Arsenal has a realistic chance of beating Leicester City despite all the negativity.
There appears to be an assumption that Leicester City just needs to turn up today to collect all three points. Well, if you listen to the pundits and some of the comments on this site. This negativity is, in my opinion, unreasonable.
Yes, the Foxes are flying right now, yes, Arsenal is playing badly but there really needs to be some perspective.
Arsenal have played some fantastic football this season, fair enough it has been inconsistent and not for the entire 90 minutes but they have shown it regardless. They are fifth in the table, not in the bottom three, they have held both Man Utd and Tottenham. We are not as bad as is being made out right now.
Many blame Unai Emery, the same manager that got this team to a Europa League final, that stuffed last seasons Champions League finalists 4-2, whacked Chelsea 2-0 and that went on a 20 odd game unbeaten run.
Now, I am not defending Emery or the players and I am not kidding myself that we are in great shape right now, what I am doing is saying that with this manager and these players they can still get the win today.
Of course, they have to get the basics right. I know that and it is their failure to do so which has created the situation we are in today.
Being negative all the time is so draining
But being negative all the time is just so draining. There is enough evidence there, albeit from early last season, that Emery and the players can produce the goods.
Why it has not happened this season I do not know, I have an opinion and it has a lot to do with the toxic atmosphere around the club frightening the hell out of the players into not wanting to make mistakes but I could easily be wrong on that. It could easily be the manager has lost the dressing room, none of us really know.
What I do know is that it was working perfectly more or less right up until the last seven or eight games of last season and so the idea that Emery cannot get the best from these players is, in my opinion, a fallacy.
Arsenal are more than capable of beating Leicester City today. I for one will watch the game with a positive mindset, there s more than enough time to be negative once the result is known. Doing it before the game serves no purpose whatsoever.
I was watching Chelsea against palace and those young boys Lampard paraded really impressed me… in first half palace barely held the ball in the Chelsea 18yard
Senior players have more experience, but most of them can’t beat the youngster’s stamina, courage and hunger
Emery tried to use similar recipe. Unfortunately he has never become a world class player like Lampard and Guardiola, therefore he has never learned from legendary managers such as Del Bosque
Haarsh, Mourinho never even played football I don’t think. Emery has won three Europa League titles in consecutive seasons a feat that no one will ever replicate with the same club. Emery may not be suited to the Premier League but his playing career has nothing to do with it.
Martin yes arsenal can beat Leicester, however, the recent results suggest otherwise
Let’s talk about rope 4 chances imo we have none
And on your previous post you said you would welcome the courtroom to argue that emery’s choice of captain was similar to pep
As I said peps proof is in the trophies he gathers, emery’s choice is looking Awful a for a) how his captain reacted, ( yes I know some think he was right), and b the amount of games won while Xhaka was captain
I will give you the fact we haven’t looked any better after but maybe we shouldn’t have emery either
My argument is supported by arguably the best premise manager ever alex Ferguson always picking his captain
The one thing emery got right was in picking a captain who mirrors the mangers approach neither has a clue
You also mention ozil and mustafi in your comment yet both have been dropped for their performances not promoted to captain
Why you have brought Emery choosing the captain into this thread I do not know but I suggest you read the piece again. I have not advocated an opinion on Pep or Emery being right or wrong about allowing players to choose a captain. The article was purely about the differences in the reaction. That was literally it. Everything else is pure noise.
Martin I do not have time to sit on this site all day, as I told you I was replying to your previous comment on the last thread. If you don’t want any other comment than the threads item delete all
Comments
It something that a lot of people do
Or, and I am going out on a limb here, comment on threads that are actually about the subject in hand.
I don’t even understand the previous posts headline. Guadiolar allowed his players to pick a captain from a group of men with winning mentality and not from options in which one has publicly accepted his fellow mates and himself were scared of a lesser opponent.
Let’s be realistic Xhaka never merited wearing the armband not in Arsenal and not over Aubameyang worth has xhaka achieved for us? He and EMERY? So comparing Emery’s and Guadiolar choices is lame…
Winning mentality? And there was me thinking there are world cup winners in the Arsenal squad. Lame? nice retort, let me write that one down.
Come on Martin, now you’re clutching at straws, How many seasons have City been winners with a winner mentality and how many years have we been losers with loser mentality? Yes we have World Cup winners in our squad, yes two I believe, but when was that and what was their contribution? Just accept not everyone agrees with you, I have to, a lot!
I could easily add league winners in respective countries, Europa league winners, champions league winners and so on. To say there is not a winning mentality there is not only wrong, but it is also unfair. Agree with me or don’t agree with that is up to you but it is hardly clutching at straws to point out actual facts.
Touchy touchy Martin having a bad day ? Don’t you want people to comment or just the ones that agree with you
Nah mate, I respond in kind, though in your case I never responded with ridiculous comments.
You are not okay with people making assumption of an easy Leicester City win but your article contains many “maybes”.
The truth is our performance and defence from ending of last season till now do not inspire many people with confidence.
– We rarely have a decent half or style.
– They rely so much on Auba putting one in.
– We are almost certain to concede goals.
– Little shots on target while we allow a lot of them.
– Poor tactics
– Poor Substitution
It is hard for a betting man, even an Arsenal fan to back Arsenal.
I accept most of the above and that is why in the match preview I predict a 1-1 draw, however, I have a positive mindset and do belive Arsenal can win today and gave my reasons for that, thus the maybe’s. Not sure why that would be an issue.
Off Topic: Chelsea played Crystal Palace at Stamford bridge and I was impress with the way James held his own against Zaha. Totally impressed with how they handled Ayew as well.
Weeks ago we played Palace at Emirate and we were all over the place against Zaha and Ayew… Suddenly Chelsea play better football than us (who would have thought that)
Well, As a fan I want Arsenal to win against Leicester but I m not confident because of our previous results in the EPL and we have lost our last two fixture at the King Power stadium
The squad is good enough to beat Leicester, no doubt, but Emery’s tactics do not play to our strengths–dominating possession and attacking, they emphasize our weakness–defence. More of a bad thing doesn’t win games. Leicester are in great form right now, perhaps even over-confident, but if Emery sets up the team so that Leicester can take 30 shots and we can take 5 then odds are we’ll lose. Emery doesn’t know his strongest team, and even if he did, he wouldn’t know how to deploy them. Torreira is not Ozil. Chambers can’t defend against pace. Xhaka is not a defensive midfielder. Emery said he wants us to be a pressing club, clearly he doesn’t know how to coach an effective press. The team is all over the place. Weak in defence and dull in attack.
Well said.
That’s a nice summary of the state Arsenal are in.
See the instant negativity just doesn’t make sense to me. I admit we have been playing poor this season and are guilty of letting multiple leads slip recently but even with all that, still teams find it hard to beat us – 2 losses all season.
Leicester are in the form of their lives and we are quite possibly in the poorest form in recent times yet still we have just the same number of losses as they do – so no reason at all to automatically assume we are not going to get any points today imo.
Well said admin Martin 👏
The Jose rumors is really increasing, if Arsenal lose today I think Emery will be sacked and Jose will come in, I can’t wait to read what some fans on here will say about that .
I don’t see how will Mourinho, who failed as a manager last two times, help us in any capacity.
Hard for me to think that we would not win.
Am a fan. It is the last blow of the whistle that convince me. For now, we are winning even if Mustsfi and Sokratis are playing. My believe.
It’s a mistake to think that it was working well until the last 7-8 games. Emery was really getting lucky because Aubameyang was scoring every frigging match. That stopped happening, and Emery’s stupid gameplay got exposed. Aubameyang is a kind of player who sometimes miss sitters but sometimes converts the difficult ones where there literally was a little chance of scoring. And Auba was scoring such difficult ones consistently for Arsenal and so was saving Emery.
And I presume Emery will start with the stupid diamond formation again and make a treat of a game for the Leicester fans to watch. More than 30 attempts from Leicester today. More than 10-12 on target.
I think Pepe wont start and ceballos is out. Dont expect miracles from midfield.. As usual Emery will be playing to avoid catastrophic loss in the away game. So expect defensive tactics to avoid conceding 9 goals…
I expect a 3-1 loss to Arsenal…
I am dreaming of Emery getting sacked tomorrow..
That 3-1 scoreline was exactly what I was thinking.
I have said for years the toxic negative Emirates atmosphere and the media against arsenal are major factors to our teams problems. And this goes back to even when Eboue was still playing.
When Liverpool were struggling the kop still supported like real fans. Arsenal just can’t seem to replicate that.
I do feel emery is not the right man for the job though. He should be getting a lot more from this team and should have got a decent defender during the transfer window.
Football is a funny old game and underdogs do win, for example a team light years ahead of Arsenal…………Man City, have lost an FA Cup Final to Wigan and lost in league to the likes of Wolves and C Palace, so we always have a chance.
I expect a fighting tight close game where we lose by the odd 7 goals…………..7-0 to Foxes and Count Emery assasinated in the post match interviev with a stake through the heart !……………..I`m excited and cant wait !