I’m with you. Also doesn’t ffp prohibit this? I thought an owner can’t just loan their club’s millions anymore and the only way they could get round it would be over inflated sponsorship these days

I think back to two of the best performances under Emery, Man U at home and Chelsea at home. The press and intensity was there from the first minute, we swarmed all over both of them and I’m pretty sure we got early goals in each.
Why hasn’t emery been able to reproduce that type of intensity, he’ll even if it didn’t end up in early goals or us even winning games, I just want to see the intensity in our game!

Oh well, looks like we're just going to have to protect our own invincible season with a home win against Liverpool.

Was Pep trolling? I'm hearing him say, I'm so proud of my team. We are champions, we play in a way why we are back to back champions, yadda, yadda.

I am proclaiming the league race officially over. lol. Ladbrokes, take my advice payout the bets having Liverpool winning it.
Be prepared for a plethora of media induced over the top nostalgic celebrations, interviews with the 1990 side, etc, etc.

I don't envy any non LFC fan living in England at that time.

The fact that Liverpool and Leicester are above ₽₽₽₽$$$$ and د.إد.إد.إد.إ$$$$$ is something I can live with.

It was a spirited, skillful performance, let down by their weakened defence and some poor finishing by the likes of Aguero.

Nothing to be ashamed of unlike ....

A black player is racially abused for shaktar in a Ukrainian league game, he swears at the crowd and kicks the ball in to the crowd. The ref sends him off. If ever there was a huge backward step in tackling racism in football here it is

I said a couple of weeks back December is a bit of a killer in the league for us. We play city and chelsea and have to go to Goodison and play United on New Year’s Day.

How will he survive that run of games. If he could organise the team and get some confidence back but goodness me it’s flat at the moment. I just can’t see it.

Camden said on twitter earlier it will cost the club 15 million to sack Emery and his staff. It’s a healthy amount but the alternative is fan anguish, horrendous PR, star players leaving and no real hope left.

They are fools if they think they can sit this one out.

Yes, I agree with that. Truth is for many, me included, he was an uninspiring appointment at a time when the fans really wanted a manager to get the pulse racing - either a proven league winner or somebody with impeccable Arsenal connections. Unless there was a big improvement under him, Emery was always going to be given limited leeway. After a brightish start the engine has stalled, and the driver can hear many a loud horn blowing in his ear. Soon it may get even louder.

To be honest right now I’d be happy with 11 players who give 100% and a coach who coaches them, has a plan, plays attractive high tempo attacking football and shows a sense of understanding. What to do without the ball and how to organise a defence.
If that team is made up of a team of 21 year olds and a rookie coach then so be it.

Knowing what your predictions are like, thanks for giving me at least a little hope that Liverpool might not win it.

Nice to see you back Exiled, hope you are well.

Not sure what is worse, our recent form or Bernard's transparent attempts to include Ljungberg as culpable alongside Emery.

Probably the latter.

Do you think he can be totally blameless then? Seriously? The main blame lies with Emery undoubtedly. I’ve said that before. But as Emery’s assistant, might be not have some sort of responsibility for what’s happening, even if it’s much less than Emery? If he takes training responsibilities for organising the team (including the defence), might he discuss tactics with Emery, the style of play, even team selection, doesn’t that make Ljungberg partly responsible? How can it not?

Otherwise if Fred is no more than a cone man and has no influence over what’s happening or therefore having any responsibility for it, what does that say about the strength of his personality? Certainly weaker than Emery, who has never struck me as that strong either. I do feel, however, that we need a strong character to be manager of this club.

Whichever possibility is the truth, I don’t think either supports the idea of Ljungberg taking over once Emery leaves.

The main benefit I can see for giving Fred the job is that he’s an Arsenal legend and will presumably thus get far more support, and vitally their patience, than someone without Arsenal ‘DNA’ would get. If nothing changed from Emery to Ljungberg, I would expect the level of fan criticism to fall.

I don't think Ljungberg should be the next manager, but I see Juan Carlos Carcedo as Emery's assistant rather than Freddie. Ljungberg was touted as more a conduit with the younger players coming into the squad.

If the suggestions that we won't sack Emery because we don't want to pay him and his backroom staff off is true then that really is small time. We are one of the richest clubs in the world and hiring and firing just goes with the territory. Ask United.

So is Ljungberg a cone man in your view? What else does he do? I agree with you, however, when you say you don’t think Ljungberg should be Arsenal’s next manager. But it seems some people do.

No I wouldn't descrbe him as a cone man, I'm sure he has an input mainly in regard to the younger players. However, I'd say Emery & Carcedo run the first team themselves and call the shots.

Caught a little of the action between Pool & City. Boy, do they move so much faster. Emery's style is so boringly slow.

City and 'Pool is video game football. That's another level altogether.
As for Emery, he didn't become a bad manager overnight. The guy is a proven manager He has managed sides with both less and more talent than The Arsenal. I'm inclined to give him more than a year and third of a season, the players he needs, to prove himself.

Where and who needs replacing?
What type of players does he need? And to play what type of football?

I think he has a very expensive buy in Pépé, who he has not been able to get much out of. Or is Pépé really that bad?
Ceballos is another supposed good player. But he has given very little in terms of end-product to our very strong frontline.
Why is Kola preferred to Tierney, when Tierney is clearly better in what he does.

I put it down to the inability to organise the team, and coach them to success. Week-in, week-out, look at how disjointed the play is.

"on the gap between us and the top four...
It depends because now Chelsea and Leicester are with Liverpool and Manchester City - they have got a difference between them and us. But also, we have Manchester United and Tottenham behind us. It's been a very equal competition with a lot of teams, but really now the difference that Chelsea and Leicester have created with us... they've had time to be consistent. The competition is 38 matches and now we are behind them with nine points difference. It's good for them but we have time to achieve and recover that difference."

He forgot Sheff Utd, yes Sheff Utd, is ahead of us!

If emery and the arsenal hierarchy are churning out the ‘patience’ line, saying there is plenty of time to close the gap to top 4 shows they really have no idea about the Arsenal fan base. We are the fans that have been told to be patient for 14 years. Any outside criticism of impatience from Arsenal fans is hugely misplaced.

Chelsea are doing really well so far, they’re even ahead of City at the moment. And they have a worse defense on paper than Arsenal. We need to strengthen certain positions, but there’s no excuse for the terrible football we’ve played the last year and there are virtually no signs we’re about to improve.

Hoping things turn around fast though, I've just managed to get tickets to the Southampton game. It will be my first Arsenal visit in about 10 years, but watching us play this season I'm not sure it's a great decision...

Exactly, but Chelsea have a simple system 4 at the back, 2 holding mids, 3 attacking mids and 1 front man.

The 4 defenders know their shape, positioning and discipline - and they have chopped and changed that defence with young players like Tomori and James coming in. The 2 in midfield, again, hold their shape - you don't see Jorginho/Kovacic/Kante wandering out to the wing and it is rare their are gaping holes for players to run straight at the back 4.
The 3 attacking mids are able to keep their width, track back and get in the box.

Really the 4-2-3-1 is dead simple. It offers natural balance in nearly all aspects of the game.

David Ornstein of The Athletic claims ‘the internal view’ to be that Arsenal ‘had been dominating play, creating doubts in their opponents’ minds and building momentum’

I'd rather the club said nothing. Has there ever been a point in Arsenal's recent history when the club were so out of touch with the fans?

I would move back to 4-5-1. I was very disappointed in some of the players attitudes in the last couple of matches. I don't care whether they think Emery is on his last legs - 100% is required every game. Aubameyang was one of the main culprits in the last match. Make them captain and they are on the way out of the club before you know it.

You made a post claiming I'd posted during half-time in the spanking at Old Trafford. I know this is a lie because at the time I was in the bloody ground drinking as much beer as I could in 15 minutes!

(I wouldn't have mentioned it but Decaf did say "People are having to find really petty issues to pick fights over" and I didn't want to let people down so soon after coming back)

I thought Lacazette was also very poor yesterday. With regards to the players’ attitudes I guess the issue is whether their performances were driven by a lack of effort or they simply played badly despite trying. I’ve no idea which one it was, although I hope it was the latter.

What has worried me most recently is that (to me) it does look like the players are trying but they don't seem to know what they're supposed to be doing. The biggest problem as I see it is there's no connections between different areas of the team. I may well be wrong but I can't help thinking that having different coaches for different parts of the team may be stopping them playing as a team rather than separate units.

btw thanks for sorting my avatar, Rog.

In 50 years supporting Arsenal I can't remember being as bored or disinterested as I am now. Saturday's defeat barely registered, apart from being surprised Leicester only scored 2.

Emery is clueless, an awful manager. And if Raul and Edu can't see that then they are as culpable as he is. But if it really boils down to Silent Stan not wanting to fork out £6m to pay off Emery then there is no hope for us. If we are stuck with him for the rest of the season I won't be watching, or caring.

Not sure if this will work but I've been tweeting 'on this day' stuff from my Arsenal collection and this is today's. If there is any interest I'll keep copying them here.

https://twitter.com/N5_1BU/status/1193829382743306241

edit - oh well, you'll have to follow the link.

editedit - if you want to see previous ones follow this link https://twitter.com/search?q=%40n5_1bu% ... ery&f=live

It's like the fag end days of George Graham's tenure. A team clearly not good enough in most departments, players lacking motivation, boring football being served up on a weekly basis, management losing the plot, a lack of ambition.Everything Emery says reeks of a lack of ambition.

You can add twitter feeds directly now.

I think your right and I think I owe you an apology as it was Lom posting that not you from a quick glance back. You’ve both got quite distinctive avatars and I probably confused you. Wasn’t intentional.

What nonsense Niall. Everything is going to plan, don't you know ?

Good ebening Rog, I respect a lot your intensity, the structure of your post, eeeeh, how you execute your posting game-plan, your hair and your hair colour. My message is clear but its very difficult.