That's not how we play it and it's not close to Arteta's tactical instruction.

People who thinks we play 343 needs to look at our average position in the last few games

Clrnc wrote:

People who thinks we play 343 needs to look at our average position in the last few games

6-2-2?

Time for a wake up, shake up, whatever you may call it.

Arteta can't wait and rely on new signings to sort us out. There's bound to be internal solutions, and it's time he gets more proactive on them.

3-4-3 needs to go unless we truly believe it's enabling our wide players.
Right now I don't see how it's helping Auba, in that he's not being freed up to get/stay forward or getting a decent volume of chances. Further, it doesn't seem to be helping either of our fullbacks.

Ceballos needs to be freed up in midfield to connect the lines.
Having a Xhaka-Ceballos midfield pairing ensures we have no one behind our forward line, or alongside our wingers. Ceballos is decent from deep, but he's too slow to catch up to play and join the attack.

We need subs or changes to our formation earlier in games if it's not working.
Bringing on AMN and Laca, far too late, did too little to help. Those should have been subs at half, or 60 mins in at the latest. Further, I don't think either was positive enough. Nelson should be ahead of AMN for offesnive purposes, bring on AMN if we want some juice in midfield.

Arteta needs to move to a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1, I'll throwing out my thoughts on the latter as it seems close to what we have.

Saka -------Auba-------Pepe
---------------Ceballos-----------------
---------Xhaka -------- El Neny --------
Tierney -- Gabriel -- Holding -- Bellerin

I'd also be open to a 4-3-3 with Ceballos and Willock (or Guendouzi) ahead of Xhaka.

I'm very frustrated with our attacking performances but our results against the big teams is so much better at the moment. 12 months back facing a top 4 side was an automatic write off. The question is if it's sustainable long term so we should make changes but I'm happy for incremental ones rather than wholesale changes for now.

The performance was completely horrible, but you feel like we have to save this conversation for another time since we just went and beat Liverpool yet again, and at Anfield nonetheless.

He kept the right keeper by the way.

Something along the lines of what Klaus & others have alluded to regarding our play.

https://arseblog.com/2020/10/pinch-of-pepe-bag-of-saka/
"I think his vision for the attack is to be super structured and precise and, personally, I think that has a ceiling unless you have the best attackers money can buy."

the article also links to this one
https://nograssintheclouds.substack.com/p/arsenal-still-have-one-huge-fundamental
"Better pressing, in theory, would create more opportunities on the attacking end and limit that limited amount of opposing possession from being turned into a disproportionate number of shots. To me, the defining question for the future of Arsenal is whether or not a shot-heavy, high-pressing approach can be eased into over time or whether it has to be instituted (with all the attendant growing pains) on Day One.

The trophies and the undefeated start to 20-21 are nice, but unless Arteta’s team starts to control the shot count, his version of his former club might have already peaked."

Indications Arteta is perhaps more GG/Simeone than Pep/AW/Bielsa?

Bottom line our numbers for points v xG and shots at goal are not sustainable, but perhaps of more concern is they are not top4 quality to begin with. For example last season it was the opposite for MU where they were under performing their numbers (which were top5 quality re xG & xGA) prior to signing Ferrnandes, and improved further after his signing.

Something has to change re shape and/or style and/or quality if we are to progress to reclaim top4. Both articles indicate that the current style and effectiveness does not match up with Arteta's initial comments about wanting to dominate the game and the ball in the opposition half.

The only 'other' explanation being we are perhaps concentrating initially on establishing self-belief (team) and credibility (Arteta), and becoming more efficient/capable in Cup type scenarios so as to both win a domestic Cup to ensure ongoing participation in UEFA, and to be capable of winning the UEL to regain UCL (and the changes/rebuild will then follow once we regain UCL revenues).

If not then I'd agree with the idea of 'damn the torpedos and full steam ahead' in regards to what the end game is meant to be.

MistaT wrote:

Time for a wake up, shake up, whatever you may call it.

Arteta can't wait and rely on new signings to sort us out. There's bound to be internal solutions, and it's time he gets more proactive on them.

3-4-3 needs to go unless we truly believe it's enabling our wide players.
Right now I don't see how it's helping Auba, in that he's not being freed up to get/stay forward or getting a decent volume of chances. Further, it doesn't seem to be helping either of our fullbacks.

Ceballos needs to be freed up in midfield to connect the lines.
Having a Xhaka-Ceballos midfield pairing ensures we have no one behind our forward line, or alongside our wingers. Ceballos is decent from deep, but he's too slow to catch up to play and join the attack.

We need subs or changes to our formation earlier in games if it's not working.
Bringing on AMN and Laca, far too late, did too little to help. Those should have been subs at half, or 60 mins in at the latest. Further, I don't think either was positive enough. Nelson should be ahead of AMN for offesnive purposes, bring on AMN if we want some juice in midfield.

Arteta needs to move to a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1, I'll throwing out my thoughts on the latter as it seems close to what we have.

Saka -------Auba-------Pepe
---------------Ceballos-----------------
---------Xhaka -------- El Neny --------
Tierney -- Gabriel -- Holding -- Bellerin

I'd also be open to a 4-3-3 with Ceballos and Willock (or Guendouzi) ahead of Xhaka.

Agreed with much of this post and I'd expect to see some changes/tweaks post the transfer window closing with/without any signings.

My only change would be to replace Xhaka with Elneny as the base of a midfield3 as Xhaka cannot beat the press and is slow to play the ball forward, whereas Elneny is at least more 'press resistant' and looks to keep the ball in motion by not retaining it.

I also think the lack of pace in midfield is hampering the attack in the final 3rd against those teams we cannot dominate field position, and a change of shape to put more players in closer support would compensate/mitigate the issue.

Mirth wrote:

I'm very frustrated with our attacking performances but our results against the big teams is so much better at the moment. 12 months back facing a top 4 side was an automatic write off. The question is if it's sustainable long term so we should make changes but I'm happy for incremental ones rather than wholesale changes for now.

I'll be very disappointed if we are still playing much the same at the end of the season irrespective of any incoming/outgoing players.

The issue with the improvements v top4 is that being competitive in the Big6 mini-league alone does not get you top4/UCL, and becomes a warm fuzzy no one remembers at the end of the season if you continue to struggle v 'the rest', let alone the other contenders/pretenders.

TBH I'd rather be accused of being 'flat track bullies' and lose the big6 mini-league (so long as we didn't get smashed) if it meant we were in the mix for 3rd/4th place.  
Along with this I'd rather 'win' the battle v the other UEFA UEL contenders, and see our Wins numbers be greater than the Draws and Losses combined.  Last season only LFC, MC & CFC did so, as MU had the same issue as us in drawing too many games.

I feel like we spent a decade bemoaning our lack of a 'defensive platform' from which to build, and in less than a year Arteta seems to have implemented just that and we've already pivoted to slamming our lack of attacking prowess.

It’s something to behold. These guys think he has a magic wand.

Coombs wrote:

I feel like we spent a decade bemoaning our lack of a 'defensive platform' from which to build, and in less than a year Arteta seems to have implemented just that and we've already pivoted to slamming our lack of attacking prowess.

Reality is both issues stem from the lack of midfield balance, and just as under both AW & Emery the numbers under Arteta are not sustainable, and we do not dominate in any aspect of our play.  

The general consensus is that we have improved defensively and become harder to beat, but in doing so we have 'sacrificed' our creativity.  Early days yet but the raw numbers do not really reflect this (without knowing our xG, xGA and our number of passes allowed before we make a defensive action/challenge).  
We currently rank 19th for shots taken per game (8), 11th for shots on goal per game (4), 14th for shots conceded per game (13), 13th re possession (50%), 7th re passing %. (85%), & 18th re key passes per game (5.7).  Last season's numbers were 15th (10.7), 10th (4), 16th (14.6), 6th (52.9%), 5th (83.6%) & 16th (7.8).
If anything the numbers suggest we are now more efficient in what we do without actually being noticeably better or worse in front of goal at either end.  The most noticeable improvement at this stage is the terms of attitude and fortitude, but we have still dropped the most points from winning positions since Arteta took the role.

Coombs wrote:

I feel like we spent a decade bemoaning our lack of a 'defensive platform' from which to build, and in less than a year Arteta seems to have implemented just that and we've already pivoted to slamming our lack of attacking prowess.

Good perspective, Coombs. It’s certainly nice knowing we are more secure.
That said, no team has lost more points from leads since Arteta became a manager than... [drumroll] ... Arsenal

That’s largely meaningless to me considering the time period we are looking at, and the amount of work he has had to do to get the team to the stage where we are actually competing with the top sides now. Let’s back him this window and see if that unsavory statistic doesn’t change over the course of the season.

We are too short termist in our view as fans.

Yup. Stuff takes time to evolve. Just look at Klopp, he was a press merchant with a leaky defence for the first 2-3 years in the job. A couple of big signings and after a slightly more conservative approach, they become one of the most consistent sides on the planet. Watch them this season and they actually look like they're trying to take it to another level with a return to a really aggressive high press. Their football is evolving 5 years down the line.

This shit takes time. As long as we're seeing progress, it's all good. For now I'm just happy seeing a change in mentality if nothing else.

Of course, Flo. A manager needs a year and his own players. That’s why one hopes he can get one midfielder this summer to overcome the technical drought in that area of the field. He’s already achieved a ton in terms of team and individual improvements I see this as a 3 year journey. Stabilize, grow, compete

We have improved defensively but wet aren't a team that doesn't concede and shuts the opposition out. So more often then not we are conceding a goal which means we need to be scoring goals and likely a couple.

At the moment at times we struggle to create one good quality attacking moment. We are not looking like a good attacking side against any side.

It's for this reason I don't know what Arteta is about and how good he is. As I've said this season to me is the one where we will find out about Arteta's quality. If we aren't seeing improvement then I think they're should be questions about him.

Coombs wrote:

I feel like we spent a decade bemoaning our lack of a 'defensive platform' from which to build, and in less than a year Arteta seems to have implemented just that and we've already pivoted to slamming our lack of attacking prowess.

Playing five defenders and one defensive midfielders isn't a "defensive platform" you can build from. It's just putting a lot of defensive players out on the pitch. 

Which 2 managers before him did as well. If he doesn't get the players he asks for this window, any criticism of him will be essentially meaningless. Wenger left because he couldn't do it with his own team, Emery because he lost the dressing room and caused a total collapse, but what the hell is Arteta supposed to do with this Frankenstein monster of a squad?