I know that the name of Mikel Arteta is not exactly flavour of the month with Arsenal fans right now and to be honest the Spaniard would probably agree that the away game with West Brom this weekend was a real low point in his career, but I am going to defend him anyway.
First of all let us just think about that game for a minute with some rational thinking. Arteta was probably not expecting to have to make an appearance at all, never mind being thrown into action after just 13 minutes. Unlucky for some eh? It certainly was not lucky for our club captain.
Some people have been saying that it would have been a penalty for handball if he had not put the ball into his own net but seriously Gooners, that would have been incredibly harsh as he did not move his arm to the ball and that shows that he could not get out of the way. And that so-called free kick should never have been given.
But all in all Arteta had a bad game. That does not mean we should try and convict him though, as he has hardly played any football in the last year because of numerous injury problems and the emergence of Francis Coquelin. So is it fair to expect him to be at the top of his game? O for one do not think so.
I also have to commend Arteta for his attitude towards his lack of game time and in that he has acted like a true captain, putting the needs of the club and the team before his own. I would also like to add that I thought Wenger was wrong to put him on yesterday when I thought that Flamini was the better option in the circumstances,
Finally I think that Arteta still has a part to play for Arsenal but it would be better for him to play alongside Aaron Ramsey or even Flamini or Coquelin in the middle. Anyone but Caqzorla really because they are too similar and neither is really defensively minded.
What do you think Gooners?
Honestly no disrespect but the best place i would rather see arteta, is in the stands watching the match!
wouldn’t arteta rather leave when his game has a semblance of competence? or wait, until he becomes decrepit, and everyone’s memory of him is tainted? also, WTF is wenger doing? its ok to think at the start of the season in the abstract “oh, its ok: he’ll come on for a bit when we are short” versus when the reality actually hits. bad management by wenger. delusional. cheap.
Arteta’s time is UP, it really hurts a lot to remember he cost us 3 mighty points on his own and disappear straight away. This guy should never wear Arsenal’s jersey ever again. Thanks for the memories.
He’s done, he should quit and go for acting in hollywood.
Le Coq out for at least 3 months
l tend to agree with you on this one. Not even one of us expected to see him in the game so early and given his lack of game time the outcome was always disastrous.
Arteta should go into coaching now.
He single-handedly lost the game for us. No bench. Arsenes an idiot. I know we have injuries but you don’t keep dead weight and loan out all the youth players.
Flamini is now our only fit DM, but who should be his sub?
1. Chambers
2. Gabriel
3. Bielek
4. Monreal
Vote now!
a good job could be done by monreal, gabriel. but why do we have to scrimp when we have 200M in the bank? its like , on purpose, hobbling yourself. championships are decided on a few points and when may rolls around, and we’re 3 points short etc, we may rue not having a backup CDM thats on par w coq (or better). why do you do this to us wenger? why?
Sadly he looked done last year as does Rosicky. We have too many young injury prone players to be gambling on the fitness of these 2 as well. I feel for Arteta because he has never had the chance to play in his natural position and as a DM he was always a round peg in a square hole.
I don’t blame Arteta, I blame Arsene for yet again failing to get adequate cover, as he did last season with the CB positions, which wrecked our season before it even started.
I just fail to understand Arsene’s thinking on the DM position. We only have Le Coq out of pure luck, had injuries not forced Arsene’s hand he would probably have seen out his loan at Charlton and left in the summer. Prior to Le Coq, Arteta and Flamini were clearly not good enough so what on earth makes Arsene think they can do the job now?
Before anyone quotes his excuse of the lack of options available, that is rubbish. There were several options available, not least Schneiderlin who was ideal and wanted to join us. He wasn’t even that expensive.
Arteta is not good enough anymore, either let him help coach his side passing skills to the young kids or release him,
If he is lucky he might continue his playing career at Barnet or somewhere in that division.
On second thoughts, he should just go!
And hopefully take wenger with him lol.?
something doesnt make sense to me (actually a lot of things): i would love to have a 1:1 conversation with wenger: why is he doing this (not buying WC players while we have money in the bank): is it really because he thinks we can win without such investment? does wenger really think a 2nd-stringer can come in as a sub and just take over w/o any reprecussions for our championship run? does wenger really want the championship any more – or is it fiscally better to just be 4th each year? his actions are inconsistent with his stated goals. there’s something very wrong.
I would like to start by saying I am not justifying Artetas performance. Players on the bench should always be ready to come on. But the counter argument is do you really think a ‘1st stringer’ would have been happy to sit on the bench for 4 months? It’s not just about buying players. You need to find a balance or you end up like Chelsea throwing away 30 million on a player that sits on your bench for 6 months and then leaves