Unai Emery’s Arsenal gave up a lead for the fourth game in a row as we stumbled to a 1-1 draw against Vitoria in Portugal.
In the pouring rain, the Gunners outpassed their opponents but mustered just one shot on target; a header by Shkodran Mustafi that found the net with 10 minutes remaining.
A win would have seen us qualify from Europa League Group F with two games to spare but a minute into stoppage time the home side found a deserved equaliser as Bruno Duarte netted with an acrobatic effort.
There’s no point sugarcoating things. Arsenal were awful from start to finish, the players, set up with a three-man backline, looking bereft of confidence as they attempted to execute a game plan that seemed to involve avoiding the centre of the pitch where possible.
After the game, Emery, whose job is now very much on the line, admitted his players toiled in the final third.
“The players tried and we were close to winning but in the last minute, they pushed a lot and scored,” he told BT Sport.
“In the Europa League it’s about being first in the group and at the moment we are. It’s still a possibility to be [finish] first.
“We tried. They are a very competitive team and it was very important for us to be strong defensively. I think we did that and we did better offensively.
“It’s not easy to have a lot of chances. We want to win but in the table we are the first and that is our target.”
Arsenal now have the unenviable task of taking on in-form Leicester at the King Power on Saturday before the Interlull kicks in. It feels like things are coming to a head.
He is basically the shittest manager in Arsenal’s recent history. One effing shot on target and we no longer have any semblance of the beautiful football we got used to as arsenal fans. Total fucking shambles. Get this mug out of our club ASAP
Definitely fighting Bruce Rioch for the wooden goon.
Bruce did sign Bergkamp though…
I think that was David Dean.
We did go down hill when he left. Bring back David Dein.
and David Platt at the same time. A game changer in my opinion.
He is basically the only manager in Arsenal’s recent history.
And of the one managers in our recent history, he’s playing by far the worst football.
And at the same time the best lol
Come on Arsenal, make the change quickly for once
No way he will be here after the international break. After Mailing on Saturday he will have 2 go hope he does the decent thing and leave. The problem here is Arsenal want him 2 leave so they dont have 2 pay him off
Well he’s right. It’s not easy to have a lot of chances… Its not as though arsenal can play against thmeselves
I keep seeing stories about how the board is behind Emery and wants to give him all year etc, but I simply don’t understand how anyone who watches us thinks we’re making any progress at all. We lose leads in virtually every game as our midfield / defense are a sieve and we have reached the point on offense where virtually all of our goals let alone chances come from set pieces.
I think it’s better for the board to say that in public while privately sourcing replacements and putting a succession strategy together, rather than throwing Emery under the bus now and leaving us even more rudderless than we already are.
I was genuinely shocked that we actually took the lead. It appeared that scoring a goal was waaay beyond our capabilities up to that point. And after to be fair.
Actually, I think it’s quite telling that the board are speaking out publicly at all. They’re saying all the right things to maintain some order but we all know that the dreaded ‘vote of confidence’ is anything but.
The commentator mentioned in the Wolves game that he was shouting at his players when to press and when not to.
I noticed him doing it again today. Is it just me or should that not be drilled on the training ground and not arbitrarily throughout the game?
Seems they don’t understand him in either situation
“Boys in the moment I will speak of the press ahh pushing my hands from my chin to the air in the direction of the moment” watch out for this action…”
He seemed very subdued tonight. Maybe he’s realised they don’t want hear what he has to say.
Yes I heard that during the game too.. I remember last season they were comparing his first season records to Klopp’s and Pep’s. So what has changed with better players on board and more time with the team?
To be clear: I think Emery is terrible and should be replaced. But this is just looking for things to criticise. When Klopp shouts out instructions from the technical area, no one says his team ought to have been prepared on the training ground. When Pep makes his maniacal hand gestures, waves his arms like windmills, no one thinks it is because his players are clueless.
How can you create chances with no game plan? No service to the strikers come on Emery I respect him as a person but he is sucking the life out of arsenal and it’s fans, please a blind man can see what’s wrong we fans are not idiots
Bingo, i win
Yeah sure it’s not easy create chances against WELL ORGANIZED vitoria….that’s why they are last in the table and theie only point coming against us
One thing that is easy though, is creating chances against an UNWELL, UNORGANISED Arsenal. Holy shit we’re racking up shots against. At least we’re first in something!!
Well, we didn’t create chances against poorly organized Man United either. (The result that, so far, still bothers me the most–a chance to batter them at Old Trafford thrown away.)
Someone needs to put this guy out of his misery. And my misery. We’re finished here thanks Unai
No Unai, it’s just not easy for YOU
There’s always an excuse, This guy has to go.
Couldn’t have said it any better.
It’s not even fun watching this team anymore. At least under Wenger, win or lose, we were fun to watch…
Arsenal are like the UK after Brexit, used to be one of the richest clubs in the world, now we’re shit.
Don’t feel it’s ever going to be fair to assess the quality of this team whilst he is in charge or even be critical of players. If players don’t try then it’s one thing but I feel they try to follow his instructions. He’s just a small club manager with a small club mentality. That’s what he’s good at. That’s where he’s comfortable
Is he really that delusional – or just trying to put a brave face on a very poor performance?
Message to Unai , surely you must now understand you are wrong for the job it was to big for you there is no shame in admitting it. Why don’t you just resign? https://youtu.be/IE1ZeXC4vtg?t=134
Come Saturday we will be 9 point off 4th place so we can kiss champion league goodbye unless we win the europa league. And this clowill use the same tactics he use against Chelsea and get beat. So it’s best to just let him go now.
Moyes did not last so long why wait.
Message to our board. https://youtu.be/N-ecZ8CPcxw?t=29
RIOTS
It’s not supposed to be easy. We are supposed to triumph through guile and creativity.
Unai oh Unai.. I can’t imagine how u can bring us back to glory days if even Vitoria is too well organised for u.. Always the other team’s fault ain’t it..
We will abandon the matches after Leicester if the clown remains
How is this useless, incompetent, toxic moron not fired is beyond our ape tribe. And to think he is on million £ or more per year makes me sick. FRAUD.
If he is not sacked after loss to Leicester then whole Arsenal hierarchy should be chased out with pitchforks.
You know the irony of football before Brendon beat us last game we normally beat up Leicester. So a surprise win may b on the cards wud the club give him a reprieve? Would be a very sad day for my club
Long time since we “beat up Leicester” – Wenger managed to lose the PL to them when we should have cruised to the title.
Never seen so many Arsenal fans wanting to get trounced on a game before.
We are stuck in the rut of “close to winning.” With each game you wonder how long this will go on. I pray we are rid of him sooner rather than later.
Did he actually said we were strong defensively and did better offensively?
This part of his press conference concerns me the most.
Emery said “We tried. They are a very competitive team and it was very important for us to be strong defensively. I think we did that and we did better offensively.” – We managed 1 shot on target? How is that doing better offensively?
I hate to see what we looked like when we did badly offensively. He clearly sees the game in a different way from 99.9% of us.
I can’t bare anymore of this shit, i swear to god if arsenal were an animal we would be going to the vets to be put down,
Sometimes, the best thing to do is to not say anything at all. This is one of those times…
Sack the clown now please ?
You make me laugh.
One thing this shit show does is give a bit of perspective on the difference between a world class manager like AW and a mid-table manager like Emery. Even towards the end of his tenure, by which time (and I think we can all agree on this) AW had long become an ‘out of time’ man, and even in his last season, which was by far his worst, he still managed to get the team to play eye catching football for the most part, and definitely at home against the likes of Wolves and Bournemouth. We could have never imagined… Read more »
And I’m also pretty sure we would’ve scored a little more than 1 goal from open play in our last, I don’t know, 20?
Mighty Vitoria SC allow about 12 shots/game and 5 shots on goal in their league.
Even with the heavy rain, you have to think, having shots (plural) on goal would’ve been a given with our talent advantage.
There is a disconnection between our attack and midfield. And we have a non functioning midfield unable to constitute any form of control in the middle of the park. This is beyond Granit. Cebellos is certainly not the Santi player some prefer to imagine him to be anymore than young Willock can be the same people prefer to imagine him to be now or anymore that Torreira has his own shortfalls. BUT the front men has also been poor. Since Lacazette went off injured, we have been sporadic at best in effort and the wide players have been found lacking.… Read more »
Santi – his options are not limited! Limited is what applies to Brighton/Sheff U/Leicester/Wolves.
His operational style is the sole limiting factor.
1) The wingers haven’t been great. We may need to put Auba on one wing again (or as a pair) with Laca up top. At very least they have a good relationship with each other where our recent combinations have played like strangers to each other. Lacazette maybe key to a revival of some sharpness particularly in his movement to receive and distribute. Pepe has flattered to deceive (but for one match) and yet to justify his high outlay. Saka is a young player. Beyond that our options are Martinelli and nelson almost as equally young. Why we put ourselves… Read more »
We re doomed and I’m done w Emery. On paper, we have one of the strongest squad in the PL but on the pitch, we are playing like Sunday football. With a squad tt feat players like auba, laca, ozil etc, this is definitely not acceptable and not the kind of situation we should be in. Imagine if we don’t have these players anymore and Emery is still charge, idk how low we will even get. Least I know during Arsene era when someone leaves the club, another gem will somehow step up and take over. I’m not convinced if… Read more »
When is this CLOWN leaving and plz take Mustafi and shaka with you.
Has lost the dressing room it’s time 2 go, if we gonna lose let’s lose with a young coach. Bring in ARTETA. Wenger told us long time he was ready.
It’s especially not easy when you’ve got three rookies in the front line, you short yourself a midfielder, and no creative players anywhere on the pitch.
Once again it seems like he’s relying on our left back to be the driving creative force for the squad.
“Emery: It’s not easy creating chances against organised Vitoria” This doesn’t stand up to much scrutiny. They are 5th in the Portuguese league at the moment. They are also rock bottom of our Europa league group F with a single point (that we gifted them today). Clearly literally every other team can create chances against them. If we had a coherent attacking plan, we would have created chances, instead we are explicitly set up to fail, with a first shot on target in the 80th minute and no passes in their box for the entire first half. It may not… Read more »
Did he wake up.thinking he was george graham and wanted 1-0 to the Arsenal he wouldnt wipe George’s backside.
I remember those days of
“Why are we playing 3 centre halves today”
“Because the other 2 are injured or we’d play them too!”
We went from crisis to farce to now which actually is just sad. I pity Emery at this point. End this.
Alright guys, I am trying to calm myself by pretending it could be Mourinho.
“I set the team up to win 5-0. That we couldn’t is the players’ fault.”
Memo to Emery: it’s not easy for us to create chances period.
Organised’s got nothing to do with it.
?
I wouldn’t have an issue with the manager if I could understand a thing he mumbles at press conferences… I used to love Wenger interviews, he was a clever guy and you were always interested in what he had to say…. but this guy just annoys me… and his responses are painful… and his body language pitch side during the games is shocking… he resembles a turtle ducking his head in to a shell…. and then he hides away… and this whole telling the team when to press at certain times in the game…. wtf we should try pressing the… Read more »