There is no way Arteta should be expected to get top 4 with this pathetic squad

Have you seen Leicester's team? Have you seen Everton so far this season? That's forgetting the usual big guns.

I will never understand the Mari signing and that for £14m too. Utter madness. We didn’t need him and we got Gabriel plus a dozen other CB’s. Shocking use of limited resources.

Leicester 2 seasons ago were in s relegation battle. So how have they gone from that to being in with a shout at top 4. But we have no chance at the top 4. I don't agree with that view

Have you seen their signings after that?

Jed wrote:

I will never understand the Mari signing and that for £14m too. Utter madness. We didn’t need him and we got Gabriel plus a dozen other CB’s. Shocking use of limited resources.

Exactly poor signings across the board. If you are l keeping Xhaka as one of your key midfielders then that is limit what you can do so as a manager you know this. If you accept having players like that it's going to be in you especially as Arteta gets a full season to implement his ideas.

Our squad isn't top 4 quality.

Clrnc wrote:

Have you seen their signings after that?

Right, so why can Leicester with not really big signings turn their fortune in a season but we are saying arsenal can't do that. They weren't well known or big signings. So Arsenal Arteta can't replicate that?

The season after the relegation battle they finished in the top 4.

Jed wrote:

I will never understand the Mari signing and that for £14m too. Utter madness. We didn’t need him and we got Gabriel plus a dozen other CB’s. Shocking use of limited resources.

Mari, Pepe and Saliba have all been a waste of money so far. 

awooga83 wrote:

Clrnc wrote:

Have you seen their signings after that?

Right, so why can Leicester with not really big signings turn their fortune in a season but we are saying arsenal can't do that. They weren't well known or big signings. So Arsenal Arteta can't replicate that?

The season after the relegation battle they finished in the top 4.

Because they actually signed some players. We're largely going into this season with the same core group as last year. We've hardly done anything in the transfer window to begin with

For the record, our form since Arteta took over has been the fourth best out of our rivals. But this is as good as it gets, we certainly can't play more expansive football without compromising the results with this group of averageness

awooga83 wrote:

Clrnc wrote:

Have you seen their signings after that?

Right, so why can Leicester with not really big signings turn their fortune in a season but we are saying arsenal can't do that. They weren't well known or big signings. So Arsenal Arteta can't replicate that?

The season after the relegation battle they finished in the top 4.

I hate to break your bubble but since they were in the relegation battle, they signed:

Evans 3.5m
Maddison 25m
Pereira 22m
Soyuncu 19m
Justin 6m
Perez 12m
Tielemans 13m
Praet 19m

And this season they signed

Castagne 22m
Fofana 40m

Granted not all of them are world class, but all of them are an upgrade of the exact counter part we have here in their respective squad roles.

The poor squad was also the same for Emery the signings weren't great there either. But we could still reasonably say he isn't the right man to take the club to the next level.

As for results with rivals, who do you count in that? I'm guessing not Leicester or Everton but they are legitimate rivals for us.

Clrnc wrote:

awooga83 wrote:

Right, so why can Leicester with not really big signings turn their fortune in a season but we are saying arsenal can't do that. They weren't well known or big signings. So Arsenal Arteta can't replicate that?

The season after the relegation battle they finished in the top 4.

I hate to break your bubble but since they were in the relegation battle, they signed:

Evans 3.5m
Maddison 25m
Pereira 22m
Soyuncu 19m
Justin 6m
Perez 12m
Tielemans 13m
Praet 19m

And this season they signed

Castagne 22m
Fofana 40m

Granted not all of them are world class, but all of them are an upgrade of the exact counter part we have here in their respective squad roles.

I'm not disagreeing they have built a good squad but we must be capable of that. The money they have spent isn't out of our reach in fact we've probably spent as much.

awooga83 wrote:

The poor squad was also the same for Emery the signings weren't great there either. But we could still reasonably say he isn't the right man to take the club to the next level.

Yeah, because we'd concede 20 shots on target to the likes of Watford every week.

As for results with rivals, who do you count in that? I'm guessing not Leicester or Everton but they are legitimate rivals for us.

I definitely include Leicester, along with Chelsea, United, City, Liverpool, Tottenham. Early days for Everton but they're looking good too - but again - they've refreshed their midfield significantly this window. How are we supposed to compete if we have the same dross year after year? We should have made those signings and we've wasted plenty so far but our transfer policy doesn't fall at the door of the manager anymore.

Both side of the argument are right. Arteta needs more, but he also needs to deliver more with whatever he ends up with, not least the £70m man he's leaving on the bench every week.

awooga83 wrote:

Clrnc wrote:

I hate to break your bubble but since they were in the relegation battle, they signed:

Evans 3.5m
Maddison 25m
Pereira 22m
Soyuncu 19m
Justin 6m
Perez 12m
Tielemans 13m
Praet 19m

And this season they signed

Castagne 22m
Fofana 40m

Granted not all of them are world class, but all of them are an upgrade of the exact counter part we have here in their respective squad roles.

I'm not disagreeing they have built a good squad but we must be capable of that. The money they have spent isn't out of our reach in fact we've probably spent as much.

Oh yeah but the problem now is, we have spent as much or more money and many of them has failed. They were adding to a squad that already included Ndidi, Vardy and Chilwell at that point of time basically their champions squad. We have added many failed signings to a squad that was already not so good, lost our talisman Alexis, gave a huge useless contract to Ozil etc.

So this squad is already not good enough for top 4 last season. We need around 3-4 big signings this season and achieved a grand total of 1 so far and not looking likely for others, while many of our rivals have improved massively from new signings. It's not realistic to target top 4 this season. We will be lucky to finish top 6 with this squad.

goon wrote:

Both side of the argument are right. Arteta needs more, but he also needs to deliver more with whatever he ends up with, not least the £70m man he's leaving on the bench every week.

Not sure he should pick a player just because he's worth £70m. The man accountable for the Pepe transfer was asked to leave the club.

Fundamentally this squad is the vision of 3 managers and 3 CEOS - of course it's a disjointed mess. We're going to have to clear it out over successive transfer windows and not make anymore mistakes.

Mirth wrote:

awooga83 wrote:

The poor squad was also the same for Emery the signings weren't great there either. But we could still reasonably say he isn't the right man to take the club to the next level.

Yeah, because we'd concede 20 shots on target to the likes of Watford every week.

Well we've created the second least shots on goal this Premier League season so far. We're playing the only side that has been worse than us in that regard tomorrow. As good a time as any to adjust those depressing stats I reckon.

Mirth wrote:

Fundamentally this squad is the vision of 3 managers and 3 CEOS - of course it's a disjointed mess. We're going to have to clear it out over successive transfer windows and not make anymore mistakes.

We have a squad of 9 CBs, 3 RBs and 1 LBs when Kolasinac is sold. It's hilarious.