A clearly disappointed Mikel Arteta was in no mood to stick the knife into his players despite watching Arsenal labour in front of goal on their way to a 2-0 defeat at home to West Ham.
Goals from Tomas Soucek and ex-Gunner Dinos Mavropanos did the damage on a night when the home side dominated but couldn’t convert any of the many openings they created.
Here’s what the boss had to say when he faced questions from the Amazon Prime team…
On the result…
Well, they won the game and we congratulate them with what happened on the pitch. Obviously, I think we deserve much more than what we got. We tried, we tried and tried but the difference was made in the boxes. They had two shots for two goals, we have 30 shots, I think and not scored a single goal. We had big, big, big chances and that’s the difference in the Premier League. If you want to win games you have to make a difference in the boxes and today we haven’t done it, but I have nothing, nothing [bad to say about] the players because I have to praise them, they tried up to the end, they went and they went for it right at the end and we could not get what I think we deserve.
On whether Arsenal’s play was too intricate…
I don’t know, if I have to question them, it’s that they tried to hard. They really wanted it today, they kept going at it and they did their best and their attitude was incredibly good. We didn’t put the ball in the net and that was what was missing.
On Jesus’ headed miss summing things up…
Yeah, we have some big ones [chances], Bukayo’s, and the situation with the post. We have a lot of situations, a lot of blocked shots, a lot of situations where we can play the ball, there are crosses there with two or three players free in the box and we don’t pick them. That’s the difference in this league to win the games.
On his front three- Saka, Martinelli and Jesus – having 10 league goals between them…
What we need is to finish better the actions, you know, and they’ve done it [in the past], they did it last year and we are where we are. We are [towards] the top of the league with those numbers as well. So that means that the team does a lot of good things.
Disappointing he doesn’t hold the players to account
He’s too good a manager to throw them under the bus in a press conference, don’t be stupid.
Know the narrative is very much in the “need to buy a killer up front” territory now, and I’d love that as much as anyone. But first thing I want to see is for the goalscorers we currently have to get their act together. The drop off in goal contributions from all our attackers (you can include Trossard too) since last year has not been pretty at all. Our centre back pairing and Declan Rice have carried this team towards the top of the league almost singlehandedly here, and that alone was never sustainable for a title charge. *Lots* of… Read more »
I think our finances are limited now, particularly with Raya still to be paid for.
And what a gigantic unnecessary use of money.
Not sure they will pay for Raya. He has been decent but not amazing. They need better.
We have already verbally committed to purchasing him next season.
Fair enough. Most days we win this match.
Against a team with 11 men in the box it’s very hard to win if they go ahead. We do need a more clinical striker for sure, and dropping Zinny for a while will help, as we won’t give away possession in dangerous situations like he is prone to.
On 0-2 , he needed to accept that Trossard at 8 was not working and that Trossard and Zink needed to be subbed Jorghino and Kiwior so he can move Rice at 8. It’s not a mistery
Starting Trossard and Zinchenko on the same side of the pitch is the mystery.
We were on top for the first twenty minutes and did fuck all, then dawdled about for the rest of the first half. If we score when we’re on top that game is different because they can’t sit eleven big men in the box, they have to come out and play. The attacking players need to sort their heads out, their finishing is rubbish at the moment and they’re all much better than this.
If you have ambitions for the title, the players simply cannot miss so many chances and concede the only shots on our goal.
We can have all the ambitions we want but we have to put the ball in the back of the net. The players and the manager need to figure out how to get it done. It’s a joint responsibility. That wasn’t a lineup to win the game, it was a conservative selection that Moyes apparently predicted. MA needs to develop that in game solutions and for gods sake make subs earlier when they can get into the game and then make an impact. These desperate 80 minute subs isn’t the way.
Front players seem a bit stale, out of ideas. Probably too many games. I think they need a break. Arteta should rotate more. Try and get some freshness back. These are good players. They will come good again.
I have no desire to see Nelson and Eddie starting Premier League games. Whilst I get the call for rotation, if they drop an absolute stinker people will be back here saying “I can’t believe he dropped X, Y and Z”. It’s the “Saka needs a rest / our attack is crap without Saka” thing all over again.
I get that, but if Reiss isn’t a viable squad player, why the new contract? To protect value? If you aren’t going to give a new signing game time, you are actually diminishing value. If Reiss starts and doesn’t perform, then sell him during the summer.
It doesn’t matter what people on here think. It matters that the players think they’ve a chance of playing.
My old man lost his other half this year and decided to come over from NZ for Xmas. I scrambled like fuck to find two tickets sat together, had to call in all kinds of favours. That was not what I’d hoped for, but had a feeling a shit result was coming. Hope we fucking batter Fulham.
He doesn’t need to throw his players under the bus. Everyone can see it’s not working. Apart from Europe, all 3 have really underperformed this season. If that’s tactics, it’s on the manager, but we barely rotate and the replacements are like for like. We need a different option up front.
Don’t agree. Bad run of form (and in some cases, luck) for a bunch of guys at once. Would you bet your house on Martinelli to blaze one wide from six yards out AND Jesus to miss a free header from the same distance??? These have to start going in at some point. The players are too good to think otherwise.
Politician speak !!! But he’s right about the chances yet he’s wrong about what we need ? Imho ! Too formulaic. MA
That all interviews are for! He’s hardly gonna publicly say “our centre forward isn’t good enough so I’m shopping round for an upgrade” is he?
Exactly, he’s never going to say that or the fact that the unnecessary money used on buying a new keeper (albeit delayed) and Havertz should have been used on a striker.
Poor – and, from the stands, what chances? Felt like we created very little clear-cut. Late-stage Wenger horse-shoe vibes today.
ESR looked pretty good, combined well, wanted the ball and took charge, good decisioning, only lacked a bit more bite in the few chances he had. I can see him starting next game
I was pissed off he didn’t start. I think he would have given a new energy to the whole team.
We need a top class striker simple as that and Zinny pls shift him to midfield, we need a temp left back while waiting for Timber and Tomi to recover.
Zinchenko’s mastery usually outweighs his left back failings but I think this is starting to not be the case anymore.
We had one chance and the rest were directly at the keeper. Every single Arsenal fan knows that as soon as Saka and Martinelli get the ball, they’re going to be double teamed immediately and usually have to pass the ball back out. We’ve been crying out for a tactical remedy, but nothing has been done. Teams have found us out and we have no Plan B. Arteta needs to earn his pay and figure something out. Act like a real coach!
The verticality of Havertz recently has been that foil. That’s why he has had a recent flush of goals. We missed that today until brief glimpses of it from ESR. He looks ready to step in.
that’s gotta be 10 goals conceded in the last 15 shots, or something like that. granted, we don’t concede many shots, but still. i don’t know the reason, but it can’t be a coincidence…
No having Ramsdale between the sticks.
Zinchenko is a factor in too many of those goals, not only does he mess up defensively but he also undermines Big Gabi who’s always trying to second guess what he’s going to do and trying to cover for two players. The injuries to Jurrien Timber and Tomi are hurting us badly.
@rteta is not a strong rotation coach like pep or klopp. this game he could have started with reiss and rowe or could have been eddie upfront with gabi left wing. all in all the attackers have not performed up to the level this season. let’s hope the new year brings a new dimension to our attack. up the gunners
3 out of the multitudes of chances fall 6 inches the right direction and nobody would be saying our attackers are underperforming.
They just didn’t go in today. That’s all it is. We completely dominated this match in every way except the luck of the bounce. It sucks, but it’s not from poor performance.
It was 2.8xG to .8xG — we dominated, it was just a bad day.
It’s not that the gunners have suddenly become relegation stragglers.The peoblem is the gunners like to engage in passing frenzy instead of going direct or run at defenders.MAs style is like Wengers with all out attacking and pass after pass giving t eams a chance to counter with goals in the gunners net.If Ma plays like this against Pool he will lose due to the slow speed of attack
And yet we did play like this at Anfield and came away with a well earned draw. The difference is that Liverpool set up to impose themselves/their style on us allowing our attack far more space, while Wet Spams played a low block looking to nick a goal on the counter. Completely different tactics between the managers of the 2 opponents…
Low block is not new news. He needs more than Havertz at the far post as a plan b!
Missed the point… But, yes, low block is not new.
Hairy balls Hammering against the arse! The blacksmiths forging an injustice to our rear-end. Forcing themselves on us. Grabbing on our lovehandles as we wrestle and bite the pillow! Woe! Terrible news!
If you want to win the title you need a more prolific No 9. Jesus contributes in many ways but not enough in the goalscoring. Missed a couple of sitters last night. With a Kane level elite striker we would have won that game.
Playing pass and move possession football only works if you pass AND move. Painful to watch MØ draw the double, triple and even quadruple team only to have very little movement up front. Nobody was particularly bad, but they weren’t particularly good either. Jesus had some moments, but Eddie was walking around waiting for a goal to fall into his lap. Saka had some chances he would have scored from on a different day, but he has been so consistent that we have to cut him some slack when he has a bad day at the office. I think ordinarily… Read more »