Mikel Arteta, First-Team Manager

[Dejan]

while you are messaging him, can you ask for my 350 euros aswell?

thanks lad

[Power n Glory]

Tbh the more I’ve thought about it, the more I do blame the players. They are the ones who are once again spitting their dummies out and seemingly downing tools, Arteta hasn’t suddenly changed his ways albeit slightly tweaking the formation to try and attack more but the principles remain the same as they were when we won the FA cup

.

The principles aren't the same. We're trying to dominate possession and play higher up the pitch. We're kicking it long more instead of playing it from the back and drawing in our opponents. Xhaka is also being used to press high up the pitch as seen with that second goal where he got done by Traore. When Arteta first arrived, when he played Xhaka in a 4-2-3-1, Xhaka would rotate to cover the left flank and sit in that space left by Saka/Tierney. That hasn't been happening recently and it seems as though Tierney is way more conservative and isn't getting forward as much.

[Santi]

while you are messaging him, can you ask for my 350 euros aswell?

thanks lad

He said he can only give out chrome lambos so send him your address.

[Santi]

Tbh the more I’ve thought about it, the more I do blame the players. They are the ones who are once again spitting their dummies out and seemingly downing tools, Arteta hasn’t suddenly changed his ways albeit slightly tweaking the formation to try and attack more but the principles remain the same as they were when we won the FA cup

.

The principles aren't the same. We're trying to dominate possession and play higher up the pitch. We're kicking it long more instead of playing it from the back and drawing in our opponents. Xhaka is also being used to press high up the pitch as seen with that second goal where he got done by Traore. When Arteta first arrived, when he played Xhaka in a 4-2-3-1, Xhaka would rotate to cover the left flank and sit in that space left by Saka/Tierney. That hasn't been happening recently and it seems as though Tierney is way more conservative and isn't getting forward as much.

Only really in the last 2-3 games though because the 3-4-3 got boring and wasn’t working either. Prior to that it was exactly the same, hence DG and sims were banging on about formations and zones so much.

Why did the same not work from game 1-7? They were shit then and even shitter now were looking to have more of the ball. Were these players not decent when having the ball under Wenger? I ask again, why have they continually gotten worse over 3-4 years? Because they can’t be arsed and we’ve overpaid aging players.

Arteta will get the chop because the football has been atrocious but I do fear for any manager who comes in tbh. Maybe a honeymoon period again but the players attitudes are all wrong.

[Phil71]

while you are messaging him, can you ask for my 350 euros aswell?

thanks lad

I rang him and he said, "Someone bet 350 euros on us?"

Then there was some fumbling noises, what sounded like a phone being dropped and hilarious laughter.

Must have got a crossed line.

[Dejan]

lmao

[CrimsonGunner11]

And when he kept Auba on the left were people also not crying for him to play centrally? We’ve been wank all season and he had to try and change something...it didn’t work clearly.

Hopefully we’ll see lacabeast restored next game since he loves scoring against the Spuds anyway and get Auba back on the left.

As for playing these mysterious best players, who aren’t we playing? The only consistent performers are the 3 I listed that have the better attitude. What exactly was wrong with the lineup last night? Aside from Willian (who actually looked remotely better than usual) and maybe Xhaka for Covid Elneny then what else do we have?

They’re not playing for him anymore and that should be blamed on both parties not just the manager. However, players should be professional and want to win in spite of a manager.

Anyway I’ve messaged Auba to sort his shit out so we’ll win the league from here lads.

Things don’t always work out even with the best of clubs but when they don’t work out you don’t make wholesale changes, just minor tweaks. We know Aubameyang’s best position is playing off another striker. Bar Martinelli, who’s injured, we know lacazette is currently our best striker in a formation that uses one striker up top. We know a list of players who should never start for us if we have the means to do so. We know which formation we’ve had the most success with.

What exactly was wrong with the lineup last night and who are these mysterious players we aren’t playing, you ask?

We played PEA as the solo striker and did not use a strategy for him to be effective there
We had our best available striker in Lacazette on the bench
We continue to start players who have shown are serious weak links for us in Xhaka, Luiz, and soon to be Willian despite having better options available in Elneny, arguably Saliba, Nelson, and arguably Pepe
We had one of our best available CMs in Elneny on the bench who should be starting ahead of Willock or Xhaka
We played a 4-3-3 variation when recent record shows a 3-4-3 type formation was the way to go

[Salibatelli]

The guy is just an awful manager, it’s not do with the players, or the luck or the ice cream van, it’s a consequence of having a guy who doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing.

He picks the wrong players and certain players get a free pass to perform and behave as they wish whilst others are just cut out completely, I would have thought that it would be obvious that a guy who actively promotes giving new contracts to players who regularly make costly mistakes isn’t up to it, I mean the guy wanted to re-sign Mustafi for goodness sake and has been full of praise for him and Xhaka.

The football is also dire and he’s destroyed the best part of our team the attack.

Wolves had scored 9 goals all season prior to this and they scored 2 against us without their main striker with ease.

Let’s stop blaming the players for this as at the end of the day it’s the managers job to pick them, motivate them and drill them tactically.

Ok so he won the FA cup last season, but then that’s not a measuring stick at all, Wigan won it and got relegated in the same season, the league position was more telling.

He should have never got the job as he just wasn’t qualified for it, there’s no point defending him he’s just not up to the job.

[Power n Glory]

Tbh the more I’ve thought about it, the more I do blame the players. They are the ones who are once again spitting their dummies out and seemingly downing tools, Arteta hasn’t suddenly changed his ways albeit slightly tweaking the formation to try and attack more but the principles remain the same as they were when we won the FA cup

.

The principles aren't the same. We're trying to dominate possession and play higher up the pitch. We're kicking it long more instead of playing it from the back and drawing in our opponents. Xhaka is also being used to press high up the pitch as seen with that second goal where he got done by Traore. When Arteta first arrived, when he played Xhaka in a 4-2-3-1, Xhaka would rotate to cover the left flank and sit in that space left by Saka/Tierney. That hasn't been happening recently and it seems as though Tierney is way more conservative and isn't getting forward as much.

Only really in the last 2-3 games though because the 3-4-3 got boring and wasn’t working either. Prior to that it was exactly the same, hence DG and sims were banging on about formations and zones so much.

Why did the same not work from game 1-7? They were shit then and even shitter now were looking to have more of the ball. Were these players not decent when having the ball under Wenger? I ask again, why have they continually gotten worse over 3-4 years? Because they can’t be arsed and we’ve overpaid aging players.

Arteta will get the chop because the football has been atrocious but I do fear for any manager who comes in tbh. Maybe a honeymoon period again but the players attitudes are all wrong.

It's the last few games where we've dropped points against teams we should be beating and why things have just gotten worse and we're starting to ship goals. It's a clear difference in style and principle just by the way we're trying to play higher up the pitch and getting weak players like Xhaka to press high when he never use him for that role previously.

[Power n Glory]

And when he kept Auba on the left were people also not crying for him to play centrally? We’ve been wank all season and he had to try and change something...it didn’t work clearly.

Hopefully we’ll see lacabeast restored next game since he loves scoring against the Spuds anyway and get Auba back on the left.

As for playing these mysterious best players, who aren’t we playing? The only consistent performers are the 3 I listed that have the better attitude. What exactly was wrong with the lineup last night? Aside from Willian (who actually looked remotely better than usual) and maybe Xhaka for Covid Elneny then what else do we have?

They’re not playing for him anymore and that should be blamed on both parties not just the manager. However, players should be professional and want to win in spite of a manager.

Anyway I’ve messaged Auba to sort his shit out so we’ll win the league from here lads.

Things don’t always work out even with the best of clubs but when they don’t work out you don’t make wholesale changes, just minor tweaks. We know Aubameyang’s best position is playing off another striker. Bar Martinelli, who’s injured, we know lacazette is currently our best striker in a formation that uses one striker up top. We know a list of players who should never start for us if we have the means to do so. We know which formation we’ve had the most success with.

What exactly was wrong with the lineup last night and who are these mysterious players we aren’t playing, you ask?

We played PEA as the solo striker and did not use a strategy for him to be effective there
We had our best available striker in Lacazette on the bench
We continue to start players who have shown are serious weak links for us in Xhaka, Luiz, and soon to be Willian despite having better options available in Elneny, arguably Saliba, Nelson, and arguably Pepe
We had one of our best available CMs in Elneny on the bench who should be starting ahead of Willock or Xhaka
We played a 4-3-3 variation when recent record shows a 3-4-3 type formation was the way to go

This too. Valid points made about the team selection.

[Power n Glory]

The guy is just an awful manager, it’s not do with the players, or the luck or the ice cream van, it’s a consequence of having a guy who doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing.

He picks the wrong players and certain players get a free pass to perform and behave as they wish whilst others are just cut out completely, I would have thought that it would be obvious that a guy who actively promotes giving new contracts to players who regularly make costly mistakes isn’t up to it, I mean the guy wanted to re-sign Mustafi for goodness sake and has been full of praise for him and Xhaka.

The football is also dire and he’s destroyed the best part of our team the attack.

Wolves had scored 9 goals all season prior to this and they scored 2 against us without their main striker with ease.

Let’s stop blaming the players for this as at the end of the day it’s the managers job to pick them, motivate them and drill them tactically.

Ok so he won the FA cup last season, but then that’s not a measuring stick at all, Wigan won it and got relegated in the same season, the league position was more telling.

He should have never got the job as he just wasn’t qualified for it, there’s no point defending him he’s just not up to the job.

Let's also not forget his decision to continue playing Luiz despite that head injury and looking flat footed for both goals. Luiz should have been subbed. Also, leaving it very late to bring on an extra striker. These are costly decisions.

[Salibatelli]

The guy is just an awful manager, it’s not do with the players, or the luck or the ice cream van, it’s a consequence of having a guy who doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing.

He picks the wrong players and certain players get a free pass to perform and behave as they wish whilst others are just cut out completely, I would have thought that it would be obvious that a guy who actively promotes giving new contracts to players who regularly make costly mistakes isn’t up to it, I mean the guy wanted to re-sign Mustafi for goodness sake and has been full of praise for him and Xhaka.

The football is also dire and he’s destroyed the best part of our team the attack.

Wolves had scored 9 goals all season prior to this and they scored 2 against us without their main striker with ease.

Let’s stop blaming the players for this as at the end of the day it’s the managers job to pick them, motivate them and drill them tactically.

Ok so he won the FA cup last season, but then that’s not a measuring stick at all, Wigan won it and got relegated in the same season, the league position was more telling.

He should have never got the job as he just wasn’t qualified for it, there’s no point defending him he’s just not up to the job.

Let's also not forget his decision to continue playing Luiz despite that head injury and looking flat footed for both goals. Luiz should have been subbed. Also, leaving it very late to bring on an extra striker. These are costly decisions.

Totally right, Luiz should have gone off he wasn’t himself after that incident. Arteta just said he was fine as it was just a nasty cut, then he said he took him off at half time as he couldn’t head the ball, would have thought he should have gone off when it happened if that was the case.

I just think he makes too many odd decisions and that’s not conducive to being successful or winning.

[theHotHead]

One thing we can all agree on is that the link between midfiled and attack has been poor at best. while we were not conceding it wasn't the end of the world. In the past few games though that defending has been called into question massively.

I think it is ALL linked to a shit midfield. Shit at breaking up and repelling attacks, shit at setting up attacks. What has changed ? Well, ignoring the obvious exclusion, the players that have been tasked with providing something to our attackers have done a woeful job, it is clear as day, we are in a group that is creating the fewest chances in the league. Look at how little Brighton cut Liverpool apart but when we played them - and they were not at full strength in that game either - we got trounced.

We have no cutting edge, we have nothing good happening during that phase of play. Ceballos who has been dogshit all season, Xhaka who we all know cannot defend for shit and Willock who, I am sorry, is a waste of space in the Premier league was our starting midfield against a very decent team. How the f**k did Arteta expect a good outcome with that lot ?!!

Its ALL on Arteta, the midfield is the problem - at both ends of the pitch.

[Santi]

And when he kept Auba on the left were people also not crying for him to play centrally? We’ve been wank all season and he had to try and change something...it didn’t work clearly.

Hopefully we’ll see lacabeast restored next game since he loves scoring against the Spuds anyway and get Auba back on the left.

As for playing these mysterious best players, who aren’t we playing? The only consistent performers are the 3 I listed that have the better attitude. What exactly was wrong with the lineup last night? Aside from Willian (who actually looked remotely better than usual) and maybe Xhaka for Covid Elneny then what else do we have?

They’re not playing for him anymore and that should be blamed on both parties not just the manager. However, players should be professional and want to win in spite of a manager.

Anyway I’ve messaged Auba to sort his shit out so we’ll win the league from here lads.

Things don’t always work out even with the best of clubs but when they don’t work out you don’t make wholesale changes, just minor tweaks. We know Aubameyang’s best position is playing off another striker. Bar Martinelli, who’s injured, we know lacazette is currently our best striker in a formation that uses one striker up top. We know a list of players who should never start for us if we have the means to do so. We know which formation we’ve had the most success with.

What exactly was wrong with the lineup last night and who are these mysterious players we aren’t playing, you ask?

We played PEA as the solo striker and did not use a strategy for him to be effective there
We had our best available striker in Lacazette on the bench
We continue to start players who have shown are serious weak links for us in Xhaka, Luiz, and soon to be Willian despite having better options available in Elneny, arguably Saliba, Nelson, and arguably Pepe
We had one of our best available CMs in Elneny on the bench who should be starting ahead of Willock or Xhaka
We played a 4-3-3 variation when recent record shows a 3-4-3 type formation was the way to go

Elneny has just come back from Covid, Salah who is arguably world class even got hooked after 60 mins to protect him after the same. It's hardly a surprise he didn't feel Elneny was up to starting, particularly as his strength is his energy.

People have been crying for PEA through the middle, he does that and now gets criticised for that having persisted with him on the left for a long time.

Laca I love but he has been wank since Arteta dropped him earlier in the season, at least on the goals front.

Saliba arguably better than Luiz? Give me a break crimson, Luiz has been largely solid over recent months and has shown some of his best form since the City shocker. I don't like him either but he's probably our 2nd best CB, at least not much between him, Holding and Mustafi tbh.

I mentioned Willian, only one who could start over him was Nelson. Agree a mistake but end of the day Willian got an assist and actually offered more than normal yesterday so maybe was the right call based on our options. Pepe is banned for 3 games so why mention him? Plus he's been just as bad as Willian.

Xhaka had to start because Partey is out.

I just don't see how he could've made the lineup much better yesterday, I dislike half the players myself but that's who we have. The biggest difference would've been with Laca in for Willock tbh but he's been off form and Willock done alright in the EL.

Other times he has made odd selections, persisting with favourites but don't think yesterday was one of them. Now if we were to talk about the subs or caving in in the first place to fan pressure and putting Auba up top then yes, 100% he is to blame for those decisions.

[Santi]

Tbh the more I’ve thought about it, the more I do blame the players. They are the ones who are once again spitting their dummies out and seemingly downing tools, Arteta hasn’t suddenly changed his ways albeit slightly tweaking the formation to try and attack more but the principles remain the same as they were when we won the FA cup

.

The principles aren't the same. We're trying to dominate possession and play higher up the pitch. We're kicking it long more instead of playing it from the back and drawing in our opponents. Xhaka is also being used to press high up the pitch as seen with that second goal where he got done by Traore. When Arteta first arrived, when he played Xhaka in a 4-2-3-1, Xhaka would rotate to cover the left flank and sit in that space left by Saka/Tierney. That hasn't been happening recently and it seems as though Tierney is way more conservative and isn't getting forward as much.

Only really in the last 2-3 games though because the 3-4-3 got boring and wasn’t working either. Prior to that it was exactly the same, hence DG and sims were banging on about formations and zones so much.

Why did the same not work from game 1-7? They were shit then and even shitter now were looking to have more of the ball. Were these players not decent when having the ball under Wenger? I ask again, why have they continually gotten worse over 3-4 years? Because they can’t be arsed and we’ve overpaid aging players.

Arteta will get the chop because the football has been atrocious but I do fear for any manager who comes in tbh. Maybe a honeymoon period again but the players attitudes are all wrong.

It's the last few games where we've dropped points against teams we should be beating and why things have just gotten worse and we're starting to ship goals. It's a clear difference in style and principle just by the way we're trying to play higher up the pitch and getting weak players like Xhaka to press high when he never use him for that role previously.

We've played shit all season, it's nothing new because of the shift to move higher up. It's just more obvious because we've got 1 less defender and actually let the goals in.

If we'd played 3-4-3 at home to Villa and sat back, everyone would crucify him as well. Many on here wanted us to go more attacking in formation, now it's the problem?

Many on here also wanted Auba up front centrally, now it's the problem?

Mental this forum. He's to blame for his shit authoritarianism and his shit subs, outside of that I lay more blame with these players not trying anymore and just being shit, particularly in their attitude.