Villa Up Next
Sep 21st, 2019 by 'holic
A long and exhausting day necessitates the briefest of late previews of the Villa home match.
The starting eleven? I stress I am guessing at who Unai Emery will pick, not who I would. Bernd Leno behind Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, David Luiz, and Sead Kolasinac. Granit Xhaka and Matteo Guendouzi behind Nicolas Pepe, Mesut Ozil, and Bukayo Saka. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang up top.
The ‘holic pound
I have to place my bet tonight. I have to pray he will keep faith with Saka who must be floating on air after Frankfurt. It is purely that performance that has me on 3-1. That is available at a best of 11/1.
The ABW Preview
Danny and Nicky Wilson look ahead to the match.
115 Responses to “Villa Up Next”
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I don’t think Saka will earn more than a place on the bench. I think Ceballos will start too . I think we will win 3-1 and Pepe will open his account
I’d perhaps try to find room in the back four for a change. I didn’t see the game the other night but if Chambers played OK, I’d be tempted to put him in.
I wouldn’t have Xhaka in, but Emery will.
I’d have Ceballos all day long over Ozil and I know it won’t happen, but if the option is Willock or Saka, Saka gets the nod to see if he can build on his performance.
Thanks Guvnor.
I’ll be happy with 3-1.
I think Nelson will start as he
was rested the other night.
I’m hoping Dani will start
with Guen or Torreira at
CM but not holding my
breath on that.
Then Ozil behind Nelson,
Auba and Pepe.
Sadly, I think it will be the
usual suspects in defence
but I’d drop Papa for Calum.
Goals from Nelson and Pepe
would be great
Spurs had a tough time breaking down Aston Villa as did Crystal Palace against 10 men Villa. They have also beaten Everton 2-0. Villa won’t be easy but we will overcome them. 3-1 would be great.
Nelson, Guen and Ceballos will start but I would like to see Martinelli being given a chance. Ozil will play and Chambers and Luiz would be my preference but I feel Sokratis will start. Emery should try out Martinez in the league. Leno, Kola, AMN, Pepe and Auba completed the eleven. Saka to come on at some stage. Looking forward to this one.
Just leave Xhaka out and all will be good. He’s bad and he knows it and he’s throwing Guendouzi under the bus to keep his place.
As short as a Mini Cooper. Short and nice. This should be a game for short men, Torreira and Saka. Leave Niles & Xhaka on the bench. I don’t care who else are picked. I’d be more conservative with a 2-0.
…and I don’t care who is picked, or what the score is. 3 points would be nice.
COYG
A finely distilled essence of a preview, sir. With a sharp beginning about the likely rather than preferred selection, a spicy hint of Saka and a broad and mellow finish with a 3-1 punt. Cheers, Guvna.
?
Aarón Ramsey’s Juventus debut includes the opening goal in a win over Verona. Well done
usual back 5
guen xhaka
ceballos
pepe auba saka
ozil on bench
The only lesson Emery learned from the game vs Watford is not to play Özil and Ceballos together. I expected him to play Torreira and Chambers, while resting Niles & either of Guen/Xhaka. I hope we capitalise and not capitulate.
Why not take Ozil to the Europa game? Then publicly say it was to rest him after 72 minutes of play all season? If he is starting on the bench.
I like Emery but I don’t always gets the decisions he makes or how they compare to the stuff he says to the media.
Anyway, here’s hoping we spank Villa today.
UTA!
Saka and Xhaka both start as does Ceballos. Sokratis and Luiz as expected. COYG.
Great stuff lads
Every one is ball watching
Tracking runs is overrated anyway Arthur.
Ball watching is the nuts.
Short corners. What more can be said?
As usual we can all see Xhaka is about to get a yellow five seconds before he commits the foul. I’m bored of it.
This is ridiculous clean tackle and gets a yellow
Oh dear. Taxi for AMN
John Moss continuing as a referee despite so many horror shows is unbelievable.
The first yellow he gave to AMN was laughable because he was only trying to avoid contact and the second one is a follow through after he actually won the ball. We should totally appeal this because AMN does not deserve to miss the next game because of the sheer incompetence of an official.
When will Unai finally drop the useless Maitland-Niles, the play-acting Sokratis, the hapless Xhaka..?
More importantly, when will the Kroenkes finally sack the clueless Unai?
Taxi for Unai as well
I can’t even be bothered with analysis. Just uuurghh
Mind you, if we win it will be a massive result for our confidence
Definitely not a second yellow. Fucking Moss.
Despite the sending off we haven’t really shown anything on the pitch ball watching was an understatement.
If we don’t stop playing Xhaka soon we are done for
Someone who lives in the UK needs to give Jon Moss a real spanking for that decision. Utter stupidity and arrogance.
Yet even before we went 1 man down we were already 1 goal down. Not good enough from everyone – which leaves the blame to Emery and his rubbish coaching.
At the match . I’d snatch your arm off for a draw. Just to remind you we are playing Villa at home. 10 men against anyone is difficult but they were the better team in the first half and we don’t have the midfield . It’s a very depressed and pessimistic Grove
yes, depressed and pessimistic
here too. Another horror
show.
Need to find some spirit
2nd half.
Or I need to find some spirits
and drink them
Get Xhaka off if we don’t want to be down to nine men.
Commentators trying to justify the second yellow.
Villa players look big, strong and athletic and our look like a bunch of anaemic and weak. Lot has to change before we Win anything. Emery is definitely the answer.
Refereeing despite VAR is atrocious however saying that as TTG mentioned above they were the better team in the first half.
Unai is treading on thin ice
I just have a couple of things to say.
I 2nd your opinion KSN on #33.
I wonder how times Xhaka has received a yellow for pulling arms?
If I was allowed to make a suggestion, I would suggest that Emery try Mustafi @ right back.
Emery needs to right this ship like yesterday or he is gone soon. It is one thing to have talent on the team, and quite another to know how to deploy it.
Penalty. Pepe taking it and he scores!!
We are down again. Emery doesn’t know what defending is. Worse than Wenger. Luiz also contributed. Taxi for Emery, Luiz, Socratis and Xhaka.
Well that didn’t last too long
Refereeing despite VAR is atrocious
If VAR is anything like DRS, referees will only get worse from here on in. Umpiring standards have dropped through the floor under DRS.
Good for Pepe to score, let’s hope he kicks on from this.
Finally Xhaka is off.
Great play and score by Chambers!!!!
Auba turns it around. Ahead for the first time.
Say what you want about Unai. His players play for him
Get the fuck in! What a beauty!
GSD@45 – True and a positive thing but is that enough?
ksn. No. It ain’t.
But it is very important. When that changes then no manager has a chance
Moss blows the final whistle!!!! What a relief.
A win is a win and going by BBC Live Text is no way to judge a performance, but…
We have got to do a far better job of disposing of “easy” teams, because we ain’t good enough to beat the hard ones.
Saying that though, we’re still fourth.
Possibly my biggest disappointment today is with all the ‘arsenal supporters’ who decided to watch the last five minutes when we were winning and crashed all the streams for those of us who had sat through the previous 85 mins.
Suddenly I’m on BBC sports hitting refresh. What a way to end the game.
Yes. Just yes.
I still can’t be arsed with analysis yet. We managed to win.
Get in!
Gunnersaurus @45 – Maybe they played for pride and for the badge.
Never in doubt!
that was a big win. we should have won it going away, but the fightback with ten in the second half was outstanding. again our defense was poor for their goals, but the grinta we showed….wow. chambo, what a touch. and auba’s freekick was a thing of beauty.
congratulations, gentlemen.
You were on the wrong stream, GSD. There is only one.
“His players play for him” or despite him? Were the playing for him or his tactics at Watford I wonder?
Important result. See you there for the Bournemouth game?
It all changed when Xhaka went off
GSD, I feel Unai is being seen in more and more negative light with every passing game. In spite of his players playing for him, he will be gone unless he does something to strengthen the defense. Almost every team we play against keeps scoring. We look like we will concede 50 plus goals again like we did last season and miss top four if things continue like this.
ksn@58. I’d agree with all of that.
When a manager loses the dressing room then it is all over. Whilst he has his players onside he has at least got a puncher’s chance.
For those questioning whether Unai has lost the dressing room I’d say there is little evidence of that. Perhaps they are not all thrilled with everything he does but I think they are working for him. It sounds to me like people are unwilling to allow even a basic comment that his players play for him if it does not suit the narrative that he is rubbish. Frankly, if anyone wants to say he is rubbish then it is not like he isn’t giving them plenty of ammo. Lots of problems at the moment. But I’m not in any sort of agreement that the players have given up on him.
Tremendous spirit by the team to turn this one around.
Have refrained from posting for the last few days because the amount of knives out for Emery was a bit over the top. Yes criticism was of course merited but suggestions that he should be sacked after just five games into the season were disappointing to say the least. So after that massive turn around, I hope he gets the credit too because his substitutions worked and we deserved to win based on that second half and also considering how ridiculous the sending off was.
The first half and the first goal that we conceded should be alarm bells for Emery because it was again reminiscent of last season where we started games without any intensity at all. Anyway there’s plenty of time to delve into the negatives, right now is the time to celebrate an important and hard fought win. Given the results in other games this week, this is an even more important win for us and if we can go on a run right now we could really cement our place in the top four.
Regarding a lot of the criticism for the team today, at least we can all agree that the game wasn’t dull. Credit where it’s due, they dug themselves out of the poo, which is always heartening.
Plus I got 22/1 at halftime for 3-2!
Mick! I totally forgot! I got 18s 2 mins before we scored the second equaliser!
10p well spent
Credit where is due, remarkable come back with 10 men and Gendouzi MOTM he took everything onto his shoulders and drove us forward despite the young age. Chamber’s did well too what a touch for his equaliser.
Xhaka was slowing us down kept loosing momentum going forward. Surely this means he will lose his place in starting eleven?
The players played for their pride. Man-o-man we have by far the better players compared to Villa, I’m sure their pride was hurting. Love the heart from Guendouzi as well, he was leading the charge in the 2nd half. The players played for Emery against Watford last week and lost 2 points. In the 2nd half we couldn’t play Emery-ball with 10-man so the better team with the bigger hunger won.
And I won on Pepe and Auba to score, Xhaka to be carded. At 9s.
Get in!
Will this be the game which turns our season around? If only we can play the first half of matches like we play the 2nd 45 we can be title contenders!
I feel Unai is getting a lot of unwarranted stick, sure i dont agree with him starting Xhakha, but like time away from the pitch has elevated Holding’s profile and made Tierney a UCL level FB, conversely familiarity has bred contempt for our manager.
There is no way we would have shown this type of grit in Arsene’s latter years (who i adore). I hope maitland niles’ exclusion leads to a revamp of the back four, and I think having Chambers as RB, who has more defensive nous than AMN) provides more balance considering Kola’s attacking tendencies.
Top 4 is the bare minimum this season, and hopefully Pepe kicks on from here.
Shout out to Guendouzi who is my MOTM and also one of the great examples of Emery’s management.
COYG
Gotta agree with Slash@67, I would play Chambers ahead of AMN at right back on the basis of his performance against Frankfurt and the second half here. When AMN was sent off I was worried for the next game purely because AMN has pace which is vital for a full back but Chambers just seems to be in better form and reads the game better.
I agree with Desi and Slash’s original point. Play Chambers until Hector is back.
Three big, big points today.
Drinks on the bar for the
team for that. Only half’s
though as we only played
for half the game 🙂
got out of jail free etc but
well done to them
A come-from-behind win with 10 men should lift the spirits even if it doesn’t mask the well-known defensive frailties.
Agree wholeheartedly with SlaSh and ATG’s nomination of Guendouzi as MoTM. Also thought Kola had a good game, and put in more hard work on his defensive covering than he has tended to do in the past.
Play Chambers until Hector is back.
He’ll have to earn his place when fit. He was in horrible form when he got crocked and had been for ages.
Cynic. I think realistically it will go the other way. He will be straight into the team as soon as he is fit and will have to play badly enough to lose his place.
I’d go Hector then Chambers at right back and give AMN some time in midfield in Europe.
No doubt that’s how it will be, but if Chambers gets in and plays well (or even average but without making costly errors) he should retain his place until he Mustafis it.
GSD,
Well done, Sir!
Think we’re likely to see quite a few “odd goal in five” wins this season.
Unless we get some defenders, of course.
@desi – Do you happen to be based out of Bangalore by any chance? I remember you posting something to this effect some time back.
First question asked of emery in the post match interview was the same as my question in the last post- Can this be a turnaround. Could not make any sense of the manager’s answer post that.
BTW in the reverie of our second half performance I almost missed to state that Jon Moss is shit.
I have never felt that Emery had lost the dressing room. My grouse is that he has not done enough to organize and bolster the defense. It is ridiculous the way Watford, Villa etc., can overrun our defense at will.
Kudos to our team for getting out of the big hole they dug for themselves in the first half. They showed character and fight and never appeared to give up. Massive result for us today. Very happy with the result but would need big improvements if we are to end the season at fourth.
Have back drunk and read my plaintive bleat from the ground at half-time . We did incredibly well to win this with ten men. Villa’s legs went a bit and great credit goes in particular to Guendouzi , Aubameyang and Chambers who lifted the team. Torreira and Willock also did well and any Arsenal team gains greatly when Baka is removed.GSD got it spot-on about his booking . It was soooo unnecessary and sooo predictable. It is beyond imagining as to how he can start as he offers the team nothing positive and much( that is negative .
As regular readers may know I am not a fan of Emery but he can lift teams. He gets lots of practice because he invariably sets them up wrongly and has to resort to crisis management but the team refused to lose although they are appalling defensively. Luiz is incredibly erratic but is not what Arsenal need. Keown knows best, What we need is a midfield that stops the opposition flooding through to confront our brainless defence . Again much of the blame for us failing to do this falls to Xhaka. He can’t get the team forward and he can’t break up play .Until we either adapt Torreira’s game or use Luiz in defensive midfield we will ship goals at alarming levels . Emery must see this but fails to address it.
Still we won and it was great entertainment in the second half.
Auto correct has changed Xhaka to Baka. I wouldn’t point this out unless you thought I meant Saka. He did well for his first game
Wish we had left Xhaka in Baku
Just back from the game. Crazy afternoon. First half was dire, back to the games against Brighton, Palace, Leicester and Wolves at the end of last season. The team were booed off at half time and I don’t apologise for that. But second half was much better and the crowd roared the team on, even after Villa’s second goal. Apart from the goals the biggest cheer of the afternoon was when Xhaka was taken off. He had been dire. Guendouzi was superb, whole hearted, running at men and really caring. He could have gone down outside the box but carried on driving into the box to win the pen.
Calum really reacted well to get our second after more good work from Guendouzi. He then drove into the box again and it was a nasty moment when he squared up to Heaton (who had deliberately fallen on him). A yellow each and our passionate Frenchman would have off.
There was only one person going to take that free kick. Having been fouled Auba grabbed the ball and made it clear he was taking it. Somehow he steered it through a gap in the wall into the corner. Cue utter pandemonium.
There’s nothing like a come back win.
Slash@77, I am based in Ahmedabad (I think it’s Vinay Prabhakar who is based in Bangalore). The irony of it all is that Ahmedabad is in Gujarat – a dry state (alcohol consumption is banned here). So these are the only drinks I can have and the only bar I can frequent, legally speaking atleast 😉
Are you also based in India?
Oh, one more thing.
Sokratis is an absolute disgrace.
Grabbed hold of the Villa players leg after a tackle, head butted it, and then writhed on the ground holding his face.
If I were his manager he’d be in my office tomorrow morning and would walk out having been fined two week’s wages.
Hate that kind of thing. It’s also brain dead in the VAR era.
Hear Hear Countryman. Sokratis behaved appallingly. He was also very lucky not to have handball awarded against him towards the end. If you represent Arsenal you have to meet certain standards and he falls short…way short based on that behaviour. He also played very poorly. He and Luiz played like the Chuckle Brothers.
Having seen the AMN second yellow, there’s an angle which shows it was justified. His studs were up and he rolled across the top of the ball, so I can see why it was given. BUT, whether Moss could see it from that angle I dunno.
Catching up on Twitter it seems that Dave, our landlord, was taken I’ll today. It reads as if he is OK, but a nasty shock.
Dave you know you are loved and revered here. Get well soon and give us an update when you can.
Don’t do Twitter…
All the best boss!
Take care Guvnor, hope you’re
feeling better soon.
@80 TTG
Baka means stupid in
Japanese, which makes it
spot on for Xhaka’s booking.
C100,
Completely agree on Socratis-
it was just embarrassing on the
TV.
I thought the booing at half
time was for Moss.
dave, sorry to hear you are feeling unwell. here’s a restorative dream of mcallan 18 on the bar for you.
Guvnor here is to your health and I hope you are better soon.
Best wishes, holic, for a speedy recovery.
Hope you feel better soon, ‘Holic. Everyone in the bar rooting for you.
What C100 and TTG said about Sokratis. The leg-holding incident looked pathetic. Indeed, was pathetic.
@Desi – Yes I am based out of Bangalore, was looking for red and white haunts on the weekends so thought i would ask.
Apologies for the mix up, would love to have a legal drink with you whenever you are in this part of the country…
Get well soon holic. Look forward to your version of yesterday.
Sokratis needs to go. He cost us dearly last week, and got away with a blatant handball in stoppage time this week, not to mention the embarrassing play acting which deserved at least a booking. How many more chances can we afford these brainless individuals?
Sorry to hear you’ve been unwell, Guvna. Get well soon. I can recommend some restoratives. That 18yo MacAllan on the bar is a good start. All the very best, maestro.
How many times will out strikers save us? guendouzi, auba saved us yesterday second half else we had a shocking performance. I do not like Emery but that does not make any difference for I love Arsenal, so I could have continued to ignore his blind dislike towards Ozil or his insistence of playing from the back etc but I cannot ignore the fact that we have become utterly boring. Same mistakes, praying for individual brilliance, no cohesion and utterly shambolic midfield.
What will it take to make emery realize that torreira is not a box to box midfielder and instead should sit at the base of the midfield to guard the defence. When the game was crying out for Ozil, you continue to ignore him for what joy? Why continue to play AMN when you know he is not good enough to play RB? somewhere there should be a method to even madness. A win covers cracks but not all of them, we were 10 minutes away from losing another home game and would be at 11th if we had, so this bravado is all nice if it comes off else it is disastrous.
Why not?
Spot on as always, Vinay. I always look forward to your firm but fair analysis- win, lose or draw.
More nonsense around about Emery. Loser next Monday gets the tin tack evidently.
Guys you cannot judge Emery until he has had at least ten games with his first choice defence, 75% of which is missing at present. If it’s still Fred Karno at the back then possibly fair enough.
Stick with it until Christmas and enjoy the ride, like Sunday.
Oh and enjoy Auba, one the the best strikers to ever grace the red and white. Make him Captain!
It is absolute garbage about Emery and I’m really surprised to see Arseblog leading the way.
Had we not pulled a second half rabbit out of the hat, we might well have been witnessing Emery’s last game.
Seriously?
Poor stuff that.
I watched Manure yesterday.
Their attacking was poor,
then Rashford went off hurt
and its last tooth fell out.
The Gummy Bears vs our Fred
Karno defence next week.
I think AMN being out will
save Papa and Luiz as Calum
will have to cover at RB unless
we go full panic and rush
Hector back.
Cynic. We often disagree but delighted to be in accord with you on this.
Gunnerblog (Arseblog’s pod cast partner) writes along similar lines in The Athletic today. The muttering about Emery is coming from some sensible and respected members of The Arsenal supporter base. I hope they stop it, at least until the “new” defence (I know only Tierney is new but Bellerin and Holding were core to our 22 game unbeaten run last year) has settled down.
So sorry to hear about Dave. I’ve sent him my best.
Vinay makes a salient point. Emeryball ( if it exists at all) is boring and we are not able to dominate games from the off because he usually picks the wrong team.(eg one with Xhaka in it)
It’s a real dilemma. It’s not the Arsenal way to sack managers after a season but Bruce Rioch was on the pitch yesterday ( behaving in a very dignified manner ) and we sacked him after a season because Dein realised he wasn’t going to take Arsenal forwards. But Rioch stabilised a club reeling from the Graham debacle and got us playing from the back ( but not in suicidal fashion like now) making the transition to Wenger much easier. He just mightily pissed off Wrighty who had Dein’s ear and couldn’t make up his mind Re incoming transfers.
Switching after a season can work if you have a better man in place it just seems very cruel . But in my opinion this job is way beyond Emery and a more focused coach could take this pretty good squad much further forward .
I expected it in some ways as all these writers/bloggers were steeped in backing Wenger until it became The Done Thing to slag him off, but it does disappoint.
Two things to bear in mind – We are seeing Emery operating with largely Wenger’s players and of those we’ve bought since, we have no idea if he’s had much say in signing any of them!
Within a gnat’s tit of Champions League football (and admittedly should have finished third) and in a European final in his first season and the knives are out already.
He’s being tarnished with Wenger’s legacy of leaving a pile of shite behind, as successive managers have been by Ferguson’s poor squad.
Things do look jumbled, we’re still poor defensively but who bought most of that midfield and back four and is it any surprise that well established players still play the way they always do?
Our “identity”? Well it’s right there on the pitch and has been for over a decade!
If you look at things in context then last season, barring two Mustafi nightmares, we were the best team in the league outside the top two. We would have finished higher than a Spud team supposedly on the up and great to watch.
Mustafi … well … people parrot that old cliché when things are done that are skillful, that you cannot coach it. I would suggest that you cannot coach out of a player, especially of Mustafi’s age and experience, the kind of errors he makes on a regular basis. The only way to eliminate those errors is to eliminate Mustafi, which Emery has done.
We bought in David Luiz, who has always been an in and out player and who could still prove to be a good signing with the right partner, if he’s used in the right way. I saw a stat the other day that in 160 games for Chelsea, Luiz conceded three penalties and that he’d given away two in four for us. That’s in large part down to the midfield IMO but for now, let’s stick to defence.
And now we come to Sokratis, who is a Greek myth for the 21st Century. The myth in his case being that he is/was some sort of hard and uncompromising centre back of the kind we need. An opinion I saw in these very drinks quite a lot last season. The truth about Sokratis is that he looked hard because he was half a second slower to dive in recklessly than Mustafi, so he clumped people more often and it was mistaken for being tough.
Unfortunately the reality with him is that he’s just not very good and on top of that he’s the kind of player to do the thing we saw yesterday. He’s not Arsenal quality in terms of play or behaviour IMO. But who else do we have to pick until Holding is fit?
AMN? I don’t recall seeing too many people clamouring for his removal from the side, although there’s plenty of doubt expressed about his ability as a defender. His injury might force Emery’s hand and give Chambers some game time, so if this is the case let us hope he flukes his way into picking a player in the right position the way Wenger did with Kolo Toure.
We’ll gloss over Kolasinac… I would not have sold Monreal under any circumstances, but was that Emery’s choice?
I genuinely don’t think Emery is THAT bad and he’s not helped by having few options and, as we move through the team, players around the squad who he simply doesn’t want but who the peopl doing the deals have failed to move on.
His reliance on Xhaka is probably his greatest weakness. Maybe that is colouring some people’s view of the manager although, in the case of columnists/bloggers etc, there are more clicks in Emery OUT writing I suppose.
Ramble over 🙂
I know who is AMN
but who the fu*k is IMO?
IMO = In My Opinion
I overlooked the reference to the Guvnah’s health scare yesterday. Very best wishes, ‘Holic. Get well soon.
More sensible stuff from Cynic above. (Translates as “I agree with much, if not all, of what Cynic says above.”)
COYG
Slash@96, thanks for the offer and we shall surely catch up for a drink whenever I am in Bangalore – I have a cousin who works there. And if you ever happen to visit my part of the country, let me host you for some delicious albeit non-alcoholic Gujarati delicacies.
Wish you a very quick recovery Holic, as quick as some of your lightning fast reports…
TTG like your statement – “Until we either adapt Torreira’s game or use Luiz in defensive midfield..”
When Holding returns, why wouldn’t the manager try moving Luiz up to DM, & have Sok & Holding play in central defence? I think Mustafi can play right back too. Try it with the lesser teams.
And is it just me, I seem to see Torreira playing more up field when he plays. Is that his best position?
Is a team captain someone with leadership qualities, someone who can communicate? I wonder. My model of a captain is Michael Jordan during his playing days with Chicago (basketball).
Cynic@107, I agree with your larger point – some of the bloggers are completely against Emery. Some like Arseblog and 7am kick-off started off with a very biased position against him and therefore have turned on him at the first opportunity. I remember Arseblog saying immediately after Emery’s appointment that he just seems to be a stop gap appointment before we sign someone big for the manager’s post.
I also agree with your point that last season we should have finished third and overall it was an improvement for us in terms of points and also evolving as a team.
Where I disagree with you is your point about this being Wenger’s team. Last season we bought 5 players in the summer and this summer we bought/loaned in 5 more and a lot of academy youngsters are playing or on the verge of playing for the first team. During the same windows we have sold a whole lot of players. In fact from the last Wenger team, the only regular first team players still playing now are Xhaka, Bellerin (who hasn’t played for 9 months now), Kolasinac & Ozil (who Emery hardly ever plays now in significant games). Let’s also not forget that Lacazette and Holding are also Wenger players. Am not including Aubameyang because he was only 6 months under Wenger. But that is also precisely the reason why Emery should be given time. This team has had a massive overhaul across the past one full season of football and any manager would need time to get such a newly assembled squad playing to any sort of style/rhythm. Let’s give him at least until Christmas before we form any kind of definitive judgements.
Also your point regarding him not having an input in the players we have bought in seems wide of the mark – there is enough evidence in the form of Dennis Suarez last January and Ceballos this summer to suggest that we go and buy/loan the player Emery feels strongly about. Similarly Zaha seemed to be ahead on Emery’s list than Pepe but Palace tried to play tough and we quickly moved to secure Pepe instead of getting sucked into a long drawn out Zaha summer saga.
And finally to your point about Wenger having accidentally stumbled upon Kolo Toure’s right position fits in with your oft repeated comments about Wenger having accidentally done everything for 21 years. I don’t want to debate about that one more time. Not every new manager Arsenal appoint has to be compared to Wenger and not every player who plays on the right wing for us should be compared with Theo. I thought after Theo and Wenger leaving the club, we would not be having these kind of discussions often. There is something called moving on but apparently not…
You lot are diamonds. Thank you. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>