Arsenal season and player review 24/25

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Originally Posted by Letters

On the other hand you could argue he got unlucky with all the injuries.
Although some questions are being asked about whether that is just bad luck or whether we are doing something wrong in training or during games which is making us more prone to them.

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You’d have to say before the season began, it was clear that we’d almost certainly end up playing more games than we had the previous season (we played 51 games in 2023/2024 and 58 the season just gone)

Now with that in mind the decision to sign Merino and Calafiori makes some sense in that it was considered these would be areas that needed injury cover

But it also makes it incredible that we sent so many players out on loan…was it just to clear the wage bill. Players like Nketiah, Nelson and Vieira could have alleviated the pressure on first team players in the cup completions and in some of the early league fixtures in the champions league.

I think some of the injuries were freak injuries, some of them came down to overuse.


But it’s fair to say load management is not a forte of Arteta, and making the squad smaller was illogical. Arteta has complained about the size of the squad which could be a way of shirking his own responsibility. But feels to me that financial considerations by the ownership was also put before on field success

Liked Martinelli. The two kids were great. Kiwior did okay when he was called in - I mean not a great player, but he at least met the required grade. Saka had his moments, hot and cold, blighted by injury. Rice too, had his moments, but still more required from him. Gabriel solid, mostly.

The rest of them who played enough minutes? Abject shite. Raya, Odegard, standout fucktards. Partey, 90% cold, 10% hot. Trossard. Random. Saliba - believes his own hype. Merino? Well kudos for the fucked up experiment up top - but we signed him for the midfield and he's not very good. Timber - aptly named, embarrassment. Havertz, journeyman.

Bit players - none of them made any sort of impact.

There's a comfort level at this club that is very disconcerting.

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Originally Posted by Mac76

TLDR - basically everyone did their best* given the lack of depth in the squad, Arteta's poor squad management, recruitment and tactics, and the refs deciding from the getgo we wouldn't be near winning the league

* apart from Zin ofc, he was cack as always

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There definitely was a coordinated program by PGMOL to end our season early. Said it at the time. Stick by it. Most of the NPCs will refuse to believe it, but we saw decisions that literally applied for one, out of the blue, match and were never repeated again all season. Deliberate for sure and meant the title was gone by the first quarter. Shouldn't have been, mind you. Liverpool and City are so incredibluy ordinary we still could have won it, but Arteta said no.