Very interested to see how he's gonna play - is he going to try and replicate Pep without the billion pound spending?
(The not-so-temporary quite-official) Gooner Thread (Part 3)
Ohhh mikel u mking me blush
as with any new manager, he’s got my full support.... and if he turns out to be half as good as people say he is, then we have some enjoyable times ahead.
I forgot what it was like to see a press conference like that.
He's not Wenger; he's his own man - but he already has that sort of gravitas. The way he speaks; you believe what he says. I think half the struggle being a coach is being able to communicate your ideas, and I have no doubt now that he can do that. He clearly loves the club, and it clearly made a big impact on him while he was there - it's important, because unlike Emery, he can genuinely talk about the standards Wenger and co helped to maintain around the club. Lately, I feel like they've badly slipped - just very basic things, like players being decent/likeable/able to connect with fans.
I hope he will be a success long term but there are a lot of things in his way; we're poorly managed from Kroenke down, and I'm starting to think Raul is a bit of a used car salesman. We also obviously don't have the squad to compete at the moment ,and we also don't have the money to replace them quickly.
It's going to be a tough year or so. Let's hope we come out the other side with Arteta still at the helm.
Should have won that. Auba's poor finish from the corner cost us the result. Much better defensive effort, and some tidy playing out from the back. Saka's doing a job at Left Back, especially when he goes forward.
Coincidence we're playing Torriera & Xhaka together and looking more stable?
Nelson looked handy too - wonder if training with Pepe's helping his dribbling.
Lacazette was up to fudge all - he's on track to be Ozil 2.0 if we're not careful.
I think the improved defending was down to an immediate change of attitude rather than selections.
From the get go they were far more energetic off the ball than ive seen for some time.
The attacking play was pretty woeful though...
I think Everton were just trash; we weren't much better.
So; we've got 20 games left and a 9 point gap between us and 4th place.
Of those 20 games they are split evenly across home and away.
11 of those games are played against teams currently above us, including home & away to Chelsea, home to United, away to City & Sp*rs, and home to Liverpool.
Assuming City & Liverpool matches are written off that leaves us with 18 opportunities to try and bridge that gap.
Those 2 games against Chelsea are only 24 days apart and will probably give us our best shot at climbing up the ladder and dragging them down.
The good thing is Chelsea, United, and Sp*rs all look capable of f*cking up like us.
Leicester, Sheffield, and Wolves are also unlikely to be able to maintain their results into the 2nd half of the season.
I know hope's a bastard but I'm believing in the boys to do a madness, come together under Arteta, and deliver some results.
Happy Goonmas people - wishing you all a good one and an awesome 2020 :)
If we win the next 3 I'll start to hope. Until then; I'm keeping expectations low.
There are so many problems with this squad that I just can't see us having a huge bounce in form. I genuinely don't think Klopp or Pep could turn it around that quickly - remembering that both of these coaches had 1/2 - 1 season of pretty average results.
Win the next three?... I'll be happy if we win one of the next three. Arteta isn't a magician - change will take time. Lots of time.
Leicester, Sheffield, and Wolves are also unlikely to be able to maintain their results into the 2nd half of the season.
Pretty much exactly what nearly everyone said around Xmas 2015.
Leicester, Sheffield, and Wolves are also unlikely to be able to maintain their results into the 2nd half of the season.
Pretty much exactly what nearly everyone said around Xmas 2015.
Difference is they're not an unknown quantity anymore - especially given Liverpools thumping of them.
We should have won at Bournemouth - I can't believe how badly Lacazette played. Another better defensive effort, but up top we're looking awful still.
Well that was unsurprising. Hope is a mother fudgeer. Anthem of this season.
In better news the stadium atmosphere is much better. Let’s see if they can maintain that for United.
Looks like it’ll be anyone who is loosely defensively minded/can walk will start in our back line tomorrow.
Given that we’ll need a big midfield and attacking performance tomorrow to get the job done and help our sellotaped together defence
Happy new year you crazy bastards.
Lineup looks strong (well stronger than we could have expected). Kolasinac, Sokratis, Xhaka and Pepe all come in to the starting 11.
Arteta obviously has everyone in the squad on board, no selections or non selections generating questions. Everyone getting a go and willingly available. Sad that that can be seen as a boost in itself but here we are lol
Happy new year yellow fever gooners, its been a long ride (nigh on 13 years now for some!), and long may it continue.
I never saw any official injury updates and was fearing we'd see Sako at LB again and Mustafi at CB. Glad we've had such a large group of returnees. Kolsinac, Sokratis, Holding, Ceballos is a massive boost.
Can't believe we're 2-0 up and looking in control - long may it continue.
wow. That will do nicely.
2020. A New Hope.
2-0 to start 2020.
Always feels special to beat them. Heroic performances all over the pitch and hopefully it continues. Brilliant to see the joy and relief on the pitch at the end and how happy Arteta was in his interview.
Looking ahead to the table we’ve got Palace the weekend of the 11th. Win that and we’re above them by 2 points. Spurs host Liverpool, fingers crossed Liverpool do their thing and we’ll be level with the spuds on points, behind on goal difference.
Next match is Leeds at home in a few days, will be interesting to see how hard both sides go given our recent troubles and Leeds focus on returning to the EPL.
Chambers ACL injury confirmed - it's like history repeating itself.
Will make moves for a CB more pressing - especially if we want to be rid of Mustafi.
2020. A New Hope.
Certainly feels that way.
2020. A New Hope.
or is it more a case of 2020. The Force Awakens....
Palace lost at home to Derby today in the FA Cup with Milivojevic getting a straight red. He'll be suspended for our game against them next week which is ideal.
Seen on twitter, love it:
Arteta.
Tactics like Pep.
Hugs like Klopp.
Philosophy like Wenger.
Hair like Arteta.
My Manager.
Fiiiiiiinally ordered my Arsenal shirt for this season. First one I've bought since the last year we were with Nike.
I used to buy one every season, but having little kids sucked out the disposable income and I went without for the full term of the Puma contract.
Now I'm back baby!
I was all set on getting Lacazette 9 on the back, made the decision ages ago, but had an impulsive change of heart at the last minute... and went with Arteta 8.
My Manager.
PUMA kits were trash, so you didn't miss much!
Have a feeling the lineup will be stronger than most expect;
Martinez
AMN/Bellerin (if fit) - Sokratis/Holding (if fit) - Luiz - Saka
Guendouzi Xhaka
Pepe Nelson/Martinelli (if fit)
Lacazette
Pretty close valeo. Hes gone strong. Cant tell if hes playing a back 3 or if one of the CBs will play RB
3 at the back
3 at the back
Negative, Sokratis at RB ??
Xhaka, Guendouzi, Ozil is our worst possible midfield 3 - this is Emeryesque.
you're right - shape must have changed from the graphic thrown up by Bein who had it as a back three,
horrid first half for us!
second looking a lot better, although leeds can consider themselves unlucky to be 1 down.
I made the same assumption, classic mistake!
Has Bein got the BBC commentary? If so how fudgeing awful are they! It’s so biased to the underdog narrative/basic bitch version of football.
Wow we dug deep for that.
Horrid first half. Lots of effort but little accuracy, and the midfield was a bit of a sieve again.
Better in the second half, and the determination and aggression was excellent. Bit of skulduggery to be fair but you don't mind that when it's your team doing it hahahahaa. I thought Laca was going off for that kick out... absolutely loved Sokratis scumming it up in the corner at the end there.
With 10 to go, there was a camera shot before a Leeds corner, and a bunch of our guys were hands on knees, absolutely blowing. I was worried, I thought we would be repelling waves for that last 10, but we actually dug really deep and managed to play most of it out in their half. Martinelli was immense as an outlet and they all dug in.
Funny, under Emery, that exact same performance would have been quite underwhelming, giving up lots of shots, bit lucky to keep the clean sheet and get the win, but with the new attitude around the stadium it felt quite the opposite - lads digging deep, crowd behind them, they did what they had to do.
Bournemouth in the next round.
I think Arteta may have got his rotation spot on. I can only see the CBs and Xhaka having to back up from 90 minutes there.
Aubameyang, Torreira, Maitland-Niles and Leno should all come back in fresh. I also have an inkling that the plan is to start Saka at LB this weekend. He's been rested for the last two, after looking really tired before that, and Kola has just done consecutive 90 minute games after being rushed back from injury. I think Lacazette might get rested as well.
I'm guessing:
Leno
AMN Sokratis Luiz Saka
Xhaka Torreira
Pepe-Ozil-Nelson
Aubameyang
Lacazette definitely should have been sent.
I thought so too. But obviously I'll take it ;)
If Arteta is not a good Manager then he's definitely very good at sounding like one, every single opportunity he gets. I cannot get enough of listening to this guy.
At this point he's either going to be awesome for us, or the spanish Anthony Hudson.