A whole season of bottling rather than one match: a title challenger that leads for months and folds in April. Arsenal in 2023, then again in 2024, were the model, and the phrase now waits for whoever is second in March. The compound of Bottled It, upgraded from an event to a calendar.
Worth saying that a second-place finish with 89 points is only a bottle job on Football Twitter. Everywhere else it is a good season. The phrase measures the lead lost, not the points won.
Seen 28 April 2024, in the replies to every Arsenal post at once: 'bottle job season part two'. The account posting it had the same tweet saved from 2023 with the date changed.
Bottled It is a moment. Bottle Job Season is the whole arc: eight points clear in March, drawing at home in April, 'still in our hands' in May, and then not. The joke needs the run-in to work, so it is dormant from August to February.
What does it mean? Write it the way you would say it out loud.
