OMG, how did they f that up. Cech was in no-man's land and they couldn't head it in to a fairly wide open goal. We continue to play with fire. A 1-goal lead that is nothing but secure. COME ON!!!
Another unconvincing game from us. But we'll take the 3 pts and run the hell out of Wales. Let's hope our post-interlull form is a little stronger. Onward.
Nice friendly hug from Laca to Ozil there. Take that love Mezut as fuel for your future performances for this club.
So we are on pace to give up AND score 76 goals in the Prem. This season is going to cost me a lot of hair.
Some encouraging signs, some cause for concern. I'm encouraged by a lot of the structure we see in possession - we don't see the same set of clumps and open spaces we saw under Wenger. That will eventually, I hope, make us much harder to counter against. The press seems to be a lot more intense when we're in the lead and in the second half. I'm wondering if it's intentional or down to fitness.
There is a lot more structure when torreira is playing...covers a lot of ground and closes of channels czech ball playing is just shocking He does not fit into emery’s Game
U-nai's Red Ar-my! clap! clap! clap! U-nai's Red Ar-my! clap! clap! clap! U-nai's Red Ar-my! clap! clap! clap! U-nai's Red Ar-my! clap! clap! clap! U-nai's Red Ar-my! clap! clap! clap! (repeat as needed to urge us on to victory!!!) THREE POINTS!!! (right about now my hands are sore and so is my throat for doing that chant multiple times, but it's all good..... as long as it results in 3 points in the bag!!) COYF'n'G!!! Stage 3 coming up!!!
It's clear that PEA and Lacazette both need to start. In addition, Torreira needs to start. In his 25 minute cameo he completed 26 of 26 passes, including an assist, and led the team in tackles.
I wish we hired Arteta. I'm really not buying what Emery has to sell. Specifically, this game makes me really wonder if our manager actually is some kind of tactical genius once we do completely implement his system. Yeah, I can kinda see how it's probably a good idea most of the time to "control the game" but we are elevating that way beyond what it's worth. So how about this for a radical plan instead? We really have some outstanding footballers in various positions. How about we them the ball in good scoring positions deep into the opponent's half and they use their quality to score a bunch of goals? How about we do that instead of having Cech play own-goal pattycake with the ball 5 yards away from our own goal. The last two goals we scored, as "routine" goals they were excellent excellent finishes. Our system is mindbogglingly depriving service for finishers the quality of Alex and PEA by monkeying around with the ball trying to accomplish things that probably wouldn't help us if we did them. More generally, the way forward for this club is about players. Which players are good, which players are going to be here for the long haul, which players we need to get rid of, what are their capabilities, using all of that to maximize our results as best as we can, and then upgrade players as better players become available. It's not about systems, not yet. And there's no way I'm going go believe Emery's system is right for us until I see us play it consistently much better than we did today.
Leno for Cech and Torreira for Guen, and roll with that lineup for a while. If you give all those guys in attack some time to gel and work things out you'll get some pretty good results. Especially with a weak schedule for a while.
I think Torreira could go in for Douzi or Xhaka. He simply needs to start. Leno is a yes as well. I don't see us returning to a top team until we fix our defensive blunders though. Mustafi still acts like he's on a U10 team at times. Sokratis has shown flaws as well. Our back line is so defensively suspect it isn't funny.
I agree with Leno for Cech (especially since the display of his poor footwork in this match) but as much as we all want to see Torreira go in the Starting XI in place of Guendouzi don't forget Guen is only a kid, and much like Calum Chambers and Rob Holding, he is gonna need some seasoning in the reserves for a while but yes I also want to see Torreira and what he can actually do given the chance, but I liked what I saw from him this morning.
Cech can still block some shots, but Jesus, his distribution... I’d like to see what Leno has to offer. Ready to see torreira get some starts too. I think that helps with the defense, and there’s not much else we can change defensively at the moment. Licht over Bellerin would be a defensive improvement but Bellerin has been adding to the attack.
Xhaka and guendozi pea noel, torreira must playfor either Ozil looks good in small doses but drifts out the game, is he injured or carrying a knock? I thought Ramsey was good in a free role, did some good work out wide left like he does for Wales I think mikhi has to start, he’s been our best chance creator and looks dangerous out wide. Laca was excellent, probably our best st atm as auba has been poor imo but took his goal well Cech cannot play football, we have to be more direct or change him. Sokratis was unlucky to not give a pen away and played some poor back passes We definitely need a quality lb in jan. monreal is t cutting it and kol is too slow I like ozil but he is a decent piece to recoup from and buy a top winger like dembele
You're probably right, but who would wanna buy Ozil right now?? I just don't really see that happening... at least not before next summer.
Much too early to judge. He’s inherited an absolute mess structurally, it’s going to take a little time.