Mikel Arteta: All The President’s Men

[GoonerJeeves]

Just as an aside, I read last week that Ashley Cole won more league titles at Arsenal than he did at Chelsea and my mind was blown. The media would have you believe that the reverse was true.

Did you nearly swerve off the road?

 

[Clrnc]

Compare this team with 2007/08 and it falls short imo.

Give me 2008 Adebayor, Van Persie, Fabregas, Sagna, Kolo, Clichy and Hleb over their equivalents.

I guess I’d take Ramsdale, Saliba, Saka and Partey over Almunia, ****, Eboue and Flamini (but only just).

Back ups of Eduardo, Rosicky, young Diaby and Song are probably better than what we have as well.

The 07/08 team was performing at a ridiculously high level. Hleb was being compared to Ronaldo ffs.

When sometimes I looked back at match highlights of that team we dominated some legendary teams that season on pure performance. It was incredible.

 

[El Duderino]

The 07/08 team was performing at a ridiculously high level. Hleb was being compared to Ronaldo ffs.

When sometimes I looked back at match highlights of that team we dominated some legendary teams that season on pure performance. It was incredible.

Couple of journos here in Brazil were saying we played better footy than Barcelona.

It was true. Probably the most fluid team I've ever seen.

Still prefer Pace and power Wenger ball, personally, but thst 08 team comes very close.

 

[El Duderino]

Reckon without Galas we clutch the league.

His head went and so did the rest of the team.

 

[El Duderino]

Hope the WC does heat up the January window market, though. We need bodies and it will be interesting to see what players and what teams start to faulter that 10-20% that can turn games because players don't want to be injured for the WC in a 50-50 challenge.

 

[Clrnc]

Reckon without Galas we clutch the league.

His head went and so did the rest of the team.

To be fair to Gallas, he was extremely solid in the first half of the season and formed a solid partnership with Kolo.

In big games he was mostly flawless and was inspirational in games like at San Siro for example.

 

[El Duderino]

To be fair to Gallas, he was extremely solid in the first half of the season and formed a solid partnership with Kolo.

In big games he was mostly flawless and was inspirational in games like at San Siro for example.

Just have bad memories with that defence and balls over the top.

He was the proto-mustafi, I guess. Solid, but didn't have his head screwed on proper.

That whole French generation was a bit like that.

 

[db10_therza]

Did you nearly swerve off the road?

How has not received more likes?

It's more of a style thing, give Wenger this squad and they would play a lot more interesting football than what we see right now

Statistically we look like chance creation beasts but the eye isn't really fooled, why would it be. Things like the chances Jesus creates singlehandedly are sometimes mentioned here as if they were super easy 1v1 when they're nothing but half chances, back then they were barely mentioned because relative to the quality of other chances created they just didn't stand out.

How has this received ANY likes? Literally no one thinks we’re not playing stylish football right now, let alone an alleged arsenal fan. You need to go specsavers. Forget that you need to buy specsavers. Prob get a good deal the way stocks are going these days…

 

[Rex Caudillo]

Couple of journos here in Brazil were saying we played better footy than Barcelona.

It was true. Probably the most fluid team I've ever seen.

Still prefer Pace and power Wenger ball, personally, but thst 08 team comes very close.

Yeah it was the last year we had true balance because we were rock solid at the back.

The 4-4-2 really worked well and I liked Eboue at right wing in front of Sagna.

 

[Bogart]

How has this received ANY likes? Literally no one thinks we’re not playing stylish football right now, let alone an alleged arsenal fan. You need to go specsavers. Forget that you need to buy specsavers. Prob get a good deal the way stocks are going these days…

He’s a troll and they like to feed him because they think reactions like yours just now are funny. He’s a pretty good troll, have to admit. The only reason it took me a while to recognise is because he seems so similar to baki, rasmi, and timojens.

 

[Bogart]

People were triggered when I said we’d play the best football this season. Take a moment to look around, most of the teams in this league are boring. They’re okay if you watch them once in a while but every week would be a chore. We’re a very good watch.

 

[2Smokeyy]

I don't agree with him either on the "potential" thing.

That team had around the same average age as this one but was performing at a higher level. You didn't see age being used an excuse then, you didn't even hear the world "potential" being used.

When we fell away at the end, all the blame was lumped at wenger's feet.

I think people are sleeping on how good that team was because they were competing with one of the best ever, if not the best ever Utd side in their history that were competing on all fronts. Ngl the team below would probably have a very good chance of winning the PL in 2022. The obvious weakness was the defence, injury problems with Rosicky/RVP + depth the squad but besides that it was a fantastic side.



That Hleb + Cesc link up play and an inform Adebayor were a lot to handle for many teams.

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

We're in the era of micromanagement and extensively pouring over minutia when it comes to tactics etc. It's marginal gains stuff.

It's the most effective way to be successful in this era. But it does massively marginalise spontaneity and freedom in the game and I think fan enjoyment of the game as an art form.

Teams don't play like those beautiful on the eye Arsenal sides anymore. It's just the way the games evolved.

Even in that past 15 years it wasn't a style of football that was built to dominate leagues year on year like a more pragmatic Ferguson side was for example.

Fergie's objective was trying to dominate and win league titles. Arguably Arsène's main objective was to create high art out of football. That's a much more difficult and by definition fragile thing to achieve and maintain.

On the eye though no-one in English football will touch the level of artistry that many of those Wenger sides had.

 

[Rex Caudillo]

I think people are sleeping on how good that team was because they were competing with one of the best ever, if not the best ever Utd side in their history that were competing on all fronts. Ngl the team below would probably have a very good chance of winning the PL in 2022. The obvious weakness was the defence, injury problems with Rosicky/RVP + depth the squad but besides that it was a fantastic side.

View attachment 9464

That Hleb + Cesc link up play and an inform Adebayor were a lot to handle for many teams.

That line up was better with Eboue at right mid and Rozza off the bench.

Flamini was an absolute beast in them days as well.

 

[2Smokeyy]

The 07/08 team was performing at a ridiculously high level. Hleb was being compared to Ronaldo ffs.

When sometimes I looked back at match highlights of that team we dominated some legendary teams that season on pure performance. It was incredible.

Hleb until this day is still one of my favourite players, I think a lot of fans discredit him for the way he left but back then he was making a lot of so called “top players” look average.

Never forget the way he performed in Milan and over those two legs against Liverpool when Kuyt had to manhandle him in the first leg.

Throwback:

 

[db10_therza]

We're in the era of micromanagement and extensively pouring over minutia when it comes to tactics etc. It's marginal gains stuff.

It's the most effective way to be successful in this era. But it does massively marginalise spontaneity and freedom in the game and I think fan enjoyment of the game as an art form.

Teams don't play like those beautiful on the eye Arsenal sides anymore. It's just the way the games evolved.

Even in that past 15 years it wasn't a style of football that was built to dominate leagues year on year like a more pragmatic Ferguson side was for example.

Fergie's objective was trying to dominate and win league titles. Arguably Arsène's main objective was to create high art out of football. That's a much more difficult and fragile thing to achieve.

On the eye though no-one in English football will touch the level of artistry that many of those Wenger sides had.

We’re also in an era where referees are happy to let players get lumps kicked out of them. I don’t recall the league being as primal back then, I wonder how a midfield of fab+Flam+hleb+ros would cope in todays game.

 

[Makingtrax]

We're in the era of micromanagement and extensively pouring over minutia when it comes to tactics etc. It's marginal gains stuff.

It's the most effective way to be successful in this era. But it does massively marginalise spontaneity and freedom in the game and I think fan enjoyment of the game as an art form.

Teams don't play like those beautiful on the eye Arsenal sides anymore. It's just the way the games evolved.

Even in that past 15 years it wasn't a style of football that was built to dominate leagues year on year like a more pragmatic Ferguson side was for example.

On the eye though no-one in English football will touch the level of artistry that many of those Wenger sides had.

This. Chelsea and United football with all their cash had no holes in their squads and their styles were pragmatic as you say, particularly Mourinho in 2004. But Wenger’s all out attack and flamboyant football was incredibly effective at getting top 4 every year on a shoe string. The squads had holes but by out scoring the opposition, particularly with lower teams they always crossed the line.

No other manager had the audacity to try that, then or since, with maybe the exception of Bielsa at Leeds, those teams with less money usually sit back against the top teams and hope to counter.

 

[Bogart]

We’re also in an era where referees are happy to let players get lumps kicked out of them.

Pretty sure you’re horribly wrong here. I think the teams are more cynical now; they systematise their fouling. But when I’ve gone back and watched games from that period I’ve thought it was extremely dirty and rash. Most of those Wenger sides were dirty and passionate (not very clever with it though); I just think we were more exposed than other teams because our attacks were more complex, we’d run with the ball, we had more possession etc.

 

[albakos]

We're in the era of micromanagement and extensively pouring over minutia when it comes to tactics etc. It's marginal gains stuff.

It's the most effective way to be successful in this era. But it does massively marginalise spontaneity and freedom in the game and I think fan enjoyment of the game as an art form.

Teams don't play like those beautiful on the eye Arsenal sides anymore. It's just the way the games evolved.

Even in that past 15 years it wasn't a style of football that was built to dominate leagues year on year like a more pragmatic Ferguson side was for example.

Fergie's objective was trying to dominate and win league titles. Arguably Arsène's main objective was to create high art out of football. That's a much more difficult and by definition fragile thing to achieve and maintain.

On the eye though no-one in English football will touch the level of artistry that many of those Wenger sides had.

Beautiful post, time for @Blood on the Tracks induction on A-M Classics

Hleb until this day is still one of my favourite players, I think a lot of fans discredit him for the way he left but back then he was making a lot of so called “top players” look average.

Never forget the way he performed in Milan and over those two legs against Liverpool when Kuyt had to manhandle him in the first leg.

Throwback:

Hleb was unreal in his flamboyance, elegance and perfectly weighted passes. Shame how it ended for him, as he instantly regretted it and admitted his error in judgment.

@Toby look at your lad Hleb here

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

Beautiful post, time for @Blood on the Tracks induction on A-M Classics


Hleb was unreal in his flamboyance, elegance and perfectly weighted passes. Shame how it ended for him, as he instantly regretted it and admitted his error in judgment.

@Toby look at your lad Hleb here

Thanks, I'm honoured