this season has been such a rollercoaster. i don't even know how to evaluate it. clearly, as it has been all year, our squad isn't good enough but it kinda pisses me off to read shite yesterday saying they didn't play with any effort or that they played with a sense of entitlement. that's bogus. the way we were set up yesterday was suicidal. if there was lack of effort, it was on AW's part.

even when we were doing well, his insistence (largely due to injuries, but some of his own choosing as well) on playing so many midfielders really inhibited us. that and not finding another striker these past few windows has hampered us. what somewhat worries me about all these contract extensions is that this glut of CAMs is going to remain and that Arsene isn't going to switch things up. we need different types of attackers. if he, who hasn't really done much of anything the last three transfer windows outside an obviously huge signing in Ozil, thinks we only need three additions in the offseason, the maybe it is time for him to go. that said, as shown by SAF leaving, there is a lot to be said about continuity. the players clearly love him, but we need to freshen things up our tactics and our roster.

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Posted by cwil177

Baton Rouge

Member since Jun 2011

28530 posts

Posted on 3/23/14 at 1:49 pm to Friend of OBUDan

Aston Villa beat Chelsea. Chelsea, despite being league leaders, honestly aren't as good as league leaders have been in the past. Losing 6-0 is just embarrassing, sendoff or not.

And wtf was Chamberlain thinking with that handball anyway?

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Posted by crazy4lsu

Member since May 2005

36429 posts

Posted on 3/23/14 at 4:58 pm to Friend of OBUDan

If the fact that we've shipped 17 goals to the three other top sides doesn't compel Wenger to buy, then I don't know what will. If we play with Mertesacker, then we need to have a mobile DM in front of him to close down the ball carrier. If we are ever going to play a high line, we need to drop Meretesacker and play TV5. Our defensive positioning in our final block is good, but good lord is it awful in transition. Arteta is clearly limited by his mobility, and thus is left alone to cover 20 yards, and without Ramsey we have no one to help shuttle that space.

Wenger has to realize that maybe the injury problems we've had are his fault with his training methods. We have way too many injuries to key players every fricking season.

We need to buy at least five players, but I would be happy with 3 depending on who they are. It is absolutely paramount we get our targets and get them early.

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Posted by FirstRoundPick

Member since Jan 2013

181 posts

Posted on 3/23/14 at 10:01 pm to Friend of OBUDan

quote:
this season has been such a rollercoaster. i don't even know how to evaluate it.

I also think this is tough to do because if you take this season just on face value, you'd have to say that it is as good a season as we've had in quite a number of years. However, it feels like such a missed opportunity, in my opinion, to really make a run at the Premier League title with all of the turnover last summer for the top teams.

Our inability to address our biggest needs over the last 3 transfer windows since losing RVP has really left our squad depleted to its bare bones at this stage thanks to the injuries we've suffered. You just can't expect to stay in the title race over a 38-game season with the type of inactivity we've shown in the transfer market, no matter what level of turnover there is for other top teams also vying for that title.

The things that will immediately stick out to any Arsenal fan that must be addressed going forward is what in the world is going on with our team when it comes to facing the top teams, and what in the hell is going on in training, preparation, etc., that leads to so many injuries. I think those two things are overriding storylines for our season, no matter what happens the rest of the way. It is simply inexcusable to lost 6-3, 5-1 and now 6-0 away to the teams you're trying to beat for the league title.

But I honestly choose to evaluate this season on the positive, and my evaluation is solely based on whether or not we win the FA Cup.

If we do win the FA Cup like we really should do, then that is a big monkey off the back of Wenger and the players and should give us great momentum heading into the summer transfer window and into the start of next season. Ending that 9-year trophy drought should be top priority, and we have a golden opportunity to do that.

And I for one would savor that FA Cup win as it would be my first trophy as a Gooner! I started following Arsenal in 2006 during their run to the Champions League final. I loved the way they played, and I loved watching Thierry Henry. Unfortunately for me, I never got to watch Henry in an Arsenal shirt for very long, and we've never enjoyed that level of success since The Invincibles era that I missed.

Of course, even if we win the FA Cup, we might still finish in 4th place in the league standings, which is a position we've grown all too familiar with over the past several seasons. However, in my opinion, what 4th place might look like this year is not like any 4th place we've taken in recent seasons. It's conceivable that by finishing 4th this year, we could be closer points wise to 1st place than 5th place, which shows just how tight it is in the Premier League in 2013-14.

We are currently sitting on 62 points through 30 games this season, which is 9 points ahead of last year's pace when we were at 53 points at the same stage. If you look at our remaining 8 league games, we will probably be the favorite to win outright in 6 of those games, with Everton being a toss up and then being underdogs against Manchester City next weekend. If we do add 18 points to our total, then we finish at 80 points. That is good progress from the 73 points we took a year ago to also finish in 4th place.

Just for reference sake, below are the places 80 points would have earned in the last few seasons, which puts into a much different perspective what this kind of season could have earned our club in that time. Arsenal's actual season finish is in parentheses.

2012-13: 2nd (4th)
2011-12: 3rd (3rd)
2010-11: 1st (4th)
2009-10: 3rd (3rd)

Long story short, that's how I choose to evaluate this season. Just ask yourself whether or not we have made progress from exactly 1 year ago after we lost 2-1 at Spurs and seemed hopelessly out of the Top 4 race.

I truly believe we have progressed as a club since that time. Spending big money on a player like Ozil is a glimpse of what I think could be in store for us again this summer, especially since we keeping hearing all the public statements from Wenger, Gazidis, etc., about how we're finally now positioned to compete financially with most all of the other top clubs around Europe. The new Puma kit deal and other new revenue streams coming into the club might provide us the kind of funds needed to strengthen the squad in a profound way.

This summer will tell us a lot about how much we will have progressed again when we are sitting here 1 year from now and evaluating 2014-15. Will we still be in the race for all of the competitions (Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup)?

This post was edited on 3/23/14 at 10:05 pm

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