Premier League debut mooted as defensive worries mount

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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!

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Samesong

Guendouzi shouldn’t be starting.

jasongms

how is the jury out on Emery? This is Wengers squad, Emery has been doing an outstanding job considering the shit show he inherited..

DaleDaGooner

@gambon, why don’t you just support another team ??

Been asking him this for years now

Dream10

Guendouzi needs a spell out of the limelight. Kid has been struggling since September. Let him play the league cup match vs the Spuds and give him time off till New Year’s Day vs Fulham. He’ll experience burnout. Throw Xhaka, Torreira and Elneny to the wolves for three matches and let him put his feet up

Leedsgunner

Our mentality is not good enough. We needed to punish Soton when we had them on the ropes… rather than giving the ball away. Sloppy.

useroz

One last long ball

R.S.P.C.Arsenal

R R

Yer right
If he would have stayed on line an tried to stop header then he would have been criticised …
Montreal
Kos
Lich

Please no more game time.

Throw the youth in an see what we get…

gonsterous

gambon

you are the most reactionary fan ever. your in game comments are always so laughable. Should be taken with a pinch of salt cause you watch the games already hating all our players.

HighburyLegend

“Pierre to come on and tell us Wenger would’ve done better.”

A little bit of patience, please.

DaleDaGooner

Well that was good while it lasted

Marko

Koscielny has come in and personally ended our unbeaten run.

Obviously so. At fault for the first two and wasn’t getting to the third. Shocking defender.

Guns of Hackney

Classic. Someone critiques the team (justly) and gets told to go an support another team. Idiots.

Gambon is actually right. This has been poor all season…we have been very, very lucky and it ran out today.

Leftsidesanch

Kneejerk reactions here as usual but we have been poor today. Football is not a 2nd half game.

Samesong

Vex

Cesc Appeal

Emery usually gets it spot on with his changes but I too can’t understand why he brought Ozil on instead of Ramsey in this game.

Ozil has to be out the door now, absolute nothing player.

We must try to get both Ramsey and Ozil sold in January.

Ozil actually stopped our entire momentum today and I know people will say ‘you always go on about him’ but this is exactly why. Nothing player.

Guns of Hackney

Kos was NEVER a good defender. Ever! At 33 and with a busted ankle…forget it.

raptora

Loss mainly on our makeshift defence.

But we could have still made up for it if Emery had relied on his principles and not bent in to Ozil.

DaleDaGooner

We can talk about Iwobi, Mkhitaryan, Leno, Kos etc. but Aubameyang was useless in this game

Arsmith

Now they will stop dreaming.

bennydevito

That last goal wasn’t Koschellny’s fault is was ANM – he did his best Song and Denilson impression and didn’t bother running back and then Leno comes out waving at his mother when he should have stayed on his line.

Dissenter

Open slate for lots of legitimate criticisms
We can have a proper conversation about ALL the poor performances rather than the lazy and mundane “Iwobi is shit” comments.

MuddyGooner

Emery needs a window or two to sort this out.
I’m definitely behind him

gambon

Southampton had scored 6 goals all season.

50% of that in one game against Charity FC.

If Emery doesn’t make significant changes in the next 2 windows, the fans will turn on him.

Emery won’t get a long honeymoon period due to the utter shit we’ve put up with in recent seasons.

Danish Gooner

Gambon and Guns of Hackney what a pair of plastics.

Leedsgunner

Playing a team with their back against the wall was never going to be easy… but honestly with the chances we had we should’ve won this.

Oh well, pick ourselves up and start again.

Georgio

Ozil should get off. Kos was shameful. No directness to our play.

Kos cost us the game single handedly. Leno had some part to it.

Cesc Appeal

Yeah you could say that Ramsey, Ozil, Kozz and Elneny all need to be shown the door in January to bring in money and free up wages for recruits.

That was painful viewing and had a feel of inevitability about it given the volume of headed chances.

All of our attacking midfield players either want to dummy, one touch or run onto balls. Not a controlling influence among them.

Ramsey, Ozil, Mkhitaryan, Iwobi none of them are good enough.

Marko

The club needs to be rid of Koscielny and Mustafi and bring in two CB’S.

Wins for Spurs and Chelsea mean it’s a bad weekend for us.

Marc

KOs has been out for months with a really serious injury, has hardly kicked a ball during his recovery, has been chucked into the deep end and hasn’t even had another CB alongside him all day and people want to slag him off. Did anyone really think he was going to come in and boss the game?

Fuck me I’m so glad the majority on here never get within miles of going to a match. They aren’t any real type of supporter, they’d be better off playing CL manager or FIFA.

Paulinho

As I’ve said several times, Guendouzi has been pony for a while.

The mooted midfield of Guendouzi, Xhaka, Torriera is vomit-inducing.

Leftsidesanch

Gambons just reactionary/emotional but hes a fan. GOH is a more bearable version of Pierre and Vic

Rambo Ramsey

I just saw Koscielny continously look back at Austin and then move the opposite way for the third goal.

Just shameful.

gonsterous

haven’t watched the game but bloody hell, you know the defence was shit when danny ings gets a hat trick.

Dissenter

Cesc,
“Emery usually gets it spot on with his changes but I too can’t understand why he brought Ozil on instead of Ramsey in this game.”

He might have thought that Ozil will want to make a point with a good performance. Instead Ozil played like a player who’s on the way out.

raptora

Ramsey has been very good to excellent in most sub apps he played this season. We needed fighters. He’s shown that he’s committed and willing to fight for the cause. Instead Emery puts his trust on Ozil who gave him the same old that’s he’s always gave. A fat lazy cunt.

DaleDaGooner

Well said Marc. You have a good point

HighburyLegend

“If Emery doesn’t make significant changes in the next 2 windows, the fans will turn on him.”

Just like you already did ??

Cesc Appeal

I agree with that.

If Emery is not ruthless in the transfer window and the usual shit stains are still hanging around the fans will quickly turn.

You can see his idea, but he needs the players.

Fine there is strong mitigation that Sokratis, Mustafi, Holding and Kolasinac were out today, but the way we defended was just unforgivable. Kozz, Lichtsteiner and Monreal as veterans were just trash.

Rambo Ramsey

Marc,

Shut the fvck up, you high and mighty twat.

Guns of SF

Woke up here in cali, around the 60 min. Watched the shit show.
I wonder why this line up?!
Ozil dispossesed so easily- whining- etc being Ozil

Laca needed to shoot instead of dilly dally in the box.
Auba cannot take on defenders without a running head start.

Sad game today

DaleDaGooner

What is Ramsey wasn’t fully fit??? I believe they evalaute who’s the fitter, no?

azed

Leno and Koscielny were at fault for the 3rd goal.

Danish Gooner

Kos an Ozil a pair of left over sandwiches noone wants to eat.Wenger used to ravage about the football intellignce of Ozil ,my God 5 years in and i still cant see it .

HighburyLegend

“GOH is a more bearable version of Pierre and Vic”

Lol so true.

Leftsidesanch

Iwobi hasn’t played well for a minute now, but he wasn’t the reason we’ve come away empty handed today.

Dissenter

gambon is reacting emotionally to the performance he just witnessed…like he should. We were really poor today.

Marc

“If Emery doesn’t make significant changes in the next 2 windows, the fans will turn on him.”

I’m not sure how much we can do in Jan but if there aren’t significant changes over the summer (I believe there will be) the attendances will start to drop around September.

R.S.P.C.Arsenal

Oh dear
We ain’t as far forward as we thought we were

Fuck Kos off 4 good useless twat

Marko

Emery won’t get a long honeymoon period due to the utter shit we’ve put up with in recent seasons.

Very true.

Marc I get what you’re saying but he was shocking today and has actually been poor for the last couple years so nothing new not at all knee jerk when it comes to Koscielny. In fact had he not got a significant at the tail end of last season he might have been sold. Lad is a total liability. Enough with sentiment bin him

Bamford10

In a way, Wednesday night’s match just doubled in importance. Two separate competitions, yes, but there will now be questions about Arsenal, about the run, about our depth, about our character, about our chances of top four. We will be facing Spurs, who will be looking to avenge their NLD loss and who are definitely looking to win a trophy. People will be watching and asking: where is Arsenal really, at the moment? I also think today’s match says Ozil should not be in the XI on Wednesday and that Mkhitaryan should be. Ramsey should play on Wednesday night as… Read more »

Guns of Hackney

I am Pierre and Vic.

Multiple accounts.

Paulinho

“I just saw Koscielny continously look back at Austin and then move the opposite way for the third goal.”

Not only has he always been a complete clown of a defender, his comments about the French federation, and coaching staff not ‘forgetting’ him after his injury was embarrassing.

A toxic flimsy remnant of the Wenger era that needs to be shot of immediately.

DaleDaGooner

Guendouzi getting too many games. He wasn’t effective again today, not defensively and definitely not attacking

Guns of SF

was Kos at fault for all the goals? I just saw the game winner- AMN also probably should have covered –
AMN looked somewhat disinterested or maybe confused
bad body language with his friend Ozil

Dream10

Cesc

Have to slow up the rate you expect the change in personnel. Emery signed up for the job because I’m sure he told Gazidis and the Kroenkes he could work within a budget. Don’t blame him for 6m a year. I would too. Not a fan of his, but he’s unlikely to get big money. Another 50-80m next summer.

Marc

Ramsey

Fuck off yourself. What a cuntish comment to suggest Kos deliberately fucked up for Wenger.

Plastic fucking cunt.

Guns of SF

Guen keep shooting right into their players.
Trying to ram the ball into someone…
In some ways- this loss might be a needed wake up call before things get really intense

PieAFC

After all of Unai’s improvising with this team working for so long, today got found out.

We don’t have the players to play his way for 90mins.

We seriously need to buy, some serious squad issues now. Defensively we were shocking.

Only a matter of time before a game would rock us. We can’t keep trying to cruise a game in the first half. It’s shocking.

As some have said, he needs to be ruthless and rid some of these players sharpish.

Set the tone.

Guns of Hackney

Agreed. Kos was a bang average defender then, now, pathetic.

I bet cech is back for weds. Lolz.

Hopeless.

Leftsidesanch

Fair play to S’ton. Absolute garbage all season but did their homework and got their reward today.

Our defensive options are decreasing each week and today was disastrous defending from the whole team.

Alexanderhenry

A poor, scrappy performance, but to be fair and accepting the limitations of the squad, fatigue, injuries and players coming back, not that surprising.
We’ve done a lot better this season than I thought – so far at least. You’ve got to give Emery credit for that.
This may be a tricky period for us coming up.

A couple of things are certain.
Firstly, Özil must go, even for nothing -we’d save £350k a week.
Secondly we need a more effective option out wide. Better than iwobi or Bellerin bombing forward.
We have good enough strikers to capitalise.

Cesc Appeal

Dissenter

I’m a big fan of Emery, I think that’s clear on here.

But he got it wrong today, I lauded his comments about that massive sopping pussy after Bournemouth and that for those exact reasons he shouldn’t have come on today. That was a battle and he introduced a mouse to it.

Surrendered possession near our box and looked at the referee, offered nothing going forward, handed them possession needlessly with a halfway line dummy and ten seconds later they scored.

I fucking detest him and his supporters in the same way I did Wenger.

Marko

Also playing an utter defensive liability in Xhaka at CB is by all accounts shocking. It truly shows you how bad Koscielny was today that he was worse than Xhaka

Guns of Hackney

Hessuntal for emery.

Wengemery. I’m bringing it back.

Kayciey

A Southamton team that hasn’t beaten anyone at home beats Arsenal fair and square. Kosielny returned with his usual errors, Mkhitaryan, Iwobi, Lischteiner, AMN offered absolutely nothing. I would rather have Ramsey than Mkhitaryan any day. Emery too is overrated by some Arsenal fans.

raptora

Lacazette comes in as a sub – a bundle of energy.
Iwobi as a sub – a bundle of energy.
Ramsey as a sub – a bundle of energy.

Ozil as a sub – barely moving clown…

Georgio

Iwobi at least gave us some directness to our play while he played.

Guendouzi was actually one of our lively performers..you just see his intelligence with his passes.

Auba was just annoying. He is actually slower than people think and can’t take on a player when he isn’t running. Very Poor game today!

DaleDaGooner

few things.
1. Guys like gambon are cuntish when it comes to hindsight
2. We played with a rag tag defensive unit today
3. We were never expected to win the league so what’s the problem?
4. Chelsea and Spurs will loose similar games, they already have.

Perspective people. It was a horrible shit show, but Soton took on Yoonited and draw and they were pretty shit back then.

Redtruth

Southampton haven’t scored a headed goal all season and now they have THREE in one game! lol

Guns of Hackney

I love it when you find a peanut in a deep pile rug. Just found one. Satisfying.

Bamford10

Marc, Ramsey

Relax, gents. People are just frustrated. It happens.

Pierre

I Wouldn’t blame Kosielny…he shouldn’t have been on the pitch .. I made the comment on here a couple of times in the last 24 hours that we would struggle in the air …conceding 3 headed goals says it all. People will point the finger of blame but I think events conspired against us ,in that injuries and suspensions to our 4 central defenders before the game plus further injuries to bellerin and lichsteiner made it a difficult game. The final goal was proof that Kosielny and Monreal were unfit as they were treading water at the end …their legs… Read more »

DaleDaGooner

Iwobi was waaaaaaay better than Ozil, all agreed? LOL

Leftsidesanch

Our first half performances are woeful, leaves us with too much to do. Emery brought in Ozil maybe expecting a reaction, but Ozil is the definition of a weasal.

The year he has had, and still no desire/fire in his belly to prove critics wrong. He’s food waste to me. Thats where Emery has got it wrong today.

Guns of Hackney

Iwozil

BacaryisGod

What a pathetic bunch of whiners so many of you are. Do you think Koscielny was ready to come back? Idiots. He was out with a near career-ending injury for 6 months and this was his 2nd game in 4 days. This was a forced decision so get back in your cots and shut up. As for Leno, so he misjudged a cross. He’s been fantastic most of the season and made an absolutely world-class save from a corner earlier in the 2nd half. So much better than Allison’s overrated stop this week. Sorry, but the moaning because we lose… Read more »

Guns of Hackney

Mesobi

Cesc Appeal

I really hope that is the straw for Emery with Ozil.

The commentators made a big deal about this being the test of Ozil and he failed it, massively.

That sale needs to spark a couple of attacking midfield signings because we are struggling there, no control, lack of creation, lack of taking defences on and it just heaps pressure onto Torreira to basically carry this team in possession.

Redtruth

Never mind not being on the pitch, Koscielny shouldn’t be at the club !!

Guns of Hackney

Emozil

Mesery

Batistuta

Best to stay far away from this place. Such a horrible place to be at when we lose

Receding Hairline

Lol the state of this place

One poor performance with three defenders who shouldn’t be playing and all the hard work put in this season is called into question by the super fans

Now the unbeaten rubbish is out the way let’s focus on going on a winning run. Sokratis and Mustafi in defence we don’t lose this. Cos they dont get their positioning all wrong in crosses. Kos has been doing this since he arrived here. We move on.

Alexanderhenry

Paulinho

Kos played badly today but he’s been out for a year.

Also he has most certainly not :

‘always been a complete clown of a defender’.. As you put it.

TT

The Wenger area finally cougt up with us. To many average players and to many skeletons in the closet.

We have had a fantastic run for the last few months down yo an excellent manager and back room staff.

Need a couple of years rebuilding period but I’m optimistic for the future to be honest. We will get there sooner that many think.

Major_Jeneral

Arsenal were simply not at the races today. The makeshift defence with Koscielny and Xhaka in it, simply lacked coordination, tenacity and alertness to deal with threats.
Ozil cannot be a long term player for Emery’s team.
Overall, the players looked lethargic and lost possession easily.

This defeat is a wake up call to everybody that a lot still needs to be done. First of all we need to stop conceding a lot of goals momentarily before the transfer window.

It is just not acceptable anymore.

Marko

I bet cech is back for weds. Lolz.

Wow do you have a crystal ball or something… you clairvoyant bro. Got the Lotto numbers while I have you

Jamie

Ozil on his way home daydreaming about his video game session tonight.

Dream10

Pierre

You were spot on with your comment on us struggling in the air. Paulinho was pinpoint on Koscielny as well. Even when he was 100%, he was weak in the air.

Alexanderhenry

Bacaryisgod

Well said.

TT

down to*

raptora

Would have rather kept Iwobi than this useless cunt of a twitter star. Fk me, did Wenger and Gazidis gave us a big fkin middle finger as their last goodbye with the Ozil renewal. I can safely say that this has been the worst player deal we’ve ever made. What a joke…

Leftsidesanch

BS, Kos was piping up saying hes more or less taken part in all the training sessions and has been running since August. He was at fault for their first two goals.

Paulinho

We’re just finishing top four so we may as well ship out as many as we can now and try to accelerate the building process. Soo……

Ozil
Ramsey
Maitland-Niles
Koscielny

Try and get as much as possible for them in Jan and bring in two or three.

In the summer:

Xhaka
Mikhitaryian
Lichsteiner

Bring in another two or three.

Rainman

Emery too is overrated by some Arsenal fans.

For fucks sake this isn’t on Emery. This is not his team, he is still making do with what was left behind for him. At least 3 TFs before we can start saying shit about Emery.

Cesc Appeal

Mislintat and Sanllehi have got a job on

Pierre

Mhkitaryan was our best player by far today followed by Guendouzi, xhaka did well…Torriera very quiet ..
Aubamayang ,great movement off the ball ,with a bit of luck could have scored a couple…

Rambo Ramsey

Marc,

Plastic is what you should gag your mouth with, you nincompoop.

bennydevito

Ainsley Maitland Niles was at fault for the 3rd goal he let Austin have a free run at that header, never Kozzer’s fault although Koz was poor all game but obviously very rusty. But how is the jury out on Emery? He’s done a great job so far although very questionable subs today. Ozil needs to go, we need to relegate Iwobi to a squad player and Aubameyang needs to seriously raise his game. Mikhitaryan scored 2 goals today why does he need to go? We need 2 new cbs, 2 wingers and a new attacking central midfielder. Going to… Read more »

Batistuta

Over the top, reactionary comments and someone even saying he ain’t watching again till next season. Some of you are so utterly predictable

Marko

Lacazette comes in as a sub – a bundle of energy.
Iwobi as a sub – a bundle of energy.
Ramsey as a sub – a bundle of energy.Ozil as a sub – barely moving clown…

Sounds about right

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