Morning all.
Toots were brave. They made the change from a much loved Poch to a grumpy old has been. Out went the playing out from the back, in came the long ball game were so used to seeing him play. It worked and now they’ve jumped ahead of us in the league table. It happens many times when a new manager arrives at a club as a fresh approach seems to wake players from the dead. Toots needed it, Arsenal need it more and now.
This Arsenal team is like something from The Walking Dead, in title alone. They are going through the motions and that’s all in my opinion. Turn up, train, go home. Turn up, play, go home. Emery, turn up, train, go home. Everything seems flatter than a pancake.
Someone at the club needs to press the big red button, the one which says restart. The one which implements change.
We’re about to play a Southampton side with the worst defensive record in the Premiership and second from bottom on the league table and I haven’t a clue whether we’ll win, lose or draw this afternoon. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d ever welcome another dreadful performance with a defeat, but If that’s what it would take for the board to act, then yes, bring it on. It shouldn’t need that to happen though, not after so long of watching a very good squad play so badly.
Unai Emery has hinted towards a recall for Granit Xhaka. Just how that will work out remains to be seen but bearing in mind he’ll be playing in front of the same fans he told to f**k off just a few weeks ago, good luck is the best I can offer.
As for the rest of the squad, well we have Danny Ceballos ruled out with a hamstring injury and Sead Kolasinac a doubt, also because of a hamstring problem. The rest are fine according to the official website but there’s a chance some of them might have tired legs are their little trips abroad to play for their respective countries.
Ralph Hasenhuttl has a fully fit squad to select from. A squad full of good players who like us, are struggling to put points on the board. Southampton are a strange team really. One week they can get well beaten, the next they’re giving Man City a hard time at The Etihad Stadium.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang captains the side for the first time in front of the home fans and he’s proud to do so.
Arsenal has a great history of wonderful captains like Patrick Vieira and Tony Adams. It is a privilege to follow in their footsteps and I will honour the armband by doing my very best on and off the pitch.
Well, he can’t do any worse than his predecessor but I think he’ll be more of an Henry than the two he mentioned and by that I mean scoring the goals which can win us games. I don’t think he’ll captain the side in the way Vieira or Adams did because they were in a class of their own.
Anyway, we’ve heard a lot from the players this week, Hector being one of them, as they’ve tried to spread the love and optimism to the fans but now it’s crunch time. It’s time to ditch the talking and do the walking and that goes for everyone. From Emery to the last player in the squad.
We’ve a little run of fixtures which could, maybe should give Emery the chance to turn things round if he’s going to. Sadly though, that ‘if’ grows bigger with every passing game.
Win, lose or draw, push the button Raul.
Here’s today’s victims team.
Enjoy the game…
Sky 6 have got 2-1: 3-1: 4-0: 4-1. I myself, me, personally……3-1!
Only real question is how many will we ship? We should win and very comfortably at that. The only doubt is at the back whether the 3? Or 4? Or 5? Defend efficiently!
Shocking state of affairs……..I just hope little Dick has got his (affairs) in order. We don’t want him spending all next week just clearing his office, ready for the new man to settle in.
Lord help us😢😢
Afternoon Rico and all. Let’s hope we’re happy at 5.00pm.
Afternoon Wavy, miracles do happen. 😆
However, we’re 1-0 down already..
Trailing 0-1 after only eight minutes! It makes you wonder if the players are doing a Spuds or a Chelsea (last year) and deliberately playing inefftively in order to get the coach sacked? Really you probably can’t blame them.
Can, or do the Arsenal want to turn this game round? Oh they have Lacazette gets one back! We’ve got the draw already the reds can put their foot on the brake again now!
A bit better but for how long?
We have got arguably our strongest starting eleven on the pitch but from what I’m hearing we did not actually start playing for the first ten minutes. Familiar old story, fart about, give a goal away and then realise the game has started.
Motivation is obviously not a management concept Emery has ever heard of.
I wouldn’t blame the Wavy, not one bit.
It’s bloody painful to watch.
Halftime stats
Possession Arsenal 60% Southampton 40%.
Shots Arsenal 3 Southampton 10
On target Arsenal 1 Southampton 2
Corners Arsenal 1 Southampton 3
Fouls Arsenal 8 Southampton 12
Bookings Arsenal 3 Southampton 1
This has all the hallmarks of a mid-table stalemate.
Wake up Josh, Raul, Edu sack Emery now.
Surely the board can’t be thinking this is good enough?
He has to go…
Have the crowd started chanting, “You’re getting sacked in the morning”. If they haven’t they really should be. Booing is not acceptable a good healthy chant is always more effective😳
When there’s that level of talent on the field and they cannot beat Southampton convincingly, it goes beyond coaching, tactics and game management. The players have to start looking into the mirror because that is an awful display.
it was coming Wavy, 5 minutes to get a equalizer, Sokratis Kamikaze defending on 65 minutes was shocking, been doing it all season, becoming his trade mark, and then we give away a penalty.
Anyone know when the next International break is, this is killing me !
Afternoon House. Never expected this Board to be any more pro-active than the last, but they seem insistent on giving glee to those infuriating people who said ‘be careful what you wish for’. How much more proof than being outplayed at home by the team 19th in the table do they need? It has been obvious for weeks. Spurs managed to announce a manager one day after a sacking, guess it would take us weeks!
My son is there today, an unhappy 2 hour trip home. Thing is, he was expecting at least a rare win today, sad thing is I wasnt because I can’t see any teams playing worse than us. How can it be left to get to this stage?
And I suppose that late goal glosses over our Board having to do anything. Almost wish we hadn’t scored and it’s hard to say that.
Not enough albeit good on Lacazette , but the display was atrocious I will let someone else pull up the possesion stats but we played with no real purpose even when we had 3 at the back and 4 up front we didn’t really threaten and Southampton should have been 5 – 1 before we scored.
Sacked in the morning , No should be tonight.
Andrew, I genuinely can’t remember the last game we won a league game, Southampton literally threw away the points, they had so many chances to kill it off at the end.
Still we are 8 points clear of Norwich so relegation is a way off . However by the time we get to Carrow Road it might be on the cards.,
We missed the opportunity to contract Mourinho at this stop. The team is nervous, undisciplined, defends worse than badly, is under pressure, has little confidence, wants to do everything fast, has no solid midfield to defend, is discredited, any opponent plays as equals and creates more opportunities and shots, etc. With all this, I have only two questions: a) The coach has never been able to form a good team, the message is not good and the overall atmosphere is very bad b) We don’t have a team as good as we thought we had.
The son and heir is also at the game today. Think he had the same idea…easy pickings. He was seriously disgruntled at half time. I think his season ticket was a very poor investment.
Even at my most pessimistic I really didn’t think any result other than a home win was on the cards. What the fcuk is going on at the club???
I’ll wager little Dick won’t be sacked in the morning for two reasons, Firstly the tight wad Board don’t want to pay up on the compo! And secondly, they haven’t got a clue who they can employ next, because they haven’t given it a thought. Useless.
And that’s what we have become, useless.
The best part of a season and a half for Emery to work out his best defensive formation and he still doesn’t know what that is. A back four? Tried that, no good. A back five? Tried that, same result. A back three? tried that, no difference. How about leaving our most mobile defender, Holding, on the bench? No that didn’t work either.
Emery’s lost the dressing room, the players are confused and demotivated, the fans are on the verge of rioting, Arsenal are heading for a relegation battle with a clown in command.
Just sack him now!!
Agree Potter, Lacazette stood out, especially first half, put in a proper shift unlike some of his team mates.
Think we ended up with 6 yellow cards, wasn’t like it was even a dirty game…..joke.
Nineteen points from top. Ten points from bottom. Goal difference -1
Even Wenger in his worst period did better than that.
Think I’m throwing the towel in for a while. Until Emery is gone anyway.
rico, my time has come!
Is the Saints 2nd goal not offside?
Get to the back of the queue rico !!!
you might do better than Emery Jm.. mind you, who wouldn’t.
Hopeless Board. Hopeless Manager. Hopeless team without direction. Yep, feel like you Rico. Only thing that can make me laugh is Micko’s comment a few weeks ago, that at least we won at Newcastle, what are we complaining about? 🙂
If you want to know the official line on today’s fiasco read the match report on the Arsenal web-site. The strongest word of criticism they could find was…”frustrating”!!!
I’m disappointed in Raul Andrew, I thought he’d have acted by now.
We have to believe, or at least hope, that behind-the-scenes Raul and his cohorts are working furiously at appointing Emery’s replacement. If that’s not the case we’re in deep s**t.
That’s the only hope…
For the doubters of Emery………….be carefull what you wish for !
Positives ?…………………………now Mourinho is Spud manager I hate them even more than I did last week.
Le Coq, glad you brought up positives, our 4th tier goalie has now made more saves in the premiership this season than any other keeper so we can’t be as bad as what people are making out !
Only problem with that stat, Nicko, is to get the highest number of saves the defence must be conceding the highest number of chances. 😉
Has he been sacked yet?
Exactly Cicero.
What I find troubling is that I doubt any of us were surprised by the result and I doubt any Gooner on the planet was !………..so if we all think like that, then does that mean the board thin the same……………….were any of the board surprised by the the result ?……….if they were not surprised by the result then that is a damning thought to how inept the board are for, if they are as accepting of such then they need sacking aswell and are clueless if they do not sack Emery quickly……………or are all ( I say all as I dont know of any fan on the www that wants Emery to stay) us fans clueless and Emery is indeed the new messiah !………………………………. He’s not the Messiah. He’s a very naughty boy!
LC. I agree. Today won’t be a surprise to any Arsenal fan. Events seem to have a momentum of their own now. What comes next, who knows?
Give the job to JM, at least the press conferences will be worth listening c to…
No surprise to me either. As Lee used to say, rinse and repeat…
Yet Emery still maintains the board support him, he can do better and for 25 minutes in the game, we played the best football yet this season.
If we did, I missed it..
Wavy, I’m sure that they’ve looked into replacing Emery, but yeah, as far as this season goes they ain’t got a clue?
How bad is Emery ?…………………….just watching X Factor Celebrity and can honestly say Vinnie Jonees is a better singer than Emery is a coach !………………..he is more in tune than Emery is !
https://twitter.com/charles_watts/status/1198299174485266439?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1198299174485266439&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fdailycannon.com%2F2019%2F11%2Fraul-sanllehis-face-tells-a-different-story-than-unai-emerys-mouth%2F
Gutsy effort to scramble for a draw, hey 🙂
Terrible.
Just terrible.
Hi Rico I admit I wanted to give Emery a chance until mid season to show he can get us in the top 4 but now feel its time to give the coach a tap on the shoulder, But as I have said before and still believe a lot of the fans don’t make the players responsible for their action on the field.
Morning Geoff, all.
Tap on the shoulder? I’d give him a kick up the backside and tell him to push off. I’d have done that a while ago.
New post up now