Arsenal vs Aston Villa 18.01.2025 KO 17:30 GMT

[21_GOONER_SALUTE]

On point 1 - yes you are correct, most of the fanbase thought the summer window was good - I however did not & voiced my displeasure at the time. I knew we were short and I knew that Sterling was not the answer, I also knew that we still needed at least 1 or 2 more players after him that we didn't get.

Even if you look back at posts on here, I'm not sure one can say there wasn't significant disquiet about the summer transfer window.

One thing that is certain though is that there have been few surprises regarding how this season has panned out if you look back at posts critiquing the business done then.

People pointed out (including the media) we would still need a striker and some of us even predicted that act of omission would lead to us scampering in January trying to correct this.

Closely related to this is our tendency for draws, i.e. posters complained that the way we were "strengthening" the team meant we were likely to get more draws, which would not push us further nor help us get closer to winning the title (we are already at 8 when we had only 5 last season and 6 the season prior).

Yes, maybe no one predicted we'd be this heavily hit by injuries, however practically everybody agreed the squad was to thin (thinner than last years) and the coach should be concerned.

I definitely mentioned that Arteta shouldn't use injuries as an excuse this season, and I still don't believe he has a right to seeing there has been nothing spectacular, unpredictable nor unmanageable about the cases of significant injuries we've faced so far (the ones that have impacted our title challenge) :

Odegaard
likely expectation pre summer: overplayed by club and country
mitigations put in place : sold Smith-Rowe, no like for like cover, no rotation

Saka
likely expectation pre summer: overplayed by club and country
mitigations put in place: loaned out Nelson, brought in Sterling (a last minute fortuitous loan, who also has a rich recent history of injuries), no rotation

Jesus
likely expectation pre summer:injury record that stretches all the way to Citeh

mitigations put in place: sold Eddie, limited game time given


Arteta might be proving himself as a "great" defensive coach, but as a manager, especially regarding risks and resources, he's been extremely poor IMO.