Football Manager
Copy & Paste Merchant
It's not a possibility. It's a fact that Özil’s fangirl refused to believe in.It's easy to be an armchair pundit in hindsight and I'm as guilty as anyone else of it. Sure Arteta got it tactically wrong against Villa, no denying that. It happens, and it's cool to be critical of Arteta there. But if people want to batter him for that you have to give him credit for the tactical masterclass he put on against Man Utd a week or so before.
I'm not denying that Arteta had good will from most Arsenal fans at least initially, though it would be hard to argue he does now. He was a well liked player here, it's natural.
It always has to come back to Özil somehow You've just admitted you don't know what happened with Özil but apparently it's damning to Arteta irrespective. That's not fair, you have to be at least open to the possibility that Özil wasn't training well enough or didn't have a good enough attitude for Arteta to think he warranted a place in the squad. You may not think it's true, but it's a possibility.
From what I understand Saliba has had a family bereavement and there are personal issues around that. I think there are extenuating circumstances here and it's unfair to judge either Saliba or Arteta on him not being in the squad currently.
I'm not blaming Arsenal fans for making legitimate criticisms of Arteta, they are there to make. It's when it starts becoming a pile on and fans just go out their way to concoct reasons to have a go that I don't like. The reaction to Arteta being critical about Pepe head butting someone, for example. That's manufactured outrage, so is calling Arteta a stooge of the board. There's no evidence of that. Arteta has been much more outspoken and put more pressure on the board in the media than Wenger did when it comes to transfers etc. He's no yes man whatever else you may think of him.