Sanchez Flores is now available

And Marco Silva next by chance.

Remarkable. We are totally broken and yet we are still ahead of Manchester United.

Yes, in the first half we moved the ball around the pitch a lot quicker and there was more tempo to our build up play than in recent turgid performances under Emery. We really should have scored one or two before Norwich got their opener on a counter attack. Another positive was the ability to come back from behind twice showing a bit more spirit when things went against us.

Aside from that it was quite familiar - poor defending as a team and as individuals. Hard to see how we are going to improve much with the current personnel at the back. Norwich, to be fair, probably would have won the game but for some great saves from Leno and an outstanding block from Torriera.

Nice touch by Freddie to pay tribute to Emery with that starting line-up.

Not football related but “The Irishman” on Netflix is quite a movie

Possibly Scorsese’s last epic and De Niro’s last proper hurrah and taps into the themes of sorrow and getting old. Really worth a watch

Indeed .

Someone has to wake up to the fact that when we overload the defence it doesn't actually lessen our chances of conceding a goal .... it just means

[ a ] we have more personel looking totally stupid scurrying back in Keystone Cops manner ..and

[b ] we create less at the other end .

Wenger got a nod as well here Dec ...... Kolasinac , Xhaka , Mustafi and Chambers were all his buys .
.

There is some amazing gear stacked in yards all over the place. Finding it and actually negotiating a price is even harder. In Brisbane working at the moment. Don't know how people can live in capitol cities.

From the guardian
It’s striking, for example, how rarely you see an Arsenal player genuinely sprinting at full pelt. Occasionally you will see them running, but it is very much a going-through-the-motions, leave-your-desk-at-5pm sort of running. It’s striking how few second balls they win. And as Norwich caught them on the counter time and again, it was striking just how hesitant they seemed in the jaws of contact: dainty tackles, squeamish blocks, toes tentatively offered in the general direction of the ball. Arsenal players defend like every part of their body is their face.

And so there was the skittish Onel Hernández, allowed to saunter deep into the Arsenal penalty area from just in front of the dugouts, with not a scintilla of resistance. There was Pukki, utterly hoodwinking David Luiz for the first goal with the old pro’s trick of changing direction. There was Shkodran Mustafi, meanwhile, pointing vaguely in the direction of where he himself should probably have been going.

I was like you, Rich, I thought any half decent coach with some degree of defensive nous could organise a back four and make a team difficult to beat.

However, I am not sure any coach in the world could turn our motley crew into a solid defence. I mean today we literally had dumb and dumber in the centre of the defence and two fullbacks who can't really defend. That's not an easy fix for any coach.

Still have absolutely no idea why Freddie gave Martinelli 5 mins (and only that because of added time).

Surely the only time you make a sub in the 88th min is if you are hanging on and want to waste some time or there's an injury.

Give the kid 20 mins ffs!

Fair to say my first impressions of Freddie's team selection and decision-making were not particularly favorable.

I don't really think Ljungberg had a lot of choices with the squad, With current injuries it's hard to pick a 1st 11 when the defence is a mess and there is no engine room in CM or quick decision maker (Ceballos injured, Özil not interested). Below is an attempt of what could have been put on the field and what I'd be asking them to do. Whether they could do it or not is debatable and therefore expecting a sudden turnaround with 2 days notice is a bit optimistic.

Leno
Mainland Niles, Sokratis, Chambers, Tierney
Xhaka (mid to long range passing), Torreira (just sit in front of the defence),
Guendouzi / Mailand Niles / Saka / Smith Rowe (transition play, shorter range passing and driving forward)
Pépé / Lacazette, Aubameyang, Willock / Lacazette

Luiz should be dropped no matter what. His erratic, kamikaze defending is constantly pulling people out of position and will make any back 4 worse than the sum of its parts. Couldn't believe it when we bought him and he is actually worse than he was at Chelsea

After the comments in this article, I wouldn't expect drastic changes next week either. Emery was allowed to continue for way too long and it's going to now take time to turn this around.

https://arseblog.news/2019/12/ljungberg ... e-players/

Fred's comments in that article suggest that Pépé isn't impressing - or 'putting in' - on the training pitch.

In hindsight, we should have used the 72 mil to buy a CB. We need more than 1 reliable one. This defence is letting the team down.

We are 7 points from Top 4 places, and 7 points from the relegation zone. If this form continues, we will be at the relegation zone.

Also 7 points off the relegation zone

Yes, a very good show. And Al Pacino, Joe Pesci in it too. 3 very good actors.

I have one to recommend too. Catch Alphago. Slow build up, with lots of dialogue about AI etc etc. And it should evoke a lot of positive emotions towards the end. It did for me. A must watch for players of the game Go.

Can't blame them for not really trying though.

Some of them are on barely £100,000-a-week - Hardly worth even getting out of bed for that, really.

Pépé was bought primarily to give us a threat on the counter away from home. Someone who can dribble the ball and give width.
The strangest part is that he’s started to settle, get goals and confidence and then he’s been dropped. He’s been a victim of the unbalanced squad. Playing Pépé means we have to play a lone front man with 3 behind or the similar 4-3-3.
If we sold Lacazette and had zaha
Managed to keep ramsey and ditch Özil
Managed to ditch Xhaka and have a kante type player
Then you have some balance in the midfield and attack

Morning Rich,

Pépé is an odd one. He has magical quick feet and the potential to do great things but for whatever reason is being sidelined by the coaches. He has certainly not hit the heights yet, bar the two free kicks, but has not been terrible either. Infact, he was probably our biggest threat in some of the games he did play.

His downside is he does try to dribble sometimes in inappropriate areas and gets caught in possession. His tracking back is not the best either.

I think he just needs games and the more the better. The last europa game would have been ideal but he was sidelined again. Some time in the gym building up his strength to help deal with the physical nature of the PL would be helpful as well.

I very much doubt that we will persuade a top quality, international manager to take over this shambles. They would need so much cash just to invest in our poor defence and midfield that their demands for this support from KSE would immediately mean that they were out of the running.

In fact I strongly believe that Emery got the job precisely for this reason. He convinced KSE that a decent team was possible with minimal investment in defensive positions whereas other candidates probably told KSE the truth and were immediately binned in favour of the cheaper option.

In January we need two top quality CBs as Chambers, Luis, Sok and Mustafi are not good enough.

We also need an old fashioned midfield enforcer who can organise the team when we lose the ball. I remain to be convinced about Torreira (there must be a reason why they will not play him) and Xakha gets bypassed too easily although I feel we gain more as a team with him than without him. There seems more structure and organisation with him playing.

After this they just need to offload Özil and sort out the front three. Easy peasy!

Morning Soc, It is a strange one. His dribbling stats are in the top 3-4 in the league even with the games he's missed. He's been part of a dis-functioning team, in which only Aubamayang has been able to perform at his ability threshold. There are plenty of extenuating circumstances for Pépé, new team, new league, no definable shape, tactics, formation. I agree his tracking back could be better - compare it with martinelli even in his brief appearances. Tracking back from forward players is something you either naturally have or it needs to be drummed in to you by coaches - a stick rather than carrot approach.
Pépé has also needed a few things to go his way when they haven't, that bad miss v sheff utd, the penalty not given v burnley, hitting the bar with the volley v southampton.
He's in Arsenal's best 11 players right now

I thought in the first half we looked much better going forward actually, there was more running in the final third and we managed 5-6 shots on goal with a few of them being very dangerous chances. For most of this season that’s all we’ve been able to muster for a full 90 minutes, and often not event that.

Defense is obviously another story. But I have to say, as much as we need reinforcements, the players we have are not as bad as they look at the moment. No secret that I never really rated Luiz, bu the started 36 games for Chelsea last season and they were third in the leage, with only City and Liverpool letting in fewer goals. To me the team is just absolutely shot of confidence at the moment, especially in defense. As soon as we’re attacked our defenders drop deeper and deeper, as if they’re afraid of getting beat if they try to challenge. This leads to pretty much every chance from the oppontents being dangerous, because it’s so easy to get close to our goal.

Most important thing right now is to get some good results so the players feel we turned a corner and get some confidence back. I think that would go a long way to at least stabilize us a little until the new manager comes in.

Pépé really is a mystery. He hasn't been what we hoped for so far, but he's shown glimpses of real talent. Fair enough if the coaches don't feel like he should be starting right now, but not sure how anyone expects him to improve if he doesn't get any minutes at all. Bench him in the league if you feel he has to work on a few things, but it's absolute madness to not let him play in the Europa League then.

I wonder if he was a victim of pressure to bring back Özil?

If I was FL8 I'd drop Özil and the idea of playing with a number 10 without genuine width.

We have some seriously good players at Arsenal. Unfortunately the team has no identity, pattern of play and is low in confidence. Add in some unconvincing central defenders and its a bit of a problem to say the least. But I cant help but think the right manager could develop a team from our squad who could comfortably challenge for a top four place.

Our central defence and central midfield has very very few "seriously good players".

They are not just unconvincing central defenders, they are seriously *%^@ central defenders

The Pépé thing is weird. So Freddie said he didn’t impress in training. Really, worse than Özil.

Saka is in no way ready for the premiership

Out of all the crazy decisions this is the maddest thing at the moment.

Also nobody ever mentions it but we are getting killed at Right back at the moment. Chambers doesn’t look right there and the club will need to sign another right back of quality in the summer in the 26-30 age group. There’s a chance Bellerin may not be the same player.

There just seems problems everywhere

Whoever comes in has a massive job when they arrive

Looking at that team yesterday, Mustafi, Luiz, Chambers, Kolasinac, Xhaka all simply nowhere near good enough

They will inherit the problem of Lacazette and Aubameyang who will clearly be off this summer so new strikers will be needed.

There isn’t an adequate right back at the club.

We still have expensive deadwood like Özil and mhikitaryan on the books

We need an experienced manager, unloading all this stuff on an Arteta or novice won’t work

Thought the same but then after a bit of thoughtful musing I've got the answer

... given the shambolic nature of our defending he wanted to chew up a bit of time so we could cling on for the draw .

Thank God we've got those three tough games out of the way Watford , Southampton and Norwich .... we must be due someone easy ... like Liverpool or Chelsea .

Have we ...... ? care to sprinkle a few names around .

Özil was a world class player. Pépé not yet. New manager like he said in his post match interview giving players chance to prove what they're worth. Özil might train well and if he wants to be can be a genius. Pépé, did well in French league but confidence player full of his own boots with 70m signing.. I can almost guarantee that the young guy, Saka gave a little more of a *%^@ in training.

And, that is what the old Arsenal used to do so why wouldn't Ljunberg see that.

FA Cup 3rd round draw tonight, lots of minnows hoping to get a big team so they can cash in.....or in our case so they can get to the 4th round

That’s all fine it’s just that if your in the toilet and we are in the absolute toilet barely creating chances youth typically doesn’t get you out of it. It’s almost historically proven. Saka looked great away in Germany, good at old Trafford then to be honest since then has looked a little out of his depth. Willock at times has been good but on occasion ineffective. It’s to be expected with kids. You could even say this about Guendouzi who is still young,

Meanwhile there’s this winger sat on the bench who scored 22 times last season and all the big clubs were tracking. What was even odder was that Freddie said the hardest decision he had to make was to leave Reiss Nelson out of the squad as he’s the future of the club. Ok fine mate but what about Pépé

It just feels our decisions at Arsenal seem bonkers

Drop Torreira destroy his confidence

Play Xhaka too much, fans get on his back, destroy confidence.

Play youngsters till they perform badly then sub them at half time, destroy confidence

Got 2 great strikers ? Terrific play them both and unbalance the team

4 at the back, 3 at the back, 2 at the back !

Not blaming Freddie who clearly is just doing this best but for the past 3 years it feels like some Tottenham fan has hacked into the matrix and is deliberately trying to scupper any progress

I get it but it is Emery destroyed their confidence by constantly focussing on what they were not doing as ppossed to what they were. It will take Ljungberg time to turn that mentality around. I had to do it at work multiple times and it takes months. I give Freddie 1 month to show a difference and I honestly believe we'll see some change in that timeframe.

On reflection I was a bit hasty using the word 'Seriously'!
However, I do find it inconceivable that Arsenal is struggling against teams in the relegation zone because the players aren't good enough. I think its primarily having had such a poor manager. I really believe the players below are all more than capable of being moulded into a team that can challenge for trophies/top 4.

Leno
Bellerin
Tierney (based on Celtic form)
Torriera
Aubameyang
Lacazette (admittedly not having a good season so far)
Pépé (stand out player in France last season)

out of the youngsters i'd say these players should have a very bright future in the game:
Guendozi
Willock
Martinelli
Saka
Saliba (clutching at straws here!)

and these players have done well in the past and hopefully the next AFC manager get bring the best out of them otherwise i'd move Özil on and have Holding as a back up.:
Özil
Holding

Players who could be part of a good future Arsenal squad IF they continue developing.
Nelson
Martinez
Smith Rowe

Saka is a strange one imo. He's gone backwards since starting his run. No end product? Hs should concentrate on his assists and leave the goals for the time being.

I think Freddie needs to stick Torreira in at DM and leave him there for a run of games. Give us some sort of protection for the defence. If it means playing more direct football and long balls, so be it. I'd also like him to pair Luiz and Holding and stick with them for a bit or else just make it Sokratis & Luiz and put Holding in for the Europa.

So many players lacking confidence, it will take some time to turn around. Totally agree with TG on Saka. Gifted player but he is very very young. Give Pépé a run and roast him from the sideline if he's not tracking back.

Mustafi......No.

This is my take on the future of the Arsenal squad. I’ve removed those who need to leave, who aren’t good enough or who sadly will leave (Aubameyang + Lacazette) and I think torriera will go back to Italy
Single * is a player who should/could be in the first 11
Double ** is a player who has the potential to be first 11 but they are very young so no guarantee
The rest are squad players
Leno *
Martinez
Bellerin *
Saliba **
Holding
Tierney *
AMN
Guendouzi *
Willock
Smith-Rowe
Pépé *
Saka **
Nelson
Martinelli **
Nketiah

That leaves us requiring the following players to build a good squad capable of winning trophies

Rb
CB x 2
LB
Def Mid
CM x 2
LW
Striker x 2