At the end of last season I said if Mikel Arteta was going to win a League at the Emirates he needed to go on holiday and be able to reflect on mistakes he had made.
While lying on a beach, the Spaniard needed the ability to admit that in his bid to create one of the best defences in the country he had regressed us offensively.
He had taken one of the most entertaining teams to watch in Europe and made us quite boring to watch.
In management of any industry it is not easy to accept that you have gone wrong. It takes skill to identify the room for improvement and adapt.
Anfield was the first test to see if our manager had altered his ethos and his starting line-up and tactics seemed to suggest his priority was not to lose instead of being brave and trying to win.
After letting that moment pass us by, would the 43-year-old self-reflect during the international break.
The Man City game was almost part two of why you cannot win a title with this kind of approach.
A midfield with barely any creativity started last Sunday as we wasted a first half, despite the likes of Eze, Saka and Martinelli being on the bench.
A double substitution was made at half-time which is unusual for our boss to do. That begs the question, was last weekend finally the moment Mikel Arteta realised his current principles were not working.
Handbrake Off at Last
So was this weekend going to be part three of Mikel Arteta proving he is too negative to win the Premiership.
All week long there has been a debate about whether Arsenal would show more ambition at Newcastle, not just on this platform but on various outlets.
The Gooners pleading for the handbrake to be taken off were vindicated on Tyneside.
No club has a divine right to win any match or trophy.
All I ever ask for is that the team I love tries to be the best version of itself on and off the pitch.
Even if we had lost today, that is how you want to lose.
Compare that away performance to Liverpool.
Even if we had been defeated on Sunday you could have walked away with pride knowing everything had been left on the pitch.
That was entertaining to watch, we created chances, we forced a keeper into many saves, individuals took responsibility.
Eze as an attacking midfielder played the position differently to Ødegaard, more on the outside of the area, quicker to take a shot or release a pass.
Mentally individuals did not hide on the ball.
Because certain Geordies have believed their own hype, the atmosphere is toxic when the Gunners visit because of a growing rivalry that exists only in their own minds.
Gunners Show Character
Essentially Eddie Howe, one of the nicest guys off the field, has ordered his players over the years to get under our skin in ways that have irritated our coaching staff.
He is happy to park the bus and invite the visitors to try and break down his black and white wall, he encourages his men to be physical and try to bully us.
This fixture always seems to ride on the Toon Army getting a lift out of some kind of officiating. When our penalty was overturned it gave the home crowd a lift and for a while we were in danger of falling into the trap of letting the encounter morph into a scrap. Previous versions would not have had the character to deal with it.
Some spectators and players at the Ryder Cup have been criticised over the last few days for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Did Nick Pope really need to complain that Calafiori used his towel to dry the ball for a throw-in.
That is the level they resorted to, making it all the sweeter when we silenced them in stoppage time – beating the Magpies 2-1.
That was the Arsenal I recognise.
If Mikel Arteta was still unsure which direction to take his squad in, this should finally make up his mind.
This could be our turning point.
Dan Smith
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Good article. We need to stop this OOOHH poor me, the officials and the world is against us. We are hard done too. We are not as lucky as other football teams ATTITUDE. And look what WE do ourselves. That game was more like the Arsenal We want to see. The officiating, the injuries and the opposition crowd didn’t matter a jot. We won because we tried to (had to) win that game. If we don’t have that attitude every week, we will never win anything. IT HAS TO BE THAT WAY or the excuses are all that we have.
Agree Reggie ,not sure what’s more ridiculous-VAR taking 4 minutes(took one replay for me ) to overturn the decision or fans actually believing that was penalty.
I didn’t see the match and have only just watched the replay,there was some weird decisions thats for sure but we won and that’s the main thing .
VAR obviously needs looking at because it is not consistent,but fans crying about decisions that they would be up in arms about if it was on the other foot does nothing for us regarding other fans and their opinion of our club .
I believe Howe didn’t expect Arteta to use 4-2-3-1 formation
I think the tactic will surprise the other EPL managers too for a while. But it will only be a matter of time before they solve it as they did to Arteta’s inverted-LB tactic
When that time comes, I hope Gyokeres and Eze will fully gel with their teammates
@Gai, I think Howe knows but feels he can counter the formation. Arsenal beat New Castle 3:2 in pre season friendly using same formation.
The good thing is that Arteta has gotten his players to play different tactics/formation which will make us unpredictable for managers. He has been using Timer as inverted full back and Calafiori as overlapping full back.
It won’t be easy for UCL team/coaches to predict Arteta’s tactics.
There is no OOOHH POOR ME attitude, just the hope that officials follow the rule book and referee correctly.
It’s really not that difficult, if one follows the rules of the game.
When one sees that this isn’t happening, it beggars belief that one cannot query such decisions, in case one is labelled with an “attitude!!”
As far as the article is concerned, I haven’t seen any player “hiding behind the ball” in any game I’ve watched.
MA has certainly changed tactics from the way we missed out on the title by just two points, but the fact is… we did lose out and I assume that’s why he changed tactics in order to try and win the title.
I didn’t see any difference in the way we dispatched Leeds and Forest, to the way we beat Newcastle.
There was still the objective not to lose the ball, probe the defences and create chances.
If one remembers, we scored late against Leeds and City as well as we did against Newcastle, so the idea that we attacked to the bitter end in the latter match versus other games, is not valid.
I cannot see MA going on a all out attack policy, as that’s not what his philosophy seems to be.
He’s built a world class defensive unit and can now begin to do the same with his midfield and attacking units
I’m of the opinion that we will win something this season and MA will select his starting eleven with our opponents in mind.
Positivity should also come from the fans and the constant negativity doesn’t help.
I saw a difference in how we played compared to Liverpool and Man City games
Different teams either different quality. Can surely understand caution against the only 2 teams that have won the league part 6 or 7 years!?
Newcastle Leeds and Forest all mid to lower table sides so different strategy that I think most would agree with
People saying Arteta / Arsenal getting found out if they play a certain way…well that’s obvious…but you need players ,/ squad.to play different ways which the teams now has.
So hence we are seeing different strayegies but also bear in mind we have had a lot of new first team starting potential as well as injuries.. lets see how the team shapes up when everyone is injured free and we have played 10 games as most on here suggested was wait for !
@ken1945
Nice saying ken we are doing good and have become one of the best teams in Europe. We are going to be successful and now we should support Arsenal with all we got 🫶
Cheers Didrik, the support on Sunday was out of this world 👍
Indeed, I love the togetherness, which is necessary to fill up our trophy cabinet 😉
Why do I tend to agree with these sentiments? Am someone who can accept 11 corners with 73% possession and 2 goals down to some “Anelka”‘s Bolton and still come bouncing with “It wasnt our day” swag. I love Gunners free and flowing