Quote Originally Posted by IBK View Post
C'mon guys. That's too subdued for me. I have as many doubts about Arteta as most on here, but let's enjoy a lovely win.

For once, the manager realised that Laca is effective up front with mobile runners in support. I was in 2 minds about whether Martinelli should have started on the left but Pepe in front of Xhaka worked well, and I don't think Xhaka gets the credit for being really solid out of position there. I was worried about Ceballos in MF but the manager as right to keep the set up that won against Sheffield. Giving Partey that responsibility for anchoring MF really suits him. Also - look at the benefit of keeping a well working CB pairing - even if Luis and Gabriel may be better individual 'footballers'.

So he resisted changing too much, and we looked really well balanced and mobile - albeit that Sparta were poor, both in approach and execution.

I'm not going overboard, and I will not believe that Arteta has turned a corner until we have played well against proper opposition and shown some consistency. We need to see what happens when Luis and Auba are fit...and it'll take more than this to break the manager's Willian fetish.

But let's at least acknowledge the success that the manager has made of a mix and match team with 4 previous nailed on starters out. Can't remember us being this devastating going forwards and secure at the back for a while and it felt great.
It’s so hard to know what to make of Arteta sometimes? You can see that there’s a really bold, innovative coach in there, who can find interesting solutions to problems and get a team to play fast, sexy football, but he only ever seems to emerge when his back’s against the wall? How do we get that Arteta all the time?

Tbh, I’m not expecting much in the way of consistency between now and the end of the season - I just don’t think we have the quality in depth yet to be able to casually absorb and manage things like the fatigue, loss of form and absence of key players, so we’re probably only capable of 3-, maybe 4-game runs before something blows up. I’m just looking out for moments that hint at what we’re trying to do and what we could be with a bit of clever recruitment.

Cracking performance though - it’s really easy to like a lot of this team and a lot of what we’re doing when they play like that.