I think this is probably an area that is illogical and they should have addressed. Our midfield is the problem in this team and cannot move the ball up the pitch quick enough. Guendouzi is better than Xhaka but so was Torreira in my opinion who seemed a player perfect for a game like yesterday which was a fight. Quite simply Torreira, Ramsey and Guendouzi have been sold and only one of their replacements are of similar quality or better than the player who left. If you take a step back you have to acknowledge that’s naive and a massive mistake

Hey window lickers, nothing Leno could do about the first goal. It’s a worldie you just need to hold yours hands up. Get a grip folks

We are exactly where we deserve to be. Of all the teams above us in the league it’s probably only Newcastle who have an attack weaker than ours. And in Callum Wilson they have a striker who individually would still walk in to our side.
I look at the teams below us, Brighton, Fulham, West Brom, Burnley, Sheff Utd and think that’s about right as those are the only teams worse than us in the league. And yet every single one of them would give us a tough game.

Isn’t that just pointless though? If you pre pick the team for thursdays and sundays irrespective of any sort of form or nod to tactics and opposition that’s crazy.

So you say but others think differently. His positioning was the problem. He was in no mans land.

The mistake was playing him as the attacking midfielder. If he'd played defensive mid he would have used his brains more and his legs less.

If Brighton win tonight we’ll drop below them to 16th. They’re three points behind with a game in hand, but already have a better goal difference. This is Brighton’s game in hand and a win by any score at all will put them above Arsenal.

They’re playing Southampton who are having a good season. So Southampton probably start favourites. But as Brighton are at home it’s hardly impossible for them to win.

My summary of our offensive ability right now:
We struggle to look a threat from set pieces
We lack anyone good enough in the air to make crossing tactics work
We don’t get enough bodies in the box to make crossing tactics work
We don’t have consistently good enough delivery to make crossing tactics work
We don’t have forwards who make runs in behind
We don’t have midfielders who see the passes quickly enough to play balls in behind
We lack pace all over the pitch which negates any counter attacking opportunities
We lack players who can dribble and beat a man
We lack anyone at all who can unlock a defence with cute 1 touch football and triangles
We start most of our attacking moves 70 yards from goal
Too many players are afraid or unable to play a riskier pass to make something happen

It’s a 25 yard screamer right in the corner. He’s not the problem but whilst we are not creating anything people micro analyse every other aspect of our failures

Get a grip

Don’t agree on the forwards and wingers. They are good players many who have proved themselves on countless occasions and of course Aubameyangs career has been solely about getting in behind.

It’s the midfield. Can’t create chances and move us up the pitch quick enough and as a consequence we don’t get our wide players and strikers in the space to see them operate well. We have no through ball just crosses.

We need 3 new midfield players. It must soul destroying for Lacazette and Aubameyang to have to endure a barrage of abuse about their performances. Neither player had a clear and obvious strike on goal they missed yesterday.

Ornstein saying Szoboszlai's release clause of 25 million euros must be paid in full and Salzburg have a 20% sell on fee as part of the clause.
We're crying out for a player like him - but it is pointless us buying individuals and putting them in this team and expecting them to carry us. We have to have multiple threats.
Take Partey for instances, head and shoulders above our midfield, everyone saw how he dominated the game from back to front against Man U - Leicester cut off any passing channels in to him and Spurs sat Lo Celso on him all first half. Teams have also worked out Aubameyang is the only goal threat. If you play Arsenal you just cover the 3 best players and you nullify the whole team.

I have said thi several times but I am not convinced by Arteta. He does not have the greatest squad in the world but he does hve one that should be capable of higher than 15th. I am puzzled by his team selections, his tactics and his substitutions. His man management is also a concern with some players seemingly subject to preferential treatment.

He is rookie manager who is basically learning on the job. He talks the talk but is finding it inceasingly difficult to walk the walk. His FA cup win gave him some breathing space but I am just not sure. He might be a fantastic manager in 5 years time but can we really wait that long?.

Personally, I'd try for Poch or Allegri before they end up elsewhere.

I don't see Aubameyang or any of our forward players make runs in behind, or in to the channels. Part of that may be because they know no one is good enough to see or play that pass to them so they think what is the point?
As for the wingers, when was the last time we saw an Arsenal winger pick the ball up about 40 yards out and just drive straight at the full back? The standard play is to slowly amble about 10-15 yards forward, just to the point where the defender decides he's backed off enough and will no go and engage and the ball goes backwards or square

So assuming Partey is out until after Xmas, what is the midfield Arteta picks for the next 2 home games.
Against Burnley you'd expect them to sit deep and defend the box
Against Southampton you'd expect them to press high and play high energy high tempo football

If we were Liverpool or City you'd just pick your best midfield because the midfield you have is better than both of the midfield's your facing and the players you have can combine high tempo, work ethic, pace and creativity. However we are certainly not that and we have a midfield with huge flaws and players who are going to be suited to one game and not the next which is why we shouldnt be picking the same midfield against each side.

The Southampton game is easier to pick in my mind, a high press means an open game if we can pass the ball quickly enough and we must match their high tempo so in the current team you have to go for Elneny and AMN in central midfield

Against Burnley we need players who might be able to create. I really don't want it to have to be a midfield of Xhaka and Ceballos. I we can't keep hanging Willock out to dry in a No.10 position. In my view in that game you need a disciplined sitter (lets say that is Elneny) and then 2 No.8s. That could be Saka and Willock, or you could try Willian in that role - not that he deserves it - or if Smith-Rowe is up to fitness Id honestly give him a go.

Ring up Graeme Souness and tell him plus a number of other newspaper ratings which mentioned it. I suppose you don’t agree with football London who I think also asked how he was beaten on the near post by Kane. You can defend him all you like but you are wrong again.

I concur

We're just *%^@. It's that simple. Bad recruitment, not just on the pitch but further up the chain and an owner who really doesn't see us as anything other than an asset, albeit one that will be losing value.

If Arteta was to go, who makes the next choice? Edu? Vinai? Josh? Anyone in that list you'd back to get it right? I think we've thrown everything in with Arteta, there's not even anyone in his backroom staff you'd fancy to step in as a caretaker is there? I say stick with him, back him in the upcoming window and see where we are after that. Whilst not really comparing it's worth noting that Fergie was one game from the sack at Utd and his first four league finishes were 11th, 2nd, 12th, 13th. Different era, yes but sometimes patience plays out to your advantage, other times it doesn't. I think we have to be patient because if nothing else, we just don't have the nouse at the club to do anything else.

Ps. Allegri wouldn't come to Arsenal. He wants a ready-made project he can step into. We're too much of a basket case currently.

I'd love us to sign the RB Lamptey from Brighton. Young, fast, bundles of energy and quality as well. Perfect for a side trying to rebuild.

You are probably right Darren but sometimes guys with massive egos think they can make a once great team great again.

Poch might not be willing to come either with his Spuds connections but you never know until you try.

I just think Arteta is a rookie who needs to cut his managerial teeth at a lesser club. His ideas and philosophy sound great but implementing them is another thing entirely.

I know I will probably get laughed at but if we stick with him then see if we can get Wenger in as his no 2. His experience coupled with Arteta's ideas might be the perfect combination (or not)

Think about it Wenger's ego is too big to accept a no.2 role so I'd best shut up.

Willian scored 11 goals for all competitions for chelsea last season and also provided 9 assists not to mention has 70 caps for Brazil. Yet he’s not good enough for us ? How do you explain that? I don’t believe it. Lacazette and Aubameyang who have both scored goals all their lives are now not up to it? I don’t believe it

We are a car with no engine and everybody is criticising the wheels and brakes for it not moving.

Do people believe Pochettino would touch arsenal with a barge pole

Allegri already turned us down because he said we would need a 150 million investment to compete.

Darren’s right we are a basket case right now and our fans are refusing to believe reality

To be fair all the reports suggested Guendouzi had a real attitude problem and was disruptive.

I'm with you on that, but at the moment none of them are producing for us. Strikers aren't making runs and wingers aren't dribbling at defenders. Of course we've seen them do it before and for other clubs so why aren't they doing it for us. The whole system is broken, and I agree with you it stems from midfield but everyone needs to take responsibility.
We need to look at every aspect of our play because I don't think you can just fix one aspect of what I listed above, each one of those is the cause and the result of another. It can become a bit chicken and egg. ie: Midfielder looks up and sees space behind but no one making a run, so keeps it safe. Striker has already made the run but midfielder was too slow to see it, so he doesn't bother making the run again because he has no faith in midfielder finding him.
Of course the midfield is the main thing to fix, but if we had Salah/Mané/Firminho as our front 3 they would be a lot more movement and incisiveness.

To be honest I think we can dress up any sort of tactics or style but for me it mostly boils down to a lack of quality right through the team. I also think you could take a number of the individual players and put them in a better team and they'd look quite at home and far from the weak link.

Yep, no chance of Poch or Allegri. But we do need to take a leaf from Poch's book when it comes to signings. There was no way Spurs could go for £50m players on £200k a week, it would have been a ridiculously high risk strategy to try to take them in to the top 4 and beyond. Instead these are the players Poch signed:
Alderweireld £14m, Davies £11m, Alli £5m, Trippier £4m, Wanyama £12m, Sissoko £30m - all those from english clubs, usually the best player at each of the clubs they were sold from and they moved up a step, and all at the right age bracket
Dier £4m, Son £27m, Aurier £22m, Moura £25m added as well from foreign clubs

Now not all of those were huge successes, but that is 10 players for under £150m. Build that around the few top class players they already had, Lloris, Vertonghen, Kane, Eriksen and a very effective team was created.

We need to be a lot smarter in how we shop for players. We need a cash injection I really can't see anyway out of this other than the transfer market, we have countless players who have failed time and time again, yes they might be able to collectively raise themselves for a one of game but so can the players of nearly every club in the prem - we've become a team who can occasionally spring a surprise but then return the normal for 5 games.
I look around the prem and there are so many players who would be better than what we have, not even including the players from the big 5 teams. I would happily swap our entire squad with Leicester's right now, even if that meant losing the potential of players like Saka and Martinelli, because you look through Leicester's squad and there is an identity and a clear succession plan. Soyuncu was brilliant last year they could sell him for double the money and have Fofana ready to step up. Justin has come in at full back and done well to replace £50m Chilwell, and they signed Castagne in the summer for half the Chilwell money. In midfield, Maddison, Tielemans, Ndidi are all worth double what they were signed for. You can see a sustainable future for that team

I accept Arteta has inherited a poorly constructed squad but its part of the job description to craft a team out of it ASAP. If his efforts are producing a team which is deteriorating alarmingly, then how bad does it have to get before you try another manager?

Your right, The team and squad isn’t good enough.

Spurs had Moura, bale and winks on the bench. 3 players who can make an impact. What did we have? We rely on youngsters who can’t get games on loan at championship clubs. What are we expecting ?

I think recruitment is at the heart of this and the constant boardroom changes haven’t helped. Edu comes across as a guy way out of his depth.

I find the criticism of Aubameyang hard to take. We would have been screwed if it wasn’t for him last year.

Whole things a mess.

Read this morning that Özil believes he can secure a transfer to another top club but won't leave until the end of the season.
As often happens, his absence from a failing team will increase his stock, but there are a number of issues with this? Which team anywhere in europe pays him his current salary. Which top team (lets say top 25 in europe) would want Özil on a free transfer on even a third of his current wages?

The people at Hertha Berlin don’t seem to think so.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/metro.co.u ... 01779/amp/

Absolutely. Over the last 10 seasons of our steady decline there are plenty of factors to point to, but the over riding one, and most influential one for me is poor recruitment both in and out of the club.
Even when we have signed younger players with potential it is rare that any of them really kick on to a level better than when we signed them.
Yes we want to have more money to spend but we've wasted so much of it in the last 5 years in particular. Going back 5 summers to that fateful Xhaka/Mustafi/Perez summer Arsenal have spent £529m on new players, receive £225m. So our budget for 5 seasons has been £60m net spend to work with.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015%E2%8 ... .C._season
So that squad and £60m every season net to do something. and where do we find ourselves?
As well as quality of player we need to look at the mentality of player we have bought, or are cultivating. Who in the last 10 years have we bought who you would hang your hat on to die for the cause on the pitch, a determination to fight and lead? You could make a case for Sanchez.....

It’s interesting to consider how many of the Premier League managers would get more out of Arsenal’s players than Arteta is this season? I don’t just mean Klopp or Guardiola as they go without saying. For me Brendan Rodgers goes without saying too.

Controversial but I think Mourinho would too, even though I once suggested the game has left him behind. If Mourinho had Arsenal’s players I strongly suspect we’d have more points than we do. Sure, the football might not be enthralling but how good is Arteta’s Arsenal to watch? I’m not going through the whole list but I don’t think it’s impossible Potter at Brighton would get more out Arsenal’s players too.

If Mourinho was in charge at Arsenal he’d have chucked several players under a bus by now and would be arguing with the board.

Guardiola would need several hundred million to revamp the defence and midfield just like he did at city.

4 different managers and coaching teams have now managed these same players. It’s illogical to expect a different outcome if we appoint a 5th

I’m not so sure. I think Guardiola and Mourinho would both be getting more out of the players Arsenal currently employ even without Guardiola having several hundred million. I can’t prove it, just like you can’t disprove it, but I honestly think we’d currently have more points under Mourinho with the players on Arsenal’s books, so I’m not counting Kane or Son.

Let me clarify that I’m not calling for Arteta to be sacked, yet anyway. But as Bored implied, it’s for the manager to get the best out the players he has on his club’s books. Is Arteta doing that? I remain to be convinced.

13 points and 10 goals scored from 11 games. When Arteta took over we were 10th in the table and on a miserable run of form. He improved things considerably. Last season his league record was 9 wins, 7 draws, 5 defeats. Not stellar but quite good considering how the team was performing when he took over and of course winning the cup was great.

We added Gabriel, Willian and Partey. He chose to offload Torreira and Guendouzi and drop Özil. There is no key player who forced a transfer. At the start of this season, with those additions, the squad was better than what he inherited. But our performances have mainly been poor. Better squad but much poorer results.

He undoubtedly needs to be given more time but he also needs to improve things....and quickly.

https://www.statsperform.com/resource/t ... -crossing/

Lots of stats on crossing. The conclusion is you score 1 goal for every 45 crosses hit. That is based on all prem teams over a long period. So also bring in whether you have players who deliver good crosses or are good at getting on the end of them - we seem to fail at both - and the ratio must surely go up for that team.

If you want to approach a game with the idea of making things as uncomfortable for the defence as possible crossing balls on the CB heads with only 1 guy half heartedly challenging him is not the way to go. Burnley next and their CB will lap that sort of challenge up all day long

There lies the problem. We had 44 crosses yesterday....just one more and we would scored.....

Point taken. But I'm not sure I agree.

The jury is still out definitely. I just look at it and there’s such a lack of talent in the first team and squad I just don’t believe any manager can turn those players into world beaters.

Maybe Mourinho could park the bus in certain games and turn defeats into a draw but that’s not Artetas style and certainly isn’t Guardiola or klopps either.

It’s a debate that doesn’t have a logical answer at this stage your completely right but I can’t believe my eyes are deceiving me and our talent pool is at the lowest ebb we’ve had for some time.

True. But that is only two games. I presume that he is on best behaviour right now.

So if this season Arteta has 13 points from 11 games, it’s arguably worth comparing that to Emery’s record last season, which got him the sack. Emery had got 18 points from 13 games. Now Arteta won’t exactly equal Emery’s record after 13 games last season because it’s impossible to get 5 points from 2 games.

The only possible points from two matches are 0 (two defeats), or 1 (one defeat and one draw), or 2 (two draws), or 3 (one defeat and one win), or 4 (one draw and one win), or 6 (two wins).

So to better Emery’s 13 game record last season, which had got him the sack, Arteta must win our next two league matches (Burnley home and Southampton home). Anything else and his record over the first 13 games this season is worse than last season under Emery.

My view is that we just have to be patient and persist with Arteta at least until the middle of next season. He is aware of what the problems are and is attempting to address them. I don't think he's the problem.