MESUT OZIL POSTED SOMETHING ON THE INTERNET.
WHAT. COULD. THIS. MEAN.
Some say that Mustafi said something funny. Cool thought, but seriously, who posts a picture of themselves laughing because someone said something funny? It’s the sort of thing I might have done as a youngster if I was trying to impress a girl… potentially the reason I am 35 and still unmarried, crying into a soft cuddly toy of my first love, who incidentally made me laugh*.
Mesut man, I hear you on this post.
Just kidding. The post is weird and because I am FULL ON conspiracy mode today, I’m going to say that Mesut has heard something from Big Unai that made him FAUX LOL. Is he dropped?
Who knows…
I was thinking about how violently public opinion has turned against the manager. Quite unbelievable. I’m not one for ‘I told you so’ type rhetoric (totes am), but you know, it was pretty clear this manager didn’t know where he was taking us very early on (see). I’m gonna put it out there, I think the famous presentation was fictitious. The idea peddled that Emery, a man who still doesn’t know his best team after 15 months, somehow had a dossier of every Arsenal player, with a detailed tactical plan is, well, bollocks.
Anyway, patience is a reward for progress, if you can’t see where something is going after 3 months, chances are, the sat nav is fucked. 15 months in, where are we? Same place we were last season.
Anyway, outside patting myself on the back, I do wonder how much personality has to play in this shift in sentiment. I know people think sauce is an intangible nonsense, but Jose Mourinho can hold sway over people even when he’s tanking. Emery is 5th and people are burning effigies and filing complaints to the European Court of Human Rights.
“Sometimes we forget the memory and we need to remember,” Emery said. “When I arrived, this team needed to be more competitive. Arsenal, in their history, were winning 1-0 and being very competitive, but it was not enough.
“Then [they went through] the process of being competitive and with improved creativity. When I arrived here, the creativity was more or less good, but being competitive was worse. It was not enough.
What I love about this quote is he is accepting we were pretty good for creativity… but lacked a competitive edge. I love that, because he’s scorched any of the last remnants of our attacking play with napalm and pretty much doubled down on all the things we hated about Wenger teams.
We don’t defend. Motivation is intermittent. We appear to be soft.
Emery oversaw the biggest bottle job in the history of the Premier League, gifting 3rd to Spurs. He also put on the most tepid cup final performance I’ve ever seen. I was told the players were so unfocused, they spent more time bitching about going to Azerbaijan a day early, than getting into the match. Apparently, it was quite clear players heads weren’t where they should have been before the game. How does a manager allow that to happen? Because he doesn’t understand the language and I think he struggles to feel out the energy of a squad. We were so far from competitive in that final, it was hard to be angry, we were that bad.
If Emery had a better grasp of the English language, I doubt he’d have delivered the above comment in such a terse way. If he had the demeanour and sauce of Allegri, he’d probably have explained where he was taking us. If he had the fire of Mourinho, he’d probably have savaged the fans for doubting him. If he had youth on his side, we’d probably forgive where we are right now. If he was worth his salt, the fans would clearly understand the vision of where the football club was going. There are gaps, so we fill them with complaints. He can’t control the fan narrative, he can’t control the Ozil narrative, he can’t get the players to understand what he wants to do.
His response was to fire an impassioned lie at us with zero charm. It was a dick pic for the first Tinder message. I’m not sure there’s a way back, he’s well and truly entered the lame-duck zone as manager. I’d be very surprised if Edu and Raul thought any differently.
The team will have the chance to shine today, we’ll likely decimate Vitoria, but they are bang average. Also, the fans are wising up to the realities of what the Europa League is… 3 tough games at the backend of the tournament. It’s a joke up until the semi-finals.
Right, on that note, tuck into the podcast we recorded yesterday.
*JUST KIDDING IF MY REAL GF IS READING THIS I WRITE IT FOR THE LOLZ
Ishola70
Go with the flow.
Of course that would have upset him but we all know it goes far deeper than that.
Bojangles
Lol, well played
The next few matches are going to be testers for Emery as virtually every EPL match is but the next three could hurt him.
Crystal Palace can put in away performances in the EPL. They have shown this before.
Wolves are improving after their poor start and are not going to be straightforward to beat at all you would think even at home.
And we all know that Leicester away is a big chance for defeat.
Don’t want to see AMN in an Arsenal shirt again. 76 appearances for us and nothing suggests he will get any better. Enough is enough.
Just watched the game and happy for the win not the performance.
But for Pepe Emery would have presided over 2 consecutive losses.
This only strengthens my resolve to see Emery gone.
Would Ozil have changed the game had he been in the squad?
For me a resounding no!
Players, such as Pepe, Guendouzi and Martinelli (long term) are the future of the club.
Thought Emile was bright in patches.
Don
“The zip of wengaball is dead. This man is shackling a team that is …”
So much nonsense. The “zip” of “Wengerball” died in late 2011 or so. The football we were forced to watch from 2012 to 2018 was moribund and bland.
And we played plenty of quick passing, good football in the second half last night. Some of you lot are complaining just to complain now, saying shit that isn’t true, doesn’t make sense or is laughable.
“Emery didn’t show enough emotion when Pepe scored!”
Grow up, for fuck sake.
Something I picked up on restarting after (Pepe goal) was that Emery was sitting looking dejected before Pepe’s first, then up flapping his arms non descriptively in an effort to communicate to players that was farcical.
After Pepe’s 2nd Emery remained seated looking uninterested when other managers would have been highly animated after having his team put in the lead with seconds to go.
Asked if Emery was trying to emulate the high-octane, pressing approach of Liverpool’s, Ceballos said: “We can’t compare it at the moment. We’re working on some similar things but Jürgen Klopp arrived at Liverpool in 2015. Unai came last season. Arsenal finished a point short of the Champions League and a small step from winning the Europa League; his arrival will be positive. In a few years Arsenal will be in the top 10 teams globally, competing for everything.” Things are not perfect, people, but we are headed in the right direction. And while Emery may have his shortcomings, he… Read more »
Ishola
“The next few matches are going to be testers for Emery as virtually every EPL match is but the next three could hurt him.”
.next 7 league games .
Palace
Wolves
Leicester
Southampton
Brighton
Norwich
West Ham
Couldn’t wish for a better run of fixtures to get the fans back on side
4 at home ,3 away .
Fully fit squad , can play 2nd string in europa and league cup .
No excuses.
Pierre Who is looking for excuses? It is what it is with this team and manager. Crystal Palace, Wolves and Leicester are not going to be comfortable matches I don’t think even if the first two are at home. Said before the season that it was unlikely we would see the same length of unbeaten winning run as we saw last season and I’ve seen nothing from this side to suggest that they are going to win seven straight EPL matches in a row. For that to happen it would need individual players to really step up for him rather… Read more »
The next three matches will be difficult ones, as those are all good PL teams. And he doesn’t necessarily have “a fully fit squad,” as it looks like none of Tierney, Bellerin or Holding is quite ready yet.
Notwithstanding this, Emery does need to get his selections right, though. That means Ceballos + Guendouzi as the midfield base, Xhaka on the sidelines, first and foremost.
Palace and Wolves at home. Leicester City away.
Eduardo,
Rogers is definately better than Emery but a level below what we need.
If he beats the next three opponents in the EPL which includes Leicester away then that would be seen as a very decent outcome.
The Liverpool game and the return against the Portuguese team will be reserve matches and don’t mean much.
Liverpool’s reserves at home to Arsenal reserves in the League Cup it is likely that their second string will prove too strong and they win that.
RVP had it correct. He can’t connect to the players, he’s the leader but nobody can understand what the fuck he is saying so how are they meant to carry out instructions?
So much nonsense.
Disappointed to hear that AMN struggled last night.
I’m quickly losing my patience with him. He really needed to take the opportunity with both hands and make the most of it because with Bellerin and Chambers now able to fill in at RB game time for him is going to be limited.
Perhaps we should sell him to a Bundesliga team for £20m to £30m and put it toward Upamecano.
It would be interesting to see what Klopp was doing at Liverpool 18 months in. I would think he would be doing better than Emery.
He has been backed in the transfer market he really has no excuse.
Interesting to see Oxlade-Chamberlain playing so well under Klopp. Remember how inconsistent and poor his decision-making and play was under Wenger? I guess playing in a well-defined, well-organized system with actual instruction re how to play is helpful to a footballer. He always had the tools; that was obvious. He just couldn’t flourish under the mess that was late Wenger.
Leeds
Well, we can look that up. But I can tell you that many were not impressed at all during his first six months. Indeed I was told here that Klopp was doing nothing at Liverpool, that I was wrong to rate him, and that he was no better than Wenger. I am being serious; people here actually said these things.
“The next few matches are going to be testers for Emery”
What exactly are you still testing? Who are these people?! WTF!
New post.
Bumford
” I guess playing in a well-defined, well-organized system with actual instruction re how to play is helpful to a footballer.”
Exactly what we’re missing at Colney.
Over at Untold they have been trying to make compassions between the first 47 league games in charge between AW and UE.
Played Won Draw Lost For Against Points
AW 47. 26. 8. 13. 90. 59. 86
UE. 47. 25. 10. 12. 86. 63. 85
Now you could throw all sort of things you would want to take into account but the s the facts.