the only real reason i’m posting this is to say that our listed “potential backup xi” is equal to/greater than the teams that wenger was taking to the ucl knockout stages every single year when i first became a supporter. two takeaways:
1)What Arsene Wenger did here was incredible. I cannot imagine another manager taking this club to 19 straight ucl ko stages with the asinine budgets he was given to work with. incredible.
2)the pressure is really on this year. i have been openly and extremely pleased with the job arteta has done. for us to beat City 5-1, and to dominate the defending champion madrid team 5-2 with an injury crisis and merino at striker? i could never have dreamed of arsenal doing these things before arteta. not even close. those teams used to do that to us, regularly. now we’ve done it to them. it shouldn’t be glossed over or unappreciated.
and look, trophies are the ultimate goal, but finishing in the top 2 three consecutive seasons with best defense in the league and squad full of guys mostly entering (or still years away from) their primes is straight up badass. that’s on par with what sark has done at Texas, so i’ve really never understood how underwhelmed so many fans have been. this is by far the strongest the club has been during my time as a supporter.
that said, we really do need to take the final step and win something this year. we’re going to have the squad depth, we’re finally going to have the striker we’ve been missing, and we’re still going to have the best defense in england and possibly all of europe. it’s got to materialize with a trophy and a parade this year. if not, then for the first time since he took over, arteta will have his most staunch advocates (me) no longer being satisfied with clear but trophyless growth. this year has got to be the breakthrough.