via @Arsenal Instagram
Emeryball is more than a style of football, it’s a disease that deteriorates your expectations.
I should be fuming this morning. I should be spitting BLOOD! But I’m not. In the grand scheme of 2019 Arsenal, that performance was pretty good.
We played some neat paces, the front three had some lovely combinations that focused more through the middle of the park, and Pepe looked much, much better.
Be honest with me and yourself. That wasn’t bad. Compared to some of the games we’ve won this season, it was pretty ok.
Therein lies the problem. Emeryball has us in a fever, symptoms include constantly reevaluating reality, then undervaluing what progress should look like. Fans are using whichever metric is on hand to support the dismal prosecution of ‘this is pretty ok.’
Last season we hung our hats on comebacks, early subs, the 22 game unbeaten run, DRIVE, DETERMINATION, PASSION, PLANNING, all the double sessions, Ozil dropped, Ramsey binned, a manager dancing down the touchline. We willfully ignored what the performances were telling us, because the rhetoric was like nothing we’d seen before, and we wanted to believe in the new dawn.
This season, we’re looking at the paper metrics, because looking up from the Premier League points totaller to see what’s really happening is too damn unnerving to consider.
‘The table doesn’t lie’, yells the blinkered cuck…
Oh yes she does, you’re at home with her reading Inverting the Pyramid, but as soon as you nod off, she’s fucking the next-door neighbour in the bushes… and his name is F.Shite-Performance. You’ll wake up to it eventually, but it’ll be in March when you’ve caught a nasty bout of Europa-League-itis. Third infection in three years, you might be a carrier.
Unai Emery isn’t a fraud, he’s just fallen up the stairs since Sevilla and the people hiring him haven’t paid attention to the details. The issues we’re dealing with now were absolutely obvious if you’d undertaken even the most basic of due diligence.
We hired in someone that failed at PSG because he couldn’t handle the egos of the dressing room. A manager that has no history of being able to organise a robust defence, averaging 49 goals a season at Sevilla, whilst adding 30% to a record-setting PSG defence he inherited. He couldn’t master the French or Russian languages. He has been in England well over a year and his press conferences still sound like he’s a struggling pedicab driver trying to flog you a Halloween tour of his city. He played negatively at Valencia and Sevilla. He was given the most expensively assembled side in world football and the players complained he spent too much time worrying about the opposition.
He’s now at Arsenal and we’re looking to nick a goal on the counter away at Sheffield United, and he can’t even pull that off.
The goods we are now critically inspecting are exactly what we purchased. So don’t complain. There will be no refund. This was all in the product description.
You can’t blame the players.
You can’t blame Edu.
You can’t blame the high winds of Sheffield. Mike Riley. The penalty shout.
It’s all on the manager.
Most curious fans are wondering what Edu and Raul see. They both know what good football looks like. They know what the kids are capable of, they know where the ceiling of our senior players sits… so what do they think of Emery? His vision? The atmosphere in the stadium? What do they think of our results given the context?
It’s intriguing to wonder what they’ll do should this continue. They have bet next summer’s money on making the Champions League. If Emery can’t muster more than 2 shots on target at a newly promoted team, what the hell do they think is going to happen when it comes to that nasty December crunch?
We are nearly in November. There has been no improvement in any area this season, and it ‘s hard to point to what shifted last year. The publicly available metrics we’re seeing all point south, I hear the private metrics are even more damning, there’s no organisation, we’re not doing the basics right, and we’re sitting here looking at that game last night thinking that the performance was ‘pretty ok.’
We hired a self-proclaimed protagonist that doesn’t want to provoke. He’s actually a pragmatist, but he only understands the negative football side of the equation. We don’t get the rock-solid defence, aggressive pressing, and the DIE for the cause attitude. How can you make it this far as a bad pragmatist?
I am constantly told there’s no way the club will terminate his deal during the season, but I keep asking myself how that can be the stance? Our strategy surely can’t be, ‘hope Spurs and United continue to be shit’… can it?
There are two coaches waiting in the wings that could make an impact. I don’t want to mention their names, but both can organise a defence, and both know how to make the top 4.
Bold leadership would make the decision early and try and rescue the team from the steeper challenge that’ll come if we allow the rot to continue. It should not take longer than 18 months to organise a defence. It should not take 18 months to define a style. We should not look like we’re day one of a transition, but that is where we are.
The reason we don’t have any of the basics in place is because we hired a manager out of his depth, the sooner we own up to that reality, the sooner we can attack this season and release the true talents of the most likeable/talented squad in 15 years.
Until then, get used to enjoying ‘pretty ok’ performances whilst losing to teams like Sheffield United away from home on a cold Monday night.
Emeryball fever; god bless it, at least I was too delirious to see the game for what it really was.
See you in the comments. xx
Red. No.
Maradona couldn’t drag this side to the top.
Stop being silly.
RedTruth – Nope. Bergkamp doesn’t work enough for Unai, he’d bench him and say he needs to work harder closing down Saka in training or some nonsense.
RedTruth
Why is it that you are backing Emery? surely you catch the game last night?
Digital.
Exactly. Imagine that. At Emery’s best…he’s not even close to Wenger’s absolute worse.
This is our manager.
Best thing Liam G has going for him is his twitter feed which can be gold, musically he’s tapped.
Lol,
What sal said. So true.
Sal
I’ve never read it but I’ve heard good things. I’ve listened to a podcast called ‘your favourite band sucks’ and they mention LG tweets.
“looks like a single cell organism crawled back into the swamp and grew an eyebrow.”
loooool
roflmao
I would be amazed,and disappointed,if Edu does not know the feelings of the players and supporters.
Emery made a European Final in his first season while Wenger managed two Finals in 22 years…lol
Emery would probably bench Henry too saying he doesnt have enough aerial prowess. Smh
RedTruth
I am sure if Arsene played in Europa every year he would’ve made it to finals a lot more. I mean whats the level you’re playing at ? He kept us in UCL . You want Emery and us to keep playing in Europa?
As bad as emery appears to be…..id still take him over the arrogant deluded narcissistic wenger.
In life, the persons character is unavoidably part of the judgement criteria……Wenger was a selfish creep……Emery just appears to be in over his head.(he wont stick around for 10 years past his best)
Lest we forget, Wenger made Arsenal the laughing stock of Europe. …. lol
Auba started having balls when he was deployed out wide in the second half, meaning he was a passenger till laca came in, an indictment on our second half display. Martinelli came in to do what precisely? Because when he came in, he only got balls on two or three occasions. What keeps playing out in front of us week in week out isn’t really about the players, it’s about the coach. We were losing, leno at a point kicked the ball out and emery’s facial expression showed that he wasn’t in agreement with that decision, come on. We play… Read more »
Redtruth
You mean like Emery is doing right now ? Shit he’s the reason Sarri has won something.
Let’s start the #emeryoutfreddiein# movement
Anyone pining for Wenger deserves shooting. It was him they made Arsenal a laughing stock.
This notion Emery took us to the Europa league final being the ultimate feat with his drossy squad is comedic considering we made the semi final year prior, landed the unlucky draw of Atletico Madrid who narrowly won that tie.
They went on to blast Marseille in the finale in similar fashion to Chelsea’s performance last year.
I’ll be ashamed of flaunting myself as an arsenal fan the day mourinho becomes our coach.
RedTruth
I am no fan of Wenger’s last few years but Emery is not looking like an improvement on him . There are valid criticism of his management style , to which we have no answers . Whatever the faults of Wenger Emery is looking a lot worse than him right now .
salparadisenyc
Has Emery ever won the Europa league ?
Here is what Emery got to do:
– Play the 4 3 3 formation and not 4 2 3 1. Whenever he deploys a #10, the team plays one man short.
– Train the players everyday how to play out from the back. Show them hours and hours of video.
– Practice overlapping the full back with the wingers.
– The first priority of all the crosses should be aiming at Auba. Yesterday, not a single cross is within reach of Auba.
Red
Nobody’s pining for Wenger, doesn’t negate fact club hired a manager in Emery whose made him look like a proper footballing force in his waning stages.
Thats some feat.
People saying take wenger back have lost their minds In wenger a last season he was even worse than this and the football was dismal too. Too much nostalgia from a bygone era is clouding people’s memory of what a horrible manager wenger was in his last couple of years. Even more so because of his toxic attitude to the fans, snide comments, will he won’t he stay games with the fans etc. the last 2 season’s under wenger were the definition of a train wreck. Emery is not good enough and needs sacking but at least he doesn’t appear… Read more »
Wenger did not look like a footballing force in his last two seasons, we were absolutely awful and that was reflected in him doing worse than emery
@china1,
I wished I had said that…although I alluded to that fact of personality in wengers assessment.
fucking hell most of the back and forth arguments here are due to illiterate ESLs not understanding the points made then they just argue for the sake of argue taking a nonsensical diarrhea of a “stand” no matter how ridiculous it is just to be seen firm and informed or some kind of sage that mere mortals won’t comprehend their reasonings
fuck I hate these folks
birds of a feather flock together and all that bullshit
The Europa League barely was an afterthought until they introduced the mandatory CL place for the winner which sparked interest from decent teams who were floundering domestically. Chelsea won it with Rafa Benitez, barely got a mention. Same when Mourinho won it at United. Simeone has won 2 of them and you still hear people associate him with coming up short in Europe because Atleti have lost 2 CL Finals [one on pens]. It gets heralded by Emery’s enthusiasts because they’re not a hell of a lot else to fall back on trophy-wise besides winning with PSG which literally anybody… Read more »
China
Perhaps proper footballing force was too strong, lets insert competent.
Mourinho has won 2 CL titles, I’m sure he’d be insulted if he were associated with a EL win in terms of his coaching legacy.
@ JAC,
I agree…arguing for the sake of it is somewhat tedious and pointless.
In wenger last couple of seasons were so bad it sometimes looked like we were throwing games So if the defensive mistakes were so bad they were literally suspicious We were a laughing stock in football. We had one of our captains crying in the dressing room because his kids asked him why arsenal suck. We had the club celebrating Sanchez and ozil rubbing down their contracts as ‘ideal’ (ironically it could’ve been in ozils case lol). We had some awful football and wenger couldn’t buy a win away from home. We had snide remarks about the fans. We had… Read more »
‘some kind of sage that mere mortals won’t comprehend their reasonings’
Greatest hits.
Xhaka, Mesut, Denilson.
China
Yes we get it Wenger was past his sell by date but do keep up. Even in those last two years they were better than the shit we are witnessing now with Emery.
Ill say it now, with this management structure in place, all the new players and with Edu and Sanelli looking after the off field stuff from a purely coaching perspective, Wenger would piss all over Emery and get far more out of these players.
There are many things that i dislike in life. Like xhaka in an arsenal midfield.
But what makes me really mad and has made me stop watching arsenal play in the past year is Emery doing stoke tactics on pitch.
Wenger really lost the plot towards the end but i rate even him higher than unai.
That should be enough reason to show him the door.. right?
Hey Pedro, was that your old mate Geoff at 13:24:19 ?
Wengers personality on his final years was his worst trait
I don’t want a manager who thinks he has the right to shit on the fans
Denilson is 3 year YOUNGER than Cristiano Ronaldo, wrap your head around that.
what more before do you need to see the way we collapsed when top 4 even a 3rd place was within our hands Emery blew it all away just for his precious tournament that he didn’t win anyway I had enough of him since Baku he can’t even do his specialist thing fucking fraud we could’ve been playing CL right now not anothet season of Evropa League could’ve attract better players with the funds that we have even after we done our business quite decent the bumbling idiot wastefully don’t use the resources that he have the fuck was that… Read more »
We would be better off with Freddie for the rest of the season than than the Spanish Woy, probably wouldn’t cost us too much extra either.
No we were not better. We were worse for all the reasons I gave.
Besides the fact we got fewer points in his last season we were an absolute footballing travesty
Regardless of how amazing his early years were, nothing will stop his last couple of years from being the absolute basement of management. He was that bad come the end
Not the same Geoff, Danny!
Wenger was so bad…I wouldn’t want that mr magoo in charge of a kids team.
2009 he was shite…and it got twice as bad till the end.
Remember 8-2….eight -two…
There was some enthusiasm for the Europa League last season as the team got further in it and that was probably associated with having a new manager in charge. And it is seen as more noteworthy than an FA or Leaue Cup now just in regards to the prize that follows in winning it CL participation. Second time around second season though and the sheen wears off regarding the Europa League especially if Emery bombs in the EPL. But you will see enough fans rally around Emery if he reaches another Europa League final even if failing in EPL. At… Read more »
“Players like Lacazette, Aubameyang, Ozil, Torreira, Luiz and the academy players would immediately be lifted by a change of manager .”
Ok maybe not the same names but wasn’t it said that get rid of AW and the players will be lifted .
All evidence to the contrary
“Wengers personality on his final years was his worst trait”
Wenger was clearly a unique situation that finally worked itself out felt like a victory at the time, doesn’t alter fact club made a poor hire of his replacement going the blandest of routes. The evidence is all there.
Normski
“Yes we get it Wenger was past his sell by date but do keep up. Even in those last two years they were better than the shit we are witnessing now with Emery.”
When did the 8-2 annihilation against Man Utd happen ?
Pedro, thanks!
I am okay with Freddie as a caretaker manager. The only problem is if we go a decent run there will be a clamour for making his appointment permanent a la Ole and then who knows.
Our squad is the best we have had in years, and is being totally fucked up by Emery, who now spends his time on the touch line sighing heavily, biting his bottom lip, and staring into the distance.
Get rid now, no point in delaying .
TR7, I am sceptical of Freddie. I hear that would also be a disaster.
Denilson is 3 year YOUNGER than Cristiano Ronaldo, wrap your head around that.
And Arjen Robben is a year older.
That said, the kids love him and so do the fans.
Its not about appointing 70 year old Arsene again, its more about the comparison between Arsene’s last few seasons that were bogged down with bad sentiment from the fans and a fractured dressing room to Emery’s Arsenal which is almost identical to Arsene’s last few seasons in terms of footballing quality and defensive prowess. I mean wtf…….. I thought Emery would play a similar gengenpressing style to Liverpool but that seems to have been abandoned. The fact that Xhaka was made captain and he approved of David Luiz displays an Arsene(post 2006) level of ignorance that SHOULD worry all of… Read more »
Would wenger get more out of these players? I’m not sure He couldn’t get ozil to play consistently well. He didn’t manage to develop any of our decent youth prospects into the real deal in yonks outside of perhaps Ramsey at a push He would still be playing xhaka and ozil in midfield so we’d have a probably even worse midfield than currently Up front he had auba and laca and I’m not sure there’s much difference under emery or wenger. Bellerins last couple of seasons under wenger were very poor. Cech played a little less badly under emery than… Read more »
Pedro
Why would he be a disaster ? Not that he is my preference or anything, I just want us to get rid of Emery. The idea of either Arteta, Freddie or Viera taking over from him as a caretaker manager is a plausible one.
There is one thing that I can’t help but smh. Emery is paying deep attention to opponent’s film and studying how they play. He must have shown video after video to the players to study the opponents. On the other hand, Wenger focused only on his own team.
Ideally, there should be a balance between the two. Besides forcing the players to study the opponents, Emery should also train his players how to play out from the back and how to overlap FB with winger.
The whole point was to upgrade on Wenger and unleash the beast the club could become, awake the sleeping giant.
Fact were arguing if Wenger could potentially get more out of these players than Emery is a death nail.
“Ill say it now, with this management structure in place, all the new players and with Edu and Sanelli looking after the off field stuff from a purely coaching perspective, Wenger would piss all over Emery and get far more out of these players.” pretty much this ever since he had full autonomy he went to the deep end never give absolute power as it will corrupt even the most decent person if he were to be focusing on just on field instead of doing David Dein’s job too we wouldn’t have as many bad memories as during 2011-2018 people… Read more »
https://www.facebook.com/ArsenalCartoons/photos/a.731244086909051/2764739860226120/?type=3&theater
Yes bob what is true is that there should be a far bigger difference in what we’re seeing now than under wenger
The evolution has been far too small and it’s not ok
“Our squad is the best we have had in years, and is being totally fucked up by Emery, who now spends his time on the touch line sighing heavily, biting his bottom lip, and staring into the distance.”
Leno: Most error prone keeper in the league
Kolasinac: Shit
Xhaka: Shit
Mustafi: Shit
Guendouzi: Rookie
Saka: Shit
Ozil: Joke
Willock: Pillock
Maitland Niles: lol
Pepe: Jury out
Aubameyang: Lazy
Lacazette: Wiltord in disguise
Martineli: Kid
Ceballos: Real Madrid reject
China
‘Wengers personality on his final years was his worst trait.
I don’t want a manager who thinks he has the right to shit on the fans’
Oh do fuck off with this precious nonsense. No fan would give a fuck about a managers personality if they win games.
Wengers results in his last two years were his worst trait.
Redtruth fuck your optics you were relevant back in banter years but now even that South African loon has more sense than you
obsolete
I think Emery wanted to save players fitness during the last six games of the season so he would have his best team for the Europa final.
He total misread the EPL for the run in.
Instead of making sure of home wins his head went.
Instead of puting his best team out last night he saved players for his favorite competition.
He has limited abilities, and a low ceiling.
But he will be here for the season, our gutless directors don’t have the balls to do what is needed now
The thing I don’t get is if emery spends so much time watching videos why do we always look like we prepared badly and setup wrongly lol Like outside of literally a handful of games last season, we walk into basically every game looking like the underdog, even when we play against a shit team and win. We always look like we were expecting a different opposition team to show up We line up against Bournemouth and you’d think we were playing a tense CL knock out stage game against Dortmund or something. You wonder if he’s watching the right… Read more »
Willock: Pillock lol
What a player Robben was Sal, the balder he got the more footballing his powers grew.
Has a legit case to be a top 5 player of his generation.
nah this is not the era of snake oil merchant anymore this fucker of a manager was his last fuck you appointment before he ran away with his tail between his legs scamming a living out of another sleeping giant
if still no action taken in next 2 months only then we can safely conclude how these upper bois truly operate
Read your own words normski No one would give a fuck about the manager’s personality if he’s winning games. Oh so true. Now think back to his last season when he got even fewer points than emery and couldn’t buy a win away from home. Meanwhile his shitty personality led to him making snide remarks against the fans and toying with the club with the will he won’t he sign on bs in his penultimate year He stank on the pitch and his personality stank off it. Sorry that your idol turned into a massive cunt in his later years… Read more »
You missed a few out Red.
Sokratis = wrestler
Luiz = flophead always capable to implode at any time
Torreira = doesn’t really fully convince.
Tierney = promising
Bellerin = over-rated. Too mant defensive lapses in the past.
The squad is definitely over-rated by the fans but still doesn’t
mean that Emery is of any great help either. More like hindrance.
Normski
“Wengers results in his last two years were his worst trait”
2011: Man Utd 8 Arsenal 2
2013-14: Man City 6 Arsensl 3, Liverpool 5 Arsenal 1, Chelsea 6 Arsenal 0
The one huge advantage we have with Emery in charge is that, unless things dramatically improve, he will soon be gone.
With Wenger, we had to wait ten years.
Normski
Last two years!!!
😂😂😂😂😂
Yeah with wenger he had die hard loyalists who were willing to breed for the man it was fucking nuts I still remember the arsenal Chelsea friendly in Beijing a couple of summers ago when we were about 3-0 down after 25 minutes (lol) and I shouted wenger out and some guy was so angry and upset at those two words that he not only threatened to attack me but tried to get his big group of mates to back him up There’s something about wengers early success that basically means to a large section of the fan base he… Read more »
China You’re a muppet. There is no improvement and we are getting worse. What can’t you understand? You have to be the one contrarian to disagree that Wenger, if he was strictly a coach, like Emery’s remit is, would be a better proposition than Emery is. We were meant to improve. He hasn’t improved us one bit. You can point to more points gained in Wengers last season but look at the underlying stats of Wenger’s last two years and Emery’s first 18 months….the evidence is compelling and doesn’t paint the Spaniard in a very good light even against the… Read more »
“Wenger did not look like a footballing force in his last two seasons, ”
Wenger was never really a footballing force to begin with, he was an innovator who ran out of tricks when others sussed out what he was up to and improved on it
Three league titles in twenty odd years managing the same club is actually nothing to shout about
I’d say coming runners up to LEICESTER was by far worse than Wenger’s last 2 years.
Normski that Emery has not improved us does not give anyone the right to call for a Wenger return …….none at all.
We were a joke during his last years in charge, he was let go and has been jobless since then, that in itself tells its own story
But I don’t defend emery do I normski. I call for emery to be fired on a daily basis pretty much. I’ve called for it several times just today I don’t take any issue with people shitting on emery where it’s due, I take issue with revisionist history about wenger doing better because it’s quite hard to stress just how bad the last two years under arsene actually we’re both on the field and off it And re the strict coaching only comparison, like I said, wenger would’ve had xhaka and ozil in midfield (do you honestly think that would… Read more »
Wenger had so many bad traits.
The list is endless.
My favourite though was that he became an egotistical, condescending and patronising prick.
Anyway, back to Mr Emery.
He’s definitely shite!
When the big teams got their acts together after Leicester’s shock title win, Arsenal slumped to 5th.
the call to promote from the inside is what Raul & Edu should do anyway if they stay true to all their talk about preserving the club identity and all that typical PR fluff
China1
Emery’s watching the wrong videos.
By the way, anyone wishing for a Wenger return needs to be committed.
Wenger was shit at the end, Emery is shit now… neither point needs much discussion.
Wemery
I don’t look at other Arsenal blog sites but is there anyone out there actually defending Unai Emery?
Apart from Matt Scott of the Guardian, who actually still feels he should be given a chance?
I thought the David Bentley comparison with Cellabos posted
by an earlier poster was spot on.?
A bit like like Pepe being only slightly better than Walcott
at this stage of his time here.?
RH and grandad62
Please do keep up old chums. No one is wanting Wenger to return.
China
This is the whole point that we’re talking about….emery is that shit he’s not even a marginal improvement on AW in his worst 2 years.
As for the coaching? Don’t tell me only Pepe would benefit. AW was an attacking coach and backed it up. Attacking players always flourished under him. Emery says he wants to be a protagonist, evidently he doesn’t know what that word means. Lost in translation?
Wenger’s one dimensional football was not a winning formula:
In game management non existent,
70th minute substitutions regardless of state of play,
No discernible tactics,
Playing players out of position,
Persisting with his favourites to the detriment of the team….
yeah we are the protagonists in a tragicomedy downfall of a one who once was full of potential
now it’s the redemption arc only to be stifled by someone who should be rid off lest the rot settled in again ensuring even more of a downfall into the abyss or irrelevance
hope it won’t end with suicidal non-existence
“Persisting with his favourites to the detriment of the team….”
Another proof that UE is wenger’s hidden son.
wengerlove still exists… defined as: a strange feeling brought on by blind loyalty similar to the Stockholm syndrome to an undeserving arrogant selfish tosser.
gmakaWW
Nicely put.
Got married over the weekend. One uncle got too drunk and then in a moment of stupor gave me his white gold Day-Date from off his wrist. What a fucking win that was. No take backs, Unc. The new wife is a nice consolation also, I think I might keep this one for awhile. Spuds were losing then drew to Watford on that day, not bad. Was hoping for a nice Arsenal performance to cap the weekend. Was not to be though. Sheffield are a well drilled squad but literally nothing has changed at Arsenal, it’s just so astounding to… Read more »
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Check this beauty out. Bargain!!!
James woodOctober 22, 2019 17:26:29
A bit like like Pepe being only slightly better than Walcott
at this stage of his time here.?
Woods
Walcott scores over 100 goals and assisted over 70 in his time out of position and half injured or dropped.
Not bad
Also
Pepe is not being nourished by our shitty negative non conducive set up just like bergkamp at inter and Thierry at Juve
They both lit a fire at arsenal though.
Pepe is not being nourished
#fact
I’m still trying to figure out why a team pays a healthy guy 250,000 pounds a week then not play him or on the squad. I gave Emery chances and defended him. That ended weeks ago, his ego and stupidity is a detriment to this team going forward. End this mess NOW.