Mikel Arteta dropped his first press conference of the season and I have to say… he didn’t inspire much confidence and came across quite muted. Not a good look when you cross-reference it against Thomas Frank’s glowing account of how his summer has gone.
Key points for me:
- We haven’t done the business Arteta expected us to do
- The market has been more difficult than they thought it would be
- A domino effect will likely happen in the last week of the window
Outside that I couldn’t really name much of note he spoke about.
The target is consistency this season and to take each game one at a time.
Our goal is to get the best version consistently that’s going to bring us closer to winning football matches. That’s what I want from the team. If we do that consistently in every single match, we’re going to be in a good place, but that’s something we haven’t done, consistently give the best version. That’s something we must control and we must do, and I think if we’re able to do that, then the results will be the consequence to that.
He’s never going to pick a league position, but I hoped for something a little more inspiring than consistency. It also felt like there were a few not-so-subtle digs at what he has at Arsenal, but I might just be reading too deeply into it.
The clarity in what they do. They’ve been doing it for a long time together and you can see they have that fluidity and chemistry between them, and they believe that the plan they’ve put in place works for them. I think that’s a big strength for any team.
There needs to be clarity on the pitch this season, with the players he has right now. The squad is still a mess, that’s not all his fault, but he’s going to have to make it work this season. We have a bright young squad of players with some players that are misfits for the system… but we can do things this season and we have to.
The objectives are pretty clear for the next 4 months.
We need to rapidly adapt to playing a higher line with Ben White. Getting ripped through the middle cannot be a new thing for the first three months this season.
There needs to be more clarity when it comes to our football style. We need better transitions, the team needs to feel more fluid and unpredictable, and we need to start taking our chances. Statman Dave called our style Doughnut football. We control possession around the sides of the area but there’s no verticality to our game. That has to change.
We need to reduce errors by 50% this season. We cannot continue to punch ourselves in the face. Moving on David Luiz was a big swing at that. Sending Ceballos back to Madrid will help. There are still a few players with us that lack the right level of concentration, but whatever, it needs to be better this season. 50% less errors last season and we’re a top 4 side, simple as that.
We need to improve our finishing by 20%. It wasn’t good enough last season. That’s the whole team, not just Auba. But, Auba does need to play like a £350k a week striker. We need 10 goals from ESR. We need 10 goals from Saka. We need to see our other players popping up in the box and contributing.
The start to the season is really important, if we’re within spitting distance of top 4 come January, we’ll very much be in mixer in May. Last season, we fucked the start of the seasons so badly we couldn’t recover… but we were still close. We need to be the post-Christmas Arsenal, that is the standard.
We’ll know pretty early on Friday which Arsenal has shown up. We’re playing in a new stadium against a team that doesn’t know where it’s level is at the moment. None of that matters, we need to go in there, boss the game, and start to build confidence. Chelsea is winnable. West Brom there should be no excuses. We need to go into that City game with at least 4 points. Then we’ll see.
It’s going to be interesting to see how everyone else does this season. Manchester City are the side to beat, without a doubt. Chelsea have not looked convincing preseason so far, they were very nearly Emery’d in the Super Cup last night. Spurs have a very drossy manager and a bag of issues no club needs to be dealing with. Liverpool is a team to watch, their players are all getting older, they dropped their level by 30 points last season, and they’ve solved that with one signing this summer. Everton haven’t done much. West Ham haven’t done much. Leicester have made 3 signings. This is going to be an interesting season.
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DM
Arteta wasn’t exactly awe-inspiring, was he? Looked kinda tired
I wish managers would remember that bringing in players on the last week of the transfer window means that we could’ve already lost valuable points by then
Shred it DM you savage.
Tr4phy
nice one sal
Unintentional trophy, the worm has surely turned for Arsenal.
Top 10…maybe 8th….again.
There was literally no point to that press conference. I get that done things need to stay private, but that was utter drivel
No negative chat …
Squad are going to be world beaters
Another season of expectation from our darling team – Arsenal but I do not currently think we have the squad to be in too six. There are issues every where from recruitment to the 1st team staff. The couch need to purge himself if favouritism. The goalkeeping position should be critically looked into. It is either problem of goal keeper courch or lack of competition but I still believe Leno is okay. The status of Auba should be reexamined before close of transfer period.l. In all I think something will be done before the end of transfer period.
DM yeap used to be my bug bearer with wenger near the end of his reign. Would bring new players in at end of Window when they wouldn’t be fit until end of September if lucky and we’d already be 10 points behind.
Same players under three managers and this one is inexperienced.
Without creative attacking midfield we are going no where. The new players will fight for progress ,but ultimately the usual trio will let us down. Wrong passes,ineffectual passes, giving the ball away and temper tantrums. Guess which players ,clue the manager likes them.
Goldkamp pass some of that on to Raptora perhaps it will dull his mega boner for Emery.
TR7, it was a very depressing showing. Players will be watching that.
Wonder what will happen if Mr K gets hit with a 700 million dollar legal bill.
Sell the ground for a multi storey building project.
Any thoughts?
Wonder what financial instruments have been levered to create the impression of financial backing for buying players?.
Raptora, we’re not talking about Emery today.
‘Mikel Arteta has admitted money at Arsenal is “tight” after a deal to sign Sheffield United goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale reportedly fell through.’
But I thought the kroenkes, Arteta and edu said this was going to be a big summer and we had money available to spend.? Could they have been lying, that does surprise me. Unless someone steps up to the plate in regards to scoring for us, I honestly believe we’ll drop out of the top 10 this season. Shocking club, constantly taking piss out the fans
DMAugust 12, 2021 15:41:36 I wish managers would remember that bringing in players on the last week of the transfer window means that we could’ve already lost valuable points by then This!!! One could understand if the players we are fighting to sign were tough deals like Kane is this Summer. We ain’t. If they have not yet decided if they want to sell Odegaard, surely if we add £5m to their valuation of the player, they’d sign da ting. Thing is that Odegaard doesn’t want us unless he is specifically told that he is absolutely not wanted. Player isn’t… Read more »
Thank you and goodnight, we spent 75m without selling and we didn’t make Europe, that is money.
We’re approaching the end of Arteta’s 4th transfer window with Arsenal, and yet Xhaka and El Neni are bound to start tomorrow night against Brentford.
Yes 75m on players thT barely improves our Zi significantly.
How comes the transfer window and bringing people in, only seems to be hard for Arsenal? It’s not just under Arteta as this was happening for years under wenger too.
Yes. 75m on players that barely improves our XI significantly. We needed a creator since forever. We need to flog off players. We should have aggressively done that. Instead, we hand out new contracts to them. I just can’t wait for December. The stands will be toxic and rightly so.
Asides even signings, what is our identity? Our playing style? Watching us is like watching paint dry. No fluidity. Our attacking players greatly stifled. Just pass pass pass.
There is enough funds there, you just have to spend it wisely. Thankfully Sheffield United’s owners have an inflated opinion of Ramsdales worth coupled with not respecting Arteta & Edu and that seems to have saved us over £35million.
@Pedro Come on man, we were told a lot more cash was available than that. If I wasn’t lazy I’d go through all the posts to find the link that stated we had made a lot more money available to Arteta . The fans were told by the club that we had a lot more money available , nothing but lies. And you know what, you know I dislike Arteta with a passion, but I can honestly say I’d rather see those lying penny pinching clueless mugs who own our club leave before Arteta. Most of us want a new… Read more »
Sorry Pedro, but this is wrong.
We haven’t done the business Arteta expected us to do.
Correction – Arteta haven’t done the business he should have done.
First step of fixing a mistake is to acknowledge it.
No excuses Pedro
We expect top 4 and nothing less
This is arteta’s team and his TW
We had money to spend but we didn’t get our priorities right
Win, lose or draw, the first few games come too early to make conclusive judgements. Clearly Arteta hoped to be further along in his final personnel. Hence his muted comments. Had he been able to offload the unwanted and add-in the wanted, his manner might have been buoyant and optimistic. You don’t go overboard about an unfinished structure. But for sure Arteta will have the missing pieces by the end of the window, and maybe less of the unwanted. As for his minimum target, everybody knows what that is: a return to European competition. But his expectation is far greater:… Read more »
The £50 million we spent on Ben White was better. spent else
It would have signed an Aouar and a decent central midfielder like Soumare.
I’m not knocking the player by the way. It’s not his fault that we overpaid for him in a position that is not acute, considering our overall needs
“ . Liverpool is a team to watch, their players are all getting older, they dropped their level by 30 points last season, and they’ve solved that with one signing ”
What!? The signing of Konate is worth 30pts. Lost all credibility there mate
I hope to God this all works out well. Can’t stand another season of nothing
Thank you and goodnight, if you beleived a random on Twitter that there was 250m available, that is on you.
If Ben White ends up being our marquee signing I feel sorry for him. He will attract lots of indirect criticism because Arteta and Edu weren’t able to do their jobs. We started off well by signing Tavares and Sambi, we should have gone on to signing Aouar for £20m+ and then signing a RB. I agree with the Ben White Signing but he should have been 5 or 6 on the list rather than 3. If we don’t manage to sign anyone I hope Arteta has the courage to give time to youngsters like Azeez and Balogun. They deserve… Read more »
250 million? I didn’t think it was that much, I thought they said 150 million.
In the past, top4 was the minimum requirement for every Arsenal coach. In Arteta’s press conference, he didn’t want to commit to that target. Would the fans also accept that top4 is not a requirement anymore?
If arteta benches old croaks like (wtf) willian and gives kids more of a chance there might be more sympathy for him
He’s got to grow some balls this season
Leeds, Ben White wont be the last signing and if he’s good, no one will criticise him.
Pierre, you called bullshit on him when he dropped your favourite.
TR7 “Arteta sounds like a bullshitter these days in his press conferences” What do you mean these days… I called bullshit almost 15/16 months ago…He was fine up until the first lockdown and then he started to get too involved in the politics of the club and all the mugs that couldn’t see through his bullshit fell for it hook ,line and sinker.. And I do get that no one wants to admit that it all started with the pathetic Ozil decision by Arteta, but I can guarantee you that if the club had stepped in all those months ago… Read more »
“And I do get that no one wants to admit that it all started with the pathetic Ozil decision by Arteta“
Totally agree, going into the season with that disruptive prick on the books and no replacement was a shocking decision. Should’ve done all we could to get him out the club before a ball was kicked, we all saw just how different we were when the dust had settled following his departure.
I don’t understand why Arteta wants to change his defensive system (high defensive line). Our defensive was OK last season. Now he wants to use Arsenal to do experiments.
Great post Pierre
100%
Inter look set to sign Dumfries, means Bellerin will be staying
Nelson he is changing it as we scored hardly any goals
Nelson I don’t think it matters much what Arteta is committed to, if he doesn’t deliver a decent set of results quickly he is finished. He needs to pull a rabbit out of the hat in the remaining transfer window to have half a chance
Some good points re the opposition although I think Chelsea will be strong especially if they complete on Lukaku, Man U should be stronger but maybe there is a question mark over Pool as regards nailed on top 4 .
West Ham may have over achieved last year as may Leeds, Everton will be probably be weaker but Leicester should be up in top 6 as should Spurs. So if we are not within or very close to top 6 after say 10 games then Edu and Arteta will justifiably have questions to answer.
Pierre
Ozil stopped being a top level player years ago. More interested in his brand. I was glad he got frozen out. The only person to blame is Ozil himself.
Did you complain as much about selling Iwobi as you are with Willock and Nketiah?
Arteta simple needs to adapt the teams playing style to the abilities of the players he has, but is he actually capable of this? he has a much stronger squad than Emery had but has been getting no better or maybe worse results
Pedro
I know youre into sports science and someone from that field told me that Liverpool chased success so hard these few years the players were bound to collapse , it was last season . Its why Dortmund undet Klopp sunk so low . Players doped up on Red Bulls and Asthma med , so they can efficiently increase oxygen intake in blood levels . Might be again a case of injuries this year with all that running and pressing they did.
“Arteta sounds like a bullshitter these days in his press conferences, he used to exude a lot of confidence when he first arrived. May be he has realised the job is too big for him
.”Yup. Yet some on here call it blasphemy to even question him or the summer plan. Well guess what fools? Arteta himself on camera just said that it’s NOT GOING TO PLAN.
https://sportslens.com/arsenal-prioritising-move-for-martin-odegaard-houssem-aouar-the-alternative/379933/
I really don’t understand Arteta’s fascination and fixation with Odegaard. Good enough player but hardly a game changer. Plus with all their various injuries it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to tell you he’s not leaving Real Madrid anytime soon.
By the time we realise this Aouar will be unavailable.
Pedro i left out the “being a naïve cheerleader get you fcuked” part in hope my post doesn’t get deleted
I don’t remember ever being so pessimistic about an up coming season. For his sake, Arteta must put pressure on Edu to assist him in the transfer front. Otherwise, I fear that fan anxiety might just be too much for him
Also Pool had peak Sala a few years ago who seems to have lost his edge or other teams are just learning to contain him better, ditto I think re Firmino and Mane and of course Coutinho was at his peak the season before they sold him.
There was a very good article last year on Liverpool predicting their downfall . . If you guys are into it , I posted this back then.
https://backpagefootball.com/why-liverpool-wont-win-the-premier-league-this-season/126313/
Pedro “Pierre, you called bullshit on him when he dropped your favourite” ” footballing reasons arteta said …and all that” footballing reasons ” did was expose our lack of creativity.. We very soon went from a football team that was making a realistic challenge for champions league football pre lockdown , to a team that finished 8th and then continued the following season to have our worst start in decades., sitting in a lowly 15th position. Whether Ozil plays or not is immaterial to me , what is important is that if you take our most creative player out of… Read more »
Leedsgunner
Ødegaard is someone who connects defense to attack and retains/cycles possession . Someone like a Gundogan , the goals will come if he starts linking up with strikers well enough.
Pierre
Good post but I am not sure Ozil’s game would have fitted with our mis-firing CF, though his ability to provide a killer pass was probably greater than other players in the team.
One of my colleagues was fortunate to meet Sanchez when on business in Chile. Sanchez was like a god there at the time. Sanchez enjoyed his time at AFC but realised after a short while Wenger was full of broken promises. He spoke highly of Ozil and stated his goal scoring success was mainly due to him (and Giraud). Sanchez hated Ramsey.
Apparently we’ve not given up on Ramsdale. When Arteta gets a whiff of shit he’s relentless. Good for him
Good post Pierre
You forgot to omit “if the club had backed ozil” clause though
Ozil was toast but his role was not replaced
Ozil was talented maverick who are rarely appreciated by most UK team managers. Think of players in the past like Hoddle, Cantona, Berbatov as examples of players who did not fit the mould but were successful but few managers would have understood , and maybe even Henri would not have flourished except under Wenger
Ironically Arteta himself busts the propaganda of his supporters on LG who thought we did a good job in getting White, Lokonga and Tavares and that we had enough money to strengthen some of the other areas too.
Pedro, I think some of our verticality issues can be solved by varying the play a little now and again and utilise both Ben White and Xhaka and their long passing game. Xhaka’s long passing game in the Euros was spectacular. As for future transfers? The market is a nightmare of shifting sands, but given that PSG and Barca are being tipped to fire-sale, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a flurry of swappsies, loans and cheap deals right at the end of the window. On paper a top 4 challenge looks doable, however, I was given a sobering… Read more »
I’m not too concerned with top four or a trophy( isn’t top four a trophy anyways?), but rather with the quality of football played in Arteta’s second full season. I know Pedro said no Emery talk today and I respect his position, but yesterday I watched Villarreal outplay Chelsea for large swaths of the game with a squad put together on a shoe string budget, and he’s been there for barely a season. At one point in second half Chelsea brought on Jorginho and Mount— 130million market value, and Villareal countered introducing their own mid and attacking third reinforcements with… Read more »
So do people want Arsenal to lose tomorrow so Arteta possibly gets sacked sooner? Seems a lot of people want to say I told you so rather than supporting the club. Surely as Arteta is there now everyone should at least give him to December and try and unite the club rather than divide which aids no one.
NelsonAugust 12, 2021 16:51:10
I don’t understand why Arteta wants to change his defensive system (high defensive line). Our defensive was OK last season. Now he wants to use Arsenal to do experiments.
This is supposed to get us more goals, more dangerous positions, more overloads w white driving into the mf when laca/auba/pepe fail to move off the ball the way our system requires
The excuse have already started, soon the scapegoat will be found. We can’t challenge for top 4 because + Arteta does not have the players he wants. Once we told the player agent we are all in, the seller club starts making outrageous demand. Who would have known? + Nobody could have predicted that getting rid of unwanted players on high wage during a down turn financial cycle was going to be difficult, so we had to extend them to protect their non saleable value! Ugh!!?? + Other top 4 teams have been to recruit smartly and early, but we… Read more »
TR7, not sure you’ll find a single person on here that reckons our business is done… or that if the business is done, it’s exceptional work.
If you’re going to be a martyr for truth, at least be honest.
Valentin, top 4 teams have recruited fast… and teams outside the top 4 have not. Think you have identified a pattern there.
Looks like missing out on Monchi really turned out to be a pisser.
We are in a period of sell low and buy high. Until that changes there is not much hope for future success.
Kudos to Pierre for staying on brand and continuing to bring ozil up in every post. Bravo!
guessing we take neto, or some other gk from a financially-burdened club on loan
then a big mf announcement.
lookin like kroenke isnt gonna back us the way he should. again. goddamn it stan, you fucking gonif.
the last card up our sleeve is no europe. really hoping that makes the diff
Pedro I think most people said that we needed to get in a quality midfielder before we even think of spending 50M on a defender howsoever good he is. It was said by you and a few others that order of transfers didn’t matter and White was a very very important signing. Heck ES in the last post said RCB was a weak area and needed to be addressed. Now here we are baulking at Maddi’s transfer fee and now looking at Auoar on loan. A few here tried to rationalize Ramsdale transfer too. Everything is in public domain, I… Read more »
“Valentin, top 4 teams have recruited fast… and teams outside the top 4 have not. Think you have identified a pattern there.“
Pedro, Leicester City?
“top 4 teams have recruited fast… and teams outside the top 4 have not. Think you have identified a pattern there.”
I thought that Leicester bottled the top 4 because of Fofana. Their recruitment was done pretty early on and efficiently.
Same thing about Aston Villa.
Leeds have been pretty active as well.
Crystal Palace has nearly finished their recruitment and they are nowhere near top 4.
Spurs, Everton, Wolves did not have a manager at the begining of the transfer window, so hardly comparable to the stability at other clubs.
TR7, everything is in the public domain, if you can find me the authors that said they were happy with 3 signings being our summer done, I will send you £20 in the post.
Order of transfers doesn’t matter, getting the right players does.
Tom, Leicester signed 3 players, the same as us. I am shocked to see you celebrating Leicester doing the same amount of work as us but criticising Arsenal.
Caligooner
Actually I’m happy that Ozil has gone as it opened up a pathway for Smith Rowe , just like I will be happy when Aubamayang, Lacazette and Willian leave the club as it will open up a pathway for Martinelli, Balogun and Eddie.
Xhaka staying has closed a midfield pathway (bissouma) and why we never went for Dumfries for 14 mil is a headscratcher…
Pedro
You are twisting what I am saying in to something I haven’t. Did you and a few others not say Kroenke is helping us in transfers and funds wouldn’t be an issue. Let’s clear this one first.
I’m not sure that being out of Europe will make the difference that many are hoping for..
Up until Christmas the first 11 have rarely started in the europa in the last few years as the young lads have qualified with ease from the group stages..
The champions league is a different matter as no manger will risk playing a team full of kids…
Pierre
that’s not relevant. what’s relevant is travel time and match training, the point is where we’d lose 2-3 days of training on one of those games, now we don’t
TR7, we spent £75m without a sale, have bids out for a keeper 25m, and we’re tracking a CAM for 40m.
That’d be a 140m summer… and there’s some hope we shift Laca and Bellerin and add two bodies there.
That is money. That is movement. That is KSE help and investment.
Pierre I appreciate your affection for Ozil who was in his prime a great player, but the facts are that he was a disaster after he signed his second contract and his persona was similar to Beckham in the latter stages of his career. He was more interested in his “lifestyle” and “club politics” than training properly and working hard on the pitch. His decline happened long before Arteta made his decision not to play him. You need only see what is going on in Turkey to know that his career is over. Frankly I agree 100% with Arteta’s decision… Read more »
Pedro, bit random but have either Jamie or Luteo been active on here of late? Couple of good ones I haven’t read in a little while, I know Luteo had new father duties to juggle and all – baby Dariano, future #9
So Chelsea have signed Lukaku already? Damn it man, other clubs show interest for a week and boom, the signing is done. We keep showing interest for ages with no end result in sight.
Pedro, I only mentioned Leicester after you said no one outside of top four has recruited fast, which they did. Daka end of June, Soumare and Bertrand early July.
If it wasn’t for Fofana injury their transfer activity would’ve been done, since they didn’t need an overhaul as supposedly the one Arsenal needed.
No one is celebrating Leicester’s transfers lol
my one worry really is with Auba, if he’s starts firing we’ll do way better this time around.
They haven’t been about for a while CC
Tomorrow can either be a walk in the park or a slug fest. 1st game of season I believe it’s who comes out of the traps first. If you notice this Arsenal team will either score and sit back and conceed, or conceed and dominate possession with slow build up play. Does anyone get the feeling our front 3 are itching to play tomorrow? Maybe, Maybe not. Brentford may well turn out to be shit tomorrow. But I doubt that very much. It’s Easy to play against Arsenal if you don’t have any fear of them. The balance for us… Read more »
concede*
Shame, probably fucked it off until the new season. Can’t blame that, summer is drab at the best of times.
Lukaku arrives , so thats about top 3 done with City Liverpool and Chelsea .
Pedro I have come here everyday for a long time and I love that you tend to stick by your guns and have been enthusiastic about the new era at our club. Bit I sense in today’s blog that even you have been underwhelmed by our leader. Like you mentioned in your post if the Manager doesn’t exactly come across for the new season, how is this going to filter through to the players. Not great is my thinking. Do you still truly believe that Arteta is the man to push us forward. Keep up the good work though and… Read more »
He’s never going to pick a league position, but I hoped for something a little more inspiring than consistency
Pedro,
Well said mate. By the way, what’s your prediction on our league position?
It’s fourth or higher for me – to be achieved despite, not because, of Arteta. Anything else is failure.
And another thing – this season we’re all counting and judging ourselves on points gained from tomorrow aren’t we? No waiting til some arbitrary date in December right? Are we all agreed on that?
Friday 13th tomorrow – for the Bees!
Think I need to post from a computer not my phone I missed words, but I hope you get the idea
John, I went drinking with an English friend yesterday, so I’m a bit hungover. I didn’t need that flat press conference. He’s the right coach, but he needs the right players. As it stands, I’m worried about how we move forward. We are 4 players short right now.
K, weird to demand 4th then in the same breath it won’t be because of the manager
Pedro, hope he wasn’t a spurs fan 😳
Also think we are a couple of back up coaches short as Stdve round and Co are totally underwhelming
Judging by Emiratesstroller’s last post Zacharse isn’t the only one around here who believed in Santa for too long.