Result: West Ham United 1-0 Arsenal
Competition: Premier League
Date: 12th Jan 2019
Venue: London Stadium
Starting XI: Leno, Maitland-Niles, Mustafi, Koscielny, Sokratis, Kolasinac, Xhaka, Guendouzi, Iwobi, Aubameyang, Lacazette
Subs: Cech, Bellerin, Monreal, Lichtsteiner, Ramsey, Torreira, Nkeitah
Declan Rice’s strike three minutes after half time was enough for West Ham to beat a toothless Arsenal 1-0 at the London Stadium.
Despite a bright start to the game, Unai Emery’s men produced a horribly lacklustre performance in attack and fully deserved a fifth Premier League defeat of the season.
Should results go against us this weekend, we could be six points adrift of the top four and down in sixth place.
First half
Despite the club confirming his return to full fitness this week, Mesut Ozil was the surprise omission from the matchday squad. Did the boss deem the game too physical for him? Did he suffer a late setback with his dodgy knee? It wasn’t clear before kick-off. Alex Iwobi was given his slot behind the strikers.
At the back, Laurent Koscielny and Shkodran Mustafi joined Sokratis, with Maitland-Niles and Kolasinac picked ahead of Bellerin and Monreal. The two Spaniards were joined on the bench by Torreira, again rested, with Guendouzi and Xhaka charged with running the centre of midfield.
Adding spice to the occasion was the presence of Samir Nasri in Manuel Pellegrini’s starting lineup, the Frenchman signing for the Hammers this month following an 18-month ban for a doping offence. He received a typically vocal welcome from the travelling fans, but it was hard to shake the uneasy feeling that he might do us damage.
Alongside the ex-Gunner, Felipe Anderson, Michail Antonio and Marko Arnautovic proved to be willing runners, eager to take advantage of any space behind our attack-minded wing-backs.
Arsenal’s best work in the first 15 minutes came courtesy of the combination play of Iwobi, who was very bright, Aubameyang and Lacazette. The Frenchman tried his luck from 25-yards with a looping effort that dipped over Fabianski’s bar and, after neat build-up play, had another shot blocked at the near post. A desperate attempt to capitalise on the rebound saw the ball fly over. Laca’s movement was great and his willingness to get stuck in on the physical side also caught the eye. That said, a few of his passes did go astray and he grew ever more frustrated.
Bit by bit, West Ham found their stride. Sokratis had to make a great block to stop an Arnautovic shot testing Leno and Anderson fired just wide from outside the box after a quick break.
Back came Arsenal. Wonderful play worked the ball up the left flank and then inside to Guendouzi, who shifted onto his right foot and rifled an effort that clipped the goal stanchion. The ripple of the net fooled the Arsenal supporters, stationed at the other end of the stadium, into thinking the ball had gone in. Their cries were laughed away by the home fans.
The best chance of opening 45 minutes came just before the break when Rice, beating Mustafi and Xhaka to the ball, headed an Anderson corner just wide. Had there been a claret shirt at the back post the home side would have had the lead.
Second half
Mustafi took it upon himself to set the tone for the second half with an early booking. You probably don’t need us to tell you, it was for a late sliding challenge. On this occasion, he took out Anderson. Nothing came of the initial free-kick, whipped into the danger area and cleared for a corner by Koscielny, but we never got out from there and within a minute were behind.
Rice, still up for the corner and left free in the box, curled past Leno with a smart finish having been teed up by Nasri. Like we said earlier, he was always going to do something. (1-0)
A Guendouzi effort aside – caressed wide from outside the box – we mustered little in response before Emery decided to switch things up on the hour mark. Aaron Ramsey and Lucas Torreira replaced Granit Xhaka and Shkodran Mustafi and we switched to a back four.
We stepped up the pace and started to look a bit more dangerous. Auba had two chances in quick succession, heading over a Ramsey cross and then firing a Kolasinac cross over on the diagonal.
Lacazette, Maitland-Niles and a clever little flick by Ramsey got the ball to Iwobi who quickly struck a low left-foot shot that went inches wide. Guendouzi tried another curler. It was better, but Fabianski remained mostly untroubled. Emery couldn’t hide his frustration.
More changes by both sides. Bellerin came on for Maitland-Niles and Pellegrini sent on Robert Snodgrass crossing ability and Andy Carroll’s elbows to add a dangerous and more direct combo for the home side. Off went Nasri and Arnautovic.
Arsenal continued to look very disjointed. Faced with a bank of claret shirts, we too often rushed our passing in the final third, allowing the ball to skip out of play or fall into the hands of Fabianski. It was reminiscent of the game at Brighton when we were similarly ineffective in attack.
As the game edged towards its conclusion, more and more players in green shirts flapped their arms about in frustration. However, nobody seemed to want to take responsibility, all we did was amble about, passing the ball across our backline as if we had all the time in the world. We were completely devoid of ideas and creativity.
Despite Koscielny putting the ball in the net in stoppage time – an effort that was correctly ruled out for offside – the defeat was deserved.
I cant stand watching us at the moment. Slow, careless in possession, boring as fuck, lacking any style and idea going forward, missing control in midfield, stupid at the back, missing a couple of sitters every game. Six months and counting and I cannot see what is the improvement vs the dark days of last two seasons. Team of nasris, nobles and lidl ibrahimovic makes a 200 million quid Arsenal look like completely lost bunch of average players. Sorry Folks but im fuming.
What is Emery’s style of football meant to be? This honestly looks no different than Wenger’s final few years. The players look lost out there.
Pragmatism and a “win at all costs” philosophy. That’s it. There is no particular style or aesthetic. Ozil and Ramsey aren’t long term solutions but you play the fucking best players for a start.
I agree. These attempts to rationalise the upcoming loss of one of our best players really are wishful thinking. Meanwhile we have a world class player who the manager seems incapable of deploying effectively.
The defence needs a full overhaul in terms of both quality and the age profile. It was the most blindingly obvious way of improving the team after the loss of Arsene, but if anything we’re worse.
I have a feeling we’re going to get a whole lot worse before we get better.
So who is one of Arsenal’s “best players?” If you mean Ozil – who was scratched as injured – then fine. But I think your post refers to Ozil as world-class, a comment I happen to agree with, btw! But this narrative that Ramsey is suddenly a word-beater, or even all that, is nonsense. What I saw today was the usual Ramsey. Careless with the ball, no urgency, making the safe/back pass all too often, a few silly hollywood balls, but zero real creativity. That people are dusted about him leaving … hard to understand. That said, noone looked bothered… Read more »
Defending against the arsenal team as it was today is easy. West Ham have a very shaky backline and they played high up the pitch without too many problems. Xhaka and Guendouzi were overrun in midfield which left the front three feeding off scraps, and when we did get the ball forward, nobody could make a half decent pass to the runners like Aubameyang and Iwobi. And as productive as he has been this season, Aubameyang is little more than a passenger without decent service.
To be fair, Wenger couldn’t deploy our “world class player” effectively either. Could the common factor be Ozil?
He was planning to build a team around Ramsey and convinced the board with his detailed knowledge on the squad and his vision what he is capable with these players. No excuses for the players not fitting to his style!
you are correct, look at the creativity, assists and goals we have lost through out the team.
Giroud,Walcott,Carzola,Ox,Sanchez, losing Ramsey and Emery does not want to play Ozil.
West ham should not be able to control midfield like that. seems our midfield was set to contain rather than play through them.
I can’t understand the logic of the argument from people that no doubt said Arsene Wenger should have gone, that we should give Emery time. If Emery should be given time, why shouldn’t Wenger have been given any? Seeing as how the argument is that Emery doesn’t have the right players, why wasn’t that the same excuse for Arsene?
I can’t see us getting the type of players that will make an Unai Emery team worthy of a top 4 spot, the same way I couldn’t see it happening under Arsene Wenger.
Arsene wasn’t given time? What?
He got 10 years of time and is the reason we have a team full of players whom aren’t top 4 quality
I’m slightly confused here. I’m making the exact same argument as posters above, which is that I can’t see Emery making us any better.
I’m not saying Arsene Wenger should still be manager.
Why? It’s easy to see why Emery might not be able to get in the right players because we apparently have no money to buy them. Wenger on the other hand spent £35m each on both Xhaka and Mustafi, given the rate of inflation that the equivalent of about £50m now, are they £50m players? Ozil was bought for £42m 5 years ago and under Wenger got a contract worth £350,000 a week!!! Will Emery get that opportunity? Sanchez cost £35m and under Wenger was swapped for the past it Myhkytaryan, this is the legacy of what Emery has to… Read more »
i see the likes of Leno, Torreira, Sokratis, Guendouzi etc. are conveniently left out from that argument
@irony no I haven’t as not one of those players cost £35m and factoring in inflation none of those player cost us the more than the equivalent of about half their transfer fees.
Wenger left the club in carnage and it’s going to cost 100’s of millions of pounds and many years to clear up his mess
Wenger steered the ship in the first 10 to 15 years without splurging. The purse strings were loosen only from 2013 when Ozil arrived. He fucking earned the right to spend “big”.
Emery has to fucking earn his right too. He is not managing PSG nor City ffs. And with the outlays of £27m and £23m on Torreira and Leno respectively i don’t think he has a right to say that he hadn’t be backed
Wenger misread the direction football was going and stockpiled cash in self inflicted austerity because he thought Chelsea had created a bubble and didn’t want to get involved. We had plenty of money to spend but instead he decided to pursue pet projects like project youth and a socialist wage structure. He belatedly joined the real world in 2013 when we bought Ozil but even that came with his arrogant, high handed declaration that we’d buy 1 star a year as some sort of gift to the fans. Wenger’s second major policy error came when he started spending big as… Read more »
U need Jose
If you can’t see the flaw in your argument, it’s not worth anyones time trying to explain it to you.
Well yes he should be given time, and Wenger had 20 bloody years to put a team together and has all the power to buy the players that would have make the team better. So this is not a Wenger in or out I am fuming but let leave Wenger out of this.
To me it seemed with Arsene that with the dynamic between him, his structure requirements, and the club, there really didn’t seem like anything was going to nudge the way we need to get the players and structure needed to return to competitiveness. In short, it looked like no way out.
But it’s definit true that over the last four matches we’re looking like not much progress has been made. I was hoping the Fulham match would get us back on form, but here we are.
Crash Fistfight Arsene has a couple of decades the second being substantially worse than the first.
Stop talking nonsense get a hold of yourself…….Wenger was the longest serving manager in the premiership.
Us someone out there saying Wenger wasn’t given enough time….are you joking!!! A large part of the reason we are in this mess now is due to him. Unless the Kroenkes start investing this won’t change. We need new players, they have all has enough time to prove us wrong and haven’t. If Kroenke won’t do that then I wish he would just fuck off!!
He doesn’t have a style of play. To be honest I haven’t been impressed since he started. Nothing about our style of play has changed and aside from the Tottenham game, which was impressive and I was hoping we would use as a springboard, nothing has really changed. We don’t really know where we are going or what we’re doing.
Emery’s general style is, of course, high pressing and ball possession. I guess the jury has been out on possession since Germany crushed Brazil 7-1 with fast, attacking football in Brazil’s own World Championship in 2014. Bayern Munich has long played a more direct, attacking style. Leicester did it when they won in 2016, Liverpool does it now under Klopp. This style is also loved by fans.
Tactically, Emery surprises us and the opponents with frequent changes in formation. Unfortunately, this can confuse your own players as well.
The Keystone Cops Style
“Run around for 90 minutes, collide with each other then get beaten by a team like West Ham”
Season over folks….
That is unless you consider sixth an achievement…
Hey – we can call it the sixth place trophy.
Wenger would be proud…
We’ve suffered from having no disernable system for years now, why would that change if we have the same very limited players?
Took the words right out of my mouth mate
Don’t blame you, mate. By the end of the weekend we could be 6 points behind Chelsea and level with United. The top teams simply cannot afford to drop points to average teams like West Ham.
I will say it now ARSENAL AINT FINISHING TOP FOUR. Emery out !!
Look at the idiots up voting this. Emery is nothing more than an average manager but to suggest he is the problem rather than the hundreds of millions spunked by his predecessor is utterly idiotic.
OZIL IN!!!!
How many back passes did we make in this game?? If that is the best strategy that Emery can come up with, we are in serious trouble. Does he know what he is doing?
Back passes are useless. A very frustrating and boring game…..
The reason for the back passes is that many players are bad without the ball. They don’t run into good position, often instead pointing to team mates.
Zero creativity on the pitch. Zero creativity in Unai Emery’s mind. Only Emery fans and Ozil haters will still be happy. #EmeryOut
Do you guys recall Klopp’s first season with Liverpool? It was very similar to our situation. I say we judge Emery at the end of the season. Right now we are just acting on feelings. Doesn’t change the fact that we were utter sh*t today though…
Our fans would’ve been #KloppOut and #GuardiolaOut if they were our managers. Sometimes I think we are our own worst enemy. Well, except for Spuds. They are evil cunts.
I mean we can judge him but not with this #emeryout nonsense
Klopp didn’t mysteriously leave Coutinho out of the squad.
And furthermore not put in a creative attacker to replace him.
I agree about the lack of creativity but Ozil only seems like the answer when he doesn.t play. The real prroblem is the reliance on Guendouzi to provide the deep lying creativity. He looks a good player but it is asking too much of him. Xhaka was awful..totally anonymous. Mustafi kept wasting posession with dreadful long balls too. Redknapp hit the nail on the head..this squad is a million miles from top 4 quality. Can.t put that on Emery..i doubt he would willingly sign a quarter of our players. His hands are tied however. Why did we splurge on Auba… Read more »
I agree with Dave Cee. I don’t think Guendouzi should be running our midfield full time at this time. It is obvious he’s sometimes out of his depth, even when he plays well. We can’t afford that sort of hesitation in our midfield if we want a top 4 finish. And 343 against smaller teams doesn’t seem to make sense. We appear to be better at attacking with one less defender and one more attacker. A 433 or other variants is always a better approach. We may never solve our defensive problems this season. We should rather focus on outscoring… Read more »
Poch made a weekend squad so solid and in his very first season too. He also almost made them champs the next season. There have been many nanagers that have won the league in their very first season or just show some improvement so it’s not unfair to expect some progress from a squad full of marquee signings. Our defense has definitly gone worse and tbf defense has always been emery achilles heel..
Who are these marquee signings you talk of?
Is this the first #Emeryout declaration on Arseblog.. congrats
This 343 leaves a cavernous gap between the midfield and attack, just crying out for a technical number 10 to keep the ball and link play.
Next game should be 433 with Mustafi dropped and AMN promoted to midfield.
We’ve got Özil…
Ramsey is going, so he should play..Ozil just signed a mammoth contract & the most creative playmaker that we broke a transfer record last time, should not play. Well done Unai
I just don’t think you understand
It does when the centre of midfield is populated by a plodder like Xhaka and a water carrier like Guendouzi
and yet that water carrier has been our best player in quite a few matches!
Just how many more 19 year-olds are Arsenal football club going to give Premier league debut goals to. The list is embarrassing.
My mate who’s a PSG fan warned me about Unai. V stuck in his ways, and alienates the top players because he cant handle them properly. We are a stale, predictable, bang average team right now. Unai is making horrible decisions, and we’ll be lucky to finish 6th at this rate. The honeymoon period is fucking well and truly over.
The Emery placebo effect is truly over
The Emery bubble is finally burst
Reality now takes over
Spurs would now finish ahead of us yet again
What’s the average time for a manager these days, anywhere between 2/3 months to 2/3 years. So if he fails, he’s out. Emery failed in Russia as well as PSG. But how many managers did Spurs go through in the Wenger era, before they got lucky with Poch? Emery said he could make our current crop of overpaid players better, that’s his cross to carry.
I don’t know if I’m being too uncritical of Emery, but I don’t think we should blame him yet. Give him two seasons. He got the tactics wrong, but we need a creator on the right.
Two seasons of this and we’ll be the new southampton.
Maybe we should let him make at least one signing of his own choosing
Boring boring Arsenal.
The truth is: Arsenal is not top 4 quality.
Well that is one of the worst performances I’ve seen in years. Such a slow performance with no direction. The three midfielders we’ve been linked are not exactly inspiring (all loan options) and not what the team needs right now. His stance with Ozil is now starting to back fire, because we have no creativity whatsoever. All well and good on our long unbeaten run but that has long gone now. Results back up the manager’s decision and they are not positive at the minute. People were getting a little carried after the Fulham match not realising that they could… Read more »
The next match is Chelski! Then Manure, Cardiff, Man Citeh.
We were different in the beginning. We pressed high, we built from the back, our passing was much quicker and direct.
I wouldn’t mind Xhaka making mistakes if he made up for it in other ways, but really the bad stuff totally outweighs any good stuff. Liability.
At this rate United may overtake us. What does that about our manager
Every since holdings injury and that cock-up at old trafford within 30 seconds of taking the lead, this team has gone from bad to worse.
A) they got rid of their nightmare manager and are enjoying freedom b) they have an incredibly expensive albeit flawed squad. C) we are shit and will end in 6th, where the 6th best team ought to be. Does that answer your question?
Emery is average , that’s the right answer.
It says that it is mid-season, nothing more.
Agree that Emery needs to kick it up a notch, but calling him average (commentors above) and wishing for AW back is just pathetic. Really, really pathetic.
He cost 35 million when that summer we could habe bought Kante for 31 mil. Shocking and shambles isn’t it?
Xhaka isn’t good enough. Nor are most members of our defence. I think all this has very little to do with the current manager – the players on the pitch are sorely lacking a leader/talisman like most top clubs have. We have Ozil as our talisman – very talented but he’s simply not up there with the very best in terms of leadership or his all round game. If we blame Emery for anything it might be for falling out with Ozil or if that hasn’t happened, clearly failing to get the best out of him. But who knows what… Read more »
Don’t think we could have had a more obvious example of the need to buy players in January. Absolutely no creativity in midfield, complete disconnect between back and front, and noone able to pick out a pass. Embarassing.
I don’t necessarily think any amount of players could help this team right now. For all the laughs and smiles in training, matchday is different. When we play it seems like we’ve never been on a pitch together before
Great point. It’s nice that they are all having fun in training. But frankly it looks like that’s all they do in training as there is no semblance of a plan on a Saturday.
Yes I noticed that, all the fun & laughing at work with no end product. Maybe they are laughing at all the dosh they earn.
Yet our most creative player isn’t even in the squad. Fucking ridiculous.
Emery clearly doesn’t like Ramsey while Ozil and Mkhitaryan are injured which leaves us lacking creativity in the middle of the park. Guendouzi has been useful this season and Xhaka has been much improved but I don’t think either has that killer pass to slip someone in – they’re far more about long balls over the top than something more intricate and incisive. There’s just no way to connect our midfield with our attackers right now – playing without a No 10 is really hurting us.
Mesut is not injured, Unai is being a cunt.
Xhaka. Is. Shit. Word is that he was bought by Josh Kroenke using the analytics tool, like noone saw him play before … seems about right. Same with Mustafi.
I like Guendouzi, as you suggest. But he cannot do it alone. And I dunno, but I’m about finished with the Iwobi experiment. Has he really improved at all since his debut season? Marginally, if at all, I’d say. He’s midtable-quality, at best.
Iwobi has been one of the few highlights this season. There’s real potential there and we surely need at least a few players like him that can actually dribble.
He’s shit, without question the worst player to reach 120+ games for Arsenal in quite some time
We may buy 6 new players this January but with a game plan like we have just now…nothing’s gonna change
I don’t honestly believe that. This team has plenty of good midfielders, the coach, as yet has not found the right balance. He is quite ridiculously over-reliant on a 19 year old from league 2.
Who are these good midfielders? Torreira is good, Guendouzi is a prospect, the rest not so much.
We lack quality throughout the team and it’s going to take a few transfer windows to get it in.
Ozil, Ramsey, Torreira, Maitland-Niles, Guendouzi, Mkhitaryan, Iwobi, Xhaka and Elneny
Most teams would bite your hand off for that, Liverpool are top of the league with Henderson and Milner for god’s sake.
No they wouldn’t, we wouldn’t get anywhere near what you’d think for any of those players, in fact we struggle as no one would want to pay their wages.
We suck
Thank you Stan
Panic button time Arsenal fans. If United win they’re level with us. I know it’s a transition year but it’s not less painful. Undisciplined mess on the field.
No more 3 at the back Emery please! Play either Ramsey or Ozil.
we got ozil ….injured ozil….i just dont think u understand….he’s always injured man..he is diaby in the den…we got mesut ozil…
Özil was fit and available. Just a question of tactics again.
The tactics of leaving Ozil out will soon boomerang into dressing room revolt
Well, the club says he was scratched with the knee injury issue.
What den?
well my creativity is better then what it was of arsenal today.
Dirty Den?
Maybe Millwall are looking to buy him ????
It’s emery’s fault it’s obvious he is an average manager, we should get jardim as soon as possible #kroenkeout #emeryout
I think the Ex Leipzig boss ( now at Southampton) would have been just a good a shout. So Gazidis helps pick our new boss then pisses off to Milan, nice one.
He is hardly blameless in all of this, given what we’ve seen on the pitch, but he’s definitely not a bad manager, nor is he average.
I’m beginning to have doubts about Unai. This team shows no urgency, they are slow and lethargic. Why can’t he keep Ramsey?
No idea what was our plan going forward tonight. Zero skill & creativity on the ball.
Hard to trust the proccess if it’s unclear what the process is.
Also, hard to justify Özil’s absence (if there isn’t an injury we don’t know about).
Good performance.
By Iwobi, yes
We’re 1-0 down and we play million passes between Koscielny and Sokratis.
The constant possession at the back drives me nuts. I remember Fabregas in an interview saying they would always drill where you were not allowed to pass back, only forward. Now they’re too comfortable passing back that they too often won’t look for the pass forward. Aubmeyang and Laczette never get the ball passed to them – maybe two or three times a game each? Nonsense.
Auba and Laca spend half the time cleaning up at the back and coming back for the ball because there’s basically only 19 year old Matteo with any attempt to find a forward pass. This is total shit but Mesut is left at home because the coach thinks these players are better for this match. Somebody needs to give Unai a good kick up the arse.
It’s a standoff between Ozil and Emery. I don’t think anyone here seriously believes that Emery doesn’t rate Ozil. I think there are certain things he doesn’t tolerate, he’s seen some of them in Ozil and wants to make an example of him. It could seriously backfire (just like it did for Mourinho at United), as it can sow seeds of doubt in the minds of the other players.
Europa League next season again then. Can’t see Lacazette and Aubameyang sticking around past this summer if a Champions League team comes calling. Ramsey going. Ozil is no man’s land. What a mess.
We need another 5-10 years before we can compete at the top again. We need to clear out all the stink that was left behind.
Gonna be a long ride, Gooners
Or get rid of Kroenke. With him even in 10years we wont be getting anywhere
I put this result on Emery. I don’t he really has an idea of what to do with Arsenal. I know he’s only had 6 or 7 months, but we look worse defensively, static in midfield and he keeps chopping and changing his system. He’s getting no money now and about 50 million in the summer. It’s not enough, unless we can sell Ozil, Xhaka, Mustafi and the other dross that we have. I think we are a team in decline and it goes all the way through the club, from owner, former chief exec, Wenger and everything else. I’m… Read more »
We need a real restructuring
In the past 12-18 months, we completely changed our entire forward line, about half of our midfield and defense and brought in a new first choice goalkeeper. We changed our manager who had been here 22 years. Coaching personnel at youth level also saw a turnover. In the same time, we completely changed our backroom structure creating new positions and bringing in new personnel fr the old ones. We also let go of the highest executive in the backroom. Ownership structure changed too where KSE owns 100% now. It was one ‘helluva’ restructuring that we underwent that no football club… Read more »
This whole thing reeks of Brendan Rodgers. From how he impressed with his thorough preparation, to how he plans to improve the team and use the players etc.
I think we should have started with the 11 that ended up on the pitch?
Minus Guendouzi. Put Elneny in for Guendouzi.
We don’t have the luxury to have a young player figure out he’s not that good, have a player who knows his limitations and simply works his hole off to support the talent. Guendouzi trying through balls is getting cancerous to my eyes.
Thought Guendouzi was decent today, at least he was trying to move the ball to the opposition goal. Elneny is just backwards and sideways, which we’ve already got far too much of
Decent by who’s standards? And to what effect? Not by the standards needed of this game, which may I remind you is West Ham not even a mid table team at the moment, and certainly not by the standards we need to get us where Arsenal FC ought to be. If you think a player is decent despite being totally ineffectual, then you’ve got a different definition of decent to me, and most English speaking people’s. Elneny is the kind of player who will reliably get the ball to more effective players like Ozil (lol) and Ramsey, much like the… Read more »
Guendouzi is more offensively orientated than Elneny. He at least tries to play passes to the forwards, sometimes to great effect. But he is also over-confident, and an avid diver. Today, he was ineffective, slowing the game, getting tackled because he released the passes too late (this is also due to his team mates being bad without the ball).
Cancerous? You donut
Look mate, you really want a better word to describe what pure fucking torture a season of Guendouzi-Xhaka midfield will do to our collective physical and mental health? Because if we don’t by some fucking miracle end with CL money for next season thats exactly what were in for.
Where the fuck is Ozil??!! Useless trash of a squad. Can’t defend. Can’t create. Did not look one bit like Arsenal. No fucking urgency. No imagination…
Worst performance of the season for me that. Flat, tepid and careless. We’re not good enough for top 4.
Did you watch the Bournemouth game? We will scrape 6th and bomb out of Europa as soon as we play a good team. Plus ca change
What you call ‘imagination’ is actually well-drilled attacking sequences that create space and allow the players to receive and play the ball. It’s not spontaneous and it’s not improvised. It’s trained.
Whoops, meant to reply to TOGooner, sorry.
Shyte performance. Shyte result against a poor West Ham side.
Our league season is in danger of petering out unless the players can find another gear and we can sign a couple of players to freshen the squad up.
I don’t want us to play UEFA Cup next season, but we could be 6 points off top four by close of business and the way we’re playing, we won’t be closing the gap unless the chavs implode.
Yeah well we gave the line up out and I thought.. our best center midfielders are on the bench. How did we finish the game? Torriera Ramsey. Honestly if we go up a team like west ham and you start the game thinking they might actually have the better all round squad out there then you know why we wont get the champions league places. Yes we have Auba and Lacazette up front. But seriously, I could not pick one other player out there which you would not question whether they would get into a west ham arsenal combined 11.… Read more »
If you think west Ham has a better squad than us then you don’t know anything about football
And to be fair, Emery has got to take the blame for this defeat and the poor southampton defeat. Team was absolutely wrong tonight. We are the Arsenal, yet why the fuck do we keep playing a back 3? Does it really have to take us going a goal down before you switch to your preferred back 4 which at Sevilla you never changed?
Only player that looked half class was Aaron Ramsey in the 20 minutes he was on. Lucky we can loan some top drawer players in the summer to replace him. Are you watching stan?
Iwobi was pretty good I thought..only bright sppt for me. Auba and Laca might be great mates but they seem to get in each others way on the pitch. Ramsey looked good *sigh*
We were creatively piss poor. It was tiring to watch honestly.
Long may our transition continue I suppose.
Forgettable game.
Pathetic performance today. Once the game got under way I could visualize what a shit show it would be. And that it certainly was. We played right into West Ham’s hands by putting 3 at the back and absolutely no creative players. I think we defended okay, the only positive from the game. Otherwise shocking management to go with that setup. There’s no creative onus in this side and to all the fickle Ozil haters where are you all now? Do we now understand the utter importance of him in our team? It was a shambles out there today. And… Read more »
Everybody could see what Özil brings to this team. It was Burnley: when Kola saw Özil with the ball, he started his run. Enough said.
There’s so many knobs on aftv and even here that whenever there’s some Ozil info they come out in hoards and abuse and criticize him. Saying he’s an absolute waste and we should sell him while we would really struggle to get anyone close to his level of creativity in the market with what we have in our budget
If you’re not going to play Ozil, give Maitland-Niles a run in attacking midfield. He can dribble through the lines and cause problems. Him and Iwobi were outstanding against Blackpool the other day. Guendouzi and Xhaka is not only a defensive liability but a pedestrian one at that.
Of course the first goal came indirectly from Mustafi sliding in with less than 40 seconds on the clock. Enough is enough.
I am a fan of Maitland-Niles, but today your suggestion would not have worked. His dribbles invariably failed. His touches were poor.
In 30 years of watching Arsenal this is the most uninspiring boring bag of cunts I’ve seen play for us. We’re shit from back to front. No style, no plan, no hope. Even Aubamayang with the goals he’s scored has the touch of a Catholic priest. Fucking frustrating to say the least.
Arsenal were pretty bad, that’s true, but I’ve seen it much worse during Wenger’s last years. I think the team put in a real effort today, but nothing seemed to work. The passes did not find their intended recipients, probably also due to good preparation on Pellegrini’s part.
Wenger OUT !!!!
You jest, but it’s largely down to the piss-poor buying and selling of Wenger that we’re in this mess.
Still too early to discuss Emery’s work? The most worrying thing today was the lack of (perceived) hunger to get something out of this game after their goal. Football-wise, we’re mediocre, but then again, we have been consistently very mediocre since game 1. I think most fans – me included – believed our win against Spurs would galvanise us, and maybe push us to a higher level. Instead, the opposite happened… our worst phase since the beginning of the season. How depressing. I’m not saying it is all the manager’s fault, of course… but I have to admit that I… Read more »
Completely agree. I think he has had enough time to make more of an impact than he has. I have no idea what we are trying to do on the pitch. We have no identity as a team.
If we lose to Chelsea next week we should write the league off and focus fully on the Europa League and the FA Cup.
But with performances like today I’m not very optimistic. That was really poor.
7 paragraphs for the second half is impressive.
They scored, we passed it around the back for 40 minutes.
I give up with this team.
Auba and Laca both very poor. So much more than just scoring goals to playing up front. Play one and use the other as an impact sub like earlier in the season.
Emery needs to work out a way to get Ozil in the team FFS.
Really pissed off
Xhaka – Torreira, Özil for Guendouzi.
Agree.
Shit result, but I don’t think we played badly. Just lacked in the final third.
Some of our lead up play was good.
Since Bournemouth, the game’s quality has decreased. Özil on the bench or in the stands or at home (even when fit like today), 7 defending players, 3 attacking players and no creator. The following: the opposition goals as they want and we don’t score nor create. You can shout at Kroenke and say UE needs time and HIS players, but why not at least putting Özil on the bench as a plan B if something is wrong. It’s not as if this guy has never been a good football player. The club pushes Özil out for what? Suarez? A guy… Read more »
Spend 60 minutes every week waiting for ramsey to get subbed in…the guy whose bags are packed.
Cue the annual malaise! Different year, same shite.
The team put out today was sufficient for the task. Yeah right unai we created nothing. Honestly don’t care the problem with him and ozil. If he doesn’t perform fine him dont punish us fans for some idiotic supremacy battles or whatever is happening between both of you.
Emery creates the problem with Özil. Özil has always been professional and supporting the team without creating problems.
How do you know?
I said it after the liverpool game, I will say it again. Would rather lose with Ozil in the squad than him out. We are not exactly playing amazing without him, we are boring and uncreative. That was poor team selection from Emery. Stan Kroenke needs to get out the cheque book as well. Rubbish all around today.
This loss is on the manager. You can’t put the blame anywhere else. We were slow and predictable going forward. Ozil was dropped for “tactical reasons”. Well, that tactics was wrong and it’s been wrong for weeks, now.
Absolutely spot on. Couldn’t agree more with every single word mentioned by you
Why does Guendouzi play all of every game? He runs about a lot, loses the ball a lot, hasn’t got a left foot and Torreira, Ramsey, Ozil not starting. Why was Maitland-Niles playing when Bellerin is fit? So many questions and all that messing about at the back when we do have a couple of proper strikers.
Agree on all of that. I couldn’t understand why Xhaka came off instead of Guendouzi. Yes, he made a stupid mistake for the goal, but if you’re trying to score yourself, Guendouzi dwelling on the ball continuously (even if he does keep the ball) and playing passes to Fabianksi is not likely to get you one.
Xhaka makes terrible mistakes in every match
Xhaka was WAY worse than Guendouzi today. Did literally nothing apart from 1 lazy, frustrated tackle he was lucky their player decided to hurdle rather than get him booked..and the shit header. Guendouzi at least tried
Outclassed by West Ham, repeat West Ham. Alan Smith says Iwobi has the right attitude after he achieved a 5 yard pass, but a couple of minutes after Mark Noble had twice picked his pocket, it happens so often. Our craft in midfield was Guendouzi, well he went through the whole array of his French Second Division skills, badly weighted passes, taking on shots when his adjacent strikers were better placed, sideways and backwards passing, no wonder Laca & Auba didn’t see very much of the ball. Jamie Redknap summed it up that sadly for us when looking at the… Read more »
Rubbish game and pathetic Arsenal performance. Ironically, we defended quite well today: yes we could have done better with the goal, but overall we were very solid. But going forward we were a joke: absolutely no creativity. Laca and Auba had nothing to feed off. We were utterly toothless. I bet West Ham couldn’t believe how easy it was to stop us. Flappyhandski didn’t have a single save to make. I wonder what happened to our £350k-a-week creative midfielder? We were crying out for somebody to create something. We have no chance of a top-four finish. We look like a… Read more »
Well the notion of ‘solidity’ came from having an extra defender on the pitch. But what was it all for? Were we 1-0,2-0 up from the beginning or did I miss something? Because I saw we started negatively and without onus to attack but rather hold them off like West Ham are some big team. Unai needs to learn fast about English football. What works against Bournemouth is not going to work against West Ham, Saints or Brighton and doing it all over again is not going to produce different results.
I’m sorry but Emery is useless. I’ve not seen a worse midfield since the mid 90s. No one is surprised at this result which is the most damning.
Is happily see Emery fired in the summer.
This was such a frustrating performance. If this is how we’re going, we’re not getting near top 4 this year. How tepid was that? At no point did we look like we’ll win or even draw. I don’t think Emery is the man to take as back to the promiseland or even close to it. Now, I don’t mean that we shouldn’t give him time but if he succeeds in making us substantially better, I’d be surprised. Also, can we stop wanking off about big names? We give too much leeway to big names. We did it with Sanchez, we… Read more »
To be fair I think Lacazette puts himself around but without creativity behind him he’s having to drop deeper. Aubameyang on the other hand…
A loss doesn’t even hurt anymore and that makes me fucking sad!
Hope Mesut’s absence was physichal and not tactical. If the latter is true it’s a bad mistake from Enery, he is the only one capable of opening a 8 man defence.
Well that was a bag of arse, wasn’t it?
At least 12 bags of arse.
Genuine question: after 6 months in charge, what difference has Emery made?
It’s still Wengers players, who just aren’t very good. It’s gonna take a while to shift them on and replace them with quality for a top 4 push.
I so want that to be true, Martin. Thanks for applying some common sense to a very hacked off season ticket holder.
Leno , Sokratis , Torreira , Guendouzi , Auba !!!! yeah wenger players.
We run around more and play it out from the back badly.
I must admit – I never wanted Emery at Arsenal from the moment he was appointed.
Made our shite defence even worse.
A pointless midfield with no attacking flair.
The only good thing is Aubameyang and Lacazette who were signed before he arrived.
Emery is an incompetent liability.
I hope he breaks the trend and makes one sensible decision – that being leaving the club in the summer before he causes more damage.
Arsenal are in decline..
So you would have been “Klopp out” as a pool fan then? Give the guy a chance.
Were you shouting “Emery out” during our recent 22 game unbeaten run? Really?
Dont see Iwobi as a 10, his final ball is generally pretty bad. Guendouzi and Zhaka is a really uninspiring midfield and Aubameyang adds so little to the way we play, in fact I think his presence is a handicap anywhere other than the six yard box, meaning he really needs to be taking 99% of his chances and even half chances to justify his place in the team. We’re so short of creativity and in that sense i’m Not sure Ramsey leaving is the end of the world, but we really need to find a way to get Ozil… Read more »
The Ozil situation seems personal now and I honestly don’t get it. We are going to concede goals. Outside of holding, we had our three first choice center backs playing. It doesn’t matter if we play 4 or 5 at the back, we are going to concede. So why not play Ozil? We have two of the top 10 (or at least top 15) strikers in the world on our team and no one creative enough to get them the ball. The team desperately lacks creativity, and with our defensive personnel at the moment, we just need to score more… Read more »
Looking at the 2 starting line ups today can we honestly say we had the better team? Our CBs are terrible, full/wing backs can’t defend, holding midfielders can’t tackle, attacking midfield can’t create and strikers don’t contribute unless the ball is fed to them on a silver platter. Other than Lacazette and Warning unpopular decision, Aubameyang is rubbish, unless the ball is given to him 6 yards out what does he actually do? I’m trying not to blame this on Emery, this poor squad has been created over years by Wenger and Gazidis. It looks like after what seemed a… Read more »
Yeah so blame every one else exept the guy who picks a team without anyone who knows fuckall about creating chances
Emery can only pick from the options available to him and most of those options are not great.
Ozil situation aside of course. I don’t see how we can necessarily blame Emery for that though as we don’t know the full story of what’s going on.
Can some tell Emery that he needs to adapt to Ozil game. Ozil on the pitch is enough distraction for opponent which gives room for us to play . A reminder that the last time lost at west Ham was over ten years ago. We are sliding down…
Beaten by a team including Nasri and a 58 year old Zabaleta. We made the latter look like a 25 year old Cafu. Something really is not right with this team.
They’re just not very good ?
True, Martin. Sums it up perfectly.
I cannot begin to comprehend how you can say that a front three of Aubameyang, Lacazette and Ozil (if played) are not good enough!!
Personally, I believe, man to man, they are better than the front three of Mane, Firmino and Salah.
The person who needs to step up is the coach who needs to utilise their talents to create results on pitch.
I thought that appointing a new manager would improve things.
Emery is clearly out of his league here – he is trying to implement the tactics he employed at PSG and Seville at Arsenal but is unaware that we don’t have any feckin’ wingers or decent defenders to play that formation.
Jesus what a mess.
I expect a lot of empty seats at the Emirates for the remaining home games. People cannot be bothered wasting time and money on this anymore…
Emery and Kroenke HAVE to leave….