Statistically, I'd give this year a B-. In a year when a large # of the big clubs struggled, we held our own, and look to be finishing 3rd, with automatic entrance into the CL. Grading goes against a set of threshold rankings, and we look like we'll finish above 16 or 17 teams. Maybe even a B.
But on a subjective level, I struggle to give this year anything above a D. I feel like giving it worse. We score more points against ManU, Man City, Chelsea, Tottenham and 'Pool than we have done in a long time, and we're arguing about third, and finishing well off first? We beat the eventual champions home AND away FFS!
We had a year with an abominable number of shithouse results against shithouse opposition. Were it not for Ozil, Iwobi and in patches Sanchez & Campbell, we'd not be arguing about 3rd either. We'd be arguing about Europa League. 6 weeks in, and everyone in here, myself included, were finally thinking "this is our year" in a realistic and genuine manner. Nope.
Too many passengers this year. We have a good squad, we really do. Sure, we have some dead wood, but every squad does, and it looks like we'll lose some of that dead wood over summer. But too many of our players were passengers too often this season.