Oh my, I am like, so unbearable to the Jose Mourinho cult right now. For MONTHS I’ve had people digging up my Jose slander and using it against me. People coming into my comments saying we should have hired him. Tweeters making fun of my commentary.
… I am the Zlatan of Jose observers. 39 years old, still landing one-year deals, because I know the Mourinho game. He is finished at the highest level. You might get a burst of something, but his style, man-management, and vision of the game is not for 2021.
So for all the hecklers… WHERE ARE YOU NOW?
Jose Mourinho, TITLE WINNER, what, 2 months ago? He’s now slumming it with Arteta the novice.
As Andy Gray would say, TAKE A BOW SON, it is over.
Now, I understand Arsenal is in a mess (has been). We’ve not had a season anyone could brag about, but the job Arteta took on was far more difficult. Jose? He had it all. Money, a world-class squad, a fancy new stadium, an Amazon Doco to soften his rank image.
What are Spurs fans getting for £15m a year? The Harry Kane strategy. Not that his injury started the collapse, but come on, is that the only plan on offer? Seems to be. SAD.
Spurs crashed last night. 2 shots on target. That’s 8 shots on target in 3 games. The football is ABYSMAL. There are no green shoots anywhere to be seen.
I tweeted last year that Arsenal fans would be happier come this February… and you know what? I WAS RIGHT.
Our position in the table is a joke. We’ve had a rough year. But, we’ve also done a lot of good work. The squad has been cleansed of bums (mostly). Young players we love have been blooded. The coaching is starting to pay off with exiles. The football in the first half against Wolves was the best we’ve seen under Arteta. We have shots! We are moving in a direction that even the harshest Arteta critic would struggle to be miserable about.
Spurs? What do they have to look forward to? Jose telling a female journo her question is good but doesn’t deserve an answer? We’ve been here before. We’ve seen this film a few times. We’re about to get to the part where he calls the players bad words and finds himself sacked.
A BEAUTIFUL THING.
Arsenal plays Villa this weekend, if you want to hear some detailed thoughts on them, tune into my podcast with the excellent Tom McCann (@DownInAutumn) below.
The major worry is that Mat Ryan is not fit… and there’s a chance Runarsson might start. This is a nightmare. Villa are unlikely to be shy of chances. Having a liability between the sticks is a disaster waiting to happen. I’d rather see what Arthur Okonkwo has to offer than give minutes to someone so scary he’s been dropped from the Europa League squad.
Villa really is the chance to show that we have mental strength. We’ve been on a good run, we lost to Wolves because of an injustice, how are we going to deal with that? Feel sorry for ourselves? Or give a 90 that looked like the first 46 in the week?
We have some advantages going for us… Villa played a day later and lost to West Ham. David Moyes dealt really well with Jack Grealish by doubling up on him. Not sure that’s what we’ll do, but we need a solve for a Villa who are one of the dreamiest attacking sides in the league. We have been shit against them the last two games, time to find an extra gear and show we can compete with a side that looks good to finish above us.
1st again
And
The
Tr4phy
Boom!
Is MAUREEN THE BIGGEST COMPENSATION QUEEN.
??
I’d rather Mat Ryan play on crutches….
Jose’s compensation totals must be close to that £110M figure Chelsea have paid out to their sacked managers.
Hein or Okonkwo to start if Ryan is not fit. Runarsson must not start! The damage has already been done and it will take some time for him to recover his confidence if ever.
Maureen knows what he is doing – more compo comming his way when he is sacked although I would have thought that Levy might have slipped some clause into his contract to avoid such a situation!!!!
Klopp and Mourinho’s after match interviews are currently wonderful to watch
Maybe there should be a second referee at the VAR room in Stockley.. and he should have
a check-list to assist him in decision making .. like was there a contact? was there a
goalscoring opportunity missed ? To me it seemed that Leno had the ball covered all the time
??
Tomorrow’s game won’t be about some of the limited successes Edu/Arteta have had. It will be about the Arsenal goal keeper meaning the goal posts…and for good reason.
If Runnar has a nightmare of Epie proportions, then whomsoever prom his signing needs to be fired very quietly.
There had to have been dozens of better back-up goalies better than Runnar in the summer when we sold Emi. It seems it’s cronyism at its worst. Hope we don’t get negative press tomorrow about our goalie situation.
Bu Bye Levy
he wanted a tv show, he got the sackl
Diet Pep should call his mentor Moyes for tips on how to beat Villa
Will things fall apart if we play Okonkwo?
Since Ross Barkley has returns from his injury layoff, Aston Villa has conceded a lot more goals. I think that with Grealiash exiled on the wing and Barkley in the middle, sometimes they are too open. They lack a defensive minded player in the middle of the pitch. They seem to be susceptible to counter-attack. I wonder if Arteta will set us up to play a more aggressive pressing system against them, knowing that we have the players to score from swift movement. Retrieving the ball high up the pitch and not let Grealish take free runs at our defense… Read more »
Kris is absolutely in love with a Villa player.
Emi better than Ederson. Jesus Christ. Even Nick Pope has more saves and fewer goals conceded than Emi Martinez this season.
Time for you to move on, lad. He plays for another club, and is leaking in more goals than the keeper who didn’t ask to leave Arsenal this summer.
In Jamie’s sad little Leno/Martinez world, Leno never received a red card against wolves.
In Jamie’s world, Leno didn’t have a rush of blood and leave his area and misjudge the flight of the ball.
The fact that he could have quite easily have stayed in his area and allowed a fast travelling ball on a slippèry surface to bounce into his arms , seems to have been totally ignored by Jamie in his never ending quest to prove that Leno is a better keeper than Martinez.
I would like to make this perfectly clear because there are some posters on here who think that after Wenger, I would have been happy for AFC to hire any manager. Not true! If they had hired Jose Mourinho I would have walked up to the Emirates myself to get the man removed. Many of my perceptions on him are not printable. He is, without any doubt, an exceptionally lucky individual. In his own mind he is ‘the special one’, in my mind he is ‘ the deplorable one’. Yes, he has won many trophies and yes, there are many… Read more »
Martinez is a better keeper than Leno.
Those of you that are not covering your eyes every time Arsenal concede a corner or a set piece are in denial.
Leno just can’t deal with the physical aspect of being a GK.
It’s all very simple.
I’d take Martinez back in a heartbeat.
Graham
“. He is anti-football, anti- enjoyment, anti-entertainment and anti everything that this great game stands for.”
And the man you spewed abuse at for years was totally pro football , pro entertainment and pro everything this great game stands for..
aspects
Graham
But for his mistake last weekend, Leno has been very good this season.
Say my name more times in a single post. Seemingly doesn’t take much for you to grow an obsession.
Morning all. Talking of Runar being a poor signing, does anyone remember the story about Ali Dia? A random bloke calls Southampton manager Graeme Souness out of the blue, pretending to be Milan striker & World Player of the Year George Weah. During the call he strongly recommends his cousin, Ali Dia, claiming he had just scored two goals for Senegal and had played with Weah for PSG before spending 1995 in the German second division. The imposter said he was an incredible prospect. Sounness fell hook, line and sinker. It turned out Ali Dia was a 31-year-old college student… Read more »
Pierre
My feelings on Wenger had nothing to do with the style of football.
I’ve made that clear time and again on here.
The criticism he received post-2008, was, imo, warranted.
Oh how I miss Andie Gray! The current mob on Sky are so BORING, they take themselves so SERIOUSLY. Andy and his counters. Anything serious from Richard Key he dismissed with a joke. If football isn’t fun, what is i thent?
Gary Lineker is no better. He is deadly serious about everyting EXCEPT football
I miss Rodney Marsh too
Okay, they pulled women’s legs a little – figuratively speaking not physically. But that’s what we married blokes do in private. It’s our ony defence against wives and mothers-in-law.
I love Alexis Scott though
Bebe to Utd was another ridiculous story.
AFC
Are you suggesting that Arteta has been conned.
Indeed “ A specialist in failure”.That’s the thing with longevity in a managerial career.It eventually catches up with you & your “ average” success rate pops up like a bad smell.The one exception,old Red nose.But then he was clever enough over the decades to let others innovate & do the donkey work. On a side note hark at at all the Barcode blogs reminiscing over their 4- 4 “ greatest comeback ever” match.At home against us.The one with the criminally inept refFat Phil Dowd.Who conspired to gift them not 1 but 2 penalties & just in case they still might… Read more »
I really don’t know how so many people can claim that Leno is the superior keeper
He is no different to Mustafi in that he’s very good 90-95% of the time but always has a spectacular gaffe in his locker
He’s looking decent this year, for the most part because of the defensive structure and the fact that we are dominant in the air allowing him to stay nestled safely on his line.
Jamie, yes Bebe was another strange one.
When you start thinking about some of the huge signings clubs made and the abysmal failure, the list is huge. Maureen signed Schevchenko, who was prolific in Seria A for Milan, for a British record of £30m. he turned out to be awful, something like 4 or 5 goals in 30 Premier League games.
Lee Chapman
The wife beater
Pierre
No mate. I can never take Sounness serious, some of the things he has done.
Sid, LOL. A Classic read
Pierre
How do you think Martinez would have dealt with the situation against Wolves?
Not disputing that Leno has done well these past few weeks.
What I am saying though is that Martinez is a better keeper and exudes more confidence than Leno.
Winthorpe
“nestled on his line”.
Good analogy.
Englandsbest
“Alexis Scott”
Lol.
You’ve created an image of what the love child of Alex Scott and Alexis Sanchez would look like.
Despite all his heroics at shot stopping, there is 3 things that I really dislike with Leno’s play: + He always has a clanger in him. For the last 2.5 years, he has committed 1 mistake that directly lead to a goal every 7 games. I would rather have a GK maybe not as good at shot stopping, but more reliable. + He is not dominant in his area. He stays rooted on his line and rarely try to catch corner and high balls. Linked to that, he is not very vocal, so whenever he tries to go for the… Read more »
I’d bet any money there are a few here who are desperate for an Emi super performance against us this weekend to reinforce their love for him.
I guess I’m the only one who hopes he embarrasses himself with a couple nice clangers so we take all the points.
Bizarre.
Graham
I would have preferred Martinez over Leno.
Talking about the disgusting abuse dished out to Ian Wright.
Did you know Runar Runarsson had to shut down his Twitter account because of the death threats and abuse he was receiving after the City game? Just a kid, who made a couple of mistakes and was probably already feeling pretty down. Really winds me up the sheer nastiness on social media. Who the fuck do we think we are with all this bullying and hatefulness?
Bébé was not a strange one. Bébé was signed on the recommendation of somebody without ever been seen or scouted by people from ManUtd. It was clear somebody had taken a brown envelope. Andriy Shevchenko was an Abramovitch signing, who was still picturing the players of 5 years ago instead of the shadow he was when he turned at Chelsea. Also Mourinho needed a big burly front man who could hold the ball and bully defenders, which had never been Shevchenko’s game. There is a long litany of players bought by Chairman and owners for sentimental reason who then turn… Read more »
Val
Out of interest, who makes your top 5 goalies in the league this season only
I’ve never been a fan of Leno. Makes some great saves but also makes way too many errors.
I’d be trying to get Donnarumma on a free.
Danny Drinkwater is another Chelsea signing that proved a disaster. Signed by Conte for £35 million, when Sarri came in he was shipped out on loan. Got involved in a fight at a pub in Burnley, after trying to take some other blokes girlfriend home, then headbutted a teammate in training. Nice bloke.
Have to laugh
The only time I’ve seen Jamie have an opinion on football and it’s the wrong opinion…
AFC Forever
I pray the darling girl does not take offence, but what a great footballer the kid might turn out to be.
A boy. hopefully
Quite fitting we play the team we sold our backup keeper to ,without our first choice keeper and the backup . Very Arsenal like.
Divinesherlock
Kane being fit for the Arsenal game would also be very Arsenal like…
“The only time I’ve seen Jamie have an opinion on football and it’s the wrong opinion…”
You dream about me every night. Then you wake up and look for me on the internet, desperately trying to get my attention.
I see you, lad. Keep it up.
To be fair , Leno would have been an adequate 2nd string keeper.
Pierre
Kane being fit and doing that jumping shit which injures others on Holding and we lose him for the season.
People complain about Leno when we’ve lived with Almunia for years, Ospina, Fabianski.
Bellerin is the weakest player in our best XI. We need a new RB and CM.
Football fans are always struggling between beautiful foot ball or result. For Wenger, football is an art. For Mou, football is me against the world. I am surprised that he hasn’t sign an adequate backup for Kane. His midfielders are big and physical, ideal for parking the bus. They are very ordinary when supporting the offense.
Donnarumma’s agent is Raiola
For that reason, I wouldn’t touch him with a bargepole
The Mkhitaryan interview talking about his relationship with Raiola was a real eyeopener
Mkhitaryan must have a patience of a saint
Bar one or two nut jobs I don’t remember many on here being pro Mourinho and there’s always one or two nut jobs.
Sounds to me like Pedro’s setting up for more deflection on what Arteta’s doing, the Feb fixtures are pretty brutal and the return of European matches (assuming they go ahead) is going to throw up some unexpected results as teams struggle with a difficult fixture list getting even tougher.
Leno is a good goalkeeper. Ridiculous to suggest he isn’t. When judging goalkeepers it isn’t as easy as you think. It depends on the type of football you play. If you are a team that plays possession-based football from the back, to beat the press, you need the ‘keeper to be good with their feet and to be able to pick a pass. Not so important if you are Burnley for example. Same if you play a high line, you want a ‘keeper who can read the game and be able to sweep. So there are variables, it’s not like… Read more »
“Oh how I miss Andie Gray! The current mob on Sky are so BORING, they take themselves so SERIOUSLY. Andy and his counters. Anything serious from Richard Key he dismissed with a joke. If football isn’t fun, what is i thent?”
Get yourself a Firestick and BEIN sports – they’re still on there doing PL football.
Marc,
Not another day all about Arteta, please….!!
At least I can get some work done on this brochure I am trying to finish.
“Bellerin is the weakest player in our best XI. ”
I always find that AMN is stronger in defense than Bellerin. Since Bellerin has lost a step, his defense becomes passive. He prefers to keep a distance to the attacker, afraid to get run over. That gives the attacker time and space to cross the ball.
Marc
“Get yourself a Firestick and BEIN sports – they’re still on there doing PL football”
Seriously? Going to go online now and get one. Grey and Keyes used to be hilarious, they made it so much more fun that Pinkknapp and Sourpuss. Do they have all the games? I currently have Sky & BT and the pundits are all ex Liverpool, Spurs or Man Utd.
AFC
I do apologise what the fuck was I thinking making a comment about the Arsenal manager on an Arsenal blog?
Whatever next Goals on Sunday showing some bloke kick a ball into a net – the madness of it.
All of the Arsenal faithful, who were calling for himself, please raise your hands.
Most likely the same lot in the business of making excuses for Arteta.
AFC
“Seriously? Going to go online now and get one.”
Yeah BEIN sports is definitely on an app called Redbox TV, I’m sure it’s on others. Just be warned you’ll have a match where it streams perfectly another where it stutters or kicks you out every 5 minutes but for forty odd quid it’s hardly the end of the world and the big benefit is they show Saturday 3pm kicks off for when life is back to normal – depending on your definition of normal!
Marc
I like your balanced view. Keep it going!
Nelson
Balanced? Careful Pedro will ban you for saying something like that.
Cheers Marc.
Nelson
Bellerin is poor defensively and offensively. Needs replacing this summer.
Marc
What so you expect from Europa League ? You think we have the personnel to go all the way ?
AFC It’s funny that you mention Redknapp and dual ignoramuses Gray/Keys in the same post. It was comments by the latter two about the former’s ex girlfriend that led to them being sacked. “The hanging out of the back of it” conversation that was a bridge too far for the lovely people at Sky Sports. I think the vast majority of them are wankers tbh, except Dixon. Gray and Keys were a pound shop Saint and Greavsie, and they were piss. Give the role to Coogan while he’s channelling Alan Partridge – he couldn’t do worse than Alan ‘chicken and… Read more »
My opinion is that unless we have a huge slice of luck we are unlikely to win the Europa League. There are too many good teams including some dropped from the Champion’s League.
Stroller will have his wishes that next year, we won’t be in any European competition. I think that will have some serious financial implications. It may give Edu the opportunity to impose onto Arteta to release some experienced players and give a chance to more youngsters. The same way the transfer ban had a positive impact on Chelsea.
Pepe vs auba decision tomorrow will tell us a lot about how much arteta has ‘grown’ as a coach
Sherlock Honestly I have no idea. It’s got so many variables at the moment that anything could happen. How will Arteta rotate players when we’ve got Leeds H, and Leicester A either side of the Benfica matches with City H in the middle, we’ve still got 2 matches scheduled how will they work in the travel ban and issues? I heard talk that Liverpool have issues with their CL match with the same problem – will matches go to a one off knockout? That throws another variable into the mix play well but one poor referring decision and you’re out,… Read more »
I think it’s quite possible that Emi is coming back down from the lofty heights of his purple patch period. His last couple of games were very average ,borderline embarrassing.
Valentin
“Stroller will have his wishes that next year, we won’t be in any European competition. I think that will have some serious financial implications.”
Mate to describe losing £30 million in revenue after all the COVID problems as “serious” is an understatement of epic proportions.
Val
I hope Arteta doesn’t have the same opinion as yours.
Virtually an entire post on an Arsenal blog dedicated to Spurs current woes in an attempt to try and make our situation appear better by comparison.
Bit embarrassing to be honest!!
Emi is still the better keeper and possibly the best in the league atm. If one game decided things then Leno would be in the bottom half for GK rankings. The main issue isn’t shot stopping. It’s the handling. With Arsenal you feel every pressure corner will lead to a goal becausr Leno just leaves the responsibility to the defenders even when the ball is whipped in thr 6 yard box. Emi in contrast claims almost each of those balls. A lot of times these set pieces/corners are the only option low block teams have of scoring and against Arsenal… Read more »
Matt
We all know Mourinho will get the bullet sooner or later so it will hardly be a surprise what will be the test is who finishes higher in the PL. The Spud’s are still 2 points about us with a game in hand and there’s talk of Kane being back in a week or so.
I’m guessing Pedro’s trying to get a defence in whilst he still can.
Marc
Exactly. Win their game in hand (against West Brom) and they are five points ahead of us. I’m not even in disagreement with most of the points made. Everyone knows what mourinho is about and where it was going to end up with him, but like is said, it’s embarrassing and cringeworthy to try and use that as a narrative to make our season appear better than it actually is.
well I am definitely more concerned about the game tomorrow as I doubt Arteta will have a plan for Grealish but hey who knows we could get a surprise , holding had a nightmare against Grealish last match but I think this is one Arteta has to win as he can’t afford for wolves and villa to take six points each off us as that will make us a mid to bottom half team and show zero improvement so for me he has to take three points tomorrow and really I am just promoting my bad feeling as I am… Read more »
“Emi is still the better keeper and possibly the best in the league atm. If one game decided things then Leno would be in the bottom half for GK rankings.“
Not one game.
In his last three games his ball distribution was suspect and he hasn’t been coming out for aerial balls as assured as before, and I’ve seen all Villa games.
In which single game was Leno so bad?
shaun
Certainly not with City and Leicester coming up in the next few weeks. Arteta could be about to do a major Wenger and go out of 2 competitions in a couple of weeks and ending up so far adrift of the EL places our season is over.
Overmeirs is on the move and favours either Arsenal or Barca. Time to fire natty dressed Edu. Marc Overmeirs has got the mojo to rein in Arteta idiosyncrasies and both can make Arsenal great again.
PS – resurrection of Arteta if it goes through, though doubtful considering the companionship Edu provides to Josh boy.
Alisson Becker has the best all around game.
Emerson is better at pinging balls than most outfield players.
Having Emi as the best keeper in the league is a big stretch.
Marc, I don’t think I need a defence… you’ve lost your narrative, everyone can see where the club is going, your views have been well and truly neutered since the Chelsea game.
Arteta in the running for manager of the month, Jose in the dirt.
We’re certainly one of the team who are capable of winning the Europa
We’ve been to the semi and the final in recent years
I wouldn’t put money on us winning it
But on our day we can get a result against anyone, and we’re amongst the favourites to lift the trophy
Hopefully the draw is kind to us, and we don’t do anything stupid on route
It’s written in the stars that we draw Villarreal
“It’s written in the stars that we draw Villarreal”
And so Pedro’s world crumbled!
“Arteta in the running for manager of the month, Jose in the dirt.”
What month?
There are so many things that are wrong with today’s post that I don’t even know where to start… first of, Spurs are STILL ahead of us in the table with a game in hand. He who laughs last, laughs best. So hold your horses to mock Mourinho for when the season ends and we are (hopefully) ahead of them in the table. Secondly, last I checked Chelsea too had only 2 shots on target yesterday. So Spurs didn’t get crushed. They lost to a dumb penalty (sounds familiar?) and had chances late in the game to get something out… Read more »
From a neutral perspective I much prefer a one off tie
Two legged ties favour the bigger clubs
The CL was more exciting last season
I’d be in favour of it again this season
why are we so obsessed with the goalkeeper thing? Leno is better than any goalie we have had since Jens. I was as impressed with Emi as anyone last year – but let’s face facts: 1. Leno is fine. We have bigger issues 2. We needed money to buy Gabriel 3. We didn’t need 2 excellent keepers 4. Emi – after 15 games in 10 years – wanted a guarantee he would start – that’s understandable but unhealthy 5. No clubs outside England could afford either player 6. Leno would not leave to go to a “lower” club in uk… Read more »
Upstate “So Spurs didn’t get crushed” Yes they did, I watched the full game. It was a dreadful performance. It is funny really when we were pretty bland last year it was a major issue but when Spurs are bland it gets defended. They weren’t bland, they were as boring ar their Manager. In fact, it was a such a terrible performance it was embarrassing. When you have Jermaine Jenas at a loss for words, describing players as not interested, hiding, not putting a shift in and you watch them defending on the 6-yard line because they are so scared… Read more »
We’re 10th and gloating. I just can’t believe it lol.
This worst than Pierre love to Wenger and Ozil.
Leno is better than Emi and more experience. Wait until Emi play 100 games and than compare the two.
As for the French PSG reject at Fulham can make great save than let an easy goal in.
Johnno
“Bottom line- this has nothing to do with “arteta likes Leno more”
Agree. I always laugh when I see the “Arteta likes him more” as if it is some kind of crime. Fuck me, what do they expect Arteta to do field a team with the 11 players he doesn’t think are his best? All managers have ‘favourites’ because they think they are either the best players or the best players for the system they are playing. The same today as it was in 1886.
Spurs/Maureen taking centerstage on an Arsenal blog is diversionary tactics,
it seems to be working so far
If we dont make it for any Europe cup one of Mr Diet or Edu is gone, likely Mr Diet