Mikel Arteta: Aston La Vista To The Title?

[Toby]

I'm interested in what your opinion is on Partey? I've seen him play a few times and he's a good player but at 50m for a 27 year old to plug 1 hole when we have 4 or 5 holes seems silly.

Tbh I haven't seen him play really. Can't remember when I last watched Atletico, and when I did I never payed attention to him. There's better people out there to give opinions on him.

If he can add something, well, CM is a massive problem. On the other hand I'm fairly certain you can get decent players for smaller sums if you are clever, follow a longterm rebuild plan as Arsenal should right now and show patience. This club has no chance for short term success anyway, has a rookie coach, so just accept that and follow a 3 to 4 year plan. No single big money signing will suddenly take this club back into the CL. The team is rotten and has no core and thinking you can fix it by adding one 50 or 70m player is a fallacy, imo. The goal should be mid to longterm development of a completely new team built around those solid and talented enough already at Arsenal.

 

[benjamin86]

Tbh I haven't seen him play really. Can't remember when I last watched Atletico, and when I did I never payed attention to him. There's better people out there to give opinions on him.

If he can add something, well, CM is a massive problem. On the other hand I'm fairly certain you can get decent players for smaller sums if you are clever, follow a longterm rebuild plan as Arsenal should right now and show patience. This club has no chance for short term success anyway, has a rookie coach, so just accept that and follow a 3 to 4 year plan. No single big money signing will suddenly take this club back into the CL. The team is rotten and has no core and thinking you can fix it by adding one 50 or 70m player is a fallacy, imo. The goal should be mid to longterm development of a completely new team built around those solid and talented enough already at Arsenal.

This is where i am, we're so far from title challeninging it's stupid. We need a 5 year plan of investment in youth talent, with some older talent that are rotated out. I would sell Aubameyang if we can get 40m+

 

[Lidl_Reed]

When Arteta joined, we had 23 points in 18 games. Since then, we've got 20 points in 13 games. Over 38 games, that's around 60 points. Not exactly a great return.

That said, before him, we were projected to reach like 48 points over a season

Since the end of the January window, we have 13 points in 7 games, 5th on a form table since then, 3 points behind Liverpool

Stats courtesy Red Cafe's ridiculous Fernandes table, where we're 2 points behind their Fernandes form

 

[14Henry]

We've seen a lot of false dawns at United in the past decade. Chelsea, however, seem to me to be building something special.

Not denying that but player for player both Chelsea and United are way ahead of us. Also in terms of squad value also they are miles ahead.

Leno gets ahead of Kepa and De Gea( purely based on his form at the minute. 18 months ago wouldnt get a look in)

Saka may scrape in but thats a big maybe and nobody knows if his form will continue. Its hard to judge based on 20 games or so.

Auba starts for both United and Chelsea. Apart from that there isnt anyone who jumps out.

 

[14Henry]

When Arteta joined, we had 23 points in 18 games. Since then, we've got 20 points in 13 games. Over 38 games, that's around 60 points. Not exactly a great return.

That said, before him, we were projected to reach like 48 points over a season

Since the end of the January window, we have 13 points in 7 games, 5th on a form table since then, 3 points behind Liverpool

Artetas games have been on the easier side of things though. Better to judge him at the end because we have the likes of Sp**s/Lpool/wolves/leicester all to play.

 

[Lidl_Reed]

Artetas games have been on the easier side of things though. Better to judge him at the end because we have the likes of Sp**s/Lpool/wolves/leicester all to play.

Agreed, just posting the stats I found courtest of Redcafe. They've only got 2 points more than us over the Fernandes period and we've been ****

 

[14Henry]

Agreed, just posting the stats I found courtest of Redcafe. They've only got 2 points more than us over the Fernandes period and we've been ****

Yeah but likewise their games were probably more difficult too. Well they are bound to have been as their games until the end of the season are some of the easier you could get.

Hard to compare apples with oranges.

 

[GoonerJeeves]

Not far off what you say. Think maybe something like the following could be close to a working team:

Martinelli
Saka Auba
Tierney Xhaka AMN Cedric
Sok Holding Mustafi

or

Martinelli
Auba Saka Nelson
Xhaka AMN
Tierney Holding Mustafi Cedric​

It would not surprise me, if some of our youth League Cup teams under Wenger, would have hammered either of those two teams...

 

[GeorgiaGunner]

Not denying that but player for player both Chelsea and United are way ahead of us. Also in terms of squad value also they are miles ahead.

Leno gets ahead of Kepa and De Gea( purely based on his form at the minute. 18 months ago wouldnt get a look in)

Saka may scrape in but thats a big maybe and nobody knows if his form will continue. Its hard to judge based on 20 games or so.

Auba starts for both United and Chelsea. Apart from that there isnt anyone who jumps out.

I agree that both squads are better (and that Leno and Auba are the only ones that get into a combined XI). Just also feel that 1) they happen to match up better with City and 2) I have a bit more faith in Chelsea's

 

[Toby]

It would not surprise me, if some of our youth League Cup teams under Wenger, would have hammered either of those two teams...

Not my ****ing problem. Not the coach of Arsenal FC right now. There's a reason this team is as ****e as it is.

 

[GoonerJeeves]

Not my ****ing problem. Not the coach of Arsenal FC right now. There's a reason this team is as ****e as it is.

Where did I say it was your problem? Calm down. Just highlighted how poor the current squad is.

There is a big rebuilding job awaiting. It is hard to have much confidence in the current people in charge of the club. That is not Mikel's fault though. He has to work with what he has, but unless that squad improves drastically, it will be an uphill struggle for him.

 

[Toby]

Where did I say it was your problem? Calm down. Just highlighted how poor the current squad is.

There is a big rebuilding job awaiting. It is hard to have much confidence in the current people in charge of the club. That is not Mikel's fault though. He has to work with what he has, but unless that squad improves drastically, it will be an uphill struggle for him.

Didn't mean to attack you in any way, sorry. I'm just fed up with this club.

 

[lomekian]

Just a shout out to Arteta for out-tactic-ing his opponent today. Better finishing and final ball and we win that 4 or 5.

Our system totally nullified what had been getting them results, even if it resulted in us being a bit turgid in the second half

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

Our season could've been much better if we didn't throw the lead to draw or lose the game under emery or Artera Watford against Crystal palace twice against Wolves against Chelsea against Sheffield and against Brighton

5 points from possible 21 we earned because we couldn't hold the lead even with s**ty performance we witnessed this season we could have been fighting with Chelsea for 4th right now if our players didn't s**themselves. Just incredible really.

 

[lomekian]

Mislintat is not without fault and even though it did go well for him at Stuttgart by a small margin, he's also shown he is new to the job of DoF. It was a risky approach he took but with promotion it looks like it will pay off and the roster is moving into a clear direction; without promotion it would've been a failure, though.

You gotta keep in mind though that teams are built over multiple windows/seasons, especially when you're in a re-build phase like Arsenal. The verdict in such cases should only come after a few windows. I think Mislintat did well for the two windows he had, most importantly there was the impression there was a plan - even if that plan was mostly about starting with filling holes and being opportunistic.

The Mkhi - Sanchez swap wasn't so much due to him, as Arsenal backing themselves into a corner by not selling Alexis in the summer. Getting Mkhi in maybe wasn't the best idea, but it's not a completely disastruous idea to begin with.

He saw the team lacked goals and he brought in the only guaranteed top goalscorer available - Auba.
The team needed a RB backup with almost no demand for a starting spot; Lichtsteiner was a good fit and had a solid season for Juventus, nobody could see he'd regress so much instantly.
He brought in the needed DM in Torreira. The team needed a solid, experienced CB and he got in Sokratis. Leno the much needed successor to Cech for a good price. Brought in two talents in Mavropanos and Guendouzi.

And remember the club was on a rather tight budget that summer after much had been spent on a proper goalscorer the winter before.

I thought it was a very reasonable window addressing a lot of wholes in the roster. Would've been interesting to see where he would've gone in following windows after having to plaster the cracks in his first two and to really start building a team. But he was driven out by Raul in Jan 2019 already and Arsenal got Denis Suarez on loan.

Raul hasn't had too many windows at Arsenal, neither, but I don't see that much plan behind his signings to build an overall team as I see with Mislintat, even if the German didn't do a perfect job either.

Anyway, behind all this lies a bigger problem. The team seems completely randomly assembled due to it consisting of remnants of the Wenger era, then Mislintat started working on it, Emery had his ideas and wishes, now it's Sanllehi. And that's exactly how this team looks: Anyone gets a free hand to add something for two windows and the results is a horrible stir pot. Thing is I don't trust Sanllehi to make the right decisions, guy doesn't know how to run a self sustaining models coming from a club where he could splash hookers and cash as he pleased.

Problem with Sven has never been his scouting, which is why as head of scouting it could work. The issue is that he falls out with people. He got banned from the training ground at Dortmund and fell out with a number of staff at Arsenal. He's totally assured of his own approach, and isn't really very collaborative. If he's THE MAN it might work as its his way or the high road, but in a system where you have to work with diverse people, its more challenging. I wish him luck, because he brought more positives than negatives to the club

 

[Toby]

Problem with Sven has never been his scouting, which is why as head of scouting it could work. The issue is that he falls out with people. He got banned from the training ground at Dortmund and fell out with a number of staff at Arsenal. He's totally assured of his own approach, and isn't really very collaborative. If he's THE MAN it might work as its his way or the high road, but in a system where you have to work with diverse people, its more challenging. I wish him luck, because he brought more positives than negatives to the club

Bullshit. Get educated on the topic.

 

[Monstar-Gunn4r]

We finally seemed to have found a formation to build upon in a 4-3-3 which would allow us actually pass the ball and gain some control of matches. We might have struggled for a while with results while the players adapted but instead we went back to Emery ball, depending on our forward line to get lucky and mistakes form the other team. We looked like were playing with 10 men for most of the match

He basically decided gambling with 5 at the back and 3 points was worth more than trying to develop a system the team could build upon. Lampard took the hit earlier in the season to get his style of play across. Arteta now has me worried massively, 5 at the back barely worked against a Southampton team who are atrocious at home and depended on them making big mistakes. What we would we do against a team in form or in the top half of the table. I genuinely don't know why he decided its not stick to his guns and try to get points when its too late to mean something.

 

[lomekian]

Bullshit. Get educated on the topic.

I'm not talking about his time at Stuttgart which I freely confess I know nothing about.

But the Dortmund stuff is common knowledge - though that is partly down to Tuchel of course. And the Arsenal clashes are not news to those with even the vaguest connections. I vaguely know a couple of guys who work at the club, one in scouting, and they backed up the stories about Mislintat pissing off some colleagues and leaving scouts feeling ignored/not consulted.

I'm not saying Mislintat was wrong about what he was trying to do, but what I said is fundamentally not bullshit. For the record, I believe Arsenal also made him false indications and would have been better served giving him more influence. I'm not apportioning blame.

 

[Manberg]

People quick to criticise his subs and lineup when they think he gets it wrong. Why not praise him when he gets it right? Sticks by Nketiah despite many not behind that decision. Brings on Willock... Willock gets a goal.

 

[Jae]

People just need to be patient. He needs a couple of years at least.