Mikel Arteta has, like a gallant Spanish knight upon a trusty steed, ridden to the defence of Arsene Wenger after the boss was targeted by fans during Saturday’s 0-0 draw at Villa Park.
After replacing Olivier Giroud with Francis Coquelin and opting not to use Jack Wilshere, certain sections of the travelling support voiced their frustration in the final minutes by singing a ditty which inferred the French tactician may or may not have lost his marbles.
Stressing that Wenger knows what he is doing having managed the club for over 15 years, the midfielder accepted that while supporters are welcome to voice their concerns and criticisms they must at least admit the boss has the club’s best interests at heart.
“They can say whatever they want,” Arteta told Sky Sports News.
“If they feel that way it has to be respected. Even when they say something to one of us.
“He is always trying to do the best, you know. And some of the decisions he takes are very unpopular. But if he takes them it’s because he’s got a reason.”
“I think he has got experience and he has been here for 15 years. He is someone who knows the club better than anyone.
“He knows the players really well and he knows what he can get from each of us.
“So when he puts the team out, obviously it’s because he wants to win it and he’s picked the best team – that day – to win that game.
“He is always trying to do the best, you know. And some of the decisions he takes are very unpopular. But if he takes them it’s because he’s got a reason.
“If he does it once then maybe it’s a mistake but if he does it four or five times then there is a reason why and he’ll explain that better than anyone.”
You can’t help but think that Mikel has a point. Anyway, perhaps Jack was merely left on the bench to read over the details of the new contract which Wenger today admitted was on the table.
Currently under contract until 2015 it is thought the new long-term deal will see the England international wages rise to £50,000 a week.
There’s no suggestion that Jack won’t be putting pen to paper, although when quizzed this morning, Wenger spoke in bullish terms about nailing down his best young talent: “Wilshere always been very committed to the club, only one way to show it and that’s to commit yourself to the club.”
There was ‘no news’ on negotiations with Theo Walcott.
It wasn’t about jack. The chants started once he held up girouds number. As we have absolutely no cover for him on the bench and with only a short time to play, seemed a strange decision.
i felt to withdraw giroud was the right decision, he has as with all the squad available a lot of games in a short space of time, we wern;t getting anywhere fast and bringing gervinho on to try something different was worth a try, it didn’t work out and it was just a question of if we could score, there will be days like this and telling arsen he doesn’t know what he is doing, is ignorant and an insult, i didn’t hear anyone slating him in the win over spurs.
50k a week? And Theo wants 85ish? That seems wrong to me, Jack is at least as valuable to the team as Theo and judging by his general comments more of a true Gooner. I’d be offering at least the same as Theo all say long.
Wilshere is a wee bit younger, and he seems like a cool guy. Don’t think Wilshere wants 85k a week to play for the club he loves.
I thought his last contract brought him to 50k a week?
Others put his current deal around 40-55k, so his new one must be in the 65-70k per week range.
http://www.metro.co.uk/sport/845659-jack-wilshere-set-for-bumper-arsenal-contract
@big dawg. We expect commitment from a player @50k on extension after current contract runs out in 2015? That’s acting miserly to me!
We really need to review our wage structure. Stop all these talk about Jack being younger than Walcott for Pete’s sake!
Extension of a contract running out in 3 years time at 50k is small!
Reckon it’s time to start paying our top players what they deserve. If Theo has been offered 75k Jack should get at least that much. He’s a gunner through and through, reward our lil bull dog! Might have to noose myself if he leaves for a rival because we aren’t paying him what he’s worth.
Those are the words of a should-be captain – reassuring and professional.
I don’t think like Arteta says there was much logic to Arsene’s decision making. But glad that atleast one player has come out and defended the manager
Arsene subbed Giroud for Coq because Villa were getting up a head of steam and were looking more like scoring. He was angry and for once made a tactical change. It probably earned us a point. Hopefully now he can turn that anger into a rocket up the arse that will motivate the players to turn up more often.
If he can’t motivate his boys, his team he should retire as a manager and retrain as the french Jamie Redknapp
Am happy to hear that Rosicky is back, that means in midfield we will be alright, Arsene must sign a top, top striker to compete with Giroud upfront
The PROBLEM with we as arsenal fans,we cant handle the facts and the truth,,LETS ADMIT IT WE HAVE AN AVARAGE SQUAD..here are my reasons METERSACKER..he cant go past the midle line wit the ball n sahke off an opponent n make a forward pass,,he keeps passing the ball backwards he has no ideas,,he cant be left alone at the back,coz he has no pace,kos or TV5 HAS TO STAY CLOSE TO HIM JENKS..he cant shake a man like sagna does,he has no techical ability,av never seen him driblle in the box like other RBS do,look at rafael,johnson,micon,richards,sagna,ivanovic,he cant even shield… Read more »
Morgan the organ.
Piers?Is that you?Your post is shite,not AVERAGE.Now fuck off back to twitter.
I expect you are AVARAGE more OFTENLY than MATERSACKER you MORON.
What are you on about?
Giroud on the wing?
Mert attacking?
Jenks (aright back) dribbling in the box?
Is your TV upside down?
Stopped reading after the first set of capitals. Do you have to shout at home to make yourself heard or something
Morgan, normally namecalling is out of line. But in this case, it’s not. So…
You are a fool.
If I wasn’t lost after the first paragraph, I was completely out at sea by the time I read that Giroud was a winger
Maybe you ought to try watching a few games, rather than just reading the bullshit in the Sun and recyling it here?
That way you might stand a fighting chance of having the vaguest fucking clue about the players you’re talking about.
All these criticisms for a 0-0 draw away vs. a respectable Villa side following two consecutive wins vs Spuds and Montpellier, the latter securing us a spot in the last 16 of UCL. Surely things can go worse, can’t it?
Villa are possibly one of the worst sides I’ve seen in the league this year. United have 10 wins, 3 losses and zero draws. I would’ve preferred going for it than settling for a point to be honest. seems to work out for them.
Not seen them play the last 4/5 games? Lambert has finally managed to deprogram some of the McLeish out of the team and now they’re pressing well and passing the ball nicely, along with some solid and talented players, Villa are back on the up for the first time in a good 5 years imo.
I too would have preferred going for it but if that involved playing our only other striker, it might have been best to stick.
Xanthias: Bradley Guzan – first season as #1 Matthew Lowton – new from Sheffield United, League One – 23 years old Ron Vlaar – new from Feyenoord – 27 years old Ciaran Clark – from own academy – 23 years old Enda Stevens – new from Shamrock Rovers – 22 years old Karim El Ahmadi – new from Feyenoord – 27 years old Ashley Westwood – new from Crewe Alexandra, League Two – 22 years old Barry Bannan – from own academy – 22 years old Andreas Weimann – first season as starter, been at Villa since 2007 – 21… Read more »
sorry i meant PODOLSKI NOT GIROUD
My bad
strange decision, but i don’t think he’s lost it. To suggest so would be down right disrespectful. Having said that, i think Arsene’s having a hard time motivating his players now, which was once our strength. We are not so far behind in quality of the first team as we are in work ethic. I really love Wenger, but i think he is unable to motivate this to play at their best and grind out results like United did against QPR. Maybe it’s time to say goodbye, Arsene. Can’t get emotional about it now. AFC needs to move forward. Arsene… Read more »
there’s a way to motivate his players by providing some capable, game-changing options.
All the debates will lead to investment. We simply need a stronger bench. Is it utterly AW’s fault? I’m not convinced. More of the lack of spending power.
what we need is a yossi style player, and that we have in giroud ethic wise
What about Bacman aka. the best fullback in the world? We need to tie him down by giving him a deserved contract extension.
“He is always trying to do the best, you know. And some of the decisions he takes are very unpopular. But if he takes them it’s because he’s got a reason.”
Did he actually say that twice?
how about this.bringing coquelin in alowed arteta and ramsey to push forward and gervinho getting a striker role.giroud was tired and target man thing obviously didn’t work.maybe wenger just tried a different way to get behind vila’s defence.maybe it was a wrong decision and maybe it was right,but there was just not enough time for it to take effect.as for jack on the bench,maybe he didn’t leave him in london because he considered to bring him in at some point,but then ruled it out because of the pitch and the weather.sorry if there was any spelling or grammar mistakes.english is… Read more »
Plus we were getting outfought in midfield due to the fatigue (or laziness, or whatever this malaise that seems to strike our team is) so a bit of high energy tenacity would help.that. I don’t think it was an outburst at that particular decision but at the problem of only really having 2 and a half strikers, with all of them starters in our best 11 without offering any backup potential. If Giroud had come off for another striker I don’t think it would have been greeted with such a reaction. Also, who is the next striker in line after… Read more »
We could use a real poacher in January, Huntelaar maybe?
maybe im dreaming, cavani/falco ?
Bang on. Seemed exactly why he did it. Release Arteta to try and play through the lines and find Gervinho/Arshavin, and grab to midfield to prevent any counter attacks. It didn’t work, but I was happy to see the manager change it up (albeit a bit late!), since we didn’t really look like scoring all match so something had to change. People are equating Giroud off, Coquelin on, as “omg defensive mid for striker, we’re going on the back foot!”, but in reality it may have been to release the front 5 to focus on the attack much more, instead… Read more »
Bang on about Jack too. Playing him on that pitch would have been risky.
Out there on the weekend:
Cazorla – Exhausted
Giroud – Tired.
Podolski – Tired.
Arteta – Tired.
Gibbs – Out of form.
Jenks – Out of form.
That is why we lost. No back up for any of our players. We need change in the clubs management – while we still have an image!
Arteta stop sucking up! We need players to get behind the fans, not the out of touch manager!
Thought Gibbs and Jenks did pretty well, don’t think they were to blame for any of it.
“Jenks did pretty well”
You are blind then.
So you didn’t see Gibbs or Jenks’ crosses flying 2 meters over Girouds head?
In the attacking department they were no shows.
They weren’t at their best but they were both pretty solid and contributed going forward when the rest of the team were still playing too, maybe not brilliantly but I never said they were Cafu and Carlos.
Mach III – Out of Your mind.
They’re not tired. This is their bread and butter and its not even December yet so tiredness can only be an excuse. Trouble we have is that the squad can’t deal with rotation, it’s as if the partnerships being built go on hold very easily. We’ve seen this when Gibbs got injured, when Sagna returned, when Theo drops out due to contract issues/injuries, etc, notice we always have a more stressful game following the changes. When we do rotate I’d like to see suitable back ups on the bench tho, against villa I would’ve liked to see Chamakh and Eisfeld… Read more »
Last time I looked, we didn’t lose…..
We lost the league.
Did you honestly put Gibbs and Jenkinson on your list? To say they are out of form is ridiculous. Gibbs has just come back from injury and we already saw a more stable left hand side while Jenkinson was basically dropped for and albeit better player and this probably made him withdraw a little. Also, you say we need the players to get behind the fans but these are the same fans that slag players off, boo them at half time, complain about the ones we have, whinge that ‘A’ is being played instead of ‘B’, etc.. and you expect… Read more »
3 dont conceed, and your first thought on form is to label the defenders out of form? 1 of which an over performing cover? dude get real, npoint taken on players being tired but how is that the managers fault? u think he signed 2 cazorlas? we drew, and yes at this point in the season you already know all the rest of the results, you crazy genius. Tiredness is not even that big a deal this early as Agunner points out.
be a fan bro not a trolling spud hating on wenger
A lot of people are saying the players don’t look motivated. We want the players to show some passion. We are always on their backs and there are new players and players coming back from injury, it takes time to gell.
Also Wenger has clearly had to do this on a budget for the good of the club, hence them saying he’ll have bigger budget after the new sponsorship deal.
I think think we make it difficult for the team with our fickleness sometimes. Give them support and maybe the team will start to gell quicker.
The team wouldn’t need to gel if key players weren’t yanked out at the end of each season. What’s worse is our budget is double what it should be. We are over reliant and overpaying all of our reserve players.
The team is inconsistent from it’s roots.
I’m astonished that the players have been able to do so well keeping us at mid table!
Yes, thumb downers. Thumb me down… Everton are favourites for the weekend. :/
Who have Everton got at the weekend? They can get a bye for all I care
Lol, late night… I mean Tomorrow
They get the best away support in the premiership. Fact.
It’s nothing to do with the support they get. If they lack motivation they maybe need to look at the management or themselves. Im Fucked if the fans are taking the blame for that one too.
I agree the away support is incredible. The home support is shocking at times though.
So is the Football
Did anybody say that? If not, it’s worth emphasising I guess.
I felt the players were motivated enough on Saturady anyway, just ran out of steam and due to a rather thin squad we don’t have the players to change it up too much. Hopefully we see more investment in January but I’m not holding my breath as there’s 3 players needed, at least imo.
And now the board/manager are going to sell walcott, great… The board will turn arsenal in to a mid table team if this selling of our best players continues. It´s no idea to buy young players, if they later on decides that they want to win trophys or if they want to earn more money somewhere else.
I really think it’s time we started looking for Wenger’s replacement. The poor guy looks increasingly shopworn and clueless on how to improve the team’s fortunes. How about Michael Laudrup, Swansea’s coach? Young, very technical, has a good eye for players (Michu, Hernandez). Its time for a change.
Do you really think that given the constraints/self-sustaining-business-model the board has set that any other manager would do better?? That’s absurd.
You want Brendan Rogers? Rafa Benitez? Martin O’Neill? Oh, Laudrup you say? He has managed in the Premier League roughly one game for every season that Wenger has. He’s the Brendan Rogers of this year–look what your thinking got Liverpool.
Arteta, Giroud and Cazorla have no back up and these guys form the pivot around which our attack revolves. We obviously need to get rid of the deadweights (read loanees and not-even-benchwarmers) to make room for able players who can share the burden with these guys. I can understand everything that this club does except for repetitively putting out a team that is short on options, let alone reliable options. Our squad has to be bigger and that is possible only when the wantaways and the giveaways are taken care of.
I agree with dick, they never looked like they waant trying on Saturday, they worked hard enough, it was a million miles away from manure game.
But we just wasn’t good enough on the day. Sadly we have a lot of days like that.
I would like to see Mikel put a saddle on Girouds back and ride him up and down the pitch….
One thing is for sure. One day sooner rather than later Arsene is going to leave. It may be before Christmas if our form doesn’t pick up. It maybe at the end of next season when his contract expires. So what is the point in insisting that the club will fall apart without him and there is no-one in world football qualified to replace him. We had better hope there is otherwise we are truly fucked.
anyone else imagine blogs hiding in the bushes with a camera to get all these photos?
On Wilshere, AW says there is only one way to show you are committed to the club, to commit yourself to the club. Dig at TW?
clearly, this page has a huge Arsene Wenger fan base. For those saying he just needs more spending power, he’s been needing it for 8 years. He saw the downfall of our invincibles coming and he did nothing about it. No money available? Demand it, Arsene. It’s not just about our spending power, it’s about player retention. Abuse Van Persie all you want, but he is still the fucking boss of striker he was for us. Cunt or not, everyone would give their left testicle here just to see him still play for Arsenal along with Fabregas, Now Theo and… Read more »
“but he is still the fucking boss of striker he was for us”.
Is he though? He hasn’t scored since Nov 7th against Braga, and his last goal in the EPL was against us.
At 250k/week, that is not being “a fucking boss of a striker”, that is nearly a million quid for nothing in return.
WHZ, who do you want to manage the club if not Wenger? Name someone who can do as much with the same resources.
yes i agree wth mikel
Why is it that Arteta is always making the positive team comments, instead of the captain? I don’t think I’ve ever read a single comment that Vermaelen has made. I think we all know who the real captain is here.
[…] 来源：[Arseblog News] […]
He won’t sign a top, top striker. Today he made his usual noise, saying he won’t waste the club’s money on marquee signings, regardless of the bumper sponsorship deal we’ve secured. There used to be a time when we thought this was just to play down both the money we have and how desperate we are, alas we’ve been fooled too many times to know that’s not true. What’s really sad is that due to his brilliance and trust in younger players, we wouldn’t have to sign the amount of marquee players that was required at a very average chelski… Read more »
The fact is that by names, we have a better squad than man utd, the only big difference is that arsenal players are not motivated,play like they don’t want to win a game,soft on the ball, not sharp, no strngth on the ball etc they just haven’t realised how gud they are…I knw some arsenal fans will disagree with this but that’s the real truth…..we have to put blame on the player denying us wins due to their silly displays s and accuracy!! Can u imagine hw many chances we waste in the box in almost each and every game?.… Read more »