Mikel has spend money on these defensive players so far at Arsenal – White, Gabriel M, Tomiyasu, Tavares, Zinchenko, Kiwior, Timber, Calafiori, Mosquera. And it has costed the club around 230m GBP. That’s the back line. Lets include Goal Keepers and defensive midfielders to that list – Ramsdale, Raya, Kepa, Thomas Partey, Declan Rice, Norgaard and Zubimendi brings the total spend to about half a billion dollars.
While in attack, we brought in Willian, Marquinhos, Jesus, Trossard, Havertz, Sterling, Madueke, Gyokeres costing us a total of 234m GBP. If we include Central and Attacking midfielders – Odegaard, Vieira, Merino, and Eze the cost would be 396m GBP.
My point is, we have spent about 20% less in attacks than in defence. One of the reasons I can think of, is that we had Saka and Martinelli covering both the wings. Now, this spending and Mikel’s preference for defensive solidarity shows up in stats. We conceded 39, 48, 43, 29, 34, 27 goals across the 6 full seasons he has managed the club. It’s not surprising that we won the Premier League when we conceded the least of all 6 years.
It’s not wrong to say that defence has got us the title.
But, would you say that the football has become more exciting in recent times? I would say no. In the season 2023-24, we played some brilliant football and scored 91 goals. We finished 2nd, short of City but we used to score for fun. Everyone saw the glimpse of what Mikel brings to the table and everyone hoped we would go on to build on it. However, Mikel became too pragmatic for my liking.
In my opinion, this has to do with the risk and Mikel hates it. To score, you have to take risk in pushing your attacking players in the opposition half, which leaves you open at the back. Mikel wants his CF and wingers to be part of the dirty work, even if it costs us some goals. From an Arsenal fan’s POV, it won us a title after 23 years and fuck it, fuck the football we are playing as long as we are bringing the trophies. Pep left with a cabinet full of trophies at City and he is the one who invented this boring, passive football.
But, Klopp and Luis Enrique showed us a better way to win trophies. By playing some attacking football and keeping the ‘sport’ exciting. Jurgen’s Liverpool title winning team of 2019-20 scored 85 goals and conceded 33. It was one of the most fluid, attacking, entertaining team. A front 3 of Salah (19 goals), Mane (18 goals), Firmino (9 goals) helped and a defence of Van Dijk, Alison, Robertson, Alexander-Arnold helped them secure the title. There’s no reason we can’t do this with the players we have. We have the likes of Saliba, Gabriel and Timber in defence. And we have a front 3 of Saka, Martinelli and Gyokeres to score as many goals as Salah, Mane and Firmino.
So, it comes down the manager. Mikel, a disciple of Pep, wants to control the game and safety comes first. Managers like Klopp wants chaos while Enrique picked up some bit and pieces of the tracking back and ball possession but kept the good of both worlds. I want the later, and I don’t care if you don’t believe me but Mikel wants it too. He brought in Eze to get this sorted, and the club is now open to have a talk with Vinicius Jr. Eze has been good, but he is not the one who can score a couple of goals on his own every other games like Salah used to do. Vinicius Jr can do it and that’s one reason I think we are looking at that possibility.
Mikel Arteta is looking for a way out of that boring football, but he can’t achieve it without allowing freedom to the players and taking up some risks. We would faulter, we would concede some un-necessary goals but at the end football will be exciting and the likes of Enrique has showed that it will win you trophies too. They have 2 back to back Champions League trophies to show for.
Right, that’s my 2 cents for today. See you in the comments.
Reading Wicky’s comment above you’d think Arteta had just won his 3rd back to back trebles.
What he actually did was pull off a Leicester.
with Kroupi out for 3 to 4 months that ends any chance of him landing here this summer, which seemed unlikely even before all this…so either we find a way to turn Alvarez’s head, even after he already said fuck you later to such a possibility, or it’s time to pretend that we had other things in mind all along and hope that the blinders crew buys in
with that in mind, it won’t be long before names like Matias Fernandez-Pardo start to get bandied about…like yourselves I had no idea who the fuck this Lille forward was and I watch a shit ton of football…if that doesn’t work maybe we’ll head back Real’s way and try to get some of their sloppy seconds, such as the underwhelming Diaz, who failed to impress in the WC against the same sort of low blocks he would face here
here’s a list of other potential “suspect” signings:
(1) Antonio Nusa, who’s too raw to justify his fee bump since Norway’s deep run
(2) fucking Pulisic, who’s weak-willed and always injured
(3) that messy 18 year old Mbaye, who’s a project with considerable baggage
(4) Nico Williams, who has never expressed any interest and is coming off an injury-riddled season
(5) Savinho, who appears most likely to go to the Spurs, if anywhere, and was shit last season
(6) Miks Godts, the Belgian forward who either had a breakout seaosn at Ajax or should be considered as a one year wonder
(7) Rayan—lots of up-side, but he’s played once on the left in the PL…so with our shoehorning fuck he might be high on his list
simply put all these options are deeply flawed and certainly don’t fit the readymade brief, except for maybe a healthy Nico…all would be a tough sell after our paid media fluffers got all chesty about the whole Junior pipe dream…fuck me, the plan was to get a world-class focal point on the left and we just might pull another bizarro world Havertz boner move…here’s hoping that August is far more eventful than July…frankly I wouldn’t be surprised if we overpaid for Bruno, bought another CB and called it a day
So Howe’s quit Newcastle – I’ve lost count now of how many teams are going into the season with a new manager.
Howe’s ousting should lead to us securiing Bruno, which some media outlets are calling our top target…what a fucking joke…nothing against the. player, but if that’s our top target this summer what the fuck are we doing
btw since Arteta has arrived here Real has made 440M on the sale of academy pieces…beyond that they could end up re-upping Junior and gettting the winger we should have signed, Yan Diamonde…now that’s a real footballing organization (pun intended)
MA will try to use Bruno as a wag the dog signing in the hopes of drawing attention away from all of our transfer misses…sorry but that won’t cut it for me…I know this, whenever Howe lands another PL gig his sole mission will be to fuck with Arsenal at every opportunity (and maybe Pool, although Isak’s injury-plagued season surely took a bit of the initial sting away)
we’ve got a lot to learn when it comes to conducting our business…I’m starting to wonder if all the stories about Berta’s supposed multi-tasking transfer model is just a cover story to shield MA from some of the criticism because this window looks an awful lot like most during Arteta’s reign, ponderous and underwhelming
on a side note, it apeears as if Josh has taken over the whole Junior situation, not.exactly sure what that means, except that whenever he has meddled on this side of the Atlantic it typically hasn’t ended well…I could understand if it was Mbappe or Haaland, but this reeks of another misguided vamity project by our resident wannabe Bond villian…hope I’m wrong
I still think we’re going to delve into the defender market for a player or two…if it’s Konsa it will likely only be one, especially after he was deployed out wide in the WC…you know how much our MIT loves himself.a good shoehorn…..that said, the whole Timber groin tweak gig might allow Villa to squeeze us on any Konsa sale…if that puts us off, it appears as if we have some interest in a couple defenders currently playing in Portugal…we have an increasingly fragile defender group, so a two for the price of one might be an appealing prospect…you can only hope that any such dealings won’t negatively impact any much more lofty pursuits
we simply must go big-game hunting…the PL title should be easier this year than last, even though I think things could look drastically different in the year following, but we need a player or two who can craft their own opportunities in the latter rounds of the CL, as I never want to witness another final like that again
as to my original comment, when I look at the potential top 6 sides each has some serious question marks that might require more time to figure their respective shit out:
(1) Pool—I’m a big fan of Iraola, but up to now he’s only thrived at middling clubs, both here and in Spain, where expectations were substantially lower and we all know how that doesn’t always translate on the big stage…they still have some backline concerns and even if they secure the services of Barcola I’m not sure that will be enough to challenge for the title, unless their first 11 can remain healthy throughout the bulk of the season…the one advantage he has over Slot is that the Salah saga is off the books, who was a tactical albatross
(2) Chelsea—I get why Alonso is looking for some experienced soldiers to help his cause, considering what transpired last year…they have a couple or three problem children currently rostered…so unless they sell Enzo and Neto, who will both get fucking pissy with their potential reduced roles, then find a way to motivate the incessantly mopey Palmer, it could be a bumpy ride in year one…it’s likely why Xavi required a shit ton of assurances before signing on the dotted line…they have first world problems, but problems nonetheless
(3) United—Carrick was a bit of a reevelation, but that was a small sample size and I’m not fully on board with their offseaon maneuvering thus far…the jury is still out on Santos and I’m not sure what a Bruno/Tielemans tandem looks like…they definitely could use Rashford or a similar-type player, just not convinced it will be enough regardless
(4) Spurs—they likely shouldn’t even be in this conversation after barely surviving relegation, but their manager has a habit of getting players to buy-in…unfortunately when things go awry it tends to get ugly quick…he’s found a way to get results without a bona fide Striker, so I don’t think that’s a deal breaker, but he needs to get Ricarlison the fuck out of Dodge and try to find a suitable replacement…no matter what I don’t think a title is in the cards, but they could steal some crucial points from some top sides which could impact the final standings
(5) City—this is a weird one, as I’m still quite baffled by Enzo’s appointment…either Pep’s his biggest backer or he wants to stick it to them out of spite…what I saw in Chelsea, especially near the end, was a poor man’s version of what we’ve been enduring and that’s a thin margins exercise under the best of circumstances…maybe he couldn’t handle the pressure that invariably comes with being employed by the quickest trigger fucksticks on planet earth, which led to his overly cautious approach on the pitch…that said, I would be interested to know how long a leash he’ll be given, especially on Pep’s heels…in the past they’ve shown themselves to be fairly patient, within reason of course, but if he tries to double down he could find himself in a one and done nightmare (especially if Rodri leaves)
(6) Villa—this might be a stretch, as Unai’s been dealt another bad hand, much like when he was employed here…a good chunk of his best pieces are elsewhere and they might not be done yet…I feel for him…that said, if anyone can find a way, it’s him, as he’s known for getting the most our of the least…even so it won’t be near enough
on the CL front besides the obvious, PSG, only Real should present us with a real threat, IF we sort our shit out:
Bayern has stood pat thus far, which is likely because they were far more consumed by retaining their best players than being active in the market…unless Olise takes it up another notch, which surely isn’t out of the realm, they could regress a tad, as I can’t see Kane scoring for fun again
as for Barca, they should be better after another season under Hansi’s tutelage, I just don’t think Gordon wiill be enough unless they figure out their Striker issues…they had better hope that Torres has found another level following his WC finals exploits, if he stays that is, and that Raphinha can remain healthy, which seems a bit of a stretch
all in all we should view this as our “final” best opportunity, as it’s almost unthinkable that someone could win the CL 3 times running and I don’t know if Jose is the answer to all of Real’s questions, as he’s never been in charge of such a offensively gifted side, well at least not since becoming a managerial afterthought…Cheers
maybe Enzo knows where all the bodies are buried…just don’t understand why they wouldn’t have appointed a more offensively-minded manager in light of their present roster
knowing what we do about Junior and how incompatible he is to what has been on offer here for the past couple of seasons, maybe we should be hijacking Real’s Yan Diamonde deal, as he’s more of a clean slate proposition with a huge up-side…tbh I kind of relish the possibility of Junior coming our way, as there’s no way we would pay him a king’s ransom to defend deep, so his mere presence might force us out of this offensive stuper…that said, it wouldn’t shock me if MA craved the feather in his cap far more than getting the most out of this gifted winger…who knows, maybe the powers that be feel like we need to change things up if Saliba isn’t going to be available for a good chunk of the season
with our supposed asking price of 50M for Ethan, it begs the question why would we ever get rid of a player. who if sold, would immediately become our most lucrative sale ever…aren’t those the kind of player you build around, especially with his age profile and skillset…just saying
TRVL
I’d be amazed if we got anywhere near £50 million for Nwaneri. If we get over £35 million I’d be surprised.
I’m equally baffled by City going for Maresca – Chelsea is a basket case and isn’t a fair measure of a managers capability but still its a strange one. I do wonder if its either an acknowledgement that they have damaging punishment coming their way on the FFP investigation or top managers won’t join until its decided. Maybe he’s the second coming and will walk the PL but you’d have thought they would have got some business done by now.
Marc—I would tend to agree especially knowing the projected suitors for Ethan…as for Enzo, that’s what I meant about the “bodies buried” comment…on a side note, it’s so hilarious that media outlets are now claiming that Bruno was our top target all along…we’re fucking fake-news central
TRVL
Title winning team marquee signing is decent midfielder from Newcastle – isn’t really the headline you’d want to read. For £70 million even less so – I really don’t get it. Again how is our first choice midfield going to shape up – Rice you would think is fairly un droppable, one of Ode or Eze should start, you’ve then got Zubi and Havertz. I can see Havertz playing all over the place but Zubi was the toy Arteta had always wanted and cried himself to sleep every night until he got one.
Are we now saying he’s not good enough and surplus to requirements?
If Bruno is a squad replacement for Norgaard then where the hell is our scouting department? Don’t tell me we can’t pick up a squad player for €20 – €30 million on the continent.
Its got fat kid in a sweet shop written all over it.
Marc—barring injuries I would guess that both Skelly and Eze are the most likely to lose minutes…I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw a trio of Zubi, Rice and Bruno being deployed on the regular, with the latter two seeking more advanced positions…if history has told us anything MA has no problem treating DMs like AMs…it’s bully ball 101 nonsense
if we don’t secure a bona fide starting left winger, we could see Eze and even Havertz being deployed out wide, along with Tzolis of course…Merino will resume his role of small s “super sub”, sometimes from the midfield or sharing time up top with Viktor and fucking Kai…as such, everything points to a repeat performance, tactically-wise, unless a game changer arrives…snoozefest 3.0
I just hope if Ethan isn’t in MA’s plans this season he’s loaned out to a side where he can get first team minutes and not sold off…he’s under contract until 2030, so it would be incredibly short-sighted on our part to not kick that can down the road a bit
“I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw a trio of Zubi, Rice and Bruno being deployed on the regular”
The only benefit from the above is the fans will get really pissed off with it really quickly.
Putting up with shit football because we haven’t won the PL in 20 years is one thing – now with a weakened top 8 the fans will not only expect another title very quickly but they’ll want good football with it.
Marc—it’s difficult to decipher between fact and fiction when it comes to any of our dealings, most notably the Junior saga…if I had to bet I would put my money on Junior’s agent using our thirstiness as a means to get a deal done with Real, but there are some extenuating circumstances in our favour…Real doesn’t want to fuck with their wage model, so it will all come down to their willingness to extend themselves when it comes to his renewal bonus…beyond that, they certainly don’t want to allow someone of his ilk to go on a free next summer and/or to upset the locker room midseason, as he will be able to talk with other clubs come the winter window…on the other hand, do you really want to be known as the chairman who authorized the transfer of this highly successful and marketable player…I very much doubt the relatively unknown Yan will quell their rage, at least not at first
as for us, if this were to happen some players would need to be sold and I don’t mean losers like Havertz or Jesus, who no one fucking wants unless we’re willing to eat some of their ridiculous wages…it would likely mean that Ethan, who might be off anyways, Skelly and Marts would be sold (among others)…whatever that ultimately means
TRVL
I’ve expected Nwaneri and Skelly to be sold this summer for a while – Skelly getting back into the team late season was a surprise but likely more down to Captain Fuckwit running Zubi into the ground in his first season.
I’ve also thought Martinelli would be looking for a move as he’s clearly not on Arteta’s favourite list – which would be something if we had a leftsided player of real calibre in front of him but we don’t.
even worse than that, he was likely just showcasing him to potential suitors…how/where you showcase a particular pleyer is crucial when it comes to one’s MV nowadays…the midifield market is overinflated right now, just look at what Anderson and Rogers were able to command, so it was imperative that Skelly be viewed as someone who might excel in the middle of the park and not just as a LB…whereas with Ethan, who he didn’t value as a top 6 PL starter, he sent him to Ligue.1 in the hopes that teams of that ilk might stretch themselves a bit to secure his services…for those lower on the up-side list, like Vieira, his destinations better reflected his future potential, that of a everday starter on a middling side…of course, these sorts of designations are by no means novel, as all bigger clubs operate in a similar manner, the difference is that so far MA has failed rather miserably in this regards (even though some saw Saliba as he ultimate case study, that was dumb luck on his part)
(1) Skelly—he should have been used in this capacity much earlier so that his midfielder sample size was substantially larger…problem is MA’s a gutless fuck, so he played him as an inverted backer then carefully constructed a small window of opportunity that would best suit his sell-on intentions…if he had done it much earlier the plan might have yielded much more mixed results, thereby negatively impacting his MV…just think of how the pro-Arteta fucktards were heaping praise on Skelly with very little to go on, which isn’t to suggest he didn’t perform admirably, but he certainly wasn’t a revelation
(2) Ethan—first knock was his refusal to kowtow to MA’s contract demands before his ultimate re-up…we all know how that has worked out for players who weren’t already cemented in as a starter (see Balogun)…he was shoehorned out wide, due to Saka’s injury, but he was never given a proper chance to prove his worth in the middle of the pitch, which is his best position…it wasn’t a coincidence that is where he was going to be deployed while out on loan…unfortunately his time abroad was somewhat problematic because DeZerbi quit shortly thereafter…regardless he doesn’t really fit MA’s preferred type and we already have Ode and Eze in that outlier camp (those with an offensive skillset)…now he wants his cake and to eat it too by hoping that someone will see his value in spite of his poor man management
(3) Vieira—everyone knew from the off that this was a coin toss gig, which is why we should have never overpaid for his signature…to sweep this under the rug we sent him to a couple sides where few would track him, first back to Portugal then Germany, with the sole hope that somehow someway he would perform well enough that he could eventually recoup some of the wasted monies…as per usual, we fucked up again, as afterthought clubs could never afford our asking price…if I had to guess he will likely get loaned back out then sold off for a fraction of the original price next summer…if they keep pushing back his sell date maybe less fans will care or even remember the particulars
on a side note, I’m starting to see “stories” about Viktor being sold off, and not the ones where he’s used as part of an Alvarez deal, which would cement fucking Havertz in as our starting Striker…in my opinion this would be a sackable offence no matter who we brought in on the left…maybe MA’s looking to play Junior up top in his typical shoehorning fashion…fuck me
Last season we had a number of players who had prolonged periods out of the game through injury, I’m talking about odegaard, saka, havertz, merino, timber, Jesus and to a lesser extent madueke, calafiori , Dowman ,Eze and martinelli.
Anyone who understands the game will know that coming back from injury takes time to get up to speed and 100% match fitness and in doing so it would be naive to think that any player could produce their best football during that period, and yet despite an horrendous injury list last season Arteta managed the team to a league title and 2 cup finals.
Who knows , this season we may have a fully fit squad with a number of players who are not coming back after medium and long term injuries, who are 100% match fit and won’t have to be carefully managed in case they break down again as history shows that is a regular occurrence.
Having a fully fit squad will without a doubt enable Arteta to allow the players to play with more freedom and in a less pragmatic way, what we will hopefully see is the likes of Saka, Havertz and Odegaard play their best football as they have played relatively little football this year due to injury and I have no doubt will want to answer the criticism thrown at them recently from different directions from people who should know better , and no I’m not talking about the numpties( Vera, Marc and Ufraud) on here who’s favourite past time is slagging off the Arsenal.
Personally I will be disappointed if Arteta with a more or less fully fit squad doesn’t take the handbrake off, I fully understand that getting over the line last season was the be all and end all and he managed the injury hit squad superbly, I’ve always said that to win the league a manager/ team needs a bit of fortune and maybe last season Arteta had the luck on his side compared to previous seasons when we have played better football but finished 2nd.
Arsenal will start favourites for the league but nobody knows what the competition will be like due to the manager merry go round.
Don’t be surprised to see us have a sluggish start to the season, the opening game looks straightforward on paper but I believe lampard will send out his Coventry side to have a go which will make for a very entertaining game.
It may be a slow burning season for us as players start to come back after the World Cup to build fitness, I wouldn’t panic if we do get off to a slow start as it’s a long season…
Vera
“on a side note, I’m starting to see “stories” about Viktor being sold off, and not the ones where he’s used as part of an Alvarez deal, which would cement fucking Havertz in as our starting Striker…in my opinion this would be a sackable offence no matter who we brought in on the left…maybe MA’s looking to play Junior up top in his typical shoehorning fashion…fuck me”
Yeah let’s sack Arteta , makes sense….its going to be a long and miserable season for some on here as The Arsenal look to dominate the league and possibly Europe, have to say that I’m really looking forward to the season..