Good morning all.
This afternoon at 4.30 we kick off in a game that seems to have taken on a life of it’s own, a bigger game for the fan base and the manager than the huge game it normally is.
We are in 14th position after 10 games, the measure many use when they say it shows where we are as a team. Sadly, I think it does indeed show us. By any measure we are in trouble. We have been comprehensively out-played by teams that normally we would be beating. Teams that haven’t beaten us for donkey’s years are feasting on us. Make no mistake Jose and his Lilly Whites will be ravenous this afternoon. That man will smell Arsenal blood and want his fill.
Whether we like the way it’s happening or not, Arteta is trying to change a lot and it’s vital for him that the players and crucially, the fans, believe in him and his methods and a result here might swing the balance of belief one way or the other. It’s clear from social media that doubts are expanding at a worrying rate and by the look of the players, they too, on the face of it, are struggling to believe. It won’t have helped that recently he has made comments saying that half the team are not up to it and need replacing.
I recently ran a poll on twitter, that showed fans have gone from 92% of them thinking we will get top 6 in August, to just 25% believing it now. We know that fans are fickle, but that is a sea-change. Belief is plummeting. A win today could go a long way to restoring belief, any sort of win with any sort of performance. At very least, we must not lose.
This isn’t the Europa League, Spurs are not a 4th rate outfit, like it or not, they started the weekend top of the league and they look stronger than they have for years. However we set up to play and whoever gets selected, we will have to play at least as good as we did at United, and probably a lot better. The one shot on target from open play we managed up there is unlikely to be enough to beat this lot.
I literally have no idea who will play and how they will set up to play, so I won’t even insult you by speculating and pretending I do, or that I know who and how we should play.
We have been here before, 10 points behind, 2.0 down and we won 5.2; that result changed the mood and belief for the rest of that season, we need something like that again. However, this is a very different team and a different manager and I don’t think we are capable of that sort of a performance, but we have to put up the kind of performance that somehow, anyhow, gets a result.
It’s a derby and anything can happen, so lets hope it does and it happens in our favour. Good luck Mikel, players and fans. Cometh the hour and all that.
Pedantic George
Positively Arsenal 
Such an emotive fixture, it’s been known to make, break and even save careers. Maureen’s exceeded expectations over in Middlesex, alas, so the only question mark over Spuds is whether Kane plays or not. And whether Spurs are better without him (as per previous seasons when Son, for one, has flourished in his absence).
Compare and contrast with Arsenal, an outfit that currently has more questions hanging over it than a busy quiz master’s quiz book. And in some way, this tells you all you need to know about our current uncertain predicament. And they are all questions we have all already asked, often on multiple occasions. Some of them, even, under the ill-fated regime of one Unai Emery. Which is hugely disappointing.
Whatever happens today won’t mean the end for Arteta but it could stiffen the resolve of the club to once and for all dispense with those for whom the cap no longer fits. January is but a handful of games away.
If the game on Thursday is anything to go by (and I’m not necessarily saying it is), then the penny may have dropped in some quarters and we may see a more expansive, livelier performance with some risks taken and hopefully some chances, too.
Sounds like we have some longer-term injured on the way back, but possibly not ready for this afternoon. If I’m honest, today I’m bracing for a possible low point for the club.
And when I say low-point, I mean in excess of 24 years …
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Kane will play, they always do, against us. And he will prob get another highly dubious pen as well.
Correct, the result will have little bearing on Artetas future, pretty sure KSE have decided to run with him, barring a genuine relegation threat. And then, there is the question as to who they would replace him with. Thierry Henry??
The fact is, Arteta , or anyone else is going to need a lot of time, and probably a far better structure than Edu and Vinnai above him. This club has been spectacularly badly run since Wenger left the scene, there was clearly no plan whatsoever for his replacement or succession. Everyone bought in for the transition has gone, some acrimoniously. To make things worse, the man who I believe has the most blood on his hands over wengers dismissal, Ivan Gazidis , dithered, then left the club in a mess start of season, is earning a fortune at a club sitting pretty in the Italian league. Karma…eh?
Arteta, love, loathe, or something in between, is but a small cog in what is now a seriously damaged club. How can anyone lose a legacy manager without a plan? It defies any logic.
KSE have generally left managers alone, allowed spending within the clubs model, some would say too much spending, they strike me as owners who went along for the ride under Wenger, but when things went Pete tong, just didn’t have a clue.
Still, today might be one of those occasions when we get an unexpected result, as Arteta has done so with far better teams than Tottenham, we can but hope.
But I fear the next couple years at least will offer only a lot of pain, upheaval, mixed with some bright moments of course, whether it is Arteta or anyone else in charge of the team. Things that are not right at the top don’t get fixed quickly without a lot of money, and more importantly, wise, strategic, engaged people spending it .
If I were Stan , I would have been on the phone to Wenger a long time ago, (blaming it all on Ivan) to put him where he should have gone after his tenure as manager ended, but suspect there are far too many raw wounds there, and it may take a change of ownership, or true desperation before Wenger returns to right this club.
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Strangely, this season, we do seem to play better against the sides that expect to beat us, so maybe there’s a slight chink of light …
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If we are not careful , they will soon all expect to beat us Andrew.
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I do not recall us playing particularly well against man$ity or livarpool.
We parked the bus and barely attacked which seems to be the primary activity of Artetaball.
Whether the airing of views made any difference remains to be seen, but in the absence of Ozil we do not have anyone who can provide the creativity needed to ignite Auba and the rest if the attack.
Please do not suggest Cellabos because he simply does not have the ability.
The suicide bid by the hierarchy of the club, as they are dictating it to Arteta is alive and well.
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So another fixture arrives where result is ultimate and performance is nothing, it seems strange saying that after the years of playing brilliant open football.
I come from a part east London and part north London family. The east London are obviously all West Ham fans but the the north London ones were split. My grandad was a spurs season ticket and his brother a ARSENAL season ticket holder. My grandad had three daughters all season tickets holders and all their children (and there were many) were spurs apart from three of us so this has always been a very important fixture to me mainly because I would get a lots of phone calls from family if we lost even when I was kid. This is why i couldn’t understand wobs moaning about not winning the champions lweague when I didnt get a phone call for 22 years.
I am from the old school where the first goal at the start of every season was to beat and finish above the spuds cups were a fantastic bonus and the league like fans from most clubs was a dream. George give us back belief but like maureen gave the chelski fans it was all about results and not about football something I didnt realise until Arsene gave us the beautiful football I have seen from Brazil and Holland so many years before and something I never thought I would see at my club.
Today all the stats and football reasons point to a home win but I’m praying Mikel out Maureens Maureen and wee come home with a result to stop myself hiding away for half the season COYG.
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Can’t back it up with stats but always had the impression most Jose teams suffer from quite an incredible lack of injuries
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As expected it’s a revert to the cup formation (minus Martinez) for this tough away derby, Auba even goes back to LW!
Hope Partey & Saka are good for the 90 mins!
COYG!
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Team Leno, Bellerin, Holding, Gabriel, Tierney, Willian, Xhaka, Partey, Saka, Lacazette, Aubameyang.
Subs: Runarsson, Mustafi, Elneny, Maitland-Niles, Ceballos, Willock, Nketiah
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Lloris, Aurier, Alderweireld, Dier, Reguilon, Sissoko, Hojbjerg, Lo Celso, Bergwijn, Son, Kane.
Subs: Hart, Rodon, Davies, Winks, Moura, Bale, Vinicus
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Son gives spurs the lead from 30 yards
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Our defenders stand off too much
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kane makes it 2-0 just before half time, game is as good as over
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partey off injured, he pulled up in the lead up the second goal, seems wenger rushed him back and now he will be out for much longer,
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62% possession and we have not had a shot on target, had 3 off target, but hey football reasons, trust the process yada yada yada
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Starting Partey when he wasn’t fit enough to jump back into a PL derby backfired on that second goal in particular.
Long way back now.
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You might have thought that given the amount of times Arteta would have seen Wenger teams fall to those Mouhrinho tactics he might have expected something similar.
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about 15 to go and we are not looking like making any impact on this at all. The money spent on wages for Willian and PEA seem more and more absurd, and don’t get me started on leaving Ozil out of our squad when we are so devoid of imagination in attack
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Nketiah is on for Bellerin
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a relegation six pointer next Sunday for us v Burnley, we are currently 7pts ahead of them
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losing 2-0 and we don’t even use our 3rd sub, could bringing on Willock or AMN do any harm, will the trust the process guys who slagged AW for years for 70th minute subs, even mention Arteta’s use of subs or lack of.
this has been dire stuff from us once again, lots of possession but created little if anything of note, gave up two avoidable goals, even if both finishes were world class, the mistakes were in the build up from us. The more I see of Willian the less I understand what the fuck we signed him for. For me Reiss Nelson could do no worse. Same goes for willock over ceballos, its do damn easy to see why Real Madrid are happy to loan him to us.
We play like we have a Giroud or a Duncan Ferguson up front, high crosses, or balls in that have to be battled for, I see many say we need an attacking midfielder bought in January, and I say no, if we are going to persist with this type of football then its a big old style target man that has to be the priority signing for us
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What does AMN have to do to get a game?
I am pretty sure there are issues at work that go well beyond Arteta, whether he has the experience or command of the dressing room to deal with it is another matter.
We are in this situation due to a staggering level of naivety , mismanagement and poor planning from the owners and some they put in place to manage the club.
I hope Stan and Josh take a look at the league table This evening, and if they don’t, I hope Tim Lewis does, this club has a £250m wage bill , relegation would make what happened to Leeds a few years back seem a little financial blip. I doubt if the club would recover from such a sporting catastrophe, at least without a change of ownership and KSE selling at a huge loss.
Something has gone very wrong, it keeps going wrong since Wenger left.
If Arteta survives, he is going to need more help than anyone above him at the club is currently in a position to give him, not really fair on an inexperienced manager.
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Mandy its very simple, if AMN wants game time he has to leave Arsenal
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I do agree Mandy have said it all along not sure what manager would make a real impact. They seem to be set up to take the blame for everything and as you say an inexperienced manager is like a gift to them.
We do not even have a credible Captain I have never seen Auba even attempt to drive the team.
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over 40 crosses from us today, seems the Maths were not as simple as Arteta thought
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44 crosses against spurs. 33 against wolves last week.
the really worrying thing is he believes that more crosses leads to more goals.
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11670/12149740/arsenal-crossing-statistics-analysed-does-mikel-arteta-have-a-point
its maths apparently, it just works.
sophistication in our attack has basically dried up and now this is our main tactic.
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I suspect AMN might leave Arsenal unfortunately.
As for Auba, anyone see him speaking pre game on the official site, normally an upbeat character, but had his head bowed, speaking softly, didn’t look at the camera, I know body language can be deceptive to an amateur watcher, but he actually seemed depressed to me, certainly not inspiring.
But agree, this club seems set up for managers to fail, even got our greatest manager in the end, I am sure there is far more to that than Wenger ever let on. A shame, if recent reports are to be believed, KSE have royally pissed off the one man who could come in and sort the mess they have created
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yeah gee and that is with a CF who has scored something like 3 headed goals for us, we hoped we were getting in Arteta a hybrid of Wenger and Pep but its a hybrid of McLeish and Moyes we have ended up with
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44 crosses from AFC today and 35 of them did not reach an AFC player but Arteta said
“A cross doesn’t just mean an aerial cross. We penetrated the penalty box on numerous occasions. If we generate that every week we will win football matches. At the moment it looks like we need to do a lot to win football matches.”
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Arteta: “In terms of the performance they did everything that I asked them to do. Absolutely everything. We played the way I believe we had to play this game.”
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@ eduardo – i am seriously expecting a mourane fellani type signing to be high on the shopping list.
funny i used to hate when the press or someone tried to call us arsecelona but if anyone calls arseaton at this point i would accept it.
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Arteta: “I don’t know what else we can do. If we can’t score goals we cannot improve our situation.”
33 crosses last week, 44 this week, good job we are facing Burnley next week, as they are known for being weak on crosses, its the Maths, trust the process, football reasons, need 5 or 6 new players, yada yada yada
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gee the thing is we actually need to sign someone like that if we are going to persist with this style of play, it has no hope of working without a big bruiser up front and I’ve seen nothing from Arteta to suggest that he wants to play something akin to wengerball, its very moyesball stuff we seem to be trying to play
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Arteta on derby defeat, goalscoring and Partey
Connor Armstrong 06 Dec 2020
“Very simple. We need to score goals. If not, it’s unsustainable.”
Mikel Arteta was clear in his assessment of our 2-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur when he faced the media on Sunday evening.
Our recent form, missed chances and Thomas Partey’s injury were all covered during our post-match press conference.
Read on for every word from the boss:
on the performance…
In terms of the performance they did everything that I asked them to do, absolutely everything. We played a way that I believe we had to play this game. You look at all our stats, they were in our favour, but at the end of the day it is about putting the ball in the box. The first situation they had, from 30 yards they put it in the top corner. You have to applaud it. The second one, Thomas has to come off, we can not fill the gap that he should be in and we get done. Just before we had an open situation to score a goal as well. After that, in this moment, normally the team will fall. And the team got better after the first one, the team got better after the second one. They tried to generate situations. We had chances. We generated probably more than ever this season, put the ball in the box more than ever, we had numbers there but at the end of the day you have to score the goals. When they had half chances they scored and at the moment we haven’t. So to build something you need results. I take a lot of positives from the way we played. When you come here in this moment and play with a personality, and courage, and passion, the energy, the belief that the boys showed, but at the end it’s a football match. You have to win it and we lost again today.
on how we turn it around…
By scoring goals. Very simple. We need to score goals. If not, it’s unsustainable. It doesn’t matter what we do in the other departments on the pitch, if we don’t score goals, we can do nothing. So we need to put the ball in the net, urgently.
on the Thomas Partey situation…
I haven’t seen the action repeated. But it is an injury and it is in the same area unfortunately. We don’t know how bad it is. I was trying to push him but I don’t think he realised the gravity of the situation when he left his position but that was probably because he was in a lot of pain. It’s nothing we can do at the moment to resolve that.
on whether he is frustrated with Thomas or if it’s hard to criticise…
It was too quick. We were through and I think it was a four against three situation for us to play the final ball and we were through. Suddenly, they are coming to attack us and Thomas is walking to me and I was trying to push him. I haven’t spoken to him so I don’t know exactly how it happened or if he felt something really serious. I will look at it and we will talk about it.
on putting in even more crosses than against Wolves but still not scoring…
You could see some of the chances that we created as well, there were crosses, cut-backs, we penetrated the penalty box on numerous occasions to find the last pass or the final ball and when the ball came through we didn’t hit it or they blocked it. There were a lot of things happening. If we generate that every week, we will win football matches for sure. But at the moment it looks like we need a lot to score a goal.
Mikel Arteta was unable to hide his frustration after we were beaten 2-0 by Tottenham in the north London derby.
Son Heung-min and Harry Kane both scored in the first half to give our rivals all three points on a difficult night in north London.
“Yeah, it hurts a lot,” Arteta told Arsenal.com. “Obviously we know what the derby means to all of us, including our fans. We had a great opportunity to put some momentum in.
“I think the performance overall shows the character that this team has at the moment, the personality that we showed, the way we’ve played, all the situations that we generated. But as well, who we are at the moment – we concede two shots on target and we lost the game.
“I think we had 53 crosses into the box. It’s an incredible number. The situations that we generated were very clear. It was missing that final link, that final touch, that one v one with Auba, that header – I have a lot in my memory. At the end, in the opponents’ box we are not ruthless enough when we had the chances and then we conceded two goals.”
Copyright 2020 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to http://www.arsenal.com as the source.
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I think our coaches / medics need to look a little closer at players with injuries ,before the game or during it. With Luiz and Partey, not their finest week
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Aubameyang’s agent Kwaku Mensah has shifted the blame onto the Arsenal manager.
In an Instagram story, Mensah printed a number of statistics that showed that Arsenal were ranked 17th in the league for goals, 18th for shots on target but also 20th for chances created.
He also added a caption: “If you create chances…” in an apparent dig at the Spanish manager and the creators in the team.
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its now our worst start to a league season after 11 games for 45 years
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we have 10 EPL goals so far this season, and I’ve just seen a stat that claims in 9 of our 11 EPL games, the starting front 3 has been like today, Aubameyang, Lacazette and Willian.
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if Brighton beat Southampton then they would push us down to 16th in the table.
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just the six more EPL games before the transfer window kicks in, how many times before then will Arteta mention how he needs five or six new players, how many more players will he blame for things going wrong in a game.
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The big question is why Arteta wants to impose the old school way of playing football. Being a student of football under Wenger and Pep why he cant see that both suceeded by playing positive attacking football and not by the Mourinisque defence first approach? I am sure he knows football better than us but why on earth he cant see he needs to play more through the middle.
Cant he see Auba has been a passanger since the start of the season. Why cant he devise a strategy to get Auba more involved? Why cant he make the midfield more functional?
It is getting from bad to worse now. He should quickly get his act on track otherwise Arsenal are on the verge of collapse.
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Rosicky, some would say Arteta also learned his trade under Moyes.
If you are being kind, you could say he has nobody creative in MF…..he trusts …..that can move on the half turn, or thread things through the middle, so he resorts to going out wide. Or nobody he chooses to play that is. The sort of thing Ozil, Ramsey and Wilshere used to do
I expect him to sign a creative in Jan, but he will take time to settle
Worrying for Arteta his captains agent had publicly criticised him, agents and all that but a question he will have to field
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nightmare scenario. Arsenal sink further into oblivion and Mesut does a Sol Campbell and joins spuds in Jan and they do the unthinkable.
2020 has been cruel like that.
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I thought we tried to be positive from off yesterday, before getting killed twice on counter. Then 2nd half gave it absolutely everything against a team very content to defend what they had.
Can’t call it unlucky not to win- that’s the game against a Mourinho team in good nick: your really don’t want to fall behind, and you really really don’t want to fall two behind. After that, pressure, chances etc can be misleading, as they aren’t trying to do anything beyond defend what they have and take a counter if it comes.
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It’s a game where our chances would probably have been better, though not by a huge amount, if we’d still been on that more defensive 3 centre back footing of not so long ago, and that might be true of Wolves game,too, where we switched just before facing two excellent wingers. But anyway, that was never going to work long term, nor did it work that well short term.
It left us in no man’s land, really, the defensive route not working out. Now we’ve tried changing from a position of weakness, with heavy pressure for results. A bad start to it, but hopefully will pick up from here.
Me and Eduardo have talked for ages about how much we could do with a centre forward who is very strong in air, and doubt that can ever be more evident than yesterday. There were many poor and average crosses, but there were also some good ones, and of course if you do have a good target it changes how you cross and how they have to defend.
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After 6 defeats in 11 games to start this new season, crowned by this emphatic defeat by Chelsea, in my brand new blog it is my view that “Arteta is a Deadman Walking.” The comments so far have been spot on. Go check it out: https://uncensoredarsenal.com/index.php/arteta-is-a-deadman-walking/
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Not that anyone cares – and I am not sure how much I do – my interest is plummeting. Until somebody makes the decision to prioritise the future and play Maitland-Niles, Willock, Saka, Nelson, and Smith-Rowe regularly, I see little reason to devote time to watching the matches.
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We were destined to lose against Mourinios Spurs but the actual.problem are the losses to Villa Wolves and Leicester at home.These were the games we used to win under Wenger for 2 decades.
Can Arteta make the Emirates our fortress again?
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some reports that Ozil is confident that he will have no trouble finding a new top level club next summer. Its even suggested that he might stay in the EPL
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Kenny Sansom has been diagnosed with Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, a type of brain disorder and form of dementia that is treatable
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