Mikel Arteta: Aston La Vista To The Title?

[AberGooner]

This is the thing. Look at our team.

Leno, he chose him over Emi. He brought in Cedric, Mari and wanted Luiz to stay another year. He was happy to let Kola and AMN go without signing a Tierney backup. He wanted Gabriel. Holding was linked with a move away before deciding he wanted him to stay. He brought in Partey, personally convinced Xhaka to stay, used Elneny when his Arsenal career looked all but over. Brought back Ceballos, sent Torreira out on loan, sent Willock out on loan. Sent Guendouzi on loan. Discarded Özil and played no 10 for months quite happily. He wanted Willian. He's chosen not to use Pepe a lot as a starter. Decided not to send Eddie out on loan again. Wanted to keep Laca. Wanted Auba to stay and sign a big contract.

Almost the entirety of our current squad, Arteta either chose them over another player, brought them back, convinced them to stay or signed them. There's very few players that have been forced upon him. Chambers I guess but that's hardly a massive issue. Tierney and Pepe, but I mean what kind of manager would complain about inheriting these types of players. Saka and Martinelli, two youngster with high potential, one of whom he's incredibly reliant upon.

Arteta has been backed to the hills in everything he's done. Any player he didn't want regardless of talent, wages, value, etc was chucked aside. Any player he wanted in was brought in. Players with one leg out the door were convinced to stay because he wanted them to. Wenger was never backed to this extent in his final years. Yet a rookie has been backed like this, has us 11th and still has people making excuses saying he needs to be backed more.

Even after all that Arteta himself has made comments saying we need 5 or 6 new players. People can call the players "soft" or whatever but if your hearing your manager saying he needs further new players you can sure their will be doubts starting to swirl in their minds.

Smaller pieces in the squad like Nketiah he rejected all talk of loaning in January yet he's barely made the bench since then. That's a guy who could have been earning a summer move with a loan and get us a higher fee. AMN he did all the hard work in the summer to convince him to stay and then stopped using him. He send so many mixed messages that you'd be surprised if the players aren't confused with their roles.

 

[Iceman10]

Arteta is saying he isn’t playing Martinelli because the line-up would have too many young players. Somehow Martinelli would be a tipping point, so keep Willian in instead. Doesn’t make sense to me, but at least we’re getting some answers, regardless of whether they make any sense.

'Gabi has things to improve' Arteta calls for patience and explains Martinelli's Arsenal absence | Goal.com UK

Mikel Arteta has called on Arsenal fans to remain patient over Gabriel Martinelli and insists the Gunners striker has a big future at the club

www.goal.com

 

[Makingtrax]

Özil upgraded?

I meant in the eyes of the club/manager, obviously. Not in my eyes or yours.

 

[Football Manager]

Let him prove he can do a job similar to Brendan Rodgers and David Moyes. So far he is only showing signs of trying to be Pep at a club that doesn’t have the same resources as City.

WTF???
Arteta is playing rush, cross spamming, anti-possession boring football, its Tony Pulis, Moyes football, it’s nothing like Pep’s beautiful skillful patient build up football.

 

[Rimaal]

This is interesting looking back, would ESR have even played this game if Willian wasn't feeling unwell? Imagine if Willian was never sick, how things could have been so different.

Like can we even give credit to Arteta for ESR? He played him in a game he had no real choice but to play him, he has an instant impact and starts the next few games after. There was no indication before this game that Arteta was ever gonna start him in a game of such magnitude.

The only ones that have been giving him credit for ESR are those defending him. The rest of us are fully aware that ESR would never have started had Arteta's hand not been forced.

 

[GoonerJeeves]

This is interesting looking back, would ESR have even played this game if Willian wasn't feeling unwell? Imagine if Willian was never sick, how things could have been so different.

Like can we even give credit to Arteta for ESR? He played him in a game he had no real choice but to play him, he has an instant impact and starts the next few games after. There was no indication before this game that Arteta was ever gonna start him in a game of such magnitude.

I think ESR would always have gotten a chance here. The quality was clear to see at Town, and I have no doubt that ESR's quality was readily apparant at Arsenal.

Let us not make hypothetical problems, we have enough real ones.

 

[GoonerJay24]

WTF???
Arteta is playing rush, cross spamming, anti-possession boring football, its Tony Pulis, Moyes football, it’s nothing like Pep’s beautiful skillful patient build up football.

Peps football isn't beautiful to me it's boring. Wengerball is the most exciting style.

 

[Iceman10]

WTF???
Arteta is playing rush, cross spamming, anti-possession boring football, its Tony Pulis, Moyes football, it’s nothing like Pep’s beautiful skillful patient build up football.

You are being very one-dimensional right now. Can you not see I was talking about getting results with limited budgets instead of trying to be a chequebook manager at a club that doesn’t have the chequebook of Oligarch owned clubs?

 

[Tir Na Nog]

Wenger used to have to contend with losing the likes of Vieira, Henry, Hleb, Adebayor, Toure, Fabregas, Nasri and Van Persie and still finished top 4 season after the season while mostly replacing them with youngsters or bargains. Arteta hasn't lost a single player he didn't personally want to let go of and certainly none in the prime of their careers, in fact under his watch we've managed to convince the likes of Auba and Saka to stay when in the past we may have had no option but to let them leave. It's actually crazy when you think about it. Literally everything is in Artetas favour except for maybe being backed by the UAE and we're acting as if his hands are tied and he needs his own players. It's astonishing and shows just how powerful the media is

 

[Rimaal]

I think ESR would always have gotten a chance here. The quality was clear to see at Town, and I have no doubt that ESR's quality was readily apparant at Arsenal.

Let us not make hypothetical problems, we have enough real ones.

Martinelli's quality is pretty clear as well. So is Saliba's (as opposed to Mustafi). Whilst WIllian's incompetence is blatant.

 

[Hunta]

Arteta is saying he isn’t playing Martinelli because the line-up would have too many young players. Somehow Martinelli would be a tipping point, so keep Willian in instead. Doesn’t make sense to me, but at least we’re getting some answers, regardless of whether they make any sense.

'Gabi has things to improve' Arteta calls for patience and explains Martinelli's Arsenal absence | Goal.com UK

Mikel Arteta has called on Arsenal fans to remain patient over Gabriel Martinelli and insists the Gunners striker has a big future at the club

www.goal.com

What a load of bollocks. Playing three of those kids saved his arse around Xmas time. The best we’ve looked all season was with Saka/ESR/Gabi behind the striker.

What he should say is, he wants to prove he was right with Willian and he’d rather develop a loan player than one of our own.

 

[Rimaal]

Arteta is saying he isn’t playing Martinelli because the line-up would have too many young players. Somehow Martinelli would be a tipping point, so keep Willian in instead. Doesn’t make sense to me, but at least we’re getting some answers, regardless of whether they make any sense.

'Gabi has things to improve' Arteta calls for patience and explains Martinelli's Arsenal absence | Goal.com UK

Mikel Arteta has called on Arsenal fans to remain patient over Gabriel Martinelli and insists the Gunners striker has a big future at the club

www.goal.com

What a load of cobblers. He would have said the same about ESR had he not been forced to start him.

 

[Lidl_Reed]

Was listening to today’s Arseblog podcast and Philippe Auclair makes this very strange comment on the reasons why Arteta keeps playing Willian, despite him playing poorly for the whole season, but then goes on to say he cannot say what he thinks/understands to be the reason for it. The other guy also circles around the issue and says he will leave it to the listeners to interpret. Overall a very strange exchange. Does anyone know what Auclair might be eluding to? I am not in the weeds enough to know. Hope someone can shed some light on this!

Willian has Mikel's nudes that he was sending to Kroenke to not sack him allegedly

 

[Taneruit]

Martinelli's quality is pretty clear as well. So is Saliba's (as opposed to Mustafi). Whilst WIllian's incompetence is blatant.

Well, 70% of it. Personally, I still have questions about his finishing (not that the rest of our squad is any better this year).

Since the quality 1 on 1 finish against Chelsea last year, it has been spotty at best whenever he managed to get minutes. On the other hand I have no questions about his pressing. World-class on that one.

 

[Rimaal]

Well, 70% of it. Personally, I still have questions about his finishing (not that the rest of our squad is any better this year).

Since the quality 1 on 1 finish against Chelsea last year, it has been spotty at best whenever he managed to get minutes. On the other hand I have no questions about his pressing. Near world-class on that one.

You can't expect a player who only plays a few minutes every month to be in form. Especially a young player.

 

[Taneruit]

You can't expect a player who only plays a few minutes every month to be in form. Especially a young player.

I'm not expecting anything?

I was just saying that I still haven't seen him as a consistent finisher. That's why I have still questions about it. Not that I have suddenly decided he can't finish.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

Question marks about Martinelli's finishing? Didn't he have an unbelievable goal per game rate between his debut and last February? Swear he had like 10 goals in a short period of time, which is remarkable for a teenager. I've just checked he had 10 goals in 15 starts last season. For an at the time 18 year old, that's insane. Even thinking about his goal vs Chelsea the composure he shown was that of a 28 year old.

 

[Hunta]

Albert Stuivenberg is a big problem by the way, this is the same guy who was assistant to LVG at United when they played the most boring football United fans had ever seen. Arteta is constantly turning to him during games.

Then you have Steve Round, straight from the Aidy Boothroyd school of coaching. Another failure at United under Moyes. When you look at the coaches at the club it’s no surprise we’re as bad as we are.

 

[Hunta]

Question marks about Martinelli's finishing? Didn't he have an unbelievable goal per game rate between his debut and last February? Swear he had like 10 goals in a short period of time, which is remarkable for a teenager. I've just checked he had 10 goals in 15 starts last season. For an at the time 18 year old, that's insane. Even thinking about his goal vs Chelsea the composure he shown was that of a 28 year old.

Martinelli was ripping it up as a ST in the Europa league and LC. He’s not a winger long term, all his best attributes suit being a striker leading from the front. His pressing alone would give us something extra.

 

[Oxeki]

We were.
Then Tierney and Ödegaard got injured and it went to ****e.

Our 2 best players in form.