Arsenal FC a very promising story

[muckthenuts]

Arsenal tube station

Click to see full-size image.

Top 4, FA cups, long term financial security, solid youth system and our rivals constantly in our shadow.

We are an entitled bunch aren't we?

[POWWWWWWWW]

"Our rivals constantly in our shadows" is the reason you are where you are now. Aspiring to be just a bit better than Spurs, who are a nothing good club anyway, is such a weak mentality. You just got arseholed in the biggest match of the season but are content because Spurs got beat in a weaker competition. Your rivals should be Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barca but your happy to be slightly better than Spurs. If Spurs came 17th you'd be wanking over being 16th.

[Karabiner]

Well let's face it has to have a wank over something.

[hhyftrftdr]

"Our rivals constantly in our shadows" is the reason you are where you are now. Aspiring to be just a bit better than Spurs, who are a nothing good club anyway, is such a weak mentality. You just got arseholed in the biggest match of the season but are content because Spurs got beat in a weaker competition. Your rivals should be Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barca but your happy to be slightly better than Spurs. If Spurs came 17th you'd be wanking over being 16th.

As Bart Simpson would say, the ironing is delicious

[muckthenuts]

"Our rivals constantly in our shadows" is the reason you are where you are now. Aspiring to be just a bit better than Spurs, who are a nothing good club anyway, is such a weak mentality. You just got arseholed in the biggest match of the season but are content because Spurs got beat in a weaker competition. Your rivals should be Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barca but your happy to be slightly better than Spurs. If Spurs came 17th you'd be wanking over being 16th.

Not really, but yeah it is obviously a bonus to be ahead of Spurs every season. It's only recently it's not been a practical certainty.

[Archer]

"Our rivals constantly in our shadows" is the reason you are where you are now. Aspiring to be just a bit better than Spurs, who are a nothing good club anyway, is such a weak mentality. You just got arseholed in the biggest match of the season but are content because Spurs got beat in a weaker competition. Your rivals should be Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barca but your happy to be slightly better than Spurs. If Spurs came 17th you'd be wanking over being 16th.

As Bart Simpson would say, the ironing is delicious

Indeed.
Must be a case of Thursday night fever. 

At least Arsenal earned the right to qualify for their last 16 CL elimination. United have only reached the last 16  twice in the last 6 years....

[nirvana]

"Our rivals constantly in our shadows" is the reason you are where you are now. Aspiring to be just a bit better than Spurs, who are a nothing good club anyway, is such a weak mentality. You just got arseholed in the biggest match of the season but are content because Spurs got beat in a weaker competition. Your rivals should be Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barca but your happy to be slightly better than Spurs. If Spurs came 17th you'd be wanking over being 16th.

As Bart Simpson would say, the ironing is delicious

Indeed.
Must be a case of Thursday night fever. 

At least Arsenal earned the right to qualify for their last 16 CL elimination. United have only reached the last 16  twice in the last 6 years....

I'd like to see a change, partly,  because the impression I have ( whether right or wrong) is that the coaching team he surrounds himself never seem as influential as at other clubs. Despite this ,  i think you're right in the main that the level of abuse is unwarranted for someone with his achievements.

[tikay]

"Our rivals constantly in our shadows" is the reason you are where you are now. Aspiring to be just a bit better than Spurs, who are a nothing good club anyway, is such a weak mentality. You just got arseholed in the biggest match of the season but are content because Spurs got beat in a weaker competition. Your rivals should be Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barca but your happy to be slightly better than Spurs. If Spurs came 17th you'd be wanking over being 16th.

As Bart Simpson would say, the ironing is delicious

Indeed.
Must be a case of Thursday night fever.  

At least Arsenal earned the right to qualify for their last 16 CL elimination. United have only reached the last 16  twice in the last 6 years....

I'd like to see a change, partly,  because the impression I have ( whether right or wrong) is that the coaching team he surrounds himself never seem as influential as at other clubs. Despite this ,  i think you're right in the main that the level of abuse is unwarranted for someone with his achievements.

And it seems to be assumed that a change of Manager will always yield instant results, but as we have seen at Man U, where they changed Managers several times & spent hundreds of millions, that's not a given.

The Jury is still out at Man City, too, I would assume.

Both Manchester clubs have made a lot of noise, spent a bomb & rotated Managers. Has it yielded the desired results?

[BigAdz]

Personally I have seen the same thing for so long now, that I would almost welcome the Fairs Cup, or a relegation battle. Anything rather than the same thing year after year. My life is too short.

[Marky147]

"Our rivals constantly in our shadows" is the reason you are where you are now. Aspiring to be just a bit better than Spurs, who are a nothing good club anyway, is such a weak mentality. You just got arseholed in the biggest match of the season but are content because Spurs got beat in a weaker competition. Your rivals should be Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barca but your happy to be slightly better than Spurs. If Spurs came 17th you'd be wanking over being 16th.

As Bart Simpson would say, the ironing is delicious

Indeed.
Must be a case of Thursday night fever.  

At least Arsenal earned the right to qualify for their last 16 CL elimination. United have only reached the last 16  twice in the last 6 years....

I'd like to see a change, partly,  because the impression I have ( whether right or wrong) is that the coaching team he surrounds himself never seem as influential as at other clubs. Despite this ,  i think you're right in the main that the level of abuse is unwarranted for someone with his achievements.

And it seems to be assumed that a change of Manager will always yield instant results, but as we have seen at Man U, where they changed Managers several times & spent hundreds of millions, that's not a given.

The Jury is still out at Man City, too, I would assume.

Both Manchester clubs have made a lot of noise, spent a bomb & rotated Managers. Has it yielded the desired results?

City haven't done too bad, and bar the Champions League, I'd say it has.

[hhyftrftdr]

"Our rivals constantly in our shadows" is the reason you are where you are now. Aspiring to be just a bit better than Spurs, who are a nothing good club anyway, is such a weak mentality. You just got arseholed in the biggest match of the season but are content because Spurs got beat in a weaker competition. Your rivals should be Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barca but your happy to be slightly better than Spurs. If Spurs came 17th you'd be wanking over being 16th.

As Bart Simpson would say, the ironing is delicious

Indeed.
Must be a case of Thursday night fever.  

At least Arsenal earned the right to qualify for their last 16 CL elimination. United have only reached the last 16  twice in the last 6 years....

I'd like to see a change, partly,  because the impression I have ( whether right or wrong) is that the coaching team he surrounds himself never seem as influential as at other clubs. Despite this ,  i think you're right in the main that the level of abuse is unwarranted for someone with his achievements.

And it seems to be assumed that a change of Manager will always yield instant results, but as we have seen at Man U, where they changed Managers several times & spent hundreds of millions, that's not a given.

The Jury is still out at Man City, too, I would assume.

Both Manchester clubs have made a lot of noise, spent a bomb & rotated Managers. Has it yielded the desired results?

Bless you Tikay you have this cute old fashioned view on managers and how long they should be at the helm. The days of a Fergie or a Wenger being in charge for 2 decades, or even close to a decade, are long gone. All the big clubs in the top divisions will be chopping and changing pretty frequently, there might be an odd anomaly but a 3 year cycle will often be there or thereabouts.

Things can go very stale very quickly in this game.

[Archer]

"Our rivals constantly in our shadows" is the reason you are where you are now. Aspiring to be just a bit better than Spurs, who are a nothing good club anyway, is such a weak mentality. You just got arseholed in the biggest match of the season but are content because Spurs got beat in a weaker competition. Your rivals should be Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barca but your happy to be slightly better than Spurs. If Spurs came 17th you'd be wanking over being 16th.

As Bart Simpson would say, the ironing is delicious

Indeed.
Must be a case of Thursday night fever. 

At least Arsenal earned the right to qualify for their last 16 CL elimination. United have only reached the last 16  twice in the last 6 years....

I'd like to see a change, partly,  because the impression I have ( whether right or wrong) is that the coaching team he surrounds himself never seem as influential as at other clubs. Despite this ,  i think you're right in the main that the level of abuse is unwarranted for someone with his achievements.

Here’s a table of the top 10 for all matches in the PL in the 3  2/3rd  seasons since the beginning of the 13/14 season. Similar to the table I posted the other day it shows Arsenal’s great consistency and only 4 points less than Chelsea and 8 points less than City.  Yet,  by the time this season finishes,  Chelsea will have likely won the league twice, City once and, of course, Leicester last year.

Click to see full-size image.

 
But then look at a separate table for the same period involving games between the Big 6 only.  Arsenal drop to 5th place with only 8 wins from 36 games and 26 points behind Chelsea. This, of course, could be in part just variance due bad luck, refereeing decisions etc or it could be that Wenger and his coaching team have fallen behind. Like you, my impression,is it has to be the latter.

Click to see full-size image.

It's not just the Big 6 as well - in away games you can extend it to the top 9. I've posted the stat on here before but Arsenal have only managed 3 wins in the last 28 league games away from home against top 9 teams. Again indicative of a coach who has lost his way and compounded by the new kids on the block  – Conte, Pep, Klopp  and Poch who are operating on a different level IMO.  Irrespective of any coaching skills, not one of those 4 would accommodate Ozil walking around the pitch.

Easy to understand why Kroenke loves him. He hits par or better relative to financial resources every bloody season and that, IMO, is to be respected not abused. I empathise with Ralph's position as well but if I was an Arsenal fan I definitely would want him to go now with his statue even if it means more volatility. I'm with Adz now. The volatility might be forced in anycase because top 4 this season might be very difficult because of the difficult away games ahead. It is where my money is.

[Archer]

And it seems to be assumed that a change of Manager will always yield instant results, but as we have seen at Man U, where they changed Managers several times & spent hundreds of millions, that's not a given.

The Jury is still out at Man City, too, I would assume.

Both Manchester clubs have made a lot of noise, spent a bomb & rotated Managers. Has it yielded the desired results?
[/quote]

Absolutely not a given that a change will yield instant results. You would expect the turmoil could be as big as at United post Ferguson irrespective of who the new manager is. It seems an increasingly large number of Arsenal (like Adz) accept that and still want it.

I wouldn't say the jury is out at City.  2 PL titles in the last 5 years sounds good to me. I'd snatch your hands off for the same again in the next 5 years. The club is now self sufficient from natural revenue streams and the supposed "dodgy" sponsorship deals are now accepted as being undervalued.

As for changing managers, it seems highly unlikely you will see a Wenger or Ferguson again.

[rinswun]

Arsenal fans wanting Wenger out is basically Brexit innit? Had enough of the solidly performing but not outstanding status quo so opt for an alternative option even if there is no understanding of what it will look like and is highly likely to lead to a worse position.

[BigAdz]

Arsenal fans wanting Wenger out is basically Brexit innit? Had enough of the solidly performing but not outstanding status quo so opt for an alternative option even if there is no understanding of what it will look like and is highly likely to lead to a worse position.

Lol.

Not really.

If it was like Brexit, he would have been democratically voted out years ago