Couldn’t read the full article, but I’m not buying it. At least not based on what I’ve seen so far. Look at the first 15mins of the second half vs the second 15mins of the second half. While we weren’t as hot at we were at the end of the first half we were still working the ball out and down their flanks without xhaka at first. But in the next 15mins we saw ozil come off and more importantly Chelsea put on kovacic and hazard while cech started hoofing it up the pitch.
For starters, Arsenal will probably need to sell Xhaka who has been underwhelming, so Arsenal does really need an upgrade at DM. Torreira and Guendouzi are players who are young. They lack maturity and experience. In my opinion, one of the two DM players should be a much more experienced player for the sake of balance, which is why Xhaka atm is favored by Emery for a starting place even though it's clear he's not a solution for Arsenal at DM. Arsenal need another DM, one who is much more experienced to balance out either Torreira or Guendouzi. With respect to Torreira, the third goal Arsenal conceded cost Arsenal the game, and of all the mistakes made on the play (including those made by Lacazette and Bellerin specifically), Torreira committed the most basic one: failing to get goal-side of his marker. Had he done so, I doubt Chelsea would have scored and at best they would have had a corner. And it wasn't just the goal. He conceded a really poor free-kick outside the area. He made some big mistakes in the game, ones a more experienced player would not make.
Was away this weekend, helping someone move. Still haven't had a chance to watch back the game properly, though have seen the highlights/lowlights. Here's one positive that's not been mentioned... 229 posts in a matchday thread! Whoa... when was the last time we saw that??? Sure were in the salad days of Emery, but let's keep this going. Breath some frigging life back into this forum!
Watching this passage of play back in isolation, it's honestly pretty impressive. Hi @bayer04_en pic.twitter.com/aj57nYQo7C— CanonCrested (@canoncrested) August 20, 2018