Mikel Arteta: Aston La Vista To The Title?

[Tnegs]

Not the best win ratio of any manager in our clubs history trophy

That FA Cup was Aubas, I give Arteta little stick for the first 8th place finish so he gets little credit for a trophy where he ran the ones responsible out the club anyways.

Said plenty positive about him in recent weeks, not going to repeat it so you can touch yourself to it. If we end up 2nd or worse then this crashing out at home in Europe for the third time will massively sting.

Can you blame him for running Auba out of the club? Man was awful after he signed that last fat contract and looked like he didn’t care anymore. Arteta showed the ruthlessness that we have lacked in the past he got rid of the bums who gave up caring after getting their last fat contract and we have very clearly benefitted from it. I love Auba for what he did before that last contract but for how he performed after that Arteta was completely right in getting rid of him.

 

[say yes]

The obvious problem with a lot of the Arteta takes on here is that people rewrote the history of his first half-season following his second when they thought he was a flop.

It’s where all this nonsense about him being responsible for finishing 8th in 2019/2020 comes from, or not crediting him for our FA cup win.

It’s always been revisionist drivel which doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. But the people pointing that out at the time were ‘run off the forum’ as ‘Arteta-sexuals’, so this is now coming as news to a lot of you. The metaphorical iron curtain has come down and you’re gawping at our shiny modern microwaves.

 

[celestis]

Best just to put this behind us , with the injuries to Tomiyasu and Saliba probably best we are not in Europa , that would have really stretched us .

 

[Trilly]

Yeah and that makes no sense.

Arteta picked up more points that season any other club apart from City, United, Liverpool and Chelsea (by +1), despite taking over a club in free fall, and then masterminded an FA cup win against the odds.

But he doesn’t deserve credit for the cup win because the club were nearer the relegation zone than top 4 before he took over?

So picked up points at a 5th place finish rate when we had the 5/6th best squad in the league at the time? Nothing special really? The free-fall just shows how bad Emery was underperforming, not like that was anywhere near our actual level.

As for the cup win I'm not taking that away from him but it was unsustainable football which is why Mikel himself has moved away from that approach.

 

[Macho]

. Are we resigned to poor cup performances until we have a Man City style second team?

It's what we signed up for. If he's provided with this and the majority of players are on board then f*ck it.

For the record I don't think we were poor over the two legs, Sporting didn't give a sh*t and matched us for periods over the 2 legs which is typical of European comps.

 

[say yes]

So picked up points at a 5th place finish rate when we had the 5/6th best squad in the league at the time? Nothing special really? The free-fall just shows how bad Emery was underperforming, not like that was anywhere near our actual level.

As for the cup win I'm not taking that away from him but it was unsustainable football which is why Mikel himself has moved away from that approach.

Didn’t say it was special. I said it makes no sense to blame him for coming 8th (which is always done on here) or to take away any credit for the cup win (which tbf, you’re not doing).

 

[Trilly]

It's what we signed up for. If he's provided with this and the majority of players are on board then f*ck it.

For the record I don't think we were poor over the two legs, Sporting didn't give a sh*t and matched us for periods over the 2 legs which is typical of European comps.

Yeah neither do I tbh. I just don't like the big picture at all.

Worrying trend because it's going to take us a while (and a lot of money) to get to that level of depth, does that mean next season's CL is going to be a sad ting?

 

[Macho]

Yeah neither do I tbh. I just don't like the big picture at all.

Worrying trend because it's going to take us a while (and a lot of money) to get to that level of depth, does that mean next season's CL is going to be a sad ting?

Impossible to say, would any of us predicted we’d be in for the league in March/April this time last season?

Depending on where we are in the league going out of the CL at this stage in our first season back isn’t a disaster.

 

[Macho]

Fwiw I think it’s way harder to do what we’ve done in the league than get to say, CL quarter finals in my opinion.

I’m not too fussed.

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

Getting to the last 16 should be the goal for the CL next season I think.

I think it's pretty unrealistic for us to make the step up from where we are now to competing with Real, Bayern, PSG etc at the business end of the CL in one season.

 

[Bloodbather]

Getting to the last 16 should be the goal for the CL next season I think.

I think it's pretty unrealistic for us to make the step up from where we are now to competing with Real, Bayern, PSG etc at the business end of the CL in one season.

I agree, but it also seemed pretty unrealistic for us to compete for the PL title this season so...

 

[14Henry]

Getting to the last 16 should be the goal for the CL next season I think.

I think it's pretty unrealistic for us to make the step up from where we are now to competing with Real, Bayern, PSG etc at the business end of the CL in one season.

Na the ambition has to be a little higher than last 16. Obviously it depends on who we get in the last 16. A Real Madrid, Bayern etc fair enough. But something like an Atletico Madrid, Benfica, maybe an Italian team etc we should be beating them.

We need to stop with the minimum expectations. We need to sign big this summer and make the most of offering CL football. Because next year there are no guarantees.

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

Na the ambition has to be a little higher than last 16. Obviously it depends on who we get in the last 16. A Real Madrid, Bayern etc fair enough. But something like an Atletico Madrid, Benfica, maybe an Italian team etc we should be beating them.

We need to stop with the minimum expectations. We need to sign big this summer and make the most of offering CL football. Because next year there are no guarantees.

The CL is a different beast though. We'll be one of the lower seeded teams in our group and we've just got knocked out of the EL by a team who finished 3rd in their CL group this season, albeit it wasn't our strongest side.

I don't think we can go into the CL next season with the attitude of swatting away everyone until we come up against one of the really big boys.

 

[jones]

The CL is a different beast though. We'll be one of the lower seeded teams in our group and we've just got knocked out of the EL by a team who finished 3rd in their CL group this season, albeit it wasn't our strongest side.

I don't think we can go into the CL next season with the attitude of swatting away everyone until we come up against one of the really big boys.

We're 1st seed if we win the league. Been that way since 2020 too

 

[GDeep™]

Getting to the last 16 should be the goal for the CL next season I think.

I think it's pretty unrealistic for us to make the step up from where we are now to competing with Real, Bayern, PSG etc at the business end of the CL in one season.

Experience wise, yeah. Spending wise we are up there now.

 

[14Henry]

The CL is a different beast though. We'll be one of the lower seeded teams in our group and we've just got knocked out of the EL by a team who finished 3rd in their CL group this season, albeit it wasn't our strongest side.

I don't think we can go into the CL next season with the attitude of swatting away everyone until we come up against one of the really big boys.

Swatting away no.

But the teams I said I would expect us to beat maybe narrowly.

The worst Chelsea team in ages beat Dortmund. Those are the teams I'd be expecting to beat. RB Liepzigs, Dortmund etc.

Psg, Bayern, real etc no.

But the idea that we should accept getting put out by say Atletico because it's our first year back for a while ain't for me. Not when I expect us to invest at least 200m in the squad this summer. Maybe 250m.

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

We're 1st seed if we win the league. Been that way since 2020 too

Ah right fair enough. I didn't know that.

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

Experience wise, yeah. Spending wise we are up there now.

Don't we have the 5th most expensive squad in the PL?

Don't get me wrong we've spent quite a lot over the past couple of years but I think it'll probably take another couple of seasons to really get the depth needed to challenge for multiple titles like the PL and CL each season. CL money should help us out a bit with that though.

 

[A_G]

Getting to the last 16 should be the goal for the CL next season I think.

I think it's pretty unrealistic for us to make the step up from where we are now to competing with Real, Bayern, PSG etc at the business end of the CL in one season.

Klopp got to a final in his first season of CL at Liverpool. With a similarly good draw, anything is possible.

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

Klopp got to a final in his first season of CL at Liverpool. With a similarly good draw, anything is possible.

Thanks, Captain Obvious.