“𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘧𝘰𝘰𝘵𝘣𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘤𝘭𝘶𝘣, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘦𝘴, 𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘦𝘳, 𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦; 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨.” - 𝘋𝘦𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘴 𝘉𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘬𝘢𝘮𝘱. /r/Gunners is the foremost online hub for all things Arsenal Football Club.
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We went as far as City in the CL and are 2 points behind. I get that this is a shit week but we would’ve killed to be in this position 4 years ago.
Just remember that Watford game. We are light years away from that shambles and we're now one of the upcoming teams in the world.
I've been loving these 3 seasons and I've been watching for 50 years. I've seen highs (Anfield 89, Invincibles, Liam Brady, 3-2 Fa Cup win vs Utd) and lows (8-2 United, 74-76 when we finished 16th and 17th, getting battered by top 6 teams).
So I can tell you that these are VERY exciting and promising times.
Enjoy it. They don't come very often.
And always remember, it could be worse, you could be a Spuds fan
On your last line .... God forbid!
Sends shivers down my spine !
A true horror story...
Body aching all the time...
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Oh yes, 1999 SF... God I put that out of my mind.
The other one was the LEague Cup Final vs Luton Town. Gus fcking Ceaser !!!!!!
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Nowhere near 50 for me, just 16 - but I wholeheartedly agree. This is the best Arsenal side I've gotten to watch and by far the most enjoyable time to be an Arsenal fan in my time.
I haven't even gotten upset at our losses, just a bit disappointed. It's great to be certain that every loss is just a blip and that better is coming.
I remember those games against City/Liverpool a few years ago, we were so far behind. Even in more recent years you could tell we were getting closer but lacked experience and composure. This year we took 8 points out of 12 from Liverpool and City.
I remember those games where City would beat us 3-0 too. That would be just the first half... and they would just pass it around to themselves for the entirely of the 2nd half. Liverpool put us to the sword.
Same here, used to be two and six to stand on the North Bank, still not happy at the 2-0 FA cup QF final home defeat by West Ham in 75 🫤, loved Jimmy Rimmer and the pitch at York City was a frozen ice rink of a surface and should never passed fit (1985 fa cup). These are the good times, we are so lucky to support this club.
Haha yep. I used to love the games in the snow and orange balls
I haven't been watching for as long but I feel the same way! I remember truly dark times.
I am momentarily disappointed because we started the year in such strong fashion and I was hoping our defence would carry us further.
I am still proud of the team and manager, we just lost form at a very crucial time.
💯 As crappy as these last few days have felt, we’ve come a long way in a few years and are getting better every year. The final steps of any journey are always the hardest. And the sweetest.
ArsenalForever
This is why I say we should need to be consistent as fans, we can't get too carried away on good runs or get too depressed on bad runs.
As this recent interaction with a fellow Gunner shows, things change quickly:
Two weeks ago:
Yesterday:
So true. It's more a bit sad for the lads than it is annoying or depressing. Compare this knockout feeling to the Europa final loss a few years back - big difference. This is a team you can get behind.
That's true. We were near midtable for two seasons straight. I'm happy with the progress we've made but Mikel needs to be more ruthless and bin the consistently injured/underperforming players as our core squad can't be carrying everybody.
People forget quickly. I don't understand why some expect we go from horrible football at 8th place to win the CL within the blink of an eye. If it is that easy, everybody would do it. Its a long and hard process, but if you compare to even last year there are major steps and its fu**ing obvious. We are not there yet ok and yesterday was painfull, but its part of the journey and I am on board. The league isnt lost yet, we still have a good fighting chance, lets go!
Ah and don't come all "Havertz sucks, why we dont have a 30-40 goals stricker" bla bla. Mr "I have 115 charges hanging over me" has a 30-40 goal stricker and they couldn't score yesterday even if their lives would depend on it.
Yeah like Madrid have 14 CLs, they also have poured 2-3x more money into their team than everyone else, every year, for 65 years. Pep has had arguably the most talented team every year for nearly 20 years, including the best player of all time, and he's only won the CL I think... 3 times? Only once without Messi. He got bounced in the QFs for three years in a row with an exceptionally talented side put together with unlimited funds.
Long story short, people need to be more realistic and appreciative of how far we have come.
It isn’t 4 years ago anymore. Expectations are allowed to change.
Of course they are but all things considered were still doing quite well and on an upward trajectory.
Expectations can change but to ignore the progress we've made is ridiculous.
2 years ago too
…’Agents calling constantly to get their players in to the club because every player wants to play for us, the brands wanting to work with us. Club is working on ideas to help the fans more and get more of us to see the team we love. Arsenal are feared. That is why you see the nonsense in media this country. It’s great. The owners are super committed and long term investors and not scared to invest for long term.
As for Mikel and the team and all the staff… Wow! This hurts right now and nothing is given in life or football, but we are on a path that will mean games like last night and how we are performing over the last two seasons will become just normal. I have never been more excited about where we are going. Enjoy it, it is going to be fun. Plus win at Wolves Saturday and you never know… walk tall today, our club oozes class and let’s stick together.’
"oozes class"... AKA not relentlessly booing a player for losing his contact lens
All frustration and depression aside, how cool was Tomi last night with the contact lens!? I watch my wife struggle with those damn things every morning. Imagine playing the most important game of your life, the whole world is watching, 60k drunken bavarians are cussing you out, and he just clutches the contact within a minute. No panic, no hesitation, just perfect execution. Ice cold, Tomi, ice cold.
Haha "No panic, no hesitation, just perfect execution."
Well said, and yeah, I thought the same. If it was me I'd would've stood up and flipped the bird to the crowd... which is one of the 1,000 reaons why Tomi was there and I'm the keyboard warrior here.
I'm nearly blind without glasses, and contacts were such a pain to handle that I switched back to regular frames in a month. If yesterday's incident has happened to me, I'd have had a full on panic attack right there.
What a lad, Tomiyasu is, handling it with such ease. Absolute tank.
I mean is putting in contacts such a struggle for you? I mostly wear glasses nowadays just because they're cheaper but it never took me more than a few seconds to do it.
How many time have you done it after running, playing football, sweating, in front of 60,000 people?
Give it a try and come back then
Instead we just boo our own players who have a bad game, like what happened to Zinchenko vs Villa
Or leave early in our first likely loss in 12 games
Entitled. Can’t even imagine getting to watch them in person so frequently and then behaving like that.
How many fucking times with this shit? Transport away from the ground is a nightmare, people have busy lives etc. Stop taking the moral high ground and pretending that fans leaving 5-10 mins before FT is somehow responsible for terrible defending
It's honestly a disgrace. You would think we would learn our lesson with Xhaka. We had even less reason to boo Zinchenko. He's been poor, but it's not like he isn't giving his all out there. Plus I'm sure his head is not fully in it with what's going on in his country. It's no excuse, but people forget players are human. It's only natural.
Bad performance was not an isolated incident vs Villa but yeah we should never boo our own
The Emirates would 100% boo an opposition player for doing what Tomi did with the lack of context watching from the stands gives you. Naive to think otherwise
Didn't Zinchenko get booed vs Villa lol
If you think the crowd at the Emirates wouldn't boo an opposition player in the same scenario, you've never been to a game
Maybe if Arsenal was behind. The game was tied.
Everyone booed Zaniolo when he went down vs Villa, the game was level. You’re being naive
Our fans would have done the same at Home, don't kid yourself.
I’m sure this is well intentioned and maybe this guy has connections but it reads like fan fiction lol
He is very well connected and has been for many years. Invariably what he has said in the past has turned out to be right.
Puff piece that sounds incredibly cringe if you aren’t a fan and connect it’s publishing to the fact that we’ve lost the CL and maybe the league within the last week.
Agree with it’s optimism, bright teams ahead but it’s a bit too much.
I'm not certain we can do it Saturday. The boys will be too tired from Wednesday - I hope I'm wong but you can see that they're out of gas again. We need better squad players - ones that can actually contribute and replace our starters properly if one of them gets injured.
We seriously need a world class striker and a saka backup.
If we get a world class striker, Jesus becomes is a saka backup.
Too unstable in health to be backup
Too unstable to be a 1 in 5 game backup? Then that’s it for his career…time to retire.
People want our team to be like their FIFA Ultimate Team with a Cruyff coming off the bench. You are either getting a lower quality player to be the backup or you are getting a young player and wasting their potential by never playing them.
I'd argue his finishing and his injury record are so poor that we should just sell him anyway and get a different backup. But that will not happen this summer for sure.
He can’t survive a full season without rotation. If he’s rotated like at city I’d like to think he’d be fine.
Should give him 1 more season
Great point. Would love Jesus as a saka backup. Imagine him gaming in minute 66~ to torment already tired defenders. I’d trust home with any off the bench appearance and some starts. Max 10.
So a Sackup.
Priority should be striker and midfielder. Preferably left 8 as I think Rice is better as 6.
Then we should look for winger.
Does make me question why we signed Havertz if we find that we are still lacking in both the left 8 and striker position. I like him but he seems more useful as a squad player rather than the fee and wages we paid for him.
I suppose Havertz could just fill in anywhere in the front 5 basically if needed. Still sort of a weird signing when we need something a bit more clear in a striker and a left 8 but idk
Opportunistic signing, we needed an all around utility player we got him
Besides were there any good strikers and left 8s available last year for an attainable price? Sometimes you kinda just need to take what the market gives
Because he can do both, realistically we are not getting two 100M players to play Left-8 and striker. If we can't find a suitable striker Havertz can play there, if we can he can be part of the crew that plays at LCM and he's still pushing whoever is at striker for those minutes so that player can't just rest on their laurels. Also we could easily recoup the expense for him right now given how he's played this year, if we really had to.
My exact thinking. I think we need to accept that it was just a mistake, as much as we love him. Hopefully he can accept a lesser role and we don't keep forcing him in the midfield next season.
I mean if you can get a player that can fill 3/4 roles in rotation, I think it's well worth the money. Ofc doesn't remove the fact that we still need a striker- but having Havertz removes the need to fill the 8/backup striker imo.
Jesus should become a backup for Saka, he's the worst finisher in the league.
So yeps, I'd sell Nketiah, Ramsdale & maybe even Zinny to get 60-70M in, and spend 100m on a finisher like Gyökeres.
Also, while I like Havertz and feel he's had a good season overall, I think ultimately the signing was a mistake and puts us in an awkward position going forward. We signed him as a left 8, that didn't work, we can admit that, right? The plan wasn't to play Jorginho for most of the season, I'm fairly sure.
So now going forward, what is Havertz' role? Do we sign a big money striker and just accept that Havertz is a really good squad player on potentially our highest wages? Do we keep forcing him in the midfield where I really don't think he works? I honestly don't know, but I stand by the opinion that he was a poor signing, all things considered.
Still love him though.
I'm of the same mindset, I think Havertz brings a lot of positives but our attack suffers because he isn't clinical in front of goal. But in matches like yesterday where chances are going to come few and far between, you absolutely need someone that will take advantage.
I'm not sure what the plan is moving forward for him, because the position he's been better in (striker) is also the one that I think most of us agree is our biggest need.
I think the biggest issue is that Havertz is the type of player you send 50/50 balls to and he's not really a link up player. When the mentality is so focused on maintaining posession then Havertz' strengths become diminished. Striking a better balance between being overly patient in possession and taking gambles is just as important as quality upgrades imo. The team is overly content with trying 1-2's with Odegaard and Saka on the right or safe 1v1's on the left. Havertz has the physicality to get a touch on most balls and has the pressing ability to try to recover a misplaced pass. I think the biggest difference for him playing at striker is that eventually the ball has to go across into his space. I don't think Kai will turn into some clinical finisher or anything but playing the ball in his direction as he pushes forward opens up defensive mistakes and deflections a lot more and those don't seem like staples in the current tactics when the objective seems to be creating some perfect shot, resetting and then trying again.
He’s a high level utility player who can play across multiple attacking positions and gives us a different dimension - it was overpriced for sure but to call it a mistake is debatable cos he’s still pretty productive
We play Jorgi bec Partey is out, not really cos of Havertz
The gaps in the team is pretty clear - two star forwards (striker and winger), another midfielder at the level of Rice and Ode then the rest will be rotation (assuming Timber recovers to be the LB we want)
I just don't think Havertz can really play multiple positions at a high enough level for us. He does the job as a 9 and that's about it really. I think we've seen more than enough of him at the 8 to know that it doesn't work for us.
He’s done well as an 8 in multiple games this year though (Palace, West Ham, Burnley) esp when paired with a playmaker 9
He was a luxury gadget player we couldn’t afford after Xhaka left. He’s now the highest player on the team that will be very difficult to sell. He did better than I thought he would this season but he was a terrible signing.
Gyokeres kills two birds with one stone. He's the big long ball winning forward that Arteta clearly wants and will play well with Raya's skills in distribution, while pushing Jesus to the wing to rotate with Saka. A first choice front 3 of Martinelli - Gyokeres - Saka and second choice of Trossard - Havertz - Jesus feels like enough quality to match City at the front. There are other positions we need to address, but I think that's absolutely the big play this summer.
And GK as Ramsdale is leaving.
An actual LCM is more important than all of those
left winger, a striker and another number 8 he trusts, then were there
You'll never sing that
As much as it hurts thinking about a potential trophy less campaign, bar 2 clubs in pl e ery club would kill loot and plunder to be where we are after a reconstruction phase. Look at Chelsea united spuds. They are putting on a circus show every weekend. Fans want their managers gone. No identity, garbage players, wage bills off the charts, bad owners, shit facilities. Not one of these are issues at arsenal. We have solved them. We are now playing good footie competing with the elite. Not sure why nobody sees all this in context..
Perhaps. Gonna need that to translate to silverware at some point though
This is what Liverpool were competing with for so many years the reality is arteta and the board is working against oil state owned European states
Crazy how small the margins are at the top level though, Saka’s penalty last season, Trossard’s miss against Villa, small mistakes against Bayern in the first leg and you’re punished so harshly.
On the flip side as well, it’s not just the mistakes it’s the moments of brilliance. City won one of their Pep titles from a Kompany 30 yard screamer late on when Pep himself was fucked off that he took the shot. Let alone the number of games the likes of KdB, Gundogan, Mahrez, Sterling won seemingly single-handedly.
The next step up for our players is to become match winners in the big moments. Get a half chance? Yeah, you bury that when the chips are down. Opponent parking the bus? Yeah, well, time for someone to pull a rabbit out of a hat. Those are the standards to win the PL and CL. At the moment, Saka and Odegaard are just about there but they can’t do it alone all season. You need like 4 or 5 of these guys to win it all.
Rice has that mentality too (United and Luton)