Arsenal 2023/24 - Born to be runner up

Garnacho's Shoelaces

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They've been really good over two seasons, but correct me if I wrong, they haven't had to deal with a lot of injuries to key players have they? I'd like to see how they get on with Ødegaard, Saliba or Rice missing for extended periods next year.
No and losing one defender last year cost their entire title challenge. They have been able to pick their first choice centre backs for 33 of past 34 league games. Not sure Arteta could cope with losing his entire defence and midfield to injury like United this year.
 

Real Madras

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Solid season, two consecutive league campaigns challenging a feat no United team or manager has achieved with over a billion spent over 10 years.

It's not an easy achievement given City's resources and having the best manager in the game.
Dress it up how you want. It's another 2 years without winning anything. Arsenal fans are insufferable. Bottlers! You will not get a better chance to win the league like today and you bottled it. Bigger fish to fry and all that.
 

SilentWitness

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They've spent great so far. But even that's not enough against a team that can spend great every year.
It's not just the PL they haven't won. That's one FA cup in five years for Arteta. Hardly inspiring stuff.
 

Redstain

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Dress it up how you want. It's another 2 years without winning anything. Arsenal fans are insufferable. Bottlers! You will not get a better chance to win the league like today and you bottled it. Bigger fish to fry and all that.
I agree but talking from the standpoint of where United are its a favorable position to be in considering the standards are significantly lower.
 

ArtetasHair

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Absolutely gutting this plastic club is now only 3 titles behind us. In 10 years noone will care how they cheated their way to a title. In 20 years it'll be forgotten.

Its all our fault as well, dropping pathetic points at home. Inexcusable.
 

Il Prete Rosso

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Dress it up how you want. It's another 2 years without winning anything. Arsenal fans are insufferable. Bottlers! You will not get a better chance to win the league like today and you bottled it. Bigger fish to fry and all that.
I don't understand the bottle narrative. They won 16/18 games in 2024. How is that bottling? They lost the league by 2 points and pushed City till the final day. Klopp and Liverpool were never called bottlers when they kept playing runners up to City for a few seasons well. Only 1 team can win the league and unfortunately for the Premier League, they have a team like City bankrolled by a country and arguably one the best managers of our time. What's all this "they bottled" about? Maybe because I'm not English but the narrative seems silly.
 

SER19

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letting slip a late lead at home against ten man fulham cost them the title. well, that and the UAE's state sponsored corruption of british football and politics
 

Skills

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You have about a 3 year window to win in most sports - maybe 4, if you're lucky. That's 2/3 seasons gone with nothing to show for it.
 

90 + 5min

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It's not just the PL they haven't won. That's one FA cup in five years for Arteta. Hardly inspiring stuff.
They didn't do enough in the transfer market this year. Should have bought a good attacking backup to their forward line, a goalkeeper that can control his area and a left back. They should have played Jorginho more and used his football knowledge more. Instead they threw money on a midfielder you can find for 25-30m while giving away one of their better warriors in Xhaka.
 

Mogget

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They didn't do enough in the transfer market this year. Should have bought a good attacking backup to their forward line, a goalkeeper that can control his area and a left back. They should have played Jorginho more and used his football knowledge more. Instead they threw money on a midfielder you can find for 25-30m while giving away one of their better warriors in Xhaka.
We did buy a left back but he got injured on the first day of the season and didn't come back until today.
 

Wengerista

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One way of looking at is that's now two seasons in a row where no club has legitimately beaten us to the league title.
 

Gene Loblaw

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You have about a 3 year window to win in most sports - maybe 4, if you're lucky. That's 2/3 seasons gone with nothing to show for it.
If you're going to use that metric, I think the window started this season just because absolutely nothing was expected of arsenal the previous year.

I know a lot can happen in football. And things can change very quickly. But the makeup of this squad is very very young, and all the key players are in hte beginning of long term contracts. It's the homer in me, but I do believe the main characters are committed to winning a title at arsenal. And once they do, then you may see guys like Saliba or Martinelli look to go to spain or something.
 

CoopersDream

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Arteta has spent €682m in 4 full seasons. Not like he hasn't been backed.
Yeah, and I expect him be able to continually improve the team with new signings. I don't get the whole "he has spent this much". Yes, he has spent a lot because he's been their manager for 4 and a half years. That's why.
 

AlexiV

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Arsenal gonna Arsenal. They can moan about City cheating all they want but they wouldnt have won a title in either of the big leagues with that point tally this year. They don't have that winners-mentality which City has and us in the past.
 

ArtetasHair

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Arsenal fans weren't jumping out of their boxes to protest the titles SAF, Jose and Ole were cheated out of so don't think you'll find too much sympathy for your current predicament on here.
I was.

Esp for SAF. The guy deserved it, he wanted to push Liverpool out and he would have done it by some distance had it not been for City. And his legacy would have been greater, if possible. Hated United but absolutely massive respect for SAF and how you lot did it. I had no sympathy for Jose since he destroyed the league spending obscene amounts in 2005.

I just find it odd, across England the second largest fanbase City has is with some United fans. Its bizarre. You lot should be despising City. Its like me supporting Chelsea over United. Feck any team who cheats.
 

SilentWitness

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Yeah, and I expect him be able to continually improve the team with new signings. I don't get the whole "he has spent this much". Yes, he has spent a lot because he's been their manager for 4 and a half years. That's why.
He has more than double the net spend of Liverpool since 19/20. Since then Liverpool have won a PL, FA Cup, 2 League Cups and a CL final. Arsenal have an FA Cup.

If you're going to spend big then at some point you need to start winning something. Even Ten Hag has the chance to have more trophies than him in two seasons and he has been crap.
 

GoonerBear

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Got to laugh, the modern football fan will really do anything to for a cheap dig and the bantz eh?! :D
 

GoonerBear

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He has more than double the net spend of Liverpool since 19/20. Since then Liverpool have won a PL, FA Cup, 2 League Cups and a CL final. Arsenal have an FA Cup.

If you're going to spend big then at some point you need to start winning something. Even Ten Hag has the chance to have more trophies than him in two seasons and he has been crap.
:D
 

CoopersDream

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He has more than double the net spend of Liverpool since 19/20. Since then Liverpool have won a PL, FA Cup, 2 League Cups and a CL final. Arsenal have an FA Cup.
That's a terrible way to look at it, though. It's night and day between the team Arsenal had when he took over and where Liverpool were at the time. The fact is right now Arsenal has a great, young, team that can be improved on further. Liverpool's two best players from that era will probably soon leave and it will be hard to replace them. Arsenal is in a much, much better place currently than Liverpool.
 

SilentWitness

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That's a terrible way to look at it, though. It's night and day between the team Arsenal had when he took over and where a Liverpool were at the time. The fact is right now Arsenal has a great, young, team that can be improved on further. Liverpool's two best players from that era will probably soon leave and it will be hard to replace them. Arsenal is in a much, much better place currently than Liverpool.
Not really as even if you look at the last ten years it's double...and an ageing and completely depleted Liverpool side still won the League cup this year whereas Arsenal won...?
 

Real Madras

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I agree but talking from the standpoint of where United are its a favorable position to be in considering the standards are significantly lower.
If we win the FA cup would you say we've had a better season than Arsenal?
 

Garnacho's Shoelaces

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I was.

Esp for SAF. The guy deserved it, he wanted to push Liverpool out and he would have done it by some distance had it not been for City. And his legacy would have been greater, if possible. Hated United but absolutely massive respect for SAF and how you lot did it. I had no sympathy for Jose since he destroyed the league spending obscene amounts in 2005.

I just find it odd, across England the second largest fanbase City has is with some United fans. Its bizarre. You lot should be despising City. Its like me supporting Chelsea over United. Feck any team who cheats.
City have cheated. They are a PR exercise for a rogue state regime who have killed over 100,000 Yemeni children. Pep is an influencer to ameliorate the perception of war cromes. Their titles mean nothing.

Arsenal winning would actually hurt. They are a proper club, with an actual history. Leaving aside the disgusting way they have handled their alleged serial raping midfielder, I respect the institution.

City will have their titles stripped sooner or later. The more their cheating makes a mockery of the competitiveness of the EPL, the sooner they are expelled. Let's get it over with. Get them expelled, end state owned sporting entities and back to actual football clubs.
 

Il Prete Rosso

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Arsenal gonna Arsenal. They can moan about City cheating all they want but they wouldnt have won a title in either of the big leagues with that point tally this year. They don't have that winners-mentality which City has and us in the past.
They won 16 out of 18 league games in the calender year. How is that not title winning form? Even Utd never had that form during their winning years. It's City the league is having to compete with along with arguably one of the best managers of our time. You really can't say objectively that they didn't try to give it a go. City was damn near perfect in 2024. They had to cause Arsenal would have won it.
 

Red00012

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I was.

Esp for SAF. The guy deserved it, he wanted to push Liverpool out and he would have done it by some distance had it not been for City. And his legacy would have been greater, if possible. Hated United but absolutely massive respect for SAF and how you lot did it. I had no sympathy for Jose since he destroyed the league spending obscene amounts in 2005.

I just find it odd, across England the second largest fanbase City has is with some United fans. Its bizarre. You lot should be despising City. Its like me supporting Chelsea over United. Feck any team who cheats.
Our rivalry is with Liverpool. City genuinely mean nothing and more so with their 115 charges
 

OverratedOpinion

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If we win the FA cup would you say we've had a better season than Arsenal?
Winning a trophy is always better. Finishing 15th and winning a Carling Cup is better than finishing second.

Doesn't let any of our players off the hook. We have been terrible and deserve huge criticism and a lot of people losing their jobs. Arsenal are also miles better than us and played amazing football this season.

Winning something is just the point of professional sports.
 

CoopersDream

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Not really and an ageing and completely depleted Liverpool side still won the League cup this year whereas Arsenal won...?
Yes, really. Great for Liverpool to win the League Cup. I can guarantee you that Arteta would rather be in the position he is in right now rather than having had Liverpool's team and won the Cup. I would assume most fans would as well, I know I would.
 

SilentWitness

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Yes, really. Great for Liverpool to win the League Cup. I can guarantee you that Arteta would rather be in the position he is in right now rather than having had Liverpool's team and won the Cup. I would assume most fans would as well, I know I would.
Alright. Well Klopp entered Liverpool in 2015, has half the net spend that Arsenal does in that time and also had to completely replace his squad. I'd be surprised if Arteta manages to get as many trophies in the next few years as Klopp has.

I'm surprised people think an FA Cup is good enough for all the money spent and for a supposed 'best side in Europe'.
 

footyfan019

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No and losing one defender last year cost their entire title challenge. They have been able to pick their first choice centre backs for 33 of past 34 league games. Not sure Arteta could cope with losing his entire defence and midfield to injury like United this year.
We didn't loose just 1 defender, we lost saliba, Zinchenko and tomiyasu together. Tomiyasu was backup for both left back and centre back and we ended up playing rookie kiwior which caused us problems. Partey also missed considerable games and we didnt had a backup which was why we brought in Rice for 100m.