Well, we all knew we weren’t a match to Man City with their 33-goal scorer Haaland and the best midfielder on the planet in Kevin De Bruyne. But no one expected that we won’t show up for a fight. In the title race when a win was a 6 pointer, we lost and we lost badly. A 4-1 score is as bad as it gets, but the way we played it could have been worse.
So, where did it go wrong? As a starter, Arteta failed to adjust to the Pep’s tactics. Their first goal was a result of the free space De Bruyne was enjoying between our midfield and defence. In the first 30min, it happened couple of times when the pair of Haaland and De Bruyne were left with our CBs. I don’t think anyone can beat Haaland for the pace, it was a fight to be lost. We should have adapted, we should have dropped down and closed the space . We could have switched back to back 3 and fight on counters.
Second, we stuck to the playing XI which didn’t work against Liverpool, West Ham, and Southampton. Yes, Xhaka was back in place of Vieira but it doesn’t make any difference. Both are poor! If you say what options we had, I would like to point out that it’s our own doing. We haven’t been polishing the bench. We gave Vieira couple of matches in spite of his poor performance in his first, but we didn’t try an ESR. We haven’t tried a Partey + Jorginho midfield pairing. Saka looked knackered but we didn’t see Nelson allowing him some rest. Kiwior was brought into the fold against Liverpool, in last 20 min; I’m sure it wasn’t the perfect time to begin your premier league career.
Arteta’s stubbornness to play his favourites and not adapting to what’s in front, has cost us games. If you expect a player to deliver in 60 games a year, and if he don’t, you switch things up. Jesus might be great in compact spaces and running into 3 opposition players, but where’s the end result? If your CF do not have a goal in him, bring on Eddie. Revert to Trossard at the front who looks more clinical.
I don’t know, there has been a lot of things which we can see is wrong, but our manager sticks to the same old – same style, same player, same tactics.
Here’s the bitter truth. We didn’t lose the title because of this City game. We lost it against Pool (going 2-0 up), West Ham (going 2-0 up again), and Southampton (going 2-0 down at home in first 15min). I understand we are a young team, but young guns can fire too. It don’t matter if it’s your captain, if he is not having a good day, bring on your other no. #10, who saved your career at some point and was considered the next DeBruyne.
I’m not sure how much Arteta will learn from this but I’m sure of this – he is going to spend another 200m to bring some more enforcements, but with this stubbornness and Champions League + Premier League next season, we will have the same conundrum. Unless he buys another playing XI, which is not likely.
Here’s another one – if you think it’s a progress to finish 2nd this season, remember that Arteta was appointed as the head coach of Arsenal on 20th Dec, 2019. It’s been 3.5 years, with half a billion spent on a completely new playing XI bar our academy products. This season has been anomaly, Liverpool is having a bad one, Chelsea are sh*t, Spurs are spursy, and United is going through a rebuild under Tan Hag. If you think allowing 3 years for a manager, only to see him finish second after having a 9 point lead at some point, is considered a progress, then you have very low expectation.
With money coming in for New Castle, Chelsea appointing Poch probably, united getting stronger, Pool back in their form, what happens next? It would be tougher than this season. There will be 2 games a week and more Saliba-esque injuries. Who will we blame? Fixtures? Injuries? Bad weather? Because that’s what we have been doing apparently from like last 10 years.
We need an upgrade. We need an upgrade on Xhaka, whose average performance looks like a world class by his standards. We need a midfield, because you buy all the 50m defenders as you want, but it’s not gonna work if you don’t have functioning midfield. We need a better goal scorer if you don’t have confidence in Eddie. And we need an upgrade on the manager. Learning on the job is not a bad thing, but the pace is too slow for a club as big and as ambitious as Arsenal.
We need courage. We don’t need a captain who goes missing in big games, we have had enough of Ozil for years. We need the winning mentality, not the one we saw against West Ham of dropping performance after going 2-0 up. We need players who make fun of the opposition, on the pitch; who can bully the opposition, who are not satisfied with 2-0 lead at Anfield and want more.
Frankly, it has been a depressing month. We have thrown away the title and there’s no one else to blame. It was ours to lose, and we lost it. I’m angry, I’m frustrated and I’m sure you are, too. I hope the players feel the same, and motivates themselves to make the best of rest of the season.
It’s over for me, but we fight again tomorrow.
Chelsea certainly give the lie to the old adage that you just need to throw money at a problem.
Its crazy to say it but what we’re seeing from Chelsea is actually going on the CV’s on Potter and Tuchel.
In a job interview it’ll be “it was an impossible job but at least I wasn’t that bad”.
Kroenke
But prove “good money after bad”.
I’m actually quite surprised that FF hasn’t been told to start a far more youthful squad, for obvous reasons, but considering their ridiculous roster size this might be all about putting all the soon-too-be periphery players in the shop window
obvious & soon-to-be
one could say that my texting today is Chelsea bad
I do worry about this being the wrong kind of fixtire ahead of a Newcastle affair, so we should push quickly for a 4th then get Tierney, ESR, Nelson and Vieira on the pitch for Zinchenko, Trossard, Saka and Jesus
fixture
Chelsea’s last 3 fixtures.
City away
ManU away
Newcastle home
If I were a Chelsea fan I’d want to go into an induced coma until June.
can you imagine Jesus passing to the right flanks if anyone but Xhaka was on his left…the fact that Xhaka displayed such displeasure shows just how little self-awareness he truly possesses
why the fuck would this be the first sub on this particular night???
I get why Tierney’s getting the cold shoulder, as he’s already planning for life after Arsenal, and I likewise understand the Nelson scenario, in that he’s further highlighted MA’s piss-poor asset management, as he’s got a whole host of suitors looking to lock him up when he leaves on a free come the summer, but the ESR ghosting gig is both baffling and just plain stupid
Really sloppy when goal difference might come into it.
Zinchenko is under the weird impression that playing defence is optional…really Chelsea should have 2 on the board by now, after that bungling of a 4 v. 2 fast break
Marc-can you even fathom the response if we got turned over by this Chelsea shit show?? of course, even I’m not so pessimistic as to believe that could be possible, but with this club and our manager’s disdain for tactical adjustments, never say never always applies
TRVL
They get a second and we shit ourselves – with Newcastle on Sunday a confidence building comfortable win is required.
TRVL
Mate its shocking and 2 more subs but still no ESR.
finally some of the lost boys have made an appearance
If Mudryk had an eye patch, he’d be a perfect Bond villain.
I feel like something unbeknownst to us has occurred behind the scenes, as that seems like the only plausible explanation
TRVL
Yeah Arteta spent £35 million on Vieira and won’t admit he had an option already available – again.
Not taking Gabriel off is madness.
I would agree Marc if the player in question had played significant minutes, which hasn’t happened for fairly obvious reasons…there clearly has been some matches where we could use the very traits that only ESR seems to be able to supply, but still no sighting, which suggests something far more personal
Marc-no doubt about the Gabs comment…it only took 3 stoppages of play to finally convince the grinch of substitutes to act…if we play Newcastle with a backline of Kiwor and Holding, simply because he didn’t read the room, we could get embarassed
MA’s unwillingness to act in a timely fashion, when it came to substitutions, speaks volumes about his glaring lack of faith in HIS own project and purchases
Does the prick shining the laser at Mudryk not realise that there are cameras all over the ground?
Dozy fucker will get banned for life and rightly so.
what a fucking idiotic way to get ousted…it takes all kinds in this fucked up world
so all we needed was to face one of the most disorganized first-half sides I’ve seen in quite some time in order to secure all 3 points…I guess so long as the Newcastle players conveniently forget everything they’ve learned during the whole of this season we just might end up with back-to-back victories…here’s praying that Gabs is good to go by Sunday
I’m happy with the scoreline 3-1…but one goal which we concede,there I seen our defence….we need to work on our defence strategy…some time we open the ground for opposition to make a goal..!
And now we have 78 Points…it means 2 points ahead from Man City…we are table topper again.. because we are ARSENAL
Just finished watching the recording with Junior. Have to say that has to be the worst Chavs side I have seen in my 60 years of watching football. City would have put 6 past Kepa in the first half alone.
3:0 up at half time playing the dynamic pivot of Xhaka and Jorginho. Speaks volumes.
As much as we knew the wheels would come off Arteta’s bandwagon I feel our U23s could have beaten Fat Frank’s best efforts of 31 losses from 41 played including his time at Everton. How brutal is that?
I feel like I’ve been Arteta-erd in the same way as we got Wengerised. Three goals up and no ESR sub?
Then you watch Kiwior and think an instant improvement on Hildinho and yet still raw.
The Chavs gave us the game who just simply look collectively lost on the pitch. They are way past the rubbing hands stage now. If I could give a shit, I’d have stopped laughing by now because god knows I needed the oxygen. I wonder if Roman is going to end up buying Chelsea back at a deflated price when Ukraine is settled? Hope not because Father Ted is doing just fine by me. Long may Father Ted (Lassoo) Boehly reign supreme in taking the Chavs to the Championship. Wouldn’t that be funny?
There’s not much we can take from that home game that we should be winning anyway.
Newcastle will be a better test with Howe v Arteta. Considering Howe is achieving in his first year what has taken Arteta 3.5 years to attain CL football. This game will be tight all round and will Willock stick it to Arteta?
Our dynamic has shifted or mine has I should say in the way I view the remaining games. The Title winning romance has been gutted by Arteta’s choking. Of course we want to win the rest of the run in, and we should now the pressure is off with advantage City.
For us old timers Arteta dared us to dream just a little if we’re honest, but the only thing Arteta has proved is his stubborn, myopic visions keep running out of gas at the vital time where we should be turning up the heat.
The reality is if you can’t successfully manage a squad full of winning personalities, you shouldn’t be in football management.
Hi Divyanshu
My prediction of a 3-0 pyrhhic victory almost came true save for some typically sloppy late game defending that you highlighted
It sounds like you’re still keeping the faith which I admire. We’ll beat Newcastle at the weekend if we replicate our first half form. It won’t be a repeat of the draw at our place earlier in the season because the barcodes will want to play out and show something to their miserable Geordie fans! But the big names (TP, Ode, Bukayo and Jesus) need to show up. Problem is, I can’t see the Hammers doing anything other than lose up at City tonight. But keep expressing your optimism – it’s infectious.
Tony
To paraphrase the genius that first termed the phrase up in Scotland. (He must’ve been a huge Mary Poppins fan)
SuperOde goes ballistic
Chelsea are atrocious
Tony
Good write up mate. When we rake over the ashes of the season, a small crumb of comfort will be the doubling of Spurs and Chelsea I suppose. Lampard, much to my pleasure, has become an anti-manager. The club is deeply fucked. It’s hardly an accolade, especially given the derailing of our season, but I think we could lay claim once again to being the ‘pride of London’… At least for a while.
Imagine the lift we’ll all get though when Madrid come-a-knockin’ for Tets in the summer. He’d be a perfect match for them.
KP
It’s a comedy of errors the great Bard could reimagine with the help of our Almunia, of course. Speaking of which, Almunia, I hope you’re able to go to more of the local Guinness get togethers, as your health improves. In Holland where I had my bypass, each night in the hospital we’d get a bottle stout to drink.
We immerse ourselves so deeply into The Arsenal it’s so much harder to take when a complete idiot is in charge. I’m wondering if Josh ever does the maths with Arteta vs top 8 managers? Is he too detached now because 2nd or 3rd is ok because we have CL next season – lovely jubbly!
As you say, KP, RM or even Olympiacos and anywhere in between will be a baptism by fire for the anointed one. If Arteta’s Europa exploits are taken into consideration, we’ll probably be back in Europa by Xmas or even zero Europe.
Forgot to ask did your Catalonia trip reap the rewards you were looking for? France seems a lifetime away when inertia sets in, as it has with our corporate interested parties all thrown out of wack with Ukraine and general world events.
The corporate suits conveyor belt of all moving parts sideways, upwards, downwards and exit bound also has caused, as always deemed as unexpected delays.
Like I said, Man plans Good laughs 🙂 Luckily we have mucho karma owed.
Hi Tony
Our plans rely entirely on the limpets and barnacles (our 3 kids!) detaching themselves from the hull of HMS Kroenkephobe and letting us sail in a streamlined fashion towards the Spanish main. Catalonia was great fun, thanks. I was in the air during the Southampton fiasco so it could’ve been worse. Edibles (if you know what I mean), cold beers and live music. I even saw two decent teams of African lads play against each other in a local league while we ate tacos at a stall owned by some people from Honduras. Each time I return to the Girona area I’m more and more convinced that we should be based there.
Prior to that, there’s also the small matter of selling 4 of our 5 houses/businesses including my old flat in Highbury. If you’re ever interested in a London pied-a-terre Tony…
god laughs*
Sam Allardyce…. Yes, really! I’d rather hoped we’d seen the very last of that fat, corrupt gum-chewing motherfucker. Leeds must be out of their minds. Just like Everton with Dyche.
Kroenke
I was neutral about Leeds but now I want them to go down – seeing both Allardyce and Dyche go down in the same season should consign the dinosaurs to extinction forever.
Chelsea are lucky they didn’t appoint Fat Frank a few weeks earlier or they’d be joining them in the Championship.
Marc-talk about a descent into footballing oblivion in just over a years time, when you go from a savant like Biesla then12+ months later Slippery Sam is patrolling your sidelines…just for that little maneuver they should get sent down two divisions…there’s no logical reason why in this day and age that these clown car managers should still get appointments from clubs in the top division in European football regardless of the pending situation…makes me think that the disaster known as Leeds United had a lengthy list of potential candidates, all of whom wouldn’t return their calls, and when Big Sam got wind of this he actually reached out to them…what’s next Tony Pulis at Stamford Bridge
Great minds lads as soon as I saw the Fat Sam’s Lazerous MK VI, and I thought we only need Pulis for the Holy Trinity of the THUG managers’ era. Just goes to show how bad reactive management is in the PL including ourselves.
On more serious news our daughter has just got back from her pre work holiday where she picked up her PADI license for 30 meters. Why is this serious? She’s moving down to BKK with Pumpkin is search of her first job on the 14th. Pumpkin has veery much become part of the family and what’s left of the furniture – the shredded look is in this season I tell myself & Mrs T with a gentle reminder of our daughter’s depression.
Pumpkin’s karma will materialize by the way of a reduction in living spaces from 850sq meters to about 60. He’s a Doll Face Persian who looks like he was dropped on his face from a great height when born, which is better than the other Persian that looks like Mike Tyson punched their faces at birth.
All I can say is if Pumpkin gets up to fun speed, as he does here then he’s in big trouble with his breaking distances where the wall might accrue a few or probably many dents. Pumpkin’s not the brightest, but is the dearest. Conclusion? The walls need padding up to 1 meter and covered in plastic chain mail link. Cats love plastic apparently.
Back to football and no surprise City beat West Ham at home if there were to be any doubt.
Arteta’s allegedly top list of transfers is Rice, Geughi, Zaha and Moussa Diaby. Add Cacaideo, Mitoma and Encisco to that list and I’ll feel the only other change we need to make is Arteta.
With a manager who has the tactical nous with the ability to command respect from youth and experienced players and we might just be challenging with a squad that has enough legs to finish a season strongly.
The latter would be a novelty.