Arsenal were downed 2-0 at Newcastle on Monday night to see their Champions League hopes take a major blow, but can they consider themselves unlucky?
We went into the game with massive doubt over the possible participation of both Ben White and Gabriel Magalhaes, and on their performance, they clearly weren’t completely ready. Without the ability to train in the run-up to the big game, they were always going to be at a disadvantage, and when your defence doesn’t fill you with confidence, you are shackled somewhat.
We also had key duo Thomas Partey and Kieran Tierney missing, with both suffering injuries shortly after the international break, further limiting our playing staff as we looked to mount a serious push to seal a place in the top-four, and their experience was definitely missed.
While the squad could feel hard done-by after the series of events which led to their squad being decimated, the likes of Rob Holding, Edu and Mikel Arteta could well be blamed for their roles in the situation.
The English defender failed to keep his head when taking on Tottenham, even after receiving his initial yellow card he couldn’t contain himself for the occasion, and deserved to be suspended for his actions. Whether you blame the manager for not, Arteta surely has to take some of the slack for his side’s disciplinary record throughout the campaign, but he can also be blamed for another reason.
He and his backroom team allowed both Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Calum Chambers to leave the club for free earlier into 2022, two players who would definitely have aided our push for a top four finish, and while you can understand somewhat why they were allowed an exit, the fact that neither was replaced in the first-team squad has hampered us.
It was said in January that we had a serious chance of making a return to the Champions League, and given the fact that we go into the weekend with a slim chance only backs up our previous thinking, and our failure to bolster the squad has to be looked at as a major failure of our hierarchy.
I feel like the team themselves can feel unlucky to have been hurt this way, but the likes of Mikel Arteta and Edu have to come under the microscope, and I don’t want to see any similar risks taking in future seasons.
Patrick
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What I find hard to believe is that we couldn’t find a couple of players(DM/CF),who could have done a job for us until the end of the season. especially with the amount of time we wasted in trying to secure a player that was never going to sign got us.
We weren’t unlucky…
We are in this situation because mediocre incompetent owner, Board and Management staff and perhaps most incompetent and mediocre manager to lead this club on field…
Not bad luck team and manager just not good enough, with EL next season and the extra games I think we could massively struggle especially if we’re looking at more signings with *potential*
The NLD was ruined by the referee, but the game in Newcastle showed that our players were low in confidence and badly affected by the Toon Army
As for Arsenal’s inability to replace the departed players, I believe it was Kroenke’s decision to save money. Arteta stated that they preferred to wait for a player with the right quality after missing on Vlahovic
I understand the financial reason behind it and they might want to tempt Nketiah for the extension, but I wished they loaned someone
GAI as much as I ridicule PL refs the derby was destroyed because Totts are better than us and have a far better manager holding deserved to be sent off! was the pen soft? Of course but football is a soft sport now so it’s expected.
Kev, we were dominating the ball possesssion and pinning Spuds down in their own half in the first twenty minutes, before the referee decided to brandish the second yellow card for Holding
I agree with his first yellow card. But Son wouldn’t have hit Holding’s elbow, if he didn’t duck
It’s just my observation though. The players should’ve forgot the trashing and focused on the game in Newcastle, unfortunately the Toons were more aggressive
GAI this Arsenal team does not have big game mentality yeah the squad is young but when it matters they crumble absolutely no ruthlessness about them, all nice lads, it’s a reflection of the manager who was bang average as a footballer and bang average as a manager, we played ok for 19 mins but at no point looked dangerous if anything totts didn’t even get going and with Son on the pitch he would have eventually wreaked havoc whether ref made those decisions or not. Regarding the Newcastle game even had we miraculously gained a point from the previous game imo the outcome would have been the exact same they absolutely swarmed all over us and the team could not handle it, when Arsenal are aggressively pressed they have no answer and that’s down to the manager and his tactics or lack of.
Here here
Kev, the players were quite aggressive to win the duels, when they won the previous four games. I think they were stunned by Holding’s sending-off and decided to tone down their aggression significantly to avoid yellow cards in Newcastle
@GAI, turn it in mate. We were outclassed by that mob in the NLD, nothing to do with refs or VAR. Let’s accept we were ill prepared by a manager still struggling to come to terms with being in charge of a big club.
Dennis MA should be learning his trade at Cadiz or Osasuna or somewhere where there is no pressure not at a club with a massive world wide fanbase absolutely absurd that Arsenal is now a club where a man can learn to be a manager and fans are fully behind it.
I just replied to the author who chose to talk about the previous controversy
We shouldn’t have cried over spilled milk. This applies to Arteta’s new long-term contract
We’d better focus on the potential summer transfers
We will finish in fifth place. Where we deserve to finish. Luck, or lack thereof, had nothing to do with Monday night’s performance.
If anybody from the players to the management think it was down to luck then they should leave now.
Instead the singular focus should be on learning from the way this season has fizzled out and coming back stronger next year.
Rational and measured Voyageur
I don’t believe the manager or anybody directly involved with the team have claimed bad luck. To some extent one can understand why a case is being made for bad luck even if it is not the strongest argument.
I would suggest that most would agree that if we had all of our first team players fit and available for the last two games the performances would have been much better. This is where an element of luck can be a factor.
What I find hard to read at the moment is us suggesting we didn’t win the games that mattered due to the inability to bring player’s in to replace player’s going out.
The majority of player’s did play against chelski, mature and west ham.
They were good enough then so why the excuses now.
Weather it be the player’s fault or managers fault, the simply fact is the team collectively player’s and manager failed to show up for the past 2 games.
Are they too young to handle the pressure, can’t perform at the highest level or just not enough
At lot of people have expressed some valid point and opinions on here on how they feel about the current squad and our manager
The burning question is will MA be here next season as our manager and by all accounts he will be, which will be detrimental to how some people feel about him
I personally think he does at least have 10 games left in him to see where we are heading
We have one very small roll of the dice left in us for Sunday which unfortunately we don’t control so for the last time this season
Onwards and upwards 《just 4 u ken)
🙄🔝
In any industry such an abject failure by an executive would lead to the famous “You’re fired”. Here at Arsenal it led to a new contract for Arteta the failure. Sadly it will be many years before Arsenal will rise to glory. Poor quality owners and a manager who “snached defeat from the jaws of victory”, show the process at Arsenal is delusional. In the real competitive world delusion cannot succeed. It’s not possible. In a few years time, the years of mediocrity will force new owners or an upgrade in manager, but for now the executive levels of Arsenal are tainted with deluded ideas and failure will carry on regardless. It’s so sad that we have such a poor manager that his emotional obsessions affect his blundering decisions…like not buying in the January window. How sad for Arsenal supporters to have to put up with total executive level delusion.
Perhaps less “unlucky” and more “unprepared” is better suited in this case.
After a loss to spuds in a critical match, we were still up on them 1 point with 2 matches to play.
We followed that with a dead fish effort lacking completely in effort and desire.
The players and Arteta deserve all the blame that comes. They seemed unmotivated and had no urgency against Newcastle. The tactics were off, and the players and Arteta had no answer to even put up a fight.
saliba and maitland Niles should have been at the club not loaned out.
To be honest arsenal player lack of big muscles and fighting spirit becos any time were playing against anyteam that play physical footbal it becomes a problem. Arsenal need agressive player not entertainment e.g zaha, rice, rashford and richalison
Please, no more excuses we are where we are because of our inconsistency throughout the season. We lost too many games to some of the ‘smaller’ clubs. As far as the NLD is concerned the less said the better, Holding was lucky he wasn’t sent off earlier and to suggest that Son deliberately ran into Holding’s elbow (gai) is silly. Have you wondered why his elbow was raised in the first place? Sorry, after the first 10-15 minutes it was men vs boys!!
simply NO
Whoever sanctioned the postponement of the Spuds game when they were in not the same form as now, showed a real lack of judgement and it failed.
Now that’s a valid point, however it should never have been down to timing and luck.
where would chelsea nd man utd that (arteta) beats learn their own?
The classification was lost in the Tottenham game trying to win the game when a draw was a very good chance to get it.Even small teams putting a low block against them they got the results.The approach was very naivety.
I see from the comments that the owners get a lot of stick for not spending.. A quick google search came up with the ffg.
Top five highest-spending clubs in 2021 summer transfer window
Arsenal – €165.6 million.
Manchester United – €140 million. …
Manchester City – €127.5 million. …
Chelsea – €120 million. …
RB Leipzig – €107.6 million. ..
There is something smelling in the …..