Arteta Out

[Ach]

It's very rare to get anything big done in January. Is this the first January window for people in this thread?

Arshavin, Auba, ade, Theo, Bruno, vvd and so many others say hi

[Ach]

Calling top 6 after spending 150 million in the summer (200+ million overall) having been knocked out of all competitions by January is a joke.

We didn’t get rid of Wenger only to employ a manager who comes 8th, 8th and 6th and fails against a manager who we deem to have failed after Wenger in EL. The standards are so low by some fans.

Let’s not forget we sacked a manager who came 5th in his only full season.

There are some who think this point is ok lol

A point at home v Burnley

The worst side in the division

1 game won this season

Barely played for a month

But it's an ok point. Mediocrity has been accepted by these "fans"

[Salibatelli]

We spent 150 million and the players aren’t that young:

White is 24
Odegaard is 23
Ramsdale is 23
Tomiyasu is 23
Lokonga is 22

These aren’t 18-19 year olds with no experience who have just started their careers, but on top of that White cost 50 million.

Frankly don’t care what the club have said, they’ve spent 15+ years saying stuff that doesn’t happen or isn’t realistic.

You can’t go 17 years and then say you’re building for the future when you’ve got that long achieving nothing of note.

Top 6 isn’t really progress, Emery got 5th and almost 4th before Arteta came, forget about 12th as I said before it wasn’t a position that reflected where we were, in the same way 14th wasn’t when Arteta flopped last season.

We may as well have kept Emery if 6th place was our goal, we would have saved loads of money because he got no support in the transfer market.

[jayramfootball]

We spent 150 million and the players aren’t that young:

White is 24
Odegaard is 23
Ramsdale is 23
Tomiyasu is 23
Lokonga is 22

These aren’t 18-19 year olds with no experience who have just started their careers, but on top of that White cost 50 million.

Frankly don’t care what the club have said, they’ve spent 15+ years saying stuff that doesn’t happen or isn’t realistic.

You can’t go 17 years and then say you’re building for the future when you’ve got that long achieving nothing of note.

Top 6 isn’t really progress, Emery got 5th and almost 4th 3 before Arteta came, forget about 12th as I said before it wasn’t a position that reflected where we were, in the same way 14th wasn’t when Arteta flopped last season.

Yes, average age of 23 with a combined experience in the PL of about 3 years coming into the season.
The strategy has been clearly articulated.
We have the youngest starting 11 in the league and we are building a team for the future. Even so, Arteta has us on the cusp of top 4 from taking over in 11th. An outstanding achievement if he can do it, but top6 will show we are progressing.

[Salibatelli]

23-24 isn’t that young.

Again fans don’t care about about.

It’s not oustanding when Emery got 5th and challenged for 4th almost 3 years ago with less money, thats regression.

Even Wenger never came below 6th and people wanted him out.

The club are bound to downplay expectations, it means less pressure on them.

[jayramfootball]

23-24 isn’t that young.

Again fans don’t care about about.

It’s not ourstanding when Emery got 5th and challenged for 4th almost 3 years ago with less money, thats regression.

Even Wenger never came below 6th and people wanted him out.

The club are bound to downplay expectations, it means less pressure on them.

Most fans I speak to are pretty clear we're in the middle of a rebuild with a young first team.
Moreover that is exactly what the club have stated they are doing too, so it's not a secret.

There are some fans who.are like babies that want it all now and cry a lot if they don't get what they want to make themselves feel good, and there are those that actually want us to lose (not real fans obviously) and feel some personal gratification when we lose, but those fans (both types) are a tiny minority. The crying is just very loud.

Taking over in 11th place, rebuilding the team and still challenging for top 4 - all in 2 years. That is impressive, no matter what the crybabies and doomers want to happen.

[Dejan]

lmao @ calling top 6 progress.

[Ach]

lmao @ calling top 6 progress.

Just remember who it is who's saying that

The king of mediocrity

[Ach]

on Tomiyasu’s absence, and how serious his injury is…

Well, Tomiyasu had an injury and we didn’t have anybody to play in that position against Liverpool. He really wanted to push, he tried and he played the 90 minutes, and he felt it again. So he will be out for a couple of weeks.

on whether it’s crucial that he stays in England (during his injury)…

Right now he needs to recover, his only focus has to be to have the best possible treatment. To look after himself, and try to be available for us as quickly as he can.

on how long it will take for his injury to heal…

He will be out for a few weeks.

on where we struggled to break down the Burnley defence…

Well the way we started the game, it was slow and we didn’t play forward enough and didn’t have enough urgency. Probably because of Thursday, it could be one of the reasons. Afterwards we picked the game up and started to get better, and certainly the second half was completely different. We were much more dynamic, we had more penetration, we played forward and we had better positions to (threaten them) in behind and the width, in many situations. We created a number of situations, shots, crosses. But to win this match you need to have a different level of quality, and we lacked that today. With the amount of situations we generated, you need a spark, and someone has to win you the game, if you want to be on top.

on whether our attacking position at the end left us exposed on the counter…

It it’s one of the risks that you have, because the game becomes more unpredictable the moment you start to throw boys (up) there, and with the way Burnley play with all of their second-balls. Yes we had to maintain our discipline, but at the same time we had to risks because we wanted to win the game.

on if we need new signings to challenge for the top four...

It's what we planned, but the market is difficult, it's complicated. We knew that, but it's a lot to manage and we have to make the right decisions with players that we believe are going to really help us and try to bring in ones that can take us to the next level.

on if he expects incomings before the deadline...

Well, we are certainly trying, but I don't know if we're going to be able to do it. Let's see, it's not only our intention, but a lot of facts that are needed to happen.

on if our goal drought affects Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's future...

We have scored a lot of goals recently, but it's true in the last four games we haven't done it. Today, again, it's not about the situation you are able to create, but the quality of the execution and the number of shots that you need to put on target to beat teams like Burnley.

on if this was a missed opportunity to get into the top four...

It was a great chance and we wanted to take that opportunity after missing to get in that final, which was a disappointment because we really wanted to play there and today we had an opportunity to do it. I didn't see that desire right from the beginning, but I certainly saw it in the second half, but we lack that quality that you need to put the games to bed and to have that knife when you are there to do it, like we missed against Liverpool as well when we had them.

on if players should have been signed sooner in the window...

I think that's the dream of every manager, to have them in the team on the first day, but it isn't realistic and in this window as well, the history of this window, a lot of them happen right at the end.

on our plans in the mid-season break...

We're going to go away, we're going to have a training camp all together in a different environment, reunite, refocus and let's have a good go because there's still a lot to play for.

on where we're going for the training camp...

Dubai.

on the players looking tired at the end of the game...

I don't know, I saw them try right to the last minute. They're really tired, we know in the last four weeks that we had a really demanding and challenging situation because we didn't have enough players, some players have been sick, injured, trying to bring them back, trying to expose them onto pitches when they're not ready, but I cannot fault how they tried, they certainly need some days off, but then we need to go back again and bring players back and start to work and start winning matches.

on whether Aubameyang will go to Dubai...

We will see what the situation is.

on how important it is to get the right people in the door...

Players that come here have to be able to take us to the next level. We already have a level, and we want to see much better standards than we already have, and that is how we're going to recruit.

on Lokonga's performance...

I think he is growing, he is playing better and better. I think he had a really good game the other day against Liverpool, his understanding of the game, he is managing the physicality much better, he is maturing. It's a lot to ask. When we signed him, the expectation that we had for him in the first year was to start adapting but he has had to play many more minutes than we expected and the kid is trying his best, and I think he's doing pretty well.

on him being animated with the fourth official on the touchline...

It was about showing a bit of passion. Obviously we are animated and live in the game, they are part of the industry so I expect someone when we speak to them to show some emotion because they are part of this. We are not selling newspapers here, we are just being part of the game and when you talk to him that has to flow and that energy has to exist there because we are playing to win football matches.

Seasons done

[DiamondGooner]

This is why we're losing by the way, I just posted about this in the Laca thread but I want to bring this to people's attention so its clear what the issue is.

When we go forward and attack this is what it looks like from the 4-2-3-1

That lone CF in the midst of the oppositions CB's and defence, we have no one suitable to play that role, nobody.

Also you'll note how isolated everyone is, Liverpool's fullbacks and 3 mids were ambushing Martinelli and Saka all game surrounding them and shutting them down, they have zero support in this system, I honestly don't see what Arteta likes about this formation.

Its designed for a Giroud / Lukaku / Antonio type CF to make use of crosses.

When we were playing well a month ago, one thing we were doing was our fullbacks were overloading on the flanks, by over lapping and backing up our Wingers, why have we stopped doing that.

1st example is how we look now, 2nd is how we were playing a month ago.



Our fullbacks last month, also our CAM's were alot more aggressive in attacking, all of that not happening right now.

[Jedi]

lmao @ calling top 6 progress.

The last time I checked, 6th was higher up the table than 8th.

We also finished 8th with shit old deadwood players on high wages, and we now have by far the youngest team in the league, that will inevitably do better year after year.

[DiamondGooner]

lmao @ calling top 6 progress.

The last time I checked, 6th was higher up the table than 8th.

We also finished 8th with shit old deadwood players on high wages, and we now have by far the youngest team in the league, that will inevitably do better year after year.

£150 million .......... for 2 places higher?

Straight back into the Europa.

Our average age is 23, that's coming into prime years, 23 isn't young in sports.

Our apologists keep acting like we're fielding a bunch of 19 yr olds.

[Ach]

lmao @ calling top 6 progress.

The last time I checked, 6th was higher up the table than 8th.

We also finished 8th with shit old deadwood players on high wages, and we now have by far the youngest team in the league, that will inevitably do better year after year.

£150 million .......... for 2 places higher?

Straight back into the Europa.

Our average age is 23, that's coming into prime years, 23 isn't young in sports.

Our apologists keep acting like we're fielding a bunch of 19 yr olds.

You spend the most money. Have no Europe distractions. Top 4 is minimum.

All the Arteta apologists are doing are making excuses for his failings

[Salibatelli]

23-24 isn’t that young.

Again fans don’t care about about.

It’s not ourstanding when Emery got 5th and challenged for 4th almost 3 years ago with less money, thats regression.

Even Wenger never came below 6th and people wanted him out.

The club are bound to downplay expectations, it means less pressure on them.

Most fans I speak to are pretty clear we're in the middle of a rebuild with a young first team.
Moreover that is exactly what the club have stated they are doing too, so it's not a secret.

There are some fans who.are like babies that want it all now and cry a lot if they don't get what they want to make themselves feel good, and there are those that actually want us to lose (not real fans obviously) and feel some personal gratification when we lose, but those fans (both types) are a tiny minority. The crying is just very loud.

Taking over in 11th place, rebuilding the team and still challenging for top 4 - all in 2 years. That is impressive, no matter what the crybabies and doomers want to happen.

I think you must only speak to people who think Arteta is gods gift to Arsenal then, most don’t think so.

Most fans want to see Arsenal challenging again and don’t deem 6th place which really is a non achievement as adequate, especially now we’re out of everything and have no Europe as well, why would anyone think that’s 6th place is an achievement, you qualify for the EL and you yourself has belittled that competition.

12th was an artificial position not reflective of how good we were as I’ve said numerous times, so it’s irrelevant.

He took over a team who came 5th.

[Salibatelli]

lmao @ calling top 6 progress.

The last time I checked, 6th was higher up the table than 8th.

We also finished 8th with shit old deadwood players on high wages, and we now have by far the youngest team in the league, that will inevitably do better year after year.

Not when you’ve spent 150 million and have less games as you have no EL and also are out of all cup competitions by January.

Coming 6th when you’ve spent huge amounts and have no other distractions but the league is pretty mediocre.