Well it was always delusional to hope that Norwich might get a result today.

The current 0-5 amplifies that.

In other news it is mega tense at Anfield right now.

Not really. That and the FA Vase are for a completely different set of clubs.

Villa up 2 nil. Are City going to blow it on the last day? Hilarious. Watching 3 games at once, mostly City and Liverpool back and forth.

Wolves could have went ahead. Blew it.

That post aged rather quickly.

'Citeh'...oh well.

Nice to finish the season on a high.

11 point gap down to Man Utd in 6th place. When so many pundits had them in the top three going into the season, I said I thought we were a lot closer to them than they were to Chelsea, Liverpool and Man City - but I did not expect this!

We finish with a points total that gets 3rd in the last two seasons.

Thank goodness City got their win. The idea of Liverpool doing the quadruple was unbearable

Sunny day, pressure off, turn on the style. Some good performances but although Everton were on the beach it really emphasised how bad we were at Newcastle.

Hard not to think that a couple of players in Jan, even on loan, would have been enough to get us over the line.

Look at Spurs, two signings in Jan straight into their first team and produced the goods.

Hey ho, another season bites the dust.

So that would be glass half empty then?

It’s over. Big ride, good effort this season

A couple of big players could make all the difference. If they could just get a ruthless killer up front things could really pop. It’s not a big a swing as people think.

Elneny has signed a 1 year extension. Makes sense with more games next year really

Lots of talk that Elneny has signed a 1 year deal with an option for a further year. Nothing official yet.

Couldn’t agree more. To want Liverpool to win the quadruple you’d either have to support them or live thousands of miles away from the UK to be clueless about how obnoxious the media hero worship of them is.

I certainly didn't want them to win the quadruple, but I wanted them to beat City to the league. They are the only club in England who can go the distance with City. Without them, the league would be a procession. Also, they play more entertaining football.

When it comes to fans, the Man Utd fans are far far more annoying than the Liverpool fans over here.

I hope Madrid win the CL though.

Completely understand, the Liverpool fanbase in America is has grown massively over the years. My friends stateside are either always one of 4 clubs. City, Man Utd, Liverpool or Chelsea, with the latter being the older ones always. Their kids are all Liverpool or City fans. Glory hunting is a shameless pasttime among Americans. Unbearable as it would be, I personally hate Man Utd so much, I'd put up with it just so that the treble would be 2nd best. Wouldn't be what most fans would want but for me, I hate Man Utd that much.

My highlight today was the Ødegaard goal and the clock end ultras who sang for 20 mins+ non stop. Lets hope the owners continue splashing the cash for the rebuild. Failiure to do so would be moronic in my opinion.

Fans are going to look at this season as 3rd or 4th place lost or 5th place gained. I'm going the with the latter espcially based on our first month. 15th seemed more of a goal than 5th after the first month. Other than Moyes, I think Arteta did the best job in the league overall.

The bar has been raised for Arteta. CL qualifying is now the new standard. Now we have to spend like a club that is CL qualifying.

PS: Congrats to Vieira for beating Man Utd..loved it. Was watching at the end hoping they'd hang on, knowing if I did, I would likely jinx them.

I might agree that Manchester United fans may be more annoying than Liverpool supporters. But it was the fawning, stomach churning media frenzy about how wonderful Liverpool are that turns my gut. That’s why I worded it “how obnoxious the media hero worship of them is”

Have a slight feeling we will see Mr Nketiah next season. Some slight words in what Mikel said indicate our possible intent. Just a hunch

If we are going pretty big on a main striker I’m not sure the finances exist to sign another player as back up and you know Eddie can do this business in the europa/carabao cups all day long. I still have my reservations about him as a player outside the box but I’m not sure you can say that wouldn’t make sense

Season's over
What an emotion filled ride the team gave us
Happy to get 5th and back into Europe
Great to see so many players coming through this season
Great to see a better team spirit and cohesiveness

Onwards to a better season next

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