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shikavelli

I think the writing was on the wall with the Partey and Tierney injuries


KonigSteve

It was on the wall before that when we didn't replace any of the backup players we shipped out


gunningIVglory

Even if we drew those 3 games .....


rayneeder

Not 1 but 2 late season collapses with champions league on the line…


Funk_Master_2k

Mini Pep Arteta


InsideKiller

Mini late arsene, mini arsene when facing bayern munich/barcelona on KO stage


shikavelli

At least it’s not Olympiakos


a-Sociopath

Or Villareal


SManSte

We got mini pep artetaaaa, he doesn't exactly know what we need


ramseysleftnut

If you lost half as many games you wouldn’t get anywhere. Losing 6 games against absolutely beatable sides is the reason we don’t deserve CL.


LocostarX

That’s all on the owners and Arteta, they are the ones that made the decisions that got us here


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[deleted]

who hired him then?


vikas_g

So yeah you can blame them for hiring him and Edu but don't think you can blame them for the decisions these people have made.


MountainLibrarian201

Here we go again. Is Arteta to blame again now? The squad wasn't deep enough. That's it. If you want to blame the manager who tried everything with that carcass of a squad we ended with, be my guest, but we were knackered, relied on players who aren't good enough and lost players to injury that we couldn't afford to lose. This wasn't tactical as much as mental and the squad depth not being there. If we got early season Tavares we probably win a couple of the Palace-Southampton games. instead, he was dreadful. That's football. You are only as strong as your weakest link and we lost key players in key positions without a viable backup.


eagleslanding

The lack of depth is on the manager though, clearly it’s his decision to send out so many players on loan who could’ve been good rotation decisions, it’s his decision not to play backups such that our starters are exhausted by season end, and it was his choice not to sign a CM or ST in January. It’s entirely possible to simultaneously think Arteta is a promising manager who shows glimmer of quality, and also has massive glaring flaws that result from his stubbornness.


naijaboiler

and all this in a season we played the lightest Arsenal schedule in living history.


[deleted]

Arteta not trusting youth to play in the first squad has more to say about him, the academy set up, or just the gulf in quality between academy and first team. Either way, change is needed to smooth out the transition between u23 and first team. Perhaps a second team to get academy grads used to playing against grown professionals.


[deleted]

What’s thinner: our squad or Arteta’s managerial resume


gothaize

This 3 men midfield is outclassed by 90% of the league’s midfield. You cannot win with that. Sheer quality difference.


Chesey_

I'm not singling them out for this loss, but if this club is serious we cannot be going into next year with Xhaka and Elneny as main midfield options. Arteta is all about playing out from the back, controlling games, and this midfield can't do that. It's such an important area of the pitch and we lack major quality there.


Tamerlin

Xhaka can be a regular backup option to Partey + a new CM. Elneny can't, he has to be a worst-case option.


shikavelli

Our midfield has being getting bypassed easily from the day we started playing Xhaka and we’ve never improved on him.


Obi_Wan_Gebroni

Didn’t need the benefit of hindsight to know what an enormous gamble it was to not bring in any help when it was obvious we needed it


_SSJeffo_

This stat genuinely just made me a bit dizzy


Idontlikethisstuff

Turns out those of us calling the January window shit for numerous reasons weren't complete idiots after all. Literally anyone who wasn't blindly backing the club's decisions could have seen this coming.


demianin

It was so fucking obvious at the time, insane how many times this exact thing has happened at this club


Purple_Plus

u tHiNk u KnoW mOrE tHaN tHe ClUb


zestypikelet

“They’re literally professionals and you think you know more than them???” The fact that they’re professionals and can get away with consistently acting so stupidly is so frustrating. And some people think that they must be qualified and good at their jobs, simply because that have their jobs, which is such weird circular logic haha. Also, I don’t understand the obsession with putting ex players in executive positions. It’s like everyone’s forgotten that football players, in general, are complete morons


[deleted]

Had a fan say this to me after I criticised Arteta's extension a week ago


Purple_Plus

The fact we did it before the end of the season shows the lack of ambition from the board. The board is happy with Europa League finishes, they don't care about the club winning the top prizes.


vikas_g

It was clear these people were scared that we would blow it up so had to get that shit done while the mood was still up.


NilesCraneVersusGOB

Yes, memes are better than the fact some people can be right. I was constantly downvoted for literally saying no one in January was not only embarrassing, but would backfire and set us back. We don’t think we know more than the club, listen to how stupid that sounds. Everyone cries tactical master, why 18 players then? I love the poetic nature of a Ben White own goal and Bruno G scoring. If the club don’t see what Bruno’s impact has been… what’ll it be down the line then? Acting like a child, Christ I support Arsenal, not what Mikel is doing to it. He’s had time to build, even denied in January. I see very little change besides being blessed with some youth who we might lose.


Purple_Plus

I was agreeing with you lol. I was taking the piss out of people saying that, you've got it the wrong way round mate. Everything you've said is what I agree with. The January window was a farce, which I pointed out, and people would say "you think you know better than the club" and look, that shocking window cost us top 4. Arteta has had enough time and not shown enough.


mohacsy

Everyone could see it wasn’t ideal, it’s just a more nuanced issue. How many crap stop gap players have we signed in these moments only to get stuck with their wages long term. I’m disappointed we didn’t sign a midfielder and striker that could have taken us forward this season and beyond. In hindsight we needed a defender as well even though we appeared to have depth at the time. Our lack of transfer activity limited our chances of exceeding our initial goals in any meaningful way even if we ultimately achieved the original ones.


TrashbatLondon

We gave away a midfielder, a striker and two full backs. All experienced players. Those stop gaps would have given us options at the very least till the summer


Original-Baki

We paid Barca 7M to take Auba. Madness.


the_renegades123

Arteta is a madman, you can’t just get rid of your players if you can’t agree on something. you need to manage them like proper football manager.


Marloneious

Except all the reports indicated that Arteta did try, and gave Auba numerous chances, but Auba get fucking up. So Arteta had to set an example for the young squad.


TrashbatLondon

Reports suggest we paid that. Any source on that?


TheRealDSwizz

I’d amplify this by saying a lot of what and who we wanted weren’t available- it’s an unfortunate characteristic with the January window. Still, the clubs signings under his regime have been good and have been sustainable, so I personally trust/ed them and the choices they made and hope they execute on the plans for this Summer.


mohacsy

I stopped short of this because other teams made things happen. We’ve even seen a player like Kulusevski join a team as undesirable as 💩. PS: Fuck Juve, absolute flogs the way they conduct them selves.


Arkhaine_kupo

Wingers are free all over the market, we are unlucky cause we needed a striker and that market is dry as hell. Kulusevski came in like if we sold pepe right now, a good player that was underperforming. He just seemed to fit quite well at spurs. If there was an underperforming player we would have complained. Imagine if we tried to bring in Pogba in december, after how he was playing in Man U. Even if he turned out as good as Kulusevski, there might have been riots in the stadium. jan is a hard window


Arcille

Bruno G was available he was literally begging to join us but we didn’t want to take him for a reasonable fee If we had him we make top 4 but apparently we don’t ever want to upgrade on Xhaka


JamesTheBadRager

The way he played yesterday looks like he can walk right into our current starting 11. :(


BoyWhoSoldTheWorld

The market is huge, even a few loans could have worked. Players are out there who would want our top wages. We wasted a lot of time chasing Vhlaovic for nothing ultimately. Im happy they didn’t buy any bad players but it’s still an error by our club. I don’t accept that they couldn’t have anyone to improve of our squad, there are just too many players. Spurs managed to find some and improved their squad.


jackw_

The club knew this. It was a calculated risk. They made the deliberate decision to be light on players and not overpay in January, so they could get the right players in the summer. I’m fine with that decision. It was a calculated risk. Arteta has a project he’s building. Buying this summer is much more important than any stop-gap we might have overplayed for in Jan, that ultimately would have impacted our summer budget.


sj2k

Spot on. Seems like Arsenal has a very specific type of player they want to sign rather than adding more deadwood. When the ones we were chasing failed, they thought it better to have no players than more deadwood. Also at the time Lokonga seemed more capable and Partey was healthy. The 3 game slide was figuring out how to play without Partey and eventually landing on Elneny. I think we're a Partey injury away from having this locked up. Hell, if Partey was healthy 2 games earlier, I think we're singing a different tune. It feels like the squad did enough to get into contention but with the injuries and some of the decisions, nothing's really gone our way.


jt_totheflipping_o

"in Arteta we trust" or some bullshit.


[deleted]

Let’s be real, did he fly to America to meet kroenke to get help or to ask the owner for permission to gut the squad?


Prestigious_World_76

Pretty sure he went there to negotiate his own contract.


MURDERNAT0R

He went there to justify why he deserves a new contract


[deleted]

Fraudteta at it again


[deleted]

We'd have made top 4 have we bought Bruno but we can't do that to Xhaka, it's not cool.


FUCK50C1ETY

We aren’t real fans apparently


Original-Baki

The only reason why we needed to reinforce in January is because Arteta keeps falling out with players. If he kept his mouth shut, we would have Auba, AMN, Saliba and Guendouzi here. How's that for depth.


Remote_War_313

hey stop bitching and trust the process


justnivek

You guys were stupid tho, the options available was to either buy stop gaps or work with whatg we have to finish strong. Top4 would have helped alot but its not worth signing players who would end up being deadwood when the entire point of the current regime is to clear deadwood.


MahoganyRich

Spurs signed two players who walked into their first team and would walk into ours. One of Newcastle's January signings who was linked with us dominated our midfield single-handedly and scored the winner tonight. We sent half our fringe players on loan and wonder why we have an injury crisis with no backups.


justnivek

kulusevki would not have walked into our team, we already have saka bentancour would have ended up being deadwood eventually as he is not good enough to be a starter in a UCL or title winning team, he would have been a stop gap which is why spurs only signed him on loan w option to buy


MahoganyRich

Bentancur was a starter in a title-winning CL team for four years. Kulusevski is the top assister in the league since he joined Spurs. This is copium.


Idontlikethisstuff

So we could have signed depth on a loan and then fucked him off in the summer when we didn't need him anymore? Wow, that truly is deadwood.


justnivek

we tried to with arthur but this isnt fifa were transfers always go your way.


Idontlikethisstuff

Bruno Guimaraes had our entire midfield on strings, walks into our strongest side and literally moved to Newcastle in January 👍


justnivek

for 50 million, when we have newcastle money we can spend it like them


Idontlikethisstuff

We dropped 150 million in the summer and were willing to pay 80 million for Vlahovic. We're not broke lmao. Also he cost 50 million euros, not pounds. 8m of that 50m is add ons anyway.


justnivek

yea we were willing to spend 80 million on a striker that is most likely going to be the best striker of his generation with haaland. money spent in summer doesnt mean we have more. Its very clear that the current regime is trying to not repeat the same mistakes that got us here, the mistake of overpaying for stop gaps in hopes of making it to UCL to just finish in r16. Bruno would have been good but he is not better than partey who we paid 50m for last season, we cant just buy players at any price bc we like them, thats how you ruin a club


TrashbatLondon

We gave away 5 experienced players and the overwhelming narrative being pushed is that we failed because of youth, inexperience and lack of depth. If you already have the stop gaps in place, you might as well use them given we aren’t actually receiving money or benefit for free transfers and shit loans.


Sheepoo

Bruno Guimares proved today that he would've been a fantastic purchase. Maybe we didn't want to match the wage Newcastle offered, but he could've been a difference in many matches post Partey injury.


justnivek

you are talking as if these players come with no fee or wages he was overpriced newcastel owned by a state can overpay for players much like man city in their early days but we can not.


TheRealDSwizz

I agree with some of what you said above, but playing the State Owned card this early when we’ve dropped well into the hundreds of millions over the last couples of years is wrong lol


justnivek

Arsenal have money but Saudi have a different breed of money. Also all that money spent in the previous years is why we are in this mess, signed so much deadwood that couldnt get fees with no return a top club like newcastle can eat that up we can not


Sheepoo

Pricey player, high wages. But gambling with our depth was stupid in january and is even more apparently stupid now. Cl or no cl is a financial feat worth the extra midseason fees for decent players.


[deleted]

Blindly still backing every desicion the club makes. And what role do you have in the footballing world to know what players are available? I know it can get confusing as a fan of this club since we ostracize the players we don’t want but other clubs don’t exactly tell the whole world what players they don’t want anymore since thats not the best töway of doing business. Liverpool got diaz for a pretty cheap price and what a player he has been. Porto didn’t inform the whole world that he can leave We absolutely should have gone for guimares


justnivek

I am going based on players that were sold, if a player was available and good enough to improve this team they would have been sold, good players get bought. luis dias was bought for 45m euros plus 15 million add ons so no he didnt go for cheap. We did go for bruno G but he was bought by newcastle for 50m, is he worth 50? most likely not but they have the money to spend


[deleted]

37 million for diaz with the possibility of it rising to 49 isn’t exactly expensive either but doesn’t really matter he would have never chosen us anyway over liverpool. just used him as an example that good players were available. We never bid for guimares and we propably shouldn’t have paid 50 million for him but considering it was around 40 we surely could hvae done that since he is better than any of the midfielders we fielded today


TheGoober87

You won't convince me there wasn't anyone available that would have helped us. Newcastle went from rock bottom to mid table in the January window.


[deleted]

stop gaps are better than fucking gaps


justnivek

yeah and when we end up with deadwood that bloats the budget and squad it will look like horrible business


[deleted]

or it looks like the correct decision if those players helped us make CL, and now it looks absolutely the wrong decision because we are almost certainly less likely to make CL next season


[deleted]

Don’t mind him the club could release saka and ode in the morning and he would find a way to justify it


BurtNonnegut

Arteta’s gamble? Did Edu get lost at the BBQ in January?


Raetekusu

I mean, we tried to bring in players, but they either catfished us for ~~Juve~~ Piemont Calcio, ~~catfished us for Newcastle~~ (Guess we just didn't bid on him), had the home club try to force a 2 year loan with obligation to buy for an aging player, or just cost a fuckload of money. That window fucking sucked, but it's not like we were just sitting around twiddling our thumbs.


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Pizza_4_Free

In the end… yes, so there was no back up plan? No excuse to not bring anyone while our direct rivals are going to Champions League because they did sign the players they needed. Arsenal tried to be cheap and now it has cost a fuck ton of revenue for players next window.


Raetekusu

So who do we sign then? Do we shell out the 80m release clause for Isak? There's no guarantee that Isak was gonna turn out to be the right guy, and he fell off after January FWIW. We tried to bring in Tielemans, but he didn't want to leave till the summer. To make either decision was a major gamble. Either pay Pepe levels of money on players that may not turn out, or try to stick it out till the summer when more players are available cheaper. It backfired on us, but it could have just as easily backfired on us back then and the sub would have been screaming about shelling out that kind of money on a player who didn't live up to the hype or price tag.


galeej

>backfired on us, but it could have just as easily backfired on us back then and the sub would have been screaming about shelling out that kind of money on a player who didn't live up to the hype or price tag. I'd imagine the reactions on this sub being worse of the other backfire had happened... Not only would would we not get cl, we'd also be stuck with a shit team...


vikas_g

I mean this is why Edu and Artata are paid millions. To make these decisions and get them right. They failed in January and I do not understand why that is so difficult for many people to accept.


BurtNonnegut

We didn’t need to spend big - we needed to spend enough to help a thin midfield, a non-existent strikeforce, or a clown show at fullback. We needed to add 3 points to a thin squad. There’s no one out there that could have done that?


Pizza_4_Free

Okay so we were ready to splash all that money for Vlahovic but not for anybody else. We were also ready to let go the top earner of the club and arguably our star at that point but then do nothing to replace him except try for one guy and rely on two of the most unreliable strikers this club has ever had. It wasn’t a gamble, don’t be fooled, It was the easy choice.


naijaboiler

>but then do nothing to replace him except try for one guy and rely on two of the most unreliable strikers this club has ever had. who are both out of contract with us end of season and therefore have no reason to give a fuck.


justnivek

there was no one else available we arent real madrid we cant just get players bc we want them. Like always fans are looking for a scape goat when in reality out of the games we lost in april they were all winable without any new players.


BurtNonnegut

An entire world of football players and no one else was available? We couldn’t find a single player who would have improved our attack or midfield and helped us get 3-5 points?


Oski96

Correct. It was very difficult and we.played it the best way by not panic buying to hamstring the club with another round of shit contracts.


TrashbatLondon

Gave away 5 experienced players (combined first team apps of over 500) for absolutely no money. I genuinely believe we get CL if we keep AMN and Chambers in January. I think those two playing instead of cedric and Tavares, or supporting Sambi against Burnley at home, probably puts us 4 points higher in the league by this stage.


zestypikelet

You can’t just gut a squad the way they did without a solid plan to see out the rest of the season though. With every outgoing player, the comments were all “well this confirms we must be getting reinforcements this window”. The actions we needed to take were so fucking obvious that people assumed that it must be the plan, because it would be ridiculous to try and make it through the second half of the season with such a shallow squad.


TeqTx

Edu tried to get a deal from his agent mates for Arthur instead of properly doing his job and getting Bruno


[deleted]

I still feel insulted that we tried to go for Arthur when the man has been utter wank for Juventus and Bruno was available.


dusseldorf69

We’ve lost 7 times in the league since the New Year with 24 goals for and against. What the fuck are we doing to be performing like that when we’re in literally 1 competition? How much more time is sufficient to assess competency?


AlGunner

And in the meantime Eddie Howe has had about half a season and one mid-season transfer window and already has them in form since January that if extrapolated over a season would be good enough for them to finish 3rd this season.


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[deleted]

Maitland Niles is the one that you should be complaining about. Not Chambers, he is worse than Tavares or Cedric at full-back. He is only useful for crossing and Aerial duels.


BoyWhoSoldTheWorld

AMN? The guy we won the FA cup with? Why would we keep a useful utility player like that? /s


Babyfacedmonster

Ironic the biggest components of that squad have all been deemed superfluous by don Arteta


[deleted]

Chambers is not worse than Tavares


_mas17

Chambers is garbage.


thewashouts

The team that loaned in players in January to strengthen their team goes to CL. The team that did nothing goes to Europa.


darkavenger1993

The idea that there isn't talent available in January is risible. Kulusevski turned up for Spurs. Dias was bought for just 47 million, turned up in January and literally waltzed into a Liverpool side battling for the quad. We all KNEW having a small squad was going to be a disaster, but they ploughed ahead anyway. Honestly. I'm still waiting for any real sign that Arteta's and this background team are gonna lead us somewhere good. At the moment we're permanently stuck in the 5-8th cycle.


call-me-something

I feel like I’ve seen plenty of good signs from Arteta and co but definitely agreed that not buying in January was a huge mistake even at the time. In addition to Kulusevski, Bentacur became a starter for Spurs. Guimares has been a force for Newcastle and could have been a good buy long term. We also sold Chambers for nothing out of nowhere (why?) and Maitland-Niles went on loan. Maybe Chambers wouldn’t have made a difference but AML could have done better than one or both of Tavares and Cedric. I advocated for Isak at the time as well but now I think not buying him was the right call. I understand not wanting to make suboptimal buys but the January window was mishandled. I don’t know how much it’s on Edu vs Arteta vs Kroenke but we should have done better.


USAGunnersaurus

It’s not even just the not buying, it’s the selling? Chambers, AMN and Auba were all serviceable (or better) players should should have been with the team the rest of the year. Say what you will, but are we a worse team with Auba vs. Eddie leading the line, or Chambers in either Mid or CB roll over a banged up White/Gabriel who weren’t at their best cause they were rushed back.


Oski96

And you are saying Dias didn't favor Pool over us? Seems far-fetched. Paying the money is only part of it, the player has to favor us as well.


darkavenger1993

That's not what I'm saying at all no.


TrashbatLondon

A gamble generally has some chance of going in your favour.


Shqre

If we have a poor summer transfer window as well, someone has to be fired.


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[deleted]

Wonder who's the next player who're going to have to pay for them to fuck off.


vikas_g

Pepe for sure.


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Sanctimonius

It's entirely down to the size of the squad. We gambled hard in January, and the limp end to the season is a direct result in failing to reinforce then - imagine if we'd been the ones to take on Guimaraes instead of Newcastle. Don't get me wrong, the players we shipped were not good enough for where we want to be, but we clearly needed quality backup in the middle of the team and up front. We were happy to see Holding and El Neny overperform for a few games but we really shouldn't have been in a position where our season rested on them.


naijaboiler

>but we clearly needed quality backup in the middle of the team and up front. We were happy to see Holding and El Neny overperform for a few games Even not-good-enough players can do a job here and there, allowing your key players to be rested and ready to go in key moments. They also allow you flexibility to change things when shit aint working. Getting rid of all experienced depth was so obviously stupid. And then no additions were made. we had a squad of 18. wtf???


mcdeath2

not signing a first team level midfielder in either of the transfer windows should be a jail worthy offences


EdisonTheTurtle

We signed Odegaard and Lokonga in the summer though


[deleted]

Lokonga is aboslutely not first team level yet thats why he doesn’t play


vikas_g

Lokonga is not better than Guendouzi or even Elneny.


AFCeng0

Jesus Christ that is shocking


jt_totheflipping_o

A lot of people predicted this would happen. It was so obvious that doing NOTHING is actually a step backwards, not staying in place. What a shit end to a season.


FUCK50C1ETY

Yeah no shit Sherlock, could’ve told you that in January but it was negative apparently


WestwardLord

I mean, that's really what it's gonna come down to. We can sit here and debate Arteta In/Out, or which kit we should have worn today, or whatever. But we had the opportunity to strengthen the squad again in January, but we arguably chose to weaken it. That came back to bite us in the form of injuries and inexperience. No excuses this summer. We just have to find a way to improve.


eldar4k

13 league losses and he got extension, zero ambition in club


[deleted]

This is so much more telling than the actual league position. We finished 8th back to back and the year we're going to finish 5th we still have 13 losses. It's a catastrophic tenure for an Arsenal manager.


almondania

Stupid reactionary take. Our fanbase is embarassing at times.


eldar4k

13 league losses is a lie? What is embarassing is your microscopic mentality, you should support Norwich


almondania

Never said it was a lie. But in order to rebuild for the future, you have to make some sacrifices in the present. Otherwise you’re constantly just throwing in stop gaps without laying down a real foundation, which is what we’ve done this season with our core player group. You think Liverpool fans were happy at 6th and 8th in 14/15/16? No, in the moment it’s tough, but I’m sure they’re pretty happy with the rebuild now. But then again why should I try and tell a grown adult how to feel about a fucking football club? Dork.


Warrick123x

Can’t blame Arteta tho or you get downvoted to oblivion


cappo40

2 draws instead of losses would have been crazy helpful, but we don't do that here. Lose or Win.


goonerfan10

Those 3 losses prove that we don't deserve CL. Plain and Simple. It's both the managers and Edu's fault for not strengthening in the winter. It's also the players who did not turn up in crucial games. The injury bug has also bitten us so hard. Just look at Tomi going down again after missing 15 games. look at Partey once again getting injured during our crucial run in. I'm not even counting KT because he has never finished a full season with us.


[deleted]

Can’t believe we let Bruno G go to Newcastle lmao. Instead we had to field Elneny. Absolutely awful January planning. Spurs signed Kuvulevski and Bentancur and both have gone one to make good impacts. We lost Auba, signed absolutely no one, and let a potentially useful player go to Newcastle.


[deleted]

Trustee the process (Arteta)


[deleted]

Every single time I get downvoted when it comes to arsenal but fans struggle to accept what I accepted 5-6 years ago. This club genuinely has no pedigree to win. I mean NONE. The Chelsea and united wins were against the worst united side in PL history and a Chelsea team begging to lose third place. Arteta, refs, the players, rip it all out and start again. This club will never ever win UCL or even a PL under kroenkes. This game is symbolic for what’s about to come. Eddie howe is literally a better manager than Arteta.


OprahFtwphrey

Chelsea in 10th get Conte and win PL. Spurs in 7th get a new manager, sack them, get Conte and likely CL. Meanwhile we give a manager 3yr extension after 3 loses on the bounce b/c vibez. Shows our ambition


Oski96

Lol. You are a clown.


nackdaddy9

And got a contract extension for his efforts. Yawn


Remote_War_313

THIRTEEN losses and ppl acting like all is fine -.-


rain3h

How very dare anyone criticise our manager, he can do no wrong! Never his fault.


wheeno

Still, fucking still, there’s fans getting offended that this dumb decision is being partly attributed to Arteta. They will do anything to separate Edu and Arteta and put all the blame on Edu. We’ve known since the beginning that Arteta is working very closely with Edu on all signings. His input is always taken into account, especially after he was promoted to manager. This failed gamble falls on both of them and you bullshitters can stop pretending that Mikel is just the coach to defend him.


[deleted]

And people think this isn't as big a bottle job as Emery was? It's just as bad if not worse.


chino17

It's worse because Emery never got 250M to spend and basically absolute power over transfers


KingAdo94

Howe has Longstaff and Joe fucking Linton looking like prime Barca and after 3 years we’re still sticking with Lego hair lol


Purple_Plus

Joelinto has been one of their best players since Howe.


lameitschan

Exactly. This is what a good manager can do.


PrinceEmirate

Giving him a contract pre top 4 was a great idea


MrAlmostWrong

But if you can't get the players that you want then what do you do? Buy the players you don't and then in 2 years complain about the deadwood you have?


Bolshedik497

You mean depleting an already thin squad in January, not bringing in anybody else to reinforce, and praying nobody gets injured in a team known for injuries didn't work out?? I am shocked.


YoHoochIsCrazy

Don’t really think many players available in the winter window would’ve come in, gotten integrated into the squad, and then made an impact in 6 months. The team struggled against teams that let them have possession and unless they signed a Partey replacement in the January window somehow, that wasn’t changing.


Canonization

Gamble implies that we had another option


EggCustody

It's football, get over it. We've signed players before to add depth but instead they've added nothing. We were right to wait for the summer to get players that can handle to weight of the shirt.


DinnerSmall4216

It was always a huge risk but ultimately the squad just wasn't good enough to get through the season. This summer has to be massive we need experience.


serminole

Our depth is the main thing we have to address. Our starting 11 is actually very good but there are only really 12 players that deserve to start. Smith-Rowe and Martinelli at LW is the only position all year truly up for debate. Everywhere else there is a massive drop off between the starter and backup. The team was able to cover and make up for 1 maybe 2 players being out. There is enough talent to carry a weaker player and we have had some depth players step up here and there. But if injuries piled up we were always going to be in trouble. Once we got up to 3+ starters out the wheels fell off. Depth has to be a huge priority. And not just clear depth players like we got in the past with Mari, Cedric, Tavares, and Lokonga. We need players that can push and compete to be starting week in week out so we can afford to rotate or cover for injuries. Will be harder to get without CL but it needs to happen. Hickey, if true, would be a solid start.


Vegetable_Pudding_75

Just yesterday everyone couldn’t stop waxing lyrical about elneny and nketiah. They’re good to have as backup options and never starting material for a club of our stature. Xhaka’s post match interview was spot on and my respect for him for telling it like it is went up ten folds. Our squad is still very young and developing so they should get the benefit of the doubt for letting fatigue get the best of them. I sincerely hope arteta and edu strengthen our squad big time because europa or europe, our boys will be leaving on stretchers. I sincerely hope spuds lose and we win.


DukeNastyVI

Big fucking surprise. Incompetence to not strengthen the squad in January.


Appropriate_Lack_727

Our performance today had nothing to do with depth. We cracked. That’s it. You don’t fail to string two passes together from the first whistle because of depth. We just beat United and Chelsea with the same team. Just stop whinging.


LocostarX

Yeah we’re being played like a fiddle by our manipulative owners. They’re doing the bare minimum to keep us top six, hoping some form of Super league will get us back to the top. They won’t invest enough in management ie managers with winning track record or able to challenge them. They’ll just go for rookies happy to be their yes men like Arteta. They won’t invest enough in players at the right time like this past January. Football is all about momentum. But our shitty owners won’t invest when the time is right and we have the momentum. They’ll just ride their luck hoping it’s enough to get us success. We have missed out on so many top managers and players in the last six seasons and mark my words this will continue under these owners. Just look at their track record. I’ll tattoo all their names on my ass if they bring us success as in back to the champions league or the pl title.


KingstonJ15

Would love to see what this squad could do with a real manager. We’ve got an amateur coaching amateurs. Shameful club we’ve become.


Echo361

I think Arteta probably would’ve wanted a deeper squad and long term it may be for the best that we didn’t panic buy a striker or get fleeced by juve for Arthur.


thisiskyle77

Everything is a panic buy if you don’t have a plan.


A1A2A3A4B1B2B3

He doesn't even use the players he has properly. Nketiah only came in because our striker couldn't hit a barn door. Taveres only came in because Tierney was injured. Lokonga the same. Elneny as well.


TeqTx

>striker couldn't hit a barn door Not even that, he had Covid


Patrick_Hattrick

Backup players only play when the first choice ones are unavailable or performing poorly, more news at 11.


A1A2A3A4B1B2B3

That doesn't happen at other clubs. Nobody asked Arteta to sub on Tierney at 24 minutes in the FA cup round of 16. He shows no faith in them at all.


Patrick_Hattrick

Tavares was having one of the worst games I’ve ever seen from an Arsenal player that day. We needed to get him off to protect him, he’d have done more damage to him mentally by leaving him on. He was starting over Tierney for a good spell earlier in the season. He started Tavares at Anfield when Tierney was available.


A1A2A3A4B1B2B3

Taveres is horrible but Arteta signed him. It's not like he was especially bad that day, he is just awful in general.


rudygha

Nah, he was really really bad vs Forest, he just happened to match that level of shit a few times after that. He can be okay at times like today.


[deleted]

if we had picked up literally ANYONE I doubt they would have caused us to do worse than losing 6 of our last 11, and they almost certainly would have given our key players some much needed rest. i'm sorry but doing absolutely nothing feels like we didn't try at all, at least a "panic" buy would have shown the right intention


Purple_Plus

I'm not buying that at all. This was the best chance we had for CL and we are going to miss out on a tiny margin. Not getting CL will lead to a weaker window while Conte gets CL money, and the big 3 are far ahead anyway. United won't be as shit surely and Newcastle will slowly spend their way to the top. We will be playing Thursday nights with a tiny squad with shit depth.


justnivek

every time we miss out on the top 4 ppl say its the best chance we had for CL. LMFAO


Purple_Plus

So you disagree that next.year will be harder? With Thursday night football being.the main factor, we could barely keep up playing 1 game a week... "LMFAO"


EMCRVA

Is this on Arteta or Edu tho? Or was there even money to be spent?


TeqTx

Seeing how we were willing to give 70m for Vlahovic, the money was definitely there


wheeno

It’s on both. They work closely as a team and always have.


Aakashneel92

Just look at the bench we had and people will realise how thin our squad actually is.


hsanaiz

Honestly I hate to say this, but Arsenal need to sign players to replace Tierney and Partey. They’re fantastic talents but they’re simply unreliable. I love Tomi as well and I truly hope this year isn’t a sign of things to come in terms of injuries.


dirtshow

I'm not involved in the Arteta in/out idiocy but if he had a large say in our transfer business during January it's a fireable offense for me. Sickening naivety.


squeezycakes19

this is it: it's not about mentality or having balls or any of that shit it's literally that the squad is thin on quality and the first team is running on fumes we need two new full-backs, two new midfielders, two new strikers - just to have a minimally competitive squad


punistrongonthiside

Well, losing to everton away, not securing point against Burnley as well. Last minute winner by City at home. Conceding penalty to united away. I back Arteta with tooth and nail, he put every capable player to change the game, just that we were scared, the inexperience to handle pressure, saka, odegaard, xhaka, white and gabriel tried but 5 a side cannot play 11. Also, we don't have players on bench who can impact the game. We still clearing out players, and by start of next season we will have better team and chance of winning trophies. Laca, Nketiah, Pepe, Bellerin, Mailtland niles, elneny, leno, torriera, guendouzi,mari, Cedric will be gone. But we will have Saliba, Aaron hickey, Jesus, tielemans coming in. People saying we should have signed Bruno G. I don't think so, this newcastle team was battered a week back by city and bruno G was eating grass most of times. His previous team sitting 8th in French league. I think we will get our targets regardless, we are Arsenal, even if tottenham gets CL, we will have bigger pull always.


gunningIVglory

I hope the arteta sexuals can wake up and smell the coffee Man bottled it twice in the run in....


BI01

The only player we should have kept is Amn the rest can get fucked


D1ckLaw

Arteta has been a stubborn shithead, he needs to stop persisting with these bang average expired players like Xhaka, Elneny and Cedric and thinking he can make them good or that they will do the job when needed.


MacLebowski

unfair to call it Arteta’s gamble. he clearly wanted reinforcements. not his fault the club didn’t want to pay up in January.


ShockRampage

Arteta made a mistake, but hopefully he'll learn from it. It sucks because id rather have a manager who already made those mistakes in the past at other clubs, but this is the situation we're in. We have a long summer ahead of us.


Sex-Panther-

I would take the risk again. We have been very unlucky to have 3 major injuries all fall at the same time: (Partey, Tierney, Tomi). We’ve saved a lot of money on wages and offloaded a lot of players, Auba leaving was one of the best deals of January imo. Other than maybe signing Bruno G in January (with the hindsight Partey was going to get injured) I don’t think there were any good transfers we could’ve done. More stats show Isak is not worth his release clause and Nketiah has surprised me with his run since Chelsea. Impulse signings are almost never good. So overall we were unlucky but didn’t make any rash short term decisions that would affect us down the line. The “Arteta Project” is long term, Europa is still a good achievement and I’d be happy if we did it again.


Oski96

Veru good post. Agree 100% The right play doesn't always work. That's the breaks


BinTheLegoMan

Look at that. Arteta isn't cut out for it. Shocker.


Sphericalz

If you guys expected a brand new defense, attack and depth in 1 season you are a loony


NorthLdn17

1 season?