The day after the game, I’m still seething.
Mostly, because it’s disappointing to watch Mikel Arteta shooting himself in the foot with his decisions.
Yesterday, was another prime example.
The narrative of the loss would have been ‘unfair result, bad reffing (again), unforced errors we can rectify, and a final pass away from being something really interesting.’
Instead, everyone is once again talking about how bad the decisions were this summer, and how much worse it is that Arteta can’t shake the truth about Willian >> he’s awful and should be annexed like Ozil unless his form picks up drastically.
He called it correctly after the game, top teams don’t make the mistakes Arsenal do. Teams at the top don’t breeze past 5 red cards. They don’t give away goals in the first minute as often as we do. I can take that little insight… what I think we all struggle with is a manager that has such clarity of vision for what’s not there, yet has had such an incredible blind spot for the things that are causing those problems.
David Luiz is a good defender, but he always has those mistakes in his locker, that’s why he’s not with Chelsea. We gave him a new deal and we give him lots of minutes despite his history with us being very, very, spotty.
Willian has contributed absolutely nothing to Arsenal this season. When you are chasing a game like yesterday, with the wind fully in your sales, against a team of athletes, what is the logic behind bringing on a player that has no pace, little ability to move around players, with the body language of someone that’s been asked to join a pub team as a ringer when they’re walking the dog over Hackney Marshes.
Why didn’t we bring Martinelli on? What top manager in world football would look at that bench yesterday and think the cherry on the comeback cake was Willian?
We’ve lost more games than we’ve won this season. No doubt it’s a weird season. Many problems have been had. But these self-inflicted should have been left as 2020 problems we solved. They are ego-driven decisions. He is absolutely desperate for Willian to come on and score a screamer so the move can be justified… I get it… managers don’t want to look like they have bad taste. But Jose Mourinho, in the state he’s in with Spurs, isn’t still trying to flog Gareth Bale. He’s accepted he’s not at the level and that’s that.
Politically, his instinct is always to give Willian minutes because he fought so hard to bring him to the club on a disgusting contract from a disgusting super agent that had been advising us badly since he was let back in.
Politically, he has to use Auba, a player the fans love, but one that seems less and less suited to the project the further we go on.
It’s time to stop thinking about the politics of being a manager. He needs to pick the best players for the project, because if he keeps going for his 30+ favourites, he won’t have a job past December next season.
Nicolas Pepe still has a lot of flaws in his game. His control is sloppy, his decisions are still very messy, but he’s been very good over the batch of games. He wants to be there, and at a base level, he has the athletic profile to be in the squad.
Granit Xhaka has many flaws, but next to Thomas Partey, he’s generally been good for the squad.
Our attack is electric when you have the young players out in force, melded together by the excellent Lacazette.
The season finished yesterday, now we need to go full force at what our options look like next season. Who else is waiting in the U23s that we can give a go in the squad? How can we make sure Martinelli is trustworthy in all the games over the next 3 months? How can we ensure Odegaard feels sexy about the plan going forward so he’ll join for the whole of next season? Is Flo Balogun better than Eddie and can he viable as a powerful #9 we lack? Azeez? Patino? Cottrell? Moller? Our season is in the gutter, but the project isn’t.
There’s something exciting brewing in this squad. We’re a final pass away from decimating a team. A bit more confidence and a bit more force, we’ll be very problematic for anyone we face. It’s fragile though… if you take out key players and replace them with people in their thirties that don’t have what it takes, it’ll all collapse. Yesterday, the introduction of Willian, combined with the nothingness of Auba, completely killed any hope of saving a game we were more than in.
If Arteta refuses to see that, he’s going to run into these same problems next year.
This week has been rough. Win those two games, as we should have, we’d be sitting in 6th place. The opportunity has been taken by the officiating gods, unforced errors, and some pre-December managerial decisions that shouldn’t have been.
Arteta’s coaching staff needs to gather their thoughts and go again, this is the last long pre-season they’ll get, because if we’re this badly out of the mixer February 2022, it’ll be team #Nagelsmann or #MarcoRose on this blog, because the club will have moved on Mikel.
There are standards at Arsenal. They have dropped for an experiment with a young coach with a high ceiling. He has to start showing high ceiling decision making based on merit, not politics.
I’ll be back later with a podcast.
Some good posts here. A great addition is a herbs army. You should all pay attention to him- especially those bemoaning decisions to fire coaches late and hire cheap and compliant replacements. This is arsenal. This is your club. Always has been. Stan might be the only foreign billionaire owner that has continued to run the club like his domestic predecessors- detached aloof and clueless. If what arsenal have done in these past 10 years – passing up the opportunity for dynasty with a lack of ambition and knowledge – loses you sleep- then you need another club my friend.… Read more »
Tom “The only communication should have been away”……What does that even mean? “If you skip your biases you can actually apportion the blame to all three Arsenal defenders:” Ah , so you haven’t played the game , that explains it. What do you think it means when there is a corner and you hear a keeper shout “AWAY” Obviously means get the ball away from the danger area So the reasoning is the same when a defender says “AWAY” to his team mate if he is about to be closed down . ….meaning get the ball away as far as… Read more »
“Ah , so you haven’t played the game , that explains it.
What do you think it means when there is a corner and you hear a keeper shout “AWAY””
Lol,
At corners, keepers shout “Away” for defenders to clear out as to prevent cheery picking forwards easy tap ins.
Stick to golf Pierre lol.
I am really baffled as to why Arteta would want to sideline Martinelli and stymie his fledgling Arsenal career. His always gives 100%, has prestigious levels of skill and is willing to play any position asked without whinging or downing tools. In fact he could actually save Arteta’s arse – something Willian certainly can’t do! Again shocking miss-management of talent.
Johnno “It will happen again – maybe not under arteta- but it will happen. And when it does, please do not think we “are back.” It just aint true and you are punishing yourselves.” Good point. . In the English league , no team has completely dominated , liverpool and United had good spells of domination and then liverpool went 30 years without a title . United went 25 or so years without a title and are now 7 years without a league title. .. Chelsea and city bought the title over the last 15 years so yes , you… Read more »
Tom
So what would you shout to a team mate if he had his back to goal on the edge of his own area and an opposition player was arriving on his blind side…
Pierre It is disingenuous not to acknowledge Liverpool dominated English domestic football in the ’70’s and 80’s, if we use the same logic to say Arsenal dominated the 1930’s. Between 1973 – 1990, there were only three years during that period Liverpool didn’t win a trophy, 1975, 1985 and 1987. They have been one of the main topics of football conversation since Bill Shankly took over at the club, which is more than 60 years ago. Are you suggesting that Arsenal fans should accept, and be satisfied with significantly less than this level of performance, given their financial advantage, and… Read more »
Arsenal has scored 27 goals in 23 PL matches; newscastle led by the anti-football Steve Bruce has scored 25 goals in 23 PL matches. Auba -£56M LACA -£50M Pepe – £72M Martinelli ESR Nelson Willian The fact that Arteta has not been able to get more than 27 from this bunch is concerning. we play too deep and that creates a facade that we are defensively better. We simply take risky passes around our goal but don’t do the same in the opposition’s box. Arsenal plays as is if we are seeking to score a goal with 100 passes. I… Read more »
Tom
Good anaylsis of the goal BUT
The only defender not at fault was Gabriel, short of risking an early red there was absolutely nothing he could do. The pass from Cedric was criminally underhit and Holding should have been more alert to Watkins position. Had he been closer, the deflection would have been a block.