Arteta squirms over press quotes + TIME FOR HALE-ENDERS TO SHINE!

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What’s that you can hear? It’s Arsenal’s Safe Space Thursday™ brought to you in association with Europa League.

NO ONE CAN HURT YOU THERE.

We head to Ireland for a game against Dundalk. I can’t wait. We’re going to see free-flowing football, intricate goals, shots on target, balls into the final third, the passes will be on the ground all game. It’ll be a feast of football and I can’t wait.

Mikel said he’s going to take some of the kids over.

Will Balogun land a start? I hope so.

We’ll certainly see AMN, Eddie, and ESR. We MIGHT even see Miguel Azeez. Might be too early for Patino, but you never know what sort of madness the gaffer might drop after he’s been well and truly told by the fans this week (just kidding).

Tonight won’t mean much in the grand scheme of things, but you know what, who fucking cares? Just give me a 4-0 win to keep me breathing until Burnley smash us at the weekend.

What are we looking for? Signs of life. A clear plan. A little bit of joy.

My hope is that the Hale-Enders smell blood in the water. They need to sense their chance is coming soon, and they need to be extra motivated to put the dossers in the first team to bed. I’ve spoken about that AMN interview all week, because it said to me the young players gossip about the senior players not putting in a shift. Water cooler gossip about how much better you are than the person above you only matters if you eat the chance when it arrives.

We need the kids to show us the way. Arteta needs to prove out what a future with young creative players with athletic profiles could look like. He needs to take every opportunity he can to put a bit of confidence back in the project. Dundalk away is probably the best place to start.

I’ve watched all of Arteta’s press conferences since he joined and the show he put on yesterday was very interesting. He was grilled a little bit and put in situations he struggled to fight his way out of. There were two notable moments he tried to back out of.

The first was being asked about his DAZN Spain statement regarding the need for 5-6 new players to get to a 4-3-3. He really squirmed because he knew he’d fucked up there. He tried to make out he needed some sort of specificity, but he poorly tried to insinuate he could evolve players and he might have some of them in reserve. Super awkward. Everyone knows he needs new players, but you can’t really say that at the start of December if you want a turn out of the bums you’re currently trying to motivate to put their boots on.

He was then asked if the senior players in the league were letting him down. Again, you know he wanted to say OF COURSE THEY ARE, but he tried to smooth his way out by saying he wouldn’t pick the seniors if they were letting him down, and, by the way, he wanted everyone to be reminded he gives the kids games in cup finals and important games.

Not his finest performance. He looked very uncomfortable, usually, he’s very chipper. It’s all getting a bit twitchy. I’d imagine he’s very hurt by how quickly the fans turned this month and how fast the players he pumped have gone down the shitter. Still, no time to feel sorry for yourself, time to get this show BACK on the road.

10 good games in a row and all is forgotten.

He needs that 10 games to start from now. A huge ask, but all the good managers have the stardust to make it happen. Does Mikel? I hope so. I want to go back into the comments section on my own site this year. SO FFS MIKEL PULL IT TOGETHER MAN.

A short one today, but before I go…

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Zacharse

Valentin

U hit the nail on the head bro. KSE cant yet understand the difference between sport in america and in britain and it isnt tough to see the difference
In america sport is a socialist endeavor

NORG

at this time and having a preference for older players Arteta should be compared to big Sam Allardyce.

Pierre

Listen to you all , slagging Arteta off after a few defeats. a couple of months ago you were all lauding him after he left Ozil out of the squad .. All i hear now is how shit Arteta is , what a bullshitter he is, there’s no creativity , he doesn’t play the kids, no one will sign for us due to his treatment of players.. Exactly what i was telling you a few months back…and now here you all are , agreeing with me …mugs. I wrote this on the day the premier league squad was announced by… Read more »

Anonymous Commentator

It’s not about buying players right now, we have talent in house that should be getting minutes and helping the team climb the table. We need a manager that is willing to work with the youth and who will only go into the market to get what we don’t have in house. We are no longer looking for one piece to complete the puzzle, we are waiting for our pieces to be picked and organised first. Organisation is lacking. And our puzzle solver won’t even give himself a chance to find a piece from the academy. He’s only playing saka… Read more »

Zacharse

Pierres so wise

Anonymous Commentator

Getting rid of Wenger was meant to be followed up with an actual world class manager.
No doubt jardim was available at the time.

S Asoa

Arteta on ESR

Smith Rowe’s interplay with Ainsley Maitland-Niles was especially strong and Arteta liked what he saw.

“He hasn’t played many games and he’s playing in a position that doesn’t suit him perfectly with his qualities,” noted the manager.
That last part is disconcerting. Hope Mikel is thinkiy of a place where ESR will feel lost.

raptora

Wow Pierre, October 21. Hardly visionary stuff is it? It was obvious at the time. The signs were worrying for a while. You saw it, true. But many of us did. The ones that had no idea where this was going to at the time, are the ones that still refuse to open their eyes.

And it’s clearly got nothing to do with Ozil. It’s Arteta that lead us to this horrifying place.

Tom

Arteta transforming Sterling into greatness at City is an interesting argument.
The 19 year old Sterling was scoring and assisting in double figures at Liverpool two years running before his $70m City transfer.
Is it possible he was destined for stardom at the mega talented City under Pep even without Arteta’s input, whatever that might’ve been?

Can he sprinkle some of that magic dust on Pepe then?

Pierre

I see you all want the kids to start now .

Will just remind you that i made the point many times that it is impossible to play high intensity, pressing football with Aubameyang Lacazette willian and pepe up top and Arteta should bring in the kids if he wwants to play with high intensity….of course , you’ve all jumped on the bandwagon now as per usual.

Eddie showed how it’s done last night when he scored the first goal and received little credut for it from Le groaners .

Terraloon

Anonymous

Sadly I think you are rating some of the younger players, at this point in time far higher than the level they are at.

Play the team you suggest and Burnley’s experience and organisation will in all likelihood be far too much.

It’s all well and good wanting youngsters to graduate but ultimately experience will trump youth .
Burnley aren’t Dundalk they are a hardened , organised and competent group of PL players

Major_Jeneral

Anonymous Commentator

That is a youthful and brave line-up. If Freddie was the helms I won’t be surprised with that line-up but With MA he isn’t going to take such risks.

Anonymous Commentator

Pierre you gotta be the most bored person alive living so far in the future.

Jamie

Imagine trying to establish yourself as the first person here to suggest the youth players get more minutes.

The desperation for validation from strangers on the internet is unhealthy. Listing shit you think you were right about from a couple months back. What an embarrassing carry-on.

https://twitter.com/LeGrove/status/1161049694707036161

Project Youth 2.0 – Pedro 2019, over a year earlier than when Pierre claims he started the movement.

Luteo Guenreira

Pierre baring his claws and reacting like a miffed housewife at nothing or no one in particular, what else is new?

Ernest Reed

“Eddie showed how it’s done last night when he scored the first goal and received little credut for it from Le groaners .”

Really Pierre? And against a Pub Team no less!

Anonymous Commentator

Terra I don’t believe I’m rating the kids too highly, and if I am then it begs the question of just how bad are our senior players? Cause on current form the kids do in fact look better. Yes yes it’s against Dundalk, and molde and some other anonymous teams that were never going to threaten anyone with a hiding, but at some point the manager has to be brave enough to see what any of these kids will do in the league. Willock made some 26 appearances last year in the league for us, is our current worse League… Read more »

Bojangles

Pepe named player of Europa league group stage. This is his level. In my opinion we have a £72 mil squad player, not many other teams can lay claim to this.

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