Mikel Arteta | Lego Pep watch

Dave Smith

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Turns out Arteta has won the Ole, Lampard, Arteta sack survival trophy.
Let's be real, Lampard was never winning that, no Chelsea manager can have more than 4 weeks of bad results without being under massive amounts of pressure.
 

jakko

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The standards of this club now are so low, just accepting a 4-0 defeat likes its nothing. Make it seem like its impossible to get a result at Anfield yet Brighton when there a few weeks back and got a 2-2 draw from 2-0 down.
The biggest spenders in Europe and the football is boring, struggle to score goals and anyone half decent they either lose or struggle.
And then you have the PR merchant Jack Whilshere talking like they have a bunch of 10 years old playing for them, its going to need time etc. They have no more younger players playing for them than Chelsea do. Great PR.
 

Cascarino

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The standards of this club now are so low, just accepting a 4-0 defeat likes its nothing. Make it seem like its impossible to get a result at Anfield yet Brighton when there a few weeks back and got a 2-2 draw from 2-0 down.
The biggest spenders in Europe and the football is boring, struggle to score goals and anyone half decent they either lose or struggle.
And then you have the PR merchant Jack Whilshere talking like they have a bunch of 10 years old playing for them, its going to need time etc. They have no more younger players playing for them than Chelsea do. Great PR.
Your very own club has outspent them over the last couple of seasons?
 

GoonerBear

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I meant to put this summer, Arsenal were the biggest spenders in Europe this summer.
Let me ask you a question then, do you think spending £140M on the squad they had in the summer would make them a better team than City, Liverpool, or Chelsea?
 

jakko

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Let me ask you a question then, do you think spending £140M on the squad they had in the summer would make them a better team than City, Liverpool, or Chelsea?
No, but that doesn't excuse boring football and lack of goals. That doesnt mean you should lose 11-0 combined vs those 3 teams.
 

GoonerBear

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No, but that doesn't excuse boring football and lack of goals. That doesnt mean you should lose 11-0 combined vs those 3 teams.
It doesn’t, & I was disappointed with the result yesterday, think Arteta got his tactics wrong, should have at least matched them up 433 & stuck Maitland-Niles on Trent who I had seen in our previous games was the player who caused us massive problems.

But overall, we are 5th in the league currently, which you would probably say would have been our best case scenario at the start of the season, no? So despite a good few disappointing games, if we are where folk think we should be, is that a lowering of standards, or a realisation that's where we currently are?
 

WeePat

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It doesn’t, & I was disappointed with the result yesterday, think Arteta got his tactics wrong, should have at least matched them up 433 & stuck Maitland-Niles on Trent who I had seen in our previous games was the player who caused us massive problems.

But overall, we are 5th in the league currently, which you would probably say would have been our best case scenario at the start of the season, no? So despite a good few disappointing games, if we are where folk think we should be, is that a lowering of standards, or a realisation that's where we currently are?
I'd actually say 6th was the highest Arsenal could reasonably expect in a good season, so yeah Arsenal appear to have steadied the ship since the start of the season and created a foundation to build on.

With Leicester in free fall and United in turmoil, I think 4th is pretty attainable for you. Conte going to Spurs makes it interesting, and I'd probably have them as favourites because of him but Arsenal are absolutely in the mix and that is lightyears better than what anybody really expected, Arsenal fans included.
 

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On what planet was 5th/6th 'the best Arsenal could hope for?' That's nuts. We are only 12 games in, if they were in the same position off the top 4 and above Utd/Spurs in January i'd be tempted to say there were on course for a good season but nothing special.
 

WeePat

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On what planet was 5th/6th 'the best Arsenal could hope for?' That's nuts. We are only 12 games in, if they were in the same position off the top 4 and above Utd/Spurs in January i'd be tempted to say there were on course for a good season but nothing special.
Well most would have predicted Chelsea, Liverpool, City, United and Leicester to occupy the top 5 places. Where did you think they'd finish at the start of the season?
 

GoonerBear

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I'd actually say 6th was the highest Arsenal could reasonably expect in a good season, so yeah Arsenal appear to have steadied the ship since the start of the season and created a foundation to build on.

With Leicester in free fall and United in turmoil, I think 4th is pretty attainable for you. Conte going to Spurs makes it interesting, and I'd probably have them as favourites because of him but Arsenal are absolutely in the mix and that is lightyears better than what anybody really expected, Arsenal fans included.
Exactly. Can I put out that I'm not saying Arteta for sure is the right man to take us forward. He might be at his limit as a coach, we don't know as he's got no body of work to fall back on.

But what I will say is I think he's doing a good job of doing the necessary overhaul of the team, eeking out a lot of the higher earners & replacing with younger, hungrier players. He's been in the job nearly 2 years, & look at the team that played at the weekend. The back 5 & 2 centre midfielders were all his signings, the 2 attacking midfielders he didn't give debuts too but he has now established them as first team players, so the only 2 players from past era's are Lacazette & Aubameyang, & 1 of them will leave in 6 months, the other the year after. That's a massive overhaul by anyone's standards.

So yeah, while I accept the job that Arteta is currently doing, deep down I think it will take another change of manager to really kick us on, we'd need to get really clever / lucky in our appointment. What would also help would be City & Liverpool having post Pep / Klopp dips after they leave to bring them closer to the chasing pack. Timing as they say is everything in football. :angel:
 

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On what planet was 5th/6th 'the best Arsenal could hope for?' That's nuts. We are only 12 games in, if they were in the same position off the top 4 and above Utd/Spurs in January i'd be tempted to say there were on course for a good season but nothing special.
Also, let us not forget no European football should help them. The standards anyways seem to be too low since this guy took over. The rewriting of history of how crap emery left the squad is also a funny one. Emery or wenger losing 5-0 to Liverpool was seen as a disaster (and rightly so) but with arteta everything is a progress. As I said I hope he stays with arsenal forever.
 

AshRK

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Well most would have predicted Chelsea, Liverpool, City, United and Leicester to occupy the top 5 places. Where did you think they'd finish at the start of the season?
Without european football and with the big spending , don't you think they should finish ahead of Leicester or even challenge for top 4.
 

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Well most would have predicted Chelsea, Liverpool, City, United and Leicester to occupy the top 5 places. Where did you think they'd finish at the start of the season?
Probably about 6th. I'm taking issue with 5th being the 'best possible scenario'. Arsenal coming 4th this year would go down as a 'mild surprise', but nothing even on Leicester nearly nicking 4th in the previous two years.

Add to this they're probably going to be 7th by January anyway.
 

GoonerBear

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Probably about 6th. I'm taking issue with 5th being the 'best possible scenario'. Arsenal coming 4th this year would go down as a 'mild surprise', but nothing even on Leicester nearly nicking 4th in the previous two years.

Add to this they're probably going to be 7th by January anyway.
You got the score predictions for the next few weeks and I'll fire a few lines on at the bookies?
 

GoonerBear

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Without european football and with the big spending , don't you think they should finish ahead of Leicester or even challenge for top 4.
Where did you predict we would finish at the start of the season?
 

GoonerBear

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I work as an odds compiler so I wouldn't be silly enough to think I can beat those algorithms :)
Nice, so you really can throw some tips my way then? ;)

Where do you have Utd finishing this season?

With a better coach you would be 4th or even in top 3. With Arteta I say 6th but not as an achievement.
Top 3? You think this is a squad that could get 85+ points this season, as your looking at that I would suggest for top 3. :eek:

I set us a 70 point mark as a sign of progress for the season, which would likely have us 4th or 5th.
 

AshRK

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Nice, so you really can throw some tips my way then? ;)

Where do you have Utd finishing this season?



Top 3? You think this is a squad that could get 85+ points this season, as your looking at that I would suggest for top 3. :eek:

I set us a 70 point mark as a sign of progress for the season, which would likely have us 4th or 5th.
No European football helps team and I feel you lot underrate your squad big time. I am not saying it is better than any of United chelsea city or Pool but a better coach will extract more from.your squad is my point.

70 plus point would be a decent finish. I still think you guys would do well especially because of no midweek football. It definitely helps.
 

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Nice, so you really can throw some tips my way then? ;)

Where do you have Utd finishing this season?
Ask me in two weeks. To much up in the air at the moment. Assuming we hire someone competent, probably 4th.
 

WeePat

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Without european football and with the big spending , don't you think they should finish ahead of Leicester or even challenge for top 4.
Yeah the no Europe thing is favourable to them but Leicester have been a top 4 team in all but name for 2 seasons and they added nicely to that squad. No-one really predicted them to fall off like they have so far.

I certainly didn't expect United to fall off in the manner they have, so no top 4 was completely out of the question for me.

They're in a situation now where they could potentially secure CL football this season. It might not happen. I don't think it'll happen but the lane is now open, when it wasn't before.
 

giorno

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Yeah the no Europe thing is favourable to them but Leicester have been a top 4 team in all but name for 2 seasons and they added nicely to that squad. No-one really predicted them to fall off like they have so far.
Plenty of people kind of did actually

As for arsenal: still not a good team. It should be, there is really no reason for them not being better than west ham, and yet they aren't. I don't think Arteta is doing a good job at all
 

GoonerBear

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No European football helps team and I feel you lot underrate your squad big time. I am not saying it is better than any of United chelsea city or Pool but a better coach will extract more from.your squad is my point.

70 plus point would be a decent finish. I still think you guys would do well especially because of no midweek football. It definitely helps.
Yeah, fair do's. I'm still judging Arteta on a week by week basis, so my views on him change somewhat. I was rightly disappointed with the game at the weekend, like many have rightly pointed out, the attack is poor anyway, so in these big games, away from home, just go defensive and at least make yourself compact & more difficult to play through. Make the other team work for the result, and I just feel we have made it easy recently in these big games, so I'm not impressed at all with that.
 

cafecillos

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With a better coach you would be 4th or even in top 3. With Arteta I say 6th but not as an achievement.
Nah, that's nonsense, and you know it. Chelsea, City and Liverpool would be the top 3 in every league in Europe, as they are the best 3 teams in European football, with Bayern being the only other debatable candidate.
 

AshRK

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Nah, that's nonsense, and you know it. Chelsea, City and Liverpool would be the top 3 in every league in Europe, as they are the best 3 teams in European football, with Bayern being the only other debatable candidate.
Top 3 maybe a stretch but football is not played on paper and with better coach you will get better results. Also, who knows maybe a better coach would have spent the money buying even better players.

Anyways it's too soon to talk where Arsenal or any club will finish this season. Arsenal may surprise and finish in top 4 which would be a top work by Arteta and they could also finish 6th or below which would be a poor work.
 

Amar__

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They are still comical and probably worst team we've played in a while.

They tried some tiki taka goal kick restart combination, only for goalkeeper to send it for throw in. Free kick combination that ends up kicking their player in the head.
 

Walrus

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Arsenal beat Watford 1-0 earlier this season, thanks to a goal scored when they should’ve returned the ball after Watford kicked it out due to an injured player.

Tonight the same player (Smith Rowe) saw De Gea down so took the opportunity to volley into an open goal. No suggestion of unsporting play or of giving a goal back to United.

They are a dirty and unsporting team, and that’s one of the biggest things that annoys me, with Artetas “golden boy” image and how they seem to be treated as the saviours of modern football right now.
 

awop

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Arsenal beat Watford 1-0 earlier this season, thanks to a goal scored when they should’ve returned the ball after Watford kicked it out due to an injured player.

Tonight the same player (Smith Rowe) saw De Gea down so took the opportunity to volley into an open goal. No suggestion of unsporting play or of giving a goal back to United.

They are a dirty and unsporting team, and that’s one of the biggest things that annoys me, with Artetas “golden boy” image and how they seem to be treated as the saviours of modern football right now.
None of these things happened. Congratulations on the victory though. Was a surprisingly good game.
 

BorisManUtd

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They damaged our defence, could've scored another though it's not easy to score against United these days. But so many misplaced passes, mistakes etc. Expected Arsenal to be better in defence and better in posession tbh.
 

Pogue Mahone

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I don't know what to feel about this but Arteta celebrating the goal was genuinely weird
He’s a genuinely weird bloke. Complete charisma vacuum. Can’t imagine him being remotely inspirational as a leader.

So. Arsenal. Two points clear of United after we sacked our manager due to an awful start to the season. One point clear of Spurs, who also sacked their manager after an awful start to the season.

So fecking weird to see how Arsenal’s similarly awful start to the season hasn’t created the same urgency for a new manager that we saw at United and Spurs. I know they have low expectations but Arteta has spent a lot of money.
 

united_99

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Does he always celebrate a goal or win like he had just won the Champions League or is it only against us? I don’t watch them much.