Despite the manner in which Arsenal completely capitulated at the end of last season, Unai Emery appeared to have had the backing of many supporters at the start of this season. Notably from those who have been most vocal against Arsène Wenger at the back end of his tenure.
However, now it seems as if most have lost their patience.
The club has made a considerable investment in the squad over the summer and for a while there was genuine excitement going into season, putting on hold any threat of schism. On social-media the general mood was that in Raul Sanllehi Arsenal finally got their man, their Don, that will drag us into the 21st century after years of being “too stuck in our ways under the dinosaur”. Some fans even volunteered to go fetch the rock themselves of which to carve out a statue for the man.
The 2019/20 campaign started off well enough with back-to-back wins in our opening two league fixtures. Despite some fickle and largely uninspiring performances that ensued we were 3rd on the log after eight games, behind Liverpool and Manchester City, the Champions League and Premier League champions respectively, who are light-years ahead of other teams in the league.
We were ‘the best of the rest’ and to say “Arsenal is just one point off Man City”, one of the most talented teams in Europe, kept Emery in the good graces of those who chose to look beyond the obvious flaws in our play.
This past week though; the defeat at newly-promoted side Sheffield United, the narrow win over a far inferior Vitória Guimarães and the failure to see out a win against Crystal Palace after going two goals up appears to be the most damaging in Emery’s tenure. The proverbial straw that wrecked the camel’s back. It hypothesizes all the concerns there were about his management style;
• the lack of playing identity,
• the continued absence of Mesut Özil, despite the lack of creativity in our attack,
• lack of improvement in defense despite the summer signings, and
* the questionable starting line-ups, particularly in the midfield.
If you listen to any of Emery’s pressers, he always talk about the strength of the opposition and the importance to stop “their press”, it doesn’t matter whether they are top or at the bottom of the league standings, to him we are the underdogs. Which, of course, is a total contradiction of him supposedly being the “protagonist” he claimed to be.
If Arsenal have any hopes of a top-four finish, if Emery himself has any hopes of fulfilling Raul’s clear expectation, then we simply cannot plod along as we currently are. Not with Manchester United starting to show signs of life and neither Leicester nor Chelsea appearing to wane any time soon.
Nothing about him, even with only two wins in our last eight league games, gives me confidence that he has it in him to make the necessary adjustments.
Our next two league games are against Wolves and Leicester, unless our fortunes overturn and there’s drastic improvements in our performances, this next international break could be squeaky bum for the native from Hondarribia, España.
@LaboGoon
Positively Arsenal 
Emmi Martinez gave an interview with goal after last nights game and said that the players are “100% behind Granit Xhaka”
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I totally understand the subs last night. Mezut has been out injured all season and on his first game was ineffective and needed to come off after 65 minutes.
Saka spread his performance throughout the game wasn’t chasing everything and so had loads of energy at the end and it was only right he stayed on.
Ceballos was fantastic when he came on and never put a foot wrong, obviously being a technical footballer usually means putting your penalty a nice height for a goalkeeper to get.
I thought the tactic of getting Guen to play towards our goal was also brilliant.
Leaving injured Sead on even when he was screaming to the bench to come off was also brilliant man management as the namby pamby modern footballers need to learn to play through injury.
So all in all another brilliant Unai performance that just was unlucky in the end, really I don’t know what people are moaning about.
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Real bunch of cowards running the club. They forced Xhaka into that apology with their captain blah blah example blah blah.
Nobody addresses the vile abuse him and his family are still subjected to, instead offers him therapy. This only further leaves him at their mercy as they got their wish.
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I’m disappointed to hear that Xhaka had to cave in and apologise. This club has sunk to a new low and I could not be more pissed off and angry, until they hire maureen and then I am done!
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https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EIOtuoRXYAUCeDL?format=jpg&name=small
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Arsenal Women won 8-0 tonight over Slavia Prague, 13-2 on agg, to qualify for the quarter finals of the womens champions league. Man city women were knocked out last night
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Looking at Xhakas statement, seeing the vile abuse he and his family have received, I really hope the club properly back him, and conspicuously so. I think most in the stadium would be sympathetic if he is picked at the weekend
He should involve the police where appropriate, and unmask these sad little nobodies sitting I. Their rooms behind a keyboard if they are making threats.
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passenal
I really liked what he said. He clearly doesn’t apologise to- forget wording- decent, supportive fans. In other words, conspicuously and rightly, nothing for those who boo him, nothing for those who talk crap about him, certainly nothing for the abusive cretins.
Also like that he mentions it gets to him being misunderstood by fans. For me that covers all the people who misjudge, often horrendously, his abilities and character both. I think people are wrong who reckon his flaws outweigh what he offers to us, or that, simply, he isn’t a good player, though all that could perhaps be debated reasonably. So I think it’s outrageously wrong when he is characterised as being shit, awful,etc.
The great shame is it won’t affect the people it needs to affect; but it’s still there, well said on record, for others to glimpse the shame all those doing the supporter thing wrong ought to feel.
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despite Xhaka’s statement some idiots in the fan base continue their attacks on him, its easy to see why so many feel at ease being vile to our players when so many are willing to allow them on their blogs and interact with them on twitter etc.
Of course many of these who are complicit would go ape shit at the same knobs if they dare be critical of a player they rate.
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All this stuff re Granit just highlights the Sky Sheeple influence. People listen to shit media with an agenda, hear the same shit repeat the same shit and so it goes. See also information about immigration etc etc. How sad to be fed an opinion by the likes of Neville and Redknapp etc. Thick as mince
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Always wary with the UK media writing about Arsenal, for obvious reasons, but found this a semi interesting read. If it is to be believed, Xhaka is angry, principled, not depressed, if so, maybe the club should make a statement, put him in as skipper against Wolves, think the stadium and the players will back him, we might even win, and sounds like Emery needs that
https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/arsenal-emery-xhaka-ozil-behind-the-scenes-a9180336.html
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Seems Xhaka wont be considered for the Wolves game.
Wrong move from the club, and a victory for the pasty faced socially inadequate kids, who cannot relate to other humans, who never leave their rooms or computers and who are often the types who send this level of abuse, those types and AFTV types of course
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Unai Emery was quizzed about Granit Xhaka at length at Friday’s press conference at Emirates Stadium.
Our head coach also discussed the match against Wolves, Mesut Ozil’s potential involvement and more.
Read on for a full transcript:
on how big the Wolves game is now…
Good afternoon. Again we are going to play at home, with our supporters, and it is the same objective, which is to win, but above all we need in the 90 minutes to connect with our supporters. It is very important to do that.
on how Xhaka is…
He is training normally with the team, he didn’t play at Liverpool and he is continuing and above all has remained focused on tomorrow.
on looking after Xhaka…
The first is the person. The human like everyone feels [emotions]. Xhaka’s issues last week is one issue that needs time to recover the normality with him and with us.
on the abuse players have to deal with…
Everybody maybe will have some social media on their phone, on the internet, on the web, but really to use it is only to be intelligent. We can respect the people on social media but also we have to separate how much is real and [whether or not] every supporter is following that. For me, the good response is how the supporters respond in our stadium. We have a lot of supporters around the world and we respect them but the real response is in the stadium. In the stadium sometimes, it is normal when we are not winning that they respond with some criticism. It is normal. To the coach, to the players, but also a lot of players receive that criticism in the stadium and then when you recover and when you come back with a good performance, they forget that and also they applaud the players and the team. This is our objective, and our objective tomorrow is to win, connect with the people and the supporters to respond to us and help us in the 90 minutes. This is our target tomorrow.
on how the players connect with the fans…
The connection is from using our quality, using our energy, to play in our capacity to break Wolves’ game plan. In 90 minutes, we need to be intense and clear with our skills. We also know that this is difficult. We must remember that this year we haven’t lost at home and I think we are feeling strong. We are not winning with big results against the opposition but we are winning more than we are not. We drew two matches but we’ve won all other matches [at home]. Last year, we felt very strong with our supporters in the Emirates and this year we are starting without the same strength with our supporters. We are playing with confidence and imposing our game plan, and we will build that connection. I am confident with our work in this process and I think tomorrow is a good opportunity, as good as the first opportunity after the last matches to show that. The objective is the three points but also for me it’s to play.
on whether Xhaka can redeem himself to the fans…
OK I want to finish with that. He said sorry, he gave the apologies to the supporters, to everybody. Now the focus is on tomorrow’s match.
on what he expects from Wolves…
They are a very strong team and their defensive structure is strong and tough to play against. Last year we drew here against them, and their transition is an amazing transition. Their structure is to play with that transition and then when they play, they can build up, they can use the quality players they have. It’s going to be a difficult match and it’s our challenge. We are preparing, we are working to improve our things and I am looking forward to seeing our team respond with our supporters at Emirates tomorrow.
on whether Xhaka is still captain…
We were waiting for his statement on Monday ahead of the last press conference here on Tuesday. The next step is tomorrow’s match. The focus is tomorrow’s match. It’s not in my mind that he will play tomorrow. It’s not in my mind that he will play tomorrow.
on whether Xhaka will play tomorrow…
He’s not in my mind. I think that tomorrow, he is not going to play.
on whether that’s because of what happened…
Because I think that now, we need to be focused on the match at 100 per cent. Now we are going to train but at the moment, he’s not in my mind.
on whether he’s concerned the team could be distracted by talk about Xhaka…
Tomorrow I want to speak about the other players who are going to play.
on giving up two-goal leads twice in a week…
Yes the circumstance happened and different moments in the 90 minutes changed the match. We are also working to improve defensively, when we are winning 2-0 it’s not normal to draw. We deserved to win, but OK we can also speak about the referee’s decisions last week. But that match has finished now, and we are going to focus on tomorrow, on improving. It’s a different team, they also have very good players, and also the are strong offensively. And I hope we can manage the 90 minutes imposing our gameplan. This is a new challenge for us and I am excited to play tomorrow and if you ask me where do I want to play my matches? At home, at home with our supporters because we feel strong with them.
on Wolves’ form away from home…
They won at Man City’s stadium and it is an amazing result, it is very difficult to win there. They lost to Everton and drew in the last minute against Crystal Palace. It depends on each match. Who would have thought they would win at Manchester City? Normally they won’t. We have to respect that result at Man City, how they played at Palace and also how they played at Newcastle. Now we want to play and prepare our match with respect for them in 50 per cent and imposing our idea in 70 per cent. This is my idea in each match and tomorrow is the same. We are thinking and respecting them but above all we need to create our strongest way with the ball, with possession, with our game plan and we defensively we know we need to stop them.
on Ozil and Martinelli…
It is very important to use lots of players because we are playing lots of matches, and it’s a challenge for them to show how they can help us. The performance was positive at Liverpool and I am thinking how they can help us tomorrow.
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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It seems that it is acceptable for fans to shout vile abuse at a player, for players to swear at referees, (remember saint Wayne did it the whole time) and yet a cardinal sin for a player, after having been insulted and booed, to mouth a swear word at fans doing the insulting and booing. That is, mouthed only, so that no one could have heard it.
Since when is cupping a hand to one’s ear insulting and offensive?
Then the “head coach” says, in public, that Xhaka has to apologise.
One of the many things we knew and loved about AW was that he was always supportive of the players and never criticised them in public.
The whole business is typical of what is happening at our club.
The downhill spiral in conduct and behaviour by the administrators in the club is picking up speed.
I doubt if it will be too long before we reach the gutter.
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A new post is up
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