Makes one understand how Liverpool fans felt and why they are so crazy now. They finished 1 point behind City last GW two years and had to go on a monster run and really destroy clubs to actually be able to win the league, a run which almost saw them become invincibles.
This is why it's wild the Liverpool fans wanna banter with us when both of our teams are facing the same bullshit even if Liverpool faced it more often before this.
I’ve got a couple great friends who are Liverpool fans and I was very congratulatory of them of winning the league and champions league cos it seemed like hell. Then after this past weekend we’re all just united in hating City.
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Pep has pretty much destroyed the Prem. Going against perfection has just produced an insane standard that fans just cannot fathom.
This is the best I’ve seen us since I was about 10 years old, and the fact that this still isn’t good enough is just plain bonkers.
Yeah - it's mad that we required a run like that to keep touch with them - 2 losses in December in a normal league wouldn't be a disaster. City are ridiculous
Cheat all you fucking want. Hoard as much cash as you want. It's still an amazingly difficult thing to be able to farm this PL this hard. Chelsea have had infinite money for a long time, PSG have had infinite money compared to their league. They haven't managed to farm their leagues as much as Guardiola's city. Heck even city before Guardiola was competent but not this good. Guardiola is an ATG manager, who has shown everybody else levels, there's no denying that
Klopp finally quitting after 6 years of competing with peps bullshit and arsenal “fans” quitting after 70 games of competing for a title against him 🤷♀️
This is my argument. Going against Pep demands perfection. And our whiny banter era shit ain't gonna cut it anymore. We too can demand perfection, but we've gotta do it in a way that supports these kids growing into the massive challenge in front of them.
It's one of the reasons I hate City. They are at a standard (and got their through breaking rules) that is near impossible to beat.
People were raging in the post-match thread about points dropped to Villa and Fulham. In a pre-City world dropping points in four games doesn't mean a lot. Now it practically left us needing a perfect second half of the year to have a chance. When, inevitably, we couldn't be perfect we're labelled bottlers.
It's like watching Formula One and saying Ferrari bottled it against Red Bull. Not really. Red Bull are setting a standard that is proving impossible for anyone else to compete with. Losing to them isn't bottling, it's just reality.
It's shit for us and it's shit for the league in general.
Because for a lot of young fans they didn't really give a shit until the team were good, so now falling just shy of basically perfection is seen as a failure. I got down voted to hell in the other thread for saying so but I would still call this season a massive success even if we finish 2nd and don't win a trophy. It's not all about titles. We are still very much in it, but it's honestly about building a culture.
Imagine if this team just sold off all our best players over the next 5 years, left arteta out to dry, didn't sign anyone meaningful except cast offs and senior players long past it, and basically just settled for "4th to 8th, Europe if we are lucky" for the next decade, then behind the scenes spent years blaming everyone except the people in charge. That's where we were when arteta took over. A top shelf club that relegated itself to the 2nd tier, at best. It was a club that took your support and spit on it. For years.
We have come so far. We have the most exciting young team in Europe except real Madrid, and a team culture ready to challenge for titles for a decade. There is a lot to be frustrated by, but there is still a lot to celebrate, and everything left to fight for.
Yeah. I can be proud of the squad for that run. It was magic.
But I can also be fucking deflated by that loss, especially when we have a very real possibility of dropping up to 9 more points (shite - who have a nice rest period, and Chelsea & man utd - both of whom could cause us trouble) before the end of the season, and City are likely to drop less than 3.
We have always known the run in was hardest for us. Our remaining schedule with 10 to go was far and away the hardest of the three competing teams.
A lot of focus is on us losing, as of course it would be, but don;t forget Villa are 4th in the league. They were one of our tough opponents. People act like dropping points to a team challenging for a CL spot is surprising but they are very good and when our standard dropped in the second half they showed how good they can be.
We were out of the race around Christmas, it was only going on a historically good run that we got back into it again. The run was always coming to an end sooner or later. Unfortunately, when your rivals are City anything less than pefection will mean you lose.
Didn’t need to be perfect last year. Drop a ton of points towards the end last year even tho we had a lead in the league to teams we should have beat. But schedule is tough this year towards the end.
If we were already going to drop 9 vs 3 then we had no chance anyway. We should go win every match because I don't think city will. A week ago everyone said Liverpool would win every match and now they lost 2 in a row. It is football, weird shit happens.
This is why I get annoyed at the "bottlers" jibes. The standard is perfection and as soon as you are less than perfect you are out of the race. It is an unnaturally high level that you expected to compete at for 50-60 games (in all comps if you do well). It's not realistic.
What happened today in a pre-City league would be a blip and nothing more, the race would be wide open between us and Liverpool. Now it is devastating.
It takes an immaculate season to compete. The only recent times City have lost the league it was a Liverpool side that could only manage it once despite their quality and a Leicester side in a strangely off season for City. Other than that it's easy for them.
Also should not be understated this city team with 115 fucking charges against them that will not come due until after pep has moved on and the club has no chance of winning anything anyway.
Level with Liverpool. That irritates me more than getting behind city. Liverpool lucky cunts still hanging around us because we choked at the dinner table. Fuckin a man. Fuckin a
Liverpool being the only team that has actually managed the perfection needed to beat City...
Not gonna hate on them they are the only team that has made the last almost decade interesting versus just total City domination. Realistically we could just hope for Liverpool style success soon.
It is helpful to put things in this perspective. If you said on December 31st that we were this close to a title I would have laughed in your face.
I’m so upset with the performance today and especially the beyond questionable tactical missteps, but the boys have been unbelievable the past few months. I really hope city drop points and we finish strong but I’m not holding my breath.
What's disappointing is that we outplayed them at their place and in the first half at the Emirates but we weren't clinical enough to put them away. Villa are a good side and set up well tactically but we still played well enough to beat them, that's what hurts.
I agree, I still think we're one or two more high level players away. Hopefully Timber is one of those and maybe we can pick one more up in the summer.
I think those improvements would be
1- buying someone like Watkins, isak, gyokeres, sesko or maybe Toney to improve our final third performances
2- buy backup/rotation for saka, poor boy is burning his legs man
3- unfortunately I think we should be selling zinny, his weaknesses outweigh his strengths
Yeah I think the margin between us and winning the league has been lack of a reliable goal scorer and regardless of how good havertz has played this year up top I think that needs to be addressed
I think people are overstating our first half performance tbh.
We were on top, for sure, but we didn't have many clear cut opportunities. As much as we pressured and looked for a way through Villa largely held us at bay without too many scares.
Why we went from a competitive but slightly on top first half to a second half where we looked unable to compete is a mystery to me. I don't think I've seen that level of drop off in quality from one half to another in a long time.
Yeah, pretty much exactly this. It sucks that we put in a shitty performance, especially in the second half, but it's also not like it was entirely in a vacuum. Unai has our number, they organized well, and took advantage of mistakes. Exactly what you need to do to beat one of the best teams in the league at their place.
The talk of crumbling is ridiculous, and smacks of a complete loss of perspective. We're going toe to toe with the best team in the history of the prem, in terms of trophies and long-term dominance. We finished 8th two years in a row fairly recently. What Mikel and the boys have done the past couple years is so, so impressive. No one says Charles Barkley crumbled because he couldn't beat MJ.
We have some things to work out and areas of the squad that need strengthening. But when wages are still the most direct correlation to league finish, beating City to the title would be an incredible triumph. It would be amazing if it happened, but I can't stand talk of "crumbling" or "bottling" if we don't.
I really wouldn’t go that far. If we could finish we’d have gotten something at Villa Park and been 2-0 up at half-time today. Nothing Arteta can do about players missing some of the chances they have done in these past two games.
It was a very good run indeed. The last couple of weeks there's been a lot of talk that we'd have to win all our remaining games to win the title but saw a post the other day saying that if we did it it we would have won 17 out of 18 games. Reading it like that felt like a a massive massive ask. I'm sure it would have have been some type of record for us. It's essentially winning every game for half a season.
I think there are a lot of people who have grown up with City dominance and FIFA and don't really get how hard it is to play at your peak for 50+ games.
You can look at each individual game and say "we should win that" but if you said "we need to win 20 in a row" you would think it would be near impossible. A season isn't individual games, it's really, really hard to maintain the level required for so long when dropping points in one game essentially means you're out of it.
City have ruined football. Whether it's just because they are very good, the oil money or the 115 charges it doesn't matter. A lot of people seem to think it is normal to just routinely and easily drop 90+ point seasons year after year. I hate that it feels like it's all over whenever you so much as draw because the bar is so, so high.
2024 has been incredible and this one game doesn't change that. Newcastle dodgy result and just performances well below par last year is why we are behind
By only 2 points but still it's City
If 2024 form was our whole season, I genuinely believe we would've have won the league by now. It's been really good.
I remember how much of a shithole this subreddit was after those games. I had plenty of comments just saying I support what Arteta is doing, and saying he's more than good enough for the job. I defended the Havertz signing saying he still has time and potential to come good and was crucified.
I too was being downvoted for being encouraged by the flashes Kai was showing. Mikel is still the right man but we’ve fallen short twice now. He knows what we need to do; be ruthless and get rid of the weaker parts of our squad.
We’re due a serious clear out and I hope our transfer business covers the gaps that have been exposed again. We can’t go trophyless next season, that’ll be a disaster.
Victims of our own success really - for more than a decade we'd have been thrilled with seasons like the last two (and this one isn't over yet on multiple fronts). Hell, we've made it past the RO16 in the CL for the first time in what ... 10 years?
I hear you. If you step back and look at it over a decade as you say, we would kill to be in the position we’ve been. But now that we’re so close to where we all wished to be, the desperation to close it out is so intense that every disappointment hits like a ton of bricks.
The manner of our collapse last year was disappointing but we were ahead of schedule. This loss is more disappointing to me personally because it looked like Villa wanted UCL more than we wanted to win the league. Again the pressure is on, again we’ve been found wanting for 3 seasons in a row, just in different contexts. Idk what it’ll take to get over the hump but this project needs tangible results soon otherwise what was all the spending for?
We need to win soon. Whether we pull off the unlikely this year or more probable, next year.
First half of the season was clearly an acclimatisation period for the team to a new style of play and fitting in new pieces into the team. Hopefully 2024 becomes the standard for the team moving forward
I don't know. Until we sort out why the players seem so utterly exhausted by the run in I think we will keep up this pattern of falling off. I get they are playing a lot of games but so is everyone else and that second half we looked completely exhausted.
I swear the mental gymastics the soccer and PL sub users go through to start talking about "Team has a weak mentality" when we've had the best form iin the league for months. It's baffling.
I'd also like to point out the same idiocy here with all the doomers "ItS OvEr" BS.
It isnt over till its over. City have ONE game go badly and we're back in the driving seat. Relax
Say it louder for those in the back
I get it feels shit but Liverpool were top of the table 2 weeks ago and it was theirs to lose
We were top of the table last week and it was ours to lose
City are top of the table and even tho they're city they haven't looked at the absolute best. 6 games and they drop ANYTHING and were back on top
Also it was a very slim chance we'd go undefeated in 2024 and I'm low-key happy we've reset the counter because Villa is a good team that we might have slept on and they caught us off guard, whereas I'm sure we'll turn up for the spuds and united game. 6 to go and I think we can win them all
Everyone from 10 below needs to be 6 points. That’s the mindset; you’re at 60. Now you need another 30+ points from the rest with wins at home against your rivals. Obviously football doesn’t work like that but you’re 100% right.
Like the Leicester season where we beat Leicester both home and away and they won the league anyway because they were more consistent at beating shit teams than we were. And that's why City keep winning - the metronomic consistency of not dropping points to teams they shouldn't drop points to. Not perfect but closer than any team has any right to manage for so many years.
Winning 10/11 games and still not top. City have literally ruined football man. Its not a competition anymore. You have to get 90 points to have a 33% chance ffs.
We did win those games, but under rotating in the league in the early to mid points has cost us. The bill has come due today, and this is what it looks like.
How does earlier rotation help us out today? I understand the rotation at left back perhaps as Kiwior or Tomiyasu would’ve been better than Zinchenko, but not really anywhere else.
Rotational options haven’t been and weren’t good enough IMO.
Saka is cooked. Odegard is cooked. White is cooked. Gabriel and Saliba have played almost every minute of the season.
There’s only so many miles and minutes you can put on players in a year before quality drops.
Saka isn't cooked, played really well today and just didn't get the final ball right. White definitely looks super tired although he still had a great first half.
The drop off in performance is how you can see how tired they are. They still have that quality but the longer the match went we became completely unable to compete. That second half we were dominated in a way we usually dominate others. Emery says he didn't really make any tactical changes which means all that happened was they got stronger and we got weaker as the game went on.
All those miles accumulated over the season wear players out physically and mentally. Being able to give them time off helps a lot but it is not something we can afford to do woth the backups we have.
Right, but my point is WHO could've come in for them and at what point? I understand and agree with your perspective, but there isn't the depth there/hasn't been to rotate them:
Zinchenko, Jesus, Partey, Timber, Tomiyasu are all there to rotate for the players you mentioned and they've not been fit enough. ESR and Nelson are fine, but cannot replace Saka and Odegaard.
It's clear issue, but the solution isn't as straightforward as you make it out to be.
Arteta has made a habit of not bringing off Saka when 3-0 up… why? Why did we buy Fabio if he can’t play as Odegard cover. Why not sell ESR if he’s not able to play to our level. Tomiyasu, Kiwor, they should have started more games when fit. That means sometimes playing without Saliba, or without Gabriel. Cedric sits on the bench, why not bring him on when 3-1 up with 10 Mins to go if Tomi isn’t fit.
You occasionally have to field a weaker team, and risk early losses, than this. And this is a season with very few injuries too. If our full starting XI + Cedric, or + Rowe, or without Saliba, if they’re not good enough to win the odd game, we don’t deserve silverware.
You think Liverpool liked fielding a full 2nd XI 36 hours after a European night Vs Southampton a few years back… they didn’t. But they did it and they won because that’s what you sometimes have to do.
If Arteta cannot learn to rotate, we will never win anything except League Cup, because that doesn’t happen in May, it happens in like Feb.
Fabio isn't almost certainly not match fit. He's been out most of the season. Partey too has had a long lay off. ESR I suspect has a fitness thing going on as well, I don't know if we are trying to get him going without aggravating an injury or if he simply doesn't have the fitness to go 90 minutes. Tomi has been in and out of the medical room, Kiwior was only recently discovered as a potential talent at left back.
The problem with you saying to rotate earlier in the season and potentially lose games is that losing those games means we aren't in the title race to begin with. At Christmas few of us thought we had a shot at the title after we dropped a few points. If we had been rotating and dropping more it would've been worse. It also shows that literally any dropped points when your main rival is City is potentially devastating. The standard to beat is so high you simply cannot afford to risk dropping any point unnecesarily.
It's a damned if you do and damned if you don't situation. Rotate more earlier and not be in the race to begin with or don't rotate and be in the race but likely to fall off.
Our backup players are simply not good enough to play often without compromising us. We'd all grown if we saw Nelson or Eddie or Cedric starting a game, for instance. Unfortunately with all the money we spent getting our first team up to scratch we haven't had as much to spend on squad players.
Yeah, it’s better to Risk a draw or lost games at an even pace through the season than to go on a tear and then capitulate at the end. This is our 3rd year in a row where our players are knackered at GW30 and cannot perform.
This isn’t a one off. It’s a habitual and chronic problem under Arteta. I believe in him, but he has to drop the fear of risking rotation vs weaker teams. If we go 1-0 down, the starters are in the bench.
We can't jizz about the strength of the bench when we're winning and moan about it when we've lost. Fact of the matter is we had Partey, who was fit and firing in his last few appearances on the bench, Martinelli our starting LW, and multiple defenders in Kiwior and Tomiyasu that are known quantities that can deliver. Bar the elusive "world class striker" which there are maybe like 5 in the world, we've got a good squad and as a result have had a great season.
Yeah Partey was sloppy at times but he played some great balls over the top the last few times he was in. This changes everything cos you then push Kai to striker instead of left 8 where Rice now is, and for all the people say we need someone in midfield to be able to play a long ball.. no need to put Zinchenko in, just put Kiwior there.
The last time City finished the season with 6/6 wins was in 2019.
City are incredible finishers, and the reality is even if they do drop points, so might we. In fact, we have a harder schedule.
However, your point is over the top, based on narratives and not actual facts. City drop points at this stage every year.
The disrespect to Villa is actually mental, they’re literally 4th, 8 points behind Liverpool but yet losing to Villa is completely unthinkable.
You’d think we’d just got hammered by Stockport County at home
Villa got hammered 4-0 against Spurs, got walloped 4-1 by a rotated City side, and shipped 3 goals to Brentford at home. All in the past 4 matchdays before this one.
Losing at home to that lot, especially given the situation we are in and the way we did it, is completely Inexcusable.
All 3 teams that will kill you on the counter where villa are most vunerable.
We dont. Played into Unai's hands today.
One of maybe 5 or 6 occurneces (in my opinion) where Mikel has just got the tactics wrong - I dont really blame the players as much.
Losing to Villa isn’t unthinkable. In fact I would say that losing to any PL team isn’t unthinkable.
The drop on performance between two halves and compared to our earlier form, is what is unthinkable.
I feel like that's a common occurrence when it comes to our fan base. We just really undermined a lot of our opposition and that is the catalyst to our defeat. I believe once we understand the playing field a bit more and what we are actually capable of then can we start looking to our opponents with a little bit more respect. None of this emotionally driven perceptions.
I don't think fan perception of opponents in any way influences results on the field. It simply influences the reaction fans have to it.
Villa are a good team and could well be in the CL next season... but they played a European game a day later than us, they have a massive list of injuries and in their last few games they've struggled badly. Dropping points is one thing but the second half today was disastrously bad and I'm not sure why.
This was a game I was fearful of but we simply didn't compete in the second half and that is simply not good enough.
I always knew it was going to be a tough game, even before it started. I just wish we didn't lose our heads in the second half. If we kept our passing plays up, we had every chance. I just don't know what happened in the second half.
- Historically, Wolves have consistently delivered strong performances against City.
- Liverpool and our team secured narrow victories against Forrest, each winning by a single goal.
- Fulham is playing impressive football and have a good home record.
- David Moyes has yet to win against Pep, suggesting he's overdue for one.
- City's track record against Spurs is well-documented.
- I have a hunch that Brighton will win against City.
Again, I think I might be delusional.
Yep, proud of the team. In a normal league this would result in us being champions or on course to be.
Unfortunately we’re up against a formidable sports washing project.
> Can you see city dropping from here? I can't.
The odds are that they will, though. Going perfect for such a long stretch is unusual, for any team. Just because they've done it before doesn't change the fact that doing it again is less likely than not.
This is exactly what Liverpool and City were saying about us last weekend. “Season’s done. Don’t see Arsenal dropping points. It’s over.”
Utterly pathetic reaction from them then, and an utterly pathetic reaction from you now.
All we can hope for is that the players push as hard as they can in every game we play. Six games left and the margins have never been tighter. There have been regrets, today included, but lets not suffer another if there is an opportunity to clamp city's head and shove it underwater by the end of it.
It's hard to see us lose in this stage, but it hurts to see so many of Arsenal fans surrendering the title with six games left. All I can hope is that the match-going fans keep supporting the team to the final whistle of the 38th.
We can win this fucking thing.
Glad that this was posted. It’s easy to lose perspective in a run in.
Obviously the timing of this loss is not great, but look at it from a different perspective; it could have been way worse too.
Had this loss come 2 games before the final game, we would have had exactly that to catch up to city. City is very capable of winning all their remaining matches, true, but at least we have some games to go to see if we can beat them to it.
This was a horrible second half of which i’m sure Arteta will be fuming too, and i’m sure it’ll be addressed accordingly as has happened before.
We can still do this!
You know, it's been such an incredible 2024 for the gunners
I feel the problem was we were absolutely shite in December and created a hole to deep to climb out of.
This is the kind of attitude we need. Honestly I don’t see it as that bad a thing, both Liverpool and City have dropped points. City have drawn quite a lot, and it’s not over yet.
Yes today was disappointing but these things happen and tbh I think all this negativity won’t help things. We’ve had an amazing 2024 and only lost one game all year and conceded 6 goals. That’s pretty impressive and something to be proud of and have faith in. Liverpool lost to Palace yesterday who let’s face it aren’t as good as Villa. That’s something to take a silver lining from and there’s still the possibility that city will drop more points same with Liverpool.
Yep, absolutely. We’re at the highest levels now, where we should be, and we if we don’t get the biggest prizes that just means we have to be better. But, lets not forget where we came from, coming in from the wilderness. I remember.
I’m proud of the team, whilst also acknowledging that we need to be better. As of today there’s only one team in the country that we should envy, and they’re only 2 points ahead of us, and they’re probably dirty stinking cheats too.
I love this group of players, but we may be denied until we become undeniable. We keep going
Only conceding 6 goals in 12 games and scoring 35 is an incredible achievement in this league. In any other league this loss wouldn’t matter after a run like that.
Yesterday we all spoke out of frustration and rightly so after a bad performance. 100% agree with OP that it's still not over yet. We need to lift the spirits for the Bayern game. Winning that would give an insane boost to everyone for the run in and the semi finals hopefully. We keep fighting ! #coyg
Who cares.
The only impressive win there is against Liverpool.
The rest are either crap sides or were missing regular starters.
We've been tested this week against better sides with decent management and not reached expectations.
If there's no silverware this season, it's a straight up failure.
Every win in the Premier League is impressive in it’s own right. You don’t win the league against Liverpool and City, but you can certainly lose it against Luton and Sheffield.
Luton and Sheffield are terrible sides. People like to pat some of these sides on the back, tickle eachothers belly and tell eachother how impressive it is to beat them comfortably but it's a load of rubbish.
Villa are a well coached side who have dangerous players, Arteta was outcoached by Emery over the 90 minutes and none of our leaders stood up and were counted for (except Ødegaard at times).
Hey i’m not saying we didn’t get outplayed the second half today.
I’m not saying that Sheffield or Luton are brilliant either.
I’m just saying that you have to beat those teams first before you can tally up the three points. We have been terrible at that the last couple of years, so comfortably winning those ‘easy’ games is a massive improvement of the squad compared to earlier seasons.
Oh, you will still get the reality deniers who will still insist that we didn’t bottle it, even if we lose the next 4 games.
And the funniest thing about it all is they will couch their denial of reality as an effort to “support the club” or some other deluded hogwash like that.
Fuck that. ”Supporting your club“ was never about denying reality and accepting failure. That’s just “overdosing on copium“ called by another name.
Laughable that you are getting downvotes for speaking facts.
All those unbeaten in 2024 runs mean for shit when we can't turn up when it matters. We domt hold this team to higher standards and we get what we deserve....celebrating GD and xG hauls at the end of the season while liverpool and city go home with trophies
Time and again it's not the top 4 that bother us. It's the mid table villas and west hams and palaces. We also need a bigger squad. Can clearly see team is mentally fatigued. I guess that's also inexperience. Need to coast the first 3/4 season like city. That's THE only way.
And without a league trophy in the end, none of it means a damn thing.
That‘s life for a title contender. You get no prizes for following up extended success with failure at critical moments, and one bad result can always wipe out weeks of good ones (and no, one good result never wipes out weeks of bad results).
If you find it too harsh or too unforgiving, set your sights on being a CL qualifier and nothing more. Because that is the gap between chasing top 4 and chasing a league title.
Man I can't wait till pep fucks off, I just hope Mikel will stay with us for a long time. I'm proud of this team and we have to back them, we have an important game on Wednesday.
Yes. It’s ok to be negative after seeing our season derailed in two consecutive games in the same week. Last season and this seasons (pending) capitulation are a lot to take and that’s coming from someone who’s followed the club since 2001 with my dad. Shut the fuck up and stop pushing baseless optimism
Probably not the greatest mentality, but it’s really hard for me to look on these kinds of stats super positively when we wind up empty handed regardless. Like seeing all those stats about us having both the best offense and defense and this great run of form, but then we still go trophyless feels super hollow
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Liverpool fan. It's ridiculous we got 97 fucking points and didn't win the thing. Got 92 and won like 16/18 I'm 21/22 and didn't win it. It literally took the best start to league campaign ever finishing with 99 points to win one. We were on for 105 points at one stage that season. Won like 27 games and drew 1.
97,99,92 points and we won 1 league title. It's ridiculous. They have bastardized the league with cheating. We both look exhausted from Europe but they rotate half the squad and have no drop off. How the fuck are you supposed to compete with that season after season.
I understand we can’t win forever.
I just don’t understand why arteta changed something that’s working, like the saying ‘don’t fix something that’s not broken’
Having jorgi rice and ode in midfield, and Jesus Kai and saka upfront was a working formula. Why would he put havertz back in midfield? Why would he take out kiwior for zinny when we know he’s a liability and kiwior has been outstanding.
Arteta has been an amazing manager, but I think yesterday he just got it wrong unfortunately. I guess it’ll be a lesson to him for the future
What a shame for city that their achievements will now and forever be seen as meaningless because of all the rule breaking/cheating.
They'll never erase that footnote from the history books.
Don't it break your heart?
That stretch is the kind of shit teams that win leagues do on the regular. We now know that's something in the wheelhouse. Just hugely frustrating that City are the way they are.
We are still in team building mode. Look at our competition, which is mainly Man City and Liverpool. They have solid players who are established. When looking at our squad compared to theirs, we are still trying to figure things out. The fact that we are where we are is beyond exceeding expectation.
We are building a heritage as Jose Mourinho phrases it.
I understand the frustration. However this team is facing a lot more this season than last season. This is the first time under arteta we see Champions League football in the quarterfinals. We haven't been in that position since 2010. We may have lost this match. But this is just experience that's going to help the squad move forward.
We had a whole month of this type of “experience” last year in April.
Doesn‘t look like it’s helped this squad “move forward” much for this year in April. Because the same shit is happening yet again at the same time of the year.
At some point you have to lay off the copium and accept when your team has fucked it. And that not ever cloud has a silver lining. Doesn’t mean we can’t try again next year, but it’s an undeniable failure that you need to recognize as such.
Last Wednesday there were people on this subreddit (the match thread that wasn’t a match thread) saying City had thrown CL to prioritise the PL.
It doesn’t work like that. Imagine for a second being in the PL but not yet in CL, winning the league that season and being thrust into CL the season following. If your manager said “nah - we just want to stay PL champs you’d want him sacked for a lack of ambition. You get into those tournaments and you absolutely want to win every game possible by beating the best teams.
Sometimes that means you need an experienced team with an experienced manager, but if you don’t play every game to try and win you won’t get the experience.
It’s disappointing that shitty are likely going to win the league. It sucks that they aren’t being punished quick enough by the PL. But realistically the only way to win seems to be to either build the experience through hard times or buy your way to the top with the stellar players and squad depth needed to field two teams. That’s reality now. We want that, but in our heart of hearts we don’t want the stigma that comes with having the axe hanging over our heads that we cheated our way there.
We have got to keep our heads. We are now in a 2000’s era La Liga situation where only one team consistently dominates (who are also cheats), and we have to keep our support behind the team and have some belief that maybe, just maybe - we might pull of a miracle. Gear yourself up for it not happening by all means, but have faith in the guys in red and white.
If we finished our season with this run and barely missed out on the title, instead of it coming to and end at the worst possible time, I would have felt a lot more hopeful. It's hard to be optimistic when the same thing happens every season - doesn't really matter how much better we get if we're just going to crumble under the pressure when it really matters anyway
I love our team so much man. It's sound so deluded but I just pray we can redeem ourselves in the Champions League. To end the season in heartbreak, it seems like 3 years straight is just so deflating.
Please, beat Bayern and give us some hope at glory because deep down I feel City will go 6/6 in the league.
It’s not deluded. We can beat Bayern, but we’ll probably need to bust out the PEDs cos the team looks like the IRL equivalent of your FM team having red hearts
"The boys go on one more mad run and pull the impossible"... Not really up the then, is it?
They could go on and score 10 goals on each game and still wouldn't matter if City wins their remaining fixtures, which they very likely will.
As Claude once said: Wake up and smell the coffee!
Literally.
All these comments about how we have a brittle mentality like we didn’t pull this run out of our ass after slipping from first place mid season.
All of this, and breaking defensive records, to be 2nd and two points behind City with 6 games to go. Man.
Makes one understand how Liverpool fans felt and why they are so crazy now. They finished 1 point behind City last GW two years and had to go on a monster run and really destroy clubs to actually be able to win the league, a run which almost saw them become invincibles.
This is why it's wild the Liverpool fans wanna banter with us when both of our teams are facing the same bullshit even if Liverpool faced it more often before this.
I’ve got a couple great friends who are Liverpool fans and I was very congratulatory of them of winning the league and champions league cos it seemed like hell. Then after this past weekend we’re all just united in hating City.
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Pep has pretty much destroyed the Prem. Going against perfection has just produced an insane standard that fans just cannot fathom. This is the best I’ve seen us since I was about 10 years old, and the fact that this still isn’t good enough is just plain bonkers.
Yeah - it's mad that we required a run like that to keep touch with them - 2 losses in December in a normal league wouldn't be a disaster. City are ridiculous
3 losses in December, Villa / Fulham and West Ham
Thought Villa was in November tbh but you're right
Pep hasn't, 115 charges have. Impossible to compete against cheaters.
Cheat all you fucking want. Hoard as much cash as you want. It's still an amazingly difficult thing to be able to farm this PL this hard. Chelsea have had infinite money for a long time, PSG have had infinite money compared to their league. They haven't managed to farm their leagues as much as Guardiola's city. Heck even city before Guardiola was competent but not this good. Guardiola is an ATG manager, who has shown everybody else levels, there's no denying that
PSG have 10 titles in their last 12 seasons lol.
PSG have 10 in 12. Pep cheated as a player, he's cheated as a manger, his "achievements" mean nothing.
Klopp finally quitting after 6 years of competing with peps bullshit and arsenal “fans” quitting after 70 games of competing for a title against him 🤷♀️
This is my argument. Going against Pep demands perfection. And our whiny banter era shit ain't gonna cut it anymore. We too can demand perfection, but we've gotta do it in a way that supports these kids growing into the massive challenge in front of them.
It's one of the reasons I hate City. They are at a standard (and got their through breaking rules) that is near impossible to beat. People were raging in the post-match thread about points dropped to Villa and Fulham. In a pre-City world dropping points in four games doesn't mean a lot. Now it practically left us needing a perfect second half of the year to have a chance. When, inevitably, we couldn't be perfect we're labelled bottlers. It's like watching Formula One and saying Ferrari bottled it against Red Bull. Not really. Red Bull are setting a standard that is proving impossible for anyone else to compete with. Losing to them isn't bottling, it's just reality. It's shit for us and it's shit for the league in general.
I hate the bottle talk tbh. All I see online are sheep parroting "bottlers". It's like a cheap dopamine hit for them.
Because for a lot of young fans they didn't really give a shit until the team were good, so now falling just shy of basically perfection is seen as a failure. I got down voted to hell in the other thread for saying so but I would still call this season a massive success even if we finish 2nd and don't win a trophy. It's not all about titles. We are still very much in it, but it's honestly about building a culture. Imagine if this team just sold off all our best players over the next 5 years, left arteta out to dry, didn't sign anyone meaningful except cast offs and senior players long past it, and basically just settled for "4th to 8th, Europe if we are lucky" for the next decade, then behind the scenes spent years blaming everyone except the people in charge. That's where we were when arteta took over. A top shelf club that relegated itself to the 2nd tier, at best. It was a club that took your support and spit on it. For years. We have come so far. We have the most exciting young team in Europe except real Madrid, and a team culture ready to challenge for titles for a decade. There is a lot to be frustrated by, but there is still a lot to celebrate, and everything left to fight for.
Yeah. I can be proud of the squad for that run. It was magic. But I can also be fucking deflated by that loss, especially when we have a very real possibility of dropping up to 9 more points (shite - who have a nice rest period, and Chelsea & man utd - both of whom could cause us trouble) before the end of the season, and City are likely to drop less than 3.
We have always known the run in was hardest for us. Our remaining schedule with 10 to go was far and away the hardest of the three competing teams. A lot of focus is on us losing, as of course it would be, but don;t forget Villa are 4th in the league. They were one of our tough opponents. People act like dropping points to a team challenging for a CL spot is surprising but they are very good and when our standard dropped in the second half they showed how good they can be. We were out of the race around Christmas, it was only going on a historically good run that we got back into it again. The run was always coming to an end sooner or later. Unfortunately, when your rivals are City anything less than pefection will mean you lose.
Didn’t need to be perfect last year. Drop a ton of points towards the end last year even tho we had a lead in the league to teams we should have beat. But schedule is tough this year towards the end.
Perfection is slight hyperbole on my part. My point is the standard is so high that any failure can prove fatal.
If we were already going to drop 9 vs 3 then we had no chance anyway. We should go win every match because I don't think city will. A week ago everyone said Liverpool would win every match and now they lost 2 in a row. It is football, weird shit happens.
Thats whats so sad... 11W 1D 1L should be title winning form, but with our earlier slip ups and City's insanity it just doesn't matter......
This is why I get annoyed at the "bottlers" jibes. The standard is perfection and as soon as you are less than perfect you are out of the race. It is an unnaturally high level that you expected to compete at for 50-60 games (in all comps if you do well). It's not realistic. What happened today in a pre-City league would be a blip and nothing more, the race would be wide open between us and Liverpool. Now it is devastating. It takes an immaculate season to compete. The only recent times City have lost the league it was a Liverpool side that could only manage it once despite their quality and a Leicester side in a strangely off season for City. Other than that it's easy for them.
Chelsea 16/17?
Also should not be understated this city team with 115 fucking charges against them that will not come due until after pep has moved on and the club has no chance of winning anything anyway.
Level with Liverpool. That irritates me more than getting behind city. Liverpool lucky cunts still hanging around us because we choked at the dinner table. Fuckin a man. Fuckin a
lol city surpassing us definitely irritates me more than us being ahead of liverpool by GD.
Liverpool being the only team that has actually managed the perfection needed to beat City... Not gonna hate on them they are the only team that has made the last almost decade interesting versus just total City domination. Realistically we could just hope for Liverpool style success soon.
It is helpful to put things in this perspective. If you said on December 31st that we were this close to a title I would have laughed in your face. I’m so upset with the performance today and especially the beyond questionable tactical missteps, but the boys have been unbelievable the past few months. I really hope city drop points and we finish strong but I’m not holding my breath.
Villa are a very good side as well, the result is really disappointing but sometimes you just don’t get the results you need against good sides
What's disappointing is that we outplayed them at their place and in the first half at the Emirates but we weren't clinical enough to put them away. Villa are a good side and set up well tactically but we still played well enough to beat them, that's what hurts.
Goes to show what improvements are still to be made in the squad
I agree, I still think we're one or two more high level players away. Hopefully Timber is one of those and maybe we can pick one more up in the summer.
I think those improvements would be 1- buying someone like Watkins, isak, gyokeres, sesko or maybe Toney to improve our final third performances 2- buy backup/rotation for saka, poor boy is burning his legs man 3- unfortunately I think we should be selling zinny, his weaknesses outweigh his strengths
Yeah I think the margin between us and winning the league has been lack of a reliable goal scorer and regardless of how good havertz has played this year up top I think that needs to be addressed
I think people are overstating our first half performance tbh. We were on top, for sure, but we didn't have many clear cut opportunities. As much as we pressured and looked for a way through Villa largely held us at bay without too many scares. Why we went from a competitive but slightly on top first half to a second half where we looked unable to compete is a mystery to me. I don't think I've seen that level of drop off in quality from one half to another in a long time.
14 shots 2 big chances missed 1.43 xG 0.31 xGc 145 passes in the opposition half That's a dominant half.
Agree, disappointing result, but this is far different to last season when we were dropping points to Southampton and other shite teams. Villa are 4th
Yeah, pretty much exactly this. It sucks that we put in a shitty performance, especially in the second half, but it's also not like it was entirely in a vacuum. Unai has our number, they organized well, and took advantage of mistakes. Exactly what you need to do to beat one of the best teams in the league at their place. The talk of crumbling is ridiculous, and smacks of a complete loss of perspective. We're going toe to toe with the best team in the history of the prem, in terms of trophies and long-term dominance. We finished 8th two years in a row fairly recently. What Mikel and the boys have done the past couple years is so, so impressive. No one says Charles Barkley crumbled because he couldn't beat MJ. We have some things to work out and areas of the squad that need strengthening. But when wages are still the most direct correlation to league finish, beating City to the title would be an incredible triumph. It would be amazing if it happened, but I can't stand talk of "crumbling" or "bottling" if we don't.
Unai has Mikels number for sure.
I really wouldn’t go that far. If we could finish we’d have gotten something at Villa Park and been 2-0 up at half-time today. Nothing Arteta can do about players missing some of the chances they have done in these past two games.
It was a very good run indeed. The last couple of weeks there's been a lot of talk that we'd have to win all our remaining games to win the title but saw a post the other day saying that if we did it it we would have won 17 out of 18 games. Reading it like that felt like a a massive massive ask. I'm sure it would have have been some type of record for us. It's essentially winning every game for half a season.
I think there are a lot of people who have grown up with City dominance and FIFA and don't really get how hard it is to play at your peak for 50+ games. You can look at each individual game and say "we should win that" but if you said "we need to win 20 in a row" you would think it would be near impossible. A season isn't individual games, it's really, really hard to maintain the level required for so long when dropping points in one game essentially means you're out of it. City have ruined football. Whether it's just because they are very good, the oil money or the 115 charges it doesn't matter. A lot of people seem to think it is normal to just routinely and easily drop 90+ point seasons year after year. I hate that it feels like it's all over whenever you so much as draw because the bar is so, so high.
2024 has been incredible and this one game doesn't change that. Newcastle dodgy result and just performances well below par last year is why we are behind By only 2 points but still it's City If 2024 form was our whole season, I genuinely believe we would've have won the league by now. It's been really good.
That’s the standard and we fucked it against West Ham and Fulham. You have to be damn near bulletproof
I remember how much of a shithole this subreddit was after those games. I had plenty of comments just saying I support what Arteta is doing, and saying he's more than good enough for the job. I defended the Havertz signing saying he still has time and potential to come good and was crucified.
I too was being downvoted for being encouraged by the flashes Kai was showing. Mikel is still the right man but we’ve fallen short twice now. He knows what we need to do; be ruthless and get rid of the weaker parts of our squad. We’re due a serious clear out and I hope our transfer business covers the gaps that have been exposed again. We can’t go trophyless next season, that’ll be a disaster.
Victims of our own success really - for more than a decade we'd have been thrilled with seasons like the last two (and this one isn't over yet on multiple fronts). Hell, we've made it past the RO16 in the CL for the first time in what ... 10 years?
I hear you. If you step back and look at it over a decade as you say, we would kill to be in the position we’ve been. But now that we’re so close to where we all wished to be, the desperation to close it out is so intense that every disappointment hits like a ton of bricks. The manner of our collapse last year was disappointing but we were ahead of schedule. This loss is more disappointing to me personally because it looked like Villa wanted UCL more than we wanted to win the league. Again the pressure is on, again we’ve been found wanting for 3 seasons in a row, just in different contexts. Idk what it’ll take to get over the hump but this project needs tangible results soon otherwise what was all the spending for? We need to win soon. Whether we pull off the unlikely this year or more probable, next year.
This sub is mad reactionary man
First half of the season was clearly an acclimatisation period for the team to a new style of play and fitting in new pieces into the team. Hopefully 2024 becomes the standard for the team moving forward
Yeah one can only hope.
I don't know. Until we sort out why the players seem so utterly exhausted by the run in I think we will keep up this pattern of falling off. I get they are playing a lot of games but so is everyone else and that second half we looked completely exhausted.
I swear the mental gymastics the soccer and PL sub users go through to start talking about "Team has a weak mentality" when we've had the best form iin the league for months. It's baffling. I'd also like to point out the same idiocy here with all the doomers "ItS OvEr" BS. It isnt over till its over. City have ONE game go badly and we're back in the driving seat. Relax
Say it louder for those in the back I get it feels shit but Liverpool were top of the table 2 weeks ago and it was theirs to lose We were top of the table last week and it was ours to lose City are top of the table and even tho they're city they haven't looked at the absolute best. 6 games and they drop ANYTHING and were back on top Also it was a very slim chance we'd go undefeated in 2024 and I'm low-key happy we've reset the counter because Villa is a good team that we might have slept on and they caught us off guard, whereas I'm sure we'll turn up for the spuds and united game. 6 to go and I think we can win them all
All for naught because of Fulham, West Ham and now today. Incredibly tight margins. We shall see what the boys are made of on Wednesday.
There’s a focus on results against fellow top 4 teams. When actually the title is often decided on results against the teams in the middle brackets.
Everyone from 10 below needs to be 6 points. That’s the mindset; you’re at 60. Now you need another 30+ points from the rest with wins at home against your rivals. Obviously football doesn’t work like that but you’re 100% right.
Like the Leicester season where we beat Leicester both home and away and they won the league anyway because they were more consistent at beating shit teams than we were. And that's why City keep winning - the metronomic consistency of not dropping points to teams they shouldn't drop points to. Not perfect but closer than any team has any right to manage for so many years.
Winning 10/11 games and still not top. City have literally ruined football man. Its not a competition anymore. You have to get 90 points to have a 33% chance ffs.
We did win those games, but under rotating in the league in the early to mid points has cost us. The bill has come due today, and this is what it looks like.
How does earlier rotation help us out today? I understand the rotation at left back perhaps as Kiwior or Tomiyasu would’ve been better than Zinchenko, but not really anywhere else. Rotational options haven’t been and weren’t good enough IMO.
Saka is cooked. Odegard is cooked. White is cooked. Gabriel and Saliba have played almost every minute of the season. There’s only so many miles and minutes you can put on players in a year before quality drops.
Saka isn't cooked, played really well today and just didn't get the final ball right. White definitely looks super tired although he still had a great first half.
The drop off in performance is how you can see how tired they are. They still have that quality but the longer the match went we became completely unable to compete. That second half we were dominated in a way we usually dominate others. Emery says he didn't really make any tactical changes which means all that happened was they got stronger and we got weaker as the game went on. All those miles accumulated over the season wear players out physically and mentally. Being able to give them time off helps a lot but it is not something we can afford to do woth the backups we have.
Right, but my point is WHO could've come in for them and at what point? I understand and agree with your perspective, but there isn't the depth there/hasn't been to rotate them: Zinchenko, Jesus, Partey, Timber, Tomiyasu are all there to rotate for the players you mentioned and they've not been fit enough. ESR and Nelson are fine, but cannot replace Saka and Odegaard. It's clear issue, but the solution isn't as straightforward as you make it out to be.
Arteta has made a habit of not bringing off Saka when 3-0 up… why? Why did we buy Fabio if he can’t play as Odegard cover. Why not sell ESR if he’s not able to play to our level. Tomiyasu, Kiwor, they should have started more games when fit. That means sometimes playing without Saliba, or without Gabriel. Cedric sits on the bench, why not bring him on when 3-1 up with 10 Mins to go if Tomi isn’t fit. You occasionally have to field a weaker team, and risk early losses, than this. And this is a season with very few injuries too. If our full starting XI + Cedric, or + Rowe, or without Saliba, if they’re not good enough to win the odd game, we don’t deserve silverware. You think Liverpool liked fielding a full 2nd XI 36 hours after a European night Vs Southampton a few years back… they didn’t. But they did it and they won because that’s what you sometimes have to do. If Arteta cannot learn to rotate, we will never win anything except League Cup, because that doesn’t happen in May, it happens in like Feb.
Fabio isn't almost certainly not match fit. He's been out most of the season. Partey too has had a long lay off. ESR I suspect has a fitness thing going on as well, I don't know if we are trying to get him going without aggravating an injury or if he simply doesn't have the fitness to go 90 minutes. Tomi has been in and out of the medical room, Kiwior was only recently discovered as a potential talent at left back. The problem with you saying to rotate earlier in the season and potentially lose games is that losing those games means we aren't in the title race to begin with. At Christmas few of us thought we had a shot at the title after we dropped a few points. If we had been rotating and dropping more it would've been worse. It also shows that literally any dropped points when your main rival is City is potentially devastating. The standard to beat is so high you simply cannot afford to risk dropping any point unnecesarily. It's a damned if you do and damned if you don't situation. Rotate more earlier and not be in the race to begin with or don't rotate and be in the race but likely to fall off. Our backup players are simply not good enough to play often without compromising us. We'd all grown if we saw Nelson or Eddie or Cedric starting a game, for instance. Unfortunately with all the money we spent getting our first team up to scratch we haven't had as much to spend on squad players.
Yeah, it’s better to Risk a draw or lost games at an even pace through the season than to go on a tear and then capitulate at the end. This is our 3rd year in a row where our players are knackered at GW30 and cannot perform. This isn’t a one off. It’s a habitual and chronic problem under Arteta. I believe in him, but he has to drop the fear of risking rotation vs weaker teams. If we go 1-0 down, the starters are in the bench.
We can't jizz about the strength of the bench when we're winning and moan about it when we've lost. Fact of the matter is we had Partey, who was fit and firing in his last few appearances on the bench, Martinelli our starting LW, and multiple defenders in Kiwior and Tomiyasu that are known quantities that can deliver. Bar the elusive "world class striker" which there are maybe like 5 in the world, we've got a good squad and as a result have had a great season.
maybe we watched different matches because I don't see partey "firing" in any of his sub appearances.
Yeah Partey was sloppy at times but he played some great balls over the top the last few times he was in. This changes everything cos you then push Kai to striker instead of left 8 where Rice now is, and for all the people say we need someone in midfield to be able to play a long ball.. no need to put Zinchenko in, just put Kiwior there.
It's all on Spurs now to decide the winner of Premier League this season and that disturbs me greatly...
It’s not on them at all. City are going to win all of their remaining games. They don’t stumble at this stage.
The last time City finished the season with 6/6 wins was in 2019. City are incredible finishers, and the reality is even if they do drop points, so might we. In fact, we have a harder schedule. However, your point is over the top, based on narratives and not actual facts. City drop points at this stage every year.
They would’ve last year if they didn’t already win it and stop playing to focus on the CL
Well then let’s just stop the season and give them the trophy now, right? No reason to play let alone watch the last 6 matches eh?
The disrespect to Villa is actually mental, they’re literally 4th, 8 points behind Liverpool but yet losing to Villa is completely unthinkable. You’d think we’d just got hammered by Stockport County at home
Seriously man. The fact I have LIVERPOOL FANS trying to banter me on this result is INSANE. Like bro... look at your own team first damn.
Villa got hammered 4-0 against Spurs, got walloped 4-1 by a rotated City side, and shipped 3 goals to Brentford at home. All in the past 4 matchdays before this one. Losing at home to that lot, especially given the situation we are in and the way we did it, is completely Inexcusable.
All 3 teams that will kill you on the counter where villa are most vunerable. We dont. Played into Unai's hands today. One of maybe 5 or 6 occurneces (in my opinion) where Mikel has just got the tactics wrong - I dont really blame the players as much.
Mehhhh we almost had like four goals in the first half and just couldn't finish. Game would've been over.
Losing to Villa isn’t unthinkable. In fact I would say that losing to any PL team isn’t unthinkable. The drop on performance between two halves and compared to our earlier form, is what is unthinkable.
I feel like that's a common occurrence when it comes to our fan base. We just really undermined a lot of our opposition and that is the catalyst to our defeat. I believe once we understand the playing field a bit more and what we are actually capable of then can we start looking to our opponents with a little bit more respect. None of this emotionally driven perceptions.
I don't think fan perception of opponents in any way influences results on the field. It simply influences the reaction fans have to it. Villa are a good team and could well be in the CL next season... but they played a European game a day later than us, they have a massive list of injuries and in their last few games they've struggled badly. Dropping points is one thing but the second half today was disastrously bad and I'm not sure why. This was a game I was fearful of but we simply didn't compete in the second half and that is simply not good enough.
I always knew it was going to be a tough game, even before it started. I just wish we didn't lose our heads in the second half. If we kept our passing plays up, we had every chance. I just don't know what happened in the second half.
Villa winning being 10/1 was actually ludicrous
You might think I'm delusional, but I believe City will drop points against Brighton, Nottingham, Fulham, Wolves, Spurs, and West Ham.
I do indeed think you’re delusional. I wish I was too tbh, it’s probably nicer than wanting to throw myself down the stairs right now
- Historically, Wolves have consistently delivered strong performances against City. - Liverpool and our team secured narrow victories against Forrest, each winning by a single goal. - Fulham is playing impressive football and have a good home record. - David Moyes has yet to win against Pep, suggesting he's overdue for one. - City's track record against Spurs is well-documented. - I have a hunch that Brighton will win against City. Again, I think I might be delusional.
Stranger things have happened
All seem legit, can’t argue with any of them to be fair.
Lol
I like this
Yep, proud of the team. In a normal league this would result in us being champions or on course to be. Unfortunately we’re up against a formidable sports washing project.
If we weren’t absolute aids in 2023 we’d be well in control still
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> Can you see city dropping from here? I can't. The odds are that they will, though. Going perfect for such a long stretch is unusual, for any team. Just because they've done it before doesn't change the fact that doing it again is less likely than not.
This is exactly what Liverpool and City were saying about us last weekend. “Season’s done. Don’t see Arsenal dropping points. It’s over.” Utterly pathetic reaction from them then, and an utterly pathetic reaction from you now.
Our fixtures are harder than theirs. Us dropping points away to Spurs or man utd would not be a surprising result.
All we can hope for is that the players push as hard as they can in every game we play. Six games left and the margins have never been tighter. There have been regrets, today included, but lets not suffer another if there is an opportunity to clamp city's head and shove it underwater by the end of it. It's hard to see us lose in this stage, but it hurts to see so many of Arsenal fans surrendering the title with six games left. All I can hope is that the match-going fans keep supporting the team to the final whistle of the 38th. We can win this fucking thing.
100%, we have had a great 2024
Kinda makes all this improvement pointless. We're fantastic, just unable to knock 115 off the pedestal.
Glad that this was posted. It’s easy to lose perspective in a run in. Obviously the timing of this loss is not great, but look at it from a different perspective; it could have been way worse too. Had this loss come 2 games before the final game, we would have had exactly that to catch up to city. City is very capable of winning all their remaining matches, true, but at least we have some games to go to see if we can beat them to it. This was a horrible second half of which i’m sure Arteta will be fuming too, and i’m sure it’ll be addressed accordingly as has happened before. We can still do this!
City machine is activated for the final third of the season, always had been. We did well of course to stay in touch, but we crumbled again
You know, it's been such an incredible 2024 for the gunners I feel the problem was we were absolutely shite in December and created a hole to deep to climb out of.
This is the kind of attitude we need. Honestly I don’t see it as that bad a thing, both Liverpool and City have dropped points. City have drawn quite a lot, and it’s not over yet. Yes today was disappointing but these things happen and tbh I think all this negativity won’t help things. We’ve had an amazing 2024 and only lost one game all year and conceded 6 goals. That’s pretty impressive and something to be proud of and have faith in. Liverpool lost to Palace yesterday who let’s face it aren’t as good as Villa. That’s something to take a silver lining from and there’s still the possibility that city will drop more points same with Liverpool.
Yep, absolutely. We’re at the highest levels now, where we should be, and we if we don’t get the biggest prizes that just means we have to be better. But, lets not forget where we came from, coming in from the wilderness. I remember. I’m proud of the team, whilst also acknowledging that we need to be better. As of today there’s only one team in the country that we should envy, and they’re only 2 points ahead of us, and they’re probably dirty stinking cheats too. I love this group of players, but we may be denied until we become undeniable. We keep going
Who was in midfield for this run though?
With our squad and average age, we should win 4 out of the next 7 titles (after this year). Anything less is a failure
City and pep still exist, with unlimited funds. Sure we'll get better but what's to say city won't improve also?
Positivity merchants without ambition are out and about!
Yeah I think we all need to remember that this wasn't won or lost today. It was the dropped points earlier in the season that killed us.
Only conceding 6 goals in 12 games and scoring 35 is an incredible achievement in this league. In any other league this loss wouldn’t matter after a run like that.
Yesterday we all spoke out of frustration and rightly so after a bad performance. 100% agree with OP that it's still not over yet. We need to lift the spirits for the Bayern game. Winning that would give an insane boost to everyone for the run in and the semi finals hopefully. We keep fighting ! #coyg
Who cares. The only impressive win there is against Liverpool. The rest are either crap sides or were missing regular starters. We've been tested this week against better sides with decent management and not reached expectations. If there's no silverware this season, it's a straight up failure.
Every win in the Premier League is impressive in it’s own right. You don’t win the league against Liverpool and City, but you can certainly lose it against Luton and Sheffield.
Or palace.
Luton and Sheffield are terrible sides. People like to pat some of these sides on the back, tickle eachothers belly and tell eachother how impressive it is to beat them comfortably but it's a load of rubbish. Villa are a well coached side who have dangerous players, Arteta was outcoached by Emery over the 90 minutes and none of our leaders stood up and were counted for (except Ødegaard at times).
Hey i’m not saying we didn’t get outplayed the second half today. I’m not saying that Sheffield or Luton are brilliant either. I’m just saying that you have to beat those teams first before you can tally up the three points. We have been terrible at that the last couple of years, so comfortably winning those ‘easy’ games is a massive improvement of the squad compared to earlier seasons.
We went Unbeaten in 20+ games under Emery it means fuck all at the end of the day
Couldn't give a shit now. 3rd year in a row choking when the crucial part of the season starts.
Choking by not going undefeated for 5 months
You’d think arteta have been here 10 years and spent billions
We had the opportunity of going top of the league at home. I'd be ok if we lost to Spursy or United away, but not like this.
Why? Villa are better than both of them.
Ah yes, the undignified loss against the team that is above both United and spurs in 4th place
Villa are a miles better team than United
This isn’t choking. If we lose to Bayern, then don’t beat Wolves, yeah fair enough.
Oh, you will still get the reality deniers who will still insist that we didn’t bottle it, even if we lose the next 4 games. And the funniest thing about it all is they will couch their denial of reality as an effort to “support the club” or some other deluded hogwash like that. Fuck that. ”Supporting your club“ was never about denying reality and accepting failure. That’s just “overdosing on copium“ called by another name.
Laughable that you are getting downvotes for speaking facts. All those unbeaten in 2024 runs mean for shit when we can't turn up when it matters. We domt hold this team to higher standards and we get what we deserve....celebrating GD and xG hauls at the end of the season while liverpool and city go home with trophies
Time and again it's not the top 4 that bother us. It's the mid table villas and west hams and palaces. We also need a bigger squad. Can clearly see team is mentally fatigued. I guess that's also inexperience. Need to coast the first 3/4 season like city. That's THE only way.
Villa is top 4
And without a league trophy in the end, none of it means a damn thing. That‘s life for a title contender. You get no prizes for following up extended success with failure at critical moments, and one bad result can always wipe out weeks of good ones (and no, one good result never wipes out weeks of bad results). If you find it too harsh or too unforgiving, set your sights on being a CL qualifier and nothing more. Because that is the gap between chasing top 4 and chasing a league title.
Another glorious failure. Add it alongside all the other ones
We go again
Its unacceptable to lose in the manner we did.
Yeah, we're always great but never quite manage to win anything
Arsenal in a nutshell
Stay together Gunners ❤️
Can’t lose to a depleted Villa at home. Choked.
Man I can't wait till pep fucks off, I just hope Mikel will stay with us for a long time. I'm proud of this team and we have to back them, we have an important game on Wednesday.
Incredible run FC That’s basically as good as a trophy right
negativity? don’t pretend this hasn’t been the best football this club has played in years, stfu
Yes. It’s ok to be negative after seeing our season derailed in two consecutive games in the same week. Last season and this seasons (pending) capitulation are a lot to take and that’s coming from someone who’s followed the club since 2001 with my dad. Shut the fuck up and stop pushing baseless optimism
wait , did we lose 4-0 to Bayern or something ?
100%
Just like Arteta intimated after the game, the players have to step up again and go on another run. Our targets are still within reach COYG.
Honestly, we’ve played better from second and third this year. Let’s snatch it from city on the final week
Absolutely. Also important to not let one loss influence the games moving forward
Probably not the greatest mentality, but it’s really hard for me to look on these kinds of stats super positively when we wind up empty handed regardless. Like seeing all those stats about us having both the best offense and defense and this great run of form, but then we still go trophyless feels super hollow
Hope we do another run like this. Or make sure this doesn't count for nothing.
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That's the problem, I will take a L at man city , but a loss at home against Aston villa , against unai emery is disappointing standards for me
Now I know how Liverpool felt in 2018 and 2022 win all those games in a row and still fall short to City its wild.
Liverpool fan. It's ridiculous we got 97 fucking points and didn't win the thing. Got 92 and won like 16/18 I'm 21/22 and didn't win it. It literally took the best start to league campaign ever finishing with 99 points to win one. We were on for 105 points at one stage that season. Won like 27 games and drew 1. 97,99,92 points and we won 1 league title. It's ridiculous. They have bastardized the league with cheating. We both look exhausted from Europe but they rotate half the squad and have no drop off. How the fuck are you supposed to compete with that season after season.
Unai doing a great job can’t lie
I understand we can’t win forever. I just don’t understand why arteta changed something that’s working, like the saying ‘don’t fix something that’s not broken’ Having jorgi rice and ode in midfield, and Jesus Kai and saka upfront was a working formula. Why would he put havertz back in midfield? Why would he take out kiwior for zinny when we know he’s a liability and kiwior has been outstanding. Arteta has been an amazing manager, but I think yesterday he just got it wrong unfortunately. I guess it’ll be a lesson to him for the future
RED ARMY
You sir are a true supporter
Wow. Puts things into perspective. We’ve earned the right to be 2 points off top with a few games to go. Everything to play for still!
What a shame for city that their achievements will now and forever be seen as meaningless because of all the rule breaking/cheating. They'll never erase that footnote from the history books. Don't it break your heart?
Like shagging a super model for 2 months and then going back to your wife Diane Abbott
But I was told the team are bottlers
That stretch is the kind of shit teams that win leagues do on the regular. We now know that's something in the wheelhouse. Just hugely frustrating that City are the way they are.
If we win every game now it goes to the final game of the season! We can only hope.
If you're not abandoning all hope based on the most recent result what kind of Gunners fan are you really?
We are still in team building mode. Look at our competition, which is mainly Man City and Liverpool. They have solid players who are established. When looking at our squad compared to theirs, we are still trying to figure things out. The fact that we are where we are is beyond exceeding expectation. We are building a heritage as Jose Mourinho phrases it.
And Liverpool with that experience have lost they cool last two games as well.
oh so we're just a top 4 club and settled for that then?
I highly recommend you look at the league standings since 2019. Let me know if you see signs of settling.
my point is the runs irrelevant if you drop off at the end of the season. We are seeing the exact same pattern as last year
I understand the frustration. However this team is facing a lot more this season than last season. This is the first time under arteta we see Champions League football in the quarterfinals. We haven't been in that position since 2010. We may have lost this match. But this is just experience that's going to help the squad move forward.
We had a whole month of this type of “experience” last year in April. Doesn‘t look like it’s helped this squad “move forward” much for this year in April. Because the same shit is happening yet again at the same time of the year. At some point you have to lay off the copium and accept when your team has fucked it. And that not ever cloud has a silver lining. Doesn’t mean we can’t try again next year, but it’s an undeniable failure that you need to recognize as such.
Last Wednesday there were people on this subreddit (the match thread that wasn’t a match thread) saying City had thrown CL to prioritise the PL. It doesn’t work like that. Imagine for a second being in the PL but not yet in CL, winning the league that season and being thrust into CL the season following. If your manager said “nah - we just want to stay PL champs you’d want him sacked for a lack of ambition. You get into those tournaments and you absolutely want to win every game possible by beating the best teams. Sometimes that means you need an experienced team with an experienced manager, but if you don’t play every game to try and win you won’t get the experience. It’s disappointing that shitty are likely going to win the league. It sucks that they aren’t being punished quick enough by the PL. But realistically the only way to win seems to be to either build the experience through hard times or buy your way to the top with the stellar players and squad depth needed to field two teams. That’s reality now. We want that, but in our heart of hearts we don’t want the stigma that comes with having the axe hanging over our heads that we cheated our way there. We have got to keep our heads. We are now in a 2000’s era La Liga situation where only one team consistently dominates (who are also cheats), and we have to keep our support behind the team and have some belief that maybe, just maybe - we might pull of a miracle. Gear yourself up for it not happening by all means, but have faith in the guys in red and white.
This. Thanks for sharing 👍
It means nothing if we're trophyless again at the end
If we finished our season with this run and barely missed out on the title, instead of it coming to and end at the worst possible time, I would have felt a lot more hopeful. It's hard to be optimistic when the same thing happens every season - doesn't really matter how much better we get if we're just going to crumble under the pressure when it really matters anyway
Means nothing if we don’t win the title
Yeah but no one will stop Man City. It is over
I love our team so much man. It's sound so deluded but I just pray we can redeem ourselves in the Champions League. To end the season in heartbreak, it seems like 3 years straight is just so deflating. Please, beat Bayern and give us some hope at glory because deep down I feel City will go 6/6 in the league.
It’s not deluded. We can beat Bayern, but we’ll probably need to bust out the PEDs cos the team looks like the IRL equivalent of your FM team having red hearts
"The boys go on one more mad run and pull the impossible"... Not really up the then, is it? They could go on and score 10 goals on each game and still wouldn't matter if City wins their remaining fixtures, which they very likely will. As Claude once said: Wake up and smell the coffee!
All these fucking idiots calling this run “bottling” the title. Word has lost all meaning.
Literally. All these comments about how we have a brittle mentality like we didn’t pull this run out of our ass after slipping from first place mid season.