🔥 W I N N E R S 🔥 Premier League 2025/26: CHAMPIONS 🏆

[DJ_Markstar]

So we're now in a GD race with Haaland and Man City for an EPL title. Should never have come to this. I fully expect both teams to batter everyone they play but we're literally going to have to tank people 4 and 5-0 I just don't see it.

Arteta has 5 EPL games or 3 CL games to save his job.

 

[Mudi]

Their last two games are Palace and Villa at home. Palace with nothing to play for, Villa likely the same and both fully focused on what is likely European finals. Our hope is when they have Bouremouth and Everton away and Brentford at home.

Nope, because they have Bournemouth to play in between if they go to the FA cup final. So they have Palace at Home, FA cup final (assuming Chelsea), Bournemouth Away and Villa Home. And that for their last 2 weeks.

 

[TromsoGooner]

Nope, because they have Bournemouth to play in between if they go to the FA cup final. So they have Palace at Home, FA cup final (assuming Chelsea), Bournemouth Away and Villa Home. And that for their last 2 weeks.

I stand corrected. Typical that they get to play Villa in the last game. Usually a tough game where they should not win by a lot of goals, could even drop points. No they will play a Villa with Cl secured and likely having played a EL-league final three days before.

 

[Batman]

To put things into perspective.

EFL Final: Kepa f*ck up
Southampton: White f*ck up + many chances missed
Lisbon Away: won 0-1 at their ground while they did not lose for 16 games at home.
Bournemouth H: yes, worst game that we played in months.
Lisbon Home: Lisbon played like Chelsea played against us, defended to attack the last 15 minutes.
City Away: a draw should have been fair, xg the same.

We are not ****ing awful. You need to put it into perspective.

Ah yes, perspective:

EPL Final: Arteta decision and inaction when we were on the ropes and after the first goal went in. No solutions offered.

Southampton: Weird lineup that had not played together was cut open.

Lisbon Away: A Raya wonder save kept us from going down early, we were dire on the ball and fortunate to score late.

Bournemouth: The manager got the lineup wrong and was beaten by the exact same tactic that he was beaten with in the Carabao Cup.

Lisbon Home: Saw the game out against an opponent we should have beaten comfortably and were again putrid on the ball.

Today: xG means sweet f*ck all if you don't convert and the manager's subs were cowardly and unbefitting a person who actually wanted to win.

Even if today was a better performance, nothing can gloss over the fact that when we went behind a second time, the manager had no solution and in fact made decisions that lessened our chances of leaving with something.

 

[TromsoGooner]

Nope, because they have Bournemouth to play in between if they go to the FA cup final. So they have Palace at Home, FA cup final (assuming Chelsea), Bournemouth Away and Villa Home. And that for their last 2 weeks.

I stand corrected. Typical that they get to play Villa in the last game. Usually a tough game where they should not win by a lot of goals, could even drop points. No they will play a Villa with Cl secured and likely having played a EL-league final three days before.

 

[TromsoGooner]

If City win by a goal or at worst two against Burnley we may have a chance on GD. They did conceded four today against Forest so City will probably win by at least four

 

[Mudi]

I stand corrected. Typical that they get to play Villa in the last game. Usually a tough game where they should not win by a lot of goals, could even drop points. No they will play a Villa with Cl secured and likely having played a EL-league final three days before.

But we have the same chance with Palace. If Palace proceeds to conference league final, we will play them before their final. Let's us hope that Forrest can get something out of that game against Villa and that Villa does not play the final and Palace does.

Every bit will help

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

Also 25 points taken from 42 in 2nd half so far we basically dropped 17 points.

What frustrating most of them from winning positions.

Its like 22-23 season when we impressively finished 1st half with 50 points but 2nd half we only took 34.

 

[Mudi]

yeah but pretty hard to increase your GD without scoring much.

in the last 2 months we've scored 14 goals in 12 matches:

0 goals: 2 times
1 goal: 6 times
2 goals: 4 times

compared to City 21 goals in 11 matches:

0 goals: 1 time
1 goal: 3 times
2 goals: 4 times
3 goals: 2 times
4 goals: 1 time

I had to check this, last 10 EPL games:
Arsenal:
Record: W6 D2 L2
Goals Scored: 21 | Goals Conceded: 9 | GD: +12

City:
Record: W7 D3 L0
Goals Scored: 20 | Goals Conceded: 8 | GD: +12

So they have gained only 2 points on us while having the same GD from the last 10 games. On top Chelsea bending for them helped them quite a lot.

Sometimes, people really have a short term memory. This narrative that they score more and we don't is based on what? We don't play nice football the last couple of weeks but we in February we won 4-0, 3-0 and 4-1

 

[bergholt]

I had to check this, last 10 EPL games:
Arsenal:
Record: W6 D2 L2
Goals Scored: 21 | Goals Conceded: 9 | GD: +12

City:
Record: W7 D3 L0
Goals Scored: 20 | Goals Conceded: 8 | GD: +12

So they have gained only 2 points on us while having the same GD from the last 10 games. On top Chelsea bending for them helped them quite a lot.

Sometimes, people really have a short term memory. This narrative that they score more and we don't is based on what? We don't play nice football the last couple of weeks but we in February we won 4-0, 3-0 and 4-1

last 10 EPL games for us goes back to Jan 31st, not sure how relevant that is almost 3 months later. I was looking at the last 10 games all comps which is more relevant for our current form.

 

[Nunowoolmez]

Supporting Arsenal d̶u̶r̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶ ̶t̶i̶t̶l̶e̶ ̶r̶u̶n̶

 

[Thrice]

The fact that Guardiola might very well end up winning the treble this season is mind-boggling. They've been objectively terrible for large parts of the season and we somehow manage to still gift them every trophy.

How do we even recover from this season if we don't win the title?

 

[Batman]

The fact that Guardiola might very well end up winning the treble this season is mind-boggling. They've been objectively terrible for large parts of the season and we somehow manage to still gift them every trophy.

How do we even recover from this season if we don't win the title?

Sack the manager, force the clearly not good enough out and spend big on killers. Even a traumatized back 5 has enough sheer talent to give us a very high floor. They've drilled set pieces enough that they should still be decent enough without Jover. Any manager who will play front on the front foot and let the team attack normally will have a higher ceiling than Arteta because the team will have less low margin slogs.

 

[Thrice]

Sack the manager, force the clearly not good enough out and spend big on killers.

Sounds simple enough. But unless the next manager is truly elite in turning things around these players will probably need a psychiatrist after years of bottling.

 

[Batman]

Sounds simple enough. But unless the next manager is truly elite in turning things around these players will probably need a psychiatrist after years of bottling.

I think some of them will be salvageable. I don't think Rice and Zubimendi are beyond fixing. I'd back most of our defenders and Raya too. The Hale End kids still have everything in front of them. A couple of killers in front of goal who don't bear the stench of this system would make all the difference with that back 5 and Rice behind them.

 

[PeterAndre69]

I think some of them will be salvageable. I don't think Rice and Zubimendi are beyond fixing. I'd back most of our defenders and Raya too. The Hale End kids still have everything in front of them. A couple of killers in front of goal who don't bear the stench of this system would make all the difference with that back 5 and Rice behind them.

You speak like it's easy to win the league? 12 managers out of 314 have won it in premier League history.

If we do change the manager, it must be for the elite who have gotten over the line, that's currently the small difference.

It can't be Iraola, Fabregas or any other guy who hasn't won big. If you want one of those guys just to watch pretty football your standards are worse than you think.

 

[Axel9090]

You speak like it's easy to win the league? 12 managers out of 314 have won it in premier League history.

If we do change the manager, it must be for the elite who have gotten over the line, that's currently the small difference.

It can't be Iraola, Fabregas or any other guy who hasn't won big. If you want one of those guys just to watch pretty football your standards are worse than you think.

Whatever happebs we cannot keep Arteta, we'd just be setting ourselves up for another season of finishing 2nd, at best.

 

[Batman]

You speak like it's easy to win the league? 12 managers out of 314 have won it in premier League history.

If we do change the manager, it must be for the elite who have gotten over the line, that's currently the small difference.

It can't be Iraola, Fabregas or any other guy who hasn't won big. If you want one of those guys just to watch pretty football your standards are worse than you think.

So you're saying that you wouldn't sign the Arsène Wenger that Dein signed from Japan then because the title he won at Monaco and what he was doing in Japan are not what I would classify "winning big".

I'm on the record as saying that Enrique is the guy we should pursue at any cost but failing that, the list of managers who have won big and are still operating at a high level is very, very small so it probably has to be someone else with potential which is fine with a good core and an established DOF to support him.

The huge mistake we made was our owners who had no real experience running a football team hiring a totally green Edu and Arteta to develop an extremely young team. That was a mistake. The team is older now, Berta is a proper DOF who has built a team that can challenge domestically and in Europe and therefore a promising young manager absolutely could take the next step.

I didn't say winning the league was easy but it's pretty damning that what is clearly a very average manager in Arne Slot didn't have any trouble winning it last season with basically no signings added to a team that had just bottled themselves and flamed out of numerous competitions in the span of a week because he was good enough to take the gift of the other teams dropping off and run with it. This manager is showing that he's not good enough even to do that during the "easiest" run to the title that he's ever had.

No club gets anywhere ever by being afraid to take risks and improve and if you can't see how the safe, timid football keeping us from silverware would simply be a microcosm of being too afraid to take a risk on the next manager then I don't know what to tell you. Nowhere have you ever heard me say I want pretty football that yields no trophies. I want productive football that creates higher margin outcomes and wins things. That would entertain me.

You like to talk about small the small number of men who have won the PL and you can't point to one who did it approaching the games the way we do with with no reliable goal scorer hoping that set pieces and avoiding the middle of the pitch will carry us to silverware.

It hasn't ever worked and it won't ever work so before you start trying to be condescending, maybe understand how titles are won, regardless of aesthetic. You're not ever going to find a team that did things the hard way like we do in the PL era and won that way. Beyond how boring it is to watch, it's inefficient and allows inferior teams to stay in games that should be over with early and that more than anything is the reason that this remarkably average City are going to win the title.

 

[PeterAndre69]

So you're saying that you wouldn't sign the Arsène Wenger that Dein signed from Japan then because the title he won at Monaco and what he was doing in Japan are not what I would classify "winning big".

I'm on the record as saying that Enrique is the guy we should pursue at any cost but failing that, the list of managers who have won big and are still operating at a high level is very, very small so it probably has to be someone else with potential which is fine with a good core and an established DOF to support him.

The huge mistake we made was our owners who had no real experience running a football team hiring a totally green Edu and Arteta to develop an extremely young team. That was a mistake. The team is older now, Berta is a proper DOF who has built a team that can challenge domestically and in Europe and therefore a promising young manager absolutely could take the next step.

I didn't say winning the league was easy but it's pretty damning that what is clearly a very average manager in Arne Slot didn't have any trouble winning it last season with basically no signings added to a team that had just bottled themselves and flamed out of numerous competitions in the span of a week because he was good enough to take the gift of the other teams dropping off and run with it. This manager is showing that he's not good enough even to do that during the "easiest" run to the title that he's ever had.

No club gets anywhere ever by being afraid to take risks and improve and if you can't see how the safe, timid football keeping us from silverware would simply be a microcosm of being too afraid to take a risk on the next manager then I don't know what to tell you. Nowhere have you ever heard me say I want pretty football that yields no trophies. I want productive football that creates higher margin outcomes and wins things. That would entertain me.

You like to talk about small the small number of men who have won the PL and you can't point to one who did it approaching the games the way we do with with no reliable goal scorer hoping that set pieces and avoiding the middle of the pitch will carry us to silverware.

It hasn't ever worked and it won't ever work so before you start trying to be condescending, maybe understand how titles are won, regardless of aesthetic. You're not ever going to find a team that did things the hard way like we do in the PL era and won that way. Beyond how boring it is to watch, it's inefficient and allows inferior teams to stay in games that should be over with early and that more than anything is the reason that this remarkably average City are going to win the title.

No in the current set up I wouldn't sign an unknown manager like the 90's and early 2000's because football has massively changed.

Don't forget Arne Slot had already won things and the team had PL and CL winners. I'm not saying it can't work, but if we get a Fabregas be prepared for a "process".

The issue isn't how we have played over the last few years (aesthetically we go through stages and games where some are bad and some are good). The issue is that nobody in the squad have won a major trophy and nor has the coach. Mentality is massive in this part of the season.

 

[Batman]

No in the current set up I wouldn't sign an unknown manager like the 90's and early 2000's because football has massively changed.

Don't forget Arne Slot had already won things and the team had PL and CL winners. I'm not saying it can't work, but if we get a Fabregas be prepared for a "process".

The issue isn't how we have played over the last few years (aesthetically we go through stages and games where some are bad and some are good). The issue is that nobody in the squad have won a major trophy and nor has the coach. Mentality is massive in this part of the season.

Arne Slot won an Eredevisie. The Dutch league is extremely poor these days. It's a smaller trophy than the one Wenger won in France.

It's going to be a process regardless of whom is managing because very clearly this club is missing key profiles and has to continue growing via the academy and transfer market. Luis Enrique is the best manager on earth and it took him 2 years and an overhaul of the squad to deliver a CL.

There's going to be a period of adaptation for any manager and I'm perfectly fine with that just as I was fine with Emery having a process until it went downhill and Arteta having a process until he bungled what should have been a pretty straightforward run in.

There's not exactly a plethora of guys in their managerial prime with serial winning CVs available right now so I hate to tell you that unless this club shows the greatest ambition it's ever shown and goes and gets Enrique, the next guy is probably going to be another youngish manager whose only true success has come at a lower level or who is showing promise punching above his weight. That's just reality.

Also the issue has been how we play for 3 years now. When we failed in 22/23 it was because of youth, a bit of naivety in possession that led to us conceding in transition at times and ultimately being undone by injuries to Jesus and especially Saliba in addition to City just being a machine.

Since that point the biggest hurdle is putting an unsustainable emphasis on set pieces and being borderline perfect defensively to the point that we now don't know how to consistently create high quality chances in open play and the players we have do not convert the chances we do create at a high enough level. That's about how we play. It's not even about the football being ugly or boring so much as ineffective.

The biggest problem Wenger had post Highbury was that the spine of a team is extremely expensive and he could never afford to build a truly lockdown back 5 or 6 like we have now.

A manager who could coach an attack that produces more from open play, is less predictable and can't be stopped in its tracks by cheating to the right side of the pitch or standing a block of 4 in the passing lanes and who is willing to coach the kind of maverick players who take chances and make mistakes but produce massive rewards can absolutely win something relatively quickly with Rice and the back 5. Very few managers on earth wouldn't trade their back 5 for that one if they're honest.

What we are missing is not going to come from this manager but you don't have to be a Pep or an Enrique to provide what's missing. This manager is holding some of the players we should be keeping back as well as the squad as a whole by refusing to sign the kind of players who do win you things and I personally don't mind some growing pains of another manager's process if that person is going to get us playing football that doesn't make a 1 goal lead against a rival seem insurmountable and doesn't leave vastly inferior teams feeling they're in games until the end because we don't put them away.