You can analyse incidents in isolated moments or you can spread them across time to paint a clearer picture of what’s going on
Granit Xhaka; jeered and booed by his own fans, on the face of it looks like a horrifying moment. I don’t like it when we boo our own, I found it disgusting when folk in my stand used to do it to Theo Walcott, I find it embarrassing when they do it now.
However, it’d be unwise to cast this as a ‘bad fans / sad indictment of the social media generation’ type of incident.
Simply put, Granit Xhaka has been one of the worst signings of the past decade. He has never been well-liked by the fans and for good reason. He’s not built for the league, he has consistently been one of the most error-prone players in the squad, and he’s not a leader.
Unai Emery was so petrified of his decision to award a bang average player the armband, he waited until September, then leaked a sham captains election to solidify his skinny case for the defence.
Xhaka is a tactical liability for Arsenal. Not only that, he’s also demonstrated a real lack of leadership this season. This was him after his embarrassing Spurs mistake.
“We had a lot of chances, but this is football, nobody speaks about the chances, about how many we missed, always they speak about mistakes. That’s a part of football.”
This is our captain after the Watford game.
‘“We were scared in the second half. We knew they would come at us and push us hard but we have to show more character and not be scared.’
Scared? Can you imagine Tony Adams going on the record with such a stark admittance?
This is Xhaka after being jeered, presumably for slow-walking when we’re chasing 3 points at home to Crystal Palace.
He appeared to mouth ‘fuck off’ twice to the fans. Say what you will about how it must feel to be booed, that sort of response is not cool. You represent the badge and the fans are all that matters to your standing. He could have turned that moment on its head if he’d been smart, but instead, he played into the circus, now he’s on the backfoot.
He can’t even fall back on the decision being a poor one.
60 minutes of Xhaka on the pitch, Palace completed 219 passes, had 4 shots on target. Arsenal had 7 attempts, 3 on target (2 from corners).
30 minutes of Xhaka off the pitch, Palace completed 39 passes. Had 0 shots o target off 2 attempts. Arsenal had 8 attempts, 3 on target. We also had a fair goal disallowed.
It is not in debate whether he is good for the team. We are better with Xhaka on the bench. Baffling that Emery is only just realising this, but he is. He took his captain off on 69 minutes against Sheffield United, then removed the Swiss on 60 minutes today… which is a real fuck-you-very-much move.
Now the manager has a really tough decision to deal with. He has Mesut Ozil sitting in the stands for reasons he can’t disclose, but he did give us this.
“Here we have one agreed strategy as a club and a team. Because the most important thing is the club, the team and finding a performance.”
I am completely game for brutal decision making in the world of elite-level sport, you just have to be consistent. The manager made Mesut Ozil one his five captains in September, then he bombed him into exile, apparently because he’s poor in training. If it’s performance, I can get onboard with that, but you have to be consistent. Granit Xhaka almost never gives us a performance, fans were complaining that he was a 6 out of 10 today because that’s a good day in the office. If poor performances are an issue, why does Granit seem to be immune to the bench? There has to be consistency. Additionally, telling the fans to fuck off is presumably not a good look for Emery or exec leadership?
I also think we need to talk about the manager’s general performance. Palace completed more passes than Arsenal up until 55 minutes. A team that treats ball like an ebola grenade, completing more passes than us, in our backyard? It’s abhorrent to think that our game has sunk to those depths. Emery is destroying our identity on the pitch, he chips away a little of our pride in every outing, and we don’t even have results to show for it.
We have very little squad stability. The Mesut story is totally out of control, now we have a captain that just pushed the nuclear button on live TV, and we’re floundering in the league. Things are so bad, no one is paying attention to the fact our two star strikers are heading into the ‘we have to sell’ moment in their deals. Auba is final year next summer, Lacazette is at the point where he’d be sold if we take Raul at his word.
This situation we’re in is going to get worse. We haven’t hit the bottom yet, but believe me, we’re going to find it. Our plan is Champions League football. We seem to be betting on a manager with no vision to deliver that. We’re in ‘get it over the line’ mode. That’s not a real plan. We should be investing in a footballing philosophy we can build around. Emeryball is not that. His style of football a dog with wheels for back legs trying to climb the stairs. One step forward, 3 back.
The club needed to invest in a vision. We should have done that when we replaced Arsene Wenger. Find a young coach with an attachment to the fans. Map the coach to the vision of football you want to see. Build the backroom team around that. Sign players that fit the mold for the style you want. That coach could have been Freddie, Paddy, or Arteta. The plan Chelsea are activating is what a lot of us wanted when we replaced Wenger. They’ve set the bar low, told the fans this season is about the kids, and they’ve hired someone exicting they already love. Chelsea might not make the top 4 this season, but Frank Lampard is a young coach with an attachment to locals, one they’ll give time to, and one that believes in good football. He already has his kids playing better than Arsenal.
If we’d take that approach, could it really have been any worse than a sauceless manager that shipped out Ramsey, binned Mesut Ozil after making him captain, made Granit Xhaka captain, and gave us anti-football? It’s so sad, fans are clamouring for Jose Mourinho. Think about that.
So a point against Palace. We’re tanking our easy games. If you’re honest, we were lucky against Burnley and Villa. Not a single good performance this season. It’s bad. It’s only the beginning. Wait until December. Emery is an out and out disaster.
See you in the comments.
TR7
Reading Ornstein’s stuff today and various commentators seems a bit at odds. The board back Emery but there’s a realisation he’s lost half the dressing room…that doesn’t seem right.
There was an interesting article saying maybe Emery has been scarred by his PSG experiences and maybe that is true.
Nice easy game on Wednesday at least!
Cesc
“Everyone, literally everyone aside from a few morons stated Xhaka is a terrible choice as captain.”
Except for those people called “the Arsenal players,” who voted Xhaka their captain. Why do you continue to ignore this? It’s a little strange.
Emery was wrong to make Xhaka captain and wrong to regard Xhaka as indispensable to the XI, but he is not the villain; Xhaka is the villain.
You cannot excuse giving Xhaka the captaincy.
Inexcusably stupid decision.
Pierre
You would be correct had the ball come from Chambers toe but it actually came off the defender’s heel.
‘Except for those people called “the Arsenal players,” who voted Xhaka their captain. Why do you continue to ignore this? It’s a little strange.’
It’s not is it? If you had the power of reading you would have read on from that part and would have seen I didn’t ‘ignore’ it.
I really wouldn’t call anyone strange at this point.
TR7
Excellent. Good luck to you; I would prefer to see Arsenal finish above United, but United have the better players and the better manager, so I’m pretty sure I will win the wager. Cheers.
Cesc
‘Nice easy game on Wednesday at least!’
There are no easy games for Arsenal at this point. The home fans are also restless.
We have some difficult matches coming up and it may get even more ugly.
RH
” If the goal was cancelled for offside referees have a hand signal for indicating offside, ball was placed at the position where Chambers supposedly fouled a player”
Nice try but I didn’t say it was disallowed for offside , I said that Lacazette was offside and VAR could easily have used that as the reason for disallowing the goal…
But they didn’t.
I trust you looked at the link and have come to the conclusion that Lacazette was standing in an offside position.
All this talk about Emery and PSG’s dressing room is getting boring He won 7/10 trophies with them while struggling with the dressing room? They preferred playing a particular formation and they had the players for it, he gave in to them and they continued their season. Hatem Ben Arfa does not represent “PSG’s dressing room” Let’ stick to tangible criticisms here like poor team selections, the abomination he calls a first team defensive partnership, the complete lack of legs in midfield which he as the coach should have identified as a problem before the season began, the complete lack… Read more »
Everyone knew from the summer Emery wanted to pick Xhaka as captain.
Emery:
‘I want 5 captains (please don’t hate me when I pick Xhaka), Xhaka is the captain (please don’t hate me), the players will vote on the captain (it’s their fault when it turns out to be Xhaka not me), Xhaka is captain’.
Fans react exactly as expected and it boils over.
‘Going to strip Xhaka of the captaincy’.
Slow clap.
Dissenter
I agree.
Biggest indictment of Emery currently is that in any fixture any result is plausible.
“I trust you looked at the link and have come to the conclusion that Lacazette was standing in an offside position.”
I am not crazy, i never click on any link you post
I saw Lacazette was offside right from first viewing of the game, i also saw the referee did not indicate an offside call when cancelling the goal so again your seeking for reasons VAR should have cancelled a perfectly legitimate goal scored by the team you support still remains absurd
Receding
‘They say that in the coaching school you attended??’
You are being snarky without any provocation. Hockey, Cricket, Football etc. are team sports and in all these games, as a coach/manager you choose your best team first and then you pick one of them as captain of the team.
Xhaka threw also his shirt before leaving the stadium. He may not want to wear it again.
We’ve still got morons who are still awaiting the inclusion of Tierney, Holding, Torriera and Bellerin in the squad before they’re able to make up their minds on Emery. The absolute dogshit they’ve witnessed is still not enough.
That VAR disallowing of the winning goal aside, what other glaring errors did the officials make?
I expect the club will make some representation to the league but it is what it is.
We shouldn’t struggling to win a game that we were two goals up very early on.
Bojangles
“You would be correct had the ball come from Chambers toe but it actually came off the defender’s heel.”
I also said ,IF he toe poked it as it is difficult to tell..
“Xhaka threw the armband on the floor thats a strike as far as im concerned.” The whole incident was highly entertaining, as far as I’m concerned. Xhaka sees the sub board, starts walking slowly like an opposition player, hears the initial grumble from a few hundred fans. Dumb cvnt tries to be too smart and pretends those sounds were just fans roaring on the team, gesticulates the two-free-hands ‘Come on, lets hear it more’ action. Now hundreds become thousands and the fans make sure Xhaka’s attempt to muddy the message doesn’t workout. Boos ring through the stadium. Xhaka gets a… Read more »
Xhaka, like Mustafi before him, has been subject to targeted criticism by the new breed of fan that stalks social media accounts and turns football personal. Death threats, wishing illness and injury to them and family members. There was once a time where you supported your own because they were simply that, good or bad. You then had further faith and support in the guys running the club to chop and change the necessary personnel for the benefit of the club. Today we have Xhaka getting utterly scapegoated because he’s not the player some hope, he’s liked and respected by… Read more »
“To have a referee not qualified to referee a PL match make the final decisions in a pl match is ludicrous.“
That’s it. There are two refs one PL qualified and one isn’t. Atkinson can be not the best but still PL experienced.
Who’s this Jarred Aussie again?
Mark Cluttenberg wrote he didn’t why VAR interferes when Zaha clearly dived.
VAR must not become the referee version of Football Manager here
However poor the team played a goal is a goal and AFC must bottom out the VAR issue asap before the next match.
Cesc
Yeah, I’ve re-read your post and I still don’t see how it makes sense. You say “everyone” regarded Xhaka as a bad choice for captain. Except that his teammates themselves voted him captain. So clearly one very important group of people regarded him as a good choice for captain. Now, I agree the players made a mistake here, but when you say that only a “few morons” thought Xhaka was a good choice for captain, are you referring to the players?
Also, why was the team vote on the captaincy “a sham,” in your opinion? Please explain.
RH
“I saw Lacazette was offside right from first viewing of the game”
Of course you did ..
TR7 i simply asked if that is a written rule and in what rule book you find it
For a club who have had quite a few non playing captains and no actual leader in the squad you guys are hung up on nothing
“Emery was wrong to make Xhaka captain and wrong to regard Xhaka as indispensable to the XI, but he is not the villain; Xhaka is the villain.“
Straight out the “we’re organised and disciplined” playbook
Nelson
“He may not want to wear it again.”
Let’s hope.
‘Also, why was the team vote on the captaincy “a sham,” in your opinion? Please explain.’ Certainly. The manager had already picked Xhaka…everyone knew it, including you. You can pretend if you want but the fans were already moaning in the summer that Emery was choosing Xhaka. Emery put off naming a player captain, he came out with the whole 5 captains rubbish and then decided to hold a vote when the season was already a month in? Please. Do me a favour. He wanted Xhaka, he didn’t have the stones to just say it, he had this vote, no… Read more »
Diss, you know you my gee. 😉😉
didn’t *understand*
The panel on Sky this morning completely agree (like most have been saying here for years) that choosing a captain was always going to be difficult because there’re no clear leaders at the club. At this point, I’ll make Aubameyang captain and Guendouzi vice-captain. Cesc was made captain at 21. Guendouzi may be all over the place but with proper guidance and coaching, he’ll be a star. Holding is captain material. I hope he works his way back into the team, stays fit and hopefully delivers on the pitch. He’s spoken about his desire to captain Arsenal at some point.… Read more »
‘For a club who have had quite a few non playing captains and no actual leader in the squad you guys are hung up on nothing’
Well continuing with Arteta as captain of AFC even after his legs were gone was a dumb decision by Arsene. Ditto with Vermaelen as a captain when he was out for ages. Past bad decisions do not justify making yet another wrong decision. What would have AFC lost out on if instead of Xhaka, one of Auba or Laca was made captain ? Nothing.
We had the five captains thing last season too
It was not an invention this season solely for the purpose of naming Xhaka captain
CC
“Xhaka, like Mustafi before him, has been subject to targeted criticism by the new breed of fan that stalks social media accounts and turns football personal. Death threats, wishing illness and injury to them and family members.”
Really terrible situation, but but I heard footballers are well paid and compensated, so it’s no big deal.
Bamford the captiancy was a sham for multiple reasons 1) it’s extremely rare that a football coach doesn’t have the balls to pick his own captain 2) xhaka was already captain prior to the vote. Assuming he’s a nice guy and popular with his team mates there’s no way they’re voting him out as that would be embarrassing as hell for him 3) emery only held the vote because he knew that his own choices are unpopular and ineffective and didn’t want to be the one who would be blamed if the next captain sucked like his previous picks 4)… Read more »
Xhaka ‘voted’ to lead Arsenal is no different from Putin ‘voted’ to lead Russia every 6 years.
“What would have AFC lost out on if instead of Xhaka, one of Auba or Laca was made captain ? Nothing.” What would we have gained? Happier fans who do not boo their players? Like i pointed out before when Xhaka was made captain, Emery can make anyone captain and continue picking Xhaka for the first eleven if he is convinced he wants him to be in that eleven. Most of you started panicking simply because you concluded that making Xhaka captain make him it less likely he will be dropped Aubameyang wore the armband after Xhaka was booed off… Read more »
Who else would have been an obvious choice for the armband? Name a player and let’s sample the feedback to this obvious choice.
“Gillette the best a man can geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!”
lol samesong, I was thinking the same.
Hope that the man will be careful in his bathroom, an accident can happen so quickly… (fucker)
RH
“I saw Lacazette was offside right from first viewing of the game”
The problem is that VAR hasn’t been consistent in its application of the rules.
Against Villa, Silva’s goal stood even though Sterling was standing in an offside position and almost in the keeper’s line of vision. He even had to shift to allow the ball go past him.
At that point, Man City needed a goal and they got the help they needed from VAR.
“3) emery only held the vote because he knew that his own choices are unpopular and ineffective and didn’t want to be the one who would be blamed if the next captain sucked like his previous picks” What previous picks? He met Kos and captain and left him there while appointing four assistants based solely on seniority Simply admit your team has no leaders, coach included,and move on. No Arsenal fan was insulted by Xhaka being named captain nor should anyone be. You should feel insulted by abject football and poor results not by who ties a piece of cloth… Read more »
The exact number of votes has never been made public. Xhaka may have become captain simply by having one vote more than a plethora of other players who were not candidates. A captain by default. For example 25 players votes, 4 players with 4 votes and one with 5 and some with one or two votes. That would indicates that no strong natural leader exists within the squad. In fact having 4 vice captains may indicates that the team has lots of smaller clique and that each voted their preferred candidates. Naming the vice captains may have been just a… Read more »
Rodney the goal was not chalked off for offside so that particular fact and Pierre mentioning it three hundred times yesterday was irrelevant
If the goal was chalked off for offside the referee would have indicated so, goal was overruled for a phantom foul by Chambers.
Cesc You’re joking, right? It was “a sham” because you and some other Arsenal fans think Emery had already decided on Xhaka? That’s your argument? Yikes. One, even if you and others are right that Emery wanted Xhaka to be the captain, if the player vote was a free and fair vote, then how was it “a sham”? Are you suggesting that Emery rigged the vote? Two, you and these many other fans you refer to have no idea what Emery was thinking. Maybe he regarded Xhaka as a good choice, maybe he didn’t. You have no idea. And again,… Read more »
I listened to a pundit talking about the issue last night and he made an interesting point that Guendouzi behaves more like a captain than Xhaka does. Both vocally and in terms of leading by example. Completely agree.
MARK CLATTENBURG… The PGMOL have got some explaining to do after Palace’s draw with Arsenal. Watching England in the Rugby World Cup semi-final, I did not agree with the decisions of TMO but at least I understood them. Everyone at home could hear referee Nigel Owens explaining certain calls. By comparison, VAR left me puzzled at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday. I’m still lost as to why they got involved to award Crystal Palace a penalty against Arsenal when, in my opinion, Wilfried Zaha clearly dived. Referee Martin Atkinson was right to book the Palace man for simulation. He was… Read more »
Bamford
Whatever.
Honestly mate, crack on.
You’e defending the indefensible and getting snarky because you’ve got nothing else. This is coming from someone who defended Emery and wanted him to have time as well.
Liked by the fans …didn’t know the captaincy was a popularity contest to appease the fans. Maybe they should get to vote then not the players.
Salah should wear it for Liverpool then, or Mane then Firmino
We all loved Arteta and Gallas i suppose
‘Aubameyang wore the armband after Xhaka was booed off yesterday, inspiring thirty minutes of leadership he dropped. Lacazette was rated 5/10 by ESPN in the game and i personally thought they were being kind.’
You are missing the point. People have a problem with Xhaka being captain simply because it means he gets picked up in our line up every single time. We are not discussing leadership qualities of Xhaka vis a vis Auba or Laca for that matter. As for Laca dropping a 5/10 performance, 5/10 is the average performance level of Xhaka and that is the problem.
Zaha dived according to clattenberg
Receding
Agree re Lacazette. He did far too little yesterday. But of course, so too did Aubameyang. This is one reason why I said that as much as it may seem right to start both of them, I think this is a mistake. Neither contributes enough. Instead, Emery should rotate the two of them — with Auba the preferred — and play genuine wide players wide. I hope he sees this going forward.
VAR is not the problem it’s the people running it ie ref’s. Atkinson was a fucking disgrace yesterday and should never be allowed to watch a match again let alone referee one.
Unfortunately, we got the equivalent of captain Pugwash to be at the helm of a major cruise liner.
Is Xhaka our Seaman Staines or Master Bates?
Bamford,
Okay, forget ‘sham’. A token effort was what it was.
Xhaka had already captained multiple times before the vote was cast and Emery had publicly revealed his admiration.
Try this in your class, Bamford.
Have one of your students be the Class Leader for a month and then take a vote after. See what happens.
“You are missing the point. People have a problem with Xhaka being captain simply because it means he gets picked up in our line up every single time”
You mean like David Luiz and Sokratis get picked every single time to continue their comedy acts despite not having an armband on?
@RH
Yes, our goal was unjustly ruled out. Whether or not Lacazette was standing in an offside position, was essentially immaterial.
If VAR had ruled out the goal for that reason, then it would have been yet another case of them being inconsistent.
Rambo
Spot on.
Like a teaching extolling one student and saying of the 5 class leaders (sigh) he is the number one in his opinion and he makes him class leader for a month (as you say) then says to the students you’re free to vote.
To borrow a phrase from someone on here, ‘LOL’
Charlie, your long post, excellent.
Bamford are you wagering that United will finish above us? Because our squad is inferior to theirs? Or because you think OGS knows what’s he’s doing?
If the vote was really a genuine one, why was one of our players (Holding or Chambers) allowed to make public his choice ? Everything was staged and it was very very obvious all along that Xhaka would be chosen the captain.
The whole secretive society of PGMOL and their leader Mike Riley need to be abolished if you ask me
G8
‘ Zaha dived according to clattenberg’
Yes Zaha dived like he always does but Calum Chambers gave him an Olympic sized diving board.
Zaha did what every modern groomed footballer is trained to do, exploit the oppositions mistakes. That was always going to be overturned because Chambers leg was set up as a high hurdle to impede the player’s progress.
Pedro Can we please cut out this attachment to the fans bollocks when talking about a new manager. What attachment to the fans did: Fergie have when he went to ManU Wenger have when he joined us Pep have when he went to City Mourinho have when he went to Chelsea Klopp have when he went to Liverpool Ranieri have when the went to Leicester The right manager is the right choice. Everybody loves Ljungberg but he has zero first team management experience. Everybody loves Vieira but is his record at Nice enough to put him in charge. Arteta actually… Read more »
“Charlie, your long post, excellent.”
yep agreed 100% with his post. Talk about misplaced anger from a fan base who haven’t had a captain worthy of the name for five seasons now.
Well paid so they should get booed
I hate social media so everyone on it deserves abuse
And other wonderful reasons justifying the constant harassment for months now of a man just trying to do his job
Tr7
Xhaka with a usual 5/10 performance? Unlike the quality performances surrounding him?
I said it yesterday to Left, but this is the con currently sweeping the fan base. We don’t have regular good performers in the team, you can chop and change the faces and the output will remain the same because the issue is structural.
It’s just that when you leak that players are voting for a captain then you have to expect more questions
Was it a secret vote?…who counted the votes?… That’s the way it works.
The entire thing was an unnecessary reality tv series.
The last captain took off his shirt to spite his former club. The new captain takes off his shirt to tell the booing fans to eff off.
Cesc,
It actually happened during my schooling days.
Prof asked ‘Is there anyone who wants to be the Class Rep’ and one guy volunteered. 7-8 days later, the management sent out the official voting thing and the guy won at canter.
I had barely spoken to the guy but I voted him over the people I knew personally simply because it was the sympathetic thing to do.
Nobody wanted to see him stripped off what he volunteered for.
Dissenter i agree, it was bad defending by chambers to leave his leg out like that ..he should have just showed him outside ..
Same as Mustafi, Xhaka kola, AMN, luiz
All have been guilty of conceding stupid penalties
Too many individual errors costing us
Ultimately all come down to Emery though
Cesc “You’re defending the indefensible.” If I’m “defending the indefensible,” then why haven’t you smashed to pieces the arguments I’ve made with respect to yesterday’s result? Why do you not have any counterargument to what I’ve just said above about the player vote? You called the player vote “a sham”; I’ve explained why I don’t think it’s reasonable to call said vote a sham. Your reply? “Whatever, Bamford.” Really? That’s what you’ve got? Could it be that you are being unreasonable here because you are upset about what is going on at Arsenal? That’s how it reads to me. I… Read more »
Oh so all the fans who booed mustafi and xhaka are now new breed social media psychopaths
Hahahhaha. Yeah I mean like booing hasn’t existed since the dawn of fucking sports and all. It was just invented by millennial psychopaths at arsenal
Fucking next level dumbassery
I have just read an article in Telegraph. The VAR Official who is supposed to be an expert in Technology is guy called Jarred Gillett. He is an AUSTRALIAN Referee. He has never previously refereed or monitored a game in EPL. What an indictment of the system! Keith Hackett has also been interviewed and was scathing about the system in place and the failure of referees to view the VAR pictures as they do in Rugby. Also in Rugby there is a dialogue between Referee and VAR official, which can be heard by the public. The VAR Official draws attention… Read more »
Rambo
It was seriously weak management from Emery.
The captain issue has been a shambles for years but Emery has somehow managed to sink it to even more rancid depths.
What business do fans have with the selection process of a team captain?
He is leading the team not you, what business do you have that the captain must be acceptable to you?
Xhaka has gotten hauled off twice now in quick succession and during that period the ones loved by the fans did not in fact go on to win the the game…go figure.
England could be fined for their response to the haka?
Ridiculous.
“The captain issue has been a shambles for years but Emery has somehow managed to sink it to even more rancid depths.”
the leadership issue and the general lack of cojones has been as issue for years and has continued simple. Granit Xhaka putting on the Arsenal armband is not some great indictment of the club.
His mom gave him the house keys ahead of his elder brother, you all should suck on that
“Oh so all the fans who booed mustafi and xhaka are now new breed social media psychopaths”
Haha, yep, them good old days there was no complaining man. Hippie commune t’was.
I liked the way they used VAR at the AFCON, even though it was used to the last stage matches.
The referee goes up to the screen and the microphone picks up what he’s asking the VAR. You can hear him telling that official to rewind ….and stop. That way you can follow his thinking.
English football just complicated VAR and to think they had one full year of pausing to get it right.
G8
Good comment. Until this:
“Too many individual errors costing us.
Ultimately all come down to Emery though.”
Huh? How does the latter follow from the former? If these were errors he should have coached out of these players, or if there are other less error-prone players he could have selected, then you would have a point. But the former is not the case, and the latter is not the case aside from Xhaka.
So I fail to see how it “all comes down to Emery”.
“Oh so all the fans who booed mustafi and xhaka are now new breed social media psychopaths“ Straw man as it gets, I didn’t say it was all. Booing your own players has never been an acceptable past time to me, I don’t give a fuck about your ‘it’s been around forever’ shit as some pseudo-justification. Previously the booing was an extreme reaction, such as with Eboue. He was having a visible nightmare on the pitch and the fans, wrongly, resorted to booing him. Yesterday they booed a player for nothing of the sort, the team was a shower and… Read more »
Receding
‘ What business do fans have with the selection process of a team captain?’
None….same as other aspects of the club
Yet we keep commenting because that’s what fans do, they talk and banter…sometimes they go overboard.
Are you telling me you’re satisfied with how Emery handled it. It seemed he wanted Xhaka from the get go which is understandable because like you’ve written he has captained most teams he’s been involved with.
Why not just choose him and spare us the extra drama?
That’s part of what’s galling some, not the entire picture but some of it.
“Granit Xhaka putting on the Arsenal armband is not some great indictment of the club.”
Erm, fine.
But its the overly publicized player-vote is whats being discussed. Try to keep up, Baldie. I know the temptation of being a snarky weaselcvnt is strong with you but do resist the temptation.
“Just so happens the club is giving that sort more and more oxygen with their incapable handlings of the major aspects of the football club.”
i.e their failure to sack the coach. I just fear for whatever undergarment you have on the day Emery is finally sacked.
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11670/11847410/arsenal-2-2-crystal-palace-why-was-arsenals-winning-goal-ruled-out
Sorry, just chocked on my tea and biscuit.
” An Australian Referee”
That explains it.
No need to explain the pros and cons of VAR if we have an Aussie overseeing things.
Ffs VAR HQ, what are you playing at?
That fraud Emery sacked yet?
Lol @ whoever highlighted the unpopular gallas and arteta captaincies as evidence for why the captain doesn’t need to be popular with the fans
How did either of those work out for us?
Galas was a poor leader and chose to cry rather than drive his team over the finish line
Arteta was an entirely forgettable player from a time most of us would gladly forget
Unpopular captains that failed funnily enough…
Bamford
It’s on Emery because he’s picking the same players that keep making individual errors. Whatever happened to creating competition for starting places.
He’s picking PapSok and Luis when maybe he should be introducing Holding or Mustafi more.
Bamford if your soldiers are continuously making the same mistakes, ultimately the General cops it.
It’s the same in any field of profession really
“Why not just choose him and spare us the extra drama?”
You mean the drama Arsenal fans create for themselves by their activities on their social media and susceptibility to click bait articles? I am afraid that’s on you not on an internal process to pick a supposed leader out of a group of dickless men.
Xhaka telling the fans to fcuk off is as much fight as any of them has shown since the Tottenham game.
Graham
Showing us your Aussie bias eh
It’s the lack of experience of the said official that’s riling up many not his nationality.
Xhaka got booed for walking off the pitch really slowly like a petulant child.
I don’t agree with booing a player but that behaviour as a captain then subsequent gesturing deserves all the booing he will now get.
Cc
I don’t think you have the right to tell me who I can and can’t boo when I’m putting £1200 plus quid a year into the club and the highly paid players are not performing to an acceptable level.
Also to be clear the fans only started to boo Xhaka once he began to saunter off the pitch at the rate of an asthmatic snail.
Best thing that can happen now is for Xhaka to look to move on and good riddance.
China what exactly does the popularity of the captain do for you?
Oh look that player i like named Aubameyang is tying the piece of cloth round his arm , well guess what that will not change results nor performances nor will it stop Emery picking Xhaka.
He picks him same way he picks Sokratis, Kolasinac, Luiz etc because he believes that is his first team, talk about that not the popularity of the captain.
‘Also to be clear the fans only started to boo Xhaka once he began to saunter off the pitch at the rate of an asthmatic snail.’
Jeez, Marc, have some sympathy. That’s as fast as he can move! He’s doing the best he can.
Wouldn’t be surprised if that Aussie cunt Jarred Gillett is a Spurs supporter.
Why did he have to get involved after Atkinson gave Zaha a yellow for diving?
Why did he cancel our 3rd goal for NO FUCKIN’ REASON.
The FA has a lot of explaining to do.
By the way, has Saka’s yellow been rescinded?
If the reports on the players going round to Xhaka’s house after the game are true then its a further sign that he is widely respected by the team and was made Captain for that reason. I don’t understand it myself but those guys that do the constant hand gestures and random shouting on the pitch seem to be really loved(in 5-a-side I fucking hate it). I was at the match and it did get a bit weird with the booing as it was all sections. He should have taken it on the chin and understood it was a culmination… Read more »
Leno has failed to save ELEVEN penalties in 11 months. Eleven fucking penalties given away in less than a year. That’s just the league.
Cesc
Sorry but my sense of humour isn’t quite up to being able to laugh at what happened yesterday yet.
Is there anyone else besides Bamford who defends Emery right now?
The fans are the ones paying through the nose for the privelage of watching this shit show and it’s competitive sports not a safe space haven for the easily upset and offended
If you pay top dollar to go to a fancy restaurant and they serve you expensive shit do you have to just take it on the chin or do you complain?
If you’d take that on the chin and keep coming back and paying again and again without complaining then you are being served what you deserve
Marc – The cheering when his number was called is just as bad as the booing. Its an acknowledgement from the fans that we don’t like/rate you.
Marc
Crikey.
Your sense of humour is slower to recover than Xhaka.
Dissenter OK, but in most cases, he doesn’t have other good options, either because of injury or because of youth or because those other options have similar problems or weaknesses. You say he should be selecting Mustafi or Holding instead of Sokratis and Luiz. OK, except that Holding doesn’t look ready yet and didn’t look sharp the other night, so I’m not sure that is a great prescription. As for Mustafi, yes, he has been playing better of late, but this is a player who was one of our two most problematic and error-prone players for some two years. Now… Read more »