A second dreadful day in the office for Mikel Arteta where questions will rightly be asked of his in-game management. After taking the lead against Brighton, his players managed to flunk out again and lose to 2-1 to a side that hasn’t been able to score all season.
A lot of fans are rightly looking at the subs he made late on that looked confused and woefully naive.
The themes of Arteta with this squad so far have been: 1) Fairly solid 2) Bereft of creativity 3) Poor in-game management
We saw all three of those on display today. Arsenal controlled the game against a side that is pretty good in possession, we create limited chances we should have done better with, we took the lead with a piece of exceptional skill… then we let the game go to shit.
Everyone switched off to a pre-planned corner straight out of the fantasy training ground. Then, the man that wiped out Leno early on the game scored late on when we drifted off in the 95th minute. Abysmal, distressing, very, very sad.
Was the reffing absolutely shit? Yes. But it’s not an excuse. You have price that in. This is the Premier League.
Were Brighton overly physical? Yes. But come on, this IS the Premier League. We cannot continue to moan about this and play the victims all the time, we’ve been doing it for 15 years. The character of the players was perfectly summed up when Maupay caused a horrendous injury to Leno and the only person to give him shit was… Leno, who took a moment out from excruciating pain to give him shit. Where was Auba? Where were the 8 players around the ref demanding justice? It was pathetic to watch. No fire whatsoever.
Our midfield continues to be a problem. No control, power, pace or vision. Dani Ceballos was terrible, constantly slowing the pace of the game. Matteo doesn’t know what he wants to be in life, he’s a clogged, he offered very little. When the engine of your team is that bad, you have no chance.
The season is finished, but I kind of hoped this squad would be able to give a little more than this.
There is a lot going on behind the scenes. We have players contracts that are expiring, 4 of them, and that is a problem. We cut players pay by 10%, that could be a factor. We have players who have no security around their future. Then we have Mesut Ozil, our best player, as a grey cloud again.
Outside that, nothing seems to work on the pitch. We have no balance, we lack power, the intensity of pre-covid has disappeared, there’s no creativity… and look, it’s the same with Ozil in the side, his contributions to the team recently have been as midtable as our general output.
Also, we lack leadership. It’s so apparent. No one stood up today, bar Saka. It’s a team of soft boys outside that.
So where do you go from here?
The kids aren’t good enough to go it alone.
The senior players aren’t up to it and lack character.
The blended mix of the two hasn’t worked for three managers in a row now.
It is not a good time to be heading into the transfer window with very little money to make a difference.
The rock bottom I spoke about the other day might come faster than we thought.
Here’s to another shitty weekend courtesy of Arsenal.
Have a good one, go get drunk, let’s talk next season xxx
Terraloon “””””Now I have no idea how much of this is someone trying to sensationalise matters but if he is right then matters are only about to get a whole lot worse.”””””” We ain’t even touched the sides yet.( in my opinion) I think we could go on a sequence of results that will even make Spurs fans feel sorry for us. This crashing juggernaut can’t be contained. Maybe if with we had new owners , it could yet still be stopped from crashing all around us. Quite simply , We have let the lunatics have the keys to the… Read more »
If Arteta is still Arsenal coach next season it will be a relegation battle I’m afraid
CG
Keep writing my man.
You gave no quarter regarding Emery, even though I didn’t like it at the time but I respected you for it.
I’m glad you didn’t hold back when Arteta’s halo was still on.
The idea that we couldn’t set up a team capable of dominating and beating Brighton is just ridiculous
Arteta knows how to say the right things in front of the media. He knows how to speak the language that fans want to hear.
Everything g else he does has been sub-par so far. The quality of the foodie is poor and the performances aren’t great either. He didn’t even get a new manager’s bounce despite getting a favorable fixture list to start his tenure.
Marc Not sure your right. The fighter you choose would go a long way to servicing debt . Selling in the current climate would make little sense. Far better to use “ your own money” to minimise borrowings. Aftertastes all we know that PL clubs and particularly those without body are money making machines. Far better to empty the reserves , with PL broadcast deals, a tidy sum from sponsorship, decent match day income ( not as big as now) . Reduce the wage bill ( did those players really agree to a 12.5% pay cut ?) Throw those mug… Read more »
What the hell went on with spell check?
Marc
Not sure you are right.
The figure you choose would go a long way to servicing debt.
Currently there are only three clubs worse than us in the league, Bournemouth, ŵest ham and Norwich. We continue with this trend, it’s relegation battle next season, because. Leeds United coming up will be better than us, same with West Brom and when you see how we struggled against Brentford, it’s not looking good.
Arsenal would have been better off had the season been cancelled. Yesterday only solidifies the obvious, they are no where close to contending for anything other than mediocrity.
Terraloon I disagree in some ways with that assertion that’s it s better to use to money to minimize borrowing. In normal times, yes…but right now the interest rate is almost zero and in some of these large deals, it’s effectively in the negative range. We ought to just get a lending facility to get us through these times. Get a £100 million loan at say 0.5% [which is what CDs are paying] and use that in the summer. I just fear the club will burn through it like a flock of red-billed Quelea devouring a harvest. Arsenal will waste… Read more »
“I hate to write this but we have to prepare ourselves to lose Auba and every other player who wants to play at the top level.”
You serious Dissenter? Name one player from Arsenal who even deserves to put on a Premier League jersey?
For the money we pay for Mari, I would sign him as a backup. Of course it would be nice to sign a CB, who is tall, skillful and fast. But it would cost £50m and up. The most important attribute for a CB is to defend set piece. For that Mari is acceptable.
Ernest Reed
-Leno would have been one [before his injury]
He was on the verge of playing for Germany when we signed him but has fallen down the pecking order because he came to Arsenal.
-Auba for obvious reasons
-Saka has to ask himself if he’s better off in a club that will play in him in one position.
-Xhaka is an international captain. He will do well in on the continent – he’s not suited to the premier league but is not a bad player.
Graham
Leno should’ve expected a challenge had he paid any attention to how progressively physical Brighton’s game was becoming.
Keepers are allowed a whole array of tools to protect themselves while going for jump balls no ref ever calls them for, like spreading their elbows wide or jumping into opponents with raised knees.
It doesn’t change the fact Maupay knew what he was doing even if he meant to cause no injury obviously.
Lack of character throughout the Arsenal team was the point most of us have raised with this incident rather than what a dirty player Maupay was.
“Lack of character throughout the Arsenal team”
Perpetual problem for far too many years.
None Dissenter, not one of them. For Leno to point the finger at Maupay as he’s stretchered off, tells you everything that is wrong at Arsenal. Gutless overpaid and over pampered bunch of stiffs are what Arsenal have on display.
Tom
‘ Leno should’ve expected a challenge had he paid any attention to how progressively physical Brighton’s game was becoming.
Keepers are allowed a whole array of tools to protect themselves while going for jump balls no ref ever calls them for, like spreading their elbows wide or jumping into opponents with raised knees’
Made that point yesterday too.
Leno is the nice German. If you had jumped into Oliver Kahn or Jens Lehman like that, you would come off worse with broken ribs.
Don’t agree with the hate that guen gets here. He is a good squad player, played a lot better than dani yesterday. He just needs better players before him in the pecking order so he can learn the trade. Dani can go back to Madrid but you just know raul and co will bend over backwards, pay 30m and sign him up. So far, our best mid is torr and even he is not good enough. Guen is next. Chaka can only do meaningless long balls to the wings, which looks awesome on YouTube but in the grand scheme of… Read more »
The Alexis/Özil situation will repeat itself with Auba/Laca and you will see it. The better player will leave again and the other player we will let stay because we can’t afford to lose both at the same time.
Terraloon You view would make sense if Arsenal weren’t already losing money. Those losses are going to increase and if we’re not careful we’ll find ourselves stuck in a loop. Turn on the news and the economy is tanking and we’re about to see unemployment hit 3 million: ring ring “hello this is Arsenal would you like to renew your season ticket?” Assuming next season opens normally how many are going to not renew there ST’s? With no EL football you’ve got 4 matches coming off of the 7 Cup Credits plus the 6 they already owe us. The football’s… Read more »
Jeff
You might’ve been one of the first voices against the Arteta hire but I was definitely THE FIRST to say the next manager after Emery( no matter who he was) would also fail to deliver the required results as they were being described on here by most, and not just because failure is much easier predicted than success either.
Arsenal have been in need of a serious rebuild for years most have no patience for.
Marc, yeah four or five points with the proviso that we might spring a surprise and win at home to Leicester.
On Mari we don’t need any more back up CB’s, we have loads on the books already, most of whom we will not be able to sell. If he was first choice then maybe, but he doesn’t look good enough from what we’ve seen so far.
Marc
‘ I’m really not in a good mood – who wants a fight?’
I woke up in that mood as well. I have to long run till I get shin splints that will override my Arsenal frustrations.
Yves Bissouma conceded six fouls against Arsenal and did not receive a yellow card.
Only Jordan Ayew has made more fouls without being booked in a Premier League game so far this season (7 vs. Arsenal). From squawka….guess who refs the other game lol
When exactly, in your knowledgeable opinion, were the keys handed over.
The reason I ask is that if you successfully manage to build a wonderful house, to your own specifications and then , for a period of ten years, you decide to dismantle that house brick by brick until it becomes less appealing and significantly less valuable, what do you expect.
The lunatic(s) was/were running the asylum long before this lot.
Daniel Altos
‘ Yves Bissouma conceded six fouls against Arsenal and did not receive a yellow card’
Yes the referee is shite but we made his bias easy on the eyes.
Did our players put the referee under considerable pressure to book him?
We haven’t mastered the art of gamesmanship. We play like we have no desire to win, we just show up to trudge around the field.
Another thing that’s grating me is that why didn’t Arteta back up the frustrations of his injured goal keeper?
It’s one things to say he didn’t see it…. but to go as far as exonerating Maupay [when he didn’t see it!] just seemed to rub salt in Leno’s wounds.
He could have validated his anger in some ways. That’s was poor management 101 – back your players publicly, lambast them privately.
Leno has probably been Arsenal’s top performer this season.
Still think we can improve on him though.
Graham
With only a tiny number of exceptions you can improve on any player. Right now on the list of things that needs to be improved Leno is 4378th on that list.
Dissenter “He’s [Arteta] the one who convinced Xhaka to not leave” I thought you had new found respect for the guy. From him “standing up” to the Arsenal boo boys and then not throwing Emery under the bus like others did. Wasn’t there a request from you for him to get a standing ovation from the home fans because he had a few games for Arteta where he did not trip up over his own feet a bit like David Luiz? I say new found respect because I’m sure it was you who said last summer that Xhaka was even… Read more »
Graham
Tbh there aren’t many goalkeepers better than Leno in the whole of Europe much less in the Epl.
I would say he is probably in the top 10 and the most underrated just because he plays for us.
Graham, not with our resources, we can’t
Get some popcorn the Emiliano Martínez horror show will be on display in the remaining games because he’s not good enough. With the exception of Leno, Martinelli, Pepe, Saka, KT, and to a lesser extent Guendouzi, Willock and Holding/Chambers all the other players should be binned. Edu needs to get creative and just get them out the Club.
GunnerDNA
“Get some popcorn the Emiliano Martínez horror show will be on display in the remaining games because he’s not good enough. ”
I don’t think that is a fair comment.
From what we have seen from Martinez in his previous appearances for Arsenal in the cup matches he has looked quite dependable rather than being seen as a “horror show”
I think we should cash in on Auba. Time to look to the future, not tie down a 30 something striker who relies on his pace on big wages.
Laca can be kept for another season as he is more rounded.
We need to start trimming the fat if we want to start running.
The fact is we still have too many footballers on our roster. We need to downsize and, ideally, improve quality. And find a captain. Typical Arsenal, when we are ready to sell we meet a once in a lifetime pandemic that destroys any interest in players less than elite. We are stuck with our shitpipes until their contracts run out. In the case of Elneny, we are probably sponsoring the cunt’s family through University until the world ends (2021). Prices are rock bottom though. If you have an owner willing to invest some of his hanukkah gelt like Abra then… Read more »
Ishola Arteta convincing Xhaka not to leave in January and me respecting the character of the man aren’t mutually exclusive I wanted us to keep him till the summer so that we could get more for him. I didn’t see Covid-19 coming. In retrospect I was wrong. I like the guys character- he stood up for himself when he felt scape-goated, stood his ground and wanted to leave. He had a his agent line arrange his exit – it’s not his fault that’s he’s still around. I was particularly impressed when he didn’t join the group of players publicly dissing… Read more »
“I’m really not in a good mood – who wants a fight?”
I wonder how many players this morning might be feeling that way, Marc?
We shall see soon enough just how much this bunch actually wants it. Dont know about you, but its more than time to blow up this hot mess of a so-called team.
“Laca can be kept for another season as he is more rounded.“
He’s shit.
GunnerDNA I agree but Arteta seems intent on backing even the worst offenders when it comes to poor performance. David Luiz and Xhaka have been praised to high heaven by Arteta since he’s been in charge, and for what, the same old bullshit.
Not sure about Martinez, I cant remember any glaring mistakes he’s made when between the posts. I’m prepared to see what he can do till the remainder of the season.
Ernest is right: we need to break this team if we want to make progress. Some may have individual talent but the rot is so deep that we need to burn our squad down and rebuild. That means a few years in the wilderness. There is no alternative option.
Dissenter
“I like the guys character”
He was weak in character Dissenter when he stupidly reacted to the fans.
Weak and childish but many saw that in his character before that infamous episode.
That’s why he got booed in the first place.
We can all see the frailties of this current crop of players, just as we saw the frailties over the years under Wenger. You look at other teams and you see that physical presence, the strength, the energy, the speed and movement. We lack the energy and desire required to succeed at this level and it is a painful watch. We had all these positive traits once. Our cohesion is non-existent, as are our abilities to show true fight and spirit. This has been a long and painful process bought about by an unwillingness to act on the obvious. I… Read more »
Moray
“Laca can be kept for another season as he is more rounded.“
He’s shit.
Ever seen a square shit?
I agree though, he needs to leave regardless of if we’re keeping Auba or not. Not good enough to start and we have Martinelli and Eddie for backup that needs the minutes. More Martinelli obviously since he’s much more talented. Only Arteta and Pierre thinks differently
We are in the process of burning down the squad and rebuilding. This is what that looks like. Was never going to be a smooth transition from that ageing, overpaid squad we were saddled with.
The Lacazette situation is very disappointing just in the fact that he has on occasions shown some real good stuff while at Arsenal but his non-appearances now and going missing in matches hugely outweigh any good things he also done.
He looks totaly disinterested now than at any time.
Graham, its that Country Club atmosphere that Wenger maintained over the years that brought marginals to Arsenal. How else can anyone with the sense that God gave to the common dog not see why players like Ozil don’t want to leave? Heaven forbid that Ozil actually has to earn that ridiculous salary!
If you want to change the clubs fortunes you have to change the culture.
Dissenter
Just watched the CP highlights from their Bournemouth win and it’s staggering how easily Zaha gets awarded fouls when he goes down in comparison to our Pepe for example.
Hardly any contact, if any by Brooks followed by commentator’s ” I don’t thing Brooks does too much there” ……from which Palace score their first.
New post
Ishola I think it’s a 50-50 thing He should have reacted and in retrospect the fans shouldn’t be scape goatimh their own players. The fans should also have the balls to take what they re dishing out. You boo him…and he gives you the finger then don’t whine about it. That notwithstanding, he’s not like the Ozils or Mustafis who profess fake love for the club to see out their contract. Xhaka said fuck-you-all and he had his agent line up an exit. How many of our players have had the cojones to do this? He’s not a mentally weak… Read more »
“If you want to change the clubs fortunes you have to change the culture.“
Exactly. Buy for attitude first and talent secondarily. It’s no surprise that lunk Maguire performs well for Leicester and looks shit for Man Utd. You need a solid team, and not some constellation of flash harries. We have a Wenger team mentality without the skill or the elan to go with it.
Carlo was announced on the 21st December 2019 MA took over ARSENAL on the 20th December 2019 They started at the same time. My ‘yardstick’ for MA is Don Carlo and Everton. Why? Because we could have got Anchelotti instead of MA. Let’s see who does a better job. Everton and Arsenal are basically the same level now right? In 2020? One of our 5th to 15th place rivals is Everton. 3 points difference. So if Everton can make it through 90mins without being humiliated. Then Arsenal can. Right now Everton are 80mins strong against a team better than City.… Read more »
Daniel Altos-interesting point Danny.That c** t Atkinson hates Arsenal.Knew it the minute he was confirmed to ref.We were f***d.Its a shame those kind of stats are not publicised by our PR & answers reqd from the FA .He ( Atkinson) is not the only one.This has gone on for a decade or more.People slag off “ untold Arsenal” for conspiracy theories etc.but the evidence keeps stacking up & yet no one calls it out.? Why? Because it’s not the done thing? We’re whingers? Sick to death of it………………