Today is pretty much the Premier League version of the Europa Cup Final.
We head away to GIANT killers Wolves in the hope of securing a top 4 that’s been gift-wrapped for us.
Spurs won very late last night against a resolute Brighton (that f*cking sunk me).
Chelsea is a point ahead of us courtesy of that drab draw against Burnley.
Now we MUST leapfrog them into 4th.
Wolves are struggling. As Matt Scott pointed out yesterday, they’ve only 19 first team players in their squad and two of those are back up keepers. They have only won two games in their last 6 outings.
They haven’t had a great time since Watford beat them in the semi-final of the FA Cup after extra time. They lost 3-1 to Southampton and only managed a draw at home to Brighton on Saturday. Small teams with small squads aren’t usually that good when they have to play 3 games in a week. They have a revenge game in the league against Watford on Saturday, which is effectively a 6 pointer for them. There are 2 points between 10th and 7th, I would imagine Nuno Herlander Simões Espírito Santo wants the higher position because of his RAMPANT ego and the £5.7m additional prize money which goes a long way up North.
My strategic brain would say that if you were a TOP TOP manager, you’d probably fancy beating Watford away… so if you were to make rotation sacrifices with a tired squad, you probably SHOULD make them against Arsenal this evening.
No point in going all guns blazing against us tonight only to lose on Saturday. If I were Nuno Herlander Simões Espírito Santo, I would throw this evenings game and go big at the weekend (Wednesday client drinks VERSUS A FUCKING MAD RAGER on Friday in layman’s terms). I MIGHT be biased here… but even if I weren’t, I’d calculate that Arsenal rested big at the weekend, they lost in humiliating fashion and they’ll be coming with energy and purpose tonight.
So we’ll see… the counter to the above is we are usually shite away from home to counter-attacking sides and the Unai Emery press conference was a vigorous defence of a defender who is awful (and he’ll probs play). This was his defence.
“I want to protect the players, Mustafi is a very good player, a very good centre-back,”
“He has the habit – usually he is doing the sliding tackle and using anticipation against the opposition. He can win one, win two, win three, win four – but if he loses one he is the picture and if he concede a goal he is the big picture, Sunday was the same and happened with him.
“I have spoken to him: ‘You are young, you can improve and you need to work hard because you have a big quality for a centre-back.’
“He is young, he is improving and Sunday he is in the big picture because of the second goal. Who is in this picture? Mustafi – but it’s not his mistake. The mistake was tactical because we need to protect him with two centre-backs against (Wilfried) Zaha. I protect him because I believe in him.”
… err, Unai, the player is 27 years old. The same age Cobain died. The same age I am right now (it is TRUE). He’s not young, he’s in his footballing prime.
He then went on to ask a favour of the fans.
“I am going to say to our supporters, ‘Help our players.’ We need to take the criticism and be strong as players, as a coach, as a team, as a club. We need to improve knowing that.”
You can’t knock Unai here. He’s rallying the troops around a player who is obviously going through a really tough patch and I’d personally take that sort of management style over a Jose Mourinho lambasting him for being a disgrace to his mother. A manager c*nting a player might make you feel better, but it’s not good for trust. Mustafi isn’t trying to be average.
Let’s see what the Unai’s real intentions are in the summer when I have no doubt he’ll move him off to Italy or Spain.
Talking of the summer… lots of leaks and rumours that the war chest is more of a trinket this summer. The tiny sum of money that I reported way back in November looks near enough spot on. The more worrying thing is someone from the club mentioned there is a concern that the Champions League money won’t make it to the manager as an advance.
This does make sense though. We are a business and we can’t keep spunking money on players/wages without balancing the books. We have a £220m wage bill, we’re the 3rd highest net spenders in the league over 5 years, we’ve outspent Madrid since 2010 on a net basis… and we’re still rolling with Jenks in an decisive league match. I completely agree with the notion of ‘get your finances and squad in order before you come begging for money.’
There are lots of very expensive names we should be moving on, and we could see the cash benefit in wages and in fee in some places. Interesting that Sokratis, Auba, Ozil, Mikhi and Mustafi all have two years on their deals. Raul explicitly said something about not allowing players to venture beyond that juncture.
My big, big worry is that we’ll have to lose one of our stars because we didn’t make any money on Aaron Ramsey (who was foolishly allowed to pass the 2-year position in his deal). But if that is what has to happen, then that’s what will happen and we’ll just deal with it.
… there’s a sub concern that we don’t have a technical director in place or an experienced head of recruitment. I know there are folk that think that isn’t important, but then there are people out there that think tactics don’t matter… or underplay the importance of a manager, or believe the earth is flat, but rest assured, those people should be ignored.
Sven M came in for a year and nearly all of his signings have contributed to a more stabilised first season. We need someone who understands up and coming markets, someone that can give us a critical edge through tech implementation or someone with a very sharp eye, and we really need them in ASAP. I have deep fears handing over control to Raul and his backroom dealing ways.
… I also think Emery is hit and miss with players he likes (Denis is just a pretty boy). To be fair to him, there’s no way he’s going to have time in his day to scout effectively. I have no understanding of how the recruitment drive will be operating. Trust in Morrow and Cagiago I guess?
Right, that’s me DONE.
See you in the comments and BE NICE TO EACH OTHER. Blog. Of. Love.
P.S. You made that little boy’s uncle very happy yesterday AND it was his birthday. Perfection. Big love to you all, the donations went up! For those who wanted a PayPal option, it is HERE. THANK YOU AGAIN.
LOVE YOU ALL YOU ARE HEROES x
Below if you missed it:
Finally, before I go. A bit of a kindness ask. Luke, top Gooner lad (good looking boy in the photo below), lost his life recently (read here). His uncle, Dominic, is raising money for East Anglian Air Ambulance as they airlifted his son to the hospital and did a great job. I think you should NOT put currency into my Patreon, and instead add some money to the fund which is a whopping £22k. It’s a great cause and it would mean a lot to me and his dad.
Gooners, we all look after each other, right? Thank you in advance for your generosity!
“Have to say that AMN has been shocking in defence. He completely went AWOL for the third goal.”
That can’t be right. According to Mysticleaves, AMN has made it. Proven all the doubters wrong.
Is Denis Suarez injured?
So more Thursdays to come folks. This squad is utter shite.
We’re not winning the fucking Europa league get that out of your minds.
Lets be honest, we all know we havent improved at all since last season.
Arsene Wenger was basically the mad king, had lost the dressing room, and Emery hasnt managed to make any improvement.
The only difference between this season and last is we have been a bit luckier with our goalscoring
Absolutely shameful.
Watching City vs United
Done with this
Fuck off cc, where were you when Wenger was stinking out the place. Fucking disingenuous prick
All our best team players – Ramsey, Bellerin, Welbeck – the ones that are not complete fannies and can dig in away from home, our out. No chance of standing strong in these games with that side out there.
This is my worst nightmare. Arsenal have been fucking diabolical I don’t think we’ve even had 1 shot apart from Lacazette skying it from 6 yards, how he did that I do not know. Lacazette looks pissed off and uninterested, Ozil, MK fucking anonymous. We look utterly bereft of any idea in our attacking play, what the fuck is wrong with our defence and what the fuck was Leno doing for the 3rd? Top 4 over. We will get a right royal fox fucking on Sunday too. I’ve got to sit through another 45 mins of this shite freezing my… Read more »
Un nai
Have you been subjected to Moon and Me yet? As bizarre as Iggle piggle, and our defending.
It is looking like Charlie George is going to have the last laugh after all. I cannot get my head around the fact that teams like Wolves, Palace, Everton etc have more purpose and bite in their attack.
Cowardly, lazy, sloppy, stupid performance, and mustafi isn’t even playing!
Iwobi is a championship level player.
Ozil is useless he cant dribble, cant take on a man, cant shimmy or open up a yard to shoot can’t even create. Lacks diverse passing ranges.
Lacazette is completely physically limited but doesn’t make up for it with dribbling or flair.
Miki just needs to disappear up a blackhole. Complete quagmire of a player.
Away, we should never play this 4 2 3 1 formation. Every time, we play this slow possessing game, we suck. They have lots of time to pack the bus. They have eight men inside the box. Once we lose the box, they have quick counter. How can our coaching stuff be so dumb. We should never play such a stupid game. Wolves hardly play any back pass. We keep playing back passes. Mikki lost the ball and gave up a counter and goal. Xhaka played a back pass to Mikki and gave up another goal. We can forget the… Read more »
Fuckin chokers!!!!!!!!
FUCKIN embarrassment.
Wow this is disgraceful
Now then now then now then, boys and girls … what a shit show …
Benny
Get a cab somewhere warm and embracing immediately. Fuck sitting in the cold for this.
Reports of a £40m ‘summer war chest’ are optimistic. We really are a shit club.
Bring on the clearout:
Lichtsteiner (out of contract): 90K
Cech (Out of contract): 100K
Ramsey (Out of contract): 110K
Welbeck (Out of contract): 70K
Jenkinson (Out of contract): 25K
————————–
Without selling anyone we’ll have 400K freed up of wages. Let us pray we can move along some deadweight: Mkhtarian, Ozil, Mustafi, Elneny, Iwobi,
And the reports of our pathetic funds for the summer, lolol this club is so fucking pathetic.
Benny the way we defend Wolves aren’t done scoring..
Would West Ham or Everton take Mikhi? No.
Ozil? No. X
Xhaka? No.
AMN? Fuck no.
Iwobi? Um, tough one. How about no?
Benny
Grab yourself a cup of bovril
We need a new squad.
Just saw the third goal, wow.
Fuck da club
When has big eyes an big cunt Mikki worked in a team
Nelson –
“we should never play this 4 2 3 1 formation”
Don’t tell Pierre that!
Pierre April 24, 2019 17:52:41
4-2-3-1.(hopefully)…good system …very effective for The Arsenal during our very impressive early season unbeaten run.
—
Eagerly awaiting Pierre’s revisionist 20-20 hindsight tactical analysis of what went wrong tonight with this good 4 2 3 1 system. Can’t be Ozil’s fault; let’s get that cleared up right away.
I said last week… there no way in hell arsenal would get a point against wolves… why rest players against Everton, when we just dealt with Napoli?¿ why rest players against crystal palace at home?¿ I’m not in the emery out brigade, and i know he need another season get his own players, but I have a feeling emery is a clown, who over complicates issues. I’d prefer we won/draw Everton, then beat palace at home, then draw/lose to wolves, that be 4-6points out of 9points and we’d be topping spurds,. now it’s 0points out of 9points. who to blame???????… Read more »
Whose had the millions we have earned since a move to this shit hole
Wow wow wow face palm
Remember we stopped caring.about the PL last year after February. Not much of an improvement, is there?
Welbeck can do more away from home than Lacazette.
Frezzing my 8 inch cock off here…for what???.
This could be 5 or 6….
What the fuck is going on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I see no reason why emery shouldn’t throw in willock and Eddie into this match… the would give their all, and they get more EPL experience.
Any news from our pal the Wolves fan ??
One more time we are the laughing stock, we are so doomed…
Except for the last season, Wenger used to despatch teams in the bottom half with ease both home and away and yet people wanted him out and rightly so. Here we have the same people pinning all the blame on players as if our players are so bad that we can’t beat the likes of 10 men Watford, Crystal Palace, Wolves and West Ham. Hate to break it to you that defending corners doesn’t require great skills, forming a wall and putting your body in the line doesn’t require great skills, bringing some discipline at the back doesn’t require top… Read more »
No changes at half time
Wtf
Ozil-because he’s unwilling to run at and take on defenders, he’s easy to play against.
Iwobi and Mkhi are so fucking limited it isn’t a joke anymore.
The dude can’t run proper ffs.
“Wolves are leading a Premier League game by three or more goals at half-time for the very first time.” – Opta
Good stuff Arsenal.
useroz
Emery should just show the 1H highlights in the dressing room now.
It makes me wonder if UE actually does video replays cos no one is actually learning from their mistakes.
Azed
We need a new squad.
And a new manager.
Iwobi is dog shit
I swear I have more quality at this level
He feinthe shimmies and nobody ever buys it
Get your hair cut big chin
You look like buzz light year and bob Marley had a love child
Who said ” be careful what you wish for “
Look, irrespective of how shit this team has performed last season till date, this disasterclass being demonstrated today should be solely put at the door step of the coach. Pathetic. Infuriating.
Whether u like emery or not, I doubt his competence when we play away from home.
Was no scouting on how wolves play against the big boys done?
My goodness!!!
The icing on the cake will be a predictable injury to Kozzer.
Damned if Emery rotates and loses, damned if he plays a full strength squad and loses.
The essential truth is it is still Wenger’s team barring a couple of players.
What did you expect ?
I have lost count how many times I have said that nothing will change until ALL players that were here under Wenger have gone.
Emery is not the right manager for us but he cant change 25 players in one season.
Emery went a whole league season without winning one away match for Sevilla
This would be funny if it wasn’t so sad. Xhaka? What a joke. Mikhi? Waste of space. Iwobi? Useless. Our defense as a whole including the Greek wrestler? Fucking shambolic.
4 at the back was a major mistake too
Why change a decent formula? It’s nit like he’s a master tactician
How the hell is that not a penalty
Not just Ozil. Iwobi, Mkhi even Laca are all shying away from running at Wolves most times.
Cowards and chokers.
Nkhi and Torr off. Guen and Kolac on.
Pierre
The problem lies squarely with the BoD who had no succession plan whatsoever once they decided that AW should retire.
The problem goes far deeper than what is going on on the pitch.
Emerys decision making today and last few games in the league has been off, he has to take responsibility for it.
IWOBI
Get your hair cut big chin
You look like buzz light year and bob Marley had a love child
Complete shitshow, just like that we’re back to being outsiders for 4th.
Dumb, stay-at-home cvnts?
“The essential truth is it is still Wenger’s team barring a couple of players.”
No, it’s not. It’s Emery’s team, and it has been his team for almost a full year now. Enough with Wenger crap.
they seem to take turns in who has the off day must be part of the Arsenal DNA
Why the fuck nor throw on Wilcox.
Same players all the fucking time
Fuck the club
Shit cunt team
No MORE away games for me…
SHITE
FUCK em
People are leaving to go to the pub to watch the other game.
Nothing’s gonna change with half of this squad and that stupid budget that’s been quoted everywhere
And before anyone gets overly excited at Arsenal losing
Wolves have beat
United x2
Liverpool
Draw with City
Spurs
Arsenal losing at Wolves is nothing special as better teams have fallen short there
Let’s keep deceiving ourselves though that all we need is a new manager
Possession football is killing it.
We got better results playing in the counter.
One more thing-this screws up our goal difference over Chelsea if we somehow end up with any more points this season.
The sad reality is that we’re losing 3-0 to a newly promoted side. Fucking pathetic.
Take ozil off for nketiah put 2 up front
Battygoal
Spurs spent nothing this year and got better again. Don’t give me the money bullshit
We just hired a crap dull lifeless coach
Wolves have the second best record against the league’s top 6. Second only to City. Still doesn’t justify this
One final cheerful thought. This was almost our first-choice XI.
no penetration
no movement
Just like palace
Ping the ball around…
Need more direct pace and power in this team.
Need tall strikers
Need wingers
Need a few dribblers
Fuck
Just read a tweet that really is on point.
Emery has got it right in the big home games, and got basically everything else wrong this season.
Emery hasn’t a clue defensively, that’s the issue for me. We’ve not addressed the deficiencies inherent in the declining side of the past 5 years.
We’re 34 games into an Emery Arsenal and it’s bang average. Absolutely kidding yourself if you’re deflecting to a new player each time we have a fuckup.
We don’t look like scoring, haven’t looked like it all match.
may as well just blow the whistle, no one wants it
Have you noticed there’s no spokesman used to be Mertesacker and djourou with their bounce back bollox
Yeah, let’s keep saying this is Wenger’s team, the goal keeper, Papas, Guendouzi, Torriera, then add the fact that the coach had a team in Sevilla who went a whole season losing away games and bottled the league with PSG.
Emery is a cup manager thats going to back door us in always seemed the plan to me.
Dude went an entire season with Sevilla without an away win.
How many shots we had on target tonight?
With all those short passes, we couldn’t generate any shot on goal. Useless plays.
I’m starting to think that missing out on top 4 and bottling the Europa League would be a blessing in disguise. This would compel our Owners and the Management to address the glaring issues in our football setup. Right from the coach to the players to the playing style.
Is it just me or are Arsenal are looking exactly like it was under Wenger in the last season ?
City score
Dale
True but I think the legacy of wengers bottling incompetent ways sticks arpund this club like a bad smell.
gambonApril 24, 2019 20:10:14
Just read a tweet that really is on point.Emery has got it right in the big home games, and got basically everything else wrong this season.
——————-
Very sensible take on Emery’s first season. Yes we’re more “tactically fluid” but this game looks no different than Wenger’s last days. 0 shots on target, 0 plan, 0 belief, 0 leadership.
Yes ! Citeh score..
De Gea with another shocker.
Thanks Bernado… Made me smile tonight
RR Who said ” be careful what you wish for “ Dumb, stay-at-home cvnts? What a dumb comment. We finished 6th with AW last season and we are looking to be heading 6th with UE. The problem, as I mentioned earlier, is that we have a BoD who literally planned nothing post Wenger. Instead of looking for a candidate who could emulate and update on our style of play, they just went for the candidate who had a radically different style of football which is not suited to most players in our team. The BoD just went for the crap… Read more »
Man C 1 nil up
One thing you cannot fault Wenger for is that his teams are not afraid to take risks going forward, to be brave with the ball in going forward. But it seems Emery has wired his players to pass back if not sure of a creative pass. I feel woozy with the amount of back passes this shit players have made.
At least something to be pleases about – City get a goal.
Couldn’t cope with the Scousers wining the league.
De Gea has been shocking this season.
Come on-everyone saw that Emery took a massive gamble against Palace with that team. You put two top strikers up front and give them zero service.
“Emery hasn’t a clue defensively, that’s the issue for me. We’ve not addressed the deficiencies inherent in the declining side of the past 5 years. ”
Ding, ding, ding… we have a winner! (injured) Holding aside, we have Koscielny, Sokratis, Mustafi, and Mavrapanos as our CB’s. Yikes!
If the city game ends like that united are probably out of top 4 contention.
Between us and chelsea if chelsea beat man united its game over, Otherwise its on a knife edge.
Nketiah done more than anyone else in about a minute on the pitch
FACupofTea
Have you been in a coma for the last fuck knows how many years. This tippy tappy pass it round the box backwards, sideways backwards again has been going on for ages.
The worst thing you can accuse Emery of is levelling off the decline. Anyone who thinks we would have been better off this season under Wenger should be sectioned.
Probably the first time ever that we’re playing and I’m watching another match, very sad.
“I’m starting to think that missing out on top 4 and bottling the Europa League would be a blessing in disguise. This would compel our Owners and the Management to address the glaring issues in our football setup. Right from the coach to the players to the playing style. ”
Kroenke does not give a fuck about football. What’s happeneing on the picth is meaningless to him.
The root cause of Arsenal malaise is Kroenke’s ownership. The sooner that cunt fucks off the better. Anyone who cares about football should want rid of Kroenke.
Upstate
We can get better defenders, I won’t argue that, but this group are capable of better than they’re producing. It’s a coaching issue, hence other sides with lesser players managing to be more solid.
Emery just isn’t the one for addressing a side with a shit defence. Still maintain we needed an anti-arsenal type manager to tip the scale back to some semblance of balance.
FACupofTea
We are still doing this slow sideways tippi-tappi as we did under AW. It is baffling how we are incapable of being more incisive.
…
It looks like it will take us a whole 45 mins to score 1 goal. It took wolves the same 45 to score 3.
Emery has deffo got some things wrong but its an absolute joke these AKB scum levelling all of Arsenals decline at his feet that happened under Wenger what see now is a consequence of the specialist in failures legacy.
if we score and lose and manure lose
we still have a chance
fuck we always make it harder than it need to be
Danny
It’s the fact you have a choice and are watching another match that is the major indictment of tonight.