I watched Arsenal v. Benfica and here’s my report: it was a bit good, then it was really good, then it was a bit shit, then it went real shit, it got really good, then it went to shit again, then it got shittier, and somehow it ended up not shit.
Now that we have the match report out of the way, I wanted to share my thoughts on Arteta’s coaching. I’m not going to do some “pictures with arrows” thing or even present you with any numbers. Instead let’s just look at what I think Arteta’s facing in terms of this squad and how I think* Arteta has reacted to it.
I think… the 2nd match against Benfica exposed some things for me more than most other matches. From Arteta’s player selection, to his in-match tactics, to his substitutions (I think) I understand what he’s doing and why he’s doing it.
I liked the starting lineup. It was Arteta’s “most progressive” lineup given the fitness of the players and the choices on the bench. Ceballos had a bad few moments but who else was Arteta going to pick? M. Elneny? We needed a win and Elneny isn’t a progressive player. I suppose you could complain that Pepe didn’t get a start and given the game that Smith Rowe had you would have a point. But I also understand that Smith Rowe, Auba, and Saka have been his best attacking unit and that he REALLY wants to integrate Odegaard into that because… well because Odegaard is quality on the ball.
I will never agree to Arteta subbing on Willian but he really likes Willian. It’s churlish to suggest that Arteta’s weekly love letters to Willian are done at the behest of Willian’s agent. He seems to like how Willian controls possession, how he doesn’t take people on (and thus potentially lose possession), and how he seems to pick his time to make his runs. What we saw yesterday was a perfect example of that: Willian made a run, Tierney assisted Willian’s assist, then Tierney assisted Willian’s assist again and scored, then Willian reverted back into “Arsenal Willian” mode and went full conservative for the rest of the match.
If Arteta brings Pepe on, which is what I would have done, he loses possession, control of the ball a lot more often than Willian does. And this seems to be a key point for Arteta: he hates losing possession.
As for picking Auba up top, I loved the movement of Aubameyang throughout the match. I point out his movement all the time and folks somehow don’t see it. But yesterday, with the higher camera angle, he was in frame for most of the match and you could see him dragging the center forwards around with him and making runs off the shoulder. That was the exact move that scored one goal and should have scored another. He was also brilliant in terms of playing behind the defender for the third goal.
He does this in nearly every match when he’s played in the CF position and most of the time even when played out left. But when he’s on the left, he has fewer options for making these runs – they tend to be straighter, less difficult to defend. When he’s in the middle, he’s making darting runs in lots of creative spaces. If you’ve played football, you know how difficult it is to defend a guy with this kind of movement – because you literally need to keep an eye on the game in front of you and an eye on this guy buzzing around (and especially behind) you. It’s mentally and physically draining.
He’s our most dangerous center forward. And I’m not wrong. I don’t care what the data suggests (if that’s what you’re going to point to), because the problem with the data is that at Arsenal we have too many midfielders who can’t pick out those runs. Actually, worse: they see the runs but far too late and have to apologize to him for not making the pass.
Which brings me to my main point. This is my big complaint about Arteta in general. I know this is his first coaching job but he seems to have an ultra-conservative approach to football. (I think) I understand now why he does this, and it may be the right thing to do, but I still hate it.
Our approach to games makes me physically frustrated but I also understand what’s going on. A great example: yesterday the score was 2-2, and unless Arsenal scored a third, Benfica were going through. I watched in exasperation as Arsenal stopped pressing, stopped trying to win the ball back, and Benfica attacked us. Worse than that, watching Willian recycle possession, watching Xhaka turn around and pass backward when a forward is making a run, drove me absolutely balls.
And then I realized that the reason we don’t press, that we don’t try to win the ball back with individual and team duels, and the reason why we rely so much on keeping possession is that physically we may have to play this way.
Arteta started Xhaka, Ceballos, David Luiz, Smith Rowe, Odegard, and Tierney. I picked out these guys because they are all either not great defenders, are tired, are recovering from injury, or have lost a step.
Xhaka is a terrible defender. He’s so bad in defense, so slow, so incapable of reading danger, and because he’s also our best passer and because he plays centrally, a lot of the defense of the team is geared around covering for him or making spaces smaller around him so he doesn’t get caught out. If you watched Xhaka in the Wenger era you know what happens to Arsenal if he’s left alone in midfield. Both Arteta and Emery realized this and both came up with different solutions.
Having a player like that in your midfield makes pressing extremely difficult. Pressing isn’t something that one person does on the team (though with Arsenal that is true a lot more than it should be). Pressing is supposed to be a coordinated effort – with one player starting an action which has an almost waterfall effect throughout the team as players take up new positions to eventually force the opposition into an almost inevitable error.
Having a player like Xhaka in the middle makes that difficult. So, what we often see with Arsenal is what I would call “truncated” pressing up top: we try for a few presses and then let off, then press again when we crawl back into our shell and have a lot more security (less open space) in defense.
So, we seem to be building out defense around protecting these players in midfield and central defense but that doesn’t mean “Xhaka is shit”. What Xhaka offers in return is that he’s our best progressive passer and also our most assured passer (yes, I know he occasionally makes an astonishingly bad pass). Sure, he’s frustrating in that he often takes too many touches before making his pass, especially forward, but I think that’s the price you pay for his ability to advance the ball, which no one else (at Arsenal, who is also fit) seems to have (other than Partey, maybe, we haven’t seen him enough) at his level and with his consistency.
David Luiz is similar in a lot of ways. He’s an incredibly good passer for a defender. He’s slightly less conservative than Xhaka but it’s not at all a surprise to me that Arteta likes both of these players despite the fact that they have cost us points. Because I suspect that there is very little alternative. “Play Chambers!” sure, I’m guessing he’s tried that in training. I know “he played DM at Fulham” but I’ve also watched Chambers play and he’s not at David Luiz’ level in terms of passing. Neither is Rob Holding, though holding is better than most of the other CB options.
In Xhaka and David Luiz Arteta has few options but to play them regularly and find a way to make the team work around their deficiencies. It’s all well and good to say “Arsenal need to upgrade the squad this summer” but Arteta has to play games now and he needs to keep us in Europe as well. It’s fine for a blogger to say “play this kids!” but Arsenal are a multimillion dollar international business.
Another big problem last night is that Tierney and Bellerin both looked off the pace. This has been a problem in a lot of games this season and not just with these two players.
I know that Tierney scored and it was a good goal but he’s obviously playing at about 75% and it showed in the one-v-ones he had in open field where he would get beat for pace. Not normal from him.
Bellerin on the other side had a pretty terrible injury a few years ago and has since recovered some of his foot-speed but he’s nothing like he was a few years ago when he was Arsenal’s fastest player.
Up top Odegaard and Smith Rowe also looked a bit off the pace. Smith Rowe may need a rest. Odegaard needs time to adapt to our playing style and learn where our players make runs.
Ceballos is a special case. I know that he’s going to receive the calumny from Arsenal fans because he gave away the second goal (pinning the first on him is a bit unfair but I guess it wasn’t the smartest foul) but he’s another player who isn’t the best defender. He puts himself about a lot but it’s not very coordinated and he’s not what I consider a wall. That’s the reason why Elneny starts when he does: Arteta wants someone even more conservative in midfield in those matches (such as against City).
But Ceballos is better at getting the ball forward. So given the options in MF yesterday, given that we needed a win, the selection made a lot of sense to me.
Now, we have to deal with the fact that Arteta got rid of Guendouzi, Torreira, AMN, and Willock, which severely limits his options in midfield. But let’s look at their respective loans, because it could be the case that Arteta made the right decision.
Guendo: Pal Dardai just publicly complained that Guendo likes to throw himself to the ground in training and then act like a petulant child when he doesn’t get the call. My god, that sounds familiar. He did this several times a match, so much so (I know I promised no stats but this one is crazy) that he led the league in being fouled for a while and ended up as Arsenal’s “most fouled” player during his two seasons.
Torreira: I like him but he’s not big enough to play at this level. He doesn’t hardly ever play for Atleti and when he played for Arsenal he had a similar problem to Guendouzi. He was Arsenal’s 2nd “most fouled” player.
AMN: he’s playing regularly for WBA but he’s not anywhere near the level of Ceballos and Xhaka. He still exhibits poor control of the ball and space and often makes physical errors in possession and mental errors in defense (many folks blaming him for several of WBA’s goals).
Willock: more of a forward-type b2b MFer (Ramsey type), scored a goal for Nuke, doesn’t really do much in the team, gave away a penalty at the weekend (against United, Rashford dived, no contact). I like him a lot and feel like he has a lot of potential but I get it when other people disagree.
Ok, so the defense isn’t great and it’s a problem which can’t be solved quickly or easily. Now, let’s look at what’s going on with Arsenal and their weird ultra-conservatism in passing forward.
I was listening to the BBC Football Daily podcast and Honigstein was talking about Guardiola’s approach to games. He said something that I sort of knew but had forgotten: that Guardiola is actually a very defensive coach, he just wants to use possession as (his first) defense.
I suspect this is also Arteta’s philosophy. He doesn’t want the players to make risky passes because those risky passes might suddenly turn into one-v-ones with Arsenal’s creaky defense. This is why he has Willian playing ultra-conservative. This is (partly) why Xhaka doesn’t look for adventurous passes forward.
Now add in the pandemic schedule. Fitness reports have to be absurd right now. Getting guys back in shape, keeping everyone from getting COVID, not to mention absolutely no time between matches to prepare for changes to the way that we play or recover from matches.
I think Arteta has gamed this out, recognizes the limitations of the team he has, and is setting us up to succeed. Is it the way I would do it? No. But I’m just a guy here in my living room. Has he been perfect? Far from it. But I have to give him just a little recognition and admit that some of the things he’s done so far here are understandable and sensible. Switching us from a back 3 alone was a good start. Finding a way to integrate Xhaka was good on at least one level: just saying “sell him and buy another” is simplistic. Playing a more attacking forward lineup is another bit of progress. And so on.
A lot of folks point out that the squad isn’t that good. They are right. A lot of folks also point out that Arteta’s tactics aren’t that good. They are right sometimes and maybe a bit over the top at other times. Some folks will say that Arteta has “fixed the defense” and in a sense they are right, but he’s done that by making us very conservative in attack. Which kinda sucks to watch.
It actually makes me groan. A lot. But I guess I get it.
*I know I used “I think” twice there and that it’s unnecessary but it feels “softer” to say “I think” rather than to just tell you what I think because when I use “I think” it signals to you that I’m admitting I understand that this is an opinion which may be wrong. But really, everything that a person writes is what they think and most of what people write when they don’t say I think is opinion.
I *think* you’re about right.
This is a good analysis of why getting Partey healthy and integrated is so important. He’s good in possession and defense, and a decent passer. With him, either Ceballos or Xhaka can focus more on offense and play less conservatively.
Agree pretty much 100% on everything you said relative to Guend/Torreira/AMN/Willock. I don’t want either of Guend or Torreira back. On top of everything you mentioned, neither is useful in the air. AMN is an OK utility player on the wings, but yet to convince me at all in the middle. Willock might, but Azeez is just as likely.
And while I’m a fan of Bellerin as a person, I’m increasingly convinced we should try to cash in on him. He’s just not a great defender. He used to have blinding speed that made up for that, but he’s lost a step or two.
From Wenger’s book: ” In football, having a well-balanced team is essential and it takes time to find it, and sometimes that balance depends upon one single player.”
That player is Partey.
If he is fit all next season we will see a huge uptick in results, I can guarantee it and I do not worry about that. He just needs a better partner than Xhaka, that is the issue. I believe coaches find it very difficult to drop Xhaka, because like him or not, he is a natural leader with a mountain of experience for his age. The root of the problem is he is not, and never has been, suited to the premier league. I can’t even count on one hand the amount of teams with such a leaden-footed midfielder in their starting XI. It just doesn’t happen.
On Bellerin, he isn’t offering enough physically any more. He has good technique, but a weak shot and poor defensive positioning. We need a strong, athletic right-back in the mould of Lauren to counterbalance the fact Tierney is often in the opponent’s box. This talk of Torreira being too lightweight, but I have to say Bellerin is just as much in this conversation. He is constantly picked on by attackers, not just for his size but now for his lack of speed. I like him as a person, but I feel for this team to progress there needs to be an upgrade in that position.
Exactly! The team’s tempo when Partey plays is completely different. Fewer touches and much more progressive. It becomes contagious. The other players take their cue from him. Conversely, without him, we get the slow as molasses pace of Xhaka, Dani and Luiz, playing 4 touch football. Then Odegaard starts doing it, and Bellerin, and even Saka.
Please let Thomas healthy. With everyone fit, we have a top 6 run in us – still. Without Partey and with Tierney off his pace, we will be lower midtable finishers.
I agree, he looks up for those runs from Auba so much more often and has the speed and technique to pull them off more often than =Xhaka does
You summed it up with ultra conservative.
And that’s my biggest beef with Arteta, I think.
I was hoping a coach who played under Arsene and learned under Pep would be more…well, more like them, I suppose. Someone whose ceiling would be an amalgamation of them at their best.
Instead we’re getting something out of the Mourinho School of Football, and that’s really frustrating to watch, even if this post does explain the necessity behind some of those actions. *Shakes fist at Willian.
That helps to explain Arteta’s priorities a lot. Thanks, Tim. I guess I understand better now, but yesterday really tested my patience. It just felt like we had zero urgency, from the start, even when down 2 goals. I guess a coach that values possession will sacrifice the confidence and careers of younger players like Pepe and Martinelli in favor of Willian. I don’t agree with it, even if I understand it.
I was a big proponent of the Odegaard signing, believing this would allow us to spell ESR and let him rest. I didn’t expect it to be the reason to exile ESR out to the left side, where he doesn’t play as effectively, and let him rot. As you point out, Odegaard is the possession guy, unlike ESR. But we’re giving minutes to a guy we might not even have next year and undermiining the confidence of a young, promising player. Not on board with this.
MO11’s tempo can be brutally slow. He does pick out some nice passes, but he sits on the ball a long time. When you add him to the ponderous trio of Xhaka, Dani and Luiz, you get death by dawdling. It was wretched football to watch. A big step back from the 3 or 4 games prior to City, imo. Felt like November all over again.
So, I’m glad we went through, but I think stylistically this was even worse than vs. City. At least then, we played a top team. This was just dismal football.
1. tested my patience too.. but then I saw how slow we were when we tried to press (which did happen sometimes) and how they just ran around us when we did that and was like.. “oh”
2. You know how I feel about this nonsense with loaning in players. It’s what small teams do, it hurts the academy kids, it helps the bigger club, and it’s only something you want to do IF (see how big that if is?) you can reasonably guarantee a big payout (such as Champions League football). Otherwise at best it’s kicking the can (getting in a replacement) down the road.
3. I feel like we are low% chance of winning this competition, but if we keep getting lucky draws (like Olympiakos), we could go all the way to the final.
I think I agree with you a lot. The most telling illustration of this was the martinelli change for willian at half time in man u game. Martinelli was running at the defense which was entertaining but high risk. In came willian and we started to control the game. Also I think the low block defense limits the number of errors that the defense can make. Given the slow recovery of both CBs and xhaka it probably makes sense, but it means you can spend 5 minutes watching ‘lesser’ opponents build their game. Furthermore if your defense doesn’t make an error, you are unlikely to concede against a lesser opponent as they won’t have the quality. But I still have faith that he wants to press more and play more attacking football as the evolution of our system and style had become ‘marginally’ more attacking. It would be interesting to compare ‘creativity’ stats of the latest period Vs early this season/late last season.
I don’t think you have to look too far: we definitely play much more uptempo in terms of pressing and in terms of attacking in the earlier stages of the Europa League. A lot of what Arteta needs to cover for is Xhaka.
Great post Tim. Perhaps one of your best IMO.
The whole idea that Arteta does not understand football or tactics or that his tactics are the problem always seemed unreasonable to me. How can someone who grew in the Barcelona system and then played for Wenger and learned to coach from Pep not understand football tactics? That makes no sense.
His goal has got to be win as many games as possible and developing youth players or playing attractive attacking football has to be much lower on the priority list. The way he sets up the team and how aggressive or conservative he plays is dictated by the squad he has. He has a team with extremely limited firepower and creativity and there is absolutely nothing he or any manager can do to turn this squad into a free flowing high scoring team that builds up thru the central midfield. There is no tactical solution if the players he has are not all that good at doing the things we as fans want to see. He does not have Ozil, Cazorla, Wilshere, Fabregas etc etc and we have a group of players who can overwhelm the opposition with technical skill and passing and create tons of big chances. I assume he recognizes that because this squad as currently constructed will always struggle to score goals and if he does not do what needs to be done to prevent the opposition from scoring goals then we have very little chance of getting results.
We often talk about wanting the team to play high pressure defense. However, there are risks to that strategy and you can’t do that if you don’t have a squad with players who are good at playing high pressure and you a need a squad full of players who are good at recovering when mistakes do occur.
To me Arteta has done a fantastic job of controlling one of the things he really can control which is limiting the number of goals we concede. Given our inability to score the fact we are in the top half of the table is because we don’t concede many goals. I think we belong somewhere between 7th or 8th place and the reason we are not sitting a bit higher where we probably belong is because the one player in the squad who is really good at scoring (Auba) has been out of form most of this season. A manager can’t control an individual players form.
Excellent post. Well seen and well reasoned.
Err, sorry Bill that was meant as a reply to Tim’s entire blog post
This post articulates a lot of how I feel as well. The only difference is that you see Xhaka as a player we are compensating for, I see him as a player we rely too heavily on.
Xhaka has been excellent of late, and I say that as someone who’s never been convinced by him. Arteta has got him playing a role that he understands and that plays to his strengths. He used to be a headless chicken but he looks so much more comfortable.
His distribution is very good, we all know that, and I think his defensive work has been really good as well, in terms of his reading of the game and decision making. A lot of what he does off the ball goes unnoticed because it’s about anticipation and positioning. He drops back into his own box and covers for those around him really well. And when he’s has to be decisive, he’s shown much better judgement. I honestly think on current form a lot of big teams would be looking at him.
In a previous comment I compared him to Carrick. Xhaka’s not as good as Carrick was, and has obvious temperament issues, but he’s the same regista style of player. Carrick was also slammed for years by United fans for giving up fouls, being slow, getting caught in possession and for passing sideways or backwards, but Ferguson thought he was pivotal and Wenger said that not signing him was his biggest mistake.
Again, Xhaka is not Carrick, but I see him as a key player for Arteta in his bid to control the game. He’s methodical and metronomic, but that means a more dynamic and mobile player like Partey is super important to have alongside him. In the Carrick analogy, Partey is like a massive upgrade on Fletcher.
But we are still that one creative midfielder short, we are missing Scholes, and that is surely what we are compensating for. We all have high hopes for ESR, and when he’s has a good game our performances have been so much better.
And yes, Tim this was a great post
So predictable that Tim critiques a player and I come in and defend him, I must be such an irritant
The PL today is much different then it was during Arsene’s tenure. The influx of TV money and other revenues has given the “smaller” teams such more money and better access to top half of the table talent. The top 6-7 spots in the table is much more competitive then then Arsene dealt with. The days when we could say without thinking that Arsenal is a big team and clearly have more talent then teams like Leicester, Aston Villa, Everton, Spurs are gone.
Our squad has one really great player in Auba but he has struggled almost all season and has not played anything like the golden boot winner of past seasons. Saka has easily been our best player all year but what does that say about a squad when a teenager who has not even scored 10 total league goals or assists is your best player? Partey looks like a good player but we have not seen enough of him to know. The rest of the squad who get regular minutes are Tierney, Holding, Luiz, Gabriel, Bellerin, Xhaka, Ceballos, Elneny, Smith Rowe, Lacazette, Willian, Pepe. If you don’t let home team bias over rule judgement I think that is a squad which at best has the talent compete for top 7 in the current PL and I still think we will finish the season somewhere around 7th or 8th
One of your best ever posts IMO. Hits the nail on the head on what’s been going on at Arsenal, even through the Emery era. We wasted our budget filling our team’s spine with players unsuited to the modern high pressing game (Mustafi – Xhaka – Ozil – Laca), and have never recovered.
But this is also why I trust Arteta to come good. The 2 players he’s spent big on so far (Partey and Gabriel), look like they could directly solve this problem (though Gabriel still needs quite a bit of work). I also expect us to sign Ødegaard, which would be another step in the right direction. Willian as a short term gamble hasn’t worked out, but him falling off a cliff this season isn’t something anyone predicted.
Arteta seems much better than his predecessors at identifying and attracting the right type of talent. He also seems better at improving players; there is also clear improvement in many of the players he’s working with (Ceballos, Xhaka, Holding, Saka, ESR, even Laca and Auba to a lesser degree). And whenever you listen to players talk about him, they all say that his detail orientation and clear instructions have made them better – even City players say this.
I’m optimistic that the dark days will soon be behind us.
“We wasted our budget filling our team’s spine with players unsuited to the modern high pressing game (Mustafi – Xhaka – Ozil – Laca), and have never recovered.”
I could be wrong but I think Laca is quite useful with the press.
He’s our most pressing player of our regular starters
I value your analysis, Tim, and can appreciate that Arteta’s options are restricted – and perhaps restrictive – given the squad he has. But praising Willian for that assist is no way to run a merit system and win converts, in the dressing room as well as the fanbase.
Fair criticism. But I thought I was pretty “nuanced” in saying that it was Tierney who assisted Willian’s assist!
Anyway, then Willian has his once every three months good game today!
Perhaps it’s also because the sun is shining this morning and spring is coming, but I have to say that I feel a lot more optimistic having read your post. I think you make a lot of sense
Perhaps it’s also a little optimistic headiness but is the issue the squad or the fitness of Partey? Others above have commented on this, but seemingly on the assumption that we remain playing a 4231.
I think* Arteta would like to move to a 433, and that he might have signed MO11 to trial a partnership with Partey and ESR emulating Fernandinho, KDB and Silva, with Auba, Saka and Martinelli/Pepe up top
Interesting article and comments. My main gripe with Arteta is that he is playing ESR wide on the left, presumably to accommodate Odegaard in the centre. Smith Rowe is far more effective when he plays centrally. Completely wasted out on the wing. What to do with MO? Put him back as left midfield instead of the Swiss Tractor. Why not? If we accept, as you quite correctly point out, that Xhaka is hopeless defensively, then what have we got to lose in that department? The big plus is that MO has got energy and can move the ball forward quickly. There is a precedent here. Did we not move Santi back into the midfield to good effect? Likewise Rosicky? To my mind, he would be a perfect fit. That leaves the left wing slot for either Martinelli or Pepe. If you decide you want to play Laca up top, then move Auba out left.
To my way of thinking that is too obvious for words.
A very ‘thoughtful’ post Mr Tim.
You talked about tactics, personnel and overall playing style. Two things I’ve not seen so far from Arteta are 1) demonstrably improve a player through coaching or 2) repurpose a player to another role. One of the things I think you have to give Pep great credit for this season is that without KDB and Aguero he’s had to find solutions for creativity and goal scoring. Changing Gundogan’s game from a #8 to be a finisher (11 goals so far this season, typically averages 3-4) is a perfect example of top level coaching. If someone called Arteta a chequebook manager I’d have no issue with that. Tim Stillman wrote recently how Arteta’s focus has been extremely short term rather than having a vision and implementing it from the outset. Probably explains why we started with 3 at the back.
If we were sitting in 11th place in the league but we’d been playing 4-2-3-1 from the first match, had dropped Luiz and Xhaka and were playing Pepe, Martinelli and Balogun regularly I’d be much more supportive of Arteta.
Willock: more of a forward-type b2b MotherFucker 😂😂
Matt
Man Cities goals/game is down 30% this year compared to the prior 2 seasons. Not even Pep with all of his squad talent and managerial experience has been able to compensate for loss of the goals from Aguero and Jesus. Expecting arteta to somehow to find a tactical compensation for Auba’s poor form is completely unrealistic. The way Pep has compensated for the decreased effectiveness of his attack is to play Europe’s best team defense and concede 35% fewer goals then last season.
I thought Mesut Ozil might find a way to start out pretty well in Turkey as sort of a double barrel middle finger salute to Arsenal and then he would fade quickly as any adrenaline wore off. However so far he has made 5 appearances for Fenerbache with no goals or assists and the team has dropped from 1st place to 3rd and been knocked out of the Turkish Cup. I am certainly not suggesting that Ozil is the reason for the teams run of bad form but I am suggesting that Mesut is not going to be the answer for them. I suspect his usage and game appearances will end long well before his contract is finished and Fenerbache will look back on the Ozil experiment as a mistake
The man’s gone, and, apropos of nothing, you still want to crap on him. I don’t get it.
Fener isn’t a great team, and it’s a big step down in club and wages. But he made the best of a messy situation. Good luck to him.
Super post. Loved the thoughtfulness and nuance. Too much footy analysis is searing certainty. “X is crap”, “Y will save us.” We black-and-white football at our peril. As today’s result against Leicester showed. They had comprehensively out-thought us in the earlier game, though not out-playing us for most of it.
Arteta saved his job, and looks to be slowly figuring things out, about his players and his opponents. Your trying to get to his reasoning — even if you fundamentally didn’t agree — was a really good read. It now looks a good call from the Arsenal executive not to fire him in December… something that would not have been unreasonable given his results.
Youre at your best addressing calls to sell or “get rid.”
Love this line 👉🏽 “It’s fine for a blogger to say ‘play this kids!’ but Arsenal are a multimillion dollar international business.”
Exactly. We bought Pepe for an absolute fortune, but 1.5 seasons in, some gooners want us to sell him, when realistically we’re only going to get half the transfer fee that we paid. Today Pepe surpassed his 2019//2020 goal involvements, which weren’t bad to begin with. A good coach improves him. You cant do that with everyone, and it seems like Arteta agreed with your early-formed impression of Torreira.
I guess the big lesson in this analysis is that we should display something that football fans habitually do not… patience.
Thank you!