• The Arsenal
  • Official: Mikel Arteta is the new Arsenal manager.

Don Pacifico he’s already been here a while relative to the average manager. So it’s fine. Keeps him focused on immediate priorities.

15 days later

Mikel is a football hipster nerd. He'll not only be borrowing from all managers, he'll tell you which season the tactics were from and case examples of specific ways you handle a situation. "This is a bit like Matty Cash vs Salah when Villa won big against Liverpool. He played an uninverted full-back in defense but an inverted winger on the ball. This is something a little similar to what Dani Alves used to do when played against Espanol, except in that one situation in season 2013-2014 where they went down to 10 and he had to suffer."

This guy doesn't get enough credit for just how tactically flexible and adaptable the team has become to playing in so many different ways. We can play a high press, a mid-block, a low block, play out the back, play long, set pieces, possession, all to an exceptionally high level in a single game. The only thing missing is an effective counter attack otherwise we would be complete. People were comparing us to Atletico and Chelsea, myself included but we aren't wedded to a particular style like they were in their pomp. It'd be a travesty if this group of players didn't win a major trophy.

    daredevil impressive. Even yesterday we played two different halves. And the variety of players we can deploy mean ls opposing torches must be at a bit of a loss

    We've become committed to a 4-4-2 when defending, which I'm fine with. It suits us perfectly because of the size and endurance of the team.

    Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

    Yes, but just about every team has these spells here and there. The important part is not to conceded when we don't have complete control.. We have done that pretty well so far.

    Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

    This could also be a tactic. Meaningless possession by the other side is fine.

    I really do feel we still need an additional attacker in Jan if we are going to win the league. Just to absolutely cement it.

    We have to continue to be the hungriest team in the league after what happened last two seasons. Never give in. Anytime complacency hits then remember how we felt when City won the title.

    We have achieved nothing and done nothing so we must make sure no laziness creeps in.

    Let’s keep going, game by game, grind this shit out.

    daredevil — well said!

    I do think we’ll never see consistent and impressive counter attacks from this team. Arteta asks too much of the wingers defensively for them to play with the freedom necessary for counter attacking.

    Take for example Martinelli yesterday who broker free multiple times and didn’t have another player within thirty yards. That’s certainly not because they’re lazy, but the impact of starting positions and the ask to retain the ball once upfield.

      MistaT Arteta asks too much of the wingers defensively for them to play with the freedom necessary for counter attacking.

      Even Saka talked about this when he was talking to Titi/Micah/Carra... He said that he wishes he could just stay up the pitch and go forward, but running back and forth from offense to defense back to offense is difficult.

        USArsenal yeah, I heard that and I don't know if I'm being over sensitive but my Spidey senses tingled when he said it. I guess the ends will justify the means if we start putting trophies in the cabinet, but even I wonder how sustainable that amount of sacrifice is with nothing to show for it.

        Saka has just said "this year's the year" and I'm damn sure the whole squad that just lived through last season feels like that ... as we all do. The best of this squad is only going to stay together over time if it happens.

          Dumb thing to say from Henry. There'll be 0 Arsenal fans out there regretting Arteta being our coach. He's been cheated out of two league titles and the fans are loving the current team. Emery is also a more negative and tactically chaotic coach than Arteta and I don't miss that.

          It always saddens me to see an all-time great player reduced to doing full-time punditry.

          Emery is a top coach but he was put into a mess of a situation at Arsenal. One of Artetas underrated strengths is that he's been able to navigate the off field side of things and develop good relationships with Edu and co. Emery was a bit unlucky in his timing that he was dealing with Raul, etc but I also don't think he's as strong with the higher ups as Arteta is.

            Sicario2 - Tier 1 Is it me or does Thierry sound bitter towards Arteta:

            He definitely is bitter and has been obvious for a while now. I think Henry's ego thought he would make a great manager and probably saw himself as the heir to Wenger. He also aligned himself with the Spotify guy and wanted to take over Arsenal, maybe he saw that as his route into the club. Those of us who have been following long enough know there is a bitter side to Henry, look at his treatment of Jose Reyes for proof. He manages his PR carefully but deep down there is a bitter twisted side to him.

            Bottom line is the club was a mess from top to bottom and needed a strong character to lead on and off the pitch. Arteta was fortunate that Raul was gone and he worked with Edu and the upper management to turn things around in a way that none of us thought was possible. Even when things looked shit from our point of view you felt within the club they could see Arteta was turning things around and he fully earned the trust of the Kroenke's. We've gone from a laughing stock to one of the reference clubs in Europe, everyone is trying to model themselves on us now.

            Emery is a good coach but that is it, Arteta is literally the face of the entire club. Emery needs a strong director of football with him and is only interesting in coaching the players, nothing else. When Emery came here he could not deal with the other side and could not deal with the difficult characters in the dressing room, Arteta came in and with the support of the club got rid of all the bad apples.

            Henry says some brainless stuff sometimes.

            Emery tends to do better in environments with low-to-moderate expectations and pressure. I don't think he has the force of personality to wrest control at clubs that come with high pressure and expectations like Arsenal and PSG, for example. His career has reflected this pattern.

            We needed an absolute maniac to come in and turn things around and even then, it was touch-and-go for said maniac (Arteta) for a while there.

            Will always maintain Emery was doomed to fail here for two reasons:

            1) he treated us like we were the English equivalent of Villarreal, not one of the three biggest clubs in English football.

            2) Genuinely appalling communication skills. I can speak Spanish, so I know how hard it is to communicate in a foreign language - and I admire him for trying, but he was nowhere near.

            I'll add a third:

            Wenger signed a nest full of vipers and chancers who shouldn't have been anywhere near the club.

            And of course, the Don Raul situation was an absolute disaster.