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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
AMN looks like Ben Johnson ( the cheat from yesteryear Olympics )
Chelski playing ruby now…..
That’s more like it. Play around the Chelski box.
Bad luck for Bellerin and for us. He isn’t perfect, but he is one of our better and more solid performers.
Bob seriously??!
Torriera is done.
We need this victory just to keep hope alive and keep the arsonists away.
4 fucking holding midfielders on the pitch. no attack is the reason they is so much pressure on the defence.
Xhaka could go into a 50-50 with Michael Myers and come out unscathed,
Torreira down with cramps. Tough it out man mountain!!!
10 more min
LT cramped up now.
I think the lads need a reduction in intensity. Some more are going to break before the end of March at this rate.
Elneny is such a nothing player.
LT a man mountain? More like an iron molehill.
Who scouted Elneny?
Excellent signing
These brutal clearances are refreshing…
Taylor has let Chelsea get away with a lot of niggly stuff, especially on LT. It’s not really on.
put ozil on the bench to keep the media of hrs back.
5 mins regulation plus 5 miss injury time.
Guendouzi can be so annoying
Xhara may have hurt his shoulder??
6 min fergie time??
Elmeny added a zero product before all digits. . Absolutely nothing player
this has to go down as a shit win. 2nd half boring as fuck.
Fuck these cunting injuries. What other club sees it’s two best defenders go out for the season with ACLs (assuming Bellerin has befallen the same fate as Holding). This squad is on its knees. Torreira looks prime for a hamstring. Los won’t last. Jesus Christ!!
Guen is young and indecisive. He second guesses what he wants to do with the ball, gets surrounded and coughs it up. Some of his passing is poor too. But with proper coaching he could become a very good player.
Fergie time.
Koschielny has a chip on his shoulder. He needs to go to the academy to teach that technique.
Aubameyang has been a passenger all day
He’s our new ozil
What a classic miss from Giroud at the Emirates. Nearly felt nostalgic for a second.
Giroud our 3rd CB…
Tbf, to Emery, if Bellerin has joined Holding in the physio’s room, then I won’t be blaming EmeryBoth players simply planted their feet awkwardly while in motion. Can happen to anyone
True can’t blame any training regime or fitness coaches being brought in no matter how many people try to it’s just bad luck
We need a clean sheet
C’mon guys
True team effort
Há há há
How I appreciate Giroud now !
whole 2nd half played in arsenal’s half.
McManaman has got to be the worst and most anti Arsenal summariser on TV. Pisspoor analysis.
Zinedine Ramsey outplaying the world’s greatest defensive midfielder Ngolo Kanté again?
We concede very few if any stupid FRs
what a poor win
Why Aubameyang??
Best defensive showing in a decade. Well done Emery. Improvement!
Spurs can be sucked back into the 3rd-4th fight with the Kane injury.
Excellent win, could afford nothing else.
Chelsea are toothless, if Hig sparks there they’ll be a different animal.
Awful tackles from Luiz and Barkley today.
If Xhaka makes tackles like those, he’ll be sent to jail
CLEAN SHEET
Chelski has ZERO shot on target
Our 4th clean sheet!
Absolutely a team performance that got the result. Everyone a 8.5/10.
Auba has showed me today how hard he can work off the ball. He’s been magnificent in his pressing,tackling and passing for once. Yes he misses a hell of a lot but I still aprpreciate his work rate.
Clean sheet against proper opposition… let’s go boys. Let’s hope this gives some of those cunts in upper management a kick up the hole to get something done this month because 3 points off 4th it’s going to be a dogfight and we need help
3 points ✓
Clean sheet ✓
Good defensive performance ✓
Over to you Pedro, Gambon, Pierre, Upstate et al.
Bob : no place on untold ??
Chelsea for all the Sarri ball and possession get outdone by a “Poor” ARSENAL?
Called it here earlier, with Graham and in the previous post that we would win.
As said before the games today 7 points seperated 3rd-6th in the league. Some of the comments this week and reaction around us has been hyperbolic and pathetic.
Hopefully the frauds don’t come back for a few days on here.
Koscielny with a big smile. Happy for him.
Great win! Emery had a plan and it worked
Where are the molotov cocktail throwing Arsonists?
Pierre,
We got a result without your pussy boy
Haha @azed…
Can start the shoving up 🙂
Can you imagine if Ozil had played in such a fiesty game?
Kos was a throwback this evening also. Only downside is the Bellerin injury.
Emery not an Upgrade???
Pierre
We won without Ozil…..
Loved Sokratis today.
So we’ve beaten a few top 6 sides this season. Great team defending. More of that please
“Chelsea are toothless, if Hig sparks there they’ll be a different animal.”
Chelsea need a Costa or Drogba though to provide that aggression. Higuain is a class act but one of those that is pretty timid on the whole and doesn’t have that physicality that upsets defenders.
A very pragmatic performance. The tactics were spot on, notice how reserved the full backs were in defence, did not go out to meet their man, instead Bellerin and Torreira or Kolasinac and Guendouzi formed a double wall and presented an oppurtunity to cross knowing there was nothing to cross to. You can still see just how lacking in quality this squad is though. Kozz was great today, he has looked shockingly shit since returning but that was a great performance. MOTM without question, Sokratis as well had a very good game and they seem to have a decent partnership.… Read more »
Good result, nice to get a clean sheet, but Chelsea really poor, almost as poor as we were last week. Be nice if we can do this more often
Of course we won without Ozil, Pierre is a cretin and theres a few not far off him.
It was a very good defensive display today. You can’t have it both ways second half we didn’t need a third or fourth we needed to defend a 2-0 lead. To be fair we had the better chances and they maybe had one shot on target
Ndombele would be such a great replacement for Ramsey… sadly you can only do that is PES master league
You can see exactly how Emery wants to play.’
It’s not hard to see why he doesn’t fancy Ozil. He want’s committed players in the middle of the field.
He needs the players that suit his style.
If you shut down Jorginho you shut down Chelsea and Hazard as a ST, poor management some might say given that is a title winning side the season before last and Sarri has spent quite a bit.
Arsenal can only turn it on occasionally. Emery not the right man in the long run.
Teams figured out Chelsea early, if you deprive Jorginho of time/space they don’t function. Playing Kante on the right as well, doesn’t work.
Have to turn our attention to United now and Emery should have a plan in place to stop the runs into the channels between full back and CB that Martial and Rashford always do.
Choosing Ramsey for this game to mark jorginho was a very good idea .
I also think we should put a 40 mil bid to try and lure Kante to replace xhaka.
The tactics were spot on, notice how reserved the full backs were in defence
Have to continue with the back 4 from here on out. The 3-4-3 gives our clueless fullbacks/wingbacks an excuse to forget their defensive duties.
@Thomas
You could be right. I’m not sold on Emery. But with better players in the side we can be a Top 3 side.
Good to see Kos getting back to some sort of form, hopefully he doesn’t breakdown immediately. Sad for Bellerin, even if some think he is shit, he’s still our best RB.
Marko
I like a back 4 but that tactic will not work against everyone. It only worked against Chelsea because they have no ST and so it was okay to give them all the time they wanted out wide.
Against other sides we will suffer from crosses and also lack width.
This is why we need wingers so badly. A couple of pacey and hard working wingers and this side will come to life.
Paulinho
He’s good back to goal, which they desperately need, and he’s a top drawer finisher. If he slots in then their attack is up two levels compared to Morata/Giroud.
Hazard looks like he’s raging at having to do it all.
“8 – Arsenal have won more points in seven games against ‘big six’ opponents this season than they did in the whole of 2017-18 (6). Mettle. #ARSCHE”
Another stat for the “we have not improved” crew.
”what a poor win”……. we have just beaten Chelsea you tit comfortably
Excellent result.
Very disciplined performance
Great determination from the team thought out.
And huge credit to Emery – for his team selection( and motivation)
Laca/ PEA /Ramsey trio was mesmerising .
Although I am a ardent critic of Emery
I suppose I should thank my lucky stars that we do not have Sarri in charge.
He has set up a team – that does not score goals.
And Was he doing Sudoku during the game?
Ps.Can we get a petition to get Ramsey to stay!
The boy is irreplaceable !
Great game by the team today. On another day it Could have 4-0 ! If Auba had tapped in that cross. I forgive him though cos he made a real great defensive contribution, today. Laca ! His finish was pure class! Not the best ball in to him, but 3 touches later it’s in the roof of the net. Emery really got them fired up from the start for this one ! We really do need some players in this window. I’d have Two new loanees just to have better options from the bench than Elneny & Iwobi. Or play… Read more »
Charlie George
I know you want to go all British but don’t you think Emery deserves the opportunity to bring his one players?
So no Bellerin and Lichtsteiner too, we must buy a defender for the rest of the season.
I think what is impressive about the Spurs and Chelsea win was the way we won. They weren’t our classic 1 or 2 games a season at home where we suddenly turn up and demolish someone, we grafted, pressed, shut down their asset and broke with real purpose.
They were games won off the pitch as much as on it as opposed to a day where the worst player on the pitch has an 8/10 that we’ve seen before.
Lol Gambon, Pierre, guns, Pedro – crickets
Ozil in this team is a joke, no place for him now or in the future. It’s very easy to see I’m not sure why anyone would struggle to
@Zfree
Your point? Crickets from the Emery ass lickers last weekend after the game against the mighty West Ham.
That was a great performance, God knows what Bob was watching but it wasn’t the Arsenal match that’s for sure.
I remember the usual suspects namedropping Sarri as a manager who has hit the ground running and coached his team..Chelsea are a shambles and the main player he asked for Jorginho is a fraud
He has two strikers, one a world cup winner the other a champions league winner, he has declared both not fit for purpose and wants a striker having a stinker in serie A simply because he has coached him before.
He is a great example for Emery that’s for sure
Awww didums, poor little doubting Thomas having a little melt down.
There were no crickets from those of us who are Arsenal fans and realistic about the monumental job Emery has inherited from a decade of Wenger neglect.
Superb result today. Emery did really well.
Just goes to show, the squad is good enough. Just needs to be more aggressive about his tactics and play his best players.
United massive now. Needs to end OGS hype train
The squad isn’t good enough
Agreed
Where was all the pushing last week…
There is still a cloud over the club tho… arguments I reckon.
Rambo played well
Bellerin injury looks bad.. poor lad.
How come the club always has injury’s…
Axed
No. Definitely not.
I thought the new Post Wenger regime was that the coach was to concentrate just on the coaching .
The tiers of management above are there to get him the best affordable young talent.
He is not the manager- he is the coach.
When coaches encroach into management territory- they normal falter
Today, he did surprise me-in one respect!
He really had the team whipped and motivated…
Hopefully – we can stop this Suarez nonsense and sign a right back this window., instead.
Fair play Pedro. 👏👏👏
You’re right; this result proves what we’re capable of as long as Emery picks the right team, and yes we need to de-rail the OGS hype train, knock them out of the cup and watch them have a wobble in the league once their very kind run of fixtures have passed.
As for Ozil; didn’t even get off the bench. Criminal waste of money. Emery clearly doesn’t want him so he has to be sold this January.
Pedro how can you say the squad is good enough?
That’s your takeaway from this match Pedro, that the squad is good enough? Kos had his best game for 3 years, how many games like this do you think he has left in him? Bellerin one of his best for a long time, probably out for the season. Xhaka, terrible in the first half, slightly better second. Should get sold asap. Torreira has played the most games of any Arsenal player coming from a much less intense league, he can’t play every game going forward. All well and good saying Auaba and Lwca needs to play every game together but… Read more »
Just goes to show, the squad is good enough
Nice try it’s really not. They’re capable of that especially at home but over the course of a season and in pivotal away games they get found out. League position doesn’t lie
Great result.
But in a nutshell. We basically learned that Emery is just a better coach than Sarri.
Can not see- how Roman A sticks with him…….