Mikel Starteta Wars - Phase V: The Empire's Firing Blanks

[db10_therza]

One thing that pissed me off a bit today -

If we get to 2 goals up then we HAVE to take Nwaneri off. He needs to be wrapped in cotton wool man. Our whole team is Him right now. We cannot take risks with him, please Mikel I beg

 

[Let's play Aubamawang]

What's with some of the thread titles lately? The attempted puns are getting out of hand.

 

[HagnSprayGooners]

One thing that pissed me off a bit today -

If we get to 2 goals up then we HAVE to take Nwaneri off. He needs to be wrapped in cotton wool man. Our whole team is Him right now. We cannot take risks with him, please Mikel I beg

Wrapped up in cotton wool for 3 minutes?

 

[Goonger]

One thing that pissed me off a bit today -

If we get to 2 goals up then we HAVE to take Nwaneri off. He needs to be wrapped in cotton wool man. Our whole team is Him right now. We cannot take risks with him, please Mikel I beg

The 1 good thing is our fixture congestion has eased a bit for a couple of weeks. No midweek game so we had 7 days until the West Ham game next week.

We've got Forest away the midweek after, so ideally we can get a couple of goals up early in the West Ham game to get him off a bit to protect him for that as that will be a tough tough game.

After that we have a free weekend then the Champions League starts back the following midweek. Then Utd on the Sunday, Champions League midweek and Chelsea at the weekend before an international break, so that will be a tough 10 days or so. Hopefully we'll have at least Martinelli back, with Saka not too far away.

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

Tbf @A_G is a people pleaser.

Emery was unbeaten in 22 games, how was that possible?

I have never called this the worst Arsenal team, I have called it the worst attack. Maybe I’ve conflated here I don’t know.

I have been proven right on the attack.

Emery's was all comps. Half of it was against Europa League Group Stage trash.

Qarabag, Vorskla Poltava etc.

Arteta's run clear!

 

[db10fan]

One thing that pissed me off a bit today -

If we get to 2 goals up then we HAVE to take Nwaneri off. He needs to be wrapped in cotton wool man. Our whole team is Him right now. We cannot take risks with him, please Mikel I beg

Arteta must subs in ButlerO + Sterling for two of Nwaneri/Trossard/Merino, if we have 2 goal leads at 70+ minutes in the next matches until Martinelli available. Must avoid another forward injury as best as possible. Maybe Arteta gets lucky again if ButlerO also steps up like Nwaneri.

 

[db10_therza]

Wrapped up in cotton wool for 3 minutes?

Clutching at straws here, it’s that kind of season

 

[Goonger]

By the way, it's not easy to be consistent in this league for a title challenge. To be up there competing with City before and Liverpool now for 3 years in a row considering where we were should be appreciated.

We see false dawns when Emery's Villa beats us or go in a mini run and people compare players and say they have a better squad, but they sit 8th.

Same with Eddie Howe at Newcastle who has Artetas number, who have Isak and Gordon who we all covet, Bruno and Tonali class in midfield, but they sit 7th.

Chelsea who have spent over a billion in 2 years but they sit 6th. Utd and Sp**s sitting 14th and 15th despite them spending more than us the past couple of years.

So his ability to coach the team and get this level of consistency out of them across a league season should be greatly admired.

The black mark we can all agree on has obviously been his cup record. Those are games where you need to be ruthless in both boxes and that can still be our achilles heel at times. As we've even seen ourselves with Auba in the recent past, a great forward can win you these games and therefore tournaments. We are still waiting on that great forward.

 

[Mrs Bergkamp]

Agree that owners have put up plenty of money and the manager makes his choices of what to do with the money. He didn’t sign enough attackers.

I also think in this situation that he asked for more money and was denied. Clearly he would not want to save money when he lost so many attackers. The question is why was he denied?

No idea why he was denied but I wonder if they still believe that the process is working given that they actually know what it is and how long it's meant to take. I think they're evaluating.

 

[Mrs Bergkamp]

Arteta should have be more open minded but doesn't seem he want us ending up with player that won't be upgrade on what we got still this January wasn't about upgrading was just to have enough options

Agree with not signing sideways players permanently but I do feel that we might have done more and better than Sterling in the summer. Was a loan for Tel even explored for example?

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

Agree with not signing sideways players permanently but I do feel that we might have done more and better than Sterling in the summer. Was a loan for Tel even explored for example?

We were told arsenal was interested but never got to advanced stages seem also Arteta didn't want him

 

[Mrs Bergkamp]

We were told arsenal was interested but never got to advanced stages seem also Arteta didn't want him

True. But better something than nothing at this dire stage. The main plus is that there may be chances for K Edwards, Butler-Oyedeji or another youth player.

 

[HagnSprayGooners]

Seen a lot regarding the whole "he's doing amazing with what he's got" debate.

It's partially his fault for not accepting other targets, partially the boards fault for not securing targets. Partially very unlucky with the level of injuries as well.

If he were to win the league from here it's some feat and also a massive bottle job from Liverpool.

 

[Malky]

Seen a lot regarding the whole "he's doing amazing with what he's got" debate.

It's partially his fault for not accepting other targets, partially the boards fault for not securing targets. Partially very unlucky with the level of injuries as well.

If he were to win the league from here it's some feat and also a massive bottle job from Liverpool.

us winning the league from here would still be a massive bottle job from Liverpool, but it would take nothing away from Arteta, it would be a masterclass to win it with what attacking options he has!
I do also agree that Arteta and the board share the blame for the situation we are currently in.

 

[OnlyOne]

Think this season particularly proves even more why Mikel’s the right man and is going to eventually deliver us trophies.

 

[BigPoppaPump]

Think this season particularly proves even more why Mikel’s the right man and is going to eventually deliver us trophies.

I don’t get how you can doubt him anymore, objectively one of the best managers in the world.

The haters want us to go on that manager merry go round and bring in idiots like Amorim and Maresca. We already have a manager clear of all of them.

 

[HattoriHanzo]

Arteta is excellent coach, only ignorant who doesn't have a clue about football can't see it.

What Arteta lacks is experienced DoF who knows how to buy and sell players and to build the squad.
Edi wasn't that, Ayto isn't that.

 

[Kuroske]

us winning the league from here would still be a massive bottle job from Liverpool, but it would take nothing away from Arteta, it would be a masterclass to win it with what attacking options he has!
I do also agree that Arteta and the board share the blame for the situation we are currently in.

Just imaging that we did bought a striker and winger instead of Merino, Calafiori, Timber and Raya. People will still moan why we have not addressed that area know all those injury prone players we have playing there.

 

[Malky]

Just imaging that we did bought a striker and winger instead of Merino, Calafiori, Timber and Raya. People will still moan why we have not addressed that area know all those injury prone players we have playing there.

Not sure what Timber and Raya have to do with this? Raya was always a top signing, I said from day dot he’d prove to be a massive upgrade. Plus Ramsdales fee from Southampton covers that. Same for Timber, excellent player, we’d be ****ed without him just now with Whites injury.
The problem is Calafiori was signed when we already had MLS, Kiwior, Zinchenko and Tiereny here. Merino was £30m+ on a guy who’s not even a starter when we were already light on attacking options.
Calafiori and Merino sitting on the bench when we could have had £70-80m worth of attacking talent starting for us.

 

[Trilly]

Glad that we got the 3 points but I worry the attack will catch up with us.

In fact I’m pretty sure it will. It was only Leicester.