The real leadership news cycle can begin again after being rudely interrupted by the British Election of 2019.
Today is tantalising because there is very strong chance that two of the candidates in the stadium today could be made Arsenal’s manager fulltime by January 1st.
Freddie Ljungberg has an opportunity to show that he can make us hard to beat and resilient against a wounded Manchester City side. The Swede has so far conducted himself with absolute class, showing a calm head in a tough situation, though not really moving the football forward by any margin.
In the other dugout, you have the great unknown in Mikael Arteta. His reputation in the game is fantastic, his PR has been propagated by stories of his great coaching, elite communications skills and his thorough approach to analysis and all-round problem-solving. He is the moon-shot hiring we hope could bring us some of that City IP and a future worth waking up for.
A few things to note. It’s clear a lot has happened this week, the club is speaking to everyone, but I still think the leads are Arteta, Freddie and Patrick. I think stories of Nuno are just being put in the press for his sake and I pray to Gods of Football that Martinez was kicked to the curb with the full force of a very nice leather boot. His name being linked to the club makes me dry-heave. There are also sensitivities, Arteta is coaching against us today, we have to behave. There will also likely have been conversations around Pochettino and a few other bottom of the barrelers hanging around like a pathogen in drinking water.
Holding out for Pochettino is a gamble. He’ll not be committing to any club before he needs to and the chances are that every top club in the world might be chasing him this summer. He’ll have a choice of Bayern, PSG and maybe even Manchester City if Pep decides he wants to leave. All of those clubs put the chances of an Arsenal choice at a very low ‘probably not.’
I think the other factor that has to be a consideration is the realisation we have the chance to make top 4… still. Win the game today, we’re 4 points away from a stuttering Chelsea. That’s not beyond the realms. If we bring in a manager that can stabilize us and move the team forward, we could be in with a shout at the end of the season. If Freddie doesn’t have a chance of the job longterm, then you need to put it with someone that does so the squad all know the new coach has real authority.
Big decision, I am hopeful we’ll not wait until the end of the season and my view is we should be putting our chips on Arteta.
Another big story doing the rounds in the press is the one about Mesut Ozil speaking out about the Chinese treatment of the Uighurs. The problem is a serious one, sports clubs from around the world have been tripping over themselves to deal with players speaking out about it, and they’ve generally been fucking up… Arsenal engaged the comments and said they don’t do politics and disassociated with the issue, just like the teams in the NBA have been doing after cultivating lucrative relationships with the Chinese.
A few things to note here. Mesut Ozil needs to work out what he stands for. Though his stance on China is correct and noble, it looks a bit embarrassing when just a few months ago he had Erdogan at his wedding giving him away. The Turkish leader, who purged many innocents from their jobs and put them in prison after an alleged coup attempt, also has a terrible human rights record. If there was anyone Mesut should have been standing up to, it’s a leader doing bad things to his own people.
Anyway, the Arsenal game has been cancelled from CCTV today. The Chinese using the full force of the Government to crush Western dissent. It’s extremely grim. It’s also hard to know what to make of it, unless all football clubs in Europe stand behind a movement against the violations going on, a valiant stance does nothing for your financials or your growth. On the other hand, football clubs are supposed to have some sort of moral backbone and stand for something. They have an immense platform to raise awareness of human rights abuses and should be good global citizens.
The big problem is this: How far does a football club go over an indirect issue? It’s easy for me to say stand with morals and ethics, I’m not CEOing over a -£23m loss. There’s no simple answer, but the problem Arsenal have now is they apologized, so they’ve put a stake in the ground which is not going down well on the internet.
Back the game, we have an injury list for the ages. Tierney, Bellerin, Pepe, Ceballos, Xhaka and Holding are all out.
City had problems last week against United who stretched them with their pace and width. United were lucky, but every side has to be if they want to beat Peps back to back Premier League champions.
I think rocking a front three of Saka, Martinelli and Auba would be smart. Make them think twice about pushing a high line against us. Midfield will likely be Matteo, Torriera, with Mesut in the hole. Then the defence probably picks itself again, have my doubts he’s going to risk Luiz in a game with lots of fast technical players.
Then it’s up with the gods. I’m hoping we don’t take a pasting, but if we play like we did against West Ham and Standard, we’ll lose by 4 goals. If we channel the good 10 minutes from both of those games, we’ll be in a better place.
Fingers crossed everyone, see you in the comments. x
Did we have a shot on target 3nd half. Shocking performance once again. It will take time till we bocome competitive again no matter what we change
Pepe is worse than Gervinho.
Fed up of watching this oaf continously showboat and make a fool of himself.
Pepe loses the ball a lot
So does Guen-
We do not have a midfied at all.
When was the last time our mids scored a goal???
Lower part of stadium half empty
Poor pass choice/ from Rowe tbh. Keep driving and find auba
After Ozils petulant display leaving the field why did Per go out of his way to consul him?
Play Ozil in the hole and see how we’ll create chances was the mantra on here a few games ago.
Certain players with too much influence.
In an optimistic point of view if we dont have european football coming year it will be better for the new manager and the players themselves.
Have we committed any fouls? Guendozi is not a central midfielder, doesn’t actually do anything positive if you assess his game, maybe we do miss Dhaka fir now until we get someone better, ESR did more in his 20 mins than ozil has done all year, just play the kids .
Freddie laughing with Pep.
Freddie asked Guadiola if he’d swap with Arteta
“That’s not really denying coaching is it Charles.“
Dismissing any possible defensive improvement from the next coach, over Emery and a caretaker, is literally denying the value of coaching.
You bring managers in because of their ability to structure, organise, and lead down a certain path.
TR7
We need to earn 15-18 more points to avoid relegation first lol
I hope we get in a proper manager TR7
Freddie is not a proper manager.. When is that penny going to drop for you? What exactly will playing hot and cold kids in this dysfunctional system accomplish?
Mavropranos was crap last game anyway
Freddie looking at the City assistant job when arteta comes here.
Chummy with Pep
Poor form Freddie. No wonder the players don’t give a shit.
Apparently City decided not to humiliate Arsenal any more.
Leno saved 2 sure goals. That score would indicate how piss poor we were
Very poor today, but I feel for Freddie, he’s not at the level and he’s a caretaker.
Need someone who knows what they are doing… now… not at the end of the season.
If we dont play on europe coming year there is no reason keeping both Laca and Auba. Try to sell one of the two at the highest bidder. Then reinvest in a new young CB to play next to Saliba. French guy Upamecano would be optimal
What with all that height can’t Guen train on headers?? Man doesn’t even get near the box for dead balls
The amount of so called football experts on here is astonishing. Ozil this, Ozil that. Exactly which City’s goal was he responsible for? First? Third? All of them? Yeah, I’m sure KDB would have done so much better in Ozil’s place… not. Freddie decides to go with three in the back against the mighty Standard Leige yet goes with a very flakey four against City today. Ridicule poor management and the fucking defense and midfield first, then concentrate on everything else, including Ozil who really wasn’t our problem today.
Honestly we need to raise capital to invest in this team.
We should sell Laca and Auba. Athletico Madrid need goals and had interest in Laca before he came to AFC – that’d be a good move for him too and you have to think we could get the better part or 50 million.
I hope the Auba to madrid rumors are true. If we get 100 million between the two of them that’d be good enough to get a midfielder and a center back.
Pedro
We’re bobbing about in the ocean aimlessly, any chat of us nearing an appointment?
Full week ahead this week, must be getting near.
Why don’t we just concede playing the league and give up football for the rest of the season get a new manager in and just have practice till next season . I mean it’s not as if we are any good at this football lark anyway
can we get in a CB and proper attacking Mid in JAN?
if not, its going to be a relegation fight
Why would Arteta want to come to this? 😂 😂 😂
Rafa the only one who could sort this out.
We gotta sell most of our first team squad including our fantastic strikers using that money to buy actual defenders and complete midfielders.
So bye Auba, bye Laca, bye Xhaka, bye Mustafi, bye Sokratis, bye Luiz, bye Torreira, bye Ozil.
Should get over 150mil and we go back to George Graham football for 2-3 years before we think about free-flowing football again.
Came from the states to see the Brighton match last week. It’s a Shi* show folks. And Sagna is correct it’s run like a circus with Kronkey the Donkey the ring master. Going to take some time to repair the circus,
Freddie thanking Pep for not turning the screw there
Defense has got worse without Ramsey, Iwobi and Mkhitaryan. Three players who could retain the ball. They were replaced by Ceballos, Nelson and Nico Pépé
Totally foreign concept at Arsenal, but nothing some new players wouldn’t solve. Buy a couple of them and watch the XI suddenly organise like peak Atletico. Christ you’re a prick. I dunno if it’s stupidity or some desperate need to be right or appear knowledgeable or maybe you haven’t actually been watching Arsenal these last few years but the complete dismissive attitude you have towards signings is frankly pathetic given the last number of years. No one’s saying that getting in the right appointment isn’t important but this idea that we have good players (defensive players) and all that’s missing… Read more »
“Listening to the Commentators eulogizing arsenal is making me sick.”
Correct. I felt like puking too
I would take Rafa on a short term contract.
Dream10
“Defense has got worse without Ramsey, Iwobi and Mkhitaryan. Three players who could retain the ball. They were replaced by Ceballos, Nelson and Nico Pépé”
I was just thinking about the match away at Everton
Iwobi could turn the screws on us…that would be really hilarious
Not much to say.. really ….new manager needed asap. And use the rest of the season to weed out the players who don’t give a fuck. Midfield and defense needs reinforcements as well. Not much to be optimistic about at the moment. Ozil showing his petulance though… when walking off.. seriously? Axis of evil still intact. 🙁
The worrying part is City played much better against Man Utd last week. Defensive lapses and Utd’s speed hurt them. They were at their throats. A relegation fight is on the menu
It’s a blog guys, you’re supposed to post your views.
Freddie is not to blame for this shit. Nor should he be made a permanent manager. I really think we need Benitez. Let him recruit all the defenders and give him the keys. he got schar for 3 mil ffs. after two years he would make us a top 4 fixture. And then we should go from there.
Very poor today, but I feel for Freddie, he’s not at the level and he’s a caretaker.
Pep, Zidane, Mou, Ancellotti, Enrique, Poch & co would also not be at the level with this bunch eh?
Very unfair to make Freddie shoulder the blame alone.
Receding
Doesn’t look like we have many options to pick from. If our choices are Viera, Nuno etc. I would rather we waited till the summer. We need to get the next appointment spot on, can’t afford to get it wrong again. Better leaving it late if that helps us get a quality manager.
Dream, we won’t get relegated.
All in all, it’s wasn’t as bad as I feared.
We just need to forget this loss every quickly, can Freddie help the squad refocus?
I’m not sure he has those types of management tools in his kitty.
Habesha Benitez is not making us a top four fixture in this League. You guys are still picturing a Rafa from back in the days. Nothing about what he did at Newcastle impressed me. It was just pleading player poverty to play horrendous football.
Nothing against Benitez but he isn’t the answer for us now. Pick our project, pick the man for it now and get him in. No project headed by Benitez interests or excites me.
I watched the circus till the end.
Thanks Pep for showing mercy.
We’ve got our Arsenal back mates. We really have..
The board have to take massive responsibility.
Emery should have gone before the international break and Mourinho should have been appointed.
Now it looks like we’re going to end up with Mikel fucking Arteta to clean this mess up.
This squad is average and toxic. About 70% need culling and we need a manager with the authority and the balls to slap some of them in the fucking face.
If Freddie is still in charge Xhaka and Ozil will start the next game. 😞
Receding
Emery excited you, so pinch of salt and that eh.
Dismissing any possible defensive improvement from the next coach, over Emery and a caretaker, is literally denying the value of coaching. With the same players yes but I’m not denying coaching per say. Say we hire Allegri and he comes in and says that we need to sell AMN and Chambers and brings in Atal and Romagnoli. I would then say that’s a smart coach and the subsequent defensive improvement would be on him for addressing it and that’s good coaching. Say he comes in and trys to improve our defensive performances with the same players right now…he won’t. It’s… Read more »
‘Iwobi could turn the screws on us…that would be really hilarious’
Iwobi is shit.
Cesspit FC 0 Man City 3 Excrement. Predicted a 3 goal shellacking ( 1-4) and KDB and Stirling to run amok. And that’s what duly happened ( think my 87.3% accuracy levels) Talking of Stirling ( Rand in this instance) made mountains of it again buying City goals. ( and I dont even need the bloody stuff) You must join in on on the Act. So delightfully Easy. Dont think we will be seeing Mr.Arteta back at the Arsenal for a while yet. Stark Raving Bonkers to join us. Bournemouth and Everton next on the horizon. Expect to ship between… Read more »
All this talk of coach well Arsenal need a “great” coach take over this shit heap average team that is flawed in many aspects. Guendouzi shocking and was at fault for two goals with poor off the ball play. Chambers not good enough for the first goal. Not good enough overall. Kolasinac shocking defensively for the 2nd goal. And we continue to see street football from Pepe. As many thought the West Ham game was a case of Arsenal bumping into a side that have even bigger problems than Arsenal atm as hard as that can be imagined. This present… Read more »
This is what happens when you give a manager 20 years to do as he pleases.
The AKB’s melts should be ashamed of themselves and deported
Arsenal fans have gone totally mad. Someone write Arsenal defence is worse without IWOBI and RAMSEY.
RAMSEY IS GOOD RIDDANCE Do you know how many games he has played at JUVE and his contributions there? Let’s not even discuss IWOBI A player who did not improve in 4 years of neumerous PL starts.
CA
That’s it Cesc, we need a hard line, disciplinarian with balls. The attitude from the older players suck. I cant see Arteta doing that. Freddie is to close to the players to do that.
Not saying getting in a proper manager isn’t very vital for the future because to be honest it is… But you’d be lying to yourself if you think any manager is going to come here and get half of these players playing any better than they currently are, this quite unfortunately is their level and sadly ours…You can’t coach Chambers trying to dribble out as the last man, you can’t coach Sokratis being more of a wrestler than a footballer….You can’t coach AMN from being absolutely shit at football… Half the squad would struggle in the championship and that’s the… Read more »
The signs of 22 years of absolute shit is showing.
RH do you know Newcastle’s net spend during his tenure? It was in the lower negatives. The only player he competed to buy was Almiron. If he could make fearsome players out of the likes of Atsu, Schar, Rondon he would totally make us better. The job he did at Napoli before sarri is why Napoli have been in the champions league for a while now. Learning to defend for our players is a win in itself for me.
Dream we don’t get relegated.
The nightmare could be real. So saving pennies till summer might be suicidal
In the interrimn getting Bould in place of Mertesacker might be smart.
Steve Bould was there last season and we were still shit defensively
Red looking for us to bite on his ‘deported’ comment.
There is no improving chambers, sokratis, Luiz, xhaka, Ozil and co from anybody.
Scratch everything and begin again, we need a coach now, not this Freddie nonsense we are seeing week in, week out.
The first 90 seconds decided the game. If Martinelli had managed to put his chance away after 30 seconds( difficult chance admittedly) then Debruyne’s first goal.wouldn’t have happened and the crowd would have stayed with the team.. City scored with their next shot on target and the 3rd was rank bad organisation from our coaching staff who should have told Kolasinac to stay down until Saka was ready to come on… City’s goals could have been avoided if we use their tactics of tactical fouling, it’s simple , bring them down before they get into the final 3rd and take… Read more »
Mourinho should have been appointed.
—————————-
Spurs are paying him 15 million a year.
The pay off for Pochettino was 13 million quid.
Could you really see us doing that?
Only a Simeone or a Ancelotti can turn things around next season. This season is gone too deep in shit for any smartass to come and bring much difference
Left Testicle
Exactly.
Arteta is barely older than some of them, average career and where does his authority come from? He held Guardiola’s cock while he pissed and brought him his morning coffee?
With the attitude of absolute shitrags like Ozil etc he will be walked all over.
Cesc I don’t think Spurs started talking to Mourinho after they sacked Pochettino. That deal has always been in the pipeline for them.
Arsenal preserved with Emery because they had no obvious appointment to make after sacking him and didn’t trust Freddie and we can see why.
I refuse to believe we were an international break Emery sacking away from appointing mourinho.
Un,
I’m determined not to bite. He just craves attention.
Arteta would be daft to make this his first management project. This will probably scar his career.
How does he go from taking over from Pep to taking over this shitfest?
Which is why cries for Arteta are just quite ridiculous because again, unless he’s been promised significant investment in our midfield and defence, don’t see exactly how he improves it… You can’t get these guys to be something they’re not which at the moment is shit…
AMN
Kolasinac
Sokratis
Ozil
Auba(if the offer is right)
Bellerin(same as Auba)
We need to purge the squad of half of it’s playing personnel if we are ever going to move foward. Liverpool did it too and bought smartly, sadly we just buy players that we don’t need(Pepe)…
Haber gooner I don’t recall Newcastle ever being a fearsome unit and for a team who always defended their goals against column wasn’t even impressive.
We deserve this though well some of us do. Pathetic fanbase has been for years. Allowed Wenger to fester too long still eulogize about his leaving. Get into arguments about Ozil, AMN, Xhaka, Kolasinac etc etc. You even had idiots talking about how we’d improve when Bellerin, Chambers and Holding got playing together despite these players being dogshit. Even still it’s Lacazette holds the ball up well, Willock is a great prospect and Torreira just needs to be sitting in front of the defence. Shambles of a squad with a delusional fanbase. Still though nothing an elite manager like Mikel… Read more »
CA
He held Guardiola’s cock while he pissed and brought him his morning coffee.
……
I bet that wasn’t in the job description.
KDB saying no Arsenal player except Martinelli tried to close his team down and thus they got a lot of space to attack. Tactics and application is very very important in top flight football.
That deal has always been in the pipeline for them.
———————-
Mourinho’s wife insisted on staying in London just like when he was in Manchester, she didn’t want to know, that’s why he lived in a hotel there instead of buying a house.
He would’ve taken us or Spurs, he didn’t care as long as his wife was/is happy.
I think Benitez check all the biases for a manager to steady the ship as we clear out the dross.
He has premier ;league experience, speaks the language and has handled “top” players all this career.
Thought AMN was alright. Decent squad player.
Banish the whole team into exile and build a Brexit team who are proud to wear the shirt.
Get George Graham and tony Adam’s as his assistant, at least temporarily till the end of the season .
Duncan Ferguson Rejuvenated Everton will eat feeble and inept Arsenal alive next week.
They will tear us limb to limb.
Calvert Lewis will be made to look like Dixie Dean this time next week.
Under Wenger we used to go up there and rattle in 6, 4 ,4 etc.
Season from Hell continues.
More interviews tomorrow.
How is Don Rauls statue coming on?!
How the fuck do they have the dough for this and we don’t?
————————-
Of course we do, Kroenke’s worth $10 billion dollars, the simple difference is that Daniel Levy and Joe Lewis give a fuck.
Next we have a resurgent Everton.
Iwobi v AMN
The club seems rotten from the top to the bottom but have to say our player purchases just about rival Everton’s for total waste of money…. We’ve spent so much on players without actually addressing the areas that are of the most importance and this has been going on for a very long time… It’s now apparent that Raul only swinged his dick with the Pepe signing after fans became very restless last summer… That signing wasn’t what we needed not with our back line and midfield, i mean we were just behind pool and city for goals scored and… Read more »
Batistuta are you sure that with yet another coach that we wouldn’t see improvements from certain players? Are you really sure? Like really REALLY sure? I dunno man I think one more manager might be the trick to unlocking Chambers potential at CB if you ask me. Still could be a steal for that 16 million all those years ago.
https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/rafa-benitezs-28-signings-rated-16176124
these were his non poverty signings. If you think he didn’t do great with these players I don’t know what’s great.
TR7 I saw that. Basically what everyone has been saying on here. No pressing and a midfield that is good for precisely nothing. Some of these players are genuinely beyond coaching. Ozil, for example, knows his a waste of space and he knows the club massively regrets his contract. He’s got one year left after this, he’s not intention of going anywhere, he’s such a spineless shitrag he will happily be dropped so why is he suddenly going to perk up under the 4th manager now who will ‘get the best out of him’? Aubameyang has a year left on… Read more »
Marko we have no money to spend. We are not going to buy top players to close the gap on Liverpool and City. A good managerial appointment is a more plausible way to improve us somewhat.
Can’t do tactics with players who don’t care or are out of their depth which sadly applies to half the squad
Red,
Do you suffer from ADHD?
“I dunno man I think one more manager might be the trick to unlocking Chambers potential at CB if you ask me. Still could be a steal for that 16 million all those years ago.“
Wenger = shit with defending
Emery = shit with it all
Freddie = not a manager, an assistant to shit
But why oh why aren’t we well organised? I don’t get it.
All things into perspective, it was said that it would take a few years for this team to sort itself out, in strong consideration of that flat out mess left behind in 2018. They appear to still remain in keeping with that expectation with the exception that the current group of players really are pretty lousy.
Thought AMN was alright. Decent squad player.
Case in point. Dunno how many more games people need before they realize that this lad is championship at best. Absolutely conning a living at the club.
Ake and Docoure for 72M improve us more than Pepe for 72M. Our hiring strategy is poor too.
Marko
While a new manager who’s a bit more of a defensive minded one might get is to be more organized and harder to beat/play against, he’d have to extract 11/10 out of half the players every match day because the reality is they’re not good enough so while there might be improvements, you’re still left with same mistakes and same inadequacies
Bellerin seems more interested in uninformed political statements, veganism, virtual signalling and fashion than football.
……
This would be hilarious if it wasn’t true. We are genuinely a laughing stock.
Torreira crying, Xhaka telling the fans to fuck off, AMN stoned up to his eye balls, Ozil being as Ozil and his new China comments, Bellends ‘fuck Boris’ tweet, Per and his anxiety issues and Guendouzi rolling around the floor when somebody touches him.
Where is the discipline?
Tr7
Exactly, while you can’t knock what a good manager brings, you also have to buy smartly and give him the tools to succeed.
Bringing in Sokratis, now that is a greek tragedy!
The defence has been allowed to do what it likes for too long. Coaching would make a difference even for bad defenders
I said before we should appoint Martin Keown as defence coach and that is still an imperative
Un na na
You’d see up there where i said that our player recruitment has been poor, those in charge haven’t exactly covered themselves in glory the last couple of years as we’ve bought players we didn’t need, players who are semi-retired or players who just aren’t good enough and that literally is half the squad… Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t work towards fixing that while also getting in a proper manager
Didn’t Keown come in and coach our defense – including senderos – on that run in the champions league in 07ish where we didn’t concede in loads of games in a row??
A good managerial appointment is a more plausible way to improve us somewhat. Unless a new manager gets guarantees of signings and investment we’re not improving. I can guarantee you that much. I honestly don’t get how this is still an argument being made by Arsenal fans. How many more games/years/mangers do people need before they realize that the players are holding us back and that we need better in order to improve. Going on 4 seasons now with the likes of Xhaka, Mustafi and Kolasinac in defensive positions good luck thinking that yet another manager comes in and gets… Read more »
Northbanker
Did you see when Freddie had his head in his hand after that daft Chambers mistake? You can’t coach that, not in a million years
There isn’t one player at the club that would get into Liverpool or City…at a push, probably not Leicester or Spurs. That’s awful. Any metric you choose to pursue, you should be able to place at least one player from your team into a peers team. We can’t. Our hiring is piss poor. Pepe is shit. The jury has returned the verdict. He may have been trendy but holy cow, he’s another Kaba Diawara. Awful. The defence, bar Leno is uncoachable. The midfield lacks power, drive and calmness. Gued is shit. Torrier is shit. Ozil is shit. Auba and Laca… Read more »