Obviously the narrative will be that we've bottled it and are a laughing stock again. In truth we probably had a purple patch pre World Cup and benefited from some of teams who usually finish above us (eg Chelsea, Spurs, Liverpool) being in a bit of a shambles and City not being quite fully on it and that made our position a bit artificial. Post World Cup has been a roller coaster and most of the memories have been comebacks and very late goals and that couldn't be maintained forever.
Realistically you don't just go from 8th to 5th to 1st that quickly. We've probably returned to what is our actual level now at around 4th or 5th best. Difficult to see where the next win is coming from at this point. I do really dread the thought of playing Real Madrid etc next season.
I think the worst thing for me is that all the great memories of this season don't matter anymore. The wins over Spurs, the late win against United, Jorghino against Villa, Nelson vs Bournemouth etc. Instead of being moments we relive for decades to come they get confined to the scrapheap of moments that ultimately didn't make any difference.
Arteta needs to make a change to try and refresh things to stop the rot and get something out of the next couple of games. Trossard was our player of the month for March and best player throughout that 7 game winning run. Now he doesn't get on the pitch anymore until it's too late. He's been quality in just about every minute he's played for us and it seems criminal to leave him on the bench. Need to find a way for him to start. Nelson probably warrants a bit more time given the impact he's had off the bench too. The lack of minutes for Jorghino has been a surprise. The last handful of games have been absolutely wretched for Partey so there's probably a change needed there. Going to Newcastle with more of the same won't result in much joy. That game probably represents the last chance to stay above them for the foreseeable future too.
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