Well, here we are, once again licking open wounds on a Monday morning. It’s grim. But every moment like this presents an opportunity to learn. That Liverpool performance will give credence to certain debates going on behind the scenes. It’ll also shake out any decisions being moved on emotion, versus hard facts. It needs to mean something because we had a game like this last season against Villa after a semi-final win and it seems we learned nothing.
A bum result like the Liverpool one is par the course for this squad of players. We know we can compete against them because we’ve beaten this Klopp side in the past when they were at a higher level. The main difference this weekend? There was nothing to play for, so the players switched off.
The manager takes responsibility for that, no doubt. The players, well, it’s hard to pin the blame on them. That’s simply who a lot of these players are. You can’t coach character. They have the talent, but unless there’s something of interest on the line, they don’t always show up and that performance will always wait in the wings. You can zig and zag, but ultimately, you usually fall back on who you really are.
We can rectify some of those issues this summer.
Dani Ceballos, under no circumstance, should return to Arsenal. That performance was absolutely shocking. When you’re highlighting the importance of Xhaka to that level, you know something is up. He didn’t know where to receive the ball, he didn’t know what to do with the ball. Even the passes he made that found a man weren’t of the level required… Liverpool press in such a way that if the angle isn’t perfect on the pass, they kill the man receiving. Watch Dani back, time and time again, his sloppiness put his receiver under pressure.
We lacked alternatives. Mo Elneney is not the one. That we started this season with those two as back-up midfielders was an abomination. My big fear on the Egyptian was that we were rewarding him a new deal for being good, the suspicion is that Arsenal will be taking up our option on his deal so we can sell him for decent money. Still, both of those players need to be relegated in the squad.
There’s also the David Luiz issue. He’s our most important centre back, but he comes loaded with baggage as well. He doesn’t show up in games that don’t mean anything, and at the age of 33 (birthday in 2 weeks), are we really going to continue to make him the lynchpin of our defence next season? Your comfort blanket cannot be players like that.
Even Alex Lacazette, who has been a bit of a star this season, has to be moved on. What we can’t do is look at big performers in a drossy season. We have to look to the future. Auba was our big bet last season. There’s only one role he can play… that’s as a centre-forward. That means we can’t keep Lacazette unless we want a £180k a week sub.
Tough decisions have to be made.
We’re already making some of them as well. The lack of Hector time, now missing for 5 games, is most likely linked to him telling the club he wants out this summer. That’s great news for Arsenal and great news for the player. Cal Chambers is no right back and the fact he’s taking minutes over Cedric is ominous… but the happiness I take from that is we’re using his position to see who is up to it next season.
The Rob Holding contract also looks a bit perplexing at the moment, because as solid as he is, he can’t play the style of football we need from him. But, he’s young, British, and he is of the standard in the league. If he can’t cut it, then he’ll be loaned next season and we’ll be banking a fee. His deal was Arsenal acting like a business… I hope.
The Premier League season is now dead, but it’s still of use. We should be trying to find out which players have what it takes at this level. Arteta should be gauging who has the right spirit when there are no chips on the table.
The summer has to be laser-focused on our needs. We have 16 players that, if kept fit, could take us to top-4. Reality is that’s not enough.
Some proper business has to take place this summer.
Watch for basically all the loan players being moved on. Hertha Berlin are now calling Matteo a top professional, which hopefully means that they’ll deal with us this summer. Joe Willock scored from the bench against Spurs, he’ll find a move. Mavropanos will be sold, hopefully to Stuttgart. I don’t think there’s going to be a future for Ainsley, but he’ll find a decent club, no doubt. The only name coming back will be William Saliba who should get a run at starting next season.
Eddie, who only has a year left on his deal, will be sold. It’ll be interesting to know whether we have an option to extend his deal so we can up the fee. Regardless, a team like Brighton would be great for his talents. Reiss Nelson is hanging on harder than Nik Bendtner, he needs to leave, someone will give him a chance.
That’s a lot of gaps to fill, maybe too many, but look… there’s plenty of cash that we could raise, and there are lots of good players that could build out the foundations at the club that are extremely brittle.
Arsenal needs real competition for Bernd Leno. He’s been very disappointing this season. We can’t keep carrying him.
We need a world-class right-back like Hakimi. We need to settle on our roster of centre-backs. There has to be a young and hungry left-back to compete with Tierney. Playing him after 3 world cup games was a disaster decision, but the choices were limited.
Our midfield needs desperate attention. We should be sniffing around players entering their final two years. Young, hungry, exceptionally fit, technically gifted and intelligent. Spending big on one Premier League talent would be smart, but we can’t leave it at that. We need to be very cute. Rummage in Austria, Eastern Europe, have a look in Spain, Portugal and Holland. What can we find in South America? Make Brexit work for our squad.
Our forward line is where the toughest decisions must happen. Right now, it doesn’t work. We’re not scoring enough goals, it’s as simple as that. Pepe had a bad game at the weekend, but that was more down to receiving the ball so deep and having no options. He’s got something, but at 25, could we sell him and upgrade? Lacazette? We can’t keep a striker that doesn’t score. Auba? We have to keep him, he earns more than Mesut, he ain’t going nowhere. We have to make it work. But we have to build on what makes him tick. Sign Odegaard. Give more minutes to Martinelli. See if we can find more runners that can unlock the best finisher in the league.
That’s a lot of work for a Technical Director that thought Willian was faster than he was and blew £39m on him because of special qualities we’ve not seen.
One of Arteta’s comments post-game was.
‘We lacked clarity’
I agree.
Arsenal picked Arteta because they were prepared to go on a journey. Emery was a plaster on a gaping wound, his combination with Don Raul caused an infection. Symptoms? Unbalanced squad, cratered culture, bloated wage bill, no identity… skint.
Arteta wasn’t just hired because we fancied going high risk, he was also the best choice they had economically if they wanted to jump a level. Someone suggested to me on the internet that we should hire Julian Nagelsmann… like, honestly, the most unoriginal suggestion. We don’t have the money for wages, we don’t have the financial backing, and the club is too far away from the top for most to take the risk.
Things have to get worse before they get better. The painting is half done. Since Christmas, we’re top 4, still. The improvements didn’t all evaporate because of the Liverpool game… just like Chelsea aren’t now absolutely shit because West Brom put 5 past them.
The big question isn’t whether this coaching could work… I’m convinced it can. It’s whether Arteta the manager and Edu the Technical Director can move this from a petri-dish maybe to something that works over a whole season.
The only way we get there is if the summer is ruthless and laser fucking focused on what needs to happen to move us to the next level.
Next season only works if Arsenal FC is honest about what hasn’t worked. There must be consequences for not hitting the mark. There needs to be solutions to the weaknesses we know couldn’t be addressed in 18 months. This season will be a pass for a lot of managers, next will not be. The best thing that Arteta can do with the remaining 9 games is give the fans a taste of the young players and dish out some accountability to sloppy seniors. The best way to keep the fans onside is to go out and win the Europa League with a brutal destruction of all the teams we’re about to play.
Arsenal needs to work under Arteta. The next 8 months are crucial. Europa League is what the 1990 FA Cup was to Sir Alex Ferguson. There needs to be a silver lining, that would be one, but nailing the summer is the most crucial of trophies.
Let’s see what we have!
Could I possibly be 1st????
2nd?
3rd?
4th?
a miracle!!!
So much work to be done and by the inexperience of Arteta and Edu.
Such a massive summer, but can’t see how it can go tight unless we sell on about 13 players and bring in 5/6 starters
I have waited all my life for this. Hasn’t been this good since I saw us win the Fairs Cup (old Europa League) in 1970. Augurs well for this year.
No chance of arsenal getting rid of all those players. We will do well to hold onto saka and Tierney never mind bring in new quality. Don’t keep bigging Arteta up when we can all see he’s a coward who’s nothing special . He’s had over a year, there’s no improvement and we’ve become boring
“The big question isn’t whether this coaching could work… “
It actually still is.
Eleven professionals don’t put in the kind of performance they did against Liverpool because they didn’t care enough, or because there was nothing to play for.
The do it because they lack the belief in what they are doing on the day, and that’s clearly on Arteta.
The Chelsea comparison here is a bad one.
Chelsea lost to a bogey team while a man down.
Yup. Europa League and a killer summer. Otherwise we’ll be having the same discussions next yesr
*next year
Pedro, Johny Cochrane’s comments on the blog were laser focused: win the cup and all is forgiven. But I wonder how much winning it would influence our summer plans. If we win, there is a temptation to make incremental changes. Not winning it would increase the possibility of a clear out. I suspect that Holding, who I actually like, may now actually be sold as not fit for purpose. But the real deadweight is Willian and Auba. Who on earth is going to take them, even for nothing, at their wages? The Chinese market looks dead now for expensive players… Read more »
Emery was a plaster on a gaping wound, his combination with Don Raul caused an infection. Symptoms? Unbalanced squad, cratered culture, bloated wage bill, no identity… skint. We had these things before Emery and Don and we still have it. Someone suggested to me on the internet that we should hire Julian Nagelsmann… like, honestly, the most unoriginal suggestion. We don’t have the money for wages, we don’t have the financial backing, and the club is too far away from the top for most to take the risk. In the last 3 summers alone we’ve spent around 290 million on… Read more »
Pedro Fuck the world class right back stuff, that’s not where I’d want a chunk of money thrown when you have the list of senior attackers at the football club – certainly isn’t moving the needle like a proper attacking overhaul would. Auba, Laca, Pepe, Willian is a terrible balance of talent for a possession-based technical football setup. We’ve made our bed with Auba and extended, that’s a poor decision imo and now there’s only one way to make it good. Build the side around his lack of footballing ability. I don’t like the comparison because it gets reductive, but… Read more »
Well Arteta has lucked out a bit let’s be honest in some past encounters against Klopp’s Liverpool so I don’t agree with the comment.
I think he was looking to luck out again against them.
When you play a certain way against an opposition don’t be surprised if you come unstuck especially if you keep repeating your same tactic against them.
And the tactic Arteta has been employing against Liverpool in matches couldn’t be described as front foot tactics can it.
Good Ebening, Good post Pedro, it’s getting hard to justify keeping Arteta on but I’m willing to wait because I feel if we can shift on the pensioners and reintegrate the loanees and youngsters we have a very good squad. For me, Luiz, Mustafi, Sokratis, Kolasinac, Cedric, Xhaka, Ceballos, Elneny, Willian and Lacazette all need to be sold and permanently off the wage bill. I would keep Nketia, Nelson, AMN, Bellerin, Chambers and Holding for homegrown and squad purposes and to sell later along the line if they don’t step up or serve a purpose. I would retain Balogun, sign… Read more »
“Europa League is what the 1987 FA Cup was to Sir Alex Ferguson. ”
Yes! Yes!
A plethora of last minute winning penalties and a haul of EPL titles awaits Arsenal in the coming seasons.
Fergie time here we come!
It would be very unfortunate to loan out Holding at 25 years old.
It’s always sad to see older players loaned out.
That is some mountain of wishful thinking, Pedro. Ditch nearly all the first teamers barring ESR, Saka, Tierney, Partey and Auba (although I would put him on the ‘to be sold’ list)? With Arteta’s hoarder mentality, even for those lower down the pecking order, and of course for the retirement fund players, it is fantasy football, even if I agree on most of them. There is a question you haven’t asked which seems to me of equal, if not greater, importance. That is, is Arteta up for it, is he the man for the job? The reason I ask is… Read more »
Good post pete. If we had not been on a steep downturn and short of funds arteta wouldnt have been hired in the first place. Its beyond dumb to move him on without a real option. A year without Europe is the trajectory we’ve been headed for a long time now. Best swallow the pill and see what the increase in training time brings us next season. Can’t be worse than this
Luiz undergone minor surgery out for several weeks. Tierney likewise out for several weeks if not the rest of the season.
Tierney has a history of injuries keeping him out for long spells. After three international matches it was maybe an accident waiting to happen. He is so good, of course you want to play him all the time, but you have to manage players with some knowledge of their back story.
“Someone suggested to me on the internet that we should hire Julian Nagelsmann… like, honestly, the most unoriginal suggestion.” And what exactly then can be made of the flyer taken on the completely unproven coach/manager that is Arteta? I’d rather hire the unoriginally suggested, yet very proven, Nagelsmann than the so-called “elite” and “generational”, lets not forget unproven, Arteta pretty much every single time. You take a flyer on an Arteta when you are a lower level team where you can afford the time as part of your teams maturation towards the next level. You seldom if ever do it… Read more »
Arsenal beat a disinterested Liverpool at the tail end of last season with the league won. Its not a fair comparison. Id love to see Arteta succeed, I really would but he’s slowly losing the squad. I can see a slow excruciating grind until the end. He will sadly continue to get in his own way and will contribute to his downfall. One thing I’d love to see is an analysis of his backroom team. None of them are top level based on past achievements and Arteta has put a group around him who would never be a threat to… Read more »
Your suggested offloadings are appropriate, Pedro. The problem is that you leave the squad quite thin in true talent. I dont think its a deviation from what many, including yourself, have stated many times over, the club needs a serious gutting with a healthy pressing of the reset button.
One thing is for certain, the club and Arteta should count themselves ever so fortunate that they are not playing to a full house. On that alone Arteta would be hard pressed to survive. The silence is deafening on just how really poor this team actually is.
Good post. In my view Arteta is here for another year and if he doesn’t move us forward he will be sacked. The major problem he has got at the moment is Auba. It looks more and more like Ozil mark 2. A disinterested player on massive wages. Arteta needs to be tough and decisive. Either he is fully in or leave him out and play Martinelli. Dont mess about like we did with Ozil. It’s bad for team morale.
So after shifting the worst players from Emerys squad and replaced them with new players of Artetas choosing we are still crying player poverty. Maybe after 5 seasons of watching the apprentice waxing lyrical over Xhaka, somebody somewhere will call time on this long drawn out comedy.
I said at the start of the season we had the 8th best squad. The expectations for the season should have been an 8th place finish and a decent run in the europa. currently we are falling behind that metric in the league. A rookie manager was never going to punch above their weight the best they can do is tread water while they are learning on the job. To my mind the following teams have better first 11 and squads in this order. man city liverpool chelsea man united tottenham lecister everton arsenal current league is City United lecister… Read more »
Globalgunner
“Maybe after 5 seasons of watching the apprentice waxing lyrical over Xhaka”
That hill still exists. It hasn’t gone away.
That hill that Pedro quoted to us this season.
The GX hill.
It’s all a bit dreamworld scenario to me. Don’t see much of it happening at all. Arteta more out of depth as the weeks go by. One win though and all will be amzinging again in the world of Arsenal fans. Club is still rotten at the top and it shows.
Ishola
Ore mi
The situation is truly confusing. E pass don be silly.
Good post. Bissuma and a striker (dzyba the Russian ) should make us competitive in CL ..
A great post, Pedro. And, on balance, an optimistic one, thank heaven.
Of course the whiners and wailers will pick out the negatives and exaggerate them monstrously. A doleful bunch.
We’ve seen Saka go down with a muscle injury when we all knew it would happen. If the Europa League is the priority, playing Tierney after 3 WC games was pure idiocy. The problem with Pedro’s analysis of Arteta is that he places too much emphasis on his coaching and way too little importance on all the other aspects of the manager’s job. Grades: Coaching B, Player Recruitment D, Player Management D Game-Time Decisions C- Player Selection D As some point we have to stop giving him a break because he’s a rookie. Everyone understands he’s inexperienced but we should… Read more »
Barcary
We have the 8th best team its unlikely for us to finish 4 spots above where we should be.
At Man City, Arteta hid behind Pep.
At AFC, he is the main man and has nowhere to hide except to apologize for his team’s failings.
He is lost.
He will be fired.
It’s just a matter of time…
It will take another dismal season before these owners can fire arteta
An ownership with no vision relies on a coach with one
Hopefully they’ll get it right next time
With fans in the stadium Diet pep will not last the end of the year
Trouble with the Liverpool game, the leaders, Xhaka , Luiz weren’t playing, and the players who respond best to Artetas methods, the afore mentioned, then Saka, ESR, Tierney….well, you get my point. But doesn’t say much for many who played , especially the experienced players. Arteta might be a genius and brimming with great ideas, but he has very little room to manoeuvre due to past mistakes at this club. On another note, if Tierney injury is as serious as many fear, is it time the club looked into the amount of serious knee injuries they sustain? I used to… Read more »
you might be interested in this: https://twitter.com/billywhizz1970/status/1379123606169456645/photo/1. it surprised me but laca has best shooting accuracy and second best goals per shot among PL strikers this season. he also works like a beast and seems to have a good attitude. if i had to keep one of him and auba i would keep him and let him run his career down with us. he can still do an effective job when he is not scoring too.
Just read a very interesting stat.
With both Saka and ESR starting we have win 7 out of 10 with points per game of 2.2 and Goals p.g of 2
With both of them not starting, we have win 5 out of 20 with ppg of 1 and gpg of 0.95
We are literally being carried by 2 teenagers
Arteta spoke about the players showing big balls
Arteta needs to show big balls by dropping Aubameyang again
I have read the last blog by Pedro and listened to the podcast. In both Pedro quite rightly is highly critical of Arteta. Now lo and behold one day later and it’s another about turn. Still trotting out the banal rubbish Of us being a top 4 side since Xmas. and generally focusing the attention away from Arteta. Our last four halves of football consisted of three abdominal displays ( West.Ham and Liverpool) plus one rescue act against West Ham. Is that seriously top 4 football ? Also keeps banging the drum for the youngsters. Saka,, Smith Rowe and Martinelli… Read more »
I keep hearing Arteta hasn’t got the players to play the system he wants but surely its his job to find a system that works with the players we have. Not like there is 500 million coming to drastically change the squad over 3 years. If he can’t work with what he’s got then is he going to be able to do much better with only 3 additional signings for instance?
Good post. Drastic surgery required.
We need performances not reputations moving on.
Fantastic thoughtful analysis from Gary Neville tonight on our performance.
‘A dark moment. A crossroads moment’.
Totally disagree London Gunner. We have a squad capable of challenging for a Top 4 position. We’ve beaten several of the teams above us.
Englandsbest
Are you entirely happy with Arteta’s management of the team or do you think there are some areas where he could do better? Genuine question – I’m just trying to ascertain whether you’re 100% no-holds barred pro-Arteta or whether you see any nuances.
barcary
beating teams above you means nothing. Sheffield beat man united should they compete for top 4.
Aside from tierney, saka and esr our entire team falls into three categories garbage and unproven and ok.
unproven
martinelle
odegaard
partey
OK
gabriel
garbage
rest of the team
“He didn’t know where to receive the ball, he didn’t know what to do with the ball. Even the passes he made that found a man weren’t of the level required… ”
Pedro
I’m pretty sure one of the selling points of Arteta was his immaculate coaching skills, if he can’t coach the likes of Dani Ceballos, then of what use is he?
If we wanted to hire a cheque book manager, we should have gone with Allegri or someone renowned.
The fish rots from the head down.
Arsenal is captained by Aubameyang.
Managed by Arteta.
“Technically directed” by Edu.
Owned by Stan Kroenke.
I am slowly evolving into:
An Aubaphobe.
An Artetaphobe.
An Eduphope.
The LG poster called Kroenkephobe.
“We have the 8th best team its unlikely for us to finish 4 spots above where we should be.“
More likely we have the 8th best coach.
Show of hands posters who thought we had the 8th best team going into this season.
One, or two…..maybe.
It’s called moving the goal posts.
Let’s be honest, we’ve been shocking this season. It’s as bad as any in 35 years, at a time when the league is mediocre. Stop the excuse making. Shape up Arteta or go.
Gunnerblog did a good article post-Liverpool revealing what he overheard from the dugout throughout the match. The takeaway was Arteta going ballistic at: – Auba not dealing with TAA – Ceballos not sticking to Thiago – Pepe not moving at all and being pedestrian – failing to release the passes quick enough – Tierney keeping tight to Gabriel The pathetic performances and inputs of the bigger names isn’t a miss to him on that evidence. Another matter entirely to be bold in benching such players. Carragher and Neville were very critical of Auba and said there will be concerns we’ve… Read more »
Also, you can’t separate Arteta the coach from Arteta the manager, as some seem to want to do.
If Arteta the manager thought Auba was so vital to the team that he was worth his extension (s) lol,
then surely he must’ve had a conversation with Arteta the coach, and how he would deploy him to get the best out of him.
Same for Willian.
Pedro “Mavropanos will be sold, hopefully to Stuttgart.” Why? Oh! Why. Have we better. Yeah maybe Saliba but hes not playing for us either. is anything we have at CB near as good as any of these two young centre backs at present. Nope!!! I would certainly go with Saliba and Mavropanos next year to fight for centre half berths as they are both young, fast and dominant and have a lot of senior experience. They have gone out on loan and really proved themselves. We have to learn from our mistakes. Martinez came in last year and did really… Read more »
“And, on balance, an optimistic one, thank heaven. Of course the whiners and wailers will pick out the negatives and exaggerate them monstrously. A doleful bunch.”
Dont know whats honestly worse, being obliviously optimistic or being facetious about it?
tom I always thought we had the 8th best squad 7th for me constituted a great finish. I said this at the very beginning of season before all the losses. I think le grovers seriously overate our players they are fucking garbage and I despise the fact we have sunk to such a shit squad with technically and athletically deficient players. Most of every position on the pitch wouldn’t make top 4 let alone top 5. right back top 4 quality? nope centre back top 4 quality nope midfield? nope I can keep going on. we have shit god awful… Read more »
London gunner
If we have the 8th best squad in the league, what was the point of sacking Emery when he had us in 8th place?
dissenter
To be honest I never asked for him to be sacked.
He was sacked because he didn’t play the politics game of snakes and ladders behind the doors of arsenal fc and because he wasn’t media savy. He was the scapegoat.
let’s be honest we never should have hired arteta we should have gone for ancellotti or nagelsmann. But we have made our bed with areta and just like any business when you hire someone your obliged to give them a fair chance.
“I always thought we had the 8th best squad 7th for me constituted a great finish.” To be honest i saw this club as an at best 6th place team, provided all things worked out. The fact that he we still are talking about the same team being mired and stuck in 9th/10th for some time now, i would suggest someone deserved to be sacked for that. Games to still be played, but again I harp, the standings do not lie whatsoever- they are 10th for a very good reason and calls that they are 4th best in the league… Read more »
It still boggles the mind that Arteta put Mustafi ahead of Saliba in the squad, even though the former had one year less on his contract and has been utter dross for all his Arsenal career.
Arteta should have just been hired as a trainer. He is a very very poor judge of player talent.
If G Neville is correct, Arteta either has some smoothing over to do, or some very expensive players that need dropping
The pathetic performances and inputs of the bigger names isn’t a miss to him on that evidence.
First off hearsay isn’t evidence and secondly if these types of performances weren’t consistently happening you might have a point. But the facts are he inherited a prolific goalscorer and has a better squad than when he started and he’s made this team worse far worse. I don’t see any valid reasoning for sticking with him beyond this season unless we’re literally masochists
Disagree with the reason given for the defeat being that the team switched off- Arteta was too busy kissing Liverpool’s butt before the game and so didn’t prepare the players mentally and got the set up wrong. With Xhaka out, it needed Odegard in that position for starters and then either Willian or Martinelli on the left. After that decide whether Lacazette or Aubameyang go through the middle, so that would’ve given more dimension imo..…
“But the facts are he inherited a prolific goalscorer and has a better squad than when he started and he’s made this team worse far worse.”
In what way are we “far worse” than when Arteta arrived?
Actually agree with Nev’s comments “Odegaard did try and put a little bit of a press on but he was on his own. The rest of them, I’d go as far as to say they were a joke. “At half-time, you start to start to question yourself a bit because you think, ‘it’s Liverpool, they’re a good team, it’s 0-0 and they’re still in the game’. “But I think Arteta will have been shocked by the lack of application he saw against the ball in the front part of his team. “Liverpool just won the ball back time and time… Read more »
WOAB
Nice one. But you seriously don’t want to evolve (devolve?) into anything closely resembling me, I promise. I’m a sad old Gooner banished to the far reaches of west Wales whose sadness and happiness is linked far too closely to this abomination of a football club.
I fully support your other phobias though mate. 😉. Maybe we could set up a 12 stage programme to recovery and call ourselves gooners anonymous…
Kroenkephobe
I cant bring myself to talk about Arteta anymore today. I’m very interested to know your thoughts on arsenal’s greatest. 1. Brady. 2. Henry. 3.other . Don’t mean to put you on the spot!
In what way are we “far worse” than when Arteta arrived? Is that not obvious? 8th to struggling to get past 10th all season long and he has players who were once prolific struggling all season long as well ruining young players as well as having a far better squad than the previous manager but doing worse. I don’t understand why it’s hard to fathom unless you haven’t been watching us this season. We are on course for an appalling season under him and he could have been sacked half a dozen times in that run just before Christmas. But… Read more »
The biggest fact is the manager is totally to blame….
No ifs buts or maybes.
He isn’t up to this job simple as that he has proven that now over 18 months and two windows which have be3n embarrassing…
As for loans outs embarrassing the balls ups with Saliba,
Ones that should have gone out…nelson,Eddie,balagon,
The ones that did and should never have gone..AmN,gundo,torreria,
He has royally ballsed the whole thing up and has lost or is losing the dressing room fast.
And he needs to go ASAP…..
Bring mertasaker in as caretaker boss yet another rebuild
Marko
So position in the table, which is as yet undefined, is your knockout blow? Got it. That, and your trademark ‘what I say is kosher, you must be blind’ routine.
I’ll pass.
Arsenal need to work under Arteta!
No we don’t it’s clearly not working and it will never work.
Watch Leipzig play and then look at us it’s a huge difference, then tell me who our next manager should be.
How can anybody support a guy who brought Willian for the future
Laughable
Also as you used to remind people charlie under Emery we were close to getting champions league football we had a top 4 squad and he bottled it and subsequently underperformed and got sacked and Arteta currently has a better squad than him and has us in 10th. Again this is a team that had a 30+ goal a season striker and then added Gabriel to the defence as well as Partey and Odegaard to it’s struggling midfield and it’s a struggle of a season
So position in the table, which is as yet undefined, is your knockout blow? Got it. That, and your trademark ‘what I say is kosher, you must be blind’ routine. Well first off our current position in the table isn’t as yet undefined we are literally 10th place and it’s not what I say is kosher you must be blind it’s more have you not been watching us at all this season it’s pretty obvious. The list of ways in which Arteta is failing miserably is growing by the day but by all means let’s disregard in the blind hope… Read more »
Someone just made the point that Holding has NEVER been in the conversation for an England call-up, even though he’s been at Arsenal for 5 years now.
That’s damning in itself.
How can the likes of Raheem Sterling and Jota out-jump a 6′ 2″ defender?
Also Emery was sacked midseason for his results, league position and performance of football but Arteta is allowed the excuse of the league position being as yet undefined? I guess that’s fair
I think it’s time for The Kroenke’s & KSE to sell up. Should’ve taken the 2BN offer from Usmanov. Apparently J.K was telling his dad to sell at that price but S.K refused to sell up. I don’t think this club will be anymore valuable anytime soon/ in the foreseeable future. I’m sure they can get around 1.2-1.5 BN for their 100% stake. It’s just not worked out under their ownership, time to move on. Poor leadership where are we going??? How are we getting there? What direction are we going in??? What is the precise plan to move this… Read more »
Crazy how people are getting jobs at Arsenal. Pete I remember the story you told on the pod once. How your dad convinced you to apply for your bosses job as a rookie and you got laughed out of the room.
Imagine Edu or Arteta applying for their respective jobs. They’d be laughed out of the room. It’s crazy how people get jobs in football. Not at least at Arsenal.
Marko
Disingenuous as expected.
That season we had Ozil, Ramsey, Mkhi, Welbeck, and Iwobi as additional attacking options (and were still shy of quality there).
They’ve gone and been replaced with Pepe (who you jizzed over), Willian, and a handful of academy players in Saka, ESR, Nelson, and Nketiah.
Almunia Wotcha. Hope you’re having a good long weekend, although the weekdays are like weekends aren’t they right now… LB – absolutely love him and was sad when he left for Italy, and nearly as sad again when he came home and signed for the Hammers. My all time XI features him in a five man midfield along with Rocky, Davis, Steve Williams and PV. I watched the old 5 minute final again the other week. Brady was immaculate. I’m ever so slightly more ambivalent about TH. He was a terrific player who lit up Highbury but I think he… Read more »
Wolves is suffering the same fate as us. 0 – 2 after 16 mins.
Maybe in hindsight , Arteta should have continued playing the players who were regular starters prior to the first lockdown when the team were on a very impressive run , being the only unbeaten team domestically in europe in 2020…
Instead he decided to flex his muscles in a pathetic attempt to show who is the boss..
The players who never or hardly get a look in now who were regular starters in that period were Ozil, Pepe, Torreira, Martinelli, Nketiah, Guendouzi..
Makes you wonder if Arteta’s decision making is all that doesn’t it…
Arsene Wenger last 50 premier league games ————————54%
Unai Emery’s 51 premier league games [his entire Arsenal spell] ———————–49%
Arteta [aka the sauce] first 50 league games [till Saturday]————————– 42%
That’s generational coaching for you
Marko You’re comparing a veteran manager to a rookie as if it’s apples to apples. If you think any team hires a young manager and the expectations are the same as if they were to hire Allegri on 10 mil a year then I have absolutely nothing to offer you, you don’t get it. You pay 25 mil for a talented teenager like Saliba in the anticipation of what he’ll become, or you pay 75 mil for VVD and expect nothing less than excellence. The approach depends on personal circumstance and the needs you have. Arsenal and the Kroenkes clearly… Read more »
“The Premier League season is now dead, but it’s still of use. We should be trying to find out which players have what it takes at this level. Arteta should be gauging who has the right spirit when there are no chips on the table.”
You said this last season. We honestly can’t just keep throwing away seasons.
Disingenuous as expected.That season we had Ozil, Ramsey, Mkhi, Welbeck, and Iwobi as additional attacking options (and were still shy of quality there). How am I disingenuous exactly? It is unbiasedly a better squad at his disposal and you bringing up 3 underperforming glad we got rid of them players in Ozil Ramsey and Mhiki an injury prone Welbeck and Alex Iwobi doesn’t quite back up the point you think you’re making. Fact is that Aubameyang has been prolific under every manager he’s had since St Etienne for a reason, Martinelli along with Saliba were considered huge prospects until Arteta… Read more »
Lingard is really hot. He is involved in all three goals.
If you think any team hires a young manager and the expectations are the same as if they were to hire Allegri on 10 mil a year then I have absolutely nothing to offer you, you don’t get it. Oh so he’s expected to more or less be midtable until the training wheels come off I’m guessing what year two to earn a new contract. And I suppose we spent big money on Partey and Gabriel with no expectations for a good season? Makes sense Arsenal and the Kroenkes clearly felt a rebuild was required and chose to go for… Read more »
Marko
No, it very much does back up the point I’m making.
Ramsey, Mkhi, and to a lesser extent Iwobi walk into this team……WALK into it.
Maybe we’d feel their loss much less had Pepe been a quarter of the player you claimed?
Plus you know Emery was tasked with a rebuild and tempered expectations too but that didn’t save him so why should it save Arteta? His solid english and nice teeth isn’t enough to disregard the obvious poor job he’s doing
Kroenkephobe Yeah don’t know what day of the week it is half d time, hope all well your end. That midfield of yours put a smile on my face for the first time since Saturday. What would it be worth in today’s market? Williams is a strange one for me, didn’t really rate him as much when he played as I do now,bit like parlour for me that way. I get what your saying about TH and the more I saw him on sky the more disappointed I was,but if you just keep it to the footie he was prob… Read more »
“Makes you wonder if Arteta’s decision making is all that doesn’t it…”
To point Pierre, he has left little doubt that this is HIS team now and he will run it as he sees fit. Good luck with that.
Marko
Arteta is on more than Nagelsmann is such a Marko point, as if Nagelsmann would’ve got an identical contract at Arsenal had he been hired. Absolutely no clue about the economics of the respective football clubs.
You seem to forever miss the point being made in search of some erroneous nonsense. If you don’t get what I just wrote about the two managerial profiles then so be it.
Nice post pedro. I dont have any faith that the upper echelons of the club can do what you say, to me they look utterly fucking useless as the club is getting worse and worse
I have missed the spirited CC and Marko back and forths. Welcome back gentlemen.
Ramsey, Mkhi, and to a lesser extent Iwobi walk into this team……WALK into it. So Ramsey who barely plays for Juve, Mhiki who struggled massively in english football and Iwobi who has only started 15 games for Everton this season walks into our current team according to you and you think this is an argument for the squad that Arteta has now compared to last season? It’s pretty weak honestly. How about instead you look at it like Arteta has a 30 goal a season striker in Aubameyang struggling, Willian who had 11 goals and 9 assists the previous season… Read more »
‘ I have missed the spirited CC and Marko back and forths. Welcome back gentlemen.’
How can you enjoy this? It’s like a teacher trying to explain the most basic issues to a retard student that is trying to be as obtuse as possible.
CC don’t know how you have to patience to engage with Billy Basic.
Arteta is on more than Nagelsmann is such a Marko point, as if Nagelsmann would’ve got an identical contract at Arsenal had he been hired. Absolutely no clue about the economics of the respective football clubs. You’re the one who brought up the money behind Arteta like he’s some prudent choice that was obvious to make. We could easily have had Nagelsmann or someone like Marco Rose for similar or less than what Arteta is on so again your point is nonsense. He’s a rookie on 5 million a year he’s cheaper than someone like Allegri sure but I’m not… Read more »
London Gunner
I wrote that we’ve beaten several teams above us and we were usually the better side when we did. The talent is there-you have to be half-blind not to see it.