November was a pretty poor month for our boys! Will December be any better?
As our lead up to the winter period is normally a mix bag of results, 2020’S lead up to the Christmas winter period is one of our worst in a long long time. So will it be a case that December onwards for once will be a good period for our boys! Well we certainly hope so!
The Christmas period normally brings around injuries, poor results and then by the time we reach February we are pretty much out of all competitions and looking to chase that top four or five position in league. But despite the poor form we have been going through recently, maybe more optimistically than I should be giving the boys credit for, but I do have hope that things will get better. Every team has a bad run and November was our time!
Arteta came in, took over and although we finished in our lowest position in over 25 years in his first half season in charge it all became a bit of a rollercoaster, despite finishing in eighth place in the 2019/20 season, he then went on to lead the boys to an FA Cup and Community Shield final win over Chelsea and Liverpool. At that point things were positive going into the new season, but our boys soon came back down to earth with a bang and reality kicked in that the work was far from over!
We know we had some lucky results in the league beating Sheffield and West Ham, but our luck soon ran out, losing to Aston Villa, Leicester and Wolves, who really were the better teams on the day. It was all well and good beating the big teams and not conceding many goals, but there no longer is a balance in the team and there no longer is any joy in watching the beautiful game of our club!
The playing and passing identity has clearly been lost and although we have become more defence we are still conceding and now losing games, so Arteta needs to quickly look back and realise not everything is about defending and being solid.
The players have lost their spark and fluid playing style and it quickly needs to be brought back if we are to have a decent winter period moving forward for the rest of the season!
Here are December’s fixtures….
| 03/12/20 | UEL | Arsenal | 21 : 00 | Rapid Wien | |
| 06/12/20 | PRL | Tottenham Hotspur | 17 : 30 | Arsenal | |
| 10/12/20 | UEL | Dundalk | 18 : 55 | Arsenal | |
| 13/12/20 | PRL | Arsenal | 20 : 15 | Burnley | |
| 16/12/20 | PRL | Arsenal | 19 : 00 | Southampton | |
| 19/12/20 | PRL | Everton | 18 : 30 | Arsenal | |
| 22/12/20 | LEC | Arsenal | 21 : 00 | Manchester City | |
| 26/12/20 | PRL | Arsenal | 18 : 30 | Chelsea | |
| 29/12/20 | PRL | Brighton & Hove Albion | 19 : 00 | Arsenal |
Do you think we can turn things around in December?
Shenel Osman
Off topic:
Real Madrid in danger of falling to Europa. Scenes when we “eventually” face them lol
Wow, that is mental!! Can’t believe Shakhtar did the double over them
of course we will get them….
December looks harder than November to me.
I’m just fed up, we are losing and not playing gud futbal, I’m doubting the process, I’m seriously doubting…
I see no pattern to play, no energy. Opposing teams overrunning the midfield. Like a bad Mourinho team without the results. Deeply worrying.
Busy month, tough month!!
You’re right Sue, by the time Christmas comes we are going to be knackered. Never mind only Man City and Chelsea waiting for us and you can guarantee they won’t be coming with presents. You never know Auba might get a new pair of shooting boots!! Seriously though, December will define our and MA’s season one way or the other. Here’s hoping it’s the right way.
Fatigue is already a factor apparently, so we’ll be on our knees after that lot of fixtures, Andrew 😄
It really hasn’t been pretty lately.. Feel really let down by some of our experienced players… just putting a shift in every once in a while really isn’t good enough, I want to see blood, sweat and tears!! Yeah right – getting to the stage now where a good old kick up the jacksie is needed!!
Some tough fixtures here. I hope we have a get out of jail card readied up for this month.
If we are to go by the current form we will be in a terrible position by the end of December.
The results could go something like this:
Rapid Vienna – Win
Spurs – Loss
Dundalk- Win
Burnley – Win
Southampton – Loss
Everton – Draw
City – Loss
Chelsea – Loss
Brighton- Loss
You’re right, on current form this could be absolutely disastrous!! Hardly any ‘booms’ 😄
Let’s hope the players have finally woken up, as right now I hate to think where we’ll end up!
If the “booms” are not coming the “boos” are certainly going to come (even if its only 2000).
👍
we used to look at schedule to see the “automatic 3 point games”. Now we are becoming an automatic…
Spot on, Stewart, hurts to admit!
The only win there is Burnley if we don’t change our ways.
I’m not considering the europa league results.
Arteta and the midfielders are the problem.
Inexperience coach and poor midfield set up.
You can’t win even bunley with side way and negative football tactics.
None of our players have the boldness to take on an opponent. Once any of our midfielders are closed down by an opponent, they quickly pass the ball to defenders.
Arteta should sell Xhaka and return ceballos to real Madrid. Willock should be sent out on loan, he is not good for the bench let alone starting for arsenal yet.
He should bring back ozil if the board cannot afford a good creative player by January.