Why this season is a failure By Vivek Julka
We have failed this season. I am sick of hearing that we overachieved with the youngest team in the league. This is nonsense. Just call it for what it is. A trophyless season equals failure for a club the size of Arsenal. So, who is at fault for this capitulation? Let’s discuss.
Mikel Arteta has to be sacked now. He was proving me wrong for the majority of the season but when it came to crunch time again, he couldn’t get us over the line. To bottle the league in April while being 8 points clear is unacceptable. We were top for 93% of the season, yet we are finishing second and have handed the title to Man City with three games to spare. We could even finish ten points behind them.
That doesn’t look like we even challenged them. This is the biggest bottlejob in Premier League history. Not beating the likes of West Ham, Southampton and Brighton in a title run-in is not good enough. And to fold at Man City in the manner we did was disgraceful. ‘Oh, but we can’t compete with Man City’.
Arteta has had nearly four years and has spent over £500 million. So how much more time and money does he need to beat Man City in the league? Because he has not won once against them in the League since he became manager. In fact, he has lost all of them. Embarrassing.
He has won one trophy since taking over and that was in his first few months. From then on, he has thrown away FA Cups, League Cups and the Europa League multiple times. How is this accepted by the fanbase? It has become normalised for us to constantly get knocked out of competitions without any consequences.
The excuse for this season is that we were focusing on the league. Yeah, that worked out well. As much as I don’t prioritise the League Cup, it is still a trophy. It means more than being first loser in the league. Therefore, Man United have had better season than us.
‘At least we are back in the Champions League’. This is the narrative now being spun by these ultra-positive deluded fans. Wake up! This manager can’t even win the Europa League. We are going to be embarrassed in the Champions League once again. Arteta won’t be sacked though as the fans are letting him get away with it and will get another £200 million to blow which will once again result in no major trophies.
Edu has to go along with Arteta. He is just as at fault. Not offering over £70 million for Moises Caicedo was a huge mistake. Also buying an inexperienced defender in Jakob Kiwor as strength in depth for a title race was another bad move.
Also £35 million each on Fabio and Zinchenko is a sackable offence in its own right. Also, the new contracts given to Elneny and Ramsdale is rewarding failure. As much as Arteta is to blame, we would have won the league with Caicedo and a more experienced defensive signing.
The players are at fault too but that is a discussion for another day.
If we are serious about winning league titles we need a proper manager and an experienced technical director.
By Vivek Julka
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Interesting and what you say is your opinion. I dont want Arteta and Edu sacked (even though you put a case ascto why) but if you say you do. Who do you want?
I frequently ask this question Reggie of posters who want Arteta out and funnily enough, nobody puts forward a name.
Pep. 🤣
He’d have been my choice to replace AW before he stood down
Klopp was my choice a year before liverpool got him but Arsenal never had the bottle to sack Wenger at that time really believe Klopp would have had the same success at Arsenal as he has had at liverpool!
Very well said, we ruined our destiny by sticking with a failed “I know better than you” sick attitude person who swindled good money on the likers of Laca, Ozil, Chamakh, Perez, Chambers, Ox, Xhaka, Gabs, and the list goes on to near infinity.
Coming second is a deemed a failure, coming 4th for 15+ years in a farmers league is what? 0/22 in Europe, 0/22 league cup, 7/22 FA cup, 3/22 EPL titles, is this called success when you had to compete with Utd alone? The fact Mourinho exposed the fraud. With the arrival of Klopp and Pep, the game has stepped up. And Mikel has to compete with 5-6 teams and yet we earned 2nd spot. Saliba’s injury ruined everything.
One of the reasons is that many of those previously suggested as being better than Arteta have lost some of their lustre.
A lot of people have been forced to become more circumspect.
It’s not that long ago that people were insisting that Arsenal should have gone for Conte, Brendan Rogers or any of a number of other managers who has had great or relative success with another team.
I agree with you Reggie 💯. Saka has just signed a new deal until 2027,,, so that’s something positive. We always knew he would. But all the same it’s good that it’s been finally announced
Are you at all with your right mind?
Leaping from the fifth place to the second place isn’t a failure, because EPL has been dominated by Man City in the last five years. Let him sign a more physical CF, then we’ll see the result afterwards
If we sack him, maybe Nagelsmann will be the only perfect candidate to compete with Guardiola. Other high-profile managers have failed badly, namely Allegri, Ancelotti, Conte and Rodgers
Maybe you want to gamble on Zidane. But I don’t think he can compete with Guardiola in EPL, because he has no experience in England
I have taken a breather from this site probably a month or more since I have been on here. Arsenal capitulation have been bad for my mental health and so I have eased off arsenal and it’s year upon years of failure. It seems arsenal build up your hopes and then give you a real sucker punch that the pain last year’s upon years. Arteta and arsenal did fail this season and they did failed last season. The guys just don’t have the nerve and know all for a late run in. Won’t hold my breath for anything special next season as well. My advise to us arsenal supporters is to go out and enjoy life and stop obsessing over this silly little team that players get truck loads of money to play for without having any real strength to push to win even 1 championship in 20 years. GET OUT,ENJOY LIFE ,TALK TO FRIENDS AND FAMILY. . IT DID ME WONDERS. 8 MAY DO YOU THE SAME. MY OPINION ANYWAYS.
Gai, this article was posted to gather traffic on this plartfom and make it further active. There isn’t any debate on Arteta’s performance. Yes, Arsenal didn’t win the league and most of us fans are pained. But from 5th to 2nd is appreciable progress. The more experience coaches haven’t been able to compete with the coaching and player quality inMCity in few seasons past. Only JKlopp tried with Liverpool.Arteta a young coach is still on a learning curve. And from what have seen if he gets his signing right against next season Arsenal will challenge MCity for sure. I make bold to say Halaand was a major reason MCity won epl this season.
Get ready for those pitchforks with an Article like this 😂
I don’t want Arteta sacked….but he has serious faults which led to two seasons of collapse. It’s something he must change and is HIS problem. Mr Plan A….totally without plan B….it broke my heart when Ramsdale played out from the back Vs Southampton and f’d our season up. What is a matter with Arteta, there is a time to play out…..but not when there is a high press from a poor side and you gift them a goal. Stupid!
👍
I take it from your comments you have not been a Gooner for long. I was brought up in Holloway and have been an Arsenal fan for over 70 years. You are a typical fair-weather fan and don’t know misery. We WILL fight back, we have done so many times before.
I was born on The Cally Road, been a fan since chippy’s first game 1973 against Birmingham we won 1-0, he came on for Jeff Blockley I have seen great joy and great disappointments but I wouldn’t swap it for anything.
I don’t want Arteta sacked. One can’t deny the progress we have made under him especially this season. But still one can’t overlook his sort comings. I don’t want to go into favoritism and tactically lacking when it mattered most. I’ll rather we look into money spent. I’ll say this here, I don’t trust Arteta with funds, he doesn’t buy right. About 500mil and the squad doesn’t look the part. How much did we buy Jesus for? How do you let Auba and Laca go only to replace them with Jesus, complete downgrade on Auba. Viera, Lokonga, Mari, injury prone Tomiyasu, Willian, Runnarson, Cedric, Turner, Kiwior, Zinny( although good at first but now proving to be a disaster at left back).
If you look at all his buys there’s no straight world class there. Few at very good to me though; Ever present Gabriel, Odegaard, Ramsdale, White(hasn’t even justified being bought as a CB but did great this season at RB). Saliba was not his buy.
I think he buys quantity instead of quality. Spend top money buy a few world class players instead of buying cheap players who at the end of the day won’t make us compete with the Madrid’s of this world.
Did you want world-class players without CL football?
Lol, Firstly, money talks and money will keep talking. Secondly, this is not about having Champions league football or not. It’s about the type of players that Arteta and Edu keep identifying with. Just take a look at the players we are still being linked to even with Champions league football and you’ll understand my point.
Show me the 500 million he has spent
1
Ben White
€58.50m
2
Gabriel Jesus
€52.20m
3
Thomas Partey
€50.00m
4
Martin Ødegaard
€35.00m
5
Fábio Vieira
€35.00m
6
Oleksandr Zinchenko
€35.00m
7
Aaron Ramsdale
€28.00m
8
Gabriel Magalhães
€26.00m
9
Jakub Kiwior
€25.00m
10
Leandro Trossard
€24.00m
11
Takehiro Tomiyasu
€18.60m
12
Albert Sambi Lokonga
€17.50m
13
Jorginho
€12m
14
Pablo Marí
Loan fee:€8.00m signed permanent 6m€
15
Nuno Tavares
€8.00m
16
Matt Turner
€6.36m
17
Marquinhos Marquinhos
€3.50m
18
Rúnar Alex Rúnarsson
€2.00m
19
Willian
Free transfer but on 250+k/week
And others like Cedric,maquihos and co
Thank you very much Gun Down, saved me the stress of tying that. Just look at the total amount we have spent on absolute garbage. Lokonga was suppose to be the replacement for Guendouzi. Just look at that. How much did Marseille get Guendouzi for? 8, how much did we buy Lokonga for? Almost 18. You replace Auba a pure goal scorer and proper 9 who was past it with Jesus. Another downgrade. I don’t want to say more neither do I want to even go into how abysmal we sell. How many have we paid to leave? Only at Arsenal do you see this level of gross talent mismanagement. Like I said I don’t want Arteta sacked, I personally feel next season is his make or break season. I still stand by what I said earlier and what I said earlier is very valid. I don’t trust Arteta and Edu with funds. They don’t buy right.
Only 7 of the above are full regular first teamers. The rest will never be full first team regulars.
Meaning they spent majority of money on players who will neither improve the team or add significant contributions.
This adds up to about 433 million euros or 375 million pounds and doesn’t include any sales (albeit there have not been that many sales on note)
Not 500 million plus though, is it?
The season’s been quite successful really, considering the object was to qualify for the Champion’s League.
Finishing outside the top four would have been failure, and we gave the eventual champions a good run for all of the season bar the last few games or so.
Sack Arteta? Are you completely in a parallel universe?
Remember this when you’re begging him to stay when Barcellona come looking for him.
Is it April 1st? The whole article is an utter joke. Arsenal have had an excellent season, any one with a brain knows that. The squad is underpowered compared to City but it appears the club are trying to address this.
I think this is pure satire to try and get some kind of a reaction.
Clearly the author of this article isn’t a fan of progression and entertaining football.
Nah I’m fan of Winning trophies.
So you are a glory hunter, football just isn’t about winning trophies, if that were the case, we should scrap the lower leagues, I don’t think you truly understand what following a club is about, and you never will. I have friends who support Watford, Plymouth, Portsmouth, and plenty more teams who will never win trophies, ask them why they follow these clubs. It will stem from your dad taking you to your first game, your mates at school who started to go, and the nearest club to you. I suspect you started supporting Arsenal when Wenger came, just like a lot of glory hunters, the plastic fans who know nothing about football.
This write-up smells of venom and lack of perspective ,
People talk of being 8 points above City, but they forget City had played a game less and we still had to play them at their home. Effectively that’s a miserly 2 points advantage. And for a team that can put together a 12-game winning run, 2 points is nothing.
We are all disappointed in the way we ended the season in a whimper. We could have done much better. But to label the season a total failure is, to me, a tard too harsh
This article is a bit extreme but everyone’s entitled to their opinions.
I also agree on some of MA’s shortcomings like LIKE NO PLAN B,
OVER COPYING PEP{God Save Us} FAVOURITISM OF CERTAIN PLAYERS WHO JUST DON’T CUT IT IN TITLE CHASING/WINNING TEAMS(Fabio Viera) and non rotation of the squad! It truly is embarrassing how we squandered this great opportunity we had to win the league regardless of how young the team is, I’d have rather us finish 4th than finished how we did tbh!!
That is gonna haunt us psychologically for many years to come, trust me.
As for Edu, he just doesn’t cut it for me nd isn’t what we need in a Director of Football position and his inexperience is showing.
Fingers crossed we sign some quality players this summer(please no more Cithey players) and do something In the CL to get some reputation back.
COYG
I think the person writing this article is just looking for a few clicks n nothing more…cus I see no sense in whatever point he is trying to make..how can you say signing Zinny 35m and giving Ramsdale a sackable offence? For Christ sake these are some of our best players and even made it to some people TEAM of the season, I mean when last did you compete for a title??…well, if you don’t see the progress ARTETA has made then is either you are clown or you are high on drugs…
What I find ironic about this article is 12 months ago if we had beaten Spurs or Newcastle we would have finished 4th which everyone says was progress
We finish 2nd and I see the same people who called 5th progress less happy now that we are 2nd
Dan, if we had finished fourth, it would have meant we didn’t bottle it. The article (wether you think is extreme or don’t) says he is worried that for two years on the trot in the league, we have failed to follow through to the business end. That is a serious problem, that also happened in EL league cup final and EL this year against Sporting. The writer will upset a few people but he has points that are relevant and i myself for many seasons have wondered about the substance of our football, when it really matered. It is something that needs addressing. Can Arteta do it? Is he the man? Can he see his faults? Will he change?
I will add, i dont think it has been a total failure as the title (which the writer didn’t write, i presume) but there have been glaring errors and worrying trends.
This has been a strange season. We were front and centre title challengers early on because the other establishment clubs didn’t perform. We finish where we deserve but ultimately ahead in league terms of where most gunners would have guessed before the season started. It’s not a successful season but a very positive one. This post is ridiculous in its demands however come the end of next season maybe repost as it could then be relevant
Let’s be honest about ourselves and our club, Arsenal. We haven’t done anything for 19yeaes that is tangible , the third most successful team in England. Nothing tangible . And yet MA has been there for 4 years , nothing tangible . Everything is thrown to the future, even in us fans , success has disappeared and that’s why we are comfortable with just being in CL, not winning it. Every time we buy rejects, young players or just average players , there’s no hope or at least hope to win something, nothing …….. It’s not that all of us as fans shud just be positive even if things are not ok, no. I see why Saliba is not yet signing da ting. I agree with the writer of the article, I’m sorry fellow gooners
I’ve read this article a couple of times. Blink, and you’ll miss it. You (Vivek Julka) make certain points, but you fail to put your argument forward and build your case. What’s your solution? Who would you bring in??? The article comes across as a rant from a new age self righteous little prat. I’ve backed Arteta since his appointment. And yes, some of his decisions have been mediocre and very unprofessional to say the least. Sack Arteta now and the club will surely go around in circles. Every new manager always wants his own players. We’ll see what happens in the new pre season if and what new signings are made. Hopefully we’ll be more competitive in winning domestic trophies. At the end of the day, Arteta has to learn from his past mistakes. Only a fool repeats his mistakes
You free to support another club if you’re that angry
Was this really written by an Arsenal supporter or by a a ****? Insert whatever team (or word) fits 😳
The way in which we capitulated has left a very sour taste in our mouths. But the season has definitely not been a failure. Our performances were great until we lost Saliba and Xhaka got onto a scuffle at Anfield. That has been disappointing because in the eyes of many we bottled it again. On reflection, I don’t think MA should be sacked although, he does need to take a clear look at his squad rotation tactics and fix his failings next year. With decent signings we will have the depth and quality we need.
Xhaka cost us the title? When will you stop? Save the explanation because it’s all in your head.
I wonder when that nonsense ideas will stop
I didn’t blame Xkaka. I said things changed after that moment. We wobbled.
I know that many on her esp regulars will KNOW for dcertin m yopinion abou this piece So I need not state it. In anycase, I DO beieve in freedom, both of thought and of speech. This young person has a perfect right to write his thoughts
I would , normally, be very tempted to destroy his character with words. ICY, CUTTING WORDS TOO.
But many others, I see have already done so, I relish to read!
I DO, IN AN ODD WAY, ADMIRE HIS BRAVERY. THOUGH NOT HIS JUDGEMENT, NOR HIS INTELLECT.
We have to be patience with little things, his in experience has cough up. what border me the most is his failure to test a victory on guadila more than 8 in epl.
The other thing this article takes no account of is progress, or what might be called the ‘process’. Under Arteta we have generally moved forward. He has made mistakes, no question, but he will, he is a young manager. The key thing is he learns from them. We are immeasurably better than when he took over. That is unarguable but this City team would win the league in most era’s. Only one team can be champions, failing to win doesn’t make him a bad manager or the teams poor team.
I get your frustration and I do agree with you on that this year was failure but I don’t get agree on few points..
Arsenal did offer 70 Million for Caicedo but Brighton were hellbent on holding Caicedo at any cost… So I don’t see any wrong in that…
Also purchase of Zinchenko proved very successful to some extent…
He was pretty much instrumental in our season..
I feel Arteta should have understood Zinchenko is not defender so he should have moved Zinchenko in midfield and Tierney as LB…
Instead of buying Jesus as CF, Arteta should have bought big strong and powerful CF who could be good playing back to goal..
Ramsdale deserved his contract extension…
He alone ensured that Arsenal Winning 10-12 points for the season..
Arteta is a decent coach..
Not the world class yet..
He may reach that level or may not…
But he lack tactical creativity and tactical knowledge…
His whole season tactic was on inverted full back…
He didn’t try to work out any other tactic..
After Newcastle game we lost Zinchenko and because of lack of alternatives, his team couldn’t cope in the games and fell apart…
He needs to learn tactical awareness…
He needs to start trusting his bench player…
Nobody is asking him to rotate squad entirely but at least he could rotate 2-3 players every game…
Try some different combinations…
He played White as RB most of the season but he benched him against City and asked Tomiyasu to play in the game which was full of pressure… He was tend to make mistake because lack of confidence that came because of lack game time…
You can try playing Martinelli as CF and Trossard on left and Jesus on right instead of Saka…
He could have tried ESR for Xhaka’s role when everyone was clearly seeing that Viera is not yet ready to fill Xhaka’s place or Odegaard’s place..
There are so many options he could have done..
He has very good crop players who can play on multiple positions so he could have tried 2 up top CFs as well..
Hopefully he will learn from his mistakes and get better next season…
Zinchenko playing LB is what made us tick. he is what enabled us to play from the back since he was an extra MF. If he played at MF we would not have the extra body there. when Zinchenko was out it was much more difficult for us to play from the back.
Quite possibly the most idiotic rant I’ve ever read. If this season has been such a failure why has Saka, who could sign for any club in the world right now, just signed a new long term deal with the club. Likewise if Arteta is such a poor manager why have Martinelli & Ramsdale recently signed extended deals & trusted their future with him?
Total failure – a bit harsh. They (Arteta and Edu) deserve props for UCL qualification and leading the league for most of the season. Just being fair.
Your points re. spend to date and questionable signings are valid and on point. Just wondering if it’s the right time to appoint a new director of football to serve as a sounding block and guide for Arteta and Edu.
Think the club think will accept or tolerate another meltdown next season? Not very likely.
ladies and gentleman
always a pleasure to read articles like these and by the way everyone is entitled to there opinion.
i just don’t think this is the opinion of the majority of fans on here.
its easy to lay the blame at the feet of the manager & co but i do think we need to wait to the final whistle has been blown for the end of the season and let the dust settle before we all make rash comments and discissions.
was it the lack of rotation, lack of squad depth, game management. a cumulative of all but not one in particular.
i have stuck up for MA since he joined us. not because i thought he was the best person for the job at the time but because he is was our appointed manager and there will come a time when he will be sacked or leaves for some other calling. then i will say the king is dead long live the king or queen.
not sure if we have failed or it has been a successful season but i know i have felt joy in the way we have played and how we have expressed ourselves on and off the pitch this season for the majority of times.
no sending off to date and no excuses about being a man short.
i am sure that the team are smart enough to sit down and pick holes in there plan and find solutions for it for the coming season. either new players in and going out and game management.
i look forward to the repeats words of onwards and upwards next season
take a deep breath and relive the great highlights we have had this season rather then bemoaning about what could of been.
we live for the future and not the past
Well said Alanball08
Nobody could have expected the collapse as we were for the most part quietly confident of victory but not daring to put it out for public consumption.
However, there has to be a cool off time for upset at the way the season is ending before looking forward to what is planned for the future. Can I say, ‘Onwards and Upwards’?
Alan It occurs to me – and I wont be alone -that if a non footbalk person who knew nothing at all about our club, read your post and then the article by Vivek, he would instantly KNOW which is the adult and which the little child.
I wont insult the intellect of anyone reading this by explaining which is which!
Suep
I am only too pleased for you to shout it out form the roof tops
I do hope everyone says it and beleives it
Mr JF
I do acknowledge the hurt and frustration that has come out of this article
I am no better then then VJ a d feel his pain. I would have worded slightly different and I certainly don’t agree with him on sacking the manager.
I agree with him that it is a season without silverware but there are only 4 cups to win
AW did once say getting top was like winning a trophy 🏆
The debate will go on about did we bottle it ect and was it an unsuccessful season
Again as for me
Hate losing but bar a few weeks this season it’s been incredibly entertaining and given back my total belief in the Club, team and the fans have made the atmosphere amazing and fantastic
Say it again and again. We lost the EPL title with inexperienced coach and team. The coach in the sideline allow players to their own game and only get devastated when Arsenal start chasing games. Arteta doesn’t seem to realise that he should remind the players of his presence and superintendence from the sideline to make the players up energy, intensity and mentality in their games. Devastated, he makes wrong replacement as if he is pleasing external forces than to win games. These ugly shows must end for Arsenal to get trophies in the Arteta project.
ridiculous. it’s the most points we have reached in 16 years, and if we ween the last game it’s the most points we have reached since the Invincibles. at the beginning of the season, we thought it would be a struggle to finish 4th.
Arteta might have done a few things differently but all in all, he got near maximum from a good first 11, but he did not have a good enough squad to get through the finish line. It was a mistake not to pay a little extra for Ceicedo in January.
Before you say that Arteta chose this squad, he might did, but we had limited funds the last two summers, and without CL football we could not buy the best players and had to gamble with unknown entities like Viera, Sambi, and Tavares.
It was a great season, we made significant progress, the players and Arteta can still learn, and with a better squad, Arteta could develop a plan B. Saying he should be sacked is border line insane.
Show me the 500 million plus Arteta has spent on players since 2019 when he became manager, show me the money
470 million spent
25 players bought in
21 players bought with a fee
4 players loaned in at a cost of 30 million
500 hundred million ,Theres your money 💰
Can you be nice enough to break it down please?
Let’s know how much was spent on each of the 21 players you claimed we bought.
Thanks in advance.
Jesus €52m
Zinchenko €35m
Vieira €35m
Kiwior €25m
Trossard €24m
Jorginho €11m
Turner €6m
Marquinhos €3m
= 191 million (season 22/23)
White €58m
Ödegaard €35m
Ramsdale €28m
Tomiyasu €19m
Sambi Lokonga €18m
Tavares €8m
Trusty €2m
= 168 million (season 21/22)
January 2020
Pablo Mari €14m
Ödegaard loan €2m
Total of all outgoing fees is around 375 million. Transfer incomes are rougly 55 million during the same time span.
Way off you pick a number out of the ballpark but don’t back it up, so no that’s not the money
So let me guess, 19 teams every year need to sack their managers?
Sorry but the logic here just doesn’t add up and I would hazard to say isn’t “logical”. With the players we have, and considering we are in the EPL, we did better than expected. To say not winning is failure is the kind of thinking that is failure.
Seriously is this just click bait?
I agree with the analysis. In performance management you look at the season objective that of qualification for champions league, whichwas achieved.
Arsenal had a good season…to have a squad as this compete with mancity while others have failed its a success…
The progress is there and with time the dividends will pay off….sometimes players have to show the thirst and hunger…as a manager he has tried in terms of motivating the squad but cant enter the field of play now…the collapse in those games that ended our season was 60% down to the players
Many called this collapse including myself.
Arteta has shown his team capitulate when the stakes get high.
One could say if he does not shake this off soon it will be something that follows him around.
Tbh, an absolute disgrace to throw it away the way we did and threw away the Europa to boot.
Arteta is a check book manager and still can’t find a way to be successful with trophies.
Poor substitutions, late substitutions, no plan B, no rotation.
Sad really how some can’t accept being wrong about Arteta and therfore want him to stay in charge.
If people were honest with themselves they would want him gone.
We won’t win the CL or PL with Arteta in charge, no matter the amount of money he blows.
Sws
All season you have been saying it
You should have put money on it as I can see you are able to see the future
A word of advice
If you don’t like what u see
Turn off your TV and follow some other sport
Less stress 4 u
I’ll quickly skip over the article other than to acknowledge that we live in a Country where free speech is tolerated.As to where we go from here with Arteta at the helm, I would like to think he will have learned from the errors of his ways and recognise the fundamental weakness in our defensive set up and the lack of real quality players to implement his high risk tactics which are no longer being used by Pep at City.With the exception of perhaps Liverpool we are the only side to adopt the overrated “inverted” system and the facts are that we have leaked goals , and dropped points against teams at the lower end of the League.If Arteta persists with this set up next season , and continues to use Zinchenko in the LB role, we have no chance of challenging Man City, even if we manage to secure the services of someone of the calibre of Rice.
Talking about Pep, I saw an an article on Sky the other day about the formations/tactics he has deployed this season. It’s amazing how he switched between 3 different set-ups in different games with ease. And his players seamlessly blending in and adopting it.
In all sincerity, it will take a little bit more time for Arteta to reach that level but we need to start seeing glimpses of a dynamic, tactically adept manager in him from next season. If not then I’m afraid…
I will rather look at the bright side. Of course, I am disappointed by our bottling, but that does not change the fact that we made progress under Arteta. 8th, 5th, 2nd, ?
Let’s give Arteta the benefit of the doubt that he will learn from his mistakes that cost him the league and make further progress next season.
It is really terrible people think this way. Absolutely terrible.
That’s like saying, its terrible to eat meat or its terrible to be a vegan. The writer may have extreme opinions BUT he is entitled to them whatever we all may think to them. And they are deep down no different to anyone elses opinion. Like Vegans, just different. He has his reasons for thinking the way he does, just like you or me. It is not Racist, Harmful, destructive or dangerous. Just opinion.
ARTETA is nominated for the best manager of the season, he has built a foundation and giving Arsenal the desire to dream again…no one gave Arsenal the chance of even finishing in the top 4 this season, but look he competed for the title with the best team I’ve seen in PL history, and because he ended second and a delusional fan is coming to write shit about him?? pls go n support another club cus we need yo kind here…
Arteta has raised expectations and next season’s odds and pundits will fall in line with fan’s expectations. It’s a good thing. We made more than sure of CL football and I expect the players to grow confidence in these new times and put in a strong fight next season
No one is more negative than me regarding Arsenal. But, regarding Arteta and Edu, they are doing their best. This team failed because:
They have a short in ST, CAM, RB and CB backups. Tomiyasu was a big let down with injury problem. We also lack RW Saka backup.
If proper recruitments are done, Arsenal will challenge next year again.
So whose fault for lack of proper recruitment after almost four years? It is instructive to note that we came second and majority of Arsenal fans globally are not celebrating it. This could be like to seeing the promised land without entering it.
Sacking Arteta and Edu is out of question. This summer will prove even to his foot soldiers whether Arteta & Edu the right ones going forward.
I will reluctantly concede that Arteta deserves another season to fullfill his potential, although like grandad I have issues with some of Arteta’s decision making, such as bias in his player selection, tactical inflexibility and overall judgement. I hope it’s just part of a learning process and that he won’t repeat the same errors, because despite the City juggernaut the competition was his to win and the manager blew it. Second place is a consolation price and will be worthless unless you build on it.
How some rant against “check book managers” yet turn a blind eye to the vast amount of money the club has spent to “buy 2nd place.”
Man management and mentality continue to be our biggest obstacles IMHO.
Arteta has shown to be a good manager I would not say great. He has his plan A and hasn’t shown the ability to adapt and evolve during games yet.
We say players have to grow and develop, but so does our manager. Do away with guaranteed starters, be will to adapt from inverted LB and always attacking from the wings. Jesus was never brought in to attack through the middle.
I hope to see changes in Arteta next year in approach, tactical flexibility, and especially man management.
👍
It’s true. A pen is deadlier than a knife. When useless emotional fans act like CEO of a football club with that huge ego and hilarious entitlement, any credibility is washed down the drain. The effort is a waste of column, better to be given to realistic and more analytical fans.
Thank you Reggie. Those questions you asked needs to be addressed. There is no question of sacking Arteta and Edu because Kroenke won’t do just that. Calling the writer names won’t solve the problem either. All Arteta need do is to correct those errors he committed. Come up with plan B, rotate your players and be fair to all your players. On the part of Edu, he should buy us quality players and Viera and co. Today, Arteta bought more than 90% our players. So I hate people giving Saliba’s injury as an excuse. With 200M pounds, they can fix our CB, DM and CF. Next season, the story will definitely change because we will have a lot of teams to contend with.