Arsenal just let the purse strings loose in the transfer window and spent close to $250m on Declan Rice, Kai Havertz and Jurrien Timber. The verdict from a lot of bystanders is that with this outlay, we are trying to "buy the league" but not in the way Manchester City did it.
Strangely, some detractors have been looking at the project and insinuating that with this outlay, Arsenal "must" win the title this season. It is a very strange way to look at transfers in 2023 but that's understandable because whenever Arsenal is concerned, people always change the narrative.
It wasn't too long ago that Arsenal ended our trophy drought with an FA cup triumph. That triumph was followed by two more, with one more coming under Wenger and another under Arteta.
Since we got those trophies, the story, at least for Arsenal, was that winning an FA cup doesn't exactly count as a milestone and a club of our stature should be competing for "major honours". Obviously, the FA Cup, unlike the mickey mouse carabao cup falls under major honours but they actually meant the Champions League and of course, the Premier League.
Until last season, Arsenal hadn't been in a title challenge, so in a way, we could say that all the detractors wanted was for Arsenal to be more competitive. After scores of very unbiased and completely objective opinions from Gary Neville and pundits alike, Arsenal got competitive last season, pushing for the title but fell short due to a lack of squad depth and mental fortitude to handle the pressure from the latter stages.
Today, deals for Declan Rice and Jurrien Timber were confirmed and as Arsenal faithful celebrated, rival fans claimed that our "spending spree" means that we must win the title or it is a failure. How caring they are to take their time away from focusing on their own club to spur Arsenal towards the title.
Nobody is rattled
How rather refreshing it is to see Chelsea fans saying things like "Arsenal spent over 200m, so they must win the league". I never thought I'd receive so much support from the blue(no pun intended) side of London because lets face it, things are looking pretty down this period.
Manchester United fans are never far away from conversations about Arsenal and many of them like @deniskj love to remind us about how much we have "spent" in this window. They're always cheering us on and saying positive things like "You have signed Declan Rice for 100m, so you must win the league".
In the past 5years, Manchester City have won 4 EPL titles but in that period, every club that's claiming Arsenal must win the league have invested a significantly larger outlay on their squad.
Just last season, Chelsea invested around $700m on a host of players, Manchester United also spent about the same on Antony as we did for Rice, despite having a squad that cost a bit over $1B pounds to assemble but hey, Arsenal must win the league because, like I said, standards are different for Arsenal.
I'd understand it if Spurs fans like @blanchy make the comments that Chelsea fans are making because Spurs live in our shadow and frankly speaking, we give them a lot more entertainment than their own club. However, for supporters of Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool to even make these comments about Arsenal winning the league because we "spent money", it really begs the question, where is the self-awareness?
Until we meet again, up the Arsenal
It was great living in yer shadow over the last decade...... oh wait.
Strange comment to make considering we finished higher in the League over the last 8 years with the exception of this one which I think most will put down as a freak season for Arsenal.
I don't think Manchester City bought the league. Sure in the last 5 years didn't your mob spend much more than them. 🙄
Not unless you use the mythical "net spend" thing, Arsenal hasn't spent remotely close to Citeh. Finishing above us for twenty consecutive seasons won't bring you out of our shadows mate.
Gonna be so sweet when he knee slides across Shyte hart lane after clinching St Totteringham's day middle of the season.
That's because arsenal really spend money buying players this came as a shocker because we taught they will go their normal conventional way of grooming players to sell
We haven't been a selling club since we signed Mesut Ozil and that's been almost ten years now. It's all these stereotypical statements about Arsenal that shows there's an obvious bias against the club.
For sure we always have bias for your club i adnire your loyalty.
You wouldn't believe that these arevthe same Arsenal fans who were 'winning the league' till the elephant fell out of the tree late in the season. The hesitation to declare league winning expectations more or less confirms that Arsenal had a fluke season.
They would have led you to believe that the thing that made them fall off last season was because they lacked depth. But as soon as they acquire the said depth, suddenly they are helpless. The typical Arsenal sheepish mentality. 😏😏
There's hardly a season where Arsenal fans don't expect the club to win the league. We always want that and yes, Arsenal fans also want to win the league but that's clearly not what I am talking about.
We have addressed depth in the squad and will be competitive but the question is, why is everyone suddenly setting ridiculous standards because Arsenal is spending the same amount with other teams that haven't won the league? Why is it different for Arsenal?
When Ole finished second, your team spent a truck load of money on Sancho and others, how come no one mandated you guys to win the league?
You must have been on another planet. Everybody, including United fans expected to win the league that season, especially when we got Ronaldo. Instead we imploded. That's why Ole got sacked because fans turned and because expectations were really high.