Mikel Arteta: Aston La Vista To The Title?

[HairSprayGooners]

Big words on Martinelli but I was told by people on her Mikel doesn't rate him

 

[HairSprayGooners]

Yeah, basically morphed into Pep after 12 months. Cheque book manager.

He realised after 12 months how **** most of this squad is and knows we need to make a few signings, not quite Pep esque.

 

[field442]

He realised after 12 months how **** most of this squad is and knows we need to make a few signings, not quite Pep esque.

5-6 signings on a team that has within the last 18 months signed two £30m CBs, one £25m LB, one £45m CM, one £72m RW and renewed their best academy talent in the last 10 years and their top scorer to a £350k a week contract. Add to that the fact he persuaded both Bellerin and AMN not to leave and I’m struggling to see where he thinks he needs 5-6 players. I count two CMs and that’s it.

 

[Riou]

Can see it now to be honest...

Mikel Arteta says Gabriel Martinelli will bring: “Belief, charisma, energy and goals… He goes 100mph, he’s a threat, he’s a player we’ve been missing.”

...Martinelli league starts by the time this season is over: zero

 

[El Duderino]

Another morning, another attempt at excusing Artetas short commings with remarks on Wenger, this time with it being attitude as the issue

It's not like Luiz, Xhaka, Bellerin, Holding, Luiz and Lacazette were not convinced to stay by Mikel....

 

[El Duderino]

Can see it now to be honest...

Mikel Arteta says Gabriel Martinelli will bring: “Belief, charisma, energy and goals… He goes 100mph, he’s a threat, he’s a player we’ve been missing.”

...Martinelli league starts by the time this season is over: zero

Mikel: Martinelli go BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Gabi: But I need to play to do that....

Mikel: shhhhh, no tears, only dreams. Here's some hair gel.

 

[Garrincha]

would love to know what other managers think seeing the press blow him while sitting 15th

 

[HairSprayGooners]

5-6 signings on a team that has within the last 18 months signed two £30m CBs, one £25m LB, one £45m CM, one £72m RW and renewed their best academy talent in the last 10 years and their top scorer to a £350k a week contract. Add to that the fact he persuaded both Bellerin and AMN not to leave and I’m struggling to see where he thinks he needs 5-6 players. I count two CMs and that’s it.

That's like saying why should Arteta spend anything because he has £52M Lacazette, £35M Mustafi and £38M Xhaka. Players signed in previous regimes who have ultimately become poor signings doesn't mean Arteta is a chequebook manager for wanting to replace them. That's a bit silly actually.

Also we were open to offers for Bellerin for a reason, PSG would've signed him if they stumped up the cash. He wasn't persuaded not to leave at all.

Arteta wants Aouar who would cost £45M, he wants a RCB which will probably be another £25-40M, a right back which would be £15-30M, another CM which would be £30-50M and then more than likely an elite attacker at some point which you'd be looking at spending anything from £40-80M on.

So you're telling me that Arteta is a chequebook manager because within the next 2 summers he wants to spend £250-300M to have his own starting 11? Lol.

That must mean Frank Lampard and Ole are the biggest cheque book managers in football history.

 

[El Duderino]

Mikel Arteta: Why Arsenal have 'no doubts' despite worst start in decades

Last updated on44 minutes ago44 minutes ago.From the sectionArsenal

When Arsenal appointed Mikel Arteta as head coach a year ago on Sunday, they were 10th in the Premier League and seven points adrift of the Champions League places.

That, it was felt, was just not good enough.

So for the Gunners now to be 15th in the table, 10 points off fourth and significantly closer to the bottom three than the European places has inevitably raised questions.

The absence of supporters at Emirates Stadium means taking the temperature of the fan base can be tricky. Social media is rarely a place to find measured, nuanced debate, so perhaps it is not surprising #ArtetaOut trends when the team is losing. Nothing new there, but those who want change one year after the Arsenal manager's arrival should know it will make no difference.

The vote of confidence issued to Arteta by Arsenal technical director Edu seems to me more than empty rhetoric. It bodes well for the manager that the message is very clearly that he will be given time. The reality is he is certainly going to need it.

How bad is the current situation?

Arsenal slipped to a fourth straight home defeat with a 1-0 loss to Burnley at Emirates Stadium at the weekend before drawing with Southampton on Wednesday
The optimists would tell you things aren't anything like as bad as they might seem and that Arteta's Arsenal have already won a trophy (last season's FA Cup) and, despite everything, are within a few victories of the European places.

The other way of looking at it, of course, is that they are sixth from bottom, have won once in nine games and are enduring their worst start to a season in 39 years.

But context is important. He arrived in mid-December, a notoriously bad time to join any club. Then the pandemic hit. So to be reflecting 12 months on with the FA Cup in the trophy cabinet is far from a disastrous place to be. The unusual nature of this season also means coming to definitive conclusions is difficult.

Perhaps the FA Cup win raised expectations too high. It was a victory by a side that need root and branch changes if they are ever to return to their former glories, not just on the pitch.

Arsenal know it and so does Arteta.

Why is Arteta struggling to resolve the problems?
It isn't rocket science. In its simplest sense Arteta is struggling because he hasn't got good enough players and I think he would also admit that changes around him that are required to win consistently do not come quickly.

Perhaps most worryingly, there is a lack of character and hierarchy within the team and that is very difficult to buy or replace. How do you make leaders in a matter of months? The persistence on Granit Xhaka, both by Arteta and his predecessor Unai Emery, is because he is one of the top personalities in the group.

And of course there is the persistent question of what to do with Mesut Özil.

The notion that the uncomfortable situation that exists between Arteta and the German is in some way linked to the Spaniard's intransigence is way off the mark.

Bearing in mind the colossal financial burden of having a player like Özil twiddling his thumbs at the club, the idea that Özil would not have been given his chance to show Arteta that he has a vital part to play in the Arsenal renaissance is frankly preposterous.

My feeling is Arteta will have given him ample opportunity to prove himself, not just for financial reasons but primarily because everyone, including Arteta, knows what a fantastic asset he could be. To suggest he is being deliberately sidelined because of some imaginary political stand is, in my opinion, judging not knowing the full story.

I sense Edu cannot speak as freely as he might wish to because of the contract situation the player has, and I imagine there are probably things that are best left unsaid.

The Özil issue is reflective of the wider problem - Arteta simply does not have enough consistent seven-out-of-10 performers who can provide the vital base that is needed to bring stability to the side. Not yet anyway.

To do that he will need to re-instil the winning mentality that was prevalent in so many of the great Arsenal sides of yesteryear, not just on the pitch but throughout the whole structure of the club. Arteta wants to create a culture where everyone is challenged, everywhere, as that is still missing.

It is also not lost on him, nor the club, that while he is a talented and very promising coach, he still has a lot to learn. When, at his arrival, he told Arsenal employees that his door is always open to anyone, he was not only offering his support but also asking to grow together.

Passionate, obsessed and perhaps too concerned with trying to cover too many bases - I can't imagine whom he learned that from - the message, according to sources close to players, sometimes becomes overloaded.

It would not be the first time a rookie coach has tried to explain everything at once and players have found it difficult to assimilate it all. It is an aspect of his coaching approach that he knows he has to work on. And he will because, over and above everything, Arteta has a very clear idea of what he wants to do with the team and is aware he has to learn ways to mould it to his image.

His magic appears in the regular one-on-one conversations he has with all the first-team players, who have never been briefed so often by a manager. The youth players who have made their debuts in the first team have been impressed by the emphasis on detail in training (Arteta takes the most important parts of it, while his coaching staff, who are also adapting to working at a top Premier League club, add their part) and have loved the empowering that comes from hearing the manager say, just before coming on for the first time, "you know what to do, I trust you".

There have been flashes of brilliance on the pitch that indicate things are going in the right direction as well as moments of doubt and mediocrity. But one thing is very clear: the squad believe in what is being proposed and now, if Arteta decided to dramatically change his tactics, his players would not let him do it.

Arteta secured his first major trophy as a manager when Arsenal beat Chelsea in the FA Cup final in August
The club, perhaps thinking of magical quick fixes, have considered the presence of a senior figure as a calming, guiding influence and Arsène Wenger's name has cropped up. But that idea comes with a warning. Sir Alex Ferguson, and before him Bill Shankly, also tried to get close to decision-makers after their retirement and neither ended particularly well.

Tactically, some consider Arteta a bit too cautious, and he certainly has had to forget for now some of his principles to use what is at his disposal. This Arsenal side are improving in their ability to move the ball from box to box, plus they are one of the top teams in Europe when it comes to recovering the ball in the opposition half, but they are clearly not showing enough creativity in the middle of the pitch, and that same lack of quality and confidence explains their difficulties in the final third.

In a nutshell, Arteta needs to improve what he has while working with Edu to find ways to buy in the quality he needs.

Will Arteta get time and what will he do next?
There are some positives for the future. Players like Gabriel Magalhaes, Thomas Partey, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Gabriel Martinelli and Xhaka are vital in the short term but the squad he has is unbalanced. While the free signing of Willian could have gone better, there are enough quality players in the squad to challenge for European places.

But there is much more to be done.

Arteta has not been helped by the unfortunate injury to Partey, who does not have a replacement and whose job was not only to add quality and calm to the midfield, but also to lead and make the team more robust and competitive.

Off the pitch Arteta's relationship with Edu is very good - they speak every day. Arteta is your typical first to arrive, last to leave type of coach, completely immersed in the profession.

Their conversations will have included the conclusion that the squad is not good enough but also too big, and I fully expect a number of players to go out on loan this winter so they can gain experience and polish their skills - players like Reiss Nelson and Emile Smith Rowe, the kind who will almost certainly go on to become Arsenal staples, but not yet.

Crunch time will then come in the summer when five players come to the end of their contracts. That represents a big opportunity, now that the decision-makers are on the same wavelength, to make more strides in the direction they want to form a team that is proactive, dominant, offensive, dynamic, fast and physical.

There is not a single doubt anywhere in the club that Arteta can become a top coach and manager, but he will need to be helped by those around him. Edu will constantly monitor that the relationship between his manager, coaching staff and squad is working well and so far he has seen nothing to suggest everyone is not on board with the coach and his long-term plans.

And "long term" is the key. If Arteta is to succeed at the Emirates then the Arsenal fans must accept it is

I hate ball bag.

 

[El Duderino]

would love to know what other managers think seeing the press blow him while sitting 15th

If Emery could read English he'd be livid right now.

 

[Macho]

would love to know what other managers think seeing the press blow him while sitting 15th

It's one of the weirdest things I've seen in football.

You could argue the FA Cup has brought him good will, but Arsène used to win them for fun after we crashed out of everything else and had nothing else left. It did not save him

 

[Garrincha]

A year of Arteta survey results: Team of dilemmas, with Özil splitting fans

https://theathletic.co.uk/2268120/2020/12/18/arsenal-year-of-arteta-poll-arsenal-Özil/

Amy Lawrence from The Athletic held a survey with subscribers regarding Arteta's year in charge.

Was unsure if this probably should have got it's own thread. I'm sure you'll all enjoy anyways.

Spoiler: Arsenal survey: A year of Arteta

It is coming up for a year since Mikel Arteta returned to Arsenal to lead a club yearning for a revival. As debut years in football coaching go, it has been something of a crash course in the extreme demands of the sharp end. Like all these things, timing can be a huge factor in our perceptions and it so happens that Arteta’s anniversary, something that just a few weeks ago looked like it could easily have been a happy one, now feels considerably more fraught.

Here at The Athletic, we were keen to find out your views, how you felt about this fledgling era and the series of dilemmas and decisions this young manager has faced.

Having come into a club which was not functioning well on or off the pitch, he has had to make high-pressure calls with risky ramifications. The upshot of that was epitomised by a beautiful day out at Wembley last August and an FA Cup final victory to savour as a tangible reward for progress — it symbolised the best of how Arteta had reignited a sense of collective motivation and a more positive culture. The downside, though, is that those sentiments and results have taken a nosedive this season. Now pressure and problems are carried like deadweights.

Since he walked back into a familiar dressing room last December to introduce himself as the instigator of non-negotiables, Arteta can barely have had a day when he wasn’t mulling over a serious decision. From trying to inspire players to having to cut them out of his squad, from managing egos to being roped in by the club hierarchy to resolve a pay-cut dispute, from winning silverware at the expense of top opponents to a seemingly interminable losing streak, from public statements of intent to private conversations about the direction of the club, Arteta has been at the heart of everything during a tumultuous first year in management.

You voted on his choices in your thousands — which was pretty generous considering these are not fun times around the Emirates, so thank you for that.

Here are the results, with a few extra thoughts from readers’ comments and our Arsenal correspondents, to try to make a semblance of sense of it all…

Rewinding to December 20, 2019, the day he took charge, it is notable that optimism about Arteta’s suitability for the job was sky-high. Only 3.3 per cent declared themselves not encouraged by the appointment of the former Arsenal captain and Pep Guardiola’s 37-year-old Manchester City assistant. The undecideds were not too numerous either, so it’s a very heavy lean towards enthusiasm for him taking over. Even though he had been a strong contender on the shortlist to follow in Arsène Wenger’s footsteps 18 months previously, the interim period of Unai Emery, who seldom felt like quite the right fit for the club and had communication issues, paved a clearer path. At the second time of asking, Arteta would still arrive with no experience of the ultimate responsibility, but Arsenal were convinced they were accessing a special talent. The impression he made in those first few weeks, both as a figurehead and a reorganiser of a damaged squad, vindicated that.

One of those quoted on the official club announcement was head of football Raul Sanllehi, who described Arteta as “the perfect person” for the task. Sanllehi has since been removed, one of the highest-profile changes in the staff around Arteta as the club tried to streamline their operation. Arteta’s first year must be assessed within the context of an environment which has been extremely challenging — the new world of behind-closed-doors coronavirus football, changes in senior personnel, his own job title switching to manager with all the associated extra responsibility that brings, restricted finances and club-staff redundancies. He has had a hell of a lot to juggle. Perhaps some of it should be taken on by someone outside the coaching sphere.

The Athletic verdict: Arteta was a breath of fresh air when he was appointed, remotivating just about everyone and inspiring a fresh sense of unity and belief. There was almost a queue to jump “on the boat” with him to start with. But those who have since gone overboard, or been directed towards the plank, show how the second phase of the job has been a much tougher test than the first.

Unsurprisingly given recent events, his approval rating has slipped. That is really not surprising especially given the timing of this survey, which was active for a few days around the Europa League group stage win away to Dundalk (yay!) and their excruciatingly self-inflicted defeat at home to Burnley (doomed…). A month’s worth of form that has fluctuated between the Thursday night Europa strolls and the Sunday night Premier League depressions has taken a toll which lingers. Faith in Arteta has been tested much more seriously in recent weeks, with repeating patterns, team selections and disappointments in the league swaying public opinion.

The number who no longer have faith in him for the longer term is 12.5 per cent — not too extreme — with almost a third of those polled believing he needs more time before such a crucial question can be properly assessed. Considering the average lifespan of a manager across England’s four divisions is roughly 18 months, time and patience are not easy commodities but the scale of the job Arteta inherited is a factor here. The mess in need of a clean-up could not be done superficially. It’s deep stuff.

Some of our readers are feeling pushed quite close to a point of no return. As Justin P says: “My confidence in him is at a low ebb. He’s made some really daft decisions.” But on the other hand, there are still plenty of supportive voices. Chris L has some concerns but nothing major: “I still back him fully. Sure, it has wavered after these recent results, but I still think he has the charisma and leadership required.” James B puts most of the difficulties down to inexperience: “Arteta has made some mistakes. He is a rookie manager. We have to give him support.” That support from within the club is a moot point. As Adrian M suggests: “This isn’t entirely Arteta’s fault. We’ve developed an unbalanced squad with an unclear recruitment path.” January, never an optimal time for player trading, feels critical for Arteta. He needs support from the club to be tangible rather than just verbal.

The Athletic verdict: Both Vinai Venkatesham and Edu have publicly backed their man over the past few days. It’s sincere backing, too. The next few months will tell us if Arteta is the right man for the long term. A recovery in terms of league position and performances will buy back a lot of goodwill. If not, the pressure on him and the hierarchy will mount quickly.

Right, on to the players. During his year Arteta has had a whole team’s worth of dilemmas to try to resolve.

We’ll start at the back…

Two-thirds of respondents to our survey feel Arteta did the right thing here. It was a really complex choice, particularly as Arsenal were trying to raise money to invest in the squad and were so frustrated by their inability to offload other players. Martinez became an Arsenal darling with his fairytale rise to prominence post-lockdown last season when Leno was injured. The perennial understudy, so often loaned out, seldom seen as an answer, was thrust to centre stage and seized the moment heroically. Martinez cried when he helped win the FA Cup. He is an emotional player but in practical terms he demonstrated qualities that were not Leno’s strengths — big personality, super confidence playing the ball around — but the German’s greater experience was considered favourable.

The Athletic verdict: Easy to feel swayed each way by this one but the ratio of the poll results looks about right.

Hector Bellerin is, in some ways, a surprisingly divisive figure. The Catalan Cockney, as he was referred to when he first broke through having joined in his teens from Barcelona and thrown himself into London life, has certain core values to be admired. He never hides, he is a proud representative of himself and the club, his attitude and professionalism are beyond question.

On the pitch though some question marks prevail.

He did lose some of his natural pace when he returned from a long-term knee ligament injury and has not quite refined the defensive instincts for the role, as his positioning does sometimes get exposed. In the longer term, Arteta might want a different profile player in that role — and Cedric Soares seems very much the current understudy, which is another story — but perhaps last summer was not the time to make a sale without reinvesting in a replacement. Ainsley Maitland-Niles can, of course, fill in there but it is not his preferred long-term role.

It was close but our readers leaned towards keeping him and Tom G outlines how he sees the good in Bellerin outweighing the bad: “He may not be everyone’s choice for right-back, but I think he is a good person to have at the club. Squads need that sort of personality in there.”

The Athletic verdict: With the club trying to rebuild, keeping some broadly reliable players with very reliable characters made sense.

At the time, this felt like a mad situation. The fact David Luiz’s deal was for one season with an option was in itself enough to raise eyebrows. Then option time came at a point when he gave what could only be described as a distasterclass in the first match back after lockdown, capped by a late sending-off, which shone a whole new light on the madness. It certainly added pressure to the situation.

Luiz brings big personality though and many have hailed his influence in the dressing room, plus he is a centre-back who can progress the ball forward with his long passes, but the totting up of red cards and penalties conceded was a serious problem. Ordinarily, the option would have coincided with the end of last season but because of the months without football during the initial outbreak of coronavirus, an extension needed approval (or not) with multiple games remaining and an ongoing injury crisis at centre-back. Over half of The Athletic readers polled would have kept him on, but this was a close one.

The Athletic verdict: Arsenal need to step away from short-term signings of veteran players with no resale value. But under the difficult scenario they faced, with games to play and injuries at his position, an extension under the circumstances was understandable.

This situation baffles. Arsenal put serious investment into a teenager who had made strides in Ligue 1, a player earmarked to hopefully lead their defence of the future, and yet Arteta has made a strong judgement call without actually seeing William Saliba play a minute of competitive football for the club.

Saliba’s adaptation has been particularly trying, with family difficulties on top of this forced stasis of his professional development. Arsenal had advocated sending him on another loan, as they felt injury last season while he was back at St Etienne denied him some progression time, but they failed to organise one before the deadline.

There is some sympathy among the voters here. But overall less than two per cent of readers who responded to this survey agreed with the action taken by Arteta. One of them, Kareem H, offers a very reasonable counter-argument to the player being omitted from both official squads: “Saliba being left out completely is a decision that I don’t understand. He had trouble on and off the pitch but is there a better place to start your career in a foreign country than a Europa League group stage game that doesn’t even have a crowd?”

The Athletic verdict: This is a situation where Arsenal and Arteta have not covered themselves in glory. It feels like there has been not enough time devoted to looking after Saliba’s development properly. Given the ease of their Europa League group draw, surely he would have benefitted to at least have that option. More experienced players were not required in the squad at this stage. The inability to sort out a loan didn’t help, but this was a bad call.

There was money on the table for Ainsley Maitland-Niles during the last window and with Arsenal struggling to arrange sales elsewhere, the temptation to cash in on him was a genuine consideration. But the sheer quality of his elevated performances in the biggest games prompted second thoughts. He excelled in the big FA Cup games at Wembley, with an energy and tactical awareness that eventually propelled him into the England squad.

It is an oddity that he has slipped back down the pecking order this season. It feels confusing, especially while the team has been struggling and sluggish. His versatility is a huge asset but he perhaps merits a more regular berth in a solid position. Blending his qualities with Thomas Partey’s when fit, for example, would surely present Arsenal with far more drive in midfield. Maitland-Niles played 90 minutes in two of Arsenal first three league games this season but then didn’t get another start until the 1-1 draw with Southampton this week. Reader Reuben S airs some frustration at this use of resources: “If he isn’t going to get minutes (or at least consistently make the Premier League bench) he should have been sold to fund an upgrade in midfield.”

The Athletic verdict: Arsenal are not good enough right now to not make better use of a player with Maitland-Niles’s qualities. Not only should they not have sanctioned a sale, they should find a way to have him in their team more prominently.

After his recent, petulant red card against Burnley, Granit Xhaka is back in lightning-rod territory. His poor performances during this generally dismal Arsenal spell highlight how the tone of a team can often be set by their midfield. The combination of Xhaka and Dani Ceballos was one of Arteta’s successes last season. He rehabilitated both players, individually and collectively, and they formed a partnership that was central to the FA Cup win. Credit all round. But now the stock of both players has fallen again.

Reader Collins P sums up the sentiment of weariness about the tempo they set in midfield: “Sigh. I just don’t see it. I don’t think I really saw it in the season restart either. Respect to Xhaka for his comeback after the Crystal Palace incident, but even before then, I just wasn’t sure he was a great fit.” All in all, just eight per cent of those surveyed back this midfield pairing.

The Athletic verdict: While it was a pleasure to see how both players rose to the FA Cup occasions, the overall picture is not great in the Premier League where, invariably, this combination gets outplayed and outpaced.

This midfield question dovetails with the previous one. They are part of the same issue. Like anything, if results are good then the players who are not in the equation become more easily forgotten, but with Matteo Guendouzi earning rave reviews with Hertha Berlin in the Bundesliga and Torreira playing for top of La Liga Atletico Madrid, maybe both are better off without Arsenal rather than the other way round this season.

The mix of responses here shows it was a tricky one with no clear and obvious solution. Over to reader Tim J for a passionate defence of the loaned players: “I don’t care about the dramas, without these players our central midfield options are bottom-half Premier League, at best. How you can ostracise some promising youngsters with hunger, temperament and clear technical ability is beyond me and he (Arteta) absolutely should not escape any criticism around these decisions.” The Guendouzi decision was particularly based on personality and discipline but rather than work with it, Arteta chose he would prefer to be without it. Maybe there are some lessons there in how he approaches man-management, with different ideas and nuances required sometimes for different people.

The Athletic verdict: A bloated squad needed trimming, which was very problematic and it looked like something might give in midfield. But it is hard not to imagine one or other of these players being of use to Arsenal this season. Guendouzi’s determination and free spirit could have been integrated better.

It’s fair to say Arteta inherited quite a few complexities within the squad and a £72 million record signing who has struggled for consistency is fairly high up on the list. Perhaps Nicolas Pepe’s best performance under Arteta was in the FA Cup final, where there was so much more focus to his efforts. Arteta was keen to instil greater work rate and defensive awareness when he first arrived and it took a while but the penny seemed to be dropping with Pepe. The recent sending off against Leeds borne of frustration was a bitter pill at a bad moment. Pepe is one of the few who does bring unpredictability to an attack desperately short of invention currently. The majority on the survey’s voters fancy Arteta to back him or at least give him more time.

The Athletic verdict: Adaptation time was needed for Pepe, but this second season was supposed to be the one where he could explode. He looks like the kind of player who needs the team to play well around him to flourish rather than taking too much responsibility to do it all himself.

Ooof. Of all the key decisions Arteta has made, this is the one which caused the biggest ripples.

Again, if Arsenal were winning matches, the Mesut Özil affair would be less overt, less destabilising, but the fact his precise playing qualities are the team’s most glaring omission cuts deep. As reader Alan M points out: “Arteta has made mistakes that have contributed to this high-pressure situation. The Özil question looms over every ball kicked in midfield. To state that he is not there for ‘football reasons’ has heaped massive pressure on.”

The poll result numbers are spookily close to the Brexit vote’s, and almost just as divisive. People really take sides on the Özil conundrum. It’s obvious Arsenal wanted to sell and when they couldn’t, his omission from the squad was inevitably contentious and was always likely to be destructive. Özil was one of the high-profile players to warmly approve the return of Arteta a year ago, tweeting, “Welcome back to the Arsenal family #YaGunnersYa”. This situation has curdled, to nobody’s benefit.

The Athletic verdict: This is going to cost them but Arsenal should do what they perhaps could have done during the last transfer window. If they were that sure they didn’t want him involved, arrange a suitable deal to buy him out the remainder of his contract and bring in the best quality replacement they can find.

Our survey said… (insert angsty noise here)… less than five per cent are in favour of this transfer.

Willian has been played often but without much end-product or a sense of where exactly he fits into whatever Arsenal are trying to do. The optics are not helped by the concepts that recruiting players in their late 20s and, in his case, early 30s demands readiness to get down to work but also comes with worries about hunger and energy levels over time. Reader Jonathan S makes a pertinent point: “The general thinking is that, ‘If you’re good enough, you’re old enough’. However, Arteta’s Arsenal seem to operate with an, ‘If you’re old enough, you’re good enough’ model. Worrisome to say the least.”

There was perceived value here, with an experienced Premier League player who arrived out of contract. But don’t be kidded by the free transfer idea. It isn’t free — a player’s meaty salary plus agent’s fees add up, and there is an economic and stylistic question over whether that can be better directed towards younger talent. Those questions are only answered with top performances.

The Athletic verdict: Simply, Arsenal should stop signing old players from Chelsea.

There is a good spread of answers here, which perhaps reflects a few broader issues.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has scored freely from the left-hand side but the temptation to play him centrally comes from the trouble Arsenal have in getting regular goals from the centre-forward position — well, regular goals period at the moment. It has been an unusually tough dry spell for the captain and while there was some relief when he scored against Southampton, he still looks generally burdened by the team’s struggles and creative dead zone. He carried the team exceptionally when Arteta first arrived, but the manager has to find a way for that load to be shared out.

The Athletic verdict: As he gets older, a more central role seems to make sense as the massive workload he carried tracking back and then haring up the pitch from the left last season was extraordinary. But frankly, anywhere in any combination that gets him back among the goals works.

I'd have like to have seen the results if AM took that survey.

the cult dropped audio now as well

https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aH...YCahcKEwjowfm7tdftAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQHQ&hl=en-GB

 

[Wrighty4eva]

Big words on Martinelli but I was told by people on her Mikel doesn't rate him

That's all Mikel is full of these days, stated several months ago Saliba made "massive improvements", said the same thing a couple of months later and he still hasn't made a match day squad, Nketiah and Willian are his guys.

I notice the clubs media uses a lot of shots of the players we want to see on the websites and soc media, and that's when Journos tend to ask questions about said players, he gives these responses all P.R.

 

[Macho]

the cult dropped audio now as well

https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aH...YCahcKEwjowfm7tdftAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQHQ&hl=en-GB

Listening to that now funny enough.

 

[HairSprayGooners]

That's all Mikel is full of these days, stated several months ago Saliba made "massive improvements", said the same thing a couple of months later and he still hasn't made a match day squad, Nketiah and Willian are his guys. I notice the clubs media uses a lot of shots of the players we want to see onnthe websites and soc media, and that's when Journos tend to aak questions, he gives these responses all P.R. .

Nobody knows what's really happening with Saliba, odd situation really.

 

[berric]

It's funny that Arteta needs his players to get us back to Europa and when Emery wanted Partey and Zaha to push to top 4 he was told to **** off and got Pepe and Ceballos.

Just shows how above management is what makes or breaks the club. Who gives a f about coaches.

 

[14Henry]

The thing is Arteta has adapted to the current set of players, we saw that back end of last season with the way we played. I think he even mentioned it in an interview that he has to play a certain way to suit the players.

The problem is teams have figured us out, and the players have lost all confidence. Arteta hasn't been able to come up with a new way of playing that is effective. I do feel for him in that regard.

How has he adapted when hes putting in 35 crosses a match to a striker who is horrible with his head (apart from own goals) and lacazette who's 5ft 8?

Hes forcing playing out from the back when the players cant execute it effectively and end up having to go long anyway.

That doesnt sound like adapting to your players strengths.

 

[Macho]

It's funny how it's as if Emery didn't inherit Özil headaches, aging squad/leadership, cultural problems, structural changes (that happened during his reign), limitations in the transfer market, etc etc etc.

Was judged very harshly in hindsight.

 

[berric]

In hinsight my boy Unai was right for a lot of things.

As I recall he wanted a dominating CB, Partey, Zaha, and Nkunku.

 

[krengon]

That's all Mikel is full of these days, stated several months ago Saliba made "massive improvements", said the same thing a couple of months later and he still hasn't made a match day squad, Nketiah and Willian are his guys.

This was spot on. If this really is a long term project there’s no justification for Mustafi getting minutes or making the bench over Saliba. Unless he thinks the gap between them is that big in which case we’ve been robbed.