Well, that was absolutely shite. I had a feeling there was going to be a bit of the Brighton’s about us last night; I turned out to be correct, we dominated possession, did absolutely fuck all with it, and conceded from a set-piece (45% of our goals this season according to the stat guys).
How utterly, utterly depressing.
The only positive I’ll take from that game is that we might get the chance to relegate Watford at the weekend. I much prefer Villa. Dean Smith is a good guy and I like some of the Villa players.
As for Arsenal, this is who we are. One moment, they’re taking bullets for 97 minutes, the next, they are flummoxed against a team that has been absolutely shite all season.
The usual suspects were problematic again. Rob Holding and Kola just don’t cut it for me. They’re not good enough on the ball and their fear of moving it forward is painful at times. The biggest mistake of the game for me was starting Lucas Torreira. We all want him to be the guy, but he doesn’t seem to have it. He was dreadful. He’s too small for the Premier League and I just don’t think he’s capable of being the warrior we need in the middle of the park. Striking that Arteta yanked him at half time, we haven’t seen that very often, but it was the correct decision.
People were also upset we fielded 3 center-forwards without any attacking midfielders. I don’t know if the hope was Lacazette would drop into a number 10ish role again, or the analysts assessed that Villa had conceded more shots than any team this season and it was likely we’d open them up after two strong wins. It didn’t work out. A lesson Arteta will have to learn. Maybe starting Willock would have been smarter (though he’s hardly pulled up trees), or perhaps moving Pepe into a 10 role? Who knows, some experiments don’t work, this one tanked.
Dani Ceballos had a solid game, but he doesn’t have devastation in his pocket when he’s probing the box. Granit Xhaka made things a little more interesting in the second half, but he’s far better at releasing the ball from deep than finding cute angles in the opposition area.
The harsh reality is if our wide players don’t show up, we offer fuck all to the forwards.
There is no point in controlling possession if you can’t convert it into a single shot. We can get angry about that, but it’s not a new problem, and the only way it’ll be solved is if we sign players that can do the job. I’d love Jack Grealish, the man has magnificent hair and unbelievable legs. Imagine that sort of creativity in your starting 11? Trouble is, we need two or three players like that.
The big positive from the game is that once again, Arteta has been reminded of the limitations of some of the players. Some of those deal extensions he’s thinking about might need a rethink. Some of those players he was thinking of keeping on, might just find their way out of the club. His team might start to realise that you can’t save some players from themselves. If you are weak mentally in your mid to late twenties, that’s probably a thing for life. You’ll get turns out of these guys, like the prior two games, but you’ll not get consistency, which is the difference between ok and elite.
We deserve everything we get this season in the league. We haven’t been good enough. The players aren’t of the right make-up for the way Arteta wants to play and there are too many players that can go missing when you need them. The points total speaks to that. We can solve that with a good summer, or at least progress to a much more coherent squad.
If you are now disgusted by the coach and you’re doubting things again, just take yourself back to the weekend. Remember the KLOPP OUT crew at Liverpool? The Fraudiola crowd? Lampard is a disgrace? Understand that everyone wants to be the first to call time on a coach. Those people will be wrong in the long run. This is not a sprint, there will be ups and downs, but Arteta is the right guy to carry us through.
The Cup Final will see us focused, I have little doubt about that. These players show up in the perceived bigger games, they are better when teams offer more than a deep block, we will also play our best 11. Bring that City energy to Villa and Brighton, we’re in the Europa League before the FA Cup. We didn’t, now we’re stuck in the same situation as last season… leaning on a Cup Final to save our summer. It’s grim, but we’ll do a better job of the final than we did last season.
The Villa result is not good enough, but it is what it is. Bumps are par the course. It doesn’t make it any easier, but if you pray hard enough tonight and donate to my Patreon, maybe we’ll do a little better.
Onto Watford, let’s hope we can finish the season by sending Troy and the boys to the Championship.
See you in the comments. x
s
What a wet lettuce performance, especially after city. 1step forward and 2 steps back, the eternal arsenal story.
Should
I play the top four
Game?
Our captain…….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMQMkpCy9qg
Relegate Watford, win the cup, all will be forgiven. For a few weeks anyway.
“We deserve everything we get this season in the league. We haven’t been good enough. The players aren’t of the right make-up for the way Arteta wants to play and there are too many players that can go missing when you need them. The points total speaks to that. We can solve that with a good summer, or at least progress to a much more coherent squad.” The only alteration to this statement needed might be the players aren’t of the right make up , period. There are some bright spots undoubtedly but this was a Frankenstein like squad with… Read more »
That was an all too typical Arsenal performance yesterday. To be honest, this was expected when you consider the defensive efforts put in against Liverpool and Man City – its hard to play that rigid all the time. What was also painful to watch was My Left Foot, featuring Nicolas Pepe as The Left Foot. Unless he learns to use his right foot with greater effect, from the right side, he’s going to be a liability, and an expensive one at that. This season cant come to a close soon enough for me, what a dreadful group of players on… Read more »
I don’t see any real Arteta out campaign, neither was there much of an anti-Klopp, Pep or Lampard movement at those clubs either. There’s no need to define things in black and white terms or put up straw man arguments, any realistic assessment says that 1) results are an accurate barometer of where we are right now, and 2) Arteta is a decent young coach learning the game but he’s not the messiah and neither is he useless. Where I do agree is that we’re going to have to move players on this summer. No way can we hold what… Read more »
Andy
“””””2) Arteta is a decent young coach learning the game but he’s not the messiah and neither is he useless.””””
Well put.
Tom, totally agree that we need a powerful midfielder who can run at the opposition with the ball and offer a threat.
There are still far too many fans wedded to the old AW philosophy of pass, pass and pass again until something happens. There really is more to football than that one-dimensional approach. And it’s dull, dull, dull.
We keep being told we don’t have the players that Arteta needs to improve our play. Well maybe just maybe we don’t have the attitude as well. We play Villa and can’t even take one shot at goal…one shot! What’s the point of passing the ball out from the goalie to our back line when they just pass it from side to side. We made a big mistake in buying Pepe and the club won’t admit it. He can’t run with the ball, he can’t pass the ball and he thinks dribbling two or three opposition players and landing on… Read more »
Wengaball
“Özil not playing has little to do with Özil the footballer”
Absolutely
Grealish is a decent player but I don’t see what the fuss is about, certainly not worth whatever it’ll cost to buy him. For that amount I’d be shopping at Wolves if it has to be Premier league players.
Tom
“”””A Jack Grealish type would be a great start. His peaky blinders haircut is cool and his calves are obviously too big for any sock to contain them,”””””
Could have bought him for buttons too,
the moment Villa lost to Fulham in the play offs.
that was the time.
too late now.
Man City or Man Utd will be working on purchasing some XXXXL socks for him as we speak.
Delicious.
Cedric turning his back on the shot for their goal,he could have stopped it showing a bit more bottle!
Why was Aubameyang marking Mings anyway…
It’s in those situations that we miss xhaka.
We had 2 midgets in in midfield , a midget at right back , no Mustafi or xhaka to attack dead balls.
Of course we will be vulnerable at set pieces .
As Del boy would say ” It stands to reason you plonker Rodney (arteta) it stands to reason. “
andy1886 AW philosophy was not pass, pass, pass till something happens. It was pass, pass, pass till you find an opening. At that moment, move the ball really quick with pass and move football. He was no fan of crosses though. And I think that was a missed trick. You got to use all your tools. Going back to pass and move, he switched to that kind of football post Invincibles because the smaller teams learnt the dark art of anti football from the odious one. The attack and score on the break football of early Wenger years is only… Read more »
Andy
“””””There are still far too many fans wedded to the old AW philosophy of pass, pass and pass again until something happens. There really is more to football than that one-dimensional approach. And it’s dull, dull, dull.””””””
That dull approach helped Arsenal reach x 20 ( TWENTY) successive champions league appearances though.
How good must you be to accomplish that?
Too many players in the current squad aren’t good enough but if they are to be offloaded and replaced in the current financial climate they MUST be sold not loaned….and replaced with better …or at least potentially better. As far as I see it the following must go:- 1)Torreira…You said it all above…He’s more suited to Serie A and surely one of the European competitors would be prepared to pay a reasonable fee for him. 2)Bellerin…Has been pretty poor over the last couple of seasons.Injuries and veganism seems to has sapped his pace and strength .He would still hold a… Read more »
Receding
Exactly as I tell it. You think that Arteta has an agenda against Guendouzi yet you’ve absolutely no basis for this opinion.
Instead you criticise me via some red herring nonsense about knowing exactly what the standard is for selection. Nvm the actual fact that I’m glad a certain standard is being held of the players if they want to be considered an Arsenal player.
Pathetic stance. But glad your bias has been exposed so comically after your embarrassing quips at me about “backing” Arteta come what may.
Pedro
Good write up.
Have long considered Torreira a square peg for our midfield, last night did nothing to walk that back.
Our midfield lacks dynamism, creativity, and the ability to sharply up the tempo.
Guendouzi, Torreira, Ozil are a massive nonentity for various reasons currently. If their place in the squad was replaced with Ceballos, Partey, Coutinho on a permanent basis we’d be a completely different proposition for deep defences.
@CG, not true I’m afraid, as Wengaball points out the style only really changed post invincibles. In fact I would go as far as to say that there were three eras, pre-2006, where we were a big strong powerful team, followed by project youth when we were still a very dynamic side but lacked a few top class older heads to see us over the line, and then the Barca-lite sides full of smaller players obsessed with passing. Needless to say the latter era never really offered much in Europe, and by then we’d decided that ‘fourth is a trophy’.… Read more »
Wasn’t expecting much from last night.. Knew a lot of changes would be made and the progression of MA is obvious.. Looking forward to him getting His own players even if it’s only 2..long as they are starters I”ll be OK with that..
Challenge top 4 next season then challenge for league within 2 years after next season..
Arteta though then leaves for a top European club because he falls out with board over funds
Pedro you call me a Emery fan boy in the past… I’m not, he lost the dressing room and had to go.. But Emery like you also thought Torreira was too small. He also started 3 at the back, something he’d never previously done, because he didn’t fancy his centre half’s in possession. Emery would have been castigated for starting 3 at the back against Villa. You said Emery finishing 5th and a Europa final was failure, I said it was an overachievement, you accused me of accepting failure… I said Emery needed 2-4 years, you said anything less than… Read more »
After the low block, the next shift in football was the press. It came to England with Guardiola and Klopp. Wenger’s work around that was to play a double pivot ahead of the defenders, one of which would be a technical, creative type while the other would shield. The technical guy’s role was to help avoid the press by playing from the back and linking up with the no. 10 ahead. Check out our stats for half the season when Cazorla and Coquelin were playing together in midfield, with Özil ahead of them. Then Cazorla got injured. Arsenal have never… Read more »
Saw only the first half yesterday as I had to go into a meeting but judging by the comments, I’ll say I saved myself a heartache by not watching the second half.
Bring on next season.
The GodfatherJuly 21, 2020 21:45:29 @Charlie:Who said Guendo hasn’t? Arteta? Really, because the kid won’t grovel and beg?Last time Arsenal played Villa we were shell shocked and it was only that kid who took the game to them, drew a Pk on a mazy run into the box, set up the second goal ..,. And argghhh never mind … @godfather,these are some of the things that don’t get measured in stats …I see people beating guen with the ‘2 assists in 90 appearances’ stick and I just laugh.Guen is the only central midfielder in our club who can draw foul… Read more »
Andy,
I dont really analyse too much on Wengers ways.
Others can do that,
I just focus on his knack of getting the required results,
20 successive CL
3 League Titles ( One uniquely golden)
7 FA Cups.
Lets hope , whatever way MA sets up in the cup final- he too has the knack of winning the cup.
After all our Wengers has won the last 6 at Wembley
Rich I’m not going to go down certain rabbit holes again and again, they’ve had their airing and it’s a waste of time to circle back. But saying Emery thought Torreira was too small is a bit dull given he was in the decision making process for recruiting him. That’s what happens when you’ve no backbone as a coach to veto players, and you’ve no clear philosophy to actually construct a squad for a purpose. Arteta has already dropped a word that patently never entered the chat before: specificity. We have a squad that’s weighted towards absorbing attacks and springing… Read more »
“The harsh reality is if our wide players don’t show up, we offer fuck all to the forwards.”
This comment is not fair. Arteta allocated three strikers spending most of the time in the middle waiting for supply. A smart coach should have one striker and two inside attackers who will overlap with wide players for the build up. A long cross is less effective than a cutback from deep down.
Champagne Charlie, considering we were trying to sign Torreira just before the World Cup, but Emery was an appointment on 23rd May, i very much doubt Emery had much to do with it.
If Arteta has such a backbone? Why did we sign Soares, Mari and renew Luiz?
I think an awful lot of people are living in dreamland with their talk of what we need to do and players they’d like. Grealish is going to be a £50 million player, the players in our squad we want to unload even the ones everyone agrees on are only going to raise a pittance. Others not much more and players like Auba are going to cost a lot more to replace than we’ll get for them. We went into the COVID situation losing money (with EL money) – that would have gotten much much worse. We are going to… Read more »
“The biggest mistake of the game for me was starting Lucas Torreira. We all want him to be the guy, but he doesn’t seem to have it. He was dreadful. He’s too small for the Premier League ”
Just out of interest who was responsible was signing Torreira?
Imo , Holding is not as bad on the ball as Pedro makes him seem. His ball playing ability is probably only second to David Luiz in the centre back department. And he didn’t have a bad game yesterday. Also he is the best set piece defender we have. Definitely keep as 3rd/4th option for next season or Loan if we sign a new CB and Holding becomes 5th choice. Kolasinac cannot play the way Arteta wants. He was Emery’s Roberto Carlos ( Yes Kolasinac said that in an interview !!!!) His only and only good quality is when he… Read more »
Rich – perhaps Mikel’s eyes were turned by Filipa – I doubt it was Cedric’ s full back skills.
“The usual suspects were problematic again. Rob Holding and Kola just don’t cut it for me. They’re not good enough on the ball and their fear of moving it forward is painful at times.” No one’s going to argue that Kolas is a good option at CB but I think the criticism of them because they couldn’t move the ball forward last night is misguided – move it forward to whom? It’s not as if Luiz was pinging these fantastic forward passes whilst he was on. Our biggest issue is midfield – if you don’t have one it’s difficult for… Read more »
‘Then Cazorla got injured. Arsenal have never recovered since.’
Wengaball , haven’t read anything truer. Cazorla was the heartbeat of the team. Strongly believe 2015/16 wouldve been our year if Cazorla didnt get injured.
Marc
‘Just out of interest who was responsible was signing Torreira?’
Ofc it was Raul and his band of agents.
Wasi
Thanks mate – just wanted to check that!
Xhaka and Ceballos both like to come too deep and that leaves a big gaping hole in the centre of the pitch.
Rich Emery was appointed in May and Torreira was signed in July. Also, do you seriously think an incoming manager has no voice until his contract begins? He’d ample time to make clear Torreira didn’t fit his footballing image, he didn’t and we signed him. “If Arteta has such a backbone? Why did we sign Soares, Mari and renew Luiz?“ Luiz is our best footballing CB and a massive influence off the pitch, his wages have been slashed and you’ve no idea what capacity he’ll be used next season. Mari and Cedric have been here 15 mins so unless you’re… Read more »
We all know which players who don’t cut it, it’s no state secret.
We’re a West Ham squad, with an elite goal scorer, some elite youngsters who aren’t anywhere near ready to push us on yet, and an elite CL club wage bill.
This mess has been years n the making, and can’t be fixed in the short term without significant investment, which I don’t see as forthcoming.
Yesterday, Villa didn’t press our defenders. I was shocked to see Holding’s long balls landing accurately on the feet of opponents. Is he blind or what?
Wasi, with Ozil you are assuming that if picked he is going to come in and impact the game. Clearly MA doesn’t believe that or he would be picking him. There’s no conspiracy to keep him out of the side for anything other than football related reasons.
You’d assume next seasons CB partnership (assuming we return to a back 4) will be Saliba and Mari once Saliba is settled and adapts. That will see Holding as 4th choice I don’t think he’s a bad option as a 4th choice CB. There are plenty of positions and issues that need to be corrected before we start worrying about a 4th choice CB.
Ornstein said we’d wrapped up a deal for Torreira before the World Cup, but out of respect waited for Uruguay to be eliminated. A Luiz renewal is what you get when your budget is slim, the same as signing Lichtsteiner and Soares. Wanting a left footed centre half and being given Mari, is the football equivalent of wanting a supermodel girlfriend, and then your family setting up an arranged marriage with Susan Boyle. Lichtsteiner and Spares are what you get when your budget for a back up right back is £0 These aren’t coaching issues, these are issues arising from… Read more »
Marc
Am I reading this right ?
You’re building your hopes on a partnership of Mari and Saliba; a journey man who;s hardly played games for us and an 18 year old defender.
Please tell me I got that right.
We always seem to be short of 2 or 3 players yet people don’t admit it was player poverty when Emery and Wenger were at helm.
Somehow Arteta alone needs 2 or 3 special players andt can be forgiven too ?!?!???
I thought Torriera was Sven’s signing, now that he’s flailing there’s a movement to Emery-tize him.
The only player that can be linked to Emery is Suarez, the rest of the signings were dumped on him by the club.
Dissenter
That’s my guess – not necessarily my choice. Of course Saliba will need a period to adjust but we’ve paid £25 million for him, can’t defend and don’t have a pot to piss in.
Who do you see as first choice pairing?
andy
Its clear Arteta appreciates Ozil’s footballing quality and thats why he was a key player when Arteta first joined.
Clearly something happened during the lockdown period which prompted Arteta into making the decision to ostracize Ozil. It maybe has to with the pay cut or Ozil’s unwillingness to work via zoom sessions or poor work ethic in training or could be anything but its not footballing reasons.
It’s Europe with Auba or bust…
Wasi
No you just want Pierre to give you some ❤️ ❤️❤️
Arteta made too many mistakes yesterday, had nothing to do with Ozil.
Funny how people blame Nkethia for the loss when out of our trio of attackers he was the better player and closest to score. Against low block team, Aubameyang can’t run into space, and then it become evident why despite all his goals he is not rated at the same level than Aguero and others. His link-up play is appalling. Most of his flicks and knockdown never reach a teammates. That is exactly why 3 Arsenal managers who wanted to play some kind of possession football don’t trust him to play on top on his own. His retention under those… Read more »
Dissenter
Leno
Torreira
Guendozi
Lich
Sok
The only one who can even be considered as a possible success is Leno and there’s debate over who’s better between him and Martinez. We’ve even had someone who here talk about the need to bring in a new keeper.
All of those players will be converted to Emery or Sanllehi signings – Guendozi might stay at Mislintat signing if we get a lot of money for him – if he goes for £15 million he’ll revert to “it’s all Sanllehi’s fault”
Don’t see any purpose in deep analysis of the Villa game: they had everything to play for, whereas Arsenal had very little (IMO nothing.) Much more interesting is Mikel’s protestation that the Kroenkes back him fully. Does that include an injection of meaningful transfer money? The point being that even the best manager in the word cannot reach the heights without quality personnel. Top 6? Yes. Top 4? Maybe. Top? Never. To answer my own question: no, the Kroenkes will NOT inject their own money into the Club. They may load more debt on the club (like the Glazers). But… Read more »
Marc
Luiz and Chambers
Mari is nit a starter….I repeat, Mari is not a starter.
He’s lucky his injur happened an an opportune moment for him, that’s why his name is even being dropped.
We had a flock of flightless defenders , then we added another emu (Mari) to the list.
We had an average fullback in Bellerin and a decent unmotivated back-up in AMN, then we gave a 29 year old a pint-sized Portuguese a 4 year contract.
Marc, seriously…how did Soares do yesterday? Can you imagine 4 more years of that bullshite?
Pedro, Holding did not have a great game, but I would not blame him for that one. I would blame Arteta. I do not understand why we keep playing Holding on the right of the defense, when it is clear that all his best performances have been in the left side. He has to accommodate Luiz and Kolasinac and that affects his performance. And if as demonstrated by his yanking off, if Arteta does not trust Luiz to play as part of a back 4, we should not have extended his contract. Kolasinac was his usual poor. However he did… Read more »
Rich
Emery green lighted the Torreira transfer, you’re actually sticking to the idea we hired a new manager and bought players in before he touched base?
Also, you’ll have to show me where I criticised the transfer decisions being driven by financial constraint? I fully understood Lichsteiner, though they totally overlooked his adaptability.
Not the point I raised though was it? Sokratis and Torreira cost how much? Both nothing players for a team with designs on having the ball and being genuine protagonists.
Valentin
Agree on Holding.
Dissenter
Arteta wanted a left footed CB – knew Mari from his time on City’s books. He’s been bought as a starter – I’m not saying that’s a good choice I’m saying that’s whats been done.
After two tough games there was always going to be a drop off, even with the changes. Playing kolasinac at centre back wasn’t a smart move though. Neither was trying to play auba, laca and Eddie. What would have made it interesting would have been if he experimented with a 442 or tried pepe and laca up top. Pepe is so one footed its frightening. Torriera looks so out of his depth as defensive midfielder, maybe that’s why Emery tried to play him further forward? Yesterday was one of those games where getting the first goal was key. We score… Read more »
Dissenter
Im definitely not looking for that. 😂
If you leave your confirmation bias out of your head,think practically , look at the game more analytically and study the stats you’ll see what we are missing.
You’ll see who provides what we are missing.
eb
“Don’t see any purpose in deep analysis of the Villa game: they had everything to play for, whereas Arsenal had very little ”
Well that’s a massive indictment on Areta’s motivational skills – we had the chance to put us in the mix for EL qualification through the league – people are acting as if the Cup finals a foregone conclusion.
We also had the chance to be in a position to finish above the Spud’s if they cock up – 4 years now we haven’t.
CC, I am hardly an Emerysta, but Emery never trusted Torreira to act as a deep laying DM. The guy is not build to play that role in the EPL. In the slower Italian League and in teams (Sampdoria and Uruguay) that play counter-attacking football he is perfect in a slighter higher up harasser role. Emery wanted N’Zonzi. He was wrong about the player but he was right in demanding a much taller, physically stronger player in that position for Arsenal style of play. That does not mean that Emery was the right man, but not all his demands and… Read more »
England’s best ‘ Much more interesting is Mikel’s protestation that the Kroenkes back him fully‘ I think the finer aspects of Mikel’s climb-down are lost on you. Mikel is a young manager who’s making mistakes and rightly learning for them. One such mistake was to publicly lament for transfer funds because that opened the door to a lot of public bashing if the executives, board and the owners. He realized it and started walking back his comments by saying he has a direct line to the Kroenke’s [which he always had] and now he saying the Kroenke’s back him fully’… Read more »
Wasi
Yea, if only we had Ozil then all will be fine.
Marc
Remains to be seen in what capacity Mari and the rest are used. He was brought in for 6-8 mil, I’m not sure what can be used as indication he’s a bonafide starter other than his left foot. Could just as easy buy another left sided defender this summer in place of Sokratis/Holding/Chambers.
England
You keep downplaying the importance of EL and the 30-40m that would give us, you actually don’t want it at all but you want Kroenke to fork that over instead just because?
We had a chance of getting 7th and get enough money for 1 top player and that was resting on these 2 last games, pretty sure the players will rather play in EL than not do anything at all (except Ozil of course)
Now it all hinges on the FA cup and getting rid of players to raise funds.
Holding wasn’t bad last night but playing alongside a tired luiz or kolasinac was hardly going to help.
Barring a few long shots villa didnt create too much.
Then again neither did we.
If its three at the back next season wouldn’t surprise me seeing holding on the left, luiz in the centre and saliba on the right.
Then interchanged with chambers, mari, and tierney if need be.
Marc
Really don’t think Mari was bought as a starter, more likely a back up so he can rotate and not change his system. A Gabriel or Malang Sarr could still be on the table.
I just hope we shift out a couple of our CBs this summer and then we’ll see.
Val
You’re missing the point entirely. The fact Emery ‘wanted Nzonzi’ but agreed to Torreira is what I’m saying is the fundamental issue with our recruitment over that 18 months. Weak personality and no clarity in what you’re working towards when squad building.
Is it true that Mikel is trying to convince AMN to stay in light of the supposed £20 million offer from Brighton? Why would any manger try to prevent a players that’s not trusted to play his preferred position (the central midfield) from leaving? Why shouldn’t the player who can’t even be trusted to play back-up to an average Bellerin [the club signed Soares for 4. years] want to move on with his career? Why in the world is the sporting director allow Arteta to walk all over him. If Edu doesn’t have a backbone he should resign and go… Read more »
Arsenal fans are just like the Cowboys fans, deluded. Arsenal win Arteta is great and the players are coach able, Arsenal lose name dropping the same players that you was riding with days ago. If this lot fail to win the FA Cup SK need to show them the middle finger. If Edu and Raul can’t get the wage bill down and get some deals done that includes some of these players, he should’t spend another dollar. Mikel needs to show more with the players at his disposal before we start spending silly money to buy more deadwood. Sores, Mari… Read more »
LeftsideJuly 21, 2020 21:09:15 I don’t see what Nketiah and Willock do to get so many minutes.. For all the minutes they’re getting we are paying with lost points. I don’t see any premier league side giving them those minutes. The problem is our saucy manager was overlooking Martinelli for several games and persisting with Nketiah, with the later hardly setting the world on fire. I don’t think anyone will doubt who is more talented between the two, but our manager clearly wants every player to train hard. Once you do that you get to play. And this makes me… Read more »
I would say handing a player a four year deal because he is left footed doesn’t show you have a clue when it comes to squad building. Nor handing a Southampton cast off a four year deal as well as a squad player. We are full to the brim with squad players. The recruitment process has been flawed from the start, you all celebrated Emery not having the last say on transfers, now it is painted as him being weak. He was brought in to make top four with the tools at hand on a two year deal, he probably… Read more »
Ragnick isn’t joining Milan btw so the Gazidis is making moves exclamations was a bit premature.
Also opens up the door for us to sign Szoboszlai, the reports of him nearly signing for them was apparently not true and his agent is saying they’ll take their time to decide.
Ceballos on loan and spend 50-55m on Soumare and Szobozslai and we’ll have a well balanced midfield of substance for the first time in donkeys.
Sell Torreira and Guen to make it happen along with any defender we can get good/any money for.
Going by Pedro’s post and general comments , the Banner behind the plane put it succinctly:
SUPPORT THE MANAGER. KROENKE OUT
Wasi, so not performing in training isn’t a football reason? Really? It’s clear from Ozil’s numbers that he hasn’t been influencing games for some time, and one of Pierre’s little YouTube montages isn’t going to hide that. Isn’t it possible that having given him a run in the side pre-lockdown MA has decided like others before him that Mesut just doesn’t do enough to merit inclusion? Mikel has made it clear that players get into the squad on merit – he’s said many times that the same criteria apply to MO as anyone else. Obviously he’s not proving he’s worth… Read more »
Dissenter
Not all but we’ll definitely not suffer as much to create against low blocks.
Lockdown was Arteta’s pre-season and as next season is just around the corner has he left himself in a worse mess than what he inherited back in December.
Man united are going to bring in some top players this summer and they’re already way stronger than us. Chelsea have already brought in Werner and Ziyech and are heavily linked with Havertz and Chilwell, they’ll be much stronger next season. All the teams above is going to improve and most of the ones below us. If we stand still this summer and don’t make some serious moves we’ll get mired in the bottom half next season. Coaching or no coaching, we lack the quality, the power, the pace and skill. I think Arteta gets this and will try to… Read more »
Rangnick as sporting director will be a bold move. I don’t have that much confidence in Edu (assuming that’s the role he currently occupies ).
As for this chance creation debate, most of you are missing the point. Yes a playmaker helps as normally they can beat two three players to create space for themselves and team mates, Ozil doesn’t do this by the way. Another way to create chances is to move the ball quicker from back to front like we did for the first goal against City, this can be coached and I believe when next season starts and the schedule returns to normal we can see more of this. Ozil should be forced out because he seats on a ridiculous contract and… Read more »
Freddie, given a little preparation time chances are we will be better next season but probably not better than Pool, City, Chelsea and United. We’d need one of them to have a poor season to crack top 4. What wouldn’t be acceptable would be to still fall behind the likes of Leicester, Wolves. and to some extent Spurs. If we really do have an exceptional coach then that’s a realistic expectation. Three of the big four will spend, ‘Pool may not but I can’t see any of the sides around us splashing out either. So there’s no excuses for not… Read more »
Freddie
I think people need to start preparing themselves for a very disappointing TW. Financially we’re fucked we were losing over £20 million a year prior to all this, knock another £30 million of lost revenue from no EL, issues with when and how many fans will be allowed back into the ground and hardly any players of value to sell.
We could very easily end up in a vicious circle here.
Club have sanctioned a 250k per week contract for Auba on Arteta’s guidance.
Sources say Auba is happy to play under Arteta, but wants assurances over our general investment and plan to become a CL side again.
So seems Auba will be the first indicator into the type of business we’re expecting to do this summer. If he’s off it smells a bit RvP-like again, but if he stays then it would appear he’s suitably impressed with the level of ambition/recruitment we have in place.
Giving a Trezeguet that much room on the back post
should have been a sackable offence.
Words are we are gunning for Couty and Rabiot. I concur. We must get those kinds or we are stuck. Looking at how disjointed the middle of the team was yesterday, I think it was a mistake sending Mikki out and binning Ramsey. Yesterday was, frankly, not the coach. The problem was that there was lack of quality everywhere. The play was laboured, ideas were short, techniques were criminally low. We have a team where Xhaka looks like a big deal, it’s an indictment of the team rather than a validation of Xhaka. The likes of Mikki and Iwobi were… Read more »
Manchester United wisely not appointing a technical director to complicate matters there
Top 4 next season.
Chelsea
Liverpool
Cheats from Dubai
Man United
If Leeds United get AMN
Buy them for the Europa places.
We’ve got 8 centre half’s on our books, and we’re also playing Kolasinac there.
Holding
Chambers
Mari
Sokratis
Mustafi
Luiz
Mavropanos
Saliba
We’ve now got 1 decent right back in Bellerin, and an ok right back in Soares
Tierney looks good, but Kolasinac isn’t up to much.
Our midfield is every bit as mediocre as our defenders.
Sell Aubameyang, and then replace him inadequately? And we’re in a relegation fight, that the reality of our current squad
One thing I don’t understand. KSE has put up money to cover the debt and Arsenal will in turn pay KSE back in the future. Couldn’t we borrow more money from KSE?
Under this COVID-19 climate, a £ 100m could land as a good DM and ACM in the mode of Bruno Fernandes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDqADZygseM
I think the finer points of Mikel are lost on some. Mikel’s complaint about lack of transfer funds was intended for the fans, not the Kroenkes. A confirmation of what we all know. So the suggestion that he is back-tracking – apologising – is nonsense. To those questioning his motivation skills, my sense is that he doesn’t give a damn about seventh place, his aim is much higher. Why bother going into a tizzy about the Villa game? Getting into EL via FA Cup is an entirely matter. You have to WIN something to do that. The ‘realists’ on here… Read more »
Villa have the second worst defensive record in the league and not one Arsenal player managed a shot on target the whole 90 minutes.
‘entirely DIFFERENT matter’
England
“he doesn’t give a damn about seventh place, his aim is much higher. ”
Without funds? With these same players? Not going to happen.
Your solution is to not care about a game with 40m riding on it and just ask Kroenke for handouts instead? Are you alright? That’s fucking retarded.
We’ve shown we can defend. What we’ve not shown is being able to break teams that sit back. What we need isn’t more holding mids or CBs, we need ‘mobile’ creators like Bernado Silva to ccupy Auba’s current position, thus, freeing him up to do what he is best at – finishing. We’ll need 2 of such players for the season, both or at least one should be adaptable across all 3 forward positions behind the striker. For me one of these players should be Gomez (or Malinovskiy) from Atalanta.
Don’t know the size of the squad but would keep three players and put the rest in a dust cart. How have we stooped so low? There is a good chance that Watford will turn us over, and that would leave a (sigh) win over Chelsea to get something from this awful season. Nobody should be offering excuses for this debacle of a club and its management team.
I like Pedro raging against The Spiv at the end of the pod: “Contacts football is NOT the way forward. Anyone who tells you that is the way forward is a joker. And why would you want to be in that murky world of signing a player and you don’t know who the favour was for. And look, get the fuck out of my face with this mentality of: “Oh, if you sign this shit player, we’ll give you this great young Brazilian at some point.” That’s not the way to do business. It’s an embarrassing way to do business.… Read more »