The Gooner is suggesting if we don't get top 4 Emery might be sacked.

https://www.onlinegooner.com/articles/view/4707

Really it wouldn't surprise me and I've said all season its like the england job the blokes on a hiding.

Even if the club let him stay on if we only have 40 million to spend the transformation everyone craves won't happen. His contract is due at the end of next season anyway

After my own mini meltdown last week and in the cold light of reality, I have to have some sympathy for Emery. I mean whichever way we look at it, the injury list in that defence has been nothing short of chronic and I'd be surprised if anyone in the league has had worse. Do wonder if it has something to do with the apparently rigourous new training methods and maybe pushed some too far. I mean even Mustafi seemed to be improving earlier in the season. Attack is pretty decent so really don't know why loans weren't being chased in defence rather than mid. Özil seems to be on an exit path so maybe theyre thinking about Suarez as something more than a loan.

With a few less injuries I do wonder whether the defence would still be a calamitous as it is right now.

I think losing Bellerin, Holding and sokratis at the same time was a big blow any manager would struggle with.

The area Emery deserves to be criticised on is his recent team selections, for goodness sake drop playing 5 defenders, bring Özil back into the side at least until summer when he can be sold and try and use Mustafi and Xhaka as little as possible. I know Özil put in a bad performance againest palace and then we started dropping him but that’s when the wheels started to come off.

Can't recall who said it but someone quite recently said Arsenal could become a sacking club for managers in order for Kroenke to divert blame from himself. A sort of 'do not blame me it was down to the coach, and I've done my bit by sacking him'.

If it happened it would be a disgrace. Remember Klopp finished 6th in his first season and I remember the derision heaped on him for the defensive displays Liverpool put in.

Yes that was me. I think we could end up adopting the pre pochettino spurs model of sacking their manager every other season to deflect from our real issues

I see the arsenal blog le grove has gone to town on Emery today and #emeryout was trending on twitter yesterday. Gunnebrlog was suggesting that he’s disappointed with our fans reaction and negativity.

The Denver Kroenke Nuggets NBA team is tied for first with the Warriors, arguably one of the best basketball teams ever.

i agree but many don't see it this way.


have a read of this ... 100% idealism, totally unrealistic expectation


https://le-grove.co.uk/2019/02/04/expec ... ons-again/

I think Lichstiner has to move behind Jenkinson in the pecking order now. Every team is going to target him. I'd even rather play one of the youngsters who has some pace rather than Lichsteiner right now.

Also I think Willock should be taking Elneny's place in the squad/bench for some games now

Give Emery another season at least. If he can't improve on his first season then I think it's fair to replace him.

As for having only 40m, more Guendouzi & Torreira-like signings not a bad thing at all. These two have established themselves as our main CM pairing imo. Build the team around them plus Aubameyang & Lacazette.

Happy Chinese New Year everyone.

Loving some of Liverpool’s players and managers post match interviews.
They complained about the officials even though their goal shouldn’t have stood, it was a mile offside and they were nearly gifted a winner at the death from another offside.
Van Dijk moaned how having the same back 4 each week makes it easier for them. Liverpool have had hardly any injuries all season!
Then Klopp said he knew about West Ham’s free kick routine they equalised from but when they trained for it there were 3 different players in their team....how about tell the 3 new players about this free kick routine so they can defend it if you’ve ‘figured it out’

Liverpool are cracking under the pressure I reckon

After benefitting from one of the most blatant offside goals of the season, Klopp has the nerve to complain about the referee and suggests that he saw the goal at halftime and deliberately favoured West Ham in the second half. Back to the studio and they describe Klopp as "typically philosophical". He gets such an easy ride from the media.

Klopp should get a heavy fine for that because he’s basically saying the ref deliberately gave decisions against Liverpool. Managers cannot question refs integrity.

I don’t think I’ve seen Emery complain about a ref once yet

Huddersfield away next, they are dead and buried, 13 points from safety, just been hit for 5 by Chelsea. This should be comfortable for us IF we go with the right team selection and right tempo and attitude.

Absolutely no need to play 3 holding mids who don’t offer much in the way of goals and assists. Get the two strikers, Özil and Ramsey all on the pitch and go high press and fast tempo from the first minute

Emery's got you to do that for him Rich images/smilies/1laughter.gif

Sack Emery and replace him with who? The guy's a decent manger with a good track record. And if he has tinkered with the defence and formations lately it's cos he's running out of defenders. I'd guess his first choice back line would be Bellerin, Sok, Holding/Kos, Monreal. How often this season were all of those players available to him at the same time. Not forgetting the £90m wasted on Mustafi, Xhaka and Perez by Merci Arsene. I'm sure Emery could do a better job with half that budget.

Get Osei-Tutu in at right back on Saturday. There's only one way to find put whether a young player will sink or swim so put him in the team. Got to be better than Lichsteiner surely.

agree 100%. hear, hear Emery!

Lichsteiner was not able to deal with Sterling. To be fair, who can? He is capable against most other clubs. I'd be surprised if Huddersfield has anyone who can best him. We don't have anyone who could deal with that side of the pitch against City. Most clubs can't. Sterling has been doing that to the league all season for the most part.

We need a whole new defense and such a defense is going to cost a pretty penny. We simply aren't going to spend it. Osei-Tutu could emerge as such a player but I would guess he would have gotten toasted against City's Sterling as well.

I doubt very much if Kos and Holding were in his first choice back four when he joined the club. The injury to Bellerin is unfortunate but our defending has been terrible all season. He has alienated Özil completely and uses Ramsey as a bit-part player while Alex Iwobi gets far more game time than both despite being miles off their level.

It would be daft to sack him this early but, for me, he has not done a good job so far.

We got taken. We bought a 35 million pound bust. No one to blame but ourselves. Who ever scouted him should be looked at closely, if not sacked.

https://metro.co.uk/2019/02/05/unai-eme ... r-8448310/

https://metro.co.uk/2018/03/06/lee-dixo ... y-7367205/

It seems that Mavropanos has not been included in the club's list for the Europa League Squad for the knock-out phase.

Another seemingly bizarre decision given the quality and fitness of defenders we have at our disposal.

I don't know what to make of him Dec. All the talk was of a high intensity high pressing team but, apart from the occasional periods in games, I don't really see that.

He has made some odd team selections and tactical decisions and whilst he clearly likes an early substitution if things are not going to plan the fact that this happens all too frequently begs the question as to why we aren't getting the starting line-up or first half displays right more often.

I don't really see any huge improvements in players either.

I really expected to see some improvement defensively. When Wenger was around the mantra was that any half-decent coach willing to spend some time coaching us defensively could improve us massively very quickly. That clearly has not happened.

We seem a bit fitter judging by the amount of ground we cover but I'm not sure what else has really improved.

Bellerin, Lacazette,Holding and Xhaka have all been noticeably better this season let’s be honest.

The defence was fine until the injuries hit. It’s a bit hard to press when you have a 33 year old left back, 33 year old centre back and 35 year old right back. You think that doesn’t make a difference ? Well it does

Puts into perspective Guendouzi at £7m then.

https://metro.co.uk/2019/02/05/matteo-g ... n-8444192/

Right back is a major problem area for us, we simply have no cover for Bellerin.

The fact that we are paying 120k a week combined for both reserve right backs who aren’t good enough to play sums up the situation. I’m really not sure you can blame Emery for this. He’s one of 2 decent defenders we have in our whole squad

As soon as Hector got injured I knew we had a problem and I think it’s affecting us more than any other issue.

The defence wasn't fine before the injuries, its been shite all season. I've lost count of the gilt-edged chances we've gifted the opposition, even during the unbeaten run. We were/are playing a high line and teams were/are able to get in behind us at will. The difference in that period was that opponents weren't taking the chances whilst we had an extremely high chance conversion rate. It was only a matter of time before some of those chances began to be taken by teams and our chance conversion rate dipped a little.

If we are looking to raise some money a la Liverpool and Countinho then perhaps Guendouzi might just provide the answer. It can't be too long before the big boys start sniffing around.

Sorry I’ll rephrase the defence was “adequate” considering the personnel we have not fine.

You and I both know any manager losing his right back would struggle. City deliberately targeted that flank on Sunday. Holding and Sokratis are also missed and it also doesn’t help the full backs that we don’t have any pacy natural wingers which mean opposing full backs and wingers can pile forward without being worried they could get caught out.

Let’s be honest the whole thing is a major piss hard boner that we can’t shake off but I’m not convinced any success can be driven by ANY manager with the combination of injuries and lack of personnel we have in defence

You have to include Mustafi as a player that improved too, until his injury. He's been poor since, but was part of the defence that you describe as fine until the injuries hit.

People are being too negative about Emery in my view. A number of existing players improved under him, I forgot to mention Iwobi who started well also despite falling away, and his new players have mostly done well (Guendouzi and Torreira way better than 'well'). Lichsteiner has been the exception, but was free, 34 and a one year fill in. What did people expect? He won't be an Arsenal player next season.

My main criticism of Emery has been deciding to play five at the back when four worked better. Yet he was left an unbalanced squad with various ordinary players with little money. Do people expect miracles? Özil was put on a huge contract before Emery arrived. Maybe he could have used him better, but he clearly doesn't fancy him. I think Emery has done more good than bad. He raised team spirit.

But the main problems were there before he arrived. If Kroenke isn't going to fund big money transfers, improviing things to the extent we want isn't going to happen overnight. People should be realistic. Sorting out Wenger's mess without big money isn't just a big job, it's a long job.

If it's same old same old come end of next season, why would you still want to stick with Emery?

Emery is getting half that budget and judging by how well Guendouzi and Torreira have turned out, I agree with you he should be able to do a better job...

Bellerin and Torreira would be two other candidates. If we can get 35m or more for Bellerin, that should allow Emery to get two solid, reliable defenders fairly cheap - like Monreal who was probably the last good defender Wenger signed for us.

Maybe but he deserves until the end of next season surely. It’s only really the summer when transfers are properly conducted and this summer he will have seen his players for a full season and what they are about. He really hasnt been able to influence a window since he joined that he could make recommendations as those signings were probably identified by Mislintat without his influence.

If Özil goes I think we need a minimum of 5 players in before we can realistically challenge the top 4


New right back to offer competition to Bellerin
New dominant centre half
New left back ( although I think the club will stick with what we have)
New central attacking midfielder (to replace Özil and Ramsey)
New left winger

With additional players needed that would probably need to wait

New right sided attacker
New back up centre forward to replace Welbeck.....

We are just missing way too much to realistically get mad because we are not breaching the top 4

The only hope I have is that if we could somehow sell Özil and Mustafi for 20 million each and maybe say Elneny for 10 we might be able to cobble together a budget of 100 million to bring in some of the players we so desperately need. Signing all 5 would be a stretch but you possibly could get 3 or 4

Someone was suggesting yesterday that all the press about our 40 million budget might have deliberately leaked by the club to prepare fans understanding that the club will sell one of the strikers in the summer to generate funds to improve the whole team.

Not sure I believe this as it would be an act of unparalleled stupidity

Hi Soc.

I think that's partly true but also a little unfair as injuries have not allowed us to play a settled back line for any length of time. Understandings take a while to develop and flourish and the signs were quite positive with Sokratis and Holding. Bellerin has clearly improved too. However, I feel Mustafi is the real weak link in the CB dept. He may be less bad for some games, but he is not the top class defender I hoped he was. I would play Holding over him any day of the week when fit and for me Kos & Sokratis are better suited to us too. We should definitely offload in the summer.

First summer signing?

https://www.onlinegooner.com/articles/view/4708

If you haven't listened to yesterdays bonus Arseblog Arsecast with David Ornstein, you really should. Gives an insight into what went on in January, the Mislintat situation, our finances etc. Well worth listening to.

Yep - listened this morning, it's very good. Ornstein reckons our summer budget is closer to £100m rather than £40m