Before Mikel Arteta’s comments about the the pitch and the grass length at Turf Moor get taken out of context and there are loads of ‘Arteta blames the grass lol’ comments from dimwit pundits and dimwits on social media, let’s look at exactly what the Arsenal manager said after the 0-0 draw.
Fully expecting Burnley not to water the pitch and to keep the grass longer than you would like for a passing game, Arteta trained the Emirates to try and replicate those conditions before the trip north.
He mentioned it as a fact, but laid the blame with his team for not dealing with it well enough.
“The conditions were difficult, the grass was long,” he said. “They didn’t put any water on it and obviously that’s not a very helpful thing to play football.
“I didn’t water the pitch yesterday in the training ground, so I expected it! But that doesn’t make it easier to play. It’s the game, you know, they do really well at what they do. It is a strength, they are are allowed to do it, so we have to adapt.
“We adapted really well in some moments and in some others it wasn’t the grass, it was the quality and what they do, they do really well and we could not cope with that in the right way.”
The Gunners survived some difficult moments, not least Jay Rodriguez missing a sitter as the game entered its final stages, but also missed chances of their own, something Arteta pointed out.
“I think we started really, really well, we could have scored at least two,” said the Spaniard.
“We dominated the game like we wanted, we got out from their pressure pretty well, we played in the opponents half and we controlled the long balls and second balls.
“I was very disappointed with the way we started the second half, the first 15 to 20 minutes we could not control any aspect of the game and we allowed a lot of crosses and second balls inside our box, and at some stages we were lucky not to concede a goal.”
Wonder if he was asked about not starting Pepe and Torreira?
Also, was AMN injured to not make the bench as he could have replaced Saka at LB?
Grieves me to say this but some of the play
acting and feigning injury is becoming annoying.
Lacazette,Guendouzi and Torreira are the worst.
Game after game they fall over. Man up and get
on with trying to win the game.
Is Sean Dyke allowed to comment on this platform??
It’s a free world, you know.
I can’t stand Dyche, but I agree that those three need to stop the shit and get on with it.
It’s the PL. The players get no protection from the refs so they’re basically taking things into their own hands.
I don’t see how this affects the overall performance.
Well, there are two ways you could take this into your own hands. Either trying to overdramatize what has been done to you or to dish out as well. Problem is that if we dish out as well, we immediately get yellows and reds.
He got tactics wrong. Martinelli isn’t suited to the right hand side. It’s not the first time he’s been mute on that end. The entire attack wasted so many counter attacking opportunities.
Completely agree, I’d have Martinelli through the middle with Auba and A.N.Other out wide
Better leave Martinelli where he was on the left and Auba through the middle… One can only assume that the boss isn’t happy with Pepe.
I thought more than that, the Martinelli-Saka combo was a genuine threat for us the last two or so games and was very disappointed he chose to break that up. I don’t know what else Ozil has to do to show he shouldn’t be starting games. Why not give Ceballos or Willock a go from the start. And starting Guendouzi ahead of Torreira is just wrong. You could argue it’s because of his height but I’ve not watched many professional players worse in the air than Guendouzi so that arguments moot. But all that said, if Auba or Laca had… Read more »
Mesut Özil made the most ball recoveries, created the most chances, completed the most final third passes, succeeded the most dribbles and made the most interceptions of any Arsenal player when he was on the pitch.
Breakdown. Most ball recovery picking up loose passes from others pressing.Created most chances but not enough to make a differenceMost passes in the final third that rules out 3/4 of the team and that’s his job. Most dribbles but to what effect? Most interceptions again due to not actually putting a tackle in.2 years since an assist away from home that’s the most telling stat. The team played better when he left the pitch and even if you don’t agree was his contribution that of a player on 15 mil a year
What a Gooner.
Giroud was way better in many other aspects too. We didn’t like that he wasn’t fast or a prolific scorer but assess laca differently because we have a prolific scorer in auba. It’s kinda laughable because giroud banged in over 100 goals but added quality in other areas yet was hardly rated. Irony is that as a combination giroud and auba wouldbe SO much better
Why bother to mention Giroud at this point?
My issue is that Arteta appears to not get substitutions right to make an impact on the game. It’s as if he freezes and isn’t sure who or what to do to change the game.
Also, with Lacazette not scoring away for a long time and going through a difficult scoring patch, why not play Auba up front?
Yup and I don’t think it’s fair on martinelli. He earned the right to keep his place by playing on the left so keep him there. I’d say he’s been significantly better than auba in that position and at least as good so reward that by saying ‘keep doing what you’re doing’. Pepe also has been a handful for opponents who over commit with numbers to stop him. It’s laca amd ozil who continue to offer practically nothing. Slightly annoyed that the meritocracy system is not being applied to everyone…..AGAIN
Personally I think he’s too quick to praise these players if I’m being honest. Look at where we are in the table, it’s bloody scandalous, the time has long passed to praise our players for doing the bare minimum like registering shots on goal. Scary how some players like Lacazette who was signed for £50m get away with murder every game
I think Arteta is going to be a great coach, but the problem he will have initially is that every time something goes wrong people will put it down to his naïveté. And there’s an argument that he was naive today, in both his line up and subs. He talks the talk for sure but it’s the players that actually have to walk the walk and some of the one he’s persisting with don’t really look like they can do that. Aubameyang is getting wasted so far wide, I don’t even need to speak about Lacazette and Ozil, and the… Read more »
I would be just disappointed that over £100m of striking talent couldn’t get on if the 3 good chances in.
I’d happily swap out that £100m talent for upamecano and a bit extra cash. Then let martinelli pepe and saka/Nelson or even eddie score or miss the chances because i don’t think we’d be any worse
Me too. As good as Auba is, his value will be nothing by the time the team is going places.
Pundits are now reminding us of some horrible statistics: Arsenal have won only 6 league matches thus far. Only Watford and Norwich have won fewer. Arsenal’s points are the lowest ever for us at this point in the PL era. This is beyond bad. IF (and this is a big if), the owners really do want the club to challenge for titles, it will take some heavy investing, great scouting and development of academy talents plus AT LEAST 4 years. We need to be patient.
Mate, not just the premier league era . We have the lowest number of points at this stage of this season in our entire history.
Off subject but Sterling got a yellow card for the identical tackle that got PEA a Red and 3 match ban.
I actually thought Sterling’s was worse.
That pissed me off also. VAR completely inconsistent…
At this stage, we should expect to be winning things. Particularly against Burnley. Some people laid in on Emery but in truth its been the same results with Arteta and this is quite some games in now. Too many fans prefer to delude themselves. The truth is in the pudding and what we need is points. We are not scoring enough nor creating enough chances even. Clean sheet today with Luiz and Mustafi so what’s our excuse? Arteta has NOT found the right balance either between attacking enterprise and defensive prudence, something BOTH Wenger and Emery also struggled with. Part… Read more »
So, how did Pepe lose the game for us today?
Arteta was hired in December and has improved our defensive performances already (8 goals against in 10 matches vs 18 goals against in Emery’s final 10). The attack will come next. One step at a time — that is the hard-worn truth of recovery.
Always said it. Fancy press conferences aren’t going to cut it. We aren’t winning games we should and this team is looking even more disjointed.
Said it before, Arteta had to start winning games. But some fans prefer some nice talk in front of the press. 1 win in our last 7 epl games. Now let that sink in!!!
3 different managers. These players have struggled under 3 different managers this season. I’m not sure that Pep, Klopp, Poch or all of them combined would be able to get this squad to play consistently well, it needs a big revamp.
Honestly I don’t rate Freddie’s time – he was just going through the motions. Whichever way, worse teams with worse players have done better (Watford, Everton). If the players were the problem then we never should have sacked Emery to begin with. Besides, I saw a lot of glaring tactical and personnel error in today’s game. And who sets the tactics? Well, your guess is as good as mine.
I don’t even see the “improvement” everybody is raving about. Personally, anything other than a win against teams like Bournemouth and Burnley is not an improvement.
I think we’ve improved in general, though today was more like Emery’s Arsenal and we were a bit lucky to get away with a draw in the end. Arteta has got more out of the players than Emery and fixed some of the problems, but he needs to funds to transform the side.
Burnley of late beat Leicester at home and Manure away, they’re nobody’s fools and level on points with us. But yes, we should beat them in the greater scheme of things.
Pep has his own worries – and no doubt critics – after being beaten by Spuds two shots against the thousand Citeh had.
(Klopp and Poch have no worries at all)
There’s consistency in what we do from week to week and a general control. Were not clinical and also I think we could speed things up more in our attacking but generally I’d take clear concentrated direction that’s being well coached. We’re defensively far more steady now. We need to start scoring more but that’s the next step. With that come the wins. I wouldn’t be surprised if we finish the season with mostly wins
Truly feeble performance. Mainly from Laca and Auba who simply have to be better and take their chances, any chances.
Oh, and Dyche is a fat, mouthy, c**t.
DycheDouche is becoming poor man’s Mourmoanio with his “clever” comments.
6 months ago Lacazette was, by far, our best player, the Arteta bounce has not happened with him. Steve Bould said, 18/24 months ago that he, he had not realised, how surprised he was, at how skillfull Laca was. Try him at “No.10” (yes “rest” Mesut) with Auba up front and whoever else (Saka, Ceballos or Martinelli left, Pepe or perhaps AMN on the right).??
This team consists from overpaid bunch of average players. There is absolutely no top class quality here, although we can keep hanging in premier if Auba starts scoring again.