Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang says Arsenal’s players need to get together and have an honest conversation following a third consecutive defeat in the Premier League.
While losing to City wasn’t unexpected, the 5-0 scoreline and the red card picked up by Granit Xhaka made for a particularly brutal afternoon at the Etihad.
After the match, Auba talked to BT Sport…
On what happened…
I just blame us as a team because today it wasn’t enough. Against City, 11 versus 11, you have to take risks and you have to brave on the ball, we weren’t today. After the red card, it was a completely different game. As I said, it’s not enough and everyone has to raise the level, look at ourselves in the mirror, work as a team and stick together. This is the only way to go forward.
On needing commitment and courage…
Exactly. We have to play with courage. In this type of game, you have to play with everything. As I said, you have to take risks. We just didn’t do enough today. That’s it.
On how Arsenal get through this…
Definitely, we have to talk between us players. This is now important because we are Arsenal. We need pride, we have to say the truth between each other, be honest and raise the level.
On patience being difficult given the results…
For sure, it’s going to be difficult. As I said, we are a team. We have to stick together in these moments and as senior players, we have to show the way as well to the young players. I know it’s not going to be easy but we’ll try to give our best.
There seemed to be no plan, no organization, no discipline. What has arteta done? No defensive stability, but no attacking verve either. 25 to 1 on attempts, 15% possession, no goals scored, 9 goals conceded. We may not be top 4 challengers anymore, but all those who said wenger needed to go and we needed to reinvigorate with young, tactical coaches – I mean when do you say he did an amazing job given what we had and that we’ve done nothing since he left? We’d complain about the annual top 4 trophy – we’d joke and make fun of… Read more »
Utter rubbish… we were already heading in this direction under wenger. That was obvious to most reasonably knowledgeable football fans. None the less we seem powerless to change direction.
You lost me at reasonably knowledgeable
Agree. People seem to forget that we finished out of top 4 in Wenger’s last two seasons.
This current shit show is NOT Wenger’s doing.
💯
At least he never finished eighth consecutively even with the poor quality of players he had as compared to today. The problem has never been Wenger (if so why are we still here two years after he left) nor Emery or Arteta. Why do we always wait till deadline days to do business? The club (the owners and the board) never had a plan heading into a transfer window so our transfer businesses has always been reactionary buys. That’s why we always wait till deadline days to do business and feast on whatever leftovers other clubs has left behind. And… Read more »
Quit deflecting blame from Arteta. Was Willian a reactionary buy? What about White and Cedric when Saliba is already on the books?
Only thing I blame Arsene for is signing mikel arteta from Everton.
Exactly, this rot started with Wenger. I don’t blame Artera or Emery for what we’re seeing now. This is still purely Wenger’s doing, we probably could have been UCL winners by now if we had got rid of him sooner instead we let him destroy this great club, sign players like ozil and xhaka, and now we’re kicking off at arteta because he can’t fix the absolute mess of a club that Wenger created. We should have got rid of Wenger as soon as we moved to the Emirates.
Purely Wenger’s doing? Wenger had a huge role in our steady decline, but today’s result was not on Wenger. Kroenke was perfectly happy during our decade of steady decline, never pushed the club to win trophies. This is the culture that’s now ingrained in the club. Arteta tried to change it, played the tough boss role, but ultimately ended up short. We can persist with him, maybe he’ll come good eventually. But can we keep suffering the same results in the short term? Our players will be too low on confidence. We need Conte or someone like him to kick… Read more »
Man, we’d have been in a lot more trouble had we done so. He kept the club alive when it was haemorrhaging money due to the credit crunch and nobody buying the properties. Getting us into the CL each year and selling one or two of his best players every season deserves a statue, possibly more than The Invincibles. That’s just me though…
Eaten bread is soon forgotten.
Top post, mate, well said.
It’s not just you, there are hundreds of thousands of genuine Gooners worldwide who are eternally grateful for all that Arsene did and tried to do.
What a load of rubbish. We lost our place as a competitive number 2 club when Abramovic came and bought the league. Then it got worse with City and we missed our chance to snatch a league title when Leicester won.
Man Utd have had the clout to buy their way back into contention while tottingham have benefitted mainly from selling Bale and having luck from the academy with Kane. Liverpool got Klopp and we know what’s happened with them.
It has got significantly worse since Wenger left and none of this is down to anything that man did
The signing of Ozil got us winning trophies again. The closest we came to having top class team again and challenging involved Ozil and sanchez so don’t talk bollix
The last time this club got anywhere near the Premiership title was 2015/16. Ozil, Sanchez, Cazorla, Ramsey and Giroud.
And but for our defence, we would have won it that season.
The short memories on here are staggering.
Late era Wenger had a lot to do with the shit we’ve had to move on last few seasons. But today was on Mikel and no one else. That’s as bad a tactical display I’ve seen from an Arsenal manager in 30 years. Fuck me you’re playing against the best team in the league and you leave the midfield wide open for them to run right over us from the very start. A fucking pub team manager would have better tactics. Park the fucking bus for one fucking game and sneak a draw ffs.
Agree, the only positive I think there is from today is lokonga wasn’t playing. He looks a promising player would have done him no good to have been out there.
No shit
I feel for the players. Arteta is setting them up to fail, week after week after week. If he had started the same team as against Chelsea, minus Pepe, and lost 5-0 I would have said fair enough. At least there is a plan. But no. It is a different lineup yet again. With an idiotic setup. We spend more money than any other club in the WORLD and this is what we get? One slow, lumbering CM against Man City’s 5 central midfielders? A back 5 with two left backs, two right backs that have never played together, at… Read more »
I largely agree, but Chambers getting beaten by Gundogan is on Chambers.
And Mari would have been on the left side anyway.
Now, whether Saliba would have done better is a more interesting question.
no way saliba would have done worse
Agreed. The Saliba situation is past a joke at this point. And to play Kolasinac at CB over Tierney? When he’s had about 3 games at CB in his whole career and spent all week making eyes at Fenerbahce. What about that West Brom gave him reason to start away at Man city? Was it the rash yellow he picked up in the second half? Jesus christ. Tierney plays there for Scotland, so PLAY HIM THERE. I’m speechless at the management decisions I am seeing this season. Everything from the most fundamental basics of player positioning and lineup consistency, to… Read more »
Don’t get the saliba thing at all. And to a lesser extent mavropanos. Are either of them worse than chambers holding or mari? We have enough evidence that those 3 aren’t up to it. Why not give 2 young center backs a shot that we have already payed a fee for. They are both capable playing for other teams.
Good point. I really liked the look of Macropanos when he broke through. Tall, quick and didn’t get pushed around. A proper center back for this league. And we’ve burned that bridge as well. It’s so bad.
Chambers Holding Kolasinac? Still after over 5 years. How many more chances are they going to get? Weak, wet and not even close to the level.
Think maybe they listen to Mikel. There’s got to be a story with him and saliba. Nothing else really makes sense. I would guess every other coach in league would think they could use him, at least give him a shot and see what he can do. It’s turning into the strangest transfer in the history of Arsenal. He’ll have been an arsenal player for 3 years at the earliest when he makes his debut. Baffling to me that arteta thinks he’s not good enough to replace the journeymen we have playing cb.
I finally lost it with Chambers today. That back post header from, Gundogan has happened to Chambers too many times.
You couldn’t have said this better!
As I said, it’s not enough and everyone has to raise the level, look at ourselves in the mirror, work as a team and stick together. This is the only way to go forward. I disagree letting go or MA is the better way to go.
lol please. the very basic in football is when do we press? when do we stand off? do it as a team? it’s very very unlikely that the whole team or more than half the team doesnt follow the manager’s instructions on basic closing down/ stand off. how many times did ederson take the ball and just wait down there to screw with us? how many times did we stand off and allowed citeh time to pick the pass? this is all instructed by arteta because it’s impossible for the WHOLE TEAM to stand off if arteta had asked them… Read more »
I thought he should have went after he got schooled by Emery. I don’t think you realize how bad of a situation we could be in if arteta stays for the season. We are going backwards, the next guy might have a very deep hole to dig us out of.
He should have gone last Christmas. That Chelsea win has only prolonged the inevitable – and I have a feeling that the Norwich game is going to do exactly the same thing. Tracing paper over the Grand Canyon.
Hard to argue with your thinking. Both times we beat them last season they were the better team.
Whoever downvoted should go and watch the games, we got badly outplayed in both. Part of the 3rd most points from boxing day bullshit. We played poorly in a few games and won, we beat a few teams that were already on holiday. We also got humped by liverpool, a performance that was more embarrassing than today or the 6-0 Chelsea or the 8-2 utd. We also got schooled by Emery, with only Tierney missing. Let’s stop with this shit, we’ve finished 8th 2 seasons in a row. We will be lucky to finish 8th this season.
If Xhaka is ‘important’ to the way this team plays and that’s why he can’t be dropped, the club needs to change the way it plays altogether. Sick of the sight of him and still can’t believe we’ve tied him down.
To be fair, he was man of the match vs France, and played an amazing through ball!
He was invisible v Italy is it too late to call Maureen.
Don’t give a crap how he played for the Swiss. He’s been below par for an Arsenal midfielder, a terrible Captain and has let the team down so many times with ridiculous decisions on the pitch.
If he’s so good for Switzerland maybe he should join one of their clubs.
😂😂 lost on some 😜
I feel sorry for you blogs.
I wudnt have been half-arsed to post anything at all
or at least i’d be too drunk by the end of the game, and noone would be reading the post cos we’re all drinking our sorrows away… but no… we’re all already used to this shit. numb to it.
Why…..?
This is football and football clubs; shit happens – which, of course, Blogs already understands.
Arteta out and I am serious now
Maybe start with a manager who has managed at least one game of football before being appointed?
Vieira got a point today, is it too early?
I suspect I will spend the rest of my life failing to understand Xhaka’s contract extension.
What is there to understand, its the Arsenal.
We’ve wasted enough money on pointless wages, signings and agents to run a small country.
And David Luiz’s
And Cedric signing permanently after spending most of his loan spell injured
And Willian
And buying Saliba for a fuckton of money then never playing him
etc
Manager put 2 midfield players up against 3 much better players, Xhaka never stood a chance as for the sending off I have seen much worse not get a red card.
that is definitely Edu out
He was a strange appointment. We had a coach with no experience who got promoted to manager, and edu supposedly his boss with no experience, and who doesn’t have the last word on players. We basically gave arteta the same power as Wenger. It was baffling to me, because Emery didn’t work out we doubled down on what wasn’t working with Wenger.
Maybe it’s my eyes deceiving me but I thought when the cameras panned to our players at the end of the match, I saw a few of our players crying 🤔
Weeping for how much time they have left to stay in the club…most likely
I’d say some of them are only too happy to keep picking up their coin each week. Easy money, no real pressure and no recriminations
they’d be thinking ‘you think it’s hard on you guys to watch this? we have to play wtih this shit tactic!’ … and ‘you think your life sucks, and you hate your job? we have bloody granny as a colleague, and he’s made captain too.
An honest convo MUST include if we have a coach in the first place
Auba looks gone, rumours of juve coming for him.
as a gooner putting myself in his shoes I’d be on the phone to my agent
Shades of van Persie.
Except this team is far worse.
i wouldnt begrudge any player for wanting to leave. those days are long gone. simply because i put myself in their shoes, and I’d be calling my agent too.
He didn’t close down as much as he did against West Brom u23’s. Maybe he didn’t want to get injured.
Game was over after the first two goals mate… gifted to city. Utter shit. It then sets the tone… how do you respond when the team defends so calamitously at the back…
It certainly helped City having the referee on their side, but we were more than poor. How could Saliba not get a game in a team of such weak and characterless defenders?
How many times have we heard this deflection shit from so called senior players. Auba should shut up until he has something positive to say and he starts doing his job. More impressive were he to say I will not take any money from the club for th
Interesting he said the players have to talk and step up, but no mention of the manager. No need to have faith in him, trust him, listen to his “tactics “, nothing. Honestly, i fully agree with the rumor that Conte doesn’t want to come because the squad is too weak to be competitive, so I would take an experienced, no nonsense mid table type manager to just make us solid, boring and play to our level, conservative, hard working, and run hard on counter attacks. Arteta I think imagined that in no time he would be the next Pep.… Read more »
Yay! Big Sam time. Finally!
Goes into shed to shoot myself.
My whole weekend would be ruined after a shambles like this, but not anymore. My team has killed all hope.
I don’t mind losing, but it’s the not competing that is the problem. We’ve been taking at least a hammering every season for near enough 10 years.
I’m starting to face the reality that we’re no longer a big club. It’s like Arsenal just exist for every other club’s supporters entertainment.
Mate, we ARE a big club.
A big club with the WRONG manager. Simple as that.
We are a big Club. Sadly the ownerw have a small club mentality.
£130 million is £130 million.
Don’t get me wrong, no one has had it up to here with the Kroenkes more than me, but credit where it’s due. They’ve done their bit during this transfer window – even though the monies are only loans.
It’s not the players.
It’s the manager.
End of.
By and large agree. But did you take a look at Cedric’s stats today, by chance?
It’s combination of both plus several years of drift under this present ownership.
I can’t stand Kroenke, but even I will admit that £130 million in one window is not ‘drifting.’
Arteta has had the backing and he still can’t get his shit together. It’s now on him, not the board.
That Cedric was even on the pitch is down to Arteta.
I agree – but some of our players are simply not good enough.
They’re a better set of players than at least 60% of what’s currently above us in the table.
Look, you smash the shit out of Brentford, you get a draw at home to Chelsea and maybe suffer a narrow defeat today away to City. Four from nine with two tough games out of the way – that’s reasonable for this club.
But zero from nine and not a single goal scored – that’s unacceptable and totally on the manager.
Bellerin could have played. Or AMN
Can we have Wenger as manager before Arsenal football club kill me
He started the rot, it’s as much his fault as anybody’s.
The rot, 3 fa cups in he’s last 5 years only missed out on a trophy or a top four finish once. I’d take that type of rot than the crap we are putting up with now.
People like you are as blind and incompetent as Arteta.
Lack of courage is absolutely correct. We looked meek and sheepish and utterly submissive. Get us someone who can actually utilize our players’ strengths. This was a disaster.
I am convinced this team is capable of producing much more than they are at the moment.
Tuchel took over Chelsea in January and immediately, Chelsea was unrecognisable from Lampard’s iteration.
What’s my point?
We need a new manager for the sake of the young talents we have. Arteta is damaging their confidence big time.
If this continues, they may be damaged beyond repair.
Sometimes you just need to shut up and not give press interviews.
It doesn’t help anything or anyone and just serves to make fans more angry.
The first thing they need to do is remove Arteta and Edu.
A wonderful club with a great history that has been bastardised by American owners that think they understand “soccer” and its fans.
Put the club up for sale and make a profit on it – its not a question of not needing the money. The Kroenke’s are NOT wanted – when are they going to understand this?
Not saying I disagree but I don’t think clubs are allowed to boycott interviews from broadcasters anymore
Let’s be honest it’s easy to get negative when we lose but current Arsenal looks like a newly promoted team. Arteta is losing that team. I think he may have actually lost them. Nobody seems to be talking to anybody. There’s no conversations happening during the game between the players except just pointing fingers and blaming. To me that is a huge clue that Arteta has lost that dressing room. I said it at the end of the last season it’s time to blow it up get rid of Arteta and Edu and start fresh with a new manager and… Read more »
Sackable offense that we have Saliba out on loan and playing Kola in defense. Arteta set up against Citeh with one CDMF and put heavy responsibilities on EsR,Odegard, Saka. Wenger, a highly competent coach already tried project Youth which failed spectacularly. Putting such high levels of responsibility on young players in a game of this magnitude is inept. Lokonga, Xhaka & El neny should have started in MF rather than a useless 3 centerback pairing!
What we need to remember, through all our frustration…
We were never going to beat Chelsea or City. They are mikes away from us in terms of quality. We are 3 points behind where we should be (loss v Brentford). Season starts for us now.
Issue I have is if the way you play keeps not working, you either have to change the players or the way you play….I don’t think Arteta will change the way and the players are not ones who can come in and make an immediate difference.
Let’s see where we are in 3-4 games time.
Mikel, is that you?
Do you really think Conte would of won today v Man City with our squad?
If Conte had 150 million to spend in the window and manage our incomings & outgoings, then yea we would have a chance.
I don’t know, but for sure we’d put in more fight and have more organisation, not look like a steamy pile of shite on the pitch.
BS. The season started a while back, not only when you start winning.
“You have to take risks” ? Didn’t Aubameyang see how Spurs beat City ? They played with a rock solid defence in their third of the pitch while their front three broke at pace whenever the opportunity presented itself. Play an open game against City and they will kill you. Is it just the player’s view or is this how the manager thinks ?
Everyone take care of yourselves. Personally I’m making a big pot of pinto beans, which includes onions, garlic, and jalapeno peppers sautéed in bacon grease. COYG.
Nice.
I’ve was out in the kitchen earlier making my family Chicken Risotto. 🙂
Let’s be honest, we haven’t been able to defend since Sol Campbell left.
The media loves our tragedy because of our past glories, but it won’t be long before they’re like the rest of us, not surprised any more when we lost to minnows and get thrashed by ‘our rivals’
Remember, Stan didn’t buy Arsenal to win trophies.