Arsene and Jose had an interesting chat on Saturday in their CL pundit work or BEIN sport, where they, mostly Arsene, talked about a team’s identity, it was about Liverpool and Spurs, but it touched on the wider issue. Both went for a Liverpool win, cos Liverpool has a team identity, “you know what you will get from Liverpool”, both tactically and formation wise was the consensus from both of them. Liverpool have their preferred formation and tactics, yes there are slight tweeks in games, but by and large Klopp sends them out with little tactical or formation change. While spurs change both.
Arsene and Jose implied that teams that change tactics and formations constantly only confuse the players, and also play with a small mindedness, they are signally their fear of the opponent, instead of trying to impose their game plan on them, be that game plan attacking or defensive and playing on the break. Both Jose and Arsene said a team should have a vision of how it wants to play, its formation and its tactics, without this it has no identity, and players are confused.
Many saw this conversation as Wenger having a pop at Emery for his constant changing of formation and tactics, and so have dismissed it as just sour grapes, but Jose was in full agreement. I would say that what these guys said was very similar to what Martin Keown said earlier in the season when talking about Arsenal’s defensive problems, namely when you keep changing from a 4 to a 3 to a 5, at the back, the defenders can’t get settled in a formation, too much alterations from game to game, or even half to half or every 20 minutes, only confuses your team, not the opposition. The old saying of the less a player has to think about the easier his job is.
I thought early season Emery was a man of his convictions, he was set on playing out from the back no matter what, but despite the 22 game unbeaten run, he jumped ship, of course he had to change it so often at half time that he had to do something, but how can you go from a thing being a main tactic to it barely being used at all. We went from playing it out from the back to cut back FC.
Positively Arsenal 
so it seems both Darren Burgess and Shad Forsyth are looking to leave Arsenal, that is both of our main fitness guys, this reconstruction of Arsenal looks a lot like destruction
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David Ornstein
Verified account @bbcsport_david
3h3 hours ago
Great scoop by @charles_watts. Hearing (unconfirmed) Burgess was sacked and that the decision was taken shortly after the Europa League final. Meanwhile head of performance Shad Forsythe, who had been close to joining AC Milan, will now remain at Arsenal in elevated position #AFC
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Arsenal’s fixtures, (from the Mirror)
August
11: Newcastle United, 2pm (a)
17: Burnley , 3pm (h)
24: Liverpool , 3pm (a)
31: Tottenham Hotspur, 3pm (h)
September
14: Watford , 3pm (a)
21: Aston Villa, 3pm (h)
28: Manchester United , 3pm (a)
October
5: Bournemouth , 3pm (h)
19: Sheffield United, 3pm (a)
26: Crystal Palace , 3pm (h)
November
2: Wolverhampton, 3pm (h)
9: Leicester City, 3pm (a)
23: Southampton , 3pm (h)
30: Norwich City, 3pm (a)
December
3: Brighton , 7.45pm (h)
7: West Ham United, 3pm (a)
14: Manchester City , 3pm (h)
21: Everton , 3pm (a)
26: Bournemouth, 3pm (a)
28: Chelsea , 3pm (h)
January
1: Manchester United, 3pm (h)
11: Crystal Palace, 3pm (a)
18: Sheffield United, 3pm (h)
22: Chelsea, 7.45pm (a)
February
1: Burnley, 3pm (a)
8: Newcastle United, 3pm (h)
22: Everton, 3pm (h)
29: Manchester City, 3pm (a)
March
7: West Ham United, 3pm (h)
14: Brighton, 3pm (a)
21: Southampton, 3pm (a)
April
4: Norwich City, 3pm (h)
11: Wolves , 3pm (a)
18: Leicester City, 3pm (h)
25: Tottenham Hotspur, 3pm (a)
May
2: Liverpool, 3pm (h)
9: Aston Villa, 3pm (a)
17: Watford, 3pm (h)
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seemingly AFC are about to sign a 21 year old German goalie on a free transfer
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AFCMike
@AFCPW
Bielik: “During the season I had a meeting with Arsenal officials, but I did not find out anything specific about him (Emery). If Wenger was still in charge today, I would definitely say that I am going back to Arsenal, going on a tour & fighting for a place in the first team.”
Bielik: “I have no contact with Emery. I know that the club has changed a lot. I’m certainly not going back to Arsenal to play in the youth team. If they do not offer me a real chance to fight for a place in the first team, then I will have to sit down and talk about my future.”
Bielik on if he has to go on another loan: “I feel great in London … but I have to take into account other possibilities, because I have offers not only from England. If, for example, a Bundesliga club wants me to play in their first team, then I will not think twice about it.”
Krystian Bielik: “Today, It’s not important [that I only have two years until the end of my contract with Arsenal]. We will see what happens after the European championship.”
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The idea of the lying buffoon becoming PM just makes me feel like throwing up. Feels more and more like a weird dream where Le Grove have taken over. Alas the dream is true.
Throws up violently.
Fuck off Brexit bullshit.
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Dan Critchlow
@afcDW
30m30 minutes ago
Dan Critchlow Retweeted Arsenal FC
Updated pre-season schedule so far:
July 6th – Boreham Wood (mostly u23s/u18s)
July 16th – Colorado Rapids
July 18th – Bayern Munich
July 20th – Fiorentina
July 24th – Real Madrid
July 28th – Lyon
July 31st – Angers
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so just 23 days till our first pre season game
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Adam Birchall
@strikerab_adam
21h21 hours ago
Another fantastic season of learning for me at Arsenal, really pleased Arsenal have extended my contract and asked me to become the Head u14 coach and over see the development of ages u12 & u13 starting next season but for now three weeks needed rest !!!!!!!!
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Greg Lincoln has moved up from coaching the U15’s to the U18’s
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it seems Freddie Ljunberg has moved from U23 coach to be part of the first team coaching crew, he during the season had been working as part of the first team coaching anyway, its just now its full time, and its expected Steve Bould will take the U23’s job
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Shame about that youth coach of ours who got in trouble at an u9 game. not a good look if he was misbehaving and made that comment to a young female referee.
Perhaps wrong of me, but instinct to defend club kicks in and feel I can’t be sure he is guilty as charged. Seems it was his word against hers about whether he swore.
Also, with the description of the rest of his alleged misdeeds- arguing over decisions, snarky comments, animated on touchline- same must happen hundreds of times in games at all levels, including academy, each season.
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west ham have signed midfielder pablo fornals, he has been linked with AFC over recent years, so cue fake outrage from the attention seekers, by the way he played 35 la liga games last season, scored 2 goals and had 3 assists.
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Dennis Saurez gave interview saying that he was not even 50% fit after 16 days at Arsenal.
One game sticks in my head, I think it was Man City away we were 2-3 down with 15mins to go.
Ozil was on the bench ( i thought he was coming on @ halftime but stayed on the bench(this was shortly after the claim was made that Ozil can’t play away because of the physicality by the manager) I was thinking at the time Poor away fans who traveled as it was clear we were going to get beat but the fans had nothing to cheer, (cant remember too many chances being created or any pleasing football) at that moment with 15mins to go he brought on Saurez who had been in the country 5 days, ahead of Ozil. I knew something was up then but this really confirms it.
Not only had Denis Saurez not acclimatised to a new country , different way of playing , food, culture, language etc, the guy by his own admission was less than 50% fit.
I think that was the day i decided that this manager had his own interests and not the team or the fans interest at heart.
He played Saurez just to make a power statement and it has had a detrimental affect on team morale.
Look at the start of the season, everyone was bubbling looking forward to the season, people putting themselves forward to be captain, people saying they want to follow in legends footsteps, to how we finished the season low on morale and without a Scooby Doo.
I want the manager gone because i seen more conflict with the team than working to harmonise the team and make them a coherent unit.
Victory through harmony it certainly has not been.
Rant over
Team that day and Subs.
Arsenal:
Leno Lichtsteiner Koscielny Mustafi (Mavropanos 79). Kolasinac Suarez 66’ Monreal Iwobi Ramsey 66’ Torreira Guendouzi Aubameyang Lacazette
Unused subs
Cech, Özil, Sayed Elneny, Nketiah
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well rich the odd thing was that he was initially cleared off the swearing incident, but the FA appealed the decision, and he was found guilty second time around.
It reminds me of my GAA playing days, I got sent off once in my entire time playing, (I retired shortly after), but I had to go in front of the disciplinary board, my club rep told me I could not say the Ref’s report was wrong, unless I had video evidence to prove it,(I had no intention of trying to disprove it, as I had done what the report said),
The reason no player could dispute the ref report without proof was that the county board had in their wisdom decided that the only way to encourage more people to become refs was to accept their match reports as 100% accurate, unless proven otherwise. So if sent off a player would, if they could not prove innocence, accept the refs version and so get the minimum suspension, if they questioned the report they would get a longer ban. Now you could, as i did, still put the blame for your actions on the ref’s sub standard performance, but accept his report of the incident was accurate.
So I would not rule out that the FA may have taken a similar stance with this incident, they can’t doubt the teenage Ref’s report, unless it can be disproved, so they don’t see it as one person’s word against another, they see it as she is telling the whole truth, so any other version is false. Its a real case of guilty till proven innocent
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Team for Man City
Leno Lichtsteiner Koscielny Mustafi (Mavropanos 79). Kolasinac Suarez 66’ Monreal Iwobi Ramsey 66’ Torreira Guendouzi Aubameyang Lacazette
Team for Crystal Palace at home
0 Bernd Leno
0 Shkodran Mustafi
6 Laurent Koscielny
27 Konstantinos Mavropanos
0 Carl Jenkinson
0 Matteo Guendouzi
35 Mohamed Elneny
0 Sead Kolasinac
11 Mesut Ozil
0 Alexandre Lacazette
0 Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
In both matches home and away starts with just 3 attacking players. One in a role that limits his creativity and goal threat (aubameyang on the left) and highlights his defensive weakness.
I am sorry but a 3 attacking player may be acceptable for Man City but should not be acceptable for Crystal Palace @ home. It stinks of an inferiority complex. Its is in the mold of Jose Mouriniho and we all know what happens when you are not winning anything and having a strategy that relies on your opponents to make mistakes (shit on a stick football).
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gee it will be interesting to see how the Emery/Ozil situation, if there is one, pans out this summer. If there is indeed a problem between the head coach and the player, then likely one of them has to go. Emery has shown no inclination of trying to alter tactics to get the best out of Ozil, and Mesut has shown no inclination that Emery’s tactics works for him.
The whole Ozil tweeting that he was training hard and fully fit and ready for games, only for Emery to leave him out and say Ozil was not training well or fit, for me was the mess that done for our season. Ozil is popular with the other players, they know his quality, so for this sort of thing to be going on, it can only have had some of them doubt what Emery was doing and saying. And once players start to doubt anything the coach is saying, they start to doubt everything he is saying.
But its alright, we seemingly have found a scapegoat for the end of season collapse, it was all Darren Burgess’s fault.
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But I thought Emery’s new training regime was just what we needed pre season
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marky he was sacked cos he did not notice that steve bould had put the cones out in the wrong place,
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@ eduardo792 June 14, 2019 at 1:15 pm – Totally agree. Once the players lose the slightest faith in the manager they are naturally not going to go above and beyond.
It is arguable weather the players were going above and beyond in Wenger’s final season but i believe the reason we punched above our weight for many season was the loyalty that Wenger brought on in his players.
They are often quoted as saying he was like a father figure. You are more likely to work harder for a father figure you admire than a bean counter of a manager what ever walk of life.
I am not impressed by his man management skills at all and feel it was a factor in our poor season because this was a very poor season with so many youngsters being snubbed this season as opposed to last season.
Add to that he ostracised arguably two of our best players – Ramsey and Ozil – i really have no patience for this crap. Its not that i am a glory hunter but some of Emery decisions practices have left me very unimpressed.
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Ed
Interesting. Think I’m right in saying the corroboration came from opposition team about the other part of it- complaining about decisions, snarky comments, too animated on touchline- but that stuff in itself is surely not grounds for any action at all.
Think it was Reading. So can imagine plenty of our long term coaches being pretty pissed off with them for that if they have been around on occasions when Reading coaches have done the same, which they probably have.
Done now and, yep, coach at that age should definitely be behaving themself, but one for me where to really know what happened you’d have to be there. I’ve certainly seen some ref performances of our youth games that could push me over the edge.
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Gee is now the star turn, great post.
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Rich our coach had accepted the charge relating to his behavior during the game, he disputed the claims he called her a little prick after the game when she refused his apology and handshake
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Cheers George
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