SPRING HAS SPRUNG where I am today, it’s p*ssing down with rain, but it’ll be a balmy 22 degrees later. Are we close to complaining it’s too hot, yes we are people. You can take the boy out of England and all that, but you’ll NEVER take my right of weather complaint.
Complaining about Arsenal? I’m not sure I can muster it today.
I saw people sharing a GFFN x Guardian love piece on Matteo G yesterday. The Frenchman has pulled up his socks this season and he’s doing a great job. I think he has 14 or so assists, a bunch of goals, and he’s being described as a leader. It’s easy to use that to point to his form being a Mikel Arteta problem, I did briefly yesterday, but I’m told the biggest problem Matteo had at Arsenal is the other players couldn’t stand him.
I worked with a woman once, she was a lunatic, lovely, but very inappropriate. Old school New York type, would blithely offer out bad things in the office, once came to my desk and asked if I like getting spanked because she did. It didn’t work out for her at our place, the fit wasn’t correct… now she’s running shit at a massive organization because the vibes connect. Right time, right place, right energy, right culture. She’s basically working in a pro-spanking agency. Was it the fault of my agency and their leadership that we were anti-spanking? No. But life goes on, you have to be happy for people.
It’s a similar thing for Auba. He’s scoring for fun at Barcelona. Good for him. He was terrible for us. If you had to choose his lack of goals or Lacazette’s, the data would suggest Lacazette’s was a better type of zero threat.
Where Arteta has to watch things is that there was an impression before he was a bit too ruthless for his own good, now that ruthlessness has cost him Top 4 this season. There are plenty of managers that fall out with players, all the best do, but they can usually prove the point out the side of it. Thomas Tuchel has decided he doesn’t like Rom Lukaku, his team has been pretty average by Chelsea standards, I suspect if Roman was in charge, an exit from the CL this week might cost him his job. Jose Mourinho would always fall out with players, he was usually wrong, it was always a power move, but he won things… and winning things means people overlook your flaws.
Arteta has exposed himself as a spanker this week… the question is, can he pump Arsenal up a level so no one noticed the belt-affixed-spanking-paddle when he’s marching the halls of Colney.
Ok, ok, I will stop with the spanking references.
Arsenal are still competing for everything we wanted to compete for this season.
You wouldn’t think after the last few days of ‘BURN IT ALL DOWN’ but the people at the Arsenal training ground don’t think the season is over and nor should you.
We have to beat Southampton. The way to do that is to put out a normal team and control the game. No galaxy brain.
Then we have a cup final run of Chelsea, United and West Ham. Take 4 points from those games and we’re up to 7.
Then, by my calculations, I think we probably need 2 points from our remaining 4 games.
Yes, 9 points gets us into Europe. 16 might get us into the top 4. There are 24 to play for.
We have to take it one game at a time. It’ll be tough. But remember… our financial and squad planning was always built around Europe this season, top 4 next season, title push the season after.
We are on track if we can take 9 points from 24. Anything else is a bonus.
Summer has to take Arsenal to the next level. If we can do to our attack what was done to the defence last summer then we will be in very good shape next season if we can get off to a good start.
Expect Arsenal to add at least two high quality midfielders. It is not a surprise to see Neves linked, we are most certainly courting Tielemans, and I wouldn’t be shocked if we moved for Renato Sanches who has looked great when fit this season.
We’re going to have to reshape our forward line. How aggressively remains to be seen and probably boils down to a few things:
- How ready is Folarin Balogun next season
- What we do with Lacazette and Eddie
- Whether we can extract a fee for Nico who earns about £140k a week
There will be a blockbuster forward signing. The profile is pretty clear. Young, tall, powerful in the air, decent link up play, with goals, goals, goals. This is the most consequential signing of the next 10 years. We cannot miss here. If we can make it happen, I wouldn’t be shocked to see us sign a goalscoring wide player. This won’t be blockbuster, it’ll be rehabbing a broken player (Rashford) or picking up a free transfer (Dybala). We don’t score enough goals, we need someone that can change that, and do the things needed in the system.
There might also be some opportunistic upgrades in defence. Cedric probably won’t move because we have Norton-Cuffy developing at a rate of knots. But the left back position will see some action if possible. Kieran Tierney is turning heads, he’s at the peak of his powers, I’m not sure we could afford to say no to £50m from Madrid. If we could replace him with someone more robust, we will. I’m not sure what we do about Nuno Tavares, it looks like it’s over for him, unless Arteta has a change of heart.
Then there’s William Saliba. On paper, he’s perfect for our system. He’s a French international, he’s tall, great with the ball at his feet, he’s hard to go past, and he can move through midfield with his surging runs. This is a test of Arteta. Clearly he doesn’t fancy him, the press all say he hasn’t spoken to him… but can the club afford to let Arteta’s ego rule the roost on this one? Especially after losing Guendouzi for pittance and Mavropanos for similar amounts of money
That goal was all ok vincinus jr but Benz will get all the plaudits
Should have been afforded more time Serge.
The club getting high and mighty ditching him quick pronto when the man came from PSG who have been on another level to Arsenal for many seasons.
And for what? Mr Beige.
Benz has to be one of the best headers of the ball… deadly accurate.
If Villarreal won the CL it would be an even bigger and better achievement than Leicester winning the PL imo.
Because they would have had to go through x2 legs vs Juventus, Bayern Munich, Liverpool and probably City in the Final.
Pedro’s nightmare.
Reality
Emery is by no means a bum nut we expect champagne football not backs the wall crap, his last 2 months were awful,
We’ve seen far worse football under Arteta than under Emery. In fact probably the.worst ever.
So happy for Emery.
Vinicius is an amazing player LG, he has torn James to shreds all night and he is rarely a RB that gets the run-around like that.
If he had better technique striking the ball he would be as good as any wideman in Europe imo.
If Villareal win the CL that would be insane.. especially considering they are in 7th place in La Liga.
Incredible Benz…
Last year Arteta run in with no win in 1p games was worse than Emery. And the down spiral that is approching next week will be as bad
Ish this is not an argument over who is better Emery or mA it’s whether Emery was right for us
Was he ? I vehemently disagree that he was
” his last 2 months were awful,”
Can you not appreciate the irony in this statement though with Pedro proudly proclaiming that 9 points out of our last 24 i.e relegation form would be ‘job done’ ?
Arteta doesn’t look as bad because we rarely get peppered with shots at our goal. But attacking wise, I have seen just as bad football as I have seen under Emery at times. Arteta’s off days are very crap.
If Villarreal won the CL it would be the kind of story that goes Hollywood.
Who would play Unai? Tom Hiddlestone perhaps!
MidwestGun
“If Villareal win the CL that would be insane.. especially considering they are in 7th place in La Liga.”
If the ropey Surrey pikeys can win it Villarreal can as well.
A big part of me wants Chelski to score again so it goes into pks.
WG
True say he has that scrappyness about him when it comes to finishing abit like sterling in that regards.
I’d say he they are quite similar very rapid and very good dribblers would say JR is a better passer but Sterling is probably better at running in from behind with his positioning.
I think JR still needs to do a lot of work on his finishing but he has got better every year in that regard albeit starting at a very low bench mark (was awful a couple seasons back)
We not sure how many times I need to repeat myself bud,
Regarding Arteta anything below 5th is another year of failure in my opinion
Vinicius has been serving them in fine china for Benzema.
Arteta is rigth for us? I disagree he should have been sacked a long time ago.
Ten Haag was a much better option, Tuchel, Pochetinn, (Conte I dont thinkso)
If we could have gone one better in 2006 (just held on another 15 mins) we would have gone through Real, Juve, Barca and the plucky Villarreal, all possibly without conceding a goal.
That would surely have been right up there as one of the best routes to winning it.
Serge
Would you consider 5th a success if it’s the Spuds who beat us to it? Considering they were in disarray not long ago and we were cruising.
Mr Serge
Im with you Emery wasnt a right fit for us, but if you are going to die with one of them, common sense tells you Emery is a better bet.
Do you agree with that?
The only reason Emery was sacked was because Arsenal fans still had a certain standard of expeectations back then.
Under Arteta mediocrity is the norm. Beating Watford and Brentford is celebrated and touted as managerial ingenuity.
I would love to see pens I actually hate Real Madrid quite abit. Don’t actually have any reason I just find them the most arrogant of teams I guess.
I have to say the only team I want to see win it is villerial
LG
He’s a much better dribbler than Sterling and he is much faster over long sprints, Sterling’s got great acceleration but he struggles to beat really athletic FBs like Wan-Bissaka for example.
Agree on the similarities in striking the ball though, neither has the best technique and tend to scuff a lot of their shots. Sterling has a lovely finesse shot but isn’t great at rifling his foot through the ball.
WE
I think he is referring FAILURE as a sackable offense. At this poont in time 5th is not that bad it is a little margin, because a long margin will not be 5th will be 7th
‘Chelsea don’t bottle it’ comments soured fast
Pedro
“My eggs are in the basket of Arsenal my friend, yours should be too.”
I think that should read ” my eggs are in the basket of ARTETA ” as i can’t remember your eggs being in the basket of Arsenal when Wenger was manager as soon as he stopped winning league titles
“””” The only reason Emery was sacked was because Arsenal fans still had a certain standard of expeectations back then“”””
The only reason ?
We at this point yes ,we have thrown it away though by the looks of it, and god it’s against the spuds who have picked up, hopefully levy ducks conte off enough for him to walk
I love that Emery won tonight , but he couldn’t beat Brighton or palace either , remember ?
He was rightfully sacked, the point is that
Pedro keeps bashing Emery who is by far
Better manager than Arteta.
I wouldn’t consider 5th as a success considering how the season has panned out. And I don’t like how we are crumbling instead of a fight to the end. But I wouldn’t fire Arteta for it either. But next season, 4th is the bare minimum. If not he needs to go. He also needs to go if he finishes below 6th. I thought the new Contract talk was premature considering we haven’t achieved any thing yet. Building a decent squad with spending isn’t a big achievement by it self. Achieving your targets with said squad is the achievement.
Sagg I would go for an experienced manager every time , I give kudos for Arteta for clearing out the dross and I like our sightings too, plus he is playing our kids
I am cool with it if we finish 5th
Emery. Villarreal. Wow.
I mean fair play that’s a great result. Meanwhile at Arsenal…
Buzzy it was not the only reason you have a short memory or an agenda
Benjamin
Spot on mate. That is the point all of us are arguing.
Tuchel losing his damn mind.
Benjamin, Emery is a good cup manager that doesn’t travel well. That’s why he’s not the Arsenal manager. You can keep telling yourself a different story, but the Emery experiment ran, and it failed.
I wonder how long Tuchel lasts now they are going to end the season potless…
Midwest, he’d be losing his job if this result held 4 months ago
“”””He was rightfully sacked, the point is that
Pedro keeps bashing Emery who is by far
Better manager than Arteta.”””””
Mate , it doesn’t matter what unai has won before or after Arsenal , it’s what happened when he was here that matters. Unai gets bashed for his Arsenal career , nothing else.
Liverpool vs city in fa cup
Liverpool vs city in PL
Liverpool vs city in CL
Pedro.. yep probably.. I’ve just never seen him that animated …before. he usually looks like a zombie who needs some sunlight.
Emery definitely struggled with the linguistic side of the game but he was appointed head coach with no real input over anything else. He needed a strong DoF who appointed him to protect him and make it happen for him like Monchi does. That never happened; Gazidis appointed him and jumped ship, then the game of thrones started in the room with Raul metamorphizing from maggot to dragon fly and Mislintat being forced out. He wanted Mustafi out – no deal He wanted Nkunku and Steven Nzonzi, no deal He wanted Zaha …no deal Called Ozil out, club didn’t back… Read more »
If the Emery experiment failed then it has been replaced by a far bigger failure
Chelsea have had so many chances. I don’t know how Madrid are qualifying. They have been really poor.
Benjamin Emery was shit for us is he a shit manager ? no was he shit for us ? Yes
Was he shit for PSG ? Yes was he the right fit for them ? No
This is my point
What Chelsea has done today is admirable, even if the lose.
Playing at Santiago Bernabeu is not easy against THE BEST TEAM in football history.
A team FULL of winners by the way.
Same as Bayern but Emery found the way.
Ironically Villarreal hasnt reached the finals since 2006 when they played against us. So 16 years later, theydone it again while us just need 9/24 for a very successful season.
Cant wait for Ikantjit Abarndor to play for us next year.
but the Emery experiment ran, and it failed.
Arteta has been failing for almost 3 years now?
He did win FA cup though, so maybe he will
At som point be good cup manager too?
lol even Ceballos gets a look in at the quarters stage of CL.
WG
I would take tuchel in a heartbeat it will go tita up for him at Chelsea it does for all managers there but he comes across as a very shrewd manager. Always heard he was a bit of a cunt but has actually come across quite well since he has been in England.
Edu
“Mate , it doesn’t matter what unai has won before or after Arsenal , it’s what happened when he was here that matters. Unai gets bashed for his Arsenal career , nothing else.”
No Pedro bashes him for a lot more than that
If you’re not in the know, just say so.
Pedro actually bashes Emery as being part of a con-job conspiracy with Raul because the club paid him his outstanding salary as a lump sum.
With Pedro, it always seemed personal with Emery, that’s why this ribbing is talking place.
Arteta has not only failed for 3 yeara but his narcissistic approach has made Arsenal fans turn on him, alienated players that at the very least should have deserved a respectful send off.
On top of that the football has been absolute dire.
Complete and utter failure.
”Chelsea have had so many chances. I don’t know how Madrid are qualifying. They have been really poor.”
Mostly Benzema with Modric, Vinicus Jr and Courtois also top performers. Chelsea clearly the stronger side but left themselves with too much to do from last week.
Imagine if Arteta had to deploy Carl Jenkinson in a league game. He would have a coronary
I didn’t rate Tuchel before he took over at Chelsea. But what he is doing is admirable. He isn’t in the Klopp and Guardiola category but he just might be in the same category as Conte.
Touchell is quality win or lose
You can all come here and preach Emery, but I know people that worked with him, and I know how bad it was.
He was the wrong person for Arsenal for many, many reasons… and guess what? He was sacked because of it.
Benjamin Emery was shit for us is he a shit manager ? no was he shit for us ? Yes
Was he shit for PSG ? Yes was he the right fit for them ? No This is my point
He brought us much closer to 4th than Arteta?
And no way Arteta is getting near 4th place
Next season either. But by then the goal posts will
Be mover yet again.
SAGG , what’s your favourite unai Emery memory from when he was at Arsenal ?
I just want to know what will be Pedro standsrs whenArsenal appoint a new manager. Surely will ve reaching CL. In his 4th season with a budget of 500 millions.
It cant be a different one becasue rhats all the leeway Arteta has had.
That’s the modern game for you.. 15 secs left and the Keeper is still playing out of the back.. Old days he would have dribbled to halfway line and launched a shot or a cross.
Anyhow… crazy game.
No one should preach Emery on here Pedro he was shocking and I remember people on here also turned on him in droves,
He should have been sacked after the final when the chavs crushed us, remember that guys ????
Tets comes in with the same team and wins the fa cup 4 months later
That is how you go out if you have to go out though. Fighting till the bitter end. It is better than our past glorious failures too because they were the better team.
Mr SergeApril 12, 2022 22:27:47 Benjamin Emery was shit for us is he a shit manager ? no was he shit for us ? Yes Was he shit for PSG ? Yes was he the right fit for them ? NoThis is my point This is so funny considering Emery had more trophy for PSG in his time there than Tuchel or Poch won. Emery isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but to rubbish him is just silly. I remember klopp saying Emery is well respected amongst his peers. He just won a quarter final tie against bayern for christ sake.… Read more »
Agree LG, I didn’t love Tuchel before he came to Chelsea and thought he was a little overrated. Have been impressed with his work there although you’d have to say that this has been a failed season for them now after tonight.
Peds- I’m not preaching Emery..
I remember how it was.
People were telling me on here that the champions of europe Chelsea after they brought in Lukaku were EPL title contenders.
Didn’t happen.
Benjamin, you have to argue with reality my friend. We are 3 points off 4th having played 1 game less than Spurs. We have 8 games to go. 24 points to play for. We’re on 54 points. There’s a pretty good chance we’re going to be near 4th place.
He was the wrong person for Arsenal for many, many reasons… and guess what? He was sacked because of it.
As i said before, he WAS rightfully sacked!
Arteta should have been sacked at least twice,
Benjamin Arteta is near 4th now what you talking about ?
Ish, didn’t feel like the worst prediction at the time.
Pedro “He was the wrong person for Arsenal for many, many reasons… and guess what? He was sacked because of it.” No, no and no Emery was sacked because of results. He accepts the sacking as part of football The problem is that you’ve the metric for assessing Arteta has been turned into a goal post with wheels and you’re dragging t everywhere to avoid accountability for the manager you fancy, Today, you’ve refused to commit to distinguishing between the EL and Europa conference league as minimum, after being repeatedly asked by Ernest. Since when did a vague expression like… Read more »
Ishola
It’s interesting how the season has gone for the Chavs all right, I had them as title contenders myself.
Just went way off the boil when Lukaku’s honeymoon period was over and he started bitching publicly about the manager. All downhill from there and they were basically back to sq one i.e like last season.
Better than most teams but drop too many points because they do not have a reliable 20+ goal man.
“There’s a pretty good chance we’re going to be near 4th place.”
This has never happened before????
“””” No Pedro bashes him for a lot more than that
If you’re not in the know, just say so.”””
Eh ? 😂 Not in the know ? Just going off of what I read in the blogs mate.
Pedro
“didn’t feel like the worst prediction at the time.”
In seriousness they of course have good attributes and some good players but there is something not quite right about them to be real tip top.
They switch off badly at times in comparison to the best Mourinho Chelsea sides.
Winning the current EPL is more difficult than winning the CL.
PedroApril 12, 2022 22:32:25 You can all come here and preach Emery, but I know people that worked with him, and I know how bad it was.He was the wrong person for Arsenal for many, many reasons… and guess what? He was sacked because of it. Fair enough. I don’t know those who worked with him but I know he won trophies before he joined Arsenal and when he left Arsenal. I don’t see his behind his scence processes but I saw him lift Europa trophy last season. Emery just beat another manager who you is your favourite Pedro. Today… Read more »
Good Ebening From The Champions League semi finals !!!
What’ a coach that Unai Emery is!!!!
Huge result for Villarreal all the same. Between tonight and winning the Europa league he has shown his quality after his failure at Arsenal. We’re stuck in a quagmire while he’s moved on to better things. Kudos to him
Diss, he was sacked for many reasons. Results one of them, respect of the players another, culture at the club one, his relationship with the fans, the terrible football, the awful defence, the lack of gravitas to change things. Arteta has the youngest squad in the league battling for 4th right now. Fans in the ground have never been this engaged since we moved The Emirates. The football is very sexy when we have all our players. It’s very clear what we need to do to move to the next level. You can keep calling Arsenal a failure, but you… Read more »
Edu
It just seemed you were not fully briefed about the backdrop of the conversation
Cheers
WE
Yeah it is a failed season. But they have a super cup, a club world cup and a final in the league cup. Plus they have a Semi to play for in the FA cup. And they lost out to Madrid by small margins. The only real failure is the league. And even then they are comfortable in 3rd. I think he is doing a good job. Chavs won’t find a better manager to fight Klopp and Guardiola.
When I see the levels of the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool and City we are so miles away
Ballon D’Or BIG BENZ never in doubt. Fuck Chelsea!
Weagle as said to Pedro this current Chelsea side and the one that won the CL last season switch off badly on occasions compared to the best Mourinho Chelsea sides.
They can win CL but they won’t win the EPL for a bit.
Benjamin, you have to argue with reality my friend.
Reality and facts are that he spent over 100
Millions on defence and made it worse
Than last year.
Reality is that he finished 8th twice and will be
Closer to 8th than 4th this season.
Reality is that majority of the football he is
Dishing out is predictable and boring.
Edu
4-2 against Spurs.
Eliminate Napoli in EL
I thibk furdt half of 2018/2019 with the 22 unbeaten run was good.
I thibk he wanst the right fit for us, because his style is boring as hell, but it was much better option than Arteta.
”The football is very sexy when we have all our players.”
This is very much up for debate. In some of our matches, sure. But consistently, week on week even with our XI? Not for me, still some shockers in there.
Diss – he wasn’t just sacked for results.. Players were openly mocking him on the training pitch and telling everyone who would listen they hated his tactics. The fans were mad… The players were revolting…left and right Xhaka flipped us all off. The atmosphere was tense as fuck and the players had no loyalty to him. He was switching formations by the minute. and still losing.. let’s not rewrite history now.
Sheesh.
We must remember as well that this is not vintage Real Madrid is it either.
Been that case for a few seasons although they still have a few top individual performers.
“”””” If Emery is a cup manager please what is Arteta? He only won a cup. Emery won the league with PSG. Like it is just comical really. For all the hipster managers he still had a better record at psg.””””” Comparing emery’s record to Arteta, Jesus , How many years has Arteta been a manager for ? Anyone would think he’s been managing 15 years going by some of the melt down on here – and that cup he won in his first year as a manager – he beat the team that embarrassed us 4-1 in the el… Read more »
I mean we are on pace to score 57 PL goals, I wouldn’t exactly call that vintage Arsenal and scintillating football to watch.
We’ve scored a whopping 45 goals in the league this season…I dunno where the sexy football is at
”Been that case for a few seasons although they still have a few top individual performers.”
Exactly, if you were to watch back the 180 mins again Chelsea clearly outplayed them, just like last season when they ran rings around them.
The difference was individuals, mainly Benzema stepped up and decided the tie. Real are also very streetwise and can eek games out. 2nd half of ET they showed that quality for me even if they panicked in the 90.
Xhaka was the catalyst that got Bummery sacked.
‘Kin Granite Head.