Arsenal moved to DEFCON 5. The Redzone. We’re in the jaws of a big fuck-off crocodile, we’ve been pulled into the waters of mid-table, and the death-roll has begun. Not many escape it.
The season feels over before it started. Lots of small bad decisions have snowballed into an almighty avalanche of shite and it’s hard to escape our reality: We are not very good.
The turning point for me was making Arteta the rookie coach into the all-powerful manager. He saw a power-vacuum at a club that lacks leadership and he went for it… he should have been told to fuck off. Instead, Arsenal elevated him because they don’t rate Edu. An embarrassing decision.
It’s amusing because when I broke into advertising after 18 months of trying, my boss at the time quit and my dad told me to apply for his job after 3 weeks of experience. I did. I was literally laughed out the room. A really embarrassing moment in my career, but ultimately, who the fuck did I think I was asking that after 3 weeks?
I was told to fuck off because I worked for strong leaders. We don’t have that under Edu. Arteta was promoted too early and allowed to make terrible decisions right away.
The two biggest?
- Trusting players that always let Arsenal down
2. Giving new deals to old players in the hope they had one last job in them
Granit Xhaka was an abomination yesterday. A non-negotiable should be ‘don’t back a rival player over your teammate’, but here we are a week on after the Alioski incident and the slowest plodder in the league had another disaster class in midfield. We should have moved him on this summer.
On this point. Our letdown players seem to have this thing where they’re so comfortable, they feel they can be affronted by competition. Xhaka was good last season, you can’t deny it. Is it any coincidence that he and Ceballos, both dropped for Elneny and Partey, are dropping 2/10s now they’ve been disrespected?
What did AMN do at the training ground that was so bad he can’t contribute to a midfield with the mobility of my 94-year-old grandma three-point turning her trolley in an Aldi shopping aisle?
David Luiz was an incredible player 5 years ago, but we should never have given him a new deal after the season he had last year. That’s on Arteta, he trusted a player that tanked for us on the pitch. He thought £160kish p/w was deserved based on behaviour behind the scenes. Don’t even get me started on how he was allowed to play on like a wounded soldier after a clash of heads that sounded like a car accident.
Auba. Love him. But it is ALWAYS a risk to sign a player based on emotion. He’s 31 years old, we are not a mega club, should we have given him a 3-year deal? An experienced technical director would have said no. Nagelsmann moaned after the Champions League semi-final that he hadn’t been allowed to sign players of that profile. Rightly so. That’s how big swingers act with upstart coaches. Put them in their place.
Back to Auba.
He was nowhere. he looked disinterested. No fight in him at all. It was a pathetic run out that spoke to the bland season he’s been having. He is not a complete striker, which means you need a special type of setup to get the best from him. Namely, wingers that can go past people and find him in the box. We don’t have that.
Willian, an early sub again, after another nothing game. He was never the player we needed. So many people raised the flag on that signing, yet we invested £250k a week on ANOTHER aging player. It looks like a catastrophic signing for a club that is working from the strategy of signing players that look like Champions League level, but are in fact not. Look at the players Wolves sign, generally cheap, always built for the league, better than ours. Can we not compete for these types? £72m for Pepe versus £23m for Jota? Who would you prefer?
Lacazette looks finished at this level. Pepe doesn’t look like he can compete in the Premier League. The kids aren’t good enough and the environment to blood them is absolutely toxic.
Manchester City doesn’t have great strikers, but they have an incredible pipeline of creativity that feeds them.
Spurs don’t have an incredible pipeline, but they have complete forwards in Kane and Son.
We don’t have complete strikers. We don’t have good wingers. We don’t have good midfielders. Slander Arteta all you want, but this squad is built for no manager in the world. It’s a fucking mess.
When all of our players are playing at their peak, we can bumble our way through games. When NONE of our players are putting in a shift, we are fucked. Arteta did really well to get a turn out of them last season, now it seems he can’t.
It’s not all his fault, but it’s hard not to point the finger at him for continuing the bad decisions.
He is a brilliant coach, but a terrible judge of players. I went at people in the summer who said he was conned. I am rethinking that evaluation because it looks like he has been well and truly hoodwinked by a group of players who are built to fail.
The stats after the game made me queezy. We played 36 crosses into the box and only 2 found players. This is peak David Moyes. Is this Steve Round’s contribution to Arsenal? Is that all we have? Arteta is a progressive coach that can’t recognize our striker has no physical presence in a crowded box? How many hip youngsters in the backroom do we need to suss that strategy is a terrible one?
The club won’t sack Arteta. They can’t afford to. Their pride won’t allow it. But he’s now in that territory with a chunk of fans, which is the moment we live in. There are enough bad decisions you can apportion to him for this to be his responsibility. However, we have to be rational. The squad is not built to his specs. There is no manager you’d want that we can afford. It is going to be a massive undertaking to fix this.
The summer is a tipping point for us. The question is, do you have the team in place to deliver the brutality we need? If Edu isn’t the one, are you going to let him lead it and waste more money we don’t have? It certainly cannot be led by Arteta. He’s made too many bad decisions and the extra responsibility has clearly fucked his main focus, which should be coaching.
Here’s an idea. Sign Rangnick. Milan offered him £4.5m a year. That’s peanuts. Give him total power to reshape the club. Heavily bonus him. Set aggressive targets. Demand a premium version of what he offers the RB franchise. Don’t stick it out with people that don’t have a high ceiling. If you have a junior coach, do NOT have a junior technical director. Build a team around his weaknesses, don’t let him choose who he hires, especially if he hires people he likes to have control of the backroom
Address the job roles. We exited a dictatorship only to put ourselves right back into one with someone not ready for it. That is the weakest of all sauces. It’s seasoning your chicken wings with milk. It’s adding sparkling water to your Bud Light because you have meeting at 0830. It’s having an early night at your best mates wedding. We need to get a proper structure in place to fix the club. We need real hierarchy and clearly defined R&Rs. That should start now because we need to save our season. We have boots on the ground, where is the action?
I’m too furious to write about the path forward right now, I’ll bring that tomorrow. But know this, I fully recognize we hit a terrible tipping point yesterday. The slide is on. Arteta looks like a rookie caught in headlights. Maybe worse, he might have been hit by a truck, now he’s limping in the forest and the bears of doom are tracking him. He doesn’t have the infrastructure around him to solve it right now. He needs to call his pals in high places for advice. He needs to get a turn out of his players. He needs to pull off a miracle and get some pride back into the football, if he doesn’t, this is Emery in season two.
He can turn this around though, Ralph Hassenhutl did at Southampton. He lost 10 of his opening 17 last season after 6 months in charge. He conceded 36 goals in the process crowned by a 9-0 defeat to Leicester. This was a coach known for defensive rigour. He turned it around. He summoned the magic, now he looks like a contender to replace OGS. Mikel needs a run like his. Will he find it? Who knows. He needs to shock the system with something electric. Let’s see what he has.
Right, that’s me done. Off to find the bears of doom to see if I can get myself eaten. See you mugs in the comments.
P.S. Double the traffic when we lose? Seems that Arsenal fans like to blog here when we lose whether I’m pro or anti a particular manager. What a bunch of masochists you are.
Absolute trash
2
(I mean the game, not the post. not read it yet)
Tr4phy
3 positives from last night:
1: Gabriel
2: Partey wasn’t playing
3: Real wouldn’t sell us Ceballos like we wanted, and he’s only on loan
How AMN cant get into this team when we’re screaming for athleticism and Xhaka pays this bad..
‘Arteta is a brilliant coach’… based on what exactly? Sky Pundits are brilliant coaches too you know. Give them a football club and see where that gets you.
Arteta is a brilliant talker. Let many have said, he’ll make a brilliant con artist.
There is no solve with Partey ‘s injury and Martinelli still a long way. We will flunk a few more games in the premier league and after that he will get the sack even though nothing will change post that.
Feels like we’re pulling a QPR by signing a bunch of semi-retired veterans and hoping for them to gel for a final swansong.
Didn’t work out too well for them a decade or so ago, and doesn’t look to be working for us either.
Broken record time: we need a massive clear-out this summer. For real this time though. It’s been 4 years too late.
‘Arteta looks like a rookie caught in headlights. Maybe worse, he might have been hit by a truck, now he’s limping in the forest and the bears of doom are tracking him’
That’s just it.
We get that people that sussed up Arteta’s coaching creds are finding it hard to admit he’s out of his depth. Sorry, but it is what it is.
At this rate we will be fighting relegation sooner rather than later. As much as I dislike Arteta and want him gone, I’d rather have the krankies sell up first. How the fuck they ever made money is a mystery to me it really is
Don’t fuck wit your pride. We have to buy Martinez back for whatever it costs.. The man is talismanic.. sorry Leno..
Player poverty?
Good to see Pedro admit that MA is a poor judge of player though, many of us have been saying that since he kept Xhaka and fought for Mari and Soares. Then he compounded it by extending Luiz and agreeing to take Willian on a three year big money deal.
No, he’s not toast yet and we can turn it around. Just don’t expect it to happen from next week, that’s not reasonable. Come the new year we should know if MA can pull us out of this tailspin or if he’s on his last legs.
Two things, firstly you said this time last year it was Emery’s fault and he had a decent squad. Now it’s the squad isn’t good enough. I like Arteta and want him to be successful but this is already as bad if not worst as the start of last season.
There’s another way of putting this Pedro. Arteta is too inexperienced and not up to the job to sort out this mess of a squad. Probably not for a number of years and that’s why we shouldn’t have hired him. Just admit that and all will be well in terms of criticism on your blog. Frankly Im a fan of people growing into roles. Yes surround him with people to defenestrate this shite show of a squad that is not fit for purpose and give him a few years to build his own, correct. The defensive signs are good, we… Read more »
Not an easy blog to write today for Pedro. He is not a brilliant coach, there are no reasons to say it. He’s a rookie who talked the talk, now the bullshit has hit the fan. Having a rookie manager, a rookie Director and a permanent failure assistant coach is bound to fail. The Board and the owner should go away and let in people who really care for this club. It’s a rag bag of a squad, full of misfits. We are now going downwards like Aston Villa, being a once famous club harking back to the good old… Read more »
Leicester, Wolves, Villa – High energy, high work rate, highly motivated, on and off the ball. I used to coach grass roots and my message was ‘Are you watching or are you playing’ as I watched nine year kids, only interested when the ball was near. We have a squad of millionaires doing the same thing. That is on Arteta. We are a rudderless ship and the waves are gettting higher.
“P.S. Double the traffic when we lose? Seems that Arsenal fans like to blog here when we lose whether I’m pro or anti a particular manager. What a bunch of masochists you are.” No Pedro, You are not the target. Le grove is the written form of AFTV, people come here to vent their frustrations after a loss, especially shit ones like last nights, been doing this for years, especially during the Late Wenger Banter Era. This blog was and is still a place to come get some catharsis. Having said that there are some posters out to get you,… Read more »
When you have a problem that no one else can solve, you should hire Guns of Hackney. I’m like Robert McCall – the original Equalizer. I know my shit and this shit was predicted. Edu. Predicted. On an easy job. Pepe. Yep. Auba. Yep. Willian. Yep. Emery. Yep. Countless more…all correct. I might have the best jokes and make Richard Pryor look like a schoolboy…but within the world class funny business lies the beating heart of someone who can see things and look at the whole, rather than the immediate, right in front of you. Sure, I got Arteta wrong…that’s… Read more »
Trusting the same players have that sunk the last managers is always a recipe for disaster. Always.
“Auba. Love him. But it is ALWAYS a risk to sign a player based on emotion. He’s 31 years old, we are not a mega club, should we have given him a 3-year deal?” He definitely earned his new deal, but the fact we were desperate to give it to him speaks of our situation: our status in the past couple of seasons has been built on one player converting at a freakishly high rate from a limited number of chances. To any analyst it looked unsustainable, but with no alternative source of goals, the only option was to roll… Read more »
Wbiteydagooner – Amen to that man, Leno is a disaster waiting to happen
Never commented here, but Pedro’s defense of Arteta is laughable. Arteta is a complete hogwash, who even if he manages Man City will ask them to play defensive counter-attacking bull***. The concern is not really about players since they can be coached, I’m more worried about the man in charge (Arteta) who seems to be really clueless with what he wants to achieve and the total incompetence and inexperience of the duo (Edu and Arteta) in running the footballing side of things at Arsenal!
Every Wolvesplayer looked like he was made for the PL. None of ours did. I´m off for a year or so. Enjoy the ride
I have a horrible feeling the Arteta is Wenger 2.0 constantly picking his favourites regardless of form and seems to be on his way to total power at the club. If this continues we’re in BIG BIG trouble, I seriously believe that we could end up in a relegation scrap this season! Things need to be addressed in January, boot out the dross and bad eggs. Give the kids a shot, this season already a right off give them the experience everyone says there lacking.
The Southampton gig is not Ralph Hassenhutl’s first, Pedro. Comparisons smack of wishful thinking and to be honest now, desperation on your part. Arteta is a novice without a mentor – he’s in way over his head at the moment and not a clue as to how to right this steaming sack of you-know-what players. You are right, Arsenal are an absolute mess, not entirely of Arteta’s making, but he’s certainly not helping matters with his “methods” and lack of any real experience.The players, in my eyes are the primary reason that Arsenal are slowly shifting into a non-entity of… Read more »
‘Le Grove
@LeGrove
Shocking but expected
Two things that have Arteta in a death spiral:
1. He trusted players that have always let Arsenal down’
Redtruth said these same words in regards to Emery
Loooool
Pedro did you actually write this?
If you did I have to say I think you’re trying to have your cake and eat it too.
I think it is too easy to give up on Arteta though… I don’t want us to go through what United is going through and constantly changing manager after manager.
Arteta has a clear vision… and we need to give him time. Keep your head on everyone.
Leeds, and that vision is??
Although it does puzzle me WHY he keeps on picking Willian constantly… even though he gives inspid performance after inspid performance.
Arteta is no visionary or pioneer. Everything he’s shown so far he probably learned from a few books. Paint by numbers football and coaching for dummies.
Can’t agree with: If we had lost Aubameyang who would we have replaced him with. Signing him was a sensible move it is just not working out at the moment. Making Arteta manager is not central to the current problems. At least we do not have to suffer transfers driven by whoever is on a favoured agents books. Partey and Gabriel are good players. Can agree with: Why sign Willian. History tells you that buying the cast offs from the other big clubs never ever works. Its what Everton do. Gallas, Cech, Luiz, Silvestre, Mikhytarian, Willian and that is just… Read more »
Leeds
A million pound a month is why he picks Willian.
You don’t pay that and leave it out.
After Emery, Arteta had a good opportunity to clear the dross and start a fresh. Losing with some academy players combined with fresh low cost signings giving their 100% would have been better.
But he chose to keep the dross. He added to it by signing Willian, extending Luiz.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
So can we take it that the people who were on the player poverty bandwagon are vindicated?
Probably in a few more days time we will call Arteta as bum and it will be rightly so.
“You don’t pay that and leave it out.”
You don’t sign for it in the first place and the problem tales care of itself. Two wrongs don’t make a right.
Kay
Do we really need to wait for few more days? Asking for a friend.
I do get the feeling that the medium term prospects of the club now rest on either Tim Lewis or Venkat turning out to be a David Dein type figure. The problems stem from the very top: an ownership who don’t know the sport, and are poorly advised. We need them to receive better advice. Easier said than done, though, when you think it means a wealthy, successful business person who lives and breathes football and Arsenal: Dein would be watching as many games as Wenger, constantly networking in his social life for the benefit of the club, and always… Read more »
ER
I know. Mistakes aplenty at the home of football.
Bye-bye Arteta. please don’t bang the door on your way out!
you know things are bad when you watch Xhaka with the ball, you get up and go take a slash, you return and he still has the ball and promptly passes it gackwards.
Backwards
Arteta’s pedigree as a manager will be seen now we are in real trouble im the league. If he manages to change the tide find a style and identity help us finish in top six and have a decent cup runs in europa and fa cup. We need to buy for him better players. If he fails. We have a chance to hire an experienced manager.
Stroller: “raptora, You don’t get it. The only cash offer Arsenal received for a player in last transfer window apart from Martinez was for AMN.No-one offered us transfer fees for Mkhitaryan, Mustafi, Sokratis, Kolasinac, Xhaka, Guendouzi, Torreira, Ozil or Lacazette. So please stop blaming Arteta for these matters.” 20 December 2019 “Xhaka told the club he wants to leave after a huge spat with the club’s supporters in October, and according to German outlet Bild, he has now told his teammates his exit next month is a formality.” 28 December 2019 “Xhaka’s agent José Noguera is hopeful a move can… Read more »
We became worse after Willian went off. We can’t forget that we have players who cannot make 8 yard passes consistently without making a mistake.
Most of the other players in the pitch were much worse than Willian, which is why he gets picked
Jiminez just out of surgery for a fractured skull. Hope he does well and is able to eventually return.
Arteta should be flat out ashamed of himself for not taking Luiz off right away. Thats just plain ignorance and stupidity on his part.
Its over for Arteta. Its a shame, because 99% of the fans were behind him, and everyone thought we may have our own Pep. He is so far from that its unbelievable. He’s a scared, overly defensive manager that doesnt have a clue how to set a team up. I have a theory, I think a lot of new managers overthink literally everything. Im sure playing Willian as a CF, NKetiah on the wing and Laca as a false 9 works really well in his head, but not in reality. Its like when you get young Chefs going on TV… Read more »
Arteta now being called a terrible judge of players.
The players are good. The signings are good. They just look restricted by the tactics and really low on confidence. And confidence is such a big factor in football.
Why does Edu constantly get called weak?
And everything getting scrutinized when nobody on here really knows what goes on behind the scenes.
Quote of the year:
‘Its like when you get young Chefs going on TV making Duck Legs with a white chocolate and smoked garlic sauce with a carrot foam – just hipster nonsense for the sake of it. Just cook a fucking steak with chips and fuck off.’
Poch is out of work.
Cook a steak and chips and fuck off.
Yep. Have a Toyota Aygo and fuck your Ferrari 812 Superfast.
Have your Casio and fuck your Patek Phillipe Nautilus.
I think the club has to act swiftly. Arteta looks as clueless as Emery when he was sacked. Devoid of ideas and any inspiration. When the players stop giving their all, it’s curtains. They don’t want to play for him. It was so obvious from yesterday’s showing.
Matt
As I see it, keep it defensively tight and press as a team and punish the opposition on the counterattack.
I know that recently results haven’t gone our way but we have no midfield to speak of.. and they are not providing any service at all to our forwards.
I just think if we can play 4-4-2 or 3-5-2. With auba and laca upfront. We could score more goals. Laca and auba goals in the past three seasons have carried us.
Leno should never have been our number one. We shouldn’t sign willian. We should have signed a young box to box midifilder and use AMN in the middle. Elleney, xhaka, ceballos are all average back passing middifilders who would never play for a top club. Wingers…we need to sign a goal scorer like zaha.
Arteta ‘s Comments Yesterday “”It was a really bad result, the performance in the first half, we had our moments, they had two shots on target and scored twice. “We had a great reaction in the second half, we went all for it, I think the team showed their desire, how much they wanted to win the game. We created the opportunities, the chances, and the goal didn’t arrive. I’m disappointed because I think we merited more from the game.” If Arteta deems the second half a “great reaction” and that disjointed performance was the best they could deliver? Wow,… Read more »
Pedro , let it go, it’s over for arteta
How about this for a (radical) idea when everyone fit in the new year and still have options in the window?! Integrate Saliba ASAP with back 3 of Gabriel & Tierney. Bring back AMN on the right and Saka on the left Push Luiz up to DM (Pirlo) role giving experience/confidence to the 3 behind and with ability to open up games and spray passes he undeniably does well! Partey by his side to drive forward (when we’re not passing forward) and with front 3 of Martinelli Auba & one of Willian/Pepe/Nelson. Would love to see Ozil back tbh but… Read more »
Do we have a chance next week against spurs. We may defend for our lives and sneak a win.
Can’t believe Pedro is pleading player poverty.
Leeds
Defensively tight I can agree with. Pressing as a team and setting trying to punish on the counter-attack – really? Apart from the united game, we have not been pressing as a team and think the way we set up makes us one of the least dangerous teams in terms of playing on the counter.
It’s all a bit of a mess isn’t it? Two things to throw into the mix. For all this squad’s faults, it is not the sixth worst in the league. We should not be down in 14th place, nor should we find attacking this hard. That has to be on the manager and there are serious questions about whether he is the right person to try to engineer a rebuild. Our disastrous decline in form also correlates to the decision to omit Ozil from the squad altogether. I wonder if Arteta’s “non-negotiables” power move was a step too far? Brutally… Read more »
Klopp is now manager of a EPL Title winning club and a Champions League Winning team… but he wasn’t always so.
He was given time and money to build his team.
These calls to sack Arteta is just reactionary bandwagon hopping.
Give him at least until the end of this season and see where we are…
I’m saying this as an arch Areteta opponent and skeptic when he was appointed by the way. I’m just tired of constantly rebuilding… which is where we would be if we sacked Arteta now.
Just my 2 cents…… Winning the FA Cup went straight to his head, suddenly he felt like a king. Don’t get me wrong, winning it was great, a really big deal BUT he started acting like a big headed prick e.g. getting rid of Torreira, Guendouzi and Martinez, leaving out Ozil and Socrates, not selling Xhaka when he had the chance, renewing Luiz’s contract, all this has made him lose the dressing room. Add to this his “promotion” to manager has left Arsenal with a recipe for disaster. He thinks he’s Guardiola II but of course he aint. I could… Read more »
Lost track of the commentaries of yesterday’s game saying the players didn’t look like they knew what they were doing. It’s easy to lash out and blame everyone and everything after a bad result but the reality is a good coach beats that Wolves side. All the rest is noise.
People should just stop their madness and excuse Arteta.
HE WAS GIVEN ABSOLUTE POWER by the club and the fans.
Did he give chances to young players – Nope
Did he rebuild the squad – Nope
Did he sell the deadwood – Nope
Did he follow Arsenal brand of exciting football – Nope
Were his ingame decisions good – Nope
TheProdigy
I dont think ozil situation is the issue. We won the cup with out him and played well at times with put him. The issue is arteta’s set up. Wenger has a clear style and chosses the right team based on that. Arteta seems undecided in what style to play, identity to play. Ozil has passed his best.
Think about it, it took Arteta 45 minutes to realize Luiz was “uncomfortable” following a bone crushing head to head incident. He’s so focused on barking out his directions that he lost sight of what was really happening around him.
You honestly have to wonder if Arteta is actually able to watch a game unfold and react to it, or he becomes so singular in his focus that he can’t? Explains a lot actually.
Arteta literally doesn’t tick any of the boxes to be our manager, other than being young, ex Arsenal and have a good talk. All of the 3 are meaningless if he isn’t good at his actual work.
@Robel yonas
I don’t disagree that Ozil is past his best and unlikely to make a huge difference.
But the brutality of not even registering him in the squad was a big, bold and punchy move that may well have ruffled a few too many feathers. I’m not sure the players will have taken kindly to it.
Pedro
You’re clutching at straws..
Making Arteta the “all-powerful manager” has nothing to do with what’s going on out on the pitch and his decision making.
He’s just not good enough.
It’s all very simple.
Leeds, comparing Arteta to Klopp is not appropriate. Klopp came to Liverpool with a proven track record of success. Arteta comes to Arsenal with no such provenance and no real history other than as an assistant.
The real question is are you prepared to watch something hit total rock bottom whilst the Manager tries to figure it out? That is the level of patience required, and for a team like Arsenal, perhaps asking a lot.
@gambon
I love that quote had me pudding myself laughing.
‘ just cook steak and chips and fuck off’
😂😂😂😂 I’d pay good money to see someone say that on master chef
Pissing not pudding lol
Ernest Reed
Agree 100%.
Why the fcuk did it take “Arteta 45 minutes to realise that Luiz was uncomfortable”?
The consequences of this are going to be massive.
If I was the owner of the club, I would terminate Arteta’s services.
The problem does however go way beyond Arteta. Arsenal fell out of the top 4 over 3 years ago, and ever since thought we could patch the squad up just enough to sneak back in. This will be the fourth season we have failed to do that. We are like a once great gardener that used to win RHS awards, and now have a shabby lawn with a lot of weeds and dead grass, and we are trying to patch it up enough to get back in contention. What we need to do is dig it up and start again.… Read more »
It is player poverty in the sense that we aren’t good enough if ppl dont press us. We used to be bad even when teams press us, but Arteta driled a few patterns into them (like do not panic and pass until you are pressed, you will have ppl showing for the ball, pass it to them) and it worked. Our GKs abs defenders would keep the ball and draw opposition players and then we would pass around them and hit them on the wings. Teams stopped doing that after Leicester game. Yesterday Leno held on to the ball at… Read more »
Ernest, I believe I read earlier that they had five shots on target in the first half, not two so it looks like Arteta is developing that famous Wenger way of distorting the facts to suit his case rather than admitting what everyone else already knows. You can’t solve problems until you stop denying that they exist.
By comparison we had zero shots on target in the second half.
You could here him shouting to the players against Molde “ pass and move” really??? You have to tell highly paid pro footballers to pass and move. If that’s the extent of his football knowledge and coaching abilities, we are in short, fucked
Raptors
It’s not as easy to sell the deadwood and rebuild the squad as your seem to think it is.
And you say he doesn’t give chances to young players? You mean one player. Saliba.
Just have this more than feeling there are a few really bad eggs
still within the Squad that form a disruptive attitude and working
environment.
I have a feeling who these players are.?
Had forgotten all about Torreira and Guendouzi tbh and what a difference they might have now made to midfield (bite & energy)?!!
Letting Cazorla; Ramsay & Wilshire go and Özil absence all starting to hurt (in some cases years later) not to mention –
Gnabry
Bennacer
Jeff Reine-Adelaide
Donyell Malen
….imagine having those to pick from and can’t help feel they’re SO much better than youth we did keep and continue to invest in!! Hindsight and all that but pretty big errors of judgement here!!
“Start signing high quality 20-23 year olds. Basically just wait for RB Salzburg, Leipzig, Dortmund to show interest in a player, then outbid them.”
Or hows about we raid their scouting and management ranks instead? If you want to gut the whole thing, you start where it really matters, at the foundation.
Gbat,
It was his work wasn’t it? We received offers for Xhaka 20m, Lacazette 30m? and AMN 20m. That’s ~£60-70m coming our way that he could have spent. He decided against it.
He signed Mari, Willian, Soares and offered Mustafi a new deal. Is this how you rebuild?
The young players I’m thinking are Saliba and Martinelli who he had benched for weeks before he got injured in training.
I would imagine there are one or 2 players having a quiet little smile to themselves at what’s happening to Arteta.
I’m talking about Guendouzi Ozil , Sokratis , Torreira and Saliba…..
and Martinez is probably giving a huge sigh of relief…
Say it slowly
u n c o a c h a b l e s!
Loooool
I have not read any other comments just addressing Pedro and the double the traffic on the site when we loose .The performance yesterday was truly shocking , I mean really really bad ….XHAKA actually know not going there i’ll just say them bears better have a feast as that was as poor as the villa game and I honestly don’t remember an Emery game that bad, it really does look like he has lost the dressing room .we have no chance against spurs with that midfield
Oh do fuck off already, Pierre.
‘would imagine there are one or 2 players having a quiet little smile to themselves at what’s happening to Arteta.’
Pepe? The list will keep growing
Loooòl
While I tend to agree with your comments, hard as they can be, I think you missed out on the point of having our players not enjoying themselves on the pitch. As a coach myself, the enjoyment in my platers is seen in the passion they have, the teeth they show on the pitch, the barking all around to motivate all, the do or die fights for those loose balls, and finally the total pride to be wearing the kit. I see none of that in the players save Tierney who looks upset at the outcome of a defeat, hence… Read more »
He decided to give chances to Mustafi and Mari ahead of Saliba in the Europa league.
He decided to buy/pay wage to Willian, Mari, Soares instead of adding exciting players.
There was a moment last night which totally summed up this season under Arteta and that was the free kick taken by Luiz. You’ve got a scoring opportunity, direct free kicks should’ve been worked on in training. So what happened? Luiz with blood seeping through his bandage takes it and blasts it miles over the bar. As was asked here when it occurred – when was the last time Luiz scored from a direct free kick? It showed the players don’t give a fuck and that Arteta has completely lost the plot.
I’m with Leeds on this,
I don’t agree it’s over for Arteta, he needs time, a decent set up around him but above all some decent players.
Perhaps I’m on my own here but I happen to think some good may come of last nights debacle, Xhaka hopefully won’t see another PL outing and the owners will sanction Aouar & Szoboszlai in January.
I still maintain it will take another 2 years to change things, so far it’s looking like this will be spot on..
I remember when Xhakalson as LCB was hailed as a masterstroke…….diet Pep fanboys SMH!
Zero shots on target in the second half, yet Arteta was happy with the response! Honestly beggars belief. The only people who are saying we should give him time are citing the fact that they don’t want to rebuild again. Well if your house is falling apart, you have no choice but to rebuild. It’s going to come down sooner or later and no amount of gaffer tape and super glue is going to change that. You cannot just hope that Arteta is going to come good. He has no pedigree, he has made terrible decisions and he has us… Read more »
Absolutely no way Szobozslai joins us.
Hes got the world at his feet, he isnt going to the 14th best club in the PL.
Even if he was interested a few months ago, he wont be any more.
Adding a 250k pw Willian to play on the exact same position he has our most expensive player ever, must be the dumbest decision I’ve seen in my life.
Nevermind, that would be his handling of a 27m Saliba stuck in the reserves team for half a year.
Oh, excuse me, how about the debacle of declining a 20m offer for Maitland-Niles, then deciding against including him on EPL match days at all.
Dear lord…
Good post,
Agree Auba was pathetic last night he wasn’t even trying….downing tools? Could be and if he is it’s over for mekel
And what’s with the midfield formation?
Cebellos right, Willock left and I swear I saw xhaka playing as no 10
Is that what generational suppose to be?
A part from Gabriel every other player was pretty bad
They should all be fined 2 weeks wages!
Bellerin was eaten alive by Neto who I thought was MOM
The outlook is very grim!
Pedro Okay I accept some of the points you made but not all. 1. I agree that there was absolutely no reason to promote Arteta to Manager after just 8 months. I understand why it was done as reward for winning FA Cup and Community Shield. 2. Aubameyang was a very difficult decision in view of our previous experience with Ozil. However, Aubameyang had almost single handedly scored the bulk of goals since resumption in June and won us the FA Cup. As many suggested at the time he was rated in his prime and the cost of replacing him… Read more »
One of the worst indicators has to be Auba – a guy who almost always plays with a smile on his face, who loves scoring goals. Look at him now, fed up, looks miserable. Probably because he doesn’t know when he’s next going to get a half decent chance. Players are human beings, make them play in a crappy system that isn’t working for months on end and I doubt that there is a player in the world who’s head isn’t going to drop. At least Auba looks like he cares, it’s probably why he’s so miserable. Unlike Xhaka who… Read more »
How has a billionaire , presumably with access to the very best allowed his club to be run so badly!
Love the idea of playing and recruiting kids but haven’t we now got rid of our scouting dept, yet another smart move from the clubs inept leadership.
Arteta may have his flaws, but these issues go such a long way beyond him.
Poch wouldn’t come to this club, if Arteta is given the boot, it will be Vieira or Henry