Arteta Enters The Death Spiral®

by .

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.
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Gbat

Raptora

You’re still just posting stats. And it reads like you think the players aren’t to blame. Like they’re robots under the manager’s control. The players have to take responsibility for their own performances.
Never played the game have you?

raptora

Paulinho,
I know who you might be talking about.
How Arteta has solved the defensive problem, and as long as we give him time, he’ll fix the attack as well, and how a team is always built from defence to offence. Obviously he didn’t thought about that we were defending with 9 players so we were conceding less but we were also scoring less. It was literally it.

Dissenter

The only attacking stats that matter are the 44 crosses into the vicinity of the opposition box.
Arteta’s masterplan is to get defenders from the other side to score own goals

Dissenter

Gbat
What about the manager that keeps selecting these players who don’t take responsibility
Are we allowed to write about the manager?

JP

Leftside – Did you mean weasel? If you’re going to insult at least spell it correctly.

Do you really think if we played Nelson, Eddie, ESR and Willock yesterday their “pride and passion” would have won us the game…..Or could it be that we were setup to fail because of the coach and his tactics/instructions?

Did Spurs win because of their “pride and passion” or was it because they had a game plan which we walked straight into?

Gbat

Dissenter

Who should he be picking? Because I look at that squad and don’t really see any obvious choices. I don’t rate Holding. But I also don’t rate Luiz, Mustafi or Sorkratis. What do Elneny, Maitland-Niles, Xhaka, Ceballos, Torriera, Guendouzi offer really.

raptora

Gbat, Mostly the same players that finished 5th 2 years ago. Now they magically can’t score, can’t get a result, lose every game. And you tell me it’s the players’ fault? If you are trying hard to make it like we have a championship squad, or that they magically started to suck to an extend that from a top 5 we are a bottom 5 team now, then sure. You do you. But If you’re saying that the players have given up on their manager than a loud, resounding YES. You should think about why. When the players collectively stop… Read more »

andy1886

If a goal is from a dead ball situation or open play isn’t that definitive anyway. It comes down to ‘phase of play’ in the same way that a referee can let the game go on after a foul for several moves and then call it back if it’s considered the same ‘phase of play’.

So any argument about the Wolves goal is subjective, potentially you could both be right so go away, be smug and stop calling people c*nts.

andy1886

Incidentally I doubt Pedro could be SR, if he was he’d have a more expansive collection of insults to bandy around. Say what you like about marketing people (go on, do it!) but they do tend to be creative almost to the point of absolute fantasy.

Ernest Reed

So i guess an obvious question needs to be asked. Given Auba’s poor form of late, and not to mention what appears to be concerning body language, do you start Auba on Sunday against Burnley?

For me, start him on Thursday to get him going again and don’t dress him for Sunday. Don’t know what else any manager can do with some who, for all appearances, looks to have switched off almost completely.

gooner4life

I just wish all contributors would refrain from using vulgar obscene language as a life long fan i have always been able to express my comments without using form of language which offend fellow contributors and readers. I hope fellow contributors will comply with my request.

Zacharse

Playing youth is great but at arsenal playing youth is done as a cost cutting measure. The chelsea youngsters are on a different level to most of ours. Nelson, eddie And willock would be nowhere near a top 8 side except as backup and they sure as shit wouldnt be getting games under lampard/klopp etc

andy1886

Talk of the Devil..

Afternoon Pedro, or good morning!

raptora

Zach,
Agreed.

Eddie, Nelson and Willock are not going to impove our results.

We need our manager to make our 50m players play like 50m players, like they’ve shown before. If he can’t, then it’s unattainable.

Left Testicle

Malcolm telling himself off for unacceptable behaviour. 🙂

alexanderhenry

You can always count on Untold for an alternative point of view, bless ’em:

https://untold-arsenal.com/archives/84328

Ernest Reed

Zacharse, personally i would put out last Thursday’s lineup against Burnley. At the very least you would have hunger on display, something totally lacking from the well fed underperforming group we saw yesterday. Tweak it with one or two, but otherwise go with it.

At this point, Arteta has zero to lose because thats all he has been doing of late with this bunch.

Kaz

Deleting my comments again glorious leader?

I never knew you were so sensitive.

Left Testicle

Nelson puts in a half decent display on Thursday – not even in the squad Sunday.

Left Testicle

Willian constant average displays – walks (literally) in to every game.

JP

Zacharse

Agree completely. Eddie, ESR, Willock, Nelson have yet to prove they can make a difference at Premier League level when surrounded by international class players.

Imagine them left to their own devices against seasoned pro’s. We wouldn’t just be losing, we’d be getting humiliated

EdTheRed

What are realistic choices to replace Arteta?

Kaz

Well they aren’t.

You support Arsenal or you support Arteta.

The two are in different directions.

Ernest Reed

I would sincerely like to believe that Arteta by now knows exactly what he has at his disposal and hopefully, hopefully, he settles in once and for al, with a set lineup that does not put on displays like those of recent?

Surely Arteta cannot be as obtuse as he is showing?

SpanishDave

The experiment with a rookie manager will come to an end soon. Even if we scrap,a few results it’s getting too late. Auba is totally uninterested and will start to look into getting away to get some silverware. We have no proven goal scorer to help out and our attacking strategy is weak and has no structure to it. We did think Arteta at first had something to offer but he has drifted into the same rut as previous managers by using favorites and ignoring youth players. As usual it’s going to be messy until the directors are forced to… Read more »

Left Testicle

I would sincerely like to believe that Arteta by now knows exactly what he has at his disposal
>>>>>>>>>
Yet he selected Xhaka over Elneny, Ceballos, Willock and AMN yesterday!

Receding Hairline

“You can always count on Untold for an alternative point of view, bless ’em

:https://untold-arsenal.com/archives/84328

Truly shocking article, can’t believe an adult wrote that.

TR7

I think the next 5 league games are crucial not only for our season but also for Arteta’s future at the club. Anything less than 7 points could force the hand of Josh Kroenke.

Just makes me mad with people saying give him a chance!! Why the fuck should we give him even 1 more game. Just like when we moved to the Emirates, we were sold a dream with arteta, a generational coach, world class, a genius!! What a load of shit. Years ago if a lady commented on football we’d laugh, yet Alex Scott can see that what Arteta is doing won’t work, she’s asking about the wisdom of lumping crosses in to a guy who’s scored 3 goals with his head in his whole Arsenal career, not to mention fact our… Read more »

Left Testicle

Untold remind me of Antifa.

andy1886

Ah, mad uncle Tony, care in the community strikes again.

What’s the word on the street Pedro? I’d assume that it’s all calm and supportive on the outside at least but something tells me that internally there will be jockeying and people taking different positions to enhance their own prospects somewhere down the line.

No wonder Bouldy stepped back to look after the U23’s.

The backpass

“I am the sharpest , most perceptive observer on here by a mile- although The G, Pierre and Guns of H run me close.”

LOL

Quality from CG there.

Kaz

Ed the red

Allegri, Rafa hopefully, Tuchel if he gets replaced.

These are realistic and would be great appointments to push us up.

However most experienced midtable managers would get a better tune out of the team than mini Moyes currently does.

Hussenhutl probably the best choice of midtable managers.

Nuno would at least have us playing like a counter attacking team and attract some of his good Portuguese talent too.

Poch wouldn’t touch us.

Leftside

You gotta ask yourself what top class manager would want to work with these lazy, entitled players that can’t apply themselves when the going gets even a tad rough

Receding Hairline

Pedro now you understand why we collapsed towards the end during a season when just a win against Brighton would have sealed a return to the Champions league Now you understand why we collapsed spectacularly against Chelsea in the EL final despite an excellent first half where we should have gone in ahead Now you understand Xhaka was not “improved”, he was just hidden away behind an ultra defensive system, the minute he tries to play in midfield he is beyond a joke I am all for giving Arteta time, but his post game interview yesterday didn’t point to a… Read more »

alexanderhenry

Receding

It’s a real hoot over there- proper, paranoid lunatic fringe stuff.

Zacharse

Ernest
A worse outcome then losing w a youth team in is setting back their development and looking like a fool after the fact. Pretend for a sec that burnley wipes the floor w a youth heavy team. The decision then looks worse than seasoned pros getting roundly beat by a better squad and more experienced manager (yesterday).
This may be the sink or swim time for some of them, but i dont think black and white solutions will help the squad as a whole.

TR7

I think we weren’t bad against Spurs. Kane and Son are just top class players who can convert half chances in to goals. Sadly our strikers are nowhere close to their level.

Kaz

Leftside

If your boss is a twat you don’t want to work for him.

Very basic human stuff.

A lot of fans think playing for the badge is all the motivation a player should have, but this is slightly delusional thinking unless they’ve been at the club since they were kids.

Receding Hairline

“I think the next 5 league games are crucial not only for our season but also for Arteta’s future at the club. Anything less than 7 points could force the hand of Josh Kroenke.”

7 of 15? That would mean you are banking on beating Brighton and Burnley then drawing Everton. TR7 you used to have higher expectations than that, what happened to you?

JOEL

Arteta it seems has the same problem as his predecessors.. An inability to recognise mistakes,learn from them and realise that different teams operate with different tactics.Allowing Bellerin to deal with Son rather than AMN had a predictable result.Persevering with both Xhaka and William for Premier League games against opposition set up to counter-attack is a recipe for disaster.Whilst Xhaka enjoyed a solid end to last Season in comparison to his earlier Season ineptitude..that slackness was always going to return particularly given the prospect of playing second fiddle to the more able Partey and the more industrious Elneny.Lacazette offers the team… Read more »

Kaz

TR7

We weren’t terrible, but Spurs didn’t have to work hard to beat us.

That’s the sad reality, they secured two goals and never needed to extend themselves after.

Barely left second gear against us.

Emiratesstroller

I want to reflect further on two major decisions made by the club. The first was to appoint Arteta who is considered by many so-called football experts to be an excellent and knowledgable coach. The club including presumably the owner decided to take a risk when employing him and by so doing you should take “a long term view on this appointment”. If you are not willing to do so then you should not appoint him in the first place. What was possibly a mistake was to promote him from head coach to manager. By doing so the club has… Read more »

China1

That person defending arteta after we lost to city was me The reason was our results at the start of the season were good and a continuation of how we ended last season. We were winning most games and the ones we had lost were against Liverpool and then very narrowly against city in a game we could’ve come away with something. We had also beaten pool and Leicester in the league cup so things were very positive around then imo At the end of the day we’re not going to win every game and if you lose a couple… Read more »

Receding Hairline

I think we weren’t bad against Spurs

That was the impression Spurs needed to create

We had the ball for large parts of that game, how many saves of note did Lloris make? The bouncing header from Lacazette was the most threatening. We kept attacking (attack is a strong word) from the left like that was the only part of the pitch the rules allow us to attack from

Gentlebris

’20th in the PL for chances created, let that fucking sink in. Less creative than Dycheball and Bruceball.’

Sauce Sauce Sauce…everywhere SAUCE!

Generational World Class Sauce!

After Ivan G and now Arteta, Pedro should just retire.

Zacharse

Pedro
It doesnt make sense why so many youth were kept/promoted etc when you look at their form now. Agreed. I think amn and eddie have futures but i watch games on illegal streams most of the time so my opinion ya know its not worth much…
I do think $ problems are at play after nearly a quarter of a billion spent on laca, xhaka, ozil, pepe, saliba, torreira, guendoZi
I also believe the kroenkes are the kind of owners who do not like to get their fans excited, would rather keep their expectations in late wenger zone

Kaz

Anyway Tets is bashing players in public it’s a tactic to fire them up and he has badly misread them. We aren’t old Arsenal full of confidence energy and ability.

We’re new Arsenal, full of arrogance with softer players. This isn’t the right way to fire them up (from a novice manager no less)

Again shows how bad he is.

Sid

‘SuperRob, unacceptable behaviour again. That sort of nonsense is not for this site.’

Its been such a bad week supreme leader is having a conversation with himself. Thanks to L’il Moyes

WengerEagle

We won’t win at Brighton the way we are playing.

I wouldn’t bank on us to pick up more than 6 points from the next 5 matches. Chelsea, Everton and Southampton who will have Ings back will all fancy beating us.

TR7

Receding My expectation was top 4 from Emery and from Arteta too. I don’t buy the argument that we have a horrible team. City, Pool, Chelsea and Spurs have better group of players than us but we should be 5th purely on the basis of strength of our squad and I expected Arteta to help us punch above our weight and pull off top 4. I think Arteta has lost the dressing room, nothing else explains our shocking performances. 7 from the next 15 is not my expectation, I am trying to second guess how Josh and Co would be… Read more »

Receding Hairline

“The first was to appoint Arteta who is considered by many so-called football experts to be
an excellent and knowledgeable coach.”

Are we still taking solace in this? He has been here a year now surely we can pass judgments for ourselves.

He devised a way to win the cup games against better opposition, a style of play many least expected of him going by his words and where he trained, that has been worked out now.

What else has he done that validates excellence and knowledge?

alexanderhenry

Gentlebris

‘Pedro should just retire.’

Your logic being what exactly? Are you about to start your own arsenal blog?

IQ

I think both Ozil and Saliba decisions were motivated by cost-cutting but have backfired horribly.

Xhaka and Bellerin must be absoultely amazing in training. That’s three managers they’ve been able to bluff into keeping them in the team.

Kaz

Pedro, we still appreciate you.

It’s hard to take when someone you help up so high disappoints you so often.

Considering how bad he sets the team up and how he gets them to play, would you really want him with another TW?

I hope they’re sounding out replacements behind his back, I really do.

raptora

Stroller: From recollection the decision to recall him back to club and not allow him to play for St Etienne was not taken by Arteta but the senior management at club. So Arteta is hardly to blame for what has happened since.

Shocking excuses really. Do you type this with a straight face or are you trolling at this point? Apparently he is going to forever be mad at the club for not letting him play in their cup final. Up to the point that he wants out of the club for that alone. ??????????

Receding Hairline

” 7 from the next 15 is not my expectation, I am trying to second guess how Josh and Co would be looking at/re-evaluating Arteta’s situation.”

Ok fair enough, i misunderstood that

I for one think a true pointer to redemption would be beating Burnley, Brighton and Everton (who really aren’t all that), then avoiding defeat against the tricky Saints and some sort of performance against an excellent Chelsea side who will attack us.

Bertfish

I think Arteta gave a lot of players a stay of execution due to the FA cup win. However the chickens have come home to roost once again. These players cannot be improved upon as Wenger, Emery & now Arteta have found out to there cost! The defending yesterday was a joke. Bellend, Holding & GX all culpable yesterday. Bellend on both goals, caught out of position on the 1st goal then not closing Son down & then delivering a terrible pass that led to the 2nd. Holding again just backed off & off not engaging Son & leaving him… Read more »

Receding Hairline

“I think Arteta gave a lot of players a stay of execution due to the FA cup win.”

That means he never had a plan, a process. The FA cup win was the best way to send most of them on their way.

Now he has a dressing room of average vipers to contend with.

Gentlebris

TR7,

Spuds didn’t actually bother is the fact. They were so sure. They just waited for the right time to go forward. They never left second gear. Arsenal was so easy Jose was vibing happily.

All we did in the game was hurry the ball to the left to cross it, so Spuds had no reason to roll the sleeves.

andy1886

“The first was to appoint Arteta who is considered by many so-called football experts to be
an excellent and knowledgeable coach.”

But coaching isn’t the same as managing is it?

And with very little real football knowledge within positions of power within the club we really do need a manager, not just a coach.

Sid

Supreme leader has had a tough few daysand in a show of appreciation im offering him therapy
Its all for free!

Now close your eyes supreme leader, imagine Sids long stuff smacking l’il Moyes face, 100, 99, 98, 97, ……

Gentlebris

‘Now he has a dressing room of average vipers to contend with.’

Average footballers but good vipers to contend with… if I may rearrange.

Zacharse

TR7 First i agree we werent that bad yesterday. THATS THE PROBLEM! If we play a decent game and then spuds beat us roundly two nil thats bad in more ways then just lost points. To me thats a season ender, belief shattered and i dont think arteta can do anything about it nor do i think he had it in his power over the last week to really do anything to change the outcome of yesterday. I think pedros right that artetas mistakes of the “summer” are coming back to bite him but really he didnt have a whole… Read more »

raptora

Pedro, kudos to you if you have seen the light.
I’m not happy that it all points to Arteta sacking sooner rather than later, cause obviously Arsenal is at a 40 year old low. We all would have been ecstatic if he went on to win the Champions League in 3 years time. Sadly, it’s going the opposite way. It is inevitable as it looks, better face it and deal with it. Good on you.

TR7

‘ I for one think a true pointer to redemption would be beating Burnley, Brighton and Everton (who really aren’t all that), then avoiding defeat against the tricky Saints and some sort of performance against an excellent Chelsea side who will attack us.’ Yeah that’s how I look at it too. Ideally 9 points from Burnley, Brighton and Everton, 1 point from the game against Saints and nothing from the game against Chelsea but honestly even zero points from the next 5 games wouldn’t shock me. The team is not playing for the manager and when that happens all bets… Read more »

Danny+S

Sid

No one, and I mean literally no one wants to imagine that.

I won’t be sleeping tonight.

IQ

Holding gets a raw deal on this site, he’s not that bad. Defending is about partnerships and when your right back regularly vacates his space and every week you have a new right sided midfielder “filling in” its very difficult to work out when to close down and when to just delay and when to tackle. If Holding dives in on the attacker without cover and gets beat then the attacker is in on goal with just the goalkeeper to beat. That’s why most defenders will try to delay to allow for the right back to get back before one… Read more »

Receding Hairline

“Average footballers but good vipers to contend with… if I may rearrange.”

Exactly

Gbat

Raptora

We finished 5th but weren’t exactly impressive were we. And no I don’t think the squad is Championship standard. Of course it should be performing better, but I can’t be blaming the manager for every little thing.

You seem to think it’s easy to buy and sell players. It’s not FIFA. That’s probably the closest you’ve ever come to playing football.

Emiratesstroller

Pedro

I agree 100% that Arsenal should have built a successful coaching team around Arteta if you
are going to appoint a rookie and frankly we could still attempt do so.

It was suggested to me this morning that Arsenal could still consider bringing in someone to
assist him in his job such as Overmars or Bergkamp. Bergkamp for example has no ambition
to become a Manager, but wants still to coach and if there is anyone on the planet who understands the art of skill and creativity it is him.

Ishola70

IQ “Xhaka and Bellerin must be absoultely amazing in training. That’s three managers they’ve been able to bluff into keeping them in the team.” It’s player power. These two are in the side for so long because they are liked by their fellow team mates. Forget actual player ability. Just being liked by your team mates is enough to get you in. Players should never be given these sort of powers. What should happen is that you indulge them only if they have adhered to an instruction previously. Reward them. Treat them like children. It’s like dog training. On no… Read more »

Receding Hairline

Daily Mail reporting Arteta will hold talks with Partey over his walking off

I hope that is just sensational bullshit reporting

salparadisenyc

“Managers keep the faith through good decisions” .Thats the crux of it, I definitely put some stock in notion of benching the underperforming core and starting fresh to reboot, maybe the only option left for Arteta. Picking up where Freddy left off. PEA, Willian and Laca barring recent Rapid have all looked shadows of expectation. Xhaka is a conversation we don’t need to address, why he found the starting XI yesterday is when essentially everyone was available. But the Partey incident really is inexcusable, with an Arteta meme tied in for the end game if or when it comes to… Read more »

Zacharse

Bris
It was a mourinho team
They shithoused the fuck out of us
Hojberg, lo celso, dier, sissoko
If u dont think spuds put in a Hard shift you didnt watch

WengerEagle

Paulinho Agree and it’s why caution was put forward when we went on our unbeaten run under Emery in his first season. We were winning games that we were created little to virtually nothing in. The rate that we were converting chances was unsistainable and as we regressed to the mean, we all saw what happened. Arteta came in and steadied the ship and made us more resolute at the back but it came at the expense of our attacking play. Not that it was great under Emery but we weren’t breaking records and footing the table on PL clubs… Read more »

Bertfish

RC

He had a plan, he wanted Aouar more creativity. However he honestly also thought these players were better than they are due to that FA cup win & results we got against City & Chelsea. He’s been caught with his trousers down now & is getting fucked royally up the arris big time.

raptora

Lul at this guy commenting on if I played football or not. If you go there, then I guess you have not many arguments in your favour.

Receding Hairline

“We finished 5th but weren’t exactly impressive were we”

We scored more league goals than Chelsea and Spurs

Had the third best home record in the division behind the sensational City and Spurs

Had a storming run to the EL final where we dispatched tricky teams like Napoli and Valencia with minimal fuss

But yea lets compare that to this season where we have lost 6 league games in December, near identical.

TR7

Kaz/Gentle/Zacharse

I agree Spurs never got out of second gear but still I think in terms of our own level of play we were better yesterday than say against the likes of Leicester, Villa, Wolves etc. How much of that is attributable to Spurs allowing us to play is of course debateable but yesterday wasn’t a shit show. If we had played Emery or AMN instead of Xhaka I think we would have fared better. Almost feels like playing with a man down whenever Xhaka plays.

Danny+S

Bertfish

One player doesn’t magically lift us from being bottom of the league for chances created to playing like peak Barca or anywhere near.

Xhaka, Laca, Bellerin, Mustafi, Kola and I think even Auba should have been aggressively sold in the summer and then well scouted players in Artetas mould brought in.

Instead, he’s tried to act like some kind of saviour and rather egotistically tried to salvage every player in the squad (bar the obvious ones).

He has made this bed, now he’s having to sleep in it and it’s not pretty.

Dissenter

As usual, Emirates stroller is issuing wordy posts about nothing.

The reason why Saliba wasn’t allowed to play for St Etienne in the French cup final was over contractual clauses that would have cost Arsenal money. The French club reused to waive the clauses so left Arsenal with no choice.
Get your facts right or ask Ken Friar

Marc

Why will so many not accept the painfully obvious fact that is staring them in the eye – Arteta is not a good manager.

He may in some years with more experience become a good manager but right now he’s losing the players and is lucky large numbers of fans aren’t back in the ground.

raptora

73 goals scored in 2018/19 was 3rd best in the league and not by a goal or two. It would have been 3rd best in 2019/20 as well, but instead we finished with 56 goals, 17 less than the previous year. If we keep scoring 10 goals in 11 games would mean around 40 goals for the campaign. That’s absolutely dire stuff.

Guns of SF

Pedro I agree, play the youth. Arteta needs to simply tell the team that moving forward players will play based on performance. Good performers stay on, the shit ones do not play- he also must not alienate the vets just yet! So clearly, when he chooses his next line up, Xhaka Auba Bell and Willian should be dropped. If the youth starts to stink it up, the vets get their chances. Emery was great at this….. he subbed off our so called stars when they were not performing all the time. No one got special treatment under him Arteta made… Read more »

South African Gooner

RH *****Daily Mail reporting Arteta will hold talks with Partey over his walking off**** Arteta should transfer list him, Partey , clearly already wants out of the club. You simply can not do what he did yesterday. Just amble off the field of play in a NLD- especially when you are loosing and they are on the counter for the 2nd goal. Sell him and buy a very exciting player instead. E.Eze of Palace. In fact Arsenal should bid £100 million for Zaha and Eze on the 1st January 2021. (but do not let Arteta any where near them) Sell… Read more »

andy1886

Yes we were better in part yesterday but only to the extent that we exhibited that late Wenger degree of sterile possession that we saw in the past. We didn’t look like scoring if we played all week. Equally we looked okay at the back until the opposition showed any type of quality.

Marc

Dissenter

If people keep digging this hard for excuses they’re all going to pop up in China’s living room.

Danny+S

What’s the bet Xhaka and Bellerin start against Burnley.

Marc

andy

We had good possession yesterday because it’s precisely what Mourinho wanted us to have.