Bournemouth’s 4-0 hammering of Chelsea on Wednesday helped Arsenal to slip into fourth place in the Premier League and raised hopes that we might just snaffle a Champions League place after all.
While our form has been patchy since the defeat to Southampton in December, Unai Emery maintains that the 47 points his side have mustered after 24 games is a tally that’s not to be sniffed at.
Everything could change this weekend when we take on second-place Manchester City, a fixture that often ends in defeat, but for the time being, the Spaniard, armed with stats, has been bullish in his assessment of his debut season in England.
Ahead of the trip to the Etihad, the Spaniard said: “I use a lot of information about the previous years in the Premier League table of other teams and also our team, and we are doing our way.
“Now with the 47 points we have in the table, in the last four years there’s only one other time Arsenal have had the same points in this moment.
“Three years ago Leicester were first in the table with 50 points, and sometimes the table gives us more chances with 47 points, and sometimes it’s giving us less.
“This year Manchester City and Liverpool are very hard and strong, and after that it’s Tottenham. Chelsea and Manchester United are together with Arsenal, but our points are good.
“We need to improve defensively, but we need to continue with our way in doing that.”
Given the summer’s upheaval, to still be part of a very competitive race for the top four isn’t too shabby. That said, as some of our recent performances have demonstrated, there’s still room for a lot of improvement.
Sneaky premier league title incoming it is then
I get what he’s saying but firstly we’ve been very lucky. Our stats during the unbeaten run were pretty scary. Secondly we are still where we were last year performance wise. And thirdly… ok, I only got two. COYG! EmeryIn
Stop moaning! He inherited Mustafi not Messi, yes performance can improve, but it takes time! Imagine that, progress isn’t instant. What a revelation
He also inherited Ozil and look how wonderful that turned out for everyone
You didn’t mentioned his salary. I thought that was imperative whenever one criticises Ozil
If he had’ve inherited Messi he wouldn’t have played him, not his ‘kind of player’
There is no luck that lasts 20 games.
Does the Berg stand for LjungBerg or Denis? I’ve always wondered…
Unfortunately we will finish 6th this year. But given time, and few transfers Windows, I think he can push us back into a 4th. Realistically with the Stan as our owner, 4th is the best we can hope for. If we really want to talk about the title, we should have an owner who will invest heavily in the club.
Intersting that Wenger always seemed to focus on performance and assumed results would follow. Emery seems to focus on results… presumably he assumes performance will follow. Or perhaps he is only worried about results.
It’s funny because when I play sports I only care about the result and don’t care how my teams get it, but when I watch my favourite teams I want to be entertained. That’s why I loved Arsenal under Wenger because, win or lose, they are always entertaining. Some of the games I remember most (4-4 with Newcastle and Liverpool) are actually games we should have won, haha.
I hope Emery and the lads find the balance. I’m not sure I would have liked watching 1-0 Arsenal under George. Kind of the same reason why nobody liked Mourinho’s boring Chelsea.
More points with a lesser squad that is.
There was Sanchez, prime Ozil, Ox, prime Kos, Per and our best player Santi effing Cazorla dominating the midfield. We had a more balanced team. We had real wingers, Competitors weren’t stable… such a waste.
I will never forget that we lost the premier league to leicester . For all the fairy tale stories i dont think they ever won it, all the other teams just performed poorly. If you look at their point tally they had one of the lowest point tally for a league winner in the history of the premier league. If there were any one so called big six teams playing to their potential they would have won the league that year. Chelsea under mourinho was having one of the worst seasons ever, city was also underperforming in pellegrini’s last season… Read more »
I think credit where credits due, they won the league
Same way Emery didn’t go for for a defensive cover?
We had a much larger budget at that point as we still were in the CL and for whatever reason Wenger ignored dm year after year. Keep in mind emery was quite public (I would guess the club wasn’t happy about that) about us having no money to spend this window. Very different scenarios. What I find troubling is to already hear people like John cross talk about how small the transfer budget will be in the summer already
I love Santi just as much as the next fan, and I do remember him very fondly, but I can remember countless games where Santi was right in the middle of our toothless, possession heavy style. I remember being frustrated with him in lots of games. The sideways passes, the too conservative decision making. I’d take back 27 yr old Santi in a heartbeat but he wasn’t this mystical shaman who raised our game by leaps and bounds. It’s hard not to think of THAT City game where he was unplayable and ran the show. But there were scores of… Read more »
What a load of revisionist bullshit!! Lesser squad my a**!! Prime Ox? In his ‘Prime’, the Ox never scored and assisted more than 8 goals in a season. Per was the butt of many jokes for how slow he was. The fond memories that arsenal fans now have of Per all come from that one performance in the FA cup final. Apart from that, they insulted him just as much as they do Mustafi now. Santi was a very good and technically gifted player, but he was no midfield general like fans seem to make out now. In so many… Read more »
City, Liverpool and Spuds will finish top three. I can’t see us finishing above both the Chavs and United.
We’ll concede more than 50 goals and finish fifth or sixth.
Probably yes, but why the spoilers?
Do you realise Utd have conceded 3 more goals can us atm? Solksjaer had a great start like Sarri but watch his bubble bust starting from Leceister game on Sunday!
Now that agent Maureen has pissed off United are on the up. They have better players and will finish above us. Sad Sarri will be gone soon too and that will give the Chavs a lift: they have better players than us too.
We can’t defend and that will cost us a top-four place. Not buying a defender in the window was madness.
I dont think chelsea will fire sarri. They have invested too much in their squad to do that. And sarri’s stubbornness will likely be the downfall of both of them. They bought higuain for fuks sake a spent force. So i think we only have to be worried about united. They have an amazingly talented squad that alone can take then to top four position. But they have issues of their own, their defense is questionable as seen against burnley. I thought we played well against them in FA cup, only to be outdone because our defense was way worse… Read more »
Aren’t we the proper ray of sunshine…..
Cheer up mate, you have been a ray of sunshine lately … Let’s regroup at the end of March and see where we stand … bit worried about Man Shitty tho, they will be fired up after Toon loss. Still, Manure could lose/draw away to Leicester. Can’t see Chavs losing at home to Huddsfld but u never know in this game.
If LA Rams win Super Bowl will Stan K will use billions of his profits to finance a genuine title bid next season? Fuck no.
To be honest I hate American Football. I don’t get why the Yanks are so passionate about that stop/start game. But I really hope that the LA Rams get thrashed on Sunday. I couldn’t stand to see that parasite get any enjoyment. He must suffer. He’s a c**t.
Record it, then fast forward through the boring bits (ads, timeouts, 2min warning, injuries, dancing girls, this year’s halftime show) … can be very skilful, watchable game.
Rams only made it cos Mike Dean fucked up a pass call in the semis v Saints.
It’s possible. But it’s a Friday evening… stop bumming everyone out. Be happy. Dream a little
Have a little faith, Fatgooner.
And there was me thinking I’m the pessimistic one
So far so good for me, we are in the hunt for forth and even if we drop off the race Emery shouldn’t get to much stick as it’s still 80% Wengers team.
Finally a guy with a brain and some perspective
People wanted Wenger out, it’s obvious the next guy would ‘inherit’ his players. Unrealistic to think a new manager will be given a whole new team. I thought a good manager could make a difference with any players, not only his chosen few.
Lacazette and Auba weren’t exactly a shabby inheritance either
Well done Unai! Pep finished 4th in his first season with better players, Klopp finished 8th (taking over in Oct) with slightly worse players.
All things put together, Emery is doing a good job, if you consider only two of his signings start week in week out, he is doing very well. Excited to see Suarez in action as Emery seem to trust him.
Finally, somebody puts it all into perspective. Ose jare.
There is a bit of pressure on Suarez in this regard. This is the first signing that is 100% Emery. If he performs well, great, but if not fans may lose patience fast, particularly given the Mislintat situation.
With only two competitions ahead I think it’s a good opportunity to have fresher and healthy players with a bit of rotation. I know the defense is terrible even at their 100% but Arsenal MUST qualify to the Champions league at all costs, there are two ways and one with a title.
‘This year Manchester City and Liverpool are very hard and strong’
That’s what she said.
Michael is that you?
I think he is doing an astoundingly good job after WEXIT considering….cough Mustafi cough!
Mustafi wasn’t there when we lost 8 points to cough cough BHA, Soton, West Ham…cough cough.
we would have lost 9!
I think Emery is doing very well with the squad he has got.
If you go through our squad, man for man, against the other top 6 sides, can you honestly deny that, with the possible exception of Chelsea, they have better players overall?
I love auba, laca, torreira, etc. but don’t think we should expect to finish top 4… Yet Emery has put us in with a good shout.
I’m still hoping that the Spuds lack of depth will come to bite as the season goes on. Already seeing some positive signs with Alli and Kane out.
Here here.
Hoping for the Spurts to bottle it and we pip them this season by a point. That would be so sweet.
I back Emery to get us in the top 4…go gunners
I have just watched how CP beat MC. They don’t waste time passing near the box.
Townsend scored a cracker from outside the box.
That’s what Arsenal must do. They must break out fast from the Arsenal goal area
and surge forward giving defenders less time to mass.
Incidentally when MC were massing in nos at the CP goal,the latter quickly filled up the gaps making a one on one more difficult.
If Arsenal continue to play keep ball they will be massacred.
I think its Bravo in goal and he is susceptable to spilling shots. We just need to be SUPER efficient with our chances. As much as we have been scoring goals we can still do MUCH better with our chances. We need to make teams have second thoughts about themsleves and impose our will on them. This is why we reinforce in attack. Defensive issues is an ongoing issue. It is not a fault of Mustafi or Granit rather how we defend as a unit needs to be worked on. BUT where we can help out the defense at the… Read more »
Agree with Olu. The MU feel good factor will soon evaporate.
That’s why the epl is the best in the world unlike Italy/Germany and Spain where
the perennial champions will be the same 3/4 clubs.And these teams have the
arrogance to think they have a divine right to win games and trophies.
ontext yes but trouble is….Its just more and more competitive in the league.
We have to be looking at Spurs next and try to cut their lead on us.
Forget Chelsea. We need to take City and believe we can.
We need to take our chances and be efficient in front of goal.
Can’t help but think if they go for one on the base of midfield like Chelski did, we can pressure them with a diamond 4 in midfield and 2 up top. But take those chances.
COYG
I had feared worse in Emery’s first season. When you are fourth in February, of course top four is within grasp. A couple of top, uninjuried defenders, and Arsenal would have fought for the gold.
He is right though. Considering the obvious deficiencies in the squad, the injuries we have had, the fact it’s his first year in charge without really having a proper summer transfer window, we are much better off than I thought we would be.
I didn’t think top four was really going to be obtainable at all this year but the fact we are still in with a shot at this stage of the season is commendable. I still think we might fall short however. But I will judge the guy at the end of next season.