Is Arsenal still in chaos under Arteta?

Have Arsenal now hit rock bottom? by ThirdManJW

The unraveling of our squad we saw under Emery, we’re now seeing the same, if not more so under Arteta. Mostly inherited problems I should add. The result and performance was expected against City, but it’s the problems surrounding the squad that seemed to have deepened.

We have one the best strikers in Europe, that cannot even get a game upfront in a rubbish team, and who’s future is up in the air. One of highest paid players in all of Europe doesn’t even make it onto a 9-man bench. Tactical reasons again, apparently. Laca, yet another expensive flop, is also coming to the end of his contract, and now seemingly just a bench player these days. Luiz might walk out of the door before the season even ends (although that is great news), and is now saying he wish he did things differently in recent months. What does that mean?

Pepe, our most expensive signing in our history, is yet again on the bench, and yet again not even used! Martinelli was in fantastic form, and suddenly is taken out of the team by Arteta? And so on, and so on… It seems to be pure chaos at Arsenal these days!

Maybe the older fans have seen worse, but in my years of following Arsenal, I have never known such turmoil within the squad. Given that there seems to be problems with all of our big names, I wonder if we’ve seen this much trouble at any big club before?

Even more worrying is that we cannot even perform a complete reboot of the squad. The majority of our deadwood are likely to be here next season, because of their extravagant wages. No European football next season (which is likely), will make it even tougher to get in quality replacements.

I am still fairly optimistic about Arteta becoming a top manager, but I wonder if this is too much right now for someone as inexperienced as he is? It’s scary to think that our squad could look even worse next season, and led by a manager that could be out of his depth.

Darker days ahead?

ThirdManJW

47 Comments

  1. It would be chaos whoever was in charge no manager in the world could turn this squad into tittle challengers or even getting into a champions league place would need a miracle as long as we keep playing mediocre centre backs we will keep getting ripped apart but as the club stands now the chances of getting the type of players required are virtually zero no player with any ambitions of winning trophies would even consider Arsenal anymore and that just makes it impossible for any manager to achieve anything at this once great club but now rapidly in decline!!

  2. As an Arsenal dinasoar (65 years in the stands), I can’t let go of this club despite the immense frustration. Many problems, but what we have lacked for years is a leader on the field. Arteta is sunk unless the new “Tony Adams” is found. Under Emery there were 5 non-leaders in a captaincy lottery. We don’t want Luiz as Arteta’s dressing room nanny. We need a panzer on the pich.

  3. Well said Danny.With respect I think the writer of this article has overreacted to a defeat at the hands of a class team with only one relatively weak player in Garcia.Arteta needs time to remedy the recruitment mistakes of the past 5 years.There is no pot of gold nor a magic wand, and until we can unload the deadwood recruited under the reign of our two previous Manager’s we will continue to struggle.To give Arteta a real chance of success , one way or another, we need to bring in a top quality DM and CB for next season.Two quality additions would make a big difference to the spine of the team where we need strengthening.

    1. Another positive article again ,bloody hell someone might think you who didn’t know you that you were not actually an Arsenal fan .
      A massive over reaction once again like the guys above me have written .
      Arteta as been left a mess of a squad by a coach who signed 12 players in 18 mouths and this is what he as to work with ,Emery probably set us back 2-3 years .
      It’s articles like this that start an overreaction with other arsenal fans ,negatively creeps in then we are back at starting all over again .
      Arteta needs time not articles bashing him ,shame that a so called Arsenal fan as already started getting on his back .

      1. It was not Emery that sanctioned the signings! It was the club. It was the club that chose Emery!

        The club is ran by hopeless fools who beleive in cash first, silverware later. The club has lost its identity and values. Its lost alot of its attraction and its “top club” status. More importantly, its losing its appeal to its fan base. It’s losing money by the bucket load for every year we fail to play in the CL and finish outside the top 4. Yes, it’s in chaos and has been for over a decade!

        1. You’re so right, GunneRay… from top to bottom, too many people stealing a living and it’s criminal it’s been allowed to continue for so long!!
          People just laugh now, upon hearing I’m a gooner and say “you have my deepest sympathy”….. it’s so sad, at one point we were the team to support, not anymore….. ☹

          1. I know Sue, I get that too. I wish I was wrong about it but I’m not. Arsenal are no better than an Aston Villa or West Ham ( no disrespect ) 😥

          2. It was not Emery on his own that put this club back, it was the previous incumbent and the waste of millions spent, when we got some real money to spend. I dont see Artetas job being any different to Emerys. The culture at this club stinks and that has been ingrained over many years.

          3. GunneRay, Sue and Grandad, the decline of the Arsenal goes back far further than the 5 years stated by Dan kit and is the result of some poor scouting and recruitment combined with flagrant financial mismanagement by the Board and the “management team”.
            Where has the 20+ years of Champions League money gone?
            Emery was a poor choice because of his poor English communication skills and was chosen by management. Although as Dan kit states Emery as Head coach was provided with players, they were obviously not of his choosing (as stated by GunneRay). Yet Emery was expected to coach them to success, even when many of us on justarsenal could not see the rationale for many of their purchases or where they addressed the obvious deficiencies in the squad. In addition the run with injuries was debilitating.
            Arteta faces the same issues of too many players of limited quality being paid too much, who can’t be moved on, mismanagement of player contracts allowing them to enter the last year without renewing or being sold and scouting and recruitment of “bargain” players, who may not suit the style of play wants or address positional deficiencies.
            The next transfer window will show whether Mikel Arteta will be given the players he needs to push further up the table. Any head coach at Arsenal will not succeed without Arsenal quality players. Many of the current squad do not have the playing ability or character fit to wear the shirt. As a supporter for 58 years, one only has to compare the midfielders and defenders in this squad to past representatives to see how large the problem is and how hard the road back.

          4. Brilliant, Ozzie, spot on 👍
            All these years of mismanagement had to catch up with us eventually…. and as you correctly say – it’ll be a very
            long hard road back ☹

      2. Really a lame response questioning someone’s loyalty to the club just because you disagree with their opinion. Please do better with your criticism.

        1. My lame response was responding to a lame article
          Negative articles do wonders for our already dwindling fan base .
          Article was put up I had my say on it.
          I didn’t break any rules …

          1. I agree that negativity after the loss has crept in. It is really unhelpful during a time that we really need to have all fans on board to hear from some respondents that Arteta needs to go.

          2. No, you didnt break any rules specifically but we have managed to calm this site down with people offering constructive criticism to each other without questioning their loyalty as fans just because they disagree with one’s opinion. I say lame response because I know you can do much better as a lot of your previous comments have shown. I simply request that you do better going forward with your criticism and not attack writers directly. Let’s keep this site well mannered without turning on each other, I really do not need any more battles on here Dan, I hope you understand.

      3. It is not ARTETA fault we need a clearout sale keep are good young players. Every big game Ozil goes missing Arteta was right not to play against the city he needs to get some energy back. I speak the truth Auba looked like he was playing for a transfer the board need to come clean and tell us who they are signing other clubs are out of the traps and running We are left behind again

  4. The club seems to be in a financial hole at the moment….To get out of it we need to reduce the wage bill, fix a salary cap fitting of a non champions league club, spend carefully, scout and buy youngsters with potential on the cheap and sell them for huge money when they reach the top of the salary cap and repeat the cycle….
    I read in a report that most of the high earners at Arsenal will be out of contract by 2022…

  5. To be quite honest we were playing well for tge first 20-25 minutes.Obviously after xhaka and mari got injured MA knew what was coming for him.

    MA is going to be a top manager there is no denial on that but inexperience players and errors made by luiz cost us tge match.

    Talking about the city side,look at the chances KDB created but he also lost possesion taking some risks thats how football should be.But the arsenal side playmakers willock and ceballos they didnt want to take those risks and even ozil in general because they know that their defenders wont support them enough.
    And then the midfield area of the city side they know each others movements so well,we played a young side so that we could press high with plenty of energy but that midfield of silva,gundogan and KDB is just world class.Specially silva and gundogans passes and movemnts are superb and they also get KDB into some dangerous places in where he could do his ‘thing’.

  6. We all knew we weren’t going to magically turn into contenders overnight!! A lot of us said even the likes of Pep couldn’t do a great deal with this team!! So, we have to give MA time…. yes it’s frustrating watching most of the time, but what else can we do?

  7. Are the writers on this page even arsenal fans? Get behind your team and me may start doing better. Positivity starts with the fans.

    1. This article was done by a site user and not one of the in house writers. If you want to pen a “positive” article then by all means do. I am sure no one will question whether you are an Arsenal fan even if they disagree with what you write as most users on here are not that rude.

    2. Tojo, just because someone discusses the obvious deficiencies in the squad and concerns about the Club’s management and direction doesn’t mean they aren’t behind the team on match day.

  8. We were doing ok until the injuries, apart from Willock starting, and Guendouzi over Ceballos, I can’t really fault Arteta’s lineup, given the options available to him, perhaps he intended to introduce Pepe and Martinelli when their defenders get tired ( they can now make 5 subs, remember). I wasn’t really optimistic about the game anyway, but I believe we’d have performed better without those injuries, and ultimately LUIZ!. At least he won’t be available for selection for the next few games. That’s one positive. 😀

    1. 😂😂 yep he’ll miss Brighton and Southampton! Then it’ll be the FA cup, where we’ll all return to quivering wrecks as he’ll be back!!! 🤡

      1. 😂
        I do hope he’s played his last game for us though. Chambers and Holding can’t do worse, the wrestler even!, Luiz should be our least preferred option in defence, until his exit.
        Hopefully, we’d start a winning streak tomorrow, and sustain it till the end of the season.

        1. His contract ends at the end of the month, which only leaves the Sheff Utd game… knowing the importance of that game, I can’t see him starting..so you may well get your wish 🙂
          Yes let’s hope COYG

  9. Good article…Arteta is clueless….with players like matinelli, torreira, auba, pepe you think we might have a chance…..but then this inexperienced manager do his weird selections……He thinks he’s Pep…. delusional

    1. Daniel W, may be Arteta is saving them for the next 2 games against Brighton and Southampton, which Arsenal would hope to win?
      Also we don’t know whether they were carrying injuries or not training well, Arteta does. After all the buck stops with him, provided he is supported in the transfer market (big IF).

  10. Yes we are in chaos, but not because of Arteta. The problem is the other two, Raul and Edu. They are in cahoots with their super agent mates Kia and Mendes etc who are selling us rubbish like Luiz and Mari. They are also behind the Soares, Saurez and other crap linked to our once great club. Ok Edu found Martinelli but that is it and because he had nothing to do with agents. Josh Kroenke needs to open his eyes and look what a mess we are in before we disappear in a haze of not just mediocrity but rank bad rubbish has been.

    1. As I have said Declan, Kroenke has had a malevolent influence on Arsenal, because of his poor choice of Board members and managers such as Gazidis, Sanheili and Ravi. I’m prepared to give Edu a pass thus far.

      1. I’m with you on this. Raul should be the first to pack his bags. He has been utterly useless calling shots on transfers. How bad is our scouting network though?

      2. ozziegunner I totally agree with you Edu should be given a bit of time the rest Sack them

  11. And who else would pay £70 million for Pepé? No one! Arteta is certainly not clueless, it’s the people above him who need kicking out and replacing with a decent knowledgeable CEO and a new head of recruitment who doesn’t have links with super agents.

  12. Dan it may have been an overreaction but an adverse reaction at least was deserved. I’m probably the only one (no change there then!) that doesn’t think Arteta is doing all that well.

    For a start he’s had 3 freakin’ months to sort out the defence. Yet instead of closing down the City attackers and ‘getting stuck in’ as we used to say they still maintained a nice, respectful distance (social distancing?) from them, giving them all the time in the world to make their runs and shoot. It was pathetic. Their attack down their left/our right had acres of room even in the first 10 minutes and I feared the worst.

    Auba made some decent runs yet nobody found him with the ball. What’s the point of having a good, speedy striker if our players don’t give him the freakin’ ball? Why hasn’t Arteta drilled it into the rest of them to look out for runs from our strikers and wingers and release a good accurate ball to them? I wouldn’t blame Auba for moving to a team with INTELLIGENT players behind him. Sometimes our players seem to be as thick as bricks.

    From left back to right wing – Bukayo Saka must be wondering where he’ll be playing next. Auba can play on the right and Saka has shown he’s best on the left so what was Arteta thinking? Another experiment?

    A midfield of Xhaka (flat out useless), Willock (also useless but might get there in years to come) and Guendouzi (still getting caught on the ball as he strolls round midfield) was asking for trouble.

    Where was Martinelli? I think he’s good enough to play in ALL forward positions. If he’s not going to be a striker (lots of competition now) then he’ll make an excellent attacking midfielder, especially if Ozil is out of the picture. How Willock could be chosen instead of Martinelli makes me wonder about Arteta’s sanity.

    At the very least the team should have been fit but weren’t. Hopefully they will be on Saturday having had to run around a bit more when we went down to 10 men. Poor little darlings – bet they were on oxygen in the dressing room later. Somehow, I don’t think it will get any better on Saturday as Brighton are not going to roll over and say ‘tickle my belly.’ Hope some of our better players are chosen this time.

    All in all it was a pathetic display and thank goodness Leno was his usual excellent self – at last a bit of positivity, just for Dan 🙂

    1. well said. Looks like Freddie is still in charge of this team. No noticeable change. team selection questionable.

  13. We all have our own opinions about who should be in the starting line up but I find it amazing that some one like Pepe doesn’t start every game. I always thought that you played your strongest team to start and then bring on subs if it’s not working. As for Ozil not even being in the squad because of tactical reasons, when will he play then, you can’t say pick him against so called lesser teams because we are one of the lesser teams now. You might as well completely forget about Ozil, let him train till the end of his contract and then we are rid of him. It’s all about getting the selection right and I don’t think we are doing that now.

  14. Although I don’t agree with him upon his selection and formation for the last match but be real, he didn’t ask for Xhaka and Mari’s injury.

    MA is still trying to do something, I hope he uses the players wisely as we need a playmaker but instead he keeps both Pepe and Mesut out for some reason.

    MA has the quality and the ” heart ” to take Arsenal to the top team’s list and I’m sure he needs more time and our support.

  15. No need for Luiz let him go
    Management thing about having Tomas party he will do something better than anyone there!!! Please

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