Agree with this in many ways but although his decisions are often baffling it worked last season. Many of our signings and decisions under Arteta seemed baffling and were frustrating ever since he joined. I wanted him out after the first seasons where frankly we underperformed bar the odd winning run and the only real success I could see was getting rid of deadwood by any means necessary (the club as a whole were excellent there).

The fact the side went close (quite close anyway) to a league win last season justifies a lot of the work he's done. This season we need another strong league return and to go reasonably far in the CL. Think there's virtually zero chance we'll win either given the opposition but there's no reason we shouldn't finish top 2 or 3 in the league again and make a few games into the CL knockouts depending on the draw.

But yes Nketiah is as expected not up to scratch and will likely leave on a free eventually due to high wages.

Hazertz is more baffling than our previous signings, it's really early days for him at Arsenal but it would certainly be a surprise if he suddenly turned his career around - a baffling signing even when not counting the huge fee.

Raya vs Ramsdale is a good problem to have, it was sad seeing Ramsdale on the bench today, he seems a great bloke and of all the areas we could've improved over summer GK would've been fairly low however we needed a much better number 2 so signing Raya was a massive coup. I just hope each player gets a fair go at the number one spot rather than Arteta playing favourites with an undeserving player.

I'm willing to give Arteta the benefit of the doubt after last season, the squad is still young and very capable of improving further. He does need to learn to manage his squad better though, it's going to be another long hard season, rotation will be necessary.

Partey was carrying an injury towards the end of last season. It's why we sent him to international duty with a physio.

Think people are being harsh on Raya. No mention of that Spiderman save? People just want to rant. He was certainly a bit dodgy yesterday, but give the lad a bit of time.

The biggest issue, is the defensive record at the Emirates. We're going nowhere until that gets sorted. 4 clean sheets there in the league last season. It was cute, so nobody really gave it much discussion. No clean sheets at the Emirates in the league so far this season. It's abysmal. It's pathetic. It needs sorting.

There's a lot more emphasis on us controlling games this season, rather than going full pelt from the off in every match. And I suppose we are doing that. If you look at the two away games, although it was Everton and palace, we've conceded pretty much nothing.

The irony is, it should in theory help with injuries. Guess not, although the ones we've picked up since timbers don't seem to be massive ones.

3 clean sheets the the Emirates this year and one of those was Jan 3rd. Haven’t looked into it but won’t be surprised if teams that went down last season have a better record than that

Media (and particularly Gary Neville) want to make a scandal out of our goalkeepers and time wasting.

The Emirates defensive record is right there. Go on lads, make hay. Maybe it'll pressure us to sort it out.

I'll give Havertz time but tbh I have no idea why we didn't just get Madinson and that Pool CM Szbol whatever the spelling is. Would have been an extra 20-30 Mil in total but would have got 2 cracking players for CM and AM.

Think the Xhaka replacement is where Arteta has screwed up here.

For 65M I'm sure Arteta could have upgraded but instead the money has been wasted on a player who is unable to play the left sided 8 position.

With Partey injured again, we are playing with a brand new MF and that was always going to be a problem

Havertz and Jorginho partnership .
This will be a thing for a few games if Rice is out for long

I'm not an Arteta apologist by any means, as i fully agree about Havertz, but I do at least see the logic with what he's trying to do bringing in Raya, and it does feel like the media are desperate for that decision to backfire because Ramsdale is English.

"Think people are being harsh on Raya. No mention of that Spiderman save? People just want to rant."

A good save but he was miles out of position. I'm not sure what he was trying to do yesterday, is that his usualy style? Seems to want to come out no matter the angle, a bit bizarre.

I don't really blame Raya for the goals. However, it's assumed that he's in the team because of his quality on the ball, and that was definitely not evident yesterday. Maybe Spurs' press was really good, but Raya was consistently way off the mark with his passing.

Not much more to say on Havertz... unfortunately, that guy's Arsenal career will end up being a bigger flop than Pepe's, I'm pretty sure of that.

I do trust Arteta's judgement generally, but there is this nagging feeling that he's often trying to be too clever, or make big statement decisions, almost like he's trying to prove he knows better than everyone else. Pep has been guilty of it too over the years actually, only he had already won everything by then so it was a bit more acceptable. Anyway, what Arteta did last season gives him serious credit in the bank imo. Let's not throw the toys out because of an average game against Spurs (which we still could have almost sewn up in the first half).

His arrogance is in danger of ruining the good work he’s done in putting a really good, quality side together. Thinking he’s the coach to get anything more from Havertz than what he’s shown in his career so far was the absolute epitome of Arteta’s self service and that signing is going to cast a huge cloud over his work if Arteta fails to truly deliver on the potential within the squad.

I’m not at all fond of Arteta’s skills as a tactician or match day strategist but commend his work in putting together a side with loads of potential. That said, at this point in his Arsenal career, he’s no better than Ole as of right now.

Some great thoughts overall in the comments. Wanted to add a few things:

I totally agree with Arteta trying to be too clever. Partey at RB, Jesus (our best striker) out on the wings. He makes decisions no one else would and they are not working out. Some will say we have more control in games...but do we really? More possession, yes but control? We still get cut open too easily and I for one don't believe we can win games 1 nil every time like at Everton. But we don't look like scoring for much of thr time we have the ball. Other than vs PSV, we have not been good to watch. And maybe this is the real Arteta. Don't forget that for other than last season, we have been slow, boring and very much focused on defending.

I also hate how contradictory he is. He is ruthless with Ramsdale (not sure why), but Nketiah is still here. Won't play ESR, but Havertz is getting time to stink out the place. Talks about rotation but plays Saka EVERY game. This WILL backfire when the poor lad starts picking up injuries. Signed Nelson to a new contract..won't play him even when two of our wingers are out. It's baffling.

I see us fighting for top 4 (PL is done as City will slap us and be 7 pts ahead soon). I'll take an FA cup, quarters of the CL and maybe a league cup if lucky and some serious rethinking from Arteta.

Had high hopes this season but those are gone

"He does not even look like a player who is trying and just waiting for it to click"

Well said. That's exactly it. He's just going through the motions. Where have you seen him busting a gut? Where is the work rate? Think I've seen him chase back once and recover the ball but he was probably the one who lost it in the first place. Have already seen him lose the ball numerous times and not get back to help with any urgency, that reminds me of Ozil.

Regarding Partey's form dropping off last season, is it any surprise when he loses Saliba behind him and instead it's Rob Holding?

Another baffling decision from Arteta... Bringing Holding in (when we've seen how that one goes before, numerous times) in a bloody title race. Instead of shuffling things around to try and do something different with Kiwior or Tierney or w/e, there were other possibilities.

Arteta blew the title race with his decision making. Yeah he helped get us in that position but ultimately it's the players, as Kevin Campbell always says, it's the players. Arteta's job is to get the best players, the best team on the pitch. He didn't do it in the run in and instead went with Holding. I'm not even making this up when I say as soon as I saw Holding I said: "we're not winning the title". Sad thing is anyone with half a brain knew that... But not Mikel.

He tries to be too clever, too intelligent for his own good instead of keeping decisions simple he complicates and convolutes. Frustrating as phuq.