It’s going to be a fairly quick post from me today, I’m mainly writing this now because I did a podcast with a friend who was over from London, check it out at the bottom of this blog!
Today was all about the battles Emery hasn’t really won. Namely, he had to drop Granit Xhaka from the squad after his captain refused to tow the party line and apologise for his nonsense on Monday. He also brought Mesut Ozil back into the fold after banishing him a week ago very publicly.
The starting 11 kind of looked interesting on paper, we opted for a 4-4-2, which looked 4-2-1-3 in transition. I think it was quite hard for anyone to really tell what the message of the day was tactically. The most glaring, ‘what the fuck is Emery doing’, was happening with Ozil. The manager in his ultimate wisdom had decided that he’d put LT in the #10 role, asking Mesut Ozil to drop deep and do the dirty work with the Matteo.
Name me a coach anywhere in the world that would opt for that as an approach without consuming at least 19 beers beforehand.
It was painful to watch Mesut drop deep and have to work the ball up the pitch, a task made even more difficult by a Matteo G having a seriously out of sorts day. The Frenchman had the type of bad game young players have, he couldn’t string a pass together and nothing went right for him.
In spite of the baffling tactical approach, we did score a goal and move ahead of Wolves. A Luiz and Chambers combo on the right found Lacazette who unselfishly teed up Auba for a simple slotted finish.
We weren’t really in control of the game though, in the second half, Wolves ramped up the pressure and found a breakthrough. The only part of this bitter taste was the subs. Emery tried to defend the lead this time by taking off Torreira and Lacazette for Gabriel and Saka. Hindsight is a beautiful thing, but in this situation, I think we simply learned that Emery doesn’t have a clue how to defend a lead regardless of the personnel. That’s three leads in a week he’s spunked up the wall, two from 2 goal leads. He’s tried bringing on defenders and failed and he’s tried keeping things attack-minded and also failed.
The goal was typical Arsenal. A quick Wolves throw, Ceballos was flat-footed, Moutinho hooked an unchallenged cross into the box and no one was quicker to the ball than Raul. A total switch off that felt oh so familiar.
Emery reverted to type late on and tried to chase the game with the introduction of Kola despite having Pepe on the bench. A maddening move, but very typical of a manager who really is lost at sea without a boat, a paddle, or the depth of water to put himself out of his misery.
The game finished 1-1. If Leicester win their game in hand we’ll be 6 points off top 4, with them moving ahead with Chelsea. By next week, if we lose to Leicester like we expect to, we’ll be 9 points adrift… and to think, this was supposed to be the easy run of games.
Things are so bad, the stadium is half empty for a rare Saturday 3pm kick off. The fans, the players, and the media are all united behind the #EmeryOut banner. If you’re not, know that he thought the tactical approach today was spot on.
“It’s a bad result, but tactically it worked how we wanted.”
Imagine playing counter-attacking football against Wolves at home, conceding 25 shots and having your shots on target total doubled by them… then telling fans that have seen peak Wenger football the plan was correct?
He needs to be sacked.
This won’t get any better.
The biggest worry we should have as fans is what happens next, because I am speaking to far too many people that have been so brutalised by Emery… Mourinho tastes like an entree from Eleven Madison.
We can talk about that at another time, I think it’s a cancerous idea, but I absolutely knew this would be the byproduct of an Emery appointment… hiring him was like being bitten by a rattlesnake in the wild, semi surviving it, and taking refuge in a bear pit (hungry bears). Jose is part two, but I have to say, even though I know he’ll be bad… I’d take being savaged by bears if it comes in 2 years time.
I’ll have more thoughts on this tomorrow, but right now, I need you to listen to the pod I just did with Lee. He’s a season ticket holder and an away day fan. He talks a lot of sense. Enjoy!
‘Mourinho I do have time for even though it may end in shambles by 2nd or 3rd year….That said our young players will improve mentally if they can survive him and that will be huge for us long term….’
Man United probably thought on the same lines.
Bamford10November 3, 2019 09:34:35
No to Mourinho.
Thankfully chubby yank English teacher’s opinions don’t get factored in or we’d be stuck with emery until the end of the season
After the game against Wolves, however, he surprisingly said he was happy with the performance, despite being outplayed.He said he felt it was an equal match, and that the players tried and worked hard, deserving more from the game.But ESPN FC’s Alejandro Moreno was perplexed by his comments and tore into the Gunners boss. What?! What are you talking about?!” he asked, stunned, in response to Emery’s comments.“You get out-shot at home, not just out-shot by a couple – double the amount of shots by Wolves. “They dominated the game in the second half, Arsenal were hanging on at home.… Read more »
CG
‘There is no Tick Tock with Jose.’
Hahaha, this one is funny.
At home, we desperately need a win, and he’s putting on a left back? What on earth? There was no mention of Pepe in the post-match press conference, which surprised me because it’s a legitimate question. Perhaps he was unfit, and it’s not uncommon for a player incapable of doing 90 minutes to be on the bench in case you need him. But if he wasn’t fit enough for the seven minutes he gave Kolasinac, why was he on there at all? If he was fit enough, why didn’t Emery use him? It’s baffling management, not least because with Chambers,… Read more »
Bamford, you are oversimplifying what it takes to be the coach of a top team.
‘All the new manager needs to do is select the right formation, select the right XI, train the team in certain patterns of play, train on set pieces, and keep all of the players happy and healthy’.
It’s very simple to write that list but to manage it successfully is clearly incredibly difficult. Just look how long coaches on average stay in their jobs.
If you look at the subs, it looks like Emery was more afraid of losing the game than he was interested in winning it, which wouldn’t be a surprise given the conservatism and cautiousness he’s displayed since he arrived at the club. Throwing on a couple of kids and then eschewing the club’s record signing when we so badly needed three points is either incompetence or something more pointed. Either way, in terms of game management it left a lot to be desired and it might well cost him his job.Afterwards, when the boos at the final whistle had died… Read more »
Samesong
Yes, Ceballos turned off for a moment there, but he turned back on quickly enough. It was just as much on his lack of pace as it was on him briefly turning off. And it is also partly on Chambers, who got completely bullied by Jimenez.
Thanks Un.
Bob N16November 3, 2019 09:39:29
Bamford, you are oversimplifying what it takes to be the coach of a top team.
Bob
Like he knows
Benteke better than Giroud
PSG more prestigious than Man U
Neymar gate
Kane not world class
Mahrez better than Mane
Backing emery when it was clear it’s over for him.
Blaming our players when 80% of them are new
Formation and position are determined on defensive phase, on fluid offensive play players take position according to team’s necessity and said player strength… Anyway I thought Torreira was the one helping Chambers at RB position defensively, that must mean Torreira and Chambers were both RB eh?? When did Torreira play as 10?? Pretty sure I watched same game and Torreira was playing as LCM in 4 man diamond midfield and Ceballos as RCM. Like Paulinho states Torreira had intensity and mentality to attack opposition penalty box, i.e. using his limited ability to help team offensively but Ceballos is nothing run… Read more »
Bamford you clown
Nobody is listening to you John
You’ve been trolling over emery for weeks
You’re opinion is worthless now.
You’ve valued being right above being honest and now you’ve egg all over your chubby face.
Bob
Obviously I am simplifying a little. My point is that a new manager wouldn’t actually have that much to do in the grand scheme of things, as this team does not need a complete re-thinking. The new manager would simply need to get certain things right.
Tell me about the other important things the new manager would need to do, though. I’d like to hear you talk about this.
Whoever comes in beyond Emery will need to beef up our midfield, because at
the moment it is lightweight with Guendouzi and Ceballos playing in central
midfield.
Un Na
It’s “your,” and there’s nothing “dishonest” about being fair and reasonable. More, I began questioning Emery long before you and many of the other vocal Emery-outers here did — review the record — and have been saying for some time now that he might have to go before January.
So, no.
Emirates
Right, but that’s not on the manager; that’s on Sanllehi and Edu. You don’t need a new manager to add better players to our midfield in the next window or two.
Bamford
“Un Na
It’s “your,”
No, it’s you’ve.
As in you’ve ( you have) been trolling.
He brought on Kolasinac because Tierney was exhausted. This was obvious. Yes, it would have been nice to go more for the win at that point, but you also want make sure you shore up the defense and don’t lose. That would have been truly disastrous.
Pierre
I was talking about the “your” in “your opinions”. So, ummm, no.
And you’re the troll here, mate. You’ve explicitly admitted as much.
TR7,
I thought Jose did pretty good at Man Utd. If their board backed Jose to bin Pogba like ours did with Emery binning Ramsey and Ozil it may have been different.
He will face no such problem of player power or player unwilling to follow Manager’s instruction.
Where are the #wecaredoyou guys? Wheres the AST? Fanbase hasnt been this united in years – they’re missing a trick here to get to Raul & co
Bamford
“And you’re the troll here, mate. You’ve explicitly admitted as much.”
The difference is , I was right and you are umm…..wrong.
Bringing on Saka was frustrating for me…he like Nelson and Willock have no intensity in their play which was needed at the moment. We can see their pace when they have ball at their feet but they never use their pace to stretch play getting behind defense or to get quickly in defensive position even if they are pitch for few minutes…Willock at least becomes more active in and around penalty area then too he is a possession losing machine.
I agree Bamford that there would likely be an immediate improvement bringing in a new coach. Your list was a fair summation of the key areas of responsibility but it obviously lacked any complexity. For example ‘keeping the players happy’. To achieve that day-in, day-out requires great communication skills and respect derived from making good decisions. Some of this could be achieved by good delegation which is of course is another area that a coach needs to be good at. If Freddie was to take over, he might find it hard to know when to be fully involved or when… Read more »
Bamford10November 3, 2019 09:50:03 Un NaIt’s “your,” and there’s nothing “dishonest” about being fair and reasonable. More, I began questioning Emery long before you and many of the other vocal Emery-outers here did — review the record — and have been saying for some time now that he might have to go before January.So, no. Er no you prick. You’ve got a shit memory Bamford I was probably the most vocal commenter against emery here when it was first announced we had him. Don’t try and bullshit your way around this You’ve been backing him up from the off. You… Read more »
Bamford10November 3, 2019 09:54:36
He brought on Kolasinac because Tierney was exhausted. This was obvious. Yes, it would have been nice to go more for the win at that point, but you also want make sure you shore up the defense and don’t lose. That would have been truly disastrous.
Bam
Right. So he made a defensive sub to cling to a point at home to wolves
Next up Leicester
Bang bang
That will be the end
Emery needs to go if we are to make top4 this season…Our midfield is weak physically, tactically for him to make use of defensive positional play.
The majority suggest with some justification that Emery was a poor choice but what does surprise me is that so many are fairly confident than the squad is better than the results . I am not for one second suggesting UE instils any sort of confidence but I am fast approaching the view that the quality of the squad is no where near good enough and a million miles away from the standard and quality some suggest they are. Far too many of the current squad in game time lack awareness of what’s going on around them they all seem… Read more »
Emery’s second and third substitutions were baffling. Torreira off, to be replaced by Saka and then the coup de grace replacing your left back with two minutes of normal time left. Obviously if Tiernay was injured that would explain it but when you’re chasing the game, surely you bring on Pepe and give him at least ten minutes to try and influence the game. I would have brought on Willock but then I would have played Torreira at DM where he may have been able to last the 90 minutes. I would have brought off a tired looking Ozil or… Read more »
I have always advocated that the club needs to rebuild its defence in part because the current group of centre backs are accident prone and make silly and reckless decisions. However, the major concern this season has been how easily our midfield has been overpowered and the number of attacks/shots produced by opposing teams including the like of Watford and yesterday Wolves. This is not only down to Xhaka. We have lightweight players like Ceballos and Guendouzi who are failing to control the ball in midfield and that has been a serious problem all season. I have always maintained that… Read more »
Mourinho might actually be just what we need, imagine his ego if he were to turn us around and start competing in games properly? Right now we are a laughing stock he would use that to galvanise the squad us against the world mentality. When Mourinho gets players on his side he really gets them but obviously he also can lose certain players badly but for me its worth trying as Emery has gone from bad to worse and its clear he has lost a number of the players himself if he ever had them to begin with. We’re not… Read more »
Back four, Torreira and Guendouzi base, Ozil at 10, Pepe, Auba/Laca, Martinelli or midfield 3 with with Ozil out and a energetic CM with decent pace(we don’t have any) maybe Chambers??? Is probably out best line up.
I had noticed Ozil’s intensity vastly improve in pre-season and in few games he has played….After seeing Willock(Vastly inferior technically) and Ceballos (slow, doesn’t make runs to stretch opponents lacks any ability to play penetrative pass), Ozil should be our 10 or play with flat midfield 3…
terraloon “””I am fast approaching the view that the quality of the squad is no where near good enough and a million miles away from the standard and quality some suggest they are””” Concur Said it and got banned. The Spiv and the Ponce have bought us some right garbage. We are so pedestrian, one dimensional, flaccid and either too old or too young, Pepe – never played a CL game. Never will. Tierney – was the first proper game of soccer he played yesterday in his career and he looked shellshocked cebollas – we now Know why ZZ ousted… Read more »
Un Na “You’ve been backing him up from the off. You even got banned because of your over zealous backing of him.” No. That is not what happened, and I have never “backed” Emery. I did reject certain criticisms of him, and I did reject certain (IMO, false) claims that some people, including Pedro, were making about him and his management, but I never “backed” him. As for whether you were against him from the get-go, I don’t know about that. I’d have to check the record. If you were, good for you. This wouldn’t actually be all that great… Read more »
Yeah we don’t have any ego/personality to match that of Mourinho so unless Mourinho becomes unhinged we won’t face same issue as Utd did.
Of course he should accept our limitations financially for him to get hired in first place. After that I don’t think we will have any problem, except for bringing up our past.
CG
“the Spiv”? This is why you got binned, mate. Not because you said the squad wasn’t all that great.
BrooklynNovember 3, 2019 10:07:40 Un na naai, Why were you against Emery so early? Brooklyn Because we’d just sacked the greatest manager in Arsenal history The man brought the club into the 22st century at the expense of his reputation He built the stadium He built the training ground He made stars and sold them to facilitate it The man we hired has to be bold. Not a wet fucking Spanish waiter. The man we hired had to take the foundations wenger laid and add what he couldn’t. The spine, the vocal leadership, the defensive responsibility. Emery has stripped all… Read more »
Bamford10November 3, 2019 10:23:46
CG“the Spiv”? This is why you got binned, mate. Not because you said the squad wasn’t all that great.
Hahahaha
Fucking rich
Zero self awareness John. Zero.
CG,
I remember your disdain for signing player from Scottish league, but I thought bar first couple of moment against Traore he was pretty astute.
Like Mourinho said Tierney is another Monreal consistent 7-8/10 player, of course he will need to adjust to PL and he is just returning back from long injury
21st century*
Hire the Portuguese bastard asap before he flies away to Munich or Madrid !
We’re that desperate, sadly…
He will steady this fast-sinking ship.
I like what CG said about what a washed-up Clough did for Forest and all we need right now is a top 4 spot.
Fed up with our constant defensive shit shows and our strikers will like him for sure.
Imagine what he could do with a confident Pepe for example.
Bring the cunt in !
Brooklyn
I would not be too critical of Willock. I see potential there and certainly a better prospect than Ceballos.
At the moment he is a squad player and that is fine. Ceballos on the other hand at 24 is someone who should be playing regularly in first team. Realistically I do not think that he is good enough to do so.
If we are spending serious money on a midfield player we need most definitely an upgrade.
As for whether you were against him from the get-go, I don’t know about that. I’d have to check the record. If you were, good for you. This wouldn’t actually be all that great of an honor for you, though, as there was little reason (aside from superficial and somewhat dubious ones) to be opposed to him from the get-go. Bamford Check away. 😂 You need to find something to galvanise your life mate. A bloke of your age even thinking about checking 2 years worth of posts to prove a point is actually really sad man. Don’t you want… Read more »
Hire the Portuguese bastard asap before he flies away to Munich or Madrid !
We’re that desperate, sadly…
He will steady this fast-sinking ship.
I like what CG said about what a washed-up Clough did for Forest and all we need right now is a top 4 spot.
Fed up with our constant defensive shit shows and our strikers will like him for sure.
Imagine what he could do with Pepe for example.
Bring the cunt in !
Brooklyn
Re:Tierney
He has likeable qualities, granted.
He is a Mans Man!
And has a striking resemblance to the mighty Stuart Pearce
But only one look at him- he is physically incapable to be robust enough to play regularly in the prem.
Why do you think- no one else was in for him?
Stroller The set up of the midfield is a massive problem, they do not play as a unit under Emery and I’ve come to the conclusion, they never will. A physically strong midfielder seems like the answer but until we employ a manager who understands that a midfield must be set up to provide protection to the defence, then I’m not sure it matters who we recruit. Wenger was no better in that he allowed one of our 2 central midfielders (Ramsey) to play without any defensive discipline. Emery is worse in this respect. The least that should happen at… Read more »
Bamford,
You are as fair and balance as Fox News. Your fair and reasonable opinion are more like Propaganda akin to The Pravda.
Un Na
“Because we’d just sacked the greatest manager in Arsenal history. The man brought the club into the 21st century at the expense of his reputation. He built the stadium. He built the training ground. He made stars and sold them to facilitate it.
The man we hired has to be bold. Not a wet fucking Spanish waiter.”
Yikes. So much for having credible reasons for being opposed to Emery.
Welcome back CG.
🤗
You have been missed and your prediction that Emery would be gone by November seems it will come true.
No Tick Tock on you.
First thing Mourinho will request is a new physically imposing DM. Mourinho is a friend with Luis Campo of Lille. If we could convince them to sell Boubakary Soumaré on the cheap. Tall (1.88m), dynamic, play on the half turn defensive midfielder who is on the free this summer and is valued at €30~40 millions which we may get at half the price. Sell Xhaka to cover the outlet. Straight away a lot of our problematic midfield is solved. Regarding Pepe, he will either energize Pepe and force him to be involved in the defensive part or he will just… Read more »
Thanks The G
What an utter travesty – we appointed this man in the first place.
the Spiv and Clown will be discussing how to divvy out the compensation package money as we speak ( think Panama Papers)
Is he due £12 000 000? or £6 000 000?
I have serious doubts , if we will ever recover our self esteem and reputation as a club.
Back on track with Jose though?
CG
“Even with Jose at the helm- we ain’t getting top 4.”
I agree that the squad is not all that great — our midfield options are weak, our central defensive options are weak — but I don’t know about this claim that we can’t finish top four even if the manager gets everything right. I think that’s going too far, not to mention that you seem to be down on some of our players simply because of their nationality or the nationality of the men who bought them in.
It is ever more likely now that Emery is on borrowed time. Is it his birthday today? Trevor Francis was sacked on his birthday!
I would rather Benitez than Mourinho as a short term appointment.
He would bring the defensive organisation minus the toxicity.
I would also be happy to see the Mertesacker/Ljungberg combination until the end of the season until ten Hag was appointed if he was interested.
Pierre,
Pressuring, harassing opponents within their first touch is also physicality, workrate, covering wingbacks, pace is also physicality….All of Chelsea’s midget are better than any Arsenal midfielders bar Torreira at those tasks including winning the ball back…
terraloon
November 3, 2019 10:09:12
Agree with you on this. Our squad is not as strong as many fans convince themselves it is.
New post.
NEW POST
Tell everyone except Banford..
Damn it
Pierre
I did not suggest that Arsenal need a 6′ + player in central midfield but we do needs someone who is powerful and disciplined to play there.
Kante may be a midget by your definition but he is nevertheless a strong and
reasonably powerful player. He is no pushover.
Look our squad has some issues but we’re only probably a quality CM and a quality CB (Saliba if we’re very lucky) away from having a really solid 3rd best squad in the league imo The problem is that our biggest weakness is CM but the manager only exacerbates this by putting square pegs in round holes. If we play 2 DMs with torreira as one of them our midfield will be 10-20% better immediately. That doesn’t mean we’ll have a top class midfield or that we won’t still make some dumb mistakes but it does mean the MF will… Read more »
Our defense if well coached should be a 7/10, midfield should be a 7/10 and attack could be a 8.5
That should be enough for us to roll over the vast majority of teams on quality alone assuming solid organization and decent game plan
Regrettably there is no absolute standout manager that would unite ALL our fan base at present either employed or otherwise at the moment.clearly its @ gamble as all of them have their faults & some more than others.whoever the club does eventually appoint & it will happen ,make it a short term appt .if it doesn’t show signs of improvement,move on till it does.not an ideal scenario but what’s the choice? Personally I think the club neeeds a good rogering.Brendan Rogers.
Emery have a good squad but the the problem is the picking and the subsitute..he must drop his son Saka and Matteo Goundouzi.they are very soft..formation 4-5-1 or 3-4-3…leno,luiz,sakratis,berlin,xhaka,terrera,ceballos,ozil,pepe,Auba,laka
2 points out of 9, the way things are unraveling, most available Managers are better than Emery. He is confused , full of perverse logic and is fast damaging players with that.
The more we delay ,more the damage. To save his 9 million in payouts 100% Kroenke is losing out on 40 million minimum,of Champions League.
Arsehole !
” Board gives Emery 4 matches to prove his with ”
wtf
It only proved AFC Board are worthless pricks. We are into this discussion only because Emery time and again has proved he has regressed the Club in most parameters except for some Bam whataboutery