Official: Mikel Arteta is the new Arsenal manager.: Page 169 - The Arsenal discussion community: One More in the Tolly

Official: Mikel Arteta is the new Arsenal manager.

Don Pacifico

Dom Don't know if that's a fair comparison since the premier league back in the '90s wasn't even one of the top 10 leagues in the world.

Eh...?

It's not what it is now but that's a hot take if ever I saw one.

Pepe LeFrits

I think the Invincibles would have a very hard time dealing with Odegaard TBH.

Gazza M

Pepe LeFrits nimble midfelders that played between the lines used to give vieira and Gilberto grief. aimar, valeron, scholes and the like. ode would probably do the same, but it definitely wouldn't be easy for him

daredevil

Don't quote me on it, but I think our current team can go the season unbeaten. We haven't looked like losing a game for a very long time. It will take a fluke result to stop us.

flobaba

daredevil it's possible. The problem is that even if we do go unbeaten, we still might not win the league. 😂

Qwiss

daredevil People will pay money to go and watch Pires, though, not so much Saka.

WTF 😆

RocktheCasbah

Qwiss yeah, I mean I literally have paid money just to go and watch Bukayo Saka - there was a time not so long ago where he felt like the only thing we had to hold onto.

Qwiss

Sicario2 - Tier 1 I can’t properly put this team in the same echelon until they win something major. Same goes for Saka so Pires for me.

TBF Saka is the star of this team. Henry was the star of that team and players like Bergkamp and Vieira were big stars too. Its not a like for like in that regard.

Agree the current team can't be considered better than the Invincibles until they've won a few things. Win a league and CL and then we are having a real discussion about this.

Qwiss

SimplyThePest he was absolutely unreal. One of the silkiest mother fuckers I've ever seen with a ball. If you want to know the depths of human ignorance there are a lot of people who rate Ryan Giggs higher than Bobby.

SimplyThePest

Qwiss I don't think Pires would have worked on the left for Ferguson's Man Utd teams in much the same way I don't think Giggs would have worked on the left for Wenger's pre-Emirates sides. Ferguson never really knew how to use that kind of player and Wenger never had a lot of interest in your old school, touchline-hugging, flying winger.

Different players; Pires the better all around footballer, Giggs, at his best, the better pure 'winger', so to speak.

I suspect that Giggs' longevity and trophy count would skew opinions in his favour in a 'who was better' debate vs. Bobby Pires.

Of course, the answer is Pires.

Burnwinter

Giggs was run and gun.

Claudius

I find this comparison hard because of two differences with modern footballers. They are so fucking physical and the defenders are really skillful. While Cole looked like a unicorn going forward 20 years ago, every one of our main fullbacks is probably as good or better than him on the ball. And then there’s Gabriel whose heatmap versus Leicester looked like a left 8.
So I honestly think the Invincibles would be baffled and bemused by this team. We have to make an assumption that the Invincibles themselves are trained the same way?

SimplyThePest

Claudius It's possible. It wasn't uncommon for them to struggle against the more tactically-astute European sides of the time.

I think the 2002-2005 sides match up well physically and technically to the current bunch. I'd also say they probably had an edge in terms of that off-the-cuff creativity and individual quality but fall well short of our current team in terms of tactical quality and flexibility.

Fun to think about!

RocktheCasbah

SimplyThePest away in Dublin for a mate's 40th a few years back, we were subjected to an incredibly lengthy pub discussion between two of our party over who was the better footballer out of Giggs, and Steve Mcmanananananaman.

It went on for hours - and ended with everyone agreeing with me that, as you say, the correct answer was Robert Pires.

SimplyThePest

RocktheCasbah Brilliant 😃

Qwiss

RocktheCasbah its like Blur vs Oasis, the correct answer always ends up being Pulp.

RocktheCasbah

Qwiss well, Suede but yeah, I know what you mean. 😁

Qwiss

RocktheCasbah Suede aren't Britpop. They preceded it all. They are beyond such shallow categorisation. They're out on their own with the Manics and The Auteurs.

RocktheCasbah

Qwiss well, when you put it like that ...

Rohit

Saka would "entertain" in a Wenger team as much as Pires did if not more. I will go as far as saying that he would be impossible to contain. He is supreme. He'll have the freedom he doesn't enjoy right now but then Arteta's job is to win Arsenal trophies, not necessarily help Saka elevate individually.

The invincibles would be unbelievable if assembled in today's strength and conditioning focused era. So much has changed. I think more than anything, their collective football IQ was on another level, the telepathy they had. I don't think this team is in the same plane in that regard. We might be selling the invincibles a bit short.

For example, Rice and Partey don't come close to Vieira. It's a joke. They look great in 3 man midfield where everyone falls back and works hard. Vieira was a monster. It's a shame Wenger being from the continent didn't move to a 3 man midfield in Europe earlier than he did. He did so to protect Cesc when Vieira was gone. We would have won a CL.

Pepe LeFrits

Rohit The invincibles would be unbelievable if assembled in today's strength and conditioning focused era. So much has changed. I think more than anything, their collective football IQ was on another level, the telepathy they had. I don't think this team is in the same plane in that regard. We might be selling the invincibles a bit short.

Maybe so but the game has evolved too and I think Lehmann, Campbell and Gilberto in particular would struggle with playing out through modern presses. I can't see Arteta fancying Lehmann at all, nor Campbell as a right footed LCB, and Gilberto was more of an old school shielding DM, rather than a modern pivot. Modern teams would force them to go long which wasn't really Bergkamp and Henry's strength despite their size.

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