[Football] Did Arsenal bottle the league?

[A1X]

This was their moment.

Chelsea/Liverpool/Spurs/Manure all in flux, the Newcastle spending is only part way through, ManC getting use to Haaland had indifferent results and were way behind, Arsenal lucked out at several games eg MacA/Caicedo missing on NYE.

Next season will be much harder.

Always amusing to see what he has to say about it.
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I’ve changed my mind, they didn’t bottle it, I refuse to agree with Piers Morgan about anything.

 

[The Wizard]

Saka has been brilliant all year but has dropped off in recent weeks. Understandable, it's almost impossible to perform consistently at that level all year with a World cup in the middle (where he was fantastic). They also have a thin squad - sound familiar - and had some key injuries at the wrong time. Tierney, Holding and Eddie Nketiah aren't quite good enough at least yet as replacements.

They haven't bottled it. It's a narrative that people put on mathematical variance. They've overperformed all season and just come up short against a team of superstars funded by an oil state managed by the best of the bunch.

So if Arsenal haven’t bottled it what would you count as a ’bottle’?

They’ve gone under when the going got tough, I wanted Arsenal to win the league over City but you can’t argue they were good enough to be 8 points clear then all of a sudden during the run in they’ve got 7 points from 24 or something, irrelevant of whether they have over performed prior to this run, from the position they were in they have thrown it away with a horrendous run of results at a key time, drawing games from two goals ahead and failing to beat bottom teams.

How good Man City undoubtably are doesn’t make an ounce of difference, they were good enough to be 8 points clear and then they melted, there’s no shame in having bottled it, many teams have…

 

[Weststander]

After match week 29, they crumbled.

 

[Iggle Piggle]

So if Arsenal haven’t bottled it what would you count as a ’bottle’?

They’ve gone under when the going got tough, I wanted Arsenal to win the league over City but you can’t argue they were good enough to be 8 points clear then all of a sudden during the run in they’ve got 7 points from 24 or something, irrelevant of whether they have over performed prior to this run, from the position they were in they have thrown it away with a horrendous run of results at a key time, drawing games from two goals ahead and failing to beat bottom teams.

How good Man City undoubtably are doesn’t make an ounce of difference, they were good enough to be 8 points clear and then they melted, there’s no shame in having bottled it, many teams have…

If Arsenal lost the first 2 games of the season against Brighton and Forest - which is essentially what Man U did - and finished within touching distance of Man City - which man u didn't -everyone would be saying how well they'd done.

In answer to your question I'd have said Sheffield Wednesday (they were clear). And then they came back from 4-0 down.

 

[bluenitsuj]

Yes and great to see

 

[BNthree]

I’d said before they hadn’t but after today I’ve changed my mind and they definitely bottled it.

 

[Sheebo]

...

Embarrassing tweet tbh

 

[Dave Fishwick]

Of course they did, not having this narrative that pro-Arsenal fans are trying to reclaim that it was a lost cause. They all, to a man, believed they were going to do it.

their heads went under the slightest bit of pressure, it's the very definition of a bottling. City going on a long winning streak has muddied the waters for some

 

[BrightonLoyal]

I don’t think they bottled it because I don’t think they were ever going to win it.

They got lucky in lots of games with VAR and with late, late goals against Villa, Bournemouth etc. they could well end up 10 points behind City who are so far ahead of them as a team.

Also lots of the other traditional ‘big teams’ just didn’t do well this year leaving them clear to push into the top 4. Anyone thinking this is the start of something is deluded, Arteta is a poor manager and their players are massively overrated, no way they finish top 3 next season, I actually don’t think they’ll make the CL places.

 

[Littlemo]

They go on about depth but they have been dropping off in terms of performance levels since Jan.

They only actually had injuries later on to Saliba and for some games Zinchenko, and if you can’t manage to play your game because of two injuries then you are never going to win anything.

They kept the likes of Trossard, Jorginho, Tierney etc on the bench who are actually all proven to be very decent players at PL level, easily good enough to play well most of their games.

It’s a bottle job from Arteta. He couldn’t change the tactics or system from what they started with, even once it got found out, was no longer working and they no longer had the players to play it.