Morning all.
The media, well it’s probably best I don’t write what I really think or I’ll end up booting myself off of here. Nice thought I hear you say, yes, for me too as it would spare me all the head scratching etc most mornings when trying to think of something to write….
For years, Arsene Wenger was crucified for his lack of tactical decision making, his team selection, the price for a prawn sandwich and anything else going wrong at the club and much of it was justified in my opinion. We knew what kind of game the team would play because we’d witnessed it for too many seasons. We could almost predict the team, the substitutes and their timing.
Now we have Unai Emery and as much as a few pretty much are guaranteed starters, mostly because there’s little or no other options available, guessing his starting eleven is not quite so easy. We’ll all play football manager every now and then but we’re not the ones with a career in football management so what do we know? Look at Sunday. I’m not afraid to admit that I was berating Auba, Kolasinac and Iwobi for the entire first half and some of the second half too yet all three were involved in our winning goal. Iwobi would have been off the pitch if I’d had my way, Aubameyang too. It kind of reminded me of that day against the Totts when Theo Walcott had a stinker of a first half but then played superb in the second. I bet nearly the entire Arsenal fan base didn’t want to see him appear after the break.
I’ve digressed yet again…..
Left out for an away game and suddenly the back pages are all about how much better off this Arsenal team is without Mesut Ozil. How we win more games when he doesn’t play, we score more goals without him in the team and we’re better, much better when he’s on the bench. They are they to sell a story to us, we know that but instead of taking the slant they have, would they not have been better to acknowledge what Unai Emery is doing? Especially having criticised Arsene Wenger for not doing similar for a number of years.
Emery, as much as his hands are tied somewhat because he’s only had one transfer window to sign the kind of players he wants, is looking at who we are playing, what we need to do and who he believes is best for the task ahead. He’s not dropping players, or showing them they’re not good enough etc etc, he’s just saying I want something different for this particular game. It’s called putting round holes into round pegs rather than trying to hammer in a square one. He’s doing what a good manager should do. He switched to five at the back, or three, whichever way you choose to look at it, because he was thinking about the threat Bournemouth pose through their forwards. It looked a bit of a mess and didn’t work particularly well in my opinion, especially in the first half, but we won. Away from home against a good Bournemouth team, a win is a very good result imo.
The performance overall wasn’t brilliant, we could all see that but as many of us have said, it’s early days. Emery is doing his best with who he’s been left. He/Sven Mislintat have added steel to the squad with Sokratis, Torrieira, Lichtsteiner and Guendouzi, he signed Leno who is proving to be a really good goalkeeper who’ll hopefully get better as he gets older and he’s added a bit of something we’ve lacked for years. Cojones!
It might not be pretty right now but give Emery time and more of his own choice of players and it should get a whole lot better. We’ve got some exciting younger players knocking on the door too and more behind them so I reckon we’re in a good place right now.
As for Mesut Ozil. Let him tear the Totts apart, at The Emirates…..
Have a good day guys..
The media have to find an angle , they will never go with ” Nothing to see here ” especially with Derby day against every journo’s second team if not their first looming.What they could go with is ” more of the same but only the names have changed ” It’s the way they work , they can’t talk about football because they don’t really understand it, so they concentrate on a bit of controversy to hype the contest . It sells papers and massages their egos and that’s what they dfo.
You’d think they’d get bored writing the same things…
Only when people get bored with reading it.
Bit like HH 😂😂
Morning Rico and all.
As for the media, I say it’s all about the mindset. Having met a few of these guys over the years I have found them to be wrapped up in a world of petty jealousies and tribal allegiances rather than realism. Emery handles them quite well. He smiles and says good morning/afternoon or evening and then ignore the snide questions while using his perceived lack of English as a useful weapon to confuse them. Some of the real rag ‘n bone men of the press are enormously resentful of him because he won’t play their silly games. If he wants to drop Ozil then the responsibility of that is his but, to a football journalist, it’s a way to drive a wedge into the club and upset the fans.
Morning Adam, they’ll never win though.
I agree re Emery, he handles them a lot better than Arsene Wenger did partly because he answers their stupid questions like a politician would.
Arsene was too open , he couldn’t say one word when he could find 10 to say the same . The trouble was that the media used that against him by selecting the snippets that suited their position.
Good morning all, the head scratching effort is well worth while Rico, keep it up please, just be wary of the splinter risk. 😀
There’s a modicum of truth in the Ozil story, I said a few days ago that he is best suited to home games, now, it seems the journos have caught on too.
Our Europa League game on Thursday is looking more and more fraught. The Ukraine political situation is looking dangerous with the government declaring Martial Law in response to the seizure of three Ukrainian ships by Russia.
On top of that there are problems with the pitch, which has been under a cover for some time, and the temperature which Is expected to be around minus ten degrees Celsius.
I can’t see Ozil, or any of the players relishing the prospect of a game on a frozen pitch in a country on the brink of war with Russia.
It certainly seems unlikely that Emery will risk too many of his starting eleven given the relative unimportance of the match just three days before the NLD.
Morning Gooners.
Morning Rico.
Have you noticed how often his salary is mentioned in press comments about a Ozil.
Maybe he should change his name from Mesut to £350,000 pw, but then Alexis gets the same treatment at ManUre.
Has anyone also noticed how few times it’s mentioned (or not) how long it’s been since Tottenham won a trophy, or that Pocchetino has won a big fat zero in his managerial career to date? Not that often, it’s also never mentioned that it’ll be 58 years since Tottenham actually won the League, or that it’s almost 29 years for Liverpool…
Selective memory?!
The papers are all over Arsenal and Ozil over the wages paid by the club. Little mention is made of the salary the founder and owner of Bet365, Denise Coates, paid herself last year, a staggering £217 million.
This after her company made a profit of £525million on £47billion, yes £47billion worth of bets.
Gambling companies spend a fortune on sponsorship of football clubs in order to put their name in front of the fans so that they may reap huge sums from the mug punters among them.
they also flood our tv screens with their puerile ads for their on-line betting scams, and all that money comes from the pockets of those same mug punters.
I will on both Cicero.. lol
That bet365 payout was ridiculous, obscene really. I’m contemplating doing away with all the betting ads on here because they really haven’t sat well with me.
Afternoon Kev.
I wonder if the media realise that Alexis earns more than Mesut….
Can’t believe Mike Dean is the ref for the NLD…
Unai Emery:
“I try to encourage the players to be more demanding,” Emery explained. “One of the first things we looked at with the players was the idea of training for training’s sake, training to compete and training to win. Those are three different steps and very often players do them subconsciously.
“We needed to suppress the idea of training for training’s sake, boost the focus on training to compete and – most of all – train to win. Training to win is the final competitive step, and that was what was most required in terms of individual development and the development of the team.
“You want development and improvement from all players. Obviously, when you have a squad of 25 players, you’re not going to be able to achieve that with all of them because at the end of the day you’re not able to give all of them the consistency of opportunity so that they all move in the same direction.
“That said, you need to get the best out of the individual players in training and then implement that in the matches. It’s more noticeable with some players because the players more and have the capacity to do so, and perhaps because they’ve also found new impetus.
“The players that play the most are the ones that seem to have the most scope for development, but I’m convinced that they all have the ability to develop – not just because I’m saying it, it’s what any coach would say. That’s our idea.
“In the case of Xhaka, I knew him before. The first thing was to find his best position and characteristics, but he also wants to improve and that’s the first step – that the players want it. It’s not about training for training’s sake. It’s about training to win or to improve. Today, tomorrow and the next day.”
Rico I can’t believe he is still allowed to referee any match at elite level. If ever there was a solid argument for Video referees Mike Dean is it.
Totally agree Cicero. He’s got to be one of the worst, together with Pawson..
Reinforces what a few of us have been saying that the attitude has changed and a more positive outlook is prevalent. Also his comments about getting the best from Xhaka and finding his correct role casts a shadow over Wenger who had some great players but never got the best from them , Arshavin being the one that sticks in my mind and I am sure that there are many others that we all said were rubbish. Even Nicky Bendtner falls into that catagory.
The Mike Dean appointment is just Riley’s way of showing that he is still the boss..
4.59 – very true. The list is endless really..
5-0 at derby u-23 ?
In the last six appearances between us and tottenham, refereed by Mike Dean, Arsenal have won 5 and lost one.
https://www.football.london/arsenal-fc/news/arsenal-vs-tottenham-mike-dean-15473784
See that the Europa league game on Thursday has been moved to Kiev. Will save us 6 hours on the bus.
Reg.
That’s very good news, thank you Reg.
Let’s hope Dean doesn’t try and balance that up a bit….
New post up now.