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!
Great run from Auba. Ozil almost had that pass, Leeds.
We’re so poor on the counter this afternoon
I would honestly forego any thoughts on signing wingers or attacking midfielders until we sort out the CB issue. It’s quite incredible the amount of work that still needs to be done there
Ozil just does not want to be here.
If Auba keeps missing big chances it’s a problem cos he couldn’t dribble, pass or do link up. Doesn’t do headers either.
Such a shocking performance this, from Arsenal.
Must be Emery’s worst one yet.
Give Mesut the ball
Auba has to earn his coin here
Ozil utter disgrace so far. Jesus fk!
I love Emery’s positivity. He’s going for it.
Good attempt at a through ball by Mesut.
Fantastic save by both GKs I. The second half.
Big call from Sian Massey to wave off Shane Long’s goal.
Can see us conceding in the last 10
Southampton are 19th.
If Wenger was presiding over this…everyone would be losing their minds.
This is poor.
Slow reaction to the ball, very slow
Ozil is a complete pussy
GOH,
Lots of posters have said a draw isnt good enough here.
Our back four have been awful on the ball.
So much scope to bring the ball out from the back and they just pass it from a standing start.
When Torreira is writhing on the g=round and we play on…we are suggesting that he is feigning an injury, are we not?
FFS it’s not happening for Auba today.
Might need a day off during the midweek
We cannot draw this one with those around mostly /all won.
10 more min
Auba is not world class.
A bit like a worse Andy Cole or a slightly better Heskey.
Good run from Auba there. Good crossing pass. If Ozil had a bit more pace, that would’ve been a better counter.
Aubameyang channelling his inner Giroud… honestly.
Another Xhaka classic. His distribution has been shocking.
Aubas been making good runs this half but needs better service
Big Henry Mkhitaryan our man of the match. Very good shift and responsible for two goals.
Almost shoot on sight moments.
Also. This is another two goals conceded.
We’re in our territory now. 10 mins to get a winner.
With 5 more games to go in the next 15 days, this is going to be carnage.
We should have someone already bought and training with the squad to be announced the moment TW opens.
Guendouzi should have made that pass. Poor from the youngster
Said it would be tough …
These Arsenal players look happy just to keep the unbeaten run going.
Where’s the will to win?
oooh ffs!
Ozil the dipshit with a stepover wat a piece of shit!
Ha ha look at that cunt Koscielny.
WTF?
FKKKK OZIIIILLL FKIN CUNT PIECE OF TRASH
Muppets.
Fuck off. Just fuck off.
Leno at fault there.
Just as I said, those two turn it on against Arsenal
I think that’s a mistake from Leno. It was a good ball, but you only come out for it if you’re going to get it.
Horrible defending and poor goalkeeping
Poor poor poor decision making from Leno.
It’s all or nothing moments.
Fuck off Leno.
Weak and shit
AMN didn’t track back either.
Kos also involved.
Unbelievable. I can’t even blame Leno for going for it because Koscielny clearly wasn’t getting to yet another cross
Emery to blame for using this fanny instead of Ramsey. What a fkin clown Ozil.
Fucken disgusting…
Ozil needlessly gives the ball away.
Another fucking header.
Horror day, just get back to London and hope we never find ourselves in this defensive situation again.
I said we wouldn’t make top 4. People keep deriding spurs but they keep winning.
No way we make top 4.
Well the true ambition of the club will be shown in Jan now. We have a couple of areas that desperately need strengthening.
Charlie Austin always scores against us. We’re terrible . Leno was poor there. All 3 goals where headed
Ozils fault
Whoops a daisy.
£20m keeper or a £70m one.
Mmmnnn. You get what you pay for and Leno is a third tier keeper.
Terrible defending and terrible goalkeeeping.
Koscielny needs to be taken out and shot.
You can’t make top 4 with the amount of mistakes we make and goals we give away. You can’t.
Captain fantastic Koscielny comes in after months to end Arsenal’s unbeaten run.
Maybe do his old mentor a favor.
Cvnt
Leno is going to earn himself the nick name Dracula.
Just lose this and end the stupid unbeaten talk.
Force the brain-dead panellists to talk about something else.
Not Leno fault. Either way he is 1v1 vs Austin from 3 metres at best.
Ramsey
Stupid fucking comment.
Shocking
The unbeaten run was j=kind of dubious to be honest
Had we escaped with a draw today would the unbeaten run still have relevance?
We push on
WE NEED TO SPEND MONEY.
My bad. 2nd half donkeys too it seems. Our worst performance of the season by some distance.
Very poor goalkeeping
I mean yeah Leno was poor.
But fuck me they have rained down on the goal all day and but for a wonder stop we’d already be behind.
Shambolic defending of headers today.
Said at half time if Southampton can tuck lazy headers away then we might as well pack it in now.
Exactly what happened.
This has been coming for…22 games actually. We’ve been poor all season to be honest and this is the culmination of our good luck coming to an end.
I don’t care how good emery is, but this is going to cost hundreds of millions to put right.
Bad day.
This is already game over. We’ll end up with 4-5 minutes of added on time filled with free kicks.
Our defence has been terrible for all 3 goals and Aubameyang again doing his best impression of Andy Cole the serial sitter misser. Iwobi again terrible final balls.
Unbelievably poor..
all those blaming Emery can fuck right off, this has wengers dna all over it
Wot a shit show
Hindsight is good. Played Zed couldn’t have been worse tbh.
The Auba misses have come to haunt us.
Ozil is a waste of space and substitution. Kos has had one of his most woeful performance for Arsenal.
Everyone wants to talk about Iwobi And Mhki but just what is Aubameyang’s game When there aren’t any tap ins or ball to chase?
Hackney
Hundreds of millions? Maybe just some intelligent scouting.
Southampton defenders who are sitting second bottom can deal with crosses better than our lot
Stopped watching at HT and I won’t be watching us again until next season.
Just seen on BBC what’s happened.
Said all along we are nowhere near as good as the top 4
We got incredibly lucky earlier in the season.
Jury definitely out on Emery. Definitely
Palace hadn’t got a point at home until we rocked up.
Soton hadn’t won at home until we rocked up.
We’ve been charity FC for years. Nothing changes.
Southampton go back to utter shit next game.
Just need to pray Emery can find a way to force fraud Ozil out ASAP.
Funny how when a few weeks go by without him playing the muppets come out and start jizzing over the chance created stats.
Leno with an awful awful error. Bundesliga watchers said that he was susceptible in coming off his line. This is potentially a backbreaking loss for us.
all those blaming Emery can fuck right off, this has wengers dna all over it
Lmao. Come on man
What on earth was Ozil thinking though? A dummy when he had Southampton players behind him and a weak defence for Arsenal, you’re practically spreading your arse cheeks.
Nice repay of the show of faith from Emery.
When you put in perspective the amount of professionalism and help that Ramsey has shown to Emery thus far, regardless of his contract problems, he should have gotten the heads up instead of Ozil.
Fk me, Ramsey has changed several games this season. What has Ozil done?! A home game vs Leicester?! Super bad decision by the manager.
Lets not discredit our run so far.
Maybe this game is a reality check the team needed about going up in the first half rather than being 2nd half wonders.
Leno has obviously helped us in some ways and has made some great saves, but he’s made a number of mistakes as well, something that has sort of been brushed under the rug. That third goal was a clear error on his part.
I don’t blame Leno.
The only reason he tried so damn hard to get there was because he knew Koscielny would not.
Koscielny has come in and personally ended our unbeaten run.
I have no problems losing that “unbeaten” tag.
It was boring and people like Joe were using it inappropriately to bash legitimate criticisms.
Can we agree that Koschielny is finished at this level?
Lichsteiner too is finished.
Monreal has been too injury prone to even fracture much
Ozil doesn’t even scare anyone
Heads have dropped. No fight left
Tough away game is not what you pick Ozil for and Emery has given in. Sad for it but he’s turned his back to his principles. Deserved loss.
There really are some miserable cunts on here who seem to thrive off us doing badly. All we need now is Pierre to come on and tell us Wenger would’ve done better.
Mentioned earlier, we rock up to a sh*t team who havent won at home all season and you know we’ll gift them this..
Stopped watching at HT and I won’t be watching us again until next season.Jury definitely out on Emery. Definitely
A bit knee jerk no? I mean after the Spurs game he was the right man for the job now the jury is out? Probably a bit of both
@gambon, why don’t you just support another team ??
Koscielny has come in and personally ended our unbeaten run
Like how he lost it for us vs Atletico last season in the first game and Birmingham League Cup?
Ozil… can’t even fantom a thought about him.
He’s dead to me
Guendouzi is still only 19 and it shows.
C”mon. Poor ball.
Emery not at fault sort of.
Kos is. Leno some.
There’s definitely something about Hassenhutl
Spurs will fancy this.