Villarreal Review – Another atrocious display by Arsenal

Arteta is extremely lucky that Arsenal is still in the tie by Konstantin Mitov

 

Lovely Arsenal people with the way we’ve played, we are lucky to be still in this tie. Our first half performance was utterly atrocious.

 

I cannot forgive Arteta for the late subs again. We’re awful, Ceballos has been poor all game, is on a yellow and we don’t take him off? Then in typical fashion he mis-controls the ball, steps on the foot of a Villarreal player and he’s off.

 

This has been all season. I’m sick and tired. I think Arteta is doing this on purpose to torture us. It was obvious he should have been taken off, every person I saw was saying take him off, but nope. I believe the ref did us a favour by getting us rid of Ceballos though. The guy said he doesn’t even want to be here next season, why are we playing him?

 

Arteta has made some extremely poor decisions and the fact he’s still here is inexcusable. The only reason we’re still in this tie is because we had Saka forced a penalty and the only good player we had – Pepe stuck it in.

 

That goal gives us a prayer, but if we play like that we are finished. This is a semi-final of a European competition and we’ve been utterly atrocious. Worse is that when they went to 10 man, just like the Spurs game we became even worse.

 

I watched the champions league this week and I can’t believe how far from the likes of City we are. Chelsea were next to us in the table when Lampard was sacked. Now they go and play good football in Madrid and we play like a mid-tabled team.

 

Apart from the penalty, how many good chances did we create? Why is Aubameyang coming on after minute 80? He almost scored in the one chance he had!

 

Arsenal is destroying me. They are ruining me from the inside. The worse thing is that he will be still here no matter what. This is killing me. Football is a result business, and it has been utterly diabolical. The only reason we still have a chance is because Villarreal are poor. If this was City, we’re heading for 7-8 spanking.

 

I just can’t stand it. I’m extremely hurt, and I just hope Arteta is sacked so I can have any hope for the future. If we somehow get to the final, United will destroy us and I don’t know which is worse. It’s very hard to be an Arsenal fan.

 

Konstantin

37 Comments

  1. Ceballos is a creative CAM and adventurous. He shouldn’t have played in deep midfield area too often, because he’s slow

    The game in Newcastle is our only chance to lift the players’ confidence up. Our defenders and midfielders played with a bag of nerves, so Arteta and the coaches need to fix it before meeting Villareal again

    1. Well even a blind person could see Cebollos was playing mostly left side of midfield and he was getting skinned by their RB. As Xhaka and Cebollos are both slow. Xhaka not stepping up along with Mari not coming up to tackle the players running towards goal made Cebollos life hell. He had to track back their RB all the time who was quick. I actually don’t blame Cebollos he played some good passes and kept the ball moving well. Defensively he was struggling but that blames sits with Mari and Xhaka. That’s why I prefer Gabi to Mari, Mari is a passive defender he does not anticipate and keeps backing off when opposition player can carry the ball and run at us. So playing Cebollos, Xhaka and Mari in a left side triangle was Arteta’s first mistake then letting it go on and failing to change was his second and his last mistake was not to replace Cebollos who was o yellow while trying to play DM role. I am amazed what shxt player he has turned Partey into. The dude was amazing when he came then Arteta happened to him now all of sudden he looks like another £40m wasted.

      1. Ceballos should’ve played centrally behind a CF, but that role is already assigned to Smith-Rowe and Odegaard. Partey has never been a goalscoring midfielder and his passing accuracy is so inconsistent

        Our mistakes in the back from the previous games has lowered Arteta’s and the players’ confidence. A great manager should be able to improve his players’ confidence within a short period of time

        If we can’t win in Newcastle, I think it’d be too late to change things up

  2. Please Guardiola take Arteta back you must need someone to collect the balls after training cos that’s all hes good for complete clown of a manager absolutely clueless and continues to send us further and further into decline he must be sacked immediately! The Arteta fan club cannot possibly defend him haven’t got a leg to stand on although one in particular will probably try and defend this imposter of a manager!!

    1. Oh but they will, even after yesterday I have read comments that it was Arteta’s fault but we still support him and he is the right man for job. All what we have suffered this season and this turning into one of the worst season for years is just a hiccup for his fan base, they still believe we have progressed under him.

      1. And a certain party without mentioning any names will accuse people of bringing negative energy (not once thinking his negative energy might dwarf the ones he is accusing of) and make up things about them just because they are not happy with how the team is performing. How dare they not happy that we are 10th for the whole season?

    2. I am part of the Arteta fan club. But I have to admit I can not defend his team selection and experimental strategy
      for a game of this importance against a team that is not special.

      Emery was blamed for his tinkering and tendency to always change the way we played depending on the opponent but now Arteta does the same. In the biggest game of our season and his career!!!!!

      Starting to feel like a manager who is outthinking himself as a result of too much pressure.

  3. Been like that all season. Same mistakes again and again. Playing a false 9, when we have Gabi M. Playing Ceballos at all… Joke manager, joke club…

  4. I’m no football manager ,but surely saka could have played LB and Xhaka is normal position along side Partney meaning no calamitous Ceballos.
    Martinelli and Auba on the bench and we start with no striker .
    We got rid of one bumbling spainish idiot and replaced him with another one .
    Time for him to go and take his side kick Edu with him ,disgraceful that fans still make excuses for him .

    1. Dan, i got shot down months ago saying when Tierney had his first injury this season Saka was our best option to replace him. Arteta does not have a clue!

    2. Dan and Reggie, I too would have played Saka LB and Xhaka in midfield along side Partey, given Arsenal’s resources in Martinelli and Aubameyang sitting on the bench.
      Dan the Villarreal “bumbling Spanish idiot” did in fact make a mistake thankfully to help his old club by taking off Alcacer (a forward) and bringing on Coquelin. Being 2 goals and a man up, Emery should have gone for the jugular; at that time a third goal for Villarreal looked more likely than Arsenal scoring. He let Arsenal back in the game by his conservatism in my view.

      Ei

  5. What would have happened if Arteta played with this formation?

    Martinelli.

    Smith-Rowe. Odegaard. Saka.

    Xhaka. Patey.

    Cedric. Mari. Holding. Chambers.

    Leno.

    Subs – Aubameyang, Pepe, Nketiah, Willian, Elneny.

    Let us hope and pray we play better in the second leg and score up to 3 goals.

    How is that even possible? Villareal is not Slavia Prague.

    1. Probably got beat as well, our tactics against villareal were wrong, we played into their hands. The manager got his part of the deal completely wrong.

  6. Someone needs to tell MA that he is not managing a squad full of 50M plus players some people keep pointing out individual mistakes but these are not a coincidence they are the result of MA asking players to do things they are not capable of & playing in a way which doesn’t suit their natural abilities

      1. Reggie and siamois, I have raised a number of times the high number of players Arsenal has comparative to other clubs, not earning £50,000+ but £100,000+ per week.
        Arsenals wage structure is ridiculous, when considering player/ team performance and League position. And we wonder why players can’t be sold and moved on.

      2. Is that a joke Reggie!we have only 2 (Auba& Pépé) i don’t think Saka is worth that much just yet and Laca TP…are all under 50M British pounds now go check City and get back to me!

        1. Saka is worth 110 mil on transfer market, lacca was 52 mil but i was on about purchases that actually play every game. Citys best players de bruine, aguero, ferandhino, silva, gunduan, marez and jusus were all under 50 mil. My point is, its the player not the price tag.

          1. OK Reggie may be i should have expressed myself better the point i was trying to make is that he is not managing players of the quality/calibre he had at City and needs to recognise the players limitations & to act accordingly !

          2. Ok saimois, yes he should but he should also be able to adapt to suit what he has and he isn’t is he.

          3. siamois and Reggie, it’s not just their transfer value, but also their wages.

  7. I have to agree, I have stuck faithfully with Arteta and given him the benefit of his inexperience as a head coach etc but we are not a good side to watch and his handling of this game completely dumbfounded me, of all the times to try these tactics was a huge mistake, play the players in their best positions for god sake we were very lucky to come out of this with that all important away goal, but I am done with backing him now I would like to see Rodgers or Nagelsman here as soon as is possible.

  8. Arteta got it all wrong, i don’t think there’s anyone who can defend after such a performance

    3 bad decisions he made

    1. The way he setup the team; we are not barcelona or man city where guadiola has seemingly tried this false 9 tactics with great success, and considering the players deployed to that position, makes you wonder what arteta was smoking when he made such a decision. Was he in any way comparing ESR to Messi or KDB. Arteta is obviously out of his depths

    2. Ceballos shouldn’t have played the second half, i was speaking with another arsenal fan at half time and he said something so obvious. Ceballos and odegaard should have come off at half time and in Gabi and Auba, Xhaka goes into the middle as he was being shreded by villa, saka drops back to LB he could cope with the pace of villa and still create chances.

    3. I don’t understand his problem with Gabi, it’s so obvious he has his preferences and it’s definately outside footballing ability. This Gabi and Saliba situation raises this debate

    1. Yeah sorry all, i had forgotten, probably from the numbness of my brain after witnessing such a debarcle.

  9. I was pleased when Arteta arrived but feel totally let down.
    Quite obvious that we have several clowns in our team but Arteta appears to have no idea who to pick or where to play them.
    Two choices, we stick with him and continue to decline or part company and get a proper manager, not a pretender.
    Shame on you Arsenal.

    1. Problem is management and ownership had no idea or ignored how bad the problem was with player quality.

      They should have brought in a proper manager after Wenger, and we would not be in this position nearly 3 years later. Likely Ownership wouldn’t meet the basic requirements of top managers; I’m not talking about handing them 200 million in the first window, but in terms of decision making.

      There are no guarantees, but I’d bet good money Benitez, Ancelloti, Allegri, Tuchel, Rodgers, or any of their like would not have us in 10th, and looking to have no European football for the 1st time in over 2 decades.

  10. We have spent £20m on Ceballos so far and what have we got in return? Just check his stats, they are awful!! Nothing personal, but he is what I would call very average, lacks stature and pace, a requirement for modern football. He couldn’t even make the bench at RM and I hope we don’t loan him for the 3rd time. His performance yesterday was embarrassing.

  11. Arteta should be sacked after next weeks Villareal game…..whatever the result. If things don’t change they stay as they are.

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