Mikel Arteta: Aston La Vista To The Title?

[Paperino]

Lol, nonsense. Saliba is a 20 year old CB who was 18 when Mikel arrived here. Tavares is a 21 year old who we bought to integrate into the first team, but whose relative young age (something that applies for most of the side, but does *not* make it the same case for Saliba--there are ages, and ages, especially wrt to certain positions) makes these comments appropriate.

You lot have been wrong about everything (on Saliba--not sure whether these parentheses are that necessary, or if it should read 'on Arsenal' or 'on Arteta,') so far, why not just pipe down a bit with the foaming at the mouth schtick and watch what happens.

What have "we" been wrong about?

 

[AbouCuéllar]

So you aren't? Awww i was getting excited.

Don't get all mad
HairSpraygooner is no more but his last words were that we would finish top 4. Put whole AM on a spliff, absolute legend.

Tbh all of AM put itself 'on a spliff' with its foaming at the mouth routine over the past year or so, you could put the date to 1 September close your eyes and pick a random post and 95% chance it looks pretty embarrassing now on 1 December.

There were a good amount of people who genuinely thought we'd struggle to finish top of the table or be in a relegation battle, and anyone who suggested that 3 games into the season it wasn't over and we would still finish top 6th or maybe even compete for 4th (), was laughed at and abused

 

[Makingtrax]

Do you think Arteta’s style is in reaction to the porous defenses we have had in the years before he arrived? I think any manager that took over with half a brain when Arteta did would first focus on improving the team shape and defensive organization. We do lack possession and creativity right now no question. But most of the transfer budget has been focused on defenders, keeper, and midfield. I think he felt the club had existing quality in attack but post FA cup Auba went into a swoon, I don’t think after how good he was for us that anyone predicted that.

Wenger’s defensive stats were very good. In fact 2015/16 when the fans decided they’d had enough and started the campaign to remove him, his defensive stats were the best in the league . . lowest xG against, most clean sheets, second least goals against. Doubt Arteta’s will be as good as that at the end of the season.

 

[Farzad Stoned]

Wenger’s defensive stats were very good. In fact 2015/16 when the fans decided they’d had enough and started the campaign to remove him, his defensive stats were the best in the league . . lowest xG against, most clean sheets, second least goals against. Doubt Arteta’s will be as good as that at the end of the season.

I am not talking about Wenger 2015 I am talking about when Arteta took over we were poor

 

[Paperino]

There were a good amount of people who genuinely thought we'd struggle to finish top of the table or be in a relegation battle, and anyone who suggested that 3 games into the season it wasn't over and we would still finish top 6th or maybe even compete for 4th (), was laughed at and abused

We will finish top 6?

 

[mirrorstares]

I don't really know why the defense is being praised so much, we still play with cowardice and we went from having the 3rd best defence in the league last season to be midtable atm. It must be the new toys syndrome, even if White passing skills and Ramsdale's distribution have had little impact in the way we play.

All we had done well is ****house our way with set pieces against teams that won't be this unstable by the second half of the season. Cool, but unsustainable and relying badly in a player we don't want to have here by next season. Plan A so far has been miserable to watch

 

[Xln]

Tbh all of AM put itself 'on a spliff' with its foaming at the mouth routine over the past year or so, you could put the date to 1 September close your eyes and pick a random post and 95% chance it looks pretty embarrassing now on 1 December.

There were a good amount of people who genuinely thought we'd struggle to finish top of the table or be in a relegation battle, and anyone who suggested that 3 games into the season it wasn't over and we would still finish top 6th or maybe even compete for 4th (), was laughed at and abused

I trust you more than people here who hated statdna recruitment yet post xG stats and every other stat there is to put Arteta in a bad light

 

[Paperino]

I trust you more than people here who hated statdna recruitment yet post xG stats and every other stat there is to put Arteta in a bad light

You do know there's a difference?

 

[Xln]

You do know there's a difference?

I do know yes but stats don't mean anything at all if we end top 4. And that's what bothers me

 

[Makingtrax]

I am not talking about Wenger 2015 I am talking about when Arteta took over we were poor

My point is Arteta is playing his own complex defensive positional play because he wants to, nothing to do with any past seasons.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

Do you think he’d have stuck with him if we were playing City instead of Newcastle? I don’t know tbh. The opportunity to stick with him v Newcastle was perfect.

Probably not, but even so people here were adamant that he shouldn't have started regardless of it being Newcastle.

 

[Makingtrax]

I trust you more than people here who hated statdna recruitment yet post xG stats and every other stat there is to put Arteta in a bad light

The stats put Arteta in a bad light, whether people post them or not. They show he’s over performing in the league, just like they did with Unai. If you want to ignore them, that’s fine, but this is a football forum and you can’t expect people not to look at the whole picture because you don’t like it.

 

[El Duderino]

This is their ceiling though I think. We do it in spurts and moments while still clearly having the scope to be much better to the eye, whereas Moyes has basically finished what he came there to do. I’ll take finishing above them this season at any cost, then hopefully we can add a mid and a suitable forward or two in the summer.

I said it in the Pepe thread, but this striker situation was poor from the club. If the intent was never to lean into Pepes and specially Auba off the ball movement, why not sell the former and not resign the latter?

You can try and excuse it as growing pains from the manager, but even then his plan was never to play pace and power counter attack.

At least our business this summer has overall been solid, albeit it I'll admit I wasn't a believer at first.

My main problem is that there are very few strikers that will play the way Arteta wants to WHILE scoring loads and we can't really rely on ESR and Saka to carry the team.

Wait and see, I guess.

 

[AbouCuéllar]

You do know there's a difference?

What about people who didn't like to talk about xG when I talked about it to dismantle the ridiculous Em*ry > Arteta argument, but now use it to discredit Arteta. There is indeed a bit of a disconnect there, no?

Anyways, xG is, like any metric like this, more interesting the bigger the sample, we're at 13 games, and it's a very much evolving and ever-changing sample, very prone also to schedule effects (what teams you've played in what order)...after a nice fixture against the bottom side at home, we went from 11th to 7th in the xG table. In the current xG table we've played 5/6 teams ahead of us, 4 of them away from home.

We'll see where we are after 19 games and have a better idea, for now at 7th in the xG table and 5th in the actual, and a favourable fixture calendar up until the halfway point, it looks a reasonable bet we'll be both 4th in the xG and actual table by the halfway point.

 

[Paperino]

What about people who didn't like to talk about xG when I talked about it to dismantle the ridiculous Em*ry > Arteta argument, but now use it to discredit Arteta. There is indeed a bit of a disconnect there, no?

Anyways, xG is, like any metric like this, more interesting the bigger the sample, we're at 13 games, and it's a very much evolving and ever-changing sample, very prone also to schedule effects (what teams you've played in what order)...after a nice fixture against the bottom side at home, we went from 11th to 7th in the xG table. In the current xG table we've played 5/6 teams ahead of us, 4 of them away from home.

We'll see where we are after 19 games and have a better idea, for now at 7th in the xG table and 5th in the actual, and a favourable fixture calendar up until the halfway point, it looks a reasonable bet we'll be both 4th in the xG and actual table by the halfway point.

I see the games so i dont need stats. We are not playing a sustainable football.

 

[Xln]

The stats put Arteta in a bad light, whether people post them or not. They show he’s over performing in the league, just like they did with Unai. If you want to ignore them, that’s fine, but this is a football forum and you can’t expect people not to look at the whole picture because you don’t like it.

Where did i say people on this forum should stop doing it? I said i trust Aboucuellar more than the likes of you cause he has footballing knowledge while you are opening up a database with %

 

[Rex Stone]

The stats put Arteta in a bad light, whether people post them or not. They show he’s over performing in the league, just like they did with Unai. If you want to ignore them, that’s fine, but this is a football forum and you can’t expect people not to look at the whole picture because you don’t like it.

I think we are improving overall though. I wanted Arteta out as recently as October but I have to admit we’re a better team with every week.

Signings take time to bed in and learn the system but even if we’re flat track bullies isn’t that enough right now?

 

[Makingtrax]

Where did i say people on this forum should stop doing it? I said i trust abouecellar more than the likes of you cause he has footballing knowledge while you are opening up a database with %

Footballing knowledge = agrees with you

 

[Xln]

Footballing knowledge = agrees with you

Well he won't be better than your analytics knowledge that's for sure

 

[Makingtrax]

I think we are improving overall though. I wanted Arteta out as recently as October but I have to admit we’re a better team with every week.

Signings take time to bed in and learn the system but even if we’re flat track bullies isn’t that enough right now?

There should be some sign of creativity in attacking play in his third season. He’s not going to progress without it though.