Arsenal are on the right track let’s not forget that
Last season we finished in in sixth position on 63 points, 18 points behind Manchester United, 14 points behind Tottenham and seven points behind Chelsea, this season we are already on 66 points with four games to go and whatever way you look at that, it is progress.
It is easy to feel despondent when we lose at home to the likes of Crystal Palace and to waste opportunity after opportunity but that blinds us to all the positives.
Let’s take our away form as an example, last season we lost 11 times on the road, this season just 6 so far and even if we lose the remainder of our away games that is still an improvement, not great by any means but that is not the point I am making, the point I am making is that we are improving and we are missing that small fact.
We have already won twice more away this season than we did last year and while Liverpool has massively advanced on their performance last season they never had a new manager and that should not be forgotten either.
Unai Emery has already done better this campaign in the league than what Arsene Wenger did last season and that is the very least we expected from him and he has duly delivered.
Emery was always going to need time, there is a whole culture he has to change and unlike Klopp at Liverpool, he does not have the funds to change things overnight.
If Emery can do what he has done so far in his first season with us imagine what he will do in the second and third.
He needs time to bring in his own players, to offload the players he did not choose or want and to instil his methods and strategy into a team that had become used to a particular way of doing things.
We have some very exciting youngsters out on loan and coming through the academy and it will be Emery that decides who to bring into the senior team and not have them foisted on him.
Yes, there have been some very frustrating moments but the signs are that we are on the right track and it will probably get a little worse before it gets much better but that is the nature of having a new man in charge.
All things considered, I am pleased with the progress under Emery, could it have been better at times? Of course it could but then we were never the most reliable team when Emery took over, and in my opinion he has done a blinding job with the tools at his disposal.
Patience will be rewarded.
A very nice and truthful write up. There’s been a great improvement like you said.
I like this article as well
We must support him till the end of this season. If we can finish above the 6th position, it’s still an improvement
I believe Emery would still use Mustafi against the Wolves, because he doesn’t have better option and to boost Mustafi’s confidence after the humiliation
Who cares about last years point tally, unless we can travel back in time. We fall further and further behind with each year, and our owner only cares about self sustaining model and cash receipts.
Guendouzi is good prospect, but years away. How far will we still be behind then? The other youngsters are couple years away at best, how far will we have fallen behind then?
Kronke only cares about top 4 for CL entry and money it brings. Rd 16 exits never bothered him, we never truly strengthened and pushed on.
Kronke is multi-BILLIONAIRE who won’t spend extra millions. He has no intention of challenging for titles and glory, look back over last decade. New stadium built on a lie to fans; who benefited? Half-ass investment and replacing players; Lichtsteiner anyone? Start season lacking wingers, still do, and only loan Suarez in January?
I have no faith in banker Kronke or lies he speaks. Talent-wise we don’t measure up, plain and simple; not a starting 11 or quality on bench. We never will with our leech and parasite of an owner.
How long before Europa league is our new “top 4”? Back dooring our way into CL will be our new normal as anything else is not cost effective or efficient with our self sustaining model.
Funny how Rams aren’t self sustaining are they? 6 Billion stadium at who’s expense?
Arsenal FC is Kronke’s shiny bauble he can flaunt at cocktail parties, and his son leaves me with less hope. We are a plaything at worst, a piggy bank at best to the Kronke family.
Fans get this, how long before professional footballers do?
I think most rational Arsenal fans would agree with the views expressed particularly when you consider the poor quality of the squad inherited by Emery and the bad injuries to Bellerin and the very promising Holding in particular.It will be very interesting to see how many players are shipped out/sold at the end of the season as a clear out is most certainly needed.
And don’t underestimate the benefit of a year of PL experience for Emery. He’s been good this year but it’s been a learning curve with a couple of “own goals” like Sunday. He’ll be better next year.
Manchester United season as being so bad they fired their manager. They employed a second manager and are now looking to fire him again YET WE THE ARSENAL ARE ONLY TWO POINTS AGAINST THEM. Blame the players all you want Emery is only good enough to win the Fa cup or the Europa league. H Mark he struggled in the Spanish league.
Two points ahead of them.
The same can just about be said of Tott, will people ask for his head because of his league position. CL, before you go on about it, we are playing the trickier kick off times and neither us nor them has won anything yet. Difference is that Emery inherited someone else’s team and is in his first season, even Klopp could barely beat Arsene’s worst ever showing in 20 years when he was in his second season, and where did he finish in his first one.
I’ve talked with you many times and I know what your job is on this site, many, many times we’ve talked, but it is always too similar. Football is not like that, football is ups and downs.
jah son has an agenda to be negative and it is useless to waste time with rational argument, such as that so well presented by Admin.
It is a good article, honest, with a good sense of how things are and how things were. The two managers of the top teams in league right now did not also come in and show that capability on the first season, not too many do.
The man needs decent funds though, I don’t know what the story is with all the talk of a small kitty. I hope we actually try to get back to challenging the top teams, because if we hold off at all then it will be as it is now with us scrapping, then Che and Manu will be the only ones possibly gatecrashing Liv and City’s dominance. We are a long way off from rivaling those two teams, I hope Kroenke knows this.
Excuses excuses
Actually we have lost 8games.
And jah son is a poor excuse for an Arsenal supporter.
In my opinion, a well written article of someone’s personal views.
There is no doubt that UE has done some really good things and also made some decisions that have cost us dearly.
The well worn phrase of “inheriting a poor squad” should not be used as an excuse though, because the aformentioned players, won the fa cup twelve months previously and played in the CL and finished in the top four the year before.
Since then, seven new signings have been made and the style of play and tactics have been questioned and queried by many on here.
There is no doubt that AW left a squad of players who seemed demotivated, tired and bereft of any urgency to improve.
One of UE successes is to have changed this losing mentality across, not only the players, but the fans as well.
Another plus has been his ability to improve individual players who AW bought in, but failed so badly in his last year to help take the next step forward.
He has also had to contend with horrendous long and short term injuries, mainly in our most vunerable area, the defence.
The fact that the long term injuries were all from the “inherited poor squad” and had such a massive effect on his team, justifies my point that it wasn’t a poor squad…but rather a squad that needed a new challenge.
His handling of individual players and how he doesn’t seem to treat them in the same way, is a negative in my eyes however and I give Ozil / mustafi as an example of this.
Also team selection, tactics and half time substitutions were baffling to say the least.
Overall though and in comparision to utd after AF left, he has done a decent job in difficult circumstances.
The end of the season will tell exactly how good a job, because we definately had the situation, on many occasions, where we should have seen qualification to the CL as a given, by finishing in the top four.
Let’s remember that at this precise moment we are in exactly the same situation regarding the europa competition as we were last year, again, with the so called “poor squad”, so let’s judge him on his performance at the end of the competition.
Overall, in my opinion, I don’t think we could have found anyone within kronkie’s salary bracket, who could have done a better job overall in his first PL season, but hope to see big improvements next year, both in the CL and the premiership.
We must also be aware that “having a small kitty” is also NOT a valid excuse/reason, as this has been the case for every manager since the end of the second world war and, thus, long before the kronkie era of austerity.
“If Emery can do what he has done so far in his first season with us imagine what he will do in the second and third.”
I understand optimism but there is no guarantee that a second or third season would see a linear progression towards the top. Mourinho won the league cup and Europa in his first season, league runner up in his second, and by the third season, couldn’t win a game to save his life. Konte won the league in his first and finished 5th in his second.
Would Arsenal invest like the other competitors would by summer? Your guess is as good as mine.
Ken, as usual a well presented post; however you keep going on aboutYour perception of Emery’s supposed poor treatment of Ozil. How many games where Ozil was omitted was he unavailable to play due to illness or injury? At that time Ozil was not reliably available for selection, so Emery could not depend on him.
TH14-TW14, if Kroenke and the board don’t support Emery in the transfer market it is hard to see him wasting time here at Arsenal after completion of his current contract. If the right offer comes he may leave earlier and there will be suitors.
ozziegunner, thanks for the positive comment and, like you, I sincerely hope that kronkie realises how lucky he is to have signed a manager of UE’s calibre.
As we watch utd still struggling to fill the void left by AF’s departure ( and it doesn’t look as if they have solved it even now!!), it seems remarkable that he has taken up the baton so well and with, hopefully, CL qualification, top four and a europa cup win.
As for Ozil, we most certainly differ on this subject.
He very publically stated that Ozil needed to improve his game, train better, remain injury free and play for the team. WHY?
Now if we take each of these as headings:
Improve his game: Have you seen him talk to the media about any other player needing to do this? He refused to blame mustafi for yet another gaff on Sunday, discuss Aba’s many misses, when scoring was easier than the misses he has incurred, or Iwobi for incessantly running into blind alleys? No, in fact, he has gone out of his way to defend other players.
Train Better: Again, was he the only player not doing this? If he was, why not keep it within house and work at it, rather than talking to the media?
I am also puzzled why he made him captain one game, then left him out of the squad for the next.
Your surely not fit one game and then unfit days later?
Remain injury free: Yet again openly discusssed with the media, but I have not seen this happen to any other player. Not one of our players have been 100% injury free this season and our own players confirmed that Ozil had been injured, carrying a long term injury.
Play for the team: UE has bred a great team togetherness and Ozil has been seen by the other players as a integral part of this, so what was UE’s reason for doing this? My view is further down, what’s yours?
So my question to you is this, would you man-man,age a person by singling him out in this manner?
Ozil has had a personal nightmare going back to the treatment he received during and after the world cup by the German F.A.
When he needed someone to help guide him through the abuse, racial hatred and being shunned by his fellow international players, up popped UE to dig the knife in further.
It just shows what a strong person Ozil is though, as he quitely and single mindedly, played himself into the first team and proved himself to one and all.
He didn’t once complain or do anything in a negative manner to this poor treatment, but some of our fanbase have never got off his back since.
Does it have anything to do with his reported salary? I don’t think so, as it was kronkie himself who, along with gazidis, sanctioned the contract.
I believe that UE wanted to show the fanbase and everyone else that he was a tough man when it cam to big name players and Ozil was his scapegoat to prove this point (PSG?).
The funny thing is, UE is now saying how good a player Ozil is and is happy about what he brings to the club…so one might say “alls well that ends well”, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth, as this has never been the way The Arsenal treats it”s players.