• ! ! ! IMPORTANT MESSAGE ! ! !

    Discussions about police investigations

    In light of recent developments about a player from Premier League being arrested and until there is an official announcement, ALL users should refrain from discussing or speculating about situations around personal off-pitch matters related to any Arsenal player. This is to protect you and the forum.

    Users who disregard this reminder will be issued warnings and their posts will get deleted from public.

Mikel Arteta: Top Of The Klopps

blrgooner

Established Member
Nah man how is 8th a realistic expectation for Arsenal? That’s a disaster of a season and a realistic worst case scenario, it’s hard to finish lower than that.
8th is not a realistic expectation for arsenal.. But realistic expectation is 5th or 6th.. And we were not far away from that.
Its not impossible to finish lower. While the previous season was a disaster, i remember thinking in December that our best case scenario is finishing with 60-63 points and we finished with 61. The time leading to december was just horrendous and while that was not likely to continue, i think it was not far fetched to imagine us doing worse than we ended up doing.
 

RandomHero84

Established Member
Trusted ⭐

Country: England

Player:Saka
There are two things here. There is whats acceptable for Arsenal, and whats achievable for this squad.

This is a 6th or 7th place squad. Our new signings are question marks amongst this. Who are our big star players. Which players do you think would blow away a bottom of the league side? We have become unbelievably flat, devoid of star power and lacking in both balance and bite. Arteta has contributed to this, although he wasn't where the problem began.

We don't play European football this season, but do you believe we have the kind of squad to really take advantage of that? I have seen posts above saying Leicester dont have a better squad than us. Tielemans and Maddison walk in to our squad. Arguably Vardy still could. Soyuncu would too. Even Harvey Barnes would have a good case.

What is our squads strength? What does it do really well? What is our playstyle even?

When i said 6th would be about right for our squad, I was not saying Arteta would do well to get there. I am saying that complacency and mismanagement has gotten us to the point where that is the most i think we can achieve with the players currently at our disposal. The only exception, is if Auba goes back to being so prolific that he drags us higher.

I love smith rowe, but the ease in which he nails down the number 10 slot in a club as big as ours worries me.
 

Oxeki

Match Day Thread Merchant
Trusted ⭐

Country: Nigeria

Player:Saliba
We don't play European football this season, but do you believe we have the kind of squad to really take advantage of that? I have seen posts above saying Leicester dont have a better squad than us. Tielemans and Maddison walk in to our squad. Arguably Vardy still could. Soyuncu would too. Even Harvey Barnes would have a good case.

What is our squads strength? What does it do really well? What is our playstyle even?
Harvey Barnes over saka and Pepe? 🤣

Tielemans and Harvey Barnes are performing because the manager has improved them.

Vardy walk into this team? This vardy or the 2017 one? :lol:
 

Red London

Anti-Simp Culture
Trusted ⭐
I swear every single goal or chance we have conceded so far in pre season has been from set pieces? Its extremely concerning right now. New set piece coach is either rubbish or hasnt properly inprinted what he wants onto the team yet.
 

RandomHero84

Established Member
Trusted ⭐

Country: England

Player:Saka
Harvey Barnes over saka and Pepe? 🤣

Tielemans and Harvey Barnes are performing because the manager has improved them.

Vardy walk into this team? This vardy or the 2017 one? :lol:
I get that you disagree, but what Im saying is hardly outlandish. Vardy is still effective. Harvey Barnes chipped in 9 goals and 4 assists this season.

My larger point is that we are not clearly better than these teams player for player. Hypothetically we could be, based on players like Partey and Pepe delivering on our hype (I'm delighted Pepe has gradually been improving BTW).

Our squad feels like a confused collection of players who's circumstances just wound them up here, with some promising youngsters who we shouldn't expect to carry us back to top four.

We don't have many players we can really count on to put the ball in the back of the net, or even go get that final ball in.
 

Alexs

Active Member

Country: England
We play good football behind closed doors against Millwall and that's a useful barometer of Arteta's style or progress?

PS No, Leno is not better than Schmeichel
 

CaseUteinberger

Established Member

Country: Sweden
Arteta may have his poorer sides, or where he still seems to need to learn, in man management and transfers etc., but he seems like a coach that can develop players and coach them really well. That is what we have heard from well before Arsenal took a gamble on him. If that is the case this season we should be better. He now has a full pre-season. The team has played under him for 18 months (albeit under difficult circumstances with COVID) and that should help solidify everything. The young players will have developed and players coming in and needing adjustments like Pepe and Partey will have settled in more. I am fairly optimistic going into the season. At least I feel we are moving in the right direction with the squad adjustments and younger and hungrier players coming in.
 

CaseUteinberger

Established Member

Country: Sweden
I swear every single goal or chance we have conceded so far in pre season has been from set pieces? Its extremely concerning right now. New set piece coach is either rubbish or hasnt properly inprinted what he wants onto the team yet.
Let's go with the latter as the guy has been here, what 2 weeks?
 

Toby

No longer a Stuttgart Fan
Moderator
Arteta’s record against the top 6 is quite impressive we won just 3 games against the top teams out of 19 before his appointment. But beaten them 9 times in 19 matches with Mikel in charge. It’s evident he knows how to get the team pumped for big occasions but needs consistency across the season. Our first game against Brentford is a massive test it’s the sort of game we’ll go and lose.

But Arteta has the respect of the dressing room if the players believe in him then I’m all for it.

He doesn't get the team pumped for the big occasions, his Arsenal play like a midtable or lowtable side going up against the big boys, of course he'll knick a few points against them, all teams lower down the table manage that every now and then. At the same time Arsenal can't even take the game to the likes of Brighton.
 

Latest posts+

Top Bottom