Morning all.
Life as an Arsenal fan hasn’t been as unpredictable in years. In the seven months of Unai Emery, I don’t think we’ve seen so many players used by a manager. Arsene Wenger always had a deep squad but he seemed to put his faith in the same players week in week out regardless of what had unfolded during the previous game. Player form appeared irrelevant. Injury seemed to be the only way a few of his favourites would be left out.
Fast forward to the present. The unpredictable Unai Emery, a guy who with a fully fit squad to select from will no doubt become even more unpredictable. He’s missing only three players from his squad right now, Danny Welbeck, Rob Holding and Hector Bellerin. All key players. Welbeck was the go to striker in the Europa League and he wasn’t disappointing either, Holding was one of the first names on the defence team sheet, as was Bellerin.
Emery has tried Lichtsteiner and AMN and whilst we here were discussing which of the two should get the nod for the Toots game, the Spaniard threw a curveball by opting for Mustafi. Emery clearly told him to defend first and foremost and don’t cross the halfway line. I jest, but barely did he cross it.
Same on the left where Kolasinac, who together with Iwobi has been our attacking threat of late. Kolasinac was a dead cert to start I thought. Wrong, in came Monreal and like Mustafi, concentrated on his defending. He could have done with a bit more help from Iwobi though as Trippier was given far too much space. Mkhitaryan however was offering great support to Mustafi over the other side.
Our little midfield maestro was a dead cert to play, especially after his performance against the same opponents at The Emirates when he was superb. Nope, I got than one wrong too as Emery opted for Xhaka, Guendouzi and Ramsey in midfield. Lacazette was the lone striker. I got that one right, Koscielny and Sokratis too. Lol
‘Emery has to play his strongest team’ or ‘Wenger has to play his strongest team’ are two comments written across the Internet hundreds of times over the last ten years or more but in reality, it’s a myth. What appears to be a strongest team, doesn’t always mean it’s the best team.
Arsenal have gone from being predictable to unpredictable and as Saturday proved. It’s catching others out. Poch would have probably expected us to opt for three at the back, we didn’t. He might have expected two strikers to play in our attempt to outscore his Toots side because our defending is so poor. We didn’t and it wasn’t.
Two very different team selections faced two different clubs from the south coast earlier in the week, another different team selection faced Toots on Saturday. That’s what good managers do, they select who they believe are right to execute their plan against any one team and we fans are not used to it. That’s certainly why I raised an eyebrow at the Arsenal team sheet at the weekend, but not anymore. Nor will I wonder why he continually opts to leave Mesut Ozil out of the first team, mind you I don’t really because it’s so obvious. Ozil doesn’t do hard work. Doesn’t mean he can’t or won’t be picked to play, he just won’t be on the pitch when a tough fixture comes around.
Arsenal have also gone from being a team who thrived on possession. Or rather dominated possession but seldom did that possession reap reward. Now though, Emery isn’t afraid to surrender that possession for the greater good. Something which paid dividends for Arsene Wenger at The Etihad once, but I’m not sure we ever saw it again.
What Unai Emery is doing is so far removed from what we had been used to seeing. It’s refreshing, unpredictable and certainly interesting. The money in the game is ruining it, the inconsistency and darn right failings from the officials is letting the game down too but as far as Arsenal go, I think it’s interesting, perhaps exciting times ahead.
Hopefully we’ll have a positive summer as far as sales and signings go and next season we’ll be even better than we’ve shown we can be with players who Unai Emery doesn’t necessarily want…
Next up for Arsenal is a trip to France to face Rennes in the Europa League. Another tough fixture and probably another different combination of players making the starting eleven. I don’t think any of us should try and predict who’ll line up for that one. I know I won’t….
Have a good Monday guys.
Spot on Rico.It was funny to see Keown and Ferdinand outraged by Emery’s team selection,and go on to be proven wrong big time.Also Pochettino is made out to be some tactical genius,his team have taken 1 point out of 6 against us in the league.Emerys tactics have been exactly right both times.
No,not worth trying to predict Emery’s teams.It would be easier to predict Toots next trophy ! Hang on,maybe not…
I wasn’t as bad as them Limey but I did think that team would struggle. However, if we’d have come away from Wembley with a 3-0 victory, it would have been totally deserved.
Morning all, my big concern in the team for the day was Mustafi, and he duly obliged in backing up my opinion.
Other than that the team gave me a lot of hope that finally a sense of balance is being found.
I thought Mustafi did well, until his moment of stupidity but that’s him all over.
I can hold my hand up and say I liked the line up 🙂
It wa still of energy and certainly could t possibly be predicted by Spuds-they wouldn’t have had a clue what hit them.
Morning all.
They wouldn’t have expected Mustafi at right back Scott, that’s for sure… lol
I doubt Mustafi expected Mustafi at RB 🙂
Can Arsenal appeal the Torrieira sending off and would that mean he’s available for ManUre?
Morning Gooners
Morning Rico
Morning Kev, I think they can..
Knowing our luck though, they’d sort it quickly and give him the extra match for a frivolous appeal…
Morning all.
I too thought that the team selection was bizarre and, fully expected a ‘right thumping’. Didn’t happen, the thumping that is. However, having contained the scum so successfully and having had several opportunities to put the game way beyond the reach of our local neighbours, we didn’t win! That is after all the bottom line. From 4th spot we now seem destined to finish in 6th. All for the sake of a draw that should have been a win. Those 2 dropped points will prove very damaging, come the end of the season.
Given our seemingly, financial state and lack of funds or the money, vast amounts of it, on offer via CL when compared to the Mickey Mouse amounts earned from the Europa League, those ‘lost’ points could set us back years in terms of our future development.
Under other circumstances a draw would have been an excellent result, however, as Wrighty said, it seems like a loss to me! And so it does!
There is a long way to go yet before we reach season’s end but, if we spurn chances like taking the spuds to the cleaners or we don’t win against manure we can settle foe EL qualification at best for next year’s entertainment. Not really what we need. We seem to have slipped a long way down the ladder of excellence. Let’s hope little Dick can prove me wrong and by some quirk of fate we end up feasting from the top table……again.
Bright and breezy here, a bit chilly though.
Wavy. I think points dropped earlier in the season are the ones which have really cost us. At West Ham, Brighton and Southampton etc. Those are the matches we should have won imo. Had we, a point at Wembley wouldnt be so bad really.
Saying that, I agree that we’re not converting enough of our opportunities, the ‘easy’ ones I mean..
Great post Rico.
Is it shocking to see Dick come out with so many variations of tactics and team selections ?
Have we(I have) not said for years about playing different tactics against different teams ?…………………………..so he is doing what most common sense has been telling us for years.
Some differant tactics means using different players as some are better equiped to carry out such formations.
Where Dick will suffer from his obvious common sense tactics/formations is not having the best players to do it and that will come down to money in the end to purchase the quality players.
Rumour yesterday was Mansour lot will make £350M available to Pep next season………………..no resting on laurels there…………..to keep improving a squad that hardly any of our players would get in (except Mesut) costs money, unbelievable really seeing as their current squad would probably rule for another 5 years without any additions !
Must say that a comment yesterday about a lot of workrate or was it running doesn`t mean much is not the case………..lots of running with or without ball makes players available and helps with marking, making up numbers etc`, it`s one thing I know from experience of playing.
We’re certainly not clinical enough when chances arise. Time and time again we seem far too lackadaisical in front of goal.
You might think i’m being harsh on Aubameyang, but when the ball was crossed by Iwobi after the penalty miss, he should have been more forceful with his attempt at making sure of a clean hard purchase on the ball and made sure he forced it over the line. It’s things like this that stand out for me.
Lacazette also, when the ball was cut back to him he didn’t have the conviction to at least get his effort on target. All top strikers would have done better, imo.
Having said all this, I’m super critical of Arsenal at times. This is because I love my club sooooooo much.
I like both Laca and Auba and wouldn’t change them. My priorities in the summer would be DMF. LFB. SW.
Aparrently, Vics, Auba has had the most clearcut chances of any EPL player this season so far………………OPTA.
Someone said on here a while back and I think it was before we got Auba, that when at Dortmund Auba missed plenty of chances and even though he was one of the leading scorers he needed more chances than most !………………………possibly that Obi said it.
Still I would keep him as long as he gets enough chances, maybe it similar to Ozil in that he needs to play the easier teams where he gets more chances ?
Wavy11:00 am……….I agree with rico here, that earlier defeats cost us more. My circle of Arsenal friends all said they would have taken a draw before KO, me included.
I don’t think it makes one iota as to whether we finish top four or top six in terms of money given to UE. He will be given a pittance in comparison to most other top clubs. Our owner does not belong to any benevolant club that I know of.
Mr. Kronke, (I use his official name, not what I call him, but this is a family blog so I can’t use such expletives!!!!!!!! Also rico would ban me, and I don’t want that, as I enjoy my daily HH fix), spends plenty of money on his LA Rams players and stadium. I know this because friends from LA, whose team is the Rams, visited us before Christmas. They were shocked when I told them that Kronke would be lynched if he walked to the Emirates.
They are extremely happy with him and his offerings. He is a fairy god mother in their eyes.
COYG
Thanks Lc. Yes, we’ve all been saying something similar about playing the team for the opposition and not just throw eleven players out there with freedom to play. It’s so obvious yet we all know of someone who didn’t seem to do that..
I doubt that’s true re City, aren’t they already being looked at regarding spending?
Afternoon Rico…………………………..who could you possibly mean who didn`t seem to do that ? hahaha
Think City are under investigation with something to do with underhand payments to young player before a certain age………………..something they completely deny ! 😉
Vcc, I can’t see Emery being happy watching so many really good chances go begging. Perhaps we’ll see changes in that department in the summer.
Afternoon Lc, I’m sure the name will come to you soon… lol
Finally. Dermot Gallagher has confirmed that the Kane penalty should not have been awarded.
Not that we needed him to tell us…
I admit the £350M rumour did come from the Daily Star !…………………………..and not from Ornstein .
😆
I hope that Aubameyang doesn’t go into a depression after his penalty miss at Wembley as we’re gonna need him to quickly find his shooting boots in Rennes this week.
No Lacazette so it’s all on Pierre to perform, start Torrieira, rest Xhaka for the Mancs, start Ozil, Kolasinac I guess, Lichtsteiner maybe, it’s gonna be a mix n match up I reckon.
Lc, you’re right about Obi’s remarks re Auba and his need for loads of chances per game and that his conversion rate was ‘poor’ but for all that he is our highest scorer……despite everything, well, all the misses.
If I cast my mind back 20 odd years, I can recall the same ‘indictment’ being levelled at Andy (Andrew) Cole. A former Hale End boy who was deemed not good enough by our sages! And we all know where and what he ended up doing! None the less, the truth was he did miss loads of chances but he invariably managed to score one or two most games.
Does Auba have the same qualities as Cole? I think he probably does but I think he misses more than Cole. He is still a very good finisher and we would be a far poorer team without him. A similar argument could be made for Lacazette too. They are both strikers and they both score, have scored and will continue to score the bulk of our goals, because that’s what they do!
Taking 4 points from Totts is no bad thing it’s the other dropped ones that count.
Striker wise Lacazette and Auba are fine but it’s the lack of goals from midfielders that is the downfall. We need a 15 goal man to back them up.
Taking 4pts from the Spuds compensates for only taking 3pts from Soton, 1 point each so far from Brighton, Wolves and Palace and 3 pts from West Ham.
So it’s swings and roundabouts…
Two steps forward one step back. I would settle for four points from them every year but when we drop them against the bottom teams it undoes the good work.
I see a statement from the FA saying Sanchez will not receive any punishment for his stamp on Koscielney…….Well, theres a surprise.
Toothless FA. First Kane, now Sanchez. The FA are setting a precedent I think. Other clubs will cite both decisions when appealing their player reviews if they’ve any sense.
Can’t have one rule for one etc…
Does the fact that we got a draw mean that the manager got it right? I know that before the game I was pessimistic and was pleased that we got a point, but it’s impossible to know whether or not the team selection and tactics were correct. I think it’s unlikely, but it’s within the realm of possibility that an all out attack including Auba and Ozil might have blown the Totts out of the water
Fair question Dick but I reckon if Ozil had played, we’d have not been as strong defensively. And Aubameyang is hardly banging the goals in..
Dick, I think we should’ve blown them out of the water anyway, to be honest.
We had enough chances so I’d say he got it right.
On another day, we are 3 up at half time.
Still, it is all hypothetical.
U23`s drew 2-2 with Swansea tonight and aparrently there were numerous scouts from abroad watching our youngsters with the biggest rumour that Bayern Munchies want Amaechi !………………………fcuking zee oof you schweinhunds !
Interesting read.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/feb/15/sportswashing-europes-biggest-clubs-champions-league-owners-sponsors-uefa
Sam Wallace, the football writer who has made himself busy on Twitter trying to explain the FA rules concerning the Kane offside/ penalty is I believe a Spurs fan…
#FakeNews
Apparently both Dortmund and Bayern scouts were in attendance at the Arsenal U23 game yesterday evening vs Swansea, watching some of Arsenal’s youngsters.
I guess if Raul hasn’t got the funds to give to Emery this summer and we can’t sell any of the players we want rid of, then our Spanish Head of Football Relations/Director of Football/Supremo, might just sanction the sale of one or two of our better youngsters to raise funds so that Emery can sign some Spanish or German or French or Italian youngster.
Does that mean that Arsenal will begin to use our Academy to raise transfer funds, much as Man City and Chelsea?
Meanwhile Enos is focused on the LA Rams…
Dick, we had and all out attack including Ozil and Aubameyang for the last quarter of the game and a Ozil did run onto the pitch and run about a bit but it’s questionable that he made a difference, which PEA missed two glorious opportunities so yeah, to me Emery got his tactics and starting XI totally correct…
New post up now