There comes a time when there is simply too many excuses being made to justify the dismal performances that Arsenal have been producing for some time now.
Players being injured, VAR, Arsene Wenger and Ivan Gazidis, new players needing time to integrate, changing the culture, the Kroenke family, Shkodran Mustafi, Larry the cat and Winnie the Pooh, pick one, any one will do as an excuse.
OK, Larry the cat and Winnie the Pooh is me being facetious but I think you get my point.
When you have so many excuses you have to ask yourself if the excuses are masking the real issue, that something is seriously wrong at Arsenal football club.
It is hard to claim that the squad is not good enough when it reaches a European final and finishes above Man Utd and yet the display against Watford is not a one off.
Other top teams have injuries or lose their best players and manage to cope but not Arsenal or so the excuses tell us.
The refs are against us is another good one and now that we have VAR it is the incorrect use of the new technology that is costing Arsenal valuable points.
The simple fact is that Watford played better than Arsenal and so did Leicester City, Wolves, Everton and Crystal Palace last season.
We cannot keep on looking for excuses to explain away yet another poor defeat, at some time we have to look at ourselves and ask the question, are we using whatever excuses we can come up with to mask the fact that, as things stand today, Arsenal is not as good as what we thought they were?
Agree totally.
I dont understand what is going on at and in Arsenal it seems an ingrained lack of strength and winners mentality. We have so many players that leave and go on to thrive where as they may have struggled or performed horribly for us.
Firstly I’d love to see a defender come in to coach the back line.
Weve got Freddie who else could help? Clearly Bould didn’t or wasnt allowed to Express his views.
Let’s let Keown lose on the back line that would be funny!
Looking at iwobi he looks happy at Everton and doing well, ox, ramsey, Kos, giroud, gnabry hell even nketiah……all thriving once they leave arsenal.
I live his passion but dont think Emery is the man for the job and didn’t think he would be when he came in just hoped I’d be wrong.
His message whilst at PSG and now with us always seems to be lost to the players.
Allegri was the man I wanted.
It’s very worrying times for us, and keown said in motd not only cant we defend anymore but weve lost our passing ability/identity think believe is due to the amount of mf changes.
We lost iwobi Wilshire ramsey rosicky cazorla etc all over a period of time but never replaced with the same type of quality player, (too expensive for us the Bernado and David silvas of this world).
And dont get me started in xhaka!!
I hope that enery gets holding back asap and either plays him with sokratis who actually indint mind apart from what he did against Watford generally hes commanding and strong.
I’d also like to see one day chambers and holding together.
Oh keown also said he thinks some ot players think they’re better than they are…..true though I do think if holding was in sokratis position yesterday he does have the right composure and passing ability to do the right thing, its lack of cohesive thinking on the pitch to realise we had to go long for a bit that worried me. Leno from the back can see it going wrong so manage the situation and push the players out and up the pitch.
I’m not giving up so early
I think the return of Bellerin, Holding, Lacazette and Tierney will help us.
Our problem is defensive not so much attack
I’d like to see
Leno
Bellerin.Chambers.Holding.Tierney
………(or Luiz.)
Torreira…Ceballos…Guendouzi
Pepe..Lacazette..Aubameyang
I don’t think 3 at the front is our best way forward.
Dont get me wrong Auba can do a job on the left but the guy is an out and out striker, Laca is a centre forward and Pepe is a winger…… I’d rather see us go with a flat 4-4-2 with Laca dropping between the lines and the wide midfielders pushing up to give us more of a 4-2-3-1 shape going forward.
Martinelli or Saka (maybe even ESR) take the left, Pepe with Nelson as back up on the right then it’s just finding the right combo for the two centre mids….any combo from Willock, Ceballos, Guendouzi, Torreira, ESR and AMN could all potentially work in that setup imo
Right now I think we should play with 3 Defenders, And rest Pepe, Xhaka and Guendouzi for our Europa League Match,
…….Auba
…Ozil….Ceba
Kola.Will.Torr.Niles
…Cham.Luiz. Must or Holding if he is Match fit
……Martinez
Is embarrassing seeing the headline “arsenal scared too scared of Watford” on the BBC
I don’t get the hype on Guendouzi ,I mean he’s solid but he’s never goer win you premiership titles ,compare him to a 16 year old Fabregas ,no compassion.the middle 2 or 3 in that centre are not good enough .
Xhaka-Least said the better
Torreira-not sure what’s happened to him
Guendouzi-as above
Willock – still learning his trade
Ceballos – one good game and only a loan ,not one for the future .
That middle should be able to shield the defence and play out to the forward line ,I see none of that from any of them.
Its obvious Emery is the problem and everyone iv talked to have already accepted Emery is not good enough , we have spent 140 mil and yet we play like that , that’s all on emery.
Emery is completely out of his depth…as he obviously was at PSG.This is a “Bruce Rioch” moment once again for Arsenal.They need to bring in a coach who knows how to defend as a team…transition as a team and has a clear understanding of his best team.Allegri is a available and I’d even settle for Mourinho at this stage.
This is not a simple reflex reaction to one poor performance…Arsenal have looked poor for much of their 5 matches this season and certainly their last eight of last season.How can Arsenal allow Watford and Burnley more than 40 attempts at goal between them.The players all look completely confused and I dont believe for one minute this state of affairs will improve under this Manager.
Our midfield is not helping the defense at all. Bring Chambers to pair with Socratis and play Luiz in defensive midfield. Pair him with Torriera with Ceballos as number 10 and we will be more stable than this garbage we are watching. Our best system n doubt is 4-2-3-1 but we need to get the defensive midfield right for this system to work.
—————-Leno—————–
—–Niles—-Chambers—Socratis—Kolsinac
————Torriera———-Luiz——-
—-Ozil————Ceballos————–Pepe
——————–Aubamayang—————
Holding for Sokratis
Right now I think we should play with 3 Defenders, And rest Pepe, Xhaka and Guendouzi for our Europa League Match,
…….Auba
…Ozil….Ceba
Kola.Will.Torr.Niles
…Cham.Luiz. Must or Holding if he is Match fit
……Martinez
We have lost our identity under Emery.
I can’t tell you what style of football we play, I can’t tell you what formation we play, I can’t tell you who is our best X1 is.
He’s not gonna take us back to the top, I doubt he will even bring us back to top 4. The players are confused, the defence is weak.
Why would Auba & Laca stay? Why would Torreira stay if he is not getting game time?
It’s not the players. It’s Emery. Watching Leno pass 3 yards to Socratis from a goal kick was an instruction from Emery. It cripples a team. AMN. Socratis, Luiz, and Kolasinac cannot play that way whatsoever. Not one can. In de facto reality Emery is not up to it. He is stuck in Barca style playing out. That era has finished, we cannot do that……why…..AMN, Socratis, Luiz, Kolasinac, that’s why. Not one team in Europe plays that way when being pressed. Absurd. Tactical kamikaze, self harming, ignorant tactics. Emery is finished. Worse than Wenger by a mile.
For 14 excruciatingly ugly obscene years millions
of Arsenal fans blew smoke up Wengers French Derriere .
Despite hundreds of trash performances the fans
meekly bowed down tugged their forelock and demurred.
All the excuses on the planet were rolled out every day
of every season like right here on Just Arsenal for years.
Wenger has no money, the other teams are cheats
we play real football, they park the bus, their fans
are plastic they have no history we are class.
All this garbage rhetoric uttered and swallowed for 14 years
by the tribe who refused to listen to outside challenges.
Arsenal fans became the world excuse masters.
To them football stopped after May 2004.
And after 14 horrific years and 720 games the Genius
delivered just 3 pathetic FA Cup wins.
An absolutely disgusting obscene record.
But the tribe kept blowin smoke.
“Can’t nobody tell me nothin”#
Last season Unai he missed CL football by one point from the league and made the Europa League final.All in his first season
This in a tougher league which has 12 teams who can make top 4.
Arsenal is presently 3rd with a slew of soft games to come.
But the same millions who blew smoke up the
French derriere during his last 14 gutter years
want Emery out 5 games into season 2.
What a bunch of gutless, hypocritical plastics.
#Lil Nas X
Soft games? There ain’t no such thing as far as we’re concerned!
Oh and btw you’ve got me singing old town road now ?
I’m not gutless or a hypocrite and certainly not plastic having been a Gooner for 60+ years.
A slew of soft games! Yes, starting with Watford.,…. You can’t see the wood for the trees.
Agu Emen
Did you watch how the team played? Is that acceptable? If it is acceptable to you then I am shocked. It’s not the players it’s the INSTRUCTIONS. This forum exists for you to have your say AND the thousands of others you insult. “Gutless”….. at least they are honest. You are in a state of delusion.
??????? You are Pathetic calling FA Cup Pathetic. Ask your Idol Emery to win just one pathetic FA Cup and you will stop being Pathetic. You have come out of the gutter years and stepped into the Garbage years. Just don’t miss your step. While at it please hold Emery tight he needs your Back.
What’s with the condescension for the rest of us, and abuse of Wenger? Is that the way you discuss our club?
That was for Agu.
Garbage !
It’s all down to Emery as far I’m concerned but then you get our captain (what a bloody joke) coming out and saying “we were scared of Watford and were happy with a point”! He needs sacking straight away for admitting that and I hope he gets punched by his team mates for being a useless piece of crap. Who appointed him as captain? Emery! Mr Bland, leave now before you’re sacked for incompetence.
Declan
I agree. To say we were ‘scared’ is like nothing I have heard before. Captain….he should be dropped immediately.
No seriousness in training. All they do is laugh and play around like kindergarten children. No wonder they all lack stamina. Burnley bossed us and now Watford, who else is going to boss us again if we don’t do anything about it We lack stamina, look at Niles and kolasinac struggling like they play for a league one team, they will never improve. We don’t know emery’s style of football. At least we all knew Wenger’s style. One year plus and we still don’t know our first 11 and pattern of play. Maybe the pattern is playing from the back. This man’s naivety is worse than Wenger’s own. You know your midfielders are slow and without pace in them and you did not look for how to create a balance. For whatever reason they lack stamina and you are not drilling them in that area or are they being over-worked in their jogging round the training ground? if so, cut it out so that they can save their energy for match day. We can still try this other system in a 4-2-3-1 formation in searching or a balance in midfield.
—————————-Leno—————–———
Under23 RB–Chambers—–Socratis—–Kolsinac
———————Niles———-Luiz——-
———-Ozil————Ceballos————–Pepe
——————–——–Aubamayang———————
We need that WINNING MENTALITY back.
What follows is a clip from Per Mertesacker’s book regarding the management of academy players:
” A similar reward would be a first team player at Arsenal or, just for the sake of argument, a doctor in America. I’m really open to that. That would give me similar reward, that we have impacted a young kid’s life positively and that he would come back and say ‘yeah this has improved me, made me learn better, made me a better person’. That would be a big thing.”
Now I’m sorry, however admirable the stance is in if a lad does not make the grade sending him on to great things outside of football, we must stay focused and engender a winning mentality.
By his own admission, Mertesacker is a disciple of Wenger.
I leave you to draw your own conclusions.
I have held a suspicion for a while now that at “latter day” Arsenal winning only comes ALONGSIDE certain other “values”.
We all love our history, but why separate that from being much more ruthless in regaining former glories ?
It would be a complete embarrassment to the current squad to list the type of former player to which I refer.
No doubt Unai Emery wants to change this engrained mentality, just look at his passion on the touchline.
He has players new to the squad who should have no such mental failings, but my concern is a certain “frame of mind” is now in our DNA and players slip into a very cosseted existence at our club.
In fact one reporter from a well known rag, commented how he felt he was at a apa club when being shown ’round London Colney – it did not smell of winning.
WE MUST AGAIN BECOME WINNERS IN THE MIND, AS MUCH AS ON THE PARK !
Sorry “Spa club”
Put “finger trouble” down to passion !
After the draw with Tottenham, Xhaka had a dig at the forwards.
After yesterdays debacle Aubameyang had a not so subtle dig at the defence.
Not only do we have a team that doesn’t seem to know how to play together, there maybe some deeper rifts developing with in the squad.
Very worrying times, fellow Gooners.
Emery have confused these players enough to be angry to each other…….watford out played Arsenal just imagine and burnley out played us too wow so whats the deference between arsenal and middle table team emery is worst than wenger…Emery out
By the way, why do we have Mustafi’s face here? Why are you making us hate the poor lad who hasn’t even played any games this season? This team is good enough to compete but we have a mediocre manager who is afraid to tell players they are wrong. Sorties I wonder what Emery tells them to spur them to action… He’s bang average and that’s the best we can get from him. Arsenal is too by for him. At this point I will welcome Mourinho cos for one thing he will deal with defence.
I can’t agree with your comment about Mourinho as I don’t want him anywhere near this club but am totally with you regarding Mustafi and Emery. Hindsight is a great thing but I do not think we would have collapsed If Mustafi had played, at least he gives 100%.
spot on Declan. The board should be looking for a replacement by now. The only thing he’s good at is speaking rubbish English and sweet talking. No nerves to take action whatsoever. I’m done trusting him.
AdMart…I fully agree, but what ever happened to the defense’s being helped by Bouldie?