So Ben Whites the latest villain I see. Can’t agree with this stuff.

When was the last time we scored a header from open play? We seem to put a lot of crosses in but it’s a flawed tactic when we don’t have a striker who is a threat in the air or we don’t load the box with players

Expect West Ham to win today which pushes us down to 7th. We play twice before spurs play again. Can’t see anything but another defeat at Chelsea. Man U go away to Liverpool, if Liverpool play at even 50% of their ability they’ll win that. Then it is a must win at home to Man U with spurs away at Brentford later that day. That has to be a ‘must drop points’ I think.

Looking at Man U’s remaining fixtures and the form of some of the ‘lesser’ teams they play you could make a case for them not winning any of them.

Club won’t go anywhere if it continually changes it’s leadership every 2 years. It won’t instil any confidence in its best players if it’s doing this either they’ll *%^@ off in a heartbeat.

6th is about right for us, add 2 strikers 2 midfielders and more experience and there’s a good formula here to move forward. Economically you can’t equip any manager with our squad and expect success. No chance no matter what fairy land you live in. We’ve been punching above our weight for too long.

If West Ham win the Europa League - which is easily possibly, they'll automatically go in to the CL next season, assuming West Ham dont also finish 4th we'll have 5 teams in the CL. If Chelsea win their FA Cup semi final today then the Europa League place for winning the FA Cup will drop to 6th place in the league - if West Ham finish 5th or 6th then I think that Europa place would drop to 7th. The League Cup Europa Conference league position will drop to 7th or 8th in the league (depending on West Ham's situation) as Liverpool won that earlier in the season. Then if Leicester win the Conference league they will automatically go in to the Europa League next year.

We really should finish 5th at worst given the run ins of all the teams. Spurs still big favourites for 4th

Weren't we the biggest spenders in europe last summer? Our squad is no worse than the 6th best in the league so by that token Arteta is not overachieving despite only having one game a week and all the training ground time he wants.
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Weren't we the biggest spenders in europe last summer? Our squad is no worse than the 6th best in the league so by that token Arteta is not overachieving despite only having one game a week and all the training ground time he wants.

Listen, I don't know if Arteta is the right man for the job or not, in my mind its no better than 50/50. He may be a great coach but that doesn't necessarily translate to him becoming a great manager, we've seen plenty of coaches and no.2s over the years who just couldn't handle the manager's job.

There are so many facets to the managers job, training ground coaching is just one of them. You have to be able to handle big egos and personalities, get the best out of players you may not even like. You have to be able to motivate players, some of whom need an arm around the shoulder and some who need a kick up the backside. You need to learn the art of team selection and master the tactical side of things both pre-game and intra-game. It's not easy and not everybody is cut out for it. Infact, a lot of the best players in history have failed miserably as managers.

Let's see how the rest of the season pans out but its not looking great at the moment.

Expect West Ham to win today which pushes us down to 7th. We play twice before spurs play again. Can’t see anything but another defeat at Chelsea. Man U go away to Liverpool, if Liverpool play at even 50% of their ability they’ll win that. Then it is a must win at home to Man U with spurs away at Brentford later that day. That has to be a ‘must drop points’ I think.

Looking at Man U’s remaining fixtures and the form of some of the ‘lesser’ teams they play you could make a case for them not winning any of them.

It’s always very difficult to predict results late in the season isn’t it?

Burnley helped us out. If only we can help ourselves.

I suppose the question is, are we a better team than last year, are we a better team than when Emery was in charge and are we moving in the right direction?

I think we have the youngest squad in the league and have been very promising this year. Any coach would struggle with a squad so thin and a lack of adequate strikers. It was always going to come off the rails, the injuries hit and you are calling in championship level replacements. If we had Harry Kane in this side we would be above Chelsea without question.

Conte would have quit by now if we had appointed him instead of Arteta.

It’s all very well wanting to believe that some supreme being controls our future and that our wafer thin squad and zero strikers AREN’T the issue however that’s fantasy. Our fans these days are emulating the spurs fans in the 90s when they just want to continually sack their manager. It’s a 5 year swing we’re halfway through and Unai Emery ? I hope he got some decent compensation from us because no matter what was going to happen he was always on a hiding to nothing.

Some good points raised by you, Rich and Socrates in recent posts and as I ebb and flow through thinking through the experiences of this season at times I’ve agreed with lots of them. There have undoubtably been big improvements in many areas and that gives me optimism for the future. The biggest pessimism for me still comes with attack and it’s not just because we don’t have world class strikers. There is just something missing in the team on how to transition quickly, pass variably, adjust the tempo and usually every play only involves 2 people in synch at any one time.

The crosses were mentioned this week and were pointless, endless circles on the wings and back to midfield last week. Too many touches and The shots that are taken have been individual efforts and largely rubbish.

I would like to see: less touches, faster passes, one twos with a first touch pass to someone who can shoot and do it quickly.


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The Mirror imply it wasn’t only a few of us frustrated by White’s passing, but Arteta too?

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football ... dium=email

He gave some instructions during a break. Stop the press folks

It’s absolutely soul searching to prove a point. Nothing wrong with the blokes passing.

Despite shelling out £150million to bring in six new players at the start of the season, Arsenal could sign as many as seven new players in the summer transfer window. Two strikers, a midfielder, a winger, a left-sided centre-back, a right-back and a left-back are all on the cards. That is a major overhaul.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football ... _like_this

There’s nothing wrong with his passing. But there’s nothing wrong in saying it’s not been as quite as good as some of us were expecting it to be, considering how comfortable on the ball he was supposed to be, (however ‘comfortable’ is defined).

Then that only shows people were expecting too much. (No change there then)

If it happens it surely supports the theory that Stan is at last financially doping us. If he is, I welcome it.

But so much was being made about his being so comfortable on the ball, it’s hardly surprising some were expecting more of his passing. I’ve actually been more impressed with his defending than his passing.

His distribution is very good. He often hits cross field passes that find our wingers in space. I think our fans are expecting 75yard Hollywood type assists. Divs

Also Funny how nobody was moaning about his distribution when our back 4 looked very solid before the injuries and peoples opinions seem to have changed when we have had to put Cédric, Tavares, Nketiah & Lokonga back in our side. Obviously those 2 things aren’t linked at all.

Despite shelling out £150million to bring in six new players at the start of the season, Arsenal could sign as many as seven new players in the summer transfer window. Two strikers, a midfielder, a winger, a left-sided centre-back, a right-back and a left-back are all on the cards. That is a major overhaul.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football ... _like_this

I think we have the youngest squad in the league and have been very promising this year. Any coach would struggle with a squad so thin and a lack of adequate strikers. It was always going to come off the rails, the injuries hit and you are calling in championship level replacements. If we had Harry Kane in this side we would be above Chelsea without question.

Conte would have quit by now if we had appointed him instead of Arteta.

It’s all very well wanting to believe that some supreme being controls our future and that our wafer thin squad and zero strikers AREN’T the issue however that’s fantasy. Our fans these days are emulating the spurs fans in the 90s when they just want to continually sack their manager. It’s a 5 year swing we’re halfway through and Unai Emery ? I hope he got some decent compensation from us because no matter what was going to happen he was always on a hiding to nothing.

The worry is that if we don't get fourth (as is looking likely) we won't be able to attract the calibre of player we need, even if we do have the funds and will. We don't need another frustrating transfer window chasing basically unattainable players. Having said that, we didn't do too badly last summer and hopefully we can see a repeat of that sort of business.

It's probably important for our progress that we get into the Europa, but it really does not set the pulse racing at all!

Europa league would force much more investment in the squad. We only have 18 senior players currently. 3 of those leave on a free this summer. Turner will I presume replace Leno and we think Saliba will come back in. That still leaves a squad of 16 players only. Players on loan currently I can't see any of them with much of a future and a lot of those have their contracts running down. For a season in Europe we'd need at least 23 senior players in my opinion - 2 for each position and 3 GKs (I think Arteta has said that is what he wants from a squad). It is an even bigger summer than last year for me
Hi Decaf,

Seasons without european football are pretty boring. At least with the europa we get some midweek football and a chance for some of the back-ups and youngsters to get some game time, I think we have suffered this season with a lack of games for them to gain experience and maintain match sharpness.

I know its not like have been playing scintillating football but an Arsenal game is an Arsenal game and I'd rather see some kind of european football, plus there is the carrot of a CL place for the winner of the Europa League.