This team is just not capable of going all the way. The manager, the squad, and even us fans don't have the mentality for it. What other team have you watched play where there is this palpable stress and fear that comes through the TV? We needed some players who were going to come in and grab the team by the scruff of the neck and drag us across that final hurdle. That is what Eze and Gyokeres were supposed to be. Difference makers who haven't yet been stricken with the PTSD the rest of our team has. Instead they turned out to be some of the biggest flops of the window. We spent ~130m on two 27 year olds, who turned out to be complete duds. Gyokeres has the same non-penalty league goals as 0-0-10 Florian Wirtz. 60m on Hincapie who is no improvement on Kiwior. Madueke is just a warm body that allows us to rest Saka while doing nothing (0 goal involvements in the league so far). Now I can't really blame the transfer team for these signings as I was excited for most of them other than Madueke, but all we have to show after our 250m+ spending spree is Zubimendi and a collection of average players who wouldn't look out of place at Brighton or Fulham.
There's a joke going around that it's a case of arsenophobia: fear of locking up the league title when the chance arises. Ouch.
Sterling? Ouch! Sterling tried, huffed and puffed and he gave an effort but he was so obviously past it. If he gets bought by anyone its completely based on his best years and hoping he can rekindle some of it. Eze has come good a few times and seemed like he might keep Odegaard out at one time. He's fairly new to our system. By the end of the season, I expect Eze to be more consistently effective. Also, he offers something Odegaard doesn't have.
I want to see Eze given some more starts on the left, playing with our first choice midfield and Havertz up top.
Was it a handball, yes. But we shouldn't have needed it to win. That's why I am not complaining about it. That handball should've been a complaint about a 2-0 scoreline being 3-0 had we taken our chances.
The signings were about giving us depth and not having to run anyone into the ground. We are 7 points clear in mid January because of the depth, so I would say the signings have worked and have been quality. Even the Swedish Meatball has been good for us because Kai and GabbyJ are coming back from injury. We didn’t have Saliba and Gabriel for a decent stretch of matches this year and were largely fine. If that happens last season, we are hanging on to CL places. But I hope if we can let this lead grow that Arteta loosens the reigns on this attack and let players go:
Team looks gassed, but this is otherwise correct: Odegaard, Saka, Saliba, and Gabriel have all missed time, Havertz has barely played, Calafiori’s been out for a while, and so on. Being seven points clear in January after THAT is kind of nuts.
We needed depth. That doesn't mean that the depth we got were good options. I question the opportunity cost of some of the buys.
Those not good options have got us seven points clear in the PL, not dropping a single point in CL, and up in the semifinal of the League Cup.
The team did that in spite of the play of some of our summer buys. Surely, you don’t think we are there because of Gyokeres, Eze and Noni.
That's because he's maximized OOP. The way football is now OOP is everything. We're fortunate that we have the worst group of attackers in the league and that's okay. We have been starving forever for a title, so I'm not going to complain that we're being fed hamburger helper, but I also won't pretend it's Filet, eventhough it may as well be cause I been so damn hungry.
That’s basically how I feel. I’m happy, but it’s hard to pretend that there still aren’t real issues with the team. Great defense, and great midfield. But, I can count the games this year that I thought the team played well for most of the game on one hand.
🚨 We've dropped points in 7 PL games so far:NFFC 0-0 #AFC - no set-piece goal#AFC 0-0 LFC - no set-piece goalAVFC 2-1 #AFC - no set-piece goalCFC 1-1 #AFC - no set-piece goalSAFC 2-2 #AFC - no set-piece goal#AFC 1-1 MCFC - no set-piece goalLFC 1-0 #AFC - no set-piece goal https://t.co/dxjnsRF5uy— ArsenalCentral (@AFCCentralHQ) January 17, 2026 LOL
I think a lot of fans are twisting themselves into pretzels because at one point they had some fake higher standard about football and were mocking Mourinho when in reality this style of play we currently have is probably how a washed up Mourinho plays maybe cause I ain't paid attention to his teams in ages. Mourinho never played like this at his peak. Thats why all this is funny to me. We're winning with HIV Invested Stoke Garbage, and hilarious. I understand it though, Arteta didn't win playing free flowing so he decided we'll just go full Everton, and that's who he really is Rangers/Everton legend. I respect it. Just bring me the league. I got a long sleeve Gabriel jersey im hyped to wear with the EPL patch.
Eze got a hat trick against Spurs, the season changing assist against City for the Martinelli goal and the match-winner against Palace. Noni has given us minutes to rest Saka And I don’t rate Gyokeres but we didn’t have a CF for three months this season, while started those matches.
Eze hasn't really added depth, he's taken all of Nwaneri's minutes. Ethan scored 9 goals last season, I think he would have done some special things this season if he was playing instead. They were supposed to be instant impact players. If depth was all that mattered they could have any warm bodies, older, cheaper players like Norgaard and Kepa, or younger, cheaper players like Mosquera. They spent money expecting more from these guys than just depth.
Ethan played on the right flank last season Apparently he does not want to play there any more. He is also 18. Depending on an 18 year old in the center for a team trying to win the PL and more is crazy. When it got warmer last season, Ethan played less matches. Out best attacking stretch this season came with Eze starting. (That's not me making a case for him to start, but it's reality) And those players have contributed. We had Rob Holding and 75 year old Jorginho getting minutes. Go look at our bench in the spring last season. We had reserve team players who had no shot making the club on them in PL matches. We gotta be serious about where we were and where are.