Arsenal 2023/24 - Born to be runner up

Technically they're an excellent team. A lot of young quality players.

There's a lack of big characters in their dressing room though imo. Same problem they've had since Adams and the generation before Wenger came in retired.

Just being a really good technical team isn’t usually enough to win the title.
 
They should have scored a couple in the first half. They were able to find pockets of space in amongst the Villa box but they had no composure whatsoever in the final third. Only have themselves to blame as this was their chance to take control.
 
Have to hand it to Villa. They upped their game in the second half while we went backwards. Odegaard for Smith Rowe? Strange one, perhaps Martin was injured. Thought his team selection wasn't right from the start - Odegaard, Havertz and Rice in midfield looked a bit too weak for me and as the game wore on Villa won the midfield battle.

I only said earlier in the week to a friend (who's a Liverpool fan) that if City go ahead we won't catch them... Drats.
 
Mb194dc said:
Technically they're an excellent team. A lot of young quality players.

There's a lack of big characters in their dressing room though imo. Same problem they've had since Adams and the generation before Wenger came in retired.

Just being a really good technical team isn’t usually enough to win the title.
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Who fits this "Adams" bill for the likely soon to be 4 in a row title winners? Don't say Mr. Needs A Rest Rodri. (He's the POTY by the way, just he's not this character you are claiming Arsenal are missing being their major downfall)
 
IRELANDUNITED said:
It essentially doesn’t count when City win it so it’s the lesser of 3 evils.
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Honestly I completely disagree, City winning a fourth in a row and a second consecutive treble would surpass our achievements. Unfortunately many people do care about City winning it and this success, even though it shouldn’t count, will gain them plenty of future supporters and it will become self sustaining. They could easily eventually overtake us in terms of trophies won.
 
It will sound like hindsight but I think their tactics at city were completely wrong. Arsenal came in with all the momentum to that game and decided to play for a draw
 
GoldanoGraham said:
Lego Pep’s insistence on playing Havartz has screwed them again…..

If they had a decent goal scorer they’d have won that game for sure.
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We are the top scorers in the league and had yet to lose in 2024. I think this "if they had a decent goal scorer..." is a lazy narrative. I hate to say it, but we were due a loss and this was always going to be tough for us. I definitely didn't think we'd go the whole of 2024 unbeaten.
And I think if he had stuck to Havertz upfront (who has been in great form and scoring), we may have done better.
 
thisisnottaken1 said:
Honestly I completely disagree, City winning a fourth in a row and a second consecutive treble would surpass our achievements. Unfortunately many people do care about City winning it and this success, even though it shouldn’t count, will gain them plenty of future supporters and it will become self sustaining. They could easily eventually overtake us in terms of trophies won.
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I think people are becoming delusional in order to cope with it. They've cheated and are ruining football.
 
Not really bottling to lose to Villa. Depends on their reaction now, will they put pressure on City or just fall away. Can’t help but think City being so leaky this season means they won’t win all games left but Arsenal need to be perfect now.
 
horsechoker said:
I think people are becoming delusional in order to cope with it. They've cheated and are ruining football.
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City probably doing a double treble and winning 4 titles on the spin when the charges are looming larger than ever really does highlight the absurdity of the situation. Everybody knows it's bent as feck.
 
Zen said:
Who fits this "Adams" bill for the likely soon to be 4 in a row title winners? Don't say Mr. Needs A Rest Rodri. (He's the POTY by the way, just he's not this character you are claiming Arsenal are missing being their major downfall)
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There's a few, Walker certainly got the devil in him a bit, that's for sure..., Kdb and Rodri as well. Plus Haaland now and they had Kompany and others in prior generations.
 
Clear since last year they needed a CF, they'd have got a result there with one I think. Thought Rice was meant to keep them solid at the back :D .
 
Ayush_reddevil said:
It will sound like hindsight but I think their tactics at city were completely wrong. Arsenal came in with all the momentum to that game and decided to play for a draw
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Ordinarily I'd agree but last season, when we went to the Etihad we tried to go for it and got spanked. 4 points vs City this season is an excellent return.

tomaldinho1 said:
Not really bottling to lose to Villa. Depends on their reaction now, will they put pressure on City or just fall away. Can’t help but think City being so leaky this season means they won’t win all games left but Arsenal need to be perfect now.
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Yes this was always one of the games I was anticipating dropped points. Unfortunately now that City are ahead I don't think they'll look back.
 
redcucumber said:
City probably doing a double treble and winning 4 titles on the spin when the charges are looming larger than ever really does highlight the absurdity of the situation. Everybody knows it's bent as feck.
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They won't get punished though, would be nice if they did.
 
They will drop point in at least 1 more game, most likely 2, so if City take care of their own business (and let’s face it, they always do this time of the season), the game at OT won’t matter by the time it comes around.
 
They have a weakness in midfield, even when they dominate possession they can be slow and blunt with it in midfield.
 
Hammondo said:
They have a weakness in midfield, even when they dominate possession they can be slow and blunt with it in midfield.
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Not sure why he went back to trying Havertz-Rice-Odegaard in midfield, in this game of all games. If he'd started with Jorginho I think we'd have looked better. Havertz has been doing the business upfront so it felt unecessary to shake things up.
 
InfiniteBoredom said:
They will drop point in at least 1 more game, most likely 2, so if City take care of their own business (and let’s face it, they always do this time of the season), the game at OT won’t matter by the time it comes around.
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A despondent Arsenal vs a dead-ETH-walking United. What a fun prospect!
 
Robbie Boy said:
Well, exactly, they've cheated so it's tainted. Nobody I know takes City remotely seriously.
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Alot of the young kids around the world wearing City kits will do when they grow up. Cheating should not pay off!
 
They've quite clearly improved from last year on metrics but they would never have a chance of opening a gap to City like they did.

The reality is City are City. Unless the PL take action they will win the league again and again under Pep. It is quite relentless, no wonder Klopp is offski.

If Arsenal were going to win the title they'd need to be near perfect. It ain't happening with their squad.
 
Guy Incognito said:
They've quite clearly improved from last year on metrics but they would never have a chance of opening a gap to City like they did.

The reality is City are City. Unless the PL take action they will win the league again and again under Pep. It is quite relentless, no wonder Klopp is offski.

If Arsenal were going to win the title they'd need to be near perfect. It ain't happening with their squad.
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Agreed. This was our first loss in 2024. An excellent run we were on, but was due to end soon. No way we were going to go whole second half of the season unbeaten. Only City can pull together that kind of near-perfect run.
 
For the number of goals they’ve scored the attack still feels like it lacks individual quality
 
Guy Incognito said:
Let's be honest, it will take a special team to overhaul City.

That ain't Arsenal (yet).
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Let's be honest, City in their current state are the most difficult to overcome team in football history.

-Having a Middle Eastern authoritarian dictatorship as your owners with an endless amount of blood money pumped into the club if needed

-Biggest tactical pioneer manager since Johan Cruyff in Guardiola, with 90% of his competitors just mostly copying his own style of play and philosophy

-They cooked the books to avoid FFP issues as their real revenue isn't close to what a top club's should be

-Endless amount of blood money for under the table payments to players, managers and football governing bodies to avoid punishment, as well as the UK government pressuring the Premier League into not punishing them in order to maintain their relationship with Abu Dhabi

-Best squad in the world with world class players and all-timer profiles like Haaland, De Bruyne, Gvardiol, Rodri, as well as the ability to keep hoarding the absolute best talent and rarely miss out on the cream of the crop (like they did with Bellingham and Rice last summer)

-Head of the City group multi-club model which lets them do deals like the Savio one, as well as loan their players to their feeder clubs

And I probably forgot stuff as well
 
GoonerGirly said:
We are the top scorers in the league and had yet to lose in 2024. I think this "if they had a decent goal scorer..." is a lazy narrative. I hate to say it, but we were due a loss and this was always going to be tough for us. I definitely didn't think we'd go the whole of 2024 unbeaten.
And I think if he had stuck to Havertz upfront (who has been in great form and scoring), we may have done better.
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Top scorers in the league due to a few thumpings of weak opposition. But be happy with the top scorers title if you want.Fact is if you had a top goal scorer you would have more points.
 
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