I'd rather have Holding but there's no way he's 100 times better than Mustafi. Not even close. There were games when Mustafi played better than him.

But I proved it. With conclusive proof. Subjective statistics I made up.

but a lot of these teams that have outplayed us of late Watford , Palace , Wolves , Brighton , Everton , Leicester wouldn't been assembled for much more than fifty million .

I don't harbour thoughts of league titles anymore ... I'm just sick of these painfully slow buildups , an exchange of f*&&%$$$ useless passes back and forth in non threatening positions .

Three of the most useless pricks at our club cost the most , so it's not just a question of money .

We lose I've got no problem ...... but watching/ reading about us get turned over by 'lesser' just because they had more 'bottle' is what annoys me most .

Agreed Goonie ... but another important factor his team had in ...Seaman , Lukic , Bould , Adams , Dixon , Winterburn , Richardson , Marwood , Merson , Rocastle , Smith , Hayes , Allinson , Davis , Thomas ........ see it

They were all English ... chuck in O'Leary and Quinn from across the canal ....wasn't hard for the Scot to get his message across

We now have the United Nations team in which you need twenty translators to hand out a bollocking or convey team tactics .
There is no common spine , just don't have the same bond .

Not overly, no.

If they stayed I wouldn't be upset but I do think they are players we could shift to raise some funds. Lacazette maybe harder to replace than Bellerin but for me hasn't justified his reputation.

Across competions, up until the point when Ramsey's move to Juventus was confirmed on 11 February, he had started 16 games. How well did he play in any of them, regardless of his fine finish at Craven Cottage?

Ramsey's form really improved quite dramatically once his move to Juventus was sealed. Maybe it wasn't a question of attitude. But if not, unless it's pure coincidence which seems a little far-fetched, there must be some sort of explanation.

Emery is in trouble when relatively mild bloggers such as Arseblog are coming out against him this early into his reign.

If you look at his record in the round it has to be acknowledged he's done a fantastic job in the home fixtures this season - though it has to be said we were fairly fortunate in a few of those early victories - we totally mugged Everton and I think West Ham could have got something at the Emirate this year. But overall, many of those very good results Arseblog mentions were achieved at home.

Away, completely different story and I got to say that the manager has a very poor defence to work with and we also lack creative players who can carry the ball and hurt the opposition with dribbling/bit of skill. With end product. As Kiwi often says, we are a passing outfit and therefore sometimes easy to negate away from home.

The Palace game he definitely got the team selection wrong for that one but it did look as if he had rectified that as by the 46th minutes we were 1-1 and should have wrapped up the game until the defensive shambles occurred again.

There are too many similarities with the last years of Wenger this season which makes me more inclined to look at the quality of player we are putting out these days. They've actually done well to be where they are.

I'm not sure if Emery is the man; and I'm not sure if he will sign the players we need; but I'd be prepared to see what he can do in the summer.

Of course, there may well be things going on behind the scenes where that doesn't play out.

You are correct IMO. I can't recall which one of the cup games he played in but he just turned up. It was one we were eliminated from and I think I commented on here. Also there were a couple of games which people may recall where he tried a back heel near the box. Not because it was a good move but simply because he did not want to try and keep the ball. I won't miss him. The only players I have missed over the last few years were Santi, Alexis and before him RVP. Because I think they genuinely bought some added value to the team.

Ramsay was a Wenger buy and I don't think the club will start any recovery to all of them are gone. That includes all the silly contracts negotiated under the Wenger years - Özil, Mhkitarian, Xhaka, Mustafi and on and on down to Jenkinson. Emery will be a busted flush by that time. His health will probably give out because if his blood pressure is anything like mine when watching a game - it is not a good thing.

I've heard that having had the uncertainty surrounding his future sorted, he wanted to go out with a bang.

I get all that and I hate Kroenke too and yes he took way too long to sack Wenger but it was only in the last couple of seasons where the majority of our fans wanted Wenger out and started being vocal. I used to get chewed out on here for suggesting it.

It wasn’t kroenke who spunked 100 million on perez, Xhaka and Mustafi or let Ramsey and Sanchez run their contracts down.

Can we stop with the Emery inherited dross and any manager is bound to fail with this lot narrative? He, along with a bunch of other managers, applied for the job knowing full well what he's getting himself into. He's confident of doing the job required of an Arsenal head coach, and if he can't, it simply means he and the board had over-estimated his capability.

Apart from the other burning issues you raise (eg Kolasinac or Clichy?), why do you think that Chelsea, Spurs and for that matter, Manchester United, are struggling so much in this league?

Trying to remain positive

In the summer if we could flog Mustafi, Chambers and el Nenny for about 40 million we could have a transfer pot of around 80 or 90. That would give Emery the money he needs for about 4 players if spent wisely like we did last summer. No matter what we say this is surely possible and then going into next season with renewed hope could be possible.

I know people were incredibly bored by Wenger's tippy tappy football but when you see us outplayed and outfought by Leicester, who enjoyed the lion's share of the possession and frankly made us look second rate both physically and technically, I find that pretty hard to stomach.

When Emery arrived it seemed he was promising exciting high tempo football with us on the front foot most of the time. I get that we have some limited players but even so we are quite stodgy in our play, even at home, and the less said about our away performances the better.

I’m surprised more wasn’t made of Maddison’s blatant dive to get AMN sent off. He clearly wasn’t touched, no problem him jumping out of the way if he thinks he’s going to be touched, but he then rolled around on the floor screaming and holding his ankles. The replays show AMN going up to Maddison and saying “that’s not good Mads” they must be mates from the U21 set up.
Diving and feigning injury to get a player sent off of far worse than diving to win a penalty in my book.

Hope the Emirates crowd remember that when Maddison plays there next season

A few articles have cropped up in the media criticising Emery’s tactics quoting player sources. Interesting, wonder why this is happening.

Danny Murphy ripped into Maddison on the BBC

Ajax not offside for that goal?

If you look at the journo's dropping the quotes, there are quite a few Spurs fans, Spurs journo's among them. Not the usual suspects for a boardroom leak.

Spurs have been incredibly fortunate with injuries (and dodgy penalties!) for the last 3 years. Playing at high physical intensity with limited rotation will always start to catch up on team (which I think has contributed to Arsenal's recent form collapse a lot too).

Concussion in football needs to be taken far more seriously. The ref asked spurs if Vertonghen was ok to continue last night, they said he was and he went back on - within 30 seconds he took himself off and could barely stand up!

Maybe there needs to be an independent doctor who assesses all head injuries, and perhaps the team with the man down call be allowed to temporarily substitute a player on whilst he is being assessed.

Spurs haven't been "fortunate". They have a good manager who gets the best out of players.

I also have to agree on spurs but also Liverpool

Whilst we procrastinated and complained about financial fair play, refs, politics and what not for years they rebuilt impressively.

What both teams seem to get is that they are working to a budget and prepared to blood young players in certain Areas of the pitch like full back but then spend big in core areas like centre half and goalkeeper.

Look at Klopp s first team he picked and think what changes have to be made to get them where they are now.

Liverpool’s starting XI v Spurs: Mignolet, Clyne, Skrtel, Sakho, Moreno, Leiva, Can, Milner, Lallana (replaced by Allen), Coutinho (replaced by Ibe), Origi
Subs: Toure, Allen, Ibe, Bogdan, Sinclair, Vilaca Teixeira, Randall

Also it helps when you have a manager and scouting team that can pick up bargains and Salah, Mané, Firmino and Son Heung Min all be signed for around 30 million are absolute bargains. This summer aside I can’t think of the last medium priced player we signed that turned out to be a real hit probably going back to Cazorla and Monreal which was some time ago.

Funnily enough, I posted on Twitter that I thought Emery wasn't the right guy after Sunday's shitshow. A scouser mate of mine said it took Klopp three years to get close and we should be patient. Whilst I agree with that sentiment, I have this nagging sense that we won't get close to the title with Emery. I think as Bernard and a couple of others suggested, his remit is one of transitioning us back into the CL places.

...I want to see how he does this week and next with his balls really against the wall.

Concussion in football needs to be taken far more seriously. The ref asked spurs if Vertonghen was ok to continue last night, they said he was and he went back on - within 30 seconds he took himself off and could barely stand up!

Maybe there needs to be an independent doctor who assesses all head injuries, and perhaps the team with the man down call be allowed to temporarily substitute a player on whilst he is being assessed.

Funnily enough, I posted on Twitter that I thought Emery wasn't the right guy after Sunday's shitshow. A scouser mate of mine said it took Klopp three years to get close and we should be patient. Whilst I agree with that sentiment, I have this nagging sense that we won't get close to the title with Emery. I think as Bernard and a couple of others suggested, his remit is one of transitioning us back into the CL places.

Sanchez didn't turn out too bad for us.

Sanchez didn't turn out too bad for us.

I also have to agree on spurs but also Liverpool

Whilst we procrastinated and complained about financial fair play, refs, politics and what not for years they rebuilt impressively.

What both teams seem to get is that they are working to a budget and prepared to blood young players in certain Areas of the pitch like full back but then spend big in core areas like centre half and goalkeeper.

Look at Klopp s first team he picked and think what changes have to be made to get them where they are now.

Liverpool’s starting XI v Spurs: Mignolet, Clyne, Skrtel, Sakho, Moreno, Leiva, Can, Milner, Lallana (replaced by Allen), Coutinho (replaced by Ibe), Origi
Subs: Toure, Allen, Ibe, Bogdan, Sinclair, Vilaca Teixeira, Randall

Also it helps when you have a manager and scouting team that can pick up bargains and Salah, Mané, Firmino and Son Heung Min all be signed for around 30 million are absolute bargains. This summer aside I can’t think of the last medium priced player we signed that turned out to be a real hit probably going back to Cazorla and Monreal which was some time ago.

Liverpool's rebuild has been massively helped by some hugely over inflated sales which has been basically like handing free money to Klopp. The squad above generated £208m in fees alone. Big Klopp sales are:
Coutinho £140m, Sakho £25m, Benteke £30m, Ibe £15m Joe Allen £13m and Ings and Solanke have gone for £19m a piece each. Danny Ward the gk sold for £12m. They even got £5m loan fee for sending Origi out on loan!
If we could sell 8-9 players we don't want for £200m we'd be laughing as well

It's something that hopefully we would rectify post-Wenger, Dick Law and Gazidis... AOC for 35m was quite good.

If we had only just managed to get fees for Ramsey, Wilshere and Sanchez. Would have made such a massive difference. That would have given us 100 odd million and we could have had another 3 proven players in our side right now. I hope Gazidis chokes on his Gnocchi in Milan