Dan’s In-depth Month by Month Review of Arsenal’s year in 2023 – Emotions run high and low
Dan’s Full Month by Month Review of year 2023 January 2023 A day after City lost the Manchester Derby, Arsenal win in the League at the Lane for the first time since 2014 to go 8 points clear at the top of the table. Off the pitch, Shakhtar Donetsk have suggested that Edu was in […] The post Dan’s In-depth Month by Month Review of Arsenal’s year in 2023 – Emotions run high and low appeared first on Just Arsenal News.
RR aka Rishi-Raj
Dan’s Full Month by Month Review of year 2023
January 2023
A day after City lost the Manchester Derby, Arsenal win in the League at the Lane for the first time since 2014 to go 8 points clear at the top of the table.
Off the pitch, Shakhtar Donetsk have suggested that Edu was in constant dialogue with Mudryk, our sporting director believing we were his first choice, to the point he could haggle over the asking price.
Meanwhile Moises Caicedo released a statement online pleading with Brighton not to price him out of a move to the Emirates.
Some Gooners therefore felt it was an anti-climax when we ended up with Trossard and Jorginho.
The Italian though offered much needed leadership to a young dressing room, with it noticeable how he would instruct his peers.
Trossard meanwhile would record 11 assists that season compared to Mudryk’s 2 at Chelsea.
February 2023
The Gunners drop serious points this month, but even more concerning are the performances. We don’t show up in Sean Dyche’s first game as Everton boss, are out of sorts in a 1-1 draw at Brentford (although we get an apology from those at Stockley Park forgetting to draw lines to see that Toney was offside for his equaliser. They forgot simply because …. they just forgot to do their job. And then we let the second half at home to Man City pass us by.
Anything we psychologically lost during this spell we got back with the nature of our win at Villa Park. We were seconds away from more dropped points and a chance for Man City to overtake us when Jorginho’s long range strike in added time bounced off the bar, into Martinez’s head and into the back of the net.
March 2023
Arsenal win their much talked about game in hand to go five points clear of Man City with both having played 25 games.
Similar to our win at Villa Park, Reiss Nelson’s winner against Bournemouth, in a game we were trailing 2-0, was seen as a moment where titles are won and lost.
The likes of Gary Neville accused Arsenal of playing with too much emotion, saying it’s a worrying sign with the months to come. The pundit also predicts that Man City are capable of putting a huge winning sequence together and that Arsenal will drop silly points.
Trossard gets a hat trick of assists at Craven Cottage.
Ramsdale is beaten from the halfway line leading to Sporting Lisbon to win the first ever penalty shoot-out at the Emirates. Tomiyasu and Saliba are injured that evening and don’t play again that season.
Some Gooners feel with now just the league to focus on this could give us an advantage over Man City who are still fighting on three fronts.
April 2023
Arsenal start the month going 8 points clear at the top of the table, they end it only two points above Man City, having played two more games than the Champions and our destiny no longer in our own hands.
In the first half at Anfield and the London Stadium we play some of our best football of the season, racing into 2 goal leads. Both times we almost find it too easy and therefore can’t respond when the opposition pull a goal back.
Saka misses a spot kick against the Hammers, Partey gives the ball away on the edge of his area to Rice, Ramsdale passes the ball to Alvarez for Southampton’s opener, Zinchenko doesn’t follow Walcott’s run. All these mistakes were clear evidence that mentally the title run in was too big a step.
May 2023
Odegaard is sensational in wins over Chelsea and Newcastle. Victory over the Toon in particular a sign of maturity.
We fail to put Man City under any pressure though when we lose 3-0 at home to Brighton, a performance Arteta apologises for.
Our shell-shocked manager then tries an experimental back 4 at the City Ground. A 1-0 defeat means Man City are champions and leaves question marks over the team’s mentality and leadership qualities.
A 5-0 win over Wolves gives us our highest points total since we last won the Championship and puts us back into the Champions League for the first time in 6 years.
June 2023
In perhaps a final chance to rescue his Gunner’s career Smith Rowe attempts to prove his fitness by joining England’s Under 21’s in the European Championships. That’s despite having been capped by the senior squad.
Our midfielder scores twice, gets an assist and brings a winners medal home with him.
He’s still only started once in the League since and has the likes of Reiss Nelson ahead of him in the pecking order.
Most Gooners are baffled when 65 million is spent on Kai Havertz, with the Chelsea flop one of our biggest earners.
A lot of money on someone you can’t rely on when things are not going well.
July 2023
Our manager admits the nature of how we didn’t win the title left him spending the summer reconsidering his abilities.
He’s more then backed by the Kroenke Family. Timber signs as does Rice despite a late offer from Man City.
It’s undermined though by a youthful squad losing one of the few leaders we had, Xhaka. The midfielder is yet to lose in the League for Leverkusen.
August 2023
Like Eddie Nketiah a year before Reiss Nelson is paid 100,000 a week to play the odd cup tie and not make an impact off the bench in the League.
Yet Tierney is loaned out and Pepe is paid to rip up his contract. Arteta mostly gets away with the number of talents he washed his hands of due to an unbeaten start to the campaign (including winning the Community Shield).
In a sign he’s overthinking things though, he starts Partey at right back asking him to plan when to step into midfield. This experiment only ends due to injury.
September 2023
Declan Rice scores his first goal as a Gunner in our win over Man United after which he’s serenaded by 60,000 Gooners at the Emirates.
Champions League football returns to the Emirates for the first time in 6 years.
Despite starting our first 5 fixtures of the campaign, Ramsdale is dropped in favour of Raya. According to Ramsdale senior his son is not given a reason or an area to work on.
Our manager though insists he doesn’t have a number 1 and will select his keeper 1 based on form. He says he’s even considered subbing his goalies as a tactical switch.
This Is a lie!
October 2023
Having made an error in the NLD, Raya made mistakes at the Bridge and in France. Arteta bizarrely praises Raya’s performance against Man City when he keeps passing the ball to the opposition. That comes across more of a manager not wanting to admit he’s wrong than doing what’s best for the team. A first win over Man City could be mentally huge.
November 2023
Did big decisions go against us at Newcastle? Yes
Did it warrant Arteta’s reaction? No.
Was it a sign of a manager out of his depth?
You could argue we have yet to recover from a performance where we managed just one shot on target. Too many Gooners don’t focus on that stat.
We comfortably win our CL group.
December 2023
We end the year in 4th, Liverpool and City both have games in hands after we win only one of our final 5 league games of the year.
To put that in perspective, we didn’t lose our second league game last season till February.
More concerning are the performances, with the Gunners struggling in the final third against Villa and West Ham and Arteta describing our defeat at Fulham as our worst display of the season.
He’s been told constantly you’re not winning a title with Raya in goal or Nketiah up front!
In 2024 I’ll be told I’m negative yet will still be proven correct.
Dan
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The post Dan’s In-depth Month by Month Review of Arsenal’s year in 2023 – Emotions run high and low appeared first on Just Arsenal News.
