Gabby Agbonlahor says Mikel Arteta has to win Arsenal’s match against Norwich on September 11 to save his job.
The Gunners have made a very poor start to this season with two losses from as many Premier League games and they haven’t even scored a league goal yet.
Mikel Arteta’s squad has been boosted by some new signings, yet the Spanish manager is struggling to get a performance from the team.
After a lame 2-0 loss to Brentford on the opening day of the season, Arsenal fans hoped their team would perform better and get at least a point from their next game against Chelsea.
However, that match also ended in defeat and no goals scored by the Gunners in front of their fans.
That second 2-0 loss hurt the fans and some have been asking for the club to replace Arteta now.
Arsenal face Manchester City in their next league game, a game that fans expect them to lose.
However, Agbonlahor says they cannot lose the match against Norwich as it could cost Arteta his job.
Agbonlahor told Football Insider: “It’s very difficult, you’re playing against a really good Chelsea side so you can’t really judge Arsenal off that game.
“They were never going to win that game. There was a total difference in class, aggression and power.
“You’ve got to wait until after the international break to start judging Arsenal. Last season was very tough as well.
“Arsenal fans wanted to see fight and they showed that against Chelsea. They didn’t capitulate, they kept it down to 2-0. I think they need a bit of time.
“The next two games, after Man City, the Arsenal board will think ‘We need maximum points from those games.’. It’s as simple as that, there are no excuses then.
“If you come out with losses from Chelsea and Man City then draw or lose to Norwich… I’d sack him straight after the game if they lost to Norwich.
“That would just show it’s going to be a disaster season if they don’t stop the rot. It will be a massive game and I’m sure Arsenal would get it done in that game.”
I have no reason to disagree with what Gabby has said. In fact at this point I think we need someone who has the track record of successfully working with young players.
I have someone in mind…….
Pls who the man is?
IF I say IF we somehow lose to Norwich (I believe we’ll win 2-1) then Arteta has to go in favor of a manager with a proven record.
Conte may not be the long term solution, (he has a habit of falling out with clubs), but he’s a steadying hand we desperately need.
Won 5 league titles in last 7 years I believe, and maybe an 18 month contract would suit both parties. He could finish this year and the entire next year, giving us plenty of time to identify the next manager to lead the club.
Either way, in 20 months Arteta has shown he’s not the long term solution for the club. Continually asking for more time is not a philosophy.
Some act like Arsenal is the only club affected by Covid and stoppages. West Ham and others seemed to get by ok.
Darnit Durand – so THAT’S why the tax man is taking me to court. And I’m only 20 months late, but I kept asking…
Life is strange – he somehow survived like he is Teflon coated – relatively unscathed (except from the fans) for 20 months despite getting nothing right. Then he wakes up one morning and suddenly all his support has gone overnight and he’s in the last chance saloon.
Not that he doesn’t deserve it, but who’d be a football manager?!!! And no, if he goes I think Conte would refuse it.
Durand, Antonio Conte falls out with clubs, because he is a winner who expects the club he manages to be on the same page. For example he didn’t get a big transfer budget at Inter Milan, but walked after winning La Liga and being told that his best players would be sold.
Conte doesn’t suffer fools gladly, so the interview with the Arsenal Board would be “interesting” to say the least.
Kroenke will take account of the injuries and will cut Arteta some slack. After Man City, we have a series go very winnable games, and I include the spurs match in those, and I suspect he will survive until the Palace game. If Arteta is sacked, expect quite a few months with a caretaker, (who ever that is), in charge. Forget about Conte ever coming – he won’t: so everything will be up in the air.
We cant say losing to Chelsea or City is excusable. We have to still be grinding some sort of results out. The problem is the level we showed against Brentford is the level we played against Chelsea. City has to be different and if we do lose to Norwich then serious questions need answering because Brentford and Norwich have to be treated as winnable games. If we dont, we are in trouble that Arteta isn’t capable of sorting. He has nothing to say he can be a manager let alone manager of Arsenal.
OT – who’s the current favourite for Arsenal’s August Goal of the Month?
Is this another Arsenal cost cutting measure? I hear those plaques are quite expensive.
👍 Carrying on from the cost savings made on the meague 55 goals last season.
🤣🤣 brilliant!
Tottenham beat Man city without Kane but Arsenal can’t be judged on defeat to Chelsea as we were never gonna win in the first place 🙄 so basically we are only judged on playing the lesser teams we have to accept we will lose to Chelsea, Man u, Liverpool, and City and if we beat the likes of Norwich and Crystal Pal then Arteta’s job is safe.. the club has fallen off a cliff.
Exactly my thought.
People saying we are not expected to beat Chelsea because they are champions of Europe really baffles me.
We beat Chelsea home and away the same season they became Champions of Europe, so did we beat them then?
We shouldn’t have play them since nobody expect us to win.
Brentford might be the champions of the world also because we suffer same defeat as Chelsea against them.
If Tottenham can beat EPL champions without there star man, then why can’t we?
Some even accuse fan for not wanting Arteta to succeed because they want him out.
Does that mean they too never want Wenger and Emery to succeed when they want them out?
I have no problem with Arteta personally and I’m sure a lot of fans don’t, all we want is our team to improve but we aren’t seeing any improvement at all, there’s no energy or passion, all I see is players going through the motions and it has nothing to do with injuries or illnesses, we saw the same drab football last season! It’s quite clearly not working, that could be seen in pre season.. the reality is Arteta and his coaching staff aren’t up to the task in hand and scraping past the likes of Norwich and Watford (if we do) is only papering over cracks but we all know how weak the Arsenal board are, they will continue with this failing process for as long as possible. Big clubs with ambitions wouldn’t accept these level of performances but at Arsenal mediocrity goes hand in hand and what’s worrying is that some supporters have accepted it.
It’s not only they lost to Brentford and Chelsea, its the manner they lost, the manager has had 20 months now and we are clearly no better than before he took over, its not working their is no game plan its just tippy tappy football and hope for the best hope we get conte or Rodgers…