Well good morning to you, I wrote a post yesterday and it didn’t post, so you’re getting a double hit of the good stuff today. 💉
It’s Mikel press conference time, I’m still getting over the novelty of not spending 45 minutes trying to decipher the buried messaging of an Unai prezzer. I also like the fact that for the first time in 10 years, tuning into the pregame chat is actually interesting.
Let’s jump face-first into what hasn’t changed in forever… an Arsenal manager on transfers.
‘I’m happy we have the squad that I believe we can compete for what we want. I’m fine. I want to keep the players and get the maximum from the players that I want, but if this scenario changes and we need somebody, I’m expecting that we will go into the market and try to solve the issue.’
On whether he has a wishlist just in case.
‘I have, yes. You need to have one always, just in case!’
So the reality of our situation hasn’t changed, we blew our load last summer, and unless a very cheap deal or loan pops, we’ll be tasting the consequences of that until we can shift some of the deadwood in the summer… but at least Mikel has a list of players he likes, hopefully Ever Banega and Big Steve Nzonzi don’t feature. That’d be like finally landing a date with Sienna Miller and finding out she farts when she drinks, which to be honest is how I felt when he started Xhaka… I have grown to enjoy that fragrance though.
The most interesting theme that has run through the last week is that Arteta is very publicly calling Auba his most important player. I can’t deny that it’s true, but it seems to be a very purposeful narrative that he’s pushing.
‘Auba has been around, he was very sad after the game. He was disappointed that he left the team with 10 men. It’s an action that is completely accidental in my opinion. He’s been superb under me, he’s trained really well, he’s working so hard. He’s scoring goals and has probably been the most important player on the team. So to lose him, obviously, is really bad news for us.’
‘I don’t know. I haven’t experienced it. I hope not, I hope we can play better and even win the games and he will be pushing for that as well. Players have to step up. You know, when one of your big players is not there, they have to take responsibility. I’m sure when they’re not playing, they want a chance and they talk. It’s time to talk on the pitch, not outside. You come on there, you make the impact that he made and you sure me that you are as good as him or even better. You have the chance.’
Keeping your best sharpshooter motivated is obviously important, is the extra effort because he wants him to sign a new deal, or is it to keep him motivated despite playing him out of position? Or is Arteta just a really fucking massive fanboy of the man. He has a gold car, that is way cool imo.
My abiding memory of Sheffield United is from the Highbury days when we cheated and scored a goal and Steve Bruce threatened to take his players off the pitch like a giant pink snowflake, an incident that culminated in Arsenal offering a replay for the unfair result. I also remember the FA Cup semi-final when David Seaman made THAT save from Paul Peschisolido.
Things are different now. Chris Wilder, one of the sexy breed of new managers doing big things at small clubs, has made his team quite the spectacle this season. Mikel likes him.
‘The work he’s done is phenomenal and he’s done some special things as well with some movements and characteristics of how he moves his team around, and the demands that he puts on his players. What I like about a manager is when I see a team and they are a real team that fights for every single ball with their attitude and behaviour, as well as their intentions for what they want to do every time. It’s very clear what he’s trying to do, so I have big admiration for him.’
The reality of our season is that this game is very important to our progress. Sheffield United are running away from us, we lose here, it’s a 7 point gap. Staggering considering their outlay compared to ours.
Things are still not looking positive on the injury and suspension front. Kola, Tierney and Bellerin likely won’t feature. LT ‘might’ be back in contention, but he has a hip problem. Our best striker sits out the first of three games. The only thing going for us tomorrow is that this has been the first full week the squad has had with the new training staff. We’ll be a little bit fitter, the plan should be a little more clear, and hopefully we come out all guns blazing for an expectant home crowd. Miracles don’t happen overnight, but a nice run of results against sides we should be beating would build belief in the squad and make us fighting fit for the big games in the cup and against the top 6 sides when they land.
One interesting thing to watch out for is the captaincy. Who does that go to in the new era? The way the team has been playing, I’d expect someone like David Luiz. I feel like he’s bought into the vision and his performances have been immense.
Finally, Head of Medical Services, Gary O’Driscoll, has left the building to take up a new role at Liverpool. I had the pleasure of being toured around the Arsenal facilities by him a few years ago, it basically qualified me to have PHD after my work signature, and it’s part of the reason I’m so revered in the Sports Science community. The article is here, think that was back in the day when Wenger was blaming injuries on hair pills and bad luck. What a time to be alive.
What I think is important about this move is, whilst sad, it shows you how good our backroom team is. The amateur injury specialist scene on Twitter is quite something, generally always wrong about their assessments of what goes on at the club, always wrong when they point the finger out the medical team. This is a vindication of that reality. Anyway, if you fancy the job, you can apply here.
Right, find me in the comments where I’ll be giving a seminar on the latest WADA regulations, have a great Friday night x
Azed – Un Naai as well, wetting himself silly over Ozil’s chances created since he was fed the stat a few months ago.
I think Arteta fucked us bringing on Eddie.
Lost our entire shape up top as Laca was spearheading the press and being a fulcrum for others to play off.
We just can’t buy a win for shit this season.
Mustafi and AMN, just us asking for mediocrity
Ceballos would not have been able to deal with Sheffield hard working midfield especially coming off from a long layoff. Nketiah a good sub given we needed to keep two goalscorers on the pitch to seal the victory.
The Laca sub changed the game
That’s for all those who have been bashing the lad at every chance
It cant be all blamed on emery we simply don’t have enough quality in this side.
Six goals in six games with Arteta, we are really ripping it up.
No doubt Arteta has improved the team.
But this team is still very poor quality wise. We need some serious investment to get back up into the top 4.
Wow we are pretty shocking
yeah this one is on Arteta tbh
bad game management with us soaking up all the pressure but never threaten fiercely enough to kill the game
TR7
Throwing in a kid from championship with no PL minutes not the smartest move imo.
Especially as we were winning.
Xhaka soooo slow
Home team looking like the away one. Another dismal weekend.
Tr7
Laca has more hustle and industry allowed us to dictate the tempo more.
It was a bad sub by arteta
Dissenter,
It’s more about subbing a senior player with a player who still plays like he’s 16 yo.
Shocking by Arteta and it’s not the first time he’s cost us points with his subs/ not making subs.
This one is on Arteta, 100% on him
Maybe Pedro can be pragmatic now and stop all the flowery propaganda nonsense.
“It cant be all blamed on emery we simply don’t have enough quality in this side.”
London be careful. It’s all Emery.
Sheffield got good points off us. We are really terrible this season
Mike Dean does it again.
You can see that Saka and Martinelli play good football. Pepe and AMN have no final ball at all.
So is City
we’re still not doing enough in attack in these games. We need more chances on goal. Is that one win for Arteta?
I like how you’ve just seen:
Mustafi fuck up.
Ozil pussy out of a challenge.
Xhaka fuck up straight after.
In the space of about 3 minutes.
For any supporters who wanted a snapshot of Arsenal.
Saks is such a clever little player.
3 things from this crap match:
1. We should’ve had a penalty for the clear foul on Pepe.
2. Arteta had a hair cut.
3. Chelsea are going to destroy us on Tuesday.
The talk after Bournemouth from the likes of DFUIG and others was that Arteta had already improved our play with the ball, same after Chelsea/United.
Now that’s gone to shit all the focus has gone back on the defensive side.
Arteta’s in-game management has to rapidly improve or he will never be a great manager. He’s been great in the training ground and shocking during the games. Cost us yet again. To be expected from an assistant manager I guess.
We’ve drawn the most games in the league at 11.
Write off, this season is a total write off. Is there any way we can even win Europa?
Laca may not score goals but his contributions were missed when he got aubbed. What did nketiah do today? What prompted arteta to sub laca for eddie? Is there a ghost at Emirates that affects the decision making of our coaches? I don’t understand this. And Leno, i’ve always said he’s a suspect
Bournemouth didn’t really see anything, Chelsea for 30 minutes, United was improvement (though very similar to last year actually against them at home). But Palace and Sheffield not sure I saw any improvement.
Don’t blame Arteta though, I like some of the things he’s trying but this squad is trash.
I do think he’s subs are meek. Nketiah was pointless and how did Ozil make it to the end?
Thats 12 points lost this season thanks to bad refering (Assuming the pen would have given us a goal). Is there a point of VAR at all.
Wtf is everyone talking about w subs???
Who do we have on the bench that is so damn inspiring? The last bit of our squad is on the fuckjng field!
So, what positives are you going to spin out of this one? Didn’t see any of that sauce that most of you on here were smearing each other with over Arteta.
Some players cannot he turned around over night. Ozil has returned to type, mustafi shit as ever.
Saka our brightest spark.
Let’s be fair, our bench is so inexperienced and young, let alone the players on the bench.
We can’t be irrational. It’s a massive rebuild.
Ceballos!!??
Where are all the heroes who were giving the big Billy bollocks to me at HT?
Champagne Charlie lost his voice? Man up, you fannies.
1 win in 5 now. Similar output to your great villain Emery.
We can buy all the offensive players in the world but if we can’t defend it’s meaningless. Third game in a month where if we had the mentality we could won them.
These group of players not learning from their collective mistakes.
Ole/London
Not saying subbing Laca off was a good decision. Between Ceballos and Nketiah, I kind of understand why Nketiah was preferred. Martinelli drifts to wide areas on the left side, so we needed a striker playing through the middle.
you know we gonna concede when the usual players started to get nervous
and concede we did
pathetically
Struggling to draw with Sheffield United at home… That is what this club has become.
*have
This is not good enough from Arteta, he’s managed 6 points from 5 matches – that is a worse points return than what we achieved prior to Arteta joining this season. A sequence that included our worst run since 1977.
Our next 2 matches in the PL are Chelsea away and Burnley away – what’s a realistic expectation one draw one loss?
Fact is if Emery was getting these results Pedro would be screaming blue murder about getting results against teams we should beat.
Arteta needs to shape up or we’ll going to be following ManU’s pattern of hiring managers.
Write off, this season is a total write off. Is there any way we can even win Europa?
——
Not a chance.
It’s becoming tiresome, AMN is terrible, I’ve seen him tuck in and I’m wondering if that was instructed or he’s just thick!
Very poor Arteta.
He’s got a lot to learn, at our expense.
Goal scoring needs to be addressed urgently, better movement up front.
The midfielders do not shoot, none of them.
Can’t defend a lead now at all.
No bounce, nothing.
Miserable times
*This
Is there any way we can even win Europa?
—————-
Why the fuck not? On paper the teams left in it our are weaker than the last 2 seasons.
Jeff
You don’t see sauce brother. You feel it.
We brought on a player who was not good enough to play for Leeds United, that is where we’re at.
Inter is the only real challenger in europe other than us
Leeds
It’s not to do with defence.
It’s our midfield.
I don’t know how much more fans need to see of this squad to realise that.
Add a good CB and watch next to nothing change.
Didn’t feel it either Zach. Did you?
‘We brought on a player who was not good enough to play for Leeds United, that is where we’re at.’
This.
who were we supposed to bring on? Say what u will eddie is fast, 70 min in he is even faster when fresh. U gotta start somewhere
Guen is good at pressing high up so could have let him rampage up front as he has all the energy to burn to counter press them
others could help him from there as he’s not quick on the mind
Owner investment is needed in the summer.
We cannot go at this absolute poverty squad with £45 Million and hope the rest of Europe somehow does not see how shite they are and gives us decent prices so that we can revamp.
Either that or Cagigao and Edu need to put themselves in line for a massive end of year bonus with a scouting performance to end all scouting performances.
no point in being fast if it gets you nowhere
no destination no goal
simple as
Cesc is right the issue is our midfield and who is Arteta constantly picking?
Nobody plays well for 90 mins most of the time but as long as we keep switching off and have nothing by way of a midfield we will continue to struggle to win games. We don’t score much anymore either.
I don’t think Arteta rates Willock.
He subbed him on when he first arrived but now he has his feet under the table he seems to reach for Guendouzi most often.
Dreamcast
Agreed. But who would you have brought on?
More worrying is we struggle to create chances. Granted we are not conceding shots but it has come at a cost. As for the subs thing its become a limitation. Arteta does not make changes off what’s happening on the pitch or tweak tactics mid game. Seems we are still in the “show me what you can do stage” with him and the players What a team Wolves are eh, never stay down. Said a lot of negative stuff when Nuno was linked to us but he is some manager or has been for wolves. Sheffield deserved zero points today,… Read more »
Rambo
We got sucker punched after conceding how many chances all game long?
Not sure what you’re looking for here, its a month into life with Arteta and you’re apparently desperate for us to be the dogs bollocks. Which I’ll just point out would be getting swept under the carpet as ‘new manager bounce’, so spare me.
Art needs a massive clear out
We are in a deep place at the moment,
Let him make his own squad and team then judge.
Don’t expect many to stay for next season.
It’s on Arteta no matter how you look at it.
Ceballos is a full Spanish international. Instead he plays a Championship reserve player and plays him as CF when Martinelli is played as a winger. So many available options for Arteta and he decides to take the shittiest one.
Pierre should explain us what a talent Nketiah is. And how if Arteta played him obviously he has seen his quality.
I have eyes though. Kid hasn’t matured at all. He’s 2 years older than Martinelli. Could never tell.
Cut the boys a tiny bit of slack, thats two games where refs havecost us big time. You need luck, every manager knows that
Marc
That seriously worries me.
Infatuation with Ozil it seems.
He was trash today and at Palace. At least at Palace he brought him off.
Honestly, if we go into another season with Xhaka and Ozil as 2/3 of our midfield then it’s pointless. Our middle gets bossed by every fucking team in the league.
Arteta’s most glaring weakness is that he stands by and watches a game slip away without doing anything. If you’re telling me of the options he had Nketiah was the best placed to come on…then our squad is even worse than I thought it was.
Cesc
That’s not going to happen – another question is I thought the point of Arteta is that he’s a great coach – would get more out of the current players – he’s not he’s currently getting less.
Well there goes top 4. Europa or bust.
‘Don’t expect many to stay for next season’
I wouldn’t be so sure.
They ‘like their contracts’ a lot and I’m not sure many in Europe would like to pay them the wages they are currently on.
You’re counting on a lot of players behaving with an attitude they’ve displayed at Arsenal and taking pay cuts to move away.
As Arsenal fans lets start #Artetaout campaign. Even though we have seen improvements its results what most here want. Then why did yall hate the idea of Jose so much? The rebuild task is so big and it should be clear to everyone. And unlike Emery its performance improvement we are seeing. Our defensive organisation is way better than it ever was under Emery. That too in 6 games. Lets just get behind the man and start making judgements on Arteta 12 months from now. To put into perspective the job Arteta has in front of him i’ll say this-… Read more »
Cesc
In the first half of last season Emery got some good will because whilst he wasn’t getting the selection right in the first half he was making changes that produced positive outcomes.
Arteta’s initial setup seems good but the players tire and Arteta doesn’t seem to have any new ideas.
This could get nasty with Arteta.
“I don’t think Arteta rates Willock.”
Well, that’s encouraging. Gives me some hope,although choosing between him and Guendouzi like your first two hikes being Denali and K2.
Xhaka and Ozil will be here next season Cesc, Marc. I’m not sure our ownership views this squad the way the fans do.
Marc
In all honesty I think against Palace and Sheffield we’ve looked the same as we have all season. No differences. Against Palace I saw the game was gone from about the 35th minute onward when Kolasinac (I think) went down and the crowd got into the game which geed up the Palace players.
Gone after that.
Expecting more sly movement of the squad needs changes into discussion now. It will be called something else though, evolution or City IPing or something.
The squad is shit and that is about the long and the short of it.
I just knew we ain’t winning the moment I sighted that short imp as the referee
Lets throw the towel on pl. No way we get top 4. Couple of weeks I told CP and Sheffield were 6 pointers for top 4 chances. We have drawn both.
Go full on Europa.
Try to derail the chances of teams above us in Pl starting with Chelski.
Arteta out.
Disappointing result but Arsenal didn’t really deserve the win for what was an overall very average display. Positives were Saka’s willingness to run at players from the LB position and another confidence booster for Martinelli in scoring. The team are still far too slow in first transition attack. We are continuing to see the tactic of Xhaka basically playing as a second left back but the novelty of this will wear out soon enough and it is done because of perceived weakness in the team atm. It is to provide cover for Saka who of course is not a proper… Read more »
Wasi
“Even though we have seen improvements its results what most here want”
No we haven’t the points return per match is worse under Arteta than before.
Unfortunately, the only special sauce flowing today was from Don’s bleeding anus.
Was Charlie a little rough with the “bottle” last night?
Leftside
They’re going to get a rude surprise then.
They’ve stopped attendance tanking and apathy taking over through the Arteta appointment but after the last two performances I guarantee that gleam will wear off quickly if we lose to Chelsea.
If they think they can make minimal starter changes for next season and the fans will be like ‘righto, mate, top work, just support the lads…take my money’ I think they’ve got another thing coming.
Zach
just replace Laca with Guen for pressing needs that’s why the kid could be a monster if he can improve his upper body strength rather than fall at the slightest of breath
no matter what Ceballos need to fit in somewhere so partner him up with Torreira (have we seen this partnership before) subbing out Ozil as usual
only then put Eddie as Pepe looked gassed in the last 10 minutes going 2 uptop with Marti
Face is chaps. This team is completely immune to progress
Should say Saka and Martinelli provide the only comforts from today and the season as a whole really.
At least there’s something in this squad worth keeping for the future.
Cutter
Is all you offer up talk about anal sex? Vary your scope you mong.
I get Laca all round play. But he needs to come up with the odd goal.
He’s too short when the ball comes out from our box when he’s a one one with defender.
Three away games now.
Chelsea, Bournemouth, Burnley.
Not confident at all.
Cesc
At the moment Arteta is not going to be any sort of draw for new players in the summer at all. If he puts together a decent winning run then you can sell the progression the team is making – at the moment we’ll make 47 points with Arteta having been in charge for more than half a season.
“They’ve stopped attendance tanking ”
For now.
I really think some of you have to get real and reevaluate your expectations. Can we not take this one step at a time ? I thought we’d draw tbh and I’m still in the mindset of get to 40/45 points and try and win europa and get to the summer and regroup – because believe it or not there is another season after this one A lot of you point blank ignore what has been happening in the league, this season did you seriously think palace and sheff u were going to be walk overs ? I mean ,… Read more »
How did we manage top 4 in the past with nutters like Pascal Cygan. a headless chicken like Flamini, an eternal crock like Van Persie, Lord Bendtner Chamakh and co.???
We’ve got the players like Auba (golden boot), Laca, Ozil – Should we not be closer to the top 2 with that bunch? And with due respect, should we not be beating Sheffield Utd?
We are the Arsenal? or maybe I have a different idea of The Arsenal…
Not worried abt the result. Thought we put in an okay performance.
Marc
He’s going to have to go all out for the Europa League to make a statement.
Just have no confidence in Arsenal to make the squad changes necessary. We never have.
Fully expect to see Xhaka and Ozil among others stinking up the place. Wouldn’t be surprised to see Elneny in the squad next season.
Don’t blame Arteta though, I like some of the things he’s trying but this squad is trash.I do think he’s subs are meek. Nketiah was pointless and how did Ozil make it to the end? How dare you. No seriously there is some improvements with Mikel but the worry is that we’ve yet to see that managerial bounce and we are creating next to nothing largely. And these are to be expected because Mikel has firmly aligned himself with Xhaka and Özil in the team. Which is a major red flag. We’re really going in circles not forward at the… Read more »
Things will get better but it will take some time
Edu that’s optimistic but not guaranteed. Any team that is winning and draw in the last 10 minutes the team and fans would be dissapointed. We actually gave that away rather than Sheffield United were better!
It feels like we have signed a good manager, but one we’ll have to basically bring up and raise at the cost of a lot of points. If we wrote this season off then it could be a smart choice. Will Arteta realize his potential or will he disappoint is the big question.
Cesc
We had a bid on the table for Xhaka – we should have bitten off Berlin’s hand. We won’t get a better offer in the summer so we’ll be stuck with the most unsuitable CM the PL has ever seen.
Arteta out.
Nah that’s too simplistic and juvenile. Not Arteta out but rather Arteta cop on and do better.