Mikel Arteta: Aston La Vista To The Title?

[headoverheels]

Likely an unpopular view, but Arsenal are surely not unique in having an imperfect leadership structure – a leadership that isn't likely to change anytime soon. I'm willing to bet another manager could potentially work better within this - albeit undesirable - set-up. Furthermore, a more experienced manager with authority and leverage might be in a stronger position to push for certain changes...

 

[dka1]

It's the 'He buy's himself more time' stuff that worries me. It's very thought term thinking to me. If he wins the Europa League with the CL qualification that comes with it on top of the FA Cup Arteta should be seen as a long term appointment in my opinion. Not judged on a rolling basis. He'll have shown enough in my opinion in terms of achieving his objectives so far to warrant that more long term view.

His detractors will grudgingly accept he's going to be here next season if he wins the Europa League. Give it 6 months and they'll be back at him again irrespective.

Hmm I dunno, I'd say I disagree with the last paragraph.

I think if Arteta wins the EL and then on the whole we play well in the starting six months, we're 4th or thereabouts then most would be onside (or at the least can't complain), of course inevitably there will be outliers, but you'll never please 100% of the people (even big man Klopp had his detractors last season, no cap).

 

[BigPoppaPump]

Man like

The AM illuminati doing everything to shut me down but you can’t stop the movement.

 

[BigPoppaPump]

As an honest Arteta In fan, I have no choice but to strongly disagree with anyone wanting him out...Mikel is doing the best he can considering the online hatred of him is clearly effecting the squad, our fanbase needs to stop being a disgrace and back the manager for once...let's stop being haters...COYA (A is for Arteta)

Overdoing it.

 

[HairSprayGooners]

As an honest Arteta In fan, I have no choice but to strongly disagree with anyone wanting him out...Mikel is doing the best he can considering the online hatred of him is clearly effecting the squad, our fanbase needs to stop being a disgrace and back the manager for once...let's stop being haters...COYA (A is for Arteta)

 

[Kav]

It is very simple in my mind. It’s about performance.

For any manager you assess them on how they perform their duties. That may include: Coaching a team, developing players, cutting costs or making profits and most importantly Results.

For me the results have been unacceptable. The on the field performances have been very erratic and mostly unpleasant to watch. Not only are we losing matches here and there but we are also playing very poorly and being out performed by teams with inferior quality players. This suggests that the manager is either underperforming or out of his depth.

I can’t see where he has developed any particular player, the only young player who’s usually playing well is Saka. However Saka has been excellent since he came into the team under Emery.

He had made some strides in getting the team to be more solid defensively for a few weeks but all of that was quickly eroded. He’s also managed to make a very attacking Arsenal side into a very impotent one.

overall though on the balance of scales he’s not doing enough to justify his continued employment at the club.

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

Hmm I dunno, I'd say I disagree with the last paragraph.

I think if Arteta wins the EL and then on the whole we play well in the starting six months, we're 4th or thereabouts then most would be onside (or at the least can't complain), of course inevitably there will be outliers, but you'll never please 100% of the people (even big man Klopp had his detractors last season, no cap).

That's all true. Every managers has their detractors no matter how successful they are. It's happened to more experienced and better managers than Arteta.

Most know the root of the die hard, vehemently anti Arteta fans gripes anyway. Not worth going into detail but they had it in for him the day Özil was excommunicated from the squad.

Outside of the AM / online bubble Arteta's viewed in a pretty positive light by most of the fanbase anyway.

Talk of sacking Arteta if he doesn't win the EL is fine and all, it's people's opinions which is cool and it is interesting to think about. At the end of the day though it's mental masturbation. There's no reason to think Arteta will be sacked this summer based on what the higher up's have said about Arteta to date.

Fans are going to work themselves up about the idea of him getting sacked if he doesn't win the Europa League and then get angry when their fan fiction doesn't happen in reality.

 

[albakos]

Ok this is probably going to be my longest ever reply in AM and with that said I have no more to add

Just on the whole "its his team" argument. I dont get how people don't realise that he was forced to keep some players? I'm pretty certain if he could've sold Bellerin to PSG for 30M, he would and he'd buy a right back. And do you really think he's been happy having to rotate between Ceballos, Elneny and Xhaka for over half a season? I'm not sure what you expect.

He was forced to make stop gap, short term signings, medium term signings as backup that have had to start due to the starting players (Bellerin) not being good enough. I don't know about you, but I don't expect us to spend £200M in a summer, especially a pandemic ridden summer, to sort out all our problems in one go. So whilst on paper you can list all these players and say "He has his team!!" he doesn't. From the signings you listed Gabriel is the only one to have played over 2000 minutes over the entire season. You can't really sit there in sane thought and say he wanted to keep Ceballos, Elneny and Bellerin, he was forced to. If he could spend £300M last summer we wouldn't have any of these players here now.

I will reinforce that if he doesn't make the EL final and finishes below 8th then there's not much to suggest that he should stay. However, if he isn't sacked, I will back the summer window and EXPECT performances and consistency to be massively different. The plan in the summer is in place according to everyone we've heard from at the club. Which suggests CL football or not we'll be backed.

He asked Edu/extended Ceballos' loan for another year, mainly on the back of his good performances by the end of last season and Cup run.

He didn't allow Elneny to move to Besiktas permanently, instead he recalled him back.
Partey was injured for a considerable amount of time and he is now carefully managed so his injury is not aggravated again, that's why he didn't reach the minutes.

He has his team based on the decisions he made and I don't buy the "he was forced" argument.
He definitely made decisions about other players to sell/loan/freeze as well as not selling them (Bellerin, AMN, Elneny), so by that token he could have made similar decisions with the players that are now his regulars. But in fact he made the decision to trust these players and continues using them throughout the season.

I have no issues with your post. I don’t disagree that a 9th place spot is poor. I also am not totally sold on Arteta nor was I when he was signed, but also not sure if pulling the plug will help now unless we have a proper manager lined up like Nagelsmann e.g.

Given how new Arteta is to managing I am also will to give him some extra time. Maybe he is a really good coach that is just starting out. Once the club has made the decision to go in that direction we have to accept some growing pains.

My main issue is that many have chosen the wrong villain in this move and spend all their time *****ing about Arteta when they should focus on the real problem which in Kroenke!

Oh Kroenke is definitely an issue, I agree with you and I wish they leave.

But one thing you cannot take away (which was also mentioned by others) is that they also supported Arteta aplenty despite the difficult times: less money due to no-CL, pandemics and so on.

Also (as I said about results-based sports), we have to be realistic that KSE don't bother to influence Arteta decisions about who to play, the buck stops with the manager. When the performances we put are uninspiring and we lose 12 league matches (so far), sit on 9th at end of April, then the first guy that has to answer is the manager.

You mention decent performers, but how many would start in a PL top 4 side? I count Saka, Auba, Tierney, Leno/Martinez tops, which is only 4/11. With 70M last summer, he could only add Partey and Gabriel to that list, but that's only 6/11. I would not call what he inherited a team of decent performers. There's a reason Arsenal has led the league in minutes played by youth players this season, and it's the result of a squad that's been poorly managed for years and allowed to fill with overpaid dross that Arteta has had to rely on youth to such an extreme.

If you asked a neutral at the start of the season, they wouldn't say Arsenal had a Top 4 squad. It's at most Top 6. If lucky, 4-6. If unlucky (bad VAR calls, players getting sent off, injuries to our only decent CM and LB), 6-8 is a reasonable range.

Mate if you've been watching our games since Christmas, I don't know how you can claim we're not making progress. WHU was a comeback from 0-3 down and we had loads of chances vs. Fulham (xG was around 2.86 - 0.84), boys just got unlucky. We've also seen convincing wins vs. Chelsea, Leicester, and Tottenham. There's been real, tangible progress in how we attack and the number of chances we're creating. The only thing missing has been consistency, which is sure to improve as our youth matures.

No manager will ever have a team of all 11 players that he wants (unless you're early Mourinho by having an open chequebook). A competent manager should be able to utilize the existing squad into its full potential. Adding his preferred players on top of existing squad also helps more, but you cannot tell me that Arteta has struggled because the team he inherited was poor (6-8th best).

I maintain that he inherited a squad of decent performers but a dysfunctional and highly unmotivated squad due to Emery freak-show. But don't forget that the same team, just 6 months earlier managed to get into Europa final and lost the CL spot by a single point. That same team carried into the next season and was added into with other signings like: Pepe, Tierney, Luiz, Ceballos etc.

So the issues that Emery had in 2019/20 are because he lost the dressing room, was all over the place with his team selection/tactics, lost the players and the fans etc...

The argument that Arteta inherited a poor squad does not stand.

What we may observe is that after Arteta came, the squad was actually further improved. We got Gabriel, Partey, Ødegaard and removed deadwood/non-performing players: Mustafi, Özil, Kola, Sokratis, Torreira, Guendouzi etc..

The season does not start at Christmas but at August, so the stat-padding about our form after Christmas is not a very strong argument. And the improvement on results happened after there was a lot of pressure to utilise a playmaker.
So as Arteta had made his decision on Özil, he thought that Willian would replace him, to which it showed to have been a spectacular miscalculation, yet he kept persisting with it until Willian got injured. Once Arteta was against the wall due to poor results and seriously at the risk of getting fired, he finally started using ESR. But one can assume that his ego is too big to accept, took him so long to realize that he had made a mistake without an AM and this stubborn approach has cost us so many silly points in first part of season. As @Iceman10 pointed, he is very lucky that it happened when there were no fans on stands, because under that uninspiring and downright terrible form, any manager would have gotten massive pressure and get the sack.

My personal opinion is that Arteta will be here next season irrespective of where we finish in the Europa League. If there aren't strong improvements by Christmas time he'll be gone.

I also feel that regardless of what happens in EL, the Kroenkes will sadly give him another opportunity with the summer transfers and hoping it finally "bangs" (in Arteta's words).

But when the fans go back to the stands, it will not be as easy for Arteta. Who knows, maybe the fans back at the stadium can be a spark that lights the "bang" which Arteta was trying to sell

 

[HairSprayGooners]

It is very simple in my mind. It’s about performance.

For any manager you assess them on how they perform their duties. That may include: Coaching a team, developing players, cutting costs or making profits and most importantly Results.

For me the results have been unacceptable. The on the field performances have been very erratic and mostly unpleasant to watch. Not only are we losing matches here and there but we are also playing very poorly and being out performed by teams with inferior quality players. This suggests that the manager is either underperforming or out of his depth.

I can’t see where he has developed any particular player, the only young player who’s usually playing well is Saka. However Saka has been excellent since he came into the team under Emery.

He had made some strides in getting the team to be more solid defensively for a few weeks but all of that was quickly eroded. He’s also managed to make a very attacking Arsenal side into a very impotent one.

overall though on the balance of scales he’s not doing enough to justify his continued employment at the club.

The issue is you can't develop players like Bellerin and Elneny, their underlying ability only takes them so far.

I would say I believe he's improved Xhaka drastically, Laca has had some of his better moments under Arteta. Holding has looked steady, Pepe has given us some of his best moments under Mikel as well. A lot of these players lack consistency which is the big problem. Like I've said in previous threads Ceballos and Laca are good examples, they'll give you 9/10's one week but then drop 2-5/10's for the next 4 weeks.

 

[Abhishek Arora]

The 'Gunners' have failed to score in 7 games at home across 16 matches! while are winless in their last 5
What process are we talking about here?Arsenal have played with much weaker squads before and there has never been such a dismal run.
This job is too big for him..it’s upto the board now or later.

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

I also feel that regardless of what happens in EL, the Kroenkes will sadly give him another opportunity with the summer transfers and hoping it finally "bangs" (in Arteta's words).
But when the fans go back to the stands, it will not be as easy for Arteta. Who knows, maybe the fans back at the stadium can be a spark that lights the "bang" which Arteta was trying to sell

I will say as an Arteta supporter if there aren't major improvements next season, top 4 or at least pushing it and a better quality of football no-one should be trying to defend Arteta. He should be sacked.

I'm probably a little overly patient in terms of managers but if Arteta hasn't shown real, solid tangible improvements after 2.5 years, that's enough time, he has to go. No question.

 

[BigPoppaPump]

Ok this is probably going to be my longest ever reply in AM and with that said I have no more to add


He asked Edu/extended Ceballos' loan for another year, mainly on the back of his good performances by the end of last season and Cup run.
He didn't allow Elneny to move to Besiktas permanently, instead he recalled him back.
Partey was injured for a considerable amount of time and he is carefully managed so his injury is not aggravated again, that's why he didn't reach the minutes.

He has his team based on the decisions he made and I don't buy the "he was forced" argument.
He definitely made decisions about other players to sell/loan/freeze as well as not selling them (Bellerin, AMN, Elneny), so by that token he could have made similar decisions with the players that are now his regulars. But in fact he made the decision to trust these players and continues using them throughout the season.



Oh Kroenke is definitely an issue, I agree with you and I wish they leave.

But one thing you cannot take away (which was also mentioned by others) is that they also supported Arteta aplenty despite the difficult times: less money due to no-CL, pandemics and so on.
Also as I said about results-based sports, we have to be realistic that KSE don't bother to influence Arteta decisions about who to play, the buck stops with the manager. When the performances we put are uninspiring and we lose 12 league matches (so far), sit on 9th at end of April, then the first guy that has to answer is the manager.


No manager will ever have a team of all 11 players that he wants (unless you're early Mourinho by having an open chequebook). A competent manager should be able to utilize the existing squad into its full potential. Adding his preferred players on top of existing squad also helps more, but you cannot tell me that Arteta has struggled because the team he inherited was poor (6-8th best).
I maintain that he inherited a squad of decent performers but a dysfuntional and highly unmotivated squad due to Emery freak-show. But don't forget that the same team, just 6 months earlier managed to get into Europa final and lost the CL by a single point. That same team carried into the next season and was added into with other signings like: Pepe, Tierney, Luiz, Ceballos etc.
So the issues that Emery had in 2019/20 are because he lost the dressing room, was all over the place with his team selection/tactics, lost the players and the fans etc... It was not because the squad that Arteta inherited was poor.

What we may observe is that after Arteta came, the squad was actually further improved. We got Gabriel, Partey, Ødegaard and removed deadwood/non-performing players: Mustafi, Özil, Kola, Sokratis, Torreira, Guendouzi etc..

The season does not start at Christmas but at August, so the stat-padding about our form after Christmas is not a very strong argument. And the improvement on results happened after there was a lot of pressure to utilise a playmaker.
But as Arteta had made his decision on Özil, he thought that Willian would replace him, to which it showed to have a spectacular miscalculation yet he kept persisting with it until Willian got injured. Once he was against the wall, he finally started using ESR. But one can assume his ego is too big to accept, took him so long to realize that he had made a mistake without an AM and this stubborn approach has cost us so many silly points in first part of season. As @Iceman10 pointed he is very lucky that it happened when there were no fans on stands, because under that uninspiring and downright terrible form, any manager would have gotten massive pressure and get the sack.



I also feel that regardless of what happens in EL, the Kroenkes will sadly give him another opportunity with the summer transfers and hoping it finally "bangs" (in Arteta's words).
But when the fans go back to the stands, it will not be as easy for Arteta. Who knows, maybe the fans back at the stadium can be a spark that lights the "bang" which Arteta was trying to sell

I expect your apology to me to be an even bigger post than this.

 

[HairSprayGooners]

Ok this is probably going to be my longest ever reply in AM and with that said I have no more to add


He asked Edu/extended Ceballos' loan for another year, mainly on the back of his good performances by the end of last season and Cup run.
He didn't allow Elneny to move to Besiktas permanently, instead he recalled him back.
Partey was injured for a considerable amount of time and he is carefully managed so his injury is not aggravated again, that's why he didn't reach the minutes.

He has his team based on the decisions he made and I don't buy the "he was forced" argument.
He definitely made decisions about other players to sell/loan/freeze as well as not selling them (Bellerin, AMN, Elneny), so by that token he could have made similar decisions with the players that are now his regulars. But in fact he made the decision to trust these players and continues using them throughout the season.



Oh Kroenke is definitely an issue, I agree with you and I wish they leave.

But one thing you cannot take away (which was also mentioned by others) is that they also supported Arteta aplenty despite the difficult times: less money due to no-CL, pandemics and so on.
Also as I said about results-based sports, we have to be realistic that KSE don't bother to influence Arteta decisions about who to play, the buck stops with the manager. When the performances we put are uninspiring and we lose 12 league matches (so far), sit on 9th at end of April, then the first guy that has to answer is the manager.


No manager will ever have a team of all 11 players that he wants (unless you're early Mourinho by having an open chequebook). A competent manager should be able to utilize the existing squad into its full potential. Adding his preferred players on top of existing squad also helps more, but you cannot tell me that Arteta has struggled because the team he inherited was poor (6-8th best).
I maintain that he inherited a squad of decent performers but a dysfuntional and highly unmotivated squad due to Emery freak-show. But don't forget that the same team, just 6 months earlier managed to get into Europa final and lost the CL by a single point. That same team carried into the next season and was added into with other signings like: Pepe, Tierney, Luiz, Ceballos etc.
So the issues that Emery had in 2019/20 are because he lost the dressing room, was all over the place with his team selection/tactics, lost the players and the fans etc... It was not because the squad that Arteta inherited was poor.

What we may observe is that after Arteta came, the squad was actually further improved. We got Gabriel, Partey, Ødegaard and removed deadwood/non-performing players: Mustafi, Özil, Kola, Sokratis, Torreira, Guendouzi etc..

The season does not start at Christmas but at August, so the stat-padding about our form after Christmas is not a very strong argument. And the improvement on results happened after there was a lot of pressure to utilise a playmaker.
But as Arteta had made his decision on Özil, he thought that Willian would replace him, to which it showed to have a spectacular miscalculation yet he kept persisting with it until Willian got injured. Once he was against the wall, he finally started using ESR. But one can assume his ego is too big to accept, took him so long to realize that he had made a mistake without an AM and this stubborn approach has cost us so many silly points in first part of season. As @Iceman10 pointed he is very lucky that it happened when there were no fans on stands, because under that uninspiring and downright terrible form, any manager would have gotten massive pressure and get the sack.



I also feel that regardless of what happens in EL, the Kroenkes will sadly give him another opportunity with the summer transfers and hoping it finally "bangs" (in Arteta's words).
But when the fans go back to the stands, it will not be as easy for Arteta. Who knows, maybe the fans back at the stadium can be a spark that lights the "bang" which Arteta was trying to sell

Of course he was forced, take the Bellerin situation, what was he expected to do there? Teams were offering loans for Bellerin. Were we going to loan him out and have Cedric as our only fit right back? No, you keep the player for the season because you can't really do anything else with no money in the pot.

Same thing with Ceballos, yes he was kept because of his good performances towards the end of the season, but its still just a loan with no option or obligation to buy. Why? Because we couldn't afford to sign multiple midfielders, it was the easy, stop gap option.

Again, same with David Luiz, if we had the extra 30-50M to sign a top CB do you think Luiz would've stayed? No. If we could've shifted the players we needed to, we would've done more and Arteta would've done more. However we were in a Covid summer, something nobody has ever experience and like I said teams didn't have any money.

Surely you can see that £75M in one summer doesn't get you YOUR team and the team YOU want.

 

[Rimaal]

If he wins EL and gets us back to CL, then he buys himself more time here and deservedly so, but massive improvements need to be made in terms of performances as well as results.

What I say is that EL is a critical point for him and the only measure for which any decision about his future should be based on.

Win Europa: He gets to make his decisions in summer on player transfers, but he is also given a clear set of objectives that he must meet in next season like:

• Finish in CL places in PL,
• Make it past CL group stage,
• Have a decent run in domestic cups,
• More minutes for younger players etc...

Lose Europa: He's sacked!

 

[Macho]

Ok this is probably going to be my longest ever reply in AM and with that said I have no more to add


He asked Edu/extended Ceballos' loan for another year, mainly on the back of his good performances by the end of last season and Cup run.
He didn't allow Elneny to move to Besiktas permanently, instead he recalled him back.
Partey was injured for a considerable amount of time and he is carefully managed so his injury is not aggravated again, that's why he didn't reach the minutes.

He has his team based on the decisions he made and I don't buy the "he was forced" argument.
He definitely made decisions about other players to sell/loan/freeze as well as not selling them (Bellerin, AMN, Elneny), so by that token he could have made similar decisions with the players that are now his regulars. But in fact he made the decision to trust these players and continues using them throughout the season.



Oh Kroenke is definitely an issue, I agree with you and I wish they leave.

But one thing you cannot take away (which was also mentioned by others) is that they also supported Arteta aplenty despite the difficult times: less money due to no-CL, pandemics and so on.
Also as I said about results-based sports, we have to be realistic that KSE don't bother to influence Arteta decisions about who to play, the buck stops with the manager. When the performances we put are uninspiring and we lose 12 league matches (so far), sit on 9th at end of April, then the first guy that has to answer is the manager.


No manager will ever have a team of all 11 players that he wants (unless you're early Mourinho by having an open chequebook). A competent manager should be able to utilize the existing squad into its full potential. Adding his preferred players on top of existing squad also helps more, but you cannot tell me that Arteta has struggled because the team he inherited was poor (6-8th best).
I maintain that he inherited a squad of decent performers but a dysfuntional and highly unmotivated squad due to Emery freak-show. But don't forget that the same team, just 6 months earlier managed to get into Europa final and lost the CL by a single point. That same team carried into the next season and was added into with other signings like: Pepe, Tierney, Luiz, Ceballos etc.
So the issues that Emery had in 2019/20 are because he lost the dressing room, was all over the place with his team selection/tactics, lost the players and the fans etc... It was not because the squad that Arteta inherited was poor.

What we may observe is that after Arteta came, the squad was actually further improved. We got Gabriel, Partey, Ødegaard and removed deadwood/non-performing players: Mustafi, Özil, Kola, Sokratis, Torreira, Guendouzi etc..

The season does not start at Christmas but at August, so the stat-padding about our form after Christmas is not a very strong argument. And the improvement on results happened after there was a lot of pressure to utilise a playmaker.
But as Arteta had made his decision on Özil, he thought that Willian would replace him, to which it showed to have a spectacular miscalculation yet he kept persisting with it until Willian got injured. Once he was against the wall, he finally started using ESR. But one can assume his ego is too big to accept, took him so long to realize that he had made a mistake without an AM and this stubborn approach has cost us so many silly points in first part of season. As @Iceman10 pointed he is very lucky that it happened when there were no fans on stands, because under that uninspiring and downright terrible form, any manager would have gotten massive pressure and get the sack.



I also feel that regardless of what happens in EL, the Kroenkes will sadly give him another opportunity with the summer transfers and hoping it finally "bangs" (in Arteta's words).
But when the fans go back to the stands, it will not be as easy for Arteta. Who knows, maybe the fans back at the stadium can be a spark that lights the "bang" which Arteta was trying to sell

Preach preach preach.

 

[Hunta]

We had the sixth best squad going into the season, either he finishes top six or wins the EL.

Anything else and he should be sacked.

Last time I’m saying it, so read it, take it in.

 

[Kav]

The issue is you can't develop players like Bellerin and Elneny, their underlying ability only takes them so far.

I would say I believe he's improved Xhaka drastically, Laca has had some of his better moments under Arteta. Holding has looked steady, Pepe has given us some of his best moments under Mikel as well. A lot of these players lack consistency which is the big problem. Like I've said in previous threads Ceballos and Laca are good examples, they'll give you 9/10's one week but then drop 2-5/10's for the next 4 weeks.

Your post merely highlights that Arteta does not know his players very well then. Otherwise he would have planned for and mitigated against these longstanding issues.

Instead he chose to continually play certain players when they were out of form. He did it with lacazette, Bellerin, Willian, Luiz, Xhaka and aubameyang. This alone should be a red flag.

 

[Abhishek Arora]

You mention decent performers, but how many would start in a PL top 4 side? I count Saka, Auba, Tierney, Leno/Martinez tops, which is only 4/11. With 70M last summer, he could only add Partey and Gabriel to that list, but that's only 6/11. I would not call what he inherited a team of decent performers. There's a reason Arsenal has led the league in minutes played by youth players this season, and it's the result of a squad that's been poorly managed for years and allowed to fill with overpaid dross that Arteta has had to rely on youth to such an extreme.

If you asked a neutral at the start of the season, they wouldn't say Arsenal had a Top 4 squad. It's at most Top 6. If lucky, 4-6. If unlucky (bad VAR calls, players getting sent off, injuries to our only decent CM and LB), 6-8 is a reasonable range.

Mate if you've been watching our games since Christmas, I don't know how you can claim we're not making progress. WHU was a comeback from 0-3 down and we had loads of chances vs. Fulham (xG was around 2.86 - 0.84), boys just got unlucky. We've also seen convincing wins vs. Chelsea, Leicester, and Tottenham. There's been real, tangible progress in how we attack and the number of chances we're creating. The only thing missing has been consistency, which is sure to improve as our youth matures.

It doesn’t matter if he won against Chelsea or ManUtd.Arsenal are ninth in the table and this is what matters.Arteta is the man responsible.If you compare the number of goals scored under previous managers compared to Arteta i dont think attack has made any progress.

 

[Riou]

For all the..."Arteta is a rookie coach, he needs more time" or... "If he doesn't win the Europa, he will be sacked" ...none of us know exactly what the board have told him, or what the plan is.

He could win the Europa, then get thrown aside for a big name manager...or he could finish 15th, and get a new contract...I don't even know who could have a plan at this club anymore!

My advice, don't get too attached to what you think Mikel needs to do, as you could just end up disppointed at the end of the season, depending on what the board's targets are...none of us are in any power to decide anything.

 

[SK___]

I've got zero issue with the people who think he's a crap manager. Maybe I'm wrong and he is rubbish.

Whether he's good at his job or not though it's crystal clear to me that he's got ambition and really wants the club to be successful. If we're being brutally honest there are very few others in positions of power at the club that you could say that about.

none of that matters when you’re **** at your job