Very predictable result tonight. Man City are a level above, but it’s all by foul means.
Arsenal haven’t bottled it though. I don’t like that sort of talk for a side that has played good football and is still in top spot.
It’s very likely they will finish second.
What will be interesting to see is whether that will be a high water mark for them. Once CL football kicks in, and we improve, and probably Newcastle and Man Utd too, Arsenal might be in a real scrap for top four next season, not a title race as such.
Maybe Arsenal fans will understand how we felt. We went beyond the 90 points mark and pushed Man City all the way and lost by 1 point, due to ball being on the line or not on the line or whatever. We were laughed at being called ‘bottlers’. Now, they got a taste of their own medicine.
Maybe, the EPL will wake up and realise what is happening to our league.
I’m sorry but they really have bottled it. Nine points dropped in four consecutive games at this stage of the season is Tottenham-level bottling. I’m sure Arsenal fans know that and I’m sure it really hurts.
I’m not unsympathetic. No, that’s a lie. I’m totally unsympathetic. Now they can be laughed at just as much as our misfortune with the ball on/off the line was laughed at.
I agree it will be interesting to see whether this was a flash in the pan for Arsenal, but we do hear it every year how team X and Y will improve, usually used by Liverpool fans as justification for their spending desires. Usually its United and usually the next season they go all United-y.
With CL football and those extra demands, I think its also not a given that Newcastle will be better than this year. Sure they will probably go spending crazy with that extra draw to potential signings, but you can’t become a top 4 force overnight even with an unlimited budget.
I could actually see next season being a contest between us and City again.
The Southampton draw was the worst, followed by West Ham. If they had designs on the title, then at the least, they should be winning those games.
Drawing at Liverpool was not a bad result for them. Obviously this season everyone has beat us and we’ve been crap, but we still have days where we are sublime, and can blow teams away.
The defeat at Man City is the real barometer for Arsenal, as they were nowhere near. It was easy for Man City.
When we were fighting with them the past few years, we went toe to toe and gave as good as we got. Arsenal are some way short of that.
I understand the calls to say they bottled it. Nine points dropped from the last twelve is not good. But I would feel better about laughing at Arsenal if we hadn’t fallen to the level we’ve seen this season, after going so close to the quad. We need a very strong finish to the season, and a large amount of luck in other results going our way, to finish fourth. It remains unlikely, but there’s some hope. Whereas Arsenal, for all their bottling it, will not finish lower than second. I wish our season had been that bad.
They still have a relatively light squad with limited experience and still quite young. They are missing their key defender who has helped them hide their defensive deficiencies.
If we and Chelsea hadn’t imploded this season they wouldn’t have been talked about as a challenger for City this season.
I agree. I wouldn’t say they have bottled it. They are what they are - a young side on the up, second best in the Prem this season, and short of the level of Man City - who themselves are obviously a disgrace from top to bottom that need to be dealt with, or the game has probably gone.
Whether they’ve bottled it or not is irrelevant for me, not going to stop me taking the piss out some of their fans…hope they feel every bit of gut wretching agony we had to endure…starting with Arteta and the knobheads at AFTV.
They would have. There would have been a lot more focus on whether they were good/experienced enough to keep pace, but there is no season where the pace Arsenal were setting for the first 25 games or so would not have been seen as a title challenger.
Whether bottle is the right word or not is fair to discuss (I personally hate it), but it undeniable that it is their results that has handed back the advantage to city rather than any force of nature type thing that stopped us winning the title twice. There are a few reasons you might point to:
the flip side of the consistency of selection they have benefited from finally taking its toll down the stretch
the inability to deal with key injuries (They’ve dropped 9 points in their 6 games since losing Saliba, with their only 2 wins coming against bad sides. They had dropped only 15 points in their 27 games prior to that)
Lack of experience
But ultimately this is very much a story about them not being able to hold together their title winning pace down the stretch.
The big challenge for them is that the easy improvement have already been made. You can point to the weakness of the squad and still point to clear areas of improvement where they should still easily be able to find improvement, but that doesnt translate so directly and consistently to better results.
Finding a better 3rd CB than Rob Holding is a cake walk, but what if Saliba and Gabriel are fit enough to play 50 games together next season? Is that 40-50 million that produces no direct outcome?
Oodengaard has been a huge driver of their improvement and has looked a bit off the pace in recent weeks, like the result of accumulated fatigue with the alternatives for him not being good enough. Buying someone who might be able to do well enough for 10-15 games a season, or frequent sub appearances for games they’re winning comfortable is very doable. But what if this experience, and another year of physical maturity, enables the Norwegian to be even stronger next season? Again, a role that is easy to identify as being needed, and one where targets should be easy to find, yet no guarantee the player will be actually have the space to make an impact.
