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.
Besides Jason Ayto, “the report says Arsenal are also considering Real Sociedad’s Roberto Olabe, Atletico Madrid’s Andrea Berta, Monaco’s Thiago Scuro and former Manchester United and Newcastle chief Dan Ashworth”
after what transpired in January, Ayto is out of the question or it’s a same old, same old scenario…so there’s that…now this list would have made perfect sense in the early days of MA’s tenure, with our pending contractual and roster construction issues, which ultimately led to a more youth-oriented initiative, but we should be in a different DOF headspace nowadays…this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be hiring the best and the brightest scouting minds, as the unearthing of gems should always be a higher priority, but it shouldn’t be the determining factor in our search for a new DOF if we truly have championship aspirations in mind….just look at the former employers of the above names involved and ask yourself have any of them won anything at the highest of levels, minus maybe Berta, or have they simply helped “pretenders”, of varying degrees, to remain somewhat relevant…every single one of them have been employed by clubs that have ultimately prioritized selling for a profit over buying, at least at the higher end of the market…so we need to decide what kind of club we want to be and the very fact that Campos isn’t on this list speaks volumes about our main objectives moving forward…as such, if we hire any of these individuals we had better find a new manager, as he doesn’t have the acumen required to take a BHA, Newcastle, Monaco, Sociedad or even an Athletico to the next level without us purchasing the kind of players who can win in spite of the manager
on a final note, I would avoid Ashworth like the plague after what was revealed during his rather brief tenure at United…he’s not a “football” man at heart, as we all know by now that he wasn’t the brains behind BHA’s more recent ascendancy, which is why some mistakenly saw him as such an interesting DOF proposition…btw AC tired to lure Berta to the San Siro and it was reported that he rejected their advances because he “already had an agreement abroad”
Thanks TRVL a good enlightening read.
Tony
No way Martinelli goes to Saudi – this is a guy who Klopp was salivating over a couple of seasons ago.
My fear is Saliba leaving – he’s going to have Madrid sniffing around him again and as much as it would hurt to see him leave if I were his agent I’d be screaming get away from that useless cunt of a manager.
Tony
I didn’t go to the West Ham game (I haven’t been for months I just can’t be bothered to spend more money to sit in that cunts presence) I bought the ticket next to mine for my nephews birthday (I’ve taken him on his birthday for a few years now) and gave my ticket to my brother who hasn’t been for years – thought they could have a good day out.
My brother’s been mostly pro Arteta – he seems to be changing his mind now though!
Nice one Marc. It must be good to have a Gooner as a brother albeit one that has taken his time to see the managerial light.
My brother is a fucking Chelsea fan by contrast…At least we never mistakenly used each other’s toothbrushes or nylon y-fronts. I had to have everything red and him blue of course…
I don’t think we fully recovered this season from the 3 contentious red cards in 6 games at the beginning of the season.
I think those decisions have had a massive bearing on how we approached games, we have been too timid and not aggressive enough probably from the fear of getting another poor decision to further derail our season, for example the joke of a penalty away to Brighton and the red card for Lewis skelly away to wolves.
These sort of decisions halt the momentum of a side , especially as they have cost us points whilst Liverpool were on a 24 game unbeaten run.
It hasn’t been a particularly enjoyable season as we have fallen at important hurdles in the season, Newcastle in the semi final …united in the fa cup …west ham in the league and who’s to say that next week v PSV may not end the same way.
PSV are not what I would consider to be a top side but they are very strong at home so we must be very good defensively as I can see us creating very little in the first leg, I feel it is a game for experienced players as the atmosphere will be red hot , a draw would be a good result.
The season can’t end quick enough if we go out of the champions league as the meltdown from entitled fans will be embarrassing .
Arteta was correct when he said to be 2nd in the league and top 3 in the champions league group after our set backs is not a failure, his and the club’s failure was not strengthening in the January transfer window.
Next season will we be back stronger and I believe we will win the league as Arteta will buy a striker (isak hopefully) and will also buy a left sided wide player , defensively we are strong and Nwaneri and skelly have saved the club millions after their breakthrough season.
Kroenke
Could be worse – your brother could be a Tory!
Wiksy
Timidity develops without fail when the cojones are lopped off.
Are you suggesting that ElB has been similarly done ?
His timidity percolates over the squad.
A ray of hope. ElB™ is just the furniture piece in the article
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/arsenal-ethan-nwaneri-myles-lewisskelly-34768865
What the fuck was the tackle by the Millwall keeper on the Palace player?
Managed to watch some continental football with Junior for a change. Without Mbappe RM seem less of a threat as they are very creative but unable to convert chances like us.
Watching the Manure v Fulham where Obi is doing well leading the line. Just think if we hadn’t sold Obi to the Mancs? He’s a lot better than Merino or Sterling.
Smith Roe having a decent game and Garnacho is garbage skying most shots.
Watching gwendouzi for Lazio v Milan playing DM
We were discussing Guendouzi to see if he was up to Partey’s level where we thought no but better than Jorginho as a 6.
That said the Italian league is well below the PL on this game’s viewing
OMG the ref is blind and VAR non existent how do people watch this shit. The tackles okay almost made it a hat trick of roll overs but could only manage 5 and a half but had the Cosimoto grimace I can only imagine made the decision for the ref.
We will give Serie A a miss stick to Spanish football. Have to give the Bundesligue a look this week. Was always too late for European football in Thailand
I’m convinced now Partey graduated from the Italian school of shooting. Would make great rugby players.
Tony—the fact that we came into the season without a single noteworthy Striker yet allowed both Obi and Biereth to leave for fuck-all should be viewed as a fireable offence, especially if we fail to secure any silverware again…it’s not as if I’m of the belief that either player would have been a shoo-in starter, but given Jesus’s injury record and Havertz’s penchant for missing absolute sitters, one or both should have been part of a logical contingency plan
Biereth could have easily gone out on loan again, so we could have recalled him if necessary, and Obi could have been given some of the very same late game minutes he’s now seeing at United…I would bet my left nut that Mika was shipped with little to no consideration…I highly doubt MA could have picked Biereth out of a fucking police lineup…in fact, I would strongly suggest that this move was little more than a selfish/short-sighted decision by our resident dickwad who was only thinking about how this might fluff-up his piss-poor “selling” narrative
as for Obi, he looks to have a little Isak in him, in that he has a similar build and is rather tidy on the ball, from a close control standpoint…the fact that we had seriously scouted Isak before Newcastle brought him in should have put us in a much better position to properly evaluate our former Striker asset…now I get why some might view this as a fairly lofty comp, but if you watched the Sociedad version of Isak you would understand my thought process…even if those inside the club didn’t necessarily favour the kid, maybe it would have been wise to have a bit of a rethink considering what’s transpired since Isak’s arrival on the scene
frankly, I still can’t fathom why some halfwit media-types continue to propagate the notion that the Emirates is where you should want to go if you’re a promising young talent…besides Ode and a few he inherited, MA has never favoured younger players…if it weren’t for injuries we would have seen exceedingly less from Skelly and Ethan this season…if you don’t believe that just consider how many players he’s played at LB before taking a chance on Skelly…as for Ethan, even when everyone else recognized his obvious talent, MA still ran the offence through Sterling when we were in desperate need of goals…beyond that, he’s only played him out on the left, which is a position he’ll never flourish in so long as Saka is still in our employ
on a side note, after what I witnessed Saturday by Cuhna, he’ll never land here with MA in charge…he should have never been considered as a January Striker option anyways, as that’s 3rd on his late of favoured positions, but he would have been a much better option, tucked in behind a real Striker, than Havertz
Cunha