Reasons to be cheerful?

Let’s be brutally honest: last night was crap. Yet again Arsenal have bottled it on the big stage. We had Champions League qualification through the Premier League in our hands and we bottled it, and then we could have qualified by winning a trophy and we bottled it.

However, things are going pretty well in my life at the moment. I have a beautiful new baby boy as well as a wonderful, thoughtful, kind, funny and all-round awesome five-year-old son, and I was recently elected to my local council after a really hard-fought campaign becoming the first ever Labour councillor for the area I now represent. So because things are looking good for the first time in a while I am going to attempt to apply some of that positivity to Arsenal.

Okay, here it goes… Arsenal could be title contenders if they can work on just one things: away form.

Arsenal’s away form this year killed off any hopes we had of anything. I’m going to give Emery the benefit of the doubt and say that he’ll work on solving that problem this summer and next season we’ll be a good bet. BettingOffers.Cash have great betting deals if you are thinking to place a bet on the Gunners. Not only that, but they also provide and independent review of all the best betting sites in the UK so you can discover pros and cons of every operator. We might not win the league but I’m going to back the team to finish in the top four.

Our attack is phenomenal, perhaps the best we’ve had in over a decade. Aubameyang and Lacazette are both world class and bring different things to the table. Both players are in their prime so it is crucial that we assemble a team capable of giving them the chances they need to fulfill their potential. Another creative midfielder is needed now we’re saying goodbye to Ramsey. A player somewhere between Ramsey and Ozil would be ideal.

Ainsley Maitland-Niles. What a great player we’ve got on our hands. Professional, reliable, talented, dedicated and hard-working. It’s clear he wants to play in a different position but he could make the right-back position his own and be an ever-present for Arsenal for the next decade.

We’ve got some really talented young players and I hope they are given more first-team chances next season. Guendouzi has been superb and will only get better, he’s a real find.

Emery doesn’t seem scared of bringing in experienced players which will be important because we’re not likely to have much money to spend in the summer. A few smart additions to carry some of our younger players through the season might just do the trick.

The biggest reason to be cheerful from a club football perspective is there will not be any summer tournaments this year. Players will not have their worth artificially inflated and we’re less likely to lose any players to injury.

With their first season under Emery out of the way and a disappointing end to fire them up there’s every chance this team can go on to greater things next season.

I’ll be watching with as much optimism as I can muster!