Subs have helped change the game

Your link almost worked for me but just kept freezing after it finally loaded! Oh well, can't win 'em all but at least it looks like we will win today! Hope all is well with you and thanks for trying with that link!

7 wins in a row. Another clean sheet.

Watford are a good side, they have and will cause big teams problems.
Rode our luck with some of the opportunities they created, Leno made a couple of good saves but let’s also not forget that Watford seriously rode their luck considering the nailed on pen not given and Lacazette missing a couple of easy chances.

On to the next game

Shouting for Liverpool tonight. They win and we stay one point behind Chelsea. If, if only, we'd taken the chances against Chelsea I'd have been cheering for them instead and we'd have been joint second with Liverpool.

Happy, I'm delirious. We can only get better.

Whatever way you look at it it's a tremendous response to the opening defeats.

Infectious enthusiasm! But my antibodies are stil holding fast. They've been through a lot.

Make no mistake, this was a really good win. Watford are a really good side that will cause a lot of problems for bigger teams this season and we could've easily lost this one. Thought we looked a bit more solid overall. Seven wins in a row now, without looking too impressive. That's a real strength, being able to find ways to win without playing at 100%.

That may be the first time that question has been put to the forum.

IMO, referee was very pro Watford

Ramsey looked mighty peeved when substituted. I thought he was quite anonymous throughout. There was one moment at the right flank when he hung back instead of running down the flank to receive a forward pass from Özil. Özil had to pass backwards to him, and he passed it further backwards. He certainly didn't help the quick attack strategy there. And once he held back instead of challenging for the loose ball when at the attacking end of the field. I felt he wasn't giving his all today.

I would argue that Iwobi deserves to start ahead of Ramsey right now. Iwobi probably gives the team a better balance in that he will stay wide and slow Özil to play 10

I like that we’re ticking along quietly with the wins, I like that it is a bit under the radar. The reality is that Emery should be getting a lot more credit in the media.
The early defeats, worries over playing out from the back and the Ramsey news have been easy diversions for the press to not report the good news.
Fulham, Leicester, palace can all cause us problems but they are all winnable games.
If you win home and away against everyone outside the top 6 that is 84 points. It obviously won’t happen but it is easy to see how points can be gobbled up against these teams

Big moment for Leno at 0-0. The full stretch low save from Deeney’s shot was huge today.

Anthony Taylor - one of 3 or 4 refs consistently not up to scratch for this level, because he doesn't really understand the game. We've also got PLENTY of history with him. He's another one of Mike Riley's Mancunian mates, so he was fast tracked and seldom gets demoted even with high profile cock-ups. That said, he's a better ref than he was 2 or 3 years ago, when he was showing increasingly Mike Dean 'all about me' tendancies.

Thankfully no really big calls from him today bar the penalty he should have given Lacazette who was punished for trying not to fall over.

Still, we're not playing well, but are winning the games we should win, so we can't really complain. Excellent late cameo from Iwobi helped win the game, and for the most part, his form has been very good so far this season. Every so often you seen us do things well that we didn't under Wenger, but a few moments aside it feels like any changes haven't really been embedded yet. Good to see Holding come in, and for the most part do well.

For most of his career Ramsey (who I like btw) has only really thrived when a team has been either set up to help him in terms of the partnerships within that team, or in the odd purple patches when he suddenly finds brilliant form.

The problem has been for the last 3 years that he's not quite a number 10, and is no longer really a number 8. It seems he lacks the legs for Emery's preferred approach...is this why the contract offer has been withdrawn? He's still a player capable of great moments, and at his best plays well in big games, but at present he lacks the energy he showed 3 or 4 years ago. As a home grown player, he still has immense value, but in this system the team is best with either him or Özil, and Özil is the one with the contract signed. I'd like to keep both, but I suspect we can't.

Emery for manager of the month?

Yeah, I thought Holding had an excellent game overall. I'd be tempted to play him ahead of Mustafi when Sokratis returns. We know what we're getting with Mustafi, and with Holding there's at least a possibility that he improves if he gets a run of games. He certainly has the talent.

Are the God's smiling on us? Chelsea Liverpool should end 1-1 both teams dropping 2 points is probably the best thing that could happen for us.

I’ve seen arsenal’s xG or expected goals rating was 1.44 today. I quite like the xG stat because it can show dominance in terms of chances created and can show trends for upcoming matches for example if you are scoring a lot more of a lot less than your xG you can sense it won’t be sustainable.
However, I’m sceptical how we only had a 1.44 rating. I assume Oxil’s goal would have rated very highly likely to be a goal, as would lacazettes 1on1, we also scored another or maybe og’s Don’t rank in the xG rating at all, and obviously the penalty that should have been given didn’t get any rating

As an aside for xG, lacazettes goal v Everton was given a 0.04 rating for an expected goal, as in it was only rated a 4% chance of being a goal.

I think Emery has had a good look at him and determined he’s not worth the contract they would need to pay. He was hooked at half time at Stamford bridge, has played poorly so far this season and was subbed again today. There’s simply no way he’s worth the 200k he’s asking for and I actually think we won’t miss him much. As I said the other day it will be interesting where he ends up.

Sadly west ham have been a lot better since Wilshere has been out of the team. No joy in saying that but it was definitely the right call to move him on. We still should have had a fee for him - I’d hate to add up all the missed millions over the years for players going for free or knock down fee due to contracts running down

I can’t think of many substitutions by Emery that I’ve disagreed with so far

We must be the form team at the moment. Looking at the league table for the last 5 games we're the only team with 5 wins.

Luck, ugly or whatever, we are winning and how many times have we seen Man Utd with lucky and ugly wins during our rivalry with them?
Each win no matter how we get it makes the players believe they will win no matter what, which instills belief. Something we sorely lacked and what put us in 6th. It wasn't lack of talent.

Man U are further behind us than we are from the top. That’s fun. I know it’s only 7 games in but the gap is only 4 points between us and super duper amazing shredding all before them Liverpool and “centurions” City.

But here’s a late night scary story for Bernard..

I also think to some extent we have the element of surprise. The playing around the back has made teams come and have a go which has suited our counter attack. The two losses although expected meant we were written off even more. I’ve heard quite a few times pundits list the top 4 or even top 6 and we’re an afterthought, with statements like “We don’t know what Arsenal are going to be like” or “Arsenal haven’t really got to grips with how Emery wants them to play yet” which is more generous than it could be like “Arsenal are a shambles right now and won’t challenge for X amount of time” we’re a slightly unknown quantity which means at least we aren’t a ‘soft Wenger team’ who will play exactly as people expect them to play. Do you wait for them to implode? Pack the defence, keep it tight and counter? Attack from the off? At least there’s a question mark over it which I think is quite valuable to the team right now.

more things to be positive about... 2nd clean sheet in league games this season... our goals are spread around - we already have 9 different scorers this season. Surprisingly Ramsey hasn't scored any.

I thought we would be under estimated this season. I thought pundits still looked at us as if Wenger was still there. I expected them to say we would get 6th because Emery will need time but it was simply Arsenal are no better than 6th without any deep digging analysis as to why in my humble opinion.

Coming out the gate with City and Chelsea away with a new manager and same squad basically has to be ignored. The defense is an obvious weak spot but Emery's stamp is being put on it more and more each week and he's pushing more team defense which we need till Kos comes back and we buy better defenders (note to self, must tell Mustafi to renew his passport).

I would like to see Holding being used more. Ever since he bossed that cup final against Chelsea, I thought Wenger should have built on that epic performance and was disappointed he didn't play more.

This is an interesting point. Basically your right there isn’t a status quo at the moment for anything. For example the team hierarchy Wenger imposed where he just picked his favourites all the time, do you ever think Wenger would have dragged Ramsey off at half time ? No chance !

Basically under the new management you have to perform and our set up isn’t restricted to our players opinion of themselves.

I’m really enjoying this season and I think it’s been an impressive start by Emery considering everything that has gone on. He will be desperate to keep up this form up until January when he can bring in a wide player.

Decent point

He’s scored 36 goals for us in 240appearances. He’s never been prolific although people believe otherwise.

Suggestion by the mirror Liverpool want him today

Very happy with the way we are progressing under the new man. Iwobi looks like the future and whether it is down to Emery or the fact that maybe he now has hope I don't know. I have never been a Wellbeck fan but he looks a lot sharper than a he did before. His header against Brentford was crisp - it would have come off his shoulder in the last couple of years.

Holding was good against Watford as well. Overall the team could well improve significantly.

Plus we are putting a nice little run together. All positives. The manager seems a person to be proud of. He doesn't blame refs for every problem, he is involved in the game and makes quick decisive decisions with little fanfare. The 70th minute is not the only time a substitution will be made.

For those who can see no improvement I think you have too high expectations. My view is, progress and change will take sometime but it is starting to happen. There will be many disappointments ahead but now at least I have hope again.

Kind draw in the league cup home to Blackpool. Will enable Emery to rest a few key players and give the likes of Smith-Rowe and hopefully Eddie a run out.

It's more a question of not getting overexcited by the results than high expectations. Contrary to what i was saying yesterday, I do think Emery is starting to stamp his personality on the team. In particular I really like that Emery is showing faith in Lacazette (who I think could be our key player), not to mention the likes of Xhaka, Holding, and Iwobi, and presumably the likes of Bellerin and Özil who he must feel can be restored to full capacity. The keeper situation looks healthy which is always a huge plus.

We conceding 8 goals in our first 4 league games, plus some sloppy ones in other competitions.

Hopefully conceding one goal every three games (as we have in the last 3 league games) will become the norm ...

I am going to apply some balance to this current squad. While I have been saying let's give Emery time, a lot of time, considering the circumstances and state of the squad, I want to caution fans not to be too optimistic either. Right now he's winning the games he should be winning. The next step is winning against clubs in the top 6. Or at least not losing. I'd take a draw home or away against both London and Manchester rivals right now. A win is a bit too much I think. Maybe a win against maybe Manchester United at home since they are the weakest of the bunch but even them, they get up for us.

Thanks for that.

Yes, optimism does not come naturally to Arsenal fans. If we are three up with five minutes to go I still fear the worst. When Fabianski, Senderos and Djourou were playing in the same side I needed four goals up.

When we beat a big team or two I'll get excited by this squad.

I like the fact I have hope again. But I am not thinking of a title and have doubts I will ever see us win it again in my remaining years. Just to be able to tune into a game against one of the other top teams and have some hope of a result would be good improvement for me.

Yes, optimism does not come naturally to Arsenal fans. If we are three up with five minutes to go I still fear the worst. When Fabianski, Senderos and Djourou were playing in the same side I needed four goals up.

When we beat a big team or two I'll get excited by this squad.[/quote]

I think there is going to be some twists and turns to this season. If Aubie gets injured that will likely change things for example. All I am saying is its probably wise to temper expectations. Take each game as they come and at the end of the season we should see a visible improvement in the squad, especially with belief.

I'll be happy with a change for the better in our belief. Its been sorely lacking for years. If we are fighting each match, I'll be happy no matter where we end up in the final table (within reason of course )

Right now I couldn't care less about the goals we are conceding as long as we are winning. The defense is a work in progress. Will take months to sort out.