Arsenal Frankenstein squad hindering Emery

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Firstly, what an absolute pain in the arse watching an away game in London is these days. I went to three pubs trying to find the game and it was a f*cking struggle. I eventually found one in deepest darkest, but what an ordeal. I can’t believe with the pub trade struggling up and down the country, SKY or the ruling bodies can’t weigh in to give landlords a bone and some extra business. Craziness. It’s so greedy. When I’m in America, I can watch whatever game I want, whenever I want. UK customers should be afforded the same privilege considering how much they pay all 32 of the companies you have to subscribe to these days to find the game you want.

Anyway, onto the game.

Emery is slipping into a familiar pattern. He picks the wrong starting 11, makes some bold decisions at halftime, then we go onto make the game look a little easier.

The big mistake yesterday for Emery was once again not realising that the team ticks a lot better when Torreira plays. The base of midfield contained Xhaka and Guendouzi and it just didn’t work. Add into the mix a keeper who really isn’t ever going to adapt to being a sweeper, Aaron Ramsey clunking away like peak Alex Song in a #10 role, and Mesut Ozil mostly silenced in the right of midfield (right-central-central midfield)… and you have a mess of a side.

The first half was a painful watch. The team couldn’t string a move together, Petr Cech managed to pass behind himself again, and we were letting a very poor Newcastle make a nuisance of themselves.

I think the really difficult part about watching Emeryball is the lack of pace in the play. We’re insistent on slowing the speed of the game down, we look to draw teams out, then I guess the plan is to move the ball up the pitch and make chances. It’s not really working for a number of reasons, the main one being we don’t’ seem to have the staff on hand to make it out the back.

The whole defence is at pains to move the ball forward, they look incredibly uncomfortable under pressure. There’s so little agression in the way we move forward, the opposition has time to reset and close off the angles. Things seem to get even worse when the ball does make it into midfield. The players really struggle to transition the ball into attack, no one seems to know what they’re doing and play just goes around in circles as we recycle the ball back through defence, quite often all the way back to the keeper. Another problem we have is the length of pass we play, we play lots of dangerous balls through midfield that are cut out or put the receiving player under pressure. The aggressive movement I’d hoped for isn’t really there yet, players often look lost as to where to move the ball to next.

The second half saw the introduction of Torriera, and once again the side came to life. Newcaslte lost a lot of their first half dicipline and Arsenal found their grip on the game. We created more chances and moved the ball a lot faster. Our opener was a little bit special, Xhaka stepped up to a 30 yard freekick and placed it high and to the right of the Newcastle keeper. A real dream striker for the under fire Swiss.

We struggled to make much count after that, though we never really looked under any pressure, you get the impression Newcastle know they’re shit. There was very little belief in their play considering they were only one goal down.

Mesut Ozil stepped up to put us two goals ahead when he made simple work of a Torriera rebound. Granit Xhaka the key man in a move when Monreal found his run in behind.

We still had time to give up our clean sheet. A long ball over the top missed by Mikhi, the offside ignored by the lino, a looping ball to the back post, Bellerin no where to be seen. A silly goal and a real shame.

I think the only way to look at the game, despite my annoyance at the time, is that we’re racking up points. Emery needs to win hearts and minds and the best way to do that is to sit on the same points as Spurs at this stage of the season and win three games on the bounce. That game was only our third away win of 2018, which is a stunning stat in how miserable it is, but you have to take it.

Staying on the positives, we’re working with a manager who can admit mistakes, he once again pulled Guendouzi off at half time so we could take control of a midfield that was all over the place. Torreira freed up Xhaka and he also brought everyone into the game. He’s mobile, quick witted and he speeds up the play in a team that can really lack urgency at times.

There are still quite a lot of issues at hand and there’s a lot that needs to get fixed. Cardiff, West Ham and Newcastle really aren’t the sort of games you can write things like ‘X player proved the doubters wrong.’ That Newcastle team is shite, it’s underinvested in, and it’ll likely get relegated this season. We shouldn’t be that close, and we shouldn’t be having halves of football as poor as that.

Emery is struggling with the same issue Arsene did. He has all these wonderful jigsaw pieces, but they simply don’t work if they’re all in the same box. He’s putting square pegs in round holes, and the output is clunky. Auba is not a very good winger. Lacazette through the middle is limited. Aaron Ramsey has been attrocious this season when he’s been given a specific role (shocker). Mesut Ozil really struggles to take hold of a game from the right of midfield.

There’s simply too much going on. We seem to be over complicating every single decision. When you change too many things at one time, things come to a grind.

Emery needs to work out what the most important items in his transformation are, then build around the vision of what he’s trying to do.

If your philosophy is focused around creating space and making the pitch bigger, and a core component of making that work is to have a keeper that can play with the ball at his feet, you need to play the best keeper at that job. Petr Cech has been excellent with his hands, but if the first 20 minutes of every game is the defence with their hearts in their mouths, you have to change something.

In midfield, we keep on persisting with a Guendouzi and Xhaka. It doesn’t work. There’s not enough urgency in the two of them and they get overrun easily. Make it easy on yourself, start with the best man for the job. Start with Lucas Torreira. Fitness can’t be an issue. We can’t keep trying something that clearly doesn’t work.

Moving onto the forward players is a little more difficult. The system needed a Malcolm like being this summer. Auba isn’t the guy to play out wide, and the challenge is he’s also not built for a system that doesn’t play incisive counter attacking football. We really need a striker with the hold up skills of Lacazette, but with the height, physique and power of Lukaku. I mean, let’s be honest, a Giroud with pace would be ideal right now, but that name doesn’t exist.

If you don’t have any wingers, and you don’t have strikers that can do it alone, do you opt for two strikers? Lacazette seems more than capable of doing the grunt work of dropping into midfield when needed.

The players baked around them make life even tougher. Aaron Ramsey isn’t skillful enough to be a pure #10. Mesut doesn’t want to do the dogs body work there. Mesut is limited out wide right, and he stunts Bellerin’s freedom moving forward because he spends the whole game creeping inside to get some of that central action.

What a shambles, right?

I really hope Sven has been working hard to address the issues. We’re still in an Arsene Wenger squad hangover. But it’s apparent there needs to be some brutal decisions this January because we’re not equipped to compete with the players we have moving forward. However, we could make life a lot easier by simply making the easy decisions in every game, versus having a flap at half time to make things right.

OK, that’s me done, see you in the comments.

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Bankz

Bankz is here for the Tr4phy again

grooveydaddy

1st

grooveydaddy

2nd

Bankz

BOOOOOOOOOOM

grooveydaddy

Tr4pht

Bankz

Nice try groovedaddy.

grooveydaddy

Oops. Tr4phy 🙂

grooveydaddy

Cheers Bankz

grooveydaddy

I’m just glad we came away with a win.

I expected us to drop points here.

N5

Morning top 4 guys. How are you all?

Morning Pedders, fully agree RE Torreira, Why doesn’t Emery start him? he hasn’t got fitness issues has he? The team IS better with him on so why not start with your strongest options?

Danny

Excellent post Pedro.
I believe that after the Europa match this week we’ll see Lucas starting games plus maybe Leno, depending how he performs with his feet.
We’re along long way from the final article, it may take months but our 2nd half display yesterday was better than anything Wenger came up with in 2018 away from home.

Beau-Nègre

Nice post Pedro, I see you there on the fence on who to pair Lucas Toreira at the base, you love that boy, Matteo but Xhaka Toreira is working wonders. Our boy wonder had a decent game yesterday before been subbed off, one could hardly point where he went wrong, but as soon as he was pulled out, Newcastle went to bed. You don’t wanna call any player the X-factor, even when it was obvious that the Latino pigmy turned things around, freeing up Xhaka and making him better. My question then is does it mean Matteo and Lucas cannot… Read more »

Up 4 grabs now

N5,
Yes mate bellerin is a real issue, in some ways I can’t blame him though when Mustafi is the centreback who is supposed to be guiding him and helping him.
At the same time mustafi and nick the Greek don’t appear to be communicating much either.

It’s not like the old days of big tone or bouldy shouting at the fullbacks to get into position or to get back.

Globalgunner

Its really obvious. Dump Ramsey, he serve s no purpose. Start both Guendozi and Torierra and have Xhaka ahead of them with Ozil or Mikhi to the right of him.
Oh and swap Belle for Lichtsteiner.

Ramsey is less useful than Gunnersaurus at this point.

Up 4 grabs now

I don’t get why he won’t start with guendouzi and torriea, if it’s not working change it at half time.

It wouldn’t be the first time he made a half time sub is it. Newcastle dropped as soon as we went 1-0 up and two quick goals killed Newcastle until arsenal do what they do best and gift the opposition an opening.

Xhaka never changed the game torriea did.
And Newcastle rolling over helped.

TR7

I know all of us are supposed to give Emery some time but five games in to the season , there is no visible sign of improvement in any aspect of our game. In fact he has been repeating the same mistakes over and over again.

Jude

The plan is bad.. The players are asked to do things they clearly don’t want to do nor have the skills to do.. but it’s Wengers fault… Pedro.. Have the integrity to stop your confirmation bias!

WrightIsGod

Ozil scores from a Lacazette rebounded shot. Other than that agree completely with the analysis Peds. Ramsey is awful for Arsenal end of and his so called form of last season is a fallacy. Ozil was anonymous first half again and the introduction of Torreira saved his game. Same for Xhaka. Guendouzi is a class act but lacks urgency and battle-hardened knowhow. I honestly thought Wenger was in the dugout first half. Same laborious play if not worse. Auba can’t dribble. Outside running in a straight line and shooting he’s quite limited. Bright spots were Sokratis, Bellerin, Monreal, Lacca and… Read more »

grooveydaddy

N5

Nice to see you back. It’s been ages…

Up 4 grabs now

Tr7, I don’t think we’ll see change until 20-25 games in. Also 2 more transfer windows. For real change. Everybody wants a quick fix, but the mess the club has been left in will take more than 5-10 games. It’s not like sarri or Conte coming in an taking over a championship winning team. Pep took a season and that was with a jam packed quality side. How many years had poch had, and klopp is now in year 4 and maybe might win the title this year. Emery probably needs 2 years 2 more transfer windows and a big… Read more »

Wenker-wanger

Good post.
Highlighting many problems.
With so many problems, ropey defense etc, we are getting results that Wenger wouldn’t.
So something is working, and I believe there is a better spirit in the team.. players have a belief in the manager. Playing for Wenger must have been like swimming against the tide….

Wenker-wanger

@ upforgrabs….very good points

gonsterous

this is madness. we play late on Thursday and then again on Sunday.
I guess rotation is key, especially since we are playing some unknown team in the EL, we can afford to rest players unless of course winning the EL is a top priority from the board.

VicVic

TR7, Thanks mate, that is something concrete. Not people jumping around with opinions. Fact is five game, no clean sheet. What was the problem under Wenger? Defence. What is the problem now? Defence. Ok, Wenger didn’t win many away games last seasons, but in many of Wenger’s FAILED seasons, he won away games in beautiful bangs. That, at the end of the day, amounted to nothing! Would people have seen the reality if Cardiff and West Ham had taken their chances? Or if Newcastle didn’t panic after Xhaka’s set play goal? We are playing POORLY. State what you see and… Read more »

Danny M.O

I am losing hope with Emery with the decisions he is making in regards to the team. it looks so disjointed. Ramsey is not good enough to be a 10. He should be a disciplined cm playing next to torreira. ozil outright is so predictable since he always cuts in. auba lw is inefective and doesnt use his skillset properly. Moving forward I feel we need to us Aubameyang the same way wenger used walcott. As a rf/rw who can header at the back post aswell as firing low cross driven shots. i would also us welbeck at lm to… Read more »

Pierre

At long last fans are actually seeing what I have been saying for years…Ramsey is a liability.

Bamford10

Two most important changes Emery needs to make are (i) starting Torreira and (ii) switching to 3-5-2 or 4-4-2.

Everything else is secondary.

N5

Thanks Groovy, I know mate, it’s been way to long. But I couldn’t stay gone, you know what this sites like! it keeps drawing you back whether you want it to or not. Grabs. I agree, There is a massive gap in the defence waiting for someone to take control of the back line. I thought that would be Kos, but he’s as bad as the rest when he’s on the pitch. I fucking hate him, but that’s why I believe we needed a Shawcross type (please see I wrote type and not the wanker himself). Bellerin can’t keep relying… Read more »

N5

Spot on Bamford. That should 100% be Emerys priority.

Pierre

Gonsterous
“this is madness. we play late on Thursday and then again on Sunday”

What’s the problem it’s no different to playing Wednesday and Saturday is it.

Up 4 grabs now

Gonsterous if you think those fixtures are bad try Monday night home to Leicester, Thursday night away in Portugal at sporting, Sunday lunchtime away to palace.
Coming soon in October.

S Asoa

Like most Managers Emery also is into a power trip with his obduracy pointed time and again.
In other words hope Prick Emery gains some balls as well to learn faster.
A positive he can change his mind before 68th minute

Up 4 grabs now

N5,
Maybe time to start looking at old school centrebacks from the championship.
Maguire, stones, jagielka. All came from lower division teams.
Had hoped holding might be that player but still way to young and inexperienced.

Up 4 grabs now

Defensive solidity first 352.
I don’t care about pretty ticatac football and perfect 30 pass goals.
Points on the board first, then pretty football.

Emiratesstroller

I made the case early this morning on previous thread that the right side of our defence is weak and prone to concentration lapses, poor positional play and defensive errors, which along with Cech results in so many silly goals being conceded. When I talk about the right side I mean BOTH Bellerin and Mustafi are playing poorly in defence. Mustafi made two serious errors. The first was his idiotic pass back to Cech, which resulted in an unnecessary corner. By now everyone on the planet knows that Cech is not comfortable with ball at his feet. The second fault… Read more »

TR7

Up for grabs I am not even talking about results per say. I am merely pointing out gaps in tactics/strategy/strating 11. Emery has changed our midfield at half time in all the 5 games because he picked wrong starting 11 every single time. Our defense looks worse than what it looked even during Wenger’s worst days. If not for poor finishing , we would have probably lost at least 4 games. Problems in transition from defense to attack still persist, our attack doesn’t look any less toothless than what it looked last season. Even our pressing leaves a lot to… Read more »

Emiratesstroller

Error I meant Gibbs not Nelson in my last post.

Guns of Hackney

I’m not really sure what can happen in January? The best teams aren’t selling their best players and I doubt if we would sell Ramsay. I guess some Cypriot league team could sell us a player with a broken back or other medical issue…we will not be signing any game changers. That’s for damn sure. This is going to be the squad until May 2019. Perversely, I would actually like to see what Wengemery could do with a couple of hundred million…but on the other hand, seeing what he’s done this season, I wouldn’t trust him with a £5 note.… Read more »

TR7

Chelsea probably won’t even compete for the league but Sarri has already stamped his style on their playing style. We are talking about a group of players who played under Mourinho and Conte, managers with contrasting style to Sarri and yet he has changed it around.

gonsterous

I still don’t get why people are against emery. This is a season of transaction. We are not going to win all the games, we are not a perfect side. We have to play the long game and wait out the season to see where are at the end of the season. Which players need to leave and which can get better over time. This is a new league for the manager, a new team, a new club. He has to come in and make sure (like any company) he doesn’t change too much at once. Only difference being, football… Read more »

Guns of Hackney

TR7 gets it.

Emery is quite frankly, a bit wet and his players obviously don’t rate him. PSG were too big for him and even Arsenal might prove to be a bit too much.

I defy anyone to honestly look at Arsenal now, and tell me how exactly are we any different than under the weng man.

gonsterous

Chelsea, the perfect example of player power. When they start disliking a manager, they play woefully, and get them sacked. mourinho got sacked and they upped their game when conte came. They disliked conte, and they performance dropped. Sarri came over and they look like a decent bunch again. How long though ?

Wenker-wanger

We’ve played the best team and only lost 2-0…. All these doom mongers that keep running Emery down haven’t been able to back up any of their opinions with facts or stats. And facts, results speak for themselves.
Wait till Emery loses 8-2 or 6-0 or finishes 40 points off citeh before lambasting Emery.

Marko

Worryingly we seem to start very slowly and poorly under Emery but on the flip side the second half performances are much improved. I think if Torreira doesn’t start the next league game serious mental health questions have to be asked of Emery. At that stage it’d be beyond a joke considering how obvious it is that Lucas is our best CM. Somewhat understandable yesterday because he went off as a precaution for Uruguay but next league game no excuse. Also I think when people say give him more time it’s less about game time but more time to fix… Read more »

N5

“Wait till Emery loses 8-2 or 6-0 or finishes 40 points off citeh before lambasting Emery.”

I fully support your comment as we were saying yesterday you have to give the man a couple of Transfer Windows and a season before we start lynching him, but let’s please not allow it to get to the 8-2 scenario before we nip it in the bud this time. Somewhere in between maybe 😀

Marko

Chelsea probably won’t even compete for the league but Sarri has already stamped his style on their playing style. We are talking about a group of players who played under Mourinho and Conte, managers with contrasting style to Sarri and yet he has changed it around That is true but he also inherited a group of players most of whom have won the league and are capable of winning the league. Emery hasn’t inherited that type of squad. Also worth noting that Sarri inherited a team with the type of players that he could fit into the type of system… Read more »

gonsterous

guns

Im sure by the end of emerys contract, we will be back in the CL. He’s not going to be here for 10 years but in the short time he’s here, I’m sure he’ll improve us.
if you think some one is going to come in and make us win the title, you have to be deluded. There are so many factors needed to win the league.
“element of surprise” surprising is not one of the factors.

Marko

Emery needs to be allowed to fix the team as in time and resources. There isn’t a manager in world football who would come in and work with the same group of players and get that much more out of them. Pep Simeone whoever would not only come in and insist on a squad overhaul sooner rather than later but even with the same players would still likely have the same struggles with certain players simply not being good enough or certainly not good enough for what we want to do or be. Like ishola says we are a Europa… Read more »

Valentin

I see that most of my tactical critics are now repeated by Pedro. I said that an axe Guendouzi-Xhaka with Ramsey nominatively on the right further up and Bellerin with license to roam forward could not work and again it did not. Defensively Guendouzi has to much ground to cover and we are sliced open too easily. Going forward our play is too slow. By the time our attacking player for the ball the defense is already well in place. While Xhaka slows the game, Toreira accelerates it. Quick incise passes forward that releases thus in front of him. Suddenly… Read more »

Marko

Im sure by the end of emerys contract, we will be back in the CL.

Absolutely. He’s on what a 3 year contract? I fully expect during this time frame for him to have addressed the squad and gotten us back to a champions league team. What happens after that is anyone’s guess. I personally don’t think that he’ll be winning a league title for us but you never know in three years time the squad could be looking a whole lot different with just one or two signings being needed to actually challenge properly

kc

The game yesterday wasn’t on tv in America. You had to purchase it through NBC gold.

gonsterous

if pep came here he would demand we overlook his first season as well as give him 200m per season for a rebuild. klopp on the other hand has handed out cash like it was candy. He massively over paid for a GK and a CB. Sarri has done well so far, jorginho looks a great addition to an already strong squad. For mouriho, all I can say is, respect. Okay. He has 3 PL titles, while the rest of the league managers combined have 2. Respect. Okay ? just kidding. He’s shit. won’t surprise me if he’s out of… Read more »

gonsterous

marko

we were actually 2 or 3 signings away from winning the league under Lord Wenger. If only he hadn’t had his head stuck so far up his own arse.

Marko

No way we give up on Aubameyang so soon. Guy has 11 in 18 for Arsenal. No way

Guns of Hackney

Gons If Klopp wins the league, no one will remember how much he spent on a GK and CB. What people do remember is the stinkers, whether they cost £60m or £5m. Klopp has got a world class GK and CB and Liverpool have improved massively as a result. Wengemery spent £22m on a GK that doesn’t play. £15m on a 30 year old, very poor CB. Chucked another few million at a Xhaka contract and might do the same with Ramsay. He doesn’t play his probably best signing from the start…for me, that’s a bigger crime than ‘overpaying’ for… Read more »

gonsterous

guns

are you comparing auba to Ronaldo ?

If klopp wins. As good as the those scums are, I have a feeling city have another gear in them. But let’s see. it’s not even been 10 games. Chelsea could surprise us.

our 130m strikers have themselves to blame. How many chances does auba and co need to hit an empty net ?? Instead they are practising dance move celebrations for when they score.

Alexanderhenry

Great result, OK performance yesterday.

Any away win, even against poor, cash starved Newcastle is especially satisfying.

I only watched the highlights but surely torrera must start. He’s tenacious and progressive in midfield and actually passes forwards.

Also, from what I saw, lacazette was excellent again, but I still don’t really like him and auba up front- as a long term solution anyway.

gonsterous

guns

what’s the bare minimum that emery has to achieve for you this season? be honest. Do you expect him to win the league ?

N5

“what’s the bare minimum that emery has to achieve for you this season? be honest. Do you expect him to win the league ?”

I know this wasn’t to me, but I think it’s a really interesting question for all. Before I answer, I have to point out I’m seeing the massive irony in my reply.

Top 4.

Marko

Bare minimum is top 4? I had us down as top 4 before the season started but that was when I was still thinking one or two signings were on. As of right now it is 50/50 of top 4 because as unconvincing as we are we’re still picking up 3 points. Much will depend on the business we do in January for me do nothing and in the second half of the season we’ll likely come up short one or two could be enough to get us into the top 4

VicVic

By now, it’s easy to see through some guys on here. For them is not about if we are playing well or not, it’s about not wanting the discussion to come anywhere near the suggestion that some coaches can actually make a bigger mess than Wenger, Emery for example. Wenger is gone, this should not be about him. If all you care about is to paint a picture of a better team now Wenger is gone, you will never relate with reality. Reality is Emery seems a big error already. And here are some of the points to consider: *Emery… Read more »

Wenker-wanger

Bare minimum? I would say to finish 12-15 points better off than last season.
You can’t say 4th as we could be squeezed out by a point or two but still by age a relatively good points total.
I think a 15 point improvement is worthwhile on its own merit.

kc

Oh Christ VicVic, back to Untold with you. Tony Atwood’s balls miss your mouth. Fucking Lesbian.

Dennis

4312
‘old ‘overlapping fulbacks routine’..
Soliditiy ‘compactness in the centre, allowing Ozil free role… 1 of the three relatively incisive’ – those three together i’d say, complementarity potential. i always staying back’- .. conjunctly i fullback upfield at a time ..

torreirra guen xhaka
Ozil
Lacazette Aubemeyang

alternatively

lich mustafi sokratis belerin monreal

torreira xhaka / guendozi
Ozil
Auba Lacazette

advatangs of the former be the energy in the middle

mk

jwl

I think Emery wants to play a certain way, and we don’t have the players for it, but he is persisting with his system and that is a mistake. Top coaches find the system most suitable for players available to him, not try to force players to do things they are uncomfortable with to accommodate manager’s vision.

I don’t understand why Torreira is not playing from the start, we are obviously better team when he plays and surely Emery has noticed.

Wenker-wanger

Vic Vic….you are a nutter….
A monkey could’ve done better than Wenger,… I cannot imagine a worse manager in his final decaying years.
The only reason he finished fifth was the sprinkling of world class players that won him games,
To say Wenger punched below his arsenal weight is an understatement. He was a vastly over-rated egotistical clown.

KAY Boss

Ramsey should be benched. Xhaka/Torreira will be solid than Rams and any of our cms.
I hate that Emery is just being stubborn by repeating same mistakes week after week.
Mistakes ain’t often dangerous but it’s repetition leads to destruction. Hope he learns fast.

Up 4 grabs now

Yeah must agree, another 15 points on last season. If you think city and the bindippers will be top two 3rd and 4th is up for grabs.
Will reserve judgment on Chelsea as they could quite easily drop if hazard picks up an injury.
The spuds look like the last few seasons are catching up on them and utd despite winning yesterday look no better than us.
If we can strengthen in Jan, fourth is possible.

VicVic

Kc

I got no words for idiots like you. Only humans try to debate and win a debate. Animals like you only want to be animal.
You are so blinded with Wenger hate that it makes you cry if someone does not hate him.
You are less than human, to call you a dog would be an insult to the dogs.

Guns of Brixton

Frankenstein squad

Looool

Bout sums it up!

Frakensquad

gonsterous

lol vicvic pretending like we played great expansive football last season. Lol. We were struggling to defeat teams.

This lot are wenger children. Look at the emery signings, all doing well. If Wenger was in charge, he would have gone back for vardy

Alexanderhenry

Jwl

‘Top coaches find the system most suitable for players available to him, not try to force players to do things they are uncomfortable with to accommodate manager’s vision.’

I’m not sure that’s the case. When I think of top managers down the years, they all have a certain way of playing. They might vary it slightly but they get teams to play their way.

Crucially, what top managers also do is join clubs willing to spend what’s required to get the players they need.

It’s really important that last bit.

China

I’d like to see how a torreira guen middle looks as we haven’t seen it yet but I won’t blame him if he goes with torreira xhaka for the next game As much as xhaka has been a fucking poor signing, he’s had two good second halves when partnered with torreira I’m not sure to what extent it’s about ability and to what extent they simple have a useful balance together. Torreira guen would be a more skilled CM, guen was the best player in the first half yesterday. But the jury is out how well he’d play with torreira.… Read more »

VicVic

Wenker Wanger,

No sir, you are the crazy punk here.

Give yourself some peace of mind, punk.
Don’t choke on Wenger issue!

Alex Cutter

Seems like VicVic’s had a stroke.

gonsterous

and everyone calling us an EKB. Look at how harshly we are judging emery. We want him to make top 4 or else we won’t be satisfied. So in a way Emery doesn’t know best but is the best bet at the present moment (quite a mouthful). See the diff between an EKB and an AKB ? But we are willing to give him time, I.e till the end of the season. Not get on his back after 5 games,and the arteta knows best fans are either trolling or deluded..

Alexanderhenry

Gonsterous

Regarding what is an acceptable position for arsenal to finish in, I would say no worse than last season.

I think fourth is unlikely even though spurs look like they might have some problems this season.

First season at Liverpool Klopp finished 8th.

Alexanderhenry

China

I’m happy to support Emery for now- judging him at this stage is nuts- but the one thing that has baffled me so far has been his reluctance to start Torrera.

It may be a fitness issue or perhaps he’s bedding him in slowly.

Guns of Hackney

Gons

Sorry, I’ve been away.

The bare minimum I expect is:

A coherent team/system
A better defensive show
A better points tally
Bouncebackability

I am not a fool and never expected Wengemery to win the league or anything if I’m being honest…I did however think that we would see some improvement. After five games, this has not happened.

That’s it.

gonsterous

torreira and matteo seem to have no problem following instructions and doing what’s good for the team. The rest of the bunch are so used to the laid back comfy atmosphere that Wenger created, they can’t seem to get their head around information and instructions.

VicVic

Any objective presentation that does not promote Wenger hate is like acid to these goons. I have never seen anything like this before. How can you be so focused on hating another human to the point that your brain is now totally stuck in it. I wanted Wenger out because I wanted a man who could do a better job and compete with top coaches to step in and do us good, not because I hate Wenger. Fuck, I even respect the job the man did in his early years! Wenger took the club to the corners of the world… Read more »

China

Yeah not playing tor has been baffling but hopefully he’s now seen enough. As far as I’m concerned it’s not just that tor should be playing it’s that we really have a lot of areas we need to improve so if we play him (even if he ends up alongside xhaka) at least it means we’ll have one less position in dire need of improvement We have 99 problems that need attention so if playing tor makes it 98 then just play the guy and let’s move on to solving other issues is my opinion We don’t have the luxury… Read more »

gonsterous

guns

and you think arteta would have done what you’ve written up there ?

Guns of Hackney

Wenger was like the nice old doddering headmaster. The pupils took this piss.

Wengemery is the substitute teacher. The pupils are basically still taking the piss.

I honestly don’t think any of the arsenal players believe in Wengemery.

I was against it at the time but maybe a Carlo Ancelotti would have got them into shape.

N5

VicVic just stop biting at it. A fire can only burn if you keep adding fuel.

Guns of Hackney

Gons

I 100% believe Arteta would have done something different. Don’t get me wrong, he could have lost all five. Maybe he would have won all five but at least it would have been DIFFERENT.

The first five games could have been any from last season.

VicVic

Alex,

Your stupidity is noted.

Bamford10

VicVic

I have been plenty critical of Emery, but can you explain how you’ve reached the conclusion that he is making a bigger mess of things than Wenger ever did after five matches? Thanks.

China

From my perspective the biggest issues we need to resolve are: 1) Bellerin. Playing a 3-5-2 with him wife would solve this but I don’t think emery is going to experiment with another new formation right now. He either needs dropping or a frying pan to the face behind closed doors until he takes defending seriously. I don’t care which, tho the frying pan is the more satisfying choice 2) our entire wing/AM/wing lineup is balls. Auba and laca have to play. That leaves ozil, mikki and Ramsey and none of them are honestly good enough or fit in this… Read more »

HighburyLegend

Xhaka and Ozil scored… they will have gain Emery’s confidence even more, we are so f*cked. Let’s face it, Emery needs a psychological shock (our away trip at Anfield could play this role, if you see what I mean…) to realize that we need a more radical change in the coaching. My guess is that Unaï still has too much respect for his predecessor’s work, and that he’s still a bit afraid to “shake the house” the hard way. The only real progress is that he likes tactical work, and that he’s making changes at half time, when the old… Read more »

Up 4 grabs now

Guns honestly would you rather have lost five games with arteta than go with emery and have 3 wins. Do you think arteta would have got anything different from the Chelsea or city game?

gonsterous

guns

what is this different you keep banging on about ?? do you even have a clue ?
it’s been all arteta Is a surprise and now it’s he would have been different.
Do you have any thing else to go by besides adjectives ??

Marko

it’s about not wanting the discussion to come anywhere near the suggestion that some coaches can actually make a bigger mess than Wenger, Emery for example. But you see the problem is how can people make that sort of an observation after 5 games? You can’t people who do have an agenda behind it. I mean it’s not like Arsene starting off the season well generally speaking he didn’t and the problems that Emery is having right now are the same problems that Arsene had nay that Arsene created as in woeful defence inconsistent attack and a midfield not good… Read more »

China

Our right CB and RB*

Monreal and pappa look like they can hold down their side well enough but you don’t compete for big boy trophies when an entire half of the defensive field is either absent, hopeless or both

Marko

I 100% believe Arteta would have done something different. Don’t get me wrong, he could have lost all five. Maybe he would have won all five but at least it would have been DIFFERENT.

This basically sums you and your Arteta nonsense up perfectly normal

Therst five games could have been any from last season

Not really. Did we beat Newcastle away last season? Did we win back to back away games? Did we look so threatening at Stamford bridge last season?

China

Fuck me I would kill to have peak Sagna right about now

With Tor and Sagna on the pitch our entire defensive unit would literally be 50% better than what we’ve seen so far this season

Bamford10

Highbury

“My guess is that Unaï still has too much respect for his predecessor’s work.”

Agreed. I think he thought he only needed to come in and instill a bit of steel, pressing and playing out of the back. In truth we need much more than that. We need a real tactical re-think, re-organization. And we need a number of better players.

VicVic

The first five games could have been any from last season.

That is the point. Those games seem even more flawed. For 45 minutes yesterday, I could not believe what I was seeing.
We were playing like Hull City!

Joe

So what did you want Emery to do? Come in and say sell Bellerin, Mustafi, Xhaka, Ramsey, mkhit, wellbeck. Cech, Pull your heads in. He needs a few transfer windows to get the players to play his style. Who’s he meant to play if he can’t play ramsey? Mkhit? Please. Another wenger mistake. He’s needs time to shape the squad. Fuck even pep took a year to get city where he wanted it. Klopp has taken 3-4. Everyone keeps saying Sarri. He also inherited a squad that has won the league 2 out of the last 4 years. Sorry but… Read more »

China

Anyone who thinks emery is boring because it’s been a continuation of wenger actors is kidding themselves We knew the outcome of the previous 10 years before a ball was kicked. We don’t know anything about what changes emery will or won’t make and when this season. If he gets wenger like results and the fans get on his back, will he change? Nobody has any clue. A few games which have been uninspiring but still produced results and people think they already know everything there is to know about our season with a new manager. That’s a very brave… Read more »

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