Well, yesterday’s post certainly put the cat amongst the pigeons. I think a lot of people felt that was mostly aimed at Emery. It wasn’t, I think the challenges we have with the club moving forward are about the whole team. A few people screamed that I’d always straight up blame Wenger for what happened on the pitch back in the day, but was affording Emery different treatment. That’s because Emery is a coach, not a demigod.
The biggest concern that all Arsenal fans should have moving into this year is the lasting impact of the Ivan Gazidis signings in the club. He’d been making face-saving decisions all over the football club because his MO was about self-preservation. Don’t rock the boat. Do enough to get you by. Go with the mainstream view of what looks good, never put your neck on the line.
The big question is this: Who will put their neck on the line to move Arsenal forward?
Think about how easy it is to take the job at Arsenal. We have a bigger turnover than Liverpool, one that is about to get bigger, without any real success to talk about. The fans still pay for the season tickets, Adidas are about to pay out a fortune on a new shirt deal, the Premier League gravy train just keeps on rolling on, and we’re doing all this without Champions League football. Incredible.
Stan has two big clubs on his books. Arsenal, arguably one the greatest brands in European football… and the LA Rams, a nothing team that moved from St. Louis. The Kroenke’s invested mega money into the American club. One of their guys is on record as saying something to the tune of ‘we knew we had to invest, because folk from LA aren’t going to pay to watch a substandard product.’
So what did they do? They hired in a bright young innovative coach to lead the team. They’ve made powerful backroom hires. They’re adding big names and excitement to their team sheet. They are making an unbelievable effort to make that team the crown jewel. It’s an absolute investment, because they know that there’s no history there like there is in North London.
Meanwhile, over here, there’s Arsenal. The MO has been keeping the trains running. He will never invest a penny of his own into taking us to the next level because there’s no benefit to him. The big question then becomes this: What is the expectation of his staff?
Will he have Raul and Vinai banging down the door for LA like investment? Or, like we’ve seen with Ivan, will it be a put up and shut up? If the person that runs the show has no desire to dominate, rewards a culture of low risk and obedience, what hope do we have?
Well, the hope goes back to what we spoke about yesterday. We need to accept that we’re tier two. We need to be grateful that at the very least, Stan allows the club to put back in what we earn. We need to try something new. The approach at the moment feels like we’re waiting for a miracle to happen, instead of making our own miracles come to fruition.
This point becomes even more important now David Ornstein confirmed the ‘we’re skint’ intel I shared 6 weeks ago.
We need to make our way back the Champions League. We’re not going to do that hiring in hacks that are past their prime. We’re not going to do that blowing huge amounts of money on players that don’t fit the mold. Again, I ask this question, if the club truly believed in Mesut Ozil, why is Unai Emery alienating him? Not that I disagree, I’ve never thought he was fit for purpose, but what was the football strategy that allowed us to get to that point?
Anyway, the thing to watch for next year is whether the new management are for real. Raul has come from the most prestigious club in the world. A nasty club. A club that does dirty things to get whatever they want. Their wage bill is hideous, almost double that of Manchester City. No wonder they dominate, they can have whoever they want. The manager is almost an irrelevance, even Enrique won the Champions League there. Raul is not a tried and true scrapper like the Dortmund CEO. He’s never had to properly hire a manager before. He hasn’t had to innovate, so what is he going to do at Arsenal to help us out think, scout and perform our much smaller resource pool?
Sven for all intents and purposes was exactly the sort of hire we wanted. In charge of ferreting out some of the roughest diamonds in world football and turning in De Beers profits. We know he has it in him to bring all the boys to the yard, but the question remains is this: What is his remit? I can get on-board with Matty G and Torriera like signings, but what is going on with Gary Cahill and Ever Banega? Are those guys kicking us onto the next level? I highly doubt it, so wouldn’t it be worth investing our limited budget in players that have room to grow like Dortmund did so well? Should we be planning for next season this January, versus making average crap shots with players that really aren’t that great?
Then there’s Vinai. Clearly a very talented man, but he’s 37 years old. He has been gifted an outrageous opp at Arsenal. It is unheard of to give someone that young so much power. But at what cost to Arsenal fans? Is he an Ivan protegé? What did he agree to land the job? Will he have the guts to move us forward, or will he be preaching self-sustaining as a football strategy for the next ten years.
Arsenal need to wake up. They need to focus on a way forward. They need to be bold. The problem statement is simple: how do Arsenal succeed with the resources on offer?
Remember the resources are MASSIVE. 3rd highest net spenders in the league (bigger net spend than Madrid since 2010). 9th largest wage bill in Europe. Growing turnover. We have a huge stadium, mostly full attendance, unreal training facilities and the backdrop of the greatest city in the world. If Atleti, Roma, Juve and Liverpool can make CL finals, so can we. No more excuses. No more mediocrity.
The answer to the problem statement cannot be the direction we’re heading right now. It’s not innovative, it’s not bearing fruit (nor will it), and it’s a very long way off being sustainable.
Happy New Year, enjoy the Fulham game. 🔴⚪️
An injury to one of our CBs then we have no CB again. Instead of preserving one of them, the mighty tactician has decided to play all of them even though we are playing Fulham at home. Once again there’s no Ozil. We have midfield of Xhaka and Guendouzi two very slow defensive midfielders. No creativity between them. We are actually playing 8 defensive players at home against Fulham. The plan is to hoof it forward and hope either Laca or Auba get there. Very negative play. He will then panic midway and throw in Ramsey and Torrerria. Very predictable.
Upstate
Sorry, but are you defending Wenger? If so, how about you fuck off? It’s bad enough that you’re an Ozil fan-boy.
Jesus Christ, this place is going to shit.
Upstate –
I wasn’t the one who offered up the Gervinho vs Hazard ‘crap’, I simply challenged the following statement made by Dan:
Dan January 1, 2019 12:21:48
Globalgunner, err yeah so Kroenke had nothing to do with why we spent £11M on Gervinho instead of £30M on Hazard?
We could have afforded Hazard in the same window we bought Gervinho had we not bought Gervinho, Park, Jenko, Eisfeld, Ox, and Campbell. Would you rather have Hazard, or the other 6 clowns we recruited instead?
I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make in the rest of your post.
Happy New Year! I’m not sure why Emery didn’t use this lineup against Liverpool
Bamford
“gree that Kola as wingback has been effective, but I don’t think that means you have to play 3-4-3 every match.”
We played with a back 4 v Liverpool.
God knows where they’re all coming from Bam
A lot of people like to talk hindsight hear. For one how do you know Hazard wanted to come to Arsenal? As if Mbappe wasn’t sought after and he declined, or Juan Mata back then and he chose to go to Chelsea instead. Players do have a say sometimes where they want to play.
No offense, but “Dan” is a dipshit. Wenger was allowed to spend a ton of money, he spent a ton of money and he spent it poorly. He was also a tactical dinosaur. The only mistake Kroenke made was trusting in Wenger for so long. Dipshit is gone and he has been replaced with a modern management structure and smart, competent ambitious football men. Stan Kroenke is largely irrelevant. If the football men turn to Stan and ask him to dip into his own pockets and he balks, then the Kroenke-is-the-problem lot will begin to have an argument. Until then… Read more »
Bamford
So I should fuck off because my opinion is different from yours? Clown of the biggest order.
Jamie
All I was saying is that it’s a crap shoot sometimes when it comes to transfers. Gervinho could have been the next Pires or Henry, and Hazard the biggest flop. You just never know.
Come on The Arsenal!!!
I’m not absolving wenger of any blame but it’s clear now that he was FORCED to sell and balance the books while the suits tied us to a bad deal (Eu style) with the Emirates while everyone else’s sponsorship was risking sharply, we were tied down and were subsequently left behind. Do you really think Wenger wouldn’t have paid out the sort of money required to keep his project youth side together? Do you think he wanted to let van Persie and cesc leave? Yes he made some terrible purchases in the market and yes he had a terrible blind… Read more »
Anyways, come on lads. Nothing less than 3 pts
Pierre
Fair enough.
Bamford
Says the mug who went to Harvard and became a 10th grade teacher.
Reach for the stars eh go getter
Upstate –
Fair enough, some transfers are a crap-shoot. But if you’re genuinely making the argument that Gervinho had it in him to become the next Pires or Henry!!!!, we’ll never agree.
Why do we play the ball back so freaking much?
Iwobi runs like a windmill
See how easy it is to cut through the Arsenal
It just looks too easy
There’s no urgency in our game. It’s so pedestrian.
What the fvck is with that defensive line?
appalling defensively – and again we are are bankrupt of ideas just 15 mins in…. sigh
Team is low on confidence
Sokratis getting left standing by Fulham!!!
And you muppets claim he’s our best defender
Fuck me have half of you ever kicked a ball??
We are playing like an away team at Anfield
Something is not right with our midfield, less said about our defending
Get rid of Xhaka
If Fulham played with more ambition, they’d certainly be in the lead.
15 min
Flatter than the pitch. Booing soon…
Easily one down. Kos is done last season.
Mustafi continues to be shit esp with his passes
Auba’s pace gone?
Wengerball like side/back passes def crept in since we lost form late Nov. True /inherit form of the squad.
We just have some shocking defenders. Koscielny literally stops then starts running and Sessegnon is in and Sokratis just kicks it to a Fulham player. I mean you can blame it on a manager sure but we honestly have some really dumb and nervous defenders.
Iwobi is playing like he has no energy.
You expect the young player to be the one that does the graft very well. He’s lethargic in his approach.
I’m convinced Mustafi and Xhaka are afraid of the dark. Absolutely scared shitless at times and continuously pass it back to the keeper.
“I’m convinced Mustafi and Xhaka are afraid of the dark. Absolutely scared shitless at times and continuously pass it back to the keeper.”
rofl ;)))
Fulham are literally queueing up to score
Could be two down.
Comedy.
AMN isn’t making it defender or not.
fuck me what a miss by sessegnon
Getting opened up by a 19 year old left back playing right wing
We seem to be making more back passes than forward ones and we’re the home team!
gambon is in the right.
We are worse than we were under Wenger.
Outplayed by Fulham at home.
Absolutely mental.
Haven’t seen a less creative AFC team since Rioch days.
Emery is a paella version of Allardyce.
It doesn’t cover up out defensive shittiness
We’ve been extremely lucky to not be behind.
We were so lucky there, awful stuff.
Xhara did better than Auba would
good stuff xhaka
Nice move, well finished by Xhaka, before that we were shit. Will we gain confidence now or run scared and concede in minutes. ?
Dissenter
Why do we play the ball back so freaking much?
Because habits die hard. Players, when they panic will revert to their habits, which, for some players, is 10+ years of sideways tippi tappi passing. Koscielny was particularly guilty of this in his first game back in the team.
And goal!!! Come on Xhaka! Nice goal.
My thought all through is Xhaka needs to be sold off…..then he goes on to score
We scored. But the game has been so poor. Ironic that it was Xhaka who scored.
Xhaka got lucky there. Fulham would have been 2 – 0 up. Every good thing has to come through Iwobi.
Nice one Xhaka!
played shit and go 1 up that’ll do 😉
Arsenal going from bad from.worse, pathetic display despite being 1-0 up. But Shhh ! Nothing on Emery.
Rambo
We are just as bad defensively as before…but Emery has sucked the flair and creativity out.
We are playing like Stoke or Bolton with £50m players.
Disgusting.
Bamford, do we have a creative player in the side? Seems like you have little clue…. Iwobi isn’t your cup of tea, but have some sense
And there’s Kolasinac seeing Sessegnon and allowing him to nearly score. So it’s dumb, nervous, scared shitless and shy away from responsibility defenders we have. I’m sure the running commentary is annoying but what I hope I’m highlighting is rather than any real issue of defensive shape or poor tactics is rather just poor individuals who are costing us
hopefully the floodgates open – coyg!
gambon is right to say we are very bad defensively. That’s obvious to anyone who still draws a breath.
gambon is very fickle and clueless regarding his conclusion that Emery needs to be fired to address the poor defense.
When Iwobi is your main creative threat, Ofcourse you are gonna look shit.
gervinho would make this team better ;))
Good goal
Awful passing from Mustafi.
Koscielny can’t. Looks awful. He’s finished.
We have two total shots in 30 minutes.
A lack of any offensive patterns from us.
Usually our strength over the years
Riding on our luck again. Our defensive shape is just too bad.
Our defensive players are just not good enough.
We’re lucky to play this Fulham team after that disgrace at Anfield, we should win comfortably.
“I’m convinced Mustafi and Xhaka are afraid of the dark. Absolutely scared shitless at times and continuously pass it back to the keeper.”
Those 2 muppets are even afraid of the light.
We are so open, Fulham could have scored 3
We’re lucky it’s only Fulham. So poor.
Dale
Iwobi is fucking gash. Give me a break. It’s true that Emery doesn’t have a lot of creative options, and it’s true that his options aren’t optimal, but I’d still probably try to find a place for Ramsey or Ozil in the side if I were him.
Ramsey can’t play this month because he’s conferencing with all the big clubs in Europe as we speak about his Bosman move.
That is if you believe the tabloids
How does Mitrovich beat THREE defenders to still head that ball?
Marko was the fool who defended Emery by saying he ain’t a defensive coach, therefore, expecting him to improve our defence is fanciful.
What a fucking idiot.
Outside of a well timed run for his goal, this is probably the worst ever xhaka arsenal performance and I don’t say that lightly
Without torreira he doesn’t even look like he’s played football before
Sokratis! Wow. Quite a dribble from the big guy.
Just bad defenders. I swear you get in one proper leader in there and a top quality CB the players trust and you’ll see confidence build in the backline. Nobody trusts Mustafi, Koscielny or Sokratis.
Sokratis dribbles better than Iwobi
Papa might as well play forward
sokratis skillz
The comments section here is actually more fun than watching the game
Fucking dull
need some goals to make up for anfield result
Xhaka is an abomination.
His ‘good form’ was all Torreira.
Papasinho
Un na
New year’s day games are typically dull because the players are tired and the fans are still sleepy from the night’s celebration.
Iwobi is actually playing decently today.
auld ranieri – dilly ding dilly dong rofl
Bamford
At least Iwobi is doing his job.
Iwobi has actually improved. Has created four chances so far with one assist.
unlucky auba keep going m8
has there ever been a worse midfielder in the arsenal first 11 than Xhaka, I don’t think so and that’s saying something…
Xhaka’s touches have been really bad,
Marko was the fool who defended Emery by saying he ain’t a defensive coach, therefore, expecting him to improve our defence is fanciful. That’s right. Expecting him to improve shit defenders is fanciful at best. The only way in my opinion we address the defence is by getting in defenders who can defend properly. You look at the defences he had at Valencia and Sevilla and the amount of goals they conceded and then you look at him at PSG with the defenders he inherited like Thiago Silva and Marquinhos and Kimpembe. So yeah for me it’s not going to… Read more »
iwobi carrying his decent form over from the pool game
El nene will do a better job than Xhaka any this stage
Rest Torreira and play Elneny, he can’t do any worse.
In Unai We Trust!
Matteo has the talent and character to become a top player in future.
Taking a lead into HT. Haven’t been able to say that many times this season.
Our defense has been poor all season and Emery as coach should shoulder some of the blame but it would be nice to know what he can do about Xhaka’s misplaced passes or Kolasinac sleeping on a cross.
Iwobi is a good footballer. His end product sometimes isn’t good and I think he needs to look up quicker and see a pass. However there aren’t many arsenal players that can receive an awkward ball at speed, control it and beat a man or two. I played at county level, I know a footballer when I see one. Not saying my opinion is any more valid…just that I really believe some fans don’t seem to appreciate iwobi s strengths on the ball. It’s a shame that iwobi just has to have a bad game or two and he is… Read more »
Emery be like Marko lets jump.
Marko: How high boss?
@jasongms…what do you make of the iwobi divided opinion?
If Iwobi was playing for another team, would you be asking us to buy him?
Marko Fuck off you melon Chelsea won the champions league with Cahill and Bertrand as part of their meanest defence. Look at jose’s Defence at Porto. Bunch of nobodies apart from carvalho. Look at our defence in 06 champions league or during the 90s. Apart from seaman and Adams they couldn’t get near the england team If you really mean that then you don’t know what you’re talking about. If you don’t then you’re a snake, serving some bullshit agenda He is responsible for this defence. He’s made it worse since he’s joined. It was already awful and he’s made… Read more »
Such fickle and over pampered fan base, almost similar to Inter fans over here, overrated sense of entitlement
Maitland Niles is better on the ball than Hector. He can come inside and link with the right sided midfielder and forward.
Anyone knows our xG and xGA for the 1H? Thought they’d be close.
What’s the point of an extra central defender whenFulham can just waltz through with ease?