Yep, there’s still 12 games to play and Liverpool are ‘just’ 8 points ahead with their next 2 games against City and Newcastle. Yep, they can faulter towards the end when VVD, Salah, Trent would have in mind to end the season injury free for their final pay checks. Yep, West Ham can do to them at Anfield what they did to us at Emirates. Nothing is absolute except two thing – We will fuck up again & Mikel will fuck up again. So yeah, get over with it and enjoy the rest of the season without any hopes and Champions League run while it lasts.
Liverpool dropped points against Aston Villa, and in a game at home against West Ham – who were 17th before the game – we were expected to win and close that gap. With City and Newcastle next, Liverpool can drop more points and we could have taken advantage of it. But hey, we don’t do that here. You drop 2 points, we drop 3 and we let you take the title home. We have been very consistent in throwing it away, doing it the third time now in last 3 seasons.
Lets get back to the game. We started the game with a midfielder as a striker. We substituted a midfielder with a left back who can’t get into the team even AS A LEFT BACK. With 1-0 down and 10 minutes left on the clock, we were craving for a goal so we bring in Raheem Sterling – who has scored exactly zero goals and assisted just one in 294 minutes in 11 games, 4 of which he started; Sterling, who plays in the front line but has twice the amount of back passes than passes forward in red and white shirt.
This is only from the West Ham game. Lets not forget that Thomas Partey – one of the best DMs out there – started as a RB in multiple games. When Odegaard was out-injured, we were playing with 3 DMs midfield – Partey, Rice, Merino.
So, we have spent north of 700m Great British Pound, and there were 3 positions where we didn’t have players. Also, I am totally ignoring that Odegaard needed to be subbed at half time and we didn’t have anyone on the bench to replace him with. No wonder we are only the second best from 3 seasons in a row now, and no wonder we have fucked up when it has mattered the most.
Lets get to the dumb part of all of this.
Everyone, including me who doesn’t know shit about football management and only been watching football for about 15 years, were calling out that we need reinforcements in the front line. Havertz hardly won us a game on his own but even if he was the Benzema of Arsenal, we needed his back up. We also needed a Xhaka’s replacement, a box to box midfielder who is more attacking minded, because our left side was disjointed and we were attacking from the right for like 100 games now.
When Declan Rice was brought in, everyone thought he was a like for like replacement of Thomas Partey, but the latter decided to not give up and kept his position. Mikel, in an attempt to prove himself right, gave Declan the left side attacking midfield role. Mikel, to accommodate another of his poor signings, moved Havertz up top and totally forgot to bring a specialist. He let Eddie Nketiah go, he paid Aubameyang to leave but didn’t get anybody. He brought in Mikel Merino and things got even more complicated for him because he had to accommodate his third signing, what did he do? He put Thomas Partey at RB, played Rice as DM, Merino as LCM, and Havertz up top. That’s 4D chess, and all of it to lose games.
What could have been done?
Again, I’m just stating the obvious. Only one of Declan Rice and Thomas Partey should start a game. Ollie Watkins was available for 60m and could have done the job for 2 seasons, we should have paid. Havertz should have been put back in the midfield to compete with Merino. We should have got a competition to Odegaard and let Nwaneri and Trossard back up for Saka and Martinelli. Gabriel Jesus and Zinchenko should have been sold. Tierney should have been sold. If you can’t find a good competition to Odegaard, you should have called Vieira back. MLS is keeping Calafiori, Zinchenko away from the starting line up, there’s was no point in trying Thomas Partey at RB when you could have just trusted him and put Timber on the right side. Nwaneri was the answer when you were playing 3 DMs in the midfield.
What can you do now?
Nothing. We have lost it this season. For the next one, stop trying square peg in a round hole. Here’s a bitter truth if you are reading this Mikel – I will prefer Wenger’s attacking football over your JDP shit if it means doing enough to finish in top 4. You were brought to win us trophy, and it has been 6 years and 700m GBP. I don’t care if we haven’t lost a game against top 6 in last 30 matches if we can’t beat West Ham and Villa at home when it matters.
Champions League – round of 16 – an easy one but I don’t have much hopes after that too. We pick ourselves up again in the summer and we start again, but let me tell you we will win nothing without a striker, without a Odegaard’s improvement, with Thomas Partey at RB, with Declan Rice as an attacking midfielder, with Havertz up top and with your controlling nature. Oh, and you don’t win trophies from corners.
Over to you guys.
Yep pretty much sums it up the only thing you left off was as well as spending north of £700 odd million Arteta inherited Saka, Saliba and Martinelli.
He also inherited some other decent players whose value he has destroyed.
He’s been an incredibly expensive waste of time.
Solution is simple. Culled from 6 years of falling short, abysmally the first 3 years.
LET GO OF elb™ . It will be much cheaper than another 200 million team buildup.
We will be able to develop and profit from our Academy kids.
Like Saka, Nwari, Skelly who we have , that is a massive talent.
Like ESR, Ballogun , Kiddo whom we let go so El B does not need to explain, damn it, that is a massive loss , which can be gauged as we try to purchase replacements.
#ArtetaOut
No goals from corners they have dried up.
Never in a million years will come close to scoring from an indirect free kick. Hell we won’t even get over the wall. Open play is all rigid backwards and sidewards with no one ready to play through the center. Nobody makes runs , dribbles with the ball takes on defenders. Ode just keep playing the same passes very orchestrated with defenders being able to defend eyes closed.
On the other end one decent counter and a cross is enough to open our defence. Rice is utterly useless and doesn’t know what he needs to do. If we are not in shambles I don’t know what is not. MA copied Pep and both of them are in a crises due to their extremely regimented constipated football. It’s the worst football that I have watched Arsenal play in all 25 yes I watched us
Only 5 or so minutes in but City are playing with much more zip than they did mid week.
The fuckers will go and beat City now we lost to West Ham.
Arteta you really are a cunt.
And then City pull a City and concede.
Ambarish—some good points without your oft-times glass half full sugarcoating, which speaks to the anger now being felt by those within the fence-sittting contingency…not to be terse, but it’s about f’ing time…the evidence has been there for all to see for some time now, but it’s never easy to come to terms with those sentiments that seem to be counterintuitive from a fandom perspective…this isn’t to suggest that you haven’t expressed your concerns on a fairly regular basis, but now it appears as if you’re ready to full embrace your Arteta-inspired angst…good on you…I always knew you had it in you…keep it up and all will be revealed, such as our secret handshakes and the Turing-esque encryption code to our dark web account (it is here where you will learn what QAnon experts believe is the basis for why the officiating classes hate our fucking guts)…see you at the next meeting, don’t forget to wear your Guy Fawkes mask
Pool 2 up looking impervious so season over for us in February. MA has no right staying our manager Simple’s!