Think we all know this is our best chance to win there, just supported Saints too long that's all! I knew about Burnley but that's interesting to know Leicester and Wolves broke long runs too. Bit like United under Van Gaal. Do you think Arteta could survive a fifth straight home defeat?
In all honesty, he shouldn't. However, I think he might, especially after what Edu Gaspar (technical director) has come out and said last night. I know our squad isn't great, but Arsenal shouldn't be 15th in the league, 5 points above relegation, in mid-December. This isn't acceptable. But the board have invested so much time and effort into Arteta (upgrading his job role etc), that they will persist unless we're literally in the bottom 3. In his defence, Arteta's been dealt a really ****ty hand, with all the problems that he inherited, and all the problems that stockpiled during his time here (exacerbated by the pandemic). He wants a lot of these players gone, and was hoping they would be gone by Summer, but covid obviously had a drastic financial impact on many clubs, meaning we couldn't offload them. He knows many of them aren't good enough, but he's got to stick with them because no-one will offer the lucrative wages we are. This is also where he's messed up, though. He's mishandled a lot of situations, especially with players who are adored/respected. Sokratis and Ozil are popular figures in the dressing room, but they've been dropped from the squad entirely. Guendouzi was sent to Germany, when he had a tight-knit relationship with the French guys. Luiz and Arteta reportedly aren't on speaking terms. Saliba, a defender we paid £27m for, isn't getting a look in for reasons still unknown. The player has said he's ready to play, yet Arteta claimed he wasn't. He talks about players earning their place in the team on merit. Yet he starts Bellerin, Xhaka, Willian, Lacazette and Holding almost every game, despite how badly they perform. Meanwhile, players such as Maitland-Niles, Smith-Rowe, Nelson, Pepe, Willock etc aren't getting a look-in, when they've performed well in cup competitions and don't even get a place on the bench for league matches. We've had a lot of change behind the scenes, too, in a time when we needed stability. So overall, it's a complete ****show Rant over!
We'll start well and take an earlyish lead, at which time the commentator will refer to the number of points lost from a winning position, accompanied by the usual caption. My son and I usually guess how soon after we take the lead this will happen, although I don’t think it did on Sunday. Maybe because of Sheffield’s lowly status, but even given Arsenal’s current form, I think we will have to endure this if/when we do take the lead.
He seems hugely out of depth to me and can't see him turning it around. Your chance creation is appalling considering the players you've got. I said at the time I thought it was a weird appointment; the wrong time from both points of view. Arteta should have had an 'easier' job to start of with, not somewhere in transition and in need of a big rebuild. And at the same time Arsenal really needed an experienced manager to guide them through this and not a rookie. Ancelotti would have been perfect for you if you'd got there before Everton imo.
Ha, I swear Sky have got an entire folder of stat graphics just for when Southampton take the lead. Might be different on Amazon but I doubt it!
At the end of last season after lockdown Arsenal looked to be turning the corner, what changed or was it a misconception by myself?
Nice try fella, but we’re not buying the reverse jinx tactics here.. we’re the kings of that. McCarthy to do the triple Cruyff/Boruc turn salvo on Aubameyang, then **** up the 4th to concede the late winner.
This could be your equivalent of the Hasenhuttl/Saints situation, following the game that mustn’t be mentioned. A big difference, though, is that I don’t think there were any reports of unrest (which seems to be the case at Arsenal based on your post) with Saints players. The Saints are proof positive of how a group of players can exceed expectations when they understand and believe in what the manager wants from them. Winning games change the mentality of clubs, and given the talent in your squad, it must surely just be a matter of time before you start clicking in the league, (hopefully not this week ) but having a disgruntled group of players won’t help.
I'm sure you feel better for that BG, have you got any thoughts on the road to recovery? Along with Arteta (15th) there's Lampard at Chelsea (5th) and Solskjaer at Man. Utd (8th), three relatively inexperienced managers coaching "big" clubs with bigger expectations and some supersized egos to cope with. I see that as a huge gamble with a considerable amount of on the job learning to do for all three.
I think a lot of your issues are behind the scenes. Maybe you’ve got a spy in the camp... I don’t know, maybe in the social media department....
I'm reading a mixture of negative and positive posts for this game. We find ourselves, according to many, favourites for this one which way will it go? I'll take the opto-positive approach and say a Saints win. What I am sure about is it's a game of two halves and the team that scores the most goals wins.
What St Badger is saying is if you really want to become great, get stuffed at home about 9-0 by some new upstart challenging in the upper reaches of the table
There were loads of other managers who we could have tried to get with experience of dealing with adversity. Ralph Ragnick, Marco Rose, Max Allegri, Brendan Rodgers, Julian Naglesmann....maybe even try and get Poch (unlikely but you never know). You do get the feeling Arteta was the 'cheap' option.
I think it's a mix of teams being able to suss out our tactics, Arteta's poor man management and the turbulence behind the scenes. The scale of instability and revolving-doors is enough to affect the greatest players you could dream of, let alone a squad as imbalanced as ours.
I sincerely hope you're right, and appreciate the kind words. But the longer Arteta continues to select the likes of Xhaka, Lacazette, Willian, Holding etc, he is creating a rod for his own back. The writing will be on the wall... As I said - he inherited an absolute mess that has been exacerbated because of the pandemic. But he also hasn't helped himself.
