Will be an interesting offseason. Every point above 80 is more costly and the margins in improvement finer. We need to get the striker, whomever Berta & Arteta think is best, in soon. Get it done and settled. Another creative MF to take some load off Ødegaard would be nice. Martinelli… love the kid but his numbers aren’t the same without Xhaka behind him. Is LW a position we can upgrade? Big questions. Not easy answers.
Arteta has some improvements to get us to that final step, too.
* Start trusting the squad. Kiwior has shown he can play CB at a really good level; maybe Gabi XL and Saliba don’t need to play every match. Ethan… kid has skills. Maybe Saka doesn’t need to play every single minute of every single match. MLS grew up a midfielder; maybe between him and Ethan, we don’t need to play Ødegaard every single match.
* Everyone’s dog even knows a mid/low block gives us problems. Figure out a Plan B.
* What is going on, either in training, with the medical/treatmeat/recovery staff, nutrition, etc that is causing everyone hamstrings to explode. So many injuries of the same type isn’t coincidence, and it needs to be solved.
Oh… and the new 25-26 home kit is WAAAAAAAAAY better than this past one. Watching the Newcastle match I thought to myself, “this is a proper kit. We look like Arsenal again.”
COYG