Henrikh Mkhitaryan says success is built on learning from mistakes and at the moment Arsenal are making errors because they are trying hard to implement a new system.
For all their flashes of promise in the final third, the Gunners, for the second weekend running, were made to pay for their defensive frailties as Chelsea ran out 3-2 winners at Stamford Bridge.
The Blues, who’d raced to an early two-goal advantage, had been pegged back by strikes by Mkhitaryan and Alex Iwobi, but regained their composure after the break and found a winner when Marcus Alonso tapped home Eden Hazard’s cross on 80 minutes.
Replays laid bare poor decision making by Arsenal players for all three conceded goals, something which Mkhitaryan insists they’ll eventually put right.
“There is no success without making mistakes,” he told Arsenal.com.
“Obviously we have to play and we have to try. If we try, we can do whatever we plan to do.
“If we don’t try, then we’re not going to play football. That’s why we had lots of mistakes, because we’re trying.
“I’m pretty sure that in the next games we’ll have better results and play better football.”
The Armenian also lamented Arsenal’s poor finishing in an opening 45 minutes that saw them squander four glaring chances. The midfielder was guilty of a horrible miss before grabbing his goal and assist, while Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alex Iwobi also fluffed their lines.
“We didn’t start very well, conceded two goals, but then afterwards we found ourselves, believed in ourselves and then started playing better than them,” noted Mkhitaryan.
“We scored twice to equalise, scoring two goals in 10 minutes, and then maybe we had another two chances to score to win the game. Unfortunately, we didn’t take them.
“The second half was difficult because we looked a little bit tired and we didn’t create the opportunities to score.
“In the end, they scored the third goal and it was hard for us to come back. We did everything we could and I want to thank my team-mates.”
I think we are getting carried away with this ‘new system’ talk. There are so many clubs which change their manager after every season or even midway and still end up doing well or even winning something. Also lot of our current players are new to the club. So it’s not that they are too used to the Wenger system or anything. We missed 2 absolute sitters in the first half. How can you win games when you miss such chances? What has any system got to do with that? And Aubameyang and Ozil cannot be excused from hereon. Hector… Read more »
I agree, this new system is going to take time but it doesn’t erase what they should already be able to do
The reaction of fans at Arsenal is laughable. They were very happy to sit back and let Wenger run the club (and all his own good work) into the ground and sang his songs while he did that, and are now angry that the new guy hasn’t waved some kind of a magic wand and fixed all the defensive frailties that Wenger bred at the club for so long. Things will change slowly, I like Unai, and I like the kind of football he is trying to play. If some sitters weren’t missed Arsenal would have won. Over all it… Read more »
Agree but Wenger has reversed the trend in games against Chelsea in the last two or three years.
You’re making a huge assumption that the fans in your words ‘happy to let Wenger run the club into the ground’ are the same ones ‘angry Emery hasn’t waved his magic wand’. What if the ones angry now are the same ones angry before? Or if the fans angry before are happy now, why if as some have said above we should expect the same results from our new manager as other clubs? Look, I respect Wenger but knew it was time, and I like Emery so far and am simply excited to see where this goes. So it’s not… Read more »
Exactly. Sarri is also new and something completely different to Conte, and they were flying yesterday. A lot of talk from Emery but not much can actually be seen in action. Trying to be protagonists every match? It certainly didn’t look like it yesterday – we ended thr first half on a high and then seemingly purposely defended the whole second half. Also both starting line-ups so far didn’t look like we tried to be protagonists but rather “safety first” approach which failed miserably. Also, where was the high pressing yesterday? We could’ve capitalised on our quick comeback, but instead… Read more »
Sarri inherited a supposedly poor team which just so happened to finish comfortably above us and win the FA Cup to boot. Look at the Chelsea squad and you see a lot of decent players there who Conte wasn’t getting the best out of. Players who are used to following tactical instructions and having a game plan. Can you say the same for us?
Well, the fan base shared the opinion that we had good players capable of competing for the title but Wenger couldn’t get the team to work.
Saying now that it’s the players who we have to change is pathetic, even though some of them do need to step up their game, but that’s normal in any team.
Winning is always about assembling a team of quality players. Other than Auba, Laca, who else is top quality? Ozil was in history book but who else ?
I disagree about Ozil. He’s started the season badly but very much a great player. I would also add Mkhitaryan, Torreira, Ramsey and Xhaka in his true position as a deep lying midfielder which he hasn’t played yet.
Not all of us did. Only naïve and overly optimistic fans like you thought we had a squad capable of wining the title.
The only player we can say for certain that’s near WC status is Auba (sorry, but it’s a no for Ozil from me).
Chelsea have AT LEAST 2, in Hazard and Kante, and arguably Jorginho now.
How many of our starting 11 would get into that Chelsea 11? Not too many when you think about it.
In other news, Man Useless are getting spanked right now!
Whoever is unhappy now that we’ve (finally! finally!) got our Arsenal back should suck it up – in my opinion! Look at the facts: First match against Citeh, we were 1-0 down, then 2-0 down but never panicked. We, calmly, just took the loss as it came – there was not that ‘deer in the headlights’ look about the team. However, unlike Chelsea yesterday, Citeh didn’t need to play their best player (de Bryne) to beat us! They had to put Hazard on to overcome us! The progress is strikingly clear and only fools cant see it! Come back to… Read more »
I think this new system doesn’t look any different to what Arsenal were doing last season. Just that we have a new manager with darker hair who waves his arms around more than the old guy did.
Our next 5 fixtures are ones that are definitely winnable. Glad these 2 are out the way so we should be able to kick on now and by the time the next big game comes around we’ll hopefully be used to the new system
We’ve started talking like a small team. Glad we got derbies out of the way? Our season starts now? This makes me sick. Chelsea is our direct rival for a top4 spot, Sarri has been in charge for less time than Emery and this was a Chelsea team without Hazard for most of the match ffs.
And we were without Ramsey and Lacazette for most of the match. (we’re also without solid CB’s but that’s all the time…..)
Yeah cos Lacazette was so good wasn’t he – not to blame for the 3rd goal at all.
It makes you “sick” does it? Lol.
The overreaction by some Arsenal fans to these two games is pretty funny.
The attitude of some fans is actually really sad and as well as making me sick it makes me really angry. Even if Arsenal got relegated I would support them…heck if they were non-league…but for some fans there is this sense of entitlement that is really quite ugly and very un-Arsenal-like in my opinion.
Amen
My thoughts as well
I’m not really sure what the new system is- yes we’re playing out from the back but the only pressing in seeing is from the opposition
We’ve been pressing the back brake.
It will take time. (Dick) Emery is seeing who he can rely on, and those he can’t. It’s crap we’ve lost both opening games, but would we have done any better with Wenger in charge? Probably not. Let’s see where we are at Xmas, and what happens in January transfer window. It could be worse, remember The Stewart Houston and Bruce Rioch days…?
Yes! The latter very fondly – he unveiled The Iceman to us.
Losing to Man city and Chelsea is one thing . I think most people knew that these games are always going to be more of a challenge but it’s if we start dropping points against the so called lesser teams (like the last few seasons). Then I think that that’s when fans will start to to become a lot more negative. Hopefully that won’t be the case and we will see this team going on a good run and start to build some confidence and see some free flowing attacking football and of course a good solid defense platform. Fingers… Read more »
We changed the manager but kept same team quality. Micki disappears from most part of games then scores one goal. Theo used to do same. After games, Micki says we should learn from our mistakes, Theo used to say the same thing.
To be fair, Theo did that for years. Mhki has only for half a season so I’m not ready to call him Theo II yet. I am ready to try Mhki at the 10 over Ozil, however. I think the talk of Ramsey at the 10 overlooks the better option in Mhki.
(And I am a shameless Ozil supporter, but that was pretty shocking yesterday from him.)
I’d say that’s unfair on Theo who won us plenty of games, scored/assisted regularly against top teams and in general was more potent than Mkhi, who is as inconsistent a player as I’ve ever seen.
Its early days, but the need for improving the defensive transitions without the ball have to be addressed. I’m afraid Ozil cannot play in this system. He doesn’t close down opponents and only gets back if he’s been tracking his runner. He doesn’t defend the space. Xhaka also looks out of his comfort zone, as he’s simply not athletic enough and is quite easily bypassed in midfield. Our entire back four need some serious drilling too, the high line they played yesterday was scandalous, especially given neither centre half has much recovery speed. If a team has a deep lying… Read more »
Ozil “only gets back if he’s been tracking his runner. He doesn’t defend the space.” Correct. Exactly as he should. To view that as a fault is exactly like criticising a centre half for only going forward for corners.
You’re missing the point. He doesn’t close down anywhere. What use is playing a press if one midfielder doesn’t, cannot, won’t.
Sorry, that’s just false.
The problem with this team is that we don’t have a typical winger..this increases the pressure on bellerin and makes him look stupid.. Chelsea and Manchester city figured this out and attacked sporadically.. I’d love to see a formation of 4-3-2-1 with Ramsey, torreira, and Guen in the middle, ozil and iwobi behind auba or laca. .I think that way, it’d be easier to soak up pressure and switch formations while on a counter.. I may not know much, but this is worth a shot.. ozil will always be a defensive liability..so it’s best to surround him with players that… Read more »
we have at least Nelson and to some extent Iwobi and Aubam whi can play as winger. Even Lacazette did in his early career in Lyon.
There is a reason that Bellerin played his best when Walcott (who supposedly never tracked back) was in front of him.
I think we need a back line of licht-sokratis-nacho then a five man midfield of torreira-guendouzi-rambo-ozil-iwobi and laca-Aba up front!!
Sorry, who exactly are the wing backs in this mess of a formation?! That’s just for starters!
Looks like Licht and Nacho will be the wide men when we have the ball, make it 1-7-2 formation.
Too protagonist if you ask me.
Just a small point but if Mickey and Auber stuck those chances away, would we all still be so pissed?
And Iwobi, Auba (again) and Ramsey…
What if Cech hadn’t made those wonder saves that kept us in the game?
If if if.
“If we don’t try, then we’re not going to play football.” I think I got dumber just reading that. Anyway, there are lots of positive to take amid big negatives from yesterday. The fact we pulled back from 2-0 is huge. Mhki’s goal was huge. Show of hands: last year, how many would guess we’d equalise at Chelsea in the first half? Exactly. So there has been positive change. It’s like being stranded on an island: if you’re too positive, or too negative, you won’t make it. Emery seems like a guy unafraid to bench those who need to be… Read more »
I think one positive is that Emery’s not afraid to take off the players who are playing poorly such as Xhaka and Ozil yesterday. With Wenger I always felt he knew who and when his substitutions were before the game started.
It’s frustrating because we’ve arguably only lost these opening games due to poor individual errors as opposed to a bad collective performance. However, there’s still a fair bit to be optimistic about and Emery has a philosophy that’ll make us scary to play against eventually. It’s just that our brittle confidence is going to take a while longer to restrengthen…
Well, we are likely to finish outside the continental competition positions this season. We lack the drive, desire, and focus. I can’t even imagine Auba lost those two chances that he got. And Micky lost that glorious chance, although he redeemed himself by scoring one and assisting another. At this rate we will remain a very average team. Just watched Burnley v Watford and I should say that those teams are more organized than us. For how long shall we blame new tactics? Our next 8 games have three derbies. Let’s see what happens
Honestly, some of you seems overweight and need to work on your fat level and improve Your stamina (was obvious in the second half for the players affected like, Iwobi who’s by the way a very skillful and dedicated player). Best wishes for you guys moving forward.
Christ the moaning from some of you. We got what we wanted. A new manager , a new way of playing and new players. We are finally on our way. Give this the time it needs.
We’re 2 games in and already it’s all shit? Fucking grow up!
To put it in perspective, they gave mourinho 3 seasons and he lost today. hehehe
Can’t wait to see him crash, burn and be sent packing. Again!
Although we have 3 more games to set it right if we want to even stand a chance at top 4 this season just saying. We are already 6 points off. Sorry but we don’t have the luxury. Emery has been dealt a poor hand by Mslintat who has bought a mixed bag. Forget Granit or Mustafi, Mhkitaryan was a terrible buy. Nothing against the player he has some qualities but he simply wasn’t what we needed. We sold 4 quick players in equally quick succession in Theo, Ox, Gnabry and Alexis. Currently Iwobi (who is not a winger) and… Read more »
You constantly bashed Theo so you can throw his name out, right away. None of the others wanted to sign new deals with Arsenal, thanks to the years of no-coaching and gradual decline led by your beloved Arsene. Mkhitaryan was probably the best we could do at that point. We should’ve sold Alexis for £60m in the summer and used it to properly replace him, but Mislintat was left in the shit, quite frankly. Yes, Sokratis looks hopeless and it seems like a lazy purchase, but why do you feel the need to constantly criticise all Mislintat’s dealings? It’s frankly… Read more »
We have this season to make something out of what we have. What floats will float, what doesn’t we’ll send on its way and buy someonr else next season. We watch the team improve over the next 2-3 seasons and if it doesn’t then au revoir Emery and it’s on to the next manager.
What’s the alternative? Moan like fuck and demand the managers head every time it’s not perfect? Bring back Wenger? What is it some people want?
This guy scored and had an assist in a good ten minute period after he missed a sitter and misplaced innumerable simple passes.
Then went missing second half and did not offer near enough cover to Bellerin
BUT some people think Mustafi is the only problem.
Or Granit. Never mind we were no better if not struggled even more in midfield with Torreira
There is a fundamental lack of objectivity by too many Arsenal fans.
They will avoid mentioning the fact that their world class Aubameyang was piss poor.
This sort of blinkered critique serves nothing.
But you’re equally blinkered in never noticing any of Mustafi’s terrible play, because you’re belligerently sticking to the idea that it’s everyone else’s fault rather than his.
See, it works both ways.
Torreira also culpable for third goal.
Sokratis was no where near Mustafi to help to cover second goal.
Mhkitaryan missing in covering Bellerin for first goal and in many instances during the match.
We have plenty of issues other than Mustafi.