Mikel Arteta: Aston La Vista To The Title?

[Riou]

I don't get it lol. I thought it was just a randomly assigned generic one.

 

[UnbiasedNeutral]

Whoosh. I'm lost.

 

[dka1]

I don't get it lol. I thought it was just a randomly assigned generic one.

8th is midtable, no? I think your starting XI is 8th best in the league, and your squad is probably 6th best.

 

[#254]

I do think if you added a few hungry, consistent, talented footballers to our starting 11 and squad you'd see way more consistent results, because we've proven in big games we can win and dominate games. I haven't seen an Arsenal side go to Old Trafford and dominate like we did since I hit puberty.

That's not going to happen unless we win the damn thing or we get a sugar daddy. Much as I enjoy trashing utd, I enjoy the champions league anthem more.

Arteta has to win the EL to have my backing. I think he has seriously underperformed in the PL. As regards the players/team he doesn't really have a bad one. This is the reason why most fans predict higher finishes in the summer.

Let's analyse his first team;
GK: Leno. Would definitely have preferred Martinez but still he's a 7/10 type of keeper.
Defence: Tierney, Gabriel have both shown they are reliable defenders. Injuries are the only worry with Tierney but he's still featured more often than not in this season.
Holding/Luiz aren't that good but they can do a job.
Chambers is good enough for me at RB and can only get better.

CM: Xhaka is the only underwhelming player here who severely limits our play. Partey, ESR, Ødegaard are all top quality and good enough.

Forward: We haven't scored enough and have highly depended on our young stars to help us out. Saka is potential world class, same as Nelson. Auba limits our procession game but is good enough when used properly. Pepe is also good but needs to be coached to be a winger. Laca isn't my cup of tea but is good enough for a top four club. Also rarely gets injured.

Conclusion: At this point, I'd say Arteta is the guy who is limiting that team. Of course individual errors have played a huge part esp, from Leno, Xhaka and Luiz but those errors too/selections could be attributed to the manager. He is also terrible at player management which is crucial to any team's success.

I pray he wins the EL and buys himself some time and hopefully improves but I reckon he ultimately still needs to learn a fair bit at a smaller club.

 

[Mrs Bergkamp]

Elneny is an average player but he is better than Willock and AMN in almost everything. Passes better, has better touch, defends better, positions himself better. This is not an opinion, it is a fact. Willock and AMN needs to improve a lot just to become as average as Elneny.

I feel I have to disagree somewhat. Elneny may be more positionally aware but in recent matches, I've seen him running hard and never getting to the ball! His passes are so safe that they don't help. He can't advance the ball even when a pass is telegraphed. He certainly can't tackle but is ok if a ball cones lose or play stops and is restarted. He has moments where I'm impressed like vs Utd but his level is garbage tbh. He's a nice guy but not good enough and begging the fans to be nice to him just about sums him up.

 

[Hunta]

Arteta.

 

[A_G]

Sarri won the goddamn trophy and made the top four and STILL got sacked because Chelsea knew he wasn't good enough long term. Maybe that's why they're successful and we are where we are. A lot of our fanbase seem to be okay with settling.

Sarri didn't get sacked tbf:

Mikel Arteta: Aston La Vista To The Title?

Wasn't Sarri gone right after? That was peak Arsenal tbh, we lost a final to a team led by a man who knew he wasn't going to be there on Monday. A manager who had never won a trophy before as well against a Europa League specialist. You'd swear we were doing a 24/7 save the children's marathon...

arsenal-mania.com

 

[The_Playmaker]

It's difficult to use labels such as mid table squad. To be honest we have bottom of the table stuff in our squad.

Elneny- Ceballos is below mid table.

Partey alone brings us into top 6 if he is paired with Xhaka. Mid table if paired with anyone else.

Holding- Mari- Luiz and Gabriel, Tierney with Cedric, Bellerin and Chambers as options? That is mid table. Maybe slightly above if they are on form. I am talking collectively hear. Obviously Tierney is a top 4 calibre player, but he can't do it alone defensively.

The key thing to me is that the one area of our team that isn't midtable is our front line.

Saka, Pepe, Martinelli, Auba, Lacazette, ESR, Ødegaard.

Those attacking options are easily top 4 quality. The talent is in the front line. Yet Arteta has leaned into the defence. It's so hard to make any sense of that.

If you want to build from the back and play out from the goalkeeper, you nee a gk who is very good at it and a defence that is full of ballers. We don't have that.

If he wants to cross the ball in the air or play long, he doesn't have that either. So obviously when you try and play that way, it's going to be slow and cumbersome.

What we do have in our squad is a lot of players who thrive in transition and broken play.

Midfield: Willock, AMN, Partey, ESR

Attackers Pepe, Auba, Saka, Martinelli, Nelson.

We could have played a high pressing game, base on transition with athleticism in central areas and across the front line rather than a possession based game as we simply do not have enough ballers to make it work in the rear of our team.


We may have conceded goals, but we would have scored a lot. We would have done much better vs the teams below 6th.

 

[dka1]

It's difficult to use labels such as mid table squad. To be honest we have bottom of the table stuff in our squad.

Elneny- Ceballos is below mid table.

Partey alone brings us into top 6 if he is paired with Xhaka. Mid table if paired with anyone else.

Holding- Mari- Luiz and Gabriel, Tierney with Cedric, Bellerin and Chambers as options? That is mid table. Maybe slightly above if they are on form. I am talking collectively hear. Obviously Tierney is a top 4 calibre player, but he can't do it alone defensively.

The key thing to me is that the one area of our team that isn't midtable is our front line.

Saka, Pepe, Martinelli, Auba, Lacazette, ESR, Ødegaard.

Those attacking options are easily top 4 quality. The talent is in the front line. Yet Arteta has leaned into the defence. It's so hard to make any sense of that.

If you want to build from the back and play out from the goalkeeper, you nee a gk who is very good at it and a defence that is full of ballers. We don't have that.

If he wants to cross the ball in the air or play long, he doesn't have that either. So obviously when you try and play that way, it's going to be slow and cumbersome.

What we do have in our squad is a lot of players who thrive in transition and broken play.

Midfield: Willock, AMN, Partey, ESR

Attackers Pepe, Auba, Saka, Martinelli, Nelson.

We could have played a high pressing game, base on transition with athleticism in central areas and across the front line rather than a possession based game as we simply do not have enough ballers to make it work in the rear of our team.


We may have conceded goals, but we would have scored a lot. We would have done much better vs the teams below 6th.

Excellent post and good arguments.

So to reply to some of the points you raised.

1. Can't disagree about Elneny and Ceballos, infact midfield minus Partey is admittedly one area in which we look quite lightweight.

Xhaka is decent though I must admit but it's one area we have serious problems that need to be fixed.

Attacking midfield starts to look strong with ESR, Ødegaard and even Saka that can fill in.

2. I think the back four is a sticky one still. I agree Tierney is top 4 calibre. I'd actually argue that Gabriel is on the cusp of it; he's made one or two mistakes but on the whole is bursting with potential and has done well considering it's his first season.

Luiz on a good day paired with Gabriel and with Tierney playing and we start looking quite good and top 4 level. But Luiz isn't reliable enough and Holding is just average-ish.

At right back we struggle quite a bit. That said I still quite like Bellerin but I think it's bias on my part because he's not been fantastic.

3. I agree about our attack, infact if we leaned into our attack almost like Wenger would I think we'd be sniffing around the top 4 right now.

It's why I can't take mid table squad talk seriously, sure there are areas in which we're weaker, but I suppose that's the same for all of the teams in the 4th - 7th positions (which is exactly why they are there).

But our attack has soo much quality (from AM to the wings and a firing Auba) that we should be doing much better.

My opinion of course, and I could be wrong lol.

 

[akhil]

It's difficult to use labels such as mid table squad. To be honest we have bottom of the table stuff in our squad.

Elneny- Ceballos is below mid table.

Partey alone brings us into top 6 if he is paired with Xhaka. Mid table if paired with anyone else.

Holding- Mari- Luiz and Gabriel, Tierney with Cedric, Bellerin and Chambers as options? That is mid table. Maybe slightly above if they are on form. I am talking collectively hear. Obviously Tierney is a top 4 calibre player, but he can't do it alone defensively.

The key thing to me is that the one area of our team that isn't midtable is our front line.

Saka, Pepe, Martinelli, Auba, Lacazette, ESR, Ødegaard.

Those attacking options are easily top 4 quality. The talent is in the front line. Yet Arteta has leaned into the defence. It's so hard to make any sense of that.

If you want to build from the back and play out from the goalkeeper, you nee a gk who is very good at it and a defence that is full of ballers. We don't have that.

If he wants to cross the ball in the air or play long, he doesn't have that either. So obviously when you try and play that way, it's going to be slow and cumbersome.

What we do have in our squad is a lot of players who thrive in transition and broken play.

Midfield: Willock, AMN, Partey, ESR

Attackers Pepe, Auba, Saka, Martinelli, Nelson.

We could have played a high pressing game, base on transition with athleticism in central areas and across the front line rather than a possession based game as we simply do not have enough ballers to make it work in the rear of our team.


We may have conceded goals, but we would have scored a lot. We would have done much better vs the teams below 6th.

A high pressing game would've been **** this past year though. This shortened schedule would've murdered us in terms of recovery and injuries. The rubbish we play is bad as well, a better balance between the 2 should've been found.

 

[Trilly]

Imagine if we replaced Sir Mikel of the Mid table with a competent manager like Tuchel?

You look at what Tuchel’s done with Chelsea and you see a few things.

The players performing for him aren’t necessarily much better than our key players. Mount, Thiago Silva and Kante versus us having Auba, Partey, Tierney. People falsely point to their 250M summer window as a reason for why it’s not fair to compare us but we all know that their big summer signings aren’t the reason they’re winning games.

You can also see that Chelsea aren’t blowing teams anyway, just grinding out results.

I look at those things and consider the fact that Auba, Laca and Pepe are better finishers than anyone at Chelsea and I genuinely think Tuchel would have picked up similar points here to what he has at Chelsea.

I think we were a few points behind Chelsea when Tuchel was appointed which means imo he would have us firmly in the top four race right now.

 

[Trilly]

Sarri didn't get sacked tbf:

Mikel Arteta: Aston La Vista To The Title?

Wasn't Sarri gone right after? That was peak Arsenal tbh, we lost a final to a team led by a man who knew he wasn't going to be there on Monday. A manager who had never won a trophy before as well against a Europa League specialist. You'd swear we were doing a 24/7 save the children's marathon...

arsenal-mania.com

Fair enough, the fans hated him tbf and you feel like Chelsea weren’t too fussed about keeping him.

Let’s use Di Matteo as an example instead then!

 

[BigPoppaPump]

Oh ffs who unbanned this *****?

Why is t e r r o r i s t censored ffs?

 

[A_G]

no pressure Mik

 

[TimoJens]

no pressure Mik

So Josh lied. Shocker obviously.

 

[Iceman10]

no pressure Mik

That's a quick retreat from supposed Kroenke promises of investment. Not sure I believe this article though. Tabloids.

 

[TimoJens]

That's a quick retreat from supposed Kroenke promises of investment. Not sure I believe this article though. Tabloids.

Mokbel is inconsistent but he is more reliable than Josh.

 

[boonthegoon]

 

[Iceman10]

Mokbel is inconsistent but he is more reliable than Josh.

I just see it in general as raising the heat as much as possible on the day before the match, as tabloids tend to do. It is a big tie for us, but they will add to the pile-on in any way they can. I don't trust the Kroenke's, but at the same time am sceptical of any real fresh substance behind this piece.

 

[mirrorstare]

No problem at all with that, if the guy failed achieving the target and clearly underperformed in the league, why would he deserve investment?

What he deserves would be a sacking, but I guess the timing of the article means it would be harsh to mention