Hello lovely Arsenal people. Answer me this very simple question – is Granit Xhaka your captain? Not mine. Pretty much any other player in the squad was a better choice than Xhaka. This decision will be questioned hard. The fans wildly applauded Xhaka being substituted against Villa as it made us more dynamic in midfield.
The players also know that Xhaka is the most error prone player in the squad, and he’s the player whose individual mistakes have lead to many goals conceded in the league. This decision is huge, because it’s the latest in a series of bad decisions that all started when he underestimated Palace and lost us the top 4.
Emery is weak when it comes to decisions. He started promisingly though, when he dropped Ozil and he was making bold subs at half-time that were winning us games, but the luck ran dry and he found himself short of ideas. People don’t question you if results go your way, but unconvincing performances win games to a point.
We have a golden chance to take advantage of the bad form of our rivals, and looking at the fact that the stats Emery has as our manager are similar to the ones Wenger had before he was fired is worrying. See Emery has done nothing for us and thus far, criticism will start flowing his way very fast, especially as the board backed him solid with signings.
He even failed at what he is best at – the Europa League. And speaking of it, we are a team on a way higher budget than the one the EL gives us. We need to get back to the top 4 and the game on Monday will be pivotal.
They are in bad shipe, lack striking potential, but yet, I’ve seen this before and we practically started the career of Marcus Rashford. I wouldn’t enjoy a repeating scenario with Mason Greenwood, but our defense is so poor, I just don’t think we’ll win. We lack mentality despite our great comeback against Villa.
We’ve been extremely poor away from home and this will be in the back of the players heads. It’s Emery’s job to pick the right squad for once and tight up the ship at the back. On Tuesday we had Tierny, Bellerin, Holding and Chambers, and to me those are the best 4 defenders in the squad. Not that Nottingham Forrest are a real measure to Arsenal, but given the number of changes, what we produced was impressive never the less.
If I was the Arsenal manager, Xhaka would be nowhere near the starting line up for OT. We haven’t won there since 2006 in the league. I’ve been waiting since forever to see a league win there, and I don’t wanna wait anymore. It’s another golden chance to do it, and if he screws up, he should be out of the door. Allegri is available and so is Jose. Make of it what you will, but there are options, better options.
We’ve been afraid of change for so long and we shouldn’t be. We survived without Wenger, we can surely do it without anybody else. We can’t wait for the end of the season to screw up again. If Emery doesn’t turn a corner soon, the fact that players question his decisions already, means we’re waiting on a time bomb.
We already made this mistake with Arsene, Emery though doesn’t have much to stand for. The players reportedly don’t like his English during games as it hiccups the management. Ancelotti said that the language barrier is a huge problem. You must speak the language if you are to manage a team in a foreign country.
Unai’s body language during interviews doesn’t fill you with confidence. During recent games, he’s often looked like Wenger, clueless on the touchline sitting in his chair, instead of waving around and giving instructions.
Every way you look at it, Emery needs a result at Old Trafford as much as we want one. I just fail to see it happening by placing one of your worst players as captain, but we’ll see. I really hope I am wrong. One thing I do think will happen if we don’t win though, is that Emery will be in the spotlight. His contract is for 2 years + 1 extension. He’ll get it only by a top 4 finish and nothing else. That’s my rant for the weekend done.
Hopefully the bad form of others will continue and we will put ourselves in a solid top 4 position at the end of the round.
Enjoy the weekend!
Konstantin