Arteta is getting harder and harder to defend.
Another loss. Some mitigating circumstances. A huge self-inflicted wound. The end.
Let’s talk about VAR, because it feels like it interferes with us quite regularly. 15 seconds after we won a penalty, the refs in the sky were called upon to pick apart whether Pepe was offside on the break. They use Microsoft Paint tools to ascertain this, I am sure that in years to come, we’ll find out that the tech is shite, then they make a bad decision. Pepe was level, the discussion should have been more about Ceballos making a meal of a kick to the shin.
In tennis, they have hawkeye, every decision is made from a consistent angle with the same process. This offside tool cannot possibly be accurate when they use random cameras in the stadium. It is absurd… but more to the point, when did an elbow become interfering with play? How did we let it get to this? Who was arguing we needed this level of faux-precision. As we’re talking about re-working football, PGMOL needs to be crushed and something more professional and accountable needs to rise from the ashes. This is not acceptable.
We miss out on that penalty, make 1 mistake, and a low margins game becomes another loss.
A draw and no one cares.
A loss and everyone that said the league is dead goes into Arteta Out mode, but at this point, I can’t blame them. He doesn’t help himself.
If we’re all about Europa, then there shouldn’t have been so many exceptionally important players in the starting 11.
If we’re all about seeing what works for next season, we shouldn’t be giving Eddie minutes because he ‘deserves’ them. You know who deserved minutes through the middle? Gabi Martinelli.
As for the football, it wasn’t as shocking as everyone made out. The build up play from the back was really solid, we moved the ball around nicely, we just had no bite in a box that lacked our two most expensive strikers.
At this point though, it’s hard to keep pointing to nice things that you see, because we lost again.
It’s hard to say, well, with another manager, it’d be worse… because it probably wouldn’t be. We have a better squad now than under Emery or Wenger, and it’s still shite.
The main thing you can point to is that moving towards something way more advance under Arteta. But look, if the thing Arteta is bringing our way is this fucking complicated, then it’s going to need about 10 players to make it functional. At some point, you need something that can deliver better than this for the money we’ve invested in the squad.
I am so deeply into the project that I need to see how it pans out this summer before I fly a plane over the stadium with ‘I WAS WRONG FORGIVE ME’, but it’s starting to look bleak.
I’ve said it before. In business, you need to be able to come up with ideas, sell them, and make them a reality… most people are good at two. Mikel seems to be good at the first two. He’s not producing it on the pitch, and if we’re honest, we’re not even close to seeing what the end goal is if you look across an entire season.
I don’t know how he bridges that gap between ideas and production. This interim mode we have between shite and top 4 is going to finish us 12th in the league.
On a positive note, the shade of shite we’re in at the moment is not pre-Christmas, but it’s still losing us games.
Our defensive structure is still strong, I thought we did a good job with a very physical team yesterday.
If that game had finished 0-0, you could probably excuse being toothless without Auba and Laca… but peel back that story, those two have offered very little in front of goal this season.
Bern Leno looks utterly wrecked.
Auba can’t score.
We still make cataclysmic errors.
There’s no luck that follows Arteta with anything.
Those are a lot of kinks to iron out of the system.
What could save it all?
A Europa League win.
If Arteta had kept our early 2021 form flying into the summer, he’d have an easier ride into next season. He hasn’t. Now, he has to win that trophy.
Not because he’ll be fired this summer, chances are he won’t be… but because he has to start planning for a life with fans in the stadium. They will not be forgiving if this shit happens next season, at any point.
Unai Emery should have been sacked after he lost the Europa League, it was clear where the project was going… but we knew even if he wasn’t there’d be no forgiveness in the system from the fans if things started to tank the next season.
Arteta will be the hero manager that won two trophies against the odds if we beat Villareal and Roma/United. You just won’t be able to argue against him. The first European trophy since 1994.
However, if he loses against Emery. He has actually betrayed me personally… and football.
If he loses in the final, no fan will bemoan United are better than us, it’ll be on Arteta for not finding a way in a huge moment.
Honestly, fuck the Everton game. It was a dead one. Most of you were saying you didn’t care about the league.
It’s all about Villareal.
Arteta needs his team to go into beast mode and pull Emery apart.
This squad is all about the cup.
Can they do it?
Do they want to do it?
This week is HUGE.
PROTEST
Never have I been more jealous not to be in London. Arsenal fans showed up like heroes to protest the owners. It was a magical scene that reverberated around the world.
I don’t know if KSE folk feel shame, they should, a global fanbase soiling your rep by calling you out of being terrible owners is embarrassing.
What do they have to stay for?
Fans hate them.
They’re absolutely skint and don’t want to invest.
The Super League is dead.
Football is reaching something like peak. Clubs are spending all the money they have and it doesn’t seem like TV wants to offer more. Even Amazon said not to Super League.
Daniel Ek, the founder of Spotify, threw his hat in the ring to buy Arsenal. He tweeted that he loved to club and he’d be interested if they sold. That’s an Elon Musk move. His own personal wealth is less than Stan’s, but at least he knows how to run a competitive business.
Let’s see where this goes. The hope is that KSE might take the chance to exit. If we were put up for sale, we’d have lots of buyers interested. At this point, it feels like the only way we can move forward because there’s no silver bullet outside investment.
RIGHT, if you’ve never listened to our podcast before, check out this one, because it’s great. I’m joined by Johnny, Matt, and Jay. It’s a cracker. Plenty of heart and good conversation.
How about real CEO and manager for start?
Am I in Top4?
Hoping for European dreams
Top 10
Why did u post so early?
top 10?
Eddie Howe would have been a far better option.
Arteta is just not good enough.
During a season, some VAR decisions will go against us and some for us. It could even out over the season, so we should not look at this as an excuse.
You need more attempts on goal to win. Losing against Everton, a direct competitor is annoying considering we used to consider them as second best in years gone by.
\but \i guess this is our new level. \our new normal.
@ Graham
Had we signed Carlo, we would have been in the top 4, without all the huff and puff.
Judging from what Josh said, I guess they haven’t quit the project completely. Every team is on a standby mode. As Perez said, no team has completed the process of leaving the ESL. I am sure that they are working on a modified system after knowing what the fans were complaining about. We’ll see what is their next step. Would FA and EPL also set up rules to protect themselves?
Arteta was always going to be a disaster. Arsenal are a genuine sleeping giant and we need a decent manager with experience to take us forward. The only way is down under Arteta.
Needs to be sacked if we go out next week. Can’t be arsed watching this chancer drag us down even further
Would be particularly very embarassing if Emery was to knock us out, rival fans will eternally take the piss, God
Oh my, resorting to VAR as “going against us” is such hollow, pathetic crap. Lego head has the EL or he’d have finished mid table.
If it’s the result ownership deserve, it’s the result ownership deserve for hiring Arteta and Edu, two novices who are out of their depth.
Completely out of his depth and too stubborn to fix it. Regardless of the outcome of the EL we should be looking to shift Arteta on.
I don’t see this “advanced” or “complicated” football that Arteta is trying to implement but is failing at. This myth is all about him being at Man City and working with Pep but we haven’t actually seen this “advanced” or “complicated” football in reality in the flesh while he has been at Arsenal. Rather it is just a rookie manager playing the percentages game of which he is not succeeding at. “Advanced” or “complicated” football is seeing your midfield players actually playing and combining to good use and other areas of the team. We haven’t seen much of that from… Read more »
@ TC
\the issue is \stan. We have not won the league since he became the owner.
\for ten years he hid behind \wenger and now he is hiding behind a rookie.
He will probably pile the pressure on \arteta and then sack him to please the fans. \that way he can appoint another joker and carry on.
\he consolidated AFC in his holding to buy his ranch – he can live with little success on the pitch as long as his finances are OK
I don’t believe for one moment VAR has evened itself out when it comes to this season,. It seems every opportunity, they use VAR to pick a passage of play apart to damage this team, they have done it in the last two games, and countless other times recently, Arteta is right about that at least, and it is unacceptable. Yesterday, it was blatant. If you cite such theories, you have to explain why……well it’s possible the football establishment has long been onto Kroenke , his motives, end game of choice, and views him as we do, and his club… Read more »
This semi final is a proper Le Grove grudge match. It’ll be a hell of a story, either way.
Werewolf vs Dracula.
Hair in abundance.
Xhaka at left back, seriously ?
Simply because he possesses a left foot, that’s only relevant if he gets to the byline and has to cross with it, surely we can put a right footed player in their and do better than that. Shocking.
Arteta hasn’t been lucky?
That’s the best excuse this season.
It’s not about luck it’s about very poor coaching and game time decision making.
For a young coach he is vert timid and it constantly bites him in the bum.
He’s not learning just repeating the same old mistakes.
We need a ready made coach.
As Robbie implied we need more exciting players, like Martinelli.. ode is a dud, Eddie also
Ceballos Willian ?? and now Leno looks stricken .
Everton fired Silva after the 5:2 loss to Liverpool which found them in the 18th place in the league. Arsenal fired Emery around the same time after a run of poor results when the club was 8th in the table one point above United and the Spurs. In came Ancelotti and Arteta to take over both clubs respectively, again, about the same time and after spending almost identical amounts in the transfer market, today Everton are 6 points and one place above us in the tables. I never wanted Ancelotti and having watched most Everton games I’m here to say… Read more »
We should have got Brendan Rodgers but we never now we have to see this season through if he wins the EL then we can take stock see who he buys and if that improves us, look at the improvement West Ham have made with 2 or 3 good signings Same as villa pre JG injury. I really believe it’s a personel issue I mean Nketiah is a disaster as are our fb options apart from KT. Plus cm apart from Partey is truly shocking If we crash out to Emery then sorry Arteta got to go and we bring… Read more »
Spanish Dave we went for that option and brought in a total novice which was a huge mistake now we need to see what this season brings us. If it’s failure then he goes we bring in a proper coach and some good players and have no Thursday night football to get in the way next season
VAR is a joke and so are the Pl refs, but I would’ve been embarrassed as an Arsenal fan to claim the penalty for the clear Ceballos dive, whether other clubs get them or not.
At least now I can still call Kane a diving cunt next time he pulls his usual act and not feel like a total hypocrite.
Mr serge we’ll also be about 30m poorer if we miss out on the EL…
Makes zero sense to be glad we’re not in it
If we are going to be the same mid table team next year then get in someone like Howe or Potter as they both manage to get an average group of players playing good football.
A higher level manager is only relevant if we are able to improve the squad significantly. Sounds and is sad but it is probably our new reality.
Two home games against modest opposition and our best attacking fullback is on the bench? Cedric has proven how he helps get the best out of our other front players like Pepe. Arteta baffles me and at least Emery knew how to use substitutes.
Any reports on how many were at the protest?
Apparently, Liverpool rejected a 3 billion pound bid to take over the club. The bid was tabled before the talks of the superleague. There are other suitors from the Middle East
We need a suitor from the Middle East to buy the club.
Emery can send out Villareal blindfolded and they’ll still beat Arsenal.
It’s still amazing how unlucky Arteta has been, starting with the denied goal against Leicester. Still though, we’re not creating enough chances. Good teams overcome moments of bad luck.
,,Ishola70
April 24, 2021 16:17:19
Werewolf vs Dracula.
Hair in abundance.”
lol so true
Been really poor all season really except Europe which is clearly a level below the prem Arteta needs at least 3 years experience in the championship managing before going anywhere near a top club but that’s Arsenal for you the owners taking the piss and the romantics falling for it , I have forgotten how many teams have done the double over us this season embarrassing if he does not win he europa he should step aside on his own before he becomes the worst manager in arsenals history
China
“Mr serge, we’ll also be about 30m poorer if we miss out on the EL…Makes zero sense to be glad we’re not in it”
It’s obvious that Mr Serge makes zero sense ..
We’re fucking bang average from top to bottom.. but I do agree we have been shafted by VAR this season! It always seems to be against us.. whether it’s an “offside” or an opposition blatant handball (Burnley away) or Kyle Walkers flying boot at Gabriel’s face when we were in the game (City away).. I’m not one for a conspiracy but if you look at the decisions against us and for our opponents this season it doesn’t make sense! I’ve said it for a long time and I’ll say it again, our players are so average. We have to be… Read more »
Evening,
Pedro, your slowly edging over to the dark side with us arteta out boys.
If he had rested the Europa team and played the youth team it might have been better. At least we would have had the excuse for losing at home to Everton for the first time since the mid nineties.
Arteta loves collecting some appalling records.
He could have pitched a few more youngsters in and let them show what they can do.
Leno screwing up again, that’s another position that needs rebooting again in the summer.
Donnaruma on a free from Milan would be nice.
Savage
“For me it wasn’t a penalty,” Wright told Optus Sport. “It’s not something I like to see. Ceballos is [often] guilty of this kind of thing.
Please tell me the ref isn’t gong to give a red card for this challenge
Where’s he supposed to put his foot after clearing the ball. The foot continued it’s natural motion after clearing the ball.
There premier league referees are utter rubbish
*These premier league referees are utter rubbish
Utter incompetence from Cavanagh or whatever his name is there. Absolute joke of a decision
Our transfer dealings are also the worst in world football. There’s a hundred wingers you could have signed for half of Pepe’s price which would have been more effective. Saint Maximim to name one.
Bertrand would have come cheap in January to provide cover for the inevitable KT injury.
The contract debacle’s over the years have been comical – I don’t know if the owners realise that we aren’t actually the most appealing club in the world and our players will happily join a bigger club for more money
If we hadn’t been watching Partey for years, Arteta fanboys would have been telling us he’s not good enough. I didn’t know Partey’s shooting was so shit. Why? Because in Athletico he’s made to do what he does best – break play and move the ball to more skillful midfielders. In Arsenal the team is so dysfunctional and the coaching so confusing he has to assume he’s peak Fabregas at times and try to go all on his own. By far the worst part of Arteta’s coachign is not knowing his players and where to play them. I’ve always said… Read more »
You don’t need to have played the game at any level, or hold a degree in biomechanics …….just some common sense which, sadly, some PL refs lack completely.
Never a red card.
It sickens me that we have to rightfully sell Willock this summer but Arteta is considering extending Elneny’s contract.
Surely we should be asking for £25-30 million for Willock.
If Newcastle balk, someone else will pay that fee.
There is a huge difference between Arsenal home and Arsenal away. We’ve played really well away( look at Europe ) but we are garbage at home and the fans would be crawling all over Arteta if they were in the stadium – and deservedly so. We’ve played well against Chelsea, Leeds and Spurs and ok against United . Arteta is risk averse the build up is too slow , we lack drive and creativity from midfield ( where Partey is a HUGE disappointment) . Away we are a totally different side . VAR has really screwed us – ok Ceballos’s… Read more »
Steve Bruce getting more out of Willock than Diet Pep
Thanks Pierre
Maybe the reality is that no matter what players Arteta is provided with, this is the best that he is capable of? I have no other evidence available that would even remotely suggest that he is capable of better but rather he certainly can get worse. For an ownership and management group that got the ESL horribly wrong, it goes without saying that their judgement overall is abysmal and choosing a novice unproven manager, fits in perfectly with this reality. When you see supposedly lesser clubs perform consistently better than Arsenal, its no longer a coincidence that the manager is… Read more »
Does anyone seriously think we will win the EL!? I would be amazed if we get past this round. Even if by some miracle we won the thing, imagine how embarrassing we would be in the Champions League! Speaking of embarrassing, Ceballos brings further embarrassment on this team time and time again, which is some task.
I’m as pissed off as anyone with Arteta, but the reality is that he is two wins, or even two favourable draws and a win, away from achieving everything that was asked of him.
By the way Pedro, you have posted some really great pieces this week! Enjoyable to read!
Karsa
Without Aubameyang and Lacazette, I can’t see it.
Surely he has to blood Balogun.
Will the youngsters do it for Arteta?
Thorough
Agreed.
Arteta is not a good coach.
Tom
I thought it was a red.
Will the youngsters do it for Arteta?
Graham62
We’ve got to hope so. Love to see Balogun and Martinelli make their names.
Nobody thought we’d beat Man City and Chelsea last year. Could we do it again?
We’ve got a chance, that’s for sure.
Graham
Then you’re clearly in a minority on this
Thorough
Maybe Partey takes it upon himself to do more than just break up the play when on £200kpw.
Two of the PL best defensive midfielders in Fabinho and Ndidi are on half of that.
Pedro
What does this mean? You seem to have vendetta against Emery? I know you did not like him, but how deep does your hate run man?
However, if he loses against Emery. He has actually betrayed me personally… and football.
Funny how ex pros thought it was a penalty.
I definitely thought it was a pen.
Debatable yes.
But you are continually seeing this after a tackle players
carrying on right through the ball..
It’s alway’s a tough call for the officials.
Tom
There was definitely an element of intent.
Therefore, red.
Graham.
Thanks
Players become quite deft at leaving one on you .
Happened over the MARSHES Sunday morning’s
but not as subtle.😉.
Tom.
That’s the funniest stuff I’ve heard all week.
Maybe we should buy Oblak and give him 300k per week so he can start scoring right? Or buy Zapata and give him 400k so that apart from scoring he can also solve all of our defensive woes?
And BTW that trip on Ceballos is a pen all day long. If that was our defender we’ll be blaming him for doing something stupid in the box.
The Kroenke know black lives matter, thats why Auba, partey & Willian are our highest earners.
Graham
How can you tell an element of intent?
But then again you apparently can tell Leno lacks intelligence just from watching him play keeper, so maybe you can.
Thorough
I didn’t say you were wrong.
Just that players realize when they aren’t exactly pulling their weight and often go out of their comfort zone trying to do more.
Partey’s shooting has been awful.
Partey to score in the EL Final…. you heard it hear first
Should be beat villareal or sacked. If you can’t beat a manager as poor as Unai Emery tyou should be out of a job, right?
Either way Arsenal win its an Arsenal win, fantastic.
Lose and we get to see Arteta fanatics squirm.
Tom.
But if we were better set up and everyone could hold their positions then Partey won’t need to be shooting. If we didn’t see him shoot waywarfly (I can’t even remember seeing him shoot at all) then why is he suddenly being asked to in Arsenal? We need a good look at the system and buold it around people’s strength not otherwise.
Waywardly
Partey averaged 3 goals & 2 assists per season in la liga, and Diet Pep thinks he can be a box to box at 28 yrs
Not sure why anyone thinks we have to sell Willock. He’s Arsenal-raised, just 21 years old and not on an inflated salary. He also gives us something we have in short supply, that is a hard running midfielder who can arrive late in the box. At the very least, he can remain a valuable squad player for us. I can more easily understand selling Maitland-Niles. He’s been average at West Brom on loan, doesn’t want to play the position that he could actually help us in (left back/left wing back) and has shown himself to be often sloppy in possession.… Read more »
Minutes per goal Xhakalson 3410, mari 1200, Bellerin 2574, luiz 1114,
Bacary Is God.
The singular reason we have to sell him now is because his stock is at its highest. If he spends another year under The Arrogant One playing out of position or not at all then we won’t get buyers or good money for him.
It would be another AMN fiasco all over again.
If Arteta is definitely on his way out then he may be worth keeping.
Thorough
I’m quite confident Arteta will be gone by Christmas at the latest. However, never underestimate the capacity of the Kroenkes to screw up.
BacaryIsGod. Exactly the problem. They are doing this club a lot of disservice by employing novices and the longer this goes on the harder it is to turn around. I watched Kaveh Solhekol on SkySports yesterday telling John Barnes and the other panelists that there may be some legs to Tottenham getting linked to Nangelsman. They went ahead to show that his options were really limited bla bla bla and when someone mentioned Arsenal they all had a laugh. One of them said something along the lines of “Who wanna go into such a shitshow”. That’s how bad things are… Read more »
We will be stuffed in the semis . Emery is no fool, he can read match better than Arteta, knows our players and has a shit load of motivation to why he shouldn’t have been let go.
” But look, if the thing Arteta is bringing our way is this fucking complicated, then it’s going to need about 10 players to make it functional. At some point, you need something that can deliver better than this for the money we’ve invested in the squad.” And this Pedro is one of my biggest disappointments regarding Arteta’s reign so far. He was sold to us fans as a developer of talents, especially young ones. SAKA was always coming through and under Emery we could see clear signs of his 1st team potential at barley 18yo playing out of position.… Read more »
Tom
He not only “lacks intelligence”, he also lacks the relevant skills to be a top keeper.
Of course you knew that anyway.
Graham “Surely he has to blood Balogun” I think the point is why has he not blooded Balogun, Azeez, Hutchinson, Taylor-Hart, Patino, Hein, Onkokwo, Bola, .Moller, Coyle, Lewis, Cottrel, Cirjan et al to see if any of these prospects can make the step up. We may only know if any of them are worth a go when they turn out for our rivals! What has happened to player development? ESR, Saka, Martinelli and Nketiah have shown potential when given the chance – what about the other prospects? Or are we going to see the usual suspects stinking the place out… Read more »
Pedro
‘The hope is that KSE might take the chance to exit. If we were put up for sale, we’d have lots of buyers interested’
..fingers crossed
I wish it were possible KSE would sell, but sadly, I am sure this club are part of their strategic business interests and loan generating ability , that said, we must be becoming a bit of a headache for them. And they are making a lot of mistakes with this club.
Are they the types to ignore what they will regard as noise, or quit while the going is good , I suspect Stans stubbornness means they are the former, I am sure they will be aiming for something approaching a softer ver of the ESL as well
Arsenal…lol
This is what it has come to under this leadership with Arteta as coach
Downward spiral
Certainly, KSE doesn’t want this negative publicity. I would hurt them using Arsenal as a loan generating assets. It will also affect the current sponsors.
I get why people are mad at VAR, but then again we have to ask ourselves, how detailed does it have to be? If VAR starts giving onside to players who are a mm offside, the fans will get back on VAR and complain it’s not accurate enough. Fans complaining VAR is too focused on details will be the ones complaining it does not focus on details. If it had been an everton player who was given offside, would we be complaining? VAR is trying to enforce the same pin point accuracy for every foul and offside, yes there can… Read more »
Yeah if arteta had loads of players kicking on with his coaching but sadly their ceilings were just too low and they still need replacing, fine.
But actually which players have shown any major progress clearly attributed to arteta? Maybe 2-3 at best
Xhaka is but better. Maybe Pepe though still sporadic and not consistently utilized well. I’m already struggling to name more
It’s not generational stuff is it
Why did Arsenal sell Emi Martinez? Why did we sign Willian? These two are the biggest mistakes Arteta did with transfers this season.
To me, these are the mistakes of a man who is unable to take big risks. And that seems to be Arteta’s worst trait
These are also the mistakes made by a rookie who has less big time experience. And Arteta does not seen to be learning from his mistakes. Why did he not start Balogun or Martinelli upfront instead of Nketiah against Everton? This again points to the same conclusion that Arteta can’t take big risks.
The reality of winning the EL Cup is Arteta will only have had to play 2 quality opposition to win the cup or one if we believe Pedro’s Arteta is a bum manager line.
Hardly unlucky.
The thing I could never understand is why football had to invent their own VAR when international rugby had a decent proven working system.
Money in some ways illegal or profiteering I guess is the answer.
The rugby system remains far more efficient and honest than VAR is.
Guess this would be a conflict of interest for Pedro but it has advantages for him. I’d be up for contributing if Pedro set up a ‘Banner’ fund. How many times do we say how do the Kroenkes need to wake up and see what we see? To coincide with the next Kroenke out protest why not fly a banner saying Josh & Stan read Le-Grove and wake up! Good advertising for the blog and wiggy and boy wonder might just do that. Could the USA boys get a cheap crop duster to do the same over The Kroenke ranch… Read more »
Goober grower “Why did he not start Balogun or Martinelli upfront instead of Nketiah against Everton? ” Sadly it would have made little difference as Saka and Smith Rowe had poor games and continually lost possession of the ball. Martinelli touched the ball 3 times in 20 minutes whilst on the pitch, so he had exactly the same problem as Nketiah….lack of service. Saka was dispossessed or mis controlled the ball 7 times, smith Rowe 5 times.. Martinelli and Baligun not starting probably did them a favour as when they do get a start up top , hopefully Saka and… Read more »
I think until Kroenke fucks off , someone should get Arsene Wenger a seat on the board asap. That man knew how to run a club . Arteta can handle the team till the end of the season .
Pierre
With 94.1% pass completion I think Eddie should have started in midfield than . As usual looking at stats the wrong way. Judging a striker on his pass completion rate. Whats next ? Holding will be judged on how many shots on target he took ?
Wenger knew how to run a club into the ground, which he did for a decade during which time we should have been maximising all of the advantages we had.
We do need proper leadership on and off the pitch though. It’s why there is no surprise we find ourselves in the state we are. Our owners are clueless about the sport never mind the club, and our management are left to run wild despite being hugely inexperienced and somewhat inept with little accountability.