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Focus, energy, teamplay, talent and perseverance. Look at successful people, organisations and teams and they have plenty of those five key attributes. Is it fair to say we at Arsenal are low on all of them right now? Will it change? Emery’s stats are poor but there is more to life than stats, and these stats can all of a sudden start to change. Judging a manager’s suitability for Arsenal, imho, needs to be based first and for all on the above mentioned attributes. And more importantly given the overall situation we are in, the next manager will have to offer plenty of these if we are to see a positive change (which may take time).

Focus(including integrity): we lack an authentic style, a plan in our football (other than come and shoot at us and we will do the same and let’s see who is more successful after 90 minutes of gunfire) and the players look lost when on the pitch. Wenger’s red-print has been painted over with a murky mess and we lost integrity (to our long-term values). The treatment of Xhaka by fans and manager epitomises this. We are not a passing team anymore, our sheets almost always become soiled and our big guns upfront are all we have. We are rudderless in midfield. A team needs focus, clarity, objectives, a system/plan… something to fall back on when things get tough. Emery looks lost, the BoD look lost, the players are lost, the fans are confused and disillusioned. What did Nietzsche say? Something like if you look long enough into the abyss the abyss will start looking into you?!

Energy: the boys (still) give their all so we have energy but this is the industrious kind of energy. What we are missing is spiritual energy which comes from belief in something bigger and better. The idea that we are on the road to somewhere higher up and glorious, and that we are reconnecting with the club’s past and values, is key. It looks like the players and supporters do not have that belief anymore, and we know what lies at the bottom… the abyss. We want our Arsenal back. Under Emery the team lacks spiritual energy.

Teamplay: the best teams do not rely on just buying the best players for each position: they play as a team and rise above the sum of its parts based around a system of football that works for, and is understood by, all. Great managers know how to achieve this and it is a joy to watch: they make both individual players and the team as a whole bigger. Think about Ajax in the mid-nineties, Leicester City a few years ago, Pool under Klopp, The Invincibles under Wenger. This is the most frustrating part of Emery: rather than seeming to play with 12 or 13 players on the pitch we often look a man down.

Talent (closely related to teamplay, in fact it cannot be seen separately): focus, energy and team play gets you far but we also need talent: from our academy and the market – young and experienced. It is about time that we get this right again, and the good thing is the money is being made available for it. Talent can be latent and it is up to the management team to bring it to the surface. Look at the Chavs and their ability to bring the latent talent (anagrams!) to the fore: we also have such talent in abundance and it is time to bring it out to dance on the pitch. We see glimpses of it at Arsenal, especially in the cup games, but it needs to become more established. How many players have significantly improved under Emery’s one-to-one mentoring?

Perseverance (and loyalty to the cause): ability to turn adversity into success. Not giving up but learn from mistakes, whilst believing in our vision/ core values, system of football and abilities. Again, look at Lampard’s Chelsea and you know what I mean. Yes they are still losing to the likes of Pool and Citeh but they give them a game every time they meet. And they are getting stronger but sticking to the plan and learning from their mistakes. I hate to say this but I like watching the Chavs these days, much more than Emery’s shooting-range football. Alarmingly, well more than alarmingly, under Emery the team lose confidence, shape and focus as soon as we concede: we have the bouncebackability of a comet.

So even more than the poor performance stats, its Emery’s lacking in the above-mentioned attributes that makes me believe we need a replacement. What the above hopefully also shows is that it’s not easy to find the right person. We may not need a big name with a glittering CV; let’s not get blinded by past success. We may need another ‘Arsene Who?’ moment. But do we have the new David Dein in our BoD, somebody with the deep football knowledge to pick the right person for our club? I doubt it very much.

Question to you, fine fellow BKers:

Based on the above-mentioned key attributes – and feel free to add some attributes as you see fit – who is best suited to replace Unai Emery?

By TotalArsenal.

EMERY’S CONTINUED STAY IS INIMICAL TO THE ENTIRE ARSENAL STRUCTURE.

I am in a sour mood. I shoot at anything that moves. It’s time to tell the king that he is naked.

Leno: he is a bit too infatuated with playing the ball out of the back irrespective of the effectiveness of the opposition press. He needs to display better judgements to keep our opponents unsure at each moment of our route out. At the same time our outfield players are such a let down. Most of the ‘lesser’ teams are quite comfortable playing out of the back.

Bellerin: I have never, never seen Bellerin give a cross-field pass. I am sorry but he has not grown his game since he bust into the scene. His crosses into the box for example have remained on the same level all these years.

Tierney: I like his deliveries into the box but he has to work on his defending, his build up play and movement off the ball. Only 22 yrs and still adjusting to the Premier League am hopeful he’d rise to expectation.

Chambers: lacks creativity. Could not give one line breaking pass yesterday. Wouldn’t fit if he is pushed up to the central midfield as I had previously thought.

Sokratis: doesn’t play like a veteran. Too excitable. Not the calm influence his experience should possess. Holding should replace him to hopefully get back quickly to his pre-injury level. We need more intelligence from the back. Sokratis look thick skulled.

Guendouzi: a bit of an enigma. Has a number of things going for him but obviously Emery has not taught him the rudiments of defending. Awful in that part of the game.

Torreira: has the tenacity that is generally lacking in the team but he’s just not interested in incisive passing. Busquets is the modern holding mid not Makelele, somebody should tell him.

Ozil: I keep seeing a lot of intelligence in his game but somehow the mix on the pitch can’t make him flower. Poor boy.

Aubameyang: is a top class goal poacher but he is made to track back, defend and help bring the ball out. That’s a gross misuse of him.

Lacazette: is a net buster. He is not a false 9. He lacks the fine touch and the willingness to part with the ball quickly for his mates. He has the ‘selfishness’ of a box man which he very much is. These should rule him out from always dropping deep and having to help build play. It’s unfortunate that Laca and Auba thrive in the same space. Not many think beyond playing them together. For the sake of the team they could be a case of either or.

Pepe: is finding it so difficult to find his range. Am yet to see one Arjen Robbenesque move that was the hallmark of his game, the reason he cost so much. Is he being mismanaged?

Willock and Martinelli: I like these two boys. The way I see this squad they deserve to be given more playing time. Our regulars are either not good enough or are being mis-utilized being too specialized.

Emery: his time is up. As soon as I saw that back-3 with Sokratis on the left of it, I knew we would be poor. I think Emery is at his wits’ end. Let’s begin to rebuild for next season by sacking him now.

Sanllehi is in my cross hair. Maybe the perfect Barcelona system hid his short comings. Even a caretaker coach at this moment would be welcomed. Emery’s continued stay is inimical to the entire Arsenal structure.

By PE.

Arsenal v Southampton – November 23^rd, 2019

Southampton was originally founded at St. Mary’s Church, on 21 November 1885 by members of the St. Mary’s Church of England Young Men’s Association.

St. Mary’s Y.M.A., as they were usually referred to in the local press, played most of their early games on The Common where games were frequently interrupted by pedestrians insistent on exercising their right to roam. More important matches, such as cup games, were played either at the County Cricket Ground in Northlands Road or the Antelope Cricket Ground in St Mary’s Road.

The club was originally known as St. Mary’s Young Men’s Association F.C. (usually abbreviated to “St. Mary’s Y.M.A.”) and then became simply St. Mary’s F.C. in 1887–88, before adopting the name Southampton St. Mary’s when the club joined the Southern League in 1894.

Southampton won the Southern League championship for three years running between 1897 and 1899 and again in 1901, 1903 and 1904. During this time, they moved to a newly built £10,000 stadium called The Dell, to the northwest of the city centre in 1898. Although they would spend the next 103 years there, the future was far from certain in those early days and the club had to rent the premises first before they could afford to buy the stadium in the early part of the 20th century. The club reached the first of their four FA Cup Finals in 1900. On that day, they went down 4–0 to Bury and two years later they would suffer a similar fate at the hands of Sheffield United as they were beaten 2–1 in a replay of the 1902 final.

Southampton’s home ground since 2001 has been St Mary’s Stadium, before which they were based at The Dell. The club has been nicknamed “The Saints” since its inception in 1885 due to its history as a church football team, founded as St. Mary’s Church of England Young Men’s Association, and play in red and white shirts. Southampton has a long-standing rivalry with Portsmouth due to its proximity and both cities’ respective maritime history. Matches between the two sides are known as the South Coast derby.

The club has won the FA Cup once, in 1976, and their highest-ever league finish was second in the First Division in 1983–84. Southampton was relegated from the Premier League on 15 May 2005, ending 27 successive seasons of top-division football for the club. They returned after a seven-year absence, and have played there ever since.

Arsenal have dominated in our fixtures against Southampton- the last home game that we lost was in Division 1 on February 21, 1987, 32 years ago – almost to the day.

We have never lost to Southampton at home in the Premier League and long may this continue.

We have played 43 home league games against Southampton, losing only 2; this may well be our best record against any other team – I wish I had confidence that that record would remain in tact but…………….

By GN5

TotalArsenal’s PREFERRED Line-up (not the predicted one):

Aspects of captain selection

During the November interlull let’s talk – or at least think – about the challenge and complexity of picking the captain of the team. Below I will provide 8 qualities and/or parameters great captains suppose to possess, with the disclaimer that:

• these refer to the ideal candidate, therefore missing one or two would still qualify for a perfect captain
• many of the attributes are not transparent or maybe even subjective, but I think coaches and fellow team members would have a reliable impression of their own
• maybe some players are so strong in a couple of areas that would compensate for their deficit in others, making them good or OK captains
• being a captain is not a recognition or appreciation, but rather a role with important responsibilities, therefore being talented, popular or TM-valuable should play no role in the selection at all
• it is hard to quantify which captains turn out to be successful and why – some of them might be due to their unique set of characteristics, others might have a great team that needs less ‘captaining’
• being captain is about adding value to the team (on-pitch) and to the squad & club (off-pitch); the measurement of this value is almost impossible to measure, and has very little to do with the team’s success and silverware

After the list of qualities, I will compare past Arsenal and present PL-captains to the list of requirements. Comments and challenges are appreciated. Be warned, my view on them completely disregards the productivity of the club and how (or how long) their appointment turned out, focusing solely on their suitability for the captaincy, thus be vastly different from the ‘conventional wisdom’ you can find all over the internet searching for ‘rating/ranking all Arsenal captains of the Premier League era’.

Discipline

“Fire in the belly but ice in the brain.” The captain must be leading by example, hence shouldn’t be carried away with his passion or enthusiasm. Keeping emotional self-control is key, as he is the primal interface with the referee. Getting himself sent of is a double blow: besides missing a player, the team loses the captain (and potentially for several further games), that affects the internal dynamics as well. The captain must be a role model, on and off the pitch equally. Therefore, reckless drivers, party animals and serious womanizers are not the ideal candidates.

Seniority / Authority

Albeit excelling in all other fields, the captain shouldn’t be a new guy. It gives the wrong message to the rest of the team; but even more importantly, a great captain knows other players: strength, weaknesses, personality, learning style, etc. The captain sometimes must deal with a teammate on the pitch, so motivation, reprimand and quickly bringing someone out of his emotional state is crucial. I’m not saying that the player of the longest history with the club should be the captain, but several years would give the players experience, fan acceptance, knowledge on the club values and team members which eventually translates to authority.

Size

I believe, this time size matters. It could be a controversial aspect, but I would rather have a captain that is a big fella. I don’t think it is necessary a factor to influence the referee, but it could be important when cooling down an escalated situation before it turns violent, or when he is trying to break up a blow-up after a nasty foul. It has a small but undeniable correlation with authority as well. Again, I’m not insisting to pick the tallest team member, but Lucas Torreira would not be my first choice either. Anyway, size is not merely about heights; having an (alarmingly) muscular body would also be an advantage.

Communication

The captain needs to encourage and manage on-pitch communication with team members, with opponents and with the referee. He must maintain good relationship thus effective communication off the pitch with individual players, between players (in conflict), with the coaching staff or even with important club executives. However, this does not mean that the ideal captain loves to hear his own voice and look for every opportunity to talk and to be heard. Indeed, the captain should only speak when necessary, being able to keep his communication concise and to the point, especially on the field – that gains the respect of most referees. In practice, captains in the PL should have a good command of English, might have a secondary language to get a hold on foreign players/coaches with English difficulties and have good skills of verbal and non-verbal communication in general.

Position

Another controversial topic, but since the captain must run many errands throughout the game, the most practical position if he plays at midfield. It is easier and less tiresome to get to the ‘crime scenes’ before they get out of hand or talk to the referee to diffuse a hot situation. Maybe a wingback would also be a good choice, but the attackers need to keep their stamina to overwhelm the defence with their speed at a counter-attack. The fact that many captains are centre backs are most likely contributing to their calming personalities, size and authority, but doesn’t seem efficient movement-wise, not to mention having a goalkeeper as a captain.

Leadership

For many of us – especially pundits and sport commentators – this comes as the first and foremost expectation. And I don’t want to deny its importance either. However, we are talking about a different aspect of leadership here, as the captain doesn’t need to reinvent the strategy and tactics mid-game. What is required here is a focused, competitive, driven – even sometimes intimidating – character, who doesn’t mind shouting at team members if necessary. For those familiar with personality typologies, I am talking about a choleric (Hippocrates-Galenos) or a Dominant (DISC) person. That is not something you can acquire, this is more or less born. And while you might think that professional footballers are all highly competitive and driven individuals, all teams have their funny guys, quiet perfectionists and natural born mediators as well. While I have no doubts that Lionel Messi is the GOAT, he is a relatively short attacker, with a keener and more eager than rigorous personality, making him an inspiring player but an ineffective team captain.

Mental strength – a.k.a. cognitive AND emotional intelligence

I believe that a legendary captain must be smart and a genuine nice guy. Some of the aspects have been mentioned, like discipline, emotional self-awareness, teamwork, focus, stress tolerance, but let me add self-confidence, openness to criticism, flexibility and (quick) decision making to the mix. A captain is not selfish but puts the team first. The believe in and exercise synergy. They are righteous, fair, and leading by example means that they do all of the things they expect their teammates to do and more. They don’t mind change and embrace taking on new challenges, which hopefully makes their teammates want to do the same. Inspiring those around them on and off pitch is a key responsibility. Good relationship with the coaches and teammates he must have. A good captain understands football and is capable to explain it to his younger mates – making him a good prospect of becoming a coach or even manager in the future. I think the phenomenon that mediocre players turn out to be remarkable managers (Wenger, Mourinho, Klopp, Pochetino, Benitez) than legends (Guardiola, Cruyff, Zidane), and many great players fail miserably at coaching (Matthaus, Adams, Shearer, Maradona, Stoichkov, Gascoigne, van Basten, Henry?) proves that IQ and EQ are priceless when it comes to coaching, too.

Involvement

Sounds obvious, but a captain must regularly play, as he can contribute more on the pitch than from the dressing room. Injury-prone players are thus not ideal candidates, as there should be a vice-captain appointed in many games. Appointing old players are also disputable, as even though they gain maturity, authority and leadership skills along the years, but their physical competitiveness is deteriorating, they become injury-prone and their place in the starting line-up gets under pressure from younger team-mates. I’m not talking about players of 30-31 years of age, but many clubs have a captain of 34+ years, who – in my opinion – should rather serve as mentors than acting captains (unless they still play the majority of the games like David Silva or Sergio Ramos). Let me restate that being a captain is not a honorary gesture, so Chiellini or Wes Morgan would not be my choices.

Former Arsenal captains

As you might have already guessed, my epitome for the perfect captain would be Patrick Vieira. He gets the check in every aspect: he was a huge, disciplined defensive midfielder, who understood the game and couldn’t be left out from the squad when he was fit. (Similar applies to Gerrard and Lampard; I expect them all to become good managers, however putting them beyond their depth could hinder their confidence and further development.)

Mikel Arteta was also a capable captain, but while he lacked size and involvement, he was really a smart player. Vermaelen and Mertesacker had similar mental strength, were natural born leaders, but being injury prone they couldn’t bring the whole package to the table. Vermaelen went beyond his depth when he joined Barcelona, but Per can still become an Arsenal legend if he manages the Academy well.

Regarding Leadership skills I think both Fabregas and van Persie were mismatches with regards to their personalities. Their talent was undisputed, but that is seldom enough. And their ambition to prove their luck elsewhere would also limit their empathy and teamwork, as Arsenal was always on the verge of becoming ballistic, but the best players leaving (below their market value!) constantly kept undermining Wenger’s heroic work.

Putting the results aside, I don’t consider neither Adams nor Henry suitable or memorable captains. Both were legendary players and senior figures in the team, nevertheless. However, Henry wasn’t a leader type, wasn’t a keen communicator either and he was putting more pressure on the opponent’s defence than the referee. While Adams was just ‘too simple’ for the game, as his career in punditry and coaching clearly demonstrates.

Finally – and I didn’t dare to put it in the preface, as I was afraid that you were stop reading further – I strongly believe that Xhaka is not just the best candidate for captaincy in the current squad, but was the ideal captain before he snapped from the unjust criticism and bullying, as he checks all 8 aspects above.

Captains of PL team in the 19/20 season

César Azpilicueta (Chelsea) – good choice. Pros: involvement, seniority, discipline. Cons: size.

Simon Francis (AFC Bournemouth) – poor choice. Pros: seniority. Cons: age, involvement, position.

Jamaal Lascelles (Newcastle) – good choice. Pros: age, size, authority.

Luka Milivojevic (Crystal Palace) – good choice. Pros: position, leadership. Cons: discipline, communication.

Ashley Young (Manchester United) – OK choice. Pros: seniority, position. Cons: age, size, discipline, leadership.

Wes Morgan (Leicester City) – poor choice. Pros: seniority, communication. Cons: age, involvement, position.

Troy Deeney (Watford) – poor choice. Pros: seniority, leadership. Cons: involvement, position, mental strength.

James Ward-Prowse (Southampton) – great choice. Pros: position, involvement, discipline, leadership. Cons: size.

David Silva (Machester City) – great choice. Pros: seniority, mental strength, leadership, discipline. Cons: age.

Mark Noble (West Ham) – good choice. Pros: seniority, position, communication. Cons: age, involvement.

James Chester (Aston Villa) – poor choice. Pros: leadership, discipline. Cons: size, involvement, position

Seamus Coleman (Everton) – OK choice. Pros: seniority, position. Cons: involvement, size, discipline.

Jordan Henderson (Liverpool) – perfect choice. Pros: position, size, leadership, discipline, leadership, age. Cons: none.

Hugo Lloris (Totenham) – OK choice. Pros: seniority, discipline. Cons: position, communication.

Billy Sharp (Sheffield United) – poor choice. Pros: mental strength. Cons: age, position, discipline, size.

By PBarany

Mancini to the rescue as Southampton looms….

 There is so much apathy in the Arsenal world but we know how quickly things can turn in football, like Poche’s sacking! Three consecutive wins in the EPL will get us dreaming again. Southampton at home, Norwich away followed by Brighton at home look a good bridge across our troubled waters.

Emery has been slammed from all quarters for poor performance but, if he had the Invincibles as his team, a lot if not all his short comings might have been hidden. Maybe we have a collection of players who are not as good as we think. Or it could be that we have a team that is a poor mix of good players in which case it’s back to Emery.

Manchester City, under Mancini, were underperforming at the Etihad in a certain match they were expected to win easily. Just after the hour mark with the match still goalless, Mancini pulled out one of his forward men for a midfielder to the chagrin of supporters who were thinking oppositely. He won the match. When quizzed he admitted that the problem was not with the striker he pulled out but with the supply line that was supposed to be feeding his forward men. It was clear to him that what he needed do was fix the midfield which he did by strengthening them number wise.

We concede too many attempts at goal and achieve low numbers of attempts at the opponents’ goal. That’s an indictment on our midfield. It is their job to prevent the ball from getting into our defensive third as well as to progress the ball into our attacking third when they have it. If Emery is half as analytical as Mancini he’d know what area of his team first needs fixing, but with a thousand things always swirling in his brain he’s built a reputation of regularly missing the obvious. At this moment the bet is that he is busy acquiring in depth knowledge of Southampton which he would use to manufacture new pigments that would only put his team off colour.

If I were him, I would beef up the midfield and that means the concept of the PALs on the field together is put in the cooler. I would look at the PAL asset as providing us with options that leaves room for adaptation to tactics, to form, to injury and to the super sub. After all it is a privilege a club of our size should posses. Three of them on the field starved of the ball is the real misuse of the huge asset they represent.

Emery should throw away his volumes on Southampton our opponent come Saturday. I know it’s his addiction but he just has to stop thinking about adapting to every team. I don’t see why it shouldn’t be to hell with every team that come visiting at the Emirates. The onus should be on visitors to worry about us. I doubt Emery understands how big a team Arsenal is. Sorting out his team, starting with the midfield, should be his sole preoccupation. If he needs a helping hand from me, Willock must always be in the mix. Not that he’s up there yet but none of the others have his roundedness. For example he is able to show up in both boxes which is not saying much of the others.

Our players are so preoccupied with tame sideway and backward passes. Why? They are afraid to lose the ball. They know they are very vulnerable without it and that’s another indictment of our midfield which should be the core for repossessing the ball. We need better ball winners there. Our team defending that commences near the edge of our box has to stop. Fabinho, Wijnaldum and Henderson (Liverpool midfield trio) fight hard so that the ball does not get into their defensive third, making it easy for VVD and co. This is a job (saying it for the umpteenth time) that Luiz can help the team with more so as he is quite good at through-balls from deep. He is not exactly a Fabinho (who sits there for the Brazilian national team) but he is good enough and more pertinently the best in our ranks.

Against Southampton for example I would like to see this team:

—————Leno————–
Bellerin. Mustafi. Sokratis. Tierney.
—–Willock—Luiz—-Guendz—–
—————Ozil—————
———Pepe——Auba——–

That midfield three with Ozil in front of them has enough to aid both defensively and creatively. Look again at that line up panoramically and you’d see how those four letters L U I Z fit the arrangement. It’s a position he is conversant with having played there before. If Mustafi at central defense is stomach-churning for you, Chambers or Holding could step in.

Isn’t this the balance we’ve been looking for? Let’s keep shouting, Emery at wits end might just hear us. What’s your say.

By PE.

This was originally posted in December of 2010.

We all have blood running through our veins; I’m just the same with the exception that my red and white cells equal Arsenal. You see Arsenal is as much a part of me as my blood – we are totally inseparable, one without the other is simply impossible.

My family ties with Arsenal go back to 1913 (over a century) when my maternal Grandfather witnessed the first game at Highbury. I have no idea if he was already an Arsenal fan but there was never any doubt in his later years. He lived on Stavordale Road and delivered coal by horse and cart around Highbury, a big strong man standing six feet five inches tall, arms like tree trunks, with coal dust permanently embedded in his face, an imposing man and someone to be feared.

On match days Stavordale Road became a parking lot and Grandpa saw this as a source of revenue. When a car parked he would be there to open the car door and greet the driver, he would place his hand, heavily, on the drivers shoulder and say – “hey mate, if you give me a bob (shilling) I’ll make sure that nothing bad happens to your car” the driver would look into his coal grained face and then down at his hob nailed boots and quickly cough up a bob. The fear factor (what Grandpa might do to his car if he said no) rarely failed. When the street was full he’d zip up to the Drayton Arms and down a few pints of brown and mild then trot up the hill to Highbury to watch his beloved Gunners – he was very wise in the use of his ” bobs”.

As a kid I would stand on Avenell Road and hear the ooh’s and aah’s and roars coming out of Highbury and I just yearned to get in to see a game, Grandpa indoctrinated me at the age of ten, Nov. 22^nd 1947, Arsenal vs Huddersfield Town and I found my DNA.

My paternal Grandfather, who lived on Caledonian Road, was also a fan; our combined family was huge I had eighteen uncles and forty six male cousins, all Arsenal fans, well except for four sad souls who were Spuds supporters.

To say that we lived and breathed Arsenal is a monumental understatement, family occasions were dominated by Arsenal dialogue, before Sunday dinner the men would all go up the pub and we kids would stand outside listening to all of the Arsenal banter and waiting for our bags of Smith’s crisps, with the blue twist of salt and bottles of Tizer. I really had no other choice than to become an Arsenal supporter and I’m happy to say that it has remained as a dominant part of my life, so much so that all family/business and social functions are scheduled around Arsenal games.

So you see my DNA is also known as a….Dysfunction Named Arsenal.

Not that I’m complaining.

GunnerN5

This Interlull gives us an opportunity to review Unai Emery’s league performance.

First a look at Arsenal’s record after the first 12 games of every Premier League season.

Based on previous seasons Unai’s performance in the first 12 games of 2018/19 was acceptable and gave us hope for a positive change of guard and boded well for Arsenal’s future.

The start to the 2019/20 season has washed those hopes away; he has equalled the lowest amount of wins (4) the lowest goals scored since 1998/99 (16) the second highest goals against (17) and equalled the lowest amount of points (17). 

Here are the results of his last 19 Premier League games; I chose 19 as its equal to half of a season.

This is a shocking indictment of his abject performance as Arsenal manager!

We have 24 points out of a possible 57 or 42.1% of the points available, goals for average of 1.26 per game and goals against average of 1.53. Home advantage looks like a thing of the past as it is as poor as our away results.

Here is what a full season of those results would equal:-

W12, D12, L14, GF48, GA58, GD -10, Points 48.

That looks like mid to lower table mediocrity to me but it seems that our B.O.D have a different opinion and have given him a vote of confidence.

Over to you…………..

GunnerN5

VTF – Volatile Tolerance of Frustration

I would like to reflect on a few Arsenal games played between the October and November interlulls, using the basic 1 to 10 scale. I’m sure you are also disappointed for most of them, but maybe the levels and the order in your case are different. Don’t hesitate to share your insights in the comments below.

We couldn’t keep a clean sheet at home against Wolves – ☼☼ (2 of 10)

A clean sheet is not everything. There could be infrequent lapses of concentration, individual mistakes, impossible-to-defend rockets or superb team attacks; so as long as only a single goal is conceded I don’t really panic. The team’s job is to minimize the number/probability of chances created by the opponent, limit the severity of such attempts, and even if we concede they should respond to it with 3-4 goals of our own. If I would be a manager, I would set a 3:1 win as an expectation and would reward my players compared to the differences with the actual result.

We dropped out from the Carabao Cup against Liverpool – ☼☼☼☼ (4 of 10)

I don’t like being dropped out. Not just because of the reputation or one less chance to win a trophy, but each missed cup game is 990 minutes lost for fringe players to gain maturity, confidence, or just to experiment with different tactics. With that being said I did not expect do go through as we were unlucky to draw Liverpool at Anfield, so we were not the favourites of this tie (well, I am quite confident that Arsenal has one of the strongest B-teams in the world – maybe behind Manchester City, but definitely ahead of Barcelona and Liverpool – but this could be the topic of another post for the future). Therefore I was a bit sad, but not really frustrated, as this was kind of foreseeable before the game – but less expected at 1:3 and 2:4.

Emery experimenting with different formations – ☼☼☼☼ (4 of 10)

As a general principle I support experimenting. So kudos for Emery for trying to change. But I still don’t understand that a manager/coach of his calibre cannot see that the number of shots on goal is closely connected to the chances created, and in order to improve that, we need either a midfield overhaul or creative players. The 5-2-2-1 formation we started against Vitoria Guimaraes realized neither. Maybe he was surprised of the outcome, but I wasn’t. Sorry to say that, but probably it was good that the Portuguese team equalized eventually, otherwise he could have thought that he found/invented something viable. Anyway, experimenting only makes sense if one is smart enough to realize if a particular alternative is a dead end.

We conceded 5 goals in 90 minutes against a ’B team’ – ☼☼☼☼☼ (5 of 10)

I’m on my way to become a Zen-master, but these 5 goals are still not such an unmitigated disaster. This defence is (hopefully) not that poor. We had an unlucky own goal, a penalty, and a few individual mistakes. If we would replay this fixture, we wouldn’t concede 5 goals, for sure. But we wouldn’t score 5 either, as we got away with an offside, a few (but huge) individual mistakes, etc. At the end of the day I think luck was evenly distributed between the two sides. Both defences were playing poor that night, but that made it quite an enjoyable game. Too bad that we didn’t have the last laugh though.

Poor game management and sub-optimal team selection again and again – ☼☼☼☼☼☼ (6 of 10)

This makes me only moderately frustrated, but rather perplexed (and slightly amused). Last year Emery made Arsenal the team to salvage the most points from losing situations, now we are probably the team losing the most points from winning situations. Have aliens abducted the manager and replaced him with Sam Allardyce? Being serious, the common thing to both situations is that you need a bad starting line-up; but while last year the substitutions and the fighting spirits led to turnarounds, this year even our weaker line-ups are capable to score goals, but we don’t have neither the discipline nor the experience to save our leads – especially when unprofessionally stupid changes are made.

4 shots, 2 on target, 1 goal at home – ☼☼☼☼☼☼☼ (7 of 10)

OK, that started to p*ss me off. If we lose points it’s bad enough, but at least we should lose them in style. Have bad luck, referee bias, VAR-malfunction, act of god, etc. But – unless we get beaten by a clearly superior opponent – I want to feel proud for our play and feel angry about hitting a post 3 times and being denied multiple obvious penalties. But feeling lucky for a home draw against a weaker team is an emotion I am not familiar with as a Gunners-fan. Arsenal had a signature style of playing eye-catching attacking football, overwhelm the opponents with creativity, etc. that was one of the reasons I started supporting this great club. Oh, I miss Wengerball so much…

Double standards everywhere (among fans and bloggers) – ☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼ (10 of 10)

I had to relinquish my dream that all Arsenal fans are my brothers and sisters. It was such an attractive dream, as someone cheering for the Gunners must have great taste, must be smart, and must have superior analytical skills, right? Well… not exactly. Sometimes ‘former arsenal legends’ seem to know shit about football (and I’m no expert, so if someone knows less than me, that would probably qualify for shit), and people are easily influenced by populist pundits, lousy commentators and stupid tweets. But what really p*sses me off are the double standards.

If the reaction after Luiz makes a penalty-foul is “get rid of this clown” then Martinelli should get the same treatment. Mustafi made an unforced own goal against Liverpool, but he made 13 (!) clearances in the same game. You cannot give a rating of 3 after that. If Xhaka as a CM gets criticized like “sell him now, ffs” when he doesn’t prevent a cross from the by-line, then you cannot be forgiving with Guendouzi who couldn’t head the ball away when Origi (the player he man-marked) managed to kick (!) the ball into the net.

Yes, football is an emotional game, but emotions should be limited to actually watching the game or the highlights. When reflecting, one should switch into analytical mode, and replace feelings with unbiased arguments and objective reasoning. If someone does not have the emotional self-awareness to realize that s/he is not calm enough to see the clouds in his/her judgement that should have the decency to refrain from instant reaction. Or we find ourselves in a sad and unnecessary and senseless witch-hunt like the fans have against Xhaka – see TA’s link to the great Arsenal blog post a few days ago.

By PB.

“Behind what hills does happiness hide, to lurk and plot its return?”

(From ‘At the loch of the Green Corrie’ by Andrew Greig).

So here we are on the first Monday of the last interlull: two points from the last four games and since the last interlull we have moved from a promising albeit flattering third position in the league to an equally flattering shared fifth position now. The gap with the top-four is a whopping eight points, so over just four PL games we have more or less imploded. The Chavs and the Foxes are firing on all cylinders and Pool and Citeh are in class of their own, despite the Northern Oilers current fourth position. Season over?!

Of course it is only early days; another 26 PL games will have to be played this season. A good run could do miracles and we have the squad to do that.

There are, however, very few supporters left who believe that Emery has the ability to turn things round. Our players work hard but there is little belief in the way the team is set up and asked to play. Our best midfielders, with the exception of Emery’s pet project Guendouzi, have all had issues with Emery: Ozil was ostracized, Xhaka humiliated and Torreira messed about. Furthermore, Ramsey was not convinced to stay to flourish in Emery-ball and neither was Mkhi.

Instead, Emery convinced many fellow Gooners  that Guendouzi, Willock and possibly Ceballos are the future of Arsenal, and this may well be true. But that future, if it’s ever to come to fruition, is significantly disconnected from the here and now. Our current midfield set-up is at the level of relegation-battling teams which should be a real concern to everyone connected to the club.

Our defence is not great either but there is potential to become much better soon. The interlull will do Bellerin, Tierney and Holding good after a few hard games and you won’t tell me that Emery cannot put a good defence on the pitch with the sort of quality defenders we have. But of course ‘a defence’ will work much better if the whole team, and especially the midfield, also help defending.

I didn’t do my normal ‘eight observations’ after the LC game as I would just have been repeating myself; and if I am sick of this I am pretty sure you are too. But one thing I would have said is that despite Emery’s 3-4-3 formation and effectively putting seven defence-minded players on the pitch (excluding goalkeeper), we still were easily picked apart and crumpled as soon as the first goal went in. We lost by two but it could have been more.

Our attacking options are very good, we all know this, but to get the best out of them we need to play as a team with a system of football and appropriate tactics to let them strut their stuff. It must be said that Auba and Laca did not have a great game against the Foxes, but as a team Arsenal did not make up for this, and that is our biggest problem: we don’t defend as a team and don’t attack as a team, and the clue is in midfield.

The big question is how is it possible that we are still not a strong unit, a team bigger than the sum of its parts and on the road to somewhere? Forget our position in the league, it is now all about the existence of a plan, a road through the wilderness and collective belief in the future for players and supporters. The BoD and manager are failing in this and dark clouds have gathered above Ashburton Grove.

The BoD are apparently sticking with Emery till the end of the season at least, which is brave and should be applauded to some extent. However, after the current interlull there will be no respite: every game will have to be a battle for the points and failure will accumulate fast. With the lack of connection between manager and the players, both in terms of tactics and in man-management style, it is hard to see a way out of our fast descend towards midtable or worse. Many supporters are already looking at this season, with six months to go, as a write-off.

A football club and their supporters live by the hope and belief in better: in a vision of progress. The BoD have their work cut out to give us this.

By TotalArsenal.