A little gallows humor before the match tomorrow… which player do you think is most likely to get a red card tomorrow against Everton?
David Luiz – With Gabriel sidelined and Mari starting for the reserves, David Luiz seems like a sure-fire start against Everton and looks like a good bet for a red card because he plays with his heart on his sleeve. Just returning from a major head injury and Dominic Calvert-Lewin will pester him all day aerially but I think he’s a strong enough character to withstand that battle. My big fear is that he gets caught high up the pitch in a foot-race with Iwobi. That’s where he could get a DOGSO.
Lacazette – far more volatile than people think. Has the same number of career red cards as Luiz (3) but two of his are 2nd yellows, which shows a lack of composure. I’ve seen him get involved in one-too-many scuffles in his time at Arsenal. I expect him to play #10 and get totally harassed by Everton’s midfield. Could see him get one of those red cards when the forward loses the ball and makes a rash lunge to win it back.
Willian – BIG SLEEPER. I bet the odds of him getting a red card are long but of all the players I feel have a bad attitude at the team these last few weeks, Willian’s is the worst. From flying to Dubai for fucking SALT BAE to his on-field laziness and tepid play, plus the rumors that he’s one of the gang trying to get Arteta fired, there’s just something deeply wrong with this player at my club. I almost feel like he would get a red just to spite Arteta.
Elneny – with everyone else injured, I feel like he’s nailed on to start. Was already lucky to escape a red this season and in the last match was utterly lost on defense – often seemed surprised when the ball got near him. He’s not a bad guy and I think he’s fairly smart and gentle but could be goaded into a stupid mistake. This is one to watch out for.
Ceballos – one career red card and that was a 2nd yellow. He’s also gotten into three fights with teammates this season, two of those on-pitch and so seems like a good candidate. However, he’s also itching to get out of this club and play for Real Madrid and wouldn’t want to do anything to mess that up. I’m going with low chance: if he gets a red card it’s more likely for punching a teammate than the opponent.
Bobby Sacramento – this season has been so bad that Rob has gone almost entirely bald. He’s certainly at the point where he should just shave it and do the whole “bald and owning it” thing, that little tuft of hair on top isn’t fooling anyone. Anyway, bald men have more testosterone which is why I think he’ll be fine. Small chance of a DOGSO or dumb second yellow but nothing rash.
Mustafi – Seems unlikely to play unless we play a back three and one of them gets injured. Did you know, he’s never gotten a red card for Arsenal? He had three before us but none since. He probably won’t play but if he did.. a combination of rust and the squad nerves could get a big gaffe from him. He would be the perfect fan scapegoat as well but it seems a small chance.
Auba – he’s got a few reds (2) over his career but man it would be a huge let down if he got a red card right now. He wouldn’t do that. I trust him way too much.
Pepe – he wouldn’t. Not a second one right away. Right?
Nelson – doubt he’ll play and even bigger doubt he’ll even get a yellow card much less a red!
Saka – could happen, but it would be one of those ones where everyone goes “oh come on, that’s really harsh.” He’s not the kind of player who would break a leg in malice or anything.
Maitland-Niles – nope. Exceptional attitude. Could get one on accident trying to recover a loose touch but it feels like it would be very unlucky.
Willock – has a red card from his time with the reserves but good lord this seems like a sweet guy. I’d be surprised if Arteta plays him long enough to get a yellow much less a red.
Bellerin – Nope. Despite his nerves on throws lately, I think he’s too smart for this nonsense.
Kieran Tierney – no chance, this kid is so disciplined that he tucks his shirts in. Not only that but I can’t think of a player with a more textbook throw. What does that have to do with anything? Well, it’s everything.
LeNO.
This is still 202 after all, so none of the obvious things will happen.
I’m thinking Runnarson. Leno’s going to get injured, we’re going to need to bring in Runnarson. His inexperience is going to lead him to overcommit coming out of the box, and he’s going to foul an attacker and get a red card for DOGSO. This will be towards the end of the match, and we’ll be out of subs, so we’re going to end up with Willian in goal.
Tim Great post again. Thanks for all your time, effort and work.
Circling back to our discussion at the end of yesterday’s comments. If we include 6 Europa league games, Community shield, FA cup and league cup games from this season then Arteta and the team look much better manager if you only focus on the league games which is what we have been doing. Seems like faulty reasoning to eliminate the those good games from our analysis of but then include the stats from those games
That comment was poorly worded. The main focus of the debate we are having is whether or not the biggest problem is Arteta’s management of if the players he has are just not very good. Obviously the answer is probably somewhere in between but for purposes of the debate it makes no sense to me to ignore the Europa league and other non league games when we are evaluating Arteta but then including the stats from those games when we are analyzing the performances of the individual players.
When you look at the long term scoring record of the other players in the squad its easy to see why Arteta would be somewhat reluctant to drop Laca and Willian because at least those guys have some history of being able to score an occasional goal in one of our league games.
In our current state anyone is capable of getting sent off. What makes people do irrational, stupid things? Pressure normally. We’re not strong mentally and haven’t been for some considerable time. You need energy and drive, but you also need ice in your veins. Bring back Dennis Bergkamp!
The other point regarding cards that needs to be made is that, from a technical point of view, we are very, very bad at tackling. When you go into a challenge, you really want to crouch slightly and have your weight on the balls of you feet. Watch anyone who is a good tackler and they are invariably leaning forward and have a low centre of gravity. Although you need to get to your opponent quickly, the nearer you get to him, you should actually be slowing down. What you should never do is start off late and then accelerate at contact. A card or missed tackle more often than not. Xhaka and Ceballos are classic examples of how not to do it, but they are not the only ones by any means.
😂😂 Red card conjecture ! How do you come up with such brainwaves Tim
You should be an asset in organising a picnic. You think of everything .
I go for long walks in the woods without headphones on and without looking at my phone.
Dark horse candidate…Arteta for the red card!
That would be hilarious. He’d have to come out and say that his behavior was unacceptable.
I think one of our subs is going to get distracted by an on pitch incident and end up getting caught outside the safe zone after getting to the last two in a game of Fortnite that he’s been playing under the covers to pass the time and he’s going to get so mad that he reflexively punches the sub to his left, gets sent off, and we lose the other sub to injury for 4 months.
Don’t know which subs though.
Man City currently in 9th place and are down by this season despite playing excellent defense and being tied for fewest goals conceded in the league. They are struggling to score and their results have been really poor by their standards which I think is because they have lost their top goal scorers. Same thing happened to Real Madrid when they lost Ronaldo. Even with a great manager, a great system and plenty of creativity the team is going to have trouble scoring goals without having players on the pitch who are good at scoring goals. This Arsenal team has plenty of problems from top to bottom but I believe the lack of goal scorers in our squad is by far the single biggest reason we have only scored 11 goals and currently sit in 15th place.
I think you’re right. I can’t see where the goals are coming from either.
Auba misses the game with a calf injury. Our front three consists of Willian, Nketiah and Pepe. David Luiz starts in the middle of defence. Ceballos and Elneny forms a duo which feels like no protection for our defensive line.
I will watch it. But not sure I want to watch it.
I agree. This could be bad. Where will the goals come from, I wonder. I think the starting eleven has something like two league goals total among them? Lol.
I doubt this is a popular opinion, but hopefully Auba’s calf injury is just a little niggles and a perfect excuse to rest him this game without a huge controversy. He has logged a lot of yards on our left flank over the calendar year, and he’s no spring chicken lol. And maybe Santa does exist!
My (dour) prediction for this game:
2-0, with goals from Iwobi (of course) and Calvert-Lewin.
Not a bad call, as it turned out.
Now that Ive seen the lineup (posting this pre-match), Im going with David Luiz. A good player, but one who’s got a clanger in him. Is he fully fit and up to speed? That’ll determine a mistimed tackle, or a tug on a speedy forward.
Willian and Pepe in a front 3? 7 minutes in and my stomach bis already churning
2-1 to Everton after first 45 minutes.
The lack of creativity is painful. Willian yet again the passenger. The magic Arsenal way autumn/winter 2020 is to play the ball wide to the right winger, make him work with right back. The threat is easily nulified every time the play comes into the final third.
There is no change of tempo whatsoever. I have forgotten times Arsenal played successful diagonal pass. The middle of the park is offensively non-existent. We put the opponent to sleep but ourselves at the same time.
It is depressing, however a bit better than last games. However, today game structure reflects the league position.
A point today would be a success, but …how much difference does it make?
That was pretty grim. We weren’t awful, considering we were playing a top team at their field. But nor do we look like a team that is going to make rapid headway. We just have no attacking threat.
Can’t believe Willian started and played the whole match. He contributes nothing.
Not sure Nketiah has what it takes at this level either. He had the best chance of the whole first half and couldn’t even get close to target. Martinelli or Balogun would seem to be the way forward. And some combination of Willock, ESR and Partey in the middle.
We were playing a team who hired a new manager at the same time as Arsenal. Exactly one year ago we witnessed a drab 0-0 draw under caretaker managers at Goodison Park. Now the more I think of it, the more I feel that perhaps Freddie saw something in the setup and felt he couldn’t be part of it and left at the beginning of the season.
Everton strengthened with purpose in the summer. They got a wonderful CDM from the league, added a creative spark who lifted the team (even though he gets injured fairly easily so might not last) and they improved their existing team players. We, on the other hand have added expensive aging players regularly in the past 3-4 windows. We haven’t gotten rid of players who are 2nd rate or improved those players. So I think we deserve to be 15th.
The main thing Everton have is a centre forward. Calvert-Lewin. We’re currently trying to play without one. Is it any wonder we’re not scoring goals?
It’ll be weird seeing Arsenal in the Championship next season!
Some positives:
Thought we played well for about the first twenty minutes of the second half.
Avoiding a red card!
Leno made a good save!
Pepe and Nketiah being subbed off for being useless.
Seeing Martinelli for the first time in ages and because he will singlehandedly save us all, surely.
Some negatives:
Yeah, can’t be bothered. Arsenal are just one long streak of whale sh*t.
A whale skiddy
I try not to get too reactive. Currently, Everton are a better side than we are, and a 2-1 defeat away to them needs to be kept in perspective.
But let’s talk about Yerri Mina’s goal, and I’m speaking directly to the folks who have argued that, but for a duff squad, Arteta would be showing us what a great coach he is. Im not of the Alan Hansen school which argues that every goal is a defensive error… sometimes goals are simply brilliantly executed. But can someone please explain how the man guarding the near-post run from deep of the big CF is 5’3″ Eddie Nkeiah? Respectfully, wtf kind of defensive organisation is that? Is it the coach failing to plan, or the players failing to execute?
And I thought we hired a set piece specialist to be part of the coaching setup.
I couldn’t decide whether it was Eddie or Pepe who was meant to go with him. Either way, it’s a free header. It’s at time like this you wish Giroud was still with us. He was always very good at picking up the centre half.
Watched the game here at 1.30am and I can see from the body language of the players that they don’t believe in Arteta anymore. When you go on a losing run like we have, players will invariably question if they have the right man leading. This is not a team of leaders. They expect Arteta to provide them solutions to get out of this rut. But it looks like Arteta’s methods are not getting any buy-in anymore.
Maybe his vision was brilliant but the lack of experience is now showing when faced with adversity. His solutions are not working and I think players are probably losing trust in him. There is no shame in admitting that Arteta has not worked out. He needs to take a step down and manage a club where he is able to build his credentials and test his ideas away from the limelight.
Arsenal, on the other hand have a huge problem of a disjointed squad and a management structure filled with inexperienced people. On top of that we have no vision on how to create a modern football club. The owners are clueless and don’t really know what to do. The football people within the club have wasted close to $500 million on players in the last 5 years and we are more closer to relegation that ever.
It breaks my heart to see all those values which Wenger held so dear have been tossed away in one swoop. It really has made me think that maybe I was more of an Arsene fan than an Arsenal fan. Should I really continue supporting an organisation which happily wastes such obscene amount of money on players while crassly laying off ordinary folks making a living? Has any other club followed suit?
To BBC Sport – ‘We dominated the game’
Seriously he says this every time.
Tim Stillman on Twitter said Arteta has never really got our attack going. And that really is the conclusion. We were sold on defensive stability as the platform to build upon but you only win by scoring goals.
Actually, I was very supportive of Arteta working to make us defensively solid. Even at the expense of attacking flair. But now it seems like a bad move. The team seems to have gotten into a mentality of not losing. We are not confident enough of winning because we keep thinking of not losing! It’s amazing how an attitude shift can lead to such decline. Previously, some of these same players were fully only thinking of scoring goals ( mostly beautiful goals). So much so that we yearned for a 1-0 to Arsenal. But, it looks like Arteta’s defensive structure has shackled these players so much that they are unable to create.
For the good 20 min spell in the second half I saw Willian playing much deeper, back in the Xhaka left-back position at times. It seemed like a deliberate choice to have him quarterback more, and it worked pretty well. All of a sudden we were linking up through the middle more than usual as well as down the flanks. He was able to change our point of attack in a way we’ve been sorely missing.
It wasn’t enough in the end. And by the way, Bill’s right.
I also noted that about Willian for those twenty minutes that he (and the team generally) played well. Though, I know some people can’t tolerate the notion that Willian ever plays well! (I mean I get it, because he has been a terrible signing for us.)
He looked better to me, playing in a deeper position. He just about gets away with the fact that he is slow.
It’s generally accepted practice in “park football” that the older and slower you become, the further “back” you play. Nippy right winger at 20. Ball playing midfielder at 30. Steady, experienced full back at 40. Who’s to say it’s not more or less the same at professional level!
Yes, he likes to repeat himself. but he is. You either have the capacity and desire to score goals, or you don’t. I don’t see that natural gift in hardly any of the Arsenal players.
that’s not true.
Name me the Arsenal players in the current squad capable of getting double figures in the Premier league, in that case.
The thing is, to be able to score goals at that level on a regular basis requires a very specific skill set. Lots don’t have it, even ones who are otherwise talented. That’s why proven goal scorers command such high prices in the transfer market. The ability to find space in a crowded penalty area, to be in the right place at exactly the right time, to have no time at all but still manage to make the right choices. You need to be incredibly cool under pressure, physically brave and perhaps most importantly have an almost single minded obsession with scoring. Is it coachable? In my experience, very rarely. Don’t run away with the idea that almost anyone with a modicum of skill can be a regular goal scorer.
Yes, only buy buying players who have previously scored (checks logic) 5+ goals in the premier league can you have players who will score goals in the premier league.
Stop.
I think you also have to look at the “demographics” of our team. PEA, Laca and Willian are all over 30. We also have a number of players who a couple of years ago, were still at school. You have far more patience than me when it comes to stats, so you could probably tell me whether it’s usual for players within those two age groups to be proven goal scorers? Jamie Vardy is generally regarded as a freak of nature, of course. Any teenager who scores regularly, automatically becomes “hot property”.
Football isn’t like other sports. Run your finger down the results column on a Saturday and you will not be surprised to see the figures 0-0. Has there ever been an NBA game, where nobody has been able to put the ball in the hoop?
So the MOTD stats show that form wise over the past 10 games we rank 19th or 20th. Seems we’re in a relegation fight now? Key questions that follow are:
– Is Micky the man to lead that fight?
– Do we bring back some of the current ‘cast offs’ to help?
– What are realistic expectations for the season?
Either way it’s gonna be a really ugly and unrewarding season.
Also wanted to give a massive shout out to Newcastle for taking points off our relegation rivals today.
When you have an undertalented squad like we have and no legitimate goal scoring threat on the pitch available you are always going to struggle on the attacking end. The only way to compensate is to play with energy, commitment and organization and keep a lot of clean sheets. I don’t blame Arteta for our attacking woes because he does not have any difference making players that he can turn to and no realistic tactical changes which are going to help. Last season he had an in form Auba and the squad reacted well to the change when he came on board and we did the miraculous winning the FA cup. However, we have been conceding way to many goals in the last month and if Arteta can’t get the squad to play with passion and keep a lot of clean sheets going forward then we are well and truly screwed
“….no realistic tactical changes which are going to help.”
Nonsense. It is literally the job of a coach to devise tactics based on (1) studying how the opposition sets up, and (2) the players at his disposal.
“….because he does not have any difference-making players”
A good proportion of the players at Arteta’s disposal are players he picked for his squad. Why did he pick them? Because they are difference makers.
Bill, Im seriously beginning to doubt your grasp of football.
Claude. If you actually believe that a manager can overcome a lack of attacking talent and a lack of goal scorers in his squad by changing formations or changing systems or some other tactical maneuvers then I don’t think your ideas are very realistic.
That is literally what a coach is supposed to do… use his resources and tactical acumen to get results. Have you heard of Martin O’Neill, Bill?
And as Josh pointed out in citing the stats of Saka and Pepe in particular, we don’t have a lack of attacking talent. We have a lack of attacking effectiveness. They’re not the same thing.
Even with the purplest patch of Auba, we got goals from elsewhere. Set piece goals from your big, lumpen CB are goals. Free kick goals are goals. Saka goals are goals. Pepe goals are goals (even the right-footed one). The goals that Lacazette started the season with are goals. Long distance howitzers are goals. Luiz is a CB capable of open play goals, in the way that Koscielny was. Etc etc… This is not a band called Auba and the Ten Losers. It is a team, yes, with a world-class striker, but other players who are capable of scoring. As they did when Auba was unstoppable.
You get goals from chances created. We are not creating chances. You get goals from effective build-up play. We do not have effective build up play.
I was praising Arteta for the defensive solidarity he brought but we don’t have a clean sheet in our last 5 league games and that is not going to work.
Rob Holding scored his first career PL goal today.
I’m Arteta-in and I’ll tell you why – there’s no point in changing the manager. I think Arteta had leverage when he came in because they couldn’t exactly sack the guy just six months in…. but as time as gone on he’s been beaten down by a bad group of players and a corrupt club hierarchy that fires its scouting department in favour of letting of agents bring cast-offs to our doorstep for massive pay-days.
We have the French contingent; Auba, Laca, Guendouzi, Pepe, Saliba… two of which have been written off, two of which aren’t generally trusted. I’m sure they’re making noises in the locker room (or text messages). Auba, Pepe and Laca are barely productive this season on current evidence.
We have those in the Ozil orbit; Ozil himself, Mustafi, Kolasinac and, to a lesser extent, Sokratis. They’re all on the outs, but still hanging around.
We have those in the Luiz/Joorabchian orbit; Willian, Gabriel and Martinelli, maybe Soares. Gabriel seems to care and wants to give it a fair go. Martinelli has been hurt, but the others? FFS
I have no idea where Xhaka, Partey, Elneny, Bellerin and Ceballos fit into these groups. Ceballos seems to like fighting with his own teammates, so who knows? Xhaka seems universally popular for whatever reason.
Then there are the guys who seem to be genuinely trying to play hard and put in good shifts when they are given the chance; Leno, Holding, Tierney, Maitland-Niles, Willock, Reiss-Nelson, Saka, Nketiah, Smith-Rowe… but let’s be honest, on the basis of experience that’s the backbone of a team like Watford, not a top 6 team.
What I would like to see is a genuine clear-out of players and cliques that have their own agendas and then let’s see what Arteta can do.
Can we get rid of Ozil, Mustafi, Kola and Sokratis in January? Can we sell Laca and Guendouzi? If Barca comes for Bellerin, sell him. Can we loan away Soares, Luiz and Willian, even if it means subsidizing their wages – if for nothing else to get them away from influencing Gabriel and Martinelli? Does Pepe have any market value at all at this point to even recoup 2/3 of what we paid for him? Can we sell Xhaka?
Then tell Arteta this is your team; Leno, Tierney, Gabriel, Holding, Maitland-Niles, Partey, Elneny, Ceballos, Smith-Rowe, Nketiah, Saka, Martinelli, Reiss-Nelson, Willock, Auba… make the best of it son, if you can stay up, we’ve got a foundation to build on. Then we can judge him, on how well he develops and gets this group to buy into what he wants to do.
But firing him now – for who? Allegri? Don’t make me laugh. It won’t fix anything.
The scale of changes you suggest is unrealistic (and on what basis is Barca going to come in for Bellerin atm? Flogging merch?). A clear out in January, or even the summer, is pie-in-the-sky. He needs results, right now, with the players he has. If he has two more bad results, he’s fooked. His current results are not sustainable.
There are, from reports I’ve seen, 500m in sunk costs on players. Replacing $X in squad value by clearout (which by its nature is going to include some firesales) is going to cost $3x. Good luck getting Stan and Josh to sign off on that. If you cant manage their AFC assets, they’re going to fire you and replace you with someone they think can do so. It’s why Emery came with his famous dossier. He had to convince the hiring panel that he can create value, not destroy it. “I paid 72m for Pepe… make it work, goddamit”.
There have always been cliques, brought together first by language, and secondly by shared interests. They’re totally and completely the bad guys. Youre right about one thingg, though… professionals can smell sweat and uncertainty from a coach, and Arteta is giving off a lot of that. What Emery did (aand it worked till he had no choice but to strip Xhaka of the captaincy) was identify his allies in the dressing room, and work with them to win over the rest. Who are Arteta’s allies, his enforcers? Looked like he p****d off everyone.
Guendouzi cost 8m. You clear him out, then what? Your replacement is a 40m one. If you are Stan and Josh, you demand that the Guendouzi hire be made to work. He is 20, not 33.
There’s a reason why under the old structure that Head Coaches were designated as managers. They have to do far more than cones and chalkboard. They have to manage egos, testosterone, selfishness, diva behaviour etc etc. Sure, the players are not blameless for cliqueynness… but Arteta has exacerbated that with some really poor man-management.
So, it falls to him to win the coming games with what he has. For him, January is light years away.
Corr*** They’re not totally and completely the bad guys
Can I just say how much I like the up vote system, Ido. Instead of trying to type something half smart I just find someone who said it better than I ever could and give him a like.
Well said Claude.
I’m not a big fan of the “You’ve already voted for this comment “ bs though.
What’s up with that , Tim?
I know it’s unrealistic… but it’s what needs to be done to give a fair assessment of Arteta.
I’m just of the opinion that no matter who is brought in, you have powerful cliques with different agendas, senior players who are more loyal to their agents than anything or anyone else and a general mess.
Perhaps a Zidane or someone of such pedigree that all the players would be intimidated into compliance will work now. A week ago I thought someone like Rafa Benitez would work, but now I think he’d be Emery-ed out of the club in a year just like Arteta is getting done.
Ultimately, the Kroenke’s have no idea how to run any sports franchise, never mind a football one.
At the risk of being murdered online, I would welcome relegation if only because it would rid of us the Kroenkes. They will bail at the first sign of that kind of trouble.
No man. Relegation is harder to bounce back from than you’d think. We have seen how hard getting back into the Top 4 is, once you fall out of it. If we are relegated, we put a target on our backs in the Championship. Getting back up right away is not a given. Ask Blackburn, former Premier League Winners.
Don’t wish relegation on us. It’s like progressives claiming in 2016 that Trump will hasten their socialist revolution.
But all that said, I’m going to say it… we are too good to go down.
I can’t see actually going down to Championship either but a stint in the drop zone is with us fighting to stay up is not at all impossible. Right now, with the season midpoint approaching, we are only 4 points away from 18th and 4 points away from…12th, not even in the top half of the table.
If it’s going to be that kind of season, I would prefer to at least stay out of Europe for 2021/22 for a bit more time and breathing space to help sort ourselves.
Nailed it Claude. Ultimately this is a results business. If you don’t keep the ship afloat each day you don’t get to plot the future route.
Oh, one more thing, Jack…
Ozil, Mustafi, Kolasinac and Sokratis are not “hanging around”…. they are under contract to (paid contract employees of) Arsenal Football Club.
They are under no obligation to simply leave without settlement of their employment terms, either with their existing club or a new employer. They did not strong-arm anyone into offering them those contracts.
Fans believe that if a coach no longer has time for a player, the player must simply faff off. That’s not the way it works.
Rangnick would be a good option. Could also approach Hassenhutl. He seems to have turned that side around.
If Arteta is struggling dealing with the players as you suggest he should do the decent thing and agree with the club to handover to someone else. I’m fully of the view he’s gone in much too heavy handed with some, favoured others and then his ideas of how to play the game haven’t borne fruit. Hence a divided camp and lack of belief.
Pretty much spot on. Nothing less than major surgery is going to save this team. Our “transfer policy” (I use that term loosely) has been a hotch potch of dealings, which follow no cohesive strategy or rationale.
Great post by Tim and edifying comments as usual. We lost, predictably but to a quality team with a great manager. Ancelotti is class through and through. He won everything at Milan with his teammate and friend, Paolo Maldini before he won everything at manager at various clubs. And he’s still getting teams to improve and play at a very high level.
As they both came inat the same time, I actually wondered who would do a better job Ancelotti or Arteta, a question that shouldn’t Neven have crossed my mind given the difference in pedegree and experience.
I had the same question in mind as I remember lot of people felt that Ancelotti would be a poor signing for us as he basically would be Wenger 2.0 (in a bad sense) as apparently he was old fashioned in his training methods and ideas. Maybe that is still how it will turn out at Everton. Perhaps they got lucky that their in-house forward suddenly clicked this season and became Kane 2.0. Whatever might be the case, they do seem to be playing with aggression and intent.
Arteta’s Arsenal have not played with confidence and aggression (dominating other teams) either last season or this season. There has never been any swagger about them in PL. They have had famous wins playing as a counter attacking team where our opponents have battered us but we defended with our life. We haven’t dominated any of the teams (in fact we have hung on for victories or draws against bottom tier teams right through his tenure).
All these are signals are right in front of us. Arteta may have a bold vision for Arsenal but he has not managed to put that into practice. I know that from 1st hand experience. Light years ago, I graduated from film school and got a job at a big ad agency as their film guy. Over the course of next one year, I discovered that having a vision is nothing if you cannot communicate your ideas. Film making is a team effort and all those seasoned professionals pretty soon sussed out that I was out of my depth. It was a truly humbling experience. I swallowed my pride and moved to a role in TV where I started more at my level, worked my way up and eventually moved to photography as my true calling. That journey took ten years.
Arteta does not have that luxury of failure at Arsenal. The owners, the fans and the players he has, all want to be in top 4 at the minimum. If he is unable to get his players to perform, the players will naturally start blaming his methods. That is just basic human instinct. Arteta really needs to be bold now. He has to trust himself and start taking some risks with his system. It is not about whether the kids are better or the first team XI are underperforming. Actually, it is Arteta who is underperforming by being risk averse.
In hindsight, Ancelotti would have brought in Allan over Partey, Doucoure over a re-loaned Ceballos and James over Willian…. Jesus H. That would have worked better methinks.
I read an interesting comment in Arseblog that perhaps some of these players have downed tools because they were promised that the club will strengthen but in the end only brought in Partey on deadline day. It seems that right after the window closed our results took a nosedive. It’s an interesting theory and can explain some of the lacklustre performances from Auba and Laca etc. Some of you guys have ear to the “people in the know.” Does this sound plausible? Maybe it is not just Arteta and his tactics. It could be some players giving up on the club?
…does not sound plausible! sounds like some bullshit!
A lot of us have been complaining that our opponents were outshooting us. However, in our last 5 league games we have outshot our opponents 64-49 and averaged 55-60% of the ball possession and that includes the 3 games with red cards. That is different from the previous games and it would suggest we have been trying to make some tactical changes. Unfortunately it has not helped us score more goals.
Not sure if its coincidence or if our attempts to have more possession and more shots has hurt our defense but we don’t have a clean sheet in those 5 games and we have conceded 8. We are not going to win many games unless we keep clean sheets and we may need to revisit the defense first mentality if we want to move up the table
bill, your argument lacks nuance, which is understandable but not insignificant. bottom line, the stats should supplement what we see, not serve as a substitute for something we didn’t see. ie, the numbers you produce should jive with the football we’ve seen from arsenal. you make your argument as if we didn’t watch arsenal play…or as if you didn’t watch arsenal play.
the nuance i speak of is not when arsenal are down and chasing a game. who cares how much possession arsenal has then. the opponents aren’t concerned with stats. they’re concerned with keeping their three points and are willing to grant arsenal possession. that’s what the coincidence is that you speak of, bud.
i care more about when the scoreline is 0-0. if arsenal are on top under those circumstances, your stats argument is legit. if arsenal were a top team, they’d be on top when the game was 0-0, but they haven’t been and have been losing to everyone else in the premier league. that, my friend, is not a coincidence.
If I can illustrate what I think Bill’s point is – four years ago, 13 Dec 2016, we also lost away to Everton 2-1.
We started with Walcott, Sanchez and Ozil and had Giroud on the bench. Those four players alone had 184 premier league goals for Arsenal between them when the match kicked off. Ramsey and Cazorla were injured, but if they had been involved, we’d be looking at well over 200 goals’ worth of proven attacking talent on the pitch.
So it’s valid to point out that by comparison yesterday, 4 years later, we had a full starting 11 with 17 Arsenal PL goals between them. Arsenal’s current 2020 center-midfield pairing have never scored a Premier League goal.
We were not good enough back in 2016 either and we lost by the same scoreline, but that just highlights how over four years the club’s owners, directors and managers have allowed Arsenal to be utterly eviscerated in terms of talent and experience.
It’s in this context that we have to look at our problems in attack. I’m not saying Arteta’s a genius being undermined by his players, and I don’t think Bill is saying that either. Let’s just be realistic about what’s really gone on here and the scale of the job that he faces.
Greg, youre one of the gentlemen of the forum, and I love your voice. It is a noble defence… nuanced and well argued. If only the other fine gent could manage that 🙂
But let me push back.
First, Arteta has been in charge for two transfer windows. You cant get much done in January, let’s give him that, but he has had a long run-up to the summer — ironically assisted by the enforced 3-month pandemic break.
If you’d asked me or you which thirtysomething Chelsea player who would not get frequent starts Arteta should prise away, we’d both have said Olivier Giroud. 104 EPL, not counting Montpelier or non-EPL. So let’s go like for like, pound for pound, and compare the year you referenced to Mikel now.
Willian did bring firepower, albeit far less than Giroud would have… 37 goals and 36 assists. You mentioned Ozil… add 33 and 59 G&A (cue the “downward arc” argument from Bill, but fair is fair). Lacazette — add 40. Pepe 8, and it is only fair to add his 38 in the French league. Saka is 7, Nketiah 4, Martinelli 3, Nelson 1. Auba is 57.
By your yardstick, Arteta has it his disposal, a forward line with 190 premier league goals, more than your 184, and has only one completed season for Pepe, whose 38 Ligue 1 goals is a fairer assessment of his firepower.
So Arteta has significant attacking resources. Imagine if…
He owns other hiring decisions… Mari, Cedric, Elneny, Partey, Willian, Ceballos, and turning down 20m for Hertha for Granit Xhaka.
But bottom line… by the measure that you used, Arteta is not short of goal firepower.
To be clear, I counted only Pepe’s 8 EPL goals, and not his 38 French league ones. It’s not that clear reading my comment.
You mention Willian, Auba, Laca and Ozil. Can you remind me how old those players are? What do you reckon their combined age is? 130?
giroud on the bench implies that arsenal played without a proper center forward. we’ve seen arsenal with alexis or theo leading the line…it’s not something that either have ever been good at. everton, among many other teams, could minimize the chances arsenal created in a game without a center forward. a 2-1 loss would not be a surprise.
The words “hit”, “nail” and “head” spring to mind.
arteta is responsible for all of the football aspects of the club. he’s responsible for making the decisions and providing sound strategy, direction, and purpose to the team. he’s responsible for maximizing the resources arsenal has available to create the best product possible on the field and on the scoreboard. lastly, he’s responsible for managing the careers of the players assigned to arsenal and providing a direction considering those careers.
arteta has made some big decisions that were strange to many. whether these decision prove good or poor, he has to own them. everything, from the decision to drop mesut and sokratis, the decision to ship out torreira and guendouzi, the decision to start eddie for the second game in 3 days while leaving your current leading scorer on the bench, etc. arteta’s responsible for it all. when he does these strange things and gets good results, he looks brilliant. however, when he takes these decisions and arsenal are 15th in the league and look absolutely rudderless like a ship lost at sea, he looks a fool.
arsenal won the fa cup because they have a talented team. while that’s cute, i don’t care much for cup competitions as the best team doesn’t always win. i care about the league because the league table doesn’t lie and the best team always wins. arsenal are who the league table says they are.
i’m trying to understand what difference would giving arteta more time make. i don’t see a difference. his struggles appear to be managing the players. he appears to be trying to take a strong-handed approach when it’s probably not necessary; these are professionals after all. what’s going on with him and david luiz? you can’t say nothing when luiz (and willian) played the whole game yesterday but rob holding was captain.
it seems that once you cross this guy, there’s no way back, ala guendouzi and ozil. he’s got these “zero tolerance” ideas but is that really management??? or is it something that makes the players uncomfortable or unhappy? i’ve never seen aubameyang fail to smile, even under emery. something’s going on and i think the manager’s great tactical nous but lack of experience managing egos is beginning to show.
there are things that pep guardiola has said that he could get away with. after all, he’s managed barcelona, fc bayern, and man city; teams that have tremendous financial resources and extremely deep talent pools. pep could drop a mesut at man city because the entire team is world class. the players there don’t want to be dropped and potentially miss out on being part of the greatness that is the potential at man city. the approach where you treat mesut, a world cup winner, less than emile smith-rowe is not sustainable.
now, everyone has to wonder if it’s personal…because they ALL know what mesut and mateo are capable of and they’re not even here. now they wonder, if i have a bad day, will mikel decide to have a go at me and will i end up at hertha berlin too? this is why, regardless of how brilliant you are tactically, you have to know how to put your own good ideas aside and manage your people and their personalities in such a manner that you get the best from them. this is what the best managers do. this is what the best managers do and mikel is failing.
Yes, but he daren’t do the opposite. I can only assume Arteta has made it clear to the players what he expects in terms of performance and attitude. One sure way to “lose the dressing room” would be to go back on that. All of a sudden, his credibility would be lost for good. There is literally no way back from that.
You also have to bear in mind that Mesut is literally earning 10 times the wages of some of the other players. When he “disappears” during games, how do you think that sits with them?
I don’t know what your job is Josh, but imagine the following scenario. You sit at your desk and earn 35k. The bloke who sits next to you does the same job, but earns 350k. Now imagine if that co worker often calls in sick, doesn’t really do the job his boss asks of him and spends part of his day playing Fortnite on his computer whilst checking his Twitter account. Tell me how you’re feeling.