Thursday, October 10, 2024

Arteta on defeat, Lukaku, disgruntled fans and Tierney’s injury

Mikel Arteta says Arsenal’s season won’t be decided by results in the opening month of the season but he can understand the disenchantment of supporters after Chelsea ran out easy 2-0 winners in front of a full-house at the Emirates.

Debutant Romelu Lukaku and Reece James put their European champions in a commanding position before half time as an injury and illness-ravaged Gunners side produced a disjointed and toothless performance.

Here’s what the boss had to say when he was quizzed by the BBC’s Jonathan Pearce…

On disgruntled fans, consecutive defeats and Covid issues…

No, I don’t think the club in the history has faced something like this but it is what is coming and we have to face the challenge. It’s about fighting against those moments. The league, the season, the table is not decided in August at all. There’s a lot to happen. The worst thing you can do is throw in the towel. It doesn’t go with me, it doesn’t go with the history of this football club and certainly we’re not going to do that.

On the way Arsenal failed to deal with Lukaku in the opening stages…

It’s a really difficult situation. He’s managed to do that with any defender in Europe for the last 10 seasons, the in the Premier League, in Italy, wherever he’s played. That’s why they brought his quality and that’s why he’s the world class player he is. We tried. We tried in many different ways. There are ways to take more risks, we still have solutions to do that. Listen, they are a top side. That’s why they won the Champions League and there’s nothing to hide; they were the better side today.

On whether Arsenal could have done more to stop Lukaku with the ball at his feet…

Yes, you can do that. And even when he was tight in other positions, he managed to get the ball away, we won the ball in other situations. It doesn’t go for you all the time and with the quality players they have they find solutions even when everything is perfect. Congratulations to them for the way they played.

On whether the Covid situation will clear soon…

Not at the moment, it looks like the group that we had today are the group that we’ll have for the rest of the week.

On whether Arsenal might do more transfer business…

We don’t know. Anything can happen in the window. There are still 10 days to go, we can have players in and players out.

On Tierney getting the crowd on their feet…

I think the crowd right from the beginning were behind the team. Obviously, when you are losing, you cannot expect the crowd to be happy, let’s be realistic. I think they have given all the support that they could but at the end, they are here to watch the team win and when they don’t they have to show disappointment. It’s natural and as well, it is the demands of the football club.

On Tierney’s injury.

It’s his thigh.

On the positives from a tough day…

There are a lot of positives, there are players that making debuts in the Premier League, five or six players who are 19 or 20-years-old in the team. They are having their first experiences at this level and to play against this group of players. That’s going to have a really positive impact but at the moment, it’s difficult.

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Henkamp

We should have let Mikel complete his learning under Guardiola.

I can’t wrap my head around how Everton have managed to appoint better, more proven managers than us in quick 
succession. It’s ridiculous.

Nainsley Aitland Miles

Everton finished below us last season and will do so again this season.

Lanre

Dream on. We are 19th, Everton is 6th.

DB10's Air Miles

It’s game week 2 ffs.

Goo-nerd

We lost against newly promoted Brentford with a squad that cost 10x theirs ffs. Unacceptable.

Futsboller

I love the sound of ragtime.

Luther

But Brentford won’t finish above us. Anyone can beat anyone in a one-off match.
Did you only start watching football yesterday?!
FFS

Vaibhav Pandey

The whole prep got disrupted due to covid cases and I blame players to be more responsible. This players getting away from their responsibility is not fine with me, Auba should get a kick up his backside for doing so much harm at the beginning of the season. I hope White doesn’t have covid as rumored.

Goonshow

yeah – ring the FA and tell ’em to end the season now, why don’t ya!

Henkamp

We have also spent more than them and on paper, have better players than they have.

blink

But not Chelsea, Man C, Man U etc so we will finish below them. Liverpool have better players than us & Spurs have been above us for 5 years& you can say Leicester have better players probably. We should be able to compete with them but not the top 4 at the moment.

A Different George

Unfortunately, that is right. I think in a few years, Liverpool too will be in roughly the same situation as us (and Spurs–I know no one wants to admit that). Big club, big money, but nothing like the Manchester clubs and Chelsea.

Luther

I’ve been making the same prediction about Liverpool too. Our failure to win the league since 2004 has been more down to those clubs’ financial muscle than anything we’ve done or not done. We had a genius manager who did really well to at least keep us on their coattails, but the less educated but louder section of our fanbase hounded him out – if he couldn’t topple them and win the league, then how could anyone expect any other manager to be able to?!

Cliff Bastin

We have spent more than any team in Europe so far this window.

Brian

Finally! We’re so far behind that 130 million has only bought us 2 starters and 3 bench players. If we had been doing that for 5, 10, 15 years we would be where big clubs are. Instead, we buy one star player per year for about 50 million and surround them with trash. Can’t keep up with the Jones’ doing that. Repeat this window and hopefully, in a few years, we’ll spend that 100 :million on a star player and he will be surrounded by good players.

Teta's cult of personality

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. If it’s too early in the season for our season to be down the drain, then it’s too early to say we’ll finish above Everton.bWe managed to break another negative record tonight – First time in the league in over a century to not score in our first two games. Sheffield United didn’t score in their first 2 games in 2020/21 Watford didn’t score in their first 2 league games in 2019/20 Cardiff City didn’t score in their first 2 league games in 2018/19 Swansea City didn’t score score in their first 2 league… Read more »

atom

There are certain jobs where it’s not really about time spent learning under someone else per say. At some point a coach needs to take charge of his own team and see whether he has what it takes. Arteta for better or worse looks increasingly like he doesn’t have what it takes to be a PL level manager. He’s far too wedded to certain players and tactics that aren’t working. No amount of time could ever simulate that as at the end of the day there’s a real pressure that comes with being in charge that just isn’t there as… Read more »

Crash Fistfight

Maybe the Belgium manager position will become available and he can take that job.

Tierney’s Tescopoints

A club as big as Arsenal should not be giving a rookie manager the chance to cut his teeth on a first job. Ridiculous! He should have gone to Spain or be managing in the lower leagues over here. Tells you how clueless the owners are that they also let the inexperienced Edu have such an important role in shaping this team. That’s the guy who delivered Willian and Cedric for us courtesy of his mate Joorabchian. They obviously think ex players are the answer. It will be Thierry Henry next…..

thw14

As much we shouldn’t have appointed Arteta, I disagree that he’s incapable of being a good manager. The issue is that we’re willing to be a training ground, that too after 10 years of tight transfer budgets. If he’d taken up a top-of-Championship or mid-EPL-table job and done it well, I’d have been happy for him to be given a go in 2024 or 2025. This idea that “if you’re good enough, you’re old enough” is partially true, but taking it to the extreme flies in the face of everything we know about growth, experience, just time. Arsene joined this… Read more »

The Arsenal

People really should take a look at someone like Brendan Rodgers Resume. and he still isn’t a shoe in for top jobs. Yet green Arteta can just walk into ARSENAL FC that is still trying to get over 2 decades of a genius and is in a huge transition period. Somehow the most inexperienced person available was the man for the job.

Futsboller

Which just might indicate that his potential is worth the learning curve.

Fabulous

To bank on “potential” when you need immediate result is just reckless.

Luther

No mate; not Brendan Rodgers. Don’t believe the hype from the media, who have many xenaphobic agendas. They try to brainwash the public by exaggerating the achievements of British and Irish managers and players, and downplaying the achievements of their foreign counterparts.

Lion

Thank you sir. Just look at Balogun. His skills set is too narrow for the hype he gets. There are hundreds of better foreign strikers than this dude.

Luther

I wouldn’t have used Balogun as the example to make my point. I would say Chambers and Holding are spared a lot of flack from pundits.

Crash Fistfight

I think it’s the exact opposite. Everybody infers that British coaches are tactically naive and/or want to play “agricultural” football, yet because Mikel Arteta is Spanish, people don’t realise how cowardly his style of football is (and if you actually look at it, so is Pep Guardiola’s football – his teams keep the ball all day because he’s scared of what will happen when the other team has it).

Luther

Yeah there exists a bias in that direction too, but not from the media.

If Brendan Rodgers were a foreigner, he’d have a reputation for being a bottler by now, given Leicester’s collapse in the top four race these last two seasons, and Liverpool’s collapse in the title race in 2014.

Whenever we lose, have you noticed how it’s usually our foreign players, rather than the British ones, who are singled out in the post-match analysis?

heihaci

he never should have been considered as manager with his lack of experience but loads of ppl thought this guy was something special and pushed this trust the process bs!

Dan Crayford

I don’t think anyone can really believe the manager is the problem when all of our senior players are out or severely affected by COVID. Judge Arteta once he’s had a few months with a full(er) squad, not after two difficult games with half his tools taken from him.

God of all Bergkamps

Agree. I fear this opinion is in the minority though. No patience in football.

Bodie CI5

No patience,,,,, we’ve been waiting 17 years, don’t ya think that’s long enough??!!!

Luther

You come across as though you think you’re entitled to a league title on a frequent basis.

Fabulous

There is patience, but it has to be mutual as well. You can’t expect fans to be patient when on the field there is no signs of improvement. Our inability to defend or attack as a unit is irrelevant of the personnel at hand. Yes better players may execute the tactics better, but the tactics themselves as I said, is pretty obviously incoherent. It’s the same thing we’ve said since last year, we can’t create chances, our number one choice of chance creation is Tierney crosses and inshAllah, our wingers are isolated, our strikers are isolated, we don’t press well… Read more »

Hakuna Matata

He has had 1.5 years with this group apart from sambi. Stl there is no semblance of a style of play

IamaGoober

I do not understand how people are thumbing this comment down @Henkamp? Mikel Arteta has just been beaten by two managers who are opposite ends of the spectrum in the last 7 days. Take Tuchel — that guy was managing academy sides for VfB Stuttgart for 5 years. Then he went to Mainz and did well there before moving on to Dortmund, PSG and now Chelsea. Even someone like Thomas Frank who comprehensively beat him last weekend. He managed at Brondby IF in the Danish Super League for 3/4 years before being promoted to manager of Brentford and has been… Read more »

Henkamp

I really don’t care about the thumbs-down, bro. I say my bit and leave. Arseblog is the only place where I can rant and let out all the frustrations I feel about this club. I don’t do Twitter because that place is too toxic and full of kids arguing blindly. Everything you’ve written down is exactly the way I feel, 100%. I was thinking about how MAJORITY of the managers Arteta would pit his wits against this season are more experienced and better than he is. Klopp, Benitez, Hassenhuttl, Farke, Porter, etc. When he was new to the scene, he… Read more »

IamaGoober

Yeah — i don’t understand why people can’t see the wood through the trees. It was always going to be this way, for Mikel Arteta to be the success story all the stat fans and Athletic readers what him to be — you’re talking about a million to one stuff. This is the same league that has chewed up and spat out managers with serious pedigree, not your first day at school scenario. Most weeks in this league, the opposing number in the dugout is a multimillionaire serial winner with hundreds of games under their belt at the top of… Read more »

Futsboller

Of course something is wrong, but you don’t just fix it by firing and hiring. We’re 9 days into the season and people are writing everything off as doomed. My goodness. Everyone on here has been through countless seasons with this club — it’s not too early to be critical, but it’s too early to panic.

Arteta has beaten Pep, Ole, Klopp, Tuchel and pretty much every manager in the PL aside from the new ones. He is young, but he’s no longer inexperienced. He’ll sort it out.

Fabulous

You don’t fix it by persisting with what doesn’t work either.

Mentalista

9 days into the season. 612 days into The Process.

IamaGoober

Those matches where he beat Klopp, Pep, Tuchel are complete outliers. And I would not include Ole in that list of Premier League managers. Anyway — results against City, Liverpool they’re the exceptions not the rule. To lament those as some kind of reason to persist with a guy who is basically setting records all over the place for losing games as Arsenal manager is absolutely crazy. This is what the first time in over a hundred years Arsenal have lost their opening 2 games without even scoring. And next weekend it will be 3 games in a row without… Read more »

Futsboller

If the big games that he as won are just outliers and if the season is over after 2 matches, then I have nothing else to tell you.

I guess the inevitable question becomes: who do we bring in as the next coach?

Luther

Arsene Wenger

Tony 2

Brilliant and 110% endorsed. No reply or words needed

Fabulous

Well said

PeteyB

I think I agree 90% with you. But I’m not convinced Conte would be the right guy for us.

I’d also love Arteta to turn things around and get a little luck. Right now it seems the world is against him.

IamaGoober

Nor am I — but in reality there aren’t a lot of top guys around at the moment. Also, off the back of several left field managers I think we just need to make a nonsensical risk averse appointment and bring someone in with a bit of pedigree and experience of the Premier League. Conte ticks all those boxes, I appreciate he plays pragmatic football to a degree. But ultimately bringing him in will improve us instantaneously. And crucially it will calm a large portion of the fan base too, which is something that this club desperately need to do.… Read more »

crazy gunner

I won’t lie I was one of those looking for the fairy tale and I have tbh it would’ve been nice for a former player who learned under Pep bright young coach who was going to turn the rot in the club around… I am not ashamed to say I was wrong!…but what I am is critical both of myself and Arteta… when we lost to villa 4 nil last season was the first sign of alarm bells and I felt something was very wrong…most clubs would’ve have sacked arteta before xmas last year Now for the guys who think… Read more »

IamaGoober

Speaking completely objectively I can kind of understand why KSE appointed Arteta. And to be clear this is not me defending them, as I literally despise the Kroenkes. Fundamentally he was an extremely cheap hire. His salary is minuscule in comparison to other top managers. He came with a lot of buzz around him from someone like Guardiola, which is naturally going to peak the interest of foreign owners who don’t really understand the landscape of European Football. Also — I think they did something similar with the LA Rams; they replaced the former legacy manager who’d been at the… Read more »

Snagger

Go compare

Mick Malthouse

Seems to forgotten the shite that was last season. Nothing has changed.

The shite last season was largely at the end of 2020. This calendar year has seen a clear improvement.

Mick Malthouse

How would you describe our improvement?

Through our form guide.

August to end of 2020 – P16, W6, D2, L8

2021 to today – P24 W12 D5 L7.

We’ve gone from a 50% loss ratio at the end of 2020 to a 50% win ratio this year.

Even without the stats, you can see a clear improvement on the pitch with ESR and Odegaard in the team.

Mick Malthouse

Granted statistically its an improvement, but 7 losses from 24 games us still shite! Less shite than 2020, but shite all the same!

Naija Gooner

The improvement is we failed to win half of our games…wow

magazine_gap

First, you have to sniff glue and then bang your head against a wall.
Then the improvement is clear.

The Arsenal

We were the calender year champs…and had the 3rd best defence in the league….and since christmas…..These are the excuses we have fallen too. Imagine telling Henry we were the calender year champs, or Sol campbell or Adams would have been content with the 3rd best defence in the leagues.

Andy

Who gives a monkey’s bellend about calendar year champs?

Fabulous

That’s the point he was making I believe

Andy

I was echoing the sentiment. I’m not as dumb as I look.

The Arsenal

C o m p r e h e n s i o n

Monkey Knees

Look at the form/points/clean sheets… Crikey, i hate our fans sometimes

Henkamp

Tierney, Gabriel, Partey, all injured. We really are cursed

Daveo

We’re not cursed, we’re just run by fucking clowns from top to bottom. Excuses, excuses, excuses. I wouldn’t be suprised if some people here blamed our pursuit of the ESL as being associated with our “bad luck” or the “genuine English FA conspiracy against Arsenal”.

#KroenkeOut
#ArtetaOut
#EduOut
#VinaiOut

ClockEndRider

Left leg out.
ohhh the Hokey Cokey.

God of all Bergkamps

Great idea let’s just burn it all down. The fan base are so reactionary. Has it always been like this.

Daveo

What does a Frog do if you put it in boiling water? It does everything in it’s power to get the fuck out…

What does a frog do if it is put in cold water and brought to the boil?

Futsboller

No, it hasn’t always been like this; it’s gotten this way, on Arseblog at least, increasingly since 2015.

Daveo

I wonder why?
2015/16 we finished 2nd.
Since then…
5th,
6th,
5th,
8th,
8th,
(currently 19th).

Fabulous

And believe me arseblog community is the least hostile and most reasonable fan platform there is. If we’re disgruntled here then something is clearly off.

Futsboller

I would have agreed with you a few years ago, but there is a higher volume of bitter spunk on here these days. Much less mutual respect, much less dignified disagreement, much more denigrating and derogatory treatment of players and manager. It’s fine, of course, we’re all still here and all able to live with it, but it’s not as clearly linked to results as you suggest.

Mpls

If you include the last 3-4 years of Wenger as ‘these days’ I’ll agree with you. But those were the worst I’ve seen. People really were acting like total shitheads. The amount of unhinged, hateful, biased bile was really really poor. We have earned our reputation as a fan base.

Teta's cult of personality

You’re right actually. Football fans are usually reactive (to varying levels). Even during matches from the 1st minute to the last. That’s actually quite normal

I read a recent article where David Seaman said that a lot of Arsenal fans initially didn’t like him as a Lukic replacement and used to chant that they didn’t want him playing at the club.

Luther

No it hasn’t, mate. Once upon a time, we had the most intelligent fanbase around – maybe not the loudest, but I’d say the smartest. But then TalkSport became big, the likes of Piers Morgan started giving opinions on Twitter, AFTV was born, and our fanbase has drastically dumbed down since. We’ve always had supporters who have been critical of some players who they didn’t think were good enough for the club, including myself, but always wanted to be proven wrong so that the team would be successful. Nowadays, many fans would prefer to be right (or perceived to be… Read more »

Der32

Nobody asked him why no one was marking James for both goals? We knew Chelsea were gonna play 3 defenders with 2 wingbacks, yet we seem so blindsided whenever James comes forward. Blind management, inept tactics. I am so tired of Arteta’s Arsenal. Jaded. And I remembered how this feeling started when Arteta took Ozil out of the squad and we instantly had trouble scoring. Froze out Saliba when we had incompetent defenders. One year later and not much has changed in terms of his management. Not one decision of his has turned out to be correct too. Fraud. Odegaard… Read more »

truj

Then Look at the defence : Soares not up to standards, Holding is not the solution, Mari is slow, Tierney’s defensive mistakes forgived because he is a real attacking threat. And Bellerin is the past, a shadow, Mustafi was a disaster, Mavropanos unknown, Luiz was sometimes a public enemy and of course Kolasinac have to leave just like Chambers. Ben is shit of course after one game, Gabriel is young but….????
But just give some more time and money to Arteta.

The Arsenal

Love people downvoting this but not saying anything to refute the facts presented

Fabulous

For one, Mari is his purchase. Second, Luiz was afforded an extension under him. You can’t sign these players then say they’re weak when we’re porous. Three, Holding is actually our more reliable defender, not spectacular but does the job well. Four, there’s a certain Saliba who has yet to be given a chance. “He’s too green,” says one of the most rookie managers in the league, the irony.

Mpls

Holding didn’t cover himself in glory yesterday. He was pulled out of position and should have been available to help Mari with Lukaku on several occasions.

But I’m. Or making an entire judgment on this one match, because I’ve seen Holding play some excellent ball for us.

Canadagoon

Stop banging on about Ozil already, the guy has been washed for years and isn’t lighting up the league in Turkey

Goo-nerd

Y’all are so butthurt about Ozil that his mere mention spooks you.

Alan Sunderland

The silaba loans are baffling considering the quality of our central defenders.

Some perspective is needed. We missed SIX out of TEN of our strongest outfield lineup (Bellerin, White, Gabriel, Partey, Odegaard, Aubameyang) and Tierney and Saka couldn’t finish the game.

We’ll lose next week but genuinely think in September we’re a different prospect. Not singling out Xhaka at all but I see us quickly moving to Partey/Lokongo in the middle. Add to that a fully fit Aubameyang and Saka. Odegaard to come in.

ClockEndRider

Well put.

loose_cannon

That may excuse the result, but it doesn’t excuse that shambolic and catatonic display, one we’ve seen too often under Arteta even with everyone fit.

Nainsley Aitland Miles

Most of the shambolic Arteta displays were last year at the end of 2020. This year there haven’t been too many shambolic displays although the Europa League semis stick out like a sore thumb and the Brentford game is fresh in all our minds.

Daveo

Well if you excuse away all the shambolic displays with things like “we were better after christmas”, or “we lost Auba and Laca before the game”, or “now White is injured too” then sure we’re fucking fantastic and the only thing that will prevent us from winning the league is just bad luck.

No other teams in world football suffer injuries and it’s such an anti-Arsenal farce that the English FA didn’t award us Champions league football based on our incredible form in 2020 (that included only 7 losses)…

Luther

I agree with you that Arteta isn’t the right manager for us, but can’t you debate like a grown up? Maybe you should stop giving your opinions until after you’ve come out of puberty.

Chipper49

Hope you’re right on this. Starting to fear Mikel Arteta is an ‘unlucky’ manager in terms of personnel…

Daveo

Or just not ready to be a manager at a big club…

Daveo

Maybe I’m getting downvoted here because we’re not a big club anymore, fair enough.

J2W

Maybe you should take some deep breaths and calm down a bit and stop shouting down people trying to remain positive.

Luther

No, you’re being downvoted because you argue like petulant bitch!

Henkamp

You sound like the board. Read somewhere earlier last week that they too believe that we have a tough fixture list and believe that results will only start to pick up after the first 3 games, hence no danger of firing Arteta.

But is that a good-enough excuse? Aren’t these the teams we are supposed to be beating if we want to be taken as a serious club once again? Why should we just write off the first month of a football calendar and hope things pick up later?

That’s just a sad mentality

Nainsley Aitland Miles

It’s a disgrace that we were bullied to defeat at Brentford but I just don’t see the logic in sacking Arteta in August.

Dom47

Yes, I agree he should’ve been sacked after emery tore him a new one. From then on it’s just becoming more and more logical.

Teta's cult of personality

Well the logic is that you get a new coach in early. By doing so you give the coach a chance to steady the ship, assess the situation and enough time to evaluate if additions will be needed in January.

We’ve already seen under Arteta that having a pick-up in form mid-season (December/January) is not enough to save a season. So why wait till then? It’s literally impossible for a manager to do worse than no goals scored and no points gained.

The Arsenal

People are still talking about having the 3rd best defence last season and we won the calender trophy apparently. That’s how far we have fallen.

Rummy

There’s a stat doing the rounds that Arteta has now lost more home games than Wenger’s last 6 years. Even with perspective we’re not looking great.

Henkamp

Add to the fact that every time we fall behind, we are toast. It’s simply game over. We have never come back to win a game under Arteta. It’s just sad.

Luther

Either get your facts right, or shut the fuck up! We went 1-0 down away to Southampton and Leicester last season, and came back to win both games 3-1. We went 1-0 down at home to Liverpool in the season they won the league, and came back to win 2-1. We won the F.A. Cup final 2-1 against Chelsea after going behind. These are just off the top of my head. Imagine if I looked up all our matches under Arteta – you’d look like an even bigger mug. And I say this despite the fact that I agree with… Read more »

Daveo

How did you put it? “Petulant bitch”?

Luther

I argued my point by delivering facts, whereas you argued yours by misrepresenting the person you were arguing with through immature sarcasm and extreme exaggerations.

Do you comprehend now?

Daveo

“or shut the fuck up”, delightfully mature.

Luther

As an alternative to getting facts right – yes.

Daveo

Fact is we are not good right now. If you want to focus on a couple of cherry picked examples of us picking up points after going behind sure go for it, tell people to shut the fuck up all you like, but the reality is much more often than not we don’t fight back. You’re right, I don’t rate Xhaka at all, but I’m not alone there and I’m not alone in being frustrating with seeing him as a constant in a team that is progressively getting worse, it to add insult to injury he’s made captain again after… Read more »

Hank Scorpio

Way to add padding to that list 1. Bellerin is not our first choice RB these days 2. White would have been plundered by Lukaku today given his size and how easily he was bossed by Toney. 3. Auba is also hardly our instant first choice and chance creation is an ongoing problem – he wasn’t greatly last year but scored in line with his career chance conversion rate. No need to panic yet but the same issues are still there. Don’t be so sure about Xhaka. What you’re saying makes perfect sense in terms of midfield partnerships but Arteta… Read more »

Fabulous

We had a near fully fit squad for both legs against Villarreal, yet the same problem persists. I’ve said so many times player availability is only a small comparison to the tactics being deployed. The latter is the reason for most fans’ gripe.

Gamblah

He’s an exact mirror as a manager of what he was as a player

ClockEndRider

It’s funny, I don’t remember people criticising him as a player, or saying he wasn’t up to it. I’m afraid this is just not true.

Gamblah

Mediocre with an air of confidence and dignity and loved passing sideways

Fabulous

Nah that’s BS. I clearly have issues with him as a manager but as a player many of us even said he’s better than Carrick at one point in his career.

clay

he was always accused of passing side ways and “stat padding” 🙂

magazine_gap

Thoroughly mediocre player.
It’s taken nearly 20 years for Kroenke to crash standards at their ‘soccer franchise,’ but he and dick head Junior have finally achieved their vision.

The Arsenal

How Wenger got a team with him Mertesacker and Giroud in attack to function is mystifying.

KingKolo

Arteta is making massive rookie mistakes. He does not create a sense of team in these players. Balogun was out in the cold ever since he signed the contract. Guaranteed if Eddie had been cleared out the way in Jan, and Balogun given the pre-season playing upfront integrating into a definite style he’d have looked confident in these past two matches. How can he when he knows he’d be nowhere near the team if Laca, Auba and Eddie were fully fit. Same with Martinelli you’ve got to give these players a taste so when the time comes when you need… Read more »

Canadagoon

Slandering 2 World Cup winners in Mert and Giroud as if they’re crap players, interesting choice

Luther

Yeah I thought that too. Good point, but could have chosen better examples to make it – Welbeck, Adebayor.

ArsenalOz

He was certainly more useful as a player.

One more thing…

For context, we had most of our starting eleven out (for whom we’ve paid top dollar (see below)). If you took out £200m+ worth of players out of any team they’d struggle. And against the European champions. And we missed out on a penalty (following on from the last game when our keeper was fouled during the second goal but no free kick awarded). Chelsea were better and deserved to win. And maybe a different manager could have got a better performance out of the players available. But it’s not like it was our best team out there and maybe… Read more »

Jai

Chelsea sacked their biggest ever legend in Lampard because they knew he was not going to work out. Their fans even got behind that decision. Meanwhile we’re reluctant to let Arteta go despite him being nothing but a mediocre player for us who epitomised our weak mentality both as a player and now as a manager.

I’m just lost for words at this point. The worst-run club in the world, when considering all factors. We’ve given an absolute clown like Arteta £200m+ in a Covid-hit economy, I feel like crying

Lion

Just cry

magazine_gap

I don’t understand the praise for arteta even as a player. One of the most backwards and square passers at arsenal ever, zero pace and so no ability to recover when opposing team countered (hence all the play it safe square balls and yellow cards when “defending” breaks).
Mediocre manager for a very mediocre franchise.

Tony 2

Ahh but don’t forget he took a 10k pw pay cut to join us fron the toffee’s

Gervinho

Not that it (most likely) would have changed the outcome of this game, but I don’t know how Arteta can go through a press conference without bringing up the clear penalty that wasn’t awarded to us. If you don’t say anything it makes it very easy to sweep under the rug. The only way the media will talk about it is if they are forced to. They would certainly be forced to contrast the decision to the penalty in the Wolves match earlier in the day if he made a comment about it. … hopefully Jurgen Klopp says something about… Read more »

Henkamp

The media and stupid pundits have already painted a picture of us being weak, and our players are giving them the fuel to keep that narrative burning bright.

How Leno was held back last week and not even a peep about it on Match of the day, only for an opposing manager to raise that point up.

We’ve had a soft underbelly for years, and having nice players and coach will continue to make it so.

Canadagoon

Honestly, this is one of my biggest gripes. Other managers have a moan about calls like these to the media and then get better treatment or make-up calls later on it seems like… Arteta just lets it slide

Virginia Gooner

Chelsea spent 250million on top players/prospects last summer. Arsenal spend 130million on two kids who may turn out to be good in the future and Ben Fucking White. The difference between a properly ran club, where the owner doesn’t accept people not doing their jobs properly and Arsenal, where the owners don’t know what color kits we play in. Get real, this squad has gotten worse every season for the last 10 years. Poor recruitment and no accountability since the Gazidis/Wenger era. The only way to save Arsenal is by making a real effort to put pressure on the Kroenke… Read more »

Mootilated

Yawn. Fuck off

Mark

I’ve always rooted for Arteta, liked him as a player and was excited at his appointment, but today he was so outcoached it wasn’t even funny.

GraeB

I’m not sure you can buy/play young players and then use that as an excuse when it was the senior players who were at fault.

He’s got no hair but we don’t care...

On Tierney:

Make him bloody captain, not one of the poorest players in the team who wanted to leave and who most clued up Gooners know isn’t good enough to be in the team.

On the table not being decided in August:

Stop being naive. The way this league has played out for years is that if you have any intention of getting into the top 4 and even top 6, you cannot give others a head start as you never catch them. Hence, two eighth place finishes.

Canadagoon

How’d Man City giving a head start to the other clubs last year work out for them?

Tierney would make a better captain though for sure

Fabulous

They won 5-0 this week. Weak argument

El Mintero

Unfortunately tierney is becoming the most injury prone player in the team. Dude is super fragile.

Henning Primdahl

I remember Lampards first season at Chelsea when they were dreadful at the start. They had sold Hazard, could not buy players and everyone wrote them off. Still they managed to turn it around and finished in the top four.

I do not have hopes of top four, but I surely hope this team can replicate that. The season is long! I know it is a fools hope, but I guess that is all we have at the moment.

There’s more chance of The Taliban performing the Riverdance on Christmas Day then there is we finish in the top 4 but I wouldn’t swap our squad with any of Spurs, Leicester, West Ham, Everton, so 5th is still realistic this season even after losing our first three games and hopefully a couple of good cup runs.

Andy

Ha ha. Top post. Cheered me up.

Tony 2

Lool I’ve seen the vid of the Taliban doing the river dance and it is really funny

Shitbird

I’m genuinely curious how a football club that pays players 100K a week or whatever and furthermore has millions of dollars riding on their ability to perform physically lets the players decide for themselves if they want to get vaccinated.

It’s not like it’s really an excuse–Arsenal have been shit to watch for a couple of years now, COVID or no–I’m just kind of surprised.

ClockEndRider

I suppose it’s called the law. I imagine it is illegal to forcibly inject someone against their will.

God of all Bergkamps

Haha. Well pit

Tomaury Bischfeld

It’s interesting, the only way that you’d possibly be able to do that would be through a contractual term in any new contracts which requires certain mandatory vaccinations. Those could be useful but massively controversial – will be interesting to see how they are used and challenged.

Shadrack

My ooh my God, Take Arteta and Kreonke now from this club. This is really stupid of a manager to always give excuses.

Shadrack

Even if he’s given 10 yrs he won’t perform because he’s not good enough to be a coach #Artetamustgo.

Rob Dewdbey

on the train home from the game. Got to be one of the worst performances I’ve seen from us at the emirates. To cap it off I saw an old gooner get a pasting from a Chelsea fan whilst he sang out lukakus names. Awful day.

The Arsenal

The stars have just aligned in reverse for Arteta. Spent 130million to go backwards.

norcalfan

Straining the sour experience of another weekend morning sunk watching a club that appears to be without fight, grit, smarts or defensive instincts: positive 1 = ESR, young side with some new signings, great experience against CL winners positive 2 for the future = Partey + Odegaard + ESR/Saka/Pepe has been a rare deployment but when we’ve had this team on the pitch it gives most opponents (ie. mid/lower PL + Europa knock out level opponents) too much too handle. so there’s small hope that someday we’ll see this combo again. reality 1 = without Auba on his ‘magic form’… Read more »

Thierry Bergkamp (non negotiable)

Chelsea fans proving once again how they’re the biggest cunts around, booing Saka all game

Teta's cult of personality

So those were the boos I kept hearing mid-game. How was this kind of behaviour even possible in a home fixture?

Ghost of Fabregas

Arteta is struggling and should be let go. This football club is not trying as hard as it could and our OWNERS do not care or do not care enough. They lack commitment that the owners of the clubs above us possess and I’m very afraid for our club. This is not personal, we are underperforming all over the pitch. Arteta has to go for me.

WellArsed

I – and many others – said at the end of last season that Arteta deserved a full window to get in the players he wanted to mold the team in his image and a decent run of games to prove his worth. I still believe that. I am not giving up on him after two games where we were missing many of our best players. The Brentford match should never have been played. Amazes me how fickle and entitled the Arsenal fanbase is.

Tomaury Bischfeld

I haven’t been impressed with what I’ve seen so far from Arteta but there have been some fairly big changes in the summer and we haven’t seen them at play yet. If it doesn’t improve by Xmas we can make a change but I find the hysterics ridiculous. It’s always attractive to think that change=progress but much of the time it isn’t. I am worried, but equally I’d hate us to become one of these clubs that changes managers like socks. Ideally you’d want a board who understood the criteria for appointing competent football executives but sadly I don’t think… Read more »

Viju Jacob

If you ban him from using the words process/moments/system, he will be a 100% apologist for his own ineptitude. What a joker! He won with 3 at the back last time, but with Lukaku in their side, he goes with 4-2-3-1 believing Xhaka is going to drive the team forward.🤦. What else can one say to mediocrity promoting mediocrity?! At the end of the day it’s 11vs11, so listening to him mouth shite is even worse than seeing his team play the way he sets them up. He will reduce every single player to their lowest levels and I though… Read more »

Qwaliteee

FFS Arsenal, make it stop.

Arteta Out
Conte In

El Mintero

Conte! Lol, you’re fkn delusional.

juicej

I get we lost and we are all entitled to feel really strong about this loss but what did you all expect? Going into the game we knew we had Mari marking Lukaku and there will be one winner. You all forget we were missing a good number of our first 11 players, Gabriel, Partey, Auba or Laca, fitness short Saka, White, Odegaard that is half the team. and we faced a full strength Chelsea. I’m not making excuses but its the reality, Brentford was a shock, inexcusable but Chelsea and City are way better. For context look at the… Read more »

SarcasmB0t

I didn’t expect any result at all.

It’s Chelsea, they’re miles ahead of us.

It’s probably the first time I’ve genuinely felt 100% certain we’ll lose to Chelsea, and there wasn’t even a hint in the game of a different result.

That’s on the manager.

juicej

Manager is to blame when the team lose but you can’t possibly blame Arteta for Arsenal losing to Chelsea, Chelsea man for man were better way before the game, got even worse with injuries Arsenal has suffered and the illnesses. The result wasn’t in doubt. Miracles happen yes but this looked unlikely from the onset. I feel sometimes we blindly want to place blame with no reasoning behind it other than the manager is the captain of the ship but what ship is he stirring. Allow him a full complement of the players and have him fail then point fingers… Read more »

Tony 2

But don’t fiat own Ferrari?

Tony 2

Agree n disagree to a point. We all were crying out to play da yoot (Can’t believe a 58 yr old guy is coming up with such phrases) but hey. MA played balo last wk, 2day Marti and both were shite. Do they need more playing time? Of course but we now live in an age that we want instant results. Case in point u was at Highbury all those years ago when a 16yr old Spanish kid made his debut in a 5 1 thrashing of the mighty Rotherham (an he scored the 5th if memory serves me right)… Read more »

Mr Steven Chalcraft

Between Edu & Arteta they have produced nothing less than a shambles Artetas tactics and continually tinkering with the team even when all players are available leaves a lot to be de