Reasonable Expectations

[fakeyank]

As long as we gave it a good go, then I would not mind if we won nothing.

At the end of the day, only 1 Team can win... As long as long as I get the impression that our Team has actually given a sh*t and tried (which if we are being honest here hasn't really looked like it over seasons past) then I will quite happily cheer for them even if they lose.

Obviously I would love it if we won something, but come the end of the Season if we are scrapping it out for 1st Place then I will say we have come leaps & bounds from the last (which is more than enough to warrant a new contract fro Wenger imho).

Also, we are starting to see the fruits of the hard work from the past decade... To chuck the Man who was ultimately a major factor of this seems a little harsh to me.

for the most part

Completely agree that I will applaud as long as we give a shit. Quite a few of the matches, I feel our players dont turn up. If they turn up, give their all, I will not complain.

Dont agree with giving AW a contract even if we win nothing part. I do not think he did his best in this transfer or the one in summer. I really hope some how the players come through... they deserve it!

[IBK]

Football isn't fixed in place. We have definitely exceeded expectations that we had at the beginning of the season. We have failed to show title winning aspirations, though, whatever our current league position. That's what frustrates. If we prevail I will be as amazed and happy as any Arsenal fan. But it will almost seem that we have defied expectations, and I challenge anyone to make a proper case otherwise.

[Syn]

I expect us to reach 84-86 points. If anyone gets more, fair play to them. If we fall short of that, it'll still be progress from last year but a little disappointing.

[KSE Comedy Club]

This is a difficult one to answer.

I would love, LOVE for us to win the title this year. It would piss everyone off especially Jose and the Arabs at citeh, then all the media twats that arse lick anything they do! But I wouldn't be calling for wengers head if we don't.

I'm with PnG on the transfer front. Wenger has taken the piss with another failed transfer window. Im not interested in what other clubs did or didn't do, who they bought or couldn't get - don't give a flying fuck. What matters to me and what I'm interested in is what Wenger and Arsenal do. In these two windows, he hasn't done enough.

However, if he manages to strengthen well in the summer and start next season with a stronger squad, then whatever happens this season, we will kick on from it and do even better next time.

It's a tough one to call over his new contract. Ultimately it runs out soon so something had to be done, but he can't go on forever, there wil come a time when he has to step down, but I'm not sure now is the right time when he is just starting to get a new lease of life with this current team.

Still, I would expect us to win something this year, if we don't then questions do have to be asked why, when we were in such a strong position to do so.

[Letters]

A lot of good posts on this thread.

I agree that if we go close but ultimately fail then I won't be too disappointed. Well, I'll be disappointed but I won't be calling for Wenger's head. If we are beaten by a team who have spent a billion quid blundering their way to success then fine. We could have done a bit more but whatever we do we'll never have their resources. A complete capitulation and collapse would disappoint me more.

[Xhaka Can’t]

I agree we could have done more in this window, but I don't think we could have done enough to match peoples expectations.

We are clearly a more competitive team now and we are clearly better organised and we are miles ahead of the other teams that aren't bankrolled with infinite amounts of money.

This is an improvement that has been sustained now for almost a year. Where there have been setbacks, we have recovered from them when previously we would have collapsed,

Additionally, we have players in our team that have grit and they have over the past couple of years morphed from a group of individuals, very few of whom I cared about to a cohesive group who I am proud to support.

I think we will push on in the market and we will do something in the Summer. But even with what for us is an embarrassment of riches, it is money that when spent has an opportunity cost. Perhaps spending on January meant we were to be restricted from executing plans in the Summer? Who knows for sure. But we could have done more IMO.

As for expectations. I think we will finish 2nd or 3rd. What I hope for is that we can maintain the challenge as long as possible and do well during crunch periods.

As for Cups, they always have been something of a crap shoot. Put out good teams for the FA Cup, and I am happy.

I'm proud of this team. After the last few years of at times feeling there is no hope at all, we've made great strides.

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[selassie]

I am pretty much with NQ on this. Reasonable Expectations are for us to win the League now given our current position and how we have fared this season.

Of course many of us didn't predict our current outcome but now we are in this position we need to do as much as possible to consolidate it.

Certain things like injuries are out of our control but squad strengthening isn't and I would have like Arsene to have done a whole lot more to strengthen the squad. He didn't and we are where we are.

Honestly, I would be disappointed if we didn't at the very least push for the title right up until the wire and reach a cup final. The team is good enough for this, we have a squad full of international players and it's about time we saw some silverware.

[Power n Glory]

I agree we could have done more in this window, but I don't think we could have done enough to match peoples expectations.

I expect a professional and whole hearted attempt to strengthen the squad when required. That Kallstrom signing says a lot about the way we operate. It’s like a kid handing in a sloppy piece of homework and you can tell it’s a last minute rush job. It certainly doesn’t help when Wenger complains about the transfer window each year and talks of having it scrapped. Does he have a genuine gripe with the window or are we too lazy to do the work? I think back to school days and the kids that would often put up a fuss about homework would often hand in the worst piece of work or not bother at all. It doesn’t look good. Our scouting network should be doing more to identify potential targets. We didn’t just have January. What’s stopping them from looking from as early as October?

Imagine if the players lost a match but we found out they’d been taking it easy in training, mucking around, failed to do any research on the opposition and just planned on winging it on match day. We wouldn’t accept that and we expect better from our players. The same must be applied to the scouting team and our transfer policy. It goes beyond the price tags. Something is wrong with the research, just as we saw this summer with that Luis Suarez phantom clause cock up. I hope to see an improvement next summer because it hasn’t always been this bad.

[Letters]

I still think we'll finish 2nd behind City, although our chances of winning the thing are much higher now that they've lost at home and there won't be that mental block over visiting teams going there. They're much more likely to drop points at home now, I reckon. Make no mistake, last night was a fantastic result.

We needed someone to get something there to show it could be done.

[selassie]

I expect a professional and whole hearted attempt to strengthen the squad when required. That Kallstrom signing says a lot about the way we operate. It’s like a kid handing in a sloppy piece of homework and you can tell it’s a last minute rush job. It certainly doesn’t help when Wenger complains about the transfer window each year and talks of having it scrapped. Does he have a genuine gripe with the window or are we too lazy to do the work? I think back to school days and the kids that would often put up a fuss about homework would often hand in the worst piece of work or not bother at all. It doesn’t look good. Our scouting network should be doing more to identify potential targets. We didn’t just have January. What’s stopping them from looking from as early as October?

Imagine if the players lost a match but we found out they’d been taking it easy in training, mucking around, failed to do any research on the opposition and just planned on winging it on match day. We wouldn’t accept that and we expect better from our players. The same must be applied to the scouting team and our transfer policy. It goes beyond the price tags. Something is wrong with the research, just as we saw this summer with that Luis Suarez phantom clause cock up. I hope to see an improvement next summer because it hasn’t always been this bad.

Totally agree.