Arsenal suffered one of the worst results in their European history by losing 1-0 in Borisov to Belarusian side BATE. Lacazette was sent off for violent conduct in a game that summed up the Arsenal performance.
The Wrong Man?
There’s no hiding that Unai Emery inherited a very weak and poor Arsenal side in comparison when he was appointed as Arsene Wenger’s successor but for me there has not been enough improvement for encouragement; of course we have to give him time, but we have just been beaten by a side who are their pre-season, whilst playing a near full-strength side, it is a f*ing embarrassment. The goal, the epitome of this Emery defence, no desire to win the ball and an easy header past Cech. It is yet another away defeat – which follows recent woes at Man City and West Ham – and again tonight Emery’s side showed no improvement. Even when we went 1-0 down, there was no Plan B, we kept trying to pass the ball into the net, sideaways, backwards and so many sloppy passes. We had many corners and nearly every single one of them hit the first man.
I’ve spent weeks wondering if the players are the problem at not being able to implement a potential sticky Emery system – but a pathetic, weak, insipid away display to a side who haven’t even started their season, really is a season low for me, and it really worries me for the future. Is Emery trying to force Mesut out of Arsenal? Because I tell you tonight we needed a bit of quality in the final third, Guendouzi, Xhaka, Iwobi and Mkhitaryan were all woeful on a night that Arsenal looked half-arsed and lost for ideas.
I often compare Emery to other managers and you can argue that all of them have their own styles and everyone knows what they are and how that team will play. Klopp– a high intensity pressing for example, Emery said at the beginning that Arsenal would be a team who plays on the front foot and presses relentlessly and tries to score as many goals as possible, but where the f* has that gone?
We don’t press anymore, we are slow and lethargic in attack and take far too long to transition the ball into attack, and we’ve actually got worse the longer the season has gone on, and I’m not sure any of the fans or even the players have got an idea of what Emery wants them to do. Even in Klopp’s first season, Liverpool finished 8th but reached League Cup and Europa League finals and lost both, but you knew that they were progressing, the style was met with excitement from the fans and you knew players would improve and understand the philosophy. We may still reach the final of the Europa League but we are going to have to reach levels which I don’t think we’ve seen often this season.
In conclusion, it is lucky that Arsenal have a second leg to repair this mess, because it will paper over the cracks that this performance showed, and there will have to be a change of system because this 3 at the back isn’t working. Emery needs an identity and I don’t know if I trust him to complete this transitional period in Arsenal’s history.
Occasional writer who follows the Arsenal home and away. Dennis is our greatest ever.
absolutely agree – i think this manager is shockingly bad!! how do you get beat by bate – he needs to be sacked, but whether the board of yes men will do that is another thing – we has mislintat he was a big plus, now he’s gone we got rubbish b league ex spanish players
Thanks for your great piece. You have really said my mind. Three at the back invariably means five at the back, because Miles and Kolasinac are first of all defenders .All these against a very small club like Bate Borislov. And we still lost. Emery should better watch it, because his patterns are not working at all. He is too sentimental, always using Guendozi and Iwobi, and we don’t see their impacts in our matches.Meanwhile our most expensive and creative player Ozil, was left at home. The second leg of this match will be more difficult than most people thought, but I hope we scale through. The fans are already fed up of this Emery .He is suppose to be an upgrade of Mr.Wenger, but so far he isn’t proving that.
I watched most of Spurs match against Borussia Dortmund and it was hard to take the disparity between their performance and that disaster last night. The stadium is bouncing and the fans are belting out their songs when their team is playing.
In contrast, we had a decent amount of proper fans who made the journey to Belarus to support our team, but their cheers and songs became muffled by the dross served up by the team. This was an abject surrender to a team which would struggle to survive three divisions below us in England. If the presence of those fans who waved the Red & White and sung the songs was not enough to inspire the players, what exactly would it take? Don`t they think they owe a performance to the fans?
Why can Emery not raise the confidence of the team which is clearly fading match by match? Why did we go there without Ozil or Ramsey? The selection by Emery did not contain a single playmaker who could pierce a packed defence and he left Aubamayang out until the 68th minute even though, it is patently clear that he and Lacazette play better together.
I have said repeatedly that the Wengerball has crept back into our game so that we play at walking speed and pass sideways and backwards even when we are behind. We cannot hope to pierce packed defences like that and it is almost certain that lack of goals up front means that we are no longer able to score more than we concede.
What has happened to Emery? Is he playing such hardball with his players that he is determined that those he does not like, such as Ozil will have to accept that he knows best. If he does actually know what`s best, I would love him to demonstrate to the fans that his plans are progressing. To date, I am unable to visualise even the trace of a plan. We have decent players all over the pitch but they are all playing as individuals. There are no settled combinations on the pitch, going right back to the CB,s. Kos and Mustafi rarely speak to each other and they both carry on with their own ideas of defensive play. The full backs are chopped and changed and Miles Adelaide has no idea what he is required to do when he charges upfield. There is no cohesion between the midfielders or links made by them between attack and defence. Xhaka was a flop when tried as a defensive player and last night he was slow and the state of the pitch eliminated long passes. It was obvious early on that he was not equipped for the conditions we found there.
In short, less talented teams such as Bate are able to stick to their own simple tactics of blocking our advances and pressurising our forwards in the knowledge that the ball will eventually be given to them by a misplaced pass. When that happens all that is needed is two wingers to spring the trap and charge at our non-existent defence. That happens in game after game, so what is Emery`s solution to that? If he has one, I haven`t seen it utilised yet. I have compared many of the blogs written by Gunners Town`s writers and all of the matters referred to above have been mentioned at some time by most of them. I`m sorry, I was determined to give Emery a season to settel in without condemning him but it is increasingly hard not to say that he is not the man for us.
We don`t have the qualiy of players required for top 4 but we should be able to squash teams like Bate, Bournemouth, Brighton, West Ham, Crystal Palace etc.
Emerys style leaves Arsenal becoming an easy club to defeat bcz teams know that they don’t have dangerous player in the middle and always keep pressing side ways so when they lock the side attacking then you find Arsenal always sweating in getting goals. So what else do we expect apart from losing or drowing.with no plan B.
when i said i wanted the old goat gone i didnt want him replaced by another fool but thats what we got