Match Reaction vs West Ham (away).

[Letters]

You introduced this 'since 2006' trope, not me. Why that year?

Because that marked the end of 2 years of decline from the brilliance of The Invincibles in 2004 to 2006 where we just barely scraped top 4.
THAT was the decline. Since then we've been bumbling around in the top 4 but mostly towards the bottom of the top 4.
I don't know why you think I'm focusing on points tally. I gave points tally, final league position and points off the top for each season.
All of those give some indication of how we've done and none of those metrics show a consistent decline since 2006.

Why not track it over the whole of Wenger's tenure?

Because no-one would sensibly argue that we are as good as we were at the start of Wenger's time with us. What people have argued for much of the last 10 years is that we are "in decline". That just isn't bourne out by the facts. It was you who asked me "draw a graph based on our league position and not points tally and tell me there has been no decline.". So I did. You could be simplistic about it and draw a line from 1998 when we finished 1st and last season when we finished 5th and say "See? There has been consistent decline". But that doesn't reflect the reality of what has happened. It would be equally dishonest to draw a line between 1998 and 2016 and say "See? We've only slipped from 1st to 2nd"

The reality is this:
From 1998 to 2004 we finished either 1st or 2nd every year. If anything our quality improved over those years.
Then there was 2 years of serious decline.
Since then we've finished either 3rd or 4th every year. The points tally, the league position, the points off the top. There has been no consistent gradual decline in any of those things since then.

If you disagree with that then I'd be interested to hear on what basis.

The quality of football has declined certainly and we are in danger of slipping down another level but it's too early to tell whether last year's 5th place was a blip or the sign of things to come.

[Xhaka Can’t]

Decline. Stagnation. Argue about that all you want. All I know is that what I am watching is shit and progressively getting worse whenever I have the stomach to watch it.

There is no way we are even going to stand still with Wenger in charge. It just gets worse and worse with zero confidence it will ever improve under Wenger.

[Niall_Quinn]

Very silly argument really.

It's like jumping out of a plane without a parachute and celebrating when you sustain terminal velocity.

The football is in decline. Can anybody seriously argue otherwise?

The reputation of the club is in decline, just ask Alexis, Ozil and Ox (or Theo's your man if you want the other side)

The reputation of the manager, he's a joke but it isn't funny at all.

Our reputation in Europe, they must cheer when they draw us.

But in this money first, football last pub league that is the PL, we can bob around the 4th place spot and pull in a few extra quid for the leeches.

In fact the decline is so sharp some of the fans want to look on the bright side by claiming mere stagnation. Whatever.

Looks a lot like decline to me. Especially when I watch videos of our title winning teams.

[Niall_Quinn]

A West Ham fan thanking us for having such a shit manager.

[Letters]

Decline. Stagnation. Argue about that all you want. All I know is that what I am watching is shit and progressively getting worse whenever I have the stomach to watch it.

No argument there, the quality of football has definitely declined. 10 years ago we might have been hanging on to the coattails of the top 4 but I basically enjoyed the games.
Now, not so much. Watching Arsenal games these days is generally a very frustrating and joyless experience.

[Letters]

Looks a lot like decline to me. Especially when I watch videos of our title winning teams.

Yes, of course. No-one is arguing there has been no decline since the heights of 2004, it was more a sharp decline over 2 years and since then we've bumbled around neither progressing or declining.
But yes, the quality of football has gone off a cliff. It's not enjoyable watching us any more, which is one of the reasons I don't.

[GP]

If we carry on like this there's a small chance we won't win the league this season.

[Letters]

If we carry on like this there's a small chance we won't win the league this season.

Right

None of this anti-Wenger nonsense. AKB.

That's a banning

[Marc Overmars]

No argument there, the quality of football has definitely declined. 10 years ago we might have been hanging on to the coattails of the top 4 but I basically enjoyed the games.
Now, not so much. Watching Arsenal games these days is generally a very frustrating and joyless experience.

The Cesc-led years were equally as frustrating in other ways but thinking back with today’s team as a comparison, the football was actually quite good. We’d create chances for fun in every game, wouldn’t always finish them off but it was edge of your seat stuff. Of course they suffered from the same mentality issues as well but certainly that’s the best football we’ve played since the glory days. We even managed to progress in the CL on a couple of occasions as well.

Now though as you say, it’s mostly joyless with the odd nugget of surprise thrown in. I don’t think the fans have ever felt this disconnected from the team.

[GP]

Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Wenger the Wise?