Changes have to happen if Arsenal loses to Leicester City this evening.
No Arsenal fan will ever want their team to lose, it is depressing, gut-wrenching and it hurts. But sometimes, a loss can herald a new dawn.
International breaks, which follows this weekend fixtures, tend to see a manager or two sacked. The last break saw Watford offload Javi Gracia and for some, this next set of international matches hands the opportunity to the Arsenal board to dispense with the services of Unai Emery.
That will probably only happen if the Foxes slam Arsenal today.
In the event that the Spaniard is dumped then it is probable that Freddie Ljungberg will be given the job on a temporary basis. Unless he is a roaring success the club will then likely employ a high profile manager in the summer.
It feels like a torturous process but it is probably a necessary period that Arsenal has to go through in order to right the sinking ship.
Again, no Gooner want their team to lose, I do not, I want us to thrash Leicester City today. But if Brendan Rodgers men put Arsenal to the sword today there will at least be a silver lining. If the board have the balls to make the hard decision that is.
The board will not want the crowd turning on them again that is for sure. The only way to avoid that will be if they offload the former Sevilla manager.
So, in conclusion, Arsenal lose today and the resurrection can begin, they win and maybe, just maybe it is a turning point.
Or the cracks are just being papered over.
Actually, the more I think about it, football depression is hovering.
Can’t disagree with this … Would love to see a front three of lacazette Pepe and martinelli today … Aubemayang pokes in the goals but seems to have come at expense of other scorers … With ozil as playmaker the pace and movement of these three would provide better options … Seems torreira and guinduzi are assured and for me chambers holding Luiz and tierney is most solid combo at back … It ain’t going to be easy though
Did Watford resurrection start after the sack of their coach?
Or better still what have we achieved since Wenger left.
How could you expect our club to loose simply because you want our coach sacked. Ha!
I never said that, in fact I said the absolute opposite. Please read what I wrote correctly.
Yeah,sorry, I responded to the topic as I was busy. I just read the body. You actually sat well on the fence.
It’s really unfortunate because when Emery was hired most arsenal fans were jumping with joy. There was optimism in the air. Now is all doom. Emery was such a letdown.
Irrespective of Emery going or not,I don’t want Arsenal to lose. 2-1 to the Gunners! Also, I prefer Chambers to Belarin at RB.
Remember the 8-2 spanking, what followed? Remember the 10-2 (home/away), what followed? Nothing.
Win,draw or loose, what follows? Nothing. Unai was not signed by Raul, I do not see any reason why should he not boot him out. If Xhaka can make himself unavailable (being fit) why cannot Unai make himself unable today? At least we can have a chance of winning. Unai sets his teams for a draw hoping for a fluke win, unfortunately it turns out sometimes to be a guaranteed loss. Again, it is not Unai’s fault, he is a mid to relegation team coach, he surely and safely is leading us there.Some may comment on his winning stint at PSG, remember he found a way to throw away a 4-0 lead and eventually loose the game.Brilliant! The same tactics he is implementing at AFC. The players he tried to sign – injured Suarez (everyone mocks Arsene signing Kim Karlstrom, this was a bigger joke), Banega, Nzonzi. Unai please make yourself unable, you can enjoy the game with Xhaka somewhere in the stands if you choose.
The grass isn’t always greener on the other side. I want us to win today and move on with this coach, thats it. Anything else will just be awful. I dont want to lose today and if and it is a big if, Emery is sacked, look at utd, nothing is guaranteed. So while people are wishing for another manager, which if that happens to be the case and we get another in, it means nothing except we have a different manager. The best scenario is not getting in another manager. The best scenario is we win tonight and hopefully push on. Anything else means up evil. Just also remember Poch was the hottest property in football, today they aren’t pulling up too many trees. Be careful what you wish for.
👍
Spot on Reggie. Tierney recently mentioned after the EUL game that players are equally responsible and should own up to results as much as Unai. The players must focus on winning for the Club and forget about everything else. The Shirt which they play for is the most important thing on the pitch. Remember we are the Arsenal, irrespective of who is the coach. And anyway Arsenal Board do not do things in a hurry.
Even though losing will set us back nearly 10 points behind top 4, our strong Europa League position will most likely convince the board to spare Emery. As it is it seems top 4 will not be possible this season and our best chance at getting back into the champions league will be through the back door.
Strong EL position against those world beaters Vitoria, Standard Liege and Eintracht Frankfurt 😂
Just accept it, it’s still something @Sue! The way things look the Europa league might be our salvation.😥
I know, QD.. was just kidding with you! Yes the way things are going, EL is it… ☹
This is a really good point QD as it is hard to argue with Emery’s record in EL. As woeful as he is in the PL, if top four is now deemed out of reach then the sensible move may be to see if he can win the EL and then sack him. Harsh but necessary in my view.
Top four is not yet out of reach. Also it is a positive thing that players like Tierney are putting their hands up to take responsibility for the team’s performances.
True no one wants their team to lose but we surely need Emery out of this team.. You can’t have a team a whole season yet you move into another season without knowing your first 11, your best formation.. Rotating players each each now and then. Try out different formations with the same First 11 not trying different formation, with different players playing out of their positions. You will never come out with a solution. The earlier we get a new and a better manager the better we get.
The best coach on the planet will not create quality out of the likes of Socratis, Mustafi,Xhaka etc.Until we replace our aging underperformers we are not going to improve.That is it in a nutshell.Poor recruitment is equally as culpable as poor coaching.
👍
Today all I hope is that we Win
Whatever happens after the match happens after the match
I don’t see us winning especially with our defence and Vardy. Leicester lost to Liverpool by just 1 goal.
Beat Spurs 2-1
Beat Southampton 9-0
But I guess anything is possible
Emery’s 50th PL game in charge. Will he give us a surprise by playing attacking football and winning against all odds?
You don’t need to back off from your brave article and position on wishing to see Arsenal lose in order to sack a coach instead of board & Kroenke who have hired him!
Emery does the best he can with passion and under a big pressure beside results, he looks like a boxer KO, still numb after games, dizzy almost, losing it like. EPL and Arsenal are way too much for him to handle, he looks depressed, mentally affected, lost.
When you see your fighter, KO on the floor games after games as Emery look, you must throw the sponge, not leave him there for public to boo him!
Kroenke used fans to kick out Wenger, stadium was paid fot with CL,means more sponsors & TV rights, more fan base worldwide he develloped over 2 decades!
July 2013, with stadium paid for, promises for years to increase transfer budget & wages, they refused to pay for Suarez for next season, same for Kante year later! That was perfect timing and both wanted to join the Prof’!
Chelsea gt reinforced, Reds kept him to pass us, sold him and stayed on top! That is exactly when Kroenke ruined that great new era of titles & trophies for Wenger and Arsenal fans all over the world.
Instead; a gap started to build up, Chelsea has Kante we precisely need and cloning our concept with youth and experimented players.
Reality, Arsenal is all Wenger foundations’s today, new generation of young players he develloped for years are now coming out of our system as great players to bring into first team as he done so well with previous generation, takes 10 years for a new one, we about right, in 2011/2012, we were in CL finals with a team fully made of players from Academy and youth sytem. How can you deny 5M to complete bets of Kante & Suarez in 2013, 2014? Stadium paid for! Meanwhile greedy owner named Kroenke made over 2 billions!
So, please, get facts real and think twice; do not boo players nor our lost Emery who tries his best with passion we value and love but not responsible for this debacle, just utilized.
Instead, raise signs of Wenger Back! He was the only one who stood and fought for us against this man! We have power to then not buy tickets & shirts unless money is provided to have a team to compete today.
Leicester will beat Arsenal because we are a total lost Soul and they try to be what we used to be! They have right manager, putting more money than us in windows for years as likes of Palace!
Let’s not be fulled by Pepe transfer, a payement plan, 20M upfront, same as Saliba 10M or Tierny 15! With sales, our budget was indeed od 40M as 10 past years, with or without stadium paid for! All the money is for Kroenke!
See how much two players cost Kroenke now? Saliba is blowing up just in 5 first appearances, he will be there next Euro with France as he could be with us today!
Look at Pepe, not worth a penny, shooting corners and not defending, making team weak and unbalanced!
All that Ozil issue is from Kroenke’s pressure to have him benched humiliated and leave club. Xhaka is victim of that mess, Ozil was supposed to be captain, then Laca, not Xhaka nor Auba!
Great article Martin and I am convinced Emerys sacking is imminent, hopefully this coming week. IF that happens -and I think it will- there is no reason at all to be depressed , as you finish your article by saying, as there are so many things in place and a regime who are NOW pro-active (unlike the appalling Gazidis)/ We only await his inevitable sacking, to press the take off button on the Arsenal jet. IF, I am wrong though and he is not sacked, then YES, DEEP DEPRESSION WILL CLOUD OVER MOST OF US. We have a talented if not yet complete squad and only need a PROPER puppet master to pull the strings , without getting himself and the team strangled by those very same strings.
I understand that it sounds good to say no fan wants his team to lose but if (and we will not know this for certain) losing today means a new manager, then I want us to lose. What is the point in keeping Emery if we draw? For a fluke win to extend his tenure would damage the club and I think no fan wants his club to be damaged more than inevitable.
Logic dictates IMO that the moment you are convinced this manager will not lead you to where you belong, getting rid of the manager becomes the most important thing for the club. If you still have doubts and think the manager can be the man to lead you higher up you of course look for proof of that.
Do fans really know what they want?
When UE came on board, the boast was that he knew every single one of our players, had a folder with all the facts that got him the position, loved to win 5-4 rather than 1-0 and would select his teams bearing in mind our opponents on a match day.
The fanbase who wanted changes were ecstatic, as this was the way forward, un, ike the old regime who just “trusted the players to do their thing”.
This obviously hadn’t worked, because for the last two years, we hadn’t qualified for the CL.
So please tell me, what has UE not done that he promised?
He has got rid of the players that some called “deadwood” and kept those who, one can only assume his files indicated, he felt were good enough.
He obviously tried to improve our defence (six defensive signings) in order to attack teams, but lost his bottle when these dross signings proved completely inadequate.
Changes his team, formation, tactics, every single game in order to combat our opponents on a match day.
That was what the likes of jon fox wanted and he and all the likeminded amongst of you got what you asked for…Your Arsenal Back!!!
Now it seems, despite the trumpeting of a new era, the power of the fans in obtaining this change, the new era of our club has become a nightmare…so, who do these fans turn to for the blame game?
Certainly not yourselves, after just eighteen months you are all stabbing him in the back, telling anyone who is interested exactly what he is doing wrong and wanting our team to lose if it removes him from office sooner.
No, the one to blame is the easy target who gave you what you cannot get back at this moment in time – Arsene Wenger.
I was asked who signed Xhaka recently, by one of our realists, who backed UE to the hilt and boasted he was the answer to all our ills…you see, that is the kind of infantile thinking that takes no responsibility for their own misguided mistakes, but switches it all to others.
Their prodigy made tbe guy captain, played him in every game and yet, AW was at fault.
Some of us who were more realistic than the realist, warned early on I the unbeaten run, that UE was tactically weak, but out came the knives once again…you got what you wanted, at least have the cojones to give him some support, before you throw him under the bus as well-I hope we win today and he is gone tomorrow, but I don’t keep changing my mind.
Well said Ken. Thanks.
Viju, all this hand wringing and being SO WISE NOW, makes it so difficult to be çalm and realistic.
The Emery knows best brigade got EXACTLY what thet wanted when he signed, the world was their oyster, they had got their Arsenal back…fast forward eighteen months and now their telling everyone he needs to get the sack yesterday!!!
The really incredible thing is, though, instead of blaming UE for this complete mess, they still try to justify that it is, somehow, AW’s fault…they can’t even see how utterly pathetic that is.
Durand sums it up concisely in his comments below – one day these so called “realists” will be realistic enough to observe the here and know and how spending nigh on a quarter of a million pounds SHOULD have been enough to see UE do exactly what Durand details out he hasn’t.
nigh on more than £250,000,000 .
Emery failed to do the things he promised.
1. No pressing
2. Has not fixed the defense
3. Doesn’t play attacking football
4. We are reactionary not aggressors
5. Where’s the 5-4 scores he prefers?
He was selling styles he had no intention of using. 18 months is more than enough time to utilize any of those he mentioned.
He’s done himself in, and himself to blame.
The simple logic is sack Emery and lose 2 or 3 million odd quids or continue with Emery and not qualify for the champions league losing more than 100mil.
Me thinks our friends in America don’t need to have the brain of einstein or Friedrich Gauss to do to the math on losses and and gains in either situation.
That said sacking the bloke doesn’t guarantee anything but that’s what calculated risks stand for and now more than ever football is a business that runs on calculated risks, chelsea took the risks back then and they paid of. And I envy them for it, they have fantastic youngsters and might I add they ain’t nothing compared to our Saka’s and co. But they have proper mentorship and coaching something that’s of a missing ingredient at AFC.