Arsenal’s form in the last few weeks has been impressive, bouncing back from dispiriting defeats to Man Utd and Everton to win in the Premier League against Southampton, West Ham, Leeds and Norwich – scoring 14 goals in the process and keeping three clean sheets.
Never one to allow his players to get carried away or rest on his laurels though, Mikel Arteta believes there’s more to come from his side, and that there are many things they can do better.
“We go game by game,” he said after the 5-0 win over Norwich at Carrow Road. “We played some really good football, we won the game, we competed really well, but there’s still a lot of things that we have to do much better.
“We have a lot of room for improvement and I’m focused on that, maintain the things that we do so well now that giving us results and consistency and try to improve the rest and the results will come.”
And on what those particular areas are, he continued, “I insist the better that we play, the better that we understand the spaces, how we have to attack, the movement, the timing, the cohesion and the execution becomes better because you get in a much better position when you enter the final third.
“When that happens and you have a clear idea of how to attack those situations and goals or goal situations will come. Then it will come down to the effectiveness of the players in their decision making.”
The Gunners sit in fourth place in the table, with high-flying Man City up next, and that will certainly be a stern test of our progress in the last few months.
As yet it’s unclear if the quartet who tested positive for Covid this week will be available, but we should get more clarity on team news etc as we get closer to kick-off.
I do like this constant requirement for improvement – this is the only way that we are going to be able to catch up with City, Liverpool and Chavski. Every player training every day to be better. A team learning after every game – win or loss. A coach who knows he has to take away lessons from every mistake. Onward and upward.
Chelsea not on the same level as the other two. Just like united last season they’ve pulled away but we are much closer to them than they are to the other two in quality
Chelsea are the CL title holders for what I know.
I’d keep the same starting and tell the kids to give them hell. If we get hammered it’s not surprising anyway but if its 0-0 at 70 mins send that boy esr on 👍🏼.
This indeed. Every sane arsenal fan knows this is game we are expected to lose. So I dont want to watch elneny and tavares starting for confusing pep and mad tactics. let our kids have some fun.
Is it accurate to say lacazette is basically playing as a false 9? A la firmino. Martinelli as mane and saka as salah
Interesting observation.
We play lopsided so it’s a bit different to Liverpool whose 2 fullbacks play very advanced. I think lacazette plays a a false nine or like a no.10 and our wingers predominantly play or make runs in the inside channels. Our LB fullbacks overlaps and our RB plays more defensive and conservative (not necessarily inverted as some think)
No it is not. As we are not Liverpool and we play a different way.
No need for finding comparsions, better just relax and watch this team develop into the Arsenal we want it to be 🙂
Yeh I was just trying to find a comparison with the way lacazette is playing to helpe understand it better tbh. I’ve looked at it a bit more and martinelli plays essentially as an inside forward allowing Tierney to overlap whilst saka plays wider and creates space for odegaard to play in. Tomiyasu is the ideal hybrid of rb and cb because we start the play with 3 cbs and then he pushes into the deep right side half space in the same way walker does for city.
It never works to just copy a successful team. Wenger tried that by buying lots of small players and copying Barcelona. We just got bullied in the Premier League.
We are finding our own way and even making a decent job of playing the out of date No10.
Did Wenger ever actually say “hey that Barcelona side looks cool, so I’m going to buy loads of small players and turn us into the Barclays version.” Or was that just a half-arsed theory that the odd reporter started throwing around at the time, and as a result certain people now look back on that idea as proven fact? Inclined to guess the latter frankly.
The theory is especially hilarious when you consider that in the immediate transfer windows after Pep’s breakthrough 2008/09 season, (off the top of my head) our only signings were Thomas Vermalen, Laurent Koscielny, Marouanne Chamakh and Sebastian Squillaci. Proper Barcelona-esque acquisitions there!
I seem to be the only one who remembers our tiny side getting kicked all over the place then:-)
We went from pace & power that won titles to one of the shortest sides that fell away and got bullied. Even the centre backs were getting smaller until Per arrived.
It is no coincidence that we have immeasurably improved with Gabriel and Tomiyasu at the back and centre midfielders that have more about them.
He’s definitly operating deeper than Auba would, holding the ball up & picking out the runs of the wide men. So in that sense it’s similar to L’pool.
Last season Kane & Son were pretty effective doing the same as well, so not exclusive to L’pool.
Having Tomiyasu back woild be great news, as we are a different team with him – and I definitely dread any of the other options against City, bar maybe AMN.
I think white acquitted himself well there as did holding in whites usual position. That said we are stronger with Tomi in the side
Pleased to see that we aren’t being complacent and treating this recent run of form as us being the ‘finished article’. We’ve seen that attitude and behaviour before, and it only catches up with you. Let’s see where we get to, I still think we need a couple extra players, particularly in CM and another striker. I’m a little worried about RB, as although White did a job there in Tomiyasu’s absence, if we are losing Maitland-Niles, seems sensible that we bring in another specialist RB, even if only on loan, as we still need to see what Bellerin’s intentions… Read more »
Franck Kessie could fit the CM slot.
6 months left on his contract so wouldn’t cost a bomb.
Just turned 25 last week, fits the age profile.
And best of all, he’s being heavily linked with sp*ds (just like Tomiyasu was in August) and it would be phenomenal to get another one over them.
Isn’t Kessie off to the AFCON? I’d go for Boubacar Kamara at Marseille. Versatile DM, loves defending, hed be available to play immediately
22 years old, also 6 months on his contract. Guendouzi could be used as leverage to secure.
Ive watched a fair bit of Milan in recent years. Kesseie is bang average, and thats being kind. Hed get eaten alive in the Prem.
Cheers mate.
Seen he had scored 5 goals in 16 games this season and I had flashes of Yaya Toure.
We’ll let them up the road have him then.
It seems weird that we’re one absence away from completely reworking our back line.
I’d prefer AMN or Tavares at RB, or even a move to a back three – anything that seems like more of a consistent Plan B to “let’s shuffle our £50 million center back to right back”.
I wouldn’t be surprised if we bought another Tavares-profile RB soon.
Meanwhile, Cedric is still here.
I agree.
Tierney, White, Gabriel, Tomiyasu
Is our best back 4.
Tavares, Holding, Chambers, Maitland-Niles
Is a reasonable set of understudies, though of course if Bellerin comes back, and wants to seriously challenge Tomiyasu, then you could argue that gives us really good strength in that area.
As we saw, when all RB options were out, we could draft in Holding and shift White to the right. This is ok against the majority of sides below us, but ai wouldn’t fancy it against City, Chelsea of Liverpool.
Isn’t part of the reason why he was rated as a £50m defender exactly because of his versatility? Same for Tomi actaully. Both have experience & are decent at CB & RB, which means if one is out the other can cover. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that KT & Gabriel have experience of doing the same on the left.
I think that was the plan to avoid completely reworking the back line due to one absence. Not great opposition, but it worked pretty well against Norwich.
Precisely right. It was/is in no way a complete reworking of the backline. And you can fairly point out that it was Norwich, but it also worked quite well. No plan will work as well vs City as it will vs Norwich, but it is very much a viable plan B. Certainly better than what was available for the first City game!!
Arteta doesn’t discuss individual Covid cases so fully expect him to not reveal anything about Tomiyasu – and the club photographer under strict orders not to post any photos of him if he’s back in training.
I love Arteta
I’m beginning to get it……….technical football that looks beautiful
Whatever – please tell me we’re NOT SIGNING COUTINHO ?!!!
We’re not signing Coutinho.
Thanksmate ❤️
Hopefully Tommie gets to play could be a good game to see him against the best in the league.