Michael Owen has claimed that Arsenal Football Club are rated higher than their ability on their pastimes.
The Gunners put in a painful performance at the weekend as they ran out 2-0 losers against Liverpool, seeing them fall back to tenth in the Premier League table.
We appear on course to miss out on the top six in the division for successive seasons, and will hopefully save ourselves by winning the Europa League to again snatch a place in Europe without earning it through their PL campaign.
It took an FA Cup win last year to see us earn our spot in this season’s Europa League, but we have already been eliminated from that competition, and the EL has given us a reasonable draw to believe that could be a possibility.
Our form domestically will ring alarm bells for anyone hoping we have a chance of finishing in the top six or have a chance of winning the EL however, and our performance against Liverpool this weekend only highlighted our frailties.
Michael Owen has now claimed that we are worse than people think we are, and that our pastimes of being at the top and having legendary players has us rated as better than we actually are.
“I think Arsenal are probably 10 or 20 per cent worse than what we collectively think.
“Their badge carries them. Their stadium and their support and the legends that have played for them carry them.
“So we all think — when I think of Arsenal, I think title challengers. It’s just what I’ve been brought up with, it’s what I naturally think.
“Arsenal are a huge club, so I’ve naturally got an opinion and our generation has an opinion way above what they actually are.
“They’re average. They’re ninth in the league, aren’t they? So an average Premier League team.
“We haven’t played five games this season… 15 years they’ve been an okay team but okay is just not enough, certainly not enough from the teams I grew up watching.
“They’ve had gluts of years where they were unbelievable title-winning teams. Every year they would be up there and you’d think, ‘Wow, we’ve got to beat Arsenal.’
“Now you look at fixtures and look at the last 10 fixtures of someone, if you see Arsenal, secretly you just think that’s not that hard a game anymore.
“They’re just an average Premier League team at the moment. That’s what the league says, hard for Arsenal fans to stomach that, but that’s what they are and Arteta has got a huge job.”
Do our own fans or other fan bases believe we are better than we actually are? Could we lose our ranking as one of the so-called top-six be at threat?
Patrick
He’s right, I’ve thought that for a while.
We’ve been spending big money for years while standing still and even regressing in terms of output on the pitch. All the while others have spent much less money intelligently and improved (spurs being one of the best examples, sadly).
Ideally we’d be able to resell the bad signings for something like what we paid, but we can’t because no one wants them. Therefore we have to take a hit, both financially and on the field. The question is: how can we recover? We have to follow the examples of Leicester and the like.
Sadly Mr Owen you are so right.
And furthermore, our past / history will not hold sway forever.
FORM is temporary – CLASS is permanent.
However, we must act now to ensure the above does not get transposed.
Just because someon is unlikeable (as I find OWEN to be) that does not mean he is wrong in what he says. I have long despaired at the constant unreal expectations of some regular fans on here, who refuse to accept our midtable status and contantly expect top four.
It cannot happen while we still carry so many passengers and coasters (like Auba is, now).
Abit like himself ..overrated ..
The truth hurts, we have been an OKAY team for the past 15 years, of these say three years Unai + Mikel (in that time Unai took us to an European finals, only to be let down by the spoil brat crawling off the pitch when subbed) The rest 12 years was under the “greatest” manager. The day the man thought that he was the most important man in EPL football and started dismantling the Invincibles only to replace them with tippy tappy useless football, coupled with hiring basement players with top top wages, we were doomed to be mediocre for the next decade or two, and that is now the reality. Fans in their own wisdom forget to remember that he could not qualify for the UCL in his final two years. We have to thank Gazdis for putting the man out of his misery and saving the club form further rotting.We will rise again once all the left overs are flushed out of our club. Trust Mikel, trust the process.
Ok so you’re another genius who still blames Wenger.No wonder the fanbase is made fun of with people like you in it.
It’s a little more complicated than that. The other day I saw highlights of a 7-0 win in 2005 which featured almost all the Invincibles as well as the ones who were meant to step into their shoes (Cesc, RVP, Flamini, Reyes) – they all looked class. I just don’t understand how we managed to fall so far during the next 10+ years. It looked so safe. Imo it comes down to the stadium move, culture of catering to players demands (paying the average players over the odds because we can’t lose them) and gradual lowering of standards imo (largely because I believe the standards were set by the winners within the group, and they kept leaving).
However, it doesn’t do much good to hold onto the past and blame Wenger for everything. It wasn’t all his fault and since he’s left, we’ve continued on a downward trend.
I will maintain something I’ve said several times on here though: if Arteta ultimately fails and isn’t good enough to take us back to something like a top side, he will leave the club in a better place for the next guy because someone has to bite the bullet and do something to change that culture and bring back some standards. I can see he’s trying, it’s just whether he can pull it off.
I tend to be on your wavelength Davi
Well put Loose Cannon. We need to trust the process. Some people don’t know what that means. Maybe they are not educated. Take one look at that uneducated clown that posted just before you did,,,, stating Michael Owen was over rated. He made us look ordinary in the FA Cup Final a few years back.
I totally agree with you Loose Cannon. You have trust the process. And it won’t happen overnight. Arsenal Football Club is not like microwave food where it is instant. But then,, look at the uneducated clowns that think this whole process will take one or two seasons to fix. Bloody dream on folks. This will take three, four, maybe five seasons to be competitive with some form of consistency. Changing managers all the time isn’t the solution. Arsenal will end up another Watford. How many managers have they fired. Look at Nottingham Forest. European Cup winners. That was a painfully slow decline. Same as Leeds United. I believe Emirates Stadium is a curse. Has been from day one. Give me Highbury Stadium back anyday. Highbury was the most intimidating place on earth for any away club. It was like being thrown into the lions den
Just read your post. Similar lines
I have to agree with Owen. We are just about keeping warm off the dying embers of our former success.
In terms of English football, Arsenal are a big club with a proud history and more recently, a few amazing years under Wenger.
The timing was superb as Sky beamed the EPL around the globe ensuring that we kept the big club status with supporters being won worldwide and top4 for years on end.
Without question for me the best years were the earlier Wenger years and I do own up to buying into the story about top4 being a trophy as I thought we might just win the CL. Well we didn’t even come close after Paris.
Davi posted above that he thought success would never end. If fingers had been kept on the pulse then it should not have. What started off as a 2 horse race, then became 3 and then 4 so top4 was almost a given. In came billionaire investors buying up the EPL and all of a sudden those clubs started to kick on with the owners wanting to reach the top – Leicester and the re-emergence of Liverpool and now Everton.
Arsenal has pretty much stagnated; totally in the doldrums and the Wrights, Adams, Henry’s, Bergkamps, Vieiras and co who showed us the way and left a legacy which could be jeopardised by lack of ambition from above
I don’t want Arsenal to be another Nottingham Forest or Aston Villa remembered only by those old enough to remember their impressive European achievements
Nice post SueP. Good to read the context with everything that was going on around us while we stagnated.
Tell edu to give Brighton willock and add money for bissouma, give Pepe to Aston Villa for grealish and add some money, give Maitland to palace and add money for zaha, sell lacazette and buy Calvert lewin and get aguero on a one year deal, buy maxi Aron’s and sell bellerin, buy Ricardo Rodriguez and sell kolasinac and guenduzi. Buy odegard and give balogun anew contract…send nketiah on loan to Villa and buy back Martinez. It’s possible if we are ambitious
How are we to regain our status as one of the top 6 in epl (we used to be top 2 then top four) let alone an elite team in the world when the owner of the club or his ceo son has said nothing, not even making a statement throughout covid and now this free fall? total silence.
all we get is edu and ma saying the board are speaking to them very closely and everyone is working hard.
lets face it, with the stan krooks inc, we are now edging towards mid and lower tiers.
In a nutshell, we have been a badly managed Club for around ten years,and the description of an average Premier League team is entirely justified.Some of us are prepared to be patient for the wind to turn, others demand instant success , and somehow believe this can be achieved by simply changing our team Manager.They are going to be disappointed, because no Manager on the Planet could turn out current squad into a side which can challenge for honours.As Arsenal fans, we are all frustrated, but the fact that Arteta has failed to produce success in what has been a unique season in more ways than one, is not all down to him but the lack of quality in our squad.Other than Partey, Tierney,Saka and perhaps ESR and Martinelli, the likes of Man City, Liverpool, and Man Utd would not be interested in any others in our pool.Five quality players out of 25, little wonder we are an average mid table team.
Thank you.
Pains me to say it but he’s right. Arteta knows it but most of the fans would prefer to blame him than the players who’ve been there for years, churning out four/five good performances a season. The whole thing needs a draconian shake-up and the manager is on record stating that this transfer window will see an ‘unprecedented’ amount of business. I hope he gets rid of half the squad.
Let take a look at what we have and especially against Liverpool and see how many players who have been here for years who are dragging us down. Laca, Pepe, Auba, ordeegard, Party, Chambers, Holding, Gabriel, Tierney, Cebellos, Leno. The players who had been here more than 3 years in that team is Holding and Chambers who rarely played under Previous regimes due to one injury or the others. Who are you supposed he get rid off starting from this 11 players and at what cost.
Most of the Arsenal players are just a total mess.we love the club,but the players are not helping us in anway.
A poison challis, springs to mind, i believe that MA, is a fair coach , and in time ,, he will hopefully turns things around,
As a former player albeit a much lesser standard, i prided myself in trying my best each and every match.
PEA, strikes me as a sulking baby who has spat his dummy out of his pram,
Drop the non triers, we would lose with them most matches anyway, bring in the youth give GA , a run in the team , before he goes, i remember seeing him last year , and felt he could make it,
But he suffered a horrible long term injury.
Pepe, is not worth twenty million , let alone seventy two million,
So much of our issues start off the pitch, recruitment has been a disaster, Edu, average player, at best , get rid of him.
The owners have to be held accountable, but the question is do they really care ??
I think not, a decline has been coming for a while as we can all see, same as a return to being top four , will take time.
MA , has made a few wrong choices, namely making Leno his number one, then Martinelli going who can blame him really , he was with the club for many years , stepped in last year , doing very well, only to be told , you are not my number one, MA got that one wrong.
I could go on , like you all , its a sad steady fall from grace with have witnessed , these past years.
I so hope we can sort this out, but the ATTITUDE of the players apart from Tierney was appalling.
Dont get me wrong Liverpool were really up for it, and we were not ,
We should be up for it week in week out, maybe MA is out of his depth in man management ? who really knows , we play so many back passes it is unbelievable,
As for crybaby AL , what a poof of a player he seems, DC , another inept display, enough said , i need my blood pressure pills now , hahaha