SteveO 35 wrote: ↑Fri Jul 31, 2020 7:57 am
One more time for the pea brains
Losing a final 4-1 is never something to be proud of. Hazard ripped us to ribbons in 20 minutes flat in a game that was going nowhere. Dick failed to address the right back position and that of course was a failing of his. AMN is never a right back, Bellerin is an utter embarrassment of a 'defender' and Lichsteiner was a geriatric, cheap option for the board and an utter failure. We are still as weak at right back today and anyone with a decent left winger will expose it time and time again
However, I'd say that getting to within a point of CL qualification and reaching a European final largely with Wenger's wankers and a few cheap additions wasnt bad at all. Anyone think we will get within a point next season? Wenger reached 2 European finals in 22 years and lost both - no shame in the Barca final, but losing to fucking Galatasaray with the team we had then....unforgiveable
If Arteta wins the FA Cup I will give him the credit he deserves. The last 3 games of the run were all tough ones and he would rightly be praised for that. Next season is the real test for him as he will face what Dick did - players he doesn't want but who were left on outrageous contracts and can't be shifted. So I dont want to hear any excuses about Mustafi, Ozil and Xhaka not being his players because nor were they Emery's.
Sid - just about every game last season you slammed every substitution or tactical decision that Emery made and called him every name under the sun. I just find it odd that Arteta can make equally baffling choices (Kolasinac, Willock, Xhaka etc) but that's fine?
As for the argument about games being dead rubbers....well perhaps you should ask the question why there are so many dead rubbers to start with. The league season was dead two games after the league restart, with that shameful defeat at Brighton that was every bit as bad as anything either of the previous managers served up. A team that hadn't fucking won since Christmas and are absolutely shite. People slated Emery's last few games of last season (and I agree with some justification) but mostly because those games mattered as we were still chasing CL qualification until the penultimate game. Rather have that personally than the league season done and dusted weeks before the end
Steveo, all pisstaking and mutual winding up aside
On Emery, I wanted him so much to succeed, but the warning signs were there very early!
Persisting on playing out from the back, with a goalkeeper and players who weren’t capable.
Team selections, tactics, being totally outplayed in the first half of every game, but miraculously avoiding defeat due to inexplicable poor finishing by the oppositin resulting in the most fortuitous run in football history. We all knew however that once we faced quality opposition we’d be fucked!
Against the victims, it could and probably should have been a ten goal drubbing!
It was downhill from then.
Despite that, the unbeaten run and spurs end of season capitulation in the league, offered us the simplest of chances to qualify for the clge.
So instead of praising getting to within a point of qualification, we should have been damning his failure not to qualify!
On Arteta, I want him to succeed, just as I did Emery.
When judging Arteta, the first thing to acknowledge, is unlike Emery, virtually none of this squad are his signings!
Emery had 8 of his own signings? if it turned out that only 3 were good enough to start, then that’s down to him.
Arteta has made mistakes, but the difference is, he seems to learn from them!
Since the resumption, we’ ve been playing basically three times a week, so kolasinic etc, were always going to feature, when we lost to Citeh in the first game, clge qualification was a longshot dependent on others fucking up and us winning almost every game.
He has however got us into the cup final, beating Citeh in the semi, was arguably our best performance as a clear underdog, since the Graham era, PSG and Parma spring to mind!
He has also not been tempted to recall Ozil or Dozy, both of whom are a disgrace to our club!
So, that’s why I’m still getting behind Arteta, if, come Xmas, he has 5 or 6 additions to his squad and we are struggling, then that’s different!