FEAR IS NOT A STRATEGY

by .

The big debate before the game was whether the sacrifice we’ve been making on style could be countered with the gains we’ve made on points. Win 2-0 last night, we’re a point from the top and clear in the top 4. Sadly, the argument was momentarily settled at home to a weak Leicester because Arteta bottled our first-half dominance and lost to the most obvious of strategies > let Jamie Vardy win the game late on.

Fear is not a strategy. Mikel Arteta has moved mountains when it comes to our defensive output, structure, and fight. We can all salute that. His coaching moves were made during the worst moment we’d faced as a club in 38 years. However, let’s be honest, those players he’s working with are not the 8th worst group of players in the league, they are better than that. He was supposed to breathe life into them this season, so far, he hasn’t.

From where I’m watching, it looks like he doesn’t trust his squad. We’ve eeked out wins this season, but we’ve been unadventurous and boring… Leicester beating us feels like the warning shot. You cannot shithouse your way to 4th with these players. There needs to be a second act. We need to speed up the process. The coaching staff need to show some balls and do something interesting. Being guided by what bad things ‘could’ happen is negative energy. I’m all for clean sheets, but not at the expense of looking meek. Yesterday, we looked scared… just like we did midweek when we rolled the ball into the corner to protect a lead against Austrian minnows.

After the Villa game last season, I wrote that the biggest mistake Arteta could make would be to continue to trust players with weak mindsets and output. Well, he doubled down on them… and guess what, we’re not looking great. We’re 6 games into the season and now it’s time to be real… our averageness is not a style, it’s the xG warning we had with Unai Emery.

Alex Lacazette has been atrocious for a long time. He’s physically weak and completely incapable of being a central point when it comes to attack. On another day, with a better striker, we’re exiting the first half with 2 goals. Aouar was a big miss this summer, but let’s not pretend having an elite creator was moving the needle with Alex through the middle. If Eddie can’t do it, then try Balogun. Continuously giving game time to someone that looks less and less athletic is not the answer. Alex should have gone this summer, he didn’t, but that shouldn’t mean he’s starting important games.

Nicolas Pepe might have cost £72m, but he’s not delivering to that level. Why do we keep depending on him? He’s weak, he can’t hold his balance, and he looks scared. He was useless when he came on, I’d prefer to give Reiss a chance. I don’t know whether there’s a second act with him, but so far, he looks like a huge dud.

Granit Xhaka served a purpose last season, but it’s clear that in the big games, he doesn’t have the next level. How long are we going to fool ourselves into believing he’s going to take us to the promised land? I have the exact same feelings on Mustafi. I feel terrible to give him any blame after a long period of time out, but let’s be honest, the club desperately tried to move him out this summer, he’s not getting a new deal, so how much can we expect? I’d rather fail with young players than create false hope that we can resurrect players that we know can’t do it. They do it at Dortmund, why can’t we do it at Arsenal?

The biggest mistake Arteta can continue to make is 1) Believe that there’s no way he can get our players operating in an attacking structure 2) That bum players will give him one more year after he spent the summer trying to sell half of them.

We need to see some bold action. I watched Southampton boss Everton yesterday. They don’t have a squad anywhere near our level. They attacked with free-flowing football, they caused problems all over the park, and they were worth more than the two goals they scored. Why can’t we do that?

Villa were spanked at the weekend, but they will run at you, they create, and they are exciting with players that are a long way from world-class.

Bielsa has been at Leeds for two seasons. His free-flowing brand of attacking football will likely end in tears, but he has lesser players than us and he totally dominates teams and has never offered up shit football.

There’s a system out there where we can be solid with Leno, Partey, Gabriel, Bellerin and Tierney… but still attack with Saka and Auba.

I simply do not believe that players at the level we have need to be coached so hard they can’t think outside NFL style power plays everyone has sussed.

The handbrake is on.

The players fear unleashing the magic.

We’re really fucking boring.

One of the most important things you learn as you develop as a young manager in any industry is that people who are talented have a great propensity to surprise you… but only if you empower them. Sometimes, you have to throw them off a cliff and ask them to swim. Arteta doesn’t seem to trust his squad at the moment and that, for me, is why our ceiling is crushing us.

Arteta needs to address what we don’t have with confidence, not fear. There needs to be a shift in mindset. We can’t be celebrating 1-0 losses to Manchester City as progress. We can’t be saluting Premier League players for coming back from a goal down against a bang average Austrian team. We cannot live in a world where our team collapses because David Luiz stops creating.

Last night was boring, it was predictable, it lacked intensity, and it was totally avoidable. We need to find the next stage of whatever the grand vision is because a season of ‘stop being Emery’ will not be tolerated by fans that bought into the vision of a coach that promised us progressive football and results.

This can be fixed.

Over to you, Mikel… you are better than this.

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DM

1

DM

Well that was shit

DM

Prob our most worrying performance under Arteta

DM

Tr4phy

Jamie

Win our next 4 games and all is forgiven, Mikel.

They’re all very winnable.

Matt

Good post Pedro and more honest than most were probably expecting on Arteta. I just don’t see it changing though, certainly not this season. Xhaka will start nearly every game, Laca will play nearly every game, Auba will continue to be ineffective in most games playing out wide. Interesting that you mentioned solid and Leno in the same sentence – he is anything but solid and another who looks terrified of making a mistake.

I was really starting to feel like we were taking small steps in the right direction – typical Arsenal….

Mizo Gooner

Before this game, we keep saying that our losses are against Liverpool and Manchester City so far which isnt as bad. Its true. But consider the wins as well. We won against two teams dead bottom of the league and a 12th placed West Ham- that too in a most unsignificant manner. I believe every team becomes a threat to us. We’ve become a mid table team, nothing more- specially with the style of play we’re witnessing. Its tough to watch, almost painful to see the ball being kept sidewards and backwards. “Being patient on the ball” and “lack of… Read more »

shad

Very candid post Pedro. Wasn’t expecting that from you tbh.

Leftside

Who are we kidding, we know we’re rolling into games doing whatever we can to ensure teachers pet Xhaka gets gametime. Auba will rue signing a contract soon enough as his goals have dried up and he’s being played out of position to accomodate far inferior strikers.

Play the best set of players to win the game, not the ones who are most subservient on the training ground.

Datguy

Most honest post I’ve read in quite some time..i kid. My concern at the moment is we’ve moved from Kola on the overlap to Luiz with the overpass. I will NOT buy into the narrative of Arteta not having the personal to play a certain style.

shad

The problem Arteta has is he is currently setting us up like a Moyes team and not a Mancity/Arsenal team. The insistence to play out from the back when we can clearly see that Leno is out of his element is diabolically stupid – we might as well shake it up by giving Runarsson a chance. It’s fine to tout “non-negotiables” to the media and fanbase for optics, but when we see a consistent pattern of mediocrity and no attempt at switching things up, then we can only question the manager. We have zero creativity, Laca is the lamp post… Read more »

Dr J

It’s really getting harder and harder to wake up at 3AM west Australian time to watch Arsenal. I’ve done that for 30 years but it was worth it most of the times. We used to play beautiful football, now it’s painfully boring. MA needs to release the handbrakes and let the boys play for a change. Otherwise I might sleep a bit more and not feel so tired all day

Jay

I think the treatment of ozil has effected some of the players,and the team as a whole, the players didn’t say anything on social media,but they are are showing it on the pitch.

Emiratesstroller

I have refrained to comment until now on yesterday’s result, because frankly Arsenal’s performance highlights an “overcautious” approach in most games we play against not only the teams who are expected to finish in top 4, but also many others as well. We are playing far too much football at the back with far too few occasions when we should be putting the opposition under the cosh. Our midfield has been a problem over last two seasons on account of lack of creativity, assists and goal scoring potential. Our spasmodic forays are either coming from flanks or the occasional long… Read more »

AC

1. Arteta and Bottled in the same sentence….. wow good to read as it is the truth.

2. It seems the complainers were correct in doubting our progress were correct all along. I mentioned before that 2nd least number of goals conceded this season is a bullshit MBA type stat. We can all see we were poor defensively in westham and sheffield game

Tony

In contrast to your post, Pedro, I’m wondering if the players feel they can trust Arteta?

shad

Our best front 3 should be Saka (LW), Auba (Centre), Martinelli (RW). They all have the intelligence to rotate and find space and are finishers.

Arteta needs to stop being cucked by Xhaka and expecting Partey to mask his deficiencies.

Jay

You don’t disrespect a tean mate, and expect everyone else to be ok with it, most of the players are not playing for arteta.

Ernest Reed

This is clearly not sustainable. What has become painfully obvious is that having a novice manager is every bit a problem as having weak players. Arsenal are in serious trouble and as of right now, it seems no one has any answers.

AC

There seems to be a lot of parallels between arteta’s early football career and management career. He came with a lot of pedigree from barcelona academy but was never able to estabilish himself as worldclass player inspite of all the talent. He wasn’t able to handle pressure at PSG, after even back in spain at sociedad where he had to replace departing Alonso and later had to settle for a everton type club. As a manager he comes with a lot of pedigree but the same things that prevented him from becoming a world class player seems to be preventing… Read more »

shad

“There seems to be a lot of parallels between arteta’s early football career and management career. He came with a lot of pedigree from barcelona academy but was never able to estabilish himself as worldclass player inspite of all the talent. He wasn’t able to handle pressure at PSG, after even back in spain at sociedad where he had to replace departing Alonso and later had to settle for a everton type club. As a manager he comes with a lot of pedigree but the same things that prevented him from becoming a world class player seems to be preventing… Read more »

Elmo

I think that’s a fair analysis from Pedro, who has astutely repositioned himself. On Lacazette, we have to ask the question why he has become so poor in a short space of time. It’s just over a season ago that he was voted our Player of the Season, despite not being the top scoring forward; that was due to his all-round play, strong link-up contribution, and mix of goals and assists. He had some injuries last season and admitted real frustration at being unable to reach the required level. He now looks like a player which a fresh observer would… Read more »

Matt

AC

Indeed. The improvement in goals conceded is a massive red herring. Of course we are going to concede less goals when we have zero attacking ambition. Arteta’s default position in all games seemingly is first and foremost not to lose, when it should be to win.

Ernest Reed

Have to ask, what again was the purpose of bringing Partey onboard? Yesterday play was set up to basically avoid him with both Xhaka and Celabos controlling play. The purpose for having a 4-3-3 set up is to utilize that new addition. What gives?

Ustyno

Aubameyang is not getting chances Lacazette is becoming crab Willian was functioning well in Chelsea but don’t know what’s happening with him Pepe? I don’t want to go into cos it’s obvious he doesn’t even know what’s up with himself Leno is neither here nor there Saka the only body that can create something I can go on and on,in the nearest matches to come Gabriel who seems to be the brightest spark since joining will turn sour Why is all of the above? ARTETA He needs to stop overthinking the team,keep it simple for ones and let the players… Read more »

Habesha Gooner

The most annoying thing for me is whether we are playing 2 CMs or 3 CMs, They never break forward. I didnt rate ramsey that much but one thing I valued about his game is the fact he stays nearer to the opposition box. Ot was also his undoing in a 2 CM team. He would leave us exposed. I didnt see xhaka, Ceballos or Partey get in tho the final third of the pitch except for corners. You need to form those triangles if you are going to play attacking fullbacks. They could alternatively break forward. That way we… Read more »

RockyRoe

The problem is that with players with attacking mindset, too rigid a structure will alienate them. Think of gnarby at West brom or felix now at athletico. It might work if the team is constantly winning like in Jose early days but shit results will have players asking questions and having doubts. If you are a player, it’s a fairly reasonable question to ask, I signed/play for arsenal a team with 20 years of attacking pedigree why are we setting up like Stoke? By the way, good post Pedro, didn’t see that coming. You didn’t try to dress the defeat… Read more »

Dissenter

Jay
We heard you the first time
It’s all because Ozil is being ‘disrespected’
What else is new?

Ernest Reed

“By the way, good post Pedro, didn’t see that coming. You didn’t try to dress the defeat as most thought you would, kudos.”

Hide what Rocky, they were abysmally painful in the most obvious way. Not even Pedro would dare say otherwise.

Kaz

Until he treats Xhaka and Mustafi the same way he treats Ozil it’s clear he isn’t the right one for us.

Kay

Don’t tell me Auba, Pepe, Saka, William, Tierney, Bellerin can’t counter attack and run at players. Nearly every other team out there play quick football.. It’s as though we have forgotten whats dribbling? Under Emery we were atleast attacking with some sort of fluidity with cut backs and Emery was very very mediocre. If the expectation is to jack up possession numbers within our half brings the top 4 trophy then god help us. I could clearly see Xhaka screwup so many attacking opportunities yesterday. If Arteta thinks Xhaka is integral to our team then he would have 0 sympathy… Read more »

shad

Arteta’s biggest undoing so far has been putting 2 duds in the form of Xhaka and Laca as our central lynchpims for attack. It’s good for training behind the scenes and molasses, but they are retrogressive to the desired pacey ball progression Arsenal had trademarked. At least in Emery’s time, there were games where the attack was precise and lightning quick, no example realer than the same fixture against Leicester where we beat them 3 1 and Özil played out of his skin.

andy1886

Wow, for a minute I thought I was on the wrong blog. Fair play to Pedro for a good analysis but also for the reasoned and balanced comments from posters so far. Yet to see someone call someone else a ‘$&!!*#&! yet which is nice…. We can play better, no doubt about that. We have the players to do better too, even the tactics don’t fully account for performances. For some reason confidence is very low which is strange given that we won a trophy last season and actually beat big teams along the way. Of course we need to… Read more »

Pierre

Pedro You’ve spent the last week slaughtering Ozil and all the obsessives were dancing on the street at his demise.. .no mention of him today is there . As each passing week goes on, the decision to bin our most creative player will come back to haunt Arteta. Creativity is not just about creating chances , to be creative on a football field takes bravery and means taking a risk with the ball.. Creativity means taking opposition players out of the game with one sublime pass, similar to the pass that Elneny made for our 2nd goal v rapid .… Read more »

Jay

Young home grown players like, Eddie Nketiah,willock,Nelson, mitland niles never going to make it at arsenal.

alexanderhenry

Pedro I think there are two basic reasons for yesterday’s performance. 1) Arsenal’s failure to conduct a genuine clear out this summer. Maybe covid has had something to do with it but the fact we still have ozil, xhaka, mustafi, bellerin and others on the books is like a millstone round the clubs neck. It’s frustrating they’re still around. For most arsenal fans I think their presence in the team is like seeing mouldy cheese in the fridge. 2) Arteta. I’ve been in favour of Arteta from the outset but let’s be fair here, it was a gamble for a… Read more »

Dissenter

The most obvious of tactics was met by the most tepid coaching performance Yesterday’s loss was a wake up call not to the squad, it was a management failure that cost us the game. One that the manager has to own up to. Laca shouldn’t have come out to the field in the second half. He was very bad. Willian is the pathetic signing many of us feared and Pepe’s confidence is obviously shot. He can’t be playing two defensive Midfielders against beatable, teams at home. He shouldn’t be bringing on players that we all know are shitty to do… Read more »

raptora

Good post, Pedro.

You saw what some of us have been saying for a while. I respect you for saying things as they are.

Bergkamp63

I really don’t know why so many are surprised at where we are at this moment in time, some of us knew it was going to take 2 years at least to get rid of these players on bloated contracts, we don’t have the money to replace them even if we could get shot of them for free. There are no home or away games at the moment as the stadiums are empty, the big 4 turned into the big 6 and is now probably the big 10, other clubs haven’t been sat on their backsides waiting for the big… Read more »

raptora

Pedro: “Alex Lacazette has been atrocious for a long time. He’s physically weak and completely incapable of being a central point when it comes to attack. On another day, with a better striker, we’re exiting the first half with 2 goals. Aouar was a big miss this summer, but let’s not pretend having an elite creator was moving the needle with Alex through the middle. If Eddie can’t do it, then try Balogun.”

If only we had a world class CF who has scored over 25 goals a season for 6 seasons in a row?
Oh wait…

Le Sauce

Excellent post Pedro. You addressed the genuine concerns we have as fans without going over the top. We just hope Arteta can make us protagonists like he stated earlier because we look meek and scared at the moment

Dissenter

When Xhaka was signed, Wenger famously didn’t have a clue what his role was.
It seems the same is happening with Partey. He is a defensive midfielder mainly so combining him with Xhaka means we’re are already giving up something offensively.

Rich

Have to disagree with us not having an 8th place finishing team. We could easily finish 8th this season, over the course of 38 games, I’m pretty sure we’ll finish somewhere between 6th and 8th, and in doing so with this group of players, I think we’d be hitting par. Emery took a lot of stick, but was an experienced manager who slightly over-performed in his first season. Had success at Lorca, Almeria, Valencia, Sevilla, PSG, he had language issues, which was a problem, and ultimately the players threw him under a bus, rather than absolve any blame themselves. Arteta… Read more »

Buzzy

“If Eddie can’t do it, then try Balogun. Continuously giving game time to someone that looks less and less athletic is not the answer. Alex should have gone this summer, he didn’t, but that shouldn’t mean he’s starting important games”

Ummm or maybe play your best striker and player there? Has that ever crossed Artetas mind?

DUIFG

Arteta is killing himself on self inflicted nonsense.

Laca mustafi, auba wide. Its basic shit we have a cf who’s been bang averga efir 2 years, why play week in week out. Mustafi is a dead man walking yet he gets minutes instead of a 28m buy who should be the future.

We seem very limited in the ways we can build, there is a lot fo disfunction up top, but yoh can’t legislate for laca missing a header completely unmarked 3 yards from goal. Stop trying to be Einstein and find a groove man with the team selection

Dissenter

I’’m sure Saliba is regretting signing for Arsenal. We haven’t managed him well.
If he’s as good as was reported last season, then I won’t be surprised if and when his people start making public noises to have him released from his contract.
What does it do to the confidence of a 19 year old when a shitty defender coming back from long term injury that the club is trying to move out is preferred ahead of him.

Bergkamp63

Rich,

Well said sir !

DUIFG

Worry as well that arteta default is to lay a bust /safe option than roll a dice. If he’s tight with wenger have a chat, keep it simple, the other stuff will come, you are not going to out pep at this stage of the cycle

Savage

Right now, Wenger > Arteta

DUIFG

We are basically seeing what would have happened last year if auaba didn’t bang, once he drops off we have no goals, this isn’t one bad game, its 12m of creating 2 chances a game. This has been coming

DUIFG

We could look back at this period like look how childish we were calling him out, but the metrics stink and bad tactical decions are there to see. These next 2 m are huge for him, there isn’t an excuse with a Gabriel partey auba spine, that you have 2/3 elite players man through your spine, managers would kill for that, get the rest around them in the

Vintage Gun

Fair play Pedro. Bang on post.

Really devastated with that result. Damaging defeat.

Foxy

Yesterdays sad display of muddled thinking and inaction by Arteta illustrated just how long and uncertain is the road from player to coach to top club manager. For example what exactly was Xhaka’s role other than to pass the ball back to David Luiz or Gabriel.. With the midfield so deep yet again, there was no one available yesterday in a more advanced central role for Partey to interchange with and Leicester cleverly gave him little space.. So we either just humped long balls from the back to a striker who cannot win them or went down the flanks with… Read more »

TR7

Martinez episode
Ozil episode
Guendouzi episode
Saliba episode
Pay cut episode

I don’t know what impact these episodes have had on rest of the players but Arteta needs to be careful about not ruffling too many feathers.

Dissenter

Our squad is mismanaged from top down We have many players that no one wants because they aren’t just good enough. I’m pretty sure no one else would have given Auba that mega contract at his age but we did. It was also curious that we signed a 31 year old Willian to a mega three deal when we have a 72 million signing fighting for confidence. Then we let go of good goal keeping coverage and replaced him with one of the worst goalies in Ligue un. We have made a lot of big bets. If they don’t pay… Read more »

Told you, Arteta is Emery with better hair. He’s a failure and he’ll do nothing in football management as he’s just not good enough.

Jay

Arteta has lost the respect of the players, lets forget ozil,
hes got problem with Lucas Torreira, William Saliba,Mattéo Guendouzi pepe, hes treatment of a young guendouzi should be alot better, players are not playing for him, its clear to see on the pitch.

Valentin

Dissenter,

There was a few interviews with former teammates of both Saliba and Wesley Fofana. Congratulating the latter and commiserating for the former. Right now l’Equipe the French daily Sport newspaper is just aiming subtle dig at him. “We hope that he will play Saliba, because he is a terrific player. We don’t know why he does not see that.”. However soon if Guendouzi and Saliba are selected for the French U21 with Guendouzi captain the side and both play well, the newspaper will give him both barrels.

Once that happen, Arsenal can forget about recruiting talented U21 from France.

Dissenter

If Partey was brought to be the spine of the team then Arteta should be wasting him away as the vestigial tail bone.
If Auba was re-signed at great expense , then don’t waste him away as a winger. The Laca issue should have been forced in the summer as well. He should have been cast out.

Jay

Even Martinez left arsenal for Aston villa, because he didn’t anything to do with a egotistical man like arteta.

Freddie Ljungberg

As many has pointed out why should we faff around with inferior players like Laca and Eddie at CF when we have Auba? Saka is best from LW as well so he’s not getting utilised properly either. Bit harsh on Pepe, he’s not a left winger, stupid to play him there and expect anything to happen, he’s not the kind of winger to hug the touchline and whip in crosses from the corner flag. His most dangerous weapons are cutting in from the right and whip in a cross or shot. Arteta needs to face reality about some of his… Read more »

MLC

What do you think would happen if we lose to man u, villa and leeds?

Dissenter

There’s a obviously something not quite right with Runnarson.
Has he even manned the post for an U-23 game yet?
We’ve made Bernd Leno the goalie that cannot miss games. If he does the meltdown potential will be massive.

Makes me laugh that quite a few ex players are saying how professional and how hardworking Ozil was on the training pitch, yet Arsenal can’t find room for him. Don’t give a fuck what anyone says, the problem isn’t Ozil it’s the shit managers who’ve preceded wenger not being able to get best out of him because they’re so shit. Everything we here about Ozil being a bad one is from the Arsenal propaganda team making him look bad and to take fans minds of the fact that not only was Emery shit, but so is Arteta and the whole… Read more »

Receding Hairline

Excellent post Pedro

Very balanced

Season still very young. Lessons will need to be learnt as the season progresses and I hope he also trusts the staff he has surrounded himself with.

Rich

I love the way Pedro says that we’re better than eighth, but then follows it up with: * Lacazette isn’t good enough, which I agree with, he’s not a bad player he’ll bag you a few goals, but he’s one of the least dynamic strikers in the league, but his alternative is, If Eddie isn’t ready? Throw in Balogun, who’s 18, and never played a professional game” how is that going to propel us up the table? Surely if we thought he was ready? He’d be in there…. * Mustafi isn’t good enough, we know this already, but we also… Read more »

Dissenter

Valentin Yes, Arteta has made himself central to the club and has to win every error that has been made. Guendouzi only tried to fight for the shirt and would he been reacting to seeing his goalie distraught at Maupay. The so called senior players were quiet on the field. Everything that hole need afterwards was mismanagement. If we knife he was a hothead then you can’t confront him with a management team of Raul/Edu/Arteta. It was obvious that Aouar he a change of heart at some point, maybe Juve or PSG got to him or maybe he didn’t like… Read more »

Dissenter

*everything that happened afterwards

Kaz

Our squad is too good to be failing this hard. Xhaka and Mustafi aside. I think Arteta is a real control freak as he is unwilling to let them play anything that isn’t written down in his notes. I think his man management is very poor too. Guendozi shipped out, Saliba not playing, after lying to Auba and telling him he’s the man man and the team is built around him, continues to push him out of position for a strategy that clearly isn’t working. Xhaka clearly kiss ass like no other, control freaks love sycophants. Squad were not happy… Read more »

Dissenter

Rich
That was a very good post.

Kaz

Main*

Kaz

Rich

4231

Bellerin, Saliba, Gabriel, Tierney

El Neny, Partey
Pepe (being instructed to cut inside and not stay wide where he is turd), Willian, Saka
Auba

I bet I could get this team playing better than Arteta does.

We don’t have shit players, we have a manager who doesn’t understand his players.

Kaz

I’d happily take Saliba or another younger over Mustafi.

We have other midfield options so that Xhaka need never start a match for Arsenal again in his career.

Sheldon

Xhaka slows down our play and blunts Partey. He should be benched. Laca is also too slow and has regressed badly. Mustafi”s brain freezes every second game are too costly. These players have been the root of our problems for years and persisting with them will be reason for Arteta’s downfall. We shouldv binned them along with Ozil.

Arteta’s sauce has turned rancid. He’s a very very lucky boy because if fans were allowed in the stadium they’d soon let him know what they think of his style.

Mr.J

Sorry but it needs to be said…. The Club did not do enough during the transfer window. Most on here were gassed up with the signing of Party, talking about Top 4 was well within our grasp, almost a certainty said some, judging by the teams around us. Others were saying that the Party signing would free up some creativity in others – I’m almost certain that Pedro said this!!! Party was the easiest signing in the world to make and should’ve been made at the start of the window – this, along with the signing of a defender, was… Read more »

SpanishDave

The trouble is that we don’t have a Chairman who cares about the football being played .
In the past the chairman would have Arteta in his office this morning and give him a good bollocking.
Who’s going to do that with our set up?
He won’t get it from his chum Edu.
With no crowds he won’t get booed.
He appears arrogant and is trying to play like Man City but heh ho he hasn’t got the players with their skill sets.
He may talk the talk but cannot walk the walk.
He hasn’t got it

Sean+Mukiza

Spot on Pete! Emery red flags have been around for a while

Bergkamp63

In order to get some perspective, you simply have to look at the results of all the so called ‘big teams’,

None of them are tearing it up, none of them look unbeatable, even the winning team in the PL this season is likely to have racked up 5 or 6 losses.

This is by far the hardest league on the planet, is it so surprising with only 3 or 4 elite level players at the club, we are not where we would like to be yet ?

Bergkamp63

Mr J,

“Are you telling me we could not move on Mustafi, Xhaka, Holding, Sokratis, Laca, Kola or any of the numerous deadwood during that window?? For how long have most of these players not been good enough?”

For the same length of time as all the clubs who didn’t want to match their wages ?

David Smith

Trouble is, this club have been extremely badly run for some time now, these issues aren’t going to fix themselves over night
Indulging Wenger, poor recruitment and selling, dithering over an ineffective CEO who went anyway, failing on Monchi, the time it took to get Edu, issues with Raul, Sven, agents, absent owner, Covid, and so many other things.
Ultimately, How has Stan allowed this?

@SpanishDave

Spot on. We don’t have owners or board members who genuinely give a shit about Arsenal FC. Under the kroenkes we are now nothing but a bad mid table team

kamal

Why can’t Reiss & AMN get a game…?

Where is ESR… Is he injured? There was so much talk to Arteta being excited to work with him.

With each passing day the decisions regarding MG, Ozil & Saliba are baffling.

The GK – the less said the better.

Kaz

If Arteta had Vardy, he’d play him out wide.

RockyRoe

Arteta needs to evaluate his expectations against reality. Auba running off lacas shoulder with a 1×2 like alexis did with giroud is all well and good BUT laca is nowhere near giroud when it comes to hold up play and bringing in team mates. Also auba is not the passer Alexis was.

It’s time to go back to obvious football which means playing players in their best positions and see if that changes anything.

shad

It feels like a case of over-training and demanding respect for non-football reasons. As much as he won the charity shield and FA Cup, Arteta is already walking thin ice with how he has alienated players. If there is a silent mutiny within the ranks, he will be done by the season’s end. He is very fortunate there were no fans in ground. The moans would probably unsettle his wrought iron hair.

Marc

Pedro Good piece and I’ve got to say I wasn’t expecting it. FEAR is the problem – he’s so scared of conceding a goal he set’s up so we can’t score and when we eventually concede – as your always going to in a competitive division like the PL we’re screwed. Arteta’s had 26 matches in charge and picked up 42 points, over the course of a season that’s 61 points – in the last 6 seasons that would’ve managed 6th once and 7th the rest of the time. This is chicken and egg territory Arteta will not have the… Read more »

Nelson

It was really sad hearing Brendan Rodgers commenting about his plan. Everyone can see it coming except Arteta. I am sure that the players knew that too. I was expecting Partey to control the midfield. All Leicester players sat back behind their 35 yards in the 1st half. We were allowed to play out from the back undisturbed. Still there was no plan for Partey to do anything.

Pierre

Rodgers made one simple tactical move after half time and we didn’t have the answer to it.

He told his team to push 10/20 yards up the pitch and to not allow our back line and midfield easy possession.

It worked like a dream for Rodgers.. leicester were the better side in the 2nd half , xhaka and Gabriel became sloppy and it ultimately cost us the game..

We went from totally dominanting the first 45 minutes to a team lacking in ideas and intensity.

shad

“How has Stan allowed this?”

From his viewpoint, as a going-concern, Arsenal is doing well. They’d rather furlough a few staff and invest a 3 year contract on a 67 year old Willian, so long as the net book value is positive.

We may have missed a trick in hiring Ancelotti actually. At least he wouldn’t play Auba on the wing.

Is it too late to get Viera in? Nice are currently 5th, W4 D2 L2

Marc

“Spot on. We don’t have owners or board members who genuinely give a shit about Arsenal FC. Under the kroenkes we are now nothing but a bad mid table team”

Sorry but weren’t we being told we now had someone on the board who was a fan and would shake things up – starting with the removal of Sanllehi only a matter of weeks ago?

alexanderhenry

Dissenter

I didn’t know we gave Willian a three year deal. That’s worrying.

For years Arsenal fc has been consistently naive where player contracts are concerned.
We’re already sadled with a bunch of ageing, underperforming, overpaid players we can’t get rid of.

SpanishDave

Our owner hasn’t got a clue about football.
Most successful clubs have their owners present at each match and they understand football.
Our set up is riderless the board are meek and too old in this fast moving world.
Arteta will fail, he should have started with a smaller club to learn his trade.
We need an experienced world class proven manager. Not a trainee

englandsbest

We lost the game because a perfectly legitimate goal was disallowed. That settled, and before we castigate Arteta, let’s ask two questions: does Arteta have the personnel to seriously match the elite? Did he get the players he needed and get rid of the players he wanted to leave? Arteta inherited a squad in disarray, without spirit and commitment. Furthermore he has very limited financial resources. This summer he was in the same predicament as Wenger was back then , he had to sell to buy – but with a difference. Wenger had players other Clubs wanted to buy. Arteta… Read more »

SpanishDave

Marc
He’s an accountant .We need Footballers on our board like Munich, younger with proven experience.

Marc

“I’d happily take Saliba or another younger over Mustafi.”

This is a serious point – if we’re going to have growing pains why not at least have them with players who have the excuse of being inexperienced.

We have the foundations of a team good enough to challenge for 4th – we need a manager who can unleash the potential.

Moray

Arteta seems to be playing a certain way with the wrong set of players. One of the strengths of a Good manager is to show flexibility and adapt the style of play to suit. Willian is completely wasted so far, which is odd Considering how enthusiastic everyone was to sign him (long term). This isn’t happening. And on top of some poor personal decisions about the club, of course people are getting nervous. What is clear is that things aren’t right. The coach will need to find the right players, a new formation or some luck before the rot sets… Read more »

Pierre

“Why can’t Reiss & AMN get a game…?”

Is it another case of a player breaching the non negotiables with AMN .

Talking about Ozil in glowing terms is a no no.
AMN 4 days ago

“The squad’s behind Mesut, we’re a team,’ the Arsenal and England youngster said.

‘That’s always going to be the case until Mesut decides to make his decision on what he wants to do and what he wants to say.”

Another one bites the dust…

Upstate Gooner

Well, well, well… didn’t expect this from Pedro. A pretty honest assessment of the shit show we’re currently witnessing on display.

Marc

Dave

You’ve missed my point – We are constantly told on here about good things that suit a narrative rather than take things at face value.

I’m stunned that Pedro has actually called Arteta out this morning. We would need to be careful about appointing ex players to the board most of them are not particularly bright.

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