We suspect this might be one of those stories where people read the headline and make an quip like ‘Yeah, because they were crap’.
And they might well have been, but following the game Unai Emery went into a bit more detail about why he made the changes he did during the 3-2 defeat to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
Xhaka was taken off at half-time and replaced by Lucas Torreira, while Ozil was replaced by Aaron Ramsey in the 68th minute.
Speaking about the Swiss international, the boss said, “This is a tactical decision because he also had a yellow card.
“We didn’t want to take the risk with the yellow card and we wanted to give a chance to other players we have in the middle.”
And on Ozil, who completed an uncharacteristically meagre 15 passes in his almost 70 minutes, he explained, “I decided to change it because I think we needed a little more of a push in the middle, so that we couldn’t let Chelsea progress easily with the ball.
“We were defending too deep and we needed a push, so for that I brought on Aaron to push up more and recover the ball to continue attacking.”
The Spaniard is still counting heavily on the German to produce this season though, saying, “We need him. He helps us with his quality and also I want to push him to be competitive in every match.
“I am happy with Mesut. With him I am going to do the same work, help him and demand also that he works every day.
“At the moment he is doing that and I am happy. In the process, he is one player that I am sure is going to have a good season.”
Oliz only looks good when Arsenal is playing well. He’s a luxury player. In big games, he always disappears because of his poor work ethics. I wish you luck in making him work harder. Wenger always makes excuses for him.
Cut and paste narrative is getting tiresome. Ozil was closing down all match before he was subbed. Fact is every single player on the pitch save the keeper looks better when the team performs. he didn’t have a rockstar match but he was there in the middle of things when we had Chelsea backs to wall and had so many opportunities. Ramsey always chases high, fresh legs are always noticeable later in the match, and some players are more immediately suited to one manger’s style of play than another. A new system will affect a creative player like Ozil just… Read more »
Kudos to Emery to play Guendouzi and Torreira against two top teams. It sends a message to all the great young players out there: sign for us and play top football, or go somewhere to be a bench warmer or a loanee.
Kudos on 2 loses
Apart from common sense, what other sense do you lack?
Blackjew comment a very good one…..
Should never have started Xhaka.
Christmas window both Xhaka & Bellerin should be moved on & even maybe Ozil. Problem with Ozil no other club will pay him his extortionate wages. But selling the other two would produce funds for replacements. Forget this season the rebuild must be for 2019/2020.
we cant get rid of ozil because of his obscene wages, im afraid we are stuck with ozil until his contract runs out
15 passes, come on the fuck Mesut. We all want you to be the man but you’re making it difficult to keep faith.
His moping while coming off for a sub is getting very old. Hes not expected to be thrilled at coming off, but he’s not Messi or Ronaldo. He was poor today and he needs to say “ok I’m coming off from a poor game I’ll make sure Emery doesn’t take me off again”. Hurry off the field, shake your teammates hand and support the team, not sulk like a petulant child
He’s not a fucking puppy.
You know he just might be down because he’s disappointed in his own performance.
It has to get out of our half for a forward to be able to register touches.
A couple of things are pretty clear to me, though I know many will disagree. (1) Ozil is our most talented player (Aubamayang is not on his level; no one else comes close); (2) Ozil is most likely to create goals when he plays some variation of a number 10–an advanced midfielder or withdrawn forward whose primary position is in the centre of the pitch anywhere he can find space. I thought last week he played much too far back when off the ball, with too many defensive responsibilities, with Ramsey pushed forward to lead the pressing. That was obviously… Read more »
He needs to wake the fuck up. He’s been average for club and country most of the last 1-2 years. He should retire if he doesn’t have the appetite anymore.
Except registering one of the best assist records in the league over that period?
Get a grip. You may say he’s not as good as he could, not good enough for Arsenal, not good enough to challenge for PL or CL, whatever, that’s your opinion and I won’t argue regardless of whether I agree or not. But to say he’s average is delusional. You know, there are clubs and players also outside of the top 5 world clubs which spend 150 mil every summer, so maybe readjust your ‘average’ closer to reality?
Maybe the pitch was too dirty for his precious Adidas
but that’s his average, he doesn,t make much more passes than that
I thought yellow card or not Xhaka needed to get hooked. Guendouzi is doing everything to make one of those midfield positions his and Granit is in a one on one battle with Torreira to keep his place in the starting line up. A battle I think Torreira will win I might add. Xhaka’s been coasting along for far too long and it’ll be good to see if the competition for a place in the team improves his output at all. Ozil looked pissed off when he got subbed but I thought it was a spot on decision. He played… Read more »
just one of ozil,s normal games
He didn’t play ok, he was Shit yet again. This guy gets way too many passes from supporters. If you want dollar salary, you have to show it on the pitch.
It’s about time this arrogant waste of space was left out of the starting line up
I’m a fan of Ozil and while I realize a lot of what he does well doesn’t show up in stats, but he really needs to step up in games like this. He’s one of the highest paid players in the pl – he just leaves me feeling like he doesn’t always match that
He’s never taken a big game and owned it the way other stars do. He’s mentally weak and will never be a leader sadly. But on his wages we are stuck with him so let’s hope he gets his 20 assists against weaker teams.
IMHO the reason this system isn’t working is: 1. because we have defenders who are not comfortable on the ball 2. Our wing backs and DMs have pushed up too far to give any pass options 3. We have no real wingers to enable the attack to spread (Iwobi was our best player today because he at least tried to carry the ball). When we got wide we caused problems but it should be forwards doing it more than full backs who are then out of position if we lose the ball. 4. Our defenders are still not defending together… Read more »
kudos to emery. i think he put down a marker today and let ozil and xhaka know that drifting aimlessly through games is not going to cut it, especially when they are two of our highest paid players. i will be very surprised if we start next season with those two and mkhitaryan still in the squad. early days still but it’s up to these guys to show they deserve a place in the team and i’m not sure they have the bottle to do it. let’s stick with guendouzi and torreira and give ramsey a chance to stake his… Read more »
“We looked much more solid with him in there.” Yet, we created four prime chances and two other serious chances in the first half, and created absolutely nothing in the second. (I’m not saying that was because Torreira played instead of Xhaka–only that “looking solid” may just be another way of saying: “we played with much less ambition.”
Really want to see Ozil xhaxa and Bellerin benched
at last, people are finnaly waking up to see how bad ozil is
Midfield diamond with two strikers?
Auba Laca
Ozil
Douzi Ramsey
Torreira
Is this our best front 6 (I can’t even begin to write about the back 5, fuck.)?
I’d worry about just how narrow that looks and how easy to defend against. Get some natural width.
Happy that he subbed Xhaka and Ozil. It sends an important message to the players that status is not taken for granted but has to be earned. I really have a hard time digesting the wage Ozil is on for the performances he consistently puts out. I am aware of his stats but I also know what I am seeing when I watch these games. And for the money, he is not remotely worth it. Perhaps he has it in him to consistently play close to the level of his marquee performances that he is capable of. But for the… Read more »
I still observe the Wenger era mentality in some of our old players (lazy football). It will definitely take time to get it out of the willing ones among them. As the others that refuse or fails to upgrade, they can be shipped out next season or get the Adebayo treatment if they refuse or try to make things too difficult.
We have always had a problem getting Ozil the ball in games like this. When Cazorla played, he was always able to find Ozil playing out of defence, but unfortunately he got injured and since then we have really struggled to get Ozil in the game.
People have to realize, if you get the ball only 15 times you can only pass the ball 15 times, and right now the people playing the ball to Mesut, just want too much time on the ball and can’t seem to get the ball to him.
how many more excuses are you going to come up with for a guy that gets paid 300k a week? for that kind of money you expect a player who can take control of a game himself. hazard isn’t earning that kind of money and he dominates every game he plays in. the board and wenger made a huge mistake not offloading last summer and giving him that new deal. i can’t see any other club in the world offering him that kind of money.
We have had many games like this against the top sides. We create chances and yet we lose. Ozil has been showing up in many big games and creating chances, but having them end up missed. It created an illusion of a bad game on his part. Today was not one of those days. I hated seeing him coming deeper in the second half, but he had a bad game today. No stats can back him up because he did not do anything productive, but I know he will be back to his best soon. Ramsey had the very same… Read more »
The problem is Ozil is a No10, he works hard looking for space and pulling defenders out of space to create space for others, he’s also efficient in the final third with the ball.
But ask him to defend as part of a team? And it nullifies aspects of his game he’s going at and highlights what he isn’t good at.
he’s an expensive luxury who we should put on the market for £15-20mill just to get him off our wage bill.
nice idea, but he wont go because his wages are to high
I’ve felt for a long time that he’s a hindrance to the team as a collective, many disagree… But we’re seeing it now he’s being asked to do things that he’s not comfortable with, if he’s part of a unit that’s defending as a team? Then it nullifies his positives. Which then makes him almost redundant. Even if we put him on the market for £35mill and have to give him half as a payout? Then we’re still £17.5mill better off than if he’d left for free, and we’ve admitted our mistake and acted to amend it. We’re going to… Read more »
if we are to sell him, then I think about ten mill at the most we should sell him for, otherwise nobody will be interested in him
I agree with your explanation of Ozil’s abilities, but not with your conclusion. It is not a luxury to have one of the best creators in the world in your side, any more than it is a luxury to have a great holding midfielder–even if he adds relatively little to your attack. Kante was great for Leicester, for Chelsea, and for France. He is being asked to play higher this year, and it will (has already) make him less effective–he was at fault for one of our goals. If Ozil is a luxury, then so is Kante–a player that everyone… Read more »
1) Granit. He did not add anything extra is the problem and we were poor tracking runners into our box (not a new phenomenon) but then it wasn’t entirely Granit’s fault alone. The issue was between him and GUendouzi, the younger player is adding value with his energy levels. BUT when Torreira came on, where he improved in tracking and shielding against runners somewhat, he got beat several times more than Granit did and once was dispossessed from behind. Also gave away a free kick edge of the box. I can understand why Emery was hesitant starting Torreira as he… Read more »
A very fair and honest assessment of yesterday’s match. Mostly my thoughts as well.
Let’s not worry about Mesut, he will have a good game against west ham or Huddersfield and we all will say he’s world class again….
I’m not worried about him. He is world class.
yeah, he will have a good game against a crap side, but when we play a good side he will go missing again
Troll. Go back to a team you support.
Really annoys me how Arsenal fans expect our team to be playing well just because we have a new manager. New system and at the heart of our team we have three new players who are adapting to the premier league. We have a manager now that will tell players if and where they need to improve. It takes time. The story could have been very different if Auba took his chances and that’s a good thing.
Ozil, Bellerin, Xhaka, Mustafi. Deadwood. There I said it.
Ozil’s quality but needs to put in more work. Arsenal has done her part in the deal, he needs to realize he isn’t delivering.
Liked our big-haired guy yesterday. Look how he always try to make himself available for recieving passes. There’s a lessons learned for the other players here. In order to play out from the back we need that attitude in the team and not players hiding.
I thought Bellerin had a reasonably good game. And I am impressed by Guendouzi.
What’s to explain? They were shit! End of.