Do or Die: Arsenal's Season on the Line in Six Games

Unfortunately, Arsenal's Champions League journey is over, finitoed for this year. We gave a decent account of ourselves, you know, when we got to this competition, I think many people would have taken the quarterfinals. That being said, 100%, while I think we've given a decent account of ourselves, we didn't get battered, we didn't get embarrassed, which is typically what we do in the Champions League, unfortunately. On the face of it, no shame in going out to Bayern Munich and Thomas Tuchel, but it is a game where you feel there was a lot more to give, where there'll be a lot of regrets and one where, again, take nothing away from Bayern Munich, where we could have given more. Now, in truth, the damage was probably done at the Emirates with the two goals we conceded and probably a lack of real chances being created and probably Benjamin White's finish not quite happening when he shot straight at Neuer. At their place, you know, it was at the times in the game for me, it's like we didn't know whether to stick or twist. Some moments were better than others. As I always say, games like this, it's like football's 90 minutes, right, people? It's like nine different 10-minute games and at times we looked a bit more confident than others. Obviously, like in the Emirates, we switched off for the goal they scored, you know, defensively in the last couple of games, we've been terrible and we're out of the Champions League. We need to go again next year. We've got six games left where the Premier League is concerned. We've got it all to do. As an Arsenal fan, unfortunately, life comes at you fast. Again, you know, this season has been relative plain sailing. I know we had some isms and schisms and some concerns about creativity and a lot of other things. You know, when you look back in August, probably until October, November, we've had some little talking points. There were some minor lows, but generally Arsenal were doing a madness. They were sitting there and saying, you know, last season's Premier League title challenge was a fluke. It was this, it was that, it was this, the players that, Saka not Starboy, and the third this season was doing what we needed to do. Obviously, we all know what happened in December. December was a madness for all us Arsenal fans. Again, we got slapped by Villa. We had a dramatic looting game, you know. You know, there were some wins. We beat Lens in the Champions League, but unfortunately, we only drew with Liverpool. We drew with PSV. You know, we lost to West Ham. Fulham dealt with us. You know, it was just a mad winter period for Arsenal Football Club, unfortunately. And what we're seeing as a, you know, a season to build upon last year to prove the doubters that it wasn't a fluke, that we're really here to stay, that we're really doing this thing, you know, December was a madness. It was a, you know, it was a kick in the teeth for us Arsenal fans. And then obviously we started the year off the back of going to Dubai and rejuvenating and the players getting away and things, but we didn't know what to expect. We couldn't possibly have dreamt of what was going to happen. We lost to Liverpool 2-0 in the FA Cup, but obviously that was a lot of positives. That was a very positive game in comparison to how we literally ended the year, Fulham away, which I always say, when you look at Arsenal's season for me personally, folks, I don't know about you lot, but that's the worst game we've played in the Premier League. Now, there's obviously been times we could have done better, but for me, sometimes when we've lost games, sometimes when we've won games, it's going to sound mad, but sometimes we've won games this season and played better when we've lost. And also sometimes when we've won games, I'm not necessarily been happy beyond the obvious. I believe there's things we could have done better, but the Fulham away game was not that, there was no positives, we were horrible. In fact, I think the only two times my team has been truly, utterly, utterly, apologies, terrible is Fulham away and West Ham away in the League Cup, absolutely appalling. And it was unacceptable. I know there's other results we could have done better. But generally after that, you know, it was a positive step in the right direction. We then followed that with dealing with Crystal Palace, five goals to nil. We did what we needed to do against Nottingham Forest away from home, building momentum. We then welcomed Liverpool to Anfield, from Anfield, apologies, good save there, and to the Emirates. We dealt with them, three goals to one. We demolished West Ham, we demolished Burnley, sixes and fives and whatnot. We then took a bump on the road and lost to Porto away from home. But we all know we'd done a get back on over there and advanced in the Champions League. We dealt with Sheffield United and Newcastle and Brentford. The stars were aligning, the people that laughed at us had to shut the hell up now, people. You know, we then did the drama stuff in March against Porto and won on penalties. We then got a valiant point against Manchester City away from home. We beat Luton, we then beat Brighton. And then obviously, you know, life comes at you fast, as I said, or I hope I've said, you know, we got dealt with against Bayern Munich. We shot ourselves in the foot at the Emirates, you know, but there were some positives to take and some real moments of optimism going into the Germany game. We then lost, unfortunately. Emre, he's got Arteta's number, unfortunately. He's probably got a bit of bad blood from getting sacked. They're fighting for the Champions League. They dealt with us. Ollie Watkins put about £2 million on his price tag. And I can't lie, it was a good finish. We got sourced. To be fair with you, the two goals we conceded at the Emirates against Bayern Munich and the two we conceded against Aston Villa were absolutely poor. And so was the Bayern Munich one that's recently just gone. But it's quite crazy how, you know, a week's a long time in football, folks. So you can imagine a couple of months and you can imagine a matter of games, in three games, things have just gone mad for Arsenal Football Club. And the data can say one thing and it can give you reasons to be negative or optimistic, people. But at the same time, the narrative, the sentiment is very sour. We're now seeing rumours coming out about Borcest and this guy and that guy wants a sign for Arsenal and whatnot. I don't know what you make of what's to come, people. But life comes at you fast. We've got a little to do. Champions League hopes dashed. Good account of ourselves, but dashed. And a bit of naivety and evident areas of improvement. The Premier League, we've got slim hopes at best. All we can do is try to win our games. You know, we kick off things with Wolves away, then Chelsea at home, then the North London Derby. Then you have Bournemouth. You obviously have to go to Old Trafford where we don't travel well. And then, you know, depending on what's there to play for, respectfully to Everton, we're probably going to beat you on the last day because if the Premier League's wrapped up by then, you know what we're going to do. Fabio Vieira's going to score from like 30 yards times two for no reason. Saka's going to snap pad and that is going to be absolutely lit. But three games have really tipped things on its head. Now we can either sit down and cry a week and fight people. I do believe we're building something positive at this football club. Whether that's going to transpire to getting major trophies over the line, I don't know, folks. But at the end of the day, we've gone from back to back eight. What I would say as well, we've gone from back to back eight. Remember how crap we were during lockdown. Remember all the Ls we've taken. Now I'm not saying this to keep anybody in a job or sing anyone's praises, but we've come a long way. Sometimes you do have to look back. I do think the conversation shifts to now, okay, we've rebuilt the club. We're still rebuilding in several variations of the word. We're still rebuilding. But at the same time, we've rebuilt the club in that in many ways we're envy of teams in Europe for processes we do on and off the field. We've got a good core 11, but there's obviously other talking points. You know, the Finn squad has let us down, but there's some positives there. And obviously I'm not going to lie as an Arsenal fan getting bantered for losing 3-2 on aggregate against Bayern Munich. Why I'm not happy while I'm not happy with it. And as I said, you because we'll be here all day for my thoughts about that. We've lost 3-2 on aggregate against a Bayern Munich powerhouse. Say what you want about their domestic form. They normally batter us, you know, and we've mounted and second sustained title challenge. Now it is about silverware. It's about getting things done, people, you know, I'm not in the business of competing. I recognize where we're at. I'm not one for all this process stuff. I don't know about all of that. You'd have to watch the in the nose and whatnot, but I can see something to believe but it now needs to transpire into trophies. And unfortunately, I would say the one thing I would say for as much as I think we're doing well, we shoot ourselves in the foot and we're out. We now need to cross that bridge now within the next, in my opinion, two years, where, as I said, we rebuilt the club. We're doing what we're doing. It's great stuff, but now we need to make that jump. Are we genuinely and ask the fans again, you know, I'm not dissing what we're doing, but in your hearts, we know what competing is. We've seen invincibles up against United, real, real competing. We go in August and while Man United won the majority of those battles, you know, we did it, we did a madness. What I mean by that is in August, we actually can talk with chess. We are going for the league, not we've got the tools to do it. We can potentially do it. We're doing good stuff. Take nothing away from Arteta and the boys, but we're now at that thin line. Now, people, in my opinion, on and off the field in what Arteta does, how he learns from these mistakes, how the players improve and all fragments of the team. Yeah. And obviously bringing in players. As a club, we are now going to push and do what Liverpool did when they beat City or really get a Champions League. I know I'm dreaming and really get some titles over the line or we're going to regress because it's never just an upward trajectory. We've been hit with setbacks. You know, we're not necessarily going to necessarily just, you know, be in a title challenge every year. We don't know what other clubs are going to do. We don't know what road bumps are going to happen and twists and turns and unpredictabilities. So this is now where do take it from this? Yes, this can be a period and a season of reflection, of development, of moving in the right trajectory. And I do think us fans, we can be impatient. Obviously, I think the club want to win trophies and win the Champions Leagues and stuff. And I'm not saying this to say the club haven't got ambition or to make you angry, but I'm here to just provide talking points. The club are internally being devil's advocate. The club internally, are they sitting there and going, yeah, we want to win leagues and stuff, process this, that. But in our first return to the Champions League, we've got to the quarterfinals. We've gone out against the Bayern Munich side. The vast majority of them have won the Champions League. The managers won the Champions League. We didn't embarrass ourselves. We can leave with credibility. We've now mounted a sustained second title challenge. Obviously, say what you want about the signings, but I would say the jury's still out on Kai Havertz, but the weather around him's a lot more sunnier than, you know, other periods this season. David Rye the same. Unfortunately, Timber's been injured, but everyone can see he's going to be a hit. Declan Rice is Declan Rice. So now are we going to keep doing these things and patch the areas of our squad or are we going to stay at this level? Because if I'm honest with you, for the money spent and the way I respect this project that we're doing and the foresight and the learning from hindsight and being proactive with signing new deals and doing all the things they've done, you know, I can't call them incompetent. So to me as a fan, that's just an armchair expert. Are you not sitting there and thinking maybe, just maybe, and as I said, I don't know all the variables, but are they sitting there and thinking maybe? A lot of the problems in this team for as good as we've done, we've been saying for a couple of years, like Mikel Arteta has come out and said, you know, previously a few months ago, we've got one of the Finnish squads. We didn't necessarily act in January. Obviously, he's been here for a while and assembled certain other fragments of this team amazingly. So should we really keep saying these same things? Because we're getting on a bit. As I said, I like what we're doing, where we're going, but it feels like we're kind of, for as much as we're doing well, we're kind of stunting our own growth in a sense. Now, the summer is the summer. We can't really talk about the summer until it's here. We've got what we've got. But as I was saying, we've got the smallest squad and there has to be a correlation between that and other factors. With the last couple of years, when we get to the tail end of a season, granted in the last couple of years, the focus has mainly purely just been on the Premier League, but we've been in the Champions League. Why do, let's be honest, we bottle it or we look out of gas. That's no excuse because there's many things to talk about tactically, psychologically, ability, all the other things as to why we didn't beat Bayern Munich or Aston Villa. But I do think a part of it is fitness. We've got a lot of injuries, so certain players have to keep playing. So as I said, I respect our tether and they're doing what they're doing, but they're smart enough to know that. Should we really keep saying, if Part A's not there, if this happens in midfield, if that happens in defence, we need another winger, we need a striker. Surely, how long are we going to keep saying the same things? Now, the club must know this, but for us as a fan, fan base, this is what we're talking about at this moment in time. Now, people, appreciate you lot for tuning in to the end of the video. At this point, it is what it is. As we know, the winners win and the losers explain. History is only kind to those who are victorious. Again, we know we're on a good trajectory as a football club, but in terms of getting over the line and winning a chance, well, we're going to have to wait until next year or beyond for that, or a Premier League. We need to keep moving. We've got six games to save our season. We've got six tough fixtures. As you know, we've got to go to Wolves away under Gary O'Neill. We've got the North London Derby. We've got Chelsea. We've got Manchester United. We've got a bunch of fixtures. It's all said and done. The past brings regret. The future brings uncertainty. There's no time like the present. All we can do is pull our boxes and knickers up and just get with it. Why for that? But just get on with it really and truly. There's nothing else to be said really and truly. Is it because of naivety? Have we ran our players into the ground? Are we relying on young players to produce things that while they've done it for the majority of the season in the tail end, they're not able to do it? Is it because we haven't got a big enough squad? Are we being naive with injuries and not learning certain lessons that we've seen year after year? Can we stop losing in bunches? It's never a good time to lose or a loss is never really acceptable. I don't know. These are all mixtures that are part of the cocktail for why our season has in many ways been a good season, but it's far from being a great season. When it's all said and done, in May we'll review it. But right now we've got six games to get it back together and it still might not be enough. But at the end of the day, it is what it is. As I said, there's nothing more to it, people. Let me know your thoughts on everything discussed during the video. Let me know how you think the Premier League is going to pan out. Where do you think we're going to win and lose? Do you think there's still optimism for the Premier League? Obviously, we're out the Champions League. We've got slim hopes at best for winning the Prem, but we have no choice but to keep going, people. So on that note, I've got nothing more to say to you lot other than all that good stuff. Peace.