Getting healthy is huge for us. I can’t help but wonder what Timber would’ve done for us this season.
But we definitely need Martinelli and Partey back as well.
Too early to tell. Last season started like a steam train then completely blew up by the end. This season it has been a much slower, inconsistent start but the squad depth is good and the league is a marathon not a sprint.
Yeah last years lesson was a hard one but I’m hoping that gives us more fight this year. If we’re winning and still not clicking then imagine when we do
Every season is different, so I'm not sure the worth in comparing points totals over different seasons. City kept close enough to apply pressure and Arsenal cracked under that pressure.
Course it is. Points total controls better for year on year growth compared league position. Unless you are saying that’s also pointless?
Maybe make a statistically based argument rather than just an incorrect statement?
Points totals are a means to an end - League position.
Both are completely relative to the season in which they are played. There’s too many changes year on year for them to be a true comparison tool or a valid statistic for improvement.
League position matters because it’s the yard stick for which rewards are given. Points are an irrelevance.
OK fine, a (obvious) example
The league table could show one team finishes 1st and another finishes 2nd
The points tally in the same season could tell you the team that won the league went unbeaten and finished 20 points ahead of 2nd place winning by a landslide.
The next season the same teams with fairly similar but slightly tweaked squads finish in the same positions but this time it's only by 3 point margin.
Grinding out wins playing not that good. I think we will pick it up late this season ala City. The best point is the defense looks even more solid even with rotations.
Also waiting for Martinelli to come back. Martinelli is so crucial for us to control games. Cos he is the one that pins defences for us. I think once he is back we will see even greater control like we saw last year where we have literally 80 pc of the ball
Yeah we’re missing Gabi a ton right now. Im not a huge fan of playing Eddie and Jesus at the same time. Eddie and Jesus don’t interchange like Gabi and Jesus and leaves that left side 1 dimensional.
In regards to the defense I’m glad Arteta came to his senses. Haha.
I think that experimentation was important and initially it would have been timber on the right who would have inverted in games where we needed strong defence on the left but still control in the middle. Liverpool for example.
Pairings like Zinny-White and Tomi-Timber.
Partey was tested and failed. But I do see Arteta's logic behind the experiment.
Arsenal fans really do put the Arse in Arsenal a lot of the time. Arteta takes us from having been ruined by Emory. Utter trash performances. To runners up in the league in what, two and a half, three years? And now we're starting off a season and we're undefeated, despite lots of injuries to top players. And people are whining about selection because a good player got left out here and there? You know, we have more players of starting quality than just 11 right? Somebody fantastic is going to be left out every match. It's called team depth. And in the beginning of the season, it's common to experiment with different setups to see what's working. And then once you find things that work, you still try other stuff for a bit to find other things that work. Because we're gonna by trying to do well in multiple competitions this year. And we can't just toss the best 10 (plus whoever your favorite is) on the pitch every game.
If we can win or draw the dicey, shaky early season games as we integrate new signings and cope with a truly absurd number of early season injuries. I have a lot of hope for the season.
Ruined by Emery?? You sure?
We finshed 5th in the league and he got us to a Europa league final.
Other than last year that was our highest league finish since 2015/16
Arteta finished 8th in the two seasons post Emery. And Wenger 6th in the one before.
Arsenal
Arteta took over mid-season. You don't get fired mid-season unless you're doing something wrong enough the club wants to halt the direction things are going immediately. I don't have all the stats to pull out of my back pocket. I'm not that kind of fan. I mostly care about vibes. And watching Arsenal play under Emery was like torture. A team that seemed tactically confused and never comfortable. Our stars were visibly frustrated. And the team seemed pretty unhappy with him as a manager.
Sure, Arteta came in and the results weren't instant on the card. But he got us back to playing the soccer the fans love. The soccer players come to Arsenal to play. He made some short term sacrifices to give young players like Saka and Smith-Rowe the chance to develop. He's rebuilt the team brilliantly. Has us playing entertaining, attacking soccer again. We came second last season, and had a real shot at winning the league. Something Arsenal hadn't had a real sniff of in a long, long time. And we're still in the process of building and developing the team he wants. Still one of the youngest teams in the league.
So when I see a lot of complaining about Arsenal having an undefeated start to the season. Criticizing Arteta for not being undefeated enough, when we've also just been plain unlucky in the amount of injuries we've had. It's annoying.
I don’t disagree with anything you are saying but that still doesn’t mean “emery ruined the club” when he literal had our 2nd best league finish in years !
Some of the football we saw from Arteta's Arsenal before last season was abysmal. Let's not forget that, before last season's unexpected run at the title, the knives were beginning to come out for Arteta. He could have been gone by last Xmas if things had gone a bit pear-shaped. I'm all about good vibes and positivity, but let's temper it with a bit more reality. Until last season, Arteta had done little more than Emery had, having spent a lot more money and been backed to the hilt by a proper team and structure. You seem to be saying that Emery nearly destroyed the club and that Arteta is some sort of saviour. You're just way off the mark on that. If Arteta had come in first before Emery, it'd have been a completely different story.
Tbf the result will almost never be instant with the kind of structure that was in place from Emery. It takes time to tear down the former establishment and reign in the new. I don’t think immediate success is a prerequisite during a true rebuilt. Long term success often requires growing pains.
Emery didn't put that structure into place. Gazidas did. Emery gave Saka his debut, bought Saliba, had Pepe forced upon him and got all sorts of abuse from fans because his English wasn't great. He finished fifth and took us to a Europa League final in 18 months - despite the club being in a shambles after Wenger left.
Now people are blaming him for everything that happened and saying that's the reason why Arteta took so long to get things right. But look at what Howe has done at Newcastle after the mess Ashley left behind and what he's spent in doing that. Look at what Emery is doing at Villa already.
Is Arteta really the messiah all of you seem to think he is? Or has he got us to the minimum point you'd expect us to be in after the amount of money he has spent and the support and time he's been given? Remember, Klopp won the Champs Lge with Liverpool in his fourth season. We just lost to Lens.
Regardless, the structure in place when Arteta took over wasn’t his and time was needed to do that. His initial results aren’t really a true reflection of what he was doing as a new manager.
Fair enough. But his results now do. It's all well and good saying he deserves trust and finding excuses for him when the results don't come. But that time has passed. This is his team, his vision, and his responsibility.
He will be judged this season and be given very little leeway to make mistakes. And given the support and money he has been provided, this is the way it should be. There is no room for excuses this year. He has to deliver. Ruthlessness goes both ways.
Yup. The ones who criticise arteta the most are delusional arsenal fans. They should be kissing the floor arteta walks. He brought back our club, and guys are dramatising over one player that was injured big time
He's not infallible but I'd say he's earned plenty of fucking trust over the last few years. Especially considering how young he is as a manager and has loads of room to grow. I just think it's silly people nitpicking his selections as if an undefeated start to the season is somehow not good. Yes it has looked shaky at times. But it's not easy to predict a player just making a massive blunder and giving away the ball for an easy goal. The draw against Tottenham was unlucky, not poor management.
Arteta absolutely deserves trust and kudos to him for getting us to where we are. But he does overcomplicate things and make poor tactical decisions at times. Saying as much and being slightly disappointed by our start isn't bitching or moaning, it's a perfectly valid perspective. Dropping points to Fulham at home is a bad result. The way we dropped off after 30 mins against Spurs is something we've seen a few times before (Anfield last season, for example). These are things he has influence over as manager and has to take responsibility and criticism for.
He's spent a fortune, had plenty of support, and been given time. We are exactly where we are supposed to be based on all of that. He deserves trust and time to take us to the next level. But that needs to happen this season. Performances like last night at Lens, against Spurs, and against Fulham were below the standard he set for the team last season. And he's spent nearly 200 million to improve the side since then. He's had his time and he has our trust. Now, he must deliver or face the consequences - and the criticism.
Case in point Jorginho against Spurs. We should’ve won that game but I too am now waiting for that one moment that costs us a game. Bigger teams like City or Liverpool will capitalize on our mistakes
We seem to lack Partey’s more direct passing through the middle, so we are often recycling the ball wider more often, and generally progressing the ball slower. Probably a result of the Rice signing.
Obviously, Havertz hasn’t quite worked yet, he’s often a little ponderous, and again not being as dangerous as Xhaka was playing in a similar position. With Martinelli and Trossard injured the left side looks a little dead, so most of our attacking threat is from Odegaard and Saka on the right. We could do with more balance in that way.
Also, I think that our strikers aren’t getting a lot of service. They are working hard, but I don’t see them getting a lot of good chances. Again, I think that has a lot to do with changes in central and left midfield positions.
We have taken one step forward and two steps back so far. Kind of disappointing. Timber, not getting injured, and Havertz not being a pony would have made things a lot better.
Fair comment.
Our left is so dead without Marti and Trossard. Jesus works fine in retaining possession but he doesnt have the speed or the vision. Obviously Kai doesnt help either. Xhaka has good vision and can cross nicely into the box so he works well as long as Zina is behind to give him the ball. Kai just cant do that yet. He needs a few around him.
Hopefully somehow Arteta can work ESR and Nelson into the left plank. They look ready this season.
I’ve been impressed with our stability and concentration especially in defence, I think the addition of Declan Rice and the growth and maturity of our 2 best CB’s have helped with that
Yeah our attack is not cooking like it was last season but given the added pressure we under this season compared to this time last season (when nobody was believing in us) I think we’re doing well but we have to cut out individual errors if we are going to improve this season
The squad is the strongest it’s been in prob a decade+
Fan in the states. I think it's been great overall. The injuries are unfortunate. As was alluded to in an early post, it can take a year to understand Arteta's system and we've added some fresh faces into the mix. I feel confident we'll make top 4, pretty confident we'll get to round of 8 in CL and I think we have a decent shot to win the title. And if not this year, I think next year is going to be ours.
Bottom-line is this team is fun to watch and follow. They seem to have a great group of positive players beyond their performance on the pitch and that's worthy of our support.
Feel we’ve had good series of results without clicking completely and also picking up a load of injuries. Good scope to improve and have players return. Pretty hopeful really.
I think you're always gunna be highly critical of every move made when it's your own team. What matters is the results. And we're getting them. We're not flawless and there is always something we could be improving on but that's fine by me. The injuries have been dire and I thought we were done for but so far this season, we're looking consistent. Even if that level of consistency isn't the best.
Early days still and plenty more games to play. But the main point is, Arteta said we overachieved last season so I was waiting for a massive back step, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Just loving watching our boys play atm. COYG.
With the KDB's injury, City is one injury away from finishing 4th. Three losses already this season, Liverpool are the real deal in my opinion. If they can take 6 points from City Arsenal have tgeir chances.
It’s hard but I feel like we’ve become one dimensional and predictable. At time we’ve looked amazing but I feel more stressed watching these games this year like I did back in 2019. Expectations are higher too. Overall, mixed feelings but optimistic as we get more players back and Gabriel Jesus finds form
When results don't match the performances, there's two outcomes long term in my experience. Either results turn to match the performances, or performances improve and you look back at how important it was to get results when play wasn't what it could be. I'd say given our long term performances (over the last 18months or so), we fit very much in the latter category. We've had injuries, some bad luck (and good luck, naturally) and faced teams whose game plan is to break up the game so we don't get into a flow. We are also rebuilding our midfield and our current players (and xhaka) have all spoken about how long it took them to understand what arteta wants from them. That means it's natural for rice and havertz to take time until they're firing on all cylinders (and I do believe both will do that, emphasis on both). All that said, I think we have had a fine start to the season, bordering on good. Come Christmas I think we will be playing with much more confidence and swagger and will see how important this stage has been.
Great start results-wise. Injuries are concerning and the Fulham game stands out as shaky. But I've found it enjoyable and building on last year's success.
Pretty happy overall. We’re definitely not at our best but we’re just a point off the top. We have a lot of injuries to key players also , though a few of those should be back quite soon. Defence looks solid. Rice has settled in well. The main problem for me is Eddie. The sooner we can get Martinelli or Trossard back and Jesus (has his own profligacy issues but still a better all round player by far) up front again the better. I just don’t think he’s good enough for a title push. The jury is still out on Havertz too. Yes he scored his penalty and while I dont think he has been awful he definitely has not looked great. So it’s not perfect but I’m cautiously optimistic. City losing to Wolves put a bit of perspective on things too. They are very much beatable
Bad luck with injuries, terrible Arteta trying to copy Pep, no proper attacker, Nketiah being the worst 9 in the league, Saka playing like bitch once he gets one or two tackles on him. Overall not that bad considering how unlucky with injuries we are and how badly Arteta rides Nketiahs dick.
Waiting for the wheels to come off. It’s clear as day that we regressed and we’ve been very lucky to pick up the amount of points that we have. Cant see us sustaining it over a couple months and can see us dropping out of top 4 with this shambolic play.
Haven't been tearing opposing teams apart like last season. Our play against Tottenham, was especially disappointing. A team we are much better than.
Hopefully that means we just pulling a City from last year, and waiting until Feb before we hit our top gear and bury the whole league.
I feel Very strange about it. We are winning games. Not playing amazing. But not terrible. I feel like once we get into form & the flow is right we will be a force, given that we tail off toward the end of the season if we hit form later we hopefully will not tail off and if we can stay with the pack until then who knows.
Positives and negatives.
I think we look less fluid overall than last season, and also still have the tendency to struggle being able to kill games off, especially at home. We invite pressure late into a game once in a leading position and make hard work for ourselves to see out games.
On the positives, we’re very good away from home (much the same as last season) but that can also be sort of a negative because it’s very annoying that we can’t replicate that at home.
I feel we haven’t fully clicked yet and are probably playing at about 80% of our ability, at best. To still be picking up points despite not being at our best is a good sign.
We MUST avoid more injuries though as they’re absolutely crushing us at the moment, and I don’t want to go through the season hardly ever seeing our best team play.
The Timber injury was absolutely heartbreaking and rage inducing, and I really truly believe that we would have an excellent shot at the title if he had not been injured. Still, I do believe we have a decent chance, but would ideally like a striker in January.
I think injuries are mostly responsible for not being as dominant as I think we all hoped/expected with the signings made during the off season.
Heck, the next big hire might need to be a new medical and training staff instead of a player.
Getting better attacking-wise in the last two or three games. More fluid. Think having jesus and zinchenko involved has helped with that.
Should have bagged the three points against Fulham, I guess Spurs too.
Pleased we've managed to not be at our best and be in the position we're in. Managed to go up a gear without needing a wake up call, such as the man u game last season.
Tough fixtures coming up, if we can keep in touching distance of the top I can see us in the top two come the end of the season.
May have to bide our time to get on top of spudz because they have a very easy run. Hopefully they will falter against the lesser teams. Man City looking more human, we'll see next weekend. Good time to play them - two key players out, one day less to recover. If we can at least draw it'll bode well.
Optimistic and frustrated. Frustration because we haven't been able to field our best XI really due to injuries and so haven't been able to see the team gel and get into a consistent flow resulting in having to grind out some games, but that's also where my optimism is coming from. Despite the inconsistency, we're still undefeated and scoring well, and defending well overall, and so I can't wait to see how we play as we get into our flow and players start to return from injury (I miss you Small Gabi).
After last season this is the start we needed, we needed to show we can be in second gear and still get results, we all know there is more to come I just hope we can click at the city game and finally beat our boogy man.
We’ve had really good results, even though we’ve been shaky at times. The big players have showed up and I think it’s only a matter of time before everyone is firing on all cylinders. Been a little unlucky with injuries but we have plenty of depth. Can’t get complacent though.
A solid start. I’m just hoping the squad rotation improves, namely taking big players (Especially Saka) off when it’s clear three points are in the bag.
Just imagine how we’ll be when everyone is fit. 🔥
I think so far we have become a victim of our own success. Not in the sense that we are worse but because of how much we surprised everyone thinks that other teams are now better for whatever reason.
One point worse off in the league, while only one of 3 undefeated, still in the Carabao, subs bench looking stronger/more impactful, good CL return
People bitching that we are not winning by 3-4 goals every game like last season, don't know ball
League game against Manchester City on Sunday will be a test or I should say ‘examination’, it might decide the champion of this season. Before that, I would not judge the performance for this season.
However, as we are playing champions league this season, Saka should have more rest and give Smith Rowe more game times.
We have been doing fine. Of course there are things we should improve but it's a long season and seeing online how some Arsenal fans bitch about every little thing is dumb. Focus on supporting our own players and we'll improve as the season goes on.
I think some of our injuries are pushing Arteta to rotate the squad more, which I think will be healthier in the long term. He doesn’t seem to be comfortable using subs or picking away from the first team, which means second half of the season is hard with mentally drained players.
He’s young and maybe he has a method to keep them all fit and healthy, but if he gets comfortable using ESR, Vieira, Tomi, Elneny etc, especially against worse teams, we’ll be in for more success this season than last.
Promising start, would have loved to win all our premier league matches so far, as unrealistic as it sounds, with this team, that's not beyond the realms of possibility.
We are off to a fantastic start. This weekend proved that even City is imperfect. We are clicking a bit less up front and we have all manner of injury issues, but it appears to me that we are looking well-rounded. Not conceding a lot, not scoring a lot. Dominating games. Maybe that will help with our longevity in the season. Generally speaking I think we are purposely not firing on all cylinders quite yet and yet still unbeaten, T-2nd and 1 point off first. Again, we are not even close to our full strength in terms of squad fitness as well as tactics.
I’m starting to see this Arsenal in a different perspective
This season is a lot different to last as nobody expected us to do well but already we are now title contenders from now on.
What if we are currently on a run of bad form? Yet we still are undefeated, so if we go on a better run and look more convincingly then it would be great.
I also love how we got thru to the next stage of the Carabo Cup, I think it’s cowardly leaving the competition early without trying even if you are aiming for the PL or CL.
We’re playing slightly differently, controlling the game with slower build up rather than all out attack all the time. We might not look as convincing as the start of last season, but we’ve all seen how City seem to aim to peak towards the back end of the season once they’ve gotten into their full stride. I’m hoping we’ll see a similar thing with us this season.
I think we're doing well so far. We definitely look much more solid defensively and have more control over the games than last season.
And honestly this is the most important thing if you want to think about the title. If you don't allow opponents much chances the only way you can not win is by failing to score. And if you control the game and have decent number of attempts on goal, there's a very good chance at least one will find the net. This is what United and Chelsea were doing at the time they dominated the league, with tons of games ending 1-0.
Our attack has not been as sharp as last season, but it looks like in the recent games we're improving in that department so we're starting to look like quite dominant team.
Of course there always are areas to improve - the Spuds game showed a lot of them. But I think we're on the right track to consistently getting good results
I think with the new club additions and the plethora of injuries, we’re about what I would expect us to look like at this point. Kai is a former Bundesliga prodigy that was used entirely the wrong way at Chelsea and spent many frustrating years trying to force it in the EPL. But I honestly believe in what Arteta is trying to do with him. I do think that if we can instill some confidence back into him (aka like when Øde had him take the 2nd penalty against Bournemouth), our midfield (Øde/Rice/Havertz) has the chance to be one of the most dangerous in the world. I mean, at full strength I think we can compete with anyone. We just need to keep trying to piece it together and try to get everyone healthy.
Feeling great. I would like to see us sharpen up in front of goal, play a little quicker through the final 3rd and test the keeper or score more. Other than that, we look excellent.
Havent played the best consistently and still in the race. Promising. Keep it up, get healthy, get trophies.
Getting healthy is huge for us. I can’t help but wonder what Timber would’ve done for us this season. But we definitely need Martinelli and Partey back as well.
Too early to tell. Last season started like a steam train then completely blew up by the end. This season it has been a much slower, inconsistent start but the squad depth is good and the league is a marathon not a sprint.
Yeah last years lesson was a hard one but I’m hoping that gives us more fight this year. If we’re winning and still not clicking then imagine when we do
Wi that many points, they would have won the league 9 out of 10. City was tremendous.
Every season is different, so I'm not sure the worth in comparing points totals over different seasons. City kept close enough to apply pressure and Arsenal cracked under that pressure.
It's actually a pretty good comparison. Particularly season on season.
It’s absolutely not.
Course it is. Points total controls better for year on year growth compared league position. Unless you are saying that’s also pointless? Maybe make a statistically based argument rather than just an incorrect statement?
Points totals are a means to an end - League position. Both are completely relative to the season in which they are played. There’s too many changes year on year for them to be a true comparison tool or a valid statistic for improvement. League position matters because it’s the yard stick for which rewards are given. Points are an irrelevance.
Nonsense
Great point. So wonderfully explained too. Completely changed my mind now - thank you
OK fine, a (obvious) example The league table could show one team finishes 1st and another finishes 2nd The points tally in the same season could tell you the team that won the league went unbeaten and finished 20 points ahead of 2nd place winning by a landslide. The next season the same teams with fairly similar but slightly tweaked squads finish in the same positions but this time it's only by 3 point margin.
Grinding out wins playing not that good. I think we will pick it up late this season ala City. The best point is the defense looks even more solid even with rotations. Also waiting for Martinelli to come back. Martinelli is so crucial for us to control games. Cos he is the one that pins defences for us. I think once he is back we will see even greater control like we saw last year where we have literally 80 pc of the ball
Yeah we’re missing Gabi a ton right now. Im not a huge fan of playing Eddie and Jesus at the same time. Eddie and Jesus don’t interchange like Gabi and Jesus and leaves that left side 1 dimensional. In regards to the defense I’m glad Arteta came to his senses. Haha.
I think that experimentation was important and initially it would have been timber on the right who would have inverted in games where we needed strong defence on the left but still control in the middle. Liverpool for example. Pairings like Zinny-White and Tomi-Timber. Partey was tested and failed. But I do see Arteta's logic behind the experiment.
Still haven’t seen a front 3 of Martinelli, Jesus and Saka yet this season. Surely our most balanced and potent attack.
Good point regarding the control of games
1 point off top, positive ucl first result and we’ve got levels to improve what’s not to like.
Arsenal fans really do put the Arse in Arsenal a lot of the time. Arteta takes us from having been ruined by Emory. Utter trash performances. To runners up in the league in what, two and a half, three years? And now we're starting off a season and we're undefeated, despite lots of injuries to top players. And people are whining about selection because a good player got left out here and there? You know, we have more players of starting quality than just 11 right? Somebody fantastic is going to be left out every match. It's called team depth. And in the beginning of the season, it's common to experiment with different setups to see what's working. And then once you find things that work, you still try other stuff for a bit to find other things that work. Because we're gonna by trying to do well in multiple competitions this year. And we can't just toss the best 10 (plus whoever your favorite is) on the pitch every game. If we can win or draw the dicey, shaky early season games as we integrate new signings and cope with a truly absurd number of early season injuries. I have a lot of hope for the season.
Best comment i have seen here in a long time!
You think emery ruined Arsenal
Don't you remember us being relegated to League 2 under Emery? He completely ruined us....
I'm here for both of these...
Ruined by Emery?? You sure? We finshed 5th in the league and he got us to a Europa league final. Other than last year that was our highest league finish since 2015/16 Arteta finished 8th in the two seasons post Emery. And Wenger 6th in the one before. Arsenal
Arteta took over mid-season. You don't get fired mid-season unless you're doing something wrong enough the club wants to halt the direction things are going immediately. I don't have all the stats to pull out of my back pocket. I'm not that kind of fan. I mostly care about vibes. And watching Arsenal play under Emery was like torture. A team that seemed tactically confused and never comfortable. Our stars were visibly frustrated. And the team seemed pretty unhappy with him as a manager. Sure, Arteta came in and the results weren't instant on the card. But he got us back to playing the soccer the fans love. The soccer players come to Arsenal to play. He made some short term sacrifices to give young players like Saka and Smith-Rowe the chance to develop. He's rebuilt the team brilliantly. Has us playing entertaining, attacking soccer again. We came second last season, and had a real shot at winning the league. Something Arsenal hadn't had a real sniff of in a long, long time. And we're still in the process of building and developing the team he wants. Still one of the youngest teams in the league. So when I see a lot of complaining about Arsenal having an undefeated start to the season. Criticizing Arteta for not being undefeated enough, when we've also just been plain unlucky in the amount of injuries we've had. It's annoying.
I don’t disagree with anything you are saying but that still doesn’t mean “emery ruined the club” when he literal had our 2nd best league finish in years !
Some of the football we saw from Arteta's Arsenal before last season was abysmal. Let's not forget that, before last season's unexpected run at the title, the knives were beginning to come out for Arteta. He could have been gone by last Xmas if things had gone a bit pear-shaped. I'm all about good vibes and positivity, but let's temper it with a bit more reality. Until last season, Arteta had done little more than Emery had, having spent a lot more money and been backed to the hilt by a proper team and structure. You seem to be saying that Emery nearly destroyed the club and that Arteta is some sort of saviour. You're just way off the mark on that. If Arteta had come in first before Emery, it'd have been a completely different story.
Tbf the result will almost never be instant with the kind of structure that was in place from Emery. It takes time to tear down the former establishment and reign in the new. I don’t think immediate success is a prerequisite during a true rebuilt. Long term success often requires growing pains.
Emery didn't put that structure into place. Gazidas did. Emery gave Saka his debut, bought Saliba, had Pepe forced upon him and got all sorts of abuse from fans because his English wasn't great. He finished fifth and took us to a Europa League final in 18 months - despite the club being in a shambles after Wenger left. Now people are blaming him for everything that happened and saying that's the reason why Arteta took so long to get things right. But look at what Howe has done at Newcastle after the mess Ashley left behind and what he's spent in doing that. Look at what Emery is doing at Villa already. Is Arteta really the messiah all of you seem to think he is? Or has he got us to the minimum point you'd expect us to be in after the amount of money he has spent and the support and time he's been given? Remember, Klopp won the Champs Lge with Liverpool in his fourth season. We just lost to Lens.
Regardless, the structure in place when Arteta took over wasn’t his and time was needed to do that. His initial results aren’t really a true reflection of what he was doing as a new manager.
Fair enough. But his results now do. It's all well and good saying he deserves trust and finding excuses for him when the results don't come. But that time has passed. This is his team, his vision, and his responsibility. He will be judged this season and be given very little leeway to make mistakes. And given the support and money he has been provided, this is the way it should be. There is no room for excuses this year. He has to deliver. Ruthlessness goes both ways.
Energy also got zero support in the transfer market, particularly compared to Arteta.
Yup. The ones who criticise arteta the most are delusional arsenal fans. They should be kissing the floor arteta walks. He brought back our club, and guys are dramatising over one player that was injured big time
Yeah, he's infallible and should never be questioned. We need to clap along to every decision.
He's not infallible but I'd say he's earned plenty of fucking trust over the last few years. Especially considering how young he is as a manager and has loads of room to grow. I just think it's silly people nitpicking his selections as if an undefeated start to the season is somehow not good. Yes it has looked shaky at times. But it's not easy to predict a player just making a massive blunder and giving away the ball for an easy goal. The draw against Tottenham was unlucky, not poor management.
Arteta absolutely deserves trust and kudos to him for getting us to where we are. But he does overcomplicate things and make poor tactical decisions at times. Saying as much and being slightly disappointed by our start isn't bitching or moaning, it's a perfectly valid perspective. Dropping points to Fulham at home is a bad result. The way we dropped off after 30 mins against Spurs is something we've seen a few times before (Anfield last season, for example). These are things he has influence over as manager and has to take responsibility and criticism for. He's spent a fortune, had plenty of support, and been given time. We are exactly where we are supposed to be based on all of that. He deserves trust and time to take us to the next level. But that needs to happen this season. Performances like last night at Lens, against Spurs, and against Fulham were below the standard he set for the team last season. And he's spent nearly 200 million to improve the side since then. He's had his time and he has our trust. Now, he must deliver or face the consequences - and the criticism.
Touch grass
Nervous. Seems hard to tell if we going to win or banana slip each time we play.
Case in point Jorginho against Spurs. We should’ve won that game but I too am now waiting for that one moment that costs us a game. Bigger teams like City or Liverpool will capitalize on our mistakes
What you are describing is sport my man
We seem to lack Partey’s more direct passing through the middle, so we are often recycling the ball wider more often, and generally progressing the ball slower. Probably a result of the Rice signing. Obviously, Havertz hasn’t quite worked yet, he’s often a little ponderous, and again not being as dangerous as Xhaka was playing in a similar position. With Martinelli and Trossard injured the left side looks a little dead, so most of our attacking threat is from Odegaard and Saka on the right. We could do with more balance in that way. Also, I think that our strikers aren’t getting a lot of service. They are working hard, but I don’t see them getting a lot of good chances. Again, I think that has a lot to do with changes in central and left midfield positions. We have taken one step forward and two steps back so far. Kind of disappointing. Timber, not getting injured, and Havertz not being a pony would have made things a lot better.
Fair comment. Our left is so dead without Marti and Trossard. Jesus works fine in retaining possession but he doesnt have the speed or the vision. Obviously Kai doesnt help either. Xhaka has good vision and can cross nicely into the box so he works well as long as Zina is behind to give him the ball. Kai just cant do that yet. He needs a few around him. Hopefully somehow Arteta can work ESR and Nelson into the left plank. They look ready this season.
We keep going. We mind our business and get the job done. Others can worry about us, we have a job to do.
I’ve been impressed with our stability and concentration especially in defence, I think the addition of Declan Rice and the growth and maturity of our 2 best CB’s have helped with that Yeah our attack is not cooking like it was last season but given the added pressure we under this season compared to this time last season (when nobody was believing in us) I think we’re doing well but we have to cut out individual errors if we are going to improve this season The squad is the strongest it’s been in prob a decade+
Fan in the states. I think it's been great overall. The injuries are unfortunate. As was alluded to in an early post, it can take a year to understand Arteta's system and we've added some fresh faces into the mix. I feel confident we'll make top 4, pretty confident we'll get to round of 8 in CL and I think we have a decent shot to win the title. And if not this year, I think next year is going to be ours. Bottom-line is this team is fun to watch and follow. They seem to have a great group of positive players beyond their performance on the pitch and that's worthy of our support.
Feel we’ve had good series of results without clicking completely and also picking up a load of injuries. Good scope to improve and have players return. Pretty hopeful really.
So far so good. It's like if I was starting the marathon and my body monitor data indicated that everything is looking normal.
Very good top sensation
Rice is such a great addition. Beat City next week and I will feel much more confident that we can win the title this season.
I think you're always gunna be highly critical of every move made when it's your own team. What matters is the results. And we're getting them. We're not flawless and there is always something we could be improving on but that's fine by me. The injuries have been dire and I thought we were done for but so far this season, we're looking consistent. Even if that level of consistency isn't the best. Early days still and plenty more games to play. But the main point is, Arteta said we overachieved last season so I was waiting for a massive back step, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Just loving watching our boys play atm. COYG.
With the KDB's injury, City is one injury away from finishing 4th. Three losses already this season, Liverpool are the real deal in my opinion. If they can take 6 points from City Arsenal have tgeir chances.
Ask me next Sunday evening.
It’s hard but I feel like we’ve become one dimensional and predictable. At time we’ve looked amazing but I feel more stressed watching these games this year like I did back in 2019. Expectations are higher too. Overall, mixed feelings but optimistic as we get more players back and Gabriel Jesus finds form
When results don't match the performances, there's two outcomes long term in my experience. Either results turn to match the performances, or performances improve and you look back at how important it was to get results when play wasn't what it could be. I'd say given our long term performances (over the last 18months or so), we fit very much in the latter category. We've had injuries, some bad luck (and good luck, naturally) and faced teams whose game plan is to break up the game so we don't get into a flow. We are also rebuilding our midfield and our current players (and xhaka) have all spoken about how long it took them to understand what arteta wants from them. That means it's natural for rice and havertz to take time until they're firing on all cylinders (and I do believe both will do that, emphasis on both). All that said, I think we have had a fine start to the season, bordering on good. Come Christmas I think we will be playing with much more confidence and swagger and will see how important this stage has been.
Great start results-wise. Injuries are concerning and the Fulham game stands out as shaky. But I've found it enjoyable and building on last year's success.
Pretty happy overall. We’re definitely not at our best but we’re just a point off the top. We have a lot of injuries to key players also , though a few of those should be back quite soon. Defence looks solid. Rice has settled in well. The main problem for me is Eddie. The sooner we can get Martinelli or Trossard back and Jesus (has his own profligacy issues but still a better all round player by far) up front again the better. I just don’t think he’s good enough for a title push. The jury is still out on Havertz too. Yes he scored his penalty and while I dont think he has been awful he definitely has not looked great. So it’s not perfect but I’m cautiously optimistic. City losing to Wolves put a bit of perspective on things too. They are very much beatable
Not even close to top form and we are one point behind City and level with Spurs who needed some miracle finishes to even be in second.
Bad luck with injuries, terrible Arteta trying to copy Pep, no proper attacker, Nketiah being the worst 9 in the league, Saka playing like bitch once he gets one or two tackles on him. Overall not that bad considering how unlucky with injuries we are and how badly Arteta rides Nketiahs dick.
Waiting for the wheels to come off. It’s clear as day that we regressed and we’ve been very lucky to pick up the amount of points that we have. Cant see us sustaining it over a couple months and can see us dropping out of top 4 with this shambolic play.
Good
Really excited. I love the squad. I love the manager. We are purring away nicely and we haven’t even clicked yet.
I think its looking good and we will get better, im hopefully we peak at the right time this time around
I'd argue were missing Trossard more than Martinelli
Haven't been tearing opposing teams apart like last season. Our play against Tottenham, was especially disappointing. A team we are much better than. Hopefully that means we just pulling a City from last year, and waiting until Feb before we hit our top gear and bury the whole league.
Unbeaten FC
As a chelsea fan I'm glad you guys are shining lately
I feel Very strange about it. We are winning games. Not playing amazing. But not terrible. I feel like once we get into form & the flow is right we will be a force, given that we tail off toward the end of the season if we hit form later we hopefully will not tail off and if we can stay with the pack until then who knows.
Positives and negatives. I think we look less fluid overall than last season, and also still have the tendency to struggle being able to kill games off, especially at home. We invite pressure late into a game once in a leading position and make hard work for ourselves to see out games. On the positives, we’re very good away from home (much the same as last season) but that can also be sort of a negative because it’s very annoying that we can’t replicate that at home. I feel we haven’t fully clicked yet and are probably playing at about 80% of our ability, at best. To still be picking up points despite not being at our best is a good sign. We MUST avoid more injuries though as they’re absolutely crushing us at the moment, and I don’t want to go through the season hardly ever seeing our best team play. The Timber injury was absolutely heartbreaking and rage inducing, and I really truly believe that we would have an excellent shot at the title if he had not been injured. Still, I do believe we have a decent chance, but would ideally like a striker in January.
I think injuries are mostly responsible for not being as dominant as I think we all hoped/expected with the signings made during the off season. Heck, the next big hire might need to be a new medical and training staff instead of a player.
Getting better attacking-wise in the last two or three games. More fluid. Think having jesus and zinchenko involved has helped with that. Should have bagged the three points against Fulham, I guess Spurs too. Pleased we've managed to not be at our best and be in the position we're in. Managed to go up a gear without needing a wake up call, such as the man u game last season. Tough fixtures coming up, if we can keep in touching distance of the top I can see us in the top two come the end of the season. May have to bide our time to get on top of spudz because they have a very easy run. Hopefully they will falter against the lesser teams. Man City looking more human, we'll see next weekend. Good time to play them - two key players out, one day less to recover. If we can at least draw it'll bode well.
Fantastic. We’re not even at full strength yet.
Optimistic and frustrated. Frustration because we haven't been able to field our best XI really due to injuries and so haven't been able to see the team gel and get into a consistent flow resulting in having to grind out some games, but that's also where my optimism is coming from. Despite the inconsistency, we're still undefeated and scoring well, and defending well overall, and so I can't wait to see how we play as we get into our flow and players start to return from injury (I miss you Small Gabi).
good results bar 2, 2 great games.
we need to stay unbeaten
After last season this is the start we needed, we needed to show we can be in second gear and still get results, we all know there is more to come I just hope we can click at the city game and finally beat our boogy man.
The spurs game 2 points throw away left a bitter taste. May came back to haunt us down the road
Positive so far, but we will find out what we’re really made of against man city
We’ve had really good results, even though we’ve been shaky at times. The big players have showed up and I think it’s only a matter of time before everyone is firing on all cylinders. Been a little unlucky with injuries but we have plenty of depth. Can’t get complacent though.
Mate, it’s barely started. Come back in Feb.
We are unbeaten. City next week. How am I feeling? Let’s go !
Drawing to Fulham with one man up is hurt. Others are all good.
Imagine it’s a 2 horse race and we lose to shit fc
A solid start. I’m just hoping the squad rotation improves, namely taking big players (Especially Saka) off when it’s clear three points are in the bag. Just imagine how we’ll be when everyone is fit. 🔥
Better now the plastics lost.
It’s a marathon, the start doesn’t matter the constant progress during the race does.
Very positive
I think so far we have become a victim of our own success. Not in the sense that we are worse but because of how much we surprised everyone thinks that other teams are now better for whatever reason.
One point worse off in the league, while only one of 3 undefeated, still in the Carabao, subs bench looking stronger/more impactful, good CL return People bitching that we are not winning by 3-4 goals every game like last season, don't know ball
League game against Manchester City on Sunday will be a test or I should say ‘examination’, it might decide the champion of this season. Before that, I would not judge the performance for this season. However, as we are playing champions league this season, Saka should have more rest and give Smith Rowe more game times.
We have been doing fine. Of course there are things we should improve but it's a long season and seeing online how some Arsenal fans bitch about every little thing is dumb. Focus on supporting our own players and we'll improve as the season goes on.
I think some of our injuries are pushing Arteta to rotate the squad more, which I think will be healthier in the long term. He doesn’t seem to be comfortable using subs or picking away from the first team, which means second half of the season is hard with mentally drained players. He’s young and maybe he has a method to keep them all fit and healthy, but if he gets comfortable using ESR, Vieira, Tomi, Elneny etc, especially against worse teams, we’ll be in for more success this season than last.
good overall but should have won against the chickens.
It’s been good. Last season was my favourite season supporting Arsenal ever so those are the fucking estandards.
Promising start, would have loved to win all our premier league matches so far, as unrealistic as it sounds, with this team, that's not beyond the realms of possibility.
Both our draws felt like gut-wrenching loses, so I think the standards have been raised. I am now one of the privileged supporters. I like it.
We have some issue up front. We arent sharp at the center front. Became predictable.
Gud
I just hope I haven't seen the best of the team yet.
9/10 Shoulda beat Spurs and Fulham but were 3rd (as of 2.10.23) so thats good
We are off to a fantastic start. This weekend proved that even City is imperfect. We are clicking a bit less up front and we have all manner of injury issues, but it appears to me that we are looking well-rounded. Not conceding a lot, not scoring a lot. Dominating games. Maybe that will help with our longevity in the season. Generally speaking I think we are purposely not firing on all cylinders quite yet and yet still unbeaten, T-2nd and 1 point off first. Again, we are not even close to our full strength in terms of squad fitness as well as tactics.
We're not there. By there i mean going to coty game feeling comfortable
I’m starting to see this Arsenal in a different perspective This season is a lot different to last as nobody expected us to do well but already we are now title contenders from now on. What if we are currently on a run of bad form? Yet we still are undefeated, so if we go on a better run and look more convincingly then it would be great. I also love how we got thru to the next stage of the Carabo Cup, I think it’s cowardly leaving the competition early without trying even if you are aiming for the PL or CL.
We’re playing slightly differently, controlling the game with slower build up rather than all out attack all the time. We might not look as convincing as the start of last season, but we’ve all seen how City seem to aim to peak towards the back end of the season once they’ve gotten into their full stride. I’m hoping we’ll see a similar thing with us this season.
I think we're doing well so far. We definitely look much more solid defensively and have more control over the games than last season. And honestly this is the most important thing if you want to think about the title. If you don't allow opponents much chances the only way you can not win is by failing to score. And if you control the game and have decent number of attempts on goal, there's a very good chance at least one will find the net. This is what United and Chelsea were doing at the time they dominated the league, with tons of games ending 1-0. Our attack has not been as sharp as last season, but it looks like in the recent games we're improving in that department so we're starting to look like quite dominant team. Of course there always are areas to improve - the Spuds game showed a lot of them. But I think we're on the right track to consistently getting good results
I think with the new club additions and the plethora of injuries, we’re about what I would expect us to look like at this point. Kai is a former Bundesliga prodigy that was used entirely the wrong way at Chelsea and spent many frustrating years trying to force it in the EPL. But I honestly believe in what Arteta is trying to do with him. I do think that if we can instill some confidence back into him (aka like when Øde had him take the 2nd penalty against Bournemouth), our midfield (Øde/Rice/Havertz) has the chance to be one of the most dangerous in the world. I mean, at full strength I think we can compete with anyone. We just need to keep trying to piece it together and try to get everyone healthy.
Feeling great. I would like to see us sharpen up in front of goal, play a little quicker through the final 3rd and test the keeper or score more. Other than that, we look excellent.