How Will You Reflect On This Season? 2023/24 Edition

So, the 2023/24 season is officially over. This is how our season ended up:

League finish: 2nd
Points accrued: 89
Goals Scored: 91
Goals Conceded: 29
Games won: 28
Games drawn: 5
Games lost: 5

FA Cup: Lost 0-2 to Liverpool - 3rd round
League Cup: Lost 3-1 to West Ham United - 4th round
Champions League: Lost 3-2 on aggregate to Bayern Munich - Quarter Finals

It'd be interesting to see how you all viewed this season.

For me, it was a season where we progressed and made some huge strides forward - beating Spurs away in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1988, taking 4 points off Man City and Liverpool (our two title contending rivals), unbeaten against the traditional 'big six', scoring most goals ever in a 38-game season, conceding least goals in the league, highest points tally since 2003-04, going on an incredible run in the second half of the season where we won 17, drew 1 and lost 1.

Yet despite how good we've been, we just fell short by a couple of points to win the league.

As I've said previously, as painful as it was to be so close yet miss out, I can't be too downbeat. We're up against a team who had just won a treble last season, likely to win a double this season and have made history by winning 4 league titles in a row...with the best manager in the world currently....and who have the small matter of 116 charges to their name...

After being out of the Champions League for nearly 7 years, back-to-back Champions League finishes represents good progress.

We've had a lot of huge performers this season - honourable mentions to Saliba, Gabriel, White, Odegaard, Rice and Saka. Trossard also came up clutch during vital moments. But one player I do want to single out is Kai Havertz.

I was livid when we signed him and couldn't understand it. When I saw his performances at LCM, I got even more irate because how have we lost Granit Xhaka and replaced him with Havertz, a player that was inconsistent at Chelsea?

But he was shifted to playing up top as a false 9 and he's been superb.
He got 14 goals and 7 assists, including vital winners against Brentford home and away, a brace against ex-club Chelsea, big goals against Brighton home and away, Newcastle, a winner in the north London derby, winning the crucial penalty against Bournemouth, the assist for Trossard's winner at OId Trafford, scoring the winner against Everton yesterday...he really did step up when we needed him. And fair play - he's proven me wrong. Long may it continue.

Despite how good this season has been, there are a few disappointments:


1) The poor December run where we had 1 win in 7. I feared this would prove to be costly and it was because City were imperious. You have to get on top of City and never let them overtake you. Take the league by storm. That's the only evidence we've seen of them getting beaten to the title. If it's a close contest, City will usually always come out on top.

2) Martinelli and Jesus' form - I really expected both of them to have big seasons after how productive and effective they were in 2022/23. But it didn't really happen at all. Ok, Jesus has reportedly been playing with a knee injury all season, so that's hampered things, but Martinelli? What's his reason? He's just been off form all campaign.

3) Game management - I know the quality gap is big between the first 11 and squad players, but the squad players are still good enough to play 15-20 minutes here and there, especially in games where we were winning 3/4-0 and there's time left in the game. Yet Arteta would habitually use certain players like a bar of soap. He needs to turn to his bench and trust squad players more. We ended up overworking core players and that lack of energy also was detrimental in a few games.

4) Trophyless again - I love Arteta and he’s done an excellent job in building the squad and taking Arsenal to this level. But next season it’s time to win trophies, the pressure will be on. I expect to challenge again for the title, but coming out of next season with a trophy is the bare minimum. This is 4 years with no trophies. It can't keep continuing.

Season rating:

It was enjoyable and we pushed City to the wire. However, it's a shame we left the season empty handed. Overall, I'd give it an 8/10.

 

8/10 for me too

We've made great strides this season and for me one of the best things is seeing the mentality of this team strengthen, being able to win games in a variety of ways, and getting rid of that soft underbelly that has plagued us for seasons.

Also beating Spurs away. Liverpool and City at home and smashing the Chavs 5-0

Loved seeing Havertz rub the noses in of people who were slagging him off. And even getting his own song £60m down the drain, Havertz scores again

Declan Rice.... what a debut season for us !

The CB partnership, which is the best in the league




That said, we ended up with nothing. And as Arteta says, we shouldn't be satisfied with this. We expect more and next season is about winning Silverware.

I think we need a striker and another MF player to really push on next season

 

I also think we need a proper backup for Saka. Arteta clearly doesn't rate Reiss Nelson and we can't have Saka starting 60 games a season (especially cos Gareth Southtwat plays him for 90 minutes every game during internationals too). I'm worried we're going to burn him out early. We need to manage him and give him genuine competition for that starting RW spot.

 

I don't know why Nelson doesn't get more game time as when he's come in he's been really good. He's not Saka level, but nobody other than Saka is.

 

89 pts. Brunel (not 88)

It's been great Season really - we played some good football, we won against all the 'TOP' sides. Smashed a lot of teams by 4-6 goals.

New signings Havertz and Rice both hit the ground running. I think Declan will go on to be a genuine Club Legend.

The pundits making a big deal about Arsenals expenditure over the last 4-5 years but look at the result:

Chelsea – £1.25bn spent to go from 4th to 6th
Man U – £640m to go from 6th to 8th
Man City – £630m to go from 3rd to 1st
Tottenham – £600m to go from 5th to 5th
Liverpool – £425m to go from 1st to 3rd
Arsenal – £590m to go from 10th to 2nd

I expect we will add 1-2 high profile signings and perhaps a couple of youngsters (depending on outgoings).