18 May 2025 08:39:40
Hi all. It's been a while since my last post. I've been reading the site though. I hope everyone's doing well.
Arsenal finish the season trophyless once again. In hindsight i'd say the summer 2024 transfer window was a very poor one. Getting rid of so many attacking players and only bringing in Sterling doesn't look very good now.
You can use injuries as an excuse but i won't buy it. Majority of them would have been avoidable with better squad rotation. Luck plays a part but we should look into the factors we can influence and improve next season.
I think a champions league club needs a minimum of 22 established players, especially with today's packed fixture lists. Playing twice a week is becoming a norm. Players can sustain that pace for a while but over long periods they will simply break.
Arteta just talked about Havertz doing a lot of work to improve physically during his injury absence. When he was fit he simply didn't have time to do that. That should tell you all you need to know. Players need to play less in order to improve basically.
Arsenal have struggled tactically as well. Left hand side has been problematic for a second season in a row. When there's no width from a fullback it means our winger needs to stay wide. Neither Martinelli nor Trossard are really suited for that. Rice's underlapping runs have helped a bit but this is an area where we can improve.
The bigger problem is the build-up, specifically central build-up. We are able to progress the play but often it requires Odegaard to drop deep or a fullback to invert. So often we end up either progressing through the wide areas or if we go through centrally, we don't have enough players waiting for the pass up front in order to be dangerous. Tempo has also been too slow.
Addressing these issues when coming into the transfer window is what i want to see. When next season starts i hope we have
1) Sufficient depth in all areas of the pitch
2) Either a left winger who thrives on playing near touchline or a more attacking left fullback to provide overlap and
3) A build-up special-ist capable of orchestrating play, progress the ball centrally and control the tempo.
I hope you have a nice Sunday!
18 May 2025 10:14:06
Fully agree mate. The Arteta cult want to use injuries and the lack of a striker as an excuse without acknowledging both are Arteta’s fault. Now the club are trying to do Havertz PR, its too funny. Dublin and Malaga probably reckon Havertz will score 30 league goals next season though ;)
18 May 2025 10:48:47
I fully agree with most of your post but I do think the injuries have played a part especially when we lost all our offensive players at the same time.
18 May 2025 12:08:32
Nice to see you again Iceman, I have been disengaged from football due to how busy work has been for me, but agree with your thoughts as usual.
As was clear at the time, I think the club really let us down with the Sterling signing and the lack of striker support in January. Sterling was at least a loan but on par with Willian in terms of ineffectiveness. If we had cover for Saka instead of Sterling and picked up a striker in January I think we could have had a very different season, perhaps not bowing out to PSG and pushing Liverpool far closer.
I too am worried about our attacking, it's been far more pedestrian than I have come to expect out of Arteta given our last few seasons. I think MØ and Martinelli have to really sort themselves out this summer and figure out how to be more involved in the final third. We aren't too far away from a title winning team, but the silverware will have to start coming soon or out lads will start to look elsewhere for trophies.
18 May 2025 12:44:37
Dags I do think injuries have played a big part. They have been serious injuries, season long injuries. Of course that would have had an impact with the squad we have.
Let's hope squad strength is addressed in this 2 part transfer window!
Totally agree we look toothless in the box at times but would any other club have done any better without a recognised striker?
{Ed025's Note - no Sally, but the reason you didn,t have a recognised striker was because of pure incompetence from the club..
18 May 2025 13:47:56
100% ed, Arteta signed about 5 goalkeepers, 8 left backs, 5 CM’s when he knows he needed a striker. That’s incompetence from him and the club for not overruling him.
{Ed025's Note - it could have been so different Dags, opportunity missed imo..
18 May 2025 15:43:14
I love it when people assume things about me and get it completely wrong pmsl, 1/ I don’t rate havertz i think he was a waste of 65m, 2 i don’t blame injuries for us not winning we should have had squad depth! 3 how do you know without the injuries we still would have been where we are nobody’s knows!4/ I’m not to fussed about us not signing a striker in jan because the ones we want we’re not available in January! So why on earth would we panic buy a striker and put our summer plans in doubt, I’m not arteta out but this season coming is his toughest yet and needs to bring trophies, so dags when you try to assume things about people you don’t know think next time pmsl, it’s obvious you don’t like arteta or ever have, but I’d like to know if we won the CL and PL or fa cup and pl double what would your opinion be?
18 May 2025 19:25:49
"Finish the season, go to the beach and make sure the ones upstairs do what they have to do. " These are direct words of Arteta today after the game clearly has little control of who comes in. He can identify positions and players but the final decision lays with the board and previously edu and now Berta.
For me if Berta brings in the players the we need than barring injuries or world epedemic event we should be getting a few tropies. and if we didn't walk with anything than yes its deifnetley time for us to look at replacing Arteta.
If we fail to sign the right players and we get we tried but nothing was availble than Arteta gets free reign until changes higher up.
18 May 2025 19:27:10
Injuries played a big part to how our season folded, but I find it very unreasonable to blame Arteta for not signing a striker l as I doubt it was his call.
18 May 2025 20:09:12
Thanks for the many replies. Good to see so many opinions as it keeps the conversation interesting.
I have just one more thing to add regarding the striker situation. One is definitely needed, but i'm also a massive Havertz fan. Whoever comes in may not be an automatic starter and that's okay for me. The role can easily be shared and depending on who comes in they may even play a lot of minutes together up front.
18 May 2025 21:01:59
It seems we tried to sign Watkins in the January window Moe, obviously the decision makers didn't want to go there with the asking price. Personally I think he would have been a great addition to our squad for a few seasons. But of course his minutes would have dwindled if we manage to sign a top striker this window. always assuming he wanted to come to us of course!
I wonder how Havertz and Jesus will perform next season after such lengthy layoffs, Tomi too. Or whether any or all of them will be let go?
I must say Kiwior has stepped up. I haven't seen today's game so I may be a bit premature there if he had a 'mare lol.