Mikel Arteta | Lego Pep watch

Let’s be clear, they’re nowhere near the title.

Theyre only anywhere near top because City have been swanning around abroad and when they get into their usual second-half of the season they’ll motor away.

Arsenal have got worse, their loss at home to West Ham and today at Fulham were indicative of that. The fact they haven’t been as bad as us is neither here nor there

Regardless of whether or not they are a title contendor, a club that's 2 points behind the first has hardly "fecked up their misfield completely".
 
And to think some people on here are saying this is what we can have if we just give Ten Hag 5 years…
Was thinking the same thing :lol:

At least reality has somewhat set in, to the extent that most of them are no longer invoking Fergie, Pep, and Klopp.
 
Arsenal after 20 games last season had 50 points. With €235m spent in the summer to improve their team/squad further it's certainly a surprise to see them 10 points worse off this season.

Then again perhaps Arteta isn't as good as the English media hype make out?

They have addressed the wrong areas, or simply not gotten enough bang for their buck in the market. The money and effort that went into getting Raya and Havertz would have been better spent on a striker. Not necessarily a direct upgrade on Jesus - those can be hard to find - but at least someone with a different profile to throw on, when something different is needed. Giroud saved them so many times, and now they have Nketiah as back-up, which is a problem, because he is essentially just a worse version of Jesus.
 
Assuming they don’t win the league title this year, would they have come back to the Wenger times when they’d win the top 4 trophy and not a lot outside of that?
 
The concept might be hard to grasp for you but my self-esteem doesn't depend on the success of my club nor do I feel any more or less entitled to criticize other clubs because of it :) It is just fairly absurd to liken Arsenal - a club which has to be included among the best of the world right now and is playing an excellent season all things considered - to United. I would point out the same if it would be the other way round, regardless where Leverkusen sits at the table.
United and Arsenal are comparable in the respect that they achieved a decent finish then spent a good amount of money on probably the wrong profile of players and took a backwards step. We’ve both done that this season.

Let’s not forget that even head to head in the two most recent games it’s gone down to the 90+ minute to decide the winner. They are better than us but not by a massive amount.
 
Look at the Leverkusen fan giving it to United because you’re top of the league :lol:

You need to remember your club’s history before dishing it out at Christmas

Come back in May if you’ve actually won anything because history says you wont

The German fans on here seem to have a hard on for Arsenal. It's odd.
 
I think this year we are out of the title race. If we are serious about winning titles the owners would give him 1 more year to get his act together but he has to win or atleast give a 90+ pts season.
He is young and learning things but as Pep previously and Alonso now have shown, if you are good you are good.
 
Ignoring how pony we are, imagine spending 100m on one midfielder, thinking that'll be what seals you the title this year.... then at the half way stage seeing yourself 2 points below Villa!
 
I think this year we are out of the title race. If we are serious about winning titles the owners would give him 1 more year to get his act together but he has to win or atleast give a 90+ pts season.
He is young and learning things but as Pep previously and Alonso now have shown, if you are good you are good.

Out of the title race...2 points off top.
 
Couldn't happen to more anoying guy. One second place and he thinks he is second coming of Wenger.

At least he gave us good laugh today at tough shift in hospital.
 
I think this year we are out of the title race. If we are serious about winning titles the owners would give him 1 more year to get his act together but he has to win or atleast give a 90+ pts season.
He is young and learning things but as Pep previously and Alonso now have shown, if you are good you are good.
Pep is a cheat and Alonso hasn't won it yet. "It" being the Bundesliga where you only need Bayern to have a bad year, not 4 or 5 teams.
 
The thing is now they can no longer pretend to be underdogs. They have spent crazy money and ultimately they have to be judged accordingly.

The other concerning thing is their footy is also not that amazing like it was in the first half of last year. Hopefully for his own sake he takes the FA cup tie against Liverpool seriously and not like last year.
 
@TheReligion and I have been calling it since 2020. This Arsenal team will never win the title due to their fragile mentality and halfway house approach to fixtures.
 
@TheReligion and I have been calling it since 2020. This Arsenal team will never win the title due to their fragile mentality and halfway house approach to fixtures.
I think they lack world class quality. They have a squad of very good players, maybe only Rice is WC. Arteta hasn’t improved their players from last season they’ve gone sideways.
 
I think they lack world class quality. They have a squad of very good players, maybe only Rice is WC. Arteta hasn’t improved their players from last season they’ve gone sideways.

Rice isn't world class, at least not yet.

It's obviously a subjective category, but he's at least a level below that for me.
 
Rice isn't world class, at least not yet.

It's obviously a subjective category, but he's at least a level below that for me.
Nah he’s definitely world class, he’d start for any team in the world.
 
@TheReligion and I have been calling it since 2020. This Arsenal team will never win the title due to their fragile mentality and halfway house approach to fixtures.

We’ve been calling it as we see it and we’ve been proven right time and time again. At this point it’s not just coincidence. We know exactly what we are talking about but the peasants don’t want to listen.
 
I think they lack world class quality. They have a squad of very good players, maybe only Rice is WC. Arteta hasn’t improved their players from last season they’ve gone sideways.

FFS Rice world class :lol: :lol: :lol:. Absolute delusion
 
I think they lack world class quality. They have a squad of very good players, maybe only Rice is WC. Arteta hasn’t improved their players from last season they’ve gone sideways.
That's fair but you also have to consider the youth of our squad. We're the 2nd youngest team in the league (after Burnley). The likes of Martinelli and Saka (the former in particular not having a great season so far) are 22. We've gone the way of youth which means some inconsistency is to be expected.
 
We’ve been calling it as we see it and we’ve been proven right time and time again. At this point it’s not just coincidence. We know exactly what we are talking about but the peasants don’t want to listen.

Well, it wasn't exactly a groundbreaking prediction considering that they play in a league with a Guardiola coached Manchester City. That they are worse than City doesn't make them bottlers.
 
Not take as Rodri is the best in the world, but imagine City bought Rice instead of Kovacic. I bet they wouldn't have lost those games where Rodri was unavailable. They would be walking the league.
To compare Rice and Rodri screams you are looking at the fact they are both DMs and not bothering to think how they play.

Be like me saying Busquets could be replaced by Kante (not that Rice is anywhere near as good as Kante was at his role).
 
The other concerning thing is their footy is also not that amazing like it was in the first half of last year. Hopefully for his own sake he takes the FA cup tie against Liverpool seriously and not like last year.
I think two main things explain this - we were a surprise package last year, surprised even oursevles. Now, teams know what we're about. Coupled with CL, it's a very different season with more challenges and greater workload.
The other big problem is we're not set in midfield. No one has taken the LCM role, Havertz has been disappointing overall. Arteta's preferred midfield probably involves Partey and Rice, and the former has been injured most of the season. Rice has probably been getting through the work of two players up until now, and the wheels are falling off a bit. If Arteta can sort out LCM, we'll look much much better.