Arsenal man ‘needs to be dropped’ as Mikel Arteta in last chance saloon
Arsenal and their flawed manager dominate the narrative but there’s plenty to be said about Aston Villa too.
But is a £100m signing part of Arsenal’s problems rather than the solution?
Send your views to theeditor@football365.com
Rice, Rice baby
Someone in the mailbox, I think IJR wrote, and I quote “If it had been Liverpool or City in the same situation, I would bet one of my top-shelf cheese dips that the ball would have been scooped from the net immediately while every single player got themselves back for the restart.”.
The problem is that exactly 365 days ago, Man City scored an injury time equalizer against a 10 man Arsenal at their home,and they did pick the ball up (Erling did), but he did not rush to restart, he used it on Gabriel’s head. I will be needing that ‘Top Shelf Cheese dips’.
The funny thing is that the media went against Arsenal for not trying to score after going 10 man down at the Etihad against a previously unbeaten Man City side. But now they are bemused that he went ultra defensive for the first time in 601 games, and Arteta is slandered for not starting Eze, Personally I would have preferred Nwanieri, because no one knew Pep was going to go defensive (for the 1st time in 601 games, personnel on the pitch not withstanding, Eto’o once played as a right back). Maybe Eze is not used to our midfield pressing … Maybe he would have brought in him in the 30th minute or something.
How come no one is talking about Rice’s terrible form, if someone needs to be dropped, it should be Declan, I will be most pleased if we get Merino’s left leg over there to remind us of Xhaka. His capable of some creative passes, something I have never seen Rice do, especially against teams we are expected to dominate.
I digressed. The truth is the media loves to have a go at Arteta, he is very flawed… We know, we ain’t stupid… But be objective. It is said we went to Anfield to try not to win, that’s funny, bringing in Eze and Odegaard when the game was 0-0 was to do what? It was not a backs to the wall defensive display. In fact Liverpool’s only touch of the ball in the Arsenal box in the first half came from a Raya error. One will say they were not trying to attack (I know how Liverpool’s attacking waves looks like).
That being said, we know that the only thing standing between us and the league title is Mikel Arteta, not any team. If he cannot deliver it…
Just saying.
Kufre, Nigeria
This is surely Arteta’s last stand
If Arteta doesn’t win the Premier League this season, he’s done all he can at Arsenal. Simple as that. He’s tidied up the Emery mess, reconnected the fans, built a squad with an identity, and even made Spurs fans bitterly jealous again (always fun). But football isn’t about “progress” forever — it’s about finishing the job. If he can’t deliver the big one this year, it’s time to admit he’s the man who rebuilt Arsenal, not the man who’ll win with Arsenal.
It’s like a 90s action film: Arteta has been their John McClane — crawling through air vents, taking bullets, blowing up the villains. They’ve had the car chases, the explosions, the one-liners. But now they’re at the final act. And in these films, if the hero doesn’t beat the final boss, there’s no sequel. The studio finds a new star and reboots the franchise.
Meanwhile, City are basically the Terminator — relentless, soulless, and financially engineered in a lab. Liverpool are trying the tired sequel to the first classic. United? We’re the straight-to-DVD knock-off everyone laughs at. Chelsea? They’re that bloated blockbuster where the studio spent half a billion on CGI but forgot to hire a decent writer or director. And Spurs? Well, they don’t even get a script.
This season is Arsenal’s blockbuster finale. If Arteta wins it, he’s the leading man they stick with. If he doesn’t, then it’s time to recast before the franchise goes stale.
Gaptoothfreak, Man. Utd., New York (waiting for the director’s cut where Arsenal actually win the league)
Is Mikel Arteta the lesser Rafa?
I was wondering if we have previously seen a manager similar to Arteta …
yes! Drumroll…. Presenting Rafa Benitez!
Similarities beyond the obvious identical nationality:
– inveterate caution. Seeking to control games more than prioritizing more on winning games. Vibe of seeking not to lose than going for win.
– ornery: do they even have friends amongst other mgrs? Besides just rivals?
– strong siege and victim mentality. Me against the world.
– fallouts with players : lucas torreira etc vs Xabi alonso
– decent player acquisitions
– decent player development: presiding over growth of top english players: saka and rice vs Gerrard
– turned around perennial underachievers to regular qualifiers for ucl
– best finish in the league: bridesmaid(s)
Differences – where Rafa is ahead:
– Rafa never got the amount of budget that Arteta got. Whereas Arteta could net spend (halo net spend) upwards of £700mil, and on strong supporting players such as odengaard, non madueke, ben white… rafa’s most expensive buys were … torres for £20 mil, javier maschy for £14mil, xabi for £10.5 mil. Aquilani’s £20 mil was offset by Xabi’s £30 mil sale to Real. Maschy’s sale proceeds went into the black hole of hicks and gillett. Rafa wasnt even given the extra budget to buy Gareth barry, nowhere near in stature or relative price (adjusted for inflation) as declan rice.
– Yet, rafa did more with less. 2 league titles at valencia, plus one uefa cup. At lfc, two ucl finals winning one. Won the fa cup in his second season, making it consecutive seasons with a cup. In his third season, ucl finals. Thereafter, ucl quarters.
(We’ll ignore his subsequent lesser exploits , which still included another uefa cup at chelski, as temp manager).
– arteta has , in his favor… one domestic cup, one big win over Real (which Rafa matched, thrashing them 4-1 at anfield), 3 consecutive bridesmaid finishes, and most points over a 3 yr period! (TM)
In summary, to those still defending arteta, i’m not saying he’s bad. He’s regained Arsenal’s respectability in the league and in europe.
However, for £700+ net spend, should he not be held to a higher standard?
Moreover, is he capable of winning the biggest prizes: epl title or ucl? Jury is still quite out. For the amount he’s spent and has been supported with, can another manager do a better job? Those are the questions hanging over arteta’s head.
Gab YNWA
PS mystery why someone with Rafa’s resume is still unemployed. Does he really have a serious problem getting along with front office and players? Strange. I’ll always have a soft spot for him, doing what he did to restore previously moribund lfc’s fearsome reputation in europe, and ability to recruit world class talent to liverpool: xabi, javier maschy, pepe reina, world class torres, score-for-fun gerro. That was as world class a central spine as any. Until rafa, we’ve never had such a collection of world class international talent (until Klopp!!!). For the money and scouting rafa did to put that together, it was an incredible job.
MAILBOX: Mikel Arteta is ‘Tony Pulis in a Gunners jacket’ as Arsenal pilloried
Chaos v caution
In November 2020, Klopp’s Liverpool went up against peak Guardiola City. The match was at the Ethihd, yet Klopp started Salah, Mané, Firmino, and Jota together. The first 20 minutes were bonkers with Liverpool having 4 shots on targets to City’s 0 and going 1-0 up. It was incredibly fun to watch. It finished 1-1 in the end but showed Klopp was never afraid to be bold, and make big calls. No idea why I thought of that match after watching Sunday’s game.
Mike, LFC, Dubai
Taking a point off City bad now, is it?
Very much enjoying emails from other team’s fans – and it’s always other team’s fans – explaining that actually, taking a draw from the team that has won 4 of the last 5 Premier Leagues is bad now.
Simon, London
Forever blowing bubbles…
In an ever-changing world, filled with creeping nationalism, corporate greed and erosion of hard fought rights. Where blackness is virtue and the road is full of mud, where despotic regimes can buy out the sport of the working class and taint it forever with the blood of innocents, where Theo Walcott is paid for his opinion and VAR tramples on our beautiful game with jack boots, I find it very reassuring that there are still West Ham fans writing in to F365 claiming that their one quite good player should be in the England team.
It’s the one constant of the last 25 years.
Is that player even eligible for England? I hardly think that matters. It’s like a warm blanket on a chilly autumn afternoon. God bless you West Ham Fans!
Jeremy (old enough to remember when that player was Matt Jarvis) Aves
What on earth is wrong with Aston Villa?
1 goal, 0 wins, 3rd from bottom, Mick… it can’t go on like this, can it?
In some ways, it looks like Villa have been terrible so far. Well in all the ways really. But our struggles against bottom half sides who are happy to let us faff about are not new: last year, away to Palace, Man Utd, Ipswich, Spurs and Wolves, we took 1 point from 15; beating Everton and Wham away were both a bit lucky. Even Southampton wasn’t a guarantee before Old Sharpshooter Watkins himself came off the bench to score and then publicly reprimand his manager for daring to pick strikers ahead of him who score a fucking goal occasionally.
Sunderland, Brentford, Palace, etc may well not end up in the bottom half this season, but the principles they deployed against us – 5 across the back, let Villa put themselves to sleep with possession, use set pieces well, be clinical on the break – worked like a charm for them just as it did for the others last year (even Amorim Utd ffs). Some may say we should have corrected this, and yes we should; but to correct our short duvet problem, we need to invest in more duvet.
But while extra duvet is off the, er, table, what should be done differently? Well conceding on the break is a problem. If we want Tango (Maatsen) and Cash ploughing up the wings to overlap the inverted wide players, it would make sense to use 3 at the back – Mings and Konsa have played at full back before and Torres in the middle being given licence to move into midfield a lot would seem good to me. Seeing as Onana gets injured whenever the wind blows, the holding players are going to be 2 of Kamara, McGinn, Tielemans or Bogarde – an extra defender behind them seems wise.
So going forward, that leaves 3 attacking players. Rogers and Watkins have to be dropped now: Watkins can’t score without getting 2-3 sitters out of his system first, and if he’s only getting 1 chance per game, the maths is not difficult there. Rogers has disappeared, I don’t know what’s happened but it’s now at the point where he needs to sort himself out on his own time. Elliott and Sancho (yes I know) both looked miles more lively than the pair of them yesterday – even the Sky commentators noticed apparently – so pick them with Guessand. Ideally, putting someone like Douglas Luiz, Moussa Diaby, Jhon Duran or Jacob Ramsey into this mixture would be perfect but… well. You know why we can’t do that.
The next few games are Bologna, Fulham, Feyenoord, Burnley. We really need some wins in the morale bank there because after the international break we’ve got Spurs, Man City and Liverpool in the league, back-to-back. Then M Tel Aviv at Villa Park for what may be described as a hostile atmosphere; if we’re still in the bottom 3 when Iraola and Semenyo come to town on the eve of another bloody international break, I have a feeling we know what comes next…
The team does have a look of late-stage Benitez about it, so maybe a new consigliere instead of Pako would help; and the Nanny McPhee sideshow should be put to bed now.
But are we really saying Emery should be fearing for his job? We just aren’t going to get a better manager. We were playing PSG in the Champions League 6 months ago. We got to a European semi final for the first time in 40 years the season before that. Emery’s win rate is higher than *every* manager we’ve ever had.
If there was a manager out there who could offer us even a 10% chance of achieving these things in the future, then fine, go for it. But if Emery hadn’t taken the job in 2022, would he want it now? Squad being rinsed by accountants every transfer window, we can’t sign anyone, squad at its limit? Not a chance. Who were his predecessors – Gerrard, Deano, Bruce, Di Matteo, Black, Garde, Sherwood, Lambert, McLeish… Being able to attract someone of his calibre in the first place was a miracle, never mind now.
How many other clubs in the league have decided to use new manager bounces to trampoline them to where they want to go? How many of them realised afterwards that they just wanted to feel like they had control of the situation, and wished they hadn’t started a chain of stupid decisions? We are a *very* short step away from turning into West Ham. Never mind Be Careful What You Wish For, we are still in Don’t Be F***ing Stupid Territory.
If he goes, who would we be linked with? Klopp? Ancelotti? Come on. While the clock is ticking over Amorim’s head, coaches like Iraola, Silva, Glasner are not going to hurl themselves down the league for us. It’ll be Potter, Southgate, Rodgers, Nuno, Lopetegui, Carrick, Phil Neville… I’m getting depressed just looking at that list already. Unless we appoint a manager who can bring with them a totally legitimate sponsorship deal that scares UEFA away and allows us to spend as much as we like, the club’s problems will still be here. While the biggest solution we’ve ever had will be gone.
Neil Raines UTV
Who should win the Ballon?
Generally I’m not really a fan of the award that has basically been dedicated to two players for a decade and a half even when others were more deserving (Lewandowski and Haaland should both have one in my opinion)
But I see a lot of chatter about who should win it. So let’s talk about the candidates.
Raphinha – had a great season last year for a very entertaining hansi flick side but had little competition and lost out to inter in Europe showing that super weak mentality that Barca have been guilty of sometimes in Europe. I don’t think raphinha is the right choice.
Mohammed Salah – had a riotous season where he broke some more records for his club and in the league. Notched up a ridiculous goals and assists tally while his team with a brand new manager won the league again. He did disappear during the league cup final and was marked out of the game by Nuno Gomes as he slowed down at the end of the season but I think Salah is one of two who should seriously be considered.
Yamal – supremely gifted for sure but way less important for his team right now than either Salah or the other major contender…..
Dembele – ousmane had the opposite season to Salah, started very slowly to the point he was invisible for the first quarter of the season. Got better as the season went on and became crucial to psg winning a treble. The french league is less competitive than the premier league so the league and cup aspects are perhaps not as impressive, and we should also keep in mind fff moved league fixtures a few times specifically to help psg in the champions league and give them more rest.
For me it’s between dembele and Salah who had very similar seasons in terms of productivity and consistency.
Who will they pick this year? They’ll probably find some excuse to give it to Messi again but in the event they don’t Salah and dembele are the best two.
Lee Baron
