Listen, we can laugh, but that’d be unfair. Winning the FA Cup in your first half-season isn’t for every world-class manager. The truth is, we as a fanbase need to be sensitive to the feelings of Chelsea fans. Arsenal rocked Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea with an earth-shattering performance, he’s just lost an FA Cup final to Leicester, and that might have ramifications as they chase top 4 and Champions League glory.
Imagine trying to motivate your team to save top 4 whilst they are thinking about a Champions League final as their confidence plummets?
I speak for us all when I say we wish no ill on Chelsea as their season sits on a precipice.
Side note, I haven’t seen too many talking about Tuchel galaxy braining Arsenal and the final? One of the most expensively assembled sides on the planet losing to Leicester in the Cup Final is a bad look.
Back to Arsenal.
Our season has some way to go. Unfortunately, we are still very much in the mixer for the unsexiest European competition ever dreamed up. No one wants to be in it. I don’t even know what it is. It’s a bit like taking a cyst to the doctor, don’t tell me what it is, just get me away from it so I can move on with my life.
Finish above Spurs? Would be nice. But would I want to do that and be rewarded with Thursday night football in a poverty European league? Don’t think I would. Would you?
Interesting to see the negative spin merchants out in force over David Luiz. Same people crying about our win over Chelsea are trying to convince the world David Luiz rebuffed a contract he was never offered. Can’t have it. There was a lot of pressure on Arteta and Edu to wave goodbye to him. I also suspect there will be a lot of pressure to give William Saliba a chance next season. (brushstroke 1)
Wesley Fofana is proving that if you give young centre backs game time, they can do great things. I think we’d all like to see Saliba in the mixer, even if it’s not great. There is no doubt in my mind that the decision to give Mustafi Europa minutes to him was a very bad one. Someone wrote in our GC we’re about to get the biggest transfer blue balls when he joins the first team and fails to live up to the Ligue 1 tease. I’m not sure I agree. I’ve watched Luiz and Mustafi make massive errors every 6 games for 2 years, if I had the choice, I’d prefer to be a young player with a VVD ceiling.
Joe Willock has made the most of his loan move to Newcastle. The box to box midfielder has proved to be an exceptional impact sub. His goal scoring has been outrageous considering how poor his output was under Emery and Arteta over 80 odd games. It’ll be really interesting to see what happens here, for me, sell him while he’s hot like we should have with AMN last season before we bombed him off to West Brom. Whatever we do, the decision should be made on scouting, not emotion from the fans.
Matteo G is a player that creeps back into conversation because all we see is the guy tearing around the pitch doing mega passion things. If he’s raised his profile at Hertha (not sure he has), we should be selling him. If you are a culture terrorist, you’re always going to be one. Hertha, a team that were in a relegation battle (finished 14th), had to drop him during a prime moment of their season because he behaves like an ‘animal.’ We don’t need that at Arsenal next season. No one likes working with a dickhead and it’s the same in sport.
Part of the mix this summer is making sure the players we hire in are scouted for who they are as people. It’s so odd that we haven’t been doing that. Would have been interesting to ask Petr Cech why Chelsea didn’t give Willian the deal he wanted before we doubled their offer and added a year. Was there no way we could have landed some intelligence on why Frank Lampard was so keen to move on David Luiz after he signed a new contract, despite having the same makeup of squad that would have loved his ‘mentorship.’ You can forgive the Matteo signing, teenagers can change. But the other two feel like we really lacked something on the scouting front.
I’m also interested in the leaks coming out of the club.
Entrenched power is a big theme.
The Athletic wrote extensively about Arteta having too much power with too little experience. Wenger-like privileges without the battle scars or scalps. That sort of noise is well-sourced. We’ve been writing about it since he was promoted last season. I hope there are moves afoot to give more balance in the backroom.
Edu also seems like he’s under pressure, his trust capital is eroding by the week. His physio mate he brought in from the Brazil setup might not make the summer (more brushstrokes). Vinai took the professional steps of hiring headhunters to replace binned scouts, clearly a control thing to avoid more jobs for the boys. We’re also reading pressure on the keeping coach, which I told you first, but important for Edu because he took his recco for Runarrsson, which was a very, very bad one.
Overall, the impression is that the tight leadership and aggressive standards we set have not been kept to. We know this to be true because we’ve seen it.
Ceding power to individuals above the collective good of the club is unacceptable governance. The club needs a vision with a guiding philosophy so strong, there’s limited impact on the project if key people leave. The best clubs know who they are, how they play, and what they stand for. Arsenal don’t. So every time we bin someone, we lose momentum trying to fix the damage.
If we’re possession-based football played with young players that are technically gifted and extremely athletic, then everything should be built around that vision. The coaches, the scouts, the academy staff, the analysts, the manager and the technical director. If something goes wrong with Arteta, we have someone like Graham Potter lined up. If something goes wrong with Edu, we should have a technical director lined up that has a background building teams that play the way Arsenal needs to. At the moment, we’re being driven by managers, who average 18 months in the role. That’s not smart business for a club that constantly bangs on about the unsustainability of the game. If you want to play the sustainable model, do sustainable things. Like Leicester City or RB Leipzig.
I’d love to think these micro-moves are part of a bigger Vinai plan. The start of him taking control of the club like a proper CEO. Who knows though. Our leadership team has shown consistently they never learn. Bin Ozil, sign Willian. Move on an authoritarian manager, give new manager authoritarian powers after 6 months.
Let’s see if the changes we’re seeing actually mean something.
See you on the other side.
Always think of the x 3 G’s Sidney.Goals,
Gold,
Girls
CG 100% on point, as usual!
signed , doom merchant #2
Anyone still defending Arteta after he guided us to the worst finish in 2 decades and a half and crashed out of Europa vs a 5x worse squad lead by Emery Villareal, cannot have the club’s best interest at his heart. If Arteta gets sacked or not, it’s not up to us, and I know that fans voice matters little in these affairs, but we could still be loyal to our club and be proper fans who want the best for the team of our hearts. Whoever wants this noobie, egotistic, zero style, illogical, problematic, horrendous ingame and man manager… Read more »
At the moment, its Not like our midfield is playing combination football, so it does not matter that Willock is Not great with the ball at his feet.
TR7 “Willock’s is good off the ball but incredibly limited with ball at his feet. No serious team can accomodate such a player in their starting 11.” There is a misconception that both Willock and Eddie have a poor technigue on the ball . Granted they tend to keep it simple and they don’t attempt the Hollywood pass too often, but hey were brought up through the Arsenal/wenger academy of football and technically they are good enough. What they both lack is confidence , not ability…the difference in willocks’s game now he is playing with confidence and feels wanted is… Read more »
Talking of doom merchants ….Where’s Marc?
You’ve got to appreciate how the same people who were traumatized by the Emery disaster class against the Chelsea in Baku to the point of bringing it up twice daily for a year, , all of a sudden experienced a case of amnesia and erased the twice now Arteta’s failure in Europe from their memory.
Sometimes you’re full of BS pedro, guendouzi wasn’t drop because of his behaviour, just because of a knock, once fully fit he was back in first XI. You’re so agenda driven and don’t even bother to do some research
Nothing against Willock but there’s a world of difference playing mid for a club happy to have 30% possession and a club striving for dominating it.
Pedro flips while Arteta flops.
I would agree that there are many posters on here whose main interest in Arsenal is watching them lose so that they can say ‘ I told you so’. The essence of support has changed in a modern environment where fans are less tolerance and have access to social media as a platform to express their views . Football is a strange business as it is so short -term . Until last midweek Tuchel could do no wrong. If he ends the season badly does that suggest he has failed? Arteta’s record is very strange. We are a very decent… Read more »
Pierre ‘let’s not waste another 300 mil on players that are no better than we already have.’ I have never been a votary of spending money for the sake of it. I have written numerous posts defending the likes of Holding, Chambers, Guendouzi, AMN etc. – players who I think can add value to our squad even though they are not real top quality players. But when it comes to midfielders I think we need real ballers to get back to top 4 again. Players in the mold of Santi, Rosicky who can carry the ball up the field and… Read more »
@Tom
Nothing against Willock but there’s a world of difference playing mid for a club happy to have 30% possession and a club striving for dominating it.
Not sure which team you are referring to. I think our possession vs Chelsea was around 20%
Pierre
I’m here – and if you don’t think we have serious issues especially on the financial front you’re either naive or drunk on the special sauce.
BertieMee
‘ would agree that there are many posters on here whose main interest in Arsenal is watching them lose so that they can say ‘ I told you so’. ‘
There are also many posters on here whose main interest is selectively picking out stats that support their idea that Arteta is actually the right man for the job, despite what they can see with their own eyes.
One of the main problems in society today is is the emergence of the polarization of sides in the debate. I imagine this comes from the woke culture who seek to find injustices in Society and oppose them almost like some keyboard superhero who will avenge these wrongs. The problem with this is of course that it fails to recognise the vast majority of issues in society are not a question of good vs bad or black or white answers they are often very complex. As such they require knowledge and understanding of both sides ,a sense of empathy and… Read more »
P.s. Come back Tony pls.
Kenyan
Yea, but that was clearly by design # Artetamasterclass.
Newcastle are happy to have 35% possession against Burnley, as well as 15 other PL clubs.
TomMay 17, 2021 13:14:52
“You’ve got to appreciate how the same people who were traumatized by the Emery disaster class against the Chelsea in Baku to the point of bringing it up twice daily for a year, , all of a sudden experienced a case of amnesia and erased the twice now Arteta’s failure in Europe from their memory
”
Magical 🤔🤔
Bati, I have absolutely no issue with people demanding Arteta’s head on a platter, after this season , as I stated before, I wanted his removal after the terrible two legged semi final and our league position. My issue is simply that I have a daily ritual of reading LeGrove, which is less enjoyable when I have to scroll down posters who repeatedly post essentially the same message again and again. It is not a judgement call on who’s a better supporter, how positive or negative you are – posting on a blog isn’t really that important when it comes… Read more »
TR7 I do agree that our present style doesn’t suit Willock and it is hard to find a place for him in the team , a 4-3-3 similar to Liverpool would suit him. I wouldn’t expect Artets to change systems to accommodate Willock so he needs to show that he can demand the ball more in the build up play instead of just being an off the ball runner. He is more a final third player that’s for sure , but watching him at Newcastle I would say he is learning fast in other areas of his game.. Of course,… Read more »
AlmuniasaynomoreMay 17, 2021 13:37:40 Fair points 👆 I think no one will disagree the club has fallen to an unacceptable position for whatever reasons. Wajnting Arteta out isn’t negative indeed. Nothing wrong to expecting better and more qualified personnel to help restore the club’s status and importantly performance, level. Adopting a wait n see approach may also be a sign of being negative that is without taking a proactive stance in addressing obvious problems and issues. One would even argue that’s way overdue and responsible owner and/or execs should have acted upon emerging risks say before last Christmas to prevent… Read more »
*nothing wrong with *
Pierre
Totally agree with your last post. I am sick and tired of mechanical football with absolutely no flair and laboured passing. As for Willock, yeah currently I don’t think he fits in with the requirements and set up of our team. Ideally we would like ESR and Saka to become more of final third players by getting more involved in goal scoring rather than putting Willock in there just for his runs in the final third.
Pierre,
The irony is that Arteta’s work with Pep over at Man C should have made it clear that the primary purpose of an off-the-ball “work ethic” is to ENABLE
“Pass and move
One and 2 touch
Give and goes.
Letting the ball do the work.
Sublime skills
Vision
Composure
Intelligence”
A work ethic in and of itself is pretty useless. And it should certainly not be used to replace all of the above.
Emi didn’t look to hot for Villa against CP yesterday did he.
All this “Emi organizes hid defenders “ talk on here got me thinking that maybe it wasn’t Emi doing it but rather a solid senior CB , like a Tyrone Mings, maybe.
He was out injured yesterday and Villas back line , including Emi, looked like a deer in headlights whenever CP had the ball in the area.
“Bati, I have absolutely no issue with people demanding Arteta’s head on a platter, “
Why waste a perfectly good platter when you could put some fruit on it?
Jayjay
You speak pure facts 👌🏾
“Pass and move One and 2 touch Give and goes. Letting the ball do the work. Sublime skills Vision Composure Intelligence ” Work ethnic cannot/ should not be a replacement of the above.. it’s just a means to an end. We lack end products in which case Work ethnic becomes a moot point, sadly. I don’t believe the 15 , 16 first team regulars are so poor that they couldn’t do some of the above… From the games this season, a more likely scenario is that these most desirable attributes of playing style have more or less been coached out… Read more »
AlmuniasaynomoreMay 17, 2021 13:37:40
Well said. I think 98% of people who post here all want Arsenal to win everything in sight, and just have different views on how far along we are to doing that.
Let’s not speak of the other 2%!
Bertie Mee good post. I agree. My view is than most of those posters only started supporting the club under Wenger and aren’t used to a prolonged period in the doldrums.
David Luis wanting out or being left no choice but to leave is an insider / outsider conundrum.
The fact is, Luis and Williams are / were(shortly) running a restaurant in London . At 250k a week Williams would not ever leave. But Luis and Williams are opening up in USA so both want to leave. It helps that American League pays high salaries too.
Guess ,the insiders argument has gone ppf
“Al the parts of the game I enjoy watching are not there in this present team ,saka and Smith rowe excepted”
and that of course thanks to the philosophy built by a certain someone
I think there’s another part to the problem with the division of fans. We seemed to have got to a point where certain sections of the fan base support a manager before or over the club. It’s as if they’re all in on that manager and the idea of criticising whomever is blasphemy.
Personally I don’t really care who the manager is if they’re doing a good job. There are managers I don’t like and there are managers I’d hate to see at the club but that doesn’t mean I put that over supporting the club.
Almunia Hiya mate. Interesting and thought provoking read as usual. Thanks. I agree that many issues are complex and nuanced such as whither Arteta or what to do about the Kroenkes, not least because we, the supporters, arguably feel more strongly about it than anyone yet, paradoxically, we are the most powerless because we have an emotional attachment (which makes us impartial) and only the smallest financial investment. How do we make sense of what is happening to a club that has given us all so much joy in the past? One way is to be part of this community,… Read more »
Marc Agreed. It can’t be that we are the only club whose fans divide like this every time a manager’s performance slips . There didn’t seem to be any MKBs (Mourinho knows best) at Shite Hart Lane a few weeks ago. To my mind, it’s evident that we need a new manager. It baffles me that others (still) think he’s doing a good job. The usual metrics and equally importantly the sentiments of fans and pundits all show as clear as day that he isn’t the answer. Why was UE fired relatively quickly when Tets and Wenger are allowed to… Read more »
Diet pep fanboys should not ridicule others into silence
Reductio ad absurdum is also known as “reducing to an absurdity.” It involves characterizing an opposing argument in such a way that it seems to be ridiculous, or the consequences of the position seem ridiculous. It can be ridiculous in the sense that the argument seems silly, or ridiculous in the sense that that no reasonable person would take such a position.
Im telling you for free!
Almunia
For impartial read partial!
Almunia say no more No issue with a difference of opinion and outlook. Champagne Charlie and Pedro himself are both staunchly behind Arteta but can at least entertain debate/empathise with people that want his head on a stick. With both sides respected as we all just want the best for the club at the end of the day. What is boring and dulls the site down is some of the older chaps having a daily pop at anyone with a dissenting view of how the club should be run/criticising the status quo in any way shape or form and labelling… Read more »
Kroenlephobe
“Why was UE fired relatively quickly when Tets and Wenger are allowed to take us through a slow and demoralising decline?”
When you figure that out please let me know.
Almunia
Totally agree with that post, and the sentiment behind debate with differing views. But there’s all too many examples of what you say about intolerance to conflicting opinion, it’s pathetic. Says more about the individual than anything else mind.
The only reason we are not worse off is because we played young ones like ESR and Saka . Absolutely should not let Willock go , if Steve Bruce can get goals out of him so can Saucy Arteta . We should have cut Ceballos loan short and played Willock .
Emery not winning the Europa League was failure whereas Arteta is making progress ? Where is the logic ? All we had to do was score a solitary goal at Home against the suppposedly dodgy coach who cant teach defense .
Champagne Charlie
You’re the worst culprit when it comes to abuse and intolerance.
Arsenal want 20 mil for Eddie, and apparently we’ve tested the waters for Berge at that mark already.
I might have to start the Zaha propaganda again for one last time, Palace are full of geriatrics and it makes way too much sense to me to send Eddie their way for Zaha. Benteke does the donkey work but has 15 league goals in the last 4 years ffs. Eddie would get goals.
Bertie Mee
””””’The essence of support has changed in a modern environment where fans are less tolerance and have access to social media as a platform to express their views .
Nowt do with it.
It was not social media that failed to beat Villarreal over 2 legs ( not one) or put us mid table.
You want shut gobby Arsenal doom merchants up.
Employ an Arsenal manager , who does his job properly.
“trip to Easter Road”
You’re a Hibee?
We don’t have to spend another 150m to get back in the CL. We need smarter signings, not expensive ones. Wenger got santi for 19m. He got hleb, nasri and others for much less. We have gabriel, saliba, mari and holding at CB, why should we drop another 50m in that position? The recruitment has to be smarter. Saliba was a smart buy, now we have to make it work. Arsenal at the moment have no identity, so we don’t know what players to buy. We see someone play well for a team and think they will do the same… Read more »
And I am not a fan of either manager and I only want whats best for the club but One was sacked halfway through the season because we were languishing in midtable while the other was backed through that worst period ? Why isnt the same metric applied here ? Its the first time in our history where we have failed to score 10 times in our home games ! 19 goals in 17 games . Fuck me what kind of sauce is that ?
I don’t go for this Arteta given too much power so this has affected him on the football front.
He won the FA Cup with basic tactics.
And he has simply been found out over the longer term in the EPL.
There’s a reason why arsene was generational. He built an identity for club, and he had players from youth level till the first team playing the same brand of football.
It’s a shame how it ended, because it got too money oriented at the end, and what happened on the pitch did not become a priority. Something that we are still paying the price for.
Implying that he has taken on too much workload and too much power points to him being good or really good if only that workload and power is taken off him.
He hasn’t shown that he is an overall good football manager regardless thus far.
This view of too much power sounds like another excuse from his backers.
The results are conclusive. Here is Emerys full season in charge versus Arteta’s full season in charge ( I’m even giving Arteta 2 wins and 6 points for the 2 games yet to be played).
UE W21 D7 L10 Pts70
MA W18 D7 L13 Pts61
I don’t think Emery was the answer but why does Arteta get more of a chance than Unai? We are worse off with Mikel.
Think Eze is more of a smooth operator than Zaha and perhaps more suited to our needs.
LT
Pretty conclusive and almost impossible to argue against, although, you just watch people try.
This should be fun.
Yeah.The Zaha ship has sailed. He’s 28 with no resale value. This time next year he could potentially be another Ozil/Aubameyang/Willian.
Matt,
It’s like prodding a sleeping bear. 🙂
Jamie
Yes, but a certifiably plastic one sadly. Spent my formative years around people from Edinburgh – they became plastic gooners because of me and vice versa. Hibees leave gooners in the shade when it comes to devotion. I keep trying to persuade my Welsh other half that we need to start spending time north of the border.
You?
Pepe will easily get Alexis numbers under the right manager,
His situation is similar to Alexis under Mourinho
Spending our tight resources on more wingers when we have saka Pepe and Martinelli is a really bad way to spend our money imo
Just fix the dross we have first then try and improve our already good or very promising areas
“Spending our tight resources on more wingers when we have saka Pepe and Martinelli is a really bad way to spend our money imo“
Spending money on players that will actually move the needle in our attack that’s just dropped 50 league goals for a season is the best way to spend the money we have.
Willian and Pepe are terrible senior players, they’ve given us academy returns.
My dudes
The England RB situation. What’s the opinion ?
I would say Wan Bissaka and TAA. Got others saying WB and Reece James. I feel TAA is on form. Englands best RB
Kroenke –
My wife is from Edinburgh, we’ve been here since the start of covid.
Sadly her family are all jambos, so unless I’m going with a friend I don’t get to any Hibs games. Incredible if Hibs win the cup and manage to qualify for the Europa League.
Scenes when Emery arrives at Easter Road.
Charlie Maybe we all have different standards for judging managers and that’s perfectly fine, i choose to look at overall what my eyes tells me and that’s simply that we still over a hear into this process can’t seem to have any discernible style of play on the field and the results have shown exactly that whether it be since August or December or January or whatever timeline anyone chooses to view it from. The football even at the basics level again “FOR ME” hasn’t seen any kind of improvement, we were told to look past the results under Emery… Read more »
Bob
I get you, but normally one can just scroll past certain posters who you’d know would most likely be posting shit really.
Marc You could argue the opposite just as easily, we had fans before the Chelsea game saying they want us to lose, just so they can get rid of the manager, each to their own, but I can’t get on board with that We won our first league game at Stamford Bridge in almost a decade, and people are crying about the manner in which we pulled it off, fans whinged for years that Wenger wasn’t pragmatic enough in these types of games, then cry when we put in a disciplined away performance We might have just kicked off a… Read more »
Wanting the team to lose to get rid of the manager has been a loud Le grove tradition not that i condone it anyway
Charlie
The level or your bias is outstanding
You are the only one on the planet that lumps 2021 Willian with Pepe.
You can’t get past your dislike of the player and the fact that he was bought ahead of Zaha to review his performance with fairness.
If Pepe’s output is academy level, than that academy player must be an extra-terrestrial being.
..and for god’s sake don’t throw in Saka because he’s a fully established England international with three seasons in our senior squad.
Rich
“Arteta can turn this around though”
To what extent can he turn this around though?
He has set himself a low bar going into next season because of heavy tanking this season.
Are we going to do cartwheels for getting sixth place next season?
Champagne Charlie
“Willian and Pepe are terrible senior players, they’ve given us academy returns.”
Says the man who supports a novice manager.
Left, I know it’s really, really hard for you to compute this… but maybe the global pandemic had an impact on elite sport this season and that might be a point of differentiation between Emery and Arteta.
We are 9 points off 4th in our worst ever season. 8 points from last seasons league winners. A single point behind Carlo A.
Showing us what happened when a really experienced manager took over the club, had two full preseason, spent 200m, all outside a pandemic isn’t the table you think it is.
NEW POST.
Arsenal losing games has zero corelation to how much a poster on le grove wants the manager to lose,
Im telling you for free!
Bati You don’t need to qualify “for me”, I’m not the one claiming this or that poster is a ‘fanboy’, ‘deluded’, ‘brain dead’, because they are or aren’t for the sack of Arteta. I’ve been quite clear on my stance, I’d totally understand his sacking based on results, but I think it undermines appointing a rookie to dismiss him after a season and pretend there was no learning on the job due. That’s apparently fair game to ridicule and dismiss with many of the terms above. But feel free to pull me up for calling someone a bellend for their… Read more »
Arsenal has to stop signing those free 30+ players and offer them a high salary plus a signing bonus. We then got stuck with them and have to pay them to get rid of them. We have to learn how Leicester City or Dortmund conducts their business. Have you ever seen them signing those type of players? Have you ever seen them offering a 30+ player (Auba) a 3 year contract? I can’t see how the team can progress if the administration continues to act like that.
*