The former.

It’s just like how ALL the predicted XI or “best XI” teams omitted Partey. Literally every single one between July and early August.

I think because Timber came in, it could have arguably pointed towards the possibility of Tierney becoming the bomb on LB, the equivalent job to Ben White, just with us inverting from the opposite side. There was some logic to those ideas but it’s clear now we’re headed down the 4 CBs route eventually.

It took some quite a while to realise and to come to terms with Zinchenko’s importance-- even whilst Tierney was doing a notable ‘Zinchenko impression’ whenever Zina was hurt last season.

There are a small number of others who would argue that we should be starting Tierney, rather than that we would: some for less sensible reasons, some for more sensible ones. This wasn’t prediction but disagreement with Arteta-- which is of course reasonably possible, if difficult and likely fruitless.

The most sensible version of that argument (which I’ll admit I still didn’t find persuasive) was that while Tierney offered much less in the buildup, he offered more in defence and in the final third: specifically in the effective width he offered, which would allow the LW (especially Martinelli) to play more consistently inside, and have had the LCM (Xhaka, now Rice orHavertz) sitting more or less where Zinchenko did and still does.

Arteta clearly wants the wingers to hold width (and provide the lion’s share of our crossing) and values their movement inside more than their presence inside; he also clearly wants more diversity in our buildup, and really values what Zinchenko offers both there and in the final third, where he’d rather see the wingers and CMs attacking, and the FBs only overlapping and attacking the box occasionally. (Interestingly, while there is a general impression that White does this more, his per 90 crossing is almost identical to Zina’s.)

We tried out 4 or 5 different backlines from pre-season until the first league game, and Tierney didn’t start in a single one lol.

It was pure stubbornness from fans who liked him.

It’s blatant missing of hints enabled by echo chambers. You point out a glaring point and people make up arguments to go around it, heavy on the downvotes.

I’m always of the view never trust a manager’s words 100% in press conferences. They barely play down any player. Just see their actions. People were seeing Kiwior, Xhaka, half-fit Zichenko, and Tomiyasu all playing LB and still maintaining that Tierney was part of our plans.

Ramsdale was another example. Deep down, you’d know that Ramsdale was screwed but the sentimental part of us made up stories to convince ourselves otherwise. And just because Ramdale started the first few games, we thought we had “won” yet there was glaring proof that Raya was better.

In a funny twist, even Arteta made up some weird tales about subbing off GKs yet he knew who would start.

There are many additional hints in that team that either backfired because of injuries, failed transfers or even a player immensely improving.