Can Arteta defy the typical Arsenal narrative?

by .

Well good morning to you all!

Lots going on in the world of Arsenal, my overall take from a fan perspective is that everyone is just a little bit miserable. Look, I understand you, because I look at your Facebook data for a living. You are sad that you stopped reading, there’s no more power-yoga session on that ‘really great app’ you don’t use, your closest relationship is with a bag of Haribo that you can’t stop topping up…. and the football, well, it’s starting to smell like a bag of rotting Emery.

Fear not… this is not how it ends my friends. So stop sad-eating Hagen Dasz, because today, the only dessert breakfast we’re treating ourselves to is a bowl of Cheeri-positivos.

I spoke to some United fans for The Elite Football Show yesterday and they seemed to think that we’re in a similar position to the one United were in before the last January transfer window… namely, lacking creativity.

Now, we all know how they worked their way out of that problem, they signed a world-class creator in Bruno.

I think the biting reality we’re likely facing with Arteta is that until that sort of signing comes our way, we might have problems creating. The issue we have is that at the very highest level, only special talents can truly make a difference if your objective is to hit the heights. We could pump money into a lesser mortal, but that’ll only move us so far. We need to go big on a talent that can grow with us.

Now, I don’t think that quite excuses the depths of our bland creative output, so I’m not giving up. We absolutely have the squad to start creating. There’s a potentially world-class spine developing. Auba, Partey, Gabriel, and Leno could be very special if they all find their game at once. Bellerin and Tierney are top drawer. Saka is an elite young talent. The question really is, who do you build around them?

Pepe, looks like a dud at the moment. He strikes a ball with outrageous venom at full pace, but we rarely see it. He needs confidence and about 5kg in weight. Can he do that this season? Jury is out…

Dani Ceballos hasn’t played a game as bad as the one he did at Leicester in a while. Can he occupy a more advanced position now Partey has joined the midfield?

Gabriel Martinelli might not have been a fave of Mikel’s before the break, but the coach can’t tell us he’s not good because we have seen him with our own eyes. I cannot wait to have him back, he certainly looks like he’s put on the weight Pepe needs.

Willian cost a lot of money. I’m still very unsure if that was Mikel and Edu or the dregs of Raul, but whatever the situation, he’s a quality player that needs to find a role in the team and sharpish. The whole point of him was that he’d not need 3 months to adapt. Well, we’re basically in November and it’s been bland. More to come. We need senior players to step up.

Then there’s the riddle of Joe Willock and ESR. Can they be the surprise packages this season? Will Arteta trust them? Who knows…

But basically, I think we need to pull our heads out of our backsides, realise that this season will be bumpy, and pray to the gods of football that this weekend is our watershed moment.

There’s so much going against us…

We do not win away at Old Trafford. Arsenal hasn’t beaten a top 6 side away since 1912.

We are a gift to struggling managers. That is OGS right now.

We are in terrible form when you look at our style of play and output.

This game is nailed on for a loss… or is it?

CHINS UP, spoons down my friends, this is going to be a great week. I’ll see you in the comments. Come join the party and AGREE with me.

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Leftside

Dariano you’ve already been outed by Pedro you silly silly man. Leave it out.

Aussie+Gooner

Ozil missing from 1st team training again. Perhaps he is training with the under 15’s or the ladies team? Or perhaps he has put his back out again?

Dissenter

Dream10
You couldn’t wait to twist the knife into Upamecano
He had a shocking game, very Mustafi-esque

WengerEagle

Pedros already confirmed that Dariano is Bamford, nutter.

WengerEagle

Wheres Marko at actually?

He had the tissues out earlier bragging about Upamecano.

salparadisenyc

Careful non negotiable’s for Marko Leno-Pepe-Upamecano.

HighburyLegend

We are so much better than Leipzig, defensively speaking.
That’s why I bet on a 3-0 score on sunday.

WengerEagle

Only a game of course but he was fucking shocking tonight Upa twas.

Radio Raheem

Sal

How long do you think Pirlo’s got? Not looking good at the mo’.

Dissenter

Pirlo’s plight just highlights how difficult is is for young managers, regardless of how saucy they may be.
At least Arteta has won a trophy against all odds already. We just have to give him time to sort out his shite…growing pains and all.

salparadisenyc

Radio

Early days on Pirlo, 4 points of top in Serie A can see tonight he’s trying to get them into a different style was pretty laboured, going to take time but they did find net three times all disallowed. Minus CR7.

Exciting league, no idea where it goes for once.

WengerEagle

Not sure how much of a plight it is, that was his first his 1st loss of the season tonight.

They won matchday 1 in the CL, were without Ronaldo tonight against Barcelona.

Hardly disasterous.

Ashburton

We will need a new manager after this weekend. Those fast utd forwards will fill their boots against our managements academy football style shite football.

Valentin

Marc, You are rewriting history. You are trying to rehabilitate Raul when it is clear that there was undeleting reasons why he got sacked. Raul was power hungry and as soon as he came in try to throw his weight around to get his players in. He had not yet officially started that he was already trying to influence proceedings. If it had been up to him, we would have bought Malcolm instead of Aubameyang, and for more money. Mislintat is a specialist in recruiting young hot property, but was systematically overruled by a boss more interested in recruiting “experience”.… Read more »

RockyRoe

Say what you will but Bamford with his utd forecasts would end up owing a lot of you, if he turn out to be right. Weren’t there bets here?

Pierre

Interestingly ( to me anyway) looking back over our europa, league cup and fa cup ties last season, our kids did very well. Willock , Martinelli , nelson , saka , Guendouzi and smith rowe all featured regularly and results were positive. We were knocked out of the league cup in the quarters on pens by liverpool after a thrilling 5-5 draw. We went on to win the fa cup with the kids playing an important part in the early rounds. We qualified from the group stages with ease in europa and the home defeat to Olympiakos in which we… Read more »

RockyRoe

Saw gabby in training pics today.

I kid you not, if arteta does not integrate the lad when he gets back due to some personal power play, I’ll fucking lose it.

RockyRoe

Pierre

Some of you comments on page 1 were excellent.

I completely agree that that the team needs to be taking some risks in progressing play and right now we are far to scared to turning over possession that we end up being far too Conservative and consequently toothless.

Calypso

Dissenter

Giving someone time will only extend the problem.
It looks like only total capitulation will remove the incumbent from his post.

Marko

Dariano popping up to remind us how lucky we are to have Bamford hopefully perma banned for being a fucking lunatic idiot.

WEi have absolutely no idea why you’re taking a victory lap considering our argument back in the day was over Konate and Orban being THE partnership for Leipzig and how Upamecano was 3rd choice and last I checked Konate played tonight.

Pierre

RockyRoe Agree , Martinelli could be the missing ingredient with his directness and could transform our offensive play. As you pointed out , Arteta does have some doubts about Martinelli as he was reluctant to include him before he was injured . It’s not only on the pitch we need to take a few more risks , it’s off the pitch with selections and formations that Arteta needs to make some changes. I think , for the time being he will remain cautious in the league games so i wouldn’t expect too much open expansive football anytime soon. Tomorrow night… Read more »

Marko

Mikel trying out Martinelli as a wingback or LCB I’m calling it now.

Nelson

I thought that the squad list can be revised in January. Why Arteta registers Calum and Holding and not PapaSok. I can’t believe Calum and Holding will be ready to play in Nov. and in Dec. Now he has to play Mustafi who is not yet match fit. We are down to 2 CB’s and we have two games in four nights.

Nelson

I think Arteta will use Tierney or Xhaka as emergency CB.

Marko

Arteta: “I feel really bad for William Saliba. Because we had so many central defenders we decided to leave him out of the [Europa League] squad, which was really hurtful for me to do. I was hoping that Pablo [Mari] would be back in two weeks, but he had a setback,”

Worrying comments.

Calypso

Pierre

I always respond to your posts no matter how goofy they are.

Marko

Arteta on Aubameuang: ‘Of course, there’s a very strong possibility to play him as a [number] nine.’

Oh that’s nice. That’s actual progress by the manager…

Pierre

Arteta
“”I feel really bad for William Saliba,” Arteta said. “Because we had so many central defenders, we decided to leave him out of the squad which was really hurtful for me to do.”

Maybe he should rephrase that and say it was a really stupid thing for me to do ..
4 goalkeepers in the Europa squad but no saliba or sokratis..

WengerEagle

Marko

You were trying to be clever bringing up Orban/Upa argument we had on here way back, disappeared sharpish enough after your 60m touted boy gave a performance that Titus Bramble would have winced at.

He was laughably bad.

Marko

Again WE the argument was he was 3rd choice behind Konate and Orban because Konate was the superior player and last I checked he played tonight too. But you take that lap lad I’ll eagerly await the next hot take

Dissenter

I didn’t realize that Arteta included Mari in the EL squad until now
He included a lad that played less than 100 minutes for Arsenal and never proved his quality … even though he was injured long term.
He left out a young talent that’s highly rated and we paid 289 million for.

It’s not a stretch to think he’s made a very bad error, hope it wont be a recurring pattern.

WengerEagle

You were the one bringing it up earlier waving Marko Jr about, yeah Konate played too but Upa was the worst player on the pitch by a country mile, was single handedly at fault for 3 of the goals. Dont remember you creaming yourself over any player as much as you have about Upanecano on here.

Orban probably should have played eh?

Dissenter

Pierre
I agree with you about that EL squad
It’s a very tragic error, he picked an 18 year old goalie as 4th keeper who is not a senior player by any stretch.

Marko

Orban probably should have played eh?

Definitely. That makes sense. I’ll to check and see how he got on last season just gimme me a sec

WengerEagle

Would he have been worse than Upa tonight?

🤣

Dream10

At this moment, don’t think we can trust Arteta with whatever he says regarding personnel. Sounds like a guy who is running interference for the executives.

Leftfootcurler

Dream

No point listening to Arteta talking about players.

Better to look at his actions.

I stopped listening to Arteta since he said laca is his type of 9 and dropping him for Nketiah the very next game.

What he speaks is irrelevant.

Actions matter.

DivineSherlock

Pierre .

He also said that Mari was supposed to make a comeback and had a setback just after he made that decision but you wont factor that will you .

Bojangles

“Personally I find Rich a bit left wing.”

Lol but I see where you’re coming from Mark, I find Steve Bannon a bit left wing compared to yourself.

Freddie Ljungberg

Mustafi has denied that he’s been offered a new contract but he wants to stay, the way Arteta talks about him is worrying too, hope we don’t double down on that mistake. Martinelli back in training with the group and could be available in a couple of weeks, great news (if he gets games) With only 2 CBs available in Europe and Mustafi just getting back from a long term injury it would be nice to see Saliba getting some game time against Man U. Not the ideal first game to play but that’s on Artetas bad planning. Nelson rejected… Read more »

Dark Hei

Just realised that Pep, Prilo and Arteta have one thing in common. They played in the same position during their playing days with similar style (Arteta joining belatedly to the party via Arsenal).

Captain Tierney

CC

Nelson cant get selected to play on wings over the likes of Nketiah and Willock.

So your point that Nelson is better than Pepe is your personal fantasy.

Freddie Ljungberg

Pepe needs some continuity above all, he’s been in and out of the team regardless of how he performs.
He scores one or 2 goals in one game and then he’s benched the next game, he gets and assist or 2 in one game and then he’s benched again. No rhyme or reason behind it.

We paid a fuckton of money for him and the talent is obviously there so give him the opportunity to show it. Preferably with some support on the pitch. If he then fails it’s on him.

Guns of SF

i dont see Pepe as talented more so than any average winger in the EPL… most are quick, can beat their man, score and put in crosses. What makes Pepe so special? He is a one dimensional player with one dominant foot. All this talk of supporting him does not make sense when he himself never changes his game. I did see he tried a right footed cross once last season…. yipee! I would go with a natural right footer ( Reiss) who is stronger, and a decent dribbler and scorer too. Pepe loses the ball so much that when… Read more »

raptora

Makes sense to gang on Raul when we were all ecstatic when Pepe transfer happened. Most of us thought it’s a pipe dream we could pull an insane talent like him. Raul was adored by fans at the time. Everyone was over the moon. I legit thought we are buying a Hazard type of talent. Why are we trashing Raul for a transfer 99% of Arsenal fans would have done in the blink of an eye? That it hasn’t worked since then is why everything is easier to see in hindsight. Just reading some articles and opinions at the time,… Read more »

Guns of SF

I think your right Raptora, it was hard to see what would happen to Pepe. Perhaps a lot more more scouting and with Emery having more of a voice would have helped. That $ could have landed Zaha. Emery is on record stating he even spoke with Zaha about coming. But because of Wenger’s pitfalls, Emery was only a coach… with very little say in transfers. So Raul, and I do think he was also working to keep himself in good graces got the big fish for us. However, as we know now, the Kroenkes are pissed and even hired… Read more »

Leftfootcurler

What makes Nicolas Pepe special? Outstanding footwork (dribbling) Ability to take shots off with the curl he gets,with minimal back lift. That makes it hard to stop him from taking shots and doesn’t give the GK enough time to set himself. Why isn’t he effective? 1)His dribbling is nullified because he loses control of the ball under physical challenges. Lacks upper body strength. He needs to bulk up. 2)Doesn’t get into good positions to receive the ball. And doesn’t get into good shooting positions. This nullifies his shooting ability. If he improves on these two aspects,he would be a world… Read more »

Sid

Get the ball to Pepe while he is near or in the box and goals are guaranteed, if Auba isnt scoring its unlikely Pepe will.

Guns of SF

Left foot All those things are valid points, but he has been here a little while now, why have they not been addressed? I think Arteta is of the mind, to give Pepe the ball and then he expects him to score worldies or something OTOH I think players themselves know what they need to work on, and I dont see any visible improvements If there were, I would acknowledge it. I do hope Pepe can give us something this season… I think personally having AMN behind him would help… He would not have to cover and drop back as… Read more »

Leftfootcurler

Guns

Bulking up takes time.
You can’t do that in just one day.

As for improvement in positioning and movement is concerned,Arteta has been working on it.

Saka had neither when he first broke in the team.

He has them now, which is clearly as a result of coaching.

Players’ improve at different rates.

Saka has improved quickly.
Pepe hasn’t.

Dark Hei

raptora

Raul basically bought Pepe for more than what was quoted.

He was sacked for that.

Nobody screws with the Kronke’s cash. Made you thing if the Kronke’s were all so good with that management thing if that slipped through.

Football wise, I can’t be arsed to hate him. I think Pepe was at least exciting as a purchase.

DivineSherlock

Nice chat about Pepe , why not play him like Dybala as Second Striker . He should be allowed to roam freely in the front three. Devastating. If you only allow him to play on the right side with Bellerin also playing so much forward you are not using him properly .

Guns of SF

that is my point. Bellerin is a big issue on the right, defensively and going forward. With Pepe, he is only also allowed to hug the touchline…so this creates this very rigid and unfluid attack on that side.

In FA final he drifted all the way across the field and even on the left for part of the game.

I agree that allowing him to tuck in more would help but poor Bellerin would be screwed even more.
that is why I want AMN behind Pepe, at least he can cover better and even overlap too…

Freddie Ljungberg

The money for Pepe couldn’t have bought Zaha, don’t know why people still don’t understand that? The only reason we could afford Pepe was because Lille agreed to let us pay over 5 years, Palace wanted even more money for a player with less end product and who is 3 years older, they also wanted the fee in one lump sum, we didn’t have anywhere near enough cash for that. Pepe needs the ball closer to goal where he is more likely to make a difference with a shot or assist, not in our half with 3-4 players ahead of… Read more »

raptora

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ib6aKvBeObA In his ever Arsenal start he was a nightmare for the best team in the league Liverpool. It’s true he had space to play on the counter which is probably his desired style of play, and we were also very direct playing with some long balls, some fast forward passing, but it’s clear that the player has it. It was a fantastic performance and VvD looked scared at times which literally never happens. Arteta needs to move Pepe more central. Hugging the touch line is so stupid when you have a 20 goal per season player. Another thing –… Read more »

Guns of SF

____Leno_____
Bell___Luiz__ Gabriel___KT
____ __AMN___TP_______
PEPE___Will_________Saka
_______Auab__________

or
____Leno_____
Bell___Luiz__ Gabriel___KT
____ __TP_______
___AMN_____Dani____
Pepe____Auba_______Saka

Leftfootcurler

Tbh whenever Arteta gave Pepe a consistent overlap,he has sucked. Ozil consistently made overlaps from RCM and Pepe came inside and played remarkably bad in the Olympiakos debacle. Bellerin consistently made overlaps in the spurs defeat but Pepe did nothing. These two games stick out in my memory as I was very pissed at Pepe in those games. Having Pepe hogging the touchline and floating in crosses to Auba seems to be the best use of him now. Best case scenario is to play Saka RW. His performance vs Leicester at home last season And against Liverpool in the community… Read more »

Tony

Depending on Pepe’s body composition, such as ectomorph, mesomorph or endomorph and how fast Pepe’s muscle twitch is will depend on how much lean muscle bulk he can add.

If he’s an ectomorph, which I expect him to be, then expect at least 6 months to add 3 to 4kg.

Sid

Pepe is facing what Alexis faced at man united. At arsenal Alexis had Giroud and ozil to combine with around the box. Thats why having Edouard instead of Laca was priority.
Another tactic that worked was Alexis and Walcot so playing Auba who is a fast as walcot nearer to Pepe would be ideal.

Sid

@Tony, do you recomend gym ropes and Beats by Dre for Pepe?

Tony

Syd
No I wouldn’t recommend any of that, but would suggest you make up a talking post file of you orating your best 100 posts for Pepe to listen to to help with his sleeping.

peanuts&monkeys

LeGrove’s condoning and patronizing attitude towards Arteta will be shortlived- very soon Arteta will be manager EMERY. And, let’s hope that day is not far away. Let this borefest be over before Dec-end.

Pochettino it is next. Amen.

peanuts&monkeys

Pepe was a wrong buy. Sooner he is offloaded, the better. I wonder whether any PL will be interested in him. Even if a Dutch or Turkish league team isnf8ne with him, Arsenal should get rid of him ASAP.

THERE ARE SCORES OF BETTER RW THAN HIM IN PL ITSELF.

Graham62

This bulking up malarkey is driving me nuts. Yes, he is lithe and sinewy and his legs look a bit thin but, come on, we all know what the real problem is here. This is all psychological with Pepe. Is it his fault he has a £72m price tag around his neck? No it isn’t. He is naive, we all see that, some would say immature but, from what I’ve seen, he is capable of causing massive problems for the opposition. Arteta, imo, and as highlighted yesterday, is suffocating him. Why not give him a free reign against Dundalk? Rather… Read more »

Kris

CORNISH GOONER, “Need bulkier players? I thought footie was a non-contact sport these days. To me plus 5kgs will mean a slower, less explosive Martinelli. But maybe I have wandered on to a rugby union site?” Finally someone who knows a bit about athletics on this site. There’s a reason why most slim players who rely on speed like Vardy, Auba, AMN etc don’t ‘bulk up’. Sure, you can then still be very fast in a short sprint, but modern football needs players to be a combination of sprinters and long-distance runners, so the best comparison in athletics would 800… Read more »

Kaz

Regardless what everyone thinks of Pepe, he should stop taking corners. Not being able to consistently get it past the first man is embarrassing.

Valentin

Raptora,

Everybody who had watched Ligue 1 and Lille in particular knew that Pepe was not a €80 millions player. He is a highlight reels, YouTube great but a very limited player. When I expressed that opinion, I was lambasted about it.

People got sucked in by the hype, the price, but it was Raul’s responsibility to know better. Instead of buying unknown gems with high resale value, he bought badly experienced player with no resale value and even less potential.

James wood.

Left foot curler.
Heads the ball like a kid with a balloon.
To easy to read ?
Runs into trouble .
His biggest problem total pitch
unawareness —-a nomad.?
Sorry take the money.

Valentin

Kris,

When TH14 joined us, the first thing Wenger did was to stopping Henry from overdoing the gym as he had been taugh to in Italy. Wenger wanted more explosivity rather than body mass. The only gym work Henry was allowed to do was his upper body muscle.

Footballers run up to 15km in 90 minutes, but it is not a regular run. It is a mix of static, jog, sprint. Like you said the best morphology for that type of physical exertion is semi long distance runner 800m/1500m/1 mile/5000m. None of which are heavy and bulky.

Chris

Apologies if this has been pointed out already but read something yesterday that during the Invincibles season, there was only 2 games where the starting line up was:

Lehmann, Cole, Lauren, Campbell, Toure, Gilberto, Vieira, Pires, Ljungberg, Bergkamp, Henry.

Doesn’t seem right but apparently true! I recall Vieira being out for a chunk of games in the late autumn, especially when Parlour skippered us in the San Siro.

Edu started more games than Bergkamp.

Calypso

Chris

Not true Bergkamp started more games

raptora

Bergkamp – Apps 21 (7)
Edu – 13 (17)

jenny summers

great post

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