After last night’s exit from the Europa League, the inquest into Arsenal’s terrible season will begin in earnest.
It remains to be seen whether Mikel Arteta is charged with overseeing it, but one thing was clear after last night’s Europa League exit to Villarreal, he was in no mood to start the discussion in public.
Asked if Arsenal have made progress this season, he said: “Obviously, looking at everything right now it’s hard to focus on that. I understand that and I leave it to you guys.”
While Arteta has had numerous off-field issues to contend with since he took over, success in last season’s FA Cup – silverware that sneaked us into Europe – ensured hopes were high coming into the campaign that he had the necessary foundations to mount a serious challenge for the top four. By Christmas, that plan was in tatters and once again the club was pinning its hopes on a cup run to paper over the cracks.
The least supporters expected from last night’s semi-final second leg against ex-boss Unai Emery was some blood and thunder.
Instead, needing a single goal to progress to the final, we were treated to one of the most tedious performances you could have imagined.
Unsurprisingly, the boss found it hard to deliver a rallying call to supporters after overseeing such listlessness.
“We have to show them on the pitch, not talking,” he said. “We are hugely disappointed because we wanted to deliver something special to them after the difficult season that we had.
“But when you play in these knockout games, you need your best players at their best and many things happened where we didn’t have enough of those in the best possible condition.
“But still like that, we fought until the end and I think today, in the second half, we deserved to win the game 1-0. If it had happened, we would’ve been through. But we didn’t do it and there is a reason for that.”
In theory, Arsenal could qualify for Europe by climbing up to seventh in the Premier League table before the season ends. Our reward would be a place in the inaugural Europa Conference League. The chances of that happening over the remaining four games are minimal.
Tepid, turgid insipidness.
It’s ironic that the football is coma inducing, yet I couldn’t sleep last night. This club is maddening at the moment.
Well said. I couldn’t go back to sleep after waking up at 5 am, a whole hr earlier than my alarm! However now I see a silver lining – if we had gone through, we would have papered over the cracks of this hugely underwhelming season. To put it in context, despite the unusual nature of the season, pandemic, shortened schedule, empty stadium, etc – these were common factors affecting all clubs. The fact remains, this will be the worst finish to a season in decades for us! Hence, the silver lining is, atleast now there has to be a… Read more »
Whats really stuck out to me in the wake of last nights shambles is this. What were really expecting to happen? We’ve given a complete rookie his first managerial job, which happens to be at one of the biggest clubs in world football. Said rookie manager has also had absolutely zero support at boardroom level or from any experienced senior executives. The clubs boardroom is comprised of; the family lawyer, Stan Kroenke, his bellened son Josh, and Lord Harris doing absolutely nothing. The executives around Arteta, Vinai and Edu.. are just as inexperienced as he is. Like what the fuck… Read more »
I just couldn’t believe how static they were for large periods of time. No urgency or invention, and mostly failing to do the simplest of things. Really painful to watch.
One man midfielder doesn’t work
Fell in love with Arsenal because of the early 2000s team and Arsene Wenger.
I dislike animal abuse and absolutely loathe hunters. That’s the beginning of my thoughts for KSE who is infact only in this to like his pockets. The owners have no understanding of how much power football owns. The super League Saga was the last attempt. I actually didn’t feel bad when we lost yesterday. Kind of felt nothing. guess that’s my brain telling me to take a break from the Arsenal
Arteta sacrificed
Arteta sacrificed the FA Cup and that was arrogant. He should be sacrificed like my finger decided for me in the message above.
Well i am sure willian isn’t our best player to come on for needing a goal…
But the semi was lost as soon we saw the lineup for the first game…
Coyg…
Playing a false nine in an away tie of a two leg European semifinal.
Makes your teeth itch, doesn’t it?
Willian wasn’t bad in the game. He almost created something with a long distance pass.
Bellerin too wasn’t bad yesterday but the favorite scapegoats of fans are always Willian and Bellerin.
By the way, Auba is given a big contract to score not to hit the post.
Old guys like me remember Zidane’s headers to win the world cup in 98. He wasn’t good at headers but jeez these headers were perfect because that was needed.
Bellerin was terrible.. He gave the ball away simple passes leading to goal chances and corners. He had one good cross.. His pace is gone. He has no strength..
32/40 passes 80%.. Rubbish and we kept him as an offensive player taking up space and going backwards.
He was awful for the first 60-70 minutes but in fairness to him he was one of the few who realised we were going out – threw caution to the winds – threw the MA game plan out of the window and went for it in the last 20
Bellerin probably had the worst pass completion rate, missed simple passes. He’s 26 and been in the team for 7 years. Not sure when he’s gona improve and show the potential everyone thought he had
The only thing worse than this season would be if we actually had to play in the uefa conference league next season.
The only thing worse than this season is next season with the same manager and the same owner.
Purgatory
We’d still go out in the semi
Please God no. What a farce that would be.
It’s a pity that we have one less tournament to groom our youngsters and keep squad players fit
We should trim the squad of a few senior players due to the reduced workload for the squad
Unlikely to happen though
we are so seriously phucked now.
i dont think we can fire arteta and then keep the likes of edu-vinai. I feel so hopeless right now, i have almost given up on arsenal.
Owners, board, coach, backroom staff and basically any player >25 years needs to be cleared out. Complete reset. Build a model based on development, a team that plays exciting football (not this insipid rubbish), and when the oil tycoons coming calling for our best players we accept the massive fund injections and move onto the next player developments. We need to stop clamouring after our big name players and dropping massive over-the-top contracts on them. Ozil and Auba in hindsight are terrible decisions – we need to learn from those mistakes and stop making the same mistakes over and over.… Read more »
Some very good points, but club football is more about evolution than revolution so I don’t see any clear out being on anything like the scale you suggest is necessary (necessary though it may be).
Just on players, we know how difficult and expensive it is offloading players. Recent reports suggest that the club actually saved very little money indeed on Ozil leaving as almost all his full salary had to be paid up. The money just isn’t there (particularly now) to do it on a larger scale. Hopefully, we can/should learn from that example though.
Oh year, I mean I know it ain’t gonna happen – We’re so disgustingly risk averse that being so risk adverse becomes a risk. And add to that about Ozil, we also already replaced his wages with Auba’s new deal and Willian for two extra years. We’re fuking dumb. I find the argument about how bad it would be with a fan run team to be kinda funny – like even as crazy as us Arsenal fans are, we’d probably manage to give the current mob a good run for it – that’s how poorly we’re being run currently. And… Read more »
I wouldn’t mind seeing the back of Edu and Vinai.
They are two fucken mediocre phoneys. They need to go, along with Arteta.
My brother who is Man U scum claims it’s the same problem there. Same stories of mediocre players on big money that can’t be shifted. He says it’s a common issue with many top clubs now that they are run by idiots. Not much consolation but it’s not just us. Which is no excuse not to boot these clowns out. I’ve been on the fence about Vinai since he took over and as for Edu I think he should have gone when Don Raul did.
I’d love it if we had spent the kind of money Man United have spent…
Agents are the problem
Don’t forget the toupee wearing tosser….
You wear a toupee?
How can a young manager improve unless he’s backed. Give him the tools then the real test begins. Since we have novices like Edu and Vinai, this following season should be defining.
‘Given up on Arsenal’ sums it up for me too. Nearly every shred of identity and culture we’ve had on the pitch is gone. I always had a failsafe of thinking being out of europe completely would help correct some things for us and be a faster track into europe. After all the likes of Liverpool, Utd, Chelsea and even Leicester have had solid seasons in this same situation. Buuut we Arsenal and are likely to fumble that too. If ANYTHING this summer – just produce a balanced squad. With superstars or not – something balanced that makes sense at… Read more »
KSE need to open the cheque book.
Squad is largely fine – Willian, Xhaka and Luiz need to go. Depending on decisions on Ceballos and Odegaard, we may need another central and/or attacking midfielder. Or (stay with me) see what AMN and Willock can do alongside Partey. Edu barely snags a second season for me, because Willian is balanced out to an extent by Partey, Gabriel and Odegaard, all of whom are good players on the kind of deals we weren’t near under Wenger/Gazidis. Don’t know what Vinai does, but for not knowing/going along with the Super League, he probably needs to go. Arteta out. We should… Read more »
Why is he still talking as a manager?
Time difference. Kroenke probably hasn’t received his eagle yet at his ranch to bring him news of our defeat.
This made me smile, no mean feat at the moment. Bravo
To my surprise, regarding Arteta, I’m not at the „point of no return” where I was earlier with Emery. If you ask why, can’t really justify it rationally to me or you. Could be either a gut feeling or might have just stopped caring.
Sorry, you should be at the point of no return.
Despite signs of promise around new year, it’s been mostly mediocre football and less than mediocre performances.
He needs to go. NOW.
the fuckers who down vote and think he shouldn’t go, fuck off!
you are not true fans if you accept this fucken shambles.
fuck off losers
Don’t get boiled up Matt P. The fact that there are such losers and simps for Arteta’s fake football in this club and refusing to still apportion any blame on him is tantamount to our current situation at the club. I wish for these betas to f out of our fan base so we can have a common place to start rebuilding this club.
Fuck off.
It’s because Arteta is a young manager learning his trade, whereas Emery was already a seasoned pro. We signed Arteta on future potential, and the potential is still there.
Solskjaer went through a learning phase, and interestingly Moyes has come good after his humbling at United.
Arteta has learned nothing, the longer he has been with us the worse we have gotten
Arsenal as a club need to learn when to hire and fire. We just don’t heed the lessons from other clubs.
And Arteta is not just inexperienced, he was never qualified in the first place.
Thought I read Aarteta leaves…🚶🏾♂️😭
Failing Arteta leaving you could always change your name to DePartey Time.
Heh.
”I leave it to you guys” says the man with all the answers, The Process, the man who was feeling ‘excited’ with Kroenke only last week.
The trouble is, he’ll be here next season and probably the one after that, spouting the same wool-pulling-over-the- eyes bullshit, whilst this club continues to fund a stadium in Los Angeles.
The key point you make is us funding KSE’s franchises elsewhere. For all Arteta’s faults, the problem starts at the top. KSE haven’t invested in the club. They have borrowed and relied on profits to pay off the loans. KSE take a seven figure sum each season out of the club for ‘consultancy’ services – consultancy in not how to run a football club I imagine. They have overseen a consistent decline in fortunes. They dismantled our entire scouting network. employed and employed Raul Sanllehi, who we know as shady from his Barca past and out dealings with them, and… Read more »
Top post. Well said 🍺👍
I was hoping to hear, when I switched on Sky Sports News this morning, that Arteta had been sacked. But sadly no. Only at this shambles of a club can the senior management believe that Arteta’s position is tenable.
He must go now!
It’s not yet morning in Texas so Stan and Josh probably don’t even know the result yet.
Give it till Monday when the weekend is over and they bother to check.
Oh they know this result! The only thing the care about is the value of their asset – and this is one of the most costly single game result to the value of said asset since they took over. I’m optimistic this may actually be something (along with continued protests and boycotting of subs and merch) that might sway their stance on selling.
Perhaps you will learn from your stupid Anyone-but-Wenger campaign a few years back and have a suitable candidate first.
No! Wenger was finished at least 5 years before he was finally dismissed. Sticking with a busted flush of a manager is a sad trait of Stan and his hopeless ownership of Arsenal Football Club. That’s why my guess is that we won’t see Arteta booted out today. It’s gonna take another disastrous season before the Spaniard finally gets the boot.
That’s why we need a new owner too.
Yup, lesson not learnt.
who are the assholes down voting?
who are ya? I’ll have ya. Spurs scum? No true Arsenal fan would accept this fucken shambles
haha
I think your parents need to take your phone off you kid.
You can count on Vinai to bring Benitez in.
Who is the new manager?
Joint managership of Henry, Bergkamp and Vieira with Ek as Technical Director. It’s the counter offer they accepted from KSE…
That’s it. A trinity combo of failed coaches and managers.
Don’t know but that guy who managed Villarreal yesterday did alright.
Emery ball was painful to watch, don’t pretend like it wasn’t
So basically, he will talk about progress when it suits his agenda but God forbid it doesn’t. I remember watching the video of his first day at Arsenal HQ and one of the first things he asked the staff members were “Do we have drones?” I thought it was bizarre thing to ask for a football manager but banished it to the back of my mind. Over a year or so later and drones seems the least bizzare thing about his tenure. The words false 9 will instill shudders in our fanbase for years. Now I’m hoping we bought those… Read more »
Interesting that when we lose when it’s the players fault he steps up and says no it’s my fault but when it’s his fault he lists the excuses.
We had options for the injuries but he chose otherwise
Could be perhaps be a mixture of his AND the players fault.
The fact that I felt much more deflated when we lost to Birmingham in the carling cup final than what happened over two legs over Villareal shows me how desensitised I’ve become to seeing my club bottle it.
But then again we could’ve played the same and the post would’ve helped at least one of those go in and things would feel different. So is this the classic ‘that’s just football’? Or we are we really as bad as we look?
Definitely as bad as we look. Thats why we are 9th and have lost to villareal
So what is our process now then? It’s getting terrifying tt we are producing more n more lacklustre performance more good ones. Some things has to change and it needs to be done right this time. And no, dont talk to me about trust the process or wanting to invest heavily. Talk is cheap. No more fking ard or we may really end up in the bottom 10 nx season.
If a possession game means keeping the ball in our own half 99% of the time, it is pointless. Whenever there is a break on, we stop and pass back to the defence.
Players seem to have no freedom to do the unexpected in Arteta’s chess game.
So sluggish going forward yesterday. And then that FUCKING backpassing! Any team with a bit of pace and attack would have beaten Villarreal yesterday. Not us though. We let them wear us down.
Arteta will not be sacked simply because he is cheaper than anyone else. Expect more of the same (if not worse) next season. Personally, I think relegation is the only thing Kroenke deserves for fucking this club over in the last 15 years. And it could be the only thing that gets him out too.
Lol. I mentioned the same thing last week and got down-voted to hell. But it might be true, and if we aren’t careful it might actually happen. The clubs finances are a mess right now – there are some alarming similarities between what we have right now and what leeds had when they fell out of Europe – a lot of guys massively overpaid that will be are very hard to impossible to move on. We’re in deep shite and I cannot see a single person (aside from the academy team) in the management and coaching side of this team… Read more »
The squad is not bad, with the right manager we should be fighting for top 4. We need to let MA go and get Rodgers ASAP. If not available get Chris Potter
Bad is a relative term. Compared to say Sheffield United we’re not bad, but compared to what we used to be we’re bad.
As if Rodgers would want to leave a big club like Leicester for Arsenal. Who’s Chris Potter?
Brian Potters less known, more mobile brother. He invented garlic bread, it’s the future
If players aren’t 100%, then why play them?
Regardless of who they are. A game like this, with so much riding on it, why are we gambling on underdone players?
It must be hard to strive for excellence when it becomes apparent that the ownership has no commitment to it.
No, no progress at all. I was hopeful, and I was patient, things looked good around new year…
He talks bullshit, and he needs to go.
Poor football, poor results. If we are a serious football club, then this mediocrity should not be tolerated.
“we deserved to win the game 1-0″…
OMG!
If we would have deserved it, we would have got it!
Wake up Mikel!
The table doesn’ lie!
Forget European football, we haven’t earned it and the Europa Conference League sounds dire. We deserve to be 9th after the performance this season. We need all hands on deck next season for 100% focus on the league, I’m not sure how different things will be with the same players though.
The focus will be on avoiding the relegation battle, like this season has largely been.
No offense, but I will never understand why a competition is described as dire. Are people who do that allergic to winning a potential title or seeing more games of their club? Or what is the expectation for the 9th placed team in the PL? Being seeded in the Champions League quarter finals automatically? I’d rather have the Conference League than having mostly no midweek games to watch, but to each his own. Maybe I should have my head checked because even after yesterday I seem to have the urge to watch more Arsenal games. The truth is, and with… Read more »
“we deserved to win the game”
No we didn’t.
The man lives in a dream world.
He reckons the Kroenkes are ‘excited’ about Arsenal….
Interesting. Why people thought we could sneak into champions league via Europa league is beyond me. Not with this coach. Tuchel has gone to Chelsea and changed everything in 100 days. Rodgers changed Leicester in under 6 months. It is nearly 18 months for Arteta and we are moving backwards. If we can’t get Rodgers this summer, get the Brighton boss.
Plenty of fuckers seem to think we should keep him…
Yes, but you’re not comparing like with like, are you. Both Tuchel and Rogers were experienced managers before they joined their respective clubs. Arteta had no management experience at all – zilch – before joining Arsenal. Being assistant to a world class manager like Pep is a help of course but Arteta wasn’t making the decisions (if he was, why would City need Pep?). Arriving at a club in Arsenal’s position – a club in decline for some years, with limited resources and over-paid players etc. – is nothing like his time at City where their only problem was how… Read more »
*Arteta certainly …
yeah. And who gives a flying fuck if we ‘deserved it’. We didn’t win, end of story. Results are what counts, not whether we ‘deserve it’. And he knows it.
Lame.
In all seriousness, do people really think we have a better team than Villareal to comprehensively beat them, or to finish higher up in the league? The issue is with how badly the club is run. Resources-wise we should blow the smaller teams out of the water 9 times out of 10, but we are badly run. Arteta may well be part of the problem but he has worse squads than Wenger and Emery did. People have short memories – i remember tearing my hair out at how easily we were bullied and chasing the ball around like kids in… Read more »
“In all seriousness, do people really think we have a better team than Villareal to comprehensively beat them, or to finish higher up in the league?”
In all seriousness yes. Yes I do. I know we don’t have a team of world beaters but we are better than 10th in the PL and going out to Villarreal in the EL. Which is why yesterday’s bellyflop is unacceptable to me. Heads need to roll.
I completely agree. We are bad, but we are still better than that, or at least should be. I don’t say we would or should have beaten Utd. in a final, but yes, we are better than that if we bring our potential onto the pitch. Sad thing is that very often we don’t. I wouldn’t mind going out to the Spaniards if we had the same wage structure, but I bet our wage bill for the squad is at least thrice as high. In such case we have either well paid superstars who don’t perform as they should/could at… Read more »
Blimey, 18 thumbs up people really do need to put their bias aside. Villareal have a team of players who are Spain internationals, and others with proven careers across Europe and you think we should comprehensively beat them.. Chambers, holding could quite honestly be championship defenders. Mari was playing in Brazil for a reason. Odegaard shipped out on loan by a club who flog all of their mediocrity. Don’t even get me started on the bench.. nketiah wouldn’t get into Barca B.. even bielsa cut his loan short and could see that. We’ve got about 5/6 good players, none world… Read more »
Yup, Villareal has at least one really good player in every line. Torres, Parejo, Gerard are all better than their arsenal counterparts
None of our players except tierney, partey and saka would start for Villareal.
Lego head and toupee head in particular.
We have a way better squad than wenger had post the successful years. Wenger had a knack of finding 2-3 players in each squad to carry the team forward. We have spent heavily since he left and have become worse. Arteta is obsessed with turning arsenal into Man City style. We do not have them players FFS. Wenger would of played everything through Pepe for example, he wouldnt of put Party in a one man midfield, he would of risked Saliba, martenelli would be playing everygame, Aubamayang would be told to do nothing different than score, he would of played… Read more »
If Arsene had been in charge this season we may not have even been in a semi-final.
False nine and one man midfield these are the reasons we are out of the final. Artetas choices, nobody else’s. play the right players in their natural position and things may just as well turn up okay. Try to reinvent the wheel and you’ll get stuck.
Agree completely. Too many fans here think we’re entitled to win because they know nothing more than the great Arsenal teams we used to have. This is a shitter, more raw side than the previous managers had, and the poor results will continue until the squad is rebuilt
I don’t think we’re entitled win anything. Villarreal thoroughly deserved their victory and I hope they go on to win the EL. But we fucking well should have beaten them Thursday. We have the players to do it but we didn’t and it’s not acceptable.
I hope that the experience humbles Arteta – he came in riding high with all his non-negotiables and it seems his attitude wasn’t well received by the players – it’s clear that this is not a team playing for their manager.
Wenger was a humble manager and hugely liked by players and ex-players, and this could be a turning point for Arteta, to realise that there are different ways of communicating ideas, no just to be heard but also to be received.
What’s the point of a manager if he can’t put his foot up the arse of players with the wrong attitude?
How did that work for Roy Keane as a manager? Not well. Players have to buy into a vision and it depends on how you communicate it.
The hell and fury approach works for a little while, but it’s hard to maintain. Self-belief is more powerful than fear and more enduring.
Putting a player with a shit attitude in his place has nothing to do with being Roy Keane.
You’re right about Wenger but the problem there was that, in the end, the players just didn’t do what he wanted which is one reason why performances dropped and he was sacked. You can’t imagine his great rival, Ferguson, putting up with that. The bottom line with any manager must be “My way or the highway”.
I think we need to focus on getting the right players this summer. Arteta has got things wrong and it has cost us but he has also got some things right. Three managers have gone through this squad and achieved nothing. I want the squad sorted out this summer before a new manager is brought in and I’d personally give Arteta another half a season unless he has lost the dressing room. I just hope Garlick is the guy who prevents another Willian coming in.
A voice of reason!
I can’t even have the strength to talk after such. It’s been long since I watched my Arsenal and tears were almost flowing. It’s sad seeing cow conceding a free kick and the players behind the ball for Arsenal? Saka and ESR. This has been happening since 2009 when we had Wilshire, Ramsey, Theo, nasri, and later the likes of gervinho were bought”to bring experience” .. the quality and team spirit was better than what we currently have, with fans and even players themselves blaming inexperience. Different manager, different management, different players, one denominator, same results. I don’t blame it… Read more »
It is time for new owners, this squad cannot compete for trophies. Arsenal need to win a trophy every season if we are to compete in the Champions league and be on par with City, PSG, Real Madrid and Bayern. Look at Chelsea, if they win the Champions League they will become a better club for players to win trophies in London. Look at the magic Antonio Conte has done at Inter this season. Arsenal need a manager like him to convince the players we are a new club.
Yes those absolute twonks who own the club must leave BUT so must the manager and he must leave now. We are the only ‘top 6’ to have a permanent inexperienced manager in charge. Remember when Chelsea did that? He was a far bigger legend with them than Arteta is with us, yet a proper owner fired his ass and they’re in the UCL final. No, this is not solely Arteta’s fault, far from it but he must go. As a disillusioned fan I honestly don’t give a crap anymore and I know many more of my mighty Gooners feel… Read more »
There’s a lot of problems top to bottom. I’m interested in seeing how this vinai-edu-arteta trio plays out. Do they maintain their unity and come up with a plan for summer? Or does Vina or Edu fire the man below them to save themself? If all three hang on they need one hell of a summer and a big start to next season. If one goes then they all should go. I can’t see anyone else working well in that structure. I also like the idea of a fan campaign refusing to use Arsenal sponsors until Kroenke goes. No flying… Read more »
So you want a self sustaining club but then you want to bankrupt it? That’s not a very good way to fund new players.
I want a self sustaining club with owners that truly want to compete and succeed.
I don’t want a club ran by Kroenke that is just another “investment”.
So yes if we don’t get the big money sponsorship I can live with that if it means the chances of a sale are increased. Stan needs to be hit in the pocket before he would ever sell. We’re not competing or winning anything until he’s gone. Money in the bank or not.
I suspect that the firing of a manager will be down to Stan (or Josh acting on his behalf) rather than Vina or Edu. That will change the decision making dynamic, if not the decision itself.
I wonder how many of our fans would, in “normal” times, actually fly Emirates or visit Rwanda because of the sponsorship connection to the club. A potential boycott of Adidas products may be more practical but it would need to be on a huge scale and even then it would probably take a sometime to feed back to Arsenal, income-wise. Possibly worth a try.
It’s not necessarily the impact but the statement. A vocal and visible campaign will deter sponsors. Why sponsor a club when the fans will be visibly and audibly encouraging boycott of sponsors at games.
What would the marketing people at Emirates think if fans unfurl a fucking huge “don’t fly emirates banner” at a home game (when fans return). An image shared across the globe.
The morning after the night before. Clearly, the club (and the fans) are at a very low point now. Nobody outside of the top circles in the club know what’s likely to happen if, indeed, they do – which is uncertain. So it’s all guesswork. For what it’s worth (probably very little), my views are: Ownership – While it’s possible that Stan could decide to sell up on the back of growing unpopularity and the likely lack of European football/income next season, I think he’ll stay. Manager – The club hired a totally inexperienced manager in Arteta. It wasn’t his… Read more »
Top half trophy
This is a man who had Ozil one of the most creative players in the world in his team half the season and never used him…
We thought he had something special😢😢😢
Ozil isn’t exactly pulling up trees in Turkey and those fan who crowdfunded his wages and those celebrities who sponsored him must be wondering what the hype was all about by now. I loved Mesut Ozil in his first three seasons but I don’t think he was the answer at the end.
I’m usually of the opinion that managers/coaches make little difference to the outcome of the season. It’s the players and the recruitment of players. Arsenal is rotten to the core. However, seeing what Tuchel has done at Chelsea, Arteta’s team selections for the first leg, his conservatism and micro management have made the players inhibited and the football is dreadful. So slow, backward passing, loads of errors etc. Arteta out!
My gripe I’ve had all year with Arteta; – He thought he could take on the premiership as if it was the FA cup, keep it tight and nick a goal. Well unfortunately 75% of teams in Prem will take a draw as its not knock out and ended up nicking the win. Playing out from the back – how have they still not learned it defensive partnerships. Just play the best fucking player for that position Throwing players under the bus but not others (Pepe vs Willian) not going with youth i,e if we finished the season with a… Read more »
Fuck this shit, see you all in August
Classic Kroenkeball.
It’s easy to understand people wanting Arteta out. There’s no hiding from the fact that this season has been a disaster and last night’s performance was tepid and gutless; which hurts me more than the defeat itself. The odds were always going to be more in favour of a novice manager struggling than a novice manager succeeding. However, I would probably stick with Arteta for now. As painful as last night’s result & performance was / is, to me, it makes no sense to go through all of the pain of appointing a novice manager and not see it… Read more »
Biggest fickup was in the first leg when MA tried to be smart with a false 9 shit. He does have a player for that.
Unless you try one man midfield
Arteta will not be fired because management is committed to the rebuild, understanding full well that major disappointment like this season could well happen. We knew this was as likely to happen as it was that everything worked out and we were back in the top four, when we hired a rookie manager and gave him the keys. Pretending otherwise is ignoring the truth. We made a choice not to take the revolving experienced manager door route to keep us afloat near the top, and decided instead to go all in on an overhaul (management structure) and a rebuild to… Read more »
I agree that it’s unlikely he’ll go in the summer. You’re right that it took a long time to get into this situation but patience is often a scarce commodity in football so I doubt he’ll have too long to turn things around. If there’s no clear improvement, and that means the PL, he’ll probably be out at the end of next season.
Agreed. I think the patience Arsenal FC have asked their fans to demonstrate now and in the recent past has been excessive, but it’s all we’ve got at the moment to get us through this nightmare. The club at large and squad in particular have been mismanaged for a long time now, but I want to believe that Edu and MA and Per are realigning things to ensure consistent results going forward. I don’t see MA and Edu taking a day off this summer, that’s for sure.
Hi guys. When MA came and gave his 1st presser we were all excited. Get our values back etc. My son was the only 1 that was telling everyone he knew it was the wrong move because he had never managed anywhere. Myself and his pals just laughed in his face..He who laughs last eh? I started to doubt the manager when he came out with that crap about Burnley and 1 other team having a 3% and 7% (I think) chance of winning WTF was that all about. Can’t talk about the game still too raw but I think… Read more »
Progress. LOLZ.
The only progress we can point to is the development of Saka and Smith-Rowe, that is it. Tierney was solid (when he wasn’t injured), but there is nothing else to be optimistic about. No way Odegaard will be back with our not having any European football and what quality player will want to come here with the state this club is? It may be that our only path to rebuild is go with young players, take our lumps for another year and hope they can slowly build the squad back to the level we expect.
Came across some truly depressing stats. Between August 2015 and August 2020, Arsenal were held scoreless five times at the Emirates Between August 2020 and now, they have failed to score on TEN occasions Arsenal won 14 PL matches at home in Emery’ first season. They won 15 PL matches at home and drew two in Wenger’s last season. Contrast with Arteta whose team has been lost SEVEN matches at home and failed to score in EIGHT of 17 matches. 19 goals in 17 matches at home is PL. Arsenal scored more goals at home in the 17/18 season than… Read more »
How many times has he said we “deserved” a win? We absolutely did not deserve a thing from that display last night.
Arteta Out…? WTF…why not… But it’ll fix absolutely nothing at the club. Some of the Minuses: Arsenal Football Club has been chasing shiny objects for years—FA Cups that are ultimately meaningless to the club’s league and European progress, grizzled veteran players from Chelsea, loan signings of Real Madrid’s underdeveloped talent. Administrative chaos and failed attempts to rebuild back room structure since Wenger left—Gazidis, Sanlehi, Emery, Fahmy, Mislintat, Gunnersaurus, 50 redundancies, player pay-cuts. Player Development/Player Management—Pepe progressing but too slowly for the club’s needs, Partey has regressed from La Liga form that made him one of Europe’s best, Tierney’s injury problems… Read more »
He’ll be back sitting beside Pep in the City dugout before Christmas.
Then you’ll see the gradual drip feed of interviews. “In hindsight, I should have……
A lot of people are calling for Arteta’s head however if we take a step back and assess the situation rationally you’d see that 1. We hired a manager with zero experience, 2. He’s working with largely the same players who have failed us in the past 2 seasons 3. He’s working around a club structure which is ineffective, at best 4. We hired him with a 3-4 year plan in mind. Given all of the above should we realistically expect to be playing CL football after one full season? And thats not to give Arteta an excuse (as a… Read more »
Right. Now look at the Premiership table ‘rationally.’
13 defeats and counting.
9th. Ask yourself, is that really acceptable in May, for this club?
The team showed very little spirit and a will to win, very disappointed.
One step forward three steps backward
I don’t get this ‘slow process give Arteta time’ nonsense… Tuchel has come in and instantly turned Chelsea around bringing a more dynamic brand of footy. Ancelotti came in same time as Arteta into an abject Everton and has turned it around with more frugal resources. West ham, Leicester, Villa all punching above us in league. Not good enough. OTOH who is available to replace another issue. There will be many BIGGER clubs looking for replacements this summer complicating it …RM, Juve, Bayern etc… Then there is the Euros which nominally otherwise would have maybe seen Intl managers like Low… Read more »
Tuchel comparisons make no sense when Chelsea’s squad are miles better than ours. They have an expensive team that makes sense to be at the top. Our players with few exceptions are midtable quality, plain and simple.
O’Leary talked crap about Arsenal at Leeds and hasn’t held a meaningful role in the game in a long time.
Overmars (there is no second a) has made expensive missteps at Ajax himself and can outspend the league massively just like Bayern in Germany.
Low has been exposed as yesterday’s news and has never done it at club level.
Players we need for this summer … 1) GK – Get Ramsdale or Areola. Someone with a bit of height. 2) LB – Critical. Xhaka has done his best but far from an ideal solution sans Tierney. 3) CM – Guendouzi should be an option if he can be managed. Otherwise Willock should come in. 4) AM – not convinced by Odegaard. As much as Ceballos has liabilities, he is a very active player whom I think Arteta is playing too deep to our detriment where he can be an asset deployed higher up. 5) FW – Odsonne edouard or… Read more »