The EMEA region was terrible for our assets this time - 'Kai Havertz' twanged a hammy and had to be put down like a lame horse. Output is down 33% YoY as a consequence.
Mikel Arteta | Lego Pep watch
- Thread starter Samid
- Start date
Yes we get it he has made arsenal a hard side to play against. Good job and he has been praised for that. What people are critiquing him is his inability so far to take them to the next level. It is all fine and good to keep on bringing the 2016 to 2019 era for arsenal (which for all his flaws still won trophies and reached European final) but right now they look to have stagnated. If you guys don't win a big trophy soon then even the loyal arteta supporters will start questioning.
I get that, he still has a fair amount of proving to do, we all agree on that. I'm certainly not trying to suggest he's some generational manager or whatever like you see some of the twats saying on Twitter / X.
I was just pointing out, as much as he's though of as a bit of an intense tit, someone like him was needed to lift the club out of the slumber.
He's finished 2nd 2, maybe 3 seasons in a row. Now, you don't get a trophy for that, but this is also a club that has finished 2nd once since the Invincibles and that was only because Spurs fecked up when Leicester won the title. Of course hes been backed much more than Wenger ever was and I'm certainly not trying to belittle him.
But yeah, he has to give the same priority now to improving the attack as he has the defence and midfield so far.
We have stagnated this year. No doubt about it. What's stagnated the most is our attack obviously. There are some excuses....a ton of injuries for starters....dodgy refereeing (half of the red cards, somehow we are in the relegation zone in terms of penalties with 2...Pool has 9!)... but Arteta himself has the team playing without too much drive to make things happen a lot of the time. I want to see the team more adventurous, we have the backline that can deal with most teams. Less reliance on wide players in general.
Most teams have to deal with injuries, why do Arsenal act as if they get more than others? Whilst you can use injuries as an excuse, Arsenal have had 2 years injury free for their core players. Even this season, its Saka really that is missing, Odegard at the start too. You still have the keeper, back line, CM's all fit for majority of the season.
Regarding decisions, again this evens out over the season, its not like Arsenal have been hard done by more than others.
Meh, this season has been rough on refereeing decisions. I don't think it evened out. Usually when you are at the top of the table, you get some favorable refereeing. We have had some weird first time ever calls, that have not been carried over with any consistency. This only accounts for a small amount of points. We would have lost the title even with the favorable calls Pool has received.
With the injuries, the problem is both in depth and which position has been hit by injuries. We are sitting 3rd in the injury table but what hurts is that it is ravaging our attack. On top of it Odegaard has been pretty poor since coming back from injury, to the point that I am not sure if he is maybe not carrying another issue. Liverpool on the other hand has been able to keep its stars away from the treatment table. This all helps. We have had good luck in recent years...bad luck this year. Liverpool had bad luck with it last year.
I don't even look at players like Tomiyasu and Jesus. (And unfortunately probably Calafiori when I talk about injuries...I assume they will get injured. It's the relatively sturdy ones like Havertz, Saka and Odegaard that are more disturbing to continuity.
But the biggest issue is that we have become really stale and predictable in attack. Arteta has some soul searching to do...this is a bit of a fork in the road for him early on in his managerial career. He can choose the Mourinho way, or revert back to the attacking success he had in his first two years. We have been in large a real boring team to watch this season.
I think most Arsenal supporters will state that there is a problem in attack. I don't know if Arteta will ever get over that last hurdle. I would say he should give it another year and see if he can push his team over the line. After that maybe a change of scenery might be good for both. No guarantees at all we would find anyone capable of making it though. Lots of mediocrity out there as Man Utd fans should be painfully aware of.
I agree with majority of the things you are saying apart from the last 2 paragraphs.
You need luck yo win a PL title, Liverpool have had it in abundance, people will say its me being salty but they have not had any injuries and they get alot of decisions go their way. To add to that, they also got lucky fixture wise, in that they got to play teams that were not in form most of the time. For example, playing Arsenal early, City, Spurs, United, Chelsea all when they were struggling themselves.
Whilst United fans including me love to banter Arteta, if you actually take bias out the way, I dont think Arsenal should replace Arteta, he is a top coach imo. Just have a look at when you play, 90% of the times, Arsenal dominate football matches, barely concede chances. The grass is not greener and I love it when I see so many Arsenal fans change to Arteta out, because like you say, its not easy replacing him.
They play the best football imo, they are so dangerous. Funnily enough, I think you get closer to the title if you have a Bruno Fernandes in the team, someone who can get those goals and assists.
These three teams have struggled all season.
And weren't Chelsea flying earlier in the season when Liverpool played them? They even got talked up as title contenders for a bit.Think you basically answer your own point there mate.
Although we've had injuries in defence (White missing a few months, Tomiyasu missing the whole season, Calafiori missing chunks), we've by in large been able to rely on a core of Raya, Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Rice and Partey.
That part of team has been able to perform, And because of this, we've had the best defence in the league.
However, our attack has suffered, and that's where we've suffered more injuries. However, even outwith that, many don't think the attack is good enough anyway, even without the injuries, hence why everyone wants it addressing in the summer.
Arteta is definitely a good manager. Remains to be seen if he is a great one. Think people forget how new he is to this. Hoping he can make that next jump, but I feel there is some uncertainty masked in his behavior. I believe he overthinks it sometimes.
Glad we went with him in the end, but there might be a point soon we have to part ways. Tough to say where he would go....because he will have to change his team's current style of play to go to a Barca or Real. Hence maybe why the weak City links.
Glad we went with him in the end, but there might be a point soon we have to part ways. Tough to say where he would go....because he will have to change his team's current style of play to go to a Barca or Real. Hence maybe why the weak City links.
These three teams have struggled all season.
You think Arsenal who are 2nd have struggled all seaon
We have different struggled description then.There are three teams whose names have been made bold in my reply and I say "these three teams have struggled all season".You think Arsenal who are 2nd have struggled all seaon
RIP reading comprehension, I guess?