Good day one and all.
It has been quite a week? After disappointment at Vicarage Road that saw us throw away a two-goal lead, we bounced back in fine style with a 3-0 victory at Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League. It is on the back of that clean sheet, a first in five games, that Arsenal welcome promoted side Aston Villa to the Emirates Stadium, looking to put end to a three match winless Premier League run.
Now, Thursday night wasn’t one of those performances that got one bouncing up and down with excitement, but considering Unai Emery made seven changes, with first starts of the season to four alongside a few fringe players… the win is a much-needed morale booster from which we can only build on.
The Villains are not having a great return to the topflight in their opening five fixtures – a run that include three defeats (W1, D1) and just one goal in their last two games – as they hover just above the drop zone. This is far from impressive for Dean Smith’s side who has invested just short of £140m in the summer. Taking into account that Arsenal has spent just as much, there’s plenty riding on this match for both teams whose off-season enthusiasm are starting to wane.
A player never short of encouragement is Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. In Lacazette’s absence we’ve become increasingly reliant on his goals and it’s a task he is shouldering with aplomb – six goals from as many matches. With Villa’s defensive boat creaking at the bits, it’s unlikely he’ll do his reputation as a flat-track bully any harm.
Arsenal’s defensive follies aside, Villa’s attack aren’t exactly sparkling in glory so this is match we are expected to win and our firepower has already showed they can strike against any side. Ergo, one can anticipate Smith to be prudent and set his team up to sit deep, try limit our movement and hit us on the counter.
Oddly enough this would favor us as it mean Emery can ditch the diamond formation as well as the passing at the back stuff.
The last five meetings between these two clubs the Gunners scored 18 goals and conceded none, making this an opportune time for our defense to bag another clean sheet.
@LaboGoon
Positively Arsenal 
Just as I write Pepe scores on a well earned Guen penalty, they go ahead again…bloody hell! Not going to be easy being positive here today…
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Luiz is shit.
We have enough of passers in the team. Don’t need him.
Need someone who can actually defend.
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laughable how bad we are at defending, we were level for just 90 seconds, awful
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That second yellow on AMN was harsh. He clearly gets to the ball first and kicks it, defender gets there second and gets his spikes on AMN’s shin and then acts like his leg was cut off. According to the announcers here, AMN should have known better than to win this ball. You can’t make this shit up!
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guendouzi very close with a long rage skimmer
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To be frank Guen is the only player who looks like he wants to win this game.
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PEA way over from six yards out at a corner, a half volley
xhaka and ceballos off, torreira and willock on, emery really doesn’t like ozil, does he
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I guess Ozil needs to be rested for Tuesday?
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We are playing much better now.
I guess this is how we can play with all out attack as against silly defensive tactics.
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that was an outstanding finish from Chambers 2-2
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3-2
We just need to attack. Forget the defense.
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Aubameyanggggggggggggggg with a great free kick 3-2
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Need to keep the ball now
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5 minutes of stoppage time to be played
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Phew,,, Much better second half
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The only person nervous while we were attacking was Emery I think.
We were great when we attacked. They hardly had any chances.
We need to play to our strengths.
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FT: Arsenal 3-2 Aston Villa
woeful defending on both villa goals, AMN sent off for two yellows, I think another five yellow cards for us too, a Pepe penalty straight down the middle, an outstanding finish from Chambers, when he was very cool to score, and an Aubameyang curling freekick won it for us.
We looked oh so much better when we went for it, will Emery take note, I doubt it
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phew. Weird how we started playing at one point. Well pleased for Chambers and a touch of class from the Yang.
Some truly deplorable moments of which I can find no excuses, but rally glad we won it. Lets face it, until we made it 2-2 I didnt think we would get anything out of this. Against the mighty Villa, three years in the lower depths…
COYG!
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yeah.. for us attack is the best form of defence… Also Chambers needs to be in the team
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Well well. I’m sure that put you lot who were following closely through all sorts.
Only checked in twice during 2nd half. Once to see the (unexpected) equaliser-Oh, followed immediately by their second. Oh fuck
Then again, near end, for our 2nd and 3rd. Oh yes. Oh yes.
I missed out on some mad joy but also missed out on all the angst would have felt watching live.
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Guendouzi drove us forward today, its a pity his passing is not just a little better.
Ceballos for me was awful, no surprise that our tempo improved when he went off as he had slowed down far too many of our attacks today.
8 yellows and a red for Arsenal today, Villa somehow only had one yellow, oh that somehow was Jon Moss
Emery on borrowed time, as it can’t keep like this, being shot by poor opponents. It would be all well and good to limit our attacking intent if he meant a very solid back line, but what we have is poor defending, little in midfield and an attack meant to make something out of nothing.
Every time the camera went on Emery it looked like a man suffering from constipation
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we had less shots on target than villa, with 60% possession,
villa committed more fouls than us, 15 to our 13 but we had 8 yellows and a red to thier one yellow
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their was a point in the second half were it seemed a switch had been flipped, and we started to play, started to attack in waves, started to charge, and when we did this, we looked far happier not only in midfield and attack, but at the back, all of a sudden we looked solid, comfortable in fact, at the back.
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Ed did you think that was a pen for them right at the end?
The rule with VAR about not rescinding a givien yellow card is insane. Duh! Surely one of the reasons we have VAR is to check that crap?
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In hindsight, which I must say would have been my foresight anyway.
You really are having a bloody laugh.
I know PA is meant to be positive……but give us a break,.
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A very lucky penalty escape near the end.
Moss is a toss, but should have given it to Villa.
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I was laughing at the stats 11 vs 11 after 35 mins for sure.
Better then complaining about the obviously poor coaching, that was old news 12 months ago!
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Guendouzi is not far off being a PL starter for a top six team. Happy to repeat yet again that there are Khedeira-esque qualities there that will become consistent in his mid to late twenties, maybe even within the next 18 months.
But he’s not there yet.
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Well, thanks to being able to enjoy things now, quite amused listening to Carragher and Tyler discussing VAR during Chels Liv game.
My oh my Tyler hates the whole thing, and Carragher’s got enough balls to fight his corner on it, which Tyler, pompous turd he is, sulks about royally.
Some choice stuff in there. Tyler having a dig at Riley (!!?) for being strict with the offside line, saying that if Riley was in charge of speed cameras you’d get done for doing 51 in a 50 zone. Then suggesting VAR may be good for refs but hurts everyone else in game and that they- everyone else- will have to decide if it’s really something they want in game.
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What makes me giggle, hysterically, is aubamayangs scoring record and ration for the Gunners.
Just imagine what he’d be doing under a coach whose style did not include lettting all and any opponent game have as many shots as they like all game long in the hope that a star player like Aubamayang can win you the points late on. Quality coaching is that. Lol.
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on the villa penalty shout, till I see a camera angle that shows it was anything other than his shoulder that the ball hit then it was the right call as shoulder is not handball. the replays shown on the stream I viewed all looked like it was his shoulder
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Stats.
It’s the stats that allo any fan to truly appreciate Ben Stokes’ master innings at headingly. When you see how he measured and gauged each and every one of his 50’s n that innings by noting the balls required per fifty it is possible to objectively identify this innings as one ofhthe greatest if not the greatest ashes innings in living memory and there have been some wonderful contenders in recent years from players on both sides.
Likewise: there’s nothing left to be said about Emery’s achievement.
More chances for the opponents then the Gunners consistently in the league, for Burnley, Watford, Bury and Accrington Stanley?
I’m sure there must be a lot of opinions out there on this statistic! The numbers themselves say it all for me.
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As it goes, the shape of all the arguments mirrors political life at moment, and my great disillusionment with it.
Tyler and all the rest endlessly decry the injustice et al of it, but without fail seem to misrepresent the whole of the thing in question, rarely if ever engage with strong rebuttals to what they say, especially on specific points. Then carry on, using the same arguments next time they moan, with no sign of having addressed any of the inconvenient facts or arguments against them. On and on
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Third game in a row now we get a result because the opposition wasted so many chances. In the end and under the circumstances a good result but really what is going on. Would anyone put their money on ARSENAL in any PL match to get a win anymore. This reminds me of the 22 game unbeaten run of last year where we had some awful games including at home yet managed to scrape by. An ARSENAL win is an ARSENAL though eh and we have got our ARSENAL back right!
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I said Friday although Saka was getting all the plaudits over the 90 Joe (Joe 90 he he he) Willock was the better player. He is getting stronger and stronger and will become a real player.
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I wonder if Emery actually prefers attacking football and is being asked to sort out the defense.
Probably why we started off well under him last year. Also the fact that Sevilla played good football under him.
My biggest worry about him before joining Arsenal was the fact that his PSG gave up a 4-0 advantage to lose 6-1 to Barca.
But then again they did win the first let 4-0. So maybe he is being asked to do something that isn’t particularly his style and that is creating problems.
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I wonder how many chances Villa had while we went all out after going 2-1 down.
That might give him an idea about how to take things forward.
I don’t remember many chances as all of them were just defending.
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I think youre right fins about Guen, he will come good later, but not now ( although he was good against Northumberland Rovers). He was trying to pick the lock today, but his passes are too heavy. The Master was on the bench. He should be back and in defence for the Forest game or at best one the bench for that game too.
I loved the way Chambers stabbed that ball in. Ians also right, looking at the highlights again, Villa missed some great chances.
I thought Luiz could have been a bit more active when they scored their second?
Bad physics from us in the first half,the lack of confidence was shocking, the intent was there, but not any real focus to get the ball in the back of the net- but something to build on from the late surge…pretty damned exciting it was. And saved us from a load of gloom!
Auba, what a goalscorer. Still cant believe some of the real fans were going on about selling him in the summer.
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New post is up.
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chkmiaot im not sure what you have been watching for the last 15 months to suggest Emery prefers attacking football, he has been nothing other than joselite, never seen such a negative manager at AFC
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