Morning all.
After our pathetic performance just a week ago, the pressure is on tonight. We need a win and should we concede yet again, that win will have to be big. AMN is a doubt but it looks like Sokratis might be back which if so, is a big boost. Ramsey too and there’s a slight chance we might see Ozil. Unai Emery spoke about him yesterday during his press conference.
Mostly, the key is his hand and he is working very well this week and I ask him in our conversations to be consistent, to be available for us training, when you can train with quality and consistency, it can help us with the best performance after in the games.
Now, this week is good for all the players, because we are in a big, important moment for the season and I look at him doing the training like we want. I know he wants, but we need to be consistent and available in training and the matches without the injuries and without being sick. Like that, we can find and see the best Mesut with us.
Arsenal.com
In other words, step up Mesut and stop shirking your responsibilities in training and on the pitch. We’re in February, with March not far away. This issue should have been resolved by now, IF it’s a simple case of Emery demanding more from the player. Then again, I don’t think only Ozil can be criticised when it comes to lack of effort. I don’t mean just going out there on a match day and playing, but comiting to the task ahead. The determination to win a tackle, get any part of their body on the end of a pass. Set pieces and aerial challenges in general. Go into these like the mean it and not just look like they’re going through the motions. But hey, now we know why Ozil isn’t playing, not that we needing telling.
The 5.55 kick off is stupid in my opinion. Do UEFA not realise football fans work? The Emirates is expected to be down on attendance because of it. Either that or fans wondering whether or not to bother after last weeks abysmal performance. Those who are there later though, well Unai Emery has urged them to be right behind the team. The team needs them he said, which has a ring of familiarity about it.
He’s right though, the team do need the fans behind them because they can make a big difference but equally, the fans need to see something to shout about. It’s a two way thing that’s for sure and if this Arsenal team start giving more, they’ll get a lot more back..
Tomorrow we must manage 90 minutes with the result to get a good result for us, but knowing that this is 1-0 we need to be very consistent. We also need to get into their box, find the best positions to score and be efficient. We need a big result to manage this game better, but I think we have experience and every player knows tomorrow we are playing against an organised team.
Unai Emery – Arsenal.com
The bad news, Arsenal have only overturned a first-leg deficit in Europe once in the last 40 years. The good news, our results have been better at home this season than away. Occasionally the performances have been good too. Emery is demanding better, much better. For his, the clubs and our sake, I hope he gets it.
See you in the comments guys..
morning all. I have no doubt in my mind that we will overcome the dissapointing result from the last match and by quite the margin. Looking forward to it. Has anyone seen the article on skysports? Interesting reading. https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11661/11642941/calum-chambers-interview-fulham-midfield-role-will-help-progress
Isn’t he off in the summer?
What a positive guy Chambers is, he’s matured too. Maybe he does have a future at Arsenal.
Good morning Rico, Bom dia JM.
This is without question the most important game so far this season. Draw or lose tonight and all hope of any silverware goes down the toilet and with it the money that is generated by more matches and, hopefully, prize money. Never before has cash been in such short supply and we must take this opportunity to put something in the transfer kitty.
If Ozil isn’t in the starting line-up then Suarez must be. He’s supposed to be a creative midfielder, let’s see what he can do.
We should be able to see off Bate but it won’t be easy.
Morning Cicero, agree and I think Emery knows too. Might sound odd but his career at Arsenal possibly rests on this. Lose tonight and I think he’s history…
Yes!! At last, I’ve been struggling with a recalcitrant website for a week or more to get visas for the one leg of our holiday that requires them. Payments not going through, web pages timing out and websites not responding. Finally this morning the visas have arrived. Cambodia here we come. Departing Sunday next week for Hong Kong, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. 👍
Morning all.
The Ozil Emery spat continues! It’s poor management of natural resources on the part of little Dick. And I think it’s deliberate. Pick on the best footballer at the club and make him look small! Not my idea of positive motivation for either the player or the squad. If it’s meant to ‘control’ the rest I think we can all see how it’s playing out on the pitch. I wonder who will leave first? If things and performances continue to be as poor as last week’s effort, or lack t be the player.
As for the kick off time. UEFA in their very European way probably gave it very little consideraration. In the euro zone they work one hour forward to us so, to the the time is really 19.55 or nearly 8 o’clock! What’s the problem? Plus of course the TV demands of UK 8 o’clock k.o. Times! It’s a mess………but so is the rest of the world, just now! If you are looking for common sense in any sphere of life, at the moment, I defy you to find any in either football or politics. Co-operation, understanding and pragmatism are so 20th century!
High clouds, lots of blue sky and unseasonably warm. I’m expecting snow next week😊
Morning Gooner’s
Morning Rico
JM were all doomed.
I did hear yesterday Rico, that we haven’t conceded and have won every game that Jenkinson has played this season, so come on down Corporal Jenks…
As far as the kick off time is concerned, does anybody really think that UEFA give a toss about the fans, have a look at how they distribute the tickets for the final to see how much the fans come into their thinking…
Anderlecht was it Rico?
I think Emery has realised he needs Özil to save his job.
Morning all.
4/5 nil v Bate.
Our boys will do whats Expected and that’s respond to the rubbish they served up last week.
ADK, once you have negotiated a million ads and pop ups that does seem a very positive piece on Chambers. Sell Mustafi and bring him back to Arsenal is an option I suppose?
But I reckon that ship has sailed and that Calum will be sold next summer, we should get £20/£25m for him as he’s English, I just wish we’d kept Paulinho…
Yeah Cicero, although balancing the books seems an obsession at Arsenal, you never read about it in connection to any of the other top six, or Everton or Fulham or Wolves etc.
And finance isn’t an issue for the LA Rams is it, if there was the will to circumvent FFP as everyone else seems to do with ease, then it wouldn’t be an issue, but that’s down to how much Enos cares isn’t it?
Scott, if we ever needed a clean sheet, then it’s tonights game, 2-0 will do it, but it’s gonna be a nervy 90 minutes, or 120 if we’re winning 1-0 after the 90…
I guess it could go to penalties?
Hiya Kev,
I honestly think we will tear them apart.
Do you Scott?
I’m not so sure, I’ve been here before, Winterslag and all that jazz. 😉
I don’t know why I’m laughing, I guess it’s what Arsenal do to you. 🙂
At least we’ll have a nice flat watered pitch to zip the ball around, an early goal might do the trick but the longer it goes on the more agitated the crowd will get and that’ll make the team edgy, I’m going for Arsenal winning on penalties.
Morning Rico and all. If we go out against Bate I imagine things will get very sticky, very quickly, for Emery.
Rico, has Emery thrown Ozil a lifeline, or thrown him under the bus?
I think we win today but without a clean sheet
so, maybe 2-1 and we were dropped
Arsenal 4 Bate 0
Can’t see us not conceding! So, we have to score at least 3. Will we? Well we should do with our array of high scoring forwards, well, 2 anyway! Plus Kos is always reliable if we get a corner or two and Xhaka can miss the first defender!!
Yes we should win and, comfortably too, but …………..I’ll tell you at 8 o’clock😊
Oh Yea of little faith, Wavy. 😉
I Think Emery is trying take the moral high ground with Özil.
Now if Özil comes back and does well Emery can claim that he’s responded and is doing what Emery has asked. If Özil tanks then Emery can play the ‘I told you so’ card and wash his hands of responsibility.
The nightmare for Emery would be for Ozil to come back stroll around and create some great chances but do little tracking back. Then it’ll be Özil claiming that his way is better than Emery’s.
Oh what a tangled web…
Afternoon Kev, Adam, all.
Lifeline it seems Cicero, Ozil starts.
Do away goals not count anymore Kev? If not, phew…… 😂
….or enough rope to hang himself Rico? 😉
I reckon Ozil will play well Cicero, no doubt with the armband on… lol
This will be 10-0 at least…………..we shall master Bate with ease !
https://twitter.com/Arsenal/status/1098622372062654471
Is anyone praying ?
rico 5.16, couldn’t agree more, a case of……….swim for your lives !!!
Ha ha Micko.
A good start and thank you Bate for your generosity. Great try by Xhaka. At last a corner that wasn’t totally squandered.
Cicero, if it’s a London bus it’s bound to turn up late, if it’s a rope he needs I’m sure Scott can help him out !
C’mon Arsenal.
Before that went in, I said 2-1 Mustafi 😜😜
Great determination to get that one.
Micko, play nicely……
more 47 minutes+ extra time
We need, at least, one more goal…
Hleb coming on.
We’ve got Sokratis back and lost Koscielny. Sokratis scores with almost his first touch. Another good corner, that makes two out of about a dozen.
The short corners have been the problem tonight I reckon. Xhaka usually takes a good one..
Aaahhh Micko, as my grandmother always said, sarcasm is the wit of the uneducated.
How right she was 🙂
We’re ok rico….honest.
You play nicely too Scott.
3-0 we should be Micko. Lol
I don’t think that was anything but a low key affair. A clean sheet but then apart from one attempt that needed clearing off the line Bate where no threat whatsoever. Second half was played at walking pace.
Wonder of wonders, Ozil completed ninety minutes.
Job done, last 16, nice draw tomorrow please !
Three and easy. Well, kind of.. lol
A swaggering victory over the Belorussian team. Hoorah!
Very disappointed as I predicted 10-0 and I was serious !
How did my favourite Mesut walks on water play ? 🙂
Anyone one in the next round as long as it`s not a Madrid team, a Munich team, a Turin team, a London team, a Sevillian team, a Milan team………………………….are Carrierbag still in it ?
Ozil was average I thought..
Ozil average probably means he was the best player on the pitch then ! 🙂
Any highlights tonight ?……………………………..I`d look if I could wrestle the tv remote from the missus !
Tryting to wrestle the TV remote away from her whilst the soaps are on is like getting in a cage and trying to lick a Lions t-bone steak !
After tonites result maybe a few more will get behind Emery again, personally I’d like to see him add to his tally of 7 trophies that he won in France before he leaves this summer, won’t catch me knocking him.
Uffff!!!
It was very difficult! We needed a own goal and two corners marked by defenders.
Your i”playmaker”, Ozil, plays in “slippers”. And it’s very slow. In the League, it does not have space, time and does not yield.
Liechteiner defends better than MN but is slow, no longer has speed, athletic bearing and lung. It proves what I have said of the great mistake of January: not to have gone to get a right back. On the other hand, with a “true” right back, games are won and attack the full width of the field.
Suarez came in and the game is over. The fans themselves went away with ten minutes left. You must have realized that he does not add anything to the team, quite the contrary.
Teams to avoid: Naples, Inter, Valencia, Sevilla, Benfica, Chelsea, Salzburg, Zenith, D. Kiev, Francfort, Leverkusen, Rennes.
So basically JM we need to avoid all the teams left in the competition to win it !………………………….could be tricky !
😆
No, we can be lucky with D. Zagreb, VillaReal, Slavia of Prague.
Villarreal would do me, it would be great to see Santi on the pitch again.
Best thing that can be said about tonight’s game was it was a walk in the park, apart from Koscielny’s injury.
Can someone please tell me what Iwobi’s function is in this team. The lad puts in a great effort and achieves sweet f a.
I thought Lichtsteiner he did pretty well, he got behind their defence and put some good crosses in, not his fault that nobody was busting a gut to get onto the end of them. What defensive work he was called on to do he coped with well.
We’ll need to be much better on Sunday against the Tottenham Homeless XI.
Good night all.
Sorry about that guys, HH crashed overnight. I blame it on us winning… lol
New post up now.
Southampton and Bournemouth next, we really need to take maximum points from those two games because it’s the NLD after that and if we get anything from that game it’ll be a miracle.
Morning Gooners
Morning Rico, are you up yet? 😄