Calling out Mikel Arteta so vehemently is a little overboard.
Mikel Arteta had a bad day yesterday, I rated him four and I feel that was generous but that is all it was, a bad day.
I have read comments on here that he should go, I did another article yesterday based on Twitter responses and some are saying Unai Emery was better and so on. To me, that is a vast overreaction.
We all knew that he was inexperienced when he took over from Freddie Ljungberg and allowances are made for that. His honeymoon period is over in my book and it is just fine if fans want to have a go at his performance as a manager but to call for his head or compare him to previous managers after just six weeks or so in charge is way over the top.
We have already seen positive changes, we have already seen quite a few players improve significantly, we have seen how the youngsters react to him, these are all huge positives and should not be disregarded so easily.
Let’s face it, he inherited a right shower and any manager would struggle with what he has been handed. Then on top of that, he has his hands tied behind his back in the transfer window.
Then there are injuries and some players with a huge loss of form. When you put it all together he has done a remarkable job.
Arteta was never my choice and I will be critical but I will also give him a huge chance to get it right, at least as long as Emery had anyway.
There is also still a chance of success this season, we can still make the Champions League via the Europa League and the FA Cup is still there to be won.
Does Arteta have to step up even more? Of course he does but it will not happen overnight. He will make further errors of judgement and you can take it to the bank I will be critical in the same way if I was a Man City fan. I would be very harsh on Pep Guardiola right now and that guy won the domestic treble last season.
Calling for Arteta’s head and going over the top with comments is a huge lack of perspective in my opinion.
Arteta needs time…
He just took over almost half way
He needs a good pre season to build up his own squad and get things done his way
Any one who feels MA deserves criticism at this stage of his management at Arsenal are obviously unreasonable individuals with no concept of modern football!
To expect MA to turn things round in such a short time with the tools he has is completely unacceptable. He needs at least until mid way through next season, when, hopefully he will have had time and some funding to re-balance the squad his way. None of us can imagine how difficult it must be to inherit a team that is low in confidence and under so much pressure!
Get off MA’s back and support him. Support the club!!
GunnerRay, I agree totally that Arteta should be supported by the owner and Board in the transfer market to “have had time and some funding to re-balance the squad his way”; however this was not allowed Emery. He was supplied players scouted and recruited by others and expected to coach them.
Denigrating and sacking the Head Coach has only deflected attention away from the real issues at Arsenal concerning the wasted income and prestige from 20+ years of Champions League participation, poor scouting and recruitment, a disinterested owner, lack of football knowledge and experience on the Board, a dilution of the player quality and depth in the squad since the Kroenke ownership and the move from the Emirates.
Arsenal supporters were sold a lie at that time and continue being misled.
Continued disparagement of Arteta in his first season is completely unfair, but this is not the first time.
Totally with you on this Admin,yes it was a poor performance but already we have seen improvement in certain players and strategy,he needs time to develope his ideas and get the players he wants and get them playing the way he wants.He’s a young manager and he will need support from us and from Kroenke,and that means in the transfer market,The people or fans that are saying these things are just moaning for the sake of moaning,I am sure he will have a squad capable of getting us back into the CL,maybe not this season but hopefully next.
First job he had was to stop us losing which he has .the team can now start to express themselves now they are more familiar with the system .
Yesterday the fullback did very little in attack so there is no need for 2 defensive midfielders
Arteta does need time and i think he deserves it because he didn’t inherit a brilliant squad with great morale, he inherited the opposite.
With that said i think he quickly needs to realise that he is protecting some awful players who should not be wearing the great shirt and i mean xhaka, Mustafi and Ozil. We’ve been more than patient with them and enough is enough.
Also leaving Pepe and Torreira on the bench when they are both getting better with every passing game is beyond me.
We need a massive clean up this summer and a manager with the balls to do it so hopefully Arteta is up for the task.
Arteta wasn’t my first choice either, but I’ve been very impressed with him. My disappointment yesterday was with the players.
Nowt we can do about yet another draw now, that’s gone, need to start thinking about Newcastle, as that will soon be here. COYG
He’s inexperienced, yes. But you don’t need much experience to know Laca should have been off much earlier than 88 minutes.
I am angered by these lazy fans with such a short memory. They are such a disgrace.
How can they possibly judge MA already? Did you forget that klop’s liverpool lost 5 to City at the beginning of his reign?
I understand we all want our Arsenal back to the top but that’s gonna take time.
As I see it, the biggest challenge he’s facing now is the management of senior players. I’d take Lacazette and Ozil as examples. Arteta is used to train young boys and he did that amazingly well, but when it comes to big names, he still don’t have enough ‘courage’ to drop them when it’s needed. And sadly it affects the team. He has to remember that the last time we won away from home we had a front three of : Martinelli – Auba – Pepe. That’s a fact.
He needs to bech Lacazette who completely lost it, Ozil too and sort things out with Ceballos.
We would have won the game if Saka wasn’t sustained injury. I felt his absence in the second half. That guy deserve to be playing his right position and you will see positive resuls.
“When you put it all together he has done a remarkable job”?
Really?
Emery. 13 games 18 points
Ljungberg 4 games 4 Points.
Arteta 8 games 9 points.
Ljung/Artet 12 games 13 pints.
Which ever way you look at it this has been a very poor season.
Yet incredibly Emery got with in 2 points of third last season.
Right now we are 18 points off third.
What has gone wrong this season?
What has gone wrong this season? erm, Emery.
Stevo , you are way out of step with moderate, sensible and thoughtful mainstream opinion about Arteta. Your childish and slavish addiction to meaningless stats show you to be a reactionary and NOT a thinker. The whole situation is far more complex than merely who has won more points on average and to use that as the basis for your false argument is daft beyond words! I really feel sorry for your lack of ability to REALLY THINK AND TO THINK DEEPLY!
Agree with Martin and glad to see other responses in agreement too.
The extent of the decline has been unexpected. Incessant injuries to the back line, the underwhelming Pepe, Ozil’s transformation from inconsistent to non-existant, Laca…
Arteta needs to be given at least a full summer window to put his stamp on the squad and address the areas of decline. A full rebuild is sorely needed.
100% behind Arteta.
I agree with you Sean M… However, Ateta must be hold to demand more physicality from the players. Also, the midfield is a big problem for the team. They are not doing anough to feed the attacking line. Playing from the back is also a big issue. That needs to stop.
Some of the criticism of Arteta after the draw at Burnley makes me embarrassed to be an Arsenal supporter.The man is working with largely a bunch of mediocre players which is reflected by our League position.Give him a break and please think before you contribute to this site.Because of financial constraints,which is the responsibility of the Owner and Board,he is operating with his hands tied.He is not a miracle worker but a promising young Manager who will go on to prove his worth at ArsenalSome of our fans need to start thinking like adults.Burnley away is always a difficult match.
In agreement with all the comments n the admn as well..let’s all support MA n the club that we all love…
Yesterday, we proved that clubs like Burnley, physical, synical and professional, will not bully us anymore.
We even had their manager complaining to the fourth official about our treatment of his forwards!!!
Can you imagine that being the case five weeks ago?
Our defence, apart from the usual playing out from the back suicidal moments, was strong, resilient and played as a unit…and please let’s not forget we have two LB backs injured, one CB out for the season, a new RB to come in, along with another CB (plus Salibas next season).
Wasn’t the defence our priority? MA has started to sort this out and yesterday proved it, with poor old Dyke having to complain about our tactics.
The second point to make is the fact that Dyke had to change his team around in order to combat our midfield – we overrun them in that first 25 minutes and it was our midfield was running them ragged and at one point, we had over 60% of possesion, but guess what?
Our deadly front line failed again to convert the chance created for them…plain and simple.
My preference would have been Torerria for guendozi as a starter, but MA had done his homework and the game should have been over before SD had to change his preferred tactics.
Finally, this break will give MA and the players further time to implement his style of play, allow the two new signings to integrate into that vision and workrate he has installed.
The injured players will be further along the road to recovery and we will then see what players MA chooses to play in his brand of football – whoever that is, we should be giving him 100% support and stop selecting individuals as scapegoats, no matter who they are.
If his “honeymoon period” is over, at least we now have a combative defence and let’s not forget who Burnley beat in their last two games.
Hallelujah for “aged” wisdom on this matter, Ken, as shown by you and me both, but only by a handful of other comments on recent threads, since the game was over. I was outraged at the sheer ignorance and immature stupidity of so many comments that slaughtered Arteta yesterday in hasty overreaction to the dawning of reality that some “muppets” now have to face. They face it because their own foolish self fantasies of making top four are now becoming obvious, even to them. They were of course already blindingly obvious for months past, to those of us on here who refuse to indulge in foolish fantasies of top four without a shred of PROPER evidence to back them up. Two weeks ago we had one person on this site predicting third place for us. I really feel for that persons sanity!
I was not at all disappointed yesterday and expected and predicted 1-1 DRAW . OUR DEFENCE IS NOW MARKEDLY BETTER THAN A MERE MONTH AGO AND I AM FULL OF HOPE , BUT NOT FOOLISH FANTASY , FOR NEXT SEASON.Pleased that you and I think alike,as it seems, on this important matter, KEN!
Totally agree with all of the positive comments. What do some. ‘Fans’ expect? A substandard team suddenly playing every week like champions.
It seems to me that now the defensive side is slowly improving that the strikers have decided to go on strike.
Agree with you, but I will judge Arteta only after 2021 – if he is still in the job then, as Ozil cannot/will not be transferred of our once great club and Arteta does not have the conviction to bench/banish him either.Sad for Arsenal. Sad that someone will come for Auba and Gabriel this summer, and they will want to showcase their talents with serious title contenders.
I was virtually alone on here yesterday in sticking up for both ARTETA and the team. I just don’t share, the sense of foolish despair and bitterness so many immature comments rather daftly wrote. I see it completely different from all those who wrote, what was in my considered opinion, to be nonsense and hysterical nonsense at that. I think many of those daft comments were insulting to Arteta and overlooked completely how fiercely we competed against a physically more powerful side and our will to win, (one person apart and no prizes for guessing who!) was good to witness.
We have clearly come a huge way since Emery left and as an arch realist who NEVER indulged myself in daft fantasies about making top four, which was gone long before MA arrived, IN REALITY, I was also not in deep depression born out of unrealistic expectations. I WILL ALWAYS STAND FOR THE TRUTH AS I PERCEIVE IT AND WILL NEVER SHY AWAY FROM SPEAKING IT, EVEN WHEN IT UPSETS MANY IMMATURE SELF FOOLERS WHO POPULATE THIS AND ALL FAN SITES.
Jon makes it about him being better than everyone else. Shock horror.
No Sean , I do not! But I do think that the host of immature comments on yesterdays threads that foolishly slaughtered Arteta were unthinking and reactionary with little or no real thought at all. I am indeed better than all of THOSE(and those only) in thinking ability. ON MY SIDE TOO ARE THOSE WHO ALSO HAVE AN ABILITY TO REALLY THINK BEFORE POSTING NONSENSE. Do you disagree then and which side of this argument are you on; the thinking one or the hasty reactionary ,unnuanced one? CARE TO INFORM US ALL? It is easy to write snide comments as in your above post but it takes guts to say, unambiguouisly and to the person you wish to criticise, EXACTLY what you mesn. You might try it sometime. It is called free and honest speech and we are all entitled to use it. Nothing snide about me. No half truths either. I SAY TO ALL, DIRECTLY AND EXACTLY WHAT I MEAN! To be clear , I have never, not even once in my entire life, ever said I am ” better than EVERYONE else”! They were YOUR words, not mine, SEAN! I HAVE ALSO NEVER THOUGHT IT, NOT EVEN ONCE !
You can see structure and tactics skill and comitment level of platers still need alot of work …..passing is appalling coming to meet the ball a basic skill and some spontaneous shots would not go amiss.yesterday epitomised this…..still work in progress
Barry, your comments regarding the passing being appalling – I agree with that, but forgot to mention it.
Guendozi was awful in this regard, but others were also guilty of some dreadful, schoolboy errors.
Hopefully, MA will work on this at the training camp, but in the second half, especially, the word “basic” comes to mind.
I feel sorry for Mikel Ateta, the attacking players and a little sympathy for the defence line. Arsenal main problem, apart from most key players under-performing, is the MIDFIELD PLAYERS. The mid field is the engine of any successful team. The Manager should change the current system of playing from the back line and make the midfielders pass the ball forward a lot more quicker to feed the attackers. Stop passing the ball backward and across the field unnecessarily.
Arteta needs to make some big decisions on a few players that should be doing better and are letting him down. IF he doesn’t he will pay for it, he needs to be strong and stand players down that he is so far relying on on past glories. He has to be ruthless to get better results. He has to demand more from the people who are not giving it and when they dont drop them.
This playing out from the back has to stop, as there is no way we can score a goal playing in our third of the pitch; God knows when our club will realise this.
Arteta is doing a good job and he is allowed his mistakes, like playing Guendozi yesterday and playing out from the back. Our midfield, after the initial buzz was defending more than helping in attack and hardly any creativity. When they did provide the forwards with the ball, it came to nothing with some atrocious finishing.
For all their physical play Burnley hardly got any cards while our lads kept seeing yellow, which was quite strange.
👍👍
Get used to playing from the back.
Them get used to mid-table mediocrity.
If you look at all of the clubs above Arsenal you would struggle to swap out 3 or 4 of our players for 3 or 4 of theirs, this is an ordinary squad on the whole with a very good striker and a couple of exceptional young players but them aside we’re average and Arteta needs money and next season to make any decent progress