I bet that the Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santos can’t believe how easily his side took Arsenal apart in the first 45 minutes at Molineux last night, and the game was over as a contest. They went into the break three goals up and without Arsenal even having one shot on target in the first half.
Wolves could afford to play with the handbrake on in the second period, but Arsenal still only managed the one shot on target in the whole game, which resulted in our goal but hardly brought us back into the game. After the game Emery refused to blame the players but instead praised Wolves for carrying out their own game plan to perfection. This is what the Spaniard said when he was asked what went wrong. “Good evening.” he started. “First is the performance of the opposition. We started the game playing with control with the ball, with control with our positioning.
“Also, they let us play like that in the first minutes but when we needed to get into the box with the possibility to create chances, they defended very strongly in the box. They played with the calmness to take their opportunities and the first transitions. They had a strong plan and it was perfect because they scored in one set-piece after the first important transition against us. The match was important with how teams can start winning and after I think we lost a little in the 20 minutes after the first goal. We lost our possibility to take passions in these minutes, to recover our possibilities and our chances in our game plan.
“The second goal was a set-piece and another transition killed us in this moment (for the third goal) but in the dressing room we were speaking that in the second half we need to first recover our game plan and be strong in our mind. To score a goal was our first idea and after if we can take minutes of the 90 minutes we can continue our plan.
“The second half was different but it wasn’t enough to take some points. Generally we are now disappointed, but we need to also look at all the season and we are not in our own hands now because we lost this possibility today, but we need to prepare the best as possible for Sunday’s match against Leicester. If we win, okay it’s going to be very difficult again, but another option that we can take on Sunday.”
Emery then went on to admit that Wolves were the better side and deserved the three points, despite conceding Arsenal 70% of the possession. “”But they are a good team, with good structure. Defensively they are very strong and they are doing a very good season because they have good players also. We didn’t do, in the last third attacking, some difference for score in the first half. We tried but didn’t take chances to score. I think one reason is because they worked very well defensively. We needed to be more calm and we know here it’s going to be very difficult, but we need to respect them with their moments and to be calm in the 90 minutes, impose our ideas and result against them. Really, they were better than us and they worked and played more strongly in their game plan and they beat us.”
So we lose yet again, and our place in the Top Four is now out of our hands. Who could possibly expect us to go to Leicester and win on Sunday?
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What looked like a promising first season for Emery is fast becoming a potential disaster or gigantic proportion.
Where a period of transition was to be expected in his first season, an improving line towards the end of the season was also to be expected. Instead, his team looks to go backward which is not a promising sign for next season.
Qualifying ahead of Chelsea and Man U in 4th would have been massive not only for us but also in the setback that would cause these two teams if they miss out on CL football. On current form it looks likely we will lose out on a top 4 finish and we don’t look like a team that could beat Chelsea in the Europa league (should it even come to that).
The Everton game and the Wolves game were the biggest of our season had we won them. We played great against City away in the first half on, one has to doubt the manager’s ability to motivate and communicate with his players for not being able to have them replicate this level of play we showed against City when it matters most in our dying season.
patience this is his first season….he needs time
Emery is an Europa cup specialist
we will win the Europa and qualify for the champ league
John – It would be massive for this club to get back to CL football. I know we have to be patient and have been so all season. The problem IMO is that Arsenal needs something exceptional and Emery has/had a chance to show he could be that but rather getting stronger and stronger he seems to not be able to keep his team on an upward trajectory when it matters most. Strange team selections have lead to some poor results combined with his team lacking the urgency it displayed earlier this season. These are not signs of the type of progress one would expect after effectively one season in charge.
If we miss CL football again we will permanently miss out on the top 4 as a result of the loss of income and the inability to attract good players.
????
Rubbish, absolute rubbish. If at the start of the season, you’d have been told that at this point we would be odds on favourites for top four (according to the bookies) with a europa league semi final coming up against Valencia, any sane person would have snapped that chance up immediately. Yes we’ve been poor of late, and I’m sure Emery’s made mistakes but the fact of the matter is that it down to him that we are even in shot for top four right now. whilst these losses seemed avoidable you must say that they not surprising when you see we are playing games every 3 days. Hold your judgements people, top 4 is still on, and if emery gets us back in the CL, then I’m afraid there’s no other way at looking at this season other than a veritable success. Leicester next, we have a great record there, United at home
to Chelsea on Sunday, it’s our moment to take back top 4. COYG.
If we beat Leicester and I know it’s a big IF we can still make top 4. ManU and Chelsea are playing this weekend and if ManU wins or there is a tie, we take back the advantage.
The next 3 EPL games will be a great indication of the type of leader Emery is. Can he raise the troops from the slump and take that hill, or will he capitulate like Wenger? We will see.
Question, what happened to Torreira? He was our best player for a while?
Question, was Auba’s sinus an emergency?couldn’t it wait a couple of weeks?
Question, why is Emery playing a back 3 at home and 2 away?
Question, should we do a massive clear-out in the summer?
Apart from Cech, Ramsey ,Licht, Suarez, and Welbz. I would get rid off Ospina, Monreal, Jenkinson, Mustafi, Elneny, Ozil, Mhki and Asano
None of the above players are good enough to play for Arsenal, except Ozil who is so inconsistent and so expensive that he just isn’t worth keeping.
I would try to bring in 4-5 good, young players full of potential and hunger, bring Nelson, Chambers, ESR, Willock, Martinez, Medley and Nketiah to the Senior team and start a 3-5 year project lie the Spurs did. If we don’t have the money to compete then we have to find our youth and create a competitive team the old fashioned way, with time, blood, sweat and tears.
Or Stan could sell us to a sugar daddy and all our problems would be solved 🙂
I second the latter part of your suggestions, that the best choice forward is bring in good young players and promote our own into the first team with a few of existing players, and give it 3-5 years for a complete re-make of next gen Gunners. Actually, Nketiah was the best player after he came in for the last 20 minutes, he create more threats than Ozil, Iwobi, M7 altogether created before he subbed-in! His agility, good control of and use of the ball, are just amazing! Guendouzi was also quite good, and he launched several thru balls into Wolves’s tuff, that was supposedly the job of Ozil and M7! Admittedly, that’s probably because Xhaka provided better fielding than Elneny for Guendouzi.
In all, bring in the young guns, let’s begin the re-make!
Jim, I fear we will have a hard time selling any players this summer. We are a club that is mismanaged across the organization and selling players will be part of the mismanagement.
“or will he capitulate like Wenger?”
Put Wenger in this situation even last season and Arsenal would surely make top 4. Under Wenger, Arsenal always finished strongly and never stuttered when a top 4 finish was in sight, coming from deficits in many seasons to snatch it on the last match day. Even 2 seasons ago, Arsenal nearly snatched it from Liverpool, winning about 8 of the last 10 games to finish 75 points, and 1 short of Liverpool’s 76. In every other season 75 would make you top 4.
Wenger could be accused of anything but never bottling top 4 (last season was not bottling because Arsenal were not in contention towards the end of the season).
Your suggestion on the way forward is good but can the fans be patient? A few poor results, and the knives would be out. I recall that at the beginning of this season, many fans here said that they were prepared to give UE three years to take Arsenal back to the top. But what are we hearing now? Two seasons ago, Ajax paraded a team of youngsters that lost to Man Utd in the Europa League final but look at where Ajax are today. Can we wait three years? No I don’t think so because Arsenal fans are impatient.
I’m sick to death of all this ‘we can still make the top 4’ we can’t win away from home – how pathetic is that? We don’t deserve to be in the top 4!!
How right you are Sue ? we aren’t good enough simples as Sergei meerkat says ?
The only consolation is that the other two candidates don’t deserve it either. My son and I sometimes have a slow race on our bikes. Whoever gets to the end of the road the slowest wins. That’s what this “race” for fourth is like – only less exciting.
I agree we arent good enough but neither are ManU and Chelsea so of the three undeserving teams, I’d rather it be us to make it to the CL.
I get what you’re saying JimBeam… but to then be annihilated in the CL… not what I want to see
I want to agree with you Sue but I don’t think I can take anymore Europa league football..for the 3rd year running. Yesterday we played so badly I switched to City v Man utd and really enjoyed that game. You should have done the same, Sane and Sterling were electric! Showed us exactly what we lack in Mkhitaryan and Iwobi. Explosive pace, decisiveness, accuracy and urgency.
I did watch City QD… I love watching Sane.. what I’d give to have him at Arsenal. Sterling has been so good this season too.. I also love watching Ederson… how cool is he under pressure (Just not against the spuds ?) some team they have – I’m jealous
I’m sick of EL too… playing Thursdays is ?
Europa league football is absolute garbage. Unfortunately, it is becoming clearer with each passing week that is our true level. How can we lose to palace at home then Wolves away a few days later? I don’t understand this! Are we really such a bad team?
As much as I prefer the CL, we definitely wouldn’t cut it with this bunch QD….it bloody amazes me how crap we are, what stats we’ve rewritten, we’re an easy game, I don’t think anyone fears us QD & rightly so… never thought I’d write that! Gutted…..
Sigh, let’s wait for Sunday and hope Man utd do the job for us. If they don’t, it’s fine. We probably don’t deserve to play with the big boys, as painful as it is to admit it. Can you imagine fielding the 4 clowns who played vs Palace in a champions league game? We would be annihilated and Emery probably investigated for possible match-fixing ?
??? brilliant!! You’re right though… that brings me out in a cold sweat thinking about those 4 clowns in a CL game! Let’s hope we never see it..
Sunday will be very interesting QD.. not sure my heart can take much more ?
Arsenal as the squad we have now are just not good enough. We are slow and inconsistent. The players that the previous posters have put up should all go with some additional ones like iwobi xhaka a complete clearance is required.
There is no point thinking about top 4 if we can’t even win teams like Wolves, how then are going to play the Champions league if we can’t win on the road? This team is a joke
We talk about top 4 but do we really deserve to be in CL? United, Chelsea and us have been so terrible that none of us deserve CL football to be honest. That’s 3rd game straight in PL we’ve been dire.
Nuno > Emery
”I would try to bring in 4-5 good, young players full of potential and hunger, bring Nelson, Chambers, ESR, Willock, Martinez, Medley and Nketiah to the Senior team and start a 3-5 year project lie the Spurs did. If we don’t have the money to compete then we have to find our youth and create a competitive team the old fashioned way….” i agree totally. let us start to rebuild Arsenal next season. our youth boys are among the best in EPL. Unai should also build a specific style of play. that is the only way the players could be able to understand him.
This season has come to an underwhelming, near depressing end. After all the hope we had of things taking a turn for the better, we are back to the rubbish team we have always been. Can’t win at home, can’t win away. I hope Man utd will rescue us and beat Chelsea but even if they did there is no knowing if we will turn up v Leicester or it will be another L on the road. Sigh.
Losing to Palace at home at this stage of the season and with a CL place on the line was the biggest eye-opener of where we really stand. Given our road record and poor defending I never thought we had a reasonable chance against Wolves. They are a good team.
Brace yourself for this weekend.
We’re so crap that opposing players and managers can make unprofessional comments about us during press conferences and they’d be vindicated. We’d Never prove them wrong. Never. Ever.
Our performances this season have highlighted the lack in depth that the squad have. We have so many players who are simply not good enough to step in when we need them. God knows even some of our starting eleven are pants! We will need 3 to 4 years at least and even then we will need wonkey Kronke to spend!!!
People seem to want Emery to criticize his underachieving players in the media. He is professional and has too much clas to do this; however what he says in the dressing room and on the training ground. Hopefully he has the hair dryer out.
After such an inept performance these overpaid prima donnas of players couldn’t be bothered to acknowledge the efforts of the away supporters, who travelled 4 hours to watch this horror show!
Agree wholeheartedly with JB.Young hungry players are the way forward for our Club and there are plenty of them out there.We have aging defenders who are clearly past their best and a number of mercenaries who are unable to fight their way out of trouble.Don’t blame Emery for the result last night.He selected what was on paper the best side available to him given injuries etc. Our performances in the last three league games have been abysmal and without making excuses, we have played three sides who are not involved in midweek European games and looked so much fitter than our bunch who have fun out of gas.Without real financial support, youth is the only way forward for us.
In Holland, if say a midfielder gets injured they bring on a midfielder in his place or left back gets injured they bring on a left back they don’t shuffle the pack like we do when are we going to learn. We have some very good young players USE them. The subs could be gk lb RB ch MD fd so if 1 got injured bring the right player for that position. It’s not rocket science