• The Arsenal

  • Official: Mikel Arteta is the new Arsenal manager.

I genuinely think that his time should be done at the end of the season.

I get the hope that he can deliver with the right signings and that he didn't suddenly become a bad coach again after the relative highs of the last two seasons, however I think he will struggle to turn this around. PSV result aside, our team is really bland without Saka, Havertz or Jesus, with only the former being consistently reliable. The players and him just seem bereft of energy and attacking ideas. We haven't won in 3 league games, and if we have a so so performance for our last 10 games, that will be a third of the season which has been "wasted". I don't see the shoots of any tactical or personnel experiments that look like they could hold value going into next season which we can buy into even if our chance at the title is gone. All I feel is a manager going through the motions ahead of trying again next season. However, that period of time between now and end of season is long, and if we fail to regain any positive vibes/momentum, then I think he will find it extremely difficult to remotivate most of this squad for next season. Basically, the players don't look like they are in the presence of someone who can still inspire when things get difficult.

Our team is bland without all of our starting attacking players? What shock.

We're in a tough spot as fans, fellas.

The bottom line is that we've got no attack and even tactical switches are akin to shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic. It's a slow motion car crash that's probably going to get worse. Arteta doesn't seem to have any answers and looks to be losing his rag to boot.

Might be best to just switch off for the remainder of the season, see what Arsenal Football Club does come the summer and then make a call on whether it's worth investing time and interest next year.

    SimplyThePest agree with this but despite all the troubles I wouldn’t completely rule us out of the CL. I’ve seen enough football to suggest we can still do something even v Real Madrid/Atletico Madrid.

        Sicario2 - Tier 1 Wishful thinking, Sic. The two Madrid sides are real heavyweights, particularly the white one. Too much quality on the pitch and in the dugout for us at this point.

          There is definitely some exaggeration of our challenges here. We can't be both completely awful and also disappointed we didn't smash United. It's one or the other.

          Our defense is incredible. We now need to rejig our offense and how we attack. Good discussion actually on Arseblog about all of this today

          • Tam replied to this.

            Sicario2 - Tier 1 we need 2 more forwards that create their own space and generate overloads. gabby jesus circa 2022 type of stuff, at both the ST and LW positions. having that will offset the blander elements of tetball.

              We should have gone all in on Kvara.

              • Tam

              • Post #3985

              Claudius Our defense is incredible.

              Didn’t look it yesterday. We were all over the place in the second half.

                9 days later

                Qwiss Bloody hell, mad Mikel, sat in his office in the dead of night creeping around Calafiori's Instagram screenshotting photos of his family members... 😃

                  Mikel is a strange dude.

                  He's doing the villain thing. "Hey Riccy, how's your brother Leo? You know, the one who always stops by The Tolly every Saturday at presicely 8 p.m? I'd hate for something to happen to him if you don't play well today..."

                  Arteta aims to create a cult-like atmosphere and normalise crossing boundaries, create intimacy rapidly. Lots of stuff that's very dicey at work or a red flag if you're dating.

                  Even more normal things like those Colney induction sessions where the squad sits around and ultra-mildly clap-hazes the new pledge like they're all playing a parlour game on the bridge of a spaceship.

                  I'm curious to know where he gets his ideas from, stuff like the hired pickpocket thing. Bet there's some Gladwell level management manual that's behind it. He seems to want the players constantly ping-ponging between vigilance and stimulation.

                  Qwiss The boss is kind of nuts.

                  Possibly but seems to have done the trick and Calafiori doesn't mind. Maybe it is a Spanish/Latin thing?

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