Arsenal ‘bottling it’ narrative is tiresome. But it’s Gooners who must grow up…
There is a backlash to the grief Arsenal have been getting in the Mailbox. But Arsenal fans themselves are most guilty of talking the Gunners down…
Both the morning and afternoon Mailboxes on Thursday were dominated by an Arsenal bottling it theme, though many Gooners themselves were subscribing to the view that Mikel Arteta’s side were doomed to fail.
Friday brings pleas for perspective and a backbone.
Send your thoughts on the title race and anything else to theeditor@football365.com.
Gooners bottling it
Reading the reactions from some of the Arsenal fans about dropped points is incredibly amusing. Especially because they are part of the problem. Social media, the lunatics doing podcasts, the heads dropping in the stands – the players don’t live in a bubble and can feel all this depression and nervousness. You are still ahead with plenty of football to be played ffs.
When we were winning leagues regularly the fans would never get on like this. We always felt we would find a way, even in the most impossible situations (Keegan would love it, Benitez facts etc). But even after 26 years of relative misery in terms of the league, that 1992/93 season was full of ups and downs. But we never gave up, never gave in. The win against Sheffield Wednesday, with Bruce scoring in Fergie time, being a prime example.
Show some backbone, get behind your team and lift them. Forget about previous seasons – City aren’t as reliable as before and history does not dictate the future. You are top for a reason. Grow a set and get behind them, believe it will happen and see where you end up. It’s not meant to be easy.
Garey Vance, MUFC
Grow up
Is the mailbox read exclusively by 8yo’s in the school playground?? Bottle this, bottle that. It’s a 38 game season. Teams will win, lose and draw.
Arsenal are currently 5 points ahead of Peps City. There are 11/12 games left. Nothing has been won or lost at this point. Are people that moronic nowadays that they just parrot the narrative to try to look like they know what they are talking about. Don’t go against the crowd, I might stand out type of thing.
We’ve an exciting title race, something we haven’t had in a while, and the mouth-breathers can only parrot bottling it hehe, instead of enjoying it. I don’t remember this level of stupidity when King Kev’s Newcastle were being hauled back by United. It’s tiresome to want to read about, how exciting it is, 2 top teams going head to head with 2 top tier managers and all you get it bottling nonsense.
Enjoy it people, it doesn’t happen very often. If Arsenal bottle it, we’ll know in May. You don’t need to parrot it after every game. If City lose to Newcastle on Saturday they won’t have “bottled it” they’ll have lost a game. Give it a break.
Weldoninhio, BAC
London calling
As much as Arsenal deserve being given both barrels (quadruple barrels really) let’s not forget that their final 5 games in the premier League are all in London, three home / two ‘away’ at Crystal Palace and West Ham. It may just be that home comforts and a lack of travel is all they need to nudge them over the line.
JDB
Sh*t or bust for Arteta
Just had one of my Man United supporting mates ask me if Arteta should be sacked if we bottle the league (again..?) –
The word “should” stood out to me. Does he “deserve” to be sacked if we come second in the league? Probably not given we were nowhere near it at the end of/post-Wenger so he’s got us back to the head table and in the hunt.
“Should” he be sacked? Probably. I’m sure there’s thousands of fans local and afar that feel differently, but I just can’t shake the feeling that it doesn’t even matter what we as fans think. I reckon he’s been put under a bit of pressure by the owners, investors, and board this season to ultimately deliver what they’re pumping money and resources at for the last 5+ years.
No Premier League title this year = you’re out. Can’t come second four years in a row despite topping the table in large stretches of each campaign (sometimes by as many as 8-10 points!). That ain’t bad luck, that’s a pattern. A bad one. And when you’ve chopped and changed many of the players during that time with no change in fortune, the only common denominator to that bad pattern is Arteta.
Rocastle7 (Although, if he wins the Champions League and Carabao Cup, would the board take that?)
Arsenal’s inferiority complex
Really enjoyed all the rattled Arsenal fans in the mailboxes today. It’s funny how quickly momentum swings..a few weeks ago they were writing in about how they dropped points but finished the weekend further ahead and so it represented success; they failed the see a bigger picture that maybe suggested the wheels are coming off. Can they all carry on telling us they’re on for the quadruple too please?
I do still think Arsenal will win the league simply because the competition is so abject. Man City are equally likely to win their next five or lose their next five. Liverpool are more likely to lose their next ten than win their next two sadly.
But that said, if Arsenal do win the title this year, I think it will be the first season ever where a coach has coached an inferiority complex into his players and managed to win a big title. Arteta clearly has told his players to constantly feign injury (Trossard being the example today. Gabriel did it a lot against Villa), he’s told them to take time at set pieces and to run the clock down. These are all negatives where essentially you’re telling your players they’re not good enough to win going toe to toe. Would pep coach that into a team? Would Klopp? Would Mourinho? The last one many will be thinking yes but his prime Chelsea team was drilled to exploit mistakes and not make any. The second iteration wasn’t as good as he tried to use dark arts more from memory.
I know it’s easy to talk about bottle and steam but if a coach keeps making players feel inferior then eventually they’ll act that way. I think a coach, at the highest level, is meant to be like a top military general; giving you the confidence to execute your plan with total belief. A general who tells you to hide behind walls and shoot people in the back and then play dead wouldn’t fill an army with confidence and that is basically what I feel Arteta is coaching into these Arsenal players.
Minty, LFC
MORE: Ranking the 22 Arsenal bottlejobs from Kai Havertz to Mikel Arteta
Title maths
Over the last few weeks, watching Arsenal’s increasing struggle, there have been many conversations about bottle-jobs and which was the worst Premier League winner. Trying to devise an objective measure is difficult, but in watching Arsenal struggle, I think I have one.
Arsenal’s problem is they simply cannot amass enough points. I know that sounds simple but people tend to ignore it. Last season I confidently predicted at Christmas Arsenal couldn’t win the league because they could not win 90 points, and Liverpool could if pressed. I was correct.
Which leads to my comparison method. The measure of a great team is the number of points they could potentially amass at the point they win the league. Once won, they drop their game, but what if they were pushed by a rival? What were they actually capable of?
So, thanks to ChatGPT, here is a table of the last 10 Premier League winners, ranked by the potential points total at the time of winning e.g. last season Liverpool won the league on 82 points with 4 games left. Had Arsenal put up a fight, Liverpool would not have taken their foot off the gas, and could potentially have won 94 points – they actually finished on 84.
2019-20 Liverpool 107
2017-18 Manchester City 102
2020-21 Manchester City 99
2018-19 Manchester City 98
2024-25 Liverpool F.C. 94
2022-23 Manchester City 94
2021-22 Manchester City 93
2016-17 Chelsea 93
2023-24 Manchester City 91
2015-16 Leicester City 83
So, what does this tell us:
a) City have won the league loads, and are a fantastic team.
b) Liverpool’s team from 2019-2020 is objectively the best ever
c) Leicester’s team was by far the weakest.
d) Arsenal are sh*te
Interestingly, I did the same for previous years. The United team from 2010 was the worst of the lot (total potential of 80), and the decade through to 2015 had comparatively lower points totals.
Rob (I did the calculations so you don’t have to)
Brendan’s boys no bottlers
I note with dismay that the Liverpool team of 13/14 features in the Top 10 Premier League Title Bottlejobs. In order for Liverpool to win the league that season would have required them to win 14 consecutive games, I would suggest the following statements are incompatible:
1) Liverpool failed to win the league because they were unable to become only the second team in Premier League history to win 14 consecutive games.
2) Liverpool bottled it.
Rob
MORE: Anatomy of a Bottle Job: Eight factors to separate the true choke from a mere collapse
A Spurs shave not close enough
Never mind his coaching record, never mind the structural problems at Spurs – I believe the reason Igor Tudor will likely fail at the club is because of his neck beard. Modern players are a fickle and image-obsessed bunch, and I simply don’t believe they will view someone with an unkempt neck beard as having any authority or legitimacy.
Nuks, Cape Town, Orlando Pirates
MORE: Igor Tudor ticks Spoke Well, I Thought box but Spurs’ future still looks terrifyingly bleak
