Mikel Arteta accused of not bringing the Manchester City style to Arsenal

Former Gunner takes a dig at Mikel Arteta about how Arsenal are playing.

When Arsenal made Mikel Arteta their new manager, there were all kinds of reactions from fans and football lovers.

Some believed that Arsenal was too big a team for Arteta to use as a launching pad for his managerial career while others believed that Arsenal was making a good choice and they could become the next Manchester City.

The Spaniard has certainly made watching Arsenal attractive again and he has also succeeded in making some Arsenal players, who had been written off before, vastly improved.

He has struggled for wins but the progress that has been made under him is pretty obvious.

However, Stewart Robson appears to be sceptical about the impact Arteta has had and he claims that the Spaniard hasn’t brought the Guardiola style of play with him as most people expected.

The former Gunners midfielder told Love Sport Radio per Goal: “He needs to get some consistency in the way his team plays from one half to the next. There have been some games where Arsenal have been totally outplayed.

“You think of Leeds in the first half where they couldn’t get near to Leeds. You think of the second half against Chelsea at the Emirates where for 20 minutes Arsenal were excellent. Then they went back into their shell, defended far too deeply and Chelsea got back into the game.”

He added “The Arsenal of old closed the ball down, they stopped the opposition playing and getting out of their own half.

“This Arsenal team are not doing that. They are not making it difficult for the opposition to get out of their own half.

“This is what Pep Guardiola has done at Manchester City and I thought that is what Mikel Arteta would bring to Arsenal.”

I have to be honest and admit that these comments from a former Gunner have irritated me. Unless someone comes along and hands over £1 billion for new players how the hell is Arteta expected to bring the Man City way to the Emirates?

27 Comments

  1. He will bring his own style, there are players in this team that can obviously not play the man city, pep way. Emery wanted to play a pressing game but in the end the players were not up to it. Arteta may or may not want that but most of the players still here from the wenger era are not good enough or able to do it. The ones that have been bought in since, some are and some aren’t. Arteta has to find a way to play players that are not capable of playing his way until he fails or achieves it with his players.

    1. The same is happening.
      When Emery first came in. His first 4-6 games saw us playing high pressing and high intensity football. But the players couldn’t keep up. Slowly by slowly the energy levels dropped, some players started slacking off, others started their feel sorry for me propaganda on their social medias etc till this season when Emery was sacked.

      The Arteta reign seems to be going that way same way, the players started off with high energy football, now that seems to be wearing off little by little.

      Most of our players seem to be average.

  2. Remember that we don’t have the same players quality and our players are not in their best quality, yet we can sense a different teamwork done. Just let the man do his job.

  3. Pretty sure it took Pep more than a month to get that city team in order, but hey. Why not just focus on all in the world that is not exactly as I want it to be, when I want it. Seems legit…

  4. Unless someone comes along and hands over £1 billion for new players how the hell is Arteta expected to bring the Man City way to the Emirates?

    I watched the real spirit of Arsenal after going 2-1 down to Chelsea..How fast they responded? But they didn’t keep that momentum after scoring equaliser .. After 2-2 again they went back into their shell to defend their score..Had if they attacked Chelsea earlier with that momentum probably we might have won the game. Arsenal lack quick counter attack from which they used to score plenty of goals during Wenger era. ..So its game strategy that decides the win and not billions. If so Wolves Sheffield Utd and Southampton wouldn’t have been ahead of Arsenal in the table…This squad is capable of beating Manu…holding Chelsea with 9 men….But starange that they are not good against lower teams..I believe its simply tactics the main problem..

    Arteta has to bear in mind that attack is the best defense..Dont try to train Auba Ozil Pepe and Martinelli the defensive duties.. Train them to attack opposite team in their natural way and the opposition would contain themselves into their shell…

    1. It’s funny how we all see things so differently
      Down to 10 men for most of the game, playing AT Chelsea who are in 4th place and we fight back for the draw a few minutes from the end and you think Arsenal could have done better?

      MA has been in the job barely one month with what I’d describe as a mountain to climb in terms of injuries, personnel and mentality. In the autumn the basement teams were beating us and we were sinking. Improvements are being made maybe not quick enough for some people yet

      1. ”MA has been in the job barely one month with what I’d describe as a mountain to climb in terms of injuries, personnel and mentality. In the autumn the basement teams were beating us and we were sinking. Improvements are being made”

        Agreed Sue agreed. As we know it is one situation on the training ground . Practising a new move is easy easy but it takes matches to perfect the move when the opposition is doing its utmost to stop you.

        Before MA’s arrivial it was difficult to believe the palyers were playing for each and giving thier all. Now it is clear that they are doing just that.

        s.r and his anti Arsenal brothers are even more misrable than they were a few weeks ago. Long may they grovel in their misery.

      2. If 9 men can fight back for a draw in few minutes why cant they finish off the game at the start instead of choosing to defend? It was the players on the pitch who fought back the draw and not the manager. So the players are capable to score if they opt to attack..But the game plan is to defend and not to attack..

  5. What he know…nothing
    Nobody said Arteta will bring City style every coach has their experience and them apply adjustment
    If he was one of those players will be under the bus already
    It took one season to Pep and also 2 summer’s to rebuild…
    Waste of time on this concern

  6. It’s too early to criticise Arteta to that extent.Pep & Klopp too,took a season or two to organise their teams.it’s understable that we,Arsenal fans have become too desperate.

  7. arteta has been trying since been appointed arsenal manager it will take little time for him to bring in his own style and shuffle things at arsenal he can’t do it in just one day.arsenal players are not fit they that is y they drop energy in second half of games they need to work on fitness but the positive is arteta has been able to improve some players in the squad and brought in spirit to the game hopefully he can do much better things for the team

  8. Most fans dont care what style as long as Arsenal win. Im fact this what allfans want of teams they support. Who cares about sexy football if you cant win.
    As for MU they dont have a divine right to winning or be perennial epl trophy winners.
    The football landscape has changed.
    Even if rf were recalled, i bet he wont be able to replicate his winning
    ways.

  9. We don’t have the players to do that or indeed the early wenger style for that matter both of which require players that are comfortable on the ball … arteta needs a couple of years to clear out the garbage rebuild and instill a style … whether the greedy owners allow that is the big question

  10. Robson needs to acquaint himself with the current Arsenal team sheet and squad. Robson must be imagining Arsenal has the midfield and defense he remembers from the past. Put simply Arteta does not have the “cattle” to play the way Robson thinks he should.

  11. It’s way to early to think we would be playing man city way. If anything I hope we would evolve into our own unique style. We have never had a settled defence this season due to injuries. Plus certain players are not the calibre we need. Hopefully players will improve and new ones will arrive. Our biggest drawback though is the Kronkes. We need new owners

  12. It is way too early to judge Arteta after one month in charge. People doing that, positively or negatively, are really just making noise.

  13. Utter nonsense from Robson.Without an influx of top quality players how on earth can Arteta be expected to turn water into wine?Never had a lot of time for Robson,even less now.

  14. He’s basically telling us how Arsenal have been for years in truth but for crying out loud, give the man a chance!

    MA is working with a particular set of individuals of which, some will ultimately fit in to his vision. The others will no doubt be on their way. He cannot do that in just a few weeks. I don’t think Robson is being very reasonable all, although what he says is true and will hopefully be fixed under MA in time.

    From what I have seen lately though, I think MA should be praised because I feel without him we would have conceded more goals and dropped more points!!

  15. Maybe someone should tell him Auba is the only player that can get closer to city first eleven apart from him only Leno,Laca and Pepe can make the Bench and Beside i am not among those that want us to play like city all i want is for us to play good games and score more and conced less goals and gain more point and thats exactly what we are doing if the we have been playing the way we are playing now from the start we could have be in top 4 or near by now,if it takes Pep and Klopp 2 good seasons with a lot of money spent on new players before good results so i think we should expect the same thing from MA but for now in my own opinion MA is doing a really good job for now which i don’t even think he can work up to this level base on what is going on at Arsenal before he arrived

  16. Who’s this guy? Dumb comments coming from a former ‘professional’ who should know it took pep and city two years to be where they are. Did he see Pep’s first season at city?

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