Premier League 2016/17 season

[dka1]

Unless something quite drastic changes winning the league is unlikely.

I'm not trying to be pessimistic it's just looking at the numbers and the games we have to play it will be hard. If we win both pur next two matches that's puts us on 40 points at the half way point.

Ideally we need to finish on atleast 80 points to win, no team in atleast 16 years has had less than 80 and won and even then, above 85 is not uncommon.

So already having alot of the big teams at home at the halfway point we can only accrue at most half of what we need to scrape a league title.

Add to that Chelsea have hit serious form and we can't predict when that will end, they already have a strong points total and we have to go to them.

Additionally we still have not proven we can really handle the big teams, or beat any of them at their ground and we face Liverpool, chelsea and Tottenham away.

Also past history shows we haven't been able to avoid defeat in enough games to threaten the top of the table, at most we can only lose 5-6 games, we have already lost three and again we still have to go to alot of hard grounds.

Going forward we would need to put together a big winning run lkke Chelsea whilst only losing at maximum about 2 games. We also need to beat a few of the big teams. Beating both chelsea and city will probably be a must, and we would need to ideally avoid defeat against Liverpool and Tottenham.

It all seems too hard, we have not done anything like that for a long time, and honestly it's not like I see much that convinces me we can pull off those feats.

There is still the chance chelsea implode or we somehow manage to pull it together but I'm not exactly banking on it.

 

[KAB]

A bit too far off from the title. We are already 9 points behind the pole position in December. Expecting Chealsea to lose 3 games is not easy

 

[GunnerShy]

A bit too far off from the title. We are already 9 points behind the pole position in December. Expecting Chealsea to lose 3 games is not easy

Certainly it isn't ideal. Chelsea have been picking up some 1-0s recently which frustrate. Man City are 2 points ahead of us, and I doubt they've given up yet. We need to get to the game against Chelsea without dropping a point. If we can do that then there will be a lot to play for in that game. They have Leicester (@Leicester), Tottenham and Liverpool between now and then. We need them to drop some points to make it interesting.

Fans can and should be very disappointing. Less so with City away, but definitely with Everton but we need to get behind the team. Post season is the time for postmortems, not December.

 

[Gooner_Delhi]

One Week Ago:

• Top of the table
• Best record in away games (only 1 defeat in year)
• Gets drawn to Bayern; Pundits - "Watch out Bayern, this is a different Arsenal!"

Today:

• 9 pts gap
• First league defeat on a Tuesday for 10 years
• Back to back away defeats
• Pundits - "This is same old Arsenal, weak and having soft underbelly"

What a moral breaking week, from a genuine force we are reduced to hanging on to our top-4 trophy!

 

[Rain Dance]

One Week Ago:

• Top of the table
• Best record in away games (only 1 defeat in year)
• Gets drawn to Bayern; Pundits - "Watch out Bayern, this is a different Arsenal!"

Today:

• 9 pts gap
• First league defeat on a Tuesday for 10 years
• Back to back away defeats
• Pundits - "This is same old Arsenal, weak and having soft underbelly"

What a moral breaking week, from a genuine force we are reduced to hanging on to our top-4 trophy!

Obviously you haven't read about Battle of Midway - Imperial Japanese Navy got relegated just after 3 days

At least we are hanging to top 4

 

[Trilly]

Six easy games has never, ever meant six wins for Arsenal. That's not even me being negative, it happens to us every season.

We'll do well, maybe even very well but we won't be winning all six of those games. Isn't six wins our best win streak in like seven years or something?

 

[Revolution]

Six easy games has never, ever meant six wins for Arsenal. That's not even me being negative, it happens to us every season.

We'll do well, maybe even very well but we won't be winning all six of those games. Isn't six wins our best win streak in like seven years or something?

Eight, two seasons ago.

Arsenal tend to win the games they are expected to, hence why they are a surefire bet for the top four. A week is a long time in football -- you win two-in-a-row and you're held a genius, lose back-to-back games and it's a disaster.

The February fixtures look daunting but I don't see why Arsenal won't nick a point or two. Winning won't do anything mentally for this team, it'll just offset the disappointments to come. Beating Chelsea early on wasn't a scalp, nor was nicking a point at Old Trafford. It meant nothing for the title race, just points on the board in the race for a Champions League spot.

This Chelsea side aren't exactly special, and I really do think teams from yesteryear would feasibly catch them up. But they are the most functional team. It'll be interesting to see how Conte balances European football with the league next season, especially when you consider United and City will undoubtedly improve.

 

[Sane__]

Title race is not even close to being over, especially with the amount of games still left to play. All it really means is we have just made things a whole lot more difficult for ourselves.
The team really needs to pick up points when those above drop them.

 

[OG J0E]

Our next two games are home bankers vs West Brom and Palace, so expect a lot of 'it's back on' in a couple of weeks' time.

 

[Nyctophobia]

We tend to be good at messing up those bankers, so I won't underestimate West Brom or Palace, we've been had behind the shed before, straight up PTSD.

 

[SuperGoon]

Our next two games are home bankers vs West Brom and Palace, so expect a lot of 'it's back on' in a couple of weeks' time.

Beware the false prophets.

 

[rich 1990]

Next person to mention Top 4 gets slapped.

 

[Nyctophobia]

Next person to mention Top 4 gets slapped.

Top 4.

I dare ya.

Nothing?! The **** is this **** Rich.

 

[rich 1990]

Title race is not even close to being over, especially with the amount of games still left to play. All it really means is we have just made things a whole lot more difficult for ourselves.
The team really needs to pick up points when those above drop them.

Could have done without you scoring yesterday.

 

[hydrofluoric acid]

There is no title race.

I have no idea what our goals for the season should be.

 

[Rimaal]

Looks like the same old story.

 

[say yes]

Weighted league results, GW 17:
(Explainer on page 41)

Chelsea: +2
Par = 0 = on track for 87 points
Liverpool: -1 (+2)
Arsenal: -3
City: -5
Sp**s: -5
United: -9 (+2)

Arsenal fail to make up any ground.

 

[Oh_Snap]

There is no title race.

I have no idea what our goals for the season should be.

C'mon you know how this goes:
Play CL-Group-Stages, qualify for last 16 & draw Bayern. bottle league some time in winter but get into top four with great performances in spring. jizz about how we we're the best team in this year with some kaballa-mathematics. repeat.

 

[Barrymore]

Genuinely feeling alot of dread about this season. Not bothered about being 9 points behind as Chelsea will drop points and there's still alot of games to be played.

The worry is that for me we're still (bar 3 or 4 games)
playing the same dull, lifeless, devoid of ideas football we've unfortunately become accustomed to in recent years. Were still tactically naive, still lack the nous to unlock a well drilled defence, and worst of all imo, we look even more cowardly and soft than in recent years. People will say its an overreaction after 2 losses but for me those 2 losses were down to our luck running out, simple as that.

Couldnt really care less if we finish top 4 in terms of CL qualification as we lack both the players, and the manager to truly compete imo; However if this was the year that we finally drop out, you better believe Alexis and Özil are off, whilst I certainly wouldn't blame Bellerin if he had his head turned - Wenger could end up leaving us in a worse state than SAF left United.

Having just read all that back I realise how negative and pessimistic I sound, but these last few years in particular have been very draining as an Arsenal fan. I could handle the failures when we were playing entertaining, borderline sexy football, but its more difficult when were being served up slop 70% of matchdays, with an increasingly arrogant dictator spouting the same old propaganda excuses when we roll over as everyone now expects us to.

We really are a laughing stock, and it hurts

 

[Vibra]

Fantastic insight from Neville, sorry if it's already been posted


Damn the video embedded itself without the timestamp, it's at 25:40