via @t0wey (instagram)
I took things to new levels of terrible last night when I decided to experiment with the ‘one drink / no hangover’ theory. I drank office champagne, which isn’t really champagne, it’s like clear Tizer. I can confirm that the hangover is deathly. I benefited in no way from this new approach.
Arsenal felt like a hangover yesterday.
I’m going to get the bad things out of the way early.
Emery made a huge strategic error yesterday. The League Cup is a pointless trophy. Winning it would not feel like a new era. Going for it was not beneficial when lined up against our targets, the players we have and the depth of our squad.
The manager should have let the game slide away and lived to fight at the weekend with a fresh squad and renewed focus.
Instead, he went with a 90% first team. He ghosted Ozil again, for ‘tactical’ reasons. He started Xhaka in the back 3 again. We played all the key players who needed to be rested.
We were bad. Beaten easily.
We’re now fatigued, low on morale and we have no excuse out of this.
There were some shocking performances as well.
I was correct when I said Iwobi was regressing a few weeks ago. His end ball is poor and he makes bad decisions.
Granit Xhaka should never, ever play in the back 3, but that appears to be Emery’s thing. He was poor again. it doesn’t matter how good he is at quarterbacking, he just doesn’t have the core attributes you need to boss the Premier league. He’s slow, lacks mobility and he makes BIG mistakes in almost every game. That’s the case in midfield or defence. It’s been the same for his entire Arsenal career.
As for the game, it wasn’t our best performance. It was a touch half-hearted. I think we were tired.
We had chances that we fluffed. We hit the woodwork. But ultimately, Spurs took advantage of our high line and you just felt they had the extra gear we didn’t.
I also have to say that the Arsenal fan who threw a bottle at Alli is an absolute disgrace. There’s no place for that in football. We are now at Spurs fans level. The whole world just saw that Arsenal fans can stoop to that level and it’s a real shame we all get tarred with that scumbag brush. I hope the club find the fan and ban them.
As for conclusive thought. Emery is fallible. Simple as that. We’re not going to ride out the season undefeated, if you thought that, I’m really sorry to burst your hope bubble. We don’t have a deep squad and there’s no muscle memory for the things Emery wants to do.
He made a huge mistake in his approach to that game. Now we’re going to be chasing our tail through December. We really need to hope there’s a victory waiting against Burnley at the weekend, because if there isn’t, we’ve gone from 22 games unbeaten to a crisis in a week.
Right, I’m tapping out. I’ll be in London tomorrow. See you on the other side.
I understand why people are quick to put the blame on the manager but it wasn’t the manager who decided that there will only be 70m available in the pre season. I think we made good use of the money we had. We had to strengthen the defence, the mid and the wings with 70m. tough ask if you ask me. I think we will know more about how good this squad can get under emery when he has another 2 Windows under him. Don’t forget people from this very site were calling klopp and pep a flop in their… Read more »
Gone
Do you remember the akbs on here saying “fraudiola”.
All those are the same ones that are emery’s back
You’d think they’d learn.
But again, they are the same ones who backed wenger for a dozen years past his best before date so their judgment and football nous leaves a lot to be desired
“So what we have now ,half way through the season , is a club that could be in utter turmoil by mid January unless Emery gets the team working as a unit again.”
We’ve already won more away points that we did the whole of last season. If that is not an improvement, then the club would never improve.
Azed- you in the UK and an early riser? or from elsewhere?
It’s sickening how much the UK media have love Man Utd…Listening to the debate on sky sports all about this is by far the biggest club in the world etc…Pochettino or any manager would love to go there etc…What a load of nonsense. Firstly they are a shambles with a bunch of twats like Pogba running the dressing room, secondly why has no one mentioned Madrid and possibly Barca and Bayern will be looking for a new manager in the summer. Madrid want Poch and he will one million percent choose them over United. The sense of entitlement by United… Read more »
Azed “We’ve already won more away points that we did the whole of last season. If that is not an improvement, then the club would never improve.” Our away form last season is not a yardstick to go by ..we were dreadful . Our last 5 home games In the league produced results of 5-0 4-1 3-2 3-0 3-0 I wouldn’t expect that to be used as a yardstick either …..it’s a different season and we should judge results and performances on their merit.. We are moving into a critical period that could determine what sort of season we could… Read more »
Joe “This year is a million times better than the last 12 under wenger the wanker.” is it ….this time last season we had qualified from the group stages of the Europa cup of which we were narrowly beaten in the semis. We were in the semi finals of the league cup of which we were well beaten in the final. We were out of the fight for the league title. This season…Europa same… Out of league title …..same League cup ……knocked out . So one could say that we are doing slightly worse than last season which was our… Read more »
Sad to read that some funs here believe Arsene left us a decent squad. The truth is he and Ivan G left a really dire outfit with very little rom for manouvere due to mismanagment of player contracts (Sanchez, Ozil, Welbs, Wilshere, Ramsey). If we manage to get back into the CL, then Emery will need another 3 windows to put together a team that can challenge for the title. Without CL we are doomed.
For me, the bottom line with regards Ozil is exceptionally clear. You play him and there is the chance he may create something special and win you the game. By playing him though, you are basically starting with only 9 outfield players, which in itself jeopardises the structure of the team and puts added pressure on those around him. Against the better teams he, more often than not, goes missing, whilst against weaker opponents he can look a worldbeater on occasions. On the whole he flatters to deceive. His body language and general mindset is appalling and, on top of… Read more »
Graham
I still think that in Aubamayang,Lacazette,Mhkitaryan and Ozil we have the creative quality and goals if used correctly …
obviously Emery doesn’t rate Lacazette and Ozil and prefers Ramsey and Iwobi.
Our last 5 home games In the league produced results of 5-0 4-1 3-2 3-0 3-0 Last five home games when the pressure was off right and half the players were already on the beaches. Easy to pulverize the Opposition when they aren’t even trying ..why do i even bother with the likes of you. Emery’s teams have never been defensive even when he took on Barca and Madrid with Sevilla and Valencia. Emery bears no resemblance to Mourinho Pep and Klopp also want their players to work hard over 90 minutes, Sarri’s Napoli teams also worked extremely hard. Have… Read more »
Pierre,
You just can’t stop yourself from being a lunatic, yeah?!
In the EPL Lacazette has played 260 more mins than Iwobi and 400 mins more than Ramsey.
But according to you Emery prefers them to him. Lunatic.
Lacazette is, I feel, not 100% fit.
lol Pierre.
How about spending your christmas holidays on Untold ??
Graham,
I was thinking the same.
It feels like Emery was being careful with him and he also wasn’t going right at it as in the beginning of the season.
I believe that he will start tomorrow vs Burnley.
Joke Friday : “Alexis Sanchez sent a WhatsApp message to team-mates suggesting he had won a bet on Jose Mourinho’s sacking.”
lol at least he has won something with Manure this year.
“Mesut Ozil is losing his battle to convince Unai Emery he has an Arsenal future as the club face up to taking a huge financial hit on the German.”
YES!!
Raptora
Iwobi has started 5 of the last 6 league matches
Lacazette has started 2 of the last 6 league matches.
The last (and I think the only )time this season that Lacazette,Aubamayang,ozil and Mhkitaryan have played together was against Liverpool, the league leaders and most will agree that was a good team performance with good structure to the side and we didn’t look like we had 9 outfield players .
Samuel Eto’o, the great Cameroonian forward, remarked: “We know Neymar can dribble past the whole stadium but one wants to see him defend, run after a defender, cover kilometers to do the pressing. Cavani is the only attacker doing it. It’s not enough.”
Neymar, yes Neymar, one of the greatest goal scorers to play in Europe Eto’o wants to see Neymar cover ground, defend from the front
But Ozil should be allowed to roam about the pitch dropping passes to fullbacks while contributing nothing to the team’s shape
Graham
“Lacazette is, I feel, not 100% fit.”
And yet he plays a large percentage of the meaningless quarabag game …
If he is carrying an injury why risk him
I get the feeling that you are desperate not to criticise Emery so you are making excuses for his strange decisions ….
All of your 5 games stats jesus fk me.
Picking a random time period that suits your mad theories.
Last 5 home games. Last 6 league matches…
A sixth Parisian league title in the last seven seasons could easily arrive before the end of the winter, yet so far it has been a humiliating season for PSG, which tends to view itself as an international team that has the bad luck to be based in France. Since few foreigners care about the French league, most international headlines have been negative. After seven years of cash injections, the Qatari owners are tired of never even getting to the Champions League semifinals. They want the world’s most expensive forward line to take them all the way. They may be… Read more »
Raptora
So you don’t agree that after 3 months of assessing the players/team that Emery has decided he would rather play iwobi over ozil and Lacazette.
It looks that way to me..
Iwobi starting 5 of the last 6 league games is confirmation.
Graham
Lacazette and Aubamayang are a great partnership but rarely start a game together ..why do you think that is .
Maybe they look too happy when they are on the pitch together.
RH
“But Ozil should be allowed to roam about the pitch dropping passes to fullbacks while contributing nothing to the team’s shape”
Oh dear,I think you have been brainwashed by Raptora ..that’s just the type of stupid remark I would expect from him .
Graham
Another great partnership this season has been Torriera and Xhaka….do you think Emery will continue to split this partnership to the detriment of the team .
Of course we have defensive problems so Emery has to make decisions on who covers in defence .
Maybe “the useless” mustafi (as some like to call him) will be fit and can play alongside Sokratis …
Why do I even bother with you Pierre…
You were blind in all of these years, you remain blind at this moment, you will continue being blind in the future.
Causa Perduta.
Arsenal under Wenger were often 2nd best when confronted by sides who kicke d their way with the ref taking no action. It seem Emery is duplicating him with his hdl with easy goals for Spurs.Football in England according to Pires is like a street fight.Arsenal play football and are easily intimidated by such teams . The gunners shd call on a Bruce lee clone.BL was the king of street fights in HK in the 50s. Burnley are fighting against relegation and held Spurs to alate goal. I wouldn’t be surprised if they flood the md and hit on the… Read more »
Your Comment HereThis new criteria for forwards to defend though. it’s laughable. I mean Eto is talking nonsense. When Neymar played for Barca, a pretty demanding team, he had no problems whatsoever. Psg can field their reserve team and still win ligue 1.
I wonder who Eto wants Neymar to defend against.
—
I saw some quotes attributed to Lacazettte on twitter, questioning the decision by Emery to bench Ozil. Was I alone in seeing it?
Wolfgang
Having added torreira, Sokratis and Lichtsteiner we actually have some balls about us again. Most of Wenger’s latter year signings were all softcocks.
Ozil being the prime example, the living, breathing epitome of the downturn of Arsene Wenger
Also Good day to you Pierre, but fuck you for that comment above.
Hitman
This is an Arsenal blog and is not the right place to peddle your simplistic right wing political drivel so keep your political opinions to yourself.
Pierre the saddo been on Le grove all day debating the same bullshit. Get a life mate. See you guys tomorrow have a good evening all.