Where did this go? These videos crack me up.
No one is defending their box in these clips lol. Every team plays 11 men behind the ball against us now.
It always is a freak season for one reason or other. Either it is because all our fullbacks or attackers are injured Or PGMOL forgets to draw the offside line.
Just when you think the title is close, some hurdle like Saliba going down will happen.
Arsenal are always 2 players short. ALWAYS.
Arsenal spent quite a lot of money and I thought maybe things will change. Nope, Arsenal just doesn’t have the blessings to get all the way through.
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Our Invincibles had a freak season too.
Very few injuries, no long-term ones to key players. I can’t remember that happening since.
We only used a total of 22 players in all four competitions.
Only 3 regulars outside the first eleven (Edu, Parlour, Cygan)
Our top striker missed one league game.
Not only went unbeaten in the league but made it to both domestic cup semis and the UCL quarter-finals.
Three red cards in all competitions.
A few teams do like West Ham, but it’s all about the general quickness of our attack. Arsenal will literally turn down a fast break in pursuit of established possession.
Even the clip I posted in Declan Rice’s thread is a feature of how we’ve changed. It is the 90th minute admittedly but it was also a must win game. A lack of forward runs. A lack of general intent to score.
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This isn’t really true. We started the season bad. Four draws and two losses in the first eleven games. Most injuries came after the season start. The whole narrative when you think about it (injuries derailed our seasons) isn’t really true. Our season got derailed before the injuries.
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I agree, Odegaard plays like he’s got White and Saka around him, which means lots of well-intended fancy passes to no-one. Timber and Nwaneri are good, but different types of player.
The number of times over the last 3 games (and in other games we’ve under-performed in) when we manage to break-up our own counter attacks by putting our foot on the ball then waying up our options before passing back. It’s back to the mid-Wenger era where we’re waiting for the perfect set-up/perfect pass before trying to walk the ball into the net.
While we’ve not got a striker, I’d at least like to see more shot attempts, particularly low and hard as they can bounce anywhere.
I think I can ascertain your agenda already but let’s play along.
I’m not just talking about injuries but while we’re on the subject. Which other EPL clubs don’t have any strikers available for the next 3 months? As I’ve repeatedly said, in my 40+ years of watching Arsenal, I have never seen an injury-crisis this bad. How is that not an outlier?
Then there’s the ineptitude in the recruitment team, gambling on the fitness and form of two players who aren’t really strikers (Havertz and Jesus) in the summer and an already shattered Havertz in January. Any other club in the league with money in the bank would have addressed that.
We’ve signed among our two worst ever loan signings. Sterling and Neto. Both no longer EPL standard. Big fuck-ups.
Losing our DoF midseason, certainly not the norm for us and probably had quite the effect behind closed doors at London Colney.
Red Cards - Lots of them, some iffy but avoidable, one overturned, but still disruptive.
League Position - Man City having a shit season means that somehow we’re still in second spot.
Dramatic loss of form from players who are usually dependable. Saliba hasn’t been at his best for periods of this season, nor Rice and Odegaard. Trossard too.
One of our summer signings gets injured in his first training session. At least Timber managed 1.5 games last season before getting injured.
We go away for a warm weather training holiday and come back without a striker after what Arteta referred to as a “freak incident”.
Our best player, one with a superb availability record is out for the most important part of the season and probably won’t be fully fit until next season.
No, it’s been very normal this season, just everyday things, injuries have clearly played no part in our downfall. I’m surprised I didn’t realise that sooner.
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Just keeping your boys heritage alive 
I know 
It’s more shameful now considering we have outspent Wenger’s 20 years in last 3-4 seasons.
Imagine spending 650m and only showing Saka as a potential world class attacker.
Fairs
The gap between us and Liverpool was already there from the first ten or eleven matchdays. In that run we’ve only missed Saliba through a red card suspension if I’m not mistaken. Since than we’ve only been following. Obviously the circumstances have become worse after that. But to say that we are trailing because of those circumstances is simply not true. Fact of the matter is that we have been trailing them from the start and never really where in it to begin with.
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I have to say I felt their was a really good discussion on our striker situation with Wrighty Neville and Carragher on this weeks stick to football
indulge us a little
No watch it 
We have no strikers. What else is there to discuss
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Match day 3 - Rice red card vs Brighton
Match day 5 - Trossard red card vs City
Match day 8 Saliba red card vs Bournemouth
Match day 10 - we lost against Newcastle, that was our only loss in the first 11…
Edit: throughout the season, there have been cards and injuries before we could even build momentum.
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Thanks Sean,
We pretty much matched last season’s performances for the first third of the season. To suggest that we were “never really in it” is just nonsense.
Liverpool had by far the easier fixtures during that period it’s just that the expected collapse that’s sabotaged Liverpool’s two previous league campaigns just didn’t happen this season. It’s amazing what can be achieved when you don’t have a season hit by injuries.
We lost 2-0 to Bournemouth, that was the first loss.
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My bad, you are correct - missed the caveat without a red card.
point essentially was that our progess has been stifled by cards and injuries. We would win a game or two and then have a red/significant injury. Difficult to build momentum and cohesion when it so stop start and has been throughout the season.
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What a great weekend it’s turning out to be!
No Arsenal, no heartache on game day, no foul mood the following day, no venting on OA. Just enjoying my cup of coffee with my Sunday crossword after a refreshing 50K ride this morning. Just how Sunday’s should be spent.
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