Morning all.

Nine points from our last eight games. Nine points out of the twenty seven on offer. Since the moment Granit Xhaka had his spat with Alexander- Arnold, Mikel Arteta’s team, regardless of who played, has been all at sea. Barring the Newcastle game of course.

Yesterday’s team selection and setup was bizarre to say the least and it really didn’t work at all. But, Arteta did say in his post match press conference that a few players had struggled during the week and hadn’t trained much.

Yet again, it was a misplaced pass which resulted in us conceding a goal, this time the guilty party being captain Martin Odegaard and despite going behind quite early in the game, not once did it look like we’d equalise let alone fight back to win. In fact, there was no fight, just surrender.

I know there’s still one fixture remaining of this season but yesterday it looked like the Arsenal players and Arteta were already on their holidays. Mind you, they’ve looked like that for a while now.

Mikel Arteta on the key moments where the momentum shifted in the title race:

It started with what happened at Anfield in the 90th minute and we give it away and then you go to West Ham and you can make it 3-1 and that’s going to change. We have conceded a lot of goals, we have given 16 goals away in those matches, it’s a lot, you know a lot, you cannot sustain that. To win in this league you have to be exceptional at everything, because there are no margins. That team doesn’t give you any margins and we have extended those margins too much and that’s how we lost the league.

We can dissect the last couple of months all we like but ultimately, when it came to the business end of the season, the players and the manager made too many mistakes in a handful of matches.

Finishing second is no disgrace but as has often been said about an Arsenal team, how we did it is what hurts. What could and should have been an exciting, competitive end to the season turned out to be a limp and lethargic final few weeks of football from Arsenal.

People in the media, ex footballers etc, will talk about how brilliant Man City have been and Lord help us if they win the treble but Arsenal themselves gifted them the Premier League. Not because Arteta and his players bottled it, but because the squad wasn’t deep enough in strength. No player should be playing every Premier League fixture during a season in my opinion. Especially if that player also plays in European competitions and/or the domestic cup matches. It’s a recipe for disaster, a recipe for injury or burnout.

Is it a coincidence that this season ended in similar fashion to last? You know, having something in the palm of our hands but not being able to keep hold of it? Last year it was a top four spot, this year, the League title. I don’t think so….

Mikel Arteta said yesterday that when it comes to April and May, he/the club needs 24 players playing at their best, full of confidence and ready to go, and for many reasons Arsenal have not had that. I’m sure we’ll all have our own thoughts as to why that’s been the case but we can’t do anything to change it for next season. Mikel Arteta can though, he has to because otherwise, nothing will change…

Catch up in the comments..