Expectations for the upcoming season.: Page 2 - The Arsenal discussion community: One More in the Tolly

Expectations for the upcoming season.

Anzac

banduan wrote:
We need to be better at everything. More points, better GD, more consistent play.

Frankly, we should be challenging for the title with the outlay we've had, but the squad is still missing that X factor, the superstars.

We should be challenging top 4 right down to the wire as before, that is the absolute bare minimum. I would've said top 4 is the bare minimum but you can't ignore what the other challengers in the big 6 are doing in the transfer market, Spuds in particular.

In which case we should have got the job done last season when we had less committments in terms of competitions.

banduan

yeh but that's last season with a different squad.

Gazza M

we need to be pushing for 4th minimum, and we're still at least 2 signings away from being there. that's not an excuse, that's moreso reflective of the fact that we're 250m into our rebuild and still look Europa league calibre

jones

Find what our rivals are doing a bit overrated. A good manager could easily take this squad to CL football, honest opinion. Look at last season, don't think I need to restate what I think about Arteta and if he could've kept the team from falling apart for just one match (Brighton Palace Soton or most importantly Newcastle) we would've made it.

Every single season the league gets massively overrated. I pray we'll finally see the back of Arteta this season and we've again prioritised signings in the wrong positions but we're definitely not far from 4th at all

Kel Varnsen

5th or 6th. We have a decent squad, but a shit manager.

JazzG

AAStyle- wrote:
During 2009-2016 (approx.) Wenger always dealt with that situation. All the other big teams (Lpool, ManCity, ManU, Chelsea, Tot) investing more than us and at least 3 of them investing heavily. We were always top 4. Always.

Maybe the problem is not the players.

There is no doubt Wenger is by far the better manager and worked miracles with what he had but his last two seasons he didn't finish top 4. I would however argue that there is a hell of a lot more competition for the Top 4 now then during that time period. Essentially Liverpool, Man City & Chelsea have the top 3 positions most likely locked down. Then there is us, Spurs and Man Utd fighting for the 4th spot.

goon

CL qualification, EL run and hopefully trophy and more goals.

Qwiss

JazzG wrote:
Essentially Liverpool, Man City & Chelsea have the top 3 positions most likely locked down. Then there is us, Spurs and Man Utd fighting for the 4th spot.

I don't think Chelsea are a lock for the top 3 at all. In fact I'd say catching them and staying ahead of United is our best route back into the CL. Not confident we can do it though unless we sign a few more.

Clrnc

Kel Varnsen wrote:
5th or 6th. We have a decent squad, but a shit manager.

This is the most common opinion. Basically because of our manager deficiencies we have to sign alot more and have a perfect squad to make up for it

RowJimmy

I think most neutrals would have ranked our squad 6th at the beginning of last season, behind the obvious suspects. Our manager is probably at a similar level to our squad, and we placed where we belonged. What was disappointing was that we had the chance to steal a CL spot and crumbled down the stretch.

The bad managing was to be found at United, who have a lot of attacking talent but no plan. I also think personally that Tuchel should have done much better (in terms of points, not placement) with the talent at his disposal.

I don't expect United to improve much this year. I think there's a good chance that Chelsea move backwards. Conte is a coin flip manager - Spurs could improve a great deal and could implode. I expect us to finish 5th again but more likely to move up to 4th than to fall to 6th.

My biggest concern is that we don't have a replacement for Partey playing as a single pivot if he is unavailable.

lorddulaarsenal

3rd this season methinks.

Squad is now a lot closer to where it needs to be

Qwiss

lorddulaarsenal this is the closest prediction I see near the top. Nice and specific. Good call Dula.

Doc

Hard to tell with transfer window stil open. Feel like United could go on a madness in the next month.

Agree with Row, squad was probably 6th/5th best start last season and is probably 5th/4th right now but that could still swing either way .

What I would love is if this this young squad could go on a cup run and win the EL. Would be sick.

ohboy

We are not getting top four without strengthening the midfield.

We have seen this lesson, time and again. One injury to Partey and put simply, we are fucked. For anyone thinking we could CL, without Partey, and no additions, we are looking at Xhaka and Elneny again.

AAStyle

Last season we had everything to get into top4. I cant believe that people is reluctant to accept that we missed the objective because of gross incompetence on the manager side.

Our squad is more than enough to fight for a top4 spot. I just dont get the argument consisting in "our squad is the fifth best, we will end fifth". That is where the manager factor comes in. A top tier manager would achieve top 4, like Wenger. By contrast, an incompetent manager would get the team into the 8th position.

But clearly Arteta is the right choice. He would never land us into an 8th position. Oh, wait...

RowJimmy

Arteta is our manager. He will be for the whole season almost certainly. Given that fact, what are your expectations (not your "standards," but your expectations) for the coming season?

Bosscielny

AAStyle- wrote:
Our squad is more than enough to fight for a top4 spot.

Is that not what we did?

Bosscielny

I expect the club will take another step forward, on and off the pitch.

I expect the connection with the fans will continue to improve after a few truly toxic years during Arteta’s start, Unai’s time here and the last couple of seasons under Arsene.

I expect to get more enjoyment from the club, as well as on here, then i did last season. .

I expect to see a bunch of our players take the next step up and i also think we’ll see several new contracts dished out to our important players, including a 21 year old French defender who played 50(!) games last season.

I expect to see the attractive football we played in bursts last year a lot more consistently this season.

I also expect there’ll be fewer fans of the club calling our manager a cunt, a cancer or incompetent. (Wishful thinking, huh?)

Bosscielny

How’d i do guys?

Dropped this place like i was MDGooner after Arteta’s extension so didn’t get the chance to enjoy myself on here as much as last season. So dropped the ball on that one.

Obviously can’t vouch for the last one because of that but i’ll give you guys, and myself, the benefit of the doubt and assume i got that one right, too.

Pretty accurate with the rest, though.

5.5/6. Not too bad. How’d everyone else get on?

AAStyle

Bosscielny wrote:
AAStyle- wrote:
Our squad is more than enough to fight for a top4 spot.

Is that not what we did?

In the same paragraph I state that on that basis the manager will make the difference. A top tier manager, with a squad good enough to fight for a top4 spot, would have achieved the objective. A mediocre manager, by contrast, will not, even if the other teams commit blunders (like it happened).

@Row Jimmy: Most probable scenario is that we finish 6th, or 5th tops. Getting into top4 will depend on the players quality and them being able to play well as a team despite the manager we have.

Anzac

Clrnc wrote:
Kel Varnsen wrote:
5th or 6th. We have a decent squad, but a shit manager.

This is the most common opinion. Basically because of our manager deficiencies we have to sign alot more and have a perfect squad to make up for it

TBH IMO it's more to do with the requirements to be able to play this positional style effectively, compared to say a possession style that primarily requires technical quality, or a heavy pressing style that requires athleticism and endurance.

Anzac

Bosscielny wrote:
I expect the club will take another step forward, on and off the pitch.

I expect the connection with the fans will continue to improve after a few truly toxic years during Arteta’s start, Unai’s time here and the last couple of seasons under Arsene.

I expect to get more enjoyment from the club, as well as on here, then i did last season. .

I expect to see a bunch of our players take the next step up and i also think we’ll see several new contracts dished out to our important players, including a 21 year old French defender who played 50(!) games last season.

I expect to see the attractive football we played in bursts last year a lot more consistently this season.

I also expect there’ll be fewer fans of the club calling our manager a cunt, a cancer or incompetent. (Wishful thinking, huh?)

IF the rebuild is completed and the match day squad is fit for purpose then there'd be little to no reason to NOT see any of the above, and in particular the part that is bolded. The caveat is still regarding the use of the squad so as to avoid burn-out, and/or over thinking tactics and trying to be too clever (hopefully the 5 sub rule will be able to mitigate any such issues).

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