A second successive defeat for Unai Emery as we went out of the Carabao Cup, losing 2-0 to Sp*rs at the Emirates whose fans cheered like they’d actually won something significant.
We missed a great chance to go ahead before goals from Son and Alli gave the homeless goblins the win.
Read the Arsenal 0-2 Sp*rs match report and see the goals here
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That’s the thing – if you’re gonna keep leaving Ozil out of the team, you simply HAVE to have results. Otherwise things can turn ugly really quick, and that’s the last thing we need right now.
Stupid not to have him on the bench.
It’s stupid to call a decision stupid without having the needed knowledge. Everybody knows Emery expects a lot in training and during games. Özil obviously doesn’t seem to do what the coach is asking him to do and then it’s perfectly fine for me to leave him out. Isn’t that exactly what everybody was moaning about with Arsène? That he has created too many comfort zones? Özil has clearly lived in a comfort zone since he arrived. I’m glad that this is over now and if he doesn’t work as hard as the others he doesn’t deserve to play. Simple.… Read more »
You call people’s views “stupid” because they don’t have the needed knowledge. Then you say “Özil obviously doesn’t seem to do what the coach is asking him to do.” I just wish I knew as much as you do about what happens in training.
It’s not rocket science when you consider how Emery has reacted to every single question regarding Özil. He either refused to talk about him at all or he said he don’t know what the injury is or that it was a tactical decision to leave him out. Can you tell me just one possible reason for that other than that he’s not convinced with what Özil offers in training and in games? Or do you think he just didn’t like him and leaves him out for personal reasons although he knows he would deliver more than then players he’s actually… Read more »
On the bench at Southampton and did what when he came on? Confidence player who needs to start games.
Ozil isn’t in the team because his performances going back as far as last Febuary don’t warrant it.
I agree we lack creativity, but if Emery doesn’t fancy him? Then we need to back the manager.
I think things getting ugly for Emery would be ridiculous, he deserves “at least” a season before we start judging, and even then I don’t see him being given the type of investment that’ll give us that much of an upturn.
Rich, you can’t say Ozil doesn’t deserve to be in the team yet argue the case for Nkeitah or Mkhi, they’ve done far less.
‘They’ve done far less’ . No they haven’t. All three have been average.
Nketiah is a Talent, hardly comparable to Özil and Miki works his arse off every week. Could score more without a doubt but the effort is right and that’s what it’s all about.
Effort has never won football matches! Miki can work his socks off his job is to create chances something we are struggling with right now. Whether all our forwards work hard and press we still concede in every game. Something is wrong and has nothing to do with who works the hardest. Nketiah hasnt done anything to be compated to anyone lets be honest. When he came on no one expected him to change the game.
No effort doesn’t win football games either.
@rich we can question the boss’ decision making each game. What we shouldn’t do is call for a change for a few seasons, give him time to find his system. If we don’t even think about how we lost or what decisions were made how the hell are we supposed to improve? Blindly backing all decisions he makes will help no one… criticism is crucial to improve.
This is slowly turning into the Pogba/Mourinho situation at Utd, and it’s really not good to see. If it continues this way surely we need to move Ozil on..
I reckon he’s finished at Arsenal tbh
Notice some of the fan club have appeared.
Like him or loathe him he is our most creative player and getting rid of him and by the looks of it Ramsey another creative and sometimes decisive player is a huge gamble and possible replacements would be very expensive indeed.
But at what cost? Yes he is very talented and creative but he seldom delivers. And he’s costing us a fortune. He’s shown his arrogance with Germany and he’s showing it with us.
Matt P: I think dynamic duo V and S want to get that money off the ledger, and Emery just doesn’t seem to suffer prima Donna head cases cough Neymar gladly. Ozil situ has truly gone south. Goddamn if I don’t revel in his moments of glory, Leicester and Bayern and Napoli 4 lyfe,
but he’s not stepping up for his talent and pay.
I and most of us I reckon just want this shit out in the open. Unai knows we all know. Let’s get on with it.
Matt P his arrogance with Germany come on be serious, there whole squad was woeful especially the defensive players but hey ho let’s all shift the blame on to one player because he had dinner with someone from another country.
I think he had every right to lambaste the German FA in return.
Move on where, no f……er wants him, especially since the idiots gave him a mega wage increase!
I’m fascintated by the pro-Ozil brigade. He’s been bang average and has an attitude. Sell him
We were bang average last night, don’t recall him being involved.
They are a very strange crowd. And it takes a very peculiar reading of the game to suggest we lost because we missed him considering (a) we beat these guys the other week without him (b) we had great chances (Ramsey putting through Mhki etc) but just failed to finish them and (c) we had huge personnel issues at the back which ultimately cost us. IMO we missed Xhaka in the middle much more than we missed Ozil, who’s been in and out of the team all season.
Either we build a team to get the best out of Ozil, or we sell him. Not even including him in the squad today is a sign he and Unai are not on the same wavelength.
We were un4-2nate today
We just had the 2nd defeat in 22 games, and it’s all because of Ozil didn’t play??
Well the first one is because he did according to some on here.
We are crap defensively with or without Ozil. Until we don’t address our defensive issues we are going to have this debate very game. When Ozil plays we are weaker defensively, and when he is not playing we lack creativity. This is not an easy issue, and Emry should figure out the system that works best for the team. I think Ozil is a brilliant player, but if he does not fit in our system we should let him go.
They were all pretty poor, had some chances but didn’t put them away then faded in the second half and the substitutions were poor.
Hate losing to Sp*rs.
Am I the only one that thought the ref was utter, utter shit?
Week in, week out. Rolly-polly John Moss is consistently shit. (and out of breath)
I’ve watched John Moss in many games that don’t contain Arsenal & he is equally as shit in them too. Surely there have to be better ambassadors of the sport than this guy.
No argument from any of us lot the amount of non calls, the yellow on Xhaka the list goes on. To riff off Blogs he’s got a head like a meatball with all the sauce sucked off.
Iwobi Ramsey and mhki should NEVER play together again. Poor from AMN and Monreal too. Some really disappointing performances 2day .
I thought amn did well, but showed why he isn’t a fb, can’t cross for shit bless him.
Iwobi is confusing (certainly confused Alex “Markle” and Jamie Prince of the jungle at half time who thought he was great) – he has all the skills but lacks a brain to make the right final ball on time. He’s like a puppet – when he gets the ball his arms are pulled up and he wobbles away, only to miss his next kick.
Kos and Nacho are not the future. AMN is the future but not as wing back.
Iwobi is like a poor Hleb
And that’s poor because Hleb was useless
Poor all around , afew players didn’t look fit, Ramsey has left. Ozil……..? The RB was very bad as was LB Not sure where I’m going just pissed off with performance
How can you argue for anything else than an Ozil sale in January? £30 mil + saved wages = reinvestment capital for huge new creative focal point signing.
If you can’t fit in Ozil as your creative focal point, then you’re not going to fit in anyone else of that quality especially with the way emery wants to play.
In theory your right. But the past six months (minus the Leicester game) shows another picture. But I see plenty of other clubs with similar disciplined playing style that fits in highly creative players. So it can be done with the right fit.
You don’t, you just play a different style of football. Neither City, nor Liverpool nor even those coonts Sp*rs play with a dedicated 10.
I’m not advocating whether he should be sold or not, just saying that the idea we have to replace him with like for like isn’t the case.
I’m not either. A creative focal point does not automatically require a traditional number 10 position. Look at Hazard, Eriksen, Salah, Neymar, Silva, coutinho etc.
Agree with your point in general but Salah is not a creative focal point. He is a more technical Jamie Vardy.
I think it’s because we had Dennis Bergkamp. Everyone still wants another one.
Mesut Ozil isn’t half the man Dennis Bergkamp was. Dennis had big brass balls to go with his skill. Mesuts probably got a perm and glitter job down there.
My response was to Mate Kiddleton’s premise that we must replace with an Ozil-like player.
Eh? Since when is Ozil some irreplaceable unicorn? In case people haven’t been watching anything other than Arsenal these last few years, contrary to popular belief, there ARE actually players other than Ozil who can create, and some of them don’t mind running back the other way too! Even better still almost none of them are payed £350,000 a week to play more fortnite than they do football!
Exactly my worry in his style of play. He’s too soft for the style of football Emery wants to play & he doesn’t want to put in the works nor care to.. The bottom line is that his pay load demands better than he’s currently giving the club when given the nod by the manager to come on. He’s not been in form for a while now and at best average. He can head back to the Spanish league if he only wants to be all technical without putting in the works, that’s if they can afford his huge wage.
Totally agree Merkus. So many seems take offense if you criticize Ozil. I will always have a soft romantic spot for him and all the legendary moments his given us. But being a club with limited funds we have to be pragmatic. And having the by far highest earner contributing so little/mis-fitting so obviously I think should require action.
30 million? We’d be lucky to get 15. Who wants a moody primadonna that performs once every other month?
Sorry, no one is giving us 30 million for Mesut Ozil.
How did Mkhitaryan get 23 goals and 32 assists in the 15/16 season at Dortmund? I don’t understand. Where is that player?
He’s Past it mate, best bit if biz Man.u did oh I forgot Sanchez!
Both sets of fans should just pretend the whole saga never happened
He doesn’t like islands
Might not be a popular opinion but whenever I see Mkhitaryan play I wonder, “Is THIS why we sold Walcott and Chamberlain??”.
Hanging out with Rambo ‘13 or Ozil ‘15 I’m guessing.
What kind of accuracy is that though, to hit someone with a bottle from probably at least 20 yards away in the back of the head. It’s fucking lunacy and I hope the dickhead gets banned from the stadium, but you have to admit a hundred times out of a hundred and point zero one, that bottle just ends up bouncing off someone’s fat bum and no one cares that much.
“100 times out of 100.01”, never heard it put that way before.. interesting!
Is big Phil Taylor and Arsenal fan? That was a triple twenty in my book.
Nice to see that Xhaka’s role in a midfield is finally being appreciated. For so long, he has come in for so mich unfair criticism about what he brings to the team. Now people can see what the midfield misses without him. All it took was his absence, and I fear the same is happening for Mesut. We will soon be appreciating chances created and his ability to connect our midfield with our attack, along with Xhaka. As a team striving for success, we can’t be a team that just works hard. Creativity is an important part of any top… Read more »
Exactly, Xhaka was always getting the job done at Arsenal. Without him in the midfield we don’t function properly. The same is with Ozil. They will realize that when he is gone.
I would completely disagree with the Ozil bit considering how decent we’ve been without him this season
I disagree on the grounds that we wouldn’t be getting rid of Özil, we’d be replacing him with someone else who’d do that job as we’ll as the other stuff Emery wants doing (pressing). There’s no denying there’s a lack of creativity in the team without him – I just think the best way forward is to buy a different player(s) who can perform both functions. Torreira’s shown us what a real CDM can do having not seen one for years – it’s about time we got a player who showed us a playmaker can be both creative and hardworking.… Read more »
He is the most creative player the premier league has ever seen, not just in our squad. The drop off in creativity without him is clearly noticeable and will remain as such. Selling him will not destroy Arsenal, we have sold Thierry too who is a better player. If we can take his sale and develop in a way to get the best out of the rest of the players, akin to the 07/08, we will be fine. But let’s not act like getting in a creative player will get us what Ozil has given. What he has done isn’t… Read more »
Thank you.
just like to say a few things about three players that are really growing into their roles. one being xhaka. emery at the beginning stressed the importance of having leaders on pitch. the one consistent theme during latter years of wenger was that we lacked players with characters and even the captain of the team was mostly not on the pitch. but under emery xhaka is starting to become the real leader of our team. we know that he has become a real asset in midfield leading the team from there. but today by using xhaka in defence emery is… Read more »
It would certainly be nice to try a real run of matches with Torreira and Xhaka behind Ozil.
Hate losing, especially to that lot, should have had at least a goal. We created a few chances we need to get the efficiency back. Need a win this weekend, time to arrest this blip and restart with the Ws once more. The only consolation is that sp*rs will only end up with their bullshit magic cups by the end of this season.
I think Arsenal should sell Iwobi before his price tag comes down , hopefully with Monreal , Cech and Welbeck gone at the end of the season we can use their money to buy some new players , AMN should play at midfield and if he doesn’t impress there he should be sold , Koscienly needs to be sold too , i think one of the U 23 defenders will do much better than him AND Ozil needs to play , i don’t know what Emery is thinking , but i hope he is not alienating Ozil because that would… Read more »
Completely agree with the bonus rating, that’s not what this club is about!
My biggest complaint is that Emery didn’t play the youth. At best, they would’ve provided a level of energy the current team is lacking due to fatigue, would’ve brought balance (CBs at CB) and at worst a loss would be brushed off as “you beat our kids”.
Now all we’ve got is the worst of the lot.
– Fatigued first teamers even more likely to get injured, let alone running on empty.
– A mentally damaging loss to the first team.
Our kids would have lost that game 0-4 and Emery would have been absolutely slaughtered on here for playing kids against the biggest rivals. Emery’s tactics were wrong but at least he took the game seriously with the strength of the starting 11.
Slaughtered only by fans who refuse to see the bigger picture and wanted us to be at full strength 3 days after a chastening defeat caused by fatigue, and 3 days before another absolute home win (which the first team will now be even more fatigued and more likely to not win), all for what? I meaningless cup, that’s what.
Fans would moan but fans are bloody moany. And guess what? Fans are still here moaning at Emery anyways, so was it worth it?
couldn’t agree more
Sums up nicely my own pregame thoughts and postgame told ya so thoughts as well.
Its interesting how much Xhaka cops for his midfield efforts, but clearly we are a better team with him in the middle.
I think it’s fairer to say we’re a better team with Xhaka not playing CB.
It is not the best decision for Emery to make Ozil an enemy. In the last few seasons Arsenal fanbase were divided into the two groups: the one who supported Wenger and WOB. This year it will be the same with Ozil. Emery hasn’t done enough yet that he can do such a radical move. He is digging his own grave. After NLD many said we can play without him. How many games we have won since then? Together with Xhaka Ozil is an integral part of the team. They need to solve this problem. I really don’t believe that… Read more »
We lost because our star player wasn’t in the match day squad, allegedly due to tactical reasons. But in my opinion, Jenkinson would have played better than Maitland Niles at right back.
Yeah, he had a chance to stake his claim on his preferred side, and didn’t take it.
Hes not a Rb
I see the Ozil exclusion and all, which in all honesty does not make any sense… but who the hell plays Xhaka at centre back?
I realize this won’t be popular but that was another pretty uninspired performance. If we are serious about top-ten + we need to invest in a defensive spine but also someone with the creativity to open up attacking opportunities. The obvious candidate for this role is Özil, if Emery can’t find a role for him to perform in the current team (which honestly, I think he should), then we have to find someone to perform that role. Cazorla has gone & Mikyi doesn’t seem to be up to it, as it stands we are very predictable and I think the… Read more »
After another 3-2 away defeat coupled with a 0-2 home loss (Chelsea & City) I’ll gladly take another 22 game unbeaten run.
I see what you did there!
Now that’s a sandwich I can get behind!
John Moss is an utter twat.
Now that I got that out, we can’t miss such big chances in a match such as this. Tough to stomach even if it is the (insert trendy energy drink here) Cup.
In my years as a football fan, I have had an awareness of those players that put the fear of God in defenders– Ronaldo, Hazard, Erikson, Ozil, Pires, Henry, Suarez, Aguero, Drogba, Raul, Fabregas, Van P., Sneijder etc. Today, we had none those players on the pitch (maybe Auba). Sp*rs had 3– Kane, Son and Erikson. We needed Mesut today.
If you were the woman in higher tier h block who was genuinely insightful with her comments during the match but devolved to just shouting “duuh I’m haway kayne” in what some would refer to as “spaz voice” -You made my whole evening. That shit was hilarious. I hope nobody gets you banned.
I for one like Phil Collins songs
Get out. Just get out.
4-2
Enough talk about Ozil. This and the Southampton defeats are clearly on Emery. How many more times is he going to play Xhaka in the backline and the Wobes-Mkhi duo together?
Ozil is the new pogba?hope emery dont turn out to be mourinho
Comparing Emery-Ozil situation with Mou-Pogba isn’t logical.. Emery isn’t confrontational, he didn’t call Ozil a virus nor is Ozil a public rebel..
Hopefully we can get some good business done in the next 2 transfer windows. I see it getting slightly worse before we improve on this level, but we need to keep faith in the management. They inherited this squad and it’s not going to be a quick fix. Saying that, if we find someone of Torreira’s calibre that is a centre back, that we help us dramatically. COYG, lets keep together as we build!
I don’t think we played particularly badly. BUt we were wasteful up front and disjointed after the second goal when our effort dissipated : 1) Cech – Can’t say he is at fault for any of the goals although of course the Leno strokers will deem it so. Thought he had a decent outing. 2) AMN – As expected he was played on his natural right side. No room for the limited Jenkinson. Thought he was in general better when we switched to a back 3 as a wingback and he was the one offering us the most width from… Read more »
I see the Ozil exclusion and all, which in all honesty does not make any sense… but who the hell plays Xhaka at centre back?
Puppy who barks Phil Collins songs, class
We need a back up right back because we are poor everytime bellerin is injured, a number 10 and a tricky, pacy winger. We have to make signings in January because I don’t think we will survive the whole season with this squad.
The way I see it, Xhaka should never be playing at CB yet we have Kos on the bench.
Blogs, I was at the match yesterday. The word on the street is that Emery had put Ozil on the subs bench for the Wolves game but that he refused. Ozil wanted to play from the start or not at all so the back spasm story was created as Ozil pulled out. There is a power struggle going on and Emery is stating his claim as the ‘boss’ and is prepared to let Ozil go in January. The source of my story? The guy who sits next to me at the stadium is a friend of a certain Mr Bould… Read more »
I know a guy who used to be a friend of another guy who worked in the pub where Koscielny’s brother-in-law sometimes has a pint. He told me your story is not true.
A messy team selection & shape are what have cost us the last couple of games, and I’m alarmed by the amount of injuries that are starting to pile up…