Morning all.
In hindsight, the over elaborate celebrations after beating Tottenham 4-2 a couple of weeks ago was slightly previous. Don’t get me wrong, the performance that day was great, the result equally as good but it was just one game and three points. I know, it was against them which made it matter more and rightly so. However, the celebrations, the stuff on the official Arsenal website etc seemed to have given our neighbours extra motivation going into last nights game. Sometimes you just have to put your hands up and admit they were better than us in front of goal on this occasion. We had enough chances to have not only taken the lead but to kill the game off. We blew them. Mkhitaryan, Ramsey, Aubameyang, Lacazette, Maitland-Niles and even Sokratis could so easily have scored, but it wasn’t their night, nor ours.
What more is there to say really other than we lost our second match in as many fixtures and we’re out of the League Cup. Big players didn’t pull out big performances. Not even the substitutes or a better second half could save us.
I cant say I’m too upset about being knocked out really as we haven’t the depth in strength to be challenging in three competitions whilst desperately trying to secure a top four spot but being knocked out by that lot is the real disappointment. As was an Arsenal fan throwing a plastic bottle at Alli. Alli went all Theo Walcott after by taunting fans with the 2-0 hand-sign. Funny when Theo did it, silly when Alli did.
I’m not going to dissect the game, partly because I’d imagine most of us here watched it and secondly, I really can’t be bothered. We’ve just got to suck it up and hope we can kick start another good run real soon. Saturday lunchtime preferably when Burnley arrive at The Emirates.
Arsenal are missing the injured players, that’s for sure but regardless, we knew back in the summer that Unai Emery would need time and transfer windows and that’s not changed. The trouble is, we’d had a 22 match unbeaten run so losing was always going to be rough, losing two, rougher still but until the Spaniard has made this squad his own, we’ve got to take the rough with the smooth. For all the gloating Tottenham and their fans will be doing now, the reality is they’ve not won anything. Pochettino has won nothing during his four years at their club. We can’t lose sight of our best eleven v their best eleven, we came our victorious.
We might be down but we’re not out. Other than the League Cup that is but be honest, who’s really ever cared about this competition before? It gives the remaing clubs three more fixtures potentially which when it comes to the Totts and Chelsea, might just help our challenge for a top four spot, especially if they suffer injuries to key players.
Sour grapes? No, just trying to look on the bright side of life.
Back to the drawing board for Emery and back to league for the team..
Have a good Thursday guys, just avoid anyone with a cockerel on their chest…
Plenty of chances, no-one to take them?????
You had £100 million of strikers up front in Lacazette and Aubameyang against a makeshift Spurs defence that included Ben Davis as a centre back
And yet no one took the chances, which is what I’m getting at. Not one of our players we’re able to score…
Gio, best you go and read the article, not just the headline 🙂
Morning Rico.
Poor Poor display from our boys. I hope that wasn’t the sign of us dropping back to the latter Wenger years.
Shambolic defending, yet again. Naiveness personified.
We were/are carrying far too many players.
What worries me the most is Mr. Kronke won’t release sufficient funds to alter it much. Fingers crossed Unai can find some bargain gems this January, because boy we need some.
Why doesn’t he try Medley at CB instead of Xhaka??????? he cannot do any worse surely……!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi Rico, I agree. We are better off out of it, it’s just a shame it had to be aga8nst the enemy. The semis can only help us in the league – Hopefully they will kick each other to pieces. Pochniwhatever will want to win something for his CV when he goes for the Utd job ( the’re welcome to him) and I can’t see a top manager coming to them when they will have no money for years. Perhaps they will have to get ‘arry back 🙂
Our best years are coming now – keep the faith.
Brian
Morning Rico and all. I think we all knew that there would be games like last night when a new manager came in. Surely the club must make decisive moves in the transfer market immediately. What’s the point of waiting with so many issues unresolved? Defenders first please.
Afternoon Gooners
Afternoon Rico, the injuries and suspensions really bit us yesterday evening, even so it’s a game we could have won, Ramsey’s early shot and the miss by Mkhitarayan (pathetic finish) set the pattern.
Two long balls by Tottenham undid our makeshift defence but the difference in the quality of the finishing was stark, theirs confidently dispatched whilst our efforts seemed hurried and snatched.
It’s a game we should have won despite all that, we still created plenty of chances against a team commonly thought of as the 3rd best in England, full of English players so the Press love them.
Strangely enough I’m not as disappointed as I thought I would have been losing to them.
I guess my feelings are tempered by the fact that our squad isn’t strong enough yet to contest for four major targets, in fact the FACup might be too much as well at this stage of the squads development. We need to focus on two aims and that is top four and the UEFA Cup.
We still have plenty of fixtures to deal with in January but minus two debilitating struggles with Chelsea, so that’s 6 fixtures to contend with and not 8, allowing our players some time to recuperate before the hard slog of February and March.
Meanwhile our two biggest rivals for the top four face each other with both managers wanting a trophy – an unlikely prospect with Man City awaiting the winner.
Mavropanos should be ready to return by early January and we really need him to pick up the slack left by the injury to Rob Holding. I’m not sure and I don’t wish to be unkind but I’m having doubts about Koscielny being able to return to anything like the player he used to be for us.
A summer switch to Ligue Un is looking likely.
We really miss the physicality and goals of Danny Welbeck, Emery is trying to integrate Nketiah but Eddie is better in the middle.
We need reinforcements but there’s no point in signing some players just to placate the fans, I’d like to see us sign a wide forward and a central defender this January, but if the right players aren’t available I’d prefer to wait until the summer.
Let’s see if Medley can cut it or Willock? We have until January 31st to decide…
I’m with you Kev, on Koscielny. Even before the injury he was on the down escalator and it’s going to be some miracle if he even gets back to where he was.
I think it’s going to be hard to get a new central defender in during January, Mavropanos may be fit in early January, but will he be ready to start? I think we need to be playing Zech Medley alongside Sokratis in a back four with Lichtsteiner and Monreal as fullbacks, rather than wingbacks. Give them the cover of Xhaka, Torreira and Guendouzi in midfield and start Lacazette alongside Aubameyang with, unless he’s leaving in January, Ozil to pull the strings.
Leno has made a few errors, but Cech’s distribution, particularly last night, lets him down so we must stick with the German.
I don’t think we are in bad shape, yes we have injuries but the cupboard isn’t exactly empty is it.
Our defence is porous and some of the players are simply not top class. Although I think Emery has organised our defence better, I still think they struggle to switch formations so often.
Midfield wise our creators are simply not good enough. Iwobi should be getting 20-30 minutes and cup matches to develop, however he seems to be relied on on all games. Mkhitaryan is a massive disappointment and as an established player he is creating far too little.
Ozil and Ramsey stand as our most creative, but are not playing for various reasons.
Those things need sorting before we can be expected to get top 4 finishes.
Realistically it’s going to take at least 4 players.
Agree with you Cicero, on Leno/Cech, there’s no point in going back to Petr, he’s had some good seasons with us – they may have been even better if we’d had a decent goalkeeping coach to help him – so I’d stick with Berdt and see where we are in the summer.
I like Medley and I’d like to see him get some minutes Cicero, maybe from off of the bench, just to ease him in, much as Emery is doing with Eddie.
My only concern is how exposed our defence can be and would it be fair to drop Zach into games and see him roasted by some gnarled old English forward like Danny Ings?
Burnley might actually be a good opportunity for Medley, but I doubt that Unai will deviate much from his experienced old heads during this busy period.
No more Xhaka in the back four please, we need him in midfield, I like Guendouzi but he isn’t as effective as Xhaka, his time will come but ‘at this moment in time’ we need stability in front of our stretched defence.
I’m reading that Bellerin is back in training – that’s great news…
I can’t stand Liverpool, but there are definitely similarities in where they were ‘early doors’ under Klopp and where we are now.
It’s taken 4+ years for Liverpool to have a team capable of taking on and beating Man City, now they have a brilliant squad, one that reached last seasons CL final, we can only dream of achieving that ‘to be fair’ but in Emery I think we have the man who can take us to the summit.
I think we’re going to have to take a financial hit to get rid of Ozil, blame the previous regime, Gazides in particular although Wenger cannot wriggle out of his responsibility by saying nice things on BEin Sport about Emery and his summer signings.
Beating Burnley, Brighton and Fulham is vital, we have to take maximum points from those games to keep us in touch with Chelsea and Spuds.
Liverpool (a)… It doesn’t bare thinking about – at this moment in time….
Afternoon Kev, Adam, Brian, all.
I agree re Xhaka, he’s wasted in defence and I don’t think Torreira is as effective when he hadn’t got his mate next to him. I agree with those saying we should have won and we should. But for sloppiness or complacency in front of goal we would.
Why on earth didn’t Ramsey flick on the shot from Lacazette, usually he loves a flick or trick…
Great news re Bellerin Kev.
Re Medley. Whilst I appreciate the concerns/risks playing him but I think I’m right in saying that a Pep played a 17 year old CB last night and he did well apparently.
I’d always opt for a player in his natural position rather than making do as seldom does it work. I still maintain he should have played in the Europa league in the last mast and last weekend against Southampton. It’s not like he’s a skinny fragile looking chap, he’s big and looks strong..
Best second half? Really !?
“Why on earth didn’t Ramsey flick on the shot from Lacazette…” Answer: because our players never have the goal in their minds, They do not risk the shot to the goal when they have the opportunity to do it, they like to “adorn” the plays, which makes defensive actions easier.
Second match: two games with Kos, two defeats and followed.
And five goals conceded Jm. I’m not sure if we can read as much into that as perhaps we can not having Xhaka in midfield and Mustafi in defence. Or Holding.
New post up now