Well hello angry people. How are you today? I am still a bit bummed about the result at the weekend. It was really bad. Still, we can’t cave. We have to move forward and imagine ways this could be made better.
I think there are two issues we have going on at the moment that need addressing ASAP.
- The system doesn’t produce enough high-quality chances
- The system relies on elite finishing to finish the few chances that are created
- Our elite finishers are out of form, big time
Now, there’s a lot of debate going on about which is the bigger problem there. Are our big names struggling in a restrictive system? Perhaps. But there’s been a little too much good noise coming out of the club to assume that the players are playing badly because they are sad.
The system wasn’t the problem 6 months ago, it was the solution. But maybe too many things have to go right for that system to work. Living off low xG can only exist if you have someone like Auba absolutely on fire. He’s not on fire at the moment, he’s the opposite, and no one else has stepped up.
We’re not going to get back to form by fine margins-ing our way out. I think we need to try something different. We have learnt that fine margins is not good enough for top four. We have learnt that it’s quite miserable to watch. We clearly don’t have the players to be Atleti at the moment.
We do have good players though. We also have a good manager and lots of smart young coaches and analysts. I don’t think we can live in a world where we let Arteta off the hook because he doesn’t have the perfect squad. He needs to move on a new idea. Arsenal simply has to find the right balance.
Fans have ideas as well. I think most of them revolve around taking an L on Lacazette and Willian for a little bit, but there are more, so keep reading.
TOP THINKING:
PEPE: Could the Ivorian be deployed more centrally. We touched on this the other day. It’s a wild idea, but it ‘might’ be wild enough to make sense.
The player is a bit of an enigma. He’s been dross out on the wing. Awful. But what has added to that? Well, he’s generally smashed off the ball, and if he’s not, he has to work his way through a lot of players out wide. Could playing through the middle be better for him? Would it win us more penalties? Would playing off the last defender be better for his style of game?
Could he work well as a two with Auba? Let’s look at what he’s good at. He is a handful, defenders do not like what he represents, imaginative, tricky, with a rocket shot. He’s fast with the ball at his feet, a lot faster than Lacazette, and he smashes low shots like Anelka in his prime. He’s also good with his head, standing at 6ft tall, it’s much better to lob balls at him than Lacazette. His quick passing in tight spaces might work well with Auba.
It’s a stretch, but weirder things have worked… like, Thierry as a striker when he arrived as a winger.
AUBA: No one complained about Auba on the left when he was scoring goals out there. Well, now he’s not. He’s barely touching the ball. Lacazette touched it about 5 times, which Mike McDonald who blogs here called correctly: that means the manager has said don’t pass to him or the players simply don’t trust him. Both bad for him. Lacazette through the middle needs retiring. Auba is at his best, when he’s sniffing out chances in the 6-yard area. He’s a fox in the box and we’ve put him out wide where he’s next to useless at the moment. Let’s put him where he’s going to be most effective.
REISS: Look, he’s a bit all over the place, but he can be a player on his day, and he knows he’s in the last chance saloon. He’s fast, he’s very direct, and he looked good when Arteta started him way back when. Can it be any worse than Pepe or Willian? That’d be very tough. Not impossible though.
WILLOCK: Joe has been given two chances in the Europa League and delivered both times. He has never really done it in the Premier League, but now would be a good time to try something. With Partey in the side, could his quick passing, smart runs, and love for a shot be what we need? Maybe. Sometimes you have to take a player that’s not quite there to give you more balance. All our best pieces on the pitch don’t work at the moment. Could Joe give us something more interesting?
BIG LESSONS: I wrote back in July that you can’t coach character. I still stand by that. Players that consistently let you down will always let you down. Mikel seems to have gotten a little high off of some of the things he saw last season and he doubled down on people he should have moved on.
Now we are where we are and this is the way.
He chose to spend £250k a week on a 32-year-old looking for a retirement deal.
He chose to tie Auba down to a longterm deal in his thirties instead of cashing in.
He and his backroom team did not add a creative loan to the team and they chose to omit Mesut Ozil.
He won’t hide from those decisions, because he can’t, but that means he has to make them work, which is why I am very confident he’ll get it right. Arteta cannot afford to fail in his first job.
As fans, we can either cry like children every time we lose… or we can trust in one of the best young coaches in the world. He is the right choice of candidate. We are the poorest club in the top 8, our squad is still a mess, and we cannot afford one of those fancy managers everyone assumes would come here with limited funds.
This is a tough job. Really tough. This is his first major test of faith. We’ve been drossy all season, we’ve had little to smile about, now it’s time to get smart and take some risks in a better version of Arsenal. It can and will be done. Just keep the faith
Over to you, Mikel.
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Tr4phy
Martinez said: “They were all saying it was a step down in my career, but I always said it was a step up. When I decided to come to Villa it was because I trusted the manager and the club’s ambitions, and I knew how big Villa are. Some people do not realise how big Aston Villa are.” ““I told him (Arteta) I wanted to play week in, week out and he couldn’t guarantee who was going to start. Even before the Community Shield he didn’t know who was going to play in goal. I just wanted to play first-team… Read more »
I suggested that Pepe could be converted into a striker a while ago on here but I would have doubts about his physical attributes i.e. strength and his mental fortitude to be a really good consistent striker. It will be ok for him when he has space to run into off defenders and has more open play but when he is against intelligent defences that back off and close at the right time we may see him crumble. I think the best bet with him would just to play him more inverted in a front three in a 4-3-3 with… Read more »
Sorry but I can’t agree with so much of this, which is unusual on here.
Nowhere above are we addressing the fact that the system itself can only get us so far. We are set up to nullify the opposition, but not to create our own opportunities. Until that changes, it doesn’t matter who plays in whichever position
Yes it is a step up for Martinez but it’s not the club it’s the fact that he is now a number 1 and not back up. As for Arteta something in the background is undermining him and it is difficult not to conclude tht it’s related to Mesut Ozil . The more we struggle and the more he trains with the first team and the more he whispers in the ears of his mates the while he is there the more Arteta’s authority is undermined . Pay him off , get him out of the club , remove his… Read more »
Any way you look at it, it is definitely a step up for Martinez as he gets to be the first Choice goalkeeper of a premier league side which boost his chances at his national team. Its actually better for his career to go to a smaller club where he is guaranteed number one than being at Arsenal where a dip in form would see him return to the bench.
I am happy you said we are the poorest among the top eight clubs in the premiership.Even as we have a so called billionaire owner who doesn’t care about spending a dime for the club..
.What a shame..
As I said earlier, Partey and Ozil would have been a very good combination
We aren’t the poorest. We chose to spend big on Willian and it hasnt come off.. When we binned off ozil, we were banking on Willian to add more creativity and with the added stability with Partey and continuity with, hoping for a respectable finish like a top 6 with a challenge for top 4 and a good run in the cups till we sort out the creative player next year. But Willian hasn’t got the ground running, Partey has not played a full game except United in the PL and Auba isn’t getting into goal scoring positions because of… Read more »
“We are the poorest club in the top 8”
Alrighty then.
We also spent money acquiring Mari, Cedric and Saliba in the past two seasons, which has not given us any returns on the pitch yet.
We clearly need to change something. Maybe our setup, and just play every player in their position with clear instructions. For some reason I can’t see Pepe being a good striker(CF) as for me, he lacks the presence to be a good one. He is a ball hug, he loses the ball to often, he doesn’t make smart runs behind defenders and for some reasons he doesn’t believe in himself. Pepe is a huge waste of money and the sooner we accept that the faster we will move on. I’d prefer we play a front 3 of (Saka_Auba_Nelson) with all… Read more »
We’re now poorer than spuds, wolves and leicester.
I hope this is not the beginning of excuses set for Arteta underperforming.
“We are the poorest club in the top 8”
Dont tell Andy this. He thinks we can compete financially with Chelsea, City and United.
I think you’re clutching at straws now .arteta might not be the manager you thought he’d be ,in my opinion if he doesn’t make top 4 he should go
I don’t believe this poorest club in top 8 drama.. Villa schooled us on Sunday and they aren’t rich. Southampton are doing well, Leicester, Leeds and other clubs are getting good performances from their players who might not cost much. If Arteta can be lauded for setting up a defensive system that reduce the level of mistakes and brain farts from Mustafi, Luiz and other poor defenders we have, he should also be rightly criticized if he can’t find an attacking system to make us tick no matter how average our attacking players are. Emery was Clueless but he still… Read more »
I did say a couple of weeks ago, that the more we struggled to create and score, the more people would question the clubs decision to sideline ozil. I did say that ozil is a wet sponge but when the results aren’t going our way and the fans want to question the team, they will point to ozil. Arteta needs to make sure this is just a freak result and not something we will see often. Looking at the past year, since he’s taken over, they are improvements so he needs to be given a bit of time to learn… Read more »
My problem is that enough chances are not given to the likes of Reiss, Joe, Eddie and hell even Saliba. If you loose with these in the team atleast they are learning. What’s the point of keeping Willian, Mustafi, laca in the team and keep loosing. Also on the lack of creativity when it’s not working few things ajve to be tried. As you said Pepe at the center, Auba in the center, change to 433 or 451 or 442 , encourage people so shoot from outside the box, cross ok the ground more etc etc. In teh wenger era… Read more »
Pedro, Need your monday podcast man. I understand how difficult it is to do what you are doing along with a FT job but hope you can make podcasts a regular thing.
I can’t believe Willian, Pepe, Auba, Laca, Nelson, Nketiah, Saka and Balogun are so bad that we would be struggling to even have shots. They aren’t good enough to give you a league title but with the right system they’re definitely good enough to CHALLENGE for Top 4. The current system is too rigid and clearly shows that only attacking pattern we have is to take the ball to the wings and cross it for a small Lacazette to try and score. We seem to be playing to our attackers weaknesses that is why they are underperforming. This is what… Read more »
Potter
“As for Arteta something in the background is undermining him and it is difficult not to conclude tht it’s related to Mesut Ozil . The more we struggle and the more he trains with the first team and the more he whispers in the ears of his mates the while he is there the more Arteta’s authority is undermined .
Pay him off , get him out of the club , remove his influence and rebuild the team spirit.”
Scraping the barrel there I’m afraid.
Just saw some of our goals again..one thing that always feels a bit disappointing is how our players celebrate a goal..that actually gives you subtle hints about a players mentality..for instance, look at Aubas celebration at Old Trafford..some casual funny type dance..that is a reflection of his lack of desire..can you imagine Henry with a comical celebration? Or a Ronaldo? Or a Messi? Or Fabregas? Real winners always have aggressive celebrations especially when it’s against their top rivals. Right now the celebrations we are seeing are a true reflection on the casual nature of this club. We have players who… Read more »
My problem is that our defense still isn’t solid. It has the beginnings of solidity but it is not there yet.
If you have a solid defence you should be able to come out of games with at least a clean sheet and a draw even when your strikers are not firing…
Looking back, Areta and co have to admit they made a very very bad call selling Martinez…
Poorest club in the top 8. Bloody hell, yet we can afford to pay a 30+ striker 250k a week and sign Chelsea retirees for silly money. Or sign players we have no use for, like Saliba.
Poverty argument is horseshit. We are just run by a bunch of rookies nad it shows. Can you imagine Dein being taken to the cleaners like this over and over? Me neither.
I was writing this post when a new post is available. Just put it up here.: Arteta deserves our support. Wenger and Emery have left the team in such a mess. So many average players are on high wages and unsaleable. Coaching this Arsenal is a very difficult job. Arteta has improved the culture of the team. The defense of the team has also improved. Now we have a chance to play against any EPL team. As expected, he has made some mistakes along the way. He is also learning. He over played Luiz and Saks in the 1st Europa… Read more »
Crazymady
“:As I said earlier, Partey and Ozil would have been a very good combination”
They would , there a a lot of if only’s, let’s not forget that Pepe was playing decent(not brilliant) before lockdown with Ozil alongside him, Pepe is now a shadow of the player he was when he first arrived and rarely starts in the league…
Willian is another who needs a player like Ozil to bounce off and play one twos and triangles, at the moment he always looks isolated..
Pedro
“The system wasn’t the problem 6 months ago, it was the solution”
Ozil was in the team 6 months ago .
Wow, SO the new argument is that we are lucky to have arteta as a manager because for our kind of money he is the best available coach. WHAT A BS ARGUMENT. PICK ONE OF THE FOLLOWING AND YOU HAVE A BETTER COACH THAN ARTETA AND WITH SOME EXPERIENCE AS WELL AND LOWER SALARY THAN WHAT ARTETA IS ON CURRENTLY.
Peter Bosz
Julian Nagelsmann
Marco Rose
Markus Gisdol
Pellegrino Matarazzo
Oliver Glasner
Achim Beierlorzer
Bruno Labbadia
Afternoon, Im not quite ready to throw Arteta to the wolves yet, but there are serious doubts now over him. he’s on a clock and its ticking down fast. he needs to turn things around quickly and has the next few weeks while the interlull is on, to hit the training ground hard with certain players. When Wenger left we wasn’t happy because we wanted to be competing for the league, yes the fa cups were nice but we were drifting in the league. then we finish out the top four then its fifth sixth eighth and dropping like a… Read more »
I was always worried about the Arteta appointment.
He has no managerial experience. Assisting Guardiola isn’t managerial experience, it’s being a sidekick. He seems really rigid and doesn’t allow anyone any freedom. I also think he is a bit arrogant.
PLEASE STOP PLAYING WILLIAN. Yet again, we were conned.
Well in Up4 grabs now, it is time to play 2 strikers, shake it up and try something different. I thought I would never see the day of 3 centre halfs and 2 holding mids WE ARE ARSENAL! Impose your game on the opposition especial at home.
Using Pepe as a striker has been done twice in his career and both times the experiment failed. In Ligue 2, he was a hit and miss. Some games very good other he was bullied and anonymous. At Lille in Ligue 1 under Bielsa, he was so bad Lille were fleeting with relegation. Pepe needs space to run ahead of steam. He needs to be closer to the penalty box, but he can’t be in the penalty box as a starting position. He can play as an right side inverted winger, or as a regular winger on the left side.… Read more »
Regarding the hailed win at OT. let’s face it, United are just as gash as we are and we did not exactly batter them, did we?
Sure, it was nice to clock up a win there, but let us have some perspective, shall we?
The way it is looking, I would not bet on us finishing in top 10.
“ He is the right choice of candidate. We are the poorest club in the top 8, our squad is still a mess, and we cannot afford one of those fancy managers everyone assumes would come here with limited funds.”
Poch and Rafa would jump at the chance to work at Arsenal. They’re both affordable! Mikel will get the sack and the board will have no chance but to go for a experience manager. Just stop the nonsense!
Valentin,
pepe up top might be hit and miss, but at the moment laca is a constant miss.
its not perfect but at the moment id ask kanu to come out of retirement and play up top rather than laca.
“As fans, we can either cry like children every time we lose… or we can trust in one of the best young coaches in the world. He is the right choice of candidate.“
Pedro, I would worry less about what fans think, especially when they’re not allowed in the stadium, and start worrying what the players think. Arteta might be on the verge of losing a few.
One of the best young coaches in the world
Based on what exactly?
Talk about hype , he’s not even close. He is arrogant and obsessed with constant backward side ways passing with no end result.
He constantly changes the system and is poor deciding on using substitutes.
He’s even doing the 66 min Wenger time.
I hope I’m wrong but it feels like things could start to unravel quickly with this team. There were a lot of things that you would have hoped to see from us this season, namely: Auba pushing on after committing to the club and signing the new contract, Leno coming back and proving why it was right to keep him as number 1 and Saliba starting to form a centre back pairing with Gabriel. We haven’t seen any of that. Auba has been frankly poor and I’m not sure all of it can be blamed on our formation. He played… Read more »
“Scraping the barrel there I’m afraid.”
Says the guy who has been licking the glaze off his Wenger and Ozil plates for an eternity. Put a sock in it, Pierre.
I dont know if anyone has mentioned this, but if pepe is left footed, and willian is right footed.
why are they so strict on playing on the alternate wings?
why are they not switching between the wings? crossing with there better foot might improve the quality of crosses coming in for midfiled runners or strikers.
i understand they can cut in on the inside from the alterante wing but can you imagine tierney and pepe two left footers getting a better understanding together, same with willian and bellerin.
again its not rocket science.
Lol at one of the best young coached in the world
What’s the point in crossing to an underperforming short attacker?
Cross the ball low and hard across the box.
Even so he wouldn’t get it.
Two more defeats in the next few weeks and he should go.
Trouble is the club are clueless like he is.
Bigger Lol at poorest club in the top8. Poverty is not the reason why we can’t buy a goal
4-4-1-1
I like jt
Is it too late to give Willian back to Chelsea and take Giroud instead??
4-4-2 Is scorned upon but feel it could work for us Lacca and Auba worked in perfect tandem not so long ago, I have never been a fan of the 3 up top especially when they seem so isolated.
Really wish there was a game this weekend so we could see what lessons, if any, have been learned
AC 10.56.
Re managers.
Quite like the name Bruno Labbadia has a feminine
RING to it .🙄.
As regard Pepe as a centre forward well they touted that
idea with Walcott .
Big players like Maguire etc would be all over him like a rash.
Ern
“Put a sock in it, Pierre.”
No chance
…
You seem to foget, I took untold stick on here when you lot were celebrating him being left out of the squads..
As i said previously, Ozil being left out of the squad doesn’t bother me.
Arteta leaving him out of the squad without adequate replacement does bother me and should bother any Arsenal fan who wants to see the team do well, as i do.
In essence the Top Thinking solution appears to be: play the youngsters. Pepe, Nelson, Willock. Hurrah for that. I’d add AMN, Nketiah, Saka (of course). They can dance to Arteta’s tune. Sorry, but the new contract has put Auba in the comfort zone. Sidelining him for a couple of games will do him the world of good. And yes, a change of plan (I hate the word ‘tactics’) is needed. For me ‘pressiing’ is a way of saying ‘let’s dominate midfield’. Old hat stuff. The fact is we are NOT controlling midfield. The simple answer is to add a player.… Read more »
some of the players down tools for emery, i wouldnt put it past a few to do the same with arteta. some of the decisions are strange to say the least. praises amn and wants to keep him then drops him? does the same with willock last week but cant make the bench for the villa game? sticking with out of form players in willian and laca. not even having saliba available for the Europa league early stages which realistically doesnt get difficult until the quarter/semi stage.although we seem to be making a meal of the fixtures so far! these… Read more »
Tom I agree about Arteta potentially losing the players. It’s catch 22 Emery tried to publicly bin off Ozil, Kolasinac, Mustafi The club failed him, he lost the fans, then the dressing room threw him under a bus, in an attempt to absolve themselves of blame for our predicament. If Arteta drops senior players Lacazette, the captains best friend Willian 32, who apparently Arteta convinced to join, and we’ve invested a lot of money in, over a period much longer than we should have There’s a strong argument that on current form Aubameyang should be dropped. We know from previous… Read more »
I was originally an Arteta skeptic but I think for the good of the club we need to stop the constant churning of managers when things aren’t “just so”. Yes the loss to Leicester and Aston Villa were infuriating but as long as the manager learns from it, and improves the team that’s the main thing… but top 4 is the basic and absolute minimum requirement. Lessons to learn? Stop playing Willian in the EPL altogether and Lacazette in the short term and change our formation to maximise Auba’s strengths. Trust your youngsters… they are doing well in the Europa… Read more »
“As i said previously, Ozil being left out of the squad doesn’t bother me.”
Yes it does Pierre, just as you still have problems with Wenger being gone.
Troll all you want, it’s absolutely positively no secret that you remain one billion percent obsessed with both. To pretend otherwise is disingenuous beyond belief.
“As i said previously, Ozil being left out of the squad doesn’t bother me.”
Pierre thinks people here believe his lies.
“The system wasn’t the problem 6 months ago, it was the solution.”
There were some who weren’t as enthusiastic over some of the performances as you were Pedro. We got some good results but beating a Liverpool a team who’d already won the title and had one eye on the beach by defending for 89 minutes was never going to be a long term solution to anything.
We were told to shut up and give him time. Well he’s had some time, 3 expensive signings and things are worse.
Talking bollocks again Super Rob.
I didn’t say that as you well know. Trolling again. Just check what we have spent, poorest in the top eight my arse.
Excuse mediocrity and you’ll get more of the same.
Up 4 Grab, It was a hit and miss in Ligue 2! And then a complete miss in Ligue 1. I can’t see how you can then argue that it is going to be a hit in the EPL. Pepe with his back to goal is never going to work in the EPL. As mentioned by others beforehand, Lacazette issue is that he is asked to play the Giroud role. Drop into midfield, hold the ball with his back toward goal and then sprint back into the penalty box to be at the end of crosses. He does not have… Read more »
Leedsgunner
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Trust your youngsters… they are doing well in the Europa League — see what Willock and Reiss Nelson’s hunger can do… and give them their chances in the EPL. They’ve earned it.
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He’s not giving Saliba a chance so I can’t see him giving Willock or Nelson a chance any time soon.
“That’s why I think he’ll stick with the current hierarchy.” Arteta can change how we look without rustling too many feathers along the way. – Move Auba central with Pepe on the right and one of Saka/Willian/Martinelli on the left – add a third most advanced midfielder to play between the lines Saka/Willian/Willock/ESM/Martinelli – Partey and Ceballos or Partey and Elneny pivot – play with 4 in the back with Gabriel and Luiz the preferred pair – Tierney and Bellerin in their most favorite positions #profit. Not saying that we will win every game. But how damaging could be to… Read more »
I’m confused Pedro, weren’t you glorying in Aubameyang’s contract renewal, or have I missed something here? Secondly, you say “we.have to trust in one of the best young coaches in the world”. Where’s the proof of that been this season? Looking and sounding good doesn’t make you a top coach. Watching him the other night you could see him visibly give up. He said he saw from the first minute we were struggling( as we all did) but what did he really do to change things. Your ideas are logical but will Arteta try something different? In my opinion, he… Read more »
Questions:
If we had the money to get Aouar as well as Partey in the summer has been claimed and Szoboszlai has a £24 million release clause why didn’t we go for plan B in the summer?
If we didn’t have the money why did we turn down a bid for AMN that would’ve covered 3/4 of his cost when AMN is now as predicted by a few of us 3rd or 4th choice?
andy
” Just check what we have spent, poorest in the top eight my arse.”
I think you need to check the poverty level of out wage bill compared to the other teams in the top 8.
You’ll soon see we have by far the lowest wage bill and therefore are much poorer than out competitors.
Marc,
Pedro said AMN is going to be first choice.
Leeds, i was an Arteta skeptic as well, probably still am although i back him for now. the problem for me is he didnt learn the lesson from the west ham game, or the Sheffield united game. two lucky wins where we almost lost or dropped points, the man united game was as much them being poor and us actually winning it with a penalty, he’s still not learnt by the leicester game, and villa bit us on the arse.as well. how many games does he need to stop making the same mistakes. i hope he finally gets it now.… Read more »
“one of the best young coaches in the world” See, this is what baffles me. On what basis are you making this claim? The world? Pray tell us what he has accomplished to earn this accolade. He isn’t a bad coach, but he may well be out of his depth – hardly surprising if your first job, straight from the upholstered luxury of a City job without the pressure, is to a dysfunctional club with a bloated, mismatched squad requiring drastic renovation. Tough job for any manager, but a new, inexperienced one? Perhaps not surprising that such a novice would… Read more »
Ernie
I have defended wenger and Ozil and will continue to defend them…they treat people with respect..
Both have been treated disgustingly by a small minority of our ignorant, entitled fans.
All i can say is wait until the fans are back in the stadium and see who’s song will be ringing around the Emirates.
valentin,
im with you on the growing part, concerning pepe, at least hes taller and can hold the ball up a better than laca can.
lacas so out of form and lacking in confidence would pepe do any worse if we wont change the system?
id rather see two strikers than continue doing the same thing, hoping it will all of a sudden click with laca.
I know Marc, poor little Mikel is having to dip into his pocket money. That nasty Brenda spending billions for example, no wonder they’re out performing us.
Also makes me laugh about Auba being out of form when he’s probably received around 10% of the ball that Leno has.
The problem is that Arteta seems reluctant to try new things. Play different players if the ones you are selecting aren’t performing! That is supposed to be the advantage of being young – willingness to try new ways because you are not yet set in your ways. Arteta seems set in his ways.
We all want the best for the club, but it’s hard to be optimistic at the moment
raptora
“Pedro said AMN is going to be first choice.”
Well I suppose the question to that is when or more realistically where?
Emery gave the kids more chances than Arteta is giving them.
Arteta is losing up on about to retire players, rather like Conte.
Problem is that the club has made him co-equal to Edu and this is first full season as a manGER.
If we had the money to get Aouar as well as Partey in the summer has been claimed and Szoboszlai has a £24 million release clause why didn’t we go for plan B in the summer?
this! spot on marc.
we pissed around the whole summer and left it till ten to midnight to sign partey on deadline day.
then had no creativity lined up to replace ozil who every man and his dog knew wasnt playing for arsenal again.
andy
Pedro’s playing games protecting Arteta – immediately after a piss poor result or performance he’s harsh (has to be or everyone will tear him to shreds) he then softens his approach over a couple of days going back to the same old lines – one of the best young coaches in the world – generational coach – it was Emery’s fault etc etc.
Was in favour of selling martibez but I now see that it was a mistake.
Should have promised martinez the no.1 spot, if he dropped form or had a few howler, he would have automatically been relegated to the bench (as players are), if he continued to perform, we are much better for it.
Right now, with only leno, we can’t do anything if he plays badly. Runnersaur definitely is not the solution.
Marc,
Maybe Partey was Plan B!
Did you think of that? 😉
Valentin
It’s possible but if you read my comment I did say “If we had the money to get Aouar as well as Partey in the summer has been claimed”.
“One of the best young coaches in the world”?…Errrm,based on what exactly,an Fa cup win?
Jamie’s one contribution to Le Grove is making snide remarks about me…
I’m thinking he’s a little obsessed ..
Slightly worrying that a snide ginger headed twat would obsess over a 65 year old man….each to their own i suppose.
Yeah, Partey and Aouar don’t even matter in the conversation.
Sell AMN for £20m to buy Dominik S for £23m.
But no. Let’s keep the 3rd choice left/right back.
AMN hasn’t even made the bench in 4 out of 8 games. Not even on the bench!
Marc, chances are if the Kroenke’s hadn’t dipped their hands in their pocket we wouldn’t have got either.
Not because we’re ‘poor’ but because we piss money down the drain by buying and selling terribly.
I’m sure pedro isn’t worried about arteta, a win in the next game and the bipolar readers will cheer arteta and convince themselves of a top 4 challenge and everything back to being honky dory till the next defeat, where the knives are out again. Kind of the rhythm of the posters in Le Grove.
Pierre, you aren’t a 65 year old man.
Tell us again how you don’t care about Ozil, lad.
Pierre, a bit ironic to see you post “Slightly worrying that a snide ginger headed twat would obsess over a 65 year old man” when that 65 year old man is obsessing over another 32 year old man…..
Try some porn, take you mind off Ozil.
Pierre
I wonder why.
By the way, you’re not 65.
Matt Auba has been frankly poor and I’m not sure all of it can be blamed on our formation. He played most of last season in the same position and scored plenty. He looks pretty disinterested at the moment. — What are you talking about? Do you expect Auba to go into the midfield, take the ball, and score by himself? How many great chances has he lost this season? As a team, we’ve scored 9 goals in 8 games. And players like Salah have scored 8 goals alone. In the second half, we’ve taken the the lowest number of… Read more »
andy
Can’t argue with that which makes me question whether they’ll give a manager who doesn’t look like he’s one player off top 4 money in Jan to spend.
The football has been bland under Arteta I am hoping it’s because we have a lack of creative edge in the side and once he brings in someone with the edge we will look and play better
Pierre stop your ozil live now please it’s boring and I know you are trolling
Add something to the conversation or piss off
Marc, maybe they will let him spend what he makes from sales in which case we may just about be able to raise the first payment for Szoboszlai. I expect that Martinelli will be ‘like a new signing’ if Mikel will play him of course.
Andy The difference between Arsenal + Leicester is night and day. Their recruitment, scouting and succession planning is brilliant. knew they were selling Maguire in 12 months, signed Soyuncu for €20mill a year earlier, gave him 12 months to settle, sold Maguire for £80mill, but already had potentially a better player in their ranks. They made a £68mill profit on Maguire They signed Fofana, as a future successor to Evans Pereira is a superior right back to Bellerin, and they got him for €20mill They’ve signed Tielemans, Maddison, Ndidi for under £80million They plucked Vardy from non league, Kante from… Read more »
There is now a groundsweĺl of opinion that Ozil should be reinstated to the side to get the Arsenal back on track.. Emery tried it in his first season and after Ozil was pivotal in our early unbeaten run under Emery. We went on a dreadful run of results when Emery decided to marginalize Ozil , of course he had to reinstate him to the side when he realised the error of his ways. For some reason Arteta has decided to go down tje same road as Emery …a rank poor decision that is affecting the team on a weekly… Read more »
andy
Who are we likely to sell in Jan?
Right now the only real positive I’m feeling about Arsenal is that when Partey went off injured Arteta didn’t replace him with Xhaka.
It’s amazing what you can do on social media with an almanac of Arsenal FC at your side, a fake moniker and a convenient golfing cover.
Big fat no to playing Pepe through the middle, the lone striker role is seriously disrespected when erratic widemen that struggle to keep possession, are easily bullied, don’t have an aerial game and struggle to link up patterns of play with team mates are touted as solutions. Even if it worked to some degree, means benching Aubameyang basically. Because Auba out left just doesn’t work. Also means benching Lacazette which I wouldn’t be against. But what’s the alternative? Willian and Nelson out wide? How many goals are in that front 3? And how can you justify to the supporters and… Read more »
Under the rubbish manger Emery Lacazette was Arsenal player of the year and PEA was the golden boot winner. How did this happen with a manager who the author claimed was a terrible hire. These same players are deemed not good enough for a generational young coach? The best young coach in the world have attacking talents like PEA, Lacazette, William, Pepe and Saka and his team hasn’t score a goal from open play for 6 hours of football. How is this possible?
Olumide Did Auba play most of his games through the middle last season? I must have missed that. My point was he is playing in the same position that he scored 20+ goals from. Yes his service has been limited, but so has his application in my mind. He looks completely disinterested. No doubt he is frustrated, but guess what, your the Captain of the team and you should be trying to make things happen and influence a game, which he hasn’t done. I’m not saying he wouldn’t do better through the middle, but that’s not where he is being… Read more »
Up 4 grabs now
I like a lot of what you say in the post 10:57:42