Mikel Arteta: Aston La Vista To The Title?

[Makingtrax]

Do the fans bear some responsibility for the last years of Wenger's reign? I think it is a fair question.

Not sure that's a question at all. It's a fact. No manager or team of any sort can operate well under that duress.

 

[A_G]

Do the fans bear some responsibility for the last years of Wenger's reign?

These are the home league tables for the two seasons after the plane banners, boycotts and social media rants started:

 

[OnlyOne]

The current state of Arsenal football club.

1 point from 6 matches against Burnley, Wolves and Villa.

10th in the league with the likes of Villa, Everton, West Ham above us.

Huge prospect of 0 European football next season. Which puts us back further based on actually being able to entice the right type and quality of player to come to us. Also we won't have the funds to spend. All while the likes of United, City, Chelsea and the likes of Everton strengthen further. Making the gap even bigger.

Some fans are hugely content with us around 10th because "they have a feeling Mikel is a messiah" or because "there are signs there".

The league table doesn't lie. We are 10th for a reason. 10th. We finished 8th last season and all we needed was a small improvement. Nothing major just to keep us going in the right direction no matter how slow it was. However that hasn't materialised.

If Man City finished first and Arteta took over from Pep and after 18 months had the team around 4th would he still be in charge? No.

If he took over a team that finished 17th in the league the season before and the next season had them relegated would he still be in a job? No.

Yet here we are. Team finished 5th under Emery who couldn't speak English. Was 8th when we sacked him. Finished 8th with Mikel. And now after 18 months in charge some good signings and some superb performances from Saka and Tierney (Emery didn't get much out of him with injuried) we are 10th.

People are going to use the excuse he needs his own players. Anchelotti hasn't got all the players he wants. Ole hasn't got every player he wants. I'm sure David Moyes would like a few more players. And for the record Arteta has signed Soares, Mari, Gabriel, Ceballos, Willian, Ødegaard, Partey. Not like hasn't had any support.

To be sitting in March NEEDING to win the EL with the likes of United, Sp**s, AC Milan etc in it is a terrible position to be in.

 

[Makingtrax]

Interesting question, I think Wenger was 100% guilty of everything that happened then, and I was saying that the squad that he created at the time simply couldn't be fixed within 2-3 years.
Check what that squad was before investments made that summer, you will have a better understanding of why Wenger is the root of our current problems and most of the problems over the past 3 years.

Un f***ing believable! People will be blaming Arsène in two years even when there's not even the tiniest molecule of his DNA left in the pen drawer of his desk.

 

[Riou]

Our fans have no concept of faith or patience, guess the way Arsène was treated should have taught me that.


Suppose we have to ask why football fans are so entitled...why can't they let a new, rookie manager (who already won a cup) get some time to build his team... it's a shame really.

 

[say yes]

You're one mention of plane banners away from officially being the Makingtrax to Wenger's Arteta.

Nah don’t be doing me dirty like that

If Arteta is not up to scratch I’ll say it, I’ve got no personal attachment to the guy. But I’m not going to lose the plot because we drew a game through no fault of the manager (and which, if you play again, we win 9 times out of 10). It’s football, and **** results happen. People need to grow up.

 

[DUFFMAN]

Our fans have no concept of faith or patience, guess the way Arsène was treated should have taught me that.


Suppose we have to ask why football fans are so entitled...why can't they let a new, rookie manager (who already won a cup) get some time to build his team... it's a shame really.

Instant gratification generation.

Hilarious Ole is brought up as an example of someone who didn't get his players but is succeeding.

Every fan was calling for his head a year ago, now AM are using him as a metric to beat Arteta with.

Mind boggling.

 

[Macho]

why can't they let a new, rookie manager (who already won a cup) get some time to build his team... it's a shame really.

Some of us might be if he didn't keep openly calling the players crap at every opportunity. Has the manager himself had no bearing on the season at all?

In any case he's getting his time, he under no significant pressure to win any of these matches and he's getting a summer to do transfer dealing. He's undoubtedly getting another season to do this as well.

Not sure what more he needs?

 

[OnlyOne]

Nah don’t be doing me dirty like that

If Arteta is not up to scratch I’ll say it, I’ve got no personal attachment to the guy. But I’m not going to lose the plot because we drew a game through no fault of the manager (and which, if you play again, we win 9 times out of 10). It’s football, and **** results happen. People need to grow up.

No ones annoyed about a one off game though, come on.

 

[DUFFMAN]

Some of us might be if he didn't keep openly calling the players crap at every opportunity. Has the manager himself had no bearing on the season at all?

In any case he's getting his time, he under no significant pressure to win any of these matches and he's getting a summer to do transfer dealing. He's undoubtedly getting another season to do this as well.

Not sure what more he needs?

Saka the golden boy missed an easy opportunity today.

Is that genuinely Arteta's fault?

Noone should be above some sort of criticism.

 

[say yes]

No ones annoyed about a one off game though, come on.

Maybe, but anyone who thinks today’s game reflected badly on Mikel is a *****.

 

[A_G]

Nah don’t be doing me dirty like that

If Arteta is not up to scratch I’ll say it, I’ve got no personal attachment to the guy. But I’m not going to lose the plot because we drew a game through no fault of the manager (and which, if you play again, we win 9 times out of 10). It’s football, and **** results happen. People need to grow up.

I think Arteta has reached the same stage as Wenger and Emery did with some fans in that he'll get abuse no matter what the reasons are for losing. I remember people blaming Wenger for that famous 3-1 loss to United at the Emirates in his final season even though it was down to a combination of a De Gea masterclass and a Mustafi special.

Blame Arteta for that period of sticking with the back 3 for too long or not having a proper #10 but individual errors like Cedric at Villa and Xhaka today are out of his control.

 

[say yes]

Some of us might be if he didn't keep openly calling the players crap at every opportunity. Has the manager himself had no bearing on the season at all?

In any case he's getting his time, he under no significant pressure to win any of these matches and he's getting a summer to do transfer dealing. He's undoubtedly getting another season to do this as well.

Not sure what more he needs?

He hasn’t called the players crap at every opportunity though? You’ve been straw-manning him with that crap all day.

He said 10th isn’t good enough for the club and we need to improve in every area of the pitch. And you’d be slaughtering him just the same if he said any different.

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

Our fans have no concept of faith or patience, guess the way Arsène was treated should have taught me that.


Suppose we have to ask why football fans are so entitled...why can't they let a new, rookie manager (who already won a cup) get some time to build his team... it's a shame really.

Everything in football is about the here and now, there's nothing you can do about it. Ferguson would have been sacked 3 times over before he achieved any success at Man Utd if he were starting off today.

We all think we're football experts because we see a cherry picked stat on Twitter or our favourite pundit has some hot take. I'm past the point of caring now, we've got one of the most annoying fan bases in England I think.

We're 10th because we deserve to be 10th. We've got no god given right to be at the top of the table. Arteta and the players deserve the blame for it, let's see if they can turn it around next season. If results aren't better then, Arteta deserves to go.

I'm honestly sick of every little thing being compared to Wenger, and how unfairly he was treated. It's mind numbingly tedious at this point.

 

[Macho]

As a team, we have been declining since 2016, it's not like this is our only poor season recently.

With the amount of changes in our managers/backroom staff, we can't keep sacking managers, we need to show faith in someone, we don't have Chelsea's money to do it their way.

And we won’t sack him, he will be here next season.

With more signings and some of the chaff sold too. Why do Arteta fans even care what negative fans like me say?

 

[Makingtrax]

These are the home league tables for the two seasons after the plane banners, boycotts and social media rants started:

Not sure what that's meant to prove, that Arsène and the team were unaffected by all the pressure to remove them? Away form is always worse than home form without a pandemic, and if I recall most of the planes were flown at away grounds to make the opposition laugh at us. And if footballers are nervous, which the team definitely were, you're more likely to make mistakes with a crowd baying at you than in a subdued boycotted home stadium. There were still some home fans, like me and my mates at the stadium that supported Arsène and the team.

 

[say yes]

I think Arteta has reached the same stage as Wenger and Emery did with some fans in that he'll get abuse no matter what the reasons are for losing. I remember people blaming Wenger for that famous 3-1 loss to United at the Emirates in his final season even though it was down to a combination of a De Gea masterclass and a Mustafi special.

Blame Arteta for that period of sticking with the back 3 for too long or not having a proper #10 but individual errors like Cedric at Villa and Xhaka today are out of his control.

Yep exactly. And it’s bollocks.

 

[A_G]

He hasn’t called the players crap at every opportunity though? You’ve been straw-manning him with that crap all day.

He said 10th isn’t good enough for the club and we need to improve in every area of the pitch. And you’d be slaughtering him just the same if he said any different.

He gave an interview to the Spanish press a few months ago where he said he needed 5 or 6 players to play his preferred 4-3-3 system:

Arteta: We are five or six players short of a 4-3-3 - Arsenal.News

Mikel Arteta has explained that he wants to shift Arsenal permanently to a 4-3-3 formation but lacks the players in “five or six positions” to play that system.

arsenal.news

It's a bit concerning because you'd think Saliba, Gabriel, Tierney, Thomas, Saka, ESR and Aubameyang would all be in the mix to start in the next 1 or 2 seasons so it's hard to see where exactly these 5 or 6 positions are.

 

[mirrorstare]

The individual error today is well within his control, easy to tell because Emery suffered the same problem when trying to force us to play from the back like that.

We got too predictable, and the opposition can see and exploit that. We did it to Leeds and Meslier a couple of games ago, they did it to us today.

More importantly, what's within his control is the reaction in the second half after knowing we gifted a goal and were doing decently but not spectacular. The team pretty much performed below expectations, and we only got some urgency when Partey was correctly subbed out, but way too late.

 

[Penn_]

It’s not that fans aren’t patient, it’s that Arteta used it all during that horrendous run.