So Arsenal have now lapsed back into last season’s deficiencies on the road and we have now gone five away games without a win. I don’t think we can use our long injury list as an excuse this time as we have got quite a lot of our players back in contention.
If you look at the bare stats it looks like it was a very even game, with both sides having 11 shots on goal, but the Arsenal strikers were very off form and only got 2 of them on target as opposed to the Hammers 3, one of which was the decisive one that cost us the points. After the game Emery felt that we should have won the match and considers it an opportunity lost. This is what he told Arsenal.com: “I think the result is a bad one. We lost a great opportunity to take three points and get closer to Chelsea and the other top-four teams. But we lost.
“We wanted to do a better match but we couldn’t control the match like we wanted to. Looking at the chances in the 90 minutes for them and us, I think maybe the result is not what we deserved. In the gameplan, in the control, we need to improve our ideas. We could not do that. We didn’t concede a lot of chances but we conceded metres on the pitch and these metres gave them a lot of corners. From one corner, they scored, and then the match changed. We needed to attack more and better but today, defensively we needed to work well. We created chances but it wasn’t enough to win. Maybe in the first 20 minutes when we created some chances, that was the moment where we thought we could win the match, but then after it was difficult because we didn’t impose all the things we wanted.”
Is that a fair summing up? Were Arsenal simply unlucky that we didn’t take our chances or did we simply lose to a better side?
Admin
Deserved loss, our strikers need 5 chances each to score a goal and our defenders give many chances to the opposition to score a goal. Honestly, there isn’t any player in this squad you can fully trust to deliver when it matters most, NONE! Whenever auba and lacazette are through in goal, i’m never convinced they will score and that is a bad sign. Our midfield and defence is so porous, they can’t be trusted to keep a clean sheet so how will we succeed? Kolasinac doesn’t even know what it means to defend, he just wants to run forward with every chance and this is where i’ve been dissapointed with emery, the team need better instructions on defensive organisation and he also need to start playing ozil or sell him if thats even possible. Too many issues with this squad and it will take years to fix so we match on in mediocrity.
Auba and Laca are not getting services at all there’s no link between our MID and strikers until we bring in somebody to fill in Santi Carzola spot otherwise will be same all same
@enagic This is what I’m seeing. Laca and Auba are two of the best strikers in the league, but I don’t expect the ball to be in the back of the net every time they touch it. They’ll miss chances-everyone does, even Messi. The real problem is zero link-up play; they’re not getting many chances to begin with. Never mind the defensive issues, the midfield sucks arse. Aside from LT, Ramsey and Guendouzi, what is there? Can’t count on Ozil, he’s always injured, or doesn’t want to play; Iwobi is looking more and more like Gervinho mk II-runs with the ball but has no end product; Xhaka, I don’t think, knows what team he plays for, as he seems most often to pass it to the opposition. Mkhitaryan? AMN? Not seeing it. I commented to myself watching the game that I hope Emery spends the whole next week just doing passing drills.
Not taking our chances is becoming a regular thing now…. we’ve hit the buffers big time!! Although as bad as we were, you have to give credit to West Ham… they were clearly up for it, whereas we weren’t! Simple!
Please can we burn that green kit…. I never want to see that again!
So now I’m dreading next Saturday… oh and the following Friday…. I’m going to the Cardiff game, now the doubts are creeping in – surely we’ll win that game??
Sigh………..
Sue, West Ham played very well. We conceded the mild to them, we created little, our milders passed lots of ball into West Ham’s goal keeper ( no vision, no accuracy, no innovation) just an absolute wrenched performance. They knew who creates (iwobi) and as soon as the ball gets to him 2 to 3 West Ham players were unto him, same with Guenduozi. So straightaway we get under attack and moving the ball forward was impossible. It was indeed a shameful one and I blame Emery. How many lost will it take for him to realise every game is different and every team is different. And he can not continue to fight with Ozil. I hope people who think Ozil isn’t doing a lot of work can now see how difficult it is to play the ball when you have 2-3 opposition players on you.
Pat-thank you.You are so correct about Mesut Ozil.I have continually supported the player despite the majority seeming to blame him for just about everything that was going wrong but you have noted one of the obvious points that most people seem to ignore.
You mentioned Iwobi yesterday.He was our only “creative”?? player in the side But was continually crowded out.He was targeted by West Ham as being the only player who would attempt to run with the ball and be direct.The result was there to see.
Now go back to Brighton Away on Boxing Day.Ozil was absolutely slaughtered for his performance in the 45 minutes that he played before being hauled off at half time.Yet it was that first half that we scored one,should have scored five,dominated the game so much Brighton only threatened in the last 10 minutes of that half,and the game should have been out of reach for Brighton.Ok so Ozil wasn’t our stand out performer of that half but the fact he was on the pitch forced Brighton to keep him tightly marked and free up space and time for others.That is no coincidence.Chelsea Away.Ozil not making an impression on the game in the second half but we were very comfortable at 2-2 and a draw was the most likely result.Ozil is then hauled off for Ramsey and what happens?We lost any control we had.Chelsea feared Ozil and marked him tightly.Ozil was replaced by a player with ZERO discipline (Good Luck with that Juve) and we lost a game that we had not looked like losing.
Ok so I’m a huge Ozil fan and would always want him in my team.But with Chelsea next week and a team that CANNOT DEFEND and now seemingly CANNOT CREATE I refuse to believe Emery will not see sense and get Ozil back in the team.
This is the best footballer at our Club.The Manager needs to find a way to make it work.
And let’s not forget Ozil has two and a half years left on his contract awhich is a year longer than Emery.These last few games have raised far more doubts over Emery’s abilities than Ozils.
We lauded Unai in the 22 unbeaten run, lauded his tactics and how the team grid out results. For yesterday i have to blame him for his tactics. The game was very flat, not sweet to watch. We lack creativity in the final third, we usually get that with Ozil in the number 10 position. we had that in plenty when Carzola was with us and with Rosicky too. if Unai continues to freeze out Ozil and we let go Ramsey, i can bet we will never have our Arsenal back…..that’s unless we get another top creative Midfielder
Unlucky? We were awful. Without Ozil there was a complete lack of creativity in midfield and without a proper winger nothing coming in from the flanks. Another mistake from Xhaka and bish bash bosh we were one nil down. Anyone who thinks this team can finish in the top four is deluded.
Dedan,
Ozil is finished as a footballer and huge mistakes were made to get him a huge contract
How is he finished as a footballer just because emery dosent seem to like him dosent mean other managers would sign him ,he’s 30 ffs he should be in his prime for the next 3-4 years .
Wouldn’t sign him*
“Finished as a footballer” what a ludicrous statement.
Some of you here might be Obsessed with his name but Emery is 100% right to not pick him, with the money is getting paid, he should have done better like Messi does at Barca.
Enagic…. what a joker!!!
@enagic
I blame us fans for the Ozil situation. It was the fans who pressured the board into giving him that contract remember? They said we couldn’t let both Sanchez and ozil leave and it showed zero ambition from the club. Ozil was kept to please the fans and now I regret calling for his stay.
And the award for SCAM of the century goes to Ozil and his agent. Well played.
Yeah-Just like Iwobi and his Agent scamming the Club.Lets face it;nobody disputes Ozils abilities and his achievements in the game.Whether he is rated or not you do not win aWorld Cup winners medal if you do not possess talent and commitment.(with the obvious exception of Giroud of course).Whereas what has your Iwobi done since he started playing every game.No penetration again yesterday as with every other game.
For someone who goes to bed each night snuggled up to his Iwobi Blow-Up doll to expect any respect shows just how seriously you are taken.
And be very careful -if that things explodes it could prove fatal.ALWAYS READ THE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST
Xhaka is a complete liability, I’ve been saying it for months!
Why Emery keeps the faith in that muppet and yet leaves Ozil out makes no sense?
It’s suicidal!!
Leaving Ozick out makes every sense. Tell me the last away game Ozick turned up and was brilliant for the team? Tell me please I’m dying to know. It stretches back to last season.
Just goes to show you care more to see you’re country man play than what’s best for the team .
How was you’re love interest yesterday how did he get on against that 33 year old past it defender lol ?
Ozil is head and shoulders above iwobi on a bad day let alone when he’s playing well
And yet xxnofs he can’t make the bench on a difficult away fixture. How ironic
With ozil we would have lost 4 -0 cause he would have given the ball that many times.End of debate.
End of debate “ if you say so sir lol
Some else who dosent actually watch football
Ground hog day!
It’s becoming ground hog season!!
Full credit to Pellegrini and WH for showing ambition and grit though. They look like a team who are fighting for a place at the top of the table!!
Not going to say anything about Arsenal’s ambitions.. we all know how that ends… again!
..it’s a sad indication of where we are as a premiership force – because usually (in the past) if ever we’re a goal down to w/ham we’ve had the personnel to recover and draw OR even to take all 3pts but lately we are something of a shambles.
JZ song…we’ve 99 problems and lack of a Captain is definitely one. That notion our entire team are symbolic as a captain is a nonsense. We should search throughout the premiership, european leagues and even the championship for a captain – because this ship of our appears to wandering aimlessly and part of the problem is the ship is without a “new rudder”.
Absolutely a fair result ,as soon as I saw that team I knew it wouldn’t be easy .
1-playing 5at the back shows we lack creativity
2-playing with 2 defensive midfielders
3-not having proper wingers in the side (won’t mention names but the one we do have is hopeless unless you’re from a certain country then he’s our star player ??♂️)
A couple of points I think everyone can see which you don’t need to be a manager to know them .
I would honestly say this team looks worse at this stage of the season than last seasons team ,slow build up play ,a lot of side ways passing again,just no creativity in that team at all .
Arsenal’s best player for me yesterday was Ramsey and that’s saying a lot seeing he was only on the pitch for 30 mins ,and this is a player who shouldn’t even be playing seeing he as no future at the club .
I would say we will
Be lucky to get 5th place at this rate ,then where does that leave us when trying to sign players in the summer ?emerys got a lot of work to do and at the moment he dosent seem to be helping himself.
I agree with your third point there Xxnofs. We need proper wingers not makeshift. Constantly playing a no10 on the wing isn’t helping the team at all. Iwobi needs to be played in his natural position where he can blossom. ??
@Declan
Am not deluded
Your telling me that this arsenal squad of players fit and harmonized are incapable of finishing top four.
Well mate they just limped to 22 unbeaten, fully motivated and properly coached they are still only short three or four quality players the same way Arsene’ left us
Yes ‘mate’ and they are now limping down the table and soon to be below Man U. Yes, still short of 3 or4 quality players, so when are they arriving?
Without them we will struggle for 6th.
Assuming we played a flat back four.
This is my take on what we need – first team only, not squad players
1. Left back
2. Centre back
3. Centre back
4. Right back
5. Right winger
6. Left winger
7. Central attacking midfielder
I would say we need seven new first choices – some of this can be fulfilled through the youth system.
Our priority first is to dismantle and remove the dross that Wenger signed.
Of course, none of this will happen because we are broke…
Me, a fair assessment.
Unfortunately, given the available spending allowed by Kroenke, unless the Trinity can work miracles, bringing in these players is a pipe dream.
I’m still annoyed at the loss of Gnabry at a give away price..
So called WC strikers that can’t convert chances. How can we win if we don’t score? 1 shot, 1 goal isn’t too much to ask is it? Auba is making it a habit of missing chances and now I no longer trust him.
The key to wining yesterday was in the first 20 mins, if only we were clinical in front of goal. Should have been 0-3 by halftime.
Please can someone tell me what out style of play is? I don’t seem to understand it
Considering that Aubameyang’s goals brought us 15 points this season, without him we would be talking about a relegation fight here.
Aubameyang is the ONLY thing that is going well…
Emery is clearly out of his depth at Arsenal.
Should have stayed unemployed…
Me, I keep asking who, given the known constraints would you have replace Emery?
We cant rely on these players:
Mustafi
Xhaka
Özil
Mkhitaryan
Elneny
Koscielny
They are on high wages when performers like Torreira is on 50k a week.
They all need replacing because they are AVERAGE. Have to give Emery time since Wenger had so for long. I hope Emery is able to secure Suarez and possibly a defender although it seems unlikely.
Kroenke is supposedly a,business man. How cant he realize being out of CL means less money? And not being able to compete means less shirt sales, merchandise etc. We are talking about 200m investment in the team really.
RW Thorgan Hazard £30m
CB Manolas £30m
RW Pepe £50m
RB Aarons £12m
LW Chukwueze FREE
CM Herrera/Rabiot FREE
LB Gaya £30m
This is just name dropping players, Im not dreaming of anything such. But getting rid of the under performing players should be adressed IMMEDIATELY.
We are able to raise funds from selling likes of Özil, Xhaka etc. but I have a feeling none of those players will get sold. Why? I have no friggin idea.
Özils got HUGE fanbase on social media. Whoever would buy him, would get tremendous amount of shirt sales. China maybe? He can earn even more there.
*we can’t rely on these players .
4 of the 6 you listed don’t even play so I’m not sure we can blame them for yesterday’s result
Its not just yesterdays result. And even if they dont play, they cant be trusted anyways! If you are a bench player, you should be able to come in and do your job, rather than coming in and 1) misplacing passes 2) not be able to recover the ball 3) do something else shaky or stupid.
Thats how our bench players are, untrustworthy.
Maybe 3 years ago..
Personally, there are not many names from this squad I would have on my shirt! Maybe 5 or 6, tops.
Those signings would be fantastic.
Its just a shame we are broke.
I hope that one day the fans will realise that they are the key to change at Arsenal. Stop attending en masse, stop buying the merchandise – Kroenke is a business man, if they operate at a loss he won’t stick around.
No Arsenal fan wants him to stay, do they?
Stop attending won’t do fck all ,it would be better if the stadium was full and everyone inside showed their displeasure so the board have to take notice .and we are not broke at all far from it ,we just don’t want to spend any money there’s a difference .
Xxnofx, if you attend the match Kronke makes money from gate sales. One of the points of not attending is to stop handing your hard earned cash to a greedy American with no interest in competing for the best sport has to offer!
Do you not think Arsenal fans deserve to enjoy our history with a view to enjoying the future too?
Kronke is killing both with no remorse!!
Season tickets are already sold dosent matter if no one goes he dosent lose money .and it will never work because there will always be someone else willing to buy a season ticket
For a start Kroenke does not attend anything – he lives on a ranch in Montana and I seriously doubt he even bothers watching the games on the TV so any protests are going to be pointless.
He is a business man and the only language he understands is money – when he loses that Arsenal will not be an attractive proposition anymore…
I was at the game and we were plain awful. Mainland Niles just one of many players just trotting around and giving the ball away. As for Granits supposed defensive header to set up Nasri to pass to Rice for their goal,just pathetic. No passion from us and West Ham deserved to win!
Arsenals away support is normally superb but they were subdued today as the players gave us NOTHING! Marks out of 10 for any of our players 1.
OT……. We moan about the Emirates but The London stadium is horrible and soulless!!
I was there too Tony and agree with everything you said. As for their stadium, pftttt.
Declan the whole stadium is disjointed isn’t it? The huge gap between our front set of supporters those further back……. What’s that all about!!!!
The West Ham support is poor but I guess being in that Stadium every other week would pull down and everything like the advertising had a look of cheap about it though saying that I bought two bottles of Cider which made a pint = £10-30 ? and I thought the Emirates was expensive!!!
When are we playing westham today?
Is Unai Emery an attractive coach in the sense of bringing in world class players
Is Unai Emery style of play and attractive one
Is Unai Emery history of dealing with so called world class players an attractive one
Is Unai Emery really getting the best out of what Arsenal have to offer
And the big one is do our players really look happy playing Emery ball
# we’re in trouble
DT on arsenal tv
“Stan spends more money on his fcking wig than he does on the team “??
Dt, the guy who boasted when we drew with liverpool at home, I cringed that day when
Arsenal fan tv part of problem
Personnel made names abusing Wenger
Notice how Robbie won’t let anyone say emer y is not good enough?
I personally don’t listen to what any of them said I just found that quite funny .
Mind you he did have a few good points yesterday in the 5 min clip I saw
@Dan
Now you just hating on Robbie. Claude has been criticizing Emery in every interview with Robbie.
And Robbie said ……
Come on its been 6 months, got to be patient
Lad called Belgium during unbeaten run, said didn’t like tactics
Robbie , ‘ 22 games unbeaten’
We drew with liverpool they were smug
Go back and watch it
People should learn how to rightly aportion blames
The following on my observation on d game
Our 2 leather strikers failed woefully, yest not many chances were created but this guys should guarantee goals with half chances they got, instead of firing at orbit or straight at fanbiaski
Kola decision to pass back when through on goal is crimina
The only formation made for us is 4-2-3-1, we played better with it this season,
Asking Guedonzi to be our major creative man in the middle is unwise, ozil might not be able to defend well, but he would have done better than Guendonzi yesterday, i will like to see 4-2-1-3 with same front 3 of yesterday, ozil behind them and xhaka torreire. Yea ,xhaka, i think he is the best to partner Torreira, based on our current square, i dont trust Guendon, needs lots to learn, Ramsey isnt staying, and please dont tell me AMN , i cant use one game to conclude he is best in that department, 2 world class coaches cant be blind at same time not to recognize his ability if he is that good
If i can talt to my coach niw, ill tell him to allow lacca and Iwobi play wings ,auba top strike and ozil behind, its clear UE set up isnt about defending, our games needs to be won by the attackers, he should focus on putting up best attack rather than listening to media defense crapp, best way to defend is atrack, if we were 3goals up by HT it woukd have been difficult for WH to get a goal as they too were shit
And again I ask you bro, when was the last away game Ozick turned up and was instrumental for the team? Please tell me.. what makes you think he’d be any different yesterday?
You’re talking about a World Cup winner a player who Real Madrid wanted a player who ronaldo didn’t want to leave a player who holds many assists records
But no you would rather a player who only made it beacuse he has a famous uncle
All jokes aside TH14 do you honestly believe iwobi should be starting every game for arsenal ?
I grow up watching the likes of Andes limpar ,Marc overmars ,Robert pires ,Freddie ljungberg running down them wings and now I get to watch iwobi can you see where I’m coming from or do you believe he’s in that class ?
Then you go on to say he would be even better as a number 10 ,have you seen him pass ?
He’s what I would call a flapper ,as in the ball comes to him and he dosent know what he’s goi g to do so he makes it up ,that’s not how a number 10s brain should be working .
Either you are trolling g with this constant iwobi bro love it you see something that 99% of other fans don’t
If you feel confident in you views on Iwobi than why not make them without inventing facts like 99% of fans agree with you? Unless of course you’ve taken a poll with a representative sample. If that’s the case, I apologise and I guess I’m part of the 1 per cent who think he’s improving and has a future at Arsenal.
@Trudeau-Iwobi has not improved any more this season than last.Sure he tries hard and works within a team pattern but he just has not got the ability to progress any further than where he is at now.And asfor him being deployed as a No10-can you really believe this will happen.He is just not good enough.His final ball will never improve so how can he even be considered as a playmaker?
Most who champion Iwobi seem to be fellow countrymen of his and before anyone starts playing the anti Nigerian card just stop there.We could have 11 Martians line up for Arsenal and if they were good enough I would still support them.
Please start getting a grip on reality.The only reason Iwobi is in the team is his work ethic and nothing more.Why?Because he has nothing more than that to offer.
Re Kroenke
He is not really interested in revenue per se. He is motivated by asset value. He bought Arsenal, I believe, for about £400 million. It is now, again I believe, valued at about £1.4 billion. Obviously revenue is closely related to asset value but other things are an influence e.g, potential, under use of existing assets etc. We are either the fifth or sixth richest club in the world depending on which source you consult. I think Usman, as well as simple ego reasons, wished to buy Arsenal outright because he believes the assets are not being “sweated” enough. Remember we did not go on the onerous but extremely important end of season tours to develop new markets in places like China for many years. (Largely due to Wenger’s reluctance to do so). We allowed Man Utd and Chelsea to steal a considerable march on us during this period. Kroenke has done very well with his investment but he probably could have done better but Arsenal is just part of his portfolio and fulfils the rule of “Cas Cow” in that portfolio. We will not really advance to the very top whilst he owns Arsenal and, regretably, I can not see him going unless he hits some personal financial wall. Unlikely.
If truth be told Arsenal only came to life after the introduction of Ramsey. The problem is in the middle of the pack. Gendouzi’s final ball was poor-very poor indeed. Emery has opted for going for 3 centre backs, but that has made it easy for teams to overwhelm the 2 man midfield. The strikers are not getting good service at all. Unless these problems are resolved it will be a long season of discontent. All the other teams have figured out how Emery is setting his team, and have found a way of beating him. And let’s be honest. It is very easy. Brighton, Southampton, Liverpool, and now West Ham-all had much joy against Emery’s side.
Actually I have taken a poll with 5 of my arsenal friends and we all agreed he his sh1t so that was 100%but I said 99%to make it sound more believable .
All joking a side I would actually like admin to maybe do polls on certain players.
Can I ask do you actually think with players of his calibre we can actually win stuff ?
Can I ask what country you’re form aswell ?
Aka xxnofx
Emery has lost the plot plain and simple. The initial impact of the manager has wore off and now you either know what you are doing and continue to manage the players you have well and
get the most out of them or you start showing the shortcomings that drove him out of PSG.
When he lost the second leg to Barca after a 4-0 lead at home I was wondering what coach
sets him team up as open as he did. Granted he had world class players but so did Barca and
there was no signs of defensive cohesiveness.
hence the question is since Arsenal had defensive issues for the last few years who picks a coach that can’t really change the defensive mentality and make up of the group?
The board obviously picked someone that sounded like they could live with and abide by the
self sustaining bullshit philosophy that Arsenal has to go by.
As far the Ozil debate there should have never been one. Emery should have embraced the fact he has a world class creative player that will not defend/press as hard and build a system that gets the best out the players qualities.
The fact he is playing head games is almost childish to the detriment of the team and shows me a very insecure and temperamental manager- one that can’t adopt to big player personalities-
So maybe we become Everton and bring in the second tier player and ask them to work their ass off so we can occasionally watch a world class pass or goal.
Me i can’t watch the football played by this group anymore . It is painful has no purpose and is
certainly not attractive or efficient.
I could live with ugly if we were going to win the league but watching this shit and finishing top 8
is not my cup of tea.