Morning all.
For the second season running, Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal have secured Champions League football. Whilst we are all desperate to win the league, securing a top four place was crucial if we’re to continue building the squad. Securing Champions League football pretty much kept Arsene Wenger in a job post 2008/09. Nowadays though, even a top four finish doesn’t guarantee a manager survival, not if the journey through the season has been disappointing. By that I mean the standard of football. If fans haven’t been entertained, or they show signs of unrest, there’s often only one way for a manager to head, and that’s out the door.
Next season, there’ll be a new manager at Liverpool, possibly at Man Utd too and there’s even been talk of Pochettino being replaced. Guardiola seems likely to stay at City for the foreseeable but if winning nothing meant he’d walk away, wouldn’t it be special if Arsenal were the reason that scenario played out?
Mikel Arteta is here to stay for a while yet I’m sure although it won’t be long before ‘big clubs’ come calling. Yes, I read that too but people who write such things forget that Arsenal FC are a big club.
Our win against Totts on Sunday was Mikel Arteta’s 100th at the club. It’s taken 179 games of football to get to that number but how does his record compare with previous/current Premier League managers?
Pep Guardiola – 134
Jose Mourinho – 142
Jurgen Klopp – 159
Alex Ferguson – 162
Mikel Arteta – 169
Arsene Wenger – 179
Numbers alone don’t tell the whole story though because it’s not a true comparison. There’s the squad each manager inherited, the money available for new players and which other clubs were challenging each other for trophies. As Paul Merson said at the weekend, Arsenal have been, and still are, up against a juggernaut. Yes, we’ve performed well against them this season, certainly better than ever before whilst Guardiola has been there but his squad has always been deeper in strength than Arteta’s, especially in the first 2/3 seasons, in fact a number of clubs had a deeper/stronger squad than the one Arteta inherited which was quite frankly, terrible.
I found this photo online at ESPN.
Only three from the above photo remain at Arsenal. ESR, Martinelli and Saka. Tierney is out on loan. No one can suggest Arteta took over a good squad, unlike Wenger who inherited one of the best back fives in the game. I’m not suggesting Wenger had it easy because like Arteta, he had a very strong manager and Manchester team to compete against but what neither had during those early years was as many other strong clubs as there is today. Once the money came into the Premier League, let’s just say Arsenal under Arsene Wenger were left wanting.
So yes, 100 wins after 169 games is pretty good in my opinion, especially when one considers it took Arsenal a couple of seasons to assemble a squad fit to challenge the rest of the league clubs, if not the best. But hey, we’re certainly challenging them now and we should in theory only get better. Man City losing their final four games could make this season better for Arsenal…..
Catch up in the comments.
Afternoon Rico and all,
Like you said Rico there only numbers, I prefer to look at the amount of trophies they have won,
Afternoon Geoff, that won’t take you long then…. 😂
Afternoon Rico and Co…
Rico, fancy leaving poor old Reiss Nelson out of the equation?
As usual, football didn’t exist before the Premier League, I’d like to see the managers prior to the mid 90’s included in that list. I’m sure that Bob Paisley would be up there.
Afternoon Kev. Oops and Nketiah 😂
And Herbert, he wasn’t bad eh…
You gotta think big Rico🏆🏆🏆🏆
Or think pragmatically Geoff.
Talking of thinking, think about this, how lucky we are to have the dynamic duo Arteta and Edu. Two men who have radically changed Arsenal Football Club. They’ve cut away the dead wood, replaced it with younger more vigorous players who actually want to play for the club and for each other. I think the present first team squad is better than any since Wenger’s glory years.
Consider the disarray in two of our biggest rivals, United on their fifth or sixth manger since Old Rednose quit, and a dysfunctional squad that doesn’t seem to have any faith in the present incumbent, and no discernible style of play.
Liverpool who have gone in to meltdown following the announcement that their much cherished manager would quit at the end of the season, now the players are interested only in learning the identity of their next head coach and can’t wait to wave goodbye to Klopp.
Both clubs have got a heavy re-building task on their hands which will take two or three transfer windows at least and will be subject to the new, and more rigorous, FFP rules.
To have qualified for next season’s Champions League is a major boost for our squad’s confidence, as well as the club’s financial situation.
Regardless of how the next three matches turnout, I think we owe Arteta and Edu a great big thankyou.
.
Excellent comment Cicero…
Great strike from Sane to level the score.
The difference between Wenger’s last few year and Arteta first few years is.
Wenger was happy to finish 3rd or 4th and bring in money in for the owners / club
Arteta wants to win trophies knowing it will also bring money in for owners / club
As for the keepers after reading different stories it seems Jens Lahmann in camp Ramsdale while David Seaman in camp Raya no wonder the fans are split on who they like, personaly I am happy with both but if I had to pick one I would go with Raya, but I reckon Arteta could have rotated them a lot more than he has, maybe our goal keeping coach has a lot of say in the matter.
Cicero, well put, however I wouldn’t praise Arteta and Edu too much, just incase they read it and think the job is done, after all we really do need a good reliable striker.
Sounds like Jorginho is going to sign a new contract extension, I am not against it but hope it’s only for 12 month due to his age.
New post up