Palace At Home – What Could Go Wrong?
Oct 26th, 2019 by 'holic
Let’s face it, there won’t be much in the way of change to the team for the visit of Crystal Palace after Thursday.
Bernd Leno likely starts behind Calum Chambers, Sokratis Papasthopoulos, David Luiz, and Sead Kolasinac.
Granit Xhaka to patrner Matteo Guendouzi behind Mesut, just kidding, Dani Ceballos.
Bukayo Saka will surely join Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and Nicolas Pepe up top.
With Palace just a point behind us the result looks less convincing than pre-match last season when The Eagles inflicted a Champions League denying win at The Grove.
The ‘holic pound
My money is hopefully on 2-1 to The Gunners at 8/1.
Have good one, ‘holics.
83 Responses to “Palace At Home – What Could Go Wrong?”
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sparse but effective, and i hope the pound romps home!
for all: screwsgooner is how i think of it in my head. call me what you will, just not late for supper 🙂
That’s the briefest preview ever H.
Obviously you are still basking in England’s World Cup glory. !!
As for Palace,who knows.
I don’t,and i don’t think anyone else does either.
With both Chelsea and Leicester winning,there is now a 5 point gap between us and top 4, so a win by any means is essential even at this early stage.
And not forgetting good luck to the Arse Ladies,who have a massive match tomorrow as well, at home to title rivals Man City.
Having already lost 2 – 1 away to our only other title rival Chelsea, we can ill afford to lose this one as well.
Well remembered Re the ladies Clive. They’ve been doing much better in Europe than Citeh but the Chelsea result was a blow.
As for the men we are also at risk of slipping a way behind if we don’t win tomorrow.
I think Holic has probably got the team right and sadly if that is it , it won’t be easy. I think Laca might start and I suspect Pepe may be our match winner if we have one.
I shall be watching the game with GSD who is on the walk before the match. Good luck to them all and let’s hope the rain keeps off .
Lots could go wrong, no doubt, and parts will but attitude and perseverance are constants we have to keep on our side.
Thanks for the straight to the point Palace preview Guvna,
It won’t be an easy task it has to be said I will be attending myself with my son, hopefully I can share a pre match pint with some fine folk from this fine establishment.
I sincerely hope the real Arsenal turn up tomorrow and that Emery can rally his troops in a proper fashion. It’s a massive game to say the least and anything than a win should be on the agenda.
I back read some drinks from last post and no one wants to be negative towards the club, however as things stand everyone is entitled to have an opinion. We all know where the cracks are and only wish for those to be resolved as soon as possible. I have one question for all how did Emery made us more competitive in the past 14 months?
There are few outlining areas, we play better in the big games (only a couple I could find) , we got rid off the deadwood and we give our young guns a chance to shine and especially on that prospect we have certainly something to look forward to. When was the last time Arsenal disposed of a team in a professional fashion? I’m talking about a disciplined, strong and no nonse performance? I believe the last game like this was when be beat Chelsea at home.
It’s certainly not all doom and gloom but we all know we need to preform better to get back into the Champions League, this league is getting tougher with each season as everyone can see. I will no doubt get behind the team and the manager, however will also point out if I’m not happy with the way we perform or the way the manager manages this squad.
Right! Enough of that I’m certainly looking forward to tomorrow!
COYG
shower o bastards
i was emoting like fuck
next door
like fuck !
.
.
.
DOOR !
good night
and
god bless
A win will leave us in fifth; a loss could drop us to seventh. So the ‘Holic pound must be landed.
More Ozil mess
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2019/10/26/unai-emery-says-decision-omit-mesut-ozil-arsenal-team-part-agreed/
Re Ozil,
Sounds like bollocks to me, particularly when a lot of people are bemoaning a lack of creativity in the Arsenal midfield.
I recall that Emery had a problem with managing Neymar at PSG, not sure what that was all about (anyone know?) but maybe his ” big name player strategy” needs some work?
Ozil can be frustrating but can also be sublime. Maybe Xhaka is Unai’s preferred player model? If so, it’s going to be a long season as many seem to want to give him at least that long to prove himself or otherwise.
UTA.
Just seen that Martin Atkinson is the referee – oh dear.
UTA.
I’ll hopefully go for 2-0 today.
Be nice if we could play well
too.
So, which Arsenal team is going to turn up today????
No one knows.
I’d go with a 2-0 win. I’d prefer starting with Saka/Lacazette/Aubameyang up front and bring in Pepe as a sub. Then I look forward to seeing Tierney on the left today. May Xhaka also suffer from a hamstring.
Something tells me Pepe would settle the comparison between him & Zaha today.
#COYGs #UTA
To borrow a phrase,
Come on Arsenal!
Laca for Saka
What a line up. We’re gonna see some heck of football this evening. My wish for Tierney granted. Let’s thump Palace, they owe us one.
A step closer to our best
XI, good news
COYGS!
1-0 to the Arsenal women.
Big win for them
This was not in the script.
Now, do not lift off!!
CBs
Corner monsters!!
Penalty to Palace. Original decision overturned by VAR.
Scores. 2-1
For once Atkinson gets it right to be overturned by bloody VAR. What was this different from Saka’s last week?
A quick start 2nd half and
restore the 2 goal advantage.
Anything less than 2 goal advantage we might collapse.
We have been much more cohesive in this game. Ceballos occupying the kind of spaces Ozil tends to occupy. Guendouzi playing well from deep midfield and Pepe delivering some very good corners. Thankfully we are not taking them all short. 4-4-2 formation at home could work well against lower half teams especially once Lacazette regains full fitness. Tierney has been too eager to cross early, if he just composes himself he could find some joy with crosses and cut-backs. Chambers is being targeted by them and he has generally done well defensively except for dangling that leg out against the perpetually penalty hungry Zaha. He too needs to cross well when going forward. I really like the intensity of Pepe in this game and Auba/Laca need to up the ante early on in the second half.
2-2. Ayew header
Atkinson show boating as usual.
Every 50-50 challenge is a free kick for Palace!
Hope we don’t,we’ve got 35 minutes to win or lose this
Not confident
Is there coming back from that for Xhaka and Emery? Emery dug both their own graves giving Xhaka the armband while his form has dipped.
Fans cheer Xhaka being subbed.
He tells fans to fuck off and walks straight down the tunnel.
Bloody hell.
Anthony Taylor is the VAR ref isn’t he?
All of those who have been saying how great VAR is can suck my balls.
Taylor is the ref at Liverpool. I think Paul Tierney (how’s that for irony) is the VAR ref for our game.
I’m confused.
Are they supposed to give an explanation for their overturning an onfield decision by the referee? Did not see anything in the Sokratis third goal for it to be a ‘No Goal’ decision. If anything Chambers is given a slight push even before he touches the ball! Then it is mix up and even there Chambers is the one impeded upon! Actually if Sokratis does not score and it goes to a VAR check,we should be getting a penalty. We have been robbed of a goal today. By a totally inept VAR official. I hope he is liable for an explanation.
The refs are using VAR to reward their favorite teams (Pool, Spurs) and punish teams they can’t stand (Arsenal). Last week they ignored our clear penalties and today they denied us a legit goal. Refs never had it so good and they are playing king makers to the hilt. Ben the commentators were shocked by VAR decision.
I don’t know anymore , is it the players or the game plan they are given by UE
Holic what could go wrong did go wrong
I’m not mentioning VAR
Var isn’t to blame. It’s just 2 idiots hiding behind the referee’s uniform. The PGMOL should take off their shirts and apologize for being stupid. Clueless on the field and clueless even with slow motion replays.
that was so annoying,
I can’t believe we did that
but I don’t think Xhaka
should be treated that
way
Ben? Even.
You want an explanation from the VAR official, Designer, they will give you one but you won’t be convinced by it. There must be some strong punishment like being banned for games or being docked their match fee.
Just about to get on the tube, bloody hell that was something to witness.
In all honesty Xhaka didn’t much wrong today but the old omens came back up again.
We still struggle to create anything from open play. I have not seen our third goal so can’t really comment.
VAR or Not, the forwards are not getting service in the PL games. @ some point you have to say as much as I don’t want you to play, Ozil, I have to play you now and c if there will be a change of fortunes.
When is Holding going to start, what is the boss waiting for?
Look @ Lampard and his kids.
Steve @39,
Last year, when most of the first eleven were ‘Wenger’s’ players, it was the fault of the players – and thus of Wenger. This year, its mostly a new team, so the fault is of the modern master tactician.
I’d always blame Wenger though, if you asked me!
Xhaka’s behaviour is inexcusable! I think he should be stripped of his captaincy and sold in January.
Emery is getting too little from one of the best Arsenal squads in years. His handling of Ozil is pathetic. His style of play is making us loose our identity. He should be shipped off urgently. Freddy should be given a chance while we still have an opportunity for the top 4.
ksn@38 & 42, yeah agree that their explanation will be filled with ambiguous mumbo-jumbo. Also your point regarding VAR officials rewarding their favorite teams is indeed scary. Just saw the highlights of the United game against Norwich where United were absolutely gifted a penalty by the VAR ref after the onfield referee had not given a penalty!
After the first few weeks where the VAR referees seemed to have decided not to overturn a single onfield referee decision even if it was obvious (like the spurs one last week where they should have conceded a penalty), suddenly this week they have been given the license to run ragged!
I have been pro-VAR because I think it would make decisions more accurate but boy if they have officials like the one at our game today, they will make a mockery of the game.
Also it was poor of the stadium crowd to cheer the substitution of Xhaka today. He had an okay game and did not deserve that. But once again Xhaka with his reaction showed why he should never have been given the armband in the first place. He often loses his calm when getting into a scuffle with opposition players and tonight he lost it with the crowd. He should have just kept calm and walked off the pitch in a hurry. Emery had talked about changing public opinion about Xhaka a few days back. Xhaka just made his task enormously difficult.
Our players lacked any rhythm. All us fans lack faith in the coach and the club captain. Our captain seems to cost us points in critical moments. Our coach also lost faith in the captain early in the second half. Referee makes one shocking decision after another. Something has to change. Unai has to go. Everything is clearly going wrong and making it right starts from the coach.
The Emery shaped bullet must surely be bitten.
We scored two good goals from set pieces and looked to have put Palace on the knife. It’s a dream come true start to the game for any team.
Yes Atkinson was in favour to blow the whistle for any of the 50-50 to the opposition, but come on we always knew that would be the case and should have carried on playing football.
From open play yet again, we struggle to create anything for the two front runners , Laca still looks rusty and I would have prfered Martinelli to at some point in the second half. I would have Introduced Torriera instead of Saka in all honesty, but thank God I’m not the coach.
We will struggle in every game this season under Emery, we are loosing our identity with every game. We look very ordinary and shaky at the back.
It’s Two Points lost end off, sod VAR we should have created more and used our chances.
It’s obvious what the fans think of Xhaka, Unai will be next I’m afraid to say. How on earth can you make a player of this statue a captain it just doesn’t add up.
Arsenal is a mess!
The club is returning to the dark days of Wenger’s final years.
@51 There FA Cups, There Shields, Top 4 every year bar two. Nah, we won’t be returning to these dark days very soon.
Today was deeply frustrating. While I had the considerable pleasure of watching with GSD we both ended up feeling nonplussed by several things;
– the loss of impetus and tactical naivety after a dream start
– the actions of Xhaka which underlined why he is such a poor choice to lead the club on the pitch. I was left hoping that his annoyance and histrionics might lead to him wanting to leave the club. How unsatisfactory a situation is that?
– the very poor refereeing display by Atkinson compounded by the way VAR is used( compared to rugby of both codes and cricket )
– the sense that while it is relatively early in his tenure and he hasn’t had his best team available Emery is way out of his depth. The body language of some of our better players – Auba, Laca and Torreira most conspicuously- suggest this is not a happy camp and the exile of Mesut from a team that massively lacks creativity looks like spite from the manager.
Wenger stayed too long and oversaw some awful results at the end but as iBtM suggests his latter days were actually better than the current situation. This team will not necessarily get into the top half . Champions League under Emery is a pipe dream
The goal should have stood, we did get robbed!
https://streamable.com/tr621
On the other hand this is a response from Xhaka
https://streamable.com/zxcn6
That was truly disappointing.
We are playing without confidence and mid-table beckons despite several quality players in the squad. After a dream start, which surprised the players as much as it did me, we failed to put Palace to the sword in the first half and we handed them the iniative. After the equaliser, they looked as likely to win as we did, despite us actually scoring that VAR-disallowed goal and a lovely late move that drew a great save from their keeper.
Xhaka ambling off when hooked while we were chasing the game and running out of time was arrogant and disrespectful and his reaction to a large section of the crowd cheering his substitution was totally unacceptable from any professional let alone the club captain.
Emery’s choice of Xhaka as captain demonstrates his poor judgement as does his public spat with Ozil whatever the underlying reason. His days are numbered. This team is a shambles. At the moment top 4 looks a mirage. 5th or 6th would be a triumph.
That is five points dropped in our last two games that should just not have been. I hope that come the end of the season we are not left wondering about what might have been for want of another five points.
This week :
One win.One draw. One Loss.
Bang average.
I couldn’t go to the game today because we had long booked tickets to a gig in Cambridge at 7.30. Nor did I see a stream. I actually watched the game on Twitter.
I have a very hollow feeling in my stomach though for two reasons. Firstly we were clearly robbed of a win by the VAR officials (both my son – who has red and white tinted glasses and Gary Lineker, who does not, say so).
But secondly we seem to be right back to the toxic atmosphere of the late Wenger days. It’s been building up all season.
I hate it.
Wolves my next game. Can’t say I’m looking forward to it.
Okay. I think I’m ready to post something. Maybe. Or not. But I will do anyway and if it is incoherent and ill-structured then I will take refuge in the fact that at least I am emulating the team I love.
First, a huge thanks to TTG. Meeting him, watching the game and talking Arsenal was an absolute pleasure. That’s where the gold is (it ain’t on the pitch)
I did not make the walk pre-game due to an unexpected arrival in London on Saturday from my best mate. He wanted to go out for a few drinks. Later, as I looked at the time just before I went to bed, I saw 4:15 (which felt like the amount of drinks I had consumed) To put it mildly, I was not in a state to get up at seven and head down to Crystal Palace. I spent the day nursing a prizewinning hangover. I was feeling much better by the time I met TTG next to Tony Adams’ statue but I was hoping that my headaches for the day were passed. Unfortunately they were not.
To the match then and there is only one place that I can start. Xhaka. Our captain.
Dear Christ on a surfboard.
Today I booed an Arsenal player. I never thought that I would do that. Ever.
But we had let a very average Palace side come back from two goals down and Xhaka was subbed. I thought he had had a poor game, but he had not done anything terrible and had not stood out as below the general standard of our overall performance. And he is our player and our captain, so when his number came up I clapped his efforts.
He proceeded to walk at a snail’s pace off the pitch at a time when we were desperate to get a winner. A restless crowd began to jeer him. He then took the extraordinary step of winding up his own fans by goading them to boo him more. And he walked even slower. I have never seen a player do anything like it. I did not even think about my response- I booed the guy. And I would do again. Then he, utter prick that he is, cupped his hand to his ear. He might as well have stuck his fingers up at us, and I have seen since that cameras caught what he had to say to the fans of Arsenal Football Club before before he took off his shirt and headed straight down the tunnel without a care what happened in the game.
I have never seen a club captain anywhere behave like this. He treated every single Arsenal fan with contempt today. I am not going to waste more words than necessary in expressing how deeply I was disgusted by his actions. He should be immediately stripped of the captaincy and sold in January. Until today I thought he was a player who offered little but I had some respect for him. That is gone. What he did today was manage to behave in such a way that hours afterwards, upon reflection, I still feel not only justified but actually glad that I booed Arsenal’s captain. He is a disgrace. Makes Gallas look good, and that is as damning as I can be right now. In the ground, watching him do that, was as angry as I remember being at a football match and I hope I never see him in our colours again.
Okay, what else?
Err, Atkinson was poor beyond belief. The stuff that does not make the highlights but does make up the structure of a match was basically a non-stop series of awful decisions that benefited Palace. I would like to see his performance reviewed and him sanctioned. I know it won’t happen but it was embarrassingly poor and although I have never subscribed to the idea that refs deliberately make poor decisions it was hard to conclude anything else after watching today. If it is not conscious then the level of his unconscious bias against us is so high as to render him unfit to referee our games. He got everything wrong today.
Their penalty… clear penalty. We all saw it. Atkinson gives Zaha a yellow. Maybe he gave so many bad decisions against us afterwards to make up for it. Maybe he is just a terrible referee. Or both.
VAR. Utterly ridiculous how it operates in the stadium and I am too bored by it to say more than that.
Our third goal. We were absolutely robbed. It is a goal all day long. But of course, after a season of uniformly ignoring VAR showing countless occasions when refs were wrong not to award a penalty only for the decision to stand, we are the team that gets one given against us. And in the same game we have a perfectly legal goal disallowed. Again, I just can’t even be bothered right now to get into how low my opinion of match officials is right now. Disgraceful and cost us two points today.
The performance itself? Not good. I did notice a few things live that are harder to pick up on TV but I might post something about them tomorrow. I am too tired and too pissed off with what I saw today to even think about actual analysis. But we were not good.
I am proper down in the dumps about that one. We were poor, our captain is a scumbag and despite both of those things we would have won if we hadn’t been robbed by the officials.
Life is not fair. But it is even less fair if you are a Gooner.
I need a good night’s sleep.
My response to that would breach the rules in this bar and disrespect our inestimable landlord. But if you don’t have a response beyond name calling it doesn’t surprise me.
I meant that we are returning to the dark days of dissension in the fan base and turmoil in the stands. Emery looks like he has lost the dressing room and the goodwill of the Arsenal faithful. Xhaka’s meltdown is merely a symptom of the malaise. His behavior was unacceptable, but Emery has set him up to fail. Why on earth would one offer the captaincy to a player who has been mediocre at best?
Emery should be let go. As soon as possible, before the rut sets in.
Like i said…
Keep digging
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg1Ps3x3kp4
Nothing Xhaka does surprises me any more.
Just seen some highlights.
Even after repeated viewings, I still can not see the foul that Chambers is supposed to have committed that caused Sokratis’s goal to be disallowed by VAR. And what about the shove on Chambers in the first place?
Xhaka’s conduct when subbed was not that of an Arsenal captain, or any team’s captain come to that. Inexcusable.
Agree totally with GSD and NBN that Xhaka is a disgrace, Atkinson is by far the worst ref in the league and VAR has been tailored to favor certain teams over others. Too much money is at stake and refs are using VAR to influence the final standing in the league. We look to be the refs favorite team to screw over and I won’t be surprised if we finish outside the top six this season. We have already dropped four points in the last two games, thanks to VAR, and we will drop many more before the season is over.
VAR is not our only problem. Under Emery we have become a shapeless, weak and unorganized team. We continue to be just as poor defensively as under Arsene in his final years and we have become poorer in our offensive game as well. The results have started to reflect that and I don’t see Emery getting us out of this rut. His man management, including the Ozil situation, is poor and will lead to more problems in the days ahead. Laca has liked a post which calls for Emery’s sacking. At least, it is never boring following Arsenal.
It seems Laca did do that.
I hope it was a mistake of
some kind otherwise it’s
another bad sign.
It does have plenty of other
bad signs to keep it company.
One captain doesn’t play, one
tells the support to fuck off
and another likes a post telling
the captain and manager to
fuck off.
I expect we’ll get an apology
today together with an appeal
from UE and Xhaka to the fans
to be patient.
I don’t think that will cut it
and I’d prefer for Raul to
show some leadership.
Hard to know the actual
situation from outside but
if UE has lost the dressing
room then he should go now.
If not then Raul has to send
a message on discipline –
Xhaka should lose the
captaincy, be fined and
dropped. If Laca has no
explanation then the same
for him too. In Laca’s case
that hurts the team but we
can’t let shit like this be
swept under the carpet.
Xhaka has become a whipping
buy and IMO it was just wrong
to cheer when the guy is taken
off but after that he doesn’t
have a leg to stand on.
SSY
I’m also disappointed that after a very rational albeit emotional post you would react like that to GSD. You obviously won’t have the benefit of knowing the gentleman but moron he is not. He is a passionate Gooner with a huge love for the club and respect for the standards that obtain at Arsenal Football Club ( and on this blog) I think you owe him an apology.
Everyone on here knows my views on Xhaka and his behaviour and yesterday reflects Emery’s poor judgement in making him captain . He is not only a flawed player he is on that evidence a very flawed person too . Interesting to reflect that since we signed him we have failed to qualify three years running for the Champions League. Statistically there might be a pointer there.
Countryman notes how toxic the atmosphere is becoming . I suspect it will get worse and given how relatively easy the fixtures have been recently the board will be concerned that we are not out of CL contention by the time a very testing Christmas comes around. Sacking Emery will cost quite a lot of cash and quite a lot in terms of confidence in tge judgement of Sanllehi but he was only one of the team that appointed Emery.
I’d strap in for a rollercoaster ride .
I am in the minority to say Xhaka’s reaction was not over the top. You abuse him all throughout, abuse his family, kid and boo him yesterday for what? that he ambled to the touchline? it may have taken about 10 seconds more and thats it but imagine you walking on that pitch and have a majority of 60000 people booing you!!!!!!!!!!!! any human will react and yes he should have restrained himself but for how long? You play him as a DM and give no protection as the precocious guendouzi can do whatever he wants on the pitch and although he does most things well, his mistakes are never highlighted but viola we know the hate guy. Ok he has certain responsibilities as the captain but boy it was not as if the rest 10 were prime Barca there, we were shit.
2 goals of set pieces, the only good thing were the deliveries by Pepe and we should have been cruising. Instead, we concede a stupid penalty and then luiz goes to sleep and it is 2-2. The next 30 min whatever we did was taken away by the crowd behaviour and it reflected in the player’s mindset. We never created anything throughout the game from open play and were again hoping something may just happen, it did not and it is another 2 points dropped.
Unai and the board have messed up the club, it is directionless, clueless and more often than not, spiritless. Arsene even in his last season was still winning home games with panache, unai cannot do anything other than scratch his chin and pray.
FYI- if not for auba’s goals, we would be 19th place in the table.
SSY
Amongst several things I’m unhappy about is your intemperate attack on GSD. It is completely out of character with the way we do things in this bar.
This isn’t about agreeing. We all disagree all the time (TTG and I had a difference of opinion a couple of weeks ago) but we manage to do so with politeness and tolerance, rather than the language of the playground. Differences of opinion are what keep life interesting.
I think if the landlord had not been soaking up the sea views on a little R&R your posts may have disappeared. Given the hour you posted at, it’s possible that half a shandy too many had been consumed.
I urge you to apologise for your language, but explain why you disagree with GSD.
The day we allowed ill-informed and maybe even vested media narratives to influence how we behave, with petulance and disrespect, towards our greatest manager — also someone who remained dignified through it all — is the day we have sowed the seeds of these acrimonious relationships.
Xhaka has never really convinced in Premier League. And his form has dipped a lot in recent times, but neither as a player nor as a human being he deserves the kind of abuse he has been receiving. He was Monchengladbach captain when he was 22, he is Switzerland captain, and even though he had made a few highly visible mistakes in his Arsenal career he never really shied from whatever has been asked of him. He is a little too slow for PL, and the effectiveness of his long-range passing has been reduced by the very muddled way our midfield operates now, but that doesn’t mean it’s okay to abuse him and his family.
His response was inexcusable, and should make him lose the captain’s armband, but the section of our supporters who repeatedly post in social media the shocking insults against players that they decide to not like are not forgivable either.
We condemned Piers Morgan influenced mob when they had ganged up on Arsene in grounds and social media, we should also condemn the viciousness of the rants a portion of our fan base indulge in against our own players.
Victoria Concordia Crescit
We cant let the players behave like this. whether on the pitch or on social media.
I would like discipline to be enforced regardless of the seniority of the player.
Surely Unai is on borrowed time. The players are clearly not playing for him or their teammates. We woke up after the 70th min as we do most games we are chasing an equaliser or a winning goal.
There are no combinations in midfield. No presence or size in midfield. Our tactic of playing the ball always to the flanks is predictable.
We cant keep the ball. There are no athletes in the team to make up for errors. The players dont trust each other and the misplaced passing does not help.
Long long road ahead. Hope the wheeler dealer Raul has someone lined up. Its a poisonous atmosphere. Like a roman crowd giving the thumbs down.
On the Xhaka thing, from all sides, be it impatient and entitled fans, the player himself etc I can only say this.
https://bit.ly/32STrET
This current situation has been exacerbated, if not created, by Emery.
Five captains ? Nonsense.
A player vote to choose your management representative on the pitch ? Nonsense.
Making an out of form player who in reality doesn’t fit your style – if we have one – almost undroppable by naming him No 1 captain ? Nonsense.
Xhaka has indeed become the cliched lightning rod for the frustration felt against Emery, but that’s also due to his own irresponsible behaviour and poor performances on the pitch.
Sympathy for the way he reacted ? No.
Should he remain as captain ? No.
Should he play again ? Possibly, after a public apology.
More than any of that though is the Emery question. He should go right now.
We have Freddie and Mertesacker in the immediate term who could not be any worse. That could clear the air and offer a fresh start and approach, to hopefully get the fans back onside with a better attitude themselves.
Actions speak louder than words and louder than obligatory apologies.
Emery is the problem. Get rid now.
I’ve never booed an Arsenal player or Manager and never will. Unfortunately, some of our club’s so-called supporters have form in doing this and have done over many, many years.
I hated the way the fans saw off AW, a total lack of respect for our greatest ever manager. Personally, I would have loved to have seen him see out the final year of his contract and see what he could have achieved with playing Laca and Auba together for a whole season and with Ozil supplying the passes.
As for Emery, I can’t see things improving with him in charge and he should go, though I will never boo his decisions. Whoever replaces him, I can’t see us getting top 4 for several seasons, City and Liverpool are way ahead of us, Chelsea’s youngsters are much better than ours and Leicester, ManU and even possibly Spurs maybe too. Still, a change might allow us to play football worth watching and with more cohesion and purpose. Lastly, Xhaka is better than he’s given for here.
The walk from the stadium to Finsbury Park on a dark, damp night is never particularly pleasant, particularly if you go via Gillespie Road and have to pass Arsenal Station at a speed approximately one poofteenth of that your average garden snail might manage. On Sunday it was like the silent march to the funeral of a friend you once knew but never particularly cared for in recent years.
I got in late and so didn’t see either of our goals.
However I did see very clearly the penalty we gave away even although I was sitting in the Clock End and nearly 100 yards away. I also saw us move the ball so slowly that, like every other team who visits, Palace had all the time in the world to assemble a defence we could not penetrate. I saw Luiz try a number of long diagonal passes that flew unerringly to Palace feet. I saw our front three struggle to control the relatively few balls that were fired toward them, particularly the high balls (Giroud’s gone to Chel$ki, guys. Remember?).
I didn’t see our midfield win many balls, impose themselves or create. I didn’t see us defend well, I didn’t see much that was good, I didn’t see why our third goal was disallowed and like Ned @66 I still haven’t seen why.
I’m not a Xhaka fan, I appraise critically but I don’t boo Arsenal players. Period.
Lots of good stuff above. Honourable mentions to Bath, Trev, DrF, DevStu.
GSD, I feel your pain and empathise. The inappropriate reaction from the man looking in the mirror left me puzzled.
Cheer me up, cba.
Hope it was worth repeating? >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Cheers iBtM, and right back atchyer !
I was feeling confident until I saw the line up. Nice to see that all the usual cock-up merchants are all present and correct. Lovely looking subs bench though! Oh Freddie, how could you not tell those useless c***s they wouldn’t be required today; (Mustafi FFS!) With a bit of luck we might scrape a draw.