Santos did when he was fit. Arteta has also.Originally Posted by Ach
Santos did when he was fit. Arteta has also.
Arteta has sure made a difference in the passing sideways/backwards stat
And Santos has made a difference in our food budget
Arteta has been a very important reason why we fuck up less towards the end of games. It's not all about throwing yourself 100mph into blocks and playing hollywood balls - and as a fan of Gilberto, you should be able to appreciate what Arteta brings to the team. I agree that he probably needs to take some more risks because I feel his passing range and vision is better than what he has shown for us. Certainly for Everton he was allowed to play with a bit more freedom and show that. But he has definitely made a difference. Missing quality players like Nasri, Fabregas and Wilshere will obviously make our midfield a lot weaker; but Arteta is one of the reasons we have been able to cope.
Santos' impact was typically shortened by injury but it's no coincidence that we played our best fluent football when we had fullbacks that were great in attack; Jenkinson and Santos. For all of Sagna's defensive capabilities (and tbf he has put in a goal and assist recently in key games) I think we miss out a lot in attack because he isn't as comfortable in attack.
I think 3 of those late signings; Mertesacker, Arteta and Santos were good. Maybe even Benayoun was a good move and I think he should've been given more chances. If we want to win the league, we obviously need better players around them but these 3 were worth buying regardless. At the time of the signings, I guess we weren't really worried about winning the league - that already looked impossible by that stage given how limited our squad options were. But the squad has done reasonably well to get us up to the position we're in now.
Agree with this really. Arteta and Merts are a calming influence, much better than Denilson and DJ will ever be. Santos, before his injury was really looking like a good signing, improving and offering good attacking options. The signing of Park, well, that was maybe a mistake.
I think we've wasted £10m on Arteta. I won't fault his effort and work rate, but what he'a doing could have been done by someone else in the squad. As long as he doesn't pick someone that is a lazy sod like Denilson, then we'd have been able to cope. Arteta isn't quick or that strong and his passing and awareness is pretty dodgy. He can often get caught napping. Wilshere was able to play that role because he had a good engine and was able to do it better because he'a quicker and has great awareness. Coquelin or Rosicky could have slotted into that position and then we spend the money a real playmaker. Or if we needed cover, buy a solid box to box player, but Arteta doesn't make much sense to me. Not in that position anyway. But he's doing an okay job, so I won't complain too much. The experience in the dressing room does help.
I'm not sure about the caught napping bit. At least, not much more than anyone else. Everyone makes mistakes but as far as I can see, he doesn't make many at all. And maybe he doesn't make mistakes because he doesn't take many risks but he has chipped in with a few goals and assists in the league so he's not bad on the attacking front. I think without an experienced player like him we'd have the danger of being even more inconsistent than have been.
Poor planning meant Arsenal were probably forced into that signing. He was needed and I think he has made a difference. But with Fabregas leaving, I was hoping that Arsenal would look to have a more dynamic midfield. Maybe they did plan to with Ramsey and Wilshere being box-to-box and Song sitting but obviously it hasn't worked out that way with Jack's injury.
But £10m doesn't buy you a lot these days. I think it was a good signing, personally. Obviously that, alone, wasn't going to be enough after losing 2 talented midfielders (and another one through injury).
Yeah, Wenger did say that he had Ramsey and Arteta in mind. He says it here when referring to the RVP situation.
http://www1.skysports.com/football/n...e-out-RVP-exit
But at £10, there were options. We knew about the Nasri and Fabregas situation well in advance and Wenger could have moved for Sessegnon and played him as the more advanced attacking player. That would have been a good purchase. Finding a dynamic attacking midfield player would have been difficult, but a hard working solid central midfield player must have been around at that price. It was poor planning. I just wouldn't have bought a player like Arteta to play a battling role. Maybe Wenger has plans to push him forward when JW gets back."We will not lose anybody to Manchester City, or to anybody else because we want to keep our players," stated Wenger.
"I can only let people talk. We want to keep Robin Van Persie, that is clear, we will do everything possible to extend his contract, that is clear.
"I was very adamant but at the end of the day, it (Nasri) was a difficult situation to manage," he continued. "We had the players and we felt that [Aaron] Ramsey and [Jack] Wilshere could work.
"Would we keep Robin even if he doesn't extend? Yes, of course. Our plan is just to keep Robin van Persie, even if we buy any player."
Sessegnonis he really what we need and sure there is some much much better then him.
Sessegnon
He seems a pretty pointless player. Diving little sod, too.
Yep why anybody things he'd be class for us is strange.
He seems a pretty pointless player. Diving little sod, too.
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