After a decent start to the season, we saw a surge in form in November. As our rivals dropped points, we climbed the table "outta nowhere" and claimed top spot as December hit. But when December hit, it hit us hard. A nightmare month saw us pick up 1 win from 6 games, and naturally we were back to scratch, and will once again be chasing Chelsea and Man Utd.
I am tempted to quote Wenger in saying that top 4 is like a title for us, but our ambitions should be higher than that. So thus I've decided to give mr. Slutskiy an ultimatum: Top 2 finish or a deep run in the CL, or he'll be out of a job in the summer.
Results: View attachment 226330November:
Arsenal 4 - 2 Swansea
A brace from Sanchez and goals from Sterling and Mascherano gave us a pleasing win.
Hull 0 - 1 Arsenal
A solid win while keeping a clean sheet. Our player of the season so far, Coutinho giving us the win.
Arsenal 2 - 1 Middlesbrough
Lukaku finally got a start, and repaid the trust by netting a brace. This rounded off a perfect November.
December:
Man City 1 - 1 Arsenal
We took an early lead and played well, but we couldn't hold on as naturally Sturridge came back to haunt us.
Arsenal 0 - 2 Chelsea
A horrible display. We couldn't contain Hazard, and even with 10 men, Chelsea restricted us to few chances.
Newcastle 2 - 1 Arsenal
Newcastle look a rejuvenated side under Jochi Löw, and took their chances in an even game.
Arsenal 2 - 1 Aston Villa
We narrowly beat Villa after taking an early 2 goal lead. Lukaku and Coutinho on the scoresheet.
Tottenham 2 - 0 Arsenal
We suffer defeat at Spurs for the first time in ages. Another game where we can't take our chances.
Arsenal 1 - 1 Crystal Palace
We end the month the way we started it. Another lacklustre display. Sczcesny got the nod in all league games this month over Ter Stegen, and failed to keep a single clean sheet. What are you doing Slutskiy?!?!
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Shakhtar 1 - 0 Arsenal
Another poor display, as this blew our group wide open. Once again Slutskiy benching our two main strikers, and playing Sanchez as the lone forward. When will he learn
Dinamo 1 - 2 Arsenal
We grab a win, but can't keep a clean sheet for the life of us. Martinez and Sakho popping up with rare goals.
Arsenal 1 - 1 Galatasaray
A win here would have given us top spot, but we couldn't manage that somehow, and the group turned into one of the most even in CL history.
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A three-way tie. We have the exact same head-to-head results, and also the same goal difference. So Galatasaray win the group on 1 more h2h-goals scored, while we beat Shakhtar to the #2 spot by the same margin. In the end this screw-up didn't hurt us too much, as we face Sampdoria in the first knockout stage.
Transfers
As our defence has been extremely leaky, and Chambers is out for a long time, we needed to strengthen at the back. This meant we brought in two new defenders at the start of the window:
The giant German centreback Niklas Sule joins from Hoffenheim for £21M while versatile Italian international Mattia De Sciglio joins from Liverpool in a deal that sees aging Juanfran, and still promising Welsh winger George Wiliams move the other way. We're very pleased about these deals as the players are young, and already established players that should fit well to the premier league.
With a large squad, but little rotation being favoured by Slutskiy, we felt the need to shrink the size of our first-team squad a bit. That sees as many as 9 players leaving the club, either permanently or on loan.
Juanfran & George Williams join Liverpool as part of the De Sciglio deal.
Jores Okore & James McCarthy join newly rich Watford for a combined fee of £13.5M. Both are quality Premier League players, but just didn't cut it at the Emirates.
Moussa Sissoko joins Hull in a deal worth £5.5M. Sissoko found himself in the reserves after his move from Newcastle, and we were forced to accept a cut price for him, due to lack of interest. He should be a very good recruit for the Tigers.
Emre Can leaves for PSG in a deal worth somewhere around £15M. This deal was agreed behind my back, and I am not at all pleased that we let one of our more promising midfielders go so cheaply.
Nicola Leali moves to Chelsea on loan, with an option to buy at the end of the season.
Hector Bellerin makes another loan move, this time to West Brom. Hopefully he'll come back ready to fight for a starting spot next season.
Andreas Rudolph moves to Newcastle to form a formiddable CB partnership with Jan Verthongen. Andreas is one of our most promising youngsters, and is already a classy CB at the age of 18. We look forward to him continuing his progress under his countryman Joachim Löw's guidance.
Now Mr. Slutskiy, time to get to business and win something!
WE NEED TITLES!!!