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How is making the ‘Emirates a fortress’ going, Mikel?

Relying on our home form is now a no go!

The Emirates has lost its status as a fortress after two losses in our four home Premier League games so far this season.

A place that was once seen as a fortress, a place where we had a good winning streak going and where teams would come and fail to find a breakthrough, is slowly turning into a happy hunting ground for visiting teams rather than the home side!

Arteta not long ago called out to his team to make the “Emirates a fortress” and for his boys to stop teams from winning and to make them run scared when coming to the Emirates ensuring that they left without a win. But forward on literally one month and those words have been ripped up, chucked away and burned, as quick as the pace of Hector Bellerin!

Losing to Leicester City and Aston Villa at the Emirates in the space of three weeks and conceding four goals in the process without reply is really not putting our boys in a good light is it! The Emirates is no longer a fortress and teams are no longer scared or worried about playing Arsenal, home or away really. But how we have gone from being unbeaten at the Emirates since December 2019 and failing to score in only three of 72 games there, to having two losses in two weeks and failing to score in those consecutive league home games too is beyond me and is beginning to be a bit of a worry!

Arteta at the time called on his players to “play with that confidence at home where we have to be really resilient and dominate games to impose ourselves in those games.” And barring that first half against Leicester where we showed that intent, the second half against Leicester and the game against Villa completely went against what he has told his boys to do.

How he now goes to getting our home wins back and making the Emirates a fortress looks like it will be an even tougher mission than first thought, especially after we thought we were going somewhere as a team but as reality hits it is back to the drawing board for our boys and our gaffer! Gooners?

Shenel Osman

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62 Comments

  1. It will take a long time before Arteta really makes us a major force. He is very inexperienced as a manager and it really shows. We want him to succeed but his man-management is poor, that is clear to see from the Guendouzi, Torreira, Ozil, Saliba scenarios. Are his passion and demanding character enough….maybe, but without man management nobody can succeed. Wenger was tactically inept but he was a great man-manager. Arteta is treating players like machines rather than humans and the team look oppressed and have all their creativity sucked out of them. Perhaps he is so demanding and regimented their natural skills are being suffocated? Just IMHO.

    1. That’s the truth. His bosses at the office, instead of giving him a promotion, should have asked him to dial back a bit instead. When he said “I tried to help Ozil but I failed” , you see there and then “a know it all coach” with no humility or flexibility in mind. No doubt he is a smart person and hopefully these losses make him realize that football is about the players, not him.

      1. lcw, I think that phrase he used regarding Ozil was, at the very least, unfortunate, but let’s remember the situation he was at.

        Every interview, question, statement revolved around Mesut Ozil…just think about JustArsenal and how many articles were being published on here – it was like nothing else existed.
        Fans were getting exasperated, from both camps and the arguments were getting more and more bitter and tribal.

        Now let’s imagine what MA was feeling – he made his decision on Ozil, Guedouzi and Soks, but it was always the same subject that dominated his time…MO.
        I believe he that he just wanted to get on with the job and, in desperation to move on, made what he thought would clear the issue up.

        Saying that he has poor man management skills, flies in the results he has achieved with the likes of Xhaka, Elneny, AMN, Mustafi etc.
        What we are seeing is a different approach than both AW and UE used -in my experience, there are different ways to man manage and Alex Ferguson is a prime example when one compares him to Arsene Wenger….these two being the most successful managers in the PL.

        I also personally think he has made a mistake with MO, but he can review it in January – until then, let’s judge him overall, not on one result and one player.
        Remember where we were this time last year with regards to the club and it’s coach/players.

        2. Ken: I can only judge MA on what he says and does. My beef with him handling Ozil is on the business side but that’s only one issue. A wise coach once said: You are what your record says you are. I always maintained that MA deserves more time but unless he changes his tactics and learn from these losses our beloved Arsenal is headed to the bottom. So far we only see more of the same. I honestly can’t support him on faith alone but as an Arsenal fan I am patiently waiting.
          Thanks for the comment.

  2. Arteta will fail, far to inexperienced. He imagines himself a Pep after a short internship. His ego is ostracising Ozil and Pepe. Auba will be next. His tactics no matter what formation are staid and predictable.

  4. It’s not only Arteta, although yes he has got to take the blame too, but a lot of these players just don’t know what it means to play for our great club, too often we see so many lackluster performances… They seem to think playing for Arsenal means half hearted performances and big pay checks… It’s been the norm for so long now and we just seem to go round in circles… They performed decent for Unai Emery for a few months then it imploded and now we are seeing the same with Arteta… I’m not really sure what is going on at the club… We could replace the manager but who really believes anything major will change?

  5. Well Arteta is not the only one living in cucu land some of our fans are as well. By de way where are all de MA blind fan boyzz hiding?. Arrest is UE 2.0 like pepe is Gervinhio 2.0. The club needs to start thinking of plan B if we and in same position as last year…we reacted very late last year as hopefully we don’t do the same mistake again. No result and awful football ….where is improvement that too after spending so much money.

    1. Mohsan, Here I am as one of the many majority Gooners who are standing four square behind our excellent manager, saying you have no idea what you are talking about!
      An overreacting, unrealistic, rather silly and unconsidered man that you are and I am so pleased that I am a polar opposite from you! No need to hide and I WOULD FAR RATHER COME OUT FRONT AND CHALLENGE YOUR JUVENILE AND THOUGHLESS VIEWS, AS I AM NOW DOING!

      1. It’s your age John , u r lossing it calling ppl stupid n silly all the time. If 2+2 for you is equal to 5 then what can I say. The same stubbornness you blamed Wenger for, is the same you are showing. You are right we are polar opposite bec I don’t follow ppl blind and I don’t go against ppl who have provided years of service to our club, I respect them. You on other hand are the cancer that’s eating the fan base of this club thinking you own some sort of rights to the club fan base bec u have been a fan for long time. Another tip if experience and age was the factor in understanding the football better then managers like pep, klopp and Zizu would not have excelled. So all your sitting on the couch watching game experience does not give you any edge when it comes to understanding of the game.

        1. Can’t say I ever watched an under or woman’s game Sue the first team give me enough headaches I like to wind down when we aren’t playing 😂😂 I couldn’t even bring myself to Google arsenal news its too depressing 😛

      1. The only place I can see is Gillingham’s ifollow – costs £10 😳 Gonna check on YouTube. We’re currently 1-0 up!

          1. Matthew Willock playing for Gillingham and he’s just got smashed by one of our boys who just got booked, Joe won’t be happy 😂

            1. 😂 2 of our youngsters are on loan there – Medley and Coyle.

              Have the MLS show on… I didn’t know Wanyama plays for Henry’s Impact…

              1. I like medley or what I saw from him in a couple of pre season games but the chances of him being a regular at Arsenal is slim 😲 no I didn’t either Sue he wasn’t a bad player, he did score a wonder goal at Anfield he just played for the wrong team 😛

                  1. That’s where Willian should be inter Miami along with Lacazette Sue 😂😂 this boy Matthew Willock is causing havoc 😛

                  7. Haha yeah Sue cirjan pen was a beauty 😄 I like the look of moller for a big guy he’s got good feet 👊

                  3. Love a panenka – just not Lookman’s!! 😆 Not a bad night at all then, Kev 👍 And you got to see it!!!

                  4. Indeed I did Sue, although i wouldn’t normally watch the unders but it being international week why not 😂 haha lookmans 😛 who won the world cup then Sue ? Not Wales because you’d have said 😛

                  6. Haha Sue I actually just checked it on Google 😂 the maiden title it said 😲 I’m sure its just your eyes playing tricks on you 😛 if Phil the power Taylor was still around I’m sure the outcome would have been much different 🤣

                  8. The power would over power your guy Sue 😆😆 sat watching Sony Christmas channel it must be the international break 🤣🤣

  8. How come so many players be wrong, MA has had issue with so many players from young to experienced one. Fans kept blaming the players but then to what extent. Why can’t we see it is always MA who is constant in all equation if it’s MG, Ozil, Saliba, Balogun….etc etc it’s always MA. Putting it foot down and stamping ur authority is one thing but to behave like a dictator is another. After lock down some of the fans have not only been worried about how awful and ugly football we have been playing but also MA inability to work with some of the talented youngsters. Question is how long we will keep shifting the blame on players saying they are rebellious and have attitude problem when will we see MA has failed to work with a lot of players ranging from young to old.

  9. Worried about Auba. His body language is not great at the moment. Hopefully a run of goals will change that.

  10. Without fans there cannot be a fortress.The number of teams winning away from home are a reflection of this.

  11. My message to the doom merchants is that Arteta has been in post for under 11 months and has already made great strides in reforming a borderline chaotic situation to a Cup winning side

    So much at the club was wrong. A largely disinterested owner, several in senior management who weren’t fit for purpose (which may have included dodgy dealings) and a coach who failed to get his message across due to limited English. There are still players that were not what a club like Arsenal should have targeted, compounded by poor contract negotiations and an inability to sell on players for a decent profit often enough

    In came Arteta and immediately changes were obvious – well at least to me they were.

    I’m not blinkered; I know that errors have been made here and there but nothing to suggest to me that he is out of his depth.

    Arsenal is a club in transition and it won’t be plain sailing all the way, but I’m nowhere near ready to pull the plug like some. A little bit of realism wouldn’t go amiss. What did you expect from Arteta? A genie with a lamp?

    1. SueP, we are 8 games in and already lost 4 matches. Two at home against Villa and Lescter, we lost again away from home against City and Liverpool only won against let’s be honest a struggling poor Man United so where is the improvement then? We are playing awful borring football, with passing days more and more fans are starting to stay away from watching us play. Some naive Arsneal fans were jumping and beating their chest for being best defence in the league, are they serious?? We lasted 7 games as EPL best defence not like we were best defence for more then half a season. If we think that was an improvement to have best defence for 7 games and we could not even keep it up for 8 games then we are not kidding anyone then ourselves. If this is something to go buy then spurs have won the league n South Hampton have qualified for champions League. Now coming back to your argument about winning the FA cup, Chelase won Champions League under Di Mateo and they were actually in worse situation then we were when MA took over as they had a disturbed dressing room so does that mean Di Mateo is an out standing manager. If winning FA cup is what makes MA great then logically we should have signed Di Mateo. Ppl say give him time, we gave UE time and look where we ended. MA is not bringing us points in the board neither are we playing exciting Arsenal Style football then what is he bringing to the table..best defence for 7 games. I have said it so many times if you want to achieve big then aim higher and raise the standards not lower them. We don’t have to go to far juts look across the city, What Chelsea were and what have they become under Roman just bec he was an ambitious man and didn’t settle for mediocrity. Look what teams like Barca and Real Madrid have achieved its just bec they are not happy with mid table mentality. They have sacked their mangers even when they won League bec they did not win more trophies or champions League. I can say with authority if MA wins us the league then he will be untouchable im eyes of some fans even he did not win any thing in next 5 years thats how small mentality club we have become. We are now not thinking on the lines of big club who want to compete year I’m year out but we are giving each other false hopes on the basis of Leicester can win it so we have a chance as well. Every time we lose we have an excuse ready…it can range from playing against world class team to VAR to miss chances without taking into considerations chances missed by other team. No one should be invisible at the club, MA is hired to produce results all this talk and stamping authority is nothing if he can not produce results. He is paid to produce results not to act as school principle…like any job you don’t show result you are out of the door.

      1. Mohsan
        First and foremost, I share your frustration at the recent downturn but getting rid of Arteta now isn’t going to answer your prayers

        I listed all the problems that have been going on behind the scenes which you have glossed over completely. They have made a fundamental difference to the situation, particularly financial. FFP is an important factor here as our dealings have been poor

        You mentioned Chelsea but that isn’t Arsenal. You pointed out that RA has ruthlessly sacked every manager who hasn’t delivered what he wanted. He has also invested really enormous sums of money into the squad unlike Kroenke. I’d suggest that his CEO has made a better job of managing the club as a whole. Do you not recognise that Arsenal has been mismanaged from the top?

        This mismanagement has had the consequence of overpaying several team members with the added problem that the Kroenke clan are not football people. Abramovitch understands football and wants to win. This is not the overriding policy of the Kroenkes

        Under Abramovitch Arsenal may well have hired an Allegri type figure but we have Kroenke. Would Kroenke have invested heavily in the transfer market like RA? Arteta is dealing with the hand he was given. Under RA Chelsea had a blip but nothing like the last 4/5 years at Arsenal, but you are expecting that it is Arteta who should be held responsible for the downturn without him having the necessary tools to get it right quickly

        The world is in the grip of a pandemic and each EPL club will have been affected in some way, but if reports are to be believed, the loss of match day revenue has been critical for Arsenal.

        I’m waiting for the end of the season before I cast any judgment on Arteta. This season is showing how difficult 2920/21 is going to be. There have been all sorts of unexpected results so far and even the so called top teams are not romping away.

        My support of Arteta is not open ended but to even think that he should be replaced now is ludicrous to me.

        How many world class managers are there? And would Kroenke pay for one of them even IF they wanted the job? They would want assurances about player investment which won’t be forthcoming at Arsenal

      2. Guy you are just great this shows have the same mind. My uncle who is also an arsenal fan same with my dad always tell me that MA is just lucky and nothing else and everyday defend MA by saying he is good only for his decisions sometimes not good but today I understand everything also told me about Di Matteo winning CL out of luck and better coaches came and couldn’t succeed so u are absolutely right TBH.

    2. Thank you sir. “Doom merchant” indeed. Pure negative minded. However humans are not wired to think the same but they should hold their negativity rather than spew it out always.

  12. I am still firmly in the Arteta is the man camp, and in an ideal world would give him around 2 years, but regarding the current scenario, the least we can do is give him a season to work out. Granted his tactics have been baffling at times this season, but I believe this is just the darkness before the end of the tunnel. Also I believe that changing managers would not work out as we have already had 4 in 2 years with no visible improvement.

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