Despite losing two out of two Premier League games so far, within the space of a week, a lot of people no doubt will be saying that this is a cause for concern for Arsenal!
But I disagree entirely with this and still have cause to remain positive! Why shouldn’t we be!
Of course, people will comment that we are not going to get anywhere this season but let’s not forget we are early days into the Premier League season, and we are still fighting on all four fronts in all four competitions. And given how inconsistent every team is being this season and although it is never nice to lose when we know we have the talent and ability to win, it is not the end of the world.
We have enough talent in our squad to be able to pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off, to be able to get back to winning ways and really begin mounting a title challenge. Maybe this season will come a little too quick for us to be able to be Champions, but I don’t see why we can’t finish in the top four. In fact if we had won yesterday, we would have been up in the Top Four and just ONE POINT behind the League Leaders Everton…
Let’s not forget we are only six games into what is going to be a very very long season and there is still a long way to go, where hopefully when it comes to the end of the season, we will be looking back over a rather successful capaign where we finish in the top four and have at least two trophies to our name and the back to back losses of games against Manchester City and Leicester City will be long forgotten!
I have all the faith that Arteta will dig out the issues and rectify them sooner rather than later, and we will soon be seeing the Arsenal with the ability we know they have on paper, step out onto the pitch!
Gooners?
Shenel Osman
You better wake up if you are still sleeping. What assurance do you have over your next march. We started same time with the leader on 13 points. 6 matches are gone. You have to contest for every game. No team wants to loose. One game two games you gather your points. In same vein, one point two points you drop points. Don’t be over reliance, Arsenal is not yet there if we can’t start picking our ponts now. Do you know the schedule from now till January. Injury will come. We are playing on Thursdays and Sundays. Fatigue will come. The boys are not machines. Luiz was injured yesterday, who is next. We need to wake up and start getting results.
Mind you, if we don’t win our next game against Man United, Arsenal will drop to like 15 or 16.
The team must wake up now.
Pat loving the optimism but its well misplaced fella, the team looks disjointed all over the shop we havent won away at a top 4 / 6 team in the league in over 4 years I believe so Man United Game is almost certain to be a right off meaning we will be in 15th place or there abouts. If you think we could be champions with this team you need to give your head a wobble chap.
lol so funny . lost for the 3rd time in only 6 rounds and this time was at home and you say calm down lol honestly there are plenty to be worried about NO creativity , NO vision , lack of direct play , lack of individual solution , lol and you say calm down
So Shenel what’s wrong with being 4 point over the top?
for now you have a reason to be optimistic about however next week it becomes 7 points . see u next week .
OT.. Shkodran Mustafi rejected Arsenal’s offer of a contract extension in the summer & has informed the club he plans to leave at the end of the season…
How we treated Ozil, I am afraid no player will want to extend with us anymore.
Auba?
Our midfielders and defence have forgotten theres forwards also….they move with the ball up…passes back down again….so boring to watch…felt sleepy lastnight…woke up when vardy scored🙄….they should play with no forwards…..100s touches behind and maybe 10 in the front…should also play elneny, willock n Nelson as forwards and play passing behind instead of assists…that’s how they enjoy it..only ball possession no goals.🙁 y blame auba n laca…when they dont get passes…and omg does Leno knows to kick the ball upfront!
I don’t understand this mentality and excuse, this is the issue we have at the club. One excuse after another and it seems we are getting very creative with this. Why don’t we do same comparison when other teams around us are performing brilliantly like liver pool last year or Mancity n pool year before that?? But when they struggle a bit our fans are quick to jump to comparison and point the point difference. If other teams lose how does that give us the excuse or warrant to lose? We want to be in league of big clubs then we need to start thinking like big clubs. We are still losing to top6 again and again, we haveare playing dreadful and boring football I don’t know where is the improvement seen by fans. If winning FA cup was an improvement then didn’t we win lots of them under Wenger’s last part of era then we did not take it as an improvement.
Sue, that is good news too, one more going. Laca, Xhaka, Kolasinac, Socrates to move along with Ozil. Partey on board, cannot wait till June next year, till we have a new look AFC squad.
We should go back in time when we hired determined unknown players , we made them stars and they gave us glory. Unlike this generation who wants our money. Imagine Laca 180k/week unable to score a goal and when Mikel benches him, every complains that Laca is benched.Football is about results, not efforts. Happy with Mustafi’s departure only that will lower what ever value he had.
Yes and stop overpaying for average players 🤣🤣
The January window will be interesting, LC, maybe we could get a million or 2 for him then? No profit there haha!!
Shenel I do agree with the thrust of this article but sadly have to say that you have written almost the complete opposite to this in the very recent past. Trouble with playing Devils Advocate, which you are prone to doing, is that some wil believe you think this , some that and no one will know what you TRULY believe.
I’d love to know your TRUE honest thoughts. But I also know how desperate you are to write an article, any article and that haste to write comes in the way of having ONE TRUE OPINION, not several, each different from the last.
What do you TRULY believe, this article or a very contradictory one that you recently wrote? Which is it? Do tell !
I believe we will finish in top 8. Not top four.
This is what I TRULY believe.
Yesterday b Rogers outsmarted arteta. I’m not happy with artetas excuses. If we have the ball we need to create chances…good chances.
Ceballos was terrible yesterday and xhaka too, we were so predictable, wasting auba and laca looking lost…pepe is a big worry…he is doing nothing and he is not showing desire.
Arteta is running out of ideas
Lugdush PEPE was the waste of money £72 million Never a premiership player I am afraid
Why don’t we understand the fact that our team couldn’t create one clear chance in full 90 mins? Our midfield is not creating enough chances so that few can be converted in to goals! Rather, they are playing in between them in the centre of the park. In fact we are not playing our brand of football. Only 2 footballers namely Tierney and Saka are playing exiting football and breaking through the opponent’s defence. Apart from that, nothing to pick from other players anything positive.
Our defenders are recycling the balls quickly. but once ball arrives in midfield, we are clueless. Our midfielders are searching passing option like a blind man and playing back pass and side pass.
Now even Ramsay and Jack are looking good option.
even Ramsey? He’s starting for Juventus. He’d surely be getting abused right now if he stayed with us.
got to stop with the hundreds of passes across the defense. So many passes to XHaka who did nothing with the ball. There’s just no intensity to the play lately. Partey also didn’t get enough of the ball.
Obviously the sky isn’t falling on the Emirates, but there clearly are some disturbing trends that must not be ignored…we all know that when Arteta arrived our defence was in shambles, so it’s no surprise that we adopted a far less aggressive and expansive offensive strategy in order to shore things up at the back…that said, we failed to see that the main reason for our new found confidence was actually the emergence of Martinez…now we have a largely stagnant offensive scheme, with no creativity or consistent link-up play between the midfield and our forwards, and a undisciplined goalkeeper that lacks all the characteristics that were so highly-valued when Martinez was between the pipes…no matter what we do defensively, our team makes no sense, as it currently stands, if we can’t score at a much higher rate…it’s time to take off the training wheels, put Saliba at the back and let our midfielders to roam into the final third, or this season will be an unmitigated disaster…there’s a time for boring football, just not every goddam week
I don’t blame any forward, if u to be observed our mid fielders can’t take on opponents to create gaps for the forwards.
last season these traits of at least taking on opponents in the midfield we could only see it from Matteo.
I just want to see Auba playing centrally, that’s all :'(
I want to have 2 cf
……………..Auba..Laca/Pepe
………………….Saka/Will
Niles…Elneny…Partey…Bell
……..Tier……Gabs……..Whoever is available
or
……………..Auba…Pepe
Ceba……………………………..Saka
……………Elneny.partey
Tier…gabs…Availabe CB..Bell
We started with being zero points off top.
Then 3 points off Top
Now 4 points ofd top
Next week is likely to be 7 points off top etc..
So you get where I am going?
The team looks disjointed and playing too cautiously. I thought that with Arteta getting the players he wanted this season he was going to start playing more attacking football.
But it’s boring and mechanical.
Not impressed as of yet. Only Arteta can change my skepticism right now. Need to see the team playing like a fluid unit
Still behind Arteta of course.
Exactly. This is how it goes every season. “Just four points”, “just nine points” and then we are in a despesrate struggle to get top 4. I’m fully behind Arteta but why fool ourselves into thinking things are going to go a certain way this season when it’s going to be similar. It’s going to be another painful season. I’ve watched a lot of games this season and we are by far the dullest team to watch. Dont get how Villa has managed to have more creative and forward thinking players on their squad than us.
Yeah, the gap gets usually unreachable way before Christmas.
4 points wouldn’t matter if we hadnt played so badly so far. Only Fulham match was a decent, and even that was just 45 minutes of total control..
All the other matches we’ve struggled..
I agree with that to an extent as it is early in the season but recent performances indicate that the lead over us could expand if Arteta doesn’t change tactically
My point is thar We need to play a better to stay 4 points behind. We lost to Leicester, Man City and Liverpool. 3 losses this early is not good even against top teams. We need to change tactics so that we don’t lose to other teams that finished above us and certainly below us.
It is possible that with a few tweaks to our starting line up and formation, Arteta can turn things around quickly but will he? That remains to be seen
We have played one decent quality game and that was against Fulham. West Ham should have taken at least a point from us. We should worry. Arteta is over-controlling and the players are having the creative wind knocked out of them. Seeing our style of non-spontaneous football guarantees us no Champions league. Arteta was not creative himself and has thrown our creative players out of the club., literally. Football should be Athleticism with a little dance thrown in. Xhaka, Elneny and Ceballos….I say no more, AND the mistake factory that is Mustafi is back in the team. Arteta you are messing it up because your lack of experience is coming to the fore.
Hey don’t blame Arteta for Mustafi, all our other defenders are injured!
Mustafi should not be playing football for Arsenal
Jesus this website has REALLY gone downhill and still free falling, so sad.
I would beg to differ Rory.
As I would agree on some Articles as space fillers .the website as really expanded since I started using it ,no offence to Martin but when he came on board I hated it but after seeing what he did I quickly came round to what he and Pat was trying to do and i cannot fault the pair of them seeing how far it’s now come .
Yes some of the Articles grate on me but that’s mines and others choices to make if they want to read them or not .
Fro
When I started on here to now i can only tip my hat off to them .
Yeah sorry not a very clear comment on my part mate, didnt mean it in that respect I mean more the comments / vibe on here the last few months, just super toxic and divided and a lot of slagging off the club and each other etc,(not everyone of course) it used to be a lot more positive a few years back even though we weren’t winning trophies
No matter the formation and players we use, if Arteta doesn’t change his own mindset and push them to run at the opposition continuously and be more mobile and forward thinking, then we will continue to struggle. Maitland-Niles would have added more in that left midfield than Xhaka. We have Smith-Rowe who has good ball control and creativity but Arteta prefers Willock. There is no top 4 for Arsenal this season unless we change our style and intensity every game. We are the only team in the entire premier league whose attacking players can’t link up with one another on the pitch. And you see pictures of them training, what are they training on exactly if I may ask?
Kudos for optimism…
It was not a bad performance yesterday but we do need more control in the game.
Luix was superb yesterday,partey picked some good passes and xhaka as well but the problem is sometimes we need to attack through the middle and for that we need quality technical players,you know the arsenal way tiki taka😔
The problem yesterday apart from our strikers poor performance is that we need players who can read the game well and play creatively.Pepe,willian,ceballos are perfect for it but are not performing upto the standards.
We need to go on full attacking mode in europa,donrlt worry avout the clean sheets and stuff.Dundalk are going to sitback i suppose and if we wait to hit them on the counter it will be the same story again.Lets go beast mode,if dundalk scores 1,we will score 5.Lets go big
COYG
We need momentum before OT
It means that we still have a chance and time for MA to make a huge changes and sit with the players to discuss many things. The non-sense of playing Auba on sides while keeping Laca upfront is not paying anything!
Look at Vardy and Kane! Play Auba in his position, give more chance for the youngsters instead of keeping Laca all the time, play Saka and Pepe together and let Pepe move freely.. he needs more space and he needs directions! Our defense is getting better and not it’s time to make changes in our attack .. we need to score!!
I’m on the fence at the moment. We have quite a few disturbing trends creeping in like slow passing, negative attitudes and predictability.
On the other hand we have a really tough October fixture wise and many of the other top teams need to still play each other which gives me a glimmer of hope.
My biggest concern over the last 10 years is fitness. It’s rarely mentioned but in my opinion we are always close to the least fittest in the EPL at any given time. Compare our fitness to Leeds for example, miles apart.
Really need to go back to basics….
-Play players in their best position period
-Stop tinkering with formations and style every week
-Pick a core team for certain competitions and stick with them as far as possible
-Pass and move, pass and move, pass and move….this will inevitably open up gaps in any defence
-Be brave, try a long shot every now and then…..or a difficult pass. At the moment we look like a team of cowards
Lastly I’d suggest we try sit a bit deeper and draw teams out of their shape. At the moment teams sit deep because they know we struggle to break them down. We play perfectly into their hands. Yesterday is a perfect example, we were so compacted pushing up that Partey and Cellabos barely had space.
Play Auba as No9 and watch the goals go in with Saka & Willian or Pepe on the wings. Martinelli when he returns!
Sell Laca next summer along with Mesut, Mustafi and Papa all going on a free.
This squad is going to struggle for top6 this season if we dont sort the attack system. Auba and Laca cant pay together!
We should have Mesut in front of Partey then Gabriel behind with Auba at the Top. Spine of the team… Couldn’t be any worse than it’s been.
Tierney and Bellerin have been decent so they start. Give Saliba a go ffs and see how he gets on! Mustafi is leaving let him go to the u21s like we have done with Mesut, at least Papa attempted to leave!
👍 I’m not sure what I find more perplexing – us offering a new deal or it being rejected!!! 😆
I wish I shared your optimism Shenel. These games against the top sides are the ones we should not be dropping maximum points in and we’ve just lost nine in three matches. If this is the template for the rest of the season then we’re doomed to mid table mediocrity once more.
People often tell me “You’re only as good as your last game”…. which suggests we really need to up the tempo!!!
Jax (SR), I remember you from AA… how are you feeling about Sunday?
We should get a win on Thursday, shouldn’t we??
Hi Sue
Yes I’m SR in disguise and trying hard not to offend folk here. A bit different from AA (where they’re all blowing each other) isn’t it. Hope you’re well and I like your articles & posts.
Thursday will be not much more than a practice game but I’m not at all confident about United (or Spurs come to that). Losing so many points to our rivals is not top four quality.
Well you’re doing a very good job!! It is different on here… good to see you and I must say, every time i see or hear of Delia – I always think of you 😄😉
Our next 5 league fixtures are brutal… and if we carry on the way we are, omg it doesn’t bear thinking about…
Our GD is 1 – it will plummet 🙈
The anxiety is kicking in already haha!!
👍 Delia…the love of my life😊
😊👍👍