Season Review First Draft

[HCZ_Reborn]

First off, I’m going to surprise people by starting off with the positives. We had four players get into double figures with goals which I’m quite happy with, the last time I remember this happening was I think 01/02 when Henry, Ljungberg, Wiltord and Bergkamp got double figures in the league.

Despite the criticism, some of it deserved, some of it outrageous I’m genuinely happy with the attacking quartet of Saka, Martinelli, Jesus and Odegaard. I can almost (Almost) forgive Arteta for not rotating more.


I do think we need an upgrade on Xhaka and so I’m not sorry he’s going, but i think this has been without question his best season in an Arsenal shirt. I think freeing him to play in a more advanced role (his more natural role) has brought out the best in him (although I would argue hamstrung the team as a whole). I think he gave one of his best ever performances against Newcastle and yeah on balance I think deserved the reception he got today.


Saliba is an exceptional defender, just plays with an assuredness and wisdom well beyond his years, tieing him down to a new deal is an absolute must.


If I were to pick a player of the season for us, although I still think I want to see more from him in big games away from home it would have to be our captain Martin Odegaard. His goal scoring, his tenacity and forward drives on the pitch have been the focal point of what has been an unquestionably improvement in our attacking (and yes that’s despite me calling him a poof last week)


Now what I’ve not liked (not going to be an Arteta rant, even I’m sick of talking about the cunt)


Ben White at right back. I actually think on the whole he’s had a good season and is a good defender but he doesn’t have the pace or positional play of a fullback. He’s good on the ball and he’s got good awareness of danger for the most part but he should be a centre back that’s what he is.

Zinchenko - What an unbelievably shit signing. It’s a luxury run before you can walk signing, and even his biggest fans admit there’s no need for an inverted full back if we had someone next to Partey who didn’t vacate the amount of space Xhaka does. His passing is over elaborate, he can’t defend and he has about as much knowledge of what a left back does as a primary school child has an understanding of what a credit default swap is.


Holding - to paraphrase Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glenross “You’re nothing. A loser is always a loser. Nice guy? I don’t give a shit…Well liked in the dressing room? Fuck you…go home and play on the x box with your mates” - Same applies to Elneny, fortunately injury deprived us of too much of his company


Tierney - It’s got to be more than the inverted full back obsession, the last two games were a direct insult to him. Is Arteta being a homophobe because Tierney most likely is in a gay relationship with one of the club cooks. But to treat a top full back like that is insane


Vieira - What an absolute waste of thirty million. Guy has the upper body strength of one of those poor bastards you see during the filming of the liberation of places like Belsen at the end of the war. You’d think someone who comes from Portugal wouldn’t be deficient in Omega three oil but you’d be wrong.

Lack of Rotation

I don’t necessarily think Smith Rowe, Nelson, Kiwior, Trossard, Jorginho are first team starters but they absolutely should have been more than an afterthought during the run in…slotted in only due to injuries or when we’d given up the title chase.


I’m not going to dissect individual performances and results too much. It’s been done to death already and even with the benefit of hindsight I don’t think my view has changed that much from the time.


Haven’t gone out of my way to mention Ramsdale, Gabriel and Partey but they are all very good players in my view (even though all three have had poor games at times this season). Much rather have them than not have them

[dostoy]

Forget all that shit above.

Just 3 words needed.

They.

Bottled.

It.

We all know that is true if we are honest.

Big improvement on last season though and they will spend some big money this summer for certain.

[Marc Overmars]

Philosophical about it all. In terms of consistency, the most enjoyable season in a generation. Some great football, wins against rivals and moments that will be fondly remembered. Starting a season with 16 wins out of 19 is something that we probably won’t repeat, that’s how high we raised the bar for ourselves. We only ever wanted a team good enough to challenge and we got that this year so I’m not going to be too downbeat about being runners up to a team like City. People will look at the 8 point lead we had but the reality is City had a game in hand and us to visit the Etihad. This was a very close race that was ultimately decided by the fact we couldn’t get a result against them.

Hard to ignore the crushing disappointment of wasting the opportunity we had though. We let ourselves down when it mattered the most, just like we did the previous season when chasing 4th. A lot of mistakes and history repeating itself albeit with different targets. Arteta must learn from these experiences and build himself a squad of players he trusts. He can’t just rely on the same 12 or 13 players and run them into the ground.

Big summer ahead. Now is the time to cash in on certain players and upgrade them with quality signings. The CL will require us to manage the squad more effectively because we will almost certainly get found out in our current guise.

Overall, now the dust has settled I’ll remember this season as one of real progress and I’m looking forward to seeing what we do in the summer and if we can challenge again. No more excuses now, Arteta isn’t a rookie anymore and while this is a young squad, it also should be a little more battle hardened now you’d think.

[Mac76]

@MO, all spot on, my only worry is Arteta's approach to the defence, particularly the LB position. His bolting us into that one system and forcing Tierney out is going to make us less flexible next season.

I want to be optimistic but the thought of Zin once again being first on the teamsheet every game really doesn't help, it doesn't suit every game. I just hope Arteta moves to a more flexible approach but I'm not sure he will

[HCZ_Reborn]

I didn’t really want to make this thread about Arteta, because just talking about him makes me angry…and I don’t think it’s even him (although he is thoroughly unlikeable as a person, devoid of any charm or anything else I’d ascribe to being positive traits) but the myriad of our silly fans who think he’s something special when I suspect in five years he will be gone from the club, forgotten about and become nothing more than a pub quiz question

It’s not just Zinchenko, it’s everything…it’s continuing to play Xhaka when it was clear he’s not up to snuff. Playing Saka to death, keeping players like Holding and Elneny at the club, not playing Tierney (another player he’s fallen out with). Playing Partey and Kiwior as full backs, not taking responsibility for his myriad failures, spending over thirty million on a wastrel like Vieira.

I just can’t trust him, I feel like having him as coach is like allowing Sidney Cook to babysit your child…you know in the back of your mind something terrible will happen. Why on earth didn’t we sack him when we went ten games scoring four goals and losing seven.

I really am dreading the future of this club, think we could be even worse off than Chelsea or Spurs are now…because we have someone who is utterly off his head as coach.

[Mac76]

I left out the other stuff he's got wrong as i'm hoping it will start to get through to him, the apparent re-signing of Nelson maybe shows an understanding he needs to use tbe wider squad more.

I highlighted the LB/Zin thing because he just seems so wedded to it and that spells danger, one way or another if Tierney goes - and why on earth wouldn't he - we need more LB options

Btw for those not at the game yesterday, Tierney did get a fair bit of fan appreciation during the walk around the pitch after, at lrast he knows the fans are on his side