I think Arteta made a massive mistake with the League and FA Cups. It basically highlighted he only really cares about the Prem and that has created huge internal pressure. He should have told his players we are going for all 4 trophies and risked it. It would have given them confidence and eased the pressure. I think he has become too focussed on the PL and that is now turning almost to anxiety.
We're running on fumes and half our players are broken, we've been struggling for ages now. We did line up strong for the cup final, but Kepa was a weak link and City had our number tactically. The physical and mental demands of playing in four competitions are immense. It's not just that you don't get any real rest (it's been pretty much two games a week since October) it's that you have no real time to train, so whatever issues the team might be having, whatever players need integrating, whatever prep you need for the next team you just don't have time to do anything about it. We were awful today, but we were without Saka, Ødegaard, Timber and Calafiori - guaranteed starters normally. Merino out for the rest of the season as well, and he's our Swiss army knife. Eze back early from injury, but not fit enough to start today.
Meanwhile Bournemouth had one player away on international duty, and last played 3 weeks ago. That's a lot of rest and recuperation and time to focus on exactly this match, while we've played twice since coming back from international break. I'm not complaining about any of this, it's the peril of getting what you want really, the easy way to not have so many matches is not to keep winning games in cups/qualifying for Europe. I'm not above blaming Arteta for overplaying some players and being a little incautious with players carrying knocks either, some of this is our own making.
Sorry, that's a long-winded way of saying that if we couldn't win the Saints game with the team we put out then it wasn't worth going through. I've not given up, we're still top, but it was a horrible game and we really needed a good one. Really hoping some players - especially Ødegaard -come back for the last push
