30 Comments

Arsenal Have No Defence

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Good morning people, well I say “good” , I mean yuck.

Do you know what? I’m not even angry. I’m not disappointed,and worst of all, I’m not at all surprised. This was not a blip. It was not anything other than a reflection of how we have been playing in the Premier League, all season. That is not a bad performance, it’s the norm. The difference is that the result reflected the performance. Aubameyang was not able to save our bacon, we got what we deserved. Fortunately, we have gotten more than we deserve up until now. We could have lost every game this season, we haven’t dominated a single one, We have been piss poor all season . It shouldn’t come as a shock, the second half of last season should have been all the warning we needed to tell us what was to come.

If Mesut Ozil isn’t good enough to get in that team, well? Dear me.

In the first half we had one shot on target and were out played by the mighty Sheffield United. They scored one goal and were so confident that we wouldn’t score ,that they sat back and let us have all of the ball, I think in excess of 80% at times, and we obliged by creating less than nothing. We were not unlucky, we were terrible.

There is nothing that suggests we are a good football team, despite having a great squad. The sum of our parts is pathetically less than it should be. No fluency, nothing. All the players fight and strive, but the system is horrible, The midfield has zero control and we just aimlessly lump the ball to players that are totally unsuited to hold it up and wait for the play to develop.

There is nothing on show that remotely resembles that which we enjoyed for years and were assured would continue.

There is no point thinking it will get better, because every metric that indicates how well we are playing as a team, is getting progressively worse, despite a spend of around £200m.

How long will Emery’s apologists ignore everything that stares them in the face?

There isn’t a poor player in our squad, and yet we play like a poverty team.

This squad should be walking the top 4, it still could, but not with this head coach, not in my opinion.

We are in a much better position than our performances deserve, and that stroke of luck will mean nothing unless a change is made.

Positively Arsenal eh? Sorry folks.

 

 

30 comments on “Arsenal Have No Defence

  1. Performances and certain results aside, I’m not sure how anyone is supposed to trust a man who will do everything he can to avoid taking personal reaponaibility for his job.

    He’ll throw players under the bus. He’ll badmouth the previous manager. He’ll deny there’s any problem at all. But what he won’t do is accept he’s made some mistakes and that he’ll look to rectify them.

    I get the feeling he’s at most tolerated by the players. I don’t think they have any idea about their roles, nor happy with the lack of freedom. They are a good bunch though and don’t rebel. Ozil is especially targeted and he’s especially a player who believes in the beautiful game. Hence his brutal exile.

    But if the club has any self awareness and is in any way responsible to its fans and its history, Emery ought to be getting fired today. It would be cowardly and wrong to keep him on even now.

    Liked by 3 people

  2. All the qualities of the recent Arsenal have completely disappeared, passing, movement and decision making are just awful.

    The pace of attack is so slow that even a team which is basically made up of Championship players can make Arsenal look less than ordinary (which they obviously are).

    The style of play is so fragmented that it looks like park football being played by a pub team, and that is an exaggeration !!!

    Not worth watching, absolutely pathetic.

    Liked by 2 people

  3. Its hard to be positive during an unai emery reign.

    Even his supporters are having a hard time and to tell you the truth after listening to fins on here warn constantly about dady raul and the new regime, i fear that the Arsenal i used to know is now dead and it is debatable if it can be resurrected. We may go even a worse way than Man utd.
    Unless we get some one who actually cares about the values the club used to have then in reality this could be the start of the real shit show.

    Liked by 3 people

  4. Great review. Cutting through the BS.

    Reading Emery’s post match comments was really concerning. In his mind there was absolutely nothing wrong with his selections nor the way he set this team up. In his mind we were the better team and the Blades got lucky. Ha! A better man would’ve taken responsibility. Not him. We played exactly the way he wanted us to and it was just one of those nights. Crystal Palace must be shitting their pants.

    Speaking of, since that game against the Eagles at the Ems last season:

    Played: 14
    Win: 5
    Draw: 4
    Loss: 5

    Then there’s the defeat against Chelsea in Baku.

    This is not new, the poor form and mismanagement of the team started least season. How can you prioritise the development of youngsters ahead of playing our more expensive, talented and seasoned assets?

    The only time we held a two-goal lead this season was against Watford – the only league game Özil played in. He got hooked and we got a point from the jaws of victory. Yet he is the one being ostracized?

    I thought we had an easy run of fixtures between now and mid-December, but it’s starting to look more and more ominous.

    Liked by 4 people

  5. thanks to Labo and George.

    The club is poisoned. There are many poisons, much from within that I dont need to mention as they are daily observations for all of us, then posions that started at Le grove and aftv, and the other outlets in the fan base that did this has made us run with green blood. Slowly at first but now its infecting the whole organism.
    Green putrid,festering poison.
    Everyone here and at Shotts gaff know it. What is there more to say? Keep being buggered off with it? It starts to infect your daily life, who wants that? It would take a very very well adjusted Arsenal fan to be tolerant and Positive of this moment in our history. In fact to be positive in this moment perhaps they are they more of a neutral ?
    Its tough for everyone here and those who look in and dont post–we all want to be Positive, but theres almost zero to cling onto. Tomorrow is a lovely day? But whose singing that old song at this moment?
    One of the poisons coursing (cursing)through our veins are the clichés:the football (limited, dull, silverfish play*), the tactical ideas, the memes, the criticism ( the old fan base Glenda Slagg shite**) and thinking for the self or any intuitive understanding. This is worse than boring, boring Arsenal, as expectations were lower then (imo).
    Poisonal FC.
    Politik FC.
    Maybe some like this level of entertainment, I dont. This club isnt being run properly, theres 100% more to football that money.We are going forward( if you see time as linear), but this is a destructive form of evolution; it was avoidable as it was set up to rise to greater heights when AW left, but we are now in the swamp of unhappiness and depression, sort of simming in the rot of the bog. What happens when we have destructive evolution? Dissolution? Extinction? Ok I cant see total extinction, but many decent dignified aspect of the club are either extinct or holding on for dear life?
    I dislike the way the policies (including the in-commentary ticker) of the club make me dislike Guen as hes being promoted as the next best thing, but this is part in the exclusion of Mesut is more poison. To leave out such a talented player(Ö), is like a form of slow suicide, and its embarrassing too.I will not succumb to this lies, nor will I assist in this self destruction. I would prefer Freddie to try and coach the squad at this point, he might be the anitode, he might not. But its worth a try. We are only really at the beginning period of the season still…
    I still love Arsenal, till my dying day ( unless something weird happens like the club becomes Nazis etc) but this is difficult to love. I will not kiss a bride with poison-green lips that wanders around the pitch losing to shite teams like a zombie.Halloween season it might be but this needs an exorcism.I will help take her to the hospital and help support her there and hold her hand but thats all I can do. Bell and candle.
    I support them,and will continue to, but what good is it when they arent even playing with their own minds and to their own potentially high standards, they arent even helping themselves? Im sure they know it.
    Zombienal FC.
    Boring boring Arsenal? Depressing despressing Arsenal more like.

    Come on old girl, get up and get rid of these people that use you for their own monetary greed and promotion. If you dont then who knows what kind of pit we will end up in…

    CÖYG!

    Happy birthday Weng.

    * silverfish run around in circles then get squashed

    ** see private eye: Glenda Slagg

    Liked by 3 people

  6. the football was dire last night, it was like our team was a bunch of strangers, nothing fluid in our play. The second and third subs made it worse. And our first took far too many touches of the ball before passing it. Chambers and Pepe never linked up on the right, and Willock and Saka were invisible to their team mates.
    But Emery was happy with our corner count, so what do I know.

    we move on to UEL on Thursday, and we might see a team containing the seven subs from last night and Mustafi, Bellerin, AMN and god forbid Ozil.

    Martinez
    Bellerin, Mustafi, Holding, Tierney
    Torreira, Ceballos
    AMN, Ozil, Martinelli
    Lacazette

    would that team be any worse than last night’s, would it be any less creative.

    Liked by 1 person

  7. Arsene Wenger is 70 today

    Liked by 4 people

  8. Atkinson again on weekend. four out of our ten games with him, two apiece for Dean and Taylor. Where does it end, at what point do we do something about it?

    No excuse for not using media this week to pint out how unusual it is and that it is something that would never happen anywhere else. Easy peasy to find the stats to back that up and even the reasoning why leagues use a larger pool and are conscious of not having any particular ref do too many matches of a particular team.

    Liked by 3 people

  9. It looks like Riley is exceedingly keen to try hobble us with his favourites this year. Believe it is a long established pattern to hit us hard with them early on to try do damage, ease off slightly and then be ready to go again in latter stages to whatever degree necessary.

    40% of games with same ref 10 games in is literally desperate stuff. Someone might actually be threatening him with the photos or something, or else he is so confident now feels he can do anything he likes.

    Liked by 4 people

  10. Dear oh dear oh dear,
    This wasn’t one of those one-nils from the past where we play well, bang on the door for 95 minutes and make a cock up at the other end. No we were just plain awful.
    Dean didn’t even have to work hard, he did break up play and made a few dubious decisions but it was us that was the problem.
    In days gone by even after a bad performance you would look ahead knowing ARSENAL could beat anyone on their day and would at least be good on the eye but now oh dear oh dear.

    Liked by 4 people

  11. ARSENAL have just confirmed Unai has a part time job

    Liked by 1 person

  12. Ian -LOL! needed a laugh , cheers!

    ps to my post above. I dont want Arsenal to be like this,(and it is only my view on how I feel), nor everyone here to be unhappy. How it was only a few years ago now seems like a golden time already. I dont mean that as nostalgia, but more I love PA, and reading what you guys write, and I love it when everyones in a great mood and loving Arsenal and looking forward to the games,this place has played a big part of my life in the last years and been a great place to hang out especially if the chips were down on a personal level and to George Im grateful for running it and everyone that wrote articles and contributed posts.
    In one way I feel burnt out of positivity, although it cant be true as I would totally walk away from AFC, and thats not going to happen, so I have some belief and hope…
    But the above was written as a rallying call (and failed) but what is there to grab onto, hope of course. It will change, but I cant see for what. Its tough for everyone i think to keep writing about whats going on, as its prety negative.
    I still believe in this team and think its a great squad with great potential. And i wish I could get behind our manager /coach and support him, but he seems to want to alienate me. Footballs not about alienation, its about inclusion, at least thats the way I see it.

    Liked by 2 people

  13. The final word of The Breakdown is as agitated as I have ever seen Adrian Clarke. His message? We need Özil.

    Liked by 3 people

  14. Is terreira being given the Ozil treatment?

    I will not be watching the highlights, although it was a result that I expected.

    Liked by 2 people

  15. DailyAFC™
    @DailyAFC
    ·
    7h
    Arsenal are statistically 7 points and 9 goal difference worse off than last year in comparable Premier League fixtures. [@amylawrence71
    ] #afc

    Liked by 1 person

  16. If torriera really is being given the Ozil treatment , that is a couple players worth a hell of a lot of money. That should concern the powers that be, I am sure it will.
    It is said that Emery likes big strong guys in MF…whatever does it for him, maybe that explains Ozil and Torriera.
    As for the PGMOL and VAR, Riley isn’t going to let a little thing like technology ruin his opportunities for corruption and matchfixing

    Liked by 2 people

  17. A completely disgraceful performance from an Arsenal team.
    Raoul OUT! – a virus brought in to destroy the beautiful game created by AW.
    Emery OUT!! – a small time clueless control freak. More brawn than brains. Hates beauty.

    Get it together QUICK Stan & Josh Kroenke!!!!

    Liked by 2 people

  18. Mills that was a sloshing good comment(s).

    Thank you.

    Liked by 1 person

  19. thanks fins, much appreciated mate. We need free galoshers to deal with the slosher!

    Personally looking forward to Freddies team stepping out on Thurs…the second team have been the most enjoyable for me this season…

    CÖYG!

    Liked by 3 people

  20. I wonder if the story about Freddy having control is true. Pretty damning of Bruce Rioja if so.

    Liked by 1 person

  21. Freddie in control? Havent heard that, but expecting to hear more and more on Freddie if Emery doesnt improve things

    Liked by 3 people

  22. It was mooted that Freddy had a lot of input in the last Forest Game I think as the arm waver was pretty inactive during the game.

    Liked by 1 person

  23. Interesting…..

    Liked by 1 person

  24. Does this not burst the bubble that we have had a good start to the season?

    Liked by 2 people

  25. I’m not Southgate’s greatest fan but I appreciate his intent as Chamberlain is his anointed no.8. Almost like he wants some kind of a Midfield in his team imagine that.

    Happy for Chambo on the comeback from his second big injury which I guess was possibly related to the first that impacted his career.

    I enjoyed the threads debating Chamberlain’s and Sterling’s potential here. Chambo might never come close to matching the levels Sterling is now at (as a midfielder, not a forward) but I appreciated his contribution to the successful 14-17 spell and like AW and perhaps Southgate too I believe he’ll have a memorable spell in his career to go with the highlights, some of which we saw.

    Iwobi was his replacement. Started as a ten for Everton on the weekend?

    Of the youngsters coming through who is the most natural replacement for Iwobi? Saka is more suited to playing that but if we imagine that there exists a Football coach who is not allergic to the opponents’ D, please indulge my fantasy, then i guess that would be ESR?

    Liked by 1 person

  26. < Saka more suited to playing in this recent left sided role IMO

    Liked by 1 person

  27. Really hope to see Ozil tomorrow

    Liked by 3 people

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