Man U are able to access a group of players Spurs dont
Man U are better equipped to fend off advances for their players than Spurs
All things being equal a player signs for Man U above Spurs
Man U are able to offer players higher wages
Man U will more likely be able to spend bigger than spurs
Man U have more ambition than Spurs.

I think it will take years for either side to get to our level consistently but Man U would stand a better chance of getting there than Spurs right now

No he isn't. No one has held him to any standard other than the one he set for himself.
Klopp 9 years 1 CL
Pep 4 years at Munich with a super team and 0 CL and how many attempts at City?
Mourinho at Madrid. Vast sums yet no CL.
How long did it take Ferguson with finances no one could match to win the CL
This is Mikel's 2nd shot. Listening to Cascarino and Lawrenson they both said this evening that a top quality winger CF and midfielder and we will be strong contenders for both CL and EPL. Most commentators I have heard this week have been very complimentary towards us and have lauded Arteta. A good transfer window and I'd be VERY hopeful for next season.

Most definitely. Ange is not a great manager so it will be good if he stays. Every year Manure don't get CL sees their aura diminish. Under Ferguson manure could buy themselves out of trouble as they had way more money than anyone else. This is now not the case. They are back to their norm. They lucked out on 2 managers Busby and Ferguson and in between they were bang average.

I'm inclined to agree. Bigger picture, probably better if Spurs win.

Eh? This place is gone mad. Feck Spurs. I hope United hammer them.....or beat them with an almighty fluke in injury time.

Chelsea’s transfers for this season. 276mllion euros, has there ever in the history of football been a worse window? Only 1 or 2 of those players even makes the matchday squad on a regular basis.

This 276m is on the back of a £464m summer which followed a £630m summer. Crazy how this isn’t under more scrutiny. Worst performing rich club of all time

Chelsea have struggled all season, will likely win the conference league - a competition the equivalent of a top prem team entering the Papa John’s trophy for league 1 clubs and below, but they’ve ostensibly failed on every metric and spent 250 million more than Arsenal to do it.

They continue to ignore their obvious problem in goal despite signing his knows how many gk, they have no top level Cb and no top level striker - but it’s continuously Arsenal who get hammered for not signing a top striker.

The levels to criticism for some while others get away scot free is staggering!

I agree with your final sentence. But you really think ‘most commentators have lauded Arteta this week’ since we lost to PSG?
He’s been told numerous times this season he has to win the prem or has to win the CL, he’s already being told he should be sacked next season if he doesn’t win either.
Utter madness if you think Arteta has been praised to the hills by the majority in the wake of our elimination to PSG and the surrender of the title challenge to Liverpool last week. The vast and vocal majority have been so so critical of him.

Zubimendi getting closer

I don’t really remember seeing him play. What are his strengths and weaknesses? How does he fit this Arsenal team?

Except for Arsene and George won other trophies that were valued at the time. They had credit in the bank.

Style similar to Jorginho. Metronomic passer and tempo setter, technically very good, he’s also exceptional positionally making a lot of ball recoveries and interceptions. Worth watching his Euro final sub appearance v England when he came on for Rodri.

They didn't miss Rodri when he came on.

Does he have pace box to box

Unlike some on here, Arteta recognises EPL has been a backward step this year but he is correct in saying the CL an improvement.

Arteta said: “In the Premier League we've gone a step backwards. With the points that we have created it's clear that we haven't done as good as last season, that's obvious. Yeah, for sure in the Champions League we have because we've done better than last season but not what we want because we want to win it.

I don’t think he’s pacey or box to box, or massively physical. He’s very much a continental deep lying playmaker midfielder. Unlikely to get many goals or assists, but should knit play, start attacks and control the game

https://x.com/ebl2017/status/1879515297 ... -j6VVZXEoA
This thread on Twitter gives a good analysis of him

The manager took us from 10th and out of Europe and has raised the standards so that finishing 2nd or 3rd and getting to European semis is seen as failure now.

Managers aren’t getting sacked under those circumstances. Look at spurs and uniteds league position. Where has constantly rotating the coach got them.