jones wrote:
In that long ass post of yours you've mentioned many valid and interesting points as to why we were doing poorly since Wenger took over, talking about recruitment, mercenaries etc, but not once did you mention Arteta's ability as a coach and manager. You ridicule criticism of his squad management by saying "Auba left six months early" (as if he were an afterthought, not our captain who's banging them in at Barcelona right now) while leaving out our most dangerous attacker being completely frozen out, his poor decisions regarding Xhaka, Saliba, White, Lacazette, Lokonga/Elneny and many others.
Let's go through that list of players from a glass half full perspective …
Aubameyang: his wages were a burden, he was in game-losing form and we would've wanted to ship him in summer which would have been as difficult then as it was in January. It'll be no surprise if he scores a bag of goals at Barcelona, he's mercurial and no doubt brimful of desire for vindication.
Xhaka: very few bright sides for me here, because I despise the player, but I guess he was extended because we failed to sign a midfielder and presumably we'll be open to selling him in summer conditional on recruitment. I said I never wanted to see him in our shirt again, but I'd probably pick him if I were Arteta.
Saliba: he was 20 and unproven, we don't know the private details of any conflict with Arteta, a season excelling in Ligue 1 was a great outcome for him or any Arsenal player on loan, he remains under contract for another two plus years and will either be sold for a high fee or integrated into a squad fighting in Europe.
White: at worst we spent £15m over the odds for an intelligent, high quality and versatile "home grown" player. It's not like we spent £80m on Harry Maguire. In the event Saliba comes back to a Champions League campaign the overall situation will be ideal.
Lacazette: should have been sold on a couple of seasons ago, no argument there, but has been useful in his "crippled false 9" role as his reintroduction to the side earlier in the season proved. I have a bad feeling he'll still be at Arsenal in 2024.
Lokonga and Elneny: the former is pretty useful for a 22 year old albeit not the finished article, and the latter is, well, surplus.
Bonus round, Pépé: I hate the way Arteta uses him, out of all of these situations it's the one that annoys me the most.
Bonus round two: it's pretty unforgivable we didn't go after multiple forward targets in January as we may need two in summer.
The jury's out on Arteta aka "Pep's Homunculus" for me. For the rest of the season we might see December Arsenal, or we might see January Arsenal.
One way I do think this particular debate has changed is that last season, or at the start of this season, you could point to Arteta and say "we're tactically bereft and he excuses himself based on the squad". I believed he was thoroughly mediocre a year ago, but I'm coming around to the view that he's either learnt a few things or just always had one very specific idea he couldn't execute from the outset of his tenure.
Arteta no longer whines about the players at his disposal, and we now play a recognisable brand of football which our players understand and to which they're committed. It has surprised me that his conflict with Aubameyang doesn't seem to have rippled the squad more. We're oriented to defence and inflexible, but we've also produced record high shot counts and dominate territory and possession against many opposing sides. For all this to prove anything we need to start recording a few landmark victories.
We could replace Arteta at the end of the season and I'd be sanguine, but since that seems highly unlikely I'm not staking my enjoyment on it.
