Hello everyone.
In this weeks podcast @shotta_gooner and I accept Arteta’s conclusion that the rubbish we churned out against Liverpool was his fault. Of course he had hardly gotten the words out before he shifted the blame to the players and threw them under the first Bus he could find. But hey? On the plus side, he looks well dapper on the touchline.
Pedantic George.
Positively Arsenal 
Your point you made George about 80% of the fan base being happy to see the manager continue is shocking until you realise that the people that voted were sycophantic followers of arseblog, gunnersblog, just arsenal and the rest of the false prophets of the Arsenal sphere that still think ultimately our problems are somehow all Arsene’s fault (deadwood players, attitude, no plan B, injuries) cause he didn’t leave early enough (take you pick of any date between 2008-2017) – their followers are absolute zombies.
To think i used to have access to a season ticket and go to games regularly now cannot be arsed to even watch them on TV.
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Same as me Gee.Could not be bothered to watch them any more especially when those decrepit assholes flew that banner at Wenger’s face.I thought to myself there and then…no fucking more.I’m having much more fun watching UFC instead of reading fake articles from false prophets and watching Arteta fuck up.
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If Arsenal really were to sell Saka it would prove Michael Owen correct . He said after the Pool defeat ,Arsenal are just an average team.They have been unable to compete for the epl despite winning the FA cup 4 time s the last 6/7 seasons.
They have been overtaken by West Ham and I believe the malaise will last several seasons.
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“Aubameyang can play wide, but more and more it’s obvious that he shouldn’t. If he’s not starting up front, he shouldn’t be starting at all.”
quote is from one of the famous BS’s in the blag world.
He has started a narrative on Auba like he did Ozil, swaying his sycophants to parrot the same at every opportunity.
he is saying this about a player that has 63 goals in 110 appearances in the PL and has 15 in 32 in all comps this season.
Campaign for Auba to play centrally has been going on for a while the surprising bit for me is he says he should not be playing at all – and people listen to this guy.
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Think we’re struggling at this stage against Liverpool whatever we do.
This one did feel particularly wretched- really, really, really grim- to me but must admit went into it in foul mood after a pretty rough day.
Close, but think Liverpool prob an even worse matchup for us, stylistically and capability wise, than City
We struggle with their energy and hyper aggressive pressing, which they can crank up higher than normal against us thanks to clowns like Travis Pickle on this occasion, their width and crossing, and especially with the top notch front three, two of whom are very fast and very good dribblers.
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I’d bet also that as well as a very high percentage of our better games, say top 20, in recent years have featured Xhaka, quite a high percentage, especially considering he mostly plays, of our worst performances have been without him.
I was still keeping a small amount of ‘just maybe’ faith in Ceballos until fairly recently, but some weeks back that changed to ‘nope, not here, not for us’ (still think he can have good career at mid size club, not in prem, prob not playing deep!) and he had a real nightmare this time out.
For the rest though, and given absences, it really felt like just what our players are to me. They can, in some games, against different opposition, look a whole lot better than that, but here they were exposed as what they are in those particular harsh circumstances.
Only true alternative for me was going ultra defensive- 3 cbs etc- which we haven’t done for months, and which while it would have improved odds on day, slightly, might not have been a good idea at this stage.
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I’d bet also that as well as a very high percentage of our better games, say top 20, in recent years have featured Xhaka, quite a high percentage, especially considering he mostly plays, of our worst performances have been without him.
I was still keeping a small amount of ‘just maybe’ faith in Ceballos until fairly recently, but some weeks back that changed to ‘nope, not here, not for us’ (still think he can have good career at mid size club, not in prem, prob not playing deep!) and he had a real nightmare this time out.
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For the rest though, and given absences, it really felt like just what our players are to me. They can, in some games, against different opposition, look a whole lot better than that, but here they were exposed as what they are in those particular harsh circumstances.
Only true alternative for me was going ultra defensive- 3 cbs etc- which we haven’t done for months, and which while it would have improved odds on day, slightly, might not have been a good idea at this stage.
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Arteta’s just not cut for the job. Its the fault of the mediocre Arsenal board and the dishonest pundits who seem oblivious of his lack of knowledge and experience of the game. They so naively blame players. Which players do Dean Smith, Brendan Rodgers and Carlo Ancelotti work with? Are they from outer space? Hypocritical Arsenal!
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Gee,
I only read this, Untold and Jeorge Bird and only find out what the fuckwit bloggers say from here really and so I know I mostly don’t agree with them.
However I have always thought (even through his most successful times) that Auba was the type of striker that if he didn’t score would give very little to the team.
His movement is he’s main asset and throughout his career has been world class but strangely enough I have never been confident of him taking chances in the way Owen/shearer/wright would score them.
His first touch in most instances is awful and he stands in no man’s land when we are pressing or defending
I do think he has been unlucky with the last two coaches and maybe suffering with confidence but for me he is on the way down and should definitely not be automatic choice.
I also understand he is very popular in the dressing room and he seems a lovely fella but he is no way a captain in the way Granite or Hector are.
In the current circumstances the club finds it self in his sale would release vital funds especially when you consider his wages as well.
In the current climate all players should provide value for money and he quite simply doesn’t.
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Stillarich,
Boring James Miller had a very good game and he is 96, this was no classic Liverpool side we were just truly awful and that’s why Mikel said he was shocked.
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You are saying what I have been saying for months and yet, on every blog, when I say it, there is usually a chorus of fans who disagree and sometimes criticise me for my negativity.
The wishful thinkers and rose-tinted watchers simply cannot bear to accept that Arteta is failing, because they want him to succeed so much.
I hate the idea of removing a manager as much as they do, but to keep him on simply because it is infra- dig to sack a third manager in 3 years is ignoring the damage that is being done to the club.
I also wish Arteta well, but he is making a mess of things and must go to save him and the club from more harm.
We were already the laughing stock of the football world over the way we treated Ozil.
Who really wants us to get worse.
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Not disputing we were truly awful. More that I can’t see many/any of our players playing much better than they did in the circumstances they faced.
Can you pick anyone out that you would expect to have passed, controlled ball, ran better with ball, done better receiving ball under pressure, dribbled, defended much better, or done any aspect of game much better than they did?
Think Milner’s been an excellent player through career, but, yes, it’s telling that he probably had his best and most productive game in a long while against us, as did many of their players. We suited them perfectly. Forced into sitting, but not the sort of sitting, from teams who often or nearly always play that way, they’ve had such trouble with in recent months.
We were sitting but without the competency to do so, nor the strategy- long balls, big man to hit, counter players, no messing in own third etc.
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I saw a Twitter post from @_Gaurav09_ saying that this is the Kroenkes’ Arsenal that Wenger had been saving us from.
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rich I would have expected each and everyone of our players to do all those things better, they gave away the ball way too easily, we were timid not only in our approach, but in all contests, how many times did we hit awful passes under little pressure, how often did the ball bounce off our players, how often did a defender just lash the ball away upfield where we had no player, when they had time and space to control it or pass it to a team mate. As someone put it on the day – Arteta set us up to defend a 1-0 loss –
on the bloggers, and how they are in full support of Arteta, those that are, very much are the same mob who formed the – we care do you – bullshit. Wenger is gone 3 years and we have idiots like that Alan Algar and his big following saying all this is on Wenger, such nonsense. They will say anything to deflect that they all got it so wrong in their treatment of Wenger, but I will say that if fans were in the stadium this season I think Arteta would be under enormous pressure to keep his job. 12 defeats and 6 draws, outplayed so often, so little attacking football, just the 40 goals in 30 games, they team would be booed off time and again, we would be hearing chants of “you don’t know what you are doing”
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anyone see where Arsenal said they would consider boycotting social media if something is not done to stop the abuse of players, I would admire such a stance if it was not stated just a number of hours after the club put out a tribute to one of the AFTV lot who ranted and raved abuse at our players and former managers for years, Arsenal are fucking hypocrites
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@ianspace2014
agreed with you on Untold, Uncensored and Positive arsenal – got them bookmarked.
sometimes read those others to gauge the general mood on-line. the influence they have is maddening and the bias is annoying.
regarding Auba, i agree with you that if he does not score, he contributes little.
arteta’s use of him is another issue as to if he is getting the best out of Auba consistently by working to his strengths (scoring) rather than his weakness (defending).
My problem with the blaggers statement is he seems to be starting a campaign of drop Auba unless in the middle while the stats show otherwise.
He has scored plenty of goals from the left, maybe he is struggling this season but there may be other things contributing to this rather than him starting on the left.
I dont know what the stats are for chance creation for the team but i bet that might an area to start.
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@ eduardo792 – agreed regarding Arsenal hypocrisy.
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Think I’d had enough drinks by 8pm on Saturday to only have a blurry recollection of the game, but what I do remember was a total inability to secure any ball in midfield. But also a sense that we weren’t trying to get 10 behind the ball in the hope of a clean sheet and a decisive break away. Like the bits and pieces Kiwi cricketer immortalised by the late great John Arlott, it was neither one thing nor the other.
It seems to me that our midfielders, or at least the ones on show on Saturday, aren’t good enough unless the oppostion allow us to have possession. It is a strangeness (not entirely unique to Arsenal I suspect) that the one player who is good enough, Xhaka, is largely seen by many to be the worst player we have.
Despite the extravagant price tags of many Arsenal players, I’m not sure that many are top four class, let alone challengers for major honours. Perhaps that’s what Arteta saw when he went into that super defensive mode that won us Cup and Shield, but that approach soon fizzled out when teams better at that game insisted that we play the football, and once tempted out of our shell the hustle and bustle of the likes of Leeds were truly discomforting. Throw in a few games down to ten men, some harsh VAR decisions, and the season was all but on the rocks by December. A few green shoots emerged early in January, but now injury threatens to freeze them, and its anyone’s guess how the remaining games will play out. Not well, I suspect, unless there is a real reaction to the dreadfulness of Saturday.
I think it most unlikely we will win the Europa and I doubt we’ll finish high enough in the League to get into the Europa for next season. And maybe this is indeed all part of the process: reduce the need for a squad large enough to compete in all those competitions, get rid of all the players on bloated salaries who aren’t quite good enough to deserve them, and start again with a leaner, meaner playing machine, full of youngsters keen to carve out names for themselves.
Except I doubt anyone is doing any strategic thinking at all.
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we have failed to score in 7 of our epl home game this season, in each of the previous 4 seasons we only failed to score in one game each season. i wonder has that anything to do with it looking like everyone’s first priority is to defend
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well foreverheady the flaw in that notion is that it looks more like we will hand out inflated contracts to more senior signings than we will get rid of those we have. For me it looks far more likely that we will jettison a whole batch of our Academy graduates than the likes of Willian, Lacazette or Aubameyang. I think Bellerin will be sold, and foolishly Xhaka too, as that will go down well with the bloggers, then I think AMN, Willock, Nelson, Nketiah, probably Balogun too will all leave this summer, can anyone give a good reason why any of those guys would commit to another season at AFC, they are not getting a look in, even Martinelli might be tempted to leave.
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reports in Italy say Arsenal are in for Inter Milan right back Achraf Hakimi
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Ed, I’m just not sure. My sense was they were more or less at their technical limits with the game so frantic and opposition pressing as were in positions they were.
Didn’t even watch it all properly but got strong impression on a number of occassions of good passes being on only very briefly- literally case of it being there and you have to play it immediately, sometimes without shifting to preferred foot if on weak one- and then at the edge or just out of the players technical range.
A Ceballos moment summed it up- pass was from centre, quite deep, out to left side, left footed, had to be quick; he tried, but misplaced it. I think he could probably make it about 6 out of ten with pressure off, much less when on; Santi would be about 9 pressure off, 8.5 when on, left or right. Xhaka on left side pretty routine pass he’d almost always make when focus high.
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Other times felt I saw pass on for same brief window but players, knowing chance of making it not that high, let it shut. But we were mostly beleaguered and discombobulated by then anyway- ie passes weren’t to release us in great situations.
Even bigger difference though is that Liverpool don’t have to play particularly difficult or clever passes to Mane and Salah- they play it in their direction- short, mid or even long- and as often as not they can hold off defender behind them, turn and use it. Radically different story with our wide men. This time Laca couldn’t hold onto it either, though I think their defence, especially big fellow, got a big helping hand there from ref, and were allowed to make a lot of contact from behind while competing for ball.
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I really hope they don’t sell Xhaka this summer, our leader and most important player. If I were Arteta, I would extend Xhakas contract ,and as Club Captain.
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Arsenal’s remaining 8 Premier League fixtures:
Sheffield United (A)
Fulham (H)
Everton (H)
Newcastle (A)
West Brom (H)
Chelsea (A)
Crystal Palace (A)
Brighton (H)
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mandy I think the biggest reason why Xhaka will be sold, and Bellerin too, is that it will curry favor with the bloggers and twitteratti for Arteta and Edu, plain and simple.
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That will be a real shame of that happens Eduardo.
Love to see who they would replace Xhaka with, perhaps they think it will be easy to pick up a leader, a highly able, Experienced, technical, tactical, MF orchestrator with some pretty decent fitness records, ie virtually ever present ( touching wood) , who wants to play for us, with the fan abuse, PGMOL scrutiny, threats to families etc
Might be almost as easy as replacing Wenger!
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the cm at Brigthon seems to be flavor of the month with the bloggers, bissoma or something like that
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west ham 3-1 up away to wolves at half time, if they win they go 4th, 10pts ahead of us, but we are supposed to believe that Arteta is getting as much out of our squad as he possibly could, trust the process.
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Looking at our 20 mill+ signings last 4-5 years, how many would you say we’ve nailed- very good or better on pitch/ excellent value for money.
For me, Xhaka a definite, despite what naysayers believe, Tierney,too; Leno, just about, though current form ropey.
Partey and Gabriel can be, but not proven yet.
Laca and Auba have both done plenty of good, but also had plenty of rough days, but the far bigger problem is they don’t fit together into an attack that works well enough for us enough of the time.
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Pepe I think was a monumental error, a giant risk we could not afford to take. There wasn’t a big enough sample size of him excelling, it was within a team playing a specific style in France, not our own. There were lots of penalties, scored and possibly won as well. Richly talented but also, from what we’ve seen, and you’d think scouts should have,too, erratic…not a great match for Pepe and Auba, not able to exert much influence when we are off song, struggling.
Mustafa wasn’t as bad as the consensus says, but not a success either.
Then widen it to all other signings and I’m not sure that many smash hits there either. Luiz not bad at all for me. Mari looks decent at price. Kola a no after reasonable start.
Further back but Holding given good value for money.
Willian…eeeee
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So, thank fuck for Saka and Smith Rowe, but trying to fight against three much richer clubs, a Pool who have got an enormous amount right in five years, and a league where generally most have pretty good money, get to work with lower expectations/ pressure than us, and can generally go for solidity/defensiveness plus bit of quality…and then the pgmol factor…oh boy
We needed to nail a high proportion of signings in this last period and we’ve been average at best overall.
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I’m sick of Arsenal being run like this, Arteta can’t take the club any further so he needs to go as well as the chairman.
It a disgrace to this club run like this, I’m sick of it….
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It’s beyond any doubt that many of these clown blaggers are just an inflated PR agency for Josh and his mates and the rest are on the ladder three rungs down below the ladder behind aftv and the other vampires – they are arguably worse the youtubers otherwise surely they’d have likewise have fulfilled their childhood ambitions of sitting next to Gary Linker on MOTD whilst slagging off the Arsenal.
Yes they have their followers who will pick up any old shit and eat it like the blatantly bigoted xhaka hate. But after Emery they are of diminished relevance. The wider fan base that doesn’t exist on Twitter had already ditched that drowning doofus months and months before their narrative caught up. It’s the same now.
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Interesting thing to look at in debate of if Auba should be central (and what we should look at next time buying a cf) is how many hits Laca takes in comparison to him.
Doesn’t get clattered a fraction as much in air, and also don’t think he gets nearly as many foot/ankle stompers on ground, though he was on end of most dangerous tackle of all from Sheff Utd player, and also taken out really late and dangerously in dying stages of one game when charging up field (may have been in Europe)
But anyway, Laca almost certain to take fair bit of punishment every domestic game, Auba has many where nobody able to put something on him.
That, for me, is key to whether he should play centrally for most part: I think Auba largely keeps himself out of those situations where he is vulnerable to hits, especially blind side, from behind, when laying ball off etc…so what sort of system/style can we play that accommodates that and doesn’t require cf to do the things Laca does which leaves him open to the battering he takes?
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Interesting thing to look at in debate of if Auba should be central (and what we should look at next time buying a cf) is how many hits Laca takes in comparison to him.
Doesn’t get clattered a fraction as much in air, and also don’t think he gets nearly as many foot/ankle stompers on ground, though he was on end of most dangerous tackle of all from Sheff Utd player, and also taken out really late and dangerously in dying stages of one game when charging up field (may have been in Europe)
But anyway, Laca almost certain to take fair bit of punishment every domestic game, Auba has many where nobody able to put something on him.
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Rich: I think Auba is clever (and good enough) to avoid most situations when he is likely to get clattered, wheras most of the time Laca is more of a willing workhorse. While I would agree that Pepe is not showing nearly enough now and looks to be a terrible waste of money, its worth bearng in mind how savagely he was treated by defenders in his first season, and how little (well none at all really) protection he got from the referees. He’s not really been the same since.
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Eduardo: I fear you may well be right about Arteta favouring the old lags rather than the young ones. The question I have about that is what lies behind it, and how much Arteta is free to make his own decisions.
Take Willian for example. I thought at the time he was a sensible signing: nothing wrong with free transfers when players have still much to give and have deliberately ran down their contracts.
It hasn’t quite worked out and there were many occasions when it seemed strange he was picked for the starting XI. Was he picked in the hope that he would spring back to real form sooner or later – or was he picked because of some contractural clause that said he must be? Or because he is an old mate of Mikel’s?
Much was made of the manager’s non-negotiables (a pleasing soundbite and one designed to give out the message of the manager being in charge and whipping the errant and over-indulged players back in line) but are the real non-negotiables the ones that are signed by agents and lawyers?
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