Porous Arsenal ride the luck train again

by .

What a rollercoaster of a season we’re having. One minute we’re celebrating the rebirth of The Arsenal, the next we’re slapped back to reality with a latter years Wenger-esque performance at home to a newly promoted team.

Thanks to some second-half substitution wizardry, Arsenal pulled an equaliser out the bag late on. Mikhi fizzed a dangerous cross across the box, it ghosted about ten players and slipped fortuitously in at the back post unchallenged. It was a dirty goal, but hey, I’ll continue to pay my respects to the very fine Lady Luck who continues to shine brightly over the Emery tenure.

The frustration of the afternoon is that you can fully accept that we’re going to have tough games, we’re not always going to be at the races, but ideally, we should be winning that 1-0. Not drawing because of another sloppy unforced error. I wasn’t overly surprised that the error came from Xhaka. Just last week, the footballing sages of the internet were crowing over his newly anointed mainstream acceptance, that after a solid 90 minutes, he was here. The player who, according to some, had always been here, you were just too fucking stupid to see it. Well, it didn’t take long for the high to get mowed down by the buzz kill police, the Swiss allowed a pass to run past him, Wolves capitalised ruthlessly and put themselves a goal up early on 13 minutes. That’s the 4th Premier League game in a row we’ve conceded first in.

It was hard to say they weren’t worthy of the win. Wolves were lively to our press and exploiting us with quick counters all game. They were first to every ball, they looked hungry and they weren’t intimidated. You can’t blame the Thursday game, because only 3 players were involved. We just didn’t have a good attitude. The players had no urgency about their play, and we looked very disjointed.

We’ve been riding our luck all season, and it’s going to be really difficult to escape the fact that there’s still a lot of work to do with that squad. Mustafi is ridden with errors, I’m surprised that a coach who has high standards for accountability persists with him. Xhaka is simply not good enough, it doesn’t matter how hard usual suspects push his elevated xWhatever stats, he’s too slow and he’s still making regular rookie mistakes. Being good at one thing will never counter for being a total donut twice a game. He is the new Wenger and it’s not surprising it’s the same fanboys who love him. I was very hopeful with the Mikhi signing, but even with the goal, he’s simply not offering us £170k worth of value at the moment.

I actually had to come back to the post because Ozil was so annonymous, I forgot he even played. I think it’s becoming more and more apparent that having two deeplying midfielders is never going to make up for having a uninterested number 10 in front of you. We need to find someone who can defend and give up the dream of being the only club in the world rocking a #10 from 10 years ago.

Iwobi is very up and down. It was quite the rebuke to be yanked off at halftime and get replaced by Guendouzi. We desperately lack real width. Auba isn’t a left winger, Iwobi isn’t good for us on the right, when those two play poorly, they stink out the house. I’d love Reiss Nelson to play out the season with Hoffenheim, but the form he’s in, and the lack of real width we have, shouldn’t he be here starting every week in January? Maybe that’s knee-jerk, but it’s not often a talent blows up like that, and we really are desperate. The fans will give him time as well. Perfect solution.

On the positive side of things, Bernd Leno had an exceptional game. He was off his line nice and quick, his distribution is smart and his shot stopping really is a level up from anything we’ve seen at Arsenal for many years. Still needs to work on his command of his box from crosses, but hopefully that’ll come with experience.

Also, we can’t be too harsh. We took something from our worst performance under Emery. My concern, as it has been all season, the luck will run out. The corrections will arrive. It might not be very pretty.

The club don’t want to splash in January, so one would assume this is it for the rest of the season. Top four is still our stretch target, and it appears that is going to be incredibly important because we need some major surgery on the squad, and we’re not going to be able to do that unless we have the stream of money the biggest prize in football gives you.

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

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DM

DM

Pierre

4-6
22-4

Bankz

Tr4phy

Pierre

8 first half
28 2nd half

DM

Tr4phy

grooveydaddy

Tr4phy

DivineSherlock

Pedro

Honestly , It’s more like of the same from Emery . Its getting predictable for opponents. I think its time for Aubameyang to start upfront alone. With Iwobi, Mkhitaryan & Ozil. Drop Laca on the bench . Xhaka and Torreira midfield. 4-5-1.

Bringing on Guendouzi for Iwobi was mad . Leno has been immense for us.

Pierre

In our ten match unbeaten run in the league We have scored a total of 4 goals in the first half and conceded 6. In the second half We have scored 20 goals and concede 4. The number of pointless We would have accumulated in our first half performances would have been 8 points ( 8 draws and 2 defeats) The number of points we would have accumulated for our 2nd half performances would have been 28 points ( 9 wins and one draw.) We have not been leading in any game at the end of the first half in… Read more »

Pierre

So ,which team is the real Arsenal …is it the first half relegation material or 2nd half title winning material. Our results in the 2 nd half of games should be evidence enough that the team/squad is capable of dominating games from the start. It must be all about the mental attitude when we start games…we can up our game when we need to do why can’t we start the match on the front foot. sorry to say but the last time I saw an Arsenal team dominate a game from the start was in the semi final of the… Read more »

Guns of Hackney

Arsenal are definitely the new Liverpool.

gambon

I think the last few weeks have been a reality check for everyone at the club, including the manager. We were extremely lucky during our 11 game winning run. While it is frustrating, it was always going to be a long term job. You just have to hope the manager has the courage to make needed changes. Wengers lack of tactical ability, and man management was always over exaggerated. His biggest weakness by far was that he started to buy shit players, and then fall in love with them and refuse to accept their lack of quality. I hope Emery,… Read more »

bennydevito

Dooooooomm!!! Doooooooom!!! It’s amazing how much doom there was in the comments section of the last post, Jesus Christ, it’s like the usual suspects were on standby just itching to have a dig the minute we have a bad result. Only it wasn’t a bad result, Wolves are a good side, we could have lost. A few points: “We’re not a top 4 side”. We know we’re not a top 4 side, nobody said we were, but with the progress and improvements we’ve made so far and with utd and spurs not at their best top 4 could be achieved… Read more »

shad

Anyone who expected an outright win is simply deluded. Wolves have very good organization and were fired up for the contest. We literally got away with murder. Emery definitely needs some serious restructuring of the team but at least he doesn’t shy away from mixing it up before the 60th min when things are stagnant. We miss width and 2 intelligent CBs and a commanding no. 10, who can conjure up space in the centre of the park with a dribble. By the way, no team has won the league without a Brazilian in the mixer. All the good teams… Read more »

WengerEagle

Was flicking through the comments yesterday and agreed with the consensus that we’re not going to be competitive at the top of the league unless we spend Citeh/Liverpool money or are extremely careful with how we do our business and luck out a bit i.e attempt to replicate what Dortmund, Monaco and Atletico Madrid have done in recent times, with respect to Leicester that was a once in a lifetime season and for lack of a better term, a fluke not to be repeated for a myriad of reasons. I’m not a money guy, wondering if anyone on here is… Read more »

China1

I’m not sure why emery hasn’t managed to motivate the team in the first half but this has to be priority n1. If he can get our first half to be the same level as our second halves then we’ll be turning most of these draws into wins I don’t know if it’s an attitude thing, or emery tells them to conserve energy or what, but this needs to change If I was emery I would be willing to make a symbolic change to show the team that he’s serious. If someone is playing badly or not up for it,… Read more »

WengerEagle

I wanted Felipe Anderson in the summer and said that he’d be a great signing for West Ham.

Exactly the type of player that we’re crying out for on the flank.

China1

No team has won the league without a Brazilian?

90s Utd teams? Blackburn? 98 arsenal?

I don’t remember Brazilians in any of those teams off the top of my head

Pierre

If i could differentiate between Emery and Wenger from what I have observed so far ,it would be that Emery is much better at working with the younger players and is good at improving players who have fallen below their usual standard and with hard work and better coaching those players are showing an improvement. On the flip side ,Emery doesn’t have the same ability to get the best out of flair players as wenger. Maybe wenger,rightly or wrongly, just let the flair players get on with it instead of imposing restrictions in their play and consequently they played with… Read more »

gonsterous

2 weeks break well hopefully get us back to winning ways. I hope and pray that emery and co are making plans for January because top 4 is there for the taking. But we need to get bodies in or else we are not getting in there.

gambon

WengerEagle

Realistically we can spend £100m or so in the summer.

I think we really need to look at overspending in order to get the right players in as soon as possible.

Would rather we spent £200m next summer, then nothing the year after than £100m each summer.

At some point the club will have to accept the need for a large investment.

Graham62

Pierre

The negative passion being shown towards Emery after a few questionable performances, is quite amazing.

You would be right, of course, if such frailties had been evident for ten years.

Just a pity you weren’t willing to say these things all those years back, when things started to go pear shape.

Wrong manager I’m afraid.

gonsterous

someone was suggestions Mata yesterday, after the performance against wolves, I wouldn’t mind having him on a free If it means ozil and mhiki don’t get into the the first team.
Xhaka needs a babysitter or else he’s a liability. We need a jorginho of our downright now.

Pierre

Have said before that xhaka’s errors always seem to be early in games when he is not fully switched on …..he always improves ( like Arsenal) as the match progresses.

UTarse

For someone who refers to fans mentioning /comparing to Wenger as obssessives, he seems pretty obssesed himself….

gonsterous

oh English, you cruel mistress, or was it the auto correct ?
I meant someone was suggesting ** mata
We need a jorginho of our own**

GoonerDNA

One of best friends is a Liverpool fan he was going on and on about how Arsenal will need 3or 4 seasons of transition to get back into the top 4. I didn’t disagree I just felt LFC made a number of bad decisions with mangerial choices and transfer committee BS. We’re not doing to badly but could be doing better, Wolves are a good side and deserved to probably beat us yesterday but a lot of that was due to how poorly we played. Pierre, how dare you mention Wenger when last season we was shocking. Emery is less… Read more »

Pierre

Graham
“The negative passion being shown towards Emery after a few questionable performances, is quite amazing.”

why is it negative…..is it wrong to question why our performances in the first half are so lethargic and insipid or do you not think that the manager should be questioned on this .

gonsterous

gambon. 100m for two seasons ? what ? No manager is getting that type of money when at arsenal, sorry to burst your bubble. There are lots of other ways to have a good team. spending vast amounts of money is one of it, but done only by one or two clubs in a league. Smart investment and getting players before they peak on the cheap is another. finding youngsters and moulding them into world class players is another one. There is a reason we bought in sven and co and it wasn’t to throw 100m every transfer window. We… Read more »

Drey

Pierre, Its obvious you have an itching to criticize Emery at the first sign of trouble. Your fixation with pointing out Emery’s weaknesses after 6 whole months on the job is downright obssesive considering the fact that most of our insipid performances can be traced to players coached under you-know-who “sorry to say but the last time I saw an Arsenal team dominate a game from the start was in the semi final of the Europa cup v atletico Madrid LAST SEASON …..I know that won’t go down well on here but it’s true.” Care to tell us what the… Read more »

WengerEagle

gambon Yeah sounds about right, doesn’t leave you with too much confidence for the future unless we do overspend. I do think that real quality can still be bought relatively inexpensively if you’re looking in the right places, every summer window there’s a few head scratching transfers that go through that makes you double-take and think how have they pulled that one off. Monchengladbach got in Alessane Plea for example for just 20 million or so, he’s scored 11 goals in 12 and 8 in the league. 25 and was a very good player for Nice. Witsel has made a… Read more »

gambon

gonsterous

So you want Kroenke to pocket all our money?

We spent £55m last summer, and we now have an additional £52m in sponsorship money, and £5m extra from the additional Emirates seating in club level.

In recent years, the club has sent pretty much all its spare cash, so I wouldnt expect that to change.

£100m minimum for the next 2 summers.

As I say, I would rather we spent 2 years money next summer. If we are going to add £200m of talent to the squad, I want it in sooner rather than later.

Pierre

Just the mention of his name and they all come crawling out of the woodwork….have to laugh …

Any thoughts on our abysmal first half performances ufraud…

WengerEagle

With 100 million you would hope to bring in three top quality players, ideally with age on their side. Even four possibly depending on the position/contract situation.

Leno and Torreira cost less than half of that combined.

Pierre

Drey
“Stop making it a comparison with Emery and Wenger.”

actually today is the first time I have made comparisons so you need to chill out..I credited Emery with improving players .

The next time I want to make a comparison I will put it to vote …OK

gambon

WengerEagle Dont forget outgoings as well, will raise funds. Our squad is big enough, so every arrival will be offset with a departure (Apart from maybe Ramsey, and Welbeck) So for example if we sell Chambers, Kolasinac, Mustafi, Xhaka, Mykhitaryan that will raise some good funds. I would say we need a mixture of young talents (Guendouzi), Solid players with good upside (Torreira & Leno) and a couple of superstars. We no longer have any player that you could ever imagine winning Player of the year. In the past we had Sanchez, Fabregas, RVP, Henry, Pires, Bergkamp – who were… Read more »

Emiratesstroller

I made the case earlier this season that Arsenal were very well stocked in strikers and offensive players and that we needed to focus on ‘improving’ the defensive side of our team/squad. That situation has now changed not just because of the injury to Welbeck, but because there is now over dependence on both Aubameyang and Lacazette to score and the performance level of Ozil, Mkhitaryan, Ramsey and Iwobi is very unreliable. None of the midfield players in our squad are “dynamic” and “impose” themselves on games. I think also it is increasingly clear that Arsenal need to bring into… Read more »

Paulinho

Pierre – Xhaka always makes mistakes at the start of games because that’s when the opposition press with the most intensity, and he knows his inability to deal with the press will get exposed. So he’s nervy and on edge. Rightly so given his flaws.

He let the ball run across him because he knew the Wolves player was close and if he controlled it then he would be be in big trouble, so he closed his eyes,crossed his fingers, and prayed someone would be there and he would get away with it.

Paulinho

Felipe Anderson would’ve been perfect. Fitted in nicely on that left hand side.

Much better than Auba and Iwobi there.

Pierre

Paulinho
Can’t argue with that assessment on xhaka…maybe we shouldn’t give the ball to him in tight situations early in games ..

Graham62

Pierre

Read what I said.

I won’t scroll back to your comments after our infamous
8-2 defeat at MU in 2011 or our classic 4-4 throw away against Newcastle 6 months earlier, but what would have been your take on things after those debacles?

Wenger must go now!

Yeh, I didn’t think so.

WengerEagle

gambon Yeah and those will cost a decent rake but as you say, we will be selling off the likes of Welbeck, Ramsey and one of Ozil/Mhikitaryan you would imagine, although Ozil is on outrageous wages so that hampers certain clubs ability to dip in for him, particularly German clubs which is where you would picture him ending up. A CL run funnily enough would probably be more achievable than going toe to toe with City for the league once we add better players to the team, they are literally a juggernaut and are on pace to score over 100… Read more »

Emiratesstroller

It is all very well focussing on Xhaka or for that matter Mustafi’s occasional
mistakes, but the fact is that these two players are not the only reason that we
have been struggling in recent games.

The team is struggling to break down opposition and score goals.

Pierre

I blame the ref for the 4-4 at newcastle…bent as a nine bob note.

Graham62

ES

Correct regarding the need for “dynamic” individuals

Pace will also sort out many of our problems, not just from the wings.

What’s Usain Bolt up to now?

WengerEagle

Well over 300 in fact.

Allison, VVD, Keita, Fabinho, Salah, Mane, Firmino cost close to 350 million.

Not even accounting for the rest of the squad.

Graham62

Pierre

Lol!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You always manage to cover yourself in glory.

Bamford10

gambon “Realistically we can spend £100m or so in the summer.” I’m not challenging this, but could you provide a bit of detail on how you’ve arrived at this number? Specifically, I’d like to know: – what, IYO, is our cash balance at the moment or as of the most recent financial statement? – what, IYO, are our expected revenues over the next 12 months? – what, IYO, are our expected revenues over the next 12 months? When I last looked at our financial statements or an article about them, it was clear to me that where our cash balance… Read more »

WengerEagle

Paulinho

I find it bizarre this fan-club that Iwobi is developing.

Plays like complete crap most of the time he’s on the pitch and for 4 matches out of 5, he does have a good performance in him but it’s pretty rare. Rare enough that I can’t give him the benefit of the doubt/youth card, etc.

Oxlade for me was better, at least he had the beating of his man.

Graham62

Pierre

Of course, silly me, now I get it.

All of Arsenal’s weaknesses and frailties over the past decade or so were based on dodgy referees and bad decisions.

There was always an excuse.

WengerEagle

Reiss Nelson is the gift that keeps on giving for Hoffenheim right now, scored the winner within a minute of being subbed on at the weekend.

Kayciey

“Have said before that xhaka’s errors always seem to be early in games when he is not fully switched on …..he always improves ( like Arsenal) as the match progresses.” The above is nonsense. The error in Cardiff was on 44th minute and it almost caused us the game. The error against Crystal Palace was on 82nd minute and it caused the team 2 points. Yesterday’s error caused the team 2 points too. Granit Xhaka has solely caused the team 4 points. We would be on 28 points now and level with Chelsea if it wasn’t for his errors. Ever… Read more »

gambon

Bamford

Transfer spend has nothing to do with cash balances.

Apart from Arsenal and UTD, no one has any cash in the bank. Very clearly the other 18 teams combined will be spending more than £0 on transfers next summer.

As i say, we spend pretty much all our spare cash every season.

Our revenue (without CL) next season will likely be c£440m (conservative estimate), with a wage bill of c£240m, costs of c£80m, stadium finance of £20m.

Bamford10

WE “Allison, VVD, Keita, Fabinho, Salah, Mane, Firmino cost close to 350 million.” Yes, but it’s worth noting that Salah, Mane and Firmino — the three who have arguably had the largest impact on the change in their footballing fortunes — were each purchased for around £38m. That’s not pennies, but it’s also not £60m, £80m or £100. None of these three were the “big name” of their transfer window; they were instead very good players who people thought of highly but who didn’t necessarily command the high fees of the most talked gushed about players. Which is to say,… Read more »

Paulinho

WE – It’s a baffling one, but as I mentioned the other day,certain fans have convinced themselves he’s improved and it will take a while longer before they realise he’s the same Alex Iwobi: Useful for short periods of time, but ultimately runs into a mental brick wall because he can’t do shoot or really do anything in the final third, and no amount of easy-on-eye jitterbugging up until that point will hide that fact.

Bamford10

WE

“I find it bizarre this fan-club that Iwobi is developing.”

You should have seen the abuse I received here simply for saying that while I appreciated the work-rate he was giving us, he lacks quality.

WengerEagle

Arshavin retiring deserves a mention as well.

Massively underrated in my eyes due to so many perceiving his time here as a flop, brought plenty of memorable moments and looked unstoppable at times in 2009 for us and hit peak levels that were comparable to club legends.

Scored some of my favourite goals of the last decade for Arsenal with his Anfield efforts, OT strike, debut solo goal from ridiculous angle vs Blackburn, scissors kick vs Wigan and that Barcelona winner that was our best CL moment since Wally’s run at Anfield in 2008.

WengerEagle

Bamford

Was only saying that to gambon, Liverpool purchased that front 3 for 100 million so it’s definitely doable to drastically improve your ranks with that figure which gives you hope for us.

Southampton had them over a barrel with VVD just as they did with Barcelona as they had just received 140 million for Coutinho plus it was mid-season when it’s extremely disruptive to let a key player walk out the door.

UTarse

Lil p,

“Any thoughts on our abysmal first half performances ufraud…”

You seem a bit tense these days old man, unlike you, I’m pretty chilled about the way the season has started, emery is trying his best to polish half a turd and whether he’s been fortunate or astute, I won’t judge until we have a decent dataset to judge him by.

Also, for a team to be abysmal, not bad to come out with a draw is it?

Graham62

WengerEagle

There was only one person who underrated Arshavin.

Mismanaged and misused. Became, like so many of us, pissed off by the inadequacies of our predecessor.

One of my favourites.

Bamford10

Pierre

“maybe we shouldn’t give the ball to [Xhaka] in tight situations early in games”

Instant Le Grove classic.

Put aside the fact that Xhaka has made game-changing errors late in matches as well, I love the idea that a top team would start a deep-lying midfielder whom you wouldn’t want to pass to if you were in your own half of the field.

!!!!!!

Pierre

Kayciey
“. The only positive I took from the game is Bernd Leno. He’s the best keeper we’ve got since Jens.”

but didn’t he cost us 2 points v Liverpool…..just saying as you seem to think that the palace pen conceded by Xhaka cost us 2 points .
Personally I would say that mustafi diving in for the first pen makes him more culpable than xhakas foul on saha.

Graham62

Leno has clearly proven that he is now the official #1.

Pierre

Ufraud
Not tense ..just a bit of light entertainment as it’s pissing down with rain outside and I can’t get on the golf course.

Seems like you may have some splinters through sitting on the fence regarding Emery.

Bamford10

I liked Arshavin as well. So much class. Yes, he had an attitude and could be lazy, but if he had been played through the center as a CAM (rather than deployed wide, where he had to track back) I think he might have had a better run with us.

Graham62

I remember when I scored an absolute belter of an on own goal from 20 yards out, for my school back in 1975, when I was just 13.

Crappy pitch, dodgy referee and a fudging magpie in my peripheral vision were all to blame.

Who else was there to blame?

Graham62

B10

Yes, we all saw that regarding Arshavin, but why couldn’t the expert?

Pierre

Yes Bamford,as much as it may sound stupid , to give xhaka the ball in tight situations early in games and he continues to get caught in possession then why not bypass him early on unless we want to keep conceding goals/chances.

And no ,he doesn’t make the same mistakes later on in games …his mistakes have primarily came in the early stages.

Bamford10

gambon

Well, I hope those figures are relatively accurate, as £440m in revenue and £340m in expenses (wages, debt, other) would indeed mean £100m to spend on transfers, regardless of cash reserves.

UTarse

Lil p,

I don’t sit on wooden fences.

steve

Arshavin is another player Wenger ruined with his inept managing.

Nelson

TonyD: “The only way – imo – to beat the parked bus is quick tempo one-touch passing though congested areas with quick transitions from defense-midfield to attack, as well as fast ball drilling wingers who can beat their first man and then draw CBs out wide.” I totally agree with the above analysis to solve with our problem with the attack. I am not putting my hope on the club buying fast ball drilling wingers. But “quick tempo one-touch passing and quick transitions from defense-midfield to attack” can be worked on during training. If you look at MC’s attack, they… Read more »

Samesong

Didn’t watch the game but I was weary of Wolves for awhile now seeing they have a few upgrades and the way they play.

Winning games is not a given, we didn’t beat palace who by the way haven’t won a game at home and have a drawn registered against us.

Pierre le pouix has got a point why are we starting games like Graham62 tractor boots back in the day so slow?

Where is the motivation coming from?

Who captained yesterday?

Bamford10

Pierre

I have a better idea: rather than start a player you aren’t comfortable passing to, why not replace him in the XI with a better player?

Victorious

Really amusing to read some posters pointing fingers everywhere else but the person truly responsible for our lethargic start to literally every game we’ve played this season I mean i’m not sure that we don’t have enough quality in the side to get past newly promoted wolves, i mean some fans are actually glad we managed the draw and avoided defeat, blames are being flung everywhere else,shortage of funds,poor defenders, idiotic Xhaka etc but the fact remains we should be winning that game cleanly. I mean only one person can be questioned for: Players not showing enough hunger from the… Read more »

Guns of Hackney

Remember when Arsenal were failing because “teams spend more money than us and are therefore cheating”?

How does one explain the last few performances against teams that aren’t even worth 1x Aubamayang?

We’re a billion pound team of superstars who pay our main man £350k per week.

Shouldn’t we be destroying everyone but City, Chelsea and Man U?

Emiratesstroller

I would be very interested to learn whether Arsenal can demand the return of Reiss Nelson before the end of this season. This player is not only a natural winger but has scored this season in the Bundesliga 6 goals as well as an assist. He has averaged a goal in every 52 minutes played, which is a phenomenal return not just for such a teenager at this level, but for that matter any player. If we were talking about Mbappe or Dembele neither of whom had such stats the world of football would be discussing a £100 million +… Read more »

Bamford10

I’m not totally buying this idea that our issue in first halves is down to the players not being properly motivated when they head out there. I think it has more to do with our formation and attacking personnel, neither of which are optimal. The fact that we often begin breaking teams down after 65 minutes is due to the opposition tiring and losing their defensive discipline and shape more than it is due to our suddenly becoming more motivated, IMO.

HighburyLegend

We need to tell something to Lil’ P. asap : even if Emery fails, his old idol will never be back at Arsenal.
He really don’t seems to realize that fact…

HighburyLegend

Really disappointed by GoH, who come back posting here only when things aren’t too well for us…

Danny

They have that x-factor about them and we have none.
——————————————-
You miss the great Brazilian stars like Andre Santos, Denilson, Paulista……..

gambon

Emiratesstroller

Its way to early to say if Nelson is a £100m player.

At the end of the day hes played 350 minutes of football, and scored with half of his shots.

I would give him a season at least at Hoffenheim, working with an excellent manager.

Bamford10

Highbury Pierre knows that. That’s not his goal. His goal is to prove that Emery is little or no better than Wenger, that the criticism of Wenger was overblown and unfair, and that Wenger did quite well even in his second ten years all things considered. For Pierre, this is all about the argument over Wenger: Pierre thinks Wenger was mistreated, and he thinks those who criticized and insulted Wenger are the worst thing ever to happen to Arsenal Football Club. Pierre hopes to prove that Wenger was better than many here say he was and to thereby repair Wenger’s… Read more »

HighburyLegend

He was not mistreated enough imo.
(lol)

Guns of Hackney

HL

I’ve been very complimentary about Emery. He has proved me wrong over that last couple of months and I’m happy to admit things have been looking up.

The only reason I came out of retirement was the post about Danny Welbeck…it got me riled.

I’m obviously disappointed that the last few games have shown up the team and Emery’s weaknesses.

Also, I’ve only called him Wengemery twice. I also haven’t mentioned he who must not be named…but he’s the one with the Lego hair and is running things in Manchester.

Emiratesstroller

Gambon Frankly I don’t think that Nelson is remotely a £100 million player but then again I don’t think that most other players labelled with that price tag are. I have not seen Nelson play many games, but I did watch him play recently for England U21 when he came on as substitute and he was a game changer not just in the goal he scored, but in the way he dictated play. Sterling is clearly a very important player at Man City today. He is on occasions unplayable, but I don’t think that he was better than Nelson at… Read more »

Leedsgunner

Wenger was heavily criticised on here for repeating tactical mistakes that didn’t work, Emery should be put under similar scrutiny if repeated errors occur. Auba is not a winger. It’s time Emery stopped pretending he was one. It’s clear that Emery relies on his wingbacks to provide width when attacking as much as wingers… if so we need a better left back. I know Raul said he doesn’t believe in spending in January but we can’t put off the purchase of another DM (to help and provide competition to Torriera) a competent left back and a speedy left winger is… Read more »

WengerEagle

Dembele is primarily a creator as opposed to a goalscorer. He racked up 18 assists along with 8 goals between the Bundesliga and the CL for Dortmund that season not to mention banging out a very high number of chances created, successful 1 vs 1s take ons completed over the course of an entire campaign. Sterling at 19 was murking teams on a weekly basis with Suarez and Sturridge, scored a brace when they battered us at Anfield 5-1 and was very important during their title challenge. Not to dismiss Nelson who looks a talent but as has been said,… Read more »

gonsterous

Really disappointed by GoH, who come back posting here only when things aren’t too well for us…

awww. did you believe his “I finally got time to come on le grove” story ?? lmao

duvee

Regarding homegrown player, what’s the story if we get rid of Welbeck, Ramsey and Chambers? Will we be very low on that front?

HighburyLegend

If Arsenal really don’t want to spend in january, it’s totally dumb.
And we lost Welbz. Seriously, we must spend in january or we’re screwed.

Leedsgunner

*and a speedy left winger; it is imperative.

Uwot?

Clearly wolves are no mugs.& have made life awkward for a few sides recently & that includes reining champs & league leaders citeh who incidentally also drew with them.most of us accepted at start of the season these hiccups would occur with the rebuild as frustrating as it is.so let’s cut unai some slack hey?

Paulinho

“Sterling at 19 was murking teams on a weekly basis with Suarez and Sturridge, scored a brace when they battered us at Anfield 5-1 and was very important during their title challenge”

Always amazes me how people make out Guardiola taught Sterling how to play football. He was amazing that season, and showed a lot then of what he is showing now, just being more consistent. He was always an exceptional talent.

gonsterous

funny how sterling and co are so shit for England.
only seems to play well for the Spaniard.

Champagne charlie

Paulinho

Pep has quite evidently brought on Sterling’s game and ability to be effective, is this another shot at Pep from someone who claims he’s a chequebook manager?

Victorious

.so let’s cut unai some slack hey?”

I mean its less about cutting him any slack and more about why the team starts out every match playing like relegation fodders.

Bamford10

On a quick political note, I would just like to say that this year’s over-the-top Veterans’ Day (or equivalent) celebrations have nothing to do with honoring the soldiers of the past and everything to do with preparing the population for the wars of the near future. The US & UK — and all of Europe, frankly — are far along in their planning for wars between the big powers, wars involving Iran, Russia, China, etc. These celebrations of militarism and nationalism — and the corporate media’s promotion of nationalism and militarism — are aimed at producing a population that accepts… Read more »

Paulinho

Charlie – No, it’s a shot at the people that claim Guardiola added extra dimensions to his game. He was always an intelligent footballer that could come inside and link play and dribble in tight spaces, and do a bit of everything,and yet the amount of times I hear people talk about him like was some Theo Walcott beforehand is unreal. His big fault was his finishing and letting his head drop and as a result he would stop getting into goal scoring positions. Guardiola has improved his mentality in that respect, and even if he misses now he still… Read more »

Kayciey

Pierre “but didn’t he cost us 2 points v Liverpool…..just saying as you seem to think that the palace pen conceded by Xhaka cost us 2 points . Personally I would say that mustafi diving in for the first pen makes him more culpable than xhakas foul on saha.” It depends on how you look at the game. Leno parried the ball towards Kolasinac who should have cleared but somehow Holding deflected it towards Milner and boom…..The cross shouldn’t have been allowed in the first place. So if you are looking for someone to blame, blame it on either Bellerin… Read more »

HighburyLegend

No politics, please.
Thanks.
A lot.

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