Which I could share that opinion with you. They played very good football last season, recycling and retaining possession and playing high up the pitch. They have many players still in the development stage of their careers, your Saka's Martinelli's Odegaard, Saliba are still very young. Rice can add another dimension, and they have some pretty serious depth that may allow Arteta to rotate without having to play a Lokonga or Holding which hurt them last season. Saliba, Gabriel, Timber, White, Tomiyasu, Zinchenko, Tierney is pretty strong options at the back. Partey & Jorginho on the bench backing up Rice. They have spend just short of Chelsea over a rolling 3 year period and its starting to show.That's my view, last season was their perfect storm and they blew it, you don't get that two years in a row.
If last season's finish was down to their own quality then I'd be concerned about them improving and going one step further, but even then, football isn't always a linear progression. As it is, every week they seemed to be on the receiving end of some kind of good fortune, combined with every other usual suspect having an off season.
Fuck, for much of the season even City looked to be having an off year!
I think they'll have done well if they get top 4 this year.
They wont win it. But I dont think they will be fighting for top 4 either. We cant turn a blind eye to their improvement. They have spend 600m over 3 years and you would be hard pressed to pick any duds other than cheapish signings, and maybe than Portuguese kid. They have passed 200m this summer already and were not even past 60m( I dont count Porro and Kulusevski). Are we going to not spend 140m in the coming weeks and presume we can finish above Woolwich? Who are pumping in over 200m annually into their squad and giving out massive contracts to their existing top players when the hope was Saka, Martinelli, Odegaard, Saliba ect would all be nicked by Real Madrid, City or PSG?
Cannot believe we have allowed them to position themselves above us in a position of strength, when we had them by the balls for years.