Where did it go wrong?

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

Apart from the obvious issue of not signing a single outfield until January, let alone a much needed striker these are to me the fixtures that caused our season to unravel.

I've whittled it down to eight fixtures


Chelsea (away) - 19th September 2015

Chelsea had made a truly awful start to the season and we had recovered after our own poor start. But again we showed our psychological frailty when playing a Mourinho managed side. A poor refereeing performance didn't help but let's face facts up until the time of Mourinhos sacking he managed to win twice more in the league against Aston Villa and Norwich.
Diego Costa should have been sent off but Gabriel should not have reacted


West Brom (away) - 21st November 2015

What makes a title winning side is to play badly and win, here we played well but contrived to lose with Cazorla even shooting over the bar when we were awarded a penalty to level things up. Gift wrapped both goals to the Baggies and missed a succession of presentable chances in the second half.


Southampton (away) - 26th December 2015

Defeats happen even in an otherwise good season, but from kick off to final whistle we just didn't look like a side that could be bothered, everything we could do wrong we managed to get wrong. Pushing up too much and allowing Southampton to get in behind us, constantly losing posession and creating nothing in the way of goal scoring chances


Chelsea (home) - 24th January 2016

Again an example of Chelsea being able to beat us with the minimum of effort, they know how to play us and failing to score in almost ten hours against Chelsea in the league is truly apalling, especially a Chelsea side that looks unmotivated and directionless.


Southampton (home) - 2nd February 2016

Fraser Forster made a lot of saves but none that he would not have been expected to make, the point where both Leicester and Spurs overtook us in the table....we have not been higher than third since.


Manchester United (away) - 28th February 2016

Pundits believed that due to a catalogue of injuries for United plus their own indifferent form meant this was a likely win for us, it appeared that the players believed it as well and put none of the effort in required to secure that win. Defeats happen but they happen to Arsenal more often than not because the side can't be bothered to apply themselves.


Swansea (home) - 2nd March 2016

Typical Arsenal any poor performance has a knock on effect, totally inept performance and the point where we realised that the title had predictably evaded our grasp.



West Ham (away) - 9th April 2016
Anything can happen in this league even if you are eight points behind, but we failed to put any pressure on either the league leaders or the team in second by completely collapsing after getting a two goal lead. Even not winning the title could have been mitigated by fighting to the end of the season but fight is what we lack.

[Marc Overmars]

I'd also include the opening day defeat to West Ham, although we recovered well I think it set the tone for what has been a particularly poor season at the Emirates.

[Munchies]

Not having any movement upfront and no output from our midfielders bar Ozil. Joel Campbell being dropped for no reason when he's been on a good run too. Ramsey being shit. Elneny/Iwobi too little too late. Gabriel is useless when relied upon. BFG costly errors, Kosc with a few too

[Ernesto]

Good opening post.

I felt angry after Chelsea, numb after Swansea at home and distraught after Watford in the Cup.

It's been a horrible season. I've been used to bottle jobs by the club since 1999. They still manage to drag me through it though.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

I'd also include the opening day defeat to West Ham, although we recovered well I think it set the tone for what has been a particularly poor season at the Emirates.

Perhaps but in of itself it wasn't really what I regard as a key defeat

Defeats against Chelsea, West Brom and Southampton were more telling of the overall mental fragility and tactical failings in the side. The West Ham game was in of itself, just a game we'd failed to prepare for and too early in the season to be pivotal.
But that's just my opinion....a case could be made for it being a grim portent.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

Not having any movement upfront and no output from our midfielders bar Ozil. Joel Campbell being dropped for no reason when he's been on a good run too. Ramsey being shit. Elneny/Iwobi too little too late. Gabriel is useless when relied upon. BFG costly errors, Kosc with a few too

I remember being pilloried for calling Ramsey shit 2-3 years ago.

[Niall_Quinn]

You can add chucking away the League Cup tie to that list. That was a big indicator of how our manager feels about winning, losing and that in-between thing he strives for. Every time he throws a game, like the two openers in the CL, it comes back to haunt us. This has been true for years, way back into his successful period even. He doesn't take winning seriously. That's at the root of where everything has gone wrong, for years.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

Our goal this season was the premier league therefore I confined myself to league games.

Though funny you mention the league cup, as I watched that this morning obviously to punish myself for something and it really struck me how they looked like the premier league side and we looked like the championship team.

[Gubby Allen]

In the opinion of the manager and the owners, nothing has gone wrong at all. We've finished fourth again. That's where it all went wrong.

[Gubby Allen]

Sorry, but I don't think that any of that matters. Had we won all eight of those matches 4-0, we would have just lost and gone through the motions in a different 8 games instead and there'd be a different list. We have our 20-25 games to play well in, to ensure 4th. That leaves 15 odd where you don't need to give a toss.

It also never ceases to surprise me that us signing quality players makes any difference at all. Had we signed a world class centre back, midfielder and striker in September, two things would have happened.

a) They have all been out injured for four months.

b) They'd have been conditioned to aim for fourth place, nothing more, nothing less.