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В днешната последна част на поредицата, посветена на синдрома "Arteta Out", ще си припомним последните два сезона на Арсенал под ръководството на Микел Артета. Приятно четене! Някои хора биха казали, че Артета и неговият Арсенал са избрали много лош момент да се надпреварват с Манчестър Сити в сезон, в който „гражданите“ спечелиха всичко, каквото можеха да спечелят и завоюваха исторически за клуба требъл, след като най-накрая добавиха към витрината си дългоочакваната купа от Шампионската лига. Въпреки това инатът, упоритостта и жаждата за успехи на Артета не стихваха и това си пролича още с летните трансфери през 2023 г., след привличането най-вече на Деклан Райс, в допълнение с Юриен Тимбър, Кай Хаверц и Давид Рая. За съжаление сезонът за Юриен Тимбър не започна никак добре, след като се контузи още в официалния си дебют на старта на сезона и пропусна всички мачове до края. Това най-вероятно обърка и първоначалните тактически планове на отбора. Арсенал започна колебливо сезон 2023/2024 и още в началото се препъна срещу градските си съперници от Фулъм и Тотнъм, като и с двата отбора завърши при резултат 2:2 на свой терен. Странното е, че в първите три мача от сезона Артета реши да започне без Габриел Магаляеш в титулярния състав и това някак като че ли разваляше баланса в отбрана. След като върна Магаляеш в стартовия състав, испанецът направи и още една промяна, като след четири мача в първенството смени Рамсдейл с Рая на вратарския пост. Предстоеше мач срещу Манчестър Сити в Лондон, в който за първи път изразително си пролича залитането на Артета към дефанзивния и по-сигурен футбол с къси хоризонтални разигравания по терена. Двубоят всъщност се превърна в шахматно тактическо надиграване и този път Артета излезе победител, а единственият гол беше умело изработен в четириходова комбинация от влезналите като смени футболисти. Този успех предизвика злобните коментари на тръгващите си гостуващи фенове от стадиона, които питаха на висок глас: „За какво ви е тази победа, като правите Тотнъм лидер в класирането“. Този сезон се превърна в състезание между три отбора, като в борбата за първото място се включи и Ливърпул. След колебливи игри лидерството се променяше почти във всеки кръг и с наближаването на заключителната фаза на сезона напрежението се покачваше. През декември, преди мачовете по Коледа от „Boxing day”, Арсенал водеше в класирането с точка пред Ливърпул и пет пред Манчестър Сити. Последваха равенство на „Анфийлд“ и отново препъни камък в лицето на лондонски съперници. Загуба у дома от Уест Хям и на винаги негостоприемния „Крейвън Котидж“ след обрат от Фулъм. Така Артета загуби набързо преднината пред останалите, както и доверието в най-взискателните фенове, които отново започната да надават вой за неговата оставка. Арсенал се отдалечи на пет точки от временния лидер Ливърпул, но през новата година последва зашеметяваща серия от десет победи и едно нулево равенство на терена на Манчестър Сити, с голова разлика 38:4 и победа над прекия конкурент Ливърпул с 3:1. Така „артилеристите“ си върнаха лидерската позиция до злополучния 33 кръг, когато едва 5 кръга преди края на сезона допуснаха домакинско поражение с 0:2 от Астън Вила, в ден, в който Ливърпул претърпя загуба на свой терен от Кристъл Палас. В този ден Ливърпул и Арсенал направиха съвместен подарък и своеобразен шпалир, като едновременно освободиха пътя на Манчестър Сити към рекордната четвърта поредна титла. След претърпяното поражение лондончани бяха безупречни в оставащите си пет мача до края на сезона, но и Манчестър Сити не сгрешиха след предоставения им шанс и записаха девет поредни победи. Така Арсенал остана в битката за титлата до последния кръг и завърши на две точки от „гражданите“ в сезон, който статистически беше по-успешен от предходния с 89 точки, постигнати 28 победи, 5 равенства и 5 загуби, отбелязани 91 гола и допуснати 29, срещу 84 точки през миналия сезон, 26 победи, 6 равенства и 6 загуби, отбелязани 88 гола и допуснати 43, но усещането за разочарование сякаш беше по-голямо. Неуспехът като провал Мнозина смятаха, че сезон 2024/2025 вече ще бъде сезонът на Арсенал, но уви дори и не искаме да си припомняме за него. След проваления опит за привличане на нападател още преди сезонът да е започнал, започнаха и серията от проблеми с контузии на основни играчи. В различни периоди от отбора отсъстваха капитанът Мартин Йодегор и т. нар. starboy, определян за звездата на отбора Букайо Сака. След няколко грешни стъпки на Арсенал и Манчестър Сити, Ливърпул натрупа комфортна преднина, която успя да запази през целия сезон. И когато изглеждаше, че „артилеристите“ няма да отстъпят лесно преследването на лидерската позиция, дойдоха и следващата серия от травми на Габриел Жезус и на останалите единствени представители за върха на атаката Кай Хаверц и Габриел Мартинели. Това наложи пренареждане на позиции и преквалифицирането на Микел Мерино в ролята на централен нападател, в която се оказа, че се представя никак нелошо. Стилът на проповядвания от Артета футбол ставаше още по-предпазлив и неатрактивен, тактически Арсенал залагаше все повече на ролята на статичните положения в мачовете, което никак не се нравеше на част от феновете. За капак в този неприятен за тях сезон „артилеристите“ загубиха общо 21 точки в 10 мача, в които водеха в резултата, превърнало се в негативен рекорд за клуба. Може би единственото хубаво нещо, освен достигането до полуфинал в Шампионска лига през този сезон, е налагането в отбора на младите таланти Итън Нуанери и Майлс Луис-Скели. Тук стигаме отново до момента на разочарование, в който всеки неуспех на отбора се превръща в личен провал на Артета. Безмилостно атакуван за липсата на трофеи вече шести сезон с клуба, очакванията към него се повишават с всяка изминала година. Може би много от критикуващите забравят момента, че трофеите не са даденост, футболните турнири са състезания, в които няколко отбора се надиграват кой от тях е по-добър и по-устойчив в дългия път към върха. В тези надпревари винаги има само един победител и няма как винаги да е този, който най-много ни се иска. Да бъдеш шампион изисква много време и усилия и кандидатите винаги са няколко, които също отделят време и полагат усилия в безмилостна конкуренция. Все още неразбиращите могат да изслушат набралото популярност интервю на звездата на Милуоки Бъкс в NBA Янис Адетокумбо след отпадането на неговия отбор през миналия сезон, в което дава логично обяснение на въпрос от журналист провал ли е това, което до голяма степен кореспондира и с представянето и пораждащите се настроения към Артета. А скандиранията „Arteta Out” се превърнаха в синдром, защото колкото по-рядко Арсенал губи, толкова по-шумни стават те, когато това се случи. Видяхме това след загубения полуфинал в Шампионска лига, видяхме го след поредното второ място в класирането на Висшата лига, видяхме го след привличането на Нони Мадуеке, дори още преди да е тренирал с отбора, а го видяхме и след изравнителния гол за Съндърланд, равенството срещу Челси с човек повече на терена и загубата от Астън Вила с гол с последното докосване до топката на терена. Въпреки победите в последните два мача от Висшата лига този сезон, недоволството към Артета не стихва заради неубедителната игра на отбора, скромните победи с едва гол разлика и крехката преднина от две точки на първото място в класирането. Ще го виждаме и още при всяка удобна възможност, но се надяваме, че все по-рядко ще има поводи за това. Може би сега отново трябва да си зададем въпроса: когато създадеш очаквания и върнеш отбора в борбата за първото място, провалил ли си се, можеш ли повече от това или трябва да го оставиш на някой по-добър от теб да го довърши? Едно е сигурно и то е, че предстои да разберем! А още по-интересно и показателно за добрата работа на Артета е, че във Висшата лига статичните положения отново са на мода. След като Арсенал бяха яростно критикувани, че вкарват повечето си голове от статични положения, сега головете след центрирания от ъглови удари и фалове, както и дългите тъчове в наказателното поле, се превърнаха в редовна практика за почти всеки клуб от лигата. Практика, наложена от Артета и заимствана от другите като добре работеща. Накрая ще завършим поредицата с думите на Деклан Райс в негово интервю, в което казва за Артета: „Не го съдете сега. Съдете го, когато е спечелил всичко….“. Надяваме се всички ние феновете на Арсенал да имаме тази увереност, както очаквания, а още по-важното е момчетата на терена да я имат повече от всички останали, защото най-важното е да не забравяме, че Арсенал не е просто отбор, той е семейство!

The new Spanish influence at Arsenal For the first few years of Arteta’s management, the Spanish influence was minimal. No Spanish players and little in the backroom staff. This is unusual and I wrote about it here. But if I suspected that he was unique amongst managers in not preferring to be surrounded by his countrymen, then I have been proven wrong. Now Arsenal is a Spanish side. Or is it? Turning to Spain means turning to greatness? Let’s take a look. Let’s start with Arteta. Only his early days were in Spanish football. All his top flight football career and management coaching has been outside of Spain. He is a Basque native so even he might argue that he is not really Spanish although the separationist movement has gone quiet in recent years. Still, I think we can say he is Spanish. Inaka Cava Paron leads the most Spanish section, goalkeeping The main goalkeeping coach is Spanish, Inaki Cana Pavon, and our main and back up goalkeepers are Spanish, David Raya and Kepa Arrizabalaga so I think we can safely say that minding the net is a Spanish affair. In defence it is a bit different as there are none at the moment, although Cristhian Mosquera may change that if he comes. Will one presumably back up defender make for a Spanish defence? I don’t think so but if he nails down a place we can say that there is a Spanish spine at the back. But not yet. Not even in midfield? Midfield? Well, it gets a bit more like it as Zubimendi and Merino are both Spanish. It is hard to say whether one or both will become regulars. Could we say that if they both do, it is evidence of Spanish bias as Rice and Odegaard and indeed Havertz have been critical in recent times? Ethan Nwaneri will push hard for his place as will the Dane Christian Norgaard, our new arrival obviously desperate to play, the competition is fierce for limited spots and if both Spanish players become first choice then we could argue for a Spanish bias unless they play so well that they are undroppable. Zubimendi- about to become great? And in the forward lines there are no Spanish players and with Gyokeres and Manueke seemingly likely there seems little possibility of a Spanish attack appearing any time soon. So, when it comes to players only Raya is assured of his place and his replacement is also Spanish so only goalkeeping is definitely Spanish. For the rest, it remains to be seen if they can become Arsenal legends. The Academy is mostly English I looked in the Academy and there are no Spanish players there either. So no revolution there although it is complicated by Brexit and the difficulty with signing EU or other players. Only 4 Academy players are not UK although Alexai Rojas, the Columbian goalie who speaks Spanish is the only one that could indicate a Spanish element. David Raya is our best ever Spanish goalkeeper We cannot argue that Arteta has tried to make Arsenal team based on the players at the moment but what about the coaching staff? Gabriel Heinze who has just joined speaks Spanish but is Argentinian. Well versed in Spanish ways, though. Miguel Molina the assistant coach has been with Arteta since 2020 and Andrea Berta the football director has spent a huge amount of time in Spanish football. And that is it. 3 Spanish and 2 Spanish speakers among the coaching staff (including Arteta) so a strong influence but not so much that it could be described as very Spanish. A bit Spanish, is that all? There we have it. Yes, there is an increasing Spanish flavour to Arsenal but a long way from Arsenal being a Spanish club. Under Wenger, the French influence was unmistakable. Anelka, Vieira, Henry, Pires, Petit, Wiltord, Giroud, Sagna, Clichy and Koscielny will always be remembered. Will Raya, Merino and Zubimendi also join them as Spanish greats? Arteta does need them to perform at their best, stay in the team and produce top class displays. Raya is well on the way but Saliba is surely at least on a par with him for the French contingent under Arteta? Santi Cazorla the wonderful magician Cazorla and Fabregas join with Arteta and others for our Spanish greats, all under Wenger. It seems our Arsene had a love for Spanish players too. Those three names would be above any of our current Spanish players at the moment. 5 Champions League in a row? Of course, one factor that must be mentioned is that Spanish clubs have been the most successful in football history. Emulating the Spanish is a fine aspiration. Spanish players are also among the most successful and they generally provide the backbone of the top Spanish sides, notably Real Madrid and Barcelona. In that sense it is perhaps surprising that Arteta has not increased the Spanish representation sooner. I suspect he works on the basis of who he trusts, who he respects, and crucially, who he can work with. Nationality doesn’t really come into it. Cesc Fabregas was probably our greatest Spanish player Maybe it should, though? What do you think? Is increasing the Spanish influence going to be good for Arsenal? One would like to think so. Raya has done well, Merino has sparkled sporadically, so can Zubimendi and Mosquera be the Arteta spark which brings the top trophies? And Arsenal be regarded as the best that Spain can get? It is, as is everything with Arteta, open to debate and no clear answers at the moment. But a run like Real Madrid of the fifties (look it up, youngsters)would have us all purring and proclaiming Arteta as the greatest manager of all time and not just the greatest Arsenal manager of all time. We can all dream.

Do we have two teams and do we now have strength in depth like Manchester City or not? Team who started against Wolves David Raya O. Zinchenko Gabriel Magalhães W. Saliba B. White D. Rice T. Partey M. Ødegaard (c), Gabriel Martinelli K. Havertz Bukayo Saka The alternatives A. Ramsdale K.Tierney R. Calafiori J. Timber T. Tomiyasu J. Kiwior Jorginho M. Merino F. Vieira E. Nwaneri L. Trossard E. Nketiah R. Nelson Gabriel Jesus Raya Raya has cemented his place Above I have listed the team chosen against Wolves as a possible first team, although with obvious question marks over some positions. I will go through these against the best of the rest. Raya is Arteta’s man and I feel most fans are happy with that. But Ramsdale (if he stays)is a good substitute and I do not believe, with a good run in the side, that we would be weakened if he was playing. Strong at goalkeeping. White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko Calafiori has to come in? The defence is where there is now serious competition. Calafiori was surely not bought to be on the bench so that means Zinchenko to swap places? Can he take Gabriel’s place instead? I feel that the Saliba/Gabriel partnership is written in stone now so it would take an injury for it to be shaken up. White, Calafiori, Timber, Kiwior and Tomiyasu can all play central and full back so that leaves Zinchenko and Tierney as full back options. 9 for 4 positions seem to be strong and only Tierney has big question marks over whether he can complete a season. I suspect that Timber and Calafiori are the biggest contenders for a first choice position but Ben White’s understanding with Saka makes him hard to shift. Calafiori to replace Zinchenko then is my belief. Strong at defence. Partey, Rice and Odegaard next. Declan Rice will be hard to replace Rice and Odegaard are nailed on but Partey’s position seems open. Merino, if he comes, surely will take that spot. Jorginho always does well and would be first choice at most teams. Nwaneri seems to have pushed himself into the first team squad at 17 but he would need Rice to go back as he is an attacking midfielder. I suspect he is there for a reason and may well be the first academy player in a while to nail down a place. Still very young, though. Fabio Vieira and Zinchenko could do a job but neither are as good as the first choice. Havertz also does a good job in midfield. I feel we have reasonable strength in midfield but Rice and Odegaard are better than the rest and either or both getting injured could derail our title chances. Midfield not quite so strong in depth. Martinellli, Havertz, Saka Kai Havertz - is he the striker that we have needed? Attack is the area where we have the most concerns. Havertz up top seems to be working despite the 60 million being down the drain :). Jesus probably is not quite superstar level. Saka and Martinelli (if he has rediscovered his mojo) are possibly the 2 best wingers in world football. Trossard is an excellent backup. Nelson also puts in a reliable shift when called upon but that seems rare nowadays. For Nketiah it is the same. Attack seems vulnerable to something going wrong. Six are certain I think we can say that we have 6 players written down from the start: Raya, Saliba, Gabriel, Rice, Odegaard and Saka. Calafiori and Timber may well prove to be the equal of Saliba/ Gabriel. But Rice, Odegaard and Saka do not have alternatives in my opinion. Three subs were used against Wolves, Timber for Zinchenko who was struggling a bit, Trossard for Saka who had got a yellow card, and Jesus for Rice who wasn’t as good as normal. The final two came on late when we were 2-0 up. Arteta doesn’t seem to like subs whereas Guardiola often uses all five. I feel that is a weakness, that Arteta doesn’t really trust certain players. Players come on after 80 minutes which makes it very difficult to have an impact. Jurrien Timber looks like a player you cannot leave out We were lucky with injuries last season. The previous year we were unlucky. I reckon that what is above raises question marks about our depth if something goes wrong. A top notch striker, winger and midfielder would be useful. But they would have to get game time. The fringe players last year got very little. For example, Reiss Nelson had 14 sub appearances in the league but I doubt if he got 90 minutes in total. Nketiah similar. Emile Smith Rowe also. Without game time players cannot improve and feel comfortable in the team. More players need starts and games I have listed 25 players and obviously some of the academy guys from pre-season are trying to push for a spot but I reckon no more than 15 players will get regular starts. Last year only 15 got 10 or more. If Arteta continues with late or little subbing then how will the fringe players get match-wise? You may hardly get the ball in a few minutes. Saka is irreplaceable I feel I firmly believe that we can only have a strong squad by rotation, by longer subbing, and by players feeling trusted. We will get punished this season if Arteta follows the same pattern as last year. Unless we get lucky with injuries again and the 6 critical players listed above start almost every game. My conclusion is that our strength in depth is open to question. We certainly do not have a like-for-like reserve in many positions. We will also probably have many players with limited game time when we do need a game-changer. I believe that Arteta needs to change his ways. I doubt if he will. We might pay for that.

A post-season assessment of Arteta - a good season not a great season Arteta has silenced all the critics, has he? Not exactly, he hasn’t silenced himself, Edu, Josh Kroenke, and many of the players and staff at the Arsenal. He has definitely silenced the fans, some of whom, unbelievably, were shouting Arteta out on social media when we hit a bad patch in the middle of the season. But if you listen to Arteta, Odegaard, Declan Rice and others you know they are not quite happy because they want better. Winning the league and the Champions League is the priority from now on. Fulham, not the Spuds, cost us the league One draw turned into a win would have made us champions, with Fulham early on an obvious culprit. 26th August 2023 will be burned into their minds. It emphasises that for every game they have to be ready to fight. The other draws were against established top sides. We had five losses and five draws with Fulham our big punishers. We lost five points against them. We could have been celebrating at the Emirates on the last day knowing City were confined to the dustbin. They, not the Spuds, cost us the league, although they also got a draw against us, but you do expect to drop some points to the top end of the table. Can he get his transfers right? Regular readers will know that I have also criticised Arteta throughout my time here but I have always supported him. I criticised his struggles with big names here and I will come back to that later but he has come through that test so far. I would be nervous if he got an Mbappe or a Neymar but he certainly handled the Declan Rice and Havertz situation really well. One plus for Arteta. But it must continue with our new signings due this summer. Kai Havertz scores again - Arteta got him right I also criticised his team falling apart for the last ten games here but he managed 25 points which is a respectable score and much better than his previous best. We had a lot of tough matches to negotiate and we got an excellent point from City away, but probably were a little vulnerable against Villa after defeat by Bayern. Two pluses for Arteta. Again it must continue, though. A manager is judged solely on their recent results. Is he able to rotate? He did achieve a remarkable level of consistency and succeeded in getting a record number of Arsenal wins and a score of points that would have won most Premier Leagues so far. He took on a resurgent Liverpool and Spurs who were both top of the league for a period, and a dynamic Aston Villa, but left them well behind. Arteta - losses and draws to be turned into wins However, there is a question mark here as we had few injuries and he didn’t rotate the squad much, and often only made changes late in games. Saka, in particular, took a lot of punishment. He did have Martinelli who seemed to suffer from lack of game time but he could have given Saka a rest and switched Martinelli as he did against Everton. He caused a lot of problems in that game. But we can make that a minus, I feel. Guardiola rotated like crazy and won the league. We may not be so lucky with injuries next year. Let’s look again at man-management Where Arteta has excelled from day one was his appeal to work with the fans, to create a strong atmosphere at games home and away. I was at Old Trafford and at times we out sang the Mancs. The fans have been great and Arteta deserves all praise for the way he includes the fans in everything. A big plus to Arteta. Getting the fans singing has been Arteta's great achievement So I am going to return to player management as I said I would but first a little backwards look to talk about Aubameyang, which was Arteta’s strongest test of player management. Aubameyang obviously thought he was far more important than a rookie manager and Arteta struggled to deal with him, plus Ozil, Lacazette and Guendouzi also spring to mind. Aubameyang the arse But let’s take a look at Aubameyang as we still haven’t truly replaced him. Supposing he wasn’t such an arse but rather a serious professional, he could still be here. He went in February 2022 with 92 goals and there have been two more seasons since then. In those two and a half seasons if he scored 50 goals he would now have 142 goals for us, 3rd in the all time list and in front of Van Persie on 132. He would have had better players to provide assists and could have got even more making Ian Wright’s 179 a target. Messi and Ronaldo are still playing so so could he, say for another 2 years for us. He is 34 years old, quite a bit younger than those two. Two more seasons from now and Wright could have been relegated to 3rd. That's an arsehole you see, Pierre I don’t think there is anyone who doubts Aubameyang’s ability, he was superb at his best. If we had the best him for the past 2 years we could have made up the small amounts of points needed and we could now be double champions. Take a look in the mirror, Pierre Emerick, and you will see an arse who deprived himself of two league titles, of chasing Ian Wright’s record, and of becoming an Arsenal legend. You will see an arse who is playing for a mediocre French team who only won 13 of their 34 league games. And especially you will see an arse who, because of your huge ego, decided you would push a rookie manager rather than give your all as an ambitious professional. You lost and you are looking at a loser. Pity is that you made us all lose. None of us care about you now. We lose our young players? There is one area I am concerned about and that is the peripheral players, Possibly Martinelli, plus Smith Rowe, Nketiah, Nelson, Ramsdale, etc., and the young players bubbling through. To win, to me it seems that Arteta believes we need a strong, experienced squad. How can he keep all the players happy? Young players don’t remain young forever. They need to play before they get old. I suggested here that up to 15 players could go and how will that affect the culture? Steve Round went after disagreeing with Arteta about this very point and specifically Ramsdale. Arteta has worked hard to create a culture of togetherness but unsatisfied young players not getting games will make them unhappy. Could Martinelli go? A disaster This is his challenge, one that he didn’t have so much this year. We will probably have 3 or more new players to keep happy as well. We hope that he has learned. That recruitment will take into account temperament and that we don’t sign an arse like Aubameyang. We are all hoping for an improvement in August but Arteta is facing another new challenge, one of expectation. Can he deliver? So far, he has always found a way. Long may that continue! Ramsdale vs Raya Ramsdale- should be number one? Ps. I have been reading a lot of statistics that say they prove that Raya is better than Ramsdale. How about these for the opposite? We came second last year 5 points behind City. And second again this year 2 points behind City. They had Haaland and De Bruyne out a bit this season. We had a team more mature by being a year older. We had Rice and Havertz, a big improvement. We had few injuries. Last year when Saliba went we lost points. So Ramsdale got us second with a weaker team. And points were easier to get this season as the bottom teams got very few. Raya - truly top class? There is one area where Ramsdale is clearly better and that is shot-stopping. He can pull off an amazing save. He is bigger and stronger than Raya which makes him harder to bully. He rises up the fans better than Raya which gives us a 12th player. And he is always smiling when he is playing. That makes me happier. He will probably go and it will be a mistake. I reckon, despite the stats, Raya is just short of being a true top goalkeeper and I really hope we don’t find that out next year. I hope I am wrong.