3 games against teams outside the top six. Three defeats. 9 goals conceded.
An abrupt end to our top 4 hopes you would think.
A pretty horrendous day out in general. It looked like we setup to give Leicester possession. We were totally overrun in midfield start to finish. The players were afraid, they sat deep, they dropped off and they allowed themselves to be bullied.
AMN found himself sent off for two pretty innocuous fouls, but hey, that’s Michael Oliver. We’d given up 71% possession at that point, hardly like that sending off was going to save our bacon. We were always going to lose.
Arsenal scrambled into halftime, a real low was seeing Papa point to the clock to sooth the nerves of his nervous players. Players begging for halftime. Scrambling against a mid table team like it was a City masterclass they were hiding from. Really embarrassing.
Second half saw the intro of Kos to stabilise the defence. We looked a touch better, but then the floodgates opened.
There’s no point in going through it goal by goal, needless to say that being easily beaten by a side that KNEW they’d take us down, was not good.
Emery has a tough job on his hands. There was only one player out there I’d keep on next season, and that’s the keeper. Everyone else is expendable.
The manager is culpable. He was gift wrapped top four this week and he’s flunked it badly. His selection against Palace was baffling, his game plan at Wolves was awful, and he made mistakes again yesterday. We have bottled the top 4 against much weaker teams.
“Our gameplan was to be strong in our defensive moments and in our attacking moments, to take our chances, attacking their back four,”
With a game plan so complex, it’s hard to fathom why we struggled. A few brief thoughts. We played Mustafi again, I’m all for charitable suppprt, but he’s finished. Bigger thought here is this: if the young players can’t oust someone so utterly broken, do they really have a future?
Xhaka and LT had no control of the midfield, both struggled hugely under the physical pressure placed on them. The Swiss is 80% good, 20% awful. That awful shows up too often. He’s like a fancy orchid, you need to find the absolute perfect conditions for him to thrive, that’s not good enough at Champions League level. LT just looks shot to pieces. How long will it take Arsenal management to realise that power and pace is what it’s all about in this league?
Our wide players offered nothing. We have to be real about Iwobi. He’s limited. He’s not improving. We are chasing the ‘he’ll make it’ dragon. He doesn’t assist, he doesn’t score, he has limited locomotion, and he loses the ball under pressure. Mikhi showed signs of promise for about 10 milliseconds, but it’s over for him. He just doesn’t cut the mustard. Very disappointing. So much talent, very little application.
Our strikers were poor outlets and offered nothing. They’ve given us so much edge this season, but in games like yesterday, where brute force and hard pressing is on the menu, those two are lost. By the way, Leicester have some brilliant young players. Maddison and Tielemans were so good. I also enjoyed the performance of Choudhoury, super intense, aggressive and effective. How has Leicester found these players? Why isn’t our youth setup producing talent like theirs?
That was a nothing game. The reality is that Emery is just here as a transition. He’s solid and dependable, but there’s no next level. He’ll have good days and he’ll have bad days. But the simple reality is he’s made a very limited impact on us being protagonists. We literally approached Leicester like we were playing Barca away. The defence has gotten worse, we have no consistent style, our away form is diabolical and we are still soft. He’s also been incredibly lucky this season. Our conversion rate is the best it’s ever been, that won’t last.
We are better against top 6 sides, but what’s that worth if you blow the top 4 with 6 games to go against cloggers?
Still, he’ll land another year where he’ll be charged with rebirthing the squad with new blood and I think you’ll be disappointed with what it reaps. You can’t have an ok manager and bad recruiting, but that’s the reality of what’s about to happen. Raul hasn’t hired a technical director, he didn’t replace Sven M, so we are going into the summer either using Sven’s old list, or with an exec that passed on Tielemans to bring in Denis Suarez.
With better coaching, we’d have seen those three games out. It wasn’t to be, and now we have to beat a solid Valencia side and cross our fingers Chelsea don’t show up.
… and don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying fire him. I’m just saying what I’ve said all season. We have made lots of bad decisions with recruiting and they are going to bite us hard over the next 3 years.
Still, despite all the AKBs enjoying this… I’d not have changed out this season for another with Wenger under any circumstances. That attitude is loser talk my friends.
A miserable week. Bring on the Europa. Pray United and Chelsea draw. Hope Emery brings the Habanero on Thursday. Xx
1st
2nd
3rd
Bankz is here for thev tr4phy again
4th
Sorry Leftside, I had to jump in for my tr4phy
Lool the comments section saying I was uploading too fast sabotaged me Bankz!
Also dissenter I said the Europa saves emery’s season and gets the goodwill with the TW and until Jan. If their is no significant improvement is when I start my emery out stanceRight now I’m just emery is not much of an improvement on the wanker we sacked
I knew it would, slows ,me down too.
As for the game, we were dog poo today. Emery and literally the entire team have gone on holidays mentally since the start of april.
it’s appalling what a once promising season has become overnight.
At this rate, getting past Valencia in the same final will take a divine intervention.
Pedro
Did you write the match report tomorrow?
You keep referring to there game as “yesterday”
Joe
I think we lose to Chelsea in a one-off game simple because they have Eden Hazard who will rise to the occasion.
I hope they get heated by Frankfurt but then we aren’t capable of beating Valencia in this form.
Well I’ve already made up my mind if he rolls out with Mustafi, Kolasinac and Xhaka next season I’ll be starting a GoFundMe for getting Vieira in or for a hitman or something. Signings are all well and good but some of the players need to fuck off
Its more the stupidity that came out of Emerys mouth after the match. It’s almost like he has no clue, that is what was concerning today.
We’ve been afforded chance after chance and we’ve failed to take them and thats on the manager and this set of players.
The team have picked the worst time to begin misfiring, even our forwards can’t bail us out of this funk currently.
Yup, The Chelsea lads are going down like chickens
Hope they get a Frankfurt stuffed in their behind on Thursday.
Chelsea are shit enough defensively for Sanchez to have an impact here.
If by August we still have Xhaka, Iwobi, Mustafi, Mikki, Ozil at this club then what would be the point in even bothering with the next season.
Totally unacceptable that a long punt from the oppositions goal keeper takes your two centre backs out for a goal.?
We have weak overpaid players who think fuck all of the shirt.
Again people see the last 3 games as an indictment of the manager but for me it’s an indictment of the squad. Literally a handful of games left and when push comes to shove and you want the players available to show a bit of fight they left you completely disappointed. Sokratis is suspended Mustafi drops a pearler of performance against Palace. Ramsey goes down you expect Xhaka and Ozil or whoever to step up but no. Even the two strikers look like they’ve given up
How can you trust Emery with any transfer budget.?
We should simply go all out for EL.
No way we find any motivation in PL even with a draw between Utd vs chavs.Club also needs to hire a recruitment specialist at the earliest.
Remove as much as dross as possible in the TW.If Emery wins EL give him 5 to 10 games next season to assess.
If there are no improvements he should be sacked.
He is Wonga mark 2 with this protagonists shit.
I am just tired.
Eric Bailly must have ruptured his medial collateral ligaments
Emery must have sneaked in to give him some double training sessions when no one was looking.
Why did they let him walk off?
Emery as manager takes the blame for the results but I’ll rather spend the summer recruiting players than recruiting a manager.
Emery has one year left on his contract, smart thing to do is let him see if out.
Unless you can guarantee Stan spending serious money.
“How can you trust Emery with any transfer budget.?”
You don’t trust any manager
The DoF gets the players after discussing with the manager what the needs are.
Emery is clutching at straws which is a bad sign. He is loosing it , being found out when there’s heat in the kitchen. He is not good enough for a big club like Arsenal where expectations are high and we have been starved of real success for over ten years or more. We have a crap owner who doesnt know how our club sits in the history of football, we demand better. The current crop of players also have no fight in them , our club is just a means to an end. We need warriors back, we need… Read more »
The move to Ashburton Grove would enable Arsenal to compete with the big boys of Europe we were told
How can you trust Emery with any transfer budget.?
The trust is in the management team. The coach doesn’t make the signings anymore. Do you trust Raul and Cagigao or Morrow is the question. As an Arsenal fan I don’t trust any of them
“He lacks locomotion”
That’s class, Peter. Genuinely I like that. I am not being sarcastic.
Marko
It’s on the manager to motivate the players. Pick the right team and tactics
Emery failed on all fronts when he needed him most to come through
I had high hopes for emery but he has disappointed
“Emery as manager takes the blame for the results but I’ll rather spend the summer recruiting players than recruiting a manager.Emery has one year left on his contract, smart thing to do is let him see if out.”
Precisely
It’s hard for a nascent organization like ours to do both in the same season…without a DoF.
Emery has done enough…barely to get another season even if we miss out of the CL.
Guen and Torrieara.
Not the signings I was comfortable with.
One to ambitious and to much hair -inexperience is really showing him up
I believe he could be much improved next year with 2 solid midfielders with him.
The other well he should have stuck to the day job of being fired out of a canon .
To small and lacks mobility.? Makes a better canonball.
Its really telling that our midfield is utterly shattered. Its like all the cake is gone. All we have is crumbs No wingers aside from genius Iwobi We need an entirely new midfield= keep Tor and Guen. all the rest are shit I hope we appeal the second yellow if that is possible. It really looked like there was minimal contact and studs were down. Valencia is salivating over facing us. They have the blue print In times like this, its not tactics as much but more motivation, and inspiration to dig the team out of the doldrums Which players… Read more »
Will say it again.
Pedro is vindicated. He was right about our efficiency. Even if we had drawn these 3 games we wouldve nailed 4th.
Is there anyone here confident that Raul will hire the right manager if Emery is sacked?
Is it really true that we have signed a certain Brazilian from Ituano ?
One that’s not quite ready to play foe the first team.
From today Guardian – “Spurs have lost six of their last league 10 games; Arsenal have lost four of the last five and were plugged 3-0 by Leicester earlier today. Manchester United have lost four of their last six league games – and seven out of nine in all competitions – while Chelsea, who are in reasonable form compared to the others, have still lost five of their last seven away games …” ————– Man City and Liverpool only two teams finishing strong, rest of top teams are bottling it big time to finish 3/4. I missed match this morning… Read more »
There does seem to be a clause in his contract that we can release him after two years and not keep him for the third year. But it doesn’t apply for the first year which means that if you sack him it’ll cost us 12 million odd for the two years left on the contract. So you have to be pretty sure that it’s him who’s the problem. Given our finances and our owner we’re probably better off keeping the 12 million for replacing players and assess him next season
A player like Hazard would have sealed us top 4 ages ago.
A powerful dribbler, highly technical, fast and can finish or assists. What a gem.
We need 2 of these in the first team or one for sure.
We have no pace in our midfield, no power and no one to take players on and beat them. We really on passing way too much, we need dribblers to break the back lines of the defense!!!
Fuckin useless
If dick is to stay he needs backing an a massive clearout.
Eithe4 back himor sack him.
Unfortunately itbthevfat controllerbcalling thevshots with the sceptic ,… were fucked
Guns
We are sorely missing Sanchez
It’s on the manager to motivate the players. Pick the right team and tactics
True. But as we’ve seen these last few years it’s very hard to motivate some of these players and they continue to let us down.
James.woods
Last summer’s signings were by Mislintat’s mainly.
Nice to see you again Joe
West coast bud
Who is available that we can snag? Sarr, Aouar, Havertz, etc all those will be snapped up by the big guns
Guns
How much of a statement signing would Bale be.
Maitland shit niles league 2 at best?
One things for certain Stan or Josh will have to have at least a passing interest in the club this summer.
Would Bale even come to us?
He is injured a lot too
We need a new LB, CB, AM, Winger and third striker
Pedro.. Good post.. You pretty much said it all.. Actually sounds like one I would have written. (Back-handed compliment alert.)
Not much I can add to that. Depressing seeing some gleeful about our loss today though.. as you mentioned. EL or bust. Probably bust given we have no semblance of a defense.
Sanchez needs to go on the Keto diet
2 wingers
2 CM if we sell Xhaka and Ramsey gone
At least one CB
LB.
Maitland niles,holding,willock,jenkinson, Nelson all of them are championship players.
Hopefully holding comes back with the same form. Bellerin
Maybe we can find a buyer for ozil
Iwobi. Musafi. Mkhit. Xhaka. Elneny. Kos. Well beck Can all fuck off
The Spanish invasion of our club won’t help us, I worked for many years in Spain on large projects.
The Spanish always tell you what you want to hear and then let you down.
They are one of the most corrupt countries in the world.
They are not pragmatic , they are poor managers, bullshit is their exceptional quality.
We will not move on with this lot at our club, they are here to line their pockets
Jenkinson fuck me. How did he get on the pitch at this time of the season. El neny too.
Big mistake by emery
Someone needs to explain the offside rule to Lukaku
We are away to Burnley.
No way we get 3 points.
Not on this form.
It’s pretty pathetic when you consider all we needed was 2 points in total from the Everton, Palace, Wolves, Leicester fixtures (i.e W0 D2 L2, or W1 D0 L3) to enter the final two games with 4th place in our control, and we couldn’t even manage that.
I’m not even sure we beat Brighton at home in this form.
Unbelievable to think that we still have a chance of top 4 after the last 3 games
SpanishDave complaining about the Spanish.
The Football Gods are always giving us a lifeline
We keep fucking it up
At this point, I would play some of our youth how much worse can it be
Marko
We don’t. We won’t.
All hope we have is Europa
One wonders why SpanishDave can’t leave Spain back to brexitized UK.
Most likely a Briton residing in Spain who is glad he can use his Spanish residency to apply for an EU passport.
Good result for us, assuming our players have any interest in playing champions league football, the Europa looks our level.
Spurs should thank their stars they have three useless teams behind them, 12 loses still third… Laughable
there is a small sliver we can still grab 4th
However we need to smash Brighton at home
I think we win like 1 -nil
GD will come into play
Good post, Pedro. Pretty reasonable take.
unai’s a fraud he has shattered the confidence of every single player in the squad 4-4-2 today, after 3-4-1-2, 3-4-2-1, 4-2-3-1; the changes at half-time, the scorer (laca) you take out “any given sunday”, the amazing prospects (joe, eddie) you sentence to the bench, so much so it’ll be a wonder should they not end up being plagued with hemorrhoids – while matteo/alex, who are not worthy of lacing joe/eddie’s shoes, are playing, regardless of their “performance “, week in, week out when you treat players like pawns, you shouldn’t be surprised when they do play like pawns, we look… Read more »
Dissenter 17 .12
Yes Misinalats signings I didn’t say different.? 17.05.
Emery’s attacking tactics are on par with Hodor’s vocabulary.
As pessimistic as I am about this team, I actually still think we have a decent chance of finishing fourth.
Lol @ shattering playing confidence.
I’m out. COYG for Thursday
Pedro
I agree bout yer comments on Lucas… he looks shot n shattered
Where can we go from here with him ,.
If he can only play 30 games a season is he purely league player, or should we sell whilenvalue high
Spanish Dave
No love lost there then?
so if chelsea beat Watford at home then we have to win both and hope leicester beat chelsea. Not impossible. the most unlikely part of all that is beating Burnley away.
Guns
There are no such thing as gods.
If ther3 was we would have won today…
I don’t think Laca will wait out another season in the EL if a big cub comes calling.
Yea for some reason think we’ll bundle our way to 4th….
Spurs have Bournemouth away and Everton home
Chelsea play Watford home and Leicester away
At this rate we might even edge it with one win and a draw…..
Unai emery is out of his depth, pedro. We bottle top four. Highlu unlikely we will win europa league with this form and with out ramsey. If we are honest about the season so far. We need to look for a better manager, and as well as clear the dross of unreliable highly paid average players that seat on huge salaries. Arsenal need more english players on the pitch. Coaches who understand the fans. Emery is in it for the money. I am really upset. Arsenal football club used to set stanadards now i dont know what type of style… Read more »
“With better coaching, we’d have seen those three games out.”
Yeah, ok.
I now live in the UK and I am English so there.
I have supported Arsenal since 1959
AMN almost smirking as he came off with not a care in the world. Says it all that the club and many of the fans still have faith in his ilk . .we are getting what we deserve.
With this shower of shit, we will be a laughing stock if we by some miracle make the CL, Defensively Emery has not improved at all, he still persists with the same crap players, have we no youth players who could step up. Midfield has no backbone, we need a leader Xhaka,ozil,Mika Iwobi are no good, Guendouzi needs to go on loan, I don’t know what we can do, but if we do not strengthen in the Summer, then it will be the same again next season. If Emery can not motivate the team, or change tactics then maybe this… Read more »
Diss
Good
Nick back 60m
Will be good business
He’s overrated
Paul
He was smirking cos he went up to Maddison n said your joking ain’t ya…
Smirking in astoniment I thought
Pedro binned Charlie George for writing that type of nonsense that disparages people based on nationality.
Now it’s a CG wannabe is trying to repeat history.
Diss
Spainish Dave is Charlie George
No I am not
I just want my club back
RSPC…smirking with not a care in the world.Stupid tackle from a player that sums up our current predicament..No sense of urgency..doesn’t sense risk… championship player at best…your welcome to him.
RSPCA
Agree
The smirk was in disbelief. Everyone reacts differently. If half the team applies themselves as much as he does then we’d be a lot better away.
Who fvcking cares about mediocre Arsenal when Winterfell battle episode is coming up in a few hours?
Winter is coming for Emery!
When you play games of thrones you win or you die.
When you play game of Arsenal Manager, you win or you get sacked.
Paul Kelly
Get real man. He barely touched the man it at all. It’s Man’s game. Or were you the sort to go down like George Michael special with the slightest contact?
Rambo
No spoilers please
I’m waiting til the end of the season to binge watch it
Ha ha…it’s the Maitland Niles fan club on here ….I don’t think Adams or Viera would have been smirking and walking off without a care in the world…if you think he is the future then we will be mid table going forward.
This is classic first season blues exacerbated by a board who lack ambition to fully support a manager with whatever it takes to get to the top.
Why did CG get binned?
Un na
Because he was utterly boring
What did he do?
He takes more abuse here than anyone