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.
Marc
“I said a few weeks ago Arteta was going to try and go a season without scoring a goal from open play – and you thought I was kidding!”
Marc, You’re being brainwashed by Vera with his uneducated take on Arteta buying Bruno due to his ability at winning numerous free kicks,unfortunately you will become as uninformed as he is , I will just point out that we were 4th in the league for open play goals last season.
Vera
“ Arteta wants a physically dominant focal point who can bully Prem centre-backs while working his socks off for the team — and Esposito is seen to fit that blueprint”
I’m not sure why you believe such nonsense Vera, especially as we are in for Alvarez who is not exactly “physically dominant “.
I will point out that at times there is nothing wrong with being physically dominant especially in the premier league , though I do believe technical brilliance with one and 2 touch football is the way forward but unfortunately I can’t see Arteta changing his ways anytime soon as losing the ball and taking unnecessary risks with the ball are a part of his “ non negotiables” .
Tzolis is the perfect player for Arteta, hard working, effective, team player with no frills , Bruno(who I’m not a great admirer of) is similar, give me the likes of Eze and Dowman all day long as I love individual brilliance , we shall see what direction Arteta will take, pragmatic effective football or open free flowing football .
A lot will depend on early results, drop points early on and it will be all about discipline and being pragmatic, whereas a good opening 5 or 6 games could see us play with more freedom.
Wicksy
I was anti Arteta long before I ever had any discussions with TRVL.
As for brain washing – you’re the one buying into the cult of Arteta.
Pricksy you stunned cunt…firstly, those weren’t my words, thus the quotation marks…secondly, Alvarez is being viewed by the great shoehorner as a left sided option, likely with Havertz and Merino playing up top(if Viktor was meant to be part of the deal)…or maybe he was looking to replace Viktor with Pio…it’s just like when you didn’t fucking understand that Rogers was coming to play out wide
minus maybe with Tzolis, who no one else was really coveting (which doesn’t mean he’s not talented), this window has been completely mismanaged thus far because no one of consequence, offensively-speaking, wants anything to do with our robotic taskmaster…Tzolis might amount to something, fingers-crossed, but when you have his age profile and your plying your trade in the 7th or 8th ranked League in Europe, you’re happier than a pig in shit when any PL team comes calling…as for Bruno, his former side was in shambles, with a total rebuild in the cards, so he was desperately looking for a new home…not to mention, Gabs probably told him just how thirsty MA was for anyone with name value to feign interest in his blunt instrument project, regardless of the fit…it’s called the Havertz Syndrome
speaking of which, the reason why our little MIT has chosen this ultra-pragmatic tactical course is due to his transfer misdeeds in the summer of ’23, when he was conned into believing that Real was really serious about Kai and then gave Rice unwarranted assurances to secure his signature…so this was phase 4 of MA’s No Plan Plan
as to the former, he actually thought he had outsmarted the market even though there was no other real challengers…so like a thirsty little fuck he offered above the number from both his fees and salary…in reality he didn’t fit the Xhaka replacement brief whatsoever, as he’s not a ball-moving 8 or a creative #10 or a ruthless #9…so once again MA was playing checkers when everyone else was playing chess
as for Rice, who openly spoke about his desire to play as a more advanced box-to-box MD, yet couldn’t unseat fucking Soucek, found the only manager alive who would pay over 100M to play him in a role he was ill-suited for, as he doesn’t possess the half-turn receiving skills required to play as a modern elite attacking midfielder
once Arteta realized that his 170M duo lacked the capabilities required to play a more fluid brand of football (like KDB or Silva) his micromanagement system was born…so no more freedom or instinctual play, instead everything revolved around strict geometric lines on the pitch, the almost robotic enforcement of rigid passing structures, and the overreliance on set-pieces and defensive lockouts…so hopefully Bruno will be deployed as the 8 and Rice as the 6, not the reverse…cee you next Tuesday
we all better hope that Zubi gets sold, if not MA could eliminate the number 10 role altogether and lineup with a midfield 3 of Zubi/Rice/Bruno…damn creativity!!
we had better not be signing another Chelsea leftover…that fuck Neto will be injured within minutes of arriving and he can’t score worth shit…imagine if we helped Chelsea cover their Rogers bill by paying over the number for another of their castoffs
Vera
“ firstly, those weren’t my words, thus the quotation marks”
Hence why I said “I don’t know why you believe such nonsense “ , obviously you do believe it otherwise you wouldn’t have posted such nonsense.
Your posts are all over the place , you think Alvarez will play on the left , you think we are in the market for Neto , you think our midfield will be devoid of creativity as there will be no room for Odegaard or Eze due to the arrival of Bruno,you are clueless, you have little to no understanding of the game and you tend to believe almost all the fake news about the Arsenal , you have learnt absolutely nothing from last season as you go into panic mode over incomings and outgoings.
The way that see it is we are the best team in the country with the most settled squad , we won the league and reached 2 cup finals despite having the 2nd worst injury list in the league.
I wanted an elite attacker or attackers to come to the club but if that doesn’t happen due to circumstances I still think we will win the league.
there is still time to bring in a quality offensive player…
Pricksy—you’re the living embodiment of a blind squirrel finding a nut…instead of constantly leaning so heavily into your dumb as fuck vanilla takes, try taking some ownership for your myriad of fuck-ups then listen and learn from those who clearly know better…keep it up and you might even lose your seat at the kid’s table…I tried to keep this brief as I know you have a tough time staying on task sometimes…eat shit dicksquat
Can someone explain to Vera that having Bruno, Rice and zubimendi in the squad does not mean they all start, though there may be the odd occasion when they are on the pitch together.
Vera has little understanding of squad depth, which was how and why we were so successful last season despite having so many players out for long periods. Having 4/5 central midfielders allows Arteta to rotate when the games come thick and fast due to Europe and domestic cup competitions without a noticeable drop in quality.
Merino will prove to be a vital member of the squad as he can play as a 6, 8, 10 or a 9 , he is actually the best finisher at the club, if Bruno thinks he is starting every week then he will be very disappointed as the competition in midfield will be fierce, Zubimendi had a superb first half of last season as did skelly in the title run in, neither should accept being back up to Rice and Bruno, due mainly to availability I would expect the starting midfield v city next week to be Skelly/Bruno/Odegaard. (If fit) or Nwaneri, Dowman on the right, Tzolis on the left with Havertz up top, though there is a possibility that Gyokeres will start with Havertz dropping into a deeper role.
Although Arsenal start as favourites for the title it may prove difficult to predict due to the unknown of how the competition will perform.
For me, Man Utd could mount a serious challenge, city have a strong and talented squad but losing the likes of Rodri and Silva may hurt them, Chelsea are not in Europe so have little distraction in the league, Liverpool’s season may depend on how they start, defensively they look suspect and villa losing Rogers and Tielmans may prove to be too much unless Emery can pull something out of the hat.
My prediction for top 6 are
1) Arsenal
2)united
3) city
4) Liverpool
5) Chelsea
6)villa
Last season I correctly predicted that the league would be won with a lower than usual mid 80’s points tally and this season could be slightly lower due to the strength in depth of the league, also the disruption of the World Cup will affect the top sides early season, especially Arsenal who had a number of players involved on the final 2 days , Chelsea may be fast out of the blocks due to very little disruption in pre season, unfortunately we have to play both Chelsea and villa early season when we will be far from our best so it is important that Arteta sorts out the defence in the next couple of weeks as that is an area we have been struggling with in pre season.
Vieira
Thank the almighty (Dennis Bergkamp) that you are on here to talk wisdom and truth…your scepticism and insight are highly valued in equal measure.
I cannot recall experiencing such levels of ennui on the eve of an Arsenal campaign as this. I shouldn’t have watched the Dortmund game I suppose …Tsolis is a crossing machine and a hard-working player off the ball. I hope he does well. Not thrilled about Guimaraes, but he’ll grow on me I hope.
I want to see some fucking swagger this season and hear the ‘Olés’ in the crowd in the last few minutes rather than experiencing the utter dread of Arteta getting the team to sit ever more deep. But he’s never going to change is he? Yawn 🥱
New post.