The season is not yet over, we can still qualify for the Champions League and add silverware to the cabinet but most Arsenal fans will tell you that this will have been a dismal season even if we win the Europa League.
It is, of course, huge to win a European trophy but what we have seen over the last month or so has been unacceptable and has highlighted the deep-rooted problems we have and winning silverware will not erase those problems going forward.
If we think we can go into next season with this squad and manager and expect a different outcome we are fooling ourselves.
Our rivals will strengthen and so must we but first and foremost we have to analyse what went wrong and who is responsible for that.
If we do not do that how can we be expected to make the necessary changes to ensure that we do not collapse again in the future?
The first person we must be looking at surely has to be the owner Stan Kroenke, he holds the purse strings and he did not support Unai Emery in the transfer market.
Then there is the manager, the buck stops with him in terms of team performance and his rotation policy, team selection and tactics have left many of us baffled. If he is unable to get the best from these players then who else is expected to?.
The players are the ones on the field of play, there is no excuse for what they have done in terms of performance, no manager or owner can mitigate for a player that misses a crucial penalty, misses a sitter, wanders around the field in a lazy uninterested manner, gets sent off, misplaces a pass and generally performs badly.
If it is the owner that is ultimately responsible then he needs to sell up, if it is the manager he then needs to be replaced, if it is the players then they need to be sold and if it is all three then we are in more trouble than I ever thought possible.
Forget… Let’s focus on how we should move forward.
Incoming:
Attack- Wilfred Zaha
Midfield- Adrien Rabiot
Defense- Sam Umtiti, David Alaba
Retain: Bellerin, Holding, Lacazette, Auba, Leno
Outgoing: Literally anyone or everyone else ( especially Mustafi, Mkhitaryan , Monreal)
Four marquee signings in one transfer window would be highly improbable, because the highest retainers at club insist on staying to milk us
I predict maximum two pricey players would come if we don’t extend all old players’ contracts and manage to sell the underperformers
Ozil’s, Mustafi’s and Mkhitaryan’s contracts will expire in 2021, so Arsenal have to sell them in this summer if they don’t want to lose the money. Arsenal could not find the buyers previously, but hopefully Sanllehi’s and Venkatesham’s connections are better than Gazidis’
It’s more irritating to see transfer predictions of the Fantasy Football kind pop up by fans here. Realistically, nobody decent will come here. We have to prepare the reserves to challenge the first-teamers, that is the only way they will want to leave.
Everybody at Arsenal is responsible, but the most responsible one is the most powerful person at the club. I suspect Kroenke might be the one that made big decisions
All players and staffs have changed, including the CEO and the long-serving manager, but the results are similar. Only one remains the same at Arsenal, the king Kroenke
Of course we cannot blame Kroenke alone or accuse him being stingy, because he has spent more than 200 millions on player transfers in the last five years. However, if he knows how to run a big football club, he should have changed the club culture and fixed the youth development/ scouting systems
No, players haven’t changed but have been inherited from Wenger give Emery this coming summer and then we will see
For those who thought that this rookie manager was better than Brendan Rodgers just watch today’s game and you’ll see a serious Leicester team.
Rodgers’ boys are being dominated by Guardiola’s
lmaooo
“You can’t make a silk purse from a cow’s ear”. You cannot make clearly ordinary players perform like naturally talented players who have inbuilt desire. If your owner is no good and will not invest and if your players are no good it doesn’t matter how good your manager is. Arsenal have the worst squad since George Graham’s time and the have a Portfolio Owner, who unlike all us supporters does not have that “DESIRE” and intensity of spirit that all supporters do. I have taken the time to study Kroenke’s activities in America. He is full of as much bullshite as Donald Trump. He is a conman and when the old Arsenal board sold to him they were totally deceived. Why is there no noise made to tell him he is not wanted? Emery has proved he can manage a big team, PSG, and two ordinary team’s, Valencia and Seville. We have some shite players and you just have to tell the truth to yourself. You know who they are. We have the worst shite owner possible. Get him out or our club will be purely a “Portfolio” club.
Trump at least with bull shit makes things happen Ramsey Niles Iwobi give 100% the others have ability but no heart especially Ozil . The team really don’t deserve to be in Champs lg Wolves has more heart and desire. When you see the big team picture on the Stadium locked in arms there is no way any apart from Ramsey from this squad you would add to it. The fans who take there children to the game must think what the hell am I doing here trying to get my son to cheer this team. Do you honestly think that even if we had 500 million to spend that top players would come here because you would still have half the team that’s rubbish. It needs Denzils broom to clear out all except the youth and Bowles needs to go too.
These players have let down two highly respected managers in Arsene Wenger and Unai Emery. A thorough clean out is required, provided Kroenke puts up the funds.
The performance of the scouting network and the academy will be critical to get the “most bang for the bucks”.
Most of the players we have in our squad are beyond repair. Don’t blame all that on Emery. Wenger left him with too much mess to clear. Blame the lazy and error prone players. Blame Kroenke and Co for tightening purse strings.
Ozils wages and wenger !!!
it’s Emery’s first season hence we should forgive him. let’s see what he can/can’t do next season then judge him
??
I’ll say it again. Brendan Rodgers is way better than this rookie manager. Look at what he’s done with this mid-table Leicester team going toe to toe with man city.
They were mid-table because of Puel 😉
And every Liverpool fan will tell you that 7th, 2nd & 6th without a trophy was all that Brendan could do with them. Gonna blame Slippy G on him eh?
Konstantin would have sacked Rogers, Ferguson, Klopp and Guardiola in their first years, because they didn’t win the league.
Arsenal fans. So you tell me the Leicester squad is better than our SQUAD… The reason teams like Chelsea are successful these days is that they don’t even wait for bullshit managers to develop. Let’s start acting like a big team for once.
The same Chelsea that paid millions to sign players? Obviously they can afford to be ruthless with their manager 😉
Man U are finding it harder to do the same thing though. Maybe, like us, they’ve learnt that signing players on obscene wages impacts the dressing room more than they think
Chelsea has a transfer restriction for next season.
Arsenal can’t even afford a decent transfer budget, let alone pay out Emery’s contract to hire a replacement manager. Kroenke would have a heart attack!
Arsenal is no big club dude arsenal is just a rich club
Not only am I pi@@ed at us bottling it, I am also pi@@ed at City being 0-0 at half time!
The way I am seeing it.
Liverpool could win the title come Sunday and they could well overturn the 3 0 deficit and go on to win the champions league as well
???
Big dream mate
We have so many passengers in the squard … too many of them
Here for the money and fame
liverfool set to win title after City draw
Too soon to call
liverfool are guaranteed to win the title…they have heaps of help
This match is just a theatrics, if Manchester city win the title, Leceister city will pocket $7.5 million .
From Riyald Mayrez deal
Our squad is so devoid of qualify that we doesn’t even know what quality players look like anymore sometimes I have to watch certain teams play to see a quality game of football
I just don’t speak for the sake.
Firstly look at the signings that he made! Guendouzi – very slow and even pity supporters who think he’ll come any good: Torreira – very mobile but even Coquelin was as aggressive but more talented:
Secondly look at the players he CHOOSES! Maitland Niles at right back – the stupidest decision you’ll get any day of week: XHAKA, Guendouzi – as slow as snails: Mustafi:
Thirdly we missed out on (or were not serious about) players that would take us to another level: Moura, Kovacic, Aurier, Carrasco, coman etc
Final Verdict: play iwobi, mavropanos, Torreira, koscielny, Leno, mkitaryan, lacazette, kolasinac, sokratis, aubameyang & nketia.
What is your point
And what better option do you want for right back judging by the performance of Lichtina and jekinson
Right from his choice of players to buy, to choosing the team to play, to tactics; this manager has zero. Wait and see the players we will be buying next season.
Tactics yes maybe wrong at times but remember we win quite a few too with his tactics also…..
U talk like u can do a better job in coaching and team management intresting
And who do we have in our midfield that is better than does we brought in
Emry is not a manager his a head coach
There should be people doing the transfer not Emery
But a see you are frustrated with the man like everyone else but
I can’t agree with many invalid POINT u made
Mr Nonny. Look here. At the beginning of the season I said we have the stupidest midfield, let alone the defence; and guess who made all those decisions.
The midfield makes the defence very weak because they cannot dodge nor pass forward incisively nor stop attacks aggressively.
U are saying too many yet little POINT
mayert, for your information Emery does not arrange transfers of players, the management structure was changed prior to Arsene Wenger leaving. Sven Mislattat scouted and arranged transfers prior to his departure. The director of football position is currently vacant.
Lol gosh we Arsenal fans are so hurt though, Emery did a cruel thing putting us in a beautiful position to land top 4 and then not following through. And make no mistake he did put us in that position, then el came along and the thought of that 4th trophy was too scrumptious to pass up lol. Emery will of course take the blame, he never hangs his players out to dry which I admire but he knows the players let him down and he will recruit and get rid of some players without a second thought this summer I’m sure of that. When all’s said and done the season is not over, and we still have the Europa to contest, this negativity is not helping. Instead of crying “I told you so” about Emery maybe we can unite and solve the real problem why emery won’t be able to take us forward as a club, the owner and lack of funds. Let’s wipe our tears and act with more class crybabies 😉 it’s not how you fell down but how you get back up. Victory through harmony remember??
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Thank you Vincent Kompany ???
they’re a team with a leader. Where is ours Sue? I can’t imagine Arsenal ever being able to hold down their nerve in a tight title race. We have such a long way to go. Still, we can salvage something from this season despite everything.
Very true, RSH… ours has gone AWOL (along with the fight, grit & determination ?)
I can’t imagine that either, I mean we can’t even beat Brighton.. so yes we are miles behind
Tbh I’m just waiting for us to screw that up as well.. honestly I hope we don’t, but after how we’ve performed recently, you just know anything’s possible (& I bet Valencia are thinking that too!)
Sue, Rogers took over a Leicester team that licking goals like basket licks water from Puel and make them put out defensive master class against the most potent attacking unit in epl and we are here saying no one can improve our defense. I saw every Leicester players put in a shift. Every one don’t abandon their position and kept covering for one another. And when they attack, they attack keeping their shape and with intent. Their is this saying during Wenger reign, that our team is reflection of our manager and I think the same should be said about Emery. He has every bit of Wenger in him. He is just younger and full of emotions.
I’d say most games I watch Mobella – everyone puts a shift in!! I just don’t think our players are very good… some people say they are, they’re inconsistent.. but for the money they’re all on, we shouldn’t be seeing inconsistency!! And what about their own personal pride?!
A dreadful end to the season… Will we have to endure more of this next season? Most probably…..
Well done Manchester City??
I just want City to win the league, but part of me is now feeling sorry for Liverpool. As the very religious bunch would say, “what shall it profit a man to get the whole world and lose his soul?”. How would it feel if after winning all these matches both in the league and in Europe, and yet not win anything? Just like the Spurs, what has Liverpool won for always being mentioned as an example in greatly improved team?
By the way, for those who always want to bash our players and put the whole blame on Wenger who left a long time ago, I want to remind us as most would agree with me, that what Wenger’s squad lacked was a good defensive midfielder. But now we’ve got Toreira (not correct spelling), so why haven’t things improved? When Wenger had something close to a DM in Coquelin, our defence suddenly became the best in the EPL Now that we have a truly DM, what is going on? And people would still blame Wenger.
The same goes for always being on the neck of the players who work their socks out for us – Ozil and Iwobi. I wonder what they’ll be feeling like when they see some of the comments here. I tried putting myself in their shoe and it wasn’t pleasant at all.
I am not against criticism but it should be constructive ones.
Once again well done ManCity???
I agree, Gily.. Well done City! It was tense & I was beginning to think they’d blown it, then up stepped Vincent Kompany ???
??❤
…what a thunderbolt that shot was???
Wow!!
Happy days ???
I am not too sure who should take the responsibility but I am sure unai will hold his hand up and take it.
And rightly so because his decisions is what leads the direction of the 1st team. There is clear issues still with Unai. As much as I feel he should be given another year, I still have concerns about his tactics.
3 4 3 means our flat midfield 4 has no solution’s in Xhaka, Genduozi or Torriera (when 2 play in the middle of the 4) to support the top 3 and join up the link. This means Ozil is too far up the pitch to influence from his natural position. He prefers runners in front of him so he can pick a pass, but being part of the top 3 means he is lacking the space to do this.
I also have concerns that unai is still dictating position, movement…etc from the touch line too much. Clearly his idea’s are not fully being understood during training…also it is worth noting he has only just learnt the basics of speaking English at the start of the season…and still is learning the language. Hugely commendable by the way…but a clear communication issue exists
I want to see an evolution of our tactics. The squad is still not balanced and a lack of Jan funds indicates a long term plan But with Sven going around this time…issues inside still seem to hinder AFC…and so the Board need to take responsibility for the pace of grow we are seeing.
The key is to play 3-4-1-2 with Ozil as a normal 10, with his only duty to attack, attack and attack. Auba and Laca should play up top changing where they would be, but offer Ozil a target rich front.
When Rambo when down, so did the box-to-box play. That is a big hole to fill. My sense is that the DMF role could be played by Sead Kolašinac and Xhaka, with both shutting down the middle. Both also offer outside scoring options as they have lethal long range shots that ought to be practice more. Kolasanic can try to play box to box, but not like Rambo, rather with more physicality with a threat to shoot from long.
Monreal and AMN should be the wingbacks. They can be supply with crosses, and also long passes to to top of the box for Sead and Xhaka to shoot hard and low hoping for lethal deflections.
The back three MUST be stable and not too adventurous. The back three needs to be protected as well with tough tackling and physical presence just in front of them, which is Xhaka’s and Sead’s job.
Who plays in the back is a problem as Emery has not used the last window well enough to get good players. Right now we have Koz, who is good when healthy, Sokratis, and Mustafi. These three are good when the ball is coming at them, and they cannot play too high a line as they are not fast enough. So the back three though be more traditional backs to the wall fighters.
Emery can coach this sort of game, but there are better coaches in England for the job. Time to bring one of them as soon as Europa League is done.
JJPawn, just remember Arsenal has been affected by injury and suspensions to defenders, particularly CB’s and Emery came clean and advised that the board had only provided funds for loan deals in the summer transfer window.
I can’t recall any defenders, apart from Johnny Evans, who were available for transfer, let alone loan in that mid season window.
This is one which is unfair to blame on Emery.
Ultimately it sthe manager. Its a no brainer.
I don’t know why Emery saw the need to change a winning team.
To make 1/2/3 changes is ok but to make 5 to 7 changes is naïve.
Hopefully Arsenal can win the Europa that is if they get the better off
Valancia.
What a joke of a fan base! With fans who do not know who is responsible, it is hilarious.
Who turned Rambo away? Who signed four players and could not plug the defense? Who plays a defense so high that almost any quick forward can score by running into the sea of empty space between the keeper and the back line? Who cannot manger superstars? Who plays from the back line suffocating their own forwards of the ball? Who makes the forwards play like DMF players?
The only reason Arsenal had a chance is due to its attacking assets. When the supply to the attackers are good the results are positive. When that supply is chocked, the team loses.
There are so many coaches we could have had:
Eddie Howe could have built a top four club, bring some of his best players with him.
Sean Dyche could have built a better defense out of English players and made the top three.
Rafael Benítez could brought this team to be top three, just behind City and Liverpool.
Manuel Pellegrini could have built a top three team playing with balance.
Wenger would have made top three with two defensive signings . (We know that was his plan after he added attacking players.)
All these managers would have won more away with the talent that Arsenal has.
In the past these fans attacked Wenger despite winning several FA Cups in the last five years, and despite developing one of the most potent attacking machines in the EPL. What was left was to get two defensive players, as he looked for quality. Wenger would have signed Ramsay to an extension. Sold this other players for more.
Only point I would contest is Wenger buying a DMF. He had 10 yrs to get one, we had Arteta, Flamini, Coquein, to name a few. He couldn’t find 1? Not a single DMF in the world?
Wenger was attack, attack, attack. Even when we just needed to stay tight in the back and put the game to bed, we Always stayed on front foot. It cost us many matches and points.
I’m grateful for Invincibles and all the trophies, but Wenger never truly interested in DMF type master defender.
I think Wenger tried and tried. There can only be one Patrick Vieira. I think that this season, with the sales Wenger had initiated, more change was on the cards, and he would have firmed the back line around Koz. The current additions make no sense, when Wenger was after Virgil Van Dijk.
At DMF Wenger tried with Xhaka last. There glimpses of Xhaka in the middle there, but you are right, Durand, there has to be better player out there. The idea is a runner like Kante, and here it looks like Emery has found a player with toughness in Torriera.
JJPawn, another one who would have sacked Ferguson, Klopp and Guardiola in their first seasons, because of perceived lack of success.
Durand, these same players have now “failed” two well respected managers in Wenger and Emery over the last 3 seasons, in failing to reach the Champions League positions through the EPL.
Great article as each of the 3 groups you mentioned caused the problems we had this season.First and ultimately kroenke refused to back his manager. Emery did tell him that the defence was useless before the season started and wanted £20m to buy the Croatian world cup finalist, Vida. He may not be that great but is far better than Mustafi. But kroenke refused and told Emery that getting top4 is a gradual process. Arsenal would have easily been 3rd this season with Vida, judging by Kols agedness, Holding’s season crippling injury and Mustafi’s uselessness.
Second, the players. Working hard as a footballer on obscene wages is the least you can ask for, but throughout the season most of our players cannot even manage half an effort NB Mustafi, Xhaka, ozil, Liechsteiner. You cannot blame any one for that but the players themselves.
Then the manager. What in Heavens name is this love affair with his former players? all those players he wants to be at our club are worst than the ones we have!!! I was aware of this even before Suarez came – another serious waste of money. Nkuku would prove to be no better. But my major problem with Emery began with the Palace game, and the number of players he decided to rest!!!!! It was clear after the Napoli match that Emery was only keen on the Eroropa trophy so he can keep his name in lights. He gave the players the impression that they need not perform in the league. Yet getting the champions league was easier with the league as we dropped 5 unecessary points against Palace and Brighton (although we may add the awful refereering decisions in the liecester and Brighton games.
if we are lucky we can get rid of the players we do not want, but can we buy the players we need?
Joe71, don’t forget that Emery told the officials to miss Tottenhams offside and coached Aubameyang to miss a penalty in the same game to cost Arsenal an extra 2 points and gift Spurs an extra point. Small margins this season.
Responsibility rests with The Board,The Management Team and last but not least, the players.To put it simply we have imploded because of the poor quality of our players.Without discussing the individuals concerned, if we had the Leicester City back four, we would have finished at least third in the PL.If we had their back four plus N,diti instead of say Xhaka , we might have pushed Man City and Liverpool.As it is, with the unfortunate injuries to Bellerin and Holding we have what is probably the poorest defence in the PL.It consists of a collection of slow, aging players who are “protected” by the slowest of all in the liability known as Xhaka who along with Mustafi represents the worst buys of the Wenger era.But no point in looking back, we have to repair the severe damage and get this engine moving again.The faulty parts should not be reburbished.They should be consigned to the bin and new well oiled units, which need not be too expensive should be brought in.Finally I would just like to echo the views of Sue .We are not failing because of a lack of effort on the pitch.We fail because we lack quality.
I see us failing for BOTH lack of quality, esp in defence which has become a music hall joke for many years past AND a lack of effort by many far too comfortable players, even under Emery. We need a load of players out the door this summer before ANYTHING major can ever be achieved. Without consistent effort of ALL ELEVEN week in ,week out NO club can ever win glory. I absolve Emery of blame for certain players lack of character. They were not his buys and as I am tired of saying, NO man can make silk purses from sows ears and NO one should expect him too do!