I think you have to take the 5th place (hopefully) in isolation - the 5 games post Chelsea were abysmal, the last 5 games have been abysmal, but the first 10 were spectacular and there have been some other excellent performances and results along the way. We finished 8th last time out, we've improved even if it has been a roller coaster ride.
Lack of quality hasn't been that much of an issue, lack of depth has. 2 fairly noticeable examples - Udogie and Maddison are brilliant players and so important to our style, but they've both been well below par for a bit and there's no-one to play instead. If Jack Grealish has so much as a sniff of a bad game, in comes Jeremy Doku; ditto Martinelli (Trossard), Diaz (Gakpo or Jota), even Villa in certain positions are well stocked (Diaby, Bailey, Zaniolo for example). As has been talked about before, we have maybe 14 or 15 "Ange" players and that's it.
2 or 3 players to improve our best team (specifically a 6 and a 9), 2 or 3 more to give variety, adaptability and resilience. We've plenty income from sales of no consequence (who'd miss Reguilon, Parrott and Gil?) and there are some decent profile free transfers out there (Kelly and/or Tosin e.g.), "backing Ange" could simply be all sales reinvested with another about £50m. Surely an overall decent season has earned the manager the right to oversee that and go again.
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