The Wizard of Özil

[jayramfootball]

No no no absolutely not can this lot challenge for the League or CL.There are 3 things I want to make clear. The first is that, this squad is nowhere near as good as any of our rivals, Man U included. The second is that our squad is better than everyone else's. The third is that our squad should be performing at a far higher level than it has done for the past 5 or so years, but due to idiotic decisions from managers we never see the team perform at the level they should be performing at.

Which is why I say most of the players at Arsenal are not actually Arsenal level. If I had my way the only players I would keep are Partey, Tierney, Gabriel and possibly Auba and Leno. I never really rated Auba that much when he was at Dortmund and I think Emi is a better keeper than Leno - on the short number of games he has played for us and his games at Villa so far.

The erosion of quality from the squad is palpable, unfortnately it has become the new norm but we should be striving for far better.

I think the quality of our squad is perfectly represented in our league position - maybe we should be a couple of places higher, but no more.
Wolves squad, for example, is better than ours and if we mixed squads with them, only 3-4 of our players would make it into their first team.
I think people still overestimate our players - maybe because our players cost a lot.

That’s a tough one to agree with. There is enough quality in our squad to be in the top half. Ridiculous to suggest otherwise. .

MAYBE top half - like I said, we might be a couple of places better than we are currently showing.
We have very few good players.

[Santi]

I think on top form we have the 5th best squad. They just don’t perform to that level whenever they don’t f***ing feel like it, making the reality when taking consistency into it, us having the 10th best squad in the league.

[EliteKiller]

I think on top form we have the 5th best squad. They just don’t perform to that level whenever they don’t f***ing feel like it, making the reality when taking consistency into it, us having the 10th best squad in the league.

How do you get there?

City, Liverpool, Chelsea >>>>>> Arsenal that's not even a debate

So you're saying we're better than all but one of Spurs, Utd, Leicester, Everton, Wolves, West Ham, Southampton .... that's questionable. If you line up the starting elevens we don't get six guaranteed players against any of them ... we have way to many weak links.

[Santi]

Yes quite comfortably better than Everton wolves West Ham and Southampton. Leicester are overrated imo and not that great without Vardy.

Spurs are obviously better than us and united about the same.

You lot just love to be dramatic about the player quality when things are going well. We win three games and suddenly every player is a goat, we lose 3 games they’re suddenly trash that wouldn’t get in the Brighton team. Quite pathetic really, the only problem most of these players have is their piss poor attitude and therefore their level of consistency which I already mentioned.

If you take our players on top form we are easily top 6 and I think we are a bit better than United squad wise.

[EliteKiller]

Yes quite comfortably better than Everton wolves West Ham and Southampton. Leicester are overrated imo and not that great without Vardy.

Spurs are obviously better than us and united about the same.

You lot just love to be dramatic about the player quality when things are going well. We win three games and suddenly every player is a goat, we lose 3 games they’re suddenly trash that wouldn’t get in the Brighton team. Quite pathetic really, the only problem most of these players have is their piss poor attitude and therefore their level of consistency which I already mentioned.

If you take our players on top form we are easily top 6 and I think we are a bit better than United squad wise.

There is nothing over the last two years performance wise to back up your claims - and this year it's looking even worse.

To keep believing that player's who are consistently average will suddenly get better? Age or lack of ability suggest not.

So will any of these players likely be better next season?

Luiz - Next season 34 and well past his best
Sokratis - 33 and finished
Willian - 33 and on the way down
Ozil - 32 and three years out of date
Auba - 32 we all hope he's in the 5% of over 30's great strikers, but?
Laca - 30 looking a shadow of his former self
Soares - 30 WTF
Mustafi - 29 not getting any better

That's eight squad players who will almost certainly be worse not better if they are still here next season

Elneny - 29 he's reached his level
Xhaka - 28 keep hoping he will improve but?
Kolasniac - 28 he's reached his level
Bellerin - 26 we keep hoping he will get better but will he?

That's another four who we all know simply aren't getting any better, or do you think they will?

You might disagree with one or two of those but then I could add Mari, Chambers, Holding none of whom I have much hope for. Fair to say we have nearly half our squad who in all probability will be at best just as average, or more likely even weaker, players for us next season.

Of course that's the same for all clubs, it's a constant cycle of renewal, our issue is that unlike nine or ten clubs in the EPL we have half our squad either ageing or simply not good enough compared to their five or six.

We have let these problems build and build by extending contracts on players who then have no transfer value and by signing/loaning short term fixes creating long term problems.

You can argue that they are not all 'bad players' that they may just have a 'piss poor attitude' that Arteta is yet another 'failed manager' but what you can't deny is the harsh reality that far too many current players are just marking time on big contracts before heading for the retirement deals in China or the USA, they are never taking Arsenal back to the top, they just aren't good enough anymore.

[swipe right]

This squad finished second in the league. They weren’t much better than what we have now.

[LMAO]

(semi-)athletic midfield with technical ability >>> nonathletic midfield with worse technical ability

That's the big difference.

[KG3]

This squad finished second in the league. They weren’t much better than what we have now.

They would have won the title if we had a CF who could actually score goals

[Rockape]

As long as we have people in power making decisions like spending £72m on Pepe, then we will never hit the heights of the PL. I could mention a few other decisions, but that one is a perfect example.

[theHotHead]

No no no absolutely not can this lot challenge for the League or CL.There are 3 things I want to make clear. The first is that, this squad is nowhere near as good as any of our rivals, Man U included. The second is that our squad is better than everyone else's. The third is that our squad should be performing at a far higher level than it has done for the past 5 or so years, but due to idiotic decisions from managers we never see the team perform at the level they should be performing at.

Which is why I say most of the players at Arsenal are not actually Arsenal level. If I had my way the only players I would keep are Partey, Tierney, Gabriel and possibly Auba and Leno. I never really rated Auba that much when he was at Dortmund and I think Emi is a better keeper than Leno - on the short number of games he has played for us and his games at Villa so far.

The erosion of quality from the squad is palpable, unfortnately it has become the new norm but we should be striving for far better.

I think the quality of our squad is perfectly represented in our league position - maybe we should be a couple of places higher, but no more.
Wolves squad, for example, is better than ours and if we mixed squads with them, only 3-4 of our players would make it into their first team.
I think people still overestimate our players - maybe because our players cost a lot.

That’s a tough one to agree with. There is enough quality in our squad to be in the top half. Ridiculous to suggest otherwise. .

Agreed. No way half the teams above us in the table have better squads, no way at all.

[theHotHead]

I think on top form we have the 5th best squad. They just don’t perform to that level whenever they don’t f***ing feel like it, making the reality when taking consistency into it, us having the 10th best squad in the league.

How do you get there?

City, Liverpool, Chelsea >>>>>> Arsenal that's not even a debate

So you're saying we're better than all but one of Spurs, Utd, Leicester, Everton, Wolves, West Ham, Southampton .... that's questionable. If you line up the starting elevens we don't get six guaranteed players against any of them ... we have way to many weak links.

Mate how have Southampton got a better squad than us? Last season they were in a relegation battle. West Ham were also in a relegation battle last season. And Wolves are over-performing because they have a very good manager.

You are mistaking being a good team (sum of the parts) with having a better squad (better individual players). Wolves and Leicester are 2 great examples of consistently punching above your weight.

[themessiah]

Hopefully the Club do everything to finally get rid of Mesut once and for all in January, always thought considering his kind of character and personality, it was dangerous he trained with the first team in the first place, he should've been sent to the U21s.

[Highbury Hillbilly]

This squad finished second in the league. They weren’t much better than what we have now.

That's because this squad reached 71 points, which is not enough for 2nd place 99% of the time. Emery's first year ended with 70 points, which wasn't even enough for Top 4.

A more realistic reference point would be 2013/14 when we made 4th with 79 points.

[Angelito]

This squad finished second in the league. They weren’t much better than what we have now.

That's because this squad reached 71 points, which is not enough for 2nd place 99% of the time. Emery's first year ended with 70 points, which wasn't even enough for Top 4.

A more realistic reference point would be 2013/14 when we made 4th with 79 points.

ManU won the League with 75 points.

Perspective.

[Highbury Hillbilly]

This squad finished second in the league. They weren’t much better than what we have now.

That's because this squad reached 71 points, which is not enough for 2nd place 99% of the time. Emery's first year ended with 70 points, which wasn't even enough for Top 4.

A more realistic reference point would be 2013/14 when we made 4th with 79 points.

ManU won the League with 75 points.

Perspective.

That was in 1997. The average top finish this past decade is close to 90 pts. Even back then, the gap between #4 and #1 was only 7 points. We were 2nd to Leicester but still 10 points behind.

I'm not saying another 2015-16 opportunity won't come again. Im saying that the probability of all league contenders to all f**k up at the same time is low
so we might be waiting a long while.