Sheffield United interim manager, Paul Heckingbottom, says Arsenal is where they deserve to be at this stage of the season.
The Gunners have had a troubled campaign that has seen them languish in mid-table for much of it.
With just 8 games left to play, Arsenal is tenth on the league table and their next match is against relegation bound Sheffield United.
After winning the FA Cup and making a fine start to this season, the Gunners are having a tough time and was expected to be in a better position at this stage of the campaign.
Mikel Arteta’s side is clearly underachieving and Heckingbottom agrees with that assessment, but he says they deserve to be where they are because of the efforts they have put into the season.
“You can say that but we are at the stage of the season where you are where you deserve to be,” he said via Football London, when asked if Arsenal were underachieving.
“You have seen in their games they can really open you up – there have been questions, there are moments when they can blow teams away, we have to try and make them not be that good and play on the back foot while keeping an eye on those players they have who can produce a bit of magic and take a game away from you.”
Sheffield United is almost certain to get relegated and Arsenal cannot afford not to beat them when both teams meet on Sunday.
Not really sure that “Arsenal cannot afford not to beat them” as the only thing up for grabs in the PL, if we are being realistic, is to try and finish higher than halfway – something we have done since 1975 /76 season – it looks like we may have FINALLY got our Arsenal.. back….forty six years later!!!
Ken, i dont get the support for Arteta, facts are facts and we are playing poorer and getting less points than we have since then. Why are we having this Arteta love in by people. Facts are he is failing and failing miserably.
God bless you. These fans who support Arteta despite his obvious failures are not Arsenal fans. They are Arteta fan because they have no loyalty to Arsenal. They can go with wherever he goes but for sure we need him out of Arsenal ASAP!
The only thing that Prem position will mean to us is actually for Kroenke, not us at all Every place gets a sliding scale of fees from the Prem league so eleveth is worth a million or so less then tenth. That goes in his pocket not in the club!
SO, Ken, you are right as to the team if we finish 9th,10th 11th or 12th it makes no PRACTICAL DIFFERENCE AT ALL to we fans.
Jon, you understand business, i think, if you do you know it will not go into Kronks pocket, it will go to the clubs finances, to pay off our huge debt. And i cant believe you think it doesn’t matter if we finish 9th 10th or 11th, ive read it all now.
Jon loves MA, he claims facts but preaches 100% bias.
I agree Reggie
jon, KS&E have a £2 billion investment in owning Arsenal FC. Surely the income from the EPL goes towards operating costs, not into Kroenke’s pocket?
Teams 1 -8 all have billionaire owners quality players and experienced managers.
So right now I see us in a battle for 8th with Everton
But it’s a weird situation because despite a lousy season Arsenal could be playing CL football next season
by dint of winning the EL
Arteta will be a genius the players will be heroes and fans will say our poor league form was a result of bad luck and VAR.
So while we are alive in the Europa we are on course for a great season with possibly just Unai and Roma/Man U to beat.
So after all the heartache of the previous 46 games Arsenal are theoretically four games away from glory.
It’s that simple..
Not sure about Sullivan and Gold but I get your point
Unfortunately we have a billionaire owner who has a different view point
The quoted headline also applies to Sheffield Utd and for that matter Sheffield Wednesday.
Arsenal fc have themselves to blame,the players aren’t playing for anything the board is not showing purpose of intent,for me arteta,another coach will do better elsewhere than arsenal,we just have players & a owner who is not worth being at AFC
We are where we are because we have a manager that is where we are standard. If he could get out of this squad what it has in it, we should be challenging top 4. We aren’t and i see no reason why we will, our football is mediocre and our position reflects that.
It’s true though. Both Arsenal and Sheffield are where they deserve to be.
👍 The table does not lie.
How ironic in that if Arteta had simply taken the road less travelled, sucked it up and actually put the work in, our position in the table would have mattered very little, as this would have been the first year of the much anticipated massive “rebuild” in North London
even if we had struggled for consistency, most would have understood, albeit begrudgingly at times, that this was all part the process…in fact, I would suspect, that a considerable proportion of the fanbase would have actually rallied behind any honest attempt to resurrect the brand, as this would have undoubtedly helped to restore the long-absent sense of hope for a better and brighter future.
Instead Arteta took what he perceived to be the path of least resistance, drank his own Kool-Aid, bought the magic beans then karma bit him square in the ass…changing the culture at a club isn’t about finding shortcuts, cheating the process or constantly assigning blame to others, it requires incredibly long hours, hard work and the kind of discipline this manager seems to expect from everyone except himself
all I’ve managed to glean from the Arteta experiment so far is that although he talks the talk, I’m not convinced whatsoever that he has the necessary fortitude or acumen to actually walk the walk
Well put.
Example of taking the path of perceived short cut:
1. Signing Willian and not keeping faith with young Nelson, William and other younger players.
Gambled with UE and it failed….so what do we do? Gamble again with MA, madness.
No other “big club” club would do that.
We are now mediocre, this is the reality and it will be difficult to change.
Exactly right