Morning folks.
There’s been a whole additional 24 hours that have elapsed since the pathetic and limp exit to Villareal in the Europa League and I gotta tell you folks, I feel a lot better in my own head, compared to how I have done over the years. Not about Arsenal and the position they are in, of course, but just in terms of me ‘getting over it’ in terms of a defeat or cup exit. Five year’s ago it probably would have taken me at least three or four days before I started to not think about everything; replaying the game in my mind before I went to sleep, waking up in the night and not getting back to sleep because you are subjecting yourself to the torture of the game being replayed in your mind like some sort of saved file of doom that isn’t erasable in the internal hard drive that is your brain.
I remember the Champions League final vividly. It took me a week to get over it. Going back further and the Paul Gascoigne semi final of the FA Cup in which we lost to the Scum 3-1 in 1991. I’ve got so many examples of times in which I’ve found it hard to process, compartmentalize, then eventually realise life is too short and moved on. I don’t know whether it is age – i’m 38 now and so perhaps have gone through enough heartache that I have the battle scars of supporting Arsenal and are therefore more immune to the pain a little more than I used to be – or whether it is just that everything about Arsenal is dislike-able at the moment and so I am becoming a bit ‘meh’ to it all.
The owners are dis-likable.
The Exec Team hasn’t really done anything to make them more like-able.
There are so many players that are dislike-able.
The style of football is dis-likeable.
Then I come to the manager. This is where it becomes very difficult and some weird cloud seems to fall upon me. When things went south under Unai Emery it was easier for me to drive a mental wedge between myself and my support of Emery; his communication skills weren’t great (although you have to applaud him for trying, it just didn’t work), the football was random and without any kind of idea or identity, plus he was an outsider. With Mikel Arteta he was a like-able player, he was captain, he’s an excellent communicator and so many people in the game talk about how much he knows his stuff.
Yet his actions over the last 18 months are that of a man who hasn’t learned his lessons and whilst he spoke yesterday about ‘analyzing’ things internally and would not go in to detail as to what he meant, many are taking that to mean a big summer clear out. I’d absolutely be up for that and it is talk like that – if backed up by actions – that makes me wonder whether or not if backed we might as well see what happens in the summer.
But then I come back to some of the stuff that ISN’T going to be solved by the purchase of new players. His over-reliance on some of the turgid older players who have put us in this position this season should be a black mark on him. I was listening to the Arsecast yesterday and Arseblog spoke about how Nicolas Pepe has only played 30 minutes more this season than Willian. How is that even possible? A player who has delivered zero goals and zero creativity, against the Ivorian who was our top scorier in Europe and most of us agree has looked much better since the turn of the year. Yet Willian still has the appearances and minutes under his belt to be one of those who has played more than most. IT is decision-making like that which makes me waver and that is all on the manager.
But it’s other things too. The systematic and dreary build up play that has us playing at walking pace for so much of this season is a tactical development brought by this manager. He doesn’t want to go from A to B unless his team have stopped, considered the consequences, pondered a bit more, then moved on. That has allowed teams to low-block us out of games all season and our own inadequacies have result in us being either hit on the counter when we do eventually venture forward, or give away stupid goals that have cost us points and trophies.
Then we have the substitutions. It’s something we all knew was a part of his style that he needed to work on, but he hasn’t learned his lesson and some of the late subs being made in games as recently as Villareal or even the Newcastle game (bringing Partey on for six minutes at the end – what was all that about?), show that he isn’t as quick a learner as we thought.
And here’s the reason why I think we should be considering a change of manager now; if he isn’t learning these things quickly i.e. in 18 months, how long are we going to wait around before something ‘clicks’ and he supposedly turns into this super elite manager we had all been banking on?
The more and more I think about it, the more I think that Arsenal are basically his testing ground for a young manager to make his mistakes in prep for future roles, and at a club like Arsenal that is thoroughly unacceptable. With all due respect to these teams, we aren’t a Brentford, Leyton Orient or Crewe, we are one of the biggest football clubs in England. Yet we are blooding a young guy so he can learn his lessons and go and win trophies elsewhere for someone else. That’s even if he CAN evolve into this super manager everyone has projected him to be.
And this is why everything feels cloudy in my head this morning, because I like the man, I feel invested in the man, I am SO desperate for this to have worked, yet all of the signs I see with my own eyes tell me that it won’t. The decision making has not been good for a while from Arteta and I’m not sure I want to return to the Emirates to see another season of dross like the one we’ve just had.
I will, of course, because I love my club. I’ll be straight in there from the beginning of next season assuming I can get in with the revised rules on sporting attendances. But that doesn’t mean I’ll be happy if we have another series of performances like we’ve endured over the last nine months.
It’s not very fun at the moment and whilst Arteta has somewhat come out fighting yesterday with some of his comments, those words feel a little hollow right now. We need action.
Catch you all tomorrow.
Wow. That is just about the same bad opinion that most reactionary fans have. Pretty disgusting to read so much unlogical bullshit on a blog, I thought was decent up to now.
You analyze our manager and absolutely block out all external obstacles he had to deal with this season like the other reactionary “fans”.
That’s why I love blogs run by people who really use their brain and think things through before spreading useless negativity, like Untold Arsenal.
Arsenal this season have lost more points to wrong ref decisions than any other team in the league (15). That alone would put us on third spot right now. Add to that, that Arteta took over midseason when we were at the lowest point in decades, inherited an unbalanced squad, mismanaged for years and full of passengers that let in tons of goals for a decade, completely void of confidence and still managed to beat Klopp three times, Pep, Mourinho, Ancelotti, Ole and many more, won the cup and the shield. He had tumult in and outside the club, a pandemic and no fans during a rebuild, no pre season, owners who don’t invest and still made us the 4th best defence in the league, though we have players who commit suicidal errors 24/7 on the pitch. On top our forwards loved to waste clear chances this season. Against all this odds, with only 5 more goals we’d be in Europe (as you can read in a new Untold Arsenal article from yesterday) and with unbiased refs we’d be in the top 4. And now you come out, ignoring all of this and blamimg him for substitions? Is this a bloody joke?
Now tell me this: which of these factors is Arteta’s fault and would you point your finger at him like this when we’d be third?
Shortly to the points you talked about:
We hace zero squad depth in terms of quality at some positions, yet you complain about him using some players? Players like Willian will not be sold after one season and he was good at Chelsea for years, so what would be your realistic approach for him? He started at the beginning of the season, now he is just a sub. Still you are complaining about that. What would you do? Let him rot on the bench for 2 years? On top he isn’t even bad and never was on the pitch for us. When the whole team struggled, he was the scpaegoat. Or one of them. That’s it. And Pépé played much more minutes since the turn of the year than Willian, which makes your “argument” even weaker. While Pépé played more than 60 minutes on 13 occaasions in this time, Willian just managed that 5 times. So much to ArTeTa dOeSn’T lEaRn.
Your talk about Arteta’s tactical approach to bring the ball forward slowly only made me shake my head. That’s complete bullshit and if you are honest you know it. We had games where we had fluid and fast attacks and scored plenty of goals and created chances. After these games Arteta and the players always said that this is how they want to play and what they train. When we lost or drew Arteta always said tgat the players were too slow to move the ball forward or decided to pass back. After the West Ham game Lacazette said that thei didn’t follow Arteta’s instructions on the first have, but did so in the second. Evem a blind could see the difference. So literally everyone involved and the manager himself dissect your secind “argument”.
And you are questioning his subs, really. Until now I saw eleven year olds doing that on Instagram, but not a grown up football fan with a brain. None of us fans have any insights on fatigue level, the performances in trainings, the little injuries the players carry with them, personal problems or mentality, tactical approach and many more aspects which influence the coaching teams decisions to sub on a player. But here we are: fans questioning why he brought on Partey in a game where we were up comfortably for 6 minutes. It is beyond me. But maybe tell me some specific subs you were angered by, so we can see if your criticism is justified.
I hope that you answer my points up there, also in the first paragraphs, or at least tell why you ignore 98 % of the factors for our bad season, but instead attack the only one who tries to get us out of this mess. Looking forward to your answer.
P. S. Sorry if I posted the same comment twice. There was a connection error the first time.
I understand your thoughts and hopefully this can lift a few of the clouds. I too am 37 and have watched Arsenal in the dire times of no European footy. Let’s not forget Wenger wasn’t a top coach when we hired him and had nowhere near the standard of opposition with unlimited funds in the league that Arteta has now.
But I’ll use Ole Gunnar Solskjar as the example here. Ole at times has been terrible during his time at Utd. On a complete flipside compared to Arsenal’s squad, he had if anything too many top players to pick from. There were utd fans all over the country fuming with him and wanted him out.
But the Utd board have stood bother man and backed him knowing they too were in a process. Post Fergie Utd had a huge pair of shoes that top experienced managers were not and couldn’t fill alla Moyes, Van Gaal and Mourinoh. Currently he’s on to finish second in the league and win the Europa league. Ole had 7 years previous management experience prior to his 3 at Utd has been able to spend 100’s of millions I genuinely think utd will compete for the title next year.
Arteta had an awful squad to come and deal with and owners who wouldn’t spend. A squad which was unbalanced disjointed and sometimes rebelious thanks to the soft touch Emery. Containing the likes of Kolasinac, Mustafi, Sokratis, Ozil, Mikhitarian and hot head Guendouzi. Then the underperforming senior members like Xhaka Bellerin, Willian, Auba, Lacazette, up until recently Pepe, Leno and Luiz. Injuries to Tierney, Saka, Laca, Auba, Partey, Gabriel, Bellerin and Martinelli. Then personal and family issues with Auba and or very own pornstar William Saliba who had a loss in the family in his first year away from home.
He has dealt with the Guendouzi situation well, given him time away from the club. Sent him to a more experienced manager and given him the opportunity to get his head screwed removing him from the Arsenal environment not to distract Arteta or the team. The Saliba situation was well dealt with too. Obviously the loss in his family and being away from France was overwhelming for the lad.
This club comes with alot of baggage and Arteta was brave enough as a rookie to stand up and be counted. By no means am I saying he’s been perfect, but he’s been a professional manager for, if you think about it with COVID 1 and 1/4 seasons. We have to accept he’s going to make mistakes. Klopp has obviously made mistakes look where Liverpool are he’s made them a one man team and Klopps won everything in the game at club level. Then there’s Mourinoh the self proclaimed special one who’s specialty is getting sacked.
Arteta hasn’t had backing of the owners, hasn’t had a full preseason with the team nor is he going to get that with the Euros in June and July. But at least only 2-5 players will be going to that. He has to be given this summer and next season to show the club are moving in the right direction on the field. Off the field is another issue
Hope this clears some of the clouds
Who is more important, one man or a million men and women supporters? Arteta should fall on his sword gracefully. He is not ‘the man’ not the ‘Arsenal Messiah’. He failed us and the stats and facts prove it. Please don’t fall for his words, he is good at ‘talk the talk’, he has no idea of ‘walk the walk’