Who had the better season? Arsenal or Man utd?

[Robbie Boy]

I firmly believe that this Arsenal team, and manager, are absolute frauds who had all the luck in the world, and still ended up choking, coming a distant second. I fully expect order to be restored next season.

 

[matherto]

for me the upside of finishing 2nd instead of 3rd is non existent. Both teams get the same return. I don't believe that it carries over to the next season or whatever - it's to each own.

It's not just finishing second though is it? It's being in a title race.

 

[Fortitude]

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.

But that’s not the real question next term. Arsenal will have a full campaign this upcoming season where you are expected to be challenging on all fronts available to you. The CL, the league and the domestic trophies. Then, and only then will you know how much you have progressed and where you stand in an actual gruelling campaign rather than a streamlined one.

We played a lot more games than you due to the above; we also paid dearly for it as our weak squad fatigued; if we only had the league to focus on, like you did, that wouldn’t have happened and expectations would have more of a right to be different, and elevated.

Chelsea and Liverpool (if they bin EL) will be in your predicament of this season, next season, and they should be mounting very serious title challenges because of it. Meanwhile, you’re heavily tipped to fade badly, so the question you’ve posed mightn’t even be applicable to you next season.

 

[Alex99]

It's not just finishing second though is it? It's being in a title race.

I personally never really had the feeling they were in a title race.

Maybe it's because City are just so depressingly inevitable, but even when the gap was at its largest, City still had the easier set of remaining fixtures (on paper) and it always felt a bit like we were waiting to see at what point they caught up, rather than if they would.

As it happens, they won it with games to spare and probably would have finished 10 points clear if they didn't have two cup finals to prepare for.

 

[tomaldinho1]

I personally never really had the feeling they were in a title race.

Maybe it's because City are just so depressingly inevitable, but even when the gap was at its largest, City still had the easier set of remaining fixtures (on paper) and it always felt a bit like we were waiting to see at what point they caught up, rather than if they would.

As it happens, they won it with games to spare and probably would have finished 10 points clear if they didn't have two cup finals to prepare for.

Arsenal's fixture list dictated their season looking great then the tail off at the end. City were pretty average early season, the difference was simply the head to heads. They lost twice to City and lost out on the title by 5 points. If they'd drawn both games they'd have won the league.

 

[Alex99]

Arsenal's fixture list dictated their season looking great then the tail off at the end. City were pretty average early season, the difference was simply the head to heads. They lost twice to City and lost out on the title by 5 points. If they'd drawn both games they'd have won the league.

If City had to beat Brighton and Brentford, they would have.

To further illustrated my point, Arsenal basically had two wobbly patches of form, and both immediately preceded their matches with City.

One point from nine after losing to Everton, drawing with Brentford, then losing to City in February.

Three points from 12 after the draws against Liverpool, West Ham and Southampton, then losing to City.

I wouldn't really argue against anyone saying Arsenal were in a title race, I'm just saying that for me it didn't feel like it because City were never out of reach.

Although if we're comparing what season I'd prefer, I think I'd still choose United's even with the FA Cup final defeat, because I can't see how any fan could truly enjoy watching their team capitulate like Arsenal did.

 

[surf]

Arsenal men finished 9 points ahead, Arsenal women finished 9 points behind. Draw.

 

[CannonBalls]

But that’s not the real question next term. Arsenal will have a full campaign this upcoming season where you are expected to be challenging on all fronts available to you. The CL, the league and the domestic trophies. Then, and only then will you know how much you have progressed and where you stand in an actual gruelling campaign rather than a streamlined one.

We played a lot more games than you due to the above; we also paid dearly for it as our weak squad fatigued; if we only had the league to focus on, like you did, that wouldn’t have happened and expectations would have more of a right to be different, and elevated.

Chelsea and Liverpool (if they bin EL) will be in your predicament of this season, next season, and they should be mounting very serious title challenges because of it. Meanwhile, you’re heavily tipped to fade badly, so the question you’ve posed mightn’t even be applicable to you next season.

Exactly. Chelsea & Liverpool for next season is equivalent to Arsenal and ManUtd of last season where one mounted a title push and one won a cup.

And even otherwise, we have won 4 FA cups in the past decade but this is our first genuine title push while i understand there is no silverware and history books don't remember title push and say 10yrs from now the ManUtd season with a trophy would make it seem more meaningful but currently I would still prefer a title push as in the moment its special.

 

[Fortitude]

Exactly. Chelsea & Liverpool for next season is equivalent to Arsenal and ManUtd of last season where one mounted a title push and one won a cup.

And even otherwise, we have won 4 FA cups in the past decade but this is our first genuine title push while i understand there is no silverware and history books don't remember title push and say 10yrs from now the ManUtd season with a trophy would make it seem more meaningful but currently I would still prefer a title push as in the moment its special.

But it wasn’t a title push the moment things got serious; you folded. This wasn’t some nail bitingly intense campaign; it’s one that petered out well before the home straight and it is also caveated by the fact you only had the league to contest. We battled on 4 fronts and spread ourselves thin, the net result being a trophy, a runners up place and a league position a few points less than yours. Our conditions were far, far harsher and tougher than yours.

Aesthetically, you looked the part for a while, but come crunch time, you didn’t. Normally, you look at a genuine title-challenging season and think: ‘yeah, with a few tweaks, that 2nd placed team could go all the way next term.’ I don’t get that vibe from you because you played a curtailed season, which is not generally what titl-chasing teams do. In terms of a “real world” campaign, you’ve not shown anything to state you will be able to handle multiple, difficult fronts whilst also genuinely contesting for the PL. In isolation, I get the euphoria of your fan base - absolutely nobody expected you to play a role in deciding the league, but objectively, it’s not much to write home about until you do it in a generic campaign that, say, the top 3 teams in the league would be expected to be going deep in. In fact of those 3 this campaign, you’re the outlier. We know far more about City and United than we do of Arsenal off the back of this campaign.

 

[CannonBalls]

But it wasn’t a title push the moment things got serious; you folded. This wasn’t some nail bitingly intense campaign; it’s one that petered out well before the home straight and it is also caveated by the fact you only had the league to contest. We battled on 4 fronts and spread ourselves thin, the net result being a trophy, a runners up place and a league position a few points less than yours. Our conditions were far, far harsher and tougher than yours.

Aesthetically, you looked the part for a while, but come crunch time, you didn’t. Normally, you look at a genuine title-challenging season and think: ‘yeah, with a few tweaks, that 2nd placed team could go all the way next term.’ I don’t get that vibe from you because you played a curtailed season, which is not generally what titl-chasing teams do. In terms of a “real world” campaign, you’ve not shown anything to state you will be able to handle multiple, difficult fronts whilst also genuinely contesting for the PL. In isolation, I get the euphoria of your fan base - absolutely nobody expected you to play a role in deciding the league, but objectively, it’s not much to write home about until you do it in a generic campaign that, say, the top 3 teams in the league would be expected to be going deep in. In fact of those 3 this campaign, you’re the outlier. We know far more about City and United than we do of Arsenal off the back of this campaign.

You have to be joking to say it wasn't a serious title push. I can understand people saying that we chocked when it mattered. But after week 33-34 if a team is top of the league its a serious title push.

I agree next year we may or may not be title challenges but thats true for any team bar City. And i agree that we have not reached the heights of Liverpool 2019/2022. But saying that you know more about ManUtd then about Arsenal is rubbish. ManUtd currently has more holes in their starting 11 GK/LCM/CF. On top of other options that can/should be upgraded RB/RW. We have a huge hole in midfield and need 2 players there but after that its more of squad building and improving what we have.
Which team had a better last campaign is debatable and a matter of preference to some extent. Which is a better team currently is not. Sure you can improve next year but then so can we.

 

[GMoore23]

Us clearly.

We both qualified for the CL but we also won a trophy.

 

[Fortitude]

You have to be joking to say it wasn't a serious title push. I can understand people saying that we chocked when it mattered. But after week 33-34 if a team is top of the league its a serious title push.

I agree next year we may or may not be title challenges but thats true for any team bar City. And i agree that we have not reached the heights of Liverpool 2019/2022. But saying that you know more about ManUtd then about Arsenal is rubbish. ManUtd currently has more holes in their starting 11 GK/LCM/CF. On top of other options that can/should be upgraded RB/RW. We have a huge hole in midfield and need 2 players there but after that its more of squad building and improving what we have.
Which team had a better last campaign is debatable and a matter of preference to some extent. Which is a better team currently is not. Sure you can improve next year but then so can we.

When everything is lined up for you, and is going well, it's completely different to facing the plethora of adversity a normal campaign generally strangles non-cheating teams with. Of course, nobody could foresee some of the absurd eventualities we endured, but, on a lesser scale, those things are par for the course over a long and tiring season - we'll see how you actually cope when having to rest, rotate and figure out probabilities over multiple fronts, especially if key players are injured or suspended, or plain, old exhausted. You're also a young side, so experience is also going to play a hand. So many things for you simply are unknowns, literally off the back of the season you've just had - for us, we've seen how and where we capitulate, what we need to get rid of, what to bring in, what pitfalls to try and avoid over the next arduous campaign and so forth. We're under no illusions because we've had everything about us examined. In terms of productivity, we've done really well, and as pointed out, still only had a few points less than you whilst knowing full well we need to go up a level or two to be genuine contenders in a multiple-front campaign.

I honestly don't know how much of the above applies to you. Furthermore, you'll have a number of marked players in your team going forward. No more under the radar stuff nor the element of surprise. You're going to see how your team (and attackers) cope with serious cynicism and quite frankly, dirty play levelled at them - not just in the PL, but the CL, too. We've already seen how our players do/do not cope under the same spotlight, and we know what needs to be addressed.

You know that your title challenge absolutely fizzled out when it mattered and made the last run of games a procession; that's more like a team being a place-holder until the fixtures played out than one who took anything to the wire, like a true challenger is supposed to. I dunno, feels like you flattered to deceive in that aspect, especially when, as pointed out by others, you were absolutely flying in the first half of the season, and seemed to hit more of a realistic mean in the second half of it. How should we extrapolate that? What does it mean going into a much harder campaign?

Let's put it another way: if you had to play the amount of games we did, and us vice-versa, do you believe you would have fared better, or us worse than you? We looked quite the team with all our players fit, before the post-league cup capitulations began.

 

[Alex99]

You have to be joking to say it wasn't a serious title push. I can understand people saying that we chocked when it mattered. But after week 33-34 if a team is top of the league its a serious title push.

I agree next year we may or may not be title challenges but thats true for any team bar City. And i agree that we have not reached the heights of Liverpool 2019/2022. But saying that you know more about ManUtd then about Arsenal is rubbish. ManUtd currently has more holes in their starting 11 GK/LCM/CF. On top of other options that can/should be upgraded RB/RW. We have a huge hole in midfield and need 2 players there but after that its more of squad building and improving what we have.
Which team had a better last campaign is debatable and a matter of preference to some extent. Which is a better team currently is not. Sure you can improve next year but then so can we.

I said this in a previous post, so I'll summarise it here:

My feeling was that it was always case of when, not if, City would catch Arsenal, and the reality is that had City not had two cup finals ahead of them and taken their foot off the gas for the final two games, they'd have probably won the league by 10 clear points.

Arsenal dropped points in the two games immediately preceding their first match against City, then did so again in the three games immediately preceding their second match. Without checking, I'm 99% sure these were the only two occasions all season that Arsenal dropped points in consecutive league matches.

I don't think I'm alone in feeling as I did about City catching up, and that, along with the double capitulation when a fixture with City approached and the ease in which they overhauled the points lead means, while it may have objectively been a title "push", I'm not sure many ever considered it a proper title "race".

 

[matherto]

If City had to beat Brighton and Brentford, they would have.

To further illustrated my point, Arsenal basically had two wobbly patches of form, and both immediately preceded their matches with City.

One point from nine after losing to Everton, drawing with Brentford, then losing to City in February.

Three points from 12 after the draws against Liverpool, West Ham and Southampton, then losing to City.

I wouldn't really argue against anyone saying Arsenal were in a title race, I'm just saying that for me it didn't feel like it because City were never out of reach.

Although if we're comparing what season I'd prefer, I think I'd still choose United's even with the FA Cup final defeat, because I can't see how any fan could truly enjoy watching their team capitulate like Arsenal did.

So you mean, they were in a title race. If two teams have a realistic chance of winning it's a race. Arsenal stood a realistic chance of winning, even if City always had the chance to catch them.

And nobody enjoys seeing their team capitulate, it's the worst, but that's the point, it matters so much more.

We lost the cup final and it was rubbish but it didn't hurt for too long. Losing the title like Arsenal did will sting for a while. It means the potential upside when they win the league will be huge, whereas if we win the FA Cup next year it'll merely be 'oh, that was nice'.

Title races mean so much more than domestic cups, even if you don't win. And if you were to say domestic cups were important, the league cup is the least for a Prem team and especially one used to winning.

 

[Marcelinho87]

Arsenal and it is not even close. The League Cup is the shittiest trophy ever.

Shit or not the ultimate goal is to lift silverware.

The history books in years from now show United lifting silverware and arsenal lifting feck all.

 

[Revan]

Shit or not the ultimate goal is to lift silverware.

The history books in years from now show United lifting silverware and arsenal lifting feck all.

Ok. Then a question: did we have a better season this year than in 2011-2012 (Aguero moment)?

 

[Wilt]

Arsenal….. the benchmark being the Premier League.

Arsenal scored 30 prem goals more than Utd.

Arsenal spent 90% of the season as title contenders, where’s Utd spent 90% of the season in a fight for top 4.

 

[Care_de_Bobo]

Ok. Then a question: did we have a better season this year than in 2011-2012 (Aguero moment)?

Definitely. We didn't make it out of the CL group stage, got schooled by Bilbao in the Europa, did nothing of note in the domestic cups and then threw the title away with some shocking displays against the likes of Wigan, City and Everton.

We somehow got 89 points, but the football was pretty tumescent at times and it's easy to just blame Moyes for what happened a couple of years later, but that squad was clearly heading downhill and was really just carried by RVP and Rooney the following season. At least this season we won a trophy, have some good young players at the club and something resembling a style of play when our first xi is fit.

 

[Dominos]

Arsenal spent 90% of the season as title contenders, where’s Utd spent 90% of the season in a fight for top 4.

You can frame it that way, but ultimately that translates to 9 extra points.

Is 9 league points worth more than a trophy?

 

[Jericho]

I’d say we did. With finished the season with the league cup, finalist in the FA cup and a champions league spot. Arsenal have a champions league spot.

I'd take our season over Arsenals, but if you think it's worth mentioning that we were finalists in the FA then you can't just say Arsenal "have a champions league spot" the same as ourselves, you have to acknowledge their superior league position and points total.

 

[matherto]

Definitely. We didn't make it out of the CL group stage, got schooled by Bilbao in the Europa, did nothing of note in the domestic cups and then threw the title away with some shocking displays against the likes of Wigan, City and Everton.

We somehow got 89 points, but the football was pretty tumescent at times and it's easy to just blame Moyes for what happened a couple of years later, but that squad was clearly heading downhill and was really just carried by RVP and Rooney the following season. At least this season we won a trophy, have some good young players at the club and something resembling a style of play when our first xi is fit.

That 11/12 team would beat this current team.

 

[Wilt]

You can frame it that way, but ultimately that translates to 9 extra points.

Is 9 league points worth more than a trophy?

Different points of view…. personally think Arsenal have played the better football scoring 84 points, something Utd haven’t managed since SAF.

History will say Utd won the Carabou.

Hate Arsenal, but can’t deny they played some great football and look better set for next season.

 

[Tarrou]

not sure, don't really care

I think Arsenal have a better team currently though

both teams are on the up

 

[Care_de_Bobo]

That 11/12 team would beat this current team.

No doubt, but that doesn't change the fact that most of the team would need replacing in a year or two which proved to be the case. The age profile of our current squad is a lot better.

The 11/12 squad would also struggle with the amount of games we've had this season, especially with the added bonus of a winter World Cup.

 

[Care_de_Bobo]

Different points of view…. personally think Arsenal have played the better football scoring 84 points, something Utd haven’t managed since SAF.

History will say Utd won the Carabou.

Hate Arsenal, but can’t deny they played some great football and look better set for next season.

Who cares about points totals? We had 89 points in 11/12 and lost the league on the final day, that's 10 more points than we had in 98/99. Do you think any United fans prefer the 11/12 season.

I think Arsenal fans will, in the future, only look back on last season with any real fondness if the squad learns from it and uses it as a springboard for success.

I don't really see that happening though if I'm honest. This was a freak year with a kind set of fixtures to prop them up at the start, dropping out of every cup competition early, a World Cup in which most of their players barely racked up meaningful minutes, a United side with a new manager and Chelsea, Liverpool and Spurs being way below par, not to mention the crazy luck they had with injuries and late winners.

There's no way the stars align for them like this again and even if they did they still probably wouldn't be able to get over the line.

 

[Rajiztar]

Well arsenal in upward trajectory. They play well to get 84 points.Fair play to them. I didn't expect it though they started well. They need to stay that level to really consider they are real threat for title until then this season for them as anomaly.

United don't know how manutd fans perceive this season but for me that's same ole era level only.

So arsenal definitely got the better season and did well beyond their expectation.

 

[Barthez]

Arsenal: 2nd in the league
Utd: 3rd in the league, league cup winners, fa cup runners up.

It’s not even debatable. Of course we had a better season.

 

[Marcelinho87]

Ok. Then a question: did we have a better season this year than in 2011-2012 (Aguero moment)?

Yes, 2nd is just the first loser and when a kid picks up the history books in 20+ years from now it won't explain to them how close United were it will just say

2011-2012 Honours: CS.

2022-2023 Honours: EFL Cup.

 

[Manchester Dan]

Historybooks says us

Rational part of the brain says Arsenal.

Agreed. I think this season for Arsenal really depends on the context of what they choose to do with their progress. If they use it as an opportunity to build from here then this felt like a big season for them in their cycle to start challenging again. If it fizzles out and they don’t capitalise then this season was pointless - honours are the aim of the game.

We won’t know until next year…

 

[Alan Partridge]

Ridiculous comparison. Arsenal played at a much higher level and rightly lead the premier league for the majority of the season.

United won a cup named after a sports drink and finished third just ahead of Newcastle (receiving some historic hammerings along the way). Not to mention things could’ve so easily been very different for us is Chelsea and Liverpool turned up this season, or if we faced a top side in our league cup run.

 

[Crimson King]

Ridiculous comparison. Arsenal played at a much higher level and rightly lead the premier league for the majority of the season.

United won a cup named after a sports drink and finished third just ahead of Newcastle (receiving some historic hammerings along the way). Not to mention things could’ve so easily been very different for us is Chelsea and Liverpool turned up this season, or if we faced a top side in our league cup run.

If Chelsea and Arsenal had turned up they might have finished ahead of both of Arsenal and Man Utd.

Arsenal obviously played better and were a lot more consistent, but they still finished the season without a trophy. They won the FA cup recently so it's not like they're on a massive drought, but they're a lot further along in their current team build.

Nobody expected them to be leading for so long at the start of the season, but then most pundits didn't even expect Utd to get top 4. Yet we did that and won a trophy, even if it was just the league cup.

I think it's fair to say they both did well, given the expectations at the start of the season, but at the end of the day they finished second and third. The points between them doesn't matter so much when all is said and done, but Utd did get a trophy and got to another final. It's not mad to say their season might have been more successful, overall.

 

[CannonBalls]

Yes, 2nd is just the first loser and when a kid picks up the history books in 20+ years from now it won't explain to them how close United were it will just say

2011-2012 Honours: CS.

2022-2023 Honours: EFL Cup.

For me its different, As I explained history books may not see this season kindly but having lived this season with the team I am very happy and would prefer this over a league cup.

In all honestly, if it's just about history books, then ManCity being an empty/soulless/plastic club argument should never be used. Also the argument that I dont care what ManCity does as you should care if its only about the history books. As in 20+ years their troph cabinet would be close to what Utd have today. If Guardiola stays there for 10 yrs it surely would be. We have seen that happen with Chelsea (another London club) in front of our own eyes.

 

[Alex99]

So you mean, they were in a title race. If two teams have a realistic chance of winning it's a race. Arsenal stood a realistic chance of winning, even if City always had the chance to catch them.

And nobody enjoys seeing their team capitulate, it's the worst, but that's the point, it matters so much more.

We lost the cup final and it was rubbish but it didn't hurt for too long. Losing the title like Arsenal did will sting for a while. It means the potential upside when they win the league will be huge, whereas if we win the FA Cup next year it'll merely be 'oh, that was nice'.

Title races mean so much more than domestic cups, even if you don't win. And if you were to say domestic cups were important, the league cup is the least for a Prem team and especially one used to winning.

I think the first bit is the main thing for me. At no point did I believe that Arsenal had a realistic chance of winning it.

Again, objectively they were pushing for the title. Subjectively, City reeling them in felt depressingly inevitable, and as a result, it still felt like something of a procession.

I don't agree regarding the silverware, but each to their own.

Third with a trophy will always trump second without one.

 

[dinostar77]

Arsenal….. the benchmark being the Premier League.

Arsenal scored 30 prem goals more than Utd.

Arsenal spent 90% of the season as title contenders, where’s Utd spent 90% of the season in a fight for top 4.

Agreed. Though arsenal bottled it towards the end. We are still someway behind them.

 

[CG1010]

As a United fan, I would swap Arsenal's season with ours in a heartbeat. 58 goals in a PL season, getting some extremely poor results and patchy performances. The league campaign receives a 5/10 at best and the cup results have masked the season.

 

[Revan]

Yes, 2nd is just the first loser and when a kid picks up the history books in 20+ years from now it won't explain to them how close United were it will just say

2011-2012 Honours: CS.

2022-2023 Honours: EFL Cup.

I do not think history books give a crap about the League Cup. It is a competition no one cares about. Heck, teams do not care too much about the much bigger FA Cup (we saw Van Gaal getting sacked within 24 hours of winning it).

I do not see how anyone can seriously say that this was a better season than 2011-2012 when we lost the title in goal difference.

 

[MonsieurGooner]

I firmly believe that this Arsenal team, and manager, are absolute frauds who had all the luck in the world, and still ended up choking, coming a distant second. I fully expect order to be restored next season.

You honestly think in two months' time you will be able to pass and move the ball better than us? I know ETH has improved the sentiment at the club, but I still see United as a counter attacking team who when in the final third trying to build a structured attack, look very awkward in possession and eventually resort to whipping in a cross from distance. Players like Weghorst wouldn't even be a consideration for us because we are so above beyond the need to have a 'big man' for the purposes of knocking the ball in the box.

And what 'Order restored', You have finished above us 3 times in the past 10 seasons.

 

[cafecillos]

When everything is lined up for you, and is going well, it's completely different to facing the plethora of adversity a normal campaign generally strangles non-cheating teams with. Of course, nobody could foresee some of the absurd eventualities we endured, but, on a lesser scale, those things are par for the course over a long and tiring season - we'll see how you actually cope when having to rest, rotate and figure out probabilities over multiple fronts, especially if key players are injured or suspended, or plain, old exhausted. You're also a young side, so experience is also going to play a hand. So many things for you simply are unknowns, literally off the back of the season you've just had - for us, we've seen how and where we capitulate, what we need to get rid of, what to bring in, what pitfalls to try and avoid over the next arduous campaign and so forth. We're under no illusions because we've had everything about us examined. In terms of productivity, we've done really well, and as pointed out, still only had a few points less than you whilst knowing full well we need to go up a level or two to be genuine contenders in a multiple-front campaign.

I honestly don't know how much of the above applies to you. Furthermore, you'll have a number of marked players in your team going forward. No more under the radar stuff nor the element of surprise. You're going to see how your team (and attackers) cope with serious cynicism and quite frankly, dirty play levelled at them - not just in the PL, but the CL, too. We've already seen how our players do/do not cope under the same spotlight, and we know what needs to be addressed.

You know that your title challenge absolutely fizzled out when it mattered and made the last run of games a procession; that's more like a team being a place-holder until the fixtures played out than one who took anything to the wire, like a true challenger is supposed to. I dunno, feels like you flattered to deceive in that aspect, especially when, as pointed out by others, you were absolutely flying in the first half of the season, and seemed to hit more of a realistic mean in the second half of it. How should we extrapolate that? What does it mean going into a much harder campaign?

Let's put it another way: if you had to play the amount of games we did, and us vice-versa, do you believe you would have fared better, or us worse than you? We looked quite the team with all our players fit, before the post-league cup capitulations began.

Also we tend to forget they had played 2 more games than City for most of the season, making their leads larger than they "really" were. Without those and with City following much closer, they would have very likely crumbled even sooner. I'm not saying it's outrageous to call Arsenal's league season a title challenge, but for me personally it was a very tepid one, if at all.

 

[matherto]

I think the first bit is the main thing for me. At no point did I believe that Arsenal had a realistic chance of winning it.

Again, objectively they were pushing for the title. Subjectively, City reeling them in felt depressingly inevitable, and as a result, it still felt like something of a procession.

I don't agree regarding the silverware, but each to their own.

Third with a trophy will always trump second without one.

It feels depressingly inevitable that City will win next season too, does that mean no team can be in a title race with them? It's such a weird, cynical way of thinking about it. Arsenal lead the league for most of the season, that means they were in a title race.

It was a comparable season to 95/96. I wonder if other fans say Newcastle weren't in a title race and Keegan's rant wasn't as impactful as it was.

 

[Alex99]

It feels depressingly inevitable that City will win next season too, does that mean no team can be in a title race with them? It's such a weird, cynical way of thinking about it. Arsenal lead the league for most of the season, that means they were in a title race.

Look, I know my feelings on it aren't really logical, but when Liverpool ran them close and fell short, it felt like they actually had a chance, but with Arsenal it never did.