Mikel Arteta was lauded as the messiah when he won the FA Cup for us just a few months ago.
Who would have thought that just a short time later that some fans would want him gone from the club?
Arsenal’s fine start under him has become a nightmare as we continue to go from one league game to another without scoring a goal, nevermind winning those games.
One game you never want to lose even if you’re on a bad run of form is the derby, and Arteta’s side was well beaten by Tottenham in their last game.
It is now six losses from 11 league games and we face Burnley next.
While Tottenham represents a team that is flying high in the Premier League, and we can probably excuse our players for losing that game, the game against Burnley is a must-win for us.
Sean Dyche’s side has made a poor start to this Premier League campaign with just a single win all season and they are 18th on the league table.
Arsenal has just seven points more than them, but there is no other result apart from a win in that game that can save Mikel Arteta’s job.
If we lose or draw that game and Arteta isn’t sacked, then the club has become sentimental in their decision making.
At what point do we realize this is a player problem? Apart from Leno, Gabriel, Tierney, Partay and possibly Auba, who in our team starts in any of the six best teams in the league? Saka and Martinelli ate obviously talented but still too young to be first team players regularly.
I count 5 good premier league players. Not saying they are top premier league class. And with that we expect a top four finish and want to sack the manager?
almost nobody expects the team to win the title and a top 4 finish should be fought for but a top 6 is definitely possible with this squad and the bare minimum.. so being 15. is not on the squad but on the purely on the manager
I beg to differ.
So those same players who won the FA Cup and community shield suddenly forgot how to play is that it? At the time MA was getting the praise and rightly so but now somehow it is the players fault 🤔let’s not talk about how he’s been sticking with underperfofming players like Xhaka and Wilian while benching AMN who performed well in the El or Elneny who was going through a very good spell and growing in confidence, what about the young ones doing well in El like Nelson ESR.. When creativity is our main issue? Rushing TP who was about a week away from full fitness and instead of slowly easing him with few minutes here and there was started in the NDL a game we had barely any chance to win that stinks of desperation for someone who keeps talking about the long term this was very short sighted we now have lost him for at least 8 weeks against teams TP would have made the difference the same way he played Auba as a CF to appease fans if MA cannot handle the pressure from fans he has no place at Arsenal, he threw Pépé under the bus then TP imagine our manager pushing an injured player back on the pitch, people talk about our club’s proud values I’ve never seen AW do anything remotely close, he always stuck by his players at least in front of the cameras, I remember him being mocked for playing his son Ramsey and his favourites so what has MA been doing with Xhaka Wilian…? What is Einstein definition of insanity again? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, I think it sums up exactly what is happening with MA, his players management selections, tactics and refusal to try anything new different!
We know we have problems, so does Mikel, players and the board. Is sacking Mikel the solution though?
its the most sensible solution there is.. any good manager is capable to get this team into top 6 easily and sometimes even good managers fail but then they should be sacked as soon as possible.. not getting even top 6 is a disaster
Leno?? This is a joke right?
My friend, Willian was a starter at Chelsea and can be a starter at every other top 4 side. He’s simply world class but playing in a shitty team with shitty coach.
Pepe, Cedric, Gabriel, Tierney, Partey, Aubameyang were also starters for their previous clubs and most certainly can get into any other top 4 side.
I don’t know where people get the notion that “our players aren’t good enough!!!”
That’s the mindset of so called “realists” who are too lazy to think logically.
Are you really a Gunner lol? I just confirmed three of your comments all about Chelsea. Praise for Maurizio Sarri. Praise for Kovacic (best defensive mid? Really?). Also I’m pretty sure their club signed him, while Sarri most likely just requested Jorginho for his brand of ball. Also I don’t see how Sarri would get his style of football out of our squad…
Ospina
Bellerin…Mustafi… Koscielny… Monreal
Xhaka… Elneny
Iwobi…. Ramsey… Welbeck
Lacazette
That’s one of the last starting 11 by Wenger and they got fifth playing brilliant attacking football. I remember them beating Westham 4-1.
So tell me is this squad better than this one????
Leno
Cedric….Luiz…. Gabriel… Tierney
Partey…. Ceballos
Pepe….Willian…. Nelson
Aubameyang
And mind you am one person who does not rate Man City and Liverpool players that much,,, simply because the pressing initiated by their coaches mask their poor talents.
Case in point is DE BRUYNE who wouldn’t even get close to our Invincibles team.
But these days just because someone can give occasionally good passes, he’s considered best in the league…..
You bring him to Arsenal where players don’t even get close to opposition players,,,,, yet football is a CONTACT SPORT.
Herbz when we signed willian you were calling him a chelsea reject, too old blah blah, now hes world class and the reason he isnt performing is arteta, lmao credibility obliterated.
I apologise herbz, mistake in identity, got you mixed up with someone else 👍
It’s not a player problem, it’s the whole squad that’s the problem. We need all new players expect few certain to have any chance of challenging or even thinking about finishing Top Four. We need Passionate and Hungry players not lazy, greedy, spoiled brats.
Not sure that it isn’t a whole club problem unfortunately.
Manny it is the game plan it is all wrong I don’t even know if the players understand it and he is changing the team every week pick your best 11 and stick with it
At point do we realise it’s a manger problem. Are you implying that our squad is worse then spuds, licester, Man United ???
I got a lot of grief for saying our squad is as good as utd and spurs around the time we were signing willian.
Our squad is inferior to those clubs and if you don’t see that you are deluded. This squad lacks a good right back another player alongside Partey and an attacking midfielder at least
our squad is worse, sad to say.
But when Robbie or AFTV members say it then you guys who own this page quick to judge them. Bias envious twats
Football is not about young and old. Its about the performance on the field. With or without a win at Burnley, Arteta should be fired. He can fully use the ammunition at his disposal
Too soon to sack him, but to keep playing out of form players could be his own downfall, i think they will stick with him for now,but i must admit things are looking very bleak at the moment,Xhaka Willian and Bellerin are not good enough although given time i think Willian will improve ,he has had quite a good run of poor games and should now be left out to work on his game.
Too soon? We are near relegation zone. Do you want Arsenal to play in Championship? It’s too late for Arteta to be on that seat.
11 points gap from the 1st position with 27 games to go and we talk about relegation. Come on man! Sheffield are not talking about relegation yet, why should we?
Completely agree, HH!
We fans need to be realistic and give the team a chance. I feel the pain too (especially after a beating in the local derby) but lets calm down and support the team!
I do believe though that we need to be in a better position by the end of January. If we are still struggling at that time and nothing has changed, I think the club will be making some big decisions, obviously.
For now, we need to keep grounded and not get carried away with our emotions 🙂
Agreed on that GunneRay
We have already played most of last year’s top 7 – just Chelsea left. If results don’t improve by the end of February then I fear for him.
It appears to be very cosy at Arsenal and grit has been in short supply. Baku last year was just awful and so was the Villa game which has been a catalyst for this setback.
I still think he can turn it around if given support from us and the Board
Exactly what everyone need is a bit of perspective. This squad was shit made worse by Emery and Arteta is taking the flack for it. Arteta is a good coach but he is on a steep learning curve he’s not even had half a season in management. Give the guy a chance you think poch or allegri would improve this current squad then your severely mistaken
It’s the PLAYERS there is something wrong inside the dressing room I don’t know what it is but you can see some players don’t seem to worry and put a proper shift in
Armoury, all is not lost you are talking like we are already relegated, he can turn this around,yes things are not good but there is still time to climb the table and no Arsenal fan would want to see them in the championship let alone me for god sake.
I feel you Armoury. While I completely dread the situation we are in right now and it’s definitely beneath the aspirations of our club, I can tell you objectively that we will not be relegated even if we continue our piss-poor form of 13 points from 11 games.
A linear extrapolation of 13 points out of 11 games would give us 44 points for the entire season. No team in Premier League history has ever gone down with 44 points. Usually the 40-point mark guarantees safety. To be relegated, we have to worse than we are at the moment, points-wise.
That being said, if we really do end up with 44 points at the end of the season, more likely than not, the club would have sacked the manager before getting there, regardless of what fans feel
I don’t want to make anyone a scapegoat, but Xhaka is so very slow in possession and in his movements.
When he gets the ball and looks forward, he ALWAYS hesitates and decides to back pass it again. Is he afraid of mispasses?
Often he also hesitates in possession tryin to pass back or side ways, and this leads him losing possession.
I can’t see him ‘dictating tempo’ at all with this aspect in his play. He’s not fast, doesn’t tackle a lot, doesn’t intercept passes, doesn’t create or shoot. And he’s been starting for us what, 4 years? I can’t see what he brings in to the team.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not just him the problem. But at the moment I think our biggest flaw is in our midfield, who can’t create enough. And that’s where Partey, Xhaka, Elneny, Willock and co. come to spotlight.
It’s staggering we’re even having this conversation..
👍👍👍 Right on Sue!
Board Will stuck with him till team is performing in Europa but once we are out of Europa and getting same results then his time is up..
So relegation fight through the whole season playing terrible and completely relying on Europa league win is suicide. We wont even get by the quarters if we play like this. Still 8 teams to come out of the UCL group stage in 3rd place who will destroy us.
Club cant be that stupid can it?
don’t think that it will be a relegation fight, but it will be a fight for top half of the table.
Europa, who knows, depends on draw and the team can play well by times so deeper is possible.
FA is possible, especially if the other teams are still battling for top of table or European wins.
Not saying that is ideal but don’t think bottom three is much of a risk…
If we lose to Burnley it will put Arteta in a very difficult position but I think it’s to early to think about sacking him. If the BOD do sack him I expect Mertesacker would be put in charge temporarily or a rumour I’ve heard is Wenger has been approached to fill in until we find a new boss. But, are there any decent managers out of work apart from Poch, though he is destined for Real Madrid I’m sure?
Arteta needs to ditch the old under performing players and put some trust in youth who have spirit, skill and desire to succeed, not just get mega bucks at the end of each month. AMN has the legs to drive the midfield forward, Nelson has pace to get along the right wing and ESR I’m sure can play as a decent number 10 if given the chance. A back four of Cedric, Mari, Gabriel and Tierney would be far better than the current defensive unit. Elneny must come back in and with Partey out for the foreseeable future, AMN should get a run. Aubamayang can go back out to the left, with Nelson on the right and Eddie or Balogun up front. If we get desperate and need to put crosses into the box again we have Moller to come from the bench to capitalise, he’s just won under 23 league player of the month. Arteta needs to bite the bullet now or risk us getting closer to the relegation area. All it needs is two or three wins to get us motoring again, though may prove difficult with the next four games coming up.
My support for the Arsenal is never ending but no manager or player is bigger than the club. COYG.
Agree, this fixation of playing Willian, Xhaka and other players out of form is damaging the club. AMN, ESR and Nelson must be given a chance to show what they can do.
Sack the manager??????????????? Get a grip. This fan base has become such snowflakes
Sometimes I wonder sacking Wenger was mistake or it was correct decision because after that our club hasn’t been stable at all
Wenger going was definitely the right move. The problem has been the owners. They didn’t appoint the right people and manager to keep the club stable in terms of competitive football. The owners were more concerned with cash. We needed a manager like Brendan Rogers. Not Emery. A manager like BR who was EPL hardened and proven for his toughness would have been ideal. Even Claudio Ranieri would have been a good option. The point is, we had better options but chose the cheapest!
The problem with you is that you were one of those supporters who said ‘Arteta is the best thing that ever happened to Arsenal’. Now you don’t want to accept that your judgement was impaired. There’s no hope that Arteta will make any difference. We are sinking deeper
For god’s sake, Armoury calm down. We need to be patient and give him time. It’s still very early in the season for sacking. Maybe MA himself has his hands tied by the hierarchy in the club? MA need time to prove he is/is not the man for the job! We just have to support and stay throng!
what the hell? time? he had enough time to not be 15. place.. thats a disaster..
I said this before, the Premier League is cut throat it is unlike any other, due to its high competitive and physical nature, coupled with highly clued up technical coaches/managers at almost all the clubs now. So it’s an extremely difficult environment, to operate in even for experienced coaches/managers. Arteta at this point might have the heart, the passion and the willingness to coach at the highest level, but i am afraid, he just looks unable to handle a job of this magnitude, so early in his career.
The great Arsene had to go, Unay had to go and now Mikel has to go. Are we a sacking club now? 3 bad results from the top 2 teams and 3 good from us and we will be at the top of the table. 3 games gunners, 3 games!
We have already played 6 of the top 10 teams. I am seeing us starting a winning run from this gameweek and in just a few weeks we are going to be talking about challenging for the title and not this relegation overreaction.
Haha!
HH, I really hope you are totally right 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏, I’m fed up already
I hope that you are right. Love the positive vibes though so I am going with you!
MA wants to play a certain way, he wants everyone to defend and there is no room to be creative or play to players strengths.
When you have these players, and they are a good squad of players imo, but the tactics and team set up’s just do not do them justice.
There are a few weak links in the team ands yet they are played more than players that can actually benefit the team..
At the end of the day results matter in football, there is no room for sentiment as that is proven with not firing Wenger when he became stale.
All in all MA needs to get things back on track or he should go, I am still behind him until that happens but it doesnt look good for him right now in all fairness
I would like to see the first team play on thursday to give them more of a chance to learn to play together again and possibly learn where the goal is . I think there is a system growing and to talk about sacking arteta now hurts us more in the long run .
Even if he were to beat Burnley,MA could still face the sack .Its just a stay of execution.
The epl is a very competitive league and tackles are much toughe compared to other leagues .
Beating Dundalk wont satisfy the fans,
Wolfgang Your right Pepe and some other players are not used to EPL the tackles are hard and seem to back off
OT.. Some good news – Our U21s are playing AFC Wimbledon tonight in the first knockout round of the EFL trophy… guess who’s playing?! 👀 Well for 45-60 minutes – Martinelli!!!! 🥳
Sokratis and Saliba also playing. COYG
Martinelli looked so good before he got injured.
On the AFC website, the Academy squad looks really odd. With so many out on loan, we have three goalkeepers and just three defenders and three forwards. With a total of only 12 outfield players who knows what formation (or bench) line-up that means!
Uh no, cuz Klopp did not get 4 years to make it happen.
Who thinks this up?
Arteta came in and turned our fortunes around and won us the FA cup. Not at any point has he sorted the big problem and that is the way we play in the Premier league, in fact we could argue we are worse than we ever had been. This squad of players are capable of far better than where we sit. Arteta isn’t getting anywhere near the best out of what he has. The fact this is his first real job in management means he has no history to back him up at all. He may or may not turn out to be a great manager but there is nothing at the moment to back the argument that he will. We dont want to be a sacking club but we also don’t want to be an average to poor Premier league one either. Personally i would give him until the end of this month to turn around our dreadful form. If he cant then what is there to say he ever will. Going into January that still give time for someone to come in and sort out the problems of this club/team. I had high hopes for him but i have to say i am bitterly disappointed by the way we play our football, it is so non productive. If you are good enough to have 60 or 70% possession then you have to be good enough to win football matches. It is no good dominating the ball and making it easy for the opposition by the way we are naive in and out of possession. Im sorry but we cant say give Arteta this and that when he hasn’t improved us at all, in fact he has made us worse.
This is all come about because some idiotic arsenal fans thought we were going to challenge for the title lmfao. This is was never going to happen were at least 2 seasons from that. It took Klopp 5 years to win the Premier League and 4 years to win the Champions League. Certain arsenal fans think that is going to happen with a manager after less than one season. This is going to take time
Let’s stop putting Arteta anywhere near Klopp. Jurgen has a resume of success, his style and philosophy were immediate at Liverpool, and Klopp has delivered results for years; before Liverpool and currently with them.
Arteta has potential, no resume to truly go by. Maybe years from now you can make the comparisons, but Arteta not even remotely close to Klopp.
Us Arsenal fans overrate our players, now we overrate manager too?
Don’t remember Klopp ever sitting in 15th place, losing 6 of 11 games to start, or his team going weeks struggling to score goals.
for you information in Klopps first season he played 52 games W23 D17 L12 as per transfermarkt
was I comparing Arteta to Klopp I think not, my point that you missed completely is that a manager like Klopp with all his experience and titles as you said, took 4 years to win a title and spent 100’s of millions to get it.
Arteta has has just over half a year with the same shit squad apart from a few exceptions you lot are expecting us to get 4th or challenge for a title
I’m not expecting miracles… just score a goal and watch some pretty football would do me, not too much to ask?!
we’ve played 11 games were in 15th with 27 games to go it complete idiocy to judge so soon
We lost to Villa beat Liverpool 7-2 we lost to City away, we lost to Leicester because of VAR and who beat City 5-2, we drew to Leeds with 10 men who have been very good against ever top team this season wolves was a bad day at the office but are still a very good side.
As I’ve said on numerous occasions, the unrealistic expectations were not established by the fans but by Arteta and Edu when they choose to sign Willian, with guarantees about being in the starting 11, when they already had Pepe and Reiss; or when they didn’t offload the underwhelming Laca or Xhaka in the summer, while they still had some value on the open market, thereby allowing us to provide first team opportunities for younger players, both from within the club or by acquiring them from elsewhere; or when they retained the services of players like Luiz, Mari, Sokratis and/or Soares, with little to no evidence that this would be beneficial for a team in transition, especially considering we could have allowed Gabriel and Saliba to grow together as a tandem; or when we loaned out Ceballos for another season, instead of actually properly addressing our creativity concerns, as this move appears incredibly short-sighted because even if he flourished there were no guarantees moving forward; or when they had a chance to control the narrative after the hiring of the inexperienced Arteta, but decided once again to not bite the bullet and be honest with the fanbase about how long it would realistically take for this club to right the ship, as was clearly evident by the manner in which they handled the media circus following another classic Arsenal last minute transfer move…none of these decisions, in any way, suggests this team had a clear vision about the future of our club, instead it simply highlighted just how poorly this seemingly gutless organization continues to function regardless of who’s physically in charge
look it is really frustrating right now. They aren’t playing well and I do think that Arteta needs a bit of dynamite to crack his stubbornness.
But, if he goes now we will be in the same place we have been for the last few years. We might get a bump but until we get the overhaul we need we are a Europa League/FA Cup/mid table team.
Players deserve a fair bit of blame as well, some are sleepwalking (some just aren’t very good), Arteta has issues but the bigger set is senior managment. Arsenal has spent badly for years now (a few good ones as well to be fair) and it really shows. Better spending over the last 8 years on both transfers and wages and we have better personnel.
It has taken a while to get into this mess. It will take time to get out of it.
I know some of you really think that changing managers is the key fix but I don’t think so.