It’s an ego thing with Arteta, I suspect. For some odd reason there is a sense of entitlent that crept into his demeanor and it’s taken over to the extent that the only reason this title isn’t theirs is because they’ve been shafted by refereeing decisions (they haven’t, really), an injury list over and above the pale (it wasn’t really) with the league winners having incredible luck with refereeing decisions (we didn’t, on the whole) while having zero injuries to key players (we did, actually). He’s come across more as someone who thinks he’s managing a team that’s won titles with this being a blip of a season that’s allowed them to be overtaken while simultaneously behaving as if this title was ordained to be theirs if not for the factors above.
In all it’s made him, his club and his fanbase all a bit unlikeable. A more positive vibe and the romance of the message being of a once great team striving to win their first title in decades would have created a much better feel good factor around the club, similar to what we had going into '18, '19, '20. Not saying they would have won it this season but it would have been closer, I feel, with less of the bile floating around them.
I think they have been over-hyped, and ended up believing their own hype. There are elements at that club who genuinely believe that they were champions in waiting - a little slip from Man City and they were next in line.
When we won the league in 2020 I think we had a sense that if we could get a bit of luck in the form of a City wobble, we’d be in - but that was off the back of getting 97 points and winning the European Cup. There was every reason to believe that we were champions in waiting.
Arsenal have never broken 90 points.
I’m in the camp that believes that Arteta is probably a really, really good manager. I think it is unstated the job he has done there, and while he has spent a lot of money, there were nowhere when he joined.
But he is prone to these really stupid gaffs. Like playing the champions when you really need the points and they don’t, and deciding now is the time to undermine their achievements and tell the world that they’ve had it easy. That is a really stupid thing to do.
I think he can win one of the big ones, but he could really do with not stepping on rakes.
Your thought have just made me wonder if the fact we had a squad which had finished below Arsenal two season’s running, had a new manager with limited experience of the bigger competitions, and with us having done so little meaningful business in the summer window contibuted to that?
If they bothered to do their due diligence they would have realised that at one point last season we were essentially out of full-backs. Injury-ravaged us still managed 82 points, enough to win the league this season.
Only an idiot wouldn’t realise that 2022-23 was a massive anomaly considering we’d hit 92 points the season before that.
Heck, if they don’t start picking up points they’ll only just about equal our 2022-23 season.
