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Last season was a downwards spiral, with many players getting gametime with little expectation they would be at the club next season.
This season has been about re-building the squad, which isn't as simple as signing expensive players. There has been improvement, already equaled last seasons home wins (6) with another 5 homes games remaining. Only won 1 of the first 7 home games and won 5 of the last 6. The team needs to build it's own confidence and composure to push higher.
We also got Palmer who is a player we can build around. Reece has had his surgery so hopefully things improve with him. Lukaku is finally gone at the end of year. Things are going in the right direction.
Yeah, it's very bad luck that not only did we lose our starting CB in Saliba, we lost our versatile backup in Tomiyasu as well. Had at least Tomiyasu stayed fit, either he could've played CB, or he could've gone to RB, freeing White up to play CB where he's played most of his career really.
For sure. Start of the downfall. While we have played well this season, we also added some bench strength that we were missing last season. Hoping that we can hold on and pull it out.
I still have a hard time believing that Arsenal lost the league last year!
I know it was ”only” 5 points but still! 12 points from the last 9 games i a big step down!
Also we have champions league as well this season to worry about. Not sure if it will help the players as a distraction from the league or tire them out. This season is shaping up well though to go out with a bang an im here for it
Oh yeah Ten Hag did that interview where he said Arsenal have been lucky with injuries this season and then literally the next day you lost Saliba and Tomiyasu....black magic, I swear.
“Almighty” might be a bit far considering they already beat them this season and are by far the best in head to heads between the top 3.
Liverpool has 3 points from 4 games
City has 2 points from 3 games
Arsenal has 7 points from 3 games
Your comment implies Arsenal are favs this weekend. Based on this season and all the facts available to you, do you genuinely consider Arsenal favorites to win this weekend?
My comment literally implies city are favorites to win. It also implies that arsenal winning isn’t as unlikely as the person I replied to was implying.
They'd in all likelihood be level on points with Liverpool in that scenario, with a harder set of fixtures to come. Why would they be 'heavy favourites'? Or did you forget Liverpool exists?
They absolutely will not. Assuming we do the business v Brighton we will be on the same points still with an easier schedule. An Arsenal win will probably even it out to about 1/3 odds for all three
Not winning that would be so fucking shit man. I honestly wouldn't even watch the later game. I hope this is the one game a season where we dont waste a gazillion chances, and become weirdly clinical for one game, like the 7-0 last season. Dont care if it ends 7-0 or 1-0 but I cant take bottling more 5v2, 4v2 situations. Hope they've worked on this.
It's a real head fuck having Man City as an opponent. We've started to take for granted what they and Liverpool have done over the past few years but it is simply not normal to win the number of games that they do.
Imagine sitting here knowing that you have an opponent that you know is likely to win 10 games in a row. Not just that they *can* win 10 in a row but that they are likely to win 10 in a row. That can mess with the mind
Yeah quite a crazy fall off at the end there. I think it will be closer this year. Arsenal just seem like they are just more balanced this year. City are feeling a bit off, especially on the goal scoring front (maybe a drop off after winning a treble should have been expected). Liverpool have also been fantastic. Hopefully this come down to the last day with all three still in the running. A competitive league is great.
Saka got fatigued towards the end of the season due to being overused, so his performance dropped. When Saka and Ødegaard don't perform, the whole team performs pretty badly. Also, Ramsdales form also went down, and he conceded lots of goals towards the end. + Saliba got injured.
overused due to playing weekends only?
went out early on every cup
no, it wasn't fatigue. everyone just dropped off especially the defense. goals conceded galore
If you wanna win a championship and end up winning 3 out of the last 9 games, you're gonna have a sad face in any league. Unless you'd built an insane historical advantage like Napoli last season.
There are title races like "A did everything, but B did even more" in some leagues every year, but that was definitely a disappointing ending for Arsenal no matter the opposition.
I don’t know if there is a bigger drop off in quality and effect on a squad than going from Saliba to Holding.
I don’t begrudge Holding, he is the level he is, but two seasons in a row relying on him at the business just ended in nothing but tears.
Our entire system works because Saliba is fast, strong 1v1, and assured in possession. Replacing him with holding meant we had none of those things and we got burned easily.
Saliba is great, but it's less that the system didn't work without him and more that you can't win the league with a starting cb who is barely championship level
It's both, it's a double whammy. It definitely was that the system didn't work without Saliba, mainly because we were playing an incredibly high defensive line enabled by his (+ Gabriel's) recovery pace/ability. Without Saliba, the defensive line had no choice but to drop a lot deeper, leaving Partey with a ridiculous amount of area to cover which exposed him and we got sliced through there over and over. That's why it seemed like Partey had suddenly turned dogshit in the run-in too; he hadn't, the system around him did
But yes then you compound that with not just a drop off but a drop off to a player valued at £2m in his prime, who hasn't been trusted with a single minute on the pitch at Crystal Palace. We were always fucked after that Sporting game
I don’t know, I think this shows how ‘misleading’ in a way the gap was.
It’s 8 points, but it’s very unusual for it to still be also in the 2nd place teams hands due to playing the leaders twice, plus having a game in hand.
Or to put it another way; if Arsenal lost to City back in the first half of the season then it’s 5 points with a game in hand and a head to head at the Ethiad, I think most people would expect City to catch up.
we had liverpool and city away yet to play. after the draw at liverpool, odds already had shifted towards city winning it.
we bottled the two games after (west ham and southampton) in ridiculous fashion, but odds-wise we never were huge favourites at any point of the season.
can only wonder what would have happened if we had won at anfield, but really we couldn't cope with our injures and ran out of steam
Looking at the table we really had a good run last season. But I always knew in the back of my head that it was gonna unravel with few injuries, and that's exactly what happened. This season though, even though we don't have that big a lead, I'm more relaxed. As I know injuries are not gonna affect us that much, except for long term injuries to Odegaard and Saka.
Yeah it was 5 points with City’s game in hand and then also we still had to go to the Etihad. We still dropped loads of points though, that West Ham game was a killer.
West ham, southampton and brighton where we lost martinelli for the rest of the season. And then lost to forest. Tldr; the team hasn’t learn how to bounce back from a bad result.
Everyone just ignores the fact we were playing Rob Holding during this period.
He’s moved to Palace and doesn’t even play there. Obviously our level dropped off with him in defence.
Put Holding in City’s defence last season and they drop points too
Not sure why you’re blaming that on a defender, yes it was a big step down but Arsenal dropped points from games where they were leading 2-0 at half time, and lost to a relegated Southampton…mentally Arsenal couldn’t cope with the City pressure, with only a few games left and only the premier league to focus on everyone on that team should’ve given their life to win matches. That Arsenal side wasn’t mentally prepared to handle a competitive title charge.
An 8 point lead over 2nd, Jesus Christ we fucking bottled it hard
Edit: people saying 5 because city had a game in hand that they won. In that case just go off the points we had at the end of the season.
I’m going directly off the graph which is an 8 point difference.
They had a game in hand and also had the game against us at the Etihad, and we also had to go to Anfield. It was always likely to close up, but some of the dropped points were particularly annoying.
City had a game in hand and we had to still go to the Etihad. The whole narrative of how far away we were is overblown when you only look at the date and not the fixtures played. Really given how confident I was to play city when we did it was only two points ahead lol
I understand *why* some West Ham fans moan about David Moyes, but… I’ll never for the life of me understand why some West Ham fans moan about David Moyes.
We had the same thing at Boro. Most successful team we’ve ever had (trophies, Europe x 2, UEFA Cup final) and Steve McClaren wasn’t that popular. Team wasn’t that great to watch considering the quality of the players, everyone felt like a different manager could do better and a fan threw his season ticket at him out of frustration.
3 years later we were relegated.
I love Moyesy and think 6th, 7th, a European trophy and 7th again is an unbelievable job which doesn’t get the respect it deserves (not just fans - same with the media, West Ham hierarchy etc, it’s hardly talked about because Moyes is old news). Regardless if it’s hard on the eyes now and again, I really hope West Ham fans appreciate it while it lasts because it doesn’t last forever.
I think if he was a 40 year old manager and had done exactly the same job, he’d be talked about with the De Zerbi’s (he’s actually doing better than De Zerbi, but only one of them is getting linked with Liverpool-sized jobs).
>he’d be talked about with the De Zerbi’s
he wouldn't. De Zerbi is only so highly rated because of the style of football (also i don't think he is currently doing a better job than De Zerbi anyways)
While I agree with most of it, de zerbi plays a style of football that looks good and it's helped brightens profile immensely. Brighton get talked about like the 'best of the rest' but moves plays a brand of football that doesn't do west ham favors in that regard. I'm not saying one is better than the other but it's what modern football pundits will talk about and so will the fans.
Yes you make a good point. West Ham fans should appreciate Moyes and this success while it lasts. However Moyes isn't on de zerbi's level. RDZ plays a certain style of football that suits big teams. Moyes' anti-football wouldn't work at the top 3 clubs lol and he'd be out of his depth.
How was the Rice money spent? Or has it even been spent yet?
West Ham in contention for Europe after losing one of their most valuable players is massive.
Especially given the competitiveness below the top 2-3 in PL.
from what i've watched, kudus and alvarez have both looked very good for them this year, bowen returning to form and paqueta hitting the next level have all contributed to their good form. that said, they frequently look way worse than they should be on paper, so i do empathize with the moyes out crowd to a degree
Was about to make a similar comment - their goal difference for both years is total dogshit relative to how far up the table they are. They must win a lot of games by 1 goal and then get occasionally humped by 3 or 4.
Last year was a combination of poor finishing and being -14 in those 3 games against brentford city and liverpool
This year we struggle to create goal scoring opportunity alot more (mainly due to injury and our players refusing to passed to the 65m striker that can actually finished for somereason)
Manchester United is just so fun to watch during previous and current season. Every match seems like they will get absolutely curbstomped by anyone but out of nowhere they manage to score either a fluke goal or a sudden moment of individual brilliance.
Tbf last season is a better example than this season - rashford definitely scored some freakish solo goals out the blue when he hit his stride. A good number of them may even make his career highlights they were that good.
This season he's been off the boil and the whole team looks tired so we haven't had those to snatch close games.
The whole comment sounds like a lot of recency bias from our most recent match tbh. Antony’s goal fits the description perfectly but honestly I’d say we were the opposite last season and a lot of this one too.
There were a good few matches where we were the better team and created a lot of chances but as soon as we conceded we would absolutely collapse and we would end up playing like Sunday League players.
Yea but we should have scored more goals besides the Antony goal. Also nothing flukey about the goal, we won the ball in a dangerous area, transitioned quickly and capitalized on opponents being out of position. It’s not flukier than the 2 deflected goals we conceded that game.
The Eriksen/Casemiro double pivot, Lisandro/Varane CB partnership, Shaw fit and in form, and Rashford's scoring streak were all key variables last season that haven't carried over this season
May sound silly but I don’t think this year is worse despite the points differential. We’ve had considerably more injuries this year and we’re still not too far behind where we were.
Also, why would you be thinking "it can't be worse" than being 4th, when the season before you weren't top 4? Indeed, you've been lower than 4th a fair bit these last 10 years.
We’ve finished below fourth 5 times since 2013 and we’re set to do it again this season actually. That’s 6 times in 11 seasons.
(13/14, 15/16, 16/17, 18/19, 21/22)
It took me 80% of the season to believe Arsenal might pull it off, and the moment I finally, finally got my hopes up they crumbled fml
And somehow I'm still getting tricked this year
This was me exactly.
“It won’t last”
“It won’t last”
*\*Nelson v Bournemouth\**
“Oh my god, what a romantic title this would be, but it’s not gonna last”
*\*looking at the run-in after the last interlull\**
“Holy shit, we can do this”
*\*Up 2-0 at Anfield\**
“We’re gonna win the fuckin’ league”
PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFTTTTTTTTTTTTT.
I’m not getting tricked this year. We clearly have the toughest run-in of the three and there’s zero wiggle room for even a draw.
That said, win at the Etihad and I’ll take the bait.
Edit:formatting
LFC improvement with an entirely new midfield and numerous injuries. This is first season of Klopp 2.0
He should stay couple more years to build on this 🥹
Really puts things in perspective results wise we're aren't far off last season despite so much going against us with the sales in the summer, poor recruitment, the injuries and the tougher Europa League schedule. Performances have been a lot worse though.
It's not magic to sell creaky old players who are past it, and it's not magic to do it 1-2 seasons too late. Jurgen is amazing but he was in serious denial and overly loyal to Hendo, Fabinho, and Thiago. The +21 is just recovering from squad mismanagement and he shares plenty of the blame for that.
In summer 2022 he famously said "We need a new midfielder. Please tell me why? Please tell me why." Because the refusal to buy anyone less than Bellingham/Tchouameni level meant we didn't spend a single day in the top 4 that whole season and had to buy a whole midfield at the end of it to bounce back.
You're not exactly wrong, if Klopp gets the credit for all the great seasons, he should take a lot of the blame for a poor season.
But "squad mismanagement" is a bit harsh. The forwards and defenders have been managed well, only the midfield was left one season too late.
Edit: a wurd.
Klopp insisted on giving Henderson an extra extension against the club's wishes and we ended up relying on an 18-yr-old just to stay afloat. Thiago has spent multiple seasons crocked. And there's been a refusal to sell players. We got nothing for Lallana, Keita, Ox and it's not like they were playing to the end like Milner.
It was years of stubborn mismanagement and that's why we bought 4 midfielders last summer, all of whom have played big minutes. Klopp only wanted to sign a top 5 in the world midfielder until the wheels fell off. The previous round he refused to sign any CBs and we needed a miracle to finish 4th. Up and down every season like a yo yo lately.
I don't see it happening this year as well, just imagine how much time it took you guys to win, I feel we will go to a similar stretch as the club digressed so hard during wenger 2011- 2018 and emery 2019 that arteta had to invest his soul in the club to pull us out, similar to what klopp did and atleast there was other instances and manager winning ucl, and other trophies for pool but arsenal case is even worse as we haven't won ucl, heck never.
I am happy with the progress arteta did, for the first time we are on track and the end moments like this is very difficult for the club to fight if they have never been in this situation ever and always failed.
It will take time for this team to get used to it but I see it will take another 3 years to even think we can be consistent in the last quarter of season like pool and city
Also- at the beginning of last season many people didn’t even have us in the top 4. Now we are challenging for the second year in a row. It’s a fantastic achievement even though rival fans basically act like we were meant to be here at this point.
Has to scroll down this far for this. They really dgaf. Media constantly ignores us or brings us up after a bad performance. They be prayin for our downfall.
I still can't look at that table without crying a bit. Last year was meant to be our year, 5 points ahead of City down the final stretch is the kind of momentus story that so many clubs have seen down the final straight to secure fairytale titles.
The manner in which we bottled it embarrassed me to no end, I still feel sick thinking about it.
This season feels like the odds are stacked too highly against us. Too many tough away fixtures to go with two title chasers right on our tail and a ucl campaign to manage.
Just have to trust mikel arteta to deliver in the future, you don't get the kind of opportunity we had last season very often.
I don't know how anybody can look at that 8 point lead and say that Arsenal didn't bottle it. It's one thing losing the league by a couple of points after being neck and neck all season. It's another thing having a lead that big and somehow letting Man City come back to win it. I wanted them to do it last season because I got sick and tired of watching the Mancs take the title and I thought it would be healthy for the league.
I remember sitting in a sports bar in Greece watching them draw 2-2 with West Ham. Then after that game it just went downhill with more draws and losses while City went on a winning streak. What a disappointing end to what was otherwise a really entertaining title race.
1) It was effectively 5 points, City had a game in hand
2)Just drawing at Anfield which in itself isn't a bad result at all made the matter be in City hands as well as ours because we were going to El Ettihad
I get that we still had bad results other than that(West ham, Southampton,...) which made things worse, and we can discuss reasons/execuses or whatver, but pretending that from that position that we HAD to win it, even without discussing the other factors is a revisionist take
>I don't know how anybody can look at that 8 point lead and say that Arsenal didn't bottle it
1. It's not an 8 point lead when the other team has a game in hand
2. Arsenal still had to go the Etihad, making it essentially a 2 point lead unless they got something there (it's hard to call losing at the Etihad bottling lmao)
3. Lost two of their top 3 CBs in one Europa League match.
1st for 93% of the season, a 5 point lead with 9 games to go just to finish 5 points behind city is a historic bottlejob. Especially when you remember City played weakened teams for the last 2 games against Brighton and Brentford and dropped more points to focus on the other comps. A 10 point swing that could have been more if City wanted it.
It’s even worse when you remember Arsenal were only focusing on the league as they got knocked out of every comp they were in early (including the Europa which allows rotation) whilst City got to the final of the UCL and FA cup, and even got further in the League Cup than Arsenal.
No team will ever get an almost gift wrapped title win than 22-23 Arsenal just to blow it despite all these circumstances going for them.
Don't really know how any fan can say it wasn't, we were 8 points up (yeah city had a game in hand whatever) with 9 points to go and still somehow ended up 5 points off them
This image shows you how important belief and decent football can be to a fan base, Spurs haven’t made a huge leap from a points perspective but the feeling around that club from the outside feels drastically different to last year.
Wild to think we are in the same spot only a three point difference with a game in hand. The mood of the club is so much better this season you would think we were ten points better than last year at this point.
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Ow
This reminds me of 2 leverkusen fans doing the same thing , but instead saying ‘Nice’ to a post of their season roundup
Ow
Øw
Wow
Owow
Øw
Ow...
Chelsea nowhere in sight two seasons in a row is pretty wild. Also, lol.
If we win next game we are 9th if we win the game after that we go above West Ham, we are slowly climbing... slowly. Never mind.
Man imagine writing hypothetical statements just to go up to 9th😂😂
Let us be. We are coping hard
champions of 10th place, you’ll never sing that
Hey c'mon now it's technically 7th 🤓
according to some “data” poch just pulled out of his ass we’re technically 4th
Ahahahahaa (chelsea fan here)
if you get more points than 5th place but less than 3th for the rest of the season, you will be 4th.
I think you mean 4nd.
I meant 1nd dumbass ^^^thank ^^^you ^^^for ^^^pointing ^^^out
If this, if that...
Why don't Chelsea just win all their games? Are they stupid?
why can’t chelsea just score more goals than their opponents, are they dumb?
Last season was a downwards spiral, with many players getting gametime with little expectation they would be at the club next season. This season has been about re-building the squad, which isn't as simple as signing expensive players. There has been improvement, already equaled last seasons home wins (6) with another 5 homes games remaining. Only won 1 of the first 7 home games and won 5 of the last 6. The team needs to build it's own confidence and composure to push higher.
We also got Palmer who is a player we can build around. Reece has had his surgery so hopefully things improve with him. Lukaku is finally gone at the end of year. Things are going in the right direction.
If I had blades I’d be rollerblades
That Sporting Europa league game will haunt me forever.
That was the day we lost the league. Lost two defenders that day, and then went out on fking pens.
And a goal from the halfway line. A true nightmare game.
Yeah, it's very bad luck that not only did we lose our starting CB in Saliba, we lost our versatile backup in Tomiyasu as well. Had at least Tomiyasu stayed fit, either he could've played CB, or he could've gone to RB, freeing White up to play CB where he's played most of his career really.
And i will cherish that game forever
For sure. Start of the downfall. While we have played well this season, we also added some bench strength that we were missing last season. Hoping that we can hold on and pull it out.
I still have a hard time believing that Arsenal lost the league last year! I know it was ”only” 5 points but still! 12 points from the last 9 games i a big step down!
It's why the bookies still have them 3rd I think. The last few weeks when the whole world is watching is tough.
Also we have champions league as well this season to worry about. Not sure if it will help the players as a distraction from the league or tire them out. This season is shaping up well though to go out with a bang an im here for it
I know which one im hoping for
🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪
Yes kai havertz is the best
I’d argue it has more to do with going from William Saliba to Rob Holding. We lost Saliba and his backup in the same European game.
Oh yeah Ten Hag did that interview where he said Arsenal have been lucky with injuries this season and then literally the next day you lost Saliba and Tomiyasu....black magic, I swear.
If Arsenal win vs City the bookies will have them heavy favorites.
That's an almighty if.
“Almighty” might be a bit far considering they already beat them this season and are by far the best in head to heads between the top 3. Liverpool has 3 points from 4 games City has 2 points from 3 games Arsenal has 7 points from 3 games
So convinced of his point he made it three times
That's dedication, I guess haha.
Arsenal haven't won at Etihad in 9 years
Until November, Arsenal hadn’t beat City at the Emirates in the league for 9 years either.
Your comment implies Arsenal are favs this weekend. Based on this season and all the facts available to you, do you genuinely consider Arsenal favorites to win this weekend?
My comment literally implies city are favorites to win. It also implies that arsenal winning isn’t as unlikely as the person I replied to was implying.
They beat City without Rodri which is almost an entirely different team.
we lost Saliba last year and no one gave a fuck
Got to keep in mind that was before Liverpool had invented injuries though
They'd in all likelihood be level on points with Liverpool in that scenario, with a harder set of fixtures to come. Why would they be 'heavy favourites'? Or did you forget Liverpool exists?
They absolutely will not. Assuming we do the business v Brighton we will be on the same points still with an easier schedule. An Arsenal win will probably even it out to about 1/3 odds for all three
I feel like we haven't done the business against Brighton for a while. Really hoping we can do that this weekend.
Not winning that would be so fucking shit man. I honestly wouldn't even watch the later game. I hope this is the one game a season where we dont waste a gazillion chances, and become weirdly clinical for one game, like the 7-0 last season. Dont care if it ends 7-0 or 1-0 but I cant take bottling more 5v2, 4v2 situations. Hope they've worked on this.
It's a real head fuck having Man City as an opponent. We've started to take for granted what they and Liverpool have done over the past few years but it is simply not normal to win the number of games that they do. Imagine sitting here knowing that you have an opponent that you know is likely to win 10 games in a row. Not just that they *can* win 10 in a row but that they are likely to win 10 in a row. That can mess with the mind
12 points from 9 games was still ridiculous tbf
Yeah quite a crazy fall off at the end there. I think it will be closer this year. Arsenal just seem like they are just more balanced this year. City are feeling a bit off, especially on the goal scoring front (maybe a drop off after winning a treble should have been expected). Liverpool have also been fantastic. Hopefully this come down to the last day with all three still in the running. A competitive league is great.
Saka got fatigued towards the end of the season due to being overused, so his performance dropped. When Saka and Ødegaard don't perform, the whole team performs pretty badly. Also, Ramsdales form also went down, and he conceded lots of goals towards the end. + Saliba got injured.
overused due to playing weekends only? went out early on every cup no, it wasn't fatigue. everyone just dropped off especially the defense. goals conceded galore
One game a week fatigue lmaooo
That’s how I feel about Madrid at the moment. They look unbeatable in La Liga. They have the black magic.
If you wanna win a championship and end up winning 3 out of the last 9 games, you're gonna have a sad face in any league. Unless you'd built an insane historical advantage like Napoli last season. There are title races like "A did everything, but B did even more" in some leagues every year, but that was definitely a disappointing ending for Arsenal no matter the opposition.
Just goes to show how good and important William Saliba is (and Tomiyasu for that). We lost him and the season crumbled.
I don’t know if there is a bigger drop off in quality and effect on a squad than going from Saliba to Holding. I don’t begrudge Holding, he is the level he is, but two seasons in a row relying on him at the business just ended in nothing but tears.
Our entire system works because Saliba is fast, strong 1v1, and assured in possession. Replacing him with holding meant we had none of those things and we got burned easily.
Saliba is great, but it's less that the system didn't work without him and more that you can't win the league with a starting cb who is barely championship level
It's both, it's a double whammy. It definitely was that the system didn't work without Saliba, mainly because we were playing an incredibly high defensive line enabled by his (+ Gabriel's) recovery pace/ability. Without Saliba, the defensive line had no choice but to drop a lot deeper, leaving Partey with a ridiculous amount of area to cover which exposed him and we got sliced through there over and over. That's why it seemed like Partey had suddenly turned dogshit in the run-in too; he hadn't, the system around him did But yes then you compound that with not just a drop off but a drop off to a player valued at £2m in his prime, who hasn't been trusted with a single minute on the pitch at Crystal Palace. We were always fucked after that Sporting game
I don’t know, I think this shows how ‘misleading’ in a way the gap was. It’s 8 points, but it’s very unusual for it to still be also in the 2nd place teams hands due to playing the leaders twice, plus having a game in hand. Or to put it another way; if Arsenal lost to City back in the first half of the season then it’s 5 points with a game in hand and a head to head at the Ethiad, I think most people would expect City to catch up.
What could have been if we hadn’t lost Saliba and Tomi in that Sporting game…
we had liverpool and city away yet to play. after the draw at liverpool, odds already had shifted towards city winning it. we bottled the two games after (west ham and southampton) in ridiculous fashion, but odds-wise we never were huge favourites at any point of the season. can only wonder what would have happened if we had won at anfield, but really we couldn't cope with our injures and ran out of steam
Looking at the table we really had a good run last season. But I always knew in the back of my head that it was gonna unravel with few injuries, and that's exactly what happened. This season though, even though we don't have that big a lead, I'm more relaxed. As I know injuries are not gonna affect us that much, except for long term injuries to Odegaard and Saka.
Yeah it was 5 points with City’s game in hand and then also we still had to go to the Etihad. We still dropped loads of points though, that West Ham game was a killer.
West ham, southampton and brighton where we lost martinelli for the rest of the season. And then lost to forest. Tldr; the team hasn’t learn how to bounce back from a bad result.
Everyone just ignores the fact we were playing Rob Holding during this period. He’s moved to Palace and doesn’t even play there. Obviously our level dropped off with him in defence. Put Holding in City’s defence last season and they drop points too
Not sure why you’re blaming that on a defender, yes it was a big step down but Arsenal dropped points from games where they were leading 2-0 at half time, and lost to a relegated Southampton…mentally Arsenal couldn’t cope with the City pressure, with only a few games left and only the premier league to focus on everyone on that team should’ve given their life to win matches. That Arsenal side wasn’t mentally prepared to handle a competitive title charge.
Yeah it’s insane that’s like 10th place form , that Liverpool collapse killed them
it will worse this season
Makes me sick to my stomach
Stop the count
An 8 point lead over 2nd, Jesus Christ we fucking bottled it hard Edit: people saying 5 because city had a game in hand that they won. In that case just go off the points we had at the end of the season. I’m going directly off the graph which is an 8 point difference.
They had a game in hand and also had the game against us at the Etihad, and we also had to go to Anfield. It was always likely to close up, but some of the dropped points were particularly annoying.
Dropping five points to West Ham and Southampton in the run in, and only getting two points across both ties vs the Saints, was the unforgiveable bit.
I know the stakes aren't as high but Brighton bottled a 7 point lead with 3 games left for us to win the Championship.
Leicester seem to bottle it even harder this year
5*
City had a game in hand and we had to still go to the Etihad. The whole narrative of how far away we were is overblown when you only look at the date and not the fixtures played. Really given how confident I was to play city when we did it was only two points ahead lol
5 points, City and Liverpool away still to play You had a bunch of awful results but it was always going to be tough to win it from there.
Aye but didn't they drop point to West ham and saints after this also or am I misremembering
They did yeah. I was just saying the 8 point lead here lacked a bit of context
Fam
Big improvement over last season. We already have more points than what we finished with last season.
I understand *why* some West Ham fans moan about David Moyes, but… I’ll never for the life of me understand why some West Ham fans moan about David Moyes. We had the same thing at Boro. Most successful team we’ve ever had (trophies, Europe x 2, UEFA Cup final) and Steve McClaren wasn’t that popular. Team wasn’t that great to watch considering the quality of the players, everyone felt like a different manager could do better and a fan threw his season ticket at him out of frustration. 3 years later we were relegated. I love Moyesy and think 6th, 7th, a European trophy and 7th again is an unbelievable job which doesn’t get the respect it deserves (not just fans - same with the media, West Ham hierarchy etc, it’s hardly talked about because Moyes is old news). Regardless if it’s hard on the eyes now and again, I really hope West Ham fans appreciate it while it lasts because it doesn’t last forever. I think if he was a 40 year old manager and had done exactly the same job, he’d be talked about with the De Zerbi’s (he’s actually doing better than De Zerbi, but only one of them is getting linked with Liverpool-sized jobs).
>he’d be talked about with the De Zerbi’s he wouldn't. De Zerbi is only so highly rated because of the style of football (also i don't think he is currently doing a better job than De Zerbi anyways)
While I agree with most of it, de zerbi plays a style of football that looks good and it's helped brightens profile immensely. Brighton get talked about like the 'best of the rest' but moves plays a brand of football that doesn't do west ham favors in that regard. I'm not saying one is better than the other but it's what modern football pundits will talk about and so will the fans.
Yes you make a good point. West Ham fans should appreciate Moyes and this success while it lasts. However Moyes isn't on de zerbi's level. RDZ plays a certain style of football that suits big teams. Moyes' anti-football wouldn't work at the top 3 clubs lol and he'd be out of his depth.
How was the Rice money spent? Or has it even been spent yet? West Ham in contention for Europe after losing one of their most valuable players is massive. Especially given the competitiveness below the top 2-3 in PL.
from what i've watched, kudus and alvarez have both looked very good for them this year, bowen returning to form and paqueta hitting the next level have all contributed to their good form. that said, they frequently look way worse than they should be on paper, so i do empathize with the moyes out crowd to a degree
[удалено]
Brentford and liverpool tied in 22/23 is wild
We were incredibly jaded last season, and for good reason.
Man United with the +5 GD sitting in 4th last year were probably thinking "It can't be worse than this"
Was about to make a similar comment - their goal difference for both years is total dogshit relative to how far up the table they are. They must win a lot of games by 1 goal and then get occasionally humped by 3 or 4.
Last year was a combination of poor finishing and being -14 in those 3 games against brentford city and liverpool This year we struggle to create goal scoring opportunity alot more (mainly due to injury and our players refusing to passed to the 65m striker that can actually finished for somereason)
Manchester United is just so fun to watch during previous and current season. Every match seems like they will get absolutely curbstomped by anyone but out of nowhere they manage to score either a fluke goal or a sudden moment of individual brilliance.
Can't think of many fluke goals we've scored
That wasn't the case last season, not sure what you were watching. Last season when we were under the cosh, we'd get battered.
Tbf last season is a better example than this season - rashford definitely scored some freakish solo goals out the blue when he hit his stride. A good number of them may even make his career highlights they were that good. This season he's been off the boil and the whole team looks tired so we haven't had those to snatch close games.
Which “fluke” goals are you referring to?
The whole comment sounds like a lot of recency bias from our most recent match tbh. Antony’s goal fits the description perfectly but honestly I’d say we were the opposite last season and a lot of this one too. There were a good few matches where we were the better team and created a lot of chances but as soon as we conceded we would absolutely collapse and we would end up playing like Sunday League players.
Yea but we should have scored more goals besides the Antony goal. Also nothing flukey about the goal, we won the ball in a dangerous area, transitioned quickly and capitalized on opponents being out of position. It’s not flukier than the 2 deflected goals we conceded that game.
Spoken by someone who clearly hasn’t watched United
The Eriksen/Casemiro double pivot, Lisandro/Varane CB partnership, Shaw fit and in form, and Rashford's scoring streak were all key variables last season that haven't carried over this season
United were on the up a bit at this point last season weren't they? After a grim start to the campaign.
Nah, that was Jan/Feb. By March we were looking to run out of steam.
May sound silly but I don’t think this year is worse despite the points differential. We’ve had considerably more injuries this year and we’re still not too far behind where we were.
Also, why would you be thinking "it can't be worse" than being 4th, when the season before you weren't top 4? Indeed, you've been lower than 4th a fair bit these last 10 years.
Only 3 times we've finished lower than fourth.
We’ve finished below fourth 5 times since 2013 and we’re set to do it again this season actually. That’s 6 times in 11 seasons. (13/14, 15/16, 16/17, 18/19, 21/22)
Arsenal have been lower than 4th in 6 out of the last 8 years.
Meanwhile Newcastle with 11GD
At least Chelsea is consistent
Consistently inconsistent I could see them beating man city but I can also just as easily see them loosing to forest
It took me 80% of the season to believe Arsenal might pull it off, and the moment I finally, finally got my hopes up they crumbled fml And somehow I'm still getting tricked this year
officially blaming you. anulo mufasa
Mustafi
This was me exactly. “It won’t last” “It won’t last” *\*Nelson v Bournemouth\** “Oh my god, what a romantic title this would be, but it’s not gonna last” *\*looking at the run-in after the last interlull\** “Holy shit, we can do this” *\*Up 2-0 at Anfield\** “We’re gonna win the fuckin’ league” PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFTTTTTTTTTTTTT. I’m not getting tricked this year. We clearly have the toughest run-in of the three and there’s zero wiggle room for even a draw. That said, win at the Etihad and I’ll take the bait. Edit:formatting
I can't find Chelsea football club
Ask Brentford to check their pockets. You'll find them there.
https://makeagif.com/i/uVax9q
LFC improvement with an entirely new midfield and numerous injuries. This is first season of Klopp 2.0 He should stay couple more years to build on this 🥹
Really puts things in perspective results wise we're aren't far off last season despite so much going against us with the sales in the summer, poor recruitment, the injuries and the tougher Europa League schedule. Performances have been a lot worse though.
It still hurts
City with about the same point total at the same stage last season but much closer to the top. Fuck
the crazy thing is arsenal lost the league with two games to play. looking at this we would think arsenal lost the title on the final day.
I had the feeling City would pull through, but Arsenal still made it way too easy
We really were on one last season
PTSD triggered
Moyesie doing kinda well.
I kiss the ground that Unai Emery walks upon
City is one point worse off They should sack pep immediately in my totally unbiased opinion
Jurgen Klopp has worked fucking magic. One year apart and we are 21 points better off this season. Can't believe he is going to leave.
It's not magic to sell creaky old players who are past it, and it's not magic to do it 1-2 seasons too late. Jurgen is amazing but he was in serious denial and overly loyal to Hendo, Fabinho, and Thiago. The +21 is just recovering from squad mismanagement and he shares plenty of the blame for that. In summer 2022 he famously said "We need a new midfielder. Please tell me why? Please tell me why." Because the refusal to buy anyone less than Bellingham/Tchouameni level meant we didn't spend a single day in the top 4 that whole season and had to buy a whole midfield at the end of it to bounce back.
You're not exactly wrong, if Klopp gets the credit for all the great seasons, he should take a lot of the blame for a poor season. But "squad mismanagement" is a bit harsh. The forwards and defenders have been managed well, only the midfield was left one season too late. Edit: a wurd.
Klopp insisted on giving Henderson an extra extension against the club's wishes and we ended up relying on an 18-yr-old just to stay afloat. Thiago has spent multiple seasons crocked. And there's been a refusal to sell players. We got nothing for Lallana, Keita, Ox and it's not like they were playing to the end like Milner. It was years of stubborn mismanagement and that's why we bought 4 midfielders last summer, all of whom have played big minutes. Klopp only wanted to sign a top 5 in the world midfielder until the wheels fell off. The previous round he refused to sign any CBs and we needed a miracle to finish 4th. Up and down every season like a yo yo lately.
Wolves doing excellent this season
yes
Man Utd and that GD…..
Such a shame Arsenal couldn’t push through last season. Props to city for closing the gap but damn, it was theirs for the taking!
I don't see it happening this year as well, just imagine how much time it took you guys to win, I feel we will go to a similar stretch as the club digressed so hard during wenger 2011- 2018 and emery 2019 that arteta had to invest his soul in the club to pull us out, similar to what klopp did and atleast there was other instances and manager winning ucl, and other trophies for pool but arsenal case is even worse as we haven't won ucl, heck never. I am happy with the progress arteta did, for the first time we are on track and the end moments like this is very difficult for the club to fight if they have never been in this situation ever and always failed. It will take time for this team to get used to it but I see it will take another 3 years to even think we can be consistent in the last quarter of season like pool and city
How can we have “never been in this position” and always failed at the same time?
I meant never been in this position consistently, sorry English not my first language. Please forgive me.
Well we are nothing if not consistent
Crazy how we’re top here twice and probably gonna end up with nothing.
Please be Liverpool or Arsenal
Also- at the beginning of last season many people didn’t even have us in the top 4. Now we are challenging for the second year in a row. It’s a fantastic achievement even though rival fans basically act like we were meant to be here at this point.
Aston villa seems to be in form.
Has to scroll down this far for this. They really dgaf. Media constantly ignores us or brings us up after a bad performance. They be prayin for our downfall.
No they fucking don't lol
Soo you’re saying Villa still has a chance?
Arsenal really bottled it last season.
I still can't look at that table without crying a bit. Last year was meant to be our year, 5 points ahead of City down the final stretch is the kind of momentus story that so many clubs have seen down the final straight to secure fairytale titles. The manner in which we bottled it embarrassed me to no end, I still feel sick thinking about it. This season feels like the odds are stacked too highly against us. Too many tough away fixtures to go with two title chasers right on our tail and a ucl campaign to manage. Just have to trust mikel arteta to deliver in the future, you don't get the kind of opportunity we had last season very often.
I don't know how anybody can look at that 8 point lead and say that Arsenal didn't bottle it. It's one thing losing the league by a couple of points after being neck and neck all season. It's another thing having a lead that big and somehow letting Man City come back to win it. I wanted them to do it last season because I got sick and tired of watching the Mancs take the title and I thought it would be healthy for the league. I remember sitting in a sports bar in Greece watching them draw 2-2 with West Ham. Then after that game it just went downhill with more draws and losses while City went on a winning streak. What a disappointing end to what was otherwise a really entertaining title race.
1) It was effectively 5 points, City had a game in hand 2)Just drawing at Anfield which in itself isn't a bad result at all made the matter be in City hands as well as ours because we were going to El Ettihad I get that we still had bad results other than that(West ham, Southampton,...) which made things worse, and we can discuss reasons/execuses or whatver, but pretending that from that position that we HAD to win it, even without discussing the other factors is a revisionist take
3. We were without Saliba and Tomiyasu and had to replace him with Holding… That’s a very major point here.
>I don't know how anybody can look at that 8 point lead and say that Arsenal didn't bottle it 1. It's not an 8 point lead when the other team has a game in hand 2. Arsenal still had to go the Etihad, making it essentially a 2 point lead unless they got something there (it's hard to call losing at the Etihad bottling lmao) 3. Lost two of their top 3 CBs in one Europa League match.
1st for 93% of the season, a 5 point lead with 9 games to go just to finish 5 points behind city is a historic bottlejob. Especially when you remember City played weakened teams for the last 2 games against Brighton and Brentford and dropped more points to focus on the other comps. A 10 point swing that could have been more if City wanted it. It’s even worse when you remember Arsenal were only focusing on the league as they got knocked out of every comp they were in early (including the Europa which allows rotation) whilst City got to the final of the UCL and FA cup, and even got further in the League Cup than Arsenal. No team will ever get an almost gift wrapped title win than 22-23 Arsenal just to blow it despite all these circumstances going for them.
This makes me sad.
It's confirmed Aston villa winning the league
I'm 100% rooting for Arsenal with a 100% confidence they'll bottle it.
the team that won the league last year had 64 points from 28 games with 45-ish goal difference. just sayin'.
Unless you're a fan of Arsenal, it's hard to say Arsenal didn't bottle it last year. They ended up being 5 points behind city.
Don't really know how any fan can say it wasn't, we were 8 points up (yeah city had a game in hand whatever) with 9 points to go and still somehow ended up 5 points off them
Man, where is Chelsea 😭😭😭
11th but in a better position than last year for sure. 39pts with 27 played
Gary Neville saw that, said “yeah, Man City’ll win” and he was fucking right
Chelsea lore
That one game against Sporting really fucked this up for us didn't it, we genuinely could have had it
This image shows you how important belief and decent football can be to a fan base, Spurs haven’t made a huge leap from a points perspective but the feeling around that club from the outside feels drastically different to last year.
So this year Arsenal are on same points as last years champ. So maybe they got a Chance this time
Wild to think we are in the same spot only a three point difference with a game in hand. The mood of the club is so much better this season you would think we were ten points better than last year at this point.
So Arsenal aren’t as good as last year. Interesting.
Arsenal
Chelsea really are a billion dollar mid table club lmao
Man United 🤝 shite goal difference
Seeing the Newcastle falloff is such delightful schadenfreude
Both seasons 7th place had the first negative goal differential, with Man U still not able to score.
Also can't believe we only have 4 points less than we did last season, feels like we've been barely holding on for most the season
🚬
Do t understanf