I know that this might well qualify me as clinically insane, but I'd recorded the Watford game on Sunday and actually watched it again last night !!
Believe me, it was even worse second time around. Exactly how we went 3-0 up and then how we managed to hang on for the win, I'll never know. The two centre backs were all over the gaff, Willock was virtually anonymous (just wtf does Arteta see in him...he offers absolutely nothing) Xhaka and Pepe were, well, Xhaka and Pepe.
I thought that Ceballos put in a good performance and unlike our old mate Xhaka, not only can he play a pass, but he scraps to win the ball. I haven't been particularly impressed with Nelson to date, but he was lively when he came on. Torreira is a shadow of the player we saw in his first few months and there's clearly a problem there....I'm sure he'll be gone in the summer.
As poor as the defence undeniably is, there's as big a problem in midfield, maybe bigger. The defence is offered no effective cover, but nor are our forwards offered any assistance, so there's a complete disconnect between front and back. It's all been said before, but as long as we persist with Xhaka in the centre mid (and I fully expect him to be Arteta's go to midfielder next season), we are fucked. Even PV4 would struggle with that buffoon alongside him and he spent his whole career at the club making his partners look a lot better than they were.
It's getting to the point....actually, we're long past the point, as it dates back to Wenger....where the team is so dysfunctional, that it's difficult to see exactly where the problems lie. All I know is that I watched a team with no cohesion, no identifiable game plan and strategy and pretty much 11 individuals playing their own game.
Yes, the quality of too many of the squad is bang average at best, but many managers are able to forge an effective unit out of a lot less. For years we have had a team that is dramatically less than the sum of its parts and that is a management issue.
In my opinion, we haven't progressed since Wenger left and that's a huge worry. Like most on here, I knew that Wenger and Gazidis left such a mess behind them, that it would be comfortably 2-3 years to see a stabilisation and then hopefully progress. I fully expected the team to be where it has ended up in the league, maybe even lower, but for me, it's more than league position or results. I want to see the manager's plan in action, to see the organisation and structure and to feel that there's an identifiable direction, that will eventually lead to improvement. To be honest, I've seen nothing like that yet, from either Emery or Arteta.