5 points back after 9 games doesn’t feel like a lot.
However we’ve had by far the most difficult start, and it’s only going to get harder now with trips to Newcastle and Chelsea coming up.
It’s does feel more complicated now with Liverpool also in the mix.
I’m lookin forward to these next 2 games though. Timber, Saliba and Saka back is going to make a big difference. We have White back too so the back four is basically full strength (so long as Gabi’s knock isn’t serious).
This team has immense character and can go on big winning streaks. Need to start collecting clean sheets and grind our way through to the next international break.
Agreed. I honestly expect another strong second half of the season for us, we just need to make sure we don’t fuck up in these next two months.
I think both City and Liverpool will drop points and they have to play each other too.
As unimpressive as we have been, neither of them have impressed me when I’ve seen them. Riding on luck quite a bit and their schedule has been more favourable.
To these good points being made I’ll add that we have to get out of this pattern where we seem to back off in the second half of games and allow the opposition to get on the front foot.
I think there have been mitigating circumstances and this is not a directive from Arteta. We have had red cards and injuries/inferior subs that has resulted in this as opposed to being by design.
Against the scouse lot, with Timber and Gabriel on we pushed forward, once both were off, the midfield drops back to protect the replacement and its a domino effect. With a healthy squad and 11 players I dont think we would see this happening
To win the title you need a favourable injury record and we just haven’t had that this season. You also need certain decisions to go in your favour and we haven’t had that either this year.
True, there absolutely were mitigating circumstances in the Liverpool game. Just to clarify, I get to see only the occasional game, so my thoughts mainly stem from reading post game comments here on OA. And it’s not infrequently that this second half retreat syndrome seems to appear.
That puts an end to it for us. Huge deficit in points and performance. And given the performances and wrong decisions made by the management it’s what Arsenal deserve. Today proved unfortunately that the team and manager, while good, are just not good enough to win the big ones.
