Despite the progression, football is simply designed in such a way that nothing means anything without winning. Arsenal fans need to stop consoling themselves about a good year or season or any other coping mechanism. Until the day comes where a Premier League or Champions League is lifted it really is all for nothing.
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I agree for the most part, but at least we’re no longer a joke ting of a football club anymore.
We had that monkey on our back for so many years, in the latter 3rd of Wenger’s reign and the first 2-3 years after he left.
We’re no longer bottlers, and we’re going places.
As has been shown this season, winning the EPL is 10x harder than winning cup competitions.
I would honestly prefer us to take the other 3 trophies much more seriously next season. Until Man City get the gavel, they’re not losing it to anyone.
They’ve now effectively won the title 6 years out of 10; that’s approaching Bundesliga territory.
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No we dont. You take whatever you want from this season and the rest of us can take whatever we want.
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We’ve got evidence of the team progressing for 4 seasons straight, improving in every aspect of the game.
Our PL form in 2024 was near perfect.
It isn’t a coping mechanism, it’s recognising the trajectory of the team.
No other team at our age group is doing what we’re doing.
Majority of our players haven’t even entered their peak years.
I think it’s very reasonable to pleased with the progress and excited about what’s next.
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Might as well not have bothered then and just finished 17th by that account.
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When I say that I have enjoyed this season it’s just me expressing my feelings, it isn’t a way of coping with missing out on the title. That seems like an odd way to frame it. Are we now meant to pretend we didn’t enjoy this season to avoid looking like we are coping?
There’s nothing wrong with enjoying a season in which we battered teams for fun and stayed in the race til the final day of the season, especially after years of being utterly fucking irrelevant and totally uninvolved in title races.
If you can’t find any enjoyment in football without winning a league title or a Champions League title then you might as well find a new hobby. Or start supporting a City or a Madrid (and then switch teams again if they enter a fallow period)
If nothing means anything without winning then 90% of football fans are totally wasting their time lol
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I think its fine for fans to enjoy the season and be happy. Things were looking bleak and apart from brothers like @Castiel no one expected us to be this good.
Im disappointed due to lack of trophies but I don’t think being happy is a bizarre position. We were fucking crap 3 years ago.
I just hope we do better in cup competitions. I’ll back this team to smoke a domestic cup final easily just like City does.
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Admittedly it is a bleak outlook on it. Arsenal have been a joy to watch the last few years. It’s just we’ve seen what happened with Newcastle in the 90’s, Spurs under Poch and Liverpool’s PL record coming close over the years and what it ultimately led to in terms of legacy. Guess the point is as horrible as it is we are still just nearly men and there are no accomplishments for that along with no guarantees it will amount to majors down the line. Maybe I’ve taken too much of a battering from rival fans. Walking away trophyless in the past two seasons stings.
We are on the path right now but until it happens we just never know. 20 years for a club of our size is a long time and amidst that only one CL final. If we made inroads there it would have been easier. We are now in a position where it’s become all or nothing for us which is a testament to what Arteta and the background team have achieved within 5 years.
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There’s nothing wrong with any of this, but I do think it’s harsh to say being happy about this season is “consoling” ourselves.
As fans we have no control over where we start and the progression over the last 2 years has meant we are now back challenging. To expect we go from where we were to winning everything is unrealistic.
Nothing wrong with being happy with where we are and also wanting to push on from here. I think it goes without saying that every fan wants to win everything.
Agreed completely justified to be happy & proud of the club with how far they’ve come but by the same token the disappointment is very real. Success will ultimately be measured in our trophy haul by the end of this era. If all this leads to a title lift in a year or two none of this disappointment will matter and that’s the hope.
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I’ve always thought that it was Timber’s ACL that robbed us of the title but it was probably the drop-off in the form of Martinelli and Jesus that cost us in the end during that period before the Dubai trip when we were struggling to score despite dominating teams.
Eventually Havertz and Trossard stepped-up to get us to 89 points but had we been banging them in back in December the blip against Villa wouldn’t have mattered. We’ve still done remarkably well to bounce back from 6 years outside the top four and while we’re improving year-on-year I’m happy and proud of our 23/24 season. Trophies will come and they will feel very special when they do.
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I can’t blame Martinelli or Jesus. They cost us just as much as the back 5 shipping easy goals for the first 20 games of the season.
for example, one could say that if Jorginho doesn’t twat about vs. Spurs, we get 2 more points. We win the league from that alone. But he’s been immense and there are so many individual cases and what-if scenarios that focusing on them will only make the pain worse.
Incredible team, massive mentality from the whole squad & backroom staff to make this happen.
We’re up against cheaters, that’s what’s cost us the league, no individual player or mistake.
Next season, we need to be angry and go in to destroy from GW1 through to GW38. I think next season we’re winning the league.
Wouldn’t be surprised if we end up improving defensively again plus, those who faltered this season (Jesus, Martinelli etc), come back stronger if they’re still here.
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I forgot about Jorge’s little fuck-up, I also keep forgetting that point VAR robbed us of at Newcastle. Such slim margins which such consequences. I’m not mad at any of our boys who struggled for form to be honest, we’ve got a fabulous group of players and it’s never felt like they weren’t giving 100% (see Spurs last night for a comparison).
I hope our summer additions can be the difference come next May.
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We’re in very good hands guys! Our players are just on the cusp of entering their prime, many are still very young.
I think we’re gonna dominate so hard next season. We have massive pull and will only become greater and greater!
All we need to do is:
- Sell the deadwood
- Bring in 2-3 more first-team quality players; ideally 1 gamechanger
- Cut out the dumb mistakes of our game from the first half of this season
We’re winning at least 1 domestic + 1 major next season, got a strange feeling about it.
Let the rivals laugh; City’s time is almost over and the rest are going through transitionary periods.
It’s our time.
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For me, it is a combination of having to rely on Eddie Nketiah & not having any answer to teams marking our wingers out of the game.
It was poor preperation on Arteta’s front which he compensated during the Dubai trip.
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I’ve loved the last 2 seasons aside from the final 9 game collapse last season which saw us only take 12/27 points. But yeah by and large we’ve run man city close in 2 consecutive seasons, especially this season taking it to the final day.
Unfortunately for us though given how high the standard is we’ve come away empty handed barring a west ham miracle on Sunday, rightly or wrongly we’ll go into the 24/25 season needing to win something big for our efforts. Really stings that despite a top quality 2 seasons for 90 % of the time, a 20 year title drought will likely still linger over us.
Massively proud of this lot, it’s been a long time since we the fans have had such a connection to our team.
The good thing is they all look genuinely gutted, that will be fire in the belly next season and I loved Mikels line about not accepting this.
Well done lads, enjoy your holidays and we go again, COYG!
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We haven’t been this close to a league win in 20 years I guess.
Sometimes the process of getting to the absolute top includes the last few steps being really close.
Just grateful for being able to sit there on the last day of the league with the excitement of having a genuine chance to win it, so thank you for that.
We take a break now and come back stronger next year 
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Despite the pain, it’s impossible not to feel proud and we have to still be incredibly optimistic about what is coming. That’s the overwhelming feeling I have today. Well done to everyone involved with Arsenal, we’re on our way.