Match Reaction v Spuds (away).

[Globalgunner]

Dont know why anyone is still pining for Ozil. Has he ever won us a game in living memory,? He will rise his way through each and every game. He does nothing whether he is on the pitchor not.. Our entire mid and defence needs ejecting. Otherwise we will be having the same discussion next year after every game. Replace Xhaka and Ceballos with Partey and Buendia or Rakitic or Grealish. Get rid of the dummy centre backs and Kolashite. How is that not obvious. Auba can do one too. He is not a make or break player. We can do better. I'd swap him with Antonio of West ham in a heartbeat.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Buendia and Antonio, seriously swapping Auba for Antonio?

Let's focus on getting rid of the shit that has never contributed in any way positively then the ones that would see us in the lower reaches of the league if we were without.

[Letters]

Well that sounds fine until you consider he isn't currently using the best players available to him, playing the three stooges at CB instead of Holding and Soares and personally I'd even prefer Sokratis ahead of the jokers he's putting out there

Then there's things like sidelining Torreira and thinking Willock can come on and save a game when he never does

And anyway knowing us we'll fail to shift all the crap this summer, plus be conned into buying a couple of players we don't need by Rail's dodgy agent friends, i don't think a transfer window will change anything

And yet in 2020 so far only City, Liverpool and Utd have got more points

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/prem...wettbewerb/GB1

Football fans have been criticising football manager's decisions since the dawn of football fans. Especially after bad results.
And I'm not saying your criticisms are invalid but the end result has been pretty decent results which given the car crash Arteta took over gives me some encouragement. This season is a write off, let's just see what he can do next season before writing him off.

[KSE Comedy Club]

An chance we will see an actual clear out this time?

We've all see the headlines in the past 'Arsenal could sell as many as 8 players in big summer cull!!' etc, but this time it is actually required!

No excuse for not starting Holding over Luiz - Arteta to blame.

Also should have started Willock over Xhaka too. I saw him make 10-20 runs into the middle, turn 180 and pass backwards yesterday - total dog shit - Arteta to blame.

Pepe.

I know people are frustrated with him, but lets be honest, he just isn't being given enough game time to settle in. The last time he had a consistent run of playing time was under Emery and since then he has hardly played.
He didn't have enough game time to settle in when he first came here - and that time has dwindled ever since.

Again - Arteta to blame.

Don't get me wrong, I am more than willing to give Arteta time and few transfer windows to get the squad he wants together - but we have endured enough stupid mistakes over the last 10 years and I am not willing to give him a fee pass to come in and make all the same ones again.

It's fucking mind numbing!!

[Marc Overmars]

And yet in 2020 so far only City, Liverpool and Utd have got more points

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/prem...wettbewerb/GB1

Football fans have been criticising football manager's decisions since the dawn of football fans. Especially after bad results.
And I'm not saying your criticisms are invalid but the end result has been pretty decent results which given the car crash Arteta took over gives me some encouragement. This season is a write off, let's just see what he can do next season before writing him off.

That table does not account for the draw and defeat in his first 2 games, which were in the final 10 days of 2019, are we still 4th in that table with that factored in? Considering there is only a point between 4th and 8th I’m guessing maybe not. Results have not been that decent, it has been a complete mixed bag really. Which is a reflection of our league position, I think we were 7th when Emery left. So what’s changed there?

Forget about the teams who we used to consider our competitors, they will all be in the CL (except Spurs ) and start comparing to the teams who are directly above us and the ones below us who are in striking distance. It is sobering.

I’m all for giving Arteta a shot, the main thing he has done is to improve us structurally, so we are not being peppered by every team we face. However the stupid mistakes are still there and yes he can’t account for rubbish like Kolasinac doing stupid shit but he doesn’t have to revert to picking these players who have a history of letting the team down. All in the name of “experience”.

[Mac76]

Utter failure on Arteta's part if he can't get Ozil on the pitch. Whatever else he is, Ozil is by far our most creative player and we desperately need creativity in a team otherwise devoid of it. Worst of all worlds right now. Can't get him in the team and, for some reason I can't guess at, he doesn't want to leave his 350K a week job. So we pay him a fortune to do nothing. The Arsenal Way.

Arteta's doing exactly what Emery did and playing a pathetic 'show them who's boss' game with Ozil who as you say is our most creative player

Arteta's only concerned with being the boss and those who suck up to him get to play and those who don't are frozen out

it's the typical approach of a loser who doesn't have the confidence to allow players to have a personality of their own or to question his ideas

ok so fergucu*t did it with impressionable kids but our players are too old to be pushed around like that - Ozil just laughs in his face and takes the cash

[Niall_Quinn]

Dont know why anyone is still pining for Ozil. Has he ever won us a game in living memory,? He will rise his way through each and every game. He does nothing whether he is on the pitchor not.. Our entire mid and defence needs ejecting. Otherwise we will be having the same discussion next year after every game. Replace Xhaka and Ceballos with Partey and Buendia or Rakitic or Grealish. Get rid of the dummy centre backs and Kolashite. How is that not obvious. Auba can do one too. He is not a make or break player. We can do better. I'd swap him with Antonio of West ham in a heartbeat.

The stories about Arsenal having no cash for the summer are already doing the rounds. Even if there's a few quid, we'd probably buy Pepe's brother anyway. Based on the almost certainty of us not replacing the whole midfield and the entire defence, you have to look at what we've got and try to make something out of it.

Watching us attempt to create a worthwhile chance is pure pain. Sideways, sideways, forwards, back, repeat x 20, lose the ball. All at 1 mph. Over and over. I end up feeling sorry for the opposition as they must be bored to death. Maybe that's the plan?

For all the plaudits, Ceballos doesn't create much. He's tidy, and I think that stands out in a team of panic-merchants who are desperate to get rid of the ball. Our creative guy is Ozil. He's not at the top of his game any more, he can go missing entirely, but that's par for all our players except the kids who show a bit of potential. Auba is feeding on thin air. There aren't even a few scraps for him. He has to make his own chances and finish his own chances. And because that's particularly difficult, he's not going to be able to do it week in, week out. He needs players around him he can work with to break defences down or penetrate with a bit of pace. That's why Ozil, he's all we've got.

Same with the kids, they have to play. Willock, Saka, Eddie, Nelson, AMN, they all have more energy an adventure than the tired bunch of experienced fuck-ups trudging around the place. The kids will make mistakes and it will cost us. But that's standard anyway. There's no real risk and there's the possibility of knitting them into a team if the remainder of this non-event of a season is turned over to them. I'd stick them out for the cup semi too, they'll likely get beaten by the gypos (which is a sure thing if we put the usual side out) but if they could pull off a win it would be a great team building moment.

You still need a few old heads in there though to bring it all together. Ozil, Auba, even Xhaka/ Torreira because you need a water carrier in any team.

None of this will happen though. It'll be the same shite right through to the end of the season, then a disappointing transfer window, then start again with more of the same. There's a lack of balls at the senior level, both on and off the pitch. The sort of balls that appointed Wenger back when nobody knew his name. It might seem like appointing a rookies coach was a ballsy move, but if he's not supported with funds and the ability to take a large broom to the deadwood he just end up being a cheap placeholder.

[selassie]

So do Spurs. We were on a much better run of form coming into the game, we'd got a good away result at Wolves.
I thought we might get something today.

Arteta does have a task on his hands but we knew that. Especially if Auba goes and who could blame him?
Overall, I wouldn't panic too much about today's result. This season is a write off. A St Tott's day would have been amusing but it would have been the difference between 7th and 8th. Honestly, so what? In the summer and next season is where the hard work starts. There's been some encouraging signs from Arteta's time - we can point to individual good or bad results but overall our results have been pretty decent. There's work to do, clearly, but Arteta deserves a transfer window and season to do it.

Letters you were saying exactly the same kind of stuff when Wenger was in charge and we were dropping out of top 4.

At what point is enough enough? We are half way down the table as it is with a squad full of washed up players who have little to no resell value. Things could be worse...but they could be a lot better too!

This season is indeed a write off...next season will be too unless we improve the team / squad.

I think Arteta has done ok, 7/10 type stuff, probably higher considering he has never managed a team before. But....he does need time and does need to be backed properly. I am not sure either is going to happen though.

This rebuild is a proper project, we can't be hiring and firing and throwing mud at the wall and hoping it sticks...this rebuild is going to require time, money and patience!

[Özim]

This season has been a car crash, with Emery and with Arteta (who hasn't been much better if at all better.

Awful football (probably gotten worse since Arteta has arrived as he's reverted to the 2016 team spirit and pass pass nonsense) which is probably even more of a bore than when Wenger had us playing because it now involves no atttack, defending is still as calamitous (and we still have a manager who seems to be happy to put his faith in liability and worse still encourage the club to sign them up on new contracts (first Luiz and now Mustafi it seems), midfield non existent and now the attack is toothless, I must say Arteta is doing a splendid job, not only can we still not defend, but now we can't attack either.

Results have been awful as well by in large, yes we've got to odd decent result, but that's scattered amongst many abysmal ones. If you needed any evidence that employing a rookie was a mistake I think you're seeing it, since the day he arrived we've not moved up in the league at all (in fact we may have fallen lower) and we got knocked out of the EL by an average team to boot.

Do we trust the board to do anything in the summer, of course not, with the Coronavirus thing they have the perfect excuse not to invest, on top of that if we're relying on recommendations from Arteta we're in trouble as the guy seems to rate Xhaka, Luiz and Mustafi 3 of the biggest liabilites at the club, he was also all too happy not to pick Martinelli, one of the few bright spots, he was probably saving him of course, saving him until he got injured.

All in all it's be a great season, we don't know how lucky we are tbh.

[Globalgunner]

We need to.stop.daydreaming. No elite players are co.ing to Arsenal. If we are sacking tea ladies to save 10k. How are we going g to pay even the outrageous wages most of these slackers are on right now. We either catch some still elite players like Rakitic on his way down and still affordable on maybe 100kpw or we unearth some more gems like Martinelli. We have had 3 seasons of Auba now and he has won us nothing. Not even could he put away a pen that could have made CL qualification and he regularly balloons gilt edged chances. Are we going g to give him 3 years on 300k for that when income without crowds will likely be down 30 or 40 %.

I am pissed with all these high paid wasters. Nobody is going to offer Auba 300kpw. Yet we always bargain as if a bullet is loaded in chamber at every meeting. At least let's get our money's worth. Right now that isn't happening. Of course it will make no difference up front if we persist with our calamity midfield and horror defence.but yesterday's defeat was as.much attack.led as defence caused.