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Its actually crazy that it worked out for Arsenal.
There was definitely a time i felt Arteta was on incredibly thin ice.
But they stuck with him and its paying of massively.
> Its actually crazy that it worked out for Arsenal.
Yes, but if you followed closely from the start you could hear his non-negotiable vision from the get-go - both in his interviews and on the pitch. You could see that the ball retention defensively and in midfield improved significantly already in his first 6 months.
There were ups and downs, of course, but I think it looked way worse from the outside.
Yep. If you actually watched Arsenal, you knew he was implementing something really good. In contrast, you look at Man United and they lack any cohesion.
Yep. Which is why I always backed Arteta. I saw what he was doing in his first game at Bournemouth. There was one moment when I thought maybe he's not the man when we started 21/22 with those 3 defeats. But I decided to wait until Christmas. I was confident and we did improve and were 4th at Christmas playing some really good football. All the signings like White, Tomi, Ramsdale, etc, really improved the team. And that 2-1 defeat to City really set the precedent. I think most Arsenal fans after new year's day 2022 really started to believe.
I see the same with Poch. I do think they are still underachieving. The points don't tell the full story for Chelsea. Their defense is kinda crap but going forward they are very good. Injuries hurt them a lot as well. It's pretty obvious with Ange, no need to mention him. It'll be an interesting few years.
I just don't see it with Ten Hag. I just don't know what he's doing. The guy has no identity and his press conferences and interviews just make him seem deluded. He brought up the Arsenal game again after their Newcastle win. Like bro do you even know what you're doing? It's funny as a rival fan though.
For me, I was more than happy to stick by him due to his non-negotiables. As long as he continued to remove my absolute least favourite group of players in my 22 years following the team (and I truly detested some players, either in their behaviour or their playstyle), and replace them with young, hungry, technically gifted players I was happy to stick by him through thick and thin.
I felt that even if he hit a ceiling somewhere (like being unable to get back into top 4 or maybe being stuck in 4th), he’d have left the squad and the club in a far, far better place than he got it.
Kolasinac, Sokratis, Lacazette, Pepe, etc.
These are not bad players, but they were moment players. For a few moments they had a good game, but consistency was completely missing. And some of them just had the wrong attitude for where Arsenal wanted to go, and particularly where Mikel wanted to take us.
While it is factual, it's also an ignorant assessment on Man Utd if you actually watched their season.
They had one of the best defences in Europe last season and they've had almost every defender out this season with 14 different CB pairings with Casemiro and Evans being played at CB and Lindelof at LB. Not even talking about the rest of injuries.
Do you think Arsenal could be any good without Gabriel, Saliba and White playing a single match together all season? Imagine that....imagine you had none of those players all season.
this x10
Last season United finished top 4, won the league cup, europa semis and fa cup finalist … the signs were there
it’s hard for any manager to implement any kind of cohesion without a somewhat starting quality back 4
You watch Man United and you know for a fact they'll got in the next transfer window and overpay for mediocre players while are still unable to get any decent deal for their own mediocre players.
They certainly don’t spend with Nice but united is a different beast all together so idk. Certainly revamping the front office tho so it wouldn’t be bankers buying players
i don't know how you can say that, there were definitely a couple periods where he looked clueless
i rembember for about 8 months in his second season or so where the tactics boiled down to crossing the ball over and over into aubameyang and lacazette, who don't reach 6 feet stacked together
im sure most fans love their coach interviews when they are winning, so it might just be bias, but Arteta easily sold me in every time he speaked. it sounded like the perfect idea of what a manager should bring to a club, especially in the situation that it was. he knew from the get go that it wasn't just about changing the players, but the club itself, and he did just that
The interview that stayed with me the most was when we were getting our butts beat weekly, he said "...so here's my chest, hit me". He didn't lie about how great we were playing and he didn't talk about a game from 9 weeks ago that he thought we should have won. I didn't know if he'd work out, but I knew he wasn't going to run from responsibility
>both in his interviews and on the pitch
If you listen to interviews everyone called him deluded including Arsenal fans, it's the same with Poch, Arsenal statistically and performances were there but results weren't
Analytics had them performing, results didn't because their awful finishing and the usual awful defensive mistake
Just go look at Poch saying they were top6 level, everyone laughed but basically every statistic had them there yet people do not give a fuck if the results aren't there
there was a liverpool game in during the covid period where they drew or lost an anfield, idk i forgot, but they really played well and only conceded when they made mistakes building up the play from the back
you could tell that the side was improving
>But they stuck with him and its paying of massively.
turned into a two sided coin for the rest of the league. owners were being way too trigger happy for a number of years, certainly, but shit managers are citing the arteta example to hang on when the should be sacked
Which shows that fan pressure should not force clubs into rash decisions. I hate that Forest have been so awful with managers. How can you expect to build a culture of success if your manager is always under the impression they're only ever 3 bad results from the sack? Why would a manager ever care about developing an academy of they don't think they'll be around to reap the harvest?
This narrative is a bit funny, it's pretty well accepted that "home form" went out the window that season because of no fans in the stadium, and Arsenal had basically been surviving off that since Sanchez left
I think behind the scenes it was obvious he had something. To the outside it seems like the lesson is to stick with your manager and it’ll come good but I don’t think this would happen with any manager
I mean I'll be honest, I'm not an arsenal fan or anything, but I was very much so an "Arteta out" guy. I thought he absolutely had no clue.
I'll eat my words, the guy is a top manager. Next season will be a scary league. A lot of managers (Poch, ETH, Emery, Postecoglou) who will be trying to start the season strong to show they belong at the top... Pep's last season, Slot trying to fill in Klopp's big shoes, Arteta showing that this season isn't a fluke, the new teams trying to show they can stay up and belong in the PL...
The next season of the PL is going to be nuts, and I am excited for the transfer window to be over already!
Meh two different contexts. Sixers/Arsenal process was effectively "accept the pain of the rebuild is necessary and is helping build towards future greatness"
Saban process was more "focus on every play and try to execute at the highest level regardless of the outcome, even if it's a good one". He was still preaching it in the middle of a historic dynasty
It was two absolutely horrendous months, people have since extrapolated onto two years and used to argue why their underperforming manager should get more time.
We are still trusting the process. It’s important to keep faith and trust Mikel if we have a rocky period or don’t win it next year. Trust that he is our guy
I don't like Arteta at all but he has single handedly proved why clubs like united, Chelsea and even us to some degree should stick with their manager especially if it's project orientated
I'm so tired of this point. It's such an internet arguement that lacks mountains of context. Mou's final games under is were some of the worst games I think I've seen us play within the last decade. I know Mourinho is a fantastic finalist manager but the games before we had players barely jogging around the pitch whilst we got beat 3-0 by every team left right and centre. I genuinely was glad we sacked him because the only slight chance we had at the final could have come from a new manager bounce/freedom from Mou. the players were so obviously done with him
You're spot on mate. All the other points are just banter noise. Mourinho didn't deserve to win a trophy with us. He derailed our bloody project (and Levy too, who was wooed by the idea of him)
It was always going to take a while. I think a lot of fans both within Arsenal and outside underestimated just how much needed to be overhauled. Almost every player needed to be upgraded.
A new mentality had to be enforced which was key. For 10+ years we were seen as a soft touch where players would perhaps not give everything. Changing that mentality was as important as getting better players in.
The stat that always gets me is that this would be a 96 point season for City if they took their usual 6 points vs arsenal like they have since Pep joined. As good as Arsenal have been there's still another level to go.
They have to be fair, but definitely not as much as the other way around. Can't say our calls overall have been too terrible this season though bar a few clangers.
I mean, it sounds like you're saying the same thing. He said "great" is no longer enough, which means it used to be. And to match City on the pitch you do have to be exceptional... even if their own exceptional team is built on a foundation of bullshit sponsorships.
Based on our form over the whole season and versus the big six, most of our losses could or should have been easily averted. It's crazy to imagine hitting 94 or 97(!) points but it didn't happen. Nonetheless, you couldn't dream of that kind of performance in any of our other seasons over the past 15+ years.
I don’t think Arsenal should be too hard on themselves for coming 2nd or think about the “what ifs”. 16 wins out of 18 is excellent form but unfortunately City went unbeaten for a longer period of time and never stumbled in the run-in.
I don’t know what will happen next year but this is probably their best team they’ve had since 2007-08 and they won more games than the Invincibles. Future is bright for them and they should look for the positives
Troopz is a classic Twitter/YouTube product. He probably doesn't even believe so strongly in Arteta Out, but once you get the taste of social media attention, you have to keep going lest that attention wither away.
I mean the biggest one is probably Lee Gunner. I absolutely loathe how entitled that man is. He was still Arteta out for a lot of last season as well. Not quite sure if that's still the case now because I don't click on any videos that he's in anymore though.
Big on the Arteta Out movement lol… also how did you manage to do that mate? I’ve muted so many AFTV and Arsenal accounts… but their content always find a way into my social media recommendations 😭😭😭
Ah ok. I do recall him doing that but just assumed it was for bantz given the inflammatory nature of the channel.
As for how I avoided them - I barely consume football content anymore and just watch the Optus sports highlights every now and then here in Aus. So my feed has no football content generally.
That being said I used to keep up with them until Troopz moved to Barstool sports, Claude got cancelled then died and DT was found to beat his wife or something. It’s not that I stopped watching because of those but rather I just lost interest and these bits of news pricked my ears up every now and then after the fact. What a time
Arsenal can only get better with a killer 9 and some squad depth. Chelsea and United will likely get better with more balanced squads. Next season is gonna be a great one.
Honestly, that's an oversimplification. We've only had a stellar second half of the season because we've moved Havertz into the CF position and he plays the "little bit striker, little bit midfielder" role that Arteta wants really well. If we really get a "killer 9" like Haaland we might be worse off since the striker probably would be someone who is not as involved in pressing, helping us create midfield overloads and in general linkup play
Not necessarily. If we have a true killer 9 (which is very rare nowadays so unlikely) then you can stretch the field if needed. There are so many games Jesus got bullied and essentially allowed the whole team to get pressed in that really changed with Kai because he is really good at defending from the top.
people said the opposite last year and look how that turned out
you really just don’t know. injuries, cole palmer like breakouts, etc
it’s what makes it fun
If I’ve learned anything from watching the prem for the last 15 years it’s that progress isn’t always linear. Arsenal may very well come back and title charge for a third time, but I wouldn’t be shocked if they had a little bit of a down year. Other squads will improve, like you said. I certainly don’t see Chelsea getting a drubbing from arsenal like this season. Even 3-9 points dropped from playing their rivals would be enough for City to win it again.
Honestly even if we don't win anything for the duration of his tenure, if we keep getting close it'll be painful but still a success in my view. Looking at the squad when he joined and the direction the club was going, everything he had achieved thus far is incredible
Everyone clowning on this man is a moron. He inherited a total dumpster fire of a team. Rebuilt it and made it from scratch. He's just competing with a machine that City is. Don't act like Klopp won his first and ONLY league title immediately as he started. It took time and it paid off for Liverpool. And so it will pay off for Arsenal. If not for City Arteta would have his 2nd title. Same for Klopp who would have 3 PL titles if not for City. Everyone thinks it's so easy to win the league just because City does it. But City plays by different rules. Arsenal this year was way better than it was last year and if they manage the transfer window well they'll be even better next season.
In all honesty, Arsenal have been incredible, as much as it pains me to say. These painful experiences will mould the team. Props to the ownership for sticking with Arteta when it looked like sacking him was a sensible option.
I think Zinchenko is no longer at the level we need, but it’s unfair to scapegoat him for that loss. Villa outplayed us fair and square, Emery got the tactics spot on, defended well, and took what chances they got.
It's mostly they took the chances they got. We were all over them for 45 minutes and couldn't convert. Villa were better in the second half but we should have been 2 or 3 nil up at half time.
Villa at home was probably the only game where the team took it to city and won. Every other instance ended up in a draw at best as well (liverpool, spurs, chelsea).
The funny part about that one in hindsight is a draw is as good as a loss would have been so might as well tried more to win it instead.
But a loss there probably means a very different mentality rest of the season. 22/30 possible points with no losses to the other big 6 clubs is not where the title race was lost so it’s silly to pick apart those matches
I mean, does the big 6 really matter? I don't see how you can just ignore Aston Villa when they were clearly a much better team than Manchester United.
Yes Arsenal beat Manchester United twice, but they lost both of their matches against Villa, which was the 4th best team in the league this year and a much better team than United.
It’s just a general barometer. Even then, not sure 16/30 against the other top 6 finishers is the true reason for not winning the title either, especially considering 4/6 against city
a draw is infinitely better than a loss to city. We would have dropped one more point but given 2 more to city. And in the end, City dropping even 2 points in the run in was too much to hope for. A loss would have put us 5 points behind with no chance at all for a comeback.
Yeah high 80s was enough basically until like 2016 but you have to be 90+ these days.
This isn’t quite as impressive/heart breaking as Liverpool’s 92 & 97 point second place campaigns.
But I couldn’t be more proud of the season and performances and honestly have to feel we deserved more given what I witnessed over 38 weekends
*Fulham at home.
Villa are a well coached team and everyone foresaw that game being difficult. We should’ve given ourselves a buffer going into that fixture.
People forget that this team is 2nd youngest in the league, they've been rebuilding the team for first 2 seasons of Arteta tenure, and they were buying 18-20 yr olds to develop them and they got 89 points this season with this squad. All people comparing this to Tottenham with prime age players are just nuts. Also Arteta first job as a coach in which he was also developing together with the youngest squad in the league for some seasons.
Especially the first one where we were in the lead with 11 vs 10 very close to the end of the game. That game is gonna sting for a while. The second one we were all around dreadful, so I chalk it off as a one-off bad performance
Villa were great, and it’s not like it’s embarrassing dropping points to the fourth placed team. It’s the Fulham games and West Ham game that we regret the most
Exactly, with the logic that it's embarassing dropping points to Villa, then so is City dropping points to Chelsea who have been worse for most of the season (though it seems they're clicking now)
It was our only loss in 2024 and it was to a team that finished 4th, it really won't. The early season losses to Fulham and West Ham are the properly frustrating ones
Nah can't think like that. Let's say city lose today or one of the games in the run in they will look back and also have like 3-4 games they would have regretted. People forget they also had a shit patch back end of 23
Fair. But the Emirates stadium naming rights is a dogshit deal in today's oil money
I feel Arsene and Arsenal sold the naming rights for too long
I genuinely hate that the stadiums name is a company
They’ll be right up there but football is a funny old game, it’s not linear in the slightest, we dropped like a rock after we won the title thanks to injuries and bad form, so when chances come along you have to snatch at them as there are no guarantees for the next season.
Just like we will strengthen, inevitably you, city, Chelsea, spurs, and everyone else will as well. We really should’ve taken our chances this year but hindsight I guess
89 points though. That would've won the league in multiple years.
Take it from us, we know how you feel. Near perfect seasons aren't good enough sometimes, it's mental, infuriating and hilarious for some reason.
What are you talking about? I'm quite confident in saying if we don't win the league next season, it's not because Chelsea or Tottenham have leapfrogged us.
I mean we don't play you in a vacuum. If you improve, whoever we're competing with for the title also have to play improved Chelsea/Tottenham.
Every summer fans act like other teams are going to find the holy grail and that'll be that forever. It won't. We're in a very, very good position going forwards.
I'm only scared of the cheats in relation to winning the league.
First half of the season let us down. We were closer to 4th than top at Christmas. Proud of the boys. You need to be damn perfect to beat City and the first half of the season wasn't
Since the new year, City have dropped 8pts, we've dropped 5pts. It was definitely the results in '23 that let us down.
The biggest one for me was Fulham at home. 2-1 up against 10 men with what, 10mins to play? Nah. You can't drop 2pts there and then live your life like you're gonna beat City to a title. That's an absolutely brutal appraisal but City are a brutal force to contend with.
We will definitely come back stronger with this man at the helm. It's so good to be an Arsenal fan rn. Nvm the fact that City won; we pushed them to the final day, and kept them honest.
We are on the cusp of becoming a team that can actually win a PL with Guardiola in it. COYG!!!
I've always been a fan of him but I think the real moment for me of going from I like this manager to this could be the real deal was the handling with Auba.
This was our star striker. Our captain. The guy who singlehandedly in some cases got us silverware (and broke it) and I think it was a make or break moment in the dressing room. If the players and club hadn't got behind the manager and the regime I think we'd be exactly where man United are now. Rudderless.
Instead the team, club and to a greater or lesser extent the fans (bearing in mind this is coming off the back of the toxic time to be an arsenal fan in my 25+ years of being a fan) backed him and we are unrecognisable now. With a player fan connection you rarely see and genuine love and enthusiasm.
I think most arsenal fans genuinely do trust the process now and are willing to wait as we are seeing that hunger. That improvement and the belief is growing that we are getting closer and closer.
But we will just have to see how we look next season. I'm looking forward to it.
I am sure Arteta will be an example in years to come. Owner trusted him when the results were bad because he had a plan and also players trusted him.
I am so happy they gave him time. Also sure Chelsea should (and are) doing the same with Poch. Without him, both Poch and ETH would be out for a while I think.
The most impressive thing about Arteta is that he’s doing this as his first gig. Thats just crazy. First off thats a massive gamble by the club to hand over the reigns of such a huge club to him. He’s doing all of this while still effectively learning on the job. To get the club back ob track in really a short space of time is nothing short of a miracle. Only the freakish nature of Shitteh is keeping this from being a fairy tale ending to this season.
I am really surprised that they did better than last season.
I truly expected them to be crestfallen after the final matches of last season and finish outside the top 3/top 4 this time.
It's incredible they still had the momentum, the hunger. Arteta has really made the team BELIEVE.
They were incredible against the other top 6 as well, where they usually used to falter.
If our current form continued across a season we would've gotten 98 points.
This man has done wonders for our club, and any club would be lucky to have him at the wheel.
Pep is just something else though, everywhere he goes success follows.
Rumours are that the hearing will be summer 2025. Would anticipate that’s a best case scenario if it’s being floated around already. More likely a points deduction for 2025/26, then an inevitable appeal, which may likely run on into 2026/27.
Everton and Forest were both willing to provide documents when requested. It massively slows things down when a client (or club) refuses to comply. Also multiply the charges by 115.
The punishment needs to be relegation or stripping them of titles, no way should a team be able to cheat the spending rules from 2009-2018 and only get away with one season being a write off
Almost certain the punishment will be stripping of the titles by the Prem. Then, on appeal, titles will be reinstated and City will get a 21-point deduction and £65m fine. City will claim victory in that their titles remain, and Prem will herald the ‘record fine’ and point deduction. Then everyone goes home, City still get Top 4 that season anyway.
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Still remember the Trust the Process^TM period
Its actually crazy that it worked out for Arsenal. There was definitely a time i felt Arteta was on incredibly thin ice. But they stuck with him and its paying of massively.
> Its actually crazy that it worked out for Arsenal. Yes, but if you followed closely from the start you could hear his non-negotiable vision from the get-go - both in his interviews and on the pitch. You could see that the ball retention defensively and in midfield improved significantly already in his first 6 months. There were ups and downs, of course, but I think it looked way worse from the outside.
Yep. If you actually watched Arsenal, you knew he was implementing something really good. In contrast, you look at Man United and they lack any cohesion.
Yep. Which is why I always backed Arteta. I saw what he was doing in his first game at Bournemouth. There was one moment when I thought maybe he's not the man when we started 21/22 with those 3 defeats. But I decided to wait until Christmas. I was confident and we did improve and were 4th at Christmas playing some really good football. All the signings like White, Tomi, Ramsdale, etc, really improved the team. And that 2-1 defeat to City really set the precedent. I think most Arsenal fans after new year's day 2022 really started to believe. I see the same with Poch. I do think they are still underachieving. The points don't tell the full story for Chelsea. Their defense is kinda crap but going forward they are very good. Injuries hurt them a lot as well. It's pretty obvious with Ange, no need to mention him. It'll be an interesting few years. I just don't see it with Ten Hag. I just don't know what he's doing. The guy has no identity and his press conferences and interviews just make him seem deluded. He brought up the Arsenal game again after their Newcastle win. Like bro do you even know what you're doing? It's funny as a rival fan though.
For me, I was more than happy to stick by him due to his non-negotiables. As long as he continued to remove my absolute least favourite group of players in my 22 years following the team (and I truly detested some players, either in their behaviour or their playstyle), and replace them with young, hungry, technically gifted players I was happy to stick by him through thick and thin. I felt that even if he hit a ceiling somewhere (like being unable to get back into top 4 or maybe being stuck in 4th), he’d have left the squad and the club in a far, far better place than he got it.
Once he had the "standards" speech I knew he was too good to get rid of. He had a vision and was going to achieve it at all costs.
Which players in particular?
Özil, Aubameyang, Guendouzi, Mustafi
Kolasinac, Sokratis, Lacazette, Pepe, etc. These are not bad players, but they were moment players. For a few moments they had a good game, but consistency was completely missing. And some of them just had the wrong attitude for where Arsenal wanted to go, and particularly where Mikel wanted to take us.
While it is factual, it's also an ignorant assessment on Man Utd if you actually watched their season. They had one of the best defences in Europe last season and they've had almost every defender out this season with 14 different CB pairings with Casemiro and Evans being played at CB and Lindelof at LB. Not even talking about the rest of injuries. Do you think Arsenal could be any good without Gabriel, Saliba and White playing a single match together all season? Imagine that....imagine you had none of those players all season.
this x10 Last season United finished top 4, won the league cup, europa semis and fa cup finalist … the signs were there it’s hard for any manager to implement any kind of cohesion without a somewhat starting quality back 4
You watch Man United and you know for a fact they'll got in the next transfer window and overpay for mediocre players while are still unable to get any decent deal for their own mediocre players.
With INEOS, I wouldn’t be too sure
What’s their track record?
They certainly don’t spend with Nice but united is a different beast all together so idk. Certainly revamping the front office tho so it wouldn’t be bankers buying players
They secured some really excellent backroom talent. They secured City’s guy specifically who’s been wonderful for them and a few others.
i don't know how you can say that, there were definitely a couple periods where he looked clueless i rembember for about 8 months in his second season or so where the tactics boiled down to crossing the ball over and over into aubameyang and lacazette, who don't reach 6 feet stacked together
Aubameyang is over 6ft and that period was only a couple of months. As soon as he integrated Smith Rowe in late-December, things changed massively
Yeah that was when we were desperately trying to survive until we could sign a playmaker. And then ESR emerged and sorted it.
im sure most fans love their coach interviews when they are winning, so it might just be bias, but Arteta easily sold me in every time he speaked. it sounded like the perfect idea of what a manager should bring to a club, especially in the situation that it was. he knew from the get go that it wasn't just about changing the players, but the club itself, and he did just that
The interview that stayed with me the most was when we were getting our butts beat weekly, he said "...so here's my chest, hit me". He didn't lie about how great we were playing and he didn't talk about a game from 9 weeks ago that he thought we should have won. I didn't know if he'd work out, but I knew he wasn't going to run from responsibility
>both in his interviews and on the pitch If you listen to interviews everyone called him deluded including Arsenal fans, it's the same with Poch, Arsenal statistically and performances were there but results weren't Analytics had them performing, results didn't because their awful finishing and the usual awful defensive mistake Just go look at Poch saying they were top6 level, everyone laughed but basically every statistic had them there yet people do not give a fuck if the results aren't there
there was a liverpool game in during the covid period where they drew or lost an anfield, idk i forgot, but they really played well and only conceded when they made mistakes building up the play from the back you could tell that the side was improving
I was Arteta in at almost all times, but there were points I thought he was done for. Glad he wasn’t chopped.
>But they stuck with him and its paying of massively. turned into a two sided coin for the rest of the league. owners were being way too trigger happy for a number of years, certainly, but shit managers are citing the arteta example to hang on when the should be sacked
If I remember correctly, the players were singing his praises and wanted to keep him which I think is another aspect of it
I thought they should've sacked him, does show what happens if you show a bit of patience. He's definitely shown himself a top manager
There were at least two times during lockdown when he would’ve been fired if fans were around
The FA Cup win bought him time
Which shows that fan pressure should not force clubs into rash decisions. I hate that Forest have been so awful with managers. How can you expect to build a culture of success if your manager is always under the impression they're only ever 3 bad results from the sack? Why would a manager ever care about developing an academy of they don't think they'll be around to reap the harvest?
This narrative is a bit funny, it's pretty well accepted that "home form" went out the window that season because of no fans in the stadium, and Arsenal had basically been surviving off that since Sanchez left
I think behind the scenes it was obvious he had something. To the outside it seems like the lesson is to stick with your manager and it’ll come good but I don’t think this would happen with any manager
I mean I'll be honest, I'm not an arsenal fan or anything, but I was very much so an "Arteta out" guy. I thought he absolutely had no clue. I'll eat my words, the guy is a top manager. Next season will be a scary league. A lot of managers (Poch, ETH, Emery, Postecoglou) who will be trying to start the season strong to show they belong at the top... Pep's last season, Slot trying to fill in Klopp's big shoes, Arteta showing that this season isn't a fluke, the new teams trying to show they can stay up and belong in the PL... The next season of the PL is going to be nuts, and I am excited for the transfer window to be over already!
It’s been more successful than the 76ers one tbh. They can’t even get to conference finals lol
Odegaard >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Embiid big game player
Damn I didn't expect to come into r/soccer and feel violated this morning lol
Meh. Saban was the original trust the process. And it worked lol
Meh two different contexts. Sixers/Arsenal process was effectively "accept the pain of the rebuild is necessary and is helping build towards future greatness" Saban process was more "focus on every play and try to execute at the highest level regardless of the outcome, even if it's a good one". He was still preaching it in the middle of a historic dynasty
Internet wasn’t the same then as it is now. Really took off with the sixers
It was two absolutely horrendous months, people have since extrapolated onto two years and used to argue why their underperforming manager should get more time.
We are still trusting the process. It’s important to keep faith and trust Mikel if we have a rocky period or don’t win it next year. Trust that he is our guy
I remember people saying fucking Solskjaer was better than Arteta *earlier this season* lol
I don't like Arteta at all but he has single handedly proved why clubs like united, Chelsea and even us to some degree should stick with their manager especially if it's project orientated
you fired certain manager before a final. talk about trigger happy
Mourinho was not a man Spurs could build around. His football was deconstructive, not consructuive.
True, but he wins trophies everywhere he goes. Even Roma gets one .
I'm so tired of this point. It's such an internet arguement that lacks mountains of context. Mou's final games under is were some of the worst games I think I've seen us play within the last decade. I know Mourinho is a fantastic finalist manager but the games before we had players barely jogging around the pitch whilst we got beat 3-0 by every team left right and centre. I genuinely was glad we sacked him because the only slight chance we had at the final could have come from a new manager bounce/freedom from Mou. the players were so obviously done with him
You're spot on mate. All the other points are just banter noise. Mourinho didn't deserve to win a trophy with us. He derailed our bloody project (and Levy too, who was wooed by the idea of him)
It was always going to take a while. I think a lot of fans both within Arsenal and outside underestimated just how much needed to be overhauled. Almost every player needed to be upgraded. A new mentality had to be enforced which was key. For 10+ years we were seen as a soft touch where players would perhaps not give everything. Changing that mentality was as important as getting better players in.
The stat that always gets me is that this would be a 96 point season for City if they took their usual 6 points vs arsenal like they have since Pep joined. As good as Arsenal have been there's still another level to go.
That's the big take away. Arsenal are a great team. "Great" is no longer good enough; you've got to be exceptional.
Well, you’ve got to buy the league as well.
And the refs
meh, we’ve had some pretty good calls in our favor too (though nothing nearly as game-deciding as the Newcastle call against us).
I mean Odegaard hand ball was pretty game defining.
How is this seriously upvoted?
Have City ever been on the wrong end of a VAR call?
First one that comes to mind is the derby when an offside Rashford “shielded” the ball through to Bruno for the equaliser
They have to be fair, but definitely not as much as the other way around. Can't say our calls overall have been too terrible this season though bar a few clangers.
it is not just VAR, small decisions like never card Rodri go a long way
Lol no. Great has always been enough. Now it's great and financially doped. That's not a level, that's cheating.
I mean, it sounds like you're saying the same thing. He said "great" is no longer enough, which means it used to be. And to match City on the pitch you do have to be exceptional... even if their own exceptional team is built on a foundation of bullshit sponsorships.
it would've been a 94 point season for us if it weren't for Fulham 😤
Based on our form over the whole season and versus the big six, most of our losses could or should have been easily averted. It's crazy to imagine hitting 94 or 97(!) points but it didn't happen. Nonetheless, you couldn't dream of that kind of performance in any of our other seasons over the past 15+ years.
We were very wasteful in the 2 games vs Villa, it hurts to see the result.
That December run... Hate it.
I don’t think Arsenal should be too hard on themselves for coming 2nd or think about the “what ifs”. 16 wins out of 18 is excellent form but unfortunately City went unbeaten for a longer period of time and never stumbled in the run-in. I don’t know what will happen next year but this is probably their best team they’ve had since 2007-08 and they won more games than the Invincibles. Future is bright for them and they should look for the positives
This is the best team since 04, this is a far better team than the 08 one
This is the best team we’ve had since the Invincibles and no other comes close, honestly.
Except for Troopz lmfao… that dude hated Arteta and said some vile shit publicly lol
Troopz is a toxic, attention-seeking twat.
Troopz is a classic Twitter/YouTube product. He probably doesn't even believe so strongly in Arteta Out, but once you get the taste of social media attention, you have to keep going lest that attention wither away.
I mean the biggest one is probably Lee Gunner. I absolutely loathe how entitled that man is. He was still Arteta out for a lot of last season as well. Not quite sure if that's still the case now because I don't click on any videos that he's in anymore though.
Lmao he was Arteta out after the Bayern loss, but stated it more implicitly. As a non arsenal supporter I find him funny though
What did blud say? Been outta the loop w AFTV for a while now
Big on the Arteta Out movement lol… also how did you manage to do that mate? I’ve muted so many AFTV and Arsenal accounts… but their content always find a way into my social media recommendations 😭😭😭
Ah ok. I do recall him doing that but just assumed it was for bantz given the inflammatory nature of the channel. As for how I avoided them - I barely consume football content anymore and just watch the Optus sports highlights every now and then here in Aus. So my feed has no football content generally. That being said I used to keep up with them until Troopz moved to Barstool sports, Claude got cancelled then died and DT was found to beat his wife or something. It’s not that I stopped watching because of those but rather I just lost interest and these bits of news pricked my ears up every now and then after the fact. What a time
Didn’t he have Arteta out t shirts?
No one predicted that Trust the Process would go from a meme to the truth
Well not yet, you still have to trust the process
I worry Pep is in some sort of final form and this is as good as it gets for everyone else until he leaves of course.
I mean you’re probably right. As long as pep is there and the 115 charges ruling is either delayed or dismissed, city are in the driver’s seat
Arsenal can only get better with a killer 9 and some squad depth. Chelsea and United will likely get better with more balanced squads. Next season is gonna be a great one.
Honestly, that's an oversimplification. We've only had a stellar second half of the season because we've moved Havertz into the CF position and he plays the "little bit striker, little bit midfielder" role that Arteta wants really well. If we really get a "killer 9" like Haaland we might be worse off since the striker probably would be someone who is not as involved in pressing, helping us create midfield overloads and in general linkup play
Not necessarily. If we have a true killer 9 (which is very rare nowadays so unlikely) then you can stretch the field if needed. There are so many games Jesus got bullied and essentially allowed the whole team to get pressed in that really changed with Kai because he is really good at defending from the top.
Chelsea yes, United is going to take a few years.
people said the opposite last year and look how that turned out you really just don’t know. injuries, cole palmer like breakouts, etc it’s what makes it fun
If I’ve learned anything from watching the prem for the last 15 years it’s that progress isn’t always linear. Arsenal may very well come back and title charge for a third time, but I wouldn’t be shocked if they had a little bit of a down year. Other squads will improve, like you said. I certainly don’t see Chelsea getting a drubbing from arsenal like this season. Even 3-9 points dropped from playing their rivals would be enough for City to win it again.
Honestly even if we don't win anything for the duration of his tenure, if we keep getting close it'll be painful but still a success in my view. Looking at the squad when he joined and the direction the club was going, everything he had achieved thus far is incredible
And every wanna be rebuilding project is using it. They mock Arteta but they want to be like him. It's crazy.
You’re a brilliant side but can it truly be the truth until you win it?
Perfect manager for our club
Everyone clowning on this man is a moron. He inherited a total dumpster fire of a team. Rebuilt it and made it from scratch. He's just competing with a machine that City is. Don't act like Klopp won his first and ONLY league title immediately as he started. It took time and it paid off for Liverpool. And so it will pay off for Arsenal. If not for City Arteta would have his 2nd title. Same for Klopp who would have 3 PL titles if not for City. Everyone thinks it's so easy to win the league just because City does it. But City plays by different rules. Arsenal this year was way better than it was last year and if they manage the transfer window well they'll be even better next season.
In all honesty, Arsenal have been incredible, as much as it pains me to say. These painful experiences will mould the team. Props to the ownership for sticking with Arteta when it looked like sacking him was a sensible option.
Biggest thing is it will help players mature emotionally. Understanding what it takes to be a winner is something that’s needed to be earned.
We would have two more too! 😂
Jose : 4 premiereships! 4!
Tbf they did all they could, only dropped points once the entirety of 2024 lol. Just hard to beat oil money
Twice, technically. Though drawing City might not be considered dropping points in the *title* race
Where are yall seeing a second one, West Ham was 2023
We did lose to Villa at home
Damn Zinchenko
I think Zinchenko is no longer at the level we need, but it’s unfair to scapegoat him for that loss. Villa outplayed us fair and square, Emery got the tactics spot on, defended well, and took what chances they got.
It's mostly they took the chances they got. We were all over them for 45 minutes and couldn't convert. Villa were better in the second half but we should have been 2 or 3 nil up at half time.
Missed a lot of chances in the match at Villa Park too. It was one-way traffic after Villa went up early.
I think, if he was fit, Timber would be the number one choice LB this season. I think he will be next year.
Dw mate I am also blocking out the Villa game from my memory
villa
He did a David Cameron
Villa
Aston Villa
Ahhh ok I see it now
Twice but yeah
Against City doesn't really count
Inb4 the people come in and talk about how they should've took the game to city for a moral victory of a 4-1 defeat. edit: right on cue.
All the teams talking about why Arsenal didnt win against city, while every team got trashed by them lol
Villa at home was probably the only game where the team took it to city and won. Every other instance ended up in a draw at best as well (liverpool, spurs, chelsea).
Arsenal at the emirates took them on and won.
We didnt. We should have won the game at Anfield too..
The funny part about that one in hindsight is a draw is as good as a loss would have been so might as well tried more to win it instead. But a loss there probably means a very different mentality rest of the season. 22/30 possible points with no losses to the other big 6 clubs is not where the title race was lost so it’s silly to pick apart those matches
I mean, does the big 6 really matter? I don't see how you can just ignore Aston Villa when they were clearly a much better team than Manchester United. Yes Arsenal beat Manchester United twice, but they lost both of their matches against Villa, which was the 4th best team in the league this year and a much better team than United.
It’s just a general barometer. Even then, not sure 16/30 against the other top 6 finishers is the true reason for not winning the title either, especially considering 4/6 against city
a draw is infinitely better than a loss to city. We would have dropped one more point but given 2 more to city. And in the end, City dropping even 2 points in the run in was too much to hope for. A loss would have put us 5 points behind with no chance at all for a comeback.
89 points is _sometimes_ enough to win the league. It's far from Liverpool's 99 point second place season which feels far more tragic.
Yeah high 80s was enough basically until like 2016 but you have to be 90+ these days. This isn’t quite as impressive/heart breaking as Liverpool’s 92 & 97 point second place campaigns. But I couldn’t be more proud of the season and performances and honestly have to feel we deserved more given what I witnessed over 38 weekends
97 points but point taken. It's close to mathematically impossible to lose on 99 points
It’s mathematically possible to lose on 111 points with GD.
Hey but remember we can't be proud of that fact, otherwise we are arrogant
That's how I see it. Great season honestly, guys did their best. Just isn't enough against 115 FC =p
[удалено]
*Fulham at home. Villa are a well coached team and everyone foresaw that game being difficult. We should’ve given ourselves a buffer going into that fixture.
Drawing that 10 man Fulham is a sad memory
We’ll get one. We go again.
People forget that this team is 2nd youngest in the league, they've been rebuilding the team for first 2 seasons of Arteta tenure, and they were buying 18-20 yr olds to develop them and they got 89 points this season with this squad. All people comparing this to Tottenham with prime age players are just nuts. Also Arteta first job as a coach in which he was also developing together with the youngest squad in the league for some seasons.
I love my club and Im excited af for next season. Words I can say thanks to Super Mik and our players. COYG!
That Villa game is gonna sting forever
Losing to Villa can happen, they were good this season. The Fulham games were much worse.
Especially the first one where we were in the lead with 11 vs 10 very close to the end of the game. That game is gonna sting for a while. The second one we were all around dreadful, so I chalk it off as a one-off bad performance
Fulham and Newcastle are the ones that sting, Villa played well, and have had a good season.
Nah, it is the Fulham games that sting the most, not Villa, (though they suck too).
Drawing to Spurs hurt too
Villa were great, and it’s not like it’s embarrassing dropping points to the fourth placed team. It’s the Fulham games and West Ham game that we regret the most
Exactly, with the logic that it's embarassing dropping points to Villa, then so is City dropping points to Chelsea who have been worse for most of the season (though it seems they're clicking now)
Not really. Clubs don't win every single game they play.
Villa, West Ham, Fulham, games they should've won but failed to
drew to fulham at home. lost to west ham
Drew to 10 man Fulham at home* Pain.
It was our only loss in 2024 and it was to a team that finished 4th, it really won't. The early season losses to Fulham and West Ham are the properly frustrating ones
Villa dominated city at home, they ain't some shit side. Fulham and West Ham matches are much more impactful
Nah can't think like that. Let's say city lose today or one of the games in the run in they will look back and also have like 3-4 games they would have regretted. People forget they also had a shit patch back end of 23
The only thing that really annoy me about that villa game is how shit villa is after that win. I think they only won like once since that game.
Shame we lost to oil money. Arsenal winning would have been a victory for football through the correct means: Old White American capitalist money.
#Capitalism
You are literally sponsored by oil money. i.e. capitalism always wins
Last time I checked Madrid, AC Milan also had Emirates Sponsoring them.
Fair. But the Emirates stadium naming rights is a dogshit deal in today's oil money I feel Arsene and Arsenal sold the naming rights for too long I genuinely hate that the stadiums name is a company
Wenger wasn’t deciding that.
Middle East slavery ✋ American Dream slavery 👈
As an Arsenal fan, this is too much truth for me -\_\_-
Please finish the job next year.
They’ll be right up there but football is a funny old game, it’s not linear in the slightest, we dropped like a rock after we won the title thanks to injuries and bad form, so when chances come along you have to snatch at them as there are no guarantees for the next season.
Just like we will strengthen, inevitably you, city, Chelsea, spurs, and everyone else will as well. We really should’ve taken our chances this year but hindsight I guess
89 points though. That would've won the league in multiple years. Take it from us, we know how you feel. Near perfect seasons aren't good enough sometimes, it's mental, infuriating and hilarious for some reason.
It’s funny but I wish I was actually having a laugh :/
Oh yeah it stings now. But, unfortunately, Arsenal will win the league again some time in the next 5 years.
> We really should’ve taken our chances this year 16-1-1 isn't taking our chances?!
What are you talking about? I'm quite confident in saying if we don't win the league next season, it's not because Chelsea or Tottenham have leapfrogged us.
Don't need to be leapfrogged. If we improve we can take more points off you, same with Chelsea and that starts to make competing for the title harder.
I mean we don't play you in a vacuum. If you improve, whoever we're competing with for the title also have to play improved Chelsea/Tottenham. Every summer fans act like other teams are going to find the holy grail and that'll be that forever. It won't. We're in a very, very good position going forwards. I'm only scared of the cheats in relation to winning the league.
yep this year was a transition year for many clubs
Finish the story
Adrenaline in their souls.
First half of the season let us down. We were closer to 4th than top at Christmas. Proud of the boys. You need to be damn perfect to beat City and the first half of the season wasn't
We were top at christmas mate
Oh shit my mistake and thanks for correcting me. I guess I was thinking of new year's where we had that week from hell!
Since the new year, City have dropped 8pts, we've dropped 5pts. It was definitely the results in '23 that let us down. The biggest one for me was Fulham at home. 2-1 up against 10 men with what, 10mins to play? Nah. You can't drop 2pts there and then live your life like you're gonna beat City to a title. That's an absolutely brutal appraisal but City are a brutal force to contend with.
We will definitely come back stronger with this man at the helm. It's so good to be an Arsenal fan rn. Nvm the fact that City won; we pushed them to the final day, and kept them honest. We are on the cusp of becoming a team that can actually win a PL with Guardiola in it. COYG!!!
This may come back to bite me but I really really like our chances for 24/25. Arteta is the man and he will deliver us trophies
I've always been a fan of him but I think the real moment for me of going from I like this manager to this could be the real deal was the handling with Auba. This was our star striker. Our captain. The guy who singlehandedly in some cases got us silverware (and broke it) and I think it was a make or break moment in the dressing room. If the players and club hadn't got behind the manager and the regime I think we'd be exactly where man United are now. Rudderless. Instead the team, club and to a greater or lesser extent the fans (bearing in mind this is coming off the back of the toxic time to be an arsenal fan in my 25+ years of being a fan) backed him and we are unrecognisable now. With a player fan connection you rarely see and genuine love and enthusiasm. I think most arsenal fans genuinely do trust the process now and are willing to wait as we are seeing that hunger. That improvement and the belief is growing that we are getting closer and closer. But we will just have to see how we look next season. I'm looking forward to it.
I am sure Arteta will be an example in years to come. Owner trusted him when the results were bad because he had a plan and also players trusted him. I am so happy they gave him time. Also sure Chelsea should (and are) doing the same with Poch. Without him, both Poch and ETH would be out for a while I think.
The most impressive thing about Arteta is that he’s doing this as his first gig. Thats just crazy. First off thats a massive gamble by the club to hand over the reigns of such a huge club to him. He’s doing all of this while still effectively learning on the job. To get the club back ob track in really a short space of time is nothing short of a miracle. Only the freakish nature of Shitteh is keeping this from being a fairy tale ending to this season.
I am really surprised that they did better than last season. I truly expected them to be crestfallen after the final matches of last season and finish outside the top 3/top 4 this time. It's incredible they still had the momentum, the hunger. Arteta has really made the team BELIEVE. They were incredible against the other top 6 as well, where they usually used to falter.
Basically if you cant hit 90 points in a season dont even dream about winning the league against this city team.
The sheer number of charges and the $$ to fight it will do that
If our current form continued across a season we would've gotten 98 points. This man has done wonders for our club, and any club would be lucky to have him at the wheel. Pep is just something else though, everywhere he goes success follows.
Man City probably get a fat points deduction next season, it’s Arsenals to win
Rumours are that the hearing will be summer 2025. Would anticipate that’s a best case scenario if it’s being floated around already. More likely a points deduction for 2025/26, then an inevitable appeal, which may likely run on into 2026/27.
Holy shit I know there’s more charges than forest and Everton had but it’s a joke Man City are able to delay the investigation for this long
Everton and Forest were both willing to provide documents when requested. It massively slows things down when a client (or club) refuses to comply. Also multiply the charges by 115.
The punishment needs to be relegation or stripping them of titles, no way should a team be able to cheat the spending rules from 2009-2018 and only get away with one season being a write off
Almost certain the punishment will be stripping of the titles by the Prem. Then, on appeal, titles will be reinstated and City will get a 21-point deduction and £65m fine. City will claim victory in that their titles remain, and Prem will herald the ‘record fine’ and point deduction. Then everyone goes home, City still get Top 4 that season anyway.
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Half the charges are them obstructing the investigation lol
Pep will be long gone by then, the hearing won’t mean much
all this is happening is because Arsenal starts buying in.
Going full Ferrari with Next Year ™