AFTV was comedy gold last night. Beyond kneejerk.
Still 5th. Only 4 points off 4th with players like Lacazette, Aubameyang and Pepe coming into the Christmas fixtures.
If they can get 3-4 points in their next 2 league games (Wolves, Leicester) then it's all forgotten.
The thing about them right now is that there is always an excuse
Emery - He's not a title winning manager but to want to sack him 10 games in is a joke
Xhaka - Throwing his shirt was a disgrace but I don't blame him after being abused by his own fans like that
The fans - Disgraceful shithouse behaviour that just breeds toxicity and resentment from within the team. We've been there. It just doesn't help. Even at 2-0 up they never felt confident of winning and the players feel that.
Ozil - Easy scapegoat and needs to go. Even if it just eliminates that excuse
The service from midfield
Kicking out from the back
Blah Blah Blah
They'll play their full team on Wednesday and will most likely beat us if we dont do the same (which we wont and I'm not arsed. Much bigger fish for us to worry about).
The problem is, it's not just looking at this ten game season though. Emery has been there for the best part of 18 months, & honestly, has he improved Arsenal in that time?
Has he improved the defence? Nope, we are still conceding soft goals left right and centre.
Has he improved the defensive midfield area to help protect the defence? Nope, we are giving chances away for fun, he insists on playing Xhaka in that position still, and it's obvious to nearly everyone he's at best not suited to there & at worst not good enough full stop.
Is there at least more structure to the team in general? You would say no, as mentioned we are still giving away far too many chances, teams can still run through us at will, but to make matters worse we are now struggling to create. Players don't seem to know their roles, players are playing out of position, he's playing Xhaka as the deepest midfielder while Torriera sits on the bench, when he does bring play him or bring him on he seems to want to play him as an advanced pressing midfielder. We are trying to play out from the back but getting caught time & time again.
Are we getting the best from our forwards? No, we are struggling to create anything if they can't create it for themselves.
Are we mentally tougher? Well, we are still getting beat 4-1 in finals, still surrendering 2 goal leads against the likes of Watford & Palace, & our captain has just took a massive hissy fit & stormed off the park.
I was quite willing to give Emery time, last season was a free hit for him in my opinion, but we are seeing no improvement on the things that matter. Yet with Rodgers at Leicester & Lampard at Chelsea in a matter of months they have their team playing a brand of football in their image, looking organised, with a plan, but still playing expansive football. We aren't even seeing any shoots of that at Arsenal in the main.
