For Kola today was a good performance because usually he is a beyond awful defender. I really don't like this current back 4 they are so poor. Doesn't help that the midfield Xhaka in particular allows acres of space for the opposition and we get overrun constantly.
Yeah baby! Converted a six pointer against our main rival just one point below us in the table. Or _was_ one point below us I should say. Bournemouth who?
Yeah maybe, but I don't think so. A couple of years ago, Gazidis had a big title and a big paycheck but not very much meaningful authority. The Kroenke's were pretty disinterested, and Wenger had longstanding ties to the fan base to support his corporate politics. None of those things are true now. Raul and Edu are the main decisionmakers at the club. Raul desperately needs Arsenal to finish top four this year to justify some of the decisions he's made, but he doesn't have any meaningful obligation to "reward" Emery if that does happen if he's not the right man to move the club forward. In fact, some of the AKBs feel vindicated because Emery is so bad (lolz) so they're not going to do anything for Emery. We can fire Emery today as far as I'm concerned as long as we have a decent replacement lined up.
If Raul is that motivated to get top 4 it may be in his interest to act sooner rather than later assuming he can get someone good (Allegri) now. This season looks alot like the season that we took 2nd behind Leicester. We have no shot at 1st but everything behind Liverpool looks wide open. Don't see Emery capitalizing on that. If he remains the manager for the entire season and we make top 4 it will be by pure luck.
Here is Emery's post-match presser from today: It's challenging to understand him sometimes and to parse the meaning, but he said some interesting things, including: * He was happy with 1T and it was close to what he had wanted, but not 2T * He wanted us to control the ball more in 2T but we struggled to do that * He wanted & wants us to play in EPL like we did against Forest & Liege, even if the competition levels aren't exactly the same There's definitely still some lingering questions of where accountability lies for our poor performances, e.g. 2T today, and whether the coach and the players are completely on the same page, but I took positive(s) from what he said post-match. We shall see. The proof is in the pudding. Onward with @ArsenalJake!
If you want the EPL team to play like the team in the Forest and Liege matches, you need to have the back 4 involving Tierney, Bellerin, Holding and Chamber, and you have to dump Xhaka from the midfield. The kids in the midfield are agile, quick and move on at all costs. Our EPL team at times has been titanic in its movement.
Yup!! And I'm ever so slightly optimistic about this, because: 1) Baring further setbacks, I think we might see Holding & Tierney starting against Sheffield, if not Palace. And Bellerin seems close behind them. The only tricky decision for Emery is which one of Sokratis or Luiz to drop. 2) Those comments Emery made yesterday showed me that he is watching & listening to how his team played in the cups compared to the league. The one thing that I'm not sure he'll be "brave" enough to do is drop Xhaka or move him upfield. But in 2 weeks it will all start to be revealed.
Moving Xhaka upfield negates his best attribute, his passing range. If you are going to play Xhaka as an attacking midfielder because you want to carry a poor defender in that position, you are better off sitting Xhaka and carrying Ozil defensively, he is a much better attacking player.
My take on the game and the near term return of Holding, Bellerin, and Tierney is that the defense looks like it will improve, but Arsenal still aren't creating enough chances offensively.
Can't recall which one, but on one of the Arsenal podcasts yesterday, the data showed that most of Xhaka's passes were lateral than forward, and forward passing was/is a strength of his. In general they said we don't have anyone who's really making the forward pass through the middle that really splits the defense and creates scoring chances. My memory seems to support that view.
Which top teams pass through the midfield at the moment? I'm pretty sure it's a dead tactic, teams bypass midfield play( passing from CB to FB/wingers) or have dribblers who are press immune and dribble through the line. Which is what pissed me off the most about letting Iwobi go.
Maybe. I don't think Xhaka is effectively "negated" by playing a bit higher up. He's still a decent passer, just the profile of passes would change a bit. That said, honestly I'd vote for removing him entirely but I'm 99% sure that Emery won't want to do that (barring injury) which is why I said "move him upfield" to accommodate Torreira at the base. Anyway, this discussion is probably a waste of time because Emery is gonna do what Emery is gonna do. Hope he proves me wrong though!
Xhaka is negated by the fact that Arsenal don't have enough possession under Emery. He's much more valuable when Arsenal have the ball and are camped in the other team's half.