There’s a weird trend right now whenever someone criticizes Arsenal. If I say that Emery has made a ton of mistakes, that after 50+ games of football he should know his best formation, and that we should be more organized, the answer comes back “but with this crew of players, how can anyone coach them?”
Have you seen Brighton Hove and Albion? They have a player who has pubic hair installed on his forehead because he somehow (wrongly) thinks that pubes on your head are less embarrassing than baldness. Or how about Crystal Palace? Playing with a striker who hadn’t scored in two years, a single player who can dribble and complains a lot, and Andros Townsend. Have you seen them play football? Both of those teams look pretty organized. Both of those teams seem to know what their best formations are. Both of those teams have a lot of really poor players. How is it that they know what their game plan is? How is it that they can come to the home of the mighty Arsenal and take 4 points?
I think Emery does have a plan. It’s a simple plan. Play 7 defenders, try to get the ball in to the fullbacks, whip in crosses. But then what does he do against Brighton? Plays his two least mobile, slowest, and in the case of Lichtsteiner, incapable of getting into the box or put in a cross fullbacks. As soon as I saw the lineup, I knew we were in trouble. Because I know Emery’s “system” and it only works when we have our best fullbacks on the pitch.
Yet ironically, Arsenal woke up after Brighton scored. From the 61st to the 77th minute Arsenal created 6 shots to their 1, had 1 Big Chance, and a total of 3 shots right in front of goal. The momentum had swung in our favor. It looked like this group were going to win the game. Then Emery put on the best fullbacks, and got the team on the pitch that he sort of wants, and it killed the momentum that we had been building.
In the final 16 minutes of play, Arsenal created 5 shots to their 4 – all of ours were low percentage headers and blocked shots, they had two Big Chances. Emery’s tinkering, Emery’s preferred system, with his best players made Arsenal worse both offensively and defensively.
That 16 minutes was a microcosm of this whole season.
And of course it’s not Emery’s fault that Granit Xhaka tugged and tripped a player in the box. Was it a soft penalty? Sure. It was one of those pens where the player trips because the guy behind him is too close and accidentally hits the trailing leg (in running, I believe this is called the “kick”) which causes the trip. Soft penalty, yes. And you know what really sells it to the ref, though? The little shoulder tug. What is Xhaka even doing?
Of course it’s my fault. That shoulder tug is 100% my fault because I don’t like Xhaka. That’s why he’s such a mentalist because I criticize him.
Maybe Xhaka just saw into the future. He looked at 5 million versions of the future and the only one that we win the Europa League is the one where he tugs that guy, Anthony Taylor awards a soft penalty and we drop out of top four. That’s the only thing that explains it.
It’s also not Emery’s fault (entirely) that his team took 50 minutes off in the middle of the game in which we had five lazy shots from outside the 18 yard box. It’s not his fault that Mkhitaryan was so diabolical or that Xhaka shot straight into the wall on free kicks, twice.
As an aside… why we are so terrible at set plays? We are literally the worst team on set plays this season. We have generated the fewest set play shots. That’s really weird and makes me wonder what it is that we are doing in training? I mean, we aren’t training to hold the ball because we don’t do that very well and we also aren’t training to get inventive shots off corners. Our defense is ragged. We can’t handle transitions. We struggle on our own counter attacks. So, what are we practicing? Just overlaps over and over again?
Yet another response that I see over and over is that “this is Wenger’s team” and that we need to give “Emery time to create his own team”. It is fair to mention that Arsenal did bring in Xhaka, Mustafi, Auba, Mkhi, Laca, Bellerin, Ramsey, Cech, Monreal, Koscielny, Iwobi, Özil, Elneny, Maitland-Niles, and all but a handful of players before Emery got there. In fact, the common wisdom is that Emery didn’t even get to pick Guendouzi, Torreira, Sokratis, Lich, or Leno. He wanted Banega and Nzonzi. So, he’s gotten none of those players he wants.
It’s also not the players’ fault nor the coach’s fault that Arsenal’s board rescinded Ramsey’s deal, gave a huge payout to Ozil, traded for Mkhitaryan, bought Lich, signed Xhaka to a five year deal (this summer), and kept Arsene Wenger two years past his sell-on date. That last bit is especially true. It’s not Emery’s fault that Arsenal gave Wenger a new deal in 2017, after he had run out of steam with the players and supporters.
It’s also not Emery’s fault, nor the player’s fault that the club selected Unai Emery to be the manager this summer. A manager who was clearly on his way down the managerial ladder after bombing out at PSG.
It’s not the coach’s fault that Arsenal lost Sven and are now going to rely solely on Sanllehi, whose signature move so far to date has been to dip back into his old club and pull out Denis Suarez.
The reality of the situation at Arsenal is that there is a giant mess. Who is to blame? The players? The owner/managers? The coach? Yes. Yes. And Yes.
Arsenal have massive contracts for players who either don’t fit Emery’s system or are liabilities. The cost to get rid of and replace those players is well over £100m. Even just getting rid of Mustafi – who is like a bomb exploding in the defense – would be a massive coup but subsidizing his salary and buying a replacement is probably going to cost £25m. Replacing Ramsey is at least another £25m. Finding a way to move Ozil and/or Mkhitaryan is going to be difficult and getting in a replacement wide player is probably upwards of £50m. And I don’t think there are going to be many teams lining up for Xhaka’s services. Arsenal also need a right back (£10m), a left back (£10m), and a third option striker (someone tall) is probably £20m.
But Kroenke isn’t going to spend that money. And unless Arsenal can generate it without him I think we are going to be stuck with this squad, mostly, for at least another two years. And there is zero chance that Emery will be fired this summer. It’s just not going to happen because it would cost money and Arsenal don’t want to spend money on firing someone, Steve Bould is still at the club for that exact reason.
That said, Emery promised to make Arsenal better. Let’s not forget that we were the worst Arsenal side for 22 years last season. The players had downed tools and stabbed Wenger in the back. From January on, Arsenal were a moveable disaster. Emery’s only job was to get Arsenal to play better.
But Arsenal have gotten worse under Emery than we were under Wenger. That’s objectively true. No question in terms of data points – Arsenal’s football is significantly worse under Emery. Fewer shots taken, more shots allowed, fewer expected goals, more expected goals allowed. We can’t defend, we can’t control possession, we don’t press out of possession, and now toward the end of the season it really looks like we have given up. This is hugely worrying.
And none of this is a surprise if you watched Emery at Sevilla, Valencia, or PSG. His teams are always like this – overly defensive (but not great at it), mentally fragile, error prone, and he even went an entire season without a single away win.
But is it the coach? Yes. Is it the players? Yes. Is it the owners? YES.
But it’s irrelevant. I can get hopping mad if I want but it’s going to be extremely difficult to repair this squad, the owners are not going to fire Emery this year, and there is zero chance that we will see Kroenke leave the club until the stadium is as empty as a Serie A game on a routine basis.
“Maybe Xhaka just saw into the future. He looked at 5 million versions of the future and the only one that we win the Europa League is the one where he tugs that guy, Anthony Taylor awards a soft penalty and we drop out of top four. That’s the only thing that explains it.”
Content like this is what I’m here for. Xhaka the saviour! He’s certainly strange.
I felt the same about set pieces. It’s so weird. Like do we not practice them at all?
I agree they won’t fire Emery, and especially not if we do win the EL (inshallah). But there is a chance someone says, hold on, this style of football is destroying our brand. I can’t be sure but it seemed to me that there were many empty seats yesterday.
But this goes beyond the stadium. Arsenal expanded their fan base at a time when we weren’t winning trophies. The style of play and the ‘values’ we advertised were a big part of the appeal.
About style, is actually quite true. I used to enjoy watching our games, even when we weren’t particularly competitive against top teams, because we usually would play a pretty football. Now I think results wise we are pretty much the same, but matches are pretty hard to watch, either because they are boring and all goals we score seem to be a bit flukey (when we win) or because it is terrible and hard to look at(when we lose or draw). I actually enjoy our football much less than before, though in recent years, especially once we lost Santi, quality of football dropped significantly. I always kinda felt that we no longer had enough of players who are technically good enough to play wengerball.
I’m sorry, but what ‘values’? Wenger’s Arsenal til the Summer of Cech arguably represented values. Post-that, it was a company man fronting for a robber baron.
I’d keep Emery for nothing other than the fact that he had the cojones in his first season to demand investment on par with the van Dijk transfer. Hell, if we go through another transfer season similar to the last one, I fully expect him to walk, solving our “is he better than Wenger” nonsense.
Players like Xhaka and Mustafi have been here three years, owners have been here more than a decade, how in the world are we concluding that “Arsenal have gotten worse under Emery than we were under Wenger”?
I fully accept that the word “good” doesn’t sit comfortably next to this team, but it is (somehow) 4 points ahead of our points total for last year, has taken more points off top 6 opposition, is 3 points off 4th rather than 7 points off 5th, and is (slightly) favoured to make a Europa League final.
If none of this cause for hope (which it’s not, the future looks bleak), it’s squarely on the owners and the players who are emulating their bloated complacency.
I remember when the Arsenal blogosphere was all heart-eyes for Arteta. Keep pretending that “the buck stops with the manager” when it clearly doesn’t at this club, and we’ll be welcoming our own Solskjaer equivalent ere long.
What values? Some of those were listed by Gazidis with Emery next to him saying why he got the job. A commitment to playing attacking football, a commitment to playing youth. Other values under Wenger and even Gazidis? We would never renege on a verbal understanding, let alone with our longest serving player. This predates Wenger btw. Ramsey was not even informed and his initial farewell message was as curt as possible. Danny Welbeck would have had more than a small keepsake, if not a new contract. Ozil would not have been relegated to the stands a year after signing a deal that the club was happy to give him*
So no, it’s not all on Emery. Never said it was. I want Raul out, and ultimately it is the owners who are responsible. But Emery plays boring, dull, cowardly football and alienates his best players while doing it. Not just at Arsenal. Our attack and defense are both WORSE. Mental strength? Hah. Tactical preparedness? No chance. He’s made us worse, no question. It’s even more crazy to want to give him a chance when you and I both know that the owners are not going to splash the cash. Far from balls, its cowardice. He was supposed to work with what he had. I don’t like his work. Even more, I dislike his vision.
But, he’s here to stay. Like Raul. And we’re going to go in a direction that whatever short term gains it might bring, is ultimately taking us down into perennial mediocrity. I can only hope someone on the board sees the coming fan disinterest and has the gumption to speak out and change Kroenke’s mind.
*I don’t even think it was too much or a bad decision. Ozil has commercial value which Arsenal have since exploited and now deem him expendable.
“there is zero chance that we will see Kroenke leave the club until the stadium is as empty as a Serie A game on a routine basis,”
He’s bet big on NFL football by financing a new stadium himself which is a bad bet for the future; declining ratings, declining youth participation rates, CTE concerns, declining attendances.
Perhaps there will come a day in the near future where he finds himself in enough financial distress after his NFL bet that he needs to sell off AFC. It’s a small hope, because otherwise the lack of ambition shown by the owner is what filters down through the ranks, down through Sanhelli, down through Emery, down through the players, down right into the groundskeepers.
The Rams made the Superbowl last season. The Denver Nuggets have been building up once again and could potentially make the conference finals. Maybe we should trust their restructuring process.
I mean, I don’t. But maybe I should. They don’t seem so unambitious there. Why would they be about Arsenal?
They tripped onto “success” with those franchises… in sports built around the draft and leagues that have financial rules to encourage parity. And the Kroenkes have won exactly zero titles with all the teams they own. Their young dynamic Rams team was ripped to shred by exactly the type of team and structure that you find more typically in soccer – New England has a master tactician at the helm, a deep and solid infrastructure for scouting and drafting, a long term vision of who they are and the types of players they bring in… and Tom Brady.
We are going to be mired in this 4th to 8th realm of mediocrity for the indefinite future. It will be enough to give us some hope without ever being truly competitive at the top level. At best we may land on a manager that produces some exciting football for a few years.
Also, from what I can tell, the Rams are run on the cheap. They are investing in young players (the Seattle model for QBs) and cutting them when they want the big payouts. The Rams success is a fugazi.
Nope, not being done on the cheap. Aaron Donald is the highest-paid defensive player in NFL history.
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000957415/article/rams-sign-aaron-donald-to-6year-135m-extension
But a salary cap league is very different than PL, as Jack mentioned.
Oh yeah, they have a few player that get paid, but from what I’ve read, they are under the cap.
https://overthecap.com/salary-cap/los-angeles-rams/
https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/los-angeles-rams/cap/
https://theramswire.usatoday.com/2018/12/11/nfl-rams-salary-cap-projection-2019/
Kroenke is hardly spending dough on that team. Looks like yet another one of these “self-sustaining” jobbies he loves so much.
What LA Gunner said is why I had the impression that they were going for it (and the No1 draft pick trade for Goff). But LA is a big market so maybe they earn even more. I don’t know about the Rams, but I like what Denver has done, and maybe it is a model for us. Of course salary caps and draft makes a big difference.
Anyway, like I said, I still don’t trust their restructure, nor the people they’ve chosen to manage it. Just trying to find some hope.
I needed to add – when Robert Kraft is not getting digital insertions at Asian massage parlors, he’s an incredibly involved and competitive owner who relishes those moments he gets his Superbowl rings (which are promptly stolen by Putin). He is the very opposite to Stan Kroenke.
Just correcting a matter of fact and offering some context for another.
NFL ratings were up 5% last season.
Attendance was down, but 1.9% Just under 34 million is hardly tumbleweeds blowing through. There may well be a day when the NFL isn’t printing money, but that being in the “…near future…” would appear to reflect wishful thinking more than the numbers.
I agree. Also, if the NFL is ever in trouble, there is still a whole world out there to market itself to. Though no one really gets it or cares, the Superbowl is already a recognisable name and an event. They can build on that. They’re not going anywhere.
The world is not interested in american football. The three most popular sports in the world are soccer, basketball and cricket. Cricket is an outlier because it’s huge in India and Pakistan, so there’s 1.3 billion people right there. But the other two have something in common – they’re simple. Soccer = ball and a field, basketball = ball and a hoop.
American Football with all its equipment requirements, seeming thousand rules and 300lb behemoths who never actually touch the ball and probably couldn’t play any other sport other than sumo wrestling… it is not a sport that is relatable to a kid in Asia, the middle east or eastern Europe. And the World Football league was a flop.
I stick to my contention that American football maxed out its appeal about four or five years ago and is on the decline. Once youth participation rates in a sport start to dramatically drop that’s the death knell – you have guys like LeBron James saying they would never let their kids play football because of the CTE risks.
I encourage everyone to read Against Football by Steve Almond. Once you read that you will not think postively about the NFL or college football again.
I don’t think positively of them. Though might have a read. Thanks.
I’m saying that there is a market. No one cares about American football because an elite product has never been marketed properly to people in, let’s say, India. (Yeah the Mark Wahlberg league was a joke)
25 years ago, no one really cared about football except in some pockets of the country. Not until the PL started broadcasting.
The 3rd biggest sports league in India today is Kabbadi. A local game, but one which no one would ever have thought to watch before a professional league was created, and televised extensively. One of the teams just drafted a former NFL player, incidentally.
I agree with the issue of equipment and complexity. But I think you underestimate the capacity of billions of people with growing incomes, to absorb new sporting content.
I will wager this based on the team out on display last night, that Emery threw the game based on his preference for the Europa League, he wanted Kola and Maitland Niles his chosen weapons for the 3-4-3 well rested for Valencia away.
I think we will see a hungrier EL side. Emery maybe thought we could ride on the crest of our home form to a simple victory, but the players couldn’t capitalize on the soft penalty.
Thursday is about meeting the target set by Emery’s bosses.
Here’s a radical point of view. In the past 24 months the owners have fired the longest serving manager, installed a new style first team coach, rejigged the organisation structure (youth, performance, recruitment experts) so the coach is supported and can focus on their job, bought the two most expensive players in the club’s history and invested £70M last Summer in an experienced CB, an emerging CDM and youth with hopefully large potential.
During this season we’ve been served drab football and results. Does anyone believe that any of our players have improved this season? Does anyone believe any of our players are more valuable (greater resale value) this season? When the SAME mistakes keep occurring it doesn’t take great insight to fathom the root cause.
I bet the owners didn’t plan to miss CL football next season. I bet they like us thought two weeks ago we were nailed on to qualify.
Final thought. 24 months ago ‘Pool pipped us to fourth (76 vs 75 points). This season they will finish between 24-30 points above us.
Pool is an interesting example. Klopp didn’t instantly fix things there. They still finished 8th the season he took over. But they had good investment and smart recruiting. And on the basis of evidence so far Klopp is also better on motivation.
I’ve said my piece on Kroenke. He may be in effect, the demise of our club. Full stop. As for the coach:
“…Arsenal have gotten worse under Emery”. 100%.
I thought I was ready for the post-Wenger it’-going-to-get-worse-before-it-gets better future. Hell, no. Because I can’t stand the way we play. Or not play. Or whatever it is the f$%k we think we’re doing out there. It’s terrible to watch, to experience. The only thing I hate more than losing is losing badly. And we have played very badly for most of this season, even through our ugly but winning run of matches earlier in the season. Winning was never so awful to watch.
Only two more matches to endure. And we win get through to Europe final, I suppose one more. But I honestly don’t know if I will watch that live.
Honestly, 7am and the Arseblog are the only things that are keeping my Arsenal addiction going right. It’s certainly not the club. How sad is that?
That’s sadder then the GoT writers stripping Dany of all her power, her dignity, her armies, her dragons, and her claim to the throne.
You know what’s weird? Even though to date, I have not seen a single GoT episode, I am reading episode summaries, don’t ask me why. And if I read enough, d%$t starts to make sense even horribly out of context. And I find myself half-interested. It must be the Arsenal effect. So thanks for that.
That’s been a big disappointment. Suddenly, she’s just another power-hungry b!tch. And John just “Aww shucks” his way to the throne. Who else thinks Dani dies by the end?
Why does this surprise people? They’ve been hinting at this almost from the beginning I thought. The whole Mereen story about how it’s difficult to put lofty principles into practice. The burning of the Tarlys. The overriding ambition to rule.The breaking the wheel thing was a way to show how good intentions still create tyrants.
My guess:
Dany’s triumph will be through sacrifice.
Sansa ends up being the winner of the Game of Thrones. Someone who has no pretensions of being above it all, and has learned the hard way, from the best/worst.
I will be utterly pissed when they kill off all the dragons but leave us with a shot of some eggs somewhere or some nonsense.
in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes, and you can add Kreonke milking Arsenal and not investing a single penny to the list. as long as the club is very profitable he will never leave so his lack of investment is very fixed be it during the Wenger era and now in Unai’s reign. for that our owner is very consistent but i cant say the same about the manager. as bad as our squad is you cant pardon losing to Brighton, Palace, Leicester and Wolves in the business end of the season. investment or no investmet those teams are beatable and at least we should have managed draws. getting 4 points out of a possible 18 in a run in calls for heads to roll unless the team are favourites for relegation.
We’ll put Tim. Can’t argue with any of it.
How dumb is Xhaka though?
He had the best view of the Monreal penalty dive from two yards away and it apparently didn’t even cross his mind that Taylor would look at it at half time and might try to make up for being duped.
I guess we’ll see relative to Kroenke this summer. If we win the EL, they may take it as some degree of validation, and not invest that much. If we lose the EL, then we have major red flags, and if there wasn’t some significant investment, we’re going to be in for a hard time. But as others have pointed out, KSA has invested in the Rams and Nuggets, so there is some evidence they are trying to compete. Question is whether that is a pattern that bodes well for Arsenal, or does it mean they will have no money to invest in Arsenal.
As far as Emery goes, he’s certainly been limited by injuries and less-than-great resources. But even setting that aside, his tactical choices have frequently left me wondering. Not only does the crossing thing not work well because we mostly don’t have wings that can cross, but we also don’t have strikers that are great for that. If we still had Giroud, or if Welbz had been healthy, we might be better off with crossing. But as good as Laca and Auba are, they just aren’t suited to that.
If Barca really wanted Laca, should we take that for enough compensation? Auba is getting towards the end of his career…seems pretty risky, in that it would leave us with no experienced scorer behind Auba.
Regarding KSE investment in the club, Kroenke has to see value in Arsenal being the only global team in his ownership portfolio.
No f^%king body anywhere outside the US of A knows his American teams or its best players. Guaranteed tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions all over the world know Arsenal and Arsenal’s most famous names, past and present.
If that brand recognition is of recognized potential value to KSE, then there may some investment to keep it going but only after we make a loss instead of a profit. I have nothing to go on but pure instinct but I promise you, Kroeke really, really doesn’t give a f%$k.
It should go without saying that I hope I am terribly wrong about this. But life experience has taught me that my pessimism has been a more accurate predictor of the future than my optimism.
So right, 1Nil. The Arsenal brand is way more global than the Rams are/can be. But they have a US-centric view of their biz. They don’t really understand its true potential. They understand real estate. That’s their game. Build big new stadiums to increase asset value. They are not operators or winners.
Top six and EL competition …our new trophy quest….oh how the mighty have fallen no more top four and CL unless we are lucky like Leicester City which we still cant beat….EL?….???? . Our coach should at least be able to get good players to rise to the occasions.
There was a brief moment in time when things could have been so different. Spring 2015. Arsenal were having a mediocre season finishing 3rd in the league and going out in the round of 16 (yet again!), but this time to a team arguably worse than us (Monaco). We had won the FA Cup the season before, and amazingly we retained it.
It was the perfect time for Wenger to bow out: record number of times in the Champions League in a row, retaining the FA cup after a trophy drought (and before the Leicester City debacle which probably broke the club). Had he left then he would have left on a high, adored by all, but also at the right time to allow the club to rebuild under a new manager.
Jurgen Klopp was available, having announced his departure from Dortmund in April. Had Wenger stepped away at that time and the club proved their ambition by going after a proven manager, things might have been different. But the moment passed, Wenger stayed, Klopp signed with Liverpool, and the rest is history.
Nope, Klopp would not have had the backing of ownership like he’s had at Liverpool. Even with Coutinho money (and who could we have sold to Barca for 100m? No one), would he have had the green light to go get VVD or Keita or Fabinho or Mane or Wijnaldum?
No of course – not a simple counterfactual. Klopp has benefited from a supportive owner, an excellent analytics team, excellent coaching, and a structure that actively wants to win the league.
We probably had some players we could’ve moved on for decent money (looking at the squad list, not 100m, but we still had some saleable assets), but as you say nobody so uniquely overvalued and yet non-fundamental to the team as Coutinho.
So yes, not a perfect counterfactual at all. All I mean to say is Klopp was a legitimately, genuinely top class we could have got at a time which was ideal for Wenger to have stepped down (and Liverpool hadn’t overtaken us back then – we were still a more attractive proposition). I could’ve said Pep a year later, but he was never going to join us.
I look around at who might be available now, and I don’t see many this summer. And for those gleefully saying we should’ve kept Wenger… I can’t believe such petty, small-type myopia. We all knew he had to go. We’ve barely improved this season, if at all, but that doesn’t take into account the downwards trend we had under Wenger. Sometimes slowing the trend, nevermind stopping it or reversing it, is progress.
I’m of the mind that Emery gets another year. If there’s no tangible progress in that time then we can only hope a quality coach is available next summer.
Emery definitely should get another year… he’s been disappointing on a lot of fronts but that said most second tier managers (and that’s what he is) need an adjustment period to the PL. To finish 5th in his first year in a roster with problems is not awful. I’m pretty sure if Bellerin had been healthy the whole year, given Emery’s system relies so heavily on fullback play, we may have seen some better results and we may have actually finished top 4.
And, we have to see what rabbits they pull out of the bag this summer. If it’s half-dead bunnies like Carrasco and Nzonzi, well then we have a problem.
Yeah this is kind of where I fall as well. And that’s a good point – I think the long-term absences of Bellerin, Holding and Welbeck (yes, Welbeck) have been ignored to some degree. Bellerin is crucial to how Emery wants us to play, and it took us a while before AMN emerged as the only semi-competent-but-hardly-ideal back-up. With him and Bellerin I think we’re set there.
Holding’s absence has meant we’ve had to rely heavily on a broken Koscielny, with Mustafi in the line-up far too often. And Welbeck, much maligned, would have been a very useful option to rotate between all the attacking positions. I daresay he’d be above Miki and Iwobi for the wide attacking positions.
Also worth remembering that, until this last week, our home form has been among the best in the league. So there are serious questions to be asked about the away form which goes beyond personnel and possibly even tactics. Do we have a sports psychologist on staff? How does the team prepare? What’s going on there? It goes beyond Emery, because this was a serious issue in the last year or two of Wenger as well.
According to the link below, we are 3rd in the home table and 10th in the away table. 22 pts from 18 games is crazy. We want to be up there with Chelsea (and CP!) at 29 at least – around 1.5 points a game.. That’s 7 more points, which is 3rd place.
https://www.soccerstats.com/homeaway.asp?league=england
ZED – Agreed! Bellerin and Holding were much bigger injuries than anyone knew at the time. Not only were they playing their positions well, they were young and strong – less likely to wear down over the season, like Mkhi, Kos, Ozil and even Auba. We became so left-sided after Bellerin went down. This team has ZERO depth.
This same Klopp has spent 400m pounds in 4years and won 0 trophy, what makes you think he will deliver at arsenal under this management?
The zero trophies is b/s… Champions League final and semi-final in back to back years. Europa league final. 2nd place league finish to one of the greatest teams in the past 20 years in all of football – assembled for something approaching 1 billion. Creating stars out of cast-off bin buys like Wijnaldum.
I would gladly take that record over the past 5 years.
It really is all 3. If you force me to rank order the biggest of the 3, I’d say. Owner, Roster, Coach. SKE doesn’t care. We are an investment that (let’s hope) they sell at a big profit sometime soon. They can manage a salary cap team, but not the PL. They are not interested in titles at ANY of their teams. Just making them more valuable investments. They want them to be profitable. If they lose money, they will become involved. Only then.
The roster is really problematic. Which of our guys is in the first XI at other clubs? Maybe Laca or Auba at Chelsea or MU. That’s it. We are terrible mix of un-athletic, old, inexperienced, and poor to mediocre. We are prone to errors and mental weakness. We pay way more than we should for the squad we have.
Emery has made a lot of lemonade out of lemons this year, but he made weird player selections, chose odd formations and put personal vendettas ahead of winning with his management of Ramsey and Ozil. And his football was ugly. But without backing from management, and without players, there’s only so much you can do. He was bound to make mistakes. CP was a huge one. But injuries – 5 guys finished the year that way – that’s a big load for any coach to carry. I don’t think he’s a long term solution, but he’s less of a problem than the owners and players imo.
We’ve played unexciting football all season. There was that bump in the riad phase when UE chose not to play Ozil and Ramsey and when the chips were down and we were holding all the cards, the team folded – embarrassingly and completely. We were in the right position against manageable opponents and it fell to pieces. Sure, you can want to give UE another year. I just think we will be right here next season. I hope we do win the Europa but its now just a hope bereft of any confidence. Stay or go, I doubt I will be spending much time watching football as unentertaining as this.
Plus I already hate this season for having to say goodbye to Ramsey & Welbeck…plenty of blame to go all around then
Let me start by pointing out that the man who wears the iconic No 4 jersey for campions-elect Manchester City is the colossal Vincent Kompany. Someone, somewhere acceded to a request by Mohamed Elneny to let him have Arsenal’s. You’re going to say that getting twisted over jersey numbers is nitpicking from me. But I cant think of a better example to illustrate the gulf between the clubs. Arsenal have become what Brits call a “banter club.” We’re not serious. We really aren’t.
Beat one of Palace, Leicester, Everton and Brighton in the run-in, and we’d have locked down 3rd. One. Just one. We couldn’t do that. I don’t know about you guys, but I reckon that this will go down as the worst collapse in our recent history. It’s unforgivable on the part of the players. Maybe some of us can finally stop talking about not winning the league in the season Leicester won it. This run in is far, far worse.
I haven’t commented here for a while, because Arsenal have worn me down.
The club is shot through with incompetence from top to bottom. Awarding players contracts they don’t deserve, letting assets (players) run down contracts to zero, letting one of our best players (who plainly loves the club) walk for nothing. Not having the balls to let Wenger leave earlier. Managing to lose Sven and Ivan before the new coach’s feet were properly under the table.
It’s soul crushing to see our incompetence. Over the years on this blog, guys would talk about getting turned off from watching Arsenal, and I’d gravely lecture them about your club support being as important as your marriage vow, through thick and thin and all that. But what started as a period of me being slightly busy with work, morphed into me not being able to bear to watch that shambles of a team.
Forward players who can’t shoot. Wingers who cant wing it. Central midfielders who cant defend. Dammit, DEFENDERS who cant defend. Do we practice corners, free kicks, throw-ins (as Tim astutely notes)? We win a free kick halfway in the opponents half and tap it to someone 2 yards to the left. For every other team is a set piece opportunity to test keeper and defensive organisation. We score early and play pattycake for an hour, still up by the one goal. I’ve never seen us take a long throw into the opposition box. In fact, a pretty high number of them get turned over.
The whole team is shot through with passivity. Rememer that game where we thrashed Moyes’ Everton 7 -nil? Can you see this team putting its boot on the neck of fourth division cup opponents?
Arsenal have worn me down. I cant even bear to see Aubameyang miss another tap in, good as he has been overall. The guy should be having a 35 goal season, not a twenty-something one.
I’ll stop now. I haven’t seen any of the last 5 or 6 Arsenal games, and I’ll probably miss the season closer and the Valencia return. I’ve become the fan I used to wag my finger at.
Same.. Criticising and wanting the coach and CEO out. It would be funny if it weren’t so painful.
But my problem is not simply their incompetence. I can view that with patience and forgiveness for a while. Indeed I did for much of the season. But I’ve come to realise that I fundamentally disagree with their vision. A vision of a boring style of play. Of cowardice masked as pragmaticism. A club which puts money ahead of people. Prioritises contacts with agents over squad building with a smart and holistic approach.
This is not Arsenal. I don’t care about our league position or even the trophy we might win. That’s good (or not) but not the reason I follow the club.
In the warm light of morning the post looks emotional. Am I a bit privileged? We will, after all, finish a place higher than last year.
But what you say about vision is right. We’ve talked about this a lot here, you and I.
So yeah, I stand by what I wrote here.
Was wondering where you’ve been! We miss you, Claude. As a newbie, I haven’t yet gotten completely frustrated with Arsenal, but it’s coming. All your points are spot on. But I hope you come back here – your opinions are well-considered, and that extends beyond football.
So, sorry Claudeivan. Though I’m not far behind you. Sadly, I agree fully with your appraisal. I’d add game psychology/management to your list of ‘ don’t these guys ever ….’ This team failed to capitalize on the soft penalty and put the opposition back into their box. We gave them ample mind-space to encourage belief that they could score. Then at 1:1 with 10 minutes to go Emery opted to throw the fight for a goal and three points with his 3 substitutions. Why not rather throw the dice and give a proper striker, Eddie, conveniently sitting on the bench, his chance? Unforgivable.
Panic and cowardice camouflaged as pragmatism. Granted it was two to three games too late. For me though it compounded the mistakes of team and manager in the run-in. Emery may not have experienced the competitiveness of the EPL up to and including the final game, but surely someone at the club (Bould, Ramsey, the doctor or tea person even) should have continually emphasized that to him over the last 5 games of the season. Unforgivable.
I fear a decent into mediocracy for all the reasons mentioned on here, but also because I cannot see one person at the club that combines authority, with knowledge of the EPL, and who cherishes our brand and style of football. I prefer the heartache of reaching for the stars and falling just short (as one of Liverpool or Man City will) than this heartache of watching a loved one decline and become insignificant in a stadium that exists only to highlight and underline that demise.
Although our squad is unbalanced, inadequately motivated, inappropriately rewarded and just not good enough, and our current coach hasn’t got the nous or balls to compete successfully in the PL, the ownership is Arsenal’s biggest problem. In his own words, Kroenke is not ‘in it to win it’. Arsenal is a trophy in itself for him and that’s as far a it goes. Although games in the fag-end of the Wenger years were often unpleasant to watch because of the same old inadequacies being repeated, at least the football we played was occasionally delightful and false dawns as they always were, we had moments of hope that we were one or two players away from having a top team playing Wengerball Mk IV. Don’t get me wrong, it was indeed overdue that he left and after the consecutive FA Cup win would have been well-timed but it’s not the coach that’s killing this club it’s the Kroenke philosophy. Well, I’m tired of watching this poor quality football by players who lack motivation, drive and ambition. I’m not renewing my two longstanding season tickets because of the quality of football, the sense of deflation around the club and because I don’t want to contribute my hard-earned cash to the Kroenke nightmare. Several ST holders around us feel the same way. The stadium was only 80% full for the final home game when we still had a very good chance of finishing top four (remember the sneering when 3rd or 4th was the best we could do?) with a win and fewer fans stayed for the ‘lap of appreciation’ including the farewell to Aaron Ramsey than I have ever seen at a final game in over 25 years. That’s a taste of things to come. During the years of Wenger decline, there was lots of anger in the stadium, now there’s depression and a sense of disconnection. Welcome to the Kroenke wilderness years. If the owner doesn’t give a toss, why should the fans (sorry, customers)?
Some science fiction: how many of you guys, passionate fans of Arsenal, would still support the club if they hired Mourinho to replace UE? As far as I’m concerned, it would be the end of a love affair.
I’ve a feeling that I’d feel nothing if we won the Europa, not for itself but simply form the deflation that’s been the denouement to our league campaign, but…I’ve long maintained that the day Mourinho joins Arsenal is the day I take a hike. I’ll happily return after he’s gone, of course.
ouch – a horrible thought!
I can’t not support Arsenal, but I’d have to do it through gritted teeth and embarrassment.
Luckily he wouldn’t join a club that wouldn’t invest at the levels he’d need.
However, we are a bit like Chelsea now, in that it seems we don’t really stand for anything (a ‘style’ or ‘values’ etc). Maybe that’s why we’re so upset at the lack of money/investment (in comparison).
Xhaka.
You can call it a soft penalty all you want (and it probably was), the guy was running full pelt.
But man, you tug at an attacker charging into you box? It’s not even sly. Xhaka’s arm was fully extended. It was blatant. I have no issues with the ref’s call.
That’s Xhaka through and through and why I decided, a year ago, that he was never going to be the quality of player we need. I’ve never liked his tuggy/niggly foul game. His poor defensive ability for a guy of his physicality.
And now he has at a single stroke, cost us a Top 4 finish. That’s assuming, of course, that we were going to beat Burnley away.
Xhakass.
Laca scored from his only free kick, then Xhaka maybe he needs glasses takes two that get half way up the wall. Has he actually got a ball past the first defender at a corner? All this video analysis , what do they analyse… March had more enthusiasm for the game than our team combined. Sokartis needs to grow up as well cut the childish stuff out, the tugs and snide looks. Maybe Chambers and Maitlend Niles in midfield with Holding and someone with the heart of Brightons centerbacks will help next year..
.
Its interesting the comparison of Klopp to Emery in terms of faith the club have in them. If memory (and Google!) serve me right, Klopp was also initially given a 2 season deal (he joined mid-season so it was kinda a 3 year deal). However after completing that initial (half) season they rewarded him with a 6 year extension.
ie they bought into his vision and plan.
I thought there was a vision being bought into with Emery (incl playing youth, attacking pressure football etc) and I was ready for this season to be a 6th place but that we’d have put in a new style of play.
I now don’t think the Arsenal Board/ Raul et al gave a damn about any long-term plan Emery may have had. Just get us into the CL this season or next with minimal investment. If you surprise us like Klopp did at ‘Pool then fair enough, otherwise when we reach the CL we’ll cut you loose and get a CL manager, CL funds and then invest those CL funds into the team and whatever ‘vision’ that manager has.
I get why everyone is so down (me too) because if we don’t win the EL in Baku, then next season we may have a couple of new faces in the squad, but the target will be the same short-term goal of “get us into the CL” which will make using youth/ developing a style etc unlikely as both inevitably cost you points.