Decaf wrote:
I'd like to see a decent run of games with Partey in the side and Aubameyang (whose current lack of impact is worrying) in the middle
I’m a little less willing to blame Aubameyang’s poor form on the midfielders not giving him service. Is he making himself available to receive the ball in dangerous positions? Not as far as I can see. Indeed, Saka did put him through on goal yesterday and he fluffed it.
I noticed Hazuki (I think, if it wasn’t apologies to him and whoever it was) mentioned Aubameyang’s form dipped dramatically around the time he renewed his contract. Look, myself I’m confident that’s no more than a coincidence and his poor form since isn’t linked to the contract renewal. But on other Arsenal chat rooms I’ve seen more suspicious suggestions that he was previously playing for a huge pay rise and once he got it, he’s now doing an Özil. He is, after all, the same sort of age as Özil at only eight months younger.
I’ve also seen the same suggestion about Willian’s form, another player around the same sort of age at two months older than Özil, so nine months older than Aubameyang (the slight discrepancy in my comparison of Özil and Aubameyang’s ages in the last paragraph is due to them being born at different times in the month). Bloody excellent at Chelsea, so far bloody useless at Arsenal. I suppose flying out to the Middle East for a posh steak and chips will raise suspicions about his attitude but as I’ve said before, Willian’s technical ability will not have changed one iota from when he was a Chelsea player a few months ago. But gooner7 has claimed he’s in retirement mode at Arsenal. I hope he isn’t, and I don’t think Aubameyang is either, though I do accept Özil probably is.
Myself, I still think the most likely explanation for our form is not having loads of rubbish players. We simply don’t, that suggestion is laughable fiction in my humble opinion. I reckon it’s more likely linked to the style of play Arteta has adopted. I can understand why he did it too. We’ve stopped conceding so many goals despite the Villa game. He needs to be given the time to link a strong defence with a more potent attack.
The key for me is telling players to start playing with more energy and getting the ball forward quicker. So to play more like Liverpool than Manchester City although I accept Arteta worked under, and was presumably greatly influenced, by Guardiola and not Klopp. I have to admit, I never really enjoyed watching Barcelona under Guardiola. Wonderful players, a brilliant side - I just didn’t enjoy watching them. I don’t find this short passing (tiki-taka as it’s commonly called) style of football entertaining, and it was Wenger’s adoption of it with inferior players to Barcelona (we never had Messi, Iniesta and Xavi) that really turned me against him.
Ironically our lack of energy is where I firmly believe Guendouzi has been a serious loss because getting all over the pitch is exactly what he did. Yet some people took it upon themselves to criticise him for it as a lack of positional sense or discipline. Personally, as people know I’m a big Guendouzi fan and I think he could have been coached to play with more discipline while still giving us more energy in midfield. Sadly, Arteta doesn’t like him so realistically, Guendouzi has played his last game for the club. But if our midfield is over-static, I reckon he’s being missed.