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I noticed a crucial detail in Arteta's post match interviews when we drop points we're not supposed to by playing poorly. When he first arrived, he takes full responsibility by saying the performance is all down to him but now it's Wenger like delusion saying we 'deserved' to win the game with 'chances' created and all that bullshit. The sooner we hire someone that doesn't have a complicated style of play the better, none of this inverting bullshit, left sided 8, stacking jocks in the team with low technique and footballing intelligence, signing injury prone players etc

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Biggest concern of all this season is the only thing we’ve been excellent at is set pieces and safe to say Arteta has bigger all involvement with those.

Take Jover out and what position would we be right now? 10th?

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I was glad Mikel had the balls to:

1) play MLS which goes against his instincts to not trust kids. Boy did himself no harm at all and came through the game well

2) was willing to pull of Ode early for Ethan. Correct decision at the correct time which surprised me greatly

But some observations about Ethan recently

1) when he comes on, nobody passes to him. He’s supposed to be brought on so he can add pace and dynamism. Get the ball centrally on the half turn and drive forwards, beat a man and pass or go for goal near the edge of the box. He’s brilliant at this. Yet every time we bring him on the tactics immediately change to just pass to the LW and hope the winger does something magical. This is really poor tactically considering the combination of Ethan’s dynamism with Saka’s threat should mean the Centre right-right wing becomes increasingly dangerous. Instead we ignore that entirely and hope trossard works a miracle by himself on the left. What’s the point? Poor tactic, very very poor. What’s even the point of bringing him on if the tactics are set up not to utilize him at all?

2) Ethan himself should work on his positioning a little bit. He’s brilliant in the ball but with some minor tweaks to his positioning he will pop up in more and more dangerous positions.

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It would be better to have Rice at RB then Partey and Merino in midfield.

Rice is similar to Coquelin.

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pass that joint this way bro. some take

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I have been singing about open play goals, the fanboys countered that i want Arsenal to fail.

Opponents have figured out, prevent Arsenal scoring the 1st goal from setpieces or counter attacks(ie quick ball from Raya to forwards).

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I see Arteta resigning by season end. I hope he does. He's peaked. Can't do more than he has. He's a winner, attitude wise. A competitive freak and an absolute workaholic but he can't get it over the line at this club. He doesn't have the self motivation nor the discipline nor requisite skills to do so without an external push. The kroenkes are the last people to push you nor demand success from their coaches.

#KroenkeOut now. Arteta is a problem but Kroenkes are a bigger problem.

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Arteta is not a winner.... never has been. One time I remember him as a player he scored an equaliser against Villa via a free kick. He wasted over 2 minutes celebrating instead of hurrying a restart

Arteta is mediocre

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Odds of a manager resigning from one of the best jobs in the game are very very close to nil

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Watch this space...

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Arteta is not a winner. Don't be fooled. If he was a winner, he will not risk risk victory against villa last season just to play his pet players.

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Well, he talks like a winner. His attitude is that of a winner. He just doesn't know hot to get there and he's decided to surround himself by yes men. No dissenting voices, no accountability coming from the higher ups.

I'd sooner rather he left the club but if he goes to another club that has accountability and external drive, he could win. Inexperience and lack of accountability from management is a requisite for failure. Sadly that's what we have at Arsenal FC at the moment.

Kroenkes are all talk and pander to managers, Arteta is inexperienced.

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I dont think Mike survives with other ownership.

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I absolutely agree he won't survive with another management

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So, my hottest of takes is this.

Play the damn players in positions where they were designed to f'n play.

Timber at rb

Partey at dm

Rice further up

Kiwior at lb if at all

or just play three at the back and play Partey, Rice, Marino and Ode in mid

Everton were not going to score for goodness sakes.

Put Sterling out on the left to make runs in the box

If you are going to play Jesus, force the guy to stay in or around the box only

How about some shots outside the box now and then or a bunch a few yards inside the box.

Lobbing balls into the center and expect Saka and Tross to get on the end of headers is futile

Get the team dialed for cups and see were we end up

Oh, get a winger, cf or a healthy lb in the window.

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Partey rice merino and ode is an insanely defensive midfield setup for a team that already creates very little

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8dEdited

Agreed, but unless Mikel puts one of the youngsters in what have we got??

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Rice is not further up. He is not an 8. He has never been. But he is limited to play holding role in a title aspiring team. He is a small club legend. We will soon realise this. That 8 role used to be Aaron Ramseys role. Let that sink in for a moment. Even xhaka played the role better than the best of Rice in that position. Like White, who is also a transfer mistake, arteta will soon find a mitigating position for him. But not left 8 and certainly not 4. Maybe salibas replacement when he finally leaves out of frustration.

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Agreed, but unless Mikel puts one of the youngsters in what have we got??

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NO CEO no DOF, Tets show now.

But who is better out there lol

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Wow. He's been out for a while and I didn't even know. Shouldn't have been CEO in the first place. The decision by S&JK to allow the triumvirate of Vinai, Edu and later Arteta to run such a big hitter like Arsenal was trolling material to begin with.

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Vinai out too? Haha

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he been gone already

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If Wenger was given funds like these, we would have won a league or two by now.

Generational been great but unfortunately, he is not him. He won't win the league for us.

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It’s not the point. Arteta getting a poor return on investment is not reason to think wenger would get a better return when it was literally wenger spending big in his final years that drove us totally off the cliff with crap talent ID

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He wouldn’t have. Wenger started spending in his later years and his return on investment was frankly awful

Mustafi Ozil Xhaka Laca kola Auba cost a combined 300+m and were all extremely underwhelming over the course of their contracts (Ozil had only about 1.5 good seasons of football, Xhaka only turned good in the last 12 months before he left) etc

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now do the math on what mikel has spent

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I really don’t know why merino was bought or what he brings to this team. Dude is just useless

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This game really broke my heart. Couldn’t believe how tepid we played. Odegaard has been shooting blanks when presented with huge chances (world class?). Martinelli will make you want to break your screen. Dude is so dense. Kai is not a striker, I will excuse him. Saka is being marked out but he still tries. Rice is always panting after 30 mins. Partey is wasted at RB when Timber should be played there and Tierney accommodated. Jesus shouldn’t be playing for the first team by now. All in all, Arteta has shown that he is not a top coach. After 2 consecutive runners up positions, Man City falters and instead of grabbing the opportunity with two hands, you allow two Managers in their debut seasons to snatch it from you.

My take in all of these is that if Slot or Maresca shouid win the EPL, then Arteta should be sacked with immediate effect and possibly probed for fraud. This is totally unacceptable

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It’s not that Ode missed his chances that worried me - that’s just bad form in front of goal from a player who definitely has the ability. Far more worrying was how lethargic he and the rest of the midfield and forwards were apart from Saka

They all spent half the game standing still waiting for someone else to do something. No movement. No energy. When we did counter and have a break, they couldn’t really be arsed to do so quickly. Dreadful.

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in a normal team, he would be. Not with this ownership. They do not like to shake things up. The Emery hiring and firing was unusual. Now, its back to Wenger era days. Just sit, and hopefully something will happen. Give the manager all he wants. Dont really question anything. Not sure how Mike A is able to survive this as long as he has. Maybe just maybe Josh will grow a pair and get a DOF above Mike next.

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Same old, same old. How many times have we seen this game - a team which comes with two banks of players to block all access to the goal. And this time with the addition of a keeper who is bang on form. Without Saka and Odegaard we would have been even more bereft of ideas - at least they looked lively and created chances, with little assistance from their team mates.

Havertz is a donkey, the fastest I saw him move was to get out of the way of Ode's shot after some smart moving at the edge of the box. Perhaps Havertz might have thought to himself, 'that is the sort of thing a centre forward should be doing', but probably not. Another 250k in the bank this week for loitering around the forward line, but with no intent.

Funnily enough, without him against Monaco, we looked livelier and more creative. Jesus might be a poor finisher, but his moments of speed on the turn gave a glimpse of what a forward line might be like with a quicker, more creative, goalscoring forward than him. But we are locked into Havertz world for years to come, as decreed by the genius player acquisition strategy. The same one that snapped up Sterling only to find he cannot be coached back to the player he once was and is of little use to us.

Oh well, if not upwards, then onwards.

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"We have an easy run of games till January. We'll be close to Liverpool by then. And Liverpool will lose 10 points in December."

Arsenal after 3 games of the easy run: 5 out of 9 points.

Some Arsenal fans are too arrogant. That's why opposition fans mock us.

Too much hype and little substance. Win something major before you start running your mouth at other clubs.

Liverpool and Chelsea that are supposed to be shit for the next 5 years are now in the title race.

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Pedro and other top gooners have been focusing their frustrations of Martinelli. He has not been playing well.

However, there is limited discussion on Havertz. When his name is brought up on various other Arsenal pods, many podcasters are quick to fast forward their speech and do their best zip pas this point. Criticism of him is limited. They are desperate to get one of Chelsea regarding his signing.

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I’m a Havertz fan and will say bluntly he’s done very little for a good while now.

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Arteta on Rice and Ode substitutions, I hope basmati was just precaution and he fine tomorrow.

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’Declan, I had to take him off because he was feeling something and with Martin it was a tactical decision to try to change the rhythm especially on that side.

‘I understand if Ethan comes in and scores a goal it’s a great sub, if he doesn’t you have taken your captain out. That’s football.’

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