Arsenal are not as bad as most people seem to think

If you would have been told before the season kicked off that after five games Arsenal would be just two points behind Man City and within those five games have played Liverpool and Tottenham I am sure most Arsenal fans would have settled for that.

The performance against Watford was poor, no point denying that but it happens, Man City lost to a promoted team, Tottenham lost at home to a chaotic Newcastle United, Manchester United got beat at Old Trafford by Crystal Palace and Chelsea got thumped 4-0 by United and drew at home with Sheffield United.

The first half against Watford was good, the second half against Tottenham was impressive and even the first half against Liverpool was satisfying so there have been some high points.

The problem is two-fold, inconsistency and individual errors, play two halves the same and cut out the individual mistakes and the table would look a lot different now.

Arsenal do have a good squad, yes there is some deadwood, there are injuries and so on but generally speaking there is a solid group of players that if they play to their true ability are among the best.

It feels really bad now after what we saw against Watford but we know deep down that Arsenal are better than that and they could have easily gone third and our collective attitude towards the manager and players would be very different today.

Put it this way, a good win against Eintracht Frankfurt, a convincing home win against Aston Villa in the Premier League and a home win over Nottingham Forest in the Carabao Cup and the second half against Watford will begin to fade into the darkness.

The bottom line is Arsenal are not as bad as most people seem to think.

48 Comments

  1. Article after article trying to make Emery to look good won’t paper over the fact that he is unable to manage big clubs. Dressing room is already lost.

      1. What evidence do you want. David Luiz’s knickers or Sokratis panties abandoned outside Arsenal green room. By watching every game played so far you would have understood that there is lack of communication and none take the responsibility for the disaster except fans like you blaming Mustafi even while he hasn’t kicked a ball for us this season. It’s high time mate you get to understand that Emery is a clown in the Arsenal circus. Keep away your hate for Wenger and smell the coffee or wine rather.

    1. I think Emery has failed to change the club,we are the team that has been attached most in the top five leagues in Europe with 96 shots.what does that tell you about Unai?

  2. We should give the manager time to rectify the shortcomings. Our fans are judging him to fast. Let’s give him till the end of the season to sort out the issues. For now, we show him and the team support…

    1. We are not judging him too fast. It is a performance based job. Learn the ruthlessness with which Chelsea hire and fire coaches. This has won them two Europa league cups, Champions league. Emery should have gone the moment he allowed his emotions take over by starting Cech ahead of Leno in the Europa League final. Ramsey was willing to sign the contract. Third place was possible last season. He could not motivate the team. He is not man enough to bench Xhaka after the rash challenge in the penalty area against spurs. Wrong formation. No plan A. There is no time..we need to be ambitious. Aim should be winning the league and not top 4. Aubameyang, lacazette and Pepe cost 180m pounds. We have the squad. We need a manager with personality. Someone who wants to win at all cost. Allegri

    2. Please do understand that this is not just about the results. Its about the approach for every game. You don’t need one whole season to come up with a style of play.There are much better players and it’s almost Emery’s team now. So by now he should have figured out what his team is capable of and what he should instruct them. Wait till the end of season to know he is crap. Let’s all rub the green for some luck while Emery prays to footballing gods.

  3. – The first half against Watford: We allowed them to make many shots, which wouldn’t happen if we could control the game

    – The second half against Tottenham: We could only express our creativity after they got behind the ball in their half to lure us. This is typical Arsenal, which can only control the game if a big opposition give us a lot of space to breathe

    – The first half against Liverpool: They bombarded us with crosses and shots. We cowardly waited in our half for counter-attack, which made me wonder whether Emery was Mourinho in disguise or not

    As always, some fans try to make our second half performances sound good, as the one at Old Trafford three seasons ago. But the fact is Arsenal can only play well if a top opposition reduce their pressure in the second half

  4. THE SIMPLE FACT IS WE NEED GEORGE GRAHAM MENTALITY BUT NOW EVERYTHING’S REDUCED TO LAMBORGINI, PINK BOOTS, HANDBAGS AND EARRINGS.

  5. We just have to cut out the mistakes at the back!
    Of the eight goals conceded so far this season, only Liverpool’s first was unavoidable .
    * Their other two were wrapped gifts from Luiz
    * Burnley’s only goal was from a lucky bounce which could have been cleared by a more alert defense
    * Spurs’ two goals came from a goalkeeping error and that stupid penalty box launch by Xhaka
    * And then the disaster at Vicarage Road on Sunday!
    So what to do? Tweak the back four. Play Holding and Chambers instead of those old jokers.
    The game at Frankfurt would be ideal setting to try this new combination before it is imported into the PL.
    Truth is, we can’t keep on doing things the same way and expect different results.

    1. The back four is obviously an issue but the problem goes deeper than that. I saw a stat the other day that said So far this season we have had more shots against us than the record breaking Fulham team that are the worst team in premiership history. To concede that many shots is systemic and shows that more than just individual mistakes are to blame. Whatever emery is doing at the minute is not working.

  6. We are not as bad as ppl think ! Fact is we are even worse.Nothing you will say will justify we are any better and if you are waiting for Emery to sort things out,I don’t see that happening any time soon. Xhaka, Luiz will continue starting games….. Et all that crap

  7. YOU CAN ANALYZE ALL DAY TACTICS, MISTAKES, FORMATION, ETC BUT SIMPLE FACT I HATE TO ADMIT TROY DEENEY IS CORRECT. THE COJONES ARE SHRUNKEN INTO PEANUTS NOW. IN THE DAYS WHEN VIEIRA COLLECTED MOST RED CARDS IN EPL HISTORY, HENRY AND BERGKAMP STRIKE FEAR INTO OPPONENTS NOT BY FLAIR AND SKILL ALONE, THESE PEOPLE DIDN’T MESS AROUND COS THEY WERE NOT PART OF BLING BLING CULTURE OF PINK BOOTS, EARRINGS, HANDBAGS AND LAMBORGINI.

    1. Salute you for speaking the truth. The Highbury tunnel was the worst place for any visiting team, ask Roy Keane for his experiences. That was the Arsenal of the old and today’s Arsenal’s captain speaks of “fear” of the Watford players to the press!He should step down immediately. We need a psychiatrist and a counselor immediately to treat him. Unai needs to be fired as he cannot inspire confidence in his players. Flores Sanchez did inspire a bottom placed team for a comeback draw but Unai could not get it right to fix the midfield to prevent a defense calamity. He could not foresee a penalty from Agent Luis, when I could tell why Luis is at Arsenal. When you have a wrestler in Socrates, the coach cannot see any other way to kick the ball from the box.This time no excuses for Unai, Leno, Socrates,Luiz, Torrera, Ceballos, Pepe, Guendozi; seven first team starters are not “Wenger’s dross” as the Unai apologists keep ranting out here.Sooner Tierney will play that makes it eight starters. Laca and Auba were world class signings of Wenger who can walk into Real Madrid or Barca right now.That makes it ten players. Then we have Ozil and Xhaka, both need to be dealt with a iron fist – shape in or ship out to the reserves.

  8. OP you are only looking at the results, which I agree aren’t all that bad.

    However look at the manner in which we capitulated in the second half. It was simply dire. Ridiculous defensive errors, poor tactical substitutions, no on pitch leader – can you point to any other ‘big’ team that’s had a half as bad as that?

  9. I don’t see any other team gifting goals like we do! And keep making the same mistakes over & over again. Who else concedes as many penalties as we have? Uh.. nobody!
    A lot of teams know how to hold onto a lead & grind out results… not us!
    So bloody depressing……

    1. Absolutely right Sue this penalty conceding is out of control ? hey Sue scoring and winning in Naples is not for everyone ?

          1. Just had to go and visit her at the vet ? she’s not coming home just yet.. maybe Monday… my poor baby. Thanks for asking ?
            Need to pop to work, so hoping I’ll be back to watch PSG. Please tell me Olympiakos have scored ?

          2. Aww Sue well hopefully she’s returning to full health and coming home soon ? I’m afraid not Sue Lucas Moura seems to have put this game to bed ?

          3. Thank you, Kevin.. fingers crossed!
            So i see they had a penalty, i bet Kane went down (& did you hear a big splash? ?)
            There’s another 45 yet.. ?
            Cavani’s injured – oh wonderful.. was looking forward to watching him later…

          4. 2-2 ? spurs defence is as bad as ours ? haha check out Darren Farley on YouTube doing Harry Kane’s dive against us ? he’s becoming really injury prone Sue ? inter Miami for him haha. Yes absolutely Sue ?

          5. Beautiful! That’s cheered me up ? will have a butchers on YouTube, sounds hilarious!!
            He’s ready for the knackers yard! I like Real Madrid’s kit…
            Di Maria!!!!

          6. Real Madrid, Zidane and hazard are done ? it’s ave Maria tonight ? haha let me know what you think, it’s hilarious ?

          7. Omg that was brilliant, so funny & he sounded just like him ?
            Hazard’s goal drought goes on… they really have been poor since Ronaldo left.. just goes to show how much he did!!
            Rambo had about 3 minutes.. been a pretty darn good week Kev… Chelsea, Liverpool lost.. spuds surrendered their lead.. City won.. and Hazard didn’t score ???

          8. Now Sue come on Hazard is just waiting for his muse to strike ? yes Sue it’s looking like they were just a one man team ? hahaha a leg breaker ? you should watch the one he does with Gerrard and Alex Ferguson the other guy is a brilliant fergie impersonator he says to Farley (Gerrard) you were absolutely bang average ????

          9. Christ, when will that be, anytime this millennium?! ?
            I just watched it.. that guy sounded just like Fergie & i loved the bit about the whiskey & his purple nose ?? and that weird noise Gerrard kept making (eee-yeah!!) ? really funny!!!

          10. Hahaha some would think so ??? yeah the Ermmmmm yeah.. haha fergie was brilliant especially the David Beckham one ??? so Sue I’m guessing your so confident we’ll win tonight your already thinking of the next game ? ?

          11. I noticed there was quite a few on there, will have a look when i get a chance.. I’d not heard of him.
            I’ll let you know when the line up comes out ?? usually about 5, 10 minutes in, you get an idea how the game’s going to pan out.. we might be alright.. i fancy 2-2… you? I don’t even want to think about conceding another penalty ? i just went to see Coco & they let me bring her home ??

          12. Aww great Sue is she on the mend then ? ? Your predicting a 2-2 ? Incoming defeat then ? I have no idea I can’t predict an Emery team or performance ? haha he’s really funny Sue his friend Reid (fergie) does Wenger too ? well Sue like Vorskla last year we go again in an hour ? well at least Taylor isn’t referring ?

  10. I guess the only way to shake our error prone defenders into stability is to bench them when they make silly decisions that cost us points… meaning, I’ll go for the Chambers & Holding combination for our next match against Frankfurt… Emery must play bad cop now and make these type of call for the sake of progress…

    1. Patrick you have hit the nail on the head,it is there staring him in the face,drop the poser Luiz and Socratis Chambers and Holding can only do a better job.

  11. Arsenal wasn’t as bad as we are now, before Emery took over, while it was clear from the 6th game last season that he was going to be a disaster. Many people have said this many times in different posts, so I don’t want to repeat all that, but one thing that saddens me is that we have lost that Arsenal way of playing beautiful football. Emery has made them all headless chickens.
    Take for example last season – he kept playing Mustafi despite his errors till the end of the season by when his confidence was shot, and made him the pantomime villain for all of us. A good manager will punish a mistake, work with the player and bring him back after a few games.
    He benched Ozil ostensibly for attitude problems, but we now know the lad must have been telling Emery he is screwing up the club.
    Emery’s philosophy seems to be to make everyone a workhorse and creativity isn’t something he appreciates. I’m sure under any other manager our frontline will score much more than we are doing now.
    So yes, we are not bad, but far worse than that.

  12. “it was clear from the 6th game last season that he was going to be a disaster”
    What game was that exactly? The match against Vorskla, just as we were starting a 22-game unbeaten steak?

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