This season has been poor to watch by FAR compared to last season. Last season, we played attractive attacking football and may have won the league had it not been for Salibas injury. I think Holding coming in destabilized the defense and in part contributed to Partey's drop off.
Now if I was in Arteta's position last summer, the signings to be made were a backup to Saliba (Timber), a backup/challenger to Partey (Rice), a Xhaka replacement (Never Havertz in my opinion but can say he tried) and a prolific striker to help shift Jesus wide to backup Saka as that boy is overused and tired (he did not ge one). Yes FFP came into play but I would have taken a striker over Havertz, but overall, he could say he got most of what we needed.
The issue I feel has been the tactics. I dont know if it is ego or fully believing that we somehow lost the league due to lack of "control" in games. So he went about and changed how we play. Started the season with no Gabriel and that destroyed the right side of our attack as Saka was completely isolated. Couple that with Martinelli being even more isolated (Zinny offers nothing on the left and neither did Havertz for most of the games) and we looked so so bad. He corrected this by reverting to our traditional back 4 but even then, the damage is visible. White rarely overlaps, so that triangle is not working as well. Zinny is just congesting the MF and is even worse defensively. Between him and whoever is playing as the LCM, Martinelli has ZERO support. He either has to beat 2 men or pass it back. Across our front 4, we are not scoring much. Nketiah is our top scorer with 5...3 of those came vs SHU!!
So what happens for the second half of the season? Does Arteta put his ego aside and realize that what we had last season was not broken in terms of tactics? Or does he double down on a system that has yielded 9 fewer goals, 7 fewer points and conceded 1 more than this stage last season? I think if we keep going how we are going, we finish 3rd this season.
Arteta at a crossroad?
posted on 30/12/23
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MXh3sueSxps
posted on 30/12/23
Just wonder how we are two points behind the leaders with so many issues!
Havertz has been crucial in the last 4 or 5 games, so I am not sure how you can blame him for finally coming good. In fact, I think it unlikely that West Ham would have succeeded with camping in their box with him mixing it up in the penalty area instead of a midget who was bullied by Kudus the whole game!
posted on 30/12/23
We need a striker.
Get Ivan Toney
But we wont
posted on 31/12/23
Still don't know why arsenal fans think ivan.toney will ve some saviour up top. You don't play how brentford play and most teams play a low block versus arsenal. I can't see how that plays to Toney strength.
posted on 31/12/23
comment by The Goofy One (U16087)
posted 45 minutes ago
Still don't know why arsenal fans think ivan.toney will ve some saviour up top. You don't play how brentford play and most teams play a low block versus arsenal. I can't see how that plays to Toney strength.
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I look at Toney and see a guy with almost 1 in 2 goals in the PL. Would he have scored one of those headers that Jesus messed up? I'd say yes. The guy is clinical and I think would thrive in this team.
posted on 31/12/23
comment by The Goofy One (U16087)
posted 43 minutes ago
Still don't know why arsenal fans think ivan.toney will ve some saviour up top. You don't play how brentford play and most teams play a low block versus arsenal. I can't see how that plays to Toney strength.
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He would make a big difference or someone like him we get into good areas wide and usually have no one to get crosses into. The time when he wouldn't be as effective if teams play a high line because he's not going to run in behind but as most teams play deep he would be very effective.
posted on 31/12/23
comment by Jenius99 (U4918)
posted 20 hours, 10 minutes ago
Just wonder how we are two points behind the leaders with so many issues!
Havertz has been crucial in the last 4 or 5 games, so I am not sure how you can blame him for finally coming good. In fact, I think it unlikely that West Ham would have succeeded with camping in their box with him mixing it up in the penalty area instead of a midget who was bullied by Kudus the whole game!
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Being 2 points off the leaders is actually pretty damning this season at this stage. Man City dropped points in 5 out of 6 games. Spurs lost what...4 in 5? Yet Man City at their worst are ahead of us on goal difference and Spurs after a horrible run around just 4 pts behind us. To win the league, we should have been 5pts clear right now!
As for Havertz, having 4 or 5 decent games where yes he has scored, does not make up for the previous 10-12 games where he stunk out the place. Now..if he goes on to have 12 to 13 great games from here through June in the league, then I will be happy to accept I am wrong and that he was the right choice. However, I think it is more likely (based on history) he does what he did at Chelsea and fade back into obscurity.