Mikel Arteta: 36 More Months

[Riou]

One swallow doesn’t make a summer as my Nan used to say.

I doubt we get Top Four.

Though the last few games have given me hope, at least...get back in the Europa next season, back above Sp**s for the first time since 2016.

Least it will show we are moving upwards, can't be finishing 8th for a 3rd year!

 

[Blankety Blank]

Hopefully the young manager & most importantly the young players can produce those sorts of performances more regularly.

For all those slagging the summer signings 4 started yesterday & 2 came on so all 6 were used.

 

[Makingtrax]

I doubt we get Top Four.

Though the last few games have given me hope, at least...get back in the Europa next season, back above Sp**s for the first time since 2016.

Least it will show we are moving upwards, can't be finishing 8th for a 3rd year!

Hope’s too strong a word. Can see a frayed knot in his noose.

 

[Macho]

Hopefully the young manager & most importantly the young players can produce those sorts of performances more regularly.

For all those slagging the summer signings 4 started yesterday & 2 came on so all 6 were used.

Credit to Edteta the signings look good I can’t even front. Not just basing this off a struggling Sp**s too.

They’ve all shown their quality straight away except Ben and even then, there were less than ideal circumstances he walked into. Even then you can see what he brings to the table.

I need to see more before I go back to my FA Cup summer levels of optimism as I refuse to be crushed again, but if what Arteta and his backers envisioned all along comes to pass then fair play.

 

[AmsterdamGunner]

I have sincere doubts about Arteta and mentioned that often enough. Maybe it’s the hope that gets you every time, but I’m really excited with the team yesterday. With the players in the first eleven, with the game and with the score. But what is changing my mind maybe is that the players are obviously behind him, it seems they really believe in him and want to work for him, the younger players and the older players. Maybe I was wrong about Arteta. But it’s the hope that kills you everytime.

 

[Makingtrax]

Hopefully the young manager & most importantly the young players can produce those sorts of performances more regularly.

For all those slagging the summer signings 4 started yesterday & 2 came on so all 6 were used.

Have never blamed the players. They looked good yesterday too. But I still question the Saliba /White, Ramsdale/Emi, Douzi/Lokonga situation. That money could have been more productive in my view.

 

[Oxeki]

Man I’m not even gonna speak on this, have we ever done this for a match before?

Think we did it when we beat Conte's Chelsea 3-0 at the Emirates the season they won the league. Think it was Kos that orchestrated that. Can't remember

 

[Trilly]

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.

Agreed. Finally someone who supports Arteta but can still understand where I’m coming from.

If we can combine the Burnley performance with performances like this while maintaining consistency then I’m firmly Arteta in. The Burnley performance was actually more impressive for me because it showed Arteta convincingly addressing one of his weaknesses. This Sp**s performance is more impressive for the media, fans and the owners etc, it’s the type of result that has earned him a promotion and probably kept him in a job when he shouldn’t have been, it’s a big strength of his these big game performances, I can admit that.

I still have doubts that a supporting cast of ESR-Saka-Ode will have enough end product to have us finish 5th though. Much easier to score/assist in transition, we may need a bit more against set defences but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Also while I understand why he did it I’m a bit disappointed that Xhaka was shoe horned into the side. I think the Burnley system would have scored even more goals in the first half and might have even scored a few more in the second half. Hopefully we revert to that 433 for matches against weaker opposition.

I do think Mikel might have turned a corner now that he’s gotten his players. We always knew he could raise our game as well as anyone else but with these signings all looking good our floor might now be good enough to win consistently.

 

[Trilly]

Think it was Kos that orchestrated that.

Course it was, that loser.

(I respect him but he was a bit of a baby)

 

[El Duderino]

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.

I think those glaring flaws aside, he did a good job portraying the character the show put forth (not necessarily if that portrait was a good or truthful one), but I'm only half Spanish and speak at an intermediate level at most).

I could see native speakers tearing their hair out (with reason) when he spoke, tho.

 

[El Duderino]

Agreed. Finally someone who supports Arteta but can still understand where I’m coming from.

If we can combine the Burnley performance with performances like this while maintaining consistency then I’m firmly Arteta in. The Burnley performance was actually more impressive for me because it showed Arteta convincingly addressing one of his weaknesses. This Sp**s performance is more impressive for the media, fans and the owners etc, it’s the type of result that has earned him a promotion and probably kept him in a job when he shouldn’t have been, it’s a big strength of his these big game performances, I can admit that.

I still have doubts that a supporting cast of ESR-Saka-Ode will have enough end product to have us finish 5th though. Much easier to score/assist in transition, we may need a bit more against set defences but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Also while I understand why he did it I’m a bit disappointed that Xhaka was shoe horned into the side. I think the Burnley system would have scored even more goals in the first half and might have even scored a few more in the second half. Hopefully we revert to that 433 for matches against weaker opposition.

I do think Mikel might have turned a corner now that he’s gotten his players. We always knew he could raise our game as well as anyone else but with these signings all looking good our floor might now be good enough to win consistently.

I just want to be entertained, yo. And part of that is us imposing ourselves in games like we did against Tottenham.

I think a lot of us outers kept banging on the drum of Mikel letting defensive stability go wanting a bit if we got more attacking impetus in return.

He does that, and you will keep hearing us giving him credit. Hell, I'll sacrifice Pepe if it means our average level of performance remains on par from that Sp**s first half.

 

[Trilly]

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.

We played well but I’m not really going to neglect that Sp**s were/are in complete free-fall. They’ve been terrible all season so I have to acknowledge that.

I’m complaining because I think he’s earned another 6 months in his job with this win without actually addressing his weaknesses. I’m complaining because I don’t think our owners are football savvy enough to understand the above.

 

[El Duderino]

Even if you don't find Arteta to your taste as a manager, it's one of those results and performances where you've just got to suck it up and give him some grudging praise.

Sp**s were very poor yesterday but they weren't poor in a vacuum, we played our part in making them look bad. It's only a month ago they did Man City after all.

3-0 up after half an hour or so, we basically cruised the rest of the game. Don't see what the problem is. With the intensity we came out with we were going to start to flag a bit physically after 70-75 minutes. Sp**s never looked like getting back in the match even after they'd scored.

Get the feeling that a lot of the really strong Arteta critics are disappointed we didn't nick a dodgy 1-0 in a really negative, dull performance so that could still be used as a stick to beat him with.

Again, it's one of those results that you let yourself get false dawned on, specially because we saw actual changes to our game. Brighton, Villa, etc will tell us more, but at least we can dream for 6 days or so.

It's been a while, eh?

 

[El Duderino]

Would be hilarious if Arteta manages to get 4th ahead of Ole this season

Neville will still probably spin it as a positive for United.

I'd kiss Arteta feet for that... Feat alone.

 

[Blankety Blank]

One swallow doesn’t make a summer as my Nan used to say.

No but it makes for a nice experience

Erm unless perhaps you are the one doing the swallowing ops:

( any perceived innuendo may or may not be intentional)

 

[Oxeki]

We played well yesterday tbf to Arteta. Let's not forget that in the last 18 months, we've had this exact performances against Chelsea, united and Sp**s and it ended up being false dawns. Let's not forget that Arsenal Arsenal used to thrash better Sp**s team than this. Even they got stuffed by crystal palace last week. Let's not get carried away. Let's see where we're at performance wise (and probably result wise) at the end of the year.

 

[A__G]

Every Arteta fan today:

 

[2Smokeyy]

Credit to Arteta for making my day.

“Man got 13 like Rimzee…”

 

[Trilly]

Credit to Arteta for making my day.

“Man got 13 like Rimzee…”

How you feeling about ESR’s goal + assist big man?

 

[2Smokeyy]

How you feeling about ESR’s goal + assist big man?

Nah I’m not even going to hate although it was another tap in the assist was a brilliant team goal especially that little flick by Auba, so I’m happy for all of them but how long will this last for?

That dreadful Sp**s defence made ESR look like a world beater especially with how our fans are reacting on Twitter. Tbh I think Pepe would have lit up that whole defence and put them in a spliff. Really surprised Arteta didn’t bring him on and try to hit them on the break in the second half.