Football is a cruel game. As if Unai Emery didn’t already have enough on his plate, the Premier League fixtures were released and threw up 2017/2018 champions Manchester City at the Emirates followed by a new look Chelsea team away at Stamford Bridge. In the opening fixture, Arsenal struggled to contain a Manchester City team who still look as irresistible as last season and this would have been the case irrespective of who was at the helm; most realistic fans were aware that this fixture was effectively a write off before the ink had dried on the fixtures list.
From a footballing perspective, the game at The Bridge was as calamitous as it was worrying, with the Gunners’ defensive frailties once again coming to the fore in a game which could have ended 5-5. Now the dust has settled and with seemingly winnable games on the horizon, what can we expect from Arsenal this season and what would constitute success for Unai Emery and his team this season?
European Football Is a Minimum Requirement
By now, Arsenal are well aware of what the Europa League is all about and, if truth be told, the competition feels more like a chore than a reward at times. Of course, so called “smaller” Premier League teams, such as Burnley, who regularly finish in the top 7, see their qualification as a massive feather in their cap and so they should – some fans are even selling their match tickets vs Aberdeen over at sites such as Amazon. However, for teams of Arsenal’s stature, the Europa League often represents a distraction, especially with the long and drawn out format of the competition.
On paper, it seems as though Arsenal will struggle to break into the top four this season and the bookmakers seem to agree. As of 23rd August, Arsenal are 5/2 to qualify for the Champions League, behind Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham (in that order) and, whether it be this year or next, the Gunners’ best route back into Europe’s Premier Cup competition will probably have to come via the Europa League. It’s also important to remember that, under Wenger last year, Arsenal finished 6th, and so you could argue that finishing 5th or higher would represent some sort of progression.
Defensive Progress Is An Absolute Must
Although the Chelsea match at Stamford Bridge is difficult to contemplate without shuddering, it perfectly encapsulated Arsenal’s defensive deficiencies and, if truth be told, if you didn’t know better, you’d have thought that Arsene was still in charge. Martin Keown was particularly scathing of new signing Sokratis Papastathopoulous (has anyone actually got that on the back of their shirt this year?) after the Greek defender seemingly went AWOL and left Morata one-on-one with Mustafi before the Spaniard put the ball in the back of the net in the 20th minute.
The injury to skipper Laurent Koscielny has admittedly made life harder for Emery but, when you consider that Soktaris is the only central defensive recruit that the manager has brought in, Arsenal may well be doomed to repeat the same mistakes of years gone by. On the other hand, you could argue that the signings of Torreira and Guendozi have added some steel to the midfield and a little more protection for the back four; however, only time will tell if this is enough. One thing’s for certain, sorting out Arsenal’s defence ranks high on the list of priorities for Emery and fans will be keeping a close eye on this.
A Continuation of Arsene Wenger’s Legacy
When Arsenal were at their best under Wenger in the early 2000’s, they were undoubtedly the most aesthetically pleasing team in Premier League history. However, in the last few years, the team has been guilty of overplaying without any sort of end product to show for the vast amounts of possession they often enjoyed. The game against Chelsea seemed to suggest that, going forward, Emery looks set to continue with a similar style of football but fans will be looking for more efforts on goal as opposed to attacks breaking down without so much as a whimper. Arsenal have become synonymous with a unique, attacking brand of football and the continuation of this will be seen as a mini victory amongst most ardent fans.
Patience Is Key
It’s difficult to predict exactly where Arsenal will finish this season and the first two fixtures haven’t really revealed anything we didn’t already know about the side. However, under Wenger, Arsenal famously struggled against the smaller teams in the league and it will be interesting to see how Emery handles the pressure of expectation when his team come up against the likes of Cardiff, Fulham and Wolves. Nevertheless, the man deserves time and patience is key – Rome wasn’t built in a day after all and the situation at Manchester United since Sir Alex Ferguson quit should put the difficulty of the task ahead into perspective.
A victory tomorrow!
Would be nice to get three points on the board that’s for sure..
Evening all and thanks Rico.
Arsenal U21`s away to West Ham …………………2-0 at the mo`
To us I take it Lc?
No………………..3-1 to us ! 🙂
Oops make that 3-2 !
Can’t any of our teams defend….
rico….8:25…..NO
Reckon you’re right Vcc…
Night guys..
Errrr rico, VCC, a bit harsh imo, of course our teams can defend, only problem is you have to go back 20 years to find one.
Morning/evening all.
One thing that always stood with our very best sides was how quickly and directly we counter attacked.
No high press, but no pussy footing around when we did have the ball.
We haven’t really seen that approach in years.
Anyway, a 3-1 win to us this weekend will do nicely.
Obi touched on a great point in yesterday’s discussion.
So many managers try to replicate what the very best sides are doing on the pitch, yet you’re playing catch up because they’re already doing it, and they have the quality of players to do it better so are managers wise to try?
Wouldn’t they be better off trying to make the very best of their players and find a system to suit?
Best to play a game that can and should beat 15-16 clubs than focus on the best 1 or 2 clubs, especially when you just can not do it as well as them.
This high press, playing out from the back is something I can’t get my head around and I admit to not being great on tactics, but I remember seeing Leicester win the league because they did exactly what they could do best.
What do we do best?
I don’t know because it’s been so long since we’ve done anything but this slow, patient build up that often ended up with the opposition turning us over via a counter attack yet the very few times WE played counter attacking Football, we did pretty well.
Going back to Walcott, wasn’t he England’s next big shining light and scoring goals for fun at Southampton, signing him was a real coup at the time, it was all over the news !
Wegner had fielded an all foreign starting 11 the season before so the pressure was on.
As usual he fcuked it up, chose Walcott head of Bale, further on down the line Eisfeld ahead of Gotze and Gervinho ahead of Hazard, although having said that we all know Gerv is better than Eden !
Not being funny but I can’t believe Racing Strasbourg haven’t snapped up Arsene this summer , it can only be a matter of time lol.
Hi Scott. Tony Adams said similar today in newspaper. We haven’t and won’t (financial constraints) have the players to beat top teams like Man City at their own game.
Hi Andrew,
I didn’t see the article, I swear lol
Emery playing our from the back won’t work with Cech-just for starters-so either change the plan or the player(s).
I’d change the plan, as there is no possible way we can win when cheap imitations, relatively speaking.
Micko, with the last two examples, we took the cheap options.
Much, much cheaper lol
Scott @ 12:26…. hence the issues that Arsenal fans have with the likes of Ozil, Xhaka, Mkhitaryan, Iwobi, Bellerin, and Ramsey. Collectively, they couldn’t play AW style of football and now they can’t play Emery’s. They give away the ball consistently, can’t sustain a press, don’t move the ball quickly, can’t pass and don’t track back. In every game about 6 to 8 players on the pitch are not useful, that’s a lot. We have enough sample size to know that Emery has an impossible task with this collective.
If at the end of the process, most of the players will be let go, why not limit the liability by integrating the younger players now or play a system that is complimentary to the players you have? We have seen enough to know that Stan is not going on Man City style spending spree. Which again comes back to the point, If you are paying 300k p.w. and 200k p.w for players let them earn it dont give them execuses play the system that suit them thus getting limited success which will make it easier to sell them.
Hi Obi,
Build around our best players or
Force them out?
I’d build around him.
When you have a player with the ability of Ozil, there’s no point turning me him into a work horse, make the most of his talents.
Morning Scott and all.
Is it about turning Ozil into a workhorse or more about expecting him to put a lot more effort into what he does. The latter for me. Wasn’t it against City he was one on one with their keeper and he pretty much bottled it. He needs to manup…
Micko, Big Sol wasn’t so bad just the fifteen years ago. Lol
Scott, to make best of Ozil talents, you need a Viera, Kante, Gilberto alongside. For so many years we thought Wenger would buy this DM and the best we got was Xhaka!
Maybe Torreira is the answer, but read he’s slower than Xhaka! Would have liked Wiltshire beside him.
Gilberto was slow Andrew.. 😜
Guendouzi is the one surprising me to a degree, he’s the guy who looks to have the ability and speed to turn defence into attack. Sure, he’s young and making the odd mistake right now but he’s only going to get better and better imo.
Rico, I’ve never agreed with all the criticism Sol got for collapsing on pitch. Not great but it’s emotions.
Not so different from Matteo hilariously thumping the ground three times after the Pierre miss. (Can spell first names without looking up!!!)
Well Adams also said yesterday Emery is too like Wenger. Maybe he has (or was it our recruitment team) found a new midfield star for peanuts in today’s market like Petit and Viera were brought in. Lower divisions do have good players, Alli was there and bought at a similar age.
Andrew, it’s always difficult in those situations imo because none of us know what’s going on in their personal life. I did chuckle though after it was suggested he wanted a move abroad before ending up at Portsmouth…
I think Adams needs to keep quiet right now, other ex players too because imo, it’s far too early to be comparing Emery and Wenger, if ever really. Wenger had control of transfers, now though I don’t think Emery does.
Seems far too early to judge Emery for me.
New post up now.