Arteta - one more year and that’s it: Page 39 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Arteta - one more year and that’s it

QuincyAbeyie

RocktheCasbah sure, the reaction to seeing the lineup was emotional - but I was more referring to your opinion a few days before the match. You were very against starting Merino instead of Eze. Of course it's fair to change your mind, I'm just surprised to see the reaction to people who simply didn't change theirs.

RocktheCasbah

QuincyAbeyie I think it's basically as simple as, yes, I wanted Eze to start. Of course I did, he's an exciting footballer. I just understand a couple of days later - or at least I think I do - why Arteta chose a different way.

And people are of course entitled to think whatever they want to about that decision, but I think it's a little unfair to criticise it without allowing for the context of Ode being unfit, Nwaneri being very callow in the role or Eze being in his first week at the club.

CPM

Mirth Merino is not a defensive midfielder, at all. The problem on Sunday was that he is slow, and thus not as helpful when we were trying to win the game by beating the press and then flying out in transition.

Mirth

CPM he's closer to being a defensive midfielder than any kind of attacking midfielder anyway.

RocktheCasbah

Mirth I mean he literally played up front for us for how many months last season? 😃

Tam

RocktheCasbah And people are of course entitled to think whatever they want to about that decision, but I think it's a little unfair to criticise it without allowing for the context of Ode being unfit, Nwaneri being very callow in the role or Eze being in his first week at the club.

Nwaneri being callow in the role and Eze being in his first week are largely issues of Arteta’s own making. It’s his choice to have an 18 year old as Odegaard’s only real creative backup, at least until now/Eze, so he can’t have it both ways.

Eze’s been here a week. It wouldn’t be ideal but he’s here to play. He’s Premier League. He’s had a summer off and a pre-season. There aren’t any fitness reasons that should have precluded him from playing. He has big moments against big teams, including us. Merino is no more accustomed to the creative midfield role vacated by Odegaard than Eze would be. Wanting to be a bit more adventurous in midfield isn’t the same as wanting to throw the shackles off and let Salah have a free run at Raya.

Merino worked up front for a spell because he has good positioning, can read the play, and is clinical when we can get him service. He’s done little, if anything at all, in his time here in midfield to show he can offer that service to others.

RowJimmy

I think the one mistake by Arteta here (and mistakes ≠ cowardice) was waiting a bit too long to bring on subs. I would have liked to see Eze come on at HT or very early in 2nd half, to add some energy and to give Szoboszlai (sp?) a new challenge. I'm not sure what the rules are about substitutions at the moment so the fact that we had to swap out Saliba early on may have made us hold onto substitution opportunities.

Big Willie

RowJimmy I'm not sure what the rules are about substitutions at the moment so the fact that we had to swap out Saliba early on may have made us hold onto substitution opportunities

Nah, actually the opposite. If we brought on anyone during half time that wouldn't count towards the 3 substitution opportunities available. We have 5 subs but can only make them 3 times aside from at half time which is free. Meaning after Saliba we had two more in game sub goes and half time to make the remaining 4 subs. Unless I remember the rule wrong, which I could be.

Panda

Big Willie Yeah that's right.

awooga83

Tam I agree on the Eze point particularly the arguments about not playing him because he's only been here a week don't stack up for me. He may not know our system but he's a well established and experienced player in this league played in plenty of these environments and had played those season. We also want him to be a bit more dynamic anyway and I think he's at a level and age where he could manage playing in this game.

RocktheCasbah

Tam I'm not arguing with you.. I've already said I would have preferred Eze to play. And I certainly agree with the prevailing viewpoint here that, having started with Merino, it would have been better to have seen Eze and/or Odegaard a bit earlier in the game. But, given it took a worldie free kick to beat us, I think the level of angst around the decision making on Sunday is not proportionate.

JazzG

RocktheCasbah I think the level of angst around the decision making on Sunday is not proportionate

Some people have already decided their views on Arteta and it is that mainly that coming out.

Tam

JazzG or….or….people might just be disappointed in how we approached a game that looks as if it could have been our best chance at a good result in years at Anfield.

Your other post about time wasting. Do you not think that’s a sign that Liverpool were trying to kill the game because they feared what we could do to them? They had more to lose from a bad result here than we did. If we’d been a little bit more Arteta’s protagonists then we would have given ourselves a better chance.

My annoyance about the result has actually grown since the game ended. At the time, watching it in a pub with my Liverpool mate, I was strangely more annoyed about how Liverpool snatched three points from Newcastle than from us, given their luck at the end of that game.

Big Willie

JazzG Some people have already decided their views on Arteta's football style and it is that mainly that coming out.

Fixed that for you. The kind of football we produce is honestly quite boring to watch and although most people watch it out of a cult like sense of loyalty its also because it is something to watch and be entertained for 3 hours a week. I think a lot of angst comes from there.

This ended up longer than I originally intended so apologies in advance if you do end up reading past this point.

JazzG Some people have already decided their views on Arteta and it is that mainly that coming out.

But yeah, there is also a bit of this (the unedited version of your post) which is true. A lot of people just don't like the persona he gives of. At least he can be grating to a lot of people. Certainly to the opposition and neutrals, but more than that (because lets face it I don't care about neutrals or opposition fans) he can be grating to us. He doesn't have much charisma during interviews (at least from what we can see, in private he may well be the Spanish MLK inspiring everyone) and as a result doesn't really endear himself to the fans (though I'm not sure he even cares about that). He also comes across like a dictator and disciplinarian but has his favourites and compromises on his non negotiables to those he likes (see Partey) and freezes out those who he doesn't.

I'll be honest, I don't like the guy. I wanted him out for the type of football he was subjecting us to pre 22/23 and the way he treated our players before then resulting in us freezing out so many and destroying any value they may have had. In 22/23 it looked like it may have been all worth it. We competed for the title and did so whilst playing some pretty great football. I still didn't like him, but he won me over with how we played. 2 years on, our football isn't as enjoyable to watch, and we haven't actually won anything to make some of the slogs worth it.

I'm hoping things change with the new players we've brought in and we can release the reigns a little. And it's not only about this game, I'm actually ok with going defensive in big games. But just let the attacking guys on the pitch enjoy themselves more against everyone else and leave the defending to the defenders for the most part.

I tolerated the Arsene years because he gave us good football. It's only when he started playing some shitty stuff and buying shitty players for large amounts and turning to experience (which was shitty experience) all the time rather than having faith in the young and hungry players that I started turning. Towards the end he was giving us conservative selections and football without getting the results and it was over for me. Not to mention his attitude shift from charismatic winner to just charismatic to combative, whinging Mourinho clone who lacked charisma or accountability. Ultimately he had to go.

In football you watch (at least I do) to either be entertained or to win things. At least that's the case when your supporting one of the top teams, otherwise why as children did we pick Arsenal/United/Liverpool whatever and not Leyton Orient or the like? Its what attracted us to football in the first place and what will continue to attract us. Its always either the hope of winning things or the hope of being entertained whilst watching the beutiful game. In an ideal world, having both. But I'd settle for one at a time.

Qwiss

JazzG bullshit. I support Arteta but that doesn't mean I'll spend the week saying "I hope it's not Merino" then flip when it happens because our great leader cannot ever be criticised.

jones

JazzG how many more years of the same shit before you can decide on your view on him?

Panda

Tam My annoyance about the result has actually grown since the game ended. At the time, watching it in a pub with my Liverpool mate, I was strangely more annoyed about how Liverpool snatched three points from Newcastle than from us, given their luck at the end of that game.

Probably because Newcastle gave it a right go with 10 men and got back into it and had earnt a point at least and didn't deserve the loss whereas we were too passive probably deserved a draw but no more so easier to accept that our performance was only worthy of a point and that we ended up with 0.

JazzG

Tam I think our fans are living in cuckoo land if they realistically think we should be going to their stadium and taking them apart especially when you consider the calibre of players we had out going into this game and we lose Saliba within a few minutes. Yes there were certain things we should have done differently, I wouldn't have started Martinelli over Eze but if we walk away from that game with a draw the reaction on here would be very different. 99 time out of a 100 that game finishes in a draw, got beat by a freak of a freekick not because Liverpool were better than us. Liverpool and Arsenal went into that game showing each other respect and knowing each team could hurt them

Big Willie The main reason he grates opposition fans is because of what we are today. We've gone from the team that gets battered, opposition is giving us a pat on the head saying well played better luck next time to the team that is probably one of the most feared in the league and teams hate playing us.

You've also summed up what I said, you wanted him out in 22/23 so you've decided that is going to be your stance and you don't want to change from that,. Which is fine, a lot of people once they have made their minds up don't really want to change their view. They also will always find ways to circle back to that view after a bad game...

The main reason I think fans tolerated Arsene Wenger was because of the trophies he won us and how he transformed us as a club not because of the entertaining football. With that entertaining football we also had were regularly humiliated, I remember exactly what the Arsenal fans were saying then. Wasn't much of this at least we play football the right way talk then. I was one of those who stuck with Wenger right until the end, if I can see a man doing his best for the club I will stick by him to the end.

jones Oh poor fucking us, having to deal with finishing 2nd. God there should be riots outside the Emirates....

awooga83

Great post and I think I share many of the sentiment you articulated about Arteta. Also that is you okay this way you have to win to make it tolerable otherwise it is not particularly fun is not what I look for in the football I enjoy.

Also on the formed a view on Arteta, we are 5 years into his management I think it's pretty normal to have used that time to make a judgement on what you think of his approach and it's resulting ability to delivery actual success.

RocktheCasbah

I think this sums up how I feel really

https://arseblog.com/2025/09/handbrake-off/

flobaba

What was this proverbial hand brake? And did Wenger's teams ever really play with the hand brake off after he started using that phrase?

flobaba

flobaba where I was going with this thought before I had to report in to real life - our handbrake in the Wenger years was linked to a lack of confidence, and inherent uncertainty. Possibly due to the fact that we had a shitty team in general, and even worse, a shittier defence.

Today we have the opposite. A very strong defence, and very good midfield and offensive options. So why the timidity? The justification of Eze being new for me isn't good enough, after all when we got desperate we weren't shy about throwing on a 15 year old at Anfield. Starting Merino is "reasonable", but it sends a message. And that message is not "we are going for it". It's "we are here to manage the game".

Qwiss

I feel like the discussion around this match has gone sideways. I don't think we sat deep and played a defensive game, does anyone think that? For the first half it was the other way around. Liverpool were very deep, we had 6 shots to their 2, 5 of ours from inside the box and both of their from outside. We dominated that half. What was lacking was the right players to make the most of it. We ended up doing a lot of passing around in front of their defence and the attack was too disjointed. This came from not having a real link play in attack. That can be one of the wingers or the CAM. I don't think playing Merino was a particularly "defensive" selection as he doesn't defend that much, nor was he very technically secure, nor a regularly available passing option. He just guffed about a lot. Now I never wanted him to start but I'll admit you'd still expect more than he showed, so it ended up being an off match for him anyway. However why doesn't Arteta accept that at half time and make a change then? Its a weird tactical decision anyway, it clearly wasn't working and yet he didn't change it. People keep talking about the fine margins in this match but when and how you use your subs is the sort of marginal decision a top manager gets right. Arteta has an awful habit of waiting too long to change the game even when its obvious things aren't really working.

I think the idea that we are too negative in how we set up is incorrect. I think we do we favour defence over attack but I think that has worked as a strong basis for our relative success in the last 3 seasons. However you have to get the details right too and this was a game where Arteta got the details wrong. We've seen it so many times where you fail make your dominance amount to anything, then the opposition tweak it to react and you pay the price for it. Over the course of the match Slot out coached Arteta. I think Slot went into the match with a very negative mindset, afraid of letting us in behind, happy with a draw but over the course of it he made better adjustments and ultimately got them back in the game and got his reward for it, albeit with a big slice of luck.

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

Qwiss We ended up doing a lot of passing around in front of their defence and the attack was too disjointed. This came from not having a real link play in attack.

This is what Arteta needs to show he can fix. Because I've seen us attack like that almost never under him. It's as if our players are strangers to each other as soon as we get the ball in front of the D and beyond. Like, what the fuck are we working on in training other than crossing and cut backs?

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