Mikel Arteta: All The President’s Men

[El Realista]

Where would City be without Haaland's goals?

Why are you rewriting reality? Haaland is their CF, an attacker and they play for him. They move pretty well without the ball and pass it so quickly defenders have problems to defend. Set pieces scored by CBs is not sustainable, is not even an open goal and that's not attacking football. Our attacking is slow and predictable and you can see defenders being comfortable about our attackers not moving until corners are taken.

 

[HattoriHanzo]

Why are you rewriting reality? Haaland is their CF, an attacker and they play for him. They move pretty well without the ball and pass it so quickly defenders have problems to defend. Set pieces scored by CBs is not sustainable, is not even an open goal and that's not attacking football. Our attacking is slow and predictable and you can see defenders being comfortable about our attackers not moving until corners are taken.

What if Haaland gets injured?

How it is not attacking football when you force the opponent to concede corners?
Set pieces are part of football, set piece goals are same like open play goals.
We were without Havertz, Gyokeres, Jesus, Martinelli, Madueke against Sunderland, 5 attackers.
You remove 5 attackers from City, how would they look like?

And we were without Ødegaard, the most creative player.

 

[IrishGooner93]

Would be interesting if City fans would be pissing their pants had they been 4 points ahead at stage with 8 unbeaten in the league and 1 L.

I very much doubt it.

Because their team and manager are proven and won multiple leagues and CL. Most successful manager of all time. And every title run in they go on an incredible run.
Arteta and this team is the opposite and barely won anything, certainly no leagues. Come up short in title run ins. It's not difficult.

 

[Hleb's Sirush]

All it takes is a little stumble for some people to start crying like a spoiled child. We will have to fight for this title and it won't be easy. We can do it but no one is going to hand it to us without deserving it. The season is long and we will have to overcome several obstacles.

 

[Gooner Zig]

Injuries and subs aside the first XI we put out should still be beating Sunderland comfortably.

Having said that, you can’t win every game and let’s see how other top sides do against Sunderland. It’s too soon to point fingers but on paper we should have been winning this, injuries or not.

Football isn't played on paper though.

Tiredness/fatigue play a part, it's not just the injuries to key players themselves but the cumulative additional stress/pressure it puts on your fit starters. We were completely dead on our feet for the last 10-15 minutes. I am annoyed that Mikel didn't trust his bench a bit more, we could have put on fresh players in unusual positions just to get a bit more energy.

 

[Gooner Zig]

Man why can't our players pass the ball and move like City attackers??? Our attacks it's like pass, don't move, pass and walk without urgency.

Arteta's tactics are lethargic and boring. Without set pieces we would be in mid table position

Did you watch the second half v Sunderland? It was a clinic.

 

[Batman]

Did you watch the second half v Sunderland? It was a clinic.

This is why I have no real concern about the dropped points. The other times we dropped points pissed me off because for me, they're 100% on the manager's team selection and kneecapping us tactically before trying to rescue the game.

Against Sunderland, we dropped points because of 2 comical defensive sequences with bozo errors that this team simply doesn't normally commit and which we shouldn't expect to see repeated. The attack in the 2nd half even with no striker and not a whole lot in terms of personnel on the bench to change the game was brilliant and did enough to win us the game.

I was more encouraged by that than I was discouraged by the defensive blunders because I had more doubts that we could be down to bare bones in attack and produce that level of football. Going forward, I expect us to be back to being serious and professional defensively and critically to be able to produce more football like we did in that 2nd half in open play so that set pieces are a bonus. That's the main reason I'm not concerned or doom and gloom.

 

[Trilly]

Did you watch the second half v Sunderland? It was a clinic.

We definitely passed the test of being able to break down a low block in that game. That’s one positive I take from it, just unlucky at the end.

With hindsight I’d say that once we went 2-1 up we should have reverted to how we’d have played at 0-0 in the first rather than going into defend a lead mode. You see the best teams do that and while it can backfire sometimes, it rarely does and usually leads to another goal that fully kills the game.

That’s the next step for us I think.

 

[Gooner Zig]

We definitely passed the test of being able to break down a low block in that game. That’s one positive I take from it, just unlucky at the end.

With hindsight I’d say that once we went 2-1 up we should have reverted to how we’d have played at 0-0 in the first rather than going into defend a lead mode. You see the best teams do that and while it can backfire sometimes, it rarely does and usually leads to another goal that fully kills the game.

That’s the next step for us I think.

I genuinely think we would have kept playing our football had we had some legit attacking subs to make (sorry Nwaneri and Dowman don't count). The Fulham away game a few weeks ago we were still attacking despite being 0-1 up, Gyokeres and Martinelli had two chances to score in injury time, so I am confident in saying that the mentality is there to do it, it's just that we were hamstrung with our lack of options.

 

[HattoriHanzo]

We definitely passed the test of being able to break down a low block in that game. That’s one positive I take from it, just unlucky at the end.

With hindsight I’d say that once we went 2-1 up we should have reverted to how we’d have played at 0-0 in the first rather than going into defend a lead mode. You see the best teams do that and while it can backfire sometimes, it rarely does and usually leads to another goal that fully kills the game.

That’s the next step for us I think.

The problem is that our players were tired in last 20 minutes, while in the beginning we were fresh.
If only one of Martinelli, Gyokeres, Havertz or Madueke were fit, I'm certain we would have won.

I'm not blaming Arteta for Saturday.
You don't change your defense when you're winning and he just didn't have attacking options on the bench.
Nwaneri and Dowman are still too green for type of match like Arsenal had on Saturday.

 

[2Smokeyy]

Because their team and manager are proven and won multiple leagues and CL. Most successful manager of all time. And every title run in they go on an incredible run.
Arteta and this team is the opposite and barely won anything, certainly no leagues. Come up short in title run ins. It's not difficult.

Relying solely on past success to predict outcomes this season is very lazy. Yes City have been incredible in previous campaigns but this season is a completely different scenario as we’ve strengthened a lot better than people like you are crediting us for. It’s funny how other fans have even noticed this and have said the Sunderland result isn’t a major issue as it happens in a title race but some are throwing their toys out of the pram.

Let’s be real, this City side don’t have KDB, Gundogan, Mahrez, Alvarez or an in-form Rodri/ Bernardo. Compare this squad or even the one in 23/24 to what both teams have on show now:



With Julian Alvarez, Foden, a young Palmer, Akanji and Laporte on the bench. The side above had been together for a while similar to what we have currently whereas the City side below there are still question marks over a lot of those players (excluding Haaland) and whether they can sustain for 38 games.



Obviously, there will be questions until we get over the line but you’d expect rival fans and pundits to be posing them rather than our own fans particularly when we’re 4 points ahead and only one loss after 11 games. As most on here know I’ve not been Arteta’s biggest fan in the past however I prefer to be fair + objective and by saying that, he’s done a great job in getting us to the position we’ve been in so far this season, so credit where it’s due.

Anyways using history to dictate what will happen completely ignores the context. If past seasons were all that mattered, we might as well hand the PL to City before a ball is kicked which clearly isn’t how football works.

 

[viktor]

I genuinely think we would have kept playing our football had we had some legit attacking subs to make (sorry Nwaneri and Dowman don't count). The Fulham away game a few weeks ago we were still attacking despite being 0-1 up, Gyokeres and Martinelli had two chances to score in injury time, so I am confident in saying that the mentality is there to do it, it's just that we were hamstrung with our lack of options.

yeah great point here especially when you said "The Fulham away game a few weeks ago we were still attacking despite being 0-1 up"

so many question from arteta decision in this sunderland game including only made 1 subs

 

[Gooner Zig]

Relying solely on past success to predict outcomes this season is very lazy. Yes City have been incredible in previous campaigns but this season is a completely different scenario as we’ve strengthened a lot better than people like you are crediting us for. It’s funny how other fans have even noticed this and have said the Sunderland result isn’t a major issue as it happens in a title race but some are throwing their toys out of the pram.

Let’s be real, this City side don’t have KDB, Gundogan, Mahrez, Alvarez or an in-form Rodri/ Bernardo. Compare this squad or even the one in 23/24 to what both teams have on show now:

View attachment 40198

With Julian Alvarez, Foden, a young Palmer, Akanji and Laporte on the bench. The side above had been together for a while similar to what we have currently whereas the City side below there are still question marks over a lot of those players (excluding Haaland) and whether they can sustain for 38 games.

View attachment 40199

Obviously, there will be questions until we get over the line but you’d expect rival fans and pundits to be posing them rather than our own fans particularly when we’re 4 points ahead and only one loss after 11 games.

Using history to dictate what will happen completely ignores the context. If past seasons were all that mattered, we might as well hand the PL to City before a ball is kicked which clearly isn’t how football works.

People are projecting the 'Centurion' City on to this current iteration of Pep's team. They are a very good team with some very obvious weaknesses. Not a patch on what we've competed with in the past.

 

[2Smokeyy]

People are projecting the 'Centurion' City on to this current iteration of Pep's team. They are a very good team with some very obvious weaknesses. Not a patch on what we've competed with in the past.

They rocked up to The Emirates and they were on life support after their goal in all my years of watching Pep’s sides, I’ve never seen him do that which tells you all that needs to know. He knows what he’s up against.

Tbh it’s just gaslighting, something you’d expect to see on RAWK, Blue Moon or Red Cafe.

 

[HattoriHanzo]

so many question from arteta decision in this sunderland game including only made 1 subs

Which subs he could have made in order to prevent mistake from Gabriel (less guilty) and Ray (more guilty) which led to goal?
Which manager would substitute Gabriel and Raya?

 

[El Duderino]

Shame we didn't get maximum points from this run, but not the end of the world.

Team selection and tactics have not been a problem during the easier run. Even with all the injuries, he tried his hardest not to play too conservative of a team.

Should we be beating Sunderland? Yeah. But in context I'm not as miffed.

 

[HattoriHanzo]

I will repeat for 100th time, my biggest concern are injuries.
It's not sustainable to have so many injuries, and we have majority of these injuries in one area, attack.
5 attackers couldn't play against Sunderland (Jesus, Havertz, Gyokeres, Martinelli, Madueke)
They must do something in order to prevent this.
Training intensity, treatment of physios, I don't know what.
It started at the beginning of last season, and it continued until now.

 

[Gooner Zig]

They rocked up to The Emirates and they were on life support after their goal in all my years of watching Pep’s sides, I’ve never seen him do that which tells you all that needs to know. He knows what he’s up against.

Tbh it’s just gaslighting, something you’d expect to see on RAWK, Blue Moon or Red Cafe.

Exactly. They completely turtled up once they got that goal vs us. Pep took Haaland off ffs

Additionally, this City side have already lost 3 games this season after 11 games, they'll do well to only lose 3 more across the entire season.

 

[El Duderino]

They must do something in order to prevent this.

I mean, a lot of it is just bad luck.

Sure, Jesus and some others have always had a problem or two a season, but a lot of the injuries we've had this season are different from each other.

Kai is the only one I think falls into the realm of "could've been avoided" given he had a similar injury (iirc) last season and was still coming back from it.

 

[GDeep™]

Mick and the boys are doing great, anything else is just nit picking at this point. It’ll have to be a terrible run for me to question the boss atm.