Mikel Arteta: Miktoria Concordia Crexit

[TheIceman85]

Was reminded of the classic Invincible Era 442. In terms of shape and style, obviously not comparing the ability, achievements or character of the players.

Very similar in terms of player roles and tactics. Pressing as a front 4, breaking with pace. Short, direct passing with lots of movement. Good energy all round and a nice blueprint to try to maintain.

 

[bingobob]

Honestly think Palace under Vieira are a significantly better side than Villa, particularly this season's Villa who have been on the whole poor so far

Palace are Villa of last season. And they've Edouard now who is a top exciting player.

 

[Makingtrax]

Was just talking to @OnlyOne about this. A press is basically a set of instructions.

There’s no reason why our press should look so good against Sp**s/Villa but then so bad against other teams, averaging out to us being the 3rd worst pressing side in the league.

The inconsistency in that regard doesn’t make any sense, I can understand some aspects of play changing depending on whether we are home or away but our press should be the most mechanical thing about the team.

Hard to understand, but in that Villa game at times the mid press was as good Liverpool, sometimes there were 4 of our team around their player with the ball, and they couldn't find an outlet. Yet against Brighton, some of their players had enough time on the ball to read War and Peace before picking a pass.

What is going on?

 

[BigPoppaPump]

Laca, for all his inconsistency (as he does blow hot & cold) has a likeable character.

Unless I'm confusing you with @Furious, weren't you also one of Xhaka's greatest supporters on here?

I don't care about their character, we don't know these players. I just think he's the best forward in Arteta's system the others struggle.

Also I've always been hot and cold on Xhaka, you can find posts of me praising him and also posts of me saying he's the worst player ever. I think a lot of us are like that tbh.

 

[Taneruit]

Hard to understand, but in that Villa game at times the mid press was as good Liverpool, sometimes there were 4 of our team around their player with the ball, and they couldn't find an outlet. Yet against Brighton, some of their players had enough time on the ball to read War and Peace before picking a pass.

What is going on?

To be fair, Villa were just horribly set-up yesterday and most of the time their players were just isolated by choice. Lost count on how many times they just let us press them with seemingly no outlet-ball.

That said, yeah its weird how inconsistent our press is against teams and over the past year. We're almost always better pressing than letting them onto us. (With the exception of the end of Arteta's first year)

 

[Goonger]

Where was this against Palace? Could've been sitting 4th despite all the BS.

Was thinking this myself. Still incredibly frustrated with that Palace game.

These odd good games mean not a lot to me any more until we can't put performances like this in more consistently. Don't expect us to play really well every game, but it really needs to be better than 1 in 4 or even worse.

Leicester away next week will be another good test. Let's see if we are Jekyll or Hyde next week.

 

[The_Playmaker]

Was thinking this myself. Still incredibly frustrated with that Palace game.

These odd good games mean not a lot to me any more until we can't put performances like this in more consistently. Don't expect us to play really well every game, but it really needs to be better than 1 in 4 or even worse.

Leicester away next week will be another good test. Let's see if we are Jekyll or Hyde next week.

A young novice manager with young players is the perfect recipe for inconsistency.

I don't mind inconsistency of performance. However inconsistency of approach makes no sense. Arteta was actively trying to get his players to press in the game. However, Villa did break through it quite often, but isn't that to be expected seeing as we have barely implemented one.

I continue to bang the same drum. We have players who are built for transition. We operate best in broken play. That is when we are at our most exciting. Auba, Laca, ESR, Saka, Pepe, Martinelli, Lokonga, Tomiyasu, Tierney, Tavares, Partey, AMN. They are all players who suit a transition based game. Ødegaard, Xhaka and Elneny are the ones who want a slower possession based game.

We need to play a style of football that suits the players. They look uncomfortable trying to break down deep blocks or play out from the back. Why not give the opposition the ball. Win it off them and spring? We need to use our squad wisely for that. Players clearly are not conditioned for a pressing game, but we have substitutes that we don't use. Pepe and Martinelli make sense to bring on for Saka and ESR.

At times we pressed in a diamond with Saka and Auba as a front 2 and Laca sitting on their holding midfielder. It forces teams to go long and when they do, we tend to win it in the air, and then it's all about getting the second ball and springing quickly.

 

[Haphazard]

Great performance and smart to use a 4-4-2 , the biggest problem is consistency we need to use this performance as a template for future matches.

 

[Sanchez11]

People getting excited again haha until next week!!

 

[Oxeki]

Arsenal are just 5 points off the top of the table and they’ve already played Chelsea, Sp**s and Manchester City in the first 9 games.

A Man utd mate of mine sent this to the group chat this morning.

I told him that when he watches us, he'll realise why most Arsenal fans aren't really optimistic going into the season.

 

[drippin]

A Man utd mate of mine sent this to the group chat this morning.

I told him that when he watches us, he'll realise why most Arsenal fans aren't really optimistic going into the season.

Crabstats said we have had 9th toughest season thus far, so we are in the middle in that regard currently. Not sure how he counts that, and I couldn't find the tweet.

 

[TornadoTed]

I've been hoping that Mikel would at least try 442 for a while, I think it really suits our forward players in particular.

Rotate Auba, Laca, Pepe and Martinelli in the 2 forward positions, I think Auba, Pepe and Martinelli would be more effective than stuck out wide.

 

[RacingPhoton]

A Man utd mate of mine sent this to the group chat this morning.

I told him that when he watches us, he'll realise why most Arsenal fans aren't really optimistic going into the season.

I don't understand how the fixtures make a big difference. In the next 9 matches, we will face Liverpool, United and Leicester.

 

[MikelHadADream]

Like Sp**s, Villa were set up terribly against us in the first half, and fair enough we took advantage. There was massive space all over the pitch for us.

When we come up against a team that's set up properly, and we have sustained periods where we create chances, then that will be the time to get more optimistic.

 

[GoonerJeeves]

Hard to understand, but in that Villa game at times the mid press was as good Liverpool, sometimes there were 4 of our team around their player with the ball, and they couldn't find an outlet. Yet against Brighton, some of their players had enough time on the ball to read War and Peace before picking a pass.

What is going on?

It's probably a combination of things. The manager learning his trade and young players getting to grips with how the manager thinks we should play.

I'd expect more of the same this season. We'll probably continue to be very inconsistent. Hopefully we'll improve as the season goes on.

 

[TornadoTed]

I am huge critic of Mikel, in all honesty because I have pretty low expectations and he hasn't even been able to meet those. All I want is reasonably regular good performances and a young energetic side playing with intensity.

I don't mind inconsistency, in fact I expect it with the 2nd youngest squad in the league. In all honesty I would get behind Arteta if they produce performances like against Sp**s and Villa every 3-4 games even if they sandwiched poor performances.

We had 3-4 really good performances last year out of 50 games, that doesn't mean anything to me. As the old saying goes, even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

If we could have 12-15 performances of Sp**s/Villa level this season even if there are 12-15 rubbish performances is it will at least show that the good performances aren't just flukes. It would give me hope that there was something to build on, try to make it 17-20 good performances and 7-10 poor ones next season.

 

[ThePortugueseGunner]

We played well yesterday, but let's face it, Aston Villa looked like a League 2 squad and we still conceded.

Second good performance in the PL this season. Not enough. Still a lot of work to do, and I'd still rather have that work done by another manager.

 

[RunTheTrap]

First good performance for both halves. In still not convinced this guy is it but we are not sacking him any time soon. He needs to stick with the pressing, we play really well when we press well but it's too infrequent for my liking. Plus, he needs to work out a strategy against back three teams. We got outplayed by Chelsea and Brighton and we barely got a sniff at their goal. Arteta needs to do his homework.

 

[A__G]

@Trilly

 

[Justi]

@Trilly

Where exactly, mid table ?