At the moment, it cannot get worse for Arsenal. Even though we didn’t expect them to beat Manchester City, this 4-1 loss was embarrassing.
The Cups were a good place for us last season, and we even won the FA Cup, but City gained revenged over us for eliminating them from the said competition last season.
The players needed to step up, but did they do that in this game? Here is our Arsenal player ratings.
Runar Alex Runarsson – 2
Looks like the goalkeeper version of David Luiz, fine save from Gabriel Jesus, but what was that about the free-kick? Terrible game.
Shkodran Mustafi – 4
What a relief that he is leaving after this season. He literally gifted Jesus the first goal by not marking him.
Gabriel Magalhaes – 4
Looked like he has never dealt with a team passing the ball so quick in front of him. Not his best night.
Sead Kolasinac – 4
Struggled to cope with City’s attack on his wing and offered almost nothing meaningful going forward.
Mohamed Elneny – 4
Where is the form that he showed at the start of the season? Couldn’t really help the team and can be rash in the challenge.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles – 4
City suffocated him with intense pressing. Doesn’t have the experience to do better in this situation.
Dani Ceballos – 4
Looks different from last season. Played like he had an inferiority complex against a fighting City midfield.
Cedric Soares – 4
I can hardly find something he does well, attacking or defending.
Joe Willock – 6
His mobility gave Manchester City some problems, but he needed more support to make things happen.
Alexandre Lacazette – 6
Classy finish for Arsenal’s goal, if he can do more of that Arteta will have a job by January.
Gabriel Martinelli – 6
Brought the energy, sleekness and pace that Arsenal’s attack has lacked. Hopefully, his injury isn’t serious.
Subs
Nicolas Pepe – 4
How did he fire that shot off target? If he can’t take chances, Arsenal doesn’t need him now.
Emile Smith Rowe – 5
Tried to get Arsenal back in the game, Manchester City scored another goal instead.
Folarin Balogun – 5
Could do nothing to change the result.
Manager
Mikel Arteta -2
He picks the players, this is on him.
Mikel Arteta – 1
He said he’ll pick “the most competitive players” which he believe “can get a result” .
It is a straight up lie. If you want to rotate, just be honest with it. You are far from the level of playing mind games. And this is not a first.
But maybe, i could be wrong if the result desired by arteta is defeat after defeat.
We blame a different player each week. We blame the coach, the board and the owner. The one fact remains however:
Bad teams ALWAYS find a way to loose.
How many more mistakes does he have to make he got rid of Martinelli signed Runarsson signed Cedric 4 year contract and Willan 3 year contract £220 000 a week and come January who will he ship out they all want to see out their contracts
Were we really as bad as these ratings suggest?
I thought we had three possible match changing decisions go against us: 1) Foden’s obviously offside goal. 2) Steffen’s reckless challenge on Martinelli which could have got him sent off. 3)Fernandinho’s slap on Ceballos should also had been a straight red. Doesn’t he even know that it’s Arteta’s job to slap Ceballos?
Yes, Jax. We were. We had a good spell after we scored but as soon as Gabi went off. It was the usual.
It has never been this bad at Arsenal, it’s not going to get any better with Mikel in charge no matter how much he is liked by fans or the board.
To be honest if the board think this is acceptable & the owner well then it’s time to for them go aswell as this is getting embarrassing & hasnt worked since the day Stan walked through the doors and all the politics started behind the scenes.
When Dean was forced out that’s when you knew there was bad eggs in the Arsenal basket that are here for money and money alone. The club has been milked dry as a cash cow for other ventures or loans against its value. Business as usual for Arsenal, hence the word BUSINESS!
We need a restart and it starts with the very top with Stan Kronke all the way down to Edu/Arteta need to go and have an owner who cares about the club and our values which all left the day we moved from Highbury to the cursed Emirates.
All we want for christmas is a new owner!
Everyone have a great christmas here on JustArsenal, all the admin too as this site has been great to all of us fans to vent our frustrations & keep in touch throughout a terrible 2020 all round.
Hopefully a better 2021 for Arsenal, even better a maybe a victory or two to get us put of relegation scrap.
Well said Sean.
I only hope people just caught Kev Campbell on sky.
An ex player who has been there and done it for us.
He hit every nail squarely on the head, as you do above, and us like minded supporters have been doing for a long time now.
This “mess” has been years in the making.
If you actually KNOW Arsenal Football Club, you can see the obvious a mile off !
The problem with this team is too obvious,that’s why I agree with you that may be Arteta is not a solution if he hasn’t figured hot this.
We lack agility, physical presence and technical ability to compete in the EPL.Honestly what would one expect from a front 3 of Willian,Nketia &pepe?,.Add this to a mid 3of Elneny,Ceballos&Xhaka?then you walk around the touch line expecting a result from such a bunch.Artetas team selection is a joke.
With the players we have another manager would do much better with better line up and formation. I would rather play Saliba as center forward that watch Nketia run around hopelessly for a whole hour.This is the biggest problem with arteta and he has to improve or be fired,or else relegation is a reality.
“The club has been milked dry as a cash cow for other ventures or loans against its value”
Really? Explain please.
Over the last decade, up until the latest financial information available on the Gunners and their accounts not a penny has been put into the team by their owner, either in debt or equity financing.
Instead, the club has been subsisted entirely off of its own cash flows – earned through Arsenal’s three main revenue streams: match days, broadcasting and commercial activities.”
However, both he and Josh are paid “consultancy fees” by the club each year.
Ok so “other ventures or loans against its value” not true?
How much “consultancy fees” paid each year?
I read report from AST months ago that KSE have provided Arsenal with a loan to redeem the fixed rate bond they held for their stadium. This give Arsenal greater financial stability and flexibility because:
1) it removed the financial covenants which required the club to set aside a significant sum in their accounts every year. £36.8million in debt service reserve accounts under the terms of the bonds, that sum acting as security for future payments. They will no longer be required to retain this sum.
2) KSE loan has more favourable interest rates, more aligned to the current market rate. Old interest rate is higher. AST estimate that Arsenal should save roughly £20 million a year in capital and interest repayments as a consequence of lower interest.
This I copy and paste from online report. Not I think or guesswork.
So owner help team in debt financing? No?
Bloody insulting.
I have researched and “copied from online reporting”
Not “”guesswork” thank you.
I’ ll go into said report and get their consultancy fees for you .
Deluded.
I am not insulting you. I want to say what I write is not from me. I just copied and paste from report.
You get angry and call me Bloody insulting and Deluded.
The questions I ask are Bloody insulting and Deluded?
People blame “other ventures or loans against its value” but don’t give proof.
You say no help from owner in debt financing. I show you report there is. You call me Bloody insulting and Deluded? What’s wrong with you?
Cph, THIS IS A WRONGHEADED – AND WRONG “FACTED” TOO – ATTEMPT TO DEFLECT BLAME FROM THE OWNER WHERE IT BELONGS.
Have you never thought, that even though Kroenke did reconfigure the annual interest payment, from which he gets eventually still more money – like a mortgage that runs over a longer term than usual, which always costs the borrower more overall, which you chose to ignore -he has not put a single penny of his own into the club he immorally owns and from which, up until Covid, he has creamed countless millions from in profit? The salient and overriding fact is that he needs to invest substsntial sums of his own money into his club; a club playing a sport he neithe rknows much about nor even cares for.
THAT IS GROSS MORAL CORRUPTION FOR ANY OWNER AND YOU SHOULD BE SAYING SO, INSTEAD OF TRYING TO DEFEND THE INDEFENSIBLE!
Astounding naivety OR a deliberate attempt to divert from the truth? I prefer to think that you are just being naive!
AJ is right to be angry with you. I dislike thoughtlessness, esp from folks who are clearly NOT, presumably, just “wet behind the ears” kids (to judge from your previous posts).
Kroenke owns “100% of the share capital” of Arsenal ACCORDING TO THEIR LATEST SET OF FINANCIALS, but he has been able to take money out of the club for some time prior to taking the team into private ownership.
Since taking up a position on the board at the beginning of the 2008/09 season, the American has been paid at least £25,000 per year in the form of flat directors’ emoluments for each full season worked. He joined the board late in his first season so was only entitled to £17,000.
In December 2013, his son Josh Kroenke took up his own seat on the board and has also been able to take out at least £25,000 for himself for each full season in his post.
This figure is the base level of payments they receive without any bonuses or additional benefit payments attached to the pay-outs.
So, as stated above (1st Paragraph, 2nd & 3rd lines) not my “guesswork”.
And I would love to see the terms of KSE’s “loan” to the club. My investigations into this state ;
“Terms of which (the loan)) have not been revealed”
I would say here, that I would of course expect the club to have received favourable rates, but remember this is a LOAN from an organisation (KSE) who will hardly notice it has been loaned – but earn a nice amount of interest, which however you twist it is another income stream that was not there previously – speculate to accumulate eh ?
As for “guesswork”, any queries please contact ;
THE ARSENAL FOOTBALL CLUB PUBLIC LIMITED COMPANY.
jon fox how many countless millions did he creamed? Tell me please.
I did not ignore -he has not put a single penny of his own into the club. I did not disagree.
I disagree with “The club has been milked dry as a cash cow for other ventures or loans against its value”. Is that true? What other ventures or loans against its value? Show the proof please.
I also dislike you. Arrogant. Cannot take different opinion. Think you know better than others. Make old people look bad. I judge from your previous posts and what other people say about you.
A J £25,000 per year is a lot? Owners of other clubs don’t take directors’ emoluments? How much a player earn a week?
I never say what you say is guesswork. I say what I copy and paste from AST is not guesswork. What’s wrong with that? I don’t call you bad things but you can call me bad things.
“remember this is a LOAN from an organisation (KSE) who will hardly notice it has been loaned – but earn a nice amount of interest, which however you twist it is another income stream that was not there previously – speculate to accumulate eh ?”
You say hundred over million will hardly notice, but £25,000 per year you notice.
You say I twist. What did I twist? I copy and paste from AST. What did AST twist? They say “6. There will also be a saving of roughly £20m a year in capital and interest repayments, as the interest on the bonds was fixed between 5.14% and 5.97% per annum.” You save £20m = profit £20m more. You earn £20m income = profit £20m more. You save or you earn £20m both give you profit £20m more. What’s wrong with that?
Again, as stated within the original piece;
“This figure is the base level of payments they receive without any bonuses or additional benefit payments attached to the pay-outs.”
Of course said “additional payments ” are undisclosed.
And that’s my lot.
Yes brother
This is nothing but complete nonsense writeup
The difference ESR makes when on the field is do obvious to me, I can’t believe he hasn’t played any league football yet. However good he is or will become, hes the only player in the entire squad who regularly moves into dangerous positions and gives a problem to opposition defenders. It also makes space for the other players so they can have a chance to do something positive.
If MA wants to improve things in the short term, drop Willian – it’s not going well for him now to put it mildly – and get ESR on the field more often. As soon as possible get another player of his type so we don’t start to rely on him more than we should. I can only hope that the improvements he can bring on the pitch can show the other players that they can be an attacking force, because confidence is gone at the moment.
Also, the gk was a bad signing, I think most people saw it from the beginning. I think he’s normally quite good with his feet, which is what attracted us to buy him, but he’s never looked convincing as a goalkeeper, even in the EL.
Runarsson has deleted his Twitter account after receiving abuse from fans..
That’s really going to do a lot for his confidence, but typical of some of the so called supporters we have.
I suppose if you’re daft enough to have a twitter account in the first place then you can’t really complain about negative comments.
Now tell me you have one Sue😱
Haha, I don’t actually, Jax, but I like a look on there… I really feel for him – poor sod.. welcome to the Arsenal, hey?! 😖
👏👏👍
Honestly Sue, don’t agree with these so called “fans”.
If you have to abuse anyone, go for the complete idiot who recommend him to the club.
It’s painfully obvious the kid is nowhere near the standard required.
I felt sorry for him, he looked like a nervous schoolboy being asked to play in a men’s match. It is not his fault he is not up to the standard and is now being exposed to some of our moronic supporters who act like schoolboys.
👍👍👍
That’s what you get when you sold your best keeper, and bought a Young and second keeper of a lower Club.
Tbh, AJ, I was really surprised to see him between the sticks… such a shame that he and the defence had a night to forget.. I don’t agree with the abuse, but am not at all surprised, we’ve seen it time and time again…
Not exactly living up to our “Victory in Harmony” motto. Something got lost in translation.
I feel for Runnarson. He should have never been put in this position.
The thing is Trudeau that Leno is required for the games that really matter which is the premier league and poor Runarsson isn’t or certainly wasn’t good enough last night. A real shame for him. Whoever sanctioned that deal needs to sit on the naughty chair
No, not at all, Trudeau… I’m with you, I feel for him.. confidence and morale at an all time low…
Save certain goal and make mistake for freekick = abuse from fans.
If let in certain goal and save freekick = no difference in result but no abuse from fans.
Too many people with blind hate. Really blind. Should listen music. Not watch football.
👍👍👍
This team is cursed, you can not fire 55 people and expect not to have bad luck, we are talking about 55 families suffering crying, that is the receipt for darkness,
what arsenal should do is to ask forgiveness to those people,
oh also the Ozil situation is also a factor, you cant mistreat a person like that and expect good things in life, sooner or later you will suffer the consequences.
For the first time ever Martin, I agree with every one of your ratings.Have a very good Christmas.
Arteta please wake up or tell your boss you already try your best but still cannot. Should start looking for better manager.
Some fans contradict their own statements when you ask them what improvement has MA made and his achievements, they slap FA cup and Community shield victories in your face. Then when team is performing bad they blame it on structure and system which they has been in place for some time and will take time to change, no matter who you bring in so Aretat should be given more time. But same system has yeilded not one FA cup but tons of them. So one place they site winning FA cup as achievement and greatness on other they say system is flawed???? If system is flawed and it’s not Arteta’s fault then how did same flawed system produced so many FA cups and community shields???. Here is a new excuse I guess it’s the new strain of COVID19 I think that’s what is causing us flop, rest of the teams got the old variant but our team was exposed to new variant that’s why we are struggling more then other…sorry to say but some ppl don’t know when to stop and realise they have lost, it’s evident but they will keep going even if we get relegated they will still find am excuse or someone to balme apart from their blind support for Arteta.
“Some fans contradict their own statements”
Ease up on the fan shaming for this as your plenty guilty of doing this too on occasion, just two or three days ago you said kroenke is not at all to blame then later the same day you were saying he is partly to blame, we all do it.
@Defund, no I am not doing fan shaming I am just putting my argument across as a question? That the fans who believe system is flawed and need to be replaced then how come same system provided us with so many trophies? How is that fan shaming? Did I call out names or stepped out of the boundary of respect. When has Saying some one contradict their own statement become shaming that person?
“Some fans contradict their own statements when you ask them what improvement has MA made and his achievements, they slap FA cup and Community shield victories in your face.”
That’s not even SLIGHTLY a question, asking a question after your statement doesnt make it so.
And I say fan shaming because you lace those little comments into pretty much every post while failing to see you do the same things on different topics, just like EVERYONE ELSE.
“That the fans who believe system is flawed and need to be replaced then how come same system provided us with so many trophies?”
So you actually believe our system HASN’T changed since our time of winning trophies? Seriously? SMH.
And of course no response lol off to the next person to argue with lol
I’m not blind to Arteta’s mistakes, but this has been coming for a long time. Who would really want to take this job after Emery? And (without a miracle) do you really think someone else would have done a good job? At best we’d just remain mired in the same situation we had right at the end with AW – struggling to make 5th and getting destroyed 3 or 4 times a season by proper teams.
Realistically things need to change from the top before anything can get significantly better on the pitch, and that won’t happen until things get bad.
Linked to this, there’s a lot of players who need to be shifted, and we just can’t shift them because of past mistakes. It makes it very difficult to significantly improve the squad.
How can you compare being 5th to what we are at the moment??? So in your view coming 5th in league is same as fighting for relegation?
didn’t see the game actually but am not surprised, but the players need to cover themselves in shame, you can blame the players all yolike but this is shameful as a professional, none of them can boast of playing to the coach instruction presently because no coach will tell them to be this daft.
I hope Martinelli and TP get back soon, I can understand lack of fight prompted the manager to rush Injured players back, if the players are doing fine already probably those coming back from injuries would not have rushed in thereby leading to more issues
Saying “it cannot get worse for Arsenal” is a contradiction in terms as it can get far, far worse. Being in the bottom three & staying there is the worse case scenario, and even more so if the unthinkable happens and Spurs win the Premier League.
No, Arteta will remain till Europa League exit. Thats his last resort. If he keep winning Europa League then he stay. He can pack his bag if he failed EU.
As long as Kroenke is the owner this club will NEVER be what it used to be. Selling our best players year after year without replacing them with quality since he bought in, always going for the cheap solution. Then when investment has been made it has been on the wrong players, paying over the odds to get crap in return. The investing also started too late considering how many years we sold off the good players we did have. Kroenke doesn’t care about football, he doesn’t care about Arsenal an lastly he doesn’t care what you or I think as long as the club is making money.
ADMIN COMMENT – Kentlam has sent the whole comment to me to be used as a full article…
KENTLAM BRAVO and huge appause for writing the single most sensible post on thids thread and among the best ever posts and realistic truthfulones on JA. Why so many naive fans refuse to see that all our problems date from Kroenkes coming in back in2007 ,is to me a total mystery!
BUT THEN I HAVE A BRAIN AND BEING 70 YEARS OLD, a great deal of worldly wisdom, as you clearly have too!
Thank you very much Jon, I can not claim the age or the wisdom of it like you, but I think it’s clear to see where the problem lies if one cancels out all the noise and try to see things in an objective way. Since this was a long post with issues that I feel is important, I sent it to admin Pat to be posted as an article. I think the only way out of this is for fans to stand together to try and force Kroenke out. Fan power can be big if enough people are behind it, as evident from the Wenger out era.
Thank you 👏👏👏👏
Well done writing what so many refuse to see
I simply think enough of this club values and athics which we only hide behind when it suits us otherwise we are ruthless when we have to be. The owner should do what Roman did for Chelsea, keep firing ppl till we find the ones who can deliver success. We didn’t see Chelsea cry about the structure and regimes, it should be simple deliver the desired results or get fired. We talk about our team becoming very soft in actual we as fans and board have become soft as well because when certain ppl are not performing and failing we want to keep them in a hope they will turn the corner. We say we are Arsenal, not like Chelsea who recycle through managers and have no class. Time to choose for the owner either to show class as calimed by some fans or be ruthless as claimed by some other fans. To achieve great things you need to take risk , greater the risk greater the reward.
Wasn’t sacking Wenger a massive risk?
My Point Pat is we are reacting too late to situations. Wenger’s contract should not have been extended and he should have been given a farewell with deserved respect instead of sacking. We were never this bad under Wenger no matter what ppl say. Wenger and Alex F were different to all other managers they can not be treated in same manner to today’s managers as they dedicated their lives to the club. But now we need to be ruthless like Roman deliver or get a boot that goes to all the staff at club not just manager. I guess in a way Kronke is doing it first Gazidis then Raul but he needs to expand that to others as well like Venk n Edu.
So where are those that are always on Bellerins back and claiming that Soares was the next Phillip Lahm..
don’t think too many were saying that…some were saying (me included) that maybe it is worth trying him instead of Bellerin as he hasn’t been very good. Bellerin has been given lots of chances to be pretty average, I would give a couple to Cedric.
We are getting to a point now that as the team is so awful it is hard to tell how some of the team can actually play. There is no doubt that some of them will be garbage anywhere but some will probably do well elsewhere. I just don’t know who is who anymore…
Who signed Cedric Mark, …mmm.. Wenger??
I am taking the Arteta score as -2 and that is about right.
I think 4 is harsh for Gabriel , he is our best defender by far along with Tierney.
It is just impossible to play well with deadbeats
like kola and mustafi. kolasinac just can’t play
in the 3 in the back formation he will never get it.
As for Runarson he is extremely unreliable , the whole defense was exposed all game little help from the midfield.
On the other hand its always delightful to watch players like Martinelli, Rowe, Balogun,
Tierney, Saka, Gabriel and Willock.
COYG.