I tell you what, I’ve been listening to a lot of classical music this year. I’m not sure if that’s a sign of age, or that I feel disenchanted by the constant bickering between Kanye and Drake. Can’t you both just be friends?
Anyway, big up the classical music scene. Some absolute bangers from John Adams and Tchaikovsky pulling me through this post.
I know that it upsets people that I use references of the not-so-distant past to frame up where we are now, but look, for context, I’m the kind of guy who will make a beeline for a work colleague on a packed train, just to acknowledge that I have seen them… even if they are avoiding eye contact with headphones on. Simply put, I’m going to compare Wenger to Emery for at least another year, so get used to it.
Unai Emery showed exactly how different the mentality at the club is these days.
“I think we are doing our way and improving, but the reality is that we need more.
“Our ideas and work with the players is to learn together. All of us can give everybody new ideas.
“I think the players are open to listening to us about our new tactical work with our analysis in videos. We need to do this work quickly, but we also need patience.
If this had been 2 years ago, we’d be talking about winning the league and the big twitter accounts would be digging up tweets from 7 years ago gleefully proclaiming the victory was theirs!
Not anymore. Our manager is a pragmatist very much anchored to reality. We’re in 5th position, that’s not good enough, and even though we’re not losing, we could be doing better.
That’s a great attitude. That’s a message to players that complacency won’t be tolerated, nor will premature-back patting. We’ve achieved nothing this season and we’re still a long way off the levels City and Liverpool are bringing to the table.
This season is fierce, so many teams are on an absolute rampage. Spurs and City won again, Liverpool is likely to decapitate Jose Mourinho tomorrow when they host his shit-housing-extraordinaires. We have to keep up the pace, there’s no room for dropped points and that sort of pressure is hard to deal with.
It’s going to be very tough tomorrow against Southampton. You have a group of players who are under a new coach who is far smarter than Mark Hughes, so there’s an extra level of intrigue there. We also have a very old defence that is so worrying, you’d have to imagine even Southampton will fancy their chances. We could be rolling out with Hector, Lichtsteiner, Monreal and Koscielny. Two of those haven’t rocked a 90minutes in a while.
It’ll be very interesting to see how Emery deals with that. Do we sit slightly deeper to avoid counters, or do we just play the way we have been all season and try and drop them in the second half after going a goal down? I’d imagine there will be a tactical consideration here, because it does feel like we’re very exposed.
There are some rumours that are being fueled by Auba’s Instagram that suggest we could counter the age issue at the back by fielding Zech Medley. The U23 defender came into the side midweek and impressed in the second half. It’s risky, but these young players need game time if they’re to progress, and there’s no better way to know if a player can handle the pressure other than utilising them in an emergency.
Mesut Ozil will be back in contention for the game after a being out for a few weeks with back spasms, so we’ll see if the coach fancies him in the first team so soon… I’d imagine he’ll be benched and eased back into the first team. Aaron Ramsey is available again, which is great news. I do wonder if he’ll continue to be benched. We all want him to play, but it doesn’t make sense to get the fans used to his presence if we’re going to try and bin him in 3 weeks time.
There’s also the big NLD game that’ll be on the players minds. Spurs in the league cup on Wednesday is technically not as important as Southampton, but it’s huge one for the fans. How hard is Emery planning on going for that game? Is his priority #top4… or a trophy at any cost? So many decisions to be made!
Finally, just a few other items I wanted to check off.
People bringing Ashley Cole into the Sterling row are desperately revising history. He was an absolute darling of Arsenal football club until he betrayed Arsene Wenger in a shady backroom deal with Mourinho which he claimed was accidental. His book quotes were an abomination and a total embarrassment even for a mollycoddled footballer. Factor in the countless PR gaffs he brought on himself… like cheating on his wife with a hairdresser.
“We started having sex then he just rolled over and vomited on the floor all over the cream carpet, it was disgusting.”
“He had some mouthwash then jumped back into bed. We started having sex again but his mates piled into the room.”
For most men, that’s game over, so I have to give him credit for plowing on and being a solutions-oriented kind of guy… however, when you’re married to the most famous woman in Britain, you really can’t complain about bad press, especially when you sell your wedding to gossip magazines for a £1m.
Oh, he also shot an intern with an air rifle from 5 feet.
ALSO: Pavon and De Ligt being linked to Arsenal. Unrealistic, but damn exciting regardless!
Right, enjoy the game, I’ll see you in the comments.
P.S. I ran into an original Le Grove commenter in a New York laundry yesterday. The world is a small place when you’re a gooner!
Bamford
Being “dishonest and silly” is pretending that the Auba miss is 100% a good defensive tackle.
You intentionally prefer to see it from one angle because it suits your agenda.
Look at Auba’s reaction after the miss – he was embarrassed as he picked himself up. He knows it was a missed opportunity but you only saw the defensive tackle didn’t you?
The club doesn’t owe Ramsey a thing. They’ve been paying him all these years
Even if you selectively forget all the poor performances and lack of discipline that cane with his good games and goals – it wasn’t charity. He’s an employee who has been paid handsomely. We don’t owe him a thing
Koscielny again a complete clown in the air.
Fucking pathetic
Useroz
We’re playing 3-4-3.
WE
CANNOT
DEFEND
Our defensive discipline is terrible no one closing the ball down midfield is having a shocker.
FFS !
gambon, I’d fashion Man U has a better 25…goal, shit….anyway gambon where’s United again?
Our defence is woeful. Utterly garbage.
Koscielny… still shit
This season is a write off.
I’m done with it.
Back next season I guess.
WTF was that?
Twice Kos done for goals.
Looks like he’s done
What the actual fuck Koscielny
How did Iwobi let Ings score sop easily
Oh Iwobi
Oh Iwobi
Why can’t you defend that corner?
Why can’t Iwobi cross like that?
We’re not winning this game
Looks like our defensive frailties are telling
Man kos has been culpable for both goals in the same way
I love him and he’s rusty and all but he losing every cross to his man
Only one player to mark for that cross just unbelievable
Silly goals, game after game.
It’s like I said Koscielny is rough as fuck, what the hell is he doing starting this match?
Kos again. V poor positioning.
Lic not challenging enough.
Too fucking easy
We made So’ton a CL team.
Stench of Wenger creeping in.
Too much crap and crab football
Most overrated defender of all time.
Weak as shit.
The attacking midfield is non existent again. Emery needs to grab fucking hold on someone at the club and get them to sign some good attacking midfielders.
Torreira as a CDM should not be our best and most dangerous player on the ball. The act that he is in most every game is just ridiculous.
Lichsteiner is hurting us big time as well, his distribution is shockingly bad.
Switch to a back 4 and push Xhaka into the midfield.
Playing at the back said it before the game fuckwits.
Not buying in january ??
Yeah right… (lol)
Playing from the back when we can’t defend too.
Great another defender injured. Koscielny is so finished and the clubs inability to see that from the moment he went down last year is unfortunate
You need your achilles tendon for a good vertical leap.
Southampton have done their homework well.
Emery has a shit sandwich to deal with.
Dissenter
No, you’re being dishonest. The defender made a brilliant sliding tackle from behind and Aubameyang never touched the ball.
If anyone thinks that Koscielny, Monreal and Mavropanos returning from injury is going to sort out the defence think again. Signings and only signings will improve that mess
Dissenter no need for sarcasm because iwobi hasn’t been good at all either.
I know you’re making a point about him being a scapegoat but you might want to save it for when he isn’t playing crap
And I say this as someone who doesn’t hate iwobi at all
Kos has been running since August and taking part in light training since then and this is his showing today.
Well, we have our work cut out for us in the second. Will be interesting to see what Emery does.
“You need your achilles tendon for a good vertical leap”
He’s been awful in the air the moment he arrived back in 09.
We are missing tremendous aerial ability of Sokratis today. Koss has always been susceptible to aerial crosses.
Emery has to switch to a back 4 coz dis formation is not working
This really is pointless if every time Southampton hoof it to the ST Kozz just falls asleep and lets him get the leap on him.
Means we can concede at anytime.
Fuck me this club is going to be busy shoveling out the shit over the next few transfer windows.
Laca on at halftime anyway
Kos has been done as a top rated defender for a long time Ozil and Laca in the second half wil do the business and i bet you Unai knows.
Always going to be tough with all those defensive players out today
Overall no power or dynamism at all.
Guendouzi sleep-walking again and Aubameyang and Mikhi continue to be infuriating in terms of decision-making.
It’s not just Lacazette we need its someone who can actually control play in the attacking midfield. We have no one who can do that!
Unless its a quick little one touch pass or running onto a through ball our attacking midfield is pretty useless.
This first half nonsense has to stop.
Not a surprising score line bearing in mind tiredness, injuries and squad depth but there’s a long way to go in this game.
Ramsay and laca on second half.
We have a wengerised defence out there today, what do you expect
koscienly has been so poor I mean so poor susceptible for both goals
Kos has been done as a top rated defender for a long time
It’s true. He’s been shit for a solid 2/3 years at least. Monreal was our best defender and that’s not saying much
That second goal before half time is a sucker punch. Ings gixking worldclass all of a sudden.
My problem with us buying in January is the conversation appears to be about stop gap experiences options. I don’t see the point in that kind of signing at this point in time. We need a world class beast at CB for years to come and a stop gap option won’t change that tho it will eat into whatever our transfer funds are for one at a later date I’m not saying we need to spend as much as Liverpool but VVD is looking like a fantastic monetary investment right now and the goals conceded stat is there for all… Read more »
China
I agree that Iwobi has been in shocking form
I was trying to make a simple point that the abuse was over board. Someone jumped on him for not dribbling past three players that boxed him in the 3rd minute and proceeded to conclude that he was shit.
Iwobi shouldn’t even be starting based on form.
Ramsey should be starting.
We will hit 3 or 4 in the second half problem is the defense could easily let in the same.
Iwobi and Mhki are absolute jokers. We see this game after game after game.
Please, please, please can we play Ozil and Ramsey. Whatever the issues, these two are 4 times better. Atleast.
We are not going to make top 4 with players like this.
There’s no point waiting until the summer for purchases.
Let’s see if Ozil really fancies getting stuck in. He’ll get kicked off the park such is this Southampton team and poor ref.
Rusty or not, Kos looks to have lost more than fitness from his injury.
We’ll do well to win this but I thought we’d more likely get a draw before the game
Bellerin is injured…..one sub
Iwob / Mikki…. one sub. (ideally both but Bellerin is off)
We need our attacking play sorted asap. Formation ought to change.
Laca needs to come on. Who else?
AMN?
Both goals conceded with only 1 So’ton player in the box and 3 of ours. WTF is going on?
that defence was gon to concede….. I think we need a goal out of nothing player someone that makes magic happen nobody like that in this team
I’m not saying Koscielny or Lichtsteiner are free from blame on their second, but Redmond had way too much time and space to pick a pass from just outside the 18.
It’s becoming more and more clear the club needs to do some serious buying and selling in January.
It’s not a matter of ‘if they can’ they have to.
Difficult choices need to be made and we need to bet on our future.
We lack pace, work rate and technical ability in this squad.
No way we can go to a back 4 with Xhaka as CB. If we do we’ll end up conceding 5.
Imagine when Austin comes on. aerial galore.
This season was always a given struggle
There was too much mess to clear out and I’m not sure that we pursued defensive options as aggressively as we should have done.
Our defensive is aging, too many oldies around.
My problem with us buying in January is the conversation appears to be about stop gap experiences options.
Lichtsteiner and Sokratis were stop gap but I agree we need proper investment finally at CB and stop fucking around with what is the most important area on the pitch
only one player in the box and we could not defend one man in the box… we have to sort this defense out and I dont see us winning this after that second goal conceded
Koscielny is done at this level and needs to be replaced pronto. Ideally sell him in January and replace with another squad defender.
but Redmond had way too much time and space to pick a pass from just outside the 18.
Bamford that’s been the theme the whole first half. Guendouzi is not picking up the runner behind.
Licht is sub-standard too, people gloss over his ineptitude with garbage talk about his leadership and aggression.
Kos is not ready. The first goal, he should head the ball. Instead he tried to kick it. The second goal, he mis-timed his jump.
Auba missed already two chances. When the ball is passed to him by Torreira, he just waited for the ball to come. If he moved one step towards the ball, the defender needed to fault him to get to the ball.
We’re not going to get the investment spoken about in January. You may see a cb arrive but thats that.
I would leave Mykhi on and just have Lacazette replace Iwobi.
We are the kings of the second half.
This game was always going to be a difficult.
Cesc
We need a CB, a CM to play alongside Torreira and who can create a bit more / add a bit of penetration and a wide player.
Can’t see us bringing in 3 in Jan though.
In the past I’d think this game is a certain fuck up and it might yet happen but this is the new arsenal so we might yet win this Just watched replays of that first goal and whilst kos was certainly at fault, so was xhaka Kos was covering the front post (not very well) because when he looked over his shoulder 2 seconds earlier, ings was right next to xhaka. Kos runs to the near post and fucks up, but xhaka who could see ings drop him and break in between them didn’t even bother to chase him, leaving… Read more »
TR7
His passing today has been woeful, really has put us on the back foot too often.
Either too heavy or too light and often targeting players surrounded by Southampton players.
I would say he’s been the only poor signing the new lot have made, at least he cost nothing.
we need creativity to get the ball to aubameyang…… I will have prefer ozil to iwobi and I am nigerian intelligence over that fucking hardwork we all talking about
Dissenter
Would def bring on Laca. IS it confirmed that Bellerin is coming off?
So do we want Torreira to miss Burnley or Brighton?
“Licht is sub-standard too, people gloss over his ineptitude with garbage talk about his leadership and aggression.”
This. And his positioning when he’s been deployed as a CB is totally amateur. Mustafi was physically pushing into position the last time they were 2 of a back 3.
Marc
The club have to decide what they’re doing, because Emery as Neville said is getting everything out of this lot.
The defensive players are substandard aside from Sokratis and Bellerin, there is not a CAM fit for purpose and there are no wingers.
Need four at the back and an extra man in midfield.
People hating on Iwobi forget he’s on far better form than Mikki. Mikki just happened to benefit from a bit of quality from Monreal ( and Iwobi) down the left hand side.
Aubameyang hasn’t been any good, as is Guendouzi who seems to have no power holding the ball. The whole team isn’t up to it right now. But to be beaten in the air 2ce is telling on Kos and Lichtsteiner
The 6’5″ Medley might have been a better selection today, even if he is young. He has looked quite good when he has played, and our older guys are looking their age.
As I said before I didn’t have a good feeling about this game. Its tough for us at St Marys and our defence is utter trash let alone having one out of sorts/past it cb available.
D best way to defend is to keep attacking Bt we lack d attackers for dat, iwobi is a one trick pony, aubameyang cnt dribble to save a life
The supporter groups need to make public demands from the club until they refute these rumors of a restricted transfer budget.
We need some serious money to rebuilt the defense
‘It’s becoming more and more clear the club needs to do some serious buying and selling in January.’
To be fair Cesc it’s been clear for a couple of months. Back then you could see Emery had got the most out of those who could change/up their game.
Holes need to be filled all over the pitch, so need to start buying now with a CB, Winger and CAM.
that first chance aubameyang miss could happen you dont expect the striker to have 100 percent strike rate but there is no creativity in our team and mhki is no ten forget that goal he scored
Very difficult to play decent football at any level when you have a referee who is ignoring blatant fouls by the opposition……the referee is not up to the task .
At one point in the half there were 3 late tackles within 30 seconds and he chose to ignore them all.
Will guarantee you that one foul by an Arsenal player will be followed with a card.
Speechless again. The virus of the later Wenger years is still dormant. Soton are a poor team, and we just cannot afford to keep losing to sides like this.
Even a draw would be a very poor result.
It would help Joe to keep chanting “23 games unbeaten though”
Laca is a hard requirement at half time
Dunno the Bellerin situation, but if he is ok then a second half time sub for either iwobi or mikki works for me.
A draw is a very poor result.
This has to be 3 points.
This is a must win, but I don’t see it happening with our defensive options at the moment. Aubameyang has to take his limited chances. He runs away from the ball, Laca needed
Soton have been poor all season, a draw is a poor result we need all the points.
But it’s going to be hard if every time Southampton hoof it into our box Kozz decides to deliver Ings a header chance on a plate.
So close
This is the last moment to sell Koscielny anyway, given how his contract has 18 months left to run.
Aubameyang with another tame miss
Bellerin down. Now Monreal?
Lol.
Can’t imagine what our defense will look like at Anfield.
Be nice if Auba showed some aggression every now and then.