What is going wrong currently at Arsenal? By Muha Ankoanko
Yeah, I know, it feels ages ago when we were singing “we have got our Arsenal back” after our 22 games unbeaten run, and we thought we were nailed on for fourth spot or even higher – but flash forward a couple of months later and we are actually almost giving up 5th to Man Utd without a fight. So, what went wrong? This team can’t just go bad suddenly, could it?
Well I think our main problem currently is confidence, our defence is breaking every club record on goals conceded so far. People will always talk about our defenders not being world class and all that, but it speaks volumes that even Newcastle and Crystal Palace, teams in the relegation battle, can concede less goals than Arsenal.
It’s not all doom and gloom because I know we have had our share of injuries and goals conceded against Liverpool didn’t help the count, but still, this is Arsenal.
I am sorry to say this, but also Unai isn’t helping the team with confidence either, when Arsenal plays West Ham and you put 5 defenders and two defensive midfielders on the pitch you are definitely asking for trouble. It doesn’t fill our players with confidence, on the contrary, he is giving confidence to the opposition instead. I feel today we were caught defending too much, trying to avoid conceding, and we ended up losing our attacking powers. Isn’t Emery the one who said he preferred winning 5-4 than winning 1-0 or am missing something?
Another thing that sometimes leaves me confused with Emery is that he will field two deadly strikers and deny them service by deliberately leaving creative players on bench or at home “for tactical reasons”. Then when he introduces creative players, he removes one of the strikers, apart from today. What is it with managers at Arsenal with a full squad?
Guendouzi is a great player, I can’t deny that, but can someone explain to me why we would leave arguably one of our players of the season, Torreira, on bench in a game we are trying to win away from home?
Another big problem is the way he is openly frustrating Mesut Ozil. I am not saying we would’ve definitely won with Ozil today, but anyone that watched the match today, apart from the last few minutes, our defence was up to task with all that West Ham were throwing at them, our main problem was creativity. Our strikers were denied service. Like it or not, Ozil would’ve changed the game. I hope he also stops frustrating Lacazette with his ridiculous subs, because Lacazette is a better all-round striker than Auba, and arguably one of our better players, how long until he starts asking for transfer? I can only hope that Emery learns from his mistakes but it’s becoming alarming.
Now last but not least, what the hell is going on with the Board? Where does all our money go? I mean we were all laughing when we first heard last summer we only had 50M or so for the rebuilding process. And it actually ended up to be true. Now in January and we can’t afford to buy anyone? Is this the ambition we were promised? I know sometimes they don’t feel what we feel.
Last month a friend of mine, a Man Utd fan, swore that they are going to catch us once they fired Mourinho, and I actually put on a bet that they wouldn’t recover the 9 points. Now I am about to eat my words tomorrow. To the board they have no worries, their money is safe.
Anyway that’s all from me today, it’s been a while but now I hope I will keep on dropping articles. Happy new year to you all.
Ankoanko