Well hello everyone! I’m back in the UK hood and what do we have on the agenda today? Bloody Mesut Ozil, AGAIN.
This time there are two conflicting stories. One is from John Cross who reckons the club are sick to the back teeth of the German superstar and want him gone if they can find an offer. The second is from Sami Mokbel who reckons he’ll be given a chance to work his way back into the team this Christmas, but he’s really in the last chance saloon (The Times also has a story). There are rumours of a loan move out in January.
One thing is clear, the club is briefing against the German. Quite astonishing really. Our highest paid player who isn’t even a year into his new deal, is being nudged out of the club. I think it’s pretty clear now that the mega deal was a typically self-serving action of our now departed exCEO.
Anyway, I find it quite unbelievable that criticism is going the way of Emery. The childlike response from Oziltoligists is a sight to behold.
‘YOU WOULDN’T EXPECT MESSI TO PRESS’
‘YOU PAY OZIL TO BE OZIL’
‘EMERY CAN’T DEAL WITH BIG NAMES’
… a few of the best.
Let’s get one thing straight, Mesut is a supremely gifted player. One of the greats. There’s no doubt that if he applied himself, he’d be very valuable to our current situation. But the reality is, he’s not pulling his weight. He hasn’t been pulling his weight for years. He is a masterful creator, but that’s all he’s good for. In a modern system, it’s very hard to accommodate that type of player, which is why so few clubs adopt a free-roaming #10 these days. It’s not even just the pressing that so many keep highlighting, it’s the fact that he can’t be trusted to show up in big games. He can’t be trusted not to shy away from the tough away days. He’s constantly phoning in sick like some school kid with a fragile immune system. His second half season statistics always tank. He’s not a reliable leader despite being one of the 5 captains.
Arsene Wenger coddled the German. Notable that since his mercurial talent graced the club we’re now a Europa League side. Obviously not all the fault of one player, but when your star man has commitment issues, it does kind of set the tone for the squad.
You can even use Europe as a barometer for how far his star has fallen. He was available for sale for 18 months before he signed a deal for us. Who tried to seduce him? How many clubs dropped a bid the summer before he went into the final year of his deal? How many tried to make a cheeky move in January? Not many, and remember, he was on b-list money for a world class player. Do you think if Ozil were the player so many fans think he was, he’d be in such low demand?
The game has passed him by. He has most of the tools he needs to succeed at Arsenal. A terrier DM, two of the most potent strikers in world football, a really nice pitch, and a fanbase that adores him. Yet he seems to get worse every season. Is it fair to say that Cesc Fabregas played in a far worse squad and delivered way more? I think it is.
Ozil doesn’t want to adapt to the new ways of Emery’s Arsenal and thankfully, he is happy to make the tough decisions Wenger hadn’t for the past ten years. He won’t be making these decisions on a whim either, he’ll be using sophisticated data models that will support whatever hunch he has about the player on the pitch. He’ll no doubt have worked this decision through with Raul and Sven.
This is what ruthless decision making looks like.
Finally, one for Joke Friday… Wenger had this to say for BEin.
“The team is in good hands and I always said that. A lot of people thought when I left the club that the team would need to completely rebuild – I never thought that.”
“I am very happy that these people have been proven wrong.”
THIS IS WHY YOU DIDN’T GET THE UNITED JOB.
Right, that’s me done, see you in the comments.
AMN goes down alot…………..
Laca is just a tiny little ball of fury. A bit sad really.
The team and manager look really dumbfounded at the moment. Crowd flat.
Christ…boring.
Getting subbed in the 78th minute is not a good enough reason for a tantrum sorry
Nothing to applaud there. It’s a squad game
Probably concede now after that stupid change by Emery
The only reason could be is that Ozil is captain that’s the only reason I could think of why he hasn’t taken him off.
The players we have on the pitch right now are comical
Marko,
You have your opinion, I think Laca was having a great game today.
Lacasub
Lacabitch
Lacafury
Lacatalent
Lacatantrum
See out a lead with licht, xhaka, and AMN in defense, Guendouzi Iwobi and Ozil in midfield??
Burnley look more likely to score than we do … and the probably will because they are getting into very good positions for Volkes to do his thing.
They know Leno has a bit of flap in him.
Blimey…the face game has gone down a lot since I stopped going to Arsenal matches.
If I went…face game goes up 90% instantly.
I didn’t realise how ugly our crowd was.
Probably our worst second half this season.
You have to think that City would be 6-0 by now.
guns
emery has better fashion sense than Wenger. Those long coats were dreadful and the guy had the same hair style since the 90s.
Pierre might disagree with me though.
Surely our worst second half.
Gons
Agreed that Arsene’s coat game was not on point but he always wore a tailored suit.
What happened with Lacs on the bench
Sokratis the Libero
Laca threw a tantrum. Nothing to see.
Next game away to Brighton I bet we start with Ramsey captain. Weird stuff.
Raptora
Agree, Laca has been our liveliest attacker by a distance.
Cm is our issue lately, even Burnley can go toe to toe with it. No wonder we get mauled for periods against the likes of Spurs.
You can really see why football is dead on its arse.
Go on Iwobi.
Iwobi looked off there but we’ll take it.
Ozil really hates a 50 50. Can’t actually believe he just won that going in so soft
So Iwobi seals the game where’s the football managers now?? Lol
Iwobi is still shit.
3 points!!!
Ozil broke his back to do that reverse pass to Iwobi who was marginally offside. But it’s 3 – 1
Also apparat from the WWE moves from Sokratis, he is out best defender hands down.
Also holy shit. Iwobi hits the back of the net for a change. Albeit marginally offside
Iwobi still poo though!
GG. Good Ozil play, guy been saving stamina for 60 minutes to make that run LOL.
Iwobi score. Emery knows I guess?!
Joke aside, on another day we lose points today. Emery didn’t make the right changes which doesn’t happen often. Today he got away with it.
Kolasinac is the man of the match
Just had to get that in before Pierre arrives to regale us of Ozil’s brilliance.
“So Iwobi seals the game where’s the football managers now?? Lol”
__
The goal shouldn’t even have stood.
Emery not always going to make the right changes though. He’s human.
Good little move from Ozil there. Iwobi providing the energy and running that got the ball upfield, then providing the finish. Good work from him, though this doesn’t for one moment mean he possesses the quality we need. He does provide energy and running, though.
EMERY OUT
ARTETA IN
SICK OF THESE LABOURED PERFORMANCES LADS
Surely Arteta will bring in sexy scintillating futbol again?
According to Pierre we’ve avoided a massive crisis with this win
I really do not care about defensive side of Ozil’s game. I have never blamed him for shirking from.his supposedly defensive responsibilities. I don’t even believe in making an attacking midfielder track back.As long as he does his duty as a no 10 like he has done today, I am absolutely fine with it. Unfortunately his attacking game leaves a lot to be desired against most good teams.
AMN goes down alot…………..
You say that like it’s a bad thing…
guns
most of Wenger’s suits were made from those cheap French materials. Looks classy on the eye but it starts smelling if you sweat in it.
Needed that win to have any chance of holding firm over Christmas.
The goal shouldn’t even have stood
Lool in all these years I’ve never seen you say anything that isnt negative about Gunners
Would you play Ozil against Liverpool at Anfield?
Samesong,
Yeah, he’s human, that’s why I’m not Emery out. He’s been great for us. Today was probably his worst in-game management 90 mins though. Dire stuff. He made us look pony with some of the changes.
I thought Kolasinac was great today.
He really is an asset in attack, I thought he was our best attacker today followed by Lacazette who did a great job in a sort of CAM/CF role.
I really like how Kolasinac, like Sokratis, likes the get physical and is always there when teams start shit with us.
Not a great performance, again, but I did like how when Burnley tried to take it to the sewers Arsenal obliged.
As long as he does his duty as a no 10 like he has done today,
… completely dumbfounded. He had a pre assist assist on the first goal and a scuffed attempt on goal that found its way to Iwobi and that was it today. For large parts of today you wouldn’t know he was on the pitch at all
Leftside
Saying the goal should have stood isn’t negative though, it’s just fact. We got away with one there.
Tr7
Unfortunately that doesn’t work in a modern team approach. I get what you’re saying, and it can be mitigated, but Ozil doesn’t offer enough athleticism off the ball. The pressing, occupying space, holding off defenders.
His brilliance is fleeting too. When you consider a KDB, who offers the quality and the input, then he’s not the full ticket. I love Ozil, but bottom line we could get someone else that makes the team better.
That was actually a weak attempt on goal by Ozil not a reverse pass, it was a nice run though. And Iwobi was not offside, just saw the goals, couldn’t catch the game on super sports and i hate streams.
Sokratis just acknowledged that he loves playing these physical games.
He stated that he loved the battles with Ashley Barnes.
Great lad.
Yeah you really need to have high footballing IQ to see how Özil works in this team. His off-the-ball movements, languid but purposeful runs and dribbles the list goes on and on.
That’s the hardest 3-1 I’ve seen in a long time. Burnley were a threat and that’s pathetic.
This defence is terrible. Kola and Sokratis were menacing but not much else.
Midfield. Poor.
Auba did the goals, nothing more. If he isn’t scoring, he’s pretty much a passenger.
Top four awaits.
Flat turn out, good result, but Burnley weren’t exciting either.
Iwobi and Ozil the actually grind some gears here lol…
I don’t get Emery’s issue with Lacazette, he benched him often and yanks him quite a bit. Guendouzi needs bench time, as is Torreira is having .
We still have defensive issues, but our midfield is proving to be not much special really.
Good 3 points, Laca needs to be in the game most of the times, he does a lot of work upfront that you won’t get from our top scorer.
Until we sign a winger, that’s the formation we should be using. Two strikers up front. We have to score more goals than our opponents. Lichtsteiner and Xhaka are such bad CBs. They are standing there ball watching. They are OK when we have the ball. It’s good that we have PapaSok there. At least we have one real CB there.
I didnt say I disagreed Dissenter. A measured poster calls it how it hes see it, good & bad.
Id ask the same question of someone who only has positive things to say too. Infact everyone does to Joe now, so its fair me asking Stevey boy why hes the opposite.
Anyway, good 3 points to keep pace with the top 4. Unlikely but hopefully Leicester & Everton can do us a favour.
That was definitely a reverse pass it’s all precisely calculated by the fußball meister himself.
Come of it with the offside talks, we recently conceded on an offside goal that the Lino missed vs United
Ozil had a decent showing for the first 55 to 60 mins. Last half an hour he was the worst player on the pitch.
I’d say Laca, Auba and Kola were great today. Could add Sokratis as well. Could have won with a much bigger score and wtih less nerves. It leaves a bad taste in the mouth and also keeps the status quo that we’ve been grinding our results instead of winning deservedly. Would have been good to make a statement that thinks are much better than some pundits make it to be. But not today.
Lacazette being subbed might be that anyone could see he was putting a real shift in, he was our busiest CAM and we are entering the traditionally difficult time.
If you save 20 minutes of energy against a shit Burnley team at home I’m all for that.
We need to spend in January though, I don’t know how much we can spend but a CAM, CB and a winger are badly needed.
Sokratis should have been motm. Didn’t put a foot wrong all game. And let’s be honest here if it wasn’t for a mistake by you know who we’d have had a clean sheet.
Sokratis has been a great buy as well, we should look to bring in a very good young CB to pair with him and learn from him.
Old school CB who really enjoys the physical side of things, he isn’t too bad in possession either.
GoH is still an Arsenal fan ??
Why does he still behave like if he want to support another team ??
And why hook Elneny and not Guendouzi?? We can fault Wenger for the current personnel, but Emery hasn’t figured out how to defend or even show that his personnel change are based on real rotations, rather than playing somenof his more favored players.
I keep telling people here that It isn’t Iwobi’s picking himself, rather the manager likes him in the team.
Elneny should have stayed on he hasn’t played that much games and we have stacked schedule coming up
GoH cares more about fashion than football. It’s okay though. He’s an asset to this blog.
Rough and tumble game, but we take the 3 points and turn over the page.
We have to play better against Pool or we will be torn a new one at Anfield if we played anywhere as shocking as we did today.
Good on our defence to gift us our customary “goal against”
Never has the statement – “Its the 3 points that matter” been so true as it has today.
P.S. Emery better have a chat with Laca about that tantrum…..not good one bit. Best nip it in the bud earliest.
Laca was quality. As much as we might need to be careful with him, I think emery’s Going too far with him He almost never plays 90 minutes. When he’s on the pitch we look about 10-15% better in pretty much every match. He was having an excellent game again today. Even if emery feels it’s a good strategic move, when you treat him as second class every week the message will be received that he can’t buy a 90 minutes whilst auba gets the first choice treatment You can see the result when he came off today and started… Read more »
We can fault Wenger for the current personnel, but Emery hasn’t figured out how to defend or even show that his personnel change are based on real rotations, rather than playing somenof his more favored players.
I feel like if you didn’t have Emery’s name in there it’d be the smartest most truthful thing you ever said
Something that is obvious though is that Lacazette does not have the in box sense that Aubameyang has. Maybe that is something he can learn from him.
Aubameyang regularly is just in the right place, Lacazette seems regularly to be slightly off where he should be.
That was a terrific game, everything you want from the Premier League. Tense, confrontational, goals.
Cesc Appeal
Aubameyang regularly is just in the right place, Lacazette seems regularly to be slightly off where he should be.
I agree. There was a ball Kola floated into the box that was behind Laca. Auba usually positions himself well for that kind of balls. It would have been another tap in for him..
Marko You know I am anything but a Ozil fanboy but I thought he had a good game today. He is never going to be an all action hero pulling strings for 90 mins but in crucial moments he made a difference with his guile and intelligence. Charlie ‘The pressing, occupying space, holding off defenders.’ I don’t expect him to press or hold off defenders, he has never had these abilities in his repertoire. What really gets on my nerve is his inability or rather lack of desire to occupy space. His tendency to move to flanks and leave his… Read more »
Ozil’s involvement in the first goal was nothing short of masterful. He’s one of only 2/3 players in world football who would’ve either seen that pass or pulled it off as he did. It was a really special, genius bit of play. Outside of that, he was shit again until his involvement in the final goal in injury team. He got caught in possession multiple times, wasn’t dangerous going forwards, was generally quiet and was culpable of some really dumb stuff, like touching the ball then shielding it out of play (a weird gift to the opposition) and that stupid… Read more »
Sokratis and Kolasinac definitely our best players at the moment. Attitude and quality.
Ozil’s problems are exacerbated by the modern pressing, but it was always an issue.
Madrid continually got exposed in Europe in large part due to Ozil. Dortmund had a field day and United were the far better team over two legs back 2012. Germany as well until they shifted him to the left.
I thought Torriera should have had the day off, shouldn’t have even been in the stadium. Emery couldn’t have done any worse and was having an okay game.
Emery’s rotations are suspect. Pierre has been making the same point [albeit with an ulterior motive].
Auba is a slightly better goal scorer than Lacazette
Laca is a considerably better all round footballer and contributor to the team tho
I think both need to be on the pitch because they’re both bringing goals and laca is bringing great link up and work rate.
This defense has no chance against the pool. Our game became so much worse after Xhaka was switched to the CB role. We lost the midfield and Xhaka couldn’t defend. Both Torreira and Guen looked heavy legged. Most of Guen’s forward passes were off the mark. It is going to be a struggle to go through this holiday season. I understand Emery’s substitution. He has to maintain a formation. Either he can use Ramsey to replace Ozil or Iwobi to replace one of the striker. I hope either Mustafi or Mavorpanos are ready soon. Even playing Medley or Jenkinson as… Read more »
Emery better have a chat with himself. Today we won despite his best tries to lose points. Everything from telling the team to take it easy at 1:0 and 25 mins left of the first half. We gave Burnley belief that they can put us under pressure. He put Xhaka as a CB again instead of moving Elneny there and let Xhaka control the tempo. Next thing he does is take off Elneny when Ozil could barely run and we looked like playing with a player less. Player in is Torreira who had to have an off day, very well… Read more »
Sokratis was a giant at the back ..m.o.m. for me..
We started well enough but too negative 2nd half ..the ref took too much time explaining decisions,slowed the game right down ..he should have shown a few yellows early on without all that faffing about.
Burnley manager talking shit
China
“Ozil’s involvement in the first goal was nothing short of masterful. ”
Yes……….but Kolasinac still had to deliver a masterful recovery of the ball and lay a pass good enough for Auba to finish so exquisitely.
This was not an assist on a platter, was it.
I think we need to take the Ozil superlatives down a notch or two.
Aubameyang is our key to getting top 4 or winning the Europa league. His goals cover up our flaws behind.
Not Emery’s biggest fan, but I do love the fact that he is a bit of a bastard. He is a scrappy type of guy. Very good trait to have
I think Guendouzi’s new nickname should be Bambi, not sure what he’s actually good at other than being a decent passer. Hopefully Iwobi’s goal might give him some confidence because we’re severely limited on attacking options.
Also I don’t think laca can be blamed for not scoring that kola pass near the end
I don’t blame kola but that was a misplaced pass rather than laca’s fault
Emery just wanted to go for the killer third goal thus the two latter subs he made. Not sure trying to be a bit more pragmatic by defending will be a good thing considering our dire defence. He’s just lacking the personnel to get the job done right now really. How many will be cleared out? His comments are bipolar to be honest regarding the squad selection on who will go and who will stay.
We win that game against Southampton with Sokratis. His suspension came at the worst possible time.
Exactly RR
Dissenter
Kola’s assist was fantastic, no doubt about it
But look I’m ozil’s biggest hater. I fucking dislike wet blanket and have been tearing into him again today for contributing only two good moments at home against relegation fodder
But his involvement in the first goal was absolutely special. There’s no need to tone down those superlatives because in that one moment he really earned them
I will never let my disliking of a player stop me for giving credit where it’s due – and that pass was straight up genius
I still cannot believe Fabian Delph turned down the chance to join city because he made a public pledge to Villa to stay.
It’s amazing how simple choices can change the trajectory of a career.
China,
Do we give the player who passed the ball too Ozil similar credit?
I mean is the pre-assist is worthy of such distinctive superlative adjectives then surely the pre-pre-assist deserves some mention.
It took two Herculean plays to get that ball into the net from Kola and then Auba after the Ozil pass.
I know what you’re saying, I guess we just have to disagree.
We win that game against Southampton with Sokratis. His suspension came at the worst possible time.
This is the reason why I don’t support those who say Emery hasn’t improved our defense 1%.
Sokratis is head and shoulders above the rest of our defenders and he’s not even tier 1 category.
Yeah Pierre Sokratis was quality As someone else said, buy an elite CB to partner with him and having holding as understudy/3rd CB in a back 3 and we will be so much better You can really see that clubs keep being sent out to treat arsenal rough believing it will work like the old days and time and again this season it has failed It’s really time for the knuckle dragging managers and players of the mid-lower PL to find a backup plan against arsenal because Arsenal are now having none of it. It might not be pretty but… Read more »
Holding is what we are really missing and xakha back in the centre
That’s promising though we spent £10-12 Million on Sokratis and he is easily better than our other CBs which the previous regime spent on, £35 Million on Mustafi, £17 Million on Chambers and then £2 Million on Holding in recent years.
Just like Torreira at £26 Million is easily our best midfield purchase in recent times.
That makes me hopeful.
If we can keep up that sort of smart use of money we are giving ourselves a good chance.
For over a decade ‘get in their faces’ was all the brain power half the league’s managers could (or needed to) muster to have a good chance of taking points off us
Now they can go suck it because they get given it back in equal measure – and more than that, you get the odd wry smile from players like Sokratis and kola when they’ve fucked someone which is probably more enjoyable than it should be to see lol
For me, I would keep this 3-4-1-2 formation. It allows us to play Kola as the wing back. If Auba can time Kola’s crosses better, we are in business. I like the two strikers system. Laca can help the build-up and also press. As for the player behind the strikers, we have 3 #10, Ramsey, Ozil abd Mikki where we can rotate to field the position. The midfield two are Torr and Xhaka. The wing backs are Bellerin and Kola. We need to sign a good CB in January. Then our team can compete on all front.
I agree.
As much as they say that you need experience to be a good/great defender it’s very rare that shity young CBs become EPL level CB eventually. You can hardly teach what it takes to be a top level CB. That’s why Emery can’t turn our defenders into world class defence. Pep couldn’t do it. Jose couldn’t do it. No one can. You just need to buy the proper personnel.
Funny piece about the Spuds in tomorrow’s Observer. The Puds are complaining that the club’s image is being damaged by playing in Tottenham !
“Tottenham Hotspur has angered locals by protesting that the streets around its new £850m stadium are too dirty for fans and could damage its ambitions to establish one of the world’s most unique entertainment venues”.
See: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/dec/22/london-streets-too-dirty-claim-super-rich-spurs
Also GOH you’ve become a pretty bland troll dude
Also laca isn’t even that short lol. He’s what about 5’8? That’s what about 1-2 inches shorter than the average British man?
…positively tiny eh…
Gotta agree with china1, at first it was cute but GOH has become quite a bore with his attempts at trolling