Afternoon all.
Southampton threw away a 2-0 lead against Man Utd to lose 3-2 in the early game. Chelsea v Toots at Stamford Bridge is currently goalless and then in just under an hour, it’s the big one of the day as Arsenal take on Wolves at The Emirates. A win with a strong performance is what we need.
Neither side are having a good season. I’ve not seen Wolves play at all since this new campaign kicked off but they have quality players as we do but for some reason, they’re not getting the kind of results they were last season.
Our League performances are little short of a mystery as we have plenty of quality it’s just that certain players aren’t playing well enough. Pepe won’t play of course as he’s banned. Partey is reported to be out, as is Kolasinac but Elneny, Saka and Willian are fit for selection.
And here is the squad for the match.
Enjoy.
Not another outing for the Chelsea Pensioner.
I’d like to see Nelson on early for Willian. If Xhaka can up his speed of thought a bit he could present our forwards with a few scoring opportunities.
Our right hand side looks a bit vulnerable to a counterattack.
Grable
Grab all Rick ? I hope not.
And yes I would give Nelson the start instead of Willian too.
Surprised Elneny isn’t in the team if he’s fully fit. Holding too.
I thought our back five in the league would be settled by now.
Nelson played on Thursday though and will probably play against Rapid. I’d prefer it the other way round.
I wonder which Nelson would prefer, play in the Europa League on Thursday or the Premiership tonight.
I’d give him sixty minutes tonight then rest him on Thursday ready for the NLD on Sunday.
That sounded horrendous…
And the play since has been pretty horrendous. One chance in a half isn’t good enough. Hope Jimenez ok.
Question if Gabriel hadn’t scored would we have been awarded a penalty
Really average stuff from Arsenal again.
Ditto re Jimenez, hope he recovers well.
No Potter, we are Arsenal.
Is this really the best we can play?
I gather work has saved me from 90 minutes of frustration again.
Second half was marginally better and perhaps if we had a striker who was more keen to score, we would have.
We’re miles away from being good though, miles and miles.
Schoolboy football at one point we had 5 players chasing Netto as he crossed the halfway line.
We will be lucky to get another 3 points before new year with the games coming up. I still believe that there are at least 3 teams worse than us but they are all used to scrapping for their lives . We need to turn things around quickly
I can’t fault the effort they put in 2nd half, but the 1st half was an example of not being decisive with your substitutions, David Luiz had to be brought off, that had to be the decision, don’t wait for your medical team to tell you the flipping obvious.
Tierney got skinned by Traore for their first goal and both our centre backs went to the near post as the cross sailed over their heads leaving Bellerin facing two Wolves forwards. Going a goal down was always going to hit our fragile confidence.
Leno didn’t fill me with much confidence either, it’s not just the Martinez saga because I wasn’t totally sold on him before he got injured last season. He doesn’t really command his box, especially when the ball is in the air, he tends to stay on his line.
We played with 10. We have no presence in the area. Auba does not exist in the present. He doesn’t defend, he doesn’t win a ball, he is badly positioned, he doesn’t accelerate, he doesn’t shoot, he doesn’t run, he doesn’t have strength. Laca is slow. Both out of shape and unwilling to play. Also because they don’t feel well physically and without confidence.
In my opinion, and I’ve posted it before, the future is dark. We will fight in the League not to be relegate.
We have a very expensive team, which has no income. This does not mean that good players, or at least reasonable players, do not arrive. The point is that they don’t have productivity and performance as a team. This Arsenal team in the Spanish League went be relegated safely; in the Portuguese League, it was not in the top 6. This is the reality.
In the Europa League, after the games with Molde and Dundalk, come other Clubs, of another level. The previous year, it was Olympiakos where Podence came out to eliminate Arsenal and now score Wolves’ 2nd goal.
In a year and a half there were 3 coaches and the frustrations follow. Maybe it’s the coaches, but looking at Emery who is in Villareal, 3rd currently in the Spanish League, Lyunberg with success in Arsenal, in the youth team and Arteta who can’t win games and with consecutive failures, it seems to me that it starts to be evident where is the virus.
These players are playing under great pressure. I have never seen so many energetic gestures from midfield players complaining to strikers; they are disoriented in the pitch; they don’t finish and they have a lack of confidence evident.
The future is very dark.
Are any better under Arteta than under Emery? Are we any better than under Wenger?
You can’t immediately change an entire squad, but your can change a manager.
I firmly believe Arteta will be given more time, but I also believe that this season is going to be the worst for something like twenty-five years..
Cicero, so many clubs have taken the easy option of changing managers only to find it doesn’t work.
I reckon the NLD will show us exactly who’s to blame for these lethargic and dismal performances.
250k a week?
Pffft!!!!!
New post up now