Match reaction v Everton

[Marc Overmars]

They should be utterly ashamed at how the league campaign has passed them by this season. 13 defeats and unlikely to finish higher than 9th. Complete failure.

This club, coach and players are a mess. Just need Emery to dump us out and then we can stop pretending like there’s any potential for good here.

Sadly starting to resent the fact I support this club, when I used to be proud to say I’m an Arsenal fan.

[Chippy]

They should be utterly ashamed at how the league campaign has passed them by this season. 13 defeats and unlikely to finish higher than 9th. Complete failure.

This club, coach and players are a mess. Just need Emery to dump us out and then we can stop pretending like there’s any potential for good here.
Leno out.
Arteta out.
Kroenke out.
Harry and Meghan out.

[IBK]

My word. Doesn't the lack of posts on this thread speak volumes to the state of our team and our club ATM!

When anger turns to apathy, surely there's a real problem? I know the ESL fiasco hasn't helped, but I genuinely wonder where we go from here.

IMO the despondency that our last few league results has produced is the realisation that pre Xmas was not an aberration that the manager had figured a way out of, but - seen as part of the season as a whole - indicative of where this team is. A top 10, not a top 4 or even top 6 team that has occasional good games. As you would expect. A team that is less, not more than the sum of its parts that will ultimately find its level when its top performers stop producing, because even its top performers cannot do it consistently.

The really depressing thing about the Everton game was that unlike Fulham the Sunday before, this was arguably our strongest available line up, against a team out of form with little to play for also. Like the Fulham game there was a real absence of any kind of urgency; focus or purpose about us. Once again momentum - even with an eye on the Europa League semi - sucked out. Once again, a self-implosion that can no longer be regarded as bad luck or a freak occurence - this is what an Arsenal Arteta team is.

16 months in and with a first team, and even squad, that is better in terms of individual talent than any other team outside the top 6 - and the manager cannot find consistency, or even a clear way of playing. It's just not good enough, and for me there is somethign in the phrase that you make your own luck - and we are certainly the experts in fashioning our bad luck.

Maybe we will lift ourselves for the Villereal double header and get through but I don't fancy this team winning the Europa League and even if we do it won't represent progress. We will most likely go out over the next 3 Europa games as the result of some fuck up or flat performance and be left with no pathway to arresting our general malaise.

I'm not surprised that we are all numbed and indifferent...

[Marc Overmars]

Arteta talks a good game but the reality is the job is too big for him. If fans were in the ground witnessing this he would have been sacked, he’s very lucky he hasn’t had to deal with any roasting and so are the players, most of whom are not fit to wear the shirt.

Even if by some miracle we win the EL I don’t think it’s going to make a blind bit of difference to the trajectory of Arteta and his “process”.

[Letters]

Apathy is the word.
Arsenal being terrible is a factor but it just adds to the general disconnect because of how football has gone.

I like Arteta but as MO says the job feels too big for him.

The players don’t care about the club, you know they’d be off the minute someone waves the next big cheque at them. The owner...well, less said about him the better.
The club has just become a business and we become their customers - that loses the connection between club and fan.

Everything about the modern game feels almost designed to alienate the “legacy fan”.
It’s really hard to care about it all.

[I am invisible]

Again, this is the point that the ESL lot missed so spectacularly - when there’s nothing at stake, no one gives a fuck.

[Ollie the Optimist]

You can’t quite plan for a keeper throwing the ball in his own net & VAR saying Pepe’s hair on his elbow was 3mm offside.

You can however plan how to attack your opponents and create chances. There was no plan, no one willing to try something to create a chance. No recognisable formation etc when going forward. That is either poor learning from the players who can’t take what they learn on the training pitch to the game or just poor management as the management don’t train the players properly.


It was a dull game, not surprised by the result but I think the most worrying thing these days is i wasnt even bothered by VAR going against us, i just didn’t care.

But on the point of VAR, when has clear & obvious ever been used? I think the governing body (IFAB) said that offsides shouldnt be looked at 15 times as that clearly is not “clear & obvious” and just go with whatever the decision made at the time. When you are checking if someone’s elbow is slightly offside, its a joke. If Pepe had used his elbow to score, VAR would rule it out as handball so how can they use the elbow as offside?

[Gooner23]

You can’t quite plan for a keeper throwing the ball in his own net & VAR saying Pepe’s hair on his elbow was 3mm offside.

You can however plan how to attack your opponents and create chances. There was no plan, no one willing to try something to create a chance. No recognisable formation etc when going forward. That is either poor learning from the players who can’t take what they learn on the training pitch to the game or just poor management as the management don’t train the players properly.


It was a dull game, not surprised by the result but I think the most worrying thing these days is i wasnt even bothered by VAR going against us, i just didn’t care.

But on the point of VAR, when has clear & obvious ever been used? I think the governing body (IFAB) said that offsides shouldnt be looked at 15 times as that clearly is not “clear & obvious” and just go with whatever the decision made at the time. When you are checking if someone’s elbow is slightly offside, its a joke. If Pepe had used his elbow to score, VAR would rule it out as handball so how can they use the elbow as offside?

They should do away with the line drawing, and just make a quick judgement based on a couple of replays. If the player looks level by sight then give the advantage to the attacking team and award the goal. I was happy with the introduction of VAR to cut out the clear and obvious mistakes, but it isn't working.

[Ollie the Optimist]

They should do away with the line drawing, and just make a quick judgement based on a couple of replays. If the player looks level by sight then give the advantage to the attacking team and award the goal. I was happy with the introduction of VAR to cut out the clear and obvious mistakes, but it isn't working.

I agree with this.

You can tell pretty quickly if someone is offside or not. I remember the Aubayang goal at old Trafford last year when he was flagged offside but checking the replay, he has 3.3m onside. That is clear & obvious

[Letters]

They should do away with the line drawing, and just make a quick judgement based on a couple of replays. If the player looks level by sight then give the advantage to the attacking team and award the goal. I was happy with the introduction of VAR to cut out the clear and obvious mistakes, but it isn't working.

Right.
No Fulham fan is going to be complaining about the "goal" we scored against them because Saka's toenails were too long.
If there's a clear error then fine, sort it out. But this poring over freeze frames and zooming in to look for a pixel being offside is just pathetic.
It's not that hard to fix.

[Ollie the Optimist]

Right.
No Fulham fan is going to be complaining about the "goal" we scored against them because Saka's toenails were too long.
If there's a clear error then fine, sort it out. But this poring over freeze frames and zooming in to look for a pixel being offside is just pathetic.
It's not that hard to fix.

Sadly thats where you are wrong.

To fix it requires the football authorities, most notably here the PGMOL, to show common sense. That is never going to happen

[Letters]

:lol:

Fine. In theory it's not that hard to fix. In practice, you're right :(

[WGC Goon]

Arteta talks a good game but the reality is the job is too big for him. If fans were in the ground witnessing this he would have been sacked, he’s very lucky he hasn’t had to deal with any roasting and so are the players, most of whom are not fit to wear the shirt.

Even if by some miracle we win the EL I don’t think it’s going to make a blind bit of difference to the trajectory of Arteta and his “process”.

Totally agree, we could have gone for Allegri who was available but he would have been too much money in the eyes of the board.

#KreonkeOut

[I am invisible]

Totally agree, we could have gone for Allegri who was available but he would have been too much money in the eyes of the board.

#KreonkeOut
Candidates like Allegri were never on the table. We’re basically a career-killer at the moment - no budget, no direction from the top and a squad full of average players with contract problems. The Allegris of this world aren’t touching us in this state - far more attractive options out there for them. Our choice was and is between taking a gamble are going for guaranteed average who would never get an opportunity like this otherwise.

The massive mistake we made was hiring not 1 but 3 rookies to run the club at the same time! Arteta working under a strong, experienced DoF and proper CEO might have been OK, but he’s been given too much power and responsibility and I don’t see the other two being big enough characters to challenge him or rein him in when necessary.

If Stan or Josh had half a brain cell between them, they’d use this disastrous season as the excuse they need to replace Vinnai and Edu and demote Arteta’s ass back to head coach. Arteta survives for now purely because no one above him is currently competent enough or qualified to hire his replacement, so it has to start with the other two.

[Mac76]

if we'd tried, we'd have got Ancellotti without a shadow of a doubt

I've no doubt Raul and Co didn't want a big personality though, who'd start asking all the right questions and not agree to sign every loser that Kia tried to send in our direction

[WGC Goon]

If Stan or Josh had half a brain cell between them, they’d use this disastrous season as the excuse they need to replace Vinnai and Edu and demote Arteta’s ass back to head coach. Arteta survives for now purely because no one above him is currently competent enough or qualified to hire his replacement, so it has to start with the other two.

Neither Stan or Josh have any footballing brain cells whatsoever so a sound footballing decision by either of them is highly unlikely :(