Mikel Arteta, First-Team Manager

[theHotHead]

We've seen time and again that we dominate games in periods, don't capitalise and it bites us in the bum. That's why we drew 14 league games last season, or didn't beat Villa at the end of the 23/24 season. PSG away last season is another example. If we scored early on, when we were battering them, who knows?
Arteta does 't learn. Look, we won but then he's shown he doesn't learn, take advantage or manage the fine margins.

Bro you can't blame Arteta for last night, we could easily have scored 5 goals yesterday ! Arteta gave them a platform but the players didnt take advantage. Martinelli and Gyokeres both guilty of not playing the other player in with our 2 vs 1 counterattacks. Trossard missed 3 great chances to score himself and put in shit crosses I think on 2 occasions when it was easy to score (had the cross been better).

It's not a one-off. It's literally. been happening for years with the same players.
So either he is keeping on these players that are inefficient, or his tactics is causing this. It's on him.
He's been managing Trossard for two and a half years. Martinelli for five years. He knows their games. It's still on him.
Our issues aren't player quality or even team structure. It's mentality and seizing fine margins. That's on him to solve, not the players.
For literally the past few seasons, it's been the same issues. Dominating games in spells or over the 90 minutes, but not converting chances. That cannot be a one off, if it's a persistent pattern. Losing 2-0 to Villa, despite battering them in the first half, cost us the league in 2024. We got many draws last season because we couldn't finish off sides after dominating them or going one up. PSG only really controlled us in the first 20 minutes of the home legbbut we still had chances and a goal disallowed, and we dominated them in opening part of the second leg but couldn't finish.
This is a pattern and not a one-off. And we saw that again yesterday. That's on Arteta. It's his job to solve these tactical issues.

Yours is a revisionists history ! Lets look back at Arteta's time with us:

2019/20 - Took over near Christmas, was pragmatic, won his first and only trophy with a team he inherited entirely
2020/21 - Marginalises Ozil and Auba, plays Billy Big Bollocks, finishes 8th playing some of the worst football I have ever seen an Arsenal team play.
2021/22 - Ok season, threw away a top 4 finish by dropping points in consecutive games against Palace, Brighton and Southampton because of shit defending - not squandering chances. We had a back 4 of Soares, White, Gabriel and Tavares FFS, in the Palace game we lost 3-0, for example.
2022/23 - We all know why we lost the title, a combination of losing Saliba and having Holding replace him and Xhaka being a cock up at Anfield.
2023/24 - We were desperately unlucky to lose out on the title by 1 point, to a very good Man City team that were pushed all the way.
2024/25 - Arteta failed to bring in the CF we needed, Martinelli, Rice, Odegaard and Trossard were all shite because we changed our system and it became an endless passing game with very little forward thrust.

I don't recall any of those seasons being one of rued missed chances ! We either didn't create chances in the first place or our defence/defending was shit.

[theHotHead]

'Let them equalize or draw'- due to critical injuries. Gabriel , Calafiori and White out for significant part of the season. Gabriel was out for the 2nd half, the business end of the season,and it did hurt us a lot.
We didn't have any experienced backups, Timber played w/ pain, MLS was learning on the job, made critical mistakes. Injuries have a cascading effect.
Rotation goes out of the window.

Then the manager should see why these injuries were happening, or get good depth. We had good defensive depth last season. Kiwior stood in well. We had White and Timber as RB as we do now. And M L-S emerged whilst Calafiori was injured. All teams get injuries, so we should cope and anticipate them. Liverpool still won cups whilst finishing third or fifth. Klopp finished 3rd in his last season but still won the League Cup.

I agree with this, I didn't agree then and I don't now that our season was derailed because of injuries, it was derailed because Arteta made us play shit football.MLS was a better LB than Calafiori ever was for us, he was excellent, Timber was a miles better RB than White ever was for us too. Kiwior stepped in and proved to be a very good replacement for Gabriel, all we really lost was Gabriel's set piece prowess. Odegaard being injured should've led to Nwaneri getting more game time but at first Arteta's played Trossard in the CAM role to awful effect. It was only after that experiment died a death that Nwaneri came in to play the CAM (start the game), on the 1st January 2025, then when Saka got injured Nwaneri played the Saka position and Odegaard took back his CAM role.

Nwaneri's contribution meant he chipped in with 6 goals and assists. Injuries is a lazy excuse for why we failed last season, we had adequate cover, Arteta didn't trust his players.

[Salibatelli]

Nwanierj looks like AMN 2, signs a new contract and then almost never plays, a typical Arteta tactic he wants to have so many players at his disposal regardless of whether he wants to use them or not.

He’s got a ridiculous squad now with over two teams, he’s had stability and support, years of it, huge unprecedented amounts of money for us and all his failures have been overlooked and forgiven even though he’s actually not delivered anything meaningful.

IMO lots of managers could have done what he’s done under the same conditions.

[theHotHead]

To be fair he did some rotating in the CL game which is a good sign. Hopefully Nwaneri will get some game time.

[alexis2015finalgoal]

We've seen time and again that we dominate games in periods, don't capitalise and it bites us in the bum. That's why we drew 14 league games last season, or didn't beat Villa at the end of the 23/24 season. PSG away last season is another example. If we scored early on, when we were battering them, who knows?
Arteta does 't learn. Look, we won but then he's shown he doesn't learn, take advantage or manage the fine margins.

Bro you can't blame Arteta for last night, we could easily have scored 5 goals yesterday ! Arteta gave them a platform but the players didnt take advantage. Martinelli and Gyokeres both guilty of not playing the other player in with our 2 vs 1 counterattacks. Trossard missed 3 great chances to score himself and put in shit crosses I think on 2 occasions when it was easy to score (had the cross been better).

It's not a one-off. It's literally. been happening for years with the same players.
So either he is keeping on these players that are inefficient, or his tactics is causing this. It's on him.
He's been managing Trossard for two and a half years. Martinelli for five years. He knows their games. It's still on him.
Our issues aren't player quality or even team structure. It's mentality and seizing fine margins. That's on him to solve, not the players.
For literally the past few seasons, it's been the same issues. Dominating games in spells or over the 90 minutes, but not converting chances. That cannot be a one off, if it's a persistent pattern. Losing 2-0 to Villa, despite battering them in the first half, cost us the league in 2024. We got many draws last season because we couldn't finish off sides after dominating them or going one up. PSG only really controlled us in the first 20 minutes of the home legbbut we still had chances and a goal disallowed, and we dominated them in opening part of the second leg but couldn't finish.
This is a pattern and not a one-off. And we saw that again yesterday. That's on Arteta. It's his job to solve these tactical issues.

Yours is a revisionists history ! Lets look back at Arteta's time with us:

2019/20 - Took over near Christmas, was pragmatic, won his first and only trophy with a team he inherited entirely
2020/21 - Marginalises Ozil and Auba, plays Billy Big Bollocks, finishes 8th playing some of the worst football I have ever seen an Arsenal team play.
2021/22 - Ok season, threw away a top 4 finish by dropping points in consecutive games against Palace, Brighton and Southampton because of shit defending - not squandering chances. We had a back 4 of Soares, White, Gabriel and Tavares FFS, in the Palace game we lost 3-0, for example.
2022/23 - We all know why we lost the title, a combination of losing Saliba and having Holding replace him and Xhaka being a cock up at Anfield.
2023/24 - We were desperately unlucky to lose out on the title by 1 point, to a very good Man City team that were pushed all the way.
2024/25 - Arteta failed to bring in the CF we needed, Martinelli, Rice, Odegaard and Trossard were all shite because we changed our system and it became an endless passing game with very little forward thrust.

I don't recall any of those seasons being one of rued missed chances ! We either didn't create chances in the first place or our defence/defending was shit.

From 22/23, when we emerged as a competitive/title-challenging side, it has been a running theme. We're a different team and structure since the early Arteta years.
We bottled 22/23 due to bad mentality and tactics.
We lost the 23/24 league due to that Villa game at home, and we battered them in the first half and only lost by two late goals.
We finished ten points behind Liveprool last season as we drew too many games. We could have won the CL, or at least beaten PSG over two legs, if we had finished in key moments.

So it's not revisionist at all. Ti's a fact that not finishing chances, bad tactics and team selections, and not seizing fine margins, have cost us. I don't consider the time from 2019-2022. We were a developing side, and the expectation of challenging wasn't the same. Even in the 21/22 season, Spurs slapped us but then Holding bottled it by getting sent off, and even then we could have beaten Newcastle and still got top four. We've grown and reached a higher level since 2022, so I judge Arteta on a different metric now.

[swipe right]

To be fair he did some rotating in the CL game which is a good sign. Hopefully Nwaneri will get some game time.

Stop being fair you bloody woke snowflake.

[ag6789]

It is true that, Arteta' s game reading in key moments have cost us , but , missing gilt edged chances, be it Auba, Lacazette, or Saka, Havertz, Odegaard, isn't entirely on the manager.
Even under Wenger, players like Henry or Adebayor or RVP missed important chances costing us crucial points and games

[Nuggets]

To be fair he did some rotating in the CL game which is a good sign. Hopefully Nwaneri will get some game time.

Stop being fair you bloody woke snowflake.

[alexis2015finalgoal]

It is true that, Arteta' s game reading in key moments have cost us , but , missing gilt edged chances, be it Auba, Lacazette, or Saka, Havertz, Odegaard, isn't entirely on the manager.
Even under Wenger, players like Henry or Adebayor or RVP missed important chances costing us crucial points and games

Wenger still won trophies. He was faiing towards the end but still won FA Cups. Bergkam missing the pen in the last minute of the 1999 FA Cup semi can be forgiven. Just as Andy Cole missed sitters in last game of the 1995 PL season when they lost out to Blackburn. Shit happens. Arteta is yet to get over the line and the same issues are preventing him from doing so.
This is why imho the Olympicos win had issues. Because we've seen that MANY times under this manager, and if he's not careful it will be the matter that stops us winning something. He's had time and money to build, and has been given an immense opportunity to manage a global club without ANY prior managerial experience.

[ag6789]

Arteta is no Wenger, that's plain as water. He hasn't won anything, of note, no doubt. But if his top stars misses sitters in crucial games, don't understand how he can responsible. He specifically didn't tell them to not put the ball in from 6-7 yards.
In other occasions the same player had put in fantastic strikes from difficult angles.
Those players who have scored 88 and 93 goals , would miss the 94th or 89th , isn't really in any managers hand.
Van Persie missed the crucial sitter against Milan in 2012 CL and we were knocked out. What could Wenger have done if his prized striker ,who was scoring w/ his eyes closed that season, missed the easiest of goals from a few yards.

[swipe right]

Arteta is no Wenger, that's plain as water. He hasn't won anything, of note, no doubt. But if his top stars misses sitters in crucial games, don't understand how he can responsible. He specifically didn't tell them to not put the ball in from 6-7 yards.
In other occasions the same player had put in fantastic strikes from difficult angles.
Those players who have scored 88 and 93 goals , would miss the 94th or 89th , isn't really in any managers hand.
Van Persie missed the crucial sitter against Milan in 2012 CL and we were knocked out. What could Wenger have done if his prized striker ,who was scoring w/ his eyes closed that season, missed the easiest of goals from a few yards.

He brought these players to the club, he coaches them. It’s his responsibility.

[ag6789]

So every player in the world misses goals , so each manager who oversees/oversaw those players are/ were responsible. And that includes SAF, GG, Wenger, Benitez, Cruyff, Pep, Klopp, Mourinho, ..... Arteta, Flick, Anchelotti, Zidane, Paisley,Chapman ...on and on and on ..
Very profound answer!

[alexafc12]

Tbh I understand the frustration. We’ve spent and haven’t won anything of note.

However people are short sighted

Think back before Arteta at how much misery we had to endure. Both late Wenger and Unai. People are too quick to forget.

“I just want us to be back competing again”

“I’m tired of our best players running down their contracts and joining rivals”

We’re so close to winning something and every season we’re taking the extra steps to do so.

I think people need to be careful wishing for a new manager tbh. There’s no guarantee it will be a success.

[VCC]

Every club in the league competes

There is only one winner.
I signed my name to Arsenal in blood 50 odd years ago There was no mention of competing, winning or fighting
But if I had to pick two of those 3 components it's going to be winning and fighting all day long, you can go f**k yourself with the competing trophy

[swipe right]

Tbh I understand the frustration. We’ve spent and haven’t won anything of note.

However people are short sighted

Think back before Arteta at how much misery we had to endure. Both late Wenger and Unai. People are too quick to forget.

“I just want us to be back competing again”

“I’m tired of our best players running down their contracts and joining rivals”

We’re so close to winning something and every season we’re taking the extra steps to do so.

I think people need to be careful wishing for a new manager tbh. There’s no guarantee it will be a success.

As I have repeatedly shown every top six club has won more than an FA cup since Arteta took over. United are supposed to be in a crisis. But they won two trophies and reached five finals. Even spurs won in Europe with Angie. Slot won in his first season. Arteta has been given time and money and yet we haven’t seen it translate into anything tangible. The trophies aren’t there and the football looks sluggish. Maybe he was the right guy to build us up but he doesn’t seem to be the guy to take us over the line.