Sheffield United Vs Arsenal

Seems like a very tricky place to go. They are like Burnley but fresher. Hard working team with passion and desire. The type we hate.

But i think we might see Bellerin and Tierney. Or I hope so anyways. I also think Chambers should stay in the team at Sokratis' expense. I'd play this team


---------------------------------Leno-------------------------------------
Bellerin---------------Chambers------Luiz----------------Tierney
-----------------Xhaka------------Guendouzi--------------------------
---------------------------Ceballos-------------------------------------
Pepe----------------------Aubameyang-----------------Saka

Edgy 2-1 win

Will Laca be fit enough for the bench? Wouldn't mind seeing him get a run out

Oh God, I have visions of Guendouzi and Ceballos marauding forward and leaving Xhaka to trying to break up counters by himself

Yea Laca should make the bench i think.

Leno; Chambers, Sokratis, Luiz, Kolasinac; Willock, Xhaka, Guendouzi; Pepe, Aubameyang, Saka

Subs: Martinez, Holding, Tierney, Torreira, Ceballos, Martinelli, Lacazette

ARSENAL XI: Leno, Chambers, Sokratis, Luiz, Kolasinac, Guendouzi, Xhaka, Pepe, Willock, Saka, Aubameyang

aye sometimes Emery can be frustrating. Tierney and Bellerin give us more attacking threat with their forward runs

Emery out.

At least we have improved defensively. Instead of conceding 15 shots per game, we now concede 8.

Everything about the team just sucks under this guy.

He took a bad defence and made it worse, which is bad enough. But he's also made the attack worse.

The stats and the eye test back this up. Emery has been getting by on luck and individual quality, and if Arsenal really have changed off the pitch, they should be searching for a new manager immediately. Because with Spurs and United struggling, there's no better chance of a top 4 finish than now.

OUT

For the type of football he wants to play his team selection is absolute rubbish. Sokratis is not comfortbale on the ball with people charging at him then why on earth do u want to play that way, and if u still want to then dont let players take the burden. A midfield without Xhaka had very good ball retention which was proved in the second half.

Just not being completely shit as a club right now isn’t valid reason to not consider sacking Emery imo. We should be doing so much better than this. I wouldn’t offload him for the sake of it, but he clearly isn’t the guy who’s going to bring us back to the top. As soon as a strong candidate pops up, he should be out the door.

Nothing summed up Emery's attacking plan better than Arsenal's defenders passing amongst themselves, shitting themselves at a mild opposition press, and hoofing the ball out of play in the 55th minute while chasing a game.

All game, the forwards were making good runs off the ball, but the refusal to mix it up and try a longer pass to get them in meant they got nothing all game. I got genuinely pissed off when Chambers constantly opted for the safe sideways or backwards option when he had opportunities to play it forward. It was like watching Elneny play fullback.

It's like the team is so scared of the ball coming back at them that they refuse to take risks.

Also, and I know I shouldn't be annoyed by this, but Emery saying after the game that Arsenal deserved not to lose and that they won 12 corners as if it was an achievement was just so far removed from the reality of the game. Somebody should have told him that his side mustered 8 shots all game and that only one (the Pepe chance) was considered a good chance.

The midfield didn't exist.

The most wrong decision that emery has made is making xhaka captain. The guy doesn't deserve to play i would never want him near my team. Emery should restrict xhaka to europa league and bring back torreria in the midfield.

If he plays the Young players i am fine with that but xhaka has no place in the arsenal team.

boyzis wrote:The midfield didn't exist.

The most wrong decision that emery has made is making xhaka captain. The guy doesn't deserve to play i would never want him near my team. Emery should restrict xhaka to europa league and bring back torreria in the midfield.

If he plays the Young players i am fine with that but xhaka has no place in the arsenal team.

Xhaka was our best midfielder yesterday in my opinion. Xhaka controls the midfield better than our other CMs do, and I think most of the players voted for him to be captain so I'd agree with that decision as well. We didn't have anyone linking our midfield to our front line (Ozil?) and our fullbacks were not adventurous enough, which is more the reason why we failed to connect to our front line imo.

I don't think we should be scapegoating Xhaka, or any individual player. I thought our young players were actually the worst players on the pitch yesterday, but also I think it's poor tactical analysis to blame a poor performance on one player when 11 of them are out there, even though it's often the easiest answer. For me, yesterday's performance was a combination of negative tactics, questionable selection choices, and overall just a bad day for some of our players. The same XI probably would have won on another day...not to excuse the loss, but Emery should shoulder the most blame in my opinion, not individual players.

Sina-Man Utd vs Arsenal wrote:Pépe’s pressing was useful for the goal here and also one moment vs villa which led to free kick for third goal
he strolls around the park but occasional useful moments off the ball too
he hasnt been good but he isnt 1vs1 isolation specialist ,not having an actual RB and Reliable AM that can link midfield and attack really isnt helping

Justice for Ikone,we need someone like that

he was dangerous,we just cant keep the ball in final 3rd

Eman wrote:

boyzis wrote:The midfield didn't exist.

The most wrong decision that emery has made is making xhaka captain. The guy doesn't deserve to play i would never want him near my team. Emery should restrict xhaka to europa league and bring back torreria in the midfield.

If he plays the Young players i am fine with that but xhaka has no place in the arsenal team.

Xhaka was our best midfielder yesterday in my opinion. Xhaka controls the midfield better than our other CMs do, and I think most of the players voted for him to be captain so I'd agree with that decision as well. We didn't have anyone linking our midfield to our front line (Ozil?) and our fullbacks were not adventurous enough, which is more the reason why we failed to connect to our front line imo.

I don't think we should be scapegoating Xhaka, or any individual player. I thought our young players were actually the worst players on the pitch yesterday, but also I think it's poor tactical analysis to blame a poor performance on one player when 11 of them are out there, even though it's often the easiest answer. For me, yesterday's performance was a combination of negative tactics, questionable selection choices, and overall just a bad day for some of our players. The same XI probably would have won on another day...not to excuse the loss, but Emery should shoulder the most blame in my opinion, not individual players.

If i had time i would prepare a video on xhaka and how his presence causes all sorts of problems in arsenal team but sadly i do not have that much time.
But i would suggest you look at his positioning when arsenal are trying to play from the back i.e his ability to make himself available for a pass or does he try to hide behind an opposition player. Also consider his ability to run with the ball and retain it during pressing situations. Also consider his ability on the defensive side does he always tend to fall back? All consider whether he is capable of making tackle which are not actually fouls? Does he pressurise the opposition? Does he slow down the game?
If you consider the above areas of the game and those of other midfielders in his position than you will be probably be in a better position to judge. Apart from long balls occasional shorts passes he really doesn't offer much.

we shouldn't play two mids who almost always stay behind the ball unless they are very good defensively,which Xhaka/Guen certainly arent
and if we pair one of them with more attacking player that only works in certain situations like vs Conte Chelsea FA cup final 2017 which was proper match up 343 vs 343

we need a ball winner and final pass giver,then someone like Guen to play between them

^ So Torreira and Ozil, then.

pretty much for now
it would also allow Guendouzi take up more left sided positions which he is more comfortable as he would have more angles to play and easier to escape pressure and face play

i was thinking Ceballos in Iwobi role but not sure anymore
didnt he play this sort of role for Betis as a wide attacking midfielder or am i mistaken?

stupid to sell Iwobi without replacing him
But then  again we dont even have main play maker never mind secondary final 3rd aid for play maker(as i would call Iwobi's role next to Özil)

For me I would love to have a cazorla coqulein and ramsey midfield each complementing the strength of the other.
Currently, the best shot of replicating the above would be cebelos torreria willock. Here you have experience technical skill and compactness needed to survive in premiere league. We played with the same midfield in europa league and absolutely controlled the game from start to finish.

In front
Martineli/Nelson/Saka * Auba/Laca * Pepe

Sina wrote:pretty much for now
it would also allow Guendouzi take up more left sided positions which he is more comfortable as he would have more angles to play and easier to escape pressure and face play

i was thinking Ceballos in Iwobi role but not sure anymore
didnt he play this sort of role for Betis as a wide attacking midfielder or am i mistaken?

stupid to sell Iwobi without replacing him
But then  again we dont even have main play maker never mind secondary final 3rd aid for play maker(as i would call Iwobi's role next to Özil)

I wasn't against selling Iwobi on the principal that he probably isn't worth 40M and isn't good enough to be our playmaker, but I totally agree that we have completely removed a lot of creativity from our midfield. Ozil...well, I don't think he's going to cut it anymore, but against a team that was always going to sit deep like Sheffield, I don't understand why we didn't play him. We didn't need industry and guys to track back in our midfield as much we we did for someone to step up and play riskier, more provocative passes.

I'm not sure who we can recruit to solve this issue, but it has to be top of the agenda in January/next summer. It sort of feels like as a club we fix one problem and just as we do, something that used to be a strength all of a sudden becomes a problem. We used to have too many attacking midfielders and had to shoehorn them into other positions, and now we have just one, who we are trying to sell