Ahead of yesterday’s 1-1 draw with Southampton, quotes from Bernd Leno surfaced in the German media.
Quizzed on Arsenal’s current malaise, the goalkeeper was scathing in his assessment of his teammates.
Interestingly, like Hector Bellerin a couple of weeks ago, he made it very clear that the manager can’t be held responsible for the repeated on-pitch cock-ups that have pockmarked our recent defeats.
“That [pressure on Arteta] is not an issue at all,” he told Sky Germany. “The coach is least to blame for the fact that we are in this situation.
“If you look at the way we were running around on the pitch at times, then the players are the only ones to blame. I have to be honest about that.
“We’re getting red cards, making mistakes, standing out of position. These are things that we have clearly addressed a thousand times. In the end, it’s a lack of focus on the part of the players.
“The coach is not an issue in the dressing room, there is no criticism of him. We criticise ourselves and the players know that they are responsible.
“We actually have quality, but all of a sudden there was this break. But nobody can pin it on just one person.
“The numbers speak for themselves that things haven’t been going well lately. Before that, we often lost deservedly.
“We did draw 0-0 at Leeds, but that was a lucky point. We deserved to lose against Tottenham, against Wolverhampton as well, against Aston Villa even 3-0. Those [games] were just far too many weak results and disappointing performances.
“The attitude is bad, the discipline is lacking and we have no self-confidence. There are many factors at play here.
“We have addressed this very clearly internally and everyone agrees that we have to change this very quickly.”
Reflecting on Granit Xhaka’s red card against Burnley, he added: “Granit himself knows best that he made a mistake. No one has to tell him that.
“Of course, the coach still said it clearly, but that’s it for us now. He’s also suspended now. At the moment, everyone is frustrated.
“He was not in control [of himself in] the situation. No one is being pointed at internally, everyone has messed up here at some point.
“Mistakes like that happen, but they must not be repeated. Even after the sending-off, we still had the chance to equalise and win the game. For us, the topic is now over.”
*Narrators voice* It wasn’t over.
Last night, Arsenal once again had to see out a game with 10 men. On this occasion, centre-back Gabriel received his marching orders for two yellow cards in the space of five minutes. The Gunners clung on for a 1-1 draw against Southampton.
Oh, you’ve missed the last part. I’m happy to help: “Despite Ozil’s deal expiring at the end of the season, he could yet feature for the Gunners this term if Arteta chooses to re-register him after the January transfer window. “The coach has made this decision. Of course, Mesut has exceptional quality, there’s no question about that,” Leno said. “But the coach chose 25 other players, and we have to accept that. He’s training normally, he’s behaving professionally, he gets on well with all his team-mates. “Mesut doesn’t bring any negative energy into the group. Everything else is out of… Read more »
Arteta Out.
Ozil, Partey and Martinelli in you mean … how much will two of those improve us? Partey especially. Bad luck with his injury has cost us badly in this latest nightmare stretch, Arteta is not at fault. As Arnie says: “Arsenal will be bach.”
No, I meant Arteta out.
He’s already a busted flush.
Seems like arseblog has an agenda against Ozil
lol i remember this time last year when people were moaning at blogs for having a PRO Ozil bias
Like most fans I would welcome him back into the team and would get behind him, but the issues at the club are bigger than arteta and ozil
we really have to get past fixating on messiah figures. I was guilty of that with arteta during the summer.
Who is “fixating on messiah figures”? It doesn’t take a messiah to keep possession and create scoring chances in a football match. But anyone who can do that should be able to get a game for this team.
We’re clearly not resigning Ozil so why should we bring him back in a relatively lost season? Give minutes to ESR or bring in a creative midfielder Arteta wants. Ozil has had issues with the last 3-4 managers – best to just pay him off and let him find a new club now.
The club and manager aren’t doing any of the things you suggest, and yet Arteta still shut Ozil out of the team! The manager made his bed and now he is laying in it.
The situation has been handled abysmally and that appears to be largely on Arteta.
Ozil would have been well aware of the fact he wasn’t going to be in the PL squad and chose instead to waste one of the last years of his career instead. He easily could have accepted a payoff from Arsenal (us paying him 90% of the money would still have saved us something) and would have made that up signing for a new team. Instead he chose to just sit on the sidelines. That IMO says a whole lot about where he is at this point in his career. Things aren’t going well for Arsenal at the moment, but… Read more »
Yeah, seems to reflect poorly on him not to have accepted a 90% payout from us so that he could continue to play elsewhere, and surely someone would have signed him for that low wage of 35K/week. He must truly be out of options.
There was no 90% offer, atom made that up.
We clearly would have paid him off to leave as Edu has talked about us doing exactly that
Loyalty goes along way… Need bit a class which Arsenal FC was at one point
If you assume that one man can deliver the team from failure through his contributions, than you clearly have a messianic fixation. Not to mention the conspiracy mindset of suggesting that this blog has an “agenda against ozil.” Where is the evidence of that? It would be worse if a media outlet continued to praise him despite his diminished contributions, it would be delusional. Nearly as delusional as suggesting that a man who hasn’t kicked a ball for over a year, and who wasn’t even making a difference when he was playing can come in and save the club Hence… Read more »
Ozil’s not a messiah he’s a very naughty boy
Is that a quote from the ”Life Of Brian Talbot” movie?
Brilliant, thanks for that smile!
Arteta’s not the messiah either.
🎶Our midfield is shit, when you at it….🎵🎶
You can’t mention Ozil on here.
Too many bed wetters who’d rather watch Willian, Ceballos and Willock bore us all to death en route to a relegation battle.
Blogs doesn’t – but a lot of idiots on here do.
link?
Never mind. I see it in the article now, thanks.
Well, it’s his own blog even though it’s a viable business now. Readers should realise that Blogs can often skew articles to his own bias and agenda, just like any other media.
Maybe that’s one of the issues. Ozil rocks up to training, puts in 5 defence-splitting passes which everyone knows would bring GOALS if he could play.
He can’t play so everyone goes out twice a week to lump it around and score no goals.
Not a recipe for morale boosting.
Well done Alex… if you are going to publish a players interview, give the full interview Arseblog admin.
Interesting that Alex is so insistent on publishing a full interview now. When it was the BFG, he – deliberately & repeatedly – quoted it selectively, excluding the bits where it didn’t suit his narrative.
And what do you bring to the table?
Sweet fuck all.
But now, trust me, that really is it. Honest.
Good lad leno.While arteta is to be blamed for sticking by non-performers, it’s so obvious half of this players aint epl quality. even bellerin ,who we all adore as a person is no way starts for top 10 clubs in epl.
It’s the same players (without Borges, Partey, Gabriel) who won the FA Cup and the Community Shield though.
Wigan and Portsmouth have won the FA cup recently, and Hull and Villa got to finals against us as well. Winning the FA Cup was a great achievement, especially in the context of that season, but it’s not a true barometer of the long-term quality of a team.
100 percent but this isn’t a 15th place squad either. There are players that can be built around to form the basis of a proper top 4 challenge.
I agree to an extent, we ought to be getting much more from these players, but increasingly I have some question marks over the individuals rather than just the manager. Excluding Partey who seems to have fallen victim of “Rosicky Syndrome”, how many of our players could we say are truly world class? Aubameyang is an obvious answer but his form is a real worry and it’s not just down to our crossing tactics. It’s his performances in general; closing people down, winning duels, taking people on. He simply doesn’t look like a captain. How do we get more out… Read more »
A lot of our senior players aren’t good enough for a team with title ambitions this point & several have a history of issues with managers – but most of those are likely to leave this summer: Laca, Xhaka, Ozil, Papa, Mustafi, Luiz. Leno, Tierney, Partey, Gabriel, Saka all look they will be worth building around. I would potentially add Marinelli to this list. AMN, Hector (if he rediscovers pre-injury form add him to first group), Willock, Balgoun, Eddie all look to be decent squad players. Pepe contributes more than people realize but we aren’t using him well. ESR &… Read more »
Ah I think I misread what you wrote. I’m not convinced our squad can challenge for the top 4 right now, but yes there are players to build around, sure.
Where do we need to add in the transfer window to get on par with the likes of City and Chelsea? An attacking 8 or 10 is an obvious area, especially if Ceballos leaves. Arguably a right back, arguably a more complete CF? I’m really not convinced by Pepe yet, so maybe a RW if we move on him?
We’re at the point where we need to be identifying up and coming players similar to a Dortmund or RB Leizpig and selling ourselves as a place where they will get a chance to play. As much as I like Hector, I would argue that any non-core player we can get a decent fee for should be available – including Auba.
How many Southampton or Burnley or Leicester players are “truly world class”?
I would agree to an extent, but let’s keep in mind that we defeated Man city and Chelsea on the way. Arsenal this season though is less than the sum of its parts – that’s the baffling thing that needs fixing.
The Borges bot is back !
Unfortunately some of us feel the manager is accountable for whatever football we get to watch. Leeds, Villa, Wolves and Leicester try their best with whatever players they have. I’m not saying they are better but this season they intertained me more that our own Arsenal. It might get better though.
Leno should be Aston Villa gk
Dam this guy doesn’t mince words.
Dude calls it like he sees it. Respectable.
Arteta gets incredible support given recent results. We could easily have had our worst ever run of home reults in history under him.
I hope the players can start playing at a decent level for the rest of the season, I hate that Sp*rs are up the top of the PL while we are even thinking about relegation given we losing to teams below us.
Really hope we can play with 11 players each match and we start getting back to the form we had at the end of last season.
The season is long and there are more games left to play than have been played. Just because Sp*rs have had a good run now, doesn’t mean they won’t implode 😉 Likewise with us. We have been godawful at times, but doesn’t mean we can’t improve with 20 odd games left to go 🙂
Well done Leno.. honest and blunt
Germans at their finest…
Call them out
“The attitude is bad, the discipline is lacking and we have no self confidence”
That’s on the manager.
It’s his job to instil a good work ethic, discipline and individual and collective team spirit.
The players probably do like him. But I’ll tell you something – they don’t respect him. Big difference. Especially where getting results are concerned.
Oh for the love of God, SHUT UP!!!!!
at least he didnt mention ozil
Or include a laughing emoji without saying anything remotely funny
🤣
Another Ozil hater.
That’s the second time you’ve told me to do that.
And, for the second time, I’m telling you that I have as much right to voice an opinion as anyone else, even including, unfortunately, you.
Says the GK Arteta handed the gloves back to. Look at where Everton are now under Ancelotti one year into the job.
Why don’t you wait and see where Everton are at the end of the season before making that comment, although I do tend to think they will do well.
Last season Arteta finished higher in the table than Ancelotti and with a trophy and they took over their respective clubs on the same day…just saying.
Saying, indeed!
I genuinely think if MA channeled his inner Leno a bit more with regards to not playing the same players over and over again we’d be in a lot stronger position right now.
Unfortunately you have to say it like it is otherwise you will not progress and put things right.
I applaud Leno speaking out like this.
we,d also be in a stronger position if we had a better keeper who could catch crosses not spill the ball out into the midle of the goal and could play a passwide without the full back having to strech to keep the ball in play.
Anyone think Leno, should be captain?
I listened to Auba’ interview post match last night and he really sounded down with everything. I just wonder if Auba needs to be left to solely knocking in the goals for us. I really felt sorry for him. Love Auba, but I just wonder if Leno could have have a Lehman impact if captain.
Auba is a rubbish captain but I don’t think Leno is the right one either. As I see it we don’t have any captain or leaders and that’s a huge problem in this team.
Tierney would do for me……but it’s a fair point. We have been short of real leaders for quite a while now though, this isn’t a recent problem.
Tierney would make a good WC but he’s not captain material yet.
WC?
Vvice captain
Autocorrect wanted a world cup instead of a vice.
Sorry, I should have guessed. Long week.
If Leno showed this side of himself on the pitch, I’d agree. But unfortunately he’s mostly quiet in goal and doesn’t scold his defenders (not nearly enough) to be captain material.
Luiz is most vocal on the pitch – give it to him thruwend of the season then when he leaves give it to big Gab. Centre halves make the best captains.
Dear Arteta, I admire the hell out of you. Remember….when you espouse that you are 100% committed to rewarding those who outperform others with time on the pitch….there will be times where they will challenge you to prove it. Yes, it, those choices, is a managerial art and not a science. Yes, you will make mistakes. Just make sure the mistakes are few and above all….make sure the players know that your dedication to grow AND win is as high or higher than theirs.
All we can do right now is get behind the players coz they are at rock bottom right now and and we as fans should not make things harder for them. Having said that some players should lose their place in the starting 11 namely xhaka, willian, bellerin
Aren’t these issues actually indicting on the manager? Whose job is it to make sure these issue are a rarity or totally avoided?
I love and support Arteta, but I’m not sure anymore.
Becoming a bit thinner on Miki’s ice, love the guy, one of us yet we are a shadow of all the teams we were, watching the Liverpool team after how they played from side to side and middle our players are no where near that level, where we we lumping it in the box v spurs scousers where keeping it on their feet, sad im happy when a team i don’t support gets a last minute winner..
If they players down tools and don’t brother to run or have a bad attitude it’s down to the manager.
Sorry but this is not only a smack in the face of the players but also the coaching staff.
I think the players are trying. They run a lot. It’s the anxiety running through the team. Makes even the best do stupid things.
They run a lot. So do worried sheep. A competent shepherd and his dog soon brings them into order. Wish we had a competent shepherd to give instructions, calm them with his voice and a trusted dog called Captain to do his bidding in the field.
What I can’t get my head round is that a team consisting of various undesirables and underachievers was whipped into some form of shape and managed to beat Chelsea with relative ease in an FA Cup final. That same team then dropped a few underperformers and strengthened a bit with two very decent signing but is somehow struggling worse than last season.
How does that make any sense?
Arteta watering down his focus with manager position, taking over too much power too soon and making rookie mistakes i.e. signing groundskeeper willie and then playing him all the time to prove he was right. That is on the owners for not realising we lack proper people on exec level and that is why a guy like rangnick is touted as the right guy to take us forward to make a short term and long term vision for the club and then make proper decisions to ensure it happens.
Arteta spread his wings too fast basically.
It makes sense if you think that Arteta got 2 transfer windows and shiped some players out, brought few others in and in doing that obviously has wrecked whatever he has achieved with the squad he inherited.
I’ll add for clarity’s sake that the two very decent signings refers to Partey and Gabriel, not semi-retired Chelsea hand-me-down Willian.
We clearly lack leaders in the dressing room. Auba is a great guy, but not a captain. He is not vocal enough on the pitch. We need a Tony Adams, Roy Kean, John Terry, Jordan Henderson type player that will yell and shout at the players on the pitch. David Luiz was doing some of that when he came on, but I don’t think everyone in the team likes him. Apart from Saka, every one of the first team players has been total shi*t and way below standards. Areta needs to start earning some respect and get these players disciplined.… Read more »
did you just mention jordan henderson in the same breath as adams and keane. behave yourself
nobody needs a john terry.
Says the keeper who was pathetic for the Southampton goal, caught in no mans land and going down before the ball was even kicked. He can diss his team mates as much as he likes but he’s not great himself.
Have you watched any games? You really think he a chance to save that goal?He has saved us so many times.
He’s a good keeper, nothing special.
If only all our players were ‘good but nothing special’. We’d probably still be in the champions league
He is a pretty average keeper 3/ 4 choice for germany. Not bad not great like most of our squad
He at least made Walcott produce a quality finish. Much further forward and he’d be easy to take the ball round / win a penalty from. Further back and he could have passed it into the corner straightforwardly. Stand up too tall for too long and you’re easy to beat with a simple low shot A chip like that is a comparatively low % percentage finish, and by putting Theo in a position where he felt that was his best option, he’s done half his job already. He *maybe* could have stood up a bit taller, but he’s got to… Read more »
Keeping Leno over Emi is like selling Messi because you’ve got Pedro ..
And for 20 million
Exactly.
Remember last time when Emi was speaking?? he had handled his teammates underground and was rallying them for the manager, like a father (my idea of a father). This Lenos approach works too but reactive and less classy to say the least
He’s a father figure now, what’s next?
Had a hand in the vaccine?
He wanted to leave, and went to villa.
No he wanted to be first choice GK, had shown loyalty and patience to Arsenal, proved himself at the highest level when the club called on him and was then told Leno would be first choice and he could like it or not.
Why not fight for his position?
He had been. For ten years.
And when he had finally gotten himself into a position where he was on at least level footing with Leno, he upped and left to Villa
Weird decision and it’s on him
Are you serious? You look at MA constantly picking his favourites despite their failings and you think one can succeed through hard work?
Emi wasn’t dropped by Arteta. He wanted assurances that he was our guaranteed no. 1
Obviously it would have been absolute insanity to make that kind of promise to a keeper with as short a CV as he had, especially vs a keeper as good as Leno.
He took the safe option and left for Villa where he doesn’t have to worry about competition. Good for him I guess
Leno is not in the same category as Willian, Xhaka, Luiz etc
?
Martinez plays in a different setup, do you think that if we had Martinez that would solve the problems we have?
Lets at least give Martinez (the Messi of goalkeepers),a season before we judge him,in fact I would want to see him do it over 2 full seasons.
Aww shucks I’m fixating on something really really really bad. Selling Emi for 20m was really shit and a dumb decision and I hope there’s positively more to it than meets the eye (eg go play and come back if you’re a success).
Otherwise Fucking hell
i’m not sure what makes it worse. the 20 mil going into paying installment for the sucker deal we did for Pepe, or the sucker contracts we handed out to Mustafi, Ozil, Luiz, Willian, Xhaka, Ceballos, and failing to sell Kolasinac and Papa.
Shiit…
I think it would make a huge difference to the problems we have now. He was popular and held his defence to account in a positive way, not mouthing off to the press about them. He has personality, Leno has none. His distribution is way, way better than Leno, he could get counter attacks going in an instant instead of faffing around while everyone gets into place. He’s excellent with the ball at his feet under pressure, so now we have to lump it long because Leno can’t do it. Why would he need to prove himself over two seasons?… Read more »
The reason I would say over 2 seasons, is that he hasn’t played a full season.
Another point is that when Arteta changed to a 3 at the back, Martinez benefited from a more defensive team,so it’s easier as a keeper to look good.
I think all the fuss over a keeper,that has been at the club for years, never threatened the 1st team,is suddenly the one that got away!
Whilst I admit there was a “patch” of improvement – either side of half time – for about 20 minutes – before the sending off; I was surprised as IMO it looked as if Arteta had most definitely lost this dressing room 2 months ago! None-the-less – for some reason the players sprang into action with decisive passing at pace and noticeable movement off the ball that lead to the goal!? This proves there has to be a rift between manager and players & it is not solely form. The rumour that players are annoyed at the lack of discipline… Read more »
You’re not alone in your viewpoints. As supporters we can only speculate most of the time.
Frankly I’d like to see a change in coaching, management and squad personnel in a few weeks time. Ideally two of these areas should see some changes.
I just wanted to add (although it goes without saying) – Andrew, and the rest of your team at Arseblog (including James) – that you do a wonderful job/service with all that you post and your entertaining podcasts. I just wanted to say THANK YOU as my life in terms of Arsenal was enhanced as soon as I discovered Arseblog in 2014/15. You have a tough job to please all & I can see that occasionally you get undeserved flak, but please keep plugging away as usual – this blog and your award winning podcasts are a shining beacon in… Read more »
hes not gonna shag you mate
lol. at the time of this writing: Pires’ comment has 16 thumbs ups and 1 thumbs down. we know who thumbed down.
my girlfriend once caught me looking at another girl and told me the same thing. think she was jealous.
Love leno calling what it is, players running around not knowing what they should be doing, which lays at Miki door, as much I wanted him to succeed maybe this job is above his capabilities, maybe.. let’s hope he can turn it around, watching Liverpool outplaying Spuds after kind of shown how far we are behind, on a positive note we can become better, we nearly nicked all 3 points being down to 10, let’s hope after next 90 mins of football we can at least keep 11 players on the pitch and grind out 3 points
I’ve said it for a while I do not think Aubameyang is captain material. As I mentioned before, I feel the captaincy needs to be considered on function over form. Form can easily dissipate. A player who can watch the game unfold from the back and organize would be better for us. Leno IMO is fairly ingrained at Arsenal now and can be that sort of vocal leadership at the back to push players on keep them focused where Luiz is frankly long in the tooth. Eventually either a Cback or deep midfielder may be useful too although at present… Read more »
The way we approach things at the moment, its a wonder any player worth their salt will want to join without us doshing out substantially over market rate. That’s justa reality as signing for us carries plenty of risk for any would be player currently. The gaffer is struggling, making some perplexing man management decisions and the team is under threat of unravelling. But again we try to be too clever (cheap) and Edu thinks he knows better so rather than an Aouar or a Szoboslai we will end up with a Isco a pale shadow of his former self…or… Read more »
Yup.
One must also factor in how unusual the pandemic xsfer market has been compared to normal times.
In the Southampton game, did anyone see that sequence in 2nd half, where Leno rolled out the ball tamely to Saka, and then somehow became visibly frustrated that Saka didn’t proceed to dribble past 3 opponents to get to the half-way line?
I am fine with blunt Germans who are also capable. So far Leno has been bang average in both shot stopping and distribution. He needs to be more critical of himself, not his teammates who are “running around on the pitch”.
> We actually have quality, but all of a sudden there was this break. But nobody can pin it on just one person.
But we can. That shot from Walcott was totally savable by a quality keeper.
Silly comment.
Good finish by Theo.
Martinez is gone. Let it go.
Leno is a fine keeper. Its great that we have him.
His comments said “we”. That includes himself.
Leno last season was immense. And before that. His an elite shot stopper, esp given how shit arsenal’s defence is and has been.
Blaming the keeper = amatuer move.