This time last year, the same things were being said about us.
Let’s see how it goes, it’s rarely as straightforward as that.
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Agree. We were delusional because of the money we spent on Wirtz and Isak and ignored the fact that the structure of the squad is turning into a mess.
Arsenal could easily change nothing and still be favorites for the title because the lack of competition.
But they are punctually improving/adding to the squad that won the title and was able to reach the CL final.
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Not sure Arsenal will run away with it. I do think they will win due to the stability but everything went right for them last season.
Especially that CL draw.
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I think they had the same benefits we had when we last won it - competition being very poor.
Unlike us, their team isn´t full of ageing superstars and they haven´t lost a big creative part of their team.
As such I don´t think their situation is like ours the season after winning. They´re really not that good but nobody else is good at the moment so would expect them to win it again just by virtue of having lots of good players (few great players) and a stable team.
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Not one of our targets but I think it’s going to be Julian Alvarez.
When they were saying that, we had an excellent title-winning 11 (at least that was the perception) but little squad depth, which we’ve not rectified.
Arsenal have excellent squad depth in most positions.
I am increasingly concerned they are going to land Alvarez. His position at Atleti is looking increasingly untenable and was subjected to some quite ugly scenes on the weekend and the Barca move doesnt appear to have progressed. He is far more the striker they needed last summer that that useless Swedish lump they bought and I think this would address probably not just the biggest weakness in their best XI but there biggest source of confusion.
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Further reporting on that. He doesnt want to go to Arsenal, but he doesnt want to stay at Atleti and it’s difficult to see how anyone else could get remotely close to the money Atleti are holding out for. It seems likely that with every day that passes his lack of interest in Arsenal will diminish as he realizes Barca isnt going to happen and that is his only way out.
I think Arsenal are going to sweep the floor with PL clubs regardless of whether they land him but landing him could get them CL trophy. They’ve been building towards this for quite a while and I don’t think I’ve seen a stronger bench in my time watching PL.
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People forget that most teams had found them out the second half of last season. Plus with the new rule changes designed to combat their ‘anti football’ I don’t think they’ll have an easy time as everyone makes out. Unfortunately for us we let a world class manager who is one of our own join Chelsea and give him an unlimited budget and full control over football operations. Xabi’s only lost 5 league games out of his last 88 coached (and the only coach since Klopp to stop Bayern’s dominance- going unbeaten to top it off!!) With only one game a week and plenty of time on the training pitch and solid starting XI I see him beating Arteta to the title this season, schooling him on how to win playing proper football in the process.
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I think we might see a bit of an evolution from Arsenal this season. The football they won the title was not the football that the team played as it first emerged into title contenders. The closer they got to the title the more shackles Arteta put on them. It felt like his primary concern was avoiding him being criticized for dropping points by being too open, too attacking, too naive. And now they finally got over the line he’ll feel a bit more secure about that to be willing to let the team play the football the squad was actually built to play.
They are still a cynical unlikeable side, but at their best they can play very good football.
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IMO him taking the shackles off is releasing them back to the team who were just ‘contenders’ and not the pragmatic cynical team that got over the line and became actual winners.
You cannot overlook how much the path opened up for them by everyone else dropping off. And they were already over 12 months into that evolution by the time last season started so its not like it paid immediate dividends that makes it easy to attribute them getting over the line to that shift.
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CL run was very advantageous I don’t really buy that being replicated.
If they had drawn PSG like we did the previous year after topping the group they’d have been out before the quarters.
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When did Arsenal get such formidable squad depth? They had some absolute bums playing for them only a couple of seasons ago. A real case study/comparison for our chaotic owners to look at.
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A little surprised Arsenal didn’t come in late for Barcola, given they’re also looking for a starting LW this summer (Tzolis seems to be the backup guy, replacing Trossard essentially).
I guess the groundwork we did early on to convince Barcola of the move paid dividends.
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Right everyone - when Arsenal announce the signing of Bradley Barcola tomorrow let’s form a lynch mob around at ZinedineBiscans for tempting the transfer fates 
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[quote=“ZinedineBiscan, post:196, topic:5797, full:true”] A little surprised Arsenal didn’t come in late for Barcola, given they’re also looking for a starting LW this summer (Tzolis seems to be the backup guy, replacing Trossard essentially).
I guess the groundwork we did early on to convince Barcola of the move paid dividends.
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This happens quite a lot, I think.
It can be really annoying for fans seeing player you could really use going to other clubs, whereas the reality is that they were always going there and there was never much point other clubs getting involved.
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Fixed