As we're unlikely to see terraces again at football, this is the virtual equivalent where you can chat to your hearts content about all football matters and, obviously, Arsenal in particular. This forum encourages all Gooners to visit and contribute so please keep it respectful, clean and topical.
Now that we can regularly field Monreal Sokratis and Koscielny (and anybody other than Lichtsteiner) then we are looking much more robust at the back. Still not fantastic and very patchy, but much better especially when we can get away without Mustafi, Lichtsteiner and Kolasinac playing at the back and having injuries every game.
Kos is looking the best he has for a few years.
Someone else said that him n Sokratis have no pace but they are solid positionally and I agree with that.
We’ve looked pretty solid against the vermin and United and they have been well protected out wide by AMN and kolasinac - we are finally playing as a unit back there.
Which is coaching as well as familiarity.
When we do become absolutely miserly at the back is when we can consistently win 1-0 2-0 and occasionally dick someone 6-0 like we used to.
City lost home & away
Chelsea won home lost away
United draw away win at home
Tottenham draw away win at home
liverpool draw at home lose away
3 wins 3 draws and 4 losses.
Its actually a decent return. Especially when you consider Wengers record against the top teams in years gone by. If I was offered those results against the rest of the top 6 before the season, I would have taken it.
City lost home & away
Chelsea won home lost away
United draw away win at home
Tottenham draw away win at home
liverpool draw at home lose away
3 wins 3 draws and 4 losses.
Its actually a decent return. Especially when you consider Wengers record against the top teams in years gone by. If I was offered those results against the rest of the top 6 before the season, I would have taken it.
I would also dismiss the two defeats to City and Chelsea at the start of the season - Emery never had any chance in those games and certainly can't be blamed for the defeats. So just 2 defeats out of the remaining 8 Big Six matches - Excellent!
As much as he got it wrong against Rennes, Emery got it right yesterday. That's the strongest line up with the players we had available and he wasn't afraid to play it. System worked well. Maybe, there is still yet hope for Ozil. He seems to have sorted out his health/ fitness issues with Emery. Hopefully, if they can stay fit that is the team he'll start with for the remaining 8 games of the season. Maybe Torreira for the departing Ramsey when his suspension is served. If, we get through against Rennes I hope he considers playing Leno in the Europa League from the quarter finals onwards. Leno has improved greatly in the last 8 matches, which coincides with Cech announcing his retirement, perhaps the pressure is off Leno and he's relaxed and more focussed in his performances.
City lost home & away
Chelsea won home lost away
United draw away win at home
Tottenham draw away win at home
liverpool draw at home lose away
3 wins 3 draws and 4 losses.
Its actually a decent return. Especially when you consider Wengers record against the top teams in years gone by. If I was offered those results against the rest of the top 6 before the season, I would have taken it.
It's a starting point, it's not great.........12 points out of 30.....around 37%........two worst performances were City and victims away.
As much as he got it wrong against Rennes, Emery got it right yesterday. That's the strongest line up with the players we had available and he wasn't afraid to play it. System worked well. Maybe, there is still yet hope for Ozil. He seems to have sorted out his health/ fitness issues with Emery. Hopefully, if they can stay fit that is the team he'll start with for the remaining 8 games of the season. Maybe Torreira for the departing Ramsey when his suspension is served. If, we get through against Rennes I hope he considers playing Leno in the Europa League from the quarter finals onwards. Leno has improved greatly in the last 8 matches, which coincides with Cech announcing his retirement, perhaps the pressure is off Leno and he's relaxed and more focussed in his performances.
Whilst Ozil worked harder yesterday than he usually does and while we look a better more balanced team with him on the pitch and retain posession better I wouldn't bet against him switching off the work ethic at some point in the next couple games. He is very inconsistent. Sublime one game - looks and acts totally uninterested in the next. He can dictate our pace in a game or the game can pass him by. I hope Dick can get the best from him because he is our only world class player but I'm not convinced he will tbh.
Ozil did work harder yesterday and more than that our attacking play just seems to flow much better when he is playing.
Does that justify £350k? Does it fuck. Does it justify keeping him? Not for me, not even nearly to be honest given all of the circumstances. Do we look better with him rather than Iwobi when we are playing these Sorts of games - high tempo, particularly at home? Yes.
I like how he is willing to mix it up based on who we are playing. Can’t completely figure it out but formation and tactics were spot on yesterday rather than the 4 at the back. Similarly playing Ramsey for the big games - when he tends to turn up and his dynamism is vital - but not week in week out is spot on.
Ozil did work harder yesterday and more than that our attacking play just seems to flow much better when he is playing.
Does that justify £350k? Does it fuck. Does it justify keeping him? Not for me, not even nearly to be honest given all of the circumstances. Do we look better with him rather than Iwobi when we are playing these Sorts of games - high tempo, particularly at home? Yes.
I like how he is willing to mix it up based on who we are playing. Can’t completely figure it out but formation and tactics were spot on yesterday rather than the 4 at the back. Similarly playing Ramsey for the big games - when he tends to turn up and his dynamism is vital - but not week in week out is spot on.
Have to agree on the 350k a week. As good as he can be we just do not get enough consistent return from him to justify that insane salary. We will be a lesser team without him but if we can put that 350k a week into 2 or 3 top players then it's a risk worth taking. Problem is Wenger and the Lizard have hamstrung us to fuck with that contract as no one else will pay him that and I can see Ozil just seeing out the contract.
Is there another top flight manager this season who has got so much out of a bunch of new signings pound for pound - Lichsteiner was a freebie and probably worth a gamble as he clearly doesn't fancy Jenkinson then, and as well as Maitland-Niles played at the weekend he isn't a natural right back.....so there is little to no cover for Bellerin (who was shite under Wenger for the past 2 years anyway)
Sokratis, Leno, Guendouzi and Torreira represent outstanding value for money in today's market based on their performances to date. Denis Suarez on loan - too early to say. Thought the lad showed some class touches and runs when he came on but in other fleeting glimpses he struggled to make an impression, so the jury is out
Next season Helmet (thank fuck), Welbeck and Ramsey amongst others will be off the payroll, and if he spends £45m as wisely as he has so far we will have the makings of a decent squad. If we do make the Be All and End All and Wiggy gives him a bit more to spend, I trust him to build a much stronger squad than the one Shit for Brains left for him. Reasons to be cautiously optimistic in my view. There have certainly been more big games where we have shown up this season in amongst the odd fuck up like the Mickeys away
I think we should do it from here. United still have to play City, Chelsea still have to play Liverpool, plus United and Chelsea have to play each other, Spurs also have away games to Liverpool & Man City. We must be the shortest odds to make join Pool and City in next seasons CL. This is make or break time, kill or die. There are 4 teams fighting for 2 places, and if we are not on board the CL train for 2019-2020, then it’s an outright fucking failure considering our favorable position.
This is what Wenger couldn't do - he was too often left standing when the music stopped.
Emery must deliver. Because to finish 5th or below from here, would be something you expect to happen under Arsene
a nice bit of writing about Sunday in the gruaniard today :
The Emirates had been a beautiful sight at kick-off on a cold hard sunlit March day. By the time the darkness fell it was slightly wild. Their former home, Highbury, had something spiky and nasty about it. There is a little of that in this glass and steel mega-bowl now. The away end was drowned out in a way that just never happened in the slow death of late Wenger-ism. “Where’s your fuckin’ VAR?” they sang, in a shared outburst of pointed social commentary.
Whatever the future brings, whatever the knotted nature of the club’s hierarchy, you cannot kill the spirit and this place is seething with life these days.
Victory makes it nine straight home wins in the Premier League, with a real sense of, if not a fortress being built exactly, then a semi-secure gated community. Plus, of course, Arsenal are winning games they approached with fear in their heart until last year. Gone is the collapsible substance of the last few seasons, an Arsenal that fell apart against the better teams like a damp slice of white bread
From this point the run-in is as agreeable as these things ever get, with eight winnable looking games to go. It would be deeply Arsenal to trip up now, to lose their way when it suddenly looks clear. But something has shifted here. This might just have been the day when the Emery era found its first real hand-hold.
THIS is what PL managers are supposed to do with their remaining squads during the interlull :
Arsenal are heading to Dubai for warm weather training ahead of the Premier League run in, the club have confirmed.
The squad will make the five-day trip during the international break, meaning there will be a limited squad, and during their time will face Al-Nasr Dubai SC in a friendly to official open the newly built Al Maktou Stadium. The game will take place on March 26.
Manager Unai Emery told the club website: “It will be great to get some warm weather training and break up the usual routine as we enter the final stage of the season.
the players that do go will benefit from the warm weather and rest for the run in.
Dick Knows.
Last edited by clockender1 on Tue Mar 12, 2019 7:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
