Mikel Arteta | Lego Pep watch

Raw

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amolbhatia50k said:
So why has there been such hype over Arteta? Is it purely to do with his experience under Pep and the positive noise from those at City?
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I imagine it's a mix of that and the results generally improving at the start of his tenure. Not to mention overcoming all the odds and winning the FA Cup when the other 3 semi finalists were City, United and Chelsea.

The hype under Ole at the start was immense. Now imagine if Ole had worked directly under Fergie for several years, people would be calling him the next Fergie. Now imagine if Ole won a trophy in his first few months as manager.
 

Posh Red

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OneUnited24 said:
I agree with the lack of a cutting edge but i disagree with their style of play. A few crosses here and there, side ways passing and a rarely a shot from distance. Really reminds me LvG football (second season) which I detested. If you have the right players that style of football is good on the eyes but without them it looks very boring and Vulnerable.

Probably explains why city have looked very off the b this season
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He was talking about Sheffield United.
 

amolbhatia50k

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Raw said:
I imagine it's a mix of that and the results generally improving at the start of his tenure. Not to mention overcoming all the odds and winning the FA Cup when the other 3 semi finalists were City, United and Chelsea.

The hype under Ole at the start was immense. Now imagine if Ole had worked directly under Fergie for several years, people would be calling him the next Fergie. Now imagine if Ole won a trophy in his first few months as manager.
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You're right that Ole also comes with his own hype but that's more due to our fans seeing as a remnant of the "old days" and dreaming of him bringing that back. With Arteta the praise seems to be for him as a tactician. So I was wondering where that came from. I suppose our one's hype isn't grounded in reality either. Not sure about theirs.
 

ThierryHenry

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He's definitely improved us, but the attacking structures are dire and lack of creativity is appalling, particularly given the Ozil situation. Effectively, the team is reliant on Saka, Willian and Pepe as our only creative outlets, with nothing offered by the midfield. Given that those three are young, inconsistent and/or can't do it all by themselves, we can become incredibly boring and predictable. The only reliable attack is when our full-backs can get behind the opposing defence, but even then our midfield doesn't seem good enough to pick them out most of the time.

We have the 5th or 6th best squad in the league, and so, finishing in the top four would be an over-achievement even if that's the aim. I still think it's possible, but the squad's (and Arteta's) weakness is obvious, and we need him to fix it.
 

TMDaines

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Weird how the perception of Arteta is disconnected from the performances. I personally think he is doing a decent job, but I’m not sure whether that will pan out longer term.

 

Champ

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Sky1981 said:
Not straight away.

Because the one that survives the cull have proven themselves.
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Again, quite simply not true!

But I understand where you are coming from!
 

AltiUn

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TMDaines said:
Weird how the perception of Arteta is disconnected from the performances. I personally think he is doing a decent job, but I’m not sure whether that will pan out longer term.

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We should be feeling fairly confident going into the match against them, they've been beaten by every half decent team they've played which would bode well for us. We're just notorious for not following the script.
 

ThierryHenry

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AltiUn said:
We should be feeling fairly confident going into the match against them, they've been beaten by every half decent team they've played which would bode well for us. We're just notorious for not following the script.
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Sort of. That's true for the six games this season (if you ignore the Charity Shield and League Cup, which is probably fair), but we then beat Liverpool, City and Chelsea at the end of last season. Not that clear a picture.

Again though, the lack of creativity and attacking structures is the issue, which is mainly a problem against weaker sides, and when we play at home. Our home record in the late Wenger years, and even in Emery's first season, was exceptional. If we can't consistently break down teams at the Emirates we're in huge trouble.
 

SadlerMUFC

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It amazes me how Arsenal supporters and the media seem to talk up Arteta quite a bit. I don't get it. His football is boring and it's not like he's getting great results...
 

anant

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I think as long as they finish in top 6, he'll be fine. The reason for that being Arsenal fans believe that the board has fecked up by not buying creative midfielder. However, a string of poor results or a finish below 7th would end up with his sacking. The style of football he's playing means that he really needs to impress the fans with the results. If he doesn't have that going for him, things will go south for him pretty quickly.
 

tomaldinho1

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ThierryHenry said:
He's definitely improved us, but the attacking structures are dire and lack of creativity is appalling, particularly given the Ozil situation. Effectively, the team is reliant on Saka, Willian and Pepe as our only creative outlets, with nothing offered by the midfield. Given that those three are young, inconsistent and/or can't do it all by themselves, we can become incredibly boring and predictable. The only reliable attack is when our full-backs can get behind the opposing defence, but even then our midfield doesn't seem good enough to pick them out most of the time.

We have the 5th or 6th best squad in the league, and so, finishing in the top four would be an over-achievement even if that's the aim. I still think it's possible, but the squad's (and Arteta's) weakness is obvious, and we need him to fix it.
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I honestly think he'd do well to get top 6.
Pool, City, United, Chelsea, Wolves, Leicester, Spurs and Everton all have comfortably/arguably better squad man for man than Arsenal in my opinion. That's not a dig, if anything it's a compliment to Arteta but if he could get top four it'd be a minor miracle/big failing from another manager.
 

B20

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ThierryHenry said:
We have the 5th or 6th best squad in the league, and so, finishing in the top four would be an over-achievement even if that's the aim. I still think it's possible, but the squad's (and Arteta's) weakness is obvious, and we need him to fix it.
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Don't think that's true anymore.
 

VorZakone

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amolbhatia50k said:
So why has there been such hype over Arteta? Is it purely to do with his experience under Pep and the positive noise from those at City? Even Tifo football did a piece on him which made him come across as a supremely gifted tactician. And generally he gets credited with being a thinking man's manager much moreso than Lampard or Ole. For example I understand why Ole wouldn't be rated as such as our football is usually old fashioned and basic but on the same note is Arsenal's foot ball making genuine strides?
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Probably a combination of things such as working under Pep, winning an FA Cup, looking more solid defensively and being good looking.
 

AshRK

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Credit where credit is due. He got his tactics spot on and was helped by Ole's clueless tactics. Good win.
 

el3mel

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Thought his subs weren't really good at all at the end of the game but their organization over the whole pitch is really great. This is definitely a new Arsenal, less flair but more solid. Still a long way ahead of them though.
 

spiriticon

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To be honest that second half from them was a proper Sam Allardyce Bolton stategy. They rode their luck as the game wore on. They were dominant in the first because we didn't know what we were doing in the diamond.
 

Bobski

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He is doing a good job, they have very little top line talent but they do have structure and discipline. It is an upper midtable squad at best.
 

Untd55

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spiriticon said:
To be honest that second half from them was a proper Sam Allardyce Bolton stategy. They rode their luck as the game wore on. They were dominant in the first because we didn't know what we were doing in the diamond.
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Rode their luck? We looked as threatening as a poodle today; there was no threat whatsoever.
 

charlenefan

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It’s impressive how defensively solid they now look

Like us they'll be limited in what they can do by their owners
 

3KDré

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Partey is a quality signing. Very annoyed we didn’t even try for a DM this summer as he is everything we’re missing there.
 

PoTMS

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He's a bit of a meh coach. Beating us and being a better coach than Ole isn't a feat. Even Ole managed to beat Nagelsmann.
 

Irwin99

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look a bit toothless at times in attack but they can play out from the back well and the movement is good. There is a foundation to work from and they have more fight about them than I have seen from an Arsenal team in a very long time. It'll be interesting to see where they go/how they develop.
 

spiriticon

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Untd55 said:
Rode their luck? We looked as threatening as a poodle today; there was no threat whatsoever.
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We had a lot of the ball in the final third of the pitch where they packed 8 defenders in the box. We lacked the killer instinct and they defended well but it was certainly not comfortable for them.
 

el3mel

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spiriticon said:
We had a lot of the ball in the final third of the pitch where they packed 8 defenders in the box. We lacked the killer instinct and they defended well but it was certainly not comfortable for them.
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I bet Arsenal fans preferred watching this than being overly attacking while losing on counter like every single game they had against United for several years now.
 

Untd55

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spiriticon said:
We had a lot of the ball in the final third of the pitch where they packed 8 defenders in the box. We lacked the killer instinct and they defended well but it was certainly not comfortable for them.
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That lasted about 10 minutes. The rest of the match there was nothing from us. Most of the reason is that they dropped back and chose to go defensive.
 

pocco

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I could be wrong but I think he's a good manager. Potentially very good. This was a mediocre arsenal side that will drop points because they're nowhere near a top team at the moment. But tactically I thought he was very good and I was surprised at the performances of some of his players. Elneny I thought was very good, Saka and Tierney did well, Partey was very good, Gabriel did well, Holding solid. Basically he's looked to have improved existing players and youngsters already, and his signings are doing well. Some of those players have been absolutely useless for them in the past and I was shocked how well some did today.

Between tactics and player improvement, whilst bringing in youth, everything points to a good manager. If he's backed in the market I could honestly see them becoming a very good team.

That's just my impartial view. I'd be quite excited if I was an arsenal supporter and would be putting pressure on the club to back this guy.

Side note: VDB money should have been spent on Partey if possible. He's exactly what we need. I can see now why so many were desperate for us to go in for him.
 
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