Morning all.
Like I said to you, we’ve won and lost with him. Today the players who were here are the players who deserved to be in this match.
That’s from Unai Emery in case you didn’t realise. He’d been asked again about why Mesut Ozil wasn’t selected for the West Ham fixture. I don’t know if it’s his interpretation of the English language or not, but I’m not every player will have been too happy hear him say that. Perhaps a better way of putting it would have been to simply say he selected the squad for tactical reasons rather than suggest that those who didn’t make it into the squad didn’t deserve to be.
Love or loathe Mesut Ozil, when he’s in the mood, he can cause all sorts of problems for the opposition. Players like Aubameyang, Lacazette and even Nketiah will only benefit from his passing skills. Without him in the team, we have very little creativity. Sokratis has been quoted as saying as much too. Our final ball is poor, no wonder Twitter was awash with comments suggesting we should have brought Nasri back, or Fàbregas when both were going for next to nothing.
I think our passing is poor in general and not just in and around the box. Backwards I get when there’s limited options ahead but the side to side stuff is tedious. Other clubs do it too I know but that’s usually just before they go on the attack with purpose, not just before the ball goes back to Leno for a hoof up the pitch just prior to being closed down. Then we get Iwobi on the ball, head down and off he goes. Where to? No idea and neither has he half the time it appears. He looks for Kolasinac most of the time and often looks lost when he’s not there. We’re losing the ball far too often through misplaced passes.
Movement in the opposition half. It’s non existent much of the time which makes the opponents job very easy. As does the lack of pace, width and inability to stay onside. The linesman must have easily broken into double figures on Saturday with the amount of times he had to raise his flag. Or it certainly felt like it was that many. This is schoolboy stuff. The offside rule isn’t rocket science is it? Kolasinac, Lacazette and Aubameyang were all offside during one of our few ventures into the West Ham penalty area. Another offside call denied us a late equaliser. It really is sloppy. Or deliberate.
Little things which which can be resolved in training surely?
Unai Emery also said in his post match press conference that he didn’t think we deserved to lose at the Olympic Stadium and we didn’t give away too many opportunities for West Ham to score. Funny enough, both teams had eleven shots, we had two on target, West Ham had three so not much between us but from what I can remember, West Ham had the better ones. Rice had a clear header which he really should have hit the target with, another from ????? went centimetres wide of the post and I’m sure there were others. Guendouzi and Aubameyang came closest for us I think but otherwise, Fabianski had a far more comfortable time than he ever did in goal for us. As for not deserving to lose, well I disagree.
Where Arsenal go from here I haven’t a clue really. Our best two performances so far have come at The Emirates against Liverpool and then Totts so we can turn it on every now and again. Chelsea travel to North London this coming weekend so it’ll be interesting to see if we can replicate one of those ‘now and again’ performances.
It’s got to get better soon surely….
Unai Emery wants Mesut Ozil to exit Arsenal in order to free up transfer funds for January reinforcements
Daily Mail headline.
If it’s true and the quotes from Sokratis are accurate , we have trouble at mill with the players not buying into Emery.
Worrying times !
And now they want to take my woodburner away.
Mine too Potter, how cruel eh. Love our wood burner…
The plot thickens re Emery I think. Not sure how much truth is in the Mail though…
They can’t tax wood burners, that’s why they’re clamping down. 💰
Pogba vs Mourinho poisoned the whole of ManU team. Our team had no wish or will collectively againt West Ham. Did Ozil omission affect the players? No smoke no fire 🙂
Bnsb, begs the question, have the players already lost faith in Emery? If so, he’s not going to last long.
Was Emery a Gazidis appointment? If so, maybe Raul has his own ideas about who the club need…
Pedro posted this on LG.
Finally, I thought this comment from Valentin was interesting. He’s a French Arsenal fan who followed Emery at PSG.
‘There will be a massive difference between what will be said before he start working, and what the fan will see in reality. Brilliant at explaining how he wants in team to play in interview, mediocre tactician in reality. Breath of fresh air with his early substitutions, clueless initial setup and then change for the sake of change without actual long term strategy. Excellent management and will alienate most of the players. Strong leader not afraid of confrontation, petty control freak ready to isolate his best players. Europa League winner, Europa League manager not Champion’s league manager. Will make good use of the youth team, will misuse the youth team and not properly bed them in lesser competition. Have a small group of trusted players, Will not rotate a small number of players until they physically broke down.’
This might explain his short-term contract. I must say that, watching him recently it does appear as if the ‘fire’ in him has diminished somewhat. At about the same rate as the team’s in fact.
He looks a lonely man on the touch line, even his waving arms have left him…
Adam, a friend of mine suggested this is the best time to move him on. I wasn’t sure but perhaps he was right. Apart from a few pounds, we’ve little to lose really.
Whether Emery like him or not, Ozil is for now our most intelligent and most creative player .He cannot convince anybody that Guendozi or Miles are better than Ozil. And why the hell didn’t he gave Ramsey a new contract? Thank God he only signed a three years contract with Arsenal. Even that is already becoming too long.
The entire outlook is not great at the minute.
Forget Ozil for a minute-why did Torreira start on the bench and why has his form dropped so dramataically of late?
Is he burned out already?
He’s definitely had the crap kicked out of him and done the work of any two players but considering he had a slow start to the season, it’s a concern.
We are a mess, it seems
Chairman, it’s a two year, the third is an option only…
Rico, did that comment from Valentin lose something in translation?
“Brilliant at explaining how he wants in team to play in interview, mediocre tactician in reality”. “Excellent management and will alienate most of the players”.
“Will make good use of the youth team, will misuse the youth team and not properly bed them in lesser competition”.
I don’t think that I’ve ever read such a load of garbled rubbish, even on the web.
Cicero,
If that’s his second language, I wont Criticise as it’s certainly a lot better than anything I could say in French lol
CG, Maitland-Niles is playing mostly as a fullback, Guendouzi as a defensive midfielder. Neither is competing with, or replacing, Ozil. If we are going to play with two strikers then we need the craft and guile of Ozil behind them, not the waywardness of Iwobi.
I don’t know Scott, you do alright considering English is a second language to you. 😀
Ya cheeky bastard bahahahahah
Well played 🙂
Morning All
It is far too early to start saying Emery out. Remember Ozil was in the team last year and we tanked away in the league, so I don’t see why suddenly he is now going to be a savior. I understand that logic of having him in the lineup though. BTW – Sokratis didn’t say anything about Ozil. He only said, ‘Look at how many chances we would have had if we had done better with the last pass. Look at how many chances we had to make the last pass. That is the problem.’
For me, that sounds more like a problem with execution rather than creativity.
Begeegs, when you have the man who can find a pass better than anyone else on the planet in the stands, and not even on the bench, the point is clear, I reckon.
I wondered too Cicero. Perhaps it’s questions, with answers right after..
When you a world class talent like Ozil you build ateam around his strengths. May be I am too early to slag Emery, but you don’t bench that talent for ” tactical reasons”. Emery can’t expect Ozil to fit into his tunnel vision. In the worst case larger forces are at work and Emery is just a scape goat. Only matter of time before we see Emery out banners.
Begeegs- Emery has a decision to make. Sell him or play him and cater for his failings in the defensive side of his game.
Afternoon Gooners and thanks Rico.
Bloody hell !!!………….Dick being castrated already !………………..love it !………….hahaha
Lets be honest here, most of you have played in teams and you knew without a doubt who your best player was, was they ever constantly ignored by the manager ?…………………………why any different in professional football, all the Arsenal team know Ozil is the dogs doodahs and are all probably perplexed by the managers tactics of not playing their best player and it doesn`t matter what any of us think about…………..”he doesn`t put himself about enough etc`”………………..the players will want Ozil in the team of that I`ve no doubt !
As I said yesterday, Dick only won the EL x 3 on trot……not the CL…………….and Wenger won the FA Cup 3 in 4 years !
Afternoon Gooners
Afternoon Rico, so #Emeryout is trending on Twitter, I wonder if that’s being driven by the Ozil fan club, how does it go ‘ya Gunners ya, or some dross like that, pass the sick bag. It’s probably one of his assistants working the Twitter feed for him anyway.
Sick of all these overpaid big time Charlie’s who promise much and deliver sod all.
So glad I don’t go on Twitter…
Afternoon Kev.
Seems the idea of giving Emery time and being patient has gone out the window. I thought we’d be better than we were under Wenger at least but I’m not sure we are. In fact we look worse.
Interesting to note that when Unai Emery got the Arsenal job, I didn’t hear one single dissenter from within the ranks of the Media or within the game, nobody sticking their neck out and saying that Arsenal had made a huge error, no instead we got a string of opinions suggesting what a good Coach he is and what a wise choice Arsenal had made…
Now our view is being driving by a load of numbnuts on Twitter and bloody Le Grove, it’s all opinion and the same people saying #Emeryout now, will be blowing smoke up his arse if we win the Europa League, well all except LC. 😐
Where was this Valentine geezer in August btw?
Cant see sack happening and expect Dick to carry, but, my impatient Gooners, who would replace him ?……………………………..any top manager now knows there`s no money in the kitty !………………………………should have got Arteta, he was begging for the job and we`d be playing like Peps team now ! hahahahahaha
If he wins the FA Cup, Kev, he will get an LCM medal from me……………………..infact he`ll get one if gets us past Manshafter in the next round !
🙂
The wheels have definitely come off recently Rico, but we should be used to that, it happened every year under Wenger during the Emirates years.
The quality of player, both in terms of technical and mental, that make up most of our squad isn’t down to Emery, but I’m a bit concerned at how quickly it’s slipped after a good run, but nothing should surprise us with so many weak minded players in our squad.
I used to think it was hilarious every time Wenger came out with the same schitck about the teams mental strength. 😄
Or some other old bollocks about it being the best squad he’s ever had at Arsenal.
Well we’re stuck for a long time with a lot of average to good players, with questionable attitudes on massive wages for a few years yet, with no possible income from sales to help the current situation.
No wonder the big names we were linked with steered clear of the job…
It’s a big mess and it’s been bequeathed to us by Gazides and Wenger…
Where`s Lee and Herb ?…………………………….love to know their views !
A refreshing blast from the past there Kev !……………………………………..I`d forgotten how much I miss …………………….”Mental Strength” !
😆
LC, maybe Emery will win both cups then it’ll be trending #Emeryknows on Twitter.
It’s a fcuking joke mate…
I dont do twitter, Kev……………………………………….I do facebook and I`m constantly updated by …………………The Pie, Mash and Liqour Appreciation Society !……………………………….even as far away in Cornwall I can almost sniff and smell the Photos that are put up on it ! ……………………….a thing of beauty ! 🙂
Interesting take and despite the language worth a listen.
Kev, ditto. I had great hopes after the Chelsea game and even it that one we created some really good chances from great moves but all that seems to have vanished. I don’t get it, unless the players really are cheesed off with him..
Unai was a underwhelming appointment, no one went over the moon either.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN032N86d5I&feature=player_embedded
have another go.
Rico, a little digression. The ManU team was llosing it. Mourinho didn’t seem to have a clue. They shipped in goals, even worse than arsenal. The defenders were blamed and ManU were on the hunt for new “world class” defenders. In came the new manager and the team is born again. They have closed the eleven point gap between us and are conceding far less. Again, the toxicity created by Mourinho in his spat with players has disappeared
Back to arsenal and Emery. We hailed him and at every point in time, we are saying that he needs time. I have stuck out my neck countless time for him. But the revolution at ManU is worth noting and Emery needs to sit up. Like you m3ntioned, Ozil on a good day is unmatchable. We know about his laziness, not pressing, too lightweight and his aversion for defensive duties. But even in the dying days of the Wenger years, we played much better. Our grouse then was that we had terrific midfielders but very strikers. Now with Aubamayang and Lacazette, we are struggling to show presence upfront.
. Emery’s spat with Ozil can be better managed. We all know Emery’s problems with big players – Neymar, Rabiot etc. Ozil is unsellable on account of his wages and if this spat continues, he will cooly sit dowm at home and be collecting his money, after all he is about thirty years and will be with us a further 3 years!
Emery must come down from his high horse as the alternatives he has are not working, at least for the team. His team presently is playing the worst football I have seen from an arsenal side for almost twenty-something years – non existent movement, no central penetration, no creativity, poor vision, no width, no surprise element in our play as it is still the same sideways and backwards approach making them too predictable, too slow and lacking imagination.
On a final mote, Emery has shown that he cannot improve our defence like Solskjar (ManU) and he is gradually introducing toxicity in the team. Today, it is Ozil, but Lacazette may not be too far off.
Daniel Egwu, well said.
But did not Ozil do the same last year?
The point is that we are seeing Ozil from 4-6 years ago when playing and all arround him, playing too, ,like a playmaker. Now, he is a finished player, with no rhythm for the 1st Liga, without any willingness to play (in Arsenal or in German National Team German) and to create a bad atmosphere in the team.
It is no model for anyone and does not embody the spirit of Arsenal.
Already seen it on You Tube but it was worth watching again Potter.
I
Trying to make parallels with United is ridiculous. It was widely acknowledged that their squad was actually very good. For a number of reasons that squad stopped playing for the manager. Solksjaer hasn’t worked a miracle he has simply replaced Mourinho and by doing so has convinced the team that their best option is to play for the good of the club.
Emery is in an entirely different situation, he inherited a poor squad, aging ‘keeper, injury ravaged defenders and a weak midfield. Added to which was Wenger’s laissez faire attitude to training and tactics.
Five players have been brought in, Leno, Lichtsteiner, Sokratis, Guendouzi and Torreira, four of which have been quite successful, but long term injuries to Welbeck and particularly Holding have greatly damaged the squad. It can not be a good thing that Ramsey is still lurking in the background, while for whatever reason Ozil seems to have fallen from grace
Our defence has been collectively poor for several seasons and short of proper coaching. Now due to the injuries it is impossible to play a coherent system nor develop the kind of understanding which proved so important and effective as George Graham’s famous four.
The players in general have had to learn Emery’s preferred system but this has proved difficult due to the previously mentioned injuries, indeed we have seen games start with a back four and switch to a back three and other games start with a the back three and change to a four. Not the sort of thing conducive to a stable defence.
The present hysteria among the fans is entirely unhelpful both to the manager and the players….Just keep calm and carry on!
U23`s Vs Mansour City tonight in PL2………………………….no pressure games when only development is important and to see the future generation play with freedom and entertain unlike the seniors who consistantly deliver a pile of poop…………….whats not to like. 🙂
Good comment Cicero , I`m past caring atm, I quite like this new Arsenal where I dont get stressed wondering whether we will win !………………I dont have to wonder no more as I know we will be shite !
All them years of thinking how stressed the Spuds were by being shite and they wasn`t !, they were relaxed knowing they were shite !………………………plus it`s more humourous knowing we will be shite, it`s great to be able to laugh at ones self !…………………………the shitter we get the more funny it is !
😆
Good points Cicero, there’s question marks as there always is over a new manager, but until the club back him financially and help build his own team it’s a bit hasty to be calling for his head. Let’s see where we are in May and then next August 31st.
Maybe there’s factions in the dressing room, those for Emery and the mates of Ozil..?
It’s gonna be awhile yet before it’s sorted…
Tonights U23 team
Ilive, Tutu, Sheaf, Mavropanis, Pleggy,
Gilmour, Willock, Burton, Amaechi, Eddy, Saka
https://twitter.com/ArsenalAcademy/status/1084876918724485121
DE. I really don’t understand why Lacazette is so often the first subbed when he’s our most prolific striker and a worker. He certainly doesn’t look happy at times but then neither did Henry…
I feel like I go round in circles in my with Emery…
Morning all.
Three issues are standing out atm, imo, that are putting question marks over Emery, and naturally, they really only come to the fore due to the recent results as if we’d continued winning, very little would be said.
Firstly, the Ramsey situation which is farcical to say the least, and while definitely not just down to Emery, he’s still allowed it to happen and it stinks, imo.
Secondly, Ozil, who is easily our most creative player when at his best, on a ridiculous salary and sitting in the stands.
Again, not all on Emery, but he’s playing his part.
Third, the lack of any improvement at all in our defence.
I’d say 99% of fans suggested Wenger either didn’t do defence, or didn’t know how to and really, I think we all believed it was no hard job to at least see us improve but we haven’t.
These issues have us all thinking about whether or not Emery is the right man for the job and again I say while he’s not brought these situations on himself, he’s played no small part in them.
Saka scores 4mins
Sorry how rude of me .Evening Rico and the House.
2-0 Burton Pen
Evening Rick.
One of the reasons I wanted Simeone, Scott, …………………the defense ! ………………….or lack of it !
I think this article puts pay to the we can’t buy players because of the ffp rules argument.
https://theshortfuse.sbnation.com/2019/1/14/18182224/arsenal-transfer-rumors-news-premier-league-wage-rules-explained
Scott, I’m not sure what Emery could have done about Ramsey, his contract problem was there before he arrived at Arsenal.
Disagree the results bit as well. It was said by a number of fans on here that we weren’t playing well.
3-0………………….Willock !
Joe Willock makes it 3-0 stroke of h/t
Goal Keeper makes great save from a Eddy shot ball dropes to joe
who follows up to score
Cheers for that Hobart as I was beginning to think some on here were starting to feel sorry for Kroenke !
😆
Doing well, Rick !…………………………….what`s the chance of this team starting against Chavs on weekend ?
😆
How do you rate Amaechi compared to Nelson ?
4-1…………..Saka
City pull one back then Saka makes it 4-1
5-1 …………………Amaechi
Hope the first team have as much success against Chelsea this weekend…
5-1 Amaechi.
LC you are asking the wrong fan.
I have been Nelsons champion from the moment I first saw him play (5 Years ago)
I think that he is the best youngster that we have coming through and if he cannot make it
none of them will.
I will say that both of Am aechi and Saka are the type of wingers the first team are crying out for
and I look forward to seeing them playing with Nelson.
I will add that Nelson reminds me of Chippy
A fine endorsement Rick ………..
🙂
Mavropanis replaced after about 70 mins had a good game.
Saka replaced a few mins later.
Need him on thurs youth cup against the spuds
I don’t have the figures available for transfers kicking around, but I seem to remember a net spend of about £75m a year on transfers was comfortable. But that was before we dropped out of the champions league.
The net spend over the last few years has been
18/19 – £66.4m
17/18 + £9.2m
16/17 – £86.2m
15/16 – £13.2m
14/15 – £65.4m
13/14 – £32.5m (incidentally the year we got Ozil)
We should have some money kicking around.
Finak change Amaechi off .
need him on thurs as well.
Rico, as you reminded me recently, a few on here don’t make the majority of fans, but looking at various social media outlets, not many were saying this 6 weeks ago.
Give your contributors here credit for being ahead of the game 🙂 🙂
As I put up earlier this season………….Arsenal financial results published Feb`2018 said we had £137.6M in cash reserves !………………make what you like from that ! 😉
Just had a look at Mansour City`s bench……………………………it`s filth !…………………….as in fcuking filthy rich in talent !…………………………surely with their wages and money spent they too are looking for borrowing some players this transfer window !
😆
Scott, I only refer to opinions left on here, not all of us read the same stories elsewhere so a judgement of numbers is false.
I was disagreeing with your bit about results bringing discussions to the fore.
Finished 5-1 the the first win since oct1
Rico once again I am catching up on the posts and coments.
I will leave the Off field topics to others and just make a couple of comments.
I think the time has come to take Guendouzi out of the firing line and give Joe Willock
a game . Joe is the type of player that is missing from the midfield.
It looks like that Ben Sheaf and Dino make a good pairing,
along with Holding and Medley I think we could be well stocked with centre backs
in the next few years.
@ Le Coq
The rules don’t apply to City anyway…
http://www.spiegel.de/international/manchester-city-exposed-bending-the-rules-to-the-tune-of-millions-a-1236346.html
A great read when you’ve got 30 mins spare.
Thanks Hobart
When it comes to football my moralities and ethics have vanished just like FFP`s inability to punish CFG and PSG……………………………………I wish we were as unscrupulous as them as having the moral high ground will win us no EPL or CL ! 🙁
Rico, hopefully, next time i make a general comment that we all realise it’s based on various outlets and not just here, though.
There were a few here questioning things early on but trust me, they were in a massive minority.
LC, I read somewhere that the club has 300 million stashed away that can’t be touched as it’s being used as a guarantee to Stans creditors for the new stadium he’s building.
I Can’t say whether or not it’s fact, however.
Today’s comment section was as long as, ‘War and Peace’.
Two points from me:
A) I wish my name wasn’t ‘Dick’.
B) seems to me that Emery should tailor his tactics to the players that he has rather than vice versa.
Well said, Dick.
Until he can bring the players he wants in, he must make the most of what he has.
A very good win for the U23s tonight 5 – 1 against Man City.
Never mind having no money to spend, give Saka a run in the first team on the left wing he looks a lot more lethal than Iwobi.
Remember Gooners KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON! 😉
Maybe we should just send them all up, Cicero 🙂
Great result by the U23’s, Amaechi plays on the right or he did in last seasons FAYC, but he’s a left footer so could play down the left I guess.
Both he and Saka will be massive players for us – as long as they keep their heads screwed on and I’m with you Rick, it’s time to give Willock another start, maybe vs Cardiff in the Prem.
Did you see the game Rick, how did Robbie Burton play? I was hoping that he’d develop this season better than he has after seeing him in the FAYC last season, I think he’s had a few injuries?
Great to see a Mavropanos back, maybe another run out in the U23’s then he can be considered for the Man Utd Cup tie?
Hiya Kev,
We really do need some of these youngsters to step up.
The talent is obviously there so as you say, if they keep grounded, the future is bright.
New post up now…