Mikel Arteta: Aston La Vista To The Title?

[dashsnow17]

2.18 ppg would be 41 points in the remaining 19 games. Which equates to roughly 13 wins 2 draws and 4 losses. However it won't work like that. I firmly believe there's going to be 3rd and 4th up for grabs right until the last game of the season.

Of course we need to vastly improve, but its doable, especially with Partey back.

Think the point is it's doable but extremely unlikely. We're halfway through and have the same goal difference as West Ham, and there are no January signings on the horizon to come in and make a difference. But I agree this season is weird so i'd optimistically say that 6th is doable if everything goes our way.

 

[HairSprayGooners]

Think the point is it's doable but extremely unlikely. We're halfway through and have the same goal difference as West Ham, and there are no January signings on the horizon to come in and make a difference. But I agree this season is weird so i'd optimistically say that 6th is doable if everything goes our way.

Cliche but Partey, Martinelli and ESR for an entire second half of the season will essentially be like new signings. Especially the former.

Partey is only just getting started as well, imagine when he really pops off.

 

[Red London]

Hm, I don't know who this chancer is but he's speaking facts that don't sit right with me, 'pparently we're finishing mid-table!

Only silver lining with that is 4-5 of the sides above us could easily start to drop off with their PPG output (West Ham, Villa, Everton, Soton and maybe even Chelsea). The post talks about *if* all clubs continue with their projected PPG based off their games so far this season. If the clubs I mentioned were to start earning less PPG then it would be easier for us to get into the conversation if we begin winning more games.

But yeah there's a lot of ifs and buts, and too many sides we need to slip up. Some of the clubs I mentioned may even raise their game for the second half of the season. I have us down as having a 5-10% chance of getting in the top4, and thats being generous due to wishful thinking .

 

[bingobob]

Hm, I don't know who this chancer is but he's speaking facts that don't sit right with me, 'pparently we're finishing mid-table!

I'm not a fan of this. Not just because it puts us in a bad position but because some teams ahead of us have over achieved already. I don't think they are likely to maintain their early season form for the rest of the season.

Edit. I'd add to that while I think top 4 is possible I think we need to look at best case scenario 4th. City, United and Liverpool (at this stage) have the squad and the history to stay in the top 4. Leicester have a massive game tonight against Chelsea. They win that it really puts them in there and the bloc becomes harder to break. Europa league has for me been our easiest route to the CL. The league is more difficult than it's ever been and we need to accept that.

 

[Gooner416]

I'd join @GDeep™ at Bluemoon if it meant we made top 4. Not ****ing happening though. Big run of games ahead for Mikel and he can really change my mind on him.

 

[Hleb's Sirush]

I have criticised Arteta for failing to get the best of our attack, in fact overseeing an alarming regression under his tenure. Same time I have always credited him for making us much more resilient at the back. I have seen some people say he done that by just getting the numbers back but you don't necessarily become more solid doing that. Usually what that means is that you're just inviting more sustained pressure and thus are even more likely to concede. You only need to have watched us near the end of Emery's reign when he lost all confidence and started to deploy the most defensive set ups possible, yet we were still conceding 30 shots a game and being carved open at will. So getting numbers back doesn't help at all if the organisation isn't there.

The biggest difference has been that Arteta has made us defend as a unit. This is one aspect people forget, football at the end of the day is a team sport, you reap greater rewards if you can get a few decent/mediocre individuals to work efficiently as a unit than let a few great individuals play as individuals.

If I take Gabriel away then the list of our defenders are as follows.

Bellerin
Sokratis
Mustafi
Mari
Holding
Luiz
Chambers
Tierney
Cedric

Looking at that list can you see a single great defender there? Possibly Tierney but none of those players are regarded as a great defender individually yet Arteta has managed to make them look solid most of the time. It doesn't even matter who plays, Mari who is 4/5th choice CB was chucked in the other day and performed great. Even when we've played Mustafi the overall level didn't go down. Going back to the individuals above, that list of defenders is probably the weakest set of defenders we have had for a long while, yet we have one of the best stats defensive wise in the league. We have also kept 5 straight clean sheets in all comps, something we haven't done in more than a decade.

This is all the more pleasing because not long ago a lot of people in here were convinced all our defenders were "uncoachable", "one of the worst set of defenders in the league", "there are better defenders at Sheff Utd and Burnley" etc. Without question it was seen as our weakest part by a mile. A little bit of good coaching there and now I don't see any calling for an overhaul of our defence. Funny enough it is a role reversal now, same accusations are being levelled at our attack, but most of them have proven that they're very capable attackers.

The reason I praise Arteta for making us more solid at the back is also the reason I'm on his back for our non functioning attack. Lately it is getting better but for a long time he kept on insisting on attacking in a way that just wasn't working. Playing among others Laca in a completely counter productive role. Playing without a 10, playing too negative. So no surprise that almost every single attacker's form has nose dived. He is luckily learning but still a tad worrying on a reliance on aimless crosses and relying on too much individual skill to open up the opposition. Still a little too predictable.

But well done for the defence. He is clearly very astute in that department.

 

[Macho]

When you look at what Arteta’s done,
- Phased out Özil (expensive but whatever)
- Convinced the team to take pay cuts
- Sort the defence
- Won a trophy

You can kinda see why the board are willing to stick with him. I was puzzled when Edu said he was doing a good job but I guess to some he really is. The stuff he’s doing well might just not be visible to me.

This is me trying my hardest to rationalise why he gets some much support internally btw, I still don’t fully get it.

 

[Riou]

When you look at what Arteta’s done,
- Phased out Özil (expensive but whatever)
- Convinced the team to take pay cuts
- Sort the defence
- Won a trophy

You can kinda see why the board are willing to stick with him. I was puzzled when Edu said he was doing a good job but I guess to some he really is. The stuff he’s doing well might just not be visible to me.

This is me trying my hardest to rationalise why he gets some much support internally, btw I still don’t fully get it.

No one on our board really cares, tbh.

You jokingly mentioned Chelsea earlier, but they at least have a owner that only wants to win and that filters down to the whole club...Stan only cares about making profit, Josh is an unknown in what he does/wants, Edu seems to be Kia's plant and Vinai should have been fired for getting that fake commercial deal signed years ago...what a group

Who out of that group could fire Mikel, no real leadership there, who sets the standard...we used to have a nice thing going with Wenger and Dein, now, meh.

As long as Mikel doesn't do too terribly, his job will be safe...happy days for me, tbh!

 

[Macho]

No one on our board really cares, tbh.

You jokingly mentioned Chelsea earlier, but they at least have a owner that only wants to win and that filters down to the whole club...Stan only cares about making profit, Josh is an unknown in what he does/wants, Edu seems to be Kia's plant and Vinai should have been fired for getting that fake commercial deal signed years ago...what a group

Who out of that group could fire Mikel, no real leadership there, who sets the standard...we used to have a nice thing going with Wenger and Dein, now, meh.

As long as Mikel doesn't do too terribly, his job will be safe...happy days for me, tbh!

I could be looking too deep into it you’re probably right.

@Hleb's Sirush makes a good point about the defence. Regardless of who comes in we seem to be alright there.

 

[Jack_the_boy]

Arteta outlasted Özil. Times are changing.

 

[GDeep™]

Was listening to Carlton Cole on some podcast. He said Roman Abramovich stopped him from going to Sp**s because he said “we don’t do business with Sp**s”. Also said Roman wanted to loan him out rather than sell him.

Interesting because that’s pretty hands on from Roman, especially when you consider Carlton Cole was nothing more than a decent young player.

Don’t think we have anything like that at our club. Our owners wouldn’t recognise Wenger if he walked past them.

 

[Kav]

espn reports that the actual reason Arteta sidelined Özil is because he refused to take the paycut and Arteta took it as a personal insult and that basically since then they have not spoken.

Sounds like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

 

[Jack_the_boy]

Watch Arteta’s first press conference when he joined that we all lauded him for. Part of it was to do with the fact that if anyone’s not fully on board with what they’re doing or building, they have no place in the team. Whoever they are, no matter how popular. You can’t praise him for his speech then get mad when he acts on what he said. I respect his aura of authority. Previously too many were allowed to get away with whatever they wanted to do. Özil was not on board and acted against the club’s interest, multiple times. Arteta acted on the words he delivered in his first press conference.

 

[Iceman10]

espn reports that the actual reason Arteta sidelined Özil is because he refused to take the paycut and Arteta took it as a personal insult and that basically since then they have not spoken.

Sounds like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Different explanations for what led to pushing him out, this one (tweet/source) talks about coaches so seems more related to him keeping in shape and fitness during the Covid lockdown (?)

Edit: there is talk about the pay cut as a factor in the Independent article also.

 

[shoot for the top]

I think after the next 5 games, we can truly tell if Arteta has turned the page in regards to attacking football. I hope he has because I don't want to see similar football to the first half of the season ever again.

 

[drippin]

Haven't been in this thread much at all. I hoped people give the same treatment to Arteta that Emery got. Well today I saw "Greasy Mikel" or similar mentioned. Next we need the terrorist part there and I can say AM is truly an objective place!

Joking aside, it's interesting that Mikel made quite many similar decisions as Emery. Part of it is the squad they had after Wenger (truly love this guy, but he didn't leave us in the best position squad-wise.)

Anyway my stance is the same as with Emery (or any other manager). We need to give them time. So unless Arteta gets us relegated or something (loses the dressing room for example), then he gets to stay after this year, while after that he needs to give results.

It's a process and a project we got in our hands.

 

[novar]

This is all the more pleasing because not long ago a lot of people in here were convinced all our defenders were "uncoachable"

The not long ago was when Arteta was still providing solid defensive displays, and it was an argument done by Arteta fans in a sad attempt to justify being in 15th place. It boils down to the same problem Arteta has had the entire time, unwatchable and unconvincing football that is very easy to question when results aren't there.

Second half of the season will be great to see if Arteta's coaching is up to scratch and the team has actually improved under his guidance, or if it was just ESR or Laca or Saka or whoever you want and the moment they have a bad game we will still be looking like we deserve to be in the bottom half of the table.

Considering I only liked 2 performances in this half (Fulham and West Brom) I'm setting the bar quite low for him.

 

[Hleb's Sirush]

The not long ago was when Arteta was still providing solid defensive displays, and it was an argument done by Arteta fans in a sad attempt to justify being in 15th place. It boils down to the same problem Arteta has had the entire time, unwatchable and unconvincing football that is very easy to question when results aren't there.

Second half of the season will be great to see if Arteta's coaching is up to scratch and the team has actually improved under his guidance, or if it was just ESR or Laca or Saka or whoever you want and the moment they have a bad game we will still be looking like we deserve to be in the bottom half of the table.

Considering I only liked 2 performances in this half (Fulham and West Brom) I'm setting the bar quite low for him.

The football indeed has been unwatchable. There is really no excuse for that. Even teams full of championship level players are able to play nicer football than us. I wouldn't even mind if it was ugly but at least effective.

I agree with you on the coaching. We will have to see an improvement attacking wise. A coherent attacking plan because right now we are just at the mercy of a few players needing to produce something special or else we have no clue what to do. The best managers develop a system where if a player isn't available another just slots in. The quality of course might go down a bit but it won't drastically change the way they play. We only had Tierney not available against Palace yet that seemed to have massively changed the way we could attack.

 

[Rex Stone]

Was listening to Carlton Cole on some podcast. He said Roman Abramovich stopped him from going to Sp**s because he said “we don’t do business with Sp**s”. Also said Roman wanted to loan him out rather than sell him.

Interesting because that’s pretty hands on from Roman, especially when you consider Carlton Cole was nothing more than a decent young player.

Don’t think we have anything like that at our club. Our owners wouldn’t recognise Wenger if he walked past them.

Also think about how poorly they must rate the players they send us then

 

[Iceman10]

The not long ago was when Arteta was still providing solid defensive displays, and it was an argument done by Arteta fans in a sad attempt to justify being in 15th place. It boils down to the same problem Arteta has had the entire time, unwatchable and unconvincing football that is very easy to question when results aren't there.

Second half of the season will be great to see if Arteta's coaching is up to scratch and the team has actually improved under his guidance, or if it was just ESR or Laca or Saka or whoever you want and the moment they have a bad game we will still be looking like we deserve to be in the bottom half of the table.

Considering I only liked 2 performances in this half (Fulham and West Brom) I'm setting the bar quite low for him.

The transition away from 343, to four at the back (eventually to 4231), tends to be overlooked. Before we almost had to play 3 CB’s because our CB’s were not good enough or didn’t have enough confidence.

The transition took way too long, but I do give Arteta some credit for sticking to his guns rather than erratic tinkering things in panic in December such as reverting back to 343. This is where I think Arteta succeeded where Emery failed. When Emery felt pressure towards the end he totally crumbled, his tactics and tinkering was all over the place, hard even for the players to keep up or know exactly what they were supposed to do.

With Arteta also, I have to say the lines on the pitch have looked very good over the last 2-3 matches, even when now ESR seems to feel he has some freedom to roam and create. Not to say I’m convinced Arteta is going to be a top manager, there are other things to look at, including man management.