Mikel Arteta: Page 4 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One more in the Tolly

Mikel Arteta

Claudius

lorddulaarsenal with Pep and Klopp gone, he’s best in England. He can go on a run now. He can coach any approach to the game - ultra defensive or very attacking. On the ground, set pieces. His team is a chameleon.

Sicario2

Claudius true but we need to make sure we make the necessary reinforcements in the summer.

Must NOT be complacent.

Coombs

daredevil you don't see the contradiction in that? You judge. Everyone does. It's all we've got.

daredevil

Coombs

I try not to pay too much attention to him as a person. Only the football and results.

Burnwinter

Coombs Yep. Judge early and judge often, judge judges and judge yourself. All good.

Sicario2

daredevil we could have a lot worst human beings managing us. Arteta is a family man and a workhorse who puts his heart and soul into Arsenal.

Qwiss

Sicario2 a football club, I think, is like a shark, you know? It has to constantly move forward or it dies.

JazzG

I'm so proud of Arteta, you can see the guy gave everything for this. He made mistakes along the way but he is allowed to make mistakes, he is 44 year old and this is his first senior jobs. Some things only come with experience and he has to pass through these difficult and challenging times to gain that experience. He came in when this club on and off the pitch was a shambles, he took difficult unpopular decisions and most importantly reconnected the fans to the club. Our relationship with the club had become toxic, before the club could succeed he needed rebuild that trust.

Sicario2 Anyway, next season he will be a lot more relaxed and our football will be better (but we must not lose our edge).

Interesting point, a few years back we were the most entertaining team in the league. As the pressure on the manager and club got more intense the football quality dropped. With the pressure lifted hopefully we can find a better balance, be more fluent and fluid in our football but remain resilient.

banduan

Coombs But the reason he always convinces players is because he is himself convincing

It's because he is himself convinced. As you've implied, this gentleman doth drinketh the Kool Aid house dry.

Bernard Woolley

Upon reflection, I'd give him a little more credit than I have historically. In 3 seasons (not counting 2019/20 when he had half the season), he got us into the mix and should have won the league in his 4th season - that would have been an unbelievable outcome for a first-time manager from the mess the squad was in when he joined. Last year was an understandable blip. The journey has been quite reasonable, even if bankrolled by a lot of Walmart money.

Claudius

Journey has been impressive. If we achieved Liverpool levels of health in that first season, even the league. The second season, I can’t fault him. Arsenal will likely never again go on a run like we did that second half of the season when we got 49 points with 49 goals for and 13 against. This season, Liverpool got 65 points the whole season. So this could easily be our 2nd or 3rd trophy. Tight margins amongst Poo, City and Arsenal these last few years

Burnwinter

Claudius So this could easily be our 2nd or 3rd trophy

Or we could very easily have none.

Asterix I spouted some nonsense earlier about whether he could instill the winning mentality in the squad or not.

Looks like some of our players instilled a winning mentality in Arteta too. The blokes who've been on most of the journey with him such as Saka and Ødegaard and Gabriel and Martinelli, as well as the key entrants like Rice and Trossard, or the fallen soldiers like White … it's good fortune when hard work at something very difficult actually pays off. We've had huge efforts put in from all sides to get here.

Asterix

I spouted some nonsense earlier about whether he could instill the winning mentality in the squad or not.

So glad he did. Even if we were not that pleasant on the eye in the last half of the season, none of that mattered so long as we won the title, and we did.

I really believe having that off our backs will see us play with a some more freedom next season. Sometimes. I still love our unbelievable defence. Arteta will grow and mature as a manager. I'm really so excited for next season already.

Klaus

Burnwinter Don't discount the effect of signing people like Hincapie and Gyökeres who knows what it's like to win too. We have added people who are comfortable with the pressure of a title race and are used to carrying a team and coming out on top. I think it was Seedorf who said that the trick to winning was to do it once and then it's much easier when you already know how. There was a lot of nerves this season that I think will be better kept in check next year. Mentality is something you build through overcoming hardship.

Bernard Woolley

Fully agree. Kudos to Arteta, Berta, Edu (to whatever extent he had a mind of his own) and the Kroenkes for focusing on bringing in players with that mentality into the team. I love how Arteta talks about his role as equipping the players to maximize their likelihood of winning given the available resources and constraints. It's such a lovely summary of the role of a coach / manager.

awooga83

I agree with the point about Partey and non negotiables it's impossible to ignore that aspect and what it means for his supposed standards. What aspect is hard to shake but on the football side he delivered a title although it's an odd one because I think the title was there this year the rivals just weren't at it so we absolutely should have won this title in my view.

But he got the team over the line and I wasn't convinced that he would get us there so massive props for delivering that. I'm still am not sure if this can achieve repeatable results but he's delivered a title he's going to determine his future and that's what winning will always allow you to do.

RocktheCasbah

awooga83 I remember you talking about the 84 and 89 points seasons as potential outliers, given they were preceded by 68 points and followed by 76. You surely have to acknowledge now that actually Arteta's baseline is mid 80s. And if we're putting up mid 80s points tallies, in this Premier League era, we're going to be in the title conversation on a regular basis.

awooga83

RocktheCasbah yeah that's fair although I do think this City does like a level below but maybe that will be the level now in the league a lot more dropped points at the top which will mean that points total can potentially carry you over. Next season will be the one to look at can we hold that after so many seasons and do any rivals emerge who push it higher. The 89 points season I think is probably is topped out but the range is consistent.

Burnwinter

Klaus Don't discount the effect of signing people

You're absolutely right.

Nah I'm joking of course. Gyökeres was a mentality miracle this season. You could see the hard-working trajectory from Coventry in his combination of humility and savagery. Never looked too shaken up under ridiculous pressure.

RocktheCasbah

awooga83 Will be interesting to see how City come back - I guess it might mean more outlay...

But when you look at them, they went 84, 91, before crashing to 71 points last season and then 78 this. So is mid 70's City's new normal?

What I think is interesting about City this season is that in the second half of the season, their highest points per game average was 2.14 (match 36) - putting them on 81 points, but they obviously then drew their next game to go to 2.11/ 80 points. They were generally between 2.00-2.11 points throughout the second half of the season.

Not sure if I've said it before, but I've had a theory about the 23/24 season and the intensity of that run in, with both teams having to win every week. I think it broke both teams a little, with Liverpool stepping into the gap last season. But Arsenal were young enough to come again, having added some depth. City have aged out a little bit - to lose Gudogan, De Bruyne and now Bernardo - these are some big shoes to fill.

daredevil

RocktheCasbah

City were a team of two halves. I would also pay more attention to their points tally in the second half of the season. They lost points at the start of the season with James Trafford and then went and bought Donarumma, Guehi and Semenyo.

It's a young side and they will be our biggest challengers again. Doku certainly turning into an end product player would not be a good outcome. The positives are that Silva is leaving and I can't see them finding a player of his talent on the market. Hopefully, Rodri goes as well.

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