Today’s game will be Mikel Arteta’s 150th managing Arsenal.

Coincidently, he also played for us 150 times!

It has been a bit of a rollercoaster first job for the Spaniard, having been bought in to clean up the mess left by Unai Emery.

He inheritated an ageing, underperforming squad that sat 11th in the league, one spot below Burnley.

A team that had won just once in its last 10 league games, and 5 times in the opening 18 league games.

A draw at Burnley was his debut game as manager, followed by defeat at home to Chelsea.

There were signs in that second game of what was to come – Chelsea needed to late goals to clinch it, the first of which came from Jorginho who should not have been on the pitch.

That defeat was followed up by his first league win in charge against Manchester United.

His Arsenal would continue struggling for wins in the league as the team eventually finished 8th.

A covid hit season, we ended winning the FA Cup despite the turmoil.

His first full year in charge did not see a huge improvement.

Turnover behind the scenes had seen football directors and heads of recruitment come and go, whilst on the pitch he was trying to put together starting XIs that did not want to be at Arsenal, did not want to play for him, and were being actively disruptive.

One by one those players that had let us down over the last 5 years were sold, released, or paid to go. Replaced with younger, hungrier talents.

Arteta was lucky to recover from a run that saw us fail to win for 7 games in the row in the league. 2 wins in 12 saw plenty calling for his head. But Arsenal felt like they had the right man, so stuck by him.

We finished 8th, and failed to qualify for Europe for the first time this century.

The first 14 games of the season were horrendous, but in the next 24 we showed Champions League form – only the two Manchester clubs got more points during that period.

2021 was filled with hope. No European football allowed Arteta (and mainly Edu), to strip the squad back to its bare bones. A proper rebuild.

It also meant we had the advantage of no mid-week distractions.

We spent most of the season bouncing between 4th and 6th as neither us, Tottenham or Manchester United were able to put together a consistent run.

3 defeats in a row were followed by 4 wins on the bounce. Top 4 was ours to lose with 3 games to go. But two of them were away to Spurs and Newly rich Newcastle. We lost both and finished 5th. Bottled it some claimed.

Despite the dissapointment, more and more fans were beginning to “Trust the Process” and this season, it has been “so far so good”.

Top of the league, topping our Europa League group, it is all moving in the right direction.

Surpsingly, Arteta now has won more of his first 150 games than any manager in Arsenal’s history.

Mikel Arteta will take charge of his 150th #Arsenal game against Chelsea, which is the same number of appearances he made for the Gunners as a player. Before Sunday’s game, he already has the most wins of any #AFC manager from their first 150 in charge. pic.twitter.com/gkvLJeuL5m

— Harvey Downes (@HarveyDownes92) November 4, 2022

It feels like with are on a journey with Mikel. And he and the players are closer with the fans than ever in recent memory.

Today it is Chelsea away.

It was victory against Chelsea that arguably saved his job back in 2020, ending the horrible run we were on.

Arteta’s Arsenal have won 4 of the last 5 against Chelsea – including twice at Stamford Bridge.

Now lets get down the pub…

Keenos

Our #Arsenal beer mats are a best seller – so we thought we should create a longer lasting version

Sold individually, our ceramic coasters are a great addition to the home bar #Arsenal #ArsenalFC #AFChttps://t.co/Q8BFoLfQx0 pic.twitter.com/2EfLKTEgSB

— Kick Off Merchants (@KOMerchants) November 2, 2022

Week 7 of Strictly Come Dancing.

We have already got Tony Adams through the half way stage! What a fantastic achievement.

And when I say we, She Wore are taking not claiming that it is us who got him there. we are talking about Arsenal fans in general getting him there.

Momentum is building for Mr Arsenal and we are just one part of the cog that I am going to start caling Tony Adams Red and White Army.

In the last 7 days, a lot has been written about us (this time I am talking about She Wore).

There have been accusations that we are trying to “fix” the vote.

Now fixing a vote would imply that what we are doing is underhand. It is not.

All we are doing is telling reminding the 100,000+ Gooners that follow us across social media to vote for Tony. No one is forcing anyone. No one is artificially increasing the votes through hacking or anything else.

This is just Arsenal fans coming together, both withing the She Wore network and beyond, and voting for a living legend.

The real heroes are those lads sticking up reminders in WhatsApp groups at 8.30pm on a Saturday whilst they are on a night out.

So voting is now open. Lets upset the applwcart again!

So how do you vote?

Firstly, make sure you are registered on the BBC Website (if you are already registered, just sign in and head over to the Strictly homepage).

You only need to register once and you will stay signed in on the device you registered with unless you choose to sign out.

Once you are signed-in, head over to the Strictly homepage.

When the vote is open, it will appear at the top of the Strictly homepage. If you can’t see it, try refreshing the page.

To cast your votes, select Tony & Katya, click the ‘plus (+)’ icon next to their name so that a ‘3’ appears in the box between the ‘plus (+)’ and ‘minus (-)’ buttons.

Finally, click ‘Submit 3 Votes’ at the bottom and you would have now voted for Adams 3 times.

So lets get voting. And turn Adams from 100/1 outsides to 2022 Strictly Champion!

Keenos

Tony Adams – the man of the moment with his Strictly performances. With friend of the site @SheWore backing him, can he go all the way?https://t.co/oiQFoPujRI pic.twitter.com/EhHvTs93lb

— Kick Off Merchants (@KOMerchants) October 31, 2022

Thursday was a tough game to watch. But we are through, top, whilst not adding too much game time to our first string.

Mikel Arteta has rotates his squad throughout the Europa League.

Whilst some have criticised him for playing – or bringing on – the likes of Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Jesus and Thomas Partey, his philosophy has clearly been about “sharing the work load.”

He has used a core 5 players that started every game (Rob Holding, Fabio Vieira, Eddie Nketiahm Kieran Tierney & Albert Sambi Lokonga), but for the rest, the minutes have been shared:

Those players with a less explosive, better injury record played the most, whilst those who rely on pace (or have were being protected from injury), played least.

Throughout the Europa League, Arteta was criticised for his subs.

Taking Martinelli off for Saka, or Xhaka for Partey.

“Why is he risking senior players” those with very little football knowledge cried. To the rest of his it was clear and obvious.

Often, these subs happened in and around the 60 minute mark. He was clearly sharing the work load.

You would have Martinelli playing 60 minutes, then Saka come on for 30. Then the next game Saka would play the 60 minutes with Martinelli 30.

It was often the same with Xhaka and Odegaard. Whilst often Partey was bought on when we were losing control of the midfield and needed his quality and experience to see the game out.

It meant that he could rotate his first team without weakening the side on the pitch, and achieve out ultimate goal of topping the group.

It also has not affected our league form.

Yes, there was the draw to Southampton, but you will drop points away in the Premier League regardless of the team you put out mid-week (Manchester City dropped points to Aston Villa). It is unrealistic to expect your team to win 38 out of 38 games; although the way some fans go on, a “perfect season” seems to be their minimum requirement.

Post Europa League, we beat Brentford (A – 30), Liverpool (H – 3-2), Leeds United (A – 1-0) and Nottingham Forest (H – 5-0). The only dropped points being in that Southampton game (A – 1-1).

The league table since 16 September (1st game week after the 1st European games) shows how well Arteta has done marshalling his squad:

Since 16/09	Team	M	W	D	L	G	GA	PTS
1	Newcastle United	7	5	2	0	17	4	17
2	Arsenal	6	5	1	0	16	4	16
3	Manchester City	6	5	0	1	17	5	15
4	Tottenham	7	4	0	3	14	11	12
5	Chelsea	6	3	2	1	9	6	11
6	Manchester United	6	3	2	1	9	8	11
7	Fulham	7	3	2	2	13	13	11
8	Leicester	7	3	1	3	13	9	10
9	West Ham	7	3	1	3	8	5	10
10	Everton	7	3	1	3	7	6	10
11	Crystal Palace	6	3	1	2	6	7	10
12	Aston Villa	7	2	2	3	6	10	8
13	Liverpool	6	2	1	3	8	9	7

“Burnout FC” as some fans have labelled us have actually got through the difficult midweek – weekend period with more points per game than anyone else.

Newcastle, having played a game more and not had any midweek football, are the only side to have gained more points than us during the period.

Manchester City and Newcastle are the only sides to have scored more – unbelievable when our strikers have been “misfiring” according to the press. And no team has conceded less.

Experts predicted that during this tough period, Arsenal would implode and tumble down the table. But we have actually opened up the gap on Manchester City (1 point), Tottenham (4), Chelsea (5) and Manchester United (5). Whilst Liverpool have won 10 less points than us during the period.

Arteta has also spoken about needing to prepare for next season.

If we are in the Champions League, we will not be abkle to afford to rest players midweek; so it was important that our young players get used to playing twice a week.

It is clear that if we are in the Champions League, we will need further strengthening – the fall off from Gabriel Jesus to Eddie Nketiah, Saka / Martinelli to Nelson and Partey to Lokonga is too great. But this is not something new.

On a side note, I have not mentioned Rob Holding. He is 4th choice centre back and we do not have “Manchester City money” where we can have a £40million defender, being paid £100k a week, as 4th choice. He is still a solid option.

Edu knows what he is doing and, along with Arteta, will recognise where we need to increase the strength in depth ahead of 2023/24.

A cover striker for Jesus, another wide option and a defensive midfield option will be top of the list over the next two windows.

We go and get (for example), Ivan Toney, Mykhailo Mudryk and Danilo and we are then building that strength in depth needed to maintain this league form next season when we have Champions League football.

Top of the league, through top of our Europa League group, whilst rotating the minutes and doing a great job sharing the load.

If you are still questioning Arteta, his line up and his substitutions every weekend, then perhaps it is time to find a new hobby.

Chelsea tomorrow. Noon kick off so there is unlikely to be a blog (leaving at 8am to meet in Victoria for 10am).

UTA

Keenos