Charlie Austin has claimed that Arsenal fans need to give Mikel Arteta a break, and claims that he is working with a squad of players which are not good enough at present.
The Gunners currently sit down in tenth in the Premier League table, 11 points off the fourth an final Champions League place at present, and fans have come to criticise the manager in recent months.
Arteta took over the helm in December 2019 with the team faltering in the division, and the Spaniard rescued their season by winning the FA Cup.
The Spaniard was then backed in the transfer market, shelling out for Thomas Partey’s release clause on Deadline Day, as well as bringing in defender Gabriel Magalhaes despite a host of centre-backs already at the club.
The new season hasn’t gone to plan however, falling down the league table to sit outside the European places, we are already out of the FA Cup and League Cup, and are in danger of being eliminated from the Europa League.
His place in the role is now coming under question amongst Arsenal’s fans, but Charlie Austin, who is currently enjoying a loan spell with QPR in the Championship believes Arteta deserves backing.
Austin was with the TalkSPORT presenters on Monday, when they decided to read out some messages on the subject, and decided to reply to one in particular which read: “It’s not the worst Arsenal team, the manager isn’t good enough for the job. He will be some day, but not now. If we had Ancelotti we’d be doing a lot better.”
It didn’t go down well with Charlie however, stating: “That’s a cop-out tweet.
“‘If we had Ancelotti’? When they appointed Arteta they were buzzing about a new beginning after the ‘boring’ football under Emery, and now it hasn’t worked out they want to bring someone else in!
“Trust your manager, give him time!
“Can you please Arsenal fans? Wenger was there for so long but all of a sudden they hammered him like he was a failure, so he leaves. Another manager comes in, Emery, they didn’t enjoy him and Arteta comes in and now he’s to blame.
“Look at your squad. Is your squad good enough to finish in the top four? Simple answer, no.
“Is your squad good enough in the top six right now in the Premier League? No! Well there you go then, your team just isn’t good enough.
“We’re not talking about titles, we’re not even talking about top four or even top six. Is this Arsenal team good enough to finish in the top half of the Premier League? That’s the question for Arsenal now.”
Is the general consensus that Arsenal’s squad is strong enough to challenge with the rest of the top four? Are there six squads stronger than ours? Is Arteta no longer considered the man to take Arsenal forward amongst the fans?
Patrick
Austin is correct, but the anti Arteta brigade will disagree and demand a hanging.
Austin isnt correct its his opinion and considering he isn’t an Avid Arsenal fan, an opinion with little substance. People were saying in November man utd weren’t a top six with the squad they had. The players were but what they were doing wasnt, they are saying different now. Its easy to say when some one is in the top six they are and when they aren’t they are not. We are obviously not top 6 but that isnt down the the players but the set up.
Didn’t we make top 6 with our 2 previous managers with an even worse squad?
Not against MA but Austin’s point is contrary to the facts
We made top 6 every season under Wenger but we never made top 6 under Emery with a worse squad. In Emery’s only full season we finished 5th with a much stronger Squad. Austin is bang on.
I disagree regarding squad strength.
Do you really believe our squad currently is weaker than what we had under Emery?
Each to their own, cheers
I honestly think the squad is far better than the one Emery got left or left Arteta but we’re massively under achieving. NO WAY IS THIS SQUAD BELOW TOP 10 EVER.
So west hams squad is better than ours ? I’m not having that. People will back Arteta especially non Arsenal fans as they will take glee in our misery! We are a massive club and where we are in the league is disgraceful and I will tell it like it is, I don’t give a damn who it’s upsets! I’ve supported Arsenal a long time and it breaks my heart seeing how poor we’ve become and we are all entitled to our opinions and my opinion is Mikel Arteta is simply not good enough.. people talk about klopp and liverpool in comparison but there is no comparison when klopp came to liverpool the results was erratic but the football was exciting.. they scored goals and entertained, can anyone say the same about us ? Our football is the perfect remedy for insomniacs, absolute dire! Yes Arteta won the fa cup and I for one praised him on that.. it was a nice achievement for a poor season but now that’s a past achievement, Wenger also won fa cups with average squads but the majority of us still wanted him gone! I don’t see any improvement, what I see is a team on a very downward slippery slope.
Everton, Leeds, Aston Villa, Leicester or West ham have a better squad than us. There are others above us who haven’t either but i wont get into that. To say we are on a squad level with Palace, Southampton, Wolves and Brighton is rediculous and yhats what some people are hinting at with their stupid ideas we have a squad only capable of 10th. Rediculous!
Yeah I know Reggie and also we have lost the same amount of games as Fulham, let that sink in.. the next thing people will say is our squad isn’t as good as fulhams! So basically we just have a bad squad and Arteta is doing great.
The first sentence was irony.
Yes Kev but some people still think he is getting the best out of this bottom 3 squad.🤣
Haha yeah Reggie he’s pulling up trees 😂 you wonder why the board aren’t preparing his new contract 🤪
We finished 8th last season after a terrible start. Now youngesters have more experience and he had two windows and we became 10th.
Is our squad worse than Olympiakos?
It is not just numbers, good players are under performing, some that MA brought in himself.
And everytime I watch a game, it is mostly terrible on the attacking side, even against teams like R. Vienna. We basically do not have the slightest clue of creating opportunities consistently.
So with all due respect to Austin, he is…
Dies Austin think that all teams in top have a better squad than us? He’s very wrong. Arteta is the problem in the whole scenario, because he cannot fully utilize his resources which is at his disposal. With the current squad, most managers will compete for the league, let alone top 6