Arteta's Arsenal

[Robioto]

Fair play to Arsenal. The league table rarely lies, 100% deserved.

I really thought they'd throw it away, but I also thought Man City would turn it on when Arsenal slipped, especially after going out in January and buying Guehi and Semenyo, but it never really happened.

Also, Arteta has done brilliantly, he's made eat my words as I was convinced they would never win the big trophies under him. I also don't like him or the style he has Arsenal playing at all as a fan of football, especially the "dark arts" as the media affectionately call it, I prefer to call it cheating. But playing under his watch, they are deserved Premier League Champions and Arteta deserves all the plaudits for delivering that.

If he does win the Champion's League, his name will be deservedly be up there with the best.

[74Blue]

Very good team, fully deserved.

Would have won it at a canter if it wasn’t for injuries to Gabriel and Saka.

Champions and champions league finalists.

Don’t get the credit they deserve imo.

You don't think it strange that they are the only team ever to go a full season without a single red card or penalty conceded, despite their continued use of the dark arts?

[blueToffee]

Very good team, fully deserved.

Would have won it at a canter if it wasn’t for injuries to Gabriel and Saka.

Champions and champions league finalists.

Don’t get the credit they deserve imo.

Agreed, but boy so often they're a joyless slog to watch.

I hate what they've contributed to the game with this corner nonsense, the time wasting, and the fouling fouling fouling then reacting/flopping in the most embarrassing way. And somehow the refs go along with it, that last part I guess isn't on them but still it's not great. Plus can't forget the Arteta nonsense.

But credit to them no doubt. Some fantastic players. Rice, Saka and a fair few others certainly deserve it.

I just don't want to watch them most of the time. They could probably defend their ways to lifting the CL via a corner or such, but I hope PSG put 5 past them to underline that they're maybe not all that.

[Goaljira]

Very good team, fully deserved.

Would have won it at a canter if it wasn’t for injuries to Gabriel and Saka.

Champions and champions league finalists.

Don’t get the credit they deserve imo.

They've been effective, but they're not fun to watch at all. Its just how football as a whole has gone though, not just them.

[TheRam]

Agreed, but boy so often they're a joyless slog to watch.

I hate what they've contributed to the game with this corner nonsense, the time wasting, and the fouling fouling fouling then reacting/flopping in the most embarrassing way. And somehow the refs go along with it, that last part I guess isn't on them but still it's not great. Plus can't forget the Arteta nonsense.

But credit to them no doubt. Some fantastic players. Rice, Saka and a fair few others certainly deserve it.

I just don't want to watch them most of the time. They could probably defend their ways to lifting the CL via a corner or such, but I hope PSG put 5 past them to underline that they're maybe not all that.

I don’t enjoy watching them but it’s nothing new what they’re doing, they’ve just taken it to extremes in some situations.

How many seasons have Arsenal been great to watch without winning anything?

I think city have been just as boring to watch for a long time under pep.

[Risky]

It does feel a bit like a race to the bottom IMO.

Football is just becoming more and more cynical and robotic at the top level. City haven't been an entertaining side for several years now and Arsenal seem to have taken it to another level with the way they play.

Ultimately football is a results business and you'd certainly not be complaining if it was your team winning. It was much better when you'd look forward to big games between the top teams as a neutral though, because there would be a good chance of it being entertaining. These days entertaining games, at the top end of the table at least, seem to be few and far between.

Probably why most people hope that PSG despite being a petro-club beat Arsenal in the CL Final. It would be great to have a high profile example of front foot, quick entertaining football beating the more cynical percentage based football.

[Robioto]

It does feel a bit like a race to the bottom IMO.

Football is just becoming more and more cynical and robotic at the top level. City haven't been an entertaining side for several years now and Arsenal seem to have taken it to another level with the way they play.

Ultimately football is a results business and you'd certainly not be complaining if it was your team winning. It was much better when you'd look forward to big games between the top teams as a neutral though, because there would be a good chance of it being entertaining. These days entertaining games, at the top end of the table at least, seem to be few and far between.

Probably why most people hope that PSG despite being a petro-club beat Arsenal in the CL Final. It would be great to have a high profile example of front foot, quick entertaining football beating the more cynical percentage based football.

A superbly articulated post. 100% agree.

[Jamokachi]

There's a lot of recency bias going on in this thread.

[Evertonfc15]

artetas changing the game with boring cynical efficient italian like footy
well it certainly works
and gets trophies
but
at the expense of being entertaining fluid exciting footy which champions normally play

[CannockPricey]

Really love the story arc in the last couple of months of Arsenal going from serial bottlers who everyone knew would fuck it up to a clinical winning machine eternally grinding out results and ruining the game.