League is a shit show mate. Man Utd and their PE teacher are challenging for the league. 
Unfortunately this changes nothing, it’s all about the Benfica game, the club is banking on the Europa League run. Ridiculous gamble but here we are.
We basically need Odegaard to be our Fernandes and pull a miracle.
Because Arteta has no clue.
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We’ve just had a run of games where we only played bottom of the table teams and did pretty well.
We are going into the next few games where the quality of the opposition will go up slightly, to teams more on our level.
We have just lost to Southampton who we play next in the league so it will be a measure of what kind of job Arteta is doing, if we will push up the league, or fall back down again.
I said at the start of the season we would struggle to get much above mid table if we persisted with Arteta and I’ve seen nothing to make me think any differently.
If the question is: who will get us out of this mess and challenging for a CL place?
The answer is not Arteta.
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I don’t think it’ll be a “dreamy” option. Not any more, anyway.
The board had their chance to get a decent manager in when both Wenger and Emery left.
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The last four or five years have been all about banking on the EL. The entire Emery appointment was banking on the EL. Signing scrubs like Lichtsteiner and Luiz was about banking on the EL. Signing two 50m strikers within 6 months of each other was the same thing.
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Nah. When we signed Auba top four was still in our grasp that season. I think a 4 or 5 point gap when he joined. But after he joined Arsenal, obviously, went out to lose 6 out of the last 13 remaining games.
Emery was extremely close too. We just needed one or three points more out of the last 5 games. In stead of four in total.
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Just because we ran close doesn’t make it good strategy. If we really wanted to go all in on the EL backdoor we sign Auba that summer, sell Alexis and buy Lemar plus a top tier defender. We did half measures.
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I actually think we didn’t want to go full Europa League but tried to reach top four ;). Hence the Auba signing. That is what I meant.
The whole Sanchez situation is just Wenger being fully delusional.
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They are performing well above their xG they won’t be challenging for long.
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I really want to give Arteta credit, so I will be very impressed if he gives good minutes to Balogun and Azeez at some point this season.
It may prove the ESR thing wasn’t a circumstance.
I thought today we looked a mile away from looking like a CL team and infinity away from being competitive in the knock out stages of that competition
As soon as I saw Arteta start Eddie, Willian and Pepe I felt absolutely sure we’d lose today and sure enough we did.
Every time I want to have some hope that Arteta isn’t a fuck wit he does something like this. Tonight I just want him to fuck off again.
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I also think he should fuck off but I have a little sympathy for him.
We lost Aubameyang unexpectedly.
Resting Tierney and ESR was fine.
Partey not starting is fine.
What’s disappointing is having two supposedly senior players come in and shit the bed. We needed a response from them and they gave us nothing.
What’s disappointing is an academy striker turning in another zero.
My real disappointment is with the changes. I thought they were too slow. Personally I would have started stronger and pulled players as the match went on but I understand his decision to rotate from the start.
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This is HIS team.
He made the decisions on whom to keep and whom to get rid of.
Save the sympathy for the fans… we are the ones watching (not today) the shit shows.
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I said a little sympathy. I don’t think he did a good job building the squad this year but some rotation is inevitable. Things can be two things, he’s a bad coach and we have a bad squad.
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Both.
I know a lot of us don’t rate Guen, Torreira and even Ozil.
Didn’t watch today’s game, but overall the season, if we had these 3 instead of fucking useless Xhaka, Average Joe Elneny… sure we will have a few more points that now.
A few more points are a few more points.
Okay, he got rid of the players he didn’t want… he should know if the club would give him budget for transfer or what kind of players were left for him to play.
Footballing reason, that’s his decision. No excuse.
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Mate we’ve beaten WBA, Newcastle and Brighton reserves, don’t talk about top 6 let alone top 4 being on unless we get 13 or 14 points in our next 6 games.
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We haven’t looked like a CL team all season. It’s not just because Arteta is a poor coach but where way short on talent. Like four serious signings and they wont arrive by summer either. Sad but true. Where way behind the 8 ball.
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I have no doubt in my mind that Guen and Torreira are better midfield options than Elneny and Willock.
I’d much rather be able to say our CM options are;
Partey, Torreira, Ceballos, Guendouzi and Xhaka
I don’t rate Guen as highly as others so, I hate Xhaka and Ceballos is a bit of an enigma but that is a much much better set of options.
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That’s about right. Midfield partner for Partey, actual left back cover, a creative/attacking/progressing midfielder, a right back and a center back.
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