Mikel Arteta has left nobody in any doubt what he thinks of last night’s disappointing 0-0 draw with Bolton.
The Gunners failed to capitalise on Chelsea’s dropped points against Swansea, spurning a number of good goalscoring opportunities during the 90 minutes. The Spaniard says that while the team won’t give up on the fight for a top four finish, they’ve made life tough for themselves.
“This result is not good enough,” he said. “We have got the players and the quality to have a better result. It is going to be tough to finish in the top four but it depends on us.
“We have got the talent and the quality in the side to do it but we have to show it day by day. We had the chances to score and we didn’t.
“You are not going to get 15 chances to win a football game and nowadays when you get it, especially away from home, you have to take it.”
Arteta’s thoughts were echoed by Per Mertesacker who says socks need to be pulled up and quick smart.
“I think there is a lot of room for improvement,” he told Arsenal Player. “We have a very good side and good potential but we have to be good on the pitch. At the moment we don’t use all our opportunities.
“We are always looking for clean sheets and good performances. In the first half we created good chances to score but it wasn’t enough. I think in the first half we deserved to lead but it is only one point in the end.
“We are one of the first teams to play at the weekend so we have to go for the three points to show the others we are already there.”
like to see Arteta trying to bring up the intensity..
he’s the only one (and Koscielny) that I felt were really feeling the urgency of the game.. trying to speed it up. to more pressure on Bolton..
also I really feel the latest bad run comes a lot on poor (or less good) play of Song.. (other than the lack of fullbacks)
in that run we had at the end of the last year he was immense.. both going forward and defensively..
not sure if he is just tired or what…
I’ve been trying to overlook the fact, but I agree, Song does seem to have become fairly invisible in the recent few games. This is not to take away from his tremendous ability to breakdown opposition attacks or that wily dribble, once in a while, but to be fair, he deserves a break once in a while. For the past few years, Song and Sagna have been playing their butts off for the team and at times, one tends to forget that despite their power and the intense conditioning they recieve*insert wisecrack about their slick hairstyles here*, they will at… Read more »
The lack of depth in all the positions is worrying. Up front we have no adequate replacement for RVP. On the wings, Arshavin has lost all his mojo, Gervinho won’t be back for two weeks, Benayoun doesnt have the pace to penetrate defences. In the midfield, Rosicky could ease the load on Ramsey. The only player I can see replace Arteta is Wilshere. Le Coq can provide backup to Song, but we’ve had to play him at full back. Surprisingly, the only depth we seem to have is in the center back position, but we’ve had to play them at… Read more »
But the man who earns 7 million a year can’t see it, and he TRULY believe our squad is too big.
agree about Ramsey.. being tired as well..
also i always get a feeling he’s trying to do too much.. like he has “to create” and it’s always on his mind..
I think he would look much better just playing it quick, safe and moving all the time.. it always seems he gets the ball… the turns one way, then turns around..
and those back heels are not helping either..
Ramsey: Inconsistency and lack of finishing ability. sounds just like walcott.
I’m still hanging on to the idea that Rambo is quality. I think given the lack of rotation possibilities Song really should stick to his defensive role, so each of our midfielders are relieved of constantly covering each others positions, which means they cover so much ground they tire out quickly. Song is one of the best DMs around, but in tough times needs to realise that’s his main job.
I hope I’m right on Ramsey, though I reckon I’ve probably been guilty of defending Theo for too long, so I can’t be sure..
Forgot about Coq.. There must be some good rotation options there. He is one of the very few bright spots of this season.
I have said for a very long time now, song is not the world class player people think he is, he never had an experience def mid player to teach him the game. He is overrated in my opinion, he will have more ave than excellent games this year, seems like another Diaby, huge expectations delivering very little.
I’d like (genuinely) to know where the £7m a year AW reportedly gets? Is this just unsubstantiated bullshit to make the poin that he should be sacked, or has someone (anyone) looked at the annual accounts?
Cygan?
I agree that song has been abit flat of late, however for the past 2 seasons song has been every bit World Class. i could not think of a better defensive mdifielder in the league besides maybe YaYa Toure. I think the problem with the squad is that there is 9 players in the outfield, all waiting for Van Persie to score the goals. It’s almost as if they just think their job is to try and find Van Persie ALL THE TIME. Player’s in our Midfield need to step up. In the past our greatest asset was the fact… Read more »
TomC,
Do you think Arsenal account or Asrene salary are a top secrets?
How do we know how much is Theo, Almunia, Denilson, Nick etc on?
You know that Arsene once said, “the Football Manager” should be the one that earn the most, more than the star player as in any job the manager should be paid the most!!!!!!
If you only know a little more about the beautiful game you will stop asking those silly questions.
I think Wenger should play Arteta as the forward midfield player next game with Song/Coquelin or Song/Ramsay. Alternatively, he could do something radical and put Arshavin in that position (which is where he’s played for most of his career except at Arsenal) and keep Arteta/Song. He could try it for 45 minutes just to see what happens.
I just watched the video on the dotcom, Arteta was exasperated.
I’m sick of these shitty results week in week out! Its becoming the norm for us now and its not good..4th is gonna be massive bonus for us and I just don’t see happening I’m afraid ..
“You are not going to get 15 chances to win a football game and nowadays when you get it, especially away from home, you have to take it.”
The truth is painful, even when presented by a handsome Spaniard. In fact, it hurts even more because it reminds me that my team underperformed and I’m not a handsome Spaniard.
Piss off, Arteta!
Haha .. your name!! EA sports seems to have rechristened Bac:)
Hahah, yeah man. “Strong Tackle Bacary Sagna” is a cult catch phrase thanks to either EA recycling the commentary from FIFA11 into FIFA12, or Martin Tyler just loving to say it. When my friends and I play, we’ll just repeat it whenever a right back makes a tackle… doesn’t matter who the right back is.
Two words : piss poor.
Its unfortunate we r all watchn whle our darlin team cntinues to slide into mud..inspite of cnstnt aggitation for a nid of quality players who will take us to d next level…i c no reason why an Aron ramsey shld start ahead of rosicky who has clearly shown incredible form of late…questions that wld continue to beg 4 answers…wenger shld hv realised ramseys nt d man to marshal that midfield, hes slow, wasteful and inconsistent.
You mmissed some vowels
Are there certain vowels you don’t like or is it just all vowels and punctuation?
I was gnna call hm a cnt
I ”literally” do not understand what you are talking about……
txt chv cnt
Still don’t understand why Arshavin can’t play behind RVP. I know Ramsey “runs around a lot” but to what end
Yet again last night Ramsey tried one of those stupid back
flicks last night and as usual it ended up with the
opposition.
Why does he try to be too clever?
It’s bad enough that he has missed so many chances
recently without trying to Showboat.
I like Ramsey when he plays the simple game but he let’s
himself down at times.
P.s. Does Walcott know how out of form he is?
Wenger certainly doesn’t .
Same with Theo!
And Arsene said; “It’s part of football when you lose three games like we did, when you do not lose the fourth game it is already not too bad.” How can the player gets motivated when the manager makes them feel as if they have won? -Song for the whole world looks like needing rest and Le Coq ready and waiting there. =Ramsey has been running into dark allies since the Chelsea game and Rosicky had his best two games in a long time, who he drops? -Theo needs to be taken out of the firing lines, re coatch again… Read more »
True. Wenger sounds more like a guru than a coach. Always trying to be positive, always propping up their egos. He tries to make the recent run of results sound okay. 1 point out of 12 is not ‘not too bad’, it’s unacceptable. Per and Arteta – who are not Wenger schooled players – can see that.
yet you dont know what probably happens behind the scenes.
That’s a fans favourite you are asking to be dropped. ‘he works hard and runs a lot’ that covers his ineffectiveness. As for rosicky, despite his good form ‘he’s too old’. You’ld think he’s 90 or not an arsenal player presently.
Thats why everyone saying rotate.even if rosicky is 30 he can still put in a shift with great energy atleast for the 60 mins every alternate game.
Ramsey started off nicely this season then started tiring after 60 mins of every game(too many games).
Again rotate players( not like rafa though)
Sorry that was a reply to this
The Ox
FEBRUARY 2, 2012 AT 3:49 PM
“Still don’t understand why……..”
talk is cheap
I would be very impressed and nicely surprised if we finished in the top 4 with this squad!
You’re all bang on. The recent poor performances are a result of tired, jaded players brought on by Wenger’s inability to rotate.
Certain players – like Arteta – can play through mental fatigue and others like Walcott, Song & Ramsey can’t. They’re all very young, mentally that is. Drop the three of them for a couple of games and on their return we’ll see the players we had at the beginning of the season.
Unfortunately the one common denominator preventing this is le professeur.
Would love to see Theo on the bench… Maybe it’ll remind him of when he got passed over for the wc and he’ll train and play like he did at right after that
NG if we drop Ramsay, Song & Walcott, who’s replacing them?Yossi? No thanks. Arshavin? Do me a favour. Long & short of it is this is probably the weakest Arsenal squad since before GGs days – at least in the mid 90s, we still had a great GK, the best back 4 in the business & a selfish striker who’d get you off your feet. After Fulham & Swansea, I was so frustrated as I thought the the team has gelled so well in Nov & Dec that things would only get better in 2012. And now? The team looks… Read more »
When I used to get bored of playing football manager I’d just see how much I could f*ck a club up until they sacked me…. reminds me of Wenger at the moment!
Ramsey should not be on the pitch! Ramsey slows down our game, then either makes a bad pass or had the ball taken from him! Ramsey should be dropped and Coquelin should take his place as he is more urgent attacking wise an better defending wise!
That Coq sounds like a “wise” Coq..
As someone noted in the Live blog yesterday…this is the same team that went from 17th to 4th. So the quality is there, it’s just been missing unfortunately the past few weeks.
Ramsey does look gassed. But I doubt anyone thought Wilshere would be out this long, surely he would have helped in the rotation department.
Wenger knew about Wilshere suffering a set back, but still did not buy anyone. Unless he plans on playing Eisberg.
Is it wrong I keep getting distracted by the advert to meet single mums underneath the main story?
Sorry, what did you say?
Click on it Mooro you know you wanna. . . .
All the hate for Ramsey….why? We can all agree he’s looking pretty jaded but give the lad a break. He’s been asked to step in and do the job of Cesc off the back of of an horrific injury. He’s been working his arse off and clearly cares for the cause. Cut him some slack people.
I completely agree! I don’t understand the whole “Ramsey has to be sold” brigade. When was the last time that Ramsey didn’t start a game? I think he definitely needs a rest because he looks tired and jaded but that doesn’t mean he needs to be sold. Theo on the other hand is a different story I feel. You’d think that the Ox would have a lit a fire under his ass but clearly not. I don’t know if he needs a rest, to be sold or what but he needs to step it up quick time. For every moment… Read more »
Most people here seem to agree that Ramsey is not as bad as he’s being persecuted for. OK, some are baying for Rambo’s blood(first blood?) but IMHO its just a symptom of the kind of results that the team is spluttering out. That said, it’s going to take some significant shuffling on Wenger’s part, to get this team playing like it was during that purple patch(it was the SAME set of players remember? fine, we’re missing a massive sun-reflecting, retina-burning forehead but pretty much that). As for Theo, it’s his head that’s the problem: if he’s going to think that… Read more »
This is one of the comments from AW: ‘But I cannot fault the effort, the commitment and desire to win the game. On the positive side we haven’t lost and we haven’t conceded a goal. Of course we have regrets because we did not take our chances tonight.’ Bull—fucking–shit Arsene. This is what the press should have heard: ‘We pay a lot of money in wages and it seems like some of our players are not pulling their weight. Theo should focus on scoring the chances he MUST be scoring instead of asking for a raise. In real life you… Read more »
that would be so great 🙂
reporter’s heads would explode..
even if he din’t use profanities 🙂
Not to worry! I saw that Morocco has been eliminated in the group stages, so soon we should get our savior Chamakh back, and then getting goals will not be a problem any more…
I feel for Arteta. He’s traded Everton for…uh…Everton, basically. It’s a problem we’ve had for years now. We have one or two excellent players, but instead of surrounding them with reliable quality and experience (didn’t have to be world class), we shoved them alongside youth players still learning their trade. Cesc could look only to Denilson and Song beside him; and yes, Song matured into a good DM, but imagine Cesc beside an accomplished midfielder/s. Now we have Arteta and he’s having to cover for Ramsey and a struggling Song. What might he do with an experienced midfielder beside him.… Read more »
It’s RVP we are letting down and he’ll repay that the same way cesc eventually did
“I think there is a lot of room for improvement,” he told Arsenal Player. “We have a very good side and good potential but we have to be good on the pitch. At the moment we don’t use all our opportunities.
I don’t really think we have time for improvement. We should already improved long time ago and now the focus is to play at your best and win the game. That’s all.
Wenger is done. Sad but true.
When the most handsome gooner since Le Bob makes a statement of such force, well gentlemen, to use the language of the plebs, “Shit got real…” When you create 6 clear-cut chances and don´t score, the other team´s keeper should have played a blinder and I´m not sure he did. The fact is we are consistently wasteful in front of goal. Manu Petit (commentating on the Leeds game for French tv) said he couldn´t believe that a top flight side were able to take so many shots on goal and fail to hit the target as often as we do.… Read more »
Slide Ramsey into a deeper mid-field role and let Arteta be the “attacking” mid…because Ramsey isn’t doing anything for our “attack”. Arteta wouldn’t have missed all those chances that fell to our other players Wednesday.
Sorry I disagree. The last time Ramsey played the deep midfield role he gave away 2goals (Swansea). I am about to say what a lot many are thinking but are afraid to say: Ramsey is not good enough for Arsenal and will never be. If players like Vermaelen n VP will struggle to enter the ‘Invincible’ team of Patrick Vieira and their likes then Ramsey will never make it here. Mark my words.
A genuine question for all those anti-Wengerians (towards whom I
sadly tkeg steps daily): who will realistically both replace AW and improve on him? In every other post the board is rightly castigated for not spending on players. Why would would they suddenly do so on a manager?
Another question is who in the current board would have a clue who to appoint as AW’s replacement and how to go about it?
Pretty much spot on:
http://www.caughtoffside.com/2012/02/02/arsenal-football-club-a-successful-business-model-that-has-led-to-a-failed-footballing-model/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Caughtoffside+%28CaughtOffside.com%29
To be clear about it, there’s nobody spreading the hate on ramsey nor is there any call for him to be sold. He’s still young and can always get better. But as some body said out there he’s being asked too much to step into cesc’s big shoes. He looks a big prospect but from the start of the season though he has given his best he hasn’t looked ready yet to play the key role this stupid formation was built around. If at the start of the summer AW had told us that he would sell cesc and not… Read more »
[…] said just that about this Arsenal team’s performance against Bolton. Speaking after the game, he said: This result is not good enough. We have got the players and the quality to have a better result. […]
Might be stating the obvious, but Arteta is by far the best signing we made this last summer and maybe for the last few years.
[…] said just that about this Arsenal team’s performance against Bolton. Speaking after the game, he said: This result is not good enough. We have got the players and the quality to have a better result. […]