Tierney and Bellerin returning is giving me confidence for Arsenal’s season ahead

But the thing that really excites me is the fact that our long time injuries are returning, most importantly, Kieran Tierney and Hector Bellerin. Another good run out from both of them has been promised by Emery, but to be fair he wants to take it easy and not risk overplaying them too quickly, which I actually agree with.

I also thought that Emery’s interview sounded much more coherent and easier to understand, after all the criticism this week over his quality of English. All these things are making me feel very positive about the future and I am looking forward to seeing our youngsters being impressive yet again tomorrow night.

This is what Emery said about Tierney and Bellerin this evening: “Tierney still needs time and confidence, training and playing,” Unai Emery said on Arsenal.com.

“Thursday is a good opportunity again, because he is ready to play. He will take minutes, he will take confidence and will be able with us to show also his progress.

“He didn’t play in Manchester because he had a small problem – not important – but the doctor told us that it’s better for him to be here, working alone and preparing for the match tomorrow.

“We are with him, taking precaution, it’s also important with the national team and we are thinking it is not the moment to work with them. For the next matches, I think he is going to be ready to play with us and to play with them.

“Hector Bellerin is the same, but with a small difference. Because he was injured for more time and after a long time, nine months, I think he needed to first play 15 minutes with us last week, perfect, the first minutes.

“He played with the under-23s for taking confidence and he was doing actions on the pitch to feel good and to repeat them when the level is higher. For example, for tomorrow, we are thinking that it depends on the training that we are going to do now on how he is feeling. But if he is feeling well, then normally, he is going to play.”

Just for that reason I am even more keen to watch the game, but also to see our other exciting youngsters in action. It’s a shame Eddie Nketiah isn’t also around to show his talent, but Saka and Martinelli are just as promising in my book.

A bit of gametime tomorrow will give us a great indication of how ready they are for the Premier League games coming up. I don’t know about you lot, but I am feeling very positive about the rest of this season. Are you?

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28 Comments

  1. I’m not feeling positive about the rest of the season at all Pat ..
    This coach in charge is completely ruining our global appeal with his prehistoric football,I mean the 80s called they want their football back.
    I’m already thinking of next season after 7 games,even with all the youngsters coming back will Fred flintstone even get them in the team .

    1. If we weren’t 4th place I would agree with you
      But a REAL arsenal fan wouldn’t have a negative defeatist attitude after just a few games

      1. I agree. How can we not feel optimistic for the rest of the season? We still have not fielded our best team with Hoklding, Tierney, Bellerin, and Laca still coming back from injury. We haven’t even hit our stride yet and we are still managing to grind points out.

        Now is the time to be a fan and cheer on the team.

        1. Dory L Sater, if you are still waiting for Unai to field that strong squad you are talking about, am sorry. Keep waiting until he has no job any more! His best 11 includes Xchaka, Socratis, Luiz, Kola with whom he pains when substituting any one of them

      2. Innit, at first I was excited by improvements under Emery:
        – conducted his transfers swiftly (no panic buys)
        – brought two excellent DMs (we were crying out for one)
        – change of culture (youth players share table with senior players, etc)
        – tactical preparation before game
        – subtitutes his player early (no more waiting till 70 min) and effectively

        Now after I’ve listed all positive things about Emery, I came to a conclusion that he is not a man to take us forward, because he has been in this club for more than a year yet:
        – we are worse defensively (shots faced, goals conceded, num of clean sheets)
        – we are still struggling away from home, against lesser oppositions, and against top 6 opponents
        – his points tally is more or less similar to Wenger’s last 44 games
        – no leadership

  2. Tierney, Bellerin, Holding and Lacazette when he comes back will improve us

    We are in 4TH Place so it’s not all doom and gloom ahead of United, Spurs and Chelsea

    I’ll save my attack on Emery until we are pushed down the table

    We are in 4TH place
    Criticism is fine
    But let’s see how this season develops, especially with the return of key starters

    1. We’re only 4th because those teams you mentioned are performing worse at present, not because we’re actually playing well. We had a twenty-something game unbeaten run last season, yet it was obvious to those who were objective that we weren’t playing well.
      I feel most of us have seen enough of Emery to know he isn’t the man to take us forward. He keeps deciding to keep us on the backfoot with his team selections and line ups every game, and I thought u pointed out that Ceballos should have started against Manure….. well, that being said, I’m always excited to see our injured players return. cheers!

    2. To read all the 4th place nonsense make me cringe.It seems like nirvana for some. All the years that Wenger FINISHED 4th over better was never good enough for the very people who are thinking 4th will do. IF Emery, with his stubborn outdated tactics and atrocious team selection gets us to 4th it will be as good a winning the Champions League. He couldn’t do that at PSG with half the French National Squad and three World Class players.

        1. It does not matter whether Tuchel is doing better or not. What matters is Emery doing better at Arsenal. I do not like the way he sets his teams up and can not see us getting into the top 4 if he does not change. I read somewhere after the United game we were a mediocre team playing mediocre football and would finish mid table if thing did not change. However I expect him to be here to the end of the season regardless. It is not the Arsenal way to not give a manager time.

  3. Like Dan rightly pointed out, the thought of having mr.tinkerman at the helm dampens the confidence, but then I can’t help but feel we’ll be greatly improved by having them both in the team…. I’m especially stoked to see them bombing up and down the flanks, feeding assists to our forwards….. I doubt Emery’s contract will be renewed anyway, so…. we can stay positive. Add Holding and Laca to those two returning, and tell me you’re still not excited 😀

  4. I’m not feeling positive, it’s the way Emery set up his team, not the players.
    I get it he wants to make a full use of his fullbacks, but in the first half against United how many crosses that were succesfully dealt with by Maguire & Lindelof?
    Defensively it’s less about fullbacks, I mean the dumb trio:
    Luiz:
    When he was one-on-one against Andreas, on his left was Guendozi, why was he turned to the left?
    Allowing a free header from Torminay, couldn’t guard his area properly
    Sokratis:
    Couldn’t properly block a shoot from a DM that were born just yesterday
    Xhaka:
    Instead of sacrificing his plain ordinary face, he avoided the shoot!

  5. Yes, i agree about our returning players..we have a lot to be excited about.. i just hope UE plays them! You know how great it’d be to see our strongest 11 out there (& not at home becoming a fortnite professional)

  6. Patience is a virtue! UE needs more time. New players and those returning from injury must be slowly integrated into the team. The Carabao Cup and Eur League are ideal opportunities, but unfortunately we got the worst possible draw in the Cara Cup, so the run might soon end. Notwithstanding, let’s give UE a chance, he has a completely different setup to last season, nearly like joining a new club.

  7. What a surprise, Liverpool have just been handed a fine, so we’ll still play them in the carabao cup (& hopefully do them 👊)

    1. We should go there with a winning mentality and apply the theory that “a bully only understands and respects bullying”

  8. Emery has not done badly even though he could have performed better. Our defence is as porous as basket made of palm sticks.Luis has not brought the much expected solidity in the defence. Hopefully when Bellerin, Holding and Tierney are fully fit and playing, then we can begin to pass judgment on Emery’s tactical prowess.so far, he needs to improve his approach to games.

  9. I was watching a rare Bergkamp interview the other day where he describes one of the things Wenger told him after he joined. “We are going to be the champions this year” is all he said and that’s how confident he was of the team.
    We have the players, but do they have the confidence to play fearless football, or do they have the permission from Emery to play fearless, free flowing football? It will be great to watch Bellerin & Tierney bombing forward at some pace and putting in the crosses. Better still would be a creative midfield receiving those and lay it on for the strikers? The players are capable, barring a couple of slow coaches, but we have hope to watch a good game. If they follow the Forest game template.

    I personally always believed that Holding & Chambers will make a good DM pair, but will they be on the pitch is anyone’s guess.

  10. LDDWWWD

    My best 11.

    Aubameyang..

    Lacazette..

    Saka, Guendouzi, Torreria, Pepe..

    Tierney, Holding, Chambers, Bellerin..

    Leno.

  11. There is a reason why Emery is hired and gets paid to coach Arsenal while we remain on our couch proclaiming to know coaching more than he does.

    I think as fans, our role is to support the club by watching their matches either live or on our TV….rejoice or whine over results…..and come here to type whatever BS comes to our mind.

    1. Very refreshing
      Some times in the heat of the moment we seem to write things we feel at the time..me included but I mentioned this before to some one I was answering too..
      All our opinions matter on here even the Bs ones and even the one we dont agree with. One thing we all have in COMMON…we all strieve for one thing for our club to be successful on and off the pitch
      I am sure we would find some thing too moan about even if we were in city’s shoes…
      Onwards and upwards fellow gooners

  12. I believe whichever manager we get will be from planet earth and hence he will have some weaknesses. If some people feel like changing the coach every time results don’t go away they need look no further than Man U. Can you remember the managers since Sir Alex Ferguson left? Let’s name them: David Moyes, Luiz Van Gaal, Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Sjokar. Which trophies have they won in that period?Europa League, FA and Carabao cup but those couldn’t save the respective managers! Now there is no realist who can expect Man U to win any trophy in its present form. What am I driving at? We need to be patient with Emery. This is a coach who is a proven winner and can replicate the same with Arsenal. The old saying goes that Rome was not built in a day.

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