Season Review First Draft

[cricketsi]

HCZ, your hatred of Arteta is pathological at this point, I think you've gone overboard in your attempt to outdo mandela in his irrational hatred of Saka.

We've added 30 league goals scored as a team compared with the previous season and jumped from 5th to clear 2nd. That is a huge improvement and indication of a team moving in the right direction, however you try and spin it.

That's before you even consider all the less easily quantifiable and intangible progress made off the pitch in things like fan connection and atmosphere around the club.

Time is always the ultimate judge of these things, but I think Arteta has done a very good job, balancing positives and negatives, thus far.

[cricketsi]

Also, you'll be pleased to know that Zinchenko is in Opta's statistical PL team of the season

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/65740006

[mandela8]

HCZ, your hatred of Arteta is pathological at this point, I think you've gone overboard in your attempt to outdo mandela in his irrational hatred of Saka.

I like Saka. Seems a nice wee boy, man. No issue with him whatsoever, other than from a purely footballing perspective him being over rated beyond all recognition and being deified/immune from criticism. I don't think it does him or arsenal any favors. I certainly don't hate him.

Ridiculous post.

[mandela8]

Great season overall.

Real progress, which all I was hoping for. Of course we're disappointed in overachieving but that's the beauty of sport sometimes.

Ramsdale is now established as Arsenal goalie and will be for the next decade. I have zero issue with that.

Saliba and Gabriel...I think they're getting over hyped a little, man. Both of them still look a little nervy and error prone to me. Gabriel is particular always looks like he has a mistake in him, be it a poor pass or rash tackle. Love them both though and hopefully they continue to improve, but far from the finished articles yet, which is fine too.

Ben White just isn't good enough. Not strong enough to play centrally and I honestly think he's been put out wide because he cost £50m. He's just a poor player and mentally I think he's weak. His performances against the Manchester teams were the worst of the season by anyone. He needs to be improved upon.

Zinchenko I think is a good player going forward but a complete liability defensively. He's clearly a system player so it's hard to judge him, really. Keeping a fan favorite out the team, rightly or wrongly, never helps either. I'd like to see him in CM. I watched him absolutely destroy Scotland from there. Would rather have him than not.

Partey was an absolute colossus and our best player for most of the season. We all worried about losing him to injury but all it took was a couple of sub par games from him and the entire team fell apart. If that doesn't describe his importance to the team I don't know what does. Partey was our title challenge. It began and ended with him. Now the best right back in the league anaw.

Xhaka, all I can say is thank fuck he's gone. He's the epitome of Arsenal's mediocrity over the last 5 years. Simply not good enough at fitba. His son called redemption arc has been an embarrassment and only serves to highlight how little insight most have to go with their short memories.

Odegaard is pure class. Went missing one too many times for my liking but still developing and is a genuine world class talent. Just needs that consistency, which I bet comes soon. Great season overall.

Martinelli is great. I love him. These players are always patchy but his poor patches got shorter and his good patches got longer this season. Really progressed.

Saka <sigh> his general contribution ranges from non existent to average but he can do no wrong to most so I'll leave it there.

Jesus is a great player who is shit at his position. I'm naw actually sure if he deserves the same "system" defense Zinchenko gets from me. I just don't understand why he's almost always anywhere other than where I'd expect our CF to be. I think he's too big for his boots. Thinks he's bigger than arsenal and can do whatever the fuck he wants. But then I doubt Arteta would tolerate that so I dunno, man. We need a CF though. I certainly wouldn't object to Jesus moving to RW to accommodate a new CF. Means Saka can go back to being a back up LB, which is where he's played his best stuff for us, assuming Tierney is sold.

[HCZ_Reborn]

HCZ, your hatred of Arteta is pathological at this point, I think you've gone overboard in your attempt to outdo mandela in his irrational hatred of Saka.

We've added 30 league goals scored as a team compared with the previous season and jumped from 5th to clear 2nd. That is a huge improvement and indication of a team moving in the right direction, however you try and spin it.

That's before you even consider all the less easily quantifiable and intangible progress made off the pitch in things like fan connection and atmosphere around the club.

Time is always the ultimate judge of these things, but I think Arteta has done a very good job, balancing positives and negatives, thus far.

As Dickhead himself says, he has no personal issue with Saka just for some reason none of us are prepared to open our eyes and see the truth….which is odd because most of us have been nothing but critical of him…in the first few games of the season and the last month or so I think he hid away but for two thirds of the season I think he tormented defences. I don’t know whether Macfuck doesn’t like the fact that he cuts inside more than crosses but that aside…I just think he’s a bell end so probably not worry really trying to work out what he thinks.

My dislike of Arteta is absolutely pathological, deep down there’s something about the man I just cannot stand. There’s something not right about him, sometimes he appears neurodiverse and other times he comes across like a total narcissist. Either way I do think he’s a genuinely nasty piece of work, who I think takes pleasure in humiliating others, is unable to accept fault in himself and has destructive tendencies.
It’s that reptile like callous cruelty

[HCZ_Reborn]

One thing I find interesting is the breakdown of the goals conceded…16 in the first half, compared to 27 in the second half


I don’t think there’s any big mystery involved especially at home. Where we conceded twice as many goals (17) in the second half of games as the first half (8)

The issue is a system of playing a high line ironically to prevent quick breaks using the long ball, but when we get more stretched either chasing a game (Brighton) or trying to add to our lead (Leeds, Leicester, Chelsea, Palace etc) they tend to exploit tired legs and mistake making.

The games became more stretched in the second half because of the 53 goals we scored at home 32 were scored in the second half.

In over half of our home games (10/19) we were either level or behind at half time

Where in 11 of our away games we were ahead at half time, and therefore became less inclined to attack second half (accounting for the fact that we scored 15 goals in the second half of games away from home)

This says a lot about how we play (away from home we look to strike early and hold on to what we have…and given we got 10 clean sheets away from home this was reasonably successful)

At home there’s a mixture of not immediately being able to break teams down and being less inclined to hold on to what we have and more about entertaining the crowd.