Arsenal may have started the new campaign with back-to-back defeats but Mikel Arteta is confident that his players can turn things around if they keep playing with the same energy and togetherness.
Not helped by injuries and a Covid-19 outbreak, the Gunners have looked lightweight up front and disjointed at the back in their two opening games, leading the bookies to shorten the odds on the Spaniard getting the sack.
Given the financial backing he’s received in recent weeks, it’s very unlikely the club will go down that route anytime soon, but the manager is under no illusions that his side has to improve quickly if they’re to keep the fans onside.
“You have to realise first that the position that we are in is not where we want to be and we should not accept it,” said Arteta ahead of Arsenal’s Carabao Cup clash with West Brom.
“We should not use too many excuses to justify where we are, just try to use the moment and the challenge ahead of us as an opportunity and take it and encourage everybody around you to have the same mentality, the same energy, and things will turn around.”
“We have done a lot of work, we are under difficult circumstances at the moment, but we need everybody together and the spirit to be fair around here, the togetherness that we have around the team, and even with the ownership, it’s really strong, but we need to give our fans and probably the outside world some encouragement, and that’s only given with results, so we need to get results.”
Reflecting on the performances against Brentford and Chelsea, which both ended in 2-0 defeats, Arteta pinpointed clear failings in both attack and defence.
“We need clean sheets and we need to score goals,” he said. “Without that we won’t be winning enough football matches and that’s for me the main area, the two boxes.”
While Arteta is surely hopeful that the return to fitness of key players will aid his cause, he knows that, in the short-term, building the confidence of his youngsters and their ability to adapt to further unexpected obstacles will be vital.
“Well, that’s a big word, confidence in what we do and what they are capable of doing and try to find the reasons why you don’t win football matches,” he said.
“They know our preparation has been disturbed. We had to do something at the Brentford game and we had to alter it 24 hours before the game. It happened exactly the same thing against Chelsea, but we have to adapt.
“I want to say they are a team that never gives up and we didn’t do it in either of those two games, so I think there were different feelings after the games. Against Chelsea, you saw a team in the second half as well that keeps believing. But, to be fair, they were better than us, and that’s football.”
He added: “This is a project that is going to take some time. You can see and tell from the recruitment that we’ve done and the really young squad that we have at the moment and it cannot happen overnight.
“We all want to make it as quick as possible and we know that the responsibility for us it to fight with the top teams in every competition and that’s not going to change, and I think we really need them and this group of players really needs them and the club needs them now next to us because we need that confidence, that support and that energy.”
The togetherness is strong with this one…
I fear he has gone over to the dull side.
But jokes apart, he really needs to do something about the results and our general gameplay. There’s no way we finish in the top half of the league if this kind of performance continues.
Our current form isn’t like a random occurrence? We have been absolutely woeful pretty much for the entirety of Mikel’s time in charge. I have lost count of how many times I have mentioned this on these forums, but Mikel’s data is extremely bad, consistently, and our results are bad. This was exactly the same when we had Odegaard, Saka, ESR, Aubameyang, Lacazette in the team. The underlying metrics per game were very poor and we finished 8th. So I don’t see where this miraculous turn around is going to come from exactly. Its not as if his underlying match… Read more »
We were 6 points off 4th and finished second in the “second half of the season” league, so while you’re right overall about Arteta, it did seem to be an upwards trajectory. Let’s review at the end of September. Chelsea and City results will skew things so need to keep our hair on and let a bit of settling happen.
6 points are exactly what we’ve just lost. Turnaround or no turnaround, we’re going to regret these dropped points at the end of the season, we always do. I don’t want to sound like a broken record but not all of our underlying metrics suggested an upward trajectory in the second half of last season. Some things like big chances conceded, expected goals for and expected goals against actually got worse, which fits in line with what @IamaGoober is saying. In the “since Christmas table” for example we gained 47 points whilst our expected points was actually 40. We’ve seen… Read more »
But we were constantly 6 points off? We literally never made any ground on those 6 points. We were 8th and 9th for basically the whole of the second half of the season. As I said in my comment, that is our ceiling with all of our best players on the pitch. When they’re not available we lose every game.
I think except some guys still being with him, the togetherness of the fan on kicking this clueless manager out of our club is also very strong.
If we had have beaten Brentford in the opening game I think the fans would be in a better place, but we didn’t for various reasons, so it makes it all a bit bleaker and frustrating!!!
It runs deeper than that mate.
We were fucking awful last season – Brentford (and Chelsea at the weekend) are just more of the same.
For me it’s not the results, it’s the way we play, the absolute lack of chances and no visible improvement
Non improvement is an improvement.
Qualiteee and Henrik totally agree that the style of play is pants, we used to get from one end of the pitch to the other and score in 14 seconds, now it takes 14 minutes but not end product once we get the other end!!! Depressing!!! I don’t dislike xhaka but he ain’t suited to the style of play we wanna see, should have been sold and replaced!!! White looks, well, something that sounds like white but begins with the letter s instead!! Stone the crows this is one horrendous mess!!!
And the arse clenching tedium of it
Ahhhhh, so his plan is to score more goals than the other team, scoring some and conceding none. Got to hand it to the fella, that’s pretty astute.
😁😁😁
But his tactics speak otherwise…
Finishing 10th technically would be turning things around.
“We need clean sheets and we need to score goals,” he said.
Insightful stuff from the boss there, thanks Mikel
Emeresquie
That’s why he’s paid the big bucks.
Look at how Graham Potter has Brighton playing- attacking, fast-paced football, they create chances for fun- that’s what a good coach does, they make players look better than they are and play as a unit
Now look what Arteta has done with a far superior squad of players. We’re unable to create clear-cut chances- that’s all on Arteta. A good coach doesn’t need a billion pounds spent on 11 world class players to succeed- Arteta has fooled everyone
Graham Potter is not the manager to take Arsenal forward.
I agree. Potter isn’t.
But Conte is.
Careful what you wish for… brilliant, yes. But also a serious prima donna – I’d prefer a more measured character like Ten Haag perhaps.
Maybe not, but he makes more sense than Arteta ever did.
And even if Potter isn’t the manager to take us forward, Arteta never will be.
Now that I do agree with.
Maybe Harry Potter…..?
I have seen many folks who don’t rate Graham Potter. The day a major European club will take a punt on him is the day many will realize that he is better than they give him credit for. I remember his Ostersund side playing us in the Europa round of 32 and they looked really co-ordinated and easy on the eye. What I love most about him is that he knows how to mix it up. They can attack and also defend when it is required. It’s not a coincidence that only Chelsea have had more clean sheet than Brighton… Read more »
Graham Potter has credentials but it would take Harry to sort this club out at the moment.
I see what you did there.
😉
I do hope you’re referring to the little kid with the John Lennon specs and not old Twitchy….
😁
For a split second I thought you meant Harry Redknapp.
Your intended Harry is much more sensible option.
To be fair Jai, Potter with more financial backing has never finished higher than his predecessor, Chris Hughton (15th). His style of football is more structured and cohesive for sure but he is still reliant on some key players from Hughton’s tenure.
I agree regarding Arteta’s tactics but I’d personally take Eddie Howe over Potter.
Yes I completely agree. The same could be said for David Moyes. How much has he spent. Not a lot but he is an experienced manager and knows how to get the best out of what he has to work with. At the time when he was being named as a possible replacement for Emery alot of people on here were negative towards the idea but I always felt that he was a better option than Arteta. I guess I was right in my assessment.
I’ve been a staunch supporter of Arteta, I want him to succeed, and I want to have the patience to give him time to do so, but it is really hard when so little seems to have changed. This is the same ‘tremendous spirit’ bollocks we had fed to us during the end of his reign. Spirit don’t mean shit. And as for character, we’d have to show some first.
Think many of us were/are keen on seeing him succeed. When he came in he did the right things, said the right things, and seemed to be changing the culture. I remember us beating United on 1st of January 2020… the Emirates was the loudest I have heard it in recent times. The players were up for the fight and we enjoyed that. Strangely, the energy he brought to this club at first has disappeared. He has made some baffling decisions like signing Willian, playing some players even when they look suspect etc. And the Saliba situation doesn’t look good… Read more »
I think the guy’s probably constantly knackered (not an excuse just an observation). Experiencing ongoing, profound stress is a massive energy drain, not to mention it taking away the ability to think creatively and objectively. He strikes me as thoughtful and diligent, a personality type that’d find it hard to shrug off and ignore hard times/poor performance. There’s an irony that if we have the ‘lift’ of some good results, this will enable him to perform better. This is probably what being inexperienced can mean – he doesn’t have the actual memory (and encouragement to draw from) of weathering any… Read more »
Insightful comment – don’t like what is happening to the team but do feel for the fella, who is a decent bloke and clearly loves this club.
Spirit and character are good traits for any side, but you have to have a tactically astute style of play to work with first. The players have to be able to play with confidence and faith in each other. That comes from having a successful game plan.
We don’t have that. The players are confused, the game plan is dysfunctional, the football is stale and boring and the poor results are the consequence.
it ain’t rocket science.
Like you say there are times for “togetherness” and there are times players need to be ripped a new one and told to pull their fingers out and be better on the pitch or be shown the door. Not sure that has happened at Arsenal for 20 years, and I think it might be due…no correct that…it’s overdue.
When we consider that Saliba, Guendouzi, Willock, Nelson, AMN and Mavropanos have been repeatedly shown the door the last few transfer windows…I do wonder what Arteta’s personal definition of togetherness is.
Some players did need a tough approach and he’s within his right to select his own players but cohesion is a two-way street. There are other players in the squad that he’s still babysitting.
Really, 20yrs? Were you even born when we were invincibles in 2004? Please be factual when you talk shite.
Agree, a Sunday morning park coach could see that Reece James had a clear path on that side of the field , and of course done something to remedy it.
Smart move to spend 130m with the oldest being 23 (as Sagna mentioned on French TV). This way it buys them time that they have a youth project in place and they need time…had they had done it last year it could be more believable than bringing Willian, Mari. Cedric etc
But was he allowed to spend £130mill last year? Quite possibly the Kronkes have finally smelt the coffee on which way their initial investment is going & realised they need to spend.
Or may be, it’s the European Super League fuck up they are all making up to.
It’s not the togetherness, mate.
It’s the fucking awful tactical style of so-called football that the players are being ordered by you to implement.
No matter who you sign in or move out, it’s clearly not working and never will.
Do the decent thing and resign now before you drag this football club down further and make it an even bigger laughing stock than it currently is – if that’s at all possible….
Give him Messi & Ronaldo in the same team and he will lose to Norwich.
“This is a project that’s going to take some time” –
Then why the hell was Emery fired? He had less
backing in the transfer market, had a weaker squad and didn’t perform this poor.
Do you need more time to win Brentford, have your team actually show up and compete, or even play decent football after spending over 200 million pounds in 20 months?
Emery was the butt of jokes, had communication/language issues and just wasn’t as charismatic. That’s what it boils down to for me. Which team’s defence wouldn’t look chaotic when asking Mustafi, Luiz, Kolasinac, Xhaka, Guendouzi, Lichsteiner, Leno, Sokratis, Cech to play out from the back😁😁. Some of those guys just couldn’t be taught new tricks. It’s no coincidence that his number of shots conceded per match fell drastically after moving to Villarreal. The man went toe-to-toe with Real Madrid in La Liga last season. I didn’t rate all his transfer targets but I wonder if he’d still be here had… Read more »
This is how I feel. Emery said “I want players X, Y, Z” and Raul and Edu said “No, here is player G, M, and Q, who are all convenietly managed by our mate Kia, now get the team back into the champions league or you’re sacked”. Arteta says “I want players X, Y, Z” and Edu wags his tail and says “here you go master”. Don’t get me wrong, Emery lost the team by the end and I agreed he had to go, but difference in support is astounding when you consider experience and success. Looking at those defenders… Read more »
Arteta was an arsenal player very recently. He genuinely cares about the club. It’s understandable we give him more rope, especially as his communication has been much clearer
Thanks for this perspective. I appreciate your honesty
Maybe Arteta has the levels of office banter that Emery could only dream of😁
Let’s also not forget he deemed Rambo, Nacho and others ‘surplus to requirements’
Why does everything that comes out of arteta’s mouth sound like it’s for the amazon cameras? This is just personal public relations for him, and I fail to see what his vision is for the team or its tactics beyond complaining about extenuating circumstances
The guy is running scared.
He’s a busted flush and he knows it. He’s just too stubborn and lacking the humility to realise when the game is up.
And all the while, we have to put up with performances like last Friday week and Sunday.
I fucking dread what City are going to do to us if we keep losing possession as easily as we are at the moment.
5 0 loss on Saturday, followed by a back slapping 3 0 home win over Norwich and lots of quotes about turning corners. Then abject surrender at Burnley, and a defeat to the Spuds, and he will be gone.
Exactly this. He talks as if he’s bigger than the club. At first it used to inspire us with visions of greatness, but that mask has fell.
I sincerely hope that he is right and the togetherness is strong. We just don’t look like a team ready to give everything to win a game.
He talks about the two boxes being what he focuses on but it seems to me what we are missing is the area in between those two boxes
Our midfield is non existent. We can’t keep possession for toffee.
Did you see the preseason game against Chelsea? They were happy to let us attack then score with a counter. This game was different, as our attack was tame and their counter was not too speedy just effective.
Same energy and togetherness, I don’t even know where to start 😂😂😂
“Energy”…….!!
I’m struggling to think of an Arsenal side that has played slower than this one.
Everything is pedestrian. The opposition have all the time in the world to get eleven behind the ball when we have it.
Trust the PR…process!
“We should not use too many excuses”
1 minute later:
Excuse after excuse after excuse.
What’s the fool rambling about? What togetherness is he referring to when it was clear how disjointed and totally out of sync the team is? It’s one thing pointing fingers at injuries and Covid induced absences, but the fact is, those who actually played did not show any semblance of training or playing together prior to the game. We’ve seen managers come into other teams and stamp their style on them within months. Mr Lego hair wants to get 5 to 7 seasons to make a difference. We won the FA cup by players falling back to remnants of the… Read more »
Maybe he meant they are together in taking tons of money home in salaries they don’t deserve and signing new contracts as a reward for being crap footballers and a complete embarrassment. Or maybe they are together in being collectively mediocre and out of their depth wearing the Arsenal shirt. But you know…Stan doesn’t care because it’s not his money they’re all lining their pockets with.
Would like to see us return to five at the back. Auba or Laca up top. Auba has counter speed and Laca has solid hold up/interplay ability. We’ll concede less goals, and will have an excellent counter attack, which betters suits both forwards. ESR and Pepe running at defenders with Partey, Sambi, and BW able to put balls in behind. Odeegard central at the head of a midfield three creating chances. I think part of the reason we look so bad is we don’t have the defenders to play a back four, and putting balls into the box from wide… Read more »
Selling Giroud was a big mistake.
Tell that to Milan… a million quid and already delivered 4 goals. We’d pay 250k per goal right now!
” We should not use too many excuses to justify where we are”
…
“They know our preparation has been disturbed. We had to do something at the Brentford game and we had to alter it 24 hours before the game. It happened exactly the same thing against Chelsea”
No excuses, but…
[Yawn…]
Also:
“This is a project that is going to take some time. You can see and tell from the recruitment that we’ve done and the really young squad that we have at the moment and it cannot happen overnight.”
This is a long-term youth project so the crap we saw against Brentford and Chelsea is expected and nothing to be worried about.
You got 3 or 4 more game master.
Hurricane forming over north London with all the spinning going around.
I watched West ham last night and found myself longing for David Moyes and and his attacking football. Never thought that would ever be the case. That is a new low.
The problem at Arsenal is that there is no conviction. Arteta’s whole persona and approach lacks conviction. His transfer activity lacks conviction – who did we beat to sign Odegaard? Ben White? Aaron Ramsdale? No one because no one was after them and why was no one after them? Because they are bang average – they were not good enough for the top teams and too expensive for the smaller teams yet supposedly they are good enough to improve us. I don’t buy that at all. He talks about togetherness – this is the counterpart to Wenger’s “mental strength” No… Read more »
Why refer Wenger to make your point? Do you know the facts at all?
With that pov Lukaku must be an bang average player because no one matched Chelseas bid on him
The togetherness was strong over the last two seasons and that got us to 8th.
Stop talking and stop the pathetic loyalty you keep showing to the average and slow player you insist on picking and making captain. Then, sign a right back, striker and another CB.
All we’re asking for is that the players play for the badge and be allowed the freedom to play how they know.
Not sure what exactly the young ones will learn from Arteta’s style of play and if he’s replicating Pep (no striker/false 9) then he’s doing a bad job.
Deep down I know this will take some time. Maybe 3-4 years so no more wasting emotions on the team. It’ll get better though.
It’s not a badge – it’s a crest.
a best cradge maybe?
How many games does everyone realistically think Arteta has to turn this around? I personally think if we don’t beat Norwich he should go. I know it’s only four games into the season but, like it or not, that’s a six-pointer.
He should go anyway.
Seriously, if you’re pinning the entire future of this club on a home win against Norwich City, it doesn’t say an awful lot for the present situation, does it?
There’s a lot of people (especially on this site) running around like ants from a kettle of boiling water trying desperately to avoid the truth – the truth being that this man is not good enough and never will be good enough to manage this football club properly.
Three points at home against Norwich…..? Big deal.
He’s not the man for the job, we can all see that. Just get rid now.
//“We need clean sheets and we need to score goals,” he said. “Without that we won’t be winning enough football matches and that’s for me the main area, the two boxes.”// As if we don’t know, hence we scream about NOT pfaff around in our own box and instead move the ball quickly to the opponent’s third from where we can score a goal. But then what does he do? He plays Xhaka in the midfield, who will go in reverse if he was one gear slower. On top of all this, give him the captain’s armband too, when he… Read more »
Stop then talking, it’s way past the time for action 🎬
Arsenal are always on the backfoot and go about things with the handbrake on everything related to football come matchday.. At this rate I dread to see the progress report at the end of a season that has barely taken off.. Oh wait that is pretty much a given these days, we’d be languishing anywhere from 8th to 17th just avoiding the relegation by a whisker.. I seriously hope and pray I’m proved wrong
So here’s the concern: for him, ‘the main area is the 2 boxes’ i.e. conceding and not scoring.
My u12B team coach knew that! Mik – you real glaring problem is what happens in the middle third, ffs!! No creative or speed in transition and no recovery speed, play-breaker when they counter…
Please tell me I’ve misinterpreted and he’s not simply now focusing on the two penalty areas… please!!!
Hopefully