I'm usually posting at the end of these match threads, so it's all been said already. Still, here's my two penn'orth.
I never believed we would win the league (I think few on here did) even though we've exceeded expectations all seasons....well, until the last fortnight anyway...but having put ourselves in the box seat, I could accept finishing a close second to City, but didn't want to stomach a Wenger-like end of season collapse. I could convince myself to write off the Liverpool game as a point gained, given how difficult it is to play there, but West Ham and last night were disastrous and there can be no excuses.
Maybe some of the reactions on here have been a little extreme, but the last two games have highlighted the same old weaknesses, which after 15 years or so of this sort of pain, have given us a hair trigger reaction to these capitulations. In truth, we've been punching well above our weight this season and carried along by a spirit that we hadn't seen since the Invincibles. Ultimately, it's impossible to sustain and the underlying lack of quality in certain areas comes calling.
Everyone on here knows I have serious doubts about Ramsdale and I can never shake the "accident waiting to happen" feeling. He was brilliant at Liverpool, but he should have done better with the Hammer's second goal and last night's shocker cost us the 3 points. I'm not going to go into a forensic analysis about him, I've made all the points before and plenty of others are making them too.
I can't dislike Holding, he seems a decent lad, but he shouldn't be anywhere near the team. Likewise Eddie. They're Championship players and it says a lot about us that they are first reserves.
I can't quite make out what to think about Zinchenko, but as others have said, he doesn't appear to be a fullback.
I've never been convinced by Partey and was totally underwhelmed in his first couple of seasons. Even when many were raving about him earlier in the season I thought that he was better than we'd seen before, but by no means a world beater. For a big bloke, he's far from dominant in midfield and his lack of goals is awful.
Odegaard is a quality footballer, technically adept, neat and clever, but as we all knpw, disappears when the going gets tough. He won't make a captain in a million years.
Jesus is another very talented footballer, but as I said on here when we bought him, he isn't a natural goalscorer and misses too many clear opportunities. You didn't need to be a genius to see that, it was obvious at City. If you can't score enough goals with the abundance of chances that City provide, then you're gonna struggle big time at our place. A good player, but we absolutely must add a goalscorer in the Summer.
Xhaka and Vieira....
As for Arteta, he's got to make sure we challenge next season, which won't be easy. I can never be fully convinced by any mamager that is wedded to Xhaka and his team selections are mystifying. Playing Vieira last night, with Trossard and ESR on the bench is beyond belief and how the bloke lasted until the 60th or 70th minute is fucking staggering. He was absolutely woeful. He's not ready for this league by a mile and I have doubts that he ever will be. I also can't understand Arteta's reluctance to play ESR and it's clear that he has never fancied him. All this talk about discipline or overweight etc seems like pure speculation and if there have been reports of such things, I haven't seen them. Bottom line, if you're behind Xhaka and Vieira, then it's time to leave the club and shine somewhere else. At the end of last season, I'd have sacked Arteta and despite the recent stumble, I have to give him a lot of credit for this season. As painful as the last fortnight has been, viewed overall, it's been a season of unforeseen progression (the proviso being that we have to stop the rot after the City game, which we'll lose) and Arteta has earned the right to lead us into next season and to build on this term.
Up The Gunners.