Vitoria 1-1 Arsenal

There isn’t much left to say about this Arsenal team that hasn’t already been said. We are just waiting for the company board to reach the same conclusion that the fans seems to have reached.

I was slightly concerned that the corporation won’t want to pull the trigger on Emery until summer because they don’t want to have to pay him the remainder of his contract. But in keeping him, they also have to pay him, and meanwhile he seems to be doing real damage to the sell on value of some of these players.

Before the game it was announced that Granit Xhaka had been stripped of his captaincy and Aubameyang was named in his place. I am curious if the corporation stripped him or if it was the manager. Though I’m not curious enough to listen to an Arsenal podcast or read an Arsenal blog to find out “the truth”.

I guess it kind of matters who took the final decision on this action. If it was the front office, it mean that they are asserting more control on the team and curtailing the coach’s reach. If it’s the coach well then it’s just another in a long line of terrible things that have happened under Emery.

I think I get why Xhaka was punished. I mean, he’s the captain. He can’t really be abusing the fans. No matter whether he’s been yelled at online (why is he reading the comments??) or booed in person. Personally, I would have walked off and after the match, I would have gone to the executives and asked to be traded in January.

He compounded his errors when he waited, what four days, to make an apology. And then not really apologizing. And not going through the official channels. Then changing his insta avatar to a picture of him in the Swiss national shirt. It was a pretty obvious giant middle finger to the entire syndicate. I bet they would have forgiven him quickly if he had just gone through the motions of an apology. But he didn’t.

So here we are now, saddled with a coach who can’t coach and a bunch of players who don’t want to play for him anymore. Every drop of goodwill that Emery bought with his fugazi 22 game unbeaten run is gone.

On the day today against Vitoria we looked like a team that had given up. The players were often standing around both in and out of possession, perhaps frozen by lack of understanding, perhaps having collectively downed tools, perhaps just sick of it all.

After the match Emery said three things over and over: we are in first place in the group, they were very good, very organized and hard to break down, and we want to work on our defense (and offense).

It’s now getting old how often he compliments the opposition. I thought this was the Preparation Coach? I thought he has dossiers falling out of his briefcase? Arsenal allowed VSC 10 shots in the first half, and took just 2. How can Coach Prepsalot not figure out how to get the ball forward so consistently? How come his systems are so systematically broken that players are often easily surrounded by two or three defenders, dispossessed, and then incapable of winning the ball back?

The players bear some of that criticism. But I’ve said for a while that I don’t want to judge players in the Emery system because it’s such a mess.

I keep thinking that Ceballos is a shambling disaster and now I’m even having second thoughts about Pepe. How can he go from 13 goals in open play, winning a handful of pens, and creating 20+ big chances, last season to just a turnover machine this season? He was particularly hamstrung against Vitoria, at one point he was passing to AM-N who crossed to… no one.. there was no one in the box.

Maitland-Niles has regressed horribly. His touch now literally repels the ball virtually every time. And Torreira was once my favorite player but now spends most of the games on the floor.

If Arsenal multinational corp saw dollar signs when Emery conned them with his dossiers and powerpoints, they now have to see that player values are plummeting under this man. Maybe the top brass will see this and act. It’s my only hope.

Qq

50 comments

  1. Well, the conditions were terrible, and Vitoria was always going to be more motivated, being at home and in a lose and out situation.
    But this really is getting pathetic. So many players are so badly underperforming and we look so disorganized, it’s very hard to see past it being an Emery problem.
    In almost 30 years of following Arsenal, I’m not sure I’ve ever wanted us to lose a match. But I’m perilously close to that point with the Leicester match, as if that goes badly, I don’t see how the execs can keep him on.

    1. I feel the same. Even under terminal Wenger, I really wanted him out but really didn’t want us to lose any matches. It’s hard to say it, but I’m indifferent now. When they scored at the end, I didn’t mind it.

  2. Agreed. Everybody has been digging into stats, systems, etc etc for over a year, in the end we play the same. No movement off the ball, stagnant, nobody really understands instructions, a hole in the middle of the park. If Emery watches dvds of every single game, gow he doesn’t come up with an idea to put an extra man in the middle of the park, why not to play 3-5-2 if it gives you an extra man to cover in midfield defensively and going forward? I don’t know what he’s watching…. Maybe Sevilla’s or Valencia’s games? Every single time I watch it, it doesn’t surprise me anymore how bad we play, it’s not better or worse, it’s equally shit every single week. If we somehow win at Leicester, he will be given more time… I don’t want to wish defeat on my team, but if it means that Emery is gone on Monday morning, lets suffer one more dreadful Emery game, before we move forward

  3. Agreed. There’s no point in speaking about the same stuff anymore. Every single week people discuss the same poor quality games, lack of cohesion, systemic failures s and lack of understanding, lack of movement off the ball, you watch the game and it hurts your eyes, personally what bothers me the most is his stubbornness on doing things in the same way and lack of critical reflection on himself every single week for the past 1.5 year. He doesn’t learn, he has brought his ideas from the past and it’s not adjusting to the reality on the field. Given the tools he has, he plays his Sevilla’s game.. I do not wish for our team to lose on Saturday, but if that means Emery gone by Monday morning.. Maybe it’s worth the price, hopefully he’s gone by next week, we regroup and move forward.

    1. You’re not a true Gooner, Lukaskl, to not have the fatalism to know that Emery won’t be fired anytime soon. This board are still too meek to pull the trigger on his contract until 1) we are kicked out of the FA Cup – which I don’t think starts for us until the new year, 2) we descend below mid-table to just few points above the drop zone, flirting with relegation may be a possibility before he’s gone AND 3) we are out of the Europa knockout stages before the quarter finals.

      That’s many more weeks of s$%t football to have to endure, That’s being a real Arsenal fan. LoL.

      1. Top 4 is the absolute goal this season. Nothing else matters. Imperiling that goal is the only thing that will force the board/brain trust to take action. A loss to Leicester is hopefully the nail in the coffin. This club will achieve nothing with this manager. I agree with Lukaskl and will go one further: I hope Leicester destroy Arsenal this weekend. I really do. I think it would be the surest way to have *something* happen by Monday.

        1. I am afraid battering by Leicester won’t be enough to get Emery fired. We will just have to suck it up and wait. Maybe hope that something somehow gets better…

      2. Easy to fire Emery. Let the team lose 6-0 or 5-1 like Bayern, and the club has to fire him. Or else there will be empty seats and huge boos in the next game at the Emirates.

  4. This was a soul sucking, dispiriting performance. Pepe and Ceballos looked and were nincompoops (one of my late Dad’s favorite insults – so 1970s).

    You’re right. What else is there to say except the hope that we move on from this and someday – sooner than later – we are much, much better than whoever were masquerading in Arsenal colors today.

    Winter is coming…

    1. And not like those were matches against Atletico Madrid or Juve, or some other team known for strong defending.

  5. Tim, those are my exact thoughts on Ceballos and AMN. Both so frustrating. Ceballos has had one good game for us this season, against Burnley. Other than that, he just runs around trying to find ever more creative ways to keep the ball on his favored foot…and letting players run past him when the ball’s not on it. AMN has always had the first touch of a pinball flipper. Boing!

    Every week I seem to say that THIS was the worst performance I’ve seen from Arsenal in x amount of months! It’s just all bad. Leicester is going to be a humiliation. Seriously, would any of you be surprised with a 4-0 scoreline?

      1. I totally expect Leicester’s midfielders like Ndidi and Mendy to carve us wide open for Vardy and Iheanacho to light us up for 3-4 goals. Easy peasy.

        Leicester are a solid side and look a decent bet to play in Champions League next year.

    1. I almost welcome it. If we’re going to lose, let’s lose with a statement, not a grinding narrow loss that just leaves the board humming and hawing some more. Let Emery go out Kovac style.

    2. It rarely works like that. I would not be shocked if we go to Leicester and upset them, preserving Emery for another two months or more and it being hailed as the new blueprint for Arsenal going forward. I still remember that game where we beat City at their place, 2-0 and everyone thought ah ha, Wenger’s found the formula.

  6. I can’t see the game at the weekend as anything but a last chance for Emery. If it isn’t man is this season going to be dire. There is still time to salvage it. Arsenal aren’t too far off top 4 and even if Freddie is given an Interim role it can’t be worse can it? The team already can’t prevent shots or chances while not creating shots or chances either….which really is an impressive combination. The equation is simple get the ball to Laca or Auba in the box and goals happen. How to achieve that obviously is the significantly more difficult question. Yet it is quite clear that will not happen under this manager 🙁

    1. All this “Freddie” chat…I don’t know, really. See, the trouble with the late Wenger period is that action (an executive intervention, Wenger not signing a new contract – either of the final 2 contracts) was necessary but never came, driving so many fans to the point that literally anyone but the then-incumbent would have been just perfect. You may have heard some of such people shouting you down as recently as a month ago if you expressed displeasure in Emery.

      And here we are now, almost unanimously fed up with Emery, and obvious action is not forthcoming so far, and once again, too many are keen on Literally Anyone Else (Mourinho, really? Come on, people. It’s been well over a decade, nearly 2, since he didn’t have one of the biggest financial outlays domestically, which means he might not even take his customary 3 seasons to burn down our stadium.) Ljungberg, for me, falls into the Literally Anyone Else bucket, much like Solskjaer at United (and even Mourinho before him). We honestly don’t know that he’s as good as we *want* him to be.

      1. Agreed. What exactly has Freddie done to earn all this goodwill? We all love him, but Lampard is the exception, not the rule.

        Personally, I want BFG to kill it with the kids and make the step up. And I think that’s the ex-Arsenal transition we should all be keeping an eye on.

        1. Hi Zed. Thanks for agreeing – though on the Mertesacker front, his role seems to be more as a suit than as a coach, so it seems his path is more boardroom than bench.

      2. You are absolutely correct and I agree with your assessment that Freddie absolutely falls into the ‘anyone but Emery’ bucket. It is also the easiest change for the board and brain trust to make and likely the lowest ‘risk’ option for them. I’d also rather have the team managed via Twitch chat than hire Jose. It’s the ‘may not be right but mr right but he’ll do right now’ type of situation.

        As for you comment below the only thing that would get this team relegated would be by staying the course with this manager. The bigger danger is doing nothing which continues to alienate the two forwards with their contracts running down and continue to depress the value of Ozil. Without Laca or Auba Arsenal would truly be a mid-table club.

  7. Switchblade-My take is not that people are clamoring for Ljungberg’s appointment as manager, but as a stopgap. As Rex pointed out, it can’t get much worse. Maybe the more sentimental supporters on Twitter are fantasizing about a former player who seems to have done an okay job with academy players becoming manager, but the best opinion I have seen so far is for him to bridge the rest of the season while the board takes time to find, and then hire the right manager.

    We (the board, actually) may have been wrong about who should replace Wenger, but not that he should’ve been replaced. Alternatively, we allow Emery to see the season out. Are you suggesting that would be better than firing him?

    1. I have refused to watch Arsenal (actually, all soccer) since the 3rd Chelsea goal went in in the Europa League final a few months ago, and I would very much love to watch Arsenal again, so no, I do NOT think we’d be better off hanging back until the end of the season. But my ego’s not quite at the size where I don’t question my own opinions.

      Something I may not have stated is, I think we’re not safe enough (points-wise) that the “Freddie till the end of the season” gamble doesn’t fill me with dread. What if it’s actually worse, genuinely disastrous enough (in terms of points and results) that we find ourselves actually fighting relegation? We’re closer to last than to first as it is, and the season’s just over a quarter gone.

  8. The more I think about it, the more I am warming up to the idea of Arteta as our next manager. I know he is completely unproven but he has had three years of apprenticeship under Pep and an intelligent guy like him probably has learned a lot in that time. Being an ex player, I think he would also:

    1) Command the respect of our players.
    2) Get along (at least initially) with the people in charge of footballing operations, many of whom are ex-players themselves.
    3) Know the premier league well.
    4) Understand the values and culture of the club which is becoming an important factor because it feels like we are slowly losing our identity (or brand if you like corporate speak).

    Many of the young coaches we have seen do well in other leagues have all been relatively inexperienced and I think we need to be brave here. So why not Arteta?

      1. Really? I haven’t seen any indication from Pep that he is leaving. If he wins CL with city though, that might change.

        1. pep won’t stay anywhere for too long. besides, arteta was brought in to be mentored by pep. he simply has to bide his time. the question is why would arteta leave city now…….especially to come to this arsenal?

      2. No way is Arteta succeeding Guardiola at City. City is a mega-marketing machine, a brand, and the manager is a key component. Arteta has almost zero profile outside of Arsenal fans pining for him as manager. When Pep goes (which I don’t believe he will until he’s won the Champions League again), they will go find another big manager.

        Actually, if Arteta does want the City job, he needs to leave now and establish himself as a stand-alone personality and not an appendage of the Guardiola machine.

        1. This is basically my line of thinking as well. Also, I think Pep wants to build a dynasty at City. He will have the resources there without the political nonsense he faced at his previous clubs. Barcelona and Bayern jobs demand absolute perfection 100% of the time. He will get a lot more slack at City. Not to say there isnt pressure for him to win there but it’s not the same as being the manager of those clubs.

          1. Guardiola has to stay at City until he wins the Champions League. Otherwise he risks being labelled as unable to win the big trophy without Messi.

            After he wins it, who knows? I wouldn’t be shocked to see Guardiola decide to try MLS, he has lived in New York and the City group does own a club there…

  9. it would surprise me if emery had the courage to do the right thing with the captaincy. he didn’t even pick a captain, he deferred that responsibility to the players well after the season had already begun. the only way emery drops xhaka is if xhaka offended him.

    to everyone who was okay with xhaka’s non-apology, would you tolerate your kid grossly misbehaving and making excuses for his behavior instead of apologizing? if so, perhaps i’m just an ornery old man. i’d kick the sh*t out of my kid if he did that. with that, i would have played xhaka today; an away game.

    the thing i loved about coqzorla is with that midfield, arsenal looked like they could beat any team in europe. with this current team, arsenal look like they could lose to any team in europe. in fact, they look more likely to lose and lucky to draw. since when did arsenal become the set piece kings?

    i’m in the minority that thinks ceballos did okay today. he’s a very young man being played in a tough position he’s probably never played before and he looked better than xhaka ever has. too bad he did his hamstring. as for pepe, i pleaded for guys to not expect too much from him. in fact, i argued that i didn’t think he was much better than iwobi. if iwobi were in france, i think he’d put up similar numbers. i hope pepe proves his quality but that left foot dependence makes him incredibly predictable.

    the worst thing that could happen is that arsenal beats leicester city.

    1. There is no excusing Xhaka’s behaviour. I expected him to be stripped of his captaincy, and indeed to be sold in January. By his wish more than ours.

      Everyone talks about the importance of mental health awareness, but we’re not willing to make allowances for why a player reacts poorly? This management team have created situations with players you would never expect to have issues with. Ramsey, Ozil, Koscielny. Xhaka is a spiky character in some ways. The fact that he behaved poorly is no reason for the club not to be able to manage the situation better. Especially when their own actions have likely contributed to the frustration of the player. Say what you will about Xhaka not apologising, but right or wrong, he provided the opportunity to draw a line under it and move on. It needed the club to put their PR machinery behind it, and it might have worked. They half a**ed it. Half measures make things worse. They ought to have got behind Xhaka’s message OR outright rejected it (preferably the former) It’s weak from the club, and weak from the coach.

      It also seems to me they and/or Emery want to make no allowances for the personality and concerns of their players, and instead dictate terms to them. The effect is going to be beyond Xhaka alone. It’s inevitable that squad morale drops. I think we’re seeing that now.

      That said, I think we’ll end up winning against Leicester. It would be the Arsenal thing to do.

      1. +1 for the rest of your post but never has Arsenal felt less like Arsenal to me.

        The Emery thing to do would be to score first, panic, lose 5-1 conceding 45 shots on goal and then say that the plan worked but that Leicester were a bit too motivated for us.

        Let’s see. I always want us to win but there is a certain horrified, slow motion car crash fascination to it all at the moment.

  10. Emery’s done, this reactive, inveterate tinkerer. His goose is cooked. Once players lose all confidence and belief in your instructions they’ll give up on the pitch because what’s the point? Nothing will work anyway.

    Move now and maybe we can save the patient. Even an average manager should elicit a new manager bump just by wiping the slate and starting again. Trouble is, it’s early yet. Enough time to do an Ole, great first 14 games, and then the cliff.

    So what do we do? It’s unlikely that many of our wishlist coaches are willing and available right now so we need an interim who will get us over the line. Freddie looks promising but a risk, both in terms of results and his own progress, the pressure is enormous.

    There is an old Irish saying, ‘An sean Madra don bhóthar chruaidh’. The old dog for the hard road. Getting top four this season will be a hard road. Freddie would be an exciting appointment for me personally but maybe an old dog would be a smarter one.

    As for Emery, what can you say? He was described as being obsessive and meticulous, constantly reacting to his last result and his next opponent. StatDNA are sat there producing terabytes of data every match, workout and training session for him. The trouble with data is you can have too much of it. Gleaning meaningful insight from data is as much about what you leave out as what you put in. In trying to tinker with parts he has lost sight of the whole.

    Now the team runs like an over tuned car, it barely fires. The longer he is allowed to sit there clicking the randomize button the uglier we will get.

  11. In other great news, Wenger might be in line for Bayern Munich job. I would be happy for him if he gets it and then goes on to win CL with them. That would be one fairy tale.

    1. Sorry to poop on your parade but Kovac was fired because the players didn’t think he was providing them with detailed enough tactical plans to beat his opponents. That club is run by a cadre of players who have a specific way they want to play and a board who are hyper-hands on. Wenger is literally the antithesis of what they want. Weirdly, Bild is reporting that Wenger contacted Bayern saying he’s available for the job and they rejected him. I find that basically unbelievable because Wenger would have to know he’s a bad fit there.

      1. Bild is reporting that Wenger contacted Bayern saying he’s available for the job and they rejected him. I find that basically unbelievable because Wenger would have to know he’s a bad fit there.

        ———————-

        Real Madrid have changed managers three times since Wenger left Arsenal and even though he pretty much always maintained he was going back into management there was no talk of any interest from them.

        Seems Wenger decided to be proactive with this Bayern vacancy and made contact himself.

        Totally bad fit, as Tim just explained.
        I can’t decide if this was Wenger being brave or just sad.

  12. This is getting so dire now, please board act quickly,
    Wouldn’t it be great if Emery somehow got some non serious illness over the next couple of days (perhaps caused by standing in the rain watching that rubbish) and couldn’t coach the players pre Leicester.They could play with freedom and beat that lot.
    If somehow we fluke a result Saturday,it will only prolong the agony:
    in Brexit speak,kick the can down the road.
    This guy is done at Arsenal, I’ve been following Arsenal for over 40 years,our board have never been decisive, please now…

  13. SHARD: “Say what you will about Xhaka not apologising, but right or wrong, he provided the opportunity to draw a line under it and move on. It needed the club to put their PR machinery behind it, and it might have worked. They half a**ed it. Half measures make things worse. They ought to have got behind Xhaka’s message OR outright rejected it (preferably the former) It’s weak from the club, and weak from the coach”.
    _______________________

    Shard, for someone who talks a lot about the club’s values, you continue to make excuses for Xhaka trampling all over them. Both in his actions, and in not fronting up immediately, fully and unequivocally. You want to talk values? No player, let alone the club captain should carry on like that on the field. Adherence to values shouldnt be expected only of Raul.

    Recap….
    When his number came up, Xhaka was pi**** off. That’s normal. 80% of players are. He then proceeded toss away the captain’s armband. Not a biggie… maybe he has weak right arm, and can’t aim properly. Or maybe Auba was in too far away 🙄 He then gets into it with the crowd, shouting “f*** off”. As the jeers increase, he then does the “whip em up” cupped ears thing. After barely acknowledging the sub, young Saka, he slaps away the coach’s offered handshake. He then rips off his shirt, tosses it away and storms down the tunnel. Reports said he left the stadium altogether. When you are subbed and dont have an injury, you take your place on the substitutes’ bench. Why? Even though you are not on the field anymore, you are invested in the result.

    You want to talk values? The captain of Arsenal couldn’t care whether Arsenal won, drew or even ended up losing the game. The men under his charge are busting a gut, and he is heading home.

    Then an “I was kinda justified in acting that way” statement.” Josh is right… as bad as I thought his statement was, even that on Sunday night or Monday, MIGHT have made a difference. Might. He issued it on Thursday. We’re a smart community here. Read between the lines.

    What, exactly, did you want the club to get behind? Why should they get behind a message that he was obviously dragged kicking and screaming into making, one; two, that came 4 days after his multiple infractions and three, did not constitute an apology? You yourself said at the time that it wasnt one and wasnt meant to be one.

    My read was that it wasn’t Emery, because his take on the Monday how “down” and “devastated” Xhaka was. He was, it seems to me, ordered to do it. When Xhaka did say something, the club kind of said, “and now, an announcement from our captain”, or words to that effect. Read between the lines.

    But ultimately, it doesn’t matter to me who pulled the trigger, because the captain’s actions deserved a significant, public sanction. The behaviour breaches were too egregious. Even so, I I had hoped/expected that he wouldn’t be stripped of the captaincy (but rather dropped and fined) but in hindsight, I can’t see how they could have done otherwise.

    1. “Why should they get behind a message that he was obviously dragged kicking and screaming into making, one; two, that came 4 days after his multiple infractions and three, did not constitute an apology?”

      For the good of the club. No other reason. I also said they should have put out their own statement rejecting it if they fundamentally disagreed with Xhaka. That too could be for the good of the club. It depends on how you read the squad’s mood, and how important you think Xhaka is to the players and the football team.

      I think the players see it as an outburst, but the fallout as a Xhaka vs management issue. Making it a players vs management issue. Admittedly this is only a feeling. (more on this below)

      As for values. I don’t think you’re wrong. I just think the tone of values has been set at the top now, and Xhaka’s reaction both stems from it, and as a reaction to it. When you’re throwing the likes of Ramsey, Ozil and Kos under the bus. Also Mustafi. (Who’s trolling on Twitter in support of Xhaka after his goal yesterday) You kind of set the tone for an adversarial relationship between players and the club.

      As for Josh’s point about Xhaka being weak. See, this is always difficult. I’m inclined to agree with Joshua. And yet, I think it’s somewhat of a rallying point for the players against how management has been treating them. Like I said above, it’s just a feeling. But Xhaka is team captain, and it seems to me the majority of the players are on his side in this. Maybe he is a leader to them, no matter how improbable it seems to us.

      By the way, I disagree that Xhaka always blames others. I think he was demanding accountability from every player when he said the strikers need to score too (I would also guess Emery favours Auba and his pals Laca and Guen)

      I don’t particularly care if Xhaka is captain. I worry what it means for the team now, and I don’t like the manner in which this was handled. What is the club stance? Is Xhaka punished, or is it out of care for his mental health. Are they sorry they had to do it, or are they firm that this was unacceptable. Xhaka may lack leadership, but the club lacks it even more.

  14. A lot of one-footed players play wide with some success. Arjen Robben was one. Pepe makes it look like chain gang labour. We are not anywhere near to getting the best out of him. A smart defender “shows” him his right foot all the time. He’s not going to do you damage.

    I thought Ceballos did ok, but as I said to Josh last thread, I think his problem is a lack of speed. Worryingly for Emery, Martinelli, Saka and Willock — three of his best performers in this competition — disappeared from view, swallowed up by the tactical muddle out there. I cant remember us looking more dire as a playing unit.

    We badly need midfield reinforcements.vWe looked utterly bereft of creativity, thrust and punch in the middle of the park. I dont want to bang the drum for any player, but yesterday’s looked like the kind of game in which we could have used Ramsey’s all-round O and D skills. The player closest to that skillset was Willock, but Im not sure what role he was assigned by Emery. Anyone?

    This looks like a unit that is not playing for the manager.

    All that said, I dont understand all this fear that Leicester will batter us. Football isnt linear in that way. We could even win this game. And I don’t want us to lose to hasten Emery’s departure. It should not take a loss to Leicester for the board to see the glaringly obvious, or a win (which is possible), to stop them doing the necessary.

    To me, this game has “draw” written all over it. That’d be such an Emery result.

  15. shard, you’ve got me all wrong, brother. my main problem isn’t with xhaka losing it on the field. he’s human and in certain moments, stuff can happen. my problem is with xhaka failing to own what he did.

    whenever you reach this proverbial boiling point, it typically passes after a few minutes. xhaka took four days and still took no responsibility for his actions. what xhaka did on the field was bad, but him making excuses for misbehavior is despicable. if i were his teammate, i’d have some unkind words for him in front of the whole team (no coaches/social media). it wouldn’t be to put him down, but to challenge him to not be so weak when it comes to reflection. how can he lead when he takes no responsibility for what he does, let alone, his team? he’s weak!

    it’s probably xhaka’s greatest flaw. he never accepts responsibility for anything he does wrong on the field, instead choosing to make excuses or blame others. as a result, he continues making the same errors on the field and, despite his talent, doesn’t improve as a player. this is why fans despise him. as a professional in any career, you have to be your own worst critic and he clearly is not. he’s like trump; nothing is ever his fault. it seems his morality is based on his opinion of himself, not on the way it actually is. i think it’s called egoism (i made a c in philosophy).

    1. i wouldn’t want xhaka as a team mate, let alone, a captain. in a tough game with everyone looking to him for leadership, he couldn’t lead a thirsty horse to water. likewise, having such a weak operator at base of the arsenal midfield is the reason arsenal haven’t qualified for the champions league since he’s been at the club. there’s a reason that wenger didn’t play him after signing him until both santi and coquelin got injured. most players with his talent would have gotten better. xhaka hasn’t.

  16. On Pepe:

    Last year we pursued Carrasco and Perisic and then this past summer made a bid for Zaha. All three, Zaha especially, are players that if you can isolate them 1v1 with a defender it has the potential to create chaos, pull CB’s out of position, earn free kicks, earn penalty kicks etc.

    I almost never see Pepe get the ball where he can take the fullback on 1v1. The odd time we have seen it, it’s clear he has the ability to be Zaha+. But we’re so laborious in our passing that by the time the ball gets to him he’s facing a crowd (which is also credit to scouting by the other team).

    Against Liverpool in the League Cup we did a lot of diagonal long-ball switching, something I hadn’t seen us do much of before. And it was working. I thought, oh, this is fresh, this isn’t the staid possession-first football but rather trying to stretch the opposition wide and find players in space. Some of it was down to Mustafi being a better passer than Sokratis. But yesterday I didn’t see any of that.

    Pepe is not a dud. He’s just playing in the wrong set-up, he needs to play in a more daring, faster paced team that takes advantage of space. If Guardiola, or horrors… Brendan Rodgers, had a wide player of his skill and pace guaranteed he’d be a nightmare.

    1. agreed. that’s why tim said he’s not judging any players on this system, i also endeavored to encourage everyone to be patient and not expect too much from pepe.

      we’ve seen emery do things that folks here have tried to explain but, let’s face it. no one is smart enough to know what emery is doing…even the players.

      1. It’s pretty obvious from his painful post-match interviews that Emery himself isn’t smart enough to explain what he’s doing. However he seems quite good at explaining what the opposition is doing well. FML

    2. Arsenal’s spacing is so awful. Pepe has incredible first touch but since we were spaced so poorly and because we didn’t have a CM attacking spaces in the middle (Ceballos was playing like a CB most of the game) high up, Pepe was often double-teamed and triple-teamed. It was frustrating.

  17. To those who are down, feeling indifferent, feeling like this somehow isn’t Arsenal anymore. Unfortunately, it is. This is how being a fan works. Moments of joy – if you’re lucky – followed by long times in the doldrums. I’m sure that, deep down (or maybe even just below the surface) you’re all aware of this, but this just…happens. I hate it myself. I want things to be so much better. My reaction to yesterday’s game is just…:: sigh ::.

    This isn’t even about ‘X team/ X team’s fans would give their right arm to be in our position’. That’s not how humans really work. When something as close to you as your football team is going through trouble, no matter how ridiculous it may seem to others, it all seems so cataclysmic to a fan. Everything, as the cliché goes, is relative. And right now, our relative, our brother Arsenal, is going through some growing pains.

    I remember the late-period Terry O’Neill, the everything-period Don Howe. Oh boy. That defined turgid. Stale. Dull. Why-am-I-spending-money-coming-to-see-this. And yet…we eventually got George. Then, after more dire nonsense, we got Arsène.

    Arsenal will come again. We may never reach the heights of Citeh or the Scousers due to our owners – or maybe we will – but there will be a time when we entertain again. Patience, my fellow fans. Our latter-day Don Howe will go (hopefully soon). Common sense will reign again at some point. It may not even be the next manager, but it will come.

    (And, to be honest, this is me geeing myself up…..)

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