But before today they’d already lost two games.

But they were still on to beat our 49 game unbeaten run in the league, and United have scuppered that. Sure they had a long way to go, but American Gooner worries about these things and its good to know he will sleep soundly tonight.

It makes one reflect on just how good those Wenger teams were, and what a pity it is that we always managed to shoot ourselves in the foot in Europe.

It also makes one wonder why he wanted Liverpool to win. Some other obscure worry or grudge?

Bale's hair. Why?

Which he had.

Your posts.

But before their defeat today, City’s unbeaten league run was only 19 games since losing to Tottenham on 21st November. Hence they were still 30 games from equalling our record and 31 games from beating it. Isn’t it a bit early to start wanting Manchester United to beat them for that reason?

If you’re right and that was the reason, maybe that explains why he wanted Liverpool to beat Fulham. After all, Fulham had lost their last games so were only 49 games from equalling our record. Now after beating Liverpool they’re just a mere 48 games from equalling it. Time to start getting worried about Fulham threatening our record?

Congratulations Rangers for winning the title. The whole last 10 years has been mad up there. That’s one happy half of Glasgow to go with an incredibly unhappy one!!

https://c.newsnow.co.uk/A/1069811324?-19387:844

Some good news at last , hopefully wiggy will do us all a favour and cut HIS losses.

It's been downhill all the way since this cretin got involved in the club, I knew it was only a matter of time until he turned us into a midtable club, but didn't know just how quickly it would happen!.

It did sound crazy, but AG clarified that original post by saying that he wanted Liverpool to beat Fulham, because he'd prefer for them to finish fourth rather than Chelsea.

So glad to see City lose. I'd prefer if it was against Brom or some other relegation side but I'll take it. With 10 games to go they can win them all 5-0 as far as I care.

Their money is really showing. As far as Liverpool, didn't Klopp's Dortmund side have a similar meltdown after doing very, very well?

33 points to play for us and frankly, it will take either a helluva run and possibly a meltdown by a few sides for me to harbor much hope. Liverpool is obviously vulnerable but then you see them take the pitch and wonder how can they lose? But they are currently finding a way. I have to think Villa, West Ham and surprisingly enough Liverpool are catchable. In a perfect world Everton, who I really don't have much love for either, could be the 4th spot. Not likely maybe but I'd like to see them instead of Chelsea and Tottenham. West Ham getting a top 4 would be nice for football. Man Utd and Leicester are in the top 4 unless something out of the ordinary happens. Leicester obviously the only one of the two I don't mind in the top 4.

In any event, West Ham should see European football next season. We might. If we don't, it may light a fire under Kroenke's butt. The future of Arsenal is almost as depressing as the future of America. Kroenke was always a bad idea. The horse is beaten beyond recognition but I know American sports owners and there was no way in hell he was a better option than Usmanov, when it came to having to side with one. Usmanov is odious but at least we'd be well funded by an owner who understands the sport and was willing to invest in the club and squad. Kroenke becoming a Trump donor makes his association with us even worse.

Let's just beat Tottenham. I just hope we can manage to do that. I'd at least accept whatever fate we have with some solace.

That would mean having to count on them maintaining their present poor form. That form can turn on a dime with the players they have. I hope so but I'm not backing a truck full of 100 pound notes at Ladbrokes.

I'd suggest with 10/11 games to go for all teams, Villa and West Ham may be more vulnerable than Liverpool. I just can't see them being this bad for too much longer. I hope so, but I don't see it.

Hate to sound like a pessimist but even if we win our game in hand and beat them, there are the several other games. But hope springs eternal.

It makes perfect sense now (I've muted him so I didn't see his clarification).

I agree, on paper you think Liverpool have to pull it together at some point and therefore maybe considered harder to catch but my point was because catching Liverpool is in our own hands it actually doesn’t matter what results Liverpool get. We don’t need them to continue their awful form to catch them - it’s completely down to us - which is different to all the other teams above us

Getting to the business end of the season, and a draw between Chelsea and Everton is best. If one has to win, I'd prefer Everton. If one has to make top 4 and we can't, I'd like it to be Everton.

I have a soft spot for West Ham this season and I'd much rather beat out Tottenham or Chelsea than them but its a Gunnersaurus eat dog world and if it has to be the 'ammers then so be it. Then I suppose Leeds to beat them.

I'm not going to be terribly upset if we don't have European football. The way the season started out, I didn't think we'd be top half. So, thinking of European football is a mid season readjustment of goals. And with this squad, I don't want to hope too much.

For me, I just want to see Martinelli get playing time. Partey get a run of games and improve. Ødegaard get better. Saka stay injury free, Pépé continue to do well. Individual performances all around, so if/when we pick up some players in the summer we can go into next season with some optimism.

If he sold the new owner would have to have very deep pockets. This article suggests by May 2021 that Kroenke will have had to pay near 220mil over the last few years. If we have purchased many players on the terms suggested then even if we tried to sell Pépé we would have to make something like44mil just to pay out what we owe. I wonder how many other players like Soares, Mari, Martenelli fall under this plan. We continue to pay CL wages when we are at Westham and Everton levels.

I don't see how we can even invest any money in the next transfer window. Partey did need to be paid for, so Kroenke must have paid it as was suggested by some media. As someone else suggested the other day we will be looking for loans. But Arteta must work on intergrating Saliba Martenelli and other youth into the team because we can only borrow a few players - maybe 7.

International womens day today.

It was meant to be yesterday but they were all still getting ready.

Some commercial financials. This points out how far we are behind commercially, even £20m behind spurs which is shocking when you consider than in terms of the main commercial revenue stream (shirt sponsor etc) we are £40m ahead of spurs at £110m to their £70m. So all the remaining commercial deals we do are worth £32m and all spurs remaining commercial deals outside of shirt sponsorship are worth £92m.

Top sponsorship deals

Its a big 'ask' of our present squad to win our game in hand AND beat Liverpool. But obviously I'd 'looov it' if we did. Is it too much to to ask to finish above Tottenham as well?
I'm not confident of doing those all those things (winning the game in hand, beating Liverpool and doing well against the scum, away to West Ham and if it comes to the last day, beating Chelsea away.

We may have to sacrifice a virgin to the football gods. Know any?

Not just jumping on you here, but I'm not sure why this line of thinking has caught on to the extent that it has. I know we were eighth last season and our league position doesn't look much better this time around, but last season Everton were 12th and West Ham were 16th. We regularly finish around 15 points ahead of Everton and 20-30 ahead of West Ham, surely it takes more than one season before they can be considered to be on our level?

Well said Hazuki. Teams like West Ham tend to have the odd decent season. One swallow doesn't a summer make.

I also fail to understand why some people are so pessimistic about our squad, or the prospect of improving it this summer.

This is in the telegraph.
Arsenal are called divers and softies and Burnley and Dyche are encouraged to give Arsenal ‘a good shoeing’
This sort of thing confirms the unconscious bias that circulates in football and will be in referees minds.
I would love to have a prem season refereed by foreign refs. Every team is still subjected to the same set of rules and the same set of refs but I do think we’d benefit massively.

I think you need to borrow AG's avatar.

West Ham have won nothing for over 40 years. Everton last won a trophy 26 years ago. We last won a trophy 6 months ago.

Yeah they are both going to finish above Arsenal this season. Fair play, they're both having good seasons. But seriously mate, get a grip. Long term we have been and will be on another level to them.

https://www.spotrac.com/epl/payroll/
This is the premier league annual wages. We've trimmed a fair bit off recently and have more to come off.
Everton are interesting in that they are £45m behind us on annual wages but I would have thought our commercial revenue balances that out irrespective of whether we're in the CL or not. On Everton as well, I have no idea how they have afforded the last 3 or so years of spending when there is nothing in their finances or success to suggest that spend is sustainable or in line with FFP

I think if we are going to have any hope of being top 6 or 7 we have to play our best people and have them play consistently. Sounds until you see our line up at times. Don't know why Martinelli can't get minutes. Xhaka must be a helluva practice player. I won't accept Saliba isn't good enough to be part of the squad on Artetas say so. I like Arteta a lot, but I'm simply not going to take his word for it regarding Saliba. Said with the understanding Mikel has forgotten more football that I'll know but logic and reason forces me to question that decision.



On paper if you look at the whole squad, its not a bad squad. Tactics, belief and the right substitutions can get us there but as we all know its easier said than done.

If they selected an all English team it would be bad enough. But since they don't it is breathtakingly self-delusional Trumpish nonsense.

Looking at our financial figures again there is one sponsorship deal that looks particularly poor.
Our deal with Emirates from 2014-19 was for £30m a season
Our new deal with Emirates from 2019 to 2024 is for £40m a season and doesn't allow us to have a training kit sponsor (something that nets some teams £10-15m a season) So we really haven't increased our base level commercial income in this respect since 2014 as we've essentially stayed on the same £30m a year deal and thrown in £10m for training kit.

Compared to the kit manufacturer deal where we went from £30m a season for Puma (2014-19) and raised this to £60m a season for Adidas (2019-24) Which does looks like a deal that was pushed to the maximum.

For context Man U bring in £25m more every season from JUST their shirt sponsor. Of course with the largest fan base in the world you can expect it to be more but that is a Gabriel every season from just this 1 source of revenue. We still need to be doing far more off the pitch to increase revenue

As to Fulham, Scott Parker is an ex Spurs player. Not that there's anything wrong with that regarding his managerial capabilities as it were.

Still doubt Manchester will be staying red once May arrives.

Errr, it’s clearly tongue in cheek.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/56325695

Has anyone read about the proposed change to the Champions League to bring 4 more teams in?
There is talk of 2 of the additional 4 places being 'wildcard' based on UEFA co-efficient. Currently that would give Arsenal a very good chance of being that wildcard as one of if not the highest ranked team not to qualify for the champions league.

I get that the journalist isn't actually advocating a good shoeing to Arsenal and thinks that would be appropriate but I don't understand why this was even the take from the weekend's game. There was absolutely nothing in the game that suggested Burnley had roughed Arsenal up. If the story was written on the basis of the 'scream' by Lacazette then this pretty much reinforces the point I made when it appeared on MOTD that we and Lacazette had been unfairly singled out as an easy target because it fits with the general narrative that Arsenal are soft and dive and are susceptible to a bit of rough treatment.

Rich, MOTD have mentioned the screaming before. I have little or no doubt that the most likely reason they singled out Lacazette was him being the most extreme example of it. You can find as many clips of other Premier League players screaming as you like. I don’t think any of them would be the equal of Lacazette’s. That’s why I reckon they focused on him in a humorous manner Saturday night.

Just forget it as it isn’t a big deal. He probably won’t be an Arsenal player much longer anyway.

Isn’t this a preview piece? There’s merit in what you’re saying, reputations in football affect things. Also is has rough treatment gone by the wayside? We get more red cards than anyone else and in line with what the piece said we’re relatively powder puff. it seems aggressive pressing is the new way to be physical.

Based on our points deficit from top 6/7, Arteta should focus on winning the Europa League. Getting into top 6/7 & winning Europa are both very tall orders for us. We just lack the consistency. Please prove me wrong on either front!

This wild card system, is probably the suggestion of the American owners. American professional sides have been using a 'wild card' system for ages.

I personally think the reason is if a globally followed side has a bad season they will still be in the CL. It dilutes the competition and even though we may benefit, I'm against it in principle.

I would actually see the number of clubs reduced. I wouldn't go back to the old champions only format (which makes the present name a mockery) but I think way too many sides are in it. Top 2 and the previous years cup finalists perhaps have a choice of entering or defending their cup.

I think eventually a super league may happen. The American owners will be for it. 'We' don't have a promotion / relegation system so they are not used to it and don't like it. They don't want to risk a Man Utd 1974 season or a Liverpool 1954 season.

1.15m meals were provided for vulnerable people by Premier League clubs during the pandemic. Arsenal responsible for 500,000 of them. Great effort from the club