Agree with everything you say, and Abua was always going to have a bad patch at somepoint... Pepe I really hope he does come good, but he has to up his work rate. But that isnt half a team you have named, other than the youngsters coming through the rest are not fit to be starters for a club like Arsenal. God we need a Grelish or Saha etc etc Anyway here`s hoping for a great display today
Emery wasn’t up to it at Arsenal for some reason, perhaps the language difficulty, and he didn’t strengthen where we needed to. His type of football was crushingly boring and his tactics and substitutions were baffling. Arteta can get the team to play attractive football and needs to get rid of a load of deadwood, which is long overdue. He needs to solve the attacking midfielder issue in January, and play the youngsters more as they showed their passion yesterday. ESR, Saka, Martenelli, Willock, AMN, and Nelson should be starting or subs. I think Eddie Nketiah needs a loan to develop, and we need to get Balogun to sign a contract. I would sell or release: Bellerin, Xhaka, Chambers, Sokratis, Ozil, Mustafi. Kolasinac, and Soares. Keep Lacasette and Luiz as squad players. I would also offload Willian as he has been a major mistake.
Costa just terminated his deal with Athletico and is being heavily linked with us. 30+ injury prone and disruptive in the dressing room. If this deal goes ahead I am firmly Edu out. No long term planning just giving his Brazilian mates big contracts they don't deserve
was just going to say - what an absurdly ridiculous signing that would be. Another former Chelsea Brazilian over 30? Surely not.
Now it's great we are winning again and to be fair on Arteta the Wes Brom game could well be our best performance this Season. Was certainly the best football we have played. However there are still big concerns for me when it comes to player selection. Ozil cant even get into the squad - yet Elneny & Willian can? Now I know he's not the player he used to be but c'mon, may as well use him if you are going to pay his wages. Willian. Does he really bring us ANYTHING that Ozil does not? He's no quicker, passing is infinitely worse. He is older, does'nt get more goals or assist or create more chances. Saliba. We beat many of Europe's top Clubs to his signature. 6'4 powerful and technically very good. We're not selecting him because he did'nt get enough games last Season?(Artetas claim) How does that make any sense? Just play him in the Cup/Europa rather than letting him waiste his potential. Again Mustafi and Luiz can get games but Saliba cant?! Offer up any of the big six a chance to sign Saliba, Luiz or Mustafi and I know who they would all pick! Guendouzi. Now I feel this one is mainly because of attitude but I know I would rather have Guendouzi in my side than Elneny, Maitland Niles & Willock. One of the few players in our squad that can carry the ball forward at pace. He's a great all rounder at at just 21 - still has TOP class potential and is proving just that in the Bundesliga. Cedrick. Why did we offer this guy a new contract & wage increase if he's not going to start any games? Nketiah. Before Martinelli picked up his injury last Season Nketiah was starting games ahead of the Brazilian. Which was weird - because he clearly doesnt have the same level of ability. He's also often picked ahead of Laca & Auba down the middle but you have to wonder if that's really a good decision. Smith Rowe, Pablo Mari & Martinelli have come into the side and had a great impact which Arteta should be applauded for should'nt he.... er...well no. It was only the positive Covid test for Gabriel that caused the dropping of Willian, Luiz and Gabriel from the squad. In otherwords the biggest team selection shakeup this Season happened by accident. Im not really 'Arteta out' BTW - it's just there are still some big concerns when you really look at it.
Looking back on Emerys time at Arsenal. It's now clear he wanted two players Nzonzi and Zaha. But the Club chose to sign Torreira and Pepe instead. Do you think he still would have been fired had we signed those two players? I would argue they nboth would have been better signings and certainly would have had less trouble adapting to the move.
Nzonzi and Zaha would have chosen to have not played for him too like the rest of the squad and we'd still be in the same position. Come on, he was **** for ages and never made any improvements unlike the last four games under Arteta. Heck, it might all turn to **** again very soon and Arteta gets sacked on Feb, but that doesn't stop the fact that Emery was ****e.
Sure but I think Zaha would have hot the ground running and Nzonzi is well more equipt for the EPL than Torreira he's also a little more well rounded. He would have done better IMO - maybe even avoided getting the sack. I dont think he's a bad manager - he was good at Seville and PSG and has started well at Villareal.
I think you need to look at this beyond individual players. Emery's not a bad manager, as his track record shows, but he wasn't the right fit for the rebuild we needed. Players couldn't understand what he wanted, he had no discipline/control over the dressing room, his relentless tactical and personnel shifts confused some of them and eventually, the players lost faith in him. Arsenal's official YouTube account released the final episode of Bellerin's road to recovery from his ACL injury and it was interesting that he said when Arteta came in, he taught the players how to 'suffer' in a way which they had never experienced before. To me, that suggests training wasn't particularly hard or gruelling when Emery was in charge, and that translated onto the pitch. So I think even with the aforementioned players, perhaps it would have bought him a bit more time, but the end result would have been the same.
He finished 2nd to Monaco one season and lost 6-1 to barca in champions league. He didn't do well considering he was at psg
Hopefully the Spurs game was a turning point for Arteta. We looked like a very good side for at least 60 mins on Sunday. My main concern is that he needs to have more faith in the youngsters. It's our only real shot of competing against the likes of City/ Chelsea. On the face of it it looks like he's doing just that but in truth Smith Rowe only became a starter on the back of Covid keeping Willian etc out of the side. Saliba as never given a chance, while Mustafi had plenty of oppurtunities (even after mistakes). Mustafi has made two huge mistakes hin his last two games for Schalke - he's been truely terrible! While Saliba is looking superb in the French League at Nice. Similarly Mavroponos is playing very well in Germany. Martinelli cant get anywhere near the side, against Spurs he wasnt even in the squad. Given a run last Season he scored 10 goals - he needs game time!. I dont want to see another Gnabry situation here. He's too good to let go! Guendouzi i can undertand he's obvioulsy a difficult guy to manage. A loan deal was probably the right thing in this situation. It does worry me though that Willian, Mustafi, Luiz can have multiple bad performances and still get back in the side while thats not been the same for the younger players.
the issue is that we can’t play all the kids all at the same time, so he needs to ration game time so they don’t burn out** for me Martenelli needs to be in the squad as a third striker option. If Laca goes this summer as expected then Martenelli becomes the second choice striker with Balogun as third choice. ** ESR & Saka are now starters, and if we have Martenelli starting/squad that’s 3 attacking players under 21, with possible addition of Odegaard who is 23. Tierney and Gabriel are also only 23 - so potentially half of the team to start is under 25 which bodes well for the future.
Well to be fair I think that's why he bought in Willian and more recently Odengaard. Both Smith Rowe and Odengaard are number 10's but either can also play on the wing. Willian was terrible for the first 6-7 months but he's starting to put in decent performances. Still I see him as back-up. I will say that If we cant sign Odengaard permantly I would love to see us go for Grealish. Obvioulsy money is the issue here but I think we will probably sell 3-4 players this Summer. Saliba is playing 90 mins every game for Nice and looks absolutely class. Arteta needs to give him a chance he's a top talent. I agree on Martinelli and ultimately I see him playing as a CF. (Arteta has said this too) ----------------------------Leno--------------------------- NEWRB-----Saliba-----------Gabriel---------Tierney -----------------Partey----------Xhaka------------------ ------------------------SmithRowe----------------------- -----Saka----------Auba/Martinelli-------Grealish--
Odergaard is a top talent. We should be making it our no 1 priority this summer to try and either sign him permanently or at least for another loan. And agree about Martinelli, his long term position is going to be CF. Arteta talked recently about him needing to be patient, but he’ll get his chance. Think he’ll be the long term replacement for auba eventually. The lad has got a killer instinct for goal.
The Mirror (for what its worth) is claiming Odengaard wants to stay at Arsenal and the two Clubs have in principle agreed to make a deal in the Summer.
