MOVING ARSENAL TO THE NEXT LEVEL (LONG READ)

by .

Let’s get down to business people. The season finished with Arsenal occupying 5th place in the league. It should have been higher. If we’re honest, this squad should have been eyeing up 3rd place, but it wasn’t to be.

There are many reasons to be pissed about the way things ended, but when the dust settles and the emotions subside, there are also many reasons to feel good about the direction of the club. The most important positive for me is the clarity of the tasks that need to be done to take us to the next level. I’m 20/20 on it. You will be too by the time you finish this long read.

You can analyse this like an angry fan, slamming internet tables, screaming STANDARDS and CHARACTER from the rafters, or you can look at the challenge the way a modern football club would.

I was with a football consultant 2 weeks ago, his job was basically helping clubs move from highly inefficient boom and bust models to more sustainable setups.

Let’s talk about the old model because it’s how a lot of fans still think.

OLD MODEL:

  • Hire a manager
  • Give them total control of everything
    • Let them hire a deep backroom team
    • Let them spend consequential money on players
    • Let them decide how the game is played
  • Give them short term goals
  • If they fail short term goals, sack them

This model has tended to work for Chelsea because they can afford massive rebuilds and they can afford to make shocking mistakes. But the reality is the best two run clubs in the world, City and Liverpool, have sustainable models that are built with the long-term in mind with stability at heart of the operation.

Arsenal went from Arsene Wenger football to Unai Emery ball. That interim manager and the lack of direction cost us the best part of £200m in wasted resources.

We’re now working towards a sustainable model of football (I hope):

  • A clear footballing philosophy that is played at every level of the club
  • A clear vision for the type of talent we need to sign
    • 21-24 years old, 2-3 seasons worth of experience, loaded with character, on the way to world-class
  • We’re investing big money in developing our Academy
  • We’re mostly back to being a data-driven club when it comes to making decisions

The path back to the top is part of a long-term plan. Year 1, however much it pains you, was this season. The goal was a return to Europe. We achieved that goal. That we missed out on 4th in a painful way doesn’t change what our goals were. You don’t sack people because they shifted fan expectation upward, you generally see that as a huge positive if you are an exec at a football club.

If we win on Sunday, that will take our points total to 69. Enough points to make 3rd place the last two seasons. The last time a points total that high failed to get Champions League was Unai Emery (Poor Unai).

We’re also likely to clock 22 wins this season. More than Chelsea. That would have been the 2nd highest amount of wins in the league last season. 3rd highest the season before.

We’ve lost a lot of games, no doubt. There have been addressable issues in the system, some created by ourselves, some just a reality of not being able to do all our business in one summer last year. But this is the youngest team in the Premier League. Find a team this young that has got close to 69 points, you’ll struggle. Why? Because age is a mitigating factor at the highest level. The fact anyone thought we could finish 4th this season is hat tip to the progress of the team.

‘WE’LL NEVER GET A CHANCE THIS GOOD AGAIN’ is a familiar drossy comment we see every single season. Rewind back to September when a HUGE chunk of the fanbase got addicted to saying ‘these signings haven’t moved the needle.’ Are you really going to believe them now they’re saying we’ve blown our best chance at top 4?

We’re averaging 1.78 points per game with a new project. We’ll miss out on 4th by 1 point. Painful, but calling time on a project this junior is dim. Claiming the difference between elite mentality and LOSERS is 1 point is the type of analysis people who don’t understand sport offer up. It’s intangible, it sounds good, but it’s wrong.

So let’s get into some analysis that might be helpful to the future of the Arsenal Project.

START STRONG:

The start of our seasons was absolute carnage. We were the test case for COVID protocols and they didn’t work in our favor, not helpful, but the real story for me was how messy our transfer window was.

We did our deals really late. It’s a very Arsenal thing to leave everything until the end of the window. It has to stop. Mikel Arteta has a complex system, it takes time to bed players in. We need to start doing our business early so we can start strong. I don’t want to see Edu BBQing while Rome burns this summer.

Key takeaway: Do your business early

SQUAD MANAGEMENT:

Arsenal missing out on CL by a point opened the door to WE SHOULD HAVE SPENT IN JANUARY. You can’t argue it even though it’s a hopeful and abstract notion. My gut says that if there was a deal to be had that could move us forward, we’d have taken it. We went for the most expensive striker in Europe, we missed, the rest is history.

I’d rather focus on the things we can actually control, in scenarios that actually matter. So I’ll break this section into a few areas:

EXITS:

Hindsight is a wonderful thing and I’m going to lean into it hard right now.

Arteta and Edu went on a exit spree that was aggressive and in some cases, maybe they went a little too hard.

Ainsley Maitland Niles, to this day, is still the second-best right back at the club. He has some issues that make him difficult to manage and motivate, but when he’s on his game, he has the technical and athletic skills to pocket the best in the game. Arteta shipped him out and exposed the club to Cedric, who just ain’t it when you need him to shine. Arteta should have put an arm around Ainsley, told him he’d play 25 games for Arsenal and said we’d develop him at Arsenal.

William Saliba had one of the best loans of all time, he racked up 4000 minutes of football, played in Europe, made a big name for himself. It’s hard to look at what he’s done this season and truly believe he couldn’t have been rotated into Premier League games for us this season. He’s physically strong, he has the speed, and most importantly… we don’t have to change our style to accommodate his talents. Could we not have put a call back clause in his deal?

Takeaway: We are not City, not everyone has perfect mentality, managing imperfect personalities is part of the job. Arteta needs to invest more in players that aren’t his faves.

ROTATION:

Arteta has been averse to sharing minutes despite having players capable of delivering for him.

Mo isn’t a starter, but he was part of the starting 11 that dealt with United, WHU, and Chelsea. Don’t tell me he couldn’t have done a job against Brighton, Palace, and Southampton.

If Eddie Nketiah is given a run of games in January, trust me, we’re not talking about a lack of a striker that can score goals. You can talk about Spurs and Newcastle, but one game we played with 10 men, the other we offered no service.

If you don’t give players minutes, it takes time for them to find form. It can demotivate them. It can cause grumbling behind the scenes.

Arteta’s biggest weakness is that he doesn’t trust anyone outside his key players. He sees our win ratio with Thomas Partey in our side and determines he must play, every single game, regardless of fatigue.

Squad rotation is like controlled burning on farmland. You’d rather control a burn than have nature rip through the brush and lose your barn, house, and cattle in the process. Rotating players is controlled burning, it’s not risk-free, but it will mostly keep nature at bay. Arteta gambles on nature and it has cost him.

During Christmas, Arteta should have taken Tomiyasu out of the heat, he knew he’d played all the minutes, he knew the player had historic calf issues, but he kept on playing him. He didn’t need to play against Leeds, we should have given him a break and kept him fresh for City. Instead, we let him break against Leeds, then rushed him back for City and we broke him. Bad management.

Thomas Partey, another known brittle player, was played and played and played. When he went away for the World Cup, it was pretty clear he was going to play on a bad pitch, go through some big emotions, and come back exhausted. That is what happened, but we rolled the dice on him against a rough Palace side, and we lost him for the season. We should have rolled with Mo Elneny for that stretch of games because they’d have been fit and motivated to play. We might have lost the games, but we’d live to fight another day with Thomas Partey.

Similar story with Kieran Tierney, but way more risk, because Nuno Tavares is a nightmare of a player. But remember, he was doing pretty well at the start of the season.

Liverpool manages player health far better than we do. Trent was suffering from fatigue, Klopp knew it, he picked up a hamstring issue (supposedly), and this happened.

“Trent is out with a hamstring. He cannot be part of England as well – no good news, we will see how long that takes.”

He landed a break then came back fighting for the rest of the season. What did we do during that international break? We let Kieran Tierney go to the Scotland camp, with burnout, then play two meaningless friendlies, he broke down, and we had no left-back for the rest of the season.

Takeaway: Lean into the squad even if it costs you in the short term because nature will always have its way with your players. Also… play the dark arts game better.

GOALS:

We scored 55 goals last season and we have 56 this season. Not good enough. Arsene Wenger used to spend all his money on #10s when his defence was awful, Arteta solves attack with defenders.

There’s panic in the system that a striker won’t solve our issues, but be real, that is silly talk. Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka alone are chance creation machines.

Those two players will be more experienced next season, they’ll have learned from what happened during this collapse, and they will get sharper.

Arteta needs to rebuild our attack so we have actual outlets for goals.

Nicolas Pepe is going to exit, we’ll take a huge hit on him, but it’s for the good of the club. I know it goes against our strategy, but Wilfried Zaha is in the final year of his deal, he is a menace, can run at players, he always asks questions of defenders.

We will 100% sign an elite striker this summer. I hope we don’t blow our pennies on Gabriel Jesus. If we have one shot at this, get someone that has everything. I want height, power, pace, I want something that runs defenders ragged… Tammy Abrahams would be the guy for me. But whoever it is, they need to be a multifaceted threat, and I think aerial dominance is a must in a system that has players with elite range of passing.

We also have to ask more of our players next season. Gabriel Martinelli, a super talent, now our #11. I want 15 goals next season. Martin Odegaard needs more goals. ESR and Saka need to build on stellar seasons.

The positive? We were bottom of the top 7 for goals and we finished 1 point shy of 4th. Add goals, you add places, it’s a simple equation. Spurs are where they are because they have Kane and Son, if those two picked up their usual injuries, they’d be buried.

Key takeaway: If we add a 15 goal a season striker this summer, we find at least 8 points we didn’t have before.

DEFENCE:

We’ve had a shocker this season. We have conceded 8 more goals than we did last season despite spending £100m on defenders.

Now, this is where you have to add the context. We aged down our defence. The average age of our back 5 is 24. Defenders get better with age. That will happen. The big takeaway for me is simple: Our back-up options were not competition, they were just back-ups. We went to shit when we lost both our fullbacks. Both our fullbacks are brittle, this will happen again. Something needs to change.

William Saliba will be invited back into the mixer. He gives us the option to put Ben White or himself at right-back should the need arise. We’re going to have to move on Nuno Tavares, signing a fullback like Hicky makes sense because he can cover either side.

I want to whisper this… but we really need to hope Matt Turner is more than a crash test dummy. Aaron Ramsdale’s form dropped off a cliff in 2022. He should have been dropped, Matt Turner needs to be that threat. Let’s also ask questions of the keeping coach. Happy to take credit for Ramsdales form when he was crushing it, but as soon as his coaching methods set in, he turns to shit? There’s a pattern there…

Ainsley is STILL our best backup option at right back. Maybe another failed loan will focus his mind on being a squad player for Arsenal. He’ll get 30 games at right-back for us, where else is he getting that? Motivating him to take that role will save us at lot of money we could spend elsewhere.

KEY TAKEAWAY: We need better options to come in for injury-prone defenders and we need to be clever about it.

INTERNAL STAFFING:

Does Arteta have staff around him that truly challenge him?

Where were they on the squad management stuff?

Where were they on exiting so many players that could have been useful?

Would it be unfair to suggest that Arteta seems to surround himself with a lot of very junior people because maybe, just maybe, he doesn’t like to be challenged?

I have no idea. But the best managers in the game and in business hire people around them that make up for their deficiencies as people. Arteta is transactional, he’s not great at relationships unless you are delivering, he can sometimes be too rash in his decision making: Young manager traits.

Is he going to assess what he’s lacking from his own internal team?

Who knows. But he should be. 5th is a good season, but it could have been a great one if we’d managed our internal resources a bit better. This game is fine margins; let’s make sure the manager has people around him capable of pointing those out, even if it causes friction.

Key takeaway: Spending money isn’t the only way we’ll get better next season, sometimes you have to be ruthless about those around you.

CONCLUSION:

We are on a good track. There are lots of areas to improve on but if we do some top-notch recruitment, if we bring loan players back into the fold, and we get sharper on squad management, we really can kick on and become a top 4 side next season.

See you in the comments. x

 

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grooveydaddy

1st

grooveydaddy

Tr4phy

grooveydaddy

Oops

grooveydaddy

Now

benkind

4th

Bankz

4tg

grooveydaddy

I’ll take it

Thierry Martinelli

“The path back to the top is part of a long-term plan. Year 1, however much it pains you, was this season…..”

and that’s where I stopped reading the post

andy1886

What is ‘The Next Level’ Mikel?

“The Next Level is The Next Level!!!!”

Wow, we have come so far!

Mr Serge

How do you guys always know there is a new post lol

andy1886

” Claiming the difference between elite mentality and LOSERS is 1 point is the type of analysis people who don’t understand sport offer up”

Isn’t that how you described Emery after missing out by one point? Or am I mistaken.

Anyway, not sure where that came from, we’re two points adrift right now and I suspect that neither of us know how results will go tomorrow.

Thierry Martinelli

Ode no2 in chances created and Saka almost tied with KDB and missing Salah by 3. I looked at the xG table and both LFC and City are up there with 90pts each. We have 60pts and Man U 56pts.
What kind of chances is Ode creating? Am I misinterpreting data?

Muppetman

So you did read further?

bacaryisgod

Pedro on Saliba in July 2021: ‘My biggest concern out of this whole move is the lack of ambition from the player. Ben Knapper is the loans manager and he’ll have pulled together a group of clubs for the player to choose from (he had offered up Rennes last season according to GFFN). If reports are to be believed there was interest from Germany, Italy, and England. Why would a player trying to break the Premier League go back to France again?’ Pedro on Saliba in May 2022: ‘William Saliba had one of the best loans of all time’. This… Read more »

andy1886

Thierry Martinelli – Easy to answer that question, they’re mostly poor chances like the ones that Partey blasts into Row Z.

Lies, damn lies, and statistics I’m afraid.

If you look at BIG CHANCES CREATED (Official PL Stats) Odegaard is equal 39th with six this season (Saka is highest placed at equal 17th with 8 big chances created).

Things never improve when we lie to ourselves.

the donkey

the dummy sings what ever tune the ventriloquist wants him to sing

Chrispy

New most with some positivity and then out come the mood hoovers. Cant wait for this season to end for that very reason.

Thierry Martinelli

MuppetmanMay – I saw the graph image while scrolling down to the comments section.

Thierry Martinelli

Andy – even Sqwaka ranks Ode at no6 ; below
Bruno
Trent
KdB
Ward Prowse
Saka

andy1886

Not really Chrispy, just not keen on fantasy with obvious factual inaccuracies.

Maybe it’s intended to be a wind-up to drive posts, who knows?

andy1886

@TM – I stick to the official PL stats, see link below:

https://www.premierleague.com/stats/top/players/big_chance_created

Chris

An engaging read Pedro, cheers Interesting you mention the staff Arteta surrounds himself with. The goal keeping coach, Inaki is it, is he up to scratch do we think? Leno suffers a loss of form and seemed to speak out about the coaching if I recall rightly? Now Ramsdale’s form has been patchy, although I absolutely believe he is still the keeper for us, some people have short memories given his outstanding form in the first part of the season, and he is still very young. Anyways. Is the GK coach part of this issue and if he is, would… Read more »

Kay

You could do better than this.
Still blaming everyone else except for Bumteta.
Rooting for Zaha now after complaining Emery spent 200m.
******face palm******

Thierry Martinelli

I expected Europa this season. I got that; although with proper planning,we could have gotten 4th or even 3rd.
Maybe a miracle can happen on D-day. Be that as it may, we move on to next season.
I expect p4 or above achieved by proper planning and performances. Luck and us depending on other teams to lose should contribute very little to our fortunes.

China1

What is the definition of a ‘chance’ that’s used in these stats?

Would love to know

Greg

Plan B: find a double agent at Spurs, spike their food with ExLax and watch them crap their pants on Sunday.
Agreed about running AMN out of town in Jan, he could’ve been very useful ahead of Soares.

China1

If I recall correctly a ‘progressive pass’ is any pass that starts in your own half and successfully finds a team mate in the opposition half. So a pass just behind the halfway line to a team mate 10 yards away to a player just in front of the halfway line counts equally as ‘progressive’ as a pass from the edge of your own box to the feet of your CF deep in opposition territory If the definition of creating a chance is similarly mundane and arbitrary then the stat also might be a bit silly on closer inspection. But… Read more »

andy1886

@China, probably anything that results in an attempt at goal, so as I suggested teeing up Partey to have a blast from forty yards is a chance created.

China1

Pedro isn’t Zaha the player Emery always wanted but never got?

Lol

Chris

Apparently Kane has been ill and unable to meet media commitments today, Conte denying there is a bout of food poisoning!

It couldn’t happen again could it!?!?

andy1886

Sadly not Chris, they are saying that it’s just Kane and that he’ll be fine for Sunday. Could be telling porkies though….

Johng

Let’s pray for Lasagne gate 2 coming to a Norfolk football ground near you

azed

Pedro

I get your optimism and your batting for Arteta Arsenal but being the youngest team in the league is just feel good.
The year Leicester won the league, Tottenham I believe were the youngest team in the league and it didn’t that team didn’t amount to much.

Juventus is rumored to be in for Gabriel and if he decides to go, we have to rejig our central defence.

This is why if we don’t finish 4th this season, it will be a very big blow.
In sports, nothing is guaranteed. We can’t accurately predict how next season will go.

Trilbilly

It hurts because we were in the driving seat for fourth for the business end of this season. The players bottled it with 6 defeats in 10, that says bucket loads for their character. As much as we hate Xhaka he called them all out for it. The only reprieve is the fact that if we got CL next season we’d be fucked, we aren’t ready for it. We’ll get more games with EL, the squad will get more experience, well be stronger the following seaosn. We just need more goals and depth in the full back positions. No Rashford… Read more »

Mr Serge

The one thing I really don’t like about Arteta is his transactional approach he has no personality it’s his way or the highway
I don’t want to lose talent because of this
I mean saliba
A great manger has great personality look at Klopp
Not guen I never rated him apart from his fighting spirit

Tom

“New most with some positivity and then out come the mood hoovers. Cant wait for this season to end for that very reason.”

You want this season to end only because there’s a section of posters on your favorite Arsenal blog that pick it apart for basic factual inaccuracies ?

Well, I’ll try to keep it positive then when I say if we beat Everton and Tottenham draw at Norwich , we’ll be in the CL next season.
Lets do it!

Marko

A clear footballing philosophy that is played at every level of the club

What philosophy

A clear vision for the type of talent we need to sign

Don’t get me started on the recruitment. Clear vision my backside we’ve spent 100’s of millions and there’s still the usual glaring holes in the squad and players running down their contracts and signings not working out etc etc so basically just the usual.

Killroy-TM

“the dummy sings what ever tune the ventriloquist wants him to sing”

Already THE post for this thread. Spot on.

When we hope that a relegated team at the bottom of the table will beat a team that dominated us and won 3-0 it tells you how far AFC’s ambition to do it themselves have tanked.

Benjamin

I Call it as i see it! We have played boring
And predictable football for the
most matches, and no amount of
propaganda and xG is going to change that.
There always seems to be a bullshit
argument that we should put thing in context.
Blah blah blah

EdTheREd

TOP40

R.S.P.C.Arsenal

Dearie me… You still under the illusion that saliba is coming back .. he ain’t .
The question you should be asking is how much we should ask for him? 30,40,50m.player has made it clear he wants to stay in France.
He will end up in Spain with RM or Barca or PSG… Not coming back to be arsenal that bird has flown.

Killroy-TM

@Tom
“if we beat Everton and Tottenham draw at Norwich , we’ll be in the CL next season.”

No because of their GD they will be in the CL unless you were satirical 😆

bacaryisgod

Trilbilly

The 6 losses in 10 was directly related to the triple loss of Partey, Tomi and Tierney. Some of that must blame has to land at Arteta’s doorstep because Partey and Tierney have been injury prone recently and needed extra rest after the International break. Maybe they still get injured with added rest but with Partey in particular, his value to the team has lead Arteta to push him back quickly (the first time he literally pushed him) on three occasions with negative consequences.

Thierry Martinelli

We’re waiting for Norwich to beat Spurs…..at half time Son would be on a hatrick and we’ll be here praying for the Lloris to go crazy and score 4 own goals.

EdTheREd

Positive thing is that after 2 & 2/3 seasons at Arsenal, there is decent stat developing on our manager’s performance. This is a good thing because it will allow us to stop judging our manager from emotional viewpoint, but use figures instead.

So it’s very hard to be optimistic about next season when we’d lost 26 fckng matches in last TWO seasons (possible 27th on Sunday), and we failed to reach 60 goals scored in every season Arteta’s been involved so far. There are some really unpleasant patterns emerging.

Killroy-TM

Pedro “The most important positive for me is the clarity of the tasks that need to be done to take us to the next level.” Excuse me I thought that was clear beyond the shadow of a doubt after Wenger failed several times to get us into CL. “That interim manager and the lack of direction cost us the best part of £200m in wasted resources.” We had the corrupt Don Raul who didn’t follow through on requests because of his agent buddies. Emery wanted Zaha and got Pepe £72mil down the toilet. “We need to start doing our business… Read more »

Br0wnie

Zaha is not a good option. Temperamental and streaky. If we go in for veteran players they need to be leaders to help our younger players not a player that loses his shit at teammates when things don’t go his way

Tom

MMay 20, 2022 18:48:22
@Tom
“if we beat Everton and Tottenham draw at Norwich , we’ll be in the CL next season’

No because of their GD they will be in the CL unless you were satirical 😆

—————-

I was trying to stay positive for Chrispy’s sake.

EdTheREd

Arteta will have to find a solution for repeated mental collapse once we go behind. Because the other teams won’t forget how weak we were this season when we conceded first.

London gunner

Regarding the chances created

It should be chances created per 90 minutes as we can see that kdb played the least minutes I haven’t done the math but I expect he has the best pet 90.

Ode stats are very good which tbh I’m surprised at.

englandsbest

Pedro, you deserve a medal. Your long read was addressed to and designed for the anti-arteta brigade, the moaners, the whiners, the groaners, the downbeat gloomsters. A kindly arm around the shoulder to guide them onto the right path. The rest of us don’t need to be told that the Club is heading in the right direction, back to the elite, that the process will take time, that mistakes will be made en route.

andy1886

Okay. I’ll focus on things in the post that I do agree with. As a cheap option Zaha has a lot going for him. I like the chaos, creates opportunities for others too. I’d take Tammy, we’re more likely to get a clear run at him than some other big names. I think that he’d do well. Unless Mikel is a complete moron he now knows that we need alternatives to both full backs (Hickey may well be the answer) and Partey (but not Arthur FFS). Chances are one of the ‘big’ clubs fucks up next season, one always does.… Read more »

Bigper

Arteta has failed, he performed nowhere near as good as solskajer last year and look where united are now. Same fate for legohea and arsenal unless he’s sacked

DivineSherlock

Good read Pedro , I dont mind the clearing out in January , that was a good decision but the decision to not strengthen the squad was really a poor choice ( we didnt find anyone worthy is a bad excuse ) You are right Edu needs to be quickfire this summer.

TR7

Under Arsene 4th place was a trophy.

Under Arteta, “process” is like a trophy.

Mk12

Good piece! Arteta’s 3rd full season coming up. In all honesty, it’s make or break time for him. Also, we have a few experienced players that are assessing their options ahead of potential summer moves: Xhaka, Laca, Leno, Pepe, Elneny if he doesn’t get a new deal and Holdini as well. How will we deal with these potential exits? Looks like we’re going young again in the market. Is this a concern for anyone? a lack of experience within the squad? Another excuse for the Arteta lovers? Looks like it’s gonna be a very noisy summer! Additionally, Partey and his… Read more »

booomergoooner

The best footballing teams have never been stats driven. They’ve been scouting driven and watched. Also, individual stats are more related to who they’re playing alongside. Stats are fun to look at but what matters most is that one stat: points and end of season table position.

Leftside

No place to hide next season it is time for Mikel to truly deliver.

InsideRight

EdTheREd – “Arteta will have to find a solution for repeated mental collapse once we go behind. Because the other teams won’t forget how weak we were this season when we conceded first.” The problem isn’t a mental collapse. The problem is the way the players have been told to play. Elite managers make adjustments during the game, to positioning, approach etc. If they fall behind and the opposition are playing a certain way, they make changes to negate them and get back into the match. Arteta doesn’t. He has one approach set out for the match. There is no… Read more »

Thierry Martinelli

Why label someone a moaner when he doesn’t agree with Pedro or questions what the post says?

Vintage Gun

Interesting press conference from Arteta today. Comments such as “If you tell me i can have six players last Jan or this window, i will go out there and sign six players” . ALSO “If you give me the best three strikers, i’d be so happy to coach them” To me it seems as if he’s sending out a message to explain the lack of incomings in January wasn’t down to him but more so due to the fact that the resources were not made available to him. Hence his other quote “If i can get six players it would… Read more »

Thierry Martinelli

Most of the stuff Pedro writes is good. Even without reading the essay he did today, I can tell it’s 97% good and pretty much agreeable.

Dissenter

Pedro
You called the tested method of’ holding highly compensated employees accountable to be dated

“OLD MODEL:

Hire a manager
Give them total control of everything
Let them hire a deep backroom team
Let them spend consequential money on players
Let them decide how the game is played
Give them short term goals
If they fail short term goals, sack them”

Seems you’re pushing an interminable process, with every shifting goal posts

You deftly listed all the major errors Arteta made without creating any accountability for him.

Dissenter

“ “If you give me the best three strikers, i’d be so happy to coach them ”

Arteta had three reasonably good strikers in Auba, Laca and Eddie.
He didn’t know how to coach them

Someday when all the rose colored smoke has cleared, we will discuss his deficits more openly.

benkind

bacaryisgodMay 20, 2022 17:59:45 This comment is amazing. We are all fans and we get things right and wrong. I was looking at our game against Newcastle and I wondered. If we switched manger and Eddie Howe was in charge of Arsenal that day would Arteta have won with that Newcastle team against Arsenal? I know we cannot know however, I cannot 100% guarantee Artea wins. I watched Everton yesterday and they came back from 2 goals down. They knew what was at stake and Lampard responded in the second half appropriately. We lost to this crystal palace team when… Read more »

EdTheREd

I’d be happy to coach three best strikers too. Off you go lads, do your bit.

The Bard

It’s a very confusing post. You go from analysis to fantasy and speculation. I dont have problem with the analysis except to add that the mistakes Arteta makes are because he is inexperienced and is learning the job. The question you should be asking is has he learnt enough? We will see but if we tank early next season he needs to go and we get someone in who knows what they are doing. All this highly thought out longer term plans stuff is utter rubbish. Why sign Willian, why give Auba a massive contract to name a few of… Read more »

benkind

I remember when Lampard was at Chelsea. Mourinho was a pundit and Chelsea at just lost. Mourinho made a comment about the fact that Lampard had the excuse of the transfer ban and a young team. He said Lampard should use it well cause it wouldn’t matter after sometime. Lampard was sacked the following season. Project youth, youngest team in the league etc. Arteta has finally used that goodwill. Anything below 4th next season and to make excuses will just be silly. The FA cup grace is done now. This is why I am looking forward to next season. No… Read more »

Vintage Gun

@Diss I agree and one of my biggest concerns under Arteta has been the fact that 90% of our Attacking players have turned to stone. Auba Laca Willian Pepe I’ll lay off the young guns as they’ve been shouldered with a heavy burden and have been our main source of goals this season despite their collective numbers not being enough to take us where we needed to be this season. I think he will get his two forwards this summer and if their form goes the way of the rest the he’ll have nowhere to hide outside of Pedro’s spare… Read more »

Nelson

Pedro You finally come up with a balanced post. You have pointed out one Arteta’s weakness. He doesn’t trust anyone outside his key players and doesn’t support players that aren’t his faves.. As I have posted earlier, Arteta’s starting 11 is competitive as long as they are still fresh and healthy. I want to believe that the board and all our scouts couldn’t even find one or two players to Arteta’s liking after “working a few months between the two previous TW. Arteta has another dangerous weakness. His galaxy brain When he was overtaken by his galaxy brain, he could… Read more »

Globalgunner

Thierry

Thats because thats all they got. Anyone who doesnt get with the programme is a moaner. they would rather win an argument than see Arsenal win on the pitch.

Arteta is just wasting everybodys time with his project. Next season will be his 4th and yet……..

Alan

Takeaways from this terrible article

1 Arteta’s management is at fault for around 95% of what has been identified
2. Peter’s consultant is someone he made up to add gravitas to his takes (because supposed consultant’s old vs new model is just old vs older)
3. Anyone with half a brain can tell those stats on Saka and Odegaard are not reflective of good chances created

Thierry Martinelli

If by mid next season we’re struggling for points and any sort form on the pitch, then the coach will have to be held accountable. No more excuses of having the youngest squad or not having players top pick from. And enough of ‘we can’t buy this or that player’…Arsenal football club isn’t poor and we showed it last season. So, what if we can’t use CL to attract the tier 1 players!? The DoF and those behind him are being paid small country GDP kind of salaries to overcome such eventualities. Next season is going to be crazy with… Read more »

Paddy Gooner

Lot of people assuming we’ll beat Everton…. Wouldn’t it be typical if Norwich beat spurs and we still couldn’t capitalise

The Real Vieira Lynn

nearly always a good read, unfortunately, when it comes to my football, I prefer nonfiction to the usual fictional fodder on offer ever since you planted your Arteta Knows Best flag firmly in the ground…of course, you appear to have made some rather salient points, but this was simply a tamped-down version of your earlier diatribes about the supposed undeniable future of this rather sloppy project…so while I applaud you for adding some seemingly reasonable caveats, I can’t help but think this wouldn’t have been the case if our rather naïve manager hadn’t royally cocked things up

Habesha Gooner

There are some truths in this but also some skewed truth to shape a narrative. No one can convince me that Bruno Guimaraes that has been playing a top level since he has been introduced to Newcastle’s line up couldn’t have helped us. Elneny did ok and so did Xhaka but we could have solved our midfield issues then. There were some deals to be made. But we fucked it up. Spurs gave themselves a boost and they are reaping the rewards. One thing I agree with is that it isn’t the end of the world. It was disappointing but… Read more »

TallestTiz

The Premier League is the only major league in Europe without a single official selected to act as video assistant referee (VAR) at the World Cup in Qatar this year.

👀👀

Habesha Gooner

Next season will be illuminating though. Either Arteta delivers or he goes. And our young player will succeed with him or another coach. Because we have the talent now.

englandsbest

My belief is that money won’t be a problem this summer, that Arteta will get the six players he needs. That was the subtext of the zero-buy Jan window. No cause for surprise for that is what happened last summer.

The requirement for battle-hardened experience is evident, so we can expect some of the newcomers to be in their mid-twenties. Also, the money spent is likely to be higher, around £200 million, offset by circa £50 million in sales.

Exciting times!

Killroy-TM

Vintage Gun If Arteta was “sending out a message to explain the lack of incomings in January wasn’t down to him but more so due to the fact that the resources were not made available to him.” If that is true than it is even more baffling that he let that many players go in the Jan TW. If he knew they could not get players in but shifted that many than the Deal Making Dunce & Bumteta are even more incompetent than I imagined. That being said, Tets is very predictable because he repeats errors and is not willing… Read more »

into the red

I have a feeling I have read this article before. Primed to make us all feel pumped up, as if we had just been to a seminar at a hipster marketing agency or advertising outfit in. Shoreditch. Yes, all hot button stuff, young would-be execs with their powerpoint corporate motivational approach would whip through, leaving us feeling buzzed with phrases we can adopt down the pub as we sketch the glorious future. Out with the old geezers, in with the hipster corporate football gurus. Wishful thinking is one thing, as is importing this kind of brash corporate ‘next level’ motivation… Read more »

Killroy-TM

Englandsworst It looks like as if Arsenal buying players is therapy for you, because you are expecting 6 more to come in during the summer TW. What about the 13 (Runarsson, Cedric, Willian, Mari, Gabriel, Partey, Odegaard, Ben White, Ramsdale, Tomiyasu, Lokonga, Tavares and Matt Turner) that have already come in during Arteta’s tenure. How many more does he need to bring in for a squad with European football? Looks to me he can’t get peak performance out of what he already has. Arteta’s method is more like get players in and see if they work in my brilliant process,… Read more »

Killroy-TM

Into the red “This summer will test whether he has the skill to bring in the right people to take things further and whether he can adapt his rigid style to be more creative and responsive to what other teams do.” You are making one HUGE assumption here, that he will get decent players in, that is not a forgone conclusion as he was not successful for players in the past who he wanted for whatever reason. Some of the attacking players that have come up here are already of the list as they want CL football. We have Newcastle… Read more »

Graham62

So even though Arteta arrived in December 2019, it is only now that he’s got started. Poppycock! 😩 To be honest this is an insult to us all. Ask any Arsenal fan back in December 2019 that it will take another two and half years for Arteta to sort things out and to get Arsenal playing dynamic progressive football we’d have been concerned. The problem is our football is generally substandard and we have no clear identity 30 months into a project. To say this is worrying would be an understatement. I’m sorry but this analytical bullshit is doing my… Read more »

into the red

Killroy – that was my point! His buying record is very patchy, so who he brings in will make or break him.

Graham, yes I noticed that – lots of talk about processes and culture without any analysis of whether Arteta has shown he has the skill or knowhow to carry out these lofty ideals. His track record thus far is hardly stellar, except in hype and PR.

Nigel Tufnel

Weekend prediction.

Incredibly, Tottenham lose.
Unfortunately, so do Arsenal.

Nigel Tufnel

Only a self hating Arsenal “suppoorter” will enjoy opposing fans songs full of derision for Arsenal.

This is why Kilroy has no real friends.

Nigel Tufnel

England’s best has friends.

Nigel Tufnel

In general I’m ok with people saying if Arteta doesn’t improve consistency or goal output by the end of next year, that they want him gone. I don’t think that is unreasonable. The people who are trying to move the goalposts in our target for this season are unfair or just dishonest. Nobody expected champions league qualification this season. But the way the collapse played out is going to work against the manager and club in the eyes of the fans. That’s just a fact of life, and they’ll have to spend if they want to make up for the… Read more »

Br0wnie

I can’t emphasize enough how bad a choice Zaha would be for us. I watched several Palace games this season and he is undeniably talented but he is also a wing nut mentally. He sulks, he berates teammates on the field, he loses his shit constantly. He hasn’t been scooped up by bigger clubs for a reason and his one go at ManU was a disaster.

China1

If it makes you guys feel any better I just woke up from a very vivid dream where we snatched top 4 on the last day of the season.

I mean I was an arsenal player and physically ran onto the pitch with a few others to help Norwich out which was totally legal and fair and the ref didn’t seem to notice 😂😂

Br0wnie

Sounds like Wan-Bissaka is on the block. He was one of the best right backs in the league at Palace and was great early on at ManU until things began to fall apart. Going to Arsenal could be a new lease on life for the 24 year old. If the price was right, it’s worth the risk.

Mr Serge

Brownie who wants a full back that is terrible at attacking and CSN only defend ? Not us he is shocking and a terrible buy from man u

Tony

“Pedro, you deserve a medal” 2 actually: Best blogger to troll his posters Most factually disingenuous, delusional and unbalanced Arsenal blogger The big picture – last 30 months we see much differently to you, Pedro. The eye test is far more honest and reliable than your stats will ever be. Remember your Alamo: The post Xmas table only for us to lose our first 3 games? You need new sources, Pedro – not on the same payroll/gifts( Superbowl box) as you – as none of the ones you’ve used for the last 30 months have planned out at all. You… Read more »

Madhu

Nice long read and Pedro has summed up atleast few points against Arteta we all have been highlighting regularly. Dissapointing end to the season can only lighten if atleast we end the seasons with a win. I really challenge the notion taht Arteta is a great coach. Pls remember we get this impression because of what he did at City alongside Pep. It’s totally different from what he is doing now. So the jury is till our and at the moment his coaching is still a suspect. His chosing of defence has shipped more goals than last season. His choosing… Read more »

Tony

Saliba has said he wants to stay in France next season.

Says it all really.

Moray

Is love to see Paddy back and managing the club.

Seeing him kick that annoying little Scally’s arse really reminded me of the passion that’s been missing from the club for years now.

Moray

Yes, Saliba’s not coming to us next year.

Huge loss. But we’ve done nothing to make him fee valued. Not least spending ridiculous money on 18-30’s Ben White.

Arsenal is no more his club than Norwich or Juventus.

We will look back on this as a huge failure in years to come. He’s way better than either of our first two options at CB.

DivineSherlock

So anyone up for DCL ? I believe he can be quite the menace upfront , if he plays like he played against Palace . Then get Dybala for free and we rolling .

Moray

Let’s also not forget we are coming off a season where we didn’t actually compete in a meaningful way for any trophy. We weren’t in Europe, weren’t ever near the Premiership title after two games, and sacked off the cups early doors. And still the manager failed to motivate the team enough and keep them healthy to go after the famous fourth place “trophy”. I’m not sure what the strategy or aim was for the season but it does look like, with the 150m outlay, the goal was a 4th place CL finish. I mean, why else bomb pathetically out… Read more »

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