The Arsenal Thread

[sandsoftime]

Arsenal have ALWAYS been title pretenders to Liverpool

Well, well, well. If it isn’t the consequences of my own actions.

That should be how Mikel Arteta assesses this season.

Of course, it won’t be. His ego won’t allow him to accept any of the responsibility for the predicament Arsenal find themselves in. And the Arteta cult won’t dare cast a glancing eye the way of their fearless leader. They’ll just pretend they’ve been unlucky and there’s nothing more he could’ve done. They’re even trying to dress up the fact they’re 13 points off the top as some sort of victory for him as a manager.

And while Arsenal have had some terrible luck this season with injuries, a lot of it is self inflicted. Let’s use Bukayo Saka as an example here.

The England international has been run into the ground over recent years. Injury issues were inevitable. It was a matter of when and not if it would occur.

He’s 23-years-old and he’s racked up just shy of 15,000 Premier League minutes already. Factor in cup competitions and England matches and he’s pushing 20,000 minutes. That’s the equivalent of 222 90-minute matches across six seasons. It’s a lot of football. He needed to be managed better. That falls on Arteta for not doing so.

Look at what he’s done this season. He used Saka against Bolton in the Carabao Cup, giving his No7 70 minutes. He also featured against Preston (30 minutes) and Crystal Palace (20 minutes).

Arsenal had a 2-0 lead against Nottingham Forest after 52 minutes and could’ve replaced Saka. He played the full 90 minutes. The Gunners were 3-0 up against Sporting after 46 minutes, Saka made it 4-1 after 65 minutes and remained on the pitch for the full 90 minutes. At half-time, Arteta’s side had a 5-2 lead over West Ham but Saka remained on the pitch until the 75th minute.

He could’ve rested Saka and kept him fresh.

The same goes for Kai Havertz - appearing in games against Preston and Bolton - as well as Gabriel Martinelli, who played an hour against Preston and had 20 off the bench against Bolton

Arteta isn’t managing the team well.

And those defending him will claim he doesn’t have the attacking depth. He probably doesn’t, having loaned out Fabio Vieira while Emile Smith Rowe and Eddie Nketiah were sold in the summer to fund the arrival of Riccardo Calafiori. Another left-back to add to his collection.

They opted to bring in Raheem Sterling on loan and Mikel Merino from Real Sociedad too. Their recruitment has been odd, to say the least, but you aren’t allowed to question it because the narrative is Arteta has been dealt a difficult hand having not been able to spend £100million on Alexander Isak in January.

There must be someone in the academy that could be trusted. Liverpool used Jayden Danns there last season. Liverpool gave chances to their youth whenever there was an injury crisis. Arteta, often praised for his relationship with the academy graduates, always seems a little reluctant. Odd, hey?

And then there’s the elephant in the room.

Even with Saka fit and available, Arsenal weren’t tracking as a title-winning team. Nobody seemingly wants to acknowledge this.

I checked earlier and following Saka’s injury against Crystal Palace, Arsenal had 33 points from 17 matches. They were averaging 1.94 points per game - 74 points over a 38-game campaign. After 15 games, they had a 55% win rate. After 20 games, their win rate was 53%. To hit 90 points - the figure many believe is needed for the title, they would’ve had to be almost perfect for the remainder of 2025.

Before their 1-0 loss to West Ham, Arsenal had been on a 15 match unbeaten run in the Premier League but their longest winning run was three games. During this streak, they’d picked up 35 points - 2.33 per game - that is still only 88 points over a 38-game season. In 2025, they’re averaging two points per game.

At no point, with or without Saka, have they been posting numbers of a title challenger or a title contender. But nobody wants to talk about that.

All they want to talk about is how, if everyone had been fit, they would’ve gone on an 18-match winning streak. Arteta and Arsenal desperately needed this injury crisis as an excuse to distract people from the fact they haven’t been the team they were supposed to be this season. Instead, they’re a top four team masquerading as title pretenders.

[ShadesOfRed]

They’re not taking this Forest draw well…

[mattyhurst]

A duck that types and wears a suit

[Sithbare]

Bit harsh that.

Trossard , Jesus , Gabriel , Rice , White , Partey , Odegaard , Raya.

That’s 8 signings who are good.

[Zoran]

I like Timber. Was out for almost the whole of last season, but from what I saw this season he’s pretty good. And versatile as well.

[redfanman]

Cry me a river

[redfanman]

As always, context is key. Some of those signings would have been with a short term goal in mind, others more long term.

Also, the success of a signing isn’t just about their performance once at the club but the process that led to their signing also.

[mattyhurst]

Suggests he has a success rate of most sides looking at that.

[Sweeting]

Arsenal fans: “Arsenal have a better team than Liverpool”

Also Arsenal fans: “Arteta has only made 7 good signings in 5 years”

[Zoran]

Or opposition fans saying how they’ve bottled the league twice in a row, Arteta is shite and him and Edu (not anymore though) made only 7-8 good signings.

Go figure that out, how it makes any sense.

From one extreme to another extreme.

Maybe us fans and our wild evaluations are shite.

[Sweeting]

I think some Arsenal fans are being very harsh in their evaluation of Arteta. He’s not my personal flavour of coach, gets a little too emotional for me and I think that sometimes transmits to his team in a negative way, however he’s mounted two creditable title challenges against Man City with a significantly worse team squad.

If they fire him they’ll quickly find that the task of replacing him is not an easy one. I think they’ll win a major trophy eventually if they just don’t panic.

And I know Arsenal fans feel this season is a missed opportunity but frankly Liverpool simply have a better team. We led the league last year before mitigating circumstances around Klopp’s departure led to us collapsing in the run in and that same team is now on course for a 90+ point season - something Arsenal have not yet achieved.

They’re second because they’re the 2nd best team currently.

[Mascot]

@Sweeting

I think some Arsenal fans are being very harsh in their evaluation of Arteta.

What seems to be endemic through that whole set up, even down to the fans, is that they have an impression of themselves that is completely out of touch with reality.

They have done nothing to suggest that they should be the natural benefactors for a City off year.

[Redbj]

in what way?

they have finished second in the last two seasons, have consistency with their manager (no matter how pleased we are with Slot, its hard to argue the end of Klopps reign wasnt an oppurtunity for the Arse)…the fans rightfully should have been thinking if city had an off year they were the ones to benefit…

maybe they havent been humble enough, but thats a different kettle of fish…surely?

[RedOverTheWater]

Arsenal have diminished in my regard under Arteta. I used to like them under Wenger. Under Arteta they come across as some sort of snide Atletico Madrid, with set pieces thrown in. They have good football in them, but somehow Arteta has them moving away from that.

On the plus side Arteta is a decent manager. You can’t build a team and get them challenging at the top without being at least that. But he’s not a great manager and won’t be close to that until he wins some big trophies.

He has been backed in the market and they have brought through some exciting kids. A few injuries at the same time in the striker department have blunted their output. Is that just bad luck? I think it is partly that, but partly their own mismanagement.

How do they train? Does Arteta take unnecessary risks in rushing them back? Does he overplay some of them? Did he spend his money wisely to cover various eventualities?

There might be a sense that they thought they were next in line, poised to win the league after pushing Man City. But along comes Slot and Liverpool are rejuvenated. We play good football, we can win in a variety of ways, and we do all aspects of the game well. Slot is calm, authoritative, friendly, open, intelligent and he has a great case for being the best manager especially as the game unfolds. He sets the team up well but can immediately tweak things as needed if he sees something.

Slot does all this while barely spending a penny, and he will never complain about being backed like the 700M man Arteta does. Slot will of course refresh his team as we go, and we all expect some key moves this summer.

But for Arsenal fans, they didn’t get what they thought they would get, and now someone else is in pole position. They have been overtaken, and there have to be serious doubts about whether or not Arteta can get the positivity flowing again to go for another cycle.

[Sithbare]

@RedOverTheWater

He has been backed in the market and they have brought through some exciting kids. A few injuries at the same time in the striker department have blunted their output. Is that just bad luck? I think it is partly that, but partly their own mismanagement.

Their entire striker department is a Havertz who was bought in to be used as a midfielder and an increasingly injury prone Jesus who is more of a false 9 rather than the outright CF that’s being demanded.

Its not as if these two were scoring trucks of goals when fit as well.

[RedOverTheWater]

Exactly. Whatever bad luck they can claim, they have also mismanaged the situation.

[mattyhurst]

There is a possibility that he has done as much as he can do or there is still more that he can do. The tactics especially in the last few games reminds me somewhat of the Rodgers period towards the end where he went on a run of games and then got found out by Gary Monk which other teams then copied and his great run became a run of losses.

However I do feel it’s got silly at times when they’ve been calling for his head when they were like 6 points behind. You can make that case I feel now even though personally I won’t but when one weekend can change it to 3 points. Calling for his head was silly.

[Arminius]

I genuinely think Arteta has taken the wrong fork in the road at some point. Three years he appeared to be building something interesting, but needed to fix their defensive play. That appeared to have taken place two years ago, but their attacking play was becoming less dynamic. Two near misses, and now they have this cynical, ponderous team that tries to control midfield and win corners for a 1-0.

[Sithbare]

@Arminius

I genuinely think Arteta has taken the wrong fork in the road at some point.

It could be to the fact that his days as a player and later as a coach with city probably made him think that he could do without an out and out 9. Him facing out even the likes of Nketiah and moving him from the club is the sign of his arrogance in that front. Nketiah isn’t a great CF by any stretch of the imagination but he was a youth product who could do a backup role. It would have been better to keep him for an extra season and atleast preserve the legs of Jesus and Havertz if nothing else.

Clearly taken a few ideas from Pep there. Except that Pep has managed strikers before and he knew that he needed to go back to the conventional #9 when the opportunity arose.

[Limiescouse]

@Arminius

I genuinely think Arteta has taken the wrong fork in the road at some point. Three years he appeared to be building something interesting, but needed to fix their defensive play. That appeared to have taken place two years ago, but their attacking play was becoming less dynamic. Two near misses, and now they have this cynical, ponderous team that tries to control midfield and win corners for a 1-0.

I think this aswell. It feels like in searching for some additional gains to help them get over the line last season he lost his center and moved away from what made this side so good in the first place. And that fork isnt too hard to identify - it was the 0-0 draw at the Etihad at the end of March last year.

Arsenal were absolutely flying at that point. They had comprehensively outplayed and beaten us just a couple of weeks before and followed that up with a couple of big wins. They were also going to City to face a side visibly creaking after having fluked a ref assisted draw against us after being thoroughly outplayed in a way we’d never done against a Pep side before. Arteta responded by trying to be way too clever, thinking a draw was a good result and for the first time turned his confident, front foot playing side into a reactive, safety first side. He got the result he wanted but lost the league because of the Villa loss a week or two later. And rather than learning the lesson that you take out an opponent when they are wobbling, he seemingly learned the lesson of needing to be even more safety first. They have very rarely been the same side since.

@RedOverTheWater

How do they train? Does Arteta take unnecessary risks in rushing them back? Does he overplay some of them? Did he spend his money wisely to cover various eventualities?

Saka in particularly has been significantly over played. He battled through the run in last year with niggling injuries, but was never given any time off. He then spent the entire summer on England duty making it all the way to the final and playing every game. Then rather than giving him a later return date to help him recover, as has become standard for players with that sort of summer, Arteta threw him back into the side from day 1 of the league. The lad had the blinking red warning light for a good 12 months before something finally popped and yet Arteta was riding him like a cart horse that entire time. In large part because they managed their personnel in their attack so poorly.