Let’s try an experiment: let’s try to just say something new about Arsenal. Sure, go and read the blogs, listen to hours of the same content on various podcasts, subscribe, patreon, all of that stuff, comment here with all of the same criticisms of Emery, I’m not at all criticizing you or anyone else for doing that, I totally get it. I just want to try something a little different today.
Feel free to tell me if I’m just repeating the same things other people are saying.
First, I never doubted that Arsenal would win yesterday. This isn’t about stats or anything objective. I just watched Vitoria and thought they were working so hard in that first half and they were clearly not one of Europe’s most technical teams, that surely a combination of tired legs and Arsenal’s superior technical ability would win the day.
That’s an unusual feeling these last two years or so. Most matches have been more uncertain. But yesterday, I felt that Arsenal just had to win this one, based purely on an emotional read of the game.
Second, I’m not sure how original this is but I’m quickly becoming an adversary of the whole chop and change routine at half-time by Unai Emery. Like I said at the start, I’m trying to say something different so I won’t launch into a well-worn complaint about Emery’s tactics. Instead I want to focus on Willock and Maitland-Niles.
By all accounts those two players had a nightmare yesterday, but by my account, Emery was the nightmare and they took the blame. Unai Emery’s half-time changes were once refreshing, but now I feel like they are potentially harmful. It’s one thing to take off a 28 year old player at half-time and change the tactics from 343 to 433. It’s a totally different thing to take off two young guys who have been played in 6 different positions this season, who were thrust into a totally different role today, and who had to play alongside totally different players tonight, and then bring on two different players to play the exact same position.
The other day I mentioned that it’s unfair to criticize players under Emery because his tactics are so bad that it’s impossible to tell if the player is bad or if it’s just that the whole team is bad. Yesterday’s first half, Emery hauling off Maitland-Niles and Willock, plopping in Guendouzi and Ceballos, and Arsenal having all of the same problems (albeit without the error) only convinced me that Emery is potentially harming the development of these young players.
I want Willock to play. I actually think (I’m the only one in the world) that Willock will be a great Busquets-type midfielder one day (I don’t see him in the #10 role, but then there’s a handful of big name bloggers who also think Ceballos is a #6/8, which is hilarious to me). I also like Ainsley Maitland-Niles. He was such a revelation in 2017/18 – and I loved the character he showed to play both sides of the pitch as fullback even though left back REALLY didn’t suit him.
But these men need some god damn consistency in their positions. They need training. Willock is being played all over the place in midfield. One day he’s a Ramsey, the next, he’s a … whatever Emery’s double-pivots are. They aren’t DMs, they aren’t shuttlers, they aren’t deep-lying playmakers. They are just weird bodies out there doing some stuff. And if Willock doesn’t know what his position is supposed to be, Maitland-Niles has that problem six-fold.
None of that is to say that Maitland-Niles wasn’t his own problem for that goal. I’ve said it here for two years now: his touch isn’t even remotely good enough to play in midfield. As a right back, he has space to take an expansive first touch, here in midfield, he doesn’t.
As much as I want to I can’t blame Emery for the setup here, AM-N has Mustafi to pass to, AM-N even makes the correct turn (away from trouble), but he takes such an awful first touch – he does this thing where he kicks the ball 5-10 yards in front of himself and then uses his speed to catch up and he’s done it his entire career – that his marker easily gets to the ball and sets up the goal.
The images below show what I mean: that’s two images showing how far away from him his first touch takes the ball. By the time he catches up to the ball, he’s lunging in to make a desperate tackle.
Also, notice that Torreira is on the ground again. He’s always falling over, this time he wasn’t bumped, he just tried to change directions. How many times have we seen Torreira slip? Not blaming him for the goal. Just pointing this out. It’s so weird.
Sorry! That’s old stuff leaking into my supposed new narrative. But why hasn’t Maitland-Niles improved his touch in two years? Surely, everyone of his coaches knows that he does this thing where he kicks the ball 10 yards and catches up to it? Does he only do this on match day? And if not, if he’s doing this in training (I guarantee he is) THEN WHO PLAYS HIM IN MIDFIELD??? Only a nonce.
Sorry, can’t help myself.
Maitland-Niles needs coaching. He needs a position to play. He needs coaching in that position and he needs to work on his touch. He’s got potential to be a good footballer but now at 22 years old his career is slipping away.
And Joe Willock needs a single damn position to play.
Anyway, back to the new stuff. Uhh.. Pepe looked actually confident for the first time since I’ve seen him at Arsenal. It wasn’t until after the first goal, but as he stepped up to take the second goal, I thought I caught a whiff of confidence off him. That’s fantastic for Arsenal and for him. He’s been getting a lot of criticism from Arsenal supporters who have internalized Spurs’ supporters criticisms of the player.
He’s clearly an incredible dribbler. He’s clearly got a great left foot (actually I knew that from watching his goals from last season, he’s got that curler in his locker). He’s able to deliver corners and crosses with that left foot. And he’s able to place spot kicks.
If he could pick up some confidence, we might have a real talent on our hands (we have a real talent on our hands).
And just to prove that football is a pretty simple game: this was Pepe’s stats line from yesterday.
16 – Touches
16 – Minutes
5 – Accurate passes
1 – Key pass
1 – Big Chance created
2 – Shots
2 – Goals
This weekend is already being billed as the Pepe v. Zaha show and I get it. The were the two players Arsenal’s brian trust were looking at this summer. Pepe has been better than Zaha in every imaginable way so far. That said, I kind of have a feeling that Zaha is going to “big up” it against Arsenal on Sunday.
But I hope that the confidence we saw yesterday against Vitoria carries over into the weekend and the rest of the season.
How did I do on originality? I give myself… uhh… 2 out of 5 stars.
The players including Ozil can play …we need a coach to let them.
No one speaks about Smith-Rowe, but they should. Unless I am overtly subjective, I really liked what I’ve seen From Emilie, he’s much stronger, his body looks bigger and fitter, hes still very pacy, good turn, nice touch, he should be in contention for nr. 10 when he’s fully fit. He faded in the 2nd half, but in 6 weeks time I thin ppl will be surprised by Emile. Regarding Ainsley and Joe, agreed, they need regular position, regular game time and coaching, but… Emery doesn’t know what he wants from his players, nor his tactics, nor anything else.. Communication is key, but I am not even sure that problem is his English.. The pattern of his language is fucked up, even if you have very limited vocabulary, the structure and idea of sentence should be understandable, but he speaks about nobody knows what. The good thing is that young guns are coached by Freddie. Anyways, the faster we let Emery go-the better… Give the keys to Freddie, bring in the summer Arteta and we have a deal 😀
Smit-Rowe was great! When he was played in the #10 role. When he was pushed off to the left, it was just dumb.
Zaha generally ‘bigs up’ vs Arsenal. The reason we even (always?) consider dealing for him. I even like him. But you have to wonder. Why hasn’t any of the other bigger clubs in the PL made a move for him?
Credit to Vitoria– worked very hard and closed out, chasing quickly– trapping when the ball was on either sideline. This starting XI– and still after the subs came on– hadn’t been prepped to be hounded hard. Still, once the youngsters got initiated to the idea that VSC was serious about taking 3pts– the effort came. Took 70 minutes to get in gear– to match a team whose best trait is physicality.
Actually fairly proud of the response– though we didn’t get anything tangible from our reciprocity– till very late. The Kidz never hung their heads being outplayed by a gritty, if lesser club.
Don’t know if it was stated on any other broadcasts– but Vitoria had been ousted from the Taça de Portugala (domestic cup) last Sunday (1-1 on pens)– by Sintra– a semi-professional club. Can see why VSC were sparked to peg down a bigger team themselves.
And Martinelli. Ding! Believe we have a winner. Quite the assassin– and a bit of a defender’s mean streak. Harness his energy– he’ll be deadly. Already 5 goals in 6 apps– 3 as a sub.
There’s a difference for me– in watching these matches on Thursday, versus those on Sun/Mon. Tonight? I’d not been too upset with just 1pt– or had VSC held on and won. Physical effort was given in return– once we’d been slapped with the gauntlet. Whereas on the weekend– watching is a masochistic exercise.
Today I’ve got some pep in my step.
https://media.tenor.com/images/21bc4b7c14252e4f4f63ec490e216135/tenor.gif
https://media.tenor.com/images/e5565cd0b49c0df864b516092fd5c646/tenor.gif
(If these don’t make you– at least grin? Then Emery is living rent-free in your sense of humor.)
Hi! Perhaps i’m being swayed by the big name bloggers, but I’ve been led to believe that Ceballos is better as a deeper lying midfielder, a transition “assister to the assister”, not a 10. Do you see him as a 10? Right now I’m confused as to what positions are the best positions for most of our midfielders because it all looked so disjointed and poor (Emery!!)
That whole idea about Ceballos came from YGB and GiantGooner (from what I saw on Twitter). It’s profoundly wrong. He’s a massive liability in midfield – slower than Xhaka defensively, can’t even catch people to foul them, his positioning is terrible, he’s not a great dribbler, and he’s got a pretty poor range of passing (this is why he was loaned out in the first place) – I’ve watched a bunch of his (non-RM matches) and he’s actually much better in the #10 role where he can create for teammates and uses his sort of unpredictable and unconventional footwork to upset defenses. He also provides the sort of energetic pressing up top that I think Arsenal need.
That said, Emery is doing this thing that Wenger did with Coquelin (I kind of think Wenger popularized this) and that Sarri did with Kante and playing the DM higher up the pitch. I think this is a sort of nod to the “high press” idea. They don’t want to (or don’t have time to) teach the whole team how to press so they get one player to just do it for them.
But why he doesn’t play Ceballos in the 10 is so weird to me. Basically, this is all about something happening in training that we don’t see or something else the manager is covering up for. What exactly, we don’t know. But yeah, the midfield at Arsenal doesn’t really work and especially not when Torreira is running into the box and Ceballos is covering the defense. That’s just plain stupid. To me. A wanker who knows nothing.
I don’t see Ceballos as a creative force. Nor is he as mobile as Ramsey. Maybe his dribbling will open up space occasionally, or his pressing will lead to a turnover, but if we’re playing Ceballos, I don’t think we ought to play with a no.10. Have Torreira sit back as a 6, and have Willock and Ceballos both play as 8s. Although Willock as 6 is interesting.
Or you know, play our best No.10 as the 10.
It was time for a change from Wenger but Emery was never the answer.
When Arsenal towards the end of Wengers time (when we didn’t have a plan) played PSG over two legs 1-1 and 1-0 (was it) In the champions league all I could think it was like watching a mirror image of two teams playing each other except PSG came off second best.
Just because Emery is not up to it doesn’t mean Ozil is the answer. He took the £350k a week but could step up to justify it and what example does it set the rest of the squad if you get that and then want special treatment. You won’t change the culture at a club like that and don’t get me started on his best man.
If only this football thing were easy! I don’t envy Emery. I doubt there are any easy fixes for Arsenal’s problems, despite the bevy of propositions from various and sundry sources.
The problem is a relatively simple one: there is no foolproof system. other coaches have studied Emery’s and drill their players to anticipate and nullify the specific things he wants his team to do. Add in some inexperience, some lack of confidence, lack of familiarity with each other and some stiff opposition and it’s a recipe for inconsistency.
The clearest source of improvement for this team as it is currently assembled might be the return of fullbacks who can be trusted in possession to advance the ball and To bring some creativity in the final third. Chambers and Kolasinac have battled manfully and Raised their games, but for a team as focused on attacking the flanks as we are, there just isn’t enough quality there. The lack of chemistry between all these new players in attacking areas hasn’t helped, nor has the absence of glue guy Lacazette. When it all comes together, usually against lesser opponents when the pressure is off, Emery’s football is both effective and easy on the eye. Rolling over well drilled, focused and highly motivated opponents in the PL is not easy for anyone, even for Guardiola or CL winners Liverpool. I think Arsenal are doing all right in the grand scheme. Panicking and starting a revolving door at the coaching level will only introduce more uncertainty and lessen what little cohesion has been built to now. Further than that, I broadly disagree with the notion that this coach is “not up to it.” Rather to state it objectively, he is not achieving the results we expect in the style that we expect.
“The problem is a relatively simple one: there is no foolproof system. other coaches have studied Emery’s and drill their players to anticipate and nullify the specific things he wants his team to do. Add in some inexperience, some lack of confidence, lack of familiarity with each other and some stiff opposition and it’s a recipe for inconsistency.”
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Uh… that’s what coaching in sport is about. Not only is Emery not the only one subject to opposition coaches working to suss out his tactics and nullify them… he’s meant to be doing the same thing too.
So, Im afraid Doc, that this does not work as a defence. It’s like lamenting having to put one leg in front of the other to be able to walk.
Here’s what a good coach does… get the team to punch above its weight. That’s what the fella at Wolves does. Under the tutelage of this coach have we ever, given our resources and talents, matched a side that was supposedly better than we are? I can think of only one game… the home draw against Liverpool last season, a game in which Torreira was outstanding. In fact, Emery frequently contrives to make Arsenal look a smaller team (in terms of quality of play) than its resources suggest it should be.
Want a team to break out of a scoring or winning slump? Play Emery’s Arsenal. How many times have we seen that? Yeah, they prepare. That is literally what a coach gets paid to do.
Agree that every coach finds beating “small” teams hard to do.
“Want a team to break out of a scoring or winning slump? Play Emery’s Arsenal.”
This is true, but his was also true in the last season and a half of Wenger’s reign. Not much has changed in that regard.
We used to collect attacking midfielders for fun. I miss that. We need a couple of midfield maestros. Cazorla was the last of the bunch. Nothing will change until we fix the midfield.
Correct. It was a late Wenger problem too.
Indeed it’s a universal problem across all of sports. Only a few coaches in a given generation figure it out for more than a season or two. Emery is clearly not one of them but odds are, neither is the next guy we will bring in. I think a 3 year cycle is a fair length to change coaches. I honestly don’t understand the rush to ditch this guy. Coaching changes do bring a short term boost but lo lasting benefit. There’s actually data on that.
I agree. A 3 year cycle seems fair, and a reasonable enough time for a coach to assemble the squad he wants and to implement his ideas. Managers these days dont get the time that Arsene or Fergie got. If Emery does not get Top 4 or qualify for CL as Europa winner, he’s done at Arsenal next May.
At Arsenal, the ethos/expectation is aesthetically good football, and that will not change, certainly not from the pOV of the fans. If Emery finishes 3rd playing this bilge, Raul and Josh Kroenke won’t care.
Willock is one of my favorite emerging players at Arsenal and I am not happy with the way Emery has been playing him all over the pitch. Personally, I see him as a mix of Lampard and Ramsey. He is not the most creative but he is a better dribbler than most people give him credit for and he is usually smart in the way he operates in tight spaces. If he can time his runs into the box like the way Fat Lampard used to do, he has the shooting skills to be a very effective box to box type player. I know he had a couple of glaring errors yesterday but he actually did have a couple of moments as well when he showed us why most of us rate him highly. He is wasted as a defensive midfielder or a winger – two positions where I have seen him be deployed by our manager.
On the other hand, I have never been convinced by AMN. I saw him first in an England U-19 game and his first contribution from the sub bench was to take a heavy touch and give the ball away in a dangerous position. Sound familiar? Can he play squad role at Arsenal? Perhaps but I haven’t seen anything from him yet to suggest that he is suitable for even that. It’s disheartening to see that his first touch hasn’t improved at all under Emery. Which begs the question – wasn’t improving the youngsters Emery’s holy grail?
AMN does not have the natural talent to make it at this level. Doesn’t matter who’s coaching him.
I fully expect him to follow in the footsteps of someone like Kieran Gibbs. Not bad, but not great, either. A team like West Brom would suit AMN just fine.
I think you are being harsh.has he had proper coaching.song kolo oshea and a few had proper coaching which helped them.they were never to be stars just useful to the team when needed.amn can fall there
The objection to this kind of argument is easy: name a coach you admire. Now name a player who didn’t make it under his tutelage. Sometimes you’re just not good enough for a certain level of play, and it doesn’t matter who’s coaching you. I’ve watched AMN for a while now, and I’m convinced you could put him under Guardiola or Klopp and his first touch would still be lousy.
gibbs is far superior to maitland-niles. amn is more like frimpong.
Immediate post-match conversation:
“Daddy, Arsenal won. Why do you look so mad?”
“‘Cause it took 90 bloody minutes just to get the lead against a squad that lost to a pack of postmen on holiday!”
LOL.
Vitoria are truly awful.
I can believe we nearly lost to them.
It’s totally believable.
“Let Daddy relax, he is watching the match”
“I’m stressed watching the match”
“Then why are you watching?”
Bill continues to totally miss the point about Ozil’s not getting into six matchday squads in succession. It is not about picking him on his reputation or his paycheck, it’s about treating ALL your players fairly. AMN has not been pulling up trees, nor did Mustafi last season, when he was absolutely dire. Yet Emery isnt reaching down into the academy in order to blank Mustafi.
Bill has never made anything resembling a good argument to justify the coach’s total exile of our No. 10. TOTAL is the keyword here. He’s not being played less… he is being totally exiled, and that is quite clearly not, at least not purely, a footballing decision. “Nothing to see here” and “it’s totally normal” are the arguments of the willfully blind.
It is obvious that he is being frozen out totally. I dont want to keep biffing the coach on a single issue or bang the drum for a player I myself have criticised in the past, but you dont have to be in journalism for 30 years for our nose to detect stench around the Ozil situation. Any fan can see it. That’s why they were giving the coach grief for it in the stadium yesterday. And it’s becoming a bigger issue. Even gooners I know who were never fans of Ozil are rallying to his side on what they perceive to be an injustice.
I became a gooner in 96, same year Arsene Wenger landed, because I lived in Stoke Newington, almost in the shadow of Highbury. I care about the club and its ethos regarding treating its employees, the players, with decency.
Per, Arteta, Santi, Rosicky and Diaby contract extensions that, strictly financially and medically speaking, they should not have. Santi spoke about Wenger telling him that he was going to get the medical coverage still, at a time his career looked to be over.
The Arsenal that is exiling a well-liked and respected senior player, in plain sight, is not the Arsenal I know or like.
100% agree.. it’s definitly coming from the club. Backing down from the deal with Ramsey, taking Kos’s cloths of out in public and now Ozil. This recent Raul- Vinai way is not the Arsenal way..
Very well said.
Brilliant post Claude an i endorse 100%.. we were The Arsenal, we always did things differently but correctly. Now?? We are simply Afc..like all the rest
Did anyone else feel Emery kept making unnecessary changes to everyone’s positions last night? AMN started on the right, was switched to midfield after their goal. ESR started at 10, was shifted wide. Martinelli started wide, was moved into middle for some time, then moved wide again. And even Laca spent some time playing on the right. And Torreira is made to play ahead of Ceballos in midfield after HT. Making so many changes must surely mess with the players heads. As Tim mentioned, AMN isn’t just playing multiple positions game-to-game, but within each game. He must have been practicing playing wide and then suddenly you have to move into midfield? In such a dysfunctional team? Especially when he hasn’t played there for a couple of years. And there was great piece on statsbomb saying how AMN is as good a back up RB as you can get. Maybe he should just be a back up to Bellerin? And give Chambers a go in midfield where he’s shown some promise? I am afraid he’s going to destroy the kids by using them wrongly and then kinda blaming them by HT substitutions. Willock is now being tossed around.
I have no affinity to Emery and I was pretty oblivious to what he was doing. But he’s starting to mess with the potential of out academy players, he’s taking digs at Wenger (especially when you’ve not improved a single thing), he’s persisting with under-performing players, going to war unnecessarily with Ozil when he’d add something to this team. This past week has made me move from ‘don’t care about Emery’ to ‘Emery out’. Neither Wenger in his later years or Emery are producing results, but at least Wenger was a genius whom I could listen to all day. We should make a change before we let these perfect set of circumstances slip.
Tactical switching is fine (within limits of course). Footballers have wide-ranging educations as kids before they discover what their forte is. There’s been cases of kids going into goal after switching from the outfield and vice versa. defenders who’s been strikers.
Playing at RB is AMN’s chance to play, period. He’s not getting into most Arsenal XIs otherwise. Arsene used to play players OOP to develop their overall game
0-9? wtf?
Stunning scoreline. The Saints need to play Arsenal to restore some self-belief 🙂
(half) joking aside, how much would this Emery team under same circumstances have beaten them by? Two, three at the most. We’d be passing it around the middle all afternoon.
We’ve long stopped killing off teams, which makes a big difference to GD at season’s end.
Interesting post Tim
There is only so many minutes that you can afford to use players like Willock and AMN and I think Emery was trying to get them some minutes on the pitch and the only place he can do that is games like yesterday or may be league cup games against lower league opponents. Running out a line up of untested youth players who have not played together as a team worked pretty well with the other Europa league games. You can’t experiment with players like AMN in midfield in PL when every point could turn out to be critical. There is no way you can play them all in their supposedly preferred positions and still give them minutes. The blogosphere has been clamoring for AMN to get his chance to play in his preferred position for a couple years now. Emery is criticized for not using youth players if he does not get them minutes and now he is criticized when he does give them minutes. Its a no win situation for a manager.
Regarding trying to coach a player like AMN, I am sure there are several coaches who have watched the films of AMN and I am also sure they understand his first touch is not great and I am also sure they have tried to work with him. Emery obviously does not have time to work with any single player individually on a specific skill like first touch but that’s why we have coaches like Freddie on the staff. The bottom line is we have seen literally hundreds of heavily hyped prospects in the last 15 years who look absolutely incredible in the youth team but just don’t have the talent to make it at the first team PL level and AMN is probably in that group.
I guess Brendan Rogers has suddenly taken a huge dose of smart pills and has become a great manager this season and Ranieri did the same thing when Leicester won the league in 15/16.
I am not trying to suggest that Emery is a great manager and I am with you in the Emery out bandwagon if things don’t drastically improve quickly. However, to blame him for anything bad that happens and implying that Emery is responsible for a player like AMN not having a great first touch seems unreasonable. I was firmly in the Arsene out camp for most of this decade but the same thing happened and I saw bloggers using Arsene as the excuse for all of the underperforming players such as Mustafi and blaming Arsene for absolutely everything. A manager is the captain of the ship but players have to take responsibility for their own form
Players should have been working by themselves and with coaches on their first touch since they were early teenagers because that is one the most basic skills in a professional footballer. We can blame it on coaches but the player has to recognize his own limitations and work to fix the things he struggles with. You can get away with making mistakes in the youth league levels but if a player like AMN reaches age 22 and is still struggling with his first touch then its not very likely that more coaching is going to fix the problem and his actual ceiling is probably somewhere below the PL level.
Dillonthegoat
Smith Rowe is also an attacking midfielder who in theory is best as the most advanced midfielder and we all want him to get minutes also. You can’t play both Willock and ESR at the same time in the same position.
I think bringing Freddie in was a sign that the execs recognise that Emery’s I can improve sales pitch was puff at best or an outright sham. While some would still elect to say that Emery is great and its the players that are the problem, there is enough there to suggest that with a half decent manager, we can do better than we are. Emery fans aside, I do believe its going to be hard to avoid criticising the manager no matter how tiresome it is. We should be so much better than we are looking now.
Fair enough. Emery certainly deserves plenty of criticism for some things such as our team defense. However, I think we have to look at both sides of an issue before criticizing. I thought we all want as many of our younger players to get as many minutes as possible in games like yesterday and league cup games. Arsene did it all the time for many years and almost everyone seemed to think it was a good idea and helped give them needed experience. Emery does the same and we suggest it’s somehow he is hindering youth development. It can’t be both ways.
playing a young player in the first team is not a hinderance. however, playing a young player in a position he’s not suited for against decent opposition can totally wreck a young player’s confidence. this is where it’s a manager’s job to be efficient and intelligent with his available resources.
moving players around as you try and figure things out is equally inefffective.
It’s easy to criticize in retrospect. We all loved the way we played and we were excited about using the younger players in the earlier Europa league games. It didn’t work as well yesterday but that doesn’t mean it was a great idea before and a bad idea yesterday
No one says that.sterling has always been a talent but had issues.but see the work done on him by pep n arteta.see saka n freddie guendozi n emery Foden n pep but a few.has amn had that.rather he’s been used all over the field.rem it’s said emery had a dossier on all arsenal players and presented how to develop them so what you saying.
no way, anyone would pay £15 million for maitland-niles.
I don’t know if I’ve said this here before, but I think Emery would make a good coordinator in American football. He seems to love the theory of tactics, and the repeatable, timed drills to make the play work would fit into his coaching ‘style’, which seems to ignore the players as individuals.
I still don’t understand why he was sat sulking in his chair after Pepe’s winner. It’s not a big deal, but it was so jarring from a guy who loves waving his hands about.
the crowd was giving him the business about leaving ozil out, about arsenal being outplayed, about him being out-coached, and about arsenal losing at home to a team i’ve never even heard of before. there was nothing else he could do but sit there. he used all of his substitutions and hadn’t proven smart enough to make a sound strategic change to positively affect the game. he knew the media was about to grill him about losing to this team and leaving ozil out. he could only sit there, anxiously awaiting what was about to come. he might have even been afraid he could get the dreaded vote of confidence.
luckily, for him, pepè struck two sweet free kicks that saved the day but that wasn’t about him or good football, it was about brilliant pepè.
When has that stopped him from claiming credit before? Shouldn’t that be more reason for him to celebrate?
Do you really think it was about the Ozil chants. Somehow that’s the impression I got, but it’s probably not very logical.
Saying something that hasn’t been said about Arsenal is probably equally hard as saying something new about Trump these days, not that I’m comparing the two of course.
Here’s me trying.
Pepe might become the first true free kick specialist Arsenal have had in a very long time.
Three perfectly executed free kick bendies ( Holding should’ve scored from one) in under 15 minutes of play.
You guys can laugh at this( my own son rolled his eyes) but I’m telling you some of the reason is the difference in a match ball.
The PL Nike Marlin ball is the trickiest to curl because of the almost seamless panel joints.
Zaha seems to excel against Arsenal because our players are terrible at reading danger and helping out.
Liverpool did more double teaming on Pepe in one game than Arsenal on Zaha in two seasons of play.
Zaha doesn’t have the quickness of Pepe’s feet but is way more physical and therefore very hard to knock off the ball…..and our players are softies.
Btw, how nasty are Pepe’s megs? Is that three already and he hasn’t even been playing that well yet.
Emery feeling the need to explain his Arsenal improvements is a sign of pressure he’s under.
No way is he getting his third season.
However the Arsenal brass handle this , extending this malaise over three years would be managerial malpractice.
Too bad football coaches don’t resign to spend more time with their family the way politicians do when their position becomes untenable.
I hope Emery has a large family.
Josh @ 9:45pm
We have been moving players around in order to get as many young players as possible into the line ups in league cup and Europa league games for 15 years. Moving Maitland-Niles around in Europa league games in order to find a way to get him in the line up is how AMN impressed everyone and got us excited about him during Arsenes final season. Arsene was praised for doing that because a lot of the time it worked very well. It worked well in the earlier Europa league games last season and so far this season. I don’t think it’s fair or accurate to criticize something in retrospect when most would have supported it prospectively. There was no reason to expect the clunker we saw on Thursday when doing basically the same thing in Europa league group stage games had produced mostly excellent results for the last 3 seasons.
Prospectively I suspect almost everyone would have supported the idea of Smith-Rowe, Willock and AMN in the line up for yesterdays game
I wouldnt make too much of Emery not celebrating Pepe’s goal. I’ve seen that from Pep, Klopp and other coaches.
Look, when the coach’s subs work, you have to give him the credit. You cant on the one hand criticise him for when the does a tactical balls up, and criticise him when he makes game-changing subs. The accountability is his, both ways.
As for AMN, said it before and will say it again… he’s a fringe player, and he has to play well where asked, when asked. Or he will hardly get games. I was as Arsene out as anyone in his last 3 years, but he did have a philosophy that i agreed with… players develop all-round skills playing in unaccustomed positions. Bellerin was out long term. A really hungry AMN would have made the position his, even if it’s not where he wants to play. He didn’t, and that in large measure is on him.
You can blame the coaching staff for not properly teaching him how to defend opposition wing play (something he clearly struggled with), but he has to take some of the responsibility. We look A LOT more solid defensively with Chambers at RB. Hector is some way off being able to return to to the hurly burly of premiership football. Ive seen some criticism of Emery for not playing him, but he’s right to ease him back. Tierney, on the other hand, is ready now.
I agree with Claude.
The only reason AMN has regular first team minutes is because of the versatility. If probably wouldn’t even make the match day 18 very often if he was only a central midfielder
Seeing Chelsea playing good n winning well makes one wonder.player for player are they that better than ours.lamps is Soo inexperienced yet in a big job he’s doing well.look at us with a coach who has been around for 20years or so saying goesive him more time after 18months with players bought n all.what more time.we should have something to look forward to by now but we have nothing.we don’t know what or where or how Or when.so many slam Wenger’s late years but he changed arsenal n England in his first year in arsenal.why compare Wenger’s worst with emery.simply shows how low hes rated.ozil isn’t arsenals biggest issue it’s emery yet fans go at him.he stays or goes no big deal but emerys staying can affect the club in short or long term
Hi Tim,
Love the idea for this post to try to uncover something new to say!
Here’s a couple of things I’d like to see/ hear (or not!)
1) Please lets not mention Wenger again.
Especially when comparing anything to his worst seasons. Why on earth would we want to compare ourselves to ANY manager’s worst season?
But even if mentioning his middling or best seasons, there’s just too much fondness-fog (or its opposite) to get a clear sense of what’s being argued and… it deteriorates as biases win out.
2) Emerexit
Its not a question of whether Emery will be replaced but *when*. This is true from day 1 of his tenure.
That sounds harsh but its not meant to be. Its as harsh as signing a player and thinking “ok, we have you for a 5yr contract but if things don’t work out we’ll trade you in 2-3 while your value is still up”.
Those calculations get ever more definite the closer you get to end of contracts, to the point where even 12-18 months out players are being lined up for transfer.
A coach? Well the transfer windows play a part as does sponsorship deal discussions. As does reaching of targets and valuation of youth players. They’re the KPIs you’re working to.
For the fans ‘entertainment’ is a factor but actually that is ‘reduced’ to a KPI for the Board of sponsorship/ ticket renewals/ TV etc etc. ie Money.
So, its never a question of whether but when.
Which is ok. Its not a sign of short-termism. Its a calculation that is always corrected for throughout the tenure.
The contracts are extended when positives are happening.
So, when will Emery leave? When the financials are downward trending (likely now), the successor for the next phase is available, CL is at risk and we need to roll the dice with a caretaker.
If we kinda accepted that then we’d analyse/ enjoy/ be frustrated by games based on what we want but without the hurting of ‘why’ doesn’t the ‘Board’ react.
ah well, lots of words for a penny’s thoughts
oh, i should say this isn’t me saying what I want you (Tim) to write/ post.
Just general discourse…
And if you ever wanted to bang on on either of those, its your blog and that’s completely fine!
Hi @Bill,
You’ve mentioned a few times on separate threads that few of the Arsenal squad would get into any ‘top team’.
Could I ask what you’re basing this on?
Is it:
gut feel/ the eye test;
stats/ analysis
Transfermarkt
ages of players
other?
I only ask as it’d be pointless me engaging with the conversation if you’ve got one measure and I have another and we’re not clear what we’re talking about.
cheers!
Whist
The only way you make that sort of determination is eye ball. Realistically based on what we have seen from them this season which of these players who have been regular starters for us do you think would play regularly on any the worlds top 12-15 teams? Maitland-Niles/chambers Luiz Sokaritis kolasinac xhaka Torrierra Willock Guendouzi Ceballos Saka Pepe? I would argue the jury is still out on Pepe and he might get better then he has been in league games so far. Ceballos has potential to be good someday but he is not someone who would start regularly on other big teams. Guendouzi might play some minutes but I doubt he would be a regular starter. IMO, none of those other players who are part of regular starting 11 would have a chance to get off the bench on any of the worlds other “big teams”.
Which teams are the 12-15 big teams?
You know exactly the point I am making.
Which of the players not named Auba or Laca in our squad who have been playing most of the minutes in PL games would be also playing regular minutes if they were on one of the 16 teams that are leading their group in the CL. I think the correct answer is probably almost none.
If that is the top 16 reference point, I would disagree that apart from Auba & Lacazette, probably only none would interest those teams.
You raised this point in the previous post and were answered by 4 people including myself.
I think you need to accept the fact that Arsenal is never going to be Man City, PSG etc. We will never buy players that are world class from 1-11.
You raised this point in the previous post and were answered by 4 people including myself.
I think you need to accept the fact that Arsenal is never going to be Man City, PSG etc. We will never buy players that are world class from 1-11.
Longroadtoruin
One of the things which makes blogging fun is having discussions and debates about differences in opinion.
I think the latest statements about the Ozil situation provide more evidence that its not just Emery’s decision to leave him off the squad. No manager who wants to keep his job is not going to drop a $20M/year player without agreement of upper management and ownership. I think we can safely say that Raul, Edu and probably Josh Kronke’s agree with the current course of action and I think we can safely dismiss the idea that the whole mess is all happening because Emery being stubborn or vindictive or stupid. I assume everyone involved wants to finish in the top 4 this season.. This is a PR disaster and a huge financial hit to the club and I can only assume they all believe that the current course of action is the best thing in the short and long term
Longroadtoruin.
I agree there are some players on our squad who are not named Auba or Laca that those top 16 clubs might be interested in for their long term potential. My contention is that very few of our regular starting 11 outside of our 2 forwards would be playing regular minutes for those clubs right now.
that’s not what you said.
Tim, I totally agree with all your points. 4 out of 5 for this post. Being original doesn’t matter for me.
As we await the start of today’s game, a reminder than Christian Benteke’s only goal in 10 months was against Arsenal.
Matter of fact, he broke a long dry spell against the Arsenal defence… and promptly resumed it.
I’ll be looking for validation that Pepe was money well spent, and Zaha was money well saved. But something tells me that Zaha will play a blinder against us. Townsend will bring a Tottenham grudge.
Typo…. his only league goal in EIGHTEEN months, not ten.
It was a dive from Zaha. I don’t understand why the pundits talk about contact. A fault in the box is a penalty.
Is anyone at all surprised that we’ve blown a two goal lead? I’ve been expecting it.
No, I don’t think anyone is surprised by that. Unfortunately Arsenal Have cultivated an identity of being susceptible to being dominated in physical duels and easily hurt by long diagonals to quick players. Both of those Issues were in evidence today, so of course it’s never surprising when the opposition cashes in on one or both. The problem for Arsenal at 2-0 was that we somehow both gave the CB time to measure a diagonal to Zaha and left space behind the midfield for Zaha to exploit. Once he gets 1 v 1 in the box it is a high leverage situation particularly against a player who is not an everyday RB. Arsenal allowed that situation to develop by not managing their positioning well in the context of the score.
But then I’m sure emery impressed upon the players what a dangerous and almost impossible task beating crystal palace at the Emirates would be, so I imagine they’ve been ready to capitulate.
Wow! 😳
Xhaka’s reaction to being subbed. Visible dissent, “f*** off” to the crowd, sarcastic cupping of ears, brushing off Emery’s handshake, ripping off shirt, storming down the tunnel.
He’s our captain, mind you. The crowd is TOTALLY wrong to boo one of their players, even one playing badly. But a fine would seem inevitable for Xhaka.
Culpable on the equaliser for a lazy attempt to stop the cross, as was David Luiz for schoolboy ball-watching and getting blindsided by the runner.
I didn’t see that but I can’t say I’m surprised from either perspective. I would feel much the same. I can imagine working your butt off every day and hearing that from your own fans would feel awful even if you know you haven’t been great. I can also Imagine being at another droll home performance and Letting out frustration as a group, having something to focus that on. People just need to be able to be angry at something when things aren’t going well and that’s how I hope Xhaka will reconcile that. VAR officials are remote and faceless so you can’t even boo them.
Xhaka may not be everyone’s idea of Arsenal’s future but there can be little doubt we need him to play well if we are going to get CL football next season. I’m not asking a stadium full of disgruntled fans to exercise that sort of forethought in the moment but perhaps we can remember the same team mentality more often in our discourses.
I have feeling that Tim will have something to say on VAR. Horrendous decision
Crushing. The way the prem has implemented it really couldn’t be much worse. No transparency or consistency or accountability whatsoever.
“VAR” is a concept executed by a real live person, not some convoluted artificial intelligence entity. The execution of the concept is flawed, as it was today, the idea behind the concept bears looking at. It was not created to re-adjudicate borderline decisions that were seen by the match official according to personal preference but to overturn clear and obvious errors. I don’t think either reversal was in the clear and obvious category today. I would be grateful for an explanation from the VAR official on the day as well as from the referees association as a whole. Arsenal have their own problems but a two goal swing due to officiating decisions is difficult for any team to overcome.
Spot on.
Every syllable.
Yes.
Seems to me the PGMO might’ve reacted to the overwhelming criticism leveled against VAR after last round for not overturning any questionable decisions made on the field, and gone hard the other way this round.
Yes this is quite probably true. Though how it is once again Arsenal getting the short end of the stick is baffling.
Football refs have by far the toughest job of the game officials in any sport in the world, I don’t think its even close. I am in heavily in favor of using video technology to help the refs but so far the execution of VAR in the PL has not been impressive. Hopefully it will get better as they gain more experience.
Unfortunately, Xhaka is now a reflection of Emery. So, a boo for Xhaka is by extension is really for Emery.
on monday, saka was given a yellow card for simulation when he was fouled. var didn’t overturn that. to overturn the third goal today was disgraceful.
however, this was a home game and arsenal created next to zero. at least, in wenger’s last season, arsenal were dominant at home.
I am not a fan of Xhaka and it was not a good reaction from him. On the other hand, a bit of temper is sometimes what’s needed in a leader. I am glad he had the balls to say f*** off to the crowd. It’s better than being passive. Neither do I fault the crowd for being fed up with what they are being served. I agree with the poster above that the crowd’s frustration was actually with Emery. Xhaka is unfortunately the face of Emery’s football now.
No. It’s not okay for the captain of your team, your designated leader, to antagonize and verbally abuse the crowd like that. Watch the footage again. At the beginning people are cheering the substitution—not nice to hear, but it didn’t get ugly until Xhaka intentionally slowed down, started shouting fuck off, and urging the crowd on. That’s when the booing really started. Let’s not pretend like poor little Xhaka didn’t do everything in his power to rile up Arsenal fans at home.
I’d be interested to see if Xhaka is in the next starting lineup. I don’t think he should be in the squad for at least a few games. I’m ready for Ozil to be gone a couple of years ago, but I am interested to see how Xhaka gets treated for the worst behavior towards fans that I’ve seen from any player on any team this season, versus how Ozil gets regularly treated. I mean, if Ozil gets dropped from the squad for 97% of games for ostensibly ‘footballing reasons,’ how should Xhaka be disciplined for telling Arsenal fans to F off and clearly and intentionally attempting to antagonize them, including purposely slowing down his gait and wasting time at a point in the game when we needed every second? Surely if Emery has any integrity then he has to deal with Xhaka much more severely than how he’s dealt with Ozil.
Some people have tried to make the booing about time wasting too. This was not some last minute change. It was a 60th minute sub. And his coming off didn’t actually take long at all. Xhaka reacted badly to fans booing him. He didn’t waste time though.
Whether you are for or against Emery, this Arsenal seems indefensible. Classless fans, stories of a conniving board/management, clueless manager and god-awful football. I thought the whole Wenger out hysterics would not be seen for a while. This is just painful
I must say it doesn’t seem that bad from this view. I look at it as part of the inevitable modernization of sport which is happening across the world. There is increased automation, increased access online but much less access in the flesh and entires industries devoted to keeping the news cycle spinning. Viewed through that lens, Arsenal of 2019 are nothing like the Arsenal of 1999 or even 2009, but I view that less as a result of mismanagement and more as a consequence of the major changes in how sports entertainment is being delivered and consumed.
This is a slow burn ongoing crisis, made entirely by the coach and the upper management. I bet we’re going to stick with it though. Because that’s just how it is at Arsenal now. Plenty of scapegoats to be found.
I’m with Xhaka. I don’t imagine Tony Adams or Vieira would have taken it any better, especially when it carries over off field too. Xhaka has had horrible abuses to him and his family. He’s confronted some fans in person about it too, so it’s not all been offline either. He’s dealing with a poor coach, in a poor system, and didn’t even play all that badly. But the coach and the fans chose to scapegoat him and act all precious about his reaction. Like with Eboue and Diaby they will only accept their fault later. Right now they view Xhaka as fair game since he’s seen as Emery’s man.
This club is not what it’s supposed to be or stand for. That’s not unexpected. It’s been happening for a year now. We need to change coaches and bring in/promote someone who knows and represents the Arsenal way. No matter how ‘cynical’ that might be when our upper management don’t believe in it. Or else kiss the CL goodbye for another year AT LEAST.
“I don’t imagine Tony Adams or Vieira would have taken it any better, especially when it carries over off field too”.
______________________
Uh, can you imagine Adams or Vieira…
–tossing the armband disdainfully at the VC?
— dawdling off in a sulk instead of hustling off to maximise time left
— telling the crowd “f*** off”
— winding your own crowd up with that cupped dear thing
— slapping the coach’s handshake away
–ripping off the shirt and tossing it away
–storming down the tunnel (and out of the stadium) with game still to win and no injury to treat
The captain.
Let’s go back to the Spurs game, and his brain fade in the box against Son. You know what he said afterwards? That the strikers missed chances and he didnt hear anyone blaming them.
The captain.
No, man. you couldnt possibly have watched Vieira and Adams. You woudnt conclude that they’d have done any ONE of those things that Xhaka did.
There is no excuse whatsoever in jeering your own player, mind. When youre in the stadium, your only job is to be the 12th man. Jeering Xhaka was inexcusable, even if you think, like I do, he’s a liability and costs us more than he adds
But here’s the thing… If the neighbour’s pesky kid breaks my window, he’s wrong. If i punch him in the nose in retaliation, Im wrong too, probably more wrong. A section of the Arsenal support acted d**kishly. And then Xhaka proceeded to react in inexcusable fashion.
Xhaka wasn’t jeered because he’s Emery’s man. He’s jeered because he has worst record in the premier league for making costly fouls, he’s frequently pedestrian in his play, and he was partly at fault for the equaliser. Still, booing/jeering of of our players is terrible, and I dont like to see that.
Xhaka’s behaviour crossed a line, and he should be dropped and fined. Stripping him of the captaincy, as Ive heard some suggest we do, would be a very big deal, and we shouldn’t go that drastic. Just make him a non playing captain like Vermaelen, and final-year Per and Arteta.
–tossing the armband disdainfully at the VC?
— dawdling off in a sulk instead of hustling off to maximise time left
— telling the crowd “f*** off”
— winding your own crowd up with that cupped dear thing
— slapping the coach’s handshake away
–ripping off the shirt and tossing it away
–storming down the tunnel (and out of the stadium) with game still to win and no injury to treat
Put in the same situation as Xhaka in the age of social media, yes. I could imagine them doing all these things (maybe not the cup ear thing exactly but inciting further jeers, yes) Adams and Vieira have done objectively worse in terms of disloyalty/letting people down. Xhaka has been loyal, hardworking, and if he’d had a game filled with errors, and the reaction was justified, he wouldn’t do it. It’s not been a one off either.
Yes, there will need to be consequences to this. But that doens’t make his reaction this horror it’s being made out to be. What is a horror is what it represents for where this club is at.
My guess is Xhaka will request a transfer in January. Especially if this clown coach stays.
Forget for a moment about Xhaka getting jeered, how about the thunderous boos that greeted Donald Trump at Game 5 of the World Series? Oh how it warmed the heart. Almost as much as tens of thousands of people chanting “lock him up.”
If there’s any justice in the world, nationals fans deserve to be celebrating a series win.
sorry, but you can’t be the arsenal captain and, when you get substituted, throw the armband on the ground, throw your shirt on the ground, tell the fans to f*ck off, then leave before the game is even over.
it’s about your duties as captain of this team, not your feelings. i’ll say this just like i tell my u19 boys: f*ck your feelings!