April is the cruellest month: Page 5 - The Arsenal discussion community: One More in the Tolly

April is the cruellest month

Burnwinter

I see no evidence it's not happening. Looks to me like we'll very likely have Newcastle, United and City to worry about fairly soon. Looking forward to Guardiola getting sick of life at City though.

MistaT

I don't see this as a "freak" season in any way. But I also think we'll be hard pressed next year to match (or beat) this year's point total.

We've benefited from no major injuries (until Saliba), had a very settled/productive first XI, and pulled some results from very close games. Next year though I think we'll struggle with a shallow bench, challenges related to Europe, and Arteta's (so-far) inability to incorporate our bench players so they come in firing.

No matter how this season ends I'm pretty sure bookies will have Man City as favorites to win the title next year....

goon

MistaT We've benefited from no major injuries (until Saliba)

Are you ETH in disguise? Jesus missing for 3 months not count? Even if you ignore and dismiss ESR, Tomi and Eddie as insignificant, both Partey and Zinchenko also missed a number of games.

We’ve dealt with plenty of adversity.

Clrnc

RowJimmy Looking at how USG is performing in Europe, that poker lad at Brighton is not a simple man.

MistaT

goon -- wild that I blanked on missing Jesus.

Good point.

Burnwinter

goon Don't come the raw prawn about injuries and whatnot though. You're still claiming we're going to be banging out 50 point half seasons while getting used to more difficult midweek matches on the road for the Champions League. I don't see it.

Gotta be all out to win the league now to give ourselves the best chance possible of locking in our recent improvement—then go back to "the project" and enter phase two. As after 97–98 there's another stage of growth needed here. Best news is the quality, youth and motivation in the squad.

Burnwinter

An informative roundup of what outcomes are locked in, what's left to lock others in, including Champions League qualification and league victory, how our 22–23 team is tracking relative to historic Arsenal sides, and where they would end up in our all time reckoning if our form somehow held to season's end.

https://www.cannonstats.com/p/an-arsenal-season-for-the-ages#details

IBL

So looking at the fixture list if we win our next two games we could be 9 ahead of city, who will have two in hand but 9 points before we meet them is a good place to be (assuming they win their next which they should do with ease)

Burnwinter

IBL Agree, I think 9 points ahead would set up a situation where it felt like City still had a lot to do even if they won. The point earnt today (thanks Ramsdale) mattered plenty in the scheme of things and can be viewed as a positive.

KingslandBarge

Seven game unbeaten streak, hats off. Work to be done and we need the likes of Nketiah and Saliba back this season if possible.

awooga83

I think my expectation is City will get the results in this run in so we needed to maintain the gap for as long as possible and I felt the Liverpool game needed to be a win for psychological as much as keeping it in our control.

I think today we've probably lost the title race I just think the margin for error is too much and psychologically it's hard with the way it's gone. I also don't think we'll get a result at city and not convinced we don't drop some other points as well in the remaining fixtures.

RocktheCasbah

awooga83 but imagine if we do. If you're just employing some sort of coping strategy, fair dos but there's no reason we can't get a result at a team who lost at home to Brentford.

AAStyle

awooga83
I also feel that we wont get any single point at Etihad. In order to win the league we need City to make some mistakes. I still think we have some material odds of winning it.

flobaba

Stay positive

Burnwinter

I think it's rough to give away that well made 2–0 lead but on the other hand, with the way the match evolved I'm pleased we had it to give away.

If City can beat us and win every match in both league and Champions League from here, we'll just have to leave it to the authorities to deal with their cheating. But I don't see it being that way. Today we saw exactly how we can get a point at the Etihad.

Qwiss

This threads a curse.

Mirth

Qwiss it’s got Tony Montana energy - sorry bw

awooga83

RocktheCasbah no that would be great and if we demonstrate something that I don't fully believe we could do then it'll be an amazing outcome. Of course I don't mean we could never get a result I just think with the team we have, the quality they have and the psychological advantage they've had with us and away from home I think the outcome is weighted more to them. I think 8/10 they probably win so in that context for me I don't go in expecting that we will get a result.

Not to dissimilar to the home match, I thought we could get something but deep down suspected it would go there way somehow. Now we may prove that sense wrong one day but a bit like at Anfield today we have to land it and buck the trend

QuincyAbeyie

RocktheCasbah if anything, people saying we're going to gut Liverpool, "what are you guys afraid of" etc. and then after the match saying it's a good point at one of the toughest grounds in the league sounds like more of a coping strategy for me.

RocktheCasbah

QuincyAbeyie well, it's 100% a good point.

My point before the game was that I believed we were good enough to win there and for the majority of the first half, we were more than good enough.

Liverpool hammered us in the second half, helped by Arteta being so passive from the bench. All things considered, I don't really know how you could look at the game and come away from it thinking it wasn't a good point.

Both positions can still be true.

QuincyAbeyie

RocktheCasbah sure, it's a good point in the sense that we were terrible and statistically shouldn't have walked away with anything from this performance, but if this is a game we should've won against a bad team we shouldn't have to fear then getting a point isn't good.

Gunner89

Klopp rested half his team for this game.

He thinks Arsenal at home is harder than Chelsea away.

RocktheCasbah

QuincyAbeyie my point, very simply, is throwing in the towel off the back of this game is premature. That's all I'm saying really. Winning would have been huge, but not losing it can also be big for us.

Also, Liverpool's record is second only to us and City at home, so it demonstrably is one of the toughest grounds in the league to go to.

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