I LOVE A NORTH LONDON DERBY WEEKEND.
The banter on the group chat is firing up. The nerves are starting to jangle. There is a LOT of pride on the line.
Spurs look like title contenders. Jose has made them nasty. They’re well organised, they have the special sauce in Kane and Son that keeps you in contention if you keep them fit, they look very strong.
Arsenal is a mess. Our form has been shocking. Big players have shrunk. Young players have struggled to make headway. Our rookie manager is overseeing a bonfire. Can he tame it? Can he do what the big managers do when the chips are down? Can he shift the narrative on the pitch like he has done off it this week?
As Janan said in the latest podcast, most other managers have a history you can point to, with Mikel, it’s faith-based. North London derbies are about faith. Form is rarely a factor. It’s a crazy moment in time when a concoction of wild elements are slammed together in a Büchner flask, and you hope the end product works to your hypothesis.
Mikel Arteta has a job on his hands. I tried to eke out some good news from Arsenal in the week and there wasn’t much to be had. There have been lots of problems to deal with. Stories leaking from the camp seems to suggest a 1997 style come to jesus meeting. Reporters are saying it was constructive and the path forward was clear.
Thursday night might have been against a nothing team, but for me, those are usually the games you worry about. The fact we landed a dominant performance can only be a positive. The players were aggressive, they were bold, they took chances. We need that vibe to flow into Sunday.
Can that carry through to Sunday? That’s the test. I think it’s amusing reading people demanding we play the same way against Spurs. This is why fans aren’t coaches. We’re going to The Lane to shithouse the master of shithousery and I am ok with that because it’s the only option we have. If City can’t blast Spurs away, we’re not going to. If Chelsea can’t score against them, we’re not going to hit them with a blitz. Setting up to lose to satisfy aesthetics junkies would be the rookiest of errors.
The good news is there’s a high probability we’ll see Thomas Partey. That’s huge for Arsenal. We have lacked a press resistant midfielder with his class. Put him next to Mo Elneny and we speed everything up to the level we need. There’s also a shout for AMN to start after his ripping performance against Rapid. Imagine that, 3 midfielders with legs? Game-changing stuff right there.
I don’t know how we’ll play, but I wouldn’t be shocked to see Lacazette pick up that link-up role against a team he likes to produce again. I think we need an athletic midfield that can pick up the movement of Kane, Son and some of the creators. Højbjerg has been a key player for them this season, it’ll be interesting to see how we deal with him.
This 90 minutes is all about closing the widening gap at the top. It’s a moment for the squad to show there’s a way forward. It’s a game that big teams would eat up. Are we going to be a big team this season? There’s no better moment to find out.
Before you go, I need you to listen to our latest podcast. We welcome Janan Ganesh into the AO fold with our regular Alex. It’s an evergreen podcast. We talk about Arteta, leadership, football strategy, and fixing the creativity issue. It’s a good listen, so put it in your ears and give me a 5* rating on Apple. THANK YOU X
God bless Gabriel and Tierney. Legends in the making
Same song beaten on his near post for the second as well. It was fierce but still.
To quote Pedro — look at it like this — win this game and you are 5 points from the TOP….
great words,,,,,
I have mentioned this before, and will mention it again — Relegation is a reality. Its our luck Shef-utd and Fullham and WBA have been shit…
We will finish this season between 10th and 16th even if we change Arteta
The reason Vieira is a good option for 6 months is purely because anything that gets Arteta out is a positive.
So many crosses and no goals. Unbelievable
Im glad we didnt go for the finished Jose and his negative football. Arteta is a breath of fresh air
Up for Grabs
This job still to big for him. I’d rather a proven veteran of squad building and tactics.
We’ve made a mistake with the utter novice, going for the slightly more experienced guy is still a mistake.
Gabriel……what a player. 11 of him and we would be quality.
Never want to see xhaka again. I’d love to see his forward passing stats.
Bellerin needs to retire. Peaked at 18. Absolute disgrace of a player.
Willian worse business than pepe.
Other than that we have played quite well just them 3 clogging our play up and offering nothing
Have the Spuds built a huge magnet pushing away all our attempts at goal???
Lava has worked hard for the team..Arteta out
Haha put Gabriel in midfield. Actually doesn’t have a bad driving run on him. Way more positive than xhaka
We would play for the next 4 days and we wouldn’t score shit, heck we would have done well if we mustard 2 shots on target!
Pedro will just look a fool now defending arteta , no one can take him serious if he does
Spurs need to make a dvd in the ‘Art of defending’
Or are we just shit????
No to PV4 another generational coach…
I would take a non generational decent coach.
Gabriel is so fed up with Xhaka backpass that he has taken upon himself to attack.
Koke and Saul made Partey look good
Im telling you for free!
Daniel Altos — Arteta has Sauce remember….also generational coach…my foot,,,he is just a frutin Spanish waiter…
My spurs mate is not even giving me abuse be hates their football
Arteta has deer in head lights look , I saw on Emery near the end. Just staring in space and pointing at nothing in particular.
Anyhow, very depressing… losing to these shit cunts. is bad enough but now to be at bottom of table and them top.. fuck me. .
That’s fucking embarrassing.
We have a midget team and somehow think a barrage of crosses is the go to tactic. Do we have any post game analysis or is Arteta ignoring the obvious?
Damn we couldn’t score with one of david pleats hookers!
I need a drink.
lol Sid. What are you on about?
Fuck off Mourinho you cunt!
One of these old PlayStation games was a bit like this…fifa 97 I think. You would keep running to the line and crossing in. Maybe this is Arteta’s secret tactic.
2 SHOTS ON TARGET ARTETA OUT
If Brighton win their game vs Southampton, we’ll be 16th.
How did we end up here with a saucy generational manager?
I’m depressed…
Arteta has turned us into a shite Stoke… endless shit crosses to forwards who win zip in the box. And yet he persists… and even, if the interview I read was correct, insists this is the right policy. How dumb is this?
And worse, he has eradicated all the DNA that Wenger built… the Arsenal way is no more.
We will lose to Burnley too..Morale is completely shot now !
Surely it’s over for him now , he’s screwed now the fans are coming back he’s going to get dogs abuse when we get a draw at best
No defending Arteta here. Xhaka was a recipe for disaster. He has not learned from his mistakes.
Relegation Zone.
Disgraceful performance.
Willian, flouts club rules, plays shit, gets picked. Bet that makes Ozils allies even more pissed off , and Mesut was right on his stance with the wage cuts Vs redundancies as wel
Keep Partey, Saka, Tierney, and Gabriel. Get rid of the rest.
Well done Tierney and Gabriel. They can stay.
Arteta’s comment about the maths of getting lots of crosses in the box smacks of desperation. It’s not the volume of crosses but the type and quality of them. Nearly all our crosses are made against a set defence and not when we’ve turned them. Hopeful crosses knocked in to non-aerial forwards are just a waste of time and a pointless padding of statistics.
Peter
Please bam me
Arteta is a useless cunt
Marco
Wouldn’t be surprised to see the Burnley match finish in a draw.
Who decent would come to us if arteta gets the boot.
Maybe Rafa like he did at Chelsea.
And come for six months. That’s why I said Vieira, 6 months contract let’s see what you can do.
Laca played well. Should have hooked Auba for Eddie and put amn in for hector. Well another disappointing result but at least there was some fight today which wasn’t there against Villa. I guess we can only get better…. COYG
Arteta’s genius plan was to lump it in. We are indeed Stoke and he is Pulis. Even our 15th, possibly 16th place fits the Stoke comparison. Battling it out for survival.
Please get a manager
Not a supply cunt
Peak Stoke
7 points off the relegation zone.
Venga, DaniDecember 6, 2020 18:21:42
lol Sid. What are you on about?
I will be proven right.
WINTER IS HERE!
After almost a third of the season we are 6 points off Fulham who are recognised as a joke and going down.
What is this now, six games with two goals, one from a penalty and one from a short corner? Essentially no goals created from open play for six games. Humiliating. Utterly humiliating.
Anoyher 50 millions down the…….treatment table!!
I swear if we played AMN/Guendouzi/Nelson/Saliba/Elneny would have done a lot better than those cunts Arteta keeps playing
Well what a disaster….
Arteta out…. He is totally out of depth.
But I blame the hierarchy first and foremost …. What kind of amateur hires an experienceless nobody at the helm of a club with HUGE team problems (namely Xhaka, Bellend and hires a Chekski reject in Willian?))
We are run by total amateurs…..
Surely Vieira would not pick xhaka every week. Xhaka cost Wenger his job, emery his job and is now costing arteta his. Ridiculous.
‘Wouldn’t be surprised to see the Burnley match finish in a draw.’
The best we get is a draw.
You can take this to the bank!
Pedro’s endless and unreasonable criticism of Emery saw him lose some good posters on here – if he keeps up a defence of Arteta he’ll lose a lot more.
Burnley, Everton Southampton Chelsea
4 points at best and I’m really starting to think Burnley could get a draw. And it’s only 2 points.
I smell 4th home defeat coming!
Laca tried hard but expecting him to out jump the spurs defenders was crazy. Unfortunately he like many of the team found their level on Thursday.
“Give them the ball. They won’t know what to do with it”
Sums up the game
We haven’t scored on goal in open play for almost 9 hours.
We have a negative goal difference.
What’s the general consensus on here arteta in or out
Out for me
Saka Gabriel Tierney
Arsenal type players.
Everyone else can walk.
Arteta mugged off by Maureen big time
70 % possession & we only had 2 attempts on target
Need to rip up whatever they are doing in training & start a fresh…
Arteta is skating on thin ice now with the sun about to appear
Ban or block cos I talk truth
Cunt
Meanwhile over in Columbus Stan is having a pre-lunch drink with Josh and mutters – sack him.
I really wanted arteta to succeed but this is basically the last straw for me…he should go….
I know Xhaka is poor, but can anyone explain to me with a straight face what the HELL IS WILLIAN DOING ON THE PITCH?
Arsenal 13 pts
Spuds 24 pts
6 losses in 11 games.
What the actual fuck, Arteta?
If Mourinho set his team to attack, we would have been battered.
He knew he didn’t need too, that’s the thing.
They never got out of second gear
Give Arteta the January window and the rest of the season. He deserves 18 months at least like Emery
Cunt cunt
Get him gone
So shithousing did not work either.
Dundalk next and youngsters back in.
I’d be surprised if we get any points at all against Everton, Southampton, and Chelsea. They’re all much better than we are at the moment. All three of them have better coaches. Maybe we can get a draw from burnley. We could well be in the relegation zone in a couple of weeks. How much more damage will Arteta be allowed to do to our club before the owners step in and end this sick joke? It doesn’t matter how much we spend if the manager is this bad.
I gotta disagree Berg
We risk really damaging the club if he stays. He shouldn’t have a say in our windows, he clearly can’t judge playing ability.
Arteta out ..its a. No brainer
Arteta is out of his depth
But wait … Peter
Cunt
Emery was sacked for the unacceptable return of 18 points in 13 matches – Arteta’s on 13 points from 11 matches.
Even if we win our next 2 which I can’t see why is one point more acceptable? If he gets less points why shouldn’t he be sacked?
Bellerin is finished as a player.
Since that injury he’s been playing like a pub park player
Sid, u are a an idiot! What exactly are you blaming Partey for?
Can somebody wake me up when this recurring nightmare is OVER! How much can we take of this shit show? Fucking millionaires strutting around while ordinary people struggle to make ends meet. Fuck this!
RSPC
Pedro can’t ban everyone who’s called Arteta a cunt this afternoon – there’d only be 2 posters left.
Arteta out for me
Emery was sacked for the unacceptable return of 18 points in 13 matches – Arteta’s on 13 points from 11 matches.Even if we win our next 2 which I can’t see why is one point more acceptable? If he gets less points why shouldn’t he be sacked?
Because Emery had a whole season plus a lil more.
Daniel
I really wanted Arteta to succeed too. I wanted to believe the generational progressive manager talk from Pedro. But it gets to a point where what we actually see on the pitch is so bad, where the decisions around the squad are so senseless, that that cognitive dissonance can’t be maintained.
Bergkamp
ANM could not come in for Xaka because Arteta thought of that possibility and kept him out of the bench. So also Reiss Nelson or Ballogan who would improve things.
Arteta is perverse and can safeguard his shit show
@Bergkamp
No sorry, he needs to go now. By January if he stays 100% we’ll be fighting relegation. He’s out of his depth
Goldinho,
Mourinho fucked Arteta good.
If spurs kept playing like they did first half, aka without the 2 goal buffer we would have got destroyed.
They kept men forward in the first half, despite sitting deep and looking for counters.
2nd half everyone was behind the ball.
Yeah you can say we fought for the 2nd half, the boys did put in some effort, but in reality spurs gave us the ball to play and we came up real short yet again.
Pedro you embarrassed yourself with Gazidis and now you have done the same with Arteta. Your in the hole so stop digging. Wake up and admit you were completely wrong on Arteta, he’s a huge mistake.
Mourinho praising Arteta haha. Mourinho and Dier both taking the piss.
Hope he gets sacked in the morning. Total dunce of s manager. He will surely relegate us and go down in history
Mournho says Mikel is a good coach..easy for him to say
Artetas tactics aren’t the major factor in his poor management, it’s his obvious favouritism where underperforming players are given free rein to play badly
Bellerin
Willian
Leno
Xhaka
Too many passengers and weak minded players
Arsenal
70% possession .
11 shots
2 shots on target
9 corners
0 goals
Spurs
30% possession
6 shots
3 shots on target
3 corners
2 goals
We got sh*t housed by Mourinho again….
Bellerin had a shocker.
Ceballos was very good when he came on, Saka and Tierney were menacing, and Gabriel showed real drive and character second half
I didn’t hate the overall performance, other than the agonising frustration of watching us lose
Laca worked tirelessly
Brixton
At what point is what Arteta is doing unacceptable?
Troopz has already started arteta out….we all know how that will end
That was realistically the worst rb performance in the last 30 years for arsenal and yes I’m including the eboue sub debacle
It couldn’t have been worse. Bellerin deserves a 1/10
You know you’re in trouble when the weasel Mourinho praises Arteta and his tactical set up.after the easy win.
I thought the huge stadium development would tick Spurs over? Is this just an Arsenal problem?
The problem is deeper than Arteta. He is losing the plot but I think he can turn it around if given a fair chance. He took over a shit show and at least got the fa cup. He had a shyt window due to covid. And now he’s trying to get his best team and he cant. He needs a decent window and players who wanna fight for the badge. Rite now there are only a few of these players.
Samsong, I agree 100% on Leno.That cost us the game,we were 2 open for the second.