Late post today, things are a touch quiet in the world of elite-level soccerball.
The theme we’re going to touch on is the chase for a higher league position.
The Premier League gods were kind to us today, after treating us very shabbily over the past month with injuries and some horrendous luck, they opened the gates of the Top 4 to us once more.
Manchester United drew against Wolves.
Chelsea drew against Leicester.
Spurs have to play a wounded City tomorrow with a side in such bad shape, they tried to loan Olivier Giroud.
This season for me is still very much a write-off, but I doubt it will be for Mikel who seems to be very aggressive with his timeline. He wants to win a cup this year and he wants us to challenge the top 4 this season.
The Burnley game presents itself as an opportunity to see what we’re made of when chances are presented to us. 3 points takes us to 9th. Assuming Spurs lose, that’d have us 1 point behind Jose Mourinho’s sinking ship. 2 behind OGS. 8 behind Chelsea.
Making top 4 is a massive stretch goal regardless of how inconsistent Chelsea have been. We’d be expecting Arsenal to turn a huge corner inside a month and have consistency of results, something this squad hasn’t managed since the 22 game unbeaten run in 2018.
Stranger things have happened though. We are defensively far better than we’ve been in years, there are sputtering signs that the team is responding to the attacking demands Arteta is placing on them, and we’ve added a bit more depth to the squad that could help reshape how we play by opening up other areas of the pitch.
Also worth noting that Chelsea plays United, Spurs, Everton and Bournemouth in their next 4 games. Only one banker there. United, amirite?
Unai Bummery has been reimagining his tenure at Arsenal.
“The process was good. When we played possession, we did it; when we had to press, we did it. And we were competitive, playing as the game required. With moments of possession game and moments of three quick touches.
“This second year, we have not played well; we have not defended well; We have not been competitive; We did not transmit. And I told the players myself. There were several problems: four captains; the Ozil-Kolasinac case; Pepe’s signing, which needs time to be that of France. We didn’t play well, that’s for sure.
“That brought us bad results, there was no improvement, the fans focused on me and they threw me out.”
The process wasn’t good. Let’s clear that up right away. Players found the video analysis dull, no one knew what they were doing, and no one could be bothered with pressing. Then let’s land on the last bit, there was no improvement in the first season, statistically we regressed everywhere on the pitch, then the fans turned in the second season when their continued to be no improvement. What a joker. We didn’t run him out of the club, his shocking tenure did that all by itself.
There’s another piece where he basically says Arteta is doing the same thing as him. True, similar setup, similar starting line-up… the difference is Arteta leads, communicates and implements strategies on a different level.
Mesut Ozil sums is up nicely.
“He’s doing a good job. He’s hungry for success. Everything about him is positive.
“Arteta’s story is a bit different because I don’t remember when he quit football, but it hasn’t been over that long. In this way, players can understand more easily.”
Connection. It’s so important. Emery didn’t have that with the players. That’s one of the ingredients in the special sauce. Still baffles me that there was an actual debate about that for so long, but here we are, half the internet still thinks Pep Guardiola is a fraud because he hasn’t won a Champions League with Preston.
Staying on Ozil, we apparently turned down a bid from Qatar for the player. Rumour has it the player and the coach were interested in the deal. I’m struggling to fathom that. We have very few players that can move that ball through the line, so the idea we’d stifle our attack at the last minute seems a bit absurd for me. Ozil is important to the manager, hopefully we see a return on that faith with some assists and goals over the next 3 months.
Read some sad news that Jack Wilshere is broken once again. He really has had the roughest of 10 years. I mean, not by normal human standards of disability, but I feel for the guy regardless. Could have been a generational talent if he’d stayed fit. That Barca game he dominated was one of the most special performances I’ve ever seen from a teenager.
Anyway, I hope everyone in the UK is having a banger of a Brexit party this evening, let’s hope the Tories make it easier for us to sign players from South America in this new era. Next Messi needs to be at The Arsenal.
Right, see you in the comments. x
Initial gra gra of arsenal has ended
We are playing our best goalscorer as far away from goal as possible all to accommodate that lacazette ffs
Jay R a total clogger show why he is a clogger but our attackers today are an embarressment.
Guendouzi can’t pass forward and he can’t pass quickly and he has no passing range. He’s a fighter and runs around a lot but that’s about it.
BRING ON EDDIE FALCAO
Pepe must really be quite poor. Disheartening.
Arteta may as well go home in second halves.
AFC, the draw specialists this year.
Bring on pepe, or cabellos, take of lacazette
@Dissenter
Mate I’m not one to believe Arteta has the ‘special sauce’, but come on, we were even more shocking under Emery.
Agreed about Aubameyang not scoring when really required, and what’s Lacazette excuse?
Auba is like a B2B midfield when we get pummeled with teams like this.
Plays for the team yes, but we need him to score and actually take on defenders and beat them!
All the yammering about pulling of Laca
Has anyone else noticed that Martinelli is completely worn out?
I like Aub he’s def one of the best players at the club, and I know he’s coming back from 3 games out which would affect sharpness but my my he misses some fucking sitters.
I would have said this was def a game we would have lost before (very committed and dogged oppo), we still might! Could still go either way. If we do lose this it’s going to derail the Arteta Express …
Out of 10 laca would be a 2 right now, guen a 3. Hard to win games with that shit
Guendouzi receives the ball. Jogs forward a few yards. Stops. Passes it backwards. Over and over and over.
How can anyone not be impressed with Dyche amazes me.
Recent wins against Leicester City, at Man Utd and now playing sublime combative soccer against our expensively assembled team too.
(And not an outfield player worrying about the cold too.)
He is magnificent
Soooooo so weak going forward. Either slows down with guen, or breaks down with laca.
Dissenter
I see Martinelli is fading yes
Eddie N needed this game
Laca has got to go he is complete toilet .
Eddie and bagolun come in.
Thank God for Neill playing in favour of Arsenal
Take Martinelli off and your only goal scorer is Auba who is stationed wide right. So much wrong with today
CG you really do talk utter bollocks
Part of the reason our attacking players struggle is because our midfield is so poor. As someone above said, Abau is playing in a box to box role, essentially. Same for martinelli. Ozil had to drop into our own third just to pick up the ball. We need serious upgrades in midfield.
Clearly our worst team for twenty five years, how did it come to this?
Guen gets so many touches and does not do much with them…
slow, readable passes, and bad passes often
Needs to be loaned next season… we need a proper CM with expereince
To all those predicting that we compete for 4th place next season,
It will be difficult to transform this collection of players to a team that wins games.
CG our expensively assembled team is shit.
The only player who will score is too far away from the goal today, in order to accomodate a fella who doesn’t believe in scoring or playing well unless he’s at the Emirates.
Inside, three times I’ve typed responses to that wind up merchant but have stopped myself. Let’s not feed the troll!
Mics_February 2, 2020 15:36:48
I like Arteta, but his in game management does need improving. I’m assuming he’ll improve with experience.
No slight to you.
Arsenal FC worth over £1B are now conducting work experience apprenticeships for novices? Is this who we are now? Even Lamps cut his teeth in the lower leagues.
I guess Artetas got too much sauce for the championship, eh peds?
These players have no urgency and don’t know how to move the Ball fast. So slow
Good thing we signed those two superstars during the TW.
Its EL again or bust for us.
This team is not top 4 quality or even close to it.
Pipe dream
Lacazette is trash.
we have such average players when laca or auba don’t turn up we are completely toothless
Eddie getting 5 mins lol
Pepe must be abterrible trainer, pisses mangers off
…and we are supposed to be excited that AMN is being thrown into the pool of meh midfielders?
Great subs by saucy
Eddie gets two minutes. What’s the point?
Eddie on for 4 mins..
Brilliant
Bob, the exact same thing here. Poor wind up merchant who incidentally fancies everything (literally) but his “own” team.
Oh Pepe coming on with 3 minutes to go! Fucking genius….
Oh Pepe coming on with 3 minutes to go! Fucking genius….
Ceballos looks pissed lol 😂
If it wasn’t for Famous Grouse life would have been bleak with this shit show. Arteta poor fellow has to strive without a drink. No wonder looks like he is going to put in his papers
At this point, even an old Cesc and Santi would do much more than what we have ….
could unpick this defense
Bob N16
You cheer on great passes from Luiz.
Zombie
Still noone moves in the forward area for a midfielder to find feet. Seems no manager can coach laziness out of these kents
The Torreira-Xhaka midfield looked far far better than Xhaka-Guendouzi. Torreira is much more comfortable with the ball at his feet and is a quicker and more progressive passer than Guendouzi.
He’s shot laca…
We’re bringing in Marco Van Basten, O_o
What’s the fucking point of putting Eddie on now ffs.
It may sound stupid but I actually miss Alexis Sanchez….we hardly have a matchwinner these days
People have been riding guen way too hard, I said early in emery reign I want to see our points per game with him on the field, it must drop, he runs aimlessly around, doesn’t get his role. Torr dm and go from there, it’s not hard
Nketiah even!
This side will struggle to string wins together all season. Theres too many faulty cogs in the machine.
Game changing sub there…
Ljungber’s selections were actually better.
Knew almost straight away Ozil, Lacazette, Guendouzi were shite from watching on under Emery.
Why bring in Niketuah so laate. Was right though too late
Indeed mics, short and sharp with torr
Fuck art let’s score.
@Versus
You’re not wrong. The way this club is run is a joke from the top through the bottom.
Let’s nick it.
Guen slow
Guen is a snail
Why does guen look for contact there when we are breaking?/
Guen is too slow to relieve the ball.
Bob, I know what you mean. He’s got a Dyche fetish and it leads to shitespeak.
Why win a game when we can draw it. Kmt.
We are so poor
Even Flamini in his second tenure was better than all there midfielders we have in the club.
None of our midfielders move vertically by default. Until we buy a central player that is capable of running beyond the forwards we will see the same turgid tripe.
Thinking about our midfields past and comparing them to this lot is saddening. As someone else said, Cesc and Santi, even now, would easily improve the team.
On goes the unbeaten run.
Awesomeness.
We have got the right man, I tell you.
Guen need a loan or sold.
Been called up to French team… so im sure we might get some buyers
Ceballos – send home
can get 2 proper mids in now.. next season.
Ozil to Middle eastern team this summer…. some team with $ that can take his full salary on? Yes!
And why in the hell did we let Ramsey walk for nothing? Poor management all the way around. This club is rotten at its core.
Looks like we have to fight relegation some day
Poor poor poor outing
We have regressed under art in attacking way.
Sorry major clearout needed.
Lol
Yeah so… Done with Arteta now, next please.
Big move but sell Auba laca this summer and get jimanez in, more rounded forward.
Terrible performance and selections, arteta must learn
Sauce..
Lucky to get a point. Our two strikers suck. Missed all the chances!!!
We got away with that one. Very poor from the start to finish.
This side is poor, no two ways around it.
60 + 50 million of shit
And he will still persist with Mustafi, Xhaka, Ozil and Lacazette.
Guen needs nothing, it’s the coaches picking him that need to have their brain examined
I knew it would be that kind of game when I saw the team sheet. This ones on arteta
Is that 1 win in 7 now in the league for Arteta?
Rahul’s house needs a makeover as well
I miss Ramsey 🙁
He’d be our best midfielder by a mile.
Oy vey. Draw FC.
Gotta probably give Mikel a 4.5/10 rating for his start as manager. Got to weigh results along with performance. Besides the performances ain’t been all that…
And if the stat I saw was true about the least shots in the entire league since he started…. wooooof
The pace went out of the game for us after 10 minutes.
The following 80 were dull as fuck.
If this was emery. Some of you would be going ballistic
13 draws. 4 in a row. Trash.
Auba and Laca I think will be sold.
thats where we need to recoup as much $$$ as we can…
Other players will not make us that much.
looks like another rebuild with the team
Attack now needs a lot of work
We need to boot out a few of this squad , leave them in Dubai.
NICE, we nicked a point!