Well, this is awkward… Mikel Arteta is… a… Xhaka fan.
“When I was going from Arsenal to City to start coaching and we were looking in that position, he was one of the players on my list,”
“This is how much I liked him. I was happy when Arsenal signed him because I thought he was going to be a terrific player.
“ He has done some really good things and now he has got stuck in a very difficult situation that, I think, was growing and growing and growing and one day it exploded. But I have been amazed as well by how this relationship is starting to come back a little bit and I think the fans have been very, very positive about him. Obviously it is difficult to change completely the scenario from where he was to a magnificent one. But I think we are in the right direction with him.”
This certainly appears to be the dead body under the patio the entire exec team missed when they interviewed him late at night when it was clearly too dark to see!
I mean, there’s only one thing to do here, look for the light that shines on this turd the best.
There’s no one else in the squad that can play the better bits of Xhaka’s game like he does, so unless there’s a spare £50m in the pocket of the Kroenke’s, it’s very likely this is as good as we can do right now. Just to double down on the claim that we spent next summers money last summer, Raul said this to the press.
‘It is in general. The strategic window by definition is the summer window that’s when you plan the season ahead. ‘Last summer we did an incredible effort where we were very grateful to the support we got from our ownership.
‘We went really one step further and made a real investment that increased our expectations for the season.’
Doesn’t sound like he’s keen to splurge. I’m also not sure I trust the club to do good work in January, so unless there’s a player we can loan, I’d rather us save what little powder we have for sharp moves in 5 months time.
Back to Granit.
You either build him up, or you cut his throat right away. If we’re in the hearts and minds phase at the moment, there’s no one that needs as much heart as the player who told us to fuck off in a shit fit the other week. It’s also clear to anyone that’s been paying attention that Xhaka is a big personality behind the scenes… he managed to bulldoze his way to the most undeserving captaincy of all time. It makes sense that anyone who is feeling out the squad would give him a chance to make good on his ‘potential’ because he really does have to show some of the players his words mean something (they didn’t under Emery who flip-flopped).
I really do think we have to take a lot of the press talk with a pinch of salt over the next few weeks. Arteta has to win over big names in the squad and he has to make the best of the mess he picked up from Emery. I would imagine he’ll also fancy himself as a proper coach, he needs to have case study signed off over the next 6 months, no bigger player to take on than one of the most misunderstood (as in, WHAT DOES HE DO?) and mistake-ridden players of the decade.
This following quote kind of confirms my thinking, but as it’s Boxing Day, I’ll be honest, I read the below quote and built my blog around it to make it seem like I’m insightful.
“I don’t want to change everything drastically in two days,”
“I want to put my feelings slowly, I want to see what is going around, and in the right moment I will make the decisions for the benefit of the team and the club. At the moment I don’t think it is the right time, with the amount of games coming up and the amount of things that have to be done, to change too many things.”
The most important thing for today is the win (also insightful). Bournemouth is in a mess, they’ve won 2 games in 8 and lost the rest. Sure, they beat United and Chelsea in that time, but they’ve been awful. Their confidence is shot to pieces, they’ve conceded 10 in their last 6. Literally the worst team in the league right now… but remember, we are normally a gift for struggling managers, and it’s not a given that we’ll get a new manager bounce.
That said, we are still only 4 points off 5th – if we beat Chelsea, we’ll be 3 points away from top 4 at the start of January, which is unreal. There is certainly a very real chance we could make a power play for the Champions League this season if Areta gets things to click. Again, it feels unrealistic considering the drama, the contracts and the confidence… but hey, crazier things have occurred. Spurs are going to be up and down, Jose struggling to impact them like you’d have thought. Chelsea boasts a young squad with a young manager that will be inconsistent, and United are shite.
I still think the brief to Mikel is simple… find out who is worth keeping, deliver a quick appraisal of the kids, and lay the foundations for next season.
“The context is very important, and the context right now, here, is not Manchester City. It is completely different. So I can’t demand the players to do some things because I will expose them and that is the last thing I want to do. I want to give them confidence, reassurance and guidance. But slowly, slowly, slowly, hopefully we will get to where I want.”
Today is a huge first step and it’s exciting. However, I want to stress over and over, the next 6 weeks are going to be very difficult. We could well be replacing 7 first-team players this summer, he has to find out if the kids have the mustard he needs, and he has to win over the fans. Arteta has to somehow build a culture, lay technical foundations, and make brutal decisions all without a preseason.
Bear with it… it’ll come good. I’m certain. See you in the comments and listen to my podcast if you were rude enough not to have already.
lol….THERE IS STILL TEN MINUTES OF THIS SHITE EVERYONE….TEN WHOLE FUCKING MINUTES!
Jesus. Nearly conceded. Slightly offside.
PEPE ready. Cmon. Show us all what you got.
Hope it’s offside
Looks like it thank god.
Get Pepe on for ten mins
Given his Emery standard , Arteta should not listen to Lundberg half – arsed advice
Laca has played shit! Same as Auba bar his tap in. Nelson has shown nothing special to be honest. Would be nice if we win regardless
Pepe is ON!
Receding – All the tactical master class stuff from Lampard was the usual nonsense.
Their style simply matches up well against this Spurs side away from home.
On Saka’s side again.
Ancelloti. Going to win his first game!!!
our crossing….
Long time for Pepe to replace Nelson.
Pepe has lots of energy.
Fvcking hate watching these weak kids being pushed around.
Amazing how bad Xhaka is at that cross field ball. Always hits it too far forward.
men against boys…mentally and physically inferior
Paulinho you were correct. Also a reason why I never bought into the season being over for us. United, Chelsea and Spurs leak like a shieve these days
Pepe looking good. Le Grove advice of last half hour better than Lindberg’s prejudices
Lacazette has been poor today.
newcastle are above us with a game in hand!!!!!!!
Marko
Correct but we have to go on a wining streak, these draws are not good enough.
Auba’s goal is the 1st shot on target for arsenal
Lacazette was signed for £55m, but he’s worth more like £25m. Not enough quickness for the PL, not ruthless enough of a finisher.
draws are crap we are better off loosing every other game and wining the other!
Whatever be the result of this game, already a few positives from Arteta’s Arsenal. More possession and as a result fewer shots conceded, good off the ball work especially on two wings and a few decent chances created. A long way to go but good stuff so far.
Oh dear Saka……
Sakas had a mare in the final 3rd.
Saka single-handedly destroying the perception of the phrase ‘sweet left foot’.
PEPE remains stationery for too long and attract tackles. Either that or another plbacj pass. Predictable.
Bam, correct, we wont be getting much if we sell Laca.
SAKA…..shit
Paulinho never bought into the Frank Lampard philosophy crap myself.
Sarri had more points at this stage last season and fans over there absolutely hated him
Wonder why all the complaints about Lacazette on here, I was abused by the resident headmaster for calling him overrated a few days ago. Crap striker who needs acres of land to get a shot away, crap passer of the ball but he has a great beard and a cool handshake celebration so we must do everything to keep him
One win in thirteen now !!!!
Really bad,still they all receive their nice big wage packets every week.
Why PEPE didn’t whip the ball in and made another pass. That’s passing the buck.
this team arent worth half what they are geting paid….would not win the CHAMPIONSHIP
how shit was that pass
Fuck sake. Willock
We had 4. and you took that shot???
Willock shoots like a pussy.
@danny …thats why he plays for us!
Laca is awful.
Willock is awful.
We have some horrendous footballers in the squad.
Oh lookie, average Joe Willie lets out an average shot
@paulino….they arent “footballers”
Seriously pissed with Willock s decision. PEPE was free on his right or a little chip to Auba and Laca. Why on earth did he shoot, and it was as weak as ever. Best chance in the 2H and flunked it
It’s hard to know what this team can do now, it’s really bad.
Shooting straight at the goalie ffs.
Clueless bunch of tossers.
Not happy but not unexpected.
Laca is as good as Callum Wilson. Need someone much better.
CRAP!!!!
Unai
I think we might be able to get £30-£40m for him if we sell him to Italy or Spain. I don’t see us getting more than that, though. I personally wouldn’t spend more than £25m on him, but teams that haven’t watched him as much as we have might.
we are going to get spanked by Chelsea
That was a radical change in performance indeed.
Could have won it today had Lacazette’s head or heart been in it
When you in a relegation fight, you’re quite satisfied with an away point even against that crap opposition.
Willock is horrid I don’t know why he gets game time and goes for goal when his shooting is inadequate.
Laca is the most overrated also.
Receding
You belong on the playground you absolute child. On here just to pass comment on other posters, boring bastard.
Excrement.
I saw more effort in the team today.
We are still pretty inept and clueless as a team, as well as individually, but there are some green shoots for me.
A good game to make those who say we’d be fine with Lacazette if we sold Aubameyang stop and think.
That body check at the end was a tantrum basically. He has that very sulky demeanor and lashes out when things don’t go right.
Exactly the same pattern of performance as previous, just slightly better, and that’s almost certainly new manager bounce, especially Ozil emptying the tank in true clean slate fashion.
Good first half and progressively become more of a disjointed mess.
David Luiz has improved a lot on the ball and has added something that wasn’t there in the first few months of the season.
Still Chelsea playing crap but guess what they will beat us.
Maybe practice shooting this week, perhaps not.
Willock has done that in a few games, gone for goal when his teammates who are more likely to finish were in better positions. I don’t care how much Freddie likes him either.
Many Positives from todays game. Auba could have easily won us the game. Laca should have had a hat-trick. Nightmare performance today from Lacazette and Saka .
Still slow, still possession for possessions sake, still ponderous and not enough chances created…
There has to be a total overhaul of this squad, doesn’t matter what system or manager, most of them just aren’t good enough
Lampard is a good manager, very promising.
Next up Chelsea and Man U, oh what joy!
CA
Right CA. When Laca is not having a good game he sulks and sulks. + I think he has very good games or Very Bad ones. Very few games he gives a 6.5.
How bad is Pepe in training? Came on only when Nelson picked up a knock.
Much improved. As first games go I’m happy. Actually have a shape and a plan. Outside of the goal they didn’t create much we did. Amn now looks decent with a bit if coaching, ocil infouencial but wilted. TBf Nelson was better second half. Torr was a rock in the main, dai Luiz was good.
Negatives laca now looks like giroud equally as fast but about 2 foot shorter, let’s try get 40 million while we can.
Nightmares happen. It is for the Manager to wake upand dispel the bad dreams.
I honestly don’t think arteta can change much with such a garbage team.
Relying on martinelli an 18/19 year old to save us shows how horrendously bad our team is.
So much for our world class forwards!!!!
Crap not even close.
Horrendous stuff , overpaid shite.
“Still Chelsea playing crap but guess what they will beat us.”
They will look as smooth as silk against us again on Sunday.
Disappointing result. Arsenal have to win games now as they are in catch up . Arsenal in danger of being marooned midtable or just lower. Shame because a lot of the other teams looking for top four are so erratic themselves. People can go on about improvements seen real or imagined but it’s all about the end result. That’s the bottom line. And the truth is we have seen plenty of games like this from Arsenal in the past especially away from home where they are seen as the better side overall but don’t win the match. Whatever that winning… Read more »
If this was improvements from 3 day training, looks like a long road ahead and very slow recovery to past glory.
Missed opportunity as usual to take advantage of our competition’s mishap
Or are they our competitors anymore?
Arteta better un-loves Xhara fast.
Poor performance by most esp. Laca, Xhara, Ozil, AMN and Nelson. Auba included if not for the goal he scored.
What’s next?
More desire, passion, energy and respect for each other?
I say be more ruthless….
Lampard is overrated the wheels will come off soon, long overdue
There were some positives We defend demonstrably better than previously and xhaka and torreira look a lot better in the middle than they have previously The biggest negatives were those crossing was absolutely dismal. Like worse than 12 year olds on the playground dismal. It’s unreal that we can put in 10+ crosses per game and probably 9 of them were shocking Same was true of the finishing The other issue was we started the game playing positive two touch football and it made a huge difference, but then for no obvious reason we reverted to emeryball endless back passes… Read more »
More of the ball, more shots on goal and than the opposition but we need to work on hitting the target. There are positives to build on but the fixture list is quite horrendous. We are dropping far too many points now.
I have to ask… who is picking the team and deciding on subs?
Its the same odd lineup and the same even more odd subs during the game over 3 different managers.
Pauline, disjointed mess? How?
We had 61 percent possession. You do get the end of football games get a bit frantic as everybody is knackered and trying to win. It was not a disjointed mess.
Batistuta
I think we were good going forward until we conceded. Very good combinations between Xhaka-Torreira-Ozil. After that we went back to Emery-ball for majority of the match after that. Tho we did create a lot of good chances only for Laca to squander time and time again.
Nelson was very very positive. Hungry and fearless. More of that please.
DUIFG
“Much improved.”
No different to many away games seen in the past.
Arsenal having more of the ball against what is seen as a lesser opponent but don’t win the game.
That Auba finish was class by the way.
16th goal of the season.
AMN again walking around the pitch like he’s drunk…
Nelson is never going to make it here, don’t see why he’s starting ahead of Pepe
Xhaka again good game, same with Torreira
Ozil just strolls around again
David Luiz good game again
Saka was poor but can’t blame the poor lad
Encouraging performance, disappointing result. That’s what comes with a slower burn project we’ve embarked on.
Performances and newly developing patterns of play on-field are as important as results over the next few months. Some players will sink or swim before the summer window.
A few poor individual performances, particularly our leading lights at the top end Laca/Auba. Martinelli was a miss for his unrelenting energy and final ball.
Our last piece of play was dire all game long, horrible finishing, terrible crossing/passing. Lots to work on.
Charlie doesn’t comment on other posters comments at all apparently.
That’s news to me.
I don’t know about better performance and all, this is a crap Bournemouth team. Crap. Some players will let us down again and again, that is no longer news
Wasi
“Nelson was very very positive. Hungry and fearless. More of that please.”
Lacks final ball/phase quality.
Arteta’s decisions cost us this game. If it ain’t working, fix it. Nelson did nothing all game and even the goal wasn’t an intentional assist but a weak attempt to score as he did all through the game. Martinelli for nelson or early pepe for nelson would have won us this game. And willock sub? For real? I can understand the need for the young guns to be integrated but the best should be brought in when a win is just in sight. Positive improvements though
‘That was a radical change in performance indeed.’
Arteta will need some time to clean up the mess left behind by your idol Emery. The same Emery in whose defense you continuously shit on better managers than him – Poch, Sarri etc. You are not sparing even rookies such as Arteta and Lampard. Still bitter about sacking of Emery ?
One shot on goal at the most out of form team in the Premier League (apart from us of course).
Lots of work to be done Mikel!
If nobody saw lots of improvements in today’s display, such a fellow should donate his eyes as a free offering cos it’s obvious such a person is blind
Credit where its due.
Arteta talked up Xhaka and Ozil and they duly delivered. Xhaka freed Saka so many times down the left with perfectly weighted passes even Kola would of got a couple of assists today. Ozil opened up the Bournemouth defens quite a few times. That one pass to Auba was magical and flicks were as effective as they were good to watch.
#WelcomeArteta
DUIFG – Lacazette picking the ball up with ten minutes to go and he’s completely alone, with the rest of our team camped in their own half. Disjointed and only created chances on the counter, which is the exactly the same as every game this season, especially as the game wears on.
Fatigue exposes lack of genuine cohesiveness so that’s not an excuse, far from it.
Lacazette with Auba.Dont work ,never has.Pepe should have been on after 60 minutes.Nelson struggled.
If only emery did what lampard has done, we wouldn’t be this shitty.
Ishola bar the result you saw nothing Improved? So performance means nothing.
You were probably with bamford last year screaming over 22 unveated when in reality we had no cohesion or discernable style. “But don’t worry we are getting resukts” haha. Let’s get pulis in to get a new manager bounce is it? Get a win playing route 1 probably. Get real
Unfortunately, the only sauce flowing today was down Don’s ass crack after CC pulled out.
Definitely improved attitude and work rate, faster with the ball too but only in flurries.
Nelson and Saka showing how far this squad actually is from being a true top 4 squad, lots of potential but both way too raw at the moment, made AMN look composed.
Ishola it was improved I think you’ve blanked out the bad memories
Under emery they’d have had 30 shots and won the game against us. There is a pretty clear improvement in terms of our midfield and defensive resilience. It was our final ball, crossing and shooting that really let us down. We should’ve scored 3 or 4.
We wouldn’t have even had 2 chances under emery…
Thought we looked a lot better today , way more movement and forward passing Laca was wasteful Saka is filling in at the back so can’t blame him It’ll take time but positive signs If you’re going to sit there and bitch about this game then you’ve got serious problems “” 2-0, Southampton over Chelsea. I believe a certain former Arsenal manager lost his job for losing to Southampton and for having this group of Arsenal players in 8th, no? Yes, I. think he did”” That was the only reason he lost his job was it bamford ? there were… Read more »
Look we can talk of the very little improvements carried on from the Everton game especially defensively as we’re not letting them shots fly in from every part of the pitch….
But you’re kidding yourself if you think we don’t need to change half this squad, hopefully Arteta sees it and the board do too…
Auba is our best striker, call him a tap in merchant all you want but I’d sooner see the back of Laca before him…100% sure he scores that 1v1 too
A nothing performance – no worse than much of the past 18 months and no real improvements.
Overwhelming pessession, two shot on target, calmamity passing out from the back and scandalous crossing. A bit more effort, but slow, one-paced sideways passing.
I take comfort that it is Arteta’s first game in charge. Otherwise….
“Charlie doesn’t comment on other posters comments at all apparently.“
This is about the 3rd/4th time today you’re talking about me ‘to the class’, I’m flattered but save your infatuation and show your wife some affection.
It’s the Christmas period, Arsenal have an exciting new project, and I’m not remotely interested in dragging my knuckles with you as a past time.
Ishola
Nelson played with confidence which is the first step. We didn’t see a lot of that before. His final ball was lacking sure but he was clearly playing very much better than Laca. And we didn’t have any other winger option other than Pepe on the bench.
I thought Pepe should of come on for Laca at 60 min.