Yeah, but this is why I think theres a structural issue. It was reported everywhere that Arsenal were very much in for a striker and they evidently didn't want to put the cash on the table. Those sorts of decisions are above the manager
Mikel Arteta | Lego Pep watch
- Thread starter Samid
- Start date
More than happy for him to plod along at Arsenal, an even half competent Utd team should find it easy to finish above them.
The blinkers a lot of switched on Arsenal fans seem to have with their 'progress' does seem slightly odd to me. Not in sync with their status as probably the 3rd biggest club in the UK.
The blinkers a lot of switched on Arsenal fans seem to have with their 'progress' does seem slightly odd to me. Not in sync with their status as probably the 3rd biggest club in the UK.
He wasn't relying on a bunch of 19-22 year olds in the previous two seasons and Arsenal scored the same amount of goals.
When the outputs are the same after three years (goals scored, goals conceded) you have to ask whether the change that is ocurring isn't just change for its own sake.
We are talking about this season. He has progresses 3 league positions between this and last season, and thats after letting go of his only proper striker.
The most meaningful output isnt unchanged, hes gone from 8th to 5th.
I don’t think “progressing” from 8th to 5th after spending £150m in the summer anything to write home about, especially given the teams he’s leapfrogged are a) the worst United side in 30 years and b) a West Ham side who had been prioritising the Europa League until a few weeks ago. Bearing in mind they’ve played one game a week for most of the season.
He should continue. Terrific manager for rest of us. Arsenal should trust the process.
I said it before I have no idea what his style of play is after 2.5 years and the quality of football under him has been awful. How he has us set up and playing should be totally unacceptable for a club that was known as the entertainers under Wenger. We play like a mid table team.
United spent over £100m. Chelsea spent another £100m, City spent another £100m. They all had much better starting points too.
Arteta actually was obligated to get rid of his big name and saw a lot of his key signings with chronic injuries (Tierney, Tomiyasu, Partey).
I think losing Partey has his biggest problem these last 3 or 4 games, with him missing they haven't had the experience in the centre of the park and he hasn't found a way to control midfield
League position depends on other teams, not just Arsenal, so it is not the best way of judging.
Arsenal finished with 61 points last season. They have 66 now and could finish with 69. That would be between 5 and 8 point improvement, so between 2/3 wins. That's not a huge swing by any means, and it is starting from a truly appalling point.
Last season, Arsenal were terrible. But the defense of Arteta was that the team improved and actually had 4th most points in the 2nd half of the season. Additionally, they had the third best defensive record in the PL. One year later Arsenal are likely to finish 5th in the PL and are far from having the third best defensive record. So their outputs haven't progressed at all in the last twelve months.
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I actually see quite a clear style. When it’s working, we have distinct patterns of play that are both effective and entertaining.
My issue with the team is that when it doesn’t click we are absolutely awful. We were atrocious at Newcastle.
Strangely enough, we share this trait with Chelsea, United and Spurs this season. I find it interesting that the teams in 3rd - 6th can be so be so bad in certain games. Compare the performance levels of teams like West Ham, Crystal Palace and Brighton. They are within a much tighter range. I very rarely see those teams play abysmally.
Currently they've spent £30m per point gained which is hilarious when you say it out loud.
I don't know why you call him Lego Pep. His team doesn’t play anything that resembles Pep's team.
In the league yes. But last year they had europa league where Auba and Pepe carried them for an extra 20 or so goals. So this year they were able to barely scrape by because they had less competitions. But the fact remains the same, he failed to replace Aubameyang after letting him leave for free in january and paid the price for that.
Putting aside how they're playing as I don't watch their games, when I look at the table Arsenal are exactly where I'd expect them to be. I wouldn't expect them to achieve Top 3 - Chelsea have enormous resources, Liverpool have one of the world's best managers, City have both. Really we should be up there as well, and we had been for a couple of seasons before this year. With us being off the pace, you'd expect Arsenal and Tottenham to be scrapping for 4th, which is exactly what's happening. In fact, 3rd - 6th this season are looking likely to shape up almost identically to how they did in 2018/9 when Emery was at Arsenal and we were in the Mourinho/Ole season.
3rd currently: Chelsea, 70 points (max. 76)
3rd in 18/19: Chelsea 72 points
4th currently: Tottenham, 69 points (max. 72)
4th in 18/19: Tottenham, 71 points
5th currently: Arsenal, 66 points (max. 69)
5th in 18/19: Arsenal, 70 points
6th currently: Us, 58 points (max. 61)
6th in 18/19: Us, 66 points.
As it is, I think Arteta is plodding along quite reasonably. Spurs having Kane and Son skews things as usually neither or Arsenal would have hope of affording anyone that good, so I'd expect them to edge Arsenal out. If he was doing brilliantly Arteta would probably have found a way of overcoming that and nailing down that 4th spot in a season like this. If we was doing awfully I'd expect Arsenal to be around where we are this year.
3rd currently: Chelsea, 70 points (max. 76)
3rd in 18/19: Chelsea 72 points
4th currently: Tottenham, 69 points (max. 72)
4th in 18/19: Tottenham, 71 points
5th currently: Arsenal, 66 points (max. 69)
5th in 18/19: Arsenal, 70 points
6th currently: Us, 58 points (max. 61)
6th in 18/19: Us, 66 points.
As it is, I think Arteta is plodding along quite reasonably. Spurs having Kane and Son skews things as usually neither or Arsenal would have hope of affording anyone that good, so I'd expect them to edge Arsenal out. If he was doing brilliantly Arteta would probably have found a way of overcoming that and nailing down that 4th spot in a season like this. If we was doing awfully I'd expect Arsenal to be around where we are this year.
More like Lego Moyes
Difference being Arteta has has three years
Arsenal had one of the worlds best strikers though. Arteta managed him so badly that he was let go on a free to one of the worlds best clubs in January, where his goals have propelled them to a champions league position.
Right... but the narrative around Arteta is that Arsenal circa 2018-2019 were a decaying, unsustainable, rotting edifice, and that he has rebuilt them. So if things look identical to 18/19 then what has he been doing?
Spending 250m.
Bur it's arteta who chose to rely on these youngsters. It's him who doesn't want to play Pepe or Lacazette and said f off to Auba. He did spend over 150m so he could have gone for some experience attackers if he wanted but he preferred to work with young guns.
So, I don't understand the excuse that is made here. A smart managet would have tried to get the best out of Auba and finish top 4 and then said bye bye to him. He wanted to get rid of Auba in January so he has to take the blame for it. Arteta has got ultimate backing at Arsenal, he has the final say on players he wants to keep and not. No big or small club offers such authority to a manager. In that case, I feel Arteta cannot be having any excuse of complaining about the squad.
According to Arseblog,
I find it hard to believe another manager couldn't have gotten a few more goals out of these players. No one's asking for 30 more. Just a few.
Its one of these rebuild projects, that never move forward, because each “fix” turns out to be another issue. Of course Elneny and Xhaka are a shitty midfield duo, but apparently, they are more capable than Lokonga (or Odegaard) in these roles. Its not like Thomas’ injury history was unknown either.
You buy a new goalkeeper and after the initial hype it’s not certain, that he is better than Leno. You buy three CBs and three FBs, but the defense is not quite right. You ship out the best attacker for free mid-season and complain that you are short on attackers.
On top of that you play extremely defensive basic football and wonder why scoring is so hard.
You buy a new goalkeeper and after the initial hype it’s not certain, that he is better than Leno. You buy three CBs and three FBs, but the defense is not quite right. You ship out the best attacker for free mid-season and complain that you are short on attackers.
On top of that you play extremely defensive basic football and wonder why scoring is so hard.
His hair is awesome though.
As funny as not gaining any points, or even worse losing points?
Every player in the Arsenal first XI is either someone Arteta signed or someone he clearly rates. Apart from at CF, after he binned Aubameyang (who he gave a new contract.) If there was a rebuild taking place, it should be finished by now. This is his team.
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What are your expectations from him next season?
We aren’t pretending we’ve massively improved though, whereas there’s been an endless Arsenal wankfest since January. We’re also no longer in denial about how shit our club legend manager is, we’re free of that thankfully. So yeah it’s a lot funnier
Neither are we claiming we've massively improved, so not sure where your getting that from?We aren’t pretending we’ve massively improved though, whereas there’s been an endless Arsenal wankfest since January. We’re also no longer in denial about how shit our club legend manager is, we’re free of that thankfully. So yeah it’s a lot funnier
Articles like this:Neither are we claiming we've massively improved, so not sure where your getting that from?
Loads of people are claiming that, come on.Neither are we claiming we've massively improved, so not sure where your getting that from?
This was only on the last pageNeither are we claiming we've massively improved, so not sure where your getting that from?
This is all throughout the thread. Don’t get me wrong, there are tons of fair criticisms to be made about Arteta and Arsenal fans. But I keep reading about how Arteta is so overrated, overpraised and fawned over by Gooners. Except when you actually read the post from Arsenal fans they range from some not particularly rating him through to others thinking he’s doing a decent job in the circumstances.Neither are we claiming we've massively improved, so not sure where your getting that from?
I think it’s telling that it Balague being quoted and not actual fans.
So not the Arsenal fans actually posting in here then? Ballbag certainly isn't a 'we'.
So what's 'we' then, the four posters here?
I’ve said it before that arsenal fans are the most delusional. Arsenal fan at work reckoned they’d rival City for Haaland if they get CL football because all Haaland has to do is talk to Odegaard and it would convince him
To be fair, before this game, everyone was very optimistic and many fans (even here) were already counting the CL money. Had they secured 4th, it indeed would have been a fairly big improvement. I dont blame them for feeling optimistic, but backtracking now is hilarious
Yep, they were also planning the transfer window on players they can attract being in the CL.
Dont count your chickens before they hatch