Arteta believes Arsenal have found a way to counter the ‘lower block’

Arsenal have found it very hard to score in the Premier League lately, but to be fair, Mikel Arteta has probably been concentrating much more on the defensive side of our game.

This seems to be working as we can now boast the current best defence in the EPL, with just 7 goals conceded in our first 7 games. But offensively we are hardly a team to write home about either, and only Fulham, Wolves and Palace have scored less goals than us.

So, hopefully the boss can now put more effort into the offensive side of our game, especially when we come up against teams that build a brick wall in front of their goal and invite us to try and find a way through. This is exactly what Villa did in our last meeting, and they ran out 1-0 winners, so we should not be surprised if they try the same tactics tomorrow.

But Arteta believes that his team are now improving in the department, and he told Goal: “We need to be more productive,”

“In the last few weeks’ve found teams with lower blocks. We’ve trained to be ready against that, we’ve experienced that throughout the games and [against Molde] you could see a big improvement.

“That’s probably the final bit that we need to improve upon as a team because there’s many areas where we’ve improved on a lot.

“In the last few weeks that we’ve improved with the goals and the creativity but it’s the consistency that we need in the final third.”

Let’s hope that he has started getting the boys ready for those tactics and they can find a way past Martinez tomorrow, hopefully a lot more than once!

COYG!!!

Tags Arteta Aston Villa low block

12 Comments

  1. In the last few weeks we failed to score at Leicester and got a penalty at utd. How is that sorted? I don’t see any improvement in the prem but i hope winning breeds confidence and goals.

    1. Reggie, you need patience! The article did not claim it was “sorted” , and in fact said it needed work and that work is happening. It said it IS happening , and NOT that it has fully happened, a crucial difference, easily noted when you read words correctly and in their proper context.

      Being a realist, I always expected that the first matter MA WOULD CONCENTRATE ON IMPROVING WHEN HE CAME HERE , WAS TO PLUG THAT THEN EXISTING DREADFUL DEFENCE. He has done so and as for the rest of a great deal of work still needed , I am prepared to give him proper time, as I RECOGNISE THE GREAT QUALITIES THAT MA HAS IN SPADES!

    2. Jon the article clearly states we have improved at scoring goals in the last few weeks. I clearly stated that in the last few weeks we haven’t improved our scoring and creativity. No pop at Arteta, just the articles relevance. Using Molde a proof, is not right, we haven’t failed to score or create in the EL. Its the prem we find it difficult. Plus i did add, winning breeds goals and confidence that should come. I dont see where im showing impatience, far from it, just a bit of realism. LOL

      1. . Seems clear to me Reggie, as a work in progress but NOT YET completed. MA adds “We are now improving in the dept but we need to be more productive.” But it is OK to disgree, and it makes a change anyway.

        It was MA, NOT the article, who claimed we are scoring more goals and the article quoted HIS statement, whilst not agreeing with it, as I don’t either.

        It is fact, not opinion, that we are NOT scoring more Prem goals as yet. BUT I REMAIN RELAXED THAT THEY WILL SOON COME.

    3. Previously everyone was saying park the bus or dropping back now we are saying low block over the last couple of weeks ,its also recruitment not signings what’s going on

      1. It does seem some terminology has changed. Is this due to certain coaches coming in? international influence? Not sure

  2. Arsenal as a team has goals in them,but Michael Ateta’s focus was to fix the defence,which is the right thing,considering our woeful defence in the past.

    Seems he is now satisfied the team has learnt the ethics of defending: his next focus will sure, be on the attach.

  3. Unfortunately we have quite a large section of our fans base who are never satisfied with what is been achieved. They seam to live to spew out negativity at every opportunity. Unfortunately that is life.
    Continue the good work MA !

    COYG.

    1. What fans majorly complain about is performance. If you have players who fans feel can improve the team on the bench, and you are not getting the required performance with your selection, fans will complain and they are right because it is fraustrating.
      We don’t care who fits in or not just build the team and give us results that is what every fan wants. When the performance is not there you are creating room for fans to suggest what might work because they watch this players and know them before even you the coach started analysing there capabilities.
      You can’t be having issues with marking in your team and you keep a player like torreira on the bench or out of the team. If you believe you don’t need him, let the performance of the team show you can do without him otherwise it is fraustrating.
      Imagine the fraustration Mustaphi caused the fans at leicester when we had Saliba out of the team.

  4. With the team struggling upfront, it would have been fraustrating to have martineli fit but not playing for whatever reason. No other Arsenal player is as good as martineli when it comes to positioning in the box.

    1. If Mustaphi can be allowed to make such a silly mistake what then is the reason for keeping Saliba out.
      I thought Saliba was out because such mistake is not wanted, and will be let into the team when such errors are out of his game. Now, that is fraustrating for a true fan to see that an old defender with no room for much improvement is allowed some mistakes so he can regain confidence but a younger player with a potential to become huge is having his confidence sucked out of him.
      Do you want to be told that Arteta has been lucky?
      He preferred Aour to Partey even though he was sending torreira out on loan.
      If not for early season injury to Luis Gabriel wouldn’t be playing. He would have kept him out in the name of easing him into the team. He kept him out of Liverpool game despite good performances in the previous games. He is yet to convince me he knows what he is doing, but I love the way we are playing now and if it is luck that is helping him, I wish him more of it.
      I am just trying to let @ Millie know that it is reasonably arguable that Arteta doesn’t know what he is doing yet, If not for Edu helping him.

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