Mesut Ozil has reiterated his belief that Mikel Arteta is the right man to lead Arsenal citing the Spaniard’s football philosophy and relatability as two key factors in players enjoying their football again.
On the surface, two wins, two draws and a defeat in the new coach’s opening five matches don’t make for particularly eye-catching stats but there’s a positive vibe that the players are engaged with his new ideas.
While qualifying for the top four this season may well be out of reach, there’s a sense that our young squad is now part of an intriguing new project.
Speaking to Arsenal.com, Ozil, who was a teammate of Arteta’s for three years, said: “He can show us everything he has learnt his long career so he knows exactly what we need to do, and so we know what we need to do as well.
“He just pushes us far to get there so we can play successfully.
“He knows what to say to us, how to give us a positive attitude and how to make us be successful. I can see he is really hungry, but at the same time he is very down to earth and that is a very good characteristic to make us be a successful team.
“It is basically getting us back to the old Arsenal virtues. Fighting and having possession, being in control of the game, having the ball all the time. These are the things that he is working on with us and you can see it – everyone is smiling, laughing, enjoying their time at the moment and this has made us be successful now.
“I think he is the right man at this club.”
I concur!
I support
I both concur and support.
Preach it!
“This has made us be successful now” Really??? We drew 1-1 with injury ravaged Bournemouth, who are in free-fall We played well for 32 minutes against Chelsea, and then deservedly lost We dominated United for 40 minutes, then defended well. We got dominated by Leeds for 45 minutes, who should of been out of sight. We played well for 30 minutes against Palace, who had 12 injuries, and drew. We’ve got big problems, that go way beyond coaching ones. Mike Tyson famously said “Everybody has a plan, until they get punched in the mouth” Arsene was castigated for being an… Read more »
I can see you’re a glass is half empty kind of guy
His glass is totally empty from where I’m sitting…sad.
His glass is empty and he’s using a plate instead of a glass.
And the plate is broken
His glass is totally empty even when all can see it’s half full.
I bet your a barrel of laughs
You’re suspiciously Blue…
You chat utter shite ?
All those games you’ve mentioned we would have lost if Emery was still in charge so there’s definitely an improvement
If I remember correctly, Emery actually won the game against Bournemouth, but everybody still lost their shit that we hadn’t dominated to the extent that they would have liked. Arteta drew and everybody is hailing a massive upturn. Rich’s run-down of the games is spot-on. The narrative of Arteta’s second coming has been quite silly. Everything that happens is spun as a success. We utterly disintegrate with less than 10 minutes to go? The players let him down. We get played out of the park by a Championship club? Motivational half time talk turns things around. We play well in… Read more »
The difference in the way we are playing is massive tho, even if we can’t keep it up for the entire game.
It’s a good style of football. The Man United performance was the best I’ve seen us play in a long time.
We never played well under Emery (or rarely) even when we won. This season we’ve been really awful. Now everybody seems to know what they are supposed to be doing, for the most part anyway.
Yes but it was VERY poor against Palace and poor against Leeds and we coughed up a win against Chelsea and Bournemouth. These players love to talk a good game like Özil here but they lack the fight on the pitch especially when pressure gets turned up and momentum shifts (Chelsea, Bournemouth, Palace). Its getting pretty clear A LOT of this squad shouldn’t be there.
They were knackered against Chelsea by the end.
Leeds they didn’t take seriously enough.
Great squad attributes!
Lack of fitness and lack of respect for opposition. Yeah but what a team we have!
Give the man a chance to turn things around properly. Most people seem to agree there are a lot of promising signs.
Says more about his predecessor than it does about Arteta.
Also being dropped in right before xmas with the team in the state it was in is about as hard as it gets.
Tell me where I blamed Arteta? Once again this comes back to the players. We still have a mentally weak squad. Arteta is trying to get the most out of them he can, but “you can’t polish a turd”. These players are what they are. Many of them have shown their true colours when the going gets tough over the course of the past 1-5 years. Many of them aren’t good enough or mentally tough enough if we want to be a top 4 team let alone a league and Champions league contender.
Maybe, but in fairness i think Emery and his system (or lack of it) totally did everybody’s heads in. Look at Torreira for example.
We may have to ditch some. Time will tell.
I was calling for Torreira to get an extended run at DM for over a year. Talent and results were there. Absolutely stupid of Emery to play him so wrongly out of position and have zero trust in him. I’d still like to see Willock get a bit more run as he seems to have the right mentality, impressive talents and workrate so deserves a little investment that will pay off long term. But lets no wash over how things were under Wenger either. Declining results and the same soft underbelly. Now that is either all Wenger’s fault or at… Read more »
I couldn’t have put it better than that. Completely agree with you.
We lost to a Chelsea team that should have been down to 10 men, after a once in a season mistake by our most consistent player.
Drew with a Bournemouth team that should have been down to 10 men.
Beat Man Utd and Leeds, that’s right we actually beat them.
We aren’t Liverpool, we aren’t Man City, we aren’t even Leicester, we’re a work in progress, it’s gonna take a couple of years.
Yup I agree too, everyone just wants to feel good because they’re sick of being down at this team not being good enough, sure we got a managerial change, but we have a team of players that are not consistently good enough or mentally strong enough to challenge. Nothing changed on that front. Emery clearly wasn’t the answer and I how arteta is, but a big part of our problem is the players. Xhaka had two good games and is now all of a sudden a world beater. I said a week back I was pleased he played well, but… Read more »
It’s small improvements and a change in attitude that we are happy about..cmon man just try and enjoy it
The Arsenal WSL is far more interesting at the moment. Players that show commitment, determination, drive and a want to be out there doing what they love. The Arsenal boys team shows (at times) lack-lustre effort, lack of physicality (from certain players), soft underbelly (from most – we capitulate under any sort of pressure) – attributes of over-paid mercenaries. Mens professional football is broken, I’m not even sure of its impartiality, which has got worse under VAR rather than better. I’ll continue to watch a bit, but my interest and connection with many of the players in the current Arsenal… Read more »
It isn’t just about the results fella!!! Arteta is the right man for the job!! I wasn’t sure about his appointment before he arrived but I was glad we did finally appointment someone.
Everything you’re saying makes sense but I will like to think that Arteta, would have had an agreement with the board on quality recruitment, which is definitely needed, as we lack players who can play out of a press, which is what City DO CONSISTENTLY. Arteta + good signings= Guaranteed success!!!!
But other than that you’re happy, right?
Thats so negative it hurts my eyes! They’re bleeding now. Ouch, what have you done?!
Well….at least be happy they didn’t play like shite for 90 mins. Improvements can be seen from the last few games.
Rome wasn’t built in a day. Arsenal won’t as well.
You can always support another team you know. Like the one in blue. Or white.
It will take Arteta 3 seasons to turn this mess around. Give him time and support.
I support Arteta and he looks to be doing the right things. It’s many of these players that are the problem and still look like they lack the composure, nous and even the skills to get the job done. Fixing the squad is going to take some time especially when there’s a good chance we’re going to lose Auba. Either that or we just accept we’re a mid-table team and be done with it because there isn’t much evidence to show this team is anything but.
Or red or green or purple for all we care
I will just try to articulate what most fans feel when they watch this team.
Regardless of the results, we don’t look like we are playing like crap anymore and we are actually enjoying the team’s football.
So that is your lift.
But if that means nothing to you, I guess you don’t need to watch the game but just check the results.
I do like how you talk about other teams in free fall when arsenal were in that exact position under Emery. And you mention injuries for other teams when arsenal have a pretty decimated back line as well. They have not been perfect by any stretch under Arteta, but you can absolutely see the progress made and change in attitude in a ridiculously short period of time. It’s ok to set a high bar for the team, but you really should try to look at the positives on occasion.
Bournemouth – disappointing result, but within the context of the last six months it could have been worse Chelsea – not a deserved loss. Undone by two individual errors Man Utd – comfortable win Leeds – poor first half (slight mitigation of a rejigged defence with Sokratis at RB), much improved in the 2nd and took the result) Palace – needed to be more clinical in the first half. Paid the price of switching off, and modest misfortune with the deflection. As there was a red card it is hard to draw any further conclusions. Fitness is an issue for… Read more »
Where have I criticised Arteta? I think we have big problems, that go way beyond coaching. I want us to become a dynamic, high intensity team, that presses from the front. I just question whether we have the personnel to play this way, our defenders aren’t great on the ball, and our midfield lacks energy, drive, and overall quality, I like Torreira + Xhaka I think they’re honest players, but they’re not suited to this style of play. If Pepe keeps improving, and Martinelli gets a run? I think it could give us a bit more, but this squad needs… Read more »
Bloody hell mate..chill out!
I’d say your great craic at party’s mate
@Rich I will not put it like you have done but I (hope) can understand your point of view and e.g. we can easily spin it as ‘1 win out of 4’. But assuming results being equal, I hope you can at least see that the team structure, communication and player buy-in to Arteta’s philosophy is much better than under Emery. I think thats a very good start, compared to the team moral and atmoshphere before. I agree that some players are not at the level we need, but it is too early to judge as players react differently to… Read more »
Oh just get in the bin now
Leeds is a damn good team. Will be an exciting addition to the Elite club next season
I demand we play like 2010 Barcelona immediately!
Take it easy, Rich.
Maybe he could step up now and score a few goals. 0 goals this season is a joke.
I don’t know if Arteta will ultimately be successful, but two things are already clear. He has a particular style of play that he wants to impose. As Ozil says, it is possession-based; we’re not entirely sure of what other features will emerge, but it’s clear that Arteta has ideas about how his team will play football. The second thing is that he adapts these ideas to the strengths of the players. Kolasinac again looks like a player who was in the Bundesliga team of the year (as he briefly looked when he joined us) instead of a limited one-trick-pony… Read more »
It does indeed look better than it has for ages. Some people want to go with that, and be optimistic, others are a little more apprehensive as they have no doubt been let down before – that’s only natural. All I’m thinking is “Someone from management is tapping him on the shoulder, going ‘ehm, I wonder if we could get you to write something positive on social media” – this happens in lots of companies. At the first Özil-Arteta lovefest, I was genuinely happy to read it. At least it showed that everyone was trying to show togetherness. That’s good.… Read more »
The Shanghai Fuckhats.
Big rivals with the Beijing Assbags.
You know it’s a slow news period when this is like the 4th rehash of virtually identical comments from Ozil
Milk it for all it’s worth
Gotta get SOME kind of mileage for 350,000 a week.
Brilliant!
To be fair, he’s making the comment about like the 4th manager this season.
That gave me a much needed laugh – thank you, sir 🙂
When a new manager arrives with a new playing style, it takes time to implement the changes. I really support Arteta, and people who thought we would go on a winning run from the day Arteta got appointed, to the end of the season really needs to take a look in the mirror. This will take time, and we are already seeing positives in playing style, tackles, fluidity and most important – players. Every single player has been performing better under Arteta than they did under Emery, even Wenger in the last year for some. Given the fact that he… Read more »
I think we’re all happy Arteta is here – and we can almost all see that this could be truly great, and we’re taking a lot of steps in the right direction – but I can also see the point that this does not mean we’re suddenly “successful” or that our recent results are brilliant. We all understand that it will take time, and we’re all crossing our fingers, but I’d still not consider our recent form “a success”. But a massive improvement in a lot of areas, absolutely yes!
This is all well and good but I suspect Arteta would be a little frustrated by some of those performances, especially against Leeds and Palace. You can tell he has a fantastic grasp of the theory and tactics, but motivating the players to execute that week in and week out is something else entirely.
Ultimately he will be limited by the players at his disposal. Some of our players may become world beaters with the right direction, some never will. Arteta won’t have a lot of time to find out who is who.
I stopped watching arsenal during Emery’s time in charge. It got so bad i even stopped my daily 9am arseblog reading because it was one pathetic story after another. Now i am not saying Arterta is the Messiah but a little hope is what we need. He could luck willing make it through EUROPA or the FA to getting us something to cheer about and if not so considering it’s his first 1/2 season in charge of any club ever lets give him time.. Viva la arsenal
Top 4 is not out of reach this season. Period
Hmmmm…. ???