Arsenal’s injury list was long enough before yesterday’s defeat at Southampton, and it just goes to show how bad it is when you see a back three of Lichtsteiner, Xhaka and Koscielny. Luckily Sokratis was only missing because of his one game suspension and can return on Wednesday. Mustafi was also banned but sustained a hamstring injury against Huddersfield. Of course Rob Holding is out for the season, and we are waiting for Dino Mavropanos to return to training.
But of course it can always get worse, and we only found out that Kolasinac was injured when his name wasn’t on the team sheet yesterday, and then at half-time Hector Bellerin couldn’t continue and according to Emery he looks like he will be out for a few weeks. He told Arsenal.com: “We are going to wait tomorrow and Tuesday, and Wednesday we are going play, and then Saturday also. We need every player. Bellerin has a small injury – he is going to be some weeks off I think. Sokratis is coming back and we will see how Mustafi and Kolasinac are, and it is good news Koscielny can be with us for the next matches. It is not a good result but it was important for us [to have them back].”
Yes we have Koscielny back, but having played just the once after six months out he can’t be expected to be up to full speed for a while yet, so there is still no end in sight for our defensive injury crisis.
Is it any wonder we conceded three goals yesterday?
Admin
Well now Niles get to play the RB and show he can challenge Bellerin for the spot. And please no more back 3 please.
This is gon be a damn hectic 2 weeks
“It is good news Koscielny can be with us for the next matches.” – I seriously doubt that is good news.
If you don’t think it’s good news having one of our most experienced centre backs come back from injury just as we are seeing our other defensive players drop like flies then you’re a genuine idiot.
Good news for the player, but bad news to the unbeaten run.
That’s a bummer about Hector… at.least Mustafi & Sokratis are back now.. phew!
Where I work, I’ve just had to listen to one of the patient’s laughing at me about us losing, then he reminded me it was against Southampton… he’s a Liverpool fan… ???
Actually Mustafi will have to be assessed
Emery should stop selecting players based on sentiments .Lichsteiner should not be playing our matches. He is too old and static. Guendozi is too lazy, and slow and weak, he should be demoted to the under 23.Leno is just an average keeper, nothing spectacular about him. Just look at that third goal he conceded yesterday. Even Peter Cech would save that calmly. Elneny would have done a better job at the back than those clowns. If Arsenal continue to play like we did against Huddesfield, and then yesterday, then we should just kiss a top four finish goodbye.
“Guendozi is too lazy, and slow and weak” You are just jealous of his hair.
Guendouzi lazy!! Is he having a laugh? Guendouzi covers more ground, does more for the team and has the ball more than any other player. Chairman Gallant you’re the clown, or is it, a troll.
He is both a clown and a troll. The stupidest comments by him I have seen on here for ages.
What complete nonsense! You are SO wrong about Cech being better than Leno, about Guendouzi when he is a fast rising star at ONLY 19, as you clearly have overlooked his extreme youth. And your Elneny comment is tripe! A realist, which you will never be my immature friend, would have known way back in August that the top four was always going to be a very long shot. That we are still in the race is entirely down to our wonderful manager, handicapped every day by Scrooge Kreonke.
What makes emry wonderful? U must be the father of hypocrites in this group,its a shame that @ ur age u r still bn economical with the truth, Wenger finishing fifth was like a relegation to us, Wenger finishing 2nd and 3rd was failure to u guys, Wenger finishing 4th was something to make joke every day here, how come emry keeping us @ 5th has made him wonderful? Is this how terrible some pple can be? The only reason we r even @ fifth is because man u has bn awful and woeful this season, if man u has started the season like they did last season we will surely be @ 6th, we v struggled against wolves,crystal palace, Bournemouth, huddlesfield and Southampton, is it y he’s a WONDERFUL? The net spend of Wenger for 22 years was slightly above 200m pounds yet he achieved massive success emry already has a net spend of over 60m pounds just in a single season yet u call him wonderful and abuse Wenger every day, that is how terrible u r mehnnn!!!!!
It is not necessary to see a fool – one just has to listen.
I also believe Elneny would do better at the back than Xhaka.
Its up to the American to show the supporters what actually we are about to expect for the upcoming years now.
I am seriously feeling sick when i think of us being owned but that guy. Arsene was a mayor problem but the greater evil is still the American country boy. The team Emery took over is overrated, slim and full of problems.
It took Klopp up to 3 years to build his team. He did so with the support of the club and fans and due of luck. Mayor problems in getting in the cl and only took the 4th place over Arsenal
just bec Wenger was busy playing his ego games with Sanchez and fans.
Sanchez the one with the winning mentality who was creating anxiety among s his team mates for demanding more. A player Emery surely would love to work with.
We should support the manager bec we have a great one in him, but as long as the Yank does not splash the cash like i said before it will be of no meaning at all.
All the players we need loan out need to be re called asap also. Nelson is a better player than Iwobi a player who is never going to make it due of his lack of football brain or brain in generally.
Come on Bayern, Dortmund & PSG ?
Looking at the overall picture and taking fully into account the poor level of Wengers existing level SEMI CLOWN outfield defenders, except poor Rob Holding, left for Emery to try teaching defending too – something that had clearly been given no serious thought or ATTENTION at all, prior to Emery, I find the fact that we have averaged exactly two points out of three thus far, little short of miraculous. I also applaud the welcome realism in both above posts by ks-gunner, who tells it straight and honestly. WE MUST NEVER FORGET THAT, UNLIKE ALL OUR MAIN RIVALS, WE LABOUR UNDER A TREMENDOUS HANDICAP IN OUR DREADFUL, PERSONALLY MONEY MAD OWNER. He is our mortal enemy whom we need to remove before we can ever again seriously challenge for the title. The only way is to leave the ground empty for as long as it takes for him to sell up. After last seasons empty seats we can see very well how effective fan power can be, IF cordinated. Emery is clearly a special and wonderful choice as our manager but he is working with both hands ties behind his back , while KROENKE HOLDS THE PURSE STRINGS.
you really hit the exact point .
Europa League draw taking place now.
How fickle arsenal supporter’s are we’ve lost 1 game in 20 and all of a sudden people start to question emerys selection a week ago he was the messiah ,yesterday we played with a make shift back line and now it’s he don’t know i don’t like 3 at the back and so on.you fail to remember we beat spurs playing this formation. You lot are a joke
“He is not the messiah; he is just a naughty boy.”
I haven’t seen anybody on this site call Unai Emery “the messiah”; however he has been rightly praised for the overall performances this season, given we were told to be “carefull for what we wished for.”
If you want what is best for Arsenal, there is nothing wrong as a supporter, to provide objective criticism on Emery’s game selections. In my case I found it difficult to understand why Arsenal selections were so defensive in the games against Huddersfield (H) and Southampton (A). In particular in the Southampton game, the selection of Xhaka as CB instead of a specialist CB from the U23’s, thus breaking up the effective Xhaka/Torreira partnership in midfield; the non selection of Lacazette from the start and one of either Ozil or Ramsay in midfield.
The lack of creativity in the selected 11 resulted in Arsenal with 66% of possession only managing to score 2 goals and still shipped 3 goals to Southampton with 34% possession.
Emery is a good manager let’s give him time, but he should go to the market and buy defenders.
Look give emery time, he is a good manager he needs his own players in then we will challenge again, top 4 and win a cup will be a good start….
……………………….leno……………………….
Amn……… Sok………… Koss…… Moner
……………………torr……………………………..
…………ramsey….. Xakai………. …….
……………………ozil…………………………
…………….auba……….. Lacaz
Team for next few weeks…..
@Jim wall
That’s the problem Emery is not giving a set eleven time to gel you cant guess his line up
We can see what Chelsea is doing
Klopp is obvious
Pep you can bet
But with arsenal you just never know
I think our young people are happy but not the senior ones
Ramsey not happy
Ozil not happy
Lacazette not happy
Auba not happy
We have a problem but our wins cover over them
We begged Wenger to play the Star players together and he kept lacazette on the bench
Now Emery’s doing the same to us
i think there is also a problem of squad depth to consider. yes, it is quite obvious that laca through the middle and auba on the left is our most effective attack but earlier welbeck was there who emery could bring on if things were not working out. but since welbeck broke there is no tactical option for him to shake up the attack.
so i guess that’s the way emery is thinking. to start with either one of auba or laca and change at half time if things dont work well.
you can notice this as well in fulham game when auba came on fresh against tired defence.
during emery’s time in spain he was known for this. bringing in fresh fast players against tired defences in 60th or 70th minute
thatbeing said, i still feel that laca is a more complete player up front and he should start every game. don’t know though how much auba will like playing from the bench