Mikel Arteta, First-Team Manager

[ag6789]

Think if we leave the CB duty to Mari, Holding, Chambers, Saliba and another decent newby, push Luiz to deep DM, sell/ relegate Xakha to bench duty, buy Willian and Coutinho( loan , whatever ) we would become a challenger. Of course need to keep Auba and the rest of the forwards.
Arteta seems to have a pragmatic approach though schooled basically in possession style football ( Wenger/ Barca type) which gives me hope, he can handle different situations. It is no mean task to beat Pep, Klopp, Lamps within a couple of weeks, because all three are deep thinkers of the game.

[LMAO]

Senderos was a pussy this guys a 6ft4 man mountain

Senderos was rubbish. Doesn’t change the fact that he was massively overhyped when we signed him. I’m just saying that paper talk and YouTube can probably get a lot of people excited. Unless you guys are watching Ligue 1 every week I’d say it’s safer to wait until you see him in an arsenal shirt playing in the prem before saying he’s going to be the next varane etc.

No, I was saying Zidane wanted Saliba at Madrid if Varane left because Zidane sees Saliba as the next Varane. And I trust Zizou's judgment of a player over any of ours.

Of course, we'll have to see how Saliba develops at Arsenal and slots in to the side, but based on Zidane's view of him, I think we got a good one.

[DiamondGooner]

Think if we leave the CB duty to Mari, Holding, Chambers, Saliba and another decent newby, push Luiz to deep DM, sell/ relegate Xakha to bench duty, buy Willian and Coutinho( loan , whatever ) we would become a challenger. Of course need to keep Auba and the rest of the forwards.
Arteta seems to have a pragmatic approach though schooled basically in possession style football ( Wenger/ Barca type) which gives me hope, he can handle different situations. It is no mean task to beat Pep, Klopp, Lamps within a couple of weeks, because all three are deep thinkers of the game.

Arteta was schooled by possession managers but he needs to find his own path, he beat 3 of the top 4 in 2 weeks using a 3-4-3 more based on Simeone's defend well then counter hard tactics than possession football.

This is my concern, this current Arsenal team has sucked at possession football, hence why we look worse against Spurs and Leicester than we did Liverpool, Chelsea and City if you can believe it.

Why? because we don't have the Wilshere's, Ozil's, Sanchez, Cazorla, Rosicky, Hleb, Ramsey so on and so on to unlock teams with technical ability anymore.

Who's going to do that in our midfield? Xhaka, Torreria, Guendouzi ....... you must be joking, even Ceballos has had issues with his final ball, the rest of our forwards are all goal threats not creators.

So yeah, we'd need a complete refit of the midfield and even then are we going to be able to outclass a DeBruyne and David Silva (I know he's gone now) types, I doubt it.

The reason we had major victories recently is because we did what Atletico decided to do when giving up trying to go head to head with Barca and Real, they defended like steel then countered hard which allowed them to win La Liga.

I don't mind how we play as long as it works, I just fear we'll try to outclass teams who can afford the best players and get out done, not only are we poorer but Wenger had an eye for cheap players who were good technically ball to feet ........... we don't have that anymore.

[Nuggets]

I think some people are getting a bit ahead of themselves, Arteta ended the season well but we still ended up 8th and got knocked out of the EL league early and suffered some poor defeats.

As I said it’s bought him a bit of time and a chance to show what he can do, but there’s a long way to go before he can be called elite or indeed be considered the right man.

Emery almost got 4th place and got to the final of the EL and countless other managers have done well only for it to go pear shaped (Howe being one of many, Ranieri another) so some of the comments on here are ridiculous (no need to state who, I think it’s clear who they are lol).

He has an opportunity now but needs to do the right things or else things can still turn against him.

Good post.

[theHotHead]

I think some people are getting a bit ahead of themselves, Arteta ended the season well but we still ended up 8th and got knocked out of the EL league early and suffered some poor defeats.

As I said it’s bought him a bit of time and a chance to show what he can do, but there’s a long way to go before he can be called elite or indeed be considered the right man.

Emery almost got 4th place and got to the final of the EL and countless other managers have done well only for it to go pear shaped (Howe being one of many, Ranieri another) so some of the comments on here are ridiculous (no need to state who, I think it’s clear who they are lol).

He has an opportunity now but needs to do the right things or else things can still turn against him.

If we can't get a bit ahead of ourselves when we beat City and Chelsea to an FA Cup victory in our worst season in 25 years, when can we?

In all seriousness though, there's plenty of reasons to get excited. He's managed to turn this shambolic squad of players into a proper team, and we've had some marquee results in the process. Lots of young talent and players who should improve.

Has he turned us from a mid-table club into a Champions League outfit in a few months? No, but that was never reasonable or possible. He's done about as well as anyone could picking up from where Emery left us.

LOOOOL !!! Tell me about it !!

Ozim was probably sat in front of the TV fuming at the final whistle that Chelsea dominated possession - even when Auba lifted the trophy.

[theHotHead]

How can people be alarmed/whatever that we were bossed on possession against these top teams but we WON the game ?!!!! I couldn't give a shit if we had 10% possession and won, tells me the manager is not a clueless dumb f**k and can do what it takes to win games. I am tired of bossing possession and losing games, its about time we won ugly.

[Angelito]

How can people be alarmed/whatever that we were bossed on possession against these top teams but we WON the game ?!!!! I couldn't give a shit if we had 10% possession and won, tells me the manager is not a clueless dumb f**k and can do what it takes to win games. I am tired of bossing possession and losing games, its about time we won ugly.

Our three "worst" seasons have resulted in a trophy, a European final and a SF, and a League Cup final, whilst qualifying for the EL in all three seasons.

We simply need to recruit quality players now. Not as simple, but we're far from being relegated as some would want us to believe.

If we had hired someone more suited to us over Emery in 18/19, we'd most likely have made it to the UCL. 17/18 would have been a one-off.

[Callum]

How can people be alarmed/whatever that we were bossed on possession against these top teams but we WON the game ?!!!! I couldn't give a shit if we had 10% possession and won, tells me the manager is not a clueless dumb f**k and can do what it takes to win games. I am tired of bossing possession and losing games, its about time we won ugly.

Our three "worst" seasons have resulted in a trophy, a European final and a SF, and a League Cup final, whilst qualifying for the EL in all three seasons.

We simply need to recruit quality players now. Not as simple, but we're far from being relegated as some would want us to believe.

If we had hired someone more suited to us over Emery in 18/19, we'd most likely have made it to the UCL. 17/18 would have been a one-off.

Emery died so Arteta could live

Bad ebening

[alexafc12]

Old but interesting article which is currently free and worth a read if you didn't back in June

https://theathletic.com/1875792/2020/06 ... ed_article

[theHotHead]

How can people be alarmed/whatever that we were bossed on possession against these top teams but we WON the game ?!!!! I couldn't give a shit if we had 10% possession and won, tells me the manager is not a clueless dumb f**k and can do what it takes to win games. I am tired of bossing possession and losing games, its about time we won ugly.

Our three "worst" seasons have resulted in a trophy, a European final and a SF, and a League Cup final, whilst qualifying for the EL in all three seasons.

We simply need to recruit quality players now. Not as simple, but we're far from being relegated as some would want us to believe.

If we had hired someone more suited to us over Emery in 18/19, we'd most likely have made it to the UCL. 17/18 would have been a one-off.

Emery died so Arteta could live

Bad ebening

Interesting that Emery's next job is at a mid-level Spanish club .... kinda proves thats his level after all .......

[DiamondGooner]

Interesting that Emery's next job is at a mid-level Spanish club .... kinda proves thats his level after all .......

It is but lets not forget the reason we got him in the first place.

Arsenal failed to attract and still is failing to attract any top flight managers because of their lack of committment to giving a new manager big funds and a strong reign over club transfers.

They do seem to be heading that way with Arteta now because I think they like him a lot, but when you offer someone like Simeone or Nagglesmann such a damp squib offer they're going to be like "Your not taking me down in your sinking ship".

Emery was all we could get, we had Arteta, Brendon Rodgers and Emery interested, that was about it and Emery was coming from PSG.

[Nuggets]

Interesting that Emery's next job is at a mid-level Spanish club .... kinda proves thats his level after all .......

It is but lets not forget the reason we got him in the first place.

Arsenal failed to attract and still is failing to attract any top flight managers because of their lack of committment to giving a new manager big funds and a strong reign over club transfers.

They do seem to be heading that way with Arteta now because I think they like him a lot, but when you offer someone like Simeone or Nagglesmann such a damp squib offer they're going to be like "Your not taking me down in your sinking ship".

Emery was all we could get, we had Arteta, Brendon Rodgers and Emery interested, that was about it and Emery was coming from PSG.

Very true, until we pay the right money we will never attract any top-flight managers, I hope things work out for Arteta we will see next season.

[KG3]

As bad as emery was I don’t think he was entirely the problem I mean he wanted Zaha and Fabinho and we bought him Pepe and Torerria instead maybe if we got the players he wanted his time here wouldn’t have been so bad and we may have reached top 4 and maybe even won the europa league.

You don’t win the Europa league 3 times with a team like Sevilla beating klopps Liverpool in one of the finals by being a bad manager, not saying he would have been a success either if we gave him full backing but anyways...

I just hope that we don’t do the same with Arteta and give him the players he wants, if I ask you for a specific ingredient for my recipe and you get me something else it’s not gonna be the same is it

[Highbury Hillbilly]

Arteta has improved Xhaka and Luiz, but has struggled to figure out how to play Pepe without neutralizing Laca entirely, same problem Emery had. He's also seemed to learn pretty quickly after losing to Chelsea via 2 late goals in Dec and that disastrous EL elimination.

He won't be challenging for the league with the signings the Top 4 are making. Even Top 4 will be hard unless Mourinho has an early meltdown lol. EL is again our best hope of getting CL, but it looks like we'll be going into it with a stronger team than what we had this year.

[theHotHead]

Weren't Lichsteiner and Dennis Suarez Emery signings ??