via @Arsenal Instagram
Ugh… the disappointing taste of, “I saw that coming”, is festering in my mouth this morning.
Let’s be real here, Unai Emery fucked up his selection. It’s hard to look beyond him for this one. He greatly underestimated one of the best teams on the road this year and he paid the price.
Almost a complete rehash of the Everton game a few weeks ago, except Emery doubled down harder on selecting players we absolutely know are thieving a living.
I understand the need for rotation. I am aware that it’s exciting to imagine a Europa League win crowning your maiden season. However, sometimes you need to be a bit realistic about how shite certain players are.
Elneny, Mustafi, Jenkinson and Guendouzi in the same starting 11 was NEVER going to deliver a result against a team that bullies like Palace. We all knew what was going to happen when that line-up was revealed and it happened.
Jenkinson is sweet and the banter thing was fun for a while… but he’s not good enough. It’s embarrassing this joke has gone on for so long. It has to stop this summer. The kids behind him cannot be any worse?
Mustafi is a fucking car crash. He has been the whole time he’s been here. Tim Stillman made an excellent point when he said that all his mistakes generally come from him shirking personal responsibility. That exit strategy approach couldn’t have been clearer yesterday when he shat his pants at the on-coming Benteke and just let a bad thing happen to him. Sunday league stuff. Coward behavior. Emery was correct after the game when he stated that he’d been very consistent this season… consistently horrendous… my question is this… why does he keep starting him?
The Matteo and Elneny midfield is just bland. A teenager should not be asked to put in a shift to help a player well out of his depth. The young Frenchman is an excellent prospect, but I can’t for the life of me understand why Emery keeps putting him through this weird hazing. He’s never going to succeed like that and it’s sad that he has to keep trying it. Mo is a nice guy… great at Twitter… but when are Arsenal going to come down hard on these types of players being part of the squad just because they are fun to be around?
We flunked that test yesterday. It was incredibly disappointing. Emery made an error. But you know what? He’s kind of fucked every way here. If he plays a full team there, we’re tired for Wednesday in a very tough game. He leans into his squad and the players aren’t there. He doesn’t have much depth to work with and that’s just the reality he’s living in.
However, no excuses people. That’s his last error of the Premier League season. Top 4 is still in our hands. Europa League CL entrance is also in our hands. Chelsea has United Sunday. United has City midweek. This can still all work out well for us, but we MUST beat Wolves.
There can be no more fuck ups.
Emery has to shape up, and he has to take some risks on fitness because we cannot afford another shitty team selection like this.
Onwards and upwards…
What an episode. Got is the best.
“My real name is Aegon Targaryen”
Didnt read Bamfords comment . He has said it better than me.
Has There has been any stage this season when the words fatigue and Torriera not been mentioned in the same sentence..?
He is lovely little footballer – neat and tidy but he must have the endurance levels of
a retired sumo wrestler….
We need a team of players
who have pace/power/penetration and technical ability in their armoury- to keep up with the powerhouses of the Prem.
Persisting with Elnenys/Tor/Monreal/Miki/Mustafi/Jenks/Lich etc is a complete dereliction of Emery job and makes everyone miserable.
Vieira knows all the above.
He has played in it for 9 years…with us…
Dis
1000% the truth.
Rambo Ramsey
GoT. The show is a still missing Martin’s writing some of the most snarky lines are gone. Wish he’d written all before the show.
englandsbest “Those of us who aren’t brainwashed don’t give a stuff about trailing in in 4th place – and then being humiliated in CL. But we care a great deal about winning a trophy. And so, god bless him, does Emery.” I’d rather watch us get beaten 5-1 by Bayern than 1-0 by BATE fucking Borisov. CL not only comes with more money but also prestige. You get a better chance of signing a good player(s) because they want to play the likes of Barca and PSG, not Qarabag and Vorskla. Also, there’s no guarantee we’ll win EL trophy. Still… Read more »
Bamford “Right, but who is in this “full team” that was allegedly available to him? Torreira is nursing a groin strain. Xhaka, Ramsey and Sokratis were unavailable. Monreal is 33 and played 90 minutes in Naples. Emery really didn’t have a lot of options. ” He had plenty of options. First of, if Torreira was carrying a knock or whatever, he shouldn’t have been on the bench. But he was, and he actually played the last 20 minutes or so. Which tells me that he was given a green light by the physios. And if he was available, why didn’t… Read more »
Charlie George
You actually rate Neil Warnock over Unai Emery?
Vieira knows all the above.
______
What Vieira currently knows is how to be in 8th place in France with only scoring 23 goals while giving up 30. He isn’t ready to be the Arsenal manager yet.
Not only that your boy Wenger pissed him off by not helping him with getting his managerial career started at Arsenal. So it’s not even clear he would come here.
Whoever paid £35m for Mustafi should be charged for gross misconduct.
Chris
Neil warnock is a brilliant motivator of men
His achievement in getting Cardiff to the prem -was genius management.
7 promotions. …. ??
70 years still at.
Rest assured – if he was at Arsenal – Rambo would not be leaving us…. and Elneny would not be playing…
Neil Warnock looks like the Joker and his teams play comical too.
An anagram of Neil Warnock is Colin Wanker.
That is surely an automatic no no for such a classy and prestigious role as Arsenal manager don’t you think CG?
Emrey had no choice, but to play mustafuck..and he cost us the game
end of discussion
rotation, tactics ,weather ,brexit have nothing to do with it!
Warnock would not be a good fit for Arsenal,obviously.
But he is a Brilliant manager
Give it 3 weeks.
Emerys approval ratings will be 0%
No Rambo- No Chance.
Well you are wrong again CG
Even through his mistakes I back Emery for the rest of the season and in all likelihood the next season unless we plummet dramatically down the table.
So maybe more like 0.000001%
Chris
With Emery in charge – plummet is our destination.
Stop the rot :
Vieria in
Promote Fred
Promote Per
Re hire Wenger as Tech Dec
Re sign Rambo.
Back on track
Champions by 2021
CG
None of those things will help us. None
We cannot keep dreaming of yesteryear fixing us now.
Vieira is the only one I can see at some point helping us.
Not now..
I expect our team to come out of the gates against Wolves like gangbusters.
I think this loss has shaken us up… the players know they should have done better
Mustafi is a fucking car crash. He has been the whole time he’s been here.“
He was a mediocre signing and we got fleeced by spending £35 million for him.
Everyone tried to rationalise it by saying he’s a WC winner and blah blah blah but he has always been mediocre.
He’s at the heart of all of our defensive breakdowns (or at least the vast majority of them).
Am i still banned
No!!!
I’d like to apologise to Jamie
I went to far and shouldn’t have been so insulting
If you’re reading this Jamie it’s a sincere apology from me. Truly
Got is the best.”
Was great up until about season 5. Has slowly declined ever since. Luckily it is the last season so we won’t get to see it completely fall off the cliff.
CG
Scaremongering again.
“Hire Wenger as Technical Director”
Would be an unmitigated disaster.
Emery really fucked up yesterday.
Hasn’t got the balance right between europa league and pl in later stages.
Also he either has too much faith in dross players coming in and doing a job in the league or is underestimating pl teams or maybe a combination of both.
However, I will maintain the main issue is our squad the gaping inadequacies both in the first 11 and in the cover.
Cg
You clueless fool.
Chris
“With Emery in charge – plummet is our destination.”
That’s why we have more points than under wenger? Real clever guy aren’t you.
“Stop the rot”
Started with Wenger after he dragged our club through the dirt and used as his ego crutch. Held us back for a decade.
Effective rotation is part of management, an integral part more and more so. What this season has highlighted is you can’t ‘freeze out’ or ignore players and then expect those same players to suddenly perform to the level required when your usual lot are suspended/broken. Elneny, Jenks, Mavrapanos, and the like, should have far more minutes this season (if they’re the ones deemed serviceable squad members) than they do. It’s not been done well at all, which could prove costly at this stage of the season. Well said there… I don’t get what some of you are on…there is no… Read more »
Torr had a 3 game suspension- got some rest bar the Uruguay games AMN did not play much at the start of the season due to Bell getting hurt. Even then, its was Licht filling in some.AMN has also injured so his actual game time is less than what we may think. Both these players are under 25, and can keep going… they can recover fast. Its spilled milk at this point… but Emery needs to play these 2. They bring energy, tenacity and defense/attack mindedness AMN has right back locked down. Pair Torr with anyone in CM… that is… Read more »
Just read BD’s post.
Dont take everything to heart, dear boy.
Enjoy the Wolves game with the boy..
We need your passion at the club .
(But dont be sworn by blind loyalty either .)
It’s only football, after all
Keep it simple.
The reality despite some of the contrary comments is that we have limited resources in CB position. Bluntly would you select Koscielny to play in three games in 4 games if we had match fit options? Would you select Mavropanos following a poor earlier game? Would you want to pick Mustafi at all with his track record over last two seasons? The only other option is Monreal and he was not playing particularly well in recent games. The only question to be asked was would you have played three centre backs or a flat back four? The answer is that… Read more »
@DaleDaGooner,
I am afraid that we are in the minority here who think that squad management does not start at the tail end of the season.
It’s like cooking, you can’t just chuck all the bit you did not like before in a pot at the end and think you will have a nice meal.
Like I have said before, if you don’t try some fringe players against Huddersfield, Cardiff, Fulham and Brighton when you are on a positive run, you can’t expect them to be ready against Watford, Everton, Crystal Palace, Wolves and Burnley whenbyoubare desperate for points.
Against Wolves, we need to have a hoof the ball and chase them up mentality as that what has been Wolves downfall. However Guendouzi and Elneny cannot be that midfield. With Ramsey out until the end of the season, Torreira is nursing a groin injury and Xhaka also in the red zone, we have to make use of the U23 players. Change the system to 4-3-2-1. Osei-tutu Mavrapanos Koscielny Monreal AMN Guendouzi Iwobi Özil Lacazette Aubameyang AMN to protect our right-back. I suspect that Emery will play Jenkinson instead. The way Wolves play we cannot have just two central midfielders,… Read more »
Looks like Bielsa has tanked at the end of the season like every Bielsa team does.
Same story as usual: fast start and all kinds of fawning media features, then his methods have his team out of gas by the final third of the season and they slip out of the picture.
Leeds can stay where they belong!
Versus
I didn’t realize it was frowned upon to celebrate a teammate’s goal. Amazing what some people find to complain about. And in retrospect, wouldn’t you take a 1-1 draw now as opposed to a 3-2 loss? I know I would. We’d be sitting level on points with Spurs, and 1 pt ahead of Chelsea.
ES
Very reasonable posts.
I’m not saying Emery is the man, but he deserves another season even if we don’t make top four or win the EL.
What I think is wishful thinking is the ‘manager with the magic wand scenario’- pun intended- envisaged by some.
benny “Anyway, I’m out. This place is really not good for my mental health. It’s been emotional. See you all in the summer.” Nooooooo!!! Whyyyyyyyy??!!!! 🙂 It’s a football blog, don’t take it too personal. As for your Emery’s backing… sorry, man, but he really did F’d it up with his team selection. You can’t tell me with a straight face that he couldn’t play: AMN / Koscielny / Monreal / Kolasinac Torreira / Guendouzi over yesterday’s dross in the back and midfield. Forget Mustafi (I know it’s hard)… but Jenks? Mavrapanos? Guendo/Elneny combo after Everton’s game? Come on, man.… Read more »
In football apologies rarely seem to do much good. So hearing OGS say sorry for the dismal performance against Everton makes me think he is for the chop this summer.
what are the chances of arsenal making it to the cl next season?¿ how would anyone and everyone feel if our hopes of getting into the champions league, come down to the final of the Europa league vs Chelsea?¿ would anyone be happy if our only objective of this season comes down to a 90mins standoff against Chelsea? we’ve had the better chance of stealing 3rd place after Chelsea f*ucked it up with the outstanding match as we did with ours… this season is almost fucked up, but no one will see it until it’s already gone… if we had… Read more »
Having just given OGS a contract (so we’re told), how will the Man U hierarchy go about breaking it? Easy, he’s a fan. It’s best for the club, they will tell him. Interestingly Man U (who were maybe the best-run club around) have descended to the Wenger/Gazidis level of ineptitude. Jeeze, the money they’ve spent, and all to no avail. On the best-run issue. most would put Liverpool top of the heap I think. Oddly enough, helped by Wenger’s egotistic offer of £40m plus £1 for Suarez. Anyone with half a mind would know that John Henry & Co would… Read more »
englandsbest
Can ManU afford to sack him? I don’t mean in a financial sense but that would be the 4th manager in 6 years. It goes to show the complete folly of giving OGS the contract when they didn’t have to, wait till the end of the season and then decide. At least that way it looks like part of a plan rather than blundering from one fuck up to another.
“Another contender for best-run must be (swallow hard!) Tottenham Hotspur. Huge, huge debt – but they won’t follow Stan’s crass bottom-line policy.”
Sorry but
a) none of us know at the moment just how badly the dent will affect them although the fact they’ve announced that they will listen to offers for a dozen first team players doesn’t make you think that they’ve got it under control.
b) They’ve never been big spenders and one of the reasons they are struggling to get players to sign new contracts is they don’t pay the wages.
debt not dent!
Spurs may be ready to listen to offers for a dozen of their first team players, but with Levy at the helm rather than Gazidis they are likely to extract a lot more money than they are actually worth.
I also trust Pochettino to reinvest any windfall better than Raul and Emery.
If mustafi has any bit of shame or sanity, he should quit.
Emery was to blame for yesterday’s result but not entirely.
This was a home game with presumably more stakes for Arsenal than palace. The players ought to be ashamed of themselves irregardless of their playing time.
Marc
Yup, they will sell to buy – but in a productive way, not like our people. From what we hear, Poch will have £60m transfer pot plus £100m from sales. And this for a squad that is stronger and better-blanced than Emery’s.
They may well carry on in the same old way: buying cheap, selling dear. They have done pretty well at it thus far.
Emery’s needs are far greater – but he will get far less. A £40m transfer pot at most, and virtually no big–money players to sell.
Cheers, Un. No hard feelings.
Let’s find commonality in the fact that Mustafi is an absolute thundercunt and work from there.
Valentin A chunk of the players are down to a year left on their contracts so that will reduce their value. It’s also one thing to play hardball when someone wants one of your players and you don’t want / need to sell. By effectively announcing they need to sell it puts the other party in a stronger position. The other question is how much of the proceeds with the Poch get? If they raise £200 million and the Poch “only” gets £100 million but needs to replace Eriksen, Alderweireld, Vertonghen and Rose with players ready to step straight into… Read more »
Come on Burnley
englandsbest
“A £40m transfer pot at most”
Where do you get that figure from? We’ve just signed a huge new shirt deal that will give us an extra £30 million a year kicking in for next season. If you were Adidas and did that deal would you be happy not seeing a few shiny new players in those shirts?
Good to see Emile Smith Rowe getting back slowly to fitness.
I really feel this boy may be the Jack Wiltshire of the future for us.
I have watched him for a long time and bar injuries like Jack had and has
he certainly looks the future for us.
Effin Chelsea… and just like that, we’re back in 5th place.
Poch may be listening for offers for any of a dozen players, Emery on the other hand will, I imagine, be hoping to sell off a dozen players at least. For the most part, they are Wenger’s pick, not his.
If the backroom staff are worth their salt they have made a list of young energetic up-and-comers who they can bring in at reasonable transfer fees and low wages. And rid themselves of the overpaid dross that Wenger left behind.
Chelsea 2 – 2 Burnley
englandsbest
Whilst I think you’ll see some turnover of players I’m not sure we’ll be selling off a dozen!
Ramsey, Cech, Lich and Welbeck on frees. We’ve activated an extension in Monreal’s so should get a fee for him, we’ll sell Elneny and Chambers. After that it’s a fair amount of speculation although I think everyone would be amazed if we don’t sell Mustafi.
Can this game just end already.
Fucking ref books the Burnley GK for time wasting after 30 minutes. The clown we had yesterday not only didn’t book the keeper but didn’t add on any time.
Good to see a young English lad getting a chance but can’t help feel Wilian and Pedro are better options.
Marc
There has not been a single season when Arsenal lacked the money for substantial signings. That has been the most frustrating infuriating aspect of Arsenal’s decline.
So the additional £30m revenue you mention is a minor factor unlikely to change Stan’s bottom line police.
What might be a major factor is the debt Stan incurred to pay off Usmanov. There is nothing to stop him loading part of the debt onto the Club, as he did with the stadium debt.
Burnley are an interesting side to follow in more ways than one. To not have a single black player must take some doing 🙂
never noticed that until now RR
Napoli 1 Atalanta 2
Napoli 0 Arsenal 1
Truth hurts.
englandsbest
Kroenke did not load the stadium debt onto the club. What do you expect him to do pay it off without taking the money out of the club?
We don’t know what he’ll do now butt this summer is a fantastic opportunity to give ourselves some breathing space. ManU are in disarray, Chelsea have a ban coming up and the Spud’s have an enormous debt to finance.
CG
Moron
Us winning both legs of a tie and keeping two clean sheets only hurts people who don’t support the club i.e. you.
RR Im sure its not by accident
Emery is a car crash really , second tier manager simple
Jheeze this CG is a fucking imbecile, puts me off coming here
“Emery is a car crash really , second tier manager simple”
More points than last season already whilst having to sort out the shit show he inherited and only one point behind the Spud’s who are “fucking amazing” according to some on here.
Leftside
I know what you mean CG and Pierre are different sides of the same coin. Neither actually support the club they support Wenger.
Pedro’s going to find himself losing more and more regulars if he doesn’t reel them in.
Marc
I’m literally having to scroll through so much of their nonsense to read normal inputs from some quality posters on here and it’s becoming more and more tedious to do so.
Lots of good posters are already put off and it will only get worse because they’re becoming more ‘louder’ and brazen with their derisory posts.
Leftside
I’m waiting for the Wenger for Technical Director calls which positions them to be able to call for Emery to be sacked after one bad result next season with Wenger stepping in as care taker.
Burnley should be winning this game.
I still think Chelsea will get a jammy goal.
Samesong
Know what you mean. Can’t make my mind up if I just being paranoid!
Marc
Burnley are playing well.
Samesong
Agree but it’s like you’re just waiting for them to cock it up.
Knew this season was too good to be true. This squad is not 3/4 place quality.
If truth be told the reason why we are ‘competing’ this season is simply because the also rans are just as bad.
Emery doing his best with what he had Pete. Matches coming thick and fast, he had to rotate and take a risk.
Mo is not a bad player, he needs a string of games. remember that we were singing his praise a couple of years ago when he was paired with Xhaka.
Mustafi is a WC winner, he is not perfect but not horrible too, mistakes happen again when you are not playing regularly with defensive partner.
Why does CG remind me of Trump? 😉
I think top for us will go down to last match.
Chelsea absolutely dominating possession.
MGooner
Trump I’m sure has some redeeming points. So no idea!
mgooner…. you must be joking.
mustafi is not a bad player… were you laughng when you were writing that?¿
just take 10mins of you time and watch mustafi’s horrible defending since his arrival at arsenal…. I bet, he’s going to make you laugh you ribs out.
the fact that Wenger bought mustafi is a shame upon Wenger himself…. someone can’t tell me, mustafi started making this brain farting blunders since his arrival at arsenal.
there’s no way in hell, sarri’s going to be Chelsea manager if he doesn’t make it to champions league football…
if Chelsea doesn’t win this match, its going to confirm sarri’s status as a bottler…
Hitman
It does look like the quality necessary to finish 4th will be lower than the past two seasons, and it’s not really a surprise when you see ALL of these huge budget, big name teams bottling the run-in, with none taking advantage of the failures of their competitors.
Benchmark for 4th has been 76 points (2 points from every 3) since a big 6 emerged. This season 4th place may well be attainable on 73 or 74 points, which is pretty shabby when 3 big teams are all closely chasing it.
I’m glad that AMN is now starting to receive the recognition he deserves. Not just a quality youngster but a little fighter too. Read Tony Cottee say he could be the new bale which is stretching it way too far for me especially considering he thinks his natural position is right back but sees him morphing into an attacking player but he sees the potential for ainsley to become a very very good player indeed and so do I. Lovely to see our youngsters getting blooded. There is such talent in this country and it should be utilised. We aren’t… Read more »
Didn’t they change the rules this season re managers being shown yellow / red cards?
Can a manager be sent to the stands now and not shown a red card? Is there a suspension to follow a red?
Well done, Burnley.
It’s almost as you were, even more frustrating that we dropped points v Everton and Palace, we’d almost certainly be through if we picked up maximum.
We got to go for the win on Wednesday, but a draw isn’t the worst result providing we win the other three Prem fixtures
2-2 if we didnt fuck up all the time this 3 or 4 spot would have been secured a long time ago
What odds would’ve you have got on the Spud’s, Us, ManU all losing and Chelsea drawing at home to Burnley this weekend?
We can not let United in to this that is why a win at wolves is crucial.
Like I said ours was a bad loss but no drama.
about 250/1.
City cannot afford to lose against ManU on Wednesday and I don’t think they will – if they drop any points it’ll hand the title to the Scouse vermin.
It does make Sundays match between ManU and Chelsea a massive match in the race for CL. Very possible the loser will be out of the chase.
that’s the biggest odd, one could ever imagine…
teams placed from 3rd-6th not having any single 2points if combined together, is going to give you a minimum of 700odds
@ ddkingz
Trying to be positive – Mustafi.
Wenger did try to sell him but he would not leave, just like Squilacci 🙂
Let’s hope United lose to City on Wednesday, then beat Chelsea next weekend.
That would allow us to draw at both Wolves and Leicester and still be 4th going into the final two easier games.
As well as Chelsea dropping points being good for us this result makes Burnley safe. Hopefully they’ll have one mind on their summer holidays when we play them last match of the season. Even a small drop off in concentration / performance could work in our favour.
Now come on Brighton.
Elmo
I can’t be bothered to do the maths. What if it’s a draw between ManU and Chelsea?
Charlie cunting George must be gutted Chelsea only drawing ha ha lol
“Wenger did try to sell him but he would not leave, just like Squilacci ”
Don’t think so in fact I heard Wenger turned a bid down from Inter.