Morning all.
Gabriel has done it again. His October player of the month award on the club’s official website means he’s the fans favourite for the second month in a row. What a great signing he’s proving to be. I love the way he just goes about his business without fuss or fury. Together with Holding, it seems a solid partnership is unfolding. What with those two and Elneny and Partey, apart from the Aston Villa no show by most of the players, we could be set nicely for a few years now. Bellerin and Tierney have many years left in their legs but as for the rest of our team who started against Villa, I wouldn’t miss if they left tomorrow. Barring Saka of course.
Any chance of players leaving until the summer are slim I think, unless the offer is too good to turn down, or any offer for a player on the periphery of first team. With Covid hitting a second season hard as it is, Arsenal are likely to struggle to find funds again for Mikel Arteta next summer. Sales will be key, removing high earners crucial too. Ozil will be gone as will both Mustafi, Luiz and Sokratis whose contracts all expire and Kolasinac will probably get a move away.
Question marks must be hanging over Pepe, Lacazette, Xhaka, Willian and even Aubameyang right now but, football is a funny old game. One little tweak here and/or there, and individual performances can change in a flash. Aubameyang hasn’t suddenly become a terrible striker overnight, just because Willian now wears a red and white kit instead of blue doesn’t mean he’s a rubbish midfielder and Lacazette hasn’t suddenly lost sight of wear the gap is between the two posts. Mikel Arteta hasn’t become a coach who doesn’t know what he’s doing just because the football isn’t clicking. Five years into his time at Liverpool, Klopp’s team conceded seven goals against Villa, OGS is still trying to find consistency two years into his Utd managerial career and Pep, with all the millions he’s spent, is finding life tougher these days. Even Dean Smith has had a year longer with his squad than Mikel Arteta has had with his.
I’ve no idea where Mikel Arteta is going to take Arsenal Football Club but surely it’s far too soon write him off. Or to expect him to turn players who have failed to gel before to suddenly turn into the perfect team. But I do wonder if his sideline antics are getting in the way of the players game. They will have been drilled before the fixture, tactics worked on during training, so maybe a trial of parking his backside on his seat might help. The constant shouting at players during a match must be really annoying. The stadium is empty of fans so every word he says, or rather shouts can be heard. Imagine if you were at work and your boss was looking over your shoulder for the entirety of your working day, barking orders. It wouldn’t work for long.
If Mikel’s body language and constant shouting at the players is a reflection of his emotions, then how on earth can his players relax and just get on with playing football? Arsene Wenger was great at being the cool, calm and collected, certainly during the first years of his time at Arsenal. He trusted his players to play the game his way and invariably, they did.
Perhaps Mikel should trust his just a little more than his match day policing of games would suggest.
Just a thought…
Good morning Rico, perhaps a little more animation, from Arteta, during the Villa game would have livened our team up a bit.
Those of us, of a certain age, were taught at school that not doing as we were instructed swiftly led to a clip round the ear or a piece of chalk hitting your forehead.
That sort of encouragement is no longer permissible in schools or football, so players will just have to put up with being bellowed at from the dugout.
Morning Rico. When you lose as unpleasantly as we did against Villa, the temptation to explain why is irresistible to fans. It’s always been that way hasn’t it? Probably best to see what Mikel comes up with and how the players respond to his clear displeasure over the games coming up. It’s usually the manager that carries the can.
Afternoon optimists, I’m just listening to Clive Palmer’s dulcet tones on the Arseblog podcast and he’s no different from anyone else, we’re all a bit bemused at our form, up one minute suicidal the next, but that’s the lot of the football fan isn’t it.
When we won at Old Trafford I didn’t think that this Arsenal squad had turned a corner despite all the media hype over not winning away at a top six ground since the Old King died. It was a brilliant result because it was long overdue due and winning at the Armitage Shanks Dome is always memorable – mostly because it doesn’t happen that often.
Equally losing at home, where the absence of fans means home is no advantage, in the next game was disappointing.
I’ll post this in case I lose it.
I’m not a trained UEFA coach and I don’t play Football Manager on X Box so I cant give a tactical opinion on why it all went wrong against Villa. I don’t know why Lacazette has morphed into Julio Baptiste or that Willian, in the words of Clive P, is starting to look older than Joe Biden or why Aubameyang looks so bereft of form. All these guys can and should give a lot more and the fact that they aren’t cannot always be hung on the door of the manager.
If the salary was the same they why didn’t Willian stay at Chelsea, he was familiar with the surroundings and how they played, but he took the extra year at Arsenal and seems to have taken early retirement. What can a manager do if a player doesn’t really care, you can drop him as he did with Ozil but then you still get criticised?
What can you do if the majority of the fan base, Ian Wright and Uncle Tom Cobbly want the club to re-sign our best striker despite his advancing years (its what I wanted) and after he signs his form falls off of the edge of the world?
And Lacazette, what a conundrum. No surprise that there’s no new deal pending there.
I’ll post this.
Arteta has turned around the careers of some Arsenal players, Mustafi, Xhaka, Maitland Niles, Bellerin, Elneny, Luiz, Holding, Chambers, Martinez even and a few more, but there’s only so much that he can do on a limited budget, he simply cannot go out and spend £200m on a new back four as Pep did when he was his assistant. It’s going to be in small incremental steps because that’s how KSE operate.
Many of the above have previous, consistency isn’t in their DNA and we all know that. So don’t be surprised if we suffer a few more upsets on the way in this season, it’s not a 5 minute job turning this club around, I never thought it so I’m not disappointed.
Arteta has done a big job making us more resilient, opponents don’t take us lightly anymore, we aren’t considered a music hall joke as we were under Wenger latterly and Emery. It’s the old adage, you rebuild from the back and Arteta has really moved us on in that regard and is now focusing on the midfield. Why is that? Well before this season started I’d imagine that the majority of Arsenal fans thought the one dept that didn’t need attention was our attack and it’s been a shock to see how they’ve dropped in performance.
I know that we don’t create the opportunities we should but our attack is also criminally wasteful and I’m not just talking about our finishing, which is pants atm. But how many times do we get into dangerous positions and you know that just one more good pass and you’re in on goal, but it goes astray due a lack of quality or focus by the guy providing the assist, because we’re great at missing those chances.
I’ll post this as its jumping about
Anyway you get my drift, as it’s all going a bit weird on here now, we just need to upgrade in a lot more positions.
Afternoon to you all.
Kev, I’m looking into why the site keeps reloading. It’s bloody annoying that’s for sure. I think we’re on the same hymn sheet re the players.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/54935734
Salah gets Covid while with Egypt, will that effect Elneny?
Yeah, it’s all cool Rico, I block the cookies so that might be why I get issues, the advertisers are targeting me, I blame CNN….
Cicero, he was, but it didn’t.
It is inevitable Adam because there has to be an answer out there somewhere. If Mikel Arteta is trying replicate what Pep has done at City, good luck to him I say because he simply doesn’t have the same tools at his disposal imo.
1.41 Kev. Spot on imo.
Rotten for Salah but yep, Elneny is the concern as far as Arsenal go. Self isolation perhaps.
The Premier League has scrapped its controversial pay-per-view method for matches until the new year, and some fixtures will now be shown on the BBC.
Fulham’s game against Everton on Sunday, 22 November (12:00 GMT) will be screened live on BBC One.
The Premier League said all remaining games in November and over the Christmas and New Year period will be shown on existing broadcast services.
The £14.95 pay-per-view fee was introduced in October.
It led to significant protests among fan groups and more than £300,000 has been raised for charity by fans boycotting pay-per-view games after top-flight clubs voted 19-1 in favour of the “interim solution”.
Now, the Premier League has reverted to the model used in September, in which all 28 Premier League matches were shown live with all broadcast partners – Sky Sports, BT Sport, the BBC and Amazon Prime – screening matches.
It has announced the broadcast selections for the rest of this month when the league resumes after the international break on Saturday, 21 November.
The selections for December and January will follow later.
“There is a full schedule of Premier League games over the festive period and clubs are committed to an accessible solution for fans,” said the Premier League in a statement.
“These plans have been made with the cooperation of our broadcast partners, working with us to deliver these additional matches while stadiums are missing the supporters who are such an integral part of the game.
“The agreement will be reviewed in the new year following consultation with clubs, broadcast partners and in line with any decisions made by government regarding the return of spectators to stadiums.”
I spoke to someone at my GP’s this afternoon and asked about the Covid vaccine and if she’s heard anything – and there’s been no news, but she did say ignore what you see reported in the media because they don’t know anything, which I guess wasn’t much of a surprise, because the media are full of dishonest tossers.
Anyway, if what I was told was correct then we ain’t seeing any fans in stadiums anytime soon!
I guess much depends on the vaccine.
Saha caught the virus at a party apparently.
A party, now there’s a silly boy…
Rico I was under the impression, via the media of course, that it was going to be rolled out, but it seems it’s not, well not yet…
I guess the NHS, GP’s, transport workers, Police etc will get it first when it’s available.
Then people in Care Homes, the elderly and those with conditions the make them vulnerable.
That ain’t happening before Christmas.
Tried 3 times to post an essay today but whether it is my end or yours I don’t know.
I too read Christmas Kev. Not seen anything to the contrary yet.
It’s this end Potter. Trying to get it sorted as it’s annoying.
trying to see what happens ,
Morning all.
I really think we need to ride this storm out.
Give Arteta his chance to build his squad and as a comparison plenty have used, Klopp took several seasons to turn LFC into the club he wanted so to expect us to make it happen sooner is just a pipe dream.
The worst thing we can do is chop and change managers as each club that does that falls into the scrap heap.
The AV game was awful, yet at OT we played a near perfect game to get the result.
When was the last time we beat a top 6 club away?
That’s not a way to forget the AV debacle but there are positives to be had.
Giving 100% for the manager ,. the team and your personal pride should be a given but as we are carrying players whatever side we put out it is neccessary for each and every one of them to to be at the top of their game. If they drop by a minmal amount though the game is up . Up until recently it seemed that Arteta had the full support of his squad but since the player lists were published the intensity appears to have dropped. There have been false dawn encouraging results though but it was a penalty against United and since Pepe nothing from open play.
We have two players not listed , they have their mates and they talk ,we also have players that are openly or are telling the club that they will not be here next season , so what difference is it to them if we qualify for Europe or not.
In my humble opinion this is why we are getting 90% efforts from some and it’s only when we play the fringe playersdowe see the effort that if it was applied by the whole squad would make the difference
certain games and cups they will get up for it but in the mundane league matches they display little or no interest and just do enough.
Chambers is back soon , Nelson , Smith Rowe , Willock and even Saliba add an injection of pace and effort would we notice too much if they played instead of Mustafi , Kolasinac , Xhaka , or Lacazette . putting them on the bench might have the effect we want at any rate it can’t be much worse.
I wrote that this morning at about 10.30 , it has taken until now to get it posted with AVG and Spybot going overtime and downloading Avast . hope it all works tomorrow.
Morning all.
I didn’t post any comments this week. Still hung over …
I’ve just had the same problem with my lengthy reply to you Potter. Basically, roll on January or the summer when those who can’t be bothered are gone.
Morning all.
Although Sala tested positive for Covid the rest of the team, Elneny included, all returned negative results.
Sala attended a relative’s party, what a part!
Not a “part” a PRAT.
Sala attended a relative’s party, Really ? Or a liason ?
Too many Sagres JM..?
Morning All, I’m just watching The Big Match Revisited and it’s amazing to see how the game has changed, Burnley vs QPR, 1975, they both played a passing game in those days, not that the pitches helped.
Frank McLintock playing for QPR, no ads on the shirts, back passes to goalkeepers who could pick up the ball, no diving, no simulation, a lot more crosses into the box, some pretty industrial tackling that just got a ticking off from the referee, Brian Moore commentating and not giving us an endless flow of chat, yes he allowed us to watch the game without mouthing off unlike the awful Sam Matterface.
Morning all.
I bet you enjoyed that Kev, the days when football was football.
New post up now
New post up now
Arteta should build in an expansive attack system where the players, especially the strikers will thrive and he should let the players from the MF to the Atck to feel free to express themselves.