re: Arsenal 2023/24 Season Thread - Rice, Rice, Baby

It’s been a disappointing week for sure. For me, this looks more like running out of steam more than the pressure to get it done. But certainly a bit of both.

I blame Arteta on this though. He just refuses to use the depth we have. When I look at our full strength bench, there are quality players there. Not game changers but ones you should be able to rotate in throughout the season to give others a break. Not just when we’re up by 3 goals, or because of an injury. He puts the strongest team out there whenever he can, and then for a random game in March or April, will do a line change. But by then it’s too late. One game rest won’t make the difference when legs are already gone.

The team just doesn’t look as sharp.

Hopefully we push to the end, and while the PL doesn’t feel realistic, at least finish strong and make someone else earn it.

At the end of the day, we are in the PL race in April and made a CL quarterfinal run. It proves Arsenal can handle the quality at both ends. I feared results would suffer with CL added. I don’t think this team is going to drop off next season, but the question is, can we push on to win the PL or CL.

Last season I feel like we overachieved , and this season was in line with expectations given our squad and experience. It just feels worse because our stumbles seem to happen in bunches.