So Granit Xhaka has been stripped of the captaincy and there are indications he will be allowed (or encouraged) to leave the club in January.

On the face of it, this is a pretty clear cut example of fan power claiming a scalp.

Some (perhaps many) supporters will celebrate that the Swiss international is now out of the team and probably on his way out of North London. I find the whole episode disturbing and not a little upsetting, as I’ll explain below.

Xhaka has never exactly been loved by the Arsenal faithful, although there have been periods when his play was at least somewhat approved of. But during last season and, particularly, in the current campaign he has been the focus of considerable discontent.

It’s not uncommon for individual players to become lightning rods when their team is going through a rough patch. In recent times at Arsenal, players including Mustafi, Ozil and Ramsey have all fulfilled that role.

But now, with the current season slipping into mediocrity and recrimination, Xhaka has been a lightning road in the eye of a rapidly growing thunderstorm. With hindsight, it’s not surprising he ended up burned.

It was a “victory” for fan power because it has been clear that Unai Emery (like Arsene Wenger before him) saw Granit Xhaka as an important component of his first team and had no desire to lose him in the short term.

This may be, as LB has suggested, because he is seen as the best option among those that are currently available rather than him being thought of as a world class star. But either way, Emery continued to pick Xhaka even as the social media cacophony for him to be axed grew louder and louder. Not only that, the head coach made him captain (after an admittedly bizarre process).

As we all know, everything came to a head when Xhaka was subbed off during the Crystal Palace game. When his number was held up some fans cheered ironically. Xhaka walked off slowly, to a chorus of boos and took off his shirt before heading straight down the tunnel.

This is why I see it as a “win” for fan power: the fans got their way. The persistent barrage of criticism about Xhaka no doubt weighed on Emery’s mind (as well as on the player’s). When things were going badly (again) for his team, Emery attempted to appease his critics by taking off the captain. The subsequent scenes cemented Xhaka’s place in the Arsenal departure lounge.

If there had not been a background of dissatisfaction with how Arsenal were performing under Emery I am sure he would not have substituted his captain. So “fan power” influenced his in-game decision making. Then the booing did the rest.

Frankly I hate this whole episode. My view of Xhaka is that he is a perfectly decent player in an underperforming team who is being asked to carry out a role that does not suit his skills, possibly in a league that does not suit his skills. But regardless of his footballing merits or otherwise I am appalled that our head coach bowed to fan pressure in this way.

If Emery thinks Xhaka should play every game he should stick to his guns and ignore the fans. Let’s face it, for all we like to think we know plenty about football, we know precious little compared to an experienced head coach who was won trophies at the highest level.

Is this how it going to be at Arsenal now? When the fans get on a player’s back the manager throws him to the lions?

And mark my words, there will be another lightning rod player after Xhaka unless the team suddenly starts displaying top-three form and crushing all opponents.

The whole carry-on has left me angry and depressed. No-one comes out of it well – not the fans who cheered when Xhaka’s number came up, or the ones who booed him off, not the player for his reaction, not the club for their handling of things and certainly not the manager for his apparent weakness.

I don’t want my club or its head coach to make decisions based on the latest scapegoating campaign by a noisy minority of supporters and social media blowhards. The Arsenal should be better than that.

It may well be that, as per the headline, the Xhaka situation makes it: “Fan Power 1, Xhaka 0.”

But there’s another scoresheet for this whole business and it goes like this: “Fan Power 1, Arsenal 0.”  And that’s not good.

RockyLives

First half was horrendous, second half was better. We were exposed every time Vitoria put some pace on their attacking movements. We did not create much going forward and we did not really defend well when tested. No stand out performer.

Lessons learned:
1. Ceballos cannot play in central midfield
2. Holding can only play at the base of a back 3
3. AMN-Mustafi are not a good combo covering the right side of the defense
4. Saka needs a rest
5. Emery does not rate LT anymore
6. Willock is the real deal
7. Pepe set-piece delivery is good but he still needs to do better in open play

Player ratings

Martinez – 5.5
AMN – 4
Mustafi – 5 (just b/c of the goal)
Sokratis – 6
Holding – 5
Tierney – 5
Ceballos – 4
Willock – 5
Saka – 3
Martinelli – 4
Pepe – 5

Subs

Douzi – 5
Laca – 4
Torreira – N/A

Emery – 5 (for trying a new formation but not playing the right players)

RC78

Good morning Gooners.

Although some find themselves in the midst of doom and gloom – Emery in Emery out, Xhaka in Xhaka out, Ozil in Ozil out – we have a game this afternoon in a competition that thus far has brought some much needed fun – Martinelli’s headed goals and Pepe’s free kicks to name a couple of things. Plus we are top of our group with 9 points and have a goal difference of +8, what’s not to like.

This afternoon we are in Portugal for the return fixture against Vitoria. A fixture that has been arranged for 15.50 to make it easier on the local traffic 🙂 Europa games are not allowed to be played the same time as Champions League games so that’s why this game is in the afternoon.

The Europa league has given Emery the chance to play some of our young talent and I expect we’ll see the likes of Martinelli, Willock, Saka and possibly Nelson and Smith-Rowe too. Add to that we have the players returning from long term injuries Bellerin and Holding, possibly Tierney (although he played 80 minutes on Saturday).

Vitoria gave us a bit of a scare at the Emirates a couple of weeks ago by scoring two goals – but then everyone scores against us – and I expect their little spud reject Marcus Edwards will be up for making things difficult for us again.

How many Arsenal supporters will be able to watch the game? It’s an unknown isn’t it, so for those that do watch it, their thoughts and feelings will be important, something to remember when reading social media after the game.

I’m hoping we’ll see a similar team to the one that took to the Emirates pitch previously – something like this.

Martinez

Bellerin  Mustafi  Holding  Tierney

Maitland-Niles  Torreira  Willock

Pepe  Martinelli  Smith-Rowe

As no-one will be watching they can just go for it and have some fun 🙂 good luck guys, win this one and the U18’s can play in the next rounds.

peachesgooner

Well that was better, wasn’t it, sort of, a bit? The problem that some are going to have trouble coming to terms with, is today, this game, this team and the quality of football that they played is as good as it is going to get. Yes folks, that’s it, that is as high a standard of football as we are going to get to watch this season. Not sure?

Emery had use of his full squad, all fit, and for the first time this season was able to field his strongest side and were you impressed? It intrigues me as to what people envisage, for those who expected this side to evolve into vintage Arsenal circa 2004 I think they going to be very disappointed.

Selection wise it was probably better than anyone dared punt for: the defence is what it is; Bellerin is not clearly better than Chambers at the moment and anyone who thinks that Holding is better than Luiz right now needs to go a lie down in a dark room and reconsider. The midfield was a diamond with Guendouzi at the foot rather than Torreira as most expected but they both did perfectly well. Ozil was expected to play but the addition of another creative in Ceballos impressed me. The attack with Aubamayang, Lacazette and then Martinelli was, of course, right.

Wolves are good, they are really good in a non Liverpool, Man City kind of way and their organisation in defence and flair in attack is impressive and yet we found a way to get past that and put ourselves ahead. We were holding this lead reasonably well, not comfortably but well enough.

Now for as much as I have just praised Emery for his team selection I am going to do a one eighty and say that the man should be stood against a wall and shot for his substitutions. Not for the first: Martinelli for Lacazette, no problem there, in fact, it is debatable which of these two is better (at the moment anyway), although, I don’t think this will be the case by the end of the season.

No, the issue is the next substitution: Torreira is tiring so Wolves are finding their way through the middle, creating attacking opportunities easier than they should, something has to be done. Emery has a choice of the straight swap, Willock for Torreira, or Kolasinac ahead of Tierney and bring Ceballos back, or Chambers in the middle with Bellerin going out on the right but no, Emery swaps a key defensive player in Torreira for the most non defensive player available in the form of Saka; this young man offers nothing, rien, nada by way of defence and as soon as that change happened Wolves exploited the weakness on our left and scored exactly, exactly, exactly as Liverpool were able to do in the dying minutes in the week when defensively Saka was equally non-existent.

Emery must be playing a long game here; he must know that he will not survive this season if he fails to get us into the top four and so I can only guess that he wants to get Saka up to the level that he has in his mind’s eye which must be scoring match winning goals that, in turn, get us into the top four – very dangerous if that is the strategy.

On a positive note it did make a refreshing change not having to listen to people around me moaning about one player or another, we were scape goat free today, at least on the field, Emery caught a bit on the way out the ground and I obviously add to that a bit above. No VAR incidents as well, which was welcome, but aaaaaahhhh, we could have won this.

Leno: I haven’t seen the replay so I don’t know if he was at fault for the Wolves goal, made a fantastic save in the first half. 7

Chambers: with Bellerin breathing down his neck he seems to be upping his game every week. 8

Sokratis: regained his confidence after scoring last week, a bit flat-footed for their goal. 6

Luiz: I would say that his game was nigh on faultless. 10 and MOTM

Tierney: still finding his feet but has clearly increasing the over all collective pool of talent. 7

Guendouzi: filling in for Xhaka, seemingly in more ways than one, gave the ball away twice in quick succession in the beginning that almost gifted Wolves goals, made up for it as he settled, surely he has made that position his own now. 7

Ceballos: plateaued a bit; seems to have lost the goal scoring part of his game. 7

Ozil: in the same way that a cat chooses to live where he wants, Ozil seems to choose as to whether he fancy’s playing for Arsenal, glad he is in the mood right now because he has upped the over all quality by some distance. 8

Lacazette: keeping this position warm for Martinelli, the Brazilian’s close control is so much better. 7

Aubamayang: Auba did what Auba was supposed to do and score. 8

Subs

Martinelli: shame he didn’t start.

Saka: can someone tell me why this young man is playing in the EPL right now?

Kolasinac: happy earning his sqillions and coming on for a cameo here and a cameo there.

LB

Our defensive issues are still glaring and it is not having a go at the defenders but rather at our team set-up or cohesiveness on defensive and attacking phases.

We have an amazing strikeforce with Auba, Laca, Pepe and now supplemented by Martinelli and even Saka.

We have a midfielder who seems to have what it takes to be our box to box in Guendouzi and we have two very slicks passers of the ball in Ozil and Ceballos.

We also have some pace in our full-backs that are good going forward and our CBs may not be the best but they are rather robust and have heart and two of them (Holding and Luiz) have a decent passing range so why is it that we are still conceding chances for fun?

I believe it comes down to the set-up and instructions to the team and although we do not have the most talented squad, I certainly think that it is more talented than Leicester’s and more capable than the current Chelsea and Utd’s squad this season.

Finishing outside the Top 4 this season would be a massive disappointment to say the least. I am hoping that Emery is going to have the wits to try something else vs Wolves, who almost beat us at the Emirates last year.

Wolves have a good squad with some good players like Traore, Jimenez, Neves,Vinagre and Jota for example not to mention Moutinho, Dedonker and Boly. They are strong, good at handling the ball and offer a pacy yet physical opposition.

Here is my team:

Leno

Sokratis, Holding, Luiz

Bellerin, Douzi, Torreira (or Chambers or Willock), Tierney

Ozil

Laca, Auba

Emery’s team:

Leno

Chambers, Sokratis, Luiz, Kola

Douzi, Torreira, Ceballos

Pepe, Laca, Auba

I am hoping for a 2-1 win but recently we have given up leads so…it may end up as a 2-2.

COYG!

RC78

An Arsenal team with a strong contingent of young players competed in a thrilling 10 goal classic at Anfield last night, only to face the heartache of losing in a penalty shoot-out.

Apart from the pens I thoroughly enjoyed the match. It was full of mistakes and dodgy defending from both sides, but the attacking verve made it an irresistible spectacle.

I don’t believe the performance or the result have any real bearing on our season. The Carabao Cup was far from our top priority and last night’s goalfest was a splendid one-off.

It almost seemed as if both coaches had sent their teams out to go for goal at all costs and to hell with everything else. If they did, only Klopp was smiling about it throughout the game. It may have been my imagination but he even seemed to be smiling when the Arsenal goals went in.

There were strong positives for Arsenal, particularly in the performances of Martinelli, Ozil and Willock.

Below are the thoughts of some of the AA bloggers. The overwhelming view seems to have been that everyone enjoyed the game as great entertainment.

Now that we’ve all slept on it, is the gloss beginning to rub off, or are we still basking in the glow of all that cut-and-thrust attacking? Answers in comments, please…

GoonerB

Having led twice by a 2 goal margin and winning with 1 minute remaining I am a bit gutted but not too upset. This was never the most important thing for us this year.

Many positives but also pointers towards where we need to improve. We have a lot of potential. Just need to harness it and work out the right combinations in the squad. Over to you Unai.

Peaches

A fantastic game of football as both teams went for it. Shame we couldn’t hold on but it’s a silly competition anyway

Seedee

Oh ffs. Was actually really needing a gritty win, and to have won 5-4 at Anfield in front of their own fans, even against their second string team would have been just what the doctor ordered.

(The Real) John Matthews, Legend

Pure entertainment!

RA

Wonderful game, mistakes and all…

I hope that the fans leave Embers alone today. It was a brilliant game and let’s face it there were many good things coming from the game.

Fatgingergooner

Great advert for the kids playing in this cup. Well, apart from the defenders! we should’ve won really but it’s no surprise that we can’t hold leads. It seems our most exciting performances are going to be in the EL this season as it’s only when the youngsters are involved that we are worth a watch.

Loved it. Worst bit was Klopp smiling.

RockyLives

Perhaps because it’s not that important a competition, I really enjoyed that despite the result.

Feel sad for Emery though – he could have done with that win.

Aaron

Entertainment at it’s best, unless of course you like 0-0 to the Arsenal.

Sue

Bloody hell.. was it too much to ask to hang on, with like a minute left?!! Arghhh!!!!!!

LB

How refreshing to watch a game without VAR.

Rasp

Martinelli – proper striker.

RC78

Player Ratings:

Martinez – 4
Bellerin – 5
Mustafi – 4
Holding – 4
Kola – 5
AMN – 6
Torreira – 7
Willock – 6
Ozil – 7
Saka – 5
Martinelli – 8

Subs

Douzi – 5
Ceba – 4
Tierney – 4

RockyLives

What a ten days it’s been.

It started with a woeful defeat at Sheffield United. A couple of days later we laboured against a poor Vitoria side until Pepe played two wonderful get-out-of-jail-free cards. Then we blew a two goal lead against Crystal Palace. During that game we made ourselves laughing stocks by booing our captain. He had an on-field tantrum the ramifications of which continue to rumble. And to cap it all we discovered that all is not fair in love and VAR.

We go into tonight’s fourth round Carabao Cup tie against Liverpool at Anfield looking as wobbly as a jelly on a vibration plate.

So let’s hope that Unai Emery takes to heart the words of the French First World War general Marshal Ferdinand Foch. During the First Battle of the Marne (September 1914) things were not going well for his forces against the Germans, so he sent the following dispatch: “My centre is giving way, my right is retreating, situation excellent: I shall attack.”

The philosophy is simple: one way to react to adversity is to ignore it and to galvanise your forces by taking the fight to the enemy.

If we put out an attack minded cup side tonight comprised of eager young players with a smattering of experience, there is every reason to be hopeful of a good result.

Notwithstanding the questionable display against Vitoria, the cup competitions have given us easily our most enjoyable moments so far this season.

There was the 5-0 thrashing of Notts Forest in the Carabao Cup, and the excellent wins away at Eintracht Frankfurt and home to Standard Liege in the Europa League. In those games it wasn’t just that we got the results, but that we played with a sense of purpose, swagger and, above all, fearlessness.

More of that tonight and Liverpool might be in for a shock.

For a start, there is no way our opponents will play a full strength team. The Scousers need a league title like a drowning man needs a lifebelt and they’re not going to let anything get in the way of that single-minded pursuit.

It’s not that they’ll want to lose tonight – far from it. It’s just that this trophy is a long way down their priority list and you suspect that their toothy German coach wouldn’t be too broken hearted to see them drop out of the competition.

In the last round, against MK Dons, their line-up was:

Kelleher

Milner Lovren Gomez Hoever

Lallana Oxlade-Chamberlain Keita

Brewster Jones Elliott

It doesn’t exactly have you quaking in your boots, does it? They may strengthen a little given that, on paper at least, we are a tougher opponent than MK Dons but I don’t expect their team to be anything like their Premier League starting eleven.

What about us?

I would go with the majority of the players who have performed well already this season in the cup competitions:

You’ll have noticed I snuck Mesut Ozil in there. I have no idea whether or not Emery will play him but with all that’s been going on around the club lately I’m backing my hunch that he will.

I would add some experience on the bench with the likes of Lacazette, Sokratis and Pepe in case we’re pushing for a late goal or trying to cling on to a lead.

If that eleven goes up against a similar Liverpool team to the one that turned out in the last round I fancy us to win.

A final word about Marshal Foch. His brave words wouldn’t mean much if the French were subsequently defeated. But in fact his army, from a losing position, turned the tide in the First Battle of Marne and although they didn’t exactly rout their German opponents they did grind them to a sort-of stalemate.

Which makes me think we might have to win in extra time or on penalties…

RockyLives

And there was me on that crisp, bright, autumnal afternoon, sitting above the corner flag where Pepe sent in his two excellent corners which helped put us two up thinking: this is going to be a stroll in Drayton Park today.

Silly boy LB, silly, silly boy, when will you learn?

No, of course, it was not going to be like that, there was much more hand wringing and frustration on its way as we slowly descended back from the high hopes of a comfortable victory to our more familiar surroundings of a deflating draw.

Before arriving at the ground my yardstick for success was that I wanted to see improvement in the overall quality and standard of play. I wanted to see us moving forward because I firmly believe that there is a good team in that squad fighting to get out, its just that it seems that after all the expectation of our shiny new summer signings it is taking longer to get to that point than we expected. Was there an overall improvement, a bit, but not as much as I was hoping for.

The game was overshadowed by VAR, it seems that the suppliers of this device do not feel they are giving their customers value for money unless they create at least one controversial decision per week. It’s just plain wrong that people who attend the games do not receive an explanation as to why a penalty is given or to why a goal disallowed. I have not seen the replays and so I have no idea whether the decisions were right or wrong. It’s ridiculous that I am in this position.

The other main talking point was the substitution of Xhaka. I cannot improve on FGG’s assessment of which I whole-heartedly agree.

“Arsenal fans are an embarrassment. Booing off the club captain because we aren’t winning…boo hoo. ‘We want our Arsenal back’ they need to grow up. He isn’t the only player that makes mistakes on that football field and he’s certainly not the only reason we aren’t performing to our best at the moment.” (FGG)

When Xhaka’s number appeared a huge cheer went up, Xhaka obviously did himself no favours by walking off slowly but the booing that followed is never acceptable. For those who disagree with FFG’s view I would imagine that you are happy that Emery has been put in absolutely no doubt about, what has to be acknowledged as the view of the majority of Arsenal supporters, that Xhaka should not be playing.

Leno: 7 I don’t know anything about goalkeepers, he always seems good to me should he have done better re the goals conceded? Didn’t look the case from where I was sitting.

Chambers: 6 Continues to improve, many might get their wish and see him playing in front of the defence sooner rather than later.

Sokratis: 8 on a hat trick for a moment, great to see him get his first goal for the club

Luiz: 7  it was all looking so good when he scored our second and then…………….

Tierney: 7started very brightly and then got more average as the game went on, everything still looking good though.

Xhaka: 5  am I going to write something sympathetic after his poor treatment? No. Doesn’t augment the attack and doesn’t add enough to the defence.

Ceballos: 5 big step backwards, misplaced passes, I don’t mind that when a player is trying something special but there were bread and butter passes going astra, poor.

Guendouzi 7 supplied me with my favourite moment of the game: his neck high rugby tackle on Zaha in the dying seconds was brilliant, if you haven’t seen it try hard to find it because it is so good, still well worthy of his starting place.

Pepe: 6 hoped he was going to kick on from Thursday in open play but he didn’t really, deserved to stay on for the whole of the game which I suppose is an improvement of a sorts.

Lacca 5 me ol mucca you ain’t quite doing it, your first touch is getting worse as you try and force the play and Martinelli is breathing down your neck.

Aubamayang: 6 no real chances; did what he could which wasn’t that much.

Song of the afternoon and sung with hearty gusto throughout the ground.

We’ve got Ozil
Mesut Ozil
I just don’t think you understand.

Make of that what you like?

Laters…………

LB