For some reason I forced myself to sit through Burnley and Arsenal yesterday, and it went exactly as I expected it to go. As in I expected Burnley to get something from the game and probably be the closest to snatching the victory. I feel bad for some of our resident gooners on here because they're sound. I don't know, they'll have to tell me but this surely has to be the worst Arsenal side in a good 30 odd years if not more. I look around and I see absolute dross in the likes of Sokratis, Mustafi, Luiz, Xhaka. Then just complete averageness from Guendouzi, Torreira, Saka and a few others. And of course someone completely not arsed in Ozil. Arteta has a hell of a job on his hands because this Arsenal side is genuinely a massive rebuild away from being able to compete for a Champions League place and then actually compete with the sides in the Champions League once they get there.
It's not a great squad of players by now, that's for sure. I'm sure given time Arteta will be able to at least improve things. It's nonsense to make any bold claims like he's the 2nd coming of Pep or anything ridiculous like that, or that he'll have us challenging beside you guys next season, because that's just mental thinking, but on the other hand i don't think anyone can make any bold predictions that he's going to need to build a full new team, or it will be years before we can compete for a top 4 place again.
Folk forget we were only 1 point off top 4 last year, & apart from some Emery madness towards the end of the season we really should have secured 3rd, if not 4th. We've changed a few players, but none that you would think were irreplaceable.
We need to get players back fit, we need a full pre season under Arteta, we need a bit of a reboot in the summer, & we need to go again. There's positivity around, not because of results, but because we can see glimmers of structure & organisation. You can see a plan, even though a lot of the time the players aren't fit enough, or good enough to implement it. I hope the manager gets time & a bit of backing to see where he can take us.