We started our FA cup campaign in the third round and lost to Manchester United on the penalties. We did last a bit longer in Carabao Cup and reached to semi-finals when Newcastle thrashed us over 2 legs with a 4-0 aggregate. We simply didn’t have an answer to the Eddie Howe’s plan and Isak’s pace.
In the Premier League, we are sitting on 67 points with 3 games in hand. Liverpool has already won it and we will most likely finish in the top 4. We have finished 2nd in previous seasons consecutively and this would be the third time when we lacked that extra push to lift the trophy. I will talk about that extra push a little bit later.
Champions League provided some relief. I am contended with our run, PSG were simply brilliant over 2 legs and losing to them doesn’t bring any shame. The players will have more experience going into the big games and we will do better next time.
Positives, first. We are a serious team and we can beat anyone on a given day. We have a bunch of world class players who are still young enough to improve and get us some money if they decide to move on. Good for the business, good for the football. We made it to the semi-finals in two of the competitions, and we kept Liverpool on toes for almost 30 weeks. Anything can happen in a penalty shootout, so I will not give much importance to the FA cup defeat.
The players we have? Saka, Martinelli, Saliba, Gabriel M, Timber, MLS, Calafiori, White, Rice, Havertz, Odegaard (half-heartedly tbf)! All of them are on the positive side of their age and all of them are committed to win trophies at Arsenal.
Negatives? We won fuck-all again! The only ones who remembers when you come second are your wife and your dog (probably why we got win-the dog at Emirates). It’s not the FA cup or the Champions League that has rattled me.
Carabao Cup game against Newcastle was a failure from the manager. Over 2 legs, he couldn’t figure out a way to deal with their pace and counter attack.
We were sitting 2nd, very close to Liverpool in December. Everyone and their landlady knew we needed to sign someone who can score goals. Watkins was thrown at us for 60m, and we ignored it. We brought no one, when we were suffering from injuries and lack of goalscoring. It was the manager, the club and Kroenke’s because if you can’t see what’s in front of your eyes, you are either blind or you don’t want to. We needed a push and Watkins or a Gyokeres could have got us that.
Next, some of the football we are playing is very one-directional and boring. Sideways and back passes in the name of possession percentage is not good. Football is a robust game, let the players shine by not sticking them to the side line (Martinelli comes to my mind) and by not letting them express themselves (we saw what Declan Rice can do with those free kicks).
Next, we need improvements in some positions and we need to stop ignoring a CF signing. Scoring goals win you games. We did score a lot of them, spread among the Marts, Saka, Havertz, Trossard etc but you know what was the difference between us and Liverpool? Salah scored 28 goals, and won a handful of games for Liverpool on his own. We don’t do that here at Arsenal.
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How to fix this?
Be more direct, develop a fall back plan when your usual strategy do not work, bring in a CF and a midfielder, rotate when playing 2 games a week because the likes of MLS can do better than Calafiori and Zinchenko, and get an Odegaard’s competition. As simple as that.
Right, we have a game today against Liverpool. India-UK have worked on a trade deal and that could bring Guinesse here, so I won’t complain much if we lose.
Hope you are doing well, see you during the game.
Whilst missing out on a CL place is highly unlikely we could still finish 3rd or even 4th. The fanboys fall back has always been Arteta’s doing a great job because you can’t expect to beat Pep so finishing 2nd to him is a good result (I’ve been waiting for one of them to say it’s like winning a trophy!) well this season we’ve lost out on the PL to a new manager who’s total spending last summer was less than what Merino cost.
If we end up dropping below 2nd it’ll be embarrassing and should see Arteta sacked.
Can’t have it both ways though Ambarish. Arteta was talking about points during the week implying (rather pathetically) that Liverpool were winning the league with less points than Arsenal had in coming second. No mention of Liverpool coming second with 95 and 97 points though. Well I that’s the gauge then consider this,we are closer in points to Bournemouth in 10th place than we are to liverpool. That is beyond embarrassing for a manager who is selling the idea that we are improving under him.
The football played is turgid. That 6 years and 1 billion invested ( in players and pay offs because of his incompetence) saw us resort to long throws and corners with the whole of Europe watching is simply appalling. Anyone attempting to justify that is a snake oil salesman. Please explain how the pgmol or absence of Havertz and Gabriel resulted in the necessitation of a game plan that Frank Spencer could have created.
His hubris is a disease that has destroyed the club internally and externally making us a laughing stock yet I cannot fathom how his ego has become so inflated. What does he think he has done? Where dies he think he has taken us. This is Arsenal,we are a huge club,he has spent huge money. The results need to reflect this. It’s not entitlement btw,it’s fact. There are levels in the English footballing structure and Arsenal sit at the top table in the basis of every metric possible. Arteta didn’t take us there. That’s not his achievement. So I ask you what is?
Almunia
We are, where we are, not because of Mikel but despite of him. I’m not fan of him, but have just accepted that KSE don’t have the balls to get in Enrique, Flick or even Xavi Alonso. We have a wonderful team and for once, it will align itself and we will win things. My positivity is towards this alignment, not that Arteta is going to fix his mistakes.
Marc
Those businessmen are happy with CL money. Finishing 2nd or 4th won’t make much difference to them.
Almunia
Agree with everything you say only to add that Arteta made 3 subs mid week 2 of which were for full backs and when chasing a goal Nwaneri didn’t step foot on the pitch.
Wenger would have thrown every attacker we had on in an effort to get something.
Ambarish
I disagree they’ve put in huge investment and the other sports clubs they own have had success – they’ll see the revenue they could generate with winning major trophies.
Wenger could have won PL 6/6 and made another stadium with 800m GBP, which Arteta was given.
Marc
Yes, they would want that but they still leave it to Arteta. Edu was a puppet, Berta – not so sure but if they were serious, they would have fucking asked hoarding defenders and buying Havertz for a CF role.
Ambarish
My guess is Arteta’s one of those people you find in businesses who’s very good at talking the talk and convincing people how good / clever he is and all the problems are down to other people etc.
Where Arteta could be different is usually what these people do is stay in a position for a few years take credit for anything that happens (Arteta and set piece goals for example!) and then get out before their incompetence fucks things up – I think Arteta genuinely believes his own hype and thinks he’s a top manager.
He is a goofball. He is just lucky to inherit some of the players, saliba, saka, gabriel and nelli. He is also lucky to not have been sacked 3/4 times in his career. He was also lucky when the Tierney scored a worldie against Bournemouth (?) three seasons ago in December which saved his career.
Ambarish
The good news is the media who have pretty much had a full on love in with Arteta even during that period in the pandemic where he should have been fired are now being more critical.
The media are sharks and once they scent wounded prey they’ll attack whether its warranted or not so next season Arteta’s going to be under a microscope.
He would be in his 6th full season with only a FA Cup (thanks to Aubameyang) to show!
2nd place finishes and CL semi finals only gets you money, not trophies.
Off I go to nearby places to watch game on a big screen in my 2021-22 season Arsenal jersey. Hopefully we beat the scousers today.
Ambarish
Have a good one.
Ambarish,
I know your take on things,wasn’t implying you were you were a MAGA (Making Arsenal Great Again) head. Anyway you need to be as impartial as you can ( with a tool at the helm) ,that’s the price of running the blog!
Marc,
I know you agree with me, it’s one of the reasons I rarely feel the need to post,you guys say everything that needs to be said. His ingame management is so poor that it is sackable in it’s own right. It’s like employing a bus driver who can’t actually drive and then defending him by talking about the great atmosphere on the bus.
Your point about the media is a great one and I truly hope you’re right ,he was elevated to a level far beyond his abilities and there is a lot of revisionism taking place amongst the journos. The fanbase is beginning to split again and we all know that doesn’t bode well for the future. Time for Arteta supporters to step back and look at the facts. No football club goes on a six year journey,end of.
Fuck me the Spud’s and ManU are bad – you’d think one of them would be desperate for a manager of Arteta’s calibre!
Almunia
It’ll be interesting to see how the fanbase does split. Wenger had a huge amount of goodwill that Arteta can’t claim – there will of course be the “but who would you replace him with” fans (I’ve got a mate who’s one I wonder on occasions what it would take for him to actually react!) but Arteta has increased expectations and then constantly fallen short.
I think Arteta’s downfall will mirror Emerys more than Wengers.
Marc,
I hope so because he doesn’t deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Wenger,Graham,Chapman or any other legend of the club. In fact I’d give Rioch and Emery more credit because neither were given the time or money that Arteta has wasted. And I mean wasted. When he goes whoever comes in next may well have some serious problems to solve. Saka,Saliba et al have given us a lot of service,they may well feel it is time to go. The likes of Havertz,Jesus,Odegaard,White,Merino have been put on contracts that make renewal a financial risk but also makes selling them on those wages and for the fees paid nigh on impossible. In short the type of squad mess he was brought in to sort out. The success stories in our squad were not,as we all know,his doing. It’s infuriating and shouldn’t take a good journo long to put together.
Almunia & Marc—ever since we made the move to the Emirates we’ve been the kings of gleaning the wrong messages from one season to the next, so I’m actually quite fearful of the possibility of us winning our remaining fixtures…if we were to close the enormous gap between us and Pool, the lead stories/lessson learned would invariably be buried under a tidal wave of empty calorie nonsense and there’s little chance what really needs to get done here would ever come to fruition…let’s not forget that Arteta only experienced the latter days version of Wenger and for that reason we will continue to suffer at the hands of this plasticized stunned cunt of a replacement…if only he had spent time under him when Dein was sharing the load and all of their decisions had a singular focus in mind
as I’m writing this and watching this shit show of a match, so I’m considerably less concerned about the whole notion of what might be in-store were we to win all of our remaining matches
lessons learned