ALL OR NOTHING ARSENAL – Episode 7 by Dan Smith
Clearly, we have some fans who can’t have anything negative written about their club.
So, I’m asking (put in the comments) how I am expected to review episode 7 with positivity when it centres around 3 consecutive defeats to teams in the bottom half, our only goal a deflected shot (reminder, we gave away our best striker without bringing in a replacement).
I’ll be accused of having an agenda, so I’ll leave it to our own manager who says when Arsenal lose 3-0 to Palace and 1-2 to Brighton it ‘should hurt and feel like a funeral.’
Arteta doesn’t blame injuries or makes excuses like some Gooners did at the time, partly because those injuries were two players!
It’s ironic that the same people in a performance meeting who bemoan these issues are the same brain trust who essentially gave away 5 squad players for the sake of slashing our wage bill.
What is noticeable is as the adversity increases, the dressing room goes quiet.
Not in a non-caring way but confidence draining.
It leaves our coaching staff trying to find the balance between not making moral worse while being critical.
Arteta’s methods pre match have been one of the highlights of the series.
Where he finds the time to come up with these ideas I don’t know. Before Brighton, he brings in a light bulb and compare his team to Einstein …. It doesn’t work!
It’s noticeable that Xhaka and Ramsdale remain the more vocal members of the dressing room, not then captain Lacazette or now skipper Odegaard.
Until watching this i wasn’t aware of an interview Eddie Nketiah gave which highlights his weak mentality.
He offers every excuse regarding his failings but fails to take accountability for how he had just played at Southampton or say in the Cup at Forest.
The Episode ends with wins over Chelsea and Man United.
It’s hard to watch those performances without wondering how those same players would then not show up weeks later when it matters.
There’s a lovely touch where Saka meets a youngster who sent him his pocket money after the Euros when the player was racially abused.
Teddy is asked ‘You think we can make top 4; you believe in us?’.
Elneny believes ‘we can make our goal’.
Still waiting to hear anyone say that 5th is progress.
Dan Smith
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Zzzzzzzz
Blame the club for the zzzzzz
More zzzzzzzz. Go and get a mug of scotch and down it. For starters I don’t do the blame game, I am responsible for ky own happiness, If I can’t take what I am seeing in the club, i simply zone off, instead of complaining on end about things I have absolutely no control over.
Peace be unto your soul.
5th was a progress
When Arteta took over, we were 14’th, I believe.
We finished the season 8’th
Next season, we finished 8’th
Next season 5’th
On top of that, we have rejuvenated the whole team.
Very difficult not to see the progress.
He’s asked that question himself and laughs it off
@Ander’s do you have a proof that we were 14th when he took over ?
And how many points away from top4?
I have seen different story of us being close to relegation when he Arteta took over.
Some have mentioned 15th, some 12th.
Perhaps took over from who?
Emery, or Fred who was the manager for 2 games which we won none of it.
Kaay, Freddie was in charge of 4 PL games. Won 1, drew 1 and lost the other 2 iirc.
@kaay
Google it.
Emery was sacked when Arsenal were 8-9’th.
Then Ljungberg came in for a few games, and we dropped further.
What our position was exactly , I am not 100% sure, and I think it also depends on how you count the games in hand. But the point is, Arteta improved improved our position to 8’th.
@Aders, how did Arteta improved our position by finishing 8 twice.
Let assume he met us at 8th when we sacked emery in just 13 rounds. He had 23 games to improve that position he ended up leaving us in the same position as emery with more 23 games.
He took another 38games to finish 8th again. Will you kindly explain the improvement?
Kudos to him last season for finishing 5th. we could count that as improvement base on his on standard and young squad he had and not necessarily Arsenal as a team.
But you can’t tell me finishing 8th can be see as an improvement, especially from football perspective.
But at least now you know emery left while at 8th and not 14th like you claimed.
@kaay
When Arteta took over in Dec. 19 we were below 8’th. When the season ended, we were 8’th. How can that not be an improvement?
Next season we were 8’th again. So no improvement, only status quo. Next season 5’th which was further improvement. The fact is, he has improved our position in the league, while he has byen in charge. Whether you find the improvement satisfactory or not is another matter. Improvement it is.
Anyone that pretends Arteta finished 8th in Emerys season should not be talking, from below “Fact is Arteta’s form once he took over was 6th behind WHU on GD and 1 point off Chelsea in 4th. Not remotely up for debate why we ended 8th based on that. We also won the FA Cup. Next year was bad.”
Fact is Arteta’s form once he took over was 6th behind WHU on GD and 1 point off Chelsea in 4th. Not remotely up for debate why we ended 8th based on that. We also won the FA Cup. Next year was bad.
You might want to start believing something else.
Emery left us at 8th after 13 rounds.
Depsite the poor form, at that particular moments we were still above United and spurs.
After 23 games by Arteta we finished on the same spot that we sacked emery for, while man united and spurs left us behind.
It’s high time people stop with the false narrative.
It is true, we were ahead of Spurs and Man U, when Emery was sacked. But we were behind both, when Arteta took over.
You keep missing, we dropped further, while Ljungberg was in charge.
Just so we get the “narrative” correct 😉
Yup
8th in 2019/20 season: Emery and Arteta shared the responsibility, because Arteta just managed the team for half season
8th in 2020/21 season: No progress in Arteta’s first full season
5th in 2021/22 season: A good progress from the rookie manager
@gotanidea I don’t differ about the sharing of responsibilities.
But like the initial comments there have been a lot of msinformation spreading regarding emery’s position at the time of sacking him.
He claimed he believed it was 14, meanwhile he left us at 8th.
Perhaps finishing 8th in the first place is more of Arteta doing than emery.
The fact that he finished that in his first full season, justify that.
More so , If emery left us at 8th after 13 rounds, above United and spurs despite that poor form, then we can say for sure he will do better and finished higher than 8th in 23 more games Arteta had while both teams finished above us.
Credit to Arteta for what he has done so far, and more credit to board for sticking with him regardless. but there have been a lot of misinformation regarding the ex management. Which is what I am trying to clarify.
Had Emery completed 2019/20 season, I bet we would’ve finished lower than 8th
Because Ozil humiliated him publicly and the other attackers didn’t do high press quickly/ frequently
Well you could be right, but this only we base on your view because there are no stats to back it up.
he didn’t finish 8th at the last 3 teams he has managed or lower.
If he was above United and spurs with his poor record, then there are high chances he finished above 8th comes end of the season cause those two teams ended up finishing above us when Arteta took over with 23 games to go.
And Arteta went through similar poor record if not worse and he didn’t finish lower either.
And Ozil humiliating him has nothing to do with him finishing 8th or lower.
Arteta finished 8th without any humiliation.
And finished 5th despite the Auba saga.
I mean Arteta turned things around after 3 lost last season, by finishing 5th because he had the chance to finish the season.
You can’t say if emery had stayed we would have finished lower than 8th. Unless we have seen him finish 8th before or lower.
Well blow me down!!!
Ozil, a lazy, mentally frail, overpaid deadwood player was the reason MA finished 8th…because he humiliated him publicly?!?!
Thank goodness the owner gave him a new contract worth a reported £8,000,000 plus a year, otherwise the poor soul might never have recovered from such an experience!!
So how would you explain Mikel’s treatment of Ozil then GAI, a gentle walk in the park, with a reassuring arm round his shoulder?
As for the attackers not doing high press quickly and frequently – why didn’t he drop them or change tactics to suit the players he had?
The excuses you come out with GAI, are like something from Alice in Wonderland 😂😂
Ken I think GAI was talking about Emery and Ozil. Apparently it was reported after the EL final that Ozil told Emery that you are no coach to his face.
You didn’t read my comment?
I said Ozil humiliated Emery publicly and the other attackers didn’t do high press quickly/ frequently. So if Emery had completed 2019/20 season, I bet we would’ve finished lower than 8th
GAI, correct. When Ozil was substituted in the EL Final he walked to the benched and told UE that he’s not a coach. Ozil should have been disciplined for that !
@herr, For him not to be disciplined shows the allegations might not be true.
If he said that to him in the final, he wouldn’t have play any games for him again, and the board would have stopped other managers from using him to punish him.
I remember he still featured under Arteta and emery himself before he was sacked.
It’s quite unreasonable that the board would let that pass if he did he uttered such a words to the manager.
This doesn’t make Ozil saint though and he deserves most of the criticism he’s receiving,but we need to be fair by not adding what never happened or exaggerating things.
This was the purpose of my comments in the first place,
A lot of false informations flying around regarding the last management and the team.
@Kaay, it was reported in the Turkish papers. What people need to understand is that UE was the Head Coach, and as such doesn’t have as much power/say as a manager does.
@herr he doesn’t need to be the manager before the board take action against ozil.
The manager and the players work for the board, they would have taken actions if the report were to be true.
I mean they took action when he comments against China, I see no reason for them not to take action if indeed humiliate the manager like the report claimed.
More so, he appeared playing for Freddie And Arteta as well, that would have been impossible if the report were to be true.
GAI, my apologies, I read your post incorrectly regarding MA and UE.
It seems the concensus is that Ozil humiliated UE for walking slowly off the pitch and, according to the renowned and always truthfully independant Turkish press, told Unai that he wasn’t a coach….. isn’t that the message the majority of fans were telling him 13 games later and lying in 8th position?
Wasn’t that the reason he was sacked?
You know, really sacked like here today and gone within 24 hours type of sacking?
Again, my apologies for misreading your post.
Ken, are you doubting the Turkish lipreaders ?
After the BS that our own papers write, I doubt anything written about our club.
As the claim wasn’t made by our club in it’s official site, then I couldn’t care less.
As Kaay says above, it just doesn’t ring true and, as it turns out, fans and the club were thinking the same thing anyway, as his sacking in just 24 hours proved.
@ken, you will be surprised about how many false and misinformation that has been spread regarding the past management and the team.
I am of the opinion that they deserve criticism, but coming up with something that never happened or using rumors as a way to discredit them is something majority have embarked on for the reason I can’t understand.
We can simply say good thing about this management so far without having to make up false claims to disqualify the past management.
Just like the comment above under this thread claimed emery left us at 14th, when indeed he left us at 8th and technically 6th as we had the same point as the team sitting 6th a point below 5th position. You can imagine all other false narrative that has been spreading around.
Not shared how many times in this thread will I have to copy past something in your case I am 100% certain you’ve seen me post at some point.
Fact is Arteta’s form once he took over was 6th behind WHU on GD and 1 point off Chelsea in 4th. Not remotely up for debate why we ended 8th based on that. We also won the FA Cup. Next year was bad.
This is false information pal.
Westham did finished 16th on the table that season.
Emery left us at 8th, technically 6th as we had same point as 6th and 7th and 1 points below 5th position. You can check it out.
Westham was not in the picture at all.
They were on 17th when Emery was sacked and they came 16th at the end of season.
@AndersS
We were playing 1 match a week for a good chunk of the season. We should have ended up in 3rd spot.
We have a good core of 15 players. Anyone of them gets injured our second string is not up to scratch.
Should, would, could have, maybe finished better or maybe worse.
Guesswork. I think.
You could be right, or you could be wrong 😉
You can always support Chelsea Tuchel who spent more than Arteta in his 1st season likely will spend more than Arteta in his 2nd season. Let’s see what Chelsea do. Seriously though go support Chelsea they have the experienced manager you want and a more expensively assembled squad to boot.
Edison. It was Thomas Alva Edison who invented the lightbulb. And no he did not compare the team to Einstein, in fact he never mentioned Einstein.
He basically said Edison invented the light bulb, but without electricity, energy it does nothing. So he wanted the team to connect and have that energy so they can shine like the bulb does.
How this speech turns into comparing his team to Einstein is beyond me, but it’s definitely wrong:
“Stand up guys, please. Come together. Come come.
Edison invented the light….bulb.
Today I want to see a team that is connected because a bulb by himself is nothing. I want to see a team that is connected with each other and that shines. And you want to transmit to him light and energy and passion and how you play football. And you too the same. And each of us play the game connected because what happens when we play connected, guys? What is the next thing that happens? That we connect with 60,000 people that creates more energy because at the end is electricity, that through heat creates light and life, because if not it would be fucking dark, if this guy wouldn’t have the idea to do that. And I want you to play like this today because as good as we are, it depends on one thing. What makes us special is our attitude and today I want you to play with that attitude, go out there, fucking turn the light on and play football. Let’s go.”
I liked that talk. Then we played awful
No doubt not making signings in January was perhaps the most stupid decision possible and lost us 4th place. The “N17 Impostors” brought in Dejan Kulusevski and Rodrigo Betancur who improved them vastly. It has been said we were offered Kulusevski. To throw fourth place away, which is the honest truth, was so poor a judgement as to be hard to believe.
Not making a signing in January is the only real way Gabriel Jesus ends up with us. We could of spent the silly 80 mil on Isak to activate his release clause. Would that have actually worked? We have Jesus/Zinchenko from City now, who not only don’t need to learn how to play under Arteta but can teach others how to play. Conte got lucky that Juve were willing to let go Bentancur and Kuluseviski in jan both that could do the same for him. Lord knows why Juve let Kuluseviski go but they did, nobody that follows football is surprised he’s doing well. To be fair not that different to Madrid letting Ode go to us,
You make some important points regarding the risk of spending a lot of money on a potentially unsuitable player. Whether we could have strengthened in January and still go on to get GJ is uncertain.
Conte was lucky in a sense but it was clear that both Arsenal and Spurs squads needed strengthening in some key areas.
My own view then was that it was a risky decision to leave the squad as it was. However, I can understand the longer term considerations. In addition, if reasonable deals could not be made for the right players there was little option but to continue with the available team.
5th is a progress, whether you like it or not it is a progress from 8th. You can say we fail to take 4th because it is in our hand for most of the time last season but you cant say its not a progress to move from 8th to 5th. Besides i know you never thought we would compete that intense for top 4 so dont act like its a failure. Be logical.
Exactly Ziq. As you say, jumping from 8th to 5th is progress, plus getting rid of players that were not good enough to play the system that the manager wants to play.
When nothing positive to say just shut up.. Go hug piers morgan, agbolanhor and durham..
Can’t wait …not .
Well, let me start by saying that I feel very positive about the team as at today. A few more additions on the wing and in midfield (a solid back up for the injury prone Partey) will make the team a lot stronger.
However, I personally don’t really see 5th position as an improvement.
The season that Emery started and finished, we ended up in 5th position, just one point off the 4th spot. We also got to the Europa league final.
Arteta needs to better this result before I’ll count it as an improvement. I have solid hopes that he can do it this season. He has learned (and is still learning) on the job. I don’t see him repeating the mistakes of last season. He’s built a stronger team, I’m hopeful for the best (Top4 and the Europa league).
Is it too much to ask for?
Now that’s proper evaluation Namo – though I hope you are willing to say that we are showing improvement in all areas of the pitch this season, both on and off it I should add?
@Ken1945
Definitely. Our pressing is better, we’ve really reduced the backwards and sideways passing and the defence is stronger.
The connection with the fans is also better.
I’m really looking forward to a good season.
Couldn’t agree more and Xhaka is such an improved player…. Well done again Mikel.
I just hope we keep consistent, because that’s what let us down in so many games last season
Yawn. You said we’d finish 6th we finish 5th literally progress by you own standards. Yawn
Isn’ the Swiss Marvel just doing his job. Basically thanks to Zivchenko Xhaka has been relieved of his defensive duties and also thanks to Jesus and Martinellii he doesn’t have pressure to create so can wander around free range and make runs into the box. Ramsey was doing the same thing for us when he had Carzola, Ozil and Sanchez creating the spaces. It’s a position that can easily be filled in by any good pro. Ken, I don’t understand how you allow an insignificant nothing like Angus get his way. Arsenal to win 3-0 tonight Australian time, by the way.