Sometimes you have to roll your sleeves up and make some big unpopular calls. Arteta is about to have to do some of that. The Everton result was not par the course this season, that was a throwback to December last season. The levels were shocking. The performance was incoherent. It was a throwback to the hell days of late Emery and Wenger.
Gutless, insipid, unfocused, meek… the list of unpleasant descriptors could go on for days.
Arsenal did what is true to our recent history. We rolled up the team bus and said, ‘Rafa, I hear you have a problem, may we assist you?’
Our team is better than that. There was no excuse for that level of mediocrity. We let the situation happen to us and there isn’t a specific place to point a finger… because all of it was shite.
You could pick on the starting 11 and say that Thomas Partey shouldn’t have started and he’s been 4 out of 10 dreaful by his own account. You could say it was too soon for Tierney. You could say Xhaka wasn’t fit. You could say Lacazette up front on his own is usually not great. You could list issues with every single player that started that game and you’d be right, because it was that bad.
The biggest issue for me here was that we can all take a loss. But that was more than a loss. That was a dereliction of duty.
At a base level, that type of performance should be so far beyond us right now.
Arteta has the players for a week at a time. They are all fresher than our rivals. How can he send them out so mentally weak?
There are levels in the Premier League. Our lows simply cannot be that low. It was so, so poor.
What I can’t fathom is how things can fly off the rails so badly. That was Everton. The team with the worst form across ALL UK divisions. They were shit. We simply have to be holding our players to higher standard.
Then there’s the players.
If it wasn’t obvious, Auba has not been behaving like a captain this week. He was benched. Eddie was picked ahead of him from the bench. That’s how bad he’s been. I can sit here and debate the merits of his football contribution, but why are we here debating his behaviour again? He’s not a leader, he’s a precious baby.
Lacazette, I love him, but that was the performance of a player who knows he’s out there looking for a new deal. Where was the fight? Where was the contribution to the team he’s been giving? He was painfully nothing.
Thomas Partey, our big man in midfield, was absolutely diabolical (again). He played in one of the most ruthlessly disciplined systems in world football. He was great. He comes to Arsenal, we give him more freedom… and he’s giving away possession from a throw in under no pressure. It is wildly unacceptable how awful he’s been.
How about Ben White? £55m. The vision of what a defender could be. Makes line-breaking runs for 30 yards, then passes 3 yards to whoever is next to him. Defensively, he was a mess. Why was he standing off like a frightened rabbit? He wasn’t doing that at Leeds. Not good enough. He needs to get better, yesterday.
I don’t want to go there… but Bukayo ain’t been right since he came back from the Euros. Another anonymous performance from him out wide. He’s barely showing for the ball. His confidence is shot. He looks tired. It’s very worrying.
Things were so bad we’ve got the Pepe-Ultras out suggesting he’d be the difference. No people. He’s had his chances. Eddie missing from one yard was terrible, but at least he was there showing for it (created 3 chances). What was the counterpoint? Auba. Threaded in by Eddie, missed the sort of chance Auba of old scores with his eyes shut.
We could talk about Mike Dean and his shocking officiating, but it’s not worth it, we put that result on ourselves. It was the worst performance under Arteta to date, and we’ve had some bad one’s.
We can’t stew on it though. It feels like a catastrophe because in its own way. It was an bad performance addict having a relapse. That was old Arsenal. The question is… can we deal with it? Can we show bravery? Can we bounce back?
There’s not really a choice.
Southampton is a must-win.
West Ham is a must-win.
Leeds away is a must-win.
Norwich away is a must-win.
Wolves is a must-win.
Do I think we win all those games? I don’t think so. We’ve gone from looking robust-ish, to looking like the start of another death-spiral is incoming.
There’s no defence for it.
These are his players.
He prepares them.
He coaches them.
He motivates them.
We can all take a loss, but it has to be glorious failure, it has to look sexy in places… not like what we saw today.
Arteta has to own it. When you staff the players yourself, it’s you, regardless of how bad they are.
We live in a world of extremes. The currency of the internet is outrage. People love to live in misery. The season isn’t over, we could still claw something back… but the biggest worry is Arteta is not shaking out patterns of play that would indicate there truly is a change in culture. Last night wasn’t about the lack of a striker. It was about sending a team out that lacked focus, fight, and the edge to find a way.
This moment cannot blow out into another December drama. There is too much riding on a Top 4-able season. He needs to find a solution fast, because time waits for no one.
Check out our On The Whistle Podcast. Thank you to all you lovely good-humoured weirdos that join the LIVE feed. It’s very fun. We truly appreciate you hanging around with us in the misery pool.
First
Second
Third
Elusive fourth
He has clearly lost the dressing room à la Emery. Players don’t want to play for him.
Eighth Wonder?…lol
8th is our level now
“The performance was incoherent. It was a throwback to the hell days of late Emery and Wenger.“
You describe a rancid performance Pedro and yet its the second consecutive December that has Arteta on the ropes again, this time definitely of his own making. He’s managing through spite and the results are glaring. He has a pretty healthy bench and yet he continues to keep some out and why? Because he’s a spitefully proud person who is a control freak. Thats where this lands in the end.
I see the term ‘Death Spiral’ is making a comeback for Christmas for the third year in a row. At least Wenger had the decency to wait until the new year to implode.
The good news is that the season only starts after Christmas (apparently) so I think these are only pre season friendlies.
I really miss AFC Superfan’s lectures about how anyone who criticises Arteta doesn’t understand football the way he does. Those were really fun to read.
Sadly, he always goes missing after a loss. So too do Positive Pete, Negative Nigel, EB, Matt B.
Harder to come here and call folk ‘bedwetters’ after it becomes clear we’re objectively an average side. Top 6 is going to be a struggle.
‘The Everton result was not par the course this season…’
I strongly disagree. That performance was all very familiar to this Arteta team.
“We can all take a loss, but it has to be glorious failure, it has to look sexy in places… not like what we saw today.”
It’s been two years, please point to any occasion where our football has looked “sexy”. Thanks.
Listless first half performance, when lucky to go in at 1-0, followed by a really poor, disjointed second half performance where the team lost shape. The older, more experienced players are quite simply letting the team down. Laca, Xhaka, Partey and Aubameyang when he came on were all shite, and that is the spine of the team!! Arteta is making strange calls, and unfathomable substitutions, he is making mistakes again. We played a poor Man United and turned a 1-0 lead into a loss, we played not just a poor Everton side, but a shite one and turned a 1-0… Read more »
Pedro Bukayo ain’t been right since he came back from the Euros. Another anonymous performance from him out wide. He’s barely showing for the ball. His confidence is shot. He looks tired. He has been overplayed. No sane manager would play him game after game. You simply have to take players out of the firing line. But the real trouble is that both he and ESR will be meeting up with their England colleagues and will see multiple trophy winners paid top money and then they will look at their trophy cabinet, look at their teammates and finally their payslips… Read more »
“Southampton is a must-win.
West Ham is a must-win.
Leeds away is a must-win.”
Alos, big ups to the poster that predicted this last night! 😂
Pedro, you know I don’t come on here and moan and complain whenever we lose, so when I do, o really mean it lol!
None of last night was on the players. It’s all on Arteta….you know why? His system is too rigid and it’s stifling our players.
We have become so boring, and it’s all because of how mechanical he has made certain aspects of our play.
I’m calling it….Arteta is going to fail and the next man in will take this team to the next level. May not happen until the summer, but it will happen.
You just have to know that beat Southampton and the LeGrove Pantomime Artists will be back dancing to The Bedwetter Boogie.
Jim Lahey.
The pattern of Pedro’s posts is as predictable as the pattern of our football under Arteta.
“The levels were shocking. The performance was incoherent. It was a throwback to the hell days of late Emery and Wenger.” have to disagree with that statement neither of the aforementioned have produced a performance that bad and the Tactics , you know what I can’t be bothered , all I will say is Xhaka’s back so all will be lost
This is the sort of football we’ve been witnessing for two years now. Villa and Watford performances looking like false hope flukes.
This is the level we see all the time and why so many fans wanted him moved on. (that ship has sailed now, the elite managers we could have gone for have all been snapped up).
-4 gd 7 wins in 15 games, boring football painful to watch my club. We have gone backwards but keep trusting the process. Also wasting time with 30 mins to go embarrassing!
Why would any of these players put their 100% when they know they cannot win a game at PL level with this strike-force unless by luck! and, no one puts 100% for lady luck coming in to help them. Ben white to Saka to Partey — they got to believe there is something to fight for. They know what a shite striker force we have in auba+laca+NKetiah. And, no one wants to put 100% for getting a draw. Motivation issue. Put a Haaland up front. Don’t you then see Partey roaring like a true african lion? And everyone else fighting… Read more »
Just a couple of weeks ago, while Pedro was posting about Rio Ferdinand being impressed with our training session, and why that has some sort of relevance to anything, I was saying that things can go bad again very very quickly if we’re not careful, and now look where we are. The anti-Arteta’s will always look at every single negative as a reason to bash him. Pedro will always look at every single positive as a reason to back him. The rest of us just see things how they are, no agenda, nothing. Right now, we’re just not good enough.… Read more »
Viera might not be a better manager but at least he’s Arsenal. Arteta never will be. Such a shame we are limping on with this nobody when we could have the man who led The Invincibles.
DM
great post, right up until the last sentence. I think it is pretty clear for all to see that he is not the man to turn it around. The players are too familiar with Arteta now and complacency has set in. The only way to change that is by having a complete rest and bring someone new in.
Wow I read the whole post for once.
Great writing Pedro
What I will say on Saka defence is he is getting taking out left right and centre I am not suprised he is feeling it mentally now.
@DM –
“Right now, we’re just not good enough.”
But this has been the case since he arrived, the football that Arteta has brought to the club (not talking about results here, just football) is the worst I have ever seen at this club. And there is no chance it will ever improve under him. He is a negative manager who plays negative football.
Matt you were quite confident we were going to beat Everton last night?
Spot on Jim, even Don Howe when he was in charge played more attractive football than this lot.
What happened? He’s got no forward line. PEA is just a mercenary for the dosh, & oh everyone got so emotional when he resigned, well all the hero worshippers anyway, not me, PEA is gutless, jelly backed mercenary. Get rid of him. £350k a week, he’s weak. Piss him off somewhere else. Arteta has his defence in place, still needs to tweak the mid field some more, but the forward line is no existent, no wonder they kick it sideways & backwards all the time. IMHO, Arteta is just the fella who is bringing on the kids, someone else will… Read more »
@Davey =
I can specifically remember when Wenger left. Pedro stated that no matter who came in, we would always continue to play attractive free-flowing football because that is who we are…
Now look at us. The man that Pedro would die on a cross for has brought this club to its knees in under two years.
“PEA is just a mercenary for the dosh”
I honestly don’t think so, I think he has just downed tools and does not want to play under Arteta anymore.
Matt / Jim Lahey When I say he can still turn it around, I mean more hypothetically. For a while there we looked like we might have turned a corner, results were improving and we did start to play some decent football. Is it *possible* that he could yet repeat that, and make it more of a constant? Well, yeah, I guess it’s possible. It is going to happen? Nah, don’t think so. But my bigger point was that you have to EARN the right to be given chances to prove yourself further. Other than a few games this season,… Read more »
I think things started to deteriorate between PEA and Arteta after he was fined for being late.
Richarlison showed last night what this team is missing. He’s quick, aggressive, good in the air, a bit nasty. And he can play. He’s a handful. A player like that can help relieve pressure. We don’t have anyone like that.
Does anyone think that was Auba last game for the club?
Bet that dressing room was toxic last night.
Condolences out to Ian Wright mum that passed away.
It’s high time we get someone proven, 2 years should have been enough for someone to learn on Arsenal job.
Arteta isn’t good enough. Some of the players aren’t good enough. They can win a good share of home games against the average sides but it isn’t going to be enough other than mediocrity again regarding finishing position in the league. Arteta could change things up. He could flood central midfield with three players for more presence in the central areas but we all know these fixes are only temporary because he has certain darlings who he thinks he must always start. He could go back to shithousing, miss out the midfield completely and defend as a team in front… Read more »
Jamie: I’ve been here mate, commented on the previous post.
We were utter shite, no question, very poor performance from the team and the manager. There, I can say it. You’ve complained a lot yourself, but I don’t recall you ever saying anything positive after a good performance…
Ishola
A better manager get’s more out of these player imo.
But agreed on midfield. We are crying out for a Declan Rice. Bissouma type.
Partey for me is too timid. Goes hiding too much. Xhaka is Xhaka the left back lol
I honestly believe we will finish mid-table the likes of Villa Wolves and Leicester have all something more about them -4 GD in 15 games let that sink in and tell me he is taking us in the right direction.
Samesong
“A better manager get’s more out of these player imo.”
Squeezing a dry lemon.
As long as that midfield has Xhaka in it along with sadly it seems now Partey any manager coming in is unlikely to get top four.
We need a better manager than Arteta along with more additions in central midfield and a nice shiny new centre forward.
“I don’t recall you ever saying anything positive after a good performance…”
I’m always positive after a good performance. Other than smashing Spurs at home, how many genuinely good performances have there been under Arteta? Then go read the le-grove comments that day. I’ll be in there saying nice things.
A win and a good performance aren’t mutually exclusive, although some would be forgiven for thinking they were because anything other than lavishing effusive praise on Arteta is defined as ‘bedwetting’ by you and your 3 pals. They’ve left you holding the bag today. Find new pals.
“At a base level, that type of performance should be so far beyond us right now.“
Actually, its not and this team is very capable of doing it again and again.
Prior to this phase of 4 games I thought Arsenal were in good health and thought we could get results at Anfield and Old Trafford. We got a proper schooling at Anfield but left behind a result at OT with a bad performance in between working out a decent 2-0 home win over Newcastle. Last night, another bad performance had Everton looking like top 4 contenders rather than the rabble everyone else has been treating them like. It could have been worse as 2 goals were ruled offside for a finger and a toe. The overhauled defence conceded 11 goals… Read more »
“Ramsdale isn’t even making big saves anymore”
Disagree. He made some great saves last night, tipping a shot onto the bar but couldn’t prevent the headed goal.
He’s been our most consistent player this season, imo, and is the least of our concerns. It’s are lack of control in midfield and our strikers being abject poverty.
It’s our* lack of control
Same old story. How many times have we seen the same pattern – a good spell, with some promising performances like the Villa game, grand talk of a top four challenge – then a sequence of abject defeats and feeble attempts at holding a 1-0 lead – and we are back at square one. I have no doubt the same cycle will repeat once again, as it always does under Arteta. You said it yourself – Partey thrived under a ruthlessly disciplined system. He is all at sea in what can loosely be called a ‘system’ under Arteta. And he… Read more »
Jamie, Ramsdale is definitely not at fault for our woes.
“The Everton result was not par the course this season” Not par for the course? Really? It was just another Arteta away day. Brentford – crap Man City – crap Brighton – very poor Liverpool – very poor Man Utd – crap Everton – crap At Burnley we scraped home with a raggy arsed 0-1. At Leicester we played as we could during the first half, then spent the second half getting battered and a mix of bad finishing and Aaron Ramsdale got us over the line. This is what is being served up away from home two years into… Read more »
Don’t know who it was but they put it beautifully, everything arsenal does is mechanical and predictable. From passing it out the back to pointless sideways backwards passing then out wife to KT or Nuno. So easy to play against as has been seen in the amount of losses under Arteta’s reign. Absolutely no point keeping him on. Dead man walking,another season wasted.
Samesong
I agree about Saka being smacked about and how it might be affecting his play…what really annoys me is the team don’t do anything to retaliate and discourage the Saka assault
Would Vieira, Keane, or any of the Arsenal of that era have let Godfrey get away with stamping on Tommy’s face?
Accidental? He looks down, aims his foot then looks over his shoulder and stamps — and gets away with it
We are a very soft team that doesn’t stand up for itself…there’s no fight for a result and there isn’t even any fight for self-respect
As for Ben White, 50 million for a defender that can’t defend. If he was all that why hasn’t he taken Maguire’s place in England? Even the abysmal Ming’s and the Donkey Stones are ahead of him. Should of kept Saliba and spent that money on a decent young forward.
into the red “You said it yourself – Partey thrived under a ruthlessly disciplined system. He is all at sea in what can loosely be called a ‘system’ under Arteta. ” Pedro also said on his podcast that Partey was used at Atletico Madrid in confined areas. So this ruthlessly disciplined system that Partey “thrived” under was tailored to suit him. Just like we see the Arsenal team being tailored in regards midfield to Xhaka. Partey is now out of his comfort zone which he was at in Atletico Madrid. Great. So now we have two midfielders who need a… Read more »
Ray+in+LA
I agree about Saka being smacked about and how it might be affecting his play…what really annoys me is the team don’t do anything to retaliate and discourage the Saka assault
Only one person I see getting remotely vexed is Gabriel.
Two years on and still we are having the same discussions. Abject performances are the normal under Arteta and yet somehow we are making progress? Its not about the players, enough of the malcontents are gone now, so its the new squad of malcontents that are the problem? Spin it whatever way you wish, it stops being the players fault when abject performances keep happening. Not sure what process is to be trusted? Is it the they are young one or the manager is just starting out so give him a break one?? Just wanting to understand exactly which process… Read more »
Gabriel’s defending was shocking for the second disalowed goal from Richarlison.
Richarlison was just a yard away from Gabriel and Gabriel let him get a free run and didn’t even close him down or was even aware of Richarlison.
How can you not be aware of Everton’s best striker.
Arteta will probably stay till the end of the season. The kroenkes won’t fire him. But if he doesn’t find an attacking identity and gets us atleast in the Europa league with no European games for us then he should be fired. There will be no more defending him. He got his players, it is his 3rd year, he has spent around 250 mil, he has signed players in to extensions, and he has already finished 8th twice and he is still in the job. I am grateful he got rid of the dreadful senior players that we had. But… Read more »
Ray in LA, the minute this team do anything about a player getting smacked around, they are carded on a trumped up charge of retaliation, it has been that way for years. Vieira used to do that kind of thing, they stamped that out in time I know the team were poor, and it is not the done thing in this country to go all Bellingham on the refs, but this club really should be looking at the level of officiating we face. If anyone thinks we are on a level playing field with rival teams on this front, they… Read more »
White needs to man up a centre half needs to be physical first and foremost all well being good on the ball but needs to defend if only we had a 6 foot 4 up and coming centre half on our books ………………
Partey is a good player. He is in terrible form. I think he will come back to form. We need a good coach badly though. Someone who wants to attack.
There will not be a magical transition to see the attack all of a sudden look really good.
There is no central base in the team to allow this.
Xhaka goes AWOL from central midfield areas and Partey is just flaky.
You need foundations centrally to have a good attack.
We don’t have that.
We trounced Spurs in that first half earlier in the season for the simple fact that their central midfield on that certain day was shittier than ours.
Habesha Gooner
“I think he will come back to form”
lol back to form?
How many real stand-out games has he had since he arrived?
A couple?
David Smith
Detest Fernandes at MU, but I remember him retaliating on Xhaka after being fouled by him
agree the playing field doesn’t look level, but the team don’t seem to have the spirit to retaliate even if it was
Davey
If Only 🙂
Knew we were finished when I save Tavares coming on.
What the hell was Tierney subbed off.? Everyone knew Tavares would start giving the ball away which would eventually lead to a goal and so it did.
Samesong
‘Matt you were quite confident we were going to beat Everton last night?’
No, not me. Must have been Matt B. I said before hand I couldn’t remember the last time we went into a league game where I felt confident.
Hi Jamie.Bit late to the Bedwetting party! But better late than never hey? Couldn’t leave my ol mucker Matt B to take all the flak.Sometimes you just gotta hold your hands up & admit that maybe I’m wrong.Arteta f** kd up big time.You’re right.There,said it.Any positivity has flown right out the window & the pressure,rightfully is back on him( Arteta) . Trust the process? Hard to see what that is when it now appears to be one step forward & two steps back.I’ll not be joining the Bedwetters just yet on the basis that the remit was top 4/5 as… Read more »
My bad Matt.
That’s two games in succession now where Tavares has been involved in conceding a goal.
I enjoyed his period of games when he came in but inevitably inexperience will catch up with him.
The spirit may have been knocked out of them Ray, or possibly they are under instructions not to get red cards after the havoc caused by some of the softest red cards given out last season. Almost looks to me like Arteta has instructed them not to tackle at times. Arteta can’t go public, Wenger did and it only made things worse, , but he will be well aware of Mike Deans little issues, as Rafa clearly was, let’s see if he sends Godfrey out to do that to Utd or Liverpool, Godfrey wouldn’t last minutes on the pitch. I… Read more »
Arteta is not good enough. Period.
Pedro Two for the price of one today FAVOURITISM AND SEAN DYCHE. I’m going in with all guns blazing today and this has little to do with last night’s debacle. If I end up getting banned because of this, then so be it but, imo, some things just have to be said, even if some folk(you) don’t want to hear it. If and when you are a leader in any team based working environment there are certain things you should never do if you want to keep your team members ( players) on board. It is of paramount importance if… Read more »
People hype DCL here. The Everton forward we should be going big for is Richarlison. He would do a lot of damage upfront with Martinelli and Saka.
Partey has to go, sadly. The honeymoon has long been over. It doesn’t look like it will work out.
We should go for efficient players.
Death Spiral
Buckle up lads, it going to be one painful ride to the near relegation places before Arteta is finally sacked.
I would have given him half a chance if we were creating and scoring goals even at the alarming rate in which we’re conceding, however we simply aren’t SCORING enough goals to keep pace with teams of our current level .
Bad times ahead.
“I understand as an incentive it comes with six months supply of nappies” That’s right. The sweet pull-up kind you can put on unassisted and wear under baggy clothes no stress. Arteta is here until the end of the season. The board have backed him to the hilt, allowed him to go full Project Youth, so we’ll see what happens come May. It absolutely has to be Europa qualification minimum or he’s out. 2.5 years in charge!!, multiple preseasons and transfer windows, £200m+ spend on new players, perfect English, no midweek distractions to interrupt generational coaching, no more excuses. This… Read more »
Very disappointing. Most of the possession but at no time did Arsenal seem in control. Fatigue? Confusion? Neither. I hate to say this, but we were bullied out of the game. The signs came early. GBH on Sake by Godfrey. He should have been give a red card but wasn’t – and Arsenal lost heart. At this point, the toughest part of the season, with every team armed for battle, we must fight sword to sword, cannon to cannon. A three-man midfield is a must. A way to stop an onslaught in its tracks. AMN or Sambi should figure along… Read more »
The ball Tavares smashed in the air across our penalty area was unbelievable and rightfully bollocked by Ramsdale, the guy is a nut nut he is a left winger playing left back- give the captaincy to KT now!
EB
How many high calibre strikers do you suppose will be available come January?
Habesh Im not so sure Arteta is safe till the end of the season which doesnt mean we should sack him. Arsenal have made a big deal of the long term project which is fine in theory but in football today there is no long term. If Arsenal finish top 8 Im not so sure the fans will buy the argument, ‘its fine because we have a longer term vision”. As other have pointed out getting beaten is sort of ok if you turn up and put everything into but its unforgivable to just go through the motions. Do you… Read more »
Still don’t know why people are obsessed with Partey when the obvious problem is Arteta.
Negative and bland football without a focus to create and attack will never bring the best out of top level players, football is as much creativity and expression as well as effective systems to win and dominate games.
You can’t sacrifice one for the other as a coach, you aim for BALANCE between attack and defence .
This is Artetas biggest failing IMO (ignoring his lack of man management skills)
All I can say is, if Arteta is left in charge we can kiss top 6 or anything like goodbye. That’s the last time we will be sitting 5th. United Spurs and West ham will finish above us. Only question is if Leicester are going to oblige us and remain shite. So 7th or 8th it is. That’s all folks.
Arteta out.
Not good enough. 3 defeats in the last 4 is terrible form so to expect 3 or 4 wins in the next 4 games over the congested festive period is wishful thinking in my opinion. Our senior players are so badly out of form, young players looking fully in the red, where will the individual quality performances come from? Good to see Tierney back, looked a bit rusty but he’s a difference maker and less prone to game-changing mistakes. He’ll need to be managed incredibly carefully over the next month. I would have also preferred Lokonga, Pepe and Ainsley(not even… Read more »
Dolomite “Still don’t know why people are obsessed with Partey when the obvious problem is Arteta.” It’s already been said that Arteta is not good enough by the vast majority on here. But let’s not fall again into that old familiar trap of over-rating players yet again. It’s been made clear now that Partey was used in a strict system at Atletico Madrid. He leaves that strict system and has not impressed. Let’s not beat around the bush here. He has simply not impressed in any way on anything like a consistent basis. Doesn’t look like the cleverest of signings… Read more »
I’ve said it time and again. The team is a mirror of how arteta was as a player, especially in midfield, he never drove at opponent with the ball, it was all sideways passing with him. This arsenal is the most boring in the league, even with Newcastle you their players like all iron and saint maximan and Wilson making runs and trying to make things happen in the final third, without Ramsdale we would be bottom three. I can’t understand why the manager is not seeing the obvious, Pepe might not be everyone’s cup of tea but he brings… Read more »
Ishola70
Artetas “system” stifles players. Put Ngolo Kante and Fernandinho ( two of the finest DMs in the league) in our team and their performances will be exactly the same.
The best midfielders always make on field split second decisions that don’t conform to a rigid inflexible and predictable “system” that relies heavily on positional play.
I’ve seen enough of him (and the rest of our midfield) to know any capable manager will get much more in terms of output and consistency.
I see Auba is a ‘popular’ figure in the dressing room. Always seems to be smiling in training
and in the warm up pics. Is there an intensity to the guy at all?
Exactly the reason why he shouldn’t be captain or near the team.
What we would give for a Roy Keane type captain or leader. All very cosy and happy clappy at Arsenal with no ball breakers on the pitch.
Graham52 Good post hitting the nail on the head. Playing Xhaka for 90 mins is 90 mins too long. He has made countless basic errors in his time with us costing a lot of points in the making. Arteta is done really way out of his depth, he won’t walk because Spanish people are stubborn and will always deflect the truth. Watching us now it’s easy to see how disjointed we are, or play in the last third is poor. The players clearly are not on board with Arteta but nothing will change unless the players do what United did… Read more »
It’s true that Arteta’s system doesn’t benefit a lot of our players, but Partey that doesn’t change the fact that Partey just isn’t very good technically. His control in tight areas is poor, he struggles with the simplest of passes at times and his shooting would be embarrassing at Sunday league level.
Dolomite
It gets boring keep hearing fans on here defending under performing players.
It’s gone on for years since Wenger’s second period.
Yes we are all aware that Arteta is not up to task.
But always people want it to be just one reason all the time for failure.
The manager.
It is not as simple as that.
Many times it’s a combination of factors including certain players as well as the manager.
I tell you for nothing no manager is getting top four with Arsenal with Xhaka and Partey as the midfield two. Ain’t gonna happen.
I was so looking forward to us being out of that bloody Europa League so we could only concentrate on the league, treat each match like a cup final.
Boy was I ever wrong!
We need a real manager now!
https://paininthearsenal.com/2020/07/14/arsenal-mikel-arteta-system-style-loggerheads/
You’d have to think Southampton fancy their chances against Arsenal on Saturday. Truth be told many clubs now fancy their chances against Arsenal, the gift that keeps on giving.
I don’t think Partey knows what day it is most the time with that look on his face.He is way out of his comfort zone
LOL @ pegging the next 5 games as “must win” games.
There is no way in hell, we will get 9 points out of the next 15 available.
Looks like Pedro is stylishly out to blame the players rather than the inept manager who’s apparently learning on the job.
There is no way we finish higher than 7th with these kind of performance we’ve seen recently.
Bankz
It’s not Arteta’s fault whats he got to do with it?
Lol
Partey is not the problem but rather the system he is being asked to play in is. Square Peg Round Hole tactics produce exactly what you see, abject performances for as long as the Manager wants because, truth be told, he doesn’t know what he is doing. Any doubts on that now?