Morning all.
After a few months of swanning around, managing the Per Mertesacker farewell game, some beach ball perhaps and a few Daniel Craig impersonations in a Mediterranean Sea somewhere, he’s coming back. No, not to Arsenal of course but to management within the game. January 1st will be the date Arsene Wenger takes up his new managerial post according to reports and I wish him nothing but the best. Right in time for the transfer window too so wherever he goes, I wonder if he’ll spend big. Bayern Munich might be his next destination or if Paul Merson had his way, Man Utd.
Anyway, as said, I hope he succeeds at whichever club he ends up at. He might have taken Arsenal to the depths of despair as his final years passed by slowly and painfully, but that’s history.
Back to the future…
Things are looking good as far as injuries go. Danny Welbeck, Mesut Ozil and Ainsley Maitland-Niles are all back in full training. Sokratis Papastathopoulos suffered right ankle bruising whilst on international duty which is better news than I’d expected. He’ll be assessed ahead of Monday nights fixture as will Petr Cech. Even if the latter is fit enough, I really hope Unai Emery sticks with Bernd Leno.
Dinos Mavropanos and Laurent Koscielny are on course to return to full training next month which isn’t that far away.
Koscielny has been training though and he wasn’t holding anything back either so an earlier than suggested return wouldn’t come as a surprise. Also joining the first team players for that workout was Tobi Omole, Nathan Tormey, Dominic Thompson, Julio Pleguezuelo, Zech Medley and Charlie Gilmour. Freddie Ljungberg joined in too.
Other than the team news, Unai Emery faced the media and more questions surrounding the future of Aaron Ramsey. Again there was more swerve in his answer than there is on a hairpin bend. You’d think by now the media would take the hint, it’s none of their business. They’re getting nothing out of the Spaniard.
So, what else did Emery have to say?
“I think we need to improve a lot. “I think we have to continue doing a lot of things to get better. Our demands need to be very high.
The supporters can enjoy it with us but also we’re speaking with our reality every day.“If we are remembering the last match at the Emirates [against Watford], we won but not playing like we want, with the control against the opposition.
“The first two matches we lost, against Manchester City and Chelsea. But after six matches winning in the Premier League, our target hasn’t changed. [We need] this calm because we [beat] a lot of opposition teams with very [poor] performances.
”We need to stay with the best teams in the Premier League. To stay with them, we need to do better and get better at different things.
He’s bang on the money in my opinion. We really have to improve. We’ve been getting the rub of the green somewhat. Opponents are being gifted goal scoring opportunities but luckily for us, they’ve not taken them. Every single match we’ve won in the league we could so easily have lost. That might sound negative but it’s not meant to be, it’s realism. Our defending remains our huge weak link. I reckon Unai Emery knows that too and that’s what he’s referring to when saying we have to play better.
That’s the first time I’ve heard him be so honest about his team. No hiding, no blame game, just saying it as it is. We have a defence and we have a midfield but so far, they’re simply not working together as a unit. Fix that and we’ll stay in the chase for the league title although I’m not suggesting for one minute that we likely to win it. As it is, I think both Liverpool, Man City and Chelsea are too strong but top four is certainly a realistic target.
I like the ‘our demands are very high’ comment. That to me equates to him not accepting mediocrely, he’s working hard to get this club/team back to challenging for trophies and he expects the same from his players. In the main, I’d say that’s exactly what they’re doing to, at least the majority appear to be. Our performances aren’t in need of improvement through lack of effort in my opinion, it’s down to having to learn all over again and that takes time. This group of players were all over the place when he took over and only practice, practice and then practice some more will change that. But there’s only so much Emery can do on the training pitch in a comfortable environment, it’s on a match day when all that’s been done during the week gets played out for real. That’s when any errors are identified and then it’s back to the training pitch.
It takes character though to come through a match with a victory when not playing well. It takes strength and determination to hang on in there until the end, to wait for that one chance to score and take it. Or in our case, take a few of them which we did in our last match. And finally, when the going has got tough, the Arsenal tough have got going. Not heads down, shoulders down, or defeat written all over their faces. No, this team has an edge to it. At last. How Emery and his team have turned around the players in that respect and in such a short space of time is something to be admired.
As does acknowledging the fact we’ve not playing that well because that means he’s not burying his head in the sand, or hoping the players work it out for themselves. No, he and his coaching team will be doing everything possible to ensure the team continues to improve more than it has already.
Individually, many are so much better than last season and eventually, as a team they’ll click. Maybe by the time this season draws to an end, maybe we’ll have to wait a little longer.
It’ll happen though, of that I’m convinced…
Good morning Rico, another fine post, thank you.
Good luck to Wenger, wherever he goes, Real Madrid are probably going to sack their manager before C*******s, and if he went there it would show whether or not Wenger’s pockets are too long for his short arms.
Very wise words from Unai, keep the players on their toes, there’s no room, or excuse, for complacency.
A beautiful morning here in Norfolk, the tide is low this morning so a beach walk from Wells to Holkham and back is on the agenda.
Back later.
Morning Cicero, thank you.
Yep, I think Wenger’s next job will tell us a lot. He’s in demand apparently.
Agree on emery, and there’s a lot of room for improvement but imo, he needs different players to get there.
Morning all.
Wenger? Another job? Well I wouldn’t go there, not now. He’s had his day and I feel that his best coaching and feeding regimes are long behind him. Frankly, apart from perhaps taking a part time advisory role he has little to offer the new crop of wished up managers/coaches. They have take many of his highly original ideas and practises and polished them beyond even his understanding. Part of his last five/ten years at Arsenal was that he couldn’t adapt and wouldn’t change his ways, or modernise his practices.
Imo, he should simply enjoy his well earned retirement and only turn out to do a bit of commentating or write the odd byline for any journal that will pay him! As for ‘loads of offers’ I suspect there haven’t been many or any since his farewell ar Arsenal. However, we shall see on Jan 1st 2019, won’t we?
In my defence I hope, if he’s really desperate to carry on in football that he finds a comfortable niche that will permit him to enjoy the autumn of his days in football. The prospect of his anxious staring impotently at a game from the sidelines or his inability to pull his zip up should be visions of the past never to be seen again. I believe he’s entitled to a long and pleasurable retirement living off the spoils of his squirrelled away millions! And why not enjoy the freedom his illustrious career has earned him.
Weather here is blue skies and sunshine, cold but warming up. Shopping or the allotment?? Watch this space…..or not😊😆
Allotment Wavy..
I’m surprised he wants another post, still, that’s him i guess.
Wenger would be perfect to help build up a smaller club, imo, but he ha anything to gain by going to a massive club.
Depths of despair-it’s a fair call, but it does show exactly how high Wenger himself set our expectations.
Emery is doing and saying a hell of a lot more right than wrong.
So far, so very good, I reckon.
Morning all.
Rico, I’m digging for Brexit! Just in case we crash out and no longer can afford to import goods! We’re calling it our backstop😄
And Wenger should do the same, grow his grapes in the beautiful Alsatian countryside.
Good post Rico.
Emery is keeping up the pressure on his players, beating Fulham 5-1 doesn’t make a successful season, it’s piling one good result on top of another and another and etc.
Getting good results isn’t down to luck, not 6 times on the trot it isn’t, 9 in total, it’s down to hard work and an improved fitness.
Performance will come, I’ve seen improvements since experiencing a hairy 90 minutes at Cardiff, but changes to the team line up and tactical improvements will take time as we have a few years of stagnation to overcome both in the transfer market and training ground.
As for Wenger, well there’s Arsenal fans and there’s Arsene fans, personally I’ve never been into the cult of personality (?) but if pseudo Arsenal supporters want to follow our ex managers team and get a buzz out of any success he has then fair enough – see ya later…
It’s great to see Laurent back and chasing around the training ground, the improvement in results from our medical team is marked and again shows how stagnant the club had become under the previous regime.
Leicester will be tricky, Vardy will want to show us, again, what we missed out on when he decided against moving to the Emirates, he always scores against us so I don’t expect a clean sheet.
Scott, Kevin Muscat was actually a reasonable player I thought, but he had/has serious psychological issues, in fact he should probably be in a secure institution for the criminally insane.
Ha ha Wavy. Best you dig fast and deep.
Haven’t our expectations always been that high though Scott? Not just under Wenger.
Thanks Kev.
I too think Leicester won’t be easy but Vardy has dropped off somewhat hast he? cant see Puel outsmarting Emery, nor Leicester having enough to beat us. We don’t give up easily like we used to..
Good Morning to The Lady of the House and all fellow Gooners in residence.
Arsene sacrificed much of his personal life for our club. We can debate the accomplishments or lack thereof in his later years, but we owe him many thanks and some respect respect. Besides the trophies, he gave us a brand new stadium, new state of the art training facilities and a fine stable of talented Young Guns only now starting to graduate into the first team. Their future and the club’s looks bright. I, for one, wish him well wherever he chooses to go.
The current first team is showing slow, but steady improvement. With each new match they appear to be playing with more confidence and a more fluid style. It seems Unai is beginning to get the best out of the current squad.
As for the rest of the season, where we stand at New Years and who, if anyone, we buy in the January transfer window will give us a better idea where we will finish this season. If we can snatch points from the likes of Abu Dhabi Citeh, Chelsea, Liverpool, ManUre and the Tiny Totts we have a chance of making it back into the top four and the Champions League.
I think we can.
The thing is Rico, Emery seems to treat every game as seriously as the last, his attitude to me is reflected in his team selections, so for him the Leicester game is probably the most important of the season so far and so on. No easing up for a Europa tie or a League Cup game and I like that attitude even if it’s taken awhile to get used to after 22 years of doing things the same way.
Has Vardy dropped off? Is that right Rico?
I thought he was still scoring for Leicester although I haven’t checked – I’d imagine that he’s their leading goalscorer again?
Rico, I am not sure we took for granted a top 4 finish pre Wenger-he brought that, and more I reckon.
Kev, if I could choose ANY footballer in history to score from the spot to save my life, I’d choose Muscat.
He was just incredible and did it time and again without showing a hint of nerves.
That’s the only positive thing I can say about the man.
He’s a cretin, even as a manager 🙂
We cant afford to loose Aaron Ramsey like what happened to Santi Carzola Emery should keep him.
Was top four relevant pre Wenger though Scott?
Why though Nyasha? Financial reasons or football?
Rico,
There cannot be any question the club is better for having had Wenger as manager.
Finishing at or near the top of the table is always relevant, surely.
That’s a tough one Scott but I guess overall, yes. Just a shame he undid all the good in the end.
I’m not sure he undid it all, but he certainly did himself no favours.
He admits he stayed too long but then, we all agree he should’ve copped a tap on the shoulder a few seasons earlier.
Still, better late than never 🙂
New post up now. Being early was not deliberate, again… 😜