Arsenal captain Mikel Arteta has expressed his disappointment at last night’s 2-1 defeat to Dinamo Zagreb, and once more highlighted the team’s major weakness this season – taking chances.
The Gunners were bright enough in the opening period but failed to convert, meaning the home side’s goal when it came proved very costly.
“I think we created enough chances in the first 20 minutes to go one or 2-0 up,” he said afterwards. “It was very disappointing to not be in that position.
“We had the chances but we didn’t take them. After Olivier’s sending off the game changed completely. We tried to get back but we couldn’t in the end.”
Coupled with defensive frailty, with Gibbs, Debuchy and Oxlade-Chamberlain all culpable, it makes for difficult times. And the chance conversion stats are worrying:
Arsenal have attempted 137 shots so far this season.
They've scored five goals (OGs excl.).
That's one every 27 shots.
— David Wall (@1DavidWall) September 16, 2015
Arsenal's attacking mids firing blanks. Alexis + Cazorla + Ozil + Ramsey + Ox = 78 shots, 1 goal.
— David Wall (@1DavidWall) September 16, 2015
Sounds familiar, but let’s hope we get our shooting boots back for Saturday. Otherwise … *gulp* …
Maybe he should blame himself
Perhaps he should cry on television like a Japanese CEO. Would that make it better?
Mikel was nowhere near responsible for either goal nor for the blown opportunities. Everyone is scapegoating him because they can’t get over their transfer window frustration, and that’s not his fault. He is the kind of leader that if he fucks it up he’ll say so.
He’s not Coquelin. They’re different players. But that’s not where we lost this match.
Agree Arteta is one of the least guilty but Gibbs and Debuchy, what happened to them ? The second Dynamo Zagreb goal was an absolute disgrace for a team like Arsenal to concede. One of the worst case of malpractice in football.
They both play in the same position! One is more effective and suited to our style of play now. Sentiment would colour the perception of performance not the result. Just to be very very clear, Arteta was not the only reason we lost yesterday. Just like many others who played yesterday, he didn’t cover himself in glory. He was one of the collective reasons. If one of the other poor performers came out and said something similar, would have got a similar reaction. The reason Arteta suffers most of it because the DM position was something we had to address… Read more »
Well actually Mikel was to blame for the second goal. The ball heads to where he is standing on the front post & he drifts to his left to vacate that space & then puts up one the the pitiful attempts at a jump you are likely to see. Arteta’s performance in this game was probably the worst i have seen from an Arsenal player & I’ve seen people like Ian Selley, Steven Morrow & Eddie Mcgoldrick. He was bypassed in midfield so many times, people running straight through him. As for Ozil, 5 was verrrry generous. Only bright spot… Read more »
If Coquelin gets injured we’re in big, big trouble. Arteta and Flamini aren’t good enough anymore.
How Arsene didn’t buy a defensive mid, even as a back up to Coquelin, I don’t know.
Arteta is so slow it beggar belief. Its his right to rally the troops but on his showing he needs to take a look in the mirror. I keep praying Coquelin doesn’t get injured because we’ll pay for Wenger’s idealism and failed philosophy.
The scary thing about yesterday’s display is that when fringe players are called on they struggle(Gibbs had a stinker, Debuchy was AWOL and Arteta was a snail)
We’ll recall Hayden I think, or most likely install Chambers in that position.
Not that he had any chances to miss yesterday but I’ve been so dissapointed with The Ox. Seems a lovely bloke but I think Wenger knows he’s not contributing anywhere near enough hence why he plays Ramsey on the right. Apart from mazy dribbles (which inevitably lead to nothing) what is he contributing? goals? assists? defensive work? What he did vs Chelsea in the comm shield is what he should be doing every 2-3 games to be honest with the ability to beat a man he has. I think back to Monaco at home, lost the ball for the killer… Read more »
Agree with your point about the Oxlade. IMO, the best I have seen him play is in middle. Too inconsistent out wide, perhaps bringing him back inside will give us that dynamic that Jack gives us.
It would be suicidal to play ox in the middle.
-Clumsy
– Loses possesion on the wing (now imagine that in a central area exposes back 4)
-poor passer
– Tactically inept: will he track centre-field runners
– Interceptions like Westham goes to show how readable his passes are. (Not really what you want in MF!)
He’s been/being badly coached,. He doesn’t get into the game where he can be dangerous, all his run’s start from around the halfway line and he attempts to take on about 5 players, when he should be isolating and terrorising the full back. It’s much easier beating one man than it is 3/4/5!
Couldn’t agree more. With the way his pre season went, I was really expecting him to nail down a starting spot and then take the league by storm this season.
I even placed a bet on him to win the Young Player of the Year, that’s how amazing I thought his season would turn out. It still could though, still early days.
“I even placed a bet on him to win the Young Player of the Year”
There’s the problem, mate. If you bet on anything good happening for Arsenal, some supernatural power takes offense and ensures the opposite happens.
After last night’s debacle I have finally realized I must never, ever bet on anything to do with Arsenal. So far this season I’ve bet on Arsenal to win three times, and the results have been loss-draw-loss. In the matches I haven’t placed a bet on, the results are win-win-win.
I am NOT placing a bet on Saturday’s match.
Thank you
His explosiveness also works against him. Especially outwide.
He sets out on a run not knowing who is making runs into the box and more often than not ends up crossing to no one…after beating his man excellently he will underwhelm with an overhit/underhit pass. aarrrgh!
Very technical but poor tactically.
Exactly!
Plus if he makes a move and someone sticks their leg out in the right place he’s going to get robbed and not be able to do anything about it. He’s running away from them still.
A bit like Sanchez I guess. A product of his game.
Talking about crossing to no one we seem to do that very well such as when Giroud was out wide left with the ball on the sideline and passed to Gibbs who took it to the end line and blindly crossed it. We didn’t have one player in the box and went softly to the goalie.
How on earth we can start blaming Ox is a mystery even beyond the Kennedy assassination. The problem with us fans as self styled analysts is that we analyse the game in isolation of the context. Ox was BY FAR our best player at the beginning of the season, then got benched out of form by a manager who should be showing more faith in a player who with the right coaching will undoubtedly be world class. Is it any surprise he lost confidence?
No one is blaming the Ox – just saying he’s not contributing enough. At the beginning of the season when was he our best player? (other than a goal vs chelsea which by the way we need a goal every 3 or so games from our attacking wingers not every 10-12 like the Ox). Luckily Bellerin has came out of the blue otherwise our right wing is pretty uninspiring (even though I think Ramsey does a job in that position).
So many fans calling for ox to start earlier in the season……….
Obviously the finishing is a real worry – but that wasn’t the reason we lost the game last night. I love Arteta and feel he’s been scapegoated slightly for what was a woeful all round performance across the team. But was it really wise to pair him with Cazorla in midfield? They seemed to by-pass him so easily it was embarrassing. Would that have happened with the Coq in the middle? I doubt it. If we are going to rotate Arteta and Coq then he has to be playing with another combative midfielder like Ramsey or even Flam. As for… Read more »
I saw 10 mins of the game. And from what I see…artefacts just slows the game down…sideways and backwards. No penetration. But I’m willing to let this result go as 4 players playing their first start of the season(I think) is quite a bit thing to do. Don’t blame manager as this needs to be done throughout season…at least them 4 have got this out their system. The only way is up. Now bring on the blues…Theo has to start.
I don’t blame Wenger for the selection at all, and I think the players’ attitudes were an absolute disgrace. What does worry me, though, is that our only option for adjusting tactics/ rotation seems to be slotting new players into the exact same system. I know it’s all very well and good sat here behind our screens spouting out these tactical masterstrokes, but there must, MUST be a different system our players are capable of playing to rather than the same bloody 4-2-3-1 that every man and his wife has been playing for the past four years. It’s so, so… Read more »
I half agree. Its the rotation players incompetence to fail the role given on whatever system Arsenal use (which they surely practiced in training ground before ). But isnt Wenger gamble too hard by changing half the team (where most are out of form) against in form CL opponent? What does mental fatigue means as the season just started (Ospina for Cech)? I will surely lose it if he start the same again against supposedly weaker sides, the system doesnt work!
Sorry, I blame the manager. He would agree, he says the manager is the most important person at a football club and he makes all decisions. Thing is, the changes seemed schematic. “let me put in everyone I can, while not dropping those who can’t be or are likely to get stroppy (except my favorite project Ramsey- that was a surprise).” what about considering the opposition, considering its the first game, considering its an away game? Like Wenger’s in-game subs- usually the same ones, usually at a fixed time- the management seems schematic and not dynamic. Whatever happened to bringing… Read more »
Arteta wasn’t good enough last year.
And now he’s even worse.
I wonder what the rose-tinted fans unable to criticise anything about Arsenal will say.
I wonder what new, overly simplistic and binary scapegoating ‘Arsenal’ fans are going to copy from inept pundits next? First it was Ramsey can’t retain possession then Mertesacker is too slow for the ‘greatest’ Premier League and then Flamini and Arteta were responsible for the away 6-0 beatings.
Newsflash: football is a team sport. You attack and defend as a team. Heavy losses represent a total system failure that every single player on the pitch is responsible for. That is what happened at Chelsea, Liverpool, Anderlecht, Monaco and yesterday. Not because some guy ‘has lost his legs’.
The team collectively fucked up and not individual players.
Don’t see the point in trying to pin this on individuals.
Enough of the scapegoating.
Nonsense, since Coquelin got in to the team Arsenal’s results have drastically improved and thats because he’s a better player than Arteta.
Well roling stones is a great band. But if i played the guitar instead of ron wood they would suck
Fortunately, Arteta is not a butter fingered incompetent oaf that just decided to kick a football yesterday. He has 16 years of experience at the highest level.
That is true indeed. Even though i can play pretty damn well……
Always thought the stones were pretty average after Wood came in.
Probably nothing. And certainly not to validate your point. I don’t think anyone expected miracles from him on his first start in however long, and he for sure wasn’t our worst player on the night. I know you don’t like him, but you don’t need to make him a scapegoat for all of your frustrations in the world.
Every season, same mistakes.
Giroud dug himself a hole with the way he acted for his first yellow. Albeit the ref was hopeless, but you can’t give him a massive decision to make. Arteta looked off the pace, mainly because he hasn’t played a full game in a long time.
What annoys me the most is that players talk about wanting to play more games and when they get their chance, they don’t even put in a performance that would make a championship team proud.
Arteta/Flamini is maybe good enough to play for 10-20 minutes when a game is already secured, but I think their starting days are behind them. They shouldn’t start especially when it’s the Champions League!
I’d much rather get Hayden back. Yes he is young & doesn’t have the experience/tactical knowledge as much as Arteta/Flamini yet, but surely he can make it up in other aspects, like strong physical presence, quickness, etc. That’s more important if we want somebody as a backup for le Coq, to me.
Bielik, even. And of course, that link to Samper was just a rumor.
Arteta and the others should bottle it. There’s no time to feel sorry..our next game is 2 days away, get to the camp and work on that march sharpness. Leave the press to Arsene. We the fans don’t wanna hear your apologies, we wanna see your response on the pitch on Saturday.
I for one want to hear the apologies. Not the usual lame excuses. Just a simple “I’m sorry I played like shit”. Never heard one..
that’s utterly ridiculous. no arsenal player owes you an apology for playing badly. maybe you could argue the management owes you an apology over stratospheric ticket prices, but the players are playing for each other and the manager. if they owe apologies it would be to each other and to the manager for letting down his confidence in them. you seem to think that by calling yourself a fan of arsenal you gain some sort of entitlement to the team’s successes. you’re probably the same sort of fan that will go silent or start booing at the first sign of… Read more »
We don’t need shooting boots on, we already have that. We need some kind of scoring boots.
I know it doesn’t make much of a difference, but as a statistician, I’m intrigued why OGs are excluded, does this mean shots leading to OGs (such as Ox v Newcastle are also excluded? Also I think if we had Cech in goal last night, his better positioning and organisation would have kept them out!
I think Ospina actually played well. The first goal he made the save, just unlucky that it bounced off the ox who was lagging behind his man.. otherwise it might have gone a way clear. Second goal he had no chance. And he came out well and sweeper keepered Gabriel out of trouble + prevented a very humiliating 3rd goal with a top save.
Played well to his standard. Almost go full Szczesny (not just once). Surely Cech is more dependable given that performance.
I think last night proved a point as to how (excuse the pun) important our Coq is to this team, we are so vulnerable to counters and so unorganised when he is not on that pitch. As much as I like Arteta, he just isn’t up to scratch and hasn’t been for a couple of years now. One or two moments a side, when Coq came on we looked ourselves again, it’s not just Coquelin, any decent defensive minded midfielder would be just as valuable to this team.
Oh!Arteta is our club captain!I almost forgot.
The teams missed chances eh who would have thought that would could us. Amazing insight
Cost
Giroud had a chance to sit all the boooo boys down and he chose to help them, Giroud should be sent to the reserves so he learns have to grow up, its also Wengers job to see that Giroud is not right in the head at the moment. It nice to hear that Wenger did blame himself a little for tinkering with the team. Arteta, is simply not good enough anymore and Debuchy still is not match fit……….. that’s the moan over with, if we stuff Chelski at the weekend all will be forgotten.
“ARTETA POINTS TO MISSED CHANCES” Yep, he’s dead right. The problem is that he doesn’t point out that the biggest missed chance that Arsenal Football Club made was giving Arsene Wenger a new contract last year. We could have got rid of him for nothing and installed a boss who by now would be halfway towards turning us into real champions; instead it’s yet another Groundhog season of mediocrity. Surely now only the most ignorant or completely insane supporters can still believe that we are going to achieve anything big again with this man at the helm of our club:… Read more »
It’s not even about signing players, his teams are so disjointed. There’s no team ethic visible regards defending, the offensive players clearly don’t consider it part of their duty. Our closing down opponents is extremely disjointed – one player will move to close down a defender on the ball, but the next player won’t cut off the man in space so the opposition find it simple to keep the ball. The overall defending wasn’t just bad last night, it was embarassing. Just after half-time they hit the post from a corner with nobody on the line, and a short while… Read more »
so wenger coaches gibbs to duck at corners?
youre so clever ……..
didnt hear you complain when the same game/tactics was played by world class winners like henry and patrick and dennis.
forget those guys though…..once in a lifetime…..
That was then, this is now. The high standard originally set by Wenger has now been reached and surpassed by new generations of coaches. It’s the nature of things.
Really? What makes Gibbs have this response after years of training? And what makes these players so complacent in a game? Wenger has everything to do with the odd win, and nothing when players make mistakes that are laughable at any level?
Gibbs is anyway a crap footballer, I’ve said it many times. Who keeps him on the squad?
Support the club, it’s not a fiefdom run by a Lord who you must absolve all the time. Oh wait, maybe it is
i think i must have missed the meeting where arsenal told everyone the target for 2015-2016 is the epl title and the champions league ….. please call us for the next one …. do you really think that arsenal is interested in facing bankrupcy just to please the likes of you that we are ‘competing’ for the top prizes? have you seen the opponents you have to beat to get those two trophies? only a madman would say ‘ hmm i got 200m, this is my only 200m …now lets go compete with madrid and barca and psg and chelsea… Read more »
didn’t know you have to spend 200m to get a better DM than Mikel Arteta
Buying one DM is not sufficient to challenge Real Madrid etc and win the big trophies though is it? His point, I believe, is that Arsenal fans who think we would challenge the top teams if it wasn’t for Wenger clearly don’t understand that the stats show this simple result: success on average goes to the richest clubs. It’s that fucking simple. We are just not the richest by a long way in either the PL or CL. Wenger/Klopp/Whoever…makes no difference if Man Citeh etc just come along and hoover up players at 50m a pop. Wenger has outperformed given… Read more »
so…you admit the team wasn’t good enough to win the league after all? I thought those Arsene apologists like you were so positive after all those preseason wins… so you admit after 10 years of no major trophy and signing world class players like ozil and sanchez, wenger still isn’t anywhere close to challenging for the major prizes? It just means one thing, Wenger given more resources isn’t up to scratch to move the club to the next level. He isn’t good enough tactically or transfer wise. His best attribute is that he’ll buy 15m players and make them finish… Read more »
I think arteta is being blamed for no reason. the team are shit at defending as a unit. yes the coq bails us out everytime. that is just papering over the cracks this team has while defending. maybe the only thing i would blame arteta for would be that he wasnt trying to calm the players down when they were missing chances and started to force things.
Not without reason. As a deep playmaker, didnt Arsenal labored to create chances from repetitive slow side passes at the early stage? As a defensive midfielder, didnt he getting overrun too much? As a captain, didnt he failed to inspire when almost the whole team spectacularly failed to perform? He surely to be blame on this failings. Dont take chances? He himself dont create enough chances to justify them.
deep playmaker? as a cdm? how many roles is one guy supposed to handle? he is the cdm in this side.. not expected to create anything.. especially when we cazorla and ozil.yes he got overrun which is why i said the team has to learn to defend as a whole and not depend on coquelin s tackles all the time. not many title winning teams depend so much on the cdm. the role as a captain even i stated. totally understandable.
It seems like the whole fricking world are queueing up to have a pop at arsenal. Seriously why the fuck is it? Why are we such a hated team? Constantly ridiculed and laughed at by everyone. It’s being reported that wenger lost his 50th game in europe. That’s 50 more than gary monk. It does my head in. Even our fans seem to relish our defeats. I literally feel like I’m on the brink of walking away from the whole thing.
I used to feel the same way then something happened to me last season… Dont quite remember what triggered it and when but I took a step back from the brink and detached slightly. If I had to articulate it, understand the following: – Until further notice, this team can and will spectacularly implode at any given time, in fact, it’s T-x games until it happens again – AW, with all his accomplishments and failings, will leave the club in a few years, for better or for worse – Arsenal are a better team as underdogs and will routinely understimate… Read more »
Thing is… I dont accept it. They didn’t explode spectacularly. They had a man unfairly sent off and lost by a narrow margin. Our fans would rather blame giroud than blame the ref. I think I’ll stick to my Saturday team. At least we can laugh about it when we lose.
I know what you mean mate. The negativity of a lot of “fans” especially online is depressing. Clearly a biased ref and a 2-1 loss away – not the end of the bloody world. We will bounce back. COYG!
Enigma……… Means in my world ……..” hugely promising but limited delivery”
Dare I say it!
Ox Enigma
Theo Enigma
Jack Enigma
Giroud Enigma
Gibbs Enigma
Szcz Enigma
WTF???
The answer is obvious according to Stevie G. Arsene should have bought a world class defender, a world class midfielder and a world class striker in August. Stevie is clearly a genius. If only he’d tell us (and Arsene, and Rodgers and Van Gaal and Jose) where these world class players were hiding during the transfer window.
I don’t quite understand the constant harping of pundits and fans about needing another system. Our system is fluid. We will have players moving around occupying empty spaces and creating chances. We don’t finish them and certain players are always left wanting in terms of the jobs that they are supposed to do in defence, that’s why we lose. We make mistakes in terms of responsibilities to be performed, not because of the problem with the system per se. We were let down by a bad team performance, not by individuals, except Giroud. I love Giroud, but this kind of… Read more »
About the 50 games lost in Europe, how many managers have managed to get their teams consistently to Europe, stay there and keep the job? Stats need to be looked into with context. Moyes and Rodgers have also lost lesser matches in Europe, because they can’t get their bloody teams in there in the first place!
for gods sake arsenal fans …. we are still only in september… get a grip. so we lost the first european game in which we rotated with 6 ! players . it was always a risk …it backfired..we move on. all these definitive assessments you make on players as if the game last night is the sole paradigm of their ability …..shut up please..support the squad and players enough with you all waiting for a negative result to release your bigotry on wenger and your general cowardice stance on football ..grow a pair and a spine and realise that if… Read more »
Couldn’t agree more.
I think we are reading too much into this game. It was a heavily changed squad(we were all happy he rotated) that played away, chill pple. Gosh!
Embarrassing result even with the team changes. Can’t wait for Saturday when this result will be consigned to ‘fuck me that was shit’ file and we can start moaning about the next one.
Same old arsenal same old excuses just a different season.we are to casual in the pitch no real commitment out there and will cost us over the season.we have not put in one decent performance so far this season our finishing is pathetic and our manager blaming the ref is even more pathetic as a fan of arsenal for 40 years it’s sad to see some of the rubbish we have to put up with lack of signings being the most painful we have a world class stadium the should be lit up with world class players not with the… Read more »