jones It was a cursed season. Massive emotional whiplash in the squad, several extremely bizarre and decisive refereeing decisions early on, then we were absolutely fucked by injuries between December and March or so.
Looking back at the refereeing in those earlier months:
31 August Rice's second yellow vs Brighton (2 points)
22 September Trossard's second yellow vs City (2 points)
19 October Saliva's dodgy DOGSO red vs Bournemouth (3 points)
This violin has been played a lot, but we're talking about decisions that affected our results and weren't suffered by any other club all season. Just one similar decision against City in the back half of 23–24 and we're champions. There were others of course, but those three are where the damage was done.
By December we were 10 points behind Liverpool which is where we finished. Injuries meant we had to play without a recognised striker for two or three months of the remainder of the season. Liverpool were never even tested.
My main hope for this season, and my main requirement of Arteta, is that the informal PGMO crusade against us (trust me, there's been one) be lifted and the rate of injuries goes down due to prudent rotation. We'll be better than evens to win the league if those two things happen.
