Arsenal have a trip to Merseyside to play Everton at 5.30 P.M. today.
Given our recent results and form, this is somewhat daunting, they are in good form and we are not. And that’s being kind to us. An unkind man might say our best chance is to get a player sent off early doors, and put up the barricades in the hope of a 0-0, but not me, I wouldn’t be that unkind.
It’s not all doom and gloom though, oh no, not at all. Everton are short of two vital players in James and Allan. They might be rubbish without them? Right? They will have to be rubbish for us to win. I’m joking, I’m joking.
Ok, that was the good news, so what’s the bad news?
Well, Xhaka is out, although many fans will say that’s good news. Many fans are thick though. Partey is out injured, for the foreseeable, so I think it will have to be Elneny and Ceballos. These two have long since been labelled “not good enough” so it’s an ask for them to pull a Rabbit out of the hat today, we can but hope.
I suspect we will go back to 3 at the back, with the 5 being Bellerin, Holding, Luiz, Tierney and perhaps AMN?
I also think we will see Aubameyang back on the left with Lacazette in this weird No.9/false9/No10 hybrid thing with Willian back on the right. This isn’t what I’m hoping for, just what I think will be the case.
Any kind of a result will be welcome and any sort of performance will be acceptable if we get one. Wengerball is a distant memory and Arteta dishes up football by numbers that is better called sufferball, but we are in such a desperate situation that somehow, anyhow, we have to get some points. I don’t believe we will be relegated, but if we are not careful, we could be in the mix. I said before the season started that top 4 was out of the question, after a couple of weeks that top 6 was out of the question and now I think top half is out of the question. We are in a real fight to be a mid-table team for the next few years.
But what do I know? Actually, I can answer that question, it’s Feck all. So don’t let me dampen your spirits, it might be grand in a week or three.
Pedantic George.
Positively Arsenal 
if Brighton, Fulham and Burnley win their games in hand Arsenal will be 17th and just 2pts off a relegation place
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Sufferball wins the day. If results go The seaweed and Burnley’s way we can be 4th from bottom. Nice.The air always smells good at the bottom doesnt it? Trust the process. Trust the wisdom of aftv, and trust the guiding words of Le Grove. Nah. They havent a fkn clue.
That bloke or women from the 12th century got it right though in my 12.45pm.
Old Wenger the senile tool, the game had past him by, an outmoded dinosaur so the collective outers said .
“thanks for the memories Arsene but all good things come to an end” read the fly by banner. So wise! All good things come to an end? What like Arsenal being in the PL?
Old Weng said keep the standards well they got chucked out the day he drove off. BYeeeie!
However meanwhile back in the “real” world Arty-eta a young man knows the new game well(having played for Arsenal and was no2 for Pep) embraces the new tactic of hanging around the bottom of the league to get a few hairs on them softy ballet Wenger types chests, and luring the top 6 into a false sense of security so when we come back up from the championship(in five years time) we can go flying up the league to the top. Or so the manifesto for the process reads.
Love from Mills the dinosaur pal of Old Weng x
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Martinez is especially effective at this playing from the back Arteta wants.
Arteta will do very well to get out of this situation, the Kroenkes will have to do something, or risk hundreds of millionsL or perhaps more taken off their asset. If Arsenal keep losing , relegation will become an increasing threat, if clubs below win games in hand, things start to look very bleak.
That something will have to be signings, a new manager, or upstairs appointments or all of these and more
All I would say, I am not sure I would trust Edu and his merry men, or Josh Kroenke to oversee another managerial appointment.
And anyway, Arteta and Edu are equal in rank now, of edu tries to sack Arteta, Arteta could sack him right back! Which might not be the worst solution looking at things as they stand
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our last seven EPL games
lost, drew, lost, lost, lost, drew, lost
it was never this bad under Emery, and that is saying something
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Theo is reported to have said Arsenal ‘ are playing with fear’. I can see just how that is applicable. I see players uncertain of themselves and of their team-mates; this uncertainty, lack of confidence, and sense of aloneness is probably what Walcott noticed.
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never as bad under Emery, what am I saying, jayus it was never as bad as this under Terry Neill
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well Stephen, the fear is probably due to knowing if your name is not Willian, you can be thrown under the bus by the manager for any mistake or dropped point.
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Same old boring football of crossing into the box. Pepe is useless out wide yet we continue to persist with him there. Willian is just useless. Nketiah should have scored. We have no midfield. Our 2 defensive midfielders don’t really defend.
I thought AMN did well. Saka and Tierney were good too. Martinelli did well once he came on. He at least drove through the middle of the pitch but by then Everton were sitting really deep and it was hard to go through them.
Not enough players in the box when the ball comes in and they really don’t seem to gel
We need to be playing the same team week in week out for the attack to gel. Right now we have a different team every week plus Willian who really doesn’t know why he is there.
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Exactly right, Stephen. The players are not on the same page. You see the players make a pass in space and who they thought they were passing it to is standing up.
I wonder, who is Arsenal best 11? Does Arteta know this?
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Mills, (7:50) remember to include the swell of journos and pundits that took up prominent positions in front of that clamorous mass.
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Below From Swiss Ramble…Think they need someone upstairs PDQ
.
Absentee owner.
Inexperienced:
– manager
– director of football
– chief executive
Scouting network dismantled.
Chelsea rejects.
Expensive players ostracised.
Inexplicable recruitment policy.
“Super” agents having a laugh.
Zero creativity.
Couldn’t care less attitude.
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we keep getting told Arteta needs a team of his own players, but remember for every Gabriel and Partey there is a Willian, Cedric, Mari and Runarsson and not forgetting a Ceballos on loan. Should we really be signing more Arteta players when these are his players
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too true Stephen, what wisdom and insight they showed!
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so to sum up Arteta’s after game presser
Auba out for one or two weeks
we dominated the game
burnley and everton have won despite not creating anything, lots of teams winning taht way in epl now
hard to play against a low block
we are being unlucky
team has good spirit, and are trying to do the right things
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ht; newcastle 0-1 fulham
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I thought Willian played well today, his crossing was generally good and in the second half when he had to drop in midfield and play centrally he moved the ball.
Pepe however I agree was a waste of space we play with 10 men except that with 10 men we wouldn’t be having someone sleeping on the penalty spot when we’re defending corners. The rumour Pepe has naked pictures of Mikel’s wife grows bigger every week.
Overall I thought we played well certainly better than we had been in the league but the star players again were the academy players and Elneny. The trouble is if Auba and Laca comes back and Pepe continues then we are back carrying three players.
Today taking off Eddie who was attacking the six yard box and gives you total involvement and bringing on Laca who attacks the area around the penalty area further out was crazy.
If you watched Lacas position in the last ten minutes when those crosses went into the box he was at the edge of the area. Both Eddie and Ballagun would have been attacking that area.
Again all the subs were straight swaps, if this would have been under Arsene we would of finished with five or six attacking players and maybe a CB in the area as well.
Like I say we did better today but you get the feeling it’s by accident rather than Mikel’s actual player selection and when he gets the chance the good youngsters will be dropped again.
One last thing Credit to the new Captain Rob who looked much better than Auba at leading and keeping the team going when things weren’t going well.
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another simple quesiton
what is it that people think Arteta will do differently the rest of the season, than what he has done in his fist 12 months here, why should anyone expect him to get us out of htis mess
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Eduardo (8:34)
If Arteta actually believes the trite comments he feeds the press, then we are really in serious trouble.
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Brighton v ARSENAL on the 29th December looks a very important game.
We are fortunate that there are only 12 points between us and Everton in second making the season retrievable but I’m just not sure it’s with Mikel.
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yeah ian only 12pts between us and 2nd placed Everton, its not a lot if you say it quickly and ignore that we currently only have 14pts from 14 games.
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brighton play at home to Sheffield utd tomorrow, if they win that they go above us
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Here’s a full transcript of what he said in his post-match press conference:
on the performance…
We controlled them really well, the counter-attacks, apart from a few moments where we lost the ball inside, which is impossible to control. Then we started to look more and more dangerous in the final third, attacking this low block in front is complicated and we generated a lot of situations but they didn’t end up in big chances. Sometimes the cross, sometimes the last action or the shot and the conversion rate has been really low and is something that we must improve dramatically. And then, when we need a little bit of luck, we hit the post or we have some big chances and we don’t put them away. At the end, the reflection is a little bit similar to the last few weeks. You are better than the opponent, you dominate the game and usually when you are under this pressure and this position in the table, you get battered by teams. It’s not the case. I see the spirit in the team and how they try and how they are willing to do things the right way and I’m gutted for them as well because they needed a result and I think we played a game that we had to get something out of.
on whether the tempo was too slow…
I think in the first half, in the first phase, it was slow. Whether it was because the players were a little bit restricted or because they don’t want to make a mistake or just because we felt that it was comfortable to do it. But in the second half it was much better. We talked about it at half-time that the speed has to be much quicker, with the movement and the intention to attack the spaces and we did it much more efficiently but it wasn’t enough to score more goals.
on having 14 points after 14 games…
Well, the season highlights at the moment the situation we are in in the Premier League. We’ve done really well in Europe, really good in the cups and we are struggling to get results in the Premier League. Again, when we analyse every game, the reasons why we are losing football matches, compared to other teams winning them, the margins are small. But we need those margins very quickly before the situation gets impossible to handle.
on Aubameyang’s injury…
We want him back as quickly as possible. He has a small strain and he will need a few days. I don’t know if it’s a week or two weeks, it will depend how the injury evolves.
on it feeling like Groundhog Day in this post-match press conference…
Yes, but the opponents are not generating anything. We lost against Burnley without them generating a single shot on target as well. This is how teams win a lot of games in the Premier League and at the moment we are not going to generate 15 or 20 chances against blocks like that, it’s not realistic. When we have done accurately enough to finalise those actions, there is a bad combination. Sometimes it’s that we play with 10 men, the other week was obviously an own goal, today we obviously conceded an own goal. It’s a lot of things happening at the same time and when that happens then it is difficult.
on whether his position becomes untenable if this run continues much longer…
I understand that. My energy and my focus is only on getting the team out of that situation, maintaining the spirit on the team and the fight the boys showed every time they go on the pitch. You can see that, you cannot deny that. Obviously, again, the results – there is no question about that, it’s not good enough and it’s not acceptable for the standards of this football club and this is the challenge and the fight that we are against.
on how much pressure he feels currently…
Obviously it’s a really complicated situation, but I am very encouraged from what I see from the players to continue doing what we are trying to do. We think that of course we have to improve, but I think we’ve been very, very unlucky not to pick up many, many more points.
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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in two of our next 3 league games we play our relegation rivals
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Fulham draw so one result went our way today
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Orbinho
@Orbinho
If you took results and created a league table since Mesut Ozil was excluded from the Premier League squads, Arsenal would be second bottom, ahead of Sheffield United
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AFC Mac
@AFC_Mac_2
· 21h
Arteta’s Premier League record
33 games
13 wins,
8 draws
12 losses.
Premier League record with Ozil
10 games
5 draws
4 wins
1 loss (Özil subbed off while winning)
Premier League record without Ozil
23 games
9 wins
3 draws
11 losses
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Ozil….and there are times when I think we could do with his fellow German Mustafi as well
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Claims in Spain that Barcelona have an agreement with Bellerin to sign for them, fee of £22M being discussed
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It does not take a PHD to work out that the absence of our only creative player will mean that we will have a rather restricted ability to create chances for our strikers.
Is it, therefore, surprising that we manage, usually, 2 or maybe 3 shots n target in an entire match and that our major striker gets very few shots and virtually no goals?
Yet there are many fans who rejoice at the absence of Ozil and say that all we need to do is wait until the end of the season when Ozil and other players who will then be out of contract leave and also sell a few more (to which buyers and for how much?) and then Arteta can bring in the players he wants and everything will be rosy.
This suggestion is so devoid of reality that it is also not surprising the same people are happy to praise Arteta for his achievements and some of the players for their displays.
I am not sure which is more depressing, watching our team’s abysmal performances, or the blind and dreamlike attitude of some of our fellow supporters.
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Let’s say KSE decide to sack Edu and Arteta. Both would warrant it. But who will select the successors? Or restructure the football setup? Vinai? Josh? Criminey.
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And therein lies the problem 900ftgooner, the whole structure seems to be lacking. They sacked Wenger with no plan whatsoever. They sacked Emery, put Freddie in with 2 backroom staff. If they sack Arteta and edu, who’s next? I honestly dread to think. Vieira?
I think we have to consider the unpalatable possibility that those owning and running the club don’t have a friggin clue. Some of the people they have put in charge of various aspects post Wenger could well support such a hypothesis.
I would therefore conclude that they need to either bolster the executive structure with people who actually know about the game, and by that, I don’t mean the self interested super agents , or sell to a party willing to do so , before KSE see a significant depreciation in this asset.
Arteta has won trophies, but also has his flaws and has got a hell of a lot wrong, but there may be far more wrong above him. Any entity that loses an asset like Wenger without a plan, dithers on Ivan before putting Raul in charge of all, scrapping the scouting network in the process, well, what more is to be said
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Who is waiting out there to take over? Can a manager alone actually fix this?
There is something truly rotten in the state of Arsenal and who has the balls or cares enough to take control of this necessary overhaul?
Plenty of questions and I have no idea where the answers are coming from.
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Great coaches have always had great No.2’s.
Mandy listed the coaching credentials of Arteta’s No.2 the other week.
He was one of the coaches that defenestrated a title winning Utd squad with Moyes. To be clear Steve Bould has a better record in this sport. And league. That’s not an opinion!
There’s been some talk of Culture this week and I understand that the Footballs Culture of the Arsenal which went back at one stage via Pat Rice in a direct line for many decades is now over and finished and will take a decade to rebuild if ever. Especially when you have no scouts left!
If you can’t understand what a craft is you will also never understand how sport works. The Kronke’s haven’t a clue never had and never will do. All they know is how to boil off & cannibalise some assets to their own advantage.
They’ve never built anything of note.
FML.
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I believe the clubs owner is the real problem. No Wenger, no clue.
Stan arrives, lets Wenger do it all, we stop winning titles, but generally doing very well, play good football. 2010 onwards, again do ok, well, more than ok really, might have even done better in Europe if we didn’t always draw peak BM or Barca first knockout round, and then, the stadium payments.
Win some cups, Wenger stays on, but with a hugely increasing workload at a modern day club.
But Stan perhaps listens to the likes of AFTV and the plane banner boys , and instead of doubling down in support of his manager , and maybe helping Wenger out , he sends his son in for a review, I believe things really started going wrong from there, Wenger getting sacked , no plan, we are where we are.
I maintain, Stan and Josh provide no evidence they have the first clue about running this football club, and some of their appointments have been disasters.
Seems what many of us suspected all along, Wenger held the whole thing together
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The club will remain ****ed until a new entity owns the club.
Hopefully one slightly less fraudulent then the current discredited wannabe mobsters. FML.
You know it, I know it, only those esteemed transparent souls on the PR payroll cannot say it. this past decade. Never a single article on all these many bullshitting blags about the Fizman handover. And why he was a reluctant seller to this crowd.
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Just wonder of the prospect, or at least chance of relegation as things look now, a resulting massive fall in the value of the club , in difficult times might make Stan think again about selling. He must know he is never going to find another Wenger.
That said, there is the reasonable chance Stan could sell to someone even more objectionable
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Lewis ploughed money into the spuds and the board got all sorts of things wrong until Sir Les got involved and reset the whole set up of the club allowing the likes of potch to be able to benefit with the first team.
The problem with Arteta is he is just the front man and all above look an absolute shambles.
The only bright thing at the moment is the lads who have come through the academy the last effect Arsene is having on the club.
Without general change at the top I we may see manager after manager pass through the club like the spuds.
Lewis didn’t have to sell to improve the situation at the club but he did have to get someone in who could create a legacy and a base for managers to work with.
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The Kronke’s don’t have Lewis attachment to this their respective clubs/project.
They spent an awfully long time and some money on getting rid of the best most qualified person to be their DoF.
And then replaced him with Raul
And then Kia.
Is there any way back for the K’s in this Sport?
I don’t think so.
They’re now a laughing stock in the game, a template of how not to do it, and surely after the Ozil and Wenger treatment I can’t see many top players or coaches who will come near this stinking mess.
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Reminder that whoever is in charge they have the massive additional barrier of battling our ref treatment. Just seen Lundstrom red card and it is uncannily similar in form to one Sheff Utd player, Berge, did on Aubameyang. Only this time player didn’t launch themselves half as dangerously nor with as much force. Standing ankle munch after touch on ball rather than 14 stone or whatever at speed, full stretch with straight leg (miracle Auba didn’t get ankle fucked then)
Anyway, one went to monitor, one didn’t, precisely following pattern (ours at threshold go almost every time, theirs never do)
Huge obstacle to any manager when that is just one big, visible manifestation of the constant, wider problem.
Now, Mikel or whoever, has to contend with it while we are on our knees, confidence battered, etc.
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New podcast is up
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I was only able to watch the last 25 minutes of last night’s game, due to problems with Skygo.
I saw that Willian had a lot of the ball, but yet, I saw him do nothing of any particular merit with it.
Having seen a number of posters here and elsewhere suggesting that he had an improved game, I find this quite bemusing.
Having a lot of the ball, because he happens to be there when the ball is passed, does not mean that he was playing well.
If he is supposed to be the hub of creativity, instead of the Exile, then he is failing miserably.
I saw no creativity, only the safe pass, or passes that missed their target.
Garbage is garbage no matter how much of the ball he has.
The same applies to Cellabos, who in the time I was watching had a lot of the ball, mainly because Everton were allowing us to have it, but did nothing in particular with it.
Is he not another candidate for the creative hub?
Well, if he is, and I can see nothing else he could be there for, then he is also another failure.
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