There are 10 days until the season kicks off against Liverpool. The traditional curtain raiser, the Community Shield, is this Sunday. We have two more friendlies to play on Friday and Sunday. I think it's safe to start talking about what we can expect from this season.

I'm aware that expectations could change drastically depending on how the transfer window ends, but at this point the odds of us making the right signings seem pretty slim to me. I'd love to be proved wrong, of course.

So with the same squad as last year plus Xhaka and Holding, what can we reasonably expect to accomplish this season?

Right now, I'm actually worried about our Champions League spot. We got 2nd last year on account of other teams being poor and Spurs bottling the last four games of their season. Those same teams have since gotten stronger and have new managers. City and Chelsea will be serious contenders again, United will improve under Mourinho, Spurs and Liverpool are dangerous, and I can't even rule out Leicester since they're Champions and all.

Meanwhile, we've only added one major player and a young player, have the same manager, and, from we've seen in pre-season, haven't really altered how we'll be playing, which was hardly spectacular to begin with. I do think Xhaka will help us move the ball through the middle of the pitch a lot quicker, but at the same time, the quality in the final third is still lacking.

And as always, there are a lot of ifs and buts this season. We could be good IF Alexis has a great year, IF Ramsey rediscovers his form, IF Giroud doesn't go on another 20 game goal draught, IF Ox/Theo can come good, IF we stave off the injuries, etc.

My expectations at this point are that we'll get nowhere near winning the league, and might get fourth. We'll probably won't make it past the last 16 of the Champions League. We might have a good cup run.

But that's just me. What about the rest of you?

(While we're at it, who's on matchday thread duty this season?)

Sigh


I would have been a lot more hopeful if Mustafi and Lacazette were in our Scandinavian tour. But atm I can't see us fighting for the title. I can't even see us win our first two matches. Most of our title challengers are prepared. United acted quick and secured a Striker and a CB and are on route to getting Pogba. Chelsea secured Kante and most likely will snatch Mustafi from us while getting Lukaku. Liverpool are already over their signings and are sorting out the tactics.

And yet once again we are the only club who have absolutely no plan and will go into the season unprepared

I think we'll fight for 4th and this could be the year we might drop out. But this could change with just two signings. If we can get Mustafi and Lacazette/someone else in then we actuall have a decent squad. But not without.

So 4th place. A good run in the FA cup. 4th round crash out of COC. Quarters in the CL.

Matchday threads should follow the same model as end of last year. Anyone can do them if they want. I'll be doing them regardless but if someone else wants to have a go then feel free. Just do it 2 days before though.

I have no expectations whatsoever, if we achieve something as minimal as a place in the CL, I'll be pleasantly surprised. I guess this is what Kroenke and Wenger wanted from the fans all this time and they certainly got me atleast.

I'm just waiting for the end of the season and hopefully a new post-Wenger era to bring back my enthusiasm for club football.

4th place in the league. It's gonna be a tough battle but we can do it. I'd like to see the team go past the CL QF for once . Let's finish 1st in the group stage to begin with.

urbaNRoots wrote:I have no expectations whatsoever, if we achieve something as minimal as a place in the CL, I'll be pleasantly surprised. I guess this is what Kroenke and Wenger wanted from the fans all this time and they certainly got me atleast.

I'm just waiting for the end of the season and hopefully a new post-Wenger era to bring back my enthusiasm for club football.

Spot on. Arsenal will give you consistent good results don't start dreaming about amazing ones.

We'll need to be incredibly lucky to finish 1st in our CL group these days. Pot 1 will have:

Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus, PSG, Bayern, Leicester, Benfica, and CSKA Moscow

So a 2/7 chance of getting a team we could realistically finish above. Not good odds.

NO expectations. We'll probably scrape 4th place and CL football again as per.

Much will depend on how our rivals do. They were pretty shit last season. Expect them to be all better this season however. Could be a rough season lads

3rd/4th + last 16 of CL

Hope we maintain the same level of quality chances creation(were best in the league quality wise) and improve our finishing/conversion rate

Sina wrote:3rd/4th + last 16 of CL

Hope we maintain the same level of quality chances creation(were best in the league quality wise) and improve our finishing/conversion rate

We were

Damn. Speaks volumes of how shit the league was last season

Not passing any serious expectations until the transfer window closes and we see if there are any decent additions at all... But even then, my eternal optimist has very limited expectations due to last season being a fluke 2nd for all the reasons already mentioned.

I am seriously just fed up with the same formula being repeated and my true hope is for one day Wenger to retire and be replaced with any half decent coach with actual ambitions, as well as keeping Ozil, Sanchez and all the WC players we have satisfied as for them to not leave.

The eternal CL spot is basically all I hope for with so many strong teams and the already dangerous teams becoming even more dangerous with new top managers and decent enough players entering. The sad thing is that long term we'll just be lagging even more behind, because every transfer window lost is a missed opportunity for a good player to adapt, the team to strengthen and an actual champion's expectation to be implanted in the player's minds.

There is too much dead wood in this team, pampered mediocre players and a still chaotic team management that after all these years, I still do not understand (injuries, high risk players bought with no return, the completely broken wage structure etc).

Don't see it changing under Wenger.

i am already looking forward to the season after this, when hopefully we have a more ambitious manager.. who doesnt fool fans every year.. and come with philosophical nonsense regarding the game and transfer market..
#timeforchange

+1

I have no expectation...just want to watch some games and hope its not a long season.
Really looking forward Granit Xhaka!

2018

A new manager. That's my expectation.

And not being embarrassed by our rivals - although I am a bit numb to this after everything.

Really hard to say until the transfer window is closed IMO. I do hope we get two players.

Rival-wise, I have a weird hunch that Man Utd is still not out of its post-SAF hangover and that the Mourinho experiment will falter. Maybe I'm wrong. Though I dislike Mourinho immensely I recognize his track record. He might do great things. But I just look at this squad and wonder how well it fits within the Mou comfort zone, how the club's fading/aging stars and fringe players will gel ... I think just as commentators are wondering (again) if this is the end of Wenger's hold on top 4, maybe this is also the season when Mourinho finally doesn't deliver a cold-blooded, second season title winning machine. All things have an end, who knows.

I am more worried about what Conte & Pep will do at their clubs. Chelsea had such a horrible season last year but they basically had the same personnel win the league before that, and now they have a few good new players and a disciplined manager. If I had to bet a dollar on what will happen in the PL I think it'll be down to Man City and Chelsea going for the top, with Arsenal and Liverpool likely to round out top 4.

I dunno... Pogba..Ibra..Mkhitaryan..Bailly. Held on to De Gea.. Looks like they are eyeing up Fonte and getting rid of Mata. Obscene window even by Utd's standards.

Hard to imagine they wont be a force to be reckoned with this season. although I would clearly love them and Mou to fail miserably, particularly after spending so much.

My expectations for this season post Leicester are, in the first instance, not to get relegated before Christmas.

So, after predicting we wouldn't sign anyone else, we did, in fact, end up signing two more players. And loaned out three and sold another. The squad now looks like:

GK: Petr Cech, David Ospina, Emi Martinez
CB: Laurent Koscielny, Shkodran Mustafi, Per Mertesacker (injued), Gabriel (injured), Rob Holding
RB: Hector Bellerin, Mathieu Debuchy, Carl Jenkinson (injured)
LB: Nacho Monreal, Kieran Gibbs
CM: Granit Xhaka, Santi Cazorla, Aaron Ramsey, Francis Coquelin, Mohamed Elneny
AM: Mesut Ozil
RW: Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
LW: Alexis Sanchez, Alex Iwobi
CF: Olivier Giroud, Lucas Perez, Chuba Akpom, Danny Welbeck (injured)

Looks short at AM but a bunch of our CMs and wingers can fill in there, and three of our CFs can play wide.

Still think we'll finish 4th tbh but the squad looks healthier now at least.

Think we might finish higher than 4. I hope we finish above Mou tbh.

4th seems to be likely depending on how others do.

Oh well. At least it's a 7.5/10 transfer window compared to 5/10

Did better than expected in the transfer market but still not quite good enough. Will probably reflect our actual season. 4th/3rd.

Jay29 wrote:So, after predicting we wouldn't sign anyone else, we did, in fact, end up signing two more players. And loaned out three and sold another. The squad now looks like:

GK: Petr Cech, David Ospina, Emi Martinez
CB: Laurent Koscielny, Shkodran Mustafi, Per Mertesacker (injued), Gabriel (injured), Rob Holding
RB: Hector Bellerin, Mathieu Debuchy, Carl Jenkinson (injured)
LB: Nacho Monreal, Kieran Gibbs
CM: Granit Xhaka, Santi Cazorla, Aaron Ramsey, Francis Coquelin, Mohamed Elneny
AM: Mesut Ozil
RW: Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
LW: Alexis Sanchez, Alex Iwobi
CF: Olivier Giroud, Lucas Perez, Chuba Akpom, Danny Welbeck (injured)

Looks short at AM but a bunch of our CMs and wingers can fill in there, and three of our CFs can play wide.

Still think we'll finish 4th tbh but the squad looks healthier now at least.

Top squad on every postition except CF. Giroud will do though.

I see you at 2nd or 3rd in the PL.

Europa League quarter finals.

Cups no further than semis.

Except we ain't ending up in Europa League.

This way Hans >>>> http://www.goallegacy.net/f16-manchester-united

You're finishing third in that group IMO

You're losing your skills imo

We'll go out in R16. There are few things that we can be surer of. #Wenger