Arteta is lucky to still have a job. If he is Utd manager he is long gone.
Arsenal 2023/24 - Born to be runner up
- Thread starter horsechoker
- Start date
Well he didn't set his team up to win at the Etihad, so it's a valid point.
Of course he did. Stop city scoring, which they always do at home and try to counter. It's the only strategy that can beat city.
Can’t believe people are for real in this thread. Instead of just admitting the obvious problem with the PL, the suggestion is “why didn’t Arsenal just win every game and build up a lead?”
The PL is fecked if that’s how the fan base are seriously thinking. It means they can’t literally get off with anything if people are genuinely that gullible.
The PL is fecked if that’s how the fan base are seriously thinking. It means they can’t literally get off with anything if people are genuinely that gullible.
The game I regret this season is that FA cup tie vs Pool. Should have won that and kept our run going.
I dont know what's going on in folk's head about a tie being bad against city at the Etihad but it's not really realistic. We took 5 pts of them this season while taking 4. That net of +3 is a good return by any stretch of the imagination.The problem is that they were better at dispatching weaker opposition than us. I suspect Arsenal is the only team that they have a negative balance with and no team beat them at home this season it seems, so I will take the draw.
I would have taken ties at Old Trafford any day back in the Fergie/Wenger days.
I dont know what's going on in folk's head about a tie being bad against city at the Etihad but it's not really realistic. We took 5 pts of them this season while taking 4. That net of +3 is a good return by any stretch of the imagination.The problem is that they were better at dispatching weaker opposition than us. I suspect Arsenal is the only team that they have a negative balance with and no team beat them at home this season it seems, so I will take the draw.
I would have taken ties at Old Trafford any day back in the Fergie/Wenger days.
It shows Utd fans have high expectation for Arteta and Arsenal, and it is a good thing. Anything less than winning both ties against City or not winning every single game in the league is unacceptable to them. Because of this high standard, Utd is still searching for the perfect manager the fans are expecting.
That was our bread and butter under Fergie. Our title rivals sometimes even did the double over us, but we just wiped the floor with the rest of the league and won the title.
Arsenal have had a proper crack this year and fair fecks to them.
If they get an out and out striker I think they go again.
Strange that people have talked about them bottling it. Nothing of the sort. They've ridden City all the way.
If they get an out and out striker I think they go again.
Strange that people have talked about them bottling it. Nothing of the sort. They've ridden City all the way.
We are still searching for a single semblance of a an actual plan ffs.
Many online and particularly the forum are using Arteta as the pattern for the present manager to follow.
How do you win at the Etihad without a strategy of preventing City from scoring? Klopp did that many times with his high press. Arsenal just employed a different plan of not high pressing and waiting deeper to counter. It's basically the same thing but with less intensity. Klopp had Mane and other players who were excellent at pressing and counter-pressing. I don't think Arteta and Arsenal has that quality consistently. If they went gung-ho in that game and actually tried to score, one mistake or out of position in offense, City would have scored. You can actually win a game by not wanting the other team to score.
Ole-ball. He won 3 on the bounce at the Etihad. Arteta should've signed Dan James.
Klopp has not won at the Etihad in the league in a long while. Matter of fact, only win for Liverpool under Klopp that comes to mind is the 1-2 in the CL in 2018
Conte's Chelsea went there and beat them. And they became Champions.
I would add a context to this game. Arsenal were flying at the time of playing the game, while City were playing unconvincingly, but still scraping results. This is where I felt Arsenal had the chance to have a real go at them. I said it at the time that come end of the season, those two points might turned out to be crucial.
That was in Pep's first season when City finished 4th.
As @adexkola pointed out, I think most discount Peps first season as he was still going through the process of building them into that machine. It was at that time people were probably jumping the gun and calling him a Pep Guardiola is my idol.
I keep reading that City were vulnerable, or not playing well. Don't people see they do that every season? There's sometimes a slow start, or a slight blip in the middle, where they give everyone hope. And we all say the same thing, they look vulnerable, they aren't as good as they were etc. Then you go to the Etihad, and you struggle to get the ball off them. Then when you get the ball you struggle to keep the ball, they keep you in, they smother you, and Rodri sweeps up anything that comes near him. And it isn't just Arsenal, they did the same to Villa a few days later, and even the great Real Madrid a couple of weeks later. Difference in the Madrid game is they have players like Vinicius and Rodrygo with pace that can counter and transition with more threat than Arsenal can currently, (something I keep seeing I would like addressed this summer).
And they keep winning, nearly every single year. And not just the league, they pick up doubles, and trebles, as they always just find a way to get it over the line. They had 1 blip season, and Liverpool basically had to win 27 out their first 28 games or something ridiculous like that to blow them out the water. Any other season, they say you get 92 points, we get 93. Oh, you can get 97 points, we'll get 98.
Don’t be silly, it’s not drawing at city that Arsenal will regret. It’s draws or losses against lesser teams that they could have won.
Pretty much the back to back Villa losses. You can't reallly afford to take 0 points against anyone if you want to get to 90+ points.
Yes, you look back...Fulham, Villa, that is an issue. Dropping points in both head to heads, that is tough to make up. Last season Southampton, a relegation bound club..1 point?
You are going to slip up sometimes, even City does it, but that December form was a bit of a killer. We recovered extremely well, but we dug ourselves a bit of a hole.
As for City looking vulnerable, they always do but then they go on a crazy end of season run when they need to. If we cam at them strong at the Etihad they would have carved us open. We are not built for that...yet. We would have effectively ended our title challenge that day and the same folks would have called us bottlers.
Last season was a certified bottle job, this season isn’t, they’ve dropped point once since January, that’s title winning form no matter how you slice it, the problem is that they are going up against a side that goes on those title winning run routinely, year after year.
Good form since January but most likely because they were sitting at 4th and looked like writing another season off, after having just suffered back to back defeats, and played without much pressure since they weren't expected to do much. Also got very lucky with injuries, so it was another golden opportunity like last season, but without the pressure.
Obviously not, because, as you stated, Arteta won a trophy - which Pochettino did not do at Spurs. If Pochettino had won a trophy - any trophy - he would be considered the greatest Spurs manager in recent memory.
Arteta pretty much rebuffed the whole 115 Man City charges with they have a right to play argument. He isn't wrong of course because there is a presumption of innocence but it's good that we spend some time questioning the legitimateness of this impending City trophy.
I am sure unlike with Everton and all the others there won't be a quick resolution as there are probably whole armies of lawyers involved. This was the problem with allowing the sale of City to go through in the first place.
I am sure unlike with Everton and all the others there won't be a quick resolution as there are probably whole armies of lawyers involved. This was the problem with allowing the sale of City to go through in the first place.
He did get them to a CL final. Something Wenger only did once.
Is that a Spurs trophy?
Is that a requirement? Their last manager to win a trophy is Juande Ramos, but spurs fans still regard Jol much higher.
I had forgotten they won the league cup with Ramos. I tend to forget all the league cup winners though so I guess it's par for the course. I thought Jol was decent actually. Poch is probably the better manger though overall.
That was one of the most disgraceful firings the PL has seen. Jol didn't deserve that.
That was one of the most disgraceful firings the PL has seen. Jol didn't deserve that.
Exactly my point
most people wont remember him without looking it up, and for the longest time I thought it was Jol. They made some really odd decisions back then.How long were we 4th for? We beat Liverpool to go 2nd end of January, only 2 points behind them, we were top start of March, so I think it's a nonsense to say we played without pressure with all due respect.
You only reached the top by March, unlike last season where you were on the top for pretty much the entire season, and every week adds a little bit of expectation and anticipation like a pressure cooker. I'm too lazy to pull up the posts but I definitely remember most Arsenal fans saying they were not in a title race after the winter break. When did you start feeling the pressure?
Sorry, that is spoken like somebody who doesn't follow the club at all.
The team treated every match as must-win from mid-January through the rest of the season. There may have been less media attention because we were assumed to be the third favorites in the race but the squad and manager were very open in their belief that they were in a title race but with almost no margin for error.
You don't just feel pressure when you are top of the league though, there's also a pressure to chase, or to stay top. The Liverpool game had massive pressure because they were 5 points clear, defeat would have put us 8 points behind them.
Then after you beat them, there's pressure every week watching their scores, can you match them if they win, can you take advantage if they drop any points. You know from the previous season you can't drop points, that will likely be fatal.
But then, points are dropped. It's now out of your hands. Can you put that disappointment behind you, can you not crumble, can you win your games, including against local rivals and historic rivals, and at least make City win all theirs.
These are all different type of pressure.
try harderIt feels very bad to to lose to City. This year has been so much fun. The hope they'll drop points sucks. Alas winners are grinners. You know how you have those years where you reflect? Love you all.
Must be hard being an Arsenal fan right now. That feeling of desperately hoping city will drop points, and how good it would feel if they did, but knowing deep down that it's highly unlikely.
It's the hope that kills you.
It's the hope that kills you.
Its ok, you were never in a title race.
Appears that Partey is out again?
Really? Not read that anywhere. I wouldn't mind tbh, the games have become a lot more transitional since he came in for Jorginho. Think the latter would help keep it all calmer.
I think we all know what's going to happen today. Read that the PL title race has gone to the final day nine times, and the team in second at the start of the day has never won. It's not a hard game for Man City; the jig is up.
However I hope the team signs off with a good win and we do keep City honest. It should be an upbeat end to the season after another year of improvement.
That is indeed Klopp's only win at Etihad, and that game involved one of the most unrealistically outlandish refereeing mistakes in recent memory, and the game winner came about 30 minutes after the game had effectively ended as a competitive contest
City? Honest?