Offical match day thread

Yeah I think the hierachy became awaire we had a bunch of players below the required standard. However the squad has improved - we've shipped out a good chunk of the dead wood .. but results are not any better.

Really not looking great - a loss to Wolves, then Villa. What has to happen for Arteta to get sacked?

 

Yeah exactly, in front of goal everyone was just looking to pass it in. If we would have shown the same commitment/ attitude attacking that Villa showed defending we could have comfortably won this game.

 

Not about the players anymore, unless someone tells me the likes of West Ham and Villa suddenly have better players than us. We have a decent squad capable of finishing top 6!

 

Guys let’s be honest - it was never about the players.

the players in our squad were never bad enough to be 10th+.

even with ozil mustafi kola sokratis.

You cannot tell me west ham villa Leeds or Southampton have a better squad than us.

 

Next season maybe not this...

Still rebuilding

Suffering from not having forward players in form, other teams have players on form hi confidence.

That's the difference

 

Not just about non-scoring strike force.. It is about a general malaise within the team. The purple patch appears a distant memory. We concede stupid goals, no leaders in the team, today we conceded within 5minutes and Villa were very comfortable for 85mins and were the more likely to score. I dont remember us giving Unai this long. Surely if Arteta finishes out of top6 (that is me being generous), then he has to go! His position has to become untenable. Villa and Wolves have done the double over us now..

 

I personally feel we are just wasting time with Arteta.

I understand the idea of giving time to a manager for consistency, and we can give him another 2 years or whatever, but I seriously doubt he’s going to take us forward. I think we will be in the same situation a year from now and inevitably sack him.

 

@Tel

please log in to view this image

 

Arteta can count himself lucky that there's no crowds at the moment.

You have to remember both Unai and Wenger faced alot of extra pressure from the support.

The one thing about Arteta that's really saving him is that he seems to get it right in the big games. Tactically and in terms of effort the team seems to play with a better attitude against Chelsea, United, City etc.

 

The team still lacks structure and fluidity when attacking, and even if Cedric didn’t make that stupid error in the opening 76 seconds (Holding should have done better as well), the likelihood is we would have drawn this game when we needed to win.

We still can’t seem to find that balance.

It’s yet another game where we were profligate in the final third and didn’t move the ball fast enough to take advantage of Villa’s porous midfield/left hand side.

In fairness, Villa’s last ditch defending was very good, but despite dominating the ball and some decent chances, Villa’s were more clear cut. Emi Martinez made one excellent save from Xhaka’s free kick but how many other top saves did he have to make?

Watkins - the self-proclaimed boyhood Arsenal fan - caused his boyhood club more misery yet again.

I still think, unless we head toward the relegation zone again, Arteta’s job is safe. A lot of reports are saying that the club have been planning for this Summer as “the big one”, so if we have a busy transfer window regarding incoming players, Arteta has no excuses to hide behind anymore. He needs to deliver next season.

We may as well go all out for the Europa now.

 

We can all turn up our nose at Chelsea's methods, and their hire and fire policy. You cannot fail but notice the success it has heralded. Arteta would have been gone by last season, if he were at Chelsea, let alone another 2 more season of this dross and frustration!

 

The game against Leeds has suddenly become a must win for us. After a couple of bad results, we're back down in 11th with Villa just behind with games in hand.

The upside is that if we can rediscover some form, we're not that far behind the chasing pack for the top 4 either.

 

Think we need to be realistic here and accept top 4 is out of reach. We've lost 10 games from 23 and we're likely to lose more, judging by our fixture list. We'd need to go on title-winning form to get top 4, whilst relying on the teams above to slip up, and our squad doesn't have enough quality in depth to take advantage of slip-ups. Especially as we don't know how long Partey and Tierney are out for, arguably our 2 most irreplaceable players.

Top 6 is a very realistic possibility, though. But again, depends on if we can have an upturn in form. The losses to Wolves and Villa were huge blows.

I'd hope we can focus more on the Europa League. If we can navigate past Benfica (which will be tricky), then we have a reasonable chance of going far in the competition.

 

Yeah I agree top 4 is beyond us now. Just meant it in terms of not being that far behind that chasing pack, whilst also being precariously positioned for a battle for 11th and 12th at the same time. I think we should be aiming for a Europa spot again, but I agree I'd like to see us really put our energy into the Europa league games as we have got a decent chance in that comp, as long as we can find some form again.

 

I dont really know what to expect.

It looks like we are making improvements and then things fall apart again.
I really think the Club need to invest in a striking/forward coach this Summer. Possibly a mental coach too - either that or Artetas gotta go.

 

It might not be such a bad thing if we finish out of the European spot. Last week, we only got into the Europa League because we won the FA cup. I cannot see us finishing any higher than we did last season. Therefore, the only option will be winning the Europa League.. However, we can lambast the players, with very good manager, with that squad we should be a lot higher the table than we currently are. Arteta is a rookie and it really shows!

 

I agree with this - 8th sounds about right. However, this league is so unpredictable that we can easily finish as low as 11th. I think we will probably miss out on Europe, which isn’t that big of a deal, but hopefully it doesn’t plunge us further into financial woes.

 

I thought the holy grail as far as financial inflows was Champions League football? I might be wrong though, what do we really get from participating in the Europa League?

 

Winning it gets us in the CL. Just as likely to win it as finish top 4 at the moment. Doubles our options of how to get CL.

 

Win tomorrow and beat Liverpool at home and we go three points behind them. Mental.