I just find it really sad watching Arsenal these days. I mean there was no lack of effort today just an overall lack of the quality required to break down a stubborn defence. Fabianski had his pipe and slippers out.

Not sure what the answer is to be honest. Clearly we are miles away from the likes of Liverpool and City and we probably need at least six top class signings just to get us back to being a serious team.

The problem, for all those who say Emery needs several transfer windows, is that the signings need to be done relatively quickly or by the time they've been made several of the remainder of the squad will be past their sell by dates and need replacing as well.

Chelski up next. Gulp.

Indeed, our passing was ponderous. We couldn't utilise the wing backs and really struggled to get the ball into the final third. Lots of sloppy passing.Slight improvement when Ramsey came on as a link man but the response quickly passed after a few shots. West Ham worked hard today and closed off the space well. They deserved the win. Only Iwobi did well up top for me, and Sokratis did well.

I had no confidence whatsoever we were going to.wjn this game.
At best a draw if we turned up.
Pathetic and lethargic.
What Is happening to us?
This team looks like it is getting worse.
Top 4 is laughable right now.
No penetration. Nothing
Worrying

Aubameyang is lacking effort nowadays. And not as committed onto tackles as well.

Was disappointed in Niles as well. Watched him half jog back on 32 minutes when Anderson put a shot wide. Would expect more commitment to getting back from a young player trying to get into the team.

Chelsea are looking for a striker, wouldn't put it past them to make an offer and wouldn't put it past the club to sell to them

We simply have to get back to a team full of pace and power. The lack of pace in this team is so obvious in this league.

And strangely any players we do have with pace either don’t use it or we our play doesn’t use it.

When was the last time you saw a long ball from the back over a defence where our forward players ran on to it to turn a defence? Or even a direct ball in to a striker who can hold it up and have midfield runners beyond him?

We didn’t have a shot in the last 22 minutes of a game we were losing 1-0

Against Spurs for 2-2

We desperately need some players who can run with the ball. Watching us struggle to move the ball just in to the middle third is painful

Direct to a midfielder breaking forward which was Ramsey- which is why he has to be starting games.
I meant more a ball over the top in to the channel where the forward is the closest player to goal - not that he’s going to run in 1v1 but it is movement than turns a defence and creates space

What are the chances that Emery will call it quits after 1 season?
I think he did not expect to get zero funds to buy players.

He had £60-70m in the summer, if he gets that each year plus is allowed to reinvest 100% of player sales then he probably gets more funds than all but about 10 clubs in the world

Rich your continual moans about the referee diverts attention from the real problems. We didn't lose because of John Moss. We lost because of the players.

where did I say the ref cost us the game? A ref being poor and Arsenal being poor can both happen and we can moan at both. Jon Moss just infuriates me more than any ref, he isn't biased against Arsenal he's just incompetent, I see it in every game he refs. He has absolutely no idea what the advantage rule is, he plays it when there is no advantage and often when the foul he has let go has contributed to a team losing the ball.

Also, when you see Mo Salah win penalties for the tiniest tap on the shoulder vs what happened to Guendouzi today.......it takes away the enjoyment of the game when a ref can't handle it.

Of course, yes the far bigger factor is Arsenal's pi$$ poor football today but that doesn't take away from the standard of refereeing in this country being absolutely atrocious (Michael Oliver apart)

We're piss poor. 6 months in and I have no idea what Emery's ideas are other than playing out from the back. We have conceded more goals than at this time last year. I think there is no improvement whatsoever. No money, pedestrian, directionless football. We're going nowhere currently.

Man U, chelsea and Liverpool have spent more than that amount on 1 player in recent years. It’s simply not enough

I’d add that I think it’s been spent well considering. The only players performing are the new ones plus Lacazette and Aubameyang.

Ref's have nothing to do with how poor we've been. It's a one size fits all excuse.

Play out from the back, press high and work hard, pace on the break.

It’s not Emery Darren it’s the players just look at the full backs today and compare them to other top teams. Nowhere near good enough.

There is no dynamic player in midfield. I was talking about Cesc here yesterday but I’d take Cesc NOW rather than let him go to Monaco. There is no player like him even at 50% of his former self.

People harp on about us messing up letting Ramsey go but he does *%^@ all. Has no rate of passing or distribution. What are we exactly losing.

Monreal is about to sign a new 2 year deal, why? He’s been a good servant but it’s clear he is now in Koscielny territory and past his best.

Quite simply those players aren’t good enough and should be nowhere near a club of our size.

Players good enough to start in our first 11 if we are to be successful :

Lacazette, aubameyang, Bellerin, Torreira

Players who can contribute in a squad and worth persisting with

Sokratis, Maitland Nile’s, Leno, Guendozi

8 contributors

Everyone else can go as far as I’m concerned. Wouldn’t matter if we had Pépé as our manager with this lot.

Chelsea and Liverpool have generated huge amounts in player sales to enable them to reinvest. Since Klopp took over the net spend between arsenal Liverpool and Chelsea is negligible. We’ve obviously spent less but we haven’t got the sales in to supplement bigger buys

I read it’s a 1 year deal for Monreal

If we are being ruthless it is hard to argue with those 8 players. I could make an argument for Iwobi as a squad player. He has no consistency but can have an impact from the bench, is young and homegrown so worth persevering with. Also Holding should be in the group.
So we need:
New gk cover
New RB cover
New first choice LB
2 new CB
2 new CM
At least 4 players who can play wide left, wide right or central

Your right. Forgot Holding

That’s 9 out of a squad of 25

11 new players required

I’d like to see an average positions map of Arsenal’s players today and when we play 3 at the back, because that formation seems to leave the two forwards completely isolated. I reckon we’d see a deep back 3 with 2 holding mids sat maybe 10 yards in front of them because our CB can’t pass through the lines. Wing backs wide and then probably 40 yards of space to Iwobi on the left ish and the front two with no one on the right and an impossibility if anyone getting the ball betwen the lines or dribbling the ball through the lines

I'm not convinced by Lacazette personally. Puts himself about but he's been here for a season and a half and hasn't been great. He's almost a one in three striker.

You mention Jenkinson, but had he played today I don't see how he could have been any worse than Maitland-Niles was.

He’s a very good finisher and the least of our problems

The midfield stood behind him are nowhere near good enough and the strikers are feeding off scraps

Actually, I disagree. I think he's a decent finisher and I like his work rate but I can not recall watching a game where I've come away from it thinking Lacazette is in the top class bracket and worth £53 (a big outlay for Arsenal). Just glancing at his record here and he has 21 goals in 53 Premier League games (9 assists) which is not bad, but not great, in fact it's just decent. I take on board your point about our midfield though, it is clearly lacking in creativity.

If I was Emery, I think I would be tempted to cash in on 2 of your must stays TG :)

I would consider selling Lacazette if a good offer came in. I would also cash in on Bellerin under the same circumstances. Whilst Hector has improved this season, he remains weak defensively. Thirdly, I would try (if this hasn't been done already) and usher Özil out the door and be rid of his huge contract. Whilst some still love Özil, simply put if the manager isn't going to pick him he's really got to try and get him out the door. I'd also be open to an offer on Xhaka - another sloppy error today with the header I'm afraid and his left foot isn't creating enough chances. Unfortunately, these players haven't really enhanced their reputations in the past couple of seasons, so I'm not sure if the offers they would attract would be what we as Arsenal fans would hope for...but we'd have to wait and see.

We are all worked up about Kroenke and the loan signing issue etc but there are conflicting reports suggesting that the reason for it is that we are close to infringing the FFP regulations.

Frankly, it's a sobering experience watching Arsenal at the moment and has been for several years now. Contrast the late Leicester owner with Kroenke and its chalk and cheese. He went to the games, he supported and invested in the local community etc. That's a proper owner.

I have to be honest, I think Emery has made some questionable decisions this season, not least of which being some of his starting line-ups.

One thing I don't understand, if we are so short of cash to spend on transfers how did we persuade big hitters like Mislintat and Sanllehí to join, other than for a fat pay cheque. We must have sold them the dream surely otherwise why would they join, there are other big clubs who would happily have taken them.

Maybe they wanted a challenge?, they certainly have an enormous challenge ahead!.

Shop at Poundland for Harrods goods..

The state of our club when we have our own fans talking about selling our best players to raise funds to buy players.

I mean if we get stupid offers like Barca offering £50m + Malcom for 30 year old William!!!, then consider it, but if you start offering your players around you aren’t going to get top money.

Buy some midfielders who can supply our front two with some decent passes, and buy a or play a right winger so Bellerin doesn’t have to cover the entire right side on his own as he has had to do for the last 3 seasons

Wenger spent 100 million on Perez mustafi and xhaka

You don’t don’t sell even your only half decent players

Just seen it for the first time on MOTD and I'm sorry Rich but that was a penalty all day long. I'm not saying referees are as good as they can be but I do think your continual moans about them, verging on game in game out, diverts attention from far more important issues.

Nobody around me within hearing range moaned about the referee today, and I was surprised to read your posts about him on the way home. Well, actually I wasn't surprised. But I don't think think there was much to moan about concerning the performance of Moss. For me that's a reason why you divert attention away from what's far more important.

Earlier in the season when we were winning games it was 4-2-3-1. It was a case of simply putting our best players on the pitch and letting the attackers sort out more goals than the defence conceded.

I wasn’t talking about salah’s pen today, I was talking about his one vs Newcastle and I’ve posted plenty about our awful performance today

Chelsea’s first goal for Pedro today. A CB with a 60 yard pass to a wide forward making a well timed run behind a defence. Newcastle weren’t particularly high either. We just don’t even try that sort of thing.

Buying a bunch of competent defenders and coaching defence properly is the big priority. Only the top two have scored more goals than Arsenal this season. (Though one mightn't have thought so on today's abject show.) On the other hand, one of the teams in the relegation zone has conceded less goals than Arsenal FFS! Only six teams in all have a worse defensive record.