Southampton's appeal has officially been denied, and there is no further alternative for them. Apparently Hull are also malding at the change of opponent and are allegedly planning legal action if they lose. Entire thing is a shitshow over such a stupid thing.
I have tried to compile a list of the shittiest things I have had to endure as an Arsenal fan since we last won the title and a few things I tried to repress have come back. Things such as
-Cesc Fabregas getting recruited on every international break to go play for Barcelona
-Robin Van Persie deciding to leave for Manchester United after 8-2
-Alex Song having 4 good months at Arsenal, leaving because he thought he would replace a prime Sergio Busquets, and then flaming out to be a rotational player at West Ham
-Us blowing the budget on Arshavin because he had a good European campaign
-Manuel Almunia
-Flaming out in every champions league knockout stage against Barcelona (Before Bayern Munich, there was Barcelona)
-Samir Nasri deciding to cash out instead of being an amazing player for Arsenal. Good thing he got banned and fat
-Sebastien Squillaci
-Jack Wilshere's injuries
-Chelsea beating Arsenal (With Mr Europa League at the helm) in Baku having our cult hero Giroud score against us and we couldn't bring our attacking midfielder because he was Armenian and the final was in Azerbaijan
-Sead Kolasinac
-David Ospina
-Yaya Sanogo
There is just so much I have had to suffer through. I haven't even come close to everything but its all better. Champions League is just the icing on top of the cake at this point
I have tried to compile a list of the shittiest things I have had to endure as an Arsenal fan since we last won the title and a few things I tried to repress have come back. Things such as
-Cesc Fabregas getting recruited on every international break to go play for Barcelona
-Robin Van Persie deciding to leave for Manchester United after 8-2
-Alex Song having 4 good months at Arsenal, leaving because he thought he would replace a prime Sergio Busquets, and then flaming out to be a rotational player at West Ham
-Us blowing the budget on Arshavin because he had a good European campaign
-Manuel Almunia
-Flaming out in every champions league knockout stage against Barcelona (Before Bayern Munich, there was Barcelona)
-Samir Nasri deciding to cash out instead of being an amazing player for Arsenal. Good thing he got banned and fat
-Sebastien Squillaci
-Jack Wilshere's injuries
-Chelsea beating Arsenal (With Mr Europa League at the helm) in Baku having our cult hero Giroud score against us and we couldn't bring our attacking midfielder because he was Armenian and the final was in Azerbaijan
-Sead Kolasinac
-David Ospina
-Yaya Sanogo
There is just so much I have had to suffer through. I haven't even come close to everything but its all better. Champions League is just the icing on top of the cake at this point
I have tried to compile a list of the shittiest things I have had to endure as an Arsenal fan since we last won the title and a few things I tried to repress have come back. Things such as
-Cesc Fabregas getting recruited on every international break to go play for Barcelona
-Robin Van Persie deciding to leave for Manchester United after 8-2
-Alex Song having 4 good months at Arsenal, leaving because he thought he would replace a prime Sergio Busquets, and then flaming out to be a rotational player at West Ham
-Us blowing the budget on Arshavin because he had a good European campaign
-Manuel Almunia
-Flaming out in every champions league knockout stage against Barcelona (Before Bayern Munich, there was Barcelona)
-Samir Nasri deciding to cash out instead of being an amazing player for Arsenal. Good thing he got banned and fat
-Sebastien Squillaci
-Jack Wilshere's injuries
-Chelsea beating Arsenal (With Mr Europa League at the helm) in Baku having our cult hero Giroud score against us and we couldn't bring our attacking midfielder because he was Armenian and the final was in Azerbaijan
-Sead Kolasinac
-David Ospina
-Yaya Sanogo
There is just so much I have had to suffer through. I haven't even come close to everything but its all better. Champions League is just the icing on top of the cake at this point
There is just so much I have had to suffer through. I haven't even come close to everything but its all better. Champions League is just the icing on top of the cake at this point
Ok so while the ending was a bit dull (Thanks Everton), I think this season was a pretty solid success. Here are a few list of things that happened this season to make it much better than previous seasons
1 - 2 of the 3 newly promoted teams survived (and in Sunderland's case, thrived). Way too many seasons allowed for the premier league teams to settle into the premier league money, premier league squads, and just coasted through the season. Wolves definitely should have been relegated a few seasons back and West Ham decided this season to be shit.
2 - The different races came down to the final month and some of them came down to the final day. Everton certainly screwed it up, but we didn't have full relegation set until essentially stoppage time of the Tottenham game. While it should be the norm, the past few seasons have been dogshit when it comes to that. The title race came down to the second to last day with Bournemouth seeing off City to close that out but it certainly kept the race interesting (more enjoyable for some than for others ) And even with all these other races being interesting, the european race seemed just as exciting as ever. Sunderland were basically bottom half of the table before the final day and won their way into the Europa League. There was a second when 9th would have gotten into Europe with City winning and Liverpool winning. And because of that, the Aston Villa vs City game that would normally not mean anything due to how the season played out still had relevance. Going into today, there was a world where Everton could have relegated Spurs and gotten into Europe had results gone right.
3 - The relegation zone has swerved back in the opposite direction. For the longest time, 38 points seemed to be the safety threshold for teams to survive. West Ham got 39 points and got relegated, which is a welcome change to prior seasons. Last year, 18th place Leicester City went down on 25 points, the year prior Luton went down on 26 points, and before that was Leicester who got 34 points. So prior seasons was 26, 27, and 35 points to survive. Now we got 40 to survive and it starts putting pressure on these middle to bottom clubs to have to perform.
4- The parity of the league has gotten a lot better. The gap from the top to the european qualifications to the mid table to the bottom of the league has always been relatively high over the past few seasons. It never really gave that feel that the premier league had before where any team could win on any given day. But this season closed down on that gap massively. To give you an idea, I will list out a few different placement gaps
2026
1st to 5th 25 points
5th to 10th 8 points
10th to 17th 11 points
17th to 18th 2 points
2025
1st to 5th 18 points
5th to 10th 10 points
10th to 17th 18 points
17th to 18th 13 points
2024
1st to 5th 25 points
5th to 10th 17 points
10th to 17th 17 points
17th to 18th 6 points
2023
1st to 5th 22 points
5th to 10th 15 points
10th to 17th 16 points
17th to 18th 2 points (This was the year of the financial hits so Everton was artificially closer to Leicester than they should have been)
The gap from 5th to 18th had been going up from 2023 to 2025 but then shot to a new low in points total this year. So clearly, a success.
Now its certainly not perfect and some things I am hoping for next season
-More of a race on the final day for Champions League spots. Liverpool basically had Europe set up. Unless Bournemouth made up a 6 goal differential and 3 points, it was set for Liverpool. Aston Villa and Manchester United had nothing to really play for on the final day while City were pushing the title to nearly the end, so that race wasn't great.
-More teams competing to survive. Forest, Leeds, and Crystal Palace made their push to survive fat too early to have a fun ending to the season. Burnley and Wolves fell off far too early as well. While I don't expect a relegation clash on the levels of La Liga this year (will get into that later) I would like to have more of a relegation dog fight.
Overall, this season definitely delivered more than I was hoping for at the start of the season (Not just saying that because I am an Arsenal fan either)
Yeah, Sunderland was definitely a highlight of the season. Special shout out to United for a very baffling season. From a shitty start to a good finish. Weird thing is they had lots of good results but I can't recall a single match I would call a convincing win. They just kind of scraped by. Guess this is what happens when 80% of the teams in the league decides to shit their pants.
![:\](/styles/custom/emotes/svg/chris-confused.svg "Confused :\")
) And even with all these other races being interesting, the european race seemed just as exciting as ever. Sunderland were basically bottom half of the table before the final day and won their way into the Europa League. There was a second when 9th would have gotten into Europe with City winning and Liverpool winning. And because of that, the Aston Villa vs City game that would normally not mean anything due to how the season played out still had relevance. Going into today, there was a world where Everton could have relegated Spurs and gotten into Europe had results gone right.