Arteta out? Arsenal’s slump analysed, and the real problem at Manchester United…

The first Mailbox of 2024 carries Stewie’s New Year message and potential excitement at the prospect of Mikel Arteta being replaced. Also: here’s the real problem with Manchester United…
Get your views in to theeditor@football365.com…
Make or break for Arteta
I understand why most Arsenal fans are bitterly disappointed with the end of year showings against West Ham and Fulham, but I find myself in another place – oddly relaxed and even excited.
The majority have been kidding themselves a crisis was not looming for the better part of a year. A slow decline was evident after the players returned from the World Cup with the team shipping an increasing number of soft goals long before Saliba’s injury exacerbated the defensive woes.
I posted here I had expected such issues to be addressed in the off and then pre-season but it was clear they were not. Entering the season Arteta made dubious decisions and then doubled down. He chose Havertz as a pet project (no point in re-litigating that) but then disrupted the team to accommodate him. The season commenced with Arteta dropping Gabriel from defense and moving Party to right back for no logical reason. Further, players out of favor, also for no logical reason, such as Tierney, Balogun and Smith Rowe were isolated and treated with apparent disdain.
As the season progressed the team began to play turgid, constipated Arteta-ball as though possession was the be all and end all. Arsenal encouraged teams to low block against us as we dithered around endlessly playing half-moons from Saka to Martinelli and back again. As we headed to the New Year, the entire team looked spent and devoid of inspiration. In the corresponding fixture last year a newly signed Trossard had three first half assists (a record) against Fulham but yesterday evening he looked a shadow of himself as Arteta has consigned him to the roll of bit player. Even more alarming the imperious Rice has floundered in the last two outings.
But, it remains exciting things have come to a head already. This is a mid-season collapse with no excuse of an end of season burnout. Arteta is forced to reinvent himself and his managerial approach in real time. The team looks stale and not a single player has improved or even held their own compared against last year and all stats underlining the fact.
To state the obvious, Arteta is facing a sink or swim spell. My personal jury is still out. Evidently Arteta has a skill set but increasingly I believe his lack of experience coupled with the mistaken idea he can re-invent the game has driven a talented team into a dead end. Regardless, if Arteta can’t re-inspire the team in the near future the odds will surely be increasing he won’t be managing Arsenal next season.
In other words change will be coming either sooner or later…and that is exciting to contemplate.
Dom
Arsenal and the illusion of competitiveness
In the parenting of young children there is the concept known as the “illusion of choice”. It basically involves giving the little ones to option to decide between 2 choices so they feel empowered and in control:
Do you want to brush your teeth or get dressed?
Which do you want to eat first, your carrots or your broccoli?
I say all this to explain that I have come to the conclusion that “Mama” Mikel (and maybe with “Papa” Pep’s blessing) has implemented a variation of this concept with Arsenal fans that I will term the “illusion of competitiveness”
Do you want to play a full back who is a complete defensive liability or one who is as likely to injure himself as pass to a teammate more than 5 yards away?
Would you like a garbage faux Brazilian forward who can’t finish his dinner or a German one who despite costing £60m is so slow and so disinterested out of possession that attempts to determine his best position inevitably find the answer to be “on the bench”?
Shall we run Saka into the ground until he suffers a major injury or just continue to hope teams will simply roll over and refuse to utilise a low block?
I’ve made my peace with the fact that my club Manchester United is comprehensively awful and likely to continue to be for some time to come.
But even in such dire times it’s still refreshing to be reminded that the third club colour of Arsenal is a streak of yellow. Only 4 pts taken from the last 15. A squad with talent certainly, but simply not enough cojones, either on the pitch or in the dugout.
However it’s the hope that kills, and a majority of Arsenal fans continue to labour under the delusion that this squad led by this manager can actually win major trophies. It’s like later Wenger years revisited, where there is a glimmer of hope, a suggestion of progress, but in the end years are wasted on the road to nowhere.
Robert Vard
Read more: Fulham fight and spark shines light on their current absence in Arsenal’s stalling season
Christmas hangover
Has a team ever before been number 1 at Christmas and then number 4 by New Year’s Eve?
Christian (where will they be at Easter?) Copenhagen
Here’s Stewie
Remember that Spurs team so many were mocking after Kane left in a shambles? And their new manager nobody really knew, that came in? That Spurs big Ange team of the infamous kamikaze high line madness, who were definitely Not title challengers…are currently just a single point behind Arteta’s Arsenal.
Remember what I said about Unai Emery, who was given nowhere near the freedom, budget and patience at Arsenal? That same Emery took a squad that Stevie Me almost relegated, and has them outperforming Arteta’s Arsenal, after more than half the season gone.
Remember how the Arsenal fans wailed when I consistently pointed out that Arsenal FC is a club rooted in Wenger DNA? To be clear: the club is eternally in a position whereby its fans are legislating for failure. The benchmark is lowered year after year. So this year for instance, if Arsenal scrape 4th – and make no mistake I’ll call it now: Arsenal have gone from title challengers to challenging for a top 4 spot – Arsenal fans will celebrate usurping Emery. Just watch it happen! The objectives before this season were clear: a real and lasting title challenge and European progress.
Arteta spent £200m over the summer to supplement a team that had just bottled a league title. He did not lose a single key player from that title-challenging side and had full authority to implement lasting change for the better. The season isn’t over but my eyes work: Arsenal’s attack is more predictable. Their passing patterns are slower. The midfield is leggy and slower. The buildup play is laborious. There is zero midfield creativity – the manager apparently had no idea Thomas Partey makes Darren Anderton look like Iron Man lol. Persistently injured. The full backs are not providing width because his precious pet Zinchenko, continues to play “inverted bollocks” whilst giving away cheap goals. I won’t even mention the usual suspect Championship level jesters. Nketiah on for 90 miniutes in a crucial league match. LOL. It is a complete shitshow and a mess from full back, right across midfield, up to the attack.
If I was Stan Kroenke, I would be on the phone to Xabi Alonso and would be throwing him a big summer budget to take over this utter confused mess, and implement some structure, and a serious mentality. Arsenal fans are in the main, addicted to heroic failure – so the notion of being ruthless and upgrading will be unpalatable to them.
Mikel Arteta is a decent coach but as I said when he bottled last season: he is never going to get Arsenal over the line. He is a Tesco Finest Iberico Brendan Rodgers, nothing more. A very decent coach, but perhaps a maiden title win at his beloved Rangers might be the only way he actually wins anything, just as Rodgers did.
Arsenal fans spent years celebrating mediocrity and telling us they were succeeding, when it was obvious to the world they were failing. Liverpool learned with Rodgers and sent him packing – it would be wise for Arsenal to do the same with Arteta in my view. This isn’t based on “one game” – it’s based on a lasting trend, which is so on-brand for “Wenger DNA FC”, which effectively means imploding the minute there is pressure and expectation. No other so-called big club quite does pressure collapsing like Arsenal. THIS is the DNA that years of Wenger-worship has wrought! I wrote this to 365 as far back as 2008, after Arsenal imploded in that Eduardo season, a title that was there for the taking.
Arteta is about to finish 4th in a two-horse race!
Stewie Griffin (happy new year!)
Accommodating Havertz
Changing tactics to accommodate Havertz(or whoever playing this role is the most braindead decision ever. Only the blind cant see the downgrade in performance for most players just to include a player in.
To enable this fake “LCM” bullsh*t you need Zinchenko to playmake every single time at LB. If he underperforms then he will be killed by the fans, (although at least the last 3 goals was White fault yet nobody said anything). Today against Fulham they asked Kiwior to invert? I mean the guy was slightly autistic you want him to play the most difficult role in the world? If we got Xhaka (or proper LCM) today we could just play any standard LB and just be okay. Thats why Tsimikas can play there when Robertson is out.
To enable this “fake LCM” bullsh*t that Havertz is playing makes us LIGHTER in midfield with only Zinny and Rice in it most of the time. This is why we are second best mostly despite Ricr gargantuan effort.
To enable this tactic the LB is burdened with playmaking, thus leaving Martinelli alone on the left, with Havertz barely have any connection with him and impact his play. Seldom shooting too because literally no space.
The RB sometimes overlap thus makes us super predictable. The progress of play is to pass to Saka and hope for him to cross far post. Thats all.
Having Havertz in is a GOOD tactic but not the GO TO PLAN A. He isnt good enough to accomodate for the drop off in other players. Yes he scored sometimes but please understand the tactics was made for him understandably he would shine here and there, so far is the tradeoff worth it to you? None whatsoever.
People said buy Toney, buy Osimhen, buy whoever but with this tactics even Mbappe would struggle if being left alone on the left.
Only a proper LCM 8 can save us. Or at least buy Palhinha and move Rice to 8. Drop this useless tactics accommodating Havertz as plan A, or play him CF. Stop using square pegs for round holes.
Syfq Amr, celebrating new year in vain.
The only team that can stop City
It’s beginning to look a lot like City for the league…again. The flaws in all others seem too frequent.
A very biased view, but I think Liverpool, powered by Chaos himself, might be the only team that could stop them.
Aidan, Lfc (unless we lose against Newcastle and then we’re all screwed)
The real problem at United
Remember when Jose was the problem ?
Remember when Pogba was the problem ?
Remember when Ronaldo was the problem ?
Remember when Ed Woodward was the problem?
Remember when the Glazers were the problem ?
MUFC is a constantly shifting blame game.
How can players have confidence if they know that a few mistakes will make them the next “problem”. A few mistakes and a player will have their reputation destroyed by the Neviller, Scholes, Keane – before it all goes viral and is recycled by the press.
Who will be next “problem” to be blamed and thrown out ?
A) Ten Hag
B) The recruitment team
C) Anthony / Sancho / Onana / Rashford / Maguire
D) All of the above
How many weeks until Sir Jim Ratcliffe / Ineos are the problem ?
“What does a chemicals billionaire know about football anyway ?” (F365 mailbox – next month)
I’ll tell you where the real problem lies: the fans. Entitled, whining glory-boys who got fat on two decades of repeated success.
They forgot how to be fans. They forgot how to take the rough with the smooth – and how to find humour in getting their butts kicked. They are failing the club every day – online, in the pubs and in the stadiums. Every day.
Manchester United’s fans are the problem.
Tom (multiple facepalm emojis) E13
Where Ten Hag is going wrong
I don’t blame the ineptness of replacing Mainoo with McTominay as a graver offense than ETH saying that the team would get better once the injured players arrive in Jan. Clearly tells you that he does not have set patterns of play for different conditions, nor does he know how to set teams up based on what’s put it front of him and unfortunately that is enough for him to be sacked with immediate effect. He has more than once stated that he wishes to set the foundation for the better players to make a difference. While that is expected at times, it shouldn’t be bigger than general strategising, else the team would keep relying on individual brilliance each time, which makes achieving positive results regularly impossible to strive for.
United are completely incapable of breaking down deep lying teams simply because there are no patterns of off-the-ball running being practised, no set plans to try and cut teams open.
During open football, the team is incapable of stringing a decent number of passes together to break through the lines.
Only during counters and against high pressing teams, at times and at times only does the team break free given the skills of certain individuals and one cannot be relying on a that for an entire season.
Of all the threads, posts and expert opinion I see, the primary culprits always seem to be some player or the other. Martial or AWB not doing enough, McTominay and Amrabat not tracking back well enough, mistakes in defense and I could go on. The real crux of the matter is that there is no strategy in place which helps our first team understand their strengths and maximise on it. This to me is the major worry. With this team, controlling games and general attack play and shots on target should not be a problem, but the problem is that it is.
Another point is set pieces, the easiest guide to whether proper strategising is taking place and we know the answer to that one.
To end, I still feel that whilst no team can be the same with so many injuries, planning and strategising does play the most important role in today’s game which was expected from ETH and which has been sorely lacking (and almost non-existant recently). United need to look desperately for someone who can plan appropriately and take the team forward in the direction each one of us likes to see it go.
Saby MUFC Reading
ETH following in Ferguson’s footsteps
I read a lot of the knee-jerk media coverage about Man Utd. We all do. Even Liverpool fans who like to gloat can’t get enough.
There are lots of comparisons with the past from journalists keen to prove why ETH isnt the man for the job and must go. My favourite is this one:
Man Utd have lost 9 of their opening 20 league games for the first time since 1989-90.
It’s not a great statistic is it? Clearly ETH isn’t the man. But what’s this? Utd didn’t sack the manager with such an appalling record in 1989? What were they thinking of?!
Just to clarify, the manager with such a bad record was a certain Alex Ferguson. So it seems even great managers might need time to build.
And, as this site has pointed out, the current 2-year cycle of manager change isnt really working is it?
Is ETH going to a great manager? Who knows. There are problems everywhere you look at OT, until these are fixed it really isn’t possible to see if ETH is one of them. To the Utd fans calling for his sacking now, ask yourself would you have been so vocal about sacking Ferguson in 1989?
Happy New Year to all…
Lee (not the one who gets published all the time)
Where’s the joy?
I went to the City Ground last night, second game of the season after the 0-1 reverse vs Crystal Palace at OT – only two games my sons have seen – it’s not an impressive start!
Amongst the myriad faults regarding ETH (tactical inflexibility, substitutions, playing players out of position), club (player purchases, wages, contract renewals) and owners (enough said) it is noticeable just how joyless it has all become. If you told someone with no knowledge of the game that the purpose was to score more goals than the opposition, they’d be completely baffled by Utd’s first half approach-there’s ‘trying to quieten the crowd for 20mins’ and then there was that-just a complete lack of energy, interest, commitment, running, care.
Second half was more interesting but hardly better, and the histrionics at the end, where multiple Utd players threw themselves on the floor at the final whistle, does not ring true. Garnacho aside, where was the effort for the preceding 80mins?
I’d suggest keeping ETH until the end of season at least and instigating a clear-out of players (Martial, Sancho, Antony, McTominey, Maguire, Reguilon, Lindelof, AWB, Casemiro), but it does him no credit as to just how joyless it has all become.
Happy New Year!
Andrew, Banbury
Liverpool, refs, and handball
Why I think VAR is worthwhile, and an idea for a better handball rule which makes full use of the potential of VAR.
While I won’t dispute that Lee has the data to show bias by Paul Tierney, and not to say that there shouldn’t be action, but I think that the need to dive into statistical data shows how much better things are now than they have been in the past, and I credit VAR for a large part of that.
I know this is a personal anecdote, but it illustrates how things have changed. In the years before Twitter, most internet fan discussions would happen on dedicated football message boards. When the mods started up a new thread for an upcoming Liverpool game, the first few comments would always be Liverpool fans asking “Who’s the referee going to be?”. No other fans seemed to understand why, but we knew that there were some refs who were worth a goal head start for the opposition every game and a couple of refs who would give whatever decisions it took to guarantee points for the opposition, if it was just me, I’d call that paranoia, but we could all see it. Moreover, any referee who gave a controversial decision that benefitted Liverpool would be excoriated in the tabloid press meaning that few if any refs would take that risk. An immediate VAR review gives refs the confidence to make difficult calls without risk of being dragged by the press. From what I can see the worst thing for VAR has been replacing the strict rules with whatever the hell “good process” means.
I don’t doubt there are still things to be fixed today, but I remember 1988, and I remember reading a tabloid newspaper interview (published on the morning of the FA cup final) in which the referee for the final stated that he thought Liverpool winning everything was boring and he hoped they lost. For all of its issues, the ‘interesting’ decisions in that 1988 final wouldn’t be repeated in the age of VAR.
To my second point, why can’t we get a handball rule that works? For a long time I thought we should just adopt hockey-style ankle-ball rule. In hockey, if the ball hits a player’s ankle, it’s a foul. The end. An opponent strikes the ball into your foot from less than a meter away? Tough luck, you should have jumped. It’s fair because there’s never a decision to make and everyone knows in advance what’s going to happen.
However, there are reasons why people wouldn’t want this style of handball rule, so my idea is this, what about an LBW style rule, but sort of the opposite. “It is handball if the ball strikes a players hand and would not have directly gone on to strike another part of the players body* with which they could have legally played the ball, and in which the area of the body that would have been struck was less than or equal to the area of the hand or arm that was struck by the ball.”
Examples:
Hands protecting the face, not handball.
Ball bounces off the leg and into and outstretched hand, handball.
Ball would have glanced off a players shoulder but is instead stopped dead by a hand, handball. (Area rule.)
Arm close to the body, but helps ‘trap’ the ball when it hits the chest, handball. (Because the hand blocked the clear path away from the body.)
*and I would favour adding in “or a part of a teammates body” leading to:
The same as above but the player is next to a teammate and the gap between them is less than a ball width, not handball. (Covers the freekick wall situation which is covered by ‘intent’ in the existing rules).
This is where VAR can really help. Creating player outlines and ball paths can be done very quickly by computers and an indisputable YES/NO on handball could be given within seconds of an incident.
No more questions of intent or “unnatural” positions and any legitimate reason a player would have to handle the ball remains legal, and this rule simplifies the existing concept of a player making their body bigger. Certainly there would be different outcomes versus the existing rules and some outcomes would seem harsh, but they would be fair, and if hockey players can learn to jump ankle-breaking shots, then footballers can learn to put their hands in line with their bodies.
For games with no VAR it involves an amount of guesswork by officials but no more than any of the existing rules and it doesn’t involve the impossible act of mindreading (intent) in the definition.
And that unfortunate Everton player (Onana?) who shielded his face from the ball, got hit in the face anyway, and then conceded a penalty, would at least not have conceded the penalty.
Barry, LFC, Chippenham.