I dislike the boring football Arteta is making this team play. If it yielded results, then kudos to him. But from the last 2 matches, we gave away initiative when we should have pressed harder for the second goal. Arteta's football is too passive and defensive minded.

I was just reminded that we had a similar ending with then 16 year old Rooney. Remember it well. What if it had not gone in? Yes, he'd still be a major player, but it would have been delayed. The bar in LA I went to were owned by scousers and one of them had a nephew in the youth set up at Everton and knew Rooney for a few years.

I’m not totally convinced Arteta is a defensive manager per se, but I do think he tries to structure the attacking patterns so much that it stifles natural off the cuff creativity. It seemed telling that once they equalised we then actually started to play with more freedom and pace, almost as if this was now panicking and so we abandon the managers instructions because we know we desperately need a goal.

I think there is a combination of what Arteta wants us to do attacking wise and us not having the players to do it. For someone schooled under Pep he misses the key ingredient of what Pep does with his players, Henry famously said Pep said to him ‘it’s my job to get the ball to the final third, once it’s there it’s your job to score the goal’ Pep almost hands over the creative part to his players once he himself has manipulated getting the ball in to the final third.

We don’t have players who can move the ball up the park quick enough. We need passing midfielders. We have too many similar players who in midfield want to sit and need a Tiago type plus the inexperience of our midfield players doesn’t help. It’s obvious to see. This means that when we move the ball up the pitch we look cautious because the pace of our passing is too slow… then the coach gets blamed for being too cautious.

You can't keep blaming it all on the players. I am certain a better and more experienced coach would get a better tune out of these players.

Can you even explain Arteta's attacking philosophy. It seems to be either get the ball out to Tierney and let him cross the ball in (more often than not to only one player in the box and nobody who can head the ball) or hope Saka or Emile Smith Rowe pull something out of the bag. I thought the whole point of signing White was to move the ball more quickly and with greater quality from defence to attack.

I don't want Arteta to fail because replacing him is such an upheaval but nor do I want to persist with a manager whose performances and results are seemingly less than the sum of the individual parts.

I know that bringing in a topclass foward should make a big difference but we need to have a more exciting approach to the game. Fans are just bored with the dross that is being served up and that means only wins are good enough to appease them.

Sure I can but I’m so bored of writing the same stuff over I'm starting to feel like Mike Tyson trying to teach boxing to a quadriplegic

I’ll point you at this article which is probably the best piece that articulates the approach….

https://le-grove.co.uk/2021/09/16/what- ... long-read/

You can’t really rely on a team of 20 to 23 year olds week in and week out and them not be inconsistent. This won’t change if you change the manager. No chance. We need a couple of older heads in the side one of them being a striker.

There’s no point starting again right now this side isn’t underachieving for what it is, if we drop below to 7th or 8th? By all means go to town.

I think that’s a very good point Rich. The notion that when we already have Saka, Smith Rowe and Ødegaard, as well as Tierney slinging crosses in, we need more creative players is at best too simplistic and at worst plain daft. It’s the last thing we need. What we do require is a striker putting himself in positions to receive chances created for him, and with the ability to put them away.

We have to remember that two late sitters were created for Nketiah and Aubameyang against Everton. I’m a little uncomfortable moaning about Aubameyang too much because he was once a super player. But he’s moving further and further away from that description. His only excuse for the miss at Goodison was that it may have been the first time he’d touched the ball after coming on. But I don’t feel that’s much of an excuse. Nketiah’s miss was even worse. What was he? Four feet out maybe with an unchallenged header? Okay, he’s not ever going to be a great header of the ball but I’d have expected Warwick Davis to put that one away.

I think there are two things to address if we want more creativity, and neither involves the recruitment of a new creative midfielder because until the two factors are, even Zidane and Platini would struggle to create for the current Arsenal, let alone Saka, Smith Rowe and Ødegaard. A new striker and a change in our style of play to one that doesn’t stifle creativity.

What a *%^@*** c$%^&@h thing to say. You TG are an utter wanker. Why don't you *%^@ off back to the rock you crawled out from under.

I will tell you what I am bored of, tossers like you who literally have no self awareness at all.

Calm down and read the article you Wally there’s no need to resort to abuse. Just saying after a while it gets boring mate.

If you tried actually engaging with what other people post in an honest way instead of resorting to distortion, unclever mockery and straw man arguments I bet you'd find it more rewarding.

There is a possibility though that Arteta may be as flawed as his squad. Just a thought mind.

https://newsjust24all.com/three-major-d ... Kg5JxjIiTw

Fully agree with all of that. A very well presented view.

I’m 100% honest and I have no idea what you mean by distortion. If acknowledging ridiculous suggestions as valid as engaging then I’ll remain to be guilty as charged your honour.

Here's where the lack of self awareness part comes in.

Yes, the world is wrong, and TG is right. Whatever you say, Seymour.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYAuR5bkIlQ

Boo hoo TG said this and I don’t agree with him..

Boo hoo TG said that and I don’t agree with him

Unless we win.

We win our next three games and he's walking on water again.

Like you, I was very frustrated by the Everton game. Very poor subs. But I think the sudden anti-Arteta vitriol is a bit over the top. The United game could have gone either way, and we caught Liverpool on one of their good days,

I originally said that he now has a growing track record of alienating players and this is combined with a seeming inability to inspire players. He looks like a rookie manager.

How has that escalated to become anti-Arteta vitriol? I can’t see the connection.

I agree that 'vitriol' is a bit strong. I should have chosen my words more carefully.

However, if we are going to split hairs, I would suggest that your characterization of him as now having a "growing track record of alienating players" is a trifle immoderate.

I also don't think it is a cop-out to point to the age of the squad, or the lack of form and goals from Aubameyang and Lacazette.

So, I do think we have improved this season, and remain fairly confident.

I didn’t think that it was splitting hairs. It was more that I was concerned at being labelled as anti-Arteta. I’m not.

I can see flaws in his performance same as I can see flaws in our players’ performance. An Arsenal forum seems like a reasonable to mull over those things.

I would agree it's not a cop-out, those are obviously contributing factors. It's not just one single thing that makes us underperform, it's a combination of several different factors where Arteta's coaching is one. Because even considering the age of the squad, the fact that we've many new players and our strikers aren't doing what's required, our attacking performances just haven't been up to scratch when looking at the season as a whole and the talent of our attacking players.

Indeed it is. Furthermore, what exactly constitutes splitting hairs is just the sort of burning question one enjoys mulling over. But I would point out that I actually wasn't responding to your post directly nor attempting to attach a label to you. Some of the criticism of Arteta from other quarters has been a bit strong.

Went to the Christmas Arsenal Supporters Trust (AST) do at the Emirates last night. The guest speaker was Per Mertesacker who spoke really well. Very well indeed. The format of the evening wasn’t so much a stand up speech by him, but he addressed questions and issues put to him by the AST host.

While making the point that the likes of Saka and Smith Rowe (he always referred to them by their first names) may be one offs (or I suppose two offs) every ten years, he felt there are youngsters in the youth system fans should be excited about. In the Q&A one of the questioners was trying to get him to name them, which Per politely refused to do.

Spoke very respectively about Wenger. Not surprising really as Wenger not only signed Mertesacker as a player but after recognising his leadership skills as not only a team player but the club captain, gave him his current job as head of the youth academy.

In the formal Q&A I asked him about his long and excellent partnership with Koscielny. He implied Wenger had decided Koscielny and Vermaelen were simply too similar as centre backs to work as an effective central defence. The assumption from that has to be that Wenger came to the conclusion Per would be a better partner for Koscielny because they were different types of player. He said Koscielny was his favourite partner over his entire playing career. Their understanding became almost telepathic. They knew what to do to cover each other.

As a humble man he was happy to mention that Koscielny covered his own lack of pace. But the strong implication from what he said is that Per covered Koscielny’s weaknesses like a lack of organisation and poorer decision making of what to do when. Let me clarify he was too polite to say that about Koscielny, as he did with his own lack of pace. But I’d felt that for years, and in my view Per practically confirmed I was right. Even though, as I say, he was too polite to explicitly mention what Koscielny’s shortcomings were.

When he had his autograph signing session, on a one on one basis I asked him if he considered the 2017 FA Cup final as his single greatest performance for the club, which Martin Keown has called ‘the Mertesacker final’? He said he didn’t, as best or greatest is probably the wrong word. He performed at a similar level in other games, including one I mentioned to him at Anfield when we beat Liverpool away. Per did say, however, that the Chelsea final was his favourite performance because we won a trophy in a game where it’s commonly accepted he was the man of the match, even though I think Sanchez was formally made man of the match.

Mertesacker also spoke in general terms of his plans for the development of Hale End because standing still won’t be good enough. The youth academy has to improve to continue attracting the best prospects. He said Josh Kroenke always makes a point of coming to see him for a one on one meeting when he’s over, and implied that Josh is very impressive as a future owner.

I’ve not covered everything he said. Not by a very long way. Yet Hodd has spoken so highly of Mertesacker’s performance in charge of the youth academy. Nothing happened yesterday evening to make me think Hodd isn’t 100% correct.

Thanks for that Bernard. Very insightful and encouraging.

This bit is interesting. For £25m hold out to sell.

https://www.fourfourtwo.com/us/news/ars ... urs-gossip

Chickened out of heading a cross at anfield that cost us when it mattered.

Possible but I’m not sure we would have been playing him earlier in the season if that was the case.

He’s been suggested as a makeweight in deals with Barca and juve though so it could be the club trying to force the issue.

What a stupid, small minded and bitter response to a post which took me some while to put together and had no links to its content. Thanks for turning my effort into a waste of time.

By the way, do you remember Holding’s pathetic effort with a cross at the Emirates last season?

Thanks for your post on the meeting with Mertesacker Bernard, a very enjoyable read. He has always seemed a very decent man as well as a very decent player.
Don't worry about Top Gun's nasty little post, I think he's got something seriously wrong with him. His posts generally recently have been unfriendly, disrespectful and spiteful. He strikes me as a bit of a bully.

Thanks bromley.

Dortmund, Porto, Leipzig are already dropping down to the Europa. Barcelona, Sevilla and Atalanta set to join them.

That feels quite strong compared to some years

Spurs have had their match with Rennes postponed. I expect the Premier League will follow suit and postpone their game v Brighton at the weekend - and possibly their midweek game at Leicester as that would still fall within the 10 day quarantine period.

I don't think we reported quite as many cases as Spurs when we had our covid outbreak but any request we made (if we even did) wasn't upheld for our game vs Brentford.

I read somewhere there was a 6 person limit and then games could be postponed but not certain on that. If so then it is open to abuse to attempt to get a game postponed when you wouldn't be at full strength.

Spurs apparently have 8 cases, games don't get postponed for 8 injuries, injuries are not infectious, but that is what the quarantine rules are for. Spurs must have a 25 man squad plus 5-8 young players who regularly train with the first team.

Ironic isn’t it? I’ve spend ages wishing that we’d get to Barcelona’s level. Looks like we now have.

Seriously though it should be a strong Europa League this time.

Always felt there was an element of luck to the Europa League because of teams dropping down from the CL. No doubt we should've done better certain years, but we did go out against a strong Atletico Madrid side once, and lost a final to Chelsea. When Man Utd won it they had Fenerbache, Feyenoord and Zorya Luhansk from Ukraine in the group, and in the knockout phase they defeated Saint Etienne, Rostov, Anderlecht, Celta Vigo and Ajax. Hardly any world beaters in that group of teams.

I would want everyone of their tests taken by an independent authority and verified by them. I would want a lot more than their say so. Also every player testing positive must be fit and not injured and have played regularly. Only then should they be considered for any deferral. But then they have a squad so why are they getting special treatment. Did Leyton Orient enjoy the same privileges.

It's safe to assume we will equal if not exceed the number of years between titles as the 1971 to 1989 Arsenal sides.

Does it feel the same? Both eras have won cups. Did it feel as long as it was for those who were around those years as it does now? For me, 2004 doesn't seem that long ago in my mind for some strange reason but its been 17 years!

Man Utd and Liverpool fans went through similar spells. Wonder how their older fans feel? Should I even care? haha

I enjoyed your post, Bernard, despite the sour bit of gratuitous disrespect from Top Gun. So it wasn't a waste of time.

Thanks Decaf. And thanks to LTG for his reaction to it prior to Top Gun’s.

Problem with your post Bernard ....... given your previous history of defending Per on every ocassion in his playing career no matter what transpired ..... it comes across as a fraction fawning .

Top Gun's comment wasn't really that bad , it's just that it burst your 'love bubble ' .

I've got no doubt Merts is a nice guy and seems to be doing a good job with the youth perhaps he could move up when Arteta gets the push
.... I could think of worse appointments .