Yes, but the thing is just a few days ago nobody expected City to come out of last weekend's matchday 2 points clear at the top. Arsenal's slip may be a bit more "understandable", as Villa is having a very strong season, although it was still a home game and you absolutely have to win your home games come this time of the season, but Liverpool's was just a disastrous slip. City were probably favourites even before last weekend, let alone now. Even if they drop a couple of points here and there, which admittedly feels less unlikely than in previous seasons, are the other two going to win everything from now on? After last weekend that feels far from certain.
Mikel Arteta | Lego Pep watch
- Thread starter Samid
- Start date
I mean, has anybody round here said anything like that? The previous few pages are full of Gooners saying maybe we shouldn’t sack Arteta for coming up short against one of the greatest Managers of all time.
Arteta clearly isn’t on Pep’s level, but that’s a humongous straw man seeing as nobody is saying that he is.
Their run in looks pretty perilous to be honest. Can't help but think the fixture list might have given the semblance of this title race when you think they still have Wolves (A), Chelsea (H), Spurs (A), B'Mouth (H), United (A), Everton (H). North London derby, Chelsea game, United away, also probable Everton will be in the relegation fight when they play them.
Compare that to Brighton (A), Forest (A), Wolves (H), Fulham (A), Spurs (A) and WHUM (H), and I think they are out of it sadly.
I think this last weekend will be looked at as the one that decided the title race.
Realistically, you're looking at City dropping 2-4 points at most in the run-in, but I'd be very surprised if either Arsenal or Liverpool made it through theirs with a 100% record, and if anything would expect them to fall further behind.
No worries at all mate, I didn't think it sounded arsey. But, there certainly has been some wild takes in here from Arsenal fans with comparisons to Pep/Klopp. I think that kind of giddy OTT stuff just rubs people up the wrong way.
My view is that he's done a cracking job and I can see improvements and more consistency than last season. He definitely hasn't stagnated whatsoever, as last season, I feel you were rather lucky at times, but this season it feels like the team has evolved to a higher standard. Next season will be big though, as that's when some stagnation may occur.
For what it's worth, I don't feel yesterday spells the end of your title challenge or, Liverpool's for that matter. There's plenty of points to play for and anything might happen.
It's a big thread mate. Yes, it definitely has been said. I never alluded to recent pages.
It seems to be a big crusade of yours so quote them. Name and shame. I'm not saying you won't find any but it's always a good idea to support your argument with actual proof.
Bundling everyone in because somebody said something mental on page 253 in December 2022 is useless.
Arteta has made clear progress this season. Still in with a mathematical chance of winning the PL with 6 or 7 games to go and in with a chance of making the semi finals of the CL.
Oh right.
Their pessimism is very much grounded in reality.
In 18/19, City ended the season with 14 straight wins.
In 21/22, they dropped 6 points (2 of those against their title rivals, so basically no effect) in their last 12 games and when they needed 3 goals in 15 minutes to win the title in the last game, did just that.
Last year, they put together a 12 match winning run to clinch the title.
Other than "who knows what'll happen in life?", there's no basis to be confident that this City team will lose a game in the next 6, not to mention the other two teams still need to be perfect to take advantage of that.
If there is ever a season to do it, it’s this one. City have not been at their best.
plus imagine what message that puts out if the Arsenal and Liverpool players gave in as easily as the fans. What’s the point in playing if you don’t keep going until it’s mathematically impossible?
Don't bother trying to find logic in that post.
Last season Arteta finished with 84 points. When Ole finished second with Utd they had 74 points, it was one of the weakest premier league seasons ever.
Last year, with a points tally of 74, Utd would have only scraped 4th spot finishing only 3 points above 5th place Newcastle.
Again you are missing the context here. When Ole finished 2nd with 74 points, we were also in europa semis so fielded a very young side against Leicester at home, as well as took the foot off the pedal against fulham at home and leeds away. That itself was 7 dropped points. Even the game against Liverpool was rescheduled and squeezed in making it difficult for us to focus. So in any other season without any other competition we could have finised 80 plus points but still lost the league like arteta did.
Again repeating myself from my above post I am not saying Ole is better than arteta but I agree with couple of posters here that Ole was treated very harshly in compatrison to Arteta. His first real downfall and he was sacked. Arteta got numerous chances to fix his shit. So credit to arsenal board and lucky arteta he wasn't with a club who would have sacked him.
That's a fair point about this being the best chance for those two to beat City.
I'm just saying that I completely understand the fans going "oh ffs not again!"
Finished 3rd 2nd and the a shit start to a new season, he got sacked. Unlike arteta who got chance after finishing 8th and 5th.
Again fair play to arsenal board for backing arteta because at United he would have been sacked multiple times
If anything I have the impression United sits way too long in underperforming and mediocre managers such as Ole but you do have a point on Arsenal giving Arteta time when it wasn't very obvious he could be a good manager for them. Sometimes it's also about being a good fit for certain clubs so maybe they saw something in him that gave them confidence to back him up.
Guess they don't exist then.
Cheerio.
Another lego Pep down
Saka and Arteta - you just gotta love to see those cnuts fail.
Can't believe Tomiyasu lasted nearly the entire match. He's clearly uncomfortable at lb and was getting roasted all night but for some reason Mikel sees Dalot in him..
They played pretty well to be honest, what do our resident Arsenal fans think? Thought you surely want to keep Martinelli on for his pace once you go a goal down, despite him being at fault for the goal.
I think we did well in general but faded in the second half. It was similar vs Villa, edged the first half but kind of fell apart in the 2nd. I think we're running out of steam (and to be fair both are tough games against very good teams) at the back end of the season yet again. I'm disappointed as I thought we'd put up a bit of a tougher fight, but honestly, I've lived through many batterings at the hands of Bayern in the past so 3-2 on aggregate is actually progress!
that’s probably the lowest i’ve felt as an arsenal fan.
Not an Arsenal fan but they didn't create enough chances. There's talk of them needing a no.9, which I agree but they approached the game too cautiously in my opinion and didn't create enough opportunities or test Neuer enough.
How long have you been supporting us, can I ask? Just curious. I can remember one or two worse defeats at the hands of Bayern.
Thought we did well in the frist half but badly faded in the second. I think we're running out of legs as we also fell away at the weekend. I agree we lacked urgency, but credit to Bayern there are few teams better at game management in these situations.
too long.
Alternatives are Kiwior who got hooked because Sané was killing him in the first leg and Zinchenko who comes with a guaranteed mistake. Tomiyasu played the Zinchenko inverted fullback role but the team was clearly uncomfortable giving him the ball in tight spaces. So we pretty much nullified the role and the advantage all by ourselves.
Sane is excellent and most FBs would struggle against him. I think defensively we did well tonight (except the goal of course) and in particular kept Kane quiet, but we needed more from our attackers and tonight it just wasn't clicking.
Martinelli is a bit of a one dimensional speed merchant. He needs space behind the defence to run into. His form has dropped off massively since the first half of last season and I think that concides with teams taking us more seriously after our start last season and sitting very deep. I think we need to start looking very technical players who can play in tights spaces (in the same style Bernardo Silva, Foden). Jesus, Odegaard and Saka do that pretty well already.
In terms of our performance, we've dominated a giant European club for large periods of both games but in the CL you can't make a silly mistake given the elite level of football. Unfortunately this is what let us down. We should have won the first leg but we made 2 mistakes where we basically handed Bayern 2 goals and let them back in the tie. We did the same against Porto with Martinelli making the mistake for the Porto goal. For a lot of these players, its their first time playing CL football so hopefully it's a learning experience.
At this level, you really need to be faultless and take your chances. Thats why City and Guardiola had to spend more than a billion pounds and 8 years just to win their first CL.
I hope they still win the League but with all wierd selections I can’t see that.
I haven't had time to research - where is Partey? He featured against Bayern at the Emirates and I was expecting him vs Villa, but he was missing again tonight. I can only assume he's been injured again which explains why Arteta has pretty limited options right now, having to drop Havertz back into midfield.
You can’t pick that team and think it will work and his love for rotating attackers have destoyed their form. You need to play Jesus with Havertz and Saka. Odegaard behind and Jorginho and Partey to shield your backline.
Partey being a perpetual sick note has ruined that. ATM he only has 2 options at CM - Rice and Jorginho. Which is why he's had to revert to playing Havertz in midfield again, which won't be good enough against the better teams (eg Villa and Bayern). Jorginho unfortunately doesn't have the legs to play 2 full games a week.
That was a dull performance. Feel tiredness is coming to play. They need another 200m to fix their CF and CM issue.
Agree we looked tired esp in the 2nd half. We couldn't lift at all. If we're going to try to stick with City, yes we'll need to spend, just like everyone else.
£706m spent in 5 years for 0 trophies and they have less points than last season after spending £220m+ in the summer.
But but but they've taken City close the last 2 seasons.
Any big club and he'd be under immense pressure.
But but but they've taken City close the last 2 seasons.
Any big club and he'd be under immense pressure.
Lego Pep and Pep out on the same night.