Will Arsenal ever be great again?

[Gordon Bennit]

The one major criticism I have is that we play too slow all the time. I get the need to control possession, but too often when we need a goal we waste our own time with a possession game. We need to learn to play with urgency when required. I don;t want to see 15 seconds to take a throw in of 30 seconds of meaningless passing when we're drawing or losing with 10 minutes to go. It's better to lose a game by taking risks and win a game by taking risks than drawing two games. 3 pts vs 2.

Yeah, I am with you on this Jay. It's my biggest issue with England as well, the slowness of the build up etc. Last season (with obvious exceptions) was the first time in these last 3 seasons where we needed a goal or more, and from 85 minutes onwards, I could almost predict we wouldn't even force the keeper into a save, which is how it was in the last years of Wenger's tenure.

[VCC]

The one major criticism I have is that we play too slow all the time. I get the need to control possession, but too often when we need a goal we waste our own time with a possession game. We need to learn to play with urgency when required. I don;t want to see 15 seconds to take a throw in of 30 seconds of meaningless passing when we're drawing or losing with 10 minutes to go. It's better to lose a game by taking risks and win a game by taking risks than drawing two games. 3 pts vs 2.

Yeah, I am with you on this Jay. It's my biggest issue with England as well, the slowness of the build up etc. Last season (with obvious exceptions) was the first time in these last 3 seasons where we needed a goal or more, and from 85 minutes onwards, I could almost predict we wouldn't even force the keeper into a save, which is how it was in the last years of Wenger's tenure.

Factor of being way over coached, won't change until Arteta learns to trust the process

[deleted account]

If you think we haven't moved backwards massively this season Jay, I don't know what to tell you.

Injuries.
But we still finished 2nd and went further in the CL

[Nuggets]

If you think we haven't moved backwards massively this season Jay, I don't know what to tell you.

Injuries.
But we still finished 2nd and went further in the CL

....and still ended up with FA

[PairyGrows]

The injuries were not a surprise given Arteta's unsustainable squad management. When you overwork your players to the degree Arteta has, injuries are entirely expected.

[theHotHead]

If you think we haven't moved backwards massively this season Jay, I don't know what to tell you.

Injuries.
But we still finished 2nd and went further in the CL

We finished second because all the other teams were piss poor and worse than us, not because we were anything special.

[deleted account]

If you think we haven't moved backwards massively this season Jay, I don't know what to tell you.

Injuries.
But we still finished 2nd and went further in the CL

We finished second because all the other times were piss poor and worse than us, not because we were anything special.

We would have been more special if not for the injuries.
We finished second because we got the second most amount of points.
Why the points totals were lower for the top teams can be questioned - perhaps the middle of the table teams were better and took more points, maybe they weren't as good.
Hard to say.
Injuries played a big part in City's , Spurs and Utd's seasons too - we just coped better with our squad than they did with theirs.

[Highbury Hillbilly]

The injuries were not a surprise given Arteta's unsustainable squad management. When you overwork your players to the degree Arteta has, injuries are entirely expected.

And yet we've managed to make the squad even smaller. Players have left, more are expected to go, we're linked with 3 players max, none of whom have formally joined yet.

[VCC]

Jesus over rated goal scorer and injury prone can't be trusted forward.

Tomiyassu always injured not even worth the squad possition because of this.

Havertz over rated player more use as a utility player off the bench can fill a couple possitions but never consistently

Martinelli has not reached the heights lost his MOJO in and out of form and the team.

Odegaard actually performed with about as many assists as last season but lacked goals and lacked confidence, should have been left out of the side longer was not fully fit imo.

Saka always a huge loss to the group

Gabby big loss although kiwi filled in decently missed his goals and more importantly his defending of set piece

Left back is a no contest manager refused to play the clubs best LB, and through injury found our 2nd best, tommi is a mute argument ties should be cut he is not physically up to it.

White 2nd best RB anyways to Timber the RB issue could have been handled much better by the manager adjusting the back line instead of using partey.

So what fkn injury crisis

[Nuggets]

Jesus over rated goal scorer and injury prone can't be trusted forward.

Tomiyassu always injured not even worth the squad possition because of this.

Havertz over rated player more use as a utility player off the bench can fill a couple possitions but never consistently

Martinelli has not reached the heights lost his MOJO in and out of form and the team.

Odegaard actually performed with about as many assists as last season but lacked goals and lacked confidence, should have been left out of the side longer was not fully fit imo.

Saka always a huge loss to the group

Gabby big loss although kiwi filled in decently missed his goals and more importantly his defending of set piece

Left back is a no contest manager refused to play the clubs best LB, and through injury found our 2nd best, tommi is a mute argument ties should be cut he is not physically up to it.

White 2nd best RB anyways to Timber the RB issue could have been handled much better by the manager adjusting the back line instead of using partey.

So what fkn injury crisis

[theHotHead]

Injuries are part of football.

We got hit hard losing Havertz because we failed to plan, it was called out before the season even started, we only have ourselves to blame.

Saka being overplayed has continually been called out, Nwaneri softened the blow of losing him though.

Odegaard being injured hurt is creatively, instead of playing Nwaneri who could easily have stepped in, Arteta played Trossard as a creator and it failed spectacularly. Issue of our own making.

Gabriel being injured meant we lost our chief set piece goal scorer. Kiwior did very well as his replacement defensively however Saliba seemed lost and made mistakes as a result. Not much anyone can do about that I suppose apart from perhaps giving more game time to Kiwior so Saliba had more familiarity with the partnership.

I don't understand talk of an injury crisis, most of the issues were self inflicted. You cannot claim the perennially injured as part of an injury crisis

[DiamondGooner]

Have you seen Liverpools signings?

Team who wants to win.

We'd never.

[Angelito]

Another major trophy for Chelsea. Meanwhile at Arsenal, we have clowns who have lit the gas unto themselves: process is etErnAl.