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
RR “But if hiring Arteta was another panic hire like the 7 players that followed our 8-2 thumping at Old Trafford then get rid end of the season, think up a plan/vision then recruit accordingly.” Arteta got the job because of who he was sitting beside. There’s no other logical evidence why the execs at Arsenal would hired him. Convincing Xhaka to stay, loaning Cedric, Mari, playing Mustafi and talking up Luiz in press conference are reasons why Arteta isn’t the manager to take this club forward. I hope Edu overrule some of his decisions because when he’s sacked there’s… Read more »
Nice to see Don have his scheduled breakdown though, that did brighten up a crap day. Needed more racism to be in his top 5 though.
Graham, I was a big Wenger Out person, which means I didn’t accept it and I still think it wasn’t good enough. But I’m honest enough to admit that I never thought any one could do worse than Wenger, and I was wrong. Wenger was rightly sacked, he was drunk with power and had begun to insult the fans, so I’m no Wenger fan. But I hate it when people still take the blame to Wenger, like what the fuck? We sacked Wenger so we could arrest the decay and gradually get out of it, with gradual improvement starting from… Read more »
Diss,
Your question earlier.
I think Arteta needs Luiz onside this season, so he’s probably not going to tell the press he thinks he’s shit
If Martinelli isn’t playing, there’s a reason. Unless you think he’s intentionally keeping him out the team to spite you?
Have no idea on the coaching staff. They seem pretty smart and qualified. Round does have a bland name though.
Pedro,
“If Martinelli isn’t playing, there’s a reason. Unless you think he’s intentionally keeping him out the team to spite you?“
There is no other logical explanation why you bench the second most lethal scorer on the team when you need a spark and play others …
This is clearly a non football related issue!
” Round does have a bland name though.”
So now you’re having a pop at someone for having a square name?
And yes Arteta is in the wrong and is being a spiteful prick!
Surely Luiz has only one more game he could play in unless we extend? Banned for the Southampton game that only leaves the Sheffield United cup game before his contract expires end of June.
‘I mean the list is quite long. Pretending we were a footballing force in the last five years under him is dishonest.’ Go watch any of those games you mentioned and come back here to say they were as horrible as Wednesday. Nobody said Arsenal was a force, but we could play fluent attacking football any day of the week. The problem for years was we couldn’t defend and most of our players were soft. To say that Arsenal was as bad as Wednesday under Wenger is what is actually dishonest. For instance, when did we ever have ZERO goal… Read more »
Take a look at what Napoli did, players in revolt, sacking pedigree manager and bringing in Gatusso, Dries M. signing a new 2 year contract and beating Juve in the Coppa Italia. That is a manager signed by an owner that cares for the club.
We don’t have that but you can’t blame the present player performance on the executive, as said before if you can’t beat a relegation battling team with this squad the finger points only to one person MA.
Gentle
Wenger still gets blame because his poor decisions still hinders us.
Xhaka, Mustafi. Ozil are just the worst ones and the hardest to get rid of, most of the other ones have been dealt with but it has cost us.
We hardly got any money for any of them and they have been draining the club with their bloated wages for years so our transfer budget isn’t what it should be. That’s what’s been holding us back way more than all the chatter about super agents and contacts hiring and all the rest of the bullshit.
Bottom of the table performance from a mid table team. This is the new norm…
Pedro
“If Martinelli isn’t playing, there’s a reason”
This is a real worry though – it could be a serious reason, the kid could be doing more Bolivian matching powder than Rosicky but if it’s a “not doing enough in training” then sorry Arteta needs to get his head out of his arse because when he’s played he’s put everything on the line and if the players performing in training were tearing it up we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.
Pedro has and is losing all credibility with this remark.
“If Martinelli isn’t playing, there’s a reason. Unless you think he’s intentionally keeping him out the team to spite you?”
His obsession with Arteta over the club. I’ve thought this for a while but Pedro has some kind of agenda and his incredibly biased. With emery wasn’t playing martinelli pedro would be calling him out.
Re the above post .. draining the club..bla..bla.. is that the best u can come out with..what about all the money made..20 years of champions league
London
That’s the problem – this has gone from a blog with an open agenda of “Wenger’s finished” to a “there’s no agenda here we look at the data” bullshit exercise.
Nothing smart about Arteta’s backroom team Pedro. Bang average at best and what we see on the pitch and the in game management attests to it.
G
And what did he do with that money?
35m Xhaka
35m Mustafi
Blown tons of millions on useless players with 0 resale value.
Bloated wages on crap players that contribute very little or nothing at all making them impossible to sell.
We cut about 35m from the wage bill last summer and it’s still way too high for what we see on the pitch, guess where all the waste is? Yep, Wengers players.
Yeah, I would say that hinders us pretty bad.
London, would I gain credibility with the masses if I said ‘Arteta is intentionally trying to crush the soul of Gabriel because he is the devil’?
RH, I’m not sure you have much cash in the bank when it comes to determining how saucy our backroom team is. You didn’t think language was important to coaching, now you have an opinion on two people you hadn’t heard of until December?
Pedro
No but I thought you had sauces or is that sources within the club.
What is going on with Martinelli?
Marc, I’m really not sure there’s one magic bullet that’s fixing Arsenal. If Martinelli isn’t playing, I suspect there’s a reason.
Pedro
Yeah but we all think that – come on guru I thought between your sources at the club and Amy Lawrence you had all the answers!
I am trying to think of a big club who hired a novice manager. Can’t think of any.
And no Chelsea were not a big club when Gullit managed them.
This Martinelli
Has he naively popped a few naughty pills to bulk up during lockdown ( think Ronaldo) and MA is protecting him from the random squad.
Because, if he can score wonder goals at the Bridge he sure can score them at B.H.A.
Baffling…..
Radio, apart from Barcelona and Madrid
Some use SPUDS league position (only 2 points ahead of us) to defend Arteta. Yesterday, SPUDS played like a top 6 team. Any neutral football fan would agree that that team will compete in the remaining games. On the other hand, our team played worse after this break. Arteta is serving shit football and is not giving fans any hope and purpose in the remaining games. That’s the difference.
Wenger was a novice helped greatly by Bergkamp.
No Bergkamp no league titles..
Marc, no idea. Though Saka and Auba on the left aren’t exactly lightweight talents.
I hate to say it but CG could be closer to the truth on Martinelli than most.
I thought Pep and Zidane managed their b sides, they’re more Ljungberg, no?
Radio Raheem
“And no Chelsea were not a big club when Gullit managed them.”
And Gullit went into a better situation at Chelsea than Arteta does now at Arsenal.
Glenn Hoddle laid the ground work there for him coming in.
Did Bergkamp play in France and Japan? 🙂
Nelson, Spurs parked the bus and the football was shit. They didn’t even manage the win. That was a dreadful game yesterday.
I didn’t think Spurs were that good yesterday.
They competed yes but scored against the run of play and it wasn’t a great surprise when Man United equalised.
The sizes of Barca and Real may be daunting but you’re sure to have decent tools to work with in addition to established winning culture.
Quite something that Arteta and his coaching staff can be deconstructed with so much confidence after a dozen games, 6 months into the job, 3 of those sat at home in an I preferred global event.
Few of you missed your calling in professional football it seems
Pedro
You have to agree that this Manure team is very strong. And we lost to BHA.
Its utter Bullshit CC, this place is filled with masochists awaiting a misstep to pounce, FFS the dudes been in charge for 6 months and what a 6 months its been.
I recommend some Jimmy Cliff and a giant spliffer for you savages.
Pedro
One small issue Auba isn’t a left winger and Saka hasn’t played there in the last two matches.
If there are genuine reasons for leaving Martinelli out then fine but right now it doesn’t make any sense at all.
Marc, Saka was excellent there and he’s probably our best player. Auba has also been elite on the left.
Nelson, can you make up your mind who was great? Spurs who parked the bus? Or United who couldn’t break them down in open play?
Sal
It’s boring mate, like some of them aren’t even into football and just look for any reason for a moan or virtual scrap.
“Marc, Saka was excellent there and he’s probably our best player. Auba has also been elite on the left.”
When?
Honestly, It’s sad seeing the club you love going down this path and being the butt of banters weekly. I was a strong Wenger Out advocate, but like a previous poster said, he was let out so as to arrest the decay and chart a new course for the team. This is Act II, and we seem nowhere that target. Infact, we are actually worse than when Arsene was around. I’ve thought about why the team is this way and reached a conclusion: the club’s leaders. Yes, this was an excuse by the AKBs for Wenger, but he seemed happy… Read more »
If the last fifteen years or so are anything to go by, it will be a cold, wintry day in hell before we see a transfer window in which Arteta gets the caliber of players he’d like to have. Those kind of players cost money, big money and only the likes of City, United, Chelsea and Liverpool can afford them apparently. We’re Arsenal, let’s not forget. What gives me hope is that we have (arguably) one of the best youngsters in the league in Saka. Pepe looked up for it today. He dealt really well with Brighton’s physicality and scored… Read more »
He has been in charge for 1year, give him time.
He has been in charge for just 18 months, give him time.
Till it goes on.. If he wasn’t just a novice, he can still have something to fall back on to, but Nada.
Will Arteta become a top coach in 5-10 years time? Possible.
Next two seasons? Highly unlikely.
‘Nelson, Spurs parked the bus and the football was shit. They didn’t even manage the win. That was a dreadful game yesterday.’
Dreadful game? No, they played good counter attack football and only suspect decisions by the ref cost them the win.
If you are looking for dreadful games , look no further than Wednesday and today, produced and packaged by your world class talk show king!
Bris, they scored a goal from a shot that had a 6% chance of going in and the game was shit.
You have absolutely no room to talk about the standards of a game after stating the worst afc performance in 25 years was Wednesday.
I was actually feeling quite alright until I opent my flashscore app and saw that we have a zero goal difference ffs….up next,St Mary’s,a place I absolutely hate of late,we are guaranteed to make Danny Ings and Shane Long have a blinder
In a row we have Wolves, Leicester, Spuds and Liverpool.
You can imagine the comedy.
So we need to give Arteta 18 months before we can judge him. So because this is Arteta’s 13th game, a loss to Brighton is justifiable? Does Arteta need 18 months to pick the right team and put players in their best positions? Does he need 18 months to get his substitutions right? If he needs 18 months to achieve that, he’s not fit to be Arsenal’s manager. ‘He came into an utter mess’, And so? Why did we hire him in the first place? To right the mess. ‘He has awful players’. Okay, he had our second highest goalscorer… Read more »
Amen Dani, Shane Long over the top, BOOM
Olumide, I think you give him 5 months into next season and you’ll know.
‘You have absolutely no room to talk about the standards of a game after stating the worst afc performance in 25 years was Wednesday.’
Pedro,
I challenge you to post a game here on your blog where we played under Wenger as horribly as Wednesday, then post Wednesday’s game so we can compare, full games for the two games and if you don’t accept that challenge then I don’t know what to say to you.
I suspect Arteta and the club have given up this season. I won’t blame them if this is the case. It is now evident that fixing our squad is going to be hard, real hard. The rot from the boardroom to players like Ozil is just too deep. Can Arteta fix this? I don’t know but I am willing to let him have another season to try. My two-pence advice – announce now that Ozil is out of the plans for next season, pay him his enormous wages but make him train with the kids; that sort of ruthless decision… Read more »
I wouldn’t give him 18 hours let alone 18 months.
It was a wrong appointment and leaving it too long will only make thing worse.
Wenger’s 1000th game at Stamford Bridge was a delight 😉
Pedro the thing with coaches is you can read up on them and their body of work. What I have read on the two Arteta picked screams mid-table/championship’. I don’t need to know them from Adam. Where they have worked speaks for itself. What we see on the pitch now speaks for itself. Do our players look properly coached? Oddly enough you don’t have an opinion why two players dropped like flies minutes into the City game, I remember you had a lot to say on conditioning and the role of the head coach with respect to that. Everything you… Read more »
bris
I can name 50 games worse under Wenger so stop your bleating.
Was it the champions league semis Ronaldo beat Almunia from 200 yards out haha tragic
“Why did we hire him in the first place? To right the mess.“
Yea, we hired a young manager on a long term deal so he could bandaid the remaining 4 months of a completely fucked season.
You’ve nailed it.
‘Wenger’s 1000th game at Stamford Bridge was a delight 😉’
Radio,
We lost…badly, we were not great in our play, but we did not look as nothing as Wednesday.
Wednesday was not the first time Citey beat us by three and I have no issue with the previous ones.
I dare Pedro to post the Chelsea game and the one we lost badly to United(8-2), side by side with Wednesday, and let’s see.
A coach will be judged by the decisions he/she makes. Arteta takes off Pepe and Saka when we are chasing a win – what gives? That game was there for the taking. Have Brighton become another nemisis team for Arsenal? Do we now fear these ‘pub’ sides? Look at Brighton’s line up – full of no name players who put in for the club. There are serious infrastructure failures at Arsenal that need to be addressed now or we will end up a mid-table side for the next 20 years. At my age I don’t have a lot of time… Read more »
We were alright until Luiz on Wednesday.
In some way today’s performance was worse. It was a Brighton side that was shit for most parts.
‘I can name 50 games worse under Wenger so stop your bleating.’
Don’t bother naming 50, just the worst one of the 50 will do, then urge Pedro to post it here so we can all see because I can see memories are failing a lot of you. What you think was horrible then is nothing compared to Wednesday.
And I feel sorry joining issues with you, Red.
RH
The Leno and Holding injuries are quite similar aren’t they, both going up for duels and landing awkwardly.
Holding was definitely overtraining by the evil Emery, that’s been established here many times so what happened with Leno? The lingering effects of Emery’s evil ways? Must be.
Anyway, we’re not supposed to point out the hypocrisy from some here so it’s meaningless.
I’m willing to extend the same period of grace I gave Emery to Arteta but he needs to start getting the basics right now. He tinkers way too much and subs are shite.
‘We were alright until Luiz on Wednesday.’
No, Leno saved a lot before Luiz pulled his trick…let’s just say we were alright until Citey decided to play football.
“Oddly enough you don’t have an opinion why two players dropped like flies minutes into the City game“
This is about the 5th time I’ve seen Xhaka’s injury referred to like it wasn’t a complete freak incident.
Did you not see how he rolled his ankle? The ball was played off his foot mid stride and he planted it awkwardly. Complete dumb poor luck.
Freddie I have no issues with Arteta as a person. I just don’t think he is ready for the task that is getting AFC back to competing.
We are a mess, and nothing I have seen so far points to him knowing exactly what to do to salvage it. I don’t believe he has written off the season like some on here. And even if he has now is the time to start implementing the ideas for the next, I don’t see any work in progress out there on the pitch
Charles it has been mentioned numerous times for a reason. Pedro knows why it’s being mentioned.
We had 20 minutes to go, we needed 3 points for a glimmer of hope for too 4. That was what was at stake. So Arteta takes our ONLY creative spark off to replace him with another left back. Then Nelson and Willock get brought on, wtf have those 2 done to justify their inclusion, especially after Wednesday. He’s as clueless as Emery was. As bad as any crap that was dished up by Emery. And we all agree Emery is a poor manager
What’s going at this club right now, what has gone on since kroenke took over is a fucking disgrace.
RH, I have commented on the injuries. If you’re not going to follow my comments religiously, please don’t comment on my comments when I’ve commented.
The club has certainly been on a noticeable trajectory as Kroenke took over, yes money has been spent, but the club has not been well run, going from having Wenger doing far to much to this bunch of charlatans running the club now. I dread to think what the pandemic is going to do to KSE and their debt funded structures, just read a thread by journalist Matt Scott which offers a worrying view on that. This club needs another Dein like figure to oversee a rebuild, with this ownership that is not going to happen. None of this is… Read more »
This is not the time to be on the managers back. He’s a rookie manager having to deal with an unprecedented break. Players are all at varying fitness levels, persistent bad attitude players cannot be shifted as no one wants them. Shut up and support them. We all knew this season was a write off.
They know the situation sucks.
“Shut up and support them.”
That will surely encourage change.
22 games unbeaten is not looking that bad now, right?
Champagne Charlie
Yea, we hired a young manager on a long term deal so he could bandaid the remaining 4 months of a completely fucked season.You’ve nailed it.
—
Completely fucked season? Arteta’s first game was on matchweek 19.
Are you saying a season of 38 games can be completely fucked after 18 games?
After 18 games, it’s impossible to to resurrect a season even if you bring in a new manager?
“22 games unbeaten is not looking that bad now, right?“
What about 49 games unbeaten?
Olumide
Did I say impossible? No, because it’s football. But there wasn’t a manager on deck who was being brought in with any confidence of getting us into top 4 with that start.
Half a season is a big fucking chunk to completely blow. Are we completely out of the running now? No, but we’re not remotely likely which was the point.
We have (roughly) half the points of Liverpool. So, are you a glass half full or half empty kind of feeling after today? I would say the glass is fucking empty and the bar is now shut !
“But there wasn’t a manager on deck who was being brought in with any confidence of getting us into top 4 with that start.”
What about Carlo Ancelotti? He retired?
So Ancelotti was going to emphatically land us top was he?
Is he not behind us currently despite our back to back losses? I’m convinced
What a. Bummer still feeling crappy
CC
“So Ancelotti was going to emphatically land us top was he?”
I wouldn’t expect you to understand because you was out here ready to risk it all for Arteta because of your dislike for Emery. Now your tail is firmly planted between your legs because all the sauce you was referring to is actually bs. Clt+Alt+Del 👋🏿
“I wouldn’t expect you to understand because you was out here ready to risk it all for Arteta because of your dislike for Emery“ Hahaha no I understand fully that you’ve just shoved your foot in your mouth with a daft comment about Ancelotti despite him being behind us in the league showing no sign whatsoever that he’d have delivered this apparent marvel of a seasons turnaround. How very predictable of you to go reductive with my view too despite again being wrong. I touted I’d go Arteta post-Wenger, it was Rafa I talked up midseason. Was, and am, very… Read more »
Guys, the Emery narrative is going to turn into the new politics.
If you want therapy about a bum manager, go somewhere else.
There is plenty to talk about rather than prattling on about a disaster manager that was fired.
GunnerDNA, time to move on man. Time to move on
Haha look at trump … this is entertainment
Wasn’t there a stat that the last time dunk scored (maybe at home) it was against arsenal all the way back in 2018? Serious question, why do we always seem to be the one to break these kinda records? Every time there’s a shit record we let teams beat them. Haven’t won in 10 games? Come play arsenal! Haven’t scored in 20 years? Come play arsenal! Not sure of the rules of the game? Come play arsenal! Had 6 pints and a packet of pork scratching a before the game? Come play arsenal! Hunchback cunt? Come play arsenal! We are… Read more »
I actually like 4-4-2 a lot and think it’s now underrated in 2020. But it does require your two CMs to be really well rounded.
Petit and vieira. Vieira and Gilberto. Gilberto and Edu etc
I don’t think guen was bad yesterday but he can’t hold a candle to any of the players above which is the level we need to be looking at if we want a CM pairing to be relevant
I witnessed Wenger losing touch with reality, I witnessed Emery try weird tactics but I must say Arteta is a bad coach. Started following le grove in 2011 just came back today to make a comment. Been here with different names. I’m very disappointed with how Arsenal is performing recently
Another thing if you play 4-4-2 is you need one striker who is willing to drop into the hole sometimes to support link up. Laca should’ve been doing that more as apart from auba dropping to the left wing, our CMs looked permanently disconnected from our two CFs. But why wasn’t Arteta noticing that and telling laca (or auba) to drop into the hole more often? You could see especially when Pepe had it on the right there were no options. Laca was miles away and marked. Ceballos was outnumbered so the option was always back to Bellerin. 4-4-2 is… Read more »
The invincibles were 442
Counter attacked all the time
Bergkamp in the hole
Worked but we have shit players so no formation will really work until we get in world class again
Yeah I think there’s a lot of bandwagon crap with formations 4-4-2 was a quality formation for decades, then Barca started dominating with 4-3-3 and everybody switched ignoring the fact that they also had the best players on the planet. Then in England conte brought in the 3 at the back with wing backs and won the league and everyone was like oh yeah that’s a thing to and the following season loads of teams copied it. A year on and it was almost totally abandoned and it’s all 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 for the most part again with a few… Read more »
The triangles were annoying and predictable but how I wish they came back to us….
Laca has shown the ability to drop back into midfield and link up play
A 442 means your wingers need to defend
Or your full backs attack and overlap
Our wingers bat Saka do not like to defend
442 means no room for ozil
Saka does defend
The rest do not
“Petit and vieira. Vieira and Gilberto. Gilberto and Edu etc”
I’d take a pairing of Denilson and John Jensen over the chancers we have there now. How on earth Ceballos is so highly rated I have no idea – I think I can remember one decent performance he’s put in for us. What is Guendouzi? Xhaka? It’s embarrassing.
Being back the triangles