The defense is still (at best) suspect; so I suppose (read: I hope) that Arsenal's scouting dept. have already picked out potential replacements. Sokratis could be given the benefit of the doubt since this is his first season in the English game but Mustafi has turned out to be £35 million wasted. Despite the positive news re: Kos I can't expect him to be healthy and ready to go by the new year. Is it just me or does Emery's style benefit Lacazette more than it does Auba? Guendouzi and Toreira should be starting games after the break, I can't trust Xhaka in the big games anymore. Playing against the West Ham's of the world are more his level. I guess Arsenal will have to tread water until the new year because there's no way in hell I can see them even in touching distance of the CL spots with Sokratis and Mustafi as their CB pairing.
I worry about Guendouzi because... who is the last player that got better at Arsenal? Hopefully the new regime helps with that problem.
I spoke to someone about this, but at the end of the day we have a new manager who is completely different in how he operates off field than Wenger. Will players we have get better? Maybe, maybe not. But you can't really compare anything happening now to anything under Wenger.
Not to sound like a jerk or anything, but yeah. If Emery felt his style benefitted Laca more, he'd be starting. So yeah, it's just you.
Arsenal's start is much the same as last season Tottenham Hotspur have 5 points more than after 3 matches last season or compared to the same fixtures last season. Watford took 2 points from their equivalent fixtures last season. This time around: 9.#watfordfc #thfc #coys #SCoRe pic.twitter.com/5AURnWTYXe— Simon Gleave (@SimonGleave) August 28, 2018
This is good analysis (I think): Bellerín loses the ball upfield and West Ham break. Xhaka is dragged across the pitch by the runner Arsenal can't pressure the ball as they'd like to in such a situation. Positioning for a counter when in possession is somewhere to improve. pic.twitter.com/UH25ts075c— Arsenal Tactics (@ArsenalVids1) August 28, 2018
Great gif We touched on this conversation the other day re Guardiola and how he works on the shape of his team before they lose the ball Basically that is a dumb play by Bellerin as the team is not set up to press and most players are ahead of him
True Its interesting how the central midfielder (is it Xhaka?) doesn't cover his zone properly after the ball goes wide
True, true. I suppose this is one of the very hardest things to do tactically... to keep an ideal shape for both your current offensive foray and also an impending defensive block after a turnover. "Dumb" by Bellerin? He shouldn't be running so fast, creating that gap behind him? Is that gap solely his responsibility, or should Xhaka have been higher up closer to him? Or maybe, as much as anything, the problem was just a bad touch by Hector that got away from him?
Agreed. Ozil missed several games under Wenger during the last couple of seasons because he was sick and I seriously doubt he had any bust ups with Wenger. The number of times Ozil has been out sick could point to an underlying medical issue, the most benign of which would be bad allergies, which coincidentally are quite common in the summer.
Interesting still none of the majors have managed to source this story I wonder if it got exaggerated as yelling on the training field would hardly be unusual. Also seems strange that a brazillian ESPN journo has it and no one else, yet he tweets it right before the game. But not in english.
My guess is that a bunch of people heard a similar story, but they couldn't confirm it and this guy was less reluctant to tweet out a rumor.
Possible. Strange for such a big story to break on twitter and not in english. As you say, maybe he fancied some clicks.
I've seen this before. It is interesting that in what was considered an off season for Ozil, that this analysis groups him with De Bruyne and Silva.
Ted also logged very impressive chance creation data for Ozil last season on a bad team. In simple terms - he kept delivering.
I don't know what's up with him, but If any Player, let alone your superstar, misses games because of seasonal allergies? SMH
You clearly don't have bad allergies, they can make breathing difficult and can result in sinus infections and bad colds.
Yep - mebe is right - bad first touch. The general point about spacing stands for a gegenpress however. Germany had this same issue at the WC All the players run into a single line ahead of Bellerin the spacing needs to be correct so that some of them are controlling space in event of a breakdown, and bellerin, who is isolated, has to be careful not to lose the ball.
Actually I have increasingly bad allergies. My usage of Claritin & Zyrtec have skyrocketed in recent years. Do I have it really bad, probably not. But when you see sportsmen like Pete Sampras win a US Open while throwing up with stomach flu, it makes you think that seasonal allergies must be on the minor end of performance impairment. Or how about Kerri Strug take her final vault pass with a broken ankle. In any case, I'm pretty sure we're debating the wrong topic. I think there was some sort of "disagreement" between player and club this week, and Emery saying he had a cold was just an excuse. There's a fair amount of evidence supporting that conclusion. Including that we all know that's a very common practice for covering up a problem with a star player, when nobody really wants it going public. As I said in the Ozil thread, I really hope Emery earns his salary in man-management skills with Mesut this week. And that Mesut acts with maximum maturity towards helping the club. Barring any new or significant health issue for the player, we'll probably have a good idea in September if optimism is warranted. Crossing fingers.
If your allergies make it hard to breath that's gonna be more difficult to deal with than throwing up or making one last play on a broken bone.
Could quite easily be a sinus infection as well, which is frequently miscalled allergies by folks. A sinus infection can completely ruin my day, much more than allergies.