Morning all.
The FA Cup draw had kind of passed me by but we’ve been drawn against Nottingham Forest, the club which knocked us out of the competition back in 2018. The tie will take place over the weekend of the 7th-9th of January 2022.
Having seen the way things are going in the League, unless something drastically changes in the way Mikel Arteta’s teams approach fixtures and play out matches, the two domestic cups might be Arsenal’s only realistic route into Europe. Even winning one of them seems a challenge too far right now.
I don’t want to sound all doom and gloom but I truly believe we’ve hit Groundhog Day under Mikel Arteta and his coaching staff. I really hope I’m wrong but apart from an odd 20 minutes here and there, or a couple of 45 minute periods during a game, I’ve seen very little sign of improvement. Our attacking play slow and laboured, our midfield toothless and more porous than a PG Tips triangle. Other brands are available of course but that’s my favourite.
I’m sure that like me, you’re asking yourself whether or the squad Arsenal have right now is capable of playing better football than it is. My belief is it is. If Mikel Arteta can win an FA Cup Final, beating Man City along the way, with the squad he had at the time, why can’t his team play better now. On paper, Arsenal’s squad is the strongest it’s been for a few years but the performances have been pretty grim.
Mikel Arteta hasn’t been helped by the lacklustre showings from his senior players. Partey and Aubameyang especially as both have been little short of awful. We have to be careful though because when players downed tools under Arsene Wenger and again under Unai Emery, it was the manager’s fault and not the players so I don’t think we can change tact now. I certainly haven’t. The defeat at Liverpool was expected, the way we crashed though, wasn’t. I expected a bit more of a fight against them. Man Utd and Everton, both were shockers. Probably two of the worst performances I’ve seen since the opening day of the season when Mikel had to deal with Covid affecting his squad.
I’ve no idea what the Arsenal board are thinking right now but if any of them have Arsenal football in their heart, they must be thinking about changing the manager. Carrying on as we are expecting things to change, would in my opinion, be a foolhardy. To wait until Arsenal have dropped further down the table before making a change would pretty much end our chances of returning to European football next season I think.
Mikel Arteta is two years into his Arsenal career and whilst I recognise he and Edu have had to deal with a lot of difficult stuff away from the pitch, on the pitch is what matters to football fans. Performances and results, of which neither have been good enough for a squad as good as Arsenal have.
Anyway, that’s just my opinion.
See you in the comments.
He cannot deliver the mandate he has Rico- just doesnt have the skills.
I have no wish to boomerang constantly on this topic – but he isnt good enough. That much is clear. The tactical nous is poor, the players are poorly structured and the ‘style’ is completely irrelevant. Kroenke and cronies clearly have signed up to him learning on the job and ‘building’ a team over multiple seasons. I dont have an issue with success taking time- but after 200m+ and 2 years there has to be signs of consistent upward direction. As you say, you expect to lose to LFC- but goddam make them fight tooth and nail for it.
The same old problems show them selves, we have bought a lot of players, blooded some amazing youth- an experienced hand is necessary for the long term project to succeed. Just goes to show how Josh and Stan dont understand a winning mindset or culture. That killer instinct and win at all costs mentality – we will NEVER achieve that under MA and team.
Changing tack is not an option for anyone but the Kroenkes to do . But to keep the sailing analogy going we are drifting fairly rudderlessly onto a mud bank.
In my opinion Arteta’s inexperience is now showing and he is leaning on his playing experience in trying to dredge up answers
In my mind he was always a competent player , a Cesc lite , quite close to Elneny in some ways but never spectacular and nearly always safety first. He had his moments and a fair amount of skill but his career stats with us showed a goal around every 12 games which from the midfield is not prolific but does show a mind set.
Whether he goes or not will not be his decision and I doubt that KSE is in the mood to go looking for someone that is going to cost them dearly . However if it were me giving the club advice , it would to not do anything until they have a successor lined up . Sacking him for the sake of it would be plainly wrong.
arteta is keeping us down , sure hes a double agent , has to go !
Can’t disagree there Iain. Nice bloke and all that I’m sure but he just lacks the experience to manage the game as well as other managers do. I think the players no that too.
I don’t know Potter, sometimes an interim manager can have the desired effect. Even Carrick got more out of Utd than OGS did before him. In fact I think we’re in a very similar situation to what Utd were before getting Rangnick.
The issue here is aubemeyang not performing and the midfield not good enough .
Even when he scored this season his performances are similar to of last season.
As for the midfield – partey has flopped he isn’t the player that dominated midfield in big champions league games. He has no presence . El neny isn’t an option. Lakonga looks very good but is young. Xhaka should really be moved on in January.
Arteta is at fault for persisting with these players when they are out of form. Niles. Should be given a chance over partey . As for aubemeyang it would be better to start balogun now martenelli is injured. Nketiah doesn’t want to be at the club.
As for buying players especially in midfield , they really need to identify someone who will actually dominate and be vocal .
The club and Arteta did say the rebuild would take a few windows , perhaps this maybe Arteta’s last if the players they do go for fail also – they have to buy in January if they don’t then arteta maybe out sooner rather than later .
El neny should have had his contract terminated with mutual consent . He isn’t a viable option.
Going a goal up , we don’t have anyone in central midfield urging the team forward. The captain looks relieved when we score as the pressure is off him. If the opposition does start to attack the captain and midfield should be instructing the rest of the team. We can’t just rely on the other team losing possession and for us to try and score another goal . There is no direction , when you see arteta on the touch line whatever he says the players just don’t do.
Even if Arteta is relieved of his duties, the new manager would know the issue that is striker and midfield is weak with no influence.
Ad, I imagine Pepe will come back in for Martinelli. Although I too would like to see Balogun in the squad so he at least gets minutes before we potentially lose Lacazette and Nketiah in January. Even if we sign a striker next month, unless he’s PL experienced and arrives before Auba and Pepe, we’re going to be really short up front. That’s why I’m surprised we’ve not seen more of AMN, because once Partey goes off, we’re down to Xhaka and Lokonga.
Morning Rico. If the Kroenke’s are happy to throw another season away which, given Mikel’s record so far, looks very likely, then let him continue.
Should he be sacked? Definitely.
Just don’t start moaning that, without the money from Europe, the club can’t afford to strengthen. If Josh doesn’t act then the blame, if and when it all goes wrong, is entirely down to him.
Every Chelsea fan I know was outraged when their darling Frank was sacked because he wasn’t good enough. They don’t mention him now.
PL football is ruthless and results driven. Mikel has had a couple of years and a lot of money. From where I am standing, it doesn’t look like it’s working.
Good day all.
Replacing Arteta is rapidly becoming a no brainer. The problem is not so much who to replace him with, but who will decide on his replacement. The Kroenkes are not “football people”, our managing director is a bean counter, our director of football, Edu, has a much too close relationship with Arteta and was, I believe, instrumental in appointing him in the first place. Thus his fitness to appoint Arteta’s replacement does not fill me with confidence.
Morning Adam. Agreed. I’d add that if the Kroenke family are prepared to let the club drift through the rest of what’s likely to be a repeat of last season, then they really should sell up and allow someone more ambitious to take ownership of the club.
I don’t see Arteta as the same kind of guy Lampard was to Chelsea.
I can understand why the club opted for Arteta, what’s more important imo though is recognising it’s not working and doing something about it..
Rico. I am not suggesting he was but rather that Chelsea acted decisively and I doubt we will. The fans at Chelsea though did spurt the “give him time” mantra though and that rings a bell.
Adam, I know you weren’t, I’m just saying that for me, sentiment doesn’t come into my thoughts.
Toots did too Adam, and Utd. I just hope Arsenal don’t leave it too late.
Morning Rico and All
I will not comment on Arteta as every one knows what I think about him.
Not only do we need a midfielder and striker but we may have to look for a number 2 goal keeper if Leno leaves in January.
I can’t remember when was the last time we had so few injuries at the same time, yet we are still minus goals. Makes it hard to keep confident that things will change.
Maybe Kroenke’s believed they were buying Pep but got Arteta by Mistake.
Morning Geoff. I doubt the Kroenke’s knew who Arteta was before he got the job.
I didn’t like the performances in the last 2 games and I think both were within Arsenal’s reach. The number of games until January 4th is going to be a big challenge. If all the players aren’t lined up to honor Arsenal’s shirt, it’s better to take over now. You have to know who to count on and, above all, assess our real possibilities and the quality of the team.
My question is solely not if but when and when we are organised
.If we appoint from within there is only Mertesacker or Betsy who has only been with us since August and they are not exactly going to inspire the old heads that are currently the problem .
So we have to look outside and who is there that has the kudos to change things immediately ? The return of Freddie ?Henry ? someone from a Bundesliga club that no-one has heard of .
I don’t know
There’s all the paper talk about returning to Wenger as Arteta’s shoulder to lean on.
Since Wenger we have tried Emery who on paper looked a good appointment , we turned to Freddie as interim and that didn’t work so we went back to the interviews and reversed our decision on Arteta .
This time we have to get it right and that’s why I am urging caution.
JM It’s only my opinion but I recon some of these players lost respect for the shirt when they were told who the new coach was. I know I would never respect or listen to a coach who has never coached before.
Just because you may have been a good player does not mean you will be a good coach.
Afternoon rico, house. I’ve supported Arteta and felt he had to have time to make this team his own. But the last two matches, with practically all his signings of two years out there, was the most demoralising we have had to suffer. Both matches were there to be won, but we folded, twice. Once was annoying, twice unforgivable because you could see it happening a mile away. And yet it still happened. We have relied on Saka and ESR for 18 months now, and if they don’t win it for us, we are worse than average. Most of our breaks are so tepid, the first sight of opposition and the ball ends back in our own half. Whose fault is that? Have to say, enough is enough of this way of playing.
Hi Andrew. It’s the hope that kills you isn’t it?
It’s been a long time since Arsenal were a successful team and right now, with Mikel, seems to me like we are either treading water or slowly drowning.
He may, in time, turn out to be a brilliant manager. Then again..,
He may turn out to be a brilliant manager but not neccessarily with us.
Adam, I thought David Platt would make a good manager, and that didn’t work!
Perhaps Arsene Wenger would come back until the end of the season… 😜
Afternoon Andrew, same here. I doubted him but wanted to be proved wrong. Yore spot on re ESR and Saka imo and without one or both, we are quite average.
Arteta would have been much better off starting his career in the championship or like Gerrard, in Scotland.. Arsenal are too big a club to be a manager’s first appointment.
It will be interesting to see how football clubs handle the Covid passport scheme . In my opinion it should have been incorporated at the beginning of the season then it would be up and working now.
I fear that there will be trouble as crowds collect outside in the last half hour before kick off.
Let’s compare this season with last season:
2020/21… P15…W4……D2……L9…..F14……A20…..Pts14
2021/22….P15…W7……D2……L6…..F18……A22…..Pts23
You could say that that is progress…
Last season we went out of the League Cup at the Q/F stage.
This season we have Sunderland to play soon in the Q/F.
Last season we went out of the FACup in the 4th Round.
This season we have Nottm Forest in the 3rd Round and some payback to pay out.
The cups seem our best prospect of a trophy and a place in europe.
I’m certain that Arteta will get at the least until the end of this season and if the team can replicate their form of the second half of last season then I reckon we’ll finish 5th.
Kev those stats look good until you see the goal difference for me winning 3 more games for the amount of money spent is not a good enough improvement.
As long as we stay in the middle of the table and Arteta’s pay is cheap compared to most coaches / managers Kroenke will not sack him.
Geoff, if we’d won three more games last season we probably would have got into the Champions League.
As far the amount of money spent, well maybe the Kroenke’s are spending so much money to try to compensate for how little they spent before they saw off Usmanov, were still trying to catch up for all those periods of drift under this ownership.
I also wonder about the revisionist views about Emery that I read, has everybody forgotten how terrible our midfield was under him and the enormous spaces they vacated to the opposition and also how many shots we were conceding, record amounts in some games.
We have two vastly expensive strikers clearly past their best – and when they leave we’ll see how past it they are – and as for Pepe, well blow me down he’s suddenly become our saviour but all I remember from him is him losing possession and being totally ineffective, we got well striped up over him thanks to Raul.
We have to stop blaming the past, and saying Arteta is still learning, He applied for the job and there for he should know what to do, no excuses.
Yes some of the owners, board members, staff and players may have done us wrong in the past but Arteta has been there long enough to show he can do the job, and I personally think Arteta needs to go away and coach at a smaller club / league for a couple of years then come back and try to coach in the epl again. Depending on results this round we could be as low as 10th.
I think the comparisons between Emery’s football and Wenger’s in his final few years and where we are today, pops up because of the style of football we’re playing and the performances of some of the players, certainly the senior ones. I think fans, certainly this one, expected Arteta to get more out of Partey and Aubameyang, especially as it was his choice to sign/retain them.
We are better off points wise than last season but when one considers how awful Toots and Man Utd have been, the struggles of Leicester City, and that both Brighton and Crystal Palace out played us, Leicester too in a second half surrender by Arsenal, I think there’s more to what’s going on than just points on the board. After all, under Emery, we finished 5th, losing out on CL by one point.
As you say, Pepe isn’t our saviour Kev, he’s just an average option when others are injured or from the bench.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think the board will do anything anyway. Well just bumble along as always.
Morning Rico. When there is such an undeniable sense of resignation among the fans then you can be sure that the club is in trouble.
The general attitude seems to be that we are crap and so far behind where we used to be but nothing can be or will be done. Even worse is that we are crap and uncompetitive but it’s not as bad as last season.
That level of abject negativity will soon see half empty stadiums.
Where is the spirit and pride of our fans?
I’m at a loss.
Morning Rico and all,
I have been very patient with Arteta, and accept he needed a few windows to get the squad right. But I see Edu and Arteta being responsible if one goes they both go. They both lack experience in their respective roles. My big issue is unless it’s a big name or like Man U has a thought through plan then we better to wait until we have a plan and the people to fil the roles. This is something we could ask Wenger to do on the grounds that he will not take a coaching role but I’m sure without the distraction of coaching the team he would make a better job of signing and managing players. But as a first step ask Wenger to generate a long term plan.
Morning Adam, half empty stadiums will be the final straw I think. That’s why I think Arteta got away with a lot of things early in his time. Covid seems to have pretty much delayed what appears to be the inevitable imo.
Morning Mig, I certainly believe Arsene Wenger would sort our attacking style out but I think we need to move forwards rather than backwards. If he gets his foot in the door, I think he’d be a nightmare to get out.
Morning Rico, yeah Emery lost his job when the crowds at the Emirates fell away and I think that’ll be the case with Arteta.
As I’ve mentioned before as long as he keeps the stadium supporters on side he’ll be ok, the online fans, of which I guess I’m one these days even if I’m going on Saturday so I’ll report on the atmosphere, the online fans are similar to those on Twitter, Facebook and all the other platforms (without the social and cultural outrage), we’re all outraged about something or other and the clickbaiters pick up on that and earn money off of the back of our displeasure and Sky etc use it against us as well and we have to listen to Mr Gobbo and the ex-failed Valencia coach telling us where we’ve all gone wrong.
As for bumbling along Rico, well our Board have a history of that, it’s an Arsenal tradition.
Morning Kev, yes, Arsenal are often too slow to act and then probably wonder why things don5 go well. I think you’re right, if the Emirates faithful stay behind the team, Arteta will be safe.
Wenger is not the answer !
I think the despair felt by so many ,myself included , is not so much the situation that we are in as Kev says better off points wise , but the manner in which we have achieved to get were we are.
Logically we all agreed that it would take time , not just to recover from Emery but from the final period of Wenger’s reign during which he was allowed free rein to run the club and when he left nobody had a clue what they needed and bounced from one solution to the next , going nowhere fast.
I am not arguing that Arteta is the Messiah but I am not sure that anyone available is .
People can bandy names but to get the flavour of the month from Ajax means not only losing Arteta but Edu and Venkatesham too as Ten Hag comes in a package with Overmars and Bergkamp and that sort of deal would take up most of any cash that might be put aside for players. Is that throwing the baby out with the bath water.? and Ajax would make us pay through the nose for that one.
Make sure you have your Covid pass on your phone Kev and get there early to allow time to spend in the mobs outside the ground while security staff check everyone’s health status. That’s assuming that anyone turns up at all. 😷
I don’t think Wenger is in any way the answer to our current problems, he’s been stashed away in FIFA’s Lucerne ivory tower for far too long and has lost touch with football fans in general and Arsenal fans in particular.
The old Norfolk based Midland and Great Northern Railway which ran out of steam back in the last century, was popularly known as the Muddle and Get Nowhere Railway. A bit like Arsenal at the moment. 😕
I’d take that deal yesterday Potter.
Me too.
I would not bring Wenger back as a senior coach, his had his time, There are still good coaches out there that are not on big money, I would of liked to give Ange Postecoglou a go he did well in Australia and then in the J league now he has Celtic up to 2nd place.
Ange would not take the crap from the older players but will give younger players a chance,
I wouldn’t want Ange, not after a few months in Scotland in a two horse race.
New post up now.