The young guns are carrying Arsenal forward. by Konstantin
Well lovely Arsenal people, we secured an excellent 4:1 away win at Leeds. What I really enjoyed was our performance. We played some good football, and it came from the young players again. I have little sympathy for the injury crisis of Leeds. We had a covid outbreak at the start of the season and we got absolutely ripped for our performance, so that’s that.
With all their injury problems, we still fielded a younger side. The youngest in the league this season. It’s a whole different matter whether Arsenal should be so reliant on 20-year-olds to carry us forward, but this game was another example.
We had Laca 1:1 with their keeper early on and he missed it. Then he missed another chance. Even though he brings other players more into the game, he isn’t the answer either. Auba is finished at Arsenal. There’s likely more than him being just late, for the club to go publicly all out on him, but enough has been said there. Eddie is also leaving in the summer, so we definitely need a new striker.
Luckily Martinelli showed how it’s done, by being alert for the first goal and smashing it, then using his pace and composure to add a lovely second. What a breath of fresh air, huh? Easily the most dynamic and energetic player at Arsenal since Sanchez. Then Saka and Smith Rowe again scored with some lovely setups from Odegaard along the way.
It’s the “experienced” faces that worry me. Xhaka with a reckless tackle at the start of the second half again. Laca missing chances 1:1 with the keeper. Partey not really dominating the midfield as we expect. I’d like to see the senior players to be smarter, especially in games where we are winning, and we need to calm the game down.
That said, we will be 4th on Christmas. It’s unbelievable compared to where we were 3 games into the season. Tottenham have like 3 or 4 games in hand, Utd and West Ham also have 1 or 2, but guess what? Games in hand don’t mean points. I’d rather have the points all day long. When do you play those games? In between European football, it’s going to be difficult.
That said, I’m not yet dreaming of champions league football. The games in hand for our rivals are all very winnable, the season is very long and there’s still one more game till we’re even halfway. I just hope we can win against Norwich and Wolves too, because if we’re to dream of the top 4, we need to be consistent. Against these kinds of teams we need to make the most of it.
Today I’m just happy that we won. It sets up for a very nice Christmas, where we’ll be sitting pretty in 4th, and I wish all of you lovely Arsenal people good health and very happy Holidays!
Konstantin
If we can move Ben White to DM, get a solid reserve RB and bring Saliba back I think we’d have the best Arsenal team in almost 15 years and who knows where we could go.
Also we’d need to get rid of some more dead wood like Cedric, Kolasinac, Bellerin, Mari and Elneny.
Skills wise, I believe White could be a good CDM like Chambers. But I feel he isn’t as loud as Xhaka and he doesn’t like to get involved in convincing/ influencing the referee
I think there should be one Gunner who can organize his teammates from the back and Holding seems ideal to be that guy if Xhaka is unavailable
Lacazette was supposed to be more composed when he got the great chance to score. But let’s be easy on him this time, because his high press and link-up play made the team more clicked than before
We have many strikers, such as Aubameyang, Nketiah, Balogun, Martinelli, Moller, Biereth and Edwards, yet none of them can play in the CF position as good and as consistent as Lacazette. This fact shows that it’s going to be difficult to find a new CF with Lacazette’s abilities and we’ll have to gamble next time
Firmino’s playing style is similar to Lacazette’s and he made Liverpool better as a team, allowing Salah and Mane to score for fun. So the new CF should have Lacazette’s abilities and if possible better physically, but he shouldn’t miss sitters either
Arteta’s handling of the youngsters integrating the 6 newcomers in fact all 14 regular starters we are using has been outstanding. He has been aided somewhat by the absence of European football and a minimum injury toll. Arteta took massive criticism after his second 8th place finish. I dont recall any one in the summer saying Arteta would succeed let alone predict a top 4 place. Miraculously Kroenke gave Arteta more time and 150 mill to implement the new “process”. After we went 0-3 at the start of the season I swear nobody absolutely nobody expected Arsenal to make top 4 in fact many gave us no hope of top 6 or top 10. According to the “experts” on this site the team was in disarray the manager was clueless and a new manager should be appointed immediately. We were told that Potter was a genius at Brighton, Nuno was the Messiah at Spurs, Rafa was super at Everton while Rogers was 200% better than Arteta. Where are those teams now? It is a bit rich for these “experts” who totally wrote off Areta after just 3 games to now demand top 4. !!!
Football fans are such,, such um “interesting” characters 🙂
⭐️Wyoming ⭐️
The gift that keeps on giving and it’s not even Christmas yet 👍
@Faifan- your wrong PAL. Some realists wrote off Arteta last season, not after losing the first three games. I’ve seen nothing yet to suggest he has brought ANY improvement to this team.
I look at what I see, not what I want to believe.
You trot out the same stuff on a regular basis and it was noticed yesterday in particular
Today your points are somewhat different and I agree, largely. I’ve previously pointed out that elite managers are as rare as hen’s teeth and those you have mentioned are not, to me anyway, of that calibre. Rodgers is beginning to get Leicester firing but they still have to overtake us and I don’t see him as a Klopp or Pep.
Being top4 is just for now though. I expect Spurs to climb once they can fulfil their fixtures but as we all know ours are on the board already which helps. ManU are still an unknown quantity.
You are right that Arteta was lucky to keep his job in the summer and throughout- with wobbles occasionally- I have supported him through the learning curve. It isn’t open ended but he survived my November dates and then got given Christmas to show what he’s made of. We will see!
He certainly made it to Xmas in the Top Four with just 3 defeats from our last 17 matches.
We have 9 wins and a draw from our last 10 home games.
And he has done it with the youngest team in the League with most not having played together before this season.
I am pretty much convinced he is doing a good job.
It looks to me like there are 16 other coaches below him that should get the sack first. IJS!
👍@ AdPat
You forgot how much he was backed also Pat 230 million in 18 months ,you would want to see some improvement for that kind of backing
And the point is that i AM seeing improvement. I’m just surprised he got them all working together so quickly….
When was the last time we were ANYWHERE NEAR the Top Four?
Some of us DK, mentioning no names of course, don’t want under any circumstances to admit seeing any improvement!
How frustating it must be now for all you “MA out agenda” ridden fans to see your hopes getting crushed and vanishing into thin air!
Grow up Jon
It’s not a dick measuring contest
It’s always a competition with you isn’t it ,some us want to see what’s best for the club ,you just want to be the one who’s always right (which you never are ).
Is there a day that goes by you don’t mention mine or Reggies name ,I’m glad I rile you up makes it all the much sweeter when I read the crap you put out .
So AdPat and SueP
Actually explain to me where the improvement is that you all seem to be creaming yourselves over.
We are still inconsistent in our performances.
Everton Away was a disgrace
Man Utd Away after going 1-0 up was timid and so pathetic
Palace- terrible performance after going 1/0 up
Southampton first 20 minutes as bad as I have seen in 50+ years
Leeds 2nd half- where was the urgency?
WHU- very good for up until we went 1-0 up. Missed a penalty and went on the back foot against 10 men.
These are the issues I see. You are all too easily pleased and blinkered. Do you both even bother to watch the games?
This manager has been backed financially like no manager ever before. This in times of huge financial restraints. He had wasted millions eg- Willian, Mari, Soures, Aubamayang contract. He had miss managed players due to his huge over inflated ego yet what has he actually achieved.
He stumbled on ESR last Xmas due only to injuries. He continued to play Aubamayang when out of form and we all knew there was a fired up Martinelli just waiting to get going. Plays a clearly unfit Xhaka at Goodison when AMN was fit and had proved his worth previously. Saliba? Ego again. Nketiah? He is going as we all know yet is preferred to Balogun
This is all a repeat of last season and the only difference is we have got ourselves up to fourth which is in spite of Arteta and not because of him
Let’s see after Citeh. That is a benchmark game for Arteta.
I have no doubt he will set us up to defend deep and hope to catch them on the break. What we should be doing is matching up to them and giving them a game. It will not happen because this novice is far too timid.
Other than that, the weathers turned a bit colder today don’t you think
How I will love to see the egg all over your constantly far too pessimistic face when MA proves you so utterly wrong Phil. Top four now and still you won’t let your “MA out agenda” rest.
A dyed in the wool consistent Arsenal manager hater, no matter who he may be.
And you have still never answered my earlier question as to who was the last AFC manager you ever supported.
You won’t do so now either, as you will simply attack me, as you always do, thus avoiding my INCONVENIENT question.
Like I said always a competition with you jonny boy
Instead of being happy for a win all you’ve written is how right you think you are .
And it was you that didn’t reply to Phil and mines question .which you knew that by just copying what we both wrote regarding not answer a question but sneaking off pretending you haven’t seen it ,classic weasel at work right here .
Jon- did I miss something on an earlier thread?
If so here is my answer.
I support ANY Arsenal manager that is proving his worth. Right back to Bertie Mee. As soon as they stop performing then they lose my support.
And you?
And in regards not answering questions? That really takes the biscuit coming from you of all people. You have always gone ti ground when questioned as proved when both Fan Kit and myself asked you to answer very simple questions only the other day. Or did you very conveniently miss that?
You normally do
Your very consistent in that.
It’s all about putting your foot in that very big gob you have PAL
And Jon- I take it this is the very same Mikel Arteta that you were finished with immediately it was reported that he had given Xhaka a new contract?
As I said a big foot in a very very big gob
MUG
The same Rafa/Everton who embarrassed us and picked up a point at SB… it seems you’re not the only one who trots out the same stuff on a regular basis!
Nice, Mr. Wyoming. But after you said footballers and rich people should not be depressed as they have tons of money, I feel you are not suitable to criticise anyone. Pleqse revert back to the funny old Mr. Wyoming rather than this cringey caricature of a supposed fair fan who always credits the team strength as the metric for results and disregards tactics and gameplan essentially reducing the coaches influence to almost zero but then in the same breath defends MA because of his handling of players, which if I am not mistaken, comes under tactics and personnel management?
Laughable IMO!
You missed a match on your predictions Sid ,Man City game I think .
Thanks Dan. Lemme see if I can squeeze one in now.
The young players played well. Marti is finally showing he can become the player we predicted 2 years ago. Saka and ESR are also playing well. Everything looks in place. Now only thing I want to see if it works is Pepe ar CF (preferrably in a cup game perhaps.) I feel he could press and create link up play and then finish better than Laca.
Spot on Sid….most of the solutions to our problems have come from within recently, let’s see Pepe at CF …might end up being the discovery of the decade…some exceptional strikers actually started out as wingers
IMO Pepe is way too soft to be a cf