Well HOWDY GOOD MORNING TO YOU all.
This week is a bit of a lol right? It’s like a typical February post-2007. We’d be in every competition, performances might be creeking, but you’d be confident that THIS was the year. Then three games would creep up on us and we’d be out the league, Champions League and FA Cup in one week.
Arteta looks like he’s picking up a bit of that magic from his old boss. We lost the North London Derby, we’re about to get a light/heavy spanking from Liverpool, then we go to Wembley for an improbable semi-final.
It is what it is.
He seemed pretty upbeat in the press conference. Maybe he’s not reading the NO IMPROVEMENT merchants and he saw this comment from CC in the comments.
Here’s a a quick snippet of goals FOR and AGAINST we’ve seen throughout the season at different points….
Week 13 – Emery’s last game: 18, 19
Week 18 – Freddie’s last game: 24, 27
Week 35 – now: 51, 44Which breaks down as…
Emery: 18, 19 (-1)
Freddie: 6, 8 (-2)
Arteta: 27, 17 (+7)Or…
Emery: 1.38 goals per game, 1.46 goals against per game
Freddie: 1.2 goals per game, 1.6 goals against per game
Arteta: 1.59 goals per game, 1 goal against per game.It’s late so sue me for any inaccuracies, but its pretty evident we’re scoring more and conceding less PER GAME with Arteta. Otherwise coined as ‘no improvement’.
Core themes in the presser remained that we played well but allowed mistakes to kill us. I think the fact we didn’t get battered and largely controlled the game is his solace, though tactically, it’s hard not to think that Mourinho giving you ball and waiting for mistakes is him controlling the game.
His other theme was about progressing the club forward. He’s very careful with his words, but he keeps reminding everyone that the reason Liverpool are where they are is they made consistently good decisions on players. They were strategic, smart, and they pushed the club forward.
‘Yeah. What they have done is phenomenal, obviously the first two years it took them some time to rebuild the squad and to create a new culture, a new philosophy and a game model that suited the coach. Then they started to recruit every single player in relation to what they needed and that’s where I think they were really smart. They bought with specificity for every position that was required. Financially they had a big backing and made some big signings which completely changed the club in my opinion.’
I think it’s fair to say that the first transfer window can be written off as a hangover from yesteryear. David Luiz and Cedric Soares weren’t my kind of deals, but you can rationalise why they happened because of the state of the squad and the lack of options. Moving into this summer, we can’t be topping up our squad with more players like that. We have to be strategic about who we sign and what the path forward is.
We don’t just want Champions League qualification, we want a squad that can grow into that competition and win it. I know that sounds mad, but you have to shoot for the stars. That means signing players that ‘might’ drag you over the top 4 line is a losing game (it’s also a game we’ve played for 3 years and it hasn’t worked). If this current squad gets us into the top 4 next season with the addition of Willian and some other players looking for a retirement fund, what happens next? They can’t sustain it. We can’t sell them. Our squad is worse off for it. That’s why the better bet would be to sign up players that have the pedigree to make Champions League, but could grow when we make it there.
The big dollars, if we have any, must go on the core this summer. We need a ball-playing centre-back, we need a #6 like Partey, and we need an #8 that is ready to roll. Then we need to upgrade with players that fit the Arteta mold.
We’re being linked with Marc Roca, I’m not shocked. Technical, creative and quick thinker. Our midfield doesn’t create without players like that. We don’t just need one player like that, we need to start building a conveyor belt of them.
Supporting Emery came at a great cost. We brought in someone without understanding what he wanted to do on the pitch, and because his hire wasn’t on merit, no one paid attention to what he wanted. Now we have a coach with a much clearer articulation of what he wants to do. I suspect he has more sway with the staff. He’s Edu’s hire. Hopefully that means something because another incoherent summer and we’re in big trouble. This is more on Klopp.
I know how many decisions have to be right and how much support you need from the club and the people around, and how much connection you to have to generate from your fans to have the full package, and afterwards it’s football. The context right now is different to what it was as well four years ago and the abilities for a club to rebuild something is more limited, but it’s certainly something we have to look at and how they did it because it’s a great example. But we have to know that we have to do it our way with our resources and have it in mind that the content right now is different, but we are heading to be the best and this is my only objective with this club. We have to find a way to do it.
The ambition is to be the best. Not Europa League winners. Not top 4. To get back to the very top. It’s an ambition right for Arsenal, the question is, can it be supported? We’ll find out.
To start, we have to navigate Liverpool at home who are on the charge for the Premier League points record. He was asked if he’d rest players so we had a better chance at the weekend.
I believe that it’s very important to have energy and momentum going into important matches, and in order to do that you have to go game by game. Today and tomorrow we will asses the players and how they are, and obviously they’ve been hit and a lot of them have played some crazy minutes up until now and again we’re going to have games every two and a half days. We will try to put the strongest team out as possible here and as well on Saturday, and to do that we need to know how everyone recovers from the game.
I think he’s desperate to turnover Liverpool. He needs a restart statement win and I’m not sure Wolves quite counts in his mind. I think the idea of Arsenal keeping their concentration for 90 minutes is quite hard to fathom, but we’ve seen crazier things. The weekend game is where it’s at, City have had plenty of bad days this season and their away record isn’t great. Making an FA Cup final would be a different kind of statement.
Let’s see what happens, have a great day.
P.S. Arteta’s opinions on City and FFP were factual but missed the point. City are where they are because they pump a nation’s cash into the project. That result was the final nail in the coffin for Fairplay in football. It also makes a mockery of Ivan G and Wenger telling us for 10 years that when the rules kicked in, we’d be positioned to take advantage.
Now it’s clear. You either have a sugar daddy, or you don’t. I think it’s bad for the game. Bayern don’t have a sugar daddy, but they are financially dominant and just won the league for the 8th year in a row. The Spanish League is fairly locked. Juventus always win in Italy. Paris will always win unless they rehire Emery. The only saving grace our league has is it’s basically 8 mega-rich owners slugging it out. Football isn’t fair and it’s getting more and more unfair. In the end, people will get bored if there isn’t a competition. We’re a way off that but it isn’t beyond the realms that people could lose interest.
Really do want to see a Saka Auba Pepe front 3.
Everybody in their best positions. Not rocket science this.
sal
I’m not sure a window will make a toss of difference if A) we don’t have any money to spend and B) Arteta insists on holding onto the major issues in the squad we might have a chance of fixing.
It looks like he may have gone back to a back 4 unless Tierney is a CB and Saka Lefft wing back which is possible. but I would rather he go 4 at the back and push saka into the midfield.
seems saka is LWB
Funny enough, if we had Ceballos in place of Nelson and playing 4-3-3 this would have been a balanced, well thought out team.
Sal
..as ridiculous as you swinging at me for changing with the wind when all I’ve expressed is cautious optimism?
All I ever said is that Arteta isn’t a finished article, is learning on the job and I hope he’s a quick learner.
Says the lad inferring the league table to be a “useless stat”. My goodness, Charlie boy.
Jimenez what a finish!
CG
Wenger got sacked precisely for not finishing in the top 4.
One dimensional.football may fluke the odd FA Cup but that’s about it.
“Funny enough, if we had Ceballos in place of Nelson and playing 4-3-3 this would have been a balanced, well thought out team”
Tbh
Klopp is a good guy, he wont humiliate diet Pep
@Gazzap. I agree.
Saka and Pepe as out and out wingers exploring their adventurous full backs would have been perfect.
But seems it’s Saka and Soares as wing backs.
Marc
Lets hope they can find some money, we all know we need it. The assests that can be sold look to be on market.
As for Arteta’s selections thats up to him to sort, if he doesn’t and tanks I ‘m pretty confident most will have knives sharpened around January. Myself included.
Until then, i’m on the boat.
Livescores seems to think we are lining up in a 3-4-3
Tierney as the left footed center back, Nelson at left wing back
CG –
Unfortunately I know your serious. But still when you bring it up every day on here.. it is trolling. Because of the context of where your typing it. That’s the definition of trolling for example if I went to a website for vegans and talked about meat all the time. And wanted them to explain the benefits of vegetables which they have already discussed for the last 7 yrs. Same thing.
Think it’s a 3-4-3 Unnaii with Saka as the lwb.
Definitely an interesting lineup. Not quite there for me tho. Looking at those on the bench.
Thorough
If this Liverpool team has an obvious weakness it’s their FB’s pushing up – as you say does Arteta look to exploit that – nah that’s for manager’s who don’t have sauce.
Based on this Bournemouth, City are definitely beatable in a one of game
Can we beat them?
I’m not so sure with the calamitous defenders we have in the club, there’a always a clanger waiting to be dropped it seems.
“Give it up kid you’ve had your pants pulled down quite publicly.
I’d pick a new tree to bark up”
Go on, Explain.
Moving Tierney to CB is a stupid move if that’s what he’s done.
Marc
Liverpool’s FBs don’t even have to take necessary risks by pushing too far out. They will dominate the middle of the field and move the ball around with ease.
Looks like a ‘soak and spring’ kind of lineup with more pace wide with Nelson and Saka. Could also be a feature to try and nullify their fullbacks and push them back by having runners high and wide.
Bit concerned with the middle, that’s not a mobile spot and I think Laca maybe tasked with dropping in to be a 10 of sorts.
The best left back in the league playing out of position, this is all very Wengeresque.
Un
Mustafi, Luiz and Holding as CB’s keeping Tierney at LWB.
Arteta’s either losing the plot or is just trying to be too clever by half.
No idea how Spurs are beating Newcastle, hopefully Leicester batter them
Another lightweight midfield with four overlapping wide players and a roll of the dice back three. Good luck with that.
Marc
I’m getting bored with him
..
Making permanent fixtures in the team of xhara mustafi n Kola
He’s lost me
I want a proven manager
The last 15 years we have had players of great potential …
Who did fuck all
Now we have a manager who had great potential …
Who will do fuck all.
Get in a ruthless proven manager
1-5 tonight
Oh deary me.
‘am I supposed to summarise that Arteta is inferior to Emery? 90 minutes establishes that for you? No consideration of any other factors, just the result?’ CC, you keep killing your own points. If 90 minutes don’t establish that Emery is better than Arteta, then how does just six months of leading a team establish Arteta as a man better than Emery who has years of winning in Europe on his CV? Let’s go back to the NLD for more context: Emery played with the Spuds roaches loudly jeering at his players and still got a draw against a Spuds’… Read more »
this is a 433
RSPC
Yeah know what you mean – it all seems so very predictable. Guy talks all the right talk but really isn’t backing it up.
This is the game where we all realise why holding hasn’t been playing.
‘Another lightweight midfield’
What’s the heavyweight option?
“Sorry
That was meant for gentle bris”
Alright buddy.
This has the potential to be embarrassing.
I see Claude has left AFTV.
Matt, hopefully the opposite… get some of the FA cup final vibes going.
Arteta’s also going to look very stupid “writing off” the PL chance of getting EL if we lose to City on Saturday.
So many opportunities since football restarted to nail it.
Luke Are you disputing the accuracy of these stats or saying that they are less useful in analyzing Arteta’s impact than simply using our position relative to Spurs and United?Emery: 1.38 goals per game, 1.46 goals against per game Freddie: 1.2 goals per game, 1.6 goals against per game Arteta: 1.59 goals per game, 1 goal against per game. —- I know people are trying to jump on this stat to prove a point. But sorry, this stat doesn’t prove much. And this is why: this stat doesn’t always correlate with a much more important stat – points on the… Read more »
“If 90 minutes don’t establish that Emery is better than Arteta, then how does just six months of leading a team establish Arteta as a man better than Emery who has years of winning in Europe on his CV?“
You’re arguing points that aren’t being made. Get a grasp of statistics and their application before telling me, or another, to stop using them.
Calum Wilson can’t score to save his life.
“This is the game where we all realise why holding hasn’t been playing.”
So you’re saying Arteta’s protecting Kolas and Mustafi because they’re so good?
Fuck me the bullshit on here.
He’s saving Mustafi, Kolasinac and Ozil for the semi final. 😉
Pedro, I meant in terms of numbers, not body weights.
Pedro. I hope I’m wrong but you know what they say about absence….
I think people are looking at Holding through rose tinted glasses. Understandable given our other options granted.
Not looking forwards to this one at all.
RR
Pepe couldn’t make the bench because he’s starting.
Midwest
Nice WOT reference there, I see you.
Matt, the general consensus after the last game was Mustafi and Kola had to be dropped, well, here we are, so let’s see what happens.
Just saw the lineups.
I have already said how I expect the game to go before.
If Ox is match fit, arsenal are going to get smashed.
Fingers crossed that Liverpool waste a lot of chances
Classy move giving Wood the penalty.
Matt
Kolas can’t even play LB – he’s a wingback so playing him at CB is a terrible idea.
Holding might not be the greatest CB going but he’s a better CB than Kolas.
Square holes square pegs.
Come on now get something tonight.
Spurs now five clear and fucking Burnley have jumped ahead by a point.
Nice WOT reference there, I see you.
___________
Love me some Robert Jordan.
‘You’re arguing points that aren’t being made. Get a grasp of statistics and their application before telling me, or another, to stop using them.’
I own more than one business, man. And I know you don’t bomb forward with figures you have not cross-examined if you don’t wanna lose your money.
Diabolical decision by ref at Burnley.
“Pepe couldn’t make the bench because he’s starting.”
Fucking Sanllehi – if we’d have signed Saha he would’ve started and been on the bench.
This is why we’re shit.
‘Spurs now five clear and fucking Burnley have jumped ahead by a point.’
The post Wenger miracles.
You didn’t expect them this big did you?
Marc, I don’t disagree and as I said, I hope I’m wrong and he has a good game. Admittedly he doesn’t have to do much to improve on what he’s replacing, but Holding just isn’t a great player.
Un
A straight choice between Kolas or Holding at CB?
There’s not even a conversation to be had.
The rumour Ceballos would cost £23m is a joke. Dominik S. who is supposed to sign for Milan is reportedly €23m and he’s a 20yo and looks twice the player. Yes, YT highlights mostly but can’t imagine we’d see the same from Ceballos YT in terms of physique, pace, passing styles )(mostly forward), skills etc. Fine with limited funds but has AFC seriously going after Dominik S? Or his agent isn’t on the Raul & Edu panel? Point is, there are apparent good young ones out there and all we heard is Xhara turned a corner, Mustafi coming good, Luiz… Read more »
Mid
Me too, probably reread the whole series 4-5 times, some of the books even more. Hope the tv show is up to par.
Klopp just said he was going to ask Arteta what his system was.. during his interview and saw him walking up, yelled at him… “what is your system?” haha Good banter.
what the hell channel is the game on in the US???
anyone have a good link?
Matt
We don’t currently have any “great CB’s” it’s a case of picking the best of what we’ve got.
Something Arteta is failing to do in several positions on a consistent basis.
Un
Come on, with our collection of average to awful defenders, are you really saying someone as dependable as Holding would have been on the bench this whole time???
Oh wow. Stats are flying all over the comments this evening. Here’s a stat for ya. Jose the
“washed up” Pedro’s words,
“dinosaur” Pedro’s words,
“toxic” Pedro’s words,
“finished” Pedro’s words,
manager has just led a “team in crisis” Pedro’s words, to 5 comfortable points ahead of us.
Wow. You can only wonder what Arteta could achieve if only he was washed up too!
“I see Claude has left AFTV.”
And I learned that “DVD” is an incredibly unclever racial slur in the UK.
Guns of SF_ Go to Peacock.com… sign up it’s free streaming today.
*catch all*
* what we believe in*
Pedro
Be honest what do you make of Arteta’s selection tonight with all the implications?
And before the carnage I mean match starts please!
sorry peacocktv.com
“what the hell channel is the game on in the US???”
if u have xfinity, all matches on their peacock/nbcsports station
otherwise the pay nbc sports channel
‘Oh wow. Stats are flying all over the comments this evening. Here’s a stat for ya. Jose the
“washed up” Pedro’s words,
“dinosaur” Pedro’s words,
“toxic” Pedro’s words,
“finished” Pedro’s words,
manager has just led a “team in crisis” Pedro’s words, to 5 comfortable points ahead of us.
Wow. You can only wonder what Arteta could achieve if only he was washed up too!’
Now you are in trouble, they gonna come after you with meaningless loose stats!
NM i got it
Matt
” are you really saying someone as dependable as Holding would have been on the bench this whole time???”
Yes – I really think Arteta is trying to be too clever far too often.
“No Dani no Auba to startOK, what the fuck you thinking Arteter”
Mate its not too difficult to comprehend
Bris, you need to stop behaving like a child. This is a consistent theme with you.
Put it this way if we only have £23m to spend this summer, I wouldn’t use it all on Ceballos. sure if we have the money to buy him AND others we need then yes but not if he’s our signing of the summer.
Olumide picking apart the whole goals scored and conceded thing that’s been flying around on here like a trophy
alex cutterJuly 15, 2020 19:03:14
“I see Claude has left AFTV.”And I learned that “DVD” is an incredibly unclever racial slur in the UK.
@alex cutter how,what’s wrong with it?
Just seen we’re now 10th in the league. we’ll stay there if we lose tonight.
For fans of Community, Alison Brie’s thc gummy bear starts kicking in around 44:00
https://youtu.be/1muNqPgekog?t=2657
Just my opinion, but I think Arteta should use the rest of the season to experiment, with all kinds of players and formations. Nothing to lose at this point. Have to figure out how to become more attacking and for me 3-4-3 is not good going forward for a whole season.
@Olumide
Those are all very good points and I am definitely skeptical too. I am not saying Arteta is some mastermind, but to deny that he has improved the football from Emery and Freddie just doesn’t hold up for me.
The more I think about it, the more I’ve come to the conclusion that we should have gone for Zaha instead of Pepe.
With you on that one CG.
“@alex cutter how,what’s wrong with it?”
I dont understand the question?
apparently DVD is a racist term for asians because they were notorious for selling bootleg dvds on the street.
Is that what u mean?
Nobody seems to know which system is being played including the manager
I can only assume he was playing Kola because he felt he offered more the Holding – pace maybe??
Holding next to Luiz is not a fast pairing.
At least there is no Ozil or Guendouzi.
Reality check …
C’mon boys
Olumide, you’d be hard pressed to talk to anyone in football that’d say scoring more, conceding less and getting more points is playing games with stats.
Dropping points from winning positions is important, but it’s an opportunity, especially for a team that has been making lots of individual errors. Shows that if you add more suited talent to the mix, you’d potentially be sitting in 3rd.
… but honestly, critiquing scoring more goals and conceding less is peak bad internet.
There seems to be a lot of love for Holding here.
As bad as mustafi is, Holding is worse.
Mustafi is a bottom half level CB
Holding is championship quality
Is it 433
Or 343 or both?
Looks like Xhaka is indispensable whatever formation Arteta plays
5 years since we last beat Liverpool?!?
COYG
Maybe Ox scores an own goal for us…
Pepe on the left? 🤔
More goals per game and less conceded per game is manipulated stats now 🥴 ooof
Come on The Arsenal!!!!!
CC, flat earthing is BACK
2-1 to the good guys