via @Arsenal
HAPPY NEW YEAR! HOW ARE YOU FEELING? Ok, ok, I’ll stop the shouting, but I will maintain a quiet energy with the prose because I need you up for the BIG game today.
It’s a huge one, Arsenal takes on Manchester United at home for Arteta’s 3rd game.
I think it’s a stretch to think we’re going to take points from them today. A draw would be excellent work, 3 points would have us all buzzing, but when you look at how their squad is fitness-wise and look at ours, it makes for grim reading.
We are missing a lot of defenders, which is difficult to deal with because even when we’re fully fit, we’re not exactly 90s Milan at the back. There might be some good news with regards to Bellerin who is close to returning, but knowing how fragile he’s been, you’d be hard-pressed to imagine he’ll start.
The manager was keen to impress that the defensive failures at Chelsea; with a very weak backline, were not structural.
“It wasn’t a transition where we had a bad structure or a bad organisation, when we are defending big spaces on equal numbers or are outnumbered – it wasn’t the case at all,”
“We made one half-bad decision [to back off] and these teams, when in space, they punish you, for sure. But the other option is to defend all the time and be there [in defensive areas] and we don’t want that.”
So at the very least, we’ll be prepared to deal with United. They have extremely fast forwards, they’ll probe for counter-attacks and they’ll look to stretch us using width. Arteta only recently tasted a loss against them when he was at City, it was quite a lucky United performance, but OGS had his team of workhorses make last years Champions look very old.
Going forward is where we’ll have to provide something more interesting. Containing their threat won’t be enough, we need to create chances. The good news here is Gabriel might be back in contention, his aggression in the press and all-round threat could be highly valuable to us. I’d also imagine we’ll be seeing a start from Pepe, there has to be some rotation today and that seems like the most obvious place to start. It’s hard to work out what the issue is with the Ivorian because no one will say explicitly, but it reads a blend of work rate and general fitness levels. 3 managers in a row can’t be wrong.
Ceballos is also back in contention, people forget he’s a young player, under a coach that helps him, he might be U21 Championship Dani, so it’s a new start for him.
Xhaka is also fit. Again, not my favourite player, but he’d start in our midfield at the moment. If he doesn’t play, we’ll know he’s off to Berlin. Worry with him is he mails it in as a final fuck you to the fans that booed him.
I mused before the manager started that he’d look for a turnaround project, and it seems he has one, he’s going all out to make Mesut Ozil the star of the show again. Makes sense, he’s used to having lots of #10 like talents to work with at City and on his day, no one can touch Ozil. Additionally, we have no one that gets close to him on the creativity front. We are a more intelligent team with him at his best. The German looks happy on the pitch, he’s put in two dirty shifts, he’ll have another chance to find his level again today and hopefully offer something more decisive.
“Mesut is putting in everything he has and his numbers, physically, have improved so much,”
“On his own he can’t do it. He needs the collective structure, organisation and his teammates. He needs the team to play in a certain way to facilitate his strengths more and more in the game. That’s what we’re trying to do.
“I put him in the team if I see every day that his attitude, desire and understanding of what we’re trying to do is there. The moment that this changes, then he won’t play.”
At the end of the day, he loves living in London, he loves his contract, and he’s a human… he’ll want to be impressing the fans, no one wants to be hated. He might also have the afterlife on his mind, if he tanks another manager, no one will risk giving him the big bucks in 18 months. Wenger didn’t have a machine that worked for him towards the end, Emery couldn’t see past running him into the ground in a shit system… it seems like Arteta has a more thoughtful approach to extracting creativity from him, whilst pushing him to support the system. It’ll be very interesting to see what the physical output looks like today, because he has done a lot of work in a short space of time. Some will say we’ve seen this film before, but maybe with a more elevated thinker in the dugout, it could be a different ending this time.
The main worry I have about today is how another loss will affect morale. Bournemouth was just an unlucky day at the shooting range, the Chelsea game was bad luck with fitness and Mustafi… we really need a result to prove out the hard work and progress. The fans will be buzzing for the game this evening, a classic win would be a great way to start the year, let’s see where we land.
Right, that’s me done, see you in the comments x
“Yes, we need a CB and a CM or two in this window, but it will take three or four windows to build a proper squad, IMO. It’s going to be a long road back to the top four, unfortunately.“ 2 years off having a top 4 squad now? 😂😂 new year same you. “A bad 2-3 months with Emery and they are total write offs…what immense, immense quality these lads must be.” They’re totally behind the 8-ball because after half the season we’re behind 8 teams for 4th place. I really don’t get what’s so difficult for folk like… Read more »
Arteta is only doing what he said he was doing, giving everyone a fair chance. Read between the lines, I am giving you a chance, play well to your obvious ability, and you will get games, if not, fuck off.
We need everyone playing well to get out of this mess.
Why is everybody suddenly pinning their hopes on Ozil ? He has had five years to show something different and his current enthusisam will not last. The pressing game/elite football has passed him by and he has not done what the great players done which is to reinvent themselves as their careers progress.
The January transfer window should be used to sign one centre back only who can provide some immediate contribution and ensure that any interest for Auba is flatly turned down.
Everton have looked quite good in the four weeks since Marco Silva was fired. Re-born, one might even say. And this even under that interim manager, Duncan Ferguson. Why has that group of players looked so good (or at least so much better) since their manager’s firing and ours looked so … mediocre? Why are they getting results — like a 3-1 win over Chelsea — while we are not? Why is it that our players have all of this supposed psychological and tactical baggage to get over, while their players are already playing well and with smiles on their… Read more »
Peter
May I congratulate the fella who wrote yesterday’s blog..
Read it all and found interesting ,
Bit like a kid in the sweet shop .
Feel we should throw John jules, Eddie and Sam Greenwood
One out of three could be very good…
“ Against the most average United side in years, with our ‘genius’ pitting his wits against the totally out of his depth OGS?
Talk about deliberately lowering expectations, if Emery didn’t win a home game against this lot he would have been savaged.”
Ye I think there’s something in this, I am not thinking of a draw as a tremendous result.
Rambo/Azed Even when Emery was our manager, my utmost focus was on performance than results. That’s why even when Emery was getting results, I was skeptical of his capability to take us forward. Even with Arteta my focus will be on performance alone. Results will follow once/if Arteta raises our game to a certain standard. 2 games is too early to judge but it is undeniable that we did not concede 20 plus shots and we played well in patches. Mind you we don’t have Bellerin, Holding, Tierney,Chambers, Ceballos, Martinneli etc. available. So may be in terms of results we… Read more »
The good news with Arteta, is that he could deliver back to back relegations, and Pedro will still be spitting positives.
The last TW hasn’t been helpful to the team yet. We lost Kos and Monreal, our two best defenders. We lost Iwobi and Mikki who are more useful than the current Pepe. We signed Tierney, Ceballos and that french CB who are all not in the squad. The only bright spot, Martinelli is also injured. With all the injuries to our defense and Xhaka wants out, our squad today is actually weaker than last year when we played the Manure.
I’m not sure we had a shot on target against Chelsea in the second half but Pierre and Valentin were silent about that.
If Emery was in charge, Pierre and Valentin would have written epistles about how Emery was clueless and didn’t know how to use the players.
Luteo had it spot on yesterday when he stated how some on here don’t quite equate what top 4 quality actually means, particularly how it’s not at all suggestive of the squad being near title winning quality. Being top 4 quality isn’t indicative of a super-super squad as some like to profess is being claimed, it’s being good enough to make the CL places in the league. That’s it. Arsenal have had players good enough for making top 4 the last two seasons. We failed last year because of a colossal fuckup in our last 6 games where we needed… Read more »
Azed, agreed.
Don’t think Pedro did himself any favours by constantly harping on how this was a top 4 squad when clearly it wasn’t. The butthurt when Arteta was passed over at the last minute was insane. Not that he needs to act neutral. It’s a blog, after all, but just admit you didn’t want Emery to succeed as having your opinion validated was more important.
‘Can someone explain to me why someone would spend time commenting on a blog where they question the creditability of the author?’ Fuck off, you sliming cockroach. I had been reading this blog for quite a while before i started to comment here, and I wouldn’t if I didn’t think highly of the blogger. How many times have I said it here this is the best football blog I have ever seen? But Pedro is getting too drunk on Arteta and I felt a light poke in the ribs, warning him to treasure his credibility was in order. ‘Gentlebris wanted… Read more »
TR7
I really liked our performance against Chelsea and tucking AMN in midfield has helped make the defence look a little compact.
Like I said earlier, Arteta needs time and I’m not worried about the results because I know it would come later.
I just cannot stand the excuses that were once an abomination under Emery been used.
BHA scored a beauty!!!
“Against Chelsea our players looked knackered in 2nd half and hence the drop in performance level.”
Which should put the first half into context. It was through perspiration more so than anything.
Teams with genuine cohesion and quality are not reliant on playing at a 100 mph throughout the 90 mins to play at a high level. They can play quick, slow, quick, slow. As mentioned by others, it was the typical pattern of a lower league in the F.A Cup starting quickly then retreating once the bigger team wake up.
Mantel Lala nutjob
“Fuck off, you sliming cockroach.”
Sorry but we don’t accept that kind of language in civilised society. How’s your shit hole?
Azed, harsh but fair, in fact very fair..
Need to win against manuure, we have to win
No excuses!
Happy New year
Although it was good of the players to suspend their Emery PTSD for the new gaffer.
fuck me I can’t even spell Mental!
Cesc
“That said, we had games of unbelievable aggression under Emery. Spurs this year … Chelsea at home, Spurs at home, Chelsea away…they did happen.”
Correct. And not only did we have plenty of games of high-energy and aggression under Emery, we had games after which even Pedro had to praise Emery’s tactics, such as home to Chelsea (2-0) and home to United (2-0).
“” I’d love to hear one of you try to explain this.”” Not sure if it can be explained entirely – but it’s clear the team stopped playing for emery at a very vital point last season , which carried on into this – what was the cause ? Then our interim coach took over and to be honest there was always a nagging feeling that he wasn’t going to be able to do any better – neither Freddie nor emery could galvanise the team – the players couldn’t even galvanise themselves to play with a bit of pride or… Read more »
Paulinho
They’re still battling away. Desperately trying to dress up complete squad overhaul as something else…something that doesn’t contradict everything they’ve been saying incessantly since August.
It’s no different to the ‘I wanted him gone as much as anyway’ rewriting of history that occurred last year.
Emery needed to go, but this squad is not fit for the EPL and would need an overhaul regardless of who the manager is. The rest is just stupid noise and hypocrisy.
BHA has almost scored the second goal. That one timer was saved by the foot of the Chelsea GK.
“It’s no different to the ‘I wanted him gone as much as anyway’ rewriting of history that occurred last year.”
This.
Edu
Agree 100% – At some point the team just downed tools on Emery, he then went into tinker overdrive trying to fix things that just made them worse.
Why we didn’t see a bounce under Ljungberg when other clubs do? No idea and whilst we’ve seen small improvements in areas under Arteta there’s still a lot of questions to be answered.
Bamford
What’s your opinion on the stories that came out toward the end of emery’s time here , that suggested the players were growing more and more confused by his tactics ?
Paulinho ‘Teams with genuine cohesion and quality are not reliant on playing at a 100 mph throughout the 90 mins to play at a high level. They can play quick, slow, quick, slow’ I know you won’t accept it but lack of cohesion in our team is mostly down to Emery. The guy literally experimented with our team every week -playing with a different formation and personnel every week. As for the lack of quality, once we get our injured players back and Arteta has 6-7 weeks under his belt as our manager, I am hopeful there will be a… Read more »
Cesc – We’ve also got players that arguably have upside from adaptation. Ceballos should get stronger (something Emery was arguing, pointing to Fabinho as an example) Tierney will hopefully show his quality when fully fit, Pepe is someone we’ve gone all in on, and he might catch fire. All these are issues somewhat independent of manager and more about individual acclimatisation.
This supposedly top four squad should be given time to marinate and become even better.
“HAPPY NEW YEAR! HOW ARE YOU ?” Well Pedro, I just can’t see how an Arsenal fans could be feeling anything but excited at the dawn of this new decade. A new decade which will see us become the “new Liverpool”. The scousers will be crowned Premier League Champs this season – their first title since 1990 ffs!! – and they will become the new Invincibles, erasing Arsenal from the football’s history book. Meanwhile, we will have no other choice than believing in the so called Sauce of Handsome Mikel, your favourite pal. Really, I personally can’t wait to be… Read more »
Apparently the Independent is reporting that Berlin have agreed a loan deal for Xhaka with a view to it being made permanent.
Don’t like that at all.
This is deep from a poster on BBC
“As soon as Chelsea don’t win then he’s suddenly a rubbish manager again. Chelsea fans are starting to make the gooners look reasonable!”
Jimmy, London
Charlie Don’t think it’s a Wenger thing for most, there was an almost general view here that Emery was failing at so many things which were rightly true by the way but the belief was that we had a group of players who had the capability of playing much better which in itself wasn’t always the case, a lot of us have maintained that the playing personnel have not been good enough and that no new manager or system would get these lot playing better than they can, a thing of talent rather than them downing tools…Now that a new… Read more »
“” Why we didn’t see a bounce under Ljungberg when other clubs do? No idea and whilst we’ve seen small improvements in areas under Arteta there’s still a lot of questions to be answered.””
So many questions mate , I’d really like to know how deep this goes , the mental aspect of our team is horrendous. Arsenal have had a strange culture for quite some time , it’s going to be hard to shift it but it can be done
‘Sorry but we don’t accept that kind of language in civilised society. How’s your shit hole?’ That is rich coming from you after you displayed your high level ignorance about civility here the other day, not understanding what a business handshake meant. After that day, there is no way you would convince me you went an inch beyond high school, and that must have been some backstreet high school. Then how else would i address an obvious gutter case like you and actually make you feel the impact? You are used to getting such; so reprehension with civility would have… Read more »
Tee
Chelsea have also announced a loss of £96 million for the year ending 30th June 2019. Now that doesn’t include the sale of Hazard but it’s still a lot of money, It’d be interesting to know how much money they would have had to spend in the summer if they hadn’t had the ban.
TR7 – I said the other day about different routes same destination. So a manager can have a style that leads to better football on the eye, but ultimately leads to the same points total or even less. I always said Emery’s teams were stretched out which hurt the aesthetic but had strengths as well, such as having players high up the pitch to get goals seemingly out of nowhere. Torreira had a chance from six yards out at Old Trafford, if he scores that it’s big, big goal. Ozil would never be in that position, although he would make… Read more »
Regarding Ozil
‘ Emery couldn’t see past running him into the ground in a shit system… it seems like Arteta has a more thoughtful approach to extracting creativity from him, whilst pushing him to support the system’
There’s no difference between what Emery asked of Ozil and what Arteta is saying.
Arteta will learn his lesson the hard way. I hope he’s a quick learner and doesn’t get us relegated with Ozil in the team.
Pedro is so far down the road of bias that he can’t see the obvious.
“not understanding what a business handshake meant. ”
What a complete and utter clown.
Tell me when you ask “clients” if they want fries with that do you shake hands to close the deal?
Squad overhaul ? Nah
1 CB and 2 CM and we are sorted.
Bati Disagree, I’m saying the continually harping back to player poverty was a perpetual dig at Wenger. The facts bore an entirely different fruit though as last season demonstrated. Then it was a chorus of ‘when Emery gets this or that player we’ll see the Emeryball vision’. He started the season worse than we’ve seen for 40 years. I’m sorry, but player poverty is a terrible, terrible excuse for that we’ve seen. This is a football club that’s been starved of competent management for half a decade, so a lot of fans are completely numb to its power and think… Read more »
TR7
‘ We conceded 2 goals against Chelsea -one due to a howler from Leno and another due to a mistake from Mustafi who has always been horrendous and was on the pitch only because Chambers got injured’
You don’t get to use individual errors to excuse Arteta.
When Mustafi and Xhaka were stinking out the place under Emery, you wrapped the blame around that manager’s neck.
Cc
Got to agree to a degree. Arsenal have problems but Chelsea, ManU and the Spud’s have all been poor over a recent period as well.
I’m still of the opinion that we need to give it a couple of months before we really make any serious judgements on what Arteta’s doing.
Anytime an Arsenal player goes down….remember Arteta broke them, same way Emery broke Holding last season.
Already, Arteta has broken Chambers.
Dissenter
There is a small difference – Arteta was forced to play Mustafi due to the sheer number of injured CB’s we had and it look’s as if he’s happy to let Xhaka go in his first transfer window. Emery stuck with Mustafi for two long and only dropped Xhaka when he was forced to.
TR7January 1, 2020 14:41:29
Squad overhaul ? Nah1 CB and 2 CM and we are sorted.
___
Lol yeah I’m sure that would be enough.
Guen seems to me to be shying away from heading the ball. Last game, he lost a header which started Chelsea’s counter resulting in the second goal. The coaching staff may suggest to him to have a shot hair cut. After that, he may be more willing to practice heading the ball.
Today, Graham Potter switched the game on Arteta by ceding the midfield to him and bring in a hardworking winger. Brighten went on to draw the game, should have won too.
Let’s see how Arteta in-game management improves because he certainly na wasn’t thinking on his feet on Sunday.
Paulinho “. Torreira had a chance from six yards out at Old Trafford, if he scores that it’s big, big goal. Ozil would never be in that position, although he would make us look more aesthetically pleasing. See how that works?” A stretched out playing style with forward players camped in opposition half and a wide gap between attack and defense led to opposition teams attacking our defense relentlessly. Sure we got odd chances to score but the odds were always against us. As a team you are banking on stopping 15 plus attacks and converting at least one to… Read more »
Marc, Edu Could you two look at the results of the last 5-6 matches under Emery and tell us which of those matches reflect or support your claim that Arsenal players “downed tools” under Emery? To help you with this, I’ll paste in those results/scores below. Before I do that, though, allow me to point out that in Emery’s final match — a match in which Arsenal players had presumably most “downed tools” — we drew 2-2 with Southampton. Now, you and others may initially regard this as a clear example of a match in which Arsenal players had downed… Read more »
Marc
Have a wonderful new year and decade.
What makes you think Emery liked Mustafi. The guy was using the players Arsenal provided him. When individual errors repeatedly cost us, people said he deserved it be as he used a PowerPoint presentation in the interview. He was blamed for not providing the proper structure to mitigate individual errors.
We have to hold every manager to the same standard. I’m just laying out the framework for how Arteta ought to be assessed.
Bamford “. Arsenal players did not begin to lose their confidence until after the 2-0 loss to Leicester on November 9th” I think you are wrong . I would say that the draw away to Watford where we conceded 25 shots on goal in the 2nd half alone , that was the moment the fans , the players and the manager started to have serious doubts about what was happening on and off the pitch. Since that day , we have lost away to shef utd, drew at home to palace and wolves with 20 + shots conceded and beat… Read more »
Bamford
It was clear to anyone watching that things weren’t right either on the pitch or behind the scenes.
I don’t hold any grudge against Emery – it didn’t work out life goes on.
*Emery’s
“Got to agree to a degree. Arsenal have problems but Chelsea, ManU and the Spud’s have all been poor over a recent period as well.I’m still of the opinion that we need to give it a couple of months before we really make any serious judgements on what Arteta’s doing.“
What’s this in response to? Sorry, I’m on my phone so a bit scatty with things.
Still going with this 18 months of misery are we? Thought that nonsense should have been dropped last decade. During that 18 months of misery we wiped the floor with Chelsea and United at home,we won 21 league games that season, we got to a European final disposing of Napoli and Valencia along the way. We also played some great matches that saw the man on the touchline react to what was happening on the pitch, made changes and won it. Unai Emery had a horrible start to the premier league season and was deservedly sacked in November. Move on… Read more »
If player poverty does not exist, then Arteta shouldn’t even be afforded that excuse.
We should see Arsenal shoot up the league table and Pedro wouldn’t be laying the groundwork for a probably loss today.
Of the Chelsea and United game at home, the United one always looked like the more difficult one. They have pace in almost every position and will probably tear us to bits today.
Problem is the next league game is not for another 10 days so we will stew in relegation zone misery for a while.
Dissenter
Wenger had Xhaka and Mustafi too and even with them he used to dispatch most lower teams with ease. Under Emery those teams created 20 plus chances on an average. So i guess criticism of Emery was justified.
Cc
Just the comment you made about player poverty and only Liverpool and City out of the so called top teams really showing any level of quality.
The way they talk about 18 months of misery, one would think there were net times when we were imperial under Emery. He had his good moments too, his strengths and weaknesses. Ultimately he couldn’t reverse the slide, lost control of the dressing room and deserved to be sacked. It’s a results business, the same way Arteta has to be held accountable based on results. The bottom of the league table is moving up, Watford are winning, Villa won today, Westham have signed Moyes… it is imperative that we start getting results because we are going to be caught up… Read more »
TR7 – When Guardiola went to City straight away they City’s passing bore the style of a typical Guardiola team. They played some nice stuff around August, Sept. Then the wheels came off due to lack of quality in certain areas and how that lack of quality manifested itself with Guardiola’s philosophy, and they ended up getting smashed 4-2 at Leicester, 4-0 Everton and lost 3-1 at home to Chelsea.
So, linear improvement is always assumed with philosophy managers, but it’s far from a given if personnel issues are addressed.
*personnel issues are NOT addressed.
‘Tell me when you ask “clients” if they want fries with that do you shake hands to close the deal?’
Exactly the reason you didn’t understand what a business handshake meant. The only type of ‘clients’ you have ever had to deal with were those seeking to buy fries.
Seriously guy, you are a rock bottom case, a bitter potato peeler.
Un, how was the le grove jail?
Marc
But you’re agreeing with what I’m saying surely in the following?
“Got to agree to a degree. Arsenal have problems but Chelsea, ManU and the Spud’s have all been poor over a recent period as well.“
I’m saying, outside the top two, the difference in quality is negligible and there’s certainly scope for a competition for the remaining 2 places.
Arsenal, Chelsea, United, Spurs have had comparable talent levels the past two seasons. Leicester are hugely overachieving this season imo, and taking full advantage of the collective lack of consistency in Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs, United.
TR7 Of course the criticism of Emery was and is still justified. I called you out because you were using the individual error card to defend Arteta for the loss at home to Chelsea. Lampard took Arteta out of the game by merely adding an extra midfielder in the 30th minute, hardly genius …yet Arteta could do NOTHING to counter that basic move. Arteta was also late in making changes for the last game of the calendar year when player fatigue is an issue. He made mistakes too, by omission or commission..maybe inexperience factored in as well. You always argued… Read more »
Un na naaai
“heeeelllllllppppppppppppppppp pleeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaassssssssseeeeeee”
How pathetic
Unai na
You drooling for the mouth at the prospect of a 2-2 draw?
If he knows best, why set your bar so low?
AKBs will always be AKBs, they just have to change the name behind the Arsenal
In Wengers final season we finished in the EL places and went out in the EL semi finals on away goals to eventual winners Atletico.
You can spin any season to be less doomsday about it, fact is we tanked in the league and then came unstuck in the EL. Emery tanked in the league and came unstuck in the EL…..with more players at his disposal.
It was always going to happen.
Arteta fails to win his opening 2 games and the know nothings are out in force defending Emery’s record .
They will ultimately be proved wrong again.
give it a year or so from now when we are sitting near the top of the league playing quality football, the know nothings will have nowhere to hide.
They never learn do they.
I’ll be honest I’m a little worried and confused about Arteta’s recent comments but I assume that he’s just trying to say the right things to get a response from someone who’s guaranteed to play with Xhaka leaving and Ceballos still injured. He’s 31/32 declining and coming up on his final season with absolutely no chance of an extension so Mikel building anything around him is in the shortest of short term imo. Still major red flags already on his appointment his comments on Xhaka and now Ozil but he gets the benefit of doubt
TR7 “Wenger had Xhaka and Mustafi too and even with them he used to dispatch most lower teams with ease. Under Emery those teams created 20 plus chances on average.” One, that’s not an apples to apples comparison, as Wenger had any number of players (Monreal, Koscielny, Ramsey, Bellerin) in his XI that Emery did not have available to him, players who would have significantly improved Emery’s XI. Two, Emery finished seven points better and one place higher in his first season than Wenger did in the previous, so this notion that Wenger did better with the same players is… Read more »
What’s happened at arsenal is the almost sudden realisation that we are not a quality team. The unbeaten run we had last season masked over quite serious inadequacies all over the park. We tended to blame the managers….when the squad itself wasn’t capable of beating top 5 sides…. It hit home at the end of emerys reign that the midfield and defense were short of resilience and. Strength and just basic defending skills. Having said that the foundation for this squad was assembled by Wenger…..a selection of duds:Xhaka, etc and the obvious own goal of not focusing on a proper… Read more »
* AKBs will always be AKBs, they just have to change the name behind the “A”
Southampton 1, Spurs 0.
Mourinho out.
Ings = Legend
OK – Southampton have just taken the lead against the Spuds. Good news (obviously) and bad news – we are now 13th in the live EPL ladder!
Fantastic goal from Ings.
Pierre
Emery deserved to be sacked
Emery deserved to be sacked
Emery deserved to be sacked.
Let that percolate into your agenda-thickened vertex then apply the reasoning required to understand the points being made.
‘This guy knows
Arteta knows best!!!
I’m already swooning.’
The things Pedro’s jail does.
“give it a year or so from now when we are sitting near the top of the league playing quality football, the know nothings will have nowhere to hide.”
Neither will the ‘know-eveythings’ IE you
Southampton are another club that are moving up the table from the bottom …sucking us into the periphery of the relegation zone in the process.
Yet some are drooling at the prospect of a 2-2 draw.
Southampton clearly just showing everyone they have a superior squad to Spurs, pretty sure that’s how its worked out.
Paulinho ‘So, linear improvement is always assumed with philosophy managers, but it’s far from a given if personnel issues are not addressed.’ But would you not agree the way forward for us is a possession style game even though it may take time ? In my view Emery style was not a sustainable style irrespective of quality of players at his disposal. At least with Arteta it looks like we are taking baby steps in the right direction. As for players, even the best of teams need a few additions every summer let alone a struggling team like Arsenal. So… Read more »
Some here will turn their noses up at him, but we should probably look at Ings.
Mourinho’s team concede goals left, right and centre.
Almost made it 16 hours into the New Year before relegation was proclaimed yet again by the resident Mayan.
Arsenal to be relegated, and the club liquidated if we cant get Özil off the books.
‘Not nice. I’ll have to tow the line a bit more in future. Wouldnt have mattered so much in the emery era but I want to be in the mix for Arteta and getting involved in the conversation.’
I’m glad you are back, Un. And what a day to be back!
Charlie
No one here has ever claimed that Team X beating Team Y = Team X has a better squad than Team Y. No one. Ever. Please stop with this bogus straw-man argument.
But as has been said by many others myself included that Southampton game prior to the international break they should have bipped and had someone in mind for the job. They wasted so much time and likely pissed away the season there and then. Mikel in with some easier games and points and more time and we could be much closer to take advantage of Chelsea and others dropping points. Such a shame. Hindsight is a great thing though another example being had we got Klopp in 2015 instead of giving Wenger a new deal we’d likely be top tier… Read more »
Why hasn’t the cunt Delle Alli been booked for simulation.
He has thrown himself to the ground twice in the Southampton penalty box already.
Banford
Yes, you’ve never that argument at all…
Not like you cited Wolves victory over City as some indication that they’re superior to us in squad or anything either. The lines you draw for such an “argument” change relative to what you fancy using that day.
Porridge with a different flavoured nut milk daily.
Danny ings scores again!
Not a flamboyant charismatic striker, but does the business time and time again.
James
Don’t forget the great hair products!
Upamecano is on this month. Leipzig still interested in that PSG CB and are close to signing Henrichs from Monaco he’s a RB which means Klostermann and Mukilele (sp?) could play CB. It’s aligning up nicely for us
TR7 – I prefer that style yes, but I always try and put personal preference aside and be objective. Teams can get drunk on possession, and become quickly muddled if the squad isn’t good enough to be efficient enough at both ends of the pitch. Eventually that core possession game becomes less effective as morale drops and we see poor football regardless of philosophy, and the manager has to compromise and change tact.
Bamford
PL.has always been very competitive, always ! Emery had a poorer record in his first 50 games than Wenger’s last 50 games, the worst 50 games of his Arsenal career. So I don’t know why you always tom tom one league position higher finish under Emery.
Chelsea have lost to United in two fixtures already this season, lost to Southampton immediately before a game against us, beat us in front of our own crowd, and couldn’t beat Brighton right after that.
Arsenal are showing relegation pattern already and people are telling us it’s okay if we can’t win a home game again today, they are saying a draw would be an excellent work.
Here on le grove, not Untold!
Injury prone Ings lol who next??
What’s his goal record like?