Mikel Arteta | Lego Pep watch

It'd just be the most hilarious thing if Emery, of all managers, went on to win the PL with Aston Villa, especially knowing that they sacked him for Arteta in the first instance. :lol:

But alas, Villa seeing off Liverpool and City is lofty thinking.
 
mu4c_20le said:
He has a better structure, and got lucky with two fairly cheap signings from city. If Ole got all the players he wanted, we'd probably be a bit closer to the title and a trophy.
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I'd hardly say getting Jesus who isn't an out and out striker and never has been and Zinchenko who is average at best but forms group hugs when their 2-0 down and waves his hands around a lot was them getting lucky, more the other way round Pep was thinking thanks very much.
 
It’s just weird. I want to be angry, I want to fume, and that’s easier if it’s games like Fulham where the performance is bad.

Im just perplexed more than anything else just now. I’m watching us play well enough that we should be probably 3 goals up at half time vs a good Liverpool team, but the only goal we actually manage to score is in our own net.

He has got to get a couple of really good finishers in this team, otherwise this project could just end up petering out, because fans are now getting fed up of these hard luck stories. His answer today to a team that’s struggling to take chances is to bring in Havertz and Nelson, 2 players who struggle to finish their dinner. All the dominating xG means little if you can’t put the ball in the back of the net.
 
GoonerBear said:
It’s just weird. I want to be angry, I want to fume, and that’s easier if it’s games like Fulham where the performance is bad.

Im just perplexed more than anything else just now. I’m watching us play well enough that we should be probably 3 goals up at half time vs a good Liverpool team, but the only goal we actually manage to score is in our own net.

He has got to get a couple of really good finishers in this team, otherwise this project could just end up petering out, because fans are now getting fed up of these hard luck stories. His answer today to a team that’s struggling to take chances is to bring in Havertz and Nelson, 2 players who struggle to finish their dinner. All the dominating xG means little if you can’t put the ball in the back of the net.
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Yeh just can't score ATM. All of a sudden we've hit a brick wall. Amazing how our form has gone out the window in the space of 1-2 weeks. Created enough today to win but it wasn't to be.
 
Fridge chutney said:
Really? Aren't Saka and Martinelli from the academy? I would have thought the Arsenal academy is one of the best in the world.
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developed under Emery. What youth players has Arteta pushed through?

when arsenal was 6-0 up against RC lens we had Nwaneri & Lewis Skelly on the bench. Instead he puts on Nketiah and Jorginho. Why?

It was at that moment a lot of Arsenal fans got seriously pissed off and knew Arteta isn’t about development. He takes the safe, more experienced choice. Remember as Arsenal fans we have pride in our youth system, it’s practically integrated in the way I see football because of the Wenger days.
 
Doubt Arteta's job is under pressure just yet. He has brought us back into CL and in title races for the first time in almost a decade. We were in freefall when he arrived and he steadied the ship. There are obviously issues he needs to sort (getting a striker is top priority ATM) and we've hit a brick wall in the last 1-2 weeks. Our soft centre also seems to have resurfaced, ATM we concede and lose our heads. Have to sort it out, but not hitting panic mode yet.
 
InfiniteBoredom said:
Both of them got introduced into the 1st team by Emery iirc. Arteta got some credits for continue working with them but they haven’t had anybody else since.
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tinfish said:
developed under Emery. What youth players has Arteta pushed through?

when arsenal was 6-0 up against RC lens we had Nwaneri & Lewis Skelly on the bench. Instead he puts on Nketiah and Jorginho. Why?

It was at that moment a lot of Arsenal fans got seriously pissed off and knew Arteta isn’t about development. He takes the safe, more experienced choice. Remember as Arsenal fans we have pride in our youth system, it’s practically integrated in the way I see football because of the Wenger days.
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I understand your point now. It was a comment about Arteta's use of the academy vs. a comment about the quality of the academy itself. Makes sense in that case. I think United fans would react similarly negatively if a manager started broadly neglecting academy talent.
 
Don’t understand Arsenal at all. Saka needed taking out of the firing line at half time and Havertz was a joke. Ødegaard spent the entire match whining and their finishing was utterly diabolical. I’d prefer them over Liverpool and Man City but just don’t see it happening.
 
crossy1686 said:
Massive you'd think? He keeps talking up their title aspirations, spending loads of money, and each year they look further away from the title and don't even win a trophy on the way to finishing way off the top. There's only so long you can keep kidding people.
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Kind of harsh wouldn't you say? His first three full seasons in charge were steady progress from 8th to 5th to 2nd with a decent title challenge last year with a young squad. This is the first season where they have clearly regressed under him, and it's largely down to not addressing the striker problem and wasting money on Havertz instead.

I don't think he's all that as a manager, and he is unbelievably annoying, but to say they are further away each year is ridiculous. It's just that they have blown a real chance to push on from last year.
 
Proper shit at subs, completely pointless and have no impact every time he makes them.

He said something really weird in the pre match about having to outperform xG. Maybe he only meant slightly, but felt like a really odd thing to expect from a team.
 
Lash said:
Proper shit at subs, completely pointless and have no impact every time he makes them.

He said something really weird in the pre match about having to outperform xG. Maybe he only meant slightly, but felt like a really odd thing to expect from a team.
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Just a fancy way of saying they need to be more clinical.
 
El Zoido said:
Just a fancy way of saying they need to be more clinical.
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Except it's not, if you outperform you're xG, you're scoring chances you shouldn't usually score. To be clinical, you just need to be performing to your xG. Outperforming it is just unsustainable.
 
Mike Smalling said:
Kind of harsh wouldn't you say? His first three full seasons in charge were steady progress from 8th to 5th to 2nd with a decent title challenge last year with a young squad. This is the first season where they have clearly regressed under him, and it's largely down to not addressing the striker problem and wasting money on Havertz instead.

I don't think he's all that as a manager, and he is unbelievably annoying, but to say they are further away each year is ridiculous. It's just that they have blown a real chance to push on from last year.
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You could say the same about us under our various failed managers, except we actually won stuff.
 
GoonerGirly said:
Yeh just can't score ATM. All of a sudden we've hit a brick wall. Amazing how our form has gone out the window in the space of 1-2 weeks. Created enough today to win but it wasn't to be.
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Should have been game over in the first halve. If Jesus plays instead of Havertz I think you win that game.
 
Mike Smalling said:
Kind of harsh wouldn't you say? His first three full seasons in charge were steady progress from 8th to 5th to 2nd with a decent title challenge last year with a young squad. This is the first season where they have clearly regressed under him, and it's largely down to not addressing the striker problem and wasting money on Havertz instead.

I don't think he's all that as a manager, and he is unbelievably annoying, but to say they are further away each year is ridiculous. It's just that they have blown a real chance to push on from last year.
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Well to be fair they should never have finished 8th twice to begin with and then to make it even more worse bottled 4th spot to Spurs. Till now he has 6 good months in his bank. If arsenal somehow bottles 4th spot this season, surely his whole stint would be considered a farce
 
DJ_21 said:
Should have been game over in the first halve. If Jesus plays instead of Havertz I think you win that game.
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Maybe though Jesus hasn't been clinical either. Unfortunately he's injured again.
 
After 4? Years and however much spent this is now “his” team.
The lack of a proper no.9 I think will hurt him. Pep and Klopp can do that (although pep has moved away from a false 9 with haaland) but most teams need a focal point.
Thought he did very well last year but the last step is the hardest and his recent signings are showing he might not have the nous to make that step.
Can’t say I’m unhappy about that, as I find him utterly insufferable. If it does all go south from here I wonder how he’ll be judged.
 
Fts 74 said:
I'd be tempted to agree except klopp has won the PL, FA cup and League Cup once in 8 years.
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Losing the league twice with over 90 points is basically winning it compared to any other manager besides pep.

No other manager has been close to reaching 92 or 97 points, those are wonderful campaigns despite not winning.
 
Nicolarra90 said:
Losing the league twice with over 90 points is basically winning it compared to any other manager besides pep.

No other manager has been close to reaching 92 or 97 points, those are wonderful campaigns despite not winning.
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The best runner ups!
 
I just don’t understand. After listening to Arsenal fans, they have the best players of all time in each position. They also strengthened their midfield with by far the best midfielder in the history of all organic beings, within the entire solar system. (For an absolute bargain might I add)

Why is it falling apart? Especially with the 2nd coming of Christ as the manager. Just bizarre.
 
GlasgowCeltic said:
him calling Liverpool the best team in Europe after the game was pretty random
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He's a clown searching for excuses, though there's an argument to say the CL is spectacularly weak this year.

The top two in England, plus the leaders of the Bundesliga aren't in it. Nor are the 2nd place teams in Italy, Spain and France.

The Europa is arguably as hard to win.
 
Fridge chutney said:
Really? Aren't Saka and Martinelli from the academy? I would have thought the Arsenal academy is one of the best in the world.
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Martinelli played 45 minutes for an Arsenal academy team and then fast tracked into the first team. He’s no more an academy product than Pellistri is at United.
 
I wonder if, when Pep leaves City and they keep winning the league, his zealots will claim it was due to the foundation he set up or will some realize that there is a very strong correlation between money and trophies in football.
 
Lash said:
Except it's not, if you outperform you're xG, you're scoring chances you shouldn't usually score. To be clinical, you just need to be performing to your xG. Outperforming it is just unsustainable.
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I might be wrong but did the BBC not show a graphic during the game that the league winners recently have all generally out performed their xG
 
Nicolarra90 said:
Losing the league twice with over 90 points is basically winning it compared to any other manager besides pep.

No other manager has been close to reaching 92 or 97 points, those are wonderful campaigns despite not winning.
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Do you want a trophy for that? All you have is a covid asterisk title for that past 35 years.
 
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