courtesy @allthatchas
Big game today, Arsenal face Neil Warnock’s Cardiff City away from home. For the Bluebirds, it kicks off a trio of nightmare games for them, with Chelsea and City following our visit. It could be a gloomy run for them if Arsenal bring some of that destruction football we’ve yet to see land season.
Unai Emery has his own batch of issues to deal with. Firstly, he hasn’t won a single game away from home. No big deal, he’s only played one, but when you put the issue against the backdrop of our woeful away record in 2018 (we’ve lost 8 of our last 9), it could be a problem if he doesn’t bag three points today.
The main theme of the day will no doubt be Mesut Ozil and the drama he’s faced over the past few weeks. The manager has gone to bat for the German, stating he was in fact, very ill. It took a week to concoct an excuse deeper than just ill, then when it landed, it was stated that he had a highly contagious disease (with the club curiously allowing him into the dressing room). Our manager had this to say on the matter.
“For me that is one thing; I don’t stop during my career for everything that the news says about me or the players. But in this situation with Mesut Ozil it is clear, he is OK, he has the commitment we want, he is a very important player for us and we want to help him to give us the best performance in each match and each moment.”
Regardless of what the real story is, this is a chance to see what Emery does with a fully fit Ramsey and a fully fit Ozil.
Does the Welshman continue to play as a number 10? Does Ozil find himself moved out wide right like he is for Germany? I’d hazard a guess and predict yes to both questions. The modern #10 needs to work hard for the team, and in Emery’s 11, you have to be able to deal with the tasks that you’re handed. Admittedly, Ozil isn’t going to be tracking the sublime Jorginho today, but he’ll still have to do a job. If the future is Rambo at #10, let’s start building muscle memory by positioning him where he’ll play for the Liverpool game in a 7 games time.
Additionally, Emery needs to settle on a midfield he can keep on the pitch past 45minutes. We should see a start from Torreira, and I’d say he’ll likely continue with Xhaka in the starting 11. The Swiss isn’t my favourite player, but it can’t be denied that he looked far more effective when he had a real DM sitting behind him doing the dirty work.
We’ll also have some interesting decisions up top. Does the manager continue with Auba through the middle? Does he bring the sparky Lacazette back into the fold? Or does he just admit he made a huge mistake with his strikers and go with Danny Welbeck.
The dream for tomorrow is that the defensive methodologies start to sink in. We haven’t looked comfortable at the back since preseason began, and it’s unnerving quite how poor we’ve been, even against West Ham. No team has conceded more shots on target than us, clocking an incredible 24 thus far. Cardiff hasn’t managed a single goal so far this season, meaning we’re absolutely ripe to go a goal down after 9 minutes. We’ve conceded 4 goals this season before 30minutes has played out, we need to make amends today and start building confidence. Emery just need to go classic Sunday league…
‘Lads, keep it fucking tight for the first 30, then let’s build from there. Tommy, stop smoking, and please don’t call the ref a fat c*nt today.’
Finally, before you go. How’s this article for making you feel a little ill.
The signing of Aaron Donald to the richest defensive contract in NFL history Friday was a triumph of the Rams’ greatest force.
That force is the guy who will pay him.
In capping off a wallet-purging offseason that has cemented the team’s championship hopes, Donald was guaranteed $87 million as part of a $135-million deal that celebrated the Rams’ most valuable player.
That MVP is owner Stan Kroenke.
In his three years since moving the Rams back to town, Kroenke has made an impact larger than the giant defensive tackle himself, larger than all the stars he has made rich, as big as any Los Angeles sports business leader since Phil Anschutz stuck a shovel in the ground that Staples Center sits atop. Kroenke has not only been the Rams’ biggest force, but a force on the entire local sports landscape, spending, building, growing, committing.
He gets Los Angeles. He understands its fans. He knows what works, and, man, he’s been working it.
Shame when he bought Arsenal, he did nothing of the sort. He let us flounder in the mud with zero investment. In the U.S., it seems he’s found his mojo, inking massive contracts whilst dealing with the $3billion the Inglewood stadium cost him to build.
Listen to this carry-on.
He said he would build the Rams into a team that will compete for championships. That is also happening. With Kevin Demoff, the chief operating officer and vice president of football operations, and general manager Les Snead working the controls, they have put together a team favored by some to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl.
“It all starts with Stan, he has the vision,” said Snead. “He empowers us. He expects us to bring that vision to fruition. Then he steps back and lets you do your job.”
Donald was only the finale of a string of big contracts and acquisitions that filled the summer. Not only do the Rams now have the highest-paid defensive player in history, they also have the highest-paid running back in Todd Gurley. When you throw in the signings of receiver Brandin Cooks and tackle Rob Havenstein, Kroenke agreed to pay $198.7 million in guaranteed contracts that could wind up being a $306-million payout.
Stan empowered absolutely NOBODY at Arsenal for 10 years as he fawned over Arsene Wenger like a teenager put in a room with peak Thierry Henry. Absolutely disgusting that finally, Stan has realised how to become a ‘franchise owner’ and the club he’s dishing out the 20/20 vision to is based in L.A.
Fuck NFL. It’s going down the toilet anyway. Who the fuck is going to put their kids, as young as 8, on the path serious injury, and maybe even death? Real football is the future, and that’s a fact I just made up.
Imagine if Stan had the same passion for making Arsenal great 10 years ago? What a different story our football lives would have been…
Right, enjoy the game, I’ll see you all in the comments.
x
Xhaka!!!!
What did I just witness Xhaka do?
Ozil and Torreira passes or even Auba has passing with purpose unlike the shit side passing of others
Looks like Xhaka gifting a goal.
Xhaka with abother dumb move. Shocking!
Saved due to bad shot
What did I just witness Xhaka do?
Slowboat
@gonsterous
Scraping a win against the mighty Cardiff. Yeah very convincing lol.
Granite Xhaka is an absolute disaster of a player, one of the worst CMs that has ever played for Arsenal.
Wouldn’t look out of place in a relegation zone team.
Mkhitaryan was our best creative player last week, yet this week he sat. Torreira should clearly be in the XI. Emery has to sort out what our best XI is, what our best shape is. This may mean certain “big” names sit. He has much work to do on this front.
Big win.
Least the away Seville curse is lifted.
‘Both offer different things. Lacazette is better with his back to goal, better when played to feet, but Aubameyang has more pace, is better in open space, is better in behind.’
You are stating the obvious here but given our style Laca is more suited. We often play narrow and in congested areas making Auba’s quality in open spaces and his running behind kind of redundant or at least less useful. We can’t play with two strikers. Few teams can afford to play with two strikers in modern era.
There you go.
See you next week !
Fu*k off emery
He’s making everything labored and there’s no discernible improvement.
We won these games under Wenger too [except for last season]
Aubameyang is delighted. Isn’t he due bonuses when he scores and we win?
Lol they’re celebrating like they won a title.
A win on the road works for me. Defense still a total mess. Torreira has to start.
Steve
Wrong blog
The FONZ punches the air.
well that was hairy…..
Emery super fired up about the win, but it shouldn’t have been nearly that difficult. He MUST sort out his selections.
Torreira kind of changed the game. But Xhaka should have been the one to make way. Our little pitbull has big future ahead of him.
Torreira’s stats for that game must be amazing when he came on.
Made a real difference. I don’t get what this s**t Emery is doing is, but Torreira starts. No f*****g around.
If we’re playing Aubameyang and Lacazette then it is 3-5-2.
I thought Lacazette was excellent today, glad Aubameyang scorched a peach as well.
Granite Xhaka is an absolute disaster of a player, one of the worst CMs that has ever played for Arsenal. Wouldn’t look out of place in a relegation zone team
But Gambon,
Charlie rates him so he must be good as CC is all knowing football god.
And Wallace says he starts for every manager he plays for?!?!
He’s garbage.
Torriera will start next match. Bench Xhaka.
2 out of 2. 4 more wins before Liverpool. Get the team sorted by then. Some confidence and we can beat pool.
Torriera should be the base of the midfield.
The other’s can rotate around him
He’s the best midfielder we have currently.
Prick Emery achievement has been just to humiliate crucial players including Auba.
When Auba and Lacs together are good vibes and playing them together long enough would give a deadly combo in future.
Prick Emery
steve
I know you are butthurt we haven’t won 7-0. But I’m backing The team in this new era. Scrappy win or 1-0 wins, I ‘ll take it.
This is arsenal trying to defend a lead:
https://youtu.be/GhTbJPi6_u0
Can’t blame Cech (directly) for any of the 8 goals we’ve conceded, although I’d like a better goalie.
Not a lot of control for all the talk of us wanting to control matches. Better winning whilst making mistakes that not. Positive.
DissenterSeptember 2, 2018 15:28:37
Fu*k off emeryHe’s making everything labored and there’s no discernible improvement.
We won these games under Wenger too [except for last season]
Fuck off dissenter.
4 matches in to his reign.
2 wins on the trot. Played aubu and laca together. Next match he’ll start torriera. And hopefully sit Cech and Ramsey as well
Did not enjoy that one bit. Xhaka & putting Auba left of a 4-2-3-1 will be the death of Emery.
Change your formation to play 2 up front already ffs.
Lacazette MotM today. We create many chances but we suck in defense. Kind of same old. It will need some time.
But Torreira has to start and Xhaka has to be benched.
There’s some players.. If they wasn’t here, we wouldn’t miss them.
TR7
One, both Madrid and Barca played with two strikers last season. Other good teams as well. It’s your conception of things that is dated.
Two, when you have two good central strikers and no real wide players, it’s the logical thing to do.
Three, we don’t have “a style”. We have a new manager and an odd assortment of players that aren’t particularly suited to any one style. We are a club in transition. We are looking for a style.
So sorry, but you’re wrong.
Wallace
What’s your opinion on Xhaka?
I don’t know that I would have Torreira as a deep CDM you know.
I really like his bulldog like way of just tearing into people first time and if you watch him he reads the game so well, he just knows where the ball is going and will exit the melee to stand in the path he knows the ball will travel.
He also has great feet and really good passing.
I would give him the role that Sarri has given Kante this season and give Guendouzi the role Jorginho has.
Their number 4 Morrison is a giant fkin tree. Guy is terrifying in set pieces.
Joe
“on the trot”? We were fortunate to win today. I agree that Emery deserves our support at the moment, but you don’t have to misrepresent reality in order to defend the guy. We don’t look all that great, he hasn’t figured out our best XI or our best formation, and we should be beating a Cardiff easily. None of this is to say that Emery is failing, but he has a great deal of work to do and I don’t think he has done anything all-too-convincing yet.
Huge problems with us huge and Emery needs to do more to address them. The defence is the defence there’s fuck all he can do with them now but he can address the team defensively with his selection and he continues to get it wrong. We’ve conceded 8 goals and he continues to pick Cech and Xhaka and I’m afraid these two players are major reasons for it. You do not address how bad we are defensively by continuing to pick Granite Xhaka in midfield. Why he isn’t picking Torreira is beyond me and why he continues to pick Cech… Read more »
Your Comment Here
I actually think that Torreira can be a bit of a creative force for us
Bamford, see that’s why I don’t engage with you. You are passing a judgement I am false even though it’s you who often gets things wrong. Even in this Auba-Laca debate, last season you were saying Laca should have been sold,now you say both should start. I am sure with time you will be able to see what I can and realize Laca is better.
Torriera is levels above all the crap we have in midfield… Levels above. He came on and made Cardiff look like the pub team they are.
Emery has to sought out his selection
Torreira and Lacazette must start.
That is obvious.
Auba and Lacazette together will cause any defence problems.
Ok 3-2 not the 5-1 I predicted, but I’ll take it.
Self inflicted problems always undo us. Sort this out and things will be far more positive.
Six points from four games and 9th position in league.
Onwards and upwards.
Bamford, you say he hasn’t find the best starting 11 but it’s a tough one.
Who do you play between Auba, Laca, Ozil, Mikki, Iwobi, Welbeck, Ramsey in the front 4 positions (CAM + 3 forwards)?! It’s a tough one.
Do you bench Cech if he keeps making great saves?
Do you play together two absolute newbies in the league like Guen and Torr?
Do you bench Bellerin for a 34 yo?!
Too many tough choices.
Emery has a pretty big conundrum to solve to earn his salary.
Just win anyhow and we are good
Does this team do any defence-related training ? It is like watching a pub team with hangovers toiling through a Sunday morning game.
The 3 points are the main thing.
But emery seems to struggle to make up his mind for his starting team, and he seems to keep faith in ozil and the “swiss disaster”, that is a bit of a concern…
I almost spat my beer out watching the slow motion replay of xhaka on 90 minutes bumbling around and hand balling it
No doubt there’s a hipster explanation for that which is quality I just didn’t understand it
A team as bad as we are defensively cannot have a player like Xhaka anywhere near the team. It compounds the problem
Bam
He’s 4 matches into his reign here
Wenger left him the hugest of shit to deal with.
He got handed city and Chelsea to start and we should have drawn if not beaten Chelsea.
2 wins in a row while being a work In progress because if wengers shit shit
Emery has done just fine so far.
I thought Ramsey was MOM, I don’t quite get all the negativity.
If we continue with this system, Cech is a liability.
Leno must be given a chance.
Surely he can’t be that bad.
It took him three games to start Laca and Auba together
He probably needs another six weeks to realize that he has to start Torriera.
If you’re going to play Cech ahead if Leno, let him play to his strengths and stop all the playing out of the back. It is unsettling the defense and giving the opposition. Cech has been giving out free tickets to the opposition. is he waiting until one give away results in a goal before making the obvious change.
Emery needs more time but he doesn’t deserve to be mollycoddled the way he’s carrying on.
Going forward I think Guendouzi needs to be trained to be our CDM and deep distributor, Torreira as the CDM/CM playing slightly higher but near him and surging back and forth, intercepting, breaking up play but also being given licence to dribble, pass and create and then we need a new CAM/CM player who can exert more control over the game.
Ramsey had a pretty bad game. Better than Ozil but worse than Laca and on par with Auba but Auba did score a goal so from our front 4 he is the 3rd best performer which is not good enough because except for Lacazette none of the other three was at the needed level.
Your Comment Here
‘I thought Ramsey was MOM’
Lacazette was MOTM.
Shows you how bad everyone else was that Torreira probably was after him only playing a quarter of the match.
Ramsey pisses me off with this constant need to take umptigajillion touches of the ball when one or two would do.
Contrast that with Torreira who distributes very quickly.
I think there are several positives and negatives to take from today. Overall I’m very pleased we’ve won. As with west ham, if we can find wins whilst we’re still working this new manager out then hopefully it will get easier rather than harder as we settle There are a lot of things that need improving though. Top priority for me is either replacing cech in goal or forcing him to stop this bullshit short pass game. He’s like a fucking camel on ice. I can’t recall ever seeing a professional footballer look more out of their depth simply controlling… Read more »
Do you bench Cech if he keeps making great saves? One great save against Aguero he’s conceded 8 goals and gives the defence kittens everytime the ball is at his feet he’s shite. Do you play together two absolute newbies in the league like Guen and Torr? Yes if the other option is playing Xhaka. Do you bench Bellerin for a 34 yo?! He was admittingly better defensively today but it was Cardiff. Too many tough choices. Yeah but what’s the other option continue to make mistakes and get caught out? Make no mistake the way we’re playing now especially… Read more »
For me to jump on board the Emery fanclub, he’s got to axe the stinking pile of turd that is Xhaka.
Never thought I’d see someone beat Denilson in the uselessness stake. Even the Brazilian didn’t make so many mistakes.
Swiss Cunt.
Yeah we can bench Cech now, he does not like the ball and so we are crippling ourselves given Emery’s preferences.
We can probably have a really good run at 4th if we shifted to 3-5-2 and bought a CAM/CM in January as opposed to sticking with 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 where to look good we will need a CB, CAM/CM and winger.
Joe
I’m with you on this.
Things can only get better.
My man, Lacazette, was superb.
MOM by a mile and a furlong.
“No manager would be able to get Arsenal into the top four with the squad Unai Emery has at his disposal, says Jamie Redknapp.”
Tell that to GoH, steve and Co…
Contrast that with Torreira who distributes very quickly.
So noticable. Ramsey slows things down so much
Our biggest problem is our defense. Cardiff could have scored 5.
I forgot Dissenteria…
Ramsey’s extra touch tends to kill off counters.
He also tends to over-cook his passes during counters. Its like he cannot properly weight a pass to a player breaking out to counter.
I’m not sure Ramsey is a specialist at anything, just a handyman who has knack for popping up around the box. That ‘popping off’ is often an abdication of his central midfield responsibilities..
I hope he leaves on a free next season. Keeping him just helps to create a permanent imbalance.
HighburyLegend We all know Wenger left a total pile of s**t. It is like that Labour treasury secretary who left a note for the Tories saying ‘there’s no money left’ best of luck and everything. But Emery is making bone choices with selection right now which is not helping us at all. This Aubameyang and Lacazette thing doesn’t work either, the link up play is nice occasionally, but it creates imbalance and we need more of that like we need a whole in the bollock, unless the plan is some physics bending thing to be so imbalanced you end up… Read more »
I think Xhaka has a ego strength aroud squad. sees himself as a leader. ‘projects..
‘acts’..
squad, persoanlity managegment for thte moment perhps re Emery..
Xhaka maybe gone or role change next year /lateer / sone rlater this year..
Bellerin may be a Maserati going forward but he’s a Moskvich defending.
Lichtsteiner for me.
Highburylegend
Are you butt-hurt by anything I’ve written so far.
I’m merely saying Emery is making things very hard for himself.
What’s your view point or are you just going to stay at the puerile twist of monikers
Here we go…. the manager is shit. Bla bla bla.
We won again. Take your doom and shove it
The defence hmmmmmm, stupid. Emery needs to work on the defence. We’ve been scoring goals 3 goals in each game since our loss to Man City. Once we fix our defence, we’ll be on our way.
Mourhino has gone industrial.
United bought him Maseratis but he’s decided to race with tractors.
Why is he starting with players like Fellaini?
Pretty much everyone agrees about Xhaka being a massive liability for the team. Has to be benched
Ramsey didn’t have a bad game
This is his level of game.
Bar a 6 month patch where he played waaaaay above his level, today is exactly how he’s played the rest of his career at Arsenal.
He average. As was Jack. As is Xhaka.
The sooner some of you start wanting the best for arsenal rather tan your fucking egos because you don’t want to say you were wrong about a certain player the better off we will all be
Un nas nail
Here we go…. the manager is shit. Bla bla bla.
We won again. Take your doom and shove it”
You said as much as anyone else during the game so stop all your high ground nonsense. No one is saying he’s shit so stop telling lies as well.
I don’t understand why Mkhitaryan was dropped for Ozil either. Sends out a bad message that you can play without effort, f**k off when you please and then stroll back into the team undeservedly.
@Howard
“We’ve been scoring goals 3 goals in each game since our loss to Man City”
___
Not true.
I think you have to go Mavropanos, Sokratis, Mustafi at the back now as well until Kozz is fit.
Guendouzi, Torreira, Mkhitaryan beyond them, Bellerin and Monreal as wing backs and Aubameyang and Lacazette up front.
CA I was quite surprised that Ozil lasted so long if I’m honest. Maybe Emery wanted to show there isn’t a problem behind the scenes but I thought it was another limp dick performance by Mesut
6 points out of possible 24 (out of the 8 games post Chelsea). Good going so far. Unai’s vision slowly getting shape except for (a) playing out of back and (b) Xhaka. Really enjoying AFC digging our victories again and the gutted Emery ditherers eating their erratic pies. I’ve lost count of the times when Xhaka looses the ball /misses a pass and the opponent scores against us. Yea, he does makes those hollywood passes once in a while, but beyond that its useless sideways /back passes, rash/ill-timed challenges, or tripping on his own heels and hitting the deck leaving… Read more »
6 points out of possible 24 (out of the 8 games post Chelsea). Good going so far.
…huh?
Marko
Think he means the 8 winnable matches we had coming up post Chelsea
Spent 10 years of my life saying “Why the hell is Wenger doing that?”.
Emery deserves time and space to work out the correct formations and systems.
Next six games are so important. Do well in these and the Liverpool game will look far more appealing.
If Arsenal have 20 points after 10 games, I’d be more than happy.
6.5/10 performance today. Would say that we deserved the win but not by much. Too many passengers in the team. Xhaka and Ozil just have to be dropped. It’s simple as. Ozil with absolutely terrible game. Was nowhere to be seen and I don’t think that if we played with a man down it would have been much different than what it was. Xhaka I give him that his corners looked pretty dangerous but besides that a huge liability in the most fragile position after the one of a goalkeeper. You need to be intelligent in there, that’s why players… Read more »
Watford will give Spuds a tough game.
Considering that he’s been here for a few months and overseen only 4 games so far, Emery seems to be still working out certain things and he can be excused for now. The football genius with 22 seasons behind him moulding the team in his image was no better of than where Emery is now after 4 games playing with lots of Wenger’s leftover dross. This season after 4- 2 wins, 2 losses, 8 goals for, 8 goals against, 6 points. Last season after 4- 2 wins, 2 losses, 7 goals for, 8 goals against, 6 points. In the individual… Read more »
“…huh?” – Read again.
M24 – I think we can take 21 out of these 8 games, so your assessment of 20 points is very achievable. Then it’s the acid test against high flying pools. I’ve no doubt that by that time if we don’t sort out (a) playing from the back with Chech, (b) Xhaka, and (c) our high press – we will be rogered royally!!!
raptora
A ” dark place to go to,………..how come?
The sun was shining.
What more could you ask?
Since City and Pool (even though they didn’t look good in their last 2 games against average opponents but still won) will probably occupy the first 2 places, it leaves us the task to finish ahead of 2 of the other 3 teams in top 6 – spuds, manure and chelsea. So the two games at the moment are important for us. Not the City and Pool ones.
(1)I saw Torriera today……for the first time. (2)Auba and Laca showed class with those goals. (3)Xhaka……Xhaka! Well, why bother. (4)Cech seems to want the starting spot so much that he would ridicule himself like he does to get it……….guy seems scared Emery will drop him if he doesn’t do that shit he does. (4)Ramsey….well that is Ramsey. Those runs into the box are why he demands £225 a week. (5)Ozil has us where he wants us…….at least for now…….It takes serious balls to drop a guy who is being paid that much to the bench. (6)Laca starts in the middle… Read more »
VicVic
Point #6.
Lacazette should be a permanent fixture.
dissenter
Mourhino has gone industrial.
United bought him Maseratis but he’s decided to race with tractors.
Why is he starting with players like Fellaini?
huh, mourinho has only one game plan. play fellaini and throw long balls at his afro.
that goal from laca was stone cold though. great strike…
You can’t compare game v game , Emery v Wenger.
Emery’s been here 4 matches. With players who still smell of wenger.
Match v match is unfair
Despite delivering the corner for Mustafi’s header, he was an absolute liability today.
Why did he start again today?
I really don’t get it.
Xhocking Xhaka, dodderin’ Bellerin, awful Ozil – but, despite that, a win. Well done, Senor Emery. Any manager who can win with those three on board deserves our congrats. But why not make things easier on yourself, and drop them?
*he, that is, Xhaka,m