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.
by the sounds of things Partey will be back in the lineup come Sunday and Trossard will be in again for Marts…if this were to be the case, I’m not only deeply concerned about the middle of the pitch, for the reasons duly stated above by Junior et al, I’m equally anxious about the left-side of the pitch…with the triumvarite of Zinchenko, Xhaka and Trossard predominantly on that side of the pitch, Newcastle will gladly bomb up and down the left flanks with little care or concern for us attacking with any pace and/or width…this will force Gabs to shift his primary focus to his left, thus leaving Holding/Kiwor incredibly exposed on the right half of the pitch
of course these selection choices aren’t a given, as any reports at this juncture are largely speculative in nature…with that in mind, it wouldn’t surprise me whatsoever if he rolled out the same lineup from Tuesday, as we actually secured 3 points for the first time in a month, even though I wouldn’t really use that fixture as a barometer for future success considering just how fucking dire Chelsea were that evening…as such, I don’t have a good feeling about this affair, as I get the impression that they somehow care infinitely more about getting results lately, which is a terribly sad commentary in light of our supposed title race
Big-Head Sam stated at his Leed’s unveiling that “nobody” was ahead of him “in football terms”, name-checking Guardiola, Klopp and Arteta.
“In terms of knowledge and depth of knowledge, I’m up there with them,” Allardyce said. “I’m not saying I’m better than them, but certainly as good as they are.”
I don’t know if I’m more disturbed by his delusional managerial comparisons or the fact that he included our totally unproven one-trick skipper in a list of that ilk…WTF
TRVL
He can’t even blame it on going senile – he’s thought he’s a top manager all along who’s just been fucked over by foreign managers who’ve been given all the money. What he can’t seem to understand is he plays shit football that no one wants to watch.
Pep will destroy Leeds tomorrow.
Marc-at least if he wants to lean into a marginally logical narrative he could discuss his success rate when it comes to those facing relegation, but no, not him, he goes straight tin foil hat bat shit crazy…like I said, I find it very disurbing that Arteta somehow got lumped in with this very prestigous crowd…could it be possible that our PR team is actually behind this ridiculous hot take, as we know Sam’s not totally adverse to the notion of a little payola now and then
TRVL
I think much of the media is more guilty of group think than many of our fans – with the media its a mix of building him up to knock him down, people like Neville who don’t want to criticise managers because of his own record, journalists / pundits who are just thick and nearly all of them incapable of having the balls or intellect to put forward an intelligent original thought.
Marc-so far Sam’s proven that he’s equal to or better than only one of the managers he named at his introductory presser and we all know which one I’m referring to…btw I would take a one-legged Gundogan over a healthy Xhaka any day of the week
TRVL
Thanks for the congrats. There are, of course, plausible reasons for delay after delay, I just want to get to France now and have been looking at Wunder studio mixing desks. Junior has started on his French and is talking electrical engineering and sound engineering for Uni. There’s a bit of a buzz going now even though it will have to be 4 years at least before the final move when Junior goes to Uni.
I feel like I have a new lease of life.
Fat Sam getting a better result to Arteta as you alluded to, is hilarious after his “I am Sam equal to all managers” he should have added “if I were better I’d be a manager full time”.
Leeds would probably do better with calling ghost busters than Fat Sam.
Spuds drags teams down to their level of shite football. Palace were doing good under Woy.
Tony
Great to hear things are going well and of course now you won’t have any excuse to not pop over for a match or two.
Thanks Marc. One of the reasons for choosing France and near Marseille so get the train there to London with Junior a few times a season and of course CL ties.
Time to come back to reality in my old age. 🙂
Want to see Brentford take points off the bin dippers.
When I’m having a little looksee at our present roster, loanees included, and making some projections about the coming off-season I’ve drawn the following speculative conclusions:
Keeper-we re-up Ramsdale as the workhorse and likely stay the course
-I don’t have a big problem with this but I do worry about not having any real competition behind a Keeper who has shown some cracks in recent times
Defenders-I would suspect that White, Gabs, Zinchenko and Kiwor will be returning next season, but there could be some roster turnover in this position
-I would be keeping Saliba at all costs but if he balks at re-upping before the window opens we might be forced into selling him in a very bullish market…Arteta’s karmic fuck-ups could come back to haunt again
-on a side note, if I wasn’t so uncertain about Saliba, I wouldn’t be surprised if Gabs was shipped
-not sure about Holding, as he’s not up to par, even as injury cover, so it might be time to get something for him
-I would be shocked if Tierney was here come the start of the new season…it’s clear he’s not in Arteta’s plans, so it’s best to cash in while there are still some serious suitors
-personally I would bring back Nuno, as he’s chock full of attacking potential, but I think he’s worn out his welcome with our current skipper
-finally, I think some tough decisions have to be made about Tomi, whom I appreciate, especially with his positional flexibility, but it’s pretty obvious he can’t handle the rigors of the PL
if my assessment was even 80% accurate that would mean we could be looking for at least 2 CBs and cover for both the left and right side, which seems like a rather arduous task, considering our other pressing needs…as such, I would suspect that we might make some typical half measures and keep our most inexpensive options, like Holding and Tomi, add a CB and a somewhat versatile LB/RB option, then keep Saliba, thereby risking that he just might leave on a free the following summer
Midfield-this is clearly the biggest area of interest
-right now we have Partey, Jorginho, Vieira, Ode, Xhaka, Elneny and a returning Lokonga
-I pray that we finally eliminate Xhaka from the equation, loan out Lokonga again and go get two seminal players, but I doubt this will be in the cards unless we sell off Partey, as Jorginho, Ode and Vieira are likely going nowhere
-Jorginho is likely here to stay because we stupidly gave him term, Ode is a main cog for Arteta and Vieira’s market value is so depreciated it makes no sense but to keep him and hope for the best…the former and the latter could be considerable stumbling blocks when it comes time to properly recruit, so the greatest likelihood is that we offload ESR and replace him with our 4th or 5th TW option, who will likely be a lesser option than our former academy standout
Forwards-currently we have Jesus, Saka, Marts, Trossard, Nelson, Balogun and Eddie
-I would suspect that both Balogun and Nelson could be on the move, with the former being wrongly sold off and the latter leaving on a free
-sadly, Nelson is the more likely to stay, for frugality reasons, which would be a mistake as he has all the leverage now, so he will get an unjustified pay hike, term and some equally unwise assurances…as we witnessed with Eddie this is how we poorly conduct our business
-in the end we will likely treat Trossard as Marts cover/competition and Nelson as Saka’s, then get another Striker option who’s too similar to Jesus
so even with all the ongoing chatter about our 150+m transfer kitty and the unlikely notion that big time player agents are constantly hounding Edu, we will likely end up losing more quality players than we acquire
-with this in mind, I can see us selling Tierney, Balogun, ESR and even Partey, then only getting one name brand midfielder, one future midfielder, who will be sold to the fanbase as Xhaka’s eventual replacement, which means our Swiss miss will remain in the fold, and a couple relatively unknown defender options
-the fact that this kitty will be largely dependent upon us selling off assets, which is always a ridiculously time-consuming process for us in particular, which likely means we will be bargain shopping at the latter part of the window
-as pessimistic as it might seem this is the Arsenal way, at least for the better part of the last two decades
-the worst part of this situation is that it means the PR team will be working overtime trying to oversell our off-season antics, the thought of which makes me want to fucking vomit
-as per usual, I hope I’m wrong and this is the time we finally get it right, but my spidey-senses suggets otherwise
as for today’s clash, I’m hoping that we can somehow match Newcastle’s intensity because if we come out flat it could be a long day…my other concern is that we come out and press high for the first 10, thus giving the impression that we give a flying fuck, then slowly but surely revert back to our overtly scared tactics that have been on display for large chunks of the last month, minus our last affair against a wretched Chelsea squad…Cheers
Tony not to forget that France has some of the best rugby teams in the world and can afford to buy the best players and the Top 14 league is absolutely fantastic. Many of the matches are broadcast in English and Toulon is only 65km away and has a good team. The rugby atmosphere in the south of France is unprecedented.
All the best on your move and I get what you are trying to do as myself I have settle down now because of advanced age and travel when I get antsy to places that are interesting and enjoyable. Will do 6 weeks and 4 countries in Europe this year from the US
Kilroy
Thanks for the good wishes and enjoy your Europe travels. Junior said to me how will I feel when we finally move in about 4 years and I replied like I survived ‘Lost!’
Our French home will be hub of close friends and family and upmarket travelers for the Gites plus musicians in the studio. That and a 30 seater boutique Thai/French fusion cuisine.
Will suit an old loquacious countries’ mongrel like me. 🙂
Rugby, Monaco grand prix, CL football and whatever is the local team et al Maybe get to watch some loanees.
Three hours to kick off and I’m wondering why so quiet here? The it dawned on me, how do we make predictions without knowing who’s fit and who is starting? We know Doris the tea lady won’t step in at RB, don’t we?
We’ve had a big banner poster outside there Emirates all week saying Right Back required apply within. Main requirements being able to run for 90 minutes and scrub tramlines from Arteta boxers if he doesn’t do exactly as told by the master of fuck ups; 2nd place Arteta.
Say to anyone on Le Grove, “You’d have taken it being 2nd if offered at the beginning of the season, wouldn’t you?” The le grovettes would sing in unison with 4 part harmonies YEEEEESSSSSSSSSSS! Fcuking A, You Fcuking kidding me? Sure I thought 5 for sure and other such choker comments.
I say and I have it on good authority my fellow posters would whole heartedly agree when I say>
” YOU FUCKING PLASTIC FANS’ LOSER BOTTLE JOBS”
Of course there will be a minority of who this patently doesn’t apply whatsoever, fence sitter Bob will be looking for nuances and gray areas with the loser bottle jobs to find some way of spinning you Fucking Plastic fans. It’ll take Bob a long while, but he’ll finally arrive at the word Anal to substitute with Plastic and all will be well on the fence with balance restored owing to Bob’s considerable fat arse.
Meanwhile, the fenceless sages of LIR eagerly await the starting line up before even beginning to try to see what the fuck Arteta has set up this time.
Further news to follow.
Tony
I never expected us to mount a title challenge this season (or any under Arteta to be honest) but once we were in a position 2 nil up away at Liverpool followed by the results against West Ham and Southampton we’ve completely thrown it away and any excuse is in no way acceptable.
Arteta is a bottle job – he bottled 4th last season and he bottled the title this season. He’s going to really struggle next season when we’ll be in a far more competitive league with CL football on top.
Marc
The really sad thing is it’s all true what you say. I ask myself have we really moved on from Wenger? In truth, we haven’t other than not playing tippy tappy football any more. Now we play well in patches and get lucky with others faltering.
Tony
Not only all of the above but I’m getting seriously worried about Saliba not extending.
If he goes all the fan boys are going to tie themselves up in all sorts of knots blaming his absence on not winning the title and then claiming he’s not good enough so Arteta sold him.
Marc-the very fact that there’s chatter about White playing more centrallly next season means that either Saliba isn’t going to sign or that one of either Saliba or Gabs are on their way out this summer…more likely Saliba, considering MA’s desire to have right-footed defenders playing primarily on their stronger side…something seems fishy about this whole back gig, unless we’re not privy to some rather pertinent particulars regarding his specific injury
confirmed lineup now availiable…Partey’s omission from the starting 11 for the 2nd straight match, without any injury designation, speaks volumes about MA’s new pecking order…I now strongly believe that Partey is on the chopping block come the summer…it will be interesting to see how Howe counters a midfield 3 of jorginho, Xhaka and Ode…any team who doesn’t setup to punish that triumvarite shouldn’t be employed in the PL, especially with Zinchenko’s obvious defenisve deficiencies and us being without Saliba
TRVL
Shit or bust tactics.
Very thankful for 3 phase wiring as it’s high 40s centigrade and the power grids couldn’t get more power even if Enterprise Scotty was in control.
Relegated to family room with internet and ac only working on the live phase.
At least we’ll get to see the game
TRVL
Its almost as if Arteta’s given up on the title and is side lining players who aren’t in his plans for next season.
The fan boys spin on selling Saliba is going to be seriously cringe worthy.
Marc-two things-if, as you’ve suggested, MA’s playing only those in his plans, we should be pulling out our fucking collective hair that both Xhaka and Jorginho are on the pitch together, and anybody who tries to spin the whole Saliba exodus possibility shouldn’t foget that presently his market valuation is just a tad below what we paid for GD White…now if someone was to offer us 70+M for a player that doesn’t want to sign, then I’ll have a rethink but that’s highly unlikely considering suitors will have two important leverage angles, in that they know he wants out and he only has a year left on his present deal
Sky execs brainstorming about personnel before the game. ‘let’s get two heroes from yesteryear to represent each team’. OK says one, what about Shay Given for the Barcodes? Great, and what about Arsenal? How about William Gallas he says? Sorted!
Marc,
Prepare yourself for the mind boggling conclusion that Saliba can go and do one if he doesn’t want to play for Arsenal one of England’s,nay,Europe’s footballing juggernauts. A club that simultaneously are working miracles just to qualify for the champions league and if you expect more than that you are an entitled twat who knows nothing about football!
Sky just really polishing a turd that this is an important game – they’re like snake oil salesmen.
Almunia
After that little gem, you should consider a name change to Arsenesaynomore. How’s it going mate?
Any Gooners from India out there today?
I would suspect that all of the contrived nonsense being spewed by those within the club this week, about how players are begging to be part of MA’s little plans, is a fll-on wag the dog attempt to deflect attentions away from those like Saliba and maybe even Saka who haven’t put to paper yet
Sky bullshit again.. I find it deeply annoying that they’re portraying this as a meeting of equals. Newcastle have been absolutely fuck all for decades. It’s enough to make you wonder if they’re being paid by our Saudi friends to fluff them a bit. Fucking egregious.
KP Cardiff need a win tomorrow is it likely?