First of all - SteveO, sorry mate but calling Tomi a fucking awful signing is wrong. He's had a bad season with injuries and poor play and not playing really doesn't help but to lump him in with some of the other crap is just unfair.
I've had time to reflect a bit, my anger has turned to an 'acceptance of the inevitable'......and our 'crumble' was inevitable, I honestly thought it would come 15 games ago or something like that. There are players that I think are a problem and I'll get to them but I want to start with the biggest problem of all......Mikel Arteta.
The main reason we have shit the bed over the last few weeks is all because he treated the Europa league game against Sporting like the CL

It's a nothing competition, I get giving it a good go if we're in 6th or 7th place because it could be CL but for ages now we have been pretty much nailed on to get a CL place so we should NOT have played such 'strong' teams in such a shit comp. Yes, Big Willy may have hurt his back in the next league game but maybe not, maybe Tomi would have slipped in the next league game, maybe not....
- That decision to treat the Sporting game with any importance cost us BIG time.
- The decision to continually play Xhaka has cost us at various times directly but also indirectly in that he's playing in the place of someone else who
could have helped us win games we haven't won.....
- In game management - Artetas lack of subs, lack of timing, strange/unchanged tactics, inflexibility, stubborn pig-headedness has cost us
- Team selection.......Some we can argue about, some we almost all agree on but at times it's been puzzling and you can't see a reason for what he's done....Vieira? No ESR? No Tirney? Why Xhaka? Zinchenko in the non-LB role even against top top teams? dropping Trossard when he was on fire, not dropping Saka when he was struggling..........
Arteta has got quite a few things right this season of course, but there is a lot that he has got wrong and I'm not sure he sees it that way at all and that means it's unlikely to change.
I was angry with Zinchenko last night but it comes from the fact that I don't really like him, which may be a bit unfair in some ways. He is a decent player but he's not a defender. Period. He cannot defend and it's an appalling decision to play with 3 defenders against top teams (and I'm not talking about 3 CB's)!! It was Zinny going missing/being shit at Anfield when Salah and TAA were running riot in the 2nd half that cost us. He was sound asleep at the back post and cost us the third goal against Southampton. even when in position at LB, Zinchenko can't tackle, his success rate on tackles this season is 43%! Give him a go in midfield instead of Xhaka and it could work, continue with the 'inverted LB' role and we're fucked.
Xhaka.....FFS, why? Everyone in football can see it, he was for sale at 17m and no-one was interested, no-one even tried a 14 or 15m cheeky bid, because they all know he is a liability!!! Everyone but Arteta.
Vieira - Looks and plays like a talented 12 year old (aside from the facial hair of course), how can he compete against men? He can't, and doesn't.
He's less ready for the Arsenal first team than the likes of Charlie Patino FFS.
Holding - Bless him, his hair transplant constantly outperforms his football. He was a £2m player....and looks it. I'm sure he is a really great guy and he tries, but he's really poor. He may be ok at a bottom 8 PL club but really the championship is his level. If we're serious about competing with City and then Bayern, Madrid etc, the likes of Holding can NEVER be an option, EVER! If he's still at Arsenal next season then we have a massive problem.
There are others, but I've had enough to be honest. It's been an emotional ride following Arsenal this season and now our title has gone I just want it to end. I fear there are a few defeats to come yet and Utd will probably finish quite close to us which will be sad if it happens.
A big big summer ahead, will the Krankys invest with BIG money? Will we be able to raise 100m or so from sales? Well we need a minor miracle to get us back into this position next year. We need a RB/RCB, a LB if we sell Tierney, at least one maybe two CM's and a top top striker (Vlahovic please).
I am expecting Arteta to go for a RB, CM and a right winger and that's it.
