Kieran Tierney says the Arsenal players have to take responsibility for the ‘terrible’ situation they find themselves in following a fourth consecutive home defeat.
Burnley’s 1-0 win at the Emirates on Sunday night, sealed courtesy of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s second half own goal, means Mikel Arteta’s Gunners are now in real danger of being dragged into the relegation zone over the Christmas period.
It’s embarrassing. And Tierney, a serial winner during his time at Celtic, knows it.
“It’s not good enough,” said the Scot when asked about the situation. “There is no way to disguise it. It’s terrible, to be honest. It’s not what we are, not where we are as a club.
“It’s not what the fans deserve, it’s not what the manager deserves, it’s not what the board deserve. It’s us players that need to take responsibility for this.
“We have got a great manager and we believe in him 100 per cent. The blame is on us, nobody else.”
Since beating Manchester United on 1 November, Arsenal have developed an unhealthy obsession with repeatedly shooting themselves in the foot. Last night, as the Gunners took a grip of the game, Granit Xhaka became the latest player to get himself sent off for violent conduct. His moment of madness ultimately cost his teammates dear.
“Red cards change games for and against you,” said Tierney. “When you are a man down it is always going to be tougher, especially against a team like Burnley. They’re physical, they’re good at it, they play to their strengths and they did that tonight.
“But even if we do go down to 10 men we should be winning the game at that point. We should be taking chances. We are not scoring enough goals.”
So where do Arsenal go from here? High-flying Southampton visit the Emirates on Wednesday then it’s Everton, Manchester City (in the League Cup) and Chelsea, all before Christmas. Every one of those games looks intimidating right now.
According to Tierney, our beleaguered players just have to keep working and stay positive.
“Everything is going wrong,” said Tierney. “We are working on the right things, we are doing the right things in training, we are working as hard as we can, but just things that can go wrong are going wrong.
“That happens in football. It is the lowest we have probably all felt in our careers and nobody is going to help us except ourselves.
“So we just need to keep believing, keep positive. I know it is hard. I know the fans deserve much better and all I can do is apologise to every single one of the supporters through these tough times.
“We just need to work hard. It is easy enough to say we want to do better, but we need to actually show we want to do better.”
He added: “Confidence is massive in football with everyone. When everyone is out to get you of course confidence is going to be low, but we can’t let that affect us. We can’t use that as an excuse.
“We are Arsenal. We need to be better than this and we are not performing up to standard. We need to be better throughout the full game. We need to take chances, we need to score goals.
“It’s Arsenal. It’s just not good enough.”
Thank you KT. He always puts in a shift, no matter the type of game he’s playing
Is there a way we can appeal Xhaka’s suspension to have it extended?
The most disappointing thing to me about this season is Arteta’s wildly misplaced faith in certain players – Xhaka & Willian for instance who keep letting him down with no real consequences. I would be ok with poor results (mid table) if we were actually building something instead of playing a bunch of players clearly geared towards immediate results. There were a few positive signs yesterday but has it really reached the point where instead of contending for top 4 we need to look for green shoots against a team likely to be relegated?
That’s fine pointing to xhaka and willian and I agree but it also applies to Bellerin, aubamang, lacazette. These 5 get picked continually and all of them have been woeful. The double standards running through this current regime is a huge problem. It cause disharmony regardless of what players may say. It causes apathy amongst those who under perform but can’t self motivate. It causes distrust and anger amongst those who know there’s nothing they can do to first get in the team and then keep their place. Arteta has blown it and he’s blown it because of whatever how’s… Read more »
Oh and that goalkeeper was sold for £4m less than Sherfield utd paid Bournemouth for Ramsdale. Needed the money desperately? Ok then why not sell AMN when wolves came in with same fee (roughly)? Because he’d been playing well and we wanted to keep him (just like matinez had incidentally)? Fine, only WHERE is AMN? Dumped right from the start of the season. Just like pepe who started 1 league game out of the first 8 before the game he got sent off. The guy’s a joke and I feel embarrassed about how taken in I was.
Auba is arguably our only borderline world class player in the squad (maybe Partey) – he’s averaged over 30 goals a year for years. While he’s not playing a great it’s pretty easy to argue a decent chunk of that is the way we’re asking him to play. He’s a relatively reliable finisher with serious pace. Arteta is having us slow the ball down against low block teams which allows everyone to reset. We then just ping in crosses hoping he’ll play like Giroud. Prior to moving him to the center he was the one doing the crossing. The times… Read more »
I understand the love supporters have for auba. People love a goalscorer and they also love pace. I’m not going to say you or the vast majority are wrong. My opinion though is the same as it always has been on the guy. He’s very limited as a player. In a team that creates chances he’ll score goals because his movement and instincts to be in the right places are exceptional. However, he offers the team hardly anything in terms developing chances which for me is and always has been, more important. Create enough chances and you’ll score goals. Giroud… Read more »
Where I agree with you is that for as much as I like Auba I would have understood if we had sold him and moved towards youth. And completely agree that sometimes a lesser name player can be a better fit for a team. My big issues are our tactics are abysmal – they won’t ever work and we aren’t moving towards youth. We appear to be trying to lower expectations by saying it’s a rebuild and then throwing massive resources at old players
But we are playing relegation level football.
Selling Giroud was a really poor move, because most of team still keep aiming crosses right to where he’d have been. Sadly neither Aubameyang or Lacazette can do a Giroud.
I don’t think it’s fair to lump Lacazette into this. He does not get picked continually, he gets subbed off all the time, and while he is incredibly off-form, he always puts in a shift, tries to make things happen, and looks like he actually cares. I’m sorry but he is not to blame for the malaise at Arsenal. Even at his worst, he is still fit as a serviceable bench player with a great attitude. At his best, he is club player of year material.
Yes he’s got a good attitude and works hard. I just don’t think he’s very good. I commented several months ago that I thought he was an average premier league player and it didn’t go down well on here. I’ve got no issue with that as everyone sees things differently but (disregarding the top 5 clubs) i’d take calvert-lewin, ings, Jimenez, mitrovic, antonio, and even ironically mcburnie as he works just as hard but at least would be good on crosses. I’d take giroud who scores more and is a far better player all round as well. I’d take oli… Read more »
The most disappointing thing to me about this season is Arteta’s wildly misplaced faith in certain players – Xhaka & Willian for instance who keep letting him down with no real consequences. I would be ok with poor results (mid talbe) if we were actually building something instead of playing a bunch of players clearly geared towards immediate results. There were a few positive signs yesterday but has it really reached the point where instead of contending for top 4 we need to look for green shoots against a team likely to be relegated?
I agree with the misplaced faith in certain players. I do think he was hoping to replace Xhaka’s starter status gradually with Partey this season, and to find a more balanced midfield that can allow the team to attack and defend in equal measure. This is going to be delayed, obviously, due to injury. As for Willian, I think Arteta was hoping to get last season’s Willian from Chelsea, the one that produced goals and assists and brought a level of control and composure to their team, and was clearly a figure the Chelsea wanted to keep. He’s been a… Read more »
Simply removing Xhaka isn’t going to fix how bad Arteta’s tactics are. We operate in 2 banks of 5 with no midfield.
Does Partey drop into the defence when he plays for us? No, he doesn’t. He drives forward with the ball, and is able to spread it wide when needed. It’s clear to me, at least, what Arteta would like to do with this team and I think we see that in EL matches as well.
Yesterday we hardly played with two banks of 5 — such a disingenuous comment, atom, but I’m not surprised.
I genuinely wonder if you even watch games. There were periods yesterday where Xhaka was playing behind Holding & Gabriel while our #10 Laca was 10 yards off them trying to get the ball. Our midfield when Partey plays largely just exists of 1 man trying to run up and down the field by himself.
You’re a huge Arteta fan who feels the need to respond to every question about how great he’s going to be. You love the guy – I get it. But the stats are simply undeniable this isn’t working.
I genuinely wonder that about you, too, and I certainly know you don’t read people’s comments here very closely. I said Partey does not drop deep, not Xhaka, but rather acts as a springboard for the attack, but I enjoyed your disingenuous comment, again, that he just runs up and down the field by himself. It’s a shame you don’t view your fellow Gooners with more respect. Did you also notice that Saka and Willian were tasked with coming infield more and sharing the #10 role at times? Another tactical adjustment that gave us more of a presence the middle… Read more »
Virtually everyone on here myself included wants the long term success of the club. You haven’t cornered the market on that despite your smug assertion that you seem to know better than virtually everyone else. Arteta was brought in with the idea that he would get the squad performing better than it had been and ultimately long term move the club to a position where we would ultimately compete for major honors again. So let’s see how that’s going: His PL record would actually need to improve massively to reach Emery’s PL total over his 1.5 years in charge. Arteta… Read more »
You’ve got the stats, I’ve got the hope, as I see good signs of what’s to come with Arteta. It’s that simple. I could repeat everything I’ve written above, and on other posts, but I’m not going to budge you one bit on this. You want him sacked — maybe you’ll get your wish. I really hope his replacement meets your expectations, plays the style you want, and gets the results immediately.
You do know what long term means don’t you. It’s absolutely not the same as “Do it in 12 months”.
Just make him captain already
I have no words, we look so poor. I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel.
It’ll get better. It takes time, but the confidence will return … The greatest positive to take out of all of this is that this team and this manager are struggling through this together and will be more formidable because of it, when they emerge. I know it’s horrifying right now, but Arteta is learning buckets on the job. Painful for us to watch, but if we can ride it out, the benefits will be immense for this club.
I’m not quite as positive as this in terms of the benefits – but, you’re right, it will get better at some point. I’m not saying we will be anywhere near where we want to be but a couple of goals and 3 points (anywhere!) will do a lot for us. If only if it means a bit of confidence and belief comes back.
The problem is, it doesn’t look like mikel is learning, just stubbornly clinging to the same routine which is bringing the same non-results. Signs of a strong ego, reminds me of someone else who stagnated and then pulled down our club with him.
A strong ego is everything for managers in this business — it’s a mark of leadership.
He has been stubborn and I was livid at Willian and Xhaka starting the match, but I think that is probably it for him with them — we won’t see either in the match against Southampton, and he’ll learn from that.
No it’s not, strong ego is no helpful, in any business, maybe it’s been in the 90s. Today it’s about being authentic and humble while knowing the responsibility you have. I work with executives all my career (13 years now), as a headhunter and this is what I’ve learned. I respect your opinion nonetheless, this is also only my opinion and we are discussing here so it doesn’t mean too much. I think you are just still really being positive and believing/wanting arteta to succeed so much that it irks you. I was over the moon when he took over… Read more »
Arteta has to believe that he has a vision powerful enough that others should follow. He has to deal with spoiled millionaires, some of whom have never read a book. The needs ego and humility, for sure, but you have to be a leader for them all, and that takes ego. Arteta has a mild form of it compared to some of his peers — he’s been edgy lately, resistant, because he doesn’t want to break the belief in his players. If he acts demure, humbled by the results, his players follow suit. It’s time to fight, not to concede.… Read more »
It all sounded okay to say until you mentioned Arsene Wenger.
Silent Stan, you mean?
I admire your optimism Futsboller & I hope you are right, but it is getting harder to believe. I hope he is learning loads because it doesn’t obviously look that way right now. The hope is he gets through this season intact & next summer there will be a lot of contracts up & we can hopefully shift a few more we don’t want and try to reset the squad, in terms of personnel & mentality.
Arteta needed a Derby County just like Lampard had before he took over at the chavs.
With all due respect to Derby etc etc, a slightly smaller club from a small city in a lower division, somewhat shielded from the media glare.
It’s all well and good learning buckets on the job but you need the right setting and circumstances to do so.
I sincerely hope he turns this around but like most of us I’m struggling to see how he’s going to with his limited experience.
Anders, do you still own a pair of boots ? There’s a game in North London on Weds night. Let us know.
I agree with you on this… He won’t succeed at Arsenal
I hope you are right, but I have my doubts about whether you are correct saying “this team and this manager are struggling through this together”. If this is correct I think you are right and everything will turn out positively. My concern, based on nothing more than opinion, is that there are factions forming and the team are not as together as they should be. I hope l am wrong, because to me the most important job of a manager is bringing everyone together with everyone aiming for the same goal (no pun). I believe this is more important… Read more »
Accurate assessment
Same old Djouru
“They’re physical, they’re good at it, they play to their strengths and they did that tonight.”???
They were tame weak and giving away corners. Burnley was shit and we made them look better.
Absolutely. They were just a bit less rubbish than we were. We completely handed them the 3 points.
It’s true. Burnley are a shit team and one heading for relegation battle this season. But so are we.
All Burnley need to do to stay up is finish above Sheffield United, West Brom, and one other team.
At a rough guess I’d say they need to find a team above them and beat them away from home.
Umm, I think they found their fall guys.
If the squad is behind Arteta (and I mean the young guys as they are the immediate future of this club), and we sack Arteta, I don’t see us turning this around.
Make KT captain. That would be a good start.
It anyone needs to apologise it shouldn’t be Kieran. One of the few bright stars in the first team right now!
All those brilliant runs from him. Up and down like a newlyweds nightie and all for nothing. Still he keeps going. He’s a wasted player on this team and thank God we have him!
Next they will send Saka. There are not many left who can come out and apologise for the result or the team’s performance, without having to hang their heads in shame.
Has Xhaka been out to apologise? Disgrace. Elneny should also say a few words about trying to follow him off.
He has to this time. I don’t think it’ll save him in the eyes of us fans but really has no choice but to come out with a slice of humble pie in his mouth after this.
It just about sums up this squad. One of our few consistent performers fronting up to take responsibility whilst the usual suspects sulk in the shadows, certain of their infallibility. When was the last time one of our senior players did the post-match interview? They’re hiding on and off the pitch.
I still like Arteta so much and want him to succeed. I hope he has an epiphany and by some miracle it all comes together. There was so much hope and love for him after that FA cup and community shield wins.. this club was probably cursed when they sacked those employees and gunnersaurus..
It’s not a curse. It’s science. It’s economics. It’s psychology. It’s karma. The players were lied to and the players disengage. You don’t respect your players your employee, they disengage. You disrespect a contract, you pay the price to break it. This is not the worse when you compare to the inevitable bankruptcy
That being said, i have still not seen a good explanation as to why we employing the “Death by a thousand crosses” tactic.
Why not try something else?
Wasn’t it wenger that mentioned the statistical likelyhood of scoring from crosses and how low it is. Hard to believe our manager played under him right now. Right now we’re playing more like a moyes team with no lump up top
The blame is one the players: yes.
The blame is not on the manager: BOLLOCKS
Still 5 points above relegation spots so no need to panic just yet, but needs to turn around soon. Not sure many saw this run of results coming, but must be time to try something different. Perhaps give Maitland-Niles a try in central midfield. At least he is mobile or even Callum Chambers who did really well at Fulham in that position.
I’m not so concerned about changing DM’s at this point. We are absolutely dying for an AM right now. A midfield 3 with William, ESR, or even Ceballos or AMN pushed up would be an improvement over the donut hole we’ve got there right now.
I mean, Laca has been working his ass off. But he’s still a striker facing backwards, not a midfielder driving forward..
“I mean, Laca has been working his ass off. But he’s still a striker facing backwards, not a midfielder driving forward.”
This! This! A million times this! Every team that plays us must get the teamsheet and realise that there won’t be a single player causing them trouble in the middle of the park. Imagine the boost that gives every opposition player:
Burnley: Who do we need to worry about, gaffer? Who’s running their game?
Dyche: Looks like nobody, lads.
Burnley: Fair play.
We are 5 points above the relegation zone AFTER playing teams we are expected to get points off. And we played worse than them. It is not like we play the top teams and lost by unstoppable goals.
So, I would suggest that you at least get a sense of anxiety.
It shouldn’t be KT apologising it should be that clown Xhaka but before the game started almost everyone who commentated on arseblog questioned Xhaka and William being picked. Is anyone surprised about what happened? It’s like the fable of the scorpion and the frog but it’s bit us on the arse.
We are certainly not playing to our strengths though, weird how every other team seems to be doing that…
Love how Mkhitaryan is being voted player of the month at Roma. Show you how bad Arsenal was
Sacking Wenger without letting him see out the final year of his contract cursed us into mediocrity and its seems like we will be here for a while 🙁
I’m sorry but Burnley is NO good team and you had all the time in the world to goal before the red. The coach is like the conductor of an orchestra. After the 4th loss in a row at home, denying his responsibility is strange.
No. Its not.
What, ya think a player is going to publicly criticize his boss?! Like that would ever happen.
Kieran has what it takes to play and represent the club that we knew of as Arsenal. A good guy thrown into a terrible mess. It is most appreciated what he says, but it’s not his responsibility to be accountable for Arteta or the current management/owner’s philosophy or policies that are dragging this once great club through the stinking mire! The awful disrespectful policies/treatment of staff (disregarded or made redundant); & to selected openly disliked players whilst the selection of other players is not based on form or logic + the false promises made to playing staff – based on… Read more »
Not KT’s fault!
Has Xhaka ever stood up and apologised to the fans after a poor performance?
For all the talk he gives about being a leader, I can’t remember him ever publicly taking responsibility.
Give this man the Captain’s arm badge, now!
Given the curse that goes along with it, please, no!
If theyre “working on the right things in training” then why is this Arsenal side so easy to play against and nullify?
KT acting more like a captain both on and off the pitch more than Xhaka and Auba put together.
Where the fuck is our club captain? He’s worse than Ozil lol. Atleast Ozil wasn’t the captain when he went missing. Auba goes missing before, during and after the game. Spineless coward, can’t attend a single post match presser, sending the juniors like Willock and now KT while we pay him 350k a week to buy a new gold plated Lamborghini.
Where’s the apology from xhaka for ruining the 2nd half in our first pl game with home fans.
My Captain
Quite a few positive comments on this article, with many likes. We still have some strong fans around. Good to notice.
On a different topic – Xhaka was once reborn (including form) and many referred Matteo to him for some good example.
KT taking ownership of poor team performance … much respect to the Lad… no making excuses… quality
At least the move to Tier 3 saves 2000 fans having to shell out to attend forthcoming games.
Can Tierney please handle the team talks? What a guy, so much respect for his attitude, professionalism and Tesco bag.!
If I were to name a new captain, then it’s KT for sure. Not only because of this, but he tries his best more or less than any other, him and Gabriel
It’s about time Xhaka was wheeled out for the weekly apologies.
Mind you, all we’d probably get out of him is a short, sweet but ultimately sincere ‘Fuck Off.’
He put in tireless work but lets be fair he isn’t the only one putting in a shift either. Too many people here prefer to live in rarified air of an echo chamber, trumpeting certain players ad tedium whilst criticising others. I thought Lacazette has been putting in a shit load of hard work for us as well. Both Cbacks also have been grafting. Bellerin is often criticised and he too can do better (not like Tierney does not make mistakes either) but he has a different prospect out right where on left hand side we have a bit more… Read more »
…and then… Allegri says “No. Not with that **** owner in charge.”
On Xhaka red card, he is a complete idiot. BUt something also needs be said about these over dogmatic refereeing rules. To me, these cast in strict black and white decision parameters provides no leeway for refs to apply common sense. Lets face it, what Elneny did with his playacting equally bad as what Mc Neil did falling like a baked crumpet at touch from Xhaka on his neck. Back in the day this was a case of handbags at 4 paces, six of one and half a dozen of the other. refs knew better and players knew it won’t… Read more »
As for Arteta, I said it before and say it again, what did we expect? He is a rookie manager. HIs strengths is in tactics. But he has little experience managing players. Its one thing to come up with fancy tactics under the protection of Pep at City, another for him to actually man manage. And on evidence, as I have mention for some time, his results are mixed. He manage to coax better performances (for a spell at least) out of some of our poorer performers in Mustafi and Xhaka but the was unable to convince Torreira or Sokratis… Read more »
Arsenal should try the wonder kids in first team. We see what they can do.
Lose attractively and make us all happier.
Artefacts must sell Xhaka. He is the one who delays our attacks and always passes the ball backwards. He is a liability to the Gunners family. We truely need a ball carting/creative midfielder.
You are wrong. Arsenal football club deserves everything they are getting right now. It’s exactly what the fans deserve. It’s exactly what the manager deserves. It’s, more than anyone else, exactly what the board deserve.
I guess Xhaka doesn’t like playing with fans afterall. Not a single red card or absolute brainfart moment during lockdown. First game back with fans and he literally f*cked off from the game.
I really really really love KT