Morning all.
According to the rumours which have been circulating for a while now, Mikel Arteta wants to sign a goalkeeper, creative midfielder and a striker.
This is only my opinion but unless the goalkeeper is physically stronger, better with the ball at his feet, a better shot stopper than Bernd Leno, it’s likely the German will remain Arteta’s preferred choice.
Any striker the club signs has to hit the ground running and put away the chances we create. Unless there’s a gem out there in the mould of Anelka, he’s going to cost a lot of money.
The creative midfielder isn’t going to come cheaply either but that’s not our problem. When the manager says the owners are in full support of the club making changes, it’s only fair that we expect those changes to take place.
So far this transfer window, Arsenal have only managed to sell Joe Willock, a player who wouldn’t have been top of my list of players to leave. Other younger players have left too, McGuinness being the big surprise to me.
For what it’s worth, I think Mikel Arteta is part of a long term plan for Arsenal which I totally understand. Stability is a good thing. However, regardless of the time frame he needs to move on the players who hanging on from the Arsene Wenger years, surely this squad should be capable of better things?
Post Christmas we had the 3rd best defence in the League, yet on Friday, our defending looked more like worst in the League.
White, Holding, Mari and Gabriel. Chambers too but boy did he look flaky against Brentford. White also had a stinker and Mari looked like he was missing Holding, the guy who played a big part in our post Christmas defensive performances yet was left out for opening fixture.
Substitutions have been a bugbear for me for years. From Arsene Wenger’s time really. Unai Emery seemed to be a bit more ruthless, yet now we’re back to seeing changes which appear to be managed by the clock rather than the game. I’m not trying to throw any player under the proverbial bus but if someone is having an off day or simply being overrun, it’s the manager’s job to change things. Even something quite simple like switching White and Chambers position on Friday might have helped. Bringing on Tavares to play in front of Tierney might have helped too, or AMN ahead of Chambers. Just little things can make a big difference.
I know it’s easy to sit in front of the television and criticise, or make suggestions in hindsight, but honestly, I don’t think Mikel Arteta’s game management is particularly good. Perhaps if he spent more time watching instead of barking instructions and waving his arms around, he’d actually get to see what’s going on and going wrong. Prepare them well, sit down and trust them enough to get on with things.
Unai Emery was sacked after 18 months. Mikel Arteta is in his 20th month if my maths is right but I don’t think much has changed. Different players yes, but as a team, I don’t think Arsenal look like a well oiled unit.
This isn’t an anti Mikel Arteta piece but just words of concern for Arsenal and the direction the club heading because right now, I’ve no idea.
Arsenal face Chelsea at the weekend in front of a full stadium. I doubt many of us are expecting Arsenal to win although stranger things have happened in football, but surely it’s not unreasonable to expect to see an organised and committed performance?
See you in the comments.
So according to NN Barcelona want to sign Laca – Auba – and Bellerin apparently Auba does not get on with Arteta and Bellerin is willing to take pay cut, all this on the same day Ozil scores his first goal for his new club.
Just what we should have done, with Willian too if he had to join.
Aubameyang sulking? Surely not? It’s not like he’s sulked before…
New post up now.
Aubameyang it seems has been sulking since the North London derby from last season when he was late arriving at the ground and got dropped.
He had a cadenza at Dortmund before leaving and it’s looking as if he’s repeating that performance, any respect had of him is ebbing away fast.
On Abaumeyang I too wanted him to sign a new contract, he was firing then. However the big teams offer 2 years max for over 30’s.
Ha ha Kev.
To answer your question Rico (the headline) ‘to the promised land’…
A grossly overrated player with no sell on value. Just like Willian, he’s after a signing on fee and too much in wages. If Eduteta sign him it will be their second worsed action behind only the Aubameyang contract and wages.
If he was 24, I’d be all for it but this smacks of laziness if it happens.
Sounds like something we would do. Crazy Barca wages and left sided attacker where we need a creative mid.
Coutinho another client of Kia Joorabchian to go with Willian , David Luiz , Cedric Soares and of course EDU.
At this point nothing would surprise me.
It looks like a tight finish tomorrow.
Just seen a headline in the Mirror suggesting Arsenal could swap a player for Coutinho.
If true and we do, Edu and Arteta have really lost the plot. The player is constantly injured and is 29 years old.
I reckon the Emirates will be buzzing from the off Rick as fans will be so glad to be back, just how long it last though is anyone guess.
Busy week for the club indeed. I hope they’re equally as busy in the transfer window.
As Cicero said its a bit long winded on here today.
Reading the House and other blogs it shows you how
divided our fans are and I cannot see our side getting the
surrport like Brentford had.
Its a busy week next week for us.
Monday U23s away to West Ham
Friday U23s Home to Palace
Sat U18s away to WBA
Wed The womens team are in moscow to play Okzheptes
Then sunday home to the Chavs
Like you Brad, I thought he was a risk with just a few years coaching under his belt.
Afternoon Rick, it has kind of faded as the days gone on.
The wicket has died. England will need more than the hard roller tonight.mlol
India playing for a draw? Or is it because it’s a not very good wicket?
Top 10 highest paid Premier League players 2021/2022:
1º Romelu Lukaku (Chelsea), 529 mil euros a week
2º Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City), 452 mil euros a week
3º David De Gea (Manchester United), 440 mil euros a week
4º Jack Grealish (Manchester City), 435 mil euros a week
5º Raheem Sterling (Manchester City), 352 mil euros a week
6º Thomas Partey (Arsenal), 294 mil euros a week
6º Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Arsenal), 294 mil euros a weeks
6º Anthony Martial (Manchester United), 294 mil euros a week
9º Edison Cavani (Manchester United), 247 mil euros a week
10º Tanguy Ndombélé (Tottenham), 235 mil euros a week
10º Harry Kane (Tottenham), 235 mil euros a week
10º Marcus Rashford (Manchester United), 235 mil euros a week
10º Mohammed Salah (Liverpool), 235 mil euros a week
10º Thiago Alcântara (Liverpool), 235 mil euros a week
Afternoon Rico and the House
Very tedious at LordsRico Just 49runs in afternoon session
Hi All,
I never wanted Arteta, he needed to have his school lessons at a smaller club like everyone else have.
Agreed, where’s the set piece coach, we are still so poor at it. We should be drilled, each player knowing his exact role and position, who to mark.
I think the best bridge between defence and midfield is a 3 man defence with White sweeping and driving attacks into the holding Midfield position.
Really enjoying the Newcastle v west ham match maybe Arteta needs to watch it 30 scoring shots between them
Back to the comments:
– Arsenal’s tactics have to be fine-tuned. As in the previous year, there is a very long distance between the defensive midfielder and the attacking midfielder(s).
– We need players and we need to fire others. The 3 identified by Arteta may not be enough.
– As usual, we leave everything for almost the last day. When we look up, we have teams at 9-12 points and with the same points of the last(s) (which could be Arsenal…)
– I wonder why players at Arsenal have (much) higher costs than other teams, when the value is similar or lower.
– In Brendford’s 2nd goal, it’s incomprehensible how there isn’t an Arsenal player covering Brendford’s player. Regardless of whether it was a foul or not, it is inexplicable how everything is done for the goalkeeper to be free.
He wasn’t signed in time apparently. West Ham’s equaliser was good on the eye.
Willock not in the Magpie’s match day squad. Covid protocols?
The story is probably poppycock anyway. Lol
I think Aubameyang would be attracted to Barca, not sure the reverse applies though. Either way, can they afford to pay a decent transfer fee (cash up front) and satisfy his wage demands. Apparently they still owe Messi around €30 million in wages and bonuses.
Barca want Lacazette and or Auba according to NN.
Utd, City, Chelsea, Leicester and Liverpool look like the top five, after that it’s a scrap I think.
Morning Geoff, Cicero.
Excellent morning for England in the cricket Cicero, couldn’t have gone much better really. Get these two out and and we could be batting by the final session.
G’day Rico and all.
Blimey it’s a bit long winded on here to day.
Where is Arteta taking us? Mid-table at best. There you are folks, short and sweet. 😉
A good morning for England at Lords. 👍
Morning Rico and all
Lets give the new players a chance to settle in, and hopefully next week we might have our strikers back.
Brentford were going to be hard to beat no matter who played them, It was there first match in the premier league at home in-front of there fans, their players were on such a high before the match and who could blame them.
This season Arteta and Edu have no one to blame if we fail as they both said they had the full support of the owners and the owners have said money is not an issue so lets relax and see what happens at the midway point and if we are still in the last half then call for Arteta to be sacked and even have a go at the owners for hiring a manager who had never coached on his own before.
I’m glad you mentioned the Euros, the officiating was very good and VAR not only made decisions quickly but 9 times out of 10, they were correct. Made VAR here in England look even worse than it is.
Brentford game comment as per Ben’s above. Firstly we didn’t deserve to win on Friday so this is not sour milk, I promise. But I really dislike cheating and I thought we had VAR to stop that, but it seems the pendulum has swung too much the other way now. If anyone looks at the second goal on Friday they can clearly see that the big giant Brentford defender was planned to go and pin Leno he wrapped his arms around him pinning one arm so he couldn’t move which was a well practiced training ground move for a long throw (there secret weapon). VAR should have intervened but didn’t, the first goal actually looked out. If those goals were scored last season both would have been ruled out. Now I’m not saying VAR was right last season and I loved the refereeing in the Euros it was perfect but we can’t allow goals that promote cheating and that long throw was a rehearsed cheat in pinning the goalie it was disguised even more because the defender was facing away from the goalie, another fact that points to cheating. And I cannot believe that the media didn’t also pick this up in the aftermath, clearly the refs, VAR, media, and FA have agreed to promote goals which is great and to stop this five mins of VAR before celebrating a goal. But when one looks back on this and Brentford get away with cheating, I wonder how many times they can get away with this before it’s picked up. Play hard and fair to win games, and use VAR to remove really bad decisions and cheating, including players diving which should be harshly punished in my view.
I’m done!!
Hi Mig, I think we’re on a similar page. In hindsight, Auba might have benefited from a longer break away from football to spend time with his mum and a better recovery from Malaria.
I’m not convinced Edu has been on holiday, it could just be he was out of the country trying to negotiate a deal somewhere. But, as you say, the media jump on these things and that helps no one.
In Mikel’s defence, his job is made a lot more difficult by incompetent officials as for him it must seems everything and everyone is against him.
The Aubameyang and Lacazette sickness is certainly odd, very odd.
Sorry Rico et al, it’s a long one today, making up for staying quiet!
I don’t disagree about the Wenger era being over, I guess the Ozil situation was that last well publicised player, although Xhaka is another but at least he tries for the team and is a leader we need right now.
In terms of Arteta and game management, I think you hit the nail on the head, he is incredibly animated and probably annoys the players, personally I’d go nuts in playing with my manager barking orders at me. You select the team and trust them to carry out your directions and if they don’t you yank em off. I think he is a control freak and doesn’t trust his players enough and that maybe one of the issues he has with certain players. Interestingly younger players won’t have this because they are trying to break into the first team squad and hold down a position. Senior players like his captains will a problem of being constantly undermining them that’s why the seniors players emotionally detach themselves, and effectively give up, we’ve seen it time and again Ozil, Auba, Willain, to name a few at times have shown frustrations. And he is a task master, which I do agree with because the Arsenal squad were ill disciplined, but I think a little emotional intelligence and giving people chances, can be seen as being empathetic.
Arteta has to modify his behaviour during games, show the team some trust and start being an inspirational leader. He needs to become objective during games see how the game unfolds and be detached enough to make the right calls at the right time. Which would have meant replacing Chambers for the second half. Showing trust will have very positive effects. Look at Guardiola he stays calm and focused on his job during matches and is only animated when he needs to be in the moment. Klopp tends to be more animated but he’s in synch with his players and emits the emotions like a fan does but boy does he show it when they score, it shows how much he cares and that he’s passionate about wining and losing he wears his heart on his sleeve.
I like Arteta, I like what he’s done with bringing the fans closer, the whole Arsenal club pulling for the cause in the same direction (mostly), but he’s needs backing properly by the Kronke’s as in Martinez, and he needs top level support looking after the squad, and I do question Edu’s role. He seems to be chasing purchases but not managing the exits and the squad. We should not be losing the kind of money we do on players and we should never make the same mistake twice with contracts but here we are repeating the Ozil mistake with Willain. The only other thing to mention is the strange illness that out best buddy strikers have got, there’s been so much discussion around signing a striker but I’ve been thinking we’ve got four Nketiah, Auba, Laca and Balogun. Get them playing, give them the support they need and tell how bloody brilliant they are, or sell them (when they are worth something) and move on a new signing. Too much today is done in the media, sometimes saying nothing, says everything. One last point is that I think Auba was struggling last season because his mum was ill it effected him, once he dipped and the media took over it was inevitable and he’s still mentally not there yet. So when people are suffering give them the time and space to recover and then kick on, mental health is key to Arsenals problems, I am certain of that, and Arteta has to get a grip, use his intelligence which I know he has, seek advice from Pep when you need to and grab hold of this club in the way you showed you can 20 months ago, push the doubters away keep those you trust near. And if I read correctly you don’t let your Director of Football take holiday during a transfer window or the month leading up to it or following those players need to come in a feel special.
Ben, hard to disagree with most of that.
Afam, what Leicester don’t have is a lot of players who aren’t saleable and that’s not Mikel Arteta or Edu’s fault. That’s why I think he’ll be given time because Aubameyang, Bellerin, Pepe, Lacazette to a lesser degree imo, all need replacing but we can’t sell them, or at least that’s how it appears.
Ben, I think he was made manager to have more of a say on signings etc, but he still could have been involved as a head coach. I want Arteta to be a success, I really do but I just wish he’d have more faith in his players, relax a bit and let them get on with it.
Ghost. My opinion has very little to do with Brentford although the performance was shocking, I’m talking about the football, the changes, the micromanaging, the fall outs, the selling of Martinez, yes boring now I know, not just bleedin Brentford.
Madhu, I’m not blaming Wenger for anything, not today.
Agree _ there are excuses for being outplayed due to injuries and inexperience, as we were against Brentford, but no excuses for lack of game management and strategy.
The talk of incoming players is a lot of hot air. In this climate, unless we sell and recover a significant haul of cash those positions won’t be filled. Personally I see maybe Odegaard at a push and thats it. Although I’d actually rather see arteta work better with what he has than buying again.
As for the game I would have put amn and saka on much earlier. Take off balogun at half time and shuffled smith rowe into a more central position. Armchair talk but we had one goal in us at least.
Where is Arteta taking us?
Nowhere is where he is taking Arsenal.
I am tired of hearing about the “process” – there is no process. He stated he would remove the dead wood and rebuilding. Instead he gives Xhaka another contract.
His signings so far have been utterly underwhelming – how he could value Ben White at £50 million is beyond me.
Defensively vulnerable despite 75 million wasted on defensive players. No attacking threat. No sign of him improving our attacking options. A completely unmotivated squad of players and an angry fan base that sees no end to the Kroenke fueled show of utter incompetence.
Arteta offers Arsenal NOTHING.
The sooner he is gone the better…
This is a very pertinent question, and if I may add an addendum to it, it will be “where does Arsenal want to go?” Football wise, the best of intentions should be matched with best of capacity, judgement and preparation. Will you with a profound sense of sincerity attest to that fact that we have those combo in place? Arsenal has been rebuilding for the past 10 years, nobody does it for that long! From the great height we are coming from, our current best ambition is a base level top-four position. Can anyone please tell me, in terms of resources, what Leicester has that Arsenal doesn’t.
First of all, we had the third best defence in the league for tge whole season. Since Christmas we had the second best defence (one goal conceded less and it would have been the best) and the third best attack, making us the 2nd best team for the last two thirds of the season.
Secondly you are way too reactionary regarding our defense against Brentford. We missed our DM and handed a debut to a youngster and we handed a debut to White in this team. Still Brentford had 8 attempts in the whole game. Only Crystal Palace and Southampton had less attempts on matchday one. The second goal should never have been allowed too. Speaking so badly from the defense is just wrong.
I won’t start a discussion about Srtetavs game management or tactical side of the game, with someone who knows it better when watching a game in front ov TV and trying to tell a pro footballer and coach who even Wenger, Pep, Klopp or Mourinho speak highly off, what he needs to do better. That’s ridiculous.
But if you are so blind or frustrated that you think nothing has changed compared to the Emery era, this does not surprise me at all. We were the second best team in the league for two thirds of last season, we beat everyone inside the top 6 (Emery’s record was terrible against them) and we already won trophies with Arteta. When Emery was our manager players said bad things about him, while every single player praises Arteta. He settled our defense for the first time in a decade and he is still picking up the pieces of mismanagement the club left for him after having 3 directors of football and 4 managers in 3 years. Emery took over from obe of the greatest managers ever, while Arteta took over when we were on the floor. Tgere is no shortcut back up, it is long and hard work.
So we should support him, not looking for flaws where there are none.
How can we even after Wenger is gone without a shadow for 4 yrs now everyone needs to take a dig. U can understand if he was still at the Emirates in tech dir role or something then yiu could have legitimately pin the blame on him. He is not even visiting emirates and deliberately kept himself out. But no irrespective of what others have done everyonr needs his name to pin the blame on. Any mentions of his contributions though, none. If I remeber he is last manager under whom were top 4 let alone winning the league.
Amazing perspective we have.
True. Equally if Cedric has been so good ore season (Arteta) why Chambers at right back and why put Tavares there later?
Arteta from all accounts is a truly fantastic individual coach. He’s clearly smart, empathetic and a brilliant communicator. Plus he understands an individual’s role in the team and how they can get better. No wonder so many players have credited him with big improvements in their career and no wonder he inspires awe in many current and former pros.
However, since he was elevated to “manager”, he doesn’t appear to focus at all on coaching anymore. That is now delegated to his coaching staff and he is purely focussed on style of play, tactics, personnel. Unfortunately, Arteta appears to be rather bad at these aspects of management.
He restricts all freedom, stifling talented players that need it to the point they look inept.
He has no ability to change a game and more often, opposition managers are ready for his game plan from the start (if Arsenal are a goal behind at HT under Arteta, they are virtually guaranteed to lose: I think it’s 2 draws and 12 losses now).
He does offer defensive shape and structure but he will often fail to recognise the importance of personnel trait combinations in this and get that horribly wrong too.
His inexperience wouldn’t matter too much if he could learn from his mistakes but he seems unable to do that too.
It’s a shame because the qualities I list out above are rare and it would be fabulous if Arsenal had a manager with those. But his flaws are enormous and devastating to Arsenal’s chances of improving. There is a good reason Arsenal is getting worse under Arteta despite spending money. He is a bad manager.