Expectations - 2023/2024 Season: Page 28 - The Arsenal discussion community: One More in the Tolly

Expectations - 2023/2024 Season

Sicario2 - Tier 1

Later today is huge with our two other rivals.

Draw is obviously the best result but the more I think about it the more I think a Liverpool win is the 2nd best result. Imagine if Liverpool win today and we beat City on 31st then City will be effectively out of the title race by April.

Liverpool will drop points further down the road so less concerned about them winning today.

Claudius

Sicario2 - Tier 1 statistically, Liverpool have massive over performance this season. But they’ve gotten here without their best players in 2024 and have an easy schedule after today. I’d rather they draw or lose. City have a couple of hard games coming up. Maybe their season and reputation end soon.

JazzG

Sicario2 - Tier 1 Liverpool will drop points further down the road

That is a city and club that runs off emotions, you're probably right but we also don't want them believing they can win either. International break is coming at the right time for Liverpool as well, will help get players back and let those close to fitness sharpen up before the run in. I do think Liverpool have been incredibly lucky and over performing their stats but experienced coaches have a habit of doing that.

Draw is perfect for me.

Clrnc

Claudius feel the opposite. I think Liverpool have been riding their luck they will fall off.

City juggernaut is insane and the more points they drop the better. I want a Liverpool win today

RocktheCasbah

Whatever happens today, I can't imagine how it would feel to watch this game having failed to take care of business yesterday. How significant Cobra Kai's intervention will turn out to be, we don't know yet, but I do know we can't take anything for granted. What a couple of months ahead!

banduan

Clrnc City juggernaut is insane and the more points they drop the better. I want a Liverpool win today

A draw would put things more in our hands, as if we beat Citeh, which we can, we'd be a long way towards the title.

goon

Draw is definitely the best result in pretty much every way. A win either way puts a huge amount of pressure on us to get a win at the Etihad to give us a good chance of winning the whole thing.

Being top of the league and into the next round of the CL has a nice ring to it, but that didn't end well for us after xmas 😅

Claudius

goon if City won and then we beat them, that would leave us on Arsenal 67, Pool 66, City 65 after the next round. If they draw and we beat City, that would give us Arsenal 67, Pool 67, City 63.
So draw looks best if we do our bit.

Clrnc

goon Being top of the league and into the next round of the CL has a nice ring to it, but that didn't end well for us after xmas 😅

This team might perform better as a chaser than a leader

JazzG

Also how great is it watching Liverpool vs City while having skin in the game, long may it continue!

goon

Clrnc

Well we need to adapt to it at some point. Because City and Liverpool have no problem doing both.

It is a different sort of pressure though. I was in a 6 a side league a couple of years ago where we chased all season playing fantastic football. We beat the team in 1st to go 2 points ahead with 2 games to go, against the bottom and 3rd from bottom sides.

I cannot explain what happened to us in those games, missing sitters, howlers at the back, passing a mess, running into trouble, arguments. We drew against the side we beat 9-1 earlier in the season, and lost against a team we beat 4-0, and bottled the league. It was so traumatic the team disbanded acrimoniously😆

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

goon sports psychology is fascinating at all levels.

USArsenal

I was doing some numbers earlier.. after 28 games, this is where we were last year
69 points.. 5 points head of City.. 66 goals, 26 goals against.. +40 goal difference.

this year
64 points.. 1 point ahead of Pool (2 ahead of city), although this will change after today. 70 goals.. 24 goals against. +46 goal difference.

And then we collapsed. after a nice 7 game win streak.. so until we can show that we have the mentality for the squeaky bum time of the season, im not convinced about our overall mentality. We show frailty too much over the years. Hope this year we have a bit more of a strong mentality. (and it helps that our team is getting healthy for the run in)

Claudius

USArsenal I am not convinced about all this mentality talk to be honest. It’s a short hand that pundits use to explain a lot of other factors.
The most reasonable explanation for what I think happened last year is that Arteta was still building the team. He had a very tight group of players he trusted to play his football, and the football itself wasn’t varied. We lost Jesus, which was a big impact. And then when we lost Saliba and Tomi simultaneously, our system fell apart completely. Players struggling to play the actual system wasn’t mentality

USArsenal

Claudius

I actually agree that we fell apart mainly after Partey and Saliba went down, and we did not have capable backup (I mean, i liked Rob, but he was a big reason we tanked last year). This year, in theory, we have much more capable backup should one of the core players get injured.

But we were also ahead in some of those games, and fell apart during the game and dropped points. And part of that is mentality (and yes, part is personnel). You are right that there are many factors, but for a while now, Arsenal has been known as bottlers, with good reason, as we often have done it. It seems less of an issue this season, but the last 10 games of the season will really show if we have the right stuff.

goon

Claudius

Mentality is definitely a factor, forget the pundits, the top coaches go on about it too much for it not to.

But the two things go hand in hand and once is much easier to control than the other. It’s a lot easier to be mentally strong if Rice and Saliba are in the side for the run in.

Qwiss

Claudius We lost Jesus, which was a big impact.

we dealt with that loss pretty well. It was when he came back and wasn't the same we had issues. In hindsight we should have stuck with Trossard. Hopefully Arteta has learnt from that and will now stick with Kai.

Clrnc

It was definitely mentality. We were 2 goals up at West Ham and Liverpool and shat the bed. We actually played super well but went into our shells when the pressure is on, even missing a penalty.

Then we lost at home to Southampton and Brighton. It was all in the mind.

AAStyle

I will always think that being first boosts morale as players will feel that winning the league doesn't depend on other's results.

And yeah, best result today is a draw, worst one is city winning. Those guys are on a different level because of their financial doping.

Claudius

goon I’m a big believer in mentality as well. Hence why I don’t want players like Toney polluting us again. But I think that quality in the right places is more important.

Claudius

Liverpool, West Ham, Southampton, City. We struggled to control those games. A large part of our control comes from being able to keep the squad compact and manage passing distances. Once we lost Saliba, a lot of that structure went. And our ability to create chances and limit opponents just disappeared. Here is a good view. You never want this red line spiking - that’s when you risk draws and losses.

Clrnc

No way you are convincing anyone that because we don't have Saliba, we can't control Southampton at home. A team that lost 10 consecutive matches away and conceded more than 3 goals per game before they visited us.

Claudius

Clrnc well, we struggled, didn’t we. If you find charts of our games from that period you’ll see that our distances and pass networks changed. The team changed how it played and failed to adjust.

This season I feel much more comfortable with our ability to adjust to absences because we have more players who can do more things.

JazzG

Clrnc At the time even us fans heads were in the clouds but one thing that is very clear was after the World cup our defensive record was not good enough. That was even with Saliba in the team we were letting in too many games. When we lose Saliba and Tomi in one game that was it for us.

I think the addition of Rice and Raya has helped us look more secure defensively. Rice is an absolute demon in front of our defence, he's mobility and defensive instincts are on another level to Partey/Xhaka of last season and that has really been one of the key factors.

« Previous Page Next Page »