So the results before we kicked off were all good for The Arsenal. No, not at the top of the table, where our interest had cooled since match day 2, but below us, where Sheffield United, WBA and Brighton had all lost and Fulham had only drawn. As the game kicked off, we were seven points clear of the relegation zone, with our opponents Burnley in that 18th spot, on 6 points from 11 games. A win would take us to the dizzy heights of 14th, ten points clear of relegation. What is this defeatism, I hear those who have only known Arsenal since Mr Wenger took over? Well, settle down to real life I say, with decades of bitter experience behind me. Forget the heady days of titles, and top four. We are in a relegation scrap and on a miserable run of matches, especially at home.
To the groans of the online faithful, virtually the same team that tamely lost the NLD was chosen to take the field, with only a forced change of Elneny for Partey and both the current bête noires of Willian and Xhaka playing.
Leno, Bellerin, Holding, Gabriel, Tierney, Xhaka, Elneny, Saka, Willian, Laca, Auba
Bench: Runarrson, Ceballos, AMN, Mustafi, Willock, Eddie, ESR
The mood in the bar was dark when this line up was announced. Everybody wanted to support our Basque manager. But there was a feeling that this dismal run had to end. Your correspondent was sadly unsuccessful in the ballot so took station in front of the TV with only a glass of malt to sustain him and Countryman Junior for company.
The first ten minutes were tedious. Same old, same old, with little or no attempt to take a man on or make progressive passes. After 10 minutes, a good move down the left saw the ball fall to Laca, around the penalty spot, but he miskicked. The ensuing corner saw Willian blaze over. Up the other end, Brady found Wood totally unmarked in yards of space in our area. Fortunately he made a complete Horlicks of it when he should have scored.
Finally after 20 minutes we had a decent attempt on goal. After a passing exchange, Saka found Rob completely unmarked on the penalty spot. Sadly, his header was just over the bar. 30 seconds later, Auba had a chance to put Saka in, but a badly misdirected pass saw the Burnley defender sweep the ball away. After 27 minutes, a lovely flowing move saw Laca slipped in but Pope (the best English keeper?) blocked well with his legs. Laca surely had to do better.
Half an hour gone and, apart from the Wood chance, Leno had not had to stir from the deck chair where he was reading a novel and drinking a cup of tea. Brady was yellow carded for being a prat after KT3 was fouled, but really much ado about nothing.
Half time. Same old, same old. To think I’m missing the Strictly results for this dross.
HT Arsenal 0-0 Burnley
No changes at half time. Much chuntering about Groundhog day in the bar and it’s difficult to disagree.
On 50 minutes a lovely piece of play from KT3 on the left wing saw Auba in space. He drove to the byline then cut the ball back to KT3 who hit a sharp shot but straight at Pope. We were knocking on the door. Immediately, Auba ran through midfield, found Willian on the right, who found Saka who again fired the ball straight at Pope. Tierney left his opposing right back for dead and put in a great cross. Again it came to naught.
Then came the turning point of the game. Right in the middle of our best spell of the match, Xhaka chopped down McNeil. He was carded for the foul (rightly) but then behaved stupidly, as VAR showed that he then went for the throat, with his hands, of a Burnley player. A richly deserved red card and utterly, utterly stupid. Get this man out of my club! There was no need to take that action, he was at fault in the first place. Surely, surely, enough is enough.
As a result, Laca came off and Dani came on. But our whole momentum was killed. Once more we had to play 10 v 11 as a result of the total stupidity of a senior player. When will we learn?
On 70 minutes, Burnley took off the big man, Chris Wood and brought on Vjadra. Hector was carded for a late challenge and misses the game against Southampton. On 72 minutes, Elneney put his hands in the face of Tarskowski. It should have been a red card, but was generously given as a yellow. But we were punished immediately. The retaken corner was swung in and Auba steered it into his own net, our first goal conceded to a set piece this season.
73 mins Arsenal 0-1 Burnley (Auba og)
The 2000 strong crowd were silent and who could blame them? On 82 minutes, Eddie came on for the utterly useless Willian.
On 86 minutes, Saka picked up the ball on the right, stepped inside and fired a great shot, well saved by Pope (again).
FT Arsenal 0-1 Burnley
Desperate under achievers: Xhaka, Willian, Auba, Laca, Bellerin and Arteta. The only positive performances came from Saka and Tierney. Leno had nothing to do. Elneny did some good things but should have been sent off. Centre backs did OK.
These are desperate times. We all want Arteta to do well but it’s yet another awful Sunday night.
We’ll win again
Don’t know where
Don’t know when
But I know we’ll win again some sunny day!
1st? Dark times ahead….
Thanks C100 for your quick and honest report….not sure where to go from here.
Very measured and comprehensive report Countryman.
Mikel needs to change things fast. The enforced absence of the Swiss cheesehead may be a blessing in disguise. Pepe needs to take the chance he will get now for a very poor Willian.
It’s diabolical how some agent hoodwinked the club to get a few absolutely useless players in long term contracts …
An impressively restrained report in the face of extreme provocation, C100. It’s a damn shame that Xhaka couldn’t match your froideur. It’s time to say goodbye to that fella.
It’s also time that MA8 questioned himself about some of his decisions. This shambles cannot be allowed to go on this way.
We are now in serious trouble. Can someone tell Stan?
Thanks guys. If Xhaka had been a member of my management team he would have been on my carpet at 8am Monday morning (who told you to fucking sit down?) and the hairdryer would have been switched to high.
In case of Pepe “It was inexcusable” and in case of Xhaka “He has made a mistake.”?
I am losing respect for Mikel: this double-standard and inexplicable love of Xhaka.
If Willian starts on Wednesday I will lose more …
In his Sky interview Arteta said Xhaka’s red was as inexcusable as Pepe’s and actually worse in the “conditions” (circumstances the team is in and having to win this game).
He did sort of try to defend the red cards we’ve had, including Pepe’s, by saying it was trying to do their best and give everything for the team but it was being done in the wrong way. Sort of the gist of it anyway, he didn’t really defend Xhaka or seek to make a distinction between him and anyone else in Xhaka’s favour.
The 64 million dollar question is will the Hierarchy panic after a poor run of results.
Clearly the dressing room is not a happy place to be at the moment, and when things are going from bad to worse, the rumor mongers come from all corners to stir the pot.
Have the players stopped listening to Arteta. ??
Has his hardline stance on non negotiables and finite attention to details, and intense disposition, already worn them down. ??
We are playing joyless football, if we were an artwork, we would be a paint by numbers job, with no allowance for individuality, or off the cuff inspiration.
Like many, I have trouble with Arteta’s team selections, how many players in the squad not getting picked, that see the same old faces on the team sheet regardless of results, are harboring grievances over what they perceive as favouritism. ??
There is clearly a disaffected few within the squad that Arteta has lost, whether he can turn this around and restore the really exciting football we have been used to seeing, is the elephant in the room.
I see the playmaker that we were desperate to sign in the summer but didn’t, is now sitting top of Ligue 1 after a 1 nil away win at PSG this evening.
He must be thanking his lucky stars.
I also see that Dortmund sacked their manager today, and they are sitting 5th on the Bundesliga table. !!
No messing about there. !!
It’s going to be an interesting few days at the Emirates, and i for one will be looking very closely at the team sheet for Wednesday night.
I refer the honourable gentleman to the reply I gave at 5 above. Maximum fine, on his bike.
Good report C100. I know how you feel. I got the short straw with the Villa report when we were completely outclassed but finished with eleven .
I am gobsmacked by how events have turned . I thought we had the brightest new young coach in Europe and the Totts were going to implode under Jose . How wrong can you be?
We have three options . 1) Give Arteta until the end of the year and see if he can turn things around 2) Give him some help, ie a much better DOF than Edu who thinks his job is to keep Kia Joorabchian in yachts – Monchi, Rangnick or someone else heavyweight. Having allowed him to repeat the mistake we made with Wenger of giving him a ‘ manager’s ‘ role and too much power that would be a demotion but he needs help. He has got rid of most of Emery’s players which has apparently caused internal unrest .
3) Fire him now and replace him with someone better . That is not a recall for Wenger that would be a disaster . The candidates might be Allegri, Pochettino, Nagelsmann, Fonseca, the chap at Ajax whose name I can’t recall or one or two bolters like Hasenhuttl or Rodgers. But who’d fancy taking this shower over? And woukd Kroenke spend another shedload of money
Whatever the decision I can’t see Arteta having a long-term tenure at the club now . Never expected that to happen .
Thanks for the report C100, a
very fair reflection of events.
I’d go with option 4 TTG.
Give Arteta until the end of
the season. We aren’t going
to go down as there is far too
much quality in the side. Just
my opinion of course but I’d
ignore the noise and let MA
and the players who want to
contribute sort it out. Any who
aren’t up for the fight can go.
Appreciate the write up.
OM
The pressure that will build on Arteta with two or three more defeats ( all difficult games) will be such that your option, while eminently sensible just won’t be feasible . There will have to be a contingency plan and it will have to kick in if we keep losing. That is the way of modern football .
The stuff that’s leaking out of the club , which is always the way in a crisis , suggests there is a lot that is not well. I rue the fact that we appear to becoming the Totts 1990- 2012, changing managers continually . It is not the Arsenal way
Loving Arseblog’s comments this morning.
“Then step up Granit Xhaka, King of the idiots, Mayor of Moron Town, Captain Muttonhead”
The players failed miserably, again, to deliver on Matt’s headline in the preview.
Sack the manager. Logic, innit?
It is circumstances like these which separate the boys and men in the team and the difference between the two is never age or experience. Saka, Tierney and Gabriel are much younger but have consistently performed while pretty much everyone else else has had some forgettable game or the other (or all forgettable games in the case of Xhaka and Willian). We have seen this in the past too with the stellar young team of 2007-08 wherein it was the experienced Gallas who was overtly emotional and buckled under a crisis while many of the younger players held their own. Arteta must realise that giving some of the hungry youngsters a run in the premier league would do the team no harm
There are usually patterns of the same deficiencies showing up in games when teams don’t do well or vice versa when they do well. Our right wing has been devoid of threat because of the absolute lack of pace and inability of Willian to dribble and get past the opposing defender to make a darting run into the box creating chaos. Invariably they are happy to see him stand still take a couple of quick steps towards the corner flag and kick in a hopeful cross. The second routine is he will pass it back to Hector who will in turn pass it back to Elneny or Xhaka in midfield. Willian also never takes up position slightly infield (which Pepe does) which would allow Hector to make an overlapping run outside of him, get in behind and make the opposing defenders run back facing their own goal – the perfect situation for a good cut back which is more suited to our players than lofted crosses. Willian & Hector would do well to see how Saka & Tierney combine on the other wing and how Tierney gets in behind on so many occasions. Of course it would help if there was a runner from midfield coming in at pace to convert the cut back or header.
The second repetitive (and now unbearable) routine is to see Xhaka or Elneny (sometimes even Ceballos but at least he tries to innovate and also do things quickly) receive the ball in midfield and play it wide to Tierney/Saka or Hector/Willian. The midfielders alone are not to blame for this. Our advanced players are not good at finding the pocket of space between the opposition midfield and defence. The one time Lacazette did that yesterday we carved them open and created a chance immediately. Lacazette is a striker who has tried his best to provide that option but alas Harry Kane does that role really well. Surely ESR or Willock can be given a run of games and developed in that position although I really like Cynic’s suggestion of trying Ceballos in that position. He has historically played in advanced positions in midfield and is seemingly a better retainer of the ball than Willock.
It is a bit simplistic to compare this to the crisis which led to Emery’s eventual departure. But this is quite different from that. Emery was completely confused about which formation to play or which is his best eleven. Every game seemed to be a roll of the dice in the hope of getting lucky. The players were disillusioned and confused with that muddled approach. This situation is comparatively better because the team still plays in a structured manner and apart from that Villa game it hasn’t been a defensively shaky team. Arteta has leaned too far the other way as compared to Emery by not changing the team and sticking with the same players. With a bit more dynamism up front we could be a team that scores one or two goals and defends that lead well enough to win. Arteta desperately needs a win and some luck and things could turn for the better gradually. Hope springs eternal. Wenger memorably used to say Confidence goes quickly and comes back very slowly. Another thing he used to say always was that the truly good managers are those who are able to keep the lean patches of a team really short. Arteta has his work cut out in the next half a dozen games or he might be kissing goodbye to what started as a really promising mangerial reign. I still believe he can turn it around like he did last December.
This is definitely what Ned Flanders would call “A dilly of a pickle” that we currently find ourselves in. Whatever we think of Arteta’s handling of the team and selection, a glimpse at our squad reveals the extent of the problem. We have six defenders, one midfielder and one forward who are patently not up to the job – you all know who they are. Turfing that lot out is not an overnight job, but we need to buy a real leader, and promote young blood in January.
CER, your request has been actioned.
Thanks for a realistic match report C100 – a tough write up following another pathetic performance by the team.
It appears by their efforts some players have lost their faith in Arteta & his methods – it was not a motivated team on display. Sticking to the same game plan with the same under performing players is clearly not working. It’s not possible to bring in the 6 or so new upgraded players from the outside this team so desperately needs right now so a change of tack is required. As Desi & Cynic have already suggested give Ceballos a run at no 10 – he does provide more forward momentum. Willian has been a spectacular disappointment – he provides no assets to the team from both an attacking or defensive perspective. Give Reiss a run in the team – he tries to make things happen in the final third and perhaps a regular start will help him rise to the next level.
Even the so called easy games we are now finding tough, changes in one way or another are essential.
I have read a lot of this now and have held back from commenting, just to see if I felt any different. The answer is no, you don’t. Like many, I fully think that the squad needs some major changes. But no one can tell me that the 11 that started on Sunday should not have been good enough to beat that Burnley side? We all pretty much knew what the starting 11 would be and the general prediction was that we would score at least 4???? So with that optimism, how did it all go so wrong???
The players failed to deliver. Yet again, they failed to deliver. In fact, when can we honestly say this season that they have delivered? Man U away? Anything else? For me, there lies the problem.
We were filled with a certain amount of optimism that various performances have brought. A glorious FA Cup triumph for example. But these are very different and very much more turbulent times.
I don’t see any excuses for what happened yesterday. None at all. The manager picks the team, the manager trains them all week, the manager sends them out on to the pitch. So how anyone thinks he can be exonerated is beyond me.
More worrying than the results are the performances. Yesterday we had so little fight, passion, spirit or any sense of what was going on. We go into games hoping to secure a nil nil. If the opposition score first then we seem even more clueless. It’s almost like the pre match team talk is delivered in a different language.
The most worrying think for me is that yesterday Arteta looked shel shocked. A rabbit caught in the headlights. He didn’t do anything to convince me that he has any idea how he is going to turn this around? None at all. As you said in the last set of drinks, I’m very much against hitting the panic button but if we lose to Southampton and Everton this week I don’t see any way back.
I desperately want Arteta to succeed. I want him to turn this around and develop something very special. However, I don’t remember a time ever in the last 50 years when I have felt that the divide is so incredibly wide. The fact that we are even talking about a relegation battle is quite simply embarrassing.
Positives from yesterday? Xhaka can’t play in the next three games. Unfortunately, Bellerin misses only one. Sadly, not much else I can take from that shambles. I know others have suggested that the sending off changed the game. Obviously, it has had an impact. But the players we had out there should have been more than good enough to still take all 3 points.
Some incredibly worrying times ahead.
Spot on, Steve.
We have drawn Benfica in the last 32 knock out round of the Europa
C100, thanks for the update. I watched Benfica’s two group ties with Rangers. They will be a test for this Arsenal team the way they are playing (FFS, even Rangers would be a test for us atm).
As I have watched our apparently schizophrenic performances in the PL and EL, I have increasingly felt that we would only get as far in this competition as it takes to meet a half decent team. I can’t say I’m concerned that that may only be this round of 32 as I think our focus needs to be heavily concentrated on the Premier League this season. Everything else is now just a distraction.
C100: Soberly realistic match report. Those who remember seasons when our current league position was the rule not the exception will keep the faith, because that is what we do. That does not make it any easier, though.
OM@12: I, too, was thinking that this team was ‘too good to go down’, but then realised that the relegated sides of which that was said are legion.
What Steve T said @21.
Bath@24: Assuming he is still there, I hope Arteta fields his EL, not PL side against Benfica. We would then have a chance of progressing.
This stretch of results has been long time coming. Last season all of our post-match statistical analysis showed that we were significantly overachieving in the goalscoring numbers vis-a-vis the chances we were creating. Aubameyang had two extraordinarily productive and efficient years for us and sooner or later he was going to go through a dry patch. He never has had a sequence of matches like this in his career and he is having to find answers himself, his self-confidence has drained away, and though the hope is a couple of goals will rekindle the sharpness and efficiency Mikel does need to think through other solutions — encouraging Saka, Pepe et al. to shoot more may be one, not playing Laca as that false 9 but keep him more in the box and use Saka as an attacking midfielder may be one which may help Laca to find his goalscoring touch back…
The insights underlying Arsène’s so-called “stubborn” philosophy I think are now becoming more and more self-evident: don’t give players past 30 a long-term contract (I think first exception he made was with TR7?), always have a high number of players in the squad with good technical and creative abilities, nurture players’ ability to solve problems themselves on the pitch and not just work on the rigidity of formations, build self-confidence at individual and collective level to take chances and be positive …
Some of the fanbase used to focus so much on the negatives of the second part of his tenure — not enough physicality, some defensive frailty, not enough street smart etc. — they consistently overlooked the key achievement of his management even in the so-called “no trophy” years: a consistent attacking quality and performance over the season. Year after year. No matter what else is happening.
The club hierarchy should have insisted that the new coaching teams keep the positives of that foundational philosophy in, and add on that. Not throw the proverbial baby along with the bathwater…
Santi, Jack, TR7, Rambo, Mesut, Ox — we have shed (for one reason or another) two PL team’s worth of attacking midfield talents in 2 years without replacing a single one of them. And not a single club executive thought that this will come to haunt us sooner or later…
We have dug ourselves into a big hole. Throwing money at favorite agents’ favorite pensioners will not help. We will need to be bold, and we will need to start trusting the talents we have.
Gabi and Saka had no problems moving their Europa form into PL. Reiss had an excellent performance when we beat Liverpool at home. AMN has shown more than glimpses of his abilities and physicality, Joe and ESR can only get better. Until we actually buy senior players — Partey is an excellent acquisition — who can provide the cutting edge we have to play them instead of the garbage that Willian, Xhaka et al. are serving up. Hector has lately been atrocious as well.
London back into tier 3 as of 0001 on Wednesday. That will save some poor unfortunate fans who were unlucky enough to get a ticket, from traveling.
Every cloud etc
Heh @ Steve T @28.
We play Benfica away on Feb 18 and at home on Feb 25.
The quality and good sense in the drinks above underline why this is a precious place to discuss football. I am ashamed to say that I woke early this morning after a restless night related to that abomination last night . When football affects you like that you probably need to get a life but we were all so optimistic that we were on the way to the top and instead we might be on a journey that is much closer to the bottom.
While Btm makes the very reasonable point about the players failing my sense is that these are the most coached players I’ve ever seen. You can hear Arteta literally talking players through the match kick by kick . The willingness to stick with Willian ( so well described by Desi) when we have ESR ( and lots of others who were unavailable like Nelson ,Martinelli, Pepe,) or others Saka and AMN who were otherwise deployed , so limits the potential of this team .
Let’s pray he survives this as after Christmas we have winnable games ( like Burnley at home 😃). If we go to someone else I’m hearing the name Hassenhutl a lot . We might see how good he is on Wednesday
Cheers, C100 – finally got to read the report.
It doesn’t look any better in print, does it ?
Another grim, lacklustre performance. We have some potentially very good youngsters who need to play to improve and to be persuaded that they have a future at the Arsenal. If they can’t get a game with the “first team” playing as they are, you have to wonder when they might.
I can get behind hard working, honest, hungry youth players, even if they struggle for a while to really find their feet. I can’t be bothered with petulant, selfish idiots putting their own egos ahead of the team and the fans.
What Trev said. We really need an injection of youth, and as c100’s headline points out about the brain-dead one, he is brain dead and nobody should have expected anything else based on past performance.
Cheers Countryman!
If it were up to me I would swap Xhaka for Guendouzi in a instance, I would also include Saliba in the squad as well, start mixing them up, they will never improve if they will never be used in games.
I’d swap Xhaka for a toaster. And it wouldn’t have to be a posh one either!!!!
Asda price would do just nicely Steve 🤣
A toaster ? I’d swap him for a set of Christmas lights with no plug. And they’d still sparkle more
Torreira’s loan with Atletico is goingbto be terminated in January. Would we have him back instead of Xhaka ?
I knew I had 2 busy days. So I recorded the match and stayed offline until I got in tonight and had time to watch the game, without any idea what the score was…
I’ve now read all the comments. And had a restorative brandy. My thoughts, in no particular order…
I’ve said for a long time that I am finished with Xhaka. I have no sympathy with the manager over his choice to choose him. The guy is a not someone I want to see in an Arsenal shirt.
If Willian had not been so poor in recent games I think he would be taking a lot less stick for last night. He beat his man much more often and put in a few good crosses, as well as decent set pieces. Yes, it is a low bar, but I thought he was better yesterday than he has been recently. And it is not like he is the only player struggling. I’m not suggesting for a moment that it is unreasonable to criticise him or expect more. And I am also aware that we have given him a 3 year deal and many players have a tough start at a new club before going on to do great things. I still want him to do well and I get no pleasure from criticising a poor performance, no matter how justly. Bench him for Pepe against the Saints. But I ain’t ready it write him off. He may be a seasoned pro but he will do better with fans who believe in him than ones who have given up on him. I hope we all feel better in 3 months after his performances have given us more reason to take him to heart.
Why we ever take short corners is beyond me? We need to score from any means possible and both Holding and Gabriel are decent attacking threats if you give them service. Every time they go up and we fail to get a ball in the box for them to attack is a shambles. Again, on the manager’s head.
I was not remotely sold last season by the widely stated opinion that we were in a relegation battle. We weren’t. We finished well up the league. Not even close to relegation. I understand the emotion after a string of bad results, but we are never getting relegated. Can we not acknowledge the massive shortfalls and failings of this team without undermining our own legitimate concerns with histrionics about getting relegated? If you think I am jumping the gun and assuming our safety then I invite you to review these comments come April… When we will not be close to getting relegated.
Bear in mind we could come 12th in the league (shit for us, obviously) and still be nowhere close to relegation. That is an unrealistically low bar to worry about attaining. Too many johnny come latelys on twitter who have not the understanding referenced by Countryman, in a typically excellent and well measured review, that we can play some pretty bad football and still be our club, our Arsenal. It is still the roles of fans to love the club (if you don’t love the club why would you claim to be a fan?), not pretend that our fandom gives us a special place from which to throw hate at The Arsenal. The reason we get upset is because we want to see our team doing well. I am always suspicious of those who seem to love the roles they can adopt when we do badly. The sheer glee of some of the detractors is not a tone I can view with any support. Outrage as gratification. Urrghhh.
These keyboard warriors skew opinions lower than they would already be at a time that we are getting shit results and many fans have legitimate concerns about our performances.
Yet I am concerned that a lot of these pricks would be shouted down in moments if they brought that lazy, unsupportive schtick down to the pub after a game. We all sound clever online when we are drip feeding poison that plays on people’s insecurities. The internet is full of that for them as wants it.
Community is what reminds us of the good and bad times past and the good and bad times still to come. And most of the angry twats venting online are no community of mine.
You lot ,however, are community of mine. You won’t want to hear it right now but I want to raise a flag for the optimists. Those who believe that we are in a bad patch that we will get out of. We have a young, flawed manager. He is a long way from perfect. I am not defending many things he has done that I do not think were good decisions. But he has made many good decisions. And the rest of our infrastructure is a shambles. Getting rid of Arteta won’t change that. He is worth sticking with. He will learn. He has my unflinching support. It may get worse before it’s all over but we will get thought this. And we will come back stronger.
Arteta knows who we are. He knows who we represent. He cares. That is something we can build on.
VCC
Also, KT says it is up to the players to take responsibility for their performances and that the manager is brilliant. It is players like him that I want on board. It is up to Edu to do the manager a massive favour by getting rid of anyone who doesn’t wanna be part of our future.
If Arteta doesn’t want someone then get rid of him. Don’t let him fester in the squad and then act surprised when that does not serve anyone involved. And if only I were talking about a single player!
Anyone who is in any doubt about the painfully poor squad management that has caused the issues Arteta has inherited need only think that despite the players the boss has had to discard, he has HAD to persist with others we all know are not good enough, as if he just keep the ones he really wants to work with we would have about 18 in the squad plus youth players.
A lot of them are not good enough and we need shot of them. No magic. No drama. Just get rid of players who aren’t good enough. And replace them with ones that a coherent strategy team, including but not limited to the manager, like the look of.
Until we do that I’m not keen on blaming the boss, despite his shortfalls. But I am in even more awe that he managed to win us the FA Cup and get us into Europe. With this Frankenstein’s monster of a squad.
You think this is bad?
It could have been much worse.
Torreira’s loan with Atletico is goingbto be terminated in January. Would we have him back instead of Xhaka ?
I’d rather have smallpox back than Xhaka.
With the greatest of respect to Clive and anyone else. Guendouzi can do one.
He can do several.
He gives no goals and no assists. Plenty of yellow cards and a few reds. He has a huge ego and a petulant attitude.
No thankyou. We have enough of that already.
He passes forward no more than Elneny does. And that is not what I want to be writing about a player whose absence has suddenly made him the best thing since sliced bread. I watched him play 50 games for us. I am glad I won’t have to watch any more.
He can go stand on a rake. Repeatedly.
Saka is quality. A top player.
Yet he has 1 goal and no assists in the league. Willian has contributed to more league goals. That is a fact.
It would help us a lot if Saka found some end product. He is a massive talent and will be a star for years to come, but when AW used to talk about how it costs a team to play young players as they develop he was sometimes referencing the mistakes an inexperienced defender might make that concede a goal, but he was also referencing the fallow periods young attackers go through when they have not learned how to turn good performances or good moments into decisive and match winning contributions in games.
I think Saka has been very good this year. But in goals and assists he has taken up a place in our attacking lineup whilst contributing almost nothing.
He is lucky to have Willian to take the flack for him…
top stuff, gsd. you wrote artfully about things i’ve felt but been unable to articulate about the current situation. interesting take on saka; i’d posit the same idea can be directed at ma8.
Cheerd Scruz.
I think you are totally right about the Saka/Arteta comparison. Top talent that will take a while to mature. No one has any issue with a 19 year old kid who is clearly an incredible talent being ineffective, despite some wonderful attributes.
Could we not extend the same thinking to a manager whose only way to be younger at the time he took up the role of boss was if he had ended his playing career and relinquished his role as club captain sooner?
In terms of management he has managed about as many games as Saka has played. Yet one gets a free pass whist the other is lambasted.
Personally, I expect that they will both come good. Big time.
If we do not have patience for Arteta who would we have patience for? Hasn’t he shown he is an Arsenal man?
Doesn’t he deserve time and support?
I lived through 74-75. This is as bad as that. 4 points from our last 8 games. Quite conceivably becomes 4 points from our last 11 games. Nailed on relegation form.
GSD. Some top, top posts above. Well written, balanced and from the heart.
I had a dream.
We were relegated.
But we won the Europa.
Can a Championship club even play in the Champions League?
Do you sack a manager who gets you into the Champions League?
I think I need an early night.
UTA.
I note Arteta says results are just a blip and we’re not in a relegation scrap. It’s about time he faced up to reality because living in denial like that might just see what is usually a complacent club sleepwalk right into the deepest of shits.
I just don’t understand why he keeps on defending Xhaka and his latest comments tell me one thing, as soon as he’s available he will play….
I can understand rocky moments from players especially young ones without much experience just like Guendouzi who had a lot more heart than Xhaka has ever shown himself.
Has Xhaka even apologised?
Esso@41: 1974-75 was dire. If we hadn’t won the home NLD in the penultimate game of the season, we would have ended up 19th and escaped relegation by a single point. But we never got over the run of six points from 14 games early in the season (including losing to Burnley 1-0 at Highbury). 75-76 wasn’t much better.
The rest of the 70s weren’t much better. We were only kept cheerful by reaching three FA Cup finals in a row at the end of the decade. Mind you we lost two of those!
Cusop here!
As I write this there are tears in my eyes, I met Dave in Vital Arsenal in the early 2000s his handle there was FOD, we built up a banter relationship that continued up until last year, twice a year I would show and we both would have a bit of fun. I became ill like many in early 2020 and did not post. But I came to Goonerholic just before the most NLD and I was shocked, actually devastated to read the news about Dave. We are of a similar age, and I have no idea what happened. Nor is it time to discuss this as you all approach the first year anniversary. Dave was a gent and a die hard gooner, he was kind though, it saddens me to pay tribute to him because he is not here. Let i be known that there is one Spud out there that will truly miss him .. RIP Dave
Cusop, you are most welcome here. I hope you are back to full health. This place was set up to honour Dave’s memory and to preserve the traditions of his original bar. We all miss him, his good humour and his humanity greatly. Your tribute to him is touching.
Cusop let me echo Ned’s welcome. We are hoping to publish something here on Christmas Day, a year after Dave’s passing, to honour him. Do check back then.
Cusop, I (furtively) always enjoyed your appearances in Dave’s bar, and knew you must be decent enough if Dave put up with you. Thanks for your kind words about the man who inspired us all.
That is not to forgive your despicable allegiance. Did you notice the clock. Still ticking. 🤣
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>