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.
It’s time to bring on some pace in martinelli and madueke and also Eze to release them.
Chelsea have been decent but are open down the channels but we haven’t the pace to take advantage, this game could still go either way as we look a little disorganised, next goal is the all important one.
it’s like an own goal…Sanchez is a bag of toys again today
even Havertz and Jesus could have potted that
You can see the reason why teams come with a low block against us similar to Liverpool last week , as any team that opens up against us like villa a couple of weeks ago and Chelsea tonight find it difficult to contain our attack , also it gives thebfans a much more entertaining game , but unfortunately not many teams are prepared to open up and I don’t expect forest to do anything other than sit deep and look to hit us on the break which means we will have loads of possession but there will be a fear of the counter attack so unless we get an early goal then we could be in for a tight game where we need to be patient and secure in possession of the ball .
Man City beat Newcastle the other day 2-0 away from home. We have beaten Chelsea 3-2 last night.
I am guessing the finals gonna be City v Arsenal, the master and the apprentice.
Rosenior has realised very quickly he needs a new goalkeeper.
Some would think it is scandalous that the West Midland police chief Craig Guildford lied and lied again and is still lying in his defence of banning the maccabi fans from attending the europa league game v villa.
As for me , it doesn’t surprise me that Craig Guilford was (and still is) guilty of misleading all concerned by overstating the risk from the maccabi fans, one only had to read the report from the Dutch police force to understand that it was the maccabi fans that were targeted after the Ajax/maccabi game and not the other way round.
Let’s hope that when Craig Guilford rightly loses his job the West Midland police force appoint a suitable replacement who is honest and rules without “fear or favour” , something which Craig Guildford does not adhere to, which ultimately will cost him his job.
Chelsea caused us problems on the wings last night and I suspect will cause us problems in the return leg.
Timber seems to have escaped criticism despite being turned inside out by Estevao, I can guarantee you if Skelly put in a similar performance to timber he would be slaughtered by fans and media.
There was improvement from Gyokeres but the plaudits are slightly over the top , yes it was great to him get a goal and an assist and it should do his confidence a world of good.
He didn’t exactly looked overjoyed at scoring so maybe the weight of the criticism and the job of leading the line under Arteta is taking its toll .
Having a left footer on the right wing and a right footer on the left wing is a simplistic explanation as to why our wingers don’t cross the ball early for gyokeres, personally I see no reason why saka can’t go back to his natural position of left wing where he hits a wicked ball into the corridor of uncertainty for gyokeres to finish.
Havertz, jesus and gyokeres are all now almost match fit so Arteta has good (not great) options to choose from, at least fatigue shouldn’t be an excuse in this Arsenal squad , left back is our only question mark at the moment, Calafiori is a miss as he gives the side something extra, Skelly is struggling a little and I hope Arteta hasn’t lost faith in him as he showed last season what an excellent player he is , young players do tend tend to have a slight dip in form after their initial breakthrough..
Wicksy
For once we’re in total agreement – Guildford should actually face criminal charges for misconduct in a public office and even antisemitism.
Maccabi shouldn’t even be playing in Europe.
Their fans brought their genocidal tendencies to Amsterdam. As always, when it came on top they reached for the antisemitism card.
Given their conduct in the Nathelands, there would have been a risk letting them loose in Birmingham.
Aitcho
That’s complete bullshit and has been called out by the Dutch Police as being bullshit. Local extremist Islamic groups went on a “Jew” hunt and attacked anyone they came across.
You’ll be quoting the violence in the Maccabi vs West Ham match next.
https://youtube.com/shorts/STAZrK_Eh1k?si=fTCP62f_FzvNLQAe
Aitcho
You’re right. This has happened because the labour party are in the financial thrall of Zionists. I don’t think I’ve ever had much sympathy for coppers, especially senior ones, but being pressured to leave your job because pernicious Zionist interests pervade UK politics shows how low politics has become. Starmer will never be forgiven.
Just in case any readers who are based outside of the UK and aren’t familiar with the events and might be influenced by Kroenke’s antisemitic rants the police officer who’s been forced to resign lied to a Parliamentary Select Committee and then lied about lying.
Its actually a criminal offence and he’s lucky he’s been allowed to resign and keep his pension – he should be facing a criminal trial and prison.
If you’re based inside or outside the UK, or some other corner of the universe, just remember that Marc is a bigoted right wing twat of the worst type. Too stupid to look up the meaning of the words ‘anti-semitic’ and ‘Zionist’ in a dictionary and waaaay too stupid to work out the difference which is actually pretty easy.
Show the cunt some actual evidence and he’ll never fail to dig an even bigger hole for himself.
And just let the record show, you and your irredeemable Reform based ignorance have led to you starting another potential argument on here. My post was addressed to Aitcho.
Kroenke
I couldn’t give a fuck what you think – you really are a vile human.
I will point out that my post was 100% the truth.
What the fuck is going on with City – 2 nil down and haven’t really looked like scoring.
Pep is providing the helping hand to one of his pupils.
Meanwhile over in the middle east people who worship the same god kill each other. Religious leaders are frightened of women and frightened of losing position. Brian – where are you.
You’re a monumental piece of shit Marc you fucking coward.
100% truth. Lol. You really are too thick to put anything on here you fucking mental midget. Get back to the balsa wood.