Match reaction v Watford away

[selassie]

I’ve not been much of an Arteta fan but there has been progress this season and I feel comfortable with the direction we’re heading in. We’ve got a young, hungry squad with players who want to play and have everything to prove. Beats having deadwood who’ve used Arsenal as a final big contract before retirement.

Playing behind closed doors probably kept Arteta in a job because there’s no doubt it was terrible at times and if there was a crowd they would have put a lot of pressure on the club.

As for this season, top 6 was the target so to be in with a shout of 4th is testament to the progress made.

Our games in hand on United are Liverpool H, Spurs A and Chelsea A.
The Liverpool match is also the game in hand on Spurs.

We will probably need to get results in all those games to finish 4th. So while the table makes for encouraging reading, don’t let it fool you into thinking it’s ours to lose yet. There are some huge games coming up and we’ve been falling short in a lot of those under Arteta, so let’s see how it goes.

Yep I agree with this and also realise our games in hand are absolutely brutal. In fact from now on till the end of the season we have some really tough away games outside of the ones you have listed, West Ham Away, Villa Away, Palace Away, Newcastle (in their current form) away, lots of possible dropped points there. The games above you have listed, Liverpool is a write off for me, but I think we are capable of picking up a point in either or each of the Spurs and Chelsea games if we put in a good performance, we have to go there and really put in professional displays. United at home is a bit of a lottery, we are just as capable of given them a good beating as they are us, even the current United in their crappy state.

The momentum is with us now and you can see how badly the players want CL so I think we will be ok, though it will no doubt be very stressful viewing!

[I am invisible]

Having a clear, coherent strategy has really helped (well… for everyone except Gary Neville, apparently). When you build around a group of young academy players, and all of your signings are 21-23 year olds, then you immediately start to look at targets and milestones across a 2-3 year period rather than expecting everything now. When you lower your wage bill and only buy players with resale value then you know there’s a contingency plan in place and it isn’t this or bust. When your recruitment plugs obvious gaps and compliments what you already have then it makes it easier to understand what we’re trying to build, how it might work, and what everyone’s individual and collective responsibilities are. It makes it far easier to set expectations and judge what we’re seeing, and stops panic setting in after every setback - if we can see the plan clearly then we know when we’re still on track and when we’re not, and that calms everything right down.

Better communication of the strategy also makes the fans feel included instead of feeling like outsiders and bystanders who understand what they’re seeing and can only watch on in confusion.

[IBK]

Yep I agree with this and also realise our games in hand are absolutely brutal. In fact from now on till the end of the season we have some really tough away games outside of the ones you have listed, West Ham Away, Villa Away, Palace Away, Newcastle (in their current form) away, lots of possible dropped points there. The games above you have listed, Liverpool is a write off for me, but I think we are capable of picking up a point in either or each of the Spurs and Chelsea games if we put in a good performance, we have to go there and really put in professional displays. United at home is a bit of a lottery, we are just as capable of given them a good beating as they are us, even the current United in their crappy state.

The momentum is with us now and you can see how badly the players want CL so I think we will be ok, though it will no doubt be very stressful viewing!

Yes - it's good to observe that there is the confidence in our team right now for the players to feel that they can beat anyone. We need to remember that when the Chavs beat us at home at the beginning of the season, we were still a bit of a basket case. They won't find it so easy now. In our current 'form' we deserved to get a point at least from Citeh; drew at Liverpool with 10 men in the Cup and are on better 5 match form than Chelsea or Spurs. I kind of think that both fans and players need to believe more in our team to assist/compliment our current development. Without belief then we don't deserve top 4.

[selassie]

Yes - it's good to observe that there is the confidence in our team right now for the players to feel that they can beat anyone. We need to remember that when the Chavs beat us at home at the beginning of the season, we were still a bit of a basket case. They won't find it so easy now. In our current 'form' we deserved to get a point at least from Citeh; drew at Liverpool with 10 men in the Cup and are on better 5 match form than Chelsea or Spurs. I kind of think that both fans and players need to believe more in our team to assist/compliment our current development. Without belief then we don't deserve top 4.

Yep, right now there are two teams in the league head and shoulders above us, City and Liverpool. Chelsea are a better side than us, with better players and they are more consistent than us, but I don't fear going into games with them like I do City and Liverpool, I think we are good enough to get something in the game at Chelsea, not necessarily a win, but a draw is definitely achievable.

On current form and throughout the season so far we are better than both United and Spurs, but there isn't a great deal in it, we are all in the third group below the top two and Chelsea.

[Chippy]

Even though we are more likely to lose than win I am a lot more confident this season going into the NLD away than I have ever been. What I won't be confident with is having to go there and beat them in a straight shoot out for 4th place, I am hoping by then we will be in a very strong position where a loss or a draw won't be too damaging.

We had a good weekend by beating Leicester and obviously the Spuds lost.
I am also hoping that by the time we play them at the shit hole, we are a bit more comfortable points wise.
The annoying thing is that I am believing we will get fourth...bloody optimism

[selassie]

We had a good weekend by beating Leicester and obviously the Spuds lost.
I am also hoping that by the time we play them at the shit hole, we are a bit more comfortable points wise.
The annoying thing is that I am believing we will get fourth...bloody optimism

Me too mate, I think we are in a strong position. We have some difficult games coming up but our current form and performance level is very good so if we keep it up we will be ok.

[I am invisible]

I'm pretty relaxed about it all right now, tbh. I'm sure we've got a couple of slips in us still, but crucially I just don't think any of our main rivals for 4th are capable of putting together the kind of winning streak they'll need to take advantage of it - they're very much WLWLWL, and I don't see that changing any time soon. United have a fundamental mismatch between the players they have and the kind of philosophy and culture Rangnick wants to implement to contend with, and half of that spurs team will know that Conte doesn't rate them (esp. after his many outbursts) and will try to ditch them as soon as the window opens. I just can't see either set of players really digging deep and pulling it out the bag for their respective managers when they know that success for those managers could put their own positions at risk.

[Chippy]

I'm pretty relaxed about it all right now, tbh. I'm sure we've got a couple of slips in us still, but crucially I just don't think any of our main rivals for 4th are capable of putting together the kind of winning streak they'll need to take advantage of it - they're very much WLWLWL, and I don't see that changing any time soon. United have a fundamental mismatch between the players they have and the kind of philosophy and culture Rangnick wants to implement to contend with, and half of that spurs team will know that Conte doesn't rate them (esp. after his many outbursts) and will try to ditch them as soon as the window opens. I just can't see either set of players really digging deep and pulling it out the bag for their respective managers when they know that success for those managers could put their own positions at risk.

I wish I was relaxed about it.

Missing out on Top 4 would be bad. Missing out on Top 4 to Spurs would be unbearable

[LDG]

Problem for us will be squad depth. We’re only an injury or two away from trouble.

Case in point is our unsettled fullbacks. The continuing changes theres have led to goals conceded, case in point their first the other day.

We know cedric isn’t top top top quality, but KT isn’t 100% at the moment.

Hmmmm

[LDG]

Hmmmm

Uhuh