You expected to be lower than 6th ? Or slightly better because we have done relatively well in the Europa League / League cup ?
Where in a top four battle and closer to Chelsea and Liverpool than id thought we would be. Probably has a bit to them 2 falling a bit tbh. League cups a bonus. Europa expected to be were we are.
Yeah we have 19 points from 11 which is only on pace for 66 points, so it’s defiantly about them failing to perform as well as normal.
5th or 6th is our level now so the result was typical of a team at that level.
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Though a 5th or 6th team would expect a better return than 0-6-9 over a 3 year period away from home against the current top 5.
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Buys Lacazette as the star striker and doesn’t start him.
Wenger is beyond reason. The guy makes me not want to watch Arsenal which hasn’t happened in 20 years. Last two seasons I am seriously lacking lust to watch us, and it is only because of Wenger. I wouldn’t mind watching us as a mid table team as long as it was under a different manager with new impetus and styles.
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That’s about right… I might say even 3 just b/c we have had relatively light schedule and absolutely played abominable football for most of it.
6th is hard NOT to at least get… FFS we will be fighting for 5th with Liverpool, and they are nearly as comical as us atm, at least defending. If they can keep Mane fit and Salah continues on his current form, then I see us 6th, but no other team has any business nicking 6th from us honestly.
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That’s what I was comparing it to. was hoping for a newness but it really is just a CL for poorer teams. They should be testing new rules, new officiating set ups, something.
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I know what you mean but some how, come the end of this season, I don’t think we will see much of a change in our position in the league or our statistics.
Slowly but surely, the fans will accept our status as a top 8 team at best, like the Everton team under Moyes. This is our place, this is where we belong. We can pretend to be a big club in all areas but on the pitch, there is no pretending.
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No we have problems and there compounded with the league having got stronger. We cant finish outside 6th and that in itself would only put us a few points off 4th.
Spurs and Liverpool get plaudits now but both have finished lower in recent seasons and risen to stronger positions.
Reality is we were always aiming for 4th with a good chance in cups. Thats a relative success for a club like us and will only really change when Wenger leaves.
Its too dramatic though to put us on the level of any other sides outside of those above us.
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If I could accept we were a club chasing 4th and aiming for FA cups I should be a happy fan with how the last few years have gone, but with an outdated manager (pretty much every rival has had a new coach in the last 2ish years) and 150-200m in the bank, I can’t adjust my mindset.
We can’t compete with City and United but we can compete with Chelsea and Tottenham, and if Chelsea and Tottenham can compete with City and United, we should be able to compete with who they’re competing with.
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It would be interesting to hear the excuses Wenger could come out with if we finished below a club like Watford or Burnley.
I don’t think even he could come up with something as poor as that.
I think what will happen is that the supporters will get used to finishing outside the top four, with the occasional decent player being bought.
This will then mean we will be more than happy for a top four place and will seem like some sort of success.
Wenger is dragging us down, make no mistake, and he really needs a top performance against spurs just to keep the few of his remaining supporters on side.
Losing to them ,means we haven’t beaten a top half side and could be overtaken by Burnley.
But if we do lose it will be the ref’s fault, so that’s ok then.
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Im not defending him but you can forget Burnley and the rest. Weve been guilty of resting on our top 4 finishes, with the reality being we were always going to be the team for Spurs and Liverpool to shoot at.
At the end of the day where level with Pool on points and them and spurs still need to land a trophy sometime soon to gain any real leverage on us.
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At this point it is not the personnel. It’s the manager. can’t instill trust and confidence into our players and plays absolutely outdated football.
If Wenger dares to come out and say we are just a mid-table team, we are good enough to chase the top-4 / top-6 trophy and aiming at Europa and FA Cup, I believe 90% of the fans would just shut up and accept the painful reality.
The fault (has to) goes to Wenger because every single fucking season he bluffed up the title chance, the CL money (not this season anymore), how many fucking consecutive years in the CL… blah blah blah…
He pumped up the fans’ expectations but failed to deliver.
The most unfortunate thing is, there are still fans “believe” in what he said, “believe” he could turn it around… “believe” it was really the ref’s fault that cost us the game…
It hurts, and hurts everybody.
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Yeah right.
Yeah, why not?
If Wenger dares to say that, that means the club, the owner, the board agree of what he say and approve it, endorse it.
If the club culture now is just about money and not league titles/CL, what can you say?
Especially for the England/London based fans… what can you do if not accepting it? Can they go support the Spuds, Chelsea or Westham? Nah~~~
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Fans won’t accept it.
Heck fans didn’t accept us being a Top 4 or a 4th placed club when there were clear evidence of financial restrictions.
Attendance seems to be already affected. Season ticket renewal will be affected. -
It is stupid to declare being a mid table club, regardless of how true it may be, which it is not.
I think we had this discussion before.
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