Well, well, well, good morning to you ALL!
Let’s start the day with the great news that West Ham essentially ended the hopes of Wolves entering the race for top 4 this season. I’m not sure there’s any coming back from that many defeats over a short space of time, so I’d say the race is now Arsenal, Spurs, and United.
Also, I need to stop saying we have 13 games left, because we have 14 games.
14 cup finals.
So do we have any reason to think that we’re in good shape? Well, the Statsbomb folk dropped this little table of expected goal difference over the last ten games.
So what does this tell you?
Firstly, all the xG cry babies at the start of December were massively wrong. They misread the data, didn’t understand the context of what was going on, they weren’t watching what was happening on the pitch… and they didn’t understand how a striker like Auba was damaging to a system that needed someone very different.
Arsenal were pretty damn correct when the binned off Auba in December. He has a fan club that wants to point to each goal he scores, but the simple reality is this:
- He didn’t score goals for Arsenal
- Arsenal score more goals without him
- We’re making moves on top 4 just fine without him
We’re one of the most in form teams in the league since he left us. The attitude on the pitch is better, more players are involved in the goalscoring, there’s a deeper range of options that make us very unpredictable.
It is quite heartening that the group of fans that always point to the players we don’t have at the club have been pretty much silenced. You don’t really hear too much about Guendouzi because our midfield has been great this season. You don’t hear about Saliba because Ben White is quite literally the standout centre back signing of last summer. You don’t hear about Ainsley because he’s been really bad.
The project is in good shape, the only drama we’re dealing with at the moment is referees and red cards, we just need to keep our heads down and knock down all these difficult games we have coming up.
Arsenal have put their season ticket prices up by 4% this season. I read from @DarrenArsenal1 that the hike gives the club an extra £2.5m a season, which is a right leg of Auba for 6 months.
It’s really tough to know what to say here. Static prices for years is unusual, inflation is through the roof, the club has been blasting through cash… I’m surprised the hike isn’t more based on business metrics.
However, the flip side that the home fans are treated poorly, they are absolutely essential to project, and the painful PR they get off the back of it is not worth £2.5m. Inflation is absolutely killing UK people at the moment, these hikes seem unnecessary.
I’m also not sure how Arsenal is run. A couple of seasons ago, they fired 55 people, then toppled the Gunnersaurus… only to go and drop £250k a week on Willian. It’s weird how they prioritise where they extract extra coin from.
Finally, let’s talk captains armband. I’m not sure it’s going to be KT when the decision is made. I think they’re going to give it to someone who is more reliable when it comes to fitness and I think they are going to give it to someone who has experience of the role. My view is it’ll likely be Martin Odegaard and that would be the correct selection.
Martin Odegaard is right up there as one of our star performers, he’s been pretty robust this season, and the coaches, the fans, and the players seem to really respect him. I’m also paying a little bit of a attention to the left back links that have been coming through thick and fast. Quite a bit of smoke wafting through the Marble Halls, don’t you think?
We also seem to be getting quite a lot of linkage to Joao Félix, the £100m Portuguese star from Atleti. I honestly have no idea why a player of his flair went to play for Diego, but he fits the profile of a fallen star that is quite young, and I’d imagine he has a profile that’d be of interest to Arsenal. That said, he’d be expensive, and I’m not sure how his sort of star profile would fit at Arsenal? But who knows, he’s the sort of name we’d only be close to if we made Champions League.
Right, jump into the podcast today!
Raptora, I never struggle for topics
It should be possibe to say that for the squad that took us to 6 cup finals in 6 seasons , it was a remarkable achievement that i doubt will ever be repeated and at the same time praise the original squad of players and manager for where we are now .
It’s like that daft muppet weagle always making a choice between Eddie and Martinelli when it should be possible to like both players …….as i do
Wenger Eagle
You are right he is a superb player. Xavi seems to like him but with Barca finances you never know. Harland is an interesting one. He’s best mates with Ode apparently so you never know. Obviously 4th makes us more attractive.
*Haaland
Pierre They were soft. Without the ball under Emery we became a basket case. That’s what happens when players stop caring. You seem to be unable to acknowledge players change. They do. When they lose they’re hunger or get too comfortable with contracts, they can play up. They did. To claim Arsenal wasn’t soft is a daft comment, I used to scream my bloody head off as shot after rained on our goal or Xhaka was exposed to one on ones. The EL final was a joke. Fans moaned about our defensive problems constantly for years. What were you watching… Read more »
* their
Tom, I beg to differ here. Arteta had the culture of the club at the forefront. If he took over after wenger he would have done the same thing now but it would probably have been easier. It’s also fair to say that emery wasn’t totally to blame here, Raul was the main reason for the shitshow that occurred during emerys reign and artetas early reign. In saying that, I believe arteta would have navigated those challenges better than emery as he is a stronger character.
If we make CL Halaand is on boys 😉
Berg10kamp, great comment again. Spot on.
‘ Honestly, I’m so used to us playing in the midweek, that this season the games are so few and far between that I can’t keep my enthusiasm and be excited for our next game when the downtime is bigger than what I’m used to.’
Raptora are you a teenager? A very childish approach to following a team when all you do is shit on them. Shouldn’t it be a case of we’re starved of the boys you appreciate the games more?
A childish cry baby isn’t a good look.
Tom,
I really do take you at your word that you want to see Arteta get us to 4th or 3rd this season. Not a doubt in my mind.
But there are some people here, so consumed by negativity, and past pronouncements against him, that I wonder if deep down, they won’t truly enjoy it as much as they should.
Just a few though, thankfully.
Berg10kamp, Arteta’s merit would’ve been CL qualification just as Emery’s was.
How would that have been any easier?
Andy
“Drawings on the new Barclays facility – replaced the BoE COVID loan of GBP 120m. Barclays facility is GBP 70m – no drawings as at 31.5.21 (post balance sheet likely used to pay for Partey)”
Them is some horrendous numbers.
The Barclays loan was only put in place at the end of May 21 so the Partey transfer is not relevant but of course the £100+ million spent in summer 21 would be post balance sheet
Pierre the old crusty string of smegma was all for selling Martinelli the other day and I am the one supposedly choosing between them.
Berg10Kamp
“Arteta had the culture of the club at the forefront. If he took over after wenger he would have done the same thing now but it would probably have been easier.”
Excellent point.
Freddie warned about it. Emery failed to deal with it. Arteta took it head on and we can all see the benefits. The owners deserve credit too, they clearly knew the score and agreed to cancel contracts whatever the cost.
Tom, as I stated the culture. This is massive at a club or any organization. If you cannot get that right then everything else tanks. Emery had no idea of the culture or the club for that matter. And that’s why he tanked.
AFC.
To get to 6 cup finals a team first has to win 6 semi finals, so if anyone thinks that a mentally soft team can win 6 semi finals on the bounce(i think it was) then they have no clue what they are talking about..
I could quite easily find stats to prove my point on how hard top managers like Pochettino, klopp etc found iit hard to win semis……you have to be mentally tough as the semi is actually tougher mentally than the final
I always wanted arteta or Vieira to take over. Even DB10. Reason being that they knew the culture of the club and have bled for the club. Not all players make good managers but I knew arteta had the ability as at City u could see how much pep relied on him. So when wenger left I wanted him. And when emery left and he joined I was fully onboard but knew he needed at least 3 to 5 years to rebuild. He made a statement by winning the fa cup, and then started the rebuild after steadying the ship… Read more »
Weagle
“Pierre the old crusty string of smegma was all for selling Martinelli the other day and I am the one supposedly choosing between them.”
You forgot to mention that I also said i would replace Eddie with Broja as well as Olise for Martinelli. …Olise is quality and Broja could be the srriker to watch in the next few years.
AFCF, If you can find instances of me calling Tomiyasu or Ramsdale bad signings etc, please go ahead. And puh-lease!! Some of the most ardent Arteta supporters love to crap on our players, especially after a bad result. It’s just another way of deflecting blame from the manager. How many times on this very site was Auba called a disgrace? Martinelli was apparently not even good enough for a league start just a few months ago. Pepe is generally spoken about as lacking intelligence and lazy. Even Saliba was being slammed before his Marseille form. If the player is on… Read more »
IAT, Where we definitely disagree is that even paying him the 2nd half of this season, but being released from paying him all of next season was not unexpected for me. We all knew we’d have to pay partial salary to get him out.. so it’s the same as paying partial weekly through next season. I know you knew that.. your smart enough. He was not a trouble maker in the squad, but he would’ve been a huge distraction to the boys going out there every week. Surely you can see that in the way this team is playing. Moving… Read more »
Berg10Kamp
I think you’ve touched on an important point.
Unlike most businesses football expects instant results.Fans get carried along with the media narrative and lose all sense of reality. Arsenal wasn’t an overnight job it was a big rebuild due to years of mismanagement & silly contracts. The problem when you keep changing manager, is you build no continuity. Different ideas, different coaches, different tactics etc. No momentum. It’s where Spuds went wrong sacking Poch. Levy is a classic ‘Manager Obsessive’., Mourinho guaranteed success in his mind. You need patience and live in reality not fantasyland.
The culture talk is for me the same as the values talk under Wenger. Ask any club if the have them and the answer will be in the affirmative. More than culture or values I’m interested in accountability. Klopp said ”if we don’t win the PL title within four years I will have failed”. That some culture and values I can get behind. And I’m not even asking Arteta to win the title in four years but the club can’t even specify hard targets fir this or any other season. “I just want to see all our players stay fit… Read more »
Exactly afcf. I am totally against swapping managers when things don’t go well as u basically start from scratch every time. A manager needs 3 to 5 years to build a team from the ground up. Starting with setting a culture built on discipline and attitude grounded in the vision of the club and manager. Then getting the players out who cannot adapt to that culture and getting players who want to bleed for the team and the vision. We have gone through these steps and are very close to completing the rebuild and then challenging. In fact, we will… Read more »
IAT Robbie
Mate, my generalisation was spot on. All of those things were said, I don’t recall claiming you said them all? We even had people claiming they would be setting up Arteta out WhatsApp groups! Because they didn’t like having to share opinions with those of us who felt different. So my point remains –
However what I just don’t understand are all these attempts to discredit the team and manager when it’s doing so well. That seems odd to me.
Tom, he has targets as any other person in a job does. Saying he doesnt have targets is just naive. He’s targets however are realistic based on what he agreed he is able to achieve. You also need to understand that targets are different if the vision is different. Right now the vision is rebuild. The targets will change when the rebuild is done and the vision changes to challenge.
AFCforever YES MATE – “ Imagine shitting on your team when it’s exceeding your expectations. They’ve got it all wrong.
What a way to support your team, pathetic”
Long time lurker, want to pipe up that it’s hilarious how much some people hate on their own team on here and equally great how it smashes up LeGrove SEO etc etc so keep at it I guess. Love the direction at the club currently.. Pride genuinely in process of being restored at Arsenal, just had to go backward a bit before we could move forward…
OK Vladimir Pedro. You win. Time for a self imposed sabbatical. I thoroughly deserve it after taking the team up after Wolves. I’m sorry for being an Arsenal fan and thinking I could express that on here. Ciao.
MoodHoover
“AFC – YES MATE. Long time lurker, want to pipe up that it’s hilarious how much some people hate on their own team”
Thanks. You are right about the pride being restored. For me, seeing players giving a damn means a lot. The vast majority feel the same it’s just a tiny extreme faction that say otherwise. This is just the start now, I’m looking forward to the next few years, something is brewing!!
Klopp was rebuilding too wasn’t he?
How many left from Pool’s 2013/14 season when they almost won the league and had the best striker in the PL with 31 goals and 17 assist in the PL play, whom they lost to Barca that year?
That didn’t stop him from saying what he did.
@Terraloon – yup, add in the summer splurge and we’re about £200m in debt. Probably not an issue if the Kroenke’s continue to own the club but eventually they’ll expect a return either by sale of assets (players) or an increase in the club’s net worth (which means CL qualification).
Possibly more of an issue is post-Covid FFP, whatever form that takes.
Tom – it’s comparing apples and oranges, Arteta was a rookie inheriting a squad that had its pants pulled down in EL final, with a number of clown players dropping clangers and not fronting. I think to get from there to here in two seasons is strong game and saying so doesn’t mean I also think Tets gets a clear 20 year run at the job Wenger. What he does get is a new contract and a couple more transfer windows to keep this ball rolling. Trying to paint the process as a failure doesn’t make sense now results are… Read more »
Lets get this naming thing straight. The majority here belong to one of two groups. Arteta Fan boys with their leader Pedro and his minions identify themselves by their comments in the group going by AKBs “Arteta Knows Best”. Then there are those of us who are 100% THE Arsenal supporters and by our comments fit the acronym ANVRs or “Arteta Nevers”. Respect that choice as we respect your infatuation with Arteta can do no wrong. As such I am sure the ANVRs can identify with the Pink Floyd lyrics “The dream is gone, and I have become comfortably numb”… Read more »
Nigel,
LoL. We’re going to have agree to disagree. I just can’t justify such a gross misallocation of the club’s resources.
I think Arsenal are capable of greater things but at the same time we are also very capable of falling foul due to bad management. No club is too big to fade away, even Liverpool almost hit rock bottom under Hicks and Gillett.
“Why should fans care about that?”
I’m sure many Leeds and Blackburn fans said the same back in the day.
The silent majority begins to speak.
Almost every gooner I know, and even those I follow on pods and twitter, are with Pedro’s view and with our club right now. Not looking for tiny faults to drag the conversation negative.
Hey if the stars align perfectly and Lewandosky is presented to us in the summer….. would you pass? factoring the fact he would be 34 this summer..
@ Mulerise14 – absolutely worth the wages to someone, doubt we’d go nuts up for a golden oldie now we’ve just tightened up the squad but personally would love him alongside another young ST incoming for sure
I don’t get the comparison there Pedro,
“Klopp didn’t have to do the bulk of his rebuild in a pandemic”
I don’t know how relevant that really is considering the outlay of the club over that timeframe.
If anything, we had owners willing to give us a hand when the market was at its lowest and we still didn’t do as well as we could have.
Goobergooner, Klopp dropped 30 points in a season during a pandemic, pretty good indicator of how hard it was to work in that environment… especially for a rookie.
Nigel,
People can be behind the club and still say things how they feel. It’s called an opinion.
You’re not the blueprint for a fan you flog
So the pandemic caused the major injuries to his squad. Got it
Beef with Arteta is so so so boring – the fella captained the club, he has clearly restored pride and standards and if he left right t alone is a massive achievement setting us up well. Not sure what more people expected given the previous direction of travel ( ie obvious decline and hotter competition). Not read a rational argument to contrary and opinions just aren’t worth arguing about endlessly ~ COYG right?
It’s funny, because tets and the squad have given me so much more optimism this season, especially from where I found myself over his first 18 months. It’s ok to still not believe tets will take us to the pinnacle. Just my opinion. And as usual, for the love of the club I’d happily be proven wrong. But I think everyone on here knows we have progressed. Progressed from Emery and progressed from 8th. We are on an upturn. That cannot be denied. But some of these “bedwetters” have legitimate reasons for wetting the bed. I don’t think we should… Read more »
And to be honest, I’m nervous as fuck for top 4.
15-3 aggregate still haunts the fuck out of me.
In saying that, I believe Arteta to have a lot better defensive nous than latter Wenger so even if it takes us a couple of cl seasons to get the proper feel for it, I don’t think we will get properly spanked.
Arteta will agree that he’s made mistakes since he was appo8inted Arteta just recently said that there are things that he will do differently in 2022, compared to 2019. The hilarious thing is that Pedro never admitted Arteta was making mistakes in real time and now he’s waving the loyalty flag to beat up dissenters like raptora. IAT and Tom when they try to point out mistakes. Arteta comes across as a more frank and forthright dude that his defenders here. Many of us don’t have problems with Arteta per se, the relative progress he’s made on many fronts is… Read more »
See you later kroenkcunt you pompous arsehole.
Arteta recently expressed his regrets about the Saliba situation, good man that he is. In real time whilst it was happening, Pedro became so obsessed about defending Arteta that he and his acolytes started attacking those that were pointing out what clearly should have been handled better. In the long run, it may work out for Arsenal, hopefully … but it could have been handled better. He was a young manager in his FIRST pre-season, in the middle of a once in a 100 years pandemic so I empathize with him. You don’t keep Mustafi and leave Saliba in that… Read more »
Another one flounces out — fucking hilarious it is too
So now that things are going well for Arsenal (and Arteta) ..
The haters needed to find something.
Pedro schools them daily with stats and reality, the way normal fans are feeling right now..
Now their only response …… “ooh we’re not being fiscally responsible”
IAT can’t even praise Arteta because…. …,get this…
” gross Misallocation of resources”
That’s usually a nice way of saying embezzling LOL.
They’ve lost every football argument to Pedro, so now they resort to accounting arguments.
The club have professionals to sort that, don’t worry, you don’t have to be the guardian of the vault.
Rambinho
“See you later kroenkcunt you pompous arsehole.”
Real informative comment in an Arsenal blog. But thanks for it as it reveals your level of contributing to an intelligent conversation. Being a bit frustrated as KP put you into your place, no?
Dissenter,
‘HE MAKES MISTAKES’ is such a weird line of attack, like you the standard for an Arsenal manager was a zero mistake operator.
Thomas Tuchel, a rockstar coach, subbed off his best keeper to put a clown in who didn’t save 11 penalties and missed his own.
Also… pretty sure I have gone over plenty of his mistakes plenty of times.
I defended a good idea, now the idea is working. Good times. Not sure why so many are on here today trying to reimagine what has gone on.
Pedro If Arteta makes mistakes like every manager does , what’s wrong with posters like raptora exploring those errors. Moreso when you seem to operate in real time with a notion that Arteta can make no mistakes and when you have no choice, you blur it or ascribe the error to someone else. It doesn’t take courage to kowtow or agree with you here. You’re gifted at what you do and your ebullience is a sight to behold. I don’t know how you cram all that you do for Arsenal into 24 hours and provide it for free. You know… Read more »
Kiljoy,
I know you’re not bright enough to realize, but Kroenkephobe has been as nasty as anybody here.
He’ll be back anyway.
He’ll be rightfully shunned in real-life, so he won’t have anywhere else to go to spew his negative opinions.
Everton have done what Arsenal ought to have one ages ago: complained to PL about dreadful referee-ing.. What is unsaid but implicit is that it’s biased referee-ing. What Arsenal should do now is voice that. It’s not playing the victim, it is fighting back. We do’t want to see (as we’ve seen in the past) Arsenal lose out because of Mike & Co. One puff and PGMOL will be blown away. Another key issue is that European leagues run by the Clubs is back on the table. The Liverpool version was stupid and bound to fail. But IMO run properly… Read more »
” Klopp dropped 30 points in a season during a pandemic, pretty good indicator of how hard it was to work in that environment… especially for a rookie ” Pedro, you keep saying this over and over despite all evidence available that it was injuries and not the pandemic as the main culprit. I suppose stats like 18 different CB pairings during the season didn’t do it for you so let’s try another angle: ”Across the four seasons from 2016/17 to 2019/20, the Reds played a total of 213 matches in all competitions. The most players who were absent at… Read more »
Seriously Nigel.
Fuck off with your normal fans bs
Nigel,
Yikes!!!
I prefer your commentary when you’re not in full-on bootlicking mode. I’m sorry but this is something else. My words aren’t bullets and they won’t hurt Pedro, so there’s no need to be so toady. I’m guessing you completely ignored the financial summary Andy posted.
How can you in the same vein call me a “guardian of the vault” when half your time on this site is spent gatekeeping. Everyone with the slightest bit of skepticism is a “hater” to you.
Pedro, Last week, you posted a table of some of our underlying metrics. I highlighted that it also showed that we were also outperforming all those expected metrics. Which was true. You then brought up our goal tally since Auba got binned. I said over half the goals had been scored against Leeds and Norwich. I made that point because those are sides that concede a lot and Auba has scored a lot against them. Big Per also made note of our varying success against the different caliber of opponents we faced. Both of those points were true. You are… Read more »
None of us are qualified to monitor or police anyone else’s emotions in regard to how we support Arsenal, each individual has their own expectations of what the club should or shouldn’t do, but what tends to unite supporters is regularly winning prestigious trophies and challenging for football’s biggest titles.
I wonder if there is another fan base out there who constantly feel the need to ridicule and spread genuine nastiness and hatred among their own ‘family’ as Arsenal fans do.
It can’t be healthy to still have deep divisions about your club.
IAT, not sure what your point is… that big scores don’t count? We’re registering 3rd most shots, 4th most on target, and we have the 3rd most goals in the league since Auba left. We’re 2 points off 4th. We’ve kept the 3rd most clean sheets. We have the youngest team in the league. The fans in the ground are LOVING how things are going. But bigper thinks we’ve played shit teams? Despite us being 2 points off 4th after 24 games? … I do get annoyed. People spent the first half of this season coming on here absolutely loving… Read more »
Herbs,
There isn’t a place for people who thrive on losing and can’t enjoy wins IRL at the ground.
Those people do get policed.
… and yes, every fanbase has a toxic base. Just listen to Mark Goldbridge talking about United fans this weekend.
Rabinho = Don who was told by Pedro he could never come back. Yet here he still is almost getting to moniker number 156. Nigel thinks K’phobe is nasty – must have been something in Nigel’s milk as a baby or maybe he was a triplet with stronger siblings, where he now lives in unicorn land, soon to reside in Willy Wonker’s chocolate factory when he becomes the Voice of flavorless Untold-Le-Grove. Pedro forgetting how fickle fans can be and will know from the fans in the stadium if we finish 6 or lower; Pedro’s ready made excuse. Different chatter… Read more »
Arsenal aren’t winning real trophies, Pedro, and aren’t even targeting silverware. You’re happy to get unnaturally excited about jumping up a couple of places in the PL whilst still being miles off the challengers, and frame it as success, in the way that a club like Burnley would celebrate avoiding relegation. As I said in a previous thread, there are fans of clubs who can rightfully crow, because they are winning real, significant silverware, you have just found a way of putting a really positive new spin on the way Arsenal have been operating since football resumed after WWII. Arsenal… Read more »
Herb’s Army “Arsenal may be a name many people respect across the world of football, are they feared? Not in the slightest.” I think we’re beginning to instill fear in other teams or at least uncertainty now we are adding points and growing as a collective player wise. Other than that I agree pre GG we rolled with our losses which made the wins all the more enjoyable & something to savor. I remember back in the mid 80s? I think we were 13 points ahead of United at Xmas only to lose the PL to them that season. That… Read more »
Herbs I dont why you’re being so pessimistic , you say we shouldnt celebrate getting into Europe ? A position so significant that it will dictate our transfer and our ability to get top targets . I know you wont like me saying this but I do feel Pedro is right here , these bunch of players we have now are so good , add some fresh young but talented faces to it in summer and we can have a title challenging squad here . Arsenal are building something special and you’d be blind if you cant see it right… Read more »
well i guess what some folks are saying is that we shouldn’t give Arteta his crown prior to winning the 4th place trophy
While the underlying metrics are good. End of the day, hard results are important and there are still 14 games to go.
I might beat on the 4th place drum but the truth is that we win 10, draw 2 and lose 2 but still fail to get top 4, I will be pretty much Arteta stay for next season
Divine Arsenal’s recent history since WWII has been one of austerity with the financial handbrake firmly on, that philosophy hasn’t suddenly changed with new American owners. Stan isn’t bothered about success for Arsenal, for him it’s purely business. For decades Arsenal always appointed either complete novices or the cheapest option for the manager position, which goes back even further than Billy Wright. Liverpool had a free hit in the ’70s, Tony, United were relegated, and after a shocking couple of seasons under Bertie Mee, Arsenal waved the white flag by appointing Terry Neill. Arsenal threw ten years away with Neill… Read more »
It’s not fair to compare Klopp wiht Arteta. Klopp had exp when he took over Liverpool. I was never a fan of.emery when he was appointed. I was rooting for Arteta and was very happy when he was appointed after a midnight coup. I was even more happy when he won the FA Cup. Admittedly last season was disappointing. The nil-nil home tie to Emerys team was energy sapping. The summer TW was very good and for large parts of this season has been great. I said it at the start of the season that at half way stage if… Read more »
Herbs
You sound like a relic from the middle ages with the “I have seen it all and nothing excites me anymore” policing attitude because I am an old ancient fart.
The line “recent history since WW2” is the most relic-ky statement ever. Have to give you props for such an amazing mental picture.
Herbs
I respect your knowledge and life that you have lived , I get it following Arsenal aint easy . But purely from the squad perspective , dont you believe that this group of players are good enough ? Also you cant claim austerity when we have been one of the highest spending clubs in recent times. As much as I hate Kroenke , Arsenal have spent more money under him albeit not so smartly .
That’s how long Arsenal have been operating with the exact same philosophy they do today, Dark Hei.
Dark Hei Herb’s Army just has 30+ years to remember and judge than you, as do I. The club was much different prior to Wenger’s arrival that so many fans only grew up with. I’m not saying us old ancient farts as you so endearingly refer to us by are full of past rhetoric, but we see and understand more the ‘modus operandi’ of the club since the late 1940s for a few here or early 60s for me. Doesn’t make us any better fans than new fans today just we have a different view of the club’s history to-date.… Read more »
To be perfectly honest, Divine, after watching Liverpool win their first European Cup in ’77, I just wanted to live long enough to see Arsenal lift one too.
I could have cried my eyes out when Jens Lehmann got sent off after 20 mins in Paris, 2006.
Now I have to accept that Arsenal aren’t that club, they never seem to generate the hunger or desire to reach that level, and in the bigger picture it is disappointing.
‘As much as I hate Kroenke , Arsenal have spent more money under him albeit not so smartly.’
Therein lies the problem, Divine, players bought are not the Kroenke’s fault it’s the management they approved of that wasted the money from Wenger 2nd decade onwards. Wenger still found the odd gem, but as a collective under Wenger’s fading tutelage we failed with tiki-taki football going nowhere fast.
Hence no PL title for the last 12 years of Wenger. He’d run out of ideas and the rest of the PL passed him by improving all the time.
This is where Arsenal finished in the table for the last 3 seasons and we have yet to finish where Emery ended up his last full season in charge. That does not look to me like an improvement YET. Yes there is an upward swing and it looks very promising but until it is all done and dusted don’t count your chickens yet. 2018-2019 Arsenal finished with 70 points under Emery and ended up 5th with EL 2019-2020 Arsenal finished with 56 points under Arteta and ended up 8th, EL because of FA Cup 2020-2021 Arsenal finished with 61 points… Read more »
Watched Joao Felix clips…. not quite impressive if am honest ! His physique could also be a problem playing in the PL, kinds Morata ish.
Darwin Nunez.seems a viable alternative, similar/better output though different league. More robust and direct
…
We need more than one anyway! Going to be fun in the TW…
Useroz
The TW fun?
I think the striker search gonna be tedious and painful
Wow Killroy straight out of daycare are we. We support the Arsenal, and that means supporting the manager and the boys. He is doing well so why not support him? If he was fucking up I would understand. Sounds like a witch hunt to me. Most of us supporting Arteta now have criticised him before when he made dumb decisions and cost us. But now is different. So we even tho things are going well we must sack him and start over? Muppet.
It has been said before. Which manager will replace him? Conte? Rangnick? Nuno? Potter? Bielsa? Some other continental manager? Arteta is doing well and better than the aforementioned. So chill bruh.
Herbs army. Good post. Context is everything. We were shite for most of the time before George Graham in th 50s and 60s. We have never been serious contenders except for a few seasons under Wenger when the only challengers were Utd. Once Chelsea came on the scene we dropped out.
Incidentally I read Saka putting contract talks on hold. True or not it is an indication of things to come. Now where is that long term project ?
Yeah we need at least 2 forwards, 1 striker and a winger/striker. Then we need 2 CM and a RB. Bring back Saliba. And promote patino, azeez, John jules, Hutchinson, salah as back up squad players.
That would leave us with 4 good CB, 2 RB, 2 LB, 5CM, 5 wingers, 3 Strikers and a decent youth squad to choose from. Also Tomi can play CB and white can play RB. The squad would be able to compete if we get the right signings.
Tony and Herb’s Army – I tend to agree your historical perspective. I am no fan of Tony Atwood on Untold but at least he understand footballing history unlike many on here Have to pick you up on one thing though Tony “ remember back in the mid 80s? I think we were 13 points ahead of United at Xmas only to lose the PL to them that season.That was the nature of the Div 1 in those days. Either Pool or United were the main contenders each year/decade with us trying to beat them to cups and PL titles.”… Read more »
I think anybody on here who thinks things will always be as they are and will follow the same failure bandwidth are conveniently forgetting Chelsea , City and Liverpools previous spell of failure ( well within our memories) and of course UTDs current inability to move forward Arsenal had Money pumped into them during the 30’s only really broken by world war 2 A decent manager ( I think we have one ) sensible levels of funding ( Kroenkes are not tight with that ) and maybe a heartache of a key sale such as Saka or ESR having their… Read more »
Should add Chelsea’s near unbroken run of failure apart from success in the 50’s and a brief early 70’s
Interesting ‘overnight’ posts. A couple of thoughts: if you haven’t seen Rosenthal’s Amazon interview with Arteta it’s definitely worth noting that Arteta admitted to many mistakes. If you take this at face value I think this is healthy. I feel strongly that Arteta acknowledges his mishandling of Saliba and if he is able to convey that successfully to him then we could get to benefit from his return.When he was appointed, whether or not you hate the word, by employing a novice the owners had to factor in a learning curve, a project manager.p who was going to make errors.… Read more »
HerbsArmy I wish I could generate some excitement in you and convince you that this aint a false dawn . My reasoning being that its the early years under Kroenke who gained full ownership of the club , he tried one method of getting one experienced Director in Raul and that burned him . Now he went with a young team of Edu and Arteta , just like the Rams team . Regardless of the manager the player acquisition and the culture reboot is on point so far . Results are on an upswing but nothing concrete has been achieved… Read more »
DivineSherlock – this side feels the closest to Grahams vanguard as I’ve seen. Lots more money of course these days but raiding Sheffield UTD for Ramsdale and Brighton for White has a feel of grabbing Bould and Dixon and others from relative obscurity. The easy option would have been less money on Euro imports producing a mixed bag of performance and crappy results in the mud and wind at lower clubs.
Onwards and upwards
Killroy: Its all very well stating that Arteta finished 8th in his first season, but he took over in December when we were 10th.
Also worth reminding ourselves that Emery was fired after a 7 game winless streak, after losing 2-1 to Frankfurt.
I remember Emery’s Arsenal team being the worst I’d ever seen — we were shite under him
Bob N16 Point taken. Bertie’s team had slipped my mind but Im sure you get my gist
I think it is madness to make out this debate is about Arteta. It is only those who want him out who are obsessing on the manager. The rest of us, the vast majority by the way, are supporting this squad and what we see on the pitch. We aren’t slagging off the players or pretending we’re in a relegation battle. You would have to be a complete lunatic to be unhappy with what we are doing this season and an even bigger one to want to change the manager now. Seriously, fans of other clubs call us self-entitled and… Read more »
I do get your point Bard. I remember those ‘difficult’ years as a kid so clearly, at least from the early 70s onwards. Brady shone the brighter for being in a team that never challenged for the title.
Let’s hope the 18 years between titles, 71- 89 is not going to be too much different from 2004 to ?
Matt B
“Also worth reminding ourselves that Emery was fired after a 7 game winless streak, after losing 2-1 to Frankfurt.I remember Emery’s Arsenal team being the worst I’d ever seen — we were shite under him.”
I was in the Emirates when we drew with Frankfurt. The stadium was half empty and there were banners everywhere calling for Emery to be sacked. I don’t like to see that but the team was getting worse every week. My own view is the players down tooled, exactly as Freddie had warned. We were terrible without the ball, shocking.
Killjoy”” let’s get this naming thing straight “ Indeed.& please stop trying to slyly avoid being called a “ Bedwetter” everyone knows who you( plural) are.So stop trying to rename yourself.It was/ is “ Bedwetter” for damned good reasons.Which is proven here on a daily basis.
It’s now effectively down to a small hardcore of around half a dozen who it would appear from their attitude would glad
Y see Arteta fail & by association,Arsenal .Is that what you call being a fan?To come on here daily to discredit any progress whatsoever.Very,very,warped thinking.Ego driven no doubt.
Bob / Bard
Do you remember Brue Riochs reign? Adrian Clarke tells some great stories about Rioch and his attempts to build team spirit with cakes, of all things!
AFC forever.Great piece.But the Bedwetter ego can’t lose face.Humiliating.
AFC Forever
A great post, agree with every word
I will only add that the anti-arteta brigade appear to hate to be proven wriong more than they support the Club. Sad.
ACFC, discussing Arsenal at any time is around a myriad of subjects, squad acquisitions, progressions, contracts, way of playing, squad depth, priority upgrades, individual player’s form, combinations, team selections, strategy, history, match ups. I could go on and on! The manager and his performance is about as integral to the success of the team as any individual. To not criticise and analyse his decisions would be obviously be ridiculous. I agree with your point that wanting him out now is a pretty odd take on his and the team’s current trajectory but he must be open to criticism – we’re… Read more »
AFCF, to be honest the only thing about Rioch that sticks in the mind is him standing next to DB 10 when he signed!!
Madhu
Well said, exactly how I feel,i praise Arteta when he does well and criticize him when doesn’t but most importantly I support the team because Arteta will go but Arsenal will remain