Will Arsenal ever be great again?

[ag6789]

So who could be a decent available manager?

[Nuggets]

So who could be a decent available manager?

I thought we let one go to Everton.

[Ach]

Ancelotti says hi

[KG3]

So who could be a decent available manager?

I thought we let one go to Everton.

Carlo would do an amazing job with this team, that Everton squad is worse than ours and he’s got DCL scoring for fun.

[theHotHead]

Well the simple answer is he has got players playing in a system that suits them. Nothing more complicated than that.

Still think Calvert-Lewin is pants, he will go back to form soon.

[Salibatelli]

Not with Kroenke as they owner.

[thebigbangtheo]

In light of Trump's reluctance to concede losing the election, maybe we are missing a trick in not offering our services as consultants to the democrats in remedying the situation.

[PairyGrows]

There seems to be a consensus among Arsenal fans that if we are ever to become great again, Mikel Arteta is a pivotal part of that process. We have hoped Arteta will be the next great manager in the mould of Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola. However, after 10 months of his arrival, it is clear to me we have placed unrealistic expectations on Arteta.

Klopp and Pep are both visionaries with clear tactical identities. Not only that, but they have the ability to move the team towards that end in a short period of time. Arteta is not like that. So far, the only tactical improvement he has made compared to his predecessors is shoring up our defence. That's a very rudimentary tactical move most professional managers are capable of pulling off. Other than that, we still struggle every bit as much to create chances as we have over the last few seasons.

Arteta's strengths seem to be his motivational skills and man management. I don't think he's as tactically sound as we want and need him to be. As such, our rebuild, if it succeeds, will likely take quite a lot longer than we're perhaps willing to wait.

[Highbury Hillbilly]

Arsenal being great again to me means FA Cup and Europa League silverware, with a title challenge here and there. That would be a measurable improvement over the last 15 years or so.

Too many competitors in the league these days. Hell, even winning Europa requires beating CL-caliber teams in the final.

[Angelito]

Looking at how things have turned out over the past 3-4 seasons, it's clear we aren't going to see the success of 1996-06 anytime soon.

What's scary is that our successes between '07 until '16 is also looking like a pipe dream in the immediate future.

Liverpool spent 30 years without a league title. Most of the Prem era, barring the Benitez and Klopp years, have been chaotic for them. They won the UCL twice in that period but they have always had European pedigree.

I'm curious as to how Arteta "improves" our midfield and attack. So far, we look good at the back, tepid up front.

Even if we do consider it an improvement, we didn't have a hard time scoring in Emery's first season (73 goals) or Wenger's final season (74 goals).

This season, if we're going to score anywhere near those tallies, we need to dish out 64-65 goals in the remaining 30 games. Arteta was in charge for 20 Prem games last season. We scored 31 goals in that time frame. At that rate, we would have ended with 55 goals if Mikel had managed in all 38 games.

So far, we're heading to a goal scored tally of 43 goals.

I'm aware that it doesn't work like this. Yet, to bridge a gap of 20 goals to take it over 60 goals scored for the season, we need a serious upturn in chances created and goals scored.

Even in the greatest defensive season by a club in Prem history, Chelsea in 04/05, they scored 72 goals.

The depressive thing is I don't think a creative midfielder will solve these issues. We just are very risk-averse in our style. Laca plays as a false #9 basically. Players don't seem to have the freedom to express themselves and the system is very static.

I do expect improvements from here on. We've played City away, 'Pool away, and United away. Leeds away will be out of the way. So, we do have a simpler run of games now. Spurs away aside, we can win at the Bridge. We can beat the "lesser" sides. It's just shocking that we end up losing to every half-decent or in-form side these days (City, 'Pool, Leicester, Villa).

Distressing times to be a Gooner.

[Waterfordgooner]

Not unless the manager is given a chance - Of bring in the players he wants/needs - He is still using a lot of the players that were leftover from previous managers that in a lot of cases are not suitable for the way he wants to do things, In a positive note he has tried to being in better defensive minded players - Partey-Gabriel and Mari who I think could be decent as a squad player if he can get fit but still needs a creative midfielder to move on the team, This improvement wont happen over 1-2 years seeing that the owners will not put in big amounts of money needed. Some small positives for me under Arteta but still lots more to go before we have a chance to get back to the good years - We are going to suffer a lot more painful days before we can get back to where we were and want to be

[Angelito]

^ It doesn't work that way though. Otherwise, we'd have to give every manager a new team at the start.

Gabriel, Mari, Cedric, Willian, and Thomas are Arteta players. He wanted a left-footed CB. He sang glowing praises of Cedric. He talked about Willian's class and maturity.

The likes of Leno, Luiz, Xhaka, Elneny, and Aubameyang are players Arteta vouched for. There are rumors that he wants to extend Mustafi's contract.

Apart from Ozil, Guendouzi, Torreira, Sokratis, etc., he does have the players he wants. And, none of them are in the squad today.

I'm not sure why Gooners simply can't accept that we were punching above our financial weight from '07 until '15. We neither have the resources to battle the bigwigs, nor have we shown any inclination to hire world class managers. In fact, since 2017, all we have done is go through a musical chair session within our board/administration.

Nobody expects Arsenal to challenge for the title. The expectation today is a challenge for top-4 places, not even securing top-4.

I'm inclined to blame Josh and Stan over Arteta right now. They miscalculated the post-Wenger transition big time.

On Mikel, what I feel is he works hard but doesn't seem to work smart. In today's corporate environment, people who work hard are valued higher than people who work smart.

[Power n Glory]

The Emirates era have just been a culmination of poor decisions and bad management. We weren't punching above our weight. We stood still, didn't learn or grow from mistakes and now teams we used to finish above are finishing above us.

Liverpool, Spurs and Leicester City couldn't compete with the like of Man Utd, Chelsea and City either but they've found a way. We're now seeing the fruits of our labour. It's an absolute mess, neither Wenger or the club had a successor in mind which has resulted in this last minute scramble to get our house in order.

[DiamondGooner]

No, we won't.

At some point we'll have a spurt like Liverpool when the stars align, great manager, great players, great team.

Thing is we already had all of that in the 1st half of the Wenger era.

Problem now is billionaire owner money injection, Liverpool are peaking and they still have City going toe to toe with them every season, one drop off from Liverpool and they'll sink but Cities money means they'll always be top 3.

[KG3]

No, we won't.

At some point we'll have a spurt like Liverpool when the stars align, great manager, great players, great team.

Thing is we already had all of that in the 1st half of the Wenger era.

Problem now is billionaire owner money injection, Liverpool are peaking and they still have City going toe to toe with them every season, one drop off from Liverpool and they'll sink but Cities money means they'll always be top 3.

Don’t expect us to be one of those teams that wins everything bar the CL every season Bayern/PSG/Juventus etc. It’s what makes the prem exciting compared to these other boring leagues.

The annoying thing is in recent years we have underachieved in this department 07/08, 15/16 BPL season which we could have easily won the title. The 05/06 CL final vs Barca the Europa league 17/18 Semi finals vs Athletic Madrid (marsellie would have been final) and 18/19 final vs Chelsea. Carling cup final 10/11 vs Birmingham City, Carling cup 12/13 Semi Bradford (Swansea would have been final)

All those games we had a superior side or equal to the opposition and we bottled it, if we had those trophies in our collection alongside the FA cup wins the last 15 years would actually look very good for a club with our finances and you could arguably say we would have been overachieving.