Well, well, well… Klopp was the fraud all along. Arsenal win tomorrow, we’ll be 3 points off the Champions in the most nuts season on record.
It is quite incredible how a side can go from looking like the greatest footballing machine ever created, to total bums after one bad signing, a couple of injuries, and a global pandemic.
It’s a bit of a shame we’re playing Manchester City this weekend. They are one of the best teams in the world right now. Pep has managed the transition to a new vision with the same sort of deft innovation he always does.
The best manager in the world was pumping Arteta like he always does.
“All I can say is the last months show me that all managers need time and he is not an exception. What I see in the last two months every game Arsenal played is better than the opponent.
“Tomorrow we will have an incredible performance. They have an exceptional build-up, they have quality and they have energy. They have [Bukayo] Saka, [Pierre-Emerick] Aubameyang and all the players with the quality in the middle.
You might think this is patronising stuff. He’ll probably beat us tomorrow. But he’s not far from the truth if you are watching The Arsenal develop through the correct lens.
There are still mistakes in the system, we’re not perfect, but Pep is not wrong… we’ve been the better in all our games since the Chelsea game.
The key thing for me… we’re unpredictable now. Pep will recognise that looking at our games. We can press, we can sit back, we can go long, we can build from the back, and we can execute a well-crafted plan of shit-housery. Look at how we’re developing, versus the mess Jose is overseeing now his one-trick pony strategem is injured.
I’ve been saying for a while now, something is brewing at Arsenal, and it’s hard to deny it. We might lose tomorrow and we might lose on Thursday, but don’t take your eye off the ball. All the reports I’m hearing are that the coaching is phenomenal behind the scenes and things are building nicely. More importantly, you can see it on the pitch.
I thought a big show of our improving style was the game Auba had the other night. Sure, he missed some big chances, but did you pay attention to his game? Look at those runs he was making. That was a man that could smell the potential of a killer pass. Auba was running the channels. He was taking risks. He wasn’t doing that before Christmas. Arsenal has gone from a side that could barely progress the ball from the back, to a side that has options all over the park. Auba’s game sums us up… you don’t take chances on runs if you know the pass won’t come.
ESR, Odegaard, Partey, and Saka can all pass round corners. They can deliver from deep. They can beat an aggressive press. They dribble past players. When that clicks in this Arteta system, it’s really, really tough to play against.
Compare that to pre-Christmas when we had 2 power plays, that one on the left being the main one, well, it’s night and day. The passing is starting to look cognitive. Players are recognising the patterns, they know where to move, they know the triggers, they might not be the most aggressive pressers, but they are very intelligent at it now. There’s thought in every tactical setup these days.
We totally controlled Benfica. Whine about the result, but don’t snipe at the performance from a team that had just had to deal with Leeds before a plane journey. We controlled possession, we drew them out, made late runs in behind, and we delivered 8 quality chances that unfortunately didn’t have the finish.
We’re doing that regularly now. The xG might not always show it. But the positions we’re taking up in attack are good. The chance quality is way, way better, and the football is getting close to sexy.
The interesting thing is you can see the phases. Last year, we stopped being whipping boys. No more walking through the middle. This season, we started well defensively, we mopped up setpiece defending… then it went to hell for a bit. But part of that was down to not having the right players. Part of that was losing your best midfielder (he’s still out). If Liverpool can lose VVD and crash, why would anyone think Arsenal could lose their best midfielder and not suffer?
Now we’ve found some of the missing links. Big players are coming back into form (Auba/Laca/Gabriel). Troubled players are more settled because part of their usefulness was only going work playing with certain profiles of talent (Xhaka/Pepe/Hector/Cedric). Young players are shining (Saka/ESR). We also found an Odegaard who added more quality and confidence to the starting 11.
You should be excited as a fan. I’ve never felt more confident the path we chose was correct. We’re starting to see the fruits of the time we afforded the manager. We have to navigate this season with progress in mind, then Edu, Vinai and Arteta have to NOT make the same fuck ups as last summer.
We shouldn’t be signing David Luiz to a new deal. We should be ageing down in player profile. We need a top centre midfielder. Saliba should be integrated. We should sign Balogun down as our 3rd choice striker. We should sell the names that aren’t working or loan them for the year to shop window them.
Interestingly, I did hear that Willian is a top guy and an excellent trainer. No joke. What Arteta says about him is true, it’s not PR. He’s very well-liked behind the scenes. It’s not working out for him because he’s just not the player everyone thought he’d be. I get the sense the deal was rushed (can’t imagine why). It’s simple, never take a chance on the roulette of age. This was a mistake, Arteta has to accept that and never do it again.
I also don’t think you should read too much into the Gabriel M stuff. He’s not playing at the moment because the side is buzzing. It’s hard to change something that’s working, especially for a player that is raw power. He’ll get his chance though. There are also a number of kids coming through that everyone is very excited about as well, so expect the youth theme to continue into the Arteta tenure, there’s still a lot to come.
I don’t really have a lot to say about today. My hope is it’s a great afternoon of football. Key for us is to not concede early and see if we can grow into the game. It is going to be absolutely essential to take our chances. CIty’s defence has been immense this season, Auba won’t get 5 good chances tomorrow, he’ll be lucky to have two… so let’s see what we can do. Should be fun.
That’s the Champions League for pub teams.
@AFC, does it make any sense to you, that arteta may be playing auba to form? Did we miss him when he was out? Didn’t we play better without auba in this side? Arteta may be playing him to form at the detriment of the team? What’s laca done to justify being frozen out for Auba? He was on a good run, bringing out the games in our attacking wingers. What’s martinelli done? Arteta is a very proud and very toxic being
Endure the rest of the season.
Anything less than 7th and Europa League final Arteta should walk.
Arteta started off well and had my support. Unlike many I never thought we’d challenge for top 4 this season. I didn’t expect us to perform this badly either. All considered the above stated target is a reasonable minimum he should meet for us to continue with the ‘process’. Anything less and he should go. Eventually we’d the appointment right.
Stop kidding yourself guys. We all know Arteta could finish 15th and go out to Benfica and he’d keep his job.
My main worry is that we’re going to lose Martinelli and Saliba with Arteta in charge.
I hope Arteta sees that he has to play ESR and Saka closer together. Ødegaard still doesn’t have chemistry with Saka yet. If ESR started today, he would have supported Tierney and Saka to break through from the left side. Ødegaard just stayed in the middle and watched.
I said at the start of the season when chatting with one of my friends, United fan. If everything goes right this season, we get 4th. If done things to wrong like some injuries here and there we finish lowest 8th. And if everything goes wrong inviting arteta not being the guy for the job we finish between 10th and 12th. I certainly did not expect that last one to be correct after the fa cup and community shield wins, but here we are. I have no faith in arteta rescuing the season. He is unable to rescue our striker… Read more »
Some things go wrong*
Including arteta*
Stop kidding yourself guys. We all know Arteta could finish 15th and go out to Benfica and he’d keep his job.
————–
Possibly. In which case it’s pointless worrying about losing players – none of it matters.
Arsenal fans will deserve what they get.
Another dive by rashford and penaldo scores!
Pedro posted 1 week ago stop complaining Arsenal is 6 points of top 4 one week later it is 12 points. When Westham could be the only club representing London in the UCL it begs the question “Is Arteta still Arsenal’s manager?”
Still anyone thinks that Arteta was the better choice than Ancelotti?
They didn’t even review that penalty
vickingzFebruary 21, 2021 20:15:39 @AFC, does it make any sense to you, that arteta may be playing auba to form? Did we miss him when he was out? Didn’t we play better without auba in this side? Arteta may be playing him to form at the detriment of the team? What’s laca done to justify being frozen out for Auba? He was on a good run, bringing out the games in our attacking wingers. What’s martinelli done? Arteta is a very proud and very toxic being Vikingz Exactly We were doing really well without auba I think that hat trick… Read more »
Dissenter
Did you the one yesterday Everyone penalty? Kavanagh was sent to the monitor by the VAR referee bit decided to review to for 3 seconds before giving what was never a penalty. These referees are terrible
Dissenter,
Sorry mate, “did you see the Everton penalty yesterday.
Vickingz
Yes, thought Laca very unlucky. His hold up player is much better.
Seeing United doing epochal stuff with uber talented young players.
Subbing in a kid who tuned 17 tears old 2 weeks ago
Our generational manager is too scared to do that
He will rather sub in a 32 year old scraggy haired Brazilian instead.
AFC
I missed that.
I dont think these referees are were served by their management but they seem to be more protected than China protected the Panda.
*than China protects the Panda.
I just don’t feel desire watching this garbage, robotic, zero inspiration, boringfest Arteta has been serving. Le-grove was the place to push for a change. A change for a better tomorrow. Tomorrow where we would be competing for the EPL and the UCL trophies. Now it’s turned into the complete opposite. We are being served 10th place as progress. Worse stats than the lowest of Emery. Far worse than Wenger at his worse. We’ve been overtaken by teams who almost got relegated last year in Villa and West Ham. Leicester are miles better than us, Everton are outperforming us. All… Read more »
I still can’t believe that Mr Moss wont be punished for not stopping play when Holding went down with a head injury.
Dissenter, yep agree with that. Zero accountability.
AFC
Now you reminded me of holdup play. Auba is really bad in this department. The ball just bounded off him to an opponent. Or any 50/50 ball he would not fight for it.
Just watched the highlights on Peacock not a single attach of Arsenal was shown. He admitted he got the tactics wrong.
Still anyone thinks that Arteta was the better choice than Ancelotti?
MD,
at least he admitted, that progress!
MD-Gunner
You misheard, he said no such thing. . He said the team made a tactical mistake, they didn’t do what they should have done.
If arteta is not a double agent then he’s easily the worst top flight manager I have ever seen.
This is the start of the end fit auba
Yes Rap
Feeling the emotion in your post.
Anonymous CommentatorFebruary 21, 2021 21:13:19
If arteta is not a double agent then he’s easily the worst top flight manager I have ever seen.
How old are you? Seriously
Winthrop be gone, you are textbook example of the fans that are accepting if this tripe.
Arteta “Apart from the first 10 minutes that we didn’t do something we talked about when we suffered -It’s really frustrating because we talked about it, that we had to come out of the blocks really strongly, really convincingly,. We did the opposite and we allowed them some time around the box, sometimes with Sterling in the middle of the box with a header… against City, if you want to win you cannot do that. “I think after that we tried to react in the best possible way. I think we matched them up, We had some really good moments,… Read more »
Plus
Yep, couldn’t agree more.
Olis, sorry
You have to lusten to what players say. Pablo Mari: “It was hard for us because we planned for the game really well. Everybody knew what we had to do and I think we did well but at the end we conceded a goal at the beginning of the game, and when you concede those kinds of details against these types of teams, you lose the game. We have to be hard, we have to be focused 100 per cent in the beginning of the game until 96 or 97 minutes. I think 99 per cent of the game we… Read more »
As he says, the players have to start games on the right foot. Being slow out of the blocks against just top teams is costly.
AFC Forever has to be one of the most annoying posters on le grove and I’ve been here since 2010.
Not suprised some of the old guard are not posting at the moment.
Raptora
“Le-grove was the place to push for a change. A change for a better tomorrow. Tomorrow where we would be competing for the EPL and the UCL trophies.”
….and how did that turn out?!!!
Mari: “I think on the pitch we probably had the two best coaches in the world”.
With all due respect Mari has played a total of 2 seasons in a top-flight team in his entire career – NAC in Eredivisie and Flamengo in Brazil. Among these giants he’s also played for Gimnastic, Girona and Deportivo la Coruna.
Still, how full his mouth is with Arteta… Speechless.
Spot on raptora – I am wondering if Pedro and z few of the bloggers are taking money from arsenal to try and convince us everything is ok when we know it is a complete mess.
We are 10th and have lost 11 games with still 13 to go. We have been piss poor but next year will be better…. some how.
Graham, the club is a mess that is not if Artetas making. Poor player recruitment & contracts has us where we are. Emery had the same players and created the worst attempts against our goal since records. In his season we conceded 78 goals, compared to an average previously of around 48. Without the ball we was a terrible team. Not so now. That’s why Arteta deserves time, he’s got rid of some deadwood but we are still carrying players.
*of
Raptora reading that nonsense from him is both infuriating and concerning. We have lost 11 league games and we have one of the two best coaches in the world, who says nonsense like that after a game you never looked like scoring in.
Anyone else watching the snooker?
Arteta needs to have a look at what a good manager does when players are not doing what want, he should look at what tuchel did to odson odoi yesterday, he pulled him off and when asked after the match he said exactly that, can anyone see arteta doing that ? No chance, especially to someone like auba ,cos he hasn’t got the cohonas. He chooses who he picks his fight with and that is the reason he is going to fail as a coach. Look at what Pepe did to aguero? Yay a toure? He made a point of… Read more »
2018/19 season
Goals scored – 73
Goals against – 51
2020/21 season
Goals scored – 31
Goals against – 26
Progress?
Player sucks up to the boss – what a shocker. Being proud of how we played when losing and hardly landing a blow on the opposition is so very Arsenal, I’m sure Mari will fit in nicely. Wouldn’t it be nice to see a player stand up and say “No, I’ll never be happy if we lose” for a change?
Radio
Yes, progress defensively. Which was something we all wanted because off the ball we were soft we were bottom of goals conceded from set pieces. If you look at the 5 seasons preceding, our goals against was on average better than Emery..
Our problem at the moment is we don’t have good enough players. We have started to bring in better ones & youngsters have improved plus we got rid of some of the problem players. Need at least another transfer window.
@Radio, so that’s a GD of +22? And finished on 70 points (we’re heading for around 52 points based on ppg so far).
Sure, reducing goals against is a positive but we’re heading for a GF of 47 and GA of 40. That would be eleven goals less conceded but 26 less scored.
However you look at it the ‘progress’ is difficult to see.
Emery had the same players and created the worst attempts against our goal since records. In his season we conceded 78 goals, compared to an average previously of around 48.
AFC Forever.
Emery finished 5th which is way better than 10.
PS: Emery had worse players.
PS: when Emery was in charge, 4th was the minimum, now 10th is acceptable?
AFCF, said it before but it can’t just be about buying players all the time. Anyone can do that. A good coach has to improve the ones he has otherwise what’s the point?
AFC Forever
The aim of football is to win.
I would rather will 6-5 or draw 4-4 than lose 0-1.
We have the 3rd best defence but we are 10th on the table. I’m pretty sure the club would rather be in the top 4 on the actual table that matters.
“we were bottom of goals conceded from set pieces”
You really should stop lying on this that can be disproved easily.
We conceded 10 goals from set pieces in 18/19
The best defence was Leicester City with 7 goals conceded.
Andy, as we discussed before, the start of this season Aubamayang struggled, some rumours personal reasons but he was not the same player we relied on for goals We had creativity issues until Nov/Dec, which were resolved. We’ve just been to Rome, had zero break and yet losing to Man City is us falling off a cliff. So progress could be; 1. Sorting out our defensive problems, our softness, conceding at set pieces, off ball positioning – 2. Shrinking the bloated squad with Ozil, Socratis, Mustafi etc on daft contracts, not of Artetas making. 3. Better players – Partey, the… Read more »
Bear in mind what you read on here is a reflection of 50% of our fan base including all the big fan accounts on Twitter. Something isn’t right here, seems I’m looking at the wrong league table.
There is this religious belief we have to suffer this season to enjoy next season, it makes no sense.
Azed
Do yourself a favour mate and stop calling me a liar. I have tried to engage but people like you just insult. I’m off the blog now, can’t be asked with rude keyboard warriors. Goodnight.
AFCF – You may have noted that I’m not one of those calling for Arteta’s head, but I am saying that he has to do better. We have problems sure, but our squad is nowhere near tenth best in the division. I’d agree 6th/7th would be par with an average manager. For a good manager we should be pushing for top four and a great one would get us there. Let’s not forget that pre-season people (including Pedro) were saying that top 4 was a realistic ambition.
We all want an improved defence but not at the expense of winning .
We’re playing like underdogs which is why we’re midtable.
We are losing too many games.
The defensive record stops mattering when we stop being able to win.
Baldy you’re deluded if you think Le Grove is representative of the arsenal fan base.
This is true it does not at all
Mr Serge
“Baldy you’re deluded if you think Le Grove is representative of the arsenal fan base.This is true it does not at all’
No it doesn’t, it represents people who have an opinion and can call what is right and progressive, instead of just pandering to the most number of fans to get traffic.
Odegaard played way too safe today , we missed the one and 2 touch football of Smith Rowe and his ability to take the ball on the half turn.. Tierney’s final ball was poor , he linked well with Saka but didn’t deliver, he was also poor for the goal in allowing Mahrez to casually come inside without any pressure on the ball. Holding getting the blame for the goal but to me, I would ask the questions of the keeper who was rooted to his line . Sterling was on the 6 yard line when he headed the ball,… Read more »
I never wrote that gooner but I agree with it
Thursday is the important game, it’s a must win game or our season is effectively over , which is something Arsenal fans have not been used to , as the past 6 seasons we have competed in a cup final .
Not bad for a team in crisis…
‘Pedro posted 1 week ago stop complaining Arsenal is 6 points of top 4 one week later it is 12 points. ‘
Our new target is 6 points off liverpool
We should beat Benfica, we have to face Villareal
We have lost 11 games with only two-thirds of the season gone.. someone who thinks arteta is the right man for the job please explain this to me..
Aubameyang is on of the worst Arsenal captains in a while
Seeing your captain knocked on his bum over and over again by a light wight like John Stones is very disheartening.
Jones Stones is not even a physical defender.
“EXCITING PROGRESS HAPPENING AT ARSENAL”
Agreed