Dude, Raya is a fucking disaster. You wait and see.Quote:
Originally Posted by 21_GOONER_SALUTE
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Dude, Raya is a fucking disaster. You wait and see.Quote:
Originally Posted by 21_GOONER_SALUTE
:gp: I struggle to look back at the victories against Citeh and Madrid fondly with the way the season turned out......ah scratch that, probably will still watch those freekicks from Rice once I've recovered from the despondency in a few months.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
I see NOTHING here to suggest we are serious title contenders. Except, maybe, everyone else is so bad we could shitheap our way to the top of a shitheap.
Maybe, but it has to be connected to something. If they are just isolated moments, what's the point?Quote:
Originally Posted by 21_GOONER_SALUTE
I see they have bimbos infesting the studio again. I guess at least everyone gets a decent supply of coffee, and I guess these girls got there by putting out. So a quickie before home time - oh how I envy those pundits.
The first of those we didn’t really expect a title challenge so while having led the table for so long and then let it slip was disappointing, overall there was a feeling of optimism and the classic “we go again next season”Quote:
Originally Posted by 21_GOONER_SALUTE
The second of those I don’t think many of us could fault their efforts, we pushed City all the way and made them win it on the last day.
This year feels like a massive disappointment. With City dropping off it felt like the title was there for the taking and we barely challenged.
One thing I will say. I’m having a digital clear out and going through old photos. I found a meme from 4 or 5 years ago - something along the lines of “Arteta has promised that Arsenal will compete in a major competition next season…even if he has to write the song himself”. Ba-dum and indeed tish. I guess the point is back them Arsenal were struggling to even qualify for Europe. This season we’ve got to the semifinals of the CL and finished 2nd in the league and it all feels disappointing.
So I guess that’s a measure of progress. But we haven’t landed the big trophy. It seems increasingly unlikely that Arteta will do it. For me he gets one more season to try but we have to do the right things this summer. Which we probably won’t!
Aye. Threatening people over the internet.Quote:
Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
So manly
#swoon
Nah the Real Madrid tie was a bit of a watershed moment I feel. Haven’t had such an accomplished performance over 2 legs like that in forever. We got a nosebleed against PSG from altitude sickness but we were quite good in the CL overall.Quote:
Originally Posted by 21_GOONER_SALUTE
Who threatened you nancy? Falling back on that are you. Hey everyone! Support required here! Tulip in distress!Quote:
Originally Posted by Letters
Even against PSG - first 20 minutes of the first leg they were taking us to the cleaners but after that we played our way back into the game and in the second leg we dominated them for large parts of the game. The difference is they have the players to put the ball in the net and we don’t. Which is a bit of a problem at that level. But we showed we can mix it with the best in Europe and with a decent striker we could push on. It has been a disappointing season but there are the makings of a good side there.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
I just realised we haven’t technically sewn up 2nd place yet because of City’s game in hand :lol:
It would have to be ridiculous results for us to finish below them though
Looking at our accumulative home form last three seasons and it really hasn’t been good enough
Too many goals conceded, too many defeats (Liverpool have lost 3 times, and City 4 times to our six)
59 goals conceded in 57 games. We need to find a way of neutralising the threat of teams that play direct against us, ironically it will help with better finishers and getting the ball forward quick so we aren’t overcommitting and leaving ourselves stretched
I think eventually people have to realise. Modern football is just not that good. We have mediocre people charging big fees. Why is that so hard to accept? It happens in every industry. Name a single industry that is more competent today than it was 50 years ago.
Correct. There are none. Stupid and incompetent people now run things for stupid and incompetent people. It's the same in football. These "mega" teams are absolute shite. That Barca "prodigy" and that Real "genius" - dogshit. Relatively speaking.
And you can't go back in time and say the middle period was wors that the start. Not true. We had Bergkamp and Henry. The pinnacle in any period.
But modern football. Not a SINGLE world class player that can seriously be named. Give it a try and then compare. Oops - you lose. Ans catastrophically bad managers too. Pep - the worst of all time. You know with that Slot bloke, maybe he just said, fuck that, just kick the ball lads, towards their goal. Thatis ALL that would be required today to defeat the tactics of the GENIUS coaches.
The fans are bigging up that dogshit Raya. That's why we aren't going anywhere soon. Zero expectations.
...and yet can't be entirely discounted given how this season has goneQuote:
Originally Posted by Letters
Look at how the ref tried to steal the win from us today at the end, unusually VAR for once didn't play ball
It was a difficult season and I'm glad it's effectively over, but there were highlights such as the Madrid game at home and beating Citeh 5-1, and tbh (despite Artet'a's obsessive bleatings) a great comeback v Liverpool.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
On the downside, for anyone hoping things might go better next season, apparently the refs are already cooking up ways to send our players off, some BS about only the captaim being able to 'approach' the ref and anyone else is yellowed - cue loads of our players (but ofc no-one else's) being sent off next season...
I thought this was an interesting question.Quote:
Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn
Happily it was answered on MoTD2 - no we haven't!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mac76
The problem is less the rules themselves, in principle I think it is right that only the captain should talk to the referee. Just as in principle I think it’s right to book players for delaying the restart. It’s how the rules are arbitrarily applied by the referees that is the problem.
However this is not the same as a player being sent off for kicking the ball half a second after the whistle has gone (whilst another gets away with cynically booting it out of play). I think if any of our players can’t behave themselves and go up to remonstrate with the referee when they know they shouldn’t be doing that, then that is more of a discipline problem in our squad.
Arteta needs to get that hammered in, unless your name is Odegaard…stay the fuck away from the Ref. Then we won’t give ourselves the problem where a ref will overlook it with other teams but go for us by the absolute most pedantic reading of the law
Right.
I don't believe there's any particular anti-Arsenal agenda. It's easy to cherry pick moments where we've been hard done by and had players sent off for things that other teams haven't.
I suspect you could do that with any team though, you just notice more when it's your team.
But this is in our control - don't give them an excuse to make the decision.
I think any other season I’d probably agree with this.Quote:
Originally Posted by Letters
The sheer volume of incidents this season, of decisions made against us that haven’t been made against any other team. It’s impossible to overlook.
Prior to February and the Dubai trip I’d have said despite the fact that we hadn’t performed well that this on its own was enough to make it so that Liverpool were leading the table and not us, of course after that time it was purely lack of goals
I think that Arteta blasting PGMOL back in 2023 created a resentment towards Arsenal amongst the more prominent referees and the more inexperienced weaker referees were guided by the more prominent ones. Don’t get me wrong I don’t think it was overt with VAR being recorded I don’t think they’d get away with it anyway, I just think that there was this resentment that guided decision making
A legend already :lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by Mac76