It’s hard to know where the bottom is for this squad of players. It’s tough to fathom whether the manager can arrest the decline. You wonder if the exec team has the knowledge to intervene and support. We’ve not seen a run this bad since the 80s. We’re rudderless top to bottom. The process is fucked. We are back to being a banter club.
Arteta is in big trouble. This is going the way of David Moyes at Manchester United. Listening to him insist 44 crosses to nobody was some sort of success for the future was painful listening. If you don’t have a striker like Robin, Ade, or Giroud, why would an entire coaching staff go out of their way to ramp up crosses per game by 11.3 since November (James Benge stat)? Last time we came close to yesterday’s number of crosses we at least had Danny Welbeck to aim for (Leicester 2016).
Steve Round said in one of his Youtube videos that in the end, not winning enough games cost him the United gig. Now we’re following that regime’s legendary path to the bottom… literally.
Cross numbers were the least of our problems yesterday.
Arteta is stubborn. He is trying to will a flawed plan into points. Everyone looked at that starting 11 and worried we lacked legs and character. We gave Willian another game to bomb. We started Granit Xhaka despite his terrible form, his lack of physicality, and the absolute nothingness he offers to the squad. We gave Auba another game. The guy is a disgrace. Arsenal.com shouldn’t have run that interview with him in the week where he looked like he was a hostage on day 57 after being asked to denounce his religion, family, and love for nice things. He is not behaving like a captain. Everyone at Arsenal knows this. If your charismatic leader can barely crack a smile, how are the rest of the squad meant to pick themselves up? Leadership is turning up when things are hard, he’s not doing that right now.
The Thomas Partey decision delighted us. He was really solid for the minutes he played. Then something popped, he rolled off the pitch as a counter-attack started, and Arteta tried to shove him back on. It reminded me of that time Denilson dropped to the floor against United and didn’t smother the ball… except Wenger didn’t run on the pitch to pick the player up and kick him towards goal. If Partey has the same injury, we’re deeply fucked. It’ll take longer, there might be all sorts of complications. We’d have just killed our escape plan. We took a risk on our best player and broke him in the busiest month. Unbelievable banter. The worst of short term decisions. We were always a long shot to beat Spurs away. Now we’re a longshot to beat Burnley next week.
That starting 11 showed that Arteta is not learning his lessons. He saw what athleticism offered to the starting 11 in the week and he ignored it. He continues to opt for senior players that can’t play his system. His system might be fucking magnificent in his head or at City, but if the expensive experienced players he has can’t play it, it’s total shit. We thought we were hiring in a manager that could rearrange a motley squad of players to be better than the sum of its parts… it now looks like we’ve hired someone that is wedded to something he can’t do. At least when we shithoused we were competitive.
Arsenal won’t change the manager. The players will go long before he does, but that might be predicated on Arsenal not being in the relegation zone come the end of the month. We are shite. Our players have a long history of pundits bemoaning their meekness. But Mikel doubled down on them, no one asked him to. He gave out the deals, he extended the stay of execution for about 8 players, and he insisted that the things they do at training was the stuff of top 4 teams. Things went to shit in the first 10 games and he excused it by saying he needed 6 players to get back to the top. GREAT, we needed that actioned in the summer, not now.
Hector Bellerin was leaving. He was convinced by the project. We thought he had changed. Yesterday, he dropped his 6th foul throw of the season. HE IS A PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALLER AND HE FOUL THROWS. Let that sink in.
The opening 3 minutes of the game was beyond parody. Lacazette was so slow from kickoff he was clattered as he passed the ball out for a throw. Granit Xhaka’s first instinct when Harry Kane burned him for pace was to rugby tackle. Hector gave possession away from a throw. 3 of our most experienced players dropping amateur moments like that, how can you progress with players doing things like this?
It might start with retiring the season and playing the system with players that can do it, even if it’s not at the ‘technical’ level Arteta wants. At the moment, the principles we set out with look like they’re being soiled every week by senior players that don’t give a fuck. How can Mikel be so ruthless jettisoning the ‘bad’ players to the far reaches of nowhere (right decision), but so accommodating for the absolute bums he rolls out every week?
Here’s an idea he should have adopted this summer. Play the young players instead. Just like Frank Lampard did at Chelsea. The guys that are attached to the club. The guys that want careers beyond current contracts. The kids that have ceilings. If we’d written off this season and binned the idea of yet more short-term fixes, the fans wouldn’t be as angry as they are right now. He promised Willian a Champions League final in 3 years. He can’t even get an accurate cross from the Brazilian.
Can anyone honestly tell me AMN, Reiss, and Eddie could have put in a drossier performance than what we saw against Spurs? I suspect Möller might have been better suited to a system built for Giroud like target practice and he’s never played a first-team game. Would he have bottled challenges? Would he have cowered aerial balls? Would he have been so half-arsed?
Leeds United cause everyone problems because they have a system built to accommodate subpar players. Worse players than we have. Jurgen Klopp said a good gegenpress is better than a number 10. Time to get real, the current players can’t play City football. ‘What can they do?’ is a must-find answer.
That answer should be geared around power, pace, and one-touch passing. We need to get back to the aggressive pressing, it’s shocking that Arteta let it slide like Wenger used to. We need to have actual athletes in the middle of the park. We need to find a modern take on creativity because we’re not getting it with the players we have right now and lobbing the ball into the box will not work without big players who love to rough it with slaggy defenders. If there is a vision of what the football could be, let’s play it, even if it’s only at 80%… because at least we could see where this process could take us.
Cedric has a final ball and he’s fast, I doubt he makes foul throws. Why did we sign him for four years if he can’t play?
AMN marked Mahrez and Traore out of two games. He moves the ball fast, he’s aggressive, he has some flair in his passing. Give him games. Hold him accountable. Make him better.
Reiss Nelson can move. He is fucking rapid. His career depends on making it at Arsenal. Give him minutes because he cannot be worse for the system than a player who complained he didn’t really understand what Arteta wants from him after taking a £250k a week deal.
Would ESR offer as little movement between the lines as Lacazette. Would he give you 4 pass attempts into the penalty box as a #10? Alex was one of our better players and he didn’t do much bar run around with some aggression. There was a moment in the first half when Thomas Partey broke the lines and none of our forwards gave him the movement he needed. Painful viewing.
Auba is droppable. Willian is droppable. Xhaka should be left off the January squad list. If you are not doing it, you should not play.
I know fans think they know best. We mostly don’t. But we do know that a chunk of our players will always let Arsenal down because we’ve been watching the patterns for years. I have said it time and time again, I’d rather watch kids fail who can get better, than watch older players stink out the place because they don’t care.
Arteta was hired as a rookie. We were told to take a chance on his coaching and promise. He should take a chance on players that want to be there. Kicking on with the seniors that have a history of mentally collapsing at every opportunity is unacceptable leadership regardless of how old you are.
Give the Hale-Enders a go. They have a culture, a shared belief, and drive. The understandable mistake Arteta made was being conned by bums, the unforgivable one is continuing with them despite their utter tripe performances.
Ainsley had it right. Get some legs in the setup. Get ‘a little bit of dynamics’ going. Find a way, because that’s the job. The stubborn approach is not yielding results. Big names are taking the piss. It’s time to get a grip. It’s time for shock and awe. It’s time to resuscitate the season because it is about to need an ICU bed, the nurse is revving up the ventilator and we all know that means it’s 50/50 prognosis in the worst of ways.
There are plenty of managers that have turned dire situations around, but most of them have admitted mistakes and made changes. We need that and we need it fast. Arteta looks like he’s unraveling and that’s not good for anyone. Let’s hope the soul searching this week is a little deeper than ‘just do the same thing.’
Fingers crossed.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Listen to our podcast from Friday. It’s evergreen. Most of it holds true today.
I don’t think that Ainsley Maitland-Niles is the solution to our midfield. We need specialists who are top of their game and will add balance.
AMN is just an average multi functional player. A jack of all trades and a master of none.
Ater having watched Xhaka donkey around for 200 games for Arsenal LG now realises he offers nothing.
too much lackeying on present Arsenal regimes quite easily turns ppl in harebrained ppl like Arteta and Xhaka.
1. Partey was not fit to play and he knew it. Everyone knew it but we needed him to play. He is now out until the end of January.
2. Nothing will get better until Xhaka is taken out of the squad. AMN is sitting there waiting for the opportunity and is being ignored constantly.
3. Ceballos is more suited to the No10 role, but we’d rather stick him deep and stick Lacca in that role. Doesn’t make sense.
4. Willian does not deserve a place in the bench, let alone starting 11.
Arteta has made a lot of mistakes
Not one manager is going to solve all our problems but I’m sure not many will have us playing as badly as we’ve been. Smart buys, good tactical knowledge, an actual style of play with resources available. Klopp sure had the advantage of the Coutinho money but you could instantly see what he was trying to do the minute he walked in the door and how the players responded to that even those whom he eventually deemed not good enough. Ours basically just tried to be a miracle worker on players who had failed 2 previous managers and sent away… Read more »
ES
“I don’t think that Ainsley Maitland-Niles is the solution to our midfield.”
He’s just the current fad out of dozens and dozens of players put forward in the past that were going to solve all as well.
The latest recommendation regarding him was that he had a good match against the Rapid Vienna reserve team.
Need to fuck these under performers out of it for Burnley
Team I would go with
Leno
Soares, Mari, Gabriel, Tierney
AMN, Elneny
Nelson, Ceballos, Saka
Auba
If Arteta plays Willian or GX or Bellend again I’m done with him.
peanuts&monkeys
“Ater having watched Xhaka donkey around for 200 games for Arsenal LG now realises he offers nothing.”
It’s getting quite annoying now that those bloggers/media/ who were up his arse before are now turning on him.
We won’t forget that you actually rated this player at some point.
Clueless charlatans.
We now know why no top club wanted Auba.
It is clearly Artetas fault that we’re not performing. We are last in the league for chances created which means that all 19 other coaches can get a tune out of their attacking players regardless of player quality. It is clear that Arteta is egocentric, stubborn and lacks self awareness to know the problem is from him and not 100% on the players as he picks the same duds and refused to sell them when he had the chance. He said yesterday that we created a lot of chances and the strikers didn’t convert which shows that this guy doesn’t… Read more »
Arteta’s tactics yesterday (and for many other prior league matches) seem to be: 1) Progress the ball as slowly as possible down the wings, allowing the opposition to amass bodies and organise in the 18-yard box. 2) Lob as many hopeful crosses as possible, in the hope that a deflection would fall into the path of Auba or A.N. Other. Generational coaching? More like hit and hope. Even Allardyce and Pulis know that in order for crosses and an aerial barrage to be effective, you either need speed down the wings and/or a tall striker / set of players who… Read more »
“AMN is just an average multi functional player. A jack of all trades and a master of none”
Very harsh
1. Has he ever been given a chance in midfield?
2. Can he be any worse than what we have seen so far this season?
3. Who would you play then?
Very good read. Everything was spot on.
Arteta does deserve blame as well as the players but I dont believe the board should be given a free ride, they are just as culpable! They are a common denominator in this shit show.
We’ve upped our crossing stats – which is good.
I’m a little concerned we’re falling behind on our foul throw stats – Bellerin may have to up his game and perform one every two games.
Does anyone know how our xG on foul throws is looking?
The other recurring theme this season has been our absolute aversion to progressing the ball through the middle, graciously vacating this area of the pitch to our opponents
The reasons:
1) Xhaka still “plays”
2) Torreira, Guendouzi and Ozil are all banished from the squad, so other than Partey, there is no one left (other perhaps than AMN, who doesn’t get a look-in) who is comfortable progressing the ball through the middle.
We thought we were hiring in a manager that could rearrange a motley squad of players to be better than the sum of its parts… it now looks like we’ve hired someone that is wedded to something he can’t do. At least when we shithoused we were competitive. Am sorry,we?You are the one who promised us modern coaching methods and sauce only to turn out that we are now a shit version of stoke city.Why are you complaining that auba is the captain?Infact am with auba on this one,the guy hss played ober 10 years with a smile on his… Read more »
Arteta may be a rookie, but his biggest mistakes are not rookie mistakes, they are fundamental errors of judgement. I am willing to bet that if he has a career as a manager he will still be the same mistakes till the end. Pushing an injured player back onto the pitch is so stupid and smack so much of desperation. Leaving a CB on the pitch to head the ball with a bandage seeping blood is just shockingly bad. But then doubling down and instead of admitting mistake just show characters flow. Unwillingness to learn from mistakes mean that the… Read more »
Tony
Ancelotti has managed 6 clubs in last 10 years and and has not lasted more than two years
in any of them. Indeed his most recent appointments have been 1 year.
Whilst he may have started well this season his most recent results at Everton have been
progressively poor.
So I would not be jumping to recruit him.
Black Snake,
I get the sentiment but the Board don’t affect the performance, team selection or tactics. That’s on Arteta.
Left T,
We top the league stats for foul throws.
Bellerin is the Jamie Vardy of foul throws, comfortably ahead of the opposition.
WOAB
That’s a relief. I’ll sleep better tonight with that knowledge. 🙂
There’s an an undeniable arrogance behind these calls for ‘ Let’s hope the soul searching this week is a little deeper than ‘just do the same thing.’ Pedro is pretending that Arsenal is the unsinkable Titanic or the Barings bank that can never go under. There’s such a thing as the perfect storm theory and I be,Eugene we have elements of it in place; Absent disinterested owners.. Geriatric clueless BoD Inexperienced and weak technical director Inexperienced and delusional young manager who’s out of his depth Thus has the makings of a calamity unless someone steps in the break the vicious… Read more »
As far as I can make out the foul throw-ins xG is 1.284. Keep up the good work Bellend.
Left Testi – yeah i agree, performances and selection are down to the players and Arteta. But when it comes to finance and wasting funds the board can go fuck themselves!
*I believe we have elements of it in place
The downward spiral of Steve round?
A coach who has not lasted very long
where ever he has worked.
When you get fucked off by Moyes and Southgate
you know your in trouble.?mutual arrangement or not.?
I have tried to believe in Arteta, but I could never understand how a mediocre player and a Man City gofer was given this job. Can someone explain how it is even acceptable for a so-called manager once again to pick two total losers, Xhaka and Willian, rather than Elneny or AMN or ESR or Nelson.. GIVE THE YOUNGSTERS A CHANCE!!!!!!!! If you were Balogun, would you sign a new contract? MA persuades AMN to stay and then hardly picks him – what a joker! I like Özil, I know others don’t, but the way he has been treated and… Read more »
Anyway bar 3 crosses, the quality of the crosses was so poor that even Duncan Ferguson would have struggle to do anything of note with them.
Statically floating crosses from deep are the least likely to be scored, yet those are exactly the type our fullback are asked to send.
When you factor that not Aubameyang not Lacazette are great headers of the ball, I would seriously question the validity of persevering with the outdated, ineffective tactics.
Of course the result was dismal and seeing Arsenal of all teams struggling to create chances is a new low. But lets not forget the same Spuds side beat City 2-0 last week with the exact same game plan. All of their players are in excellent form and playing with a lot of confidence. Even Dier is putting in good performances.On the other hand our best player is in his worst form in 5 years. Partey played with an injury and we all know we cant create to save our lives. Of course this doesn’t and shouldn’t hide the fact… Read more »
But the Board can only go on Arteta and Edu’s recommendations. They wouldn’t extend contracts for the likes of Mustafi for the sake of it. That would be down to Arteta and Edu.
Pedro can’t bring himself to saying it
Arteta out.
He’s made mistake after mistake with the squad
His technical knowledge is paltry
His management is utter dross
He’s a one trick pony
He’s breaking players physically and destroying the careers of the likes of Saliba.
The club has put all their eggs in the Arteta basket but the only way we get of this tail-spin is to let him go.
Son has an xG of 3.8 this season. He’s scored 10 goals and is in the form of his life.
I don’t understand how people can diagnose the problem so well and then be circumspect about the the acute solution – fire the damn manager who has lost the plot.
Why give him a manager who’s clearly not suited to the job more time?
Is that in hope or as some sort moral obligation because I struggle to see where that even makes any sense really.
If you can’t see a plan or style within the first couple of months, chances are you’re never going to see one ever
Interesting to see Thomas Partey being blamed for:
Arsenal being outclassed by Totts
Playing while carrying a major injury
Virtually playing the midfield on his own
Informing his stubborn manager that he’s injured
Half the defence and said midfield completely AWOL
And the clincher is …..
…it would STILL have been a 5 v 3 had he been fit and on the pitch !
Andy Carroll’s current value is £2.8m on transfermarkt!
But we’d still have to improve the quality of corners and free kicks.
LT – this is where the board needs some nous and by the looks of it, they have none
I wonder if ‘big’ Dion Dublin would give up ‘Homes Under The Hammer’ for half a season?
Aubameyang on the wing crossing for ‘big’ Dion. But who would be on the through balls from Lacazette, our new ’10’?
CG/ SA gooner
I recognized your value on this blog a while ago, praised you and got dog abuse for it.
You tell the unpopular truth that’s often too jarring to go down well.
You have been more right about Arsenal than most of your detractors
Keep jamming and don’t stop so long as Pedro keeps you on
Valid point that if the board gave a rookie manager the chance, then Arteta should do the same with the kids, otherwise he’s not valuing that same principle…
Arteta should convert Gabriel to a Centre forward to head in the crosses
ES
As average as AMN can be he is 10 times better than what Xhaka is offering now!
Who in their right mind would assign xhaka to mark a player like Kane?
AMN did the job against the likes of Mahrez and Traore, and that’s why Arteta thought he would keep him .
Why not use him sameway yesterday or against wolves?
He also could have played instead of Bellend and he would have done much better
It’s not xhakas fault though , he is just doing what he is asked to do
As I said yesterday a generational manager would have asked Gabriel to stay top to contest all those high ball crosses
WE had an extremely effective left side of Tierney, AMN and Auba that won us the FA cup and C Shield against high level opposition so what does Arteta do – dismantle it.
WE have a totally ineffective right side of Holding, Bellerin, and Willian/pepe and what has Arteta done to fix it – nothing.
yesterday we should have gone with a 3 man fast & mobile midfield as suggested on le Grove and then said to Spurs if you want to win come at us, if not a draw would suit us fine.
Demetrios
If Partey was not fit and played, this is gross negligence on the part of Arteta.
Agree with everything you highlight.
Arteta has one more chance, against Burnley, to get it right.
It’s not that difficult.
If he makes the same mistakes, he’s finished.
Pedro deciding against quoting the abomination of an interview Arteta had: “I saw my team full of desire, passion, dominating the game, creating all the chances, all the situations” “We had chances. We generated probably more than ever this season” “In terms of the performance they did everything that I asked them to do, absolutely everything. We played a way that I believe we had to play this game. You look at all our stats, they were in our favour” “I take a lot of positives from the way we played.” Deciding against throwing Partey under the bus talking what… Read more »
Anyone seen the riposte that Aubameyang’s agent issued back on Twitter to counter Arteta’s publicly throwing his strikers under the bus.
Expect more of the fighting to go public.
Did Steve round buy his CV of the internet.?
Foxy
Don’t forget Martinez.
A catastrophic decision by Arteta
But Mikel doubled down on them, no one asked him to. He gave out the deals, he extended the stay of execution for about 8 players
Bingo, the one thing Arteta is turning out not to be, which he talks a great game about, is bold. Weak decisions, weak tactics. The Ozil decision was again weak not bold. Willian, Xhaka do these guys have no pride, atrocious for the money.
Aubas body language is dire, something must be up between him and coach.
I would have preferred we kept Martinez at the expense of purchasing Partey.
I’m sure the players would agree.
I dont think sacking Arteta the answer but i’d relieve him of a lot of the players without allowing him a veto….if the club arent going to have a big clear out in next 12 months then they must sack him, he is not the right man to get a song out of this rabble.
Many of us told Pedro that Laca was being rushed back too soon
…but wait, Pedro drinks from the same delusional streams as Arteta.
I recall when Pedro was repeatedly writing about Emery breaking players because Holding was injured by a reckless tackle from Rashford. He brought out the infamous ‘red-zone’ whipping stick.
Arteta rushed his most vital player back too soo and then literally pushed him beyond the break point. Can’t make it up.
‘Arteta was hired as a rookie. We were told to take a chance on his coaching and promise.’ Actually, Pedro, you were the one who did most of the telling. And you didn’t even stop at ‘take a chance on his coaching and promise’, you proclaimed him to be WORLD CLASS! You also said the guy had SAUCE, but on that I now believe you; cos I saw the sauce during the last game when he shoved an injured player back into the field to save his own ass; £45m player who had just given his best for Mikel the… Read more »
Utterly depressing start to the week. The result as predictable as they come in my opinion.
Good post Pedro and I think its worth emphasizing the key word in it for me, “stubborn”. For all the well-known shortcomings of the usual suspects, Arteta continues to pick them believing he somehow knows more about them than everyone else.
This is a really bad managerial flaw and he has to fix this or will have a very uninspiring career in management, be it at Arsenal or anywhere else.
Pedro
Mostly a decent piece I just have a couple of issues with it.
1) I think it’s unfair to blame Auba at the moment the guy’s getting zero supply.
2) The brand of football Arteta is pushing is not City’s it’s peak Stoke.
3) ” We were told to take a chance on his coaching and promise.” Er you were one of the people telling fans we should go for him and it wasn’t a chance it was a sure thing.
4) You need to add “Sack him” and the piece will be more rounded
Under the last coach we had the cut backs which played to our strikers strengths and they scored lots of goals. This season our generational dud feels the best way to get Auba and Laca scoring is to get as many hopeful (very poor crosses I must say) balls into the box against defenders who are very good in the air. If the NLD continued till now we won’t still score rather we would be picked apart by son and Kane. Throw in the fact that Bellerin has as many as five foul throws in a single season then you… Read more »
Graham62
‘ Arteta has one more chance, against Burnley, to get it right.’
Why is Burnley at home a litmus test
Even is we beat Burnley, what does that prove?
Is this how big clubs are run? Give the manager the lowest denominator to redeem himself?
Old obsession = play out from the back at any cost
Current obsession = hit as many crosses in as possible regardless of quality
Next obsession = ?
Adjusted expectations.
1. Finish in top half
2. Reach Europa Semis
Some of you have clearly never dumped a girl before and it shows.
Arteta has to go now.
Not next week. Not in 3 months.
Now.
“Unwillingness to learn from mistakes mean that the same mistakes will be repeated.” I can’t believe that Arteta is so naive. All of us know how Leicester City will play except Arteta. He didn’t learn from the mistake. Didn’t he watch how Mou defeated Pep’s MC. He’ll suck you in and quick counter through Kane and Son. Again Arteta directed his team to fall into the trap. If he plays GX, don’t let him go pass the midfield line. He would be bypassed like a training cone. If he plays Bellerin, at least asked him to keep Son in check.… Read more »
What where Arteta’s long term plans.?
To crack it with Arsenal and manage
Barcelona.
Not with this owner not with this squad.
Dissenter
I’m talking about selection of players.
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
OK so Rapid Vienna were pony but you could see some invention from our midfield. Mo, AMN Emile etc. Come the weekend we revert back to the same players who have let us down week after week after week – Insanity.
Foxy Don’t forget Martinez. A catastrophic decision by Arteta
Yes the way Martinez is able to initiate fast counter attacks was all to clearly illustrated in the third Villa goal against us. The ball was in our half with Grealish in about the same time Xhaka needs to take his usual 3 + touches at the edge of our penalty area before passing sideways or back.
Very correct Gentle … Arteta was declared world class before managing his first game and it was said that he had sauce and was bringing City IP. The only semblance of city IP is that he’s asking for 6 new players to play a formation we’re not even sure he’ll set up properly. Pedro even went as far as saying Arteta should’ve been given the job immediately after Wenger.. I’m sure he’ll have been eaten alive with the heavy demands of replacing a legend like Wenger. He came in when expectations were at an all time low and he still… Read more »
Graham62
Quipping about selection of players is like arguing about what floral arrangements to have in the first class dining salon of the titanic on its maiden journey.
Any manager who’s selling point is the number of crappy crosses made into the box should be fired the next day.
The manager is not for for purpose. Even if we beat Burnley< it proves nothing because we will still be in the lower third of the table.
I genuinely believe now we are on course for relegation, it may not happen this season but it is coming. It happened to Aston Villa, Leeds and Newcastle in the past twenty years and they probably thought they were too big to go down at one point as well. The rot has been set for a long time people, wake up and smell the coffee. Due to the negligence of this board we have been regressing since 2008, we have been overtaken by Chelsea as Londons biggest club in terms of global support and recent success. Could you imagine thinking… Read more »
Dissenter,
Everybody has seen Aubameyang’s agent tweet which basically is a carefully worded retort to Arteta accusation that the game was lost because the strikers did not take their chance.
Create chances and Aubameyang will score was the implied message. Which by inference means that the team does not create chances and that is Arteta’s responsibility.
Arteta is going to lose that argument, because
We are BOTTOM of the league for chances created!!
Agreed Dave, we may have got downed even with the younger players in the squad yesterday but you can at least believe they would have applied themselves properly, played with pride and passion and tried to do their best for themselves, their teammates and the shirt. Some of these senior players have played a big hand in the final outcome of our previous managers, they are not the sort to put your trust in and it’s foolhardy of Arteta to throw Partey under the bus. The man shouldn’t have been on the pitch in the 1st place and now we… Read more »
Le sauce
Can you imagine the carnage we would have had if Arteta was given the job after Wenger?
Just a note for Pedro’s little band of faithful followers who are saying we need to give Arteta time – You were all calling for Emery’s head before a ball was kicked what’s different now?
Pedro Spot on piece, I, agree with every way. My belief in Arteta was that he would ditch the old and bring in the new. Apart from a couple of exceptions, he hasn’t. Instead, he has behaved like a youngster over-awed by his elders. By now he should have cottoned on to the obvious: Xhaka, Bellerin, Willian are a hopeless task, and that Lacasette and Auba have lost their edge. After the energetic display on Thursday, he should have played AMN, Willock, Nketiah. They would likely have lost but they would not have been the embarrassment we witnessed yesterday. Let’s… Read more »
Jesus….people still going on about pride and passion in 2020.
What does that even mean? We didn’t lose yesterday because of that. We lost because we didn’t have a clue what we were doing.
Valentin
No, we are making 50 crosses into the box per game
Arteta rubbed minds with his merry band of yes-men and that’s the world class solution they came up with.
Pressure has a way of being out the best or the worst in people. It’s the best test of character or acumen.
Any decent organization, sporting or otherwise, would have realized by now that Arteta is not even good enough to lead our U23 and act swiftly. But I suspect not Arsenal. In the first place, it was a shame that an organization as big as Arsenal bought an empty hype during a very crucial time. Josh kept rambling on about having a CL expenditure on a Europa income, yet when it was time to finally correct that, they neglected proven success like Allegri, Jose and others to engage the services of a ‘promise’. So now that the ‘promise’ has turned out… Read more »
“Arsenal won’t change the manager. The players will go long before he does, ”
Not the way Arteta keeps offering new contracts to piss poor players = Mustafi for example. The players who will leave will be Gabriel, Tierney, Saka, Partey etc and anyone thinking someone like Aouar or Slobby’s going to join us in Jan needs to lay off the sauce.
Arsenal aren’t a serious club anymore. Any other top six club bar Manchester united would have issued Arteta his sack letter this morning, the problem is not that he is confused and needs help but the guy thinks he’s actually doing the right thing and everything about yesterday went according to plan except the strikers didn’t take their chances. He use his post match press conference to put the players under the bus which shows that guy is a fucking narcissistic probably because the FA cup win has gotten into his head and he now thinks he is a seasoned… Read more »
” and that Lacasette and Auba have lost their edge.”
It’s this sort of comment that shows the complete lack of awareness in some fans. Laca hasn’t had an edge for 18 odd months as for Auba a dozen PL matches ago he missed out on the Golden Boot by a single goal – he also scored 2 goals in the Cup Final.
It’s not the players its the manager.
It was said Wenger is the cause if Arsenal decline, Arteta fell into the same trap by shouldering the Ozil situation, yet Ozil is being crucified for the loyalty £8m. Stan bought that club (toy) for his son Josh, It doesemt bother him much as long as he comtinurs looting tv monies he’s getting to labish his american football stadium. Arsenal will rue the day David Dein walked through that door. When arsenal were attacking, spurs never retreated but it becomes tbe other way round. Disgusted.
Dissenter
The failure would be unimaginable. He came after Emery messed up the whole place and he still out did Emery. That is simply generational!!!
If all that was needed was time and new £50 million players then Wenger should still be manager because both him and Emery wouldn’t lose back to back NLDs talk more of losing while playing absolute horse shit football
JP do one you weasal. If you are passionate about what you take and take pride in yourself then you wouldn’t go on to a field “not knowing what you are doing””
these jumped up newbies on here…
‘You were all calling for Emery’s head before a ball was kicked what’s different now?’
Marc, there is no difference at all. I’m not sure why Arteta has any more leeway than Emery did.
*what you do
The 50 crosses won’t be a problem if we still had Giroud. You have two strikers (3 if you add Eddy when he came on) who barely score headers against Toby Ald and Dier who would eat up those crosses all day yet the coach said we created lots of chances and the strikers didn’t take em. Pure bullshit!!
Agent: Arsenal and Spuds want you.
Player: Are you fucking kidding me, get me to WHL!
Now the giants are stuck in the minnows’ shadows.
Could take years and years before a successful repair.
Diet pep is a moron
1. Clashed with Guen, we coined non negotiables
2. Clashed with Ozil, cut his nose to spite his face
3.publicly declares, Team need 6 new players
4.luiz gate
5. Partey gate
6. Clashing with Auba, Auba responds via proxy
7. Situation between him and Edu is tense
I could go on and on.
What Arteta did with respects to pushing Partey back onto the pitch and then proceeding to call him out for it for all to hear? Stunning behaviour from any manager.
Is that what Arteta refers to as the “non-negotiables” ?
Leftside
There’s no difference as far as you me and several others on here are concerned but there are posters who are making excuses.
This isn’t a case of Arteta not achieving his targets like competing for a CL spot it’s taking the position he inherited and making it a lot worse. We’re looking at missing out on a EL spot at this rate – that’ll be another £30 million we lose and people are writing scouting reports.
I have seen enough now to know that Arteta is not qualified to manage. Arsenal wont fire him, but Arteta’s behaviour and actions are making such a decision absolutely inevitable.
Ernest
Honest to god I couldn’t believe Arteta pushed him back on the pitch so he aggravates the injury further.
It’s like the argument on here last week over whether Luiz should have been subbed straight away – he missed yesterday because the cut was still too severe to play why wasn’t that the case when it happened?
Unsurprisingly, yet another article torturously trying to deflect blame from a clueless manager/coach to the players. It is not the players, it’s the coach. Simple. How can you blame Auba for not scoring when the dross he is served is 15 feet in the air. The guy is not Giroud. Never has been and never will be. Auba is not stupid and he knows he is being made to look stupid by the stupid tactics of a manager who seems to have been lobotomised when he walked in the door. If it was me I would be pissed … any… Read more »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg8-ezd8jwo
Marc, are these the non-negotiables that Arteta has defined himself by? For me these are the actions of a lunatic. First Luiz and now Partey?
Going to say it, Arteta has lost perspective and objectivity. His behaviour of late is not what anyone should expect nor accept. Compromising player safety because of your so-called non-negotiables? Stunning behaviour.
Partey still ran faster than Xhaka.
Arteta spend the entire summer publicly pushing the club to extend Auba’s contract.
He declined a good offer for Laca last summer
…then he proceeds to misuse birth strikers with his lump-a-cross tactic.
We aren’t depending on fine movements or cutbacks, just telling players to run to the byline and lump the ball.
Thought experiment: Arteta walks into lead the Barca team c2008-10 and tells the guys that passing through the thirds is old school.
He now wants the ball played to the wings asap (max of two to four passes) before bombing a cross into the box. Messi, Villa and Pedro will win the first and nut it in, or failing that, will definitely win the second ball and score. Simple, its a percentage game,,, just get enough crosses in and you will score.
My stats tables from the 1970s says it is so…
Sid
8. Silbra was so mad that he wants to take a pay cut to leave.
Arteta claims to not have known the extent of Partey’s injury? He didn’t obviously know the extent of Luiz’s injury either despite Luiz having his head bandaged up and blood dripping from it.
Of course he wouldn’t know the extent, even if it was blatantly obvious – he’s too busy barking out orders to actually pay attention!