Arsenal 2023/24 - Born to be runner up

Daydreamer said:
I was going to say this. Our home crowd is good, but not as good as last year.

There has been a change to our ticket buying process which has nearly eliminated touts (a good thing) but made it a literal lottery for non-season ticket holders (like myself) to get tickets. Previously, if you paid to become a member and logged on the moment tickets became available, you could get them (I was able to get tickets to the NLD last season this way). Now there’s a random selection process. You could argue that it’s more fair (I run my own company, so I could just check out of work to get tickets as I have my priorities straight - an option not available to everyone) but I haven’t been able to make it to a league game this year. And I think Ashburton’s Army (as cringe as that name may be) did a great job of building atmosphere last season, but they’ve also been affected by the change.

But the main reason Emirates feels like less of a fortress is because last year felt like we were ahead of schedule. We coasted through the season on vibes until we burnt out at the finish line. There was a lot of hope but not a great deal of expectation and this transmitted to the team. Our home games are a lot more tense this season. We alleviated that by taking the lead early in pretty much every game in 2024. But when we could do that against Villa, the nerves really set in.
Click to expand...
Very good post.

The games I have been to this year I have to say the support has been abysmal. I went to City away and in the previous years you'd have very rowdy and good Arsenal support. This year felt like tourists. The Emirates this year too is quite poor in terms of atmosphere. You're right re: early goal, if we don't do that at home its never good news now and event hen I don't feel safe unless its 2-0.
 
erikcred said:
You're right. The arsenal goals came despite Bayern executing their plans perfectly. In fact, no team in CL history could've stopped either of those goals. Even Mourinho's Inter. They were that good.

On the other hand, the goals that Arsenal conceded had nothing to do with Bayern outplaying them or forcing them into mistakes. They were basically pity goals Arsenal handed out because without extensive CL experience, how could they be expected to know that the objective of a CL tie is to score more goals than the opponent.
Click to expand...

:lol::lol:
 
Bright_Eyes said:
The past decade had basically been United's worst nightmare come true
Click to expand...

Been even longer for us. Most of the time we have a choice of either cheating Chelsea or cheating City. From an Arsenal perspective I obviously want Pool to lose today's game but from a football perspective I am so sick of those two, I just want to see some other club win...so overall I am ok with them keeping pace.
 
I really don't like arteta, and yes we get exposed to a particularly irritating type of arsenal fan online, but its a no brained that we should all want them to win every game until the end of the season. We're out of CL in any case
 
erikcred said:
You're right. The arsenal goals came despite Bayern executing their plans perfectly. In fact, no team in CL history could've stopped either of those goals. Even Mourinho's Inter. They were that good.

On the other hand, the goals that Arsenal conceded had nothing to do with Bayern outplaying them or forcing them into mistakes. They were basically pity goals Arsenal handed out because without extensive CL experience, how could they be expected to know that the objective of a CL tie is to score more goals than the opponent.
Click to expand...

Silly post. After the 2-2- draw at the Emirates.

Arteta: "In the Champions League you cannot give anything to the opponent and we gave them two goals today”

Athletic: "The mistakes that led to Serge Gnabry’s equaliser and Harry Kane’s penalty were both results of overthought and inaction — traits that have not cost Arsenal since the first half of the season.`'

Sky sports: "It came from an innocuous long pass. David Raya came running out of his goal to claim it near the halfway line but instead the ball was collected by Gabriel Magalhaes who, seeing his goalkeeper out of position, turned and tried to find left-back Jakub Kiwior ahead of him instead. Unfortunately for Arsenal, his pass was inaccurate, with Kiwior unable to collect it and Sane pouncing. The winger fed the onrushing Leon Goretzka, whose through-ball was clinically dispatched by former Gunner Gnabry"

Also find it funny how you were suggesting I'm out of touch when you were saying "Arsenal could well be out of sight before the return leg" when the draw was made. :)
 
ArtetasHair said:
To be honest I am more nervous at home. At home we have been so sloppy too often last two years at crucial times because what happens is we don't score early and you can feel heavy tension by 30-40 mins and then the second half the crowd and the team are extremely tense and when we concede at this time we lose. Villa a classic example as are numerous home games last year, though ofcourse theoretically home should be easier but I feel more nervous at home.
Click to expand...
Get through next week with six points and that's the worst of it out the way for you. Your home crowd is obviously going to be nervous but those are the worst two fixtures by far. After that you have Bournemouth, United and Everton (who should probably be safe by then).

Despite the rivalry, I'm sure most of our fans and players would prefer for Arsenal to prevent City from winning four in a row or Liverpool from winning it twenty times, plus we owe Gerrard and Liverpool one for the Drogba incident...so i wouldn't be unhappy if one of our players made a dodgy pass back for Saka to latch on to.
 
GoonerGirly said:
Overall, our squad is the 3rd youngest in the league. Most of our squad (and our manager) have never played in the CL before this season. It is a pretty inexperienced squad that is only starting to figure out how to manage a title charge and CL campaign. And Bayern's starting 11's average age was 28, and many say their aging squad is something that needs addressing soon. May be an issue over 34 games in the league, but that extra experience is priceless in a cup competition.

Good win vs Wolves. Yes they are rampaged by injuries but it's always a tricky away tie and they do well against the "bigger" clubs. Havertz in midfield looked much better this time, I always thought he could do a decent job there against some of the lesser teams but it won't be enough against the better sides (e.g. Villa, Bayern). Think we controlled the game quite well and really limited their chances. Now onto Chelsea.
Click to expand...

Who cares about the average age in the PL. Your average age against Bayern was 25; that's not young. You also had plenty of experienced players in the side. You lost because Bayern have better players. But, it was a great season to be playing them and I thought you's would win tbh.

Edit: Just checked there. You have the 4th youngest squad at 25.1. But, us at 10th have 25.9. I mean, there's nothing really between 4th and 10th...
 
Last edited:
I am a bit envious of Liverpool having the ability to fire in a free kick.
 
Robbie Boy said:
Who cares about the average age in the PL. Your average age against Bayern was 25; that's not young. You also had plenty of experienced players in the side. You lost because Bayern have better players. But, it was a great season to be playing them and I thought you's would win tbh.

Edit: Just checked there. You have the 4th youngest squad at 25.1. But, us at 10th have 25.9. I mean, there's nothing really between 4th and 10th...
Click to expand...
Bayern's average age of their starting 11 was 28. Big difference that extra 3 years, and it showed. It was a tight tie overall but IMO their experience is why they edged it. They have also won this comp 6 times while the best we've ever done is runners up. Yes it was a good time to play them but I never thought it would be a cakewalk, like some seemed to think.
 
Donaldo said:
Very random. Any reason you picked this out before the legions of incredibly hare-brained Arsenal content you seem to be perusing on the internet>
Click to expand...
Even more random given that he was searching for this Arsenal content whilst his team were imploding against a championship side.
 
As often with these kind of useless pieces of content, it was more likely sent to them in a group chat, they found it mildly amusing and posted it here. Which probably took about the grand total of 2mn all in all.

But don't let get in the way of the fun story you've created for yourselves chaps! :)

EDIT: the best part is you just posted an absolute shit piece of content about Antony, you couldn't make it up :lol:
 
Donaldo said:
Very random. Any reason you picked this out before the legions of incredibly hare-brained Arsenal content you seem to be perusing on the internet>
Click to expand...
Not pursuing anything…. Got this posted in a private WhatsApp group and thought I could share it with you guys.

The Twitter account looked legit…
 
mathrait said:
Even more random given that he was searching for this Arsenal content whilst his team were imploding against a championship side.
Click to expand...

It's surprising that you guys struggle to understand how the internet works. You don't have to search for these content, it's given to you without much effort just like how you for this video without any effort.
 
awop said:
Let's hope he can have a few other cameos with the reserves. A few minutes maybe at the end of the Everton game at home but not much more. A good rehab + a full pre-season so he can actually start his Arsenal career next season.
Click to expand...

Considering the lack of stability we have had at LB and the way this guy looked before his injury, we definitely could have used him this season. Hope he hasn't lost a step after that injury. Great to see him back and good little cameo there.

What is going on with Tomi?
 
Win against Spurs and they have a very decent chance at this. Remaining fixtures:

Spurs (A)
Bournemouth (H)
United (A)
Everton (H)

Come on you feckers, don't bottle this now.
 
Definitely not looking very bottly. Just (probably) not quite good enough to topple City.

Never thought I'd actually sort of want an Arsenal team to win something but of they did do it hard to argue it wouldn't be deserved.
 
Irwin99 said:
Win against Spurs and they have a very decent chance at this. Remaining fixtures:

Spurs (A)
Bournemouth (H)
United (A)
Everton (H)

Come on you feckers, don't bottle this now.
Click to expand...
Still have to hope City drop points too but they're in a good position. Key game is obviously Spurs away, they'll destroy us though. As long as it's not more than a 2 goal loss I wouldn't mind.
 
the_cliff said:
Still have to hope City drop points too but they're in a good position. Key game is obviously Spurs away, they'll destroy us though. As long as it's not more than a 2 goal loss I wouldn't mind.
Click to expand...
Yeah it's by far the lesser of three evils for me. Liverpool could get to 20 times, City could win 4 in a row; Arsenal fans can be annoying but their club have put a hell of a lot of patience and effort into Arteta's project and I kind of respect that. It's been a good rebuild from them I have to admit.

Still can't see where City drop points though, other than Spurs possibly.
 
the_cliff said:
Still have to hope City drop points too but they're in a good position. Key game is obviously Spurs away, they'll destroy us though. As long as it's not more than a 2 goal loss I wouldn't mind.
Click to expand...

I'm already preparing the Old Trafford red carpet.
 
the_cliff said:
It would be a proper United thing to do for us to decide to turn up that day out of all days, though barring any miracles that should be an easy Arsenal W.
Click to expand...
Rashford - 110% effort all game
Onana - saves everything
Antony - scores with his right foot
 
You must log in or register to reply here.