Arsenal may have beaten a weakened PSG side by a wide margin yesterday, but according to the new coach the Gunners still have a long way to go to prepare fully for the start of the season. In fact Emery doesn’t think that the result was in the slightest bit important. “For me, it (the performance) doesn’t change my idea of the team.” he said. “We still need to improve tactically and improve the pace of every player. We didn’t have any injuries which was important, and we had the opportunity to play more young players too. The result wasn’t the most important thing today. For me, it’s also about playing with the young players and missing some important players.”
El Coach was then asked if the heat may have inhibited the performce, but he emphatically declared: “No, no. It’s the first match for Mesut, Eleny and Iwobi. Tactically, we’ve been working all week in training and watching movies. The first idea we are working on is without the ball and the right place to be pressing. I am happy with how the players played for the first time for these three players.”
Now the squad have to brave the long flight back to Europe, and Emery can give his players lots more intense training sessions before we take on our big rivals Chelsea on Wednesday in Dublin. I am sure every week the Coach will be pushing the players to new levels of fitness and tactical awareness. I know Emery doesn’t think the result is very important, but there is no harm to the confidence if you continue to remain unbeaten, whoever you are playing….
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Torerria posted a picture of him and his family at the airport leaving Uruguay. I know we can’t have him for the City match. The whole squad will be complete now, oh except Monreal, Xhaka and Litch, when are they resuming?? Welbeck should take a bus to West Ham please ?? .
I like the fact that Emery is paying attention to every detail..The boys are all buzzing to impress and deliver,
I don’t think Guendozi will be a regular league starter. I think he’ll fall back to the bench when the squad is complete, and he’ll be called upon when needed.
Bright days ahead..
For some reasons unknown, the same belief I had that France were gon win the world cup is all over my head and imagination now, I’m not saying we’ll be league winners, If we don’t win it, we’ll be top 3, I have that strong feeling, and the team is better than it was last season
I saw that picture Eddie, it was so sweet!! Bless him, can’t wait till he’s here.. that Arsenal kit is going to look so good on him!
Also saw a picture of Ozil wearing an invincibles watch ?
You were right all along about France, so maybe just maybe you’ll be right about AFC please!!!!!!!
Sue I hope it comes good too.. I’ve not been this confident over our league position for years… This isn’t some ecstasy or me saying words out of my euphoria, I just keep getting that good feeling about our league position this season.
We’ll have bigger chances to win the Europa, because we’ll have our full squad to call upon when it gets tough.
I think we have a balance midfield now, if only Ramsey could just do a simple job like Guendozi did yesterday, we’ll have one of the best midfield in Torerria-Ramsey-Xhaka… but NO!!! Ramsey will never stop trying those useless flicks and lame ass average skills he has.. I hope he doesn’t disrupt our season with his bombing forwards, goals will never be a problem for us, so he should just stick to being a good CM please.
But then a midfield Trio of Torerria-Guendozi-Ramsey might favor Ramsey himself.
We’ve got a tight squad now, Mustafi’s problem has always been being inconsistent, so I have a feeling he’ll put in a good series of performance this season
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Every top footballing side has a CM player getting forward at most opportunities. Allot of our bad shape has been down to our wide players, the fullbacks and the wingers that’re really strikers. They always pushed up too much not one of them trying to be conservative. Ramsey goes forward but he is always the quickest one getting back into position or chasing the guy who has the ball. Because of the space out wide is why those long ball teams were able to smash and grab. Sure you’d be blind to not notice it, a ball cutting out everyone because they all pushed up then only Kos or maybe one more doing something stupid before getting beat. Ramsey was our only runner from midfield last season before Mkhit arrived,, he is also capable at creating and scoring, he has to go forward. Fullbacks, that’s a different story, and why both of them. Wingers, with a birds eye view not one of them thinks to look at space on for a break. People see football differently, but people who’ve played the game have Ramsey down as one of Arsenal’s best players and one of its deadliest threats.
Sam Allerdyce and the likes, teams that like to break. I could bet any amount of money, that all week they’re training for those breaks with the space out wide. They don’t train around Ramsey’s movement. They train for their wide players receiving the ball out wide past Xhaka or whoever, and working on what to do when one of our CB’s has to try to come out and reach him while another player is making a movement to beat the other CB to the ball first as that is what they’ve been working on all week.
I’m hoping Unai Emery doesn’t make the mistake of not signing a CB.That will complete this team moreso than even a winger.
Soyuncu was getting closer to Arsenal and even rejected other teams for us and the player himself confirmed this in his speech he made sometime ago.Now we decided to not sign him due to the number of CB’s since noone has left yet and possibly due to inexperience.
Our defence is a massive massive gamble.Chambers and Holding are not good as people think and neither is Sokratis who I have even watched at his best and not the terrible 16/17 season of his.People want Mustafi sold but quality wise in terms of defensive skills to me he’s better than Sokratis,Chambers and Holding.Emery not signing a defender is a decision we may come to regret this season.
*17/18
“I’m hoping Unai Emery doesn’t make the mistake of not signing a CB” What is Sokratis??. If you want another CB just say and stop being dramatic about it.
What I mean is another CB.We need another one that’s what I meant.No disrespect to Sokratis but clearly if we want to be honest we need another CB.
Kev
Yerry Mina maybe? Strong, mobile, doesn’t faff around like Holding, make poor passes like Chambers, or make a ‘daily clangers like Mustafi. Sokratis is slow and last season Dortmund shipped a lot of goals with him in the side. Yerry Mina is tough, quick, intense and mean and won’t cost a fortune. Why are we waiting. My guess is Emery knows Sokratis is not the answer. Mislintat has made that one boo-boo, Sokratis is not the answer.
So many fans crying out for change last year; can’t help wonder how many of our players felt the same? Only preseason, but much different air about the team.
COHESION
I have never seen a quote from Emery using this word! Trivial and petty I know, just found it interesting and refreshing.
Hard Work is the new Cohesion at Arsenal
I teach English to Two Spanish speakers and ‘cohesion’ is a Spanish word. It could be that Unai has not used the word because he does not yet know it is also an English word. When the word is the same in two languages, this situation often happens with learners. 🙂
It was said in jest my friend, “cohesion” was a favorite word of Wenger. Cohesion or lack thereof was oft responsible for lackluster results on the pitch, we were told.
Hard work seems to be the go to statement of Emery, as opposed to cohesion with Wenger.
Stop the sheet @ Durand, wenger gave us the best 22 years in our entire history, 17 trophies, a brand new stadium, a brand new training center with state of the art facilities,a golden trophy 49 unbeaten record, 20 years consecutive champions league football, the first arsenal manager to be crowned world best coach, the first arsenal manager to be crowned world best coach 4 a decade, the first arsenal manager to be decorated with best coach in Europe (onze d’or) a record 4 times, a champions league final,Under him arsenal FC become richer, more valuable, more popular, with a Massive fan base all over the world, it’s obvious we have very short memory but facts remain facts, , for the fact that wenger was crowned world best coach for a decade ahead of Sir Alex Ferguson and mourinho shows how great he is, and for the fact that he achieved all these with a net spend of slightly over 200m pounds shows how great he is, it’s a new era we hope they become successful, stop saying trash about wenger, he remains the most successful manager in the history of afc!
Simmer down Beavis. I was having fun with word of cohesion.
You went way overboard, a bit dramatic. No need to list his achievements. You forgot the bad, but i guess you prefer to think of him as perfect rather than human and imperfect.
Guess take you another 22 years to get over your idol getting shitcanned, sorry Uch.
Durand I love your one liners ‘simmer down Beavis’ ??
Or what about …if a big opportunity arrives, in transfer window. They will use sayings that mean more or less the same. Confidence, to keep it he will talk up players even if we all don’t agree. He’s a very attack minded coach so people expecting to see us locked up tight need to prepare themselves for soft goal moments. The fullbacks will be pushed up very high still and that will be space for teams to exploit. All the best countering sides exploit the space out wide that big footballing sides gift you. At least the players feel more rejuvenated, and the manager has his own ideas on exploiting teams weaknesses. I feel confident, and excited, but I don’t expect all our old quirks to just evaporate.
Every word from Emery continues to increase my level of optimism ahead of the new season, i wish him and his boys best of luck!
I am as keyed up as your are Goonerboy and I hate to be a party pooper but what happens if we lose our opening games and we get to say game six and we haven’t won a game? Unai will have my support. Will he have yours?
He for sure would have mine!!! COYG!!!
Why not my friend, why not?
i certainly do not enjoy turning against a manager, Emery all the way for me!
It is early days and that might be why I haven’t seen much of the pressing that Unai has always talked about ever since he signed on. Realistically, that should be the basis of how we play.
If you observed critically, you would find out that in recent times, we have lost to teams such as Man City and Liverpool because they executed this strategy or tactic better than us. We have to press in order to force some mistakes from the opponent which eventually lead to goals most times.
In addition to the above stated points, I think we need a winger in the form of Leon Bailey of Bayern Leverkusen. That guy is fantastic, and he will pretty much improve us. He will certainly get on the team sheet of any football club in the world. And the good thing about it is the cost of the player; the price is low from my understanding.
Just get Dembele and bring on Man city..Its that simple. If we get Dembele, no team will be able to stop us. We will tear teams apart and defenses will be shaking before meeting us. We will then go on and win the EPL and the Uropa comfortably. Auba will be the top scorer followed closely by The Cassette while Dembele will top the assists charts.
I’d love it Gifted, but just can’t see us pulling up the £80 Million plus, hopefully we could do a loan deal with an option to buy but I agree with that you, we’d frighten the life out of them with our attack.
@ Kenny,there is no doubt that the attack will be hyperactive and superb but what of our defence,to me its not in good shape yet
Agree Cornerstone, lets just hope Unai can do something about it. Having a proper holding midfielder in Torreira guarding the back four will help.
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getting Dembele isn’t “simple.” We don’t know if Dembele would even want to come here. This is something only newspapers have made up. Nothing actually concrete. Basically, it’s not happening, so I’d stop holding my breath about it. This is pretty much going to be our squad until January.
Sven is the one who wants Dembele and for obvious reasons he’d like to come i.e if only we are willing to pay the cash should he become available.Its not about it being simple or difficult.The only thing is if he’s available.Him wanting to come here isn’t a problem too as Sven and some past Dortmund players are enough to tempt him.Frwlenvh players kind of like Arsenal in a way tbh.Ultimately,£75m-£85m is what it will take to buy him.
Could you please give me the quote or article you are using to back up your oft-repeated statement that “Sven is the one who wants Dembele ” or indeed ANY winger. Thank you.
Sorry to go off topic but I notice Steve Nichol having another pop at this time concerning Unai Emery. What’s a matter with this Scouse has-been, still not got over Michael Thomas’s last minute goal in 1989.
Nicol’s really biased towards Liverpool is all. Has good insight sometimes, but he always has the craziest opinions on that panel. He insulted us when we bought Aubameyang too and acted like that was a bad deal. I like the guy, but he can be bitter when other sides make moves that clearly improve them
Kenny, I haven’t got over that last minute goal, let alone Nichol!!!
He’s just like the Neville brothers, a never ending hatred of our club.
Make you right Ken, truth is, I never get tired of seeing it neither.
Not so sure they hate our club but Gary Neville certainly put the boot in on a couple of your favourites a few times, and rightly so in my opinion. ‘Spineless’ and ‘a disgrace’ were exactly my thoughts in the Caribou Cup, as well as Neville’s.
BTW I dislike Man Utd even more than Spurs, Chelsea etc so having to agree with an ex-Utd player is not something I like to do. But at the same time the truth is the truth and for me must be first and foremost.
I personally detest Chelsea to the core
So do I
Only to the core? Should surely be right through the spine and back again. I despise Chelsea far more than any other rival. They have always been a club, going way, way, back, lacking class, lacking fans, lacking any graces and any manager staying more than two years, lacking worldwide support and only where they are now thanks to a corrupt megalomaniac multi billionaire, from a rotten to the core country, who is now barred from Britain, quite rightly too.
Good earily signs, but we just need to wait to see more. How does this team perform when their backs are against the wall? 1-0 away against tough opposition? When we aren’t playing the best can we still grind out a victory? Who are the leaders in this team? I think we are becoming too positive actually just because of some pre-season results. If we lose to Chelsea in this next friendly are we suddenly going to flip-flop and worry about the opening game? We need to remember that Emery is going to working long term towards making the squad play the way he wants them to. It won’t be accomplished within one summer period and there are going to be growing pains. I still believe top4 can be achieved this season though, and that’s a good target for getting the club back on track
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Great insight RSH
First I’d like to say…wow what a find Guendouzi is. Don’t know who to compare him with but he looks the business.
I am worried about Holding, who looks so nervous, Mustafi, who makes a big clanger in every match and Sokratis who looks a bit slow. I still worry about our defence. Maybe Mavroponos is the answer. Wouldn’t mind Yerry Mina though. Big, athletic, intense, mean and mobile. Looked the business for Columbia. Worth a punt?
Emery will silenced all critics and finish top 3…with the possiblility of winning the title too if our defense is tight
He’s off again, Liverpool has-been Steve Nichol, now he’s digging out Bellerin, trying to mix it with Wenger, doing all he can to upset and create a bit of friction in our club. He’s obviously worried about us this year topping his beloved Liverpool. The skatemouth scouser should keep his big mouth shut
Good footballer; however he always lets his Liverpool loyalty affect his judgement.
My all time favorite ex footballer punditry is Stuart Pearce stating in the Sun newsaper that Arsenal had taken a “massive” gamble” with the signing of Dennis Bergkamp, which wouldn’t pay off as Dennis “had struggled at Inter Milan”. Pearce also stated that Arsenal should have bought Stan Collymore “even if he cost £1 million more.”
We all know how that panned out!
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Yes. countless thousands of us poor Gooners are still full of woe at having to suffer the dreadful Bergkamp fore so many years , when we could have had the magnificent Stan Collymore. Sorry, must go now, there are two men at the door in white coats and a straitjacket , coming to collect me.
If you sew the highlights you will see our team defense are awful… we give too many chances to PSG (second sqaud not the first)
This is just my personal unqualified opinion!
From what I saw or what I know I have faith in:
Aubameyang
Lacazette
Ozil
Mkhitaryan
Guendouzi
Rowe
Torreira
Monreal
Kolsanic
Cech/Leno
I like Rowe and Guendouzi for the future and this season too.
I have hope in Niles, Nkteiah, Nelson for the future.
I have question marks ??? With
Sokratis, Mavrapanos and Lichtsteiner. Need to see more.
I think the following are BANG AVERGE to slightly Above Average:
Bellerin, Xhaka, Mustafi, Koscielny (used be @m@zing), Chambers, Holding, Iwobi, Elneny, Ramsey, Perez, Welbeck, Martinez, Asano (on loan), Campbell, Akpom, Jenkinson.
So we need:
1. An upgrade of Xhaka/Ramsey
2. An upgrade to Bellerin.
3. A quality winger (ie Dembele, Bailey, Draxler)
4. Maybe an upgrade in Centre backs but unlikely because we have 6 centre backs already.
We have not SOLD enough average players!!! Maybe Emery wants to give them season to show him what they got? And to increase their value to be sold next summer.
I think:
Lichtsteiner is a huge upgrade on Bellerin
Torreira is a huge upgrade on Xhaka/Ramsey and
Mavropanos is obviously a super upgrade on all our defenders.
Only powerful winger like Coman and midfield general like Kovacic or Banega are missing.
If our summer business is done, then we can offset the gaps by playing 3-5-2 formation.
Leno
Mustafi……………Mavropanos………………..Sokratis
Lichtsteiner……Torreira……Mkitaryan…….Kolasinac
Ozil
Lacazette…………………..Aubameyang
This squad is strong enough for the Epl trophy since our strengths will be in powerful defence, wing-backs, and attack. Torreira and Mkitaryan are the only midfielders who are good off the ball.
I also think we have many bang average or even poor players to move out as soon as we can. I agree with your list but would be at least very hopeful of Mavrapanos and would keep Ramsey but only IF he accepts whatever we have already offered him and not a penny more. But I think this amazing coach, Emery, will vastly improve even the worst of them and I also know the job will take far longer than just one brief transfer window, to transform/ replace ALL the unmotivated junk that WENGER LEFT BEHIND. Clearly though, a massive transformation of desire and attitude has ALREADY taken place. We now have a TRUE professional in charge who will not tolerate the disgraceful slackness WENGER ACTIVELY ENCOURAGED! I also think Wenger should pay us back over £50 million from his unearned and undeserved wages, going back a decade.