Morning all.
So now we know, Granit Xhaka is no longer the club captain. No surprise because any player who throws his shirt to the ground along with the captains armband after being substituted, deserves a second chance. Regardless of what went on beforehand, the shirt on his back represents the club. He disrespected the club. Had Xhaka just walked off the pitch and straight down the tunnel, I doubt we’d be talking about him today. Well, with regards to our captaincy situation.
Whether you or I think he deserved to be Arsenal captain in the first place is immaterial really because Unai Emery did, although it’s a decision which has come back to bite him in the backside. It’s not the only one though. Our defending, the Mesut Ozil and Lucas Torreira mystery, his substitutions and initial team selections, the language barrier, the players taking the piss out of him behind his back, our performances and results – they all add up to a poor eighteen month reign as Arsenal’s head coach.
Our newly appointed captain Aubameyang has earned a night off, as has Chambers, Ozil and Luiz. There’ll be more game time for Bellerin and Holding, much needed too I think as both look a little rusty after being out for such a long time. Tierney too although all three would probably prefer to be in contention for the trip to Leicester City on Saturday.
Arsenal made a right old hash of the home fixture against today’s opposition with the only bright moment, or more accurately, moments, being Pepe and his stunning free kicks. One would like to think those two goals gave him a much needed boost. Dropping him for the Wolves game however, may just have left him scratching his head.
Unai Emery needs a victory today with a much improved performance, not just on the one a couple of weeks ago against Vitoria but in general. If the back pages are to be believed and boy do I want to believe them, a defeat today and a disaster at the weekend could see Arsenal and Emery part company. Personally, I don’t think it should make a difference as surely we’ve all seen enough to know his time is over.
The sooner Josh, Raul and Edu agree the better….
Good morning Rico.
Xhakagate will continue to be a stick with which the media can beat Arsenal and our under-fire Head Coach until either or, preferably, both have departed….The sooner the better.
Morning Rico, thanks for the post.
The whole switching of dates and kick off times just shows to me how unimportant this competition is, not least to UEFA. It’s an afterthought, the FA Vase of UEFA, but Arsenal are in serious danger of becoming a regular Europa club, a club that’s standing still whilst others like Leicester and Chelsea are grasping the opportunity that an underperforming Tottenham, a shambolic Man Utd and more worryingly a confused Arsenal are handing them on a plate.
I’ve heard that English football is just too quick for a player like Xhaka, his style just doesn’t fit the tempo of the English game, but I’ve gotta say that when I’ve seen the Bundesliga on TV that that league isn’t a stroll in the park, so why does he seem to me so ineffective in our domestic game?
Why did Wenger always pick him? Why did Emery always pick him? Why did the players pick him as their captain? And why do the majority of fans not rate him and are quite comfortable about the prospect of the club selling him?
Are the professionals so wrong and us amateurs so right?
Morning all.
Kev, a mate reckons Xhaka does all the dirty work no other player in our squad will doz
He loves him.
No League is as fast or physical as the PL though, imo.
He’d kill it in Italy, I reckon.
Scott, I have no idea what your mate sees as I’ve never really seen or appreciated what Xhaka does during the many times I’ve seen him play for us but what I do wonder is how much do we miss him when he’s absent from the side?
Not that much from my experience.
Yes, maybe Italy would suit him, it’s a more tactical, slower paced game in Serie A.
We are suffering from a similar situation that we had in the latter Wenger years .We have a manager that has a plan and is trying to fit players into it. Three choices buy the right players to fit it , develop a new plan to utilise the ones he has or change manager .
Morning Kev, all.
Apparently the switch is for security reasons. I see Sky sports didn’t waste time in moving our usual Sunday fixture to Saturday either. I guess they can’t wait to see Leicester battering us.,.
Morning Cicero. I’m with you, both need to go as neither provide anything positive to talk about.
Kev, I don’t agree with him, just passing on his opinion 🙂
Potter, I’ve said all along a top manager gets the best out of the players he has and Emery doesn’t even try to do that.
This “playing out from the back” crap proves it.
He has the style he wants to play and that’s it.
Ridiculous.
If Emery has a plan, I can’t see it. Lol
Who decides which players we sign though, Emery or Raul and co?
Potter, the secret to being a top manager to me, or one of them, is understanding your players, their strengths and their weaknesses and fitting them into a system that suits what you have at that time, or until you can reinforce your squad with players that can suit your ideal playing style.
So, for example, you don’t have Petr Cech playing out from the back or Lucas Torrieira as an attacking midfielder, or Emmanuel Eboue as a left back, or Mikel Sylvestre as a centre back, etc.
It’s about developing a system around the qualities of the players you have rather than imposing a system on your players, especially if they’re clearly unsuited to play that way…
Rico, I reckon that player acquisitions is a collective thing, Emery, Raul, Mislintat, Gazidis and the new guys would all have an input I’d imagine…
Then again, how much influence did Wenger have on Mavropanos?
Who was behind Guendouzi being signed or Martinelli?
And who has the final say on who gets sold?
I wonder if Emery had the final say on Mkhitarayan going on loan or Iwobi being sold?
The only dirty work I reckon Xhaka does is loading the dishwasher at home… 😆
Kev, wasn’t there a rumour about Emery not getting the players he wanted?
I wonder if Bellerin was on a bet during his little chat with the media.. After all, he did start off with ‘good evening’ without the ‘b’ I hasten to add. lol
Yeah, I think that was basically Nzonzi wasn’t it Rico?
He wanted a big unit and we got Torrieira, but Nzonzi was 29 and expensive = short term.
Whilst Torrieira was small, tenacious and 23 with a big sell on value.
Emery was thinking short term = understandable.
Raul was thinking long term = understandable.
I think that Raul was right…
I can’t think of anyone else Emery wanted, who we couldn’t or wouldn’t sign for him?
Kev at 10:34. Very good question. Are the professionals so wrong and us amateurs so right? I think what makes a professional is time invested, educating yourself, studying and observations. When you consider that some of us have watched the game for many years, some on here as much as 50 years, you cant help but LEARN. Many have watched, studied and observed longer than some of these so called professionals have been alive. So to answer your question YES; which is the reason the professionals get fire. I can confidently say I know more than Josh Kroenke.
From last season many of us have said Emery’s set-up is wrong, we can generally identify the good players, we know good game management when we see it, and have general idea on what works given the players’ abilities.
I know that Emery seems wedded to the back four this season, but I’d really like to see him go with a back three this afternoon – Chambers, Holding and Mustafi, with Bellerin and Tierney as wing backs. Tierney needs minutes in his legs but doesn’t have to play the full 90.
Holding and Bellerin need minutes as well, and the full 90 would be good for them.
Two in midfield, Torrieira holding and Maitland Niles playing his jazz football.
AMN can drop and double up with Bellerin.
Up front Pepe, Martinelli and Nelson, Nelson can drop off and double up with Tierney as they have a good understanding already. Leaving Martinelli and Pepe to stretch Vitoria who’re going to need to go for the win today and should therefore leave themselves vulnerable.
In goal I’d go with Martinez, but I’m sure that Leno will start.
Obi, last season I gave Emery a lot of latitude (I’m sure he was grateful 😉) and despite some really odd tactics and odd performances I thought that he knew best, and he probably still does he just seems to be going about it in a very strange way, confusing everyone and especially his players.
Even after our disastrous end to 2018/19 I thought let’s see what he does after a whole preseason, a summer transfer window and the chance for him to really put his stamp on the team, and it’s been awful, after a great preseason and an even better summer transfer window he has royally messed up, we are no better than 12 months ago I can see no tangible evidence that it’s going to improve anytime between now and next May.
I think he’s out of ideas and out of time and if he was really honest with himself he probably realises that as well.
Lose at Leicester and I think, even this early stage in the season, that our top four chances are very very slim and Slim just left town, so for me if he loses at Leicester, then Raul must act he might as well go, because our season is done.
The FACup is irrelevant and as for the Europa, forget it, we are t winning that!
And what if we did win the Europa?
How many of us would still want to see him given a new contract if that was to occur???
Hi Rico, Kev and everybody,
I don’t really care about the Xhaka thing anymore. I don’t think he offered much to the team ever, so I don’t think we will miss him at all.
He’s probably laughing, one hundred thousand pounds a week to do a little bit of training. People actually pay to do that to keep fit !
Kev , I wanted to give Emery time to sort the team out too. I was actually really optimistic at the start of the season, after what I thought was a good transfer window by Arsenal standards. But he just looks clueless to me. Sometimes I think he is watching a different game.
I watch our full backs , struggling on their own to stem the runners charging at them, and he does nothing about it. In fact he actually took Torreira off in the last game when we were on the back foot.
Maybe he should sit up in the stands or watch a tv screen because he can’t be watching the whole picture.
We can’t be sentimental about getting rid of people that are not doing their job to a required standard at Arsenal. They are paid very very well to do it, and if they’re not up to standard ,then they have to go.
Martínez Mustafi Sokratis Holding Tierney Ceballos Maitland-Niles Willock Pépé Martinelli Saka
Leno Bellerín Lacazette Torreira Nelson Guendouzi Kolasinac
A splendid starting eleven, One of Emery’s best selections. No mid-field defence whatsoever. This should be the last eleven he ever picks for Arsenal.
Playing a back 3.
I expect a tight game with us edging it 7-0.
https://twitter.com/Arsenal/status/1192087365382066176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1192087365382066176&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Farsenalarsenal.net%2F2019%2F11%2F06%2Farsenal-v-vitoria-pre-match-2%2F
Totally right Obi…………………………there`s people on here who have been watching Association Football since it was invented !…………………Potter, Cicero were at The Royal Oak when Dial Square was formed !
So Yes, we on HH have 100`s of years of experience watching football, we aint fcuking stupid !
We know our stuff !………………………Emery is a fcuking whipper snapper compared to the deep fondant of knowledge on HH……………………….I on the other hand is fcuking stupid ! hahahahha
Both would have been ideal Kev with Xhaka on his bike.
Hi Mike, I think Emery has finally found Xhaka’s best position…
Mustafi has reverted to his old self. Booked.
Thank goodness Martinez is in good form.
Shocking stuff
Mind you. It is raining.
Listening to Arsenal Player again and tbh I don’t know why I bother, this football lark just messes with your head…
Hi Mike, yes mate, the Xhaka saga is just boring, if he was a really top top player then we’d all be raging, but frankly I don’t care enough, so whether he stays or goes is all very tedious.
Kev , if you thought Arsenal player was bad , you should have watched it. Christ !
From that showing Rob Holding , Saka and Pepe are not going to be our saviors .
Afternoon off today bloody ruined. Should have stayed on the roof in the pissing rain and achieved something.
Mike. I agree. That really was a horrendous display and if the board don’t act then we might as well give up until this bloke has gone. They looked to me as if they were genuinely pissed off to be playing in the competition. Especially in the rain. I found it soul-destroying really.
That was awful.
Watching that was like watching paint dry.
Is this really my Arsenal?
I wonder why we waste our time online…
Rico. How far will the board let it go. It’s dire already isn’t it?
It’s cathartic, otherwise we would all be taking Valium .
Lord knows Adam. I’d have thought they’d already seen enough..
Valium seems a better option Potter. Lol
Did not see the game, but from reading comments it sounds like we are slightly improving with each game !
Hey VCC, it sounds like your Saracens team are a bunch of cheats ! 😆
Rumours are Arsene Wenger is favourite to take Bayern job until end of season.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-7657365/Martin-Keown-suggests-Arsenal-boss-Unai-Emery-complicating-tactics.html
Another quality 90 minutes of football brought to you by Unai.
Adam, the only people with any fight about them were Martinelli and Tierney. As you say ‘soul-destroying.
I guess all we can hope is that Raul & Co are just giving Unai enough rope to hang himself with and that following the Leicester game, if it goes how most of us expect it to, that the club will use the International break to finally pull the plug?
Of course if they don’t then I think that there’s every prospect of the fan base switching off as they did two years ago during Wenger’s slow decline.
Bayern until the end of the season for Arsene, a bit like Gus Hiddink and those types of ‘used to be great but are now only good for caretaker’ type managers. I hope he enjoys himself.
Saliba has suffered an injury and is out for a long time with a broken foot according to reports….
I’ve just watched recording of the game and I’m sorry I bothered! That was pathetic! From back to front this Arsenal team were diabolical.
How much have we wasted on Pepe and Tierney. One can’t score a goal from open play and the other has no idea how to defend his positional sense is non-existent.
They have no concept of game management, after scoring, with our only shot on target, we did not try to control possession, don’t they know what the corner flag is for? Get the ball in the corner and keep it there, run down the clock and frustrate the opposition so that they give fouls away.
Wenger used to say sometimes Arsenal play with the handbrake on, to continue the allegory, this mob play not only with the handbrake on but in reverse too. Static football dreadful passing and no penetration.
God help us against Leicester if this evening’s tripe is replicated the nine they scored against Southampton could be beaten.
Arround 2.000 Arsenal fans today. Maybe more. Awful exhibition. No clean sheet again.
Everyone has the idea that the coach is on time. I sensed that no one liked the team’s showing. Nor is it difficult even because they have the possibility to compare with the recent past.
Incredible that Arsenal fans are genuinely scared of playing Leicester.
That’s a first in my lifetime and tells us all we need to know!!
Morning Rico and all. As the team staggers from one bad result to the next it seems incomprehensible that the board are remaining inactive. When the men with the power to end this madness talk amongst themselves I wonder what positives they come up with
Where is the shining beacon of improvement or even the merest shred of light that signifies that it’s all going to be ok? I see none. Does anybody else?
If we are not now on the cusp of Emery’s end then we have the wrong people at the helm. To continue the nautical analogy, we are holed beneath the water line and the engines have given up too.
Last night was indescribably bad and I don’t see or eat even the lamest defence (excuse the pun) for him, whatsoever.
A broken metatarsal according to Claude Puell the St. Etienne manager. Saliba has been playing very well. Let’s hope he makes a full recovery, we need a decent centre back or three.
Morning Adam, all.
My thoughts are in the new post which I just put up.