ARSENAL FRONT 4 SHOWCASE BRIGHT ATTACKING FUTURE (SUBS DID NOT)

by .

Arsenal finally matched a good performance with a full 3 points. Mikel Arteta put on a well-choreographed win against a Leeds team that comfortably beat Leicester 3-1 a few weeks ago.

We pressed better than Leeds, boxing them in, forcing mistakes.

We controlled their attacking game with excellent off the ball work, closing down passing lanes and making it generally difficult for them to break against us.

We also took our chances, something we’ve been terrible with over the past month.

The game was mostly about the return of Auba. We’ve been waiting for a game like that from him for a while. He’s been off from a confidence level all season. He was then rocked by issues with his mother’s health. Yesterday, he seemed to shake all of that off with a really, really good game of football.

Arteta seemed to find a formula that works for his star striker. He built pace and creativity around him. Saka, ESR and Odegaard buzzed around him all game and gave him the freedom to do what he does best… score goals.

His first one was all him. He was found by Xhaka on the left, he dropped some Cristiano stepovers and dropped his shot into the bottom corner. His second was a penalty after Saka was fouled by the Leeds keeper. His third came from excellent ESR box work with a 6-yard cross he found. He also hit the bar with a first time shot.

There was also a fourth goal from Hector Bellerin. Dani Ceballos threaded a pass into him in a crowded box, Hector finished with a smashed low shot.

The first half was inch-perfect. We controlled the pace of the game, limited Leeds strengths, and played to ours.

The second half was always going to be tougher. Leeds didn’t ever stop. They came at us, they scored 2 within 11 minutes. We didn’t control the game in the way you’d have liked. Let’s be hoenst, most of us were watching that game through the lens of ‘TIOTE SCOOOOOOORES.’ It was unpleasant to say the least.

What also didn’t help the optics was seeing Mikel Arteta roll-on Willian as his ‘let’s control the game’ sub. The narrative of the game wasn’t on the Brazilian’s shoulders, but the sub just stuck in the throat for a number of reasons.

  1. You don’t control a relentless team of attacking kamikaze pilots with a player that doesn’t have legs, energy, or desire.
  2. Nicolas Pepe could have done with the confidence boost after putting on a show in his last few games.
  3. Martinelli could have done with the minutes after being dropped post-Villa after a drab performance

Willian didn’t ruin the game, I think we were on the way to that anyway… but he didn’t do anything to improve it. I read a stat that he lost the ball 5 times from 10 touches. If he was brought on for control, it didn’t arrive. Where was the value? Why does Arteta keep doing it?

The value should be in giving Martinelli and Pepe chances, not Willian, who is so obviously not part of the ‘non-negotiable’ set of principles everyone else has to abide by. Young players have to have perfect 10s every game to keep landing minutes. Willian? He can drop 6 after 6 after 6 and it just doesn’t change Arteta’s opinion of him. He didn’t even get dropped for going to Dubai unauthorised.

The story shouldn’t be about him. We just beat Leeds with Xhaka and Ceballos in our midfield. No Partey or Tierney. That SHOULD be the story… but we’re still talking about weird in-game management. We’re wondering if Arteta has it in for Martinelli? We’re wondering why the manager wants to die on the Willian hill?

We’re also wondering if the stories about Arsenal giving David Luiz a new deal are real? What could possibly justify that? His experience has us in 10th position in the league. Whatever he’s bringing to the table, it hasn’t worked, so why don’t we just cut our losses and give his place to a young player?

Dishing out deals to £160k a week Luiz as you cull jobs behind the scenes is why they fans get annoyed. Time to move on. It hasn’t worked for 2 years, this shouldn’t even be an agenda item. It might not be. It might be Kia PR trying to force a question in his next presser… the point is, it’s believable which shows there’s work to do.

Anyway. I hate that we have to talk about this.

Saka. What a fucking star. Once again, he was a difference-maker. His decision making was superb again, he was hard to mark, he won two penalties. We are a different beast with him in the side. He looks like he’s really enjoying his game.

Smith Rowe added another assist to his name with a world-class cross to Auba at the back post. I love how he passes around corners. He’s highly efficient, he puts numbers on the board, and he’s going to be a vital part of keeping Auba in the goals this season.

Martin Odegaard looks top-class. He was fairly quiet today, but I love the way he probes and searches the game out. He moves really well, his passing is fast and sharp, and I think he’ll be decisive when he finds his role in the league.

Big shout out to Granit and Ceballos as well. I thought they’d be in big trouble today. They weren’t. They were smart in possession, both had an assist, they were ZERO drama which is what we wanted.

Arteta still has a lot of work to do. We didn’t manage the second half as well as we could have. But overall, let’s look at the positives. The football was really good at times, our front 4 looks exciting, we kept the most productive team in the league to under 10 shots, and we continued our good form with chance creation clocking 13 shots.

We have a rough month of games coming, but we’re more than capable of delivering some good results. City is a write-off, but Leicester, Spurs, West Ham, and Liverpool are gettable.

It is ridiculous, but we’re 6 points off top 4. Liverpool lost. Everton lost. Spurs lost. Villa drew. I don’t think we have much of a chance, but a good run out of this batch of games, who knows. At least we’re in the mixer.

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Receding Hairline

Wonder what’s brewing at West Ham, I mean something must be because a past it manager with an ordinary team is competing for top four while our fans are congratulating the generational one on a home victory against Leeds and quoting Bielsa.

Winthorpe

Olis owning the melts. Spitting glass and blood every time arsenal turn in a quality performance. They truly despise it. And yeah Freddie. Dipping into the european market is the only way to improve the team in your head isn’t it? Except our best players this and last season have all come from the great British isles. Saka, Tierney, AMN Holding and ESR. Martinez was also an internal solution still have azeez and Balogun to come. Of course the market is necessary but the lads have proved this season that internal solutions can be better than anything the market has… Read more »

Jamie

“Jamie if you understood what you were actually watching, you wouldn’t be such a snide and could actually contribute.”

Aubergine, if you understood half of what I understand, you’d be a fucking genius.

Graham62

So West Ham go 4th.

Scary!

Graham62

Anonymous

What a terrific post.

That’s what I’m on about Pedro.

A post that says it as it is.

We will not only lose the fans, more importantly, we’ll lose even more of our young talent

Graham62

Dissenter

Also true.

Graham62

Chelski one up.

Giroud.

Winthorpe

they would never have appointed a rookie manager to a position co-equal to the technical director EIGHT MONTHS into his contract.

Dissenter
Tells you everything you need to know about the owners right there. You’ve just defeated your own argument

Graham62

Olis

In respect to what?

Are you the resident ref?

Nelson

Giroud scores. I pick this Chelsea team to make Top4 instead of the Pools or West Ham.

AFC Forever

Arteta’s masterclass on Sunday has clearly not gone unnoticed by the NP on LG. He gave Bielsa a schooling. Pulled his pants down and smacked his arse. The wift interchange play & movement between the lines worked to negate the Leeds press & was just another step on our path of constant improvement, tactically & player wise. False 9’s, CB’s & Midfield positional changes all reminiscent of full fat Pep, enough to get the juices flowing yesterday. God that felt good. Arteta proved how tactically smart he was last season, repairing the damage Dick Emery did by implementing a defensive… Read more »

Nelson

I can see Werner will get better and better after he finally scores.

AFC Forever

Nelson

Chelsea spent a lot of money on those players, they just haven’t performed.

Nelson

AFC

I can’t see we can compete for Top4 without KSE spending some money in the Summer TW. The current team doesn’t have enough depth compare to MC, the Pools, Manure and Chelsea.

Winthorpe

AFC

Nice post. This team is moving steadily in the right direction and the usual crowd can’t stand it. For several reasons but we won’t go into it now. I’m excited to watch arsenal again and it’s Arteta that’s brought that feeling back back.

AFC Forever

Nelson, yes we need to recruit.

AFC Forever

Winthorpe.

Arteta has had a successful football career. He’s also learned from Wenger & Pep. People talk him down as if he’s some wet behind the ears former shelf stacker. Pep actually said he was a smart tactician & didn’t want him to leave. Need a few additions & it takes time to build a side & educate players but we are seeing good progress.

Youdaman

Watching Willock playing for Newcastle. What exactly does he do?

Radio Raheem

Alfonso Davies ripping your momma’s arse with that belter

Radio Raheem

All that 💰 yet Sane and Willian can’t buy a decent haircut. Shocking behaviour.

AFC Forever

Radio Raheem

Lock down mate, impossible finding a bloody barnber!

AFC Forever

*barber

salparadisenyc

Bielefeld we need a match winner to step forth.

Radio Raheem

AFC

Nah not having that. They can afford to buy a barber get him/her isolated for 100 days if they wanted…😀

It’s funny the Newcastle lad got done for going to the barbers the other day but it’s obvious that every premier League player is getting their hair cut, not a strand out of place except our dear Willian of course. Idiot.

Dissenter

Willock heading the ball like Drogba

Nelson

Willock almost scores. GK saved it.

AFC Forever

William must get a neck ache running around with that mop.

Anonymous Commentator

It’s incredibly troubling that people can say we are on the right track while sitting in 10th in the league and likely to slip down the table in the near future or at the very least miss out on points relative to our nearest competitors. There is no miracle run of form to rescue our season in the making lads, this isn’t like it was back then when we were actually one of the best teams in the league. We are gloating about getting a win over a newly promoted side and calling it a masterclass. Utterly terrifying to me… Read more »

Dissenter

Anonymous Commentator
Arsenal FC has qualified for European completion for 25 consecutive years
If we don’t get into European competitions by any means then this season is a failure.

Tom

We are 6 points off fourth and games in hand don’t mean anything are two comments that didn’t age well

Pedro

Anonymous Commentator, better to be an Arsenal fan enjoying the win, than coming on the site to berate people enjoying the win with a whole bunch of ifs and maybes.

Receding Hairline

Pedro is the last person that should lecture any Arsenal fan on enjoy ink wins, he moaned his way through a season where we finished 5th, two points off third and played the EL final.

Now we are tenth and he is wildly excited about the future, can’t make it up.

Dissenter

I don’t think Pedro was “enjoying the ride” when another Arsenal manager eats learning Arsenal on an unbeaten run with players like Carl Jenkinson and Stephan Lichtsteiner in the squad.

Dissenter

**I don’t think Pedro was “enjoying the ride” when another Arsenal manager was leading Arsenal on an unbeaten run with players like Carl Jenkinson and Stephan Lichtsteiner in the squad.

Matt

Aubamayangs ‘tattoo artist’ is in his bubble. How odd!!

bacaryisgod

Matt-yeah, really strange for Aubua to post that photo. Hope there’s no backlash.

AFC Forever

Pedro had a point. Emery was a total disaster. ‘No tactics, no formation, nowhere to hide” read the banners held up at Emirates Stadium when we lost to Eintracht Frankfurt.- after that performance Martin Keown called a ‘complete shambles”. Against Watford Arsenal conceded 31 attempts on our goal. Yep, 31. This was a familiar pattern, Emery did nothing to improve our defending. Without the ball we were soft and easy to get at. The biggest condemnation is that all Arsenal’s obvious and long-standing flaws remained as unaddressed on the day he left as when he arrived. We had 2 clean… Read more »

AFC Forever

*lost the changing room

Freddie Ljungberg

Don “And yeah Freddie. Dipping into the european market is the only way to improve the team in your head isn’t it? Except our best players this and last season have all come from the great British isles. Saka, Tierney, AMN Holding and ESR. Martinez was also an internal solution still have azeez and Balogun to come. Of course the market is necessary but the lads have proved this season that internal solutions can be better than anything the market has to offer” AMN? You’ve lost the plot, he’s terrible and it was a travesty that he wasn’t sold when… Read more »

Dissenter

Emery deserved the sack, not one person here wants him around. That’s the way it’s supposed to work – a manager doesn’t deliver…they get the boot. The problem is that with Arteta, the goal posts are moved all the time. Now we are the star when we are supposed to bellow out Paeans because we beat a newly promoted club AT HOME. We are 10th position in the league and are about to face proper teams. It is likely we will be lower the. 10th by the end of February. If we don’t qualify for Europe then that will be… Read more »

Dissenter

•We are at the stage

China1

In the EL the teams you’d have to watch out for would presumably be Utd, Leicester, Spurs, Milan, Napoli and Ajax. The rest I wouldn’t have many concerns about provided arsenal play 80+% of our best. Of those difficult teams, none are unbeatable and most of them will be knocking each other out sooner or later. A worst case scenario for us in terms of fixtures would be along the lines of 32- Benfica 16- Leicester 8- Milan 4-Spurs 2-Utd It would be a tough run but none of those teams are unbeatable. It’s up to Arsenal how well we… Read more »

Anonymous Commentator

Pedro… Excuse me? I lurked this site since 2008 and Wenger got grief for seasons on end for doing far better than this hot mess of a season we’re having. What happened to the standards? Emery got grief for doing better than this, more grief on wins than anyone has given arteta so far. Do we have title ambitions or not? Cause if not then getting rid of Wenger was not the solution, neither Emery considering arteta was permitted a far worse spell of games than him. Like heck he’s doing worse than a guy who couldn’t even speak English… Read more »

Freddie Ljungberg

Pedro

Tell me I’m wrong and I’ll stop.

Hardly obsessing is it when you let the lunatics run the asylum just because they happen to agree with you at the moment, they’re still despicable characters, that you let back in despite being racist, abusive scum. It’s your site though so knock yourself out.

Goobergooner

Oh whoops the ‘general consensus’ of fans are behind Arteta. Silly me thinking for myself.

Dissenter

Pedro
*”China, all of them are very beatable.”

You’ve set the goal posts …so let’s not hold our breaths hoping you won’t move them if it doesn’t work out with this run of games.

Goobergooner

Arsenal is very beatable as 10 losses in the league demonstrates.

Leedsgunner

They only sing when they are winning. When they don’t they make excuses.

I’m pleased we won but we didn’t move to the Emirates so that we could celebrate wins over newly promoted teams like Leeds all the while losing to the likes of Wolves and Aston Villa.

We are mid table for a reason!

Dissenter

Pedro actually wrote that “All standards are out the window for this season. ”

…and some laughed at Abramovic’s Chelsea when he fired a club legend who was manager for coming short of expectations

“All standards are out the window for this season.”🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

Tony

Freddie
February 15 18:59.37
My sentiments entirely well put.

Anonymous Commentator
Some really good posts yesterday

Jamie
A always taking no prisoners and rightly so

Tony

as always*

Tony

Sal
“Changing handles is bizarre, can’t keep up unless its the obvious ones like Dial -Marble – Red Truth or of course Bamariano.”

Such handle changes just demonstrates weak personalities with poor emotional stability leading to cowardly actions trying to hide behind new personas, but not having the intelligence or ability to use different written styles./nuances.

There are none so blind as than those who will not see, Sal

Tony

“Jamie if you understood what you were actually watching, you wouldn’t be such a snide and could actually contribute.” Aubnagine, Northern, Olis/Don/ Battle Elite, Un Una Uai and so the list goes on that made me really laugh as this clown doesn’t even know who he is such is the rate of him being continuously being binned. Sounds like you need new meds or have you tried them al and are left like the way you are? I mean how do you tel an obviously highly educated and intelligent poster as many are here, such as Jamie that they could… Read more »

Mark

@AnonymousC Great post!! You keep on telling it how it is 👍 It’s even more noticable that responses to it Never address your points ( Cos they can’t ) so typically deflect and try to paint you as someone who’s negative. Thing is people aren’t stupid and when they read those points, the questions raised won’t just go away. ( Except for the willfully blind sheep) People want answers. Who says we have to accept everthing without question. Things that don’t make sense to most people. Pedro “Anonymous Commentator, to come on here moaning like you are after a win… Read more »

Mark

I believeThe mis management if players is going to have a big affect on Arsenal. It may not be apparent right now. But it’s gonna catch up to Arteta. No doubt.

Aussie+Gooner

Arsenal’s most expensive players of all time:

10. Lucas Torreira – Sampdoria, £25m, July 2018

9. William Saliba – Saint-Etienne, £27m, July 2019

8. Shkodran Mustafi – Valencia, £37m, August 2016

7. Alexis Sanchez – Barcelona, £38m, July 2014

6. Granit Xhaka – Borussia Monchengladbach, £40m, May 2016

5. Mesut Ozil – Real Madrid, £42m, September 2013

4. Thomas Partey – Atletico Madrid, £45m, July 2017

3. Alexandre Lacazette – Lyon, £47m, October 2020

2. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – Borussia Dortmund, £57m, January 2018

1. Nicolas Pepe – Lille , £72m, August 2019

Money well spent?????

Leedsgunner

Unless we are looking into the edge of the abyss… I would rest Saka and ESR versus Benfica.

I would be tempted to play the Ceballos and Xhaka again to give Partey the rest he needs to face Leicester.

The real problem is LB back can we keep playing Cedric? I don’t know if Tierney is fit…

Nelson

4. Thomas Partey – Atletico Madrid, £45m, July 2017

3. Alexandre Lacazette – Lyon, £47m, October 2020

The date for these two are mixed up.

Goobergooner

Xhaka for 40m. I thought it was 35. Not much difference but still enough to make me vomit in my mouth a little considering we could have had Kante.

Goobergooner

Sanchez was a bargain considering his output.
Partey and Auba on par for their fee vs value to their previous clubs. Ozil was good til his contract extension. We just fucked up the rest.

Socrates

“RH, get over Emery you massive child. You and Dissenter out here today trying to make everyone feel bad about Arsenal is painful viewing. Have some shame.” Coming from a guy that is smitten with Arteta (because why???) is laughable if it wasn’t so cringe. You were totally against Emery for the same reasons posters here are critical of Arteta. Which by the by is normal when a team is underperforming. It was you that stated we had a top4 squad under Emery, but now with a superior squad, we don’t? Dude, you need a total re-think, maybe seek out… Read more »

Aussie+Gooner

Goober

But just think, if we had Kante in the squad now he would either be playing in the U23’s, warming the bench or loaned to Stoke!!!!!

Goobergooner

Aussie because he’s French and a bigmouth? 😂

Tony

China No doubt ES wants revenge for the 2 City games he sat through at the Emirates when were embarrassed bot by Wenger and City. Can’t blame him, though, they were bad enough watching them from over 6000km away. However, we have to play our best team against Benfica in a competition that represents the only route to the CL for us next season. As much as I hope for a win, the odds of use beating City with our full strength side are very slim. Just have to hope Arteta sees more value in winning Thursday than beating his… Read more »

Tony

both*

Goobergooner

I just rewatched the Leeds game. Despite scoring 3 I still don’t think that was our best half of the season like some on here. We pressed real high and had energy in the frontline which was nice to see. Especially at home. But Leeds aren’t that good. And I feel like the wolves game until we crumbled from shit ref’ing and the United win were still better ‘performances’.

People just want to over exaggerate to try prove their point and then call out that people with negativity have an agenda. Go figure.

Haha this place is fun isn’t it.

Receding Hairline

“RH, get over Emery you massive child. ”

Pedro make up your mind, after a loss you write off the season and make all sorts of excuses, we beat a team as beatable as Leeds at home and you are out here swinging, counting how many points off fourth we are, and also how many points off Liverpool we are, Liverpool who are having a season from hell are now the standard for rating Arteta, do you even read some of the things you come up with?

Steveyg87

I feel a lot better with Luiz in the team vs Holding. He offers us an extra going forward and doesn’t hide, a true leader on the field for us. Worth noting that Smith rowe is playing more of a #8 role for us with Odegaard #10, I like the look of them 2, the problem is what do you do with Lacazette? I cant see him fitting in anywhere right now

Receding Hairline

And about this first half from another galaxy we had, the Leeds goalkeeper was culpable for all three goals, he was atrocious, if Leno had a game like that the loss will be squarely on him and not how wonderful the opposition was.

Standards are not out the window this season,a few managers have already lost their jobs.

Receding Hairline

It would be understandable to use Liverpool as a yardstick on progress made under Arteta this season if they were flying high and maintained their standards from the last two seasons, considering they are struggling I don’t see what keeping tabs on how far behind them on the table we are achieves, but then again you are grasping so carry on Pedro.

Goobergooner

Lol

The Bard

Anonymous what seems to have slipped under your radar are two glaring facts. Wenger left the club in a mess and building a successful team takes time. Keep sacking managers isn’t the way forward. There isn’t consistency as you state but we are playing better. We move the ball much more quickly and look good in patches. We have a nucleus of young players who will get better. That’s positive in my book. We need to give a rocky manager some time. All the hot air about who he does or doesn’t like is just speculation as there is no… Read more »

Receding Hairline

“We move the ball much more quickly and look good in patches.”

This can be said of any professional football team, that you think this is a sign of progress means you don’t actually watch football just Arsenal. Even rock bottom Sheffield united play some lovely football in patches, same can be said of Mainz in the bundesliga.

China1

Stevey Holding is a vastly more reliable player than Luiz How many points has Luiz cost us with gaffes, red cards and penalties since he joined? We don’t need our CBs to be offensive threats who show up, we need them to be consistently good at the back, which Luiz is certainly not compared with holding We don’t need a CB to be a 10/10 for 80 minutes and a 3/10 for the remaining 10. It’s far more preferable to have a player who can give you 7.5/10 for 90 minutes the vast majority of times. The Leeds game being… Read more »

Tom

RH
Liverpool finished last season with 43 points more than Arsenal.
This season they have only six points more than us.
Conclusion: Arteta has improved us by 37 points.
Boom! You can’t can’t argue with facts proven using scientific methods.

Habesha Gooner

Arguing with Pedro about being objective is pointless. Time and time again his standards and consistency of opinions change. It’s futile to argue with that. Emery deserved to be fired. But Pedro was banging the drum for him to be fired. On the basis of that Arteta also should have been fired when we had 7 losses in 9 games. We were contemplating relegation. That deserved a sacking. But somehow he has turned it around to a point where the jury is still out in his ability as a manager. He is showing some good things but also some of… Read more »

China1

Nailed it Tom!

China1

Fully agree Habesha

China1

And let’s be serious the only reason why we are still discussing arsenal competing for top 6 let alone higher in the league is because it’s been a perfect storm of good luck that every other team bar city has at least once gone off the rails, in most cases multiple times.

Strokes of when we fell up the stairs to second place in the Leicester season where everyone just bent over and let us stumble into second through minimal quality from ourselves

Pierre

Ah Tom, there you are , I do understand that you felt a little stupid after questioning my footballing knowledge, but the least you could have done is apologised for your futile attempt to embarrass me instead of disappearing for a couple of days after i provided evidence Tom “Pierre Are you still butt hurt about your “away” shouting debacle? You should be lol” Tom “Graham, your pal Pierre apparently did. Unfortunately for him he played for the only footballing side in the world who’s keeper shouted “away” to hoof the ball up the pitch at corners and not for… Read more »

China1

As well when you compare clubs it should be based over a period of years not weeks or months Liverpool have made a CL final, won a CL, come second in the league with an absolutely ridiculous points tally, won the league with a joke points tally in the last few years. They have been the best team in the world over the last 3 or so years and it’s only the last couple of months they’ve been anything less than that. It’s normal that teams fluctuate each year and sometimes the levels drop. They’ve had loads of injury issues… Read more »

Graham62

RH

I think Ive fallen into your camp in respect to Arteta and what he’s doing.

For me the negatives still outweigh the positives.

Do you charge a membership fee?

Habesha

Every team “plays good football in patches”.

Even Sheffield United.

shaun

Anyone who watched the Chelsea game would probably come up with the same feeling Willock is just like his brothers and can do most things on a football field but not really good at anything he was actually quite painful to watch no tackling , hardly any pressure on the ball , maybe he had an off day but he was really poor in this game , that said he is not a player I rate at all but I am an optimist and saw some of the Southampton game and he looked reasonable so thought i would pay some… Read more »

Leftside

no matter how you wush to paint it, this Arsenal side is underachieving and the club are absolutely fine with it.

Leftside

wish

Habesha Gooner

I mean why do people keep bringing up the pandemic like it is only happening to us? Aren’t Westham, Leicster, Everton and Villa dealing with a pandemic too? How come they are above us? We keep lowering our standards because of incompetent people. When the season started the goal was to get champions league football back by league position or through Europa league. The bare minimum would have been a 7th place finish. The reality is we are midtable right now. What we could point out is to the football we play in patches and youngsters coming up. Other than… Read more »

Tom

Jesus, Pierre , you’re still on this ?
How fragile is your ego exactly? just let it go.
No defender in the world awaits keepers instructions at corners to clear the ball.
It’s literally their only job in that moment whether you or this Toby dude agrees or not.

Graham62

Olis

I think we all understand that.

By the way, “the winning culture“ evaporated as soon as Wenger was found out and that was long long before it became “toxic”

Tom

“Emery was brought in to steady the ship, make us better defensively, improve our away record and challenge for the title. “

Emery was brought in to challenge for the title ?
And you have the cheek to call other posters muppets ? Lol.

China1

Olis it’s a perfect storm because it’s not through our own good work that Liverpool have had a Crocked defense this season or imploded recently and left us close to them in the table It’s not because arsenal improved that Lampard blew silly money in the summer, shat the bed and got sacked It’s not because of arteta’s good work that mourinho blew a valid title race shot It’s not because we’ve improved that Utd are now blowing their title shot All of these things have been entirely outside of our control and left the door open for us to… Read more »

Graham62

Of course the pandemic has changed the dynamics of the game.

Can we though blame the pandemic for favouring Willian?
Can we blame the pandemic for the Martinelli scenario?
Can we blame the pandemic for losing our #1 keeper?
Can we blame the pandemic for David Luiz being a liability and possibly being offered a new contract?
Can we blame the pandemic in respect to Saliba?
Can we………………

I think you get the gist.

Graham62

Tom

Actually, Olis is right on this point.

Pierre

Guaranteed Tom that you will think again in the future before giving your sly little digs…

Just take it as a lesson learned.

AFC Forever

Fact: We have a much more organised team than we ever had under Emery. We are where we are do to a bad start to the season, with our top goalscorer out of form. Players have improved under Arteta and so too has our ability to defend without the ball. After making us defensively sound after the shambles that was Emery & the 30 odd shots we were allowing on our goal, he has now sorted out the creativity issue. If you refuse to acknowledge those facts it’s on you, nobody else. He won a trophy in his first season… Read more »

China1

I always make the analogy of a 100m sprint. If you are running in the olympics and get a bronze medal with a time of over ten seconds you stay humble, count your lucky stars that all the better sprinters somehow fucked up and aim to come back next year with a time that’s actually worthy of the position

Arsenal have been dog shit this season and if we even get 5th we should be doing the same

Habesha Gooner

Oils Who said we are finishing 10th? He has 3 points and 3 teams with game in hands to navigate through to get the bare minimum. Arsenal should always be in Europe. I said Arteta’s future depends on that. If he finishes outside of a Europa league place then he deserves to get fired. It doesn’t matter where we are right now. What matters is where he will finish at the end of the season. I have considered the shit he had to deal with regarding the squad but we are very capable of coming 7th. At the start of… Read more »