Mikel Arteta has conceded that his substitutions in Arsenal’s match against Fulham did not have the desired impact. Despite making changes to the team to turn the game around, Fulham proved difficult to unlock.
The outcome was a defeat for Arsenal concluding their 2023 campaign with a loss. Looking ahead, Arteta’s side aims for a better year in 2024.
Fulham, being formidable opponents, likely studied how West Ham defeated Arsenal to devise their strategy, and it proved effective. Despite their efforts, Arsenal struggled to find the necessary goal to secure a win. Arteta has openly admitted that the substitutions did not produce the intended result in the match against Fulham.
He said, as quoted by Metro Sport: ‘When you don’t change the result, they didn’t [work].
‘That’s for sure, it didn’t work in the first half, and it didn’t work in the second half. Throughout 100 minutes, we were never at the levels that we wanted to [be at].’
Just Arsenal Opinion
We needed players to come off the bench to win that match for us, but everyone we brought on could not do that.
It is one of those bad days, but losing consecutive games is the way to miss out on the title, so we must win our next match.
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His substitutions rarely work.
But they do surprise people.
Not when we all already know Martinelli is the first to be subbed off, then replaced by a player that lacks his pace.
At least he tried something different anyway, if at all he intended to win the game. lol
He needs to start giving his bench players some games to start in.
The opposition teams have figured out how to play our starting eleven.
Maybe this will serve as a wake-up call and hopefully it has happened half way through the season and he will rectify it.
I’m beginning to think the bench players are just not good enough and that’s why they are on the bench. Cue someone replying, ‘no sh*t Sherlock’.
No S””t Sherlock!😉
I don’t think our bench is nearly good enough, so totally agree with you GB
Nice one SueP😉
All the ones who came on a bang average. An off form Martinelli is better than Trossard or Nelson
Arteta has done a fantastic job getting us to the Top 4. He has most definitely improved us
I Know this may be controversial and majority will disagree with me
However, I don’t believe he is the answer to take us over the line to winning PL and CL. I may be totally wrong but that’s my feelings
Loyalty is fine but we need to be pragmatic and dare I say ruthless too?
@Stephanie
My sentiments exactly…
Stephanie
A very fair and legitimate question you raise.
Arteta had no answer at the end of last season, but was papered over by injuries; some of which were due to his overplaying and lack of rotation throughout the year.
Even only dealing with PL games, he could not save a sinking ship.
2nd half of season will tell a lot.
Will he admit mistakes? Will he make the necessary player moves? Can he change his tactics? Will he use the bench and rotate players? Will he end failed experiments and move out flops like Vieira and Nketiah?
It would be much more useful if you could give your reasoning rather than your “feelings”.
It may also be interesting to know who you think would be better. What do you mean by “pragmatic” and “ruthless”?
IMO, some fans are seriously underestimating how difficult it is actually to win in the PL.
We have had some of the greatest managers in Europe: e.g. Mourinho, Tuchel come into the PL and unable to get the better of Guardiola’s MC over a PL season or even consistently make the CL.
You are quite right, it is hard to win the prem. But getting beat by West Ham and Fulham, in consecutive games, will not win us the league and overhaul Peps city. Plus we are never winning the league getting 4 points from the last 15.
Arteta has to just stop picking on Martinelli each time he experiences one of his many brain freezes. Martinelli is a committed, highly productive and humble player who gives everyone for the team. It’s just downright stupid to always take him out when Nketiah, Havertz and even Saka are poor. Arsenal is not his family club where he can just pick his favourites without merit. It’s beginning to look like we have a psycho on our touch line.
While it seemed Fulham studied how West Ham defeated Arsenal, it was obvious we never cared to learn why West Ham defeated is. How can subs make a difference in a stereotypical MA’s strategy of never-attacking games. Bring in Osimen, Toney, Vlahovic, Harland, Foden or God-knows who else, our tactics will demystify them. MA is too rigid in a blind allay.
The bench is just not good enough, period.
We have a passably good first eleven, but after that, not much else.
The team has too many players who can only play when someone else is not available. Good title winning teams have two “elevens” that can square up against one another and produce a solid game of football. We are very far from having that even without the injuries.
Until we have that kind of situation, we cannot be a great team that is capable of winning games and titles.
For this season, we’d be lucky to finish in the top four unless something changes quickly
I don’t think anything worked against Fulham or West Ham. 4 points from 15 is shocking and very very worrying. Should not be happening. Something is going terribly wrong. And at a fast pace.
Trossard has shown spats of good form he can be creative at times and has scored the odd goal That is why Martinelli comes off. If we had a right-sided player like say P Neto then you would see Saka being withdrawn in certain games. A match-fit ESR is a good option to have As for the rest of the bench Tomiyasu and Ramsdale are probably only up to scratch. Some might argue Jorginho when there’s no Partey instead of Havertz. Other than that we don’t have a lot of options. Nelson and Nketiah need to be moved on because those are two big places within the set-up