The winter break is OVER and the football can begin.
The good news is the squad will all boast a light bronze tan coming out of the Dubai camp, good for confidence. They’ll also have had some time to mentally recalibrate and they’ll no doubt have a bit more juice in the legs (legal juice).
The injury story is finally starting to look a little less bleak. The Newcastle game this weekend will see the return of Reiss Nelson, Saed Kola, and Bukayo Saka. Three crucial players to the Arteta model. Power and pace. Something we miss too often in this squad.
Pablo Mari is being earmarked for the Europa League game against Olympiacos on Thursday. Cedric has some work to do to get over his problems. Cal and Kieran are still a way off.
Quite a lot of the pre-game chat was about squad rebuilding for this summer. Mikel had this to say on the planning process.
“Absolutely, we have to plan,”
“We need to know the direction we want to head and to do that we need bear in mind different scenarios.
“With that in mind I have to tell the club what we need, where we think we can improve and where we need to aim.
“If we all aim for the same things, we put a plan in place to execute it, and make the process as short as possible.”
I suspect the direction of this summer will be far more pointed than it has been. Mikel seems much more clear in what his plan for the squad is and hopefully that will be reflected in the types of player we bring in, but more importantly, the emergence of Edu should ensure that this summer, things move a lot quicker.
The Mirror reckon we’ll likely move on a lot of the players with one year left on their deals. They expect to see Auba, Lacazette and Leno receive big money offers… and I’d be fine with that, provided we don’t bring in a load of bums in to replace them. Youth, power, pace and elite levels of football intelligence.
There’s a story doing the rounds that Saka is nowhere near on his deal negotiations. I know he’s a top talent, so the interest from other clubs is likely real, but I think he’d be made to leave a club that’s giving him what he wants: trust, coaching, game time. He has a good thing here, the fans love him, and he’s living in London.
The Newcastle game is big. I think we need to see an uptick in output. Arteta has been working his process through the club, he’s spent some time with the players, had some good moments, some bad.. but the squad is united.
Now let’s see what it has to offer.
Mesut Ozil has been taking a pasting from everyone this week. His output has declined at a rapid rate, and he’s under pressure for more than his body language. He needs to turn up, convert the effort into assists, and he has to start influencing games like he used to.
Overall, the team needs to be more ambitious in the final third. We have a very exciting front three however you package them. Better finishing, more ambition, and faster movement.
The next 5 games are about finding the balance. We are harder to beat, no doubt, but we’re not protagonists at the moment. We’re a little bit Wenger of a few years ago. It’s almost a tactical ploy to give us the ball, because we’ve no idea how to use the advantage. I think Nuno said he doesn’t believe in ‘pointless possession’, that’s where we are, we need some edge… and for me, there is no doubt we have the players to move to the next level there at this moment.
We have a pretty fair run of fixtures over the next two months. We need to make it count, get some wins, improve the football, and build some belief going into the summer.
See you in the comments. x
No one wants to drive with the ball, bring the foul. drive at their defence.
Someone will have to explain the tactical genius of Arteta here. This all seems very Wenger. We are utterly toothless. Ozil is completely anonymous. Newcastle look strong and fast. We look slow and feeble.
We won’t win games until we select players on merit rather than who Arteta likes the most
Ozil hiding, not showing for the ball.
Ceballos is our best player up to now.
We don’t even have any ability on the break anymore!
TheBayingMob,
Thinking the same. This is very Wengeresque.
This is a joke.
Xhaka is a lamp pole
Bellerin has been dog shit……pepe is up against danny rose and hasnt done a thing……
Will he have the balls to change it?
Long balls are really silly in these windy conditions
it’s obvious Arteta looking for supposed ball players regardless of everything else
Spurs sign that flying machine beast from psv for peanuts and we give a no mark French team 80 million for an absolute shit show…. Fuck this club..
God almiron just run through our midfield. rather play amn with one of them if we wanted to rest toreirra than both at the same time in a combo
The sauce is being diluted game by game.
Said at the time the job was to big for a novice manager. So far it seem unfortunately that I’m right. The players might be happier, but nothing I’ve seen do far from Arteta shows that he has the ‘sauce’. Sorry . Kroenke’s out!
I’m sorry. Bellerin has clearly lost his pace. It’s abundantly clear now. This first half has shown that, ASM is causing him problems every time he’s on the ball, Bellerin looks scared.
lol Xhaka running in treacle there.
The sauce is now more of a jus.
He is so fucking slow.
Arteta can’t blame the grass this week.
As crap as it is, at least it’s end to end stuff.
The fucking kroenke’s have turned this once great club into a laughing stock.
That was a good corner
No urgency. No one taken the game by the scruff of its neck.
We lack any athleticism in our midfield its so clear now.
This is not good enough.
Just an update om Don’s condition, regarding his bleeding anus:
gf.me/u/xkq4fq
It is assumed that CC is there as well, to lend emotional support.
Pepe did well to brush the big brute CF off the ball
We are in a time machine I believe
It’s supposed to be February 2019 and Unai Emery is still uttering gibberish on the side line.
Same old in the first half hour unfortunately.
What’s wrong with Pepe? Slow in decision and tempo. Not making runs andEddie had to wait and made side passes??
350k pw player who wasn’t comfortable to shoot from 19 yards!
I suppose flair and creativity can’t be manufactured in 2 weeks
This fucking ref is blowing up every time a newcastle player hits the deck.
You can’t blame Ozil of not setting up Auba.
Ishola just can’t move past Granit Xhaka. The lads lives in his mind rent-free. What a wonderful deal for the footballer.
Pete
“Spurs sign that flying machine beast from psv for peanuts”
He looks quick and dangerous that boy yeah
Just tuned in, how we lookin?
Why cross the ball we don’t have anybody who can head it!
Eddie is not ready. Bring in Martinelli please!!!
‘This fucking ref is blowing up every time a newcastle player hits the deck.”
Blaming the ref when its not even halftime?
You need to pull your boyfriend’s willie out of your poo-hole!
It was said before:
Until emery gets rid of these error prone players. We won’t improve.
Its being said now:
Until Arteta gets rid of these error prone players we won’t improve.
This will be the same requirements of any coach. Some of you getting defensive because its Arteta is ridiculous. It doesn’t matter who it is, at least 6 of these players need shifting.
Good crosses into box.
Zacharse… Not great everything is out of sync. Since we play usually one good half and one bad.. maybe we getting the bad one out of the way.
That said Saka is playing well.
“Just tuned in, how we lookin?”
The special sauce is a flowing!
Again, you can’t blame Ozil if if Eddie and Auba can’t score.
That was a good shot from Eddie, wish it went in for him, maybe that will give him confidence.
He’s probably doing very well in training.
Stick Auba up front, Martinelli on the left. Nketiah isn’t good enough. As someone said he couldn’t even get into the Leeds side ahead of a striker who flopped in the premier league,Bamford.
Laughing stock indeed. Though some still wouldn’t know.
Started to shoot but not troubling the goalie at all
Lacazette and Willock enjoying themselves.
Pepe? more like poo-poo!
at least they smell shit. too bad They don’t smell their performances.
At least, Pepe tracks back.
Shut up Alex cutter you prick.
Pepe’s corners are complete shit. At least we’re trying now, Newcastle have faded.
“He’s probably doing very well in training.”
Reports are that he’s very poor in training.
Pepe back post please on corners
Were now playing at a quicker tempo. It’s taken too long.
The plan seems to just get the ball to the 18 year old player who earns 3k weekly.
Bellerin has been very poor, really poor.
Bellerin is so useless now.
Ozil and Saka the only ones performing today.
At least they had a nice break.
” It’s taken too long..”
Its never taken too long with the gunners!
Don’t be such a bender!
Ozil. Performing?
Left Testicle
“Ozil. Performing?”
eh…maybe at recycling. He’s reinvented himself as Elneny.
This 11 is absolutely not the answer
Auba is so one dimensional. His passes suck.
He’s made a few run of the mill passes. Hardly performing.
Game between 11th and 12th
Nothing special since the players are still being taught how to pass the ball.
Boring in possession. Lack of off the ball movement from our front 3. Pepe stands lifeless……few stopovers then pass backwards.
The high energy approach has gone already.
Defensively we are exposed out wide with no coverage.
Poor poor half at home to one of the leagues least dangerous teams
I don’t understand why he isn’t trying auba up front with mart on left.
It baffles.
anything but a draw again…
Habesha, you have very low expectations if you think Ozil is performing.
Sorry, but Arteta doesn’t have the sauce as far as I’m concerned. Awful from Arsenal. We really are in a relegation battle.
*sigh* well the last 5 mins was better then the rest. Still think I would keep the Saka and Martinelli partnership down the left and Auba in the middle. We need a win so bad it’s not even funny.
The problem is that when you get comfortable with drawing games, at some point you forget the art of actually winning games.
“Ozil and Saka the only ones performing today.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DovW3sGu9Lc
If this is what improvements look like we are doomed.
Booo!
Lets move our goal scoring machine as further away from the goal as possible.
Lets start Leeds reserve CF when we have 2 over 50m pounds strikers.
Lets set this team around Ozil, Xhaka and Mustafi.
Lets bench Torreira.
Lets sideway pass till the game is over.
?!?!??!?????????????????????????!!!!!!!!!?????????????
What a Saka shit, the plonker has no end product….
Lets bench our shining star and arguably player of the season Martinelli.
These players look too comfortable under Arteta
I din’t see any intensity and desire in this team. They are playing like players waiting to go on vacation in the summer.
Pretty average performance from a prettt average side although things did pick up somewhat in the second period of the half.
This having the kiddie Saka as one of the primary attacking threats from LB will probably be snuffed out somewhat by teams as they suss it out.
Joe Linton looks like a Championship striker.
Maxim and Almiron dangerous runners for Newcastle.
Can’t blame Kroenke. Arsenal net spent third highest in league over 5 years. It’s the manager. Look at Sheffield United and wolves etc. You don’t need more talent. You need a proper team and tactics all playing on the same wavelength. It reflects poorly on arteta. Very poor.
martinelli is injured
*I don’t see
Thank God for the winter break – they all came back so refreshed and ready to go! Until Arteta finds his first 11 and plays them on a regular basis this is the kind of shit which will be dished up. Players out of position, passes going astray, lack of coherence, no leadership on the feild etc etc. Only Saka can leave the pitch with his held held high.
Where is the energy and intensity from the players?
Did anyone hear Artetas reasoning for the team selection? I missed the pre match interview.
Saka is a lightweight shite stumbling over his own feet.
Auba is playing too far away from goal. Eddie needs to come off and Auba goes up top and switch Martinelli to the left.
We look like we’re content as long as we don’t lose.
Martinelli has been sussed he’s all pooped out..
Sack the manager he’s awful…
Red
“Saka is a lightweight shite stumbling over his own feet.”
But still our best player though! Hard times ahead!
cutter,
Martinelli is injured? He’s literally in the reserves list.
LT
Do you need to hear a reason to bench Laca in his current form.
Ceballos probably to add creativity against a deep block.
Left .. yeah.. Arteta said Eddie and Danny Ceb.. were performing well in training. So he preferred Eddie to Laca and Danny to Matty G or Joe Willy basically. If Martinelli is injured then I guess I can see it.. Idk… Ozil, Mustafi, Xhaka hasn’t worked ever really over the long haul. so….. is what it is.
Aussie Gooner
“But still our best player though! Hard times ahead!”
Newcastle by and large have bottled him up so far.
Still he might get his moment(s) later on who knows.
What cretin puts Ozil, Mustafi and Xhakain thr same team.. Answee: A man on a suicide mission…
This is pathetic! Arteta has shown nothing that he can manage anything. Starting Ozil, Mustafi and Xhaka game after game is not the way to progress. All three should have been shipped out in January. We get what we deserve. These three will still be here next season and everyone here will still be harping on about giving Arteta time while the “axis of evil” continue to drag us down the table.
If we don’t win anymore games I wonder if it will be enough to stay up? Can’t be arsed to do the quick maths! Fuck it!
A suggestion. Instead of a freebie in Dubai next time we have 7 days 6 hours a day training in the wind and rain on Hackney Marshes. The last 11 standing play. Whatever their position. Surely couldn’t be any worse