"The journey continues" - Mikel signs extension until 2025: Page 82 - The Arsenal discussion community: One More in the Tolly

"The journey continues" - Mikel signs extension until 2025

Burnwinter

Claudius Massut Özil

Clrnc

lorddulaarsenal Was going to say that. Surprised he is still good. I caught a few of Marseille matches and he scored some tap ins, but this video showed a lot more.

Tam

Quite a lot of the defending was as bad as the finishing was good. Could have been a video on how to lose your man at the back post.

JazzG

RocktheCasbah

JazzG love that he's made sure it never happens now. 😀

lorddulaarsenal

We ain’t the completed side yet. Imagine how strong we’ll be with another transfer window or two

goon

Jokes aside we go into next years games as a team that took 4 points off them without conceding rather than the one who took 0 and conceded 4 away from home.

The next step is becoming a bigger threat going the other way. I think that has as much to do with composure as is has to do with quality.

MistaT

Forgetting titles for a minute, full credit to Arteta for making us competitive against top teams again.

Loved how Wenger had us playing for years - often with dross - but his stubbornness led to a near decade of humiliating losses against top teams.

lorddulaarsenal

Yep superb mix of physicality and technical security. Add a superstar in the attack and we’re as good as anyone.

Claudius

It’s a few things that he’s done that are great.

build a flexible squad. White, Jesus and Kiwior weren’t in their original hired positions yesterday. Rice and Havertz can also flex depending on needs
account for the opposition and circumstances. Last year City tore through us because we tried to play our standard game.Also adjusted for our injured forwards who couldn’t run. So he kept it compact yesterday.
smarter subs. I like how when Pep changed wingers, Arteta knew to immediately throw on Tomi. Also saw that Jesus had probably run the most, and took him off so we’d be fresh for Doku.

Big Willie

Claudius and took him off so we’d be fresh for Doku.

Doku is one player it wouldn't matter whether we were fresh or not. Guy should be renamed Dribbly McNoscore. Doesn't do anything productive with it ever.

Tactics

He's like a cross between Diego Simeone and Guardiola. The way he had Saka and Jesus playing in our backline reminded me of the 6-3-1 system Atletico were famous for around a decade ago. Adding Klopp's transition game to the way his team plays would complete him as a manager.

Clrnc

Tactics more like he learned that from Moyes Everton. They used to play like this.

Claudius

Big Willie he was funny to watch. What a wasteful tit. But he still needed a lockdown defender, otherwise he could’ve disorganised our whole setup if he was able to wriggle free and connect with the attacking mids

Big Willie

Claudius he was funny to watch. What a wasteful tit. But he still needed a lockdown defender, otherwise he could’ve disorganised our whole setup if he was able to wriggle free and connect with the attacking mids

I'm surprised someone like Guardiola plays him so much, guy literally runs down blind alleys constantly and over and underhits his shots and crosses constantly. I love seeing him starting for them.

Burnwinter

Big Willie He was supposed to be Guardiola's recruitment masterstroke this season, bringing back the one-on-one destroyer just as everyone else was starting to make real progress on juego de posición.

Hasn't quite worked out that way, the quality of player who can beat today's fullbacks one-out again and again and still make good use of the football is vanishingly rare.

Burnwinter

JazzG lorddulaarsenal Players should be wishlisting Arsenal.

If I was a player I’d be harassing my agent to get me here.

Funny what a difference a few years make, not that long ago we were desperate hoping top clubs wouldn't take our top players and here we are now with most top players fancying a move to us. All our current top stars locked in with 3+ years on their contract.

There's a very real financial multiplier in being a good vibes club, with a good atmosphere in the squad and mostly polite young men instead of addicts, perverts and wastemen, as well as getting results on the pitch.

If we can win something, the player retention side of it makes a mini dynasty possible: if Liverpool can't replace Klopp smoothly, and City cop a proper penalty for their frauds. But then, I was saying something like this last season when we faltered …

Claudius

Burnwinter we are retaining our players. We are typically considered to have the most valuable team in England - quality but also third youngest team in league. Havertz and Rice chose us. 2 title challenges. It’s good times. Hope we can get a trophy soon.

Burnwinter

If I were Arteta, then after that performance I'd be asking myself why I'd been looking at the sort of blown fuse football I'd been trying to get out of Arsenal's system since our collapse last April.

Kiwior, Gabriel, Saliba, Rice and Raya were all well off their recent level. There was contagion in it, which reminded me of our aways to City, United and Liverpool in seasons since Arteta took over, and those capitulations to draw with West Ham and Southampton last year too.

I reckon Arteta sometimes ratchets up the intensity a bit too much with these guys during preparation. Their individual attempts at perfection turned the whole into a shambles for a stretch there.

Good news is we did turn it back round fairly well.

Clrnc

I think we really need to change the way we play for Europe. Playing out from the back to lure opponent to press us is to ensure once we break that we will have more space to attack.

But we have seen many times that in Europe we struggle to play out and even when we finally did, we end up passing back. Bayern hardly pressed us today and just sat back but we didn't even try to pass it through them. Once they half press we immediately go backwards or panicked. It's having a counter effect on us. We need to go more direct and that's how Liverpool often ace this competitor rather than over complicate things and concede stupid goals. Pep went a lot more direct in CL after conceding so many stupid goals and kept getting knocked out.

Hope Arteta learns more and we mix it up 9 days later

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