Arsenal are currently sitting up in third place in the Premier League table, and rightly or wrongly, Unai Emery is still coming under fire from sections of fans.
I have heard some fans say that without Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang we would be sitting below Manchester United (who are 12th in the table if you didn’t already know!), while I have also heard the positive end of the spectrum where some people believe we could be challenging for top spot had we been injury free (predominantly in defence) since the campaign began.
Hector Bellerin and Kieran Tierney have been heavily limited to action this term, and are widely considered our first choice full-backs, and when defensive errors were occurring I even heard certain sections name Rob Holding as our best CB, another sidelined individual…
While I’m sure the latter comment was said in haste after a defeat (namely the Chelsea loss), it isn’t completely outlandish, and we most certainly have had months of guessing which back four will be named match-by-match. We nearly have a full-strength squad of defenders fit to prove from so you would hope that more consistency is to follow, but having watched our defensive work so far we should consider ourselves lucky to be occupying third spot.
Our midfield and attack has also been tinkered numerous times due to fitness issues, with Pepe arriving back from international duty late as well as key man Alexandre Lacazette having been very unlucky since the end of last season. PEA has stood up and been counted in their struggles and bagged an impressive seven league goals in the opening eight fixtures, which can not be discounted to our league spot, but once again, our reliance on him would not have been so heavy without the burdens of the physio room.
With the verdict having to be out on Pepe (unless you wish to call him a flop after such a short time), you can still question the other investments on the playing squad. A LARGE chunk of our budget went on the Ivory Coast forward, when a number of people were crying out for a top central defender to come in instead, and an all-round midfielder wanted to come in and replace Xhaka, but the latter was made club captain instead…
I don’t think I’d be alone in thinking Emery is scraping by at present, with our league position boosted by the struggles of Manchester United, Chelsea and Tottenham thus far. Do people still believe he is the man for the long-term to get us challenging for top honours once again?
Pat J
Total ponts for arsenal in 8 games is 15.
Auba goals and points.
1-0 against Newcastle 3 points
2-1 against Burnley 3 points
2-2 against Spuds 1 point
2-2 against Watford 1 point
And the winner against Villa made the total to 11 points earned by Auba…Who else can? Now isn’t it true that Arsenal would have been in bottom end without Auba?
Emery just killed Arsenal attacking football
Its not surprising that Pepe struggles under Emery. I think Emery would transform Pepe into another Ozil soon.
I just don’t know how mature in reasoning / thinking some amongst us are.
Let me hope you made that comment for satirical reasons.
So Auba plays all over the pitch (In goal, Defense, midfield etc all on his own?)
Smh 🤦♂️
🤣
It’s a pity
Where then will we fall on the table without Leno’s saves?
Pepe becomes Ozil is on a very high probability. Just like strikers went to Man U became shy at goals.
nothing special about Emery.. boring coach
I know right.
I completely agree
So boring like watching paint dry
And he’s nothing special. We’re only 3rd place. We should be 1st by at least a 10 point margin
EMERY OUT
We should boo him at matches
Worst Manager we ever had
@Innit
😂😂😂😂😂😂
@Innit
I think yoy are being to nice to the spanish Fat Sam.
We should hung him like a Piñata at the Emirates stadium and we take turns smashing him. He is the worst thing that has ever happened to Arsenal and English football.
He is the Genesis of all our problems at The Arsenal.
😆
Obviously you never knew or heard of Billy Wright as Arsenal manager, he made Unai look like Guardiola !
Exactly. Emery was and will never be a coach to take Arsenal anywhere. He is a mid table coach and not even in EPL. Somewhere in Spain or Denmark. Emery should just resign
Aubameyang has been majestic and the fact he can carry our offense whilst youngsters cut their teeth, Pepe finds his feet and Laca has been injured whilst simultaneously being fekked over by our defence is just a testament to what a quality striker he is.
However it isn’t just one player who wins or loses a match it takes a whole team and Auba scoring is ultimately doing what he is meant to be doing.
Maybe we could have fared better being more proactive in our play but with our defence as bad as it has been it could also have been much worse. If we had committed to attacking football but we hadn’t scored more but conceded more because we were more open then people would be crucifying Emery for being the same as Wenger. He changes it up to compensate and we play some ugly football for a bit whilst only losing once and still he gets crucified 🤷♂️
Fast beginning to believe that there is just no satisfying some of our fans.
While it’s obvious and can’t be argued that PEA is the one currently covering his poor decisions and strategies.
I won’t jump on the bandwagon that he’s responsible for Pepe’s poor form.
Pepe plays on the right wing, tries to be tricky too long in the ball. So far with poor shot taking accuracy.
That’s all on the player and not the coach.
Let Pepe work on himself and let Emery work on himself or better still walk away at the end of the season.
Can you imagine where we’d be on the table and how close to Liverpool we’d be if only we weren’t scared of Watford and if only we took the game to United with our best players?
We’re always playing safe, instead of playing to our strengths
No we’ve just been compensating for our major weaknesses so much so we can’t play to our strengths.
As for the scared comment – remember Xhaka is not a native English speaker, and I’ve worked alongside enough people the same to know that even if they speak English well they still sometimes use the wrong word.
If he had said “we were worried about Watford press because we are weak at the back and worried a quick turnover could lead to us conceding” as justification for playing it safe people wouldn’t be up in arms as its a fair assessment – could be that it was just an innocent faux pas so can we stop bringing it up on every thread? It’s getting almost as old as hearing about Ozil’s wages on every post
Have to disagree with you Emery doesn’t play Pepe as a winger he actually plays him as an inside forward hence no help for the fullback poor Niles
What is an inside forward? Do people just invent positions to criticize Unai or what?
In all but two games, we’ve played a formation that requires a right winger. 4-2-3-1,4-3-3 and 4-4-1-1. Either one of those formations requires a right winger
The term inside forward goes back over 60 years ago when the standard formation was 2-3-5. The inside forwards played between the wingers and centre forward in a front 5.
Also meant to add that inside forward is still recognised as an attacking midfielder playing just behind the forwards.
Try Googling it and also look at football history.
What the f an inverted winger is I don’t know…..
An inverted winger is just a winger playing on the opposite side to his strong foot – eg right footed winger on the LW.
The premise is that instead of being inclined to pass their man and put the cross in they are more likely to cut inside onto their stronger foot and get a shot off 🤷♂️
Isn’t it the manager that is meant to get the best out of his players? That is what I keep hearing on here when it comes to some particular players.
It’s Emery’s fault that Pepe is not performing yet.
😊
I actually don’t think we’re under performing. Let’s face it, we fans are just impatient or something. Are you all going to tell me that how arsenal is playing this season has been the norm since Emery joined? I’ve seen him play beautifully for us and at other clubs. That he’s able to scrape results while his team isn’t in the best of form should be a positive.
Let’s talk about the tinkering.
How many games have the following players missed? Leno, Papa, Luiz, Kola, Xhaka, Guendouzi, Ceballos, Auba, Pepe? That’s 9 players who’ve played nearly all of our fixtures.
What tinkering is repeatedly referred to?
For a coach to know that his team is off form and still be able to grind out results should be appreciated
You have to be very careful here.
The logic of this article actually is, that Emery, “the small club coach, who can’t handle star players” has a world class attacker performing so well, he is actually now a one man team.
How can that be? I really don’t understand.
Auba is no world class or big player. That is why he is performing well under Emery.
Dont see what Pepe has to do with Emery, who we already know has a limited say in the transfers. Also, nobody was complaining when we first signed him.
Emery has been here 16 months.
He has started to drag us out of the deep hole, we were in. At the same time he and the rest of the team have applied a forward thinking youth strategy in both transfers and line-ups in general.
So far so good.
Whether he is a long term solution can’t really be judged, as it all depends on whether he can keep us going forward short term (back into top 4 this year is a must).
Anyway, are we really looking for long term solutions, that aren’t held accountable for results?
I hope those days are over.
So it’s obvious who ever the admin is he only allows comments that he believes is in line with what he wants to hear. He wants to see ozil and emery critics at full force that also the reason behind so many negative article emery and ozil I know this will be deleted also
You are right. Admin don’t allow my reply to Goonster who is rude to Sad Gunner.
Have the Ozil posts dried up ? 😆
I`d make Mesut player manager !
@admin, why have some comments not got a reply button ?
In old days Mesut would have been an Inside Left and Granny Xhagger a Left Half !
🙂
https://statics.sportskeeda.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/the-third-back-1571703.jpg
@MadHatter, I was being ironic, of course I know the “made up” position of inverted winger, same as a false nine, both ridiculous terms.
Sorry but I’m old school, well in fact, just old!
Hehe fair crack, sorry sarcasm gets lost sometimes on the Internet 🤷♂️
I agree the new names for positions is just a load of bollox lol, I stick with the old terms too 👍
👍Good man MadHatter✌️
PEA is our striker and the manager picked him to start those games, he’s doing his job, give Pepe time and get AL back and we’ll be fine, top four finish for sure this season, we all need to get behind our manager because there’s nothing we can do about it, defence will be better next game against the blades.
I also don’t know how mature is your reasoning.
Without Auba goals:
Auba goals and points.
0-0 against Newcastle lost 2 points
1-1 against Burnley 2 points
1-2 against Spuds lost 3 points
1-2 against Watford lost 3 points
Please explain to me your reasoning?
It’s well known that defence & midfield are poor or mid-table standard and you intend to cover up because you love the coward Emery very much.
I always thought there were 11 players on the field in football. Silly me.
If football is dominated by one player’s performance, then Arsenal lost to Spurs last season, because one particular player missed a penalty.
You win as a team and lose as a team.
I think the technical ie coaching setup at Arsenal have improved with the uplifting of Freddie and push back of Steve. We’re now heading towards our great goal CL and good football. But I think at the moment what is important is result than the sweet football of my icon Wenger. I think we should not be comparing AW and UE but let’s support UE to do everything in his capacity to produce results. The AW error is gone even though always history and memories trigger different emotions. My only fear is for Pepe because if Martnel gets a good taste of these games he munch everything and nothing will be left for pepe. On the same note these youngsters are capable of playing the Arsenal football we want. Let’s Give UE chance and wish AW a good life.