Don't know, depends on the summer I guess.

Newcastle have a good summer and they could be challenging us for 5th or 6th at least next season.

Well, now do the same for Man Utd

Sky

Neville and carragher just morbidly dismissed Arsenals disgraceful failure tonight. Now MNF are reviewing their pre season predictions.

Both had united finishing above us in the league and Neville had us pegged as underachievers. Ok dickheads

They were pretty crap after he came in too, they just started pressing better and Kane decided to stop sulking and play football. This narrative that Conte transformed them needs to die, or people need to actually start watching them play.

I note that neither Arteta nor Xhaka mentioned the referee.

Bloody Monday night away games. I hate them. We always lose them and always seem to be given a disproportionate of them away from home.

We can still get CL but it will have to be one of those days that comes along very rarely in football. At least Norwich can play without fear. It’s not much to hold on to.

Perhaps I should have said none of them are good enough to start for a top 4 team over a long stretch or really are any good enough to be our back ups?

I do disagree.

We need strikers, midfielders and better back up.

Our defence and keeper have to put up with a lot of *%^@. Tony Adams would be calling a team crisis meeting after every game

Injuries are part of the game. That is what a squad is for. After the January window, we left ourselves with 3 centrebacks and 2 strikers. We know Tierney is injury prone. It's hardly a surprise that he was out for some time. Partey has had a very patchy injury record since he joined. Wasn't Lokonga signed to provide cover (at the very least) in midfield? We don't have any excuses. We blew it.

Frustrating to see Bruno Guimaraes dictate the game today. The guy is class everyone knew he was class before he signed for Newcastle. And he was affordable. Perhaps we simply didn’t have the budget to push for him in January but we were supposedly making bid bids or willing to make big bids for Vlahovic. I think when we face these tougher away games there is a huge difference in what a top quality central mod can give us. An ability to take a sting out of a vibrant and energetic home team feeding off the crowd. An ability to show calmness, touch and technique to control the tempo of the game and not be over run. As much as we need strikers that central midfield conductor is absolutely vital for us next year.

Depends the way you look at it. We prioritised our future I guess. Didn’t get the results but I thought we were robbed on Thursday that started this problem and spurs should have drew yesterday.

We were terribly unlucky this year so suggesting our young team blew it for me is a bit much. Actually is daft.

How bad must the 15 teams below us be!

I don’t think getting rid of players in jan was the issue, it was more not bringing in players. If first choice weren’t available then a short term loan. Easier said than done of course but I don’t think some of those that went on loan help us much in the run in even just as warm bodies.

Exactly what I was going to say. Our end of season form has been rubbish as it was last year as well if I remember. We can talk about injuries all we like but to address that problem then we’d need to buy another 6 players to cover alll the holes in the squad while at the same time improving the 1st team. I never expected CL so don’t think expectations were unrealistic. Equally I didn’t expect an almighty collapse to just hand it over to a team who have by and large been pretty *%^@ this year

They may not be good to watch, but they are certainly effective.

Ainsley might have been useful for the last 6 games. That’s about it. Maybe we should have spent a fortune getting Arthur on a 18 month loan.

Honestly sit back and take it in. It is what it is.

I guess my decision not to get too emotionally invested for the last few games of the season was correct.

Arsenal are responsible for 25% of all foul throws given this season in the league….

Xhaka - "If someone isn't ready for this game, stay at home"

I was at home and I still wasn't ready for that.

I think it is daft to automatically assume we’ll struggle to get near CL next season on the basis that lots of other teams will improve. Everyone was sure with Man U’s summer buys that they would make this season a genuine 4 way title fight. Lukaku was the missing piece for CL winner Chelsea who would establish them in that title fight.

Newcastle will go crazy this summer but to jump from 13th or so to 4th is going to be very difficult.

As I said before Spurs are £75m down just to stay where they are if they make their 2 loan deals permanent. That is their CL money.
We’re £7m up following the sales of Guendouzi and Mavropanos and the purchase of Turner. We should be able to generate a further £60m from the sales of Torriera, Pépé, Bellerin, AMN, Mari, Nelso, Leno. If the Kronke’s back another £150m (+£60m from sales) spend this summer - which is needed- we would improve hugely. Just sticking most competent premier league strikers in our system improved us hugely - Wilson, Watkins, Ings, Pukki, Toney, Antonio etc I want us aiming better than these guys but they all improve us no end
2 strikers
Wide goal threat
2 central mids
Left back
Right back
That would be my ideal shopping list

I think his quotes will get taken out of context, they already have by Neville on sky. If that was a British Man U player Neville would be applauding him for telling some home truths. Xhaka was asked if the young age of the team was to blame for our poor result(s) and he said it doesn’t matter what age you are you have to do what the coach says and play better than that. So far from throwing the young players under the bus as the question was designed for him to do he made it a collective blame.

When we play badly I’ve noticed Arteta often single out our inability to win duels and second balls. He did it again last night. He’s completely right. We struggled massively

Now we hope for another twist for 4th.
Norwich play their best game ever to reward their fans, and beat Spurs.
Arteta wakes up the team and we beat Everton.

One can dream but wake up to its reality

Aaron Hickey is on his way to us apparently. Can play either full back position. That would be a decent signing. Along with the young Brazilian too. At least we’re making moves early.

Very, very disappointing last couple of games. Maybe, it’s a good thing in the long term. I don’t feel we’re ready for CL right now. The financial side of missing out is huge but we need to smarten up before we’re ready to take on the big boys on the pitch.

No shame in what we’ve achieved this season, just a very flat ending to what was such fun for large parts. We can analyse to death but bottom line is we’re just a little short right now. Squad is thin and we’ve been derailed by injuries to some main men.

Being able to stay fit for nearly all games is underrated. It’s been shown in the many things Messi and Ronaldo are amazing at but also when you look at the best players right now in the prem none of them are injury prone. No knocks, no niggles just constantly fit.

Tierney, Partey and Tomiyasu are all injury prone and it is hurting us. We need 3 players who are at their level in each of the 3 positions.

Tielemans, Fabian Ruiz, Bissouma all have just one year left on their current deal. All are 25/26 years old. With only a year left you should be able to snap up two of those for a combined £40-50m. If we shop in the ‘contract expiring’ market this summer our money should be able to go a long way

After watching that game last night I think we need a Bissouma more than a tielemans. Totally outmuscled and bullied in a game of frenetic pace. We needed to match that and couldn’t.

To be honest we need both but economics won’t allow it. The club needs to make some difficult decisions still, elneny and Lokonga are only good enough for the cup competitions, xhaka games outside of the top 4. We should sell the 3. You want to break into the champions league spots you need better than what we have. We aren’t dynamic in the middle of the pitch. Ødegaard was dropping deeper and deeper because we were not competing there and has been drawn into the criticism.

Look at some of the through balls for their 2 fast wingers our widemen just don’t get service like that.

The reaction to last nights result has been daft. The media have gone full on crisis rather than reflecting on the progress this year. The youngest and most inexperienced side in the league finished 5th. We shed our underperforming names and improved.

The transfer business this summer will determine if next season is the managers last. If it’s good he might just cling onto his job and bad then he’s finished. What I’ve realised is that he’s probably done anyway as for some reason an element of the online fanbase never give him the benefit of the doubt and it will take time to unseat a city or Liverpool. He won’t get that time.

Btw if Milan or Marseille offered 40-45 million for saliba id bite their hand off right now and spend the lot on Bissouma.

That part of the pitch needs upgrading and is failing its MOT.

Nail on the head.

I believe the Sun is reporting Hickey a done deal for 21mil. At that price he should be a first team player.

Yes, but what if he turns out to be the new VVD, we'll be looking back in 3 years time and regretting the sale big time.

It's a big call but not sure if selling him just yet is the right call.

Undoubtedly it would be a big call.

I think you have to take that risk. We have 2 good centre backs, 1 reasonably competent back up and no midfield when partey is injured.

Midfield is where the games are won. Just bullied there yesterday.

Massively dissapointing end to the season after undeniable progress overall.
I just hope that the Krankey's (how funny would it be if Arsenal were owned by them) firstly acknowledge the significant improvement of the team, and secondly, that their healthy investment in players last summer has got us to within few points of the Champions League. Surely now is the time to increase their backing to Arteta and Edu financially.

Bissouma is a good call, a physical presence with decent technical ability and PL ready. Would cost £50m and do we have that to spend.

Another problem is that we have too many injury prone players......Tierney, Partey, Tomiyasu. Three of our biggest players not playing in half the games. Going forward that is unsustainable.

I would really like to see Saliba given a chance at Arsenal given his ceiling seems ridiculously high. If he's not going to sign an extension then we have no choice but to sell him, but given how good he is now and may eventually become, i think we try and hold on to him.