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.
Pedro – Lets face it, this squad of players are just shite. Maybe Partey, Gabriel and Saka would get into the Arsenal squad of 15 years ago, although I don’t think they’d make the starting 11. Years of poor recruitment and dross mean we are a bottom half team now. That, I think, is a realistic assessment of where we are. I have no idea what has happened to Auba, we all were desperately hoping he’d sign his new contract, but he has since lost confidence and disappeared. The major squad overhaul we were all talking about being required this… Read more »
Weagle
“What does ‘competing’ for the EL mean? Winning it?”
No idea.
That’s another question you can ask Charlie.
WengerEagle
Didn’t Arteta get knocked out of the Europa in the first round lol
“Didn’t Arteta get knocked out of the Europa in the first round lol”
After winning the first leg away no less, that doesn’t get talked about enough IMO
We didn’t even get a new manager’s bounce that’s how useless Arteta is.
The burning question right now should be can Arteta take his FA Cup form of last season and translate that into this seasons Europa League.
It’s all we got.
He’s got to be our cup king Teets.
I still think that from now till the Jan. TW, we should go back to the trusted 3 4 3 system . We should stabilize our defense. As for offense, we’ll use long ball to Pepe or Auba. Auba should build up chemistry with Saka. That means Auba will play the role of left inside forward. Saka can’t do it alone as LW. Auba needs to have the ball more often.
We have seen how a midfield with Xhaka, Ceballos and Willock can do before. Hoping that they could attack through the middle will never work.
Marc Because over time they can make a difference, if provided with the right tools, I think there’s a limit to where we can go. the quality of the football we play, and the level of consistency we can produce, with this set of players. Turning down any money from Roma for Lacazette was a mistake. Signing Willian looks to be a mistake, giving him a 3 year deal was beyond a mistake, its straight up negligence. Signing Mari when we had 8 other senior centre backs was mental, we wanted a left footer, but them followed it up with… Read more »
Weagle In a roundabout way, but those kind of things are hard to judge ahead of time. If we’re as we are right now at the end of Feb then the idea of Arteta finding answers looks bleak. January has become an important window because we didn’t follow through with some big decisions this past summer. Idk what scope there is available to us, but we absolutely need to have a clear strategy in place that plugs the gaps. Just a bit concerned that’ll be with too short term a focus, and might compound things longer term. But alas, it’s… Read more »
Paulinho Yeah, very sad. I know that the Barcelona performance became a bit of a meme with Jack but he was brilliant that season. A lot of parallels with Sturridge. He also broke out at a young age with a loan spell at Bolton. Never came back the same from that injury he suffered in 2014. You could see like you say with Jack that he played within himself from then on and was petrified of breaking out into a full pelt 100% sprint with his upper leg muscles basically resembling wet bog roll. Klopp even publicly alluded to the… Read more »
Receding hairline
How do you know it’s nonsense?
Unless your a multiverse traveller, your assumption that another manager would have done better, is nothing more than an assumption.
Tr7
Hit the nail on the head , one of Artetas biggest flaw is he’ll pick a player who is inferior but who’s “yes boss , no boss whatever you want boss “ over a better player who doesn’t ,
ES, That’s the difference between rugby and football. In rugby while a proper 10 minutes HAI take place a temporary substitute player plays. If the players fails or fails to complete the test with the imparted 10 minutes, then he is permanently replaced. Same with blood replacement. If a reversal cannot take place within 10 minutes, the temporary substitute become permanent. Both blood and concussion protocol are a lot more stringent in rugby than they are in football. In football, because no such temporary substitute functionality exists, there is a rush to patch a player up and send him back… Read more »
Ishola70
“The burning question right now should be can Arteta take his FA Cup form of last season and translate that into this seasons Europa League.”
He may if he plays Championship sides Leeds, Bournemouth, League One Portsmouth and mid-table mediocrity Sheffield Utd.
Good morning all Nice post Pedro, time to see Arteta and his mistakes for what they are…. He is in death spiral, but that has been in the making for about a few weeks already. You cannot come in to town and be the drill seargent and sherrif to fix things. His authoritarian attitude does not work with this group. Perhaps an under 20 side, not this side. Not working with older heads, and not taking DB10 up on his offer is crazy. Too much pride and it is already his downfall. I also agree with our players not being… Read more »
Teets wins Europa League but crashes in the EPL. The club thank him for landing the Europa League but parts ways in the summer as it is seen that a new manager is required for the more intensive and competitive nature of the EPL. The new manager comes in and there is great fresh hope and optimism with Arsenal back in the CL. And fans although realising Teets wasn’t good enough for the higher level of the EPL still hold him dear in their hearts due to him getting Arsenal back in the CL through the back door in Europa… Read more »
we have no chance of winning the EL when the 3rd placed teams drop down from the CL.
I’m sorry lads, it’s just folly, there is a quality gap both in our players and manager compared to who will be dropping down.
Heavens forbid we get Ajax and their spritely young upstarts run circles around our midfield.
We should have taken a long hard look at signing gravenberch when aouar proved to be out of budget btw.
“Yeah, very sad. I know that the Barcelona performance became a bit of a meme with Jack but he was brilliant that season.”
People always talk about the home leg but I thought his performance at the Nou Camp was equally as good. More defensive but did the work of two players, which he needed to do because Fabregas was injured and garbage on the night.
Of course the TD and Manager need to work together and just because they do doesn’t mean that if results aren’t good enough the manager can’t be fired. You think Klopp, Pep, Simeone, Allegri (at Juve), Zidane don’t have any input into the “tone” and “vision” of those clubs? Of course they do. Look at the clubs where the “tone” and “vision” gets dictated……PSG – Tuchel and Leonardo at loggerheads; Inter – Conte constantly complaining about his squad. Why would you want a suit to dictate how your club plays football? Pretty much all the best examples of director of… Read more »
Weagle
I’ll say this much, if we’re in a position of replacing Arteta in the summer you best believe the guy right at the top of the list is Brendan Rodgers.
I’d have laughed at you if offered him up 3 years ago.
Pete Hopefully your southampton analogy holds and the players begin to take responsibility. Imo, the decision that lost us the game was leaving in bloody david luiz. Both goals came from his position. Somethings afoot behind the scenes, that seems clear. Saka looks wornout, unsurprisingly for wilshere 2.0. Auba needs help in attack and hes not getting it. Where have eddie and amn gone? Part of me feels for arteta and believes that his backing of guys like xhaka and laca have more to do w the covid window than pure decision making on who should be in the side.… Read more »
Edu does not fill me with any confidence. He seems nervous and scared a lot.
He hardly speaks, it does not fill any fans with confidence knowing what on earth is happening at the club.
Gazidis was a master bullshit artist – he did speak to the fans way more than Edu, who seems like a scared mouse!
Pedro Everyone knows very well that Arsenal’s recruitment has been piss poor for a very long time and we have wasted a lot of money on these acquisitions. In the latest transfer window we bought two highly rated player in Gabriel and Partey who were considered good value at collective cost of about £66 million. Partey is unfortunately out injured. Assuming that we could buy similar quality players how many do you consider we need, in which positions and what level of budget is realistically required to be competitive for a top 4 finish? My guess is that the minimum… Read more »
Arteta has managed to do the impossible and make us even worse than Emery’s bad spell blip.
JP,
Non selling successful clubs have DoF. Most of the time the DoF stay out of the limelight, because the manager does a good job or because the club chairman grab it for himself.
Bayern have a director of football. The reason he is not so much in the limelight is because the club chairman has a more day to day involvement in the club.
Same with Real Madrid.
PSG have Leonardo.
Tuff times for sure, but at least I can feel better knowing emery is not the man attempting to steady the ship, ie a manager WHO CAN SPEAK ENGLISH. Good a place to start as any
Im more forgiving of arteta than anybody on here but leaving in luiz yesterday was real dumb
Brenda was my first choice outside of the Allegri’s of this world when Wenger departed.
I doubt it will happen but in January, I would have an offensive 4 of Aubameyang, Pepe, Saka and Ozil with partey and Elneny sitting behind and a flat back 4 …. 4-2-3-1 I would prefer AMN to Bellerin , Tierney , Gabriel and Mustafi . We have yet to see that front 4 play together , i believe they will create and score and there will be a good solid base behind. If Martinelli is fit then he can alternate with saka and/or Pepe.. The closest we have got to that front 4 is Ozil/Martinelli/Aubameyang/Pepe away to west ham… Read more »
‘People always talk about the home leg but I thought his performance at the Nou Camp was equally as good. More defensive but did the work of two players, which he needed to do because Fabregas was injured and garbage on the night.’ He put it on a plate for Bendtner right at the end of the match with a beautiful drive and outside of the foot ball across when a goal would have put us through on away goals, 87th minute. If he takes it first time on his instep or takes a cleaner first touch, history could have… Read more »
Shortlist for the summer as new Arsenal manager.
Brenda.
Gasperini
Any others?
Place your bets now.
Roll up. Roll up.
New Arsenal manager this coming summer.
I think Brenda would have joined us…. even though he said the “right” things in the media,
Leicester is great to watch and play good attacking football.
I would take him. Allegri, for the sheer respect and experience, and even Poch, who I rate highly too.
https://youtu.be/0zY0RSUA224
What we are missing
Ishola
I’d rather hope it’s lot quicker than the summer , I can’t tolerate watching this borefest relegation standard shite till then
Charlie
Same, had no time for Brendan after the Liverpool post-Suarez implosion but he had Celtic looking good [much better than nowadays] and he’s done a sensational job with Leicester.
Wouldn’t be top of my list but he’s up there.
Calypso
It’s not a blip.
We’re likely looking at 5 years outside the CL, and could drop out of the Europa League next season as well, it’s a clear pattern.
This is our level, and without much better and more ruthless decision making, our level could drop further.
We’re at a low ebb, we produced remarkable consistency for 20 years.
Arsene was treading water for years, we’re now going under and beginning to swallow water.
Our decision making has been horrendous for a long time now, undoing lots of poor decisions, and replacing them with better ones, takes time.
Valentin, Bayern have Salihamidzic and he works very close with the manager, so much so he often sits on the bench during games. PSG have Leonardo, who is very present and has been in a public spat with Tuchel as they disagree over the quality of signings. My general point is that for years people have wanted to get away from the all powerful manager role…..only to give it to a Director of football role instead and then they become all powerful but without any of the responsibility for performance. Where it works best is where they work together. Look… Read more »
Weagle
I dismissed him big time after Liverpool, even at Celtic I was critical of his European exploits which were horrendously bad.
But……as painful as it is to admit…….he’s went away and improved as a manager. Wouldn’t be upset if he was in charge which is probably the biggest slice of humble pie I can eat on the man.
Pierre
Ozil is unlikely to play again for Arsenal and AMN has never played particularly well in RWB
position.
In view of recent results where we have played a flat back 4 and struggled I would revert back to playing 3 centre backs.
This would depend also on Partey being match fit and controlling our midfield and perhaps
recruiting in January an upgrade on Ceballos, Xhaka and Elneny to play alongside him.
Also I would hope that Martinelli might add some competition and cutting edge up front.
Peckobill
“I’d rather hope it’s lot quicker than the summer , I can’t tolerate watching this borefest relegation standard shite till then”
Have you seen the teams at the bottom this season? They look really shite. So a relegation scrap looks unlikely.
The Burnley game will be fascinating just to see how low we have got.
It’s a cut throat business Bill.
Roll up! Roll up!
I agree with this…. the sooner the rebuild happens the better.
I’d rather hope it’s lot quicker than the summer , I can’t tolerate watching this borefest relegation standard shite till then
An epiphany hit me.
We will not be getting Aouar and DS in Jan.
In fact, no one good would come to this shit show right now.
I can see a freebie or loan but that is it.
Lets take Isco on loan… why not… we at least have a CAM in the middle.
we stand to lose 7-8 players this summer.
Let the rebuild start now. Arteta out and Edu out.
Josh has his work cut out for him….
Gasperini, Allegri, Jorge Jesus, Nagelsmann all are interesting gaffers that have overachieved with resources at their disposal. Rose is doing an excellent job at Monchengladbach, Rangnick has an impressive CV. Lopetegui has been terrific at Sevilla and rebuilt his rep really well after the Real Madrid disaster stint.
Rodgers if we are looking closer to home has done great at Leicester, Hassenhuttl at Southampton.
It’s not as if there’s a shortage of talented managers around the place.
WE – Such a strange match, and we were so utterly second best on the night that the gravity of the miss didn’t really sink in until after. We had this way under Wenger of being outclassed but somehow keeping it close on aggregate and coming close in the 2nd legs. Bayern similar story a few years later.
Barca for all their greatness also ended up in closer matches than they should’ve been. Iniesta at the death in Stamford Bridge saved them.
Rich
I said Emery’s bad spell was a blip…learn to read.
One thing I am really confused. How come Reiss Nelson’s crosses and corners are so inaccurate. Against Molde, his corners stopped at the first defender. Yesterday, it stopped at the 2nd defender. All the crosses weren’t close to any teammate.
Ishola
We look any better ?I’m not exaggerating by saying we are the most boring side in the league which is fine and dandy if your getting results but as is we are in deep shit and I truly wouldn’t underestimate how close we are to being in one . Bet Leeds fans were saying the same things all them years ago . I get rid now and try and salvage the season . Arteta isn’t doing shit
Jesse Marsch at Salzburg seems like a good manager. Was impressed reading his insights a week or so ago.
Stroller
“In view of recent results where we have played a flat back 4 and struggled I would revert back to playing 3 centre backs.”
We played 4-2-3-1- before lockdown, we just need the right personnel for it to work .
Bellerin is a liability I’m afraid ..the weak link .
Artera may have no choice than to bring Ozil back if he wants to get the Emirates crowd onside and save his job
Nelson
“One thing I am really confused. How come Reiss Nelson’s crosses and corners are so inaccurate.”
Could it be something to do with his name.
“Bellerin is a liability I’m afraid ..the weak link”
We would’t have scored more than a couple of goals this season without him. Top assister and should’ve had two more in the last week if Saka hadn’t of fluffed his lines.
What is it with Arsenal fans and continual snipes at players that actually show some gumption going forward.
I think Bellerin had a bad influence from Xhaka. Yesterday, for both goals, they both didn’t react to the ball.
Pierre
There is a reason I have high hope for him.
Paulinho As great as Pep’s Barcelona were and they are the best footballing side that I have seen in my lifetime, by a distance, they always gave you chances on the break. The year before they were battering us at the Emirates before funny enough Walcott came off the bench and completely changed the game. Scored the first with a scrappy goal after a deflection [I think?] and won us the penalty that Cesc put away on a broken leg, both off of darting diagonal runs in from the right when he was absolutely electric and a match-up nightmare for… Read more »
Paulinho
He can’t defend very well , the last 3 games are proof of that ..
Gabriel only won 1 of 5 headers and 2 of 9 duals
Paulinho
Its the same as having a centre mid who is constantly glory hunting …
Emi Buendia getting heavily touted as a firm target for Jan I see.
Not transformational, but he’s exactly the profile of signing aka a player doing well at a club we can pressure financially, and who delivers physically at a good age.
I want better, but he’s an easy starting point.
Nelson
“I think Bellerin had a bad influence from Xhaka. Yesterday, for both goals, they both didn’t react to the ball.”
It’s not just the goals , he’s been skinned by the winger every week agaist wolves,leeds and villa.
Charlie
Agreed, he’s kept the ball rolling at Salzburg after a massive culling of their star talent in Haaland, Minamino, Munas Dabour, Hwang, Wolf, Lainer sales.
WE – I would’ve loved to have seen Barca with Ya Ya Toure playing at the base of midfield. He could’ve really given them another dimension with late runs and brought more goals to the side. He played some amazing stuff in that deeper role the season before he left.
They had that monopoly on possession, but like with all Guardiola teams, became drunk on their possession at times. Bayern in 2013 were cut-throat by comparison.
JP, Most clubs on the continent have a director of football and it does work fine. Outside of incompetence, when it fails, most of the time it is due to personality conflict and people encroaching or trying to encroach on somebody else responsibility. A DoF must be a firm person, but still somebody who is conciliatory. Both side have to accept the other side responsibility and decisions. However there are some managers who simply cannot handle being told no. Conte is the classic example of somebody is never going to be satisfied by whatever budget he is given. Give him… Read more »
Batistuta what did I tell you about Napoli last night?
Pierre is a liability in a flat back 4 but not if we have 3 CBs. Also he has provided this season
the most assists.
Whilst there are many positions which need upgrading the most urgent is a class central midfielder to play alongside Partey.
Yesterday’s games highlighted that problem. Ceballos is a “nothing” player who makes absolutely no impact in games. Xhaka looks awful because of the quality in midfield and
Willock is a young player good enough to play in Europa Cup and sit on bench but is not
ready to start in EPL.
Pierre – Shite. Our problems are systemic. Wan Bissaka looks poor defensively when he’s caught forward and United lose the ball in dangerous areas.
Pierre
Correction Bellerin is liability in flat back 4 but not if we play 3 CBs
Leicester losing to Fulham
In Brenda we trust lol
“Paulinho
Its the same as having a centre mid who is constantly glory hunting …”
Yeah we are so much better with two holders in the middle. Ceballos proving to be the upgrade on Rambo you claimed he was going to be.
Bellerin has had such a deterioration in dynamism since his injury, wouldn’t be concerned if he sought a move to a PSG or someone. Players like Lamptey, and Aaron’s are floating about and look like having a huge upside.
Ceballos is rubbish
Paulinho
Sorry but bellerin is poor one one defensively and week at the back post, though i do agree that he does add something to the attack .
One on one
ES “Whilst there are many positions which need upgrading the most urgent is a class central midfielder to play alongside Partey.Yesterday’s games highlighted that problem. Ceballos is a “nothing” player who makes absolutely no impact in games. Xhaka looks awful because of the quality in midfield ” This doesn’t make sense. You state that Xhaka looks bad because of the overall quality of the midfield. You obviously think Partey is of enough quality. If Xhaka’s problem is just others around him then what is the problem with going with a Partey – Xhaka midfield? Why the call for another quality… Read more »
We have a set pieces specialist, clearly he is working only on the defensive side of it, because our attacking corners, free-kick are shockingly bad.
It always amaze me how professional footballers can be so bad as something so basic. Spend 20 minutes working on it at the end of every training session everyday and the difference will be evident. DB7 followed Eric Cantona habit and made a great career out of it. Others may not get as much talent, but they should still be able to send a flat, hard set pieces toward a teammates.
Paulinho
Only kidding about Ramsey , i would have him above any of our centre mid , partey possibly the exception.
Paulinho Yeah agree, always felt that Busquets was a bit overrated and made to look better than he really was by Xavi and Iniesta. We’re talking about the two best CM since Zidane here, you could have put anybody beside them really and they’d have excelled. You’ve seen him badly struggle since Iniesta has left with Xavi long retired too. But Yaya as you say would have given them an interesting balance being a much better athlete than Busquets was as well as more of a goal threat. Can’t blame Pep for binning him though if they couldn’t see eye… Read more »
WE
The Dutch side under Rinus Michels at the 1974 WC, with Cruyff in his pomp were good to watch, and a real Eye-opener for lots of us English who were brought up on the long ball game.
Their brand of football is what Cruyff passed onto Guardiola during his playing career and into management. Adding Messi into that mix made Barca unstoppable for a few years.
Even Fergie had no answer to it.
Calypso
Emery’s bad spell wasn’t a blip.
It was our level.
Ceballos is painfully ordinary, I second that.
Physical limitations to boot. Will be very upset if we waste 25m on making him permanent.
Bit of a suspect character too it would seem, bit caught acting that cunt a few times already.
Fulham pls score and I’ll become your fan.
Pierre – He’s not Sagna, but it’s the very epitome of analysing symptom over cause when deciding to forensically dissect his role in goals at the moment.
The team is a mess. He’s a front-foot right back constantly caught on his heels with the dysfunction around him and getting slated for not putting out fires, when if we had our collective house in order the fires wouldn’t start in the first place.
0-2 let’s go!!!!
Fulham 2-0 Leicester
Brenda just cannot be trusted 😂
Is it a penalty?
Pedro I’m really not sure what to make of this: ‘He (arteta) is a brilliant coach, but a terrible judge of players.’ Surely part of being a ‘brilliant coach’ is being a good judge of players. If you’re a coach but you can’t identify talent in a footballer, or the right type of talent to fit into a system and an overall footballing vision, it doesn’t bode well . Obviously Arteta needs good people to work with in order to identify and get the talent but suggesting he’s a ‘terrible judge of players’ but a ‘brilliant coach’ is extraordinary. The… Read more »
Sad Times.
Rich
“Emery’s bad spell wasn’t a blip.It was our level.”
So you are basically saying that Emery was a bloody good manager.
Can’t be having that.
This would also imply that we need another bloody good manager to come in to get this team to play above themselves. Wouldn’t matter if it’s just for a season. Just to get the club on a better footing going forward.
A bloody good manager that is not called Arteta then.
Dani for all his cuntish ness is the type of attitude we need more of. Too many choir boys at Arsenal.
Its one thing to fight your teammates, but he is a nasty fucker on the pitch too.
Might be limited but he does bring a fight and clearly is not afraid to mix it up.
Compare that to the choir boys – Auba, Luiz, Bell, Saka etc…
Anyhow, if he goes back to Madrid, we need more fighters like this… not afraid to mix it up
“Ceballos is painfully ordinary, I second that”
I still like aspects of his game. Against Leeds for example he tried to win the ball high up the pitch in the first 25 minutes, and get us on the front-foot. His lack of real athleticism just lets him down though and he can’t sustain it..
Said before on paper Fulham have some nice pieces.
Anguissa would walk into our side as would Loftus-Cheek. Lookman is also a handful.
Maybe benching Mitrovic for the more mobile option in Cavaleiro is the way forward for them.
Called Ceballos right inside three months. He’s Xhaka with beer goggles, definitely not well suited to our needs and would be a criminal permanent addition in our current state.
Should be Isco on loan and not Ceballos.
Paulinho
You may be right , it is difficult to judge any players atm, my feeling is that he is a weak link defensively and the opposition target him
Leedsgunner November 30, 2020 10:33:04 “Klopp is now manager of a EPL Title winning club and a Champions League Winning team… but he wasn’t always so.” We really need to stop mentioning Kloop and Arteta in the same sentence. I’m certain you know that Kloop had won the Bundesliga and gotten to the final of the CL with Broussard Dortmund before arriving at Liverpool with his Gegenpressing style of football. On the other hand, the only reason Arteta’s is at Arsenal is because he sat next to Pep for two and half years. If it had been next to Moyes,… Read more »
Roll up!!! Roll up!!
Brenda just been taken off the list for next summers new Arsenal manager list.
We now have new amended Arsenal manager list for next season.
Roll up!!! Roll up!!!!
Ishola 70
I like to believe that Partey when fit and adapts to EPL will be an upgrade.
Ceballos is a technical playmaker whose contribution in 34 EPL games played in two seasons is just 3 assists and 0 goals. He is in my view lightweight and offers very little control let alone creativity.
Xhaka is a defensive midfielder who looks worse than he probably is because of the overall
standard of players in midfield department. He is at best an average player
HerbsArmy
Can debate all day long about who the football GOAT is between Messi, Maradona, Pele but is there anyone even as close to influential on the game than Cruyff?
Literally was the catalyst for modern day Barcelona as we know it [well, knew it]. Behind La Masia, great player and manager for them and basically moulded their greatest ever manager in Guardiola.
Fulham have scored more goals than Arsenal this season.
Arteta staying on if results continue to be as bad as this will achieve nothing.
What’s the point, he is at a loss what to do.
The club will find out that the fan base is shrinking fast.
Revenues will not recover and sponsors will fade away.
Stan will convert the ground to a Walmart.
Shame you don’t call out Xhaka Charlie isn’t it.
Very strange in fact.
Your powers of observation regarding midfielders only goes to a certain extent it seems.
Xhaka goggles on.
Fulham are closer to arsenal than arsenal are to spuds in the table . Thanks Mikel , let’s trust the process