This week’s excitement in the other half of north London has been a bit of a welcome distraction from our own tribulations. But the Premier League is back and we get to return to The Emirates today, for a 3pm kick off against Southampton.
Southampton are in a bit of a state, they sit 19th in the table, having lost 8/12 games played this season. They have the worst defensive record in the Prem with a goal difference of -18. Their manager wants them to be a bit more nasty.
To be fair to our opposition we are in a bit of a state too. No wins in our last 4 games – Drawn 2 Lost 2. We are unbeaten in our last 7 home games but have won only three of those, which is embarrassing.
We have a good head to head record against Southampton having not lost to them at home in 24 meetings but they did beat us 3-2 last December at St Mary’s.
Lots of questions about who will play and how Emery will set up the team. We need a win, so he needs to have worked out how to get the ball to our goal scorers. I’ve stopped trying to be clever and work out why it’s gone wrong and how he can fix it. Emery gets paid a lot of money to do just that job so let’s see if he can work it out.
There were a couple of moments of exciting attacking football in the game against Leicester which dried up once Kolasinac got scared of moving the ball across the halfway line. I expect The Emirates crowd to show their displeasure if there’s too much passing back instead of moving forward.
Hopefully Emery has a new plan and today is the day to execute it against a poor Southampton 😁
Xhaka may return but we are probably missing Ceballos, Pepe and Kolasinac will be decided on today.
I would like to see this team …..
Leno
Chambers Holding Luiz
Bellerin Torreira Guendouzi Tierney
Ozil
Lacazette Aubameyang
We haven’t seen both Bellerin and Tierney in action in a Premiership fixture and I’m hoping having them both will keep the play moving forward.
I shall be there ………. enjoy the game everyone.
peachesgooner
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Nice one, Peaches 😁
This is the battle of the P45’s! Wouldn’t be at all surprised if, later on tonight, there is a sacking….
Am I feeling confident about today? Not exactly! We’ve been really poor of late…. it needs to stop! I’d love more than one shot on target today (please). To not make them look like Barca & make Danny Ings look like Messi.
There’s way too much gloom hanging round the Ems.. it’s about time it lifted!!
COYG
Morning Sue, absolutely agree with your sentiments …… need going to football to be more fun, maybe today will be the start 😉
I really hope you have something to cheer about later, Peaches! And will be singing your heart out on the way to the tube!! I couldn’t face going today 🙁 Sounds really bad, I know, but I’ve been so fed up lately… so have opted for some retail therapy instead, yay!! Shop till I drop 😉
Good formation. All good players in my opinion but need to start showing their top game
Chambers and Holding are capable defenders and Luiz must not go all Brazilian
Bellerin and Tierney are our best and need to get up to speed literally
Guendouzi and Torreira are the first choice in their Preferred position
Ozil is hopefully rested refreshed and ready for action with artistry able to free the the two top boys to create havoc
Thanks Peaches
I’m glad the footy is back but it’s hard to feel confident about any Arsenal game at the moment.
Fingers crossed that UE and the team will surprise us.
I’m very confident of a 3:0 win
Result might be different but I’ll worry about that afterwards
COYI 🙈
Would love for the hammers to finally find some form!!
Sue
I share your hope but “new manager syndrome” usually works for any team that’s just had a new boss appointed.
And with Maureen’s undoubted ability to organise teams (at least defensively) I fear the worst.
Hi Rocky… yes it was wishful thinking!! My optimism lasted for 35 minutes 😂
10 out of 11, Peaches 👏
Dare I say that isn’t a bad line up?! COYG
Blimey, I’m shocked 😂😂😂
Very decent team on paper. But I say that every game…
Bit of an improvement. We look like we can just about match Saints for periods of the game.
Out shot by the saints in 1st half at home. How is this possible?
Oh that is right, emeryball.
If the Arsenal somehow blow this, emery should have to walk back to Spain-tonight!
Losing to 18th in the league!! Just when you think it can’t get any worse…. I really have had enough. Emery out, preferably tonight!
At least Leicester are winning… Please City, beat Chelsea. Zaha has scored 👍
Bloody great, getting excited over every other team except your own 😭
sok needs to go into law because his futbol brain does not work well under pressure.
saints should have scored,
Gifted them the goal.
Expected clown show at this point.
Thanks for the post peaches. Only just now got a moment to myself.
“Taxi to the Stadium of light Manchester please”
“Yes Sir, who to pick up and where to”
“Please pick up one Mr Arteta and deliver him to Ashburton Grove, North London please”
“Yes sir anything else?”
“yes after dropping off Mr Arteta there will be an onward journey to Heathrow airport to make the 7.30pm flight to Bilbao”
“very good sir”
We could be down by 3 or 4
So we’re a goal down with 7 minutes of added time… and it’s Saints creating all the goal scoring chances.
Get in!
Well done Laca
Unai needs to go before this shit show gets any worse.
Laca’s late goal might have earned him another game or two.
But today we were mostly outplayed and outfought by one of the poorer teams in the league (again).
Martinelli gotta play more and Pepe less
Bellerin was awful and Sokratis and Leno too
Tierney, Luiz, Torreira, Ozil, Auba were less than average
Douzi and Laca had good games and Martinelli and Willock gave us a great a good lift
Pepe was really atrocious too
The Arsenal were outplayed at home against the saints.
Let that settle in for a long while.
Been saying for months that emery is totally unconvincing.
We will continue with the aid of gravity towards the bottom of the futbol sea.
We could be 9th by the end of the day.
Not sure which is more worrying atm…our form? Or how much Pepe cost?
I get the feeling Özil will be comfortably outlasting Emery at the club. Hopefully the next boss is someone who is capable of getting good things from these attacking players. The current one seems incapable of utilising them. 18 goals in 13 league games with the attacking players we have is not good enough.
Pochettino seems a no-brainier to me if he’ll come.
Bring Wenger back… Lol
It’s unbelievable that we are getting worse each game …… but we are. So sad to see and hear the boos. Mind you the referee was appalling, really had it in for Tierney early in the first half and that stopped him playing with any freedom. Just having a hot chocolate in the ground and people are very angry ☹️
Is there a drop of whiskey or rum in that hot chocolate to numb the pain, Peaches? 🥺
Even Burnley have scored more than us!
SMH!!
That would be lovely Sue, I was just thinking that I need chocolate and alcohol 😉
In truth Southampton should have scored at least two more goals.
I have to say that the comments on this blog are fair & honest while over on the conspiracy blog there is a complete madman.
In their previous four Premier League outings Southampton had the following amount of shots:
4, 3, 3, 6
In other words, they were allowed a total of 16 attempts on goal in FOUR full games.
Against us today – in ONE game – they had 21 attempts (to our 12).
It ain’t great.
Watching City v Chelsea (Mahrezzzzzz!!)… just waiting for Martin Tyler to announce Unai’s sacking……
Defensively, Emery had the best team possible at the beginning of the first half and the best possible attacking team at the beginning of the second.
There are no players to come back from injury, no excuses, and the performance was mediocre to say the least.
There really has become an identikit on how to beat us, every team approaches it the same way and every team has success with it.
I don’t see things getting worse I just struggle to see them getting better which does not feel good at all.
Evening all. Sorry I’ve been absent lately. Two reasons; I’ve had problems with WordPress … and … it’s been a month now since I accepted that Emery is never going to make the grade at Arsenal … which is depressing.
I really wanted him to succeed, but it is clear now that he can neither organise or motivate our group of very talented players into a team that can compete in the EPL.
The longer he remains in the job, the more damage will be inflicted on our players … and the more likely they are to want to leave.
I saw a brief glimpse of Unai giving a short interview, after the game.
He is a decent guy, outside his management capabilities, and even my friend, in a broad Mancunian accent, seemed a little sad when he called his managerial abilities akin to those of Dracula with a flaccid pizzle.
Actually, Unai admitted that he understood the fans’ frustration. Not too difficult to suss that out, methinks.
Sue is correct — oh alright — and so are the rest of you — Embers needs to go, and the sooner the better, there is no room for nice guys who cannot manage a football team.
Well – I say ‘manage a football team’ – but that would be categorised as poetic licence by most reasonable observers.
Rasp
I share your disappointment. I so wanted UE to succeed. But I don’t see a way back for him now and that’s a bitter pill…
Redders
To be fair to UE he has shown he can manage teams in the past, but for whatever reason he can’t do it at this time with this team with these players in this league.
Indeed Rocky. It will be the last thing the board would have wanted to deal with. It’s made worse by the fact that the swamp dwellers have just (unceremoniously) sacked their manager. We never want to follow their example, but for the good of everyone Emery has to go.
I can’t believe they are not very actively trying to line up a replacement. They may have hoped to limp through to the New Year but I suspect they’ll be forced to act sooner than that.
I’ll write a few words for tomorrow unless someone who was actually at the game would like to do so… any takers?
Great … thanks Rocky.
That stat about shots conceded is shocking and the most glaring illustration of how the ‘style’ (what style?) of football we are playing is wrong for the EPL.
There was talk of how much it would.cost.to sack Emery… between 10-15m.
I say we have a whip round on here! RA (as loaded as we all know accountants are 😜) can pay 90% & we’ll cough up the rest! 😉😄👍
Apparently it cost the totts 12.5m to dispense with Poch’s services. It could cost us a lot more than 15m if he stays in the job
I doubt sponsors are queuing up to invest in Arsenal at the moment.
How much are players with zero confidence costing us? Pepe was £70m….we’d struggle to get £20m for him at the moment. You can go through the whole side and find hundreds of millions of pounds worth of talent that is being under-used by poor management. Pay the £15m and get rid. No time to be nice…the guy isn’t good enough and has proven it over the last season and a half. What will it take for the board to see what is blatantly obvious?
Nobody wanted this situation, but it’s here and the club needs to act. It’s 8 points to top 4. With 25 games left that’s still achievable if the right appointment is made. If that gap goes to 12-15 points then it won’t matter who else employ. Admit the mistake, move on, and keep the fans onside before it’s too late.
A lot being made about the lack of celebration for the equaliser, but these players are idiots. They know that a draw against Southampton at home is not good enough. This isn’t Giroud doing heel flicks against Bournemouth…these players know better.
…aren’t idiots.
Thank you Rocky for the offer of some words for tomorrow, I gratefully accept.
In drafts Peaches
It can’t cost us £10m to get rid of Emery surely? He only has contract to end of this season with an option for us to extend. So currently we’d have to pay him half a years salary and then whichever back room staff came with him the same. I’m not sure how big that team is but even if it’s 4 coaches surely they are not on £4m a year each?
And maybe the fact that his contract expires at end of season will keep Emery in a job til end of May.
Very frustrating 6 months in store unless the board see the bigger picture. How far we slip down the league will determine what kind of manager wants to come in for the job.
I did my 40 mile cross/gravel ride yesterday 40 miles of painful off road bike riding which has left me sore, but still think I made the right decision.
64k of gravel, decent ride, how long did you choose to take and what bike did you opt for?
I think Emery needs to really look at himself. Bellerin was awful and he takes Chambers out at half time. I really feel sorry for Chambers because he was by far better than Bellerin and Sok in the first half.
Pepe did miss 2 easy goals yesterday but overall he s extremely far from his form at Lille. Play him in europa league only for now and let Martinelli start
LB I have one drop handlebar bike the Orbea Terra which is an all road bike so that was bike of choice, did same course last year on Hardtail mtb. Yesterday was certainly more challenging, prior year was 50:50 road and off road whereas this year was more like 80:20 off road to road. And the off road was more like cyclocross than gravel.
These are all excuses as to why I started with intention of doing the long ride, but switched to the short ride which was 63km.
Time was not great 3 and a half hours. Normally I average 18-19km/h on a mixed gravel ride but this was 17km/h the sandy climbs hurt!
I’ve just heard Unai’s post match interview … I didn’t understand a word.
In this era, every manager has a team of top coaches to do the everyday training.
What the manager has to do is have a clear vision of the kind of football he wants the team to play and then be able to communicate that to his players and to have the personality to motivate them to give everything to the team on the pitch, acting as a single energised cohesive unit – look at Sheffield United. Emery fails in all those areas.
Morning all
There’s a New Post ……………..
Best 20 minutes of football this season ………… Emery said