Expectations - 2023/2024 Season: Page 30 - The Arsenal discussion community: One More in the Tolly

Expectations - 2023/2024 Season

Claudius

Qwiss said somewhere that Arteta was less flexible last year which is understandable. Once you have the foundations in place and greater quality, you have greater ability to experiment.
Jesus has never recovered the explosiveness and robustness he had in fall 2022. I would just shut him down til he’s fit.

Qwiss

Claudius having Jesus off the bench is big bonus and if things go well tonight we'll have a lot more fixture congestion so we'll need him. The presence Havertz gives us up front is exactly what Jesus doesn't though. It gives us another dimension. We probably need Jesus to play a bit on the wings too. TBH I think its the role he should fill going forward.

Claudius

Qwiss I’m fine with him being an option at forward. When the guy is at his peak he is unplayable. My worry is we keep playing him and he stays in a cycle of breaking down. There’s been talk that he has come back today early a couple of times since that big World Cup injury.

Qwiss

Claudius did feel a bit rushed that first time.

Sicario2 - Tier 1

Wolves losing and City most likely winning (HT and they lead 2-0) is very interesting.

It means we play Wolves GW34 3 days after Bayern away but it saves us from playing mid-week GW37 which is worse. It means City play FA cup GW34 (when they would have faced Spurs away).

It looks like we may have to support Spurs GW37 midweek as that is when their game with City is going to be rescheduled.

TambourineMan

Our rescheduled Chelsea game could end up being midweek 34 or 37. And it might have to be 34 because Chelsea-Spurs also needs to be rescheduled and that could go into 37. If it does, Spurs-City could be rescheduled for midweek 34 also.

Sicario2 - Tier 1

banduan

Citeh away is gonna make me a nervous wreck.

Sicario2 - Tier 1

banduan

It’s actually going to be relatively ok for me.

1) we are not expected to win despite going for the title - a draw would seem ok result
2) If we lose - we lost against the best team in the world (as long as we don’t bend over backwards). Will hurt less than drawing to a Southampton equivalent at home like last year
2) if we do lose we are out of the title race 100 percent and then the remaining league games won’t be do or die anymore - we can fully focus on CL

banduan

Sicario2 - Tier 1 It’s actually going to be relatively ok for me.

1) we are not expected to win despite going for the title - a draw would seem ok result

not really what wrecks me. It's the nervy chess match that inevitably goes on whenever we play them, until one team scores.

Burnwinter

If we lose to City on March 31 we're not yet out of the title race, and no player or official at the club would think as much. Yes it would make winning it that much harder and tank us in Opta's model and so on, but we'd still be within one slip-up of both Liverpool and City, and their prior slip-ups were necessary for us to lead the league currently.

Sicario2 - Tier 1

[unknown]

If we lose we are done mate. City won’t slip (in the last stretch of the season).

They only way they can slip is if we beat/draw with them.

QuincyAbeyie

Sicario2 - Tier 1 Mate, you need to stop thinking in absolutes.

Sure, we can say they won't slip, but actually "they won't slip" means "9 times out of 10 they won't slip" and we'd still need to win our games in case the unlikely happens.

Burnwinter

Sicario2 - Tier 1 You're wrong about that, but even if you weren't, you'd have to believe Arteta and our players would agree with you to turn their attention mostly to the Champions League.

Consider the margins. If after a hypothetical loss at the Etihad, City were to even draw one match and we were to win our corresponding fixture, we'd edge back ahead of them again in the race, and staying ahead of them would be in our hands.

Any deemphasising the league will be much further off. These are just the fachts mate.

Qwiss

[unknown] we dropped points to West Ham and Fulham and fell behind but since then we've clawed our way back to top. Thats because City and Liverpool are capable of losing games. The title race is on a knife edge and it wont be decided with 9 games to go thats for sure.

Burnwinter

Qwiss Screw your eyes up and imagine Arteta looking a massive two points up the table to City in early April, heaving a Basque sigh and announcing to the match review room "Well boys, we can forget the league for this year".

Coombs

Burnwinter Basque sigh

Ah yes, that tell-tale voiceless pharyngeal fricative sigh.
It's not over 'til it's over. It may be useful for us fans to hedge, for personal emotional reasons, but I certainly wouldn't expect Arteta or the team to do so.

Burnwinter

Coombs Ah yes, that tell-tale voiceless pharyngeal fricative sigh.

Record one or it didn't happen. 😆

Burnwinter

Coombs Yeah that was my point too, that no particular outcome versus City is going to "free us up to focus on Europe" or whatever.

Sicario2 - Tier 1

This is huge as it means both us and Liverpool will 2 games on City. We beat City and win those two games then we are 10 points ahead of them in mid - April.

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