Clear where the improvements need to be. That’s not just strikers that is for any attacking player. Start sticking away the chances we create at a top 4 level team (as we are with nearly all our other attacking stats) and we’d sail in to the top 4 easily

We have beaten Chelsea, Tottenham, Man Utd. We played City tough for a half. We aren't a club City looks past. They are up for us. It's not like they play Norwich and think its an easy game and get surprised. Same with Liverpool. Neither of the top two sides takes us lightly. I still say us playing Liverpool to a 0-0 draw with ten men in the cup is our best match. I can't think of another side in the league including City that could have withstood that pressure.

Basically, even with this squad that obviously needs improvement, we are good enough for top 4, top 3 possibly. Its consistency. The 3 losses while fighting for 4th were shocking and a revelation perhaps. They were far more significant to me than the 3 losses at the beginning of the season. Its one of those intangibles that has been in the club for several years now. We saw it towards the end of Wenger's reign, during Emery's reign and now with Arteta.

Sure, Man Utd and Tottenham have had bad patches similar to that but they were clubs in transition, with managers (OGS for example) that were obviously not a fit, having holes in their first XI, etc. Maybe I'm looking through Arsenal tinted lens but we seemed different, worse. New, better quality players can come in but as I've always said, unless we can address those intangibles that makes me question the squad's mettle, desire and ambition, I don't think we can put together a full season or a permanent turnaround.

Newcastle has a gazillion amount of pounds and will be challenging for a Europa spot next season if they buy well. It's just a matter who is available and if they will buy into the project. They have the money. They have the manager to do it. So, they will be an added challenger next season probably. West Ham continues to seemingly punch above their weight and with them going far into Europe will be able to attract better players and having additional funds. Leicester will be back at some point I think. They also have a dynamic manager.

Point is, if we don't get our act together we may be back to 8th or even 9th. Maybe a few points off 6th or or so but still down in the table. It will also be interesting how we balance Europe and the domestic competitions. I don't think we'll be able to do it well I'm guessng but I am also hoping it means we have dig deep into the squad of younger players and some of the better younger ones will be able to prove themselves with more minutes.

You could well be right. But we have to remember the decision will be Nketiah’s. After all, the club aren’t going to offer him the sort of money Özil got, or even Lacazette, that will make him sign regardless of whether he’s a regular starter or not.

If you’re correct that Arsenal will spend very heavily on a top level forward, which I fully expect to be the case and will be mega disappointed if it isn’t, whoever it is the assumption surety has to be that he will be the first choice regular.

That means Nketiah will need to decide if he’s happy to be a squad back at Arsenal, like apparently Elneny has. Will he be comfortable signing a new deal with us knowing most of his starts are likely to be in the Lesgue Cup, FA Cup plus the group stage and early knock out rounds of the Europa League (if we do reach the final I reckon the first choice may well start, and even in the semifinal).

Nketiah will have decently sized clubs after him this summer. By that I don’t mean the likes of the Manchester clubs, Liverpool, Chelsea or even Tottenham. I don’t know who will be eager to sign him on a free transfer but I’m talking of the Leicester (Vardy can’t carry on forever), Wolves, Crystal Palace, and Brighton type level. I see Everton as a bigger club than those so perhaps them too. Would he prefer to be a first choice regular for a club like that or a squad back up at Arsenal?

Only Nketiah and his agent may know the answer to that. But if decides he’d prefer to be a regular starter, myself I reckon he’ll choose to move on.

You are right money may move him elsewhere if he gets offered a big signing on fee but if he went to West Ham I’m not sure he’d be a regular starter either as they have Antonio, wolves have Jimenez. Honestly not sure if he would get preferred to those 2. Everton ? Maybe if they lost Calvert Lewin but if they don’t he won’t start there.

Palace maybe, Brighton possibly but are you really going to swap being 1 of 2 central strikers for Arsenal to join either of those clubs. He’s no longer a peripheral figure at Arsenal. It just doesn’t seem a logical move at all and if he wants to go to a World Cup with England or Ghana doesn’t that make sense. You might be right and he does go but it’s not really logical on his part.

I bet if you put up those stats for Spurs, you would be able to see exactly why they pipped us.

This is nuts

Basically don’t do business with Italians.

https://metro.co.uk/2022/05/22/lucas-to ... -16688653/

How the club agreed to this I don’t know as it means Arsenal footed the entire bill for Torrerias time in Italy and got nothing back apart from a disgruntled player who is going to be very difficult to sell now.

Yes it was abeautiful goal to end the season - almost Bergkampesque?

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/premier ... bewerb/GB1
Yep, Spurs have the best conversion rate in the league. Son, Kane, Penalties and own goals give that a big boost!

We still got the loan fee and they will have paid his wages during the loan though I assume.

He's done well there so the salary must be the sticking point because £12m isn't a lot for a guy who was voted your player of the month 3 times that season.

We also lost to Chelsea, Spurs and Man U this season. Lost twice to City and twice (comfortably) to Liverpool.
Spurs not losing to either City or Liverpool was a big factor for them this year - you really can't think they'd do that against next year but their 5 at the back, with mid block and then just release the front 3 to do all the damage really suits those games. A few months without Kane and Son would be interesting.

He is a good player. Why didn't we play him as Uruguay did? Primarily a defensive man who could still do a job for us. Rumours were that his family could not settle in London?

We didn’t get the loan fee because they played him more than 25 games. It’s such a mental deal

So on to building the squad for next season. Two important things to consider, 1) we're in Europe and 2) the world cup hits mid season

Being in Europe we should expect to play somewhere like 12 or so more games if we expect to make it to the semi's at least.

Currently we have 21 players listed in the first team, with 3 of those having contract's expiring. We have 9 players listed on loan, of those 9 I'd say there is no chance we see Runnarsson, Guendouzi and Mari in an Arsenal shirt next season. Very unlikely we see Bellerin and Torreira, which leaves Saliba, AMN, Nelson and Balogun. Saliba to come back, Balogun on another loan and AMN and Nelson to be sold I reckon.

Of the 3 contract expiries I think Elneny seems to have re-signed, Lacazette almost certain to leave and Nketiah could be 50/50. Also it seems certain Turner replaces Leno.

This would be my absolute bare minimum for a 24 man squad
Ramsdale, Turner + 1 youth GK (depending on loans)
Tomiyasu, Tierney, Cédric, Tavares (+1 full back)
Gabriel, White, Holding, Saliba
Partey, Xhaka, Lokonga, Elneny (+1 CM)
Saka, Emile Smith Rowe, Martinelli, Ødegaard (+1 winger)
Nketiah (+ 1 striker)

To be greedy Id want 2 x full backs, 2 x CM and 2 x strikers - so a further 3 players - and send Tavares on a season loan. If you bring 2 high quality full backs in you can also have Tomiyasu cover CB.
My 2 CM would be a player who can play as a physical defensive shield and another ball carrying attacking centre mid who could also cover Ødegaard

Hey Rich. It's important to note 'when' we lost to Man Utd and Chelsea. We played City and Liverpool as tough as one can given the gulf. The win over sperz sparked a mini revival as well.

Season ticket holders. Question ?

With our season ticket it included 2 fa cup games this year. What happens to that on the basis we got knocked out away. Should we get a credit because we were hopeless ?

I'm pretty sure thats what happens.

Emery started playing him there, then bizarrly moved him to a kind of false 10 thinking he could help with a high press. Arteta started him in his first few games but (probably rightly) decided we needed more physicality at the base of midfield. I'm not convinced Torreira suits the league - Emery wanted Nzonzi who is almost the complete opposite of Torreira - what a messed up period that was for us, zero direction or collaborative thinking

Yep. Emery trying to turn him into an attacking midfielder was weird and he was totally unsuited for it. He also suffered from Emery’s peculiar habit of being dropped after playing well. I think he became very disillusioned and just wanted out.

When we used to be in Europe before last season and there were no behind closed doors restrictions, didn’t we used to get seven cup tie credits (or was it six) for the FA Cup and the Champions League or Europa League? The League Cup wasn’t covered by the season ticket.

When we got knocked out of the FA Cup and Europe early enough to not use the cup tie allocation (whether it was seven or six), the value of the unused cup games used to be knocked off the season ticket for the following season.

I can’t imagine the same principle won’t apply to the 2022/23 season ticket renewals.

Thanks Bernard,

I think previously we got 7 cup games that included europa and fa cup but I wasn’t sure what happened when we didn’t get to use any of them

We get revenge for Vieira, July 16th, like we did last weekend.

Looking at the table, it just dawned me we won a lot of games. Tied with the scum for 3rd most games won. Yes, we lost a lot but we started off losing the first couple months.

Can't wait for the documentary. Hoping some questions are answered and hoping to get some insight into things that were happening.

The corollary is that we drew hardly any. It seemed like if we went a goal down then we rarely battled our way back into the game. The points gained from losing positions was pitiful.

We need to learn to rise above it.

Inexperience

I don’t know if you watched the Newcastle game but sky had their cameras in the tunnel pre game and they were focussing on the Newcastle players who looked proper blokes pretty mean and up for it then panned to show a baby faced Martin Ødegaard leading us out who probably looks the same as he did when he was 12. I just thought uh oh. We need a mobile enforcer in the middle of the park. Just too lightweight

I’m not sure this guy is right for us. Hope we don’t go near him

https://www.skysports.com/football/news ... ed-my-life

That would be my reading of the situation too.

And yes I did think just the same when viewing the Newcastle tunnel.

The players (those who stay) will of course all be a year older next season than they were this. So it’s an issue that should hopefully sort itself out naturally in due course. Also being young is not necessarily always the same as being inexperienced. You can be both young and experienced.

Based on how we started the season, is the number of losses a surprise? It shouldn't be. Reducing losses is a given. A glaring need that the most casual football can see about us.

To get to 3rd most wins is the more significant of the two (comparing number of wins and number of losses) isn't it?

Indeed - Paddy had won The Double and World Cup at 22 and the UEFA Championship by 24. Cesc the World Cup and UEFA Championship by about 23. Pele of course made those guys look like veterans.

Hadn't realized that Mourinho has won all 4 of his European cup finals (not only the EC/CL for the pedants). Impressive.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/61563232

Pitt the Younger and Alexander the Great also come to mind

I think Rich might have some doubts about their geggenpress. Paddy would have made a great Emperor. Come to think of it he was an Emperor of midfield. Increasingly difficult these days to decide who was my favourite - he, Dennis or The Immortal Frank.

True but he is still a knut.

It shouldn’t be? Well the number of losses was a surprise to me.

The opening three games were a mare in terms of the opposition, covid, and not having completed the transfer window. We recovered well from that but ultimately suffered some further losses that a more experienced side wouldn’t have done.

I am hopeful that we will build on that.

Insightful! The most casual football knows its stuff!

I hope he loses. I brielfy changed my mind about him when he and Wenger had cordial, even friendly moments off season and when Wenger was greeted by the retired Ferguson and then coach Mourinho and the 3 of them on the pitch and he went nasty again. That's who he is. Roma....effen Roma...that's his level now. And even he may eff that up.

You may very well be one of the few fans who thought we fully recovered from that horrible start. The sperz win was a brief respite, but maybe I am remembering the forum differently but did anyone think we turned it around? Really?

We were always fragile the whole season, especially given the fact we didn't do much in January. We lost Aubameyang, arguably he wasn't doing much but he left us bare. Blocked people aside...lol...(winks at the peanut gallery) who was talking 4th after January? Out of the cup by Forest.

The mood on here and other forums was doubtful...at best... at that time, but again, maybe I am remembering things differently. But..ah..ok.

Odegard signed for Madrid when he was 16. He's a Norwegian international since he was 15.

We had as many red cards as the top 4 combined this season.

I think 2 of our red cards directly contributed to us losing games. Another we’d have lost irrespective of the red and the final one just made us sweat hard for the win.