Oh come on people, I’m starting Monday morning on a HIGH.
Arsenal turned around a one goal deficit twice against Aston Villa with 10 men.
You can’t knock that, you really can’t. That’s finding a next level that feels very much born of last seasons 22 game unbeaten run.
Matteo G was an absolute monster. I’ve always been a fan of his, but I was unsure what his special sauce was. We’re starting to see that. He’s a leader. He drives games forward, he makes elite passes, he’s a beast when he wants to be, he’s a goal threat… he’s the player other players more senior than him look to for answers.
He is captain elect.
To slip back into misery for a second, we were predictably dross in the first half. Our midfield was there to be bypassed, there was no real leadership from our captain, and our defence was typically ponderous. We went a goal down to McGinn, he ghosted in after a ball bypassed about 6 players, his grazed touch easily sailed past Leno.
To make matters worse, AMN, who complained midweek about playing as a right-back made a stupid challenge for his second bookable offence and found himself taking an early shower. It was dim, but honestly, this right back experiment has been awful and it’s clear the player hates it so much he’s willing to break plates in a dishwashing disaster just to rid himself of the burden.
The second half saw Calum C introduced for Saka (who was good). With 10 men, we still looked a threat, but Villa were probing. We won a penalty, Matteo powering into the box, forcing Engel to shove him to the ground. Auba let Pepe take the penalty, the largely impressive Ivorian slotted it calmly down the middle for his first goal.
You’d have hoped Arsenal would hold their nerve, but we didn’t, we let Villa in, before attempting another embarrassing short goal-kick that saw a poor touch from Calum eventually lead to a Wesley goal. We’re such a mess on the pitch, that sort of carry-on is inexcusable.
Emery pushed the nuclear button and subbed his captain and Ceballos off on 72 for LT and Willock. It was an inspired decision. He invited athleticism and hunger onto the pitch and it created an entirely different vibe, even with one less man.
We clawed our way back on 81. Matteo fed a teasing ball to the back post, Chambers didn’t do well with his first attempt, but he poked a looping shot over the keeper at his second go and made it count. Superb work, and the perfect remedy for his earlier mistake.
The second goal came from an incisive Auba freekick. He really is worth his weight in gold, his experience in front of goal is absolutely invaluable to us at the minute. As someone said on the Twitter website, he’s a success key, when he’s in your side, you always have a chance.
The players celebrated the win like we’d just won the World Cup. I could be petty about the levels here, but to be honest, after the last few weeks, it’s nice to know they still care.
WHAT DID WE LEARN:
Granit Xhaka:
The team were booed off at halftime, Granit was booed off as a sub. Terrible. Awful. I hate to see it. But really, I don’t. He’s not our captain. He’s a joke. He is the single worst decision Emery makes each week without fail. I don’t care that it’s not nice, I don’t care that Arsenal class seems to generally be geared around beta males celebrating mediocre ideas and hearting cute Wenger allegories on Twitter, the reality is, Xhaka is a poor player and we need him to take gardening leave.
Bellerin would be a better captain… so would Matteo.
Athleticism:
Emery has a weird thing with hierarchy in his squad. Everyone could see that Saka was a better prospect than Reiss, but Reiss starts. We’re opting for Xhaka in our midfield despite three years of average. Let’s just call a rabona a rabona… our best midfield is Willock, LT and Matteo. It lacks experience, it’ll have bad days, but that’s the most explosive we can be. Emery needs to wake up to this. We need hunger, pace, power and output. Those three made a statement today in a short space of time, let them have a crack at United. Could it be a worse idea than 31 shots against Watford or getting shoved around by Villa for an hour?
Unai Emery:
I’ve been getting a mixed bag of messages on the manager from people that know. Some think he could be in danger. He’s clearly not connecting with the players, his ideas are average and though the table is telling a story… the story is a fucking lie. The table lies all the time, and if you think where we are now is a true reflection of what we can be, we’re OVER.
Others that I speak to say there is no chance of him leaving.
The rationale? He’s where he needs to be. The table is all that matters to Raul and Edu. The gut feel amongst a lot of people is this: We’re a better shade of shite when you look at the others. United are a mess, Chelsea are not a worry until next year, Spurs are having problems, and Leicester is a mirage.
The leadership team just want top 4 and they’re going to gamble that those around us are so bad, Emery will come out where he needs to be.
Hard to argue the logic.
We have a lot of easy games coming up, if Emery can shake things up, we will no doubt be in a threatening position when December lands. If we’re within spitting distance, he’ll keep his job. I think he’ll comfortably be in the mixer by then, because we have a lot of very, very good players.
Today’s turnaround was in spite of him… not because of him. I know that sounds petulant, but I think most get what I mean. Emery spent most of the second half rooted to that bench, twitching out like someone had dropped 2Gs of MD in his WKD at a Carl Cox Space reunion. That is not a good look. He has fear in his eyes, but I think the players are good enough to work around him, just like they did at PSG in season two when he basically gave up.
That doesn’t mean the inevitable fail won’t happen
… but that will only last so long, sustaining it until May is a longshot. But the club is risk-averse, Raul was a big part of Emery’s hiring, and things aren’t bad enough on paper yet to make a move.
I can see the rationale, but for me, the sooner we move him on the better. Skanking your way to 4th is not progressive. Betting your future on an average manager with conservative ideas will not take you to the promised land. The longterm damage a top 4 Emery will do to Arsenal is unthinkable, but there’s every chance it’ll happen.
That said, don’t underestimate Spurs and their ability to bounce back. Chelsea has a lot of good players, I think you’ll see a strong finish from them. United are a disaster, but they have good players, so a clever caretaker could be a threat.
I will celebrate the win today. I am very excited by the players we have but I cannot abide by this manager. He’s rank average and the win cannot disguise the performance, the decisions, or the consistency of bland we’ve seen over a season and 7 games.
On reflection, if the brief to replace Arsene was a pragmatist that could improve the defence, we really should have hired Conte. If that’s still the brief, then we should look at Allegri who now has a good grasp of English. Rip the plaster now… because no amount of tinkering will save us in January.
We won’t though… and that worries me.
See you in the comments.
Yeah China i am looking at starting off with a Prince2 certification before going for PMP. And yes you can do it sharpish in Nigeria as long as you have the necessary funds.
Haha it’s one of the best and worst things about China.sounds like Nigeria May share this quirk
On the one hand lots of dubious shit goes down because of lack of enforcement of basic standards and rules but on the other hand sometimes you just see the heavy slow beaurocracy of western nations and see how much fuss it is to get everything and anything done and it makes you see the flip side of the coin
Graham, Emery brings kids in he’s lambasted for it from some posters with an agenda. Lampard does it and he’s a genius. We lost away to the bindippers, Chelsea lost at home. No difference we both got no points. If we had taken our chances at anfield before we capitulated, we might have won? It wasn’t pretty but compare where we are to Liverpool there’s a huge gap. We all would have taken a scrappy win rather than lose playing magnificent football. Chelsea lose and there style was so much better in some fans eyes. They still lost. I’m not… Read more »
Pierre,
Eddie wouldn’t have had a look in this season if he hadn’t gone out on loan.
Auba playing with pepe and saka
That’s only because lacazette is injured and he’s back in 2-3 weeks.
Marinelli was bought to go straight into the first team squad, not for league cup games.
I’m very happy Eddie is on loan at Leeds he’s probably playing 40 plus games this season. Comes back next year either for the first team or to be sold for a nice price.
Win win.
China
That’s what I mean with respect to degrees though, they’ve become such a quintessential element of society their value is lost. Admittedly I phrased it in such a way to dismiss them, I meant they’re par for the course and not the distinguishing factor of yesteryear.
Tony said you need one to be in sales in Thailand these days, same is relevant here with any job commanding a salary. So whilst I agree one is necessary to make headway in a corporate environment, there’s nobody kicking about without one hence the value being lesser as I see it.
Martinelli
This nketiah talk is very premature If he’d stayed at arsenal he probably would barely have kicked a football by now Unless there were injuries to at least 2 of our CFs at the same time he’d probably get next to no starts outside of the cups this season and even then, he’d only play in the group stages of the EL and if we get any tough draws in the darling cup or fa cup those streams of games disappear too There’s no point him being stuck on the bench all season at Leeds, but they’ve already shown a… Read more »
What the hell is going on with all this Lampard hype ?? lol
Also emery cares a lot about cups so in the second rounds of these competitions I suspect he’ll beast his best/favourite 11 players
Up 4 grabs now
“We all would have taken a scrappy win rather than lose playing magnificent football.”
I for one prefer to see that our team is going somewhere. I want to have hope rather than paper over the crack. Ideally, I want Emery to establish a solid foundation for the team. Otherwise, if he leaves, we’ll have to start over again.
Highbury,
Lampard is the latest amongst the long line of managers anointed by LeGrovers with Sauce. He brings with him the rich and deep experience of spending the sum total of one year having failed to deliver the Premiership to an expensive Derby side.
‘Obviously my view is different to the majority on here who seem quite happy that he is only getting 10/15 minutes every week .’
Pierre, the fact is if Nketiah can’t get more than 10/15 minutes per game till May at Leeds, then no need to even discuss about him. We should just sell him and move on.
But methinks at some point Nketiah will do something that will make him a starter at Leeds, then he will get those minutes you think he can’t get over there.
Also, it has to be said, that for an Englishman, Lampard’s English language skills are fantastic.
Isn’t Balogan and John Jules both considered better prospects than Nketiah? He’s likely to end up getting sold despite the calls for him to be 3rd choice striker
Words i actually have nothing against Lampard, i have actually commended him o here as a good coach but that was before i had the full picture of his stint at Derby to realize he did not actually improve them dramatically or at all even.
Now we have a situation where Chelsea have had a mixed start to the season and i read on here they are doing very well although i can understand that, the football we play these days under Emery and the total lack of control we show in games makes the basics look like genius
Nelson I’d rather win than lose,
I’d rather win trophy than be a gallant loser who played pretty football but got nowhere.
We had that with Wenger in the last ten years pretty tippy tappy football.
No champions league, no title winning team, just a few fa cups, which is nice and more than a certain trophy dodging spuds manager has won.
But at the end of the day it’s about winning. Style comes after.
Captain Tierney
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11670/11811612/kieran-tierney8217s-attitude-can-make-a-big-difference-to-this-arsenal-team
“Also, it has to be said, that for an Englishman, Lampard’s English language skills are fantastic.”
Excellent.
@Champagne : for the last time, Xhaka is our Captain, what don’t you understand ??
Up
You missed my point. Where do see I wrote pretty football but got nowhere. What I wrote was I prefer to see that our team is going somewhere.. Klopp didn’t win in his first year. But the fans saw where the team was going. Emery has been with us for over a year. The team still has no structure, especially the midfield. I am afraid we’ll go through the same scenario as last year.
Nelson, my bad for misunderstanding. But you use klopp as an example. It took 5 years to finally win a trophy. with pochettino its six and still counting. Emery has been here just over a year and people were calling for his head before we had kicked a ball. Everything is now now now. He has to have time. I’m all for moving him on at the end of the season if we don’t get top four, because that is the first thing he needs to achieve. Then it’s pretty football, win a cup and top four again then its… Read more »
Receding,
I actually think that Lampard could eventually turn out to be a pretty good manager. The question is, will Chelsea supporters and, more importantly Abramovich, have the patience to let him ride out his inevitable mistakes?
I thought Abramovich wanted to leave, sell the club ?
Highbury,
Even if he did want to sell the club, a top 4 club would be worth more that an EL one.
Lampard was a political move by Abramovic who is persona non grata in england, it will buy him time with the fans otherwise he’d be facing a revolt.
Le Grove’s saucy managers:
*Pochettino
*Klopp
*Pep Guardiola
*Tuchel
*Nagelsman
*P. Viera
*Arteta
*Now Lampard
Ex saucy managers:
*Jardim
*Enrique
*Nuno Espirito Santo
*Solkjaer(when interim)
The former are mostly of antics on the touch line and it’s nice, but when Emery does it’s annoying. Emery has no sauce and yellow teeth and has no command of English so they say.
The latter have lost their way or hit by reality with the exception of Enrique.
Bravo Le Grovers!!!
Bravo Pedro!! lol
“I thought Abramovich wanted to leave, sell the club ?”
Chelsea is a very bad investment. Any buyer might need to repay some of £1bn has sunk into the club. Even if the money is written off, there is an urgent need to build a new stadium or develop Stamford Bridge. Cost: another £1bn ?
Bought at the last minute a ticket to the game when I suddenly realised that I was finishing early (as per my rota with 7am early start) and have a day of training starting at 9am tomorrow.
Looking forward (hopefully) to see Tierney (and to a lesser extent Bellerin) play. I would rather he did start him to give him some game time and then yank him off to rest before the final 20 mins.
The Eddie Nketiah love in is based on what exactly?
What did he give us these past two seasons that would justify us keeping him on at the club, rather than send him out on loan.
My own impression of the lad is that he lacks that real fight and hunger that special players possess. Playing in the Championship under Bielsa will give him the opportunity to develop and prove himself without the pressure that would have engulfed him back at Arsenal.
Let’s see what happens and access his position at the end of the season.
China1 September 24, 2019 11:17:39 “I don’t see why it’s nailed on that he’ll stay if he just scrapes 4th. We’ve no obligation to give him a new contract and surely edu can see this for what it really is regardless of 4th or not.” Having played in a much better team himself, perhaps on the other hand, what Edu sees is that better players are truly needed in midfield and defence? If Emery gets CL football come season end, he’s more likely than not to stay on for another year or even two. He leaves otherwise. In any case,… Read more »
At least Nketiah doesn’t have to be around the likes of Ozil/Xhaka/Mustafi on a daily basis.
Can’t be a bad thing.
The 3 Stooges.
Aka the 3 overpaid lazy wankers.
Aka the malignant tumors of Arsenal
Unless you are uniquely remarkable and capable, getting a normal and proper education to the best of your ability is still the easiest and least tumultuous path to reasonable success. But that’s still not a correct measure of a person’s intelligence, value, or contribution to the people around them. There are other path’s to success.
You can always open a falafel cart, for example.
Abramovitch wants to leave, but Chelsea was not initially an investment. It was a mix of personal football interest and buying some international recognition protection against any potential Russian purge. Having been refused a visa by the UK, Chelsea football has lost both raison d’être for him. He is trying now to sell, he will have to take a loss. Chelsea biggest problem is the fact that all his major competitors have or will have a stadium that bring a lot more revenue than Stamford bridge can. Also the cost of redeveloping it is huge. His second problem is that… Read more »
Looking forward to the league cup match today, hope the returning defenders look healthy and up to speed.
I need to see some proper fullbacks in an Arsenal jersey. I need a Tierney fix
We all do Marko. We all do. With that calamity of a defence that we have seen so far, having some real defenders back in the fold will be very, very welcome.
I kinda exclude Bellerin as his only real strength is his ability to track back with his speed. Whether he has kept that speed after that ACL injury is up for debate.
Anyone else beginning to love auba as a player and a person.
He is such positive influence and seems to be liked by everyone of the team especially the young players.
Also he always plays with a smile never gives us.
Really like the guy he is a club legend already ,it’s ashame he isn’t going to win to any trophies with us and is too good for the current arsenal.
Absolute class act.
London G
I can only agree. He really seems to have upped his game.
What worries me is that UE is too obsessed with his way of playing which is far too conservative.
I was already shocked by his statement last season that we should win 5-4 instead of 1-0.
This mentality is not suited for our club and most certainly not suited for Auba’s style of play.
I mean, imagine him amidst an Invincibles era type team. He would have scored boatloads.
Been away today living my amazing life…soz. Back now.
What’s been happening?
Have we sacked that daft bastard yet?
GoH
I can only wish. But The Arsenal would never sack him mid-season unless we are litterally near the relegation spots.
Just hope that they do not renew his contract and that Edu has an idea of a manager who can: a) get our defence sorted out; b) get this team to play like winners.
We are so far away from that scenario for now.
TADB
Bollocks. Every day I’m hoping that we do something mental in regards to sacking the manager and putting Xhaka, Mustafi and AMN up for a fire sale.
We need to start acting like a South American despot regime and sacking managers after one loss…coups are kool.
Hey Nancy Kerrigan, are you an official here? Coz you are officially giving me a boner. I’m a sex addict…it’s my cross to bear. .
The legendary I respect Emery I think he has a hard job and is a decent manager but for me he serves as a stop gap. If he can achieve top four then he has done this club a real service and can leave with his head held high, however, ultimately we need our klopp a visionary who can build a balanced team with great football. I dont expect Arsenal to become real madrid or barcelona but a team who can win a league title every 3 years and make it to a champions league title every 5. I think… Read more »
“Been away today living my amazing life…soz. Back now. What’s been happening? Have we sacked that daft bastard yet?”
Might you be talking about Boris?
Sid
No.
GoH
I know exactly where you are coming from. We need to be more ruthless.
This transfer window was good, but not near enough as ruthless when you got a dick claiming that they won’t leave the club and another being made captain.
These 2 should have been shown the door at the start of the TW just gone by. Why they haven’t is a total mystery.
And what compounds this, particularly with Crappa (c) [Bennydevito], is how on earth did he convince this idiot (UE) that he is captain material? This still baffles me until now.
Does anyone have a stream for tonight?
LG He most certainly is a hard worker. But…. to have not found a system that works so far is pretty shocking. This is where he is a one trick pony. It’s his system or nothing. And his system will never work out in the PL. You cannot win 5-4 in the PL. This league is a different beast as was displayed with our final 20 mins vs Villa. It’s all about speed and power and we have none of these attributes unless UE finally decides to play a higher tempo game and a line up that matches these attributes.… Read more »
“Have we sacked that daft bastard yet?”
___
Nope not yet. Hang in there though. Let see if Man Utd can finish him off.
If anyone has a bet 365 account
You can watch the game on there in inplay ..
Cmon u reds
I should add that I don’t mind getting Allegri purely on the basis that he could get our defence sorted out.
For me this is the crux to us achieving. We need to get this defence sorted out followed by our midfield.
And I don’t mean just buying players. There is a real need @ The Arsenal for this to be coached into our current players.
What UE has failed to see is that our team lacks proper coaching in these departments. If he had acknowledged this we would have done so much better.
Hoping to see martinelli n John Jules tonight ..
Any team news ?
Any team news ?
RSPCA
SSN have not posted line up yet but are saying that Tierney should be starting.
Am keeping a sharp eye as I am curious as to UE plays tonight.
Tierney and Holding start at least. Martinelli up top
RSPCA
Starting XI: Martinez, Chambers, Holding, Mustafi, Tierney, Torreira, Willock, Nelson, Ozil, Smith, Rowe, Martinelli
Subs: Macey, Bellerin, Bola, Burton, Ceballos, Saka, Balogun
Arsenal XI: Martinez, Chambers, Holding, Mustafi, Tierney, Torreira, Willock, Nelson, Ozil (C), Smith Rowe, Martinelli.
Starting XI: Martinez, Chambers, Holding, Mustafi, Tierney, Torreira, Willock, Nelson, Ozil, Smith, Rowe, Martinelli
Subs: Macey, Bellerin, Bola, Burton, Ceballos, Saka, Balogun
Glad to see Tierney starting.
And (No laughing please) so is Ozil.
Glad to see Xhaka not starting.
Interesting line up , no striker starting.
No JJ?
Oh Pierre, you know you want to….. EN.
Pierre
It’s called false nine.:D
Pierre
Martinelli is a striker who can play anywhere across the front three.
Gutted Xhaka not starting, may have meant that he is 2nd string for now….
Pierre
As much as you are right (Martelleni is still unproved) it may shoe that UE has finally understood to not focus on such a lame competition.
Our main focus must be top 4 in the PL.
Whether UE gets this will tell us what kinda manager he is. (He already failed last season with his stubborn focus on winning the EL vs consolidating a top 4 position last season).
No striker? Pierre do you even know anything about the team and players you support
Of course he can …silly
Still no striker starting though .
No CAM either Pierre. Of course Ozil can but still.
Ozil should pad his assists stats lololol
Marko
Martinelli , apparently a left winger who can also play right winger ,let’s hope he has a decent striker who he can cross the ball to.
oddly enough looking forward to holding play the most.
If he comes good are defensive woes may decrease dramatically.
Leg db10
“Our main focus must be top 4 in the PL.”
Forget it, the manager is a dud .
Just sit back and enjoy the ride of watching schoolboy football .
Forget it, the manager is a dud .
you talking about wenger?
TLDB10
Emery would have to be completely brain dead not to see that the team lacked proper coaching.
Where he has failed, thus far, is to work on simple systems and structures to enhance belief and confidence amongst the players.
He has, imo, over complicated things.
Pierre
Martinelli is not a left winger, he’s a forward.
It is up to Torreira to show that he is more suitable to play DM.
Azed
I’m not sure if you realise it , but a winger is regarded as a forward as is a striker is regarded as a forward .
Is it my imagination or are the fans at the Emirates becoming far more vociferous.
After years of acting like Churchill( the nodding insurance dog) it seems that the Wengeritis is finally wearing off.
G62
No disrespect but you contradicted yourself.
If he is not that brain dead why the hell has he not structured us without Xhaka or AMN when he should know that they are/ were a detriment to our team structure?
This is for me a manager who still does not know what a solid spine our team should have.
The win worth celebrating not because of Emery’s tactics but be a use of the players resilience. Good write up as always Pedro.
Sid
“Ozil should pad his assists stats lololol”
He may have done if we had a striker to pass to.
Pierre already with the excuses out in case his man has a poor game, very weird fella
Good or bad , it makes no difference when you have manager that everyone agrees , is clueless.
And it’s Arsenal,
Arsenal FC,
We’re by far the greatest team,
The world has ever seen….
Get set up tonight.
I honestly think Emery loves the pairing of Wilock and Torreria.
Chance for Ozil to show how great he is at home against a lesser side as per and then not show up again for a month hahaha
Most also agree that Ozil is a lazy piss taking excuse of a football player
Interesting line up.
Any stream guys?
Good* not get.
Start delayed to 8pm
Looks like another well balanced team he has selected tonight .
Expect the unexpected, as confusion will reign .
“I’m not sure if you realise it , but a winger is regarded as a forward as is a striker is regarded as a forward .
Pierre
That’s somewhat false… In a 4-4-2, Wingers are part of the 4 in the middle and would b classified as midfielders not forwards.
PieAFC
“I honestly think Emery loves the pairing of Wilock and Torreria.”
Obviously you are not being serious, then why does he always start xhaka and Guendouzi…
Good or bad , it makes no difference when you have manager that everyone agrees , is clueless.
Everyone also agrees that Ozil is a pile of shite too. So there’s that