Mikel Arteta: Managerial Royalty

[LookingForEric]

We were favourites against Porto but got bossed for 180 minutes. How can Porto come to the Emirates and have almost 50/50 possession?

I'm not confident unless Mikel changes the midfielders or playing style

How have you just said it was 50/50 possession but Porto bossed us?

That makes absolutely no sense. If it wasn’t for a last minute wonder goal in Portugal we would’ve reduced them to absolutely nothing whilst also winning comfortably.

I’m unsure as to where these opinions are stemming from, did you watch the game?

 

[LookingForEric]

I’d love Barcelona I think it’s the best draw for us. They’d play expansive football against us whilst also being not great at the back. Compared to someone like Porto who are actually alright at the back and very aggressive.

I think we’d match Barca in quality but completely outdo them in fight and strength.

 

[Sungod]

Porto were back passing, wasting time, different players fouling same player, getting no yellow for fouls.

But at least Ref didn’t always stop for the game for their diving.

They were freaking Acting the whole time,
Porto didn’t play football, they are scammers.

Rules need to be made and applied to stop such anti footballers.

Kill the Dark arts, Punish different players fouling same players.

 

[Sungod]

Frankly VAR is not correctly used.
Play acting needs to be punished by VAR.

 

[drippin]

We were favourites against Porto but got bossed for 180 minutes. How can Porto come to the Emirates and have almost 50/50 possession?

The possession was 58% for Arsenal, field tilt was 73% for Arsenal.

Expected Threat Created was 2.9-0.1.

 

[Blankety Blank]

1st in the league and through to the final 8 in the CL.

One would think the times are good.

Correct Sir .

We have a seriously competitive team who sit top in the hardest league in the World & are through to the last 8 of the premium club competition on the planet for the 1st time in14 years .
Both achieved with a young team & manager who imho have not yet peaked.

Make no mistake. We eating real good

Mod edit: you can enjoy the win without calling people clowns.

 

[Makingtrax]

It’s honestly insane that it’s been 14 years since we made a champions league quarter final.

We were so crap under Wenger in Europe. Mikel hasn’t been good in the Europa league but he’s already done better than Wengers latter years in the CL!!

Wow. Just imagine if Wenger had had an €850m squad and fans behind him, instead of planes flying overhead. Lol

Anyway the last time Wenger had real money we won three titles, got to a CL final and broke two records, the only team to go unbeaten in a season and the only team to score in every game of the season. To my knowledge those records still stand despite all the oil money. How’s Arteta doing compared to those apples?

 

[Batman]

The possession was 58% for Arsenal, field tilt was 73% for Arsenal.

Expected Threat Created was 2.9-0.1.

You're not going to convince him with facts. This is the same man who said that Declan Rice couldn't cut it in a possession based team, not when he was at West Ham mind you...4 days ago. Then when he was laughed at for that ludicrous take he tried to suggest that he meant in an effective possession team like we're not top of the league with the best metrics with and without the ball. Don't waste your time, it's hopeless.

 

[PrinzPoldi]

Need to give credit to Porto.
Time wasting, dark art, whatever. They made life difficult for us, and had a really good plan.
On the same token, they were the underdogs, and had less pressure than us, it was "easier" for them to play "destructive" football than playing beautiful attacking football. They got one wonder goal from last game, and they came here to do all disturbances rather to play actual football.

Not that Arteta did not have a plan, our hands were pretty much tied and we had tremendous pressure on him and the players. In any perspective Arsenal was the favorite to win and it would be terrible for us to get eliminated. Being one down to start the second leg, was not as easy as people think, especially the opponent was here to disturb our game play.

 

[Trilly]

I think we kind of underperformed against Porto but I’ll take the macro view for now.

In a title race, improved v last season and in the last 8 of the CL. That’s very good so far.

Maybe we’ll play better against more expansive position or maybe we’ll get slapped as the quality of opposition increases. We’ll see…

 

[drippin]

I think we kind of underperformed against Porto but I’ll take the macro view for now.

In a title race, improved v last season and in the last 8 of the CL. That’s very good so far.

Maybe we’ll play better against more expansive position or maybe we’ll get slapped as the quality of opposition increases. We’ll see…

The young players still seem to have nerves affecting in these UCL games, which is no surprise. But I think they mature all the time, especially after this one.

But keep in mind that Arsenal has the best record against City and Liverpool this season. A draw + penalty win, and a win against City. And a draw and a win against Liverpool (not counting FA Cup where the best starting eleven didn't play.)

The quality of opponents doesn't get much higher than City and Liverpool, so in that sense some problems against bus teams don't push similar fear in the next rounds for me.

 

[SA Gunner]

No disrespect to the teams left as they could all beat us, but this is how I rate them in terms of difficulty for us, so I would take these teams from the bottom up.

Atleti/Inter
Bayern Munich
City
Madrid
PSG
Barca
Dortmund/PSV

What makes it harder is that Arteta seems to have deliberately stifled our creativity and risk taking in the Champions League. You could even see this in the group stages against Lens and PSV in particular.

It remains to be seen if Arteta gets us more free flowing if we meet a team willing to play football, because that's when we'll be at our best. From the list above, I rate the teams with that metric exactly, with the higher teams able and willing to stifle us and slow the game down a lot, to the lower teams being more expansive and looking to beat us at football, either because they want to or because they wont have another way of playing.

Dream scenario if we had to make it as far as a final.

QF: Dortmund/PSV
SF: Barcelona/PSG
Final: Madrid

We'd be able to play actual football in this run, and do well if we apply ourselves.

 

[Makingtrax]

I think we kind of underperformed against Porto but I’ll take the macro view for now.

In a title race, improved v last season and in the last 8 of the CL. That’s very good so far.

Maybe we’ll play better against more expansive position or maybe we’ll get slapped as the quality of opposition increases. We’ll see…

We made hard work of Porto for sure. But the lads kept their confidence in the shoot out which is no mean feat. We’ll meet some decent opposition soon, then we’ll see. PSG, Bayern and Real are a big step up from Porto.

 

[LookingForEric]

Wow. Just imagine if Wenger had had an €850m squad and fans behind him, instead of planes flying overhead. Lol

Anyway the last time Wenger had real money we won three titles, got to a CL final and broke two records, the only team to go unbeaten in a season and the only team to score in every game of the season. To my knowledge those records still stand despite all the oil money. How’s Arteta doing compared to those apples?

11 round of 16 finishes in 17 CL seasons with Wenger. 7 in a row our most recent finishes.

If you defend that in any way I do not know what to say brother.

 

[Makingtrax]

No disrespect to the teams left as they could all beat us, but this is how I rate them in terms of difficulty for us, so I would take these teams from the bottom up.

Atleti/Inter
Bayern Munich
City
Madrid
PSG
Barca
Dortmund/PSV

What makes it harder is that Arteta seems to have deliberately stifled our creativity and risk taking in the Champions League. You could even see this in the group stages against Lens and PSV in particular.

It remains to be seen if Arteta gets us more free flowing if we meet a team willing to play football, because that's when we'll be at our best. From the list above, I rate the teams with that metric exactly, with the higher teams able and willing to stifle us and slow the game down a lot, to the lower teams being more expansive and looking to beat us at football.

Dream scenario if we had to make it as far as a final.

QF: Dortmund/PSV
SF: Barcelona/PSG
Final: Madrid

We'd be able to play actual football in this run, and do well if we apply ourselves.

Good assessment. We’re capable of beating any team on our day with the squad Arsenal has now assembled. I don’t think we have any holes in any position, particularly when Timber and Zinchenko return. Luck’s always a factor in cup comps though and Arteta has that in spades.

 

[Makingtrax]

11 round of 16 finishes in 17 CL seasons with Wenger. 7 in a row our most recent finishes.

If you defend that in any way I do not know what to say brother.

Blah, blah. As I said, when Arteta’s won 3 titles, got to a CL final and been the only team to score in every game of a season and the only team to be unbeaten all season, I’ll give you carte blanche to do your slagging off of Wenger, without responding. Seem’s fair.

 

[grange]

I'll be back on the 31st. Be good, AM.

 

[Makingtrax]

The young players still seem to have nerves affecting in these UCL games, which is no surprise. But I think they mature all the time, especially after this one.

They didn’t look nervous to me. And the shoot out confirmed that. These lads are very self assured which is why Arteta/Edu chose them. Even Raya looked confident in the shoot out and I wouldn’t have said that a couple of months ago. It’s all looking very good for this squad.

 

[LookingForEric]

Blah, blah. As I said, when Arteta’s won 3 titles, got to a CL final and been the only team to score in every game of a season and the only team to be unbeaten all season, I’ll give you carte blanche to do your slagging off of Wenger, without responding. Seem’s fair.

We are talking specifically about the champions league mate, no blah blah about it. I only want to debate about Europe, so if you cannot do that we’ll end the conversation here.

 

[drippin]

They didn’t look nervous to me. And the shoot out confirmed that. These lads are very self assured which is why Arteta/Edu chose them. Even Raya looked confident in the shoot out and I wouldn’t have said that a couple of months ago. It’s all looking very good for this squad.

I wasn't talking about the penalties. I was going quite confident to those as I knew Arteta has built this team and knows how important penalties can be in cups and otherwise.

I was talking about both of these legs against Porto, especially the away game. But they are growing.