So here we are again, Mesut Ozil drops out of the Arsenal trip to Liverpool complaining of a pain in his knee.
Is it real? Could be. Is it made up? History would suggest that when Mesut thinks bad news is coming there’s often a reaction. Whatever it is, I’m not really surprised that we’re here talking about the mercurial German again.
It’s quite interesting watching a certain group of fans use this issue as something to pin on Emery as bad management.
I think fans need a reminder of what Mesut Ozil has been for Arsenal.
This is the most expensive player on our books by about £150k a week. I know people don’t like the fact I mention the figure, but that’s because it’s a baffling number when you consider his drawbacks. It doesn’t matter how you package money, in football, it should be related to what you consistently deliver to the team. ‘It’s not his fault he’s paid that much’ isn’t an argument I’m afraid.
Mesut needs perfect conditions to perform these days. Nice weather, preferably a little break before he plays, he’s no good away from home, doesn’t like to play bruisers or teams that drop a heavy press, and he also doesn’t like to have to muck in for the team, nor will he play out on the right.
We thought his issue before was having to play with Giroud, so Lacazette was going to unleash his creativity. Didn’t happen. Then we thought signing a striker with pace would help him. Didn’t happen. Then we thought it was Wenger, so we waited for the World Cup, where he tanked. Then we waited for Emery, and he once again tanked.
Not to get into the weirdness of him being given tough away days off by TWO Arsenal managers. Imagine that, being 30 years old, the highest paid player at the club, and you’re given tough games off because the manager thinks you’re lightweight? Embarrassing…
Anyone who thinks the Ozil situation under Emery is weird hasn’t been paying attention to what’s going on in football or on a personal level with the player. The game does not allow for passengers, especially when you’re a Europa League side trying to climb into the Champions League. Mesut is a passenger these days, he’s a quarterback who only wants to do what he wants to do. How does Emery have any other choice outside moving him on?
Can we beat Liverpool away in the Premier League? Likely not. Is taking Mesut there going to change things? Unlikely, he couldn’t make it past 45minutes against Brighton.
Be on the lookout for Arsenal fans using this to go at Unai Emery. The careful-what-you-wish-for contingent are stinging after their summer humiliation. They are softening fans up for questions over the manager because he’s taken all the bold decisions most people who have really been paying attention tend to agree with. Mesut Ozil has been a disaster signing for Arsenal and Emery is addressing that problem as we speak. That’s decisive, it’s bold and it’s the right decision.
If we’re going to beat Liverpool this afternoon, it’s going to be with a team of professionals dedicated to the cause. It’ll have to be a full-throttle performance from every single player. We are capable of such a game as you saw in our destruction of Spurs a few weeks ago, but even if we fail, we’re playing the Premier League leaders with two of our most talented player unavailable because of form or contract troubles.
Our defence looks ripe for destruction. I have no idea how Lichtsteiner and Koscielny are expected to survive an onslaught from the outrageous pace of the Liverpool side, outside a very deep block. In midfield, we don’t have much choice outside a bland offering of three defensive midfielders and up front, our hopes and prayers rest on Auba and Lacazette having an outrageously potent day at the office.
Liverpool’s unbeaten run can’t last forever, but I do think they’re too much for us to handle as a team today.
But, it is what it is, and I don’t think there’s any brand of Mesut Ozil that would help us through today.
I dont know if we are watching the same match , but most of you that wants emery out obviously didnt play any football. And i am not talking about in thr small terrain 5vs5. You are saying the incapability of licht to clear the ball is Emerys fault or the tactic was wrong that he couldnt clear the ball? Then it comes the mistake from torreira , which by the way he did a lot this game, was again emerys fault? Did he told him to lose the ball in middle for tactical reasons? Then firmino to run over… Read more »
Pedro
“Gotta say, the boners the pro Wenger crowd have over here… well, shameful. I’m no Emery fan, but I’m not vindicated after today because this squad is a Wenger mess still.”
Give yourself a pat on the back and then tell us which managerial appointment would have done better with the same level of investment?
Paging Pedro….waiting for an answer….1…., 2….. 3
Certainly not Arteta because everyone can see the scale of change surpasses what a managerial novice can provide.
going to be told hard to buy players in jan
Champagne
Really don’t like this “we’ll be cautious and look at Utd” stuff the club and media are saying. If they’re serious, they can go from 10th to 1st in one season. We are not in that bracket
“Gotta say, the boners the pro Wenger crowd have over here… well, shameful. I’m no Emery fan, but I’m not vindicated after today because this squad is a Wenger mess still.“
Torreira, Licht, Sokratis have all made blunders leading to goals, all bought under Emery.
What mess are you referring to precisely?
Joe So you admit. That’s why you bake muffins for the boyzzzzz Anyway. We are as unlikely to win anything if more under emery as we were under wenger. Emery isn’t good enough to turn good players into winners. He needs money. If we aren’t going to give him the money and we aren’t going to back a visionary then when hire him?? To tread water?? As CC said the other day, he was hired on the basis of his profound knowledge of our squad and how best to utilise it. Personally I think it’s tosh. He was hired as… Read more »
Anytime gambon posts all I can see is
Waaaaahhh
Leeds
Agreed.
This isn’t the old regime that could just shrug and know it would be backed because….ermmm….reasons.
This lot know they have to prove something.
Emery will know he has to prove something.
Get rid of Ramsey, Ozil, Elneny etc in January and do some buying, the type of players Emery needs to make a system work that we have seen very brief glimpses of.
I am convinced if it was Klopp, Sarri, Guardiola etc with a £70 Million spend they would be struggling near enough the same.
If we needed this result to serve as an eye opener then we really are in sh*t moving forward. We should already have our targets prepared for the upcoming TW. Targets are attainable, not just to say we tried. Thats repeating past mistakes.
this won’t even a freaking game
“1- Do we now trust Emery & Sven to go out spending again having got it wrong last time”
Very pertinent
Emery and Sven literally can’t afford to get it wrong in both Jan/summer 2019
Gambon, Emery is a transition manager. That is all. Totally uninspired. But we will have to judge him when he’s given a proper squad. He doesn’t have that here.
When he’s moved on, the worry is we’ll go for something LVG like, when we’ll need someone truly innovative.
Guendouzi needs to be loaned, I would have Elneny ahead of him at the moment. So fucking slow and dopey.
Kroinke the donkey needs to splash about 100M in Jan.
2-3 players to make a difference.
Summer fire sale again to recoup funds
ramsey must be sold in Jan for some $$$
Apart from everything.
Today’s match was a fucking shit show.
emery you little bitch fuck off
Will still say that our front 4 of Aubamayang,Lacazette,ozil and Mhkitaryan ,if used correctly and effectively , are pretty close to anything else in the prem .
Sadly our strike force has been destroyed by the manager …the only time he started all 4 of them this season was at home to Liverpool( the league leaders) and it worked very well but for some reason he declined to use them again .
I’d love to kick joe in his minge
Liverpool have built from the back, they have themselves a title challenging team… the funny thing is this is how we used to build our teams… under George Graham anyways.
Mr Serge
“Emery type player” – you mean another Lichsteiner?
“Litch is literally Squillaci pt.II
He should never start for
Arsenal again”
He’s so finished at this level I’m embarrassed for him
Un na naaiDecember 29, 2018 19:23:30
I’d love to kick joe in his ming
Because you got smacked down?
I’d knock you out in 2 seconds
Pedro .
Gotta say, the boners the pro Wenger crowd have over here… well, shameful. I’m no Emery fan, but I’m not vindicated after today because this squad is a Wenger mess still.
Amen. This season was always going to be a struggle. We have a long road ahead of us if we want to be competitive and in the mix every season.
Not surprised by our defeat to pool today.
The Arsenal civil war is back
An internecine ugly battle with several factions sniping at one another.
-The Wenger-in have spotted an opening… we told you to be careful what you wished for
-The Arteta crowd…if only, if only
-The Arsonists like gambon who just want to douse everything with petrol once the going gets tough.
-The Emery=realist..lets give him time
All this £70 Million on the defence stuff is total fucking bollocks. GK, CB, CDM, CDM/CM (18 years old). First off defence I class as RB, CB and LB in which case he spent £12 Million on it. But even if you generously intepret it, Guendouzi does not count, you’re being a total shit stain if you try that. Okay, so £62 Million, what would you prefer then? No Leno, so we stay with Cech and spend £32 Million on a CB instead of £12 Million? What does that get you? What about no Torreira, and we spend £38 Million… Read more »
We are just so flat when players run at us.
I hope Socratis is quicker at serving in his main
job as a waiter in Aspendos.
How much would it cost to clone Van Dijk?
Aubameyang is in the wrong game if he needs service to score goals.
The modern game requires Forwards to be involved as well as score goals
Guns
Who comes in? Someone who can take a simple look at the last and this season table and immediately see where the problem is. We’re leaking goals like crazy. Until that gets resolved we’re going nowhere.
The defensive mistakes we make are actually easy to fix.
They’re so basic that you wonder if the players take any pride in the defensive aspects of the game.
Pedro You can’t seriously be blaming today on wenger?? 5-1 when he was in charge was his fault 6-1 to chelsea was his fault Today is emery’s fault We were 1-0 up and looking good Lichtsteiner Sokratis Leno and Torriera never had enough time are all emery men. Kolasinac never spent enough time with wenger to truly be wengerised either There is no excuse for the capitulation today. 3-1 I could take. That can happen. Maybe 4-2 but 5-1 and you know it’s an organizational issue and that comes down to coaching and tactic It did under wenger and it… Read more »
If the club sticks to this self sustaining mantra, we are cooked. We need money to compete. No ifs ands or buts. If Kronke doesn’t want to spend the money, he needs to follow Wenger out the door.
Emery needs to be supported by a realistic transfer funds if real change is to come to Arsenal.
Gambon we obviously don’t have worse players than these teams you mention. We are higher up in the league aren’t we? Defending and attacking are functions or outcomes of team play so it’s illogical to only single out just our defenders for the goals we concede.
We’re clearly struggling to find a balance between defending and attacking. The other top premier League sides that changed managers have had similar struggles.
Pedro
I agree he was brought in to stabilise things but he’s not doing that.
I think a lot of AFC fans have had enough of shocking defending and I don’t think it’s going to change.
He focused entirely on the defence this summer and it’s worse than ever.
Our xG and xGA are both worse than ever under Wenger.
If I was Stan I wouldn’t give him any funds.
I would st least want to see some underlying improvement.
Emery is trying to complete a jigsaw puzzle with half the pieces missing and pieces from a different box..
Its never going to be the finished article.
This actually may highlight our glaring problems.
Dissenter
The Arsenal fan base is a total shitshow, it really is.
The fissures are so deep, as many of us said, they will take years to disappear.
That is another of Wenger’s great legacies, a totally divided fan base that is ready for the merest misunderstanding to start a factional war.
CA 5 defensive players is self-explanatory. Really not sure what you’re arguing, yes we required the new players but either they’re better than what we had or they’re not. If you think they’re not good enough then that’s on Sven and Emery, if they are good enough then why hasn’t Emery used them to greater effect defensively this season than last? It’s such a simple point, you getting pissy about it is bizarre. Wenger tanked is to 6th with a shit defence. We brought in a new manager (which should yield improvement alone assuming he’s got the sauce), plus 5… Read more »
Emery had 70mil to spend, got 5 defensive players
Emery is not in charge of purchases, that’s Raul and Sven
*transfer funds
Leeds
This is our next step in getting our club back. Kroenke is seriously underestimating what it will take to get us back in the CL.
Kroenke Out!!!
That was painful to watch, not unexpected though, only 4 of our starting players are top 4 material, Leno, Sokratis, Torreira and Auba. This is what happens when your squad is that weak and unbalanced.
If we had to lose anyway this could have been a good way to do it, just before the window opens to really drive home how far behind we are. At this rate we need at least 3 wc players just to make the CL places.
gambon,
Today is the day you got found out
The abuse aside, were you serious when you said you wanted Emery fired?
I hope it’s just a reflection of an unbalanced hormonal milieu.
Torreira, Licht, Sokratis have all made blunders leading to goals, all bought under Emery. What mess are you referring to precisely?
Weird you’d refer to their mistakes but have an excuse up your sleeve for Wenger at a moment’s notice and have been in argument after argument over the last two seasons about Xhaka’s many errors that have led to goals. Prick basically
Gambon keeps spouting this 70m bollocks
What does 70m get you these days?
He bought 2 great players and 1 good (sokratis) and others to fill the gap.
Should he have just bought 1 CB? Like VVD
‘Really not sure what you’re arguing’
Obviously.
Wolves winning today probably wouldn’t have been any more of a shock had we won but as we don’t have a defence we’ll never know
Chances are Stan isn’t even aware we were playing today let alone releasing funds
CA Damn right I’d have stuck with cech and spent the extra 25m on cb You telling me that we only have £70m anyway after the new deals we’ve signed and the new prem deal while all the other sides around us spend like it’s Black Friday with less far gate receipts??? But yea I’d have had Harry maguire in a heartbeat and chilwell or the kid from Fulham Bang Then if we make champions league we get a gk next season. We had cech. He’s more than capabale if gettimgnus into top four and for me still stronger all… Read more »
Cesc Appeal
“I guess it’s whether you’re pragmatic and logical or deluded/agenda fueled.”
and we all know what you are after your agenda fuelled rants against ozil and your agenda fuelled defence of Emery.
best not to mention your agenda fuelled attacks on our previous manager
So let’s get behind the lads and spur them
On to a win v Fulham right akbs?
Sorry I mean arsenal
Supporters.
Kroenke out is right
We hounded wenger long enough when the man at least cared for the club
That slithery old fucking reptile needs to go and take his sons with him.
Kroenke OUT!!!
Take it back a bit and I’m pretty sure I said 5/6-1 today. You’re welcome. I will also except the apologies for the abuse I received for this prediction.
I didn’t catch the game and haven’t seen the highlights but this was almost tagged on as a big home win.
Brilliant attack v shitty defence = doh!
Emery is done I’m afraid. He never was and never will be the manger we needed after Arsene. He’ll improve us, but will never take us to the top levels.
Unfortunately Emery will end up being the “Rebound Chic’ and probably won’t last more than 1 more season at the Arsenal.
The next game is important, lose that and the majority won’t give a toss whether he stays or goes.
No one honestly expected us to beat Pool, but dare we lose to Fulham….shyte will definately hit the fan.
Feel sorry for the team and Manager.
Un
You also rate Wilshere, when West Ham lost him to injury their results took an upturn and now he’s crocked again for the season.
You also incessantly defended Wenger. Still do.
Judgement off maybe?
The club was done as a big force when they decided selling our best players to chelsea city and utd to pay the bills was the way to go, never going to be a top side again unless new owners come in
Marko
Bore off mate, your “excuse” ramblings are boring af. You never actually come out with any, just piss-through accusations because that’s all you actually offer on here.
“Weird you refer to their mistakes” – yea so weird, after watching those mistakes lead to a 5-1 defeat 9 minutes ago, and in response to pedro insinuating this was a Wenger-mess. Super weird. Nibble at someone else, you’re an unintelligent cuck.
Why do people keep bringing up 5 defensive signings? We bought a kid a pointless RB signing (who earlier in the season Charlie argued was a smart signing) and up until Holdings injury a back up CB (Mustafi and Holding were preferred). We strengthened the starting 11 to the tune of two whole players. Those others are Wenger signings and the team still reeks of him. Until otherwise we’re not going to be good enough
Loyika, I thought Emery got it wrong in midweek but today I feel bad for him. We started well enough, got ourselves into a lead and decided to hand out late Christmas gifts.
Lolz. Life after Wenger isn’t really that different after all. Still rubbish and we’re still in-fighting.
£500m and Pep will probably sort us out. Oh wait.
Carlo Ancelotti should have been the Arsenal manager……..we went for aPSG reject now see our lives.
#KronkeOut
Only then we will truly get our Arsenal back.
CA
Why not explain then instead of making remarks like a teenager?
How you don’t assert the five signings made were defensive is a mystery. The most attacking one is Guendouzi, who is a deep lying CM who plays 5 yards from the centre halves.
Loyika
If it doesn’t work with emery no one will fighting for him to stay
We won’t be saddled with a loser like we were with wenger for 15 years too long.
How many times is it a brilliant passage of play, its bread and butter defending that we’re just not doing. Even Sokratis who looks like he enjoys defending (can’t say the same about most of them) gave away a needless penalty.
Pedro Good managers stick to what they believe in even when the going gets tough. Emery started off with playing out from the back, a good idea for sure. He gradually phased out Cech and introduced Leno who was more comfortable with the ball, again a good move. Guess what ? Within 6 months we have given up on playing out from the back. Stuff like these concern me more than actual results. As long as there is a clear playing philosophy and a well thought out process , one can still.ignore current results and pin his hope on the… Read more »
in response to pedro insinuating this was a Wenger-mess. Super weird
Hardly a stretch is it. How many players out injured? Not contributing? How many god awful defenders do we have at the club? All of them? Can blame Wenger for all but two of our defenders. But anyway
Soo….sack Bould and get the best defensive coach there is and buy 4 new shiny defenders to replace the 2 new defenders we just got and the other shit ones.
Seems to be the only solution to this mess. 🙂 Appalling display.
Both camps are half right and half wrong. Emery has proven that he is not a miracle maker. This said, we wouldn’t have more points with any other manager on the planet. He’s definitely steadied the ship. But he’s also regressed in the last several weeks. Team’s been playing worse and worse since that big league win vs spuddies. Feels like both players and manager have dropped the tempo. I have time for Emery but some of the choices he makes are mind boggling. Laca had to stay on the pitch vs BHA and had to start the game today.… Read more »
Ironic and perplexing that the akbs wanting emery out had to endure 9 years of specialist in failure garbage from an incompetent dinosaur in wenger.
Emery has an injury ravaged defense playing the top team and these akbs are ludicrously questioning emery.
TR7
You can’t play out from the back against teams like Liverpool. That playing out the back should be used with ball playing centrebacks we don’t have one. Kozzer used to be able not anymore.
Marko
No it’s precisley a stretch. Arsenal should be noticeably better now than we were last season.
The cloud is gone, the new guy had a full pre-season, several big names at home for the WC, and brought in 5 players to make a mark.
19 games in and we’re twatted in familiar fashion with mistakes from 3 of the 5 new signings, but somehow Wenger is to get the finger of blame and Emery the sympathy vote. Pathetic
CA I didn’t defend wenger!!! Where do you lot get this stuff?? Ok I defended his early years but once he sold cesc and rvp it was over I supported arsenal as I do now but I’m just as angry then as I am now about this joke of a club. Selling season tickets for the club section at fortunes while spending less than mid table. Do you think today was good enough cesc? What about the previous few weeks (spurs aside) Because I don’t. Now I’m not going to fly banners to get managers out and I’ll support this… Read more »
Emery has joined Wenger in the hall of shame.
Joe: I feel we will get a win at Anfield.
Lolololol
Raptora I don’t think they need to move him on, I think his contract is such he would be out of time. Basically as when he took over the starting 11 needed replacing over 1-2 seasons aside from people like Bellerin, Lacazette, Aubameyang and then Ramsey (obviously wage demands torpedoed him) basically everything else is expendable/needs changing. The club therefore need to make a decision as of next week, back Emery and splash out in January to continue that process, or to hold off and handicap a manager to the point that you will never truly know what he could… Read more »
Emery has shown himself to be fallible like everyone else today.
I still support the team and the manager but he needs to take responsibility for the way we have conceded goals so quickly. This has occurred far far too often.
Emery is a clever bloke, I cannot believe he cannot see what we can see. If the players cannot show more resolve and resilience he needs to act decisively and bring in players who will.
As I sai£ earlier, we need a complete defence overhaul.
Raptora
As a person who rates Ramsey,how do you think he played today ….
Marko
They were 5 defensive signings
Until now guendouzi and Torriera were the second coming and just what we’ve needed
Papa has been praised to the hills as the experienced tough guy when all along holding was the man “holding” our defence together. (See what I did there)
Lichtsteiner was a serie a winner with experience and a worthy addition
And leno…. haha. He can really ping a pass to our full back him
Not surprised at the outcome. This squad is still composed of Wenger’s players, it’ll take years for Arsenal to be competitive. As for the mentioned player in the post, Wenger (again) has saddled Arsenal with an overpaid, overrated so called player. Rather than fix blame if I was Emery I’d be moving him on asap. Another example of a BAD decision by an equally BAD manager who should have been sent packing 5-8 years ago. What Arsenal fans are experiencing is the aftermath of that. Give Emery the time and players he needs to rebuild.
The club had two chances to get Guardiola before he went to Bayern and Man City but they bottled it. They choose to persist with a senile old fool with outdated methods.
Pathetic
A big club shouldn’t lose to another big club in this manner. This wasn’t even tight.
This was a Mexican road sweeper v Tyson.
Emery’c contract is only for two years. If he doesn’t sort it out then he’s gone in 2020.
Unai Emery has a free hit for this season in my opinion.
We have a paper thin squad in terms of quality and yet a few people are already asking for his head.
Will the new manager get £500 million to fix the mess? This a massive task we are talking about.
That said he should have played Lacazettte from the start.
Lichtsteiner shouldn’t get a game except in Europa League.
Torreira needs a rest. If he doesn’t get one he will end up broken and injury prone like Wilshere.
A very Wengeresque thrashing. And we have seen more than enough of these thrashings in the last decade or so. Wenger was manager at Arsenal for over 20 years. You don’t eradicate the weaknesses and negative traits that surfaced in his sides in his second phase time period overnight and certainly not in 6 months and even less likely with a very modest transfer kitty given in the summer. Liverpool were 1.40 odds to win this game. 1.40. These type of odds on a team means almost certain victory and with more than enough chance to see a big win… Read more »
Arteta would not have lost this big.
Don
How can you justify keeping two players that barely step out of the treatment room? And then be taken serious.
‘I cannot believe he cannot see what we can see. If the players cannot show more resolve and resilience he needs to act decisively and bring in players who will.’ Agreed. But he can’t do anything about that until next week. This was a frustrating game to arrive just before the window opens and I’m fascinated to see what the club do. Do they pussy it and tell him he has to keep pussies like Ozil around and just deal with it, that they won’t try to sell Ramsey, Elneny etc and that they won’t risk spending big, or do… Read more »
Now I’m not saying they were bad signings but they were defensive signings and they were made to improve us and take us up the table.
I love Torriera and guendouzi. I think they’re great. But the other three I’m not so hot in at all. Papa was a step backwards and I think Leno was too. Even if they weren’t then whynisnt our new coaching staff able to implement basic defence101??
We knew wenger was useless in that department. Emery is meant to be a pragmatist we are told.
5-1 says otherwise
A loss is a loss, it doesn’t matter what the margin is.
‘Torreira needs a rest. If he doesn’t get one he will end up broken and injury prone like Wilshere’
True.
But he’s been our best player this season and is the only CDM we have.
This is what everyone is saying is the problem with this ridiculous squad.
A Championship side would have defended better than this shit.
Emery has no excuse for not organising a defence.
“but somehow Wenger is to get the finger of blame and Emery the sympathy vote. Pathetic” Except all the crowd who wanted Wenger out consistently said Wenger had left us a complete mess and it would take years to sort out the mess. We also said those who continually blamed Kroenke for our troubles would all of a sudden direct a more scrutinizing eye towards the manager of a all sudden. Both of those have turned out to be spot on. There has been no sudden change of stance to suit a narrative blaming Wenger. Turns out we were right… Read more »
‘Turns out we were right’
For a change.
I wouldn’t give emery any funds. He doesn’t look like the guy you give the Ferrari keys to.
I wouldn’t give him £.0.79 for a snickers.
Samesong
What like welbz ozil Ramsey and Mkhitaryan?? All been rather useful this season haven’t they?? Either injured or dropped.
At least the other two had real quality.
They were skillful players.
Anyway.
We kept ozil and played him 4 times and fucked him off
Kept Ramsey then fucked him off. Great planning there
Why don’t we give youth team fullbacks a chance? Liverpool did it with Alexander Arnold, surely can’t be worse than slow liechenster and apart from Iwobi today none of our players attempted to dribble past their man like mane, Salah and firminio did to create openings. We desperately need players who can dribble and why oh why does he leave Lacazette out? His work rate at winning balls up the pitch is missed when not on the pitch, he offers something more on that front than abuymayang .
A loss is a loss, it doesn’t matter what the margin is.
Go and watch that 8-2 back and tell me a loss is a loss lol. That was a humiliation.
Ishola
It’s not his side any more
Ramsey, xakha and Mustafi maybe
The rest did not spend more than two seasons around wenger
Serious question: Would you trust Emery with 100-150mil budget in the next 2 transfer windows? Mind you, this is the guy who got Lichsteiner and is rumored to be bringing another 30+ year old in Banega as Ramsey’s replacement?
oh don’t worry guys, wenger only left us in the shallows, he would never take us out to the middle of the sea when he knows he can’t get us back.