You're spot on about us being really unlucky this season ... The problem is that it could be argued we had a pretty lucky 23/24 season with very few injuries to key players, a lot of last minute goals we scored (some of them weird deflections), a good CL draw (Bayern were in a crisis when we played them) and our biggest league rivals struggling, at least for parts of the season ... A lot of things went our way last season, the stars seemed to align and we still ended up not winning anything which is really a shame ... The mistake we made before this season was simply to assume that we somehow would get extraordinarily lucky with (the lack of) injuries again and not to strengthen more in the summer... Yes, we are indeed unlucky this season but we could have prepared ourselves better for the case that things dont go 100 percent according to plan
We’re forgetting arteta is new as a manager so he hasn’t really experienced this before to know to be ready for a criss but he will definitely learn from this now especially if it costs us
It’s true about last season. It was one of those very rare seasons, especially for us, where everything aligns and THEY’RE the seasons you see something like Leicester winning the league. It’s sad to think we won’t ever have a better chance than that, likely ever.
@@BeforeThisNovember your 100% right im noticing the league is also getting harder now aswell and it will get harder than it is now next season, last season we could easily write off all the smaller teams as pretty much guaranteed wins this season i’m not so confident we drew to Everton and we only just managed to pull a win against ipswich who are in the relegation zone, every single game is a difficult one for us because teams are also learning how to counter us which is double up on saka and park the bus, and you will see us slow dlwn the tempo with no ideas on how to score, which is why we rely on set pieces
@@farahomar6880Arsenal fans always explaining something. Arteta expected to go a full season with 1 RW, no striker and subpar LW's? You're not serious
@@farahomar6880 there’s definitely an element of teams now knowing how to deal with us (compared to the last 2 seasons where it genuinely felt like we could thrash anyone). And that tactic is put 2 men on Saka and 10 men behind the ball. But it’s now up to Arteta to get around that, with new tactics and signings, and prove he can be an elite manager.
@@BritishReignno... Its never about being "extreme" on either side. It's about being level headed and seeing the pros and cons. That's what annoys me about Reddit or other Arsenal fans online. They just tend to overreact at the slightest inconvenience.
@@mysticfellow9843…. We’ve now gone 20 full seasons without a league title and have NEVER won the champions league…. Why am I the bad guy for not demanding better?
@@BeanieDoggerson because football isn’t about trophies at the end of the day, if it was then Spurs would have no supporters. Enjoy the beautiful game and don’t let the table ruin your day
@@mysticfellow9843overreact for wanting your team to win 1 league in 20 years? We all saw Liverpool, United, Chelsea, and City win the league and the UCL during that time, but us? Be leveled headed and trust the process..
The issue for me with Arsenal, is that while we are hard to beat, teams seem to always find a hidden 6th gear when playing us. We don't seem to have that dog we had in 2022/23 where we just held teams by the crotch and neck (while whispering lullabies in Russian) from the first whistle. Maybe it was that black and gold away kit. Maybe it was Granit. Something is missing.
Loved that black and gold kit. So did Arteta. Wish we could have made it permanent. But you forget how many games we won at the last. We were stronger, more confident, and, yes, lucky. And we had all our players.
By far the best Arsenal Fan Content creator to date ! When you have the ability to break down so many different metrics and be so honest about where the club is and what direction is going in you can't ask for any more than that so on behalf of our fans everywhere thank you
One thing you didn't mention about luck in the Brighton game: The stomach bug/illness going through the team. We nearly won that game, even with sick players. We missed Havertz's chaos and Timber at RB, and Ødegaard and Martinelli didn't even start. Even though it's unclear who all had the illness, that was far from the ideal squad anyone wanted. It was largely a poor performance, but we still would have won it with all those other factors if it hadn't been for that awful decision. Poor performance, poor result but not as bad as everyone's making it out to be, given the circumstances against a team we've often struggled against in recent years.
People seem to forget (and yes it seems like excuses to the haters) but this is now AT LEAST 6 points dropped from dodgy BIASED reffing, this season. That would put us top of the table and not 1 person using stupid words like “crisis” or “Arteta out”. After all that, we’re STILL firmly 2nd in the league, only to a great team in form (a PL and CL winning team, who currently have the best 1 or 2 players IN THE WORLD). We can do better, sure. But considering all the injuries, red cards, and illnesses - were doing pretty damn good.
@@BeforeThisNovemberYees everyone is biased against Arsenal that’s why you haven’t won a league since 2004. City have underperformed there’s no excuse for your team to be 2nd. You’re several points off the top and Pool have a game in hand. Even if u were top of the table that doesn’t change how crap you’re playing, being top in January wouldn’t mean anything anyways.
You don't get any trophies for valour, effort or bravery. Arsenal may soon be struggling to finish in top 4 after being knocked out of FA and EFL cups by next week. Looks like there were no contingency plans for such crises like calling back on loan players like Lokonga Viera Marquinhos or a plan in place to quickly buy or loan a player instead of starting from scratch and faffing around.
Found out about this Channel a couple of weeks ago and it has become my favourite Arsenal related Channel on TH-cam. One reason for that is your unique way to point out positive and true things on which you can allow yourself to have faith in this Team instead of pointing out the obvious negative, like most of the other Channels! Big THANK YOU for that! ❤ But let‘s fu**ing get a proper number 9 in January! Greets from Germany!
Beautifully put as usual. The question I ask myself is, is this team good enough to compete for a title. The last 2 years the standard have been RIDICULOUSLY high and we have been treated to some beautiful football. If we played like how we played in the last 2 and a half years this season we’d be killing it. This year that “beauty” has dropped but I just don’t feel terrified by Liverpool because even without the style we have enough sustenance. The way you’d feel terrified by a Prime City or Klopp Liverpool, or even us in the last 2 seasons. These teams, including us and Liverpool are very fallable, it’s just up to us to get back to our best asap.
By the same token, our title push last year was unreal. Hardly any of our main players were injured (Timber was the only significant one). But by the curse of Gary Neville, he pointed it out and now we see that our luck has run out 😭
Long post incoming... I appreciate what you're trying to say about Arsenal's bad luck and Liverpool's good luck balancing out over the season, but I think there's a flaw in assuming that because Arsenal has already experienced bad luck, they won't going forward-and that Liverpool, having had good luck, is bound to experience bad luck in the remaining matches. This reasoning is a classic fallacy tied to the gambler's fallacy-the mistaken belief that past events influence future probabilities in independent scenarios. For example, if you flip a fair coin five times and it lands on heads each time, the probability of the next flip being tails is still 50%. Each flip is independent of the previous ones. Similarly, in football, luck in a specific match or set of matches doesn’t directly affect what will happen in the future. In Arsenal’s case, having experienced 'bad luck' so far doesn’t mean they’re owed good luck in the remaining matches. Conversely, Liverpool’s 'good luck' doesn’t guarantee they’ll encounter a stretch of bad luck. Football outcomes are influenced by many variables-performance, tactics, injuries, and yes, randomness-but these aren’t inherently self-correcting like balancing scales. While regression to the mean might apply to certain stats (e.g., finishing rates or xG differences), it’s not a guarantee of future results-it’s just a tendency over time. Luck is unpredictable and doesn’t have a memory. Arsenal could have more bad luck, Liverpool could continue their streak of good fortune, or both could deviate from expectations entirely. This is why consistent performance, tactical adaptability, and squad depth are so crucial in navigating the uncertainties of a season. Relying on the idea that 'luck will balance out' could be misleading, as there’s no inherent force making it so
I agree with this but also believe Alex. That’s why I think Liverpool will start to wobble, we’ll get better overall and still, Forest win the league because they are the team whose luck will stay all season 🙃
Then at the very least we can expect similar luck to Liverpool over the remainder of the season - which will be an improvement on what we’ve had to this point ;-)
As a purely materialistic/empirical probability cruncher maybe BUT this world works on karma. When purposefully nefarious or even occasional negative decisions are brought to bear(to stall our progress like flimsy referee calls that don't hold up under scrutiny or absurd red cards..then the weighing scale will tip as it always does!
Alex, I would argue, outside of Newcastle [where we still had injuries] and Everton--and even somewhat in those matches, we have not been "good enough" precisely because of all the other things you mentioned: the fixture difficulty in the first half of the season, the horrible decisions against us [4 points lost to Brighton], and most importantly, the injuries and illness. Sometimes, we don't realize enough that injuries do not just mean player[s] missing games. They also disrupt the rhythm and fitness levels of the entire XI [and even the squad]. And then, there is the relative importance of who is injured. For example, we have been undefeated since our captain, Odegaard, returned from injury. I would also argue that we have in fact been better so far this season than we were last season, even if it doesn't feel like it. Under far more adverse circumstances, we have still managed to pick up 40 points from 20 matches in the PL, exactly the same as last season. We have progressed further in the EFL Cup. And, we have navigated a tougher UCL campaign with better results. Take away the injuries and the terrible referee decisions, and our season so far might have been perfect. It feels as bad as it does simply because Liverpool have faced little to no adversity of their own so far.
" I care about arsenal so much, probably too much. Eleven men I have never met, running in circles, sometimes literally ruining my weekend. What a way to live! "....... This has to be the greatest intro ever❤ Well done Alex!
Love your analysis Alex! But there is a but… we have ridden our luck for 2 years in regards to players and injuries with this season coming to bite us. Lack of squad quality via poor recruitment has led to players being flogged.
Thank you for Saying What Exactly i was saying to Everyone who underestimated Arsenal.. I always said.. we Need Some kind of luck to come our way.. and those Refs.. should be More JUST.. with us.. & STOP SHEDDING.. Points from Us .. As it is Their JOB .. to Destroy Our seasons.. in the Past 2 Seasons and this Season Too.. I REALLY Hope God bless us this year 2025.. and it will be OUR YEAR
As Arsenal fans we are all concerned with the outcome at the end of January. The injuries, sickness and potential fatigue with so many tough games through the month of January, makes us apprehensive. If we are still in all competitions at the end of January, then game on.
I agree completely re the variance, we seem to often be on the "unlucky" side of the coin. However, my frustration comes from the fact we always seem to be vulnerable to variance. For example, in the Brighton game it came after a period of Brighton dominance, they were consistently entering our final third, meaning our defenders had to make a number of challenges to prevent goalscoring opportunities. I think we have some of the best defenders in the league at dealing with this, but, constantly making them responsible for last ditch challenges because we allow momentum shifts in games massively increases the chances that there will be a mistake, either from a defender or an official. It would be interesting to see some analysis on the timing of those "unlucky variances" and where the momentum is in the game. I feel that if we were better at game control, keeping the ball under pressure, we'd be able to avoid a number of these scenarios from coming up.
We move the ball to slowly. Don’t pass forward through the lines enough. Don’t play the ball in behind ever. And don’t create enough clear cut chances from open play.
Artetas game management is the reason we have the injuries making subs at the right time is not his biggest quality.. 100% the best content creator that talks about arsenal
Yep and a small squad which he hardly ever rotates, he simply doesn't use players he doesn't trust and so they lose form/interest, that's why players like Ramsdale Kiwior and Jorginhio struggled after not playing for so long, players need to get a run of minutes not only to build up form and fitness but to stay engaged with the team.
Well said - couldn’t agree more with every comment you made, my only concern is the club may consider the league is gone and decide against paying overs for a striker in January
Yeah like last Jan and then they put out the statement and said 'Big summer' and then they bragged about 10 million net profit "Arsenal fans should be Proud, we had a Great window"
10:26 can you go thru the last 4 seasons for like an hour long video and see every time the pgmol has been against arsenal? Cause guarantee been more than every other team other than maybe wolves
I do actually disagree with the technicalities of the inclusion of luck. During FA coaching badges, one of the first thing your taught as a coach is things like martinelli toe, and inch away from a goal is not unlucky, it's good effort but either excellent opposition play or poor practice/ execution. We need to make our own luck and that means focusing on the controllables.
🙏 I think the Refs have performed far better than Arteta and his boys and hopefully he learns from his mistakes buys Quality in Jan and delivers a 🏆 so Saliba can stay
Injuries suck but when the fixtures in the cups get harder and the games will continue to come thick and fast then our squad will be '' rested '' since everyone has been injured for a while. We have seen our own team die out later in the season and we are only 7 behind in goal difference. I think we will be fine eventually
Mr Alex, looking to your thoughts on Arsenal at this current moment given the fall out of the weekend. Will be interesting to see what is done during the Jan window and how we handle all the congested fixtures
Hi mate, first team players always count and yes our injury list is incredible. I think with the team as it is we know we need a consistent goal scorer as a number 9. Also a left winger, my reason for this is that there are so many games to play I believe we should prioritise to 1 the league 2nd the u/cup 3 the FA cup then last the league cup. The league to me is the one, play the best team every time. Then U/cup play the best team every time, with the two new players I mentioned our team would be fantastic and capable of winning the top two priorities. The last 2 cup games would be a a mixture of both but resting a number of team one players, as per the league cup the same . Nothing is set in concrete as it all depends how we are doing in the league and F/A cup and we can again prioritise. I call this playing to your strengths ie prioritise when needed. At present we play the best 11 at all times hence injuries and sickness we, we also play injured players until they need surgery ridiculous. It’s harder to score when you are knackered and need rest. So go best team always and win nothing or 2 new players and prioritise and win something. At present it’s been 5 years of almost nothing, hence supporters shouting change the manager. Or maybe just change the system and give our players a needed rest. Jon
I was watching Wolves vs Nottingham Forrest. And some of the approach play I saw on that game was better than what I have seen from Arsenal. We need reinforcement up front
can't agree more with you lads on the lack of luck, even in your last videos you mentioned teams always seam to score belters against us. But for me what really hurt while watching the brighton game was realising this season i can only remember about 5 games where we were actually good and fun to watch: this over safeness which you mentioned a season ago has become worse, we seem tactically found out and genuinely lost on the pitch. It is something I'd love to hear about more in your analyses
this video gave me that breath of fresh air i desperately needed. God wish there was a system where theyd reduce the number of games taylor and oliver officiate for arsenal
I know what you mean about being down on our luck. BUT: “You make your own luck” is a phrase. I reckon with the handbrake off; with more aggressive substitutions, with more chaotic, less coached tactics, we’ll encourage luck to come our way. And yes let’s for the love of all that is holy: sign a decent forward.
I am a strong believer in the liverpool schedule copium. They have been amazing but they have had both luck with timing when they've played big teams (ex Real missing half their squad) and mainly playing so many at home. Liverpool are always favorites at home. I think the next half will be much harder for them
My only issue with Arsenal and Mikel is not solving how he approaches the mid and deep block. We need ball progressers and dribblers but also sometimes a play to take responsibility on the edge ofmthe box and have a pop. I also think it's all very risk averse. Its like Mikel has had PTSD from 22/23 where we were swashbuckling. We need to find that happy medium to be able to put teams to the sword. The title is not over yet though.
I agree with these views 100% and its something I have been trying to put into words in some of the forums I am in. What I will say is this: Arsenal haven't won the league in over 2 decades. With the recent resurgence and getting close has created a desperation that to win that goes beyond reason and thoughtfulness. "Injuries are not an excuse", "Poor refs are not an excuse", "we should be winning in spite of those things, we are an elite club and we are bottling it again". We are too desperate for the title to the point that we can make excuses for other teams but not our own. Sure, we play poorly at times but...ya know...
You forgot to mention the disallowed goal at the end of the Liverpool game where the ref mysteriously decided to only blow the whistle when it looked like we might score. That is a 4 point swing right there. Even at home we get no 'rub of the green'. If we had got the attacking option sorted out in summer we would easily win the league. Paying for that big time and I am not expecting anything big in the window.
luck is always, always a thing we should talk about. as an Asian, i believe in luck strongly, because everything is written, we just have to try our best and accept it.
We are the most boring team is the league to watch, and a striker will not change this. It's Arteta's fundamental approach to controlling the game in every phase of play that is chocking any, and all creativity. Just to be clear, I'm a massive Arteta fan, but he has to rethink our risk vs reward mentality and move the ball much faster.
We used to play swiftly and with swagger. Martinelli is a great example imo, he used to be exciting and bully defenders like Trent and was a pain to deal with. On the left wing he’s passive now, even the WAY he dribbles is a far cry from the way it used to be. I think the answer is in dynamism, we need either a 9 that can invigorate us, or imo (more pressingly) a LW. Trossard has never been a winger imo and nelly has had a dip in form until very recently
@@DXPEMU just a signing won’t do the trick, although they could certainly invigorate the attack. To fix this issue with tempo we need a tactical shift from Arteta, who I think has been a brilliant tactician until this point
This is due to MA’s beliefs in pragmatism …. If AFC want to win the league we cannot afford to say if we can’t win don’t lose it… this is not winner’s mentality in EPL.
People seem to forget (and yes it seems like excuses to the haters) but this is now AT LEAST 6 points dropped from dodgy BIASED reffing, this season. That would put us top of the table and not 1 person using stupid words like “crisis” or “Arteta out”. After all that, we’re STILL firmly 2nd in the league, only to a great team in form (a PL and CL winning team, who currently have the best 1 or 2 players IN THE WORLD). We can do better, sure. But considering all the injuries, red cards, and illnesses - were doing pretty damn good.
Yeah but we didn't necessarily help ourselves out either. Trossard was at fault for the result at city, no excuses for that one. Loss to Bournemouth again was bad decision making from both trossard and saliba. Against newcastle we weren't good enough. Fulham we didn't finish our chances. Everton at home was awful. Not saying we need to be perfect every game, but there have been games this season in which we were simply have made it harder for ourselves. We win the games against fulham, everton and bournemouth (let alone the others), we'd effectively be 2 points off the top on equal games. But i agree refs have recked us this season.
@Arsenal_4_Life absolutely, hence why I said we can do better. And whether it was individuals momentary mistakes or not, that still proves we’ve been very unlucky and again only thin margins from being on top While having significant injuries and a thin squad. We’re doing great when you put things in perspective. Still very much in the title race with key players missing and set to come back This transfer window will be make or break, tho.
@@BeforeThisNovemberYou’re not doing great 2nd isn’t a trophy. Your excuse last two seasons were that city were too good well city aree shit and u still can’t win the league. Anyone with eyes can see that you’ve stagnated this season nowhere near the team of last seeason or the season before and you didn’t win the league(or any trophy) then either.
After all that, we’re STILL firmly joint 2nd in the league with Nottm Forest What phase is Nuno in?? We can do better???? Sure. But considering all the unsurprising injuries to Artetas injury prone signings, the 100% correct red cards that your club never appealed, and illnesses that only your players seem to have - were doing pretty damn good by us winning the CL, going 2 decades without a title and 3 without a European cup Trust the Process xx
Variance hitting us in close moments is tough. There should also be the acknowledgement that the slew of poor moments also means we're playing too many close matches. Sure, variance is out of our control. Putting ourselves in positions to let it affect us by neglecting the attack in the summer when everyone and their mother knew we needed more WAS within our control and should be a big part of any conversation.
I’ve been guilty of dampening your analysis down to be overly positive or generically dismissive of our issues. But this video was spot on. On another point, Odegaard in the diamond quartet we play with Skelly inverting and Havertz as the number ten restricts him. Him being instructed to stay on the right-hand sight stifles him. With the profile of player Merino is I’d love to see us play with a double pivot and have Odegaard as a roaming CAM. But with Arteta’s desire to invert a FB we’d never do that.
Alex great vid! I unsubscribed from all arsenal/football ytbers when Saka got injured. I wanted to disassociate from the online chatter because I knew it was going to be 90% negative. I’ve been avoiding content but decided to give this vid a chance when I saw it in the recommended. Finally not an emotional negative fan blaming everything on the manager, the owner, the players, the refs, the dog, etc. I was so sick of how quickly some fans turn on the team when they are just going through some really unfortunate circumstances. Yes Arsenal need to be a whole lot better but lets keep the faith that even if this is a lost season theres is still positives. Best defense we’ve had since the 2000s, a RW who would have been a balon dor shortlist if not for the injury and a young group of talented technical players who are yet to see their best years. Theres still hope
When you compare a team who constantly hides from Accountability to the Invincibles who got abused like hell the season before when Sir Alex won the Treble with United. Instead of crying and moaning Wenger and his team delivered 2 back to back doubles and dunked on Ferguson and Utd. Thank God for that . I hope Arsenal fans realise that Kronke's have found the perfect formula to make loads of cash off of Arsenal winning nothing unfortunately. I can only hope we win a 🏆 this season so Saliba can stay or our downfall is inevitable
I had this feeling last season that this was THE ONE. And it took so much out of these players. Mentally and physically. So in some reality, we win the title last year with the last game of the season and then it is followed by one of those recovery seasons where players' bodies are forcing breaks (Saka's injury was coming for sure, everyone knew that. You can't just keep going. The same as Rodri) and referees are doing stupid things and fixtures are crazy. I would just wish that most of the fans would get it and that's why your video is so important... But I get it, it's tough when you've got nothing to show for it. But I actually still think Arteta is doing an unbelievable job. I just wish we would have a winter break like they do in Germany. Don't we all want to see all the players well and fresh so the quality of the games would be higher?
Our intensity this season is so off. Can we get back to the intensity we had in the 22/23 season?. We needa ball carrier on the left side, then a prolific striker. Short of that we are far from the title. Mind you we have the same points as Nottingham Forest. It is going to be very tight.
Although I don't disagree with the fine margins not being favourable, and before I start, I'm not one of those negative "Arteta out" fans. I do feel that in a lot of our games, we are so focused on control, winning duels, set pieces, delaying restarts, etc, which can all obviously be beneficial. I just think we are sometimes o incredibly frustrating to watch, and we seem to hamper ourselves with a natural flow of attacking football in favour of the control element. Yeah, maybe we win more games that way, but I've hardly "enjoyed" watching us this season, and all for the sake of a style which for many reasons is still leaving us a little short.
I see a lot of people saying we need a forward, but Arsenal has not been lacking goals in the past 3 seasons. In fact, we have scored more goals in each of the past 2 seasons than we have in about 20 years. It seems more like an issue of creativity or a lack thereof, especially on out left. What made us work on the left when Xhaka was still there was the fact that he had a good passing range and could play some defence splitting runs that could release either Martinelli or Jesus. Rice and Merino on the other hand are good in control but I feel fail to pass the ball in areas that allow our left forward players to run in behind the ball.
Bro in the Bayern Munich Home and Away games, Arteta literally said Arsenal lack a Clinical Striker and the losses to Fulham, West Ham and Liverpool along with the draw with Palace proved it. We finished 2nd place twice and this Club, Team and us Fans deserve a Marquee striker if we want to ever win anything consistently
@@granitxhaka7261 If he did say it and he meant it then Arsenal would have gone for a striker. We didn't even bid for anyone. Arsenal need a striker the same way Liverpool do(They don't). Our style of play is not conducive for a target man. It hasn't been since the days of Giroud. This is also why Aubameyang was mostly played wide. Arsenal, much like Liverpool attack from out wide. Players like Saka or Salah get the ball out wide and they drift inside to either take shots or cross the ball to the wide attacker from the other wing. This is also why Saka assisted Martinelli more than anyone else in the team and Salah assisted Mane more than anyone, even more than Robbo. It's been more than 8 years of this and yet Arsenal fans still can't get why Auba was played wide, why Giroud , Laca, Jesus, Havertz and other players who aren't prominent goalscorers have been bought and utilized up front, It's because their role isn't to bang in 33 goals as season. How have fans still failed to recognize this? Also, Arsenal has scored 88 and 91 goals in the last 2 seasons. How are we lacking in goals? Any team, City included can point to 3 games where they needed goals and didn't get them. That still wouldn't be proof that they are having issues scoring. Finally, say we get a striker, this now means Saka, Ode, Martinelli and Rice/Merino's roles change. Now everyone is meant to get the ball and cross. We have one point of failure and if the striker is off form or injured that affects everything and evreyone
@@jidf32 we have failed for 5 seasons now and Arteta said that after the press conference losing to Bayern and we even bid for Sesko. Arteta tried to copy what Mourinho and Simione did but without a Ruthless finisher and the bigger issue is that in the last 1-2 seasons we just needed 1 striker to win the league and now we need an entire revamp in Midfield and Attack 🤣 Arsenal are doomed if Arteta doesn't learns from his mistakes and Saliba will leave if we don't win any 🏆 I hate the fact that Terry, Lampard, Ferdinand and Evra laughed at Gabi Saliba being the best partnership without any Trophies but hey it's nothing new that Arsenal's best players have more Ambition and Standards for their careers than the Club for itself 👍b
@@granitxhaka7261 A couple of things. 1. Arsenal never bid for Sesko. 2. Klopp failed to win the league and only won it in his 5th season. So was he a failure at that point? 3. You keep brining up the Bayern game that is almost a year ago, transfer windows have come and gone. 4. If we are trying to be Mourinho/Simeone teams then how are we registering the most goals scored in 20 years? 5. Firmino was Liverpool's frontman when they won the league Do you know how many goals he scored that season? 9.... let me put that in words in case you think i missed a number. Nine. Before you say that "Well, that's fine because there was Salah and Mane, those 2 had 19 and 18 goals respectively that season. 6. City won leagues with KDB and Sterling as their top goalscorers. Just saying that a striker would be the answer is so simplistic is bordering on laughable. Basically, Arsenal fans just want a striker because City have one and they won the league so fans want to copy paste a player into a system that won't suit them. Lol. Not this standards FC stuff again. This is like saying if the club knew what it was doing it would get Salah at the end of the season to be Saka's backup and then call it ambition or standards. But let's test your theory. Let's say Arsenal get a 30 goal striker, how does that affect the rest of the players and how the team sets up?
@@jidf32 1. Sesko was the only striker Arteta showed interest and and then his club renewed his deal cus of intrest from other clubs too 2. Klopp has won 8-9 Trophies with Liverpool, are you calling that a failure? 3. You said Arteta didn't want a striker but I literally told you he said it in a press conference after getting humiliated by Bayern remember "Pray for Bayern" 🤣 4. Arsenal don't need a striker just because City have one, but it's clear you just want to believe blindly that we don't lack one shows how great a job PR does to brainwash fans 👍 6.I find it really laughable that you actually believe that we don't deserve one of the best strikers in the World and adding a 30+ goals striker would somehow take Arsenal backward 7. We need a new Left wing, cover for Odegaard and Saka something we needed last summer and now replace Jorginho too while needed a cover for Saliba/Gabi and a Striker too when thats all we needed in the last 1-2 years 8. You are the dream fan for Kronke who refuses to invest a single penny into the Club. Keep trusting the 'PRocess', it doesn't even matter if you think you are right because it'll be too late when Saliba leaves and this brainwashing process ends 👍
Pretty interesting analysis as usual. Just wanted to vent a bit rn: Even if Arteta has flaws. I gotta admit that I do respect Arsenal back up Arteta to this day and yeah. What you said did hurts and we need some attackers. But yeah, regardless of Arteta's pros and cons, I still respect Arsenal trusting the process and wish we could win important silverware in the future... Unlike my own country that has the mentality of people who are impatient and wanted everything to be instant. It sucks that unlike Arsenal, my country's football federation ended up firing the coach of the national football recently for whatever bullshit reasons for short term gains. What being plagued by incompetent owners and mafias does to a football federation. I just wish that you win this League even if its a hard task. Maybe because its to show that process can mean everything especially to my country who does not believe in process at all but yeah... It hurts, it fucking hurts.
Jao Pedro is an intelligent striker, he saw the opportunity. Saliba was too sleepy, he should have fallen down and hold his head in a dramatic manner. A player needs to be clever when in the box.
@@Godwin_100It's not a guarantee though. If a gk's punch on a defender, West Ham vs Arsenal this season, is given as a penalty then there is a likelihood that this would too even if Saliba feint an injury.
Arsenal have scored 1 goal or fewer in 9 of our 20 PL games. In almost half of our games we couldve (or did) drop points conceding just a single goal. Thats terrible and a bigger problem than anything else. We feel unluckier because we arent scoring enough to make those fine margins meaningless.
For me, one of the things that bothers me the most is Arsenal's medical department. Not even in Brazil, which has many more games and clearly a much worse structure, players get hurt as much as at Arsenal. And this has been happening for a while. This disturbs our season a lot. And I believe that this season is being much more "unfair" than the previous ones. It looks like a kind of persecution. One of the excuses I least like is when they try to find a reason for Arsenal not to win, like "this season is from city, or liverpool, or chelsea, or LEICESTER. There's always a better team and it's never us. I miss the beginning of the 2000s. And finally it would be nice to see a video of a discussion about whether Arteta is worth staying or not if Arsenal doesn't win any important title, because it's been 5 years without anything. (Cup titles don't matter) I really liked your channel and your analyzes, congratulations.
Simply, we need some signings in January. We need these signings to keep us in all competitions while our starters get healthy. If there are no signings that tells ypu all you need to know about club ambition. As you said in a previous video, don't let perfect be the enemy of good. Get some business done.
It's conceivable that lp will drop more point but we would have to be so much better and consistent it doesn't seem possible. Totally right about not being good enough. We have been significantly off the boil compared to last season. They've actually bored me to tears watching our turgid slow build up
Liverpool have two games in hand. Liverpool have to find room for two games in a busy schedule. It might catch up to them. It'll be interesting to see what happens.
Luck or, more accurately, atrocious referees (Michael Oliver and that Anthony fella being standouts) has been our cross to bear this season. But, I agree that all’s not lost yet in the premiership. Still 18 games to play and we’re 2nd.
Refs allowing Arsenal to push keepers on corners is the reason Arsenal are involved in title races. So many games and points won from fouling the keeper, consistently. How can you possibly complain about refs?
It's a bit crude and assumes we go on to win each game but you take away the big (and in my opinion all wrong) 4 game/result-changing refereeing decisions for us this season (Rice red vs Brighton, Trossard red vs City, disallowed goal at the death vs Liverpool, Pen vs Brighton) and we are 8 points better off and three points above Liverpool (with them still having a game in hand). We haven't been at the races this season on the pitch for a number of reasons but you can't discount the fact that luck and factors beyond our control have made it incredibly difficult to build momentum and keep up in this title race. Despite this we are still mathematically in it so may as well dream until we can't any longer.
We haven’t been good all season though… that’s the point everybody seems to miss… Last 2 seasons we played like a title contending team. We haven’t looked like that all season. This squad was never gonna truly win a title with such a weak attack and that was completely overlooked that last few windows… This is arteta and HIS players, he wanted Havertz… and he doesn’t have the production needed at the 9 position that the best teams have. We are Almost FC, 2 players away but we know it’ll never happen
If we harkened back to what you have said before: our team hasnt been getting the second balls and not winning much duels up front, let alone in the midfield. We might have excellent individual performances but as a whole, our midfield and our attack seems too far apart. Not only that, theres too many round pegs in square holes for the positions in our team, especially in midfield. But there isnt much experimentation either. MLS might have been a better choice for RB. Partey, Merino and Rice might have been a better balanced of midfield, given how our fullbacks would be able to support our wingers further up the pitch. We risked O8 but we didnt risked havertz?
3 weekends Liverpool dropped points and we did the exact same. Also we just aren’t playing good so I don’t see it happen title charge was over before January
Hey Alex I feel the disappointment, lately we really struggle to collect high scores in xG. The results are too often way better than our game cause we many goals from little xG, setpeaces break the deadlock and our ass is save by our great defense. But you feel it's not enough. The field is not exploited enough in terms of deep runs, dragging defenders out of possision. The players look like FIFA characters no bravery, no one is doing something unexpected. I don't know if Arteta is intimidating them unintendedly. But he must seen it as well and encourage his players more. It's simply not enough this way.
PS: I'm really looking forward to your Liverpool video because I think too that they have elements in their game that we are lacking of. Our game is different but you can always search for some inspiration ;-)
George Graham used to use the bias against arsenal to motivate his teams - Anfield 89 when every one said we couldn't do it, 91 when FA took two points off Arsenal & only 1 from Utd, for a 21 man brawl where 11 of the players were Utd's at Old Trafford - Graham's men won league by 7 Points with games to spare. Arteta is not a good manager.
Signing another defender and defensive midfielder will certainly help us score more goals. Keep trusting the process and phase 20 arteta will surely deliver.
Bro well said, but I think arteta needs to first get us the proven hit and we need and then we can go back to this video knowing we had a constant that pushed us to the crown.
You're spot on about us being really unlucky this season ... The problem is that it could be argued we had a pretty lucky 23/24 season with very few injuries to key players, a lot of last minute goals we scored (some of them weird deflections), a good CL draw (Bayern were in a crisis when we played them) and our biggest league rivals struggling, at least for parts of the season ... A lot of things went our way last season, the stars seemed to align and we still ended up not winning anything which is really a shame ... The mistake we made before this season was simply to assume that we somehow would get extraordinarily lucky with (the lack of) injuries again and not to strengthen more in the summer... Yes, we are indeed unlucky this season but we could have prepared ourselves better for the case that things dont go 100 percent according to plan
We’re forgetting arteta is new as a manager so he hasn’t really experienced this before to know to be ready for a criss but he will definitely learn from this now especially if it costs us
It’s true about last season. It was one of those very rare seasons, especially for us, where everything aligns and THEY’RE the seasons you see something like Leicester winning the league.
It’s sad to think we won’t ever have a better chance than that, likely ever.
@@BeforeThisNovember your 100% right im noticing the league is also getting harder now aswell and it will get harder than it is now next season,
last season we could easily write off all the smaller teams as pretty much guaranteed wins this season i’m not so confident we drew to Everton and we only just managed to pull a win against ipswich who are in the relegation zone,
every single game is a difficult one for us because teams are also learning how to counter us which is double up on saka and park the bus, and you will see us slow dlwn the tempo with no ideas on how to score, which is why we rely on set pieces
@@farahomar6880Arsenal fans always explaining something. Arteta expected to go a full season with 1 RW, no striker and subpar LW's? You're not serious
@@farahomar6880 there’s definitely an element of teams now knowing how to deal with us (compared to the last 2 seasons where it genuinely felt like we could thrash anyone).
And that tactic is put 2 men on Saka and 10 men behind the ball.
But it’s now up to Arteta to get around that, with new tactics and signings, and prove he can be an elite manager.
0 comments in 4 seconds bro it's sad to see at this point
I'm here 👋
Mans fell off innit?
😂😂😂😂
i love you joey lad :)
you are stretching the joke now
With a fanbase rifled with negativity im so glad we have the different knock to give us a different perspective
You should be extremely happy with these performances, the formations and the signings.. what’s not to be happy about 😁🙄
@@BritishReignno... Its never about being "extreme" on either side. It's about being level headed and seeing the pros and cons. That's what annoys me about Reddit or other Arsenal fans online. They just tend to overreact at the slightest inconvenience.
@@mysticfellow9843…. We’ve now gone 20 full seasons without a league title and have NEVER won the champions league…. Why am I the bad guy for not demanding better?
@@BeanieDoggerson because football isn’t about trophies at the end of the day, if it was then Spurs would have no supporters. Enjoy the beautiful game and don’t let the table ruin your day
@@mysticfellow9843overreact for wanting your team to win 1 league in 20 years? We all saw Liverpool, United, Chelsea, and City win the league and the UCL during that time, but us? Be leveled headed and trust the process..
The issue for me with Arsenal, is that while we are hard to beat, teams seem to always find a hidden 6th gear when playing us. We don't seem to have that dog we had in 2022/23 where we just held teams by the crotch and neck (while whispering lullabies in Russian) from the first whistle. Maybe it was that black and gold away kit. Maybe it was Granit. Something is missing.
It was granit
Need Kudus
Its not xhaka, it's a style of play, teams now sit back more often and take us on counter attacks and also we prefer control over chaotic football
Loved that black and gold kit. So did Arteta. Wish we could have made it permanent. But you forget how many games we won at the last. We were stronger, more confident, and, yes, lucky. And we had all our players.
@ that gold kit was unreal. Need another version next season but I hear they’re going blue for the away
By far the best Arsenal Fan Content creator to date ! When you have the ability to break down so many different metrics and be so honest about where the club is and what direction is going in you can't ask for any more than that so on behalf of our fans everywhere thank you
One thing you didn't mention about luck in the Brighton game: The stomach bug/illness going through the team. We nearly won that game, even with sick players. We missed Havertz's chaos and Timber at RB, and Ødegaard and Martinelli didn't even start. Even though it's unclear who all had the illness, that was far from the ideal squad anyone wanted. It was largely a poor performance, but we still would have won it with all those other factors if it hadn't been for that awful decision. Poor performance, poor result but not as bad as everyone's making it out to be, given the circumstances against a team we've often struggled against in recent years.
People seem to forget (and yes it seems like excuses to the haters) but this is now AT LEAST 6 points dropped from dodgy BIASED reffing, this season.
That would put us top of the table and not 1 person using stupid words like “crisis” or “Arteta out”.
After all that, we’re STILL firmly 2nd in the league, only to a great team in form (a PL and CL winning team, who currently have the best 1 or 2 players IN THE WORLD).
We can do better, sure. But considering all the injuries, red cards, and illnesses - were doing pretty damn good.
Martinelli can be left out of this paragraph
@@BeforeThisNovemberYees everyone is biased against Arsenal that’s why you haven’t won a league since 2004. City have underperformed there’s no excuse for your team to be 2nd. You’re several points off the top and Pool have a game in hand. Even if u were top of the table that doesn’t change how crap you’re playing, being top in January wouldn’t mean anything anyways.
You don't get any trophies for valour, effort or bravery. Arsenal may soon be struggling to finish in top 4 after being knocked out of FA and EFL cups by next week. Looks like there were no contingency plans for such crises like calling back on loan players like Lokonga Viera Marquinhos or a plan in place to quickly buy or loan a player instead of starting from scratch and faffing around.
@ no excuse to not be top? Except the ones I just mentioned then..
And Liverpool have been playing so bad haven’t they….
Found out about this Channel a couple of weeks ago and it has become my favourite Arsenal related Channel on TH-cam. One reason for that is your unique way to point out positive and true things on which you can allow yourself to have faith in this Team instead of pointing out the obvious negative, like most of the other Channels!
Big THANK YOU for that! ❤
But let‘s fu**ing get a proper number 9 in January!
Greets from Germany!
Welcome
Thanks! 🙏
Beautifully put as usual. The question I ask myself is, is this team good enough to compete for a title.
The last 2 years the standard have been RIDICULOUSLY high and we have been treated to some beautiful football. If we played like how we played in the last 2 and a half years this season we’d be killing it.
This year that “beauty” has dropped but I just don’t feel terrified by Liverpool because even without the style we have enough sustenance.
The way you’d feel terrified by a Prime City or Klopp Liverpool, or even us in the last 2 seasons. These teams, including us and Liverpool are very fallable, it’s just up to us to get back to our best asap.
You said it yourself. We've competed the last 2 years so the team is good enough to compete for a title.
Timbers injury probably cost us last season,as Saliba did the year before
This was therapy ..subscribed.
By the same token, our title push last year was unreal. Hardly any of our main players were injured (Timber was the only significant one). But by the curse of Gary Neville, he pointed it out and now we see that our luck has run out 😭
Long post incoming... I appreciate what you're trying to say about Arsenal's bad luck and Liverpool's good luck balancing out over the season, but I think there's a flaw in assuming that because Arsenal has already experienced bad luck, they won't going forward-and that Liverpool, having had good luck, is bound to experience bad luck in the remaining matches.
This reasoning is a classic fallacy tied to the gambler's fallacy-the mistaken belief that past events influence future probabilities in independent scenarios. For example, if you flip a fair coin five times and it lands on heads each time, the probability of the next flip being tails is still 50%. Each flip is independent of the previous ones. Similarly, in football, luck in a specific match or set of matches doesn’t directly affect what will happen in the future.
In Arsenal’s case, having experienced 'bad luck' so far doesn’t mean they’re owed good luck in the remaining matches. Conversely, Liverpool’s 'good luck' doesn’t guarantee they’ll encounter a stretch of bad luck. Football outcomes are influenced by many variables-performance, tactics, injuries, and yes, randomness-but these aren’t inherently self-correcting like balancing scales.
While regression to the mean might apply to certain stats (e.g., finishing rates or xG differences), it’s not a guarantee of future results-it’s just a tendency over time. Luck is unpredictable and doesn’t have a memory. Arsenal could have more bad luck, Liverpool could continue their streak of good fortune, or both could deviate from expectations entirely.
This is why consistent performance, tactical adaptability, and squad depth are so crucial in navigating the uncertainties of a season. Relying on the idea that 'luck will balance out' could be misleading, as there’s no inherent force making it so
Very well said
I agree with this but also believe Alex. That’s why I think Liverpool will start to wobble, we’ll get better overall and still, Forest win the league because they are the team whose luck will stay all season 🙃
Then at the very least we can expect similar luck to Liverpool over the remainder of the season - which will be an improvement on what we’ve had to this point ;-)
As a purely materialistic/empirical probability cruncher maybe BUT this world works on karma. When purposefully nefarious or even occasional negative decisions are brought to bear(to stall our progress like flimsy referee calls that don't hold up under scrutiny or absurd red cards..then the weighing scale will tip as it always does!
Alex, I would argue, outside of Newcastle [where we still had injuries] and Everton--and even somewhat in those matches, we have not been "good enough" precisely because of all the other things you mentioned: the fixture difficulty in the first half of the season, the horrible decisions against us [4 points lost to Brighton], and most importantly, the injuries and illness. Sometimes, we don't realize enough that injuries do not just mean player[s] missing games. They also disrupt the rhythm and fitness levels of the entire XI [and even the squad]. And then, there is the relative importance of who is injured. For example, we have been undefeated since our captain, Odegaard, returned from injury.
I would also argue that we have in fact been better so far this season than we were last season, even if it doesn't feel like it. Under far more adverse circumstances, we have still managed to pick up 40 points from 20 matches in the PL, exactly the same as last season. We have progressed further in the EFL Cup. And, we have navigated a tougher UCL campaign with better results. Take away the injuries and the terrible referee decisions, and our season so far might have been perfect. It feels as bad as it does simply because Liverpool have faced little to no adversity of their own so far.
I strongly agree - if Liverpool faces more injuries the title race would be much more questionable.
@@chezkelhui1010 and if your grandmother had wheels, she would be a bike😂 excuses fc blaming the ball in the game against Newcastle
" I care about arsenal so much, probably too much. Eleven men I have never met, running in circles, sometimes literally ruining my weekend. What a way to live! ".......
This has to be the greatest intro ever❤
Well done Alex!
for your coffee. Great content. Keep it up!
Thanks mate appreciate it
Thank you so much!! Very kind of you. Alex
Love your analysis Alex! But there is a but… we have ridden our luck for 2 years in regards to players and injuries with this season coming to bite us. Lack of squad quality via poor recruitment has led to players being flogged.
Thanks!
Sean you’re the man - cheers! Alex x
Probably the most reasonable, sensible, objective and most importantly accurate summary of where we’re at I’ve heard, Good work lad.
Thank you for Saying What Exactly i was saying to Everyone who underestimated Arsenal.. I always said.. we Need Some kind of luck to come our way.. and those Refs.. should be More JUST.. with us.. & STOP SHEDDING.. Points from Us .. As it is Their JOB .. to Destroy Our seasons.. in the Past 2 Seasons and this Season Too..
I REALLY Hope God bless us this year 2025.. and it will be OUR YEAR
As Arsenal fans we are all concerned with the outcome at the end of January. The injuries, sickness and potential fatigue with so many tough games through the month of January, makes us apprehensive. If we are still in all competitions at the end of January, then game on.
Newcastle about to bring us through the ringer ..God help us..maybe being Orthodox my Christmas gift will come duly🙏
ONE OF YOUR BEST VIDEO MATE! Tricky subject but your arguments were so well laid out. bravo
You have a way with words and expression. Well done for another spot on analysis
I agree completely re the variance, we seem to often be on the "unlucky" side of the coin. However, my frustration comes from the fact we always seem to be vulnerable to variance. For example, in the Brighton game it came after a period of Brighton dominance, they were consistently entering our final third, meaning our defenders had to make a number of challenges to prevent goalscoring opportunities. I think we have some of the best defenders in the league at dealing with this, but, constantly making them responsible for last ditch challenges because we allow momentum shifts in games massively increases the chances that there will be a mistake, either from a defender or an official.
It would be interesting to see some analysis on the timing of those "unlucky variances" and where the momentum is in the game.
I feel that if we were better at game control, keeping the ball under pressure, we'd be able to avoid a number of these scenarios from coming up.
We move the ball to slowly. Don’t pass forward through the lines enough. Don’t play the ball in behind ever. And don’t create enough clear cut chances from open play.
Bro, Antony Taylor has ruptured my appendix with that decision. Going in surgery in an hour for real. 😂
😮 holy shit
Lol let's not forget he also helped win us the FA Cup against Chelsea now 😅
Great analysis bro!
I liked:Odegaard gets a nanny!
Great video mate hope the second half of the season swings more in our favour!
Artetas game management is the reason we have the injuries making subs at the right time is not his biggest quality.. 100% the best content creator that talks about arsenal
Yep and a small squad which he hardly ever rotates, he simply doesn't use players he doesn't trust and so they lose form/interest, that's why players like Ramsdale Kiwior and Jorginhio struggled after not playing for so long, players need to get a run of minutes not only to build up form and fitness but to stay engaged with the team.
Don't usually comment...but I agree 100%, very fair analyses... Keep up the great work!
Thanks mate
Good analysis considers all factors that can, have and will impact the outcome.
A conversation between this guy and Lee Gunner would be hilarious.
No thanks
@DiffKnock 😂
just discovered your channel....COYG!
Alex. You are correct. There are always the intangibles in most considerations. You captured it well. Balanced analysis!
Well said - couldn’t agree more with every comment you made, my only concern is the club may consider the league is gone and decide against paying overs for a striker in January
Yeah like last Jan and then they put out the statement and said 'Big summer' and then they bragged about 10 million net profit "Arsenal fans should be Proud, we had a Great window"
10:26 can you go thru the last 4 seasons for like an hour long video and see every time the pgmol has been against arsenal? Cause guarantee been more than every other team other than maybe wolves
Alex is a genius. I just love his analytical mind and skills. Einfach (German) brilliant! Meaning, simply brilliant 👏
I do actually disagree with the technicalities of the inclusion of luck. During FA coaching badges, one of the first thing your taught as a coach is things like martinelli toe, and inch away from a goal is not unlucky, it's good effort but either excellent opposition play or poor practice/ execution. We need to make our own luck and that means focusing on the controllables.
🙏 I think the Refs have performed far better than Arteta and his boys and hopefully he learns from his mistakes buys Quality in Jan and delivers a 🏆 so Saliba can stay
Good analysis as always and I like the you discuss things other channels don't
Injuries suck but when the fixtures in the cups get harder and the games will continue to come thick and fast then our squad will be '' rested '' since everyone has been injured for a while. We have seen our own team die out later in the season and we are only 7 behind in goal difference. I think we will be fine eventually
Love your analysis Alex: always intelligent, informed and fun. Cheers!
Thanks mate
Mr Alex, looking to your thoughts on Arsenal at this current moment given the fall out of the weekend. Will be interesting to see what is done during the Jan window and how we handle all the congested fixtures
We deserve some luck and great video once again.
You ade simply brilliant mate
Hi mate, first team players always count and yes our injury list is incredible. I think with the team as it is we know we need a consistent goal scorer as a number 9. Also a left winger, my reason for this is that there are so many games to play I believe we should prioritise to 1 the league 2nd the u/cup 3 the FA cup then last the league cup. The league to me is the one, play the best team every time. Then U/cup play the best team every time, with the two new players I mentioned our team would be fantastic and capable of winning the top two priorities. The last 2 cup games would be a a mixture of both but resting a number of team one players, as per the league cup the same . Nothing is set in concrete as it all depends how we are doing in the league and F/A cup and we can again prioritise. I call this playing to your strengths ie prioritise when needed. At present we play the best 11 at all times hence injuries and sickness we, we also play injured players until they need surgery ridiculous. It’s harder to score when you are knackered and need rest. So go best team always and win nothing or 2 new players and prioritise and win something. At present it’s been 5 years of almost nothing, hence supporters shouting change the manager. Or maybe just change the system and give our players a needed rest. Jon
I was watching Wolves vs Nottingham Forrest. And some of the approach play I saw on that game was better than what I have seen from Arsenal. We need reinforcement up front
You’re becoming my favorite arsenal channel 😊
can't agree more with you lads on the lack of luck, even in your last videos you mentioned teams always seam to score belters against us. But for me what really hurt while watching the brighton game was realising this season i can only remember about 5 games where we were actually good and fun to watch: this over safeness which you mentioned a season ago has become worse, we seem tactically found out and genuinely lost on the pitch. It is something I'd love to hear about more in your analyses
This guy always calms me down i cant lie
this video gave me that breath of fresh air i desperately needed.
God wish there was a system where theyd reduce the number of games taylor and oliver officiate for arsenal
Taylor won us the FA Cup vs Chelsea lol
. I can only hope this Club tries to finally upgrade on our first 11 who have won nothing in a while.
Delighted to see my tweet on x quoted here 😂top vid!
Well said pal 👌
I know what you mean about being down on our luck. BUT:
“You make your own luck” is a phrase.
I reckon with the handbrake off; with more aggressive substitutions, with more chaotic, less coached tactics, we’ll encourage luck to come our way.
And yes let’s for the love of all that is holy: sign a decent forward.
I am a strong believer in the liverpool schedule copium. They have been amazing but they have had both luck with timing when they've played big teams (ex Real missing half their squad) and mainly playing so many at home. Liverpool are always favorites at home. I think the next half will be much harder for them
My only issue with Arsenal and Mikel is not solving how he approaches the mid and deep block. We need ball progressers and dribblers but also sometimes a play to take responsibility on the edge ofmthe box and have a pop.
I also think it's all very risk averse. Its like Mikel has had PTSD from 22/23 where we were swashbuckling. We need to find that happy medium to be able to put teams to the sword.
The title is not over yet though.
You didn’t even mention the Havertz goal against Liverpool which was incorrectly ruled out for a non existent foul. It’s been a cruel season
I agree with these views 100% and its something I have been trying to put into words in some of the forums I am in. What I will say is this: Arsenal haven't won the league in over 2 decades. With the recent resurgence and getting close has created a desperation that to win that goes beyond reason and thoughtfulness. "Injuries are not an excuse", "Poor refs are not an excuse", "we should be winning in spite of those things, we are an elite club and we are bottling it again". We are too desperate for the title to the point that we can make excuses for other teams but not our own. Sure, we play poorly at times but...ya know...
You forgot to mention the disallowed goal at the end of the Liverpool game where the ref mysteriously decided to only blow the whistle when it looked like we might score. That is a 4 point swing right there. Even at home we get no 'rub of the green'. If we had got the attacking option sorted out in summer we would easily win the league. Paying for that big time and I am not expecting anything big in the window.
luck is always, always a thing we should talk about. as an Asian, i believe in luck strongly, because everything is written, we just have to try our best and accept it.
Tdk the best🔥
We are the most boring team is the league to watch, and a striker will not change this. It's Arteta's fundamental approach to controlling the game in every phase of play that is chocking any, and all creativity. Just to be clear, I'm a massive Arteta fan, but he has to rethink our risk vs reward mentality and move the ball much faster.
💯 agree. He has got us playing with the brakes on and a new striker won’t change that
We used to play swiftly and with swagger. Martinelli is a great example imo, he used to be exciting and bully defenders like Trent and was a pain to deal with. On the left wing he’s passive now, even the WAY he dribbles is a far cry from the way it used to be.
I think the answer is in dynamism, we need either a 9 that can invigorate us, or imo (more pressingly) a LW. Trossard has never been a winger imo and nelly has had a dip in form until very recently
@@DXPEMU just a signing won’t do the trick, although they could certainly invigorate the attack. To fix this issue with tempo we need a tactical shift from Arteta, who I think has been a brilliant tactician until this point
This is due to MA’s beliefs in pragmatism …. If AFC want to win the league we cannot afford to say if we can’t win don’t lose it… this is not winner’s mentality in EPL.
Phenomenal video
My goat Jamesy
we have so many games in January. we REALLY need signings.
People seem to forget (and yes it seems like excuses to the haters) but this is now AT LEAST 6 points dropped from dodgy BIASED reffing, this season.
That would put us top of the table and not 1 person using stupid words like “crisis” or “Arteta out”.
After all that, we’re STILL firmly 2nd in the league, only to a great team in form (a PL and CL winning team, who currently have the best 1 or 2 players IN THE WORLD).
We can do better, sure. But considering all the injuries, red cards, and illnesses - were doing pretty damn good.
Yeah but we didn't necessarily help ourselves out either. Trossard was at fault for the result at city, no excuses for that one. Loss to Bournemouth again was bad decision making from both trossard and saliba. Against newcastle we weren't good enough. Fulham we didn't finish our chances. Everton at home was awful. Not saying we need to be perfect every game, but there have been games this season in which we were simply have made it harder for ourselves. We win the games against fulham, everton and bournemouth (let alone the others), we'd effectively be 2 points off the top on equal games. But i agree refs have recked us this season.
@Arsenal_4_Life absolutely, hence why I said we can do better.
And whether it was individuals momentary mistakes or not, that still proves we’ve been very unlucky and again only thin margins from being on top
While having significant injuries and a thin squad. We’re doing great when you put things in perspective. Still very much in the title race with key players missing and set to come back
This transfer window will be make or break, tho.
@@BeforeThisNovemberYou’re not doing great 2nd isn’t a trophy. Your excuse last two seasons were that city were too good well city aree shit and u still can’t win the league. Anyone with eyes can see that you’ve stagnated this season nowhere near the team of last seeason or the season before and you didn’t win the league(or any trophy) then either.
After all that, we’re STILL firmly joint 2nd in the league with Nottm Forest
What phase is Nuno in??
We can do better???? Sure. But considering all the unsurprising injuries to Artetas injury prone signings, the 100% correct red cards that your club never appealed, and illnesses that only your players seem to have - were doing pretty damn good by us winning the CL, going 2 decades without a title and 3 without a European cup
Trust the Process xx
@ yeah because Liverpool are doing so poorly aren’t they…
Variance hitting us in close moments is tough. There should also be the acknowledgement that the slew of poor moments also means we're playing too many close matches. Sure, variance is out of our control. Putting ourselves in positions to let it affect us by neglecting the attack in the summer when everyone and their mother knew we needed more WAS within our control and should be a big part of any conversation.
I agree with you.. no matter what suspension, injuries or refereeing decisions. We have not been good enough
I’ve been guilty of dampening your analysis down to be overly positive or generically dismissive of our issues. But this video was spot on.
On another point, Odegaard in the diamond quartet we play with Skelly inverting and Havertz as the number ten restricts him. Him being instructed to stay on the right-hand sight stifles him. With the profile of player Merino is I’d love to see us play with a double pivot and have Odegaard as a roaming CAM. But with Arteta’s desire to invert a FB we’d never do that.
Alex great vid! I unsubscribed from all arsenal/football ytbers when Saka got injured. I wanted to disassociate from the online chatter because I knew it was going to be 90% negative. I’ve been avoiding content but decided to give this vid a chance when I saw it in the recommended. Finally not an emotional negative fan blaming everything on the manager, the owner, the players, the refs, the dog, etc. I was so sick of how quickly some fans turn on the team when they are just going through some really unfortunate circumstances. Yes Arsenal need to be a whole lot better but lets keep the faith that even if this is a lost season theres is still positives. Best defense we’ve had since the 2000s, a RW who would have been a balon dor shortlist if not for the injury and a young group of talented technical players who are yet to see their best years. Theres still hope
When you compare a team who constantly hides from Accountability to the Invincibles who got abused like hell the season before when Sir Alex won the Treble with United. Instead of crying and moaning Wenger and his team delivered 2 back to back doubles and dunked on Ferguson and Utd. Thank God for that . I hope Arsenal fans realise that Kronke's have found the perfect formula to make loads of cash off of Arsenal winning nothing unfortunately. I can only hope we win a 🏆 this season so Saliba can stay or our downfall is inevitable
Looking at fixtures, we do have something to maybe give is a little hope
100% agree with this and it helps to see this kind of copium analysis. It soothes the emotional hysteria.
We've had so many injuries because Arteta has built such a small squad and hardly ever rotates and usually substitutes late in games.
Lacking central access and transition speed has been a problem since the start of 23/24
I had this feeling last season that this was THE ONE. And it took so much out of these players. Mentally and physically. So in some reality, we win the title last year with the last game of the season and then it is followed by one of those recovery seasons where players' bodies are forcing breaks (Saka's injury was coming for sure, everyone knew that. You can't just keep going. The same as Rodri) and referees are doing stupid things and fixtures are crazy. I would just wish that most of the fans would get it and that's why your video is so important... But I get it, it's tough when you've got nothing to show for it. But I actually still think Arteta is doing an unbelievable job. I just wish we would have a winter break like they do in Germany. Don't we all want to see all the players well and fresh so the quality of the games would be higher?
Your analysis of Arsenal is unmatched
class video i had to subscribe
Welcome!
Bro really bought the Bukayo Saka bed sheets 💀
Our intensity this season is so off. Can we get back to the intensity we had in the 22/23 season?. We needa ball carrier on the left side, then a prolific striker. Short of that we are far from the title. Mind you we have the same points as Nottingham Forest. It is going to be very tight.
Although I don't disagree with the fine margins not being favourable, and before I start, I'm not one of those negative "Arteta out" fans. I do feel that in a lot of our games, we are so focused on control, winning duels, set pieces, delaying restarts, etc, which can all obviously be beneficial. I just think we are sometimes o incredibly frustrating to watch, and we seem to hamper ourselves with a natural flow of attacking football in favour of the control element. Yeah, maybe we win more games that way, but I've hardly "enjoyed" watching us this season, and all for the sake of a style which for many reasons is still leaving us a little short.
I see a lot of people saying we need a forward, but Arsenal has not been lacking goals in the past 3 seasons. In fact, we have scored more goals in each of the past 2 seasons than we have in about 20 years. It seems more like an issue of creativity or a lack thereof, especially on out left. What made us work on the left when Xhaka was still there was the fact that he had a good passing range and could play some defence splitting runs that could release either Martinelli or Jesus. Rice and Merino on the other hand are good in control but I feel fail to pass the ball in areas that allow our left forward players to run in behind the ball.
Bro in the Bayern Munich Home and Away games, Arteta literally said Arsenal lack a Clinical Striker and the losses to Fulham, West Ham and Liverpool along with the draw with Palace proved it. We finished 2nd place twice and this Club, Team and us Fans deserve a Marquee striker if we want to ever win anything consistently
@@granitxhaka7261 If he did say it and he meant it then Arsenal would have gone for a striker. We didn't even bid for anyone. Arsenal need a striker the same way Liverpool do(They don't). Our style of play is not conducive for a target man. It hasn't been since the days of Giroud. This is also why Aubameyang was mostly played wide. Arsenal, much like Liverpool attack from out wide. Players like Saka or Salah get the ball out wide and they drift inside to either take shots or cross the ball to the wide attacker from the other wing. This is also why Saka assisted Martinelli more than anyone else in the team and Salah assisted Mane more than anyone, even more than Robbo.
It's been more than 8 years of this and yet Arsenal fans still can't get why Auba was played wide, why Giroud , Laca, Jesus, Havertz and other players who aren't prominent goalscorers have been bought and utilized up front, It's because their role isn't to bang in 33 goals as season. How have fans still failed to recognize this?
Also, Arsenal has scored 88 and 91 goals in the last 2 seasons. How are we lacking in goals? Any team, City included can point to 3 games where they needed goals and didn't get them. That still wouldn't be proof that they are having issues scoring.
Finally, say we get a striker, this now means Saka, Ode, Martinelli and Rice/Merino's roles change. Now everyone is meant to get the ball and cross. We have one point of failure and if the striker is off form or injured that affects everything and evreyone
@@jidf32 we have failed for 5 seasons now and Arteta said that after the press conference losing to Bayern and we even bid for Sesko. Arteta tried to copy what Mourinho and Simione did but without a Ruthless finisher and the bigger issue is that in the last 1-2 seasons we just needed 1 striker to win the league and now we need an entire revamp in Midfield and Attack 🤣 Arsenal are doomed if Arteta doesn't learns from his mistakes and Saliba will leave if we don't win any 🏆 I hate the fact that Terry, Lampard, Ferdinand and Evra laughed at Gabi Saliba being the best partnership without any Trophies but hey it's nothing new that Arsenal's best players have more Ambition and Standards for their careers than the Club for itself 👍b
@@granitxhaka7261 A couple of things.
1. Arsenal never bid for Sesko.
2. Klopp failed to win the league and only won it in his 5th season. So was he a failure at that point?
3. You keep brining up the Bayern game that is almost a year ago, transfer windows have come and gone.
4. If we are trying to be Mourinho/Simeone teams then how are we registering the most goals scored in 20 years?
5. Firmino was Liverpool's frontman when they won the league Do you know how many goals he scored that season? 9.... let me put that in words in case you think i missed a number. Nine. Before you say that "Well, that's fine because there was Salah and Mane, those 2 had 19 and 18 goals respectively that season.
6. City won leagues with KDB and Sterling as their top goalscorers.
Just saying that a striker would be the answer is so simplistic is bordering on laughable. Basically, Arsenal fans just want a striker because City have one and they won the league so fans want to copy paste a player into a system that won't suit them.
Lol. Not this standards FC stuff again. This is like saying if the club knew what it was doing it would get Salah at the end of the season to be Saka's backup and then call it ambition or standards. But let's test your theory. Let's say Arsenal get a 30 goal striker, how does that affect the rest of the players and how the team sets up?
@@jidf32 1. Sesko was the only striker Arteta showed interest and and then his club renewed his deal cus of intrest from other clubs too
2. Klopp has won 8-9 Trophies with Liverpool, are you calling that a failure?
3. You said Arteta didn't want a striker but I literally told you he said it in a press conference after getting humiliated by Bayern remember "Pray for Bayern" 🤣
4. Arsenal don't need a striker just because City have one, but it's clear you just want to believe blindly that we don't lack one shows how great a job PR does to brainwash fans 👍
6.I find it really laughable that you actually believe that we don't deserve one of the best strikers in the World and adding a 30+ goals striker would somehow take Arsenal backward
7. We need a new Left wing, cover for Odegaard and Saka something we needed last summer and now replace Jorginho too while needed a cover for Saliba/Gabi and a Striker too when thats all we needed in the last 1-2 years
8. You are the dream fan for Kronke who refuses to invest a single penny into the Club. Keep trusting the 'PRocess', it doesn't even matter if you think you are right because it'll be too late when Saliba leaves and this brainwashing process ends 👍
Pretty interesting analysis as usual. Just wanted to vent a bit rn:
Even if Arteta has flaws. I gotta admit that I do respect Arsenal back up Arteta to this day and yeah. What you said did hurts and we need some attackers. But yeah, regardless of Arteta's pros and cons, I still respect Arsenal trusting the process and wish we could win important silverware in the future...
Unlike my own country that has the mentality of people who are impatient and wanted everything to be instant. It sucks that unlike Arsenal, my country's football federation ended up firing the coach of the national football recently for whatever bullshit reasons for short term gains. What being plagued by incompetent owners and mafias does to a football federation. I just wish that you win this League even if its a hard task. Maybe because its to show that process can mean everything especially to my country who does not believe in process at all but yeah... It hurts, it fucking hurts.
Jao Pedro is an intelligent striker, he saw the opportunity. Saliba was too sleepy, he should have fallen down and hold his head in a dramatic manner.
A player needs to be clever when in the box.
Thank you!!!
@@Godwin_100It's not a guarantee though. If a gk's punch on a defender, West Ham vs Arsenal this season, is given as a penalty then there is a likelihood that this would too even if Saliba feint an injury.
We're saying that we're expecting a dip as if there haven't been multiple seasons where teams finish with 93-100 points
Let’s gooo
Arsenal have scored 1 goal or fewer in 9 of our 20 PL games.
In almost half of our games we couldve (or did) drop points conceding just a single goal. Thats terrible and a bigger problem than anything else.
We feel unluckier because we arent scoring enough to make those fine margins meaningless.
For me, one of the things that bothers me the most is Arsenal's medical department. Not even in Brazil, which has many more games and clearly a much worse structure, players get hurt as much as at Arsenal. And this has been happening for a while. This disturbs our season a lot. And I believe that this season is being much more "unfair" than the previous ones. It looks like a kind of persecution. One of the excuses I least like is when they try to find a reason for Arsenal not to win, like "this season is from city, or liverpool, or chelsea, or LEICESTER. There's always a better team and it's never us. I miss the beginning of the 2000s. And finally it would be nice to see a video of a discussion about whether Arteta is worth staying or not if Arsenal doesn't win any important title, because it's been 5 years without anything. (Cup titles don't matter)
I really liked your channel and your analyzes, congratulations.
my g
Simply, we need some signings in January. We need these signings to keep us in all competitions while our starters get healthy. If there are no signings that tells ypu all you need to know about club ambition. As you said in a previous video, don't let perfect be the enemy of good. Get some business done.
It's conceivable that lp will drop more point but we would have to be so much better and consistent it doesn't seem possible. Totally right about not being good enough. We have been significantly off the boil compared to last season. They've actually bored me to tears watching our turgid slow build up
Most painful is Trossards' leg before Havertz's in Chelsea game.
Liverpool have two games in hand. Liverpool have to find room for two games in a busy schedule. It might catch up to them. It'll be interesting to see what happens.
I'll bet you $5k that you're not catching Liverpool
What do you say?
FFS, the dead internet theory is real. More bots than people comment these days.
Luck or, more accurately, atrocious referees (Michael Oliver and that Anthony fella being standouts) has been our cross to bear this season. But, I agree that all’s not lost yet in the premiership. Still 18 games to play and we’re 2nd.
Refs allowing Arsenal to push keepers on corners is the reason Arsenal are involved in title races. So many games and points won from fouling the keeper, consistently. How can you possibly complain about refs?
It's a bit crude and assumes we go on to win each game but you take away the big (and in my opinion all wrong) 4 game/result-changing refereeing decisions for us this season (Rice red vs Brighton, Trossard red vs City, disallowed goal at the death vs Liverpool, Pen vs Brighton) and we are 8 points better off and three points above Liverpool (with them still having a game in hand). We haven't been at the races this season on the pitch for a number of reasons but you can't discount the fact that luck and factors beyond our control have made it incredibly difficult to build momentum and keep up in this title race. Despite this we are still mathematically in it so may as well dream until we can't any longer.
We haven’t been good all season though… that’s the point everybody seems to miss… Last 2 seasons we played like a title contending team. We haven’t looked like that all season. This squad was never gonna truly win a title with such a weak attack and that was completely overlooked that last few windows… This is arteta and HIS players, he wanted Havertz… and he doesn’t have the production needed at the 9 position that the best teams have. We are Almost FC, 2 players away but we know it’ll never happen
If we harkened back to what you have said before: our team hasnt been getting the second balls and not winning much duels up front, let alone in the midfield. We might have excellent individual performances but as a whole, our midfield and our attack seems too far apart.
Not only that, theres too many round pegs in square holes for the positions in our team, especially in midfield. But there isnt much experimentation either.
MLS might have been a better choice for RB. Partey, Merino and Rice might have been a better balanced of midfield, given how our fullbacks would be able to support our wingers further up the pitch. We risked O8 but we didnt risked havertz?
3 weekends Liverpool dropped points and we did the exact same. Also we just aren’t playing good so I don’t see it happen title charge was over before January
Hey Alex I feel the disappointment, lately we really struggle to collect high scores in xG. The results are too often way better than our game cause we many goals from little xG, setpeaces break the deadlock and our ass is save by our great defense. But you feel it's not enough. The field is not exploited enough in terms of deep runs, dragging defenders out of possision. The players look like FIFA characters no bravery, no one is doing something unexpected. I don't know if Arteta is intimidating them unintendedly. But he must seen it as well and encourage his players more. It's simply not enough this way.
PS: I'm really looking forward to your Liverpool video because I think too that they have elements in their game that we are lacking of. Our game is different but you can always search for some inspiration ;-)
The Spurs comment actually made me laugh, and made me change my expression atp😂
Love it
George Graham used to use the bias against arsenal to motivate his teams - Anfield 89 when every one said we couldn't do it, 91 when FA took two points off Arsenal & only 1 from Utd, for a 21 man brawl where 11 of the players were Utd's at Old Trafford - Graham's men won league by 7 Points with games to spare. Arteta is not a good manager.
Arteta has gotten 6 more points in a single season than George Graham ever managed to.
Signing another defender and defensive midfielder will certainly help us score more goals.
Keep trusting the process and phase 20 arteta will surely deliver.
Bro well said, but I think arteta needs to first get us the proven hit and we need and then we can go back to this video knowing we had a constant that pushed us to the crown.
Despite all that crap we faced this season, we are second in the table.