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

I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this, not because you, the reader, doesn’t deserve an in depth pre-analysis of the game tonight but because I wrote the pre-match on Monday and we all know how that went.

However tonight I do expect that there’ll be a bit more entertainment from the team that Emery puts out. He loves this competition and maybe that’s why Monday was so stale because he was saving his super dooper team selection for tonight ………. one can dream.

Tonight we should see Bellerin, Holding and Tierney with possibly Mustafi tucked in to make up the CB numbers. If Emery wanted to be bold he could sit Chambers in front of the back four to give protection when Bellerin and Tierney go bombing forward. But as Chambers played on Monday night we’ll probably see Torreira (or Luiz) dropped in there ….. which is also fine with me.

Mid-field is where we have mostly decided there’s a problem with no-one really carrying the ball forward to our front three/two. Maybe we’ll see Ozil 🙂 with Ceballos and Willock. I expect Lacazette to start with Pepe.

Do you want to know anything about the opposition? Really tonight is about getting the supporters back on side so for me, it’s all about The Arsenal and winning and scoring lots of goals.

Here’s my team …………

Martinez

Bellerin   Mustafi   Holding   Tierney

Chambers

Ceballos   Ozil    Willock

Lacazette    Pepe

Come on Unai, we want to be entertained.

peachesgooner

I’ll start with an admission, I struggled to stay awake in the second half. And by the final whistle I was slipping in and out of consciousness.

These are rambling wittering observations thoughts and feelings in no particular order.

1. Is this the right plan?

I can see there is a plan…it’s just not that interesting to watch and it is proving easy for opposition sides to counteract. Where is the excitement where is the creative spark?

In the first half before Sheffield United got their much deserved goal, with ball in Leno’s hands or at feet the two centre backs pull wide one midfielder stands facing the goalkeeper and the full backs push up the wing. Obviously the intention is pass to one of the recipients avoid the press and move the ball to one of the wingbacks to go forward.

The problem? It’s far too easy to nullify, Sheffield United just placed their front men and a couple of midfielders about ten – twenty yards away in a line. The centre backs could receive ball easily but had no options (as they were pressed by positioning) other than going back or to the sideways. If we were facing a hard press then perhaps we could pass round and take a few opponents out of the game. But teams are not doing that because why would you?

2. Where is the creativity?

If you take individual creativity out of the situation then you are left with drones who can only play one way and become easy to mark and counter. There was a point in the first half where Chambers faced by a wall tries to keep going forward but with zero options, eventually turned back and we ended up giving ball away, this earned a thumbs up from Emery, presumably because the pass and the movement is per the intended plan.

3. Final Third Danger

We all know our best players are up the top half of the pitch, but if we can’t get the ball to them what’s the point in having them on the pitch?

I actually liked some of Pepe’s game last night unfortunately he was having to do stuff in his own half, take the missed chance. He won the ball in our third, used quick feet and passed the ball on quickly and set off on a lung busting run, there was a chance to play him in when he was just ahead of the half way line, we went wide again (one assumes as per the plan) then when the cross finally came he was having to slow his run to stay behind the ball and find another burst of speed to try to get to the ball. He couldn’t sort his feet out quickly enough and the chance went begging. Therein lies the problem, he had to work from so deep to even get that chance. If he had started from half way line we may have had a different outcome. If the pass hadn’t gone wide but put him through he would have had a better chance and a more direct run on goal.

4. Controlling possession, so what?

When the fourth or fifth sideways pass have induced everyone into a coma and someone takes it upon themselves to try and move forward to go for an over the top channel ball to PEA, we all know he is not a hold up player but I don’t think he wants the thankless task of running channels for 90 minutes hoping for a 50:50 ball to work for him.

5. Cutting edge, incision – blunt knife

The second half came and went with more sideways passing, albeit further up the pitch as Sheffield United tired and lined up deeper than they had in the first half. Didn’t help us much as there was very little space to pass through the eye of a needle and very little movement until Lacazette came on, his introduction did seem to lift PEA’s spirits and for the next five minutes there was some more mobility.

Cebalios had more room to run with the ball from deep but there were very few options ahead of him. There seems to be no desire to try the difficult ball resulting in more possession but very little direct play towards the oppositions goal.

6. Conclusion

The performance was boring, I’d accept a 1-0 defeat if we actually looked like equalising, we didn’t, the whole team needs to step up and be bold, they need to try something different they need to recognise what isn’t working, we have experienced players in Sokratis and Luiz who seriously can’t believe that accepting the ball faced with four opponents and few options is a good way to start moving up the pitch. They are on the pitch they need to make the right decisions they need to say to Leno “no” it goes long we need to gain thirty yards.

I am bored of seeing our wide men go forward with the ball and then turning back to play a safe possession pass.

I was hoping to get tickets for the Southampton home game and take my boys (I can buy Friday) the same day there is a 54 mile cycle cross sportive. Part of me thinks I’d have more fun cycling across Breckland Heath in mud and sand than going to the Arsenal for the first time this season. Can that be right? I’m not an ardent cyclist, and it will be cold and probably wet. Why do I think it would be more fun?

Yesterday was surprising, I was close to thinking we were going to be celebrating ‘Invincibles Day’ today when VAR couldn’t find a reason to disallow a Liverpool goal that looked off-side to me and hand them a draw against Man U.

The VAR officials had managed to ruin several managers weekends up to that point and Klopp was already incensed that Liverpool should have had a free kick in the lead up to Man U scoring. I’m sure the point of VAR is to make things easier with regard to on field decisions but there still seems to be such a lot of confusion. Hopefully we can get through this evening with VAR on our side.

This evening we travel to Sheffield United for our 9th EPL game of the season. We sit in 5th position and they are 15th. The news on the grapevine is that Tierney is ready to start, hopefully Bellerin too and Lacazette will be on the bench. Both of the wing backs will be fantastic additions to our squad and the return of Lacazette is a great boost.

The Blades have had some good results so far this campaign notably a draw with Chelsea and a win away at Everton but they’ve lost their last three home matches and won’t want that to be extended to four. Arsenal have only managed one away win so far this campaign, to Newcastle on the opening weekend but – and this is a great stat – The Gunners have won their last seven PL games in Yorkshire, the longest winning run by an away side in the county in English top-flight history 😃

After a long and incredibly boring International break it’s almost cruel to have Monday night football but here we are. Apart from the addition of Bellerin and Tierney I expect the team to look pretty much as it did before the break. The Blades are set up to defend well and so we’ll need to be a bit tricky to find space …… maybe not the night for Pepe to open his account but I’m sure Emery will stick with him. Aubameyang has scored four of our five away goals – Mr Reliable – and I’m sure he’ll be pleased to have Lacazette on the bench to come on and help out.

Our possible line-up ……..

Leno

Bellerin   Sokratis   Luiz   Tierney

Guendouzi  Xhaka  Ceballos

Pepe  Aubameyang  Saka

I’m thrilled to have Arsenal football back, the weather forecast is good, we need a win on the road ………. COYG

peachesgooner 

Is it just me, or are player nicknames not as imaginative these days?

Or as intimidating?

In the past, fearsome defenders had fearsome monikers to put the wind up opponents before the whistle had even blown.

I’m thinking of Norman “Bites Yer Legs” Hunter, Stuart “Psycho” Pearce, Ron “Chopper” Harris, Julian “The Terminator” Dicks. Charlton Athletic’s Derek Hales had not one but two scary soubriquets: “Killer” and “Deadly Derek.” The big centre half Barry Kitchener at Millwall was known as “Lurch.” In these more refined times you have to go to World Wrestling Entertainment to find nicknames like that.

And if they’re too red-in-tooth-and-claw for our modern sensibilities, how about humorous nicknames? Again, I would contend they’re just not as funny as they used to be.

Who could resist a smile on hearing that Ray Parlour was “the Romford Pele” or that the former Palace and Watford player Fitz Hall was known as “One Size” (one size fits all – geddit?).

In more recent times Per Mertesacker’s nickname takes some beating: calling him The BFG (channeling Roald Dahl’s Big Friendly Giant but adding a healthy dose of irreverence to turn it into Big F_____g German) was a stroke of genius and caught on with the fans from day one, even if it took a while for Per to understand the joke (who’d have thought Germans would struggle with a sense of humour?).

So let’s look at our current first team players.

Aubameyang is Auba, Lacazette is Laca, Ozil is just, well, Ozil… I mean, come on! Surely we can do better?

I suppose Torreira/Terrier is just about acceptable (it works as a pun and sort-of describes his playing style). Doozy for Guendouzi might have some mileage (dictionary definition of ‘doozy’ – “something outstanding or unique of its kind”) but has it really caught on? Kolasinac is sometimes called “Tank”, which is fair enough (although often his defending makes him more ‘septic’ than ‘Chieftain’).

So let’s have a stab at coming up with some new nicknames for our boys. I’ll get the ball rolling, but please pitch in with your own suggestions:

Hector “The Protector” Bellerin (protects our goal from enemy wingers).

Pierre Emerick “BamBam” Aubameyang.

Rob “Small” Holding (it’s meant to be ironic, given that he’s 6ft 2in).

Reiss “Horatio” Nelson (heroic enough, but then does anyone know their history these days?).

Skodhran “Skoda” Mustafi (occasionally dependable but a bit slow and prone to breaking down).

Calum “Star” Chambers (another one for the history buffs).

Mesut “Kaa” Ozil (Kaa is the hypnotic snake from The Jungle Book: Ozil, at his best, seems to hypnotise defenders… plus there’s those big, bulging eyes).

Dani “Sasquatch” Ceballos (have you seen the size of his big feet?).

Alexandre “The Lion of Lyon” Lacazette (bit rubbish, but all I could manage. He was born in Lyon).

Gabriel “The Angel” Martinelli (simple, but I like it).

I feel a bit sorry for Joe Willock (who is a terrific prospect) because all I could think of for him was Joe “The Pillock” Willock, which is most unfair. So I won’t mention that one.

Come on you lot, help me out.

Or at least mention your favourite nicknames for players past and present (of Arsenal or any other club).

I’ll leave you with a funny anecdote. When Shola Ameobi was playing for Newcastle United under the managership of the aging and somewhat forgetful Bobby Robson, an interviewer asked him what the other players called him. The disappointing answer was “Shola.” Then the interviewer said: “What does Bobby Robson call you?” Ameobi replied: “He calls me Carl Cort.”

RockyLives

We sit third but without being that convincing to date. One does worry that we have slightly got away with it till now and the performances will not sustain us in our search for a points tally that sees us have a more successful season.

We have some unenviable stats where we top a league across many leagues for shots on our goal. How is this happening? I am not sure of the exact figures and maybe one of you lovely people can shed some statistical light on it.

I have also wondered whether there are any stats out there as to how often a teams defence have to face a defensive moment. My gut feeling is that this could also be very telling if say, for instance, our defence was having to face 50% more “defensive moments” than any near rival.

The sheer numbers game would indicate that you will eventually concede more than those rivals no matter how good your dfenders are individually and as a group.

I was interested in reading that Emery was after Boly to quote “solve Arsenal’s defensive woes”. My question is this. Is it just about the quality of defender we have or don’t have right now that is our big issue, and throwing another defender into the mix will solve our defensive problems, or is it more of a whole team structure thing that sees our defence called into action far more often than it should be and our rivals, and thus explain that worrying shots on goal stat?

Please discuss ……….

GoonerB

Yes, the headline is deliberately flippant.

But look at the facts:

• Third in the league, only a point behind last year’s all-conquering champions.
• Four points ahead of Teeteringham.
• Six points ahead of Manchester United.
• Only one defeat in eight games in the Premier League.
• In the last two and half weeks we have played 6 games in all competitions, Won 5, Drawn 1, Lost 0; Goals for 17, Goals against 3.

On paper we’re in the title race, albeit a long way behind the long-haired lovers from Liverpool.

Yet it doesn’t feel like we’re anywhere close to being able to contemplate a serious tilt at the title and performances like yesterday’s against Bournemouth don’t help.

We can take satisfaction from getting our 1-0 win and three very valuable points, but life still is not a bowl of cherries. I’ll come on to possible reasons why later, but first a quick recap of the match.

Unai Emery’s team selection was fairly predictable. RC in his pre-match write up got 10 out of 11, missing only Ceballos, who was preferred to RC’s prediction of Torreira.

At the start of the day Bournemouth were only a point behind us in the league and we all know they can play a bit, so this was never likely to be a pushover.

That said, we started well with Saka looking particularly lively on the left flank, Ceballos pulling the strings in midfield, Guendouzi surging round the pitch like a remote controlled car on Christmas morning and even Pepe showing some silky skills.

The breakthrough came early, and not from any of the attackers. A corner from our right was adroitly pinged into the box by Pepe and found the curly coiffured bonce of our bouncy Brazilian centre back. He had a lot to do to direct the ball on target, but in it went. A first Arsenal goal for David Luiz and an assist for Pepe.

For the rest of the first half we were effortlessly in control, stroking the ball about easily and looking dangerous in attack, while Bournemouth offered little threat. We created multiple good situations but the final touch or pass was always slightly off and we were not able to build on our lead. As the minutes ticked into the 40s and it was still only 1-0 despite our dominance, I began to feel some familiar nerves twitching into life.

Sure enough Bournemouth came out a much more committed side after the break, presumably after a rocket from Eddie Howe. They harried us more effectively and slowly but surely became the dominant side.

As the second half wore on and our attacking thrust got blunter and blunter, an equaliser started to feel inevitable.

Some of the most perilous moments came directly from rare occasions when we were carving through Bournemouth and looking to threaten their goal, only for a piece of carelessness from one of our players to set them on the counter attack.

In the space of one period of just a couple of minutes Kolasinac, under no pressure whatsoever, passed the ball to a Bournemouth player who launched a break which almost resulted in a goal; then Guendouzi lost the ball carelessly and again, a few seconds later, we were lucky not to concede (although to Gwen’s credit it was he who made the gut-busting run and desperate tackle that saved a goal).

And that summed up our second half: sloppy. I don’t know if the conditions were difficult (the sun was shining, but had there been heavy rain earlier?), but every time we tried to do something positive it was spoiled by a wayward pass, a piece of bad control, getting carelessly caught in possession or even just tripping over our own feet.

When the whistle blew after five minutes of added time it was a huge relief.

So we had a win, but not one to send the faithful home feeling like the team is finding its rhythm and ready to push on with a serious top four challenge.

I thought our shape and system looked OK yesterday (certainly compared with some games, such as Watford or Man Utd), but – in the second half at least – there was a lack of concentration throughout the team, particularly in the attacking half.

Hopefully it was just a difficult day at the office and the sort of sustained focus we have seen in the cup games can quickly be integrated back into our league effort.

We happen to be on one of those runs (in the league) where the results are OK but the performances are worrying. From that position things can go in two directions: either the performances don’t improve and we don’t keep ‘getting away with it’ or things start to gel on the pitch and the results stay good. Take your pick.

I’ll end with some positives, beyond just getting the three points: for a start, the important thing is that we did not let Bournemouth get their goal and that was down to some committed defending, particularly from Chambers, but with Luiz and Sokratis also having some big defensive moments, while Leno was reliable as ever with his shot stopping.

Hopefully the clean sheet is indicative of a sharper defensive focus. The danger moments came from mistakes at the attacking end of the field leading to Bournemouth counters: they did not come from our defenders putting on clown shoes and red noses in our own defensive third as they have done too many times this season already.

Now we go into the international break on the back of a good run of results and with a struggling Sheffield United team waiting for us when league action resumes.

We are third in the league I said we are third in the league… (Doesn’t have quite the right ring to it, does it?).

Player Ratings

Leno    7

Didn’t have too many saves to make but was in the right place when called on. One interception of a dangerous low cross sticks in the memory as an instance of his excellent anticipation.

Chambers       8 (MoTM)

Chambers is on a very good run of form. Made some top tackles and interceptions in our box and helped link play well when going forward. Best of all, he always seems composed on the ball.

Sokratis           7

Didn’t do much wrong and made a couple of important tackles and headers.

Luiz      7.5

As per Sokratis, but with an extra half point for the goal.

Xhaka              5.5

I’m not as down on Xhaka as some, but much of this game passed him by (although he still had time to make some stupid tackles).

Ceballos          6.5

Good in the first half, faded in the second before being substituted.

Guendouzi       7

Typically energetic performance, but his play was littered with concentration lapses in the second half.

Pepe    6

You can almost smell the crowd willing him to turn it on. He showed some great dribbling skills at times, though usually with little end product. Not a bad a outing but this was not the game where he suddenly turns the corner. Nice cross for the goal.

Aubameyang  6.5

Struggled to make an impact, but it wasn’t really his fault. Most of our moves broke down before the ball reached him in dangerous positions.

Saka    7

Very bright in the first half but was another who faded after half time.

Subs

Martinelli        7

Looked lively and clearly uses the same batteries as Guendouzi.

Willock            6.5

Another encouraging outing for Willock, but by the time he came on our second half malaise was already too deeply embedded.

Torriera           6.5

A tidy 10 minutes or so from the Uruguayan.

RockyLives

Another home game but this time in the EPL. A match against a team that is only one point behind us…A win against will create a gap between us and them (and also Tottenham 🙂 ) of 4 points and it will also see us on the podium…So there is a lot to play for today in front of our crowd.

Bournemouth are no pushover. They play decent football and they have some good footballers like Calum Wilson, Diego Rico, Harry Wilson, Joshua King, Nathan Ake, Ryan Fraser and to a certain extent also Ibe and Solanke. Their form has been on and off with good wins and also big losses, mostly because of their inconsistant and weaker defensive efforts. Will they park the bus against us? Not sure. They tend to play a 442 and I expect them to play a 442 tomorrow but maybe Solanke will play a bit deeper…

So how to beat them? They like to counter-attack and they like set-pieces. They are fast on attacking transitions but struggle sometimes defensively so if I were Emery, I d make sure to put pressure on their defense and I d also block the wings…Again, the predicted line-up and my preferred line-up:

Emery’s line up:

Leno

Chambers   Sokratis   Luiz   Kolasinac

Guendouzi   Xhaka   Torreira

Pepe   Aubameyang   Saka

My line up:

Leno

Chambers   Sokratis   Luiz   

AMN Guendouzi   Torreira   Willock   Kola

Pepe   Aubameyang

I think my line up will just annoy the hell out of Bournemouth while maximizing Auba and Pepe’s offensive threat and Willock and Douzi’s attacking runs.

Anyways, this game is a MUST win especially at home. We need to capitalize on Tottenham’s poor form, Leicester loss and last season, we didn’t and this is how we missed out on Top 4. If we are to compete for the Top 4, we have to win at home especially when our rivals lose.

Let us do this and COYG! My predicted score: 3-2 with Auba, Pepe on the scoresheet together with Luiz. We will concede a goal to Solanke and Wilson (Calum).

RC78