Premier League 2016/17 season

[Goonerozil33]

Chelsea loses a couple of players to long term injuries and suffer a defeat and couple of draws and they will look vulnerable. And suddenly teams will fancy them and will go at it. We should be able to reach within 3 points of them by the time we play them.

 

[vantoure]

The majority of people seem to be being realistic about the situation. That is a very mature and healthy attitude.

you seem to have an agenda to sell regarding this "not going to win the league" thing. And this post appears like you finally meeting target.

ever since the draw vs Sp**s, or earlier, I don't remember well now, you've been pushing this line of arsenal having bottled it. Then it was about how catching up with pool, city n Chelsea was a tough ask, yet just last weekend we were top of the table.

unless you can produce scientific evidence of the futility of the league, I think you should take it easy, it's a bit annoying.

obviously Chelsea looks indomitable at the moment, but all it requires is a few dodgy games and things can start to look different. I about their form is concerning and is eerily similar to the 1-0 streaks Leicester put together in the 2nd half ½ of last seasons, but as they say, if you don't have hope, what's left (well I just said that )

 

[Penn_]

The rest of the league outside of the top 6 decided to just bend over for Chelsea, sickening. Watching that listless Palace performance after the 'win-at-all-costs' effort by Everton against us, it is hard to care about the league anymore...

To be fair they make it harder for teams then we do. Tight defence and players that can bring them forward in an instance. Apart from Ox we don't really have any one that can do that.

 

[Rocky]

you seem to have an agenda to sell regarding this "not going to win the league" thing. And this post appears like you finally meeting target.

ever since the draw vs Sp**s, or earlier, I don't remember well now, you've been pushing this line of arsenal having bottled it. Then it was about how catching up with pool, city n Chelsea was a tough ask, yet just last weekend we were top of the table.

unless you can produce scientific evidence of the futility of the league, I think you should take it easy, it's a bit annoying.

obviously Chelsea looks indomitable at the moment, but all it requires is a few dodgy games and things can start to look different. I about their form is concerning and is eerily similar to the 1-0 streaks Leicester put together in the 2nd half ½ of last seasons, but as they say, if you don't have hope, what's left (well I just said that )

It's called opinion. No need to label it an agenda. If Chelsea do slip up (probably due to injury), Liverpool look like they have the best mentality to grasp the the chance. The season started as the most open I can remember in years. Like most people, I had very little idea that Chelsea could turn things around so quickly. They've started to break Chelsea records and they look like a championship winning team.

The scientific evidence is that Chelsea have more points, better players with more physical and mental toughness, a system that works better, they're better defensively, they have easier fixtures, less football without Europe, they've gone on an amazing run unlike anything seen in recent years, they haven't dropped a point in 11 games since their change in formation, they're quite likely to strengthen in January when they replace Oscar, Zouma could come back, they have a great manager who has had recent success, and they don't have a mental hurdle to get over to win the league because they won it recently.

From the Arsenal perspective, they have regularly bottled it for over a decade and they have the same manager in place. Also the performances at Burnley (where fatigue was used an as excuse for being so close to dropping points), against Boro, Sp**s, Man Utd and Everton just felt like those moments in previous seasons where the title has been bottled. A few people pushed back against the idea it had probably gone back then. Seems like people are converging on agreeing now. Maybe you should consider whether I was just closer to the truth back then, rather than labelling it an agenda? Alan Alger made some pretty good points.

Feel free to disagree. Make a good case and you might persuade me. But I think it's better not to shoot the messenger. Diversity of opinions is good, it makes people think through their ideas and get closer to the actual truth. You request scientific evidence from me, but your only argument is that a few dodgy games could derail Chelsea? Not very convincing. People spent most of last season dismissing Leicester's chances then they won with one of the biggest margins.

If you don't have hope then you can just enjoy the football. Seems crazy I know, but how do you think people who support Everton, Sp**s or West Brom manage? Hope your team does as well as possible, plays quality football, wins games, maybe the FA Cup, maybe even beats Bayern. Perhaps if Alexis and Özil sign, there will be a Cazorla replacement, a top class wide player and a second choice right back in the summer and they can go again? If Arsenal turn things around and win the league, that'll be great, but as it is, I'm just hopeful that Chelsea look like blocking Liverpool.

Enjoying life often comes down to minimising expectations so they more closely match reality, which was the point of the previous post.

 

[Iddi]

It's all very depressing atm but I don't think Arsenal fans have helped. Ever since we drew Bayern,waves of defeatist statements have been spouted in every medium. That nervousness transmits to the players. They've been given a massive vote of no confidence by their own fans. Let's urge them on and like Wenger,don't give up on anything until it's mathematically impossible. Chelsea have five title challengers to play in the second half of the season. Things can change quickly. We've already overhauled an 8 point gap on City and Liverpool. We have to keep going.
I do understand the negativity. We've all been here before but I think we have to stop playing into the hands of the media and our opponents by writing ourselves off so completely.

This is why we will never be serious challenger against serious teams.. Our attitude is so full of mental weakness, excuses, blaming the weather, the grass, blaming the greek gods etc, instead of our weak team and manager.. Every blame should be on the players and manager, we the fans just pay for tickets and merchandise, we are not the ones on the pitch, dressing room, dugout, bench etc. We are powerless..

Chelsea got exactly the same negative statements not until a few weeks back, everyone including their own fans had written them off to even make the Top 5 before the season had started. Nearly very former manager writing them off. But they pick themselves up.

As long as we still have this "Aww, ain't they so cute, sweeeeet and lovelyyy" kind of attitude towards our players then we should keep expecting failure and bottlers.

We just seem to keep repeating the same old cycle season in season out for the past 10 years..

 

[bingobob]

Chelsea without Costa and Kante for their next games. Certainly a big incentive, if one was needed, to stay on Chelseas coat tails.

 

[Walter White]

Wenger should probably focus a little more on tweaking the formation balance and integrating fringe players now. Explore his options and fine tune more than he would normally do at this stage and hope it pays off. Accept that the league has probably gone and work towards peaking for the Bayern game, optimizing the fitness of Alexis and Özil in particular for then. If he gets through that one the draw can open up and that seems to be the most likely way of ending the season without another year of stagnation in the two major competitions. No point pursuing the same old strategy every year.

Wow what a load of bollocks. No wonder the players are bottlers some fans are even worse.

 

[Hunter Zolomon]

Wow what a load of bollocks. No wonder the players are bottlers some fans are even worse.

its comments like rocky's that piss me off on this forum. The delusion is real i'm afraid. Wenger might be great at finances but he is no tactical genius, other managers have done more with less, His greatest ability is generating stability and maintaining the status quo. At some point in history he was brilliant many moons ago but those days are gone. Alex ferguson retired after he had won a lot and got the most out of the squad he has. If wenger was tactically brilliant he would have won the league at least ones in the past 6 years with the squad he has. Unfortunately as we all know out club gets the bare minimum out of whatever team we put out.

 

[RUS arsenal]

To be fair they make it harder for teams then we do. Tight defence and players that can bring them forward in an instance. Apart from Ox we don't really have any one that can do that.

Their "tight" defense is only any good against teams that park the bus and have no courage to attack, which is exactly what Chelsea want. If you actually put pressure on them, the weakness of their backline comes through.

 

[Penn_]

Creeping closer to Utd now.

Hard to see where this planned Alexis rest fits in.

 

[krengon]

Just looked at our fixtures coming up, we should win all 6 before Chelsea. If we do our job that 9 point gap should be less before we face Chelsea so we can be in a good position to bottle it again at the bridge.

 

[RUS arsenal]

CL title here we come!

 

[Notorious Big]

9 points can be huge.At least we don't have some tough matches until Chelsea.

 

[A_G]

Just don't care anymore.

 

[Vinci]

'Race for fourth' would be a more apt thread title.

 

[Sanchez11]

change the thread title plz thnx

 

[Polar Bear]

9 points can be huge.At least we don't have some tough matches until Chelsea.

The sad thing is mate I think all of us know what will happen because every season is dejavu, we will go on a run of winning some games now and everyone will get their hopes up again and then we all know what will happen...............

I feel like we been down this same road a million times in the last 13 years.

 

[Taylor Gang Gunners]

Just don't care anymore.

 

[Lady_Gooner]

Turns out we should've been worried about December rather than November!

 

[Notorious Big]

The sad thing is mate I think all of us know what will happen because every season is dejavu, we will go on a run of winning some games now and everyone will get their hopes up again and then we all know what will happen...............

I feel like we been down this same road a million times in the last 13 years.

Yea,the thing is that we always switch off when is the most important period of the season.We just lose games that need to win or at least get the draw.And it's not only about results,our game is **** with all this quality players we have in the team.Wenger made this loser mentality in squad and we just can't get rid off it.