I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that this weekend is a HUGE moment for the Arsenal project this season. Win, and we’ve taken down a strong United side in a low moment for Arsenal. Lose, and everyone will throw a shit fit on the internet and life will be sad for a while.
So far this season, the fine margins approach of this new Arsenal squad has not worked well for us. We should have done better against Liverpool, we should have taken points at City, and we really shouldn’t have been beaten by Leicester last weekend.
The new challenge we have is teams have now learned that coming at us like we’re a banter club is not a thing. You can’t bully and press us high up the pitch because we have a couple of deadly moves in the locker that allow us to move the ball up the pitch and kill. We have been sussed.
The common consensus at the start of the season was that we’d struggle against low blocks against the small teams… well, now even the better teams are playing that game. Leicester low-blocking was not expected. Arteta calls this a sign of respect.
It’s a lot of things that we’ve improved on in my opinion and we have all the stats to do that. Our thinking after Leicester, the reason why they did what they did in their game plan, to sit so low against us when they are not normally a team that do that – they’ve been really dominant and play really attractive football – I came to the conclusion that we have the respect from other teams for them to do that. Now we have to try to change our strategy a little bit and try to train against more certain blocks that I think are going to happen a bit more often. We have made teams think, ‘If we do that, we’ll be in trouble so we have to try to do something else’. We’re going to work on that and the moment we improve that, we’ll become even better.
I’d agree that it is a sign we need to develop the thinking and be a bit less predictable. The good thing is he’s acknowledging these issues. What we see with our eyes… he’s seeing, and he’s trying to coach us to a better approach.
Easier said than done. Our squad hasn’t developed at the pace we needed this summer. We made ourselves very solid, but we still lack a bit of magic. We need someone that can do the things that Mesut can do, but sadly, that doesn’t exist. That means we have to get more creative with what we have. The game in the week showed some options that might exist. Would Reiss Nelson offer a more direct option on the right? Would Joe Willock be able to function in a midfield that had the support of someone like Thomas Partey? Can Willian or Saka step up?
Arteta thinks we have enough options, but the players need to show up.
That structure is just to limit our opponents to certain things when we lose the ball. The other structure can flow. We have so many different patterns to try to attack these situations, depending on the formation that they play, and the value of spaces. That will be in different things. It’s more about our aggression, when we have the ball, our purpose, our aggression, our runs in behind. When do players take someone on and think, ‘I have to make something happen’? We want them to think about themselves, not him or him, we want them to take accountability. They need to want to put the ball in the box more often, because this is what top teams do. If the other team want to defend the box, make sure they’re defending the box all the team, and that we’re being very aggressive in the final third. It’s something we haven’t faced so much since I arrived here, but I think it’ll happen more and more.
I do think there’s been an element of passing the buck when it comes to making things happen. That might be because the system has been too rigid, or players might think that Auba can score the goals. Hopefully, this is a game where we see a different mindset. There has to be more purpose to how we attack, doing it against Dundalk is one thing, United? Hmm…
We’ll see how the basics of what we saw against Dundalk translate into the United game. We cannot avoid the middle of the pitch. We cannot assume Xhaka is the only player that can move the ball forward. We cannot expect to win the United game without taking some calculated risks.
That said, I suspect the cagey approach we thought might be the recipe of the day… might have changed after the midweek decimation OGS handed out to Nagelsmann. United don’t like to sit back and I’m not sure they’ll do that this weekend… but we’ll see.
News leaked yesterday that Huss is out the door at Arsenal. Ivan G set out with a dream, the dealmaker at Barca, the Diamond Eyes guy at Dortmund, and the contracts person at Sky Racing. Well, that entire vision collapsed inside 3 years. I actually think it mostly collapsed because Ivan left and created a power vacuum. He botched the succession plan by assuming that dual leadership could work and that someone like Raul, chancer in chief, could be trusted to run things to the betterment of Arsenal. Well, it was a mess, but it’s being cleaned up.
Huss was supposed to come in and sort out the way we did deals. I’m not sure he can walk away having achieved much. Our wage bill is a mess, we’ve lost players on free transfers, and we have a collection of duds on deals so sweet, they won’t leave. I suspect his exit is quite tightly tied to Raul’s. He was the bag man for the bag man. If he was there overseeing the deals Raul was throwing his way, then it’s pretty clear why he’s out. He’s been given the quiet exit route out… very American. Sam Dean reckons we’ll bring in a lower level Head of Football Operations. We certainly need some expertise going back into the club. The jury is still out on some high profile staff and everyone knows it there, I hope we don’t continue the trend of letting average talent make huge decisions that sets us back years.
Finally… I did a podcast ON VIDEO, with the guys at Elite Football Show. I spoke with Haider and Ciaran about United and Arsenal. It’s a good listen, especially the parallels they draw between the United project and the Arsenal one. I also think it’s interesting to listen to other fans talking about what we’re doing… because generally, they are a bit more positive.
The podcast can be found on iTunes and Spotify… but be daring for once in your life, click the video… listen AND watch. ENJOY. x
One
Two
Three
Boom!
Clean sweep
Top 10
Pedro
Out of interest how many phases are there before I can actually watch us play and enjoy it?
Prediction for tomorrow – 3 nil or 3 – 1 loss with ManU getting 2 pens – 1 correctly with a Mustafi or Xhaka special, the other a dive and Gabriel to get a red card that VAR fucks up. We won’t manage more than 3 shots on target.
Tenthhh
As far as I get
Or sign of the times ?
Chelsea fields a lineup with 5 attackers and one midfielder.
OK
Now
10
Pedro
Our next 5 fixtures taking us into early December:
ManU – A
Villa – H
Leeds – A
Wolves – H
Spud’s – A
Please give me your points prediction based on things right now?
Really hoping the szobozlai rumors are true. We need him in our midfield badly.
tbf I think Arteta has been talking an awful lot of shite lately with this latest one about teams paying respect. The reason teams will sit low block is not because they are afraid of your potent attacking team Mikel it’s because they don’t want to be picked off like mugs by your own conservative safe counter attacking football. So it becomes a game of chess. Apparently he was making excuses about no pre-season when it applies to all and of course he was championing a defeat away to Man City. His playing style may not resemble Arsene Wenger but… Read more »
First team?
Out of interest how many phases are there before I can actually watch us play and enjoy it?
Thanks, Marc. That literally made me laugh out loud.
Marc if we manage to shoot on target at least 9 times tomorrow I’ll be shocked
Out of interest how many phases are there before I can actually watch us play and enjoy it?
Marc
My sources tell me the sauce is phase two of seven.
Leftside
If we have 9 shot on target in the next two PL matches I’ll be shocked.
Pedro Listened to the podcast earlier. Was interesting United fans say they had a similar issue to us until they signed Fernandes, and they’ve also spent a load of money on the Dutch lad this summer, to solve their creativity issues. That they we’re very much a counter attacking team who struggled to break sides down, until addressing it in the transfer market. The problem we have is if we move Saka inside, we then lose our best wide player. Seen Isco might be available, would be a risk to sign a Real Madrid cast off, who’s almost 29, and… Read more »
Let us hope Arteta gets the selection right tomorrow and not pack the bus. We need to play an attacking game.
Upstate
It’s hard work at the moment and to top it all we’ve got a Government press conference in 50 minutes where I’m guessing they’ll announce another national lockdown.
Marc
5-6 I would say realistically.
7-9 optimistically.
Less than 5 wouls be classic November Arsenal.
Marc
“UpstateIt’s hard work at the moment and to top it all we’ve got a Government press conference in 50 minutes where I’m guessing they’ll announce another national lockdown.”
We will all be cured by Christmas time though.
Hurrah
Boris has promised goose and hampers and all sorts of festive cheer.
But we must lock down otherwise none of the above.
Rich, if we could get Isco firing, that’d be something… I don’t know what his underlying issues are, but damn, what a player in his prime.
Thanks for listening to the pod!
WengerEagle
So you think Arsenal will lose 3 out of our next 5 games.
Another lockdown will finish this country off for five years.
Utter madness and panic .
All scientist except sage are saying the same, Boris is dumb.
WE
I’m at 5 or 6 – really not good enough.
Red
United- L
Villa- W
Leeds- D
Wolves- D
Spurs- L
“the structure ia to limit our opponents”
Yawn. Emery 2.0.
Calypso
I can see us losing tomorrow, beating Villa, losing to Leeds, draw or maybe a narrow win to Wolves. The Spud’s I can’t see us beating and if Son and Kane are still fit and on form it could be a humiliating loss.
Well if Arteta didn’t prepare for low blocks, that’s disappointing to hear. I hope he knows that there are 84 available points against bottom 14 teams. The basics of Dundalk game can’t be carried to the league. It was the same tactics as usual. What improved us is Willock positioning himself btl in the right halfspace to give a passing option to CMs. And Nelson’s ball retention in wide spaces helping us sustain attacks in the final third. Neither of them are ready to start in the league week in week out. We don’t have players in the senior team… Read more »
Dave
The R number announcement yesterday showed a small decrease – the biggest problem are these fucking idiots not following the rules.
Future of this team under Arteta is bright. Saliba, Martinelli to come in, Nelson, Willock, Balogun ……
Isco or young lad at Salzburg….
We’ll get there.
I think Arsenal will beat Man Utd tomorrow.
I think we can all agree anything less than 4 points from the next 5 fixtures is an automatic sacking.
Leftfootcurler, he meant he wasn’t prepared for a team like Leicester to low block us.
Ztyech has a good shot.
we have a couple of deadly moves in the locker that allow us to move the ball up the pitch and kill. Eh? Sure about that one. Also it’s kinda getting ridiculous now this common theme that we’re hamstrung because we lack players an “Ozil” type. Do we need better players? Sure we do now and we did under you know who and it wasn’t an excuse then and it’s not an excuse now. Again at some point we’re going to have to discuss the manager his tactics and his formation and how he gets it so wrong from an… Read more »
Marc, agree with that, too many morons. Shame it can’t target them. Press conference was at 4pm but has been put back to 5pm. Will it mean more free footie on TV though, that’s the big question (fuck Christmas).
I remember Hakim Ziyech wanted to join us and Raul preferred Pepe. Another big mistake.
Leeds are not going to low block and I doubt Villa will. Wolves may do. Arteta shouldn’t get his head fixated on teams low blocking. As another poster implied Arteta needs to get more adventurous in his playing style to bring these teams out of their low blocks. The teams that do that is. He is opening himself up to pelters though because if the team lose to someone like Leeds who are most certainly not going to low block his line that teams are low blocking to try to beat us and that is their best option will fall… Read more »
Marko, what is your tactical solution that would finally allow this team to flourish in attack?
Ish, if teams don’t low block us, it’s generally easier for us to play against them. He’s talking about low blocks because we’re not very creative and we struggle. He’s not saying ‘every team will low block us for the rest of time.’
Is the low blocking shite even a worthwhile strat against us? I feel like people having a go against us has always (for many many years) been a thing too. And our counter attacking abilities are questionable so I have a feeling that teams could go a different routes and give us a tough game
Why are so called fans of the club predicting a lose tomorrow? United hasn’t won a game at home in the EPL this season ffs,they’ve got a shitty defense with slab head as the anchor
Thank Goodness the manager doesn’t share your loser mentality, I would be utterly disappointed if we don’t come away with the 3points tmao.I expect a win and I hope Dariano makes a post or 2 about it.
Marc The problem isn’t young, healthy people going to the pub or anywhere else, the problem is where they go afterwards, and who they come in contact with. 369 people under 60 with no known pre-existing conditions have died of COVID-19, and the average age of death is 83. 1900+ people died in road traffic accidents last year, but we don’t stop people from driving or getting onto public transport, there’s always an element of risk in life The government are not omnipotent, but unfortunately the government are under the falsehood that they are, and far too many in society… Read more »
Victorious, probably because they smashed the Champions League semi-finalists 5-0 in the week.
Pedro Arteta should be prepared for all scenarios. This is what he said-“Now we have to try to change our strategy a little bit and try to train against more certain blocks that I think are going to happen a bit more often. ” They would have faced 541/532/451/442 in settled shape vs bottom 14 teams anyway. Should have developed a plan against them by now. Should have bought the relevant players needed to execute the plan in the transfer window. If top teams play the same, implement the same strategy. For Arteta it should not be that difficult to… Read more »
All the decision makers will not loose their jobs or their pensions they are all bullet proof.
The stock exchange will crash further on Monday taking private pensions with them.
Boris is done for.
Football will be suspended,.
I have Prostrate cancer so it’s ok if I die it doesn’t matter
andy
A Shisha cafe in Birminghgam was raided last week and found to have 150 people inside – this was days after the same place received a £10,000 fine for breaching the rules.
How anyone can blame the government when members of the public are so stupid it beggars belief.
Dave
Shit – how are you getting on?
Marko, what is your tactical solution that would finally allow this team to flourish in attack? You know the one we had for 20 minutes (our best 20 minutes of the season) against Sheffield United. 4-2-3-1 Auba centrally with Saka, Willian and Pepe supporting in advanced positions. Hardbrake off and Mikel’s balls dropped and it was beautiful. I think he goes with that for a spell we’ll see it pay dividends. But I can see him go ultra cautious on Sunday as it seems to be his go to in big games against big opponents. And I know I know… Read more »
Rich, car accidents aren’t highly infectious.
Best wishes SpanishDave and hope you can beat it
Balls-out against Sheffield United is a little different to United.
Rich
So what exactly are you trying to say?
I’d say real the problem lies with too many people not giving a ####!
Dave, so sorry to hear that! Hope you’re beating it back!
Well let’s put it this way.
Bielsa will not be showing “respect” as Arteta states with any low block against Arsenal.
Respect was not an apt word to use. It implies that Arsenal have been tearing it up offensively and teams are low blocking to combat a fearsome attack when all it is really is some managers realising the limitations of Arteta’s team so far and those managers that can carry out this tactic.
Rich
Part of me agrees with you but I think part of the problem is there’s still a number of younger people who end up in hospital and they’re concerned about the NHS having a meltdown. I also think the Government has resisted this but between Labour playing politics (which is disgusting) and the scientists screaming the sky’s falling in they’ve been backed into a corner.
Pedro
Do you also think tomorrow is a lose? Share your thought on how much chance we have of a victory.
Also Pedro a pretty good tactical solution right now would be to play your better players in their best positions as in where they’re most effective. He’s not doing that with Auba, Saka and Tierney this season
Dave
All the best!you can definitely overcome it
It also needs to be pointed out that this isn’t a failure of our Government or NHS – this is happening right across Europe – the WHO called Europe the epicentre of the pandemic again during the week.
It’s a load of bollox.
It’s not going to apply to Universities and students and these are super spreaders.
Ishola
Agree – the 2nd wave has tracked the University towns and age groups.
Balls-out against Sheffield United is a little different to United.
Eh I mean it’s a philosophy too you know…to actually attack and have a go at teams can be a philosophy. But I get your point the only thing is Mikel has been cautious against everyone though
Dave
“All the decision makers will not loose their jobs”
And would they care if they did.
Rishi lives a playboy lifestyle. He’s set regardless.
It’s all about power as it’s always been.
All the best Dave !
Victorious, I am really not sure what expect tomorrow.
This is probably the most pressure Arteta has been under… hopefully, he’s been coaching attacking intent this week and the players go into the game with a more aggressive mindset going forward.
2-1 win would be where my money would go.
I am due for radiology starting in a weeks time and I have twenty sessions to go through over four weeks.
If this get cancelled then I can only hope the hormone treatment keeps me safe until I can go to hospital.
The staff have told me that people are not turning up for cancer treatment as the government have scared them off from going into hospitals.
So it’s true thousands are dying due to this , Boris is clueless
You can also build your philosophy around the talents you have at your disposal.
If we had players that could do explosive things, we’d play that way… as it stands, we don’t have that. So if we play like an attacking outfit, we’ll get Emeryied.
Thanks for your good wishes guys it means a lot to me.
Love this blog
Dave
Good luck mate – 5 sessions a week sounds rough but it’ll be worth it.
Really great video podcast.
Best wishes Dave.
Dave- Good luck and best wishes for your recovery
SpanishDave
All the best.
“Real Madrid plan to send Isco out on loan in January until the end of this season with an obligation to buy of around £18million plus add-ons. Isco’s representatives are now sounding out potential buyers in England. Arsenal have shown interest in the past “ I love full-tilt Isco, but we should be swerving situations like this unless we’re totally convinced he’s a player that can deliver here (fitness etc), and more importantly wants to. Would personally prefer we looked at Draxler entering the last 6 months of his deal at 27. Memphis Depay entering his last 6 months at… Read more »
Hang in there Dave, good luck mate.
Fingers crossed for you Dave, I know several people who’ve beaten it, treatments are much more effective these days.
“Also it’s kinda getting ridiculous now this common theme that we’re hamstrung because we lack players an “Ozil” type. Do we need better players? Sure we do now and we did under you know who and it wasn’t an excuse then and it’s not an excuse now.“ Emery landed here and we had Jack, Ozil, Cazorla, and Rambo on the books. He binned two of them for defensive/1st phase players Torreira and Guendouzi. Then relied heavily on Ramsey after he was out in the cold… The following summer Ramsey had walked and we recruited Dani Ceballos, who until now has… Read more »
You can also build your philosophy around the talents you have at your disposal. Again that’s an incredible pivot from what you said about the previous manager who had to make do with what he got and was expected to sort out the defence for example. Again this angle and the player poverty angle (which I have always agreed with) shouldn’t be an excuse for playing players out of position and going ultra cautious considering that we have players that are ready to be unleashed we saw a glimpse of what we’re capable of against Sheffield United So if we… Read more »
Rich, better get the tin foil in before lock down….
Just yanking your chain…
Charlie I think you missed the point.
Soldier on Dave, best of luck with your programme
Marc Around 2 weeks ago, 75,000 students had tested positive with COVID, and amongst those 75,000, 3 were hospitalised, and there were zero deaths. As Spanish Dave says, there’s dangers to locking down, this isn’t a zero sum game, there’s lack of cancer screening, people aren’t getting diagnosed early with illness, because they’re too scared of getting screenings, and treatments for are being pushed back. Mental illness will be the next big thing. Also the way public health England have been recording COVID deaths is, that if you have COVID, then recover, but get hit by a bus, you’ll still… Read more »
Marko,
I’m not sure how having a philosophy of working with what you have is an incredible pivot. Which part of my writing has suggested otherwise, or is this just you incredibly confused… again.
If Emery could work with what he had, he’d be in a job.
Emery refused Thomas Partey and thought the solve to our problems was… a winger.
I think Arteta could have benefitted immensely from having the money Emery had to spend on the squad. He’d not have invested 100m on two players that still aren’t ready.
Second best defence in the league as it stands.
Spanish all the best. Hope you get all sorted ASAP. With treatment these days I am sure you can make it through this as we’re miles ahead of where we were even just 10 years ago on that front. My uncle had cancer a dear years back and beat it. You will too
“Second best defence in the league as it stands.”
Really not sure that’s something you want to keep bringing up with the fixtures we have coming.
Marko No I’m not, just pointing out the flaw in your argument when dismissing the relevance of viable attacking midfielders. Emery had them on hand and replaced all but Ozil with first phase midfielders. Two of which have been since sold. So we had greater ability to make attacking moves, just as we would if we had Ramsey still, or Cazorla, or someone of that ilk (aka the argument). Meanwhile you can’t proclaim Arteta’s improved defence is down to signings because he took over last Xmas and got a better return from the same players Emery had conceding the most… Read more »
Rich
Agree with all of that – I think the issue is the media scaremongering and Labour playing politics.
This is effectively a war footing and both of those should act like it.
What was phase one of the process all about? How much more phase is in this process? 🤦🏽♂️😀
Thanks China 1
I have a very positive attitude .
Best wishes Dave.
Pedro emery was awful last season but you can’t bash on him for wanting a winger when in his first season we had ZERO Thats disingenuous as hell lol You can slam emery legitimately for 1000 reasons because last season he was an absolute car crash and he ended his first season badly too – but everyone and their uncle was saying we needed a quality winger (or more than one) after his first season. We can talk about how Pepe hasn’t lived up to expectations so far which would be a fair point as well, but the fact as… Read more »
Which part of my writing has suggested otherwise, or is this just you incredibly confused… again. So when Emery was manager he wasn’t afforded the excuse that he needed better players he was expected to improve us with what he’s got (which is fair) meanwhile Mikel has an excuse for poor offensive displays because he needs better players he’s having to work with what he’s got. Do you see the pivot there? It’s right there. Second best defence in the league as it stands. I love this stat. You know we’re one goal off 5 other teams defensively and two… Read more »
China, 72m on a winger with no power in the midfield and a drain of creativity was not smart or strategic.
Really not sure how this a debate.
Emery had the wrong focus.
Spanish you should As well as cliches as it sounds positive attitudes are strongly linked to medical recovery There was an extremely interesting study compiled several years back in Europe where patients and their recoveries from a certain quite serious (I forget what) illness was tracked and monitored. They monitored patients in two adjacent rooms being treated by the same doctors the same way for the same ailment. The only difference was the rooms themselves. One had a window that look directly across to a brick wall a few meters away whereas the other had a window with an unimpeded… Read more »
Pedro
If midfield had no “power” then that’s Mislintat’s fault – we bought two CM’s, add to that Xhaka who Arteta won’t drop and that’s a poor argument.
Watching some of the Bayern game the wingers get freed up by having one or two players to work with then
Pepe gets marked mostly by two players when he gapers the ball and Bellerin doesn’t work with him.
He’s not worth the amount we paid but Arteta should use him better as he has a good shot on him outside the box