The Mail Bag
Arteta
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Being a recent Arteta critic, I feel it only fair to acknowledge his upturn in form. Whilst I still have reservations, particularly over his effectiveness, I would recognise the improvement in his involvement in games, particularly today, due to his new-found confidence since being moved to the centre of the park.
Despite his poor free kick record (before anyone points to his superb first goal, please remember that his other two were as poor as usual, the second one being from a rebound caused by a weak initial effort), he was, as they say, everywhere today without ? despite being our "most creative player" (Moyes) ? actually creating anything of note. Not exclusively his problem but let's not go there.
Here's to continued improvement and living up to his reputation.
Andy Hegan, Posted 28/12/2008 at 21:53:06
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As Matt said, there are few people who out-perform him over the season and this year is no exception. Please also remember that he was playing with an injury for most of last season to help the team out. That?s sacrifice. Moving him back into the middle though has re-ignited his spark. Suddenly everyone looks for him, and because he?s in the middle, he always makes himself available.
Yesterday was a continuation of our domination in games since Mikel has moved back to the middle. It was also some of the finest football we?ve played all season, just think how good we?ll be when we have fit strikers.
Criticise Arteta again and I won?t be so reasoned in my response, he?s my fave player and I usually kill for less :-)
My main crticism still is that we defend too deep and invite undue pressure on to our defence. This is very evident when we are defending corners ? when we break, we have nobody in a position to counter-attack the opposition (if we had a forward with pace, we would have picked off the likes of Chelski and Villa recently).
Another positive note is that the team spirit is immense at Everton. We don?t need those phony rugby-type huddles, you only have to look at the faces and the body language of the players whilst they are warming up. COYB
Is it me? I just can?t understand the ludicrously high level of expectation when it comes to the postings of some of my fellow blues; given what?s required to challenge in the PL these days, we?re doing great, most opposing managers and fans admire us once again. If only our supporters could share the spirit of the team, just think what our home record would look like.
His cross accuracy rate (always maligned) was actually higher than the likes of Downing, Bentley and Giggs. And he created 2.54 chances a game ? a figure only bettered by Fabregas and Gerrard.And this season, after a ?poor? start, he is already in the top-five assist makers, and in the top-three chance creaters according to the Opta Index.
Simply put, Arteta does the business wherever and whenever he plays. No surprise though that the rest of the team look better when he is in the centre of the park and able to dictate. Sign a winger in January and we might just crash the Top Four.
Yeh, Tony's still sulking after Michael told him he doesn't have to post after every game, since then weve had none.
I've missed his comments though.
He knits everything together, he gives the defenders options in deeper positions and he’s willing to keep hold of it and push us further up the pitch.
Another bonus is he’s closer to Pienaar, someone who’s on his wavelength and can link with him. When he played on the right he was always on the opposite side of the pitch to Pienaar, they couldn’t link up.
Our football is far better than last season, we are starting to control games and I haven’t seen us do that in years. Arteta is a big reason why the football so much better.
I’d also like to point out that his defensive skills and tackling are vastly underrated, he can tackle and his positioning is spot on.
Five clean sheets in the last six games since he moved into the middle, speaks for itself really.
It’s funny you calling me negative, as I am one of the more optimistic posters on here. I often get grief for defending the lads and the manager.
As I mentioned, it was an Arteta masterclass yesterday but it still doesn’t take away from the fact that if the wall did its simple job of standing still Mikel would not have scored, just making an observation, nothing else.
I still stand by my "poor Suderland side" comment, as they were awful but you can only beat what is infront of you.
Chris, I am glad someone else mentioned the TM issue besides me, maybe we will see him again after the banana skin of playing The Shite, Le Arse and ManUre in three successive games
We simply haven’t see Arteta in his natural position against the "top four" enough though. I remember him having a good game when we beat Utd in 04/05 and in the Chelsea game this season he controlled alot of the second half and most of our attacks came through him.
It’ll be interesting to see how his form is against Liverpool, Arsenal and Man utd. Up to now though his form is the middle has been superb, keep it up Mikel...
This indeed is not a day for the naysayers and those needing to point out that the condition of Goodision is shite, that we need a new stadium, that we have no strikers, no money, etc...
This was a great performance by a great team with a great spirit and a great Mikel Arteta. I am loooking forward to the Hull game!
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1 Posted 29/12/2008 at 07:31:23
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My point is that Arteta is our best/ more productive player, and if you look at the stats over the last few seasons there are only a few players in the EPL who, over the course of the season, perform better than Arteta! Let's be honest, if he curled a cracking free kick in every week, his value would be huge and he most likley would not be playing for us.
COYB!