Pep Guardiola gives his opinion on why Arsenal is struggling

Pep Guardiola has defended Mikel Arteta after his Manchester City beat Arsenal 5-0 in the Premier League this afternoon.

Arteta worked with Guardiola at City as his assistant before Arsenal poached him in 2019.

The Spaniard won the FA Cup and Community Shield in his first year in charge but the last year has been a tough one for him as Arsenal’s manager.

The Gunners have been faltering relentlessly and their loss to City means they have made their worst start to a season in decades.

They are yet to keep a clean sheet, win a match or score a goal in the league this season.

That is not the start of a club that wants to return to the top four and there have been calls for Arteta to be sacked.

However, his mentor, Guardiola, claims the absence of the likes of Thomas Partey and Ben White means Arteta has been unable to field a team with players that he knows can deliver.

“All I can say is that we worked for two or three years together. What I learned from him… I could learn many, many things,” Guardiola told BT Sport as quoted by Express Sport

“He’s a young good manager. He has the correct personality and he is the leadership qualities. 

“He’s incredibly loved by all of us [at Man City]. We were sad when he left.

“Sometimes people expect the results immediately. The squad today that he played is not the squad that he dreamed.”

“He has so many players injured. Six, seven or eight injuries,” the Spaniard continued. 

“Really important players missing. Ben White and examples like that. Thomas Partey isn’t here.

“He cannot use the players that he needs to do [his system]. All the managers need their squads. The depth of their squad. 

“All our players except Kevin [de Bruyne] and Phil [Foden] are fit. I can handle that and I can make a better manager of myself. 

“Absolutely, I am a big fan of him and I am sure that if they trust him, they are going to do a job.”

Tags Pep Guardiola

41 Comments

    1. What a shit show. MA if you love this club just resign and leave.
      I don’t know if he knows what he is doing. Players on the field have no idea of game plan, positions or any sort of leadership. Players don’t respect him, he has no reputation that he deserves it either way.
      GX was leaving but was offered a new deal and the arm band. Seriously someone needs to fire the recruitment team here.
      Look at Chelsea with 10 men the manager changed a few players and they managed to hold liverpool at home. Last year they changed their coach midway and the new one with the same players won them CL. Manager needs to be able to bring the best out of the talent he has, thats his job.
      It’s so painful to see my team like this.
      Really hurts.

      1. The experience counts. The Chelsea manager is very experienced unlike Arteta who just came in from being and assistant to Pep. The Chelsea manager knows real players to sign and does not controversially gauge certain players like what Arteta does at Arsenal. What happened to Ozil, Guendozi, Saliba, Masporonous and Joe Willock is a clear manifestation that Arteta can not handle players and he manages Arteta treats players like his personal property where you can keep or sell.

      2. Exactly, he should go. We could loose 2-1, 1-0 etc it’s ok with some good possession and shots on goal. Right now we are like kindergarten kids against a high school team. MC were toying around with us.

  1. Is it a plea for Arteta to buy more players than the 13 he already has?

    Looking every bit a checkbook manager and not one drop of coach.

    So Saliba not ready but Kola is?

    Does Arteta think Saliba couldn’t compete with Mari, Chambers, or Holding?

    1. There must be something else to that , as he looks ready compared to what we have , maybe its emotional maybe its language maybe its something else but we dont know.

      I think Leno looked better today Saka wasnt fit enough and it was more of our team dont know there jobs with so many changes to positions.

      Saying that we all know its not good enough , but other than Brentford we knew the next 2 were tough.

      C’ant go lower so only way is up and i believe we will start to show what Artetas plans are before to long and we will change our tune .

      Well fingers crossed coygs.

      1. Rightly said….I think those pundits have an agenda towards us and seem to be bashing us at every chance they get.

      2. How do people know Saliba is ready? A lot is being made of a player who I suspect many have not actually seen play.
        I am not convinced about this view that players did not know their jobs. This is not a new system for Arsenal. They have played this system before.
        The first two goals were due to individual errors. The other three were scored after Arsenal were down to 10 men. Against one of the the best teams and squads in world football this was always going to be an uphill task.

        1. Saliba was a huge success at Nice and wanted him on permanent basis and Masporonous is referred to as a beast at Stuttgart. Freezing out Ozil was not the best thing to do. Getting rid of Guendozi and Torreira was another good example of poor player management. Selling Willock whom all know saved Newcastle from relegation and recently shipping out another brilliant academy prospect in in the of Azeez sums it all.

  2. Opinion.
    Liverpool vs Chelsea. Leading up to Salahs penalty the Chelsea keeper and Defender both went up for the same ball and inadvertently challenged each other – this lead to the handball on the line by james.

    If this was arsenal I am convinced that pundits, fans and general writers opinion would be that arsenal have no leaders, have no communication and lack defenders….. and so on…

    No such comment was made of Chelsea from this game.

    Is there a narrative to fit whatever pundits feel to prove their opinion of arsenal regardless of how it contradict their own general view of football?

    It’s just a question I’m curious to learn of others opinions.

    1. Yes Tom, there is a narrative, there’s been one for years, it comes and goes but it’s there always bubbling under the surface and social media has given it an opportunity to really blossom, you see it and hear it everywhere, even on this site, read between the lines mate it’s all about clicks…

    2. Not just narrative, there are different officiating rules that apply only when Arsenal is involved, and not followed when others do the same thing or worse.
      The problem is that the corrupt skewed judgement has been there for so long that it’s now accepted as normal. Even Arsenal fans want to bite off your head when you mention it.
      Fans and pundits alike blame Arsenal payers, managers, owners and every other thing Arsenal instead of speaking the truth.
      Unless these issues are addressed properly Arsenal will continue to lose vital points.

    3. Forget that Bro! We’ve been treated like a strange Club in England. Nonetheless, our good time will surely come after this trial session.
      True gunners never giveup.

    4. Tom, you don’t know what you are saying. All teams make mistakes , players do including Messi and Ronald. The issue is the frequency of mistakes which in turn will reflect in you overall performances. Look at the league table you will know what it means. 10 man Chelsea held Liverpool at home. They are the reigning Champions of Europe, you need not be reminded of this.

    5. This is because CFC is doing well unlike AFC…. We need to start doing well so that all these jobless pundits and general writers will stop talking about us negatively

  3. Rubbish saying by man city coach can he equal try that at is club, am sure he will be a gonner (sack)by now with no job. so if he can try that at is club why his he trying to say to arteta poor performance. Take a look at Chelsea team who change lampard this same team with lampard which can perform won champion league with tucheal. So what is he saying. A coach is good as is last job/game.

  4. Arteta is not Arsenal level, better start for 2nd division and comeback in premier league after 4 or 5 years
    Note: stock city is arteta option!!

  5. just look at the record of any of Pep’s assistants, whom I’m sure he held a strong affinity towards each and every one of them, once they left his side and were given an opportunity to coach/manage…trust me, it’s a very, very short list…in fact, besides Tito Vilanova, who tragically passed away after his brief managerial stint at Barca, the only other “success” story was Domenec Torrent, who managed to somehow get fired twice, from 2 different managerial gigs, in less than 18 months…the legacy of Pep’s underlings is, to say the least, no indicator of future managerial/coaching success

    sadly, it appears to me as if our present manager possess far more of the not so flattering traits of our former manager, AW, during his latter, much less inspiring years…tactical naivety, excuses aplenty, shoehorning on the regular, free transfer busts, micromanaging, sideways passing ad nauseum, stubbornness, devaluing the armband, not prioritizing NEED purchases, not buying early, using the media to undermine relationship between players and fans etc….thus the nickname Mini-Arsene

  6. Dont trust Guardiola. He wants MA to carryon so that the gunners will be beaten time and again.As for Arteta the reason he keeps losing si obvious to all but himself.
    In a way his tactics resemble Wenger who tried to play tiki taka or chacha after the invincibles.
    I am afraid if MA is not fired asap,more damage will be done.
    Remember there are no easy games in the epl except of course against Arsenal

  7. Arsenal have no leaders….we see it in every game…………It is evidenced by the stat that Arteta has only ever won a game that he’s losing at half time, once……..very low tactical acumen……we don’t need a top 8 manager….we need a top 4 manager……someone who we can trust to take arsenal back to the top……..I feel the players have to play like robots………over micromanaged players………..I read somewhere mini-arsen is too arrogant and know it all….coming from someone inside the club………disappointing………..so same mistakes repeating it self……..!

  8. MA is so far up his own @rse with the belief that he is some kind of tactical genius that he’s completely forgot about the basics of football coming first! Egomaniac that’s in love with his own ideas.

    -Pass and move
    -1 2 passing
    -Man marking
    -Staying goal side of your man

    Half the time we literally have 7/8 men defending in a dead straight line on the big box with no-one pushing onto the man with the ball.

    Tactically inept
    Delusional
    Narcissist

  9. It still hurts 😭 I swear what this management is doing to my beloved club and fans is abuse. This has to stop

  10. Pep is simply very wrong cos Arteta has no first IX. who knows? He wants to see Arsenal in relgation to lough at us.

  11. OT.. Incredible gesture by Willian. He is tearing up his Arsenal contract. Saving Arsenal £20m. He has two years left on £240,000 a week deal but instead of just sitting back and taking the money or asking for a pay off off, he is walking away to sign for Corinthians on 70% less wages (Kaveh Solhekol Sky Sports)

    Has this cheered everyone up?

    1. No Sue, this does not cheer me up. 😭we need therapy all of us.

      On a serious note what willian is honorable. Putting his love for the game and his need to be useful before money.

    2. Just out in JA: “AC Milan could well be just that however, with claims in The Sun(via TBR) that they are willing to pay £7 Million for his services.” 😜

  12. The question is are the 8 players that have to replace the actual first team players good enough to play the system he wants. Holding, Kolasinac, Chambers, Elneny and Xhaka were part of the problem before Arteta. Yet were forced to go into a game against the £2 billion champions with all of them. Plus Soares who is a backup RB that should only be playing in the carabao cup.

    Edu must be held accountable first and foremost because he was here long before Arteta. The business he has done has be nothing shy of shambolic. He has had 3 years to turn the recruitment problem around. Sacked a load of scouts for data analysts now he’s hiring scouts again offering massive contracts to players like Willian and Auba, when it should be players signing on our terms not theirs, he is a spineless fool. We need a new DOF urgently but edu has ruined 3 summers for us so far.

    Were took a massive risk hiring an inexperienced manager, he needed the backup of a experienced knowledgeable well connected DOF to support him. That isn’t the case and now all the cracks have become 10 times worse as a result

  13. Pep Guardiola has to support Mikel Arteta, as he guarantees Manchester City 6 points per season; a gift that keeps on giving.

  14. I don’t like what I am thinking but MA might be quickly evolving into Fraudiola. Be unknown, replace an experienced name, have a watershed moment, and after that spend spend spend! Too silly to compare the FA Cupp with the sextuple, but it provides for a good basis. The only difference is that Fraudiola was lucky enough with his choice of clubs and signings while MA just spent the money on many duds. So in an alternate timeline, an unlucky fraudiola will look pretty similar to MA, because, without money, they don’t have any weapon

  15. i called for MA to be sacked yesterday, even though i said i would give him till November and the reasons are exactly what Pep said.

    We are without White, Partey, Gabriel, Bellerin, Pepe
    Those 5 would or rather could be starters week in week out.

    I want to see what the team looks like and plays like when he has all his players back.

    The reason i called for him to be sacked was how naive he was tactically.

    There is always hope we can take something from a game like that but in reality, 99.9% of fans would have predicted a defeat. If MA honestly believed we could win with this current available players, he needs to go for a head test.

    FA cup Semi Final – defending masterclass and we won, the fact we went into yesterdays game with 2 10’s and Xhaka as a DM was just beyond stupid.

    This is why he should go and go now, it just feels like he just doesnt have a clue on how to manage results when the chips are really down.

    I would have been ok losing 2 – 0 yesterday if he had fielded a team that were structured.

    I’d much rather us be boring to watch but be picking up points, because right now we are playing like boys in a playground

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