Arsenal failed to take any points away from Goodison Park today, but you have to give all the credit to the home side.
Many Gunners fans will have been alerted when hearing the line-up, with a midfield duo of Mohamed Elneny failing to calm any nerves we had coming up against the in-form Blues, and any worries prove to be sustained.
The home side had much of the control of the match, and on top of that, our players barely had time to breathe on the ball.
As hard as it is to give credit to an opposing side, Everton kept our side under pressure throughout the opening half, and to be completely fair, deserved their lead.
Phil Jagielka was the man to open the scoring inside 10 minutes, the man who was drafted into the team late after Keane was ruled out with injury, and the painful part is that it was a long throw that lead up to the event. Lucas Digne launched the ball into the area and our defence completely failed to deal with it, and Jagielka ends up toeing the ball beyond the line.
That goal made sure that we are the only side in England’s top four divisions NOT to have a single away clean sheet this season… A stat we will be hoping to shift…
The second half saw two early changes in Aubameyang and Ramsey brought on for Kolasinac and and Elneny, and that looked a positive one, but unfortunately there was not nearly enough to come from it.
Everton deserve more credit than our side deserve criticism, but at this crucial part in the season, we cannot afford to take any side lightly.
Do we blame Emery’s selection for the loss or were Everton simply too critical and concentrated?
A loss as predicted, because I knew Everton just needed to add one extra midfielder to take control. I thought Emery would set up another formation instead of the predictable 3-4-2-1
I think Arsenal could only lose one more away match, otherwise they can say goodbye to the top four
I knew Emery couldn’t bench Ozil due to his recent forms at home games, but I wish Iwobi had started instead of him
Iwobi instead of Mhiki absolutely. He was the worst player on the pitch today and yet we were very poor.
You crazy Pat? Niles was the worst,, infact Mkhitaryan was the one trying something
Miki and Ozil in the run on side! Yikes! One is enough for the others to carry defenceively. Two of them together is suicide. And thats not a slight on Ozil. He’s a great player. But Miki and ozil together away from home. No wonder we got smashed in the midfield.
Jhud, you are right. Niki & Ozil have similar styles. Ozil/Miki & Iwobi and not Ozil & Miki.
But on what basis did you think Emery would set up with another formation when he’s been using this three back system all along?If you’re claiming it’s predictable does this mean you’re saying he was wrong to use it the match before and the one before that?If we go to Napoli with this system they would destroy us even in this average season of theirs.I expect us to quickly revert back to the four back.I’d also love to see the back if many other overhyped and overpaid players.I just hope we are able to sell many come this summer.
I knew we wouldn’t win today. Not even before we knew the starters.
Only hope is that Watford/Wolves have a hangover after the FA cup semi final
Still have Leicester City. I predict that would be our last loss in this season’s EPL, unless the players have lost their motivation
We could afford to drop a maximum of 6 points in the 7 games. Now we can drop 3 in 6. That’s it. If we even tie twice and drop 4 points I’m afraid United will overtake us to 4th. 3rd was never an option for me. Spurs run in is too easy. They only have one tough game left and will probably only drop 3 points.
So that’s it one loss is all we can afford. Let’s see if we can do it.
Absolutely gutted at how sh*t we were…awful, pants, useless, terrible, embarrassing…. ???
Sue and much more, mhiki was absolutely awful. Am just very angry. How can we not perform at all!!!!!!
Awful Pat, really awful & to think I was actually thinking about being back in the CL ?
I slightly blame Emery, having two DMs in Guendouzi and Elneny never let us get into the game, no connection between the defence midfield and attack, isolating Lacazette.
That set the tone of the match and we were on the back foot.
Real shame!
Any shot on target? Everton wernt that good they could easily have scored 3 goals
People say our away fixtures will be our bane for cl qualification and that is when our coach decided to put out imbalance and unmotivated team. Well done Emery.
I’ll say what I’ve been saying for the past week and possible months and not just some plastic reaction.We need a new CB,LB,LW and CM.I also repeat the three back system is unsustainable and to can’t still fathom why Unai Emery continues to use it because the defence remains bad regardless.Why waste your time with something you know will become bad and you’d surely have to change in the future?That isn’t visionary thinking.A player has been here fore about six season and it’s still being debated and hasn’t helped us enough.The less said about this team the better.Before you people say its Arsenal away so its normal mind you we were even licky to win at home.Im sure my comment will apply to the team the next week again even if we win.
I don’t think Emery is visionary, but pragmatic
Better focus on getting a better RW first, because Arsenal have no good RW
Nor LW
Nor RB
Nor CB
Iwobi-san is a decent LW. He just needs a good coach and internal competition to improve his decisions in the final third
The boy has the skills and physical attributes to beat the defenders, but he still cannot see the opportunity to cut inside and shoot with his stronger foot
Not goer talk about him ,I don’t rate him ,never have never will .if you’re happy watching him play then that’s choice.
You’re *
He might be dreadful but I prefer him to the two overhyped midfielders who started today.How a case can be made for them not leave Arsenal is beyond me.The same blamed Wenger for approving mediocrity with knowing they are guilty of the same.Look how for many season lots defended Giroud and others who were never good enough for the first team.Today we know who was right.At least I’ve decided to open my eyes on some of our players even before the season started so to me this is just a normal thing but it’s annoying nonetheless.
I think digne crossed the line while taking the throw which led to the goal. UE should have taken off guendozi instead of elneny since he was on a card. Miki instead of ozil since the game was very open and he could have provided the killer pass.
I’m not saying we don’t need players in those positions you highlighted but will they help today considering the way Emery set up today. Elneny who hasn’t played for awhile with talented but erratic Guen in the middle. Seeing that lineup I told the guy besides me we won’t leave Goodison park today with 3 points if we will earn any point at all. If it aren’t broken don’t fix it. Does Emery know that. Put Ramsey in the middle and PEA alongside Laca we would be back in 3rd. What I dread most now is us not qualifying for CL when all the pundits and Sir Jon had predicted it????
Emery has done tendency of not playing his best players though some say it’s more of him adapting to the opposition than anything.One wonders why our starting eleven has been tinkered with so much through our the season.My main criticism of him is his formation and starting eleven selection.
However, if Emery had good players in the position I mentioned perhaps he’d do better.
Emery is only trying to find a system suitable for the players available. We don’t have natural wingers in our current team. Emery never began with three at the back he only introduced it when the lack of width in the team was obvious. Kolasinac became a pick to offer width that’s how the three at the came about. I think with proper wingers in the team we won’t be debating about this
You’re right kev, i hate this 3 at the back formation but our team is so unbalance and i feel it’s why emery is using it to accommodate players. I hope we use a more sustainable 4-3-3 next season but for that to happen we need those postions you mentioned sorted. Also, our away form is partly to our mentally fragile and inconsistent players, they just can’t turn it on in difficult away games, our so called best player is the epitome of this fact. Top four is only possible if other team bottle it as well because we will struggle to beat wolves, leicester and watford away.
The three back system makes us even more unbalanced.I don’t rate Ozil’s current impact for arsenal but in truth along with Mkhitaryan they don’t fit into this three back system.Its best to lose with a four back than with a three back which further reduces our attacking efficiency.I’d understand it to a point if we were playing a top team but against Everton??
I agree kev that the back three makes us look even more unbalanced but niles isn’t a fullback and we all know how poor kolasinac is as a fullback do i think that plays in his selections. He’s also being defensive away because he knows how poor our away record is and he is scared to play attacking line ups but i think he has to change that and have a go in the upcoming away games. Such a disappointing performance.
Emery cost us this match. It’s as simple as that.
Pathetic team selection.
An away match against Everton where you need fighters and we had to start Ozil, as if thats not bad enough, he started Elneny as well. Like seriously Emery? This loss is on Emery.
Emery’s team selection was the first nail in the coffin. Rookie Guendouzi and Elneny in midfield never gave us a chance. Why did we bring in Suarez again? Needed him in midfield instead of Elneny.
Tinkerman at it again. Elneny doesn’t play in dec or jan PL games, but gets the start in this crucial stretch?
We deserved the result, hopefully Elneny returns to bench, Suarez gets more than the Kim Kallstrom treatment down the stretch.
Monreal was absolutely pony. Sort it. He jogs back and got roasted today “defending.” Needs to go next year; plenty of better players without having to spend excessively. Just need to admit he’s done and move on.
Back down to earth. Glad I’m not the only one who had this foreboding feeling about today. Bad lineup and just a bad performance. We were getting too overconfident about top 4. Still time to make it up though, but this will just be a fight until the end. Don’t let Arsenal ruin your day though folks, just football in the end. Let’s rally for Napoli.
I was nervous about it and even warned Jah Son who kept on saying how much better of a team we have. I will admit though, even I didn’t expect such a pathetic loss more so at this crucial stage of the season.
Mkhitaryan and Niles were very poor to say the least. But the manager had a chance at halftime to insert Aubameyang for Mkhitaryan and Ramsey for Gwendouzi and bring back some confidence but my stance on the manager you already know.
Your stance changes back and forth according to weekly results, at least of latter weeks. You HAD begun to start giving Emery credit BUT as I predicted, that lasted just until we had one defeat. You are the worst sort of fickle, overreactionary and shallow thinking Gooner on here.
I really like Emery but a midfield of Guendouzi and Elneny with Ozil infront of them at an away game in Everton is completely unacceptable.
I
Talking about this fine manager of ours.
And your point is exactly?
That’s the kind of players we have at Arsenal
“You are the worst sort of fickle, overreactionary and shallow thinking Gooner on here.”
Back at ya!
What’s there to rally?
With Emery senseless team selections.
All we needed in this game was a drawing to Atleast remain third.
What did Emery do? Rest Aubameyang, Ramsey until the game became harder.
Where is the place of common sense?
The time we are isn’t the time for trial and error… I expected both strikers in this crucial match…
I think it’s safe to say we will either draw or lose the remainder of our away games, it’s just who we are. I hope never to see Guendozi, Maitland Niles or Mustafi on the pitch ever again.
But those three are the best of what we have
Unless Emery becomes adventurous and starts Suarez/ Jenkinson/ Medley ahead of them
As soon as I saw the lineup, I knew it’s gonna be very tough for us.
We seem not to play at all away from home. We haven’t beaten a top ten team away from home this season I think. That’s abysmal.
If we want to make that top four this season then we must improve drastically away from home.
We still have wolves , Leicester and few away games this season
TIKI TAKA from the back all day long. A long pass sometimes is not bad isn’t it?
No energy going forward apart from iwobi
What a frustrating match !!!
Ozil is as useless as P in psychology. Iwobi did more in few minutes he was on pitch than Ozil did all match, and he doesn’t earn half Ozil wages.
If Arsenal keeps Ozil here next season, I will know for sure that we are not making progress from Wenger era.
…if we cannot use an Ozil type player… we will not make the top ten.
“Ozil type player”. Do you mean talented but inconsistent?
Inconsistent? LOL! Ever wonder why Messi cannot win the World Cup? Clue: the rest of the team sucks. Now Messi is a far better player than Ozil, but in Ozil’s position, he is among the best.
What you want Ozil to do is gallop back and tackle and prevent goals. Emery ball! Ha! Ha! That is why Emery cannot coach top teams, and that is why he is at Arsenal, which is now not a top team.
Listen to the pros, they know what Ozil is and is not. Then they use top notch players in the correct way. Ozil’s job is to create, it is not his fault if the feed from behind is horrible, or he is market out of the game. On the first count, there is no Viera like player there. Or Carzola, at a minimum. On second count, other players have to step into the gaps created by marking Ozil.
Lol, its never ozil’s fault blah blah blah. Ozil’s job is to create blah blah blah. Where did i say he should gallop back and defend? Just accept the truth ozil fanboy. He is exceptionally talented but inconsistent, that is clear for everyone to see. He is supposed to be our biggest player but nobody should state the obvious about him and question his performance?
When you say the rest of the team I presume you mean the Argentinian national team. You are seriously saying that whole team bar Messi is crap?? Argentina? Wow I’ve done heard it all
Got to say I’m gutted but not surprised Everton are in form at the moment and apart from our 2 superstars up front and Ramsey who’s leaving Everton now have several players that are outraged standard and we be happy to have.
Gomes, bernard, Richarlison, sigurdsson, digne, Coleman, etc etc
Elneny amongst others has got to be finished after this game. Our squad needs strengthening so badly and we really need bellerin and holding back soon.
Be glad to see Chambers back battling in the midfield next year as well unless Emery sells him!
Felt sorry for our fans today…….totally c*ap and one heck of a journey home.
Best team won today no doubt about it .emery must take the blame for this on ,the starting line up was all wrong ,terrible tbh.dont know if he was save players for Thursday but I always say play you’re strongest 11 then worry about the next match .anyway move on hopefully it was just a blip and we can get going in our next league match .
I will say though that if arsenal have any real ambitions of joining the top two teams then we need to move on players like elneny,mustafi,and iwobi ,this day and age we shouldn’t have to watch mediocre players like this .mustafi today was absolutely awful .
That’s all I have been asking for all season. Please Mr Emery play our best eleven and worry about the rest after.
Youre forgetting Ozil,Mkhitaryan and Monreal in your list.Imagine these three still being here next season and saying the new management have made us progress.Im waiting to see if two of them would be here then I’d know whether we are serious or not.
please add ozil ,monreal to the list cuz Iwobi was the best player for 15 minutes today
Xxnofx I wonder what game you were watching, Mustafi was absolutely awful? Do you watch games or you run to the blog to criticise players? Mustafi was literally our best CB today, played 3 good long pass to lacazette which the latter didn’t make good of. Musti didn’t put a foot wrong today not one.
We were awful today! We deserved nothing from the game, and we actually should have lost by a lot more.
I felt Emery was too negative with his team selection, and maybe he had one on Napoli in midweek, but his players were shocking though! Zero intensity off the ball, no tempo on the ball, and we couldn’t make a pass to save our lives. Emery did make the correct subs though.
The ref was a joke! He didn’t want to give us anything, typified with Davies basically wrestling Ramsey off the ball in a really dangerous area, and the ref saying it was a legal challenge, near the end of the game.
Leno was our MOTM, and Iwobi did well from the bench. Everyone else was awful! Zouma was a beast at the back for Everton.
We weren’t awful, we were fu**ing awful.
I wish Arsenal buy Zouma instead of spending a lot of money on another small CB like Umtiti
Since Arsenal cannot create open play goals easily, they had better chase the corners. Unfortunately Arsenal no longer have players that are dominant in the air like Giroud
Why should arsenal buy Zouma? Because he played well today? Believe me, that’s easy when you are playing against these inconsistent lot. Although, i’ll take literally anyone over mustafi.
Just watched recording and all I can say is what a load of krap. Everton were rubbish but beat us so what does that say? Ref was iffy but we didn’t have any penetration. Now Sokratis is out and he’s always been a liability with his WWF tactics. Smh, smh, smh…… bye bye CL.
Deny all u want
We’ve seen today that Iwobi brings something none else does
We’ve also seen that Ozil is just not it for away matches
Was screaming for him to be taken in the last 15 mins b4 his sub as the ball was going left to right but he still was nowhere to be found
Mustafi was fantastic today
Did you just say Mustafi was fantastic??????????????????????
Mustafi was Fantastic ,now I know you didn’t watch the match .sokatis was our best defender today .mustafi shouldn’t be anywhere near that squad
Babasola, Mustafi was fantastic only if you are also sane. He was not and nor are you!
Babasola I agree with you. Mustafi was fantastic considering how much of strength Everton brought to the game. Iwobi should have been used instead of Mkihi. And seeing the way Everton set up, we could have moved back a bit to defend better thereby making it a hard work for Everton to keep sending the long balls. We could have done the counter attack to offset Everton’s tactics. We were dreadful, absolutely. I was surprised Everton didn’t score more. Emery did his best but the players today were to blame.
Emery deciided to loose this match , what is Mikhi doing on the field while Iwobi and Auba start on the bench ,nobody to trouble Everton defenders .
Defending dire today again.
Benched your best winger and the only person that can take on anyone in the team, started Kolasinac but Benched the one person that makes him click.
Crippled yourself with stupid selections and was then forced to pick between Ozil and Mkhi to take off. You did all these against a team that beat Chelsea at home just a while ago and drew with Liverpool.
Emery was arrogant and stupid with his selections today and he paid dearly for it. Time and time again, every sensible football analyst have said Ozil is useless in an away game particularly against physical teams but yet the coach was stubborn. Look at Iwobi’s impact the moment he came in.
…..We definitely don’t have a right back, AMN isn’t one and both Mkhi and Ozil are past it. By the way, Suarez was brought in again for what?
….. Disgusting performance I must say the least….. Emery must start Suarez now, surely he can’t do worst that what Mkhi and Ozil played today.
…. To think I was looking forward to today’s game all week. Precious two hours gone.
Agree. I also want to see Suarez play again to see his progress
If he is still rusty, Emery can always replace him in the second half
That ends any top 4 hopes pathetic performance with the score line flattering us big time was so bad the away fans should be given there money back!!
iwobi was good when he came on a outlet at least,but outpaced by coleman with one gammy leg more pace needed…..
350k for a player who only play well at home ,the headless chicken iwobi in his 15 minutes played well than ozil78 minutes,miki I don’t even know what to say about him,if not for some great blocking from sokratis we would have lost by a bigger margin.
I can’t see us winning any of the remaining 4 away games so i don’t really see any chance for CL football unless we win europa league.If Chelsea or Arsenal win the Europa league does that mean 4th place misses out on CL ?
Only if an English team that finishes outside the top 4 wins the UCL. So basically if either Tottenham or Man U win UCL and finish outside top 4 since Man City and Liverpool are guaranteed top 4
All of them were piss poor apart from Leno and Socratis. Wouldn’t even bother to give any of them a rating apart from the aforementioned 2.
Sokratis was piss poor because he got booked again so is on a two match ban. More wrestler than footballer!
Sokratis was our best defender, especially when you consider how our midfield was non-existent. I actually love his agression, he’s rarely bullied by opposing players.
Agree but he’s now out for two games!
Declan if he had avoided that tackle and Everton scored as a result of that what do you think would have been said about him. Him and Mustafi whether people accept or not limited the defeat to a respectable score line.
1-0 loss to Everton is NOT respectable !
Not surprised in the slightest.Wrong system,wrong selection.We are a team with defenders that cannot defend.Our entire back five were woeful.Monreal had his worst game of the season but received precious little help from Kolasinac who has not a clue when it comes to positional sense.The need for at least three quality defenders was never more evident than today.We made Calvin Lewis look like a world beater .With four away matches to go we will be hard pressed to stay in the top four I’m afraid.
Honestly, if i had my way, i will sell kolasinac first. I just can’t stand defenders that have no clue about defending and he never looks like he wants to help in defense and for a defender that is like a crime. Mustafi is another that needs to leave asap, spends more time on the floor than a piece of rug, terrible bunch of defenders.
4 days to calm down…. think I might need longer than that!!! ???
First 20 mins of second half was ok … should have started there … then petered our … emery has the same managerial problem as wenger in not knowing his best 11 … I find it unfathomable he can’t find space for Suarez in this team .. Naples look like a hurdle too high for this lot … which means overall chances are we will have a worse or certainly no better season than last year …
I put the blame on the door steps of emery. Poor team selection and actually believing that his tactics of getting the opponent exhausted in the first half before bringing in his best players would work has failed.
I guess I speak for many of us (at least those who are honest with themselves) when I say our hearts sank when we saw the start line up and this still prior to kickoff. I have been among Emerys greatest fans this season and remain so BUT it must be said that the start line up was a huge mistake in many areas. Firstly, the inept and way below our expected standard Elneny; it was a bad error to think him remotely capable and his “play” proves this correct. Secondly, to play a three at the back without Kos and no speed at all(not that KOS HAS SPEED EITHER, BUT HE DOES HAVE JUDGEMENT, so lacking in Mustafi and “wrestling” Sokratis). Thirdly, it was an obvious error to play BOTH Ozil and Mkhi together as neither have any oomph and Mkhi in particular was a total disgrqce and lazy in the extremr. Ozil was only a touch better. CLEARLY both Ramsey and Auba SHOULD have started and we fielded FAR too defensive a line up, and you could esily predict we would be outfought and outnumbered in midfield with THAT start eleven. Emery had a bad day at the office , so to speak and this must NOT be repeated. Elneny and Mustafi must be got rid of in the summer and also Mkhi too, plus some others. I had already bet against us making top four while the laying odds were low. They have now moved as I knew they would when we lost what was always going to be a very tough away game, even HAD he picked the correct team. But he did not. Though he made the right changes at half time, we were already chasing the game at that stage, hence all the Everton second half chances they wasted. I THOUGHT IWOBI DID MORE IN HIS FEW MINUTES THAN THE LOT OF THEM, BAR THE BLAMELESS LENO, PUT TOGETHER.
How many times in one season are we going to write same.
JAH SON I have no idea what you mean, as I don’t on most of your posts also. What on earth is “we going to write same” supposed to mean. We are not “same” but different . I am English and it is my first language , so I can both use it well, punctuate and spell correctly. But above all, when I write something, all can understand what I mean; whether or not they agree is a different matter. But your posts are largely incomprehensible to many of us. Your post above is one sentence only yet is impossible to fathom. Try harder to write something I can actually understand. Or better still do not bother writing at all. THAT WOULD AT LEAST MAKE SENSE!
Iwobi did more than any attacker, totally agree. What a shame. And I thought Ozil was the definition of useless today. This is why I never get carried away when he turns in one good performance. He was so lightweight today and looking for fouls that weren’t there. And the jacket throw was just bizarre. If he’s only good for a handful of home games that’s not enough to keep him around. Our saving grace is that our opponents have hard games left in the schedules. But if we cant put in a decent display for even one away match, top 4 is over for us. We now have to get at least 7 point from Watford/Wolves/Leicester matches. Big ask.
Exactly, we all have to keep it in mind that we have mostly inconsistent and mentally fragile players before over hyping because of a couple of good performances. I don’t know when they will finally be able to handle real pressure, probably need to sell a bunch of them as there is no use in hoping.
I agree completely with everything you said Jon. That is first time in awhile??? and I beginning to think if I should put 100,000 naira that is about 200 pound on us on not making top 4 as you predicted.
If I were you Mobella, I would still do so, but the odds are now moving against you if you are laying us(backing that we fail to make top four). Never bet at all though, unless you either just want a small flutter for excitement and don’t much care if you win or lose. Nor, and most importantly, not unless you thoroughly understand the multi faceted ways that bookies of all kinds lure you into mug and hopeless bets. You need a proper understanding of odds and true value too and to leave all narural bias completely aside. Either do your homework or leave well alone, is my shrewd advice.
You are spot on Jon. I think Emery needs to be more focused when selecting his team. Was there any reason why Elneny should have started? Emery should have played Maitland Niles in midfield in place of Elneny and played Jenkinson on the right back. It is ridiculous to play Elneny in such a match. Similarly it was a blunder to start with both Ozil and Mkhitaryan. We have paid the price for Emery”s lack of foresight. I am wondering why Emery loses ideas in away games!
Leicester, Watford, Burnley & Wolves will be loving the thought of us visiting their grounds! If today is anything to go by that’ll be 12 points dropped then!
Why oh why can’t we perform away from home?? I mean come on, what other teams have this problem? I absolutely dread away games…
I have already accepted those games as Ls. Best we can hope for now are draws. It’s a shame really, I thought this away curse would end with the previous manager.
So I got my hopes up today – playing Everton, no green kit, thought the team would come out all guns blazing because of our position in the league table! How wrong I was! So I’m with you QD about our remaining away games. I honestly thought our away hoodoo would have been over too, jeez at this rate will it ever be??
Hope people can now have a breather from overhyping our team.
Poor bottlers. Always get good opportunities to take advantage but always fck them up.
Just got back from work but how the hell did Emery think that it was a good idea to start Elneny, Guendouzi and Ozil together in an away fixture?
Smh.
I did predict in a previous thread that we would lose if Emery played both Socratis and Mustafi together in this game. Also said Goundouzi shouldn’t start due to his dallying on the ball and poor awareness of his surroundings.
we should never play both Ozil and Mikhi in the same match away.
I also warned of complacency, unfortunately, the complacency started from Emery with this terrible line up and the players carried the complacency into the match and were outplayed and out-fought by a bunch of misfits.
Unfortunately, we have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and the season will end withus outside the top 4 like the pundits have gleefully predicted.
So much for playing each match like a cup final. Bunch of losers with poor mentality.
I predict a mauling at Naples and we’ll be sent back to London with our tails between our legs.
Only watched the first half, but even that was a dire waste of 45 minutes.
Really gutted we’ve thrown away the advantage we had in the race for top 4.
??
Bunch of losers in deed if they can be motivated by finishing above spurs in two years and champion league qualification I don’t what will. I have never being so angry with anyone or anything in my life.
Wolves are going for it!! Jimenez & his mask ? not as good as Auba’s ?
So we face Wolves on a high and Watford on a low, both not great .
What a beauty from Deulofeu ?
Oops now Watford on a high and Wolves on a low.
?
No cohesion, no fighting spirit from the boys today. I hope this defeat makes the players determined to win on Thursday.
Musti and Sokratis had a good game today, the former made 3 good long passes to lacazette which he didn’t make good use of. Leno saved us today as usual, Niles, lacazette, infact all our front players had a bad game. I think Guendouzi should work on his awareness and learn to release balls early, for someone that plays in his position he tends to wait far too long to pick his team mates.
Sokratis is now out for two games!
He’s more WWF than PLF.
Lol.. I hope we don’t miss him much though.
Watford V Wolves was a decent game! Unlucky Wolves… how good was Deulofeu?!
What about the penalty not given to Lacazette before Everton scored, where the defender took out Lacazette, but didn’t get the ball. Game changer by officials again.
Awful team selection just awful
Emery has to answer for that
Ozil poor in an important game who would guess
Elneny wtf not good enough for mid table
Miki ?
Iwobi ?
And before people say he did well when he came on
Doing well changes the game
So I’ve just left a pub near the ground where I always meet up with a pal who lives in Nuneaton and is a scouser and a lifelong Everton supporter.His mates,who are also there every game, knew before the game started that they would win.They just couldn’t believe the line up we had.Listening to the reports on the car radio coming in Not can most Arsenal fans.Ok I get we have Napoli on Thursday and no doubt Ramsey and Aubamayang will both start in that game but these are two of our best players and no matter what with Everton it is ALWAYS a tough game up at Goodson Park.Even a draw would not have been that bad a result for us.But a win would have kept our momentum going and given us confidence for Wolves Leicester and Watford.And let’s pray Burnley are safe because going up there needing a win if they still need points to stay up will not be a gimme.
Emery made a huge blunder today.We needed a back four with three in the middle.We were outfought in midfield with the two players most likely to not be up for the job.
It’s still in our hands to get CL because both Chelsea and Utd will drop points.But if Emery doesn’t wake up to the fact that his tinkering is costing us points then we can forget Top Four And will be back to EL again.
Progress?Yeah I suppose of a sort but the position he had got us to needed defending.That performance today was totally unacceptable but also what we deserved
Emery is great. He has a master plan. He was dropping this game to motivate the team against the Italian team and then go on another unbeaten run. Lose one and win ten! That is the Emery way!
The most passionate thing ozil did was throw his coat did nothing the whole time he was on the pitch just a passenger so not sure what the tantrum was about prob just for the cameras!!
The whole team is as sh1t not just ozil .
The team was set up all wrong ,ozil and miki in the same team was never going to work .we only looked good in the last 15 mins because we had all the attacking players on and was leaving gaping holes at the back ,could have lost that 3 or 4 nil .
Ozil did drop deep numerous times to try and do something about the CM pairing, I thought he was too deep too often to make an impact in attack, this was largely down to Emery playing no CM who can move the ball forward.
I’m not saying he could have provided 20 assists 😛
He did try from what I seen but we had only Laca to carry the attack forward, Mkhi was missing for large parts and playing two light AM wasn’t going to provide the team with a player who could get through bodies, which Everton got behind the ball when they needed.
Emery set the team up and many of the players looked worse for it. Guendouzi looked too inexperienced but playing him alongside Elneny wasn’t giving him the right partnership in the middle, Xhaka and Ramsey are more like leaders and work better with the young inexperienced Guendouzi.
Both our AM was getting squashed out quickly with their high line but with Laca having to drop deep to try and help the attack start… Their high line worked in neutralising our AM, both Ozil and Mkhi, they are not the bulls to plough through players and Ozil isn’t a dribbler to begin with. Kinda needed someone who would hang on the shoulder of their last man to scare Jags into playing deeper to compensate for his pace against Auba. No surprise that Mkhi got a couple more runs in the 2nd half when Auba was on and Everton gave us a bit of space for 20 mins… Then they adjusted and we lost that space again. Auba was needed upfront and not on the left this time.
How many times is Emery going to start the wrong team and not get questioned?
Again, 2 def players ahead of 3CBs and we failed, we looked better in the second half for a period but it was an awful setup.
I praised him for doing well with putting Ramsey in the middle while playing 3 CBs and I’ll moan about this, it was pathetic and for a manager who is supposingly great at the details… He is to blame.
Trying to play out from the back with Elneny and Guendouzi was another mistake, we pumped the ball upfield to try and bypass them until Ramsey came on and then we had someone in the middle who could drive us forward, in the first half we also lacked a CF who would stay upfront to try and push their CBs back… and open up space in CM. Not moaning about Laca, he was getting nothing from our team and he had to drop deep to try and make a difference, he needed Auba to link up with and to help give him space.
Monreal had one of his worst games for a long time, I couldn’t tell from watching the game if he was a left CB or a LB, he went forward like a LB… but we had Kola on and he was going forward like a LWB. Our left hand side was handed to them on a silver platter.
Leno made one good save but really, he was average at best, I am not convinced by him yet.
Agreed emery as himself to blame for that result in my eyes ,not sure why he keeps swapping the starting line ups around we saw what laca auba and ozil can do if played together and now he’s stopped using them again .for me pick you’re best 11 every match ,minus injuries and stick with them ,these half time substitutions look stupid imo .get it right from the start then you wouldn’t need to swap players half way through the matches .
It was a sh1tty game from our point of view ,but need to move on and forget that today ,hopefully learn from our mistakes ,still feel we can get that 3rd place .no more slip ups though
I know we were missing Xhaka & Torreira… but to put his faith in Elneny?? I seriously think he underestimated Everton as they were clearly up for it & unfortunately we weren’t
Truth is Ramsey was a doubt for the match, having passed a late fitness test Emery might have decided not to risk him as we have an important game on Thursday. I really don’t know who he would have played except bringing in Niles in midfield and playing Stephen or Carl at RWB, the mistake is made I just hope not starting Ramsey today will be worth it on Thursday night.
Yes you’re right Aeontisty.. it’s over… we lost.. end of. At least Torreira will be back, Ramsey will be ok… Xhaka remains a doubt though. Definitely don’t want to see Elneny!!
I
Out injured and not available for selection: Bellerin, Holding, Welbeck, Xhaka, Koscielny, Ramsey, plus Torreira suspended limited Emery’s options. With the fixtures to come is it wise to risk Koscielny, Ramsey and Xhaka by bringing them back too early? What is the situation with Mavropanos?
Emery can’t win with many on this site; he plays Ozil he gets slated, he leaves him on the bench and gets the same reaction.
I been saying a draw against Everton, Watford and Wolves is what we need to achieve based on their sheer recent performance. Playing Watford after their FA Cup semi final win will make it a harder match then playing Wolves next after they will be naturally down.
Today though the difference was that their midfield worked tirelessly to stop our midfield from receiving balls from the defence and being able to make something happen with it.
Eleny and Gendouzi didn’t offer the same potential as Torerria and Xhaka, nor Niles or Kosalinac offered enough options of outlet for our defence. Time and again a trap was set, and we fell into it.
4231 of Everton allowed them in truth to set up as 4141 and the 4 against 4 in midfield was accommodated with Geuye making it 5 against 4.
We didn’t loss the game because of poor defending but because we didn’t win the midfield battle
Live and learn and on to the next
If you watch away matches, I recommend you watch it at a pub so that you can drown your sorrows afterwards or watch it home with a 12 pack of beer