So they did. No comedy goals given to us that time though (sadly).

Not even sure why Allegri is considered the standard-bearer for football managers right now. It could be argued Conte hade even better results at Juventus; took them from a 7th place finish the season before he arrived to winning the league three times in a row, the last season finishing 17 points ahead of the runners up. When Allegri took over they were already a well-oiled winning machine. He could be a success in England of course, but I think if you look at Conte and Sarri and how they fared in the Premier League it’s far from a given.

I've been reading a lot of tactical pieces on Arsenal and Emery and one of the things that came up that interested me after the watford game was this. Arsenal are 2-0 away from home to a struggling side. Watford HAVE to come out and attack, this SHOULD play right in to Arsenal's hands with a playmaker of Özil's quality and the pace of Aubamayang and Pépé up front. How often do big clubs bemoan the tactic of 10 men behind the ball, but then you regularly see them break the deadlock and then gaps appear so they can kill teams on the break. Why did Arsenal show zero attacking ability once Watford had to come out and attack us even more, to be honest I haven't seen this from us for some time. We just appear to be far too conservative, to scared to use Xhaka's quote and too worried about what our opponents can do. We're 2-0 up away to a side absolutely shot of confidence, it is totally different to Spurs blowing a 2-0 lead at home to us.

Özil hasn't travelled to Germany. He's being rested.

...and will be ready for another stroll around the Emirates in about a month.

My preferred starting 11 for the foreseeable future.

Leno
Niles, Sok, Anyone but Luiz, Kola
Torriera, Ceballos,
Pépé, Aubameyang, Willock

I have no idea why they are taking Aubameyang. Tiring if he doesn’t play and risky for injury if he plays. Can understand why Özil & Socrates are not going. We either give priority to the EPL or we don’t. But this is a half way idea.

To be fair I don’t think anyone was saying it was the same. But it has happened to Tottenham twice recently.

AMN quotes

“I want to stay in the team, but if the manager chooses to pick him (Bellerin) over me, that’s something I will have to live with. I’ll just have to keep training and working hard so that I get picked instead.

“I’m a midfielder by trade, either central or on the wing, it’s all the same to me. I’m not a defender so I do get a lot of stick about my defending being poor, but it’s something I’m learning and have been learning for a couple of years now.

“It’s not going to come overnight. If I was a defender as a kid, and my defending was poor, I would understand where the criticism is coming from, but I’m trying my best for the team and for the manager.

“It’s not where I would choose to put myself in the team, as I’m an attacking player by trade. That’s all I can try to bring to the team. I’m still learning the defensive side, so when players are running at me, and they’re throwing skills at me, I’m still learning how to deal with that.

“It’s always nice to have one main position where you play, and everyone else gets to play in their main position, so hopefully it’s just a matter of time before I can do that too.”

Willock left wing? and only 10 men? This needs a re-think

Maybe Frankfurt away (the hardest game in the group) isn't the time to bed in too many youngsters but I'd like to see the likes of Saka, Emile Smith Rowe and a young forward - could have been Nkeitiah if he stayed, maybe John-Jules. Things are a bit more stretched at the back with a lack of first teamers and a lack of good youngsters coming through.

Emery needs to protect our best players, I felt he played too many of the best 11 in the group stages last year.

"Anyone but Luiz" counts double.

I think I read (and I could be mistaken) that Ashley Cole was originally a winger in the youth side. van Bronckhurst was a midfielder. Walcott was a striker. It's where the club needs him. Unfortunately for him Bellerin is only 24 has his best years ahead of him and save injury, Bellerin will start for some time.

I like AMN a lot. Having to learn how to play full back in PL matches is unfair to him to some extent and criticism has to be in context with that reality. I hope we can hold on to him.

Agree with that we should have countered more and better than we did, when we had chances. We really should have gotten a 3rd goal.
I think we are still lacking in belief as well as belief in our teammates. A few new faces and it takes a while to have confidence in the player next to you when you haven't played with them much.

Enrique did want a guarantee up front of a certain amount to be available. He wouldn't get that money at all.

Apparently Sven's input was needed at the time. Familiarity maybe on background of managers being considered then. Arteta was just a whisker away from being hired. Yet Emery's vision for Arsenal won all 3 over.

If Poch ends up on wrong side of the table a few months out, no CL, hmmm. Levy just might go for Allegri if he's still available end of season. Never say never.

Just seen the team - hopefully that isn't a diamond in midfield. Can't stand it

Yay!!!!

1-0 Willock. Good work by Saka.

Yeah nice - and not a minute too soon !

The opposition have looked very dangerous and the scoreline doesn't reflect the game. They had a few golden chances to score. We did well to get a goal but to be fair, we had at least 2 or 3 great chances prior as well.

We will need a 2nd goal. I will be surprised if this ends up 1-0 to us. I can see a 1-1 match if we don't tighten things up or take advantage of counter attacks when they present themselves and they will. Frankfurt will come out attacking.

Happy for Willock. He almost scored earlier. For a team with so many youngsters, away to a decent German side, we are doing better than the team sheet would have indicated prior to the start.

Really like the look of young saka
Tricky and fast
Showed great composure to set willock up.
With the likes of saka Nelson and martinelli have youngsters with pace and trickery.
Smith Rowe looks lively as well.
Martinez made two great saves.
We definitely haven't played it out from the back as much today.
I hope that's a deliberate measure by emery

Decent first half. 0-1 up after missing some good chances. Mustafi has been fine so far, as has Chambers.

Much faster going forward and energy of team is high. Fewer play out from the back, and it's refreshing. The young lads show no fear.

Well taken goal. Saka with a very good assist. He is a livewire

Strange half. Frankfurt look good, high tempo and getting lots of men in the box and lots of shots away, 14 in that half. Arsenal have looked a bit sloppy at times but have carved out maybe 3 of the best chances of the game and got the goal.
Given the fragile mentality of the team and playing so many youngsters it was vital we scored first and kept that lead in to half time

Saka! Well deserved.

What a player!! Well done lad!!

Here comes the deluge. Time to stack those stats.

Cracking performance from Martinez. Took the heat out of things at the back plus some fine shots. Distribution very good indeed and none of those stupid inviting-pressure goal kicks inside the area. Back to basics.

We rode our luck a bit but there were some huge positives there.

If you didn’t know and you had to guess, you’d struggle to pick who the £72M winger was out of Saka and Pépé tonight. Happy for Saka, great overall performance, but waiting for Pépé to really show he’s going to be worth it. The comms going on about his electric pace when a 35 year old defender catches up with him. A shimmy here and there isn’t going to do it for me. Judgement is completely out and I hope he really settles well and is a great player for us, but right now I’m really not that sure.

Yeah imagine this performance with every goal kick a travelling circus of madness. Probably a different night. You could do without it. The thing is we do play out from the back, but not from the artificial static situation of a slooooow goal kick.

Thoroughly enjoyable game to watch. Please Emery, let this be the way we play in every game.

Xhaka played a very good captain's role today. He deserved the armband today.

Martinez collects the crosses well. And also distributes the ball faster.

We must give Saka more game time. He is a fighter and is my MOTM.

Cracking win in a hostile astmosphere.

Load of chances at both ends, could have been any score.

Martinez, Willock and Saka the stand-outs for me.

Just what was required. 3-0 in the toughest game in the group, with a heavily rotated team. Means Emery can go for much more rotation in the other games in the group.
Martinez was excellent in goal. Good saves and such assured handling, I was very impressed.
Saka with a goal and 2 assists, he was great all game, just the willingness to run at players and commit them made us so much more threatening. We may have spent £70m on Pépé to provide this counter attacking threat in away games and find ourself with a home grown player who can do just that.
Liked Willock’s performance again, seems to eat up the ground on some long ranging runs through midfield.

Lots of shots against but I can’t recall that many that really made me nervous. We missed a number of great chances as well.

Looking forward to seeing Nelson and Martinelli in some of the other Euro matches

Why isn't he playing Martinelli? He looked good preseason and this game was made for him.

Tierney and Bellerin die to play for the U23 tomorrow

Leno has turned himself into an exceptional keeper in my view and I think should stay as the first choice, at least for now. But Martinez looked bloody good and I’m so pleased Ospina has gone, meaning Martinez will be the cup keeper now Čech has retired.

Martinez, Zaka and Willock all enhanced their reputations. However, Smith Rowe didn’t take his chance tonight. I’ve expressed my doubts about him before. Sadly every time I watch him, I see nothing to make me change my mind. Well done to Mustafi as well. He had a good game.

I have always thought that Borussia Munchengladbach were a strong outfit. Tonight they are losing 3-0 at home to a team that I’ve never heard of.