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Unai Emery is now well and truly out of the Christmas crush. Arsenal have problems, they’ve been well documented this week, the only way out is world class thinking and a new approach to issues that have haunted us all season.
We go up against Chelsea, a team also in transition, a team that boasts a batch of issues not to disimilar to some of ours in the past.
They are creating chances, but they can’t finish. Midfield isn’t offering many goals and worryingly for them, it’s not offering up much in the way of fight. Jorginho is a passing machine, but his style isn’t producing enough on the pitch. Morata has been a total flop, Giroud is working hard to make shooting seem like a mainstream idea he’d like to eradicate. You’d imagine if we combined the two squads, there’d be something special there.
They need an away win, but it’s far from a cut and shut case like it has felt in the past (even though we had a good record against Conte).
The question for Emery is how does he want to play? Chelsea are good in posession and if we go toe-to-toe we could find ourselves on the back of a spanking. Chelsea have struggled against teams that pack the midfield and defence. They don’t have a striker, so finding openings is tough for them.
Our issues are the opposite of Sarri’s. We’re creating fuck all, but we have two electric strikers who can finish from anywhere. We lack width, Chelsea have great wide players.
My worry tomorrow is Hazard is always a disaster for us. One of the best in the business against an appalling defensive unit. The other player we might have to watch out for his Hudson-Odoi, who had a good preseason against us. The wantaway English wideman has a point to prove, he’s fast, direct and he will be licking his lips at the though of terrorising us today.
We have some secret weapons that could spice things up. We can call upon Mesut Ozil, who is always good after an extended holiday (Leicester springs to mind) and he had a fucking blinder against Chelsea in the league cup last season. We can also use Aaron Ramsey if we fancy. The great thing about these two players is they are both incredibly fresh. Which other teams in the top 4 have two of their best players August ready? None. We need to make something work.
The defence needs to be tight tomorrow, we need to play with discipline and the manager needs to pick a team that can stand the test of 60 minutes without a change.
I’d really like to see a plan tomorrow. This cannot be a rerun of the Liverpool game. The players didn’t believe they’d come out of that game alive, it’ll be very interesting to see how they’re feeling about tomorrow. This game will be a good indication of how the rest of this season plays out.
If we lose, we’re doomed to 6th. I’d suggest that Emery takes a new approach. Test out the kids, see how good they are, allow us to make better bets in the summer.
Right, that’s me done. See you in the comments you bastards x
Recent games during our recent very poor run have had similar characteristics.. Started lively , lots of energy , making chances , good movement , pressing high up the pitch and then after initial burst of energy , run out of steam. West Ham, Liverpool, Brighton ,Tottenham were all games that had very similar traits and were all games where our performance deteriorated as the match progressed . We were completely devoid of any attacking ideas for the last half an hour in any of the above games …I doubt if we even created a worthwhile goalscoring opportunity during the… Read more »
DM where are you
2
clean sweep
Tro4py
Trophy?
From previous post.
Who is this PhD character?
What is he trying to prove?
Not one post on Football. Comes across as a bit of a smart arse if you ask me.
Who in their right mind would promote themselves as PhD2020?
As it’s not 2020, can we assume he hasn’t yet qualified.
2-1 to us today.
Arsenal need to select a team designed to win and not contain the opposition. Last week we played a team which in my view nether played to win or contain the opposition. Personally I do not like playing three at the back and I would certainly not do so against Chelsea. We do not need three centre backs to contain Hazard. It is an absolute must that we play tonight Torreira in the holding midfield position whether it is alongside Xhaka or Guendouzi. Frankly Xhaka plays better when he has the calming influence of Torreira alongside him. Bellerin must come… Read more »
Graham
He’s not half as smart as he thinks he is. Decent vocabulary but lacks an analytical brain. Or the ability to remember the bull shit he spouts the day before
Not comfident over today at all.
Who is our match winner these days? Do we have one? Someone when the chips are down to change the game in our favour?
I don’t have an issue with our players so to say.. honestly we can enter the top 4 with the caliber of players we have The main issue is the formation the man keeps using … He keeps using 3-4-3 to start matches …. It exposes the midfield and the back line and we don’t create enough chances compared to 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 Anytime we use 3-4-3 we struggle to create chances because we don’t even an attacking midfielder, we rely on width and we don’t have wide players that can create chances except iwobi We have to finishers up… Read more »
Well done Pierre, first one to post without having to declare yourself “first” 🤘
1-1 for me today.
We can’t lose though.
Im optimistic we will get at least a point but going for 2-1
Alexander
Need 3 points today. It’s a must if we are seriously looking at champions league this year
Pierre
I like your team.
Have a feeling he will favour Kolasinac over Monreal.
We all know it will be close.
2-1 victory.
Graham 62 Phd appears periodically on Le Grove and behaves precisely the way he has done so in past. He targets individuals in a most unpleasant way and pretends that he is superior intellectually to them. I have been subjected to such attacks in the past. The reality is that rather than having a superiority complex I believe that this person has a “chip on his shoulder and an oversized inferiority complex”. He needs to make himself look big and play to the gallery. I don’t know whether he has a job or career, but I am willing to bet… Read more »
Our defence is a shambles. The only way we get anything from today is if we score at least 2 goals.
Stroller
I concur. Saying that. I can deal with an insecure arse hole no problem as long as he does his job properly without irritating customers.
The fact is that he is just wrong. The facts he presented did not back up his argument, one which he denied making even though the facts presented were to prove that you stroller are a dying breed
He flat out denied he’d even said it.
Little arse hole.
1-3 in a defensive omnishambles !
Jamie,
Ditto !
In lighter news
Vela is off to Barca
We’ve let some amount of talent walk away for nothing this past decade. Could have done with a player like him. Then we go and blow £17m on Lucas Perez to not olay him!!
Un na naii
My advice to you is that you should ignore it.
The best solution would be for Pedro to bin him, but sadly that will not happen.
Apologies for clogging up the comments last night.
Apologies to you ES if you feel,I have slighted you recently and anyone else for that matter.I’ll make more of an effort going forward,to tone it down.
Peace and love to everyone.Hope you all have a great weekend.
And hopefully Arsenal win 3-1.
All the best.
Cheers.
Un na naai
When you say Vela is off to Barca, is that for a holiday or to play for the world renowned Football team?
Stroller
If you ignore him he’ll think he’s got to you. Best thing to do is unpick his merry go round attempt at arguments.
He’s not half as smart as he fancies himself and I thoroughly enjoy poking holes in his fallacious beliefs.
Graham
They are signing him as back up.
PhD
Come on. You’ve been at it for two days. You can’t expect anyone to buy your claims “egalitarianism” if you’re mocking the social status of others
West Country tracker boys, Chavs and last of dying breed being prime examples
Don
The guy’s just apologised why do you have to start clogging up the blog? We got a big game stick the football?
*to
Can see us starting off well today but gradually letting Chelsea into game.
Strikers have to be accurate in their execution today. Kepa isn’t the greatest keeper in the world.
Chelsea are a deeper more-balanced squad with several outstanding players. On the other hand, it’s a home game for Arsenal. The result may well be a draw. Emery is a straightforward honest guy: he says it like it is. If we lose, almost no chance of ending the season in top 4. The Jan window was always going to be a turning-point for Emery. He has no opportunity to make the personnel changes needed, and there is no way that Gazidis warned him about the desperate state the Club was in. So what will Emery do if the team loses… Read more »
There’s a higher chance of us spanking Chelsea 4-0 than there is of Carlos Vela, the 29 year old MLS striker, playing for Barca. 100% fake news.
Un na nai
I think CL qualification is unrealistic for us this season.
Samesong As you wish to talk about the football ..maybe you would like to talk about our performances and results without Mesut Ozil in the side. The fact that we haven’t lost a game with ozil starting in the side since the Chelsea game on the 2nd match of the season plus the fact our performances have been so poor recently without Ozil in the side , I would have thought that le Grove would be clamouring for the reinstatement of Ozil. The stats I posted earlier are further proof that without Ozil in the side we are devoid of… Read more »
“Corriere dello Sport say the relationship between Gazidis and Maldini has deteriorated over their opinions on signing Ozil. Gazidis believes the 30-year-old doesnt fit into the club’s transfer strategy. Maldini thinks they should take the chance to sign a player of Ozil’s calibre.” – @GurjitAFC
Un nai,
Come on man – be magnanimous and accept PhD’s apology without further fanning the flames.
PhD, I apologise for my part in the last couple of day’s melee and any part I played in winding you up.
I am a bit of a Wurzel it has to said.
Pierre,
We beat Tottenham 4 – 2 and finished strongly. Keep your arguments to fact and not fiction unless of course you meant the cup.
Bamford
“. Maldini thinks they should take the chance to sign a player of Ozil’s calibre”
I would have thought that Maldini knows a little about the game, wouldn’t you?
I’m indifferent about ozil playing today because I really dislike the guy but we’ve also done poorly without him recently.
Might be a good idea to start him even if I always like to see the bugger dropped
Also reports (probably fake) of Roma offering 18m for him. If that’s so, bite their hand off, take the money and free up his sizable wages
Bennydevito
The cup of course ….
Benny
Point taken. PhD. Honestly no need to apologize. I wasn’t offended at all but I appreciate the gesture all the same
Good measured post Pedro,
3 – 1 or 4 – 2 to us today.
You gotta have faith Grovers, go into the match feeling defeated and we will get beaten. Chelsea aren’t all that and as long as we set our midfield up right and put a man on Hazard, as long as Ozil, Pea and Laca start together we’ll have too much for them.
Good piece in The Guardian today about the age of austerity which Gazidis assured us was a thing of the past.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/jan/18/arsenal-era-austerity-emery-finance-stan-kroenke-champions-league
Bennydevito
Creating next to nothing in the last half hour against West ham ,Brighton ,Liverpool and spurs(cup)…..is fact not fiction
Conceding fewer goals per game this season with ozil in the side ….is fact not fiction.
Unbeaten since the 2nd game of the season with Ozil in the side …is fact not fiction.
Losing 4 games in a month without Ozil starting …is fact not fiction.
Good on you Un nai,
I was watching premier league years last night and my god I’d forgotten how good Anelka was, crikey he was good. Honest to god he was faster and a better finisher than Wright and Henry and could have been as good as the original Ronaldo if he had stayed with us.
What a loss he was, that hurt Wenger a lot, and me, I was devastated. 500k to £23 m though – we were the original Del boys.
Pierre
It’s a game of opinions
I’d say wenger and emery know a fair bit about the game too.
You can’t argue with ozil’s capabilities. It’s beyond question but what good is that when he doesn’t apply it?
You also have to factor that Italy more than anywhere is suited to his game far more than the premier league Pierre. It’s slower, it’s defensive it’s perfect for him to pick his pass and I’m sure milan would be set up to cover for his lack of defensive endeavour. Arse al and ozil were never going work.
Pierre,
I was referring to the spuds league game but whatever.
Most second half points is fact not fiction
Most points from substitutions is fact not fiction
Most points from coming from behind is fact not fiction
More points away from home already than the whole of last season is fact not fiction
But you keep sticking to your little Emery out agenda if it gives your life a little bit of meaning.
Draw at half time, loss come full time.
Can see us starting chests puffed out and then losing our nerve to a few dangerous Chelsea attacks that put the fear in the back line.
Hazard to turn up as per.
Benny
I know. Such power for a 19 year old. That’s why Real spent a world record on him at the time for a teenager. Sadly his attitude let him down. I feel his brothers had far too much influence on his career trajectory also
But it worked out great for us. We got a new training ground and Thierry Henry plus suker our of the money so we can’t comolain
Michael
That piece went up last night
£30m a year we’ve spent since kroenke came in. It’s a miracle we managed as well as we did with that output.
Pierre
I don’t think Chelsea is the fixture to bring ozil back into the starting lineup. He has no runners to pick off in the current side either
Lacazette comes to the ball too frequently and Auba doesn’t run off the shoulder.
We need a Theo or a Thierry or an overmars for ozil to pick out
A couple of predicted XIs have Leno Sokratis Mustafi Koscielny Bellerin Torreira Xhaka Kolasinac Iwobi Aubameyang Lacazette If that’s the XI we turn out, I think we’ll lose. Chelsea know they don’t have to win, so they will Ctrl possession. It’s like the 2nd leg of a cup tie and they are ahead. Kolasinac and Koscielny on the same side is a car crash waiting to happen. Kolasinac pushes forward and leaves big gaps. Runners are free to get in behind Koscielny. Young Sessegnon did not take advantage on new year’s day, but a seasoned player like Pedro. He movement… Read more »
Dream 10
I expect you’re right about the lineup
If ozil goes in its basically emery saying last chance a saloon and looking for someone to take the heat off of him. Not that ozil should be exempt from a good performance agaisnt a rival. It just shows how little the arsenal faithful have come to expect from him
Still pissed we didn’t beat Chelsea in the second.game of the season. We had them on the ropes before halftime. Then, we sat back for the second half and did nothing. Awful result.
Can see us starting chests puffed out and then losing our nerve to a few dangerous Chelsea attacks that put the fear in the back lin
Totally agree CC
Spurs in for Malcom from Barca which they saying could end the Suarez deal as they don’t want to sell both
Between Malcolm Suarez and Dembele not many of their new forwards are cutting it there are they? They are very quick to cut and run Barca. No patience with youth at all
You have to wonder what would have become if Messi if he didn’t hit the ground running.
We should go for that Morgan Gibbs White of Wolves; what a prospect.
Un na naai
Don’t see Emery starting him. Ramsey ditto.
Shame the English media don’t ask managers to explain their decisions after matches. Continental journos demand more from managers in press conferences.
Armed with numbers and facts.
Champagne Charlie
Agree with you. It’s like we use energy as a main game plan. Can only get you so far. Emery loves that.
I think Ozil needs to start. On his day our best creative outlet and it’s win win for Emery either way; if he plays well from heronin the remainder of the season then Emery’s man management is vindicated, if he stinks the place out then Emery’s perceived lack of confidence is vindicated and the fans will push Ozil out for him, pretty easy really..
Your Smith Rowes and your Sakas need to be getting game time too.
Dream/Samesong
Resilience is not our calling card, Hazard loves a go against us because he knows he can earn mega plaudits and make our back line embarrass themselves.
Maybe Torreira can do a snuff job, but he doesn’t have the legs to keep up with that sort of player. Few do
Unlike Hannibal Smith…we won’t have a plan. Unless we are going to bore Chelsea to death, I am struggling to see where we get something from this game.
Hazard is one of the best players at attacking defenders. Our defenders (cough) make oil tankers look nimble. Hazard and Chelsea will have a field day.
Personally, if I’m emery…I would simply go all out. Fall on your sword and go down swinging but please no more yawntastic drivelball.
Benny I hadn’t considered that but you might be right about emery and ozil Regardless of if he’s right or wrong, by hanging him out to dry when the chips were down he can either get credit for his rejuvenation or be supported for having canned him off previously at the end of the season I’m not gonna lie, though. I’m not entirely convinced ozil cares one way or the other about what has happened. He’s feckless when he plays and appears to be feckless when he doesn’t. He either gets paid a fortune for playing football at a fraction… Read more »
Guen is Emery’s guy, hard worker and able runner. Always front and center. But he is not ready to play in a two men midfield against a decent opponent. He is weak defensively. He like to bring the game forward. He needs to play with a #10 or an inside attacker. His long pass to the striker is still lack of quality. As I posted yesterday, if we use Ozil, put him in the middle to help the build up of the attack. If you play him on the right and don’t pass him the ball, he would not actively… Read more »
China,
Lol! You’re absolutely right – my son plays fortnite and Minecraft etc and they’re paintdryingly tedious!
Give me Street fighter 2, Mortal Kombat, Killer instinct and Super Mario Kart on the Snes all day long.
That Coady from Wolves is good too. Wolves 2 up already.
Michael
Yes, a good piece in the Guardian, but I still think Gazidis is not the type to come clean on anything. Why would he risk putting off Emery anyway, when he knew he’d be in Milan a short time later.
More to the point, will there be any cash available to Emery in summer, an issue not mentioned. Very little, and because of another issue not mentioned: by then Stan will have loaded more of his debt on the Club.
Yeah Dude fortnite is a complete mess of a game! A visual clusterfuck. I can’t believe the kids are playing this haha
Agree with ES’s line up. 4 at the back that allows for a link player between our defensive pivot and strikers. 3 at the back and two defensive CMs feels like a boxer trying to cover up on the ropes. To complete the boxing analogy, I’d rather have a puncher’s chance attacking and go down fighting. The West Ham performance was so poor, I think we need to really go for it today.
Benny we used to have a great monthly event for fighting game tournaments at the lanes on Nelson street back before I came to China 5 years ago! They still sometimes do casual sessions on saturdays or sundays there but it’s a new crowd playing street fighter 5, which alas is not a patch on some of the previous street fighter iterations. No idea if the current setup is any good
Cider, pizza and street fighter tournaments (amongst various other fighting games)
“Yes, a good piece in the Guardian, but I still think Gazidis is not the type to come clean on anything. Why would he risk putting off Emery anyway, when he knew he’d be in Milan a short time later. More to the point, will there be any cash available to Emery in summer, an issue not mentioned. Very little, and because of another issue not mentioned: by then Stan will have loaded more of his debt on the Club.” Impossible to say at this stage. But I have no confidence whatsoever in Kroenke or the Kroenke family ownership which… Read more »
An Arsenal fan for 13 years now (from Hungary) I’m writing just to let you know, I am pretty glad to have found another blog worth the daily reading…
and I am scared, but that’ll just make the win even more uplifting.
Englands
“by then Stan will have loaded more of his debt on the Club”
One, what debt belonging to Kroenke has he already loaded onto the club?
Two, cite a credible news source that has discussed Kroenke placing additional debt onto Arsenal’s books.
Three, please admit that your story about Wenger wanting to sign a GK and CB for 20m and Stan preventing him from doing so was made-up and bogus.
Emery will likely go with a 3-4-3, but I’d go with a 4-3-3, like so:
__________Leno
Bell__Must__Sokr__Monr
_____Torrei__Ramsey
__________Ozil
Iwobi_____Laca_____Auba
Hello I am a new poster here but I have been reading legrove for quite some time going 6years now.I regret that my first ever comment will involve calling out Pedro with his routine ,’I know things you don’t know’ or ‘I speak to people behind the scenes’ takedowns on some guys.He kept saying the same things when people here were saying how he is a trash guy.Pedro used to defend him with thesee same quips and look how it turned out.We all know he wanted arteta and was only waiting for a mini crisis(which are normal in a rebuilding… Read more »
Scratch that, I’d go 4-4-2 diamond, like so:
__________Leno
Bell__Must__Sokr__AMN
_________Xhaka
____Torrei___Ramsey
__________Ozil
_____Laca____Auba
Sounds good China, I was a beast at Street fighter 2 it has to be said. I went to Game show live at the NEC in Birmingham back in the early 90s but didn’t get picked from the crowd. The eventual winner who went on to win a golden joystick was absolute gash and just played with Guile defensively sat in the corner throwing sonic booms and jacknives without ever coming forward and going toe to toe. I would have jumped those sonic booms inbetween throwing a few fireballs, then sweeping his legs before boxing him in with a torrent… Read more »
Bamford,
Your 1st line up is much better as it has more width and Xhaka is on the bench. I’d do the same but have Kolasinac instead of Monreal.
China
I think it’s more of a trend. I remember when destiny was hyped, and then I tried playing it at a friend’s place. Decided to stick with fifa. Miss those old command and conquer games though. age of empires, age of mythology, civilization. Those were the games of my generation. Still play them occasionally but kind of lost interest when I found out girls exist 😂😂
street fighter was epic but there was always one guy at the arcade who would come over and try to show you how its done. Then tekken came out and changed my world.
Wolves match has been good, 2 nil up, then 2 – 2, now 3 – 2 Wolves.
3 – 3!
Benny
Yeah, that’s what I liked about it as well. I switched it, though, because when Emery plays Auba wide, he plays it like a 4-5-1 and makes Auba track back and defend. I’m not a big fan of that.
4 – 3 wolves!!
It’s alright when Klopp does it though?
what a game. wolves score right at the end.
What’s stopping Xhaka playing those passes that Neves makes?
Oh,yeah, the fact he’s not actually a top passer.
Cesc
Klopp doesn’t. All three forwards stay relatively high. Yes, they press, harry and defend, but it never becomes 4-5-1. Salah and Mane always remain forwards.
Bamford
I’m not talking about that, the Wolves manager got sent off for celebrating a late winner with the players.
englandsbest
“Yes, a good piece in the Guardian, but I still think Gazidis is not the type to come clean on anything. Why would he risk putting off Emery anyway, when he knew he’d be in Milan a short time later.”
Exactly
Gazidis, bej g the Snel oil merchant would have hidden the true state of finances from Emery
I believe Raul couldn’t have known the dire state when he came on board which is why he yanked the Ramsey offer as soon as int became apparent the club was not in a good place…the moment Gazidis left the building.
**”Gazidis, being the Snake oil merchant would have hidden the true state of finances from Emery”
Cesc
Got it. My bad.
Joao Moutinho still doing the business. Underrated player.
Neves spraying the ball around like a don.
He’s CL caliber.
Demarai Gray scored a great goal. Like Rashfords goal last week against Spurs plus the dribble to beat the defender. Should do that more often.
Emery has to have us as organized as Wolves by next season, or else he’s off.
We don’t look like a well coached team at the moment, not even when we had the unbeaten run.
Safe to say we won’t be anywhere near top4 if we drop points to the rent boys today
Chavs to win comfortably after Emeryball of huffing and puffing yields nothing but serves for a dull watch yet again
Benny
I will destroy you with E Honda
I’m am master
Nothing can stop the 1000 hand slaps move
Benny
We win this game today mark my words
Only the premier league do you get mid level games like that.