That was a line from Mikel Arteta’s press conference and it felt apt.
It’s April 8th, we’ve had a bad game after a fine run of form and now the press and a certain type of fan is rolling out the classics.
‘SHOULD HAVE KEPT AUBA’
‘CHAMBERS AND AINS WOULD BE HANDY’
‘LACAZETTE CAN’T SCORE’
‘OUR JANUARY WAS A SHAMBLES’
‘WHEN CAN WE START HOLDING THE MANAGER ACCOUNTABLE’
All of these moments, when put in a tweet, or an internet comment, could be classed as legitimate… because they are ‘on paper’ comments.
Sure, if you have the Ainsley who was an FA Cup hero in the semi’s and the final, then you have a plug-and-play opportunity this weekend. What’s the truth though? Shocking at West Brom, so bad, Sam Allardyce advised him to just do what he’s told and be a right back. Terrible at Roma, he’s cycled through 4 positions, none of them central midfield, now he’s a benchwarmer. Also, factor in the human side of ‘Ainsley would be good right now’… do you really think a player that begged to go in January would be in good mental shape if we’d held him at Colney against his wishes… until April 9th, when we’d finally have the minutes for him? If you say ‘yes’ to this question, you have absolutely no idea about how people work.
Cal Chambers is another one that gets thrown into the mixer, I think they call players like him crash test dummies… only good as training ground bodies. He’s a MIB (Men In Black) player when it comes to Arsenal fans. We’ve seen what he can do, we see the mistakes, but as soon as he’s gone, we forget about the limitations. Again, 27 years old, 6 months left on his deal, no place in our side all season, and you think he’d be ready to take us to top 4 now? No chance.
I actually haven’t heard many people clamour for Auba, but someone asked in a press conference. Arteta’s response was basically, ‘I haven’t heard this question for 7 weeks’… why? Because we’ve been absolutely fine without Auba. We play better football, rack up more points, more players are involved, and we rack up more goals as a team. It’s a lazy thing to point to… but it looks good on paper.
Another go-to has been the January transfer window, and again, on paper, of course some signings would have made the world of sense. But let’s be honest, it only makes sense on April 8th because we have injuries. Without the signings people said we needed, we are joint points with Spurs who are 4th, so we’ve done a good job so far.
So what are people asking for right now? A central midfielder that could slip into the side that could match Thomas Partey?
Please.
There’s simply not a player in the world that would have sat behind Partey on the bench for 3 months that could slip in and do a job now. Bruno Guimarães, the internets favourite player, the man who was going to take Newcastle to the promised land (‘Arsenal are a dead club’ hissy fits all over), can’t even displace Jonjo Shelvey. Bentancur? He was purchased as a starting midfielder for Spurs.
Then let’s look at the strikers. Alex Isak? 4 goals since November, ‘just do it’ for £75m because that is what ‘ambition’ looked like? Imagine. Even Dusan Vlahovic is on the struggle bus, he’s scored in 3 games, notching 4 goals so far. If he’s struggling to adapt to Juve, imagine how he’d be doing in the Premier League? That’s not to say he won’t bang as a striker, it’s just to point out that even top tier signings struggle to contribute instantly.
Donny Van De Beek? Coutinho? How are Everton and Villa doing?
Now, these players might all come good next season. My point is that pointing to the lack of transfers feels good on paper, but look at the successes, they’ve been limited… because it is really hard to adapt to a new system in the Premier League… and bigger picture, a fair chunk of those transfers have been bad.
‘JUST SIGN BODIES’ is old Arsenal. It’s Pablo Mari on loan. It’s Mikhtayran. It’s Kimmy K with a broken back.
Catastrophisation and aggressive finger-wagging is where a lot of people go in football nowadays without considering the full human or business context of what they are complaining about.
People need to stop crying.
Our back-up to Thomas Partey is going to be Sambi Lokonga. Remember, he was excellent in the first half of the season. We have to hope he can slip back into the side and do a job on limited minutes. Next to Xhaka, why not?
Our right-back situation has a whole number of ways it can be resolved. Nuno could get the minutes, Cedric could shift over the left, Xhaka could slip into that position.
If you take two of the best players out of any team, they are in trouble. It happened to Liverpool and they dropped 30 points on the season prior. If Spurs lost Harry Kane on his own, they’d be totally fucked. Look at how bad Leicester have been without Fofana.
… but we have to adapt. If the players were as weak-kneed as some of our fans, we’d be in deep shit.
There are 9 games to go. Brighton at home is going to need the fans behind the players. If we take the points there, we live to fight our next cup final against Southampton.
The key for the squad here is to step it up, not fear what has yet to happen. Some fans could do with implementing that advice themselves.
Right, that’s me done, see you in the comments. x
Spurs showing what a decent experienced manager can achieve 4-0 up bet Utd regret not taking him
Man, all this stuff about the team improving is utter horse$h*te!
On pace for 57 goals scored and 45.7 conceeded, in the exact expected range as the last two years.
8th 8th and 8th would be an immdiate cause for firing if our club has any ambition at all.
Damn team only came alive in last 10 minutes, Mikel just needs to play hungry players in the positions they play and get the F out of the way, let them PLAY!
Kulusevski the transfer of the year for sure
*came off the bus
We hung on for a dog shit 1 0 there, but yeah conte will burn the house down. Ones a football manager, the other a bullshitting fraud. You work out who’s who.
Great, so it is a 4 point gap now.
You wouldnt play Xhaka at lb in fifa or football manager let alone a live pl game ffs.
Seems Conte understand football is about goals and not about xG nonsense.
xG is a metric that losers use to excuse a lost game. Thw only thing that matters in football is the scoreline.
By the way Conte is solving Spurs 8th place form in half a season, Arteta is still trying to figure out his own mess.
If we were decided to stick with a manager no matter what Emery was a much better option, RESULTS DONT LIE
Spuds hammering AV. They deserve 4th. Coming strong when it matters. And we crumble when it matters.
I remember in 2008 after losing to Hull how I dumb struck that evening, losing to a bad Brighton side I’m not .How far this club/ side has fallen
Imagine what Spurs can do in the summer with Conte’;s pulling power and CL qualification?
Can’t wait to read about what an overrated prima Donna Conte is 😂
‘’ Arteta got his team selection wrong today, we groaned at the prospect of Xhaka at left back and so it proved‘’
Went to the game today, Xhaka actually one of our better .players. defeat had nothing to do with him
Son Kane and Kulusevski combining really well smfh
Great, so it is a 4 point gap now.
Do you still hope for 4th place?
though I have to say our best 11 with Harry Kane would challenge both Liverpool and Man city.
Spuds are absolutely shite in CM like ourselves but the worry is that if Conte can bring in a player or two like Barella/Brozovic from Inter even they would be a far stronger side.
Spurs did good Jan business and are picking up form at the right time. We refused to bring in players and are now out of form with a very thin squad. The momentum is firmly in their favour and if we’re being frank, our CL hopes went up in smoke in this week.
just chomping at the bit to see what’s on offer from Pedro the Apologist on the heels of back-to-back shrinking violet performances…I’m sure it will be a series of well-disguised excuses and a mixed metaphor or two to boot…just keep in mind the lessons learned from the late great Chris Farley, in his role as Tommy Boy, that you can put a steaming pile of shit in a fancy box, but at the end of the day, it’s still a steaming pile of shit
Son-Kane-Kulu is as good a front 3 as there is in the league.
Yea G this defeat is not on Xhaka. Once he moved back into midfield we played better.
This is on the manager, not the team. Awful man management with Nuno. He has regressed so badly from the start of the season its unreal. its like football has been coached out of him.
had we had a second choice LB that could have covered for KT we could have won that game.
Fuck off arteta,you are a fraud. A total fucking joke. Conte might be a twat but hes good at his job…xhaka Atletico back, get fucked chrissy Houghton.
Benjamin
I think that we have blown it mate.
You cannot pick up 0 points from Palace and Brighton thos late on in the season and expect to finish 4th.
First time watching a game in a while. Xhaka was good today.
We’re on pace to concede more goals than last year despite having spent 50m on White and 32m on Ramsdale. Still offensively challenged as well. Manager has to be sacked. No other way around it
That’s 16 goals in their last 5 games
Hi Sal.. said all along Kroenke will most likely re-sign Arteta unless we collapse. to 6th or worse. Because that’s how Kroenke rolls with all his teams.. very reluctant to change managers.
The likelihood of a collapse just went up though.. hugely. with recent injury developments and no real idea on how to manage it. and our goal drought. No idea what makes Teta .. look at Xhaka and say yep lets put him in space as a fullback.
And Son is in superman mode currently. Dark Day.
G
“Xhaka actually one of our better .players. defeat had nothing to do with him”
Can you explain where the fuck he was positionally when the Brighton player had acres of space to go down the left wing and pull back for Trossard to score their first goal?
At left.
Actually, Xhaka has everything to do with Arteta’s Arsenal.
Whatever way you look at things, keeping him was a monumental mistake on the part of Arteta.
Fair play to you Pedro for trying, but sometimes you just can’t sell the turd.
It amazes me how posters that police the blog for positiveness and were back slapping one another for being the first to back Arteta have all disappeared.
WengerEagle,
Apparently Spurs have scored the most goals in 2022 – more than Man C and Liverpool.
Now that’s what you call a Pedro Stat.
This fanbase deserves all it gets when they still laud Granit Xhaka.
He was in no mans land as a fullback for Brigton’s first goal miles up the pitch but let’s forget about that because he didn’t make an absolute key stone cops error in the game.
No keystone cops error = good game for Xhaka.
Tragic it really is.
Dream Yeah, look we all know that White is a decent player but none of us were against his signing because he he was a poor player. It was because spending £50m on essentially a David Luiz replacement when we have no goalscoring ST or a competent CM partner for Partey was madness. And the goals drought and general subpar MF control of the past few weeks has shown that once again. People were talking about White as if he were prime Benckenbauer on the ball. In reality he is good but not great on the ball and suspect defensively… Read more »
Seems we are going to be asking Saliba to come down a level to return for next season.
Marseille will likely qualify for the CL and Arsenal will be very lucky to finish in a EL place
Words
Kulusevski was the missing piece up top it would seem.
And the improvement under Conte is pretty obvious.
Cheers Graham62…thanks for properly disregarding all these simpleton posters that have been fluffing Xhaka up on here, as they lack the requisite perspective to understand that everything changed, tactically-speaking, once the second goal was potted…anyone can look the part once the opposition parked the proverbial bus, as that usually means time and space on the ball for those in the deepest midfield positions
“It amazes me how posters that police the blog for positiveness and were back slapping one another for being the first to back Arteta have all disappeared.“
Not even about bragging about being first to back Arteta, that’s absolutely fine in my book…..but rather about acting as if the verdict was in and Arteta’s project had been an overwhelming success, and any reservations one might have was a sign of bed wetting.
teirney played full 90 for Scotland in both their friendly’s but Robertson only played 58 mins total – why was he playing that much in games that meant nothing ?
Big miss on Conte just like Galtier in the summer and Marco Rose before him. Can only really think of Amorim for the summer as a replacement for the current bum
DissenterApril 9, 2022 19:01:01
The wheels game off the bus at Selhurtst Park on Monday and Arteta decided to replace them with 10 inch wheelbarrow wheels for today’s game
Lol totally
We made lots of iffy transfer decisions last summer
Why go into a season depending on Partey’s fitness, when he’s proven he’s made of glass. He needs to be a rotational player, same way players like Gundogan doin’t start every game.
The way to get the most from Partey is to plan to have him available for 50-60% of games.
“Spuds are absolutely shite in CM like ourselves but the worry is that if Conte can bring in a player or two like Barella/Brozovic from Inter even they would be a far stronger side“
WEagle, Conte will do exactly that. He’s already said he doesn’t like the idea of Kane dropping deep to link up play. He wants him more around the box.
Pedro will write a tough post tomorrow
By Tuesday, his faux anger would have cleared and he’ll come up with some strange stat he found on some twitter page.
Wenger Eagle
Well said. The issue for me is people are treating Ben White as if he is a game changer. David Luiz was an excellent player on very successful teams. I am comfortable in saying that White will not be as good as Luiz.
If you’re on track to score 55 goals three seasons in a row, you do not deserve CL football. Would we better off if the club spent 90m on two top attackers instead of White Ramsdale and Tavares? Not a significant upgrade on Saliba, Mavro, Leno, AMN is it?
Eh, we aren’t replacing Arteta. I doubt even another eighth place finish would get him the sack. We just consistently make subpar decisions as a club and they even if they aren’t clear mistakes, they add up over time. Failing to reinforce midfield in the summer, weakening the squad in January, riding Partey until he broke down, poor squad management … it’s all biting us in the ass now. It is very painful to be an arsenal fan and I’m worried about missing out on champions league. It will affect our recruiting, and it has now been what, 6 years?… Read more »
Who else feels physically nauesiatically sick at how shit we have become. We are fucking clown show of a club even the perfect spurs manage to sign a world class manager and come ahead of us. We are such a joke we will preach the fact we have the youngest squad as some glorious failure for not reaching top four just like Wenger with project youth. We are a has been club full Of losers.
Pathetic spurs*
Imh opinion Vieira would be the right choice
for us. He would bring stabillity and winning
Mentality, something this fraud never had. He was a point captain and a even worse manager.
Let’s not forget either that Conte dropping Davison Sanchez has also benefitted them.
He was a hindrance to that Spurs defence for a long time.
They are not concrete at the back still by any stretch but they have aided themselves in that regard by binning him.
big ups WengerEagle…this is why I spoke at some length mid-week about the importance of the tactical ingenuity displayed by Conte against Newcastle last week…by convincing Kane to be the facilitator by coming deep, then overloading the right, it afforded Son plenty of 1 v.1 opportunities, as it stretched the opposing backline…possibly even more savvy was his late game offensively-minded subs, so that they could gain some much-needed confidence by further pressing their boots in the opposition’s throat…meanwhile, back at the Emirates, Arteta was training his players how to win a match by boring the living shit of their opponents
“Ben White and Ramsdale will improve our attack”
We have scored 45 goals in the league this season, and conceded 36. Just 3 shy of last season’s 39 with 8 games to go.
Both cost us £80m.
Mics
We have the youngest squad in the league. Are you not happy with that??
I can actually imagine knobhead Nigel using that down the pub as some badge of honour.
Spurs want it more then us..Son warming up to face us..top 4 is out of our hands now…realistically with the current form we are in 7th is more likely !
If we cannot beat Brighton at home..forget about beating Chelsea Spurs abd Wedt Ham away..might play for a draw in those games
It was abundantly obvious that celebrating a glorious successful season after just 2/3 of games being played was naive but trying to conjure up irrelevant no convenient statistics to prove how everything was rosy in the garden was not just reckless it was pathetic. About three months ago I floated the likelihood that at best Arsenal would be in next season’s EL Conference and I got pelters. I personally Thai I that is far more likely than not. Obviously Liverpool, City and ever more likely Chelsea will get the top three and more than likely Spurs.will get 4th Palace are… Read more »
Middy Wasn’t a go at you more the reality in which we live in my mind, even if we finish 7th Arteta starts next season. We don’t have a Levy persona who cuts shot of Nuno the moment he realises he’s fucked that hire and goes back in on Conte with everything he can. Levy’s made SO many poor choices over the years but that and holding his stance on Kane will see them back into the champions league. High risk strategy with rewards. All that with supposed new stadium debt. Arsenal living in the future, making the now quite… Read more »
Hehe chickens coming home to roost
“ Ben White and Ramsdale will improve our attack”We have scored 45 goals in the league this season, and conceded 36. Just 3 shy of last season’s 39 with 8 games to go.Both cost us £80m.”
That’s pretty fucking daming I didn’t realise it was that bad
I was saying all summer that we would need 70 goals for CL but we would struggle to reach 55-60 and low and behold.
Its all coming full circle now.
spot on once again WengerEagle…the whole misconstrued narrative surrounding those of us who questioned the White acquisition, needs to be properly addressed once and for all…no one was railing against the possibility of snagging a higher ceiling homegrown talent, as that was the silver lining, it was far more about paying over the number for a relatively untested player when we had Saliba already on the books, who plays the exact same position, instead of properly addressing our far more pressing needs
A few on this blog nailed it last summer’s window from Champagne Charlie, WE and Middy all asking why this clubs signing a CB on similar level to Saliba when we could unleash that cash on Tammy Abraham and here we are.
It’s not slight on Ben White, its a huge slight on the structure of building a football squad.
not to mention Salpara, when you’re in “rebuild” node you simply can’t afford to go silent during any window, incoming-wise, especially after wasting a whole season with an ill-advised “retool” experiment
The problem with having the youngest squad that doesn’t achieve much success will eventually lead to best young players being poached by more successful clubs. And then what are you left with? It’s very dangerous waters we’re swimming in atm. The honourable way out of this Josh Kroenke created mess is to thank Mikel Arteta for the dreat job he’s done in changing the culture etc and maybe offer him to ManUre or Everton to change their culture too, get in Vieira this summer to bring some real stability and “take the club next step forward”, therefore saving Josh Kroenke’s… Read more »
The problem with Arteta is that he is a chameleon. When he came in his project was all about experience. He clung to David Luiz, he brought in Willian etc. It was failing. Then when circumstances left him with no choice, he had to play the better Hale Enders. It turned out they had the required hunger, energy and talent. So it was that Arteta’s project clock was reset like a Cambodian Year Zero, and the narrative became all about a revamped profile of player, giving our academy stars their chance and recruiting younger talent. Arteta’s biggest fans seem to… Read more »
Mikel Arteta has lost 12 of his 45 Premier League games at the Emirates.
Arsene Wenger lost just 12 of his last 116 home league matches.
in agreement with so many of your points InsideRight…for me personally when MA deviated from the original “rebuild” intent of his hiring(aka building a young team under a young manager) following his first sniff at success, he shouldn’t have been allowed to stay on, let alone be given the largest transfer kitty ever known at our storied club….I’m a strong believer in the notion that past behaviour is the greatest predictor of future behaviour and as such once he showed that he cared infinitely more about his own selfish interests than those of the clubs, he should have been summarily… Read more »
Look on the bright side you bloody whingers, the team in the league trophy is already ours! Plus, I’m positive Pete will be able to concoct some sort of table that shows that we are actually as good as city and Liverpool have been over the past year, if you splice together the data just so, and ignore the three opening games, the most recent two losses and the Everton and Man United losses. Ffs, we’re right there!
What I love the most about the hypocrisy of Peter, just one basic small observation is he accuses people of being ‘bed wetters’ and I’ve reacting. Yet, when conte had a little wobble at spurs Pete was all over it straight away saying he was an arsonist etc.
Total joke of a blog these days.
Over reacting*
‘Mikel Arteta has lost 12 of his 45 Premier League games at the Emirates.’
Damning, that is poor for a supposed top team
I have a sinking feeling that MA hired the same PR team as Baker Mayfield did, in order to secure both the Heisman and the first overall pick, which is why he somehow managed to get a promotion after a cup of coffee on the job and likewise secured an unheard of war chest following a self-inflicted dumpster fire of a season…if you put in the requisite amount of man hours you can massage any stats to fit your particular narrative…that’s why the “eye test” is the ultimate barometer.
Dream 10 that’s a lot of home losses indeed man what a shit day
After 30 games played, Vieira had lost one game less than Arteta.
Let’s face it, Arteta has broken a LOT of records in his tenure.
All of them negative!
But, we have a young squad, and ‘best since’ records so we are good.
Do we actually have a single youth on our books that arteta has developed?
Honestly 🤷🏽
Why are you all whinning? Don’t you see that the atmosphere at the emirates is the best it’s been for ages.?
All hail Arteta, the changer of stadium atmosphere.
I think we probably hired an amazing steward…to do the work of a manager.
“We are Owned, Managed and Run by Complete Losers…”
His NFL team just won what’s arguably the biggest trophy on earth, and have spent $200+ million in signings during the time since,
“thank Mikel Arteta for the dreat job he’s done in changing the culture etc and maybe offer him to ManUre or Everton to change their culture too,”
Of all of the suggestions on this thread, this is certainly one of them.