Arsenal conceded in the last five minutes of the first half for the eighth time this season, going down 1-0 to BATE Borisov in a dismal Europa League defeat.
The Gunners missed good chances early on, but things got worse and worse, and we finished the game with 10 men after Alexandre Lacazette was sent off for catching an opponent with a flailing arm.
It was, frankly, an awful result – and it means we’ll have to take the second leg very seriously next week.
Read the BATE Borisov 1-0 Arsenal match report and see the goals here
Here’s how the players rated tonight.
Ratings
The ratings are now hidden by default until you vote, but if you just want to view the ratings and the comments, flick the switch at the top above Bernd Leno. Also, give the ratings a few seconds to load.
This team needs a kick in the arse. It need some fresh, different ideas. The players need it, the fans need it. Whatever Emery is trying to do, it’s clearly not working right now, so why not try something else? I would suggest chucking Ozil in game in game out, just for the hell of it, but we all know it isn’t going to happen. Bring back the back four, even if it means Licht or Jenko or AMN on the right. Do something! But I’m afraid we’re past the point of no return with Unai… I’m sure the players… Read more »
What does past the point of no return mean? You mean he’s finished at the club?
I don’t know about that… I simply meant that the man is set in his ways, and we’re probably past the point where we can hope to see some meaningful changes.
Tim – it took 20 years for that as a review of Wenger, UE has done it in 20 games..
Not that he’s finished at the club. But what is Emery doing?
Seems to me the magic has totally worn off. He gets no benefit of the doubt. Harshly criticized and rightly so IMHO.
The ice just got a lot thinner under emery.
Raul is got that Barca mindset. Managers are not untouchable. If Emery keeps up with these insipid displays, effed up lineups, and poor tactical decisions, he’s history.
And to be clear, I hope that is not the case and it does not happen.
But losing to BATE … ? Its another humiliation.
Are these insipid displays Emery or just the calibre of our team? Prove me wrong but all season long the best we’ve had to say about our performances is “well we managed to win”. I think we’ve had maybe two games all season that were genuine class, Liverpool at home and Spurs, we’ve been average to poor for the rest. Either you want to posit that Emery is so clueless as to not recognise that, or that he simply has accepted he hasn’t got the personnel to AND win AND play good football. Clearly he’s priotised function over form, and… Read more »
Calibre? So, now the players we have got are worse than Bate??!! This team is not even good for Europa league??!! I don’t think so. Emery was supposed to have been thorough about his analysis of players during the interview and I don’t see it here, you can’t just overhaul an entire team everytime a manager changes in modern football. Manager also needs to adapt and change like Pep, who hasn’t just frozen Sterling out but is playing through wings too though he’s got David Silva who’s good at picking gaps & short passes and with KDB who’s good at… Read more »
That doesn’t mean player for player we are worse than Bate, but it’s evidence to suggest (along with the rest of the season so far) that the players we’re relying on to play whatever style you want to call this, are simply not good enough to do so convincingly, or at all on too many occasions.
I never bought in to his program. I saw it isn’t going to work a long time ago and I was criticized for it. I said most fans will want Emery out by next Christmas but my prediction seem to be coming good sooner
we could lose 20 matches straight and kronke will not get rid of emery because it’ll be too expensive. Emery is here to stay until his contract ends at least. and to be fair we are just outside the top 4, although that probably has more to do with jose sucking at man u and Chelsea not replacing costa. I can’t stand the back 3 or marginalizing ozil and ramsey to the point where we have no creative fire other than overlaps on the left. But even if we are in the champs league next season we won’t spend enough… Read more »
Agreed..and add to that list a really top class centre midfielder to replace the waste of space that is Xhaka
Have to agree.
I’m starting to lose faith in Emery, and I hate saying that.
And WTF does dennis suarez do? Why did we grab him is he …um, doesn’t really do anything?
Woefully uncreative. Ozil has to play. This is ridiculous.
How many minutes has poor Dennis Suarez played for Arsenal for you to dismiss him altogether?
I don’t think anyone is outright dismissing him, but for a Barca player to look this poor in his first couple appearances is slightly worrying…
To throw him on unprepared like that with some of the other options we have is even more so. Especially v Huddersfield.
Emery’s formation at Seville utilised wingers.
He is trying to impose that formation into Arsenal
Trouble is, he does not seem to realise that we have no wingers!
I look at Spurs and now see Arsenal are just a team of also rans…
0/10 to Özil for not being able to take all the negativity instead of our beloved coach and incompetent board
I’m frustrated. Arsenal are bunch of fools, no apologies. The coach has no brain. He has so many issues.
It’s better to let him go before he runs the club.
Chelsea got trashed 6-0 by City, Man U far below PSG in quality (by Wenger lol), Dortmund trashed by Spurs. All these coaches must be sacked then.
I’ll say it again. Face it, we have a shit manager. The club got it wrong when Arsene left. Just grin and bear it, stiff upper lip and all that. This dude will be gone in less than 18 months and we can try again.
So no difference in class between Bate, City, United and Spurs?
What are you smoking!
What can you tell about a manager who build up his team around a half-baked 19 years old kid?
I was amongst the first to severely criticize Unai Emery. Many disliked what I had to say. But the evidence is adding up match after match. This manager is too negative and too creativity-hating for our club.
Does anybody really want to read an “I told you so” right now? I don’t..
I would not have had to say “I told you so” if people had not abused me for my criticism of Unai Emery in the first place.
I posted exactly this ages ago and took a lot of stick for it…
Some of you are only just realising just how much damage Wenger was allowed to inflict on the club.
It was because Wenger played his second team last year at BATE and thrashed them that we were so overconfident that our first-choice players could beat them this year. Wenger out!
Emery doesn’t like Ozil and Suarez looks the same style player as Ozil but a bit more lightweight. Makes sense.
Suarez obviously nearly the same player Type…but i doubt His talent
Disgusting. We’ll make it to the next round but I CAN’T TAKE THAT KINDA FOOTBALL ANY LONGER!!
If the manager persists with seven or eight defensive players, no decent midfield and strikers playing as midfielders we may not make it to the next round. This football is predictable, fucking horrible, and easy to beat.
Yes. I’d prefer to see us lose with some kids playing in the positions we need to improve in than this.
Mind you, he’d get criticised for doing that too.
Why will make it to the next round?? We are incapable of keeping a clean sheet, so you are confident we will score 3 goals at least at home? I’m not
Is Ozil worse than Suarez?
No. Sanchez is a twat and past his best.
Looks like Özils younger Form…but doubt same talent
Sorry, misread Suarez for Sanchez.
Downvoting myself!
No
Suarez is not a good player. Emery is just favouring him because he is Spanish!
Raul is spanish too and Sanchez played at Sevilla. Too. Mafia.
Ok, Suarez…
At Suarez’s age (25), Özil had already achieved much much more… world champion, for example.
Hmmmm.
Here we are in our second year out of the CL and watching spuds beat Dortmund while we can’t safely event dispatch a team like Bate.
Heart breaking isn’t it. I’m glad I had to work late today and got to miss that shit. Feels like were are actually going backwards as the season goes on.
It hurts doesnt it?
They can beat a top-of-the table Bundesliga side, yet we go and lose to a side from Belarus?
I, like almost everyone, have been left scratching my head at some of the decisions that are continually being made on the pitch by Emery.
I’ve been left scratching my head at the decisions made both On the pitch and Outside the pitch…this is the darkest timeline indeed
I hate 3 at the back , i don’t like Emery’s tactics , i don’t like Iwobi how he plays or Xakha or Kolasinac or or or…. i don’t like the situation with Ozil.. I hate because Ramsey have to go …. We have so many problems ,and every time we lost i’m angry and disappointed ,more disappointed when you lost with teams like BATE… But after all that shit i love Arsenal,and wherever is going to happened im behind the team… btw “we can take some positive from this game”
Vfb…My sentiments exactly. Been saying it for weeks. Emery is a very negative manager with tactics, treatment of players that isn’t working. He’s also looking more and more like Nosferatu on the sidelines. I have never seen the team play this uncreatively, this predictable, this abysmal. It’s embarrassing. I felt in my heart a gaping hole left by the departure of Arsene Wenger who loved this club and I feel an even bigger disconnect now. I don’t think Emery is right for this club.
Hey, iwobi is okay. He’s not paid 350k/w, so here ok. He can play shit every week cause. He’s not paid 350k/w.
Iwobi was literally our only decent attacking outlet all game. Strange to pick him out for critiscism
Your prejudice is showing. All this hating on Iwobi just doesn’t make sense at all, especially while leaving out senior players from criticism. No one else in the team plays the ball forward as he does. Yes, it doesn’t work out all the time and it shouldn’t.
This was terrible to watch. Feel sorry for the Gooners who made the trip. Agree with Blogs on Emery. That was one of these games after which I find it really hard to get what he was trying to do. With performances like this we surely won’t end up in the top 4 neither will we be anywhere near to winning the EL. Really worrying.
Well done Unai Emery.
He is making Wenger of last season look like a top class manager.
Some said we would miss Wenger.
I think they are right….
I just want a manager who doesn’t stubbornly do the same shit game after game when it clearly doesn’t work, and then gets inevitably sacked. They do get paid many millions after all, so surely it’s not too much to ask?
Ozil is apparently very well liked in the dressing room and clearly hugely admired and respected by his fellow professionals. It must be hard when your manager drops the most naturally gifted player in the squad. I think the squad have lost faith in him bit like United players did with mourinho over Pogba issue.
I think you might even be too soft on some ratings. Before the game had even started I was wondering wtf is Emery doing and still can’t help but think that some (most?) players underperformed even taking that into account. Xhaka was slated numerous times for being careless with posession in our own half and Guendouzi today was a resemblance of Granit’s worst performances. The only good thing I recall Mkhi doing was one solid cross late into the game. Iwobi had bad and then had worse passes and just kept running into yellow shirts all night long. Even so,… Read more »
Dismal indeed. How far we’ve dropped since last year when we beat this lot 10-2. At times the team looked like they’d never played together before.
Bloody Awful Team Effort (BATE)
Bollocks Arsenal Team Embarrassed
Has anyone said #wengerin yet?
Every day I’m…
Shuffling?
Farting?
Honest question. If they offered right now to sack emery and have Arsene back untill the end of next year would you take the deal? I would. Quickly.
Maybe Ramsey would even terminate his agreement with Juventus…lol
No.
But if they offered to sack Raul, bring Wenger in as Head of Football (never had issues with his overall philosophy, my issues were as a coach he was now past it), bring Sven back but as Technical Director, and a young and promising/progressive manager like Niggelsmann, then I’d be all up for it.
May I ask a genuine question? Does anyone else watch Arsenal when they play like this with mixed feelings? I speak as an eternal optimist and yet there is part of me who wants Arsenal to turn it around, and another (large) part of me which wants to see them get utterly humiliated. I don’t even know why I have such sadistic thoughts. I feel nothing but complete contempt for everyone at the club currently (including some of our fans). It’s horrible to feel like this.
I get what your saying though I never want us to lose or be humiliated or for us to be the laughing stock of football, no chance. For me it’s all because of what happened to Arsene Wenger,. For such a good man to be turned on by the club and a lot of the fans, mocked, taunted and then not turn up was unforgivable. Yes he had his faults but the man loved us more than anything and like all fans, he cared. When Arsene went the class went too and now we’re just any other team.
Er, no. Humiliation for our club = not good.
Sadly, humiliation and ruin might be the only path out from under Kroenke.
I’m realizing that we have players in our starting lineup that probably shouldn’t even be wearing an Arsenal shirt. Sadly it’s more than one. I don’t care how wrong the tactics were tonight, we should have enough quality to beat a pretty poor Russian team that hasn’t had a competitive game in two months. Embarrassing.
Belorussian 😉
Please, respect them, BATE is not a russian team.
Yep, we’re chasing it late on, so we push Laca, Auba, and Mkhi out to the wings and put Denis Suarez in the middle.
You couldn’t make this shit up if you tried.
There is such a thing like stupid tactics and that sums it up ?
You can see Laca getting more frustrated each game and dropping deeper and deeper to get the ball as no-one is capable of giving it to him up front.
The sole play of play inside full back and cut it back has been so obvious for weeks. Bate in close season hadn’t sussed that at first but didn’t take long to sort. Every PL team knows it already so we have no ploy at all to get 4th.
Piss poor piss poor piss poor piss poor piss poor piss poor repeat….
Wenger in?
Do the old Jardim trick
I think when we have poor games like tonight instead of number ratings we should just call each one of our players a twat and be done with it.
I’ve suffered with Arsenal before. Even under Wenger, we’ve had terrible games. We’ve got turned over by big, small opposition alike. But I still watched and enjoyed things almost coming together on the pitch with combination plays or just enjoyed watching the game of 1-2 players. Now, I have no excitement to watch the game. Any little excitement gets beaten about by the time the line-ups come out. There is literally not one player that I could enjoy watching in this team. This seems like the MAGA campaign for Arsenal where all conservative elements are feeding into each other. From… Read more »
More so like Brexit, fools feeding on misinformation and delusions of past history to kick themselves in the foot.
well, kronke is a massive Trump supporter. he donated millions to Trimp’s inaugural.
Well at least Mustafi was not our most frustrating effort – it was a Team Effort.
Anyway it was strange – like the team lacked concentration and will, so man mindless passes and kicks. I really think a Jenko could have impacted just with will.
And to add up, we have four top players, two didn’t play and just one started. And he is not starting the next one. If they want to qualify for CL, they really have decisions to make.
Fuck, who could have guessed some shitty team would manage to put a goal or two past us? You can’t play conservative football with a team incapable of keeping a clean sheet.
We’re playing shit football, we’re treating our players in a way that’s looking increasingly like pound shop season 3 Maureen behaviour, we have no discernible plan for building a squad, and our owners are cunts.
Sp*rs spanked Dortmund in the big boy’s league and we’re getting done over by BATE Borisov in the remedial league, we’re way off the pace and going backwards. Sort it out.
Emeryville 0 out
Winterslag in the 80s, Borisov today. Plus ca change.
can’t really blame Emery for the loss, come on folks this is BATE we’re taking about should have easily won this even with a B squad … on the other hand Emery should have anticipated BATE would be defending for most of the game added more creativity to the mid by starting Suarez at least and Auba and Laca up front, also i don’t get his obsession with Gendouzi and starting him every game, he more of an off the bench guy that you add when we’re defending the lead
On the evidence Suarez is the LAST thing we needed from the start in this match. He’s not up to it yet.
Tactics and formations matter, or what’s the point of a coach? Even the best 11 players in the world will lose to a well coached team with good tactics. It’s not all down to the players.
Emery should not line up with 3 center backs. He should have line up something like this.
………….Cech
AMN…Kosc…Monr…Kola
…..Elne…Torr…Mhki
Suar……..Laca……..Auba
or
same gk and defense
…………..Torr
…..Elne…………Suar
…………..Mhki
……Laca……….Auba/nkeita
I will put another poor performance on the side because I will get in trouble again for picking on Emery but I must mention his bad man management. Again. Why we were going in the game with full first team? Why not giving Nketiah a chance for example. He is thinking am I even the future of the club if the coach doesn’t trust me in this games. The same is with Elneny. Why Guendouzi played again who has the most gamed this season. Give him a rest. Aubameyang was sick and he takes him with him in this cold… Read more »
Also, why Emery sent Smith Rowe on loan for f#$$’$ sake? The kid was making a difference too. Reminds me of De Bruyne. It’s a shame.
Emery’s rating — minus infinity/10. What a plonker.
In reality, our back threes are back fives, as they are complimented with defensive wingers in midfield. I think this setup was wrong, and it contributed to Arsenal’s toothlessness going forward. I would have played 4-3-3 with a more offensive midfield, maybe Suarez from the start (but again, I am a genial manager). No player was really awful, but cooperation did not happen Iwobi played and played in the first half, Guendouzi in the second. They typically pulled 3-4 defenders towards them when they got inside the box. This is the perfect moment to play the ball to a team… Read more »
Aubameyang started on the bench
God I miss Welbz
I miss Smith Rowe
I miss Ozil.
I think Emery is so disconcerted by our dire defensive efforts that he’s trying to pack the maximum number of defensive players in our lineups the way Arsene would add attacking midfielders. When we win I don’t care who plays what. When we lose by being dour………… that makes us a Mourinho team.
Recently I’ve started to engage in magical thinking/dreaming. I dream of Mourinho managing ManU and Chelsea at the same time and Emery deserting us for Spurs after Pochettino leaves for Real. Jurgen goes on tour as Metallica’s manager. Arsenal then hire Julian Nagelsmann as Manager and replace Raul with Ralph Ragnald. He, in turn, rehires Sven.
These thoughts are what I’m left with. Should I seek professional help?
It really is hard to watch what is happening with this club that I love. Unai is not a uniter but a divider. Letting Ramsey go, loaning out Smith Rowe, acting like Ozil doesn’t exist, insisting on starting Iwobi every game, Suarez?? The way this team plays is so sad and uninspiring. This is what happens when a team lose their identity. At least with Wenger, you root for him because he’s given so much to the club. With this guy everything is so unpleasant. From the way he’s calling out the players publicly, bigging up other teams while diminishing… Read more »
To make it short….We’re rubbish
I’ve mentioned this before We have 12 matches left in the PL. I think the form we are in we will be lucky to hold onto 6th place. I feel Chelsea and ManU don’t have an easier schedule but better overall talent that is actually being used and a clear identity even with their struggles this season. We are definitely lost on the pitch with no confidence from the manager or players. Wolves have a clear idea what they are doing and gaining confidence. We went with sr team and lost to Bate. It would have been ideal to have… Read more »
Everyone who played in this game and lost to the part-time tractor operators gets a 1 out of 10, the lowest possible rating, from me.
Doesn’t matter what formation is used, even if it’s a 10-0-0, this team should not lose this matchup. Everyone who played needs to look in the mirror and do whatever it takes to make sure this doesn’t happen again.
Emery is not excepted, he isn’t available for ratings here, but he gets a 1 out of 10 for this disgrace as well.
Suarez is going to have to do something outrageous to convince any of us. A month spent on trying to get him to the club, and only to sit on the bench taking someone who is much much much more talented place. Reminds me of the Joel Campbell transfer saga, what was the point? Next: How have we lost Mislintat? Why didn’t we get a manager to work with someone of that talent? Was Emery asked of his plans for Ozil, and if he can work with someone like Mislintat? We’ve been lied to about so much. It’s starting to… Read more »
The Mislintat question is key in my opinion. Why did such a vital cog to the new machinery up and leave in such short time? Complain all we want about player this or that but him leaving really is not a good sign.
I rate Emery, I think he’s being written off way too soon, and I feel the problems we have go much deeper and far beyond him and his abilities. There’s a real sense of decline in the air about this club mow and there shouldn’t be.
Why?
Guys, l know you hate Mustafi, but 4? Really? Make some sense!
What’s the point of watching arsenal these past few years?
Lacazettes rc is akin to someone defending himself from attack/murder. He lashes out in self defence at the perpetrator and is punished/jailed. The latter gets away scot free because the prosecutor/referee says the latter has done nothing wrong. Football is full of thugs who are getting away with murder.The football authorities should clamp down on these guys. In this case with his two hands around our striker, the ref shd have blown and given the thug a rc. Lacazette was naive to fall into his trap. Hope fully justice will even itself in the 2nd leg and hit Bate with… Read more »
Thank goodness he keeps on not playing ozil. we are obviously so much better at crafting chances with him not in the team. and thank goodness we’re getting rid of Ramsey because we are so creative without him.
Emery isn’t the guy. We all know it. We’re screwed.
Talent is there. We lack a spine. Too many pictures of the guys smiling during practice and showing off their new kits. Ozil and Ramsey should pay Guendouzi millions for how much more work he has done. He is young and makes mistakes but at least he gives effort. Boys need to grow a set and get somw results. Losing to this team with talent on the field is criminal.
Ljungberg and the reserves would have beaten that bate side,its getting embarrassing and difficult to watch this team play football including the manager with his decisions
Truth: UE is just Raul’s water carrier. He doesn’t even play his own favorites. He plays Raul’s. Might be a decent 3-5 year strategy, but we’re f**ked, and UE will be thrown under the bus when it suits Raul.
UE needs to grow a pair, and put out teams to win now — or live on borrowed time, carrying someone else’s water.
‘flick the switch at the top above Bernd Leno’
Should be Cech ?
Can’t believe the emryout is already trending here. Been the huge Wenger fan myself. I would like to remind everyone it’s the same lot who performed miserably last season. This season we had some good results against top 6 as compared to been hopeless last season. Don’t jump on gun for calling Emery out. This squad needs major overhaul. Regarding team selection and his approach. A quick look at our midfielders and problem is glaring. Apart from Ozil n Ramsey rest all defensive minded midfielders. And for Suarez there was reason that buyout clause was sticking point. Ramsey on this… Read more »
Fucken shit
i’m all for giving the man a chance but where is the progression?
it’s all looking a bit Bruce Riochish…. weird to say as we’re in the hunt for 4th and still in the europa but then again BR also took us back into the UEFA cup in his season as well.
If its like Rioch, does that mean the next manager will make Arsenal great again?
Rioch did sign Dennis, so there’s that
That was shit but I am reserving judgement on Emery until next season. Our squad is bang average. Let’s see what he can do with 2-3 higher quality players ( if he can get them)
Well that was a shambles.
I guess it happens, but in this case it really shouldn’t have. I’m struggling to figure what we’re trying to do out there playing-wise.
Mustafi watch : blatantly he cost us the league. He wasn’t there for BHA Soton West Ham. No major mistakes against Bate but it’s his fault. At least blogs has a more accurate scoring of his performance this time round. More than I can say fir many people. We let in a goal and it happens. The bigger question 8s where were our goals? There’s a distinct lack of fluency at the moment. Maybe we need to play Auba and lack or maybe we need Ozil in the mix but the chemistry has not been there. This time round we… Read more »
Seriously I avoiding looking at the football blogs after that game as it was just way too depressing!!! Against bate he should have gone with an attacking 3-5-1-1 NOT the defensive 5-2-3!!! I would have gone with, based on personnel available, mustafi-kos-monreal in defence, miki-guendouzi-torreira-xhaka-iwobi in midfield/wing and laca-auba up front!!!