Arsenal may have been knocked out of the FA Cup last night by Man United, but yet again the Gunners had more possession and more chances against our bogey team. Despite the criticism from Arsenal fans about the team selection, the tactics and usual dire defending, our big keeper Petr Cech is convinced that we didn’t play as badly as the comments suggested.
Cech told Arsenal.com after the game: “Well it’s a disappointment, because we played much better than the result shows. Obviously they created some counter-attacking situations and they punished us from that. You can see they are full of confidence, and that’s why when they arrive in the last third, they choose the right options to finish their actions. At 2-1 I thought we were back in the game. In the second half we had some chances early on but unfortunately we couldn’t get the equaliser. Then it was the same story – they had a counter-attack and a goal.
“They took their chances and we didn’t. That was the difference in the game. We are disappointed with that because we wanted to win again after a big win against Chelsea. It wasn’t to be.”
In fact the stats back up his assertions, as we had 63% possession in the 90 minutes, we managed 13 shots to United’s 5, and even had more on target at 5-4. The only difference was that they put three of those chances away while we didn’t!
Perhaps we are a bit to quick to jump to criticize our side, especially with our continuing defensive injury problems….
Sam P
They way Arsenal defend they really need to convert any chance they get! Just aren’t clinical enough and are total mess at the back! Petr Cech is long past it so his retirement news has come at the right time. Leno should start every game now until the end of the season. We really need 2 or 3 players to come in right now but it doesn’t look likely, with this current team we got no chance of finishing top 4 or winning Europa League it is what it is unfortunately.
John wick
One thing lacking in our team and has been lacking for many ayear. Forget about cb or mf it is a leader. A captain who actually leads. At no point in time did I see or notice anyone one getting dug out for poor defending.
Our full backs were pushed so far forward on all the goals conceded the gaps left behind them were criminal. Getting caught out once is is bad but 3 times is not acceptable. Whilst people say it the managers tactics to push them as far up field as possible and the players have no sense now days of awareness and the captain should be saying hold or go.kos has never done that and nor has anyone else done since veria or adams.
I think people have forgotten how invaluable a captain can be at times during a game or am I blinkered and old school because I thought all great teams in the past had one?
Indeed! Our defence is very weak and with so many injuries lately, I am very pessimistic about top four position.
Defence is poor even without the injuries,What does Steve Bould if he is one of the defensive coaches he is not very good at it,considering he was one of the famous five when George Graham was manager i would have though he would be passing on all his knowledge to our current crop of players we desperately need to bring in no-nonsense defenders ASAP.
Its a shame on Emery losing at home to a novice manager, no game plan, just possession and passing. Chek was a disaster waiting to happen, I just want Emery out and dump all his plans old worthless signings.Again ozil and the rest is history repeated in counter attack and defence. Again Xhaka and Kola on the pitch OMG what have done to see such cr*p.Sometimes i think is this AFC or are my expectations too high? Should i be content with the “sixth place trophy” read somewhere Rabbiot is in talks with spuds!!
Eventually it’s the players that can decide the outcome of a game, no matter how good the manager is
If they are afraid of losing the ball or tackles and do not to put in extra effort, their skills are not really helpful anymore
Let’s wait until Arsenal can replace all underperformers
Beg to differ, the coach selects the team based on the avaliable players, their skills/strengths and the strategy to counter the opposition which Emery failed on all three.Just a lame duck with lame excuses and bull !!!! Explanations / statistics of possession, injury, blah blah blah. Give this man 10 seasons and 20 transfer windows he will achieve nothing!Zero!! Patience running out.And hate to see CFC at Wembley. Wish i was not so bitter on Arsene!
Red and white, ever since you have returned to this site your only agenda has been to slate Unai Emery, who has been coach of Arsenal for a bit more than half a season and from day one has had a squad disrupted by injury.
I ask the questiin again; if Emery walks or is sacked which well credentialled, self respecting manager would follow Emery to Arsenal, given the current squad, the available transfer budget and Kroenke as owner, who won’t invest any money into the team?
Mark Hughes is probably available.
Emery didn’t buy Xhaka or Kola, the guy inherited average team and the club is not helping by not releasing fund, but tightly so, the fund released to Wenger was used to get average players at high prices. Xhaka 35m, Mustafi 35m, Ozil tied down at 350k/week. PEA is too expensive for his age and if he had tucked in the chances he’d had this season, we wouldn’t be where we are, Lava has not justified his price tag. Emery has his fault but I think we’re expecting too much from an average team. Arsenal needs complete revamping, just what Pep did with city.
I fear that Arsenal are not a priority to Kroenke – with the LA Rams at the Super Bowl and the investment of $4 billion into the franchise it would not surprise me if Arsenal’s assets are being stripped to fund that…
Whatever is going on I am losing interest – football is meant to to be ups and downs, obviously more ups than downs. This is not fun – its just misery, like watching the company you loved to work for go into administration and go down the toilet.
Its made worse with our rivals doing so well…
And as for us being unlucky – I’m not having it. You make your own luck.
Arsenal deserved everything it got.
I am tired of listening to excuses defending them….
???
Christ have you had any sleep or were you up all night doing the milly rock?! ?
Haha no it’s this damn cough keeping me up and less said about the Milly rock the better ? it’s fa cup day… Oh wait we’re out ?
You’re still rough?? Yes we didn’t have a bad dream… it actually happened ??
The pain will have eased in a couple of days ? then we’ll have to go through it all again on Tuesday!!
No I’m on the mend wish the cough caught on as well ? I have to say I’m not at all enjoying the team play anymore Sue it’s just the same repetitive mess it has been for years.. I’m not even gonna get into it anymore.. Kroenke will run the club into the ground before he sells up! I’m not even that bothered anymore tbh.. there’s more to life! For Arsenal to compete again the Kroenkes need to go, the entire boardroom too and we need an investor because by the time we get round to getting what we need we’re gonna need more for other positions who are getting old or retiring it will just be a never ending cycle! Who honestly believes Emery will be given 100 mil to spend on transfers? Even if he sold players and made the Champions league, Stan Kroenke will never let that happen, Arsenal just don’t operate that way.. they spend 50-70 million and tighten the purse strings they always do. Emery was brought in to coach the youth, bring them into the first team and work on a shoestring budget making champions League won’t make a blind bit of difference and we’re all fooling ourselves if we think otherwise! Bit of rant but you know what I mean
And the 100 mil was just an example that’s probably what they would stretch to in a very very very good year and that’s a drop in the ocean to what that team needs! Transfers now have got out of control, I read Bournemouth were looking for 75 mil for Callum Wilson????? even average players values are skyrocketing these days!
I know what you mean John & I hate to say this but it’s only going to get worse before it gets better (If it does get better!)
We have no defence… really doesn’t look good for Koscielny or Sokratis, be surprised if we see them anytime soon… as if we haven’t got enough injuries!!
Kroenke ain’t going anywhere!! Or the board, why would they??
We’re just going to have to get used to a high one week (If we’re lucky) then a low the next week… I think it’s going to be a struggle for top 6 with all the injuries now I’m not making excuses.. but our best 3 defenders are out…. So now we’ll see Mustafi & Lichtsteiner most weeks… ???
When you say Lichtsteiner and Mustafi then I think that justifies why I’m not bothered and lots of other fans. I don’t even think Huddersfield would take those 2 would they? Our team is painfully average Sue ? and you’re right Kroenke is going nowhere he’ll be at Arsenal until they’re stock begins decreasing! You already know what happen in the summer, we’ll buy a 25 mil player, everyone will be buzzing thinking this is gonna be one busy summer.. the journos will link us with about 200 players which none of the we’ll get and come August we’ll sign an 18 year old from the German 2nd Division or something like that.. then we’ll get told their keeping powder dry until January and the cycle starts again. Yeah Sue 6th or 7th
Gutted John.. totally! The only thing that went my way last night was James Jordan (tool) not winning Coach Trip hurrah!! ??
My son in law is a Manc… so no doubt I’ll hear all about it tomorrow…. I probably won’t let him in ??
Will be surprised if we have any cash to splash in the summer!! What really pis*es me off is the expectation… Your hopes are up, you’re optimistic.. get one really good performance… followed by an absolute stinker… maybe I should just assume we’ll lose every game, then anything else is a bonus!!
Night ended on a positive note then Sue ? oh you probably will if he’s a red devil ? haha maybe that’ll work but realistically results will probably just stay the same lol. You’re probably right Sue but not to worry we’ll have more time to do loans deals in the summer ?
A good old loan deal ?
Its not the amount of possession and chances created that win games. Its goals .
Here Arsenal were outscored. You don’t have to be a genius how MU scored.
Hit on the break which had happened during rf stime and repeated by his disciple.
The gunners like to have plenty of possession . By then it slows down the approach
towards goal and gives defences time to mass.
Whne MU scored there were few defenders compared to the gunners.
Until this changes building from the back wont be fast enough .I maybe wrong.
Lets bring epl game with MU and give the boys achance to redeem themselves.
4-2-3-1 is usually vulnerable to quick counter-attacks and most players were not willing to go the extra mile, probably because they were thinking of the upcoming EPL game
It’s better if they use 4-3-3 or 4-1-2-1-2 next time, but I’m worried that Emery has to accommodate our no 10s
Yes it was a wrong pass for him which got intercepted from less than a yard quickly by Pogba , can’t blame him for that. What was shocking was simply the way he jogged behind Pogba. Torerria, Iwobi, AMN, Gwendozi and even already tired Ramsey would have closed Pogba down even if they have to get a yellow card just to keep us in the game and keep pushing for the equalizer. Yet the lame overpaid duck couldn’t run at good speed after just playing for less than 15mins to help cut the counter attack.
Ozil should just go, we need to free up his wages for players like Docoure, Nainggolan etc.
Nainggolan !!!!! LOL i hope you are not as dumb as your suggestion.
I hoped we signed Nainggolan over the summer, but he went to Inter. Raja in for Xhaka would have definitely been an upgrade. Not sure what you’re laughing at, unless you’ve never seen him play.
Oh please dont mention that incident or there will be hordes of fans abusing you and pardoning the jacka*s and criticizing Iwobi all day long
#Sigh he really is a duck. “Let him play himself into form” my gosh! We’d be lucky and better off if he never took to the field in our kit ever again. Was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt but after all the support from his diehard fans and calls for him to be given a chance, for him to come back and give us that trash performance against man Utd of all teams… sell him already, we’re tired and fed up. He’s useless, let him go showcase his talent somewhere else, cause it’s certainly not doing our results or team spirit any good
Ozil going yes, but the digested Names? I disagree.
Once again the heading reads if only Arsenal had taken their chances!! This is the story of our season… or even decade???
Wot we need or 2 towering Cb and big stong cm and 2 quick wingers all for 180 million then sell some Dead Wood we should get 50-60 for them job done
No we don’t need 2 towering CB especially when all our CBS are fit. What we need are wingers and the fullbacks can concentrate on defending instead of bombing forwards and caught out positions. The difference between winning and losing yesterday was in the way we and Man U defended and not the qualities of defenders.
Yes we do we got to many old cb get 2 26 years olds with holding job done
Who writes this crap. Unlucky? You make your own luck and I am afraid we have a crap squad that cant play tig. Unlucky! Pure dung!!!!!!
Led by a double crappy coach
Red and white, if you say it often enough you might start to believe it!
Unai Emery is well respected by his peers as a very good coach and I value their opinions more than yours.
Who got out of the wrong side of bed???
Do you mean you disagree with Petr Cech and the stats are lying?
Been the same thing for seasons now, missed chances and injuries, and as for the defence. Oh for the days of Tony Adams and Martin Keown, maybe not the best technically but full of fight and passion.
If only Ozil had understood Lacazzette pass, ManU wouldn’t have gotten that quick break and a third goal. If only we had a different player other than Ozil chasing Pogba, he would have closed him down and ManU wouldn’t have scored that third goal. It all boils down to the problem which is Oz.
Ozil had just been on for 10 mins and didn’t have the legs to catch Pogba who has been running the entire game. What a joke for a talisman, no passion no commitment and yet some fans bash Emery for sticking Ozil where he truly belongs…. on the bench.
They might not have scored their 3rd goal, but that doesn’t mean we’d have gone on to win!
Give it a rest I knew you would be lurking here somewhere waiting to have a dig at ozil .we get it you love iwobi and he does no harm .i was going to say iwobi played ok last night (just ok).but as soon as ozil came on he opened the game up so again maybe take them glasses off (the Rose tinted kind ).
Will you still support arsenal when iwobi is not playing at arsenal anymore TH14? Or will you have moved on to the next team that as a crappy Nigerian player in it ?
@Dan kit
Ozil opened absolutely nothing up! Guendouzi did, who came on with Ozil, but Ozil did not. And Iwobi has completely outplayed Ozil this season, and he hasn’t even been that great, which tells you how bad Ozil has been.
And I beg to differ .ozil if you hadn’t noticed as hardly played ,how can he get his game up when he as no run of games played .if you think iwobi as played well then there really is no hope for us because he at best is a squad player to be bought on when we are 5 nil up .just look up iwobis stats since he’s been at arsenal and come back and tell me he’s good enough for a forward player ,please tell me what on earth he brings to the team .he can barely shoot (seen better shots in my sons under 13 games on a cold Sunday morning )his passing is atrocious,if he does complete a pass it’s either by luck or it’s usually over hit so the recipient as no chance to control it ,when he does manage to take on a man he either trips over himself or runs the ball out of play .
Listen I’m not ozils biggest fan but atm he should be in that team (his stats don’t lie and he can back it up )thing is I don’t get is izils game asntbchanged since we signed him now why all of a sudden as everyone jumped on this bandwagon saying they want him gone .
I know who I would rather have in my team ,a World Cup winner or a player who got lucky because he had a famous uncle .
I agree with you Dan, about Iwobi. He isn’t good enough, and the stats don’t lie when it comes to Ozil. We’re just as creative without him and score plenty of goals, and we’ve much better stats in the big games without him. He’s played 4 big games this season, has done absolutely nothing in 3 of them (slightly better performance against Liverpool ), and we’ve lost 3 of them, and drawn the other. Without Ozil in big games, we win, we score loads and create.
You also mention Ozil missing a lot of games, which backs up my point even further. If he is so important to us, a WC playmaker, then how on earth are we scoring so many goals without him then? Shouldnt we be really struggling in the final third, considering Ozil’s consistent absence?
Iwobi isn’t leaving so don’t hold your breath Dan. It’s 5 years baby…. ?
There’ll always be another Nigerian ready to step up. We have a lot of Nigerians in the U23 and U18 so I’m not bothered. But you on the other hand should be cos the rate those young Nigerians are developing, we might have 5 or 6 of them in the first team one day and you can go support another team without Nigerians
@Th14 Your embarrassing us , We get it Iwobi has potential, if he doesnt improve his decision making he will be another Gervinho.
This arsenal team screams average . apart from the strikers Arsenal players are no better than Everton .
Xhaka should consider another sport be a professional at .I think willock will be better .
Mustafi is a hilarious defender
Kola is a left back whose positional play is questionable
Ozil is Ozil . i will end it there.
As far as wing play is concerned i expect Saka to be getting game time by now.
Auba cost 60 million pounds and all i see is tap ins . Compare that with a certain Van Persie ,Suarez etc .
Lich should be coaching the youth instead of trying to play football .
I am tired of Clubs taking advantage of us .
Remind me again, who did not catch Lukaku or closed him down for his two final passes that led to the goals and those players that could not prevent Alexis and Linguard from scoring so that I can criticize them. Ozil played like 30mins and he is the only one you could pour your anger on for losing the match. Look my fellow Nigerian, if our boy could improve on his end product we would have won the match. In fact he would have being the most valuable player in our club. I get it you don’t like Ozil but don’t pin that lost on him.
I am not having a dig at Ozil, just stating the obvious. It was frustrating to see Ozil jogging behind Pogba instead of sprinting to prevent that third goal. He couldn’t even match Pogba’s (not Rashford or Martial) pace and he’s only been on for like 15 mins. At 1-2 we had a chance plus given it was 10 mins added on. Anyone but Ozil would have caught Pogba.
It wasn’t a surprise that our only goal came from the left where Iwobi played. Him and Kolasinac were a constant threat down there and we lost any glimmer of hope the moment he left the field. Ozil created nothing.
Arsenal fans were troubled when Rashford and Martial were about to be introduced, could you say the same for United fans when our supposed talisman was coming in? I doubt that.
Unlucky !.?.
It was down to not taking the chances we had in the first half and rank bad defending. Kolasinac was terrible at left back whilst AMN did ok but was also frequently caught upfield when they countered. Our best player last night was Ramsey and he’s already going, smh.
Lol… Ain’t it funny how keyboard warriors here have all turned to world class coaches. Many things are possible on internet, especially turning whining ignorant youngsters into mature technicians up there with the best as Guardiola.
There are many things a coach can do, but scoring for you is not one. You lot (Red and White et al) should channel your anger at the appropriate place ala Kroenke and leave unfounded guesstimations out of this. The stats are there for all to see. We outplayed Man Utd. I blame the players for not taking their chances. Also, injuries and inadequate players in the right departments. Emery hasn’t really gotten the players suited for his game. Till then, sparre him the harsh criticisms.
NB: I look forwrd to our revenge in the return leg at home in EPL. That one counts more to me than this FA cup.
Sorry but we were not unlucky. Man Utd did not have to do much to beat us. Kolasinac and to some extent AMN forgot they were full backs today….back four and not wing backs. I cannot believe how many time we piddled around outside the box and forgot the ball does need to go into the box. Plus the casual lack of intensity was bizarre. Against Chelsea we were intense. Yesterday we were casual, slow and s***. I don’t blame Emery or the players. When they see how Greedy Stan is spending 5 billion dolars in his LA projects and then starving the club we all love, then the players must catch the Kroenke disease. If he doesn’t give a monkey’s peanut then how will anyone else at the club really succeed? Kroenke out. Every comment please end with KROENKE OUT.
Brilliantly summed up ? Kroenke out
You can pull every player appart individually but the fact is, the squad don’t have the same pride and passion for the shirt they wear and the club they play for! Long gone are the days of Viera, Lungberg, Adams, Pires and co..
This is Arsenal but I doubt many on the pitch last night saw any thing other than “just another game”?
Look at the individual player ratings for every game Arsenal have played this season so far. Lots of 4’s 5,s and 6’s.. Average ratings all in all. Tells me everything I need to know about how average Arsenal have become over the past 10 years!
Wonke Kronke Out!! Btw (:
KROENKE OUT!!!!
KROENKE OUT!!!!
KROENKE OUT!!!!
KROENKE OUT!!!!
I was blazing mad at the silly comments coming from Wright, Shearer and co after the game on BBC last night. They were , imo, clearly trying to dig at what was for me a mostly fine performance and very unfortunate injury wrecked game. They almost totally ignored and much downplayed the enormous bad luck we suffered which totally changed the game. It entailed a hasty filling in of position and no team can or SHOULD be expected to play their best under those circumstances. Sorry Wrighty, BUT you have gone down much in my opinion. Not as a man nor as an ex- player but certainly as a pundit. You were way out of order. Your clear job, which you shirked, was to point out the enormous bad injury luck we have suffered and to stress the evident ferocious fight we showed against what is now( that Moaninho is gone) once again a top side. Disappointed that you chose to put your pundit career above telling the truth. The whole truth too!
Personally , apart from the last quarter when we, not surprisingly ran out of steam, what I saw was a highly committed passionate and in some respects even a thrilling confirmation of the new fight and grit that Emerys teams now shows. I have not forgotten the bleak last few easily bullied and unmotivated years under Wenger. What I HAVE ALWAYS DEMANDED is that our team gives it’s all. LAST NIGHT, as is now common, we again sweated blood. I am a disappointed but a proud Gooner today and don’t care who disagrees. Bad luck killed us. That was the story.