Mikel Arteta, First-Team Manager

[Santi]

Top 4 should always be the minimum target. But if we don't make it that doesn't mean Mikel should go

The goat returns

[theHotHead]

Im laughing because half the forum said the squad was shit and here we are in with a strong shout for a top 3 place!!

I said the players were better than we have been seeing, they said the players are not good enough.

[jayramfootball]

Im laughing because half the forum said the squad was shit and here we are in with a strong shout for a top 3 place!!

I said the players were better than we have been seeing, they said the players are not good enough.

Stop trying to revise history HH.
The reason our squad is no longer shit is because of our truly brilliant summer transfer window and getting rid of deadwood.
You said the squad Arteta inherited was top class, which was a bat shit crazy thing to say.

Arteta has completely transformed us and our future is very bright. The entire reason we even have a shot at top 4 is because of the squad rebuild and development of young players.

I am assuming you are giving credit to Arteta?

[Santi]

Exactly and even then we are doing well to be in a top 4 shout, if anything it proves the ‘clown’ is over performing

[Salibatelli]

I think people need to look at a our remaining fixtures before going over the top about Arteta, we’ve got a tough looking list of games, we’ve just got to hope some of those teams have a dip in form before we meet them.

I think our fixtures have been kind recently, other than Wolves away the matches haven’t been too tough and Wolves gave us a bit of a helping hand with the goal we scored in that.

[DiamondGooner]

I think people need to look at a our remaining fixtures before going over the top about Arteta, we’ve got a tough looking list of games, we’ve just got to hope some of those teams have a dip in form before we meet them.

I think our fixtures have been kind recently, other than Wolves away the matches haven’t been too tough and Wolves gave us a bit of a helping hand with the goal we scored in that.

Yep, 15 games left.

A lot of time for things to go right and things to go wrong.

However unlike our rivals we have no competitions left but the Prem, as long as ESR, Saka and Martinelli start getting an eye for goal we could make it but its all up in the air right now.

One thing for sure is that every winnable game we have left needs to be won, a couple of Burnley type games and we could be out of the race.

[Losmeister]

just coming into the 3rd turn...

[swipe right]

Look here’s the thing. Arteta has us well organized. We look compact and are hard to break down even for good teams. That’s definitely a positive.

What we are missing is incision in our play. I don’t think Saka, Odegard or ESR are giving the forwards much to work with. We saw Auba struggle to get goals and we see the same with Laca. Laca does a bit more in dropping back and helping the attack but when you have five midfielders operating that shouldn’t be the lone strikers job. He should be playing tip of the spear.

As the season gets into the final few games this will matter. The teams we are competing with for fourth have Ronaldo and Kane leading the line. They will get those clutch goals while we may not. A couple of draws here and there could doom us. I think we have left ourselves very exposed in this regard.

[Salibatelli]

I think people need to look at a our remaining fixtures before going over the top about Arteta, we’ve got a tough looking list of games, we’ve just got to hope some of those teams have a dip in form before we meet them.

I think our fixtures have been kind recently, other than Wolves away the matches haven’t been too tough and Wolves gave us a bit of a helping hand with the goal we scored in that.

Yep, 15 games left.

A lot of time for things to go right and things to go wrong.

However unlike our rivals we have no competitions left but the Prem, as long as ESR, Saka and Martinelli start getting an eye for goal we could make it but its all up in the air right now.

One thing for sure is that every winnable game we have left needs to be won, a couple of Burnley type games and we could be out of the race.

Yes definitely the fact we only have the PL is an advantage.

I was really looking at our fixtures and we have a lot of tough games, our away games look tricky , Palace, Villa, Southampton (who look rejuvenated right now), West Ham, Chelsea, Spurs, Newcastle.

We’ve also got some tricky home games against the likes of Man U, Liverpool.

The other 5 home games look winnable to me though.

[Salibatelli]

Look here’s the thing. Arteta has us well organized. We look compact and are hard to break down even for good teams. That’s definitely a positive.

What we are missing is incision in our play. I don’t think Saka, Odegard or ESR are giving the forwards much to work with. We saw Auba struggle to get goals and we see the same with Laca. Laca does a bit more in dropping back and helping the attack but when you have five midfielders operating that shouldn’t be the lone strikers job. He should be playing tip of the spear.

As the season gets into the final few games this will matter. The teams we are competing with for fourth have Ronaldo and Kane leading the line. They will get those clutch goals while we may not. A couple of draws here and there could doom us. I think we have left ourselves very exposed in this regard.

Yes no doubt we’re better defensively, but then he is a defensive manager, going forward we’re ok but we do make hard work of it sometimes, we get through against weaker teams but in harder games chances are much harder to come by.

The away Wolves games was a good example where we wouldn’t have scored if not for a bit of a goalkeeping error.

[theHotHead]

Im laughing because half the forum said the squad was shit and here we are in with a strong shout for a top 3 place!!

I said the players were better than we have been seeing, they said the players are not good enough.

Stop trying to revise history HH.
The reason our squad is no longer shit is because of our truly brilliant summer transfer window and getting rid of deadwood.
You said the squad Arteta inherited was top class, which was a bat shit crazy thing to say.

Arteta has completely transformed us and our future is very bright. The entire reason we even have a shot at top 4 is because of the squad rebuild and development of young players.

I am assuming you are giving credit to Arteta?

Rubbish! Are you going to tell me I haven't been saying the squad is capable of better for years?! Emery failed - that team that was offensively sound only needed a minor improvement defensively for us to be top 4 - and he failed! New GK, new CB, new DM and we were even worse defensively.

Arteta comes in and finished 8th with a whole load of additional players. Need I say more. 2 inept managers thst couldn't get the players to play well.

[swipe right]

Look here’s the thing. Arteta has us well organized. We look compact and are hard to break down even for good teams. That’s definitely a positive.

What we are missing is incision in our play. I don’t think Saka, Odegard or ESR are giving the forwards much to work with. We saw Auba struggle to get goals and we see the same with Laca. Laca does a bit more in dropping back and helping the attack but when you have five midfielders operating that shouldn’t be the lone strikers job. He should be playing tip of the spear.

As the season gets into the final few games this will matter. The teams we are competing with for fourth have Ronaldo and Kane leading the line. They will get those clutch goals while we may not. A couple of draws here and there could doom us. I think we have left ourselves very exposed in this regard.

Yes no doubt we’re better defensively, but then he is a defensive manager, going forward we’re ok but we do make hard work of it sometimes, we get through against weaker teams but in harder games chances are much harder to come by.

The away Wolves games was a good example where we wouldn’t have scored if not for a bit of a goalkeeping error.

I remember RVPs golden season where he dragged us to fourth alone with his goals. He’d drop back, kinda like Laca, let players like Theo overlap and then drift back in to finish off the return service. Problem is Laca doesn’t have his quality nor is he getting the ball played back in the right space. We are depending on Martinelli,ESR and Saka getting a run on the opposition for goals. We may not be that fortunate for too long. Even this weekend i thought we were quite lucky to be getting those two goals. We were not particularly incisive or penetrative and it was poor goal keeping in my mind for the first goal and a gem of a strike for the second.

[Santi]

Look here’s the thing. Arteta has us well organized. We look compact and are hard to break down even for good teams. That’s definitely a positive.

What we are missing is incision in our play. I don’t think Saka, Odegard or ESR are giving the forwards much to work with. We saw Auba struggle to get goals and we see the same with Laca. Laca does a bit more in dropping back and helping the attack but when you have five midfielders operating that shouldn’t be the lone strikers job. He should be playing tip of the spear.

As the season gets into the final few games this will matter. The teams we are competing with for fourth have Ronaldo and Kane leading the line. They will get those clutch goals while we may not. A couple of draws here and there could doom us. I think we have left ourselves very exposed in this regard.

A good post swipey, can’t disagree with any of it but do have to hope it pans out well for us and a bit of luck on our side for once.

[Highbury Hillbilly]

Look here’s the thing. Arteta has us well organized. We look compact and are hard to break down even for good teams. That’s definitely a positive.

What we are missing is incision in our play. I don’t think Saka, Odegard or ESR are giving the forwards much to work with. We saw Auba struggle to get goals and we see the same with Laca. Laca does a bit more in dropping back and helping the attack but when you have five midfielders operating that shouldn’t be the lone strikers job. He should be playing tip of the spear.

As the season gets into the final few games this will matter. The teams we are competing with for fourth have Ronaldo and Kane leading the line. They will get those clutch goals while we may not. A couple of draws here and there could doom us. I think we have left ourselves very exposed in this regard.

Agreed, we needed somebody, anybody to fill the CF role in Jan. It is not hard to find a striker better than Laca and Nketiah, neither of whom have a league goal since December. United signed Ighalo from China last Jan and even he was able to bag a few.

[Salibatelli]

Look here’s the thing. Arteta has us well organized. We look compact and are hard to break down even for good teams. That’s definitely a positive.

What we are missing is incision in our play. I don’t think Saka, Odegard or ESR are giving the forwards much to work with. We saw Auba struggle to get goals and we see the same with Laca. Laca does a bit more in dropping back and helping the attack but when you have five midfielders operating that shouldn’t be the lone strikers job. He should be playing tip of the spear.

As the season gets into the final few games this will matter. The teams we are competing with for fourth have Ronaldo and Kane leading the line. They will get those clutch goals while we may not. A couple of draws here and there could doom us. I think we have left ourselves very exposed in this regard.

Yes no doubt we’re better defensively, but then he is a defensive manager, going forward we’re ok but we do make hard work of it sometimes, we get through against weaker teams but in harder games chances are much harder to come by.

The away Wolves games was a good example where we wouldn’t have scored if not for a bit of a goalkeeping error.

I remember RVPs golden season where he dragged us to fourth alone with his goals. He’d drop back, kinda like Laca, let players like Theo overlap and then drift back in to finish off the return service. Problem is Laca doesn’t have his quality nor is he getting the ball played back in the right space. We are depending on Martinelli,ESR and Saka getting a run on the opposition for goals. We may not be that fortunate for too long. Even this weekend i thought we were quite lucky to be getting those two goals. We were not particularly incisive or penetrative and it was poor goal keeping in my mind for the first goal and a gem of a strike for the second.

Agreed, I actually think if we wanted to get the best out of Lacazette we shouldn’t get him to drop back. You’re right in that he’s not really good enough to do that and that’s not his game.

I actually think it hinders his goal scoring as well.