MUST WIN?

by .

Well, here we are, looking over a wrecked start to the season trying to work out if what we’re seeing is a disaster predicated on a severe mitigating circumstance or a mitigating circumstance that has given cover to a disaster already unfolding.

There are a few worries that I have post-Chelsea game and actually, one of them comes from reading Mike McDonald’s yesterday.

‘I saw Arteta refuse to address a simple tactical issue on Chelsea’s right and I saw what I fear will be his downfall, a lack of humility. None of this has anything to do with unfortunate circumstances.’

Mike put this down to stubbornness, which would be kind in my opinion. I had a different take. I think Arteta is far more similar to Jose Mourinho than any other manager out there. He’s very transactional by nature (bye bye Willian), he seems to be a bit of an egotist (falls out with everyone), and if he doesn’t get what he wants… he throws his toys out the pram (Brentford presser).

He’s also very, very intelligent. There’s absolutely no way he didn’t see Arsenal getting hammered down the left. It was so obvious, it almost looked like he let it happen to us to prove a point. That is a Jose tactic from back in the day, if he didn’t get his signings, he’d do something self-destructive to make a point, then he’d get his shopping list addressed.

It’s moves like that that kill me. That’s not ability, it’s immaturity. Same sort of carry-on before the Brentford game. That game was lost in the press conference and the behaviour that preceded it. That’s not ability, that’s maturity.

You can do things like that if you are delivering. Big coaches behave badly all the time. Pochettino had a massive sulk about the coach/manager position, refusing to wear a suit, but he had earned his stripes. This Arteta nonsense doesn’t hold weight with the fans, who let’s be honest, are at best neutral to him… and it shouldn’t hold weight with the club.

Having an obsession with being right is a bad trait. We let Arteta hire yes men around him. Children or people grateful for his gift of a job at a massive club. When you surround yourself with meh, you have to be so unbelievably good at your job, because when things go to shit, no one will tell you that you’re not wearing clothes.

William Saliba is doing a great job in Marseille at the moment. He has his own set of Ultras that own one of the most potent propaganda networks in world football. They are persuasive. It is getting desperately hard to not look at that loan and think it was all about Arteta. Do I think Saliba is controlling Lukaku at the weekend? No. But do I think he’d have grown from the experience and offered us more from the dismal Pablo Mari? Likely. Again, Saliba getting 3000 minutes this season will be major… but I can only accept those minutes going abroad if our back-up defenders don’t cost us points like they have in the last two games. A 28-year-old defender with beautiful hair getting rolled in our box was embarrassing, and that rankles fans, especially the Ultras. We had Pablo on loan, we watched him in training every day, we made that loan perm… and he’s not that good.

Arteta shouldn’t have leverage at the club, but he does, because we have weak leadership and a knee capped Technical Director. The calculation is quite simple from Arteta… are you really going to sack someone you just gave £130m? If you do, what are you going to bring to the club? The best Spurs could do was Nuno. The best Everton could do was Rafa. Who do you think we’re getting midseason? Antonio Conte… a chequebook manager, a demanding winner, a total lunatic, bad with kids? No chance. He’s not matched to our new vision. Graham Potter? Brighton paid £2m to release him, do you think their poker playing owner hasn’t thought about his release clause? We’d be hiring the type of nobody that rocks up on a boat with Raul, Edu and Kia in Monaco. I think that factors into how Arteta behaves.

The way I see it, the manager has 10 games to save his career, and I suspect he probably will.

  • NCFC (h)
  • Burnley (a)
  • Spurs (h)
  • Brighton (a)
  • CPFC (h)
  • AVFC (H)
  • LCFC (a)
  • Watford (h)
  • LFC (a)
  • NUFC (h)

We need to be extracting 23 points from that lot. Liverpool is probably a write-off, but at least we should have full complement of players to choose from. Spurs has to be a win. Leicester has to be a win. I cannot have Patrick Vieira bossing us with his new Palace side.

Things I’ll be looking for:

  • This is Arteta’s squad now, so where is the better football?
  • Can he make his players press intelligently for more than 6 minutes?
  • Can he get on a run like post-Xmas

The key to any success for me is getting Auba back to his best. That’s why I was shocked to read yet more ‘Auba could go’ stories doing the rounds yesterday. It’s Arteta again. The player isn’t working out, so instead of making things better, he just wants to discard last summer’s toy. He’s like Donald Trump. Everything is zero sum. Who is holding him accountable? Which coach is the counterpoint to this?

His job is to get us back to 2 seasons ago Auba. A man who loved his football, who scored goals for fun, and lifted the fans. You can’t just bin him because you don’t fancy him.

Willian is about to exit. For me, it’s quite refreshing to have a player in the side on a big contract who actually wants to play football and actually reacts badly to being disliked by the fans. We’ll be exiting him, but no doubt picking up a huge chunk of his two-year deal, especially if he goes to Brazil. Who is being held accountable for this? No doubt Raul and Edu were pushing the player… but let’s not pretend Arteta wasn’t championing this guy and his special qualities.

There are also other exits lined up. Kola will leave to Turkey, Eddie will get his move to Palace, and Torreira is going to Italy.

We await a new on the right back… but dear lord, don’t let that player be a 31-year-old that’s been bombed off by an elite side. Do we ever learn?

We play West Brom a little later. We’ll have the chance to see Martin Odegaard and Aaron Ramsdale make their official debuts. We’ll probably see Tavares and some of the players that are around the periphery. It’s a must-win game whoever he puts out there. Sadly, I’m not looking forward to it… when your biggest backer is getting bored, you know you are in trouble.

Let’s see what he has, because the time for excuses is well and truly over.

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James wood.

Good goody miss molly

James wood.

Golly

James wood.

Mourino comparisons so accurate

James wood.

The whole club is unaccountable it’s a free for all

James wood.

Why can’t players be sacked.?

James wood.

Zinchenko pay the money get him in

Mark

It’s gutting to know I’m 43 now and I might be 50 by the time all this shit sorts itself out if it ever does

Elmo

“He’s also very, very intelligent.” Where is the evidence for this? We can see that he’s motivated, a hard charger, ambitious, and hard headed, but I don’t necessarily see that he’s smart. He’s been out-thought by MANY other managers in his short managerial career (perhaps more a sign of inexperience), but I don’t see him doing anything novel, quickly solve problems that others couldn’t, or be able to deeply understand situations faster than his peers and react. I just see a guy making mistakes in his first job, not quite sure when to push and when to pull, and falling… Read more »

James wood.

Got to get the dinner on 😂

Matt

I’m confused. So now Saliba should have stayed??

azed

Good post Pedro.

Why do you think it’s Arteta leaking the Aubameyang story and not Aubameyang’s camp? What will Arteta achieve by doing that?

Bertie Mee

I just heard from a mate who is a Millwall fan. He loves Danny Ballard and feels despite his rawness he would have done better against Lukaku than Mari . I don’t think Arteta allowed what happen to him and his coaches on Sunday. Nobody in their right mind chucks a game like that . Arseblog’s tactics page showed how we failed to press at the right times in the right places . That was fixable ( in part ) on Sunday. I’m no longer of the view Arteta is as good a coach as we thought . I think… Read more »

TitsMcgee

Mourino comparisons so accurate”

Mourinho had a right to be stubborn up until recent years. Arteta has done FA.

(no that’s not the cup).

Alex

While I think you’re probably right on how long he has with the management of the club, I think Arteta is on the brink of losing all the fans, when that happens you lose the players rapidly then your job.

If he wants any “time” from the fans, he must beat West Brom and Norwich, with actual football – you can’t be an Arsenal manager and plan to shithouse a championship team, and a championship team pretending in the Premier League. He loses them, or the performances are garbage, I don’t see him recovering.

How can Arteta be a good coach, when his SOLE tactic is, get the ball wide and cross it in, but first having played the ball backwards and sideways 5000 times beforehand. Sorry but I just can’t see how he can be classed as nothing other than a league 2 manager if that.

Sid

So Xhakalson plays on the left side of midfield, Diet Pep decides to keep him in the team, not once but twice

Then according to le groves supreme leader Diet Pep allows the team to get hammered on that side, to prove a point

You are struggling more than Diet Pep

Im telling you for free!

Elmo

Pedro I also don’t agree with the whole ‘Be Careful What You Wish For” thing. You have been an advocate of us still being a huge club and a draw for managers. This summer I think we would have offered a relatively attractive seat: perhaps not for the very cream who expect no less than a club that will contend to win the CL, but for the rest… We would have offered: – The biggest gross transfer budget in the richest league. – An ownership and board who will give a manager the keys to the club on day 1… Read more »

Zfree

Confused by the take that Arteta saw us getting sliced open down our left side and decided to let it happen thinking it would prove some point of his to the board. Huh? He just got pasted by Brentford and finished 8th last year. He’s trying desperately to win points. This was a very confusing take

China1

#SalibaOut

Leftside

Arteta on fans booing: “I know they are disappointed when you lose at home, there has to be some reaction, but this is a project that is going to take some time.”

Could be here 5 years in still saying this same stuff.

DUIFG

Pedro ready to join the saliba bandwagon, welcome kid!

Said it from the start the saliba situation was definitive for me, at that moment I knew we had a manager who was a complete narcissist and a nasty man.

He puts his ego before the best interests of the club .

Receding Hairline

Personally i do not condone the personal abuse on staff of the club simply trying to do their jobs no matter how badly.
Why was that fan heckling Edu and wife? Why was it being filmed?

Why was Arteta’s car surrounded after the game? What was that meant to achieve?

All that is just rubbish, boo the team if you must, stay away from to show your displeasure , do not go around acting like children throwing personal abuse at club employees

Biggles

I see us getting 5 wins and 2 draws from that list of 10 games.

We’ll draw with Spurs and Brighton, lose to Villa, Leicester and Liverpool. Wouldn’t be hugely surprised if we managed to drop points to Palace either.

Barney75

Nothing I’ve seen from Arteta either as a player or manager suggests to me he is very, very intelligent.

Sid

Theres only one language tyrants like Diet Pep understand

Ernest Reed

If any other manager at Arsenal behaved in the manner you describe Pedro, you’d be livid and calling for not just a sack, but a wet cement sack for said Manager. And yet it appears once more into the wind you are throwing chance for Arteta.

Not sure whether its another chance for Arteta or for you? Im not one for sitting on fences, but….

Receding Hairline

“Confused by the take that Arteta saw us getting sliced open down our left side and decided to let it happen thinking it would prove some point of his to the board. Huh? He just got pasted by Brentford and finished 8th last year. He’s trying desperately to win points. This was a very confusing take”

The same left side where he has Tierney, Xhaka, Tavares as options, players he clearly wants at the club. That spin would have worked if we were getting ripped on the right.

But then it ties in with the whole “he is intelligent” take

Emiratesstroller

Pedro I made the case before the season started that Arteta had just 10 games to prove his case with the team that he has or will put together. The real concern for me is that the so-called “experienced players” in squad are not in many cases of the required standard and leadership quality to help the youngsters with their development and progression. Arsenal have looked brittle in both games played so far and that fragility will be worked on by most teams that play against us. Having talented youngsters who are “losing” is a very dangerous commodity and can… Read more »

Leftside

Pedro, Arteta has the squad he wants. I don’t think it is due to anything else but incompetence in the role as to why we were getting destroyed on the left so much.

Arteta has shown many things, some good and some bad but I wouldn’t call being intelligent one of them. He is either very stubborn or a very slow learner because he doesn’t seem to be learning at all.

Receding Hairline

“I see us getting 5 wins and 2 draws from that list of 10 games.”

That would make it 17 points from 36, we are in for a very long season if your predictions are true

Shaun

Saliba I don’t think is ready yet, despite his height he’s not that great in the air. However he is better than White and probably not far off his ball passing skills, would rather had seen him over Holding. The biggest loss is Mavropanos, watched him last year and he was impressive, has Arteta ever seen him play, how he rates Mari higher is a mystery. He may not of stopped Lukaku at the weekend but he certainly wouldn’t have been lying on the floor as the ball hit the net

Mb

It’s not too late. Bring in a better manager and we can’t do any worse.

SUGA3

5 wins? That’s really optimistic.

Receding Hairline

“I think that he has made clear that he wants to rebuild the squad in its entirety. He will in my view fall on his sword unless he manages a quick turnaround.” Who does that Emirates? What coach gets appointed and concentrates on falling out with everyone? Please stop with the excuses,. The below were Arteta’s words in March 2021 “I think this project is going to go ‘bang’,” said the Spaniard. “This is where we are but sometimes it is difficult to see the moment now, but I’m sure [of] where we are going. “We have created a really… Read more »

Josip Skoblar

I do not think that it is stubbornness and an attempt to make a point which explain Arteta’s tactical flaws. I would think it is his incompetence. This is Arteta’s squad.

Matt

Pedro, really odd take that Arteta saw what was happening, but decided not to do anything about it to prove a point. Two questions:

1) What point was he trying to prove? As others have said (including yourself two days ago), this is not his squad.
2) If this was in fact the case (extremely unlikely), are you still happy to have a manager in charge who at this early stage of the season and indeed his tenure is willing to give up much needed points to prove a point?

Emiratesstroller

RH

There is not a single excuse made in my post.

I made it crystal clear that the manager has 10 games to turn around the results and my concern is that lack of senior players and leadership in the team will cost Arteta his job.

It is unrealistic to expect young players without proper guidance to sort the situation out
on their own account. Clubs like Man City, Liverpool and Chelsea rely on their experienced
players to mentor the younger players in the team.

Mr Serge

MarkAugust 24, 2021 16:50:24
It’s gutting to know I’m 43 now and I might be 50 by the time all this shit sorts itself out if it ever does

Count yourself lucky I was 33 last time we won the title you do the math now

Graham62

Leftside “A project” is something you did over the Easter holidays when you were at school. You had three weeks to complete it. If you didn’t hand it in on time you got a good telling off and sometimes even detention. I hate it when so called football savvy people use the word “project” to describe their basic job. It’s as they’re trying to prove a point or to try and prove how intelligent they are. Taking over a team is all about looking at what you’ve got at your disposal and then making it better. Throwing money around like… Read more »

RecycledOldSock

Losing 5 games in the first 12 games would be a disaster and totally unacceptable.

Raulishuss

Jeez you guys…. I’m 24. I didnt even get to watch the invincible ffs. I’m afraid i might get to 30 and we still will be shit. It’s the hope i guess. Smh

TR7

Managers use the word “project” to buy more time for themselves and to imply that the current situation is a mess too big to be easily solved. Most owners and fans fall for this buzzword.

Receding Hairline

“It is unrealistic to expect young players without proper guidance to sort the situation out on their own account. Clubs like Man City, Liverpool and Chelsea rely on their experienced players to mentor the younger players in the team.” Pierre Aubameyang…Gabonese Captain Granit Xhaka…Swiss captain Alexandre Lacazette ..experienced pro Cedric Soares…experienced pro brought in by Arteta Tierney…….not inexperienced I could go on and on Emirates, the fact Arteta even still has a job at Arsenal is thanks to Smith-Rowe and Saka , two very inexperienced players who saved his season last year (by that i mean we finished in the… Read more »

Spanishdave

So Arteta is playing games with the club to prove his point.
That is not acceptable, his job is to win games for the club.
Unreal he has to go .
Stan man up please

Don’t know if this is true, but I’ve heard Arteta and Arsenal have bid 40m pound for Michael Antonio’s cardboard cut out

TR7

Chelsea’s outgoings..

– Zouma 30m
– Tammy 45m
– Guehi 20m
– Tomori 25m
– Zappacota 10m
– Livramento 5m
– Bate 1.5m
– Moses 4.5m

Chelsea will probably make a transfer profit this summer while improving their team from last season.

RecycledOldSock

Arsenal have already lost to one promoted side, who’s to say it won’t happen again to championship champions Norwich.

Raulishuss

Either way you look at it. We ain’t getting out of this mess anytime so even wit klopp in charge. This club is a mess top to bottom

Emiratesstroller

Graham 62 I am all for projects in the U23 and Academy Squads, but when you recruit for the first team the players, which are being recruited should be upgrades on what we have at the club. Too many players, which we have recruited in recent years have been other clubs rejects or “speculative” buys. That is frankly the problem with Arsenal over last 3 years. Let’s take the CB position. We have spent a massive amount of money on Saliba, Gabriel, Mari and White. For £110 million pounds we should have been able to recruit a couple of top… Read more »

Matt

‘Don’t know if this is true, but I’ve heard Arteta and Arsenal have bid 40m pound for Michael Antonio’s cardboard cut out’

Ha ha, very good!

TR7

“Let’s take the CB position. We have spent a massive amount of money on Saliba, Gabriel, Mari and White. For £110 million pounds we should have been able to recruit a couple of top class reasonably experienced players.”

ES is the biggest flip flopper on Le Grove. A week ago he was lauding White’s signing.

Distanced hairline

Damn im begining to hate this, the teuth is that fans are not mad that we lost, theyre mad at the way we lost, the way we play, the players ate good but theyre all confused, a good coach would do better, the backroom staff is full of a high percentage of halfwits,

The Bard

Alex completely agree. These days momentum counts. I’m not sure how much patience fans have for a long term project. He needs wins and good football to stand a chance of surviving. Once the stadium goes he’s finished no matter how much money’s been spent. The Maureen comparison is apt including blaming everyone and everything but himself.
I’ve said before I don’t think he has enough psychological intelligence to turn this around.

Guns of Hackney

Peter has been hitting the pipe again.

10 games. 23 points. After taking a city spanking, I think that might be it. At least with the fans. Whatever happens after we’re 0-3 and nine points down, I think it’s all over for the hair one.

Ray+in+LA

Bertie

I too thought it was a nice Tactics piece on Arseblog…and agree the case for system failures is compelling

Doesn’t excuse some of the poor individual performances, but some of the poor performances were the result of poor setup and tactics — for example Tierney being asked to mark both James and Mount when they advanced in parallel 20-yards apart

Arteta was completely out-thought by Tuchel and therefore Arsenal were completely outplayed

Guns of SF

Look at Mike now saying all this
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/aug/24/mikel-arteta-urges-fans-to-show-patience-and-get-behind-arsenal

Patience?? How long do fans have? This dude is a moron…
and I cannot stand him talking about this “project”

This is not a project. Its a team, with millions of fans who are constantly dissapointed.

Mike can go and shove it…

Emiratesstroller

TR7

I am not a flip flopper when it comes to CB or White if you care to read my posts.

What I said about White was that I had not seen much of his play, but there were plenty of coaches and pundits who rate him. Also I am not going to judge him based on one performance particularly when I see how the rest of defence performed.

Also I don’t care how much money the Kroenke’s spend in the transfer market. As I posted
many times what concerns me is whether it is well spent.

RecycledOldSock

Giving managers time is so old fashioned and not conducive to the modern game.

Ray+in+LA

It is not unheard of to reduce the responsibilities of an executive who a company wishes to continue with but who is overwhelmed

It should’ve happened after the schooling Arteta received [twice] from Emery and it should happen after the Man City game

Bringing in an experienced Director of Football to give Arteta a sounding board and reality check is actually in his best interests — he might prefer to succeed as coach than be the failed ex-manager and the failed ex-coach

Emiratesstroller

TR7

I defy you to find one post where I have suggested that White is a great player. The trouble with posters like you is you are selective in what you read or say about the team and club.

I have written for months that it was a mistake to promote Arteta from Head Coach to Manager and Arsenal’s transfer and wage policies are a problem.Also I have posted at least
a dozen times that Arteta has no more than 10 games to prove his case this season.

TR7

ES

“What I said about White was that I had not seen much of his play, but there were plenty of coaches and pundits who rate him. Also I am not going to judge him based on one performance particularly when I see how the rest of defence performed.”

“Let’s take the CB position. We have spent a massive amount of money on Saliba, Gabriel, Mari and White. For £110 million pounds we should have been able to recruit a couple of top class reasonably experienced players.”

See in two successive posts you contradict yourself again on White.

Bigper

We could of got conte at the start of the summer if we had offered him the 130+ million to spend. It would of given us a real chance of getting back into the top four even if he was here just two years. Chance has probably past now

TR7

ES

“The trouble with posters like you is you are selective in what you read or say about the team and club.”

I am not selective, it is just that I have a good memory. Can dig out hundreds of your post proving your flip flopping on several topics. Let’s stick to White for now, shall we ? Did you not say a few weeks ago White was absolutely necessary for our needs ? Weagle confronted you on that, didn’t he ?

Emiratesstroller

TR7

You are “thick”

I have not contradicted myself. I made it crystal clear that we could/should have bought two
top class and experienced players for £110 million.

I don’t classify White as such a player or indeed for that matter Saliba, Gabriel and Mari. These are players who are speculative or potential buys.

I suggest that you learn to read properly.

TR7

Emiratestroller

A moron like you should think twice before calling others think. Wait for a few minutes, let me dig out that post on White.

Spudnik

Arsenal’s left side doesn’t need strengthening. It’s got Tierney, Tavares, Saka, Martinelli

Guns of SF

How many of you see this as a “project?” Its this mindset that leads me to think that Mike has sold everyone around him- that this project of his will start to pay dividends. When you phrase things as a project, its makes folks think this is something that will take a while. Its not a “short term” project is it? Smart language use from the used car salesman… Too bad so many at the club are behind him and his so called project. We need results now. We cannot mess about anymore.Mistake after mistake- and this is how the… Read more »

englandsbest

I guess I am about the last one left with 100% faith in Arteta. Well, maybe only 95%, his maturity is in question. Except everyone has a pout, throws the toys out of the pram, when one is misunderstood. And that seems to be his problem: nobody seems to know what he is at. Me included. For me that is not a key issue. I get on okay with the ladies, young or old, even though I’ve never understood them. It’s like a home-cooked meal. I don’t concern myself with the ingredients or why they do this or that, it’s… Read more »

Emiratesstroller

TR7

You are most welcome to find a single post where I have said that I have expressed personally
that White is a “great player”. You won’t find one.

However, you will find reference to other people who have described him as a talented and
brilliant footballer and I referred to those statements.

Pierre

Arsene Wenger
“. If you buy too many players you destabilise your team”

And that’s where we are , a continual turnover of players since he left that has left us 2nd from bottom of the league

Samesong

I guess I am about the last one left with 100% faith in Arteta.

Lol I might use this as evidence in the future.

Emiratesstroller

Pierre

I agree 100% with Wenger’s statement. Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool and Man Utd have
recruited or aim to recruit one or two players to improve their team/squad.

Sean

Can’t believe Arteta had meeting with Willian & his reps 3 times to convince him to come to Arsenal on a 3 year deal. Terrible recruitment. it’s good we’re not seeing anymore of these signings

Northbanker

I’d forgotten about the West Brom game. Maybe we will have a contender for Goal of the Month after all.

Le Sauce

Pedro
Arteta is the textbook definition of the word bum (your fave word). The self destruct explanation you gave is even bigger bullshit than peak Arteta ball
Jose Mourinho? Your embarrassing yourself pal, man’s a diet Alan Pardew
He’s done, finished, busted. Tick Tock!!

rollen

no Pedro, Arteta is a twat not intelligent.

Elmo

With the international break, 3PM kick-offs, and no European football, we don’t have a televised game (available in the UK) from Sat 28th August until Sunday 26th September!

Le Sauce

Strollers calling someone “thick” … color me amazed
You flip flop faster than Mia Khalifa takes off her panties man. Weeks after you told us how essential Ben whitinho is and how we need to give Arteta time, you’re now here claiming you give Tets 10 games and we’ve not improved our defence. Damn you’re good!

Pierre

The first rule at Arsenal should be to not cross the ball unless we are behind the opposition defence . To cross from too wide or without penetration will only result in easy clearances for the defence and loss of possession. The ball inside the full back is the killer ball but forst you need a player who has the vision and the technique to deliver the ball. This is a ball that has to be timed to perfection , in pace, direction and weight of pass . If any part of the pass is not 100% spot on it… Read more »

Le Sauce

Tim Lewis has to investigate the Willian deal, I think someone has pulled a Raul on that one. How can he come in on astronomical wages, tank so hard (1 goal a season, you call that an attacker?) And quietly move on like nothing happened especially when Kia and Edu are involved… Most people here actually knew the Champions league in three year was hall of fame standard BS

Mee

Just watched the Arteta Interview. He looks defeated, almost feel sorry for him. It’s almost like he is suffering from a hangover after the insults, booing and shafting by the likes of Brentford. He just keeps talking about the recruitment of young players like it’s some kind of virtue. And no, he is not stubborn or immature, its just that his level is about league 2 as far as pro football coaching. I think he will feel relieved when he is sacked. West Brom are led by a human being who can be called a coach, and will have at… Read more »

Guns of Hackney

Stop. Do not confuse intelligence with omnipotence. One can still be very bright but not self aware. Arteta is smart but he is obviously not in tune with his surroundings. The Arsenal job was massive. Massive for anyone, let alone Arteta. It was worth taking a punt but the punt went wrong. And that’s fine. But what we need to do now is make another really bold decision. If we go safe, it will look great for about a minute and then go wrong. We need to double down on another long shot superstar and go all out for glory.… Read more »

TR7

” Emiratesstroller August 12, 2021 11:08:04

China 1
I disagree with your prioritisation.
It should be:
RCB to replace Luiz [ White is that replacement]
LB second string to replace Kolasinac. Tavares is replacement [we played second half season without second LB
GK Second string to replace Ryan
AMF to replace Odegaard.
CMF to replace Ceballos [Lokango is that replacement]
Other positions needing upgrade but requiring first players to be offloaded.
RB if two RBs leave.
CF if Lacazette leaves”

Do I need to say anything ES ? Now shut up and stop blabbering.

Dissenter

Pedro
Your new mantra now is … be-careful-what-you-wish-for

That the lowest denominator argument when everything else is lost.

Champagne Charlie

“We extended Xhaka’s contract by 2 years. His current contract was up to 2023 with an extra 1 year option to extend, and now his new contract is until 2025. If there is an option to extend that has not been disclosed.“ Every source I’ve come across references an extension of 1 year to 2024 from 2023 with the option for another remaining in the contract. Also haven’t found one article that quotes the “30k” increase stated as fact on here by the same person who is quoted above, which of course is Val. https://theathletic.com/news/granit-xhaka-contract-extension-arsenal/9Ck5NVhQBnC7 https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11670/12383191/arsenal-transfer-news-granit-xhaka-signs-one-year-contract-extension-until-2024 https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/aug/16/granit-xhaka-extends-arsenal-contract-until-2025-to-end-transfer-speculation More than happy… Read more »

InsideRight

Pierre Arsene Wenger: “If you buy too many players you destabilise your team” And that’s where we are , a continual turnover of players since he left that has left us 2nd from bottom of the league. It’s not the quantity of players that’s the problem, it’s the relative quality of them. We have been picking up players none of the top six sides are interested in. Part of that is that players want to play for teams where they have a hope of winning titles and cups, so attracting them is much harder. Part of it is that players… Read more »

Markymark

If Arteta goes no faffing around get Conte in
Get some experience in their with someone who’s got a name . Players will look up to him and players will want to join him. If of course Conte wants to join us ?

Dissenter

Loling at the TR7 vs Emirates interactions

One guy is on a perpetual roundabout, guess which one

Savage

Nope. Not buying the Mourinho comparisons. You put together a flow of logic full of holes and arrived at a station by jumping across tracks.

He’s actually quite humble in many ways. Today’s press conference was quite humble, at least more so than the previous ones.

And the idea that he deliberately gave up the one flank to prove a point? Fiction. But it’s your blog, you can write what you want.

kristoman

Has Arteta been sacked yet?
In other news chelsea have recoup 98.4m pound this window after completing the sale of zappacosta for 8m to fiorentina. Wow jus wow

Dissenter

We’ve goine from Arsenal is a massive club, located in London, lots of money, big fan base…yada yada yada ———————————— to be careful what comes after Arteta

Coming after Arsene Wenger is difficult
Coming after a manager with three EL trophies wasn’t easy
Coming after a manager on his first job, who’s in over his head cannot be hard.

Dissenter

He better hope we can eke out a win against Norwich to change the narrative but even that will be hard.

Venga, Dani

Ragnick!

Graham62

So zero points from our first three games and you then expect us to go and get 23/30 in the next ten.

Wishful thinking don’t you think?

gunnerman

Saying Arteta purposely threw the left side is giving him way too much credit.

It’s simple, he is just plain incompetent.

Chris

Did Mourinho ever throw an entire area of the pitch to make a point? I recall him playing or subbing on players not fit for purpose, but not going as far as effectively throwing a game?

Words on a blog

The trouble with people who spend their time constructing narratives is that, if they repeat the narrative enough times, they start to believe it. In an alternative universe, Trump won the election and it was stolen from him. In that universe, Bill Gates has been busy designing vaccines implanted with microchips so that he can control people’s thoughts. In Pedro’s alternative universe, Arteta (as well as being a smooth talker with great hair, great teeth and a fantastic sense of fashion) is a footballing genius – great at strategy, tactics, and a man with a Plan and a Vision, who… Read more »

Soham

Chelsea have recouped £98.4 million in sales in this transfer window ! Wtf is going on at the club ?!

curse

it’s not panic stations, let’s throw Mikel under the bus just yet. Too many variables, even his mistakes, we knew what we was hiring.

when the window closes and his squad is in place then we’ll see. Lose to Burnley or Norwich and painfully I might have to jump aboard this pitchforkery.

Words on a blog

Michael Emenalo (ex Chelsea) designed their youth program, with a view that any player not quite ready or good enough for the Chelsea squad would be loaned out or sold at a massive profit.

He had a great eye for talent – better than “diamond eye” Mislintat.

In my alternative universe, Arsenal finally become a truly ruthless club, get rid of Edu and Arteta, and bring in Emenalo and Conte.

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