The “he spent billions to get here” angle is also hilarious, as if other teams in the league haven’t been spending as much if not more. Maybe Chelsea, United and even Spurs to a degree should try being more prudent with their own investments instead of critiquing how much other teams spend like it’s an asterisk.
Mikel Arteta | Lego Pep watch
- Thread starter Samid
- Start date
No, in the same way Arteta didn’t invent being an insufferable Cnut, but like the set piece time wasting, taken it to new levels.
Why do some posters still need to pretend they’re United fans?
He behaved like an absolute twat last night. He micromanages his team the way a parent would when their son/daughter drives on a main road for the first time.
In a world where City and Pool have been winning I don't mind Arsenal winning the league and they deserve to be in the final, whether they have enough to win is another matter. Arteta has done a great job at Arsenal imo. If he wins the league or champions league it will be well deserved and done via building a very good team. Regardless of the style of football.
We really need to get our act together though. Pool can overtake our title count, City will probably challenge for europe again at some point (no doubting their owners would be aiming to get them to win more champs league titles than us). We need to start competing/winning the big titles soon.
We really need to get our act together though. Pool can overtake our title count, City will probably challenge for europe again at some point (no doubting their owners would be aiming to get them to win more champs league titles than us). We need to start competing/winning the big titles soon.
Call me whatever, but I'd rather finish nowhere than resort to Arteta's brand of football.
Absolute dogshit.
I can't stand him. Plays terrible football, acts like a complete arsehole in the media and on the touchline, the cringe gimmicks, he does behind the scenes, etc.
Can't believe this twat is going to win the double
I've always hated arsenal but I think I hate them a lot more because of Arteta, Gabriel, Ben Shite and their social media fans. Never did I think the day would come where they could potentially win the league and UCL double.
Don't forget Partey and the way the club protected him.
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Those last 5 minutes or so were epic, many memes can be extracted from there.
And that, massively that. It was shameful. And as usual, the media just glossed over it.
I am referring to the fact that they seem to exclusively play for them and then take about 8 years to perform.
Obviously set piece routines are important.
Exactly the sort of reasoning that should have seen Jose nowhere near the Utd job.
Arsenal have just accepted it as the norm, it doesn't matter if you win a game or a cup, if they end this season with nothing then the fans will turn. But they'll probably win the league and is the CL final, so he'll be great for a while, until the players inevitably get tired of his shtick and give up playing for him. Then it will turn sour.
Arsenal outspending every other team they’ve played in the CL this season by an enormous margin is irrelevant because there might be another club in the world (maybe even two clubs?) who maybe came close to their spending over the last several years. Classic.Side note. It’s the spending under Arteta that puts them out on a limb. He’s had a billion quid invested in his squad, over 6 years. No other manager in the history of the game can match that rate of spending.
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Yes, this was and still is shameful.
It's a joke how no one gave a shit in the media. Imagine if it was United? Remember Greenwood? The eyes of the world were on the club it seemed.
The talk about our spending always ignores why we've had to spend so much. Our team was dogshit when Arteta took over (pretty sure our starting CBs were Mustafi and Luiz?) and I don't see how you're going to overhaul an entire squad and have it competing for a PL/CL without spending a lot of money.
I am genuinely curious to hear what United fans think we should have done instead? Go from an 8th placed team to regularly competing for the league against much bigger and richer clubs by signing free transfers/wonder kids/30m bargains?
I really couldn’t give a toss about what you should have done differently or why you needed to spend all that money. I’m just pointing out that Arteta having a billion quid to spend on his squad over six years makes him a massive outlier compared to the managers of the teams that Arsenal are competing against.
If I did care about Arsenal I’d be wondering how any manager can spend that much money and end up set piecing and shit housing his way to his first major trophy - playing anti football so awful that most neutrals ended up wanting City’s gulf state project to finish ahead of them - but I’ll leave that cognitive dissonance to you gooners.
Having a manager actually stay 6 years is a bit of an outlier in this day and age, so it's not really a fair comparison. Overall, you compete against clubs, not just other managers
Which teams are those? The likes of Sporting and Atletico? Yeah, definitely. The likes of PSG and Bayern? Nah. A team of Arsenal's stature needs to spend a billion quid if they want to try and get to a place where they can consistently compete against those superclubs.
The football has been shit, I won't argue with that. But even when our football was good and we were competing against City I don't remember people wanting us to win. It's easier for neutrals to support City because their success feels meaningless and no one actually knows any City fans in real life
They're not good to watch and their shithousery should rightly be called out, but for arsenal fans right now I don't think it matters too much if that's what gets them over the line.
Don't forget they've had to deal with plenty of teams down the years that play nice football and win sod all. Adding the ugly parts and a bit of bite was always necessary, although they've not found the most appealing balance.
And then there's us. We've spent a few chunk of change ourselves and our football isn't consistently great to watch. And we've not really come close to troubling the title race since Fergie. I don't think there's many fans that wouldn't be willing to tolerate ugly football, borderline cheating at set pieces and a bit of good old fashioned play acting if we ended up winning the league again.
Once they've won it, that's when the expectations will rise. Worrying about HOW you win trophies is a luxury reserved for teams that regularly win trophies.
I don't have any issues with the spend. Like you say it was necessary.
It's just this notion he's done a great job.
Six years, a billion quid, at a big London club. Basically no pressure to win anything.
I don't think any other manager on the planet has had such favourable conditions to put a team together.
If at the end of that you haven't put a good team together you've failed as a manager because no manager could ask for more. It's ideal management conditions. A dream job.
After 6 years and a lot of money he is going to win major honours but it'll be a team nobody wants to watch in a poor domestic league twinned with an easy run in the ECL.
What, what is this all about ?Can't believe this twat is going to win the double
I dont watch Arsenal to really be invested in how they play, but cant begrudge them behaving the way they do.
Its gotten them to a CL final and close to a league title, when a traditional approach might not have bridged the gap.
I also think in the process its developed a strong determined culture in the team which will stand them in good stead.
I look at them as a team constantly evolving, so it doesnt mean this is the final inception of the team.
Also credit to the spine he’s built.
Plus seeing Atletico complain about shithousery is delightful.
Its gotten them to a CL final and close to a league title, when a traditional approach might not have bridged the gap.
I also think in the process its developed a strong determined culture in the team which will stand them in good stead.
I look at them as a team constantly evolving, so it doesnt mean this is the final inception of the team.
Also credit to the spine he’s built.
Plus seeing Atletico complain about shithousery is delightful.
Such a dislikeable cnut
It’s nonsense to imply Arsenal/Arteta have a binary choice. Ugly football to win, or beautiful football to lose. We know this because even if the only football club you’ve ever watched is Arsenal we’ve already seen that it’s possible to be successful and good to watch. For some weird reason Wenger era Arsenal is being retrospectively painted as chronic failure. In reality Wenger had a trophy haul that Arteta can only dream of, playing football the whole world admired (on a shoestring budget).
Moving on from Arsenal under Wenger all the most successful clubs of the last couple of decades have played football that’s great to watch. If anything, high scoring attacking football has been proven to be more likely to win big trophies than shit on a stick one nilling your way through a season.
But you are also implying it's ugly football and that's it. We can play good football, you don't get to the top of the league and Champions League final without being able to play good football, even if people refuse to see it.
We aren't just shitting our way to 1-0 victories constantly, we scored 3 Vs Bayern, 4 Vs Atletico, 3 Vs Inter in the group stages Ive not checked but I heard a stat that City had 8 or 9 games where they have won by at least 3 goals this season, and we are only 1 behind them.
So while I admit the balance has tipped to be more attritional football l, I think it's wrong to ignore the periods of football we do play well.
It's one of those for me where he and the club deserve credit for managing to stick together for so long and build with signings that are largely 'hits' with little to no misses in there, and even when you've signed someone and then sold them it's usually been a decent sale like Ramsdale. At the same time, when you spend that much money and have a wage bill which has generally been around top 3 for the past three seasons, you're generally doing what should be expected of yourselves.
Can't believe this twat is going to win the double
Arteta made a prat of himself during a motivational speech about Edison inventing the lightbulb. Firstly by thinking this LinkedIn style speech would motivate his players, and secondly because Edison didn't actually invent the lightbulb.
He realised how shite Zubimendi is at the very last minute. Fair play
I can see why you’re keen to compare yourselves to this season’s City team to make Arsenal look good. Surely the worst City side we’ve ever seen under Guardiola? Obviously as a United fan it killls me to give any praise to Liverpool but Klopp assembled a proper football team, playing great football. Up against some of the best City sides of the Pep era. No comparison to the crap being served up by City and Arsenal this season.
This thread. I’ve seen us win ugly and lose with attractive football. I know which I prefer.
If I’m honest, I’m loving the whining. Starting to imagine how Chelsea fans would have buzzed off all the complaints in 2012.
Mate, you know that if we win a trophy, none of this matters, right?
If we win the league (or, less likely, the CL), this will have been the best Arsenal season in my adult life and 20 years of going to games, and I’ll be insufferably happy for… well… the foreseeable future. And Arteta, Rice, Gabriel et al will instantly be Arsenal legends.
Who the feck cares how we compare to teams of the past? I won’t.
Edgy
Or maybe, just maybe, we’re comparing ourselves to City this season because that’s who we’re competing against.
If (and it’s a big “if”) we win the title this season it will because we were better than City this season. The entire point of a league is to determine the best team in that league at that time.