It's nothing to do with respect. I respect him greatly and he seems a great guy. However, he is nowhere near good enough for Arsenal and should be nowhere near our first time regardless of fitness. Or do we simply allow anyone who we respect, regardless of ability, to play for our first team? Shall we re-sign Robert Pires and play him because we respect him?
If Bobby is fit I'd pick him - he never made a tackle so don't expect him to start now Bobby is probably as slow as Arteta is now
You're twisting my words. I don't think he's our first or even second choice any more but I still think once he's fully recovered from injuries he'll do a decent job, It's all part and parcel of being a squad player. You'll never have 25 amazing players in a team. In an ideal world we'd have a captain who'd also be your first name on the team sheet but we don't and that's another issue entirely (our lack of obvious captain material). I still think Arteta could do a very decent job for a number of good EPL teams however I'm of the opinion that his style doesn't suit the two main systems we now try and employ. My main gripe is the way some lambast him. Seems we always have to have a player fot the boo boys to pick on. Maybe I'm naive but I don't remember seeing other teams be so negative about their players in the same manner that we do.
This. All i said was that it is better to have arteta fit. Nobody is asking for him to be the 1st name on the team sheet, or even the 3rd choice in his position, but in case of (more) injuries isnt it better to have arteta than a player (like oxo) whod need to play out of position, or just assume chambers can play there without ever playing dm before, and potentially without having any cover (say if, not unreasonably, coq, wilshere, ramsey and flamini were all injured at the same time).
Disagree. He's so poor that I'd rather try many other players there before he has to play. The other week we might as well have played with 10 men.
I think it's a bit arrogant of you to say that everyone else who thinks that Arteta is past it is speaking "b*llocks" just because they may not share the same sentiments as you. Saying that Arteta is past it, or even saying that you don't think he should play at this level again, is not an unreasonable position to hold. Needless to say, I disagree with everything you've said. I'm not going to dismiss it as "b"*llocks", though.
Only 2 Seasons ago. Arteta had some of the best passing statistic in Europe. He hasn't suddenly turned into a terrible player. He needs games. I still think he could have a couple of Seasons in him. Perhaps not at Arsenal but at a Southampton/Spurs/Everton. He is a good player but we probably need an upgrade (on him and Flamini) to compete with the very best sides. Still he has been a solid player for us over the years.
The problem is expectations are high at Arsenal, so if anyone looks sub par they will really stick out. I agree that we shouldn't stick Arteta on the scrap heap just yet and he needs a run of games, but we simply can't indulge in giving him freebee games to get fit when we are challenging for the league. Also sometimes, players get old overnight and playing DM requires a lot of energy and output, the real question is, does he still have it physically? We can only know if he gets a run of games, but the league isn't the best place for it, more in the reserves/cup games.
No not suddenly. It's taken a year or two to go from moderately good to poor. We already know you rate thousands of players as world class so the fact you rate Arteta as still being capable of a couple of seasons is just more evidence of your low standards. What evidence is there that he is currently a 'good player'? What does him being solid for us for a couple of seasons a while ago got to do with his current worth?
Evidence.. when I give you stats you complain "they don't tell the whole story". He hasn't had a sustained injury free run of games in a while - so there's no real evidence to suggest he isn't good enough either. At some point you have complained about the quality of at least HALF of our squad and the manager. Yet here we are near the top of the league and into the last 16 of the Champions League. It's easy to be negative about everything but the evidence points towards a better team than you are generally suggesting.
Name the half. I count Giroud, Flamini, Arteta, Ramsay (when played RW) and primarily Wenger as the culprits of our perennial underachievement who I slate. Probably Welbeck too but can't even remember him. But I'll await your list of half the squad anyway. It's not easy to be negative. This board is infested with a majority of myopic, positive spin merchants so it would actually be far easier on here to be relentlessly positive. So the fact we're near the top of the league in December and have qualified for the CL knockouts makes us good enough??
Hey man, I have no qualms if you disagree with me and apparently you find me as arrogant as I find you so we're all square.
If you have such a problem with the people who post on this forum why don't you try and find another forum to post on.There are plenty to choose from
