• The Arsenal

  • Official: Mikel Arteta is the new Arsenal manager.

Mirth that's exactly it, to win a title you have to be able to consistently score many goals and Arteta's teams haven't been able to do that. In the previous 2 seasons where lots of the variance went for us and our players were performing pretty much to their peak we still dropped too many points to secure the title. If the system can't deliver the title in those circumstances I'm not sure it's the right model.

As Gazza says if you mess up a moment like this season when City are like this that is very likely the window for a team like Arsenal and if it closes it could be a very long time before we get another. Liverpool appear to have a ruthlessness that we just lack that when those moments arrive there make sure they are able to take something from it.

      awooga83 Liverpool appear to have Salah in the course of contending for best season ever for a PL attacker while about to become a free agent.

          RowJimmy I meant more over their recent history. Even when down in the lows they picked up European trophies which we have massively struggled with when at our peak.

            • Panda

            • Post #3791

            I do have to question the mentality when we go a goal up.

            Why do we slow the game down so much?

            It is costing us and Arteta needs to set it right.

              • est

              • Post #3792

              Lol, Arteta is the one setting it up to be that way in the first place.

              • Panda

              • Post #3793

              I know that is why I am saying he is the 1 that needs to change it.

              Still don't think we're far off at all. It's frustrating.

              The Champions League is winnable and we've got another level to unlock overall with the right signing or two. This window of opportunity isn't open forever but it's not looking like it will close in summer.

              • Dom

              • Post #3795

              Panda

              This is also my issue. Arteta's football is monotonous and one paced but I could stomach it in these circumstances if we were at least rock solid defensively and could hold on to a lead. Instead, when we go one up, any semblance of progressive football stops and we invite pressure by 1) needless time wasting and 2) becoming static.

              Genuinely, I find corners the most exciting part of our football this season.

                  Dom
                  Not sure how much more rock solid we should be. We have the best GA and xGA in the league.

                    • Qwiss

                    • Post #3797

                    Yeah we've the best defence in the league and tbh I think Liverpool even being close is down to luck. Forrest have been great at the back but won't sustain it.

                    • Dom

                    • Post #3798

                    We have the two best CBs in the world and the best keeper in the league but in half a season we've dropped (I think) 10 points from winning positions. Granted we were cheated out of an extra four points against City and Brighton, but - unlike late last season - we don't play on the front foot when leading. Against Brighton, Liverpool and Chelsea the team went ahead and then let the momentum shift by dropping deep. We're on course to concede more and score fewer goals than last season.

                      • flobaba

                      • Post #3799
                      • Edited

                      And mostly because of injuries across the spine of the team. From Gabriel to Odegaard to Saka. And then our full back injury crisis as well.

                      Why are folks talking like we aren't witnessing this in real time?

                        seriously I know Mancs gave us a lifeline but the season is fucked. The only wonder is that we didn't capsize the way Pool did last season when they had injuries.

                        Dom Granted we were cheated out of an extra four points against City and Brighton, but - unlike late last season - we don't play on the front foot when leading.

                        Six points, don't forget Rice's absurd red card to go with the absurd penalty Brighton just received in the reverse fixture.

                        We've been underwhelming going forward, and there's no point griping endlessly about poor refereeing, but …

                            Burnwinter it’s fine to get a bad refereeing decision. Everybody Gary them. What’s annoying is those calls that we will never see again like Rice and Saliba.

                                Claudius Exactly. But we've had several. Rice and Trossard's red cards, this penalty … Saliba's red card earlier in the season was also very harsh.

                                Every single one of those has arguably cost us points, If we had all those points we'd be in pole position to win the league right now.

                                Unfortunately our only solutions with PGMOL are to beat them (destroy PGMOL and its northwestern corruption) or join them (fire Arteta and set up a regular cash transfer to Howard Webb).

                                    Burnwinter true. Had forgotten the Saliba red which was then judged differently for the exact offense the next day. And everyone was coming up with reasons why Saliba deserved red but Adarabioyo of Chelsea did not deserve one. That was the worst one due to the direct comparison.
                                    Even worse in the Saliba example, neither the refs or journalists point to the fact that the ball is bouncing in the Saliba case, which will slow down the attscker

                                      https://www.transfermarkt.com/fc-arsenal/platzierungen/verein/11

                                      Thought this was interesting. Wanted to see where we stood versus historical Arsenal teams.

                                      • we’ve been upward trajectory as a club for last 8 or so years
                                      • last year was our highest scoring premier league season. It was our lowest goals against since invincibles.
                                      • our best defensive season was 99 (fuck United) where we conceded 17 but only scored 59

                                      We are doing very well relative to our own very high standards. Just frustrating that we are so close with this good performance and not able to quite get over line yet.

                                        Claudius we’ve been upward trajectory as a club for last 8 or so years

                                        Not to take the piss out of you, but this is very similar to my joke about you applauding "the upward trajectory of our aggregate expected major trophies per year" (paraphrasing) the other day 😆

                                        It's all good how well we're doing by the numbers but we've gotta actually win something big. You've heard of "stochastic terrorism" but there's no such thing as "stochastic silverware".

                                        • Tam likes this.

                                          Burnwinter I agree with this but I think it's become clear that the gamble we made in the summer not signing offensive reinforcements other than Sterling (and I'm not looking to re-litigate our summer transfer strategy) has not paid off. You are exactly right that we've not had injuries or refereeing go out way this season but if we had an offensive chaos merchant, that would have mitigated some of the obstacles we've faced.