Arteta sack? OK, *now* Arsenal are ‘bottling it’ as rivals rejoice in sensational schadenfreude

It’s clear that the Mailbox is largely blaming Mikel Arteta as Arsenal lost their third match in four to put their place at the top of the Premier League at risk.

Despite some fans thinking it has finally become clear that the Gunners are bottling the Premier League title, others think they have never been good enough.

Never has a title challenger put in such a ‘bland, insipid and quite frankly pathetic display’ as Arsenal did against Bournemouth, while Stewie gives his view.

In analysing games the Irish legend and feted former RTE football pundit John Giles used to often talk about great teams having the moral courage to play the game the right way.

For a collection of very expensive and supposedly very talented players that was a cowardly excuse for a performance against Bournemouth by Arteta’s funboys. A sense of outright shame should pervade the Arsenal dressing room after the final whistle.

At home and only 3 shots on target the entire game. Relying on pure luck at set pieces yet again to stay in it.

Arsenal players were constantly falling over and complaining to the ref rather than attempting to open up Bournemouth with good play. I can envision quite clearly Max Dowman on podcasts years from now, describing how as a young prodigy his instinct was to dribble and take players on, but Arteta instead insisted he practice initiating contact, falling over and covering his face to feign injury, with him probably directing the young lad to Martinelli and Havertz for pointers in that area of the dark arts.

Arsenal were outplayed by the Cherries and hardly strung a pass together, especially the much vaunted Declan Rice. He’s a fine PL player with a great engine, but stay tuned this summer England fans, and watch him get exposed yet again at the highest levels of international football.

Arsenal have been putrid for much of these season and have in fact regressed from how they performed last year (none more so than Saka). They are only leading the league now because each and every one of their rivals have been a shambles in one form or another.

Even Arsenal fans can’t possibly claim to enjoy watching Arsenal in 2026. Winning is the only possible justification for Mikel’s putrid tactical approach. It’s intolerable unless the club becomes laden down with trophies, and as Jose Mourinho has shown in the past, even then it doesn’t take an age before the players, the fans, the club just tire of the whole rotten enterprise.

Nevertheless, Arteta’s Arsenal winning the league would be a terrible advertisement for the quality (or lack thereof) of the English premier league. Therefore Bournemouth’s win should be applauded by all right minded football fans. A victory over Arsenal it may have been, but it was also a victory for the soul of football itself. Robert Vard

Arsenal’s loss today is no surprise. This is why I emailed in recently telling my fellow Arsenal fans not to believe the PL is won.

Bournemouth was always going to be a tough game, especially after our away European tie in midweek.

Arsenal will probably edge past Sporting, lose to City and then drop more points in the league due to the fixture congestion, while City sneak past us. Not being in Europe is City’s biggest advantage in this run-in. A domestic treble for them seems likely now.

Unfortunately Arsenal didn’t build up an unbottleable lead earlier in the season due to many silly dropped points, something I detailed in an email to the mailbox after the debacle at Molineux.

After losing just 3 games in 49 all season, we’ve lost 3 of our last 4. This shows there’s a mentality issue. If they fail to win anything this season, Arteta must go. Izzy, London

What a beautiful day….

The most epic of bottlejobs is in full swing.

I’ve never seen a title challenger produce such a bland, insipid and quite frankly pathetic display of that against Bournemouth, who were fully deserved winners.

They’ll lose the league to City, and of course they will choke or bow out in the Champions League because they are never winning that.

From quad to nowt. Sensational schadenfreude.

Still never mind, there’s always next season eh Arsenal fans. Just give Arteta another billion and another 6 years. He might win another FA Cup if you’re lucky!! C, Sunny South

Ok, *now* they’re bottling it.

This is obviously a crucial time for Arsenal but even more so for Arteta. The club has backed him to the tune of over 1 billion pounds. Not too shabby. But for their investment they have received 1 FA Cup, total. Now that’s shabby.

Everything has gone to shit this season of course, but a year ago Arne Slot won the title having spent the grand total of £10 million. It was hard not to make the contrast.

Obviously they took over their teams in vastly different circumstances, but Arsenal- the team, the entire club – are completely Arteta’s now. He’s had 7 years and all the excuses have run out.

Forget the domestic cups, they are but a distraction. But if you blow a 9 point lead in the League, with less than 10 games to go, you’ve Devon Loch’d it. Especially if you have previous for falling at the last hurdle. And boy does Arteta have previous.

The team is there, the *squad* is there, they have all the tools you need to get the job done. There’s always been a suspicion that this side could play much better if Arteta would take the damn handbrake off. It’ll be a new manager taking the brakes off next season if they blow it from here.

It’s all on Arteta now. Win the league and all is forgiven, the lead weight around the club is thrown away. Lose it to City and he’s done. Full stop, the end, no two ways about it.

Look, can we stop with this lazy “Arsenal are bottling it” narrative for two minutes?

We’re not bottling anything. You can’t bottle something you never really had control over in the first place. If anything, this team overachieved for large parts of the season and now reality’s hit hard.

The bigger issue? It’s not even Arteta’s coaching. Say what you want, but tactically he’s shown enough over the last couple of years. The real problem is recruitment and no one wants to say it straight.

We chased Mykhailo Mudryk for what would’ve been around £62m+ and missed out. Then we go and spend roughly £65m on Kai Havertz, £30m on Noni Madueke, and about €60m (£51m) on Martin Zubimendi. That’s serious money. And tell me honestly, does this attack look like it’s worth that?

Because right now, it looks like a bunch of players who met each other five minutes before kickoff.

There’s no chemistry, no patterns, no cohesion. Just vibes and confusion. One guy presses, the other jogs. One makes a run, nobody passes. It’s disjointed to the point where you’re actually surprised when we create anything half decent.

This didn’t suddenly start happening now that the pressure’s on, we’ve been playing like this all season. The difference is earlier we were getting away with it. Now we’re not.

So no, it’s not a “bottle job.” It’s a flawed squad build catching up with itself.

And until that gets fixed, you can forget titles, we’ll be having this same conversation every April.

A very tired Arsenal fan Mubashir Iqbal

It has become obvious that Arteta cannot take us there, I still have hope as an Arsenal fan, but it’s obvious he is not good enough. Bournemouth loss just finished and as soon as I saw Harvertz as a 10, I knew it’s a loss, every time I see the man in midfield, I feel sick, from stinkers in the first half of his first season, to the Aston Villa game that year, to the 3 losses in the last 4 games, the man is not a midfielder …no drive just casual flicks and headers, no desire to take more than 2 touches with the ball or 2 steps with the ball, casual on the ball…

It’s heart breaking watching him. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.. Playing Harvertz as a 10 means we play poorly and lose. That being said Madueke and Mosquera lack elite mentality. Dowman seems to be riding his lucky Everton’s cross. The boy is 16, very talented …but he make forward or side passes, cannot create chances (creating chances in different from creating chaos), he just runs, dribbles into blind alleys, get fouled.

Everytime he got the ball, I knew the ball was dead, it was so predictable that felt like crying, as for Gabriel Jesus. He is washed up. I really want Gyokeres to succeed, but he is average. Next time Arteta better starts Norgaard or Myles in midfield rather Harvertz, that will give us more bodies to at least build or defend till Eze, Odegaard and Merino are ready to start. Harvertz is basically pointless, just play him in front, he is better than Gyokeres. Hopefully we don’t bottle this, and can the Premier League Manager of the Month be scrapped? Kufre, Nigeria

Not even a single player deserve a rating of more than 6. All below average.

I said it few months back, that if we win it( league) it will be because City are just poor not because we are any better.

Playing at home as been tough and it’s not getting any better.

Ucl, we will progress to final but we won’t win it. The league is gone. Lwazi

At this point, I can’t see Arsenal winning the Champions League. And I’m not saying they’ll bottle the Prem, but their goal difference is starting to look really important.

Call it bias, but I blame Arteta. Chris C, Toon Army DC

Hi 365,

I wonder how the MAGA fan-boys are coping today after El Fraudo has managed his greatest feat to date, turning what should have been a cakewalk title, into a gargantuan shitshow of a task. No point going over the usual points of contention (the abysmal football, only a set-piece goal, zero creativity from open play, slow, risk-averse rubbish, the Ashtray stinking the place out blabla etc). I told 365 several months ago that you cannot conceivably win a title by hoping to defend eternally, relying on set-pieces and the failures of others – at the business end of a season, you need to take the initiative!

I will simply remind you all of the delusional Trumpian bollocks the Emirates Kool-aid Islington Republican Party affiliates came out with after every pathetic capitulation?

Remember being 2-1 up at Sunderland, then taking off a ball-retaining midfielder and throwing on a defender? Conceding in stoppage time.

Remember having Citeh on the ropes at home, and instead of going for the kill throwing on a CB at 1-1? Then showing off that “CEOs texted me about how great we played” (Yeah Elon Musk and Sam Altman are exactly the validation you need! 😂😂)

Remember Chelsea away, their best player Caicedo sent off after just 30 minutes, and Arsenal scraping a draw despite playing 10 men for over an hour?

Remember capitulating away at Wolves by sitting back and conceding a late equaliser?

And crucially – and this here will apply to the Bournemouth result: at kind of manager faces a spiralling Liverpool, at home, and turns what should be a routine home win against a desperate side, into a “Cup final”? Errrr it should be a simple routine home win – but he turned it into an emotional Telenovela gazpacho Romantico. Which puts undue pressure on flaky, mentally weak players. El Fraudo obviously didn’t learn from that misstep and did the Exact same thing at home to Bournemouth! Result? A pathetic, spineless capitulation! Why is Arteta talking about “Bring your lunch”? You have £1bn squad, you’ve had 7 seasons, huge money, at home, top of the league. Every conceivable advantage – but as I said to all the Arteta-lovers some time ago, the biggest obstacle to Arsenal success is their fabulously mediocre technocrat.

To be honest even if he somehow limps over the line (as a result of Citeh failures) any serious club would sack him. The performances have been diabolical for over 3 months. Zero football, negative, soporific, slow. And I have to tell you all that if you thought I was unforgiving my ruthless when I went in two-footed on the arrogant Arsenal fans after Wenger failed….The public flailing of El Pulizon is going to be an apocalyptic Hammering for the Arsenal fans. So I’m warning you in advance, stock up on food, bunkers, anything you can find.

Stewie is going to demonstrate the kind of ruthless attacking your pathetic overpaid circus troupe is unable to show! Stewie Griffin (El Fraudo oh DEAR!)

I assume Arsenal fans feel about Dowman as Liverpool fans do about Ngumoha..?

I know some loon said Max had to go to World Cup.. but if we are going wild cards.. then Rio has to be a shout?

We are light at left wing.. and he is a super threat.

We have plenty options right side…

But bloody hell theres a potential for some chaos in a year or 2 when those 2 are skinnig people down either wing.

Very exciting times ahead if (after a handful of minutes each) they can keep these levels and not have the fun and confidence coached out of them.

His name is Rio and he dances down the wing!!