We’re at the Ten Hag stage of all their rivals wanting him to stay.
Ten Hag also won more in 2 years while creating the worst united team in decades than Arteta has in 6 years
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I do hope Ange wins the Europa if they get to the final.
Would obviously prefer Bodo glint to win.
Same I have no issue with Spurs winning it.
The point that needs to be mentioned is how many defensive midfielders do they need.
They already have Skelly and seem to be making some moves in getting Partey a new contract extension. Then they’ve got the likes of Rice (who can play CDM) there too.
Why would they need Zubimendi ? The only thing that makes sense is that Arteta figures the difference between him and Pep is that Pep has Rodri and he needs someone who’s the closest to Rodri.
We won the league playing 3 8’s. No out and out #10 , and no out and out #6. But arteta just seems happy to copy what Pep does often without the finer nuances in the play.
There simply is no discernable style of play that people can say this is the identity of the club.
That’s a red flag right there. I don’t think Jurgen and Pep can be criticised over the mental side of things, although Pep does like to whine about things from time to time, his teams usually delivered.
The issue for us and City over the last couple of years has largely been due to an ageing squad/ injuries, and some of the transition not working as well as hoped. And, ominously for Arsenal, it looks like we and City are coming through that now. In at least two of those seasons Arsenal have finished (or are likely to finish second), it has been in large part because other teams fell away. It’s not like us and City finishing a point apart for example.
The fact that Arsenal had a chance to beat City and knock them out of the title race but chose to play ultra conservatively and ultimately finished second. The fact that ever since that City match they have been playing a far less attacking style of play. And, the fact that this season Arteta is continually blaming everyone else for his side not winning while at the same time talking up how good his team is, to me suggests a mental frailty.
Mourinho was often oulandish in his behaviour and comments, but I don’t remember him being as out of step as often as Arteta has been this year.
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Partey, Jorginho, Rice, Merino, Odegaard, Havertz (occasionally)
Jorginho is supposedly close to agreeing a move to Flamengo, so I’d imagine Zubimendi takes his spot.
There’s still Skelly who I think came through as a DM.
Even with Jorginho going , you can’t countenance another midfield addition. And Zubimendi will be another 60m.
The Eurostar gets you to Paris faster than planes do I suppose…
Arsenal are ridiculously tough to play through. They are defensively pretty solid (apart from their defensive setpieces). Why would they need another DM if all they are doing is inverting their full backs ?
Everytime Pep decides an innovation in the game , Arteta does little other than blindly copy him.
Lewis-Skelly will probably continue as a left-back for now.
Zubimendi coming in would mean 6 players for 3 midfield spots. 3 starters, and 3 back-ups. It’d be good solid depth.
Sure , but considering that arsenal invert their wingbacks into the midfield. Why would they need another midfielder ? I get the depth but arsenal have had solid depth this season in the midfield anyway.
They may still end up getting djokeres but where’s the service coming from.
They can’t play Havertz , Odegard seems as if he’s lost a step. Where’s the creative force coming from ?
I guess Partey’s contract extension by one year (if he agrees to it) is probably to keep him around for that depth, but they’d primarily use Zubimendi, Rice, Odegaard, Merino and Havertz ahead of him.
Think I’ve mentioned somewhere that arteta’s transfer history with the exception of Gabriel hasn’t been very good.
I get Merino’s doing his best in a more forward role but that wasn’t what he was bought for.
The best players for arsenal are still the youth academy guys and the people bought in under Emery(even if Saliba wasn’t used).
And I get Rice , Trossard , Timber etc. But those haven’t been needle movers.
I think the interesting thing to me is how different his interview and Rice’s interview were last night.
Mikel doing his “we were the better team but luck/injuries etc means we didn’t get what we deserved”. Where as Rice was talking about “cutting out individual mistakes that cost us at crucial times”.
Coupled with his nonsense about how they’d have won the league this year and it’s so clear he’s deflecting from another season of not achieving what they set out to do. To me he’s setting that team up to blame anything but themselves for their short comings and that’s not a great way to motivate a team. You can see how the fans have lapped it up too and that’ll permeate into some of those players as well. First bit of adversity next year and it’ll be “refs this, VAR that, so and so are just lucky”.
At least Rice is taking some responsibility and knows they could have been better.
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Arsenal were lucky AF not to be 3-0 down in the first leg. PSG had the much clearer chances in the Emirates.
He has done his usual in saying they were the better side and the best team is now out of the CL. He claims that one of Luis Enrique’s bench said as much to him after the game. Luis Enrique has laughed that off that.
There is a very Rodgers like quality to Arteta that really comes into focus when they’re not doing well
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At this point , it’s more of convincing himself as far as Arteta is concerned.
A wise man once said: “Why argue with an Arsenal fan, when you can just wait…”
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