First on the agenda today. Jonathan Walters, a paragon of footballing virtue, has forced me into retracting my view on Granit Xhaka. I can criticise the man for many things, but calling it a duck after a deflection is probably TOO far.
I’m sorry Granit, I really am. Forgive me, let me be the spare key to your heart.
Arsenal are rocking another game tomorrow, there were some unfounded rumours that Kieran Tierney had had a major setback, absolutely not true, he is going to land a start in the EuroPUB League (lololol), with Bellerin the other side. That’s awesome. It’s the last piece in the ‘if Emery had this, we’d be winning the league’ jigsaw. Bring it on.
To be honest, I kind of find that competition a little bit of a release. It’s like playing football with the year below when you were young, we’re going to be totally dominant, we’ll see an electric game of Emeryball, only to find ourselves crying into a pork pie this weekend when it all comes undone.
Talking of coming undone, Spurs dropped the most humiliating defeat in ENGLISH EUROPEAN FOOTBALL HISTORY last night. Quite the achievement. They lost 7-2 AT HOME to Bayern Munich. Serge Gnabry picked up a whopping FOUR goals, then tweeted out that North London IS RED. What a boy.
Attention quickly turned to Tony Pulis who was actually on Sky and said that he thought it a minor miracle that he is where he is. I know we all banter the shit kicker, but ultimately, he wasn’t leaving elite talent on the bench to be a dick. He claimed he could rarely get the player fit.
This is another reason Arsene Wenger should be facing some sort of FIFA Panel for high crimes against Arsenal. First crime, sending a direct pacey winger that is short on loan to West Brom, a team that play percentage balls to the big lad up top. HOW IS SERGE A GOOD MATCH HERE (Ben Knapper now in charge of sensible loan decisions).
Secondly, big shout out to Ivan who elected NOT to give Serge a new deal before he went away with the national team for the Olympics. You could say he was being careful with the pennies, but let’s be real here, this is a CEO who sanctioned £52k a week for Nik B, a 5 year deal for Abou Diaby, and seriously allowed Arsene to sign a player with a broken back.
Serge always looked reasonably talented when he played for us, appreciate he might have been a bit off the boil, but wow… Bayern noticed he was good.
We’ve lost Jeff, Malen and Gnabry to free transfers… and Aaron Ramsey.
Retention policy simply has to improve moving forward.
… went off on a rant there, it’s over for Poch, right? Whatever went on at Spurs this summer has rocked his standing in the club. He might recover in the league, but beyond this season? He’s off, surely?
SHORT POST today. I’ll be back tomorrow. See you in the comments.
x
Distant,
I think that Leno is decent, but he is not world class. His distribution is poor. To be honest, I didn’t understood why we paid so much for him when Alban Lafont was available for less than half the fee.
In the system Emery wants to play Martinez seems a better fit. Better distribution, better organiser, more vocal, quicker restart. Maybe Emery see things in training that we don’t. Or maybe he does not want to change the hierarchy and cause instability when Leno just been named No1.
Bojangles
Sorry mate couldn’t help it!
Emery saying Ozil doesn’t deserve to be in the team . Why the hell did you make him one of the captains then ?
You’ve been at LG too long, I understand.
Marc I cannot understand Emery’s obsession with Xhaka. He so easily saw through Ozil and is being brilliantly brutal with him, but with Xhaka he just doesn’t see it. He has qualities, certainly, but even those don’t justify inclusion. His possession ability is matched or surpassed by Guendouzi often and Dani Ceballos even more so and both of those are far more mobile and offer far more work. He’s very similar to Ozil in that way, although I will always defend Xhaka from a total comparison by saying he does not have the appalling attitude the giant pussy has, I… Read more »
Distant
It really beggars belief.
Marc,
I agree with the fact that Xhaka does not suit Emery high energy, high pressing plan. He unbalance the entire midfield.
However Emery should also shoulder responsibility. Not only to continuously play Xhaka but also Instead of setting up a midfield to hide his flaws, he explicitly chose a system that amplify all his negative traits and negate his positive ones.
Instead of buying Pepe, we should have bought a dominant dynamic CM to play with Guendouzi and Willock/Torreira. The entire dynamic of the team would have changed for the positive.
Valantin
As I’ve said I think Emery’s fucked himself and is already out the door – it’s just whether it’s a case of next summer or sooner.
On the other hand I don’t see a team or manager in the PL that could set up a system that would suit Xhaka and still be successful.
He’s not a bad player but he’s not fit for use in the PL.
Valentin
From what you described Martinez is the better player lol. And I just really hate the fact that Leno is not a vocal keeper. Like being vocal is uncool to him or something. Leno should be a model not a keeper.
Leno is a good stopper but as has been said his distribution is not as good as Martinez. He also has a few problems with high balls into the box. Mind you Martinez had a couple of hairy moments last night too. I think Martinez is is more suited to the way Emery wants to play and he seems better as sizing up a situation and acting accordingly as opposed to Leno who follows Emery’s script until told otherwise.
Cesc Appeal
That is what I don’t get about Emery. Surely If Ozil is a bad fit for this team then so is Xhaka ? Yet our genius coach treats one like cancer and the other like a favourite son.
You could make an argument (I’m not but just making the point) that if you’re going to have a liability in the team the further up field they are the better.
At least they’re are more players to mop up the mess.
Of course not playing any of Xhaka, Mustafi or Ozil just seems a simply solution to me. Unfortunately for Emery 2 out of 3 won’t cut it.
Martinelli looks like one hell of a player
The accuracy of his shooting, quality of his crosses and his pace set him aside as having huge potential. We’ve only seen him a couple of times but he’s done absolutely everything you can ask for and more with the chances he’s had.
Very exciting player
He’s also very good in the air considering he’s not your standard giroud-esque big lump CF
China1
Yes he’s so good with his head . I watched that first goal over and over bcuz I couldn’t believe how accurate he is with his head. I hear Ronaldo is his role model, he’s on to something .
Someone needa to tell Emery once our defenders are fit , that David Luiz has experience playing at DM . A midfield of David Luiz , Torreria and Willock/Ceballos is good as any . Luiz also has good passing range , better than Xhaka at interceptions and reading the game. Not Slow as a snail.
Really loving the state of Arsenal’s resurrection at the moment. Still an incredibly long way to go, but for years I have seen no light at the end of the tunnel. But now it feels like you can once again playstation trade your way to a competitive team again. My big question is who should get credit for the way this young 2nd string team is playing. Because it really is something that we should look to build our entire future on. There seems to be such chalk and cheese in the way the younger team has played compared to… Read more »
Thank you Emery, this is a game of football worth watching.
Now don’t screw it up come weekend.
qna
I think those are instructions from the top to Emery.
Last season he was playing the senior squad for the Europa League.
I still maintain one of the problems isn’t how poor Luiz and Sok have been – and they have been poor. It’s down to the lack of protection by midfield, neither are warrior CB’s but they also aren’t as bad as their performances this season. Fix the DM and it’ll help the defence. We seem to manage to instil mass hysteria in any CB we bring in but when they’re facing a crazy number of shots against every game it’s not a surprise. the above is what is so concerning , is Emery really supposed to be a good coach… Read more »
This is why I don’t understand Emery.
In the cup competitions his teams are given a midfield fit for purpose which connects seamlessly with the attack. In the EPL he insists on a midfield which is completely out of sync with his attackers.
I’m not necessarily saying he needed to play the same players but imagine if he adopted the same mindset when we played Watford and Man United… we could have taken all three points.
Dark. Maybe the instructions are from the top. But even if that’s the case, I am hoping that it’s not just pure luck that you throw the kids in and you get such beauty as a result. I am wondering if this is Freddie. He has been working with most of these kids up until this year. If it’s him that has them playing to such a level at a reasonably big stage then there is something there I think. I am just wondering if Freddie might be the guy that we’ve been looking for as our next manager. I’m… Read more »
Most people think it is Freddy and that is why most people want Emery to get the chop ASAP ,it is not just the way Emery speaks ,the way he looks or his constant shitty team selection lol……………….lol .would much prefer someone like Freddy to be given a chance .Freddy has passion and express’s that on the touch line but Emer always has that look like he has a really awkwardly shaped object stuck up his ass
Again, in the Europa league Emery on the whole makes good decisions about leaders like designating Bellerin as captain (although I personally didn’t agree with leaving out Özil altogether).
Why does he insist on Xhaka only he knows.
I won’t argue on the quality of opposition in general but it seems a bit arrogant suggesting that Eintracht are of lesser quality than the three teams currently in the relegation zone in the PL. As you know we struggled against all three but our second team kept Eintracht scoreless in our victory over them.
Lots to be happy about last night. Martinelli, Tierney and Willock especially. We are seeing elements of an exciting future that reminds me very much of 2006/97. I think this class will achieve a higher grade!
Let’s hope we see surprise in the selection on Sunday, bring it on.
One thing occurred in last nights game that clearly highlighted why Unai Emery should not be in charge at the club. Bringing on both Guendouzi and Aubamayang, when your 4-0 up and cruising, was a mindblowingly stupid decision in so many ways. Auba for christs sake! Our two most valuable assets(Lacazette excluded) should not have been anywhere near that game last night. The possibility of picking up injuries/resting them for Sunday, should have been at the the forefront of our managers thinking. If our owner was football savvy, he would have terminated Emery’s contract there and then. It was just… Read more »
Marc
Agree wholeheartedly about Bellerin and Tierney gives the whole team more width and mobility.
My point about the back four is that without Granit in the side even Mustafi looks half decent because he is getting more protection from his midfield.
Yeah you don’t wanna get too sucked in with Ronaldo comparisons as it will lead to disappointment, but he has that similar height and general build and has twice now scored excellent headers which no one else in our squad would be doing anything useful with Once could’ve been a fluke but twice suggests he is really serious about his heading technique which is great. Too many players think they are this or that archetype and needn’t also be good at other attributes. Just because you’re not a classic n9 doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be quality in the air when… Read more »
Bringing on Auba when we’re smashing a lub team is the dumbest thing ever
Mind blowingly stupid
Emery is clueless
It’s like deciding to race your Bugatti Veyron in a stock car race, knowing that you haven’t renewed your car insurance or road tax.
Indefensible.
Should be sacked.
‘Have to say, .Martinelli has surprised me, he has a lot more about him than I gave him credit for.’
Thank goodness! I had been terrified that you would see another huge deflection and a ball going into the net from Martinelli’s shoulder.
Freddy does not have the required experience but the timing now could be key.The blind man analogy may have been a little strong but if you just take out Xhaka for even a month and see how the current team shapes up put Torriea back as the defensive Mid then play guendouzi ceballos or willock as the midfield three and you have a good chance and let freddy do his thing until we get a big boy in .We start supplying the front three and we are only going to score more as we are pretty blessed in attack with… Read more »
“Others are more deserving”
Another kick in the nether regions for Ozil.
What can we do with Pepe?
£72m is too big an amount.
But then Martinelli is worth £72m already.
You win some and lose some ugh?
Auba and Guen coming on was very senseless.
I’ve been saying that Emery hasn’t got a clue. He speaks incoherently and makes very dim decisions. I’m quietly confident that he’s not here May 2020.
Sky Sports: Ozil
Those stats don’t lie.
Since 14/15 season it’s been a progressive decline.
The writing has been on the wall for 4 years.
Can’t blame Emery for this one.
Sorry Pierre.
“Other players are more deserving.”
Emery on Özil… but this is exactly the same reason why Xhaka shouldn’t play. Emery contradicts and undermines himself every time he plays Xhaka relentlessly.
Emery’s faith in Xhaka is stubborn blindness also. The positive attributes he has do not outweigh his negatives, not even close. He is the biggest hindrance to the side.
Agree.
It’s a pity Emery can’t seem to make other logical decisions.
Graham
Why anyone would quote Emery to prove a point is beyond me.
The man has always talked a load of gibberish and always will.
I suppose you and he would get on quite well , talking nonsense comes easy to both of you.
As I said Pierre, his only logical decision.
I know, one out of a thousand is not a good success rate.
Oh well.
Gentlebris
I’m happy to be proved wrong about Martinelli.
I hadn’t seen anything of him before he came to Arsenal so my original thoughts were just first impressions.
I think expectations will have to be tempered somewhat until he has played against a half decent side but his energy and enthusiasm is infectious and could go some way to bringing back the feel good factor to the club.
Arsenal are a long way short of being the finished article, but I do believe that we do have the basic ingredients to produce a decent team/squad. I have seen enough yesterday to know that Bellerin and Tierney should be our first choice full backs. They know when to attack and also more importantly when to defend and track back. They do not leave our centre backs exposed. Holding and Mustafi have played together in last two Cup Games and we have not conceded a goal. Mustafi does make from time to time silly mistakes, but with the right partner… Read more »
Torreira didn’t have a particularly good game , especially first half his distribution was very poor. He looked as though his confidence had gone . 2nd half he kept it very simple and just played 5 yard balls to his nearest team mate to reduce the errors. I cant see Torreira starting at the weekend. Personally, I would like to see the same midfield as we played v Burnley in a 4-2-3-1 with willock and Guendouzi in centre mid and Ceballos as the CAM. Tierney looks the part , great delivery but again let’s wait until he plays against a… Read more »
I see more influence of Freddie on yesterday’s game. A lot more organisation, a lot more rational setup. For example we restarted the second half with a prepared set piece.
A side way pass then a back for a long arrow pass to the onrushing Nelson on the left. That nearly worked.
The fact that the players knew what they had to to and where to run is not something that I have seen in EPL game.
It’s obvious that Freddie has an eye for management if this is the result after he has been working with many of these youngsters for just a season as U23 manager last year.
I’m glad he’s an assistant manager at the club.
It’s probably rose tinted glasses but to be honest he inspires more confidence than Emery that’s for sure. Is he ready for a step up to full management? Probably not but it won’t be long.
I can see a European or a championship side coming in for him if he continues to work well.
As both Torreira and Ceballos completed 90 minutes, it looks like our midfield will be Xhaka Guendouzi and maybe Willock on Sunday.
So now I’m Lacazette absence, Saka is now an automatic starter. Make you wonder why he was not given moreminutes last season when it was obvious he was the standout talent in the academy.
We can all see the outcome of no xhaka in the team – but my question is , why those players last night voted for him to be captain? Surely they can see how much better they are when he is nowhere near them Special mention for Mustafi – no he didn’t have balon dor performance , I’m not getting ahead of myself , but now the pressure is off somewhat , the guy isn’t as bad as usual – he looks a lot more comfortable than sok and Luiz at the moment , and then you have to ask… Read more »
It’s amazing how our circumstances can change so drastically in one year Last season, there was a dearth of wide players, now we have a glut and the manager will get migraines trying to pick one from several good options. Most will agree that Saka and Martinelli are special option, Reiss Nelson is a functional option, in his own right. I think we have a situation where our club record signing may be BLOCKING the path of our two promising young players. Pepe will deservedly gets special treatment because of his high transfer cost. He doesn’t merit a higher place… Read more »
Valentin
How are you doing?
I think you deserve some special mention about some of these youth.
You stuck your neck out last season to urge the manager to play Willock and Xhaka more.
In retrospect, you did have a good points. Who knows where we should have ended up? You see how Ozil disappears once hungry competition shows up and Xhaka looks even worse now.
Torreira won’t start because Emery doesn’t rate him. Emery is a weak manager. If he didn’t want him he should’ve sold him to bring in the players he did want. We could have achieved a decent price for him in the summer which could have been useful in bringing in a new defensive midfielder/defender. Back to banging the wall with the sledgehammer that is Granit Xhaka, making our midfield completely impotent just to prove a point… only for Emery to spend another game defending him. Never seen a manager utilise a system so full of freedom in midweek only to… Read more »
Also forgot to mention Reiss nelson – looked more like the nelson we’ve all heard about – take ons and dribbles , maybe someone had word with him told him to calm down and play his game , looked a different player last light to anything we’ve seen so far – again , yes it’s a lower level opponent , but for a guy that many have said looks scared out there , that fear seemed to have been lifted , so I’m finding it har Sri play it down , especially when you consider Pepe came on and looked… Read more »
Martinelli looks a class player
He looked like a thoroughbred race horse when chasing down defenders up front on his own
Hope Emery can find a way of playing him and Aubameyang together
If Tierney can stay injury free will be a big asset
We have great potential with the players on show last night
Is Emery the man to fit it all together?
2019 and my phone corrects ‘hard to ‘ into ‘har Sri’ – like wtf ? When would I ever have typed that , iphone ? When !?
Arsenal are an elite CB and an elite DM from having a good enough squad to break 85 points.
I really pray that holding gets moved into the first team and delivers, then we can push Luiz into DM and overnight we’d not only have an improved defense but a greatly improved DM which would be so useful.
We’d also have two mop heads playing alongside each other in DM which would be jokes to watch
Reiss Nelson was written off far too quickly. He didn’t play well for all of two games and saka did so has rightly leapfrogged him in the pecking order, but anyone who expected a kid of his age to be consistently quality from day 1 was having a laugh Just like saka who has really impressed but will probably run into a poor run of form sooner or later and the same people will be writing him off too Just as happens every week with guen where he’s either one of our better players or he’s useless because he didn’t… Read more »
China
Not under emery we aren’t (breaking 85 points)
One thing is for sure though, we need holding, bellerin and Tierney starting in the league ASAP. Preferably with chambers beside Holding
Seriously this squad is easily the third best in the league imo
——————-Leno
Bellerin-Sokratis-Holding-tierney
———-Luiz—-guendouzi
Pepe———-Ceballos———Auba
——————-laca
Martinez
Chambers
Kolasinac
Willock
Ozil
Saka
Martinelli
Chambers can cover CB, RB and DM
Kolasinac for LB or LWF
Willock CM
Ozil if you fancy some flair at home against a shit team
Saka and martinelli to come on late wide or up front against tired legs to beat people , create and score
It really is a good lineup when you have everyone fit and you kick Xhaka out
Un
Yeah we’re not doing it with this manager but the squad is nearly there
And I also would be open minded about chambers with holding but will reserve judgment til I’ve seen it for a few games
What I do think is that sok started this season horribly tho so I won’t be complaining at all if emery dropped him for chambers.
Or he could play holding and Luiz with chambers at DM
We already have the players to be good at CB and decent at DM there’s just no willingness from the manager to drop his favourite DM…
Dissenter, Thanks for the positive comment. I am assuming that you meant Saka as a young player rather than Xhaka. 😉 As I have said before that crop of academy players is talented, but also hard workers. What Raul should have done is forced Emery to attend some of the U21 games. Not knowing of the players should not be a valid excuse. I know that some headcoach never attend reserve and youth games, but most of the best do. They want to know who is coming up. Even Mourinho hardly renowned for giving youth a chance attended some of… Read more »
Edu
Read it back before hitting “pissed coment “
Lol
Edu
Has it switched to another language? Mine sometimes does and plays havoc with auto correct
China
Sok beside holding will be a lot stinger than sok beside Luiz
Also, this new formation he’s been playing basically removes our midfield and opens our defence to midfield and wide runners into the box
As I have posted several times the team we put out yesterday is well suited to playing in Cup games, which are generally “more open matches”
Whether they can replicate it in more physical EPL games is debatable.Nevertheless I do think that the backline is better than what we are
selecting currently for League games.
What I have omitted in my posts is that Maitland-Niles is now well behind in
potential the talent of the other youngsters in our squad. Playing him on the
wing yesterday did not show more improvement. He is avery average player.
It’s frightening to think that martinelli, Saka and willock are just finding their feet.
Same with chambers, holding, Guendouzi and Tierney.
If Pepe can get going we are going to have some devastating options to choose from
Still not convinced on Nelson myself and obviously there is a long way to go for all of these lads but on what we’ve seen so far it’s very exciting that arsenal have so many potentially world class prospects
Stroller
I remember the same shit being said about parlour until he turned 24 in the double winning season and off he went
It doesn’t always happen right away.
You wrote odd holding and chambers 2-3 years ago and they are now proving your wrong.
Patience is most certainly a virtue when developing young players.
“Arsenal are an elite CB and an elite DM from having a good enough squad to break 85 points.”
I’ll have some of that Chinese weed you’re having
Oh here we go. Usual suspects losing their mind over a handful of decent performances by a young player.
When will you learn?
Auba only played 10 minutes
Guen 15
I think Emery was trying to experiment formation with both Auba and Martinelle .
No big deal for me..
The opposition allowed that as they are not that physical and hence injury was highly unlikely.
Kids did very well , hopefully Emery can see the light re xhaka
Valentin
I meant Saka, not the last mistake I’’ll make today on legrove.
Just read a stats that without Aubameyang’s goals, the Gunners would be in a lowly 19th place in the Premier League.
Taking into account that even a mediocre striker would have score one or two goals, it is clear that without Aubameyang we are a mid table team.
That is not sustainable to rely so much on a single player.
G8
Auba shouldn’t have been in the match day squad yesterday, talk less of being brought on when the game was already won.
Emery makes these bone-headed decisions too often
Martinelli reminded me of prime Ryan Giggs
Ramsey
Can’t you just enjoy the youngsters bringing some joy back to the arsenal?
Valentin,
That’s a silly stat. If you take the top scorer out of any team they would drop down the table. Who’s to say that if the top scorer is replaced with another player they wouldn’t score more or the style of play might change and the goals would be shared around.
Valentin
It makes you shudder to think some clowns on here said we should sell Auba back in the summer , we would be deep in the shit right now if we had . Idiots like that got no business commenting on football .
“Without our main £50m striker banging in goals, we’d get relegated.” Sweet logic. Without our keeper, we’d concede 13 goals a game. Why didn’t we ignore RVP’s or Alexis’ goals to show our ‘true position’ in the league without their contribution? Relegation form too probably. Now we have a striker putting up huge numbers again and some complain we’re too dependent on his goals. Maybe he should score fewer to keep the supporters happy. Auba shouldn’t have been on the pitch yesterday. Emery continues to make baffling decisions. Great game yesterday though. Thrilled for the young players who continue to… Read more »
There’s something about Willock that I really like.
He’s floating between somewhere between an 8 & 10: sort of like a hybrid
I’m genuinely keen on him being a starter
Totally agree with you Carts on Willock very exciting player.
Our best 3 man MF at moment is Willock with either Guen or Ceballos and Torreira.