Mikel Arteta: 36 More Months

[Makingtrax]

Lets see if it's different this time. If he can consistently draw out the level we saw in the first half he'll win his doubters over.

He wiil. The only reason he's got detractors is because he mostly been sh!t.

 

[dka1]

Well he'll have to do a lot better than one good half of football in 6 games. He's 10th with a goal difference of -5. Lets not get carried away with superlatives.

Definitely..... consistency is the key, as we had good performances against Chelsea, West Brom, somewhat Leicester away and a good burst in Prague last season.

If we keep doing this (and likely injuries will happen so Tets won't always have the perfect line up) then I guess I'll be asking for some humble pie, long way to go though.

 

[Makingtrax]

Definitely..... consistency is the key, as we had good performances against Chelsea, West Brom, somewhat Leicester away and a good burst in Prague last season.

If we keep doing this (and likely injuries will happen so Tets won't always have the perfect line up) then I guess I'll be asking for some humble pie, long way to go though.

If he carries on like this, its a win win for all the fans. But we've been here before, so I'm not getting carried away until it happens. Trust the process doesn't get proven yet with one really good half out of 12.

 

[Trilly]

It was set from a goal kick, we literally beat the set defence

You’re just not getting it. Our weakness is breaking down defences that drop deep in their own half.

Rewatch each goal we scored and you’ll see lots of space in the box and Sp**s defenders sprinting back towards their goal.

 

[Trilly]

I don't know if saying we didn't show any progress in the areas we need to, is completely correct . We've been steadily getting better.

We've scored three goals and you can see shoots of cohesion. Teams are built over time. It's not plug and play like FIFA. And there's a lot of pieces which need to gel.

The second half wasn't great but does that mean we can ignore the first? That endurance to play at a high level for a whole 90, comes gradually. But you have to start somewhere.

If we regress again or struggle then question the manager but to not even enjoy a NLD win because you want Arteta to fail is disgraceful.

I can see progress and I can see there's a plan. And the goals were well executed. Arsenal were the protagonists in the first half and faded in the second.

It may lead to more improvements. It may be a false dawn. But let it play out. Then we can see if the manager needs to go or not.

I’m not ignoring the first half, I’m saying we’ve seen the first half before from Mikel, it’s nothing new. We’ve scored goals like that against Chelsea, City and Liverpool.

He’s good at setting up traps that create transition and counter-attack opportunities but we all know that it takes opppsition who are willing to bring the game to you and/or play out from the back. Basically it only works against top teams…and not all the time either.

It’s not an improvement if he’s done it before, not sure why nobody is understanding this and just giving me grief. I guess everyone is just enjoying the score line but the first half was him doing stuff he was already good at.

In the second half he again showed me that he wasn’t a good manager. We somehow failed to create anything and resorted to just chucking on defenders at the end. Once Sp**s gave up on the game and we actually had to play some football it wasn’t impressive at all. We lost that second half and Sp**s didn’t even play well.

 

[MikelHadADream]

Let's be honest, we've had performances like this under Arteta. We've wiped with the floor with United/Chelsea/Sp**s at the Emirates under him. Its the Palace/Villa/Watford games which will be our bread and butter, Arteta has to show he can consistently win those types of games.

 

[AbouCuéllar]

So strange seeing Moura speaking Spanish and still letting some of his Carioca manerisms slip through his speach. Pascal absolutely bosses it.

Could never watch this show for this reason. It's a pisstake a Brazilian playing Pablo Escobar, lol. Clearly for the yank, anglo-saxon world. Also in the way it's told, which everyone agrees is the most slanted and biased version.

El Patrón del Mal is the only real Pablo Escobar series.

 

[<<reed>>]

You’re just not getting it. Our weakness is breaking down defences that drop deep in their own half.

Rewatch each goal we scored and you’ll see lots of space in the box and Sp**s defenders sprinting back towards their goal.

The 2nd goal was a counter-attack lol, there wasn't a goal kick, Sp**s were pressing high and we played the ball back to the GK, they literally had 6 players near our box.

OnlyOne doesn't know what a set defense is.

 

[IstraBalagina]

Called out our fans’ lack of intelligence then batters Sp**s. My manager.

Crystal Palace battered Sp**s. Stop licking

 

[bingobob]

Arteta gambled big on a window that I found underwhelming. Brentford looking like a tough place to go for teams with a full squad never mind what we had. Losing against City and Chelsea not great but expected. Since then we've got results with the cherry on the cake being the result and performance yesterday. Maybe he is fitting it together.

 

[Trilly]

The 2nd goal was a counter-attack lol, there wasn't a goal kick, Sp**s were pressing high and we played the ball back to the GK, they literally had 6 players near our box.

OnlyOne doesn't know what a set defense is.

@OnlyOne
Same initial set-up as the goals against City, Pool etc. Nice first half performance but nothing new.

 

[AbouCuéllar]

I’m not ignoring the first half, I’m saying we’ve seen the first half before from Mikel, it’s nothing new. When he sets the team up well we can look really good. We’ve scored goals like that against Chelsea, City and Liverpool.

He’s good at setting up traps that create transition opportunities but we all know that it takes opppsition who are willing to bring the game to you and play out from the back. Basically it only works against top teams…and not all the time either.

It’s not an improvement if he’s done it before, not sure why nobody is understanding this. I guess everyone is just enjoying the score line but the first half is just him doing stuff he was already good at, the second half was a bigger problem because the issues that had us finishing 8th appeared again.

I don't disagree with anything you say here.

What I'll say is what's really encouraging to me is a) the quality of player now (Ødegaard, Thomas, White, Tomiyasu are just huge improvements on what we had before, ESR too in some ways as we only had him for half the season last) and b) the combination of the Burnley performance (where I think you agreed too that there were some interesting things in terms of the spaces we found in a game where we typically struggle to create interesting situations) and this (that is, the Burnley win wouldn't mean much if we had blown this one, but equally this one means a lot more since we won the Burnley one and did do some interesting things there that we're not accustomed to seeing against that type of opposition away from home).

But I agree, we'll learn a lot about the team in the next 4 games. This isn't something terribly new, but it coming off of 2 straight wins in the league, and us overcoming a really terrible situation to start the season, makes it really meaningful...to finish matchday 3 with Tottenham 1st and us last and reverse that in 3 games is a beautiful thing, however you look at it. We were on the verge of utter crisis and Mikel kept the players behind him and steered the ship (Em*ry could never, despite people wrongly claiming he is the better manager than Arteta @Camus), and things look quite promising now...he has to be given credit for that.

 

[OnlyOne]

Can’t actually believe what I’m reading here

 

[SA Gunner]

Arteta gambled big on a window that I found underwhelming. Brentford looking like a tough place to go for teams with a full squad never mind what we had. Losing against City and Chelsea not great but expected. Since then we've got results with the cherry on the cake being the result and performance yesterday. Maybe he is fitting it together.

Lets hope he figures it out, it would be good for all of us.

What encourages me though is that we now have a group of players who together have great potential. Whether it works out with Mikel or not, the signings of Ramsdale, Tomiyasu, Lokonga, Ødegaard and White do look good so far.

 

[Beksl]

Arteta gambled big on a window that I found underwhelming. Brentford looking like a tough place to go for teams with a full squad never mind what we had. Losing against City and Chelsea not great but expected. Since then we've got results with the cherry on the cake being the result and performance yesterday. Maybe he is fitting it together.

This is his team now, no more excuses. Encouraging signs are here, the team is gelling and embracing what Arteta wants to do on the pitch. We played a very disjointed Sp**s team, mind you, so I'm a bit wary of how good we can really be under him.

 

[OnlyOne]

Quickest 3 goals ever scored in a London Derby and people are complaining about how they were scored

Sorry but I’m not having it. We played a brilliant game. I know what it’s like against a team that ‘parks the bus’.

 

[AberGooner]

Still so happy to get enjoyment out of one of our performances, feels like such a foreign notion after what we've had to watch for so long. The fact it was Sp**s just makes it all the sweeter.

Big challenge now is to make sure this isn't another false dawn. At this point you have to go game to game but I'd like to see us challenge ourselves to go unbeaten into the Liverpool game. That should be more than achievable for a club like ours.

More importantly keep that level of intensity up every game, I don't want to go back to any more snoozefests.

 

[SA Gunner]

I don't disagree with anything you say here.

What I'll say is what's really encouraging to me is a) the quality of player now (Ødegaard, Thomas, White, Tomiyasu are just huge improvements on what we had before, ESR too in some ways as we only had him for half the season last) and b) the combination of the Burnley performance (where I think you agreed too that there were some interesting things in terms of the spaces we found in a game where we typically struggle to create interesting situations) and this (that is, the Burnley win wouldn't mean much if we had blown this one, but equally this one means a lot more since we won the Burnley one and did do some interesting things there that we're not accustomed to seeing against that type of opposition away from home).

But I agree, we'll learn a lot about the team in the next 4 games. This isn't something terribly new, but it coming off of 2 straight wins in the league, and us overcoming a really terrible situation to start the season, makes it really meaningful...to finish matchday 3 with Tottenham 1st and us last and reverse that in 3 games is a beautiful thing, however you look at it. We were on the verge of utter crisis and Mikel kept the players behind him and steered the ship (Em*ry could never, despite people wrongly claiming he is the better manager than Arteta @Camus), and things look quite promising now...he has to be given credit for that.

I must admit that I have seen some interesting work done over the last two games, and that makes me want to see some more over the next few matchdays.

He definitely isnt out the woods yet, as we have seen such performances in the past, and lets be honest with ourselves, Norwich, Burnley and even Sp**s are not the best level of competition right now. But our signings performing as they have, and our tactical plans executed, make for interesting viewing and analysis on what may come.

I would bet that many here just want to see a plan, and the club working towards it. No big talk of Champions League in three season and other nonsense.

 

[OnlyOne]

@OnlyOne
Same initial set-up as the goals against City, Pool etc. Nice first half performance but nothing new.

I do get it, but I just think you’re complaining to complain in this instance.

It’s a London derby and we scored the 3 quickest ever goals. Do you not think we were the reason Sp**s defence was un-settled? Look how quick we moved the ball.

 

[TornadoTed]

Yesterday felt like the exact opposite of Mikel's tenure here, like we had a different manager for the day.

We were sharp, pressed effectively, snapped into tackles, moved the ball forward quickly and were efficient with our finishing.

Like many I'm nowhere near convinced yet, we've seen performances like this before only to revert back to slow ponderous football the week after. I really hope that it isn't yet another false dawn and we start playing consistently.

If we get at least a point at Brighton even a fervent Mikel sceptic like myself will accept he has done enough between the international breaks to get another run of games to show that we are improving.