What and when should Arteta have done something differently?

MistaT

Let’s hear it….when did the ship sail?

Was there a single moment or decision that could have prevented this? Or a series of decisions?

goon

Hard to say, losing Tomi and Saliba definitely a huge season defining blow.

But I’d say his in game management against Pool and West Ham left a lot to be desired.

MistaT

goon — not sure if mods can amend the poll, but if so adding “In game management vs Liverpool/West Ham” would be appreciated

QuincyAbeyie

Let's put it this way. If Trossard got injured after that streak where we won all 7 games in a row where he started and was our most productive player (G+A) instead of being benched after that for these last four games (0W3D1L), our results would've probably been blamed on losing him as much as Saliba.

invisibleman18

If only Tomiyasu having injury issues could have been foreseen somehow.... did we do a medical when he was signed?
Trossard has been pretty much our best player since signing but we won't now put him on the pitch until it's too late.

Clrnc

Tomi was basically freak injury. Slipped on the pitch.

I think we should have rotated to full fringe for Sporting instead of playing the full team.

But then again that has no impact on our league in general. It's the lack of rotation and bad in game management in our last 3 draws that's the problem.

Lukazan

I suppose (factoring in hindsight) I can forgive him not starting Trossard at Liverpool but not starting him in any of these past 3 I can't let slide. Inexcusable.

goon

Lukazan we scored 7 goals in the last 3 before tonight, I don’t think goals or attacking player were really the problem.

The issue is the midfield. Partey, Xhaka, Vieira and to a lesser extent Odegaard have folded at completely the wrong time. I don’t know if he would have made a massive difference, but I can’t help but feel Jorginho would have added some presence and security.

lorddulaarsenal

Moving forward we must get Saliba, Nelson and Saka to sign new contracts

naz

I picked " starting players vs sporting " just because it was so obviously a stupid decision.

Fundamentally though, I think his inability to use his bench effectively and tactically adjust to their shortcomings was probably a core issue. Saka can't play fifty games in a row. His alternative isn't going to be as good as him too but that's why you adjust. It's like forcing a square into a triangle hole. We lost Saliba and fell apart defensively. We also lost Saka (mentally) and fell apart because of it. They might be linked too.

Sicario2 - Tier 1

The moment all our players and manager got found out so the last 4 games. Are we imposters? A team and manager is judged during adversity and we have fucking failed.

We are very guilty of overrating majority of them to be honest. Saka needs to be dropped for next game.

Even Gabriel without Saliba looks like fucking Rob Holding.

The way this season has ended negates all the good work we have done to get to this point. Might as well be another 2008/2009 or 2018/2019. No BS ‘historic season’ for me.

Arteta will be under HUGE pressure next season and rightly so. His stock has fallen quite badly since Liverpool away. I think he is very naive.

There is one thing losing title to Man City if they fucking earnt it but not how we crumbled last 2 weeks. We gave up before a ball has been kicked today. Today we looked like a league 2 side going up against a top 4 side in the FA Cup.

Inexcusable end to the season.

P.S: we haven’t won an away game since we put that bloody clock in the dressing room v Fulham away. Celebrating nothing too soon.

Gazza M

I voted for the sporting starting 11 decision, but not deploying trossard more often was a big one as well. jesus come back but ultimately was a let down, and that should've been picked sooner

RocktheCasbah

I think the lack of substitutions is the one for me. You could say Sporting was the one, but if Arteta knew he'd lose two of our first choice five defenders to season enders within minutes, he'd obviously not have done it.

The bench work is more easy to look at - if he'd been less scared at Liverpool we probably win, more proactive against Southampton we might well have won and even tonight, when he made them, the subs made a positive difference (I'm leaving West Ham out cos I didn't see most of the game).

And the reduced use of Trossard, as Gazza says. He's brilliant.

Doc

People get to hung up about specific moments during the season when the overall is most relevant.. anyway, went for not adapting the formation (+in game management) from the options above, its more wider than that though

1- We haven't manged to keep our A game going throughout the season. We all know that it requires high calibre players... That's a squad issue, you can say we haven't rotated enough but personally don't think the quality is there to keep it up. We need a few more top players to be able to do that. Hopefully the summer fixes it because we should absolutely try to play that way as much as possible.. You just have to listen to the opposition teams talk about us, we have been fucking horrible to play against for most of the season..

2- Its impossible to impose it all the time though and that leads to the next point that we don't have a plan B. I don't mean setting up a totally different way, but being able to adapt in game... Arteta needs to figure that out, we need to learn how to concede more of the pitch without the game plan going to shit leaving holes everywhere, and also be able to switch between the 2 in game. This is going to be a big issue in CL I feel.

3- Young Squad - Nerves have kicked in during the final stretch and the inexperience of the players have not been able to get us through it..

Coombs

Subs are too late in every single game, Tross should never have been dropped, and Jorginho was a stupid and pointless signing - needed a real midfielder to see us through the inevitable dip.

Nelson/ESR could have been used more, but I'm not convinced they'd have altered results dramatically.

Not going to blame Arteta for Saliba.

Qwiss

Coombs think that basically sums up what I think too. Should have more rotation, more early subs and when you have a couple of players like Jesus/Trossard or both sides for the full backs that are relatively close in level just swap them around more. Make it common place and after a few weeks you don't lose anything in terms of rhythm or confidence. We are in the CL next season and that needs to be how the squad works, especially given the lack of tactical flexibility.

And yeah Jorginho was the wrong purchase. We should have had a better back up plan who could cover for Xhaka as well as Partey.

Lukazan

goon Trossard is one of those invaluable sort of players that is able to give a 7/10 (atleast) performance in a number of positions. In saying we misused Trossard I'm not really talking about in an attacking sense or position, he can play midfield and should have last week instead of Vieira. He passes the ball well and is able to hold it under pressure, two things we've seemed desperately incapable of doing for periods in our last handful of matches. Pretty much every time he's been introduced we've looked better for it.

Agree on Jorginho though, he absolutely should have come on instead of Kiwior against Liverpool too, imo.

MistaT

In the absence of Saliba, it does feel like a Partey-Jorginho pairing may have enabled us to player further upfield and still control games.

Don’t think it would have come at much of a loss with Xhaka off form. Though perhaps a 4-2-3-1 (Ode or Trossard central) would have some unforeseen consequences I’m not wise to.

Burnwinter

It's been a good season by any reasonable measure.

Problems?

Signings, inflexible selection, inflexible preparation, inflexible on match days, motivation and leadership.

I don't think there's any one of these alone that's the remedy, but if you manage to sign that dynamic starting midfielder in January (a difficult one to see the priority of at the time, arguably), and you're giving the second-stringers a proper run in the Europa League, and you loosen up on match days and imagine different possibilities for how things might go with the players, and you don't stink the joint up with whatever corrosive motivational stuff seems to have been happening, then we're still in a better position to win the league by maybe 6 points.

Fine margins. He's been doing a good job.

Gurgen

Yeah cut the drama. It’s a miracle we’ve been competing with the oil state for this long. We’ve overachieved hugely. Be grateful for what we have. If someone told you start of the season we’d be top after 31 games you’d have bitten their arm off.

Claudius

There’s no pressure now and a week before our next game.
I would try something completely different. Go 3 at the back. 5 midfield, and two forwards. It will take a few games to settle but would be better than continuing on this path