The condemnation of Arsenal’s second-half performance against Watford yesterday is almost universal, fans, former players, pundits everywhere are simply ripping into Unai Emery and the players.
Where to start? well. Paul Merson is as good a place as any, the former Gunner rounded on Emery claiming he got it horribly wrong and lamenting the Spaniards decision to take off Ozil telling SkySports “The manager got it horribly wrong. I couldn’t believe he brought Ozil off. Who else is going to open up a team bar him?
Another former Arsenal man Nigel Winterburn questioned whether Emery knows his right formation telling LoveSport Radio “You can’t have that if you’re going to be a top-four team. Emery needs to find a solution very quickly because you can’t keep conceding two or three goals and hope to win games”.
TalkSport host Alan Brazil basically called the Arsenal midfield useless telling his listeners “Arsenal’s midfield is not good enough, not classy enough. They might sneak into fourth place, but no way will they be first, second or third. Not with that midfield, no chance.”
Arsenal supporting journalist John Cross took to Twitter and posted this
Unai Emery refused to blame individuals, but how many David Luiz mistakes is it now that has led directly to a goal? Incredible. Rob Holding and the full backs can't come back soon enough and surely Calum Chambers is a better option.
— John Cross (@johncrossmirror) September 15, 2019
Pundit Tony Cascarino, speaking to the Times also had a pop at David Luiz, opining “They needed to sign a defender, someone who is cool under pressure and has leadership qualities – and spent £8million on David Luiz, a player who has never embodied any of those qualities.”
And on it went, there were tons more but it will just get boring and more depressing reading and listening to the reaction of so many to what we all witnessed yesterday.