Good morning all.
Since Pepe managed to hit two absolutely glorious free kicks,to steal a result last night ,I’ve been agonising over whether to write this blog. Because it will basically be like every blog I’ve written for months. The story is the same, poor football and bailed out by a moment of individual brilliance. It’s all depressingly familiar.
We played against a team from Portugal, that lost last week in the cup to a third division team of semi professionals and they came to our ground without a point or a goal in the Europa League. And guess what? For 75 minutes they were better than us, on our own ground.
The positives are two dead ball strikes and Matteo running with the ball. I should be cock-a-hoop at turning a game around and getting a victory. That is the emotion I want to feel, but I don’t. I’m depressed by our play and the thought of watching the same thing over and over and over.
Everything I loved and admired about Arsenal seems, just like Mesut,to be fading into the background and taking my joy of supporting with it.
I feel genuine anger towards Emery, and that in itself is irrational. I’m honestly lost, I don’t know where to go.
I feel that I should take a step back, do myself a favour, and take up knitting or something, because this is horrible and worse of all, I think the worst is yet to come.
Positively Arsenal 
Unai Emery says decision to omit Mesut Ozil from Arsenal team is part of agreed strategy
Ozil’s lack of game time has been a recurring theme during Arsenal’s season
by Sam Dean
26 October 2019 • 10:30pm
Unai Emery has said the decision to omit Mesut Ozil from the Arsenal team is part of an agreed strategy which has been discussed with the club’s executives.
Ozil’s lack of game time has been a recurring theme during Arsenal’s season, with the German playmaker featuring in only one Premier League match this campaign.
There were chants in support of Ozil during Thursday’s Europa League victory over Vitoria SC, with some Arsenal fans vocalising their criticism of Emery for not selecting the German in a team who struggled for large spells of the match.
Emery has been increasingly reluctant to discuss the Ozil situation, telling reporters on Thursday night that it was “not the day to speak about that”.
He has now revealed, though, that he has the support of the Arsenal hierarchy in his approach to the German, whose £350,000-a-week contract makes him Arsenal’s highest earner.
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Asked if he faced any pressure from the Arsenal hierarchy to select Ozil, Emery said: “Here we have one agreed strategy as a club and a team. Because the most important thing is the club, the team and finding a performance.
“Previously we were all speaking between us to take that decision. I know all the supporters want to know something [more] but now is not the moment.”
Ozil’s only Premier League appearance this season came on Sept 15, when he started Arsenal’s chaotic 2-2 draw with Watford. He also started against Nottingham Forest in the League Cup, but has since been omitted from five consecutive matchday squads.
Ozil’s exile comes after he revealed in an interview that he has no intention of leaving the club before the end of his contract in 2021. The 31-year-old signed his latest deal in January 2018, when Ivan Gazidis was the chief executive and Arsene Wenger the manager.
Ozil thought long and hard about his decision to stay at Arsenal
Ozil thought long and hard about his decision to stay at Arsenal Credit: Getty Images
“When I signed the new deal, I thought about it very carefully and said it was one of the most important decisions of my footballing career,” Ozil told The Athletic. “I didn’t want to stay for just one or two more years, I wanted to commit my future to Arsenal and the club wanted me to do the same.
“You can go through difficult times, like this, but that is no reason to run away and I’m not going to. I’m here until at least 2021.”
Arsenal host Crystal Palace on Sunday with questions over the balance of their midfield. Emery chose to use Lucas Torreira as a more advanced midfielder in the second half against Vitoria and has said the Uruguayan has the intelligence to find space around the opposition penalty area.
This time last year Torreira was being hailed as one of Arsenal’s best signings in years after a series of steely performances in deeper-lying midfield role. He has started only two Premier League matches this season, though, as Matteo Guendouzi has become one of Arsenal’s most consistently impressive performances alongside captain Granit Xhaka.
“He is playing,” Emery said of Torreira. “I think he is very important for us. We are sharing and changing some matches with the midfielders like Guendouzi.
“I am very happy with him and we need him. Then we use different structures in different matches and he has confidence. I was speaking with him about his best position to help us in our shape.
“It depends on the shape. Last season his best position was playing as a deep midfield two alongside Xhaka or Matteo. This year we are playing also sometimes with just one and he can achieve with his quality to get to the box and get closer to score. He is very intelligent about getting space around the box and taking chances.
“Then also, when we prepare the team to do high pressing, for us he is very important because he is very intelligent tactically, but he can play in the two positions. [Either as] one of the two midfielders [or] he can play higher for the pressing and to get into the box.
“Sometimes we also use him as a one-man in midfield doing the covering for the two other players ahead.”
Palace will overtake Arsenal in the league table if they produce a performance similar to their impressive 3-2 victory at the Emirates last season. The defeat proved to be arguably the most damaging result of Arsenal’s campaign as they missed out on a place in the top four by a single point.
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has Emery signed his own death warrant with his claim that leaving Ozil out of the team is club strategy, as if this is false he has lied about his bosses, and even if its true he has surely shown up his bosses as a shower of cunts, which will not sit well with them, it don’t fit with the image they want to portray
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So the club in turmoil on and off the field. I don’t see any light shining at the end of the tunnel. Will Emery b sacked come May? Will Freddie be given the interim charge? The off field management has tarnished the club from the core. The football on the field is pathtic. The results are downhill. The core values Wenger left are shaken badly. Arsenal have lost it’s identity.
I hope the idiot WOBS have learnt their lesson and will be realizing their mistake of forcing Wenger out of the club.
Can we ask Wenger to rejoin us?
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Reading the justification of Ö not playing I feel utterly disgusted with the system thats in place. Emerys comments also stink of cowardice and bullshit. The “values” walked out the door with Weng. Please show me where they are? Theyve gone.
So many times in life have I seen sawdust Caesars come in at middle management who haven’t a clue except for “business” and rip things apart then bugger off to do it somewhere else. Bullies. Bullies are always frightened people. Whether ist jealousy or inadequacy that drives them its there.
Guendouzi is also club “strategy”, but hes only an apprentice compared to Mesut. He cant float any balls in and there’s not much tricky passing. Any runs he does Jack also used to do. I also dont like to dislike our players and this is the first time I felt that since Grimandi for me. If Guen is impressive, its because the rest of the midfield has been utterly average since the Emery brain took over.
This is becoming mentally unwell now. I still think its first world problems, but its more than irritating. I dont have any patience to play devils avocado advocat with this either, lifes too short.
LCFC arent that great we should be easily third and having a sniff at City, but no, we play clueless ( except for Guen whose the best ever, better than Brady, better than Hleb, and better than Viera or Manu and Özil and Rambo, the best) and are waiting for someone to pull us out of the bog.
I keep the faith but no longer support anything thats controlling the club. And hope that something better will step in ( how is that going to happen?). For a long time I felt sorry for Emery and in some ways I still do, but this is not going to change until Montana and chums are gone except add to more toxic fumes at AFC. I dont really want to have anything to do with that, or at least I could hang out at LG. Its affecting us all.
Personally I not looking forward to the game and that hasnt happend for over 27 years.
The worst s the feeling of being utterly unable to do anything is the worst?
Pearls café is all I can say. Even if we win 5-0 today, its still Peals café.
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Agree Mills, the clubs values are a transient thing, can’t confuse Wengers own values with those of the club. The club have always been seen as classy, but you don’t have to go far in the past or future from Wenger to see that wengers values were, unfortunately just his own.
Expecting the club to hold to wengers values will sadly disappoint. In reality, the club has been completely de-wengerised, don’t think he really gets a mention any more. His key players going or gone. Why, who knows, maybe Emery is a sensitive flower?
As for the Ozil comments, unless he was referring to some temporary disciplinary issue, which seems unlikely, I suspect those comments will come back to haunt Emery, those above won’t thank him for telling the world that is official policy, won’t help them shift Ozil for a semi decent price either. From what I hear of players liking posts, ozil maintains popularity and perhaps sympathy from within the team.
Then, things like Raul inviting Jose to the game. Just a gesture, maybe watching a Portuguese team ( why didn’t Vitoria invite him) but don’t think things at that level are done by accident, but to put more pressure on Emery whether Jose is a genuine target or not. I cannot see Emery being around much longer unless he takes advantage of a great forward line and really improves things. Failure to reach the top four will hit Raul, and darling of the fans, Edus bonuses.
On another note, come on Wales, give us the final we in these isles at least want!
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Thing is Mandy, even all those last Wenger cup finals that were seen by the Wobheads as being insignificant, now seem amazing and towering above our current Arsenal; such achievements don’t even seem possible at the moment. Its been a very long time since “no possibility” stood in the house of AFC.
I hope Jose doesn’t come, it might be a tiny upgrade of Emery, but at what massive price, and in case he isn’t any kind of long term solution, and we probably still wont see great football. It means the Wobheads would have won, but that’s the moment of their demise.
We need a new middle management, with zero profile, who actaully care not for the pay-cheque and for the power they can wield for their own Plastik glory, owners who stay out of it as they haven’t a clue about the game, and a coach who isnt scared of bottom of the league teams and who can create a coherence and confidence, especially at away games, and who knows how to run a midfield. Tbh I think Emery might well come away loathing Arsenal, and his time here. Although that will be blamed on Wenger too.
But Im stating the obvious, we know all of these things…but how long can we keep writing them, day after day etc?
99% of teams would love to have Mesut…
Do you (or fins if youre looking in) still go to Untold? Is Brickfields Gunner still posting?
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