Category: Uncategorized

Emery on the Edge?

It’s just an away match in the midlands–one we won 5-2 the season in which Leicester actually went on to win the PL title–but it’s also a match that seems to represent everything about Arsenal’s current malaise.

Will it be Unai Emery’s last match in charge?  Frankly, I doubt it, especially if Arsenal can eke out a result (a draw keeps the gap at 6, a win, of course, would cut it to three) but a loss would make this Arsenal team sit in the middle of the table and 9 points from the top 4.

At least we now know who Emery will be playing.  Here are your line-ups:

Arsenal: Leno, Bellerin, Holding, Luiz, Kolasinac, Torreira, Chambers, Guendouzi, Ozil, Lacazette, Aubameyang.
Subs: Tierney, Papastathopoulos, Pepe, Martinez, Willock, Martinelli, Saka.

Leicester City: Schmeichel, Ricardo Pereira, Evans, Soyuncu, Chilwell, Ndidi, Perez, Tielemans, Maddison, Barnes, Vardy.
Subs: Justin, Morgan, Gray, Albrighton, Ward, Choudhury, Praet.

Referee: Chris Kavanagh (Lancashire).

It looks like a 3 CB formation with young guns Rob Holding and Calum Chambers flanking David Luiz in the center; Sead Kolasinac and Hector Bellerin working as wing-backs.  With Granit Xhaka likely done as an Arsenal player (at least if Emery continues as our manager) and Dani Ceballos hurt in midweek, our midfield options are limited so less favored guys like Lucas Torreira and Mesut Ozil get their chances alongside Matteo Guendouzi.  Then goal-a-game guy (and new captain) Pierre Emerick Aubameyang will work it out with a (maybe) fully fit (we hope…) Alex Lacazette.

In my mind it’s a strong line-up–and I like the group at the back–but I have to wonder what a coach with a more let-em-play attitude might have been able to create (by this time) with the available group (including big signing Nicolas Pepe and, of course, Xhaka, whose fitness issues are not physical).  Unbelievably, besides Ceballos, our only injured player is Reiss Nelson, a player who might add value but certainly not one we would have expected to rely upon.

I never believe that a single result should define management policy–nor who stands in as the on field coach–but many will disagree.  For me, Emery should have been done after a single (failed) season–with (for me) unwatchable football and a routing shunting of blame away from himself–but he got a 2nd season.  Will he be able to complete it–and meet the expectations of the club and it’s supporters?  Another chapter gets written–right now.

I’ll be watching and trying to describe the action but I’m just 2 eyes (and 10 fingers–and one very small mind).  Help me out, eh…

Go on then…

by 17highburyterrace

Arsenal v Leicester City – November 9^th, 2019

Formed in 1884 by a group of old boys of Wyggeston School as “Leicester Fosse”, the club joined The Football Association in 1890. Before moving to Filbert Street in 1891, the club played at five different grounds, including Victoria Park south-east of the city centre and the Belgrave Road Cycle and Cricket Ground. In 1919, when League football resumed after World War I, Leicester Fosse ceased trading due to financial difficulties of which little is known. The club was reformed as “Leicester City Football Club”, particularly appropriate as the borough of Leicester had recently been given city status.

The club moved away from Filbert Street in 2002 to a new 32,500 all-seater stadium. The stadium was originally named The Walkers Stadium in a deal with food manufacturers Walkers. On 7 July 2011, Leicester City confirmed the Walkers Stadium would now be known as the King Power Stadium. In 2015 their vice-chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha stated plans were in place to increase the capacity of the stadium to around 42,000.

The club’s home colours of royal blue shirts, white shorts, and either white or royal blue socks have been used for the team’s kits throughout most of its history. The first sponsorship logo to appear on a Leicester shirt was that of Ind Coope in 1983. British snack food manufacturer Walkers Crisps held a long association with the club, sponsoring them from 1987 to 2001.

The club have three main nicknames – The Foxes, The Blues and City. “The Foxes” is the most common nickname for the club, whereas “The Blues” and “City” are more local terms, usually used by supporters. Other names include “The Filberts” and “The Fossils”. An image of a fox was first incorporated into the club crest in 1948, as Leicestershire is known for foxes and fox hunting – this is the origin of the nickname “The Foxes”.

The club mascot is a character called “Filbert Fox”. There are also secondary characters “Vickie Vixen” and “Cousin Dennis.” Since 1992, the club’s badge has featured a fox’s head overlaid onto a Cinquefoil; the Cinquefoil is similar to the one used on the coat of arms of Leicester. Prior to 1992, the club’s badge had a range of designs. In the 2009–10 season, the club’s 125th anniversary year, the home kit featured no sponsor and a new central crest with “125 Years” written beneath it.

Leicester won the 2015–16 Premier League, their first top-level football championship. They are one of only six clubs to have won the Premier League since its inception in 1992. A number of newspapers described Leicester’s title win as the greatest sporting shock ever, considering at the start of the season they were favourites to face relegation. Multiple bookmakers had never paid out at such long odds for any sport. As a result, the team was dubbed “The Unbelievables”, a spin-off harking back to Arsenal’s undefeated team “The Invincibles”. The club’s previous highest ever finish was second place in the top flight, in 1928–29, then known as Division One.

The club hold the dubious record of having been defeated in the FA Cup Final on four occasions – in 1948–49, 1960–61, 1962–63 and 1968–69. This is a tournament record for the most defeats in the final without having won the competition.

Our away record:

Arsenal v Leicester EPL Away Games
		W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1	23-Nov-94			1	1	2	-1
2	24-Aug-96	1			2	0	2
3	27-Aug-97		1		3	3	0
4	12-Sep-98		1		1	1	0
5	04-Dec-99	1			3	0	3
6	20-Jan-01		1		0	0	0
7	23-Jan-02	1			3	1	2
8	06-Dec-03		1		1	1	0
9	31-Aug-14		1		1	1	0
10	26-Sep-15	1			5	2	3
11	20-Aug-16		1		0	0	0
12	09-May-18			1	1	3	-2
13	28-Apr-19			1	0	3	-3
Total:		4	6	3	21	17	4

 

All Away Games v Leicester City
	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Division 2	1	2	7	9	17	-8
Division 1	14	13	13	69	71	-2
Premier	4	6	3	21	17	4
Total	19	21	23	99	105	-6

By GN5

TotalArsenal’s Preferred Line-up (GN5 does not like doing them):

If Emery were to put out this team – 4-3-1-2 – I am convinced we would get something from this game, but it is highly unlikely to happen. As Tierney, Bellerin and Holding played on Wednesday, and they are all coming back from long injuries, I would reluctantly start with Kola and Big Sok in defence. In attack I reckon we need Ozil to play in the hole, and as captain, with two of Pepe, Auba and Laca up-front. We don’t need three finishers, two is enough… let’s play some football and the goals will come again.

But the big area that needs sorting out is our midfield. Both Xhaka and Torreira HAVE to play to have a chance in this game. I would play three in midfield and make sure they keep in a horizontal line a lot to protect the back AND work together to dominate midfield and get our passing game going again. If we allow the Foxes as many shots on goal as we have been doing we will get slaughtered, so let’s keep it compact and disciplined, and pass the ball around with conviction and forward thrust. 

I make it sound simple and in my mind it is, but WTFDIK. Let’s see what Emery comes up with this time.

Vitoria Guimaraes 1 – 1 Arsenal

Well that game was not a compliment to the eyes but an away draw in European football is not bad, the statisticians will tell you, and Mustafi – MOTM – had one of his better games. I am afraid that is as positive as it will get in this post.

In all European competitions we have won only 1 out of 8 away games in Portugal, and we knew from the return game that Vitoria are a well organised, hard to beat, typical Portuguese team. On top of that it rained the whole game and things at the club are not great: Xhaka has been dethroned and that will not only have upset him in the team, we dropped seven points in the last three PL games, and our manager and our football look stuck in a cul-de-sac of a cul-de-sac. All are also aware that we will face the high-flying Foxes on Saturday and that game may well turn out to be decisive for the continuation of Emery’s Arsenal career.

Whether it is yesterday’s game or any other game we played under Emery in recent times, our biggest problems are the balance in midfield, the lack of cohesion in our play, lack of added dimension (our football is stale) and inability to get the best out of our players. In fact, the way Emery has us play seems to make our individual players lose their groove and confidence. He puts 11 players on the pitch but it looks like only 9 are playing. We allowed 15 shots, one every six minutes, with four on target; despite 65% of possession Arsenal only managed 7 shots of which just one was on target.

Our midfield set-up does not protect the back nor does it support the attack, and it makes every midfielder in Emery’s team look poor and clueless. Arsenal under Wenger were the masters of midfield play for the best part of 20 years, so this is extra hard to swallow. Don’t believe one second that Xhaka was only saddened by the poor response by some of the Emirates’ ‘support’ when he was so ostentaniously subbed by the manager; the way Emery has the team play and how that makes him play and look also made him mad. And I am sure he is not the only one who feels (or felt) like that!

We had three willing attackers in Saka, Pepe and Martinelli but they were constantly outnumbered where it mattered. We played 3-4-3 so this should not have been the case, but both Tierney and AMN struggled to aid the attack and the central midfield duo of Willock and Ceballos had just too much space to cover and sat too deep. Everything we tried was via the wings and the Portuguese had this covered all day long. We had nobody manning the hole, in fact there was an empty yellow/blue triangle from the Portuguese box all the way to the midfield line for most of the game. We hardly put more than two passes together in the areas where we could hurt them, as we were not compact enough, not mobile enough and were basically clueless and plan-less.

Pepe, Saka and Martinelli looked frustrated despite trying hard to make things happen. Ceballos had to come very deep to get the game going and covered many miles before he had to come off with a hamstring injury (no surprise really). He could not get the team going in the way we were set up to combat the rugged opponents, and Emery’s subs made a bit of change but not enough to improve our poor football significantly.  It was urine-poor for 90 minutes and I feel sorry for those loyal away supporters on that wet and insipid night of football that will have hurt the wallet hard.

The defence almost got their clean sheet but that game did not deserve a winner. Mustafi, who played the best passes on the night, scored a solid Championship sort of goal to get us ahead, but Vitoria hit back with some fine technical improvisation by Duarte de Silva who levelled things with a good scissor-kick that somehow eluded all our frantic defenders in the box.

We are close to going through to the next round and this game will be quickly forgotten. I reckon the same cannot be said about our pivotal encounter with the Foxes on Saturday. Sink or Swim.

By TotalArsenal. 

Vitoria v Arsenal – 6 November 2019 Preview & Line-up

After dropping four costly points at home in two PL games, the manager and boys will be happy to be in sunny Guimaraes for  their fourth EL group game. Having said that, there is 70% chance of rain around kick-off time (15.50 BST) so the pitch may well be wet and fast.

The Portuguese gave us a big scare a fortnight ago but we were saved by the bow and arrow of Pepe, who turned a losing position into a winning one with two of the finest bullseye-freekicks.

It was clear that we underestimated the opponent at the home of  football and I am sure the boys will be much better prepared tomorrow. Now we can sit back a bit more and force the Portuguese to come at us, and then we can pick them off on the break. We can put out a  team to be very effective at this; and as I am expecting Xhaka to be returned to the starting-11 for this away fixture, and a few in-form youngsters to be chomping (or champing) at the bit, it should be a good game to watch.

This would be my preferred line-up (and I don’t think it will be too far of Emery’s either):

I want to see the Luiz/Holding combo in action. Robbo needs to play RCB and Luiz is our best LCB. Kola and Bellerin are no-brainers and Xhaka to get help from Willock in protecting the defence and do the B2B stuff. ESR to play a bit more ahead but helping out in midfield as much as possible too. Up-front we have the mobile beast of Saka, Laca and Martinelli, who can dance the Chulas and all get on the score/assist sheet. Some may argue that Pepe should start, and I would not mind that either, but I feel that he could do with a break and start again after the interlull.

As most agree, the cup games are a breath of fresh air compared to the PL games, and let’s hope Emery doesn’t mess things up with his late and strange substitutions this time.

COYRRGs!

By TotalArsenal.

 

IS EMERY BROKEN (EVEN BEFORE THE WOLVES’ MATCH)?

@ njk 00:19, **[I would rather have Emery doing his press conference in Spanish so that we can understand him better.]** ——— I’ve read many of Emery’s Spanish interviews translated to English and I haven’t found them illuminating. His ideas don’t follow a straight line and I wonders if he is able to hold a line of thought through. It is troubling that the same seems a pattern in his tactics. When you think you’ve got a lead to his tactics and follow it, it ends in a blind alley. Against Wolves there was absolutely no sense in removing Lacazette before the hour mark as his play was unsettling the Wolves defence. It is tactically obvious that Aubameyang benefits from Lacazette’s ‘chaos’.

@Eris 20:48, **[As for today, I’d like to think that Emery must be a suicidal kind …… in the game where  with the side 1 goal up he chooses to take off Torreira and bring on Bukayo Saka. ………. I am all for blood(ing) the kids but, apart from say Martinelli and Willock, I am not a fan of bringing them into league games when we are not in a clear lead]** ——– absolutely no logic in bringing in Saka for Torreira. We were leading but Wolves were threatening. If anything the logical thing was a reverse substitution: strengthen our defending at a small cost to our offense. Of course there was the option of a like to like substitution like Willock for Torreira, maybe for the sake of fresh legs. There is a chance the substitution might have been a tactic of attack as a form of defence but why the 18 year old Saka when Pepe the terror of defenders was sitting on the bench. Eris you needn’t be apologetic about it, but little Saka shouldn’t be the player Emery should be deploying to change our game. What a coincidence that Emery brought in Ozil, Martinelli, Saka (fans favourites) and left out Xhaka and of course Mustafi. Has he come to the end of his wits? Is he a broken man, now being blown about by the wind?

@LE GALL 17:02, **[just want to keep that happy feeling for seeing Mesut play again; he’s not a player, he’s a musician, just makes the ball sing]** ———– and why on earth has Emery kept 0zil of all players out of the squad. Illogical. Against Wolves, Ozil brought intelligence to our midfield. There are two categories of people that operate outside the comprehension of normal folks: the geniuses and the dunces. Am unable to conclude to which category Emery belongs. Am still hoping it’s the former.

@jw1 17:43, **[Never might have guessed this disparity ……. Shots = ARS 10/4 — WOL 25/8]** ——–just doesn’t rhyme with what Emery promised us: protagonist, controlling the game, energy, intensity, structure. Do the words just tumble out, meaningless?

@17HT 17:01, **[Not a lot to get excited about, I fear…]** ——— the typical British understatement, I think.

@TA 17: 57, **[Well that is not good enough, but glad to see others more philosophical than me.]** ———- philosophical interlude. I get the drift.

@Admir 22:44, **[Emery’s birthday is tomorrow. P45 for birthday is what he deserved.

11 games, not a single one in which we outplayed our opponents.

11 games, just once we scored more than two goals.

11 games, we have already dropped more points than Man City had during the whole of last season.

11 games, we have won just four or a little bit over one third.

11 games, we still don’t have Best XI.

11 games, we have kept a clean sheet in just two occasions.

11 games, we have just 16 points yet I have feeling it’s at least five more than we have deserved.

Sack him in the morning]** ———— everything in a nutshell. How I and the players wish Emery can be as brief as Amir.

Already many want Emery out. On my part I want to hang on to hope till the 19th week. Who knows but things might soon suddenly click. Am forever hoping. After all football is about hopes whose flip side is fears. Football is also about pains and ecstasy and capriciousness. So be not surprised if after our next, crucial PL match v the Foxes I am fully with Admir in the growing chorus — ‘Tomorrow will be too late’.

Gooners lets hear of your hopes and your fears.

By PE.

Arsenal v Wolves: 1-1. Once again we dropped points from being in the lead and now got two points from our last three PL games (SW, CP and WW).

The bullies of Ashburton Grove have won and Captain Granit Xhaka wasn’t even in the match squad. How did we do? Wolves were allowed an incredible 25 shots of which were 8 (30%) on target (we managed a meagre 10 shots/ just 4 or target). Who replaced Granit Xhaka? A beast of a DM? Well you tell me whether Guendouzi at the foot of the diamond is the answer? Stats are not everything, but 8 shots on target against 4 for us will tell you that we have been lucky to get a point from this game. And we were.

If you still weren’t sure before the Xhaka scandal what Emery’s strategy for the team is, I hope it is now. He does not believe in protecting the defence with strong defence-minded midfielder(s). Guendouzi is very promising on the ball and when we are playing out of defence, but he has little sense of effectively (and pro-actively) protecting the defence. Xhaka is neither a typical DM and needs Torreira to sit next to him, and together they can form a strong partnership. Guendouzi needs such a partner even more than Xhaka, but with Torreira and Ceballos playing higher up in midfield, as per the diamond-formation philosophy, the curly dribbler was left on his own time and again. Hence 25 shots/ 8 on target!!

Under Emery we leave so much space between defence and midfield, and I guess only the stubborn few will still believe he can get the midfield right. When we were leading against the run of play, and this will be all you need to remember once Emery has been given the boot, he takes off our only capable defender-midfielder, Torreira, and puts another winger on, Saka. He has either no desire or no clue as to how to make us play compact in front of the defence and kill a game off. And this is costing us points game after game – either by conceding early and having to fight back for a result on the backfoot or by conceding late on when winning.

I should maybe talk about the good things of the game: Xhaka may have been left with Mesut’s playstation but at least Torreira and Ozil started, and as the Meatloaf song goes, two out of three ain’t bad. The defence worked their socks off with a few excellent performances (Luiz and Chambers) and the super-exciting Tierney made his PL debut. Auba and Laca have been reunited and combined well to score a fab goal.

But we have fundamental problems at Arsenal – we let bullies win and have a poor manager – so I am in no mood to focus on the positives. Let that not hold you back though, fellow BKers, to give us your positives of the game and try and give us all hope.

I leave you with this BBC article on the game and encourage you to listen to both managers post-game interviews: what a world of difference! How I wish that Nuno was our man rather than Wolves’.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/50190999

By TotalArsenal.

Here we go…. Granit Xhaka booed off a week ago and now Mesut Ozil–back from watching PL matches in his street clothes–gets a chance to start one.  Who is managing this?  What is going on in North London?  Certainly it’s a chance to get a few much needed points and here are the line-ups:

Arsenal: Leno, Chambers, Papastathopoulos, Luiz, Tierney, Ozil, Guendouzi, Torreira, Ceballos, Lacazette, Aubameyang.

Subs: Bellerin, Pepe, Martinez, Willock, Kolasinac, Martinelli, Saka.

Wolves: Rui Patricio, Dendoncker, Coady, Saiss, Doherty,
Joao Moutinho, Neves, Jonny, Traore, Jimenez, Jota.

Subs: Pedro Neto, Cutrone, Gibbs-White, Ruddy, Perry, Ruben Vinagre, Kilman.

Referee: Michael Oliver (Northumberland)

I’ve copied over the name of the referee, hoping that he and his VAR crew do their jobs too.  What do you think of the group Emery has selected to try and right our badly listing ship?

I’m back in front of my screens and ready to try and describe the action but I plea for help.  It’s been awhile and I’m not very familiar with this Arsenal.  So, feel more than free to add your observations to mine in the comments.

Go on then…

by 17highburyterrace

Arsenal v Wolves – November 2^nd, 2019

Wolves has humble beginnings shaped by the twin influences of cricket and the church. The club was founded in 1877 as St Luke’s F.C. by John Baynton and John Brodie, two pupils of St Luke’s Church School in Blakenhall, who had been presented with a football by their headmaster Harry Barcroft. The team played its first-ever game on 13 January 1877 against a reserve side from Stafford Road, later merging with the football section of a local cricket club called Blakenhall Wanderers to form Wolverhampton Wanderers in August 1879.

Having initially played on two different strips of land in the town, they relocated to a more substantial venue on Dudley Road in 1881, before lifting their first trophy in 1884 when they won the Wrekin Cup, during a season in which they played their first-ever FA Cup tie. Having become professional, the club were nominated to become one of the twelve founder members of the Football League in 1888, in which they played the first Football League match ever staged (against Aston Villa). They ended the inaugural season in third place, as well as reaching their first FA Cup Final, losing 0–3 to the first “Double” winners, Preston North End.

At the conclusion of the campaign the club relocated for a final time when they moved to Molineux, then a pleasure park known as the Molineux Grounds.

On September 24, 1904 Arsenal played their first Division 1 game it was a home game against Wolverhampton Wanderers and it was also the day we scored our first ever top flight goal.

 

Charlie Satterthwaite holds the honour of scoring Arsenal’s first ever goal in the First Division. The striker had a keen eye for goal during his six-year spell with the Club and scored 48 times in 141 appearances. Satterthwaite made history on September 24, 1904 with the opening strike in a 2-0 victory over Wolves – Arsenal’s first goal and victory of their maiden campaign in the top flight of English football. He had joined five months earlier from West Ham and made his debut on the opening day of the 1904/05 campaign in a 3-0 loss to Newcastle. Satterthwaite finished as the team’s top goal scorer that year and also in 1906/07 (with 19 goals) before retiring in 1910 at the age of 33. His younger brother Joe also played for Arsenal, which made them the first siblings to achieve the feat. 

From: an article at the time – 

Saturday’s game was rather interfered with by the weather and a much smaller crowd were present on the Woolwich ground than when Preston played them a fortnight before. Still, there were quite 20,000 enthusiasts present, and these were soon cheering themselves hoarse in an ecstasy of delight, for it was quickly seen that the Arsenal were playing a winning game, and even the heavy rainstorm which broke over the ground failed to damp the ardour of these partisans of the “Reds” who showed much of the form which made them so popular when playing in the Second Division last year. 

There was a rare scene of enthusiasm at the end of the game as the Arsenal players fought their way back to their dressing room through a mob of excited partisans amid much back slapping and hand wringing.

Wolves Honours.

Football League First Division

Champions (3): 1953–54, 1957–58, 1958–59

FA Cup

Winners (4): 1892–93, 1907–08, 1948–49, 1959–60

Football League Cup

Winners (2): 1973–74, 1979–80

FA Charity Shield

Winners (4): 1949*, 1954*, 1959, 1960* (* shared)

Arsenal v Wolves – EPL Home Games
		W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1	26-Dec-03	1			3	0	3
2	03-Apr-10	1			1	0	1
3	12-Feb-11	1			2	0	2
4	27-Dec-11		1		1	1	0
5	11-Nov-18		1		1	1	0
6	02-Nov-19
Total :		3	2	0	8	2	6

 

Arsenal v Wolves – All Home Games
	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Division 2	2	0	0	8	2	6
Division 1	22	13	8	100	64	36
Premier	3	2	0	8	2	6
Total :	27	15	8	116	68	48

Wolves have never beaten us at home in the EPL era and only 8 times in the 50 occasions they have met us in London. But they are a very different proposition with Nuno Espírito Santo in charge and we should expect a very difficult game.

GunnerN5

Normally TotalArsenal gives here his preferred line-up but as Emery has announced he will not start our captain Xhaka tomorrow, I will not do one out of protest.

Eris … a good article by Eniola Aluko. https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2019/oct/31/sorry-granit-xhaka-arsenal-fans

Unfortunately there are too many people who lack sensitivity and some who are downright sadists. There are the weak ones who follow the bandwagon. There are others who don’t know how to manage their pains and disappointments. I swear a lot during games but usually under my breath. Such curses are more liable to destroy than build. It’s one of the reasons why I hardly comment here during matches. I fear that some of my numerous curses might seep into the public domain.

We treat these players (public personalities) as if they are robots with no feelings. The truth is that they are as delicate as you and I. Their close ones (partners, children, parents etc) feel their pain and they in return feel the pain of their pain. I know that fans cannot but have opinions but we must endeavour to bring them out in the least hurtful of ways.

Our team is notorious for playing with the handbrakes. It’s no handbrake, it’s fear: fear of the unforgiving response of fans who are supposed to swim and sink with the players. The players should lift us the fans but when they can’t it is for us to try to lift them. In victory or in defeat we march home as one. It is disheartening that some of us have chosen the path of dichotomy. Would Jurgen Klopp have ever accepted to come to Arsenal? I doubt it. On sabbatical from football he chose Liverpool for his return because he knew that he and his team would never walk alone irrespective of the journey which by itself is the guarantee of the triumph of the journey. Class.

Unfortunately this very vocal minority of Arsenal fans have developed an ugly group ego, a pompous and selfish ego that must win every of their fancy fight whatever the cost. They must win even at the cost of the Arsenal FC going under. These are fans who are no longer there to support the team but to pander to their egos, their whims and caprices. Tragically their malaise is very contagious. Not many are able to escape being sucked into the vortex of mass hysteria.

The silent majority, the real fans, should have themselves to blame if this classless group is allowed to drive the culture of Arsenaldom. It’s time the real fans raise their voice against these scoundrels. Xhaka should send his apology to the real fans who silently sympathize with him but never to the ego maniacs. It is our fight that Xhaka has taken upon himself. He has just turned himself into my hero. Maybe his blood will wash away our sins. COYRRG!!!

By PE.

Well that was a fun game to watch… until we gave our lead away for the third time and had to go to penalties.

Liverpool 5 – 5 Arsenal (lost 5-4 on penalties).

Eight Observations from a pulsating game full of promise:

1. The starting line up was relatively strong. Four experienced defenders, a decent goallie, three dynamic and multi-skilled midfielders and a very mobile and technically talented attack. Mustafi had a moment he so wanted to prevent (I feel sorry for him) and we went behind before we could get settled into the game. However, the good thing was that going behind actually spurred further on the team: we won the midfield battle, pushed Pool into their own half and before we knew it were 3-1 up through fine goals by Torreira and Martinelli. Unfortunately, we presented them with a penalty just before the break and our two goal lead was reduced.
2. We were leading so nobody had to be punished by Emery during the break and the same 11 turned up at the start of the second half. Mesut Ozil showed everyone that he is super fit and full of tricks and laser vision. It was a joy to watch him for 60+ minutes and he was THE creative midfielders on the pitch. His assist for our fourth goal was exquisite (and so was his pre-assist for Marti’s second), and having established once more a two-goal lead, it looked like the game would be ours. But Pool pulled two goals back in quick succession through our very bad defensive middle, which also was badly protected by our three midfielders, and we were equal again. So we needed more goals to win it and what did Emery do… yes he took Ozil off and put on the curly dribbler. Maybe it was pre-agreed and maybe Emery had plans to play Mesut on Saturday and wanted to keep him fit… Maybe.
3. Not much later, Willock scored a superb – goal of the match – screamer that will have made the home crowd think of Stevie Gerrard: a long distance placed shot that was going in from the moment it left Joe’s right boot. So we were leading again and, with less than twenty minutes to go, we really could do with playing tighter in front of the defence and try and score on the counter. What does our coach do… he takes off Torreira and brings on the court jester, Ceballos. I guess the game really did not matter to Emery and that’s why he was happy to take off the man who could organise the protection of the defence better than anybody in the team. We conceded very late on and had to take penalties. We lost those and I think I will jump through the ceiling if an Arsenal goalkeeper ever saves a penalty again.
4. The boys worked their socks off and did not deserve to lose that game on penalties. The game may not have mattered to Emery and many of us, but for the hard working boys we should have won that game and never have given away three(!) leads at Anfield. Top clubs dont do that.
5. The defence, were we had the most experienced players of all areas, was very poor. Kola is not a defender and I found him also mediocre in attack; Bellerin really looks rusty and lacking of confidence in his own  body/legs; Mustafi I love the guy but he is a chancer in defence and hard work alone will not cut it; and Robbo Holding really needs to play in the RCB role and get his match fitness back. As a unit… well they were not a unit but more Unai if you get my drift.
6. In midfield we started off very well and won the battle against Pool. Torreira and Willock bossed proceedings and AMN got involved in a number of goals before scoring one himself. They supported our attack very well and all three got on the scoresheet so well done. But defensively it was a mess, especially in the second half. Our ‘D’ was left unprotected and Pool’s third and fourth goal were utterly avoidable by better defensive-midfield play. Why did they not sit back a bit more, especially when we scored our fourth goal: players or Emery’s tactics to blame? Guendouzi and Ceballos did not bring calm and organisation when we needed it from them.
7. The attack was awesome. Imagine not using Pepe, Auba and Laca at all and still banging in 5 peaches of goals at Anfield! There was just so much movement in the team, and so much ability to keep the ball, pass it quickly and find space where there did not seem any. Ozil dazzled again, Saka is such a mature and clever player who has the directness and sharpness of Marc Overmars, and Martinelli…. what can I say about Martinelli? The man (of the Match) has it all: great speed and tenacity, great technical ability, great physicality, and such a GREAT eye for a goal. Being at the right place at the right time is what all great attackers somehow do. Martinelli is blessed with that gift. The club bought an absolute gem.
8. Although I am critical about the way the final part of the game was managed, I must finish by saying that this was a fabulous game to watch, and we must compliment Pool for putting up a similar strength team and making it such an open and high-quality attacking game between us. Football won really and what a pleasant break it was from the PL torture games!

By TotalArsenal.