Mikel Arteta: Miktoria Concordia Crexit

[SingmeasongSong]

Agreed, I don’t really care about beautiful fluid football, it’s nice but winning football is where it’s at.

I wouldn’t say Liverpool and Chelsea play beautiful football but I wouldn’t say they were boring either. As long as my team regularly creates more chances than the opposition to score goals then I’m happy and entertained.

I’ve been Arteta out longer than most but I think I saw a bit of progress against Burnley. This is the first game (against tricky opposition) in a long time where I’ve felt our defence and midfield actually created enough opportunities for our attackers to impact the game. Usually our forwards are starved of the ball but in this game they got more than enough service to create chances. It was a combination of poor finishing and final/penultimate passing from our forwards that let us down. I don’t see Pepe, Saka and ESR all struggling to control the ball and weight simple passes again in the same game and unless it continues to happen all season I don’t think you can blame Arteta for the unconvincing scoreline. And while it sounds like a cheap excuse the fact of the matter is that not many teams will go to the lengths that Burnley went (long grass, dry pitch) to ruin our game. On a different pitch/day we could have been looking at a 3-0 there.

This is all what-ifs and probably naive thinking of course but If Arteta really does now have the players to make his system work then I’m expecting to see more of the same against Sp**s. The win is the most important thing but just behind that is evidence that our forwards are continuing to get the ball in dangerous areas. If we can do that consistently then we are on to something even if it isn’t the prettiest football.

I really really like this post because it highlights something very rare on AM which is different original point of views sort of coming together.

I was personally a big Arteta-In guy whilst you come from the other side and yet, unlike the most nailed down views of most, we sort of agee now, 1,5 seasons in.

You've managed to acknowledge that it's not all ****, if Arteta gets the point record back on track whilst I was slowly but steadily losing a lot of hope on Arteta over the course of the midst of last season and the early days of the one now.

Arteta is on the ropes, even for me, for some time now, but I dont look away from the fact that our squad has been absolutely terrible in some key positions which makes it impossible to play like the top dogs without getting hurt by sticking to our style of play.

If he at least gets some fluid play and frequent dangerous attacking positions back in our game and manages to win most of games, I'll give him another chance to prove that he can achieve stuff with an actually solid squad.

His football has been unconvincing for some time, but I cannot forget that first half against Chelsea early on as well as the ManU game with Özil as 10 where we played like prime Arsenal and absolutely outplayed those 2 for fun.
Maybe he got very stubborn afterwards about risking more fluent play because he has seen there that the squad isnt good enough to do just that without losing too much in the process defensive wise.

In any case, Arteta needs to get a big run now, needs convincing displays and points asap or all that's been said is irrelevant and we'll find ourselves in the coach thread sooner rather than later.

 

[AbouCuéllar]

Last season, the prevailing excuses among Arteta's fans was that we didn't have a proper pre-season and playin6un Europe hampered us.

But the exuse now seem to be that he need two or three years before we can become competitive again due to the signings we made this season. The scaring thing is that, the club is following this line of thinking.

If we finish 7th with and horrible football and a semi-decent cup run, I can see the Kronkes keeping him.

Can you quote anyone who is actually saying this? Because I've literally never seen anyone on this forum say this or anything like it, lol.

What I usually see from more reasonable people (can you even call them Arteta defenders? Just because one is not a ravenous dog like many of you doesn't make one an Arteta 'defender') is that anything less than 6th would be unacceptable and deserving of the sack.

A few of the ravenous dog brigade paint me as some massive Arteta defender here and I said at the end of last season that I would be okay with sacking him and hiring Gallardo or Potter.

It's become a case of if you are not literally foaming at the mouth as you post and are interested in more nuanced discussion you are painted as some kind of Arteta acolyte around here, it's a bit sad.

 

[Oxeki]

Can you quote anyone who is actually saying this? Because I've literally never seen anyone on this forum say this or anything like it, lol.

There plenty of Arteta defenders on here saying this. Cba to check, but I've seen some posts on A-M that says this. Even on twitter, there litany of tweets that hold this view.

 

[AbouCuéllar]

There plenty of Arteta defenders on here saying this. Cba to check, but I've seen some posts on A-M that says this. Even on twitter, there litany of tweets that hold this view.

Dunno, reads like exaggeration / strawman to me, can't think of any poster on here who would excuse less than 6th with that kind of reasoning.

 

[Trilly]

Yeah a poll would clear that up. Pretty sure the most lenient Arteta-in opinion on here is top 6.

I think the most extreme opinion I’ve seen is same league finish but with much better performances although much better performances should lead to better than 8th.

Arteta needs to get into Europe and do it convincingly. No squeaking into Europa spots, ideally it should be a gutsy top four challenge.

 

[ExtjExhtts]

Its important to remember that Europa Conference League qualification doesnt count as "qualification for Europe". Champions League and Europa League is what matters.

 

[A__G]

Yeah a poll would clear that up. Pretty sure the most lenient Arteta-in opinion on here is top 6.

I think the most extreme opinion I’ve seen is same league finish but with much better performances although much better performances should lead to better than 8th.

Arteta needs to get into Europe and do it convincingly. No squeaking into Europa spots, ideally it should be a gutsy top four challenge.

Expectations For The 21/22 Season

7th and a semi-decent cup run. Another inconsistent season.

arsenal-mania.com

 

[MartiSaka]

I just can’t see Arteta getting top 6; there are four sides locked on for top4, they are miles ahead. Don’t think we can outperform four out of five of the following Leicester, West ham, Sp**s, villa and Everton across an entire season with arteta.

 

[Trilly]

Expectations For The 21/22 Season

7th and a semi-decent cup run. Another inconsistent season.

arsenal-mania.com

This is what people expect to happen not what people think should happen no? OP for example shows that.

 

[A__G]

This is what people expect to happen not what people think should happen no? OP for example shows that.

What poll do you want?

 

[Trilly]

I just can’t see Arteta getting top 6; there are four sides locked on for top4, they are miles ahead. Don’t think we can outperform four out of five of the following Leicester, West ham, Sp**s, villa and Everton across an entire season with arteta.

Well if he can’t then he needs to go! Because somebody should be able too.

 

[Makingtrax]

Can you quote anyone who is actually saying this? Because I've literally never seen anyone on this forum say this or anything like it, lol.

What I usually see from more reasonable people (can you even call them Arteta defenders? Just because one is not a ravenous dog like many of you doesn't make one an Arteta 'defender') is that anything less than 6th would be unacceptable and deserving of the sack.

A few of the ravenous dog brigade paint me as some massive Arteta defender here and I said at the end of last season that I would be okay with sacking him and hiring Gallardo or Potter.

It's become a case of if you are not literally foaming at the mouth as you post and are interested in more nuanced discussion you are painted as some kind of Arteta acolyte around here, it's a bit sad.

Ravenous dogs, foaming at the mouth? Ha!

Back on here in 2015/16 nearly every poster was foaming at the mouth. The hate and anger was palpable. Today everybody’s extremely reasonable. In fact the irony is. the only people making personal remarks about other posters, like calling them ignorant, are Arteta simps, including you and Hairspray. Hairspray got so over the top he‘s either been banned or left.

 

[Rimaal]

Dunno, reads like exaggeration / strawman to me, can't think of any poster on here who would excuse less than 6th with that kind of reasoning.

Oh for goodness sakes, even Ian Wright said it in a recent interview. Anything above 8th is improvement.

 

[Trilly]

What poll do you want?

Almost identical responses but with a question like “Now Mikel has his squad what’s the minimum requirement for keeping his job?”

 

[Makingtrax]

Oh for goodness sakes, even Ian Wright said it in a recent interview. Anything above 8th is improvement.

We’ll it would be as we finished there twice.

 

[Kav]

What is your honest assessment of Arteta?

Is he an exceptional talented Coach/manager who will take the game in a new direction?

Is he an above average talent with tactical acumen?

Is he a defensive coach who prioritize stopping the opponent rather than scoring?

Is he a attacking coach? ()

Is he of the possession school and wants to just control the game?

Does he develop talent? Is he mediocrity defined?

Is he just a face and voice to appease the fans?

The truth is probably somewhere in between all these things.

What I will say is that I observe based on his body of work. He’s so far shown to be a very average manager. His record is not exceptionally positive. He has his strengths (defensive set up where he stifled the play and tries to control possession). His weaknesses are obvious (lacks attacking nous, penetration, no plan B or C). There are questions about his man management and psychological side of the game.

How I look at it is this way, let us say Arteta was at Newcastle or Aston Villa, would he get them playing better than they are? Would we appreciate the job he’s doing there? Also if he was in charge of Chelsea or Man City, would we be hailing him or laughing at those teams?

Much of this will be nuanced but what is your actual opinion of his ability and not his potential?

 

[A__G]

Almost identical responses but with a question like “Now Mikel has his squad what’s the minimum requirement for keeping his job?”

Tried to make a new poll although knowing A-M someone will find fault with it.

 

[Trilly]

I’ve gone for improvement in performances. We learnt from Emery that scraping into Europe with poor performances is just prolonging the inevitable. I’m gonna assume that the improvement in performances get us into Europe unless we are very unlucky.

My ideal answer would be Europe + good performances but @American_Gooner is awful at creating polls.

 

[SA Gunner]

I see the Burnley thread is gone thus posting it here, thought this was interesting.

Apologies if posted before.

 

[A__G]

I’ve gone for improvement in performances. We learnt from Emery that scraping into Europe with poor performances is just prolonging the inevitable. I’m gonna assume that the improvement in performances get us into Europe unless we are very unlucky.

My ideal answer would be Europe + good performances but @American_Gooner is awful at creating polls.

You with my poll: