"The journey continues" - Mikel signs extension until 2025: Page 50 - The Arsenal discussion community: One More in the Tolly

"The journey continues" - Mikel signs extension until 2025

Don Pacifico

One thought that occurred to me the other day is that our chance creation was so lacking and Arteta was not unfairly criticised for being a defensive manager.

Seems night and day now. Long may that continue (and also we can still defend).

Clrnc

Don Pacifico Agree.

Like you said, night and day. Everything that he is rightly criticized for he has turned it around. Not only turned it around, but 180 degree transformation.

I mentioned back in October that the difference in players is literally only Zinchenko, Jesus and Saliba from last season. Now Jesus is out, there's only 2 different players at yet... wow.

Big Willie

Clrnc and Partey, who was missing most of his time at the club. And White at RB. And Xhaka at CAM and Martinelli taking it up a notch. Either way, regardless of personnel, I think our focus has shifted in any case to be more on the front foot. We play with much more purpose these days rather than trying to win the margins we seemed to be playing for last year which.

Win/lose or draw, and as disappointing as it will be if we don't win it this year, I think most of us would be pretty happy watching us week in week out with the same purpose and attacking intent regardless of the end result, although these performances usually come hand in hand with results.

Gazza M

goon you're right but I think it's down to not having extremely clinical finishers in our front 3. the best counter attacking sides in recent years have been spurs and liverpool, and the common thread was that they had guys in the front 3 that were lights out in front of goal (kane, son, salah, mane etc). I'm still salty about not getting mudryk because he looked like a guy that would add a similar type of cut and thrust on the break as the mane/salah types. seems like something edteta are cognisant of

Claudius

Let’s also be cognisant of how deadly Eddie is. He hasn’t played a ton, but he has the 2nd highest goals per 90 in the league after the cyborg. People have lamented his lack of build up, but when you score like this and the offense functions, doesn’t matter

Gurgen

That is a fair point, with these numbers nothing else really matters.

goon

His build-up is fine anyway, it's just not Jesus level. But what you lose in build-up you gain in goal threat.

JazzG

Jesus definitely helps knit things better up top but fact is he wasn't scoring as many as he should. Eddie already has nearly as many goals as Jesus despite only starting last few games.

Gazza M

an arsenal man

Clrnc

Full clip here

James

I think his final post-match interview as a player confirmed that more than anything.

Burnwinter

James

Rohit

His farewell at the Emirates was brilliant too. You could tell he was touched by it.

lorddulaarsenal

It did. Similar to Ramsey’s which surprised me a bit

James

Burnwinter Robot must’ve malfunctioned that day ey.

Clrnc

Burnwinter Just got annoyed again then we lost the league to Leicester and didn't give Arteta a grand farewell.

Burnwinter

Just goes to show there's a fair bit going on there, doesn't it?

Still reckon he has a few daddy issues from a couple of interviews he gave about growing up. Never mind if his Oedipus complex brings us silverware!

Burnwinter

Clrnc I was at Biggus levels of despising Wenger by that stage, we robbed ourselves that season. Respect to Wenger anyway, but it's a healing process at the moment supporting a version of Arsenal that seems to want to win.

RocktheCasbah

That was the season we got Rashforded wasn't it? I still remember Asa tweeting that he'd left the subsequent Swansea game early and that the queue for the tube was already massive.

Great to watch that interview and be reminded of how much Arsenal means to Mikel Arteta, It seems to me, he's on a mission to win the Premier League he didn't manage as a player - and I am here for that.

JazzG

The moment he came to us as a player he added so much stability, after that 8-2 we were an absolute shambles.

Maybe it isn't coincidence that the summer he left as a player we haven't finished Top 4 again. He was a massive influence on the pitch but also off the pitch. I remember him talking about helping new players settle in and his wife would befriend their partner to help them out as well. The players looked up to him and on the pitch he added a calmness and control to our play. We should have signed him a few years earlier because not that long after you could see his legs were going.

Big Willie

JazzG Maybe it isn't coincidence that the summer he left as a player we haven't finished Top 4 again.

Also the same summer Xhaka came in, no? Coincidences, coincidences.

RocktheCasbah

JazzG he moment he came to us as a player he added so much stability, after that 8-2 we were an absolute shambles.

Absolutely. @James and I suffered through that humiliation together - well, up to 6-1 we did...

A couple of months later, @lorddulaarsenal sat through a Mikel Arteta masterclass of control at home to West Brom, went to the pub afterwards... and then he disappeared into marriage and parenthood, never to be seen again!

Burnwinter

JazzG The moment he came to us as a player he added so much stability

We'd had wantaway Cesc, clattered Jack, turbo-boost Ramsey, vague-passing Song, crock Diaby, limp-ankled Denilson running round midfield for years along with quite a few other tyros like Frimpong, Coquelin etc.

He didn't set the place on fire, but just with basics like excellent positioning and reading of the play, Arteta at the time felt like the first seasoned professional without major personal or footballing defects we'd had in midfield for years.

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