@LaboGoon addresses his flock this Sunday
Good morning one and all.
Arsenal host Wolverhampton Wanderers at the Emirates this afternoon with the intention of going into the international break with a win …… and nothing less.
Given the remarkably competitive nature of teams above us on Premier League table, getting 3 points against ‘lesser teams’ is as crucial as it has ever been. Mancity, Chelsea and Liverpool at present don’t look like dropping points against anybody except amongst the top-six, Spurs despite not at their ‘pressure putting’ best still find a way to eke out results. So on that I think these games fall in the ‘must win’ category if we want to remain within touching distance of the top-four.
We will look to bounce back following a recent blip that see us dropped 4 points vs Crystal Palace and Liverpool. Results could’ve been better if we made the most of the chances coming our way. The draw vs the Reds particularly was probably our best defensive display all season and showcased a fighting spirit and desire to not let a big game slip away after falling behind. Should we build on that we have no reason to doubt ourselves competing at the very highest level.
Wolves got challenges of their own. After starting the season on the front foot in their return to the to flight and playing with great competence, they’ve lost their way since coming back from the previous inter-break. Could be that opposition managers have worked them out as they are struggling both to keep a lid on things at the back and scoring goals. In the three games post the break they’ve registered as many defeats, conceding six goals and scoring two – both from penalty spot. However I expect them to fancy their chances and prove they have what it takes to get a result against one of the ‘big six’. They already held both Manchester sides to draws and put in a valiant effort coming back from 3-0 down to lose 3-2 vs our neighbours to show they are not your run-of-the-mill PL ‘newbie’.
The Gunners may have too much in front of goal though for the plucky Midlands side with the prowess of Lacazette and Aubameyang to call upon, and if Xhaka and Torreira continue their command of the area in front of the defenders it will defang the Wolves attack.
All things considered Arsenal have been consistent against teams outside top-six, especially in front of the Emirates faithful; and although no pushover Wolves could be in for a long afternoon if we play close to how we did in our last PL outing.
Positively Arsenal 
Mkhitaryannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn 1-1 a cross in by Mk goes right past the keeper and into the back of the net, come on AFC get a winner
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Finally
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What a joke. 5 mins. Should be at least 8.
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there was an offside in the build up to the goal, Ramsey when he got the ball back from Mkhitaryan
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only 5 minutes of stoppage time to play
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King Leno motm!
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fuck sake ref, ramsey tripped up on edge of the area and he does not give it and wolves break away and it needs a big save from leno to stop us losing the game. awful from the ref
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city 3-1 utd
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fucking luck then.
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wolves hit the post
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not too hot today, but we didnt lose.
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FT: Arsenal 1-1 Wolves
worst performance of the season, lucky to get a draw, its now only one win in 4, a 2-1 win in cc over Blackpool, draws with palace, lfc, sporting and wolves.
That today suggests we have a lot to improve on before we are title challengers, now 3pts behind 4th, and 8pts off top.
Very flat from the get go today, and barely had a shot on target, wolves will feel unlucky not to have won
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Slow first half from us again. Plus we have away a goal to a team who can hardly score.
They are good a defending and with a lead sat back. We needed to up the tempo earlier. Though we did create enough good opportunities to win. We didn’t finish them. In games like these chances are few.
Ref was awful. Our attack still isn’t clicking fully though and for games like this you need it. We sorely lack a good dribbler.
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Urgh. Been mercifully spared bus scenarios so far this year, largely because of getting goals at right times I suspect, but then two of them in four days.
Frustrations accentuated by a difficult time of it with streams for me (thanks Ed but didn’t work this time as I wasn’t willing to download flash again), including dying in last 5 mins.
I’ve sworn off them before and may do so again.
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Didn’t lose, but that was really quite dire.
The ref didn’t give us much, and our creative dept gave us even less, looked like we had run out of steam at times. Why are we so poor at corners, could do with a big guy who dominates the box at times, a bit like that guy who we sold to Chelsea who won some little trinket summer gone. Maybe we could get him on loan in Jan?
Also think we could do with Monreal back, Kolasinac looks very rusty
There is clearly work to do on this side, despite a decent unbeaten run.
Maybe being a bit over the top though, this is quite a typical performance after a hard midweek European game for a stretched, and maybe in some cases, traumatised squad.
This is going to be a tough season, guess some patience will be needed for all my harsh words
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Bus Scenarios BUS SCENARIOS RICH ????
Wolves could have had 4 fucking goals and but for Leno and the bar/post would have had 4 goals
You must have had a very very very dodgy stream
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To be fair though I have seen us lose 4-0 and play better than that
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Also, maybe I’m miserably blinkered, biased, blind or whatever, but once more that feeling a ref is working in concert with a team and their time-wasting and spoiling efforts.
A cheap free kick here and there, talkings to for bookings, no handle on rotational fouling, little things let go, crap use of advantage, slowing it for bookings and time-added on which bears little relation to real amount of time wasted.
Guy went down on 88 so was a grand total of 3 before that, with 5 subs, I think, at least one injury, and often 30 secs to a minute from a stop to a restart, sometimes because he wanted to make sure he wrote his bookings out neatly or something
These tiny margins add up and make life a lot harder on a day like today relative to rivals in a similar situation.
Glad not to lose, anyway.
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Rich Wolves defended well all game, even when or the final 20 minutes we finally, finally got control of the football. Pretending it was Atwell was responsible for our slack effort today, in which we were lucky to the a point, is pure fantasy (imo)
Emery will be raging at our players after that.
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Bus is ,to me, when opposition have nearly everyone back whenever you attack them, and certainly doesn’t preclude them getting two or three forward on breakaways.
It’s why there’s a massively increased importance on first goal in recent times, especially against teams who work a great deal on defend-and-counter football. A 1-0 lead is what they crave. Portuguese managers are experts at it.
There’s an argument- Mourinho’s- it is sensible and anything else is stupid ; masses back in defence, great space to attack into on breaks! But in reality, over the long term of a season, or in a game where you go behind, it isn’t perfect, though it looks it when it works. Also it needs the other team to want possession and to commit numbers forward
Only saw a total of about 10 mins of first half, mind, but of the 30-35 I saw second half it was pretty buslike, men back all the time, with their threat almost exclusively on counters.
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12 bpl games played 12pts dropped
7 home games, 7pts dropped
5 away games, 5pts dropped
we have conceded 15 goals in those 12 games, that is 5 more than spurs, 7 more than cfc and a full 10 more than both city and lfc
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Maybe the first half was the killer then. We didn’t look slack to me second half. Fighting hard to get a rhythm going. Maybe i should judge us more harshly for being so susceptible to pace on counter but for whatever reason I’m not this time.
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although I was unhappy with the refs game management, I do not think it can be blamed for that woeful first 45 minutes, nor the less than inspiring second 45. it was one of those performances that we have seen way too often in recent years, where it looked like the players thought the game would be easy, and they just went through the motions. Our current run of from is 1 win in five games, and that was Blackpool in the CC, only six goals scored in those five games and five goals conceded.
The question is has the lift a new manager gives a team now wore off and we are back to flat sterile football that we seen way too much of in recent years.
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‘Bus’ to me is when they everyone back even when you don’t attack them (banned smiley)
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this flat first half thing has to stop, only ourselves and cardiff have not led a BPL game this season at half time. I know if Wenger was still in charge all the malcontents would be claiming that our prep for games is outdated, and its all down to the manger not getting his team up for it, but its a new regime and the malcontents can’t say such things now.
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Oscar
@Reunewal
33m33 minutes ago
First dropped points at home against a non big six side since January 2017, after 23 consecutive wins.
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seemingly the man city 3rd goal today had 42 passes in the build up
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Probably isn’t fitting if we were shite first half but I’ll post it anyway.
Interview with Ljungberg after last weekend and u23’s 5-4 loss to Chelsea.
It’s the closest I remember to anyone discussing the maddening asymmetry I have found in many of our games over last 5 years or so, where, say, we regularly play a lot of good passing football to carve out a couple of good but difficult- no time, defenders around- chances, while the opposition are prepared to defend in numbers, wait, and then pounce on a mistake or a chance to break, for comparatively easier, better chances.
Freddie’s answer seems to be extra emphasis on concentration and not making silly mistakes.
I accept it has to be viewed as an overall picture, of all the games, with individual games treated cooly and not overweighted, but hey, I aint perfect and sometimes it drives me nuts on the day.
https://www.arsenal.com/news/we-made-mistakes-and-they-pounced-it
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so did the Arsenal fans sing “we’ve got our Arsenal back” today then.
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rich I think our problems at the back are two fold,
1. our defenders are taking up positions reliant on the best possible outcome from our possession, expecting that pass to find its target, there is not a defender who is thinking what if this breaks down, meaning we are totally open once we make just one mistake
2. we really lack speed at the back, with only bellerin anyway quick, Mustafi and Holding, and Sokratis are very one paced, and Kolasinac looks slow to me, Monreal is not slow, but not lighting either. Again means teams with pace really open us up.
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anicoll5
Yes, 0-4 would have been more reflective of the match. Don’t think the officials impacted on the result, and the referee added onto the second half added time, only appx. 1.5 minutes but it was about right.
I think Iwobi must have got a knock or something as there can be no other reason for subbing him off, and WTF was Zhaka doing on the build up to the Wolves goal?
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we have 2pts more this season after 12 games than we had after 12 games last season
this season P12 W7 D3 L2 Pts24
last season P12 W7 D1 L4 Pts 22
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Ed
1: Definitely thought that in past, throughout team. Torreira’s a welcome addition on that front as he does seem to think about moves breaking down. Decent example in first half when Iwobi had ball back to goal out wide with two right on him and Bellerin ran beyond him. Iwobi gave him a look after it. In percentage terms it was a 10% at best Iwobi could escape the two of them and play ball on.
To a degree, have to take rough with smooth as a bold team without an unlimited budget- it’s certainly joyous when the adventure is being rewarded.
The stats have suggested there could be trouble ahead, and it has worried me a bit the gaps we have to leave relying on full backs so much for width. One decent ball and it’s a dangerous sprint for our cb’s with only ok- mustafi- and…slightly above average?- Holding- pace
For me, it’s been a rough couple of games, with the injury and a crash to earth, after such an exciting game and nothing less than euphoria to get a result against Liverpool from behind.
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another fucking interlull now, two weeks till our next game, shit shit shit.
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Ed at 7:11 good dig at the malcontents.
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Wolverhampton Wanderers, what a bunch of cheats, aided and abetted by the worse refereeing performance since Mike Riley. I hope they get relegated
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interlull , that’s all we need, though I guess some get a rest, by the looks of today, some might need it. But Mr Infantino only wants to increase international fixtures, can see why it is reported some of the top teams want to break away from it all and form their own league, obviously for a number of their own reasons of course
Think wolves probably paid a lot of attention to the sporting game and invoked their inner cynical Portugeezer along with a solid defence and some decent attacking play.
UE has work to do, Lacca and PEA , as good as they are,seem to do well, and less well against similar teams, that’s why Danny was so effective at times this season, he could certainly ruffle a few feathers against so,e types of stubborn defences, I am assuming they will look to increase the variety of our forward options, by whatever means in Jan, we have lately looked a bit predictable against certain set ups.
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As I said before the game Wolves would play football with discipline which they did. They were clever enough to shut down creative players quickly and leave some of our less accurate passers to have the ball in space.
They did have their forward Shuting down our furthest back passer (Xhaka first half Matteo second) which is quite bus like and made them go sideways however they did spring forward very quickly, just like us, on the counter.
Andy yes they could of had four but on dark days we tend to forget out chances and we also could of had four if not for wastefulness in front of goal both Hector and Auba guilty of not hitting the target when well placed.
If anything I think we started panicking to early and gave wolves time to regroup rather than sustained pressure.
If I can criticize Unai at all it would be the lateness of the second sub after the first didn’t really change our affectiveness and Sead was slowing us down with his constant pass backs.
Aaron and maybe even Miki could of come on much earlier.
This is remember black November and we didn’t lose so let’s hope the international break last until December. (Yeah I know statistically that’s not always true Shotta but sometimes it feels like it)
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Not what the doctor ordered then?
IMO, No Ramsey = no party. We are shooting ourselves in the foot by not starting our 2nd best player.
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George
To furher your argument we must keep Ramsey at the club for sure. He is the Golden /lucky boy for Arsenal.
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we are 2pts better off this season than at same point last season and I’m told that its remarkable what Emery has achieved so far this season,
well I think its remarkable that being 2pts to the good is considered remarkable
the Arsenal PR machine has really done its job this season. Lets hope for the players and manager’s sake they keep it up
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I wish it were different, but I fear Ramsey’s fate is sealed.
We don’t know for sure, but I suspect there was a window when he could have signed a very lucrative secure deal with us, I really wish he or his agent hadn’t let that lapse
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Unai Emery cut a slightly frustrated figure after our 1-1 draw with Wolves at Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
Our head coach was asked about Bernd Leno’s performance, how he tried to change things at the interval and Matteo Gunedouzi’s influence.
Here is a transcript of his post-match press conference:
on a tough hard-fought point…
Good evening. Yes, we know they are very competitive team and also organised and good on the break. In the 90 minutes tactically, it’s enough today for a win. For us, after, when we were drawing, we continued taking risks because we wanted to win but also conceded some chances for them. Then, we finished not happy with this point but we also recognised their work.
on what he said at half-time…
We spoke about these things. It was very difficult to find a goal or break through their lines defensively. Their transition was a very good transition. We didn’t want to concede another goal because it makes it more difficult, but our idea changed a little bit because we spoke at half-time. We needed to take more risks in the match. The risks were thinking that we could win but we also needed good balance in the transition against a good team with good transitions. I think the team played with character and we had chances to draw before our goal. We also continued to look for ways to create and to win the game but then we drew. In the last five or 10 minutes, we had the same idea with the risk but also thinking to win. At the end of the game we could say, ‘OK, the two teams both deserved it’.
on whether Bernd Leno had his best game so far…
We knew that today we needed the goalkeeper with his performance, because when we are taking risks in our attacking moments, and to give them a transition and options in the transitional moments we would need the goalkeeper. Today I thought his performance was good for us.
on Matteo Guendouzi coming on for Alex Iwobi…
It was a tactical change. We wanted to play our right and left backs deeper and win back more possession inside with Sead and Hector. Sometimes we did this situation well and we created chances to score. Their work was good defensively because their block was very high.
on Granit Xhaka’s performance…
He has a big commitment to us and also character. His performance and his quality is good for us. We need everybody – also for me and for the team – to have more consistency but it’s something that comes with working in our way. I think the most important thing in this way is to be with confidence and improving little by little with lots of work. I think we are doing it and Xhaka is doing it also.
on whether first-half performances worry him…
When you are playing over 90 minutes, the two teams start the game with more intensity. Little by little over 90 minutes you need to impose your game, your job and your individual quality or physical strength. In the first half, they were also very good and it was not easy to play against them in the individual duels. Maybe it’s one thing we can improve but that comes naturally in our work.
on taking off Mesut Ozil and an update on Danny Welbeck…
I decided that we had two players on the bench like Mkhitaryan and Aaron Ramsey, attacking players. I wanted two attacking midfielders, so I made the change for this reason. Danny Welbeck’s injury is a big injury. We spoke with him yesterday and today. We support him with our personal relationship between the player and the staff.
on whether it’s a broken ankle…
Yeah. He had an operation on Friday.
on whether we’re likely to see him again this season…
I think it’s better for the doctor to say to you. It’s a big injury but the outcome… the doctor can answer that better than me.
Copyright 2018 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to http://www.arsenal.com as the source.
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Arsenal’s next 6 fixtures:
Bournemouth A
FC Vorskla A
Tottenham H
Manchester United A
Huddersfield H
FK Qarabag H
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next round of BPL fixtures
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Seen 30 min highlights now and ,yeah, first half looked a bit grim. Wolves looked like they had a good gameplan and it worked a treat, esp after taking lead. Got 4-5 up on at least one attack and always loads back to defend.
As for Xhaka on the goal…sheesh, some aberration. Slowed it down and though he had a few glances back towards our box he didn’t look at all over right shoulder, so seems no reason to do it.
Maybe got done by one of theirs calling for it? Or just a pure mental glitch.
Looked like textbook pressing- or whatever you call it- in buildup as they first cut off Rob’s angles so he could only hit it long with left or awkwardly play a ball to Kola with nothing on; then Kola in turn shut down so he could only give Xhaka a very unappealing pass- was it to right foot?- with a player close in front of him.
Suspect they work a lot on that. Scheiderlin gave a very good description, in some book or other, about the aim of that sort of pressing being to set traps and make opposition play successively worse passes.
The brainfart, then a 3 on 3, as full backs were up, which they executed well.
Xhaka’s game seemed decent to me other than that costly error, but am seeing it universally described as poor by press.
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That Nuno Holy Spirit chap certainly had a game plan and they executed it well.
The key for us, stop letting sloppy goals in, take the lead a bit more might help.
But a work in progress, though, the perplexing thing, Ramsey.
Wonder what Emerys more complete version of this team will look like?
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This bit in Unai’s post match:
“We didn’t want to concede another goal because it makes it more difficult.”
Maybe we should try not to concede the initial goal because that usually put us on the back foot with the opposition playing not to concede at all and exploit the gaps on the counter.
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i think many are underestimating the absence of monreal. he is maybe our most important player when turning defending into attack. how many games have we won without him? i’m sure if he was the one in those situations as bellerin (who did very well) he would have given better crosses and even scored a goal. the less i compare him with kolasinac the better. so in a way, the interlull is most welcome.
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Monreal been missed a lot, and looks very secure as 1st choice left back.
Modern game in general and we as much as any ask an enormous amount of full backs. Athleticism, creativity, passing ability, lot of running, huge concentration, and then the purely defensive stuff! Opposition studying you intensively beforehand to look for weaknesses and target situations to exploit.
Possibly the least forgiving position when trying to recapture full fitness and form after being out. City spent 30 mill on a reserve right back and the only surprise is they haven’t done same at left back, yet.
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