Every day on twitter, blogs, the media, podcasts and just about every forum, we see some comparison or other between Arsene Wenger and Unai Emery. Every time another game is played we see some table comparing the first X number of games that Emery has been in charge, compared to the same number of the last games Arsene managed. The number of points, chances created, chances conceded, passing accuracy, areas of play, and on and on it goes. It really is the most pointless of arguments. Not simply because the teams were competing against have changed and the teams they were competing with has changed almost beyond recognition or even that one has a squad eager to impress while latterly the other had a squad waiting for the final curtain, but because it’s actually is an argument that is so subjective that it can never be resolved. Particularly when those arguing are so invested in being right, that they have no interest in hearing the other point of view.
Can Unai give a press conference as witty and entertaining as Arsene? No of course not.
Could Unai address a baying mob at the annual general meeting and have them eating out of his hand, when minutes earlier they were baying for his blood? No he couldn’t
Ten or twenty years from now will former players still laud him, will he be asked to speak all over the world, be given award after award , be offered job to develop FIFA itself ? I very much doubt that.
Will Unai transform the club and elevate it to once unthought of heights? No, not a chance.
Is it fair to expect any of these things from Mr. Emery? No it is not. Why? Because it’s unfair to expect anyone to fill those shoes ,,as only a handful of managers in the history of the game could have.
So let us not ask if Unai is as good as Arsene was. Rather let’s ask is he as good as we expected he would be?
Let’s ask why after 18 months we are playing unattractive football in a system that no one seems to understand, and that changes from week to week and even from half to half.
Let’s ask why our best and most creative player is not being picked, humiliated and excluded ,from a team screaming out for creativity?
Let’s ask why watching us play is a chore now , we can play 8 games of the season and not play well in one, let alone dominate any?
Perhaps ask why we go from insisting on playing out from the back, to lumping it up to a center forward that’s skill set is far from hold up play.
Ask why sometimes all eleven players can have decent games, and yet the team plays poorly.
Ask why our midfield is so dysfunctional despite every player being a good one.
Let’s judge him on what we see, not against a man that is now a fond memory, and a genius that he overall could never live up to.
Wenger has left the building, gone , and the comparisons are a distraction, we must judge Emery on what he is showing us, and has shown us.
Positively Arsenal 
Bringing my comment from last blog, because it seems apt since one of our greatest players of all time had his say on what he sees regarding Emery’s “system”
“Sometimes it’s good, but a lot of times you don’t feel that it’s the Arsenal how you know it, with the passion…
“On one hand, there are so many clubs who have improved so quickly to a high level, whereas Arsenal, maybe improved, but not to that level. It hurts sometimes because you feel about Arsenal that they should do better, but I’m still hoping.”
Not long before he gets told to shut up and just be happy that we are 1 point behind Mancity. Because that’s all that matter.
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the one at the moment I really like is that we have only lost one game all season and that to the European Champions and current league leaders, but you can not mention the 2-2 draw at bottom club Watford or the need for a comeback win v Aston Villa, or the dire football v Bournemouth
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Football is simply a game of goals and outscoring your opponent. Just see the excitement when the ball hit the back of the net. We have lost only a game in eight. We are sitting third. We are one point behind Man City in second. What more do I ask. Please excuse me. Let me enjoy the UE moment where he keeps confusing the opposition. I guess the supporters get confused too. He does not need to explain anything. He should keep getting the points to keep us in top four in May. Those who don’t like that can go get a coaching bad to play ‘attractive football’ They won’t last eight games before they are sacked.
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Years ago, watching Arsenal play, under Arsene, I became a fan of the beautiful Arsenal way of playing. Today, I still am a fan, but it pains me to see the way we play. Its so unattractive, so boring, so dire. We have replaced a creative play maker in the midfield with 3 defensive midfielders and pray that somehow Auba gets us a goal!
What a shame!
Its also to all the fans who wanted ‘wenger out” that should know what they ask for. Not like we are improved with Unai, we are exactly where Wenger had us, but at least we had our team play beautiful football!
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Well Steve, I suppose I should accept that there are those to whom the way the game is played is of no matter. These people would not notice the difference between Barca and Stoke, and appreciate both equally. I wish I could watch shite and enjoy it, I would be able to sit down with the Mrs. and enjoy watching Eastenders as much as Breaking Bad.
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Steve…
In the last 7 years PSG, a gulf state sponsored football club, has won the Ligue 1 title all but one season.
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and George makes his customary moan, simplifying and at the same time denigrating fans who don’t agree with his unrealistic ideals
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So playing attractive football is an unrealistic ideal? Oh right, now I know.
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Great blog George. I agree that direct comparisons between Wenger and Emery doesn’t carry us forward as no minds are changed. But it is notable that the anti-Wenger crowd refuse to even acknowledge that we had an era of Wengerball. They absolutely refuse to mention his name in their blogs, tweets and podcasts. To me they are running away from any comparisons. What do you make of that. Are they just being smart?
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As for our friends who ignore performance I have one club for you, Stoke City.
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22 years of idealistic football! Only tailing off with the fly overs and banners and marches and even then still making a final and losing in a semi to the eventual winners. And that Athletico side would whip our arses at the moment.
Wanting to play attractive football means more intelligent football, which also means the ability to outwit and beat the opponents in a way that provides more entertainment value, which raises the psychological state of the payers, and also the pulse of the crowd and everyone at the club, its functions in a clever and aspirational way, the bar gets lifted higher, and higher.intuitively the football because more cohesive, belief and understanding concentrated, ability becomes stronger, and from there all things are potentially possible.
Who wouldnt wants to be like Liverpool at this moment? Everyone at Liverpool wants to be Liverpool.
Whats wrong with wanting more? Whats wrong with wanting fine flowing intelligent football? I gained us masses of new fans world wide in the Wenger years.Im not sure how many of them would have stuck around in the period 82-87.
Wasnt that why we left Highbury, to go up the ladder? It was set up to go higher, wasnt that why Wenger was hounded out? He did leave the club in a good place.
Theres more to football than just goals and points. This has been endlessly discussed in football history.
We are only where we are(third) because the other teams have messed up so much, as much as the points we’ve scraped. To me we have dropped many points so far this season due to the least technically proficient football in 22 years and should be already ahead of City. You might have liked the Watford and Villa games, but they were real low points to me. And the collapse at the med of the season and Baku is still a hangover.
We are relying on Auba too much. The midfield is constantly as sixes and sevens and the same for over a year with the defence.
No one is stopping you from enjoying your moment, why do other people comments stop you? The Wobs didnt stop me, as I had supported AFC before AW turned up.
Your final sentence is also supposition and not possible to verify and all speculative arguments are a bets, not based on fact.
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When fans have not had silverware for a long long time they are happy to get the excitement of glistening metal by any means necessary. In 87 the adrenaline of beating the best around at Wembley was fantastic by 93 even though we won two cups most games were awful. By 94 Europe was exciting but also a relief from the league. It was the same for success starved chelski fans who loved Maureen at first but as time went on got as bored as the owner.
When Arsene turned up, there was a new enjoyment , not the drinking, the slagging the other fans, the commeradery, finding new hero’s and of course winning but the pure deliciousness of the football being played before our very eyes. The fact we could achieve that while winning was extra special. In fact it was so extra special that ARSENAL now has included in its mission statement playing with style.
While Steve is correct comparisons about the the end of Arsene’s time and the start of Unai’s are futile, if both managers had teams playing I think everyone knows which one everyone would be watching.
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Great comment at 7:41pm Dave. George can actually turn it into a blog post on its own.
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A combination of Ian at 8:06pm and Dave would make a great blog to fill the FIFA week boredom.
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thanks LaboGoon, sorry about the spelling mistakes. ie payers should be players and at the ned of the season not med etc.
my question is it possible to not judge one against the other? Wenger left as to the idea the we could go higher than him. Therefore Im always going to be looking over my shoulder to see if thats happening? I not sure that i can see how its futile, please help! Of course they are not the same, but both are managers and we are still somehow in the same era, with the exception of Cech I sure everyone is still out there as we are in the same epoch/era whatever we call it.
I agree with the non judging, for 87 is not the same as now etc. But how do we get value systems and then verify them against Emery? What I mean is how do we judge Emery for being Emery, without looking elsewhere and seeing how hes doing? With other managers and teams.
So then if thats the case we could do with dumping all the horse manure about transitions and any idea of values; as then weve reached a zero point, and there can be no values other than the Emery values?
But how do we know this footy is boring a) feelings, we know it b) why? because we have value systems already in place…we know exciting flowing fluid football from not.22 years!
I cant see how we will stop the comparisons until we are out of our era, and we wont see that until its on us.. as these things seem imperceptible as they change.
Wasnt the whole point to go beyond Wenger though? In which case Im still comparing, now to then… but i agree in that the contexts for all comparisons are rooted in there own time.Wenger will be the elephant in the room for a while longer until hes superseded or the time comes when the perception of him changes in another way.
So we have to wait for this change. So moreo entertaining satisfying dominating clear winning football, more silverware and someone to get us the CL, doubles, triples, to sweep the board..?
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Fear not Dave, I’ll fix it .
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Pedantic George
I liked what you wrote as it got me thinking about the Wenger dilemma and it the light it puts the club in. I like what you wrote, because it also shows how it affects supporters, and as people at Positively Arsenal and despite the league position its showed a bigger picture of AFC at the moment. Some of the other posters dont agree, fair enough but in an odd way this feels as bad or worse than the last Wenger year( sorry comparing again!)
I mean, Arsenal means so much, its our life really. And we want our lives to be exciting and not DeadEnders, when I go to a game I like the play to keep getting me out of my seat etc.
But at the bottom line, I want us to do well, like really well, as every Arsenal fan does, I just dont see this as well as it could be, its still the end of last season syndrome, us and the other teams. We shall see, the dark part of the season is on us, and that brings up all sorts of adjustments and a long run, Xmas its nightmare schedule and then the road to spring and the final chapter, spring. We will lean a lot more in the next chapter up to Xmas and then Xmas..after that ??? Its just odd to be third by the skin of our teeth, in early October!
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Emma Mitchell | In my own words
09 Oct 2019
I’m Emma Mitchell and I want to talk about mental wellbeing.
Let me start by saying that the last year has probably been one of the most difficult years of my life, professionally and off the pitch. I missed the Women’s World Cup and although we won the Women’s Super League, I’ve had a lot of personal troubles that I’ve had to face.
It’s been tough, but now I’m happy to speak about it.
It’s weird because I never actually realised how I was feeling at the time, until one day something happened and I knew something wasn’t quite right. I was in training one day and I got hit in the face. It’s one of those things where as a footballer, you just shrug it off and get on with things but on this occasion…
Well, I literally just broke down. I was breaking down over someone hitting me in the face a tiny little bit. I went off to the side and I was like, ‘Oh my God, I am really not OK’.
I’d always used football as my escape, so when stuff wasn’t going so well off the pitch, I could deal with it. But then when things weren’t going well on the pitch either, like not performing well or having a persistent, niggly injury, it all came to a boiling point.
I got injured at the end of last year, nipped my cartilage, and then coming back really quickly from that and not actually getting the proper time to do some rehab… that probably affected my performance. Then there was the added pressure that the club were on the verge of winning the league, and that we’d have to win every single game. Stuff like that was really important to me.
There were things away from the pitch, too, family stuff that I’d never actually dealt with. My uncle committed suicide when we were younger and my mum was in hospital because she’d had an overdose. I found room for that emotionally, but then it all got a bit too much and my bucket kind of over spilled.
I was really low, in a way that I didn’t want to socialise with anybody. That I’d just want to spend all day in my bed. Even coming into the training ground was a massive task for me and I’ve never felt that way before.
Throughout my whole career I’ve loved coming into training. It’s always felt like a hobby rather than a job, and that I’m lucky to be able to do something I love every day. But then I would be this really daunting thing like, ‘Oh my God, this is my job, I can’t mess this up’.
I wasn’t enjoying it whatsoever but then I couldn’t escape from it either. I would just be in this really low, low mood the whole time. It felt like I had a constant pressure on my chest, like someone was standing on top of me and I couldn’t get them off.
It all got too much for me and I remember one day going up to Joe after a training session and saying, ‘OK, I need help’, and then the next day I was able to speak to a psychologist. I think the experiences with my uncle and mum made me realise that I needed help before I got to a point where I didn’t want to be in that situation. For the first time, I felt like I was able to just talk and start the progress of feeling better again.
I’ve never really spoken about this, as a whole, to the whole team. Obviously there have been girls that I’m really close with like Lisa, Viv, Katie and Kim, who I would share everything with. They pretty much know what happened but as a whole team, I don’t think anyone really knew what was going on or why, so hopefully this will help them understand too.
It’s only probably now that I’m honest about when I’m feeling anxious or not having a great day, and the girls will say, ‘Well how can we help? What can we do to make you feel better?’ It’s only now that I’m willing to accept any help because before, I never wanted to burden anyone else.
In the end, I had nothing to worry about. Lisa and Kim have been the ones who have been there the whole time for me and I’ve been able to lean on them with no judgement. That was a massive thing for me, to be able to share how I was feeling and to have them there to help me.
It was so beneficial to have them there, so I didn’t have to take all the pressure or the feelings by myself. They were there to listen, to say, ‘It’s OK’ and stuff like that. That was a massive thing that you never really think will have such a massive impact on somebody until you’re in that situation yourself.
After all, this is an issue that’s not spoken about enough, not at all. It’s like an off-the-cuff comment sometimes, but you just presume they’ve got a bit of a headache or period cramp, or something like that. You never really actually give the time to sit with somebody and say, ‘Look mate, are you OK?’
Maybe if that had happened to me I wouldn’t have felt as low as I actually did, but I guess that’s the whole point. It’s about being able to have a conversation and actually being able to speak about how we’re feeling. We need to make it comfortable for somebody to say, ‘I’m not OK’.
I was able to do that and once I’d spoken to Joe, after that time I broke down in training, I told him that I needed to get away from the football environment, away from Arsenal for a bit. So I jumped on a train two days later and I immediately felt so much lighter, like somebody just got off my shoulders.
I can’t really remember much about my journey back home, it just felt like a movie where you’re seeing all the fields go past and stuff. I do remember when I got home, though – I just slept for the first three days. I’d been physically and emotionally drained, I just needed to sleep and feel that someone was looking after me at home.
That same day that my dad picked me up from the train station, I remember being in Sainsbury’s car park and phoning Shelley Kerr to tell her what was going on. I was in tears, saying that I was feeling this way and needed to step away from football to manage myself.
It was all good, she was saying she supported me and whatever they could do for me, they could. I felt quite positive in a way, that I could take this time and then come back to get the chance to be selected. I phoned her again maybe two or three weeks later but didn’t hear anything from her until I found out I hadn’t been selected for the Scotland World Cup squad.
That was really difficult for me to take because I’d worked so hard physically and mentally to be in a position to go to the World Cup, but it’s crazy to think that if I’d never actually asked for help, I could have potentially gone to the World Cup in such a bad place but because I was playing every single week, it would be OK.
Now after it’s all died down and that, I would rather feel the way I do now compared to the start of the year. That’s something I’m really, really proud of.
I feel like for footballers, if you do speak about it, you feel maybe you’ll be getting judged on it. Like if I was to say, ‘I’m not feeling great today’, would that affect my selection on a Sunday? It then becomes easier for me to not say anything so that I can just play a game.
It’s all about communication and there’s a lack of that. There’s also a lack of understanding about how much the mental side of the game can then affect performance. It’s massive. It’s important for people to be comfortable and say, ‘I’m not OK, I need help’.
I want to make it a normal thing that people are having a conversation about. You should be able to tell someone when you’re not feeling great, and you should be able to get the support to get you back to feeling 100 per cent. Your mental wellbeing is just as important whether you’re a footballer or a dog walker.
Anyway… after a while at home, I was starting to miss playing again. I just thought, ‘This is good’ because when I was at my lowest point, football was never on my mind and I wasn’t really bothered about it. I didn’t even want to play anymore because the pressure was too much. But then, after three weeks away, I was ready to come back and get back into training.
In my first two or three weeks back, I was working in the gym and then coming in just for lunch on one of the days. Then the next day I would come in for the morning, do some gym, recover and go home. The club pretty much allowed me to do as much or as little as I wanted until I felt comfortable enough to say, ‘OK, I’m ready to go back into training’.
Then it was all about doing work with the fitness guys to build me back up to fitness, and within six weeks I was back in full training with the team. The club really supported me and made it such an easy transition to come back into football.
They also introduced me to Suzanne, the psychologist we have at the club. At first I remember saying, ‘Ah, you won’t see me, I won’t need to come and speak to you’ but then within a month, I was literally tapping on her door in tears.
The biggest thing she’s taught me is to make room for my feelings. The best example I can think of is when we won we won the WSL at Brighton last season. Everybody was delighted and I just couldn’t celebrate. I didn’t even want to, I just felt terrible.
It was probably one of the worst days that I’d felt and it was on a day when everyone else was buzzing. I just felt so far away from it because I hadn’t been playing the games. I was just sitting on the bench, trying to be part of this unbelievable feeling.
I remember afterwards that I was smiling for the camera outside but then when I got into the shower, while the girls were having champagne, I was just crying. I know… I’m proud to have been able to do that because I’m not masking the hurt any more – this is how I feel.
Right then, I was making room for my feelings, just like Suzanne had taught me. That was how I was feeling at the time and I just cried for 10 to 15 minutes in the shower. After that, I was fine. We partied for the rest of the night and I had a great time, but I knew that I had to help find this room to feel how I felt, instead of just bottling it up like I’d done previously.
We did a lot of work like that, and also on finding where my anxiety and low mood came from. We were trying to identify it early so that we could try to stop it from happening. It was like a little triangle, so if I knew I was doing this to avoid that, I would never experience the other thing. That was a massive way of me being able to move forward.
I’m back now and although there are some days where I wake up and don’t feel as great as I usually do, I can usually identify exactly why I’m feeling that way. Sometimes it can be something like feeling anxious about making a phonecall but I know that if I leave it until the end of the day, it’s just going to sit on me. So I just make the phonecall and then it’s done.
I’m still speaking to Suzanne, the psychologist, or Shanita who I’ve also been seeing recently but it’s never because I’m feeling low. It’s maybe just a problem that I just need another opinion on. Sometimes it’s even to just check in and say, ‘I’m good’. That’s where I’m at now.
Things have improved on the pitch, too. Coming back last season to score that goal on the final day against Manchester City… well that meant everything to me. You could probably see from my reaction that I’m actually trying not to cry.
It was a really emotional day for me because I’d been at the club for such a long time and had never won the league, and then for us to do that, I just felt like it was written in the stars for that to happen to me.
Like, I’ve never scored goals and then to score a goal like that… wow! It was really nice and my family were there to see it as well. My reaction says it all, I was just really, really emotional because I’d worked so hard to get back to that point. I felt like I deserved it. It was my moment and it was so nice to have it in that game.
Like I said, I’ve worked hard to come back so now it’s up to me to keep working on my mental health being great. I’ll keep going to see the psychologist, even if it is just to go in and say hello or that I’m doing well that week. That’ll be my normal now, which is good. It’s where everybody should be.
On the pitch, I want to be fully fit, playing week in, week out. I want to be in the national team, wearing the Scotland jersey again, and being happy enjoying my football. I want to be playing it with a smile on my face and, of course, just getting stuck into dirty tackles.
That’s me, Mitch. That’s what I’m about. And I can’t wait.
Emma was speaking to BBC Sport
Copyright 2019 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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Great! Compare with what was expected of Emery. Except he keeps changing what that was. I prefer to win 5-4. I can work with the players at the club. To, I was brought in for a competitive spirit. Like being afraid of Huddersfield’s mighty strike force I suppose.
It’s not just that Emery doesn’t compare to Wenger. It’s how we’re throwing away his and our hard won legacy.
I know I didn’t follow Arsenal just for trophies or winning. I also know many more fans, especially overseas fans agree with me about wanting to be a part of the culture of the club. That culture is now being extinguished, sabotaged.
Honestly, I won’t stick around to watch this nonsense much longer. As it is I barely look forward to a game. The games are poor, and there is no redeeming class at the Arsenal anymore either.
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That Emmas been able to talk about it brings up al sorts of things, the stigma of mental ill-health, in a world that pretends to be neurotypical, also the problems of being pigeon holed, the speeds of consciousness and development can cause upsets like hers, although Im sure theres more to whats going, she certainly seems to have been struck by social anxiety in the midst of things, which pulls the consciousness into being too much aware as you play and live. I think shes really brave to speak publicly, in a world of twitter kangaroo courts and mob public shaming, even for the innocent.
But also brings up questions re how Mustafi has really coped? Would he have been able to speak so openly? And what would the reaction have been?
How did Mesut and Sead cope with the recent insanity?
Theres an element in society that shames people as it perceives weakness. Its agreed by some authorities that intolerance of weakness is a sort of fascism, certainly it show ignorance and intolerance, and a deep seated fear, that they too might be weak.
Sport of course has inherent problems as much of it faces problems with its very core ideas, and lures people to see only that this is a competition that must be won, at all costs. But like life, even if we win, we dont really ever reach the goal, its the journey itself that is the true experience. Even our dislike of Emery and what’s going on, its part of the journey, its not so great but we can use it to try and understand our selves and our human systems more. but because we want and dont get, thats tough on us, makes us impatient and angry. Impatience leads to unhappiness, and mild depression, and anger is a way of trying to lift ourselves out of it. But what are the emotions above anger? Can we reach thing by skipping the anger and down feelings? Sometimes there doesnt seem a way for sure.
Good to see Emmas got a lot of support, and society is much better for that, thirty years ago she would have been left out in the cold. Cheers for putting it up Ed.
Shard, stick it out as best/long as, the players need you, and your fellow supporters. For me, its waiting for a new door to open that we can enter and through that find a new angle that can lead us back to being positive, despite all. Its possible that that door may never open, but good old superposition says thats not true. I realise its not easy, and theres not much to grip onto, but the fact that we all still want the values that were installed for 22 years is something, and having outposts for that are something too.
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@Steve
October 10, 2019 at 5:52 pm
Okay you are happy with the 8 games so far this season, were you happy with the teams performances the year before? and if so what were you happy with?
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Watched couple games of lads who’ll be next years scholars this week. Bit scrappy, hard fought on a dodgy pitch but saw few interesting bits and pieces.
Marcelo Flores most eye-catching. Looks a superb dribbler. Very short but has that low centre of gravity thing in his favour. Striker who’s been doing well this year- Khayon Edwards- scored a nice goal and looks like he’ll be following Nketiah, John Jules and Balogun as another good striking prospect.
Few tall lads in defence, all looked decent on ball but played in wrong areas few times.
Look a pretty good group but were without highly rated Patino- International duty- and the kid from Adidas video start of year, Ebiowei, who is apparently leaving/left
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Link here for tournament. One more game tomorrow at some point- 11 maybe- if anyone needs Arsenal fix.
If can’t find it there they have istria youth cup twitter which should have link to youtube channel.
eye opener for me was how detailed our coaches instructions were to players in games I watched. Didn’t stop the whole time. As well as Flores and Edwards thought lanky lad in midfield, Awe, looked good player so another to keep eye on if watching.
https://www.istriayouthcup.com/livestream/
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There’s a connection between George’s piece and Emma Mitchell’s brave, heartfelt, and articulate revelations. At the risk of oversimplifying it, I’d say that the psychotherapists I have experienced encourage their patients to take control of their own happiness.
In that respect, we can choose not to allow Emery and Sanllehi influence over our happiness. It takes work. It takes conscious decisions. It takes other interests.
It also takes willingness, perhaps courage, to chart one’s own course as an Arsenal supporter. To break with the unhealthy archetype that Nick Hornby has established.
I hope this site will continue to be a space where this perspective and many other interesting ones are valued. If it doesn’t, we all have a choice about our attention and participation.
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900ftg, I agree with your post, re the connection of the main article ( I still dont get why PG took some stick on that one?) and Eds post about EM, and yours gives us some wisdom and perspective to take away. A good grounded post imo.
Interesting point too on Hornby.I was thinking about how much Hornby’s assessment of Gus really buried him when that book came out.
Against Luton the way I see it that he was pushed (reverse angle shows it better) off the action as he was going to clear it which then lead to the goal, true he didnt boot it at first choice but the ball back from Nigel was a disaster too, he was equally to blame. Perhaps now the ref would have blown up for it( or maybe not!), the real mistake Gus made in the game was early to Harford from what I recall. Even though we lost that was one heck of a game, we played really well that day.Most defenders have made real howlers, but public damning is quite tough to clear once it gets established as a fact in peoples minds( im often guilty of this).But public shaming sticks and doesnt really get washed away unless some kidn o hardcore re assessment can get planted in our minds.
I hope we can stick together and cook up a bit of blue skies every now and again ( i dont know how, wished i did, although your post des show a way), even though its not too hot at the moment.
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Azeez looks like he could be really good folks. Quite often he beats opponents with first touch. Not many central midfielders can do that but I remember a good one who could. Certain early balding French fellow.
Wouldn’t surprise me if he gets in squad for a cup game or two this year.
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Good football has only one definition. Goals. For years, we were described as the team with the soft underbelly. As the time that likes to work the ball into the net. As the team that wants to score incredibly beautiful goals. We were encouraged to learn to win ugly. To learn to win when not playing too well as the feature of successful teams.
Emery appeared to have listened to all that. I never liked Mourinho because of his negativity but despite that, he is regarded as one of the great coaches.
No one remember how you win. Just win.
After qualifying for Champions League, then, all the aesthetics can come.
But come to think of it, we scored perhaps the goal of the season with about 24passes this season. What is boring about that. Many teams still come at us hoping we will cave in like we used to. Times have changed. We have moved on. I like watching beautiful football as long as there are goals and we win. Without the goals and the win . . .
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Football is simply a game.
And winning matters. And so to do draws and defeats!
Arsenal’s greatest cup victory was against their biggest rivals of late in 2017.
Arsenal’s greatest humiliation in a cup final was in 2019 just two years later. Against the same opponent.
A simple metric to apply to George’s title if desired.
Ignoring that here’s hoping for Gomez, Bruce, Allardyce, anyone else as I guess Daddy Raul won’t appoint Arteta etc. – even if fourth is wide open for a half decent team this season (Arsenal have a better then decent squad!).
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“Good football has only one definition. Goals.” Penalty shoot outs must be the pinnacle then?
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“Good football has only one definition. Goals.” perhaps the worst comment I’ve ever seen on this site. And that’s saying quite something, give how often I post.
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rich the Arsenal U16 captain is Taylor Foran whose dad is a martial arts instructor and is a former world and european champion and can boast having
7th Degree Black Belt – Kickboxing
6th Degree Black Belt – Taekwondo
Black Belt – Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
1st Degree Black Belt – Hapkido
Black Belt – Warriors Eskrima
15 Years Muay Thai
so good chance his lad will be able to look after himself
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“No one remembers how you win” really then how come two of the most famous sides in history was the 70’s Brazilian side, a side loads of clubs still sing about 50 years later. Also what about the Dutch total football side both National and Ajax.
Arsene gave us the nearest thing to this, something as a lad I never thought was possible for my club.
My dream as a lad was to see ARSENAL win the league again which George gave us in 89 but what Arsene gave us was beyond that.
Goals are a definition of results and not good football. I have seen many good nil – nil draws and some really shit games with goals.
The problem is some people watch the game the glorious game and some just read the results, it’s a habit alot of the pundits get stuck in and dont realize how stupid they look.
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George you are right Goals are only a definition of game but Maradonas goal of the century surely stands out as the pinnacle of world football.
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But when we look, whose actually asking at this moment for the best football ever. What we are asking for is not having Baku bullshit, wrestling with bottom of the league Watford, and not having a desperate fight back against Villa ( if we have not won that game there really would have been trouble) and the thrashing we had at Liverpool, and the shuffle and scrape huff and puff against the other teams in the League. Its not exciting, we are not a world power club on the pitch ( if we were then Mesut would be playing and Rambo would be with us).
We must ask ourselves why we have a world fan base as large as it is? Because we played negative scared football for the last 22 years?
Goals for is one thing, but with often a headless midfield and leaky defence goals against are even worse.
This team has more potential than Emeryball. He as the co-ordinator limits the team and is scared of teams we should be finishing off with three or more goals.
Times have changed, and we have moved on, but seeing how it is on the pitch shows us we’ve moved backwards. Again, we are third by other teams messing up as much as us grinding out results. Except fot he Liverpool game, every other game was winnable for us. Liverpool are light years ahead of us…
Not all the Wenger years had a soft underbelly, a lot of the time we were hard as nails, playing a different way that came more later, even then there was more hope in every game than now.
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Ed.
Ha. Funnily enough could hear our coach/manager instructing him to keep his cool a few times. Said ‘if you’re arguing, you’re not concentrating’ at one point’, and also told him off after he clattered someone for a booking. Got sense they talk to him about discipline a lot. Literally said ‘what have I told you. You’re giving them what they want’ when he got involved in aggro.
Wrote post about how much you could hear from our coach- constantly talking; told off for it by an unfriendly looking Croatian coach and shut up for a minute- but didn’t show up when posted.
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Ed
Also saw yesterday Ogungbo played for Ireland u19’s, same squad as Mcguinness, despite still being 16..
Fingers crossed may have proper defensive prospect in him
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Many called for a revolution at AFC, but really what was wanted was evolution, and how does the evolution process look?
Im not seduced by our third place position. If we had won when we had drawn and also won more convincingly again teams like Bournemouth, then I would have nodded and thought evolution was doing its thing. But it isnt. Shuffle and scrape ball and scared of everyone ball isnt evolution. Or its evolution in a negative way, which means what?
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Missed game but see u16’s won game to finish 3rd in tournament.
Another very good bit of dribbling from Flores for one of the goals. him, Edwards and Hutchinson the scorers, as often seem to be.
Could be very decent group of 1st year scholars next season.
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Interesting words from Raul at the recent fans event, asssuming they are reported correctly and within context of course.
On one level, he is “ backing “ emery , including over picking those who apparently work hardest in training – that old hard work vs God given talent debate….on another level, he is saying he expects Emery to get into the top four, with what looks to me at least, a pretty clear warning of what will come to pass if he does not, or at any stage it appears he will not. Seems an emphasis on the top four as well, as opposed to the Europa league.
So, perhaps from Raul, a case of Unai, you just go ahead not picking Ozil, we wouldn’t mind him off the wage bill either, but if things go wrong, it will be on your head, not ours.
I suspect a few managers are updating and customising their CVs including a manager or two who might not be popular with some of our fan base, especially on here!
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@Steve 8:15 p.m. “Good football has only one definition. Goals.”
What an impoverished mindset! Like any art that stands on its value, football we know, does have that which resembles a soul. And yes, we experienced that Arsenal soul in its football. Is it still there?
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ist been sold, its now owned by Raul. We need Cuphead and Mugman to help us out!
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People here might not like my opinion but infact Arsenal are doing poorer than last season only 13 goals from 8 gamez is no way Arsenal standard. Liverpool has 20 City 27 even Leicester is higher than us. It’s awful to see Arsenal play under Emery.We maybe 3rd in the league we are no way near the class of football we played under Wenger. I still believe we won’t qualify for top 4 with this kind of football.
If the WOBS have fulfilled their obsession of winning the Epl and CL then may suggest the board to bring Wenger back.
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We have become a team of mirages.
The 22 match run was a mirage in that it gave the impression that we were playing well, when we all knew, in reality, that the opposite was the case.
The real team showed up in the last few games of the season.
This season we are 3rd, but we all know that we do not deserve to be, as the quality of our game has deteriorated further, despite the vast amount of money spent on new players. Another mirage.
The next is this insistence of getting to the Champions League when we all know that we will not get very far and the paucity of our play will be even more highlighted.
At the moment the Europa League is our standard, but the powers that be want the CL, not because we have any chance to get anywhere in it, but simply for the money.
Another mirage.
UE came with his dossiers on each player and yet could not wait to get rid of them all.
For those of us who remember our team pre-Wenger, this may be easier for us to cope with, but those fans who only knew AW, how will they cope as we slide down the bannister of mediocrity
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I see Emery getting praise for keeping Saka in the youth dressing room at london colney despite him being a regular in the first team of late, will the same people praise him for this if the lad has his head turned by another club who promise to promote him to their first team dressing room.
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Would those here gathered rather have Mourinho if he picked the best player(s) or Emery while he clearly doesn’t? Purely light hearted hypothetical question.
I have no axe to grind by the way, I feel very much outside looking in these days. The football is not entertaining for the most part but I am pleased with some aspects of it, but then I don’t get excited by anything much – I aim rather for serenity.
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never want jose employed by afc
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Good comments from many, Dave making great points. To your question Steww, as Ed states, Emery is morinho-lite so given the same players I’d have to think that he’d do what he has done at MU and chelski, turn us into an expensive Bolton. I don’t have answers as to how Arsenal can improve defensively while remaining an attacking side. My frustration with Emery is that it seems like this is a big challenge for him too. I have always thought that games are won by the strength (or lack) of your midfield. In our big years we were dominant In those positions. We are clearly average in the midfield right now…
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Jose would be a strange move for what has for many years been billed as a financially smart , self sufficient club. Jose spends a fortune , then leaves the club in the lurch after 2-3 years max. He seems to be in the pockets of super agents, would demand at least £12m pa, seems a man from a different era, he courts controversy, would be a really stupid move. But all that said, I cannot dispel a nagging doubt about him turning up when they dispose of Emery.
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Stew, Yes, yes I would have him in those circumstances. How bad has it gotten that I said that?
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The whole thing is pretty surreal isn’t it? The WOBS support the manager and his players no matter what while the Positive crew are unhappy with him, individuals play to high class levels and yet the side as a whole under performs, the football is often insipid and insecure and yet the league position isn’t unhealthy, in players like Aubameyang and Ozil the club has the kind of talent which would not have been out of place in the Invincible’s squad – but one of them is relegated to playing with youth team and reserves in the least important games, youngsters are being given a real chance in the first team but youngsters are being discarded, overlooked or sold.
It’s all terribly confusing.
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