Gooooooood morning! Arteta dropped some intel about some of the reasons we struggled early in the season.
DEADWOOD DEEPSTATE. Think I stole that from someone on the Arsenal Vision Podcast. Now it is mine.
The allusion was that certain players that aren’t here now were the problem.
I cannot imagine which part-time social media manager on £350k a week that could have been?
I cannot imagine which binned players might have been causing those issues?
I cannot imagine which players exiting might also have had a role?
The mess of the squad at the start of the last season led to dramatic decisions. Those decisions against big names were obviously going to hit the morale of the squad. You’ve all worked with a dickhead who hands their notice in and determines to burn the house down.
‘THIS PLACE IS A HELLISH VACUUM OF PUSS THAT IS GOING ALL THE WAY TO THE BOTTOM’
Actual quote from Sandra from accounts at my place.
The biggest issue, Mesut Ozil, was a problem because he was the king. Everyone knows that when the King is dethroned, you have to kill him, because their prior power will always be a threat to stability. The German was too big for Arsenal at that point, he was hurt by the rejection, so it was clear he’d be a problem internally and externally.
Form has picked up since we rid the squad of bad eggs. Things have been better since we discovered the power of creativity in our midfield. We controlled games far better with Thomas Partey in the side.
Everyone is whining on about how 23 games of form doesn’t count for anything. Well, let’s see how that pans out next season, but also dig a little deeper into some other elements.
Leicester beat us with their only run into our box. We smashed them at their place.
Fulham beat us without having a shot on target.
Wolves didn’t deserve to beat us chance. Self inflicted Wolves.
Spurs beat us off 5 attempts at our goal and 30% possession. It was palmed off as ‘genius’ at the time, but let’s be real, it was luck as shown by Jose exiting the building a few months later.
Burnley beat us off 2 shots on target.
Everton beat us twice.
Villa beat us twice.
Basically, a lot of very lucky stuff happened against some very average teams this season.
Turn 3 of the above games into more positive results and the last game of the season sees Arsenal in Champions League spots in our worst ever season.
Hardly a stretch, right?
Think how much better life will be if we have a settled squad come the summer. Creative players from the start. An Auba not dealing with family issues and malaria. Young players a season on.
Arsenal will sell a whole collection of players. I’m not sure reading the praise of the manager is indicative of who we are keeping, it’s a negotiation tactic. Do we really think Madrid believe their future hinges on Odegaard? Doubtful… but it’ll pump his price. Same for the players Mikel is saying are under contract. We are less desperate this summer, which will lead to bigger fees (or actual fees).
Arsenal will no doubt try and make Martin a centre piece of our rebuild this summer and I’d agree with that. I’d certainly prioritize him over the Norwich fella at £450m or whatever they are looking to charge for him.
Then we’ll go for a right back, which has basically been a dead position all season. A nightmare for many reasons, but mainly because we’re lopsided when we attack. If we can bring Tierney levels to the right, it opens a whole world of possibilities.
Ryan Bertrand is perfectly acceptable cover on the left (Leicester after him, so should be safe).
Then we need to address that midfield. I have no idea who we’ll look for in that role, but hopefully we have another press resistant player that can move in the role.
Shake out the deadwood this summer.
Have a 6 week preseason and bond the leaner group.
Make sure everyone is excited and knows their own personal plan.
There will be no excuses next season, but I don’t believe there will be a need for them.
The players are backing the manager. Look at the vibes in the training ground video for David Luiz’s send off.
The club is going to bat for the first team again this summer.
I think we’re on the up.
Final word for the Edu story doing the rounds. The gist is he was taking orders from someone banned from Brazilian football for corruption when he was over there. I don’t understand enough detail to give a running commentary, but the basics are pretty clear, he took orders, he knew who from.
Arsenal relevance:
- It shows real lack of leadership to keep quiet when things like that are going on. The guy giving orders was behaving like Pablo Escobar from jail. Shocking stuff.
- Subservience to shady characters is clearly part of his operating system.
Speaking up about tough things that don’t feel right is part of any big job. I’d say ‘imagine if that was Arsenal’ but let’s be honest, we’ve seen people fail to speak truth to power in our football braintrust to great cost. Shocking deals, cosy agent relationships, huge wastage that a layman could have predicted.
This story is a bad reflection on Edu, but an even worse one on our leadership. Did anyone check in with people that had worked with him to see if he was a determined leader, or a soft touch people pleaser?
I doubt anything will come of it, but at the very least, I hope Vinai V, Richard G, and Josh K are keeping an extra close eye on who we are talking to this summer. The number 1 interest should always be Arsenal FC, that clearly hasn’t been the case with a lot of the decisions we’ve made over the past 4 years. The weaknesses on show in this story aren’t hard to trace back to some if the things we’ve seen at Arsenal (subservience). It is also a worry that he can be so comfortable working with a man of corruption. It’s a canary in the coal mine. Let’s hope we’re not on the receiving end of one of these stings in the future.
Midwest
Arteta won’t play willock
____
Yep Pierre.. After I wrote that .. I was like he’s not getting starts under Arteta.
Brighton make changes but none for us. Willian is thankfully not on the bench.
Pepe 1
We’ve been such a boring boring team to watch all season, doesn’t matter who’s played of been slow, lethargic and mind numbingly boring all season especially at home.
Hope to God those who are all for giving Arteta more time are right and he gets what he needs this summer and has us playing better because jeez this is just so bland
Yeeeeees
Pepe strikes again, just know that arteta killed these players with his ego
Everyone still wants arteta sacked? Gotta say, i love rob holding-future national team if he hasnt been capped already… pretty sure he hasnt. I know pepes scored like 15 goals but he really should be near double that with the way he can sneak away from defenders-hopefully that comes next year. Still tired of Auba Also seeing as this ref is thee moat unfit if a shitty lot- we need to design plays to injure and intimidate refs into treating us better. That seems the only solution to our woeful place in the football reffing hierarchy at the moment. Lets… Read more »
Pepe goal
Pepe’ right foot for the second goal in a roll🦵🦵
That is what Pepe is all about. He may lose a lot of balls but he can score
Go On Pepe!!!!! Get in… nice goal.
Pepe on his right peg. Who’d a thought it?
With his right foot
Conference HERE WE COME.
Pepe has 6 goals in his last 7 starts in all competitions.
Yessssss!!!!!!
Pepe!!!!!!!
Come on!!!!!
Nice goal Pepe. on his weaker foot also. He is going to be hard to leave out if he keeps this form up. It’s great to see some consistency from him.
Pepe quietly doing the business.
If Spuds lose or draw and it comes down to whether we can score one fucking goal at home v Brighton on the last day of the season to finish above them, but then that goal never comes….what a disappointment that would be.
Pepe definitely going backwards under Arteta
Finally and Pepe with a right foot shot. Now why was he not doing that 9 months ago?
Need Leicester to score…. so Spuds are behind our arse…
Get in… Pepe with the goal.
Going to be big season for him next year
Pepe! Can I delete my last comment?
Pepe ; world class. Just needs games and a decent manager behind him.
Thursday nights in Albania.. it’s our destiny.
Use your right foot often Pepe and I can add you, you’d be 100 mil player
Charlie
Do you still insist on placing Pepe and Willian in the same basket?
Xhaka’s same old trick. Falls on top of the ball.
Connolly “slipped” in our box
Leicester pen
Odegarde down… no pen
Wot about VAR
Fat cunt Moss, that was Pen.
Imagine shouting calm at your player when two opposition lads are closing him down fast. You kill his first instinct and he loses the ball which is what happened.
Want Leicester at 4th
That’s a peach of a goal by Pepe.
Leicester go in front.
As things stand, a perfect end to the season.
Lol Vardy scores. Leicester in top 4. St Totterinham’s day on.
My boy Pepe again
Odegaard should be shooting there, one time.
You know Moss was about 35 yds behind the play.
kudos to arsenal, they chose Pepe over Zaha and they was right. even for 72m
It’s going to be st toterings day
Leicester leading again
I think the ref has one of those black balloons up his shirt. The fat fooker.
Odegarde was clumsy may be also a nudge probably not a pen on slow mo
Give credit where it’s due and he can be a bit rough around the edges but Pepe has put up solid numbers this season when you consider he plays in arteta’s rigid attack . Quite impressive
Penalty to Villa, lol.
Couldn’t see that as a penalty tbh. No contact.
The European Conference. Woopdedoo!
As it is, Kroenke made an extra :£4m with us at 7th… Josh rubbing his…hands
Dean given united a soft pen and this fat Moss gives nothing
Pepe still a bit slow in decision making
Chavs 2 down at Villa.
Can Brendan hold his bottle???
TP keeps trying to fight through a see of opponents.
Fucking bearded piss flap Josh, wearing an Arsenal face mask pretending he cares
Kroenke Out Fans In banner spotted
Pepe is shit with his touch
Love to freeze the table as it is
Aubameyang has been shit. AGAIN.
gotta laugh at chelshit. LMAO
Leicester needs to keep their cool.
Ødegaard was pushed by the looks of it.
This should have been a pen
////
Lolz again. Spuds 2-1 down.
I ain’t saying it until the final whistle…. (don’t want to jinx it).
Banners small… J(oke) Kroenke wouldn’t see
All I wanr is Leicester to qualify for the CL at Chav’s expense.
Cut to Vinai trying to explain to Josh K what Europa Conference is…
Pepe 2
Let’s have it
Pepe pepe pepe pepe pepe
Pepe left peg this time
Pepe again, my guy!
Lol at Chelsea
Pretending that Josh gives damn because of banners.
Pepe is our only goal scorer.
Pepeeee!!!!!!!!
Big Lol’s at Chelsea for real
Midwest
I’m not sure if Vinai knows about it himself.
He’s on fire
Pepe pepe pepe dude is on fire. Is he our leading goal scorer now?
Who’s bottling it today? Tuchel or Rodgers? Too many bottles.
Pepe again.
Charlie
😁😁😁😁😁😁😁
Pepe=Willain
It is Tim Lewis that is on Josh’s right.
These masks make it hard to guess.
All 3 can fuck off. Starting with Stan/Josh and Vinai.
Ugh that twat Arteta will never leave now. Most Arsenalfans will probably see this season has a massive success lol.
Start to enjoy this
Chavs cud be out of the CL if they lost the final!
That pass from Ode is Ozil_like. The location and weight is so good.
What a beautiful afternoon…so far
Massive credit to Pepe, he’s been on fire of late.
Two great finishes today.
Imagine the manager benching Pepe for Willian earlier on in the season
Remember that when you throw the after-December table at us.
Time for the travelling fans to sign up for Easyjet Plus for that added comfort on those long trips to Zhodino, Karagandy, or Sumgait.
—
“Santa Clara, Sochi, Mechelen, Sivasspor, Wolfsberger, Aarhus, Vorskla Poltava, Feyenoord, Hibernian, Aberdeen, Jablonec, Slovacko, AEL Limassol, Apollon Limassol, Anorthosis Famagusta, Servette, FC Basel, Aris Thessaloniki, PAOK, AEK Athens, Partizan, Vojvodina, Cukaricki, Osijek, Gorica, Rijeka, IF Elfsborg, BK Hacken, Molde, Valerenga, Rosenborg, Maccabi Tel Aviv, FC Ashdod, Shakhter Karagandy, Tobol, Astana, BATE Borisov, Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodino, Qarabag, Sumgayit, Lokomotiv Plovdiv, CSKA Sofia, Arda, FCSB, Universitatea Craiova, Pogon Szczecin, Rakow Czestochowa, Dunajska Streda”
Moments Pepe strikes again.
Too bad he never got the chance for those moments from the start of the season. We wouldn’t be fighting for a 7th place finish if he had had Willians minutes.
No surprise either the mugs in the ground don’t use this opportunity to put pressure to get rid of Arteta instead focusing on Kroenke. Absolute tossers.
Screeching coach has let the boys play. Run out of words since it is not Williams scoring,or Odegard
To think Arteta spent the first half of the season playing William.
Even Conference isn’t secured… there’s a play off isn’t it?
Get in pepe
Have to give it to Villa for their final game of the season performance. They did the same to us last year.
St toterings day
Season finished against Villarreal winning these meaningless matches are just that meaningless.
Still expect Arteta to be gone by Christmas.
Pepe with his 2nd!!!!
Well done!!!!
….
Still won’t say it re Spuds.
Really chuffed that Chelski are also fucking up.
7th place finish suddenly doesn’t look as catastrophic.
Broadcasters should have a real time ticker showing other scores at bottom of the screen