Correct, nor is Xhaka and tbh it's a miracle Zinchenko got near titles, given how bad he's been in the last three games, I guess he's one of those players who's made to look better by who's around themOriginally Posted by LDG
Correct, nor is Xhaka and tbh it's a miracle Zinchenko got near titles, given how bad he's been in the last three games, I guess he's one of those players who's made to look better by who's around them
So you think we are an average team based on what you have seen of us this season? Not the past few games, the entire season so far?
Who cares what Spurs did against them or whether they look great or not? I only care about Arsenal and how we perform in the league, it’s irrelevant if Team x, y or z make City look great or not.
I’m not really sure what you don’t seem to grasp about my post? I didn’t say I’m happy with the current situation, did not say I am happy with losing to City, I simply said that we are actually in a position nobody expected us to be in.
That’s unless you thought we would be in this position? Or that you expected us to be challenging for the title halfway through the season?
Aside from your posts having a touch of “I told you so”, you are not telling me anything, I didn’t expect this in the first place and never thought the squad is strong enough for a sustained title challenge, I could very well be wrong but I doubt it.
Again the point is, this city side were beatable and we contrived to mess ourselves against them…again
You could have saved yourself a load of typing and just posted this in the first place. Thanks for stating the obvious.
The Invincibles didn’t. They crashed out of the 2 biggest cup competitions in a week.
No-one on here wanted to lose in the Cup, but given that we were (at the time) improbably in the title race and given that our squad clearly isn’t deep enough to compete on all fronts, the league was the clear priority.
The difference is The Invincibles picked themselves up and beat Liverpool (thanks to Henry’s heroics, I have to say I was sitting there at half time feeling that it was all about to fall apart). This lot have responded to the City loss by continuing to lose.
Bother. They’re a young squad and hopefully we will continue to invest in it and improve, but I can’t help feeling it was now or never for the title with what other clubs are doing.
The exact opposite. It’s because I’d started to believe we could win the league that I saw that as the priority.The Top Four mentality still holds strong.
Let me try and make what I am trying to say as simple as I can, if I can lol.
Only Saka will walk into any starting lineup in the EPL based on his performances and more importantly his undeniable quality.
Partey is quality and would be in everyone's squad. Jesus was rejected by City but 75% of teams might take him for now.
Saliba is a WIP and a maybe.
Gabriel is slightly above average.
Everyone else I didn't mention have shown with their performances this season that they are average players that can mix it up once in a while, especially our so called Captain.
To me, their is nothing wrong with being average and playing out of your skin, as a lot of them have done for most of the season and should be lauded for. But is this what I want for Arsenal, hell no!!
I mean their lack of ability and inability to rise up to the occasion can only take us so far when we have the kind of competitors we have in the EPL, and unfortunately that might not be far enough.
In short, this crop of limited players need to be vastly improved on as a matter of urgency and it was always clear, a lot of us were just to "high" to see it
As for the coach, he is representative of this squad in every way.
We must do better.
Average compared to what, out of interest? I mean, we've been top of the league for most of the season. It would have to be a really spectacular collapse for us to finish outside the top 4.
So even in the context of the PL I don't think you could say our players are average.
It was the Spurs and Utd results which made me believe. Even in our pomp we didn't win at Spurs that often. The Invincibles famously let a 2 goal lead slip, which we can forgive them for I guess as a point was enough to see us clinch the title. We didn't win at WHL in 2001/2 either. So for all Spurs' wobbles this year, a win there was a "statement" - City have subsequently lost there. And Utd were in excellent form when they came to us. They had the late slip against Palace but they'd won the 6 before that. A draw would not have been a disaster, the win was another "statement". You just get a feeling about title winning sides and I got that feeling then.
The City cup result was disappointing but we made some changes and most of us agreed the league had to be the priority. It wasn't a thumping.
Everton...ok, that was a bad one. We a ridiculously poor record there, I don't know if that got in our heads. But OK, no need to panic, you're going to get results like that.
Brentford...well they were in good form too, but we really needed to win that one. VAR dicked on us, but we shouldn't be relying on stuff like that. We needed a confident win and didn't get one.
Which put all the pressure on last night, and...
If there's one thing I've learned about football though is that feelings change quickly and frequently during a season. We win the next couple (ha, I know, but let's just say) and City slip and things could feel different again.
But 1 point from 9 and losing to your rivals at home...those things don't really happen in a title winning season.
I get your point, but take issue with the fact you think we have a bunch of average players. I don't necessarily agree with this, I personally think our true level is somewhere between where we are now and where we were last season which in theory makes us a certified top 3 side, but not necessarily a certified title contender. Despite that we are still knee deep in a title race if we start picking up results as of Saturday.
I personally think the likes of Saliba, Partey, Odegaard, Saka and Jesus would get in most PL sides as starters, the spine of our team is very good IMO.
I definitely agree that we need to improve the team / squad for quality depth, I have been banging on about that for a while and was disappointed with us not securing our primary targets in the January window. I think Jorginho who played well last night isn't a bad pickup, but I would have preferred Caicedo for numerous reasons.
The squad is still a work in progress, we are still a long way behind City in terms of the make up our squad and the lack of quality we have in certain positions depth wise. That's why I'm not really panicking or throwing my hands up in the air because we are only as good as the make up of the squad which is pretty much what you are saying anyway, we are just disagreeing on the choice of words average v very good etc!
Last edited by selassie; 16-02-2023 at 09:24 AM.
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