Happy Boxing day to you all! I hope you took things to suitably crazy levels yesterday, kept conversation non-Arsenal for at least two drinks, then spoiled the day with an aggressive debate over the merits of Arsene Wenger’s career.
I just hope the players feel fresher than I do…
Brighton is the late kick-off today. We head down to the south coast to chase an extremely important three points in a title race which has so far proved to be relentless if you have #Top4 goals. As Emery said, “we are going to play [with] full [commitment]… the same three points are in Brighton that are in Liverpool.” Important to remember that beating Spurs in the league was tragically wiped out by that horror result against Southampton away from home.
The manager sounds like he’s going for a full-throated line-up. When asked about fielding LT, who is on 4 bookings, he didn’t flinch.
“In my career, I never made these decisions,”
“We are going to play the next match in Brighton and we are going to play full – not with considered options or playing with more caution.
“I don’t know whether Torreira would even be able to play cautiously but I don’t want him to think about the possibility of a suspension for one yellow card.”
I think the decision to play LT will be more about having a shite defence. It would be a full-on disaster if we don’t have him available for the Liverpool game. But, I do understand the worry that we flunk a typically flat day for football, then nullify a potential win we might have against the Premier League favourites. This sort of decision really does show how skinny our squad is. We should be able to field an Elneny like object for this game and feel fairly confident we can deliver a result.
Rotation should be a consideration today, I think the players have looked tired and we’ve picked up a lot of injuries of late. Interesting that Emery dropped this comment as well.
“I was speaking with [Laurent] Koscielny about the possibility for him to play against Burnley and he said: ‘Not today’ – because he was very tired after two matches in a week and I decided for him not to be with the group. Koscielny said: ‘I’m not Mattéo! Mattéo is 19 and I’m 33 years old!’
“I am very happy with Mattéo and he is improving a lot. He gives a lot of moments with the combinations, the quality and the possibility to play with our style. He needs to continue his progress with us but I think he’s [still] very young.”
Great to hear that Matteo likes to play, but a sharp warning that players in their 30s cannot be relied on for 60 games. Amazing how quickly you can go from a pivotal figure to a creaky old man!
Brighton have lost 3 on the bounce, the last they won was against Palace. Also worth noting they haven’t won any of their last 9 league games on Boxing Day. They’re without Lewis Dunk, their best defender by quite a margin. The stats line up nicely for us, but ultimately, as we saw a couple of weeks ago, the old Arsenal always lurks in the wings.
Right, that’s me done, see you in the comments!
x
PHD
I’m with you 100% on kroenke – of course .
The problem is that he’s here to stay and sadly, he owns the entire club now.
There is no way to remove him. By his standards and intentions, his involvement in arsenal has been a huge success. It’s doubled in value at least and he hasn’t had to put a penny in.
Therefore, I’m resigned to hoping that arsenal fc could still progress in spite of its owner.
Therefore 6th would be acceptable for me.
Bould should never off been kept, He is a joke that is not funny.
The difference between when klopp,pep and Sarri arrived at their respective clubs and Emery arriving at Arsenal is that with those 3 the quality of the football instantly improved without necessarily getting consistent results at first. With Emery, one gets the feeling that the quality of our play is regressing along With the inconsistent results that are now coming. Liverpool,city and Chelsea fans were willing to be patient because they were/are being entertained. I don’t think Arsenal fans will be as patient …many of the fans will take exception to the treatment of Lacazette and Ozil over the last few… Read more »
The difference between when klopp,pep and Sarri arrived at their respective clubs and Emery arriving at Arsenal is that with those 3 the quality of the football instantly improved without necessarily getting consistent results at first Compare the fucking players at the club before you spout bollocks City had won how many titles in the years before pep came? Chelsea had won 2 of the last 4 titles before Sarri game Klopp had a team that should have won the league. And got them to the lofty heights of 8th. How much could he have improved the squad if they… Read more »
Joe
Good management is all about getting the best out the players you have in your squad .
Emery hasn’t a clue how to get the best out of Aubamayang,Lacazette,ozil and Mhkitaryan and believe or not ,our defence is even worse than last season and that is with 5 new defensive minded players brought in who have all done quite well so how is it that we don’t look solid as a unit….it can only be on one person and how he sets up the team to play.
This was possibly our worst performance this season albeit we have been treading water since the Southampton game. Our defence is appalling. Both Lichsteiner and Koscielny are not remotely EPL level players. Sokratis was only marginally better and even Kolasinac was poor today. We started the game quite well, but then the team went into back and square passing mode and slowing the game down. This was the sort of football we expected under Wenger last season. Our attack was neutered, because the ball seldom reached what should have been its final destination. There was virtually no pressure on Brighton… Read more »
Pierre
Even fucking pep couldn’t get these wenger rejects to perform better.
We are 2 points out of 4th. 6th off city.
We aren’t as bad as you all
Make out considering what emery has had to work with and how long he has had at the project
Pierre. Ozil has been lazy and shit for us for years
Mkhit has been a complete bust in the epl
You ever stop to think they aren’t good enough ?
Mkhit is shit
Ozil is not meant for the PL
Aubu is top scorer and could have had a hat trick. It’s emery fault he missed another breakaway? And the goalie made an amazing save
Fuck me. So easy to pick apart every arguement some of you make
Joe “Pierre. Ozil has been lazy and shit for us for years Mkhit has been a complete bust in the eplYou ever stop to think they aren’t good enough ? Mkhit is shit Ozil is not meant for the PL” Joe very well, we don’t have good enough players However what percentage of the blame do you think Emery should own for the key decisions that contributed to our poor performance today ? 1%…2%…………….100? Surely, you are not going to keep pointing fingers at just the players. You can be very supportive of Emery and still fess us to the… Read more »
On the evidence of recent performances our defence is in need of complete
overhaul.
Only Bellerin at right wing back might be considered a starting eleven player.
Mustafi, Sokratis, Holding and Kolasinac might be considered good enough to be squad/bench players.
Lichsteiner, Koscielny and Monreal are past their best and Jenkinson and
Maitland-Niles are not good enough to sit on the bench let alone play in
starting lineup.
So the club needs potentially four new defenders before we start to discuss our midfield and lack of wingers.
Pierre, agree Lich fucked up big time for that goal..
It’s an arsenal thing to concede straight from their corner kick ..happen tens times during Wenger reign, Emery should do something .
Ozil was missing for the whole half, he created fuck all and iowbi was a waste of time..
Lacas sub was wrong imo and completely unnecessary .Ramsey looked awkard and disinterested .
Big job rebuilding this mess..
“Emery hasn’t a clue how to get the best out of Aubamayang,Lacazette,ozil and Mhkitaryan and believe or not ”
That’s no system in the world were this 4 players can fit. Believe it or not, Wenger left a terrible and imbalanced squad that no matter the system we play, we are always going to be putting a square peg in a round hole.
I only saw the first half because it was too late for me
Wet poor result tho. There were huge gaps between their midfield and defense in the first half and every time we moved forwards we looked like scoring – yet after auba’s second chance we just stopped trying to attack and played defensive football for no obvious reason
When you have a 33 and a 34 year old in your back 4, you don’t play defensive football. This isn’t Italy is it
Dissenter. We have Liverpool in 2 days. I’d say he took Off laca to rest him. He is needed for pool Probably thought we had enough to win today and we should have really. Aubu makes it 2 nil and it’s an easy stroll To a win. So do you blame emery for aubu not scoring. Who is emery meant to rotate with if he can’t bring in Iwobi etc. Or should He just play laca 90 m Every match of the season? He wasn’t left with much of a squad. So maybe if wellbeck, mkhit etc weren’t hurt he’d… Read more »
disappointing result. Didn’t watch the game but I think emery has underestimated the strenuous job of the PL. You can’t get the same three midfield to play every game week in, week out. I hope he learns from this and goes back to making wholesale changes like he did at the beginning of the season, even though he was experimenting with his best 11 then.
I think this side massively miss bellerin, which is why we need a winger in jan.
That’s no system in the world were this 4 players can fit. Believe it or not, Wenger left a terrible and imbalanced squad that no matter the system we play, we are always going to be putting a square peg in a round hole.
This.
Too bad super fans like gambon and Pierre can’t figure this out.
Pierre
It is a stretch to say Emery couldn’t bring out the best for those 4 you mention.
My feeling is that Emery is good in improving the micro aspects but bad in the macro part.
Bellerin. Holding. Mustafi. 3 of our usual starting 4 out injured.
As error prone as Mustafi is he nor holding or Bellerin make that mistake that lich and Kos have made recently.
Individual mistakes.
Henry RVP wrighty bergkamp Freddie etc score the chances aubu mkhit Iwobi have missed this season
Look. I don’t think emery is the best manager in the world but to just give him 6 months and 1 TW makes you all sound like a bunch of cunts.
If next Jan we are seeing the same shit over and over then I’ll have no problem calling him out and demanding he get sacked.
But to hear the hysterics that are being spewed on here are beyond ridiculous
But to hear the hysterics that are being spewed on here are beyond ridiculous” Especially when you know its agenda based. Wenger had 10 seasons to get it right and failed miserably. Not one of the recent critics had anything but excuses for Wenger, we’re here because of their consent. At least you could do the honourable thing and remain quiet or just be consistent in your apathy. Gambon, I hear you and share your concerns. I’d only caution your open critique of Emery as it just gives the moronic akb’s a reason to exist. Let’s see where we are… Read more »
I hope that I am wrong. I believe I know the problem of our team. There is no denial that our team played badly today. The major reason is that we have a lot of injuries and our midfield players are tired. Some people said that we are only two points out of top 4. But to achieve that, our players have to work very hard and run a lot. Seeing today’s performance, I am worry that we’ll continue to play like today in the future. We didn’t play like a top 4 team. Emery is managing a team in… Read more »
This is what Emery has to work with at the moment: Leno – constantly over exposed, occaisionaly errot prone especially with crosses. Licht – Probably wouldn’t make a bench in the MLS & China leagues. Kos – Broken and finished as a player, she retire for the sake of his health and sanity. Sokratis – More bravado & heart than footballing skills but not a title challenging CB. Kola – Non existent defending skills but decent enough squad level LWB Guendouzi – Too young and inexperienced to be starting so many games. Starting to burn out already, so needs to… Read more »
lot of criticism of Emery’s subs today, but no side has won more points from losing positions, no side has scored more goals from subs and no side has scored more second half goals, surely we could/should cut him some slack?
Tony I agree more or less with your analysis of the squad. The simple truth is that we have run out of resources following injuries to Bellerin, Mustafi, Holding and Monreal in defence. Also Mkhitaryan and Welbeck in attack. You can also factor in Smith-Rowe as well even if he is not technically a first team squad player. The maths yesterday were that we had just 18 FIT first team squad players and that included three goalkeepers. Since Southampton game we have been playing STERILE football with minimal service to our two strikers. Torreira is now beginning to play on… Read more »
ES We’re pretty much on the same page regarding our shambolic situation for such a supposedly top 8 world richest club. Next month will show the club’s real ambition or lack of it, which if the latter, it will mean we are purely a financial cog in the Kroenkes’ assets profit production. There is no reason why we can’t spend up to £200 million if the players are available. Deferred payments and some manageable structured debt if need be can be arranged or Kroenke can just use his own money for once. It wouldn’t be like he was mortgaging his… Read more »
Tony What do you think, for this squad is a back 3 better or a back 4? I think for this group of players, a back 3 is more coherent. But perhaps due to CB shortage we are forced into a back 4. I am the rare few that think this TW is not crucial, simply because we do not have a settled lineup. Example everyone says we need a winger. But width can come from wingers, wingbacks or fullbacks. And you can only make that decision once you have a formation you want to play. Since Emery is scrambling… Read more »
Tony
We won’t spend 200m in Jan. Those tiles and amount of players just aren’t avaialbale in Jan. Let’s hope for 2. Probably get 1.
Tony The reality is that Arsenal are not going to spend £200 million in the next 2 transfer windows. If we spend £50 million + on a winger that will be the horizon of our ambition. Arsenal’s transfer policy when it comes to defence or midfield is to spend as little as possible on “bargains”. We spent £35 million on Mustafi and £40 million on Ozil. That would buy you today squad players for a top 4 team. Since my earlier post today I calculate that the following players need to be offloaded. Cech [unless he signs 1 year contract… Read more »
Dark Hei Back 3 or 4 depends on who we are playing and what player resources we have. Yesterday’s game wasn’t a blip it followed Southampton’s excrutiatingly poor performance, Huddersfield before that and we’ll grind nothing out of Liverpool or Chelsea. Emery needs players because he has enough clarity to know we’re playing on fumes in midfield, have no pace or footballing intelligence in defense. Yesterday long diagonal balls ALA Gerard & Beckham were Brighton’s main tactics and every time we hd no defender close to the Brighton receiving player. If you can’t read that simplistic tactical approach as a… Read more »
ES
‘We spent £35 million on Mustafi and £40 million on Ozil. That would buy you today squad players for a top 4 team.’
So in the past we spent real money on players based on market price for that period, so we should be doing it again.
It’s about ambition and whether we actually have it or not because we’re spending £millions on our infrastructure and sweet FA on players at the moment.
Market price is right
All good players are 10 to 30 m more now than 10 yrs ago or even 5 years
A good player will be 40 plus
An excellent player even more
It’s up to Stan. We all can identify players who can push us
Tony
I agree with you, but unfortunately Arsenal’s business plan over last decade will not allow us to spend more than what we earn. Occasionally the club may dip into its large bank balance.
What is astonishing is that Liverpool have consistently outspent us in recent
years notwithstanding that their ownership is not as wealthy as ours.
The key differences are that they show real “onfield” ambition and are willing
to go extra mile.
Also Arsenal’s cast offs generate very little transfer revenue. Last summer we managed under £4 million for Peres and Afobe!!!
I might add that whereas Liverpool, Spurs and Man City can afford to be selective
in their acquisitions and buy perhaps a couple of top class players each season
Arsenal need at moment at least half a dozen replacements to be considered even remotely serious competitors.
I understood why we only had £70 million of the last TW; Emery needed to evaluate the squad and see how the team needed to be rebuilt and revitalised. Emery has done that and kept us respectable, but the wheels are coming off now and Emery is also learning on the job as far as the PL works. Emery, Sven & Raul should now know who they need and should have known for over a month now. We had enough excuses from Gazidis and Wenger over the last 10 years. Now we’re continually getting “We need to improve” from Emery.… Read more »
ES
100% agree with you
gambon December 26, 2018 19:31:27 No AMN needs to be sold to a championship team.Lichsteiner needs to be fucked off.Koscielny needs to be sold.Chambers needs to be sold.We need to sign at least 5 first XI players and 7 or so overall.Problem is we won’t do that…we will sign 3 players of ok but not great standard then wonder why we don’t really improve. wrong, we don’t wonder why we improve, we create an agenda that emery can’t improve the team. When the truth is, it’s been half a season, have poor personnel. Funny thing is, on another day, we… Read more »
@ Joe… Like i said before, I enjoy most of your comments and contributions on here… But you are beginning to sound naive, and becoming an emery arse lickers…. Did you and emery ever think of playing laca for the full 90mins and get all max. points… then manage to grind out a result at anfield??? Maybe No… Instead, you both took one point from Brighton… Knowing fully well, with our current defensive crisis and our inability to play good football and create clear chances coupled with the inability for auba to score clear cut chances and laca has lost… Read more »
Reasonable bargains due to owner’s “self sustainable model”, that Emery have to accept: – Calero (CB) with 10m pounds release clause. – Banega (AM) #10 role with 18m pounds release clause. – Malcom (RW) left footed pacy winger – try to get him on loan from Barca, cause Lille is holding out N. Pepe for closer to 70m. Emery must persist with his 4-2-3-1 formation and sacrifice Aubameyang to play as LW as he has no other option than to maximize both Laca and Auba playing together (Emery has to coach Kolasinac and remind him that he is a fucking… Read more »
Stroller
I would keep Welbeck.
It is hard to find a back-up who is fairly competent at the hold-up striker, 2nd striker, right winger, left winger, with a professional attitude, hardworking and always ready when called off the bench.
Do I mention that he is English.
Wonder what will happen to our European players post-March.
I think we can go back to the beginning of the season when it was apparent from day one that the new manager was not going to make defensive stability his main priority and that decision will come back to haunt him. Many on here think that some have an agenda against Emery…they are wrong. Arsenal’s main failings over the last 5 or six years (or longer) has been defensive fragility through midfield and defence and many like myself thought the arrival of a new manager would address these issues. Torriera arriving has improved the midfield but despite 5 defensive… Read more »
Let’s be clear a top class side needs at least 18-20 players to “rotate” or “replace” players out with injury who can come into the team without impacting on our performance. It has been obvious that we are well short of that number in recent games. We are struggling in both defence and midfield, because of lack of options. Since January Arsenal have recruited Aubameyang, Lichsteiner, Sokratis,Torreira,Guendouzi, Mkhitaryan,Mavropanos and Leno. Torreira and Aubameyang are both excellent acquisitions and worth their place in first team. Leno and Sokratis are decent squad players and worth the money we paid and Guendouzi is… Read more »
Has emery left yet?? I’m still being pissed. I think some of the big players should have a word with him over subbing laca when we were in need of a goal. Some on here are saying he did that to rest laca for our match against Liverpool, that’s very silly of you lots. What assurance did he have that we were gonna win yesterday without laca and win at anfield with laca? Shouldn’t a sensible coach have fetched all the 3 points against Brighton and go for whatever is obtainable against Liverpool? I’m beginning to think whatever they said… Read more »
Dark Hei My view as to who we should offload and keep is somewhat different to many other posters on Le Grove or for that matter I suspect the manager. Welbeck is a decent squad player, but he has three shortcomings, which will act against him. First he is injury prone, second he is in final year of current contract and third he does not have a good enough goal scoring record for a 28 year old striker. One of the reasons that both Pepe and Dembele have been discussed is that both can play on wing as primary position… Read more »
Emery’s mistake was bringing Iwobi on for Ozil and not Ramsey, that ended up necessitating bringing off Lacazette for Ramsey. I don’t think Emery has favourites outside of Torreira and Aubameyang, maybe Xhaka as well. Quite simply, the squad is not of the quality to have many favourites as a new manager. His ‘superstar’ on £350 000 a week is a complete waste of space. I don’t know if there’s a manager taking on a big job with such a disappointing ‘main’ player. That’s the player he would have wanted to look to and did at the start of the… Read more »
Morning, Emery had 70 million to spend on refreshing a whole team, we know there’s more but that’s what he was given. The buys that he bought in for that money have been pretty good considering the lack of funds. Litchsteiner was brought in on a free and probably 50k wages as back up for bellerin and to play the odd game. Unfortunately he’s had to play more since all our back four have been out injured at some point. Torriera was eased in but now has to play every game since xhaka is as good a midfielder as he… Read more »
Emery has been given a lot of credit for his substitutions earlier in the season and rightly so ….I made the comment ” is he a genius of is he just lucky”, I genuinely wasn’t sure , his substitutions seem to work perfectly for a while and it appeared that he knew how to read a game correctly and change a game at half time . My reading of the game yesterday was that Brighton were making it very difficult for Arsenal to play between the lines through defence into the attacking third,they closed all channels very efficiently, they left… Read more »
I cannot accept that we are tired when Pool play their main players in almost all matches. I cannot accept the subbing of Laca yesterday and playing Iwobi. I cannot accept conceeding in a Wenger style from a fast counter attack off a corner. Is Emery and his backroom staff going stale? Why do such goals still happen against us? Why were we not on the strikers, man marking them and dispossessing them of the ball? Yes, Kos gave a heading assist, but we should be on outfield attackers and not ball watching. Why we defend with few players amaze… Read more »
https://arseblog.news/2018/12/brighton-1-1-arsenal-by-the-numbers/
Nice article. If you compare with last season’s stats we are doing worse not better. Not sure what to make out of it.
Cesc Appeal
“Emery’s mistake was bringing Iwobi on for Ozil and not Ramsey, that ended up necessitating bringing off Lacazette for Ramsey.”
And what did Ramsey do …..nothing , but that’s ok because he and iwobi run around a lot and make themselves busy.
Emery cocked it up big time and you know if ……
Aubamayang must be wondering what’s going on …first half ,playing with ozil and Lacazette…first half hour playing some quality football ,dominating the game .
2 nd half Aubamayang has iwobi and Ramsey to link up with …… Emery said they were tactical changes.
Pierre,
For the first time, I find myself agreeing with your analysis on Ozil and yesterdays match. Most teams have started plahing us the same way and we suffer without a good right wubg back or full back.
We need a winger badly, a CM and a CB minimum this winter!
Confident Remember how much the Liverpool players broke and couldn’t work Klopp’s pressing system when he arrived? We’re experiencing the same thing I think although even worse because this lot really were a low effort, do what you want , ‘express yourself’ kind of side. It requires a combination of time to work out the players that can do it and buying players in to replace those that can’t. Our team is also totally unbalanced and that can only be resolved by buying and selling. Mavropanos has returned to training, very unfortunate it is now though, the pressure is on… Read more »
Compared to the same number of matches last year Arsenal are shooting less (243 vs 336), creating less scoring chances (30.8 vs 37.8) and less clear cut chances (34 vs 50 big chances). On defense things have gotten worse as well. They have given up more shots (234 vs 176), more expected goals (24.5 vs 22.3) and more big chances (33 vs 29).
The problem is a team’s DNA is generally sussed out by other teams. We might be more up to a fight against teams which is credit to Emery but every team and Manager knows that we can’t hold on to a lead and that fact has a hold on us and the players panic anytime we go through a rough patch during game time. We believe the hype that there are no issues as we tend to play better and score more goals in the 2nd half of matches, but that can only work for so long and against Fodder… Read more »
Brighton were there for the taking but Arsenal and, to a degree, Emery, fluffed their lines.
Defensively we continue to struggle, but my major concern is our over reliance on Torreira and Guendouzi to gel things together.
Lacazette and Auba need to play together( something doesn’t add up with this one). Ozil we know is a liability, whilst with Ramsey you just never know what you’re going to get.
Injuries aside, we need additions in January………..big time!
Can’t see us stopping the Liverpool train, but you never know.
Amey “Compared to the same number of matches last year Arsenal are shooting less (243 vs 336), creating less scoring chances (30.8 vs 37.8) and less clear cut chances (34 vs 50 big chances). On defense things have gotten worse as well. They have given up more shots (234 vs 176), more expected goals (24.5 vs 22.3) and more big chances (33 vs 29).” Do these figures surprise me …not at all ,in fact they are very worrying . We have Liverpool ,Chelsea and city to play by Feb 3rd…we really do need to take maximum points off the lower… Read more »
Pierre, You are a special type of buffoon to add Ramsey next to Iwobi. Ramsey might not be the real deal but rumours connect him to the best teams in the world. Now your Ozil was on the market last winter and got jack shit of offers. Now that he is not needed at the Arsenal, the choices he has are Inter and Istanbul Basaksehir (not sure I spelt that right). Fk off with your bullshit. Ozil did zilch yesterday, created zilch yesterday. You can slag off Iwobi cause he’s a bad player, but do not pretend that this current… Read more »
As Pierre has shown, there hasn’t been any improvement.
All the organisation, hard work in the world won’t get you anywhere more than a rich mans Sam Allardyce.
The thing that matters is scoring goals and not conceding them…..which is affected by creating good chances and not conceding good chances, neither of which we are doing.
I don’t expect Emery to work miracles, but I do want to see a positive direction of travel, which I’m not seeing.
All I’m seeing is endless quotes talking about “work” “process” and “improvement” which were not seeing.
Pierre the buffoon is having a field day in here, hasn’t he. He is literally spending today in the blog. You’d say that he is enjoying the loss. Top fan no doubt.
Iwobi for Lacazette was a crazy decision.
Emery is tinkering too much.
Can’t fathom out what he was trying to do.
If he continues in this vain, my two year probationary period for him will be severely shortened.
@ Graham Yeah as regards Pool, one never knows, but its at Anfield and they have the wind behind their sails especially as Citeh are going to a tough patch and Spuds are grinding out results. Pool (and Klopp) will feel they can take our defence to the cleaners and will be at us from the off. Would have been far comfy if this game was at the Em (like the 1st one) as the squad will not want to fold infront of our fans. Auba and our frontline will need to be clonical as we will get chances against… Read more »
Southampton, Wolves at home, Brighton..these are 7 points i believe will come back to hunt us. We should be on 45 points now.
From where i sit now, i can’t see us finishing top four with this squad, every year we have something holding us back, this year it’s the inability to keep a clean sheet.
We need to do away with this habit of drawing games too..far too many draws this season, almost like we are just happy avoiding defeat
Graham
I agree, Lacazette being taken off again is very strange…I thought he started the game very well , his touch was spot on and was linking well with Aubamayang.
Our play then became too slow and negative at the back and through midfield so our strikers were starved of possession …
Taking Lacazette off didn’t make sense..obviously Emery doesn’t rate him and Lacazette,, I’m sad to say, could be another one out the door ,possibly in january..
Based on our performance yesterday we deserved to lose to be honest. After a good first 15-20 mins, we were the second best team for the rest of the game. The tale that Pierre is preaching how our game was perfect creating chances in the first half is a joke. It’s true, for the first half of the half. After that we could have conceded 3 goals. How the team went to shit the moment Ozil was taken off is another of his jokes. We were already second best at half-time so Emery had to change something. Sadly Emery subs… Read more »
Xhaka – “We have to improve”
Getting really annoyed with the endless “improvement” quotes from players and management.
I think xhara has improved as much as he can do, he is still not prem quality will get 10mfor him.
Think elnenny is better than him
Think we should start throwing Eddie on for the last 25…
lad has goals in him.
A stat for the Oziltologists.
Ozil in season 2018/19:
Minutes played – 980
Shots on target – 3
Total shots – 4
A shot every 245 mins.
That’s a proper AM for you.
Next time someone says how Ozil is a top AM and he should get away with not pressing and defending, remind him of this stat.
A shot taken every 245 mins. Almost a shot every third game.
Not sure if there’s another AM in world football with a stat like that. Scandalous.
The Liverpool squad suffered massively for about a year or so as they got used to the gen pressing style of Klopp but now they’re better for it. Arsenal fans are some of the most unrealistic and inpatient fan base in World football. I mean imagine spending less than newly promoted teams and expecting some kind of magic on the pitch after getting rid of a manager who simply told players to “express themselves” in the pitch
R.S.P. C
You could be right but from what I’ve seen of Eddie, he lacks something.
Could be just confidence.
As for your take on Elneny………. I don’t think so.
It looks like it might be a Torreira, Xhaka, Banega midfield from January.
You have to give the manager TIME especially with minimal investment and with the heap of trash the new man was left with because believe it or not, we have the worst squad of any of the top 7 in the league. I mean I’d sooner have Digne at Everton than Kolasinac and you could maybe get 4/5 smart buys in the league for much less than we got Mustafi
Raptora ” The tale that Pierre is preaching how our game was perfect creating chances in the first half is a joke. ” I think it is my duty to correct you on the above comment … Then you can alter your opinion on it behind “a joke” if you wish. Here is my original comment “Therefore all the space was behind the Brighton defence and 3 or 4 times we broke their defence by bypassing the Brighton midfield and this tactic proved very effective ,especially in the first half hour .To be able to play effectively during this period… Read more »
“Behind” * = being
I mean criticize the managers choices and tactics yea we should but don’t go pretending you expected us to be realistically doing any better than we currently are with the squad we have and their almost nonexistent abilities and a transfer budget of a championship club
Pierre
December 26, 2018 20:38:42
Half time ..take Ozil off and what happens…..no chances created …Brighton totally dominate the 2nd half ….
Read your fkin comment!
@batistuta…. You fuck retarded realist… Please tell.. Pool suffered massively trying to get used to gengen pressing and klopps heavy metal football… But now it’s a success. Man citeh suffered heavily when getting used used to PEPs tiki taka and fast fast flowing football, but now they at crazy good at it… Chelsea are getting used to sarriball and are doing very well that us… Despite having a striker who moved from wearing no.9 to no.19 and an arsenal outcast as a second choice striker… What are we massively suffering from??? Okay… We are suffering from playing out from the… Read more »
Than us.. Fucking auto correct
DDKingz got that Northern Goon about him.
Raptora
You’re sounding a little desperate in your attempt to discredit ozil …no one is bothered..we all know he doesn’t hardly shoot ..
He got taken off by Emery for “tactical reasons” …end of….same as Lacazette.
Probably the wrong decisions but who knows..
Ddkings
Why so aggressive? Remember, it’s the festive season.
For me, it’s the way Arsenal play out from the back. Too slow, too predictable. Then again, where’s the injection of pace going to come from? We don’t have the dynamism of other teams.
Let’s see what happens in the JTW.
Raptora
You’ve started digging a nice big hole for yourself so you had better stop it I was you as you are tying yourself in knots.
You’ll have to explain why Torreira somehow gets a pass for poor play under the guise of being “tired”, when he’s played less games than most this season after it took half a dozen matches before he was introduced.
If he’s tired, then so are the other core XI played game after game surely? Be consistent. He’s allowed to play some shit games or be ineffective too. Doesn’t mean he’s pants.
Alexanderhenry “I think some of the criticism of Emery is OTT. He’s done remarkably well overall. After the two defeats at the beginning of the season who would have predicted the run we went on? Also that victory again spurs was particularly sweet. The problem is simple. We don’t have good enough players. We installed two supposedly top men in the director of football and head scout roles. Let’s see them earn their wages and let’s see the club give them some proper financial support.” Mr Henry well said. I totally get that myself and everyone here want The Arsenal… Read more »
Lastly….
As Gambon rightly pointed out… What’s this lastest nonsense about improvements/ moments in attack and moments in defence… Which emery always uses in his post game/match briefing…. Which I heard xhaka used yesterday…. Or is it the new England national anthem????
Wenger used to tell about how his team lacks mental strength…. Now emery is using attack & defending moments…
Let’s watch and see where this leads to….
Pierre Irrespective of Ozil’s minimal contribution to the cause, I think most on here would agree that he has become a major burden to both the manager and the team. Playing with just nine outfield players, because that’s basically what happens when Ozil plays, creates a total imbalance to the team. Knowing that your teammate has major limitations(namely physical and mental attributes) is detremental to everything. His creative assets are now minimal and although there are those rare occasions where he can do something audacious, it’s just not worth taking the risk. I hope the board are backing Emery on… Read more »
The simplest way to judge Emery is on his record compared to last season and being halfway through the season it’s a decent time to take a look. As it currently stands: Played 19 and we’ve picked up 38 points pro rate that and we end up with 76 for the season, so a pretty decent increase on last seasons 63. We’ve scored 41 so better than last season and we’ve conceded 25 basically identical to last season. Possibly the most interesting stat is after 10 home matches and 9 away we’ve picked up 15 away points compared to 16… Read more »
“Wenger used to tell about how his team lacks mental strength…. ”
Sorry but that was exactly the opposite : “WE SHOWNED MENTAL STRENGTH!!”
What a strangely selective memory…
*SHOWED
(ffs!!)
(lol)
Highbury
I think dd’s just strange full stop.
Hope this Banega talk isnt true.
Like him as a player, but hes 30 years old, will be 31 at the start of next season.
We have already signed Auba, Mykhitaryan and Sokratis in recent months, all of whom will need to be replaced in the next few years. Doesnt make sense to buy another.
Gambon
Get what you’re saying, but Banega at least has genuine class. He’s also not ever had a game that relied on physical prowess so hopefully he’s more likely a type to maintain his level into his mid thirties. It’s Auba I’d be concerned about hitting 31 and beyond.
Is this an Emery move, what input has Sven had on Banega I wonder? Screams of Emery having a stamp of the ground
Well said Marc!
I don’t think our new backroom team are happy with that. And I’m sure they are going to do all they can even within our budget to make us a better team.
Side note:
The FA have made their bed with the retrospective diving shit with that Salah decision. They bottled it because he’s a big name. It was as clear a dive as you’ll see all season, what a joke.
Graham
“Irrespective of Ozil’s minimal contribution to the cause, I think most on here would agree that he has become a major burden to both the manager and the team.Playing with just nine outfield players, because that’s basically what happens when Ozil plays, ”
Would just like to point out that the previous 14 games that Ozil started we have won 10…drawn 4 and lost zero…. so I am not sure if what you are saying rings true.
CC
Agree.
Pierre,
Fake stat.
Ozil has started in 13 games in total this season.
7 wins, 4 draws and 2 losses.
Draws are vs Crystal Palace, Liverpool, Wolverhampton and Brighton. Hardly world beaters 3 of these. Was also directly responsible for the winning goal of Southampton after one of his “star” cameos.
Another blatant lie and pathetic try to defend the indefensible. Not even surprised since you were doing the exact same thing for Wenger.
https://www.whoscored.com/Players/13756/Fixtures/Mesut-%C3%96zil
Did anyone catch Iwobi asking Xhaka what formation we were playing after coming on at HT.
What kind of team talk was that then?
@ Leftside
Lol! That was really funny. Or maybe Iwobi was just asking for reaffirmation on what was said at half-time in the dressing room.