I didn’t realise the Leicester game was on so late in the day. I feel conned. I woke up early, worked out, dressed up to go to a pals house… then realised the error of my ways.
So I thought, fuck it, I’ll write a post.
Today is a huge game for Arsenal because part of the narrative is going to be about the lack of creativity, with Mesut Ozil sitting at home trying to run the social media manager at Arsenal out of a job. Before we get into the creativity piece, it’s worth highlighting the Rodgers comments before the game.
“The team have to operate with one brain. They have to function and work together.
“There will be teams where there is more freedom, but less structure.
“Ozil’s a wonderful talent and very creative, absolutely. He can make the last pass, but it’s about the team. It’s about marrying the individual qualities of the player into the team and if you feel that player can’t press the game or doesn’t want to press the game, it has an effect on your attacking structure and your defensive structure.
“If one person doesn’t do their job, then you can suffer.
“He’s a talent, but, as always with talent, you have to be a working talent.”
He’s basically said what Arteta won’t. What you’re reading above is one part of why the German isn’t in the squad. The second part is covered nicely in the tweet below.
This is fascinating from @TheAthleticUK. They’ve taken a look at what Özil will be going through after he was left out of the registered squad. Here’s what a manager, speaking anonymously, has to say about these situations. It’s illuminating… pic.twitter.com/SuqiwgKERv
— Matt Scott (@Matt5cott) October 25, 2020
The above excerpt from The Athletic is what you hear when you recieve leaks from Arsenal. The most important part outside ‘they don’t give a fuck’ is the bit where the source says ‘the players are watching.’ Wenger indulged the behaviour, remember Aaron Ramsey saying on Sky that Ozil gets special treatment? Not a good look in a failing team. Emery tried to impose discipline, then gave up, which sends an even worse message… ‘I am subservient.’ Arteta could not afford to have the biggest name at the club not giving a fuck. It’d ruin him. So he acted in a way that sends the strongest of message.
‘No one is bigger than the club’
Back to creativity…
Now, it’s tempting to say that Arteta MUST solve the issue right now. I don’t think that’s the case. I think he has to keep winning. People complaining about style and shots on target don’t have much of an argument if he continues to roll with 10 wins in 12 games streaks. We really do have to brace for the reality that this season might just be a year of foundation laying. Defending like kings (trying) and nicking goals could be the way.
It feels grim that we could be ‘that’ team, but if it’s effective, then it’s hard to complain. If Arteta doesn’t think he has the players to move the football forward into a ‘progressive’ world, then I’d prefer he does what works, versus placating fans with something we’ve seen fail quite a lot over the last decade. What I do find quite amusing is that I was SLATED for wanting a hipster manager that played progressive football, now the same people that wanted Nuno or Jose are complaining that the football isn’t hipster enough.
It’s also interesting that for all the ‘we’re shit’ chat that goes around, Sheffield United gave Liverpool a big scare yesterday, and West Ham took points from Manchester City. Complainers are in a bind on this one… was it good to get 6 points from those two, or was it poor that we didn’t do more against Liverpool and City? Probably that latter… maybe a little too much respect for two sides that look lost (City) or severely hungover (Liverpool).
Also, while we’re on the topic of average teams… United vs Chelsea, what a bore-fest. Both teams looked a mess. Chelsea, having spent £250m on talent, couldn’t muster more than 1 shot on target. Everton is currently losing 2-0 to Southampton (who have been excellent).
Back to Arsenal.
My main hope today is that Thomas Partey can show some class against a proper team. If he can control the midfield with the calmness he did in the week, we’ll be in good shape. I’m also praying for Gabriel. There are NOT many tests in the Premier League tougher than Jamie Vardy. He’ll do nothing for 70 minutes, then he’ll destroy you with a hattrick off 15 touches. This game is huge for the Brazilian’s concentration.
This 90 will also test Bernd Leno. He was a shambles the other night. Most notably with the ball at his feet. Now, we know that part of our game isn’t going anywhere, we know that Brendan Rodgers will have spotted what happened, and we know that Leicester will pressure Bernd really hard to make more errors like that. He has to clear his mind and put on the keeping equivalent of an early 2000s Iniesta performance. He also needs to dominate his box, teams put defenders on his from corners, that sort of shit only stops when you win all your battles.
We also need to cause problems going forward today. We need to start the game fast, we need to move the ball with purpose, and we need to make sure the ball sticks with our front three. I think this is going to be a good game. Two fairly evenly matched teams that both have plenty to worry about. Hopefully, we win, because we need it after the City game. We also need some form going away to Old Trafford next week.
ENJOY!
Of course. Can’t say Leicester don’t deserve it, we’ve been abysmal. Our attacking has been shocking.
Thats their first shot on target. How do they deserve that?
Pile of Poo > Brendan Rodgers > Arteta
Even pundits talking about Ozil. They’re are right, 15 mins to go and you need a goal he has that in him. The bench is important, it’s not just about the starting 11. I hate VARdy by the way!!!
In saying that I think if we look back on the game and think it all went wrong when Xhaka lost his runner and Mustafi vacated his position we’d be lying to ourselves a bit
Ozil chuckling.
I don’t see how anything we are doing could lead to a goal, or even a shot
Auba 1 goal in 6 games. On course to finish the season with 6 goals.
First time in 5 years where he doesn’t score in 5 league games in a row.
Wasted.
Vardy, Kane and Sterling are always guaranteed to score against us
That we look as dull offensively as we did a year ago is worrying.
47 years since Leicester beat us at home.
good to see we’re settling into eighth place. hopefully we can fend off any challengers for it.
Arteta sells Emi and keeps Leno
Arteta persists with Xhaka and Mustafi who again cost us a goal
Arteta plays a low tempo unless we are trailing
Like the fella but he’s making a lot of mistakes
All the good managers who play against this Arsenal team will get a result. This is exactly what’s was happening when Emery was in charge. The team lacks ideas!
I can hear Pedro tomorrow already… ” at least we didn’t get battered”.
Auba needs to play through the middle for sure
The 3rd minute VARdy offside call becomes very very contentious if we lost the game.
Manure and Liverpoo would likely have got the goal
Defensive improvements that le grove talks about is BS. Don’t believe.
This game can go on for another 100 mins and we won’t score.
We’ve been shocking in the second half
garbage
Sauce Mcsauce at it again… Never fails to deliver. Use a striker in his normal position, Simple as ABC.
The more I see.of Arteta, the more I’m convinced he’d be perfect for a mid table PL side.
How long does Arteta have?
Who wouldn’t play one of the best CF’s in the CF position?
Oh yeah….
If we had a decent striker Arteta would probably play him on the wing. Oh, wait a minute.
Let’s be honest we don’t deserve a win over leicester just because we are arsenal.
I’ve told you guys this so many times we have a garbage team. Majority of our players are extremely average.
I really can’t see us getting too four. We needed a playmaker auoar/countinho and we needed a winger improvement on pepe at the very least.
Making us harder to beat. Yeah sure.
This is not the Arteta of last season.
Why are we playing like an Emery side ?
This is like when we had injuries and were playing an Eboue and Denilson combo in midfield. An orgasm of creativity. Well. at least our players are buying into the philosophy.
Since 1973 a first for Leicester and Rodgers, Commentator, Arsenal going sideways and backwards. Let the where is our creativity thread commence.
Pepe is awful. Dribbling himself outta the ball several times already
Arteta isn’t the one take us forward , attack is far to rigid and one dimensional. It’s not players he just can’t coach a vibrant dynamic attack . Good defensive coach but that’s it
Fucking tired of the excuses.
Its groundhog day once again
Nothing changes.
Saka was great before he got a knock, but Auba out wide is just stupid. Dani looks tired Xhaka has been woeful with passes today.
At least Luiz was trying those long splitting passes. Now nothing
Not watching (not paying the PPV fee) but even listening on the radio, it is clear to realise we have problems going forward. It would appear we have been especially flat in the second half and played into Leicester’s game plan. This is a big bump in the road for the Arteta express, got to hope he figures out the attacking side of our game. As an aside, listening on the BBC to the game with the fake crowd noise is odd, but can’t imagine listening to it with little to no noise in the background. Hope we aren’t on… Read more »
No creativity, no ideas Arteta is not the one.
Danny,
You beat me to it by seven seconds.
Potentially first home defeat to Leicester in the league since the creation of the premiership.
Like I wrote before if you play for 1-0 victory, don’t be surprised to see those narrow victories turn into draw or narrow defeats.
Arteta will either get the sack around Christmas 2021 or the following summer.
Arteta is slowly getting found out for the fraud that he is. He just can’t cut it against decent sides and struggles against the poorer teams. His ideas are awful, no clear attacking pattern, just hoof it over the backline and hope for the best. Talking about winning UCL in 3 years. And dont get me started on the players not being up to scratch
Arteta persisting with Xhaka will be his downfall. He should have moved Tierney into the back three and removed Xhaka when Cengiz came on. He is playing on Xhaka and any ball over the top will have him in a foot race with Xhaka.
Why play Xhaka at all since he hasn’t once played a ball thru the lines today.
But… but… we were so solid defensively. It’s all that matters, right? Wrong, Pedro. To win games you also have to score goals.
Why did we start Auba on the right? And persist with lacazette after half time when it was clear he was having a nightmare game? The attack has looked very poor for a while now. At the rate we create chances Auba might wind up with ten goals this year. .
We’ll be caught on the counter again
We have up the pace. Too late.
You can’t have 3 losses in 7 games that’s really poor
Fuck off !
Think SF has pretty much summed it up.
5” fergie
Ozil predicted 2-1.
How did Lacazette survive the whole 90 today beats me.
Sideways/backwards seems to be Arsenal main tactics, imagine paying to watch this trash?
I wouldn’t have thrown Mustafi on to mark Vardy. Ha been out for to long.
He was daydreaming when Vardy ghosted past him.
Arteta has been really poor today. Other than the Luiz to Tierney option, nothing has been working. He’s lucky that he is the good books of the media. 1/10 from him
What an utter shit performance this is
this loss is totally on Arteta..he doesnt learn at all…auba being played out wide again..persisiting with Xhaka..not agressive in subs etc etc etc
Luiz really was pivotal his crossfield long balls was the only thing stretching and opening up the play as soon as he came off we were dreadful.
Pretty dire stuff when we are relying on a cb for creativity.
Also ceballos is a wank in a 433 on the right.
Problem our bench is want I mean we brought the 70 million man on and he is gash. Willian is a ghost and amn ain’t getting you no goals or assists
I don’t want Emery back, dude was clueless when the problems started.
But we’ve never looked as boring, predictable and soulless under him.
How did Arteta turn football players into zero passion robots?
Won’t see Pedro tonight he’ll be too busy preparing excuses for us getting spanked by OGS next weekend.
The thing is this though, Xhaka and Mustafi will still be in this team making mistakes going forward. Auba will be played everywhere across the front line except up top too.
This side doesn’t have enough goals in it to do anything to worthwhile its beginning to appear like.
Rodgers has right royally spanked Artetas arse. We could have had his experience, we went for sauce. Utter bollox today.
That goal was Xhaka’s fault. He was caught ball watching. The opponent ran behind him and centered to Vardy.
I can’t stand any more of this Arteta football, good night
Auba on the right
Pepe on the left
Nketiah and Lacazette giving away pointless fouls.
Luiz our most creative player.
Masterclass.
its only one-nil but we just got SCHOOLED by Brendan and co.
We’re 6th this season if we are lucky. Forget CL.
If you can’t even play your best players in their best positions you are already fucked, the fact he doesn’t even TRY Auba central is worrying.
I think he has Wenger in his ear, I honestly do.
Still indulging in aide passes in own half when chasing a goal
Been saying it for years…whoever persists with the calamitous duo of Xhaka and Mustafi will pay a massive price for it. The duo devoured Wenger and Emery and putting pressure on Arteta already.
why is everyone blaming Laca if you don’t feed the front 3 what do you expect.
Nketiah is a younger Lacazette.
Where’s the creativity ffs..oh yeah forgot it’s been ousted from the squad!
I actually think their goal is a brilliant example of how you can tell who’s a really good defender at Arsenal and who’s braindead. One player in Gabriel where he should have been trying to defend and everyone else nowhere to be seen
Some lemmings on here already trying to pin this on the players 😂
The team does not attack from the right side, it is absurd, unacceptable, a team cannot use only one side of the field, regardless of the available players, one of the reasons for Pepe’s lack of success is our addiction to set up plays only on the left side, what a rubbish performance, I should have spent my time studying
Who didn’t see Vardy on the bench as a tactical manoeuvre.
David Luiz going off injured has had a big impact on the game, not just defensively. I’m disappointed that we’ve had all the play but not created good chances, while Musrafi gets mugged by VARdy. Also, that VAR decision was a disgrace, would have changed the game.
What we really needed was to get rid of a promising young midfielder and pay 45m for another midfielder whilst looking as clueless as ever going forward.
Said it all summer we needed more cutting edge up front. Hopefully we sort it out coming summer.
Leno stopped the shot with his head.
It’s just one loss of course so no groundbreaking conclusions to be drawn.
Arteta needs be more proactive for in game decision making.
If we had Vardy, Arteta would put him on the wings, no good holdup play for a Arteta CF, never forget, he benched Martinelli (nobody knows the reason) till he got injured.
Sign your top scorer for 350k/w and then shift him left and right and as far away from the box as possible
Saucy stuff indeed!
My first touch is better than Pepe’s.
Very poor from Arteta. We just don’t create chances.
How can anyone defend this shit football! All you have to do against us is defend and wait for your chance.
Mustafi vs VARdy is disgusting.
Get the ball to pepe and cross cmon
My firstborn to bet what the first question will be to Arteta in post interview. “In view of the lack of creativity….” It is now very clear footballing reasons Bull Shit.
weren’t we trying to sell lacazette at the end of last season?
Rogers is a 2nd rate manager why anyone would want him at Arsenal is beyond me.
The worrying question is before tonight we’d beaten Leicester in 9 consecutive matches before Arteta took over – in 2 attempts he’s drawn one and ?
Can Saliba be worse than Mustafi?
and people STILL think Xhaka doesn’t cost us games.
Mad.
We are so structure that we have become a team that takes zero risks. Every genius player is a risk taker. Not a sideways passer.
Arteta is showing incredible leadership and coaching genius. I do not think we have seen the like of it… play sideways against a packed defence, than ping it side to side, get it to the wings and hit a cross to the big man and hope to get the second ball.
Oh wait, we don’t have a big man. What a bag of shite.
Fuck off. Somebody out.
Imagine trying to explain to someone who only follows the French league that you have a front line of Aubameyang, Lacazette, and Pepe, and you’re a club who struggle to score any goals at all.
Can you believe it? We could have had Ralph or Benitez or even Brendan but no, let us bring in Pep’s aide. Don’t you suppose that if he had been so good he would have gone to a smaller club already?
Not been enough creativity second half. So angry with Mikel at his inability to make subs at the right time. It was obvious we needed it much earlier in attack.
Fucking shit corner from Pepe.
Just imagine what Under would have done to Xhaka had he played the full 90.
Suddenly Arteta is getting animated and giving attacking instruction while all game he has been screaming for people to play safe.
There is no other word, we have a manager who has not a clue how to setup an attacking team.
The sauce is rank.
Danny+S
We can criticise Wenger defensively but not on the creative side. Even when we had sub par players we created. That’s why a lot of people question not having Ozil in the squad.
Pedro furiously typing the excuses right now
Don’t wear ur keys out..
Yeah I’ve seen enough. Fuck this! We’re not getting anywhere near top 4 or top 6. What a shit team. Arteta will never play Auba through the middle and will continue to indulge Lacashite and Eddie Nonce. We lack actual wingers and a creative mid behind the striker who should be no one else but Auba or Martinelli. Auba won’t get back to scoring playing on the wing. He’s been found out against the top teams. Sure he’ll score in the cups and the bottom placed teams but the way we play isn’t gonna make him score goals for fun.… Read more »