SMALL BRUSHSTROKES PAINTING A BRIGHTER PICTURE?

by .

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.

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Graham

Just hope you are right – but I don’t see many grounds for optimism currently.

Graham

2nd

Graham

3rd

Graham

Everyone laughed at Wenger when he said this was a trophy – now we have the reigning champions celebrating simply staying in the race for 4th as though they win the league again

Left Testicle

4th

Left Testicle

Oh ball bags!

Graham

That’s called the Emery manoeuvre – blow 4th when it was there to be taken.

Graham

Whereas this is called the Arteta ceiling (8th)

Peckobill

Good post but to progress there really is no choice but to bin the totally inept arteta

Matt

Interesting take you have on Saliba now. How many times did you shoot people down and cal them doom merchants for questioning why Saliba wasn’t with us last season. The flip flopping is going into overdrive.

Matt

*this season, not last season.

Sid

Humble pie is better than no pie

Peckobill

Matt
Arteta fans are royally fucked on the saliba situation when what is regarded his lesser team mate fofana ripping it apart at Leicester , excuses doesn’t wash when you see what a competent manager who knows what he’s doing with a young central defender

Matt

Peckobill

Yep, if only we had one – a competent manager that is.

Marc

Pedro

Not a bad piece, it looks like the Arteta beer goggles are coming off I just hope that you won’t sleep with him anyway!

Marc

The utter disaster of Saliba is Arteta had the chance to give him some match time in the EL group stage (we were playing Irish Pubs teams) and the League Cup. If Arteta had any brains and less little man syndrome he would then have said to Saliba go and do 6 months on loan for more game time so you’re ready for us next season.

I’m not entirely sure that Saliba will won’t to come back and play under Arteta and with rumours of Arteta wanting another right sided CB it doesn’t exactly fill you with hope.

Kroenkephobe

That backdrop for the ESR pic (and earlier Partey photo) is nauseatingly fake. The graphics, colours and use of the cannon combine to make one arsewipingly bad con. Christ, this club takes everyone for idiots. I often wonder what it is I’m supposed to be connected to. But then again, I’m just a worthless legacy fan.

Dissenter

Everyone can remember Pedro defending Arteta with a flame thrower when that horrible Saliba decision was taken
Pedro even went as far as using the lad’s grief as justification fir Arteta ditching him after two preseason games

Fofana’s transfer value has doubled whilst Saliba’s has halved in one season
Can you imagine we put the lad to play with our horrible U-23s and eve then Pedro was bashing him.

Leedsgunner

You don’t speak for me… I loved seeing Chelsea lose again.

Well done Foxes! A well run football club with lots of heart.

Graham

Chelsea women’s team doing well tonight also.

Danish Gooner

Chelsea women are getting a Hiding inthe final.

Captain Tierney

Diss That’s the only fault in Pedro’s brilliant writing imo alongside twisting facts here and there. He flip flops way too much. First it was Saliba who was the bad guy, Pedro even bought up one half mistake clip from twitter to bash Saliba. Now since Arteta’s stock has massively gone down, its Arteta’s fault for.not giving Saliba any game time Arteta made everyone and their nans know that it wad HIM who wanted Willian. But its Edu who is getting the stick for his signing. It was Arteta who wanted Luiz for another year. It’s Edu who is always… Read more »

Guernsey+gun

Hopefully a lot of the bullshit spouted by the media about emma hayes is re calibrated after this. Shows doris football in the very worst light one sided bollox like this.

Tom

Fofana played next to Evans from his early Leicester days and even though some look down on him, Evans has been one of the more solid defenders in the PL and Fofana benefited hugely from this partnership.

Who would be that mentor for Saliba in the Arsenal back line?
I can’t see anyone.

Peckobill

Dissenter “ Fofana’s transfer value has doubled whilst Saliba’s has halved in one season” Great point and something I’d like to add while everyone is praising and saying we should follow Leicester’s model (rightly so ) well to be honest getting saliba is doing exactly that . We both pinched st Etienne’s highly regarded CB’s the only difference I can see is how then its passed on to the managers to use them as they see fit . Rogers played his and like you say doubled fofana ‘s worth ( Utd being linked ) while arteta completely tanked saliba’s situation… Read more »

Marc

bill

Under Emery Guendozi was being talked about as the most valuable teenager in Europe with £60 million even being banded about, now he was never worth that much but a fee of £30 million would have been achievable. If we got £15 million for him now we’d do well.

Arteta is terrible with youth players. Also old players and the less said about his performance with players in their mid 20’s the better!

Dissenter

Peckobill
Football insiders everywhere we’re shocked when Arsenal were leaking to the media that Saliba wasn’t ready yet, Pedro ran on that line too.
It was obvious that Arteta didn’t give him a reasonable chance because he wasn’t his signing.
Contrast that to how he kept playing Willian even after he breached COVID-19 rules to fly to Dubai and was unrepentantly shit.

Sean M

Bertrand is such a lazy signing by the Arsenal execs.

Kroenkephobe

Guernsey

So you feel the same way about the Arsenal women’s team then (and women’s football in general) ?

Peckobill

Marc If guen is an arsehole I can see why he wouldn’t want him ( though the Brighton incident I back guen every day of the week ) even though I think there’s a player in there somewhere and for sure a player at who could’ve at least been nurtured and made a decent profit in but what does it for me is arteta ‘s blatant signalling to the world that he has no future at arsenal and completely decimating his worth . Doesn’t arteta have a fucking clue to complete with the money clubs guen is exactly the player… Read more »

Marc

Pedro

The problem with the “insiders” at Arsenal is are they any better at judging talent than Edu or Arteta?

Right now I wouldn’t bet on it.

Marc

bill

Arteta is not a bad fit for us. Arteta is a piss poor manager, once he’s fired from Arsenal he’ll get another job be piss poor there and end up as a pundit on Spain’s version of BT.

Basically he’s going to be the Spanish pundit equivalent of Robbie Savage.

Graham

I guess they are the same insiders who said the ESL was unstoppable.

Peckobill

Marc
Well yeah arteta is poor but shhhh now don’t tell the world that like arteta does , you never know who’s stupid enough to come and pinch him off us . Hi barca !!

Kroenkephobe

I know it’s meaningless but by beating Everton, the Blades have potentially opened up the chance for us to climb above the Toffees (who still have to play MC). At the very least a higher table position could give Edu another million quid to waste on someone or allow for the extinct gunnersaurus to return in time for August.

I know its heresy but I think the mystical Europa conference could be positive. We won the one and only mercantile cup in the 80s – maybe we could bag the one and only europa conference trophy. Yeah, I’m being facetious….

Words on a blog

Pedro

It would be good if you explained how and why Fofana was more than ready for Leicester whilst Saluba wasn’t ready for Arsenal.

Nelson

Looks like we’ll get back our 8th spot this season if we could win our last two games. Everton has to play MC in their last game.

Peckobill

Kronke
Arteta would fuck up even that piss poor euro comp against god knows what feeble competition. I mean look at the shite we played in the group stage of EL , fuck knows what crap we’d face in that . I bet though anything arteta would fail to win it

Marc

Nelson

You can’t knock 8th place – it’s 4th times 2!

Peckobill

8th ???
Steady now I’m getting dizzy

Crimson

Good read…

Words on a blog

Marc,

The problem with “insiders at Arsenal” is precisely the fact that they are insiders at Arsenal.

Words on a blog

“Insiders at Arsenal” believed that Arteta represented the Second Coming.

Words on a blog

“Insiders at Arsenal” inform us that Gunedouzi is an unmanageable cunt.

Marc

WOAB

Well as long as he’s the first leaving next season I’ll be happy.

Words on a blog

“Insiders at Arsenal” told us that Martinez forced his exit.

Crimson

The pie is always half empty….. go and support another custard sid. Nobody likes you. Even you 12 year old wife hates you.

Crimson

Garlick. Edu and have a big summer

Samesong

Saliva would of been able to play at least 10 games this season. Did the player say he wasn’t ready to play?

Samesong

Saliba

Champagne Charlie

The 28-year-old added: “I thought if I played well that game, I would be No 1, but afterwards it still wasn’t clear who was going to start in the league.

“I was told that there was a 95 per cent chance I would start against Fulham [on the first day of the season], but I just thought, ‘why not 100 per cent?’ Something didn’t feel right.

“Everyone wanted me to stay, but that’s when I decided to go. I wasn’t upset or emotional, I was proud I did it.“

Emi Martinez literally stated as such.

Words on a blog

Marc,

I have to say that (unlike Pedro, who needs his sources) I’d be far happier if there were a few more new outsiders inside Arsenal.

The fucking insiders are all a waste of space.

Graham

I was drooling over Saliva for a second there

Crimson

Nasri is a dick head. Guendozi is blossoming

Samesong

I was drooling over Saliva for a second there 🤣

Words on a blog

“Insiders at Arsenal” told us that we didn’t need Cagigao and his scouting network, who were all deadbeat shitheads anyway, because we had StatDNA to guide us.

Now those insiders have changed their minds.

Crimson

The structure at the top of the club seems to change every month. Its sad.

bacaryisgod

Not sure if I was one of those being referred to as a negative spin merchant, but I just quoted David Ornstein. He said the following three things: 1) Luiz informed the club he was leaving 2) The club had yet to offer him a new deal and 3) He wouldn’t have signed it anyway.

You can read into that what you want, but only the most ardent of Arteta’s fanboys would declare the above as an act of ruthlessness.

Peckobill

Woab
You have a good point about these insiders . What good is inside information when it’s coming from a bunch of buffoons.

Words on a blog

bacaryisgod

Insiders at the club tell me that you (and Ornstein) are negative spin merchants…..

Marc

bac

I agree if we didn’t want him why was he still being used a couple of weeks ago? It’s not as if we don’t have any CB’s.

Matt

I too would love to know how it is a fact that Saliba is not ready for the Premier League. Doesn’t sound like anything that can be a fact at all, only an opinion.

Peckobill

Can’t believe I’m saying this but it comes to something when a 34 year luiz is rightly going but we always looked better when he was in the side . Absolutely had to go but the point I’m trying to make is that’s how poor our standard of CB’s are and your telling me there wasn’t a place for saliba amongst that rabble . Think with the right coaching Gabriel got potential to be a beast though

Marc

Pedro

If that’s the case and he’s good around the young players etc why isn’t he looking at a playing / coaching contract?

Marc

Pedro

That’s what I meant he could have done his badges with us if he’s so good / popular.

Let’s face it if the rumours about Xhaka wanting out are true when he’s Arteta’s first name on the team sheet then Arteta is losing the dressing room.

Matt

Willian wanting to leave is like Christmas and birthdays rolled into one. One of the clubs worst signings ever.

Peckobill

As much as willian has been utter crap I will give him some credit if he does want to leave and not sit on a fat contract doing fuck all and rather play . Fair play to him in that respect .

bacaryisgod

Pedro,,

So you disagree with Ornstein?

bacaryisgod

Of course Willian wants to leave. He’s hardly getting a look-in right now. Let’s not forget who took credit for signing him though.

Peckobill

Willian was definitely an arteta signing . Bullshit to blame that on Edu . Edu through Kia probably told arteta he was gettable but make no bones arteta went in a total frenzy to get him from that point on . His first half a season undeserved appearances tells you all you need to know plus it’s well established arteta was stalking him with phone calls to get him

alexanderhenry

Pedro

‘The best clubs know who they are, how they play, and what they stand for. Arsenal don’t. ‘

Absolutely correct.

But a club’s essential identity comes from its fan base and its ownership.

All this existential talk and no mention of the Kroenkes at all? ….Really?

bacaryisgod

Also Pedro, it’s a little rich for you to be labeling others negative spin merchants when you spent 8 of the last 10 years doing exactly that and in fact you were calling for Arteta’s head after the Villareal game. I actually agree with you that assuming Kroenke isn’t going anywhere and they have full faith in Arteta then I would love to see the club have a fantastic summer transfer window and that we get off to a great start next season. I don’t want us in the Euro Conference League either. I would love it if Arteta overcame… Read more »

Batistuta

Eagle

Lilie bottled it tonight, horrible horrible to lead that long and then falter at the end

Batistuta

Alumunia

Wherever you are, told you Milan would bottle it tonight too, its like I’m a sucker for teams with an innate spirit for bottling chances lol

Batistuta

If he hasn’t lost that dressing room then it tells to the mentality of said players maybe, totally happy to cash out their cheques weekly and barely achieving anything of note

bacaryisgod

As for Luiz, I think you can make an argument that he might be trying to save face in light of no contract forthcoming from the club.

I do wonder if there might be tension in the relationship between Arteta and Edu, or even Edu and Kia.

Kia’s clients Willian, Luiz and Cedric all look to be out of favour as far as next season goes. Willian and Luiz are understandable but I’m not quite sure why Cedric has fallen so far out of contention.

Nelson

Newcastle’s system fits Willock. They plays 4 4 2 fast counter attacking style. Willock is the second wave, picking up the lose ball. He has a short sprint and can run away from the marker. Arteta prefers ball possession attack. You need players who can pass the ball very well. That is not Willock’s strength.

bacaryisgod

Pedro-fair enough but it’s hard not to get the impression that you’re straining every sinew to put a positive spin on Arteta’s decisions. Too early to say if the Willian departure will happen because giving him a 3 year deal in the first place means he has most of the leverage.

Nelson

Marc
“You can’t knock 8th place – it’s 4th times 2!”
———————————————————-

In north America, 2nd place is the first loser. 8th is 8 time 1, not good enough!!!

Crimson

Jose Antonio Reyes. Love you

Champagne Charlie

“but the point I’m trying to make is that’s how poor our standard of CB’s are and your telling me there wasn’t a place for saliba amongst that rabble . Think with the right coaching Gabriel got potential to be a beast though“ 3rd best defensive record in the PL, 10th best attack. Unless Saliba was bringing 8-10 goals with him then the gains being speculated are fractional at best. More accurately, he wasn’t ready, we weren’t in need, he wasn’t missed. Our season failed because after 14 games we had 14 points and an attack reliant on Willian, Pepe,… Read more »

raptora

Habesha Gooner: “Koeman is still a very good manager in my eyes. He gets blamed for everything Barca are this season but everything good they have done is because of him.” Guy single-handedly kicked Suarez out of the team. Now Atleti are this close to winning the league with top goal scorer guess who? You know. Even today he scored the winning goal in the 88th minute. Guy is a top 3 striker I’ve seen in my days. But Koeman decided to unceremoniously kick him out, Luis in tears left the club, crushed Messi’s happiness too. Koeman made an amateur… Read more »

raptora

Charlie: “Our form improved from Boxing Day when ESR and Martinelli got their firsts starts of the season”

Oh you mean when Arteta used Martinelli to save his shaken ass, give his team an energy boost, then banish him to Gulag to play an astounding 66 minutes in 16 games?! I see.

Almuniasaynomore

Batistuta
I didn’t see it. Was the lack of Ibra the difference? Only possible saving grace is Atalanta already qualified. Any chance they do a utd( v Leicester) and field a weakened team to screw Juventus, in the guise of giving overdue game time to 2nd stringers? Lille taking it to the wire also, still in their hands but you wouldn’t want your life depending on it.

Vintage Gun

“Insiders at Arsenal” told us that Willian negotiated Arteta’s non negotiables

Nelson

Those dieheart Arteta supporters keep repeating the team’s performance after X’mas. For me, both Arteta and his team choked when the pressure is on. A top4 EPL team should be able to defeat Emery’s team easily. For the new season, the pressure is again on right at the start. I hope that Arteta’s galaxy brain won’t resurface again.

bacaryisgod

Pedro:

I think you’re jumping the gun on how much there is to be positive about.

Basically, in the 10 days since you called for Arteta to be sacked, we’ve won two ‘dead rubber’ games (yes, I’m still happy we won them) and Luiz will be out of the club this summer. That’s a little premature to be waving the chequered flag.

I agree with most of what you identify as areas to be addressed. I would hold on to Willock though largely because it’ll still be such a buyer’s market until things fully open up again.

Dissenter

-Spare a thought for Steven Gerard for the generational coaching that broke the death hold that Celtic had on the Scottish domestic set-up.
The man just reopened the Scottish premier league.

DaveB666

Regarding centre backs – I think Holding has done alright this season – solid, never passes more than a few yards to someone more talented than him……

Next year should be Saliba and Gabriel as first pick, Holding and Mari as cover.

Losing Luiz, Willian, Guendozi, Willock, AMN, Leno, Bellerin, Xhaka maybe Laca over the summer will feel like happy days.

Let’s get the Wenger deadwood out and build around Tierney, ESR, Saka and Martinelli.

Oh and can we buy Emi back 🙂

Champagne Charlie

Pedro Think that’s a bit ambitious. Auba has topped out at 22 league goals since being here, so we need 50 goals from around the side to return top 4 attacking numbers. I can understand the hesitation on Laca because he’s a 10-15 league goal guarantee and the reality is there’s nothing promised outside those two. Big hope that ESR, Saka, Martinelli add real output to their games as they develop. But It’s easy to see why Willian is getting encouraged to leave, and why we’d gladly take an offer for Pepe of someone was stupid enough to cough up… Read more »

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