GONNA MISS U xArsenal bowed out of the top 4 race to rapturous boos. The days of a good old Glorious Failure™ are long behind us, yesterday marked the crescendo of one of the meekest season finales since Lost. A total bottle job.
We couldn’t beat 17th placed Brighton. Say the Premier League has no easy games, tell me we were unlucky, you can make all manner of excuses, reality is, Unai Emery has taken 4 points from 18. That is appalling.
Before I get into this, there are two elements to the demise. Part 1: is that the manager isn’t good enough. There’s no hiding from this reality. I will absolutely not accept that it was an insurmountable challenge to improve the areas set out by the manager himself at the start of the season (better defence, be the protagonists, entertain the fans, mental strength). Part 2: we are clearly broken from a structural perspective. That also has to improve. However, I don’t want to wait a year to fix part one. Get a good coach in place and make sure next year isn’t shaped in a pricey manner by someone who isn’t the standard required.
Part 1: Emery has somehow managed the feat of regressing the team as the season has worn on. He has no real track record in the upper echelons of elite football. He’s a Europa League specialist, and that, unfortunately, is exactly what the football has looked like.
Unai Emery didn’t tank in an unfair fixture pile-up against Premier League powerhouses. He dropped points against Everton, Palace, Wolves, Brighton, and Leicester. Teams which he couldn’t motivate players he’s had a year with. Teams he couldn’t effectively strategise against.
When the early season celebrations of a 22 game unbeaten run (best since 2007) were being hyper-analysed, the general consensus was analytical coaching, no-nonsense beasting of fragile minds, and elite tactical genius. 5 months on, I’m struggling to re-up ‘the players have to hold their hands up’ excuse so many afforded Wenger. The squad wasn’t ever going to challenge for the title, but it was always top 4 capable, hence the undeniable fact that we were in it as of yesterday.
How do you look at the mess of Brighton and not wonder what we bought into? Where was the organisation? Our formation shape-shifted so much it was hard to grasp what the plan was. Once again, at the back, no one knew what they were doing. Brighton got in behind us with ease, if it weren’t for Leno, we’d have lost (RIP Cech, glad you didn’t start).
Going forward, our elected strategy seemed to be to attack from wide positions and whip balls into two extremely dominant centre backs. We hit 41 crosses into their box. We had 16 corners that all went nowhere. Why didn’t Emery switch it up?
The commentator mentioned that the manager and his team stay up regularly until 2am watching videos for analysis. What the fuck are they watching? Is he bingeing Ken Burns war docos, because I’m struggling to see the output on the pitch.
If he has a whole team studying back catalogues, why does he keep playing into the strengths of the opposition?
Did he not know Crystal Palace was a monstrously powerful side of bully boys? Why did he play a teenager and a journeyman in the middle? Why did he play a Championship player that wears Arsenal pyjamas to the office? Why did he offer up ZERO intensity for a tough but fairly standard Premier League game?
Did he know that Wolves counterattack?
Why did he give Leicester so much possession when they have highly competent players who can unlock defences?
‘But these are Wenger’s players!’
Let’s look into that.
Leno: Emery’s
Lichtsteiner: Emery’s
Sokratis: Emery’s
LT: Emery’s
Mikhi: Been with Emery longer than Wenger
Auba: Been with Emery longer than Wenger
Lacazette: Player of the season
Iwobi: Emery had greatly improved him (apparently)
4 of the starting 11 are his. 2 of them have been with him longer than Wenger. One of them is a player of the season that’s being linked to Barcelona. One was supposed to be the kid he developed into a real boy.
Outside that, are you telling me it’s beyond the realms of possibility to hope that the manager could have worked out a way to do something to coach the players? If we’re reducing the argument about him down to spending a bucket load of money, why did we hire him? Was that Emery’s pitch? ‘Give me cash.’ If it was, we should have hired in a better big club coach, or, you know, had some money.
If it wasn’t, where is the coaching? Which players are better? As a collective, why are we so limp wristed? Why aren’t we more intelligent? Why are we not moving the needle in defence, attack or from an artistry perspective? Watching Arsenal is like dealing with a thunderous hangover after 3 nights on the town with late 1970s Berlin Bowie. Our football should be the Bowie after party. It should set my heart racing on a Sunday, not have me dual screening ASMR videos of iceberg lettuce, enjoying the lettuce more.
Only one player up until today has started 30 league games this season, Mustafi.
Granit Xhaka has been an absolute joke for 3 seasons now. If you had watched 4,000 hours of Arsenal for a job interview, prepared a presentation for the ages, would anything you saw of the Swiss convince you he was the future of our midfield? Well, it seems he was integral. What was the plan for a player who can’t run, is immensely weak, and has the habit of dropping assists for the opposition when he’s bored? Why is anyone entertaining the idea of him being a worthwhile asset at 26 years old? He’s a fucking disaster. He’s the footballing equivalent of William H. Macy in The Cooler. You don’t stop being a dunce after 99 league appearances.
It has been clear for 3 years+ that the pair of them are not good enough. If you were a ruthless monster of a manager, why would you not go out in January and loan in two players to help? Could have been Gary Cahill. Could have been Tielemans, a player that started his career in a deeper midfield role. He’s athletic, talented and he’s been a revelation (11 starts, 3 goals, 5 assists for Leicester).
Who did Emery absolutely insist on?
Suarez. Giving Barcelona £2.5m and covering the wages of a player who looks like he’d have a breakdown if he heard you use the wrong gender pronoun at a party. It’s unforgivably bad.
Even worse, we spent the whole of January trying to shift on a player Emery had passed on from an ability perspective (Aaron), only to bring him back in from the cold to find out he was, in fact, our best player. Emery yanked that deal, he didn’t fancy him, that is what I heard from a very good place. Don’t believe me, answer me this, why did he drop him at the end of September? If Raul wanted to move him on, and Emery loved him, he’d play him, no doubt. Raul does not pick the team. I can see the merit in saying the Ramsey injury killed us, but at the same time, the same manager dropped him out of his 22 game unbeaten run. Also, do you really believe our collapse is related to one player? Naive, fam, real naive.
Part 2: Arsenal is in a precarious position. The club has been left with Raul, who looks like a total hack if I’m honest. We have a manager most people could see was an unambitious hire from the start. No sauce, no balls, no progress. We are basically on track to be a midtable team next season according to our xG points total, which sigh all you like, has tracked the demise of OGS and Emery, and has us in 7th this season. We don’t have a head of recruitment in place to course correct a ship that is veering towards the rocks, though I suspect we’re getting closer to a new TD.
There appears to be no love for the club at exec level. There is no leadership. There is no vision or plan to escape the mess.
But fear not, we aren’t Sunderland who dipped and never came back. Arsenal has everything needed to climb the heights again, however, it might take a few years before we realise the club is stocked with a lot of bad actors that have shite ideas and no talent to see them through.
Spurs might have lost 19 games this season, but they made top 4 without spending a penny, they are in the Champions League semi, and their wage bill is £80m less than ours. Dortmund has an electric setup and they keep making it better by being the best place for young players from around the world to develop. They keep the club funded by sourcing youthful gems and flogging them for massive fees. Outrageous that they sold Pulisic for so much, with Sancho easily looking a £130m player. Ajax… just look at Ajax, look at the beauty, it’s no accident, it’s a visionary plan that was executed with precision by people that give a fuck.
Arsenal has more to offer than both of those clubs. We have prestige, a heritage of winning, unreal facilities, we have class, a massive stadium, a London postcode and more money than any of the clubs doing BIG things on a budget. Remember, Atleti has spent £79m net since 2012, we spent that last summer. They have been to two CL finals, won a super cup, and the Europa League.
We just need someone to come and unlock the Arsenal HOT sauce cupboard.
We need to be led by a bold, forward facing visionary that didn’t win the lottery by landing at Arsenal. No, we need someone who feels they won the lottery and has a massive chip on their shoulder about success and legacy. Raul must have struggled to comprehend his luck when he met the softest CEO in world football and was offered a job. The equivalent of a Sultan opening his pockets at Covent Garden station and inviting the street urchins to plunder them.
He seems happy to plod along, not pester the owner, and make as much cash-money before he ducks out the back door for another desk job at Barca.
We need someone to reposition a new Arsenal. The fans don’t need gassy Ivan-like promises that have no substance, are weak enough to falter upon the interrogation of a 12-year-old lemonade stand entrepreneur, with no one accountable for delivering. We need to hear an honest appraisal of the club, a vision for who we want to be, and a realistic 3-4 year plan of how we’re going to get back to the top.
Arsenal basically has unlimited resources when it comes to hiring the best talent in the world. We just need someone who knows what sort of talent is required, and how to find the best of it in the darkest crevices. I don’t want someone coming in and bringing all their mates. I want a leader that knows the sort of football they want to play, then goes on the hunt for the right sort of team to deliver it.
I want best in class when it comes to pressing. Someone who has a visionary philosophy of what it should be and how to implement it. I want the best minds when it comes to defence, attack, and goalkeeping. Let’s take an NFL approach, it’s not like the Premier League hasn’t consistently borrowed from America, why not create specialist roles for areas that need specialist thinking? Charge those people with improving the output of the club. Bonus them.
‘Concede less than 50 goals and we’ll give you a Nando’s gift card’
‘Increase the number of balls we win back in the opposition half by 20% and you can take the training ground guinea pig home for a week, DON’T FEED IT TO A SNAKE YOU BEAST’
Let’s look at the support staff. Who is looking after the minds of the New England Patriots (John Sullivan)? Who is working with the All Blacks (Gilbert Enoka)? I want that person as our in-house psychologist. Fuck motivational posters on the wall. Why are we be rolling with the guy who helped Wenger crash the mental aptitude of this squad over 3 years? If Unai is high performance, can he please tell the fans what this guy offers?
Who are the best scientists in the world working in innovative new sporting fields that can help train our kids to think better on the pitch? What are we doing in VR? How well is our data being used? What the fuck is up with video analysis, someone take Pornhub off Emery’s PC and make him look at the actual games.
All of these challenges and opportunities can be addressed by understanding the real problems and designing our way out of them with the best bodies on the ground. But my key ask here is this: Do not hire in someone who is going to look at us like Sevilla. Do not hire in someone who is going to look at us like Barcelona-lite. Hire in people who are talented enough to look at our history, assess the tools and resources they have at their fingertips… and task them to create something epically beautiful.
Leadership. Vision. Talent. PLUS the hard work and the energy to see things through.
Arsenal is on life support even if we do make the Europa final. Champions League eases the money worries, but it doesn’t solve for the future. We’d simply be kicking the managerial can of reality down the road for another season.
We have chronic structural issues that if left to fester, will leave us an irrelevance in the world football for years to come. The owner has to act now, compounding bad decisions with more bad decisions will take Arsenal to a place that is going to be too hard to recover without massive expenditure. There are inexpensive options that can save us. We just need a vision and the right team of experts to deliver it.
The on-paper plan from Ivan was good. It hasn’t worked. Let’s hope Josh opens his eyes and makes some ballsy decisions this summer before it’s too late.
See you in the comments xx
Elmo, Your belief that no new funds will be injected is, sadly, very probably accurate. If you are right that we are being resized to a Europa League team that punches above its weight, then 2 things are likely to follow: 1) Emery will still be around at least until next year whatever happens in this year’s Europa, and 2) we will try to go the “European/U.K. youth hidden gem bargain route” and promote from the Under 23s for the bulk of new players. This is fine, and Pedro is all for it, but I worry that we don’t have… Read more »
*3 things follow….
CG
Yes, but Liverpool also have van dyke, mane and sallah.
Without those, they wouldn’t be second, with or without Klopp.
Remember Liverpool finish 8th under klopp in his first season.
CG
Again, do you read what you type or you just post the first thing that comes to your head?
PedroMay 6, 2019 12:10:02 Benny, are you arguing that net spend isn’t a good barometer for investment >>>>> Pedro, Not exactly no, but Liverpool were able to sell some good players for huge amounts and some shite players for tidy amounts too. £255m for Coutinho, Suarez and Sterling alone is incredible – could we raise that by selling Aubameyang, Lacazette and Ozil? We’ve been incredibly wasteful with our net spend, it should be so much better. We could have sold Sanchez for £60m but Wenger blocked it. Net spend only works if you have assets to sell to balance the… Read more »
“West Ham midfielder Jack Wilshere believes his former club Arsenal have had a ‘good’ season despite missing out on a top-four Premier League finish.”
Wow, at last, someone with a little bit of a brain!!
Why the knee-jerk Emery out garbage? Some egotistic bloggers, writing elaborate comments with peripheral matter fail to have the simple logic in so far as Emery has had one season with a lame duck of a squad he has had to work with. Elneny. Jenkins on. Mustafi etc have all had to feature on his quality bereft team. Use your logic rather than your flowery vocabulary and get the facts into your eccentric thinking. Emery has won more trophies than most managers working currently. He has proven in many games that he is tactically competent. Ok these latest results are… Read more »
Alex H
Yes. Correct
He makes great players play better
He makes average players play better
He makes bad players play better
We get a proper manager in.
Mustafi,Xhaka,Ozil,Miki ,SeadK will improve and fulfil their talent.
Because that’s what Great managers do
Fergie won league titles with some absolute filth. ( o’shea, Neville,fortune, Bosnich)
People who rate Emery- no know nothing about professional sport.
Indeed – they know little about life and people.
How many people will you and up banning Pedro?
Le Grove. Where you can have an opinion has changed to where everyone must agree with your opinion.
Sad really but enjoy yourself.
Words
Yes – we have to be spot-on with our running of the club off the pitch to again become a smart club that invests in youth and under-valued players that can grow into stars. The worry is that Sanllehi has no experience or track record of this; he was poor at Barcelona (hence being pushed out), and playing in a completely different market.
What bugs me the most is how we appear to get totally dominated by teams in the bottom half of the table. Excluding the results, that to me is unacceptable. Can anyone honestly remember the last time we outplayed someone in the PL? Emery’s safety first football is not my cup of tea and it’s not the Arsenal way.
You are all over the place Pedro. One week you are singing his praises one week you are calling the hire a disaster.
We have had a disastrous season because we lost top four with a game to go and have a 3-1 lead going into the second leg of a European competition.
Proper disaster that.
lol Receding, are you talking about Untold instead of Le Grove ??
Let the #emeryout# campaign begin immediately,, the earlier he gets kicked out the better
@moronvickingz : and you really believe that Emery will be fired after only one season ??
I wonder what would people say after losing out of europa cup. When we lost out of fa, they said carabao, epl, europa is there. We lost out of carabao, they said epl and europa is there. We lost out of epl now, they said europa is there. I’m patiently waiting to see what they’d say should we not win europa
@moronhighbury legend, whatever I choose to believe shouldn’t be your cause of headache
The losers in life love their Emery !
The successful folk around here – want the little pipsqueak out .
Truth Hurts.
We get a proper manager in.
Mustafi,Xhaka,Ozil,Miki ,SeadK will improve and fulfil their talent.
Because that’s what Great managers do
CG yea because we live in cuckoo land where any manager can get that lot up there to be better than they are.
If you ain’t got talent, you ain’t got it, no manager is going to make a less talented player less talented
You’re just a poor poor troll
Bat
“””.If you ain’t got talent, you ain’t got it,””””
But you dont apply this logic in judging the managers ability???
The fact is Arsenal now play some of the most boring football I can remember. I get more excitement watching Brentford than I do watching us. We’re still guilty of the same Wenger shite. Rubbish defending, refusing to shoot from outside the box, predictable build up play, one dimensional midfield passing… it’s a fucking disgrace. We lost three games on the bounce that we should have won and which, had we won them, would have confirmed top 4 status. It has to go down as one of the worst bottle jobs ever. Watching us play under Emery is boring as… Read more »
Elmo,
I share your worries about Sanllehi putting in place a proper youth-oriented structure.
Let’s hope that whoever comes in as TD (when the club eventually completes its leisurely selection “process”) is up to the job
Batistuta, partly agree there.
But…
Someone managed to make Mustafi a world cup winner
Ozil is one of the most potent creators the game has ever seen
Kola was left back of the year in Germany
Mikhi is too old…
Xhaka is a donut, but I still think we could get £50m for him
I have trouble understanding how people dismiss kronkes part in our demise ! Pedro just stated it should be the dof or ceo who fire managers, well who fires the dof or ceo who hired the manager ?!? Kronor is a terrible owner ,end of .
InsideRight,
I think the problem the club faced during the new manager selection process was that candidates were either:
A) big names who demanded a much larger transfer budget than Arsenal could afford,
b) risky special sauce manager types (Arteta) who were unproven and deemed to be too risky
Or
C) Emery – a “safe pair of hands” with a decent but unexciting track record, prepared to work within budget constraints.
@Dr Emil schauffhausen : seriously, your pseudo is scaring, change it.
Silly question. Would Arteta have done worse than Emery?
“Someone managed to make Mustafi a world cup winner”
Djimi Traore won the Champions League. Doesn’t make him a good player.
Legend
What if it is his real name?
CG
‘Mustafi,Xhaka,Ozil,Miki ,SeadK will improve and fulfil their talent.’
Are you suggesting Klopp could make the above world class?
I don’t think so.
The overall plan for the club, its ambitions and future levels of investment are set by one man – Krenke.
Kroenke employs Rual, Emery, Bould, the catering staff, groundstaff, programme sellers, etc. We could hire Pep, sign Messi and Ronaldo and the simple fact will not change – Kroenke owns the club and sets the operational plan, ambitions and investments.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-6997109/Arsenal-star-Matteo-Guendouzi-takes-second-spot-valued-U20-players-Sancho-top.html
Straight swap Guendouzi for Havertz
Pedro
‘Ozil is one of the most potent creators the game has ever seen’.
That’s just silly.
‘Xhaka is a donut, but I still think we could get £50m for him.’
I think there’s more chance of arsenal selling an actual donut for £50 million.
I Agree that we should do better.
But we cant expect to have a liverpool like improvement without a 200 mill outlay.
You cant say 70 mil for 3 yrs will havethe same effect as spending 200 million in 1 season on a spine.
Self sustaining is bullshit and we cant challenge the top 2 without spening top bucks. That is the reality now.
Self sustaining will makeus also rans..
Not challengers.
A H
“”Are you suggesting Klopp could make the above world class?
I don’t think so.””
Was Robertson pulling up trees at Hull?
Was Sane or Salah on other peoples radar?
Klopp has charisma in spades
Players need self belief, encouragement and cajoling..
Always have,always will.
Brian Clough turned an alcoholic gambling Thug into a 2 time European Cup winner.
Kenny Burns….
Imagine – if every Arsenal player improved 50%?
That’s The Klopp or Pep Effect
The Emery Effect- best player leaving the club.
I repeat what I have said before: I don’t care that we haven’t qualified for CL. Someone please tell me why it matters if the Club is hopelessly outclassed. The extra revenue? Get real! No matter what, Emery won’t be given a decent transfer pot. Why? Stan’s bottom-line policy will not allow it. Blaming the manager is the default reaction with some on here. Given the wretched squad and little money to spend, I doubt that any manager would have done much better than Emery. Let’s be honest with ourselves, 5th/6th place is what the sensible amongst us expected. Reaching… Read more »
InsideRight
“the club is being run by fucking idiots” which as we all know has been the case for far too many years.
Emery deserves one more season to try and get things right.
Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day.
“What if it is his real name?”
Still scaring… lol
Michael
True. Reading this blog sometimes, it’s as if he doesn’t exist.
The problem though is that the ‘blame Kroenke’ argument- the one I adhere to- is a dead end, so in a way I understand Pedro’s position.
There is no way to force Kroenke out. He owns all of arsenal now. Therefore, the logical conclusion is that arsenal are trapped in a hopeless situation doomed to underachieve forever.
That’s not much to blog about.
I actually think if things continue to stagnate the fans will start voting with their feet which may lead to change.
@Graham : sorry mate, but it seems that 98% of Le Grove firmly disagree.
Just a little quick peruse through the comments and it seems to be that it’s a case of it being the manager’s fault +net spend and all that) and that seems to be the general theme around these parts these days. Which to me is frankly disgraceful because it gives quite a large core of useless players a pass for simply not being good enough for Arsenal and for continuing to let us down. If people think these things change with a simple change of manager then fair enough but it really won’t. Ask any football pundit or sports writer… Read more »
englandsbest
100% agree.
50 goals conceded, that’s even worse than Wenger last few years….
Pedro is seeing so much red mist he can’t think straight lol
HL
That may be the case but the reaction on hear borders on the insane.
Where have we been going these past ten years?
Exactly.
Pedro The new technical director will need time to bed in an d understand the landscape Until then let Emery keep his job while we move out furniture in the backroom. The work in the backroom to move out all these dross from the club is far more important than any manager bloodbath you’re advocating. That 10-15 million it will take to pay off Emery can fix one of the glaring holes in the starting 11 [a young French talent]. This battle is for the future of the club, not to pursue egoistical drives to be proven right. We collapsed… Read more »
here
Highbury,
Wasn’t there a character in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels called Dr. Emil Schaffhausen?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QXUI7bb2wLc
Marko
Absolutely right. I’m actually quite relieved we haven’t fallen further behind. It looks like fifth and that’s at least consolidation.
At the very least, we have a proper clear out to look forward to in the summer which will mean- I hope- a lot of new faces and -please god- no more xhaka mustafi and ozil hopefully.
Ozil is one of the most potent creators the game has ever seen Nonsense. The squad is filled with error prone defensive players, midfielder’s without character and quality, an attack that has no balance to it and throughout the squad we either have players who are on the decline (Ozil, Mhiki, Koscielny, Sokratis, Monreal, Lichtsteiner, Cech) or players who were never good enough to begin with (Xhaka, Kolasinac, Welbeck, Bellerin, Elneny). The team is bereft of character fight and heart and that’s where we’re at. It’s why with it in our own hands we failed to capitalize. That doesn’t change… Read more »
englandsbest
I too won’t miss the CL if we don’t qualify.
We are still in the mode of receiving 10-2 trashings because elements of the squad that accepted it are still around us.
Last summer should have been a total rebuild not just tinkering around the edges.
We have a 350k weekly player that had only TWO assists in the league all season … and people want to just ask for the manager’s head.
Ha ha! £50m for Xhaka? No one in other legit well ran club is as stupid as the person who advised us to spunk 35m on him
Mustafi, another one that would cost well below th 35 we wasted while We could have had Van Djik. Imagine we go to Celtics and offer them 40m for Virgil way before we got Mustafi and Gabriel…..
Kroenke is shit owner…..Wenger is not in the picture and nothing has changed, we can’t even recruit a Technical Director ffs
DaleDaGoonerMay 6, 2019 14:32:54
50 goals conceded, that’s even worse than Wenger last few years….
>>>>>>
No it’s not.
We conceded 51 goals in the league last season so as long as we don’t concede more than 1 goal at Burnley it will be the same.
Not better, but not worse.
Alex I’m convinced that Ozil and Mustafi aren’t going to be here next season I really am. Xhaka is arguably the first person that should be out the door. He plays so much in such an important position and yet he is so basic in everything about him it’s unreal. There’s absolutely no coincidence that his signing has led to the decline in Arsenal football club. The things he does well he’s average at and the things that he can’t do are so important for a midfielder in our club particularly. Enough is enough. If he’s here next season I… Read more »
We should never repeat the mistake of having two individuals appoint a manager then fu*k off months after. That’s why you want to appoint a technical director and let that person settle in without the extra pressure of pursuing a manager even as he is trying to clear out all the dross on our books. I want that individual to prove his commitment to the club before having a major say in picking the new manager after Emery. Emery’s contract self-terminates in June 2020 so what’s the rush? The extra 10-15 million to pay off his staff is a BIG… Read more »
Someone managed to make Mustafi a world cup winner Ozil is one of the most potent creators the game has ever seen Kola was left back of the year in Germany Mikhi is too old… Xhaka is a donut, but I still think we could get £50m for him Pedro, you’re trolling your own blog now at this rate if you believe any of what you just posted above Ozil has what 3/4 assists(help me out Pierre) this season with 2 of the best strikers in the league in front of him Mustafi winning a world cup is a banterous… Read more »
We have a 350k weekly player that had only TWO assists in the league all season … and people want to just ask for the manager’s head.
Careful now Dissenter, Pierre and Pedro will soon come tell you it’s because he was benched earlier in the season or that he is misunderstood by the manager or that he’s too good for the manager or that he’s been played left side and right side rather than in front of goal
Marko
Amen to that.
Regardless of how much money there is, at the very least arsenal fans should expect a significant clear out this summer. I’m hoping for ten players at least.
That will give our new, much vaunted back room staff a chance to show how good they are at recruitment.
Regarding being in the CL, let’s be honest, haven’t we enjoyed being in the EL more than the CL?
This is a trophy arsenal could actually win.
Batistuta
..or double training sessions and too much fruit juice.
@Benny, XG conceded is not exactly the same than the goal conceded. Goalkeeper can have a blinder, strikers may have higher conversion rate… In all xG we are faring worse. * Worse expected goal conceded, * About the same in term of actual goal conceded. If Burnley scored 1 goal it is the same. If they score 2 or more it is actually worse. * lower expected goal to score (in fact we are 1st in term of conversion rate meaning that without our extremely efficient strikers, we would be even worse) * Worse chance conceded * Worse in the… Read more »
Honestly, I don’t know why we should rely on Emery for another season. He’d showed before he’s not good at fixing defensive issues (just remember that tie against Barcelona in the CL, when he was PSG’s coach: they won the first game in Paris, got a good advantage to the second game, and just lost it by 6-1 at the Camp Nou). But Arsenal gave him a chance either way, and the result is he didn’t fix our defense as well. It’s been just as awful as it was last season. And worse, we don’t have any sign of a… Read more »
Most of the goal we have scored have been either set pieces or goal created by an individual. Few if any are the results of our tactics or organisation. Even the brilliant team goals like the Fulham goal scored by Ramsey came from off the cuff movements rather than planned, rehearsed movement.
Even against Brighton, most of chances came from shots taken by Lacazette and Aubameyang. We should not have to rely on individual moments of brilliance from our strikers to beat a lowly Brighton team.
Everyone is pinning their hopes on us beating Valencia or at least only losing 1 nil, but what happens when we meet a Chelsea that is buoyed to prove they are not as bad as the season suggests? They took Man City to overtime in the EFL cup and they have managed to do what we couldn’t in leap frogging spuds when they faltered, even with us supposedly having a better run in, f—k me! Did we screw up…i have no hope we will beat whoever in makes it between Chelsea and Frankfurt in the final…
“That may be the case but the reaction on hear borders on the insane.”
Totally agree with you.
(better lol at it)
Valentin,
I see.
So the league table does lie after all.
Scrap the league table! What we need is the XG table.
@Dale : Emery nose best when it comes to Sarri.
*to play Sarri… and the Chavs.
And how about the mighty misses by Aubameyang??? How did he miss that goal with the volley with a gaping goal? Reminds me of his penalty miss versus Spurs, all putting us where we are now…
If we can’t get Jardim, we should go after Christophe Galthier, the Lille manager. All his career as a manager, he has exceeded expectations. At Lille, he took a team near the relegation zone and transformed them in a cohesive team likely to finish a well deserved second place in Ligue 1. At Saint Etienne, despite the chairman at the time selling systematically their best players every year, he kept them in contention for European place. His team are pleasant to watch, so he would bring back some absent fans. He tends to favour dynamic, powerful, dribbling type of players,… Read more »
Pedro- Good post…. it was a much better attempt at a pep talk then the one from a few days ago.. I feel peppier? if that’s a word. But realistically and logically when I think about it.. I cant see any of the things you have laid out as a roadmap happening anytime soon. Also, Dortmund and Ajax are afforded to do what they do regarding project youth because they are not in the PL. We don’t have that luxury because we are competing with teams that can skip right over youth development and go right to the finished world… Read more »
@Dale : Emery nose best when it comes to Sarri.
I want to hope so….but our last 5 games, the team and manager have looked totally clownish
Someone on here the other day said that Arsenal still need to change so many things, including gunnersaurus.
I would go as far as to say we need to change Paul Burrell, the Emirates stadium announcer. Get someone with personality, humour and a bit of va va voom.
Sorry Paul, no hard feelings.
Had Bamford been canned again?
Some on here are more concerned with getting in a new manager after just one season, rather than focus on our EL chances.
All rather embarrassing.
“He tends to favour dynamic, powerful, dribbling type of players, so would be in perfect adéquation with the Arsenal style of play.”
He won’t find many like that at Arsenal so he’ll have to turn the current squad into this like Emery is supposed to.
It’s all about the French league for a certain poster
Rennes and Lille managers it’s where it’s at
You can bemoan kronkes ownership of arsenal and how he can’t be arsed but the simple fact is we are small fry within his estate of assets. He’s building out a mega project with the rams in NFL, got a big head coach in and signed top talent, on top of all this he’s planning on building a 3bn odd stadium come entertainment park. If he pulls it off they could be as big as the dallas cowboys which Is a 5bn dollar entity. Hes about making his coin and NFL is where it is at right now. I agree… Read more »
“His team are pleasant to watch, so he would bring back some absent fans. He tends to favour dynamic, powerful, dribbling type of players, so would be in perfect adéquation with the Arsenal style of play.”
How many of them are in the present squad Emery works with? If he has 40M to spend, would he still perform?
Emery’s typical pay peanuts get monkeys .
Having poor quality players around him probably makes him feel better as he cannot handle quality players as per P S G.
The end of season form is difficult to explain until you analyze his approach which at best is confusing to all, even the players.
Our owner is clueless it doesn’t help.
The Loosers Cup…..big yawn, like us second rate.
lol “The Loosers Cup”… yeah rigth, the same cup that Manure and the Chaves have won recently ??
PedroMay 6, 2019 14:02:22 Batistuta, partly agree there.But…Someone managed to make Mustafi a world cup winner Ozil is one of the most potent creators the game has ever seen Kola was left back of the year in Germany Mikhi is too old… Xhaka is a donut, but I still think we could get £50m for him – – – – – Mustafi > Messi ( World Cup trophy , cant argue with facts) Ozil – one of the most potent creative players ever no one wanted a year ago. Kola – Bundesliga team of the year in running in a… Read more »
Christophe Galtier knows the French and German league better than Emery. That is where the best value can be found. Even if we sell Mhikitarian, Aubameyang, Xhaka, Jenkinson, release Wellbeck, Lichsteiner and promote Nelson, Willock and Saka, we still need 5 players. Assuming two marquee signing that would leave us needed to sign 3 players worth at most 20 millions. Also Players from those countries tend to adapt more easily to the physical side of the EPL. I don’t remember a single Italian winger who has made a lasting impression in the EPL in the last 5 years. If I… Read more »
SpanishDave
When was the last time we won a European trophy?
That’s right, 1994!
I’ll take a “loosers trophy”over FA Cup success everyday of the week.
Spanish
Our last European trophy was when many gooners weren’t even born. An Europa league trophy would be better than regularly getting embarrassed in the champions league
So if Man U win something that gives it credibility?
Europa Cup is for clubs that didn’t make it and the Loosers in the Champions League. All loosers.
The FA cup would be better it has history..
Oh and I’ll probably be in the minority but I’ll rather not qualify for the champions league if we have to go to Bayern and Barca with Mustafi and Iwobi with Xhaka
The FA cup would be better it has history..
Wigan and Portsmouth have both won it recently Dave and they’re now in the lower divisions
SpanishDave
So you think winning the FA Cup gives us more street credibility?
Bloody hell, what else are they putting in that paella?
The Inter Fairs Cup was for teams who came 2nd or 3rd.
The European Cup was for teams that were Champions.
Now it’s top 4 , so the Europa Cup is for 5th and 6th , dumbed down .
So is 6th considered success?
That’s how low down we are going, feeding of scraps.
Good old Stan
People are blaming defence but I think the problem is in the attacking midfield. Except Ramsey (Who is not with Arsenal now)there are no strong charectors. They can’t fight & score goals in tough situations.excep 1 or 2 ,rest are of no use.aresenal could be better of buying from lower decisions who believe in hard work & fighting till the end.
Winning a Eoropean trophy will help attract better players.
Beating Hull City in the FA Cup won’t.
Spanish Dave why not wait to devalue the Europa league after emery wins it not before.
And enough with the FA cup love in, it qualifies you for the Europa league… Think about that for a second
SpanishDave
……and don’t forget a special word of thanks to Mr Wenger.
“Winning a Eoropean trophy will help attract better players.
Beating Hull City in the FA Cup won’t.”
Amen to that.
So players were attracted to Valencia and Seville?
Nice stuff Pedro, can lead the herd to water but can’t make them all drink.
Was always going to be an adventure of a season but this living in to realities both feeling disjointed from one another in the EPL and Europa league is certainly a strange feeling.
All anyone has to do is look at Unai Emery’s history as a manager and the bigger picture begins making sense, league stats less shocking, away form and the mash up of formations have a history. At base he is a cup manager, and that has been proven again this season.
“Bloody hell, what else are they putting in that paella?”
Something that apparently makes someone too stupid to spell common words like “Spain” and “loser”