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Mikel Arteta: Top Of The Klopps

Manberg

Predator
We sold 140M worth of players to spend that 130M in 17/18. The net spend in the 2 years you mentioned is 90M, 45M if you divide it between two seasons - which is peanuts.

Wenger is the lowest spending managers, from the top clubs, in PL history, so it’s not a myth, it’s a fact.

What’s the argument anyway? All summer I have been saying give Arteta, who is my boy, more money because he’ll get us CL very easily if Stan backs him.

Net spend :lol: You're turning into @Makingtrax

If he wanted to keep players that left he'd have been able to keep them.
 

GDeep™

League is very weak
Stan took over the club with the agreement/knowledge that the club will run a self sustaining model. So he is living up to the agreement you can argue.

In that case, unless we have a few freak years where everything comes off for us, it’s a big bad struggle for us and any manager we have.

All summer Arteta kept saying things are tough at Arsenal.
 

GDeep™

League is very weak
Net spend :lol: You're turning into @Makingtrax

If he wanted to keep players that left he'd have been able to keep them.
I like you Dave, but honestly you have little or nothing to offer once you drag someone into one of your circular arguments.

You said City are better without Laporte the other day, and he’s a flop, until I told you City won 90% of games with him and like 60% without him. You laughed that off.
 

Manberg

Predator
I like you Dave, but honestly you have little or nothing to offer once you drag someone into one of your circular arguments.

You said City are better without Laporte the other day, and he’s a flop, until I told you City won 90% of games with him and like 60% without him. You laughed that off.

Laporte doesn't pass the eye test for me. City looked solid defensively in the game against us, I think they've upgraded on him.

Laporte looked good because they had Kompany. He didn't look good when he was fit last season.
 

benjamin86

Established Member
Laporte doesn't pass the eye test for me. City looked solid defensively in the game against us, I think they've upgraded on him.

Laporte looked good because they had Kompany. He didn't look good when he was fit last season.
How many times did Laporte and Kompany play together? When city last won the league it was usually Laporte and Stones/Otamendi for most of the season wasnt it?
What don't you like about him? I'd probably pick him as the 2nd best CB in the premiership after Van Dijk.
 

GDeep™

League is very weak
Laporte doesn't pass the eye test for me. City looked solid defensively in the game against us, I think they've upgraded on him.

Laporte looked good because they had Kompany. He didn't look good when he was fit last season.
Laporte and Kompany played little or nothing together.
 

Macho

In search of Pure Profit 💸
Dusted 🔻

Country: England
I hope he is watching Leeds play and learn what attacking football looks like. It sure as hell ain’t keeper and cbs passing to each other to up possession stats
A third of all of Arteta’s games so far has come against the top 6. This is insane and true baptism of fire.

There is also no proof that this is his preferred style of football as this team was inherited. Considering our previous manager did the same thing (with poor execution) we can guess that this is the best we can do and most logical way to approach matches.

What I am trying to say is we should cut him some slack.

Dunno about you guys but I’m a bit tired of facing Liverpool and City every week.
 

Red London

Anti-Simp Culture
Trusted ⭐
A third of all of Arteta’s games so far has come against the top 6. This is insane and true baptism of fire.

There is also no proof that this is his preferred style of football as this team was inherited. Considering our previous manager did the same thing (with poor execution) we can guess that this is the best we can do and most logical way to approach matches.

What I am trying to say is we should cut him some slack.

Dunno about you guys but I’m a bit tired of facing Liverpool and City every week.
Yes me too, fed up of getting them in cups thats whats annoying me most. 2 PL games is enough ffs.

I'm nervously looking forward to more games like Wolves, United, Leicester, Sp**s, Chelsea, Everton. Arteta got some good wins against those sides last season and some unlucky results (Chelsea at Emirates, Sp**s away).

Winning those games and vs the bottom half of the table is what gets you top4. You only need to worry about taking points off the best if you are going for the title. But anyway I back us to get a couple of points vs Liverpool and City in the reverse fixture, seeing as it will be at home.
 

kash2

More Consistent Than Arteta
It was a scatter gun approach for sure but I’m tired of posters like @Manberg putting the blame on Wenger for our current problems when the man has been gone for 2 + years and his acquisitions are not even the issue. Wenger’s teams always were attacking yet manberg wants to blame our lack of offensive output on Wenger?

Arteta has significantly improved our defensive solidity and over structure. We do a lot more work off the ball and everyone seems to be pitching in. He has done very well on the areas that Wenger was deficient on over his last few years. However it has come at a cost offensively. We are very weak in terms of chance creation and shots taken over the last two seasons we have consistently been in the bottom half of the league in regards to those metrics.

Wenger has his faults for sure and Arteta has done very well in doing his best to fix our most glaring issues. However to act like Arteta is infallible and should not be criticized is also laughable.
Wenger couldnt compete on squad quality and had to sell his best players, so he strategized on the best approach to retain top4. 3 points for a win and 1 for a draw. So he overegged the attack at the cost of the defence and it was a brilliant strategy to achieve the goal. However when it came up against a solid team or a team on song it came spectacularly unstuck. Still it ensured enough points for top 4. Later he spent a bit and had a more rounded squad with a few readymade star buys and the financial pressure was off, so he prioritized trophies. That phase netted us 3 cups, three shields and a second place finish and defensive solidity of Per/Kos. He was unlucky with Gabriel and Mustafi and Xhaka not being able to gel quickly enough into the next defensive unit and the referees and whiny brexity atmosphere and erosion of his authority didnt help either. Also I think having to play with Giroud upfront broke his spirit and decide enough was enough
 

ArtetaOut

Active Member
So people on here are now glorifying “parking the bus now”. Damn hypocrites. How the mighty have fallen.

Arteta sets his team up to be structured off the ball and difficult to break down. That is fine. His problem is his insistence on playing out from the back. Our team takes so long to progress the ball that the opponent usually has more than enough time to get themselves organized. Additionally we no longer make passes through the lines, our penetration comes specifically down the flanks. Which means we became predictable going forward.

The over the top ball or cross field passes work for now because of the quality of Auba’s finishing and Willian and Saka/Pepe on crosses. However this tactic won’t be sustainable. We need more variety in our attacking play. We more importantly need to move the ball quicker up the field. Unfortunately Arteta values possession of the ball over penetration of the opponents defense and that will be his downfall because our midfield is not capable of cycling possession.

Simply put he needs to mix it up to be more effective because our shot creation and chances created per game is abysmal. It’s borderline **** show and this is Arsenal not Burnley not West Brom not stoke.

There are a lot of Kroenke shills planted here. Might as well name this site as Kroenke Mania or Arteta Mania.
 
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Kav

Established Member
Well, I think in terms of personnel, Wenger certainly deserves some blame for our team's quality, much like Ferguson should deserve some blame for how he left United, in terms of personnel only. Ferguson claimed he left United in good shape with young players like Jones, Smalling, Zaha, Cleverly, Welbeck for the future...not one of those players was United level. Wenger has made similar claims, but who from Wenger's recruitment is a good player for us other than Aubameyang?

Xhaka is the closest, the rest are dead weight. Özil's contract extension was typical of the poor squad planning and lack of vision, Lacazette was a poor signing in that respect too--again, signing band-aids hoping to improve for the here and now--Ramsey's contract being run down in view of a move or a renewal with more leverage in doing so was happening under Wenger's watch, Mustafi, Pérez the less said the better. The fact is, he left us with an old, poor quality team, of which none do we have any use of bar Xhaka and Auba. The Sánchez fiasco was a real sign of the Barçaesque short-termism and band-aidism going on...turn down £55m for Sánchez that we absolutely should've accepted (even then, our supposed replacement, was a poor, poor choice, and also typical of a win-now approach at the expense of all else: he was the obvious choice, so we were going to throw £90m at him, despite there being massive red flags over his quality--his chances created at Monaco were the type of profile that really put a huge doubt over whether he was a player worth spending big money on, or who could translate into a top player for a top side, this isn't hindsight), then go for Mkhitaryan in the winter when there were no other options...

Any way you shake it up, he and Gazidis (who I blame even more, as he was Wenger's higher up, but for Gazidis the world doesn't have enough contempt to properly express what he deserves) left us in a very, very poor position for a top club, in terms of squad recruitment, planning, and general personnel. Other than perhaps Barça it's hard to think of a top club that had as bad of a squad planning and recruitmet policy in these years.

Now, I agree that if we are talking about legacy issues in terms of tactical or 'club culture' issues, and using those nebulous ideas to blame Wenger, then that is nonsense. People were even using those ideas to excuse Emery in his 2nd season here, which is silly-- any proper manager with a vision can change those things in a year or so, that is a fundamental part of his job and whether he is a good manager or not.

But it is totally fair, I think, to say that the team, in terms of squad building and personnel, had a long way to go from when Wenger left us and that we are still paying for it.



And created very few chances. Absolutely love Bielsa, he's a legend, an icon, and a visionary, but Arteta >>
Let’s address those squad issues. Firstly Wenger left a team that had :
29 year old Mhiki, Özil,
28 year old Auba
27 year old Laca,
26 Xhaka and Ramsey, Wilshere, Mustafi,
25 yr ol Kolasinac
23 Bellerin,
Many other youngsters as well. I would hardly call that an old team.

As for the quality of those acquisitions, you will agree it is a mixed bag. Aubameyang has been excellent, Lacazette was very good for a year but has fallen out of form. Xhaka is Xhaka. No way to describe his immense ability to mess things up yet still offer something intangible to the team (leadership they say). El Neny has been solid but not spectacular. Mhiki left shortly after Wenger but that was down to Emery. The same can be said of Ramsey, Wilshere, Cazorla.

The squad has issues but it’s hardly down to Wenger that we don’t have a midfield capable of controlling a game when Emery got rid of Mhiki, Ramsey, Wilshere, Cazorla, Iwobi, Jeff, and now Arteta has no use for Özil. Yet Wenger is to blame? I am not buying that. Did Wenger’s team have faults? Yes. Defensively they were very soft but that’s the only accusation you can seriously level at his teams. His teams were fine in midfield (with the exception of a player like Partey, Fernandinho or Fabinho who we needed ) and in attack it was dangerous.

Did the club make some questionable decisions in regards to Mhiki and Özil. Yes. But I’m not sure who was responsible for that mess.

What is interesting is that Wenger has said he’s surprised the club magically found money to buy Players after he left. Which suggests that he was operating under a different dynamic under Gazidis. perhaps he was unable to get the players he really wanted and was stuck with going for second rate players like Mustafi and Xhaka because he didn’t have the funds he needed to get who he wanted. I don’t know.

Here is what I do know, that Arteta is now in charge and he’s the one now responsible for moving us forward. What happens now is his responsibility. You can’t give him the plaudits when things are going well and blame others when they are not.
 

AmsterdamGunner

Active Member
A third of all of Arteta’s games so far has come against the top 6. This is insane and true baptism of fire.

There is also no proof that this is his preferred style of football as this team was inherited. Considering our previous manager did the same thing (with poor execution) we can guess that this is the best we can do and most logical way to approach matches.

What I am trying to say is we should cut him some slack.

Dunno about you guys but I’m a bit tired of facing Liverpool and City every week.

People keeping saying Arteta played so many games against the top 6, but you always play around one third of the games against top 6.

20 teams in the competition, 19 without Arsenal. Makes you play 31,5 procent against the top 6. And the further you get in the cup competitions, the more you play against the top 6 because that’s were we want to be.

Playing one third of the games against strong teams isn’t a very good argument. We should be top 6, other teams should say that Arsenal is strong and that they are happy they played Arsenal already. Small club mentality.
 
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Makingtrax

Worships in the house of Wenger 🙏
Trusted ⭐

Country: England

Player:Saliba
Wenger won the double in his first year. 3 years later he built a totally new team and went unbeaten, something never seen in English football. 3 years later with kids, injuries, older players and great defensive record he reached the CL final. All this while playing some of the best football ever seen in the history of the game.

Great times and memories. Wenger and Arteta are in contact apparently, I’m sure Arteta is hugely inspired and will do all he can to emulate the boss, and he has my support in full.
Yep, unlike many of the fans, Arteta (like most professionals) has huge respect for Wenger.
 

boonthegoon

Arteta In by November

Country: USA

Player:Smith-Rowe
If we are sticking with 5 at the back

Would like to change the attacking part of the 5 sometimes for variation.
Especially with holding injured now.
Tierney Gabriel Luiz Bellerin AMN

In offense AMN can move in to rcm and bellerin overlapping. Partey and Dani mid.
With front 3 of
Saka-Auba- willian/pepe

If auba cf is never gonna happen then front 3 of
Auba - Pepe/Willian/Laca/Eddie - Saka

Saka is undroppable now imo.

Will let Tierney be more attacking too.
 

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