{"id":9052,"date":"2024-01-01T12:14:20","date_gmt":"2024-01-01T12:14:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=9052"},"modified":"2024-01-06T20:28:18","modified_gmt":"2024-01-06T20:28:18","slug":"new-year-same-old-arsenal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=9052","title":{"rendered":"New Year, Same Old Arsenal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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What is going on? From top at Christmas to 4th<\/sup> on New Year\u2019s Day. Arsenal have gone from a title challenge to a top four scrap in a matter of days following a pathetic loss at Fulham. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not often we see an Arsenal side as flat as they were yesterday. At least against West Ham chances were created. But yesterday it looked as though the away side had completely given up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Personally, I don\u2019t buy into the narrative that these players are suffering from \u201cfatigue\u201d. We are halfway through the season for goodness\u2019 sake. Despite injuries we have a bigger squad than most. However, it seems there are certain players whom Arteta simply does not utilise enough. Reiss Nelson. Emile Smith Rowe. It is no wonder that the likes of Saka and Martinelli look fatigued. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The less said about the abject display the better. We seem to have forgotten how to break down low blocks. And that is a major problem given the number of them we face. It felt like a throwback to the late Wenger\/Emery days where it was unclear what we were actually trying to do. We failed to register a shot on target in the second half. Pathetic!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we lose to Liverpool next week, we will be in serious danger of ending the season trophy-less once again. For me that would be unacceptable. We need to turn this around quickly. Perhaps this winter break of sorts is exactly what we need. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do believe this side has a long-standing mental block when it comes to any form of pressure. We\u2019ve seen it time and time again. For years we have mocked Spurs for being bottle jobs. But are we really any different? The top four and the title have been bottled in consecutive campaigns. I will not throw the toys out of the pram just yet as I do believe this is just a blip but you cannot afford many blips in this league. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do believe we are in dire need of a proper centre forward to be the difference maker. Last season the argument was that we were still scoring lots of goals and everybody was chipping in. This season, that is no longer the case. We need a 20 goal a season striker and it really is that simple. Will we get one? I seriously doubt it. Ivan Toney is available but will cost a pretty penny or two and has not kicked a ball in anger since May. Victor Osimhen will not be available until the summer. If we do sign a striker, it will likely be one that no one knows or is expecting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what will 2024 bring? We remain in the knockout stages of the Champions League. Porto awaits in February. How far we go in that competition will depend on what we do in January. For too long we have been promised we will compete with the elite and for too long those promises have gone unfulfilled. One title challenge in over a decade is not enough. The odd FA cup is not enough. I do not wish to sound entitled but I don\u2019t think I am being ungrateful when I say, 1 title in 20 years is simply not good enough. It is no where near good enough. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I love Mikel Arteta as the rest of us all do. He has taken us from a decade of underachievement to the brink of the title. Last season was incredible. We overachieved last year let us be clear on that. The goal was top four, and we absolutely smashed that target with distinction. so much to the point we were disappointed with second. But this year it is different. The aim was to win the title. That remains possible. And I do believe we will improve both in terms of performances and results. But I do believe one of the premier league or champions league must be delivered this year. I think both are unlikely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jurgen Klopp had delivered a champions league by now for Liverpool. Yes, Arteta is a rookie manager but he is four years into the job now. The time to deliver tangible success has come. And I do believe he is doing a good job. A very good job indeed. But the fact remains that time is slowly beginning to run out. He has successfully achieved his goal of raising our expectations. We went into the campaign with genuine belief we could win the title. Imagine saying that to an Arsenal fan three years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I said, we can still do it. The league is as competitive as it has ever been this year and I firmly believe it will be a three-horse race until the end. Everyone will drop points to everyone. But we simply must deliver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On to Liverpool!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is going on? From top at Christmas to 4th on New Year\u2019s Day. Arsenal have gone from a title challenge to a top four scrap in a matter of days following a pathetic loss at Fulham.  It is not often we see an Arsenal side as flat as they were yesterday. At least against […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9052"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9052"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9054,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9052\/revisions\/9054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}