Özil makes Bambi look aggressive

A tactic I've rarely, if ever, seen employed in football but I have seen it as a strategy in basketball is a quick throw in catching the opposition either unawares, unfocused or disorganized.

Never really understand why I've never recalled seeing it.

You mean like this ?

https://youtu.be/gCWjioIR5MM

Low key start to the game, unsurprisingly with both teams on bad runs of form. Delighted to see Luiz benched, he's been absolute shite since he arrived, and Martinelli teaming up with Tierney on the left.

And now Tierney going off injured

Freddie to Özil "move the ball faster"

In your haste to give him a kick in the nuts .... he does mention THROW IN


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyQZHGhjBoE

Kolasinac who wasn’t even in the match day squad is now on the pitch due to bellerin’s injury in the warm up and now Tierney off injured.

When your luck is out it really is out

Half hearted attempt by Özil

They fail me when I see his name on the team sheet.

Take Özil out of the team. He is not commited.

Here we go again

Xhaka ducks out of that

Ball watching again

Var check for handball - never expected it to be ruled out. Not sure var has given us anything apart from that ridiculous Aubameyang offside goal v Man U

Do they choose morons for the VAR booth?
Why did that decision take that long?
Ridiculous

Comedy back heel from Torreira and it could easily have been two.

Well, no surprises so far. Same script as the previous several matches.

Weeee're *%^@*** *%^@,
Weeee're *%^@*** *%^@
We're *%^@*** *%^@, we're *%^@*** *%^@, weee're *%^@*** shiiittt

Absolutely despair atthe lack of energy or pace in our game.

I posted before this game that this is two teams absolutely devoid of confidence but you just knew that West Ham would find a way out of their recent funk and raise the tempo against us and score first and we’ll struggle to even get a shot to test the gk. no shot on target at the time of writing.

Relegation fight is on. And how many in this team do you fancy in that fight? Complete embarrassment. I’m actually amazed this will likely be only our 5th loss this season! We’ve been second best in every game I can recall this season

Things will keep getting worse until we change the attitude. Our effort levels mean the opposition only have to raise their game to about 75% and they will beat us easily.

Timid, cowardly, gutless, work shy....the failure to even just muster an opening 10 minutes with some sort of energy is shocking

For the nth week running, we are making a *%^@ team look good.

The West Ham keeper might as well stick a kettle in his goal and make himself a cup of tea. He's got *%^@ all else to do.

1 down and still no urgency. Kola is almost guaranteed to pass the ball back instead of front.

Freddie, be brave and take Özil out.

One big difference I see between us and the top of the table sides is that when they are in the opposition third they attack the box and as a last resort pass it back towards the center circle area. They have players at the ready and they make an attempt to get the ball around the 18 yard box for someone to do something useful with it.

I see our players seemingly receive a pass and instead of moving it forward pass it behind them. No sense of urgency, no other player running channels. We are bereft of confidence, not enough players willing to attack.

It’s just a disaster. We just Don’t seem to get a break. I don’t see how you can change this.

Btw that shoulder issue Tierney had has been an issue for a while. I’d expect an extended absence

Hook Özil. You know it makes sense.

Relegation threatened teams view us as a beacon of hope.

Not a single shot on target. I think you could take any team in the championship and league 1 and they’d give West Ham a better game tonight.
Not sure I’ve ever seen a team so short of confidence but even more worryingly and unforgivable is the lack of effort.

I cannot stand these players that are not giving 100% for the shirt. Get the U23 team out there. We might lose but at least we’d see some fight

Yes Lacazette for Özil,

Mesut has made an art of laying the ball off sideways whilst looking cool... then doing nothing else.

*%^@ defence comes as standard but we have absolutely nothing in midfield these days. Nothing. No control, no defence and no creativity.

How has that happened?

So when we lose to Man City best week we could have Brighton, West Ham and Burnley all easily go above us in the table. Maybe not Everton just yet as they are away to Man U

The week after we play and lose to Everton whilst Bournemouth and villa have winnable games.

On Boxing Day were away and losing to Bournemouth who would probably go above us and villa have Norwich at home to probably leapfrog is.

It’s probably only Southampton’s tough run of games that keeps us out of th bottom 3

At the moment I’d wager we’re 17th in the league on Boxing Day

Bit of work going on , sign being erected above the entrance to The Emirates ...scaffolding , a crane , couple of welders ............... Abandon all hope ...ye who enter here .

Sod it. I cant watch anymore.

Missed a fair bit of first half. What happened to Tierney - you know the injury prone second rate player from celtic who people on here kept telling me was not injury prone. We should have been looking for a CB at the time.

I think that was the worst 45 minutes I've seen from an Arsenal team since.... well ever. It makes me sick. What a disgrace.

...and having seen the replay, Xhaka was every bit as milky as I called it at the moment. He really should not be playing for us.

Come on Freddie. You should be on the touch line having words

Isn't there a strategy for when a team presses?

It is staggering

Let ramsey, the ox, Wilshere and Cazorla all go and have zero passing midfielders

Absolutely ludicrous. Pépé is our most creative player these days because nothing comes from the middle of the park

We’ve tried virtually every player in every formation possible and there is still no reaction. What is it going to take to inject some effort in to this team. Sadly I think they’re all too precious to react to a rollicking, they’ll just go insular and hide even more.

Never seen a group of professional athletes be so gutless.

Twice cresswell has gone right through Pépé, booked now but the first one wasn’t even a free kick