So the end of the year is arriving fast and many news outlets worldwide are now having some articles about athletes of the decade, teams of the decade…

In order to brighten up the mood and forget about Emery and our failing team and board, I thought it woul be nice to think about who would make our starting XI if we were to put a AFC Team of the decade…

It is harder than you think as there has not really been a player that has been a consistently been a stand out player in the past decade…Here are a few names to get you thinking…

GK: Pole-in-Goal, Ospina, Leno

RB: Sagna, Bellerin

LB: Clichy, Gibbs, Kola, Monreal

CB: BFG, Kos, Sok, Holding, Luiz

DM: Arteta, Xhaka, Torreira

CM: Ramsey, Cazorla, Wilshere, Oxlade

AM: Ozil

FW: Auba, Sanchez, Walcott, Welbeck

ST: Van Persie, Giroud, Laca

Carraghers’ EPL team of the decade:

De Gea – Zabaleta, Van Dijk, Kompany, Azpi – Kante, Toure, Silva – Bale, Aguero, Hazard

Neville’s:

De Gea – Zabaleta, Van Dijk, Kompany, Azpi – Hazard, Toure, Silva – Kane, Aguero, Suarez

No AFC players 😦 It just shows that it wasn’t our decade…

RC78

Unai Emery has always reminded me of Dracula. It’s something to do with the way he slicks back his hair, his sallow complexion, his thin angular face.

Oh, and the fact that he’s sucking the lifeblood out of Arsenal right now.

I was going to suggest, as per the headline, that yesterday’s limp display and scrambled point at home against the most out-of-form team in the Premier League was another nail in his coffin.

But the analogy doesn’t hold up, does it? Vampires like coffins. Hammer another nail in Unai’s casket and he’ll probably be quite happy – it just makes him a bit more snug.

Perhaps it would be better to say that a 2-2 draw with Southampton at the Emirates is another clove of garlic in the eventual ousting of Count von Emery.

I feel mean even writing this. Unai seems like a decent bloke, even an honourable one. He doesn’t have a rampant ego and narcissism issues like the new man at N17. He’s not a footballing Neanderthal like the Allardyces and Pulises of this world. And he certainly can’t be blamed for his physical appearance: none of us gets to choose how we look (when I was younger I was known as “Rodders” because of my apparent similarity to Rodney Trotter from Only Fools and Horses. We all have our crosses to bear. Except for Unai Emery because he’s a vampire and doesn’t like crosses).

But the facts (and the garlic cloves) are mounting up against the Count.

I mentioned in comments after the game yesterday that, in their last four Premier League outings before facing Arsenal, Southampton managed a grand total of 16 attempts on target. That’s 16 attempts in FOUR full matches (or an average of four attempts per game). Yesterday they had 21 attempts on goal in ONE game against us (we had 12).

This can’t go on.

It’s not in my nature to pile in on a manager when he’s down and join the chorus of people clamouring for him to go, but recent performances have left me no alternative. You’ll now find me in the tenor section.

The Count has been a successful manager in his career, winning significant trophies at Sevilla and PSG, but for whatever mysterious reason he just can’t do it with this team in this league. And the longer we resist facing up to that fact, the more damage will be done.

It’s time for the people who run our club to hand him his cape, say fangs for everything and get him out of N5 like a bat out of hell. The stakes are too high (sorry).

And so to the game.

As usual, our team looked great on paper, but sadly someone decided to play the game on grass and at that point it all went wrong.

We had some good moments and some OK individual performances (as well as some poor ones) but I can’t be bothered to do a blow-by-blow report. Instead I’ll mention a few things that stuck in my mind.

• Our midfield under the Count just does not function and the more I watch it and try to figure out why, the more baffled I am. Hopefully some of you more tactically literate types can explain in comments. Yesterday I thought Guendouzi and Torreira put in plenty of effort, did some good things and generally looked OK. Yet Southampton were able to breeze through our middle like Moses parting the Red Sea (no, not Remi Moses, you Phillipinos).
• Ozil had good moments but also had moments where he seemed disinterested and lacking in anticipation. Not sure what’s going on with him.
• Pepe was unlucky not to get his first goal from open play (he hit the crossbar) but it also looks like his confidence is shot. At one point he was through on goal, one on one with the Saints ‘keeper. Any confident striker would have shot. But Pepe made a half-arsed effort to square the ball to Ozil in the area (despite there being a big lump of a Southampton defender in the way).
• The Saints penalty was as soft as you’ll ever see. And worse, the VAR review seemed to show an offside in the build-up. But this being Arsenal and that being VAR, the decision inevitably went against us. (Can I use my “all’s not fair in love and VAR” gag again?).
• How utterly Arsenaly was it that when our ‘keeper finally saves a penalty (which we never seem to do) the opposition score from it anyway. Grrrrr.

Player Ratings

It’s almost impossible to separate the players’ performances from the way they are being asked to play, which is just not working. Nevertheless, with that in mind, here goes:

Leno

Did well to save the pen, even though the rebound went straight back to the penalty taker. Was generally OK. 6

Bellerin

Struggled in defense, didn’t really get forward and seems to be lacking in touch and confidence. We need the old Hector back in the house.  4

Sokratis

Overall was OK, but almost gifted another goal to Saints in the second half by trying to dribble in his own penalty area. 5

Chambers

Did OK until subbed at half time. 5

Luiz

Missed a headed half chance. Was strong on the ball and tried to get us going forward a bit faster at times. 5

Tierney

Unlucky to be penalised for the (very harsh) penalty. Was really good going forward and delivered a terrific cross for our first goal. Struggled defensively with his fellow Scot, Armstrong, at times but worked hard all game. 7

Guendouzi

High energy, plenty of commitment. A decent player in a system that doesn’t work. 6

Torreira

See Guendouzi. 6

Ozil

Good moments, indifferent moments, a very Ozil performance. 5

Aubameyang

Was more in the game in the first half than the second. Always looks good on the ball and always a willing runner, but not much came off for him yesterday (partly because of poor service). 6

Lacazette

Our best player by far. Two well taken poacher’s goals, but he is also tireless in his willingness to chase lost causes, track back to get the ball and harry opposition defenders when they’re trying to bring the ball out. 8

Subs

Pepe

Always looks skillful and tricksy but he’s just not contributing enough at the moment. He doesn’t currently look like a £72 million player. 4

Martineli

Came on late and tried to make a difference with the little time he had. Did well to get the ball into the box for our second equaliser. 6

Willock

Didn’t have long but made an impression. Had a header on target and cleared one off the line. 6

RockyLives

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

The following paragraph is taken from an article written by Adam Bates for sky.

Unai Emery was brought in to improve Arsenal but the decline has accelerated under Arsene Wenger’s successor, writes Adam Bate. Faith in Unai Emery is fading fast but he doesn’t help himself. The pressure is building.  Some of the stats are damning. The Gunners conceded 25 shots against Wolves, the most that any Premier League team has faced in front of their own fans this season or last. It is the most that any Arsenal team have ever conceded in a Premier League match at the Emirates Stadium. And yet, it is still not as many as the 31 shots they faced at Watford recently – a Premier League high this season.

Emery was brought in to address defensive problems but the systemic defensive issues are still there. The team is neither pressing, neither possession-based neither controlling the game. Instead the team seems to be set up to counter the opposition rather than impose a style/game plan on the opposition. Against City and Liverpool, the approach can be understood but against the rest of the teams? His tactics seem confusing. They have however improved in fast transition and seem to be focused on being a counter-attacking team. It is however only creating less than 2 big chances per game and if Auba (and Laca) were not so good in front of goal, the team would not be able to score much as the chances are simply not created.

Emery has now a solid squad at his disposal and it seems that he is  not getting enough from it. When you have Auba, Laca, Pepe, Ozil, Martinelli and even Saka at your disposal up front, you would hope that the team can create more chances and that the game plan is more exciting than it is at the moment.

The heat is on Emery but who would you like to replace him?

1. No one, he should stay until the end of the year.
2. Ljunberg should be given a chance a la Ole style
3. Allegri, and his trophy-laden record in Italy. He is, however, very much a fan of the team shape rather than a fan of pressing. In the EPL, it seems that pressing is key to success. He is, however, an astute coach with the ability to play in various systems depending on what is at his disposal. He is not one to ask for shiny signings.
4. Arteta, our former captain who is being groomed by Guardiola, He knows the club, he knows the players and he was a leader on the pitch respected by his peers although his captainy coincided with the declining years under Wenger. Guardiola rates his tactical awareness.
5. Mourinho, our nemesis. A man whose ego tends to cast a shadow on the club he manages. A man who had success with Porto, Chelsea, Inter, Real and Man Utd. He knows the EPL, he is obsessed with winning and he would try to address our defensive issues. He is a diva and may make some fancy demands and play the spoilt child if he does not get the toy he wants.
6. Blanc, an underrated coach. Knows the EPL as well, favours possession football. He likes the Barcelona type of game so he wants his team to also be able to get the ball back and to conserve it.
7. Ten Hag, Ajax magic coach. Ajax philosophy, nurturing the youth and playing pretty and effective football.
8. Favre, Dortmund coach. Similar to Ten Hag and Blanc in a away but likes also more direct football.
9. Vieira – Henry, former heroes looking to make an impact as coaches. Vieira more successful so far.
10. Ralph Rangnik – the visionary that has made RP Leipzig a solid club in the Bundesliga
11. Someone else

RC78

The Good:

The team line up looked more balanced and cohesive from the outset, both on paper and also in practice for large parts of the game. We looked to have a greater threat going forward and, although ultimately still well below where we need to be, seemed better than in previous games in defence.

We have allowed far poorer teams than Leicester a greater freedom of our penalty box. The best way I could describe it is that we were “in” that game for large parts of it. It felt the type of game that could have swung in our favour at certain points if we could have landed the first blow. There were some promising performances in Ozil, Bellerin and Aubameyeng.

The Bad:

Quite simply we lost another 3 points. We are now 9 points adrift of Leicester and Chelsea who don’t boast, in my opinion, as many good players as we do. Despite looking “in” the game for large parts of it there was always the feeling that we could capitulate at any moment if they landed the first blow…… That we would surrender control of the game and retreat deep for some Alamo style defending (and rely solely on quick counter-attacks) if the game started to turn against us……This all came to pass.

There were some players who didn’t look up to it. Sadly one of them was Guendouzi. He has been lauded as a future great but he also shows on many occasions that he is still very much a rough diamond. Right now he is not on the level of Maddison. If Douzi is to fulfil his potential, and not go the way of pretty much every promising youngster we have had over the last 6 years, then he needs the right environment and coaching.

Tactically Leicester seemed to have all the freedom in the world in the wide areas to play in a number of (unchallenged) dangerous balls across the face of our goal, particularly down our left. Conversely we seemed to have to work a lot harder to get the better of their full-backs, and always looked challenged in that area. Is this where you see the back 4 trump the back 3 or was it some other coaching issue?

The Ugly: 

More the “Ugly Truth” of it really, that we were once again bettered by a club that on paper (individual player for individual player) doesn’t have the same quality level as us. A club that doesn’t have the same pulling power or resources as us, but a club that looks significantly (not slightly) better than us. …not just in this individual game but across all games this season.

If some feel that Leicester are stronger on paper then a sobering thought should be that every one of their players would have been attainable for us. There are no £180m Kyllian Mbappes in there. Even in Maddison, their young crown jewel, you are looking at a player that is likely no more than we paid for Pepe.

Quite simply, Rogers looks to be a manager operating at a far superior level to Emery. I hear arguments about it is too early to judge Emery because he has only had a season and a half. Well Rogers has in a fraction of the time shown what you can do if you develop the team in the right direction with good coaching. Can we really say, at this stage, that we haven’t clicked because Emery’s development of the team is specifically time related and it hasn’t had long enough to come to fruition?

It is that more than anything that bothers me, that we don’t seem to be developing a style or identity as Rogers seems to be doing in far less time with Leicester. That said though, arguably we are developing a style and identity, but just the wrong one.

In the end Leicester just looked to have more confidence in their own ability. They looked slicker and had a greater belief in what they could do. That comes from progressive coaching and you can see that they are on an upward trajectory. Lampard seems to be doing similar at Chelsea.

Each Leicester player, and the team as a whole, are being improved. Our players individually are at best standing still, but in many cases regressing. The team as a whole certainly looks regressive in the last 6 months.

I am not really your man for individual ratings so you can use someone else’s. I will give a couple of alternative ratings as follows:

Team strength individually on paper:

Arsenal 8.5/10

Leicester 7/10

Team strength collectively in real play (in this game alone):

Arsenal 7/10

Leicester 9/10

Manager ratings this season:

Emery 6/10

Rogers 9/10

Many prior games would have seen me mark our real play as a 5/10 so this is where I felt there was more about us in this game for large parts of it.

I would like to ask that we all play nicely today and have a healthy debate. There will be increasingly strong opinions at this juncture with our club, but we must respect each others views. More than that, the contrasting views and arguments are what makes this site the most interesting, so lets embrace that.

Finally I would like to put up an FGG comment from yesterday which very accurately reflects where I feel we are right now and have been in recent years:

He’s just not qualified for this job. Nothing personal, nothing about him as an individual, but the best he’s done in a job is EL football and we are striving for CL football in a very difficult league. Time to move on and fine someone who can do what we ask. The players look lost, the tactics are confusing, and the results are poor. We wasted years waiting for Wenger to re-find his old magic, let’s not make the same mistake with someone who’s never had that magic to begin with.

GoonerB

……………………… Rodgers vs Emery / Vardy vs AFC Defense…OR the game that could end our Top 4 hope.

This game is so interesting in so many ways. There is so much to play for and both teams are in opposite spirals. On one hand, Leicester has started the season very well and everyone is raving about Rodgers, Vardy and the overall team movement, shape and balance. On the other hand, Arsenal who has started the season relatively poorly and there is a lot of negativity about Emery, Xhaka and the overall lack of team movement, shape and balance.

To make things spicier, Rodgers is being touted by many pundits to replace Emery at AFC. Vardy was close to join us but decided to stay at Leicester.

To add to the drama, a loss against Leicester will all but end our Top 4 hopes while a win would not only give us hope to seriously challenge for a top 4 spot but would give a lifeline to Emery until the end of the year and will bring some positivity around our club.

Leicester main performers this year are:

Schmeichel – Ricardo, Evans, Chilwell – Ndidi, Tielemans, Maddison – Barnes – Vardy. So almost the whole squad except maybe Soyoncu and Barnes but again these two had stand out performances as well. That said, I think that we can basically find a way to bother them if we play behind Madisson and if we target Soyoncu. How to do that?

Emery is expected to play in a 3412 tomorrow and I can see him going with

Leno

Chambers  Sokratis   Luiz

Bellerin  Guendouzi  Torreira  Kolasinac

Ozil

Laca, Auba

If Ozil can play right behind Madisson and if Lacazette can target Soyuncu, we have a chance to create some opportunities to score BUT I would rather play with another line up where I would trust Willock and Pepe…I know I know but I think they could help us in being more effective in targeting the Leicester weaknesses, at least initially…

My line up:

Leno

Chambers  Sokratis  Luiz

Bellerin  Guendouzi  Torreira  Willock  Tierney

Pepe  Auba

Anyways – I am not holding my breath but I think that the players know that this is a must “not lose” game so they will put in a good fight…If we can manage a draw at half time, we can maybe scrap out a win but given the current team forms, I would say that Leicester will dispatch us 3-1. Goals from Perreira, Maddison and Vardy. For us, it will be Luiz.

AFC – please prove me wrong and win vs Leicester! COYG!

RC78