Arsenal are out of the race for top 4.
Our season is over.
Let’s not pretend it can be any other way.
If you can be beaten by individual stupidity and the sheer drive of Brighton and Palace, you have next to no hope of finding the right tools against West Ham, Chelsea and Spurs.
There are a lot of hot takes as to why we failed. The main one is the January transfer window, but that is totally wrong in my opinion. If the right players weren’t available, then it was best we sit on the funds. I know that stings people because the obvious solution to everything is signings… but that mindset is old Arsenal.
The cold hard reality regarding our striker hunt is there are probably only about 5 players in the world that fit the profile of what we’re looking for. Vlahovic was one of them, but his agents pushed him to Juventus. Benfica and Sociedad both know the money will be the same in the summer as it is in January, neither is going to give up a season now. We’re not going to spend £40m on a backup striker, we’ll be looking at free transfers or promoting from within. If we get the striker signing wrong, we are fucked long-term. We don’t have infinite funds, so we have to be laser-focused on making the right signings.
The real problem is how Arteta has managed the squad. I’ve been writing for a long time that we need to give our backup players games. The striker solution is sitting in the squad, we didn’t need to buy, we just needed to give Eddie minutes. Those that say he’s League One are so, so wrong. He’s Premier League striker and when he’s given games, he will score goals. If he’d been given a 6 game run, we’d not be having these conversations about Lacazette right now.
Just think back to Tomi. He was overplayed, he broke down… and we all feared Cedric would break us. He didn’t. When he was given some minutes, he found a rhythm and he’s done an excellent job. Players need minutes, not everyone can hit the ground running. Just think back to Odegaard, the only reason he’s doing bits now is that we showed patience with him.
Nuno Tavares was the big one. He landed a run at the start of the season. He was so good, it was a legitimate question as to whether KT would get back into the side. Then Tavares was dropped for two months. When he came back at Forest, he was pulled after 30. Then he wasn’t given any time to address his performances. Is anyone shocked he hasn’t found his game?
If Arteta was as ruthless with Lacazette as he has been with Nuno, we might be in better shape right now. How Lacazette can offer up nothing for 3 games and face no recriminations is beyond me. Eddie did more in 30 mins than Laca has done in 3 games. The man hasn’t scored in open play in 2022. How is he still starting?
Arteta totally botched the starting 11 today. It’s not a hindsight thing here, putting Granit at left-back was a car crash idea. Sambi needed Xhaka next to him so he could do this thing. It was a tactical disaster. Granit can’t left back, Odegaard isn’t effective from deep, and because the system was so alien… the players performed like they didn’t know what was going on. That was all on Arteta.
We have learned many things over these past two games.
Arsenal are far too reliant on the brilliance of Thomas Partey. When he exits our system, our system crashes. We need to sign able midfielders this summer that can rotate with him. The Ghanaian is now officially injury prone. We cannot rely on him.
We need to put the Lacazette experiment to bed. He was a good bridge to get us on track, but he doesn’t score, he doesn’t cause problems, and now he looks dead to the world. Southampton needs to see Eddie given a run of games. Though the issue is now that Eddie is going to leave and he’ll feel the full force of being Arteta’s get out of jail free card. If he comes in and does what he’s capable of, we’ll see that a top talent was slept on. If he fails because he’s demotivated, we’ll be no worse off that where we are with Lacazette.
Arteta needs to think about his entire squad next season. He overplayed his favored 11 when he should have been giving out minutes to other players. That has bitten him. His ruthless approach to Tavares has now cost him top 4. It’s really sad.
I do have questions of some of the coaches around Arteta. Why didn’t anyone push an inexperienced manager on squad rotation? Seems like a real basic that should have been addressed. It seems like Arteta is the only voice in the room and his mistakes need to be learned the hard way. I’m a big believer in experience. Don’t make mistakes you don’t need to make. Overplaying the same talent killed Tomiyasu, that was the warning sign, but everyone watched on.
I also feel like we’re not as smart as other clubs, still. Why was KT allowed to go to those Scotland friendlies? He’s injury prone. He was crucial to our success. But he flew out anyway and broke himself. Liverpool would have faked a hamstring and given him two weeks rest.
Heading into next season, Arteta needs to take lessons from all of these problems, because tanking a great season against Brighton and Palace wasn’t the magical ending we had hoped for.
What I will say in his defence is this: Not many clubs could deal with injured first choice right back, left back, and central midfielders missing. Not to mention having no goal threat from a striker. This is a unique set of circumstances we hopefully won’t have to deal with next season.
That’s no help for today. This moment is one of sadness. Spurs are riding the luck train, they’ve scored 12 goals from 15 shots on target, Kane and Son are injury free, and their ascent to top 4 is now inevitable.
Right, I’m off for a beer and a cry. See you in the bar. x
We’ve got Legohead Arteta
He doesn’t know exactly what we need
Tavares at the back
Laca in attack
Arsenal finish halfway down the league…..
Who on here has ever used the word “Transactional “ in a conversation?
Arteta paid the price because “he’s just not good enough”
Simple!
tets was pretty clear and consistent on his pressers about player movements. those players who do not share his values, personality traits and workrate are out and new people are recruited in whenever a suitable bargain appears available. this was to reset the culture of the club which was rotten and is starting to improve slowly again. white, partey and odegaard are cases where the club pushed the big red coffer button because they believed they identified a player that was clearly needed both short and long term (4 years minimum) to immediately raise the level of the team and… Read more »
So Arteta’s creating new healthy culture in the club by getting rid of everyone who dares to disagree with him. Some fucking culture he’s creating. We’re heading for major disaster, unless someone at the club starts seeing sense.
Tree years and Arteta has learnt little to nothing.
We are not a training centre for wannabe managers, but unfortunately our owner has brought into Arteta’s crap and falsehoods.
The players have become confused agin as they have been told to slow the game down which is not natural for football as it is a flowing game, supposedly.
If you think that Eddie is the level we need then get ready to watch mid table football, he’s way off the standard needed.
As long as Laca and Zhaka are in disposable then we are at Arteta’s level.
.
Three not Irish Three lol
Re reading Pedros ramblings I can’t but shake my head at his take on what we are witnessing. From the suggestion that those that work under Arteta push for squad rotation! Doh any manager worth their salt wouldn’t need pushing into such matters it’s so obvious that Doris the tea lady had she been in charge of team selection would have overseen rotation had she been in charge would have rotated had there been players of number and quality but there aren’t. As for all this about Eddie being a PL striker I personally just don’t see it, He for… Read more »
Going forward I’d go with Martinelli up top, with Emile or Pepe on the left and Saka on the right. Enough of the Laca experiment, Martinelli is a future CF and while his link up play isn’t as good (this is developed by playing the role!) he offers so much more of a threat in the box. I like Eddie and while I disagree with the idea he’s a championship striker, he’s not good enough to lead the line as the sole striker up front. It feels like he can play the link up role with another big man, but… Read more »
Southampton have zero wins in their last 5 matches, picking a solitary point in the process. This is where Arsenal comes in, the experts at helping teams end their poor runs. We will lose to Southampton
Ramsdale Last 4 games he’s played. 11 shots on target 7 goals conceded Ramsdale First 8 games played for Arsenal 27 shots on target 4 goals conceded. Arsenal Last 4 games 20 shots on target Have scored 4 goals. Totteham Last 3 games 15 shots on target Have scored 12 goals Maybe it’s time to bring Leno back , Ramsdale is a shadow of the keeper he was earlier in the season.. He’s overrated on le grove , just as Odegaard is overrated on le grove , just as Eddie is underrated on le grove , he has also been… Read more »
Eddie typifies everything that is wrong with Arteta’s style of leadership.
When has he shown genuine trust in him? Never!
When has he given him sufficient game time? Never!
When has he taken the decision to rotate him with Lacazette to alleviate our persistent problems up top? Never!
If I was Eddies agent, I would be ####### furious.
Arteta is clueless.
Artita. That is all.
“We have learned many things over these past two games “
This is true but I think what we’ve learned most of all is that “ Arteta is just not good enough”
Pierre
You’re back!
Hope all is well.
Yeah let’s drop Ramsdale because he let in some goals he didn’t stand much of a chance with. Only real error recently was against Liverpool.
We’ve been punching above our weight this season. The squad isn’t that good. When a 20 year old is your best player and you’re a worse team without Xhaka in midfield, that kind of shows you where you are.
We’ve got young attacking players. They’ll get better but they are still inconsistent. It is what it is. I’m expecting at least 5 signings this summer
A few of the shots Ramsdale has been conceding lately, are shots Leno would save.
ESR must be carrying an injury.
Odegaard is overrated.
Nketiah is class.
All good thanks Graham , lookiñg forward to some warmer rounds of golf and watching the masters tonight.
Scheffler looked to have it wrapped up but I’m not so sure now , The Aussie may give him a run for his money, both fantastic putters and the putting will determine who wins the masters as the greens are like lightning.
Mismanagement of players.
Eddie.
Tavares.
Pepe.
ESR.
Lokonga.
Martinelli
Holding.
AMN.
Xhaka……of course!
Elneny ( yes, even Elneny).
Lacazette.
Willock.
Balogun.
An extensive list.
There are others.
I always try and watch the final day of the masters.
I see Lowry is up there.
Probably too far back though.
Are you, like me, concerned with what you see?
Talking Arsenal of course!
The concern I have about laca is that he has been overrated by virtue of the fact he has decent work rate and moderate link up play. But that’s only really compared with Auba who was notoriously anonymous off the ball and didn’t link up play at all. We shouldn’t be playing strikers who are very bad at converting chances just because they will have the occasional good bit of link up and are willing to run a bit for 70 mins til they’re gassed out. Laca doesn’t even have a particularly good first touch and is not a great… Read more »
Oh god, not another season of Atteta
China I disagree with them not fancying it. And you have to be coached in the right way to be able to drop deep and recieve the ball in the final third. It is like asking Xhaka to be effective in the final third. And it is not school boy stuff. Recieving the ball in deeper areas and on the half turn is one of the most difficult skills as a footballer. That is why the best DMs and CMs are experienced. And that is why the likes of Dejong and Pedri at Barca are lauded for the same ability.… Read more »
If we draw against united and Chelsea and win all our remaining games including beating spurs and spurs draw against Liverpool and lose against us and win all their games we finish one ahead of them.
I can’t see us beating spurs but that’s a six pointer
Signing Laca for £50m was definitely not one of our best transfers. if only we had pushed the boat out for Benzema when it was rumoured he was available during the Wenger years
I just hope Artetas actions last Jan weren’t to take pressure off himself by limiting expectations, or were perhaps to impress his bosses in the year of a new deal. Some believe Wenger did similar things with his refusal to make signings, I am sure Arteta would have looked at Wengers longevity even when things weren’t going well and picked up on certain things, not that he can be compared with Wengers standing of course. If/ when Arteta gets a new deal, he needs to be told aspects of this season are self inflicted and not acceptable, especially if there… Read more »
Ed the red
In your opinion, should we sell martinelli if klopp decides to pay 100m for him? Considering he isn’t worth that much at the moment and the funds could be used to strengthen the squad.
Also considering it is a possibility that martinelli doesn’t get better than he already is. Eg: wilshere
My concern is not Arsenal’s future, but its current situation. The club took the decision in January to offload 6 players, which left us with only 18 outfield players on the books. That decision left us with virtually no margin for error in the event of injuries or illness. It did not also take into account loss of form, which is always a risk at end of season when teams are playing more intensive schedules. Arsenal have got currently three players out with long term injuries and two players in centre forward position who have not managed to score an… Read more »
“ Oh god, not another season of Atteta”
I fear there could be a lot more unless he really implodes next season.
Habesha
MC has Rodri who is an experienced DM. Expecting Sambi Lokonga can do the same task is brain dead.
Laca is fit for a club like Everton or Newcastle
Real soccer on today,
Man City v Liverpool
Title decider.
Our Dopes and dopey manager can’t beat Brighton Hove Albion over two games this season.
So they are clearly not missing Benjamin White.
(£50 million thank you very much.)
Give him a new contract? – he needs to learn how to man manage and coach first in the English lower leagues.
This Leeds coach, has improved his team instantly.
, so it shows it can be done.
ES
I feel the same way as you. I am disappointed that we missed top4 realistically. But the last 10 mins of last match gave me hope that the players are still fighting for the club. I also watched the Manu game. Their “star players” checked out already. As long as Arteta let the players play like the last 10 mins, we should be able to get European football next season.
As I posted earlier, Spuds got Dejan Kulusevski and it was the game changer for top4. Now their attack is as strong as the other three top4 team.
The thing is, nobody knows if Eddie is good enough or not as he has only started 4 league games in 2 seasons (none this season).
What we do know is that he has scored a goal every 60 min in the league cup, Martinelli no goals or assists in 377 minutes in the same competition tells me its not quite as easy as s ome think when you take into consideration that Martinelli has a very impressive 8 goal contributions in 16 starts in the premier league
Nelson It isn’t even just about Sambi vs Rodri. Even if you put Rodri in our DM he would have been that poor. Partey in city’s midfield instead of Rodri and he wouldn’t look out of place. It’s not just about one player. Rodri has partners that are experienced enough to drop deep and play on the half turn in Debruyne, Gundogan or B.Silva. I have never seen ESR play well in our deeper area. He does his thing in Attacking midfield. Odegaard can sometimes do it but he hasn’t played that way all season at all. He had Xhaka… Read more »
Gonsterous
I would consider it a crime to sell any of our most talented players, because I believe this is the most talented generation we’ll have for a long time. £100 million or whatever Klopp is willing to pay for Martinelli would only benefit Liverpool. Our big problem is that without CL football we will not be able to keep our best players forever. Watch what happens this Summer.
But our biggest problem is the manager. He needs to be stopped before he ruins this generation of players.
Habesha
“Drop one of ESR or Martinelli and play tavarez at LB plus Xhaka in CM and we win that game”
Agree, this is the point i was alluding to .
Gonsterous
“In your opinion, should we sell martinelli if klopp decides to pay 100m for him? Considering he isn’t worth that much at the moment and the funds could be used to strengthen the squad.”
Take 50 mil and buy Olise from palace who will prove to be a better footballer in the coming years, has superb technique, the ability to beat a player with ease and a very good final ball…a beautifully balanced footballer who never looks rushed..
https://youtu.be/Pxy7JCw2L2Q
Pierre
I am all for starting Eddie instead of Laca. Laca was so slow the last two matches. He couldn’t even do the link up plays.
With Emery, the collapse was in the last 4 games of the season with the distraction of a Europa league final
With Arteta, the collapse is in the last 8 games with nothing else to look forward to
15 mins in yesterday you knew what sort of performance we were going to serve up twpid, slow and a team thrown together with one injury impacting several areas on the pitch, Laca would be more useful off the bench the last few games he is running on fumes with a clapped out engine. 8/30 league games we have not scored, Wolves home the only time we have turned around a losing position. Feel sorry for ourselves and we will end up 7/8th if so that’s on the manager it’s best parts are the young players they have carried us… Read more »
Palace paid £8.9 million for Olise
That was the steal of these season. That was about the same time we were haggling with Brighton over how much more to add to the £50 million transfer fee.
Gonsterous
Don’t sell our youngsters. KSE has money. Let them pay for Arteta’s experiments.
Looking forward to watching two proper sides coached by stellar football minds in the dugout today at least.
Yesterday was so disappointing, its hard to shake the feeling.
Honestly stop blaming the strikers
Arteta has not demonstrated that he knows how to effectively utilize strikers
Lacazette scored within minutes of his debut with Arsenal. He’s a good striker.
Aubameyang has scored freely for every manager he’s worked with
Both were okay until Arteta came along.
Laughable to think the players bear any fault for our recent and to be extended demise
Leftside
Yea< the consolation of watching good football devoid of any fantasy about Arsenal seems pleasing. I expect Liverpool to beat city. City will miss Ruben Diaz today.
Dis exactly what I said yesterday.
We could bring in the hottest striking prospect in Europe and his abilities will be nullified under Arteta, where the striker plays supporting cast to the midfield and the wingers.
No striker will do well under him based on the evidence we have to go by.
Habesha
I agree Dropping ESR deep is like square pig for a round hole. He looked totally lost yesterday.
I’m going for the draw today Dissenter I think they will cancel each other out but it will be a good game nonetheless.
Lacazette is not physically attuned to running around all over the pitch.
He is a striker…….or was!
I started asking why Pepe wasn’t playing more minutes to rotate with Saka in November. People said he was “shit’ but this ‘shit’ player scored 10 goals in the league last season. Pedro said, he’s shot and we are selling him. Problem is Arteta was replicating that shabby treatment of Pepe all over the squad, boasting certain players until the broke or burned out. The subs don’t get minutes and aren’t in a position to come in and immediately contribute when needed Poor squad management is tagged unto Arteta’s many weaknesses. We have a decent group of midfielders, doing well… Read more »
Top strikers usually come with big ego attached, and as history shows, Arteta is utterly incapable of managing even moderate egos, so yeah, he’s fucked us in that position too.
Aubameyang was a striker who lost his mojo at Arsenal.
Now his found it again because he’s playing for a forward thinking manager.
As far as Pedro is concerned it’s always the players fault and not Arteta’s.
PEDRO Just think back to Tomi. He was overplayed, he broke down… and we all feared Cedric would break us. He didn’t. When he was given some minutes, he found a rhythm and he’s done an excellent job. Players need minutes, not everyone can hit the ground running. Just think back to Odegaard, the only reason he’s doing bits now is that we showed patience with him. Pedders, maybe about time to take some days off because your post are becoming too riddled with untruths. First of, it’s only numpties that thought Cedric wasn’t an able deputy, you don’t make… Read more »
Graham.
Aubameyang was a striker who lost his mojo at Arsenal.
Now his found it again because he’s playing for a forward thinking manager.
He didn’t lose his MOJO. He just stopped playing for the arrogant Arteta. I wonder what he did to piss Auba off behind the scenes. Auba practically wanted to throw him under the bus.
So Pedro who picked the coaches that are under Arteta, most of them having no experience at this level. The club took a gamble and it looks like it failed. Can you answer this question if we don’t make Europe this season do we make a change at the top because you have said all along our target was top six..
Without looking it up I bet many on here cannot name the 2nd in charge currently under Pep, so would you give him our Mangers job if available?
Because that what we did with Arteta
Yep, we’re out of top 4 race. Quite honestly, I don’t care much. I’ve said before that the minuses of CL football outweigh the pluses unless the team is a genuine challenger, a competence that Arsenal have yet to reach. I think CL inclusion comes way down the list of what attracts players to Arsenal and the money involved in the group stages is small beer. So, no regrets really. Of course, Arteta will be blamed for mistakes – for example, why hasn’t he given Eddie minutes, and why didn’t he play Holding yesterday? – but panic-buying second-best in Jan… Read more »
England’s best with the post of the day. Take a bow sir.
Arteta is a Europa Cup standard manager, that his level. (Even he is probably above Europa Cup Conference filfth standard)
Arsenal if they want Champions League , need a Champions League manager.
And it would help the cause immeasurably if they started buying Champions League standard players, instead of the Ramsdales , Parteys, BenjaminWhites, Odegaards, Tierneys for huge sums of money.
Hardly rocket science.
The fans will eventually show Arteta the door, as we did to Arsene Wenger. The team is too big to be managed by a temperamental manager who can’t man-manage players like Guendouzi. I haven’t seen any player in the current Arsenal squad who has a relentless work ethic like the French youngster. He defends and attacks and gets into the face of the opponent! He’s a 90 minutes plus player.
I don’t agree with the over playing comment players should be able to play one game a week. He only needed to rotate if he felt players needed it. The team and performances have been great at times but they rely on Partey without him we can’t play that way. Xhaka left back I thought was done. It did work a few games last year but we just don’t need to do it. We have plenty of alternatives who would not be worse and our midfield without Xhaka and Partey is just not good enough. Arteta messed up big time… Read more »
ES Sorry but you were the one on here advocating that the schedule going forward was far from challenging. One game a week and all that. Why so many players were allowed to walk in January is open to debate but for me there realistically can only be two reasons. 1) Money 2) Breakdown in relationship between players ( not just PEA) and Arteta. I described the release of so many players in January as folly and that’s what it’s turning out to be. I am yet to see how things are supposedly going to play out in terms of… Read more »
Fuck me, Pierre is lauding Eddies scoring feats in the league cup as impressive!! This is against reserve sides and lower leagues!! Why not throw in his England U-21 stats as well, playing alongside lower league players against international lower league players, all impressive stuff.
Top players take their chance, they don’t need 15 games to show they can do something. Eddie is just another average Joe who will have an average career at an average club.
We are Arsenal, not West Ham or Watford. If our ambition is Eddie then stop right now and give up FFS!
Olise is brilliant all right but why do we have to sell Martinelli to get him?
How many 20 year olds are as good as Martinelli? Very few, would be pure stupidity to sell him before he explodes
And has Pedro really gone from telling us all to wipe our tears ans stop overreacting after gettng our ass handed to us by Palace to declaring the season as ‘over’ after losing a game to Brighton?
EB – CL money in the group stages small beer? Ajax and Lille have earned 47m and 40m respectively this season for example. You get about 2.5m just for winning a group match! Qualifying for the last 16 is worth upwards of 40m, that’s big money for Arsenal. In 3 years time when the FFP rules change, we can only spend 70% of income on the ‘playing’ side of things. Teams outside of the CL will earn less all round, less TV, less sponsorship etc etc. If Arsenal are not in the CL in 3 years time, we are fucked… Read more »
England best . I think CL inclusion comes way down the list of what attracts players to Arsenal and the money involved in the group stages is small beer. So, no regrets really. Sorry EB this is naive. With around £1 million nett in terms of match day income from each home game , £15 million for reaching the group stages as a minimum, extra money paid from the TV pool (around £4 million for finishing 4th in the qualification season ) With of course the additional £2.5 million for each place higher up the league So let’s say that… Read more »
Terraloon
“””into season 22/23 , a season where you will be allowed 5 subs”””
Well we are snookered then, unless Stan goes on a center forward shopping spree.
Liverpool under the majestic Klopp, have
Dias
Sane
Firminio
Salah
Jota
Origo
Japanese lad
Buy them to score more goals today.
Even Mancini brought back Tevez from exile to help him win that first Premier League title. Another club kicked out their most prolific striker in recent years when they had a shout for first top 4 spot in 5 years. Arteta the generational coach
One thing that will piss me off .. massively … is that Titeta will experiment and learn as much as possible using us as a guinea pig and fuck off to Citeh or PSG or Barcelona owing to his recommendation from Pep
We shouldn’t allow this to continue when we see first hand how coaches have impact on teams like Marsch, Conte and even fat frank who managed to get one over UTd with a shitty Everton..
Tottenham first goal was a clear hand ball by Kane, he passed the ball to son using his hand.
CG Well we are snookered then, unless Stan goes on a center forward shopping spree. It’s far more than a couple of centre forwards as we all know. Some will say that this young squad could blood youngsters but they need to play week in week out so as we have seen time and time again the vast majority of those wonderful talents that so many at every club laud as the next big thing once they are exposed to competitive football against seasoned and experienced professionals the vast bulk just fade into the background Irrespective of all that I… Read more »
Terraloon
Arsenal do not how to use the transfer market.
Klopp does.A. Wenger did
You should always spend approx 75% of your transfer budget on attacking players. Players that make a difference.
A&E spend 75% on players that actually make very little difference to the teams overall performance.
Hence why we are concededing as many or even more than last season and still struggle to score more than 1 a game
A reminder in Wengers last season- we scored 52 in his 19 home games.
They are all clueless, I am afraid to say.
For all Arteta’s talk about feeling sorry for Tavares and it was only a tactical switch subbing him. He then goes on to not play him. Destroying any confidence Nuno may have had and also to not trust anything his manager says. Not a great way to manage your players. Laca stinking out the place offering no threat, Xhaka being Xhaka, both with no threat of being subbed or dropped. What message does that send to the other players?? So clear Arteta has his favourites. So no wonder that Sambi played with fear, not wanting to be banished to Siberia… Read more »
Would just like to point out that we are defensively worse this season than last season.
Last season
Played 38
Conceded 39
This season
Played 30
Conceded 36
Wait, so we spent all this money on defensive players who definitely moved the needle and the results are actually worse?
How could that be?
Nigel, what’s happening here?
Would just like to point out the season isn’t over yet and we could go 8 games without conceding, but…..this isn’t 1998 Arsenal so I’ll see myself out.
“”” Would just like to point out that we are defensively worse this season than last season”””
Well , depends how you look at it really , because last season we kept 12 clean sheets – this season we have 13 so far
So if we recover from this slump and somehow manage to stay with Tottenham even in points, will the clean sheets stat put us over the line and into CL places?
@Tom , I have no idea mate , I’m thinking it’ll go to GD , anyone else know what it’ll be ? – let’s be realistic though , I can’t see us recovering from this , but you never know , stranger things have happened.
Conceded more than last season or the flip side 1 more clean sheet than last season , either way it isn’t really a good look on arteta after spending circa £80 mill on a defender and a keeper with no marginal gain . Fan of Ramsdale but got to be honest his form has dropped right off the last 10 odd games . I’d play Leno the rest of the season ( who’s a better shot stopper but Ramsdale the far better all round keeper ) just to keep Ramsdale’s ego in check a little and keep him on his… Read more »
” , manager says he is a different beast since AFCON and then proceeds to not play him at all .”
Arteta made statements about Pepe, and again the result was we don’t see him. Actions speak louder than words. Arteta says one thing but does the other.
It’s no surprise players doubt what comes out his mouth.
Can we stop this false narrative that Tomiyasu is injured because he’d been overplayed in December? He got Covid. He was out of training for nine days. Then Arteta played him against Liverpool in 2ng leg of CC.
Arteta going postal on players isn’t sustainable, he’s taken over this squad and weeded out all the non believers over the course of his time.. Right down to his former captain / talisman. Taking the hard line on Tavares based on underperforming has paid no dividends to the club, its done the opposite. When Tavares came into the squad was nearly challenging for left back role and now he’s fallen so far we’ve see a 90 minute stretch that completely upended our mid with Xhaka in at left back which backfired to level Arteta had to shift Martinelli into left… Read more »
Pecko – no it doesn’t look good right now tbf. So strange how we’ve come back from the international break – we had momentum-ish , but I still didn’t feel like we’d get anything from palace , you know them ones where you just know before a balls been kicked Agree on ramsdale – love him to bits but I think he’s just a little bit too comfy , letting the England call up and all that hype go to his head a bit I feel like Arteta is the managerial version of granit – when he’s good he’s great… Read more »
It was kind amazing to see so many predicting correctly Arteta playing Xhaka at LB for this game, I didn’t think he’d do it.
Why blow up the rest of your remaining mid against the ball playing side like Brighton, for the sake of ”shoring up” the left flank against the side that hardly scores any goals?
Why the long faces everyone? Surely you didn’t honestly believe that Arteta was capable of improving upon 8th did you? Ownership can throw £500m at the Arteta Project and the results will still be the same. Its never really been about the players but rather the guy that, given a squad of 50 players, would still play the same 11 until they brea, and then blame them for breaking. The same guy that would rather sacrifice his midfield to hammer home a point that he detests his back up left back so much that he’d likely rather lose then to… Read more »
Tom
I know right ! He had at least 3 other options he could have implemented before putting granit there – and to top it all off , to rectify it he puts gabby there second half , that is a serious head loss moment from him
We have plenty of very talented players in the team. They’re not “average” or “shit” or whatever people are saying now just because everyone is pissed.
The problem is that our system prioritises positional play over everything else.
Consequently, our attack is very predictable. ESR is a bit part player because he’s too vertical. Pepe is in the freezer because he’s too unpredictable.
Our defenders are too slow on the ball because they’re only allowed to release it to players in specific positions.
This is 100% a tactical choice and not an indicator that our players aren’t good enough.
Glad your not manager Pedro .. ‘’ alright got lads that’s it we ain’t getting top 4 ‘’ We might not get and all the usual bollocks will come out, if we get 5th and miss out by a couple of points is that not progress.. the comments when we lose don’t piss me off anymore they actually are quite amusing… It’s the system, he played him and n the wrong position bla bla bla Glad Arteta outed the players.. ESR couldn’t pass the ball 5 yards yesterday Hopefully we won’t give up like most and keep fighting.. Spurs are… Read more »
Wenger – too much freedom to express themselves
Arteta – not enough freedom to express themselves
“This is 100% a tactical choice and not an indicator that our players aren’t good enough.”
This is so ridiculously bang on!
Sal, not only did he blow up the mid by moving Xhaka to LB, but also the move actually failed from the defensive stand point too, when Xhaka inexplicably went on a walkabout for Brighton’s first.
G
We won’t give up the fight mate but we’ve just made it 10 times harder for ourselves – our fuck ups should have come in the games ahead against Chelsea and and possibly United , not palace and Brighton
‘ I feel like Arteta is the managerial version of granit – when he’s good he’s great , but every so often he’s got a fuck up in him that costs us big time’
Can you recall 3 times when Xhaka was MOTM in the last 5 years for arsenal? I’m not sure he’s had 3 since the day he joined.
Even if we ignore him going missing on the first goal, he’s supposedly this great leader we keep being told. Did we see any of it in the last two games when the young players were off colour and he dug the team out of a hole with his leadership and drive?
When he’s on the pitch and the whole team plays well we hear it’s his quality and leadership making a big difference but when he’s on the pitch and everyone is playing badly it’s just silence from the usual suspects
Tom
As others have said when you don’t learn from mistakes yet repeat them its a worrying trend, Xhaka at LB was a failure on both attempts. Several other more viable solutions imo.