Arsenal crashed at Southampton in what felt like a fairly predictable game and sadly, historically familiar.
The odds felt slightly stacked against us even before the game started. Two centre-backs suspended, Holding out longterm, our two returning defenders 32 and 33, and Lichtsteiner who is 34. Things were so rough, Emery once again elected to drop Xhaka into the back three.
We didn’t make it easy for ourselves, as has been the script all season. For the 17th time this season, we couldn’t manage to head into halftime with a lead. Our defending was awful, we conceded 7 shots on target, despite dominating 66% of the possession. The most damning stat? Southampton scored 20% of their goals against us yesterday. What a joke.
We went a goal down on 20minutes. Bellerin marshalled Targett out wide, the English left back whipped in a beautiful cross that evaded Koscielny at the front post, finding Ings who breezed past a dozing Xhaka. It really was an exceptional ball, but it was being defended by a player who hasn’t dropped a full 90 for 250 days, and a deep-lying midfielder who obviously isn’t going to be comfortable in a back 3.
We clawed our way back into the game, Iwobi used a burst of pace really well to release Monreal, the Spaniard found Mikhi in the box and his bullet header from 10 yards was enough to pull us level. We still managed to fuck things up, Redmond, who’d caused problems with his pace all game, evaded MG and Iwobi, floating a perfect cross between Lichtsteiner and Koscielny, finding Ings who lofted a perfect header under the bar.
The second half saw Lacazette emerge. We had a really good opening 15 minutes and drew level on 52 minutes. Lacazette rustled the ball as Southampton looked to break, he fed Mikhi who bundled home a dirty deflected shot.
I don’t want to scapegoat here, but I felt the air leaked out of our performance when Iwobi blazed over a backheel pass from Auba. It really was atrocious technique and the difference between Arsenal and the elite teams in the league. I really can’t fathom how anyone can defend that chance. When you’re an international footballer, you should at the very least be hitting the target.
Our final goal was also a calamity. Mesut Ozil lost the ball on the halfway line with a stupid stepover, the ball made it down our end, Austin is picked out at the back post, Leno came flapping and missed, the rest is history. Not good enough, and another silly error from our German import.
Thoughts:
This is what the first season under a new manager will look like, if we’re honest, we’ve had it very nice up until today and we should be grateful. It took Klopp 3 seasons to make things work for him. We cannot expect Emery, with limited summer investment and a dirty Arsene Wenger hangover, to perform miracles. Our squad is very slim and we were exposed today.
The club needs to continue to upgrade. We need better wide players, we need to move on names that either don’t want to be here or aren’t suited to the system, and we need to focus on bringing through quality.
Emery needs to take stock of a few things that he’s been getting away with… namely, our shocking first-half performances. It’s true that our resilience to bounce back has been a joy to watch, but 17 games without leading in the first half is a semi-crisis. It means the manager is making poor decisions. We need to be seeing better selections and we need to see players more focused from the off.
I joked yesterday that an Arsenal player could play keepy-uppy in his own box and roof it into the net on purpose and you’d still have a group of fans screaming ‘FOOTBALL IS A TEAM GAME THAT’S NOT HIS FAULT’… well, in most jobs, there’s an element of individual responsibility. Mesut Ozil needs to take some stick for giving the ball away then not going hard to retrieve it. The great thing is that sort of subpar attitude might rub with some of our fans, but it won’t with Emery. The club needs to move him on. It’s clear that he’s not right for how the team needs to play, and he’s also not right for the sort of structure we need to build wage wise. He needs to move on.
We also have to do something about Aaron Ramsey in January. We have a very good player who would have been more useful than Mesut, sitting on the bench today. If he’s going to be a nothing player, let’s sell him and bring in a talent that can give our midfield the extra ingredient it needs to create and press.
That said, it is worth remembering that we don’t have a coach that’s denying we’ve been less than optimal. He said in the pre-match prezzer that there is a lot that needs to be improved upon. That’s good news. We’re dealing with a coach that understands reality and pragmatism. Let’s hope Sven and Raul have something smart lined up in January… Pepe and Cahill both available as potential stop-gaps at the back.
Finally, big thumbs up to Hassenhutl. He’s a manager we scouted when names were rumbling for Arsenal. He’s brought a lot of energy to their squad, and he bought all theb fans a beer. Can’t know that sort of carry-on.
Right, see you in the comments!
“That’s the life of a goalkeeper but I would do it again.”
I wouldn’t go as far as to call Leno a “moron” for that comment
Good players have to learn to not dwell too much on mistakes. That said the goal keeping coach won’t be pleased he’s saying that he will do it all over again.
Batistuta
“West ham, Fulham and Wolves spent more money than Arsenal this past summer, it’s a joke really and hope I’m not the only one tired of this whole self sustaining bull crap model we’ve been running for a while now”
Yes,12 years is a long time .
Net spend last 2 seasons around 45 million…..22.5 mill a season
That said the goal keeping coach won’t be pleased he’s saying that he will do it all over again.
He shouldn’t come for crosses?
He took a few steps towards the ball before back peddling to make the leap. the intention was good there was no defender near Austin, he just needs to time it better next time. He should 100% come for crosses when no one is covering
Don’t consider that as anything more than a minor misjudgment on Leno’s part. As far as fault goes it was the CB’s no question,
Leno was put in the position to act desperately thanks to their incompetence. He misjudged it, but had he remained rooted to his line and got beaten by a free header the reverse would’ve been asked or why he never came to intercept. Not an error for me.
Azed
“Rabiot doesn’t want to play for Emery.”
I would imagine he would look at Ozil , a similar type of player,, and would think to himself ….not for me thanks and he probably won’t be the only talented footballer who would think that.
Emery has similar problems with Lucas Moura who ,I’m sad to say ,is a very talented wide player who fell out of favour with Emery.
I would imagine he would look at Ozil , a similar type of player,, and would think to himself ….not for me thanks and he probably won’t be the only talented footballer who would think that.Emery has similar problems with Lucas Moura who ,I’m sad to say ,is a very talented wide player who fell out of favour with Emery. Rubbish Rabiot is not a play maker and not similar to Ozil in anyway Moura was dropped because PSG decided to upgrade to Neymar, Mbappe and Draxler I don’t know what you gain by peddling this line attacking players do… Read more »
I gave my opinion yesterday that Emery fked up massively mainly by going for Ozil instead of Ramsey and massively contradicting something he’s said around two weeks ago. He also fked up by not playing Lacazette from minute one, and put their shambolic defence under pressure from the get go. Still, he was pretty close to a result with a makeshift defence and a horrible luck – injuries, suspensions, 3 chances 3 goals when Soton’s finishing has been utter trash all season. It’s pathetic really how some people can’t wait for a bad result (first loss in 4 months) to… Read more »
Receding/CC
Leno saying that he will do it all over again is akin to misjudging the cross, arriving late and leaving the net wide open for a simple nod-in. I still think that;s a talk he should have with the GK coach.
It wasn’t entire his fault but he does share some of the blame. I din’t think he handled it as decisively as needed. These was some hesitation … and that gave Austin that extra second.
“would imagine Rabiot would look at Ozil , a similar type of player”
“Emery has similar problems with Lucas Moura”
Pierre is on a quest to prove that he doesn’t only sound like a dumb tard, he is one.
I din’t think he handled it as decisively as needed. These was some hesitation … and that gave Austin that extra second. Austin did not get to the ball before him rather got it after he missed the ball..don’t know where the extra seconds comes into play He made a step towards the crosser of the ball, that was his only error, it meant he had to take a few steps back to make the leap and that was when he got caught under the ball…Guess Allison also needs to see a goal keeping coach for failing to gather a… Read more »
Add me to the people who think that Leno didn’t do anything that wrong for their 3rd. Risk was well worth because he could have stopped the danger right there. Knowing how well Austin plays with his header it would have been an easy finish for him regardless of Leno’s actions. His fault is down the line, clearly not the one that matterred.
We saw what a blunder is from a 70m GK just an hour later.
Would anyone take Bailly in a swap for Ozil if United offered it?
Would anyone take Bailly in a swap for Ozil if United offered it?
Yes I would
Still young we can sell him back to Spain if it does not work out. He will be desperate to prove Jose wrong..not too long ago United fans called him World Class until Jose started his moaning that his entire defense was rubbish because Liverpool bought Van Dijk and City Laporte for big money
I would take nothing from Manure
The stench of wretchedness would be too much
Even martial- i think there are better out there we can obtain
Receding
You just had add that extra punchline about Allison, didn’t you. Of course the GK coach has to have a word with him after that school boy error.
Same as Leno’s.
I think he was caught in two minds initially, tried for the near post the realized that his central defenders were on vacation and took the risk.
Raptora massive criticism of Emery
“I gave my opinion yesterday that Emery fked up massively mainly by going for Ozil instead of Ramsey and massively contradicting something he’s said around two weeks ago.”
I support Emery in this decision.
RH
I liked Bailly when he first arrived, powerful, fast CB with decent enough passing ability.
Like you say he has struggled a bit but then Mourinho has devastated him by publicly slating him and his entire defence and taking him off early in games essentially trying to blame him for the side’s failures.
It could be he reignites what looked a very promising career with us, still only 24 as well. Some developmental time with Sokratis would benefit him hugely as well.
I think I would do it, sneakily gets that £350 000 off the books as well.
More criticism from Raptora
“He also fked up by not playing Lacazette from minute one, and put their shambolic defence under pressure from the get go.”
Then than Raptora surprisingly goes on to say
“It’s pathetic really how some people can’t wait for a bad result (first loss in 4 months) to start circling around Emery. ”
And he calls me a dumb tard (whatever that is)
Are you pleased with our style of play? Seems this is what it’s going to be. Are you happy? Pedro you’ve given him one transfer window and 6 months and determined that is it that’s as good as it gets which is ridiculous. Also you kept saying he won’t get us to the next level what exactly is that? He inherited a 6th place squad a Europa League club our next level is back to the champions league and he’s capable of that. How about you temper your expectations until he gets the club playing the way he wants with… Read more »
Pierre
Rabiot problem with Emery is positional. Emery played Rabiot as a DM while Rabiot prefers to play as a B2B.
PS: Lucas Moura is the Brazilian Theo Walcott.
Azed
Both very talented players imo….would I take Lucas Moura over iwobi( who Emery rates) ……….. Now let me think
Just because Moura looks good at Spurs doesn’t mean anything.
.
Anyway, saying UE didn’t fancy him? You kidding me. Last season they were playing a front 3, who in the hell is going to get ahead of Neymar and Mbappe for the wide positions.
This season TUchel has been more flexible and put Neymar behind Cavani.
Pierre
Would you take Lucas over Neymar or Mbappe?
Arsenal are likely to dip into the transfer market in January if performance levels drop off, according to head coach Unai Emery. “Only if we think the players can’t help us with a good performance.” Can’t be happy with what he’s getting from his defenders and certain attackers. “January is not a good transfer window for this reason, but we are going to look and the club is working for transfers in January, but also we are in a [good] way. “We are making progress with young players and giving them chances, and when we need to give them more… Read more »
Worth noting Ozil hasn’t had a falling out with the manager he’s just playing a bit shit and pretending to be injured. Not sure you can compare that situation to anything Moura or Rabiot went through.
Moura and Rabiot didn’t have a falling out with the manager either
One was upgraded on with players he can’t lace their boots while the other was asked to play a position he doesn’t necessarily like but which enabled him make the team most weeks
According to le10 sports Rabiot is refusing to sign for spurs and we are still in for him.
Would be a fantastic free signing in the summer for sure but I’m hoping we splash some cash to bring him in January, could be the difference maker.
Either way it would sort out our CM for years to come. No matter how improved Xhaka might be, that is still one of the weak spots of the team.
Not necessarily a first priority but if a chance like that presents itself we need to pounce.
I think AC milan are in 4th or something. They would love to get back in to CL having bowed out or EL already. Holding on to their top 4 would be critical
Take a punt on Ozil Ivan… bring him over. You fucked us with him- he is yours
take him back pls! 🙂
We’re not signing Rabiot.
He won’t play for Emery.
If we could get Bailly and Pepe in January that would be a boost to our prospects.
Still leaves the attacking midfield problem though.
Cesc and Co
Of these linked wingers who would you take and why
Pavon
Pepe
Bailly would be an awful signing.
Doesn’t improve our team, yet would cost a fortune.
Isn’t he also an injury waiting to happen?
I don’t think Bailly would cost a fortune at all and for the price I think there’s a real chance we could turn him into a great CB.
He would be minimum £30m.
He would be on huge wages.
We’re on course to concede 50 goals. With Bailly we still concede 50, but we have no room for a top end CB in the summer.
We need a VVD level player to improve us…not a load more Mustafis.
I think you’re being super unfair on Bailly and if there’s a chance we can work an Ozil swap deal all the better.
If you think we’re spending £70 Million on a CB you’re dreaming.
You can talk about ‘kissing the league goodbye then’ but it just ain’t happening.
We either need to find a CB under performing but with scope to improve, a young up and coming CB or a CB with a contractual opportunity.
It is one thing to have lofty expectations, it is another thing for it to be met. Until the end of the season, the jury is still out on the performance of Unai Emery. I know he has something to prove and he will definitely find a way to bring AFC to the “next level” despite the problems of the squad he inherited. Klopp did not fix Liverpool in 17 games and Emery cannot do the same in a short period too.. If after two and half season we are not there yet then we can hire another manager. Our… Read more »
I didn’t say A £70m CB.
Southampton signed VVD for £12m just over 3 years ago.
Sure if Mislintat can find us one, you did say we can’t go all Mislintat hipster earlier, but I have no problem with trying to find a great CB before people take notice.
BvB did it with Akanji, Diallo and Zagadou.
Regarding the early ko against bate and it affecting the attendance, I actually think it could possibly have a positive effect on the attendance. I can remember many years ago an FA cup replay v Derby had to be played in the afternoon during the week because of power cuts I think it was ….. The crowd was heaving , I was working in the city in Aldgate and so many people left work early to go to the game …not quite sure but I think I it was 1972 after Charlie George scored a couple in the first leg… Read more »
Sure if Mislintat can find us one
Pavard is a CB by trade and Stuttgart are not doing very well at the moment.
According to le10 sports Rabiot is refusing to sign for spurs and we are still in for him. If it did happen and it’s a big if then that’s Xhaka finished. Yeah I dunno what CB’s we can get in January I do certainly hope that in the summer there’s a plan for a significant purchase in that area we need to stop fucking about and address the problem and if that means spending 50-70 million on someone then so be it. As for January Pavard? Maybe Reuben Diaz of Benfica or Eder Militao of Porto who looks a prospect.… Read more »
Poor performance but with 3 out 4 defenders absent, (Holding, Mustafi and Socratis) it was always going to hard.
Don’t know about you but Iwobi just does not cut it. He is busy, but passes often go astray and he does not score.
Compared to the others the squad is thin, and we will struggle from now on.
Cesc You can always find a bargain. Not sure you can use that strategy for long term success. Liverpool have seemingly accepted this fact, hence making £75m, £65m, £58m and £40m signings this year. Your declaration that we can’t sign £70m players is also wrong. We signed a £56m player last Jan. Leno is a good example of this flawed plan. Yeah you can say he’s s bargain. But at the end of the day we have the worst keeper in the top 6. The teams that finish at the top of the PL consistently have the PLs best players.… Read more »
Leno is better than kepa and lloris whose quite overrated.
De gea and Allison are the best.
London, you’d have De Gea as the best after that World Cup? And all the horrible errors he’s been dropping?
London
I doubt you would find a single non Arsenal fan anywhere that would agree with you on Lloris.
If you want to know how good your players are, look at what other fans are saying.
Ederson and DDG are top comfortably for me, with Ederson being the best of the lot.
Quite frankly you can take your pick from Kepa, Lloris (who has nosedived by his previous standards), Alisson, and Leno.
Find the Alisson chat totally without merit, hes has a season at Roma and half a season here and people want to don him best in the league/world? Amazing. He’s made some fucking howlers this season already, not poor decisions, absolute howlers, with feet and hands. Not deserving of the praise imo, and he’s getting a sugar coating thanks to his price tag.
Alisson has saved a significant amount of Xg, the best current measure of a good GK.
They have spent £140m and built the PLs best defence.
WE spent £70m and haven’t improved at all.
I know which model I prefer.
Gambon
Wenger turned down vdv for 12 m….
He cost us more in the last few years , In fact killed us
One game lost since August in the middle of an injury and suspension crises in defence
That’s all it took for Gambons toys to go flying out the pram
Worst keeper in the top six
Spend 70m on one center back or forget about it
Liverpool did this Liverpool did that.. Was it done after 17 matches??
Unbelievable
RH, if that’s the first post you’ve ever read from Gambon, then I can accept that post.
Likely not though… so you’ve either not been paying attention, or you’re just stirring again.
Definitely don’t see much between Leno Kepa and Lloris. DDG and Ederson are clearly the top 2 Alisson is a very good keeper but I dunno if he’s at the top of the standard just yet. I feel like he’s done well but alot of the hype came from that save against Napoli. I feel like Kepa has all the hallmarks of DeGea when he first went to England you’ll see him drastically improve over the next few years. Lloris is a total marmite keeper capable of some shocking keeping. Nothing wrong with Leno you get what you pay for… Read more »
Pedro
I wouldn’t bother.
This RH idiot just exists to argue with everyone possible.
Have you noticed there are a few on here who don’t seem to get on with literally anyone. Very strange that.
Still they’re here 24/7 so good for blog traffic.
If they ever get a job things might slow down.
The Allison thing has now left the realm of overrated to the ridiculous And his howlers are masked because Liverpool still win those games, a shot straight at him was Napoli was celebrated more than when Madrid won the trophy last season Lloris has more errors in him than a porcupine has quills but we have to ask Spurs fans if he is better than Leno before saying it . De Gea has conceded goals by the buckets this season but gets a pass because his defense is bad..but this is Le Grove God forbid we make allowances for our… Read more »
Gambon, this is ad-free, no need for traffic.
Idiot… Very mature response
Guess you are also jobless seeing as you are here or does Pedro employ you Gambon?
I hire Gambon
Hilarious that the “super fans” won’t accept ANY criticism of ANY player, yet we are clearly at best the 5th best team in the PL.
Goalkeeper – we’re fine, nothing to criticise
Defence – we’re fine, nothing to criticise
Midfield – we’re fine, nothing to criticise
Attack – we’re fine, nothing to criticise
Anyone would think Keyser moved to Nigeria and decided to come back and argue 24/7 with everyone about everything.
I think Liverpool themselves also didn’t want VDV at 12 million, all the top six clubs missed him at that price it wasn’t just Wenger, one ended up paying over the odds for him
I simply challenged your assertion we had the worst keeper in the top six based on what we paid. The rest of the argument you are making up to justify your tantrums
Pedro
Wasn’t implying anything regarding blog traffic.
Just saying it’s noticeable that 3 people spend all day every day policing the blog, jumping on everyone’s opinion about everything.
By the way, I didn’t get the BACS. No more comments until it clears.
Leipzig have two good young CBs if we’re looking
@Cesc
Will they cost 70m? If no then I think we will pass.
In a similar way that BvB have Akanji, Diallo and Zagadou I think that Upamecano, Konate and Mukiele look like they could be really good prospects.
In all honesty aside from Sokratis and Bellerin I wouldn’t really care if we swept the decks totally in defence over January and the summer.
West ham picked up a pretty good young center back in the summer from France
When Huddersfield played us one of their center backs also caught my eye
Point is Van Dijks transfer to Liverpool should not be the reference point for how we fix our defense. We have the whole of Europe to scout.
CC
I must be tired I completely forgot about ederson. You are right he is best in the league.
Ederson
De gea
Leno-Allison-kepa the verdicts still out.
I think Leno has a very high ceiling but right now his instincts aren’t always great.
Regards to keepers there’s not much more that we could have done last summer I mean there’s no one more obvious that we could have gotten. I do like Anthony Lopes of Lyon and I’ll be keeping an eye on Lafont beyond that what could we have done?
Probably should have signed Ter Stegen from Gladbach but you know who couldn’t spot an opportunity to sign a goalkeeper ever. Negligent fuck
Gambon, Ethereum no good these days?
What do people think of Thomas Strakosha?
I also think Franco Armani is a good keeper. Great hands in the final last week.
The thing with signing Leno is we picked him up after a shite season. Part of the job was rebuilding him.
That said, I love him with the ball at his feet and he makes some great saves. He’s just very poor with crosses into the box. Most foreign keepers are for the first year.
“Just saying it’s noticeable that 3 people spend all day every day policing the blog, jumping on everyone’s opinion about everything.“
Who’s on Gambons naughty list?
CC,
Sokratis, Leno and Xhaka for sure.
Pedro,
“That said, I love him with the ball at his feet and he makes some great saves. He’s just very poor with crosses into the box. Most foreign keepers are for the first year.”
I’m not so sure this is still true. There aren’t Neanderthal styled clubs in the league like Bolton Wanderers or Stoke city anymore.
Thus was true when Stoke were pre-treating balls with dry towels before catapulting them into the box.
Fucking Rory Delap.
My opinion on Kolasinac kind of changed in the last month or so. Guy has a lot to give in attack. Valuations should be made if we are to play with wing backs often, if yes, then he is the closest we have to a real winger because the timing and sharpness of his runs is second to none in our team. In defence he could improve although most of what we’ve seen he isn’t solid in that part of the game to say the least. Jury is definitely out on him. I see the positives and negatives of playing… Read more »
‘That said, I love him with the ball at his feet and he makes some great saves. He’s just very poor with crosses into the box.’ Pretty much sums up how I feel about Leno too. Not like Cech was noticeably better at dealing with crosses himself and he was painfully poor with the ball at his feet whereas Leno is very good in this department. Also rate Leno as a better shop-stopper than Cech although that wouldn’t be hard to be fair. He’s dodgy at aerial duels/crosses but so are the majority of GK’s, never been many around that… Read more »
Give us a shot of them specs raptora because I’d love to rate Kola as the end to our LB crisis, he’s average at best though, not sure what you are seeing in him.
Decent going forward with the ball at his feet but crap defensively and very slow, runs like he’s been shot in the leg.
WE he made over 130 appearences for us and never truly impressed that’s kinda why
Marko
Not true, he had very decent spells here including winning the Golden Glove one season, guy’s been excellent for Juve too.
At no stage was he worse than Ospina or Cech.
BATE lol, Christ the EL is fucking shit.
Tough watching the CL draw and the Spuds and Liverpool pulling out Dortmund and Bayern.
Another season of EL would be rough, top 4 looks a big ask though with Tottenham winning most weeks and Chelsea putting it together.
I’m not so sure…he was displaced on more than one occasion by Fabianski. I just don’t think he’s all that at all really.
Anyone would think Keyser moved to Nigeria and decided to come back and argue 24/7 with everyone about everything.
LOL hahah. This line made me laugh and feel nostalgic all at once, bravo.
I hope Keyser is still alive. If he’s dead, I hope someone went down to the basement and found his body at least.
Marko
AW wouldn’t know a decent GK if one slapped him upside his old noggin, he had Manuel the waiter between the sticks for like four seasons.
Juventus weren’t drawn towards him for nothing.
I thought Szczesny was a pretty talented keeper that just didn’t have consistent performances for Arsenal. Probably right to let him move on, don’t think he was going to reach that level of consistency here. That said, he was extremely young back then and now we’ve had it confirmed what a joke the GK coaching at Arsenal was like while he was there. So yeah probably could have done better developing him at least. But either way having sold such a young GK who had experience starting in the EPL, CL for only £12m…really not sure it would be worth… Read more »
I probably would, not much difference in quality though and I prefer Leno’s attitude so not a bad trade-off.
I think that Leno is fairly close to Lloris and I definitely prefer him to Kepa who looks a complete fraud for the fee that they paid, very average GK that struggles with bread and butter efforts.
Ederson and DDG are a class above the rest, Allison and Lloris edge out Leno but he has years on the latter and could well go on to be better once he settles in to the PL.
GOH “Anyone got or knows about the Sonos 1 multi room speaker system? Is it any good…sound quality? ’m looking to upgrade the mansion.” If you’re being serious Guns here are my thoughts. A while back it looked like Pedro had a Sonos Play 1 in a podcast picture, which someone commented on. Play 1s are for small rooms and more for background music but have a decent enough sound for their size for that purpose. Play 3s are pretty much an upgrade on the Play 1 and offer more sound definition, but again would be more used by students… Read more »
Can’t help thinking that if Emery had gone with Medley and Cech we might have snatched a draw or win.
I said in the last post Leno couldn’t be slated for the 3rd goal with such AWOL defenders.
Add starting with Laca and using Ramsey instead of Ozil in the mix things could have been entirely different.
I’m sure Emery will have learned from this and he still gets my vote.
Plenty still to be fixed and put right starting with the TW.
Well if Klopp had gone with Mignolet they would have kept a clean sheet against United
If José had gone with Romero against us we won’t have scored two goals at old Trafford
If if if …….hindsight is a wonderful thing
How dare a goal keeper try to stop a cross from getting to an unmarked striker who would have had a free header from a few yards out. He should have stood on his line, conceded the goal and escape blame.
To me it says a whole lot that Sokratis has come in from another league and in 6 months has been our strongest defender. To say it’s Emery’s fault that our defence is shite, completely overlooks how shit it has been for the last few seasons, so shit infact we have dropped out of the top 4. Signing quality defenders was one of Wenger’s major weaknesses. Everyone knows this. It really can’t be emphasised enough how bad (in comparison to top 4 and great Arsenal sides, even some sides in Wenger’s last 10 years of his tenure) this 6th placed… Read more »
Also there is no way in hell, that we will go into another season only buying a keeper. If between Sven Raul and Emery they can’t see glaring holes in the squad then God help us all.
The times are a changing, even with our self sustainable model of business.
It takes more than one window, 70 mill and 6 months to turn Wenger’s shit fest around.
Some of you really need to calm your farms.
The best part of this whole change is that this season isn’t groundhog season. Who knows what is yet to come?!?!
RH
Not about hindsight but tactics and preparation.
Ffs even Pierre foresaw the height advantages they had before the game. He used up valuable troll time to make a very valid point.
RH
Leno didn’t cover himself in glory with his attempt at getting to the cross regardless of the poor defending.
Both were at fault.
Also like to say that Cesc, Jim Lahey and a few others have made some very solid points I very much agree with throughout this post’s comments.
Well said fellas.
Tony they had no height advantage.. They didn’t out jump any of our defenders for any of their three goals, bad positioning took care of that. Cech doesn’t come for crosses as much as you would have us believe he does. Change the record Eagle he was forced into drastic action and couldn’t make up the distance. Don’t know why this is still being discussed. Are u suggesting he simply stands on his line after accessing the situation. It was a split second decision to cut out a cross destined for the head of an unchallengeable Austin…I mean come on.… Read more »
**Unchallenged Austin
Silly autocorrect
RH
He was hesitant getting across to meet the ball and slightly misjudged the pace of the cross hence diving underneath it, it’s not a glaring error but it’s definitely an error and he was partly to blame along with the shambolic attempt at defending the counter.
Re discussing it, isn’t that what we do on here?