It’s not all doom and gloom. ‘Cautious Optimism’ is what my teacher used to call it when we wrote codes in C++ on a vi editor – chances of it to fail were various, you could easily miss out a semicolon and things won’t work, the error descriptions weren’t ‘descriptive’ enough and you would have to start from line 1 to debug and fix the problem. Mikel is trying to do it on a football ground with 25 players from last 3 seasons and he is still to run it, successfully.
It was called a ‘Good Job’ when we finished 2nd for the first time in 2022-23 season. We lost the games in 36th and 37th week, against Brighton at Home 0-3, and Forest Away 1-0 and we lost the title by just 5 points. It wasn’t a bad result for the club and the fans, in a sense that we finished 2nd after a very long time, the players had the better days ahead and we had built a solid defensive unit. After the defeats, we picked ourselves up, and started from scratch in the next season.
2023-24, we finished 2nd again against Man City who were in tremendous form in the second half of the season. They had 91 points, we had 89 by the end of it. This time, we did well towards the end winning 6 out of last 6 games, beating Chelsea and Spurs on the way. Aston Villa did beat us which allowed City to go in front and they never dropped a point after that. Arteta & Co. were beaten by Pep and his players in a title run. We did well, very well and learnt from some of our earlier mistakes. Mikel bolstered the back up options in an attempt to keep the injury factor away. Alright, lets go again, boys.
2024-25, we finished 2nd again but it hurt this time. Almost everyone struggled but Liverpool, because of an extra ordinary season from Mo Salah, won the title with 84 points. We finished our season with 74 points, not good enough considering our points tally had dropped massively, we had improved in every area of the field, we had better back up players and almost everything else was in a better shape around the club that earlier seasons.
So far, this season, we have been doing good, again. We are sitting at the top after 21 games with a 6 points difference to our rivals – Man City, amidst injuries to many players. Martinelli was out for few games, Gabriel / Saiba partnership wasn’t available for few games, RB was a problem, Madueke picked up an injury, Saka was out after ages and Havertz / Jesus has made it for the selection only now. We have also managed to beat Unai Emery so, yeah.
There has been some concerns apart from the injuries. We spent some money in the CF department which hasn’t paid well, but it has been the system more than the player in my opinion. If Arteta things Havertz and Jesus will better suit his style, they are available now and he can do what he wishes. Bukayo has some drop in form, and it hasn’t costed us still but we surely need the best player in his best form if we are going to compete at all levels and win something of importance.
Premier League – sitting up top with 6 points lead and 17 games to go. It’s achievable and let us just agree that not winning from here should be called a bottle job.
Champions League – we haven’t dropped a point in Champions League so far and we have beaten Atletico and Bayern in the process. We were beaten by PSG in Semi Finals last season, and they went on to win the title, so it wasn’t a all-sad affair. We can do better than that, this season. We can go all the way.
Carabao Cup – We are playing Chelsea in a 2-legged semi finals. Chelsea has sacked Maresca and we can take advantage of that. It’s not easy considering we will face one of the Man City and Newcastle if we manage to beat Chelsea but again, it’s achievable. We have beaten all three and we know how to do that.
FA Cup – FA Cup third round got us some very unexpected but sweet results. Forest lost to Wrexham in a penalty shooutout, Newcastle somehow managed to win against Bournemouth after a 3-3 result in regular time, Tottenham lost to Aston Villa (lol) and Brighton beat Man Utd. We beat Portsmouth 4-1 after going down in 3rd minute which was expected. We are going to play Wigan Athletic in 4th round. We will have a 5th round, quarter finals, semis and finals – so it’s a long road and we have just got started.
Yeah, we are doing well. I am Cautiously Optimistic.
Could it have been better?
Certainly.
Are we struggling in some departments?
Yes – because some of those games in PL were won by set pieces and our open play goals had dried up.
Can we make it to the end?
I hope so, considering we have 3 seasons of falling short and we have practically 2 playing XI that can finish the season in the top half of the table.
See you in the comment section.
Hi Ambarish
Will Havertz be the shining light that means we will get over the line first? Sharp intake of breath – a pink beast has just flown past my window.
Ambarish
You’re right, it’s not all doom and gloom. But Arteta is still what AF’s Spanish cousin Arturo Fraude would describe as a coño.
A word never to be confused with ‘cono’ which you might use when ordering an ice cream 🍦.
NORG
Frankly don’t care if it’s a lamp post Mikel uses as a CF if he gets us one of PL/CL trophy :))
KP
I had to google Spanish Cono meaning, and I am gonna use it if we don’t win anything that matters this season for one of my posts.
Ambarish
After 21 matches in the seasons you mention we had the following points haul.
22-23 – 51 points
23-24 – 43 points
24-25 – 43 points
So at face value we’re 6 points better off than the last two seasons and worse off than 22-23 but you can easily put 3 or so points down to how the fixtures fall and the balance could disappear with a bad call by a referee.
As you mention our dependence on set pieces is worrying (its a great tool to have but it should be a string to your bow not something you struggle to live without) especially when you look at the array of players we’ve accumulated. Much of our play is exactly the same shit football we’ve watched for years now.
If City get their shit together they’ll chase us down and win the title.
Marc
Some of the things this season will be called out if we win or not. Set pieces – were great if we win, we were a one shot pony if we don’t. Gyokeres / Havertz rotation would be called great or not, and Mikel might get his applauds or a retirement check.
City can only catch up to those 6 points if we drop points in more than 3 games compared to them, so it’s for us to lose. Mikel better have answers when the season ends.
2 legged semi finals are not Arteta’s thing, his record is atrocious
8 games
6 losses
No wins
2 draws
2 goals scored.
The only semi he’s won was a one off against city in the fa cup in his first season with a side full of predominantly wenger players
Martinez
Bellerin
Mustafi
AMN
Lacazette
Aubamayang
Holding
Willock
Kolasinac
In comparison to Arteta, Wenger knew how to win a semi , yes he lost one or 2 but he won 12.
Arteta has lost to villareal, Liverpool, Newcastle and PSG in the 2 legged semis and to be honest we never really competed or looked like winning any of those .
Arteta will be ultimately judged on how his team performs in the big games, namely finals , semi finals and title deciders and so far he has failed and that needs to change this season.
The league cup is 4th on the list in terms of importance but once you reach the semis there should be no going back , Arteta should play his strongest side (whatever that is) as losing to the chavs is not an option.
Chelsea will probably come at us early with intensity so it is important to get through the first 25 minutes or so unscathed and then we should be able to get our foot on the ball , Simon hooper is the ref and for me he is poor, not in an anti Arsenal way but in his basic decision making, I have no doubt that Chelsea will be going down like they have been shot with the slghtest touch every 5 minutes to put pressure on the ref like they did in the league game, so the ref will need to be strong., Hooper to me always looks a little flustered.
Is it the end of the world if we lose tonight….not really, though I’m sure it will please the few entitled Arsenal fans that still exist , personally I would rather win the forest game at the weekend as there is still a 2nd leg to play in the league cup.
Wicksy
Good point that, considering Mikel has also struggled in Prem in last 3 seasons towards the end and we won’t be wrong in saying that 2 out of 3 titles were ours to lose. Yes, the players inexperience and immaturity, injuries contributed to it but Mikel must own it.
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I don’t agree with your last line, we have 2 sets of players who can make into the playing XI of most of PL teams.
Set 1 – Raya, Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori, Rice, Zubimendi, Odegaard, Saka, Martinelli, Gyokeres
Set 2 – Kepa, White, Mosquera, Hincapie, MLS, Norgaard, Merino, Eze, Madueke, Havertz, Trossard
And we are still left with Jesus and Nwaneri.
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We should win both games. Carabao Cup may be the 4th important trophy but we haven’t won many in last 6 years.
Chelsea are a bit of an unknown quantity tonight. New manager who hasn’t had much time with the players but players who will be looking to impress.
Marc
It will be very interesting how Liam Rosenior’s career at Chelsea pans out. Apparently his father was respected by the players he worked with but he couldnt make the break through into the big time.
If he can get the Chelsea players fired up this tie could be very interesting and perhaps even entertaining.
Chelsea line up looks weak.
& we have a pretty solid line up except Raya..
Lets see if Kepa still hates Chelsea.
Arteta’s gone about as strong as he can – arguments about who should start aside.
No excuse anything less than a 13 nil victory should see Arteta sacked.
Shocking defending by Chelsea – you’d really think with our record from set pieces teams would spend 15 minutes or so on the basics in training for when they’re defending against them.
Marc—it does seem a little shocking considering…I was laughing because I put the match on a few minutes late and when I saw the 1-0 scoreline I just knew it was either a set piece or an own goal (or both)
instead of having Eze on the pitch MA would still rather have two “non-goalscorers” (Rice and Zubi) bombing forward at will
I wouldnt be surprised to see Chelsea grow in confidence – Rosenior has made them hungry and not fearing for their next game.
keep that up Saliba and you might be our new Striker
Estevao had better be careful or he’ll being seeing a red before too long…I can’t see that as a way to ingratiate himself to the new man in charge…I appreciate Rosenior’s journey but I’m not convinced that he’s going to have what it takes to buck the quick hook trend…he looked uncomfortable in his own skin following their FA win on the weekend, but that might have just been first game jitters…not to mention, he basically chose an Enzo lineup and deployed the very same tactics, which if they were playing a PL side might of made sense