Dear God, by the powers of Paisley, may justice be done...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzKcNevWbO4

Must have been my one. Due to fly at 7.00 am, was told it had been changed to 9.15 am and it eventually left Stansted at 9.45 am. Not a good start to the day but after watching the game, things got far worse.

I'll comment on the game later.

That is right. I've never seen a stadium where the spectators, even those in the first row, are so far from the pitch.

That was a shambles wasnt it.
Torn apart in the 2nd half when i thought we had a real chance.
If we get that penalty then maybe its a different game.
Couldnt watch it to the end.
Still fuming how we proceeded to *%^@ up top 4
BEAT BRIGHTON OR PALACE AND WE FINISH 4TH AT LEAST
Infuriating how we just fell to pieces.
Has to be an overhaul in the summer
Lets see Willock Eddie and Nelson and Saka introduced.
Let's PLEASE get rid of Özil Mustafi and Mlki.
Ill be made up if that can happen. Get them out the club by any means possible.
Lets see some savvy buys.
Get some proper defenders who dont need to cost the earth.
Lower premier league like Mee or Taworiski at burnley or duffy at Brighton or someone like saliba at st ettienne. Someone young or upcoming before they become a household name. We need to be smarter.
Really needs to be decisive action in the summer to give us half a chance.
Doom and gloom at the moment.

You know how bad we are defensively when watching a game and you start thinking we wouldn't be any worse with Mustafi. And then when your thoughts go from that position to thinking we'd probably be better off with Mustafi, it says it all.

I'm going to be respectful towards Koscielny as he was once a fine player. But age and injury has not just caught up with him, it's overtaken him. I hope that was his last game for the club. He's now not even up to a squad back-up level.

The big difference is that when Klopp joined Liverpool there was a clear direction in how they wanted to play. Including individuals being improved almost immediately. I recall chatting with a scouser at the time and agreeing that the results weren't great but there were signs of progress. I don't think Emery gets a free pass, particularly when results and player performances have gotten worse over time, not better. The rest of what you said I agree with.

The point you are missing in your staunch "I love Emery " scenario .... is we got worse as the season progressed .

Both Holding and Bellerin had plenty of flaky moments so don't see how their absence was why we couldn't get more than one point when faced with Brighton , Wolves , Palace , Everton and Leicester .

I think Bernard ..... you'd be better off doing a little travel blog , make something up ...the good looking sheila who sat on your lap because of a seat shortage , food , conditions , climate , impressions of Baku .

Every bloke and his dog knows how the game went .

You could have got in for free.

The Times today is reporting that the local authorities ordered the turnstiles to be opened during the first half so that the stadium wouldn’t look so empty. And they were giving out team flags so I guess that it was predetermined. UEFA not impressed although they are the idiots who caused it all to happen in the first place.

The jury’s still out on Emery for me it’s not a love affair. However I think fans simply screaming for a new manager are akin to brexiteers screaming for a No deal.

This stuff is getting forced on Emery and Stevie Wonder could see it.

Because of Kolasinac and Mustafi Emery has to play 5 at the back even though he hates it.

NOT EMERYS FAULT

The club pay 500 grand a week for Mhikitaryan and Özil to pretend to jog around each week

NOT EMERYS FAULT OR HIS CHOICE

Over the course of the season we lost Bellerin, Holding, Welbeck and Ramsey to major injuries. Meaning as a season progressed he had to rely more and more on people he couldn’t trust.

NOT EMERYS FAULT

Are people just blind. A major overhaul of the first team squad is required. If Guardiola arrived tomorrow he spends 6 months looking at his current players before telling the board he needs 3 defenders, 2 midfielders and 2 wingers.

This stuff is beyond the pros and cons of any individual manager to resolve and the crayon eating helmets who think otherwise really would be better suited to supporting chelsea

Amy Lawrence with a good piece about Özil:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2019/may/30/mesut-ozil-unai-emery-arsenal-europa-league-final

....some wags on the internet have started to call Emery “Bruce Rioja”

That's a standout line from a great article. Amy Lawrence understands it so well.

I make you right about Holding. I think it was DHD who a while back said words to the effect that he's not quite as good as his reputation suggests. If it wasn't DHD apologies to him. I agree with whoever did say it though. He's alright, quite good.

But the idea that he's going to be great, sorry I just don't see it. He's around the level of Sokratis. Both good back-ups to top level central defenders (which neither Holding or Sokratis are).

I did say that Bernard. There's always a temptation to see those who aren't playing as saviours, largely because by their absence, they aren't tainted by the mediocrity of the current team. Unhindered by failings, their reputations grow illogically and indeed irrationally. The longer they've been out, the better they become.

The thing is I think there aren’t many people being irrational about Holding.

Most would suggest right now he’s a 7/10 type centre half with potential to be better however as Bernard pointed out at the end of the day he is our 2nd best Central defender after Sokratis and was keeping Mustafi out of the team.

So remove our 2nd best centre back from the side, our first choice right back too and consider we started the season without an adequate left back and the whole thing is a recipe for disaster. It defined our season

Holding isn't a 7/10 centre back though. He's a kid who has never anything like an impressive run of games. He wasn't in Emery 's defence at the start of the season. Sure, he has potential but that's all it is at the moment.

Also, Emery isn't forced into playing a back 5. We've switched between back 4 and back 5 all season and been shite with both. Personally, I thought the team was better with 4 because we had better control of midfield.

Let's not forget that he didn't have Ramsey as first choice in his team for months too.

He played 16 times before doing his cruciate on December 5th and 26 times the previous season.

In his breakthrough season he played 18 times and I’m sorry DID Impress as we wouldn’t have been jokingly singing he’s better than Cannarvo. So sorry you are wrong, he would have chalked up a large number of appearances this season and the best return so far. Baresi he’s not but he was having a good season and was starting to impress when he got injured.

Ramsey was poor until he signed his Juve contract then the pressure was off. Emery was right to use him sparingly as he was right in “spiritually” dropping Özil.

Emery had flirted in between 4 and 5 but only really after the injuries hit. Anyone saying he prefers 5 defenders is ignoring he’s always played with 4 in his career.

If you try and mould a turd into a different shape it still stinks of shite and I think that happened a lot in the last few months of the season.

Spoke to someone high up in the AST at half-time as he was a few rows in front of me. I asked him if he knew whether Kroenke had bothered going to the game. He said he hadn't, and nor had Josh.

He claimed to know someone in regular contact with Josh, and had asked him how interested he was in Arsenal. He was told that Josh has a bit more interest than his father. But having a bit more interest than 'none whatsoever' doesn't add up to much. Anyone who thinks the KSE ownership regime will improve for the club once Stan kicks the bucket is probably being naive.

8 out of 10 season for the moderators for me.

I’m not convinced yet. Jury’s still out. They aren’t Elite

I’m minded to agree with TG. I like Holding - mostly because I get excited by any CB we have who’s faster than Xhaka and over 6 foot, by I know he’s not the stand out Centre half we want. I would rate his performances as adequate at worst and solid to good at best, which is a huge option to lose. Lots of players have been up and down all season so we can’t say he’d definitely have been a saviour, but he was undoubtedly first choice and doing well when he got injured.

Cant see it’d be anything but foolhardy to get rid of Emery now. I’d keep him for now and build the rest of the club back up as best we can - settle the back room staff, get the young players some games, try to get Özil et al off the wage bill, then see how we do over the season and make a change next May if he’s shown no improvement.

And also this, yes, if Pep’s the best manager in the world, what’s he doing with this squad and the players we’ve lost? A big zero as far as I can see. Even with his signings he had to buy again because they didn’t work first time round.

Also weirdly LB is probably the biggest hole in our squad right now, injuries notwithstanding.

Things, in isolation, I’m looking forward to next season - although maybe I’ve been Stockholmed:

Torreira’s second season - If he can get some consistently around him and maintain the level he started at for a bit longer he’s still a fantastic prospect

Nelson playing some games - hopefully some actual pace and confidence to try something out wide - but really just want to see how he matches up to his reputation coming through the academy.

Guendouzis second season - he lacked pace, end product and physicality under pressure but I was trying to work out what his actual strengths are and he does use the ball really well and if I could bottle his confidence and inject it into the rest of the squad I would. He does that deep through ball with perfect pace on the pass. He’ll be developing his physicality and hopefully add some end product into his game. And increasing his value so there’s that also.

Think that’s about it. Minor nods to Nketiah and Saka getting some playing time, personably I think Nketiah looks sharp and a goal threat, and Saka I just wish we’d seen more of. Bielik being in the squad - mostly because he’s huge and did well on loan which is what was asked of him. Chambers adding a body or if we sell him some money.

Think that’s it, which is pretty sparse. I feel much much better having read everyone’s moans over the last couple of days. Please continue to vent your spleen, it does my brain good. Looking forward to Bernard’s match report.

Neither Kroenke could be bothered to attend. What have we become?

Absolutely, let’s not forget he dropped Aguero for a long while after he joined. Totally nuts. The idea he rocks up at arsenal and all of a sudden Mustafi, kolasinac and Xhaka turn into world beaters is fanciful. Totally wizard of oz type imaginary

Also it’s missing the key point which is that no major type manager is going to want to join us anyway. The whole job is a hiding to nothing. It’s as close to the England managers job as you can get right now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzKcNevWbO4[/quote

"So that now is six - nil. And this is becoming a rout."

Now, now commentator, no need to go overboard...

Josh was there. But no media mention of it. Really strange.

Stan Kroenke's son, Josh, was among Arsenal's travelling party but the owner himself was nowhere to be seen. 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.footba ... 351965.amp

I like Holding too ... nice fresh faced kid , English , has potential ..... but only a "crayon eating helmet " would put him and Bellerin forward as the reason we f****cked up Champions league qualification .

I'm not calling for Emery to sacked I'm just throwing my ten cents worth in and musing I don't think a hell of a lot will change .

He hasn't adressed my two favourite bugbears.... attack at pace and size .

and DHD mentioned this and I've said it before also .... this comical take on things .......select any player who was / is injured and give it the "Oh we couldn't beat Brighton because Welbeck and Ramsay were injured .

This just in....

https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozania ... zarre/amp/

2 points

Aubas pen

Or the 2 defensive losses. Holding or Mustafi againest palace for that defensive masterclass from our kaiser

Given our transfer budget is barely going to scratch the surface of what we require it would seem a bit pointless to sign any player over the age of say 26. By the time we’ve cobbled together a decent team players like Aubameyang, Sokratis etc won’t be around.

We should be buying U23 players only. If our budget is going to be £40m odd for the foreseeable then you’re looking at 2 decent young players per window. Our squad will need at least 3-4 years at that rate so anyone over a certain age is slightly pointless as they’ll just need replacing pretty quickly.

The best move Arsenal can make this summer is getting rid of Özil. His wages are totally crippling us. We’re actually losing some pretty high earners but Özil, Mkhitaryan, Aubameyang are probably the 3 players whose wages are miles to high for our current standing in the game.

Really? I remember far worse and I remember far more unwatchable football.

A few reports starting to surface that Sarri is leaving Chelsea. May want the Juventus job. Makes Abravich decision easy to get rid of him. I don’t think they regard this as a successful season.

Perhaps someone could enlighten me.......if, hypothetically speaking, Kroenke was to give us £200m to spend could we actually spend it without falling foul of FFP and PL rules?

If you can only spend the money you make as a football club then is it actually possible for these Arabs to come in and start throwing money around at Newcastle a la the early days at Chelsea and City?

I am struggling to understand how lower table clubs are outspending us, given these restrictions, or is it the PL wages rules which are the real source of our woes and not FFP?

Hi Soc

I think this is more about the narrative than the reality. The reality is that only Liverpool and the Manchester clubs (maybe Chelsea) are out-spending us. We spent £70m last summer on the back of a year in which we had bought two £50m strikers.

In terms of playing staff from 86 onwards. Yes absolutely.

In George’s last days we played some godawful football but we had better players than we do now

In Riochs time we had better players than we do now.

In Arsene s first ten years we did too

So yep

If Kroenke wanted to pump 100 million into the club way to do it is that KSE could assume the role of paying the stadium debt off freeing up more cash. I believe this doesn’t harm us for FFP stuff and all the infrastructure City built would suggest this.

Hypothetical anyway as he won’t do it, he’s a gurning div faced wrong un from hell who deserves a healthy dose of the crabs.

Can a dose of the crabs be healthy? (asking for a friend)

All Depends on the type of crab you get. If you get the type from the seafood stall at the end of petticoat lane then it’s fine.

The type I wish on the syrup wearing helmet is the type that can be caught at The Griffin on clerkenwell road.

Sad news just breaking, Jose Antonio Reyes has been killed in a car crash aged 35.

RIP.