Arteta weg! Arsenal Premier League home games they have failed to score in2016-17 - 1⃣2017-18 - 1⃣2018-19 - 1⃣2019-20 - 1⃣2020-21 - 7⃣— Orbinho (@Orbinho) April 5, 2021
Seriously its almost at the point where Arteta won't be able to pay off the faith he is getting with results this season. He is going to have to win the league and the CL over the next 6 years for us to say "well it was worth being dog shit in 2021."
Ok apologies if I misunderstood. Arsenal had 14 points going into Match Week 15 at 1PPG In the next 16 games we got 28 points at a. 1.75 PPG The real change was bringing in Saka and ESR and then Martin O, plus Partey has been available That's the trouble with generalising about our season. We got off to a shocking start, whereas since boxing day we've been a top 5 side. So mentality hasn't really been our problem. Rather we have too many players who aren't good enough On what basis are West Ham inferior? We've seen quite a bit of evidence across europe that with modern tactics, you can build a very efficient team on a budget. I think the mentality issue is not the problem at all, but rather the overall performance culture at arsenal. Too many people in the front office are not good enough at their jobs. This leads to endless recruitment issues which cripple the team.
This is kind of like the Man Utd / Pogba thing In reality, Utd have done much better thanks to acquiring Bruno and having elite talent come through. For seasons people complained Pogba should have been able to lead the team better - but the key is he doesn't know how to do it, nor does he have the skillset for it. Yet when you have Bruno and Pogba, suddenly you can manage games better. Game management is really what we lack - because we lack the combination of midfielders with the skills and experience to hold their own, or even impose patterns.
I've found myself increasingly thinking of some of the stuff Sven said. We have really messed up the age curve because we've lost all our old campaigners who understood the requirements of elite football. In each case there were valid reasons. They got too old. They weren't quite good enough. We needed money etc etc - but the net result is we lack the knowledge on and off the field Sven talked specifically about Miki who we all felt failed, but I see now that without guys like him, we got quite a bit worse! Presumably that was the thinking on Willian - but then he turned out to be done
It boggles my mind that people are acting like we have been good lately. Basically, we only had one good month during this great run that people have talked about, and that was in January (and that still was relative). December: 3W-1D-5L January: 4W-2D-1L February: 3W-1D-3L March: 1W-2D-2L Only in January did we win more games than we lost. Overall, we had 11 wins and 11 losses. I just don’t see it. As I have said before, the team lacks consistency, and in a marathon league and in knockout tournaments, that’s what matters. Single games are just data points. I do agree that without our new midfield, our team completely sucks...but that’s self evident.
His ROI has been horrible. He deserves some blame, but he has gotten screwed too. Honestly, I would have closed my pockets after I saw the payoff from the Pepe transfer. Someone should have gotten fired for that.
As you know I am typically against a cherry pick in the data, as that allows you to find the sequence of results that meets the trend you want to show However sometimes cherry picks are valid if there was a change in the physical universe to support the hypothesis of a new trend. So for example, a new manager might be such a change. In this case I think there is a valid basis to the hypothesis that Dec 26th is the start of a new trend line (change of players/approach), and 1.7 PPG vs 1 PPG seems a big jump - but I am not going to run excel on it! So 1.7 PPG is top 5 pace this season - but obviously not great - Wenger usually managed 2PPG or more. But maybe that kind of level is harder to get now - I am not sure
I was looking for that. It looks like we've turned around to a 0.5 xG surplus in the past few months. Which is good. I'm still cautious about that, especially since Odegaard isn't going to stay.
I feel like the reaction on the intersphere to this game is wayyyyy tooo much in one direction. We went from being in a decent mental space to Arteta Out in the span of an international break. The eye test tells me we have been moving in the right direction since Boxing Day, even if the math test tells me otherwise. Some of that I'm willing to chalk up to the extenuating circumstances of the season. I do think that with a legitimate preseason and sadly, no European football ( I just don't think it's gonna happen ), we can find the consistency that goes along with what I'm seeing with my own two eyes. I am concerned about what we can do to improve with a smaller budget, but hopefully we can find some more gems from South America or elsewhere in Europe. I also think we have quite a bit of saleable assets, believe it or not. Willock, AMN, Bellerin, one of Holding/Mavropanos/Chambers, Eddie, Nelson, etc. They might not generate big fees like we would like, but we can drum up some cash. For those that want Arteta gone, propose a legitimate alternative. Who would you rather have that is currently available? To me there is no one. I'd rather we continue to see if the Arteta project plays out. I just don't see a manager worth it who we could realistically get.
No thank you on Allegri. Dude is just a poor man's Conte. There's a reason he hasn't gotten any of the jobs available as of late. Also, you really think Ralph wants to let S'oton? On top of that, dude has gotten whipped 9-0 twice now. I rate him as a coach, but a lot of people won't.
Do you have links? I have read some evidence from the underlying data from time to time but didn't book mark anything What we do have to be careful of is we've believed we turned the corner under Arteta before, only to then start our latest campaign with 14 pts from 14 games - horrorshow! I do think you can make an argument that the Saka/ESR/Martin O team is essentially a different team and system. But obviously they can't always play together.
If Saka is fit for Thursday, we may actually see him at LB, which is what Andrew was basically lobbying for on today's Arsecast. That's a bit of a conundrum. Personally I'd probably give Cedric a run of games at LB first before "stranding" Saka there. Yes I know he'd still be able to attack once in a while on the left, but it's hard to imagine we wouldn't lose quite a bit of his impact removing him from right forward. And I can't believe I'm saying this, but I hope Xhaka gets well soon, because it almost seems like he was our biggest miss on Saturday... sad but true?
I'd consider going back to a back three if Tierney is hurt for any amount of time. ------------------Auba----------------- --------ESR----------------Ode Saka-----------------------------Cedric -----------Xhaka----Partey-------------- ----Gabriel-Holding-Chambers--- ----------------Leno I actually feel that this could work really well for us.
I don’t have a link but since the new year we’ve been fourth in the league in xG-xGA so the eye tests have been real, we’ve been a significantly better team since ESR was included and subsequently MO too. One side effect of playing those two is we no longer have the ability to play Laca and Auba at the same time, and more importantly, Auba on the left wing. To me, these two factors are the squad/formation original sins that are the primary basis for us being terrible in attack this year. When they went away our team looked and played a lot better. We did it for this match and we look like shit again. Seems pretty obvious to my mind.
I made this quick and dirty chart in Excel using data from understat, which is a five game moving average does not exclude penalties. Performance got a little bit better post-Chelsea (week 15), but it's not a pretty picture. About what you'd expect from an eighth place team.
I also saw this one - more smoothed - not sure of the reliability of source 1379112901261230082 is not a valid tweet id
Until we have a squad that is not only balanced, but capable of playing at a high technical level, we're going to keep having periods of growth and backslide. Our second team just isn't at the same level as the guys that we are missing. Tierney, ESR, Saka and Luiz are just that much better than the other people in their positions.
On paper maybe, but when was the last time we played back 3? Seems eons ago. And wasn't Tierney fit and a key part of that back 3 back then? IOW, look at the back 3 you are proposing. No KT, no DL? And a more critical dependence on Holding & Chambers?
It is never one or two games. Our form over the last 10 games matches Emery's last 10 games, and the fan base was 99% united on firing Emery as being the right decision. People might not have said anything, or been willing to complain, but they have been noticing our performances. This is very much a 10th place team. Arteta gets the tactics wrong more often than the team comes undone by an individual error. The players are as poorly coached as they have ever been. Arteta always moans about the players failing to do the basics, but he has had a season and a half with them. I'm pretty sure its his job to teach them how to do the basics. I don't think this is a matter of needing more time. The team basically plays the way it did last season, but without the water breaks allowing him a chance to correct his tactics more frequently. Arteta's performance so far hasn't been good enough, and there is nothing to suggest he is getting better. We cannot get him the players he needs. Our financial situation, made worse by his managerial skills, is going to mean we always have compromise players. We are never going to be able to get a complete squad full of technically proficient, intelligent players, capable of carrying out his instructions. He clearly doesn't know how to get the most out of the players he has at his disposal. Maybe he got too used to working with top quality players at City, who could do what you ask of them 9 out of 10 times, rather than 5 out of 10 as our players do, but that is on him. I do feel a little bad for him, because the ability of our players to do something simple things like trap a ball, or complete a 5 yard pass under a hint of pressure, is appalling. That is what we need to look for in our next coach. Someone who can teach our players to do the basics. There was no quick path back into the CL, and there will be no quick fix to get back into the EL. We have more holes to fill, with less resources, and less capability to spot or develop talent.
KT was super important. The back three I threw out there is more defensive than we've ever played. I'd have them mostly sit in. Chambers could step up since he plays well in the midfield. You wouldn't have the overlapping LCB that Tierney played. I was just spitballing if I were coach. I imagine we stick with the 4231