THINGS I’D LIKE TO SEE ARTETA ADDRESS

by .

Well here we are. The day after. I’ve been doing some thinking. Ignoring the ‘haters’ as American’s would say, and I have some thoughts. Some people say ‘the best thoughts.’

Enjoy.

FRESH IDEAS FOR AN OLD PROBLEM

I bought into a hipster vision of a manager that would play exciting football that was so expressive, they’d put it in the Louvre. We haven’t seen that yet. There have been improvements, we’ve been more effective, and we’re solid… but, the football has paid the price.

We’re now into the Emeryzone when it comes to tipping points. We’ve lost 50% of our Premier League games, we’re averaging the lowest number of shots per game in about 50 years, and the football looks badly lacking in sauce.

Arteta needs to find a solve. If you’re going to bin of Mest Ozil, you have to have something up your sleeve that is more interesting than David Luiz playing Hollywood passes from deep. We need better ideas and we need them fast. Lose against United, and things are going to look very dire.

GIVE THE KIDS A SHOT

Arsenal Wenger is on a press tour, have you noticed? Of course you have. Well, one thing I liked that he said was about giving kids a chance, even if they cost you some points. Wenger gave Cesc a chance and he thrived. He overplayed Jack Wilshere when he was 18, giving him 56 appearances. Now, I’m not asking for that, but if we have kids that can break the lines with a pass, is there not a squad we could line up with that could protect the player? Is some creativity better than 8 attempts at goal for the rest of the season? ESR, where are you? Willock? Saka? Patino? THERE MUST BE ONE KID THAT CAN CREATE. We are not City where it takes 10 years to break as a youth players. We’re Arsenal. We could be Dortmund. Is there REALLY a difference between watching kids with high ceilings make mistakes… versus watching senior players make mistakes?

MOVE ON FROM THE SPINE OF DOOM

I know it was one bad game, but let’s be honest, it’s been coming for a while. Mustafi always has a switch-off moment, we know what he’s about, why is he being offered a new deal? Granit Xhaka can do many things well, but we are now at a stage where the experiment can end. Thomas Partey can do all the things he can +++. It’s time to move on from player that have failed us for years. It’s time to give our new players a chance. It’s time to make Arsenal better again.

GET GABI MARTINELLI FIT

Look, I know we over-rank players that are broken… but imagine Gabriel as a focal point in attack? Powerful, aggressive, great in the air, and HUNGRY. Surely he’ll at the very least get into that front 3? I really cannot wait to get him back in the squad. Anything is more interesting than having to watch Nicolas Pepe fall over himself.

SIGN JACK WILSHERE

Ok, I’m sorry, but he’s on a free. Would a pay as you play be so bad? He’s 28, not 39. Am I dreaming? Could he help out? Just for one game? Give him a shot? Ok… maybe I took this blog down an incorrect path.

That’s me done, listen to the podcast, it perks up after we get over our depression.

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Tr4phy

Ashburton

I can’t see 15 years of never ending management turnover and mid table finishes. The club has no balls from top to bottom. Currently we are a poor outfit full over over the hill over paid players.

Ashburton

Can*

The Godfather

Top ten?

The Godfather

Please a Big No To Jack!
He is Done!
Like OZil no one of note wants him!
I wonder why?

Emiratesstroller

Pedro I have been discussing on previous thread the players that need to be offloaded in short term. We know the problem. Pierre is as usual attempting to blame Arteta for the problem because of his relationship with Ozil, Guendouzi, Torreira and AMN. All these players apart from perhaps AMN need to be offloaded as do Sokratis, Mustafi, Kolasinac, Luiz and sadly perhaps Lacazette. We can adopt like you suggest the idea of trying one or two kids. Arteta has done so, but the sad fact is that only Saka and Martinelli who is out injured have shown the potential… Read more »

The Godfather

How the heck does Liverpool manage to get so much money for Rhian Brewster and a scrub Dominic Solanke, yet we will get pennies on the dollar for an Nketiah or Willock or even Lacazette

Jim Lahey

I think the big news today is that Pedro confirmed that Dariano was indeed Bamford!! 😂

Kiril
Jim Lahey

One thing I will say about the horrendous result last weekend was yet again another blatant fucking over by VAR. The goal was perfectly fine. It looks like they reviewed it maybe twice before deciding to disallow it. In contrast we can all remember how many times they reviewed Eddie Nketiah’s tackle to make sure they could send him off.

I feel like the club should make a very public demand for an investigation into the PGMOL and VAR.

Ovia

Unfortunately, most of the kids have been given opportunities and didn’t take them. My pain is why we kept them when we could have sent them on loan to be ready for the first team. Some of Arteta’s decisions are very shocking and perhaps naive. I can’t see anything to suggest that Nketiah is a world beater or very talented. If he can trust Nketiah, what’s stopping him trusting saliba? Mustafi is always going to be error-prone so why not bed saliba in to mature with time? Why does he always change the front 3 and over complicating things during… Read more »

Graham62

Re: Sign Jack Wilshere.

100% do not agree.

Graham62

Jim Lahey

Re: PGMOL and VAR.

Now that I do agree with.

Being run by a bunch of imbeciles.

Sorry but it’s true.

MilanoGunner

The more expensive of the 19 year old St Etienne’s defensive signings to the PL teams is nowhere close to the first team and the other 19 year old is making a name for himself. Surely the protection thing is worrisome, and the pressure on Saliba is going to be more when he does play for us…

Ernest Reed

If ever an indictment of bleakness presented itself, it did so with Pedro suggesting a crocked Jack Wilshere as a potential solution. Just wow! The reality is upon us, Arteta may have shown his entire hand already. Is this the best he can get from an obviously dysfunctional group of players? Lose to a really lousy ManU team later this week and Arteta will likely have nowhere to hide. The ball appears to be squarely in Arteta’s corner – what have you got in you to lift a feeble offensively challenged group that are in dire need of some direction?… Read more »

Pierre

Play the kids on Thursday…they cannot play any worse than the turgid football we have witnessed this season.

Nelson saka and eddie up front

Wiĺlock smith rowe behind with AMN holding the middle.

Play the kids .
Pity saliba isnt registered to play …rubbish decision
Put azeez and Balogun on the bench .

Play the kids and then the manager can’t complain about fatigue.
The only reason they will have fatigue is if they are being over trained

AC

Hey Le grove, Your judgement has been very wrong off late especially wrt to saliba in the podcast. Wesley fofana had a solid game against us the other day and saliba used to start ahead of him at St. Etienne. So don’t feed us the BS that arteta is not convinced by Saliba and he needs to improve. Arteta has been putting a lot of faith in deadwoods like Kolasinac, Mustafi, Laca etc. It seems to me that Arteta cannot identify talents or he just gives more game time to yes-man people who pretend to work hard. How can it… Read more »

Jim Lahey

@Graham –

I guess all fans tend to feel like the officials are out to get them, but what is, and has been, happening at Arsenal is beyond a joke. It will keep happening if Arsenal don’t make a stand against it.

AC

Also Pedro….there is no limit to your hypocrisy. You slate Ozil but yearn for ozil 2.0 (Jack wilshere) at the same time. If anything washed up ozil is twice the player jack wilshere is now currently. And BTW i want ozil gone from our clubs.

Mark my words – This kind of hypocrisy is what will lose you audience.

Jim Lahey

Can we all agree that we would have preferred to see Sokratis come on against Leicester instead of Mustafi. Why was he dropped from the PL squad while Mustafi has been allowed to play?

David Boyle

jack Wiltshire is a million times better than xhaka

MilanoGunner

I would like to believe Pedro’s being tongue in cheek with that Jack comment at the end of the post…

Graham62

Pierre

100% agree.

I also want to see Runarsson in goal.

If he doesn’t play then there’s something seriously awry.

andy1886

Jim, Sokratis or Mustafi? To be honest there isn’t a lot in it. Mustafi is 90% decent with 10% calamity potential. Sokratis is maybe 70% decent so neither is ideal. And it’s easy to blame Mustafi for the goal but I doubt that Sokratis would have been any more reliable. As for why the club would offer Mustafi a new deal isn’t it pretty obvious? He leaves for free without a deal or we get to sell him for a reasonable fee with a deal in place. Realistically he’s going to go down the ‘on a free with a big… Read more »

Graham62

Calm down folks.

Pedro was probably on his second glass of red when he mentioned JW.

Things tend to get to you when you know things are going pear shape.

Jim Lahey

@Pierre –

“Play the kids on Thursday…they cannot play any worse than the turgid football we have witnessed this season.”

I am actually going to suggest the exact opposite!

Play a full strength team, much of the players in our first team are clearly lacking confidence, they need a performance where they dominate a team to inject some spirit into them. Maybe start to gel a bit more together. The game on Thursday could be a way to get the team up and going.

AC

“I would like to believe Pedro’s being tongue in cheek with that Jack comment at the end of the post…”
Listen to the podcast, he seriously thinks Jack can make a difference. I am really worried that the most objective arsenal blogger is gone…or maybe pedro is having a bad week.

Jim Lahey

@Andy –

“As for why the club would offer Mustafi a new deal isn’t it pretty obvious? He leaves for free without a deal or we get to sell him for a reasonable fee with a deal in place.”

Do you honesty think he would ever leave if he was offered a new deal? The best we can do now is see his contract out. Of Arsenal sign the guy up, he sits there for the remainder of his deal. What club would actually pay a transfer fee for the guy?

AC

jack Wiltshire is a million times better than xhaka

No he is not. He is westham’s Ozil. He retired from top level football in 2014

andy1886

Graham, no Runarsson for me, he’s by all account awful (no idea why we signed him). I’m not a fan of Leno but that would be cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Rich

As per usual people have completely overreacted after the Leicester result. It was always likely to be a game that was close, and settled by small margins. We had a goal wrongly ruled out, which at some point would have forced Leicester to come out and play, and we got caught with a sucker punch by Leicester, the same Leicester who put 5 past City in Manchester a few weeks back. On another day, it’s us who push the margins the other way, there’s not much between our teams, which shows how poorly we’ve recruited, and how badly we’ve messed… Read more »

Kaz

I shared the depression Pedro, I was in a very negative place last few days as my posts were mostly negative, it’s just hard to put trust in a manager refusing to see what is plainly visible to all!

Keown even said on BT it’s going very Emery.

No doubt Arteta is feeling the pressure but he must not keep retreating within himself!
I really hope we can find some cojones.

Kaz

Rich for god’s sake, it’s not the results, it’s the manner of the results which is why we’re all up in arms.

Kaz

Jack Wilshere is a million times better but we had the option to pick up Santi for nothing this summer and the club didn’t bother (who is a million times better then both)

andy1886

Rich, a lot of what you say makes sense but I do worry that Arteta isn’t a great judge of a player. For example he loves Xhaka and was very insistent that he wanted to sign Mari and Soares neither of which look anywhere near good enough.

If he really can polish a turd then good luck to him, let’s hope he can get the best out of what he has.

shad

Wow… it really goes tits up fast these days. Willians two and a half assists seem like they were infinity ago hahaha

Peckobill

Good post trouble is arteta strangely rated Eddie over martinelli when it’s plain as daylight which has the far higher ceiling . Pedro is right technically that if you don’t have ozil you have to replace with a technician, the problem you get is no 10 in the world will function in an arteta side as he’s far to rigid in their positioning. 10’s live off roaming into space and floating along the width of the pitch . Simply wouldn’t be allowed under arteta, they’d be stuck between midfield and attackers vertically and no further than the gap between the… Read more »

Bergkamp63

The only thing one can say about JW is he was nearly always passing the ball forward through the channels like Cesc, sadly this is the polar opposite of what we currently have.

Leno is probably getting more touches on the ball than Auba !

englandsbest

We are all looking for solutions: what will make Arsenal click into top gear?

Some of the ideas are outlandish – like play Ozil or bring Jack back.

For what it’s worth, here is mine: give Pepe his head, get the ball to him quick and early. He is a natural game-changer.

Graham62

andy1886

If Runarsson is “awful” then why did we sign him?

Just goes from bad to worse.

andy1886

I agree Graham, as I said I have no idea what that was about!

Jim Lahey

@englandsbest – “For what it’s worth, here is mine: give Pepe his head, get the ball to him quick and early. He is a natural game-changer.” Here is the problem with that; we can’t.. the team seems to be incapable of connecting our defensive play to our attackers. They are isolated. I know we are piling on the pressure on Laca, Auba and Pepe at the moment, but they are feeding off scraps. I can’t see any other combination of 3 attackers going better (maybe they would but not to the extent we would like to see).. The team needs… Read more »

Emiratesstroller

Pierre I don’t disagree with selecting a young second string team against Dundalk on Thursday. As I posted last week if Arsenal cannot beat this team with our reserves then we don’t deserve to be playing in Europe. However, the idea that Nelson, Nketiah, Willock and Maitland-Niles need to be given a chance to show what they have got is ridiculous. All these players have been given an opportunity and none has shown so far the potential to start regularly in First Team. They are all average players. Smith-Rowe may be an exception, but until now has been injury prone… Read more »

Graham62

Did Leno have a say in the decision?

Get a GK in that makes him look good.

Unbelievable!!

Graham62

ES

Agree totally, they are not rookies.

Last chance saloon for some of them.

andy1886

Graham, I believe that the guy is good with his feet, something Arteta wants (so why he likes Leno who knows?). That said I’d rather have a good GK who’s not good with his feet than a poor one who is.

Marc

“Pedro was probably on his second glass of red when he mentioned JW.”

Glass or bottle?

andy1886

BTW I do think that Nelson could develop into a useful player given a decent run. Not sure if he is going to get it though.

Bergkamp63

We are still only 4 pts off the summit after playing Man City & Liverpool away and Leicester at home, two of those games we were desperately unlucky not to have come away with at least a point.

All is not lost just yet !

Marc

So Pedro is beginning to acknowledge what a few on here have been saying for some time. Xhaka is the cause of not just all of Arsenal’s problems but all problems in the world – you name it it’s Xhaka’s fault: Arsenal have no midfield presence Climate Change Poverty Trump winning a second term Pollution Human over population COVID Biden winning a first term the current mass extinction it goes on and on. Arteta has demonstrated an issue with seeming to want to “fix” certain players and an inability to sell off parts of the squad who are at best… Read more »

raptora

Only way to get this team going is to have someone between the lines playing ahead of the duo defensive midfielders and behind the striker. This player will add diversity to our attack as we are at the moment only attacking through the wings. He’ll also be in and around the opposition penalty box and will score and assist goals. He’ll also help in pressing from the front. Right now our CF is doing the job of the player position I explained above. As we can see it’s not working as we are neither combining great going forward, or being… Read more »

Marc

Arteta needs to go back to basics – stop the overly clever formations of CM’s moving into FB positions when we have the ball etc, playing everyone at CF over Auba and get back to round pegs and round holes.

Personally I like Saka at wide left and I’m not sure he’s the 10 people are making him our to be, Laca looks finished, we’ve got how many CB’s on the books but how many are fit / available?

Really need to get the squad in some sort of shape.

Valentin

Unless Arteta is having some serious doubt on Leno, Runarsson will not play in goal. It was reported when Martinez left that he had hoped to at least be able to show case his talent in the Europa League but Arteta made it clear that he viewed it as a major competition and as such his No 1 goalkeeper will be playing those games. Arteta made the same decision last season when he dropped Martinez in favour of Leno who then made a mistake that lead indirectly to the Olympiakos goal that eliminated us from the competition. With Luiz injured… Read more »

Rich

Andy1886 The only transfer I’m accrediting to Arteta is Partey, which simply has to work, he’s 27 and in his peak, and cost €50million cash during a pandemic. Like you say the signings of Soares, Mari, Willian on a 3yr deal we’re strange to say the least, particularly when we have a first team squad of 31. While people will speculate, we don’t know who’s responsible, all we do know is the guy who got sacked, and was running the show, was very close with all three players agents. Arteta + Edu get a clean slate regarding the squad for… Read more »

raptora

We need to switch to 4-2-1-3 or 4-2-3-1 and we will have the AM receive the ball from our defenders and combine with our CF through the middle of the pitch. The CF will not be on his own and will be able to make runs cause there will be a player in close proximity to him that could actually make that through ball. In such case we’ll be able to play Aubameyang through the middle. I feel that the most balanced side would be with Willian on the left, Pepe on the right, Auba down the middle and Saka… Read more »

Marc

Pedro’s also pushing for getting Martinelli back into the team as soon as he’s fit.

Didn’t Arteta drop him for Nketiah even before Martinelli’s injury?

raptora

Willian, Tierney left wing sounds so perfect. Tierney has a hell of a good cross while Willian has that good link up play. Willian will be able to give the right pass at the right time to a running Tierney while Willian himself is not a big of a goal threat but Tierney could give him the pass down the sideline and from there Willian would be able to cross himself. With Auba down the wing, it makes no sense for Auba to combine with Tierney cause then Auba will not be at the end of the cross and the… Read more »

AFC Forever

Jim and Graham Why VAR is broken… PGMOL is run by Mike Riley; the referree in that infamous 59th game at Old Trafford. The game that no matter how many times you watch the highlights, shows the game has bent or biased match officials. To recap; Ferdinand’s last man foul on Ljungberg when Freddie was through on goal, Van Nistelrooy raking his studs down Ashley Coles shins in front of the assistant (Linesman) and the Neville sisters assaults on Reyes where on 7 or 8 occasions they completely ignored the ball trying to injure him. Then topped it all off… Read more »

Paulinho

“Arteta should stick to what he’s doing, we’ve got more experience in the squad this season, and team cohesion will develop as the season progresses”

In lieu of significant personnel changes (new players, Xhaka getting binned) cohesion will not develop. If anything it will get worse as morale plummets.

If you don’t have the right balance, no amount of time or training drills will fix it.

Hleb, Rosicky, Fabregas didn’t need time to play great football. And that’s because they fit like a glove in terms of complimenting each other.

AFC Forever

*50th game obviously!!

Graham62

Rich We all know that Wenger helped to create the ‘make do’ culture but I’m sorry, since his departure (two and a half years ago) we’ve had more than enough time to rectify some of the problems we still see. It doesn’t take that much footballing intelligence to see if a player has talent and is the right fit for the team. If Runarsson is shite, then why the fudge did we buy him? It’s not as if he’s 17 years of age. The guys 25 and an international. Surely he has talent. If not, then sack the person who… Read more »

Valentin

Rich, I would argue that the lack of cohesion is mostly due to the tactical and personnel choices made by the coaching staff. Even if you don’t rate the players, those should not be 18th in number of shots per game. They are better than that. When all the rounds are completed, Arsenal could be last in number of attempts, and in number of chances created. Burney had more attempts in one game against Spurs than Arsenal first few games. Slow slide toward mediocrity and relegation dogfight accelerates. I desperately wanted the Arteta experiment to work, but clearly it is… Read more »

Le Sauce

You’ll know we’re fucked when there is talk of jack freaking wilshere as the answer to our creativity issues, we might as well go cap in hand to beg Wenger back. If ozil who is still contracted to Arsenal isn’t deemed good enough then Wilshere isn’t good enough as well. Besides, our attacking approach has everything to do with Arteta finding the right answers, we look lost once we get anywhere close to the opponents half and wilshere wouldn’t be doing anything to address that.

Daniel Altos

Where are all the ” why does emery play our first teamers in pointless europa league games” merchants?….I am not seeing anyone calling out arteta for rocking up at vienna with auba,saka and luiz. Do we need these guys to beat shit opposition like rapid wien?I mean ffs I just hope we don’t need them to beat the mighty dundalk

Paulinho

Teams of a lower standard can play more fluid football but even then you need the right mix. Swansea were an Aldi Barcelona but look closer and you will see they had possession players like Joe Allen, Leon Britton, Hernandez that meshed well together. Back in the early 00s Fulham played fluid football but they had John Collins, Legwinski, Malbranque that weren’t top class, but had specific qualities that facilitated fluidity as a collective.

raptora

Marc,
People need to calm down on Martinelli a bit. Not because he’s not special. He truly is. He is my favorite Arsenal player at this moment. But he’s not going to be available anytime soon. He will not be available for at least a month and a half more.

It’s true Arteta benched Martinelli. Pedro said he benched him cause Auba plays on his position. But in the meantime Nelson started couple of games, Nketiah started a bunch of games. Surely Arteta has eyes that Martinelli’s ceiling is 10x that of Eddie. Right?

Marc

Graham There is an issue on here with favourites and villains. Now all transfers carry a degree of risk but look at the bullshit that was being spouted on here over Sanllehi transfers previously with people including VAT into the cost – something the club claims back. We need to look at transfers A) slightly longer term – it can take a player a while to settle B) what was the motivation behind the transfer. With all of that in mind and having not seen Runarsson play I won’t pass judgement but if this is a case of giving him… Read more »

Danny

We should definitely take Jack on a pay as you play contract, we desperately need a AM.
Pedro mentioned Patino, does anybody know if he’s really any good?

Jim Lahey

@AFC Forever – “The game that no matter how many times you watch the highlights, shows the game has bent or biased match officials.” Thanks for bringing this up! That game was as clear a fix as any game I have ever seen. There is no way when you go back and watch it that it was not a clear fix. This is why I believe that at some point in the future United will be stripped of several titles during that era. This all goes back to Wenger coming into the league and challenging United, Arsenal were seen as… Read more »

Marc

raptora

That was sort of my point – it looks more and more that Arteta has a type of play he likes and he is not interested in players who don’t fit that mold – talented or not.

raptora

Paulinho,
Agreed.

It’s why Partey, Ceballos with Saka infront of them and Willian, Auba, Pepe sounds so good to me.
You are fitting in all of your best players while you’re still playing them in their favorite positions.

None of the players are static, they are all capable, all quick. It could turn into a great core.

It would be my ideal Arsenal lineup while Martinelli is out.

Kaz

Rich A 4231 serves our personnel better. This is the manager’s fault in not shifting. A double pivot of El Neny and Partey works much better as it solidifies our midfield. El Neny should be encouraged to play forwards more and break more, Partey too, they can take it in turns the way Viera and Petite used to. The best attacking display we had this season was against Sheffield with Auba up top and Willian and Pepe rotating, put Saka on the left we have a decent side. Let’s stop telling Pepe a very one footed player who wants to… Read more »

Jim Lahey

Its funny when you actually think back to that game against United, how we didn’t question it at the time because it was happening every week, its only when you look back at the game in isolation you can truly understand the corruption taking place.

Le Sauce

Same way some were clamouring for Tierney and Bellerin to see peak emeryball is the same way others are clamouring for martinelli. We won’t see any noticeable improvement till that midfield is sorted and our attackers don’t have to feed on scraps. Back then, the problem Wenger has was a lack of quality CF as our midfield oozed class over the years. Now we have Auba, Laca and Pepe and we’re rock bottom in number of shots. All this screams lack of quality service and balance in the midfield… Emery gradually took away guile and craft from the midfield and… Read more »

GunnerDNA

Sunday is probably the biggest game of Arteta managerial career, a poor showing at Old Trafford by Arsenal and its over for him.

Leftside

Anyone thinking Martinelli comes back into the squad has short term memory. He was fit and firing and Arteta preferred Eddie over him. Eddies probably very subservient in training and runs around alot, Arteta seems to like those.

Danny

He was fit and firing and Arteta preferred Eddie over him.
———————-
Another one to add to the “Arteta Brain Fart List”.

Leftside

You need someone who can instil a strong work ethic in players and not tolerate nonsensity but there;s a thin line between doing that and being a disciplinarian for no reason. You also need a coach who is willing to acknowledge shortcomings and mistakes and be willing to make the changes that will help the team best over a bruised ego. Putting our best finisher on the left in place of someone who should never play CF was one thing, but to then put our best finisher on the right in the next game for an inferior striker who has… Read more »

raptora

I hope Leicester defeat shakes Arteta a bit. He was the golden boy that the media and everyone loved and were full of praise. Now a negative connotation has creeped in, and it was obvious before the Leicester game, no wonder Andy Gray said absolutely 100% of what I thought about Arsenal in the BeIN studio. But now Arteta will have to deal with this challenge. He cannot set up Arsenal where we have 3-4 shots on goal per game. He needs to find the ballance. You will not do well if you barely have 1 goal in your whole… Read more »

Leftside

The thought of Runarsson in goal petrifies me, so now we’re looking at the prospect of Leno playing pretty much all the games unless they are beyond meaningless. I’m not sure why we couldn’t have got in a more capable second string goalie.

Marc

Arteta has had 26 odd PL matches in charge – it would be most un Arsenal like to sack him if Sunday goes poorly – which right now is a distinct option.

My fear is under pressure Arteta will double down and go hyper defensive hoping for a draw. As a single match not an issue but you can see Arteta following that model through in subsequent matches.

Marc

Leftside

Have you seen him play?

raptora

LeSauce: “Emery gradually took away guile and craft from the midfield and replaced it with a laboured, workmanlike approach which we still continue to see under Arteta” Surely Arteta would have tried to change something if he was unhappy with what he was witnessing. It’s 10 months in his reign. He’s had months of break to settle his mind on his vision for this team. And he came up with one where we are 18th in the League on shots per game. He would then give interviews how we’ve turned a corner and how absolutely proud and happy he is??????… Read more »

Leftside

I haven’t Marc but the reviews of him doesn’t fill one with confidence, it looked like getting in a cheap keeper just to ensure there’s another body if Leno is unavaiable for any time.

Le Sauce

Moving forward, the only thing that can save arteta is to get that attack fit and firing. He has done well to bring some level of stability to that defence that was getting smashed and peppered by any and every forward line. That’s phase one done…. Phase two is the attack, once he can get the balance right and our strikers start to get among the goals again that’ll bring us closer to achieving our main objective -CHAMPIONS LEAGUE QUALIFICATION… This is the only way he can get more funds to buy suitable players that would fit perfectly into his… Read more »

Marc

Leftside

If that’s the case then both Arteta and Edu need a kick up the arse – I didn’t expect them to find the next Buffon but to bring in a keeper literally as a body is stupid – should’ve just stuck with a youth player.

Sid

Viera wouldnt be talking about non negotiables, just one swing of his longstuff on the forehead to reset the brain to xG settings.

Danny

Arteta is starting to remind me a lot of Terry Neill, a great cup manager but crap in the league. Neill had some great players at his disposal e.g. Brady, Stapleton, Rix, O’Leary, SuperMac etc but it made no difference, we were still bang average.

Marc

Le Sauce

What you say in principle is correct in practice there’s a problem. Right now to get CL football we’re going to need to see a real upturn in performances – something that I’m not convinced we’re going to see. If we miss out on CL qualification for next season we’ll have very little money to spend in the summer compounding the problem – so far the Kroenke’s have given a manager 2 attempts at CL before removing them.

This time next year Arteta could be in serious trouble.

AFC Forever

Rich “Arteta + Edu get a clean slate regarding the squad for me.” Only a moron would say otherwise Rich. I have said on numerous occasions this: Arteta inherited a squad that he has to do his best with. A Manager takes time to build a successful team for a number of reasons. Firstly he has a system he wants to play but the inherited players aren’t best for that system to work. So that needs transfer windows. Because we can’t do what the doped teams can do, this will mean selling to buy and so realistically you are talking… Read more »

Leftside

Marc I would like to understand their thought process, much of the decision making leaves to much to be desired. The Mustafi contract offer on one hand could be seen as trying to ensure we get a fee for him, but it’s probable we want to keep him. I mean, we turned down £20million for AMN for him to hardly figure at all this season. Xhaka who lets face it, we will never progress as long as he’s a mainstay in this side wanted to go and was talked out of leaving. I genuinely think we are bonkers, Vinai looks… Read more »

raptora

I still can’t come up how stupid was to play Dani in whatever position he was playing vs Leicester. It’s one of your best performers you’re switching position of, someone who has said he likes to dictate the game playing from deep, constantly looking for the ball. You move that player to a position where he’ll play much less with the ball, where he will not know where to position himself, where he will be useless. Dani was a shadow. He didn’t play the game. It reminded me of Ramsey and Bendtner playing right wings under Wenger back when. Horrendous.

Le Sauce

Raptors, I am not blaming Emery alone that’s why I concluded my remark with “which we still continue to see under Arteta”.. Which indicates that the Onus is on him to fix that Problem as that was a failing under Emery. I can’t remember when last Arsenal had a midfield as poor, one paced, unimaginative, unproductive and weak as this. Emery clearly changed the midfield from what he was left with by Wenger and Arteta has to seriously work on that in subsequent transfer windows.. It’s very much clear just partey isn’t enough

Sid

I know a cricketer name Vinai Venkat

Rich

GunnerDNA We lost at Anfield At City And a tight game to Leicester, who hit City for 5 just a few weeks back And if we lose at Old Trafford, a place where we don’t generally have much luck, you want to sack the manager? Our fan base is full of overreacting bedwetters. We’ve not won an away game against a big 6 opposition since 2015 in the league. United are ahead of us in terms of overall squad quality, but it’s still a game we can win. But lose or draw, and it’s hardly sack the manager time. It‘ll… Read more »

Le Sauce

Marc, Chelsea managed to secure champions league qualification with a terrible defence. Kloop took Liverpool to the champions league and subsequently the final against real Madrid with a not so good defence. It’s obvious that if we can score a shit load of goals, we stand a chance of qualification. Emery was a point short in his first season as well as a Europa final with a shaky defence line but a fit and firing Auba-Laca combination. We need to sort that attack else we stand no chance

GunnerDNA

“I hope Leicester defeat shakes Arteta a bit.” There was warning signs from the Olympiacos games in the EL. It carried over in the PL but the excuses “we’re harder to beat” , “we looked more defensively solid” and “he’s building from the back” were all lines fans used to paper over the cracks. He further solidify his negative approach to games when he use it to win the FA Cup and CS but if fans are honest Mikel is below average as a manager. With the exception of 60 minutes against Chelsea and the game against United at the… Read more »

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