Citeh A Weds 26th Apr KO 8pm

[Kingralph]

My sources tell me that Vieira is starting.

Your ‘sources’

[wibble]

It’s been a funny old season. Never expected to win the league due to our lack of squad depth but it’s been nice to properly give a shit about games for the first time in what feels like a long time. We have also played some nice attacking football in the majority of games instead of the sideways tippy tappy stuff we all got used to.

It will be interesting to see what next season brings. My main worry is that Saliba isn’t going to sign an extension and we’ll lose our one quality central defender soon. Our more recent signings have generally been very good but overall it’s been a mixed bag. Our central midfield remains an issue and vieira and sambi between them must have cost around £50m without any noticeable improvement.
I’ve not seen enough of kiowor to see if he’ll be added to the list of pointless signings-hopefully he just needs time to settle and can prove to be a decent squad player at least?

Several new signings are needed and I’m a pessimistic bastard in general when it comes to football so share the concerns of others re the same old story of just being 2 or 3 signings away.
Having said that we’ve got a group of some really talented young players. So who knows, perhaps we’re only 2 or 3 signings away!

Back to this season and I hope we thrash chelsea as can’t stand them and would love to see us go on a good run again to boost confidence ahead of next season

[SteveO 35]

We need to sign tough under pressure bastards that don’t change their game whether they are playing Forest at Home or City away. I actually think that Jorginho is one of those players. But Arteta can’t be bothered to play him. He’s past his best for sure but he would have helped shore the midfield up last night. We are a young side in parts but actually it’s the experienced players that have let us down.

Xhaka, Partey, Zinchenko, Gabriel. All experienced. All not good enough.

The last few games were when you play experienced pros to steady the ship. Arteta played Vieira instead of Jorginho or even Trossard. It simply built up the pressure for the City game. I don’t think he could have managed us in a worse way over the last three games. He literally has cranked up the pressure on us game by game. Has really shown himself up.

Here's a clue - how about maybe even trying a change of formation and dropping an out of form Saka, and playing Jorginho alongside dipshit Clive and Partey and making it a borefest for 30 minutes. No no, lets rock up playing the same style and let them slice us open at will. We could and should have been 4 or 5 down by half time. That could have been like the 8-2 OT, 6-0 Stamford Bridge, 5-1 Anfield - some wasteful finishing, the odd decent save by Ramsdale and a last ditch White tackle prevented that. The midfield were as ineffective as it gets, and Holding and Gabriel both absolutely as mentally and physically weak as it gets

[rodders999]

The player we need to sign is the next Kante (easier said than done I'll give you that) a player that wants to go and win the ball back for the entire 90 minutes. Win it back and give it to the players who can hurt the opposition. Break up attacks, help the defense, a stopper, a destroyer.

Can Caicedo be that player? Last night he carelessly pissed away possession that led to a Forrest goal, that sort of poor error goes under the radar at Brighton but would not if he joined us, especially for 80 million. Don't get me wring every player makes mistakes and loses possession but Bissouma was also flavour of the month at Brighton and now he's stinking the place up on the scum bench, a total flop.

Declan Rice also all at sea in the penalty box that allowed the free Matip header win the game for the victims last night. We need to sign players in the right areas with the right mentality this summer and we need them all to bang. We can't have another 70m Pepe debacle, we have to get it right.

[SteveO 35]

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/mikel-a ... iner/47620

Lets get it straight about this supposed amazing record in the transfer market too. According to this website he's spent €453m on 21 players.

How many of those can we say unequivocally have been a success. Ramsdale for sure. Trossard - looking great value.

Some have been absolutely fucking awful - Vieira, Tomiyasu, Lokonga, Mari, Tavares, Willian, Cedric - and if this report is right then they've cost us c. €85m

Others haven't been a disaster but there are now some very serious question marks about their fragility and these are our most senior players - Jesus, Partey, Zinchenko, Gabriel, White - the ones were his big picks and building a team around. Well those five have set us back well over €200m and we aren't a club that can get €200m wrong. Many on here would say Odegaard has been an overwhelming success, I'm just not sure. These past 2 seasons he is showing similar frailties

Kiwior, Jorginho, Turner, Marquinhos - way too early to tell

Saka, Martinelli and Saliba have been 3 of the best players this season and he didn't sign any of them!

[BobbyPires7]

My sources tell me that Vieira is starting.

Your ‘sources’

He’s starting to wind everyone on here up. He was never starting. Bloke’s a cocktail stick.

[LeftfootlegendGooner]

My sources tell me that Vieira is starting.

Your ‘sources’

He’s starting to wind everyone on here up. He was never starting. Bloke’s a cocktail stick.

Talking in the third person now Bobby

[BobbyPires7]

My sources tell me that Vieira is starting.

Your ‘sources’

He’s starting to wind everyone on here up. He was never starting. Bloke’s a cocktail stick.

Talking in the third person now Bobby

The truth hurts.

[falkirk goon]

I see reality has kicked in and actually I’m not an outlier. We have collapsed. We have reverted to type when it matters. There is no real change year on year other than a good run when we were flat track bullying again.

Nice to see the sensible posters are on board with what was clear a few games ago. When are the shouters going to come on board? This side is nowhere near as good as people think it is. Even when we were winning we were squeaking past teams on adrenaline. We were at peak peak. Now we are probably below our best. Arteta is floundering and we are shot.

The club is at its Liverpool moment where the narrowly missed the title in 2019 despite playing the best football they'd played in the PL in nigh on 30 years. Do you roll over and say "we just can't get past City" or do you find the players, leaders, resolve, balls to make changes and go again and win the league? Are we Liverpool 2019, or Arsenal 2016 when we finished 2nd?

Only the owners and manager can decide what comes next. What is absolutely clear is that the "clear out" that Arteta was praised for will need a second phase because if Holding, Tomiyasu, Clive, Gabriel, Partey, Vieira and a host of other fringe players are going to be exposed to a dual season of PL & CL football, then there is absolutely no hope of being the 2019 Liverpool, and every chance of being Wenger's 2016 pussies

100% agreed. We need the lure of Champions League to go big in the market this summer. Apart from quality we need leaders and players with backbones. If Kroenke backs Arteta and we manage to buy the right players we can kick on as we have the bones of a decent team. If we don’t go out and buy these top players we will revert to the mean. My big worry is Saliba as he has been shown to be our most key player of all. Not Partey. Not Jesus. Saliba. We need him fit and we need another Saliba. Because Gabriel is all over the place and Holding. Well the less said.

I just looked back at the 2016 season - and our results after we beat Leicester 2-1 at home and became favourites to win the league

Man United (a) - lost 3-2, no surprise at all there. Made it 10 years without a win at their place....but opened up all the same mental frailties that had been exposed before. Read on....

After that we lost at home to Swansea 1-2, and between then and the end of the season drew 3-3 at West Ham, 1-1 at home to Palace, drew 0-0 at Sunderland etc.....and I think I'm right in saying Giroud did his disappearing act and went 12 games without scoring. The team were first after matchday 22, and by matchday 33 they were 4th. Then they got 7 points from the last 9 including a draw at City, and swatting poor old Villa 4-0 before the lap of appreciation

2013 anyone?

Top of the league after matchday 24, 4th by matchday 30 and won our last five games in a row scoring 12 goals and conceding 1. Before that the 5-1 mauling at Anfield which exposed all the mental flaws, was followed up with losses at Stoke (shock horror), the 6-0 caning at Stamford Bridge, a 2-2 at home to Swansea, a 3-0 defeat at Everton, before all the pressure was off and we swatted West Ham, Hull, a Mike Ashley version of Newcastle, West Brom and Norwich

New cast members, same issues. Put your house on us absolutely fucking over Forest and Wolves in those last two games. Vieira will probably score a couple and we'll hear about how 2 or 3 players will make it all better again

How did the 2010 and 2008 seasons pan out my auld pal asking for a friend(plus I can't be arsed looking those capitulations up)

[A11M11]

Have to say that I feel the stick holding is getting is a touch harsh .

Tend to agree , he is an easy target but in effect he is only playing because of the lack of alternatives . Given the chance I am sure that White would have played centrally with Tomiyasu at Right back . We could have played Kiwior but two left footers ? and one of them totally inexperienced it is foolish to believe that he would have had a Saliba effect ..
The problem he faced last night was that Partey , Xhaka and Zinchenko offered no protection from the midfield . Our centre midfield was as open as the motorway we drove up to get there.
Their first goal was exactly that , a ball to Haaland with Holding right on his man , but who was following De Bruyne ? No one that I could see , the midfield let him run . Game pretty much over after 6 minutes. That set the pattern all of our midfielders constantly gave the ball away , were second to every loose ball and gave nothing useful to Saka and Martinelli and when they did get into a decent forward position Jesus was nearer our penalty box than theirs.
The whole thing was a shit show but pinning the blame on our third choice centre back is not seeing the whole picture.

[TeeCee]

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.

[BobbyPires7]

In the last 4 games we’ve totally lost our competitive edge. As bad as we were for mistakes in each game the confidence has drained away like a paddling pool being emptied on a summer’s evening. There was no drive, no fight, no defence. Just going through the motions. Seriously worrying how an amazing run has ended like this. It almost points to the fact the squad itself couldn’t believe where it was in terms of position. City was hopeless but for me the worry was the Saints game. Absolutely diabolical. If we were relegation candidates I wouldn’t have expected that performance. For a side that has been top for months to put that performance in was shocking to witness. I’m looking at you Mikel. Only you.

[BFG4]

Mikel Arteta on if he was tempted to try a different approach:

"We have to be loyal to what brought us here." [football london]

Imagine admitting you didn't think about changing things tactically in the most critical game of the season. This is such a shit the bed moment from him.

[Gunner Rob]

Here is a good stat that I have seen.

Arsenal are the first team for 15 years to not win 4 matches in a row whilst at the top of the league.
The last time this happened was 2008...the team....Arsenal

[falkirk goon]

Here is a good stat that I have seen.

Arsenal are the first team for 15 years to not win 4 matches in a row whilst at the top of the league.
The last time this happened was 2008...the team....Arsenal

I think we're the only ever side to fuck away successive 2 goal leads whilst top of the league aswell