We’ve been able to rotate our injuries to a point as well as the likes of Kelleher and Gomez stepping up at key times.
Problem with Arsenal is they’ve become their reserve tactic even their fans have been criticising the focus on shithousery at corners.
They went to that tactic when Odegaard was injured but haven’t reversed back. They still have a midfield that should be producing chances even for amateur clod hoppers but they aren’t even doing that.
And teams seem to have wised up to their corner tactics, its not working as much anymore. I noticed against Forest they tried some short corners to change angles but it didn’t really lead to anything.
Yes, two of their first 5 games were drawn.
Between October 19 and 10 November, they drew two games of four games (us and Chelsea) and lost the other two (Newcastle and Bournemouth).
They lost another two in December (Everton and Fulham)
On Bradley, if Trent goes I was absolutely fine with Bradley taking over at right back. He looked like he was taking to it like a duck to water. Up and down the flank. Strong in the tackle. An eye for goal too. Ok he doesn’t have Trent’s range of passing (who does?) but Bradley ticks a lot of boxes and I was fine for him to take over if Trent leaves.
Note the past tense, because now I’m not so sure.
It’s the injuries, innit? So now I’m thinking we need to buy a right back of a sufficient level to step in, be relied upon, and perhaps even be the first choice ahead of Bradley, assuming Trent leaves.
It’s a shame, as it feels like we will have a few other needs to fill this summer, but right back looks like it will need to be addressed too.
They didn’t win the league because they suck at creating chances and scoring goals. Injuries aside, Arteta following his first defeat to City in a title race over indexed on shoring up the defensive fragilities of his team and he’s never been able to find the right balance. Following that season their weird obsession with CB/FB hybrids began resulting in minimal depth and improvement to their attacking play. I’ve never really rated Jesus ( I think he’s a streaky forward who best contribution is his defensive work ethic) and I think martinelli has began to get found out a bit.
It seems Arteta forgot that if you can’t score at least 1 goal per match the most points you can get is 1.
The pundit excitement over their burst of scoring from corners led them to ignore that cheating on corners is not actually a stable foundation for attacking play.
The team in 13th place has scored more goals than Arsenal. Their PPM were lower when Saka was still in the team. They just don’t create open play goals.
It’s almost as if without Haavertz and Martinelli leading the charge at corners they’ve become less adept at cheating. That was one of the sweetest things about the Forest game , watching their corners and free kicks come to precisely fuck all.
One of the pundits somewhere was saying they were celebrating corners like a goal.
If your an opposition especially one like Forest who have a lot of players used to this style of play it’s very easy to defend.
In fact if your preparing for a game against Arsenal you know where you can get a point.
I think Leicester were unlucky not to get one and then you watched them completely collapse against Brighton and you wonder.
That was always going to be a concern for me as he is still quite young and not physically big yet.
Dude fucking walked on water, healed the sick, and fed 5k people with a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish. What the fuck more do you want?!
There are things to like about Jesus’ game, but if you are playing him you had better have a team set up that is going to reliably get goals from outside or midfield (see him doing the donkey work for Brazil to let Neymar and Phil run riot). Bobby worked because Mo and Mane together might get you 40 league goals, but not only that Bobby facilitated them being so prolific. Saka and Martinelli have never had that level of productivity but that mismatch was masked last season a bit by an unusual (and probably unsustainable) contribution from the defenders and players like Rice. This year those issues have been magnified, but they shouldnt be a big surprise.
Allegedly.
Did he win the fucking quad Peaches? Did he?!
That asteroid has been creeping up too 
Meanwhile…
Luckily it’s 7 years away and would if a direct hit take only a city out. Issue is if it hits water.
Well, well, well. If it isn’t the consequences of my own actions.
That should be how Mikel Arteta assesses this season.
Of course, it won’t be. His ego won’t allow him to accept any of the responsibility for the predicament Arsenal find themselves in. And the Arteta cult won’t dare cast a glancing eye the way of their fearless leader. They’ll just pretend they’ve been unlucky and there’s nothing more he could’ve done. They’re even trying to dress up the fact they’re 13 points off the top as some sort of victory for him as a manager.
And while Arsenal have had some terrible luck this season with injuries, a lot of it is self inflicted. Let’s use Bukayo Saka as an example here.
The England international has been run into the ground over recent years. Injury issues were inevitable. It was a matter of when and not if it would occur.
He’s 23-years-old and he’s racked up just shy of 15,000 Premier League minutes already. Factor in cup competitions and England matches and he’s pushing 20,000 minutes. That’s the equivalent of 222 90-minute matches across six seasons. It’s a lot of football. He needed to be managed better. That falls on Arteta for not doing so.
Look at what he’s done this season. He used Saka against Bolton in the Carabao Cup, giving his No7 70 minutes. He also featured against Preston (30 minutes) and Crystal Palace (20 minutes).
Arsenal had a 2-0 lead against Nottingham Forest after 52 minutes and could’ve replaced Saka. He played the full 90 minutes. The Gunners were 3-0 up against Sporting after 46 minutes, Saka made it 4-1 after 65 minutes and remained on the pitch for the full 90 minutes. At half-time, Arteta’s side had a 5-2 lead over West Ham but Saka remained on the pitch until the 75th minute.
He could’ve rested Saka and kept him fresh.
The same goes for Kai Havertz - appearing in games against Preston and Bolton - as well as Gabriel Martinelli, who played an hour against Preston and had 20 off the bench against Bolton
Arteta isn’t managing the team well.
And those defending him will claim he doesn’t have the attacking depth. He probably doesn’t, having loaned out Fabio Vieira while Emile Smith Rowe and Eddie Nketiah were sold in the summer to fund the arrival of Riccardo Calafiori. Another left-back to add to his collection.
They opted to bring in Raheem Sterling on loan and Mikel Merino from Real Sociedad too. Their recruitment has been odd, to say the least, but you aren’t allowed to question it because the narrative is Arteta has been dealt a difficult hand having not been able to spend £100million on Alexander Isak in January.
There must be someone in the academy that could be trusted. Liverpool used Jayden Danns there last season. Liverpool gave chances to their youth whenever there was an injury crisis. Arteta, often praised for his relationship with the academy graduates, always seems a little reluctant. Odd, hey?
And then there’s the elephant in the room.
Even with Saka fit and available, Arsenal weren’t tracking as a title-winning team. Nobody seemingly wants to acknowledge this.
I checked earlier and following Saka’s injury against Crystal Palace, Arsenal had 33 points from 17 matches. They were averaging 1.94 points per game - 74 points over a 38-game campaign. After 15 games, they had a 55% win rate. After 20 games, their win rate was 53%. To hit 90 points - the figure many believe is needed for the title, they would’ve had to be almost perfect for the remainder of 2025.
Before their 1-0 loss to West Ham, Arsenal had been on a 15 match unbeaten run in the Premier League but their longest winning run was three games. During this streak, they’d picked up 35 points - 2.33 per game - that is still only 88 points over a 38-game season. In 2025, they’re averaging two points per game.
At no point, with or without Saka, have they been posting numbers of a title challenger or a title contender. But nobody wants to talk about that.
All they want to talk about is how, if everyone had been fit, they would’ve gone on an 18-match winning streak. Arteta and Arsenal desperately needed this injury crisis as an excuse to distract people from the fact they haven’t been the team they were supposed to be this season. Instead, they’re a top four team masquerading as title pretenders.
