The press have got their darlings who can do no wrong. Lampard and Arteta have been obvious ones. Abramovitch sacked Lampard and caused a massive surprise. Yet he was proved right. No way could Frankie have taken this team (assembled at great expense) to two massive Finals. Arteta has been let off very lightly so far. You are right. His team selection and substitutions during matches are just weird and many would say completely irrational. He played without a striker in the first leg to ape pep his mentor not taking into account that his midfield hardly score any goals. And he subbed Aubamayang when he is the only player coming near to scoring.
Personally think Arsenal are in a perilous position as they have been losing money in recent years if iirc and the pandemic and no European footy next year are just going to exacerbate that trend ..
Ironic thing is his record is far worse than Emery during same time period. Worse lesgue position. Worse win rate. Less goals scored. And now just got dumped out but villareal who are managed by you guessed it.... But because he’s seen as the new pep he gets off very lightly. Admittedly looking at that arsenal squad not much there but they had a period were they were playing saka and smith-rowe, martinelli, with willock and mainland-miles, nketiah playing bit parts and they looked energetic but seem to have gone back to old guard who just don’t look great.
Arteta should get one last chance but only by agreement with dof. If he walked into me wanting forwards and attacking players I would sack him tomorrow. Its early obvious they need two strong cbs and another player beside partey who can actually run. Get that and tidy the rest. Theres fabulous young players there. If he cant build a really solid defence that's mean and his side cant out work others cos they are fitter and fresher then out you go.
Maybe he just needs someone to make it all tick. Reminds me of how badly Ollie was floundering until he lucked into Fernandes. It all just came together, now suddenly Ollie's a great manager.
Leicester are teasing us again I see. They are seriously up and down. Those 4 thrown away points are going to haunt us.
Bar it never actually did come together. It was an embarrassing cl campaign with a piss easy europa route that he has potential to **** up, more cup disasters and a barely acceptable league campaign that.might not get past mid 70 points. Arteta has Smith Rowe who did well and broke the funk but what did arsenal do? They stripped what was good out of their attack to accommodate an on loan odengard while ignoring their terrible defense and dodgy midfield behind the attackers, again. Imo they dont need a Fernandes, they need a vvd, and an allison, and a henderson to go alongside partey. In other words they need exactly what we lost during the year and hope to regain from game 1 next season please please please.
Wow.... 2-0 newcastle. Leicester are going to fall over the line this year, last season they failed but this season lfc just are too **** to punish them.
They're a damn sight better than they were before. They've already got more points than they finished with last season and the previous one.
if they lose or even draw Leicester are in trouble. They could finish quite realistically on 64 -66 as their last 3 matches are horrible. Unless MU prioritise our match over them and play a weak side on Tuesday against them. In which case they may get over the line. They will be vulnerable to West Ham and us no doubt about that.
They have conceded less than anyone bar Chelsea , Man utd and City so i don't buy the crap defence. Personally think the central midfield is the real problem as it barely exists plus their attack is overrated as people just assume Arsenal are an attacking team and under Arteta that just isn't true .
Leicester having the first stage of their collapse... Can I repeat? 4th place now assured of CL football
Shame we ****ed uo v Leeds and Newcastle. Could be a couple points behind Leicester with games in hand after their collapse
Even now we are in a good position. If they get a draw against Spurs and finish on 65. So we would need 4 wins out of 5