Since Artetas taken over Arsenal have lower xG and higher xA. That means that you are scoring more than you should and not conceding as much as you should. And Arteta do even have less points than Emery picked up, both his first and last 26 games in charge. Arsenal are a dull team, regardless of that fluke FA cup and a charity shield that only Arsenal and Mourinho are so happy to talk about. I have pretty much seen all of Arsenals fixtures this season. In how many can you truly claim that you deserved to win? Fulham away and Dundalk home is the two games that springs to mind.
People are talking about seeing a progress, but I really don’t. Can you explain for me which exact progress? More sound defensively? What are his philosophy? How do he want to set up his team long term? Like Pep? Will he ever have the right players for that system?
If your asking me I would be worried if I were an Arsenal fan. Artetas been your manager since December. Jury is still out on your new players as we all know new players can come in and play really good in the beginning, conning people that they’re good. Mustafi was your saviour and really good in his first 20 games, Luiz aswell, Willian got hyped up aswell after his 2 “assists” against Fulham. All in all, my point is that you don’t seem to have Rashford or Greenwood potential player in your youth ranks, which means you rely on transfers. But Arsenal signing themselves out of this mess of rubbish players will take atleast 4 transfers windows. And your best player is 33-34 then.
Remember what he was taking over. This Arsenal team hadn't been coached to defend with a proper structure under Wenger, so that was embedded in the players. By the end of Emery's reign he had truly lost the players. The players didn't understand his tactics, he was all over the place trying to play Torriera as a 10 & Ceballos as a pivot. We were conceding over 30 shots against Watford. The captain had been boo'd walking of the pitch & had reacted to the support & was exiled. We were a mess.
This team needed someone to coach them into a proper structure. Everyone was crying out for it. Arsenal were soft, were unorganised, didn't like to put the effort in off the ball, were easy to play through, lacked strength, lacked pace in midfield & defence, had no spine or backbone. I could go on.
So Arteta did what most sensible managers would do. He went to rectify this. He's done it to a surprisingly decent degree of success, for someone that's in their first job.
Therefore, I don't get the stick he gets just now. Did people really expect him to implement a high line with the likes of David Luiz & Mustafi as central defenders? Did people expect him to try a high pressing system with the likes of Xhaka & Guendouzi trying to cover big areas in central midfield?
Im sure the system will evolve. Heck, it even evolved last night. I was expecting a lower block like we played against City & Liverpool, but we actually pressed quite high yesterday. I was very pleasantly surprised, because it tells me he is trusting the players he has brought in. And those players I mentioned in the previous paragraph, were any of those playing?
We aren't great. We're a very good bit off that. But most sane Arsenal fans can see we are going the right way, and that we just have to be patient. There will be more frustration, results like the Leicester game even. We need to find more creativity, that's for sure. Let's not judge him too soon though, and let him try and get more of his own players in, and see from there.
