Morning all.
Fancy that eh, good old Unai Emery and his Villarreal team sent Bayern Munich packing in the Champions League last night in Germany. I’d actually love for his team to go all the way so he can finally add the big trophy to his numerous Europa Cups. Chelsea put a good fight in Spain against Real Madrid but just couldn’t stop Karin Benzema from ruining their night. Will you be cheering on Benfica and Atletico Madrid later today? Oh go on then…
Paul Merson has stuck the boot into Totts by telling Sky Sports that they are still very “Spursy” and had Lloris not been on form at the weekend, Villa would have had the game won by half-time. Emi Martinez must have had a bad back on Monday morning after having to pick the ball out of the net so often. I know, I shouldn’t mock him or Villa because Arsenal don’t have a lot to shout about at this moment in time. Maybe by 5pm on Saturday our bad luck might have run out.
Another thing Merse commented on was Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who since leaving Arsenal has been scoring for fun.
We’re all clever after the event so there’s absolutely no point looking back. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has scored 10 goals in 14 appearances for Barcelona but La Liga isn’t a great league. Football is open and it’s free-flowing in Spain and he was a bad influence at the time at Arsenal.
What Piers Morgan said is typical from someone who’s not been involved in a football club. Arteta had to make a call whereby if he kept him there and he was having a negative impact on the other players, no one mentioned whether Aubameyang should still be there three or four weeks ago. All of a sudden, we’re hearing that Aubameyang shouldn’t have been sold.
Auba wasn’t actually sold, although that’s splitting hairs but Merse is right, a decision had to be made for the good of the club and other players. I’ve read comments about how Arsenal paid £50 million odd for him but got nothing when he left but he’s 32 years old now and only Man Utd pay money for old players these days. Lol
Arsenal aren’t scoring goals, we all know that but for 5/6 months, Aubameyang was one of the players missing golden scoring opportunities. Had he been scoring for fun, then it’s a different story altogether. We as a club need to look forward and find new ideas with new players. Better and stronger players. Perhaps as fans, we need to forget about those who’ve gone because they are history. I think we should forget about who left and for how much too because I’m pretty sure that if Arsenal could, they would move players on for big money, they would. There’s usually a bigger picture to things which go on at the club and without seeing it fully, we don’t really know what’s behind any decision made.
The Mikel Arteta situation is the same in my opinion. Do any of us really know what his directive from above was at the start of the season? I very much doubt he was told to secure Champions League football or he’s out. Not with the squad he had at the beginning of the season. Yes it’s stronger than the previous two seasons but compared to two big spenders and Liverpool, it’s still not strong enough to really compete.
At the beginning of the season, there was in reality, one one Champions League spot up for grabs and there still is. Did anyone at Arsenal honestly expect or demand that Mikel Arteta secures it by May? I very much doubt it. Expecting all six summer signings to hit the ground running would have been expecting a bit too much in my opinion.
I’m not writing this just because we’ve lost the last two fixtures but because I never expected us to secure Champions League football in the first place and certainly not after the shambles in our opening three matches. That was an insight to how things might be if Arsenal suffered injuries which has now become a reality. Both full-backs and our strongest midfielder out, ESR has been in and out because of injuries, Saka has had Covid and then there’s the amount of games many of the players have played. Sometimes three matches in a seven day period and that’s on Mikel Arteta. Here we are again too, another three fixtures in a seven day period, kicking off on Saturday against Southampton. Now though, rotational options are running out which is I suspect, why under 23 players have recently been called into first team training. Zak Swanson, Miguel Azeez, Mazeed Ogugnbo, Nathan Butler-Oyedeji, Charlie Patino and Omari Hutchinson were all called up before the Brighton game but as we know, not one was called upon.
Whether that changes this week remains to be seen but with Southampton on Saturday, Chelsea in midweek and Man Utd the following Saturday, we’re likely to accumulate more injuries than points.
See you in the comments.
Morning Rico and all
Auba is no different to any other player, they look good the first season but the second season onwards is what counts.
I am still not convinced Arteta knows what to look for in a younger untried player
I’m not in full agreement with you this time, Rico.
I wasn’t literally expecting to reach the 4th spot. Because it is up to the opponents as well.
However I did expect that we get 75+ points. Sometimes it is enough to get us to the CL, sometime it isn’t, but it is up to the form of the other clubs like Chelsea, Manchester United, Tottenham, Leicester and West Ham.
In 2017 we had 75 points at the end of the season, but we got #5, Wenger was fired the next year (but that year 75 points were enough for CL qualification). Emery got us 71 points in his maiden year (with no reinforcements above 26M). Than there was a split year that shouldn’t be taken into the equation. And last season we made 61 points, and it wasn’t even Arteta’s maiden year.
Now we had no European distraction, and Arteta was given an unprecedented amount to spend on new players. So yes, as elitist as it may sound I bloody expect him to repeat the 75 point tally that was booed when delivered by Wenger. In fact the very-very bare minimum would be 72 points, to at least show that he is not much worse than Emery. Honestly, with the massive clear-out and the 6 new recruits if we made only 6 more points than last season (67) that would be very sad. Almost as sad as fans being satisfied about that.
Still, I’m not stating my expectation as a league position. It also depends on how other teams manage their last few games. But if we can collect 76+ points we should give Arteta contract extension and more money to spend. If Arsenal ends the season with 72-75 then we should either take the table into account or just wait a year more until we decide whom to proceed with. And if we don’t make more than 71 points Kroenke should fire his sorry ass.
These figures are not from today! I had the same performance indicators from the summer, Kev is my witness. But the numbers are not that important. You may have entirely different quantitative expectations. The point is that you have some. You should be able to assess at the end of the year if Mikel and the team did good, did bad, or are in a narrow zone in between. To avoid the lame bullshit arguments that can justify any biased opinion, like
– the team has developed character
– even the 8th position is progress with such a young team
– Arteta needs time for his future project
– finally we got the basics right
– it’s important we show support and unity
and other intellectually unacceptable arguments.
Morning Rico and Gooners, nice, balanced post, I guess if we can take 6 points from the next three games we should be happy, maybe 4 points will be enough to finish top six.
Yes, you have been consistent about top four Rico, we needed a lot of luck and it began to unravel post the Interlull.
If West Ham win the Europa League then it’s only 5th place in the table that gets you a Europa League spot, 6th will drop into the Conference.
Don’t have nightmares…
Morning Geoff, Kev, all.
Pbarany, I expected us to do better than we have and as it turned out, other results opened the door for us to get top four. However, I think we’ve shut that door on ourselves.
Thanks Kev, I’m displeased with how the season has gone because there’s been too many occasions when the performance levels have dropped. We should have beaten Everton, Man Utd, Brighton and Burnley – those are just off the top of my head but we also won fixtures I didn’t expect us too.
Agreed, Rico.
I don’t demand anybody to be disappointed. But I would distinguish between those who are not disappointed because they didn’t set the bar high enough, and those who didn’t have any expectations to begin with.
One might say that it wasn’t realistic to finish above the 7th place with such a thin, young and inexperienced squad. And that is a legit argument – especially if it was clearly communicated from the beginning of the season. We may argue that if Arsenal was managed by you, Rico, with Kev, Sue and myself as assistant coaches could have Arsenal finished below the 8th, but at least that would be a constructive debate.
But you and Kev are right. There were games that we won, while we would have probably lost them with Wenger or Emery, and there were games that we lost, and probably would have won under Arséne and Unai. What I’m sad about is the balance of these won and lost points, as I really really expected some obvious sign of improvements.
The reason why we are up and down is simple little Pep should have coached on his own at a smaller club were he could learned what to do when his game plan is not working instead of learning on the job at Arsenal using the excuse that we are a young team rebuilding to cover up his mistakes. I am sure if he coached a second division or even tried coaching in say Scotland then come to us in say 3 or 4 years time he would be a better coach than he is now.
Sounds reasonable, Geoff.
But the question remains: shall he stay for many more years (meaning that the learned from his mistakes at Arsenal, and will be a world class coach from now on), or is he still very much learning his trade (and should be replaced if we want to improve the performance and the results)?
if Arsenal was managed by you, Rico, with Kev, Sue and myself as assistant coaches .
Ok I will make the tea , clean the clock and stand in for gunnersaurus .
Today we have 54 points with a further 24 up for grabs , so by P Barany’s yardstick we are heading for a sorry arse sacking.
As said on previous posts we have Southampton , Spurs , Chelsea , West Ham and Newcastle away and Man Utd at home . Given that we might beat both Leeds and Everton , dropping only seven points is an uphill task and one that I believe to be beyond this squad especially with the injuries that we are carrying.
Taking this run of fixtures I would be hopeful that we could finish on 69 but i wouldn’t bet my boots on it. Qualifying for Europe now depends on not losing ground to those around us and as I expect Spurs to get 4th , it is important that we take whatever we can from West ham and United .
.
Pbarany it would depend on how we finish the season but as I have said before I would not rush to extend his or Edu’s contract. At the start of the season I picked us to finish 5th or 6th any thing below that I would call a failed season.
I still believe we should have told him to go and coach some ware for a couple of years and if you can prove yourself and Emery is not working out then we will give you a try.
The other thing is we should never had made him a manager or even given him too much say in the academy as a untried coach he should have been concentrating on coaching only and not trying to run the club.
With Rico leading the new coaching team along with Sue, Kev and Potter, can we go after Santi as the Team bus driver.
Ha ha Pbarany, were more likely to be relegated if I was involved…
Geoff, I like ‘simple little Pep’ 😂
I reckon we’ll win our home games Potter, draw at Totts, lose against Chelsea and win the remaining away fixtures.
Santiago wouldn’t be able to reach the pedals. 😜
Rico I recon Santi driving the bus would remind me of Reg Varney from on the busses now which player or ex player would suit the roll of Jack ?
Morning Geoff, all.
Can’t think of anyone.
New post up now