Arsenal head to Greece for an epic battle in the mightiest of all competitions, ‘The Champions of 5th & 6th Place League.’
Mikel Arteta wants a trophy. This might present the path of least resistance when you consider we’re 10th in the league in the worst form since history began. It’ll still be hard, but we’ve had a fair amount of joy progressing in this tier of Europe over the past couple of season, so there’s no reason to think we’ll not be giving it a good go this evening.
The biggest challenge we will face is our own complacency. Even I’m complacent. It’s embarrassing. But we’ve been here before, we’ve taken losses and draws against some pretty smelly opposition we’ve not given enough respect to. I’m thinking Graham Potter’s Ostersunds a couple of seasons back as the standout.
Mikel is starting to have a fullish squad to pick from. He’ll have Mari in contention this evening. The Spaniard might find himself a place on the bench. We also have Nelson back in the mixer… and, Matteo. The bad boy with the big hair appears to have earned forgiveness and that’s great news. The manager didn’t shy away from why he was dropped.
‘I want the best players for the game and I select them in relation to what I see on a daily basis.’
It’s clear. It’s consistent. He delivers on his word if you fail him. The positive so far is he doesn’t hold grudges. Do the work and you’ll earn an opportunity again. I don’t think it’s a surprise it’s the younger chaps with the issues, they are pushing boundaries to see how far they can flex those rules. Not very far it would seem.
The Greek team are top of their league after two seasons in the relative wilderness for side that has monopolised trophies over the last decade in Greece. Sokratis has been a key source of ‘DON’T FUCK IT UP’ advice to the backroom team. This from Arteta.
‘He knows everything about Olympiacos, about the country, about the type of fans that we are going to find here. I’ve been very aware from the games that I’ve watched about them and their passion, their quality and the atmosphere that we are going to have to be playing in tomorrow. So yes, it’s a difficult trip away from home and we’re going to expect a tough game and we’ve prepared for the game knowing that it’s going to be a difficult challenge.’
I think the atmosphere is a key advantage for the Greeks. They’ll know that we’re drunks when we’re on the road, we are there to be had, easily rattled, quick to drop out heads. I’d imagine the key focus for Arsenal is going to be about solidity again. Come back to London with an easy job. Best way to ensure that is a focused defensive performance. We certainly aren’t going into a heavy rotation per the manager.
‘We’ve had a break of 15 days and we’ve played just one game. So tomorrow I’m going to put out a team that I think is the best to play. Then the rest of the games will take care of themselves. You cannot control that sometimes you are thinking about resting somebody and in training he gets a little issue or he gets sick. So tomorrow we are going to put out the team that we think is the best to play Olympiacos and the rest of the teams and games will follow.’
One eye will have to be on Sunday because Everton don’t have a game tonight and they will have had over a week to prepare against us, so super fresh legs and minds. Interestingly, the backroom team have elected to sleep the night in Greece versus making the sprint back home. I would assume that is to ensure two nights of rest don’t get ruined and the players can do some sort of warm down tomorrow.
There’s a good piece in The Athletic about Arsenal being in the top 2 for tactical fouls. I know it’s a bit grim, but I still love it. We’ve not been a team of dark arts for 20 odd years. That we’re moving into the modern era with a win at all costs mentality makes me happy, it has to work first, but at least we’re thinking about it.
Big game. See you in the comments. x
Bamford, you are desperately tied to Arteta failing under squad poverty and OGS succeeding.
Red, watch that sort of language.
Bamford 10
No-one disputes that Arsenal are not a great team this season, but Arteta came in and stopped the rot.
We have lost one game since his arrival and more importantly not conceded a goal in last 3 games. That is in itself an achievement when you look at how we were playing previously.
Arsenal had become a dysfunctional and chaotic team under Emery and that
has been reversed.
Our position in the league will I am sure improve before end of this season albeit I doubt that we will finish in top 4.
Let’s not try to sugar coat this win. It was a win achieved in difficult circumstances and puts Arsenal in the driving seat for the return fixture. However the general standard of play still leaves a lot to be desired. Leno had to make a couple of serious saves and their strikers bottled it when the opportunities arose. We are far from the finished article. Our squad needs attention and fast! And Arteta needs to work out a first 11 and stick to it (injuries aside). Last nights win was by the seat of our pants and should not be… Read more »
People who see clear signs of improvement, or believe Arteta has stopped the rot, are talking out of their arseholes as usual. We have a woeful midfield and Emery, and now Arteta, are treading water at best due to a decade of mismanagement before either arrived. Bamford10 and a few others have it right when they point to squad being totally inadequate, they are not blaming our two coaches, we are all gooners who hope for success but many of our players are clowns. ————————- “With Emery in charge, Arsenal picked up four wins, three defeats and six draws from… Read more »
Aussie Gooner I think that Arteta knows his first X1, but you have to factor in the timetabling of fixtures and the need to rest players. I think that the defence is now settled with Leno, Bellerin, Mustafi, Luiz and Saka, although Arteta has indicated that the latter is not a full-back. He may move him to left wing if Tierney recovers, although possibly not this season. The midfield is still a little vague, but I suspect that Xhaka is now guaranteed his place on current form and I think that Ozil is also the preferred choice to link with… Read more »
the morale is better the usual suspects are playing better and the overall squad has good balance Arteta just needs his sauce to mix it all up
we just sold most of our creative midfielders because previous manager just want huffer and puffers that’s the only poverty right now
when nothing going on in the middle it forces us out wide which reduce the options and unpredictability in building up attack
all boils down to midfield partnership but please no more Guen I think he only have 1 good performance this season
JWL
Please do not produce ridiculous stats, but use your powers of observation.
I attended most of Arsenal’s home fixtures this season as well as watching away games under Emery and the overwhelming and consistent feature of
ALL games was our football was chaotic, the team could not defend to save its
life and perhaps most significantly there was not a single game that we deserved to win. That included the victories against Newcastle and Burnley.
nice move to twist the stats like that when there’s so much variables involved and different sample size for each manaager too
anyone can intepret the stats whichever way that suits their agenda
one thing for sure like others said it’s another quality CM that we’re sorely lacking
I like the idea of Grealish but his hefty pricetag might be a hindrance
JWL, bamford and GunnerDNA all pulling from a shite website to drive home a amateur hot take.
Shocker.
Can’t believe supposed adults here were actually openly working on how to effectively trade mommies insults…… Some of you here need your head forced under a tap for a couple of minutes.
I think Laca has to continue playing, we gain nothing by leaving him out. Keep them both rocking as high as possible and flog them both in the summer. Him and Auba.
Pedro
What we have learned since Arteta has arrived at the club is that the squad is not nearly as bad and dysfunctional as they looked under Emery.
Personally I think that our performance level will improve this season, but I
have still concern about the future.
We need Aubameyang to stay because his departure will leave a “goalscoring”
hole in the team and I have serious concerns about Saka leaving as well because of the background of his agents. I hope that I am wrong but I see them
looking for a “fast buck”.
When ozil and Ceballos aren’t playing, as expected we have problems moving the ball between the lines. Also Arteta wants to play possession based football, so you can’t just expect the striker to be just be good enough and make funds in the channel. That is more favorable to a cost attacking style and typical falls against a low block line Newcastle. That is why Lacazette continues to play as you need him to create the triangles on both sides of the pitch. It is another matter that his link up play has also been shocking ever since he returned… Read more »
My powers of observation tell me Arteta is really not doing better than Emery, Emiratesstroller. I agree the defense is better organized but we are not scoring as often either – perhaps our next coach will get balance right between clean sheets and goals scored.
Pedro -You wrote a lot about xG last year and how our 22 game unbeaten run was a fraud but no stats for Arteta. I thought you would appreciate some stats, presumably you busy with work and havent had chance to write about Arteta numbers yet.
JWL
Our goalscoring performance under Arteta is more or less on par with Emery
if not slightly better.
We know there is a problem there because of the sterility in midfield. Ozil’s
goal against Newcastle is only the second scored by a midfielder in EPL all season.
However, there are despite this positives in our performance and you should
not be as negative as you appear to be.
Just be good enough to make runs in the channel *
JWL, you can keep bringing up Emery all you like, what I said about him was correct. Your militant view of him was wrong the whole way through, so spare us your observations.
Ppl forgetting that midfield goals are screamers from outside the area, but well worked goals with runners from midfield being fed by forwards who vacate those spaces. How many times has pepe been ignored by both Lacazette and Aubameyang on the far post? Countless times throughout the season ozil, torreira, Willock, pepe etc have been ignored by Martinelli, Lacazette and auba who either prefer to shoot or pass to each other. Add to that, how many users actually believe auba and lacazette have shown enough guile and passing abilities to create chances for each other let alone on rising rushing… Read more »
The football is mourinho levels boring, IF arsenal are going for mourinhoball we should have got the Special one not the saucy one. Just saying.
Everyone knows the current midfield is crap thats why even the saucy one is relying on wing play, the thing is wingbacks with Auba in the middle would be more effective.
Im telling you this for free!
Ppl forget that midfield goals aren’t always screamers *
Pedro is this the quality of football you hoped to see under Arteta? Yes we appear hard to beat but we also came to that conclusion last year in the 22 game run until Southampton smacked us in the face. Our best performances has been mostly defensive which is bound to happen if you put so many men behind the ball. We haven’t been able to put together attacking moves consistently even on counters and our midfield still looks poor even though we have Xhaka playing out of his skin. We even have people online talking about keeping Mustafi long… Read more »
I just hope Arteta isn’t thinking like some of you. We need to be ruthless this summer or we will keep pretending to be a serious football club in phases.
RH
that observation by you terms you an EKB. Dont you know that by even critiquing the team play makes you an EKB? Shut up and follow. Dont ask question
We all well some of us stated that this squad is not fit for purpose that arteta will struggle with these lots. That we need better if we want to compete for top 4 talkless of the title, but no we already have top 4 squad all we needed is a sauce manager and a couple of marque signing, we will be competing and winning title. SHM i wish i could meet them one on one and smack them to reality.
I think the only argument is that we weren’t really defensively assured even in emerys early days. We would need to look at numbers but watford tore us apart at home and could have scored 4 goals last season at the emirates. We kept giving away and more and more shots the opposition even during the unbeaten run. And its not like we were playing great attacking football either. The easiest thing to observe is the formations. 4-4-2,3-5-2, 4-3-3 ozil as false 9, planning guendouzi and the midget Torreira as a CAM, etc etc. Vs Arteta’s 4-2-3-1. If everyone is… Read more »
We need the xG nos*
Jesus the Emery love is so strong here . Olympiakos never failed to score in home games this season. Arsenal were the first to do it. God its like people dont even wanna credit the opposition . Leno was massive , Luiz Mustafi all did well . This is the same team that couldnt manage to beat anyone away from home . Get a grip people
RH,
Pedro must be allowed his fantasies. He owns this blog!
This Arsenal side is hopeless. Rookie or no rookie, I expect Arteta to see that.
Until we seriously use the transfer market, we will be getting one or two games to yap happily about and loads of bland performances ending in draw, loss and irritations.
Sell Auba, Laca, Ozil, Guen, Nelson, Willock, Bellerin, Sok, Mustafi, Xhaka.
Then use your brain when replacing them.
Friday Jokes courtesy of twitter:
Arsenal should sign Carlos Bacca, play Saka further forward and convince both Kaká and Steve McManaman to come out of retirement, in order to form a magnificent Kaká-Xhaka-Macca-Saka-Laca-Bacca front six
Then buy bissaka and pull out of retirement Mertesacker. Start playing Tika Taka. Get Sharika to sing Waka Waka
And that lads is a cracker
If you can’t see the process then even saucy mikel can’t help you… and to think people were ready to give emery every chance in the world to succeed but won’t acknowledge what a fine job a rookie manager is doing after 9 games? Smells agenda to me
Lets go all in for Ramsey.. or a German midfielder in the Bundesliga to make
something happen in the creative aspect of the game
Grealish and Partey is the only way to go.
Sell
Mustafi
Torriera/Xhaka
Auba
Lacazette
Sokratis
Elneny
Mhiki
AMN
Sign
Partey
Grealish
Gabriel (or/and Mari if he’s great)
Benrahma.
Our XI next season should be
Leno
Bellerin Saliba Gabriel/Mari Tierney
Partey Grealish CM
Pepe Martinelli Saka
We still going to have
Bench
Luiz
New RB/soares
Mari
Chambers
Holding
Kola
Guendouzi
Nelson
Benrahma
Nketiah
New Young CM with huge upside.
ESR
This is doable imo.
We won away from home mainly because Ozil was not on the field
Im telling you this for free!
I’d also try to sign on Ceballos
Gentle
Not really sure how Arsenal is going to undertake a big change while in the midst of Brexit. Reality bites. Not sure you can even pull that off on a computer.
Though if Pool is willing, I will gladly swap VWD with Mustafi. But I leave that in the good hands of our online marketing department.
What baffles me more is the expectation placed on the so called (shite team) by the Emery goons. It is no more news that Emery goons are of the opinions this set of players are shite and they caused Emery is job neglecting the fact that Emery was lost in his own plan, but same posters keep telling us how the performance was shite. My question – don’t y’all think your posts border on insanity line. Why complain about the poor performance of a team you believe is shite? No one is saying we are there but certain posters have… Read more »
Love the defensive solidity so far under the new manager, that’s just about the only bit of improvement I’m happy about… Elsewhere on the pitch, it’s the same thing with players who at some point will let you down hence the need to replace. I really hope there are plans to sell Mustafi in the summer and his current run is geared towards doing exactly that. Also really hope there’s a plan for that midfield of ours, we’re dire in that department. Let’s also hope Arteta improves on the late changes during games, has to be more proactive on that… Read more »
Side note…
Don’t know why every criticism of Arteta should be labeled as some sorta Emery Vendetta, you’d think this place is filled with 12 year olds. Every manager in World football gets criticized more so one who is a rookie, there should be room for folks to point out what they feel the manager isn’t doing right, that’s part of the game. Doesn’t always have to fall back to Emery or Wenger, that’s just borderline boring
I’ve been banging on about Saka for over 2 years now. I followed his progress through the ranks. Another one who will make it is Miguel Azeez if he keeps his head down and work hard. I still personally don’t know what Nelson brings. This might be debatable, but I prefer AMN on the wings to Nelson and that’s saying a lot. He’s too timid. Only when he breaks them shackles before he can go on to be anything. Even when he won PL2 POTY, I didn’t get the fuss about him. Hopefully I’m proved wrong for arsenal’s sake. ESR… Read more »
Nelson was a supposedly better player in the PL2 than Sancho. See how that turned out. He still has time on his side tho. Fingers crossed.
It’s like Arteta has been given the Arsenal job just to wind up the know nothings on le Grove. Just about everything he is doing is going against their wishes , and it is working. Mustafi, Ozil, Xhaka ,Luiz, Lacazette plus Aubameyang on the wing all look guaranteed starters under Arteta. How it must grate on the know nothings to see these players improve week on week under good coaching . The go to line on Le Grove was that these players were/are uncoachable yet here we are watching a defensively solid Arsenal team playing like a proper football team.… Read more »
Love your transfer plan Guns, you’re a creative facker!
The only issues I have with Arteta at this moment in time is his in game management and XI selections on match day. He can still improve on that tho. Early days.
For shoring up the defense alone, I’ll give him a 6.5/10. This can rise to a 8.5/10 if our attacking display improves and he also improves the aforementioned issues.
Good job so far.
Un
“Just look at xakha, mustfi and ozil. 11/10 so far for man management. This is a big reason the usual harpies screech form their arm chairs. Arteta is turning their player poverty argument on its arse and it’s embarrassing for them”
Exactly …they have become so desperate for Arteta and the players to fail that its embarrassing.
Silverhawk
Arteta’s substitutions worked perfectly yesterday.
Bringing on Ceballos and Pepe changed the game and we could have killed the game off.
Un na He’s not perfect though and that’s my point, he’ll make mistakes and fans should be able to say he shouldn’t have done this or that, it’s football so expected… I think he’s doing a good job so far, it’s how he goes about rebuilding in the summer that’ll be my own barometer of judgement, hopefully he’s smarter than his predecessors and doesn’t rely on certain types and works on our midfield… I just think the constant Emery/ Wenger thingy is boring, you’d hardly hear or see United fans harp on about Van gaal or Moyes, except all agree… Read more »
Was a lucky clean sheet but I will take it.
If Arteta realises we were lucky last night, thats enough.
Didn’t see the game but a 1-0 away from home can’t be anything but satisfactory.
Taking over a team so low on confidence mid season can’t be easy for a rookie first team coach but so far Arteta has impresed all but the most jaundiced of supporters. Can’t wait to see what he’s capable of with an improved squad and a preseason.
Pierre
They should have started. A 2 goal advantage would mean we rest players the next leg. Now we have to start a full strength side.
Bob
Me too. Can’t wait.
People should also realize that he’s still green and as such would make mistakes.
That I’m critical of some decisions doesn’t mean I’m saying he’s bad or I want him to fail. Far from it.
Batistuta Arteta wasn’t even mentioned in my post. So, don’t know where you conjured that from. Try to read and comprehend well to get my drift. We just won an away match and what you read from same posters are this and that player are bad. Ask them what those players did wrong in that March and they keep mute. This isn’t the summer tw. Why keep repeating the same thing against selected players or do you think it will help arsenal pull out a Barca non tw transfer? A poster asked if based on current performance, Luiz, mustafi, Saka… Read more »
Bamford 10 Based on your considerable footballing knowledge, where do you think Arsenal would be if Emery had still been in charge? Our squad is perfectly good enough to compete with teams in the EPL, bar Liverpool and Man City and is capable of moving up the league and progressing deep into the EL. We fell apart under Emery, you know that. Arteta still has a great deal of work to do but your perceptions that this squad of players are not good enough is based on what exactly? The gulf between Liverpool and the rest? If you can’t see… Read more »
Sorry I’m late I had to let dna’s mother finish sucking my toes. Then I had to fill Bamford’s mum’s water bowl. These fans that want a peak performance every time out are so boring. They think they’re so smart to recognize that Arsenal aren’t amongst the best and most talented squads in the world right now. Then they take something so painfully obvious and shove it down other fan’s throats when they just want to enjoy a win. It was an important away win against an in form team. We kept a clean sheet with fucking Sokratis playing right… Read more »
Silverhawk
I’m pretty much in agreement with your perceptions on the youth products breaking into the side.
Azeez and Smith Rowe could be the players,alongnwith Saka who provide the creativity in this Arsenal side for years to come.
To have a manager who will do his utmost to help them fulfil their potential is a blessing for them.
At least we know that if they fail at Arsenal it will be because they are not quite up to standard.
Think everyone who’s an actual fan is behind the manager, if I’m choosing to wait till the summer to properly gauge his work, that’s my choice/opinion. Maybe read up on what i posted and also comprehend before replying too. Like I’ve maintained since his first 2 games, I’m very impressed with the work he’s doing on our defence, that’s the first step to getting us better, doesn’t mean i don’t hope we get better, less error prone players to come in much later as we know what we’ll get in the long run with certain types. Again, hoping for better… Read more »
Why is given getting stick?I thought he was good yesterday
Daniel
It’s Le Grove , Guendouzi is the whipping boy at the moment .
Performance on the pitch is never taken into account when you’re the whipping boy ..
Next week it will probably be back to ozil , mustafi or xhaka….
Just seen the highlights. Very very lucky to get a win last night.
Leno did well and they missed good sitters, Lacas wastefulness notwithstanding.
Pierre
Fingers crossed they make the grade here.
I’ve been following le grove since 2016 and i just know that many people on here doesn’t know about football. If you think there is no improvement under Arteta, then just watch badminton or bowling.
It would be an interesting matchup this weekend – aged wine vs new age sauce.
If Arteta does a number on Ancelotti, he will undoubtedly look like a good decision, if it’s the other way round, justifiable questions will be raised on how Carlo is doing a better job, starting the same day as Arteta, with a worse set of players, at a smaller club that was as adrift under Silva as arsenal was under emery.
I wish we had signed nzonzi or banega, they would walk into this midfield.