Mikel Arteta trusted Martin Odegaard to start Arsenal’s game against Burnley earlier today.
The Real Madrid loanee has found it easy to break into the Arsenal starting XI even though he hardly played during the first half of the season at Madrid.
The Norwegian was involved in most of the good things that Arsenal did in the game before they were pegged back by the hosts.
He struggled afterwards but remained one of the better players in the Arsenal team as they chased the game.
With the Gunners struggling to break down Burnley for their much-needed winning goal, Arteta changed Odegaard and brought on Alexandre Lacazette.
However, not every Arsenal fan agreed with that change and some wondered why he didn’t remove Willian instead.
The Gunners posted about the 63rd-minute substitution on their Twitter page and here are a few reactions.
LOL. Odegaard taken out instead of Willian?
— Andrew Mathew (@anndrewmathew) March 6, 2021
Man took out only creator and kept willian
Im done and dusted— Nithin N (@Fabinthin04) March 6, 2021
WRONG call Mikel SAKA is having a bad game can’t you see.
— A Pato (@ativiepatrick) March 6, 2021
Why is Xhaka still on the putch
— Nemz (@Nemz45) March 6, 2021
Still no Pepe? Saka has been poor today
— CityofJoy (@cityof_joy) March 6, 2021
Should have given Martinelli some minutes for saka wasn’t having a good game
I thought the same, Willian wasn’t in his best too and should’ve been replaced in the second half.
Odegaard has created no assists in 8 games.
Poor today.
Brad, you have obviously missed Odegaard’s critical involvement in the build up to a number of goals, eg goals 2 and 3 against Leicester City.
We can’t sit in the comfort of our homes and be teaching Arteta who should be substitued in or out. He sees what we cannot see behind the camera.
His job is at stake if the team fails and I know we all know that.
Great post but sadly many do not accept that they do NOT know better than our manager. Such arrogance too!
The only plausible explanation that I can surmise is that when Arteta got too caught up in the initial euphoria at the end of last season, he went to our absentee landlord and convinced him to invest in both Willian’s ridiculous wages and the acquisition of Partey, plus his enormous wages, without selling off any considerable assets or even getting more deadwood contracts off the books…when this occurred it might have actually changed the narrative regarding his expectations, so that’s why we’ve seen some rather peculiar decisions by our manager during a supposed “rebuilding” year…of course, the other alternate explanation could be that he actually has the full support of ownership and isn’t going anywhere regardless of what transpired this season, minus relegation of course, and this lack of consequences has led to a series of mindboggling decisions…if this is the case, it’s problematic because it likely means he’s not up to the task and we’re probably just the guinea pig in his managerial experiment
Hard decision to fathom, Lacazette for Willian or Saka, with Aubameyang moved wide was the obvious change. Why replace a creative midfielder for a CF?
Arteta should change Saka for Pepe bcs Saka had a poor game yesterday why he would replace Ordegard for Laccazet
Why everytime is Willian might be some clauses in his contract perhaps.
Ode setup quite a few key passes that led to Willian assists.
Overall he’s quite decent but definitely not worth 60m. It’s a joke. There are other consistent players that are ard 25m to 40m.
Can we just allow the coach do his job please? We sit in the comfort of our homes and talk about coaching decisions….Let the guy do what he is paid to do please!!!! Even if we brought Guardiola to Arsenal, we would still question his decisions…..
“Can we just allow the coach to do his job please”. What job is that PAL? Single handedly ruin our Club?
This manager has allowed a squad more than capable of finishing Top 6 to be hovering above the also rans.
Emery performed far better and after 15 months was, rightly, sacked. Arteta has had the same and is taking the Club backwards. Do you still feel he deserves to be kept in a job?
This manager is failing miserably and needs to know he is accountable for his results. Why would he be allowed to just get on with his job without receiving the criticism he deserves?
Fans have been questioning their managers decisions since the game was invented. Same goes for moaning about players, Jon Sammels is crap, Rix holds onto the ball far too long, Adams is a donkey, I’ve heard it all, and it happens at every club, not just Arsenal. We all think we know better than the manager.
So true and the truth is not asingle fan knows better than our manager, AS THEY ARE NOT IN PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL WHEREAS HE IS.
The arrogance of those amateurs who really think they personally know better than our manager, is breathtaking in its laughable stupidity!
Though you mention the distant past, which I well remember, these days that fan arrogance is far more commonand widespread than back then. It comes from the modern age of self entitlement in which all youngsters in well off countries grow up in. SADLY!
Jon Fox and Declan, if you guys knew anything about football, you would know when a manager is a success and when they are failing. Classic example is Moyes v Arteta. Player for player, Arsenal is better in most positions, yet the table tells a different story. There is no doubt that Arteta has made many mistakes this season, a lot of those mistakes are around team selection where Willian and Auba are concerned and substitutions. So whether you like it or not, many of us football fans do see things better than the managers. Accept the fact that Managers get sacked because they just don’t fit in with the players and the club.
Saka started quite well but when booked,he became gone.His attempt to recover earned him more errors that would have caluminated to his send-off.Matin Ode was making all the good runs up-front but substituting him baffled me a lot.I am telling fellow fans of Arsenal that Odeg is more agile in attack than Dani.Ode oye,Dani back to Madrid !!.
I know Arteta has been getting a lot of slating on this forum but sometimes it’s really hard to defend him because as soon as you put forward a positive case and ask for calm and patience, he again astounds us with his choices, collections and arrangements !
I think he’s a bit of an alchemist. Trying to turn base minerals and products into gold. Mixing and matching and seeing what happens. He’s seems to be a bit of a chancer ! Every now and again, he seems to produce a bit of gold but it seems more luck than judgement and we end up with a lump of coal ! You can’t keep mixing and matching the team in a hope that it all comes good on the day. You’ve got to know what you’ve got in your Arsenal and use it to good effect.
Arteta has got to be ruthless and pick a team that have the drive, energy, desire and craft to win games as a collective. He also has to tell players that are lacking in all those traits that they are going to be nothing more than second string players. He also has to decide on a set of tactics that can be utilised by his first choice eleven that are effective against anyone we play. However, that’s not the case and perhaps easy for me to say.
Okay, he may be under a lot of pressure as a coach, he may feel he doesn’t have the resources, financial and in terms of personnel to achieve what he wants. But that doesn’t stop him seeing what we as rank amateur viewers/pundits see and that he’s taking too many chances and not utilising the resources that he has got in any meaningful way !
His blind faith in his own methods and his choice of favoured players and team set up is not designed to make us challengers. He has to stop leaving it to chance and develop a team and playing methodology that works. Even if that methodology is boring and without glamour.
I don’t want to see him go but, he’s doing himself no favours by continuing down the road he’s going and is making it hard for any ardent supporter to keep being able to defend him !
Can’t wait for the fans to be allowed back into the stadiums. Then only will Arteta know, when he is making poor team selections and substitutions. Arteta is making as many mistakes as the players from the sidelines and that is a problem. Who from top management is keeping tabs on Arteta’s mistakes.