Mikel Arteta: 36 More Months

[IstraBalagina]

To be honest, I really don’t get how some of you think Arteta can get the team to top 6. There’s nothing from what we saw last season and what we’ve seen this season so far to suggest that the team can finish top 6 with him in charge.
Yes we defend well but that’s because the whole team defends. We don’t know how to transition from defence to attack, we don’t know how to attack. It’s no surprise that we hardly win games (if at all) whenever a team scores before us. That’s because all we do is defend.

I’ll like to see stats on how many points we’ve won from a losing position and how many games we’ve won when the opposition has scored first. Will be interesting to see.

With the above, you therefore go into games hoping we score first. Not sure how we want to finish top 6 with that kind of performance.

Overall, not even sure the football we play is the kind I want to see Arsenal play.

Can't you differentiate between expectations and prediction?

 

[Blankety Blank]

I think at its very very best and if given a chance to last that long, Artetaball will be something like what we see at City now.

Its effective but boring football, lets be honest. It would be interesting to see what supporters would say if we would get to that point. I suppose the support for Conte as manager, suggests that winning is all that matters in the end.

I tend to agree but its likely as good as its gonna get in the tactical modern game.
I had this convo with my Chelsea supporting mate. I said for all the money they have spent the football aint that great & he agreed.
Nowadays you tend to see good moments or phases.

Wenger played great football no doubt but some of the later stuff gets rose tinted imho.
Towards the end i lost count of the number of times at the emirates there was loads of passing the ball squarely around the opposition box but struggling to score or create. Often you would need a moment of magic from a star player like Sanchez, Özil or a peak auba firing on all cylinders.

 

[9jagooner]

Can't you differentiate between expectations and prediction?

Both have to be based on something, yes? I’m saying whether expectation or prediction, I don’t understand what you guys are basing it on. Unless we’re just pulling out numbers from the air now. In that case, we’ll finish top of the league

 

[Trilly]

Both have to be based on something, yes? I’m saying whether expectation or prediction, I don’t understand what you guys are basing it on. Unless we’re just pulling out numbers from the air now. In that case, we’ll finish top of the league

It’s what does he have to do to keep his job, not what you expect him to do.

I don’t expect him to finish top 6 with improved performances but it’s definitely what I think he has to do to keep his job.

 

[A__G]

@Makingtrax hasn't voted in the poll

 

[El Duderino]

Their football lacks that spontaneity. Even at their best, they don't really entertain me. They're like a machine. I wouldn't say they are boring, they just look so mechanical and overcoached. If I was a neutral, I'd rather watch Wengerball than Pep's city.

Unpopular opinion: I find peak Wengerball more entertaining than peak barca tbh

Tho personally I prefer peak pace and power Wengerball, Peak passing Wengerball on the Birmingham leg break season was better than anything Barca were serving at that time, imo.

If Wenger and the team didn't completely bottle it, that side would've been remembered as something special.

 

[El Duderino]

It’s what does he have to do to keep his job, not what you expect him to do.

I don’t expect him to finish top 6 with improved performances but it’s definitely what I think he has to do to keep his job.

Yeah, that's why I voted for that option.

I just want to be entertained. We play well and we should get Europa, we certainly have the players for it.

Top 4 is a closed shop so far, and I can't see any of the four bottling that hard.

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

Peak Wengerball was about the best you're going to get if you want to view football as an art form. With exceptional beauty we got exceptional brittleness too, the fragility was part of the charm of it in hindsight.

The games evolved, I don't expect Arteta to play like that. I do expect more of a onus on imposing ourselves on opponents in attack though. Make them fear us. Get some pace and movement too and we've got offensive players that would worry most teams in the PL.

 

[El Duderino]

Peak Wengerball was about the best you're going to get if you want to view football as an art form. With exceptional beauty we got exceptional brittleness too, the fragility was part of the charm of it in hindsight.

The games evolved, I don't expect Arteta to play like that. I do expect more of a onus on imposing ourselves on opponents in attack though. Make them fear us. Get some pace and movement too and we've got offensive players that would worry most teams in the PL.

We are basically back to the Emery days where we just gave opposition waaaaaay too much respect.

Even at its worst, when we went against relegation fodder under Arsène, we took the game to them. Our game. Much to our detriment at times.

Literally every other team outside the top 6 would love to have so many of our players. Lining up against our front five should be something teams fear. just bring that back.

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

We are basically back to the Emery days where we just gave opposition waaaaaay too much respect.

Even at its worst, when we went against relegation fodder under Arsène, we took the game to them. Our game. Much to our detriment at times.

Literally every other team outside the top 6 would love to have so many of our players. Lining up against our front five should be something teams fear. just bring that back.

I get the impression that if we were playing West Ham for example Arteta would spend an inordinate amount of time fretting and planning for the potential damage Michail Antonio could do to us

Sometimes it's not even that much about talent ( Though we have it) it's a mindset and having the guts to impose yourself on an opponent in an attacking sense. If a manager has a fairly cautious / negative minset that's got to transfer to the players in time.

 

[AmsterdamGunner]

I want to enjoy watching Arsenal again. More so than any particular position we finish in, if I'm at a stage where I'm looking forward to watching Arsenal every week then I'll probably accept Arteta staying in the job.

I don't think it's gonna happen tho. Good football has been so rare under Arteta that it's gonna take a dramatic change.

This is the essence for me too. If we can enjoy the team and look forward to games people will accept Arteta, even after all the **** results the last two years, just scraping 1-0’s isn’t good enough for Arsenal.

 

[RacingPhoton]

Chose Top 4. We don't have any European competition to worry about. We simply have to focus on the League. It's not like we have made massive changes to our starting 11 this season. Arteta has been manager for more than a year. So I can't agree with "players need time to adapt" excuses.
If he can't get us top 4 this season, he is not going to get us with the European competition burden on us.

 

[Makingtrax]

@Makingtrax hasn't voted in the poll

I noticed he has now.

 

[Makingtrax]

Torn between Top4 and Improvement in Performances. Decided to go for Top 4. Unai was held to that, so why should Arteta get away with a lot less. Arsène was drummed out for not winning the league ffs.

We've become a club of slipping standards in line with the decline managerial talents, and that's definitely not right.

 

[Oxeki]

I voted top four. Only way I can even stomach this **** football if he somehow (I know it's unlikely) gets top four.

 

[9jagooner]

It’s what does he have to do to keep his job, not what you expect him to do.

I don’t expect him to finish top 6 with improved performances but it’s definitely what I think he has to do to keep his job.

Well personally, I don’t think fans will be patient till that point to see if the team will finish top 6 or not.
Boring, defensive football will win you some games 1-0 but they’ll be more 0-0 and loses (ask Bolton, Burnley, and the likes). Continues like this till December and we’ll see what the fans think

 

[myoldarsenal]

Agreed, I don’t really care about beautiful fluid football, it’s nice but winning football is where it’s at.

I wouldn’t say Liverpool and Chelsea play beautiful football but I wouldn’t say they were boring either. As long as my team regularly creates more chances than the opposition to score goals then I’m happy and entertained.

I’ve been Arteta out longer than most but I think I saw a bit of progress against Burnley. This is the first game (against tricky opposition) in a long time where I’ve felt our defence and midfield actually created enough opportunities for our attackers to impact the game. Usually our forwards are starved of the ball but in this game they got more than enough service to create chances. It was a combination of poor finishing and final/penultimate passing from our forwards that let us down. I don’t see Pepe, Saka and ESR all struggling to control the ball and weight simple passes again in the same game and unless it continues to happen all season I don’t think you can blame Arteta for the unconvincing scoreline. And while it sounds like a cheap excuse the fact of the matter is that not many teams will go to the lengths that Burnley went (long grass, dry pitch) to ruin our game. On a different pitch/day we could have been looking at a 3-0 there.

This is all what-ifs and probably naive thinking of course but If Arteta really does now have the players to make his system work then I’m expecting to see more of the same against Sp**s. The win is the most important thing but just behind that is evidence that our forwards are continuing to get the ball in dangerous areas. If we can do that consistently then we are on to something even if it isn’t the prettiest football.

A team who hasn't won at home since Jan and who hasn't scored a goal in the last 12 home games....is tricky opposition.

My God.

 

[Rasmi]

A team who hasn't won at home since Jan and who hasn't scored a goal in the last 12 home games....is tricky opposition.

My God.

Your facts can’t stop our believe we just won a very tough away game against a strong team lool. After the Norwich win Arteta said we showed what we were about, after Burnley he spoke about how we knew we were gonna suffer and suffer we did. The man has in 22 months completely changed the mindset of the fans. From a top club to a lower level mid table who take anything they get. He did that by taking us to relegation battle for a period and made fans think we could get relegated.

 

[SevenOfClubs]

How are there no rumours of us getting another manager

 

[Lady_Gooner]

How can people watch what we’ve had endure in the last 5 years and not care about attractive football… Doesn’t have to be jaw dropping stuff just consistently good football I’d give anything for !!!