As the business end of the English Premier League commences, Arsenal must be careful not to fall into the kind of form that other big-name clubs are currently battling with. The truth is that the form these clubs find themselves in can happen to anybody.
Big names no longer guarantee success in football. To sustain your “big name” status, you must, as we say in Nigeria, “show working” every single game. There should be no slipping into a false sense of security, even for one second, throughout the season. Complacency breeds this false sense of security, and once that attitude seeps into a match—especially if you scrape through with a win—the tendency to think that will always be the case in every match sets in. This mentality leads to drawing or even losing matches that should otherwise be wins.
Aside from a few instances, there have been games this season where, just five minutes into the match, you could tell Arsenal would needlessly drop points or lose outright. It didn’t matter whether the opposition was Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Fulham, Brighton & Hove Albion, Newcastle, or even Bournemouth. Our approach to games these days reeks of complacency. We are a club yet to win any major trophies for quite some years, yet our players approach most matches as if they are “big men” who have won everything and have nothing left to prove. They sometimes play as though it’s a routine, not recognising that there is anything at stake—without a sense of responsibility to the fans who endure relentless trolling both online and offline every week due to the players’ lack of grit, fight, and determination on the pitch.
The last match against Newcastle was not enjoyable to watch. Our complacent approach to games until we go a goal or two behind is troubling. We caress the ball too much, wasting time moving it backwards or sideways when we have opportunities to counter quickly before the opposition has time to recover. Instead, we dally with the ball, show a lack of proper awareness and sharp vision by looking up and down for teammates before passing—and sometimes even give the ball away, allowing our opponents the time they need to regroup, settle, and get back into shape. Then, we pass backwards and sideways again when we should be making incisive runs or threading through balls into the gaps left by these opponents.
Why we approach games this way, instead of playing with the same grit we showed in the final thirty minutes against Newcastle after going 2-0 down, is something I can’t explain. These mistakes happen in almost every match. The boys play with a mentality of “We are Arsenal,” expecting respect and fear from their opponents, only to get punished by teams that do not show such respect or fear—no matter how lowly rated they may be.
A perfect example was our match against Ipswich Town. In the first half, the Ipswich players showed a lot of respect for Arsenal, but because we didn’t impose our ‘superiority’ on them, they returned in the second half with no respect, having seen in the first half that we were merely human after all.
We must change our mentality and approach every game with the same toughness, determination, grit, and fight—crowned with the flair that defines us, just as we would against Manchester City, Real Madrid, or Liverpool. No team should be considered a walkover before the match even begins. While Arteta and his coaching staff must address these errors, our players need to approach every match with the intent to tear teams apart for daring to play against us.
Great respect goes to our fans who pay a lot to attend games at the Emirates. But they can do better in cheering the team on. They need to cheer louder and make the Emirates truly feel like home for our players, intimidating the opposition into chaos. A situation where away fans out-chant our supporters is not ideal. We can—and should—do better.
In conclusion, it’s good that we know we’re still very much in the Carabao Cup. In recent years, teams have beaten us at the Emirates, but we’ve always exacted our vengeance on their home ground. It’s the same situation now. We must be motivated by our near-perfect away record in recent times and brace ourselves for the fact that we’re still very much in this tournament. We need to go to Newcastle and get the job done. Yes, it can still be done! And our season can still end on a high!
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When people complain about the players; their movement or lack thereof, their sideways and back passing and slow buildup, keep this in mind,
They are following the instructions of the manager!
After spending nearly 800 million it’s still players fault? 5 years in, it’s on the manager. Setup, play, tactics, depth, no plan B, who is responsible players or manager?
Arteta’s risk averse and play not to lose approach has killed the flair and individual brilliance in this team.
Possession is paramount, static positioning, and laborious play have us regressing this year.
Key players are underperforming; not one or two, but across the board.
Havertz, Martinelli, Jesus, Odegaard have underperformed massively this year.
Rice looks a shadow of himself compared to last year. Even our pillars of defense, Saliba and Gabriel, look shaken and suspect too often this year.
We need a director of football who will be Arteta’s boss not his friend. Someone to identify problems and ruthlessly address them, dragging Arteta along if necessary.
A DoF and the manager should get on together. The manager should tell the DoF the players he wants and the DoF should do his best to get those players.
Fair enough Herr Drier,
but the Director should be charting the course of the club, should be leading the organization and doing what is best for the club, keeping the long term in view.
The manager should be supported and function within that system, not an ass-backwards approach of finding a “boss” (director of football) who fits the manager’s system.
In other words, the manager should take cue from the director, not the other way around.
One of our problems IMHO is managers should manage first, not try and run the organization.
We lived through that mistake with Wenger after Dein left, now we appear in the same situation and yielding the same results.
What happens this transfer window may just determine how we finish the season.
With Saka gone till March, we must add on our attacking unit orelse it will be a trophy less season once again.
However much we expect our players to up their game, it is untenable to play Martinelli,Jesus and Trossard every 3days for 90mins and expect them to deliver.
By the time we play Leicester on Feb 15th our fate may have already been sealed.
If we can’t be able to pay for the likes of Mbuemo and Isaak,let’s look for short term options like Kolo Muani &Coman because we are in a serious fix.
Now that they have made Arteta the second most paid manager in the world I finally realize the owners of this club are the biggest problem we have and we will probably not win any major silverware under their ownership.
Yes, Arsenal have what it takes to recue their season! But that would only be achievable if Arteta the coach Thinks So. If the coach always sees the positives in a failed match when there is non, the players won’t consider any need to improve themselves.
Before the season started many fans mentioned need for a CF and deputy for Saka but the coach saw otherwise and the board invested more in defenders and no single attacker.
Eddy Howe got right what New Castle needs few games into the season and changed their midfield setup with Tonali playing as a NO6 and regroup in defense, Now they have gone on a winning strick beating Top Epl teams. And Arsenal twice this season, EddyH even got Isak firing.
Everything rise and falls on the “Leader” which is Arteta. There is not reason why Arsenal shouldn’t be active in the Transfer market for a wide player, what happens if Havertz or Jesus get injured and Saka already out?
If Arteta feels Arsenal season is in peril then there could be a solution and a positive outcome in performance and the players could go another gear.
He’s the fifth highest paid manager in the world, not the second.
Simeone £30m
Pep. £20m
Gerrard £15.2m
Ancelotti. £9.6m
Mikel. £9.5m
We’ve already won major silverware under this ownership, the FA Cup.
HD
I thought Arteta was now on about 15 million
From what I can source, he’s the second highest paid PL manager after signing his new three year contract.
The estimate is that he’s near the £20,000,000 mark, making him the third highest in the world….. with one fa cup and a CS to his name, when he was earning less than £8 million I believe.
Compare that trophy haul to Pep and Simeone and one can understand HH’s point of view, but I don’t blame the owners myself.
@Ken
I am not blaming the owners but I now doubt if winning trophies is something they care about at all. If they did they would have questioned before sanctioning astronomical wages and transfer fees(among highest in the league and in the world) to a good but not great manager and our rivals rejected players.
Looking at recent history it’s astonishing how mediocrity or good enough is highly rewarded at Arsenal. Not only to Arteta but to some players as well.
Gabriel Jesus and Havertz are good example. Only Arsenal will make these average players earn close enough to great players like Salah.
And the owners not only are not questioning such terrible deals, they keep on approving the next ones.
It’s no wonder why we can’t sell a player to save our lives. And what is the motivation to the manager and players when they are being handsomely rewarded regardless of success?
No SueP, it like when he first signed as our manager, people said he was on £8m per year when in fact it was £5m. Rumours hey 🙄
HD
I had looked at the TalkSport webpage – about 15m
I have now looked at 3other sites and they all had different figures ranging – £10m, £13m, £9m
Not sure where you found those numbers, I would appreciate if you could direct me to a reliable source.
Best I could find were 5 reports all saying Arteta received a “significant increase from his current 9 million 158,000 weekly salary, closer to Pep’s 20 million salary.”
There were no specifics, only that there was a significant increase from his previous 9 million salary.
Got my estimates from Goal.com and the daily mail via Google Durand, if that helps?
😂 same old same old .
And at the end of the day who cares to stick up for him ,he’s massively overpaid and overrated no matter what he’s pulling into his bank account
Same cringe fans per usual trying to make so kind of excuse ,embarrassing to say the least .
Thanks Ken
Of course we would need to see Arsenal books for the true wages, but I guess those being reported are the best we will get.
Thanks again and I’m sure it’s well in excess of his previous 9 million.
He’s on 16 million a year HD Not sure where you have got your numbers ,but anyway if your figures are to be believed he’s 9.4 million per year overpaid
Herr Drier,
Mikel gets £9.5m, is that all. We must have a whipp round for him.
And he’s only the 5th best paid manager in the world. Scandalous, absolutely scandalous.🙄🤦♂️
Derek
You have to ask if any of them are worth that much, except for the 20m that Guardiola is getting. Apparently Sean Dyche was on 5m
SueP,
These managers must laugh all the way to the bank mustn’t they.
What a position these managers are in.
First they get paid barrel loads of money, then I believe I’m right in saying that if they leave of there own accord they won’t be paid there full contract.
But if there sacked, they leave with the full contract paid to them in full.
If I’m wrong, I apologize in advance.
Although if I’m wrong, you can bet they still leave with a shed load of money.
That’s why I have to laugh when its said they have to put up with a lot of pressure.
From a sporting point of view yes, but that’s nothing to what people outside of the bubble that is football have to put up with.
Normal people with mortgages to pay, and family’s to support. That’s what you call true pressure, I think you’ll agree.😉👍
@Cliff:It’s Arsenal vs Tottenham on 15th January.
Oops,error on my part.I thought you said Jan 15th, not Feb.15th.
@Chima
👍
Admire your optimism mate but let’s face it this Arsenal side is not going up to Newcastle and beating them by 3 clear goals, we’ve lost on 3 of our last 4 visits scoring just twice and conceding 4 so I’m afraid we’re already out of the league cup, all our eggs are in the FA cup basket now, super Mik doing what he does best 🙄
We signed Arteta instead of Ancelotti. The rest is history.
With all due respect Reggie, Ancellotti would not have been the best choice over the long haul. As he demonstrated at Everton he doesn’t have the patience to prepare the ingredients and build a squad. He justifiably took the Real Madrid job when offered and fled the coop. The problem with Arteta is Arteta. Too cautious, unable to deal with big egos and even a poor judge of talent. Recently I’ve been hypothesising that Edu left because he ultimately became frustrated with Arteta’s poor transfer choices and finally decided to abandon the process go for the money.
It is time for Arteta to go. We have seen the best he has to offer and it was not good enough. Not even after spending 800mil. I consider that a failure.
That’s just how it goes. The Koutsoi eliminated us by playing for a long time with a player less, and we also lost a penalty. So, well done for keeping the village coach, for sure unsuccessful years.What not? Also, the owners should stay for life so that we never see a title again until we die….it’s already been 20/21 years. No, we shouldn’t call ourselves a great team….it’s a mistake unfortunately!!!!