Expectations - 2023/2024 Season: Page 12 - The Arsenal discussion community: One More in the Tolly

Expectations - 2023/2024 Season

QuincyAbeyie

goon The hope is to win whatever we’re competing in and I for one am going to enjoy the ride rather than tense up like many have been this season.

I find it bizarre that there's a choice and that it's one you stick with at all times. Surely you'll enjoy it when it's enjoyable to watch and be tense when it's not? I don't think anyone here will enjoy every minute of the season or no minutes of the season.

goon

QuincyAbeyie

The secret is embracing and learning to enjoy it when it’s tense.

daredevil

QuincyAbeyie

It is a choice. You choose your response.

Burnwinter

From the bookies, we are:

5/2 to win the league, 4/6 for top two, 1/14 for top four
9/1 to win the Champions League, 11/4 to be finalists, 6/5 to be semi-finalists, and 10/11 to beat Porto.

Not up to the maths this eve, but it looks to me we're about 50–50 to reach my modest objectives for the season (either top two or better and a CL quarter-final, or top three and a CL semi-final or better), which sounds realistic.

flobaba

I want us to evolve further before I begin to feel confident we will win the league. Feel like we don't yet have that consistent ruthless streak, that cold blooded attitude that means that we absolutely will punish any and all teams that dare to make a mistake against us. It's a hall mark that has defined the nature of most of the teams who have won the league in recent years.

We need to learn how to translate our dominance into goals and knock the stuffing out of teams early. Similar to what we did against Lens in the champions League.

I think we will get there, but will we get there this season? A quality addition in January who can be a finishing specialist would help a lot.

Burnwinter

flobaba I want us to evolve further before I begin to feel confident we will win the league.

Fully agree. It's becoming an engrossing season, but we're a long way and a double handful of landmark victories away from a major trophy.

Stuff like this relatively fascinating analysis of our multi-stage controlball press against Brighton offers hope. We're now one of the best prepared and coordinated XIs in world football.

Coombs

flobaba We need to learn how to translate our dominance into goals

This. We need to make scoring goals a much more important part of how we play. I get that it's an evolution and a process, but we can't let this group rest easy until they make it their mission to score, regardless of game state.

I think we need an addition who will level up everyone's scoring game. Some real competition.

goon

The pressing against Brighton, one of the hardest teams to press, was top class.

You can't ever really be confident of winning the league though, not unless you get a complete collapse from City.

Clrnc

goon De Zerbi said the same. Granted they are really poor this year but I was so confident we will win after the first 20 minutes

awooga83

Yep agree, Brighton was one of our best all round performances at were comfortably better then then and yet struggled to translate that into the score or should have been.. If that's what it's like when we are pretty much on it it makes many of the other games more risky then they should be because when we drop off that level it'll be harder because of how poor we are at creating and taking chances.

Many of our forwards are too wasteful we get some momentum and the ball back but slow everything down and pass too much.

lorddulaarsenal

I think we might just be better than City now.

The inferiority complex has certainly gone and we can now match or better them physically.

RocktheCasbah

lorddulaarsenal obviously, it would be unwise to write City off, given their traditionally "universe boss" second halves of seasons & they have De Bruyne to come back, buuuuuut sometimes you peak and you don't realise it at the time.

I keep thinking about our Invincibles and how, we never realised it at the time, but it was the end of something rather than the start. The same may well be true of City's treble winners. Actually, if you look who left in the summer, it probably is true. Not saying they won't win the league, I believe they are still favourites, but last season was the end of an era for them imo.

KingslandBarge

One club is definitely on the up, the other may be also be dealing with hangover and transition between an old and new midfield guard. All of which is why I am pretty sure they will do a madness in the summer, and we have to prioritise winning now, capitalising on this season.

daredevil

KingslandBarge

We're also dealing with a transition of the midfield guard from old to new, yet our own fans have been far less forgiving of us, despite us doing far better than other teams going through the same transition.

Burnwinter

Opta's predictive model reckons it's about City 40%, Arsenal and Liverpool 25% and Villa 10% to win it at the moment. Not sure what it would've said at this stage last season.

City are somewhat "gettable" this season, at this moment. Our match at Anfield this weekend being rather important, if in no way decisive.

Burnwinter

daredevil We're also dealing with a transition of the midfield guard from old to new, yet our own fans have been far less forgiving of us

Arsenal fans haven't been unforgiving … ? There's judicious angst about very, very obvious things (such as "Is £65m signing Kai Havertz good enough?") because our rebuild has already put the club achingly within reach of the title once ... but we can all see we've only bought ourselves 2–3 seasons to make it count before we have to start again.

Qwiss

daredevil the transition talk is a load of shite. Liverpool have made more changes than us and City and they're up there too. You sign players to improve not to spend years "transitioning". We have arrived, the transition years were Artetas first 3 seasons.

daredevil

Too many people were busy twerking over Tonali, Szbozslwhatever and Maddison, yet one man reigns supreme. Cobra motherfucking Kai.

QuincyAbeyie

Havertz has not had a better season than Maddison. 😂

daredevil

QuincyAbeyie

Maddison is of no use from the injury table. You best believe if we bought him, people would have been onto the club as soon as he got injured for signing someone with a sketchy injury record.

Coombs

QuincyAbeyie yes, he has

QuincyAbeyie

daredevil Maddison is of no use from the injury table.

Okay, I thought your point was about Havertz having played well, not just that he's been available more so he's automatically been better.

QuincyAbeyie

Coombs sure 👍

RocktheCasbah

Burnwinter I think what @daredevil is saying is (correct me if I'm putting words into your mouth) that there has been a considerable amount of criticism regarding our form this season, even though we've had to bed in 2 new players into a 3 man midfield - not an insignificant task - and we sit today top of the Premier League.

As for having to rebuild it all again in two or three years, surely for all the elite managers, rebuilding is a constant process (evolution not revolution) - Ferguson managed it constantly for the guts of 20 years and Wenger arguably between 97-04. Guardiola has done it at City, even if he may have gone a bit too far this summer.

In any case, I don't think you can guarantee anything in football - as I alluded to earlier, in 2004 would we have foreseen 20 years without a title after 3 in 6? Leave worrying about the far future to the people lucky enough to be able to try and influence it I reckon.

daredevil

Burnwinter

RtC nailed it but there's nothing judicious about making judgments after 5 games in a 38 game season. He was collectively written off as a waste of money, whilst every Arsenal man and his dog was lamenting the business conducted by our rivals.

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