Arsenal has a few days to get ready for a big game against Aston Villa. There are still 9 points to play for in this phase, so a win against the team that tried to steal our best player is would be very good news… and boy, does it feel like we need a bit of good news.
Palace saw another inconsistent day at the office for Arsenal. People complain about the tactics, the mentality… I’ve read people calling the Arsenal players weak.
We’re strugging with a lack of experience at the moment, which was always going to be a challenge this season. When you watch the Palace game back, it’s hard to say that they deserved to beat us. Anything they created that was half decent came because of our mistakes. Our centre backs shouldn’t be letting balls go into feet with such ease, especially to Benteke. Our young players should be smarter about how they break up dangerous moves. The team should be building on goal advantages, not sitting back and letting life happen to us.
Thomas Partey making big mistakes is frustrating, because we expect more of him. Sambi Lokonga doing the same is just part of the deal you make when you sign fancy young players from the continent. We’re going to have to deal with that this season.
We’ve spent 10 years waiting for a coherent transfers strategy, now we have one that is youth focused, there are going to be rough moments.
So what do Arsenal need to work on over the next few days? I think we need to find some confidence. The players need to find a bag of swagger. If you take a lead with lots of good football, don’t sit back. If a team pushes up against you, play through it. We allowed Brighton to box us in and we didn’t have the guts to play out of the trap. We let Palace get back into the game and press up against us, we didn’t have the smarts to stretch them.
According to Scott Willis, there was a period in the game where we could barely string 3 passes together. That lack of control is costing us at the moment. That’s the control that Granit Xhaka gives the side that people are refusing to acknowledge. Sambi and Partey need to give us that because we can’t keep playing that way until January.
We’re also seeing the challenges you have with young players. ESR and Saka aren’t going to have the consistency of players 4 years older than them. Those two having a bad day isn’t helped when Nico has a disaster class even by his own standards.
What is Arteta going to do to rectify that? I thought this Sambi quote was interesting.
“He backed me, he backed the team. I think when we come on we have to bring this mentality that Lacazette did…I think he brought fire when he came on and that’s what we need to try to do every time somebody comes on.”
I think it’s time to see Martinelli in this side. It might be time to give Lacazette a go through the middle, he’s playing for a contract, so let’s see what he has. Whatever happens on Friday has to be a response to the lack of control we have at the moment. We need to bring some fire to the party, not a heated quilt.
The big question over Arteta is whether he can move out of this Goldilocks phase? We’re rarely completely shit. We’re rarely blow-the-doors-off brilliant. That’s not a fun place to be in. Even when we’re negative, it’s a boring type of negative. Football is entertainment, pushing results out like a body ejecting kidney stone isn’t going to have the fans on side for long, even with young players. That Spurs game needs to be the start of something… not our one decent game of football a year we have.
Arteta needs to kick things up on Friday. Villa will come to play, they’ll press and fluster us, but we can beat them.
Let’s see what he brings to the party.
Short one today, see you in the comments.
P.S. Tune into the LIVE podcast later where Johnny will be interviewing the legendary Nigel Winterburn! CELEB THINGS PEOPLE. We’re on a rocket to the moon.
1?
Friday’s game is a must-win but something tells me Arteta will get outsmarted once again.
In another home game.
Saw the stats last night and I was appalled.
How on earth have we won just 8 homes games in a run of over 20 home games?
There is no excuses for that
Sadly I’d hold on to this tr4phy even though it’s beginning to look like an uphill task for arsenal every season now.
8th seem to be the new 4th
Lol.
We are blaming “lack of experience” now?
The only glaring lack of experience affecting the club right now is Arteta who somehow have been allowed to learn on the job.
.
“We’ve spent 10 years waiting for a coherent transfers strategy, now we have one that is youth focused, there are going to be rough moments”
Pedro, spending £50m on top of £30m to fill one defensive position without giving the £30m player in question even a single look, is about as far away from a coherent squad building strategy as it gets………….an opinion shared by Steve Smith, the French league expert and a Brighton fan who also didn’t think White was an upgrade on Saliba.
Pedro: palace didnt deserve the win
Also pedro: goes on to enumerate exactly why palace were the better side and deserved the win
Pedro: lets focus on the youth,
Also pedro: you honestly cant rely on this youngins to string together a couple of decent results!
Pedro: arteta is a genius
Also pedro: goldilocks galaxy brain yada yada
Take a stand bro! This team has lacked direction for 18 months and there are no signs of development. The youth policy only works with experienced managers. Ten haag is already building another super team with less financial backing.
If we play against Villa the way we played in the last two games, we’d be in for a spanking, believe me.
You blame lack of experience, and yet the most experienced players in the team are left on the bench!
Why not play Elneny in defensive midfield to help the back line so Partey could play further upfield?
The whole blame is on the coach who cannot improve his players. Even Tomiyasu who started like a house on fire has become hardly recognize able .
It’s all so frustrating, honestly.
Season hasn’t started yet. It’s too early.
“Thomas Partey making big mistakes is frustrating, because we expect more of him“ I’m assuming this is about his losing the ball that led to the Benteke goal, and if it is, then I’m gonna pushback on this a bit. The mistake was Tomiyasu not going down the line from the throw in with six Palace players around. By the time Partey gets the ball he’s got three players to his left, right, and in front, so he can reasonably expect turning blindly with the ball might’ve been his best option. It wasn’t. Jordan Ayew was behind him. There are… Read more »
The Palace game was crying out for a Bissouma behind TP…
A 3 man midfield was the correct line up
Control the midfield and more than half the battle is won
We can beat AV to smithereens with great coaching
Not fair to be beating the players with a stick Pedro
We just played a team with a similar profile
You’re really losing objectivity
This is the issue isn’t it
We can beat AV to smithereens with great coaching
Sly, blaming the coach for individual errors in a young team isn’t losing objectivity. It’s not blaming either, it’s just being realistic about what the model is going to deliver as it beds in.
If you think young players under a certain coach are just going to immediately bang, then you are wrong. Very simple.
I don’t think this is on the players. Arteta is a budget version of Ole at United—if we had any rivals who still took us seriously, their fans would be praying Arteta stays for a decade.
Pedro it’s not individual errors It’s a repetitive team response to competition or adversity which we have seen from the first game this season We play well for 10 minutes and once the opposition responds the team identity falls apart or we fail to adapt during the game You can pick out certain players to critique like Ode or parted for instance but they suffer from what the opposition is doing Against Brighton they by passed our midfield with their high press and our game suffers Against CP they overload in the midfield and we suffer Each individual game tells… Read more »
Marx, the Ajax coach is doing a great job.
Sly, it was literally individual errors.
What happened to you, did you miss the game?
Arteta even said after the first goal, we allowed them back in and stopped attacking and going forward. This is school boy stuff.
He simply needs to tell the team. Every game we need to score at least 3 goals. Make it simple. No more defending a 1 nil.
that is ludicrous, especially an early goal.
Bit weak for me citing the inexperience of players.
We started to retreat and offer the game to Palace in the first half after taking the lead.
That’s on Arteta. That’s his intructions to the players.
Bit of Arteta deflection there I feel.
Our main problem stemmed from having Partey on his own in central midfield. Again Partey is an experienced player so all eyes fall on Arteta.
Anyone keeping tabs on the excuses Pedro has used?
Arteta is two years into his reign and yesterday someone (I believe it’s PhD) put up a stat about Arteta’s 60 games in charge and boy oh boy the data shows this is the norm.
I understand though that inexperience of players may be cited.
It’s mentioned because if it’s just inexperience of players rather than an Arteta problem then of course this can be seen to be fixed over time and is a less serious problem than if it was Arteta himself.
Old trick done many times.
Sly, it was literally individual errors.
What happened to you, did you miss the game?
🤣🤣
I guess I’m looking at how our team has played since the beginning of the season as opposed to individual errors which happens with young players but doesn’t tell the whole story
My bad
Pedro it’s still early in the season but I cannot see what Ben White brings to the table that Saliba doesn’t already have.
Arteta chose to spend 50M on a defender rather than upgrade Xhaka so you can’t use we missed Xhaka as an excuse.
That’s on your man Arteta.
Of the 11 that started against Palace, only Ben White, Ramsdale and Tomi are new to the team. The other players should understand Arteta’s system by now.
We should be seeing Arteta ball by now.
And also when we talk about individual errors we must see how these errors materialised in regards the context of the game.
Partey was uncomfortable in that match on his own in central midfield. He was being pressed by multiple Palace players and was isolated. The error came about because of the discomfort he felt. You could see that when he miscontrolled that ball that led to the Palace goal he had one eye on the Palace press that was descending on him.
Dont know whether to be insulted by this or be insulted because its deliberate? How this is being presented is beyond the pale – excuses abound for continued abject and disjointed performances, under the guise of youth and inexperience? You do know that a significant chunk of this team is very experienced, right? You do know these are professional footballers, right? I will continue to support the team as i always have, but equally ask that you please stop insulting my intelligence through claims of a team that finally has a plan and it takes time for it to take.… Read more »
Pedro,I enjoy your blog immensely and the comments of all of us Gooners. I now feel we are starting to see where we are as a club,and it might not make for appetising viewing for our owners. Perhaps Mr Arteta could take some of this advice from Daniel Fonseca: “The best way to defend is to have the ball,” said Fonseca in an interview with the Telegraph. “We have an obligation with supporters to create a spectacle, a good show. I have to be offensive and dominate the games… These are things which will die with me.” Mr Arteta has… Read more »
Do not Crystal Palace have young and inexperienced players too?
Or is it just Arsenal?
Excuses, excuses and excuses.
We were 13th in the EPL with Xhakalson in the team, so we have improved since his injury.
Maybe the problems stem from the fact we have an inexperienced manager trying to coach inexperienced players to play a JDP system that neither the manger nor players have played before. We know there’s good football in this team, but where are they going to find that spark?
Wow.. good job on getting celebs for your podcast Peds… Next stop television… 😀 Aftv could use a refresh. Just sayin. Or maybe you and Johnny get your own show on Sirius.
Is it coincidence that Auba was pressing and running like he really cared in our first game after the Newcastle takeover? Is he hoping for a January transfer and an even fatter paycheque 🙂
Sorry Pedro but the argument about inexperienced players is lazy. As for the coherent transfer policy sorry I don’t see how a policy of bringing in young and often not cheap players is nothing other than a knee jerk and the idea of a coherent approach or the fact that you have bought into it suggests to me the description of Emperors new clothes is more appropriate Football is a results driven business. This isn’t the 70s or 80s when a club could afford to give a coach or manager a couple years out of Europe out of the top… Read more »
was this piece written by Alistair Campbell?
I think the Spurs game was a one off, with the emotion of the entire thing.. The importance to fans etc. Against a Palace, tho, what is the preparation mentally? Tactically? If Mike is wondering why the team did not play forward in his mind, why is that? When your JDP and defensive philosophy dictates how you play, its no wonder why they stopped running, stayed in zones and did not offer help to isolated players. Could be tiredness too but still. Worryingly, it seems this style of play is only what the players know so far. Being overrun in… Read more »
I know this wont go over well with some on here but Old Weng teams would have buried Palace by halftime or soon after.
yea, we were suspect defensively, but packing our midfield with creativity and possession seemed to be a winning formula overall. We had more shots, goals and just wore out the opposition.
Why abandon this? For a JDP or some other shit?
We have better defenders now too.
Anyhow, its mike’s problem
“There are still 9 points to play for in this phase”
Many yesterday here predicted that line
“We’re struggling with a lack of experience at the moment”
Again many will agree with that and as Banks stated already in the Manager and coaching department. There are 3 things in life that are certain Death, Taxes and Pedro will eventually see the light 😆
“That’s the control that Granit Xhaka gives the side that people are refusing to acknowledge.” You can’t possibly believe that. Sometimes we’ve had better control of midfield with him in there, sometimes not, and sometimes we have been good without him. He generally makes no significant difference over the other options (as the midfield is usually bad regardless) and is just as prone to the kinds of mistakes Partey and Lokonga made as anyone else. Xhaka is the anti-scapegoat – when he’s there and we play badly, no one says anything, when he’s not there and we play badly it… Read more »
G of SF ””””’I know this wont go over well with some on here but Old Weng teams would have buried Palace by halftime or soon after.””””””””’ In fact, the last time the peerless Wenger managed an Arsenal side against CP at The Emirates- his side was 4 zero after 25 minutes. ( in fact Arsenal have won 1 in 7 against CP since he left) 20th January 2018 Arsenal 4 Crystal Palace 1 Monreal 6 mins Iwobi 10 mins Kos 13 mins Laca 23 mins 64% possession 16 goal attempts 10 shots on goal 727 passes v 408 passes… Read more »
‘Sorry Pedro but the argument about inexperienced players is lazy.’
lol, youngest team in the league.
Le-grove Pedro is back after a good night’s sleep.
Now we are back to blaming inexperience and the absence of Xhaka for Monday night’s debacle.
If we spent 150 million in the summer only to lament the absence of the great Granite Xhaka, then shame on Arteta and Edu.
Watch out for Patson Daka, the guy is real good. Thought Leicester did a great job in the summer signing him and Soumare.
Arteta has no plan B during games besides tell the players to deploy plan A more robotically. You see him telling players to get back into their JDP bunkers.
Arteta is marooned on the Island of mediocrity as soon as the opposition manager makes their first in-game adjustment
‘Sly, blaming the coach for individual errors in a young team isn’t losing objectivity. It’s not blaming either, it’s just being realistic about what the model is going to deliver as it beds in.”
I expect that Pedro was laughing whilst typing that statement.
It’s as if he never blamed the other Spardiad that once managed us when Xhaka and Mustafi were shitting up the bed in 2018- 2019.
It’s all downhill.
We are playing slow turgid, back passing dull football.
Ajax get raided regularly for their top players yet they turn out more of the same and play good football.
Get Ten Hag in he knows football with style
Le-grove Pedro is back after a good night’s sleep.
LG is Comedy Central nowadays
Diss
Tbh we all know tets is like a deer caught in headlights when the going gets tough
Same desperate look almost every game
Arteta Out everyone. The only argument against is that Vinnai will pick someone worse, but honestly, I’d rather take that chance at this point. There are so many managers I’d rather have than Arteta it’s a joke
Honest answer from our leader.
Would you take Ten HAG .
OR are you willing to stick with
the LIGHTWIEGHT..
Pedro it’s a lazy argument because that’s through choice.
Going to toss this one out there – the negative on Emery was a language barrier where he struggled to be understood. Communicating a plan is difficult when you dont have the right words or ways to express yourself. Fast forward to today – why is it that Arteta always seems to have this look on his face that expresses the “how are you not getting what I’m wanting you to do”? Perhaps Arteta’s problem is not so much a language problem/issue, but rather an understanding problem. Maybe the players aren’t understanding you because you aren’t making any sense to… Read more »
Question, would Ten Hag even be interested in the Arsenal job? Some of you act like its a no-brainer, but ask yourself the better question, would you want to work in this dysfunctional state of a club?
The manager isn’t good enough. It’s that simple. The system he demands of our players constantly invites pressure on them and hence why there are so many mistakes. Xhaka would have added his usual mistake leading to a goal if he played. Always does when he’s being pressured constantly. But notice how Lokongo isn’t passing the ball forward quickly now? That’s because Arteta’s coaching him not too. A super risk averse manager who doesn’t have the courage to play any other way. He needs to be upgraded asap. We’ll finish 7th or 8th with him. That is his level. The… Read more »
Ernest 18.42
Hypothetical question.
But you are 100% right who would
want any part of the club at the moment.
And are the sponsors viewing their positions
if things do not improve.
Terraloon, that’s the issue with strategy… delivering it is hard. Fans don’t have time because they are short termist. But I can assure you, the direction we have taken isn’t lazy… it’s the only way we get back to the top.
Ernest, I suspect Ten Hag would want to work in London with an elite batch of young players for £5m a year.
Oh there you go again with that word of yours Pedro, “Elite” !
I’ll stick with “Promising” because to be honest, they haven’t yet proved themselves to be anything close to elite, considering they are “young”.
Ernest, I suspect Ten Hag would want to work in London with an elite batch of young players for £5m a year.
Then lets do it!
“And are the sponsors viewing their positions
if things do not improve.L
Will only state that if the best you can do for sponsorship is “Visit Rwanda”….
The optics on that one will not ever be desirable in my opinion.
Youngest team yes.
Individual errors yes.
Rookie manager in way over his head yes.
You may make the case that the players are error prone because of their youth and that is a reasonable point to make. I would make the case that the man tasked with leading them forward, growing them out of their predicament, cannot.
If it is a youth inexperience problem, the manager’s youth and inexperience is at the core of it.
Arteta needs to be more flexible in his approach. His aim is to create a mind-blowing style of football, akin, say, to Pep’s Man City. Great – except that he does not have the financial clout to buy the best players, he has to wean youngsters into the role. And that takes time. So when, for whatever reason, the team falters, he should adapt, switch to a mode that deals with the problem. In Monday’s game, after the initial flurry, it became evident that Palace took control of central midfield. Clear to all – including Arteta – that Ode was… Read more »
“His aim is to create a mind-blowing style of football”
Sorry, cant help myself – its mind blowing alright! Dumbfoundingly so.
EB His aim is to create a mind-blowing style of football, akin, say, to Pep’s Man City. Great – except that he does not have the financial clout to buy the best players, he has to wean youngsters into the role. no no no. He spent 200M last summer. Was that not enough? So we need to spend more? Bernardo Silva was gettable, and many others to upgrade our mids. But he feels he did that with Ode and Loko. Im just baffled. When will Arteta take responsiblity ? When is blaming youth, or not spending enough going to be… Read more »
“I hope Arteta pre-empts a possible repeat against Villa by eithers starting with two defensive midfielders, or be ready to bring a second on on at the first hint of trouble.”
This is an interesting observation Englandsbest, but history shows that this has yet to be the case as Arteta appears to spend time pondering why it didn’t work in the first place rather than adapt as you suggest. Just my thoughts.
“ Ernest, I suspect Ten Hag would want to work in London with an elite batch of young players for £5m a year. Then lets do it!” Exactly. What are we waiting for? When you add it all up, Ten Haag is possibly the best choice for the job and I’m pretty sure he would want to come and Ajax wouldn’t stand in his way. Either that or get it all set up for the summer. Theee were individual mistakes for both Palace goals but what about the rest of the game? Where we were insipid and disjointed in attack… Read more »
I don’t know about this bedding in argument, it seems like clutching straws to me. Arteta has been playing roughly this formation for over a year now, and the players who have been here that long don’t look remotely any more comfortable in it than they did a year ago. Wenger didn’t have this ;problem with the youth he introduced – I wonder why? If Arteta is really trying tot implement this JDP stuff, then either he is a poor coach who cannot explain or teach it, or the players simply do not get it. Certainly it would explain why… Read more »
Maybe Arteta’s problem is an issue of trust,, IntoTheRed. Maybe he’s not trusting the players enough and maybe they are not trusting him?
Just putting it out there.
To get Ten Hag , Arteta needs to be sacked first right?
So this should be our new slogan #ArtetaOut
youngest team in the league isn’t the same as inexperienced. You can be young and still have a ton more experience than some older.
Everyone one in the bar ESR and Ben White have at least two years of top level experience.
Pedro it’s the argument that’s lazy because if it’s your chose path you can’t then be saying “Yea but”
As it being the only way to get back to the top I disagree there are other ways but let’s be honest in the modern era that approach in England has never worked out.
And before people talk about the Man Utd squad of 1996 that team, that Man Utd squad was woven around vastly experienced top top quality players such as Roy Keane, Gary Pallister, Dennis Irwin, Eric Cantona and Brian McClair
Serious question—which teams in the league would swap managers with us? Would Leicester? Villa? Everton? Leeds? Southampton?? Brighton or Brentford!?
Would Norwich?
Hard to imagine that we had 50 million allocated for a proper elite player and we opted to splurge it on a Brighton’s junior defender with a massive one year experience at the highest level.
Ben White, rode on reverse gear and invited Odsonne Edouard to shoot whilst he was blocking the view of Ramsdale.
Imagine if Saliba had done that in Marseille, certain posters would be reminding us of the wisdom of Mikel sending him out on loan for one more season.
Mics
“Serious question—which teams in the league would swap managers with us? Would Leicester? Villa? Everton? Leeds? Southampton?? Brighton or Brentford!?”
Maybe Norwich like you said, but would he cope with a club that sells their best players off yearly?
Mikel wouldn’t survive on Tyneside for one week.
White should have made himself larger, opened up and taken the shot right in the bread basket or family jewels.
Getting narrow when a player is shooting in your box is ?
Luiz would have done that, Kos as well, Gabriel too.
Azed
“youngest team in the league isn’t the same as inexperienced. You can be young and still have a ton more experience than some older”
Yep spot on for instance Saka was the youngest Arsenal player at 20 he has played for 67 times for Arsenal and 13 times for England all top flight.Guehi who was Palaces youngest player at 21 has played jus 8 games at the top flight
Why do all these sky sports presenters who are slating Ole not judge Arteta by the same standard. All this Ole has made mistakes, no identity etc etc, that’s us. We’re exactly the same
Curious, but Arsenal find it easier playing against the better sides. The better sides have their own entrenched style and they stick to it, thereby allowing Arsenal to stick to theirs.
The lesser sides’ approach is the polar opposite. They negate rather than create. They may appear to be positive but they are the reverse. You could say that, largely, their goals come from mistakes. In the game against Palace, both Arsenal goals came as a result of creative effort whereas both Palace goals came by mistakes – ours.
“Why do all these sky sports presenters who are slating Ole not judge Arteta by the same standard. All this Ole has made mistakes, no identity etc etc, that’s us. We’re exactly the same”
Thats because ManU have a star-studded uber expensive lineup that is being managed by a buffoon. To Pedro’s point, Arsenal are a very young team and expectations for Arsenal are vastly different.
Need to stop pontificating about Arteta what he’s doing and when he’ll come good
For those who still have faith in tets genius/ability the next three games will put your faith to bed
This is Arsenal
We deserve a quality coach in the ilk of Ten Hag
It’s like Ben White wasn’t properly coached or briefed about the opposition.
He backed up and let Odsonne Edouard line up the shot with his favored RIGHT foot
That’s what you get for buying an incurious footballer who doesn’t watch football on TV.
Pedro Indulge me in this little metaphor. You’re back in Essex chez Geoff and he asks you to paint the floor in the garage of his swanky stilted gaff (by the way, it would be intriguing to know what he thought of Kevin McCloud – aka Robin Bastard – who defrauded several greedy mugs a few years back) . You reluctantly pop out to the Wilko’s in Chelmsford and buy a tin of battleship grey floor paint. All good so far. You get back and your mind starts to wander. Will I ever land that dream job writing Tets’s programme… Read more »
Pedro – “Ernest, I suspect Ten Hag would want to work in London with an elite batch of young players for £5m a year.”.
Didn’t you mean inexperienced group of players / youngest team in the league?
EB :Arsenal find it easier playing against the better sides:
__________________________________________________________
I remember that Arteta gave up against MC and Chelsea before even playing the match.
Thank goodness all our new signings are young otherwise what excuse would we have for being bang average in virtually every game this season.
This may tell us something regarding our position in the league .. Offensive. Arsenal …Top 30 players in the league for assists.. none (pogba 1st) Top 30 for key passes ….none (fernandes 1st) Top 60 for accurate passes …none ( van dijk 1st) Accurate pass percentage in the top 20 …2 ( Elneny , Kolasinac) Top 40 for big chances created …none (salah 1st) Defensive Top 10 errors leading to a goal …3 (they were partey, lakonga, cedric) Arsenal Duals won in the top 100 …none (willock was 45th) Tackles in the top 70 …none (willock was 4th) Aerial duels… Read more »
“That’s what you get for buying an incurious footballer who doesn’t watch football on TV.”
Thats painful to read, Diss. Not being a student of the game is never a good thing in terms of progression.
Matt Candela needs to be reigned in – two weeks ago he’s blathering on about Xhaka and his attitude allowing him to shrug off Covid – Peter jumps in to remind him of the wide range of impacts that this disease causes including death in some young individuals. This week he’s making cracks about suicide monday after a major segment regarding mental health and the epidemic of suicide in men ( Johnny goes very quiet probably thinking holy shit ) . For an intelligent man he’s really lacking in emotional intelligence and nuance.
Pod would be better off without him
Poor old Pepe – the only guy in the team who can really shoot but who never receives the ball in an offensive run – it is always static. There is no fluidity whatsoever & little physical presence, just weak sideways/backwards tippy, tappy. I am not totally sold on Pep’s Man City methodology & when you see it attempted in such a third rate style its weaknesses are obvious. Reluctantly I have to agree Arteta is definitely NOT what is needed.
No argument from me Pierre, very well stated.
Damning stats there Pierre.
That’s only a few as well. There are others.
You have to wonder what the people who continue to have faith in Arteta are watching.
Markymark and Cornish
Blimey…. It’s like an old ‘Gooner’ reunion on here tonight. I’m the poster formerly known as Arseneknewbest – impossible to go to another site with a moniker like that of course… But I think he possibly knows best stood next to the present incumbent!
Hope you’re both well and not suffering too much under this current reign of terror. I miss Ron’s wisdom and some of the uncensored views we used to exchange. No more Badarse though so there’s always a silver lining.
Arsenal seem to have gotten worse and worse the longer Arteta has been in charge. His first season was excellent. Totally stabilized the ship post Emery disaster, got the players hungry, fighting, putting in shifts, and defending well.
Ever since he tried to implement a style of play, we have been generally horrible. To me the players look burdened by his “system” and it looks like they don’t trust it. I don’t blame them.
Would be hell if United realise Ole isn’t up to the task and they get in a competent manager.
Unfortunately Atalanta showing Ole closer to the door, would prefer the clown to keep his job for a bit yet . . .
Arsenal players average age – 25.1
Brentford players average age – 25.42
Arsenal wage bill -.£125 m
Brentford wage bill- £23 m
Pedro, if Arsenal finish below Brentford will you drop the youngest squad in the league argument?
I think there’s something very specific happening with our game and we seem stuck, if you watch the first 15 minutes of every game (after the first three) i think it makes sense. there’s clearly some disconnect in strategy once we start to get bullied and we haven’t had a real pragmatic game plan for how to counter this for a while it seems. I don’t think we’re getting worse but we’re definitely struggling with something our rookie manager needs to work out in terms of game managemnet and strategy here- will he? dunno. All signs point to him trying… Read more »
After Manure’s last defeat, Pogba told the press that something has to change in Manure. Ole let him know what change is going to come… he is benched!
Theatre of dreams sounding like a morgue right now. Ole definitely at the wheel
Zach
“there’s clearly some disconnect in strategy once we start to get bullied and we haven’t had a real pragmatic game plan for how to counter this for a while it seems.”
“”Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” –
Every rookie is a world class until they get thrown into real life