Was it really that good?

89 comments

1. OK here’s a concept… 50 Shades of Gray, but with sandwiches and homebaked bread. Run with it.

2. Claude from yesterday. Mesut never really fell off a cliff the way Willian did. In Emery’s first season Mesut was near the end of a several year accelerating fade. He averaged about 7-8 goals per season in his best years. He did score 5 goals for Emery but had almost zero assists and was mostly invisible for the vast majority of the season.

   You can criticize Arteta for starting ESR up front against Villarreal but all of our options were poor. It was like criticizing someone for stepping in front of a moving car instead jumping off a 100 foot cliff. ESR had been one of our better players up to that point and I guess the hope was that he would find some way to make something positive happen. No way to tell for sure what might have happened but suggesting the we would have been better off with Martinelli or Nketiah starting is a huge stretch at best

   1. It’s not a stretch to play strikers as strikers.

      Next you’ll be telling me that it’s a stretch to have priests conduct religious services.

      1. Preach!

      2. Claude: We only have room on the pitch for 4 attacking players. Pepe and Saka were the wide players since they were the only players who had scored goals during this season. That leaves room for 2 central attacking players. We could have started 5 attacking players but almost everyone complained that when we brought on Martinelli and dropped Ceballos it left Partey isolated and the midfield was overwhelmed so starting with 5 attackers was probably not an option.

         That was during Odegaard’s run of really good form and he and Smith-Rowe had been 2 of our most effective attacking players and everyone would have been screaming bloody murder if we had dropped either or them . Martinelli got 30 minutes as a sub and did nothing of note and I can’t believe Nketiah would have been any better. Which would you have dropped? Smith-Rowe or Odegaard. The point is all of the combinations were bad options and Arteta and its likely that none would have worked and the manager would have been criticized whatever he did.

3. Arsenal mostly controlled Chelsea in 5th spot (Dec), Leicester in 3rd spot (Feb), Spurs in 6th spot (Mar). After Spurs, Arsenal took a hit the next two match weeks from West Ham (3-3) and Pool (3-0).

   Mostly this team was inconsistent after Boxing Day. Yet, finding consistency in the last 7 (6-1-1) outscoring opposition 15-4. Drawing Fulham, losing to Everton. Both winnable.

   Much was made of seasons being turned in by Leicester and West Ham– for much of it. Yet both were positioned for more– and disappointed. Everton was poorer late. Even Villa who started hot, cooled and settled into a spot below Arsenal.

   City, United, and Pool are really the only clubs who can be pleased with themselves. Won’t place Chelsea in that bracket– unless they somehow win the CL. Tuchel may have them in a CL spot– but they really ran hot– then cold– since his hiring. What might have been Tuchel’s fate had Leicester not bottled it versus Spurs?

   An optimist with almost all things– but yeah, the jury is still out on Mikel.
   Let’s see what Summer brings to this Fall.

   1. *in the last 8 (6-1-1) …

      Which included Sheffield (3-0).

4. Great post Tim. I tend to agree with you that the last 1/2 of the season probably looks a little better then it was. Ultimately I think we ended up exactly where we belonged. Before the season started I thought we would finish in the bottom half of the top 10 and I predicted 7th place and I maintained the belief we would finish around 7th place even in Nov/Dec when we were sitting in 15th place. Bad runs of form have almost always been followed by good runs and the same happened this year.

   It does seem a bit unfair to criticize Arteta when things were going poorly and then find reasons not to give him credit when we played better. During much of the Wenger era it was the opposite. The manager was praised endlessly when we were in good form but Arsene was never the problem and someone or something else (like the refs) was always to blame whenever we hit one of our inevitable bad streaks.

   IMO we are a mid table team and when a mid table team hits a bad run of form they look like a bottom half team and when the same mid table team hits a good run of form it looks like a top 5 or 6 team but in the end it all usually balances out. When the good streak comes at the end of the year then a lot of people are optimistic for the next season and the opposite is true when the bad streak comes at the end. Strange things such as Leicester winning the league or West Ham improving by 26 points or Sheffield United challenging for the top 4 last season happen occasionally but those are unpredictable and almost never repeated. Expecting Arteta to bring that sort of miraculous season and somehow drag us into the top 6 or even top 4 was never realistic. Unless we significantly improve this squad we will probably be mid table again next year. The thing we can criticize the last 3 managers and our front office for is doing a really poor job of rebuilding this squad.

5. In retrospect the squad should have been in complete rebuild mold when Arsene left. However, when Emery came on board the squad still looked quite strong on paper and there was hope that a new manager would revitalize players like Ozil, Mkhitaryan, Kos, Nacho, Mustafi, Ramsey etc etc and we did not want to give up the pipe dream of returning to the top 4. The 22 game unbeaten string in Emery’s first season increased the hope of revitalization but the reality was those key experienced players were almost all going downhill and we had an aging highly overpaid and in some cases perhaps under motivated squad that desperately needed a be totally rebuilt. The start of Emery’s second season should have seen the start of that rebuild but the reality is we are now 3 years into the post Wenger era and I don’t think we have made much progress in squad improvement and the blame for the lack of progress in those 2-3 years has to go to our front office which includes the managers.

6. Yes, you have brought the “better second half” narrative into serious doubt. You made me think about the reality of opponents’ missed chances. They are easily forgotten. Connolly had a wide open goal and missed badly, but by the time Pepe scored his second goal, it was not even in my rear view mirror. As I think back about several games in the second half of the season, I remember thinking, “Phew” a lot after opponent misses, especially early in games.

   I also find Arteta’s fine margins approach to coaching dull. I am willing to give him one more window to shape the roster in his desired mold to see if it enables a more aggressive style of play, but I’m not expecting much of a change.

   I do have hope, however, that having fans back in the stadiums will help Arteta. Assuming noisy crowds return, he will no longer be able to shout directions for every touch of the ball (at least not in such a way that he can be consistently heard). His joystick coaching methodology will have to give way to letting the players play a bit more, whether he likes it or not. That freedom might just let them take a few more chances, be a bit more creative, and score a few more goals. Maybe he will learn that controlling everything isn’t possible, nor desirable.

   As to topics – I’m interested in parenting, especially teenagers, because mine often drive me crazy, and I would be glad to hear of others’ experiences. You don’t seem to reference parenting challenges much, so I’m guessing yours isn’t a source of as much angst as mine.

   Otherwise, I’m open to all topics that you dream up. I will read regardless of subject. I just love your writing.

   1. aka less of Arteta straight jacket for success. Agree with you. But that raises questions.
      Q1 – why t f Arteta still there ?

7. Hiking, Tim? Are you into that? I think you live in a part of the country where there are probably some good trails?

8. Interesting piece, that backs up most of my views with regards to the season and Arteta.

   His style is too much of a micro manager when the players are on the pitch for my liking. I think he’d be a nightmare to play under at times. Auba looks like he’s lost his love for the game.

   He’s made the defence a fair bit better, but made the attack worse, which has taken entertainment value out of our games.

   The biggest example of this was his dedication to Willian at the start of the season, and he largely froze out Pepe, who can be infuriating at times, but can also produce brilliance, and actually scored goals, which this team lacked for large parts of the season.

   The end of the season felt better with the results, but there were games I thought we were pretty crap, but still picked up points (Fulham home, Palace away). Perhaps we were due some luck after what happened earlier in the season (Luiz red card at Wolves, Burnley away was unbelievable).

   However, the Europa League exit was so much on Arteta that that shouldn’t be forgotten just because we picked up a few wins at the end of the season.

   I still feel we struggle to break teams down, especially when going a goal behind. We had too many games this season where we failed to score, and many of those at home against some mediocre teams (Everton, Burnley, Palace, Villa).

   Start of the season I felt we were good for 5th, maybe 6th at worst. So to slum it around 9th-14th for large parts of the season was not good enough at all.

   This summer we need to clear out some players, focus on 3 real quality signings, and see where we are come mid-November at that international break.

   With no European football we have more time to concentrate on the league games, and there are no hiding places or easily made excuses about fatigue, fixture schedule, etc.

   1. Just to caveat, I feel we may need a couple of squad signings (A specialist LB to back up Tierney, maybe another CM as cover for any injuries), but the 3 quality ones should be starters and ideally make a huge impact.

9. Happy to see that we both agree completely on Arteta. There is nothing much to like about him beyond his history of having been a former captain of the club.

   I believe he can not get the best out of his players because of the way he treats them. If Pepe ended this season with 16 goals, it’s not because Arteta got the best out of him but because Pepe has a genuine desire to play football, and would not let Arteta ruin his career. A good case in point is how Nico advised Saliba to keep his mouth shut and himself out of trouble on Instagram while the latter was bantering with Guendouzi.

   Pepe seemed to want Saliba to not say anything that would aggravate Mikel. But Saliba it seemed had since that time been sure he doesn’t want to play for Mikel.

   Pepe thereafter got binned to the bench for several games because of his aggression against Leeds. Even though he apologized for his behavior. But the coach was done with him. Because he felt he had Willian. Forget that Willian had no impact in games, and Pepe was still voted vest player in the Europa league as at December. Forget that Willian traveled to Dubai to party without permission, and broke safety protocols for covid.

   Given how Pepe eventually finished the season, has Arteta learned anything from his treatment of players? I don’t think so. Not with how he treated Maitland-Niles too. Arteta is the first coach that it seemed Ainsley doesn’t want to play fullback for. He did it without fuss for both Wenger and Emery, and also under Arteta, to the extent that we didn’t miss Tierney so much for all his time on the sidelines, under Emery who bought him and last season when Mikel played so defensively, we won the FA cup and tanked in the league.

   We still don’t know what Sokratis did to him. Guy may not have been a world class defender but he went from being an Arteta favorite pre-lockdown, playing even as a fullback, while Ainsley was banned from team, to never ever playing again for Arsenal, once football resumed. As far as Mikel was concerned, Sokratis was not even good enough to be registered for any competition this season, just like Ozil. But Sokratis played all his first 12 matches. Something sure happened and it wasn’t his performances. Not with the coach that gave so many chances to Willian, and many second chances to Xhaka and Luiz.

   I didn’t have any issue with disciplining Auba, when he did prior to the NLD, but I have an issue that it became a press thing. I have an issue that he acknowledged it with the press. Same coach who won’t even acknowledge whatever it was that Ozil did wrong, despite knowing exactly how a large section of the Arsenal felt about Ozil, and even more, despite. knowing how his team had no playmaker in the summer.

   Let’s not forget that bringing ESR to the team was his last throw of the dice, after losing many consecutive matches. ESR saved him against Chelsea, when it seemed another loss would get him sacked. Instead Lampard got sacked, Tuchel came in, and showed us how a coach with no transfer window whatsoever could still get a team in 8th position to finish on the top 4 and qualify for 2 finals.

   Arteta has had 3 transfer windows, with 8 players brought in, and everyone he wanted, kicked out of the club, but he met us in 8th position and still have us finishing 8th twice.

   I can mention his treatments of Reiss Nelson and Martinelli, but I think you get my drift now..

   I can go on and on about his crazy transfer decisions that has cost us bad in significant matches this season.

   I can talk about how he lies to the fans consistently through his media chats. Arteta has no respect for Arsenal fans, and it can be proven, using just his press conferences.

   I can talk about how he said Arsenal has no DNA, that he just wants to win matches. Those where in his few good days.

   We can talk about his tactics. How bad they are, in a lot of games.

   But he gets to stay in that job, because the owners have someone with whom they can equally share blame for where the team currently is. As Vieira said, Leicester’s owners care, ours don’t.

   In the absence of a caring owner, we need a caring coach. A Wenger type, who knows his onions, sees the club as his own, can guide us back into the top 4, restores our DNA of good football and can have the fans crying for his sack only because they are bored of regular champions league football with only the fa cup as trophies. I think it’s easier to get the Kroenkes to do that, than have them sell the club.

   1. All of this!

      I will add another example, and to me the most shocking of all as to just what sort of a man Arteta is. When asked about Torreira’s desire to move back to South America following his mother’s death, Arteta’s lack of empathy and solidarity with him hit me like a brick.

      It’s ok if he doesn’t want to let him go or commit to it. But his attitude was ‘tranquilo’ calm down. This is not the time to make any decision, and… the decision will be made by other parties.

      It reads better than how it was said. Seriously, I am usually mad at Arteta about what he says (sly and constant excuses, for one) but I have never been more angry than when I watched this.

      I was all in on Arteta. All in on saying he needs to fix the transitions and the defense, and will eventually get us attacking. But man, it seems he has none of the Arsenal values we, or at least I, hold dear, and frankly all I see is the deliberate destruction of those values, if only to show himself as the man. I wouldn’t want to play for him, and this club is actually turning me away from being an Arsenal fan. It’s more like an addiction now. A habit that brings you no joy, and is really bad for you.

      Forget new fans. Even as a fan of Arsenal for almost 24 years, I might start following other teams now. Leeds and Atalanta are good shouts. As are Dortmund. Or really, any club that knows what it is. We’re soulless and boring, and what do they say about a team taking on the personality of the coach?

      1. I’ve followed Arsenal for ~20 years but the last couple of years. I don’t live anywhere close to the UK so I don’t get to physically see the team. I started following Arsenal in the early days of Wenger’s reign. Clear identity, clear style. We would at times lose on some key games (that UCL final comes to mind) but more or less got really entertained. Compare feasting on soccer featuring TH14, Pires, Bergkamp(!) then wengerball with CF4, Van Persie to the sterile 2021 Arteta edition.

         It’s no wonder that I started following Dortmund a few weeks ago. I need some entertainment, and Arsenal hasn’t had that the last seasons. In many ways BVB are very much like Arsenal of old – can play with a swagger, often want to pass the ball and tap in to score, and occasionally can be infuriating. They ended up 3rd this season after a barnstorming run of wins, whilst two of their top 4 rivals dropped points – yet I think they underachieved – the way they took apart #2 side RB Leipzig in the German Cup in style tells me that they ought to have pushed Bayern harder for the title. If they keep Haaland and Sancho, and tighten up at the back (sounds familiar?) they’ll be pushing Bayern for the title next season.

   2. I understand people not warming to the manager because he’s abrasive and uncompromising. But I find a lot of this language – and I understand it’s born of frustration – way over the top.

      Individual players being “banned” and “binned” when they just haven’t been selected? Arteta “ruining careers” by not picking players or by playing them in different positions, or loaning them out for their development? So-called favouritism towards Willian, who had a grand total of 16 starts this season? Poor treatment of Martinelli? Please, that kid is being fast-tracked. Has Willock had his career destroyed by being loaned to Newcastle? Has Saliba at Nice? Pepe scored 14 goals and is starting to consistently show his quality, I guess his career is being ruined as well?

      “Lack of empathy”, “crazy decisions”, “lies to the fans”. I mean, what is all this about? Arteta comes in, treats people like s*t, has no clue, and his season is rescued by ESR against his own better judgement? Sorry, but it’s nonsense.

      For at least a couple of seasons before he arrived the players were not committed, they looked dissatisfied, 80% effort was tolerated, desire had drained away, cliques had set in, there were leaks from the dressing room and half-hearted, low-confidence performances on the pitch, we were stocked with players who either weren’t good enough or didn’t want to be there, or didn’t care. Everyone could see this.

      It’s possible that a better manager could have come in and waved a magic wand to fix that squad and that dressing room, to get some of the players like Ozil back on side and firing on all cylinders, to magically improve the overall quality. But even then we also had a bloated and unbalanced squad (8 CBs, none of them trusted!) so even the loveliest man in the world would have had to be ruthless and cut players / send them on loan / “ban” them to the bench.

      Arteta said right from day one, it’s a blank slate, if you work hard and fully commit to the project then you have a chance. We’ve seen many players like Chambers, Holding, Luiz, Xhaka, Tierney, Partey, Elneny, Saka, ESR, Auba, Laca and Martinelli all do well under Arteta, he’s been full of praise for those players and defended them when they were in the firing line.

      I remember when City beat Arsenal under Ljungberg 0-3 at the Emirates in December 2019, in virtual silence in a half-empty stadium at the end, they actually went easy on us in the second half. Arteta was on City’s bench alongside Guardiola and he was shocked at what had happened to the club that he captained. I liked it when I saw that. I like it that he cares. I don’t mind that he’s not being super nice about it.

      1. +1 Greg!

         Strong leaders have to make difficult decisions and assert their authority. Wenger did this all the time and often got it wrong (see: Szczesny, Wojchiech; Gnabry, Serge, etc.)

         Arteta will get things wrong at times but he is going about it in the correct manner.

         The examples above of him mistreating players are contrived to the point of being farcical. Ask the players what they think of him.

         1. Seconded.

      2. Well said. There seems to be a lot of speculation about what is going on. we have no idea what happens behind closed doors. I think people believed Arteta was some kind of saviour and are feeling disappointed that we aren’t in the top 4. There are all sorts of reasons why we aren’t, the league does have other teams in it all trying to be top 4.
         If you thought this could be an overnight job, then you were just kidding yourself.
         We’ve been crap before and more than likely we’ll be crap again! Arsenal did not start with Arsene, we were being spoilt then. Go back a few years before then. These things are all cyclical.

      3. “ tales from the Vienna woods “ is very uplifting music. So is pep talk , I guess.

10. We took 1 point, scored 4 and conceded 13 in 8 matches(home and away) against Everton, Wolves, Burnley & Villa(all of whom finished below us) on both sides of the mythical Christmas divide.
    By blaming quality of first 11/squad depth/VAR/ injuries, by implying youth players are not good enough (by not playing them), by channelling his inner Hamlet(something was rotten inside the Arsenal) and by virtue of being the only person even remotely competent in the decision making hierarchy….we are now of the belief that only Recruitment will solve all our issues.
    Arteta has basically done everything that should not have been done by an Arsenal manager…play boring football, not play youngsters, sign in decline players, sell without profit, not win and now buy in bulk.
    As far as I am concerned, the cons outweigh the pros and we are being conned by mediocrity masquerading as potential.

11. Summer here wafts of an Artesenal-Facebook-LeGrove-flatbread. No fiction.
    Can’t say I can wait for the finished product.

12. Considering all the analysis of Arteta playing negative football to consolidate (or save) the defence, there must be an opponent wise trade-off, rather than playing every game in this mode.
    We know that this team can play chaotic high risk high reward game(see Leeds game). Yet there are some teams we know Gunners can’t get a W despite playing very good irrespective of the quality of the club. Maintain caution against such teams based on home away situation.
    Still in such defensive games we can throw an element of surprise using youngsters such as Aziz.
    In other games, liberate players in around D to make risky passes, playing linkup with chaotic moment, defence to be ready for counters in such cases.

13. Tim I’d seen your tweet where you saw St Helens trending and your heart skipped a beat. A sci fi adventure/comedy based on that event/non event, maybe? Could be a good way to introduce the region to your readers too.

    1. My sister was living in Hawaii when they got a missile attack incoming warning across the islands a few years ago. Pretty chaotic and scary at the time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Hawaii_false_missile_alert

       But I could see how that or the eruption warning could set off a chain of events that could be funny.

       1. I almost didn’t post the comment because I realised it is sensitive. But I also think it could make for a great story.

14. I won’t make a writing request – I’d much rather read whatever it is that *you* want to write. You’ve put so much time into this blog, I think you’ve more than earned that privilege.

    On Arteta: I’m very nervous about the coming summer. I expect his didactic approach to see young talent leave the club (Guendouzi for sure, Mavropanos and Saliba quite possibly, and maybe Willock too if the bids are big enough), some of whom at cut-down prices to boot. The squad he inherited was bloated and there have been genuine issues with some players, so I can swallow the loss of value if the replacements are an improvement, but his record so far is not strong. I fear we are binning off the mavericks only to replace them with stolid journeymen and superannuated ‘experienced’ pros (Mari, Ceballos, Cedric, WIllian). And although the Runarsson deal was not financially ruinous, it is arguably the most troublingly inept signing of my time following the club.

    Bringing in Gabriel and Odegaard offers some reassurance that Arteta values younger players that fit his profile and, while the jury is still out as to its success, I can understand the thinking behind signing Partey. Overall, though, the record is not enviable, and if they get this summer wrong Arteta could be handing over a squad shorn of a lot of its potential this winter.

15. Is it the hair you don’t like? Just too much of it?

    There’s a point where the Wenger Boys have to admit to themselves that Arsene ain’t coming back. He did a fantastic job for the first 10 years of his tenure but the second 10 were underwhelming.

    Arteta will never be Wenger. He has the next season to get the ship up to speed. It might not happen. That’s life.

    1. Your last sentence sums it up well.

16. ‘On an related note, are there things you’d like me to write about that aren’t about football?’

    How about analysing the stats of your sandwiches:

    xOT – Expected Oven Time
    xTA – Expected Topping Amount
    BMc – Big Mouthful Conversion
    BTs – Big Tastebud Satisfaction

    Could be on to something here…

    1. Quite sublime.

17. Vote for May’s Barclays Manager of the Month:
    Pick your favourite for the award from–

    Mikel Arteta
    Marcelo Bielsa
    Jurgen Klopp
    David Moyes

    https://www.premierleague.com/news/2153014

    ***

    Putting out fires– with gasoline! 🔥

18. I hear you, Greg. One can be critical of Arteta without going OTT.

    That cuts both ways, though. Too many in this community (not you) are completely unquestioning about everything Arteta/Arsene/Arsenal do, and that credulousness irks me. You don’t have to be super cynical to question things. I thought for example that, all things considered and weighed up, his and the club’s deep-sixing of Ozil was disgraceful. Some here went from being Ozil fanboys on Monday, to total agreement with Arteta keeping him out of matchday squads, even for a match against Wheelbarrow United, on Tuesday. How can folks be that unquestioning, when there are glaring contradictions staring them in the face?

    They want us to believe that because Arteta did it, it is right. And Ozil, effectively, isn’t one of the best 37 players at the club. It was vindictive. I wouldn’t want to e part of a company that treated an employee like that, even an absurdly highly-paid one. And it soured me on Arteta as a person, which is a separate issue from his coaching.

    But overall, I see your point. Don’t go OTT, sure; but do question things. And most of all — and I think that this is Akeem’s main point — if we stop seeing players as disposable commodities with price tags rather than human beings, maybe we can get some perspective on these matters. If you toss Mesut to the scrap heap, you’d better have a better Plan B than Willian. That sure bit him in the bum karmically, didnt it?

    To me, Akeem makes a persuasive point on Sokratis, and the main point is this (whether he overstated the case against Mikel or not)… it seems to me based on the available evidence that the young coach hasn’t honed his man management skills. A dressing room of elite athletes isn’t an easy place, and I think it’s fair to say that it’s more than clear that Arteta has struggled here.

    In the media last week, he blamed cliques out to destroy him. He seems ever willing to publicly toss players under the bus, something that not even Emery did publicly to Xhaka when he had his meltdown on the field.

    1. Thinly veiled flashing neon lights in the background of this post saying my name.

       I don’t believe that everything he does is right or that an action becomes right because he does it. How ridiculous is it that I even feel the need to type that sentence?

       Here’s what I believe. I believe that something happened between him and Ozil. I believe that he tried to discipline Ozil and when it became clear that that wasn’t working, he dropped him entirely. I believe that Ozil then used his influence and smarts to undermine him, as he did with Emery. I believe that Arteta then got buy in from the club’s brass to sell Ozil because the situation was toxic. This version of events is plausible to me based on what I know, but it’s as much a story as anyone else’s interpretations. However I do not believe that Arteta would cut off his nose to spite his face and that if he booted the club’s most creative player when his team was desperate for a creative player then it can only be because it was for serious infractions. I also believe that Arteta is fundamentally a moral person and a gentleman who treats his colleagues and players with respect. I don’t think Ozil is “evil” or anything but he had been dropped by three consecutive managers for the same reasons. Arteta was the one who had the ability and wherewithal to finally deal with that situation. I believe that Our form improved after December because of the bounce of the ball, because of Smith Rowe and Odegaard, but also because the dressing room was finally free of that distraction and melodrama.

       1. Granted there’s a lot behind the scenes that we don’t know, and (as I’ve said before) we’ll have to wait till the book(s) come(s) out.

          I dont pretend that I know — nor do I speculate in support of a preconceived position in support of a particular party (you really shouldnt do that, Doc. Your slanted speculation and guesswork could not have demonstrated my point any more clearly).

          I take a position — from which Ive never wavered — on the treatment of the employee, on the basis of WHAT I KNOW. Which is that leaving him out of the 18 against Wheelbarrow United and being mealy mouthed about it doesn’t convince me in the least. If behavior is so egregious and bad, there are disciplinary remedies available to the club, which is bigger than the player. Passive-aggressiveness discrimination is not an HR remedy.

          This is not what I want to see in the club I’ve supported for close to 30 years. Balance is important too. The player has a very solid record of community charity on behalf of the club.

          If info emerges that would cause me to conclude that the club had no other choice, I’ll do so. I remind LAGUNNER often that I didnt think that ESR had it in him, and I got that wrong. One post after I counsel against blind support of Mikel’s actions, I defend him on tactics. We should ideally have both open minds and firm principles.

          1. Oh ok I get it now, you’re objective and I’m biased. Glad we could clear that up.

             1. I didnt say that, Doc.

                We don’t need to kill nuance to disagree. Speaking for just me, I’ve both praised and criticised Mikel over the course of this thread.

                I just dont like or dislike the club enough to die in the ditch for anything or anyone. I think he’s been good some, and he’s been found badly wanting.

                Now that a decision has apparently been taken to give him a probation, I’m in. And I hope that he succeeds. Lord knows I want to be proved right about how I felt about his appointment in late 2019. If the hierarchy decides the other way, I’d be fine with that too, because the case against has merit.

    2. I haven’t seen him toss players under the bus in the media, but I may be wrong on that. He’s criticised his players as a group when they haven’t played well, but that’s fine, most managers do that. He certainly hasn’t gone full Mourinho. He’s always taken responsibility for bad performances as far as I can tell.

       On his man management – there’s a bigger picture, a context for what might seem like harsh individual treatment, and that’s the bloated and underperforming squad.

       Sokratis and Ozil: well, we had too many players, no way of organising everybody’s exit in time, so some were not going to be registered. That was always the case. I think Sokratis just fell foul of the glut of RCBs: Arteta decided on Luiz and Holding, and at that point it’s over for the Greek. Nothing personal, and Arteta made a point of praising his professionalism.

       Ozil’s situation on the other hand I view as something of a tragedy with racist overtones, a few years in the making. He fell out of love with football, and Arsenal have a role in that for sure. I have a lot of sympathy for him, and I also feel he didn’t help himself – the classic response of a racism denier, which puts me in a very uncomfortable position. Again though, I think Arteta was cleaning up other people’s mess, and had no good options. We could go into that for hours, but I wouldn’t characterize it as vindictive.

19. I see many on social media making the point that if Mikel had played Pepe instead of Willian from the start, we might have bridged the gap between 5th and 8th. Im not ready to go that linear in argument.

    For one, Willian had a super debut, with 3 assists. He just got more unadventurous, unimaginative and uncreative as the season went on.

    Two, the Pepe that started the season was not the Pepe that ended it. Early season Pepe was frustratingly one-footed, and didn’t work hard enough off the ball. He was easy to read and defend against, because he would (far too slowly) look to check onto his left from the right wing to probe an opening. One thing I give Mikel immense credit for is developing Pepe’s two-footed finishing. That has been key to his late season surge.

    We’re not being fair to Mikel as we should be, if we argue that we got lucky in a particular match or matches, because Team X didn’t have their shooting boots on. That’s football. How many matches have we lost and points have we dropped for doing exactly that?

    Another thing Mikel got right was recognising that our RB needed to be defensively sound. For all his attributes, Bellerin never was up to scratch defensively. The lad is a RWB in a back 5 all day long, not a RB in a 4. Watching him and Mustafi on the right half of a back 4 was fun. Not.

    1. Great points, Claude. Especially about Pepe. He has really progressed under Arteta – that has been part of the “process” that has been very good. As you say, he is a very different player from the one that started the season, and that sort of change is no small feat. Maybe part of it was making him sit as a way to challenge Pepe to progress. We will never know and to assume the Willian thing was just Mikel being stubborn/stupid is ridiculous.

       1. Thanks, LA.

          What I’d point out though was that Willian wasn’t always the alternative to Pepe. We had other wide players in Saka, Nelson and even ESR. I did look to me as if he looked to play Willian regardless of form — as if to not play him would be to admit failure. Willian started to play far less, when ESR made an unarguable case for inclusion.

          Also Pepe (even early Pepe), looked much better on the left, where didnt kill attacks by having to switch from his chocolate leg.

          1. It looked to me like Arteta was trying to play Willian in to form, at the same time that our overall form crashed.

             1. Arteta started WIllian after he broke covid protocols and travelled to party in Dubai. He then said we need to understand sometimes a player gets bad advice from people around him. This doesn’t square with his image of being all about the team, but could point to it being about personal loyalty to him.

20. This season Smith-Rowe scored 2 league goals, Odegaard 1, Xhaka 1, Elneny 1 Ceballos 0. Luiz 1, That is 5 total goals from our central midfielders. Obviously that is not optimal. Back in the day, Ramsey, Ozil and Cazorla each scored more then 5 by themselves.

    Bellerin scored 1, Tierney 1, Luiz 1, Gabriel 2, Mari 0, Holding 0, Soares 0, Chambers 0. 5 total goals from our back 4. Kos used to get close to that himself.

    10 total goals for the whole season from our non forwards is clearly not adequate especially getting almost nothing from our midfield. Part of the reason we struggle is we never replaced the production we got from players like Ramsey Ozil Cazorla Kos

    Willock might help but where do we play him but I have heard several comments that he does not add a lot in the build up and he is not a solid defender. If he plays deep do we drop xhaka or Partey and if he plays further forward do we drop Smith-Rowe or move him wide?

21. It seems that, on this site at least, the views on Areta are polarised, half for and half against.

    I wonder how many of the fors will agree with Untold’s statement that Areta’s tactics have been remarkable.

    Having been a supporter for nearly 60 years, having seen Billy Wright, Bertie Mee, Don Howe and finally George Graham, before the golden Wenger years, I have never come across a team which produces so little entertainment as Arteta’s team.

    Those earlier managers had some awful players and useless teams, but I do not recall one of them making such negative comments about his players, some by name, as Arteta.

    The argument is that it was necessary in order to solve the defensive problems, but has it done that?

    Yes we may have let in less goals, but that may be more because of the opponents rather than the defence, which has always looked chaotic at times.

    What Arteta has done is to reduce my interest to virtually nil. I watch the games I can, only because I have paid the Sky subscription.

    I am bored out of my mind almost every time, waiting for it to end, and not caring if we win, draw or lose.

    I see the results if I can be bothered, and feel nothing when we lose.

    That is what Arteta has done for me.

    I thought Emery was a disaster, but I still was interested.

    Arteta, who slanders his players and covers his back the whole time and talks rubbish most of the time, makes Emery look like a top manager.

    Indeed, I would not be surprised if he wns the Europa Cup again, but even getting to the final shows better merit than Arteta has shown. (Please don’t mention last year’s FA cup. We parked the bus and won by good luck, rather than skill and ability),

    1. Why is Arteta solely responsible for your Arsenal misery?

22. “Was it really that good?”

    Short answer: No
    Long answer: Hell No

    I still distinctly remember sitting in a pub in Puerto Vallarta in August of 1998 with my then girlfriend (now wife) and watching this game of football on TV, and one particular player that caught my eye. His name – Dennis Bergkamp. I was in awe. I fell in love with Arsenal right there and then. Been a fan since. I’ve seen the good and the bad. And then this season I’ve seen the ugly. Prior to it, for the past 9-10 years I have not missed a single Arsenal game. Not even a friendly. I used to get butterflies in my stomach in anticipation of games, and always wore some sort of merchandise, whether a baseball cap or a jersey, while watching Arsenal matches. Losses and even draws used to hamper my weekend mood. Not anymore… Mikel Arteta killed it for me. In one season he managed to pretty much destroy my love and passion for the game of football. So how can anyone defend him and still think that he’s the right man to take us forward is beyond me. How can anyone enjoy what’s been served to us on the pitch week in and week out? How?! Things will not change for the better, I’m afraid with MA in charge. We’ll still be watching the same turgid football come next season, and I’ll still be wondering why I even bother turning on the TV.

23. I have not been super impressed with Arteta. Too conservative, and too stubborn to recognize things that aren’t working and change them(Willian).
    But it’s also been a nutty season and he had a lot of player baggage. Plus Auba had a bad year.
    So despite my misgivings, I’m willing to see what happens for the first half of next season, provided he and Edu don’t have further Willian level screwups.

    1. Could it not be that Auba had a bad year because he was starved of the ball and was one of the players who clearly displeased Arteta?

       If we have no attack and no one to put the ball in the places where Auba is most dangerous, is it surprising that he had a poor season?

       Having ostracised one star player, he has emasculated the other.

       He is so insistent on getting his way that even the highest paid players in the country are not safe.

       Those who cannot see it, are simply not looking.

       The wishful thinkers and those who hide their eyes from the truth are so scared of the prospect of removing another manager, they will imagine a different world from reality.

       It is horrible to get rid of a manager. To do so to 3 in less than 3 years is dreadful, but to allow this to continue will be even worse.

       Putting all the blame on the players and allowing Arteta to get away scot free belies the fact that his job is manager and coach, and he is doing neither.

24. In easy to criticize in retrospect. Everyone is Einstein if they have a retrospectoscope.

    The 3 at the back formation had worked miracles in the FA cup run against the best teams in our league and no sane manager would have dropped that formation. Its also clear now that Willian was a mistake. However, I remember last summer a lot of people thought bringing him in on a free transfer was a good idea. He had just finished his career best season and statistically he was one of the best creators in the PL for Chelsea and everyone thought a creative player was exactly what we needed. As Claude pointed out, Pepe was not a good player at the start of this season and back in August we had no other good options to play the wide forward position so prospectively Willian made sense. Father Time always wins at some point and I don’t think we could have realistically expected Willian to repeat his career best season at age 32 but absolutely no could have predicted that his ability to influence the games would completely fallen off a cliff.

25. i won’t go as far as to say that i don’t like arteta. my gripe has always been his ability to manage the squad. he get’s paid to maximize the resources he has available to produce on the field and anything else is gravy. bottom line, he doesn’t have the experience necessary to do that.

    arteta took over an arsenal that was 8th and has failed to finish higher than 8th in each of the last two seasons. after 18 months and 3 transfer windows, i’d hoped to see clear progress and direction on the pitch. i’d like to see arsenal produce based on the talent in the squad. i’d like to see them be entertaining. lastly, i’d like to see them win football matches like a top team. arteta’s arsenal has done neither. on paper, they’re better than the 8th best team in the league but finished 8th. they don’t win and they don’t entertain.

    why? he’s young. a young manager is super-busy taking charge. an experienced manager, however, knows he’s in charge and focuses on managing the team. i’ve often said that wenger didn’t deserve all of the credit for the success of the invincibles. he had a span of control which allowed him to control the team even if he wasn’t there. how do you do that? you have subordinate leaders in your playing staff (senior players) on board with your direction and serving as an extension of you. this is why wenger’s teams were so good in the first half of his arsenal career…and not so good in the last half, when he had “11 captains”.

    arteta inherited a team with multiple world cup winners, golden boot winners, league championships, and tons of experience on how to win; silverware that he never won as a player and far better than an 8th place team. why not implement these player’s experience and proven techniques into your team philosophy? young players will follow the likes of aubameyang, lacazette, mesut ozil, and david luiz because those guys have won at the highest level. however, if senior guys get mistreated and ostracized by a manager who’s busy “taking charge”, it’s suddenly much more difficult.

    micromanagement is a misnomer; you’ll always miss something. however, if you have that control through a subordinate leadership team that you’ve fostered with good management, you’ll get the minutiae that arteta continually misses.

    1. I think this is all fair criticism, although a little speculative as to what Arteta’s style really is behind the scenes.

       I do hope to see him calm down, settle in to the job and trust those around him more.

26. I understand that numbers are not everything but no matter how you rationalize they do tell and important part of the story. At least in terms of the most important attacking stats, goals and assists this is easily the weakest Arsenal squad since the start of the Wenger era. Losing 1/2 the production from Auba multiplied the problem. I can’t imagine that any of us would really think this squad could compete favorably talent wise with the invincibles or the Fabregas era teams or even the Ozil, Sanchez, Cazorla, Giroud, Ramsey era teams. The influx of TV has meant the entire league has improved top to bottom and the upper 2/3’s of the table is more talented now then any time in this century which doubles down on the difficulty we face.

    If you want to blame Arteta for his part in the lack of squad improvement over the last 3 years then I will agree. However finishing in the top 6 this season especially given the down year by Auba was never realistic

27. The squad was clearly starting to decline during the last 2 years of the Wenger era and Emery’s first year but on paper they were still much stronger and almost certainly on the pitch those squads had more overall talent then the current squad and those teams finished 5th 6th 5th. Expecting Arteta to take what I suspect most would agree is a less overall talented squad against arguably stronger competition and do as well or better then those teams is probably not being realistic.

    1. tell us, bill. what’s your realistic expectation of arteta? does he have arsenal on a track to premier league contention or are you going to continue to blame players?

28. Arteta had us playing some good football before lockdown last season. So it’s not like he can’t do it. So why aren’t we? Why is he obsessed with getting in new players as the basis of playing well? Because his focus is on being the boss. He ostracized Mesut because of the pay cut issue. I don’t see any other cause for it. Ozil was right, Arteta sided with the owners and then when they turned around and fired staff he said agreeing to a pay cut doesn’t mean you get to run the club. How do you think some of the other players felt about that? That was the ‘troublemaker’ that Ozil was. A rallying point, especially when we were playing poorly. Arteta felt like he was losing control because he’d pushed for it, took the credit for the initiative, but didn’t want to know what happened after that.

    Not only did that leave us without a creative outlet, in getting rid of Ozil, we also got rid of our only backup LB in Kolasinac because they were mates and that’s what he refers to when he makes an extraordinary accusation of people inside trying to hurt the club. Before patting himself on the back for it being ‘some achievement’ to keep the players, staff and employees united.

    From talk of ‘consequences’ for anyone who leaked the story of Luiz and Ceballos having a bust up in training, to making public the Auba issue not just before the NLD but just when he was getting back into form, I feel like even if you give him full authority, he will always seek to make excuses, and since he’s been so insecure about losing control, more problems will flare up. Let’s be clear, he chose most of this team. New signings, keeping players, handing them new contracts, buying out contracts, and sending out some others we could have used on loan. The results are not encouraging.

    His reluctance to play the youth is another thing that’s annoying. Really, for a club which unofficially took up the 76ers’ Trust the Process slogan, we’re (intentionally) really bad at communicating the process. It seems to be whatever Arteta does is part of the process. Which sorry, but I can’t get on board with.

    There used to be a football trope of great players rarely making good managers because they can’t understand players who simply can’t do the things they did. Maybe in Arteta’s case the opposite is true. He was intelligent, but he made his career by being all about the work and the team. It just seems to me he can’t identify with or accept any individual initiative, and will make sure to either ‘train’ it out of them, or make them scapegoats.

    When Unai Emery was introduced, the club (Gazidis) made clear what his targets and his process was expected to be. Top 4, play entertaining football, develop the youth, be able to operate on a decent budget, and act in a manner consistent with the values of the club. None of those seem to apply to Arteta. Maybe it’s because this club no longer holds those values. Or maybe Arteta doesn’t want to hold to them. Probably a mix of both. But they matter to me.

29. I don’t do the dressing room stuff. Office politics never my thing, and the only thing I know is that I don’t really know anything about the dressing room environment.

    I’m Arteta out, but keep trying to convince myself that I will stay positive and supportive and glass half full and all that using eg JW1s first highlighting of the Boxing Day stats etc to give me hope and steel me.

    And then I read your above analysis, Tim, which fits the story of what I saw / watched far better than the Boxing Day narrative does.

    I read JJGSOL’s comments and it strikes a chord beyond belief at the turgid, scared, dross we have put out for the vast majority of the season.

    I read Arseblog’s tactics specialist’s analysis of the season and his diplomatic conclusions which echo mine about what the hell is Arteta-ball? What style of football does he actually want to play (how can we be 18 months in and yet truly none the wiser?!)? And the seemingly common theme throughout his set ups that he wants to kill off all flair and inspiration.

    I remember I used to laugh my head off when idiots would say let’s get Brendan Rodgers to replace Wenger. I wouldn’t quite give my right arm for him now but I’d welcome his appointment nonetheless; at least he plays attacking, watchable football with a clear gameplan. At least he’s not scared. That second victory over Chelsea. It was an embarrassment. Mourinho and the Walrus would have been embarrassed at how parked bus and scared we were set up.

    It’s horrible horrible football, and it’s unbecoming of a Club that considers itself good enough to play in an ESL.

    And hard as I might search, I can see nothing that leads me to believe it might change. 8th place for the 2nd season in a row; no European football (never mind Champions League) is an embarrassment for this club. But far more than that our football is an embarrassment.

    And it’s not the players. Can we buy some better ones? Sure. Will those better ones play better football under this awful safety first manager? I struggle to believe it. It’s not the players who are scared and they don’t instruct themselves to play this way, it’s Arteta.

    And for those who say changing the manager is a risk / no certainty of improvement, allow yourselves a moment to take a short mental stroll across north London and imagine that Pochettino is your new manager. Yes, you can be pedantic and say that he has continued at PSG how he left off at Spurs with no trophies but can you hand on heart say you wouldn’t prefer to watch his football. Or trust him more than Arteta to develop the ‘kids’ to reach their full potential?
    My point is that it doesn’t need to be Pep, Klopp, Simeone etc – Levy identified Poch at the right time and he sky rocketed them. And yes, it took Levy a few mistakes to get there (and a hilariously bad one after). That’s life, as someone said above.

    Anyway, Arteta is not leaving, so I guess my point is quite simple that he doesn’t just need results between August and Christmas, he needs to play football. He has some serious reflection to do over the summer, and he needs to work out how to trust his players and embrace football rather than be scared of it.

    Otherwise fans back in stadiums and serving up this dross is a recipe for angst that will compare with the very worst of the ‘Wenger out’ times. And that’s good for no one.

    I wish him the best; naturally I want the best for my team. But I fear the worst.

    1. Hi David, thank you for this cogent and highly readable post. I understand your concerns and reservations and I have some too.

       One aspect of following football that doesn’t get enough play is that it’s a sport of such fine margins due to its low scoring nature. You can go on a 5 game losing streak despite being the better team, or a 5 game winning streak despite being awful. The paradox is that winning itself breeds better football and vice versa. That’s why I always say it’s better to be lucky than good in any single game of football. So if you want better football, you need better results. To get better results, you need clean sheets. To get clean sheets, you need to defend as a team and neutralize the opponent’s best threat. Once you roll that Boulder up the hill and over the hump, you get the players and the fans believing together and the Boulder rolls downhill. Some managers never quite get that Boulder high enough and Mikel certainly didn’t last season. I could list 100 reasons that made his life difficult but all managers face challenges and he knew what he was signing up for.

       I know you’re already on this train David but for the more vociferous members of the “out” faction, I will plead once more in the name of stability and the growth mindset. Mikel will have his players, his squad and his rules next season, he will have learned the lessons of this first full season in charge, and he will have the whole squad pulling together. I really do believe that he is capable of achieving something great with that hand. I really think we will be in champions league form next season. Otherwise, neither he nor I will object to his replacement.

       1. sorry, brother. you won’t go on a 5-game losing streak if you’re the better team. in fact, the better team almost always wins. sometimes, it is better to be lucky than good but it’s always best to be good. you only need luck when you’re not the better team.

       2. what makes you think arteta will have the whole squad pulling together? have you seen any evidence of that? i haven’t what you’re displaying is weaker than false hope; it’s blind faith. don’t get me wrong, i hope he succeeds too. i just don’t believe he will. we’ll see.

          and even if he does have the team pulling all together in the same direction, what makes you think it will be enough? this is why it’s important to empower your subordinate leaders, not try to make bs statements and treat them like everyone else. it’s like being significantly tenured but treated like a first year resident. the older players have experience, insight, and skills that arteta has never had that could possibly make the team better. that diversity is the way forward in any environment; it makes you less likely to become “naturally selected” against.

          1. I have belief in him and you don’t. Let’s let it be that.

       3. Thanks Doc. As I think I’ve said previously, I respect your faith in Arteta and really do hope you’re making many of us eat our hats along with Turkey for Christmas.

          In the meantime just hope we have a sensible summer of recruitment and a fun Euros to being a bit of joy back

30. “The examples above of him mistreating players are contrived to the point of being farcical. Ask the players what they think of him.”

    Sorry doc, I’m not trying to be a di#k but that made me chuckle.

    Did you seriously say to ask the players what they think of the only person their immediate career path is dependent on ?
    Why wouldn’t they be honest talking about someone with a fragile ego and a history of binning players off for no discernible reason?

    1. You know as well as I do that players have ways to make their displeasure known. Plus, why would Saka and Balogun extend their contracts with a manager who treats them poorly, or even a manager they don’t trust and believe in?

       He’s trying to build a culture of a certain type of Arsenal player and there were a few that didn’t fit that mould, so he offloaded them. I don’t think that speaks to a fragile ego or indiscriminate binning.

31. For all his “ tactical brilliance “ Arteta strikes me first and foremost as a rigid , safety first, slow on his feet to react to changes happening in real time coach.

    The most striking example of the bunch to me was sticking to his original uberconservative setup against Slavia, even after it became clear their starting keeper was back in goal from his head injury, wearing a head and face protective gear that was clearly obstructing his view.
    Not to mention the obvious mental block of someone having his skull fractured from a kick to the head just a few weeks prior.

    If an opposing manager had a wish for his freshly reinstated keeper having as easy a ride as humanly possible, Arteta obliged that wish and then some.

32. the only things i hear positive about arteta is stuff that has nothing to do with the football arsenal plays. sorry, but the football is the whole idea of a manager and is his primary responsibility. after 18 months and 3 transfer windows, we should be able to see a clear direction. who can say they see definitively what arsenal are trying to do on the field?

    what i see is frightening. if arsenal finished 8th but were playing good football, you could improve on that. however, arsenal finished 8th playing bad football. where do you even begin to improve?

    likewise, you need team spirit. has anyone ever had a manager who was more tyrannical than respectful of his charges? how was the morale under that manager, particularly when that manager was overtly dismissive of his senior guys?

    no team has ever won anything when the players didn’t have respect for the manager; not so much respect for his power but respect for his proven ability to help you be a winner. this is why i think arteta falls short. like i said earlier, he seems bent on stamping his authority and bossing the players instead of managing them.

    1. Yes, I can see a direction on the field. There is a discernible style: in possession, play out through the press; when facing a low block, find runners in behind, don’t take chances with the ball in central areas, don’t shoot from low-percentage areas. Out of possession, try to trap the ball in their half and win the second ball from the clearance; once they break the press, settle into a defensive block. It’s all fairly standard stuff. What hasn’t happened yet is that that style hasn’t coalesced into a consistent starting IX and therefore hasn’t been smooth or easy to watch at times.

       When Mikel has gotten it wrong is because he’s overthinking things or is too conservative, but that conservative approach has also often paid off in terms of results and his thoughfulness makes Arsenal a challenging proposition to score against. In general though the team is organized and knows what they have to do in each situation, they’re playing for each other, they’re working hard and they are capable of good offensive play. When they pass it at speed, we look like a good team. Odegaard, Saka, Pepe and ESR are huge parts of that, as is a properly functioning midfield. Only the combination of Partey-Xhaka has resembled a good midfield duo for Arsenal this season and we saw that too infrequently due to injuries to those guys the weird decision to play Xhaka at left back.

       It also has to be said that we can’t hang all of the problems on Arteta, though I see a few a trying. Remember the Spurs game? We were up 1-0 and cruising. Then, a suicidal back pass: goal; and our best central midfielder is injured and off the pitch for the second. Arsenal loses 2-1. Is that Mikel’s fault? We were better in that game but not lucky, and it’s one of several games to go like that.

       1. Sorry, I dont see anyone here trying to “hang all our problems on Arteta”. Everyone knows that Arsenal’s problems didnt begin in December 2019. Again, we dont have to kill nuance in order to disagree about whether he should stay or go.

          The Spurs game? That’s football. We have won games in which the luck broke our way, and will do so again.

          Im actually going to defend him on the decision to play Xhaka at LB. Needs must. However, it should have been a stopgap of precisely one game, for which it worked reasonably well. His problem was that — until it got exposed — he thought that it was an ongoing Eureka solution. That’s judgment.

          And here’s where you cant blame luck, but again have to question judgement. To back up a very good but injury prone Tierney, he sent Kola away (fine… he’s a LWB not a proper defender), and didnt trust Cedric, a player that HE, Mikel, extended beyond his loan (Ok, he’s an RB, although he’s had both good and poor games in the LB position).

          This is the thing about saying “when Mikel gets his team”. The players there now are HIS players. He decided on the composition and balance of the team. The ones he didnt want, he got rid of. The ones he wanted, barring perhaps Aouar, he got. There was SIGNIFICANT player churn last August, and a busier January than any of us can remember.

          Every team has bad luck and good fortune over the course of a season. My 2c

          1. Spot on, ClaudeIvan

          2. People here have said that the players’ bad performances are the manager’s fault and insisted that we are a top 4 squad or better being ruined by a bad manager, without acknowledging any other factors or the history that got us here. That’s basically hanging it all on Arteta, see comments above for further clear examples.

             Also, these are not his players. This gets said a lot and I struggle to understand it.

             He’s brought in exactly 4 outfield players: Willian, Odegaard, Partey and Gabriel, and I’m pretty sure Gabriel was already lined up. Literally everyone else was already on the books.

             Beyond those 4 these are not his players, they are the players he needed to keep mixed with those he believes he can work with.

             He has shaped the squad: let players go, renewed contracts, extended loans and made loan deals permanent, and is accountable for all those choices, but it’s a team in the early stages of a massive rebuild.

             Well done Unai Emery, that result makes me very happy indeed.

             1. alex runnarsson, cedric soares, pablo mari, and dani ceballos (2nd loan) are also arteta signings. he also brought eddie nketiah back from loan. arteta’s had 3 transfer windows; this is his team.

                i don’t recall people blaming arteta for players fouling up. when luiz, pepe, leno, gabriel, and xhaka got red cards, no one blamed arteta. when the everton goal beat leno, no one blamed arteta.

                however, it’s different when there are tactical missteps. when smith rowe struggles as a false 9, xhaka struggles at left back, and aubameyang struggles at center forward, i blamed arteta. when saka’s game suffers because he’s asked to play 4 different positions in the same game against premier league players, i blame arteta. the arteta accusations aren’t universal.

             2. So let me say why I don’t agree.

                As I said above Josh, those are players who were already on the books who Arteta had to keep and use. What do you think the squad would have looked like if he had cut every single player except the five or six untouchables?

                If those are “his players” then you also need to add Auba, Saka, ESR, Holding and Balogun whose contracts he renewed, but it’s funny I never see those names getting mentioned.

                I think it’s fine to judge Arteta on how well he has got the players playing, and we do, but not on the squad yet. I’ll judge Arteta on the squad when there are more permanent players he has actively chosen, and when there has been more time for him to change some of the players he has so far had to keep on. We might get there this summer, it might be the summer after that.

                I think it’s fine to say that once you’re worked with a player for a season and a half, especially the younger or more adaptable ones, you should be able to see some of your influence on that player. But that’s a long way short of saying that the player is “yours”.

                Saka and Xhaka you keep using as examples of poor management, but I don’t understand the complaints.

                At the risk of going over old ground, I see no evidence that Saka has suffered from being played in different positions. He’s a fantastically talented, intelligent player, he’s young and he’s adaptable and he’s been given the full faith of the manager to play in different positions. I see it as a positive for him, and I see it as a positive for the way we want to play, to have a fluid front line. Also he was introduced to first team football as a wing back but it’s not as if that’s the position he was being groomed for, so it was always likely he would move from there.

                Xhaka at left back – in my view it’s a very uncontroversial decision to temporarily use a left-sided MF at LB because there were no other fit left-sided fullbacks in the squad – because the squad is not balanced and he hasn’t had time to balance it – and Xhaka played well there. Yes it compromised both the midfield and the LB positions, but that’s because it was a compromise.

                Auba has played both well and not well at CF – using him there is, again, a compromise – because the squad is not balanced, because he hasn’t had time to balance it.

                Overall Arteta has had to compromise on the squad, on formations, on line-ups, on tactical decisions, on playing players out of position, on so many things, and a lot of it is down to not having the right personnel, because he hasn’t had time. Anyone can see we are at the start of a long rebuild.

                There is still much to be concerned about in terms of his philosophy and style, and that is where I think we agree.

             3. greg, i understand your perspective but i don’t think you understand mine.

                first, nobody was coming in for saka, esr, holding, or even aubameyang. we know the balogun deal was not so straight forward, primarily because of arteta; good on arteta to still make that extension happen.

                you made numerous points but i’ll focus on left back. it was arteta that sent ainsley on loan. he sent sead on loan. he made the deliberate decision to not plays soares; a player he signed, favoring xhaka. this decision also weakened the arsenal midfield. he’s also developed a dressing room dilemma because he’s got a disgruntled left back who thinks the boss doesn’t trust him. you can’t tell me that this isn’t about arteta not having “his” players.

                there is so much that goes into management. this focuses on a critical point in the campaign where arteta made an awful sequence of personnel choices at a single position (left back) that has contributed to arsenal’s european demise.

          3. “Sorry, I dont see anyone here trying to “hang all our problems on Arteta”.

             Claude, agree or not I enjoy reading your thoughts. But honestly, this is a willful misrepresentation. Almost ALL of the posts here that are not encouraged by Arteta’s efforts– ARE hanging it all on Arteta. Some of it is thoughtful. Some of it is just a droning drumbeat.

             Arteta is here for another, most-likely, full-season at minimum.

             Whether the football is pleasing or not– Arteta has begun a process to instill a personality in the club. It’s a defend-first, low-risk, team-focused mentality.

             As for Arteta’s man-management style? Sports– are a cutthroat profession. I’ve managed and captained boys and men over decades in several amateur sports at local to world class levels. It’s great to be liked. But most importantly you have to garner respect. Everything I’m keen to? Tells me Arteta is on the right track with regard to resetting the foundation of a club that had cracks everywhere. With cliques and egos that took over a year to jettison.

             Arteta’s Arsenal is at Square One at this end-of-season. All that counts to me? Is what happens next. Starting with the open of this transfer window– is when I strat the clock on Arteta’s ability to make Arsenal a contender for silverware one more.

             1. JW1, I dont mean to be a pedant, but “all” means all. And it’s simply not true to say that anyone here thinks Arteta is responsible for all of Arsenal’s problems. I come to 7am as often as I do, because it’s a breath of fresh air compared to the all-or-nothing yahooing I see elsewhere on the internet. No one no one here, far as I can tell, has tried to pin all of our problems on Mikel.

                That apart, fair points.

33. Conte leaves Inter by mutual consent. Sack Arteta now, and give Conte the keys to the kingdom. Almost guaranteed top 4 next season, and with a few key additions we’ll be right up there challenging for the title in a couple of years. The man knows what to do and how to achieve success. But, of course, it’s all wishful thinking.

34. The hated local enemy (for me that’ll ALWAYS be ManU, not Spurs) versus the team that knocked us out of the competition, led by our former manager. Whozya rooting for, gooners? Nil-nil, 20 minutes gone.

    I feel like Mikel should crash the wedding and wail, “it should’ve been me!!!”

    Anyway, Im with the yellow submarine. EPL loyalties be damned. If Unai wins, an already interesting thread will get even tastier.

    1. 1-0 at halftime, and I’m rooting for Emery… If Villarreal win, it’s gonna be an even bigger stain on Arteta’s rep because yes, it should have been us.

       1. They were the better team over two legs and still haven’t conceded from open play. Maybe give Unai and his team some credit? He didn’t work out at Arsenal but this is not the first team he has punching above its weight, particularly in this competition.

          1. Sorry, Doc… but it wasn’t exactly the case of Villarreal winning the tie. It was rather the case of us losing to them. Arteta decided to get cute with ridiculous tactics/formations/lineups/subs, and outsmarted himself. Villarreal are not a good team, and Arsenal with a more competent manager in charge wouldn’t have any problems beating them over two legs. P.S. It’s now 1-1, and I think ManU are going to win this one. Emery, just like Arteta, is not a very good manager. Taking off Bacca, and replacing him with Coquelin was a headscratching substitution for sure.

             1. That’s harsh on Villareal. Im closer to Doc on this one.

                Champions. Wow. Unai.

             2. That’s a common opinion but I disagree to an extent.
                Sure, Arsenal should’ve had enough to better Villareal over two legs with better tactics and all that, but Villareal are not a poor team.
                They are slower and less athletic than the PL sides but most of their players are superior technicians and comfortable on the ball in tight spaces.
                Emery had them set up the only way they could’ve won this competition and his players delivered.

             3. i agree that villareal aren’t a bad team. however, their football is boring, which is why i didn’t like unai; i didn’t like what he was trying to turn arsenal into.

                villareal won because, despite having inferior talent, unai out-coached ole. it was clear what unai was going to do (even the bacca/coquelin sub), yet ole didn’t have a plan to defeat that approach.

35. my bottom line: i find the football arsenal play under mikel arteta unremarkable.

36. What about discussing books you have read? I remember you were gonna read one about “Sports not loving back” (sorry if I butchered the title). Or any discussions/analysis/pov like the ones you made on Galeano. I’d love that.

37. jw1, i don’t hang everything on arteta but i’ll admit that i hang all of the management responsibilities on arteta. i didn’t blame him when players got sent off. i didn’t always blame him when players made errors; only when he had them playing out of position for no good reason. i blame him for the strategies arsenal has employed. however, i’d like to talk about something you mentioned specifically, and that’s respect.

    arteta is coming in to manage arsenal football club; one of the biggest clubs in the world. how he won that lottery is not important. does he respect the magnitude of what it means for HIM to be arsenal manager? if so, how can he come in the door with a list of “non-negotiables”? who tf is mikel arteta to make those demands?

    he’s a guy with a slightly above average playing career and zero managerial experience. he’s not guardiola, who has clout with more than 60 caps for spain, an olympic gold medal, and countless championships and european titles playing for barcelona. on top of that, pep is universally recognized as the greatest manager of this generation. arteta has never even been called up for spain, let alone capped. i think he won a league championship when he was at rangers. he’s never even managed a youth team. his resume pales in comparison so he can’t talk to world class players like he’s heard pep talk; he’s got to earn that right.

    more importantly, he doesn’t really know what’s going on in the arsenal dressing room. sure, he’s got this ideology but he doesn’t have the experience to make it happen. this is why he needs to earn the respect of the senior players before issuing demands. no manager can do it all alone. only managers with no experience believe they can just come in and change things that way. if arteta had respect for the senior guys, i think he’d be okay. it seems as if he tried to treat the senior guys and junior guys like they were the same minions under his power, and that never works.

38. anyone see saliba’s game winner against lyon the other day? the goal celebration was cool. i love to see defenders celebrate when they score goals.

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