What a depressing weekend. Spurs beating City capped off a very miserable day that started with a grim draw at Burnley.
This was the first really bad performance under Mikel Arteta. The players didn’t look like they were at the races and our defending, though largely resolute, relied more on luck than good technique.
The main problem for me was our insipid approach in the final third. No one seems to have the guts to play through the lines outside David Luiz. We had a lot of possession, but two shots on target to show for it (13 shots off target). Mesut Ozil just isn’t creating quality chances like he used to and there’s continuation of the balance issue we had under Emery… Lacazette and Auba don’t work well together in a front three.
It is odd that Lacazette keeps landing minutes. His confidence sinks a little more with each passing game. Against Burnley, someone with no physical prowess is always going to be eaten alive. His hold up play was subpar and his offerings to the attacking gods were limited. It was also a rare quiet day for Gabriel.
The real problem for us came when Saka picked up an injury and we had to drop Granit Xhaka into defence again. There was no outlet on the left and we had no one with the confidence to whip dangerous balls into the box.
LT came on at halftime to give us a little more bit, but he’s not really an attacking threat. Matteo had a bit of a stinker if we’re honest, he played a very meek game. Sometimes I think he’d prefer to be fouled because it means he doesn’t have to risk doing something that’ll progress the attack. His default was to pass sideways or behind him. He’s Denilson with better hair. That midfield needs someone that wants to move forward, or someone that can burst through the lines with sheer force of will. When the midfield lacks power and ambition, you get stuck in a rut of purposeless possession.
Mikel’s subs weren’t up to much either. The game was crying out for a Dani Ceballos or a Nicolas Pepe, but neither were called upon. That’s 3 managers in a row that have had misgivings about those two. Makes you wonder.
We did have our chances, Auba pushed a header wide and he fluffed his lines when he was played through by a beautiful Luiz ball. Another day, he’s taking those and we’re having an ugly win conversation.
Defensively, it has to be noted that Mustafi was a beast today. He won 6/8 of his aerial duels and he made 7 clearances and 2 interceptions. Not bad for a player that had to admit he was shite on the .com a month ago.
The usual suspects are jumping to call the Arteta hire a mistake. Again, I repeat, this mess was never going to be solved quickly. No manager had a magic solve for a club with so many problems. The manager will make mistakes while he works out what the right path is, today he made a few, and he’ll continue to do so. What we should look for are the positives. We kept a clean sheet, the team worked hard, and our defensive structure has taken grip far quicker than we’d hoped it would.
Chance creation wasn’t really an area I thought we’d struggle with. You’d think a Pep disciple would have us purring going forward, but it’s yet to happen. The plan seems to be: create a stable base, then move onto balancing solidity with some flair. That’ll need time. Hopefully a trip to Dubai will help the manager work on the next set of objectives… then we can destroy Newcastle 9-0 when we return.
We need some wins, 6 for the season is truly embarrassing, I have faith though… we have good players, their quality will shine when the ideas start to click.
Right, see you in the comments. x
SWG
2nd
4th
Tr4phy
Ooops
Hehe I am victorious un the end.
2nd
Adam
No you was lucky..just like we were against Burnley
Didn’t deserve the point
Pedro fair play that you admit it was poor performance from the team and the manager.
Shit weekend too
Lucky but still victorious!
Lol. It was a poor game. Poor subs as well. Aubameyang /Lacazette dont really want to pass the final ball to anybody else except each other no matter how difficult the pass/finish angle may be. They don’t seem to notice/seem to deliberately ignore other runners.
“Yea 21 league games all won due to Wengers influence last season….solid argument“ Of course that was your takeaway. So no comment from you on the very clear and obvious nature of our performance level during Emery’s 18 month tenure? Started well, went shit, got embarrassing. Arteta has taken over a mess, is restoring some order, grounding the side before building by having us harder to beat (everything I was personally calling for). If you want to scream fraud after 6 weeks take the floor. My guess is you’ll be seen as just as big a mug as you were… Read more »
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/mikel-arteta-failed-training-ground-21416063
The conditions were difficult the grass was long,” Arteta said. “They didn’t put any water on it and that’s not very helpful to play football.
I didn’t water the pitch yesterday in the training ground so I was expecting it. That doesn’t make it easier to play. It’s their game, they do really well at what they do.
/
Is this guy for real? I mean is this guy a joker or what. The flippin grass was too long? He’s finished. Already. It took wenger 15 years before he started making these excuses.
Novice.
I’m no Emery apologist, and I’m not digging out Arteta, but this is crap Wenger used to say.
Arteta said: “The conditions were difficult – the grass was this long and they didn’t put any water on it, and that’s not a very helpful thing to play football.“I didn’t water the pitch yesterday at the training ground because I expected it, but that doesn’t make it any easier to play.
I thought we had moved on from this once Wenger left.
I wish I could forget today’s performance. It feels like the new manager bounce never actually happened. The players didn’t care enough to try to win. And Arteta decided that he wants to keep relying on a CF with over 700 mins of no goals scored. So Auba was anywhere else but in the area he is most dangerous in. And Pepe, the only real skillful dribbler we have in our team, the X factor, someone who can be unpredictable – yes, both in the good and the bad, didn’t get to play a single minute. Same as Ceballos. Where… Read more »
Versus
Are you Arteta out?
Doubt even Merlin the great magician would want to take on this team. They are rank. Cant score for toffee, defend like alcoholics protecting a keg of beer.
Magic sauce?…I dont think so. Average of 1 point a game. Thats crap.
‘First poor performance under Arteta’ What a misleading heading, I mean thats not really true, he’s had just 1 decent game against Man United,which by the was just the first 45 minutes and the fact United are equally as shitty I mean that was really a shocking performance Spuds are just so much better than us its really painful to witness, wish the season can just end already. Arteta shoe horning the same wasters that got Emery the sack is equally as daft Pepe would absolutely have been a far better option for Laca by the 60minute mark Novice coach… Read more »
“His (Guendo) default was to pass sideways or behind him. He’s Denilson with better hair.”
No, Pedro, he’s Arteta… with worse hair.
“ Chance creation wasn’t really an area I thought we’d struggle with. You’d think a Pep disciple would have us purring going forward, but it’s yet to happen”. Pedro to be honest since Arteta was hired apart from 30 minutes against CFC and 60+ minutes against United all the “ we look better” was just increase effort from the players, as they normally do when a new manager comes in but I haven’t seen anything special about MA that I haven’t seen before. Without new players he’s going to be struggling next season. His team selection, substitutions and in game… Read more »
Pedro
“It’s about NFL because I don’t like football.”
Well we don’t like you but we still make the effort!
Rookie manager is bound to make mistakes. It’s difficult to accept but the club (execs, coach and players) are performing at best at mid table level. Let’s hope the mini break spawns some creativity ‘cause today we had no advantages in terms of strength, pace or technical proficiency. And Dyche did what he did to ManU and strangled our double pivot getting the ball to playmakers near their goal. I wish Arteta would come up with a plan B to counter this.
Playing ?? Ozil especially away at Burnley was a big mistake ! – a few good passes but that’s it . Lacazette is out of form . He can’t trap, hold or shoot at the moment. I think he should have given Pepe a chance on the right, Auba in the middle and Martinelli on the left . Surely Ceballos would have done more than Ozil ? Toreirra would have done more as well. A few chances up front not taken and the defence held out at the back .
“we have good players, their quality will shine when the ideas start to click.”
___
Lol
Arteta is an AKB’s hire which shows how much of a stranglehold they still have on the club…
‘First poor performance under Arteta’
___
Bournemouth away, Crystal Palace away, Sheffield Utd at home, Leeds at home. Ring any bells?
“First poor performance under Mikel”
Same result as 70 odd per cent of his matches in charge.
“we have good players, their quality will shine when the ideas start to click.”
Any chance we could start picking some of them?
Bring back Freddie. Seriously.
At least he had figured out Ozil.
But, oh no, new manager thinks he can rehabilitate Ozil, Xhaka, Mustafa etc.
Surprise, surprise, no new manager bounce.
Meanwhile, Everton rise above Arsenal with one of the greatest managers in history.
Enjoy your 18 months figuring it out.
Fucking Arsenal. For fuck sake.
And Guendouzi has far better hair than Arteta by the way.
If the coach really said the grass is too long then he should automatically be fired on the spot…
“Where is Pierre now to say how Emery hates skillful players?
Look like Arteta hates them too.”
Ozil plays so Pierre isn’t concerned.
The grass was too long.
Ahem
Like WTF
who is this primadonna??
Crikey.
I thought people were taking the piss with those grass comments.
Spurs had no hesitation to part with Erickson and their new 25 million signing hit the ground running with a spectacular goal ..didn’t even need a pre season!
Not too bad for a so called fatso..
Meantime at arsenal we turning down bids for a semi retired player on 375k
Persisting with Ozil and Laca will bury Arteta this season.
I’m hoping, praying he has a big shake up in mind come summer and he’s doing all this just to raise some interest in the players he’s hoping to sell.
” we have good players, their quality will shine when the ideas start to click.” We have past it players. Apart from Aubameyang and may be Torriera, I doubt there’s any one of our more seniors players we would have be happy to sign if they played for our Rivals. Lacazette has played under 4 managers and so far hasn’t shown he can be better than this. Ozil is Ozil. When Emery dropped him, some went into overdrive about how we would create better chances with him in the side, guess what, we are worse. Can’t blame Giroud or Emery… Read more »
“The main problem for me was our insipid approach in the final third. No one seems to have the guts to play through the lines outside David Luiz“ Mid field is shocking tbh. Thought Ozil would release Martinelli when he had acre of space on the right… no Ozil turned and made a side pass in field that ended up with, again, nothing. So frustrating watching the same happening in both halves. Guendouzi dithers ie can’t decide, slows things down , gets pressed, starting arse protecting the ball and either make yet another side/back pass or drops on the grass?!… Read more »
Arteta is safe this season. Will not change next season. Too much shake ups
If next season he doesnt secure top 4, the knives will be out. This year, he gets a pass, with this shit team he has
Now to the football after claiming my first “1st” trophy! Ozil is done, if you can’t see that you should start watching rugby or something. He offers so little and when he does is it really much more than what any other attacking midfielder in the league? And at £350k a week it’s absolutely mind boggling! Lacazette needs a spell on the bench – Auba needs to be playing down the middle and now is the time! Very lacklustre performance all round but I can’t believe there are still arsenal fans here fighting Ozils corner.. the guy has done nothing… Read more »
I believe Arteta knows the players ganged up against Emery and he’s trying to prevent a mutiny that’s why he’s playing Ozil and Lacazette with the hope that he can get rid of them in the summer.
Xhaka got a yellow today as Ozil could not stop his man dribbling past him. Xhaka being xhaka took a body check to stop the player running at him at speed
Typical Arsenal
Ozil- someone tell me something he did today!
Should have pulled him at halftime
Eddie coming on this late was humiliating. Hopefully to Arteta
When jose took over spurs they were 14th. he lost harry kane to injury. Where are they now. Where are we.
Novice
Azed
Hence his Clean slate comment when Arteta joined us
Im sure he knows- but since this season is over. I expect him to continue to play these 2, so clubs might be interested in them this summer.
He should tell them both to play like youtube highlight reels to attract buyers- since they are going to be sold
Arteta played for Arsenal in those wilderness years when Wenger reached Peak Wenger – why is anyone surprised he is cut from the same cloth Just stack up the results under Arteta against the same matches for the hopelessly out of depth Emery and tell me Arteta is an improvement. As my brother pointed out to be today his main achievement has been persuading Özil and Xhaka not to agitate for a move. That’s some achievement. One player who famously insulted the fans and the second who is only interested in an easy life. Our club has disinterested owners, self… Read more »
I hope we’ve not made a mistake hiring Arteta
He has just one plan for creating chances
When the long balls from Luiz/Xhaka to the overlapping LB don’t work then he’s left looking dumbfounded
He’s got absolutely no plan B.
Somebody wanted to pay actual money for Xhaka and Arsenal/Arteta said no. Another club in Qatar wanted to sign Ozil with his continent saving salary and everything and again we said no. This for a club that baulked at paying 7m for a transfer
Really, what are they smoking up there at the Emirates?!
Champagne CharlieFebruary 2, 2020 18:49:06
VersusAre you Arteta out?
/
I’m Arteta never should’ve been in!
Novice
Arteta: “With me, they have a clean slate. I told them that. You’re not going to be judged on things you’ve done in the past, whether they are negative or positive.”
No clean slate for Pepe and Ceballos I guess. Clearly inferior to play Auba where he guarantees you goals, a 70m goalscoring dribbling winger and a Real Madrid and Spain NT star, compared to Nketiah and Willock. LOL?!
Don’t see much logic.
CF with 0 goals in over 700 minutes. Let’s put all of our eggs in his basket. He will score. One day.
“Really, what are they smoking up there at the Emirates?!”
I have no idea but if results don’t improve they’re going to have to offer it with seasons tickets next season!
Again. Emery. The shit terrible pathetic manager emery had,
1. 3 Europa leagues
2. A 20+ game unbeaten run
3. An Arsenal Europa League final.
Is he the man for Arsenal. No. But its looking like he’s closer to it than Arteta.
Where’s gus hiddink when you need him. Has anybody got pochetinos number. He’s been to a European final before right?
Not novices.
I agree with the question, why not bring on Ceballos and Pepe, around the 55’ 60’ mark. It was clear that guendoooozie was having a stinker! The give always and passing was horrible. Frustrating yes. But arteta is the right person. Lacazette has has a horrible non confidence streak, with no ability to finish. I guess my takeaway is the poor decision making. With Martinelli, the Doozie, and Willock all making poor decisions at bad times. Patience is hard….but needed.
Hardworking players like Lacazette, Willock, Nketiah clearly preferred to technical players like Pepe and Ceballos.
Dare to comment Pierre?
“Really, what are they smoking up there at the Emirates?!”
Not good shit that is for sure.
Some crack or meth or something else is likely
I miss the Ozil – Sanchez – Giroud trio. fuckk that feels like ages ago. Atleast we were flat track bullies then . What the hell happened to our Arsenal ? Depresssing .
I said earlier we need mids to pick the lock, break the lines, and can wiggly out of tight places when being pressed.
Cesc/Santi would have no problem with Burnley
We need that caliber player again. Yes I think Dani should have played- although inferior the aforementioned
Right now Arteta is looking like precisely what he is – a brand new manager who’s still adapting to playing without training wheels.
If the rumours about Ozil are true that means the manager turned downed the chance to off load both Xhaka and Ozil this window. Oh yeah his new favourite player seems to be Mustafi.
Pedro can moan and bitch all he wants – Arteta needs to get a grip.
Absolutely a Novice and a scared shitless manager that much is clear
No balls yet to drop Ozil and Laca
Mourinho/Ancelloti will have those 2 sitting their fat asses on the bench already
The Axis of Evil – Mustafi, Xhaka, Ozil is back.
Is Arteta Wenger mk2? Even Emery knew not to play these guys.
Pedro (in the comments from the previous post) “Today was disappointing, a poor performance no doubt… but that’s going to happen as the manager gets to work on the mess he picked up from Emery.” Poor Arteta. It becomes even messier when you add the mess that Wenger left behind for Emery. Not many coaches with his level of experience have had the misfortune of walking into a big a mess as this one, especially at a club the size of Arsenal. Anyone who’s written this season off should be prepared to write off 20/21 as well. It’s going to… Read more »
Pedro
No manager had a magic solve
Stop with the Americanisms. The word is “solution”. Solve is a verb not a noun.
about mustafi
lately, im seeing him make tackles and clearances way out of the box.
Like uber safe stuff.
Good!
Not more run with the dribbler until he gets in the box and foul him making a penalty … he seems to be instructed to make his move way outside the box.
Good so far…. hope he keeps it up.
Mustafi is like wolverine… not perfect but keeps going… also, great genes- fast to recover from serious knocks
Hey Rodney, he’s picking up a mess, but I don’t think it’ll spill over into next season. The club will have a massive clear-out and they’ll work to rebalance the squad and build it out in the style Arteta wants to play.
Some of the shocking takes on this thread will be great fodder when we turn the corner, same collection of people never seem to learn.
The only reason shit went downhill so rapidly under Emery was because the players down tooled. When they was onside, we got to Europa League final. Arteta has the players onside at the moment and he’s still struggling. No problem. But what happens when the players down tool on Arteta? I don’t think he or his supporters realize just how spoilt these players are. The level of their indifference. Just how much they don’t give a fuck. He’ll see. They did it to wenger for crying out loud. Who is emery freddie or arteta compared to Wenger. Instead of fazing… Read more »
DB10, I’m too hungover to care about verbs today so stop with your solutionizations to my prose.
My metric for deciding if Arteta is an absolute dud or not is whether we finish above or below United
If we finish below those shower of shit then he absolutely loses my support for next season and we should look to sack and hire again
We’re the new Chelsea
with laca ozil xhaka and likely auba gone, we are going to be in serious shit if we cannot identify and buy the players we need.
Dani gone back
who knows the fate of the new defenders
It can be a royal shit show next season with hardly anyone left… a good half the team might be gone
Victorious, I’m sure the board will be devastated to read that they’ll lose your faith next season based on an arbitrary metric that means fuck all.
Pedro I assume you’re including me in that “same collection of people never seem to learn.” I’ll keep saying it – I want Arteta to do well but I’ll judge him on what he does, you slagged off any poster who said they’d judge Emery after a season. The reason you keep getting grief now is because of your massive hypocrisy on how you criticised Emery no matter what he did and won’t say a bad word about Arteta. If Emery had made todays selection you would have slaughtered him even if he’d won and yet you make excuses for… Read more »
You can shove all these shitty ‘NFL’ type stats on twitter, on here relating to players, but your eyes paint the picture. I’m positive it will come good, but and a BUT, I hope Arteta doesn’t do what a new manager would do, pick players to the detriment of the team. Ie, Ozil, Lacazette etc. This is one thing that needs to change. Commentators waxing lyrical about how much space Ozil gets in games – that’s his fucking job in the attacking role. Needs to do more than just stand out for a couple segments of the game. Goals and… Read more »
Marc, I don’t really see it as grief… it’s just a lot of bad hot takes from people that bad hot takes on Emery.
PieAFC, it’ll be interesting to see where he takes the team after the break… because the Lacazette move is starting to look a strange one. Worse for us, he looks so bad, we’re barely going to be able to recoup his fee if we sell him.
Pedro
Which just justifies what I’ve already said. You’re so wrapped up in an agenda about Arteta you’re incapable of taking a measured view.
He’s making bad decisions on team selection and his in game management is poor – I’ll agree with a squad more in line with what he wants the selection might improve but why are his substitutions so poor?
Laca looks so disinterested and throw in his antagonist likes on social media one can see where his heart is
It’s not here anymore he has to go
Pedro I like your faith in Arteta, we all want arsenal to do well
But I have this nagging voice in my head, that Arteta might be the best coach ever, yet his managerial skills are lacking and that could be costly for both him and the club !
Auba needs to play CF. Surely Pepe on the right instead of laca up front would have produced more today.
Also, I think his Ozil gamble is failing. I think he was hoping Ozil would be unlocking defences and spraying WC passes to the pacy forward line, but it’s clear to see Ozil is a spent force now.
Time for plan be Mikel.
‘If Emery had made todays selection you would have slaughtered him even if he’d won and yet you make excuses for Arteta.’ I thought that watching it. Thought if we steal this it is a copy and paste Emery performance but yet it will be hailed as ‘resilience’. There’s a bit more defensive focus and focus on protecting our goal but other than that not really seeing much to be inspired about. I think Arteta team performances have got worse actually as time has gone on. Palace, Sheffield and Burnley all shite. See what he can do with the break… Read more »
Pedro
A mate of mine has a view that Laca is either carrying an injury or has something going on in his personal life that is affecting his play.
Either way we need to see him snap out of this – a goal would do him the world of good. Would dropping him so he gets a run out on 70 minutes against tired legs help?
It’s something the manager needs to look at.
The grass comments are a shambles as well.
Marc, we’re 6 weeks into the tenure of a manager that picked up a squad delivering its worst start in 38 years. I’m not sure you really are being measured.
I take a longer-term view of Arteta. It was always going to take time, he’s made good strides, we can see where he’s trying to take things… but he’s going to make mistakes. I’m not going to hammer him because this is a different situation.
Enjoy the moment, it won’t last.
Lacazette was busted cheating on his longterm partner.
“First poor performance under Mikel” says the headline. At some point the delusion will come to an end and Pedro will wake up from the nightmare of employing someone with zero previous management experience to be the manager of a football club like Arsenal. So what happened to all that talk of sauce? Why have we reverted back to type? And it wasn’t just this game. It beggars belief that people are still trying to justify Arteta’s appointment. We have fallen so far down that we have to look down the table more often than we look up. It’s a… Read more »
Pedro
What rating out of 10 would you grade arteta’s start?
Spuds lucky today
First shot on goal 63 mins
Any other day Shitty would have been out of sight
But they got the result.
Arteta took over a complete shit show with coupled with a dodgy exec
He will be fine and fuck all you begrudgers
This comments section is going to be an absolute belter for a future date. Arteta out after 6 weeks, love to see it.
I’m hoping for the best here, but let’s be real it’s been a pretty shitty start.
“Lacazette was busted cheating on his longterm partner.”
OK well that at least offers an explanation. I think he needs to be dropped, maybe the break will let him reset.
Pedro
“Enjoy the moment, it won’t last.”
You’re really starting to get on my tits with this, it’s at best petulant and you’re better than that.
How many times do I have to say I want Arsenal to do well, I want Arteta to be successful because if he’s not I’m terrified we’ll go down the ManU route but without the money.
Arteta’s making mistakes that any Arsenal fan could’ve warned him about and he doesn’t seem to be learning from them, worse still he’s sticking with “favourites” that have proved to be not good enough for years now.
CC
We’ve now got 2 weeks without a match – I hope Pedro’s got some serious entertainment lined up or it’s going to be carnage on here.
This summer’s TW will be so important.
As much as I am curious about Mari’s leadership skills, Arsenal really need to identify someone who is a midfielder and who has true tested leadership skills. Who this will this be, I don’t know as I am not a scout. But that is up to the staff to unearth him.
We really need someone who will not give a shit about seniority in this club and make accountable those who are letting the team down.
Can Mari be this player (basing on what I have read)? I sure hope so.
DB10, did you think we were let down by the usual lack of effort today?
Thought we worked hard, we just lacked know how. Which is obviously a real worry.
We do need power in midfield.
Lacazette won Arsenal player of the season under Emery. Currently.. not so much.
DB10
How about a clone of Vieira!
I think Arteta is coaching the crap out of these players to see what is salvageable and what isn’t. Play to their strengths, give them confidence and see if they buy into the vision. It was probably accepted by the board that this season could be a write off. I doubt there is much top 4 pressure on arteta, or ever was. We have no cash. Personally I’d have liked to have seen him come in and sell Auba, laca, xhaka, must and Ozil and maybe even Bell this Jan and just start again. Properly write the season off and… Read more »
PedroFebruary 2, 2020 20:17:32
Lacazette was busted cheating on his longterm partner.
————
If you’re French is “cheating “even the right word to describe it?
Now I know why Burnley plays long ball attack. They purposely let the grass unplayable for possession based team.
Tom
That’s a valid point – I thought amongst the French it was almost compulsory!
Jesus The team drew 0-0 today and people on here writing as if we have lost 5-0 in 5 successive games We knew there was a mess and Arteta has done well to get much better performances out of the likes of Xhaka and Mustafi If we get better resale values in the summer then a job well done Auba and Laca both really poor today and personally I would look to cash in on both next TW as well as above, clear out all the exorbitant salaries and use funds to help rebuild The youngsters will thrive without these… Read more »
Danny, would suspect the handbrake on properly binning this season was the worry about getting relegated.
Also think they will fancy a run in the Europa.
Tom, depends if you are dating an English girl