Do the fans trust that Arsenal will still progress after BATE defeat?

There is no denying the fact that Arsenal played embarrassingly badly last night, and our recent form and Emery’s team selections have left most of us scratching our heads, but surely just a 1-0 away defeat in any European competition is such a big hurdle to overcome?

Despite Emery leaving Ramsey and Ozil out yet again we put out a very strong side but despite a massive 77% possession we failed to produce even one goal from our only 3 shots on target, despite 16 attempts.

We are definitely much stronger and more confident at the Emirates and the fact is that we only need to win 1-0 to take the game to extra time, or win by two clear goals to make sure we are into the next round. Unai Emery seems quite confident we will still go through… “I trust in our players and I trust in our stadium and supporters,” he said on Arsenal.com. “There are two matches. Tonight’s match is important but we can’t [be knocked out in it], we are going to play a second match next week.

“I trust in our work to prepare for the next match and to have a different result at Emirates Stadium.

“I respect [BATE] and I know about them because we watched matches they played. An organised team, defensively a good team and good at transitions. We worked to stop them in these actions but they scored one goal and in the transitions we worked well to stop another situation defensively for us.

“Then in the attacking moment we had the chances, more than them, but the goalkeeper and the last action for us was not efficient. But we did our all to win the match.

“It’s the first 90 minutes. I know it’s more difficult here as we [didn’t] take a better result, but the next match at the Emirates we are going to continue our work today and I want to work to take better attacking moments with more efficiency and to win the match.”

I must say I honestly do believe that we will come back and get through at home, but if we don’t start playing with more confidence away from home we are not going to get much further.

What do you think?

Sam P

85 Comments

    1. I share your pessimism.
      We can’t seem to keep a clean sheet…and with the way I see us misfiring in front of goal, it’s hard to see us scoring more than 2.
      As much as I hate to say it. I see the 2nd leg ending 2:1
      Arsenal, please please please prove me wrong.
      COYG.

  1. I think we will, somehow we will progress beyond Bate, but we are not going to progress far. Even in the premier league. We are looking like a team in the Everton rank, a team ranked 5/6. But like gotanidea will, If, if, if, if, if and more IF. We can continue to ride on the strength of IF.

    1. Nobody knows whether we would go far or not

      However I believe Iwobi and co would not want to disappoint the fans at the Emirates, thus hopefully they could win all remaining home games

  2. I also believe they would progress to the next round. The main players tend to be demotivated when playing against a weaker opponent, but they will have to win the fans over at the Emirates

    Had Lacazette and Mkhitaryan taken their chances well last night, the outcome could be different

    I predict Emery would use 4-2-3-1 with Ozil at Emirates, because of the pressure from Ozil’s fans/ media and that supposedly easy home game is perfect for Ozil

    1. Certainly it won’t be easy game…. The way Bate where getting behind the ball, same they will do it in 2nd leg…
      9 players were defending and shutting the doors… Next week they will put all 11 behind the ball…
      And Emery had no answers for their defensive resilience….

    1. Spot-on Sue….
      Terrible performance… No urgency… No creativity…
      It’s just beyond my thinking that why Emery Put such defensive line up??
      It is clearly evident that our defensive line up causing us problem
      Okay if perception is that we may concede by playing 4 at back but we anyway conceding in 3 at back formation and due to that 3 at back formation we doesn’t have much creativity going forward…
      Totally insane… Whatever the performance of Arsene Wenger was giving in last few years , but certainly he wouldn’t have lost this game….

        1. Certainly no one will after watching such terrible performance from team
          No threat… So predictable… Kolasinac and AMN will take the run on the wings and Xhaka will play long ball to them and then Kolasinac will place a cross to Centre Forward… How predictable…. Nothing new we do apart from this…

        2. Kebar and sue, i don’t think he’s playing three at the back to be more defensive, i think it’s because of the injuries to bellerin, holding and the inability of kolasinac and nile to play fullback. I myself i’m tired of the three at the back and i would prefer he plays jenkinson and monreal as the fullbacks since we have no other options. I’m tired of him playing more than one holding midfielders against these smallers sides, he needs to play ozil in these games. I hope to see this line up in the second leg;

          —————Aubameyang
          ——-Iwobi—Ozil—Ramsey—Mkhi
          ——————Torreira
          Monreal.koscelny.mavropanos.jenkinson
          ———————Cech

          We will destroy them with a 4-1-4-1/4-3-3 attack, and a 4-5-1 shape defensively.

          1. But it’s a common sense that if you are ineffective in defence despite playing 3 at back and impotent in going forward then why to go for such formation… Just go for it with the attitude that if you score 2 then we would score 4….
            At least this would make matches interesting…

            1. Yeah, thats true especially when he said he prefers to win a game 4-3 than 1-0. I don’t know why he’s being so stubborn. I’m willing to be patient till next season when he has bought some wingers in the summer before i become even more critical of his tactics.

              1. But we cannot even guaranteed that we would bought new players… Considering the rumours regarding transfer budget and heavy wage bill already on board….

          2. Your line up is wrong. If Emery is the manager, no Ozil. If Ozil plays, Emery is no longer the manager. Correct lineup is:
            —————Aubameyang
            ——-Iwobi—*Emery—Ramsey—Mkhi
            ——————Torreira
            Monreal.koscelny.mavropanos.jenkinson
            ———————Cech

    2. Sue same here. Sadly though. Emery is not doing a great job. Even though a lot of his fans might say otherwise. I have never dreamt we will be like this. Sue we could be playing well and loosing, there is that possibility and that will definitely give us hope. But the truth is we are playing badly, his tactics are all wrong, his player selection is questionable. If you truly love a football club, you will never wish they waist 350,000 every week, you will find a way to at least use him and then encourage the board to sell him when the time comes. And considering we obviously need his vision and creativity. We are worse without Ozil, we are not attractive to watch. Graeme Souness is a critic of Arsenal, but always say he will pay to watch us play any day any time. He said he dearly want us to win trophies because our style of football deserves it. I don’t think he will say the same thing now. We are terrible to watch. And only Gotanidea think the only one to blame are the players. What a joke!!!

      1. Pat… I just wonder how many goals we’ll concede now!! That is all we have…..
        That line up last night should have been enough, but it wasn’t & I am really embarrassed. That is yet another low we’ve sunk to!! When will it end??!

        Anyway enough of all this doom & gloom… how are you & the babies? ??

        1. I think last season losing to Ostersunds at home was lower.
          But I get your point. For me though I don’t really feel that embarrassed about it.
          Yes we lost but we’re definitely going through to the next round.

          Yes our performances haven’t been great either but we’re in a position where we are challenging to get into top 4.
          Our fixture list vs the others looks alot better too.

          Emery is just trying to make do with what he’s got at the moment. I don’t think he really wants to play 3 at the back with wing backs. I think he’s been forced to play this way 1 because of injuries and 2 just because our defenders are awful. History shows that Emery normally goes with either a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1. I think we will see one or the other next season.

      2. Actually Pat, Souness does not “alway(s) say he will pay to watch us play any day any time” . He HAS said it once or twice. That is NOT the same as you wrongly claim. He judges each game on its merits and is why he is IMO the most honest pundit on TV football, bar none. To misrepresent what someone and how often has said, is not truthful, even though perhaps not what you intended.

        1. Jon Fox, please stay out of my comment if all you want to do is become contentious over what you don’t have a prove. I stand by my comment because I have all football stations in my house, I watch sky sport news always (by default actually) and I have no reason to lie because whatever Graeme Souness says does not have a lot of impact in what is happening in Arsenal as we speak. I always speak to others with respect and I demand the same from you. If Graeme Souness said this many many times last season, am glad you at least have a recollection of 2. And am sure you can remember he said our style of football under Arsene Wenger deserves a trophy. That in itself speaks volumes.

          1. pat, Your post implied that he said it constantly THIS season, under Emery. If you don’ t want people to pick you up on your posts then kindly use correct and fully understandable words. We are not mind readers. Of course many pundits, Souness included, said something similar way back when Arsenal were an artistic success , MANY YEARS AGO. But I assumed , clearly wrongly, that your post was talking about the present season. In the absence of any words of yours to the contrary that was a natural thing to assume. I make no apologies for seeking out the precise meaning in posts by all . If you wish to be properly understood the choice is in your own hands.

            1. Jon Fox please open your mind whenever you read comments. I said “ because of our style of football and that am not sure he will say that now” so this statement implies before and now. I couldn’t have to reference Arsene Wenger and Emery any better. Before and now. Hope you got it. We have had two eras recently and one of the English word to qualify two eras are before and now. Hope you understand.

        2. Jon fox get a grip you pick one thing out of a sensible post to criticise, most will not interested in your pedantic view of posts. Frankly pathetic.

      3. Just a few months ago we were crying the same thing in the previous management our dullness didn’t start this season it’s been plaguing us for years, it’s part of the reason we brought in a new manager who do you think would have improved our play that dramatically with the money we spent last summer? Who ever we were going to bring needed time and even if we get rid of emery we still need to give same time to the new person so the question is do we think emery is that bad that we should fire him and take another gamble with someone and give him time plus no money to fix us?? Let’s not forget that we were playing well at the beginning of the season and the fresh air was there for all to see, but then we wilted again as the season progressed as has been our story for years now, this season it happened earlier and this is normal because we running more as a team now with much more being demanded of these same players so I will forgive them for burning out even before our usual time (February). We are fans and if we really want to show our love to our team let’s give them time, give the manager time to get his tactics and players right, give the players time to get their new tactics and instructions right I know we also need time as fans to adjust to the fact that we are adjusting (lol) but a little patience won’t kill us cause deep down inside we all know that we aren’t doing that bad as a team. COYG

  3. We need to play Ozil he is the creative player in our side and must be played.The manager needs to wake up or risk losing the fans .Even the players around Ozil are aloud more freedom as Ozil attracts defenders and leave the space for our forwards to run in to .

    1. I think the results speak for themselves, and the results are beginning to fall on the head of Emery. His refusal to play Ozil is starting to blow up in his face. He is beginning to appear like a petulant child in his stubborn refusal to play a player people are paying to see.

      This 3 CB system is clearly not working, 6 or 7 defenders is killing the creativity, and the 77% possession without purpose or end product is very damning in my opinion. The newness is wearing off, and he is beginning to lose fan support due to the blase and boring football and lack of results.

      Arsenal should not have looked so sterile against BATE period; if things were not working, isn’t it the manager’s job to get it sorted? Lately Emery looks bereft of ideas, and not seeing a lot of improvement from the players either. It’s only my opinion, and I’m not saying sack the guy, only saying we are bumbling and stumbling along like a drunken sailor at the moment.

  4. I’m still confident we’ll beat BATE by 2 or 3 goals at the Emirates, but it probably won’t be a comfortable night.

    No Lacazette is going to be a problem, but for the good of the entire club we need to give our best player (Ozil) a chance to save our season. Without him we can’t create anything.

    Actually not having Lacazette available would mean Emery can play Ozil in the number 10 position, behind Aubameyang in a 4-2-3-1 formation.

    The trouble is, I’m beginning to think more and more that Ozil not playing is a business decision, in order to freeze him out and for him to actively look for a transfer. Otherwise Ozil will happily earn his enormous wage until the end of 2020/21 season. Kroenke won’t want such a huge wage on the books, especially if we don’t have CL football.

    1. If you are right then I think Emery wont last long too. He can be Kronke’s soldier but he’s results wont win a war, so sooner then later he will be replaced.

    2. It is without doubt a business decision. Kroenke has to pay off the Russian fella he bought out – that will involve cut backs the like of which we saw for years when we built the new stadium.

      To keep Özil out in such a way is disgusting and I hope in some ways it bites the club on the backside. Where we are heading does not look good so probably best some of you guys prepare yourselves for some barren years and manage any high expectatations- we have been here before, we know the drill.

      I would certainly stop buying the merchandise- why support the greedy money grabbing fools, they couldn’t care less about us. But then where it hurts.

  5. I just read an article on another blog where the writer called Emery the Spanish David Moyes. That description could turn out to be spot on.

    1. That’s disrespectful to Emery.

      He has won 3 Europa Leagues on the bounce with Sevilla. That shows he is a winner. He won everything in France with PSG (admittedly they have more money than God, but that doesn’t always guarantee success) so again, he’s no mug.

      Any manager needs time to build a squad in their own image. We were blessed that when Wenger joined he was light years ahead of the competition and he changed British football. Emery isn’t that guy, I don’t expect miracles from Emery, he certainly won’t stay for half as long as Wenger, but we need to get off his back and support the team and manager.

      Given time he can get us back into the CL and we may win a couple of cups along the way, but he’s competing against Money City, Money Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs. When Wenger joined he only really had to worry about Ferguson’s lot.

      We all know Kroenke is a tight git and will not spend any cash to make us title challengers. Therein lies the problem.

      1. Arsene Wenger was once great but degenerated abysmally at dusk. Unai’s has outgrown his sunshine days (most likely). Take a leaf off Man United’s family tree at dawn. Deploy firebrand Martin KEOWN. It’s PEDIGREE TIME! A universal Gooners referendum should be sampled and Chief Kronkie must be reflective.

        1. Almost a poetically phrased post. Not sure what it means though, except I THINK you may be calling for KEOWN as manager? Care to enlighten us, preferably in unambiguous English?

      2. Perhaps Emery is being disrespectful to us, have you thought about that? People saying he’s not playing Ozil because Kroenke told him not to is somewhat ridiculous but if that’s the case then a proper manager would walk way from the job. The other thing is where is our style? We don’t have one is the answer. 3 at the back, 4 at the back, 1 defensive mid, 3 defensive mids? The football is boring and predictable too. What happen to quick passes and movement? If he doesn’t turn this round soon we are in serious trouble and Emery won’t last long.

        1. If I got u right him not playing a player because his superiors told him not to is disrespectful to us? There’s a long list of other ridiculous things that have happened in this club one that still hurts me to this day is bidding a pound over the release clause for a rival player smh. We support a funny club and I pray our fans know who it is to blame before managers (even of the class of moyes) and players don’t find us attractive no more

          1. “There’s a long list of other ridiculous things that have happened in this club one that still hurts me to this day is bidding a pound over the release clause for a rival player smh.”

            So you would bid 3x the min fee for items on ebay?
            Or do you meet that min fee and get the item?

            We do have a legal system and unfortunately that legal system is flawed. I do not blame Arsenal for our poor legal system.

            1. I never bought into this myth that Liverpool were so angered by this +£1 offer that they pulled out. To me they were never going to sell to us at all , no matter what, if they could possibly get out of it. To save face they propogated this lie. That does not mean they wre not also insulted by it BUT nor does it mean they were telling the truth. Some fell for it. Some always do with lies. OTHERS DO NOT. Naive people often believe exactly what others say , which in Prem level football is usually unwise to do.

    2. Since fergie left though Moyes is the best manager they’ve had which they can build a stable team with but what happened? They didn’t support him or give him enough time. Having said that it’s still very disrespectful to compare emery to him seeing their accomplishments and what type of fan are we if we can’t stand up for our own when outsiders come for us?

  6. We put 10 goals past Bate in 2017 with Walcott, Debuchey, Geroud and Wilshere among the scorers. Now we can’t even beat the same pub team that was playing its first game for two months. Pathetic.

    1. Stop making it seem like small teams became our problem when emery joined, surely this is not the first time u seeing a limp display to a small team in which we lost? we lost our fear factor years ago and trying to gain it back, it’s never going to be an instant resurgence but we need time. Support the team and the manager

  7. Considering our (Arsenal) track record of conceding goals predictably, we CANNOT guarantee ourself a smooth passage to the next round. Maybe, Coach Unai has to field Seven back line, ONE midfielder & TWO strikers to keep a clean sheet! It might be laughable or ridiculous a soccer philosophy, it is practicable. George Graham must be griping and growing Old Age Wisdom Teeth as we speak! Let’s be a bit superstitious: drop Sweet man Petr Cherck and hope The God’s of Holloway be appeased!

  8. While I’m not going to start knocking Emery (yet) I’m wondering if he would have got the same performance from PSG against Man u the other night as Tuchel did? Did the big name players play for Emery or do they look happier now? Just a thought.

  9. Wait till 2022 when we still haven’t won the league then fans will be furious, after all, we’ve never gone more than 18 years without one. Since winning the first one in 1931 ofc

    1. Only anorak fans will even be aware of that stat. I AM a fully fledged anorak and mean that word as a positive thing , NOT an insult. Right now I think it extremely unlikely that we will maintain that stat by winning the Prem by 2022. With Kroenke as owner, I DO NOT ENVISAGE US AGAIN WINING THE PREM IN MY LIFETIME. I AM 68 though fit and healthy. In any case it seems to me that many of the fans are already furious. Unfairly too, regarding Emery.

  10. Why hasn’t anyone mentioned AMN? To me at his age he is way below par, if you ask me between him and willock who is the better footballer I would probably say willock. He has regressed tremendously and before anyone say he is been played out of position give yourself a break, if I remember correctly Ashley young,bellerin,Milner,to say the least was never a rb but they adapted well. Why isn’t he improving. How on earth did we got kolasinac he has to go down as the most pathetic defender in the history of defenders.
    Second leg is gonna be different because sokratis will play that game and am hoping either mustafi or monreal won’t play. I don’t know what Jenkinson needs to do to play he is miles better than the old Swiss and AMN put together but yet he isn’t getting a look at. Denis Suarez is comical at best, thank God it’s only a loan signing otherwise we will be stuck with this poor man’s Ramsey. I’m no fan of iwobi but truth be told he is the only one trying to create something and he frustrate us most times when it doesn’t come off but I can’t fault his effort because he is trying. But shame on miki and xhaka, why did Wenger sign this guy? Honestly am still baffled with his signing, he is good at nothing,offers dog shit all match yet he still plays. Guendouzi sometimes blows hot and cold but being his first season,in a different league and a step further to the intensity he is used to and his age, it is the right thing to give this lad the best player come the end of the season. He never hides in any game even when he is not playing well. Reminds me of Ramsey early days. We need to get rid of this dead wood come the end of the season. What elneny is still doing here is what I don’t get. And as for mustafi, I hear emery doesn’t rate him as evident as when koscielny got back he was immediately paired with sokratis.. so I assume he won’t be here for long. Watching Gabriel paulista made me Wenger choose his favourite over performers. How he sold Gabriel and kept Mustafi is beyond me. Well as for emery he is achieving at the level we are at. As for lacazzete that has to go down as the flip of the match..God forbid anything happens to aubameyang boom we are left with only nketiah..He couldn’t be more stupid. All this garbage need to fuck off my dear team

    1. AMN isn’t a RB or RWB.
      Bellerin was moved to that role at a younger age and was trained in that role.
      AMN is being trained in multiple roles, he isn’t being given a fixed role and that poor developmennt can hinder a players progression.

  11. Surely the worst perf under Emery. I totally support him and what he is trying, despite the Kroenke handicap ,to achieve. But I cannot deny last night was the sort of “performance” that will further lose him support from the fainthearts and the Ozil fan club on here. I am glad to say that neither of those “CLUBS” include me, thankfully.

      1. No idea what these emojis are supposed to mean. Care to use words instead, so that we who are not clildren can also understand your meaning?

          1. Still no actual explanation though I notice! Point scoring is not the same as being properly understood. I use words, not emojis, though I realise that makes me a dinosaur to certain “children”.

            1. You’re a dinosaur to grandparents so it is a given you are to children as well.

              An educated person would be able to learn emojis and be able to communicate with lesser educated people.

              Look at how teachers interact with students who do not have the same level of education.

              Can’t you learn emoji? Can’t you communicate with uneducated people? Ohh… Doesn’t that say something about you?

        1. sleepy face, zzz along them..
          Boring, I can’t stay awake with the dross I just read. Not that literally but the emotion.

          Thought you was educated Jon?

      1. No, Sue I am not. But I do not panic so soon and believe in giving him proper time – and a mere 6 months of this season is NOT proper time – to show his managerial pedigree. I also note that despite this God awful football we are playing , we sit just ONE point from 4th place with a squad not fit to lick the boots of either Chelseas or Uniteds(our 4th place rivals) I think he needs and deserves our support, not our constant moaning. You may have forgottyen who owns our club and how mean he is is and also how many and long term injuries we have suffered . Yet, we are ONE MEASLY POINT FROM 4TH PLACE. Oh ye of little faith. I always thought real fans showed loyalty! In most of your many and interesting posts you are optimistic and hopeful, so why this change after one admittedly dreadful perf? To be fair to you Sue, I have not seen you calling for his head though , as some “fairweather fans” are doing. They are ridiculous panickers and not to be taken seriously.

        1. It’s fair to say I’m disappointed Jon with the way things are going! Very disappointed. It is Unai’s job to coach & motivate the players… pick the team, formation etc…. I know the injuries haven’t helped one bit.. and his refusal to play our most creative player hasn’t either… can you explain to me where you think it’s gone wrong?? I don’t understand how a team can continually play so poorly away from home… I thought we’d seen the last of this, but clearly not… i mean we lost to a bunch of farmers… it doesn’t get any worse than that!!!

          1. Sue, do you realise we were only one measly point from being fourth, therefor making it 21 out of 21 just two years ago?
            I know, I beat you to it didn’t I?!?!?!?

            Don’t forget as well, that was with thedross players UE inherited, plus Laca, plus Aba and plus six new signings and minus Wilshere, Giroud, Walcott and Flamini.
            It seems we can add Ozil to that list, but as these five players were/are dross players anyway, they don’t count do they?

            It’s always handy to remember the complete factual history of our club and I hope UE doesn’t fail by one point with eight new players from just two years ago.

            The one thing that bothers me is that the fanbase is imploding again, with the banner of “your either in one camp or the other” syndrome.
            Not just regarding UE, but Ozil as well.
            No middle ground allowed or accepted…it’s pathetic!!
            Why can’t I want Ozil to play andUE to be a success?

            No true gooner wants him to fail, they just want a change of direction.

            If he sees no place for Ozil, then on his head be it, but to keep on playing seven defenders against teams we should be, at the very least attacking, is absolutely crazy.

            Can anyone explain why it’s gone wrong, after such a great start?
            The players are still the same, plus Suarez, so, as you say who’s lost the plot?

            1. SUe, sorry but I should have written 21 outof 21 top four places
              ANDTHEN… he would have achieved it without Lacs etc etc.

              Time for bed methinks.

    1. jon i am glad you know what he is trying coz for the life of me i cant see any sign of reason in his football madness … perhaps you can enlighten us dullards

      1. lol, his madness has gotten us within a point of top four surely we can all see the positives of this madness

        1. we didnt need a change of manager for that … whatever i thought of wenger i have no doubt he aimed for a top 4 place and was there or there abouts even during our lost decade … but 4th place junkies were a scourge then and they are a scourge now … this guy was meant to be a change for the better and i am struggling to name one thing … so the question remains whats the reason by his madness

          1. Fans like you are the scourge. I have not one memory of you never saying anything against Arsenal and the team players. All memories are mostly like this here, this has been going on since the very beginning on. Why do you even count yourself as a fan, you don’t sound in favor of this club, to contrary.

    2. Arsenal training sessions I see on youtube are beginning to make some sense to me – their training is nothing short of fun outings, and non of them is serious. It is no wonder they cannot shoot direct balls to the post from outside the box, but always want to dribble their way beyond the line. If they are shooting, I’m sure even against teams that park the bus, by the time 2 or 3 of the opposition players have been hurt by the shots, they will learn to dodge even a feigned shot, giving our players an open passage to score goals through.
      Having said that, imo the pitch they played on is nothing to write home about.

      1. You must be watching an old film, we know this wouldn’t happen this season.

        Absolutely love your idea of how to open up a defensive team, perhaps that’s why we have seven defenders.

        Just think about how many more injuries there would be around the world though!!!

  12. Yes. Absolutely
    Lets keep the loss in perspective. We lost 0-1 AWAY including a red card

    we are certainly capable of winning at home
    It’s not like we haven’t had any decent home results this season. We beat Chelsea at home, beat Spurs at home, drew with Liverpool. So we are more than capable of beating Bate at home even without Lacazette

    Unlike some people I don’t give up hope that EASILY. To believe we will not get through after a first leg defeat by only 1 goal is just silly and a overly defeatist attitude. Yes we could lose but it’s still more likely we won’t in my humble opinion

    1. It’s the manner of the performance that is bugging everyone and we have been playing like this for a while. Citing playing away and getting a red card as an excuse for a shite performance is a bit strong. We played a pub team and at times they outplayed us and the red card was very late in the game. I’ve certainly not given up hope easily and haven’t given up in fact but can see the signs having been through 60 years of supporting The Arsenal, which I will do until my last breath.

    2. I have not read anyone saying they are giving up their support, they are hurting from the displays shown, that isn’t giving up. They wouldn’t care if they gave up. They do care though.

  13. Would you believe it if I said we are a more secure team in defence with 4 at the back instead of 5? The three CB cause more problems to ourselves than playing with 2 CB. The extra player in midfield would get us better control in games.

    I just don’t understand why we need 3 CB, even against the so called smaller teams.

  14. OT: I have been following proceedings here in the background and being observing others comment but what I am reading lately is shocking.

    With due respect to everyone’s opinion but truly it hurts me when others are actually wishing bad on ARSENAL for the sake of 1 play, Ozil. My God how many times has this player being given chance and what have we achieved? Ozil seems to be very happy from his posts on social media chewing his millions each week so why are you all in a melt down? should he play and flop again for you all to know whats truly going on. Even his loud agent is quite on the issue so what is the beef here?

    Anyway back to the topic, the boys had a bad game last night, they seem not to be motivated enough when playing small teams and Unai needs to address this immediately. We will bounce back.

    Lets not melt down already Gunners, its what makes us look like fools out there.

    1. Somehow all the previous years with bad performances have been forgotten by some fans, our former scapegoat has become our savior just like that, you gotta love arsenal fans lol

  15. Trust?
    A bit fat no!
    Hope?
    Of course, I’m a gooner, I always hope we win.
    I have no trust in a win though.

    If we keep up this pathetic style and boring football then I really hope Emery is gone. It was frustrating with Wengers sideways passing, I wanted forward… Emery is backward passing! FFS we have moved backwards!!!

  16. 1 – 0 in the home game is the perfect result, it makes things difficult for us because we cannot keep clean sheets. Against Atletico last season we got greedy and pushed for the second without realizing 1 – 0 is perfect, then if you score an away goal they’ll need to win by three. On top of this Lacazette is out, when teams sit back it is difficult to find Auba in space, and without Lacazette some others are going to have to be dangerous so to create space for him. I’m still confident we will go through, but we made things more difficult as well as pushing our Europa odds further.

  17. i have often wonder , for some time now, it has to be said, are some article writers on here deliberately writing articles that deliberately divide us arsenal fans into two groups ?.it is a real throwback to when that, frenchman, the one who was sacked last year, was at the centre of almost every article on here. i thought we would all have had enough of that type of nonsense to last us our lifetimes.unfortunately, it seems, that , there is still a very strong pro sacked frenchman group on here who will stop at nothing to make sure and keep that mans name up in lights, as it were.he has gone guys , okay , long live the king. many on here are not giving emery a chance to succeed, simply because he has replaced the rubbish that was here before him.if i didnt know better i would say that it was a bunch of junior schoolboys behaving badly, but i know that is not the case . and thats what makes it so bloody boring.managers come and go, as does players. luckily, we still have our great club, albeit a shadow of its former self. but we do still have it , so instead of publishing nasty articles constructed to get people , to , lets say , disagree , with each other. of course, i am not saying that all articles on here are written for such purposes. but i now find myself asking the question, what is the point to this article , even before i bother to read it . sad days indeed for our fanbase on here.

  18. I’d be more confident if we set up in a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-3-2-1, or even a diamond midfield. I cringe when I see us with 3 in the back, or have 6 or 7 defenders on the pitch; its boring, not creative, very uninspiring football hard on the eyes. You can’t win every game, no one is expecting that. However, is it too much to ask for forward and direct play, speed up the passing and stop dwelling on the ball?

    I ask because Emery himself said he likes attacking football and rather win 5-4. I don’t see any of that, whatsoever. I understand he has injuries to deal with, and players not suited to his style. However, Ramsey will bomb forward; partner him with Guendouzi and Torreira, or Ramsey, Xhaka, and Torreira. He could play Ozil with Torreira and Guendouzi sitting behind him to stiffen up the midfield defensively.

    There is more he can do than the defensive set up with no creativity and depending on Iwobi and Kola for the creativity FFS!

    Again, not wanting Emery sacked but wanting him questioned and changing what isn’t working.

  19. Hello Arsenal Family! Am a gooner from Ohio, USA! Am pleased to be on this platform with you. Now, my biggest concern since Emery took over is that we’ve lacked identity. No direction, no plan nothing. Where are we headed if I may ask? Frankly, I was far much happier under Wenger because we had identity. Defensive football is not my thing. Am not saying that I wasn’t tired of Wenger in any way. Its just that we’ve no direction. I mean what the hell is going on! London folks please tell me what’s going on over there! Am concerned. Sorry, but I can’t help but wonder.

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