Mikel Arteta: Aston La Vista To The Title?

[Aussie_gunner123]

We've got Burnley & Southampton next 2 games, are we capable of beating them the way we are this year, obviously at our top form we are but this year is completely different? That may just get our season back on track. If we don't then for me it's Arteta out, simple.

 

[HairSprayGooners]

Don't understand the logic when people say we should have given Emery more time yet want Arteta out now. Feels like retconning history to me. The fans were howling for him to go by by the end due to a combination of poor performances, lack of identity as much as bad results, not dissimilar to Arteta now.

If that's people's mindsets. You'd have to still be backing Arteta.
Emery had over 2 years in charge, Arteta less than 1. Arteta's at least won something in that time period too.

Arteta only had his foot in the door before being off for 3 months as well due to the pandemic. Its been a disjointed start, yet he still won a trophy.

We were playing 3 at the back and grinding out results, fans didn't like that. People made Arteta aware we were playing very defensively. So he changed it, now we are average defensively and the players going forward are still not good enough so we're meh going forward.

For the rest of the season in the bigger games it might be worth reverting back to the 343.

 

[Kobi]

The thing with Hassenhuttl, Klopp and Guardiola is they may have started slowly but you could see a blueprint, a clear philosophy even with the players they inherited, the first two just went a bit mad with the pressing and Guardiola just needed a billion quid to shore up the defence.
Apart from spamming crosses I don't see any sort of a future blueprint, unless we are bringing in Fellaini and Crouch in the summer.

I thought he was supposed to be a child of Guardiola but we don't press, yet we don't counter attack with any pace, nobody runs in behind.
The thing about pressure is it can cover up a lack of creativity, look at Liverpool before Thiago, workhorse midfield and fast forwards (albeit very good ones), only Firmino you would call creative.
Someone mentioned Arteta playing under Moyes and this has more the hallmark of his small time mentality at Man United as opposed to Guardiola and Klopp who struggled early on being over aggressive and getting picked off.
Don't we have Moyes' assistant (Steve Round?) here as well.

 

[Rex Stone]

 

[GoonerJay24]

Other teams are better. You can’t assess this year with last year’s data. With our talent, lower expectations. Hopefully we can bring in talent in January.

This team finished on 72 points in 2018/19 better than last season's top four. With these players, we should be challenging at the very top.

 

[Heskey]

I like Freddie, and as I have stated before agree with that part on Özil being a creator that I feel we sorely lack. Against Sp**s we sorely lacked someone in that middle of the pitch willing to soak up some pressure in the tight spaces, and looking for the penetrating through balls.
To completely leave him out of any of our squads - without any replacements - is what is a "yoke", Carra.

 

[HairSprayGooners]

This team finished on 72 points in 2018/19 better than last season's top four. With these players, we should be challenging at the very top.

This team didn't finish on 72 points? The team in 18/19 had Özil for 24 games, Iwobi for 35 games, Mikky for 25 games and Ramsey for 28 games. Four midfielders who managed 18 goals and 18 assists in the league between them. Özil and Ramsey in particular popped up with important goals at important stages of games.

Who did we replace them with? Pepe. So we replaced all of those contributions which is incredibly important as those contributions got us a lot of those points, with one player.

The expectation was probably that streamlining everyone into Pepe would pay off and Pepe would hit the ground running. But it hasn't happened. And even more importantly we never replaced Ramsey or Özil's numbers in midfield, name one of our midfielders who will offer 10 goals and assists in the league combined in a season...?

 

[Heskey]

I also find that Carra is talking a bit out his arse, as well on the transfers no? He's absolving Arteta for any responsibility over any of our signings, but gives him full credit for Gabriel and Partey. Isn't that a bit convenient?
I have to admit I didn't follow our transfers in great enough detail, but I can't imagine they went out to get the other players in (Willian, Cedric, Mari) and extended Luiz without Arteta giving green light.

 

[HairSprayGooners]

I also find that Carra is talking a bit out his arse, as well on the transfers no? He's absolving Arteta for any responsibility over any of our signings, but gives him full credit for Gabriel and Partey. Isn't that a bit convenient?
I have to admit I didn't follow our transfers in great enough detail, but I can't imagine they went out to get the other players in (Willian, Cedric, Mari) and extended Luiz without Arteta giving green light.

Willian, Cedric and Mari cost £4M in fees between them. Mari and Cedric are excellent squad additions, we need squad depth as well as instant first team starters. Willian seems meh right now but he'll be useful in the squad over the next two years.

Extending Luiz for a year was also a good decision. These aren't things the club should be lambasted for. If anything Willian right now looks a bad signing on a free, but at the end of the day it was for free.

 

[Makingtrax]

If Arteta’s here in January, his first job is to bring Özil into the squad. I hear he’s free.

 

[Garrincha]

If Arteta’s here in January, his first job is to bring Özil into the squad. I hear he’s free.

more chance we bring in the English Dennis Suarez

 

[Rex Stone]

Willian, Cedric and Mari cost £4M in fees between them. Mari and Cedric are excellent squad additions, we need squad depth as well as instant first team starters. Willian seems meh right now but he'll be useful in the squad over the next two years.

Extending Luiz for a year was also a good decision. These aren't things the club should be lambasted for. If anything Willian right now looks a bad signing on a free, but at the end of the day it was for free.

Disagree completely, you’re talking about a 29 year old full back who wasn’t a starter for Southampton when he left.

He’s literally just filling a squad place, will never be good enough to start for us and we’re stuck with him for another three years.

For the same money we spent we could’ve signed Jayden Bogle who even if he’s sh*t you can sell for double what you paid at worst.

We keep moaning about why Liverpool are so far ahead of us and it’s deals like that in a microcosm which explains it. Can you imagine going to Klopp asking him to be happy with Cedric?

He’d laugh at you.

 

[Makingtrax]

Apologies if this has already been shared. Just look at this **** man, I can’t get my head round what we were thinking in this game.

Sums it up perfectly. Bellerin’s positioning was terrible, far too high with Son lurking.

 

[APierre]

Mari and Cedric are excellent squad additions

 

[GoonerJay24]

This team didn't finish on 72 points? The team in 18/19 had Özil for 24 games, Iwobi for 35 games, Mikky for 25 games and Ramsey for 28 games. Four midfielders who managed 18 goals and 18 assists in the league between them. Özil and Ramsey in particular popped up with important goals at important stages of games.

Who did we replace them with? Pepe. So we replaced all of those contributions which is incredibly important as those contributions got us a lot of those points, with one player.

The expectation was probably that streamlining everyone into Pepe would pay off and Pepe would hit the ground running. But it hasn't happened. And even more importantly we never replaced Ramsey or Özil's numbers in midfield, name one of our midfielders who will offer 10 goals and assists in the league combined in a season...?

Özil is still here so Ramsey's the only big loss. We've replaced Iwobi and Mhkhi with the likes of Nelson, Willock etc. Plus Martinelli, Pepe, Partey, Gabriel and Tierney have been bought. On balance I'd say this side is better than the one of 18/19.

It is up to the management to get the best out of their playing personnel. Forget all this philosophy and changing culture nonsense for now, the focus should be on finding the correct system that enables this team to win consistently. These aren't as bad players at all despite the current form.

 

[HairSprayGooners]

Disagree completely, you’re talking about a 29 year old full back who wasn’t a starter for Southampton when he left.

He’s literally just filling a squad place, will never be good enough to start for us and we’re stuck with him for another three years.

For the same money we spent we could’ve signed Jayden Bogle who even if he’s sh*t you can sell for double what you paid at worst.

We keep moaning about why Liverpool are so far ahead of us and it’s deals like that in a microcosm which explains it. Can you imagine going to Klopp asking him to be happy with Cedric?

He’d laugh at you.

We're talking about a full back who's place in the squad is to be backup to the main right back.

In his early years Klopp signed Matip on a free because he was unable to sign someone like Virgil for 80M or so, Matip is excellent backup for the main players Liverpool have.

So yes, Klopp would sign someone like Cedric as a backup to TAA, fantastic option as backup. Not doing anyone any harm at all, not sure why you think its so bad actually. Very odd, he isn't a bad player and is there to be a secondary option. You need squad options like that, we can't have two world class players in the full back areas, makes absolutely no sense.

You have to build a squad. Not just sign starters.

Leno, Runar
New RB, Cedric
New CB, Saliba
Gabriel, Mari
Tierney, new backup left back which will be similar to Cedric
Partey, Willock
New midfielder, Elneny
New AM, ESR...

You get my drift, we need to sign someone similar to Cedric at left back as well because Kola will be going soon and we're ****ed when that happens because Tierney can't play every game.

 

[HairSprayGooners]

Özil is still here so the only big loss is Ramsey. We've replaced Iwobi and Mhkhi with the likes of Nelson, Willock etc. Plus we've added Martinelli, Pepe, Partey, Gabriel and Tierney. On balance I'd say this side is better than the one of 18/19.

It is up to the management to get the best out of their playing personnel. Forget all this philosophy and changing culture nonsense for now, the focus should be on finding the correct system that enables this team to win consistently. These aren't as bad players at all despite the current form.

Özil is still here but he isn't in the squad so that's a bit of a silly comment. Iwobi and Mikky's numbers from midfield have not been replaced, its that simple.

Willock and Nelson in particular aren't creative replacements in central areas for the players you mentioned, nor do they get anywhere near the numbers that the players I mentioned got in 18/19.

Martinelli has been injured and has hardly played in the league for Arsenal, he also isn't a midfielder. Im talking midfielders here. I posted this in the transfer section -

"We need to start replacing the goals and assists we've lost over the past couple of years in midfield.

When you look back a little bit... (just talking central players here)

16/17 - Arteta, Wilshere, Rosicky all left. Replaced with Xhaka
17/18 - Mikky came in
18/19 - Cazorla left <3 Torreira was signed
19/20 - Iwobi and Mikky left, Ceballos was signed on loan
20/21 - Torreira gone and Özil has essentially left, Willian and Partey signed"

We are only just starting to sign players to replace the creativity we've lost in the past 5 windows. This is one of the reasons why we are having so many problems right now.

 

[MikelHadADream]

Mari and Cedric would have been decent signings if we had gotten rid of one of Bellerin/AMN and a few center backs. The fact that we now have 3 right backs and about 9 center backs makes them both disaster signings. I don't see why they club couldn't have waited until the summer to make those types of signings, neither contributed anything back end of last season anyway.

 

[Rex Stone]

We're talking about a full back who's place in the squad is to be backup to the main right back.

In his early years Klopp signed Matip on a free because he was unable to sign someone like Virgil for 80M or so, Matip is excellent backup for the main players Liverpool have.

So yes, Klopp would sign someone like Cedric as a backup to TAA, fantastic option as backup. Not doing anyone any harm at all, not sure why you think its so bad actually. Very odd, he isn't a bad player and is there to be a secondary option. You need squad options like that, we can't have two world class players in the full back areas, makes absolutely no sense.

Are you really comparing Matip to Cedric? Until Joe Gomez developed Matip was starting every week for Klopp if fit. There’s miles between them as players.

Well TAA has been injured this season and they’ve happily played a kid from the academy or Milner so that’s flat out wrong.

There’s no one who’s comparable in their transfer business to giving out freebies to Kia clients when really they shouldn’t be in the PL anymore.

Bogle isn’t a world class RB. He was a kid from the Championship who it’d actually be worth developing and playing in games who’d cost the same as Cedric.

 

[Heskey]

Willian, Cedric and Mari cost £4M in fees between them. Mari and Cedric are excellent squad additions, we need squad depth as well as instant first team starters. Willian seems meh right now but he'll be useful in the squad over the next two years.

Extending Luiz for a year was also a good decision. These aren't things the club should be lambasted for. If anything Willian right now looks a bad signing on a free, but at the end of the day it was for free.

I'm not the one saying the transfers were ****, in case you understood it such. Just for clarity. Carra was, in the interview, saying it was 'yoke' transfers that Kia had signed. All apart from Gabriel and Partey, who he gave full credit to Arteta for.

I do, however, have my reservations about those signings as well.

Cedric on a free? Sure, not the world's end. But it certain isn't what I would call an excellent squad addition either.
Chambers got long term injured, AMN is never really given a shot anywhere except for LB, and we don't have any RBs ready in the academy - I think? So an RB was fine, but why not go for someone young and exciting instead then? Someone who could push Bellerin, instead of never being a threat?

Mari, again, sure. Prices seem to wary a bit and could be up to 7m too. Seems a bit much imo. when we have so many CBs we can't even find space on the bench for our 19 year old starlet that we paid £27m for an who was being touted as the next big thing. Of course, Mari is left footed which is valued greatly, but I don't think we have seen enough return to know if that was great business or unnecessary.

Willian on a big wage, 3-year deal, when he's 32. Oof. And then locking up Aubameyang, 31, to a big 3 year deal too? Oof. That's a lof of wages for 2 +30s players for a club that's in a transition.
Even on a free I had my concerns about it, but of course, had he lit up the world I would have been thinking "huh, proved me wrong there", instead of wondering why we spent our wage budget on him.

Doesn't matter that there's no fee on him. Sign-on fee, wage etc. is all being paid out just as much - something that people cry out about having so much deadweight wages in the team, yet with the limited funds we get Willian in, who - imo. - wasn't the profile we lacked the most. We already have quite a lot interesting wingers in the team that could have been given a chance this season.

Get in a playmaker for the team to soak up pressure, find open players and we'd look a lot better. To think, that Arsenal of - of all teams! - have 0(!) true playmakers in their registered squads.