MATCH THREAD. Arsenal vs Manchester City.

Going to be a tough one.

Manchester City on the back of a defeat need a win to keep their title aspirations alive.

Arsenal line:




Little suprised to see Lichsteiner back in the lineup. Looks like Emery has gone back to a back three. ( a system which really hasnt worked for us this Season)

Basically we have three fullbacks on the pitch and only two midfielders.
Not sure about Iwobi getting another start either. Would have rather Ramsey/Suarez/Ozil.

 

Gotta be honest the line-up does NOT fill me with optimism.

Why rest Ramsey?.. where's Xhaka?.. Ozil on the bench again? .. no Suarez.. Surely Mavropnos should play at CB ahead of Monreal??

Le Sigh.

 

Can't see us holding out for 90 mins with this defence and midfield!

I smell a battering unless for some strange reason we play like possessed maniacs.

 

Conceded after 24 ****ing seconds. What the **** was Iwobi doing?

 

Being totally outclassed soo far.

 

C'mooooooon Koscielny.

Great delivery from Torreira.

 

Agghh.. that was harsh. 2-1 City.

We were poor for the first 9 mins then for the rest of the half have been absolutely superb.

Really dont desrve to be loosing.

Guendouzi has been absolutely fantastic.

 

Guendouzi has been fantastic. So calm on the ball. Seems like he is one of the few who actually believes we can play football against this team. I also think Lacazette has been doing well. Iwobi going forward has not been too bad.

Lichtensteiner has been useless.

 

When you look at our forwards, how well our midfield plays, and our attacking options for me its clear the main reason we are behing Liverpool,City and Spurs in the league is purely down to our defensive players. They are not of the same standrad as the rest of the side. They bring the whole team down.

Two different managers, many systems and Kos,Mustafi, Lichsteiner etc.. just are not up to the top standard. Look how many goals we concede. Its NOT just tactical issues .. our biggest problem actually just boils down to player quality. You cant tell me Jon Stones, Van Dijk or either or Spurs's Centrebacks wouldn't immediately improve our defensive record. Because they would.

 

Every time we play a top 6 side away I am prepared to lose, and every time it happens I still get extremely frustrated and angry.

I don’t think we have a good enough squad to compete against the other top 6, and I just don’t see us doing anything about that.

 

The 3 goals came from the same play

 

I know it’s only his first game and it’s City away so I don’t want to sound harsh, but Dennis Suarez’ looks a bit...underwhelming...

 

The plus side today has been Guendouzi and Torreira.

Lacazette and Aubamyang just havnt been on the same wavelength today - alot of clever plays that just havnt quit come off.

The downside is that our defence is Everton level.

 

We need to spend a lot of money on that defense.

We won’t.

 

Not that it made that much difference in the end, but that 3rd Aguero goal should have been ruled out for handball. Plus points were Guendouzi and Torreira. Didn't see enough of Suarez to make any sort of judgement.

We're still a long way off where we need to be. It's going to take 2-3 windows (where we actually spend some money) to even begin to see what Emery can do.

 

I'm beginning to struggle to support Emery. I'm finding it difficult to understand some of his decisions.

1. Why play Lacazette and Aubamayang and absolutely no one capable of getting the ball to them. Lacazette ends up playing as a #10 without a single decent chance and you can't tell me he is better as a #10 than Ozil or Ramsey.

2. Kolasiac, Iwobi, Ghendouzi and Torreira as a unit do not have enough ball skills to get the ball forward or even retain possession. I get that you don't like Xhaka because he isn't as good defensively, but it is no use winning the ball if you cant hold onto it, or distribute it. Without him Gendouzi is the only one that can play a decent pass at all, and once the other side catch on he gets swamped.

3. Again, You need the back 4 to get the ball to the next line if you are going to play the ball out. Lichsteiner, Mustafi, Koscielney and Monreal, are not good enough on the ball to get the ball forward, and Mustafi is the best of the lot. As soon as he went off, together with the weakness in the next line we couldn't do a damn thing.

I get that you are all hung up on defence, but the best defence is to not let the other side get the ball, and there is no balance in the team right now to do that. I just wonder if Emery isn't so hung up on the defensive side of the ball that it is impossible to find a player that has that, and acceptable ball retention and creative skills at the same time.

If Emery were at Man City, I don't think De Bryne or Silva would get a game. And their defence would look ****.

 

Agree about No1. Emery needs to be playing Ozil and Ramsey in these sorts of games. Disagree about Guendouzi, he's a good ball player and brings the ball out of deep mid really well.

 

No Ghendouzi is good, he just can't pass the ball to himself, and he receives too many hospital passes from the others.

 

Agreed

 

Agree with almost all that.

Emery to me looks nothing special. However, I don't know any manager apart from Klopp that could potentially make a club challenge that is ultimately run by someone who refuses to release any money and who had a generally ****e squad with no valuable players to cash in on.

In fact Klopp couldn't even do that as he's turned into a chequebook manager to get Liverpool challenging. With Kroenke there, all we realistically have to emulate is the spurs model. Buy young cheaper players. Hope to coach the **** out of them. Maybe get lucky with a few to make more money. Get lucky with a few others who become class. But that requires real patience and trust in a manager. Poch is good enough to get Spurs CL football but that's about the limit you can consistently hit with that model. Not even sure Emery is on Pochs level and he never even wins ANYTHING.