Right , let’s look at the good stuff first. We got a point away at United, despite being a goal behind at halftime, not many manage that. Young Saka had a good game, an assist and but for a lucky deflection, he would have had a winning goal. The lad played the full 90 and didn’t look at all out of place. I also thought Luiz had a good game and looked our most creative player (is that a positive?).
As for the game itself? It was poor. Some would say awful.
Once again we saw a midfield that could simply not dominate of create. Torreira, a DM by trade,looked to be playing as a 10. Matteo hurried and scurried all game and this seems tt impress many, but his distribution is average and he gets the ball taken from him regularly. Because of this imbalance in MF, Xhaka is being asked to do stuff that he is unsuited to, and so he can’t do the job he is very suited to. It’s a mess.
Dani comes on and it’s clear he is no Mesut Ozil, who didn’t even make the trip. Tragic.
The goal we did get basically came courtesy of United gifting us the ball on the edge of their own area, well taken, but a gift anyway.
20 odd minutes in we had 28% possession against a team with a MF that is shocking.
I want to be enthusiastic, but honestly, if Arsenal hadn’t been involve, I would have turned over and watched a rerun of Dad’s Army. It was a dire game. With the player available to Emery, good football shouldn’t be too much to ask. But we are not seeing any, and there appears to be no prospect of it coming.
Positively Arsenal 
Sorry folk, but I’m depressed .
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“Who do you think you are kidding Mr Emery, if you think old Mesuts done”.
Thanks for the review George, tis the way it was. Thanks for doing it.
Old Slosher didnt bring anything new to the situ despite changing the team. Think of the points dropped so far and then where we could have been. How longs that been going on?
Glad Chambers is doing well at the moment.
Shame Saks didnt knack that one in, man, that would have been a moment. Bloody glad we didnt lose though, now that would have been a downer.
Onto Lüttich, hopefully a better game there.
COYG!
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joselite strikes again, he is afraid of his own shadow. Its not good enough.
after we went behind, we went for it a bit more and were the better team, got our goal, a lucky goal n two regards, 1 utd coughed up the ball needlessly, 2 there was VAR as that raised flag by the lino was inexcusable, Maguire was five yards from him and somehow he could not see him, who or what did he actually think he was having to strain his neck to look past to see PEA, who was probably a good five yards or more onside.
then once goal was scored we had five minutes of utd in panic, only for Emery to put the team back in its shell by bringing on subs to play more defensive.
Emery is too cowardly to be Arsenal manager.
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Absolutely pathetic performance in every aspect of the game (thank god for Leno).
I suspect that team selection caused this.
The MF was totally unbalanced, as was the attack with a none performer on the right, our central striker hardly touched the ball especially in the first half, as could be expected with a MF who could not pass for toffee.
As for the new wonder boy………sure highly talented and with a good potential (how many times have we seen that) but as youth will; is only capable of individualistic play and not adept enough at team play which requires an ability to combine which only comes from experience.
If Aaron and Mesut had been playing Arsenal would have murdered Utd.
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I’m not sure Emery’s tactic of trying to shoe horn Torreira into a box to box midfielder is ever going to work. Torreira looked last season, well for 2/3 of the season, like the defensive midfielder we had craved for a few years, but he oddly enough being given a position that Emery deemed unneeded when we had the best one around, namely Ramsey as a box to box midfielder.
Last season Emery benched Ramsey and Ozil, now Ramsey has left and he has benched Ozil and seems reluctant to play Ceballos too. No he prefers Torreira in the role that is far better suited to the other two guys, not forgetting Willock too.
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I really have to laugh at the Xhaka haters, I think its clear that he lacks out and out speed, in fact some might even call him slow, and most would not argue that point, but so many of his detractor seem to confuse his lack of speed with two other things,
lack of mobility
lack of stamina
I’ve never noticed any lack of mobility or lack of stamina in any of Xhaka’s games, have any of you
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Arsenal’s top 4 chance creators in all competitions this season are Nicolas Pepe (12), Bukayo Saka (11) Joe Willock (10). Mesut Ozil (8)
Worth noting Özil has only played 142 minutes.
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Hoping for brighter things this week, surely he will go for it in those games, and let some players develop some confidence? if reports are true, perhaps he should let our talents loose on the training pitch rather than confine them to the lecture theatre.
As for Emery, I have always assumed his contract will be extended, or go into its final year after the break clause if he gets the team into the ECL next year.
Now, I am starting to wonder. If he fails, or it becomes apparent he will certainly fail, I expect him to be toast unless he is somehow operating with explicit instructions from above, on all fronts. But even if Emery succeeds this year, I wonder if Edu might make a grand gesture at some point to cement his position as the man pulling the strings on the playing side. A grand, and it would seem popular gesture at the moment, this manager seems to be uniting the fan base, and not in a good way. I find that a shame
Emery really needs to pick things up, realise he has players other than Banega, not even referring especially to this game but Watford..the first half vs Villa.., if he doesnt, I suspect Emery will soon find himself little more than a footnote in this clubs history, I hope he hopes for better for himself.
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Arsenal women to play SK Slavia Praha in the Achtelfinale weeks starting 18/28th Oct respectively.
Im interested to see who will play on Thurs though. My feeling is he will play Ö and make him capt. Or maybe he wont and just play the straight first team shuffled around.
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George
When the esteemed Marquis described Mourinho’s style of Football as “Shit On A Stick” there was at the least some implication of movement in there. Waving a stick around. Some thing. Any thing.
Emery is just proffering up Shit.
No garnish. No sides.
Not. Even. A. Stick with which to stir the Shit.
Just:
Shite.
With this squad! Aubamayang who likes like he is the best striker we have EVER seen (his stats are incredible).
I feel your pain!!!!
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I also agree Luiz had a magnificent match, the kind of performance that has us all hoping he can put together a run of form now he’s got fully fit.
Not talking about his passing out which was better then Emery’s concept of a Midfield – on his own sixteen yard line, he has no concept of playing through the c.circle it seems, as the Blaggers at finally starting to comment upon. but talking about the huge amount of defending Luiz had to do.
Any cunning linguist trying to defend this shit is not very cunning.
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It’s pretty clear Adrian Clarke, who knows a thing or two and how to express them, thinks we need Özil in the team.
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Two goals for gnabry at the new white hart lane!
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Hat trick!
A memorable night for the player who first rose to wider fame in that home victory over Spurs in the 2014 Cup run.
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Tottenham 2 Munich 7
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Only managed to catch the second half but that was beautiful from Bayern. The control, confidence, and clinical finishing was just amazing to watch.
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Bayern really looked good. Spurs lost all heart when it when they scored the 5th. Big ups to Gnabry! I think he scored with every shot he took.
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As for The Arsenal…the less said the better.
Oh how I miss Arsene. Running him out of town was a bigger mistake than any player we sold or missed out on.
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ha ha ha, Poch just basically said their 7-2 home defeat tonight was no different to a 1-0 loss as its only 2pts dropped.
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so will spurs 7-2 home defeat be mentioned as often, and as much made about it as arsenal’s 8-2 away defeat all those years ago. by the way tonights spurs team had 8 players in it that started the CL finals in May
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The best that any defence of Emery has offered is that he plays a different style of football to the one this squad and academy have been built to play.
OK
That it’s the same style so successfully employed by Pochettino over his own career (with more success for Emery then Poch lol!), a style that has no midfield, no Footballs, diving and clogging maybe, but a style devoid of style. Catenaccio it ain’t.
In short the best defence of Emery’s work proffered onto date is he needs more time as his style is so different and therefore unsuitable for AFC (I guess such genius’ can’t hear themselves out loud!). As in: A Shit style of Football.
The Blaggers have been blowing smoke up Emery’s and before him Poch’s Arsenal’s but it can be objectively presented with the aid of the data (on diving in Poch’s case, he ever forgave Owen!), that data is conclusive that their form of Football is utterly crap! No opinions necessary.
35 secs in the CL final or 2-7 in a group tie/fixture the Gunners won 2-0 just three odd years ago. It’s a toughie to pick my favourite.
Style my Arsenal. Frauds. The pair of them.
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Correction: a CL final that lasted 35 secs or 2-7 (a full strength team at Home!), it’s a difficult choice to pick my favourite…
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Boy, that game was fun last night. Was alarmed in first 30 or so when Spurs were looking decent in attack and getting at Bayern pretty well but it turned into a glorious night.
Was most inconvenient for my beliefs last year that spurs reached final as I’d always hoped to see evidence they’d struggle with proper refereeing, but some of that was revived last night. They looked utterly forlorn at times having to play cleaner football.
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They weren’t that clean of course. Aurier’s wild stamp defied logic and categorisation almost and that presumably saved him from what looked as easy a red as you’ll see. Kane’s nasty elbow early 2nd half was also one that could easily be a red in VAR era.
But still,, compare it to Utd’s approach Monday or Spurs away last year- foul a minute stuff, making contact nearly every time they could- and it was world’s away.
It looked like what I hope to see, as small consolation, where a team is stripped of, say, 10-20 per cent (immeasurable, really) of their strategy and looks lost as a result.
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Gnabry knew we were all cheering him on…and the final turn of the Schadenfreude screw on Northumberland Rovers, is that Bayern havent been that hot this year(so far) in the Bundesliga.
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Cruel little irony never thought of before is that pretty sure Gnabry’s big knee injury came in dying minutes away at Bayern in CL when on as very late sub.
The story of what happened while with us is excellent example of why twitter is a really shitty medium for describing some events and yet, unfortunately, may well be the defining medium of the age.
Or at least that’s my worry, that many people believe anything and everything can be adequately described in 140 characters, or much less than that.
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Real facts are we were doing everything right, promoting him quickly, as we do all our best young prospects, and then giving him serious 1st team opps very early on.
Then injury. Gets murky there. We didn’t disclose what the first knee injury was, but it was surely a big one. Ruled him out for rest of one season, and don’t think he returned early in the next. When he did, he still didn’t look right, and I’m 99% sure there were other injuries. Often takes year or more for player to get back to something like normal after really big knee injury.
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The only problem with the spuds losing so many last night was if they get through the group it fades into the distance. The win over the saints masks the Colchester result as well.
There will be other games later in the season where I would like them to get a beating.
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With player so young, it’s even more complicated. At 18/19 you don’t really yet have a 1st team normal.
My feeling- too lazy to check- is that he only played 5-10 youth games year after sustaining the injury. Think he then went on loan to West Brom next year. That is a curious one, and perhaps where we made a mistake. Pulis’ track record with exciting attackers is diabolical. He’d take a Mclean over a Gnabry any day, let alone when the Gnabry is very young, still developing, and coming back from injuries.
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The unknown is whether it was Gnabry’s camp who pushed for it. None of us know exactly how those things work. Likewise did we try get him to sign a new deal before the loan. Coming back with one year left is always a weak position.
My assumption is that we did, because aren’t stupid. But of course we weren’t doing so with same knowledge we have now, when he has got over those difficult few years. Then, there was no guarantee he would get over those injuries and difficult times as he has.
So, not suited to twitter, unless you say something like ‘injuries! How they can fuck things up!! And we were very unlucky’
Also, good luck Serge. Fulfilling his potential brilliantly (and it sure is bittersweet)
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The unknown is whether it was Gnabry’s camp who pushed for it. None of us know exactly how those things work. Likewise did we try get him to sign a new deal before the loan. Coming back with one year left is always a weak position.
My assumption is that we did, because aren’t stupid. But of course we weren’t doing so with same knowledge we have now, when he has got over those difficult few years. Then, there was no guarantee he would get over those injuries and difficult times as he has.
Not suited to twitter description then. Apart from ‘good luck, Serge. And we were bloody unlucky because of fecking injuries’
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It was pretty well known that Serge wanted to go to Bayern long before he left us and long before Bayern set up the doggy deal that see him leave.
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Feast of football in CL last couple nights. Finishing in the three games I watched was outstanding. What the tournament’s meant to be I guess- elite.
Suarez first tonight a must watch to see how he starts dropping off as soon as clear Messi can’t cross ball, and once rolled back to Vidal fully switches on, makes eye contact, keeps moving, pointing all the while where he wants it and then, after the right ball, bang, stunning finish.
2nd goal just as good. Messi thwarted most of night but goes on exceptional run, with two pieces of trademark disguise in his dribbling, right pass and then Suarez goes to work again like a master striker.
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Messi’s greatest moments could surely fill a ten-volume dvd set and still leave a bit out.
Easily enough skill in there for one per season once he really got going.
Only prob is that, fresh from witnessing him do his thing, you often get the feeling that very good players are a little ordinary by comparison!
We should prob thank footballing Gods he didn’t join us at 16, as would have been kicked to bits with us, suffered bad injuries early, and the world would very likely not have seen its greatest player develop into what he was capable of.
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Labo is here with a new post
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