The Mikel Arteta revolution might be taking time to build momentum but the new head coach is pleased the Emirates crowd continues to back his players.
When the Spaniard was appointed in December he was quick to highlight the importance of repairing the relationship with supporters whose frustrated grumbling had turned to outright jeering in the final weeks of Unai Emery’s tenure.
The Gunners dropped further points from a winning position yesterday as Sheffield United grabbed a late 1-1 draw.
Afterwards, Arteta told Arsenal Player: “The fans were terrific, they were right behind the team and they appreciated every action as we were pushing them.
“I’m so thankful to them because compared to how it was a month ago, I think it’s completely different.
“We have to keep trying to convincing them and encouraging them to keep doing it, and hopefully they can deserve and enjoy more good results.”
Four wins from 12 games at the Emirates and a goal tally of just 18 goals highlights how poor we’ve been at home this term.
Not extending our advantage in games where we’ve nudged ahead has been particularly costly. Yesterday, John Fleck’s deflected effort cancelled out Gabriel Martinelli’s opener with onlly seven minutes left on the clock.
One goal leads are not enough, agreed Arteta. “Yeah and there’s a history of [nerves in the stadium],” he told his post-game press conference.
“It makes it even more. In the Premier League we are 1-0 up and in the last 10 or 15 minutes you have to be careful, because anything can happen.”
Asked if player fitness was a problem, Arteta seemed to suggest it wasn’t as simple as that.
“They all went full gas and I think they all tried really hard,” he noted.
“We put them under real pressure every time and we didn’t allow them to come out the way they do, to generate the overloads in wide areas and control the second phase, or put balls into the box. I don’t think that was the case.
“Maybe in the first five or 10 minutes, we had to figure out the game a little bit but after that I think we did.
“Then when you’re 1-0 up, the last 10 minutes things change. They changed to a back four and they started to commit more bodies forward, and then they’d have six players in front of the ball.
“It’s more difficult to control when they play long balls or second balls like this. It’s not easy.”
The difference and I think we can all see it, is we understand the coach and where he’s going. I simply love Arteta to be honest and think of this season as an extended pre season for a real go next year. You never know, we may make CL via Europa…….
It’s interesting that after the start of the season we had, we were lambasted as dreadful football fans. The Xhaka incident, the #EmeryOut brigade, Arsenal Fan TV, even the d*ily m*il wrote an article about how awful Arsenal fans are. The irony. But here we are, backing our man, the atmosphere in the stadium has been great, Xhaka and Mustafi now exonerated of all crimes. And all it took was a good communicator with a plan. We are a mob. We must admit that. And we behave like a mob. However, a mob with a good leader can be a… Read more »
Sorry but Arsenal fans still pretty much one of the worse in the league. Don’t fellate yourself over a complimentary article. Of course we are better than Spurs but not saying much. The fans are responsible partially for where we are now. Wenger And Emery were struggling with issues some self created some bc of poor transfer windows. BUT the fans exacerbated the problem making it worse. We lost Granit Xhaka to no better effect without. BUT he was an important asset chipped away partly by negative atmosphere from fans as well. Don’t flatter yourselves. Arsenal fans are a pathetic… Read more »
HelderHughes – “Xhaka and Mustafi are now exonerated of all crimes” You live in cloud cuckoo land. Stick around and check out the crowds reaction when those two clowns start screwing up the teams efforts between now and May.
That brought a tear to my eye…
The Emirates crowd will be patient – already big improvements since he’s arrived (from rock bottom), he has our full trust and we’re right behind him and the team COYG
There is no concrete improvements. We are still drawing and in mid table.
Players playing in their preferred positions. Moments of hard pressing. A plan.
Players were always playing in their preferred position bar Saka and AMN (although after 3 seasons plus, I would consider Rback his “natural position” unless you are a media pundit) The directives given by Arteta are largely positional and efficiency related which makes the players better in terms of covering area around them, less panicky. And the issue in midfield which eluded Emery seems to be resolved at the moment with a Xhaka-Torreira partnership where Unai preferred Guendouzi and Xhaka. BUT the problem is whilst Torreira and Granit are much more stable, Unai was concern with lack of goals which… Read more »
Every player knows what they should be doing and they’re all fighting hard and doing their best. That’s all I ask. Sometimes things don’t go our way and we’ve seen a lot of that lately, but I was proud of our players yesterday. If they keep playing like this the wins will come.
My only frustration lies with the FEC and the board. The fans have started backing the team because they believe in Arteta. Even if its been just few matches , we can clearly see he has a vision and a plan and he has only.encouraged us with the right words. He doesnt wish to depend on external factors like wrong decision or in ept refrees or been drawn previous issues with a few players. His messages and philosophy resonates with the current team and the fans. Both have acknowledged he is the right man to manage Arsenal, hope board and… Read more »
Its what they want to see.
There are still some tangible improvements from players who at the moment are buying into it but of we continue to rack these largely stagnant performances and similar results to Unai era, the players will again start to doubt the whole thing very quickly.
We need to start winning now.
Fans delude themselves thinking this is going to be some sort of transitional year.
The league waits for no one. Next season we may find ourselves further impacted and further behind with more hill to climb.
The fan support will quickly dwindle if we dont start winning. This is the worst Arsenal have been since the late nineties. Sure times have changed, but we were owned by footballing men then and not American investors who only care about Arsenal as an asset in which to secure more financial dominance.
There were rumblings at full time, regardless of what goes on in Mustafi’s head. He and Xhaka need to get a grip and fast – all the team do. Much more of the same and we’ll be caught up in a relegation scrap.
The late nineties.Have a word with yourself.Obviously you don’t know what your talking about so go and do some research on the club.
Fuck it….I’m frustrated this morning. “VAR works for everyone including Arsenal” Right……….. A couple of months back we scored a lovely goal v Man Utd. Despite the fact that the offside flag was up, credit to the lads, they continued and scored. VAR, looked at it and it was so unbelievably and blatantly ONSIDE, the goal stood. Now here’s the thing………if there’s crooked stuff going on behind the scenes, then VAR has to validate that goal, because it’s so fucking obviously onside, that they have no choice………unlike the more marginals, where they just wave it away, like yesterday. Now, you… Read more »
VAR is not the problem.
We are not attacking enough and creating enough chances.
Fullbacks were tentative yesterday particularly after we scored.
Game was too helter skelter (in part due to Sheffield) from one end to the tnext and we lack control in midfield still despite improvements on Xhaka (mainly) and Torreira which isa good partnership.
BUT we need more control still and that is both in midfield asset and as a team on the whole. Some players dropping levels off ball do not help. Rotation has not been keen enough.
Fuck VAR. Every club is getting screwed over by it because of the cunts we have masquerading as professional officials in this country. It’s whether or not this team can roll up their sleeves and start putting in a shift – that’s what’s important. Screw complaining about VAR. It’s futile – nothing will change the refs and their complete hatred for Arsenal. If we’re going to improve, we’re going to have to go one better than all the officials and their Mickey Mouse decisions. It’s what all successful Arsenal sides have had to do.
We stick with you, but even the “mid-table” team status is now in doubt. Liverpool, having played 21 matches, have 61 points. Arsenal, with 23 matches, have 29.
A huge gulf has opened between Arsenal and the best teams in the league. It is difficult to pinpoint exactly what went wrong, but Wenger sat at least two years too long. We’ve also had bad luck with some player purchases. We have to get behind Arteta, but the top management at the club should empty their offices and disappear.
What went wrong is 1) Wenger did not invest 2015. Thereafter it all caught up with him again and he should have left. 2) The new buying team first with Mslintat and then Sanlehi put in to take the load off of Wenger have not been buying well enough. We have spent more and have poorer results. 3) The league is far more competitive now with several top managers with better acumen come in (Pep, Klopp, Mourinho for starters) Competition is also more keen for players on both value ends since TV distribution has allowed other clubs to compete (a… Read more »
It’s going to take him at least two maybe three transfer windows to sort out the mess made by Emery and Wenger. I feel for the lad. It’s a massive task and it’s going to take years.
Will be interesting to see how long fans will stay onside considering the results. The performances have improved but not enough and we’re not 5 from 15 points. Arteta clearly has great grasp of the tactical side of the game but I’m sure he would very be frustrated with aspects of what he’s seeing on the pitch, and the lack of options to change things from the bench. The main thing going in his favour is that these players have already failed under two managers this season, most people wouldn’t be surprised if they struggle under a third.
Exactly.
There’s a lot of goodwill at the moment some unfounded TBH.
There are some tangible signs of improvements but also long standing issues and fans sometimes prefer to imagine more positives than necessarily there just as they would more negatives with Emery or Wenger given those managers pretty much were working with similar asset deficiencies.
He needs to take no prisoners with the mediocre players. They need to be shipped out ASAP. Avoiding relegation and persuading Auba to stay have to been top priority along with selling Mustafi and Xhaka to the first pub team that comes calling.
The reason our players won’t play well under this manager, the previous manager, and future managers is that they are just not good enough. I love Arsenal, and I wish every single Arsenal player and manager the best, but we have to be realistic. OUR PLAYERS ARE JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH. Not even Klopp could get this team into a top 4 position. Apart from Abu, we clearly lack quality and world class level players. The other issue is we lack a true leader at the club. Let’s be honest Abu is not capitan material, nor is Laca, or Ozil,… Read more »
It worries me that these players are going to suck the life out of Arteta’s good ideas. They seem so fragile and lacking concentration baring Martinelli.
Some of them are pretty average – the defender spring to mind…
Hopefully Arteta won’t suffer the antics of Mustafi and Xhaka. He needs to adopt a zero tolerance attitude to their mediocrity because, it’s a given that they will fuck up for us – both of them – before this season is out. Just how much they will be allowing to get away with makes for an interesting, albeit worrisome second half of the season.
I don’t know about everyone else here but I will be glad to see this season end.
Not a lot to be happy about if you are an Arsenal supporter.
The emergence of Martinelli and removal of Emery have been about the only good things to be honest.
Arsenal have a huge rebuilding to do if they ever want to challenge again.
Big times ahead…
For once, someone on here has a balanced and realistic view. Arteta has a massive job to do. It will take at least two transfer windows and the removal of Mustafi, Xhaka and all the other deadwood before we can even begin to think about challenging for the top four. With this current squad, relegation avoidance needs to be top priority. Whether we’re good enough to go the distance in the cups (I personally believe we’re not) will be another test, as will keeping Auba from moving on elsewhere. An absolute fall of grace for this club. Certain players should… Read more »
Soooo…there is some shit to be optimistic about, we are still in 2 cups. I really think it’s going to take 1 game where it all clicks together, and then we will be flying after that. We have had a lot of bad luck with injuries,but the signs are there that we are improving. To say there’s not a lot to be happy is odd, we have changed the manager and now play with some sort of plan, it’s not perfect…but Arteta has only been there for 6 weeks. There is a lot to be optimistic about. As a side… Read more »
There’s not much difference in terms of concrete results at the moment between Arteta and Unai or late Wenger. We are still struggling to chalk up points and go above Palace in mid table after 5 matches in. Sure there is ‘goodwill” for whatever misplaced reason now largely because expectations have been tempered. But if we compare apples to apples, we may see some tangible improvements with players, otoh we are not getting where we want to either. Some usual fans then prefer to believe we will win the europa and get into europe. This was always a possibility even… Read more »
I always believe everyone is entitled to their opinion but when you get comments like worse side since the late nineties you really have to wonder how long have some of our fans been following football let alone Arsenal.
That did make me laugh when I read it. A League and FA Cup Double in ‘98 and we were only a missed Bergkamp penalty and and victory against Newcastle again in the cup final ( with a Spurs victory at Old Trafford on the final day – I realise I may be getting into the realms of fantasy here, but Tottenham were one up in that game) from repeating the same feat.
He’s right, it’s a two way street. I think I might return to the Emirates for a few matches this season. I really fell out of love with the club during the last 2 years. It costs a lot of money to watch the Arsenal , and so frustrating when you feel like your money is being pissed up the wall by the owners. Supporting a team through think and thin is what it’s all about , but when you feel like the club as a whole is not focussed on being the best it can be, it’s easier to… Read more »