Unai Emery continued his assault on the culture of entitlement at Arsenal when he dropped Mesut Ozil from the squad. The official line is that the German was ill, the smokey rumour is he found out he was being dropped and decided he wasn’t going to show for the squad. Either way, it says a lot about the challenges our new manager has with our most expensively remunerated player.
If he really was ill, that’d be the 7th time in 20 months. A quite staggering amount of sick days to pull when you don’t ride public transport, are fed and watered with outrageous precision, and you exercise almost every day of the week. Healthy adults who are athletes simply don’t get sick that often. The manager went all in on quashing the rift angle.
“This information isn’t true. I don’t know who started telling this information,”
“You ask me or the doctor of the club – he was sick.
“I spoke to him and the doctor and we decided he would not play. He left training to go home because he was sick. Today, I said to him come in if you feel better and today he feels better.
“Before the match he was speaking with me and the team. There is no problem with the player – ask the doctor and he will explain it.”
The manager has to deny the rift, he doesn’t want to be seen throwing players under the bus, but at the same time, he doesn’t want players leaking to the press that Mesut gets special treatment. My big question is this… if he’s too sick to play, but not sick enough to be at the ground in the dressing room, what sort of illness is this?
The game was a real mixed bag again. Arsenal went a goal down early on, our defence was utterly shambolic, and West Ham were taking great joy with the ease they were having getting in behind our unstructured high line. Their goal came when Anderson drove through our midfield from his own half unchallenged, he set up a one-two at the edge of the box with Arnautovic driving home with precision.
No one can say the game wasn’t entertaining, there was a real end to end battle going off, just a shame we looked so disorganized every time the ball came into our half. Hector Bellerin might be finding joy moving forward this season, but his defending has regressed to dangerous levels of awful. Time and time again, average players breeze in behind him. On a different day, the final score could have been very different.
Thankfully, we did pull a goal back very quickly, Hector broke in behind down West Ham’s right side, he drove a low cross into the six-yard box, with Monreal at the back post ready to take a touch and squeeze his shot in.
The second half came with Emery’s customary preseason-like realisation that he’d made a starting 11 mistake. Lacazette was once again needed to help Arsenal have any edge in attack. The Frenchman has the ability to bring people into the game as well as ferret out opportunities in and around the box. The goal was all about him, Aaron Ramsey fought the sun to head a loose ball back into the box, Lacazette brought the ball down on his shoulder, turned and crossed at Issa Diop who bagged himself an unfortunate own goal.
The manager also brought off the exciting, yet error-prone Guendouzi, replacing him with Torriera. It added a little more stability to the midfield, allowing Xhaka a bit more freedom to float the ball around like the distribution wizard he is.
We weren’t finished. The ghost of Arsene Wenger haunted the players for the last ten minutes, in a moment of madness, we’d committed all our players forward leaving Anderson to make a powerful driving run at our box, fortunately for us Lucas Perez was the recipient of his pass and he gashed the ball wide.
Emery gave WELBZ a little run-out, the Englishman fresh off the back of scoring a training ground goal from behind the goal, took time out to pick the ball 6 yards out, pirouette, and smash home for our 3rd of the afternoon.
The scoreline was a touch undeserving, but I’m not really in the mood to care, Emery has his first three points on the board and the players can take confidence in the methods and move onto the next game with a smile.
Emery was realistic about what was served up.
“It was very important to win, and we showed that we can win in difficulty, after 1-0 in the first half,” Emery told BBC Sport.
“We suffered with the transition in the first half, but we improved in the second half and controlled it more like we want.
“We need to improve in this transition to get the balance.”
I think the balance came in midfield, having Torreira on the pitch gave us bite in midfield and a bit more focus. Xhaka was free to cause problems without having to do the dirty work. I also thought Auba out wide with the more industrious Lacazette through the middle helped change our fortunes.
The big worry for me is that we don’t really have the players to carry out the manager’s dream. We don’t have much in the way of pace or directness to be a true counter-attacking threat. We also have a number of round pegs in square holes. Ramsey isn’t a number 10 for me. He’s great to lead the press, but he’s not really suited to creating the way we want. I also think Bellerin is becoming a huge problem for us, namely that he seems to be our only attacking outlet going forward, whilst being a huge liability at the back.
Our defence overall is a huge disaster at the moment, we have slow players trying and failing to implement a high line and something that looks like an offside trap. I appreciate this is all new to them, but it needs to improve and fast if we’re to break top 4 this season. Sokratis made some strong tackles yesterday, but he also looks off the pace. Oh what I’d give to have Koscielny back in the mixer.
All in all, a good day for Emery. I think the fans are fully behind passengers like Ozil being shown the bench when they deserve it, and I think everyone is enjoying how the side is starting to shape up. I don’t mean to be a gloater, but it does feel good that a new manager has come in and all the things we thought we were seeing with the German are the things Emery is fighting hard to address. Just a shame Ozil isn’t fighting for a new deal this year, think his behaviour might be a little less bratty.
The biggest takeaway: Ideas need to sink in a little faster and the defence needs to get into shape quickly, because if West Ham can open us up on demand, Liverpool are going to obliterate us in 7 games time.
Right, that’s me done. See you on the other side. x
1sr
Here
2nd
4
Tr4phy
Nice one Boomslang
Cheers groovey
Seriously. Still mentioning Arsenal and top four in the same sentence is ludicrous. Sixth or seventh is our ceiling. The ‘wenger’ players are shit. The Emery players are shit. Our £130m powderpuff attack is 0-3 so far this season. Awful. Ozil has now not only become a liability on the pitch, he’s poisonous off it. Sack this cunt ASAP. Calling in sick? Pathetic. I don’t envy Emery at all. Kudos to him for dropping the garbage but Arsenal will be firmly rooted in and around the top of mid table for years unless a) mega millions are invested or b)… Read more »
Agree with Pedro’s take on the game and in particular the benefit of the substitutions. Couple of points from being at the game yesterday, Xhaka should never be the last man on the half way line when we have a corner. The break WH had in the last five minutes of the game was seriously scary. Surely when we’re leading by one goal, you have to have at least two players, one or both need to be quick, ready on half way line to stop the break. Secondly, and it’s not the first time I’ve posted this, why not try… Read more »
My pre season prediction we are to light upfront Auba -Laca and Sick note
Looks likely to continue..
Has Bellerin been told how to defend.
Otherwise much needed win.
Mkhitaryan is now our best friend layer going forward. He creates he scores, he provides. Can’t understand why so many slate him. We look far better with ozil out of his way.
Bellerin has now assisted 3 goals this season. Maybe he should be played on the wing.
That late cut back seems to be doing really well for us. Nearly every goal we have score has come from late cut back
Welbeck now has outscored Lacazette and Aubameyang!! I’d also favour starting him wide over ozil.
Why not try Bellerin Mkhitaryan welbeck
Aubameyang
@ Tony D Two things to clear up. First of Emery is actually that – An Employee with a remit to meet certain KPIs. He is not a Manager but a Head coach whose role is basically to concentrate on “Coaching” the team, while a team has been set up by the Club mamagement to handle the rest of the functions revolved around transfers and so on. So there is a clear division of labour in place which was clearly missing under Arsene (one of the things that eventually pulled him under in the end) Secondly I do manage a… Read more »
Bellerin is playing more like an out and out winger rather than a wingback…. the result being there is often gaping holes for opposition wingers on that side to exploit when they mount the counter attack. Playing the press is fine but you need the DMs to cover the fullbacks when they go streaming forward or you leave the CBs horribly outnumbered. Bearing in they aren’t the most mobile defenders at the best of times we concede even more space to attackers when they counterattack. Our CBs are no where near fast enough. If this is the system he wanted… Read more »
I think we may be in for a bumpy ride for a few months. I didn’t watch the game live as i was working ,but after reading the commenting on le grove during the match I expected to see a dire performance when I watched the game last night but surprisingly, some of our play was good. We obviously have problems at the back ,we are more open than ever ..the obvious example of this is the fact that both of our full backs were 5 yards from the opposition goal when we scored our first goal.. Great to score… Read more »
Leedsgunner
Nzonzi was the player we should have signed
@ Leeds
Thats the point…he should have gone for a more youthful defence purchase and concentrated on drilling them.
Most are waiting on Kos to get back? But we all know he is injury prone and will get broken after 6 – 9 games. So we are left with the Defenders we have till probably Jan.
Pool strike force will be licking their lips in anticipation of the game against us if we continue to play as we did first half yesterday.
The sooner he gets settled on his first 11 the better for the team going forward.
Pedro,I am one of many Arsenal supporters that ABSOLUTELY AGREE when you described the situation of Ramsey and Bellerin.
I suggest that Arsenal should :
1 Sell Ramsey as soon as possible,to warm other team’s bench ( SURE )
2 Rest Bellerin until He discover how to defend.punto e basta
@ Pierre
That West Ham counter from our corner in the second half was just pure Wenger (lol) We were just lucky that Perez got a brain freeze at the crucial moment in the box and decided to not go for goal.
Still feel we would have dragged ourselves to a win in the end regardless as the players knew the implications on losing 3 on the bounce this early.
Onwards amd upwards we go. I hope.
Miki was disappointing yesterday without a doubt. He was rated a 5 in some newspapers. People tend to forget we were the home side. He left Bellerin out to dry more than a few times when the pressure was on.
Loyika Very well put. The fans are 100% not scared to stay away. Under Wenger, at least he had that “was good once” factor. I’d say most of Arsenal’s attendees were of the Wenger generation…but Emery means absolutely nothing to this club…and that’s either good or bad. Good in the sense we will never see a tenure as long and terrible as Wenger. Bad because Emery will have 2 seasons max (including this one) to male us winning again. We are miles away from the best in the league. Miles! Don’t let people tell you any different. These players are… Read more »
If the rumours of the training ground bust up are true, Emery has to be firm or he’s going to lose all respect in the dressing room.
It will be like the re run of the Neymar scenerio at PSG all over again.
It’ll be interesting to see what Emery does…. and will show what he learnt from that whole fiasco whilst in Paris.
Özil is being foolish… no one is bigger than the club. Not even him.
Hackney is bang on the money. I don’t know what people are hoping, everything to turn rosy by management genius? Yeah it ain’t happening. The last decade, heavy investment would give clubs maximum chance of winning the big prize. But now? You’d probably need that just to get in the top four, never mind staying in the top four. And Arsenal announced its great ambition by appointing a new man and giving him paltry change( by todays football standards) to spend. What are your expectations for Arsenal in the next five years? Top four? Cause 17 straight years of that… Read more »
Seems like the Ozil worship has subsided for now.
Lets do a honest appraisal of the main players
Cech- 6/10
Bellerin-5/10
Mustafi-6/10
Sokratis-Unknown
Monreal-7/10
Xhaka-5/10
Torreira-Unknown
Ramsey-5/10
Ozil-5/10
Mkh-6/10
Lacazette-7/10
Auba-7/10
Torreira will hopefully feature from the start more often now. if we’re pressing so high on the flanks his defensive instincts will be needed.
RR …has just reiterated I think what most sane Arsenal fans have seen coming. We held onto our money thinking that somehow having the best balance sheet would give us some made up ‘moral high ground’…yeah, I didn’t work. Investment 101 for people who actually want to make money, is spend it when you have it. Money is pointless in the bank. And for a sports team? Suifuckingcidal! Now, as RR says, we are so far behind, it would take hundreds of millions just to breach the top four…to win the league or (ahem) CL, forget about it. Embarrassing on… Read more »
Emery’s remit as well as to win football matches would have been to entertain. So sadly any pragmatic side of his nature won’t be seen as much as would be hoped. So it’s funny to see criticism of him comparing him to Wenger in the naivety stakes. He has been told to bring entertaining football, attacking football. If results come along with that as well all well and good. The Wenger legacy continues with Emery. Entertainment was one of the popular go to mantras of Wenger and Gazidis. Not pragmatism and results are the be all and end all. And… Read more »
3-5-2 is the only option if the manager persists with having the full backs so high up the pitch.
As for ozil,if he walked out then he should be shown the door ..
If he is suffering from an illness then the club need to sort it and quick as it doesn’t look good on the club …to me ,there must be something the club know but don’t want to put it out in the public domain…..something doesn’t add up.
Nice post Pedro.
To win the League you’d probably need every one of your main players to be a atleast a 7.5/10.
So good luck with that
Let’s try read into Emery’s statements just a little… “You ask me or the doctor of the club – he was sick. ==> meaning, we give you th party line “I spoke to him and the doctor and we decided he would not play. He left training to go home because he was sick. Today, I said to him come in if you feel better and today he feels better. ==> meaning, Ozil went mental and doc and I didn’t think he had the right mind to play and he got pissed and went home. We tried to get him… Read more »
Remember stating that you are an “entertaining” side can be seen by the lemmings as being consolation for not winning the top prizes.
We don’t win the big cups but hey at least we play football that is “entertaining”
Wenger and Gazidis were crafty and sly enough to recognise this and apply it.
And as Arsenal don’t look to be winning any big trophy any time soon then the entertainment side must go on. Must continue.
I’m still playing catch-up on the posts still reading the comments of the last one. Just wanted to say pleased for the win , it was needed only if to help some of the knee-jerkers ready to throw Emery out after only 3 games if we were still pointless. Hopefully now you can see some improvement in the team now Wenger has gone. Obviously the stench will take longer to go but it’s improving. @ Michael 24 PierreHave you been living in a cave all your life?What is “sacrilege” my friend is folk like you showing your support for something… Read more »
can’t we play both bellerin and licht ? licht as the defender and bellend as the winger we so desperately need. Only problem being, bellend can’t beat anyone on a 1v1. Need to just use him for his pace cause at the moment we have no pace in the team apart from ballerina and when he’s up top there’s no cover for him, leaving us heavily exposed…
of course the dream would be to have a defender who can attack as well as defend but we don’t have that option…
Loyika You are way wide of the mark comparing this squad with the squad inherited. You conveniently omitted, Parlour, Bergkamp, Wrighty and many others. None of this squad measures up to those guys. Before preaching about management try starting and building a successful business yourself first before speaking from just employee experience: I assure you the difference is immeasurable, as is consulting to rebuild and repair various operational flaws with under performing management and their minions. Emery has a very flawed Squad of under performers with poor skill sets Wenger left us with who all lack leadership, which were the… Read more »
Ozil prob at home crying that everyone at Arsenal is racist too. Little pansy.
Only problem being Licht is not a 90 mins player for anything like a stretch of games.
When will the penny drop regarding Licht?
A few months yet I would suppose.
Tony to Loyola
“Before preaching about management try starting and building a successful business yourself first before speaking from just employee experience: I assure you the difference is immeasurable, as is consulting to rebuild and repair various operational flaws with under performing management and their minions.”
Slightly condescending I would say.
Posted below just before the new post. Thought it shares some of the consensus : _________ The west ham game tells us a lot actually. * the season didn’t start yesterday -. No excuses yesterday really; WHU isn’t city nor chelsea! But we played quite poorly. * our issues aren’t isolated; have glaring problems throughout – from defence, to MF, to forwards * Emery hasn’t enough quality players to implement his ideas – assuming it’s not him being shit; can pity Emery inherited so much poo so cleanup /transition would take time * enough is enough – as experienced as… Read more »
loyika Emery’s task is simple – Steady the ship, win football games and eventually if successful with 1 and 2 change the culture at the club. As said he is now part of a team hired to achieve the 3rd part of that remit, so he would be best served concentrating on achieving 1 and 2 as best as he can. actually it isn’t as simple as that. Being a manager myself, I know how employees/players are. They need to motivated at all times and even that doesn’t do the trick. Sometimes I’m forced to get in the rough of… Read more »
isoha
if licht was instructed to just defend, why wouldn’t he last 90mins ? I’ve seen older people in the park last that long…
Loyika Sorry I’m sitting at Bangkok airport with the family and got distracted and reposted instead of posting this. I hear you about your wife: mine is MD and co-owner of a company employing 200 people and with around US$ 30 million yearly turnover. I sit in the middle of consulting and running my own company, so not your typical entrepreneur, but I enjoy the rigours as you call them and could never fully retire. We’ll have to agree to disagree regarding Emery’s remit and what he took on. If Arsenal were a well run club with the hierarchy all… Read more »
“Loyika Two things to clear up. First of Emery is actually that – An Employee with a remit to meet certain KPIs. He is not a Manager but a Head coach whose role is basically to concentrate on “Coaching” the team, while a team has been set up by the Club mamagement to handle the rest of the functions revolved around transfers and so on.So there is a clear division of labour in place which was clearly missing under Arsene (one of the things that eventually pulled him under in the end)” But then you say “Thats the point…he should… Read more »
surely Lich could last 90 min by the look of his physique, esp if Bellerin plays in front of him
worth trying 3 3 2 on a ‘lesser’ team what’s to lose?
It was an ok performance but we could have been put to the sword if it wasnt for west hams dreadfull finishing. We cant blame the full backs to much as they are given the shitty job of having no protection from those i front and also have to leave space behind when attacking in order to provide us width. it is a thankless job. We need torreira in the middle since xhaka and goundouzi are cm and not dms. i think we need to go back to a 442 with laca playing the bergkamp role and Pea in ghe… Read more »
“if licht was instructed to just defend, why wouldn’t he last 90mins ? I’ve seen older people in the park last that long…” Not the way it works. Not Emery’s remit or the way he goes about things. People were told months ago before the season started that Emery likes to be attacking with his fullbacks. And the notion of a fullback just sitting and not moving all match sounds good as an out for a player with stamina problems but in reality no fullback any where can just sit and defend all much. There has to be some aspect… Read more »
If Emery is going to run with Xhaka who I thought performed better once Torreira came on, we should play a 4-3-3/4-5-1 and have Torreira deep flanked by Guendouzi and Xhaka. Then have Mkhitaryan, Lacazette, Aubameyang up front or Iwobi/Welbeck instead of Lacazette and Aubameyang at ST. That way we have more control in the middle because in the first half it was nonexistent, it provides a link to our attack which was just not there and also means Torreira and/or Guendouzi can drop off to help Bellerin when needed and not leave a massive gap in the middle. It… Read more »
Cesc
I like your thinking.
I just think this season we will suffer from trying to get miki ozil and Ramsey in the team. I think realistically you can only play one of Miki ozil or Ramsey. But as they account for 600k plus a week that may become a problem. If Ramsey signs a new deal and we keep ozil we’re fucked in my eyes. January 31st can’t come soon enough. I think everyone will have more of a feel of where we are once that window shuts.
Based on our 3 games so far and pre season our defence is still very shambolic,
Conceded 6 goals already, 3 at home.
I know it’s still early days.
I am with the idea to play 3 5 3 or 3 5 2 1 forma until Emery gets the right players to play his way.
With the current crop, it’s not gonna work!
End of last season and pre this season I argued that playing lacca through the middle and auba our wide is best for the players and the team. All I got was “you don’t play the best striker out wide” or “auba can’t play out wide” blah blah. Like I said, last season we saw the best from both players in those positions because lacca is better at link up play in the middle where he is being marked and auba is better at running onto the ball from wing where he’ll find space, drifting into the box. Now as… Read more »
Pat That was the source of some of our biggest problems with Wenger, playing players in the wrong position or trying to get all his favourites in. The 4-1-MESS-1 still makes me shudder. I feel like Ozil and Ramsey in particular have no control over a game and there styles of play for different reasons actually mean we lose control of a game. I just wouldn’t play them, we can get rid of Ramsey in January and we should now be trying to get Ozil out of the club as quickly as possible. We need a CAM/CM type player, like… Read more »
As for Ozil, I can’t hide my distain for the guy. He’s an overpaid disgrace. I dislike his attitude, I dislike him as a person also. I’ve lobbied for this guy to be chucked out the team and that will not change even if he picks out a pass once every few games. The Ozil fanboys need to get a grip. Ozil is the embodiment of Wenger’s last decade. His entitled arse needs to be shipped out, because of him players like Ramsey think they can hold us to ransom. Ramsey’s average. How Monreal didn’t get player of the season… Read more »
worth trying 3 3 2 on a ‘lesser’ team what’s to lose?
you must be new here. one loss and people will come out with pitchforks calling for emerys head
Rumours are there was a training ground bust up between Ozil and Emery on Friday. And Ozil left training early.
‘The Ozil fanboys need to get a grip. Ozil is the embodiment of Wenger’s last decade.’
Could not agree more with you.
Getting id of Wenger was great, getting rid of Ozil will feel like fully getting rid of him though, he is the embodiment of Wenger’s ideas about football, dated and weak.
Ozil is used to getting what he wants and when he’s told he’s dropped he has a strop. Good on the manager if it’s true.
PSG now rated as favourites to sign Özil if he leaves. I used to support him but I’m getting tired of his poor attitude and great disrespect to the club, and the fans.
Cesc Totally agree. Watching the game it was very clear we need a winger. I’m with you on Ramsey and can see it happening ,I just can’t see ozil leaving though. His wages mean we may be stuck with him for 3 years. Ozils wages may mean we can’t shift him on unless his performances make someone want to take a punt on him. The only way we’ll shift him is to take a hit financially. I’m sure we could shift him for 20m. People will say that’s undervaluing him but it would actually save us 45m in wages if… Read more »
Loads of little quirks that need fixing/addressing in our setup as we progress through the season. But at least Emery is one for doing such work, and we should see gradual gains. Much maligned Xhaka showed his worth when anchored, basically what a good many people have previously suggested. I can see why Nzonzi was a real target for us this summer, because him and Torreira doing the mopping gives Xhaka the room to play – Guendouzi/Torreira will offer the same thing but with a few more errors given their age/experience. Bellerin is a problem, Ramsey is a problem, Laca… Read more »
I don’t understand why so many people think playing Bellerin as a winger is a good idea. His attacking prowess is even more limited than his defensive skills. Runs blandly in a straight line without any guile.
PSG have a FFP audit coming up no way they fork out any money for Ozil
Pat Agreed. The only team I could see taking Ozil is PSG because they have enough money to be stupid and they control their league enough that the fact he is half a player won’t effect them. It would be a great January if we got rid of him though, even if we did only manage £20 Million, at least it gets rid of his scandalous wages and gets rid of his appalling attitude from the squad. Ramsey should be sold in January and maybe Mustafi as well is Kozz looks like a reliable option when he returns. We should… Read more »
Wouldn’t make any concrete judgements on players relating to one match.
A few fair enough but not one and against a team as poor to average as West Ham.
This mistake has been made so many times before.
TR7
Agreed.
His passing is not great at all, not really a good dribbler, his crossing isn’t great though yesterday it was decent, he needs to really beat his man with straight line speed that stems from a good pass or passage of play.
Nowhere near complete enough to be a winger and we are already struggling to control games. Putting him out wide will lose us even more control.
I would sell Ozil in January personally he luxury the team can’t afford you are either committed to the team or your not.
I think Emery is experimenting with the team,which is why he is persisting with Xhaka, Bellerin and Mustafi . I would sell Mustafi and put Bellerin out on loan. I really feel centre back situation is something that can’t wait till the summer. Emery has got bring in someone in January, even if it’s someone on loan
Tony DI loved your little analysis sprinkled with a touch of condescension. You remind me of a jack Russell. Wink winkOk another note. We turned down cesc fucking fabregas for ozil. What was Wenger thinking?? Fuck me that has to go down as his biggest transfer mistak of all time. We were also offered do Maria at the time instead of ozil. Why didn’t we take him and cesc? We had the money sitting in the bank. Could have afforded both. Why didn’t we offer sanchez £350k after beating chelsea and put ozil up for sale? We have had so… Read more »
Could you imagine a midfield now of cesc JW and LT? With xakha and Guendouzi in reserve. Do Maria sanchez and Mkhitaryan on wings and Lacazette and Aubameyang fighting for striking spot
Some team that
Better than what we currently have anyway.
Ishola foaming that he can’t sit stroking himself and slapping his keyboard critically of Xhaka this weekend.
Amusing.
Tr7
He’s set up 3 of our 5 goals this season with his runs in behind so he can’t be that bad
He also put chances on a plate several times agaisnt Chelsea. He may not have great dribbling skills but at the moment he’s opening teams up on the wing and his leaving too much space behind so it makes sense to at least have a look with him there doesn’t it?
Champagne charlieAugust 26, 2018 12:54:48
Ishola foaming that he can’t sit stroking himself and slapping his keyboard critically of Xhaka this weekend.
Lol
I like xakha
Like I said I think he could be a real player for us in the right system. Emery seems to agree
Better value for money than pogba anyway
I wonder how likely we are to get Draxoer from PSG?
TR7
I don’t understand why so many people think playing Bellerin as a winger is a good idea. His attacking prowess is even more limited than his defensive skills. Runs blandly in a straight line without any guile.
it’s quite simple really, bellerin is a liability at the back. But we have no pace in the team. So we can’t drop bellerin but at the same time we need a better RB. so move ballerina to winger and licht as a RB who won’t be playing as a wing back…
No Charlie I find it amusing that you are banging your Xjaka drum again after one match against a shitty West Ham team. You have taken so many angles on this and now you have found yet again a new one with Xjaka brought out from deep and someone anchoring him. I think Xjaka will be a problem for this team defensively either higher up or deeper maybe less so higher up but still a problem. You think there is resolvement of the situation after one half against a poor West Ham. You will be running out of angles for… Read more »
how old is fabregas now ? and I’m sure he’ll take winning the PL over joining wenger..
But the fact is Cesc> nozil…
Oh my days now we have a poster equating Xjaka to Pogba.
Do these sort of fans deserve any better than they are currently being served up?
https://mobile.twitter.com/LGAmbrose/status/1033401882180509696/photo/1
This is our passing map yesterday
Bellerin was potent
The problem Xhaka has is is clearly not a dm.player and he hasn’t got the stamina to be box to box player. His passing is ok but nothing great. Emery wants to play high press which requires his midfielders to have high work engine and that’s not Xhaka
Leon
You can press without having to be a top drawer sprinter
Xakha is an elite level footballer. He’s fit enough to press for Arsenal Football Club
Un na
I’ve been a critic of Bellerin but I watched yesterday’s match without the current Arsenal consensus against him – he’s the current whipping boy in the stands.
To me Bellerin was the best player on the pitch with prob the best all round stats.
Bellerin was actually my MOM.
Un na naaiAugust 26, 2018 13:02:06
https://mobile.twitter.com/LGAmbrose/status/1033401882180509696/photo/1This is our passing map yesterday
Bellerin was potent
___
Too bad he can’t defend worth shit then.
“Xakha is an elite level footballer. He’s fit enough to press for Arsenal Football Club”
___
Lolololol
Un nai
I wouldn’t really judge Ballerina on the basis of 3 games. He may have one or two odd good games in a while but he doesn’t have the skill set really to create any real difference offensively -can’t dribble, his passing and crossing is average at best, ball control below average and as I said bland in his offensive play. He can be easily marked out of a game if played as a winger. Playing as a wing back, his runs aren’t always tracked which helps him to some extent.
Ishola foaming that he can’t sit stroking himself and slapping his keyboard critically of Xhaka this weekend.
I mean he was better in the second half when West Ham dropped off so fair play. The less said about him in the first half the better.
Bellerin’s potent because he’s coming from deep. play him in a more advanced role and he’ll be receiving passes with the full back up his ass.
Xakha is an elite level footballer.
That is honestly the worst comment I’ve ever seen. Worst than he’s in the top 1% of footballers in the world. But that’s all it takes one good half and we’ll forget about the first half and the previous two games where he was awful and the previous two seasons. It’s like when Ramsey does fuck all in a game then pops up with a back heel or a goal and all is forgiven. Wasn’t it kind of predictable that Xhaka would turn considering the opposition? We all called it
Bellerins problem his whole career has been that he doenst understand when to go forward and when not.
Monreal is hailed as one of best players in the squad and can you see him found out like that all the time? Not a chance…
I’m not getting into a Bellerin debate. He’s a serious problem in this team a massive liability in defence and he needs rid of. Anyone saying otherwise needs to be questioned. He’s not a RB if you want to play him RWB then we’ll need to play with 3 CB’S to cover for him. But we’re so short in that area that we can’t really play with 3 CB’s. 4-4-2 with him playing ahead of Litcht maybe? But you’re talking about changing so many players around to accommodate one who’s honestly regressing to the point of no return
T
Monreal is in his 30s and was born a defender learning his trade away from the Arsenal system and coming to us once he established himself as a defender.
Bellerin was a right winger turned into a defender by Wenger, a man not know for his defensive coaching that’s for sure.
Oh and 1 observatorion from the 3 games so far. Xhaka and Ramsey seem to fit each other ok. The other sends balls forward the other roams the pitch creating chaos. Guendouzy and torreira also seem to play well together. They both like opening up play with Crisp passing on the floor up and down the pitch. They also cover each other strengths and weaknesses well. Namely positioning and reading the game from the other and RAW brutality and beasting from the other. But when you mix these 2 pairs with each other all of them seem to lose all… Read more »
WIG
Yeah I think it’s over the top with Bellerin
He has been bad defensively but he’s also been our best attacking player over the three games this season along with Mkhitaryan in my book.
I do like Mkhitaryan though he’s really my type of player.
Marko
“I’m not getting into a Bellerin debate. He’s a serious problem in this team a massive liability in defence and he needs rid of. Anyone saying otherwise needs to be questioned.”
take Bellerin’s contribution away and how many goals would we have so far this season?
WrightIsGod
Guess that about summs it up
MarkoAugust 26, 2018 13:27:23
I’m not getting into a Bellerin debate.
Yeah. You just did there pal…. we have lo seen what Bellerin can be. I wouldn’t write him off just yet. Gareth bale was awful for spurs until Redknapp converted him into a winger
Now I’m not comparing the two in terms of ability but what I am saying is that perhaps Bellerin would be better suited to moving up the field
That’s all.
I can’t believe I’m having to stick up for Bellerin and this growing Bellerin bashing that is very evident at the Emirates atm. Bellerin was not a defender growing up. It is Wenger who wanted him to play that position. You guys seem to forget how bad Wenger is at teaching defending or teaching anything for that matter. The boy has grown up with all the bad habits in the world. Arsenal’s best ever left back Ashley Cole began his career as a forward at Arsenal. But under the tutilege of Adams, Bould, Keown, Campbell the boy became the best… Read more »
Leno/Cech
Koss —-Mavrapanos—–Sokratis
Welbeck —-Torreira—-Guen—–Monreal
Mikhi —–Laca—–PEA
3-5-2 without any of the liabilities (in my opinion)- Ozil,Bellerin,Xhaka,Mustafi and Ramsey. Of course it only works if Welbeck learns the trade of playing as a wingback.
take Bellerin’s contribution away and how many goals would we have so far this season?
Have a proper RB playing and how many would we have conceded? Look I’m not getting into a debate about the merits of Bellerin especially with you Wallace considering previous discussions on the topic I’m convinced that you don’t give a shit about the defence as long as we’re scoring. As long as Bellerin is assisting who cares about him getting caught up the field and putting an already poor defence into trouble.
Ishola
You’re triggered and it’s hilarious.
Who’s banging any drum about him? Merely stating he showed that he’s heaps better when he’s not tasked with mopping up, as many have suggested.
He is and never was a Kante, but that’s the standard he’s judged against. He’s got plenty in the locker when he’s able to knit the game together, he’s our most capable CM in this respect which is where his value lies. Let Torreira and Guendouzi worry about plugging gaps and marking runners. Let Xhaka put himself about and get on the ball to tick things over.
Now I’m not comparing the two in terms of ability but what I am saying is that perhaps Bellerin would be better suited to moving up the field
That’s all
I agree he would be better further up the field in fact it’d be better for this team if he was nowhere near the back 4. He’s needs to go as soon as possible from the club.
Wright
Comparing Cole to Bellerin is, and I’ll be kind here, ambitious.
Cole was always a quality defender first, and then more potent in attack because he was tenacious and technically gifted.
Bellerin is clueless defensively, average technically, and soft as they come. Yea he can be coached better, as they all can. But he’s a liability end of story. Strange to try and defend that imo