Who had the better season? Arsenal or Man utd?

matsdf said:
I'd much rather take fighting for the biggest trophies than winning Micky Mouse ones...
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Arsenal only "fought" for one trophy, big or small, and even that is highly debatable as they capitulated embarrassingly with several matchdays to go.

United fought for all three cups they were in, won one and reached the final in another, and finished the league just one place below that amazing team who fights for the biggest trophies.
 
Obviously Arsenal had the better season. No Carabao Cup or final compensates for having reached the stage where you mount a serious title challenge lasting into the final rounds.
 
This is a very weird debate. Arsenal won nothing at all. Doing well for much of the season and then bottling it doesn't trump actually winning a trophy.
 
justsomebloke said:
Obviously Arsenal had the better season. No Carabao Cup or final compensates for having reached the stage where you mount a serious title challenge lasting into the final rounds.
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Nobody thought they'd win the league with 5 matchdays to go though. I guess we'll have to disagree on "serious title challenge" and "final rounds" :lol:
 
Real Name said:
Its obvious where you stand regarding ETH. You want to see what you want to see or dont want to see.
This thread is basically another safe heaven for ETH doubters.
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It's not though, I actually support him and think he's doing fine, it's just when you look back at this season, for large periods, we weren't very good.
 
cafecillos said:
Nobody thought they'd win the league with 5 matchdays to go though. I guess we'll have to disagree on "serious title challenge" and "final rounds" :lol:
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fine. A serious title challenge for 32 rounds is still more than enough to put Arsenal's season above ours.
 
Redanian said:
So, two years from now if we win nothing but come second and be a laughing stock for capitulating with just a few games to go having been top of the league for three quarters of the season you’ll be happy?

Personally I think that would be a step back from where we are right now. That is how context works.

We’ve done nothing for a decade, SAF has been retired 10 years and almost died since we were last in a position to mock teams for merely challenging and winning a trophy.

You’re in denial and living off former glories like a Scouser if you can’t accept that.
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No, I'll be gutted we just threw away the title. It'll feel like 11/12 did.

We've done nothing for a decade but we've finished 2nd twice and won the FA Cup and Europa League alongside another League Cup that barely anyone cared about back then. We're so starved of a title challenge that you've forgotten the other trophies, so just like you, the League Cup barely means anything. It was nice to win it, but celebrating it over a title challenge is what small teams do. We're Man United, we're supposed to challenge for the league, it always comes first.

Arsenal fans are rightfully gutted right now. You can say City were always gonna win it and I'd 99% agree with you but for at least 2/3rds of the season, Arsenal had the hope and the chance. I miss that feeling more than anything, especially the odd mickey mouse cup.

We were nowhere last year. Now we're celebrating getting Champions League and a minor cup. If this was another team outside of the top 6 it'd make sense to cherish this season.
 
They have been worse than you the last couple of years and now they have taken steps to be a comfortably better side than you and that looks set to continue into next season. Arsenal have had the better season
 
I couldn't care less. If Tottenham almost won the league against Leicester, next season they are no way close and crashed out, it doesn't mean anything finish 2nd.

This is their window of opportunity. Next season when other rivals strengthening, what do they say about this season? Progress is progress, it's not a success until you've won something.

The audicity to even compare with United team that played almost 60+ games? Get out of here.
 
justsomebloke said:
fine. A serious title challenge for 32 rounds is still more than enough to put Arsenal's season above ours.
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Nah, I disagree with that, especially when you add to the equation the fact that they had very poor runs in all the cup competitions they took part in (domestic and European), precisely in order to be able to mount that title challenge that came tumbling down with one month to go after being crushed by the team they were apparently challenging for the title.
 
A pointless debate really. Very different seasons. Arsenal did well in the league until near the end. We were a mixed bag but managed to capitalise on the tail end of our best form. I’d probably rather be in our position but if challenging for the league came about with no trophies I wouldn’t complain too much.
 
Both have had successful yet disappointing seasons. Arsenal have made good progress, for external reasons as many as internal ones, but sacrificed every competition to prioritize one they eventually fumbled. Utd couldn't really have asked for higher than 3rd at the beginning of the season, won a trophy (albeit a minor one), and despite inconsistencies throughout the season, that can widely be explained by a ridiculous fixture list combined with a paper thin squad (in terms of quality), overall look in a much better place than they did 12 months ago. Utd had a marginally better season, if only for the trophy, but it's totally marginal and it's not like either team have had a season that will be remembered in history books.
 
moodyred said:
We played 62 games and won 42. (68% win ratio)
Arsenal played 49 games and won 32. (65% win ratio)

We played alot more games. Had better win ratios. Qualified for CL and won a cup. If Arsenal played as many games, injury and fatigue would have hit them hard. I'll argue we have a much better season.
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Good post.
 
Arsenal fans were thrilled to be in somekind of race to mid April with points above City which is quite a progress, judging how their ambitions went in last couple of years with Arteta.

If winning Carabao Cup edges it for United as a better season, I guess the gap isn't that big at all. Both teams are on the rise, just not sure where the ceiling actually is.

Tbf, both Ten Hag and Arteta doing their best in fighting against ongoing circus in their respective clubs, to the point Pool ended in Europa League.
 
Manchester utd had a better season, coming second is never success,only progress. Actually winning something is success.
 
The league is the ultimate metric for me when it comes evaluating a team's season and Arsenal managed a title challenge up till the last 5 or 6 games.

While we did well in the league and the League Cup was nice, I will easily trade the league cup away to watch my team challenging Man City up top and entering the last weeks of the season fighting to win the title.

When we challenge for the league again after a decade (or more) of fighting every year for top 4 spot, it will be a magnificent feeling and people then will realize why Arsenal season is just better.
 
In the short term, Arsenal had the better season, since they are the better team. However they didn't win the title, so the only benefit of being a good team is qualifying for Europe. Since Manchester United also qualified, that is a wash. From next season onwards, the history book will only count trophies, and it will record that Manchester United won one, and Arsenal none. So 2 years from now and on, Manchester United had the better season.
 
I don't understand why this is even a question. We finished in top 4 and won a cup. Arsenal finished in top 4 and won nothing. Mounting a title challenge isn't an achievement.
 
Both teams showed excellent progression. Manchester United qualified for the CL and won a trophy in the Dutchman's first campaign as manager. Filling some holes in the squad this transfer window will have the team well placed for a title run. Arsenal finished second and were in first for the majority of the campaign and that showed significant progression as well. Nobody predicted that before the season and many predicted that Arsenal would not qualify for CL and would finish 6th or 7th. Even with the way the campaign ended, Arsenal had a slightly better season. The caveat to that was they did not have a new manager and had a more settled squad. If both teams play it smart going forward, they have a great chance to be back to being consistently in the CL and possibly the title race for the near future.
 
VeevaVee said:
A pointless debate really. Very different seasons. Arsenal did well in the league until near the end. We were a mixed bag but managed to capitalise on the tail end of our best form. I’d probably rather be in our position but if challenging for the league came about with no trophies I wouldn’t complain too much.
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It was actually only August to November, where they were fantastic TBF.

United had more points, more xG, more xPts after the world Cup than arsenal. We all know that the 2nd half of the season is more meaningful than the 1st half. We also played 13 games more than them over this period in all competitions.
 
Redanian said:
So, two years from now if we win nothing but come second and be a laughing stock for capitulating with just a few games to go having been top of the league for three quarters of the season you’ll be happy?

Personally I think that would be a step back from where we are right now. That is how context works.

We’ve done nothing for a decade, SAF has been retired 10 years and almost died since we were last in a position to mock teams for merely challenging and winning a trophy.

You’re in denial and living off former glories like a Scouser if you can’t accept that.
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The main target for United is to challenge for the league and try to win it. Winning League Cup is nice but it's just a bonus. If we are challenging for the league I won't have an issue sacrificing such cup to not affect our chances.

Considering where we were last year, 3rd and a league cup is good, but it's ultimately not where we are aiming to be in the future.
 
A hard question to answer, but in the end it has to be Arsenal. They played better football by miles, but if you look at the table we somehow ended up only 9 points behind them. We picked up one trophy and lost in another cup final 2-1 to what is undeniably the greatest side on the planet (albeit one that financially doped its way to the top and we'll see if anything at all is done to punish City for what they did and who they are). But Arsenal played better football and didn't remorselessly grind its way to grim wins the way we did.
 
Credit to both clubs really…progress is evident. We’ve come from the position of our lowest ebb. Had a mamouth season of 3 games a week for almost every week. Won a trophy and comfortably qualified for CL. Some of the football up until around March was excellent but the squad lacks meaningful depth as witnessed when having 3 players missing from the cup final. The bench was shocking. As for Arsenal well they played excellent football for 90% of the season and won games with ease…they only fell away when it mattered :lol:
 
Jeppers7 said:
As for Arsenal well they played excellent football for 90% of the season and won games with ease…they only fell away when it mattered :lol:
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60% would be more correct. They were awful in February, April and May.

Their PPG in the second half of the season was 5th place quality overall.
 
arsenal of course. They were in title challenge, utd was not. On top of that they played great attacking football
 
Arsenal had a better season. If we had won the EL or the FA cup and finished third I'd say us but the Carabao is the bottom of the barrel when it comes to trophies and they played better football than us for the vast majority of the season despite winning nothing and bottling the title.
 
FeedTheGoat said:
They have been worse than you the last couple of years and now they have taken steps to be a comfortably better side than you and that looks set to continue into next season. Arsenal have had the better season
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I wouldn't be in the slightest bit surprised is Arsenal finish outside the top 4 next season and Arteta doesn't finish the season.

Expectations for them are now massive so if they don't start well, things will sour very quickly.
 
You can make valid arguments for either side. As a United fan and not miserable like some I'm going with United.
 
Probably Arsenal, but they're a few years further down the line than us in terms of the manager having had time to put a team together. If you'd asked me at the start of the year whether I'd rather come away with a failed title challenge and no silverware or third and a cup I likely would have picked the latter though.
 
matherto said:
It's not though, I actually support him and think he's doing fine, it's just when you look back at this season, for large periods, we weren't very good.
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We had bad phases, for sure, but generally it's been a good season with potential of being better next season.
 
Arsenal easily. Manchester United have spent stuff for aiming to be at least challenging for the PL and CL but they did neither.
 
Just ask what season you would prefer next year for your team.
a. Genuine title challenge
b. top4 and Carling cup.

I would select the first option everytime. If it was FA cup it would be lot closer.
But then again to each his own.
 
Making a weighted average given EPL performances are much more important than the other competitions Arsenal and Manchester United were in, so: PL: 0,6, FAcup: 0,2, UEL: 0,15, EFL cup: 0,05

- Arsenal rate of their PL season: 9/10.. 9 x 0,6 + Fa cup: 5 x 0,2 + UEL: 4 x 0,15 + EFL: 3 x 0,05 = 7,15
- Manchester United.. Premier League, rate: 7 x 0,6 + Fa cup: 9 x 0,2 + UEL: 5 x 015 + EFL: 10 x 0,05 = 7,25

Maths is saying that Manchester Untied had a slightly better season than Arsenal..
 
I'd take 3rd place and a trophy over going all season in first place and then collapsing. I dont think I could have taken the disapointment of throwing it away that late.
 
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