The Run-In Thread

[Mac76]

City are nailed on for 2nd and that's going to be a hard pill to swallow. If they do anything in the summer to improve that squad we go into the season a mile behind them once again. I mean, if we couldn't finish above them when they took the season off, if they come back intending to compete we're pretty much fucked from the kickoff. This has been a tragic season - and we could still win the CL. Would STILL be a tragic season, even if we did that. Because there's no real construction process going on here. It's more like building sandcastles.

I've been trying to put in order of priority the reasons why this season has not gone better in the league, and while I do think the disgraceful and biased refereeing decisions really shouldn't be underestimated, plus the injuries, ultimately it's all just exposed the failings of the squad, which was too weak in attack and has also lacked any alternative to playing certain players, in particular Odegaard

Calafiori is a waste of space and even Merino is just a workhorse in his actual position, all his goals have done is prove how we actually needed a big goalscorer at 9

And then there's Arteta's refusal to explore alternatives and stop relying on a few players every match, hence after we failed to secure an alternative up front we just decided to play Havertz every game but then he got an injury.

The idea that Jesus was ever a serious consideration as a striker is absurd, he's never been a natural goalscorer even when he wasn't drifting all over the pitch or getting injured - no manager should ever go into a season to try to win the PL with him as an upfront option

Both he and especially Zin were Pep's joke on Arteta - I still think Zin was the biggest factor in our not winning the league last season