Mikel Arteta said it as it is. The gap is huge and we need to spend! by Konstantin Mitov
Ah lovely Arsenal people, football is a funny thing. For the course of the season we’ve always been the team making the stupid mistakes, but this time Liverpool pulled an Arsenal and simply gifted us 2 goals, which eventually won us the game.
It’s really nice to beat them for the first time since Klopp arrived there, but what Mikel Arteta said after the game is what I enjoyed most. He said the gap between the two teams is enormous and he was spot on.
He said we’ve closed the gap in terms of desire to play and you can see a bit more fight in the side, but quality-wise we’re miles apart and need heavy investment. When asked if the money will be there, he said he doesn’t know.
That’s all you need to know. We can analyse games and individual performances, but these set of players are here for some time now and this is the continuous result. This is their 3rd permanent manager and some traits never go away.
This is a Liverpool team that’s dropped points a few times now since the restart, but honestly with the lead in points they had, you can get it. For Liverpool the one real issue was the league title they waited for 30 years for. Now it’s here and the 100 points, although nice, don’t really mean that much.
This win will boost a little confidence ahead of City. Lacazette scored again and Nelson had a really good game. Holding and Tierney looked better than Mustafi and Kolasinac, who made me so depressed when he came on.
But we looked resilient defensively and made no nonsense clearances, and we made ourselves difficult to beat and took our chance. I think we had 3 shots all game and if Willock had put it right we might even have scored a third.
But this is a one game performance. What I understood from his post match interview is “I’ve done what I can with those players and I need better material”.
Now, it’s up to the board to back him. With Partey now looking unlikely, I’m worried. We need a massive overhaul in defense and midfield.
I’m not getting hopes up too high for City. It’s a game that matters for something and we’re well known for crumbling in those. Not that we haven’t beaten them in an FA cup semi-final before, but they will not have the foot off the gas.
Don’t get me wrong, the FA cup would be lovely for sure, although Chelsea or Man Utd will be no easy task if we get past City, but whatever happens we should be as honest as Arteta was. We need massive investment in quality. It’s up to the board to show ambition now.
Konstantin
As I said in a comment yesterday, fantastic win which we should enjoy, but the gulf between the two sides is monstrous!
Norwich beat City earlier in the season, but it didn’t change anything between those clubs. Same with our win. We shouldn’t get carried away at all. We defended well in the second half, but got two very lucky goals, Martinez got away with one in the first half, and we were absolutely dominated the entire match. We could barely string 3 passes together. The team looked very scared, and devoid of ideas, constantly passing backwards at the slightest bit of pressure, then just hoofing it long.
The positive thing about the victory is that it should give us great confidence going into the semi-final against City. However it happened, we just beat the best team around, and if that doesn’t give the camp a lift, then nothing will.
This is why we love football, anything can happen! We beat City last time we played them in an FA cup semi.
Typical Arsenal ofcourse we are gonna beat wolves and liverpool just to show how damaging the stupid losses at brighton and tottenham plus that draw vs leicester were. Thats 8 pts wasted that would have seen us in 4th.
Not to mention Vafeckup
Were not that bad but confidence was so low and I think unless we get to Europe Abbu will be gone.
Arsenal has lost 15 points from winning position since Arteta taken over..
If you add 12 points to our tally, we would have been on 3rd
One step at a time. First, we enjoy the win and then the future will take care of itself. Everybody knows we need to invest.
I agree ThirdMan.My initial reaction after our win was one of delight, followed by embarrassment on a performance which was light years away from the Arsenal of old.A team which neutrals liked to watch because of the free flowing quality of our football.Apart from a lack of quality players,the system which Arteta is deploying out of necessity apparently ,means that we lie deep and invite teams to attack.To have any chance of improving we need to revert to a flat back four which maintains a higher line to at least give us a chance to gain some control in the midfield.I like Arteta, but I must confess to being disappointed and surprised by his reluctance to use a 4-3-3 system to match up with the likes of Man City and Liverpool.We got lucky last night,but if we play as poorly in the Cup against Man City we are likely to be thumped.Finally on Sunday I sincerely hope AMN is given a chance to man Mark Sterling out of the game.Tierney coped very well with Salah last night but as for Pepe, he should not start on Sunday.Nelson showed me enough to fully justify retaining his place.
You don’t know what being a manager is all about…one thing I’m sure know is you have no slight cue what a manager is
He has tried various formations, we were not good with them we draw or lose games, buh with the recent formation we’ve built momentum and we don conceive easily except for mistake….this formation suit the players we have, city and Liverpool didn’t sit on 433 over night they did experiment and get the right players that suit the system. For now what suit our players is 5 2 3
Well said mate and sport on..some people don’t really understand the game
This victory is all about Arteta and what he brings to the table, he is making us competitive, meaning not all games can be won playing beautifull attractive football, sometimes you need to win ugly or/and have some luck. The coach is improving a team that, almost everyone has written off. Now we still need additions to challenge for Europe next season, but everyone knows now if you make a mistake against us, you will be punished, and even if we loose to city this weekend it doesn’t change the fact that as a team we are progressing
A great win and lets enjoy this a little bit. However the reality is that the Board really needs to invest and buy some very good players if we have any chance of making it to the CL next season. MA has done all he can with current players and he should be given more quality. As for the semi final game we should go with the confidence that we can beat City and I want to see AMN, Nelson and Holding starting and Pepe can come on as an impact sub. Up the Gunners!
A great win against the odds. It showed resilience which wouldn’t have been there before as the Liverpool goal would almost certainly brought about a collapse.
Arteta is very good in front of the camera and made it clear his situation, as in, he can only do so much with what he has to work with. It was a very strong hint to the board. Who knows if they have something up their sleeves but it certainly didn’t sound promising that sufficient money would be made available.
As the old saying goes, you can’t make a silk purse out of a pig’s ear and Kroenke either has to trust Arteta and Edu to pinpoint and recruit what is required and invest, or I can only see a mediocre future.
By the looks of things,being able to fund the type of players that Arsenal need will come down to the club being able to offload some of the players they don’t need. And that won’t necessarily be easy
Totally agreed, SueP.
Offloading one or two would be easier. I believe we have at least 6 players who need a sharp exit and that’s difficult to accomplish in a short space of time. Obviously, Arteta will need time to that but as long as he has the financial backing and support of the Kronkes’ we should be able to start a “rebuild” this summer and at least offload three or four?
However, we will have to wait and see how things look next season. Knowing our history I won’t be holding my breath!
👍
Arteta has said the truth, Arsenal’s Board need to investment more funds in quality players’ purchase.
We need to work towards going up there. I was sad we loose to Spurs just because our defence was below average but compared to Holding and Tieney against Liverpool.
I feel we need 2 players at the middle; offensive and defensive while PEPE needs to up his games at the wide area/ get someone else.
I am very impress with Martinez performance in goal. I am looking forward to his competition with Leno for next season
Sol Campbell has said that Arsenal needs at least 2-3 quality players and I am inclined to agree with him. We do not need to overhaul the team. We only need to add some quality and discard the players we do not need. The defence will be fixed once Mari, Saliba, Holding and Chambers are available. Of course there is also Mustafi, Luiz, Tierney, Soares, Bellerin and AMN. Perhaps the main challenge is the midfield which is very thin and needs urgent fixing.
Spot on it’s the midfield battle we lost over and over last night but on the other hand how many that played last night will start next seasons first game.
I hold my hands up I was wrong with the score but I did say they need to put a shift in and bah gum they did I have been saying for a long time PRESS and last night they pressed and Liverpool made mistakes Lacca MOM never stopped and Holding well done shut Mane up
Ok, seriously we need to do the following:
1 – Sign Auba
2- Sign a decent defender or two, a good CM and maybe an attacker
3- Let Kolasinca, AMN and everyone who needs to go go
4- Challenge for the title
A quality centre back, a quality defensive midfielder with pace, plus Jack Grealish to replace Ceballos. If Auba holds out for the reported £280m pw, let him go, the guy is 31 and is currently on £200k pw (over £10m pa). One caveat though ‘if wishes were horses beggars would ride’ .
Be happy with the win last night and leave it at that. Analysis of us and Liverpool is futile and a waste of time. The game last night was us (season practically over) and Liverpool (season over) playing a game of football and not fully at 100%. We won they didn’t, we are miles behind Liverpool, enjoy the win and dont compare.
A common sense article and no right thinking, non self deluded Gooner – and we have a number of those on here – can take issue with the conclusion. No ambition by those in charge of money means no seat at the top table. Every non self deluded Gooner knows that is how top level football works.
And it’s how any business works
Agree about Arteta’s assessment of the present situation at Arsenal. I was wondering about our progress with the free agent, left footed CB Malang Sarr. I think he is a good player and can add pace to our defense. Hope we can offload Sokratis as he is getting older and maybe Mustafi as his value would have increased this season.
OT- Any news on Folarin Balogun?
Yup Arteta said it perfectly. In terms of fight, we were there today. But the quality of players is massive, and you cannot achieve your goals with that quality. It is not to diminish our win, but nobody is under the delusion that we are just as good as liverpool.