In playing Xhaka, Torreira and Guendouzi in the same midfield it seemed in the first half as though all 3 were doing a similar sideways job and no-one was connecting vertically to the forwards. Too often the wide men of the 3 drift too far wide on the cover and it leaves central midfield far too exposed. Cellabos helped this in the second half and Guendouzi pushed on a lot more - he should be encouraged to do this as he has the desire to get back, Willock as well.
What will help this situation a lot is having our first choice full-backs, and natural full-backs back in the team. Very little has been made of this in the press. I saw a report that talked about 'injury ravaged spurs'....totally ignoring we have bellerin, tierney and holding still out.
Those more natural (and better) full backs will be able to squeeze higher in to midfield letting the midfield 3 sit tighter and control games better

I don't disagree about yesterday, I just think he's good but lightweight. Ozil-esque in that respect. I hope we can sell him but just don't think he's rubbish.

I'm glad he stuck on Ceballos rather than Özil yesterday. There's no way that Özil gets stuck in to the same degree as Ceballos, who can also create too.

But we’ve known for a while we’re trying to get rid of Mustafi and Elneny, because there’s been signals from the club (even before Emery confirmed it). Why was there no mention of Mkhitaryan then? Mkhitaryan was probably always seen as a squad option that we could afford to lose if an offer came in, but that we weren’t in a hurry to push out the door. At least that’s what the evidence seems to suggest.

One of the things that impressed me yesterday was the commitment and intensity. We competed for every ball in the second half.

I just don’t think Emery trusts Özil to play his pressing game without losing the intensity. People were moaning Mesut wasn’t brought on but I wouldn’t have played him either.

If mhikitaryan and Mustafi go today that frees up valuable space for the rebuild that’s occurring (think how many players have been moved on now) and it will be refreshing to watch Nelson and Willock get game time.

I also like Cellabos ability, confidence and accuracy in striking at goal from 25-30 yards. He had a fantastic swerving strike tipped over by Lloris, these kind of moments that force good saves from GK really get the crowd going - and an up for it Emirates crowd I'm convinced really does give the players an extra bit of something. It has been a long time since we had a decent threat from long range

Sums up my view of him well. At this point in time he's definitely a better player than Nelson, but since Nelson is only 19 and has that intriguing upside it's probably worth to give him the minutes at this point and see if he develops.

Evidence suggest mhikitaryan is on 200 k a week and nobody wants to touch that player unless we help out pay his wages which is what the press are saying.

I reckon there’s a “sell at all cost” list that Emery and Sanelhi keep in their pockets at all times and Mhikitaryan and Özil are right at the top.

It was the best part of our gameplan yesterday for me. I didn't understand at first why Torreira was playing in such an advanced role, but it was obvious Emery wanted us to win the ball back high up the pitch and we were successful in doing that. Tottenham always looked threatening, but I can't remember many attacks from them that weren't quick counters.

If the press is what we're going by, they're saying we will be paying £20k a week out of his wages. Hardly the thing to make or break a transfer or loan signing.

It’s the last day of the window.

He’s clearly not the priority of Barca and Madrid

Nobody is saying every club wants him. But your argument right now seems to be that nobody wants to touch him at £200k because he's so bad, but at £180k it's fine and dandy?

Few clubs want him clearly.

As for your suggestion he was part of Emery’s thinking well... we are selling him without getting a replacement in first. Tells you all you need to know

My suggestion is that Emery saw him as a squad option who we could afford to lose if an offer came in but who we weren't desperate to get rid of. Emery clearly rates him higher than you, otherwise he wouldn't have used him. Could've thrown on Özil or Nelson yesterday, but chose Mkhitaryan. Or do you think he wants to get rid of Nelson too?

No I think using him as sub was for a farewell type goodbye performance and that he didn’t trust Özil.

In a north London derby, with Tottenham in the lead and us desperately chasing the game, you're suggesting Emery threw on a player he doesn't rate at all as a courtesy goodbye gesture? That would in all honesty be such appallingly bad management it's beyond words. Don't think even the harshest Emery critics would believe that.

15 minutes to go. What’s the guy gonna do, lob his own keeper from the left flank.

That would be some *%^@*** achievement. I think he just looked at Özil and thought “ noooo” then felt maybe Nelson was too attacking.

So instead he subs on a player he thinks is useless to try and help us win the game? We're quickly approaching flat earth territory here, so I'll just leave it at that.

No he feels mhikitaryan is slightly less attacking than Nelson and that’s more preferable at that point in the game. That’s all. It was a strange sub though as I would have chose Willock

The less attacking option is more preferable when you're down a goal with 15 minutes to go?

Yeah bit of balance. You’ve already Pépé and Aubameyang on the pitch

Mhikitaryan is a very good player. He's played at Dortmund, manure and now us. If he was that bad he would not have been at those clubs. He was brought on because he's a better and more experienced player than Nelson or Willock and in a NLD that is finely balanced he was the better option.

I hate saying this but that is the dumbest post I have seen for a while.

Anyway, it's a done deal according to Ornstein. Roma paying a loan fee and covering all of his wages. Think it's the right time to trim our squad a little with us being in the Europa League for another year. If we can find permanent solutions for some of these loaned out players next summer there will be plenty of room in the wage budget for additions.

Emery and Raul are cleaning away all the Wenger & Gazidis excrement left and it feels oh so sweet. Yes !

Had someone said to me before the start of the season "after the first 4 matches Arsenal would 2-1-1 and the loss would only be to LFC," I'd be happy as hell.

I think it would be over-realistic to expect any more. Maybe...maybe a win at home to Tottenham but given that they have been better than us for the past few years, even that would be asking a bit too much.

Again, coming back from 2 goals down and looking the better side by some distance in the 2nd half and keeping them scoreless, we ended the match well with more positives than negatives. Our defense is always going to be an issue. We look dangerous going forward and its still early days with unsettled players like Pépé and Dani. We still haven't seen Tierney, Özil, and Bellerin, 3 very good players. This is a side that is going to be on the up if we can play more team defense to make up the failings of a weak back line.

From the midfield forward we look good and will no doubtedly get better. Bellerin and Tierney back will leave only the central defense with questions.

Don't think winning against Tottenham at home is asking too much. Usually not much between the teams in those fixtures, with a slight advamtage to the home side. But yeah, overall not a bad haul initially. Still have all our rivals for third and fourth place behind us.

Wouldn't usually give Mourinho's thoughts much time but his comments on getting the balance of the front 3 right are worth reading
“I think Aubameyang probably he likes to play in the middle because he feels if he’s in the middle he can score more goals. But maybe he can score as many goals playing on the left.

“What happens at Liverpool is [Roberto] Firmino drops back, drops in between the lines, and then he gives more space for [Mohamed] Salah and [Sadio] Mané to attack these diagonals. I would see Aubameyang playing on that left side of Liverpool and scoring a lot of goals.

“At Arsenal, Lacazette doesn’t have that quality, but they have two options. One is to play, instead of like today with three midfield players almost in a straight line, to play how they played in the last 10 or 20 minutes with two [sitting midfielders] and one No.10 that can feed the three without bringing Lacazette in between the lines.

“Another situation that is very possible is to bring Pépé from the right and in many occasions bring him to the inside. Many teams nowadays defend with a back four but build with three in the back, and by doing that they can put for example a right-back completely wide almost as a winger and bring the winger to the inside.

“So if Pépé plays more on the inside, he can feed more that diagonal to Lacazette and do what Guendouzi did for the last goal [for Aubameyang], Pépé doing that from the right with his left foot finding Lacazette on the diagonal.

“So they have lots of options. These three players are very good. They had on the bench [Henrikh] Mkhitaryan, [Mesut] Özil, [Dani] Ceballos who are players also who can give things. I think from the middle to the attacking areas they have a lot of solutions to develop.”

Is it? Seems I ain’t alone


https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football ... its-xhaka/

By getting Roma to pay all of Mkhitaryan’s wages we saved £10m for the season.
I’d love to see what the wage bill was and is now compared to the end of last season. We’ve moved on a lot of very high earners and replaced with younger lower wage players. Conservative estimate must be something like £500k per week saving

That is not plausible. Emery clearly thinks he is decent option.

He’s In Rome right now waving a Roma scarf over his head

How attached to him think Emery was

To be fair, he did say it would be over-realistic to expect any more.

Are you holding to your silly view that Emery just threw him on for old times sake ... despite the game being in the balance?

Even that isn't as silly as your point about there only being 15 minutes left in the games ... as if nothing ever happens after the 75th minute.

Its good that you support Emery to the hilt. But sometimes it impairs your reason!

Ditto that feeling !

No doubt he was more "big-game ready" than the 2 youngsters. But, his commitment to the cause was not strong enough. Nelson or Willock would have busted their guts to win the balls. The energy of the team was very high, and Mkhitaryan reduced it when he came on.

I take it you haven't read any of his other posts then?

I'm joking TG.

I am a little surprised we are letting Mika go on loan after selling Iwobi. I would have understood an outright sale as there are probably a limited number of potential buyers out there give his age and salary and if someone came in with a half-decent offer it might just be too good an opportunity to turn down.

I can only assume Emery is quite happy with Nelson, Martinelli and Saka as back-ups because an injury to any of the front three and one of those three will likely be involved. That's quite a brave call given their age and limited experience.

Maybe he has a January signing lined up.

You listed 5 experienced international players and think we can be shot of them without affecting our squad depth? We have Carabao Cup, Europa on top of the usual and we will need experience.

*%^@ the Europa and carabao cup.

They diverted our attention and resources away from the league last year.

I'm inclined to agree. I wouldn’t have if that last season or the one beforehand as top four seemed a little beyond us so happy for us to take the gamble. But I think we have a good chance for third let alone fourth. League has to be priority 1 2 and 3.