Mikel Arteta has made an effort thus far this summer to bridge the quality gap between his team and Manchester City. The Gunners are in a stronger position than they were last season with the additions of Kai Havertz, Declan Rice, and Jurrien Timber.
Even though the quality gap has narrowed, Arteta still has work to do if he wants to succeed in the Premier League next season
Slim Down the squad.
The issue with Arsenal last season wasn’t its squad size; rather, it was its quality. They possessed a sizable squad, but only a few stars could carry the team. The request after last season was for Arteta and Edu to replace players who were no longer needed with these quality stars in order to add some quality to their team. Some players will just have to leave the team in order to make room for the arrival of top stars like Rice, Timber, and Havertz. Yes, Arteta must have at least two players for each position; he is moving in that direction, but he also needs a strong bench. Players who haven’t performed to their potential should be let go.
Sort the defence
I know what you’re thinking—what about the defense? We can all agree that the Arsenal defense is stronger now that Jurrien Timber has arrived, but Arteta has some decisions to make. He must decide whether to immediately use Timber, and if so, what will happen to the dependable Ben White? Other than Ben White’s situation, questions concerning Kieran Tierney’s departure and whether Tomiyasu is the one to replace the Scottish international at left back will need to be answered
Aside from those concerns, Arteta will have to decide if Gabriel Magalhaes and William Saliba remain as his main central defenders.
Head-to-head
Arsenal must ensure that their main title rivals do not pick up points against them next season. Man City picking up six points from them last season was simply disappointing. Arteta and his team must collect as many points as possible from their key title competitors, which could provide meaning to their “demolition” of the other teams.
Arsenal next season needs to finish what they started last season; they owe that to their fans.
Darren N
CALLING ALL ARSENAL FANS! Anyone who would like to contribute an Article or Video opinion piece on JustArsenal, please contact us through this link…
We don’t have a big enough, quality, midfield base. We still need a top level midfield player. Nicolo Barello or Sergej Milinković-Savić would make us invicible again. Without another major midfield player we will not win the EPL or the CL. We are one star midfielder away. Remember we could have up to 60 games this season and everybody can get about 40 games to play at their peak without tiring or overdoing it during the long season that is to come.
These kinds of simplictic, definitive and sensationalitic comments are what cause migraines with me.
You seem to have figured it all out. And with your Crystal Ball and omniscience you already looked into the future and know the outcome even before a single ball has been kicked. Amazing powers you possess there mate.
You have decide that Barello or Savic is WHAT WE NEED to make us invincible again?. How did you calculate all that to be that sure? You seem to have so much confidence in your own untested opinion about the future.
Without another midfielder we WILL NOT win the EPL or CL? You must have done a thorough investigation and research into the future with this kind of definitive talk.
You have got to pass them those Euro Millions winning number for Next Tuesday and Friday.
For real. Lets be a bit mature in our proclamations. This over the top talk about any given issue add nothing to the conversation.
🤞
Says a guy who Arteta and Edu followed his priorities, plans, phases and predictions without missing a thing. Talking about proclamations and delusions.
Why have a go at him? He just posted his opinion.
@HH
I want to go easy on you as you said you’ve not been on this site long enough to know peoples stances going back to December 2019 and Early 2020 when Arteta was newly hired. He was not manager, he was “HEAD COACH” back then before being promoted to first team manager.
Why the likes of @GAI, Anders, SueP, Jon, fairfan, myself and a few others have been the moderating posters in this Arteta tenure where the likes of yourself and your group have made some of the most ridiculous over the top claims throughout.
I have asked you on numerous occasions. Why do you think we have divisions on here and other Arsenal fans forums when it comes to Arteta? Some of the people I just mentioned are on the record saying “We are okay giving Arteta time. We are willing to give him 3-5 years if he keeps showing progress.”.
Most of us have been telling your likes to be a bit more patient, realistic and to take off your anti arteta tinted glasses and look at the bigger picture for more than 3 seasons now. Because no manager was going to turn up at Arsenal with some of the most dead beat players we had, change the poor player culture that had been allowed to fester for all those years. Change all that in a season and expect Top 4 or Title and CL challenges there after. It was just juvenile and unrealistic.
That’s why we have been pushing back against you guys as far back as 2020.. Saying “Let’s give the manager enough time to build his own team etc got you constantly got you labelled as “Being fine with MEDIOCRITY or having LOWERED YOUR STANDARDS to make excuses for Arteta”.
Again, I am on record saying exactly what my expectations for Arteta were:
1- To stabilise the club first. Stop the downward spiral.
2- The next season start to choose who to get rid of and who to stay. Start getting rid of deadwood while slowly integrating his own players.
3- Add more of his players, start to push for Top 6 or Top 4.
4 – Challenge for Top 4 and end in there easily.
5 – Challenge the Top 2 (City and Liverpool).
Progress is all some of us wanted to see, the manager did show it. Hence why I have continued to give him Leeway and defend him from the Agendarists if I think they are being unfair.
That’s why I have defended and still defend him in general. It’s a transactional relationship. If he hits my expectations then I can’t turn around and be a hypocrite by criticising him. Can I?
How does that have anything to do with your uncivilized reply to SW? You mean to say because you like Arteta it gives you the right to have a go at anyone on totally unrelated topics?
You were mocking SW about his opinion on the future which I interpreted as you calling him delusional and in turn I mocked you for thinking the club follows your thinking or thinking you have any say on whether Arteta stays or go.
When it comes to delusional fans you are the biggest of them all.
Move on from this anti Arteta nonsense. We are enjoying where the club is and going. You are only giving yourself headache and heartache. The anti Arteta crew (if there are any) dont give a damn!
Lets say you are right about everything with your phases, so what? Have they given you a little medal? A little gift? A little red plastic trophy? Do they even know of your existence?
Just enjoy the club you love.
@HH
When did I ever say that the club followed my thinking?
I just stated my expectations on this forum because since 2020 your sensationalistic group has constantly, consistently and continuously asked for our EXPECTATIONS from Arteta. Isn’t that what you guys have been going on about for seasons now?
From 2020 we have been asked Questions like:
“To all you Arteta lovers, Arteta apologists, Arteta fan boys, and people that make excuses for Arteta. What are your expectations for him.?”
“How long are you willing to wait?”
“When do you think Arteta should seriously start being criticised and questioned?”
“How many seasons should a manager be given before they can be sackes?”
“Why are you lowering your Standards in order to cover for Arteta”?
Blah blah.
That’s why we answered such questions like this: “We are willing to be patient with him as long as he is showing progress. We are willing to wait for a few years and let him build his own team. Then we could judge him objectively.
The most prominent statement amongst the moderate posters on here has been; “Give the guy a bit of time as the sqaud he inherited was rotten to the core. He had to disassemble it and build from scratch. Some of us are willing to be patient if we can see a proper plan of progress”.
But because the likes of you had let your emotions and dislike of Arteta as an individual cloud your rationality you missed all this. You were busy making sensationalistic commente like this one:
***Highbury Hero***
May 13, 2021 at 6:33 pm
They like his personality nothing else. They can give endless excuses until judgement day but it wont change the league table.
Give a team to Rodgers and he will work with what he has. He doesn’t need 100 windows or doors and chimneys.
A good manager like Rodgers turns mediocre players into competitive ones. A bad one like our play pretend manager has turned our good players into circus performers.*****
That’s all..
And about me wanting a little trophy. I will leave such fallacious “No substance” / red herring talk to you.
Arsenal have gone far to boast the team,but not yet completed. They should look into right wing back up, someone like musa diaby will fit the in, then in the middle, there’s no Odegaard back up, that’s were i was expecting Madison before, Declan rice and Party are perfectly okay, then let’s go to the defensive area, gabriel m, Williams s, Jurien t, Ben w, Zinchenko, Tomoyasu, Jacob k, Tieney Completed except Tieney make a move,but i would’ve prefer Tieney move on and let someone else in, because he’s no longer devoted to the team
Eddie is below average why are we still holding him?
Goonster
A retort
You think we have a strong enough midfield, in depth to overtake Man City? Maybe you can think more deeply rather than hysterically undermine others. Maybe as a person you have a weak minded ‘need’ to criticize others. Others have different ideas to you and all you are capable of is undermining others like another certain gentleman on this site. Sad that there are some nasty undertones from just a few on JA. JA is one of the few open minded sites on the ‘Arsenal’ web, but you are definitely an ego boy.
@Sean william
Lets not get all sensitive and emotional here. This is a public forum. Just expect that you are going to get push back on what you choose to post. We all have come to accept that whatever we put out in public has a potential to be questioned. It happens to all of us. We just need to grow a bit of a Thick Skin. That’s all..
You made some very definitive proclamations about the future. And I questioned you on it.
“Nicolo Barello or Sergej Milinković-Savić would make us invicible again.”
So I asked. You seem so definitive here. How did you look into the future before a single ball has been kicked for you to make such a statement?
“Without another major midfield player we will not win the EPL or the CL.”
How do you know that WE WILL NOT win the EPL or the CL without another major midfield player? What if we signed that midfielder and we still don’t win the EPL or the CL?
“We are one star midfielder away.”
How do you definitely know that?
You think I am an ego boy. But it’s you that is making egotistical DEFINITIVE proclamations about what will happen in the future with absolutely zero evidence to back it up. You are going by your personal intuition / gut feeling but saying it in a very definitive factual way.
A person that is so sure / definitive about what will happen in the future (Arsenal will not win the EPL / CL) if they not sign the particular players he prefer or address a particular position in the team. I would say that you are more egotistical than me. Because my ego is not that big and arrogant that I can predict the future if a particular player is not signed..
You just about dismissed our chances when it comes to winning the EPL or CL if we don’t sign your preferred midfield players or strengthening a particular / specific position in the team. You are 100% sure about that even if you are not omniscient. You already figured the future out.
But I am the ego boy.
👍
Goonster
Not the brightest bulb in the chandelier are you?
Goonster
You clearly just wanted a row….so I’ll leave you to it. You are, to me, just a sad man. You should go out dancing with the other nause who inhabits this site.
Sean, I learnt a new word today; “nause” slang for “an annoying person”. This site can be so educational.😁
@Sean Williams.
You are still failing to address the over the top sensationalistic I am pushing back on.
But the guy that is making definitive proclamations about what will happen and not happen in the future labels others as not being the brightest bulb in the chandelier?
We will leave it at that 🤦♂️
To overtake Man City, we need someone with Haaland’s capabilities. I highly doubt Balogun can keep and win the ball as Haaland did last season
To overtake city we only need to make more points than them, with harland they won the league with one of their lowest point than then usually do, get away with this your obsession with Harland, Liverpool won everything with farmino
Man City could only become a treble winner after signing Haaland
Rubbish, they could have done it even without a striker, haaland had only one shot in the champions league final in the first half, and was arguable their worst player on the pitch, he didn’t put any big performce against Madrid or united to win the Fa cup, city has become more experienced in the competition that’s why they win it has nothing to do with haaland..
@Gun down, I agree with you mate that the theory of Haaland is not true. City would have still won the treble even without him and there are far too many tactics we can effectively use with the players we have. Yes, Haaland is a good striker but we don’t necessarily need him at all cost…lets just stop losing to City then we stand a better chance of finishing above them
Getting Rice is well and good but you cant loss your best midfielders from last season, at some point gooners were saying Partey was the best mid in the league. And now that we are building a squad for EPL and CL, does Lokonga or Elneny look better against Barca than Xhaka? Are we just thinking about the first 11?
I just hope we don’t sell Partey. We need to build on from last season.
Only sell if you are bringing in another serious midfielder in Partey’s mould.
We sell Xhaka and Partey and only sign Rice and Havertz. That’s weakening our squad when we were told we are going to strengthen.
👍Goonster my fear as well; will be a major error towards weakening the squad let alone the first eleven.
No any player similar to halland in the market, apar from mbappe. And mbappe cost a lot, leverpool without haaland fine a way to beat man city, we also fine a unique way to doso.
I don’t trust G.jesus . Arsenal need a good striker one who is capable of scoring goals….I mean goals not like Jesus who misses million chances.
If we must win Epl,carabao,FA and community shield then we must have a top striker.
Jesus before his injury was our best player, is firmino any better than Jesus who Liverpool won everything with… Having another no.9 is good but that shouldn’t be a priority, Jesus has qualities that haaland doesn’t have and vice visa, its all about utilizing ur players best abilities, there are few 9 out there better than Jesus
So far so good in this window. But this window still needs Aurelien from Real Madrid and someone like Dusan Vlahovic and one more defender to make us serious title contender. Let us at least send Nketiah on loan for a stronger and more prolific goal scorer like Vlahovic who is at the same age bracket with Arsenal set up. It’s been a good job so far. Please finish up well.
Add Caicedo , tweak the left side and we could win the league.
Let’s be realistic.
Rice – £105 million.
Caicedo- £100 million
Havertz and Timber – £100 million plus.
That’s more than £300 million on 4 players in a single transfer window. Even City have pulled back on such. Chelsea found out that it’s not feasible.
I know that we all do get too excited and lose our sense of reality sometime. We get into this fantasy bubble. But I don’t think we are going to sign another £100 million player in the same window. Look how stretched the Rice payment structure turned out. We seem to have been pressured into paying well above what we thought we could.
Juat being realistic.
Goonerster
A fan who is a regular contributor that mysteriously gone missing, went on a rant when I first mentioned how competitive Arsenal could get with the capture of Rice and Caicedo.
Pessimists likes to hide behind the word realist.
They are several ways to bell a cat, one way we could approach a deal for Caicedo, is by offering Balogun, Eddie or Vieira which could offset the cost.
Yes of course a good work but we still need three (3)players to become league leaders and champions league we need defender 1.Cancelo midfield 2.Aurelien and a striker Duran to assist Jesus
*Keep Thomas Partey Plz.
*Pray for Saka and Martinelli to Truly become goals Monsters,
The way Ronaldo and Rooney became in 2006-2008. ☺️
I say this because we actually need Victor Osihmen or Kylian Mbappe to Easily win the EPL
But we can’t get Either. 🤨🙂
“whether to immediately use Timber, and if so, what will happen to the dependable Ben White? ”
It bothers me that we assume to know how timber and havertz will be used in our team. Timber is primarily a CB, he has played RB, and I think he looks a good prospect for that position, but we’ve had no indication that he’ll start off playing there. Similarly with havertz – he’s played as an attacking midfielder and forward, with relatively little defensive responsibility, across his career, but to my knowledge, not really as a more withdrawn cm (in the way that xhaka was playing last season). Again, I can see the logic, but i wouldn’t assume that he’ll play there. I’m not sure how easy it would be to convince players to join to play in positions that they don’t have much experience with – it seems like it would be a big risk for them and for us!
Wow , those five expectations listed and posted above are truly impressive, followed to a tee.
To be considered a top team there must be at least two quality players for each position on the field. Hence, players must fight for their pick with consistent performances when given the opportunity to play. Also Arteta must rotate the squad effectively to keep players fresh and interesting, but,as a strategic plan against certain teams too.Fans must stop this moaning for their favorites. It’s about winning and having the best squad selection for every game.
To compete with City we need a huge goal scorer up front. With us getting Rice, Timber, Havertz we are now very talented in the midfield and now Haarland is the main difference between them and us
Current squad 2023/24:
Offensive Goalkeepers – Ramsdale, Turner, Okonkwo, Hein
Defensive occupiers – Saliba, Mangalese, Partey, Rice, White, Tomiyasu, Trusty, Kiwior, Timber, Lino Sousa, Walters, Norton Cuffy, Omar Rekik
Offensive occupiers – Lokonga, Smith Rowe, Havertz, Nketiah, Biereth, Miguel Azeez
Wingers – Jesus, Saka, Martinelli, Nelson, Marquinhos, Folarin
Contollers – Jorginho, Odegaard, Trossard, Fabio, Elneny
Is this for comedy?
😂😂
We can only judge the closing of any ‘quality gap’ between us and Man City when both clubs conclude their transfer business. Ours is almost complete whereas they have only signed one player. If they sign Gvardiol plus another quality midfielder the gap remains. Next season could be a defining one for MA because the owners will expect a return for their huge investment over the past 2 to 3 years.
That isn’t true, we have a far more younger squad, check city’s squad worth and ours, the different is not above 100m why did we close the gap massively in few seasons, because we have a much younger squad with world class potential and their stocks are going high season after season, most of city’s players we have seen their peak while we are just getting started, that alone will make everyone worried about us
I think adding too many players at once will destabilise the whole squad. So far, only 3 players are confirmed and they are massively high quality players. Maybe Arteta might add another one more for a total of 4 new players. Besides adding quality, the existing players must be better than last season. I’m expecting the young players like Fabio Viera, Reiss Nelson, Eddie Nketiah and ESR to pick up their abilities and form for the new season. With the first eleven minus Xhaka, the 3 winter recruitments and these 4 youngsters, we have 17 reliable players.
Winning head Vs head verses top teams is important but so is dropping points verses bottom teams – Southampton, West-ham, Everton games that we gave sloppy goals & dominated 65% possession but could not take the 3 points