So they bottled it. Dropping those 9 points when they were comfortably 4th with games in hand seems pretty bad. No idea why a big new contract was handed out unless the point was to do it before the bad news
Should’ve waited on the contract doesn’t matter who the manager is, unless they spend city money we can’t challenge anyone
Should Arsenal not get 4th, or should we capitulate on the final day (absolutely on the cards with this team) then that Arteta contract looks reaaaaaaaaally ********ing silly. The only time they should have done it early, was if we had beaten Spuds to lock in top 4. Instead, we now have to hope Norwich pull out a miracle, and we beat Everton. No ********ing chance. Not enough lasagna in the world this time around.
England did this with Southgate why offer a deal in the season? Since that deal was given we have capitulated really weak culture, does anyone want to win?
I just don't get how Spurs have Mourinho, Conte. Top coaches and we can't attract the same. Even Porch their games runs circles around Mikel. Anyway, let's see.
Comfortably? That's only true if you don't take the all the injuries into context. I'm as disappointed as anyone, but it was big ask to stay top with all the injuries we suffered in April. My actual anger/annoyance is more directed to the January gamble. It failed.
Mid march they had a 6pt lead over spurs with a game in hand. I agree they had injuries, but also they had an easy schedule not competing in Europe. They blew it by losing those games against the cannon fodder teams. I blame them less for losing to Newcastle who on recent form are one of the best teams in the league. They took only 15 points from the last 11 games. They should really have finished with 70+ points from the position they had.
Here's the problem you have as a Second Tier digital sports ball content producer City, Utd, Chelsea* and now Newcastle have a baked in financial advantage year on year. Yes you can be "cleverer" than the competitors like Liverpool and get rev way up. But the problem is that everyone is trying to be clever so this is not really a sustainable edge. Also, Liverpool now had over 150m more than arsenal year on year for the past 3 seasons - that is half a billion quid, and it will reoccur this season and likely next (It's why other german clubs don't catch Bayern by being clever). So Arsenal suffer from being in a high competitive environment, where they also lack the enterprise scale to truly compete. What are the options to do anything about this? Really it is quite limited because you depend on some opportunity (signing Klopp when other teams decided not to), and some transfers panning out mega (Salah) Sustained success really requires pulling a liverpool, and having other sides like Utd being a joke. But Arsenal probably can't rely on United being this week forever So really - i don't see that the narrative of ongoing improvement really holds, without some things break Arsenals way. Especially a couple of the young guys would need to turn out to be truly elite performers, and one of them needs to be a heavy goal scorer. And competing sides need to fail for a few years, to give a chance at year on year gorging on euro money. This is of course why Arsenal need the super league. ** Chelsea's sugar daddy status currently unkown.
back a line of brinks trucks up to edwards' house and be, like, "say when." we need multiple windows like this last (multiple hits, no big misses) - AND, as you said, some developmental luck - to make up for the sanllehi windows and the late wenger windows.
This is why I have said previously--the window for a team like Arsenal in this situation is wafer-thin. I think we may have permanently missed it by not getting CL. I think both the Tottenham and Man U projects will be stronger next year, while the Chelsea project will be weaker. On net we will be facing more competitive projects next year compared to this year. This year reminds me of 2015-16 all over again. Every big club was dogshit and we couldn't capitalize. Having said all this--I also agree with yoss. How much of the blame for this can we really lay at Arteta's feet? For the period of the season where we played with a settled, un-injured first team, Arsenal were producing elite output--we were actually second in the league in running xG differential for a month, behind only Liverpool. We were ahead of City. This squad was just built poorly to take advantage of a weak fight for fourth place. Had it been less thin, and had it been reinforced, we would have taken fourth easily, and would have competed for third, all while having the youngest squad in the league. I don't really see our collapse as being an issue with the manager really. To me it's a clear failure to build the squad correctly. And as I've said previously--if Arteta is mostly to blame for that, that isn't actually his fault! That's the fault of management and ownership that they're putting a rookie manager in that position in the first place!
I agree with the last bit. How Liverpool got Klopp and Edwards when their squad was worse than ours post Wenger, Spurs at least hired Mou and Conte and got that Sporting Director from Juve while we get Edu and Mikel is astounding. That is on the ownership.
Today Mikel is in charge of his 100th match for Arsenal. That's an accomplishment in itself. Not to mention that supposedly his win % is comparable to what Wenger did in his first 100 matches. He's still the youngest manager in the league I believe, and it's really quite impressive how well he's done in his first head job.
oof. that's disappointing. i know they didn't leave on good terms but i'd hoped he wouldn't be one of the ones that talk trash after leaving. 🗣 Aubameyang on Arteta: "Big characters and big players...he can't deal with it. He needs some young players who don't say anything."This is really low from @Auba. As soon as he wants out he'll create problems in the locker room and blame it on someome else. pic.twitter.com/eIflZHewis— Arsenal Harmony ⚡ (@ArsenalHarmoni) October 9, 2022
lol everyone knows who Auba is. He is the archetypal "nothing is ever my fault" or "I'm too talented to fight" type player. He obviously could tell via training that he wasn't up for what Arteta was building in terms of effort, exertion and playstyle. They were just looking to get the last of the juice out of him.
no doubt. i don't disagree with you at all. i liked auba the player and appreciated the part he had in breaking our trophy drought. i was hoping . . . i guess, hoping he'd take the high road and just not talk shit about arteta/arsenal but focus on what positives there were instead? y'know, something maybe, like, "it was good but, unfortunately, it didn't work out. i'd rather focus on what is instead." etc. some of the people on twitter has made a good point: xhaka is and has always been a "big character" and every single one of his coaches (at least here) has just absolutely loved him and, by and large, he has been first choice whenever he's healthy. whereas, aubameyang has clashed with just about all of his coaches going back to dortmund? didn't spend enough time with xavi to have done so, i guess, but they didn't seem particularly heartbroken to let him leave.
This is why the morality play version of football from the pundit class are nonsense in the high performance context. People believe in 'the project' or not. They are a fit for the team culture or not. Anyone knows this in the corporate world. It is hard to deliver you best efforts for stuff you don't believe in. It makes sense that a younger group of guys are tight. But i guarantee the same problems are down the road when the big money comes in for the new starlets.
I agree those guys are now the leaders of the team, but also those guys never won anything - they still have it all to prove and Arsenal is their chance.
The 'clash' at BVB was mostly because he had his chance to go to Spain and BVB refused to sell him. That was his goal, and he was at his peak. In the end he was sold a year later but it was a consolation move to a 2nd rate team But nevertheless he consistently delivered 20+ goals per season as an elite 9 until '20 His goal was always to play for Barca or Madrid. He did that now.
i mean, i get what you're trying to say but, in context of what aubameyang was saying, that isn't the point. neither partey nor xhaka are wallflowers or someone young unable/unwilling to speak up - which is what aubameyang brought up. what has aubameyang won? xhaka has the same solitary FA cup medal as he does while partey has a europa league winner medal on his resume. i mean, it might be his way of lashing out at not being sold to the spanish teams but the one drop i saw with teuchel was for going to milan for a birthday celebration without permission. but i'm guessing he had no other issues while at dortmund and wenger/emery didn't have an issue with his schedules. i definitely think he was excellent and we don't get that FA cup without him, period. for me, it's more disappointment than anything else because i just flat out liked him. i loved the gigantic smile he'd have and how happy he'd be for whoever scored. i loved that, sitting on a hattrick, he gave a penalty to lacazette because he needed it more at the time. i really just wanted him to be one of the ones i can remember well because, after leaving, they didn't come back to shit on the club.