courtesy @allthatchas
The final hurrah of Nacho Monreal sadly will NOT be scoring a 32-yard screamer against Spurs tomorrow. The Spanish left back will instead be heading back to sunnier climes, choosing Real Sociedad to see out his career.
I think I speak for most Arsenal fans… no… ALL Arsenal fans, even you @BREXITGOONER1 (my dad), when I say: Bit of an odd one, this.
We’re banking on Kola learning how to defend, and we’re putting a lot of chips on Tierney 1) Adapting to the league like VVD 2) Breezing past his fitness challenges of the last year.
Still, it is what it is. Nacho is getting on a bit and his hamstrings and body parts will all be a touch more brittle than in the past. I’d imagine he’s at that age when you grunt when you pick up a slipper and he’s at that age when the slipper is probably his. He’s also probably wearing those slippers to the newspaper shop as well. Age is a bitch, but damn, we’ll do it in M&S levels of comfort.
I get the logic behind not having 3 left backs as well, we can’t keep pumping money into the ether. I just thought that if anyone set a great example for professionalism at the club, it was Nacho. He never let us down. He was a true warrior. He was an excellent player.
I remember about 5 years ago, Arsenal let a bunch of us interview him. His English was a bit broken and he was asked a question about what he thought we needed.
‘Someone who can score more than 20 goals a season regularly’, then his agent whispered something to him and he backtracked as hard as his words would allow. We went off the record so as not to cause a stir. But today, I’m causing a stir because Giroud is at Chelsea and who really cares this far out?
Manchester United drew with Southampton today. A great start to a big weekend for Arsenal. Only thing that’s bothering me there is that OGS is going to end up getting sacked before Christmas if he doesn’t pick things up a little. Would love him to have the whole season. Give him a chance, Ed.
The news coming out of the Spurs camp is delightful. Poch is unhappy. His team is disrupted. He has four players angling for an exit, names like Aurier, Eriksen, Vertonghen and Toby. Their squad is finally picking up injuries, there should be no Ndombele, Dier or right back tomorrow. The press were asking if he’d leave this week.
Spurs are there for the taking.
My hope is that Emery can avoid being timid in this game. I don’t want to see us lined up with a deep block on the edge of our box. I don’t want to see us persisting with playing out the back if it looks like Spurs have that sussed. I don’t want us playing for a quick counter-attack at home.
We have the tools in our squad to play to win. Spurs are in a bit of a hole, if we gift them too much respect, we’ll make it hard for ourselves. When confidence is shaken, strike hard and strike first. Test their collective resolve.
I talk like Spurs are totally shite, chances are they’ll turn up because of the magnitude of the game. I just hope we’re positive. Emery plays with too much fear and indecision in big games. I hope that’s just Liverpool jitters… because the fans are not going to gift him a 50/50 split on tomorrow regardless of what he does tactically. It’s a must-win against a team that finished 1 point ahead of us last season.
Win this, and we’re telling the league that we’re here for the top 3 this year, lose, and you’ll start to worry if Emery has the beans to push the squad forward this season.
Our underlying stats have been poor this season. You only have to take a cursory looks across the numbers sites to see that we’re not in great shape. This from Statsbomb.
‘It’s well known that shot rates tend to increase as matches progress, so even when you see a 30-plus shot beatdown, most of the time, the shots get racked up in the second half. And that’s true here. Only four times in 2018-19 did a team reach the half time point having allowed 15 or more shots.’
That number above is quite staggering to read when you’re setting up to stifle attempts at your goal. Add to that, Arsenal has turned the ball over in their own half more than any other team in the league, and you can see a problem brewing. I say brewing because Liverp0ol was a particularly bad execution of what could be passed off as a new strategy against a new rule (I am reaching so badly for the Emeryista here).
A pal in my ArsenalMensSupport chat groups pointed out, Arsenal’s lack of expenditure at the back this summer points to a club not taking defence particularly seriously. The statistics early on this season point, mapped against last, point to a manager not capable of creating a defensive structure that can serve an elite team.
I don’t know what the exact solve is, but my amateur thoughts have led me to this:
- Be less predictable. If you play out the back every time, you make it easy to set up against. Being dedicated to an idea is commendable, but if it’s not working, mix things up. It shouldn’t take 80mins for a keeper to go long once. Even mix up the variety of how you do it. You can play from the back and have a more vertical approach.
- Do it faster. If you are slow and methodical at moving it out the back, you let teams reset, which again, makes it easy to play against you.
- Stop playing staff that are prone to being targeted. Xhaka is well known to be awful when put under pressure. Stop playing him.
Let’s see what Emery has in store tomorrow. He’s a tactically flexible coach, he needs to think a little deeper about what he wants from his defence this year. Hopefully, there’s a simple solution he can adopt.
In other news, Elneny is off to Turkey. Nice guy, about as useful to the squad as a motivational bus driver. Mustafi did not leave, an absolutely disgraceful indictment on his passion for the game. I really hope Emery doesn’t start using him. Keep him frozen out. Mesut Ozil also didn’t leave, he’ll be a bit part this season until he moves on to DC. Say what you will about the German, he’s at least useful.
Finally, listen to our pre-Spurs pod.
Even he doesn’t know what to do now the clueless mug.
Mihki is fucking useless
Passes… not good
Touches… not good
Shots… not good
Micki is such bad player.
Fuck me. Are Mikhi and Xhaka related?
The sky commentators at this point in giggles at that fucking imbecile who’s finally been booked.
Mkhitaryan is useless
Arsenal players slipping on the ground. Criminal negligence, incopetence on part of Emery not using proper studs for own ground playing surface
92nd mintue 92nd foul for Xhaka. SMH
Wanker Xhaka
Just fucking shoot first time ffs!
I can see why people like Xhaka he’s very handsome but on his 7th foul he’s a bit of a moron footballer
Mhki unmarked in the oppenents box twice in the waning moments of a derby and does FUCK ALL WITH IT
Xhaka has committed more fouls than passes
Mykhi just came in and is looking like the most tired player on the field.
Mkhi suffocating the attack
Final ball woeful apart from Pepes assist today for him.
Again no composure from Pepe
Why no yellow for simulation for both the Brit lads?
Kane the cheat
Kane is a diver!!!
Fuck off xkhaa
Mkhitaryan has been wank
Fuck off
Sokratis with another idiotic effort.
Mikhi has literally fallen off the hill. He needs to be given the same treatment as Elneny and Mustafi..
Omg… this is unreal.. reminds me of a lot of the youth matches I watch where neither team defends much.
Alongside:
‘what happens inside a black hole’
And
‘is there extraterrestrial life’
‘why does granit Xhaka play for arsenal’
Is one of the great unsolved mysteries of the universe.
Pepe has been poor
Is it okay to say that?
Got out of jail there. Thank fuck..
Spurs have been as poor as we have, could have sucker punched us on a few occasions and they’re playing with help from Kola and Granit.
Alli and Kane had to be shown yellow cards. They are English though.
Pepe finishing has been poor.
Stupid fuck just go for one long throw.
Xhaka is fucking shit. Get rid.
Dive from Kane.
Papa been struggling a bit defensively all game though.
Another counter from Spurs
Defense was wide open. Easily could have conceded there.
Oh well. 2 goal down. A draw would be acceptable.
But 2 point dropped to be honest.
Fuck off Emery. Mikhi xhaka should be nowhere near the team and the fact they are proves you haven’t a clue. Change him now why wait.
Lenos assist today for the 1st and Xhaka being Xhaka and that’s their goals.
Shudda brought on Nelson and Willock.
Mikki is baaaaad.
Xhaka is baaaaaaaaad
Luiz is scares me too much to feel safe
Sokaritis is baaaad
Emery Out!
The absolute tosser.
A draw is not acceptable. The fist half was an absolute joke.
What a waste.
Well we didn’t lose so I guess that’s a plus.
We are lucky Atkinson called that Kane dive right
A lot of piss-poor premier league refs would have called that a penalty …and the pundits would have echoed it.
Emery stays with Micki is the worst decision. Micki’s first touch is very very bad.
Pepe lost the ball on too many occasions at the end. He wanted to leave his mark today a bit too much.
Should have won that one. Gifted them two goals. They threatened all match because Arsenal defense is wank but Spurs aren’t that scary and full of mistakes in them also. Should have won.
Pepe needs to adjust to the intensity of the league sharpish, had a very average game. Didn’t have energy or imagination at the end.
Not too worried about him though, it will come.
2/2 better than nothing I suppose
Guendouzi you beauty
Arsenal played well enough and showed good hunger in the second half.
Guendouzi was excellent man of the match even though he had a part to play in the penalty against.
Arsenal took the game to Spurs .
Selection was wrong from the start.
Great performance in the second half.
Most every fan had Dani Ceballo starting and he showed why, composure on the ball and dangerous.
I thought Guendouzi was brilliant today, really stepped up.
That is 2 points lost.
Spurs piss me off, they are the jammiest fucking team in existence.
‘Somehow Spurs get something/survive/progress’ should be their fucking club motto
Lucky bastards. Spurs could have been five up.
Anyway, at least there are no more doubts about Emery. He is shite.
Get rid. Put Freddy in.
Not a lick of composure about us, panic mode with every defensive involvement and there’s no smarts in attack just cut backs and speculative shots.
Mikitarian seems uninterested in winning. Delayed the last throw in Spurs last 1/3
The takeaway from this game is that there are a worrying number of players that are well below standard. I hope behind the scenes the club is working on getting rid of: Kola, Xhaka and Miki for starters.
And where is our new youngster, or Nelson – they wouldn’t have done worse than Mikki. Emerys a clown to me.
Azed,
How can Emery call himself a headcoach and not realise that both Xhaka and Mhkitaryan should never be near the first team?
Willock in place of Xhaka and in likelihood it would have been an Arsenal victory.
Sub-standard manager…just like his players
Xhaka is finished. Ceballos is a far better passer. Torriera is an actual DM.
Wow… hardest point we will ever earn.. Feel like if we had started Ceballos instead of Xhaka …played LT central maybe different outcome.. hindsight of course. Thank God didn’t lose to that mob though.. would have been unbearable.. bad enough with a draw to that lot.
@Cesc
Totally agree with you. Spurs are the jammiest team in the league
Luiz is a disaster signing on a Silvestre level. I’m not seeing it in Pepe yet, he’s going to have to come to terms with the speed of the league. Spurs will be happy with that in the end.
Too many useless players in Xhaka, Mkhitaryan, Kolasinac. Some terrible showings for Papa and AMN. AMN isn’t a right back and I doubt he’s a viable option in CM. Papas needs to be on the bench for a Holding or Saliba as things stands. I still think Luiz is decent because he knows what it feels like to win the big trophies. Laca was a beast..:..:when you outrun Xhaka to play defense, he ran himself into the ground. Pepe needs to quickly add goals and better decisions on the counter attack.
Nah under VAR scrutiny Atkinson can’t be that dubious with his lopsided calls.
I would have thrown Maritnelli on as well, not Mkhitaryan. Don’t rate Nelson, but Martinelli I certainly would have played.
That has to be it for Xhaka now, he gave away a penalty and on another day could have been sent off, 7 fouls including a really bad penalty.
Can blame thick fucking players but ultimately if Emery keeps selecting him then he needs to be blamed.
Just have a go with Guendouzi, Torreira, Dani Ceballos for a while.
Valentin
Nobody likes Xhaka but you would complain about anything.
Last week you were ” go 4-3-4″ this week we go 4-3-3 you complain about formation.
No matter what Emery does, you would complain.
Emery Out.
Had enough now. He’s never going to take us anywhere
The buck stops with the manager
Guen and tor were both useful and xhaka was predictably dross, yet xhaka plays 90 and tor comes off early
Meanwhile cabellos looks especially important to our offense yet he has to sit on the bench so that we can accommodate xhaka with two other DMs
Emery has had a mare today and it was all his own making
Play shit players, get shit results. Shock horror
We need to be ambitious next season. Get rid of Emery, and go all out for Allegri. Double his Juventus salary if that is what it will take.
Why did the ref call that there? Let the throw in go Mkhitaryan was an utter waste of a player on the left there Wasted chance after chance to nick a winner Pepe just twists himself up. Disappointed there. We had them at our mercy and just no finesse in the final third More attacking midfielders and strikers than sense but couldn’t create that important third chance I do not want to see Mkhitaryan anywhere near an arsenal team again Give me Nelson Give me Saka Don’t waste any more time on a guy that just wastes so many great… Read more »
A draw was bad enough.
So much dross still stealing a living. Kola, Xkaha, Ozil, Mkhi, Mustafi.
But we got decent money for a low-wage earner in Iwobi, so it’s all good.
Guendouzi was brilliant today. The improvement this season alone is why you keep faith with a promising 19/20 year old.
Xhaka and Sokratis absolutely pointless players and dumb as fuck.
Leno with a mixed bag. But Papa was terrible today. For the Ericsson goal he was terribly out unnecessarily.
Emery’s team selection and subs were very poor. The twat brings on Miki? Fucking clown.
Pepe needs a manager like Klopp to mould him. He has miles to go before he justifies that 72m tag.
Azed it doesn’t really matter because emery did fuck this up royally
I think AMN and Pepe link well together but it seems like we want to target their weaker flank.
The introduction of Ceballos made an immediate difference, finally saw some prolonged possession in the opponent half. Starting midfield can’t really be explained.
If Pepe doesn’t start producing end results he’s gonna get labeled a greedy bastard, he was quite wasteful today.
Xhaka and Mkhi need no words.
Emery lost 2 points for us there. The way this is going, Xhaka will probably get Emery the sack.
Torreria made a couple of great runs at the start of the match. Twice in front of goal and twice not found.
Hope he keeps trying.
Dale
Say what muthafucka??
AMN has a good game
Kolasinac was surprisingly ok too.
Even xakha has a decent second half but he’s a liability and so is Mkhitaryan
Done with the pair of them
Both goals were fucking Christmas presents.
Emery’s fault today lost us 2 pts. You don’t play Xhaka unless you need to. I got the starting lineup minus that I had Ceballos starting instead of Xhaka. If we had done that things could have been different. Xhaka makes far too many dumb decisions and is not that great of a footballer to begin with. No brain, slow, not mobile, not even tough for his size… If Emery keeps starting him he will lose us points and this will be Emery’s last season with us. Holding can’t come soon enough so we ditch Sok. Same re Tierney and… Read more »
TYAGN It actually pisses me off. When someone tackled Sissoko at the end and it bounced off him 2 foot in the air and came down right in his running path so he didn’t even need to break stride I thought I bet they fucking score here. Or he miscues skies it, it hits a low flying pigeon and ends up going in. That’s 2-2 at the Etihad and 2-2 at the Emirates…neither of the games did they deserve to come out with anything at all. It’s literally ‘let Son lead the counter and then maybe he or the big… Read more »
Emery really doesn’t do himself any favors.. with team selection. You cant keep selecting some of these dudes and expect different results.
Azed,
Pull another one.
I never suggested a 4-3-4 formation. It may not be very legal…
There is no need to over-anaylize why Arsenal are not a real top team. It’s just as simple as they are not good enough defensively and don’t have the players to be good enough defensively and that’s even with a coach in Emery who doesn’t even promise to make the team better defensively. Papa Sokratis was pretty good at Dortmund many years ago. He was struggling defensively today at times. Xhaka the nightmare that he is off the ball pretends to sheild this defence. Arsenal added a CB who is more known for his 50 yard passes rather than really… Read more »
Emery needs to go. Not the right guy. Get Allegri or Mourinho.
The thing is I won’t even blame Xhaka for this. I’ll blame the coach who always find a way to shove him into the team.
Still too many average players in the team, to enable us to challenge for honours. Xhaka, Mhika and Kola to name but three. The keeper has mistakes in him, and our new wizard from France looks overrated. Another Gervinho.
Yeah the whole wenger squad excuses don’t add up today
Mikki is shit and we have some subs who may be more useful but they don’t get used
Xhaka is crap and we have Ceballos and willock on the bench but xhaka plays 90 anyway
Guen was a real positive today. That was one of his best performances. He’s really growing in stature in this team
Credit to come back from 2-0 down but fuck me, real opportunity lost there today. Spuds were there for the absolute taking and hanging on for dear life in the 2nd half. Thought Guendouzi was clear MOTM for us, lad was brilliant. Much more positive going forward and was unlucky not to score with Lloris pulling off a top save to deny him. Great assist for Auba and cleaned up very well off the ball all match. Pepe was shite, can see the potential but his touch was off all match and his finishing was wild. Definitely needs another few… Read more »
Emery starts Ceballos and Arsenal most likely would have won the game. But Emery probably saw something else apart from common sense.
New manager and still no improvement in defense. Emry needs to go and a manager brought in that realizes
that one nil to the Arsenal is magic..
MarkoSeptember 1, 2019 18:31:54
Guendouzi was brilliant today. The improvement this season alone is why you keep faith with a promising 19/20 year old.
Ha
That’s rich!! You’re not wrong though this time marko
He was imperious. Big day fornhim. Stepped up and now the bar is that much higher. Delighted for him. He was fantastic.
Nothing nicer than seeing a young player step up and realise themselves
Like Neo when he realises he’s the one
But with a football
Azed….please don’t make any excuses for Emery!! His formation is wrong again, his personnel selection atrocious again. Why did Xhaka play 95mins today??? Why is he even starting and not sold off?
By the start of October we should be running Bellerin, Holding, Luiz, Tierney as our defence and Guendouzi, Torreira, Dani Ceballos as our midfield.
We cannot keep playing Xhaka there is never and has never been a punishment for his fucking stupidity.
Eagle
You can see why he offers though. Too eager. Needs to calm him else down
(Pepe)
No idea why Guendouzi gets caned oh here so often by posters.
Arsenal have a good midfielder there and considering his age it’s encouraging if he progresses in how good he could become for Arsenal.
Valentin, Wenger Eagle, Nelson, Emirates Stroller to name a few all undervalue him quite badly.
Torr is much more valuable to this team than that utter clown Xhaka. Tell Emery that.
I’d sack Emery tonight if it meant the glue factory for Xhaka. He’s our worst player by far. If Emery isn’t interested in binning him then consider someone else. It’s actually one of the reasons why I’d be behind Vieira. I can’t imagine him being a fan of the Swiss donkey
How can any team carry so many useless players, Xhaka, Ozil, Mikhi and Kolasinac not far behind. AMN serves no purpose than to buy his Mom expensive handbags.
Emery needs his head examined if he can see that Mustafi is a liability but not realise same in Xhaka, Awful player with only 1 attribute: the occasional long range shot. How bad was Mihki when he came on? Flunked every opportunity that came to him
Mkhi and Kolasinac really need to go
If Guendouzi can keep developing this year that is absolutely massive for us in a real problem area.
See how Holding comes back, but if he’s doing well enough by January we need to look for a big, powerful, athletic CDM/CM to provide protection and a totally balanced midfield.